The Music Dispatch: May 9th, 2023
Inside: Shygirl, The National, Florence + the Machine, Le Sserafim, AO3-esque music, and sleepy songs
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 am pleased to announce that I have officially started working on the NCT 127 Potpourri! It’ll have four parts; from July 7th, 2023 on, we’ll cover the music videos, B-sides, and solo highlights of this group. My research for it is serious. It is rigorous. I have seen the Neo Culture Technology keynote for it and it was horrifying. I never realized EDM could be legitimately used as horror soundtrack, but the things I have seen…
This week, as promised, we’re catching up — using the format from March!
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Shygirl — Nymph_o
Shygirl is a singular talent with immensely great connections and inspiration points, and on the deluxe edition of Nymph, titled Nymph_o, she brings many of them together. Right off the bat, she links up with thee Fatima Al Qadiri — get on Woman now if you haven’t, great release — with a rework of Heaven titled Angel, adding darbouka to the mix to great effect. Elsewhere, Tinashe, Björk (singing “bitches”, mind you!), Erika de Casier, and Eartheater join Shygirl as a reimagining of many of the tracks on the original Nymph, or plain new ones (like Crush). There’s also Positions / Playboy on here, a languid, sexy track that pushes Shygirl into an exciting new direction musically. So does most of the release, actually — away from pop and towards more experimental, purely electronic sounds, sort of the same idea as Yaeji did with With A Hammer, albeit more consistently so. Shygirl does what she likes, and frequently sounds incredible at it. But abrasive suits her best, why lie.
Model/Actriz — Dogsbody
The debut album from Brookyln outfit Model/Actriz wastes just about no time: not with the drumming, not with the deep, electrifying bass, and not with the gayness: “All night, me and my device,” vocalist Cole Haden gasps in the climax of opener Donkey Show, a song so desperate and sexy that Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails Closer fame would approvingly nod. The energy, the sexuality, and its depravity are core themes of the record, so intense in its energy that it feels like auditory adrenaline pumping straight into your veins. Rarely has a rock record sounded so exciting right off the bat. In their Bandcamp description, the band describes the album as this twilight between dusk and dawn. (Time of dogs and wolves!) But to me, it sounds more like a party record, very much putting the dance in dance punk. In either case, I’m obsessed. The gays will give it to you every time!
Sabrina Bellaouel — Al Hadr
French-Algerian electronic singer and producer Sabrina Bellaouel is billed in her Spotify profile as someone doing experimental R&B “like Kelela”, but I wonder if that isn’t a disservice to both of them. Sophomore record Al Hadr certainly deploys skittering beats with Bellaouel’s floating, airy voice on top, and Eclipse’s claps and rolling percussion certainly feels Kelela-esque; while Trust sounds like a Kehlani tune on speed. But there’s also a full-out acoustic guitar ballad — the highlight Clémence — a spoken word interlude about how compare rhymes with despair and a centering on spirituality through faith (A-L-L-A-H, as it’s said on interlude Kesh) and a free-flowing mix of French, English, and Arabic throughout the record. Bellaouel sounds confident, transcendent through a lot of it. Also, Bellaouel’s mix of genres is a tad more jarring (compared to Kelela, or even someone like Sevdaliza). Not a problem, though, as the R&B, electronic, and pop mix makes for an immensely satisfying journey: one of love and light and a search to transcendence, just the way that Bellaouel faces towards the sun on the album cover.
It's good!
Joe Hisashi — Studio Ghibli Official B-Sides and Rarities Album
Joe Hisashi’s work for Ghibli is like the Nintendo of music: homely, bittersweet, instantly nostalgic. This album collects a variety of karaoke tracks and some instrumentals. I enjoyed it!
Sunny War — Anarchist Gospel
The sophomore record of this artist blends country, blues, and even punk into the mix. Assisted by Gilian Welch’s partner David Rawlings on several occasions, it makes for a lovely, engaging and very charming listen. It’s good!
