Monday Mixtape, Vol, 204

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Spoon. The band. The ageless wonders. These guys are in their 50s yet they’re still rocking. Example A: “Held,” the first track on their 13th album, 2022’s Lucifer on the Sofa. Certain bands and songwriters create sounds on records that are so clear and perfect that it sounds like they’re playing in your living room.

That hard bass drum beat in “Held” sinks into my skull, and I can’t help but nod. And the sounds of those guitar’s warming up into their opening riff, a riff that’s so clear in tone and so damn unique, I just get the feels when I hear stuff like this. Britt Daniel’s voice brings it all together and more instruments start to come in as the first verse winds up. God what a song.

(Don’t forget their first track, “Inside Out,” on their 2014 album They Want My Soul, was my #3 Song on my Top 100 Songs of 2014, and also an awesome listen to Britt Daniel’s break it down on Song Exploder

Tame Impala released a bunch of b-sides and mixes from their last album, The Slow Rush. Kevin Parker has said he spends 90% of his time creating music on the drum beats. It doesn’t matter if a drum beat sounds simple or not, it’s how it makes you feel, and “The Boat I Row” gives me the feels!

“Scared Money” is just an awesome rap track. It bangs hard, and I love J. Cole’s verse, so sick. YG kills it too.

As usual, Vince Staples is on a great track. His quality control is insane. He is rarely on a bad track.

This new Big Thief album is very long. 20 tracks and 1 hr 20 min. So it’s hard to get through it all. But they’re really weird and all over the place. “Time Escaping” gives you a good idea of their extensive palette.

My boy Pink Sweat$ with a feature from 6LACK ends off the mixtape with a beautiful love track. Enjoy the short week :)

Top 100 Songs of 2021

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After listening to 62,510 minutes of music, 1,377 Artists, and 149 genres, I’ve digested a lot of tunes in 2021! There are so many different sounds and styles to this year’s playlist, it may be the most eclectic mix yet! We have a West African artist (Falle Nioke), a Turkish band with all sorts of influences (Altin Gun), a rock band in Niger (Mdou Moctar), a rapper from Chattanooga, Tennessee (Isaiah Rashad), an indie band from Minneapolis (Hippo Campus), masters in electronic music from across the pond in England (Disclosure), one of the more consistent electro-pop bands out there from Scotland (Chvrches), the best rock band I’ve heard in years, hailing from Baltimore (Turnstile), and so many more!

There’s rap, rock, soul, ballads, electro-pop, electronic, spoken word, funk, and who knows what other “genres” Spotify might class these songs as.

Nonetheless, there’s something for everybody, and hopefully a ton of new music* to discover.

*If you really like a song, check to see if that artist’s album is on my Top 25 Albums of 2021, and that’s a good indicator it’s a great album :)

Top 25 Albums of 2021

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In mid-December, I stumbled upon an album that blew me away. One of those mesmerizing albums to listen over and over. I won’t forget where I was listening to this, when, and it’s impact on me. The band is Turnstile. The album is their third, GLOW ON.

Turnstile isn’t a rock band, they’re not hardcore, they’re not 90s grunge, they’re not punk, they’re not screamo. They’re an amalgamation of the best of all of these genres being played at the perfect times during songs. It’s raw and unique, influenced by previous generations, yet no one has made music like this.

Each band member’s instrument stands out on so many tracks. And the sounds, lyrics, and emotion explain the rest.

This is an album for you to experience. It’s for the opener, “MYSTERY” to blast off your speaker doors. It’s for the cowbell to break down on “BLACKOUT” and the piano to explain on “DON’T PLAY.” It’s a relaxing state of calm on “ALIEN LOVE CALL” amidst the surrounding chaos, culminated in the massive mosh pit that is “T.L.C.”

And only after the album ends to you fully exhale…

As for the other 24 albums, Isaiah Rashad’s The House Is Burning, his third album, continues to astound me. His music is on his terms. There are songs that people unfamiliar with Rashad would scoff at because it doesn’t sound like it’s supposed to, but those are the true artists you have to pay attention to. The more time you spend with all of Isaiah Rashad’s three albums, the more you’ll fall in love.

Speaking of falling in love, Faye Webster is a gem. Her low-key, maximum chill albums are meant for sunsets with your feet up. Her music is epitome of “state of mind” music where it just relaxes me. She’s not catchy, no songs get stuck in my head, but I’m always coming back.

