WEEKLY TRACK ROUNDUP #19
SUMMER LOVIN'
Cool breezes, fireflies, and open screen doors. These are the soundtracks to Aural Wes’ sleepless summer nights. Open the windows, open your minds and let Aural Wes take you down a lazy river of SUMMER LOVIN’.
Froyo Ma - "Spent Missing"
Here’s to the sweaty bodies that threw themselves through the New Orleans night this summer. While people vomited into the street’s gutters, Froyo Ma hid away in his New Orleans apartment and mixed this track with Charlotte Wilson. It’s an ode to the oppressive heat of Southern nights and the escape found through heaving, passionate SUMMER LOVIN’. -Chris Reed
Alex Lahey - "You Don’t Think You Like People Like Me"
Alex Lahey brings some crispy, crunchy rock n’ roll to this summertime pop banger. Written about an uNExPecTeD romance, with someone who rocks a different jean cut than the subject (flared vs. skinny?) the song bubbles with driving energy and a no killer-all-filler sound. Feeling like a natural collabo between Taylor Swift and Swearin', you might just find that you didn’t think you wouldn’t...didn’t...want to like it but YOU WILL, guaranteed ;) -Ryan Breen
Mild High Club - "Homage"
As it turns out, Mac Demarco’s live tourmate, Alex Brettin, makes far more interesting music than Mac himself. Mild High Club, Brettin’s solo project, is one of the standouts among the slacker-psych genre that seems so ever present as of late. Skiptracing, the newest album from Mild High Club, was one of my favorites of the summer. This song in particular is intensely melodic, with intricate, lush instrumentation. The interactions between smooth synths, busy basslines and brief singable guitar solos call to mind jazzier Beatlesque sounds. (Desiigner’s Tiimmy Turner was a close runner-up and indeed a banger). -Adam Manson
Blood Orange - "Best to You"
I played “Best to You” in a loop all summer. The track is probably the most straight-forward on the Freetown Sound, dance-y but sad in a way that creates the perfect 2 a.m. balance. It’s three-plus minutes fly by in what feels like seconds. Good, honest track with a great groove.
Honorable mention to Mitski’s “A Loving Feeling”. -Meg West
Patricia Satterwhite, Jacolby Satterwhite and Nick Weiss - "We are In Hell When We Hurt Each Other"
My musical love-object of the summer is "We are In Hell When We Hurt Each Other" by Patricia Satterwhite, Jacolby Satterwhite, and Nick Weiss. Jacolby is a NYC-based artist who projects himself into virtual caverns of khaleidescoping 3d drawings and dancing green screen clones. Drawing on archives of his mother Patricia's brilliant but troubled artistic practice, he creates fascinating, myth-filled worlds of self exploration. Teaming up with Nick Weiss of Teen Girl Fantasy, Jacolby released "We are In Hell When We Hurt Each Other" on a two-track EP as part of a series of "Anthems" for this year's Berlin Biennale (produced by the singular TOTAL FREEDOM). It's an experimental club track wrapped in lo-fi casette warmth, its haunting vocals pieced together from Patricia's tape archives of voice memo-like recordings (eventually, Jacolby will release a full-length video project to accompany "We are In Hell" and other new tracks that draw similarly on his mother's work). Weiss and Satterwhite's production merges seamlessly with the intimacy of Patricia's voice while also accentuating a soulfulness in her singing that's hard to pin down. Her voice is melancholy but full of spirit—resonating with the kind of sincere, introspective expression that you discover alone, singing to yourself. Pop music doesn't get much more personal than this. Listening to "We are In Hell" can feel like an intrusion into something sacred—the music of Patricia's inner life, potentially recorded without the intention of ever being heard by the rest of the world. Jacolby excavates and presents this music for us gracefully, celebrating its beauty, pain, and vulnerability as a part of himself. - Chris Gortmaker
Nice As Fuck - "Cookie Lips"
My favorite LP of the summer, Nice As Fuck's debut self-titled, takes on love, politics, and the uncertainty of the future - all with a refreshingly genuine optimism, and all in under thirty minutes. One of the lighter tracks on the record, "Cookie Lips," captures the feeling of having grand rom-com expectations for sugary fleeting summer crushes - Aurora McGuckin
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - "Love's Refrain"
Cantu-Ledesma stirs up all the feels in me with "Love's Refrain", from his newest album, In Summer. It's subtle, sludgy start leads into ebbing, twitching waves of static-y sweet noise that's a little melancholy and full of that slow summer feeling. Find a spot under the sun or in a dark room late at night and put this on as loud as it goes <3. - Michelle Rosen
