Mixtapemotions

  • "Blinding" by Florence + the Machine, Tuesday, October 31, 2023 (reworked repost)

    There isn’t much of a reason that I chose this song today. It’s creepy, and Florence + the Machine is kind of witchy. In fact, Lungs, and today’s song “Blinding” has a feeling that deals with the otherworldly, primitive pre-Christian Celtic world. It feels more like a spring song, though, celebrating the sun. However, as we are going into the dark part of the year, it’s nice to remember that no matter what happens in the winter, spring will be back to reawaken us. The following story, though has to do with the spring. Happy Halloween. Stay safe and try not to succumb to the winter depression.

    A TOURIST IN THE WAKING WORLD, NEVER QUITE AWAKE. I will definitely come back to the shift in the alternative sound as the year goes by, but I’d like to tell a rather embarrassing story about how Florence + the Machine and a bunch of other Indie Rock/new Alternative acts came into my music collection. It was the spring of 2011, and I was finishing up my senior year. I would be student teaching in the Fall and graduating in December. But before I could graduate, I had to take a newly introduced English Capstone course which was a review of all great literature from the dawn of time to about 1960. We would take the literature section of the GRE, and since we were the test pilot, we didn’t have to receive a passing score. However, in order to study for the test, I joined a study group with a bunch of other Lit major girls. I had a crush on one girl, but didn’t want to ruin the dynamics of the group, so I didn’t say anything. This study group took place at two of the members’ off campus house, and they shared the place with two other girls. One of the housemates asked about me. We had taken some classes together. She was a history major; I was a history minor. One day she gave me a mix CD containing indie rock groups like Death Cab for Cutie, The Shins, Noah & the Whale, Mama Ray, Mumford and Sons, and Florence + the Machine. I loved that mix and added all of the songs to my iTunes library. I made her a mix of some songs that I had been listening to, Copeland, Jonezetta, The Starting Line, etc. that had comparable sounds. 

    NO MORE CALLING LIKE A CROW FOR A BOY, FOR A BODY IN THE GARDEN. Well, this mixtape exchange got the girl that I had developed feelings for in the study group a little jealous. She made me a mixed CD–all songs about rain. Most of the artists were pretty old. When we talked about music, me and her had never quite the same vibe in music. I responded with a mixtape (CD) of songs about sun. “Solar Powered Life” by The Classic Crime, “Here Comes the Sun” by the Beatles, “Gimme Sympathy,” “Sun” by Mae, were all a few of the songs that I chose. I thought the mixtape was some of my best work; however, she didn’t seem to like it. Things got kind of weird between us; however, it was like the current hit by Katy Perry,  it was hot and then cold. Maybe I was hot and then cold. Maybe she was. Anyway, one Friday night when the flowers were in full bloom on campus–this was mid-April, 2021–I asked her out. I don’t think I asked with confidence, though. I was still wanting to keep the friendship and keep everything as it was with the friend group. She responded that she thought of me as more a friend. And that’s how the friendship ended. I’d like to write a song about this whole ordeal and call it “Mixtape Emotions.” I was at the end of my Christian college experience. I saw my best friends finding love, and it seemed like something that wasn’t meant for me. And it wasn’t, yet.

  • “But Not Kiss” by Faye Webster, Monday, October 30, 2023

     

    Two weeks ago, I was catching up on back episodes of Switched on Pop, and I listened to an episode that introduced me to the music of Faye Webster. The hosts had been in the middle of a music trip to Atlanta, exploring mostly the Hip-Hop, and most notably the Crunk, scene but the episode on Webster highlighted how multiple musical genres work together in the artist’s toolkit to create a compellingly unique sound. Defining Faye’s genre is tricky, which makes her most comfortably fit in the cop-out genre of Alternative. Born and raised in Atlanta and hearing bluegrass at home, some of Webster’s music feels at home on country radio. You can find her on certain Spotify Country playlists. But then there was the rap group she formed in high school. Hip-hop remains a feature in Webster’s music as does R&B, with slide guitars — a favorite of the Switched on Pop hosts.

