Well, it’s been a while, hasn’t it? I guess that after single handedly saving the drill genre with my last album note, the gargantuan effort caused my creative brain to go into a brief stasis, from which I’ve just recently awoken. The End of the Touris James Ponsoldt’s second major film, following his The Spectacular Now (one of the best modern romance films of the past two decades), and a very early production by the then-nascent hit house A24. It’s a complicated film following Rolling Stone journalist David Lipsky’s days-long interview of David Foster Wallace, himself at the tail end of a book tour for the novel that got him canonized in Western literature, Infinite Jest. What the film slowly reveals – depending on your interpretation, of course – is that Foster Wallace is an indisputably great author, but not a great man. He is, by turns, sensitive and thoughtful, petty and jealous. Insightful and articulate, possessive and cruel. He was a troubled man who ultimately died by suicide at the age of 46. I think the film resonates with me not just because of my admiration for Wallace (as an artist, to be clear), but also because it helps me understand my own relationship to the artists I consume, most of whom I wouldn’t want to spend 10 minutes alone in a room with. I don’t mean to get all Death Of the Author here (eesh, literally) but I think I would be happy to go back to a time when the only thing we knew about a favorite artist’s personal life came from their granting interviews or picking up their biography.
Anyway. On to the music. I think I’ll keep it relatively brief this time (ha ha), despite an oversized mix, because I just don’t have it in me. I tried pruning this mix down to the best of the best music I’ve collected in the intervening months since my last, but of course it is all a matter of taste.
Because Kevin Morby’s spectacular new album This Is A Photograph was so good that it gave me the creative energy needed to make a new mix, this is a Kevin Morby sandwich, beginning with Stop Before I Cry. It’s a tender, pandemic era ballad about feeling cooped up (“I wanna go out dancing / as soon as the world returns”) and a paean to his longtime partner Katie Crutchfield aka Waxahatchee, herself a successful and celebrated indie folk artist.
Pusha T’s I Pray For You begins to pull us out of this mellow stretch of mix — bolstered by a bed of organ music and gorgeously sung chorus from Labrinth (you know, the guy who makes all the Euphoria songs), it starts slow before exploding into one of Pusha’s signature coke-dealing verses. The real draw, though, is how this song reunites Pusha T with his brother Malice, the two of whom formed the lengedary but defunct rap group Clipse. On the second verse, Malice reflects ruefully on the state of the culture and the rap game he left behind, through the eyes of the born again christian he’s become. He tempers his faith with menace (“I greet you with the love of God, that don’t make us friends / I might whisper in [Pusha’s] ear ‘bury all of them’”) and even reserves a few choice words for his brother, the one who invited him onto the album in the first place (“Watch my brother round you bitches / I know he pretends”).
Big League is a cheesy, trunk-rattling super collar which includes so many constant references to basketball that it might have honestly been commissioned by the NBA. The flows are varied and clean, undeniable really, as when Moneybagg and Yo Gotti trade bars like a game of ping pong (“shot clock / buzzer beater / two-seater / we don’t do new people”). Jimmy Cooks, ostensibly a reference to Drake’s Jimmy Brooks character on Degrassi, is the final track on Drake’s dreadful new project (Honestly, Nevermind), and the only one worth playing. Coming in at the end of 14 lifeless tracks which basically sound like if Passionfruit were a whole album, it’s got a southern trap beat (which switches halfway thru, a la his hit Life Is Good, with Future) and an extended guest verse from 21 Savage; for Drake fans, it must a cruel tease of what the album could have been, were the even trying anymore.
LOCK IT UP is one of my favorite songs on this whole mix, an insane group effort off of Whethan’s new maximalist record Midnight. Over a bass boosted fanfare of horns, midwxst (featured on the last playlist!), Yeat, and Matt Ox blaze through about 20 relentless bars apiece. midwxst’s verse in particular is dotted with as many pop culture references as he could fit into about a minute, name checking Courage The Cowardly Dog, Glory (1989), Morgan Freeman, Thor, Boyz N The Hood (1991), and someone called “Doofenshmirtz”. I’ve never seen that show, but I think it’s the mad scientist from Phineas and Ferb? I’m not going to look it up.
Doja Cat’s Vegas plays next, an exhilirating two and a half minutes of straight capital “r” Rap — the fact that it comes off of the official soundtrack for a motion picture (Elvis) makes the achievement even more impressive. Its interpolation of Elvis’ Hound Dog, as sung by Big Mama Thornton, is probably some sort of subversive reclamation of the black music Elvis made his trade in stealing, but I don’t want to read to much into it. Doja’s verses are airtight, particular when she breaks into a quick flow and threatens to “keep my Nina indiscrete / got that cleaner in my jeep / then put that Yeezy in yo teeth / let my demons off they leash”.
