listening to Your Favorite Songs 2024, part 8
IT CONTINUES!
"Compress/Repress (MIXED)" - Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Boys Noize remix
from Tim Jones (of Podcast for the New American Century, check out our episode featuring you) [ed. note: Thx for the plug, Tim]
"I am a huge freak for Nine Inch Nails and this is the first song Trent and Atticus have done that sounds like something from my controversial favorite NIN album The Slip in over a decade. Also uncredited guest vocals from Trent's wife Mariqueen make it the closest thing to a How To Destroy Angels song there's been in the same amount of time. The remix job Boys Noize did on this takes it to another level with the extra blown-out rhythmic hook he adds and the bouncy piano bridge. Lyrically a masterpiece of economy, the 'touch me' refrain that sets up the later 'touch yourself,' brilliant stuff for one of the horniest movies of recent vintage."
I'm really glad someone picked a Challengers soundtrack song because this shit blew me away when I watched the movie back in April. Somehow I made it all the way to the IMAX screen of my local AMC Theater, getting that indescribably feeling when the lights start to dim, without realizing that the score was a Reznor/Ross joint. I'm not sure if I've ever been more hype for music in a theatrical setting, and I think the movie would have been markedly worse if the music was at all different. I try not to get caught up in awards drama but if this doesn't get at least nominated for Best Score, I'm going to pitch a fit. I want those Academy Award attendees COMPRESSED and REPRESSED.
After the blistering trance music that soundtracks 131 minutes of tennis-themed sexual tension, or maybe sexual tension-themed tennis, the credits roll to "Compress/Repress," a relative torpid song about, well, compressing and repressing. Holding back homosexual feelings for your tennis buddy? Squeezing a tennis ball? This is the only Challengers song with lyrics if you don't count the yeahs in "Yeah x10," and they're tastefully allusive ("Play the game / One, two, three") without getting too clogged with references. Have you ever listened to Travis Scott's theme song from Tenet? It sounds like he saw the first scene of the movie and then just tried to rhyme as much as he could with the word "tenet." This is way better than that.
"Where's Your Love Now" - This is Lorelei
from Evan
"I can't explain it, I just love it!"
A second appearance from This is Lorelei, after "I'm All Fucked Up"; this one is a little steadier and less chaotic, with a stately tempo, emotional strings and a tinkling toy piano that reminds me of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot-era Wilco. Nate Amos sings about the hurt and confusion that arises when the end of a relationship with a person dovetails with the end of a relationship with drugs and alcohol. He's happier and healthier now, but forgiveness isn't on the table yet: "I'm gonna let me be angry / 'Cause I tried to be fine for too damn long." The subject matter is pretty raw, but Amos's voice is preternaturally calm, which makes everything sound even more melancholy. You know when you're pissed but you're also mostly tired of being pissed?
"Love on the Outside" - Wishy
from Jake R. (fan of And Introducing and da blog)
"Goated song, goated album"
And Intro fan, woo woooo. I don't know where anyone comes here from anymore but maybe you listen to the podcast I co-host, which is also about music, and if you listen, then hell yeah.
Wishy!! I am trying to remember who tweeted about Wishy that got me into the band...it's possible it was Michele Catalano (who just launched a sick website, I Have That On Vinyl)? Or maybe Matty Monroe? Regardless, Triple Seven came out during the dog days of summer, and I pressed play on it, and then I said "wow it's crazy how this Indianapolis band takes the textures of early '90s alt rock and applies them to the pop songcraft of late '90s alt rock!" and then I did a kickflip on my skateboard, but unfortunately nobody saw.
"Love On The Outside" is the Third Eye Blind song that Stephan Jenkins is probably losing sleep over not writing. Kevin Krauter's high note on the "say" of "'Cause you ˢᵃʸ the word and I'll fall at your feet" is a total heart-melter, and the chorus is undeniable sing-a-long bait. I saw Wishy play in L.A. last weekend and they rocked, they also did a pretty stellar cover of REM's "Shiny Happy People" which I did not expect. Good band good album good song!!
"Rio's Song" - The Hard Quartet
from Matt W
"I’m a sucker for the 90s alt rock, and the HQ really scratches my itch. This is sentimental but rocking, cool riff and cool vibes."
Supergroups. We need them, and yet their creation en masse tends to signal the arrival of tough times. I came of age in the post-9/11 supergroup boom of Audioslave and Velvet Revolver. When the '08 recession hit, we got The Dead Weather, Them Crooked Vultures, and Atoms for Peace. That means we should have known things were gonna get fucked up again when Boygenius hit it big.
Now we have The Hard Quartet, which contains Stephen Malkmus from Pavement, Matt Sweeney from Chavez (and more importantly to me, the supergroup known as Zwan), Jim White from Dirty Three, and Emmett Kelly from the Cairo Gang. They announced themselves with one of the better band promo photo treatments I've seen in recent memory. I guess when you've been doing it this long, you know what you're about.
This Grateful Dead-esque tune sounds exactly like what it is, which is a bunch of 50+ guys hanging out and noodling around. It's not garage rock so much as garage-converted-into-music-studio rock, and honestly it just makes me happy to hear seasoned musicians vibing in this way. I like the guitar lick that meanders down the scale with the practiced ease of someone scanning a wine list for their preferred white Burgundy.
A quick side note. I'm a freak about NYMag's Grub Street Diet, a weekly feature that details the daily eatings and drinkings of different subjects—my only longterm professional goal is to be chosen for a Grub Street Diet, because I think I have some interesting lunch strategies to share—and Matt Sweeney's GSD is one of the better ones I've ever read. He talks about using food as a social and professional lubricant: "[Neil Diamond] decided to do a low-key, invite-only show at the Bitter End...I showed up with bags of food, thereby buying my way onto the stage." He also quotes Repo Man. Good stuff.
Biddy Fox
"manhattan" - half and half and the desire dogs (biddy fox)
from Cecily Renns (of the furry rock band MIDI Bunny)
"In this progressive baroque pop song, Bea combines serene sounding melodies with beautiful orchestral arrangements that complements her soft voice perfectly. This track goes through multiple phases, and while my favourite part is the middle section where Bea introduces more electronic elements along with a catchy hook, the ending part is also really cool, where it turns into this Springsteen sounding pop rock tune. Just a really well crafted pop song that maintains your attention with interesting musical ideas for a whole 6 minutes"
The MIDI Bunny album from this year was such a bracing listen. Both Cecily Renns and Biddy Fox bring a wide range of multimedia influences to the table on MIDI Bunny LP or, "Songs to Hurt Others."—the liner notes shout out, among others, the band Nouns, the movie 24 Hour Party People, and the comic book series Transmetropolitan—and blast through them at a positively reckless speed.
half & half and the desire dogs is a Biddy Fox project with a similar approach; "manhattan" has a hell of a lot going on, but gently shifts between its genres as if blending watercolors. I love how the late '90s big beat stylings of the beginning gradually become a blotchy, stomping dance punk moment that reminds me quite a bit of The Faint. Each individual instant entertains the ears, with barely any time to get your bearings. Maximalist delight.
Thanks for reading I Enjoy Music! If you like it, tell a friend.
Thanks to all the song recommenders <3 See you...tomorrow...
