You didn't mean what you wrote
Nu Music Monday #24 / 24-05-2021
Hey there,
I’m Red, and welcome to Nu Music Monday. Glad to have you here.
Every week I write quick bites about some of my favorite tracks released in the past seven days (-ish). I also go into the latest music news when I feel like it and share stuff I think is worth your time.
This week is Olivia Rodrigo’s crowning moment. There’s other music too. I do feel bad for anyone who released their album the same day SOUR came out.
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Much ado about Olivia Rodrigo
Olivia Rodrigo justifies her sudden climb to fame on SOUR by embodying a whole generation and letting the world in on her insecurities.
After a couple of breakthrough acting roles in the Disney-verse, Rodrigo displayed an appetite for soaring ballads with a first single, ‘drivers license’–a leviathan of a pop song that broke a multitude of records shortly after its release in January. She let us in on her experience of heartbreak, drawing parallels with an American rite of passage and ultimately suggesting calamitous endings to teenage love are formative growing pains. By wearing many hats, from the indignant “Guess you didn’t mean what you wrote in that song about me” to the frustrated longing of “I still fucking love you”, Rodrigo used the full extent of her pristine higher register to process raw emotions by way of delivering the biggest song of the year (yet). There was a sense that so much time had been wasted on the wrong person and simultaneously a curious, yet relatable, feeling that time hadn’t been wasted after all.
Rodrigo’s rise to the main pop stage has been stratospheric, as demonstrated by her streaming numbers, her late show performances, a live spot during the BRITs and her recent appearance on SNL. Her secret? Brutal honesty and a remarkable ability to showcase an uncanny versatility this early in her career (and in life–Rodrigo is eighteen years old at the time of writing). The young singer-songwriter takes after a couple of her influences, especially through her knack for storytelling. It’s no secret the singer has been a long-time fan of Taylor Swift, and more recently, of indie darling Phoebe Bridgers.
Read my full review of Rodrigo’s smashing debut in Riot Mag.
Billie Marten’s glorious return to form
Few artists manage to experiment time and time again while keeping intact what made their art so compelling in the first place.
Billie Marten’s second album, Feeding Seahorses by Hand, saw her take risks her debut had not foretold. Flora Fauna, her new full-length offering, raises the stakes even higher: Marten is more adventurous than ever, and she sounds more eager to step into the light.
If there was any doubt this moment was Marten’s to claim, the album quickly dissipates all of it with its opening salvo. “Garden of Eden” lets a hunger Marten’s first two records slowly built up towards resonate far and wide, calling attention to a charge of rolling drums led by hushed vocals and an enthralling bass line. “Look at me / I’m a flower in springtime,” Marten demands, ready to take center stage once and for all.
Read my full review of Flora Fauna in The Line of Best Fit.
The Nutshell ~ news of the week
The Billboards Music Awards took place last night: The Weeknd was the big winner and Taylor Swift and BTS also took popular awards home. Tired of always reading about the same people? Me too.
Lil Nas X had a wardrobe malfunction during his SNL performance of ‘Call Me By Your Name (MONTERO)’. Knowing his antics and stints he learned while being a barb on the iNteRnEt, it was probably staged. Next?
The Linda Lindas, a teen punk band, played a set at the L.A. Public Library that went viral on Twitter. Not a week has passed since the video made the rounds and they’re already signed. Lovely.
Track of the week: Worth If for the Feeling - Rebecca Black
Rebecca Black is letting us in on a much more sensual downtempo R&B cut off her upcoming album. She forgoes the hyperpop accents of her more recent tracks with a cosmic ode to pleasure and pain. Today’s name of the game is vastly different than it was ten, fifteen years ago: we went from hyper-specialization and having to be the queen of the castle to demanding versatility. Black is doing the damn thing.
Stop Making This Hurt - Bleachers
Jack Antonoff channels Springsteen in the springtime anthemic ‘Stop Making This Hurt’. If you have the feeling this man has been everywhere for the past five years it’s because he has. He’s taking center stage once more with an upcoming Bleachers record (July 30). It’s probably not going to be all as festive as this one (coined after his celebrated twitter mantra: “take the sadness out of saturday night”). Although this one is actually pretty devastating too. Jersey nostalgia.
You Are - Smoko Ono (feat. Corinne Bailey Rae, UMI)
Lovely unexpected collaboration across the pond. Smooth and silky.
Back Together - Amorphous, Kehlani
Kehlani is as prolific as they come. It usually means we get more or less of the same every now and then. This one is unlike anything she’s done before and I hope she goes deeper in the dance direction to see what comes out of it. This foray into the genre hints at great things to come.
Interlude 1: All about the googles
Like I Used To - Sharon Van Etten, Angel Olsen
FROSTY - KUNZITE, Ratatat
Ancient Dreams In A Modern Land - MARINA
Interlude 2: Peasant matters
Wildflower Wildfire - Lana Del Rey
America’s Cup - Pond
Rabindra - E.VAX, Ratatat
Interlude 3: Divorce realness
Rice & Gravy - Smino, Monte Booker
I Know I’m Funny haha - Faye Webster
SUN GOES DOWN - Lil Nas X
Interlude 4: Expertise is for academia
Rest - Alanis Morissette
For Willow - Moomin
We Want Justice Dammit! - Swizz Beatz, Freddie Gibbs (feat. Shoota93)
More, more, more
Also check out these *creative* new tracks:
Space Ghost Coast To Coast (with Bree Runway) - Glass Animals
Heartbreak Anthem - Galantis (with David Guetta, Little Mix)
Extra, extra, read all about it
In this wonderful piece titled “The Case Against Shakespeare”, Allan Stratton eloquently articulates why studying Richard II in high school was an effective deterrent that put me off writing for five good years before I felt the burning itch again.
Excerpt:
So, no, I’m not saying Shakespeare should be beached in his entirety. But, at the moment, as Cassius says in Julius Caesar, “He doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus,” taking up a quarter to a third of each year’s high school English course. You’d think no other playwright existed—why, barely another author.
This has serious consequences for what ought to be the primary function of high school study: developing a love of reading that will last a lifetime. This is next to impossible when your major contact with literature is a guy from the 1500s who wrote with a quill in what might as well be a second language. And when your teachers aren’t theatre people who can bring the works from page to stage, for which they were intended and where they shine.
[…]
Today’s students aren’t so much studying Shakespeare as learning to do linguistic and cultural archaeology. Or autopsies. Shakespeare is used for purposes of literary “dissection” and “analysis.” That means spotting metaphors and similes, like those kindergarten puzzle games where you find the bananas hiding in the picture. It’s like pulling the wings off flies to see how they work. Or studying a joke to understand why it’s funny.
Read the full argument in The Walrus.
You’ll find my favorite releases of May (so far) in this Spotify playlist.
Thanks for reading! Back soon with more great music & stuff,
I’m @red_dziri on Twitter.