Why won't you just open your mouth and say something?
Mix 22: Another song of the summer, the search for a baile funk Lindsay Lohan, bad dembow done good, and JeJe & Katz lovingly quoted
Summer is upon us, and you know what that means…we’ve officially crossed the 500-song threshold!
Aside from that, the most exciting musical development this week for me is another opportunity to lose in an extremely nerdy music poll prediction bracket: this time it’s the final 32 contenders in the Peoples Pop Poll RAGNAPOP. Should be a bloodbath.
Most chatter I’ve overheard this week has been about the new Charli XCX album, Brat, which is solid. I haven’t heard anything particularly negative about it so far — or, on the other hand, particularly illuminating, though the Meaghan Garvey review in Pitchfork was good. The album exceeded my expectations enough to justify an impulse purchase at the record store, but after a few more listens I don’t think it will settle into a “buy a physical copy of this” tier of my year-end list. (I atoned by finally purchasing Willow’s album from 2022, Coping Mechanism, my AOTY that year.1) Was relieved to discover that Charli’s touted “Brazilian funk song” is not attempting anything close to Brazilian funk. And I especially like the song about the maybe-baby.
Now is a good time for recommendations in comments — what have I missed? I’ve listened to more songs than albums, obviously, but happy to explore either. (You can track my album accounting here.)
Mix 1 // Mix 2 // Mix 3 // Mix 4 // Mix 5 // Mix 6 // Mix 7 // Mix 8 // Mix 9 // Mix 10 // Mix 11 // Mix 12 // Mix 13 // Mix 14 // Mix 15 // Mix 16 // Mix 17 // Mix 18 // Mix 19 // Mix 20 // Mix 21
MIX 22: WHY WON’T YOU JUST OPEN YOUR MOUTH AND SAY SOMETHING?
1. Tems: Love Me JeJe
The Singles Jukebox has definitively ID’ed this sweet little GIF of a song, lovers circling each other on the dancefloor in muted reds and oranges for eternity, as the Song of the Summer, and I’ve relented to their collective judgment. The song quotes Seyi Sodimu’s 1997 Nigerian hit “Love Me Jeje,”; meanwhile Tems has consciously distanced herself from Afrobeats. But the quote and/or her relationship to Afrobeats don’t really enter into the song’s world, which is small and self-contained, like Ciara’s “Thinkin Bout You” on one end of its emotional spectrum (effortless joy) and Annie’s “Heartbeat” on the other (bittersweet longing).
2. Arya Starr f. Asaka: Goodbye (Warm Up)
Here’s a less fraught relationship to Afrobeats, especially with its Asake feature, but Ayra Starr’s new album is also pushing against the genre’s boundaries in its own way in search of a global sound. On this one, the simple trick is just to add a big neo-soul piano hook and serve warm.
3. Sumin, Slom: Stoplight
A recommendation from Michael Hong, K-pop bossanova from Sumin of STAYC, on her forthcoming second album with producer Slom.
4. Nonô: Alô
A Brazilian pop artist who has enough daylight between herself and ascendant Brazilian pop styles to keep her popular all the way over in Australia, according to Spotify’s geodata. She could start a supergroup with LØLØ (thee sub-Rodrigo also-ran) and MØ (of “Lean On” fame) so they could call themselves LØLØMØNONÔ. And the openers? You guessed it — Jojo and Kokoroko.
5. Judith: Ugh!
Midwesterner of Mexican-Honduran heritage and apparently (according to her PR) breaking free of a repressively conservative upbringing, but could just as easily have been some TikTok influencer thing I don’t understand (not that those are mutually exclusive).
6. Bb Trickz, Bryant LR: Soy la Más Mala de España
I’m officially very into the BB Trickz dembow turn; her obvious technical struggle with the speed and cadence has led to a compensating cut-and-paste style that really works. Every challenge is an opportunity.
7. Perro Primo, Dinámica, DT.Bilardo f. Croniko: Sin Patente
I can’t really keep up with Argentina’s reggaeton subgenres, so I guess I’ll have to trust…uh, Forbes?…in identifying this as part of the “Cumbia 420” style. (I figured adding extra marijuana to the mix of any given new pop style was redundant these days.)
8. Mc Morena, Dj Gui Marques: Cheia de Maldade
I recently set myself the task of finding the Lindsay Lohan to MC Pipokinha’s Britney Spears and Bibi Babydoll’s Paris Hilton. I think the most promising candidate is Frank Kogan’s suggestion, MC Thammy, who probably fits the bill. Mc Morena, who is new to me and carries this song nearly acapella, is one to keep on standby. Or maybe cast her in a minor supporting role—the baile funk Hayden Panettiere?