Firefly is an infectious, melodic departure for the typically brash Shygirl, more like a an electro-house ballad than a club banger. Reo Cragun’s Verizon and Sash’s Last Minute are a laid back R&B double header well suited for ushering in a calmer passage of the mix. Chicago’s 070 Shake lays low key banger Skin & Bones over a spacious bed of synthesizers, starting slow until around the 2 minute mark, when the synths swell into an explosive outro. On the track, Shake luxuriates in a rare painless, all-too-brief moment with her lover; someone whose interest in her is much more than skin deep.
🚨🚨 HOT GOSS ALERT 🚨 🚨
This is a breaking hot goss alert I received while Googling 070 Shake to make sure I got her pronouns right for this note – the lover referenced on Skin & Bones is most likely to be Kehlani, with whom Shake has apparently been in a relationship since April. 😮🤯🌋💯
Spitting Off The Edge Of The World is a towering track and phenomenal return for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, their first single since their last album release 9 years ago. And, dare I say, it’s one of the their very best ever — no mean feat for the band that gave us Maps and Soft Shock. Polish-Japanese singer Karen O. is one of the most coolest, most charismatic rock group frontmen of all time, with a huge voice that carries a uniquely captivating timbre. I love the YYY’s in general, but Karen, in particular, is one of my favorite artists of all time, and one of the few people I would truly fanboy over meeting.
Perfume Genius contributes a beautiful & creepy bridge (“wounded arms / must carry the load”), and if I had to make out a meaning from the cryptic lyrics, I would suppose it’s about the resilience of today’s young people, who are finding ways to laugh in the ashes of a halfway melted earth. As if hope is the defiant, dare I say “punk” thing to do in the face of the apocalypse. I agree.
graves is the type of catchy, addictive electro pop cut that made Purity Ring’s name in the early 2010s (the Pandora days, as I call them) and sadly the only cut worth saving off of their disappointing and anemic new album of the same name. The band has really lost their way, and I’m skeptical that they can see their way back. Betty by Yung Gravy is a strange case: Gravy himself walks a very dangerous line, being as he is, a white rapper whose music is meant to be “ha ha” funny. But the man clearly takes his craft seriously and found himself in some sort of Weird Al-adjacent zone, where the musicianship and final product render all preconceptions useless. Betty is even stranger, with Gravy gleefully iterpolating Rick Astley’s infamous 1987 track Never Gonna Give You Up, the subject of the “rick roll” prank that made using the internet in the late 2000s a real chore. The shimmering synths provide a vibrant backdrop for Gravy’s slick flows, resulting in exactly the type of easy jam I hope we can get more of this summer.
Momma’s Love from Morray is bouncy and wholesome, a sweet, catchy ode to his mom released the weekend of Mother’s Day this year. Wraith sees Chance The Rapper and Vic Mensa trade clever, socially conscious bars, framed ironically as if delivered from the backseat of a Rolls Royce Wraith (a nearly $400,000 car). While Vic is primarily delivering puns about being rich while still living in the hood, as when he shouts out Starbucks (“he caught two shots / I call that shit a doppio”), Chance sounds like he’s delivering a lecture to a social studies class. He references everything from the carceral state to the implacability of poverty (“you cannot get out it by owning a school / you cannot get out it by owning a place”) to Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (“we not in Kansas / like Patrick Mahomes”). If you need that last one decoded for you — Patrick Mahomes plays for Kansas City Missouri, and therefore, like Dorothy, is not in Kansas. It’s a clever verse that poises Chance for a next chapter after the ill received The Big Day album.
Sampa The Great enlists Denzel Curry for the two hander Lane, wherein her mellow flow gives way to a ferocious verse courtesy of Denzel, who appears to be signaling a new phase of his career. Mr. Regular & DON’T WORK LIKE THAT are a couple of maximalist (there’s that word again) bangers, all the better to blow your ears out when you need a little psyching up. I’m particularly loving what newcomer Kamiyada+ (is he a streaming service?) does with DON’T WORK LIKE THAT, as well as Killer Mike’s aggressive verse, which sounds as good as anything he’s ever done with Run The Jewels.
We Not Humping (Remix) is a remix of a song that was included on the last mix, but is different enough, I feel, to warrant inclusion here. It’s also a beautiful full circle moment for Monaleo, considering that the choral refrain from the original is “put them dicks up, we not humping”, a reference to a viral Flo Milli song from 2019 (“dicks up when I walk in the party”). The two are no less savage than Leo was on the original cut, wrapping up with a series of insults sure to make a few male listeners shift in their seats.
