The Music Dispatch: January 24th, 2023
Inside: Ice Spice, boygenius, Fall Out Boy, Kelela, Arlo Parks, bad bitches at home, and a Working-for-the-Knife moment
Welcome to The Music Dispatch! This is a weekly part of this Substack where I shortly review every new(-ish) release I listened to. Out every Tuesday. All mentioned songs are available on your streaming platform of choice unless stated otherwise. Is there an album you want to recommend me? @ me on Twitter or head on over to the Retrospring!
I read this book a couple years ago called Honey Girl. The synopsis of the book (and my thoughts on it) is not useful or relevant to this intro -- it's the fact that early in the novel, the protagonist visits a tea shop and music is playing. The music in question? Monsta X. Monsta X is a Korean pop boyband that is known for aggressive music. That is not music I traditionally associate with drinking tea and having a calming time, and they are not a group I hear in boba stores I go to here -- Zico, I've heard, but less Bermuda Triangle and more I Am You You Are Me. Prior delving into Monsta X's catalogue, I couldn't have told you a single teashop song from them. Now that I did, I guess the song is Roller Coaster? A B-side to a years-old release, lol. It's also funny because in the acknowledgements, the author thanks a certain "KNJ" - meant here, of course, is Kim Namjoon, the leader of BTS who goes by RM. Now BTS have done coffeeshop music before, excellently too, and it's not too unknown. But hey, free publicity is free publicity! I'm just imagining my tea shaking like that one Kaguya gif... listening to Alli-alli-alli-gator while having my chai latte with my bros...
There were a lot of singles out this week, and I think because of that, its time to introduce a new bit to the Dispatch - releases marked with a ☆ is now a shorthand to what I'd usually write as "If you got [minutes] to spare, listen to this one." I hope that way, the amount of releases covered don't overwhelm you!
Ice Spice - Like...?
The sole EP of this Dispatch. Ice Spice makes something of a victory lap with her previous three singles and three new songs. Of these, I like the guitar and the crunchy beat that underpins the beat of Gangsta Boo, a duet with Lil Tjay who matches her pretty well. I think the biggest strength of the EP is also its biggest detractor - this is a thirteen minute tour-de-force of Ice Spice, who has a very set delivery right now, with beats that usually do similar things and melt into one another. I understand that this is a victory lap, though, and all songs are catchy one way or another. At some point, I'd like to hear a curveball from her.
Singles
The Boyz - Here Is
The Boyz voice acted in an anime where, I'm told, no subtitles are out. Not even the fujoshis seem to want to touch this one (for now). For this anime, three songs have been recorded and released last week. Here Is, the first track, is a ballad that non-fans will have trouble caring about, but I enjoy the chorus a lot. Great singing, though, especially from leader Sangyeon. Talk About Us is anime ending fare, or K-Pop bside filler, fluffy music that I'd be hard-pressed to loop. Take Me Back, though. What is that EDM banger doing in the middle of these songs? The Boyz have toyed with Monsta X-esque fare before (three times, in fact), but this could be the best one of them. The vocal melody is very strong here, and the chorus feels full and longing in a way that a lot of noise tracks in K-Pop eschew for no discernible reason. The production is really cool - I like these whiny sirens going off in the prechorus, and horns are always welcome. The rap in the second verse by Sunwoo is always welcome, and again, Hyunjae is on his A-game on his track. He lends it a necessary dramatic gravitas and gets an insanely cool crooning moment at the end. Sangyeon and New are also ever-reliable here, the former sweeping, the latter fragile and soaring in their singing. The next time you'll hear of The Boyz, it'll be alongside Kelela again - their release is slated for February 20. Oh, speaking of...
☆ Kelela - Contact
Kelela's Raven is already a top contender for AOTY 2023, and Contact is one more single to confirm the fact. This is dance music for the night, the synth pads like a ride home, the breakbeat urging you to dance on wherever you are. It's unhurried both in production and melody - four minutes runtime, in this economy! - and Kelela sounds excellent on it. We've heard takes of this sound a couple times before (and you will hear it again below), but Kelela's touch on it is decidedly calmer than, say, Wonho's On & On and less drenched in melancholy than MorMor's earlier stuff. Why rush anything when slow and steady wins the race? The lo-fi production of the music video, in which Kelela dances and gets ready by herself in a hotel, really visualizes how the song feels in the best way. And the fact that the song speeds up at the end? Raven cannot come sooner!