Vince Staples self-titled album comes in at #4. It’s my favorite album he’s released in a discography with great quality control. Like Rashad, Staples is underrated (though not nearly as ignored by critics as Rashad) because of his lack of “hits” and “star power,” yet that’s his exact strength. He is who he is. He makes the music to express himself, nothing more, nothing less.

Staples’ 2021 album is melancholy and trauma. On first rep, the album sounds chill, but digging deeper it’s haunting. Staples is lonely and in a dark place. He can’t escape (mentally or physically) his hometown of Longbeach, CA, where his traumatic past of murder, gangs, guns, and survival still ring inside his head today.

As always, the artist says it the best:

Fuck a friend, I don't want no friends with no open hands (Fuck 'em)
Count my bands, all alone at home, don't you call my phone (Fuck 'em)
Everyone that I've ever known asked me for a loan
- “Law of Averages”

When I see my fans, I'm too paranoid to shake they hands
Clutching on the blam, don't know if you foe or if you fam
I don't got a plan, I'm just out here thugging 'til the end…
I am tired, tired, over again.
- “Sundown Town”

Don’t get murdered, lil’ niggas out here with no purpose…
It's not what you think
I could be gone in a blink
I don't wanna leave
Yeah, it's not what you thought
We dying broke or live with broken hearts
- “The Shining”

Verse 1
I don't wanna die, but I will for the cause…
I don't wanna rebound, I just wanna sleep sound
Don't wanna dream 'bout the shit I done did
You know these trips come with baggage, been all 'cross this atlas
But keep coming back to this place 'cause they trapped us
I preach what I practice, these streets all I know
And there's no place like home

Verse 2 (The BEST verse on the whole album!)
Yeah, I'm on PCH, going south, blower on the seat
With the windows down, music loud, let 'em hear the beat
When it's quiet out, I hear the sound of those who rest in peace
Tryna drown the violence out, but let 'em say that they want beef
And we riding out, finding out where them niggas be
If they hanging out, lay 'em out, airing out the street
Then it's out the way, out-of-state, please don't tell on me
Don't need no more felonies, all these broken memories
I be solo dolo, never know who working with police
When I hit the set, it's loaded; I don't know who envy me
I'm the only one who made it out—you remember me?
Is you a frenemy? You plan on killing me? No?

Finally, my #5 Album of 2021 is a veteran, one that was my #16 (criminally underrate by me!) Album in 2017 and #2 Album in 2014, The War on Drugs. It’s a great album yet only their third best album. Check it out.

And some quick hits on the other 20:

  • The Deafheaven album is a must-listen if you enjoyed “Great Mass of Color”

  • The Floating Points album is the only instrumental album this year. Great study music.

  • CHVRCHES continues to put good music out.

  • Black Country, New Road is for a very specific crowd, but it was one of the most unique albums I heard this year.

  • Arlo Parks has been hailed by every critic for this album, rightly so. It’s worth checking out.

  • Lute is a rapper who tells it like it is and sounds like he means it. I loved this album, and there are so many great features (like JID, Little Brother, Saba, and Cozz) on it.

  • Big Red Machine is a super duo (Justin Vernon and The National’s Aaron Dessener) who got a ridiculous amount of performers (Taylor Swift, Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes, and Sharon Van Etten), and the album is very mellow. A great weekend play.

  • Benny the Butcher is one of my favorite new rappers out there. He’s “drug rap” which isn’t everyone’s thing, but the man played the game to get to this point and tells the tales.

  • Parquet Courts keeps making their unique blend of rock sound compelling.

  • Little Simz should probably be higher, she’s a phenomenal MC, lyricist, and storyteller. This album was on all the big publications’ year end lists.

  • Speaking of artists on big publications lists, Tyler, the Creator’s album this year was rated as the best album or in the top five by a number of the most noteworthy publications. I did not feel their love of the album nearly as much, but the album is great from front to back, and no one sounds like Tyler.

  • Last one I’ll mention is Doja Cat. I seem to have one album on the pop spectrum every year (last year, it was Dua Lipa), and this album is ridiculous entertaining, upbeat, and enjoyable. She’s a great performer and rapper. I listened to this album all the way through and was wowed.

That’s it for the year of 2021! Thank goodness. But at least we had music. Here’s to 2022!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 189

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Hello, all! There’s been much great music released in the past few weeks, I can’t fit nearly everything into one mixtape! Two of my favorite rappers, Vince Staples and Isaiah Rashad, released my two favorite rap albums of the year.

John Mayer released a new album. Brittany Howard, lead singer of the great Alabama Shakes, released an album of remixes to her solo album, including remixes by Childish Gambino, Bon Iver, Little Dragon, 9th Wonder, Jungle, to just name a few!

