Sunday Jams: April Releases
Cover art for Gimme Love - Joji
I’m not enough of a music nerd to tell you why certain music is good, not good, just ok, at least not from the deep origins perspective. I mean, I know what I like, and I do have opinions, sometimes strong ones (that might go against the grain but, not contrarian). Sometimes that might get me some flack, but music is inherently subjective. That said, I’m not ignorant either, I’m self proclaimed not the biggest Beatles fan but that doesn’t mean I don’t recognize or understand the impact that they’ve had in the development of pretty much all mainstream music. However, I do subscribe to the notion that nothing is really “new” and just different takes on a familiar flavor we’ve seen before.
That said, I’ve decided to try my hand at a monthly curated new music playlist and rundown of songs and albums that caught my attention in the previous month. This playlist will be rotating, so I’ll include the song titles at the end because this Spotify playlist will be re-used.
There’s no notable punk or metal music that stood out to me in April, unfortunately, but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy the releases we did get in April. I’m going to knock this take out of the way because y’all are likely to get upset at me for this: Fiona Apple’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters is good but…it’s not the 10/10 that Pitchfork gave it (I don’t like the 10 point rating scale for anything, anyways). It’s a SOLID album and I do subscribe to the fact that Fiona is a genius, but to say no music has ever sounded like that album is just…incorrect (see opening paragraph). This will sound weird because the following artist’s career started juuuust a tad after Fiona, but Regina Spektor has had Fetch the Bolt Cutters vibes for a few albums already. It’s entirely possible (and likely) that both take inspiration from similar places so it’s not a knock on either, but it’s always hard for me to swallow "nothing has sounded like this before” statements. I do think that Bolt Cutters feels fresh in the soundscape of 2020, but it’s hard, because I feel like critically aclaimed artists are pretty much only competing with their previous great work so it’s hard to continue to find a new peak. To me, Bolt Cutters is Fiona’s DAMN. (Kendrick Lamar). Take from that what you will. On the other hand, I understand that this album isn’t made for me as a straight, brown dude, and I’m not knocking the lyricism. I liked it, and that’s where I’ll leave it.
There are a couple songs here from musicians I wasn’t particularly expecting, but glad they caught my radar. Que Maldicion here is probably the most interesting one…a Mexican Banda group in Banda Sinaloense MS linked up with Snoop Dogg. Yea, I don’t even know how to really describe it, it’s kinda weird, but I dig it. Never thought I’d see the day. The other is All Time Low. Wake Up, Sunshine feels like a natural maturation of the early 2000s pop punk sound from my youth. It’s familiar, but not overly nostalgic. Modern, but not overly radio pop. I enjoyed it, so I added Sleeping In as it stood out to me as a good taste of their new album.
I can’t forget to speak about local Chicago artist NNAMDÏ. I think BRAT is technically classified as a hip hop/R&B album? But it feels and sounds like so much more. The blend of off tempo math beats and electronic sounds may seem a little clashing with singing & rapping, but it works surprisingly well. I can’t really put a label on it, and that’s kind of the point. It’s just good music, so give that one a listen.
Other than that, I’m digging the wave of 80s and funk inspired music from HAIM, The Strokes, Twenty One Pilots, & Gorillaz, I’m a sucker for that sound profile so it’s a little heavy on those sounds this month. I kept it tight under an hour, which I imagine will be difficult moving forward but the idea here is that you can give the playlist a full play through without too much work.
