As we ease into the start of the new school year, here’s a diverse range of music to get you through it.
Sarah’s picks:
- Frank Ocean – “Ivy”
- Don Henley – “Dirty Laundry”
- Bôa – “Duvet”
Frank Ocean is known for creating soft, beautiful melodies. His song “Ivy” tells the story of him remembering a time with his friend before they told Ocean that they were in love with him. The lyrics, “If I could see through walls, I could see you’re faking / If you could see my thoughts, You would see our faces / Safe in my rental” indicate that Ocean knows his friend is lying. Ocean still holds this person close to his heart as he reminisces on the fun times they had as kids and the sad fact that time can’t go backward.
“Dirty Laundry” became a globally successful rock hit when it was released in 1982. Don Henley writes about how humans love to get involved, either intentionally or not, in people’s aired-out dirty laundry. “Dirty Laundry” is a term used to express an individual’s drama or negative happenings getting out in public. Henley expresses his distaste for people who stick their noses where they don’t belong behind an electric guitar-driven song. “Dirty Laundry” is arguably Henley’s most popular single after “The Boys Of Summer.”
Jumping back into the indie pop genre, Bôa’s song “Duvet” is about a girl finding out that a man she liked isn’t at all what she thought he was. The vocalist, Jasmine Rodgers, sings in a melancholic tone which is accompanied by the viola, cello and multiple string instruments. “Duvet” reminds me of a song every girl would scream in the car after being hurt by their significant other. The classical instruments create a peaceful mood, and Rodgers’ voice couldn’t pair any better with her lyrics.
Nick’s picks:
- Genesis Owusu – “The Roach”
- Henry Holden – “Every Little Thing”
- Mannequin Pussy – “I Got Heaven”
In honor of a new semester starting, I wanted to come back to the Weekly Spotify Playlist and select three recently released songs. Released on Aug. 18, Australian singer Genesis Owusu’s new album “STRUGGLER” is epitomized in its second track “The Roach.” Following Owusu’s 2021 release, “Smiling with No Teeth,” “STRUGGLER” is full of Owusu’s weird yet alluring personality. Owusu’s eclectic neo-soul, post-punk and R&B-inspired music hits all over the musical spectrum. “The Roach” shows this off perfectly. Starting with a screaming, overdriven guitar, the song quickly devolves into a lulling dance-pop dirge. In a Kafkaesque turn, Owusu starts rapping about how he is a cockroach, “I’m a roach, don’t knock me on my back (woo) / Legs in the air, hope God don’t attack.” This turn into the absurd is made even more the case when Owusu namedrops Gregor Samsa, the main character of “The Metamorphosis,” a story about a man turning into a bug. “The Roach” is a searing hot track deeply committed to understanding the small, small role we play in this world and if there is a higher power able to help us get through the STRUGGLE of life.
Moving to something a little softer, Henry Holden’s “Every Little Thing” sounds like Bon Iver if Justin Vernon, Bon Iver’s frontman, grew up in the 2000s. The song’s simple construction contains just two parts: Holden’s angelic and weightless voice and a percussive yet melodic strummed acoustic guitar. Holden’s writing here is simple and repetitive. Let me stress, that is not a bad thing. The song is full of earworms, and the guitar playing accentuate these lines. Though I like this song from the first second of vocals, the song’s chorus is where I fell in love with it. The pre-chorus of “Every little thing / every thing we sold, we packed our bags and moved it across the state line / we packed our bags and we just kept the car in drive” is phenomenal. The scene that Holden’s writing is easy to imagine even though the details aren’t specific – something I usually look for when picking out good lyrics. When he gets to the chorus and lets out the cry “it’s all for you / every little thing was all for you / every little thing / was all for you,” it feels like someone hoping for love to work, one last wish that everything will work.
Moving in the completely opposite direction, garage-punk band Mannequin Pussy’s new single “I Got Heaven” is paving a way for punk in the modern scene. With its loud verses, full of screaming and guitars strummed harder than the pounding Doc Martens you have to wear when listening it, and its indie-inspired chorus, “I Got Heaven” comes to a rising howl in its final 30 seconds. When the soft and effervescent vocals of the verse pair with the fist-pumping, ear-breaking screams of the chorus, the song hits a high that, against all odds, is peaceful. In all of the noise, loud and pounding, like a heart after a deep sprint, the sky starts to break and there is something left behind akin to a meditative trance. “I Got Heaven” has passion and drive paired with the supreme musicality of its pairings, and, on top of that, the song is freakishly catchy. Head bobbing and brainless moshing aside, “I Got Heaven” is an ode to the peace that lies within aggression.
Eli’s picks:
- Bright Eyes – “Four Winds”
- Thank You Scientist – “My Famed Disappearing Act”
- Red House Painters – “Grace Cathedral Park”
While they may be forever associated with the edgy emo-folk sound of their early albums, Bright Eyes has always held roots in country roots. While this influence is often subtle, “Four Winds,” a lively, energetic fiddle-driven anthem, wears frontman Conor Oberst’s country influences on its sleeve. Even across their excursions into other genres, Oberst maintains his distinctive brand of offbeat emotional songwriting that made him one of the defining indie acts of the 2000s.
I frequently find myself drawn to music that is impossible to pigeonhole into a genre, and one such song I came across recently, “My Famed Disappearing Act” by Thank You Scientist, is a dream come true for anyone who loves eclectic fusions of contrasting genres. While the chaotic changing time signatures and tempos, coupled with intricate, technical guitar solos are reminiscent of progressive post-hardcore bands like Dance Gavin Dance, the track unexpectedly veers into classic ska territory with its attention-grabbing use of a marching band-style horn section during the verses and choruses. While it would be futile to attempt to categorize Thank You Scientist, all that truly matters is that there is not a dull moment to be found in “My Famed Disappearing Act,” a song that provides listeners with one surprise after another.
Mark Kozelek, who would later find both success and controversy under the moniker Sun Kil Moon, began his career with Red House Painters, one of the definitive bands of the slowcore genre that developed in the early ‘90s. Despite its misleading “-core” suffix, slowcore almost served as the antithesis to genres like post-hardcore and grunge, stripping down the heavy, aggressive guitar tones and slowing down the tempo as much as humanly possible, while maintaining the wistful emotions and angst found in the lyrics and vocals of the other genres. With his smooth-as-silk vocals that predated an entire generation of similar
bands, Kozelek floats over a mosaic of twinkly, atmospheric guitars, creating a song that is equally beautiful as it is heartbreaking.
