NEW ADDS: Daniel Caesar, Night Tapes, Tyler, the Creator, Fenne Lily, My Betsy, and JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown
Valentina - Daniel Caesar
Genre: R&B
RIYL: Brent Faiyaz, Frank Ocean
Daniel Caesar is back with more smooth R&B hits in his third studio album Never Enough. “I know it’s late / And I know you got a man,” Caesar pleads with his lover, the titular “Valentina”, to make him the preferred object of her affections. Though Caesar desires Valentina, he expresses some clear internal conflicts in the situation as he praises her devotion and loyalty to her current partner. But this inner conflict is not enough to deter him from her. Caesar’s vocals are accompanied by a slow melody, heavy bass, and rhythmic drums not unfamiliar to R&B love songs. “Valentina” is a beautiful and brotherly collaboration as Caesar sings to a beat co-produced by his younger brother Zachary Simmonds. Songs like this one, prove there’s never enough Daniel Caesar.
-Mariah
Selene - Night Tapes
Genre: Dream Pop
RIYL: Tokyo Tea Room, Strawberry Guy
Originally starting as a household band, Night Tapes is climbing quickly and has already taken SXSW by storm. At the festival, the band debuted their latest single, “Selene”, an ode to the Greek moon goddess. “She’s only perfect cause she’s far away,” Iiris Vesik, the group’s lead vocalist, sings, noting that a person’s flawed perceptions of things will fade as they become more familiar with it. Similarly, to how the moon appears flawless, but is filled with craters on its imperfect surface. “Selene'' is every bit hypnotic and mesmerizing, pulling the listener into the song’s easy flow. The calming synths even evoke the feelings of a beautiful night under the stars. Night Tape's next EP, Perfect Kindness, is slated to drop later this year.
-Mariah
WHARF TALK (feat. A$AP Rocky) - Tyler, the Creator
Genre: Alternative Hip Hop
RIYL: BROCKHAMPTON, JPEGMAFIA
In a welcome accompaniment Tyler Okonma, known professionally as Tyler, the Creator, has released Call Me If You Get Lost: The Estate Sale, an elongated version of his 2021 album of the same title, which contains songs that did not make it on the initial version. “WHARF TALK” is one of these many newly released hidden gems. “I got a new boat, you should come with / I got a section for your luggage,” Okonma sings as he eagerly proposes for his partner to accompany him on his journeys. A$AP Rocky makes a similar request and even goes as far to show the luxuries he would provide from “rubies” and “diamonds” to “lobster and calamari.” However, neither of these declarations is enough to assuage the doubts of an unsure lover.
-Mariah
Lights Light Up - Fenne Lily
Genre: Indie Folk
RIYL: Samia, Big Thief
“Lights Light Up” from English singer-songwriter Fenne Lily is a song defined by its inclination towards movement. A quiet song on first listen, “Lights Light up” is always on the verge of falling forwards, as she starts off spending all day sleeping and dreaming, until someone “came to me at the speed of a bad decision” and the world comes alive as the eponymous traffic lights light up, “and the car horns play along.” But as love moves in, it also moves on, as the chorus conjures the feeling of knowing something won’t last even as you’re going through it. Even the guitar riff is antsy, a tension that drives the song to the place it wants to go. There’s a movement of movement, as she learns to dance with this someone, and then the line after, spending her time dancing alone. But the bad moves as much as the good, as she sings about the comforting of someone with cancer with the veneer of someone who’s already past the hardship, looking back on it through glass doors with details half-forgotten already.. “Lights Light Up” gives new meaning to music as a vehicle for storytelling, and even the jittery guitar riff feels unable to stay in the same place for too long, regardless of want or trying, simultaneously giving something upbeat to the sad, and a mournful longing to the good..
- Jonathan
Distracted Driving - My Betsy
Genre: Indie Folk
RIYL: Florist, Frankie Cosmos, Adrienne Lenker
In “Distracted Driving,” My Betsy is immediately wading through heavy waters, opening with the lines “So I’ve been cutting / hands in the kitchen / and it’s getting / kind of hard to breathe.” But to wade through these waters, My Betsy constructs an equally heavy sonic landscape, first starting with the orthodox: lightly strummed acoustic guitar and higher-pitched guitar melody in the background. But then the ecosystem comes to life, as she sing “and all of a sudden / cars go driving by,” and all of a sudden, harmonies float in; splashes, twinkles, and glimmers in the production spring up; and the beat picks up as if kicking over a rotting log after a heavy rain. Every sound of fingers sliding across guitar strings signifies an awareness of self, syncopated vocals give the effect of a full-life lost in real time, and the song takes on a sense of direction: of music, of death, of life, beyond the end of the song, and rising out of the heavy waters they dip into but refuse to drown in.
- Jonathan
Jack Harlow Combo Meal - JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown
Genre: Experimental Hip-Hop
RIYL: Death Grips, Denzel Curry, Injury Reserve
Bret Easton Ellis, author of American Psycho, wrote a cultural criticism article about “the end of empire,” including those who “get it” and those who don’t. Among those who get it, he lists Lady Gaga arriving at the Grammy’s in an egg, Cee Lo Green singing “Fuck You,” and Nicki Minaj. Robert Downey Jr. doesn’t get it. Neither do Christina Aguilera or Anne Hathaway. But of those who do get it, JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown maybe get it the most. In “Jack Harlow Combo Meal” the pair rap over an industrial-esque beat paired with a light jazzy piano in the background that would fit into any Americana diner. The pair rap about the death of authenticity without any facet of false decorum, saying “Everything about you is borrowed” and “Actin’ so brand new, but everything I wear is vintage.” Then they get to the song’s namesake, as they chastise the culture that let Jack Harlow get away with becoming a KFC spokesperson. Interrupting their rapping, Peggy comes into the bridge with his signature heavily autotuned vocals, singing “I pray for you, always, it’s so tragic, babe,” praying for – among other things – the end of empire and everything that comes with it. Not everyone gets it, but those who do listen to JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown.
- Jonathan