Jonny's Weekly Musings - Jan 15-21
It was sort of a sleepy (Joe) week for music but a juicy one for politics. Biden’s inauguration quickly became a showcase for the center of music when Lady Gaga, looking like she was introducing the hunger games, sang the national anthem. Following her harrowing performance Garth Brooks and JLo both sang touching American tributes. The entire right clutched their collective pearls as they heard JLo speak spanish at the end of her performance. At night many other’s performed at Biden’s inaugural celebration but it didn’t really own up to the vibe or even touch Gaga’s wardrobe. The real winner of yesterday’s festivities was Bernard Sanders who basically broke the internet as a picture of him quietly, with a work folder in hand, watched on. The big reason he blew up with the youths is that he was wearing the same jacket that he was wearing in his other huge meme, “I am once again asking for your financial support.” Here are some of the best:
While the addition to the Bernie Sanders extended meme universe became the big thing on the internet this week, there was some minor music happenings. The most significant is the Rosalía and Billie Eilsih’s collaboration for Euphoria which was released earlier today. In anticipation of the second season of the hit HBO show, they are releasing standalone episodes surrounding some of the characters. In December, they released the first of these special episodes surrounding Zendaya’s character, Rue. The second special episode, which surrounds Jules, will be released later this week. The single, “Lo Vas A Olividar,” is kind of a godsend in terms of collaborations. Both Eilish and Rosalía are two young artists who have captured a lightning in a bottle phenomena that the music industry has yet to fully realize. The song has been teased for over a year and going into it I was filled with hope. Sadly I don’t know if the song fully lives up to my expectations. It is a very lovely song, very cold and almost choral. I am sure my opinion will shift once I see the episode though as songs like this require a bit of context. I am partly through watching Euphoria and naturally I have gravitated incessantly towards the score. The show is scored by Labrinth, who is a pretty famous UK based producer. He has worked with a lot of big industry names, notably producing Beyonce’s single for The Lion King remake and forming a collective (called LSD) with Sia and Diplo. Sadly most of the projects he has worked on I don’t really like. The album from LSD was pretty uninspired and the song from the Lion King was pretty meh. I do like Euphoria's score but I do find similar feelings to Labrinth’s other project. Some of the music is eerily close to the millennial do-wop trash that is on a lot of Netflix shows (Selling Sunset especially comes to mind). There are snippets of great electronic sound and quite a wide variety of moods. The 9 minute track that plays during the carnival scene in episode 4 is actually magnificent. The way it builds tensions reminds me of Hans Zimmer’s score for Dunkirk. The track “Gangster” that plays during one of the early party scenes (I think can’t be bothered to make sure), is what I was looking for. The blow out electronics and house inspired feel is amazing. Labrinth keeps adding these weird vocals in these tracks that just remind me of a bad Migos adlib. The music doesn’t have a central sound the way a lot of my favorite scores do (ie. The Social Network, Bladerunner) but there is still some compelling music that beautifully complements the show.
A release that I missed a couple weeks ago but I have been really enjoying is Jazmine Sullivan’s Heaux Tales and I am just now realizing that it is pronounced HOE tales, very nice. I had never heard of this artists but there was some chatter on the interwebs that warranted a couple of listens. The album is short, perfect for a nice 30 minute workout in the morning (the grind never stops). At first I just heard it as a pretty standard R&B album, nothing special. The more you listen the more you are grabbed by the ears by the story. The album is a very strong and apparent statement about woman’s sexuality and how that can be misconstrued and demonized in society. It is a very complicated story that Sullivan is telling. On one hand she recognizes how love plays a big part in her sexuality but comes to the conclusion that she can use her sexuality to get what she wants in life. Sullivan realizes that this mindset is very looked down upon in society and tries to cope with that/stand as a powerful female figure. There’s a lot of emotions going on here and they culminate on “Lost One.” The song seems almost a direct descendent of the Frank Ocean song, “Self Control.” Thematically it has a similar message of promiscuity versus monogamy and love and they are both super impactful. Heaux Tales definitely will get you to clutch your peals if you haven’t already, but it represents a beautiful sentiment and truly the reality of our relationships.
Before I got side tracked listening to the music of 2020, I was going through a dad-rock pilgrimage and listening to the entire catalogue of Wilco. I, like many youngins, got introduced to Wilco through Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and to some extent the Woody Guthrie cover “California Stars.” Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was one of the most mammothly influential albums of the 2000’s and is a must listen for anybody reading this. I largely stopped there for a while. Then Wilco released Star Wars in 2015, which I instantly loved and gave me a real Abbey Road vibe. From then on I have been listening to the bands new releases as they come out but I had not gone through their pre Yankee Hotel Foxtrot stuff. The two largely critically acclaimed albums Wilco released in the 90’s were Being There and Summerteeth. I was deep into Being There in November and found it awe inspiring. There was the more folky cuts like “Far, Far Away” and “Forget the Flowers” (which are absent on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot) and then there was some genuine magic. The opener “Misunderstood” sounded like the experimentation and industrial sound that would be on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and fell in line with this magical sentiment. This week I tackled listening to Summerteeth and expected similar greatness. At first it didn’t really have the vibe I expected. It is mostly stripped down folk songs and there is nothing as insane as “Misunderstood.” It is a more low-key album. Nothing wrong with that. The songwriting is still top notch I just ended up preferring Being There. The stand out track though is definitely “A Shot in the Arm.” It is one of the only songs featuring piano and is kind of sad knowing Jeff Tweedy’s crippling drug addiction during this time. I could see this song going bonkers live. Me and all the 40 somethings just jammin. Sounds pretty ‘rad.’
Happy Jamming <3