Lizzo’s Grrrls is, to my ear, a single much more fitting her unique talent than the shampoo-commercial-esque About Damn Time currently burning up billboard charts. Sampling Beastie Boys’ famous track Girls, it’s actually more just a love letter to a best friend than to all women in general, someone with whom she can dance like “C-E-Hoes”. Cooped Up is the only track I really care for off of Post Malone’s new album, an all around gloomy and funereal effort. Reverb is deafening and overused throughout the record, but in the case of Cooped Up, tends to works in its favor, lending the track a smoky, after hours quality. Posty delivers his usual vibrato with extra conviction, while Roddy Ricch skates on a guest verse, not adding much, but not subtracting anything either.
Patti Smith’s Because The Night fills the quota of the one big, cheesy, amazing throwback single I seem to require on every mix, but you really can’t be mad at me, because this track is undeniable. Originally written & recorded by Bruce Springsteen, Jimmy Iovine (who went on to co-found Beats By Dre) convinced Bruce to give the song to up-and-coming Bohemian singer Patti Smith. It became by far the biggest hit of her career, and one of the best singles ever recorded.
As I mentioned, this mix is a Kevin Morby sandwich, and in that spirit, the truly excellent A Coat Of Butterflies provides the coda. It is at once powerful & fragile, gentle and sprawling, layering backing lines of harp, saxophone, and a gospel choir as the song goes on. Morby wrote the entire album after fleeing to Memphis, TN when the pandemic began, a city as famous for its music as it is for its dead. B.B. King, Elvis, Paul Simon, Al Green, Johnny Cash, Isaac Hayes and many others all lived and died here or thereabout, giving the area a well-earned mythical quality, populated as it is by uber-talented ghosts. It’s a stirring coincidence that Memphis is named for the ancient Egyptian capitol city, a culture who were fascinated with death and the afterlife. Morby, however, has written this particular song as a tribute to Jeff Buckley, who recorded the still-stirring cover of Hallelujah. You know, the good version – the version that was in Shrek, and The OC! Caught in the wake of a passing boat during a casual night swim in the Mississippi River, Buckley died at the tender age of 30. The song seems as reverent of Buckley as it is of death itself, and the terrifying power of the natural world.
🧟♂️🧛♀️ Resurrections Corner 🧛♂️🧟♀️
This is the second playlist in a row with zero repeat tracks. Not super surprising since I’ve had two and a half months to cultivate songs for this mix, and had to severely winnow the tracklist down from my original edit.
🤔😳 Questionable Lyrics Zone 🧐🤨
- “I’m a gemini, bitch / fuck a Taurus” – Whethan, Lock It Up. The second line of midwxst’s verse comes in very hot with the astrology hate. Are Tauruses really so bad? My mom used to drive one.
- “You treat me like / I’m more than a pair of skin and bones” – 070 Shake, Skin & Bones. I don’t think anyone’s ever referred to a person as a “pair of” skin and bones before. 070 Shake is a true original.
- “Gravy got cheese / now that’s poutine” – Yung Gravy, Betty. Not a questionable lyric, but rather a pretty stellar pun referencing the Canadian fries/cheese/gravy delicacy. It’s the kind of wordplay that can turn a hater into a fan
- Can anyone explain to me what “zu su zu su zu saloo” (Lizzo, Grrrls) means? I’m sure it’s something, not just random scatting, but I have no idea what
- “The pussy serve courtroom / make ya dicks all rise” – CupcakKe, H2hoe. In a song full of hilarious one-liners, this might be my favorite
- “I’m suavé / but I can’t be RICO’d” – Drake, Jimmy Cooks. It’s rare that Drake appears on a mix and doesn’t have at least one entry in this section, given as he is to saying some of the absolute dumbest shit you’ve ever heard. In this case, it’s more notable (and disrespectful) than it is stupid. Making reference to 90s flash in the pan Rico Suave, it’s one of a few shoutouts to Young Thug and Gunna, who have recently been arrested on RICO (gang/racketeering) charges and might never be released. It’s also a time stamp of exactly when the song was recorded, considering Thug and Gunna were arrested mere weeks ago
👨💻 Stray Observations 📝
- Considering that ROY WOOD$ is signed to Drake’s OVO label, it’s not super surprising to hear the Canadian artist liberally exercise a faux Caribbean patois on Insecure. Whateva.
- midwxst and CupcakKe (LOCK IT UP, H2hoe, respectively) both name check Morgan Freeman, who was years ago outed as a big creep and I wish would stop getting shouted out. Noname is the only person I know of to get it right so far (“And frankly I find it funny that Morgan is still acting”)
- Another interesting Jimmy Iovine fact: the death of his good friend John Lennon apparently caused Jimmy to become so depressed that it caused the rift that would end his relationship with none other than Miss Stevie Nicks. I bet, at a dinner party, no one could name drop like this guy.
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