    I WANT TO SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS AND THEN FORGET. Faye Webster is perhaps best known for the song “Better Distractions,” which former President Barack Obama picked in 2020 as one of his favorite songs for the year. But before she became a Pitchfork darling, Webster began recording albums at the age of sixteen. In an interview with Justin Richmond on the Broken Record podcast, Webster talks about her early influences from listening to her brother playing Ramones covers to being inspired by the delicate vocals of Alison Krauss to learning guitar and eventually songwriting. That pursuit of songwriting led Webster to major in songwriting at Belmont University in Nashville. While the university has an extensive alumni list from CCM artists such as Steven Curtis Chapman, Ginny Owens, and Jill Phillips;  Country stars such as Brad Paisley, and Josh Turner, Lee Ann Womack; and members of indie rock bands such as Judah the Lion, COIN (whom she collaborated with on the song “Sagittarius Superstar“), and LANY; Webster found the college “wasting time and money.” She told The Line of Best Fit, Belmont’s “Their whole perspective was ‘let’s teach you how to write a hit commercial song to sell to somebody.”

    DON’T WANT TO REGRET ANY OF THIS. Faye Webster talks with Justin Richmond on the Broken Record podcast about how her first two records don’t reflect her current songwriting and how she rarely plays the songs live in concert. She talks about them being “too Nashville” whereas Atlanta and Athens, Georgia; where her brother relocated; suit her musical style. This year, Webster has released two songs, “Lifetime” and today’s song “But Not Kiss,” which are rumored to be part of the singer’s upcoming fifth album. Faye’s music is certainly far from conventional, but today’s song is a bit shocking. Listeners will know fourteen seconds into the track when the music picks up after a lullaby introduction. The dynamics remind me of Flyleaf‘s single, “I’m So Sick.” Of course the dreamy piano and slide guitar in “But Not Kiss” make the overall tone different from Flyleaf’s 2005 album opener. Lyrically, “But Not Kiss” raises the discussion about love. The speaker of the song begins each line with a seemingly caring statement; however, she adds a caveat with each but. What causes this lack of attachment? Is the speaker selfish or otherwise hurt? And moreover, what causes us to only give part of our heart away sometimes? 


  • “Exist” by Eric Nam, Sunday, October 29, 2023 + 추천한 K-pop Starter Playlist AppleMusic Update

    Earlier this month I updated my 추천한 K-pop Starter Playlist for Spotify. Today, I’m going to update my Apple Music K-pop list. Of course, the term K-pop is broad, and today’s song “Exist” by Eric Nam is a pop song in English, I decided to include it because of the singer’s history with the genre. Earlier this year, music YouTuber Nick Canovas, or  Mic the Snare, created a video about how he came to appreciate the genre. The video is a good primer for music lovers who are new to the genre. One of the things that Canovas pointed out, though, is that K-pop usually refers to “Idol music”— like American Idol or teen idols from—well that’s a story for another day. For my playlist, I decided that an inclusive approach was more fun than an exclusionary one. Therefore, the “Korean teen idol” playlist may be fun to make, but I decided to include some outliers. Enjoy.

    Check out the playlist on Apple Music.


     

  • “Cold October” by Escondido, Saturday, October 28, 2023 + Noise Trade’s 2012 Holiday Road Trip Playlist Reconstructed

    Today we’re back to Nashville with the duet Escondido. The duo consists of Tyler James and Jessica Maros. The duo recorded their debut album, The Ghost of Escondido in a single day. They have released music between 2013 and 2018. The band’s song “Darkness, Darkness” has been featured in the NBC family drama This Is Us. Both working Nashville musicians, both James and Maros have a number of projects; however, Tyler James is perhaps best known as a former member of Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros. Many of the songs Escondido features Jessica’s lead vocals with Tyler’s backing harmonies and procussion. As many of the Nashville bands we’ve talked about, Escondido contributes to a scene of musicians who feature well in certain genres of television, but never blow up in the way that bands like The Fray or Snow Patrol did. 


