More Like a Ghost

It’s been a long, long time (I KNOW) since I made a new playlist, which is kind of a tricky thing. Over the course of the last *mumbling* months, I’ve listened to, loved, hated, and been ambivalent to a lot of new music, to the point that I was at about 100 songs on this mix before aggressively pruning it to a humble 50. Some of the songs on here might have gotten a little stale by now – as a person who rarely listens to TikTok or the radio, I wouldn’t really know what’s currently overplayed. I encourage you to skip over songs that you find oversaturated or just not interesting, but maybe somewhere in here, you’ll find a track or two you haven’t heard and you’re sort of into, which is the whole point of this endeavor anyhow.

In that spirit, I won’t strain to find some thematic tie between these 50 tracks, write out a long essay dissecting the tone and tempo of the mix (at least not this time…) but I will offer thoughts and comments on some of the music below.

• The title of this playlist is a directly pulled lyric from a favorite song by my favorite band (Bright Eyes). On the truly profound, multi-phased Something Vague, Conor sings: “Now I’m confused / is this depth really you? / and do these dreams have any meaning? / No, no it’s more like a ghost / that’s been following us both. / Something vague, that we’re not seeing”. The ghost is essentially the spirit of anxiety and depression, a cloud that follows the affected, an intangible type of despair that many of us can feel but can’t exactly identify.

• Shamir’s Oversized Sweater kicks us off with a bittersweet ballad which is musically rooted in grunge, of all things, with detuned vocals embedded amongst a crunchy guitar riff and big drum hits. The track is ostensibly about a cycle of romances which end as abruptly as they begin and how rarely they make it the distance, but it’s got some jokes too, like “I’m higher than Mariah’s head” or “I can barely hear my Peacock subscription”. That last one’s funny because no one uses fucking Peacock lmao.

Lol Shamir, you play too much!

• “I treat my bitch like my nigga / I treat my nigga like my bitch” – Aminé, Sossaup. Uh, what? Lol

• Half Doin Dope is an early contender for my favorite hip hop record of the year, featuring three of the genre’s most technical artists, all rapping their asses off over a looped soul(?) sample. It’s melodic, propulsive, and fun as hell. Each rapper basically plays to type on their verse: JID is spittin facts about life in the hood, Babytron flexes his guns and cars, and Lil Yachty mostly just jokes around (“leak through the sheets like a wet dream / flew this bitch out, all I saw was her nipple / shit felt like a movie with terrible sex scenes”). Even the spoken word outro from Babytron serves as, essentially, an extra half verse, whose laid back delivery and switched off instrumental contrasts purposefully against the rest of the song

• On The Radar is a Rolling Stone-backed radio program whose main viral interest comes from segments in which they invite various artists in to freestyle in the Stu, which is where the Ice Spice track titled, appropriately enough, On The Radar, hails. Interpolating an acoustic version of Solomon’s Phases, Ice drops hard bars one after the other (“like, you wanna fuck with that girl from Decatur / like, I don’t want you wit a bitch I’m a hater”, ferocious energy balanced with a smooth backing track. It is the only bonus track from the deluxe edition of her debut EP Like..?, but I think it’s better than the somewhat flavorless bops she’s made since first popping on the scene. 

Yeah, that dumb “Combination” Drake meme also comes from an On The Radar freestyle

• James Blake didn’t have to go that hard for a song that would ultimately end up on Across The Spider-Verse’s soundtrack, but he damn sure did it anyway. Hummingbird is a heavenly cut which science has determined is  ~1.634 million times better than Post Malone’s saccharine Sunflower, the headliner of Into The Spider-Verse’s soundtrack.

• Yes, a Doja Cat sneaker its way onto my playlist. While most of her new record, Scarlet, is half assed and forgettable as compared to her last two, Agora Hills is the one that feels like it got a proper, full treatment for a single track. Big bass hits undergird a laid back instrumental, allowing the swooning vocal passages to shine. As a bonus, on this track she only minimally engages with the exhausting twitter “beef” (that she starts!) which is an advantage this song has over many of the others on the album.

