last month, i made a playlist, wrote about it, and then it got put in the newspaper. (i have no idea why they let me do that, but i ain’t complainin’!). so here’s a new playlist, this time for the month of july 2024. as before, these are all songs i heard for the first time earlier this month.
“Enjoy Your Worries, You May Never Have Them Again” — The Books, Thought for Food (2002).
It’s been a while since I’ve listened to experimental sound collage this catchy and upbeat! Congrats to this more-than-two-decade-old album on being discovered, by me, to be a “bop.”
“Butu Ezo Ya” — KOKOKO!, Butu (2024).
As long as Pitchfork is still around (until whenever Condé Nast decides to absorb it into GQ), I will continue to monitor it periodically to see if there’s any cool new music for me to aurally imbibe. It’s how I found out about this funky Congolese electronica band I probably would’ve missed otherwise; very infectious stuff.
“Erosion of Mediocrity” — Demdike Stare, Elemental (2012).
A danceable ambient (?) instrumental whose driving rhythmic sample sounds like a haunted, malfunctioning photocopier. And that’s good, obviously!
“Lay Down and Rot” — Uboa, The Origin of My Depression (2019).
Transgender noise/doom metal, so you just have to assume this is something I’d be into. Another aspect of this album that makes it quintessentially “Maggie music” is that the artist recorded it after her hospitalization due to a suicidal episode. That’s so me!!!
“Don’t Understand” — Low, Secret Name (1999).
God, the opening three minutes of buildup before the lyrics start is fucking incredible. Anxiety-inducing, ominous, morose.
(Also, I think this is a song about child abuse? “Bloodied my leg, and buried my fist” with “I send it away, now it’s back in my breast,” followed in the next verse by “And drag you to town / Treat you just like a son” makes me imagine that this is about a father whose conception of paternal leadership is the stern application of disciplinary violence. I’m not inclined to dwell on this for very long, but point is, it all adds up to the song being a very powerful, affecting listen.)
“Petco” — Cassandra Jenkins, My Light, My Destroyer (2024).
Jenkins’s last album, An Overview on Phenomenal Nature (2021), is one of my all-time favourites, so it’s safe to say that my expectations were pretty high for the new one. And boy, did she met them! I first listened to My Light, My Destroyer as I strolled through Safeway in a 10pm dissociative haze, and that was a perfect choice. This is primo “late-night grocery run” music!
Especially “Petco”, a song about feeling lonely while walking around a store — which is exactly what I was doing at the time! From the tinge of jealousy at seeing “two doves / wrapped up in filthy and true love” outside her apartment window to the self-doubt as to whether she can “take care of anything or anyone I’m eyeing,” the peculiarities of the narrator’s desire for connection are odd, poignant, and deeply relatable.
“#1 Hit Song” — Minutemen, Double Nickels on the Dime (1984).
On the other hand, maybe searching for “connection” is a fool’s game and I am exposing myself as a delusional idealist merely by regarding it as possible. The last four lines of this song (“You and me, baby / Twinkle, twinkle / Blah, blah, blah / E. T. C.”), delivered in D. Boon’s wry, irreverent cadence, make me embarrassed of every love poem I’ve ever written and rightly so.
“13 – 2” — Korea Undok Group, Senescence (2021).
The piano in this airy, reverb-heavy ambient composition sounds really shitty and out-of-tune. And that’s good, obviously!
“Oídos” — Mabe Fratti, Sentir que no sabes (2024).
The vocals, cello, piano, and brass section come together quite pleasantly and curiously! This album strikes me as a less minimalist answer to Mark Hollis’s 1998 solo album. Apple Music’s description of Sentir que no sabes does cite Talk Talk as one of Fratti’s influences, so that makes a lot of sense. Checks out.
“Black Is the Color of My True Love’s Hair” — Patty Waters, Sings (1965).
I only found out about Patty Waters after she died last month, which is always an unfortunate way to find out about a musician. Any song that features both free-jazz piano and shrieking is gonna be a hit with me. What a riveting and insane 14 minutes!
I’ll also highlight “Johnny Ryall” — Beastie Boys, Paul’s Boutique (1989) here, as a sort of “honourable mention.” I didn’t know where to fit in the playlist, but it’s worth bringing up nonetheless.
“He asks for a dollar, you know what it’s for / Man, bottle after bottle, he always needs more / He’s no less important than you working-class stiffs / He drinks a lot of liquor, but he don’t drink piss” is a phenomenal lyric. It’s funny, yes, but it also raises an essential point: the stigma around alcohol consumption by the unhoused is morally hypocritical! The idea that you shouldn’t give money to homeless people because “they’ll just spend it on booze” is repugnant — man, I spend my money on booze! No one deserves to drink piss!! (Unless, y’know, that’s how you get off, in which case: fair play to ya!)
ruminations of a sad oaf. 