The Music Dispatch: June 28th, 2022
Inside: Nayeon, fromis_9, Soccer Mommy, a Lana del Rey cover, Willow, not being out of the woods, and more Panini than Industry Baby
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.
First off: genres are fake and often only invented for racist reasons: recall how the Beatles only became pop because they were white, even though they liberally jacked off every single thing of the rnb genre; Lil Nas X didn’t count as country although he did everything country for Old Town Road, the list goes on. That being said, though, once the parameters are set into place, there’s people of all races and genders more than willing to play within its confines, find out something new. So with that in mind: there is just something truly liberatory about pop music, good pop music. It’s a genre so uplifting, so plastic, that it gives the perfect space to be who you are with your ugly feelings and discard all of it. It’s a genre that is everywhere and therefore lets you connect with everyone present. And more importantly — pop is anything you want it to be. This is pop. This is pop. This is pop. All of it is excellent and transports us to a time and space where there’s only emotion and no world, no other people but bodies. (Emotion, of course, is the one album that confirmed to critics what a lot of us have thought all along). I think this is why it’s so beloved by queer people everywhere. In either case, this is why I can never imagine not being into pop. (And well, at the time, this must’ve been what we call a banger today, no? Please just imagine those white people wigs flying off as they headbang to it at the time.)
EPs and Albums
Nayeon — Im Nayeon This solo debut totally delivered expectations! POP is the big number that misses one bridge to truly be an all-time best, but the rest of the EP doesn’t slack off either. All songs are great, but my personal favorites would be midtempo e-one produced Happy Birthday To You and the poppy Candyfloss, but overall it’s a very strong release by somebody who was long due a solo release.
fromis_9 — From Our Memento Box This is an all killer, no filler summer pop greatness. Every b-side is better than the single Stay This Way, but Rewind especially, which recalls at the start to SF9’s best single Now or Never and never stops the house-influenced vibe. Another big favorite is Blind Letter, which is one of the better takes of K-Pop on the punk rock/emo genre yet.
MUNA — MUNA The first four tracks are so good, really consistent; I am befuddled as to why we have these acoustic guitar tracks, as they totally detract from the experience. But the first four tracks are really good, as someone who hasn’t connected with anything MUNA since So Special.
Soccer Mommy — Sometimes, Forever An immense album experience that discusses fame and the lingering aftereffects of all sorts of emotion; this builds upon the Soccer Mommy identity and there’s shots of Portishead and OPN brilliance here that are really welcome. I wish they were more consistent than just the flashes we got.
Conan Gray — Superache Why are Telepath and Overdrive not on this? Why is Taylor your mother but you don’t get why she’s mother? Cute effort, lyrics are good, but please be serious.
Empress Of — Save Me Short and sweet and really good. If you need something to scratch the house itch, this will do just fine.
Singles
Lana Del Rey — Buddy’s Rendezvous Lana sounds absolutely stunning on this track, perhaps better than the original person that sung it, Father John Misty — this is more her wheelhouse than it is his, and I’m really curious what a) he would sound like on one of her songs (I’m thinking The greatest), and b) she would sound like on one of his compositions.
Lil Nas X & Youngboy Never Broke Again — Late To Da Party a.k.a the “Fuck B E T” track, it’s more hip hop than rock, but as we know Lil Nas X is good at both and this is good. However it’s more, well, Panini than the great Industry Baby, if that makes sense.
Taylor Swift — Carolina This is the woman that asked if we’re out of the woods yet? Clearly she’s happy in there! Fantastic track by the way.
aespa — Life’s Too Short A K-Pop b-side that was premiered at Coachella before and is still, well, only cute. The rollout hasn’t grabbed me at all. Where’s my big abrasive PC pop music?
Charlie Puth & Jungkook — Left and Right The thing about a lot of American pop singles is in the K-Pop realm, they’re b-sides. This is a perfect example of what I’m talking about featuring the progenitor of the anti-drop genre in K-Pop and somebody who clearly learned at the feet of Puth’s vocals.
Lolo Zouaï — Blur It’s a cute rnb-pop track! Really curious about this album.
Willow — <maybe> it’s my fault This is more rock than pop — much heavier than anything from lately i feel EVERYTHING, too. The chorus reminded me of Billlie’s Ring x Ring, which was the best part of Ring x Ring. Really good track.
Last week, I mentioned five albums I liked thus far. This week, let’s highlight five singles I’ve looped a lot so far this year:
Beyoncé — Break My Soul: You already know.
IVE — LOVE DIVE: The K-Pop song to beat.
fka twigs — Honda: I could’ve picked any song off this release really, but Honda’s the one I grew fond of the quickest. Papi Bones is the obvious #2.
Charli XCX — Yuck: The single that got away from Crash.
The Weeknd — Sacrifice: Sleek and chic, this is one of the best The Weeknd singles yet — with serious competition from within the album, namely Out of Time, with a pitch perfect chorus to sing out loud.
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