This tweet captures exactly how I feel about the current state of Doja Cat’s music and persona. Self conscious and performative “edginess” seemingly an attempt to distract from the simplistic, radio-friendly rhyme schemes.

• For as mid as Bongos has proven to be, commercially and critically, Cardi B quietly dropped her hardest verse in a long time on a collab with her husband, Offset. They each get exactly half the track, with Offset dropping off a perfectly okay verse, but when Cardi B finally goes in, it’s electrifying. She plays with, and excels at, a few different flows, all the while employing her signature sense of humor to counterbalance the braggadocio and flexing on the track (“if I had a dick / it would need to be sucked”)

• Jay Rock, Anderson .Paak, and Latto hopped onto a track together and spun gold on Too Fast (Pull Over), an uptempo banger which fills out its production with a marimba loop that will make it perfect summer listening. These three are all very different types of artists, but exhibit immediate chemistry with each other, drawn together by the gravity well which is .Paak’s excellent hook. 

• Rush (a double entendre referring to a famous brand of poppers) is Troye Sivan’s best song to date, full stop. You’ve probably heard it by now, but if not, here you go.

Created originally as a type of heart medicine, Rush and other poppers like it are a low level club drug that produce a brief, euphoric high. As a result of their intended medical use, they also relax the muscles and make it easier for a man to, uh, “receive” his partner

• Same Side is probably the heaviest rap track on this mix, the one you definitely want to throw on in the car before robbing your next bank. Rob49 easily keeps up with Durk on a lethal drill beat, who vents some of his most common criticisms, the biggest one being his choice to not “slide for Von”, e.g. revenge murder the person who killed rapper and Durk’s best friend, King Von. He ends the track with “Cali got real killaz / I hate when niggas say Cali weird”. While I appreciate the shout out, California is the birth place of the two most famous gangs in the world, the Crips and Piru/Bloods, so I don’t think Cali’s murderous bonafides were ever in doubt.

• Kenny Mason’s Dracula builds its beat over a sample of Smokey Robinson’s lovely song A Silent Partner in a Three Way Love Affair

• I’ve previously had a pretty negative opinion on English hip hop,  but I think things are improving (thanks Brexit!), which is reflected in my inclusion of two on this playlist. SLEEPY HALLOW and Central Cee have a soulful sort of menace in their voices that pairs nicely with American rappers

• Karol G’s lovely ballad to her own self, S91, pretty much speaks for itself in its rhythm and flow, but non-English speakers (me) can catch an English translation of the lyrics here

• I think I’m 3 for 3 with singles released by the artist known as Romy, who is better known as one half of the British lofi indie band The XX. In my opinion, the best EDM has a hint of despair to it, as if to connect with club goers who are there to dance and drink their worldly ills away.

• Bug Like An Angel is a phenomenal new track from the enigmatic Mitski, which starts off as a gentle, finger-picked guitar ballad and builds to an almost Gospel like choral sound. It contains two of her lines which have hit me the hardest, ever; in one, she admits to a normalized form of alcoholism most peoples of the world can identify with (“As I got older / I learned that I’m a drinker / Sometimes, a drink feels like family”), and one that’s a universal maxim (“Did you go and make promises you can’t keep? / Well, when you break them, they break you right back”). It’s no coincidence that both of these lines get delivered against a heavenly backing chorus, tracing an irony between the lyrics and the music.

• Home by HAIM is the best song on the Barbie movie soundtrack, and one which could have been a strong inclusion on any of their actual albums. Nobody asked, but for the record, I am a Barbie truther. That movie was bad and its legacy will not match the excitement and good will it generated upon release.