MC Yallah — Yallah Beibe
MC Yallah is an Ugandan rapper, and on her new album Yallah Beibe, she raps in three languages, often assisted with some of the creepiest beats you’ll come across this year. It’s a confident release, and completely assured in its idea that not a single second is wasted on its breezy 32-minute runtime. Yallah Beibe is right. It’s good!
redveil — playing w/ fire
redveil is only 19 or something and sounds like Denzel Curry — same energy, same vibe, shouting and rapping at once with gusto. May he have a career as good and flourishing as Denzel’s. playing w/ fire is good! The collab black enuff with JPEGMAFIA is really good.
aespa — Welcome To My World (feat. naevis)
Full review out on Friday, so let me save my breath, but this remains as one of the highlights off their third EP, MY WORLD. It’s good!
This is fine
Le Sserafim — UNFORGIVEN
I wasn’t certain whether to put this in the “It’s a no” category or the “It’s fine” category. But the clubby Eve, Psyche, and the Bluebeard’s Wife is fantastic, and sounding like Twice at times isn’t bad per se. That being said… Unforgiven (”featuring” Nile Rodgers) is bad. When the best part of the song is the tedious “Unforgiven, I’m a villain, Ima” then… you’re not in for a good time. The Enrio Morricone sample is poorly used, too. The real problem, though, is that this is the third single and I can’t suss out a sonic/aesthetic identity for Le Sserafim at all. First, with Fearless, it was athleisure girls with an athletic, muscular song. Last time, ANTIFRAGILE, was noisy, too, but not Western; the world ended, but they were uncaring about it. Now they’re fallen angels??? And having an album with not one but three intros doesn’t help the case of establishing just what you’re on about. (Of these, Burning the Bridge — the new one — is quickly becoming my favorite.) I wouldn’t mention this if it weren’t for the fact that all of the other groups their generation has figured it out (even aespa packaged their normal-sounding songs on the album literally titled MYWORLD, MY like their fans!) and because they’re backed by mega-label HYBE, Big 4 less by changing the game artistically and more like bludgeoning their way to several acquisitions. It’s fine, though.
Slowthai — UGLY
Occasionally great in its punk influences and genre exercises, otherwise tedious new album by British punk-rapper Slowthai. It’s fine.
Florence + the Machine — Mermaids
This is like INDUSTRY BABY slowed down somewhat, paired with great songwriting but unfortunately just drones on with a melody that doesn’t really go places. You can’t expect Florence to carry the machine. It’s fine, though.
Fenne Lily — Big Picture
Fenne Lily’s newest is muted, but its biggest problem is that it kind of sounds like a dazed Lucy Dacus-esque in its second half, and veers from muted to bored. It’s fine.
It's a no from me
Daisy Jones & The Six — Aurora
Yes, yes, Archiveofourown has great material, almost as good as professional novels, yada yada yada, I’m not getting into that today. In my view, as a baseline, fanfics are inferior to actual original stories. As Daisy Jones & The Six is Rumours fanfiction for girls who haven’t heard Fleetwood Mac’s landmark album, the album is equally fanfic-y with few good ideas on its own. It’s a vibe, yes, and The River is fun in a The Chain way, but this is just nowhere near Rumors, and that makes it hard to believe Aurora would smash charts anywhere, even fictionally. That last song about writer’s block is so bad. Get back to the drawing board and stop wasting my time.
The National — First Two Pages of Frankenstein
You know, the first two pages of Frankenstein, they’re passing through Vienna and make some dumb remark about them Ottomans. Never really liked that novel; I do like Lucy Westenra though, especially when she turns to a vampire (slay!!!). The National’s newest record of the same title is quite bleary in the first half, kind of like Imagine Dragons with a midlife crisis. It is, however, decent in the second as the electronics come in, and the Taylor Swift-assisted The Alcott is great. I say this as a girl who just doesn’t understand The National at their best (yet): I did think this was a step down from I Am Easy To Find overall.
Beach House — Become EP
It’s unfair putting a Record Store Day EP made up of Once Twice Melody outtakes into this category, I know. But wow, this is sleepy as hell. Like pretty much the Thank Your Lucky Stars to Once Twice Melody. Black Magic is good though, all dark and evocative.
Here are the tunes to listen to for this week: