Not sure how invested you are in the outcome — or premise! — but I thought this New York Times “song of the summer” 2K24 roundup was pretty fair.
Charli, Chappell, Sabrina…
A MINORRRRRRRRRR!
No surprises whatsoever, but the Billie Eilish entry articulated a half-thought that’s been rattling around my brain since “Birds Of A Feather” became an inescapable drive-time single.
“[The] breezy but thoroughly melancholy vibe makes [“Birds”] a fitting soundtrack as we transition from the balmy heat of late summer to the rustling chill of early fall.”
Breezy but thoroughly melancholy…
Ladies and gentlemen, a Wistful Banger has entered the canon.
Tacking a beach blanket afters onto this year’s Olympics closing ceremony was a nice, low-stakes digestif.
As someone who’s gonna keep on dancing at the pink embroidered pony club, Billie and her band wearing every single Polo from the Beverly Center at once amused me deeply.
At the time, I couldn’t pinpoint why I was into the song as much as the fits.
Wistful Banger explains a lot.
Mercury Prize winners English Teacher just dropped a stripped down and lightly jangly cover, but let’s focus on the OG.
To my ear, “Birds” is Jurassic Park’d from the DNA of several predecessors. Try signing “Last Christmas” over it next time you turn on the radio…
Or imagine Billie’s verses atop the new-wave pulse of Gwen Stefani’s “Cool”…
Mashed with the iconic intro riff of Nilsson’s “Everybody’s Talking” — which, for all its Joe Buck and Ratso Rizzo associations…
Will always be the spine of “Starry Eyed Surprise,” itself a WB in its own peculiar, JNCO-pantsed way (still insane these are ODB’s “Got Your Money” drums).
None of these tunes are explicitly sad (if you are so inclined, Mark Ronson has explored the Sad Banger in depth) but they’re definitely not blinders-on happy either.
They’re wistful! Vague sense of longing up in this bitch!
Words are almost secondary, TBH — there’s something about the major/minor chord combos in a WB that manage to express the ineffable.
Mortality? Regret? A simple acknowledgment of time as it passes by?
In any case, fit for the changing seasons.
RIP Shifty Shellshock.
Various Artists, Synthesizing the Silk Roads — bonkers comp of “Uzbek Disco, Tajik Folktronica, Uyghur Rock & Crimean Tatar Jazz from 1980s Soviet Central Asia.” More on the project here.
Natural Born Killers At 30 — fun Esquire history lesson on the making of a “misunderstood masterpiece” that builds on NBK producer Jane Hamsher’s book and adds a cameo from Rodney Dangerfield’s nutsack.
Winnie Holzman On Creating My So-Called Life — Angela and Rayanne are also ringing in three decades if you want to feel old(er).
BNYX® & Yeat feat. Superheaven, “GO AGAIN” — decidedly not from 1994. Just looks like it!
Toro y Moi, Hole Erth — even more new alt channeling its forbearers, why not…
Playlists updated!