Listen to tracks by Brittany Howard, Hauschka, boygenius and more.
Dear listeners,
For some people, early November heralds the beginning of the holiday season. But for music critics and fans, it’s the beginning of an entirely different, equally frantic season: time to start working on “Best of the Year” lists and checking them (at least) twice.
This is always when I try to figure out what I haven’t listened to yet, in hopes of finding some of my favorite music of the year right at the buzzer. But there have been quite a few new releases in recent weeks that are worth considering alongside the year’s best, too, and I’ve rounded up some of them here, culled from our weekly Friday Playlists. You’ll find, among other things, some avant-garde sounds from Caroline Polachek and Hauschka, a quiet gem from this weekend’s “Saturday Night Live” musical guests boygenius and a potential walk up song for a baseball player I am desperately (desperately) hoping will soon be a New York Met.
Listen along on Spotify as you read.
1. Brittany Howard: “What Now”
Brittany Howard — the lead singer of the blues-rockers Alabama Shakes who released the excellent solo album “Jaime” in 2019 — returns with the fiery title track from her upcoming second album. “If you want someone to hate, then blame it on me,” she sings atop a low, funky bass line, as the ragged intensity of her vocals rips through the song’s smooth surface. (Listen on YouTube)
2. Mount Kimbie: “Dumb Guitar”
The English electronic group Mount Kimbie has been drifting closer to post-punk on its recent releases, and the steely, moody single “Dumb Guitar” furthers that change. A deadpan duet depicting a crumbling relationship, “Dumb Guitar” also introduces two new band members (Andrea Balency Béarn and Marc Pell, who have been collaborating with Kimbie’s Dominic Maker and Kai Campos for a while now). At times, “Dumb Guitar” sounds like a dark hybrid of Gorillaz and Blur, which longtime readers of this newsletter will know is definitely a compliment. (Listen on YouTube)
3. Caroline Polachek: “Dang”
The singular pop weirdo Caroline Polachek — who, in February, released “Desire, I Want to Turn Into You,” an ambitious album that I still have in very heavy rotation — recently performed this zany new one-off single on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.” And I do mean performed. We’re talking burgundy leather, silent-movie facial expressions and an absurdist PowerPoint presentation. Nobody else is doing it quite like Caroline. Thank you for coming to her TED Talk. (Listen on YouTube)
4. El Búho & Nita: “Cenizas de Agua”
The Spanish singer-songwriter Nita, half of the flamenco duo Fuel Fandango, joins the electronic producer El Búho (“The Owl,” a word that Duolingo has made sure to teach me) for the atmospheric, cumbia-inspired “Cenizas de Agua” (“Ashes of Water”). Samples of natural sounds mingle with Nita’s reflections on the climate crisis: “I open my chest,” she sings. “I break the silence.” (Listen on YouTube)
5. Hauschka: “Altruism”
The German composer Volker Bertelmann, who records as Hauschka and won last year’s best original score Oscar for his work on “All Quiet on the Western Front,” combines rhythmic repetition and sudden, glitch-like blurts on “Altruism,” a composition from his latest album, “Philanthropy.” Using a prepared piano, Bertelmann coaxes strange sounds out of a familiar instrument, creating a compellingly hypnotic listen. (Listen on YouTube)
6. Dawn Richard: “Babe Ruth”
When Dawn Richard boasts, “I’m the home-run hitter, the originator,” it’s not just a metaphor: The avant-R&B musician actually went to college on a softball scholarship. “Babe Ruth,” from the EP “The Architect,” finds Richard dropping braggadocious bars over a driving house beat, animating the track with an infectious swagger. Shohei Ohtani, are you in the market for a new walk up song? (Listen on YouTube)
7. boygenius: “Afraid of Heights”
As someone who has been following the solo careers of the indie singer-songwriters Lucy Dacus, Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker for quite some time now, my mind has been blown by the heights they’ve reached together as boygenius. They’ve recently sold out massive shows at Madison Square Garden and the Hollywood Bowl, and this weekend will be the musical guest on “Saturday Night Live.” (If I were a betting woman, I’d suspect that some Grammy nominations are coming their way later this week.) The trio capped off a wild year with “The Rest,” a four-song EP that follows the acclaimed March release, “The Record.” My favorite from the EP is “Afraid of Heights,” a chugging, guitar-driven number on which Dacus and her wry lyricism take center stage. (Listen on YouTube)
Dang,
Lindsay
The Amplifier Playlist
Listen on Spotify. We update this playlist with each new newsletter.
“7 Songs You Should Hear Now” track list
Track 1: Brittany Howard, “What Now”
Track 2: Mount Kimbie, “Dumb Guitar”
Track 3: Caroline Polachek, “Dang”
Track 4: El Búho & Nita, “Cenizas de Agua”
Track 5: Hauschka, “Altruism”
Track 6: Dawn Richard, “Babe Ruth”
Track 7: boygenius, “Afraid of Heights”
Bonus Tracks
Speaking of Caroline Polachek: I highly recommend her recent NPR Tiny Desk Concert. When I listen to Polachek’s records, I tend to assume that a lot of the incredible, acrobatic things she’s doing with her voice have to be the result of digital effects. But then when I see her perform live, I’m always astonished that she is doing almost all of it with her natural voice. (Never forget that she has trained to sing opera.) As one YouTube commenter put it, “Her voice basically has its own FX board.”
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November 08, 2023 at 02:31AM
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