Power duo, Big Red Machine (Justin Vernon and Aaron Dessner) released an EP with some other superstars collborators like Fleet Foxes and Taylor Swift. Then Billie Eilish, Clairo, Leon Bridges, and Logic released an album. And don’t forget about Inhaler, a young Irish band who are writing some catchy rock songs.

So this is bordering on a ridiculous amount of music I have to listen to, and all I’ve had on repeat the past few weeks is Vince Staples (on this week’s mitxtape) and Isaiah' Rashad’s new album released on Friday (which will be featured on next week’s mixtape). Rashad hasn’t released an album in five years, and I’ve been loving him since his phenomenal 2014 debut, Cilvia Demo.

But today’s mixtape is more about Vince, a rapper I’ve been writing about for years. He’s one of few introverted rappers, a guy who, album after album, seems unhappy and consumed with rawness of the world before his eyes in his hometown, Long Beach, California.

Each of his six albums, starting with his debut in 2014 (like Rashad), are unusually short (4 of his albums are 21-23 minutes!), which I love, and unusually different, which I love even more!

I’ve been blown away by his latest album, Vince Staples, because he shifted his cadences, his beats, his sound, his whole palate. Many times the mark of a great song is when you say to yourself, “No other artist could have made this song what it is.” Staples does this numerous times, specifically in “ARE YOU WITH THAT” (maybe the most familiar sounding track to his older stuff) “TAKING TRIPS,” “LIL FADE,” “TAKE ME HOME.”

I still have a lot more to study on this album, but he and Rashad are at the top of my albums of the year list so far.

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 149

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OMG This is two times in a row - I just deleted my post again. So frustrating.

The long and skinny is go see the Netflix documentary, Echo in the Canyon, a homage to the great artists who lived in Laurel Canyon during the mid-60s, including The Beach Boys, Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds, the Mamas and Papas, and so many more.

I learned so much in this doc. I never knew David Crosby was in The Byrds, I didn’t know Neil Young and Stephen Stills were in Buffalo Springfield (and by the way, I’ve been listening to more Buffalo Springfield, they’re freaking awesome), and although I know Brian Wilson, the singer and songwriter of pretty much all Beach Boys songs, was always revered as a songwriter, I never appreciated the love and awe other musicians have of him. His genius was thought to be on a level no one could even come close to. They were comparing him to Mozart and Beethoven.

Jakob Dylan brings a bunch of current artists together to recreate and honor all these musicians and their favorite songs via both an album and a concert. Check the film out, it’s great!

As for the other songs on this week’s mixtape, it’s pretty much a mix of artists you’ve heard many times before. Twin Peaks did a cool cover of Wilco, DJ Shadow released a record of some great tracks with rappers, and after seeing Spider Man - Into the Spider-Verse, I had to include the catchy track from Swae Lee and Post Malone.

Enjoy!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 142

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Hopefully you started listening to this week’s mixtape without looking at the playlist and just listening. Because then you might have really enjoyed the first track without feeling guilty. If you looked first, then maybe you said, “One Direction!!??" and then had a preconceived notion that you shouldn’t like this song, which may have become more complicated when you really liked the song. It’s up to you whether you’ll admit or not. And that’s how we start our Monday, like it or not.

You may wonder how this track got on here. I read Rob Sheffield’s Rolling Stone article on Harry Styles, a guy whose first solo album was really, really good. It’s hard not to like Styles. His charisma, honesty, and comfort with himself (at least at his age) is disarming for someone you’d expect to be a prick.

ANYWAYS, the article included a playlist about all the music they spoke about during the interview process:

Lo and behold, One Direction features somewhat prominently on it. So I heard the track (and didn't know who it was!) and loved it. So that’s how it got on this week’s mixtape (it’s also, by the way, how the beautiful Bill Evans track made it too.)

As for the other tracks on this week’s mixtape, there’s new stuff from numerous bands I’ve enjoyed over the years - Surfer Blood, Little Brother, Vince Staples - and a new band, Gender Roles, whose album I love. These guys are like a music child of The Deftones / Wavves / The Used, and I’m digging it. There’s rhythm, some screaming, and great rock n’ roll.

And finally, a shout out to my bud Sean. He asked if I had listened to the new Taylor Swift album. And speaking of guilty pleasures like One Direction, I am wholeheartedly a fan of Taylor Swift’s 1989, a phenomenal album, but I don’t like most of her other stuff.