    THAT’S THE OLD ME TALKIN’. Yesterday I also posted a track that I first heard in NoiseTrade’s Holiday Road Trip 2012 and it got me curious about which tracks I could find that are actually on Spotify. I first heard COIN on the playlist, but their song “It’s Okay” isn’t on streaming platforms, so I’ll replace it with another one of their early tracks. Hope you enjoy this long-forgotten gem.


    Listen on Spotify.


     

  • “Far” by Canopy Climbers, Friday, January 8, 2021(partial repost)

    Back in college and a little after I used to get a bunch of free music from NoiseTrade. This song was on 2012 Holiday Road Trip Mix. In the mix there were artists from different states. None of the songs in the mix are tailored to a particular holiday, and I find that this song works just as well in the spring or fall as much as the winter. Canopy Climbers contributed to the mix with the song “Far” from their debut album, Distances. 

    THROUGH ALL THE NOISE AND THE LACK OF SILENCE. Canopy Climbers’ debut album Distances was released in 2011. Besides the NoiseTrade sampler 2012 Holiday Road Trip Mix, they were featured on JesusFreakHideout.com’s 2012 compilation Songs We’ve Been Trying to Tell You About (And Others We Haven’t), Volume 2.  The band’s most recent EP Fever was released in 2017. Today’s song, “Far,” is the band’s second most-streamed song. Like many NoiseTrade samplers I acquired in college, I didn’t take the time to look up the artists I didn’t know. However, 2012 Holiday Road Trip Mix was released my first holiday season in Korea. It was a hard time before I made friends and I felt that I was struggling as teacher. Somehow “Far,” in particular was a song that I imagined myself as the subject of a film montage. The sequence shows me walking home from school every day as the seasons change. I think that the reason for the sequence is to show me enjoying a moment of solitude after the chaos of teaching school—elementary at the time. It’s quite arrogant to think that my life is worthy of a movie, but I’m going to recount this montage. Maybe “Far” is a montage for you and your story is more interesting.

    IF HOME IS WHERE MY HEART IS SAFE, WHY DO YOU LEAD ME AWAY? I’m walking home from work under the shade of the ginkgo trees. First it’s spring. The warm sunlight filters through foliage on to the sidewalk and the air is fresh. Traffic is crazy around me. Next it’s later spring. I’m carrying my jacket in my hands. The light is stronger. Next it’s summer and I’m in a short sleeve shirt button shirt, clean. The next shot I’m covered in sweat because it’s bloody hot, even though it’s six in the evening. Next, the light begins to shift and weaken. Fall is coming. The ginkgoes start turning yellow and the awful smelling fruit begins to drop. I play a game to avoid stepping on them. I lift my dress shoes to see if I stepped on any. The leaves start to thin more and more. Soon the trees are bare. The song slows down. Snow begins to fall. I shiver in a thin coat. “Where you lead, I will go” comes in. I’m in a thicker coat more sure of myself. “Where you go, I will follow.” I’m looking at my phone and I slip on the ice. I catch my footing. A middle aged store owner is sweeping the sidewalk in front of his store. The snow starts piling up. —Yes, in Korea, they sweep snow away.  

    Read the lyrics on Genius.

  • "Trouble" by Coldplay, Thursday, October 26, 2023

    In 2018, I met a young man who claimed to like “Indie music. You know, like Coldplay and Imagine Dragons?” I hope I didn’t roll my eyes in the middle of the conversation because it was extremely hard to bite my tongue when he had just named two of the biggest bands in the world. The kid in his early twenties talking to me in my early thirties at the time did, however, remember a time when calling Coldplay indie was more accurate. My first exposure to Coldplay came in 2001 when they released their third single “Trouble” in America. Specifically, I remember watching the music video with my dad on MTV or MTV2. While “Yellow” may be the more remembered single from Coldplay’s early days, I only have recollection of hearing the song a while after hearing “Trouble.”
     

