Play/Listed Weekly for Sept 4, 2020
Happy September, friends!
As you may already know, I’ve been compiling my highlights from newly released music and sharing 6 songs and 2 albums every week. With a new month, we’ll start fresh with the playlist, but if you want to access the music from last month, you can still find the monthly playlists on my Spotify page.
Although I’m posting this well past Friday, this weekend I’ve been moving and I compiled the music for it primarily on Thursday night. I was able to narrow down the singles to 6 that stood out, but instead of doing a mini-review of the albums, I’ve decided to simply share the two I’m most excited to check out. I can’t give reasons to love it if I haven’t even listened myself!
Here are my highlights from today’s New Music Friday:
If You Want Me to Stay - Ari Lennox & Anthony Ramos
This should need no explanation. Ari’s voice is so unique, she’s easily one of my favourite newer artists in the last few years. Here she duets with Anthony Ramos, who, although I love him in Hamilton The Musical, I haven’t primarily thought of as a singer - I see him as the actor who plays my favourite of Nola Darling’s boyfriends on the series reboot of She’s Gotta Have It. Their voices sound made for each other on this track. It makes me want to see Ari do some musical theatre, TBH.
Hit Different - SZA & Ty Dolla Sign
The minute I saw a new SZA track, I knew it would be on this list. Everything she does is full of good vibes, and I wasn’t expecting anything new anytime soon. On first listen, this is exactly what I want it to be.
Evaporate - Lee Clarke, Ivy Sole, Kingsley Ibeneche
I’ve been into Ivy Sole all summer long, so I was happy to see a collaboration with artists who are new to me! I haven’t had a chance to check out the other two, but this song is lovely on first listen.
anything - Adrianne Lenke
And now for something completely different. My wife put me on to Adrianne Lenke (and band Big Thief), and I haven’t turned back since. I often like her dark and vulnerable songs, but this is sweet and romantic and I anticipate having it on repeat.
Black Joy. Black Peace. Black Justice - Poppy Ajudha
Poppy is another artist that some friends found randomly a while ago, but her name hasn’t crossed my Tidal platform in a while. This is stripped back, arpeggiated guitar with Poppy and the occasional choir backing her up in calling folks to keep fighting for racial justice, with this beautiful chorus: “Need to pull up, don’t slow down, to fight this, ‘til it’s ours.”
What They’ll Say About Us - FINNEAS
You likely already know Finneas at least as Billie Eilish’s brother and main collaborator, if not as a Grammy award-winning producer and an artist in his own right. This is an emotional swelling song of hope and promise of a better tomorrow, but with a recognition that not everyone will live to see it.
L’Ère du Verseau by Yelle
Quick reminder: I do link to the albums on Spotify through the album covers, so if you want to have a listen now, just click the image above.
As I mentioned above, I can’t say a lot about this album since I’ve never actually listened to it!* But I think this has promise… mostly because I dig French electro-pop. And that’s exactly the kind of music that I would expect from Yelle, a French duo that grew famous on MySpace.
L’Ère du Verseau is Yelle’s first album in 6 years, so this felt like a pretty unexpected album drop. Also, something about an album in 2020 named “The Age of Aquarius” really tickles my interest.
*Though I’m still waiting for a more thorough listen, this album was a bop to unpack my closet to!
5th Element by IV Jay
I was today years-old when I heard about IV Jay. In fact, full disclosure, I don’t know whether to pronounce this name “Ivy” or “Four,” because this album came up as a recommendation based on some of my other favourite artists. I’m curious enough to check out this new-to-me artist, so why don’t you, too? When was the last time you played an album knowing next to nothing about the artist? Today seems like a great opportunity for adventure!
This album is called 5th Element, although as far as I can tell, it’s IV Jay’s first album. Let me know what you think!