9. Smerz, GAEA: Det som kom
Will Adams brought Norwegian duo Smerz to my attention in a conversation about A-pop, leading to a question of how meta or affected you could get in trying to relive pop zeitgeists of the recent past before the “A” started to stand for “art” instead. I suspected Smerz were, in fact, more of an art-pop concern, so of course I love this unashamedly melodramtic choral music (from Norwegian vocal ensemble GAEA) set to 808 claps.
10. C’est Karma f. Fado Bicha: Maria João
Portuguese artist claims inspiration from Kate Bush and Björk and Imogen Heap — so consider this a two-song European art-pop mini-block.
11. Josie Chang f. 趙翊帆: 三分鐘看完一場電影 (3 Minutes)
Cheery 80s pop, blissfully sans “art-,” and likely sans irony, from Taiwan.
12. Chinese American Bear: Feelin’ Fuzzy
Seattle-based duo that bills itself as Mandopop but is also a proud descendant of iPod commercial indie.
13. Folk9: จะไม่ขอ (Won’t Ask)
Of course, you need to go to Thailand for the really good indie-pop. Thai indie tends to amble and shuffle around, but it never stumbles, like if Pavement wore matching suits.
14. Mary Timony: No Thirds
Finally found a spot for something from Mary Timony’s new album, which has grown on me. You don’t think the guitar lick is going to sustain this song for six minutes, and indeed she keeps a ringer string section handy to keep things interesting, but it is mostly that riff doing the heavy lifting.
15. The Jesus Lizard: Hide & Seek
I never got into Jesus Lizard back when the sorts of people who rhapsodize about Bands Being Your Life kept telling me I should give them another shot, and then a few more, so forgive me if I am ignorant of some late-period turn toward tuneful legibility that this song—their first in a quarter century—suggests I must have missed.
16. Rəhman Məmmədli: Yaniq Kərəmi [c. 1996-2002]
Azerbaijani guitarist fuckin’ shreds. Rəhman Məmmədli found his perfect mixture of distortion and traditional modal style in the late 70s and never looked back (couldn’t nail down the date of this specific recording, call it turn-of-the-milleniumish). There’s a fantastic write-up from Jekub Knera at The Quietus, which among other things is proof of concept that there’s a great book to be written, if it hasn’t been written already, about the spread of electric guitars through Eastern Europe from Czechoslovakia.
17. Skrillex, Hamdi, Taichu, Offaiah: Push
Another big dumb international banger exhibiting tasteful tastelessness from Skrillex. Wavered on its inclusion until they decided to go nuclear and Bring in the Katz.
18. Marshall Jefferson: Floating [1996]
Chicago house pioneer given the compilation treatment by Defected’s House Masters series, which has featured the collected work of a variety of house legends since 2008. I’m just impressed with myself that I can on occasion differentiate between the weekly avalanche of fake dance music on Spotify’s playlists and the real deal stuff I’ve never done enough homework to figure out. The featured track I heard is a single from 1996, more straight-ahead techno than the early ‘80s work that secured Jefferson’s legacy, which apparently includes the first house track with a piano on it (“Move Your Body”).
19. Tyler ICU, DJ Maphorisa f. Masterpiece YVK, Ceeka RSA, M.J, Silas Africa, Al xapo): Manzi Nte
Two major amapiano producers throw a party and it sounds like everyone’s invited.
20. Pson: Maman Leki
Congolese artist makes good on the promise of amapiano/Afrobeats, is ambiguously haunting or joyful depending on your mood or perspective, like an optical illusion, especially when the child chorus comes in.
21. Esy Tadesse: Buna
Somewhat studied but still effective combination of Ethiopian musical influence and fusion-y electric guitar composition from an L.A.-based Ethiopian composer and guitarist.
22. Meshell Ndegeocello: Travel
Another trip already from prolific Meshell Ndegeocello (she went to outer space last year) — this time she stays earthbound and the vibe is, appropriately, more weathered and less spacey, with words and themes borrowed from James Baldwin for a tribute album of sorts. The vocals are from collaborator Justin Hicks, featuring spoken word on this track from Staceyann Chin and, elsewhere on the album, Hilton Als.
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That’s it! Until next time, feel free to recommend me even more stuff to listen to — especially as I will be putting in another double newsletter shift next week...
—Dave Moore (the other one)
Title from Tems’ “Love Me JeJe”
I’ll try to buy her 2024 album, Empathogen, which might also be my AOTY this year, sometime before 2026.