    THEY SPUN A WEB FOR ME. Coldplay formed in 1997 when the members attended University College London. After releasing two EPs and signing to Parlophone Records, the band released their debut album Parachutes in 2000 and had their first hit with the album’s lead single, “Shiver.” The album was released just as interest in the so-called genre of Brit-pop was fading out of favor, especially in America, yet experimental British bands like Radiohead and Muse were maintaining and even gaining popularity with music hipsters in America. However, a band’s UK citizenship wasn’t a guaranteed hit back around the turn of the millennium. Coldplay’s gradual increase in popularity in the first years of the twenty-first century was at a weird time in rock music, mainly because the band was a mellow rock band. The lachrymose piano on “Trouble” sounded so different from what anyone was doing in rock or pop music. The song was slow and dark, and the ballad’s lyrics expressed a subject of remorse that perhaps only an established act could pull off as a minor hit between upbeat bangers.

    AND THOUGHT OF ALL THE STUPID THINGS I’D SAID. Coldplay certainly didn’t stay in the land of dreary Indie Pop. “Trouble” didn’t chart on the Hot 100, but the more accessible “Yellow” peaked at #48. The band’s second album A Rush of Blood to the Head began to see more popularity and by the time Coldplay released X&Y they had become a household name. Moreover, other British bands started appearing, such as Keane, and the pop-rock band became a huge trend in the mid-’00s as bands like The Fray, Snow Patrol, and OneRepublic racked up hits partly due to the genre’s playability in Prime Time television dramas such as Grey’s Anatomy. All the while, the comparison between Coldplay and U2 grew. Songs like “Trouble” had musical complexity, a trait selected against the evolution of marketability. Still, for all of the hipsters out there who hate Coldplay, please remember that the opening track of the soundtrack that popularized The Shins, Garden State, is Coldplay’s “Don’t Panic.” So, is Coldplay an indie band? Definitely not now. But just like hipster college radio darlings R.E.M. and those listening to The Cure before they were on the radio, Coldplay followed the process of building their career from college radio to MTV and then to the pop charts. 




  • “Anything But Me” by MUNA, Wednesday, October 25, 2023


































    In 2020, MUNA was dropped by their label RCA for “not making enough money.” The queer-identifying trio had modest success with their first two records,  About U and Saves the World, but they would actually achieve a higher level of success on an indie label. The key to this renewed success was partnering with an indie rock darling who had come to be known as a “serial collaborator” due to appearing on a range of projects from Paul McCartney to Taylor Swift. Phoebe Bridgers signed MUNA to her label Saddest Factory and functioned as the trio’s A&R person. MUNA quickly expanded their listener base with the hit featuring Bridgers, “Silk Chiffon.” The song preceded  MUNA’s eponymous album by more than nine months and became the band’s most-streamed song. In March of 2022, MUNA released the second single from the album, “Anything But Me.”

    YOU’RE GONNA SAY I ASKED FOR THE MOON. While MUNA is certainly overshadowed by Phoebe Bridgers and her own trio, boygenius, touring with Bridgers helped MUNA gain recognition. The band opened for Kacey Musgraves on her star-crossed tour in 2021-2022 and opened for Lorde on the Australian leg of her Solar Power tour. The band recounts hearing the crowd sing along to “Silk Chiffon” on the star-crossed tour in a Rolling Stone article. The band performed their first set at Coachella and had an opening spot on maybe the biggest tour of all time, Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. Musically, though, MUNA has yet to match their biggest hit, the lead single from MUNA. “Silk Chiffon” fits the role of the positive song on an otherwise dark record. However, MUNA is far more positive than its predecessors. Today’s song, “Anything But Me,” isn’t about crippling depression like a similar track on Saves the World, “Stayaway.” Both songs are about a breakup, but “Anything But Me” feels like an amount of healthy processing has occurred. Whether the friendship stated in “Anything But Me” is genuine or not, the sentiment of wishing an ex the best feels sincere. 