Arlo Parks - Weightless
British singer-songwriter Arlo Parks only released one single last year, Softly, but the single this year, Weightless, heralds the announcement of sophomore record My Soft Machine, out May 26. This song here is a brighter, stronger take on the sound palette that Parks established on her debut Collapsed in Sunbeams, and the production in the back is a busy one, be it the steady percussion, the synth in the chorus, and the flourishes of piano in the pre-chorus. It's a song to vibe to (without it fading to the background!), and the rap bit in the bridge is especially inspired. May 26 means we will hear from Arlo Parks a lot in the coming weeks and months, and for a lead sngle, this definitely got my attention!
Yaeji - For Granted
Yaeji is back, and she brings with her the announcement of debut album With Her Hammer out April 7! My favorite qualities of Yaeji don't necessarily translate to pop success - there's something about her disaffected tone, the chlidlike timbre of her voice, and, of course, the excellent beats picked that stretch and elongate like slime. The lead single of her debut, For Granted, is decidedly more pop than previous songs of hers though, more "open", if you will. The when I think about iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit that opens the verses is deceptively catchy. And in the end, the song devolves to a breakbeat explosion that puts her firmly in line with numerous visionaries - chief of which, of course, is PinkPantheress - that made me think on a first listen that maybe Yaeji just goes mainstream? Like Shygirl's NYMPH last year. But it's a good song regardless and this is just a first taste, and Yaeji has not once missed. I'm excited to hear more!
☆ Fall Out Boy - Love From The Other Side
Fall Out Boy, one of the biggest names of the mainstream emo era, have had interesting detours to synth-pop and straightforward arena rock (and even EDM with My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light 'Em Up)!) in the years since. The coming lead single to eighth record So Much (for) Stardust, Love From The Other Side, is classic emo pop music though, a sound that has recently become popular again. This take, though, is unlike the amateurish Tiktok stuff that has been bubbling under - the strings at the start already declare that this is serious business, and my goodness, Patrick Stump's voice is still one of the most stunning vocals of the genre - a strong emoter and the runs are really good too. The track sounds like it could come from 2005. What it reminded me of most strongly was Turkish rock band maNga's stunning opus Dursun Zaman, especially with the strings guiding so much of Love From The Other Side's intro and chorus. This rocks (literally and metaphorically). The sound I've been craving to hear!
The National - Tropic Morning News
As I understand it, The National fans did not like their band's overt turn to synthpop music with this lead single to their tenth record, The First Two Pages of Frankenstein. I take it that this is their Working for the Knife moment. Me, though, I love this one. It sounds adjacent to the crying-in-the-club genre; I've always thought synthpop makes for amazing emotional music, and it seems I got the entire band on my side in this idea. It's thoughtful, engaging, and doesn't bore despite the runtime. Tropic Morning News comes with a Taylor Swift and not one, but two Phoebe Bridgers features. Hopefully they also get the synth treatment. We'll see!
Wednesday - Chosen To Deserve
A tedious country-pop song that goes on for much too long and doesn't introduce anything interesting. This is single two to upcoming album Rat Saw God out April 7, and the first single, Bull Believer - that's the one I hope the album orients towards. That one's actually great. Had I heard it last year, it would have been on my SOTY list.
boygenius - the record (not the album, but three pre-release singles)
Thinkpieces will be written about this album. The reason for that isn't necessarily the music - we will get to this - but because since the origination of the supergroup, the three ladies of boygenius are all at very different endpoints in their career, and Phoebe Bridgers in particular is hovering just around the mainstream, all but poised to enter the charts sooner rather than later. Isn't that crazy? I think the more crazy bit is how much they've diverged musically since boygenius EP. You can hear this very well with these singles in a way you couldn't quite in the first EP? $20 sounds like it was the best song to be cut out from Julien Baker's third record Little Oblivions, an album that had her turn to a band, and this cut continues her streak towards a comfortable middle between Americana and full-blown rock. True Blue, Lucy Dacus's track, is rock in a subtle way, and on a first listen registers more closely to capital-A alternative pop. Phoebe's track Emily I'm Sorry, well, is Phoebe Bridgers. There's reasons why she's been asked as feature just about everywhere; she doesn't have to do anything wild unlike her stellar album Punisher. I understand people rather like boygenius, but none of these tracks sound like they particularly needed the other two (hell, they even guested on one another's albums, doing the same vocal harmonies on there and where Lucy Dacus, the only one who sounds remotely different from Baker and Bridgers, harmonizes the best), or even do things that we haven't heard before from their respective solos. Like, be less you and more boygenius. The songs are really good regardless of my nitpicking, though. Stunning lyricism, incredible moods evocated here, on all three songs. I'm simply hoping that we will get more exciting things with, um, the record. Like, give me the Ketchum, ID, please.