• For the most part, I am unimpressed with Olivia Rodrigo’s sophomore album, Guts, which is (slightly) more adventurous than its predecessor in themes and production, but has way fewer bops that will stick in the culture. I think the artist is confused; she seems to be counter positioning herself against the wholesome Americana apple pie image that the towering figure of Taylor Swift emanates, as like an edgy, girl-group, Courtney Love style rocker. But ya know what Courtney Love had? You know what most rock stars have? A fucking band. And so does Olivia, presumably, because otherwise, how can she tour? So the difference is that Olivia wants to be the star of a rock band, but the credit exclusively attributed to her. Whatever. Bad Idea, Right? is a highlight amidst the track list, channeling early 00’s pop-punk while Rodrigo gleefully disobeys her better judgment about going to sleep over at a guy’s house.  

Olivia Rodrigo’s unlistenable attempt at a punk/metal style primal scream (shown here from a live recording of her song “All American Bitch”) is reason enough to disqualify her from the rock genre

• I tend to criticize music that uses “la la la dee dah”s or the like to fill out a song’s chorus/bridge, since it’s basically a cheap way of increasing your song’s catchiness — there are no words to remember! Baby Tate’s Jersey gets a pass, partly because it’s used sparingly, and partly because the song is intentionally coming from a bit of an air headed place, throwing ass while sobbing in a New Jersey night club. My hot take is that pop music in general should have an air headed quality to it, considering that escapism is the genre’s primary draw. ABBA understood this – by definition, their lyrics couldn’t be very meaningful, since they barely spoke English. Dua Lipa’s extremely successful second act of her career popped off once she began to employ this approach.

• Yes, In Your Eyes is the song John Cusack plays in the climactic boombox scene in Say Anything (1989)

• Baltimore-based, experimental indie pop band Animal Collective had a big run among a certain crowd in the late 00’s, producing some genuinely unique and adventurous music that still hits today. While their shtick of appropriating some sort of “world music” , “pan African” sound (see: Vampire Weekend) would probably be rightfully accused of appropriation today, you will never convince me that My Girls doesn’t hit like a fucking sledgehammer. I’m in synthesizer heaven while (basically) the same verse repeats, building in until it sounds like you’ve got a concert hall in your car.

• Monaleo, best known for trap banger Beating Down You Block, delivers an emotionally resonant ode to self reliance with Ridgemont Baby, a reference to her home block. While dismissing hangers on who try to take credit for her success, she details the way that she made extreme poverty (“have you ever boiled hot water / just to take a bath?”) work for her, taking her family’s lack of cable TV as motivation to practice her rap skills. I would say it’s paying off, and I hope we see more from her in the near future.

• not_me_tho is indeed from Twitter comedy celeb and eventual movie star Jaboukie Young-White. He starred in Disney’s Strange World animated film, which they mostly buried, but it counts. So imagine my surprise when drops his second song ever, and it outclasses most of the current year’s hip hop. Lowish expectations almost certainly benefit my opinion, but it really doesn’t need that. This is a straightforward, instantly classic paean to being a young, dumb hoe.

This is Jaboukie (center). He was also on Only Murders In The Building, maybe you recognize him from that? Eh. Whatever. IYKYK.

• On the bouncy Oh U Went, Drake sounds more focused and awake than he did across the entirety of his own new album, Her Loss. I’m glad that he showed up for the still-imprisoned Young Thug, who may very well never be released off the back of serious charges against his label / gang, YSL. Drake’s clearly having fun over a Metro Boomin production, keeping it light while also delivering possibly the most pro-feminist thing he’s said in years. Presumably in defense of IG models and OnlyFans creators, he raps “She gettin’ cake off the pictures she take / I say ‘Girl if it work, then it work’”. That’s certainly not the most radical take in the world, but the bar is pretty low. 

• “I don’t care who done seen me / ask my lawyer, I wasn’t there” – 21 Savage, War Bout It. I just like this line, I think it’s funny. He’s employing what’s known in legal circles as “the Shaggy defense”

• Hip hop’s most beloved nut job, Azealia Banks, has returned with DILEMMA, a single which lives up to her typically high standard. She has a confident, unique and playful flow that makes it a blast to sing along to violent lines like “y’all niggas opps / y’all aint with this shit / til my clip kick / and I’m blowin your brains, best believe I won’t miss”. She’s crazy, I love her!

