Play/Listed Weekly for Sept 18th, 2020

I am so excited about this week’s new music, I can barely get through the housekeeping stuff!

As you may already know, I’ve been compiling my highlights from newly released music and sharing 6 songs and 2 albums every Friday (with a few later weekend exceptions). The playlist below has my September highlights, but you can still find prior monthly playlists (just August so far) on my Spotify page.

Here are my highlights from today’s New Music Friday:

1. Make Me Feel Like - Saint Motel

   I had nearly forgotten about this California pop group that brought us “My Type” back in 2013. Their EP, The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Part 2, is full of catchy tunes, but “Make Me Feel Like” was my favourite track.

2. Me Gusta - Anitta featuring Cardi B and Myke Towers

   This is the one song that doesn’t really fit in the playlist, but I had to feature it. Anitta is a queer Brazillian superstar who doesn’t even need the Cardi assist to make this song a hit, but am I going to complain about a Cardi B feature? No, of course I’m not. “Me Gusta” is a Spanglish bop.

3. Take Care in Your Dreaming - The Avalanches featuring Denzel Curry, Tricky, and Sampa the Great

   I expected this song to be a bit manic like some of my favourite Avalanches’ mixes, but this is a cohesive and somewhat melancholic track with 2 biographical verses from Denzel Curry and Sampa the Great. It’s got me anticipating their next album that’s supposed to drop this winter.

4. Ready for You - Black Coffee featuring Celeste

   Of all the new music released today, this song might be my favourite. I’ve been tracking Celeste for the last several months, and her voice pairs perfectly with the South African DJ’s subtle and emotionally building beats. This song makes me feel ready for anything.

5. if you got a problem - Joy Oladokun

   Along with Chika, Joy is basically my artist of the year. I am loving everything she drops, and “if you got a problem” is no exception.

6. 12 Problems - Rapsody

   ROC Nation artist Rapsody takes a simple reference to Jay-Z’s classic “99 Problems” to create her own take on police brutality (with 12 being the numeric slang for police), and gives us a new ACAB anthem.

Untitled (Rise) by Sault

I did a deep dive on this one. Sault is a mysterious musician or collective or band that broke suddenly into the world of streaming last year with back-to-back albums equally groovy and funky, and now, 18 months later they’re already giving us their 4th LP, Untitled (Rise).

This is the kind of album that will have you dancing and giving you chills within moments. There are only a few names attached to this project, which gives it an almost communal feel - as if it’s a collective that wants their message to be the point and their identity to be background.

And that message is that Black joy will be reclaimed in the midst of so much pain and sorrow. Black life not only matters, but rises, inspires, and creates more life through word and sound and art and literal babies, and not primarily - or at all - for white consumption. In fact, even these album sales are donated. This is not about the selling of a product, but an expression of passion and conviction.

There are 3 names associated with this album that I find interesting. The first is producer Inflo, aka Dean Josiah Cover, who is listed in the songwriting credits. Several songs that have a spoken word element are co-written by a Melissa Young - the first of which, “Rise,” gave me literal chills. And finally, Cleopatra Nikolic (aka Cleo Sol) is a featured artist and songwriter on about half the tracks, including 3 of my highlights, “I Just Wanna Dance,” “Street Fighter,” and the album closer, “Little Boy”.

I may have singled out highlights, but honestly this album is a whole experience from start to finish. I highly recommend taking the time to let yourself listen and feel this record.

Giver Taker by Anjimile

The first time I heard Anjimile’s name was back in July when my favourite vinyl subscription service, Vinyl Me Please, listed them as one to watch. At that time they were selling pre-orders for this album, Giver Taker, and since I couldn’t stream it, I gave up and forgot about it for a minute. So when Anjimile’s debut album finally did drop last night, it was the first thing I added to my to-listen list.

I’m not entirely sure how to describe this one. Anjimile’s voice is crystal clear and annunciative … okay, so that’s not a word. I’ll just say I get the feeling they’re classically trained. There’s a wide range of instrumentation here, but it never feels like too much at once. If anything it feels stripped back most of the time, allowing Anjimile’s voice to take centre stage. Case in point: the first song, “Your Tree”, opens to a flute solo and plucked guitar, but gives way to drums, bass, background singers, and at one point, a little banjo.

This record slides around between folk pop and r&b and a genre that is all Anjimile. “In Your Eyes” feels like what would happen if Peter Gabriel worked with Sufjan Steven and Meshell Ndegeocello. But it’s even better than that; it is a touching song about the fear and pain around coming out to their parents.

“Not Another Word” makes me think of an old travelling minstrel folk song before it suddenly and briefly introduces an unmistakable synth chord.

But I am pretty sure “Maker” is my favourite from this record (after only a couple of listens), with a groove that could belong on Paul Simon’s Graceland and this repeated chorus: “I’m not just a boy, I’m a man. I’m not just a man, I’m a god. I’m not just a god I’m a maker.”

Actually, this video of “1978” might have changed my mind about my #1 highlight. Beautiful.

Sometimes it’s a struggle to find 2 albums released in the same week that I’m excited to share, and other weeks it’s a question of which 2 I’m most excited to share! This Friday was one of the latter, so I have a few other recommendations in case you’re interested.

I did give Alicia Keys’ new album Alicia a listen, and I think I’d return to a few of the collaborations on it.

Host is the 4th album from the Indie band, Cults.

More Family Time is a follow up to Ziggy Marley’s 2009 Family Time album, and it has a very interesting handful of diverse featured artists.