Nonetheless, I listened to her new album and couldn’t make it through 10 songs (let alone the fact that the album is EIGHTEEN FREAKING SONGS - which btw is a pathetic scheme by artists to get more album “play counts” on streaming services which makes “the art” of making an album NOT AN ART and instead a money, attention, and awards grab. I’m sorry, but if you’re willing to intentionally manipulate your album to succumb to these bullshit reasons, you’re a sellout, not an artist (and I hate to say it, my boy Drake is in this category too)).

The first ten songs were terrible: formulaic, her annoying falsetto that she can’t actually sing in, “rapping” or whatever you want to call her fast talking, it’s all just bad pop music to me. So I stopped listening.

BUT THEN SEAN. So like I was saying, he texts me about the album and says his favorite track is track 13, “False Gods,” a song I didn't get to because I clearly was too fed up from the reasons listed above.

The song is subtle, quiet with a bit of reverb in her voice (no falsetto!), a horn, a slow beat, FEELING. From the start it just connects. It’s an amazing song. I’m blown away by it, really, and it shows what she can do when she really does it. Or maybe it’s just me and Sean.

So this is my mixtape of teen heartthrobs and pop sensations sandwiched with hip-hop underground favorites Little Brother and one of hip-hop’s current faves, Vince Staples. Definitely a different mix this week. Hope you enjoy.

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 119

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We got a rap Monday Mixtape for you because Vince Staples released one of the best rap albums of the year, FM!, Logic dropped a really good album/mixtape, YSIV, with one of the best Wu-Tang collabs I’ve ever heard (it has EVERYONE), and Action Bronson’s new album has some cool live jazz inspired tracks that I included.

LET US ALSO NOT FORGET ABOUT EARL SWEATHSHIRT. His brief cameo track on Staples’ album comes in at 23 seconds, but it is straight fire. What a beat, what a flow.

Enjoy the week and all the good rap, people!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 80

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A bunch of new bands to digest this week, including Cende, The Jungle Giants, Palace, and Japanese Breakfast. 

Conde's debut album is really enjoyable yet I can't place exactly who or what they sound like. It's a little upbeat, a little punk-y, but no song from 2017 album is better than "What I Want," which actually reminds me a bit of Deerhunter with their amazing transition at 2:50 from the sweet vocals into an ass kicking of rock. Cool song!

"Quiet Ferocity" is a contender for one of my favorite songs of the year. It's certainly got some LCD Soundsystem in it (and the rest of the album sounds a bit Glass Animals a bit Foster the People - who by the way, just released their third album which I need to give more time and listens and will report back!), a bit of The Maccabees, but I love the rhythms, electronics, and this dude's falsetto. 

Vince Staples continues to carry rap in cool and unique directions with his new, critically acclaimed album. "Big Fish" is certainly the catchiest song (or maybe "BagBak") so that had to be included, but this is an album to really dissect, which "745" is a testament to with its trance-like bass line and starstruck piano. 

Pretty damn disappointed in Cousin Stizz's new album, but "Doubted Me" caught me on my first listen. 

I definitely need to listen to Palace more - this is the only song I've heard by them - because they have a really cool chill rhythmic sound, and I LOVE the lead singer's voice.

I wasn't big on Japanese Breakfast's first album despite the love she got on the interwebs, but her second album is a great album front to back. If you like these tracks, give it a try!

Onwards and upwards. 

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 72

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It's midnight, so I should probably get to sleep shortly. But first, be entranced by Leif Vollebekk, a singer/songwriter I just discovered that most clearly sounds like Ryan Adams, but "Elegy" gives him raspier vocals that hint of Angus Stone. This is a great album that I thoroughly recommend. 

Speaking of albums I thoroughly recommend, if you haven't listened to Drake's new album then what have you been doing? "Passionfruit" is one of my front-runners for song of the year, and "Portland" sounds like Drake got into the new Zelda game because there's some serious ocarinas blowing in that song. 

It's somewhat confounding that Local Natives have released two tracks in the aftermath of their mildly disappointing (or just not astounding or the album most huge fans were hoping for) third album that are better than most of the songs on the third album! This track brings an orchestra into the fry and Taylor's vocals actually sounding good again (instead of ridiculously whiny)

So the Gorillaz have a new album coming out. Their song with Vince Staples is sick and this song with D.R.A.M. is even better. Can't wait for this album in its entirety. 

Finally, Laura Marling's album is a great jaunt through the leafy woods. She's got that folksy Wes Anderson movie-like sound. I dig it.  

That's it. Past midnight, I'm spent!