heavy rotation roundup - vol. 1
welcome to heavy rotation roundup… i decided instead of thinking about my little songs on repeat all the time i’ll just write little paragraphs about it here. i hope this could be a regular thing but this may just be as arbitrary and as inconsistent as this substack. we will see… but for now… AHHH SO MANY THOUGHT
father john misty - i guess time just makes fools of us all
!! listen here for new official studio version !!
as a certified father john misty #fan i am subscribed to his text messages/mailing list and got to listen to this new “single” of his, which is going to be in his “greatish hits” album and his forthcoming album later this year. i’ve always known father john misty to be an end times kinda singer songwriter, but this just lifts it up a notch. the disco-funk he uses situates us in the wasteland he paints in his lyrics (i keep imagining the dance scene at the end of claire denis’ beau travail) - a vision of a time that has run out with no one pressing the apocalypse button, humanity stuck in purgatory. always love his use of diction - “greatish,” “himbo ken doll,” “the loser’s exodus",” “don’t ask the love you dare for a prediction.” and the fact that this keeps running for 8 minutes! saxophone solo! what a treat.
joan baez - simple twist of fate
i always prefer joan baez’s version of this song compared to bob dylan. you can tell that she’s having fun with it - the pop rock accompaniment, guitar solo dueling against her tasteful croon. in the middle of the song she does a bob dylan impersonation - a cheeky gesture to a dear friend of hers. she’s having fun! the song itself is about an unhappy rendez-vous, with the protagonist of the story ending up walking by the shore reminscing his loneliness. it gets back, then, to the singer’s perspective, where joan baez’s lyric change becomes really powerful: “people tell me it’s a crime / to feel too much / at any one time.” bravo!!! i fucking love joan baez so much bro
sophie - immaterial
i was at the club the other night, it was a brat night event. the second dj who played, whose task is to play the original songs in brat untouched, did a really great job in ordering and putting the songs to play before and after. there was “green light” before “the girl, so confusing version with lorde,” and what truly broke me was “immaterial” after “so i.” i also remembered having this feeling when i saw a.g. cook at ladyland festival playing a mix of sophie’s “vyzee,” feeling the bass and the treble textures reverberate through my body. sophie materialized feeling into sound and immaterializes sound into the expansive nature of human expression. she taught us so much, not just the thousands of djs who use her stems or artists who does not fit the mold of whatever’s mainstream, but to all the listeners and ravers who look up to her work. in the club, you can be anything you want.
moses sumney - gold coast
moses sumney is currently in ijbol mode… he’s starring in ti west’s maxxxine and releasing a string of songs for an ep later this year. when i heard the snippet, i fully expected “gold coast” to be a fully afrobeats song, and excited with the direction moses sumney is going. the end product blew me away even more. not only did he encorporate new sounds and styles to this single, but he kept his signature croon and irregular chords (music theory buffs need to correct me on this!) we are also led in a sonic journey with different levels of quietness, textures, chords, etc. 3 minutes and 30 seconds feels like 8 minutes (in a very good way!!!)
john prine - sam stone
i’ve been thinking a lot about this self titled john prine record. there’s a lot in this album about the disillusionment of a generation when the sixties ends and nothing really changes, either from the flower power side or the american “hope” in “eradicating communism.” there’s a lot of really good literature in this - the rolling stones “gimme shelter” documentary ending with a member of the audience shot, fear and loathing in las vegas, even mike davis’s writings on los angeles in city of quartz. john prine sings more in the postmortem of the american dream, in “sam stone” about the debilitating effects of war on a veteran - how international policy is not just political but personal as well. “there’s a hole in daddy’s arm where all the money goes / jesus christ died for nothing i suppose.” so bleak.
chappell roan - red wine supernova
i REFUSE to end this substack on a bitter note! although this is not really in my top rotation, i really want to give a shoutout to chappell roan. i admit her music is not really for me, but i’m really happy to see the resurgence of cunty fun pop, especially when made with a legitimately self-made artist who breaks her bones making her own outfits, performing in dingy bars, etc etc. i feel like pop has been really saturated with the same old shit over and over again, with a lot of artists “borrowing” from other musicians. i haven’t seen this much originality from an artist in a long time - i feel like chappell roan established her sound already when she made it popular instead of emulating another sound to be popular, and this path may take a longer way to have her break into the mainstream, but it’s all worth it in the end. all that while unapologetically expressing her sexuality, desires, etc LOUD! i’m more of a yearner type though… but complete shoutout to her!!!!!