    I’M GONNA CRY FOR THE LOVE WE COULDN’T KEEP. The music video for “Anything But Me” depicts the members of MUNA in various restraints in every scene. I personally find the video uncomfortable to watch, especially compared to the song’s bright ‘90s acoustic alternative rock tone. The imagery seems to be a clear representation of a suffocating relationship. When lead singer Katie Gavin sings the bridge: “I’d rather lose you than who I’m meant to be” the message of the song is cemented. No relationship is worth the cost of losing who you are. This painful clarity may take a lot of time, especially in queer relationships when friendship, sex, and love can be blurred. In MUNA Gavin has talked about being in a band with her ex both in interviews and in the closing track of Saves the World, “It’s Gonna Be Okay, Baby.” Gavin broke up with bandmate Naomi McPherson before signing with RCA Records. The tension in MUNA’s songwriting feels like it comes from a place of confusion of feelings, though perhaps not from the Gavin-McPherson relationship. We don’t know what this song is really about, but we do know that it’s about cutting out the toxicity in your life. After all, it’s not worth being strangled!


    Music video:



    Audio:

    Live on Ellen:

     

  • “The Bones” by Maren Morris, Tuesday, October 24, 2023

     

    Some of the best musicians work in Nashville. Country music is famous for some of the best musicianship, and whenever a rock band or pop act wants some of the cleanest tones, they’ll record in Nashville. There’s certainly a community in Nashville that seems to be extending far outside Country music, but at the core is an ill-defined genre that is more of an identity. Unpacking that identity in a post-George Floyd America, though, is tricky. There are at least two popular models Country music is taking: 1) protect the status quo and 2)inclusion and diversity. The first model is rarely overtly racist or trans/homophobic, but when an n-word slip up happens the status-quo warriors are quick to defend themselves with arguments “This is just the way we talk.” This is often met with pushback from the second camp.


    THE PAINT COULD PEEL; THE GLASS COULD SHATTER. Maren Morris is an artist firmly in the second camp. Much like pop stars Kacey Musgraves and early Taylor Swift, Morris has flirted with pop music ever since her Columbia Nashville debut record, Hero in 2016. In 2018, her biggest pop hit to date was a feature on the Zedd/Grey track “The Middle.” While the EDM hit wasn’t Country in the least, Morris as an artist continued to stay in the genre, recording music with the distinctive country twang. Besides singing rebel country music with confident, often feminist lyrics, Maren has used her platform to promote country artists of color. She is loved by a number of LGBTQ+ followers and is a lover of queer culture. Of course the status quo of Country clashes vocally or subtly with Morris. She was one of the few voices in the genre to call out singer Morgan Wallen when he used a racial slur in a leaked video in 2021. This immediately created backlash for the singer and even death threats online. Because of this backlash, Maren announced this fall that she would be leaving the genre. 

    THERE AIN’T A CRACK IN THE FOUNDATION. These days I’ve found myself in Spotify’s country playlists, and I’m not sure how much that will affect my future song selection. I’m not a big country music listener, much less a fan, but I have been gaining a greater appreciation for the broad, often ill-defined genre over the years. While Spotify’s playlists are not definitive of the genre nor what is actually popular in America’s heartland, the sounds are making me nostalgic for my youth, when I lived seemingly the biggest contradiction: a yankee boy growing up in the South. In a globalized America, though, it turns out that isn’t much of a contradiction at all. While the genre of Country is one of the biggest musical cliches, it’s the artists like Maren Harris that cause me to question that stereotype. Today’s song is a mixed metaphor about a house, a body, and a relationship. Harris assures the listener that “There ain’t no crack in the foundation,” I know she is not referring to the music industry she has made her home. She tried to reform it from within, but ultimately she had to give up. She explained to the New York Times’ Popcast Deluxe that she doesn’t plan to stop making music that sounds like it is Country, but rather to disassociate with the corporate structure of the industry. 