($20 > True Blue > Emily I'm Sorry)
Caroline Polachek - Welcome To My Island (Charli XCX & George Daniel remix)
In which Charli "Why am I seen as hyperpop?" XCX does a hyperpop take of Welcome to My Island. The results are predictably Charli, which is to say good, but it does make me laugh that she's acting like she has no idea what hyperpop entails. George Daniel, a 1975 member I hadn't heard of until he started dating Charli, makes for a very good second coming of A.G Cook.
A$AP Rocky - Same Problems?
Ten years ago, A$AP Rocky's fucking problem were bad bitches and being the prettiest motherfucker around. Since then, he lost a close friend, starred in a movie, but most crucially to Same Problems? is that he has a child of and is married to arguably the baddest bitch around, Rihanna. Like ten years ago, A$AP Rocky dons the flag of the United States around him in the cover of this single Same Problems, less a flag and more a blanket now; unlike ten years ago, the problems are now... well, the same ones we're having, I guess. We lost a party rocker in the house! Rocky is not a particularly great crooner. There's an interesting synth backing here that I enjoy, but Rocky sings on it with a kind of bleariness that doesn't elevate the song. Maybe this one will make sense in an album context, but otherwise, you're not missing out if you haven't heard it. But there's a "Tyler Okonma" writing credit here that has me wonder if they made up for good now. Like, can I add WANG$AP to my anticipated albums list?
Dreamer Isioma - Fuck Tha World
Following last year's Goodnight Dreamer, Dreamer Isioma returns with a new single named Fuck Tha World that is stronger in the guitar-sprinkled verses than it is in the rather vibey chorus. The whole song is drenched in this surf rock vibe that sounds like the auditory equivalent of a lava lamp. Isioma's vocals are engaging regardless, though, and I really like the rap cadence they take on. I'm not sure if this one comes with an album announcement, but more of this vein wouldn't bother me.
Twice - Moonlight Sunrise
There's discussions on Twitter right now that this pre-release single to an upcoming release takes "word for word, bar for bar" from Megan thee Stallion and Dua Lipa's Sweetest Pie. Of course, this isn't happening. (Even if it was, what a poor song to steal from, Sweetest Pie is a low point for both credited artists). Both take from the same genre though - Atlanta Bass, itself a softer variant of Miami Bass. Atlanta Bass is characterized by a bouncy beat, twinkling synth and strong 808s. Fairly easy to spot when you've heard one track of it. (Here is a playlist where I'm sure you've heard some tracks of it before) (And here is a Youtube video where you can hear some older tracks off the genre if you don't have Spotify). This is the problem with the genre - it's a pretty calcified one, and pretty hard to elevate it to something above "pleasant". And "pleasant" is the only thing that is happening on Moonlight Sunrise. On a first listen, it's practically Twice at half energy, half-asleep between their TT and Knock Knock eras. It worms itself into your head from the second listen on, but I doubt any Twice fan would put this one into their top 10.
Here are the tunes to listen to for this week:
As I've vaguely tried to allude to with the introduction, I'm working on a Monsta X Potpourri - it will come in likely three parts? At least two. One of the whole group, the other of Wonho. I'm doing my second relisten right now, finalizing the tracks I want to highlight per release; I've gotten to Take 2. We Are Here so that means it's sort of halfway through with preparations. Keep your eyes peeled for that one!
Every Music Dispatch of 2023 I will post about a Turkish vocalist I like until I forget about it. This week: the excellent Mirkelam!