Recent Listens - March 2024
Usually, I would go through the new music that I have discovered throughout the month and highlight them. But to be completely honest, I have not been listening to nearly enough new music recently and have been mostly prioritising catching up on my ever-growing watchlist instead. So I am gonna do something different this time, and just focus on some of the older tunes that have been taking up a lot of my time recently. Might not be anything too groundbreaking, but it’s nice to talk about the music that I have been really rocking with.
John Mayer
While I have been slightly diving into other parts of his discography, it’s pretty much just been Continuum and various live versions that I have been listening to. I often disregarded Mayer when I was younger just based on his radio hits and general reputation, but I gotta admit that I have been wrong and dumb this whole time. This man can sing, and has some serious guitar chops to go along with it. While the lyrical content can be questionable at times (“Your Body Is a Wonderland”, I’m looking at you), and his antics have been unforgivable, he has some pretty heavy hitters in his discography. The hit “New Light” has been stuck in my head since I rediscovered it, and the track “Stop This Train” from the previously mentioned Continuum is a very tender and sweet song that features some of his best songwriting. Even some of the singles which I had grown up hating as a little kid have a tinge of nostalgia to them too, and are overall a nice listen albeit bland at times (“Daughters” and “Gravity” are probably the two most notable). Even if you were a detractor in the past, I definitely suggest you give him another shot, especially to his live albums if you want to hear him highlight his guitar playing.
Frou Frou - Details
In my hunt for more indietronica akin to Radio Dept. or The Postal Service, I stumbled upon this album and immediately fell in love. The vocals from Imogen Heap sit perfectly atop the relaxing production, and while it may have not been the exact vibe I was looking for at the time, it has stuck with me and been something I have been returning to for a while. Although the ending of the album trails off a little bit compared to the incredibly strong start, it has a pretty wide range of sounds throughout it and has a lot to offer for whatever you are listening to.
Meat Puppets - Meat Puppets II
While this is an album I had listened to before, it was a long time ago and I had pretty much forgotten all about it, eschewing it for Too High To Die. Sadly, in that time, I forgot just how damn good this album is. Likely their most acclaimed album overall, Meat Puppets II helped to set the stage for the era of slacker rock that would hit in the ‘90s, and it is one hell of a blueprint, but they were primarily credited for bringing the mishmash of country and punk to a more mainstream audience. Which is to say, without this album we would not have had Wednesday’s fantastic 2023 album Rat Saw God, so for that alone this band deserves praise. The Kirkwood brothers bring their S-game on here instrumentally, although the lyrical and vocal content does improve on their follow-up album. Overall, a very strong album from one of the early indie rock artists of the ‘80s that helped establish a sound for generations to follow.
Lil Wayne - Rebirth
This album is far from good. It is objectively bad, actually. But goddamnit, if I don’t have so much fun listening to this album sometimes. The lyrics are odd and uncomfortable in their best moments, the vocals are abhorrent pretty much throughout, and the features are somehow even worse than Wayne on this album. The guitar lines and general instrumentation are some of the most bland, overproduced, and outright annoying things to come out probably ever. But the second you put on “Knockout” I will be going absolutely feral, no matter where we are. It’s hard to really say why I keep returning to this album; it serves almost as The Room of music in my eyes. There’s not a whole lot worse that I have heard, but nothing as bad as this is as enjoyable at the same time (for all the wrong reasons).
Freddie Gibbs - “Knicks (Remix)”
The only single that I will be mentioning on this segment, Gibbs’ album Pinata has been one of my favourite rap albums ever since the day I first heard it, and this remix just helps to amplify one of the many standouts across the length of the album. Featuring guest verses from Action Bronson, Ransom, and Joey Bada$$, as well as a whole new verse from Gibbs himself, they all glide over the smooth production from Madlib that sounds as fresh today as it did in 2014. Just a banger that keeps rooting itself in my head, while also featuring one of my favourite basketball references in rap, courtesy of Bronson.
Honourable Mentions
While I have not been listening to them constantly, I was very impressed with Future and Metro Boomin’s new album We Don’t Trust You, as well as the new Beyoncé country album COWBOY CARTER. Both of them will soon be getting more listens from me as I break them down, and maybe will get covered on here at some point. I have also recently stumbled upon Lazer Dim 700, a dark plugg rapper with probably the least usage of mixing in any music this side of the millennium. And of course, there will not be a month that goes by that does not feature me extensively listening to The Strokes, primarily their masterpiece Is This It, although I will try not to mention it too much each time for the sake of redundancy. But goddamn do I love that album.