    Lyric video:

    with Hozier:

    Live:

  • “Cinema” by Harry Styles, Monday, October 23, 2023

     

    Harry Styles made his film debut in Christopher Nolan’s 2017 World War II film, Dunkirk. It was a small role as a soldier, but it wasn’t the last time Styles would touch the silver screen. Last year, Harry starred in two films, the romantic thriller Don’t Worry Darling and the gay romantic historical fiction My Policeman based on the novel by Bethan Roberts. In Don’t Worry Darling, Styles starred as a lead actor, his character Jack married to Florence Plough’s Alice. The film was directed by Olivia Wilde, who also appears as a main character, Bunny. The film reviewed poorly, with a 38% on Rotten Tomatoes.


    DARLING, IS IT COOL IF I’M STUBBORN WHEN IT COMES TO THIS? While the Austin Chronicle may have called Don’t Worry Darling “a swing and a miss,” the film generated a lot of media attention due to Shia LaBeouf’s firing from the role of Jack, for which Harry Styles took the role; alleged screaming matches director/actress Olivia Wilde and lead actress Florence Plough; and a relationship that developed between Wilde and Styles. Olivia is ten years older than Harry, and prior to beginning a relationship with Styles, Wilde had ended an engagement with comedian Jason Sudeikis. The Saturday Night Live alum infamously served Olivia Wilde custody papers in 2022 while she was on stage presenting Don’t Worry Darling at CinemaCon. At the time, Wilde and Styles were a hot item. Don’t Worry Darling was about to hit theaters and Harry Styles’ third record, Harry’s House was about to be released, all the while “As It Was” was becoming Harry Styles’ biggest song to date. 


    IF YOU’RE GETTING YOURSELF WET FOR ME. Harry Styles’ latest album, Harry’s House starts off light, airy, and sexy before getting downright melancholy. The pandemic and introspection seem to be part of the source of the darkness as it caused the singer to deal with issues of substances, loneliness, sex, and love. But the brightness of the album seems to come from a new relationship with actor/director Olivia Wilde. The distinctively uncolorful album cover for Harry’s House sets a tone for the seemingly bland album. While I don’t personally experience a level of synesthesia, I think of the beginning tracks “Music for a Sushi Restaurant” and “Late Night Talking” as white in tone, and “As It Was” as more of a light gray and “Matilda” as a darker gray. The album repeats these colors at the beginning and end, but in the middle, there are two bright songs: “Cinema” and “Daydreaming.” These disco-infused tracks are so different from the rest of the record and without the randomness in the opener “Music for a Sushi Restaurant,” the eighth and ninth tracks would feel completely out of place on the record. “Cinema” is clearly about Olivia Wilde and Styles’ new relationship. The subtle sexual innuendo is hidden under the smoothness of the music. Both tracks feel like a short burst of summer sunlight before the clouds come back on the rest of the album goes back to its overcast status quo.


    Lyric video:

    Live:


    Read the lyrics on Genius.


  • “Smells Like Me” by Charlie Puth, Sunday, October 22, 2023 + Heartbreak Playlist Apple Music Edition

     

    Every song on Charlie Puth’s third record, Charlie, deals with heartbreak and rejection. “Smells Like Me” is no exception. The idea of the song, Puth revealed on Twitter, that the song is “about when you think of the person you were with for so long having sex with someone new but with they’re wearing clothes that smell like you still while they….” It’s a song about passive aggressive revenge, a hope that even though the romance is over, the two are still biologically linked for a time. The speaker of the song hopes that the scent he left on his former lover distracts her, though she’s moved on. Rather than pontificate on this theme more, I’d like to introduce my Heartbreak Mix to Apple Music. These break up songs might hit just right during one of those wrong times. Cheer up!