The Music Dispatch: October 10, 2021
Inside: aespa, Magdalena Bay, good music, great music for annoying people, and Ex-UNIQ-and-X1-now-solo-artist WOODZ
Welcome to The Music Dispatch! This is a weekly part of this Substack where I shortly review every new(-ish) release I listened to this week. Out every Saturday, or whenever I listened to everything I wanted to.
Usually I get to listen to all these on Friday, but this week's roundup was pretty evenly loaded in terms of days, with aespa kicking things off on Monday and Nilipek bookending things on a Friday for me. I decided to sort the reviews based on how much I'd write about them, so the heavier ones are near the end this time around.
All mentioned songs are available on your streaming platform of choice unless stated otherwise.
EPs and Albums
Congratulations to the hottest ex-GOT7 member and best vocalist Youngjae for debuting solo and not turning to acting or, God forbid, OST work, but I haven't listened to the EP in full yet. I did enjoy title track Vibin though!
Ada Lea - one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden
I like it when singer-songwriter do their thing (aka whisper register vocals) right. Ada Lea gets it consistently right and there's a point in this record, I think it's either writer in ny or violence, where she almost taps into Lorde territory. These songs are frequently understated but I really enjoyed the confessional yet cool tone of the lyrics. And given that Lorde herself has not managed to step into Lorde territory this year, I'm glad somebody can do it.
Illuminati Hotties - Let me do one more
You have an artist name like that and open the album with two absolute bangers, but then you choose to make folk/indie songs afterward? I am used of this from Kpop groups, even your so-called performance groups, where they'll do bangers and then decide to add boring, bland ballads to the release. From actual indie artists, though? Ehh.
James Blake - Friends That Break Your Heart
My problem is, I've never heard his debut, which is pretty lauded. I joined the James Blake release train sometime with Assume Form, which had a lot of great names featured on it but wasn't really great. But then he released Before during the pandemic last year and it was just perfect. The house feel with his vocals made for a killer release. Well... Friends That Break Your Hearts is a step back comparatively speaking. It's neo soul with electronic flourishes and Blake's vocals just make the majority of this record pretty boring. How do I know that? The moment SZA sings my ears perked up like a dog's and the mental image of Adele on most of these vocals made for a far more interesting thought experiment than this release.
WOODZ - Only Lovers Left
This is my first time with Ex-UNIQ-and-X1-now-solo-artist WOODZ. Don't let the cover fool you, this is definitely more of an end-of-summer release than anything the cover image suggests. On the tracklist, single WAITING sits at the very bottom of a release usually treading on tropical pop and light melodies, with WAITING the only one employing a guitar, and WOODZ expertly weaves a progression here from song to song that I really, really enjoyed that made the single a fantastic finish as well. It's a really good release! Chaser is the best one, but really there's no bad song on here.
Magdalena Bay - Mercurial World
LA duo Magdalena Bay make 10/10 debuts look easy. If you like Purity Ring, you will adore this one. If you like Grimes, you will adore Micah Tenenbaum's airy vocals here as well. The transitions here are especially stunning, and the whole album has an ethereal vibe to it that occasionally drifts off to the sad, like the best of shoegaze (Chaeri is one such example), or the nostalgic, like the best of synth pop (Dreamcatching). And the end is the beginning and the beginning is The End. There's levels to this release! This is amazing pop music. Get on it.
aespa - Savage
Off the heels of Next Level, which took me a lot of time to get around to (including a video of a woman reenacting a what if of Blackpink doing that song), aespa made my entire timeline excited with the release of Savage. It's not hard to get why: it does predictable SM things, threw me back with Shinee World (Doo-Wop) with aenergy, has several songs that sound like they came out of either the Red Velvet (I'll Make You Cry, even ICONIC) or f(x) sometime 4 Walls-era vault (YEPPI YEPPI). Savage is SM's best shot at PC Music yet, with an immaculate mechanic beat at the verses and a killer prechorus from this generation's Taeyeon and Jessica (Winter and Ningning), and the funniest Yoo Youngjin bridge I've ever heard (My Naevis, we luh you....). I mean, obviously that's a group to look out for; SM groups tend to be. For my part, I'm happy that this group has their identity and sound now in a way that is well-produced and good. I've been itching for a more electronic girlgroup from Kpop; not these empty choruses, but actual electronics. PCs!!! And aespa got it. My aespa, we luh you...
Singles
Kylie Minogue - A Second To Midnight feat. Years & Years
The start reminded me of t-ara N4's Jeon Won Diary. Then I wished the song just straight up was Jeon Won Diary. It's not interesting to me, but then a lot of disco of these days doesn't tend to be.
Dua Saleh - fav flav (feat. Duckworth)
The newest single from Twin Cities artist Dua Saleh is very sleek, very poppy, pairing them off perfectly with fellow rapper Duckwrth. The flute (could it possibly be a ney, in fact?) in the chorus is a delightful touch. This is a lot of fun. It's a perfect nighttime club single.
Wye Oak - Electricity & Half A Double Man
For the tenth anniversary of their third album Civilian, which I greatly enjoy, Wye Oak dig into the archives, the full release slated for two weeks. Half A Double Man is a country-esque rock song that has a repeating, rolling beat behind that made me think on first listen that it was like 75% of a song. Electricity's beat is far more thunderous, with more interesting lyrics and a constantly repeating vocal melody until a stunning instrumental section takes over the middle that encapsulates so much of what I like about Civilian: the civil and the loud, the quiet and the rocking parts.
Nilipek - Bir Gün Arzularsan Gel
Izmir-by-Istanbul's very own whisper register legend Nilipek's newest single since double album Mektuplar has her vocals so quiet that I legitimately did not understand a single word she was saying on loudspeakers the first time I heard it. On my headphones, this is a wonderful song. It's beautifully melancholy, the violins and surf guitars beautifully building here. And, of course, Nilipek's clear, beautiful vocals bookending with the drum swelling behind her are a wonderful touch. I love melancholy rock that sounds good when I listen to it.
Mitski - Working for the Knife
Mitski's newest is, lyrically, doing very Mitski things, which is cold, detached and full of pain, (I'm the forest fire and I'm the fire and I'm the forest and I'm the witness watching it), and with that beautiful vocal of hers it usually makes for a harrowing listen. Musically, though? There's this random piano appearing at 0:23 that runs counter to every single other thing happening there. It's, like, NCT's Sticker for annoying people (This marks the third time I mention this song. I don't get paid by SM!) It's very guitar-driven song otherwise, kind of rootsy, and there's no real chorus here, and I hope this makes more sense in an album context. The first listen was extremely disconcerting. The piano sucks on a fourth listen, but I get it at least now. I was so ready to say I didn't like it, but, like, c'mon, I'm her target audience. There was no way I wouldn't.
Yüzyüzeyken Konuşuruz - Sen Varsın Diye
I recently heard this song on radio, but I forgot to write about it here. I hope this means the fourth album is finally coming, though! Sen Varsın Diye brings back the guitars from their earlier albums, but hidden in the postchorus I can hear the synths that drove so much of Akustik Travma. It's also as pop as Dinle Beni Bi and Boş Gemiler, which means that chorus is sticky in all the right ways. I adore Kaan Boşnak's vocals in general and lyricism, his blunt manner of writing, his slightly melancholy, Arabesk way of singing, so this is just great all around. I really, really adore this one.
Maybe there’s something in there that you’ll like! Or maybe there’s something you like that you want me to listen to, in which case, let me know over at Twitter @nymphspond, or, if you want something totally anonymous, you can try the Curiouscat!