Intro

It’s been a long, long time since I’ve made a playlist for anyone and to be honest I’m not confident I’m any good at it anymore, but it felt right to give it a shot again for you all and see what happens. If it seems like it’s worthwhile I’ll keep mixing them in occasionally, I haven’t listened to music in any analytical/oil-prospecting sort of way in years but I’ve been getting excited again recently about finding good stuff I haven’t heard before so let’s see how it goes.

I’ll put some notes below on the different artists to give you some context/jumping off points to explore any who stick out to you.

Important: If you use something other than Spotify, I found this site that will transfer Spotify playlists to a bunch of other platforms (Apple Music, Tidal, etc). I tried it out and it seems to be working, but if you have any trouble with it let me know and I can find a different one.

Playlist

Notes

• With Kendrick Lamar gone from TDE now, SZA is (for me) the undisputed crown jewel of their 11-artist lineup. If you’re not familiar with her, or the build up to her new album which features “Low”, Billboard has a good recent profile of her complete with a trampoline gym visit.

• Dijon wrote my favorite song of the last 3 years and remembering he linked up with Jim-E Stack on 2020’s “Ephemera” was a nice moment for me. Here’s a great Cool Hunting article on Jim-E Stack for some background.

• Yves Tumor is, for me, the sort of artist we need right now: a living middle finger with music chops that are fucking for real. Pitchfork hung out with them years ago and I think it’s a good starting point if you aren’t already familiar.

• I still think Girl Talk was the Lake Victoria for the “everything but the kitchen sink” crossover rap production that’s emerged over the last 10-12 years and turned the meme of crying in the club into a reality in the process. I might be wrong about that, but I’m not wrong about the fact that Suicideyear, hailing from Louisiana, got himself caught up in that jetstream to great effect and this recent remix of his has been glued to the roof of my brain. Fader will help you catch up on him a little bit.

• Young Fathers have been amazing for a long time, and this new album, from what I’ve heard so far, is their best work so far. NME reports.

• I’ve never heard of Cottonwood Firing Squad but I’ve been enjoying “Deathwish” quite a bit and if you get into it, you should check out their Bandcamp page and buy some stuff.

• I don’t know who Younger Hunger is, but their merch absolutely rips and this song reminds me of the sort of stuff LA girls put on in the car on their way to the beach or the bar so shout out to LA girls and shout out to Younger Hunger and shout out to bands having their own podcast.

• I couldn’t figure out why I loved this track from Jonatan Leandoer96 so much when I found it this week, and then I looked him up and saw that it’s an alt band for Yung Lean and let out an audible “Oh”. So yeah, I love Yung Lean and I love whatever this is too. The Guardian will catch you up on him if you’re not familiar.

• The Tallest Man on Earth is one of my favorite musicians ever, and The Wild Hunt is a top 10 album for me for sure. Hearing him back at his best, and from the rumors I’ve heard maybe his best ever, is the best news I’ve heard in many moons. The new album is produced by Nick Sanborn (One half of Sylvan Esso) and is gonna be blasting in every speaker I have when it drops.

• boygenius is one of the few supergroups that I’ve actually gotten into since Black Hippy, mainly I think because I love all 3 of the individual artists on their own and am very glad that the resulting whole is more than just a sum of its parts. “Emily I’m Sorry” is the type of stuff that I can listen to on repeat anytime and I’ve been doing just that this week.

• Good lord this “Go Easy, Kid” song from Monica Martin & James Blake. I found her stuff back in 2012 or 2013 when “Slow Motion” was making its rounds around Chicago and she was still with PHOX. I think they’re technically still a band, and I’d love to hear another album from them, but either way this song from her blew up my week and I had to pass it along to you.

• I was maybe the last person to believe that Suki Waterhouse’s EP was as good as some friends said it was, and I’m not really sure why exactly. My best guess is that it felt like a project that probably had so much cash behind the marketing of it that it was impossible for it to fail in a meaningful way (e.g. Drake album releases etc etc). But I put on “Good Looking” this week and was just wrong, as it turns out. I feel dumb for not getting tickets to her live show in Austin tonight, but I’m glad to have a bit more sad, Anime-Western Pop in my life to go along with the cream of the Lana Del Rey crop.

• Arlo Parks is a superstar in my eyes, and this track “Weightless” from her upcoming album My Soft Machine is a perfect synthesis of her range of abilities that tentacle outwards from a central genius. I’m so glad we’re alive at the same time as her, and I can’t wait for this album.