The Music Dispatch: September 27, 2022
Inside: Tamino, Iceage, FLO, Björk, a Jose Mourinho sample, and singles that have yet to come out
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!
So we’re officially in fall season. I associate fall with new beginnings — sue Austria for starting the school year in September and October for school and college respectively — cold weather and the start of all the subways filling up with people that rush to their job or their first class. This could possibly be the one season I’ve never quite felt poetic about. It’s hard to whip out the words when nature does that for you anyway: an alley full of fallen leaves, a wind twirling the last remaining ones on the branches to a final dance… I can’t really care about cozyness and pumpkins with a sight like this. Maybe that’ll change, though. I basically only thought of summer as my favorite season at twenty. Who knows? Twenty more years to realize I can wax poetic about fall after all.
EPs and Albums
Tamino — Sahar
An album of memory and trying to find peace, Tamino creates a whole world unto his own, dreamy and inviting to find a moment of stillness with him. The ending is akin to the eye of a storm. A wonderful record.
Magdalena Bay — Mercurial World Deluxe
Fanservice. The new tracks haven’t grabbed me much, the old ones felt like a mixed bag with their natural transitions disrupted. That being said, the interludes — secrets — scratched the chismosavirus itch.
Iceage — Shake the Feeling: Outtakes & Rarities 2015-2021
Alex Turner is right. Rock and roll isn’t dead. It’s alive and well in Denmark. Plays like a greatest hits.
Father John Misty — Live at Electric Lady
The already great, jazzy album is a perfect fit to the orchestral, live arrangements. Joshua Tillman is an excellent vocalist, and the Stevie Wonder cover that bookends this set makes for a lovely, lovely finish.
Singles
Next week is the formal release of Arctic Monkeys’ Body Paint, but I listened to the raw recording of the New York performance. Excellent, excellent song, a very… devastating-finale-to-a-great-episode-smash-cut-to-black-credits type of tune. That outro is stunning. Can’t wait to hear the studio take of it.
Death From Above 1979 — Don’t Stop Believin’
An alright cover that came out last year now emerged on streaming. It reminded me of how great and kinetic Is 4 Lovers was.
FLO — Not My Job
This new single is an excellent pop song! It personally really reminded me of the Turkish songs I grew up with (notably Grup Hepsi who are, in turn, a product of 90s rnb groups and 00s UK girl groups).
ITZY — Blah Blah Blah
ITZY’s most robust single to date, their upcoming full length Japanese record is looking good. You said Voltage was mindnumbingly ITZY! Everything is better in an album context, especially the cookie-cutter, sounds-like-everything-else stuff.
Stormzy — Mel Made Me Do It
Nothing justifies a lead single of seven minutes runtime, not even UK rap royalty. It’s good but the only variety offered throughout is the Jose Mourinho clip that was honestly hilarious to listen to.
Björk — Ancestress
Björk’s eulogy to her mother, featuring harmonies of her son throughout, is a stunning piece of art pop that recalls the forest sounds of Julia Holter’s Aviary.
Poppy — FYB
The great hook to Poppy’s upcoming EP Stagger sounds like an album introduction, what with the lean verse and chorus leading up to a short bridge. In 1:45 minutes, Poppy packs a strong punch and then some.
GloRilla — Tomorrow 2 (with Cardi B)
Both GloRilla and Cardi sound great on this trap offering, menacing and shit-talking. I hope GloRilla blows up some more, there’s always room for another female talent!
Lil Nas X — STAR WALKIN’
I feel like all there is about to this single is that towering chorus. I read someone say it is like Post Malone and it’s true: the verses are Post Malone all the way. Anyways, congratulations on Lil Nas X for a song that goes over three minutes… for League of Legends. Well then. Synths are always welcome around here.
I missed the original anniversary, even though I did promise I’d make a mention before writing the post… until it was time to write the post, and in classic me fashion, I forgot about it. But hey! Last year on September 11, I wrote my first Music Dispatch. That day, I remember I wasn’t thinking about anything too hard. Nowadays, I’ll write my posts on Monday just to make sure I won’t repeat myself when it comes out Tuesday! I’d have never guessed that people read these posts and listen to the stuff based off of it, but you (you reading this right now) do, and that makes me so happy. Thank you guys so much for sticking around — here is to many many more years, hopefully.