What I'm Listening To 5.15.26 (Patreon)

Happy Friday!! Hope you're all enjoying the ends of your week, whether it was good or bad. How about some tunes to help bring it to a close?

Check out the playlist linked below, and let me know what you've been listening to lately!

CHARLI XCX - ROCK MUSIC

New Charli!!! The dancefloor is dead!! We're making' RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRock Music! For real - I've seen mixed reactions to it, but I like it well enough. I like the production in the verses and the stuttering note that plays basically the whole time. My one hangup is the "RRRRRRRRRRRock Music" in the chorus - the stuttering there got annoying to me by the second chorus. But I'll see how I feel about it later on and once her next album is out. Despite my hangups about the song specifically, the sound she's going for has potential. Plus I remember feeling similar hesitation when I first heard Von Dutch and now that's one of my fave songs off Brat. We love CCCCCCCCCCCCCConsidered Opinions!

EDWARD SKELETRIX - BODY OF WORK

Imagine the music of OsamaSon or Ken Carson, but make it more cloud rap and give it the lyrics of an IG affirmations page. That's Edward Skeletrix, or at least it's his new album. I got turned on to this guy from someone's IG stories, and I find it absolutely hypnotizing.

THE STROKES - FALLING OUT OF LOVE

New Strokes too!! This one's been getting a more divisive reception, pretty much solely for Julian's Autotune. I defended it when Going Shopping came out, and while I don't hate it here, it does have me worried that the whole album is gonna have him in Autotune. I like Auto-Jules on the Voidz, but for the Strokes, I wanna hear more grit! It's a bummer too because the rest of the song is lovely. Strikes me as a middle point between Ode to The Mets and Life Is Simple In The Moonlight from Angles, like a slow dance at a Mets-themed wedding. Still optimistic for the new album.

BEN FOLDS - FAIR (UNIVERSITY A CAPPELLA VERSION)

I don't use Spotify much personally these days, but they recently did an anniversary campaign where you could see your most listened-to songs ever and the first song you ever listened to. For me, it was the university a cappella version of Ben Folds' Fair. Does this track? I think this tracks? But it still feels weird. It's a good arrangement, though it's not my fave on that album (I'd pick Magic instead).

CARLY RAE JEPSEN - BAD THING TWICE

So this requires some wind-up - I heard Bad Thing Twice years ago when The Loneliest Time came out. I think it's one of the best deep cuts on the album. But recently, I stumbled on this fan edit for Nirvanna The Band The Show soundtracked by the song, and it's made me fall back in love with it. Fwiw, I've not seen any episode of the show or the recent movie (though I plan to soon, I hear it's outstanding). To anyone who's seen the show, is it as weirdly emotional as this edit implies? Or am I falling for a shitpost?

DAVID GREY - SHINE

This was featured in the recent game Mixtape, and it's a lovely song! Between this and that Plus and Minus song from last year, I feel like I gotta get more into David Grey.

JUDITH - TUSI

This one's just fun! Makes me wanna dance like a Russian, despite being a song of Mexican origin.

JAKE SHIMABUKURO - WHILE MY GUITAR GENTLY WEEPS

Minor lore about me: I used to play the ukulele a ton back in high school and college. I've been getting back into this recently, which has led me to all the uke videos I used to watch obsessively. The absolute best one IMO will always be this rendition of While My Guitar Gently Weeps. It broke my brain and made me realize how even simple instruments can do such complex and beautiful things. (This one may not be on streaming, so here's the YT link.)

BOBBY FULLER FOUR - LET HER DANCE

Final scene of Fantastic Mr. Fox, iykyk.

THE NEXT ARTIST FOR THE DDD

Keeping this vague here in case anyone doesn't wanna know who it is (the playlist will spoil who it is, heads up), but I'm already a few albums deep for the next DDD artist. So far it's going well, but I'll have more updates next week.

Let me know what you've been into lately, and here's a playlist with all these songs and a few extras: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6Lwg939ergXdtOpFzaDUlY?si=4590fa12946b475f

(And if you wanna transfer that playlist to your own preferred streamer, I highly recommend Soundiiz: https://soundiiz.com/)