• Here’s something I bet you didn’t know – Kesha can not only sing, she can fucking belt – as proven on her new single Only Love Can Save Us. From energetic backing vocals to an aggressive electronic beat, Kesha uses a variety of techniques to celebrate her freedom in general, but more specifically freedom from her long time producer / abuser, “Dr. Luke”

• David Guetta will never, ever live down his infamously tone deaf “tribute” to George Floyd (“shout out to his family!”), but I have an open mind with music and I have to call a spade a spade — his new EDM single with Lil Durk and Ayra Starr, Big FU is a hit! It plays to his strengths as a legendary euro-sleaze DJ, further infused by an Afrobeat influence strong turns from the featured artists.

Oh David, you glorious idiot. See the cringeworthy moment here

• Troye Sivan’s One Of Your Girls is, presumably, his homage to Random Access Memories era Daft Punk, and it works.

• “Gave you that good Amaretto / now I’m tryna get free like Coretta” – Audrey Nuna, Cellulite. Now, Audrey Nina is a Korean American artist, but like…this is okay, right? Coretta Scott King is an international symbol of freedom for everyone, right? This isn’t any sort of Awkwafina situation, right?? I hope not, because I really fuck with Cellulite, whose stuttering break beats play off Audrey’s chipmunked (pitched higher with autotune), give-no-fucks flow make for a banging, low key dance track which successfully evokes Playboi Carti’s signature “rage” style, which is a big compliment for hip hop heads like me.

• Rap duo Flyanaboss seem like genuinely nice girls, and their apparent friendship is really sweet, which is why I was bummed to not really like their previous hit, You Wish. Thankfully their new single, Big One, rights a lot of the other’s wrongs, with production that harkens back to early 90’s, block party style hip hop, and 100% less struggle bars than You Wish (“call me Michael Phelps / all the brand deals that I’m swimmin in”. — what?? Since when do we refer to advertisement deals as bodies of water? If that was just a bit of a reach used to justify a clever bar, it would be fine, but it’s not, it’s a shout out to Michael Phelps, which is just baffling)

• Carly Jepsen tends to release a B-sides album to accompany her main releases, and recent record The Loneliest Time gets its own with The Loveliest Time. This is probably a weaker batch of scrapped tracks, unfortunately, but Psychedelic Switch is a major exception. Unlike the name might suggest, this is not some psychedelic rock track, but a simple and joyful, disco-inspired dance song, which is firmly in Jepsen’s sweet spot.

• As far as I can tell, DJ Khaled’s SUPPOSED TO BE LOVE was only released in edited / censored form, which no explicit version to fill in the gaps left by “bad words”. Kanye did the same thing on his Donda album, so I’m sure Khaled is trying to be godly or some shit, but for one, Kanye is not someone to emulate, and second of all, it is lame and fundamentally anti-art.

• “With bae froo fick and fin / she already fick so I’m halfway there” – Dave, Sprinter. I wonder if English people really talk like that when they’re by themselves.

• Youth Lagoon’s Trapeze Artist hails from the same album which produced Prizefighter, included on my last playlist. It’s a very pretty and vulnerable track, as much of his music is (yes, Youth Lagoon is one guy), with the slightest hint of Bob Dylan influence, and I hope he doesn’t take a decade long break between albums the way he did last time.

• I tried not to include too many songs on here which have repeated from previous playlists, but Jackson C. Frank’s ethereal Blues Run The Game had to sneak in here, for folks who have not listened to my past mixes. Not only is the song an arresting rumination on pain and numbness that affects every single person on earth, but Jackson has a fascinating history himself. When he was in primary school, a furnace exploded, killing 15 students, wounding many more, and leaving Frank with burns covering half of his body. While recovering, a nurse gave him a guitar to pass the time, and he eventually used the insurance payout for his injuries sustained to get his music career started. Frank only ever finished recording a single album (produced by the legendary Paul Simon), before an untreated schizophrenic condition found him living on the streets of New York in the 90s, where he eventually died from pneumonia. 

Jackson C. Frank in younger, hopefully happier days