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“Dark Dopamine Ceremony” by Class Actress

Class Actress returns from a 4 year possible-break with “Dark Dopamine Ceremony.” She brings the same, much missed sensual LA glamour (and the dark reality of how “you can’t drug it away”) as 2015’s More Than You but with a tempo nearing last decade’s Journal of Ardency along with the underlying pulse of Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill.”

She even makes a playful allusion to her past cover/rework of The Weeknd’s “The Hills” in the bridge while looking to the future of “mak[ing] out in the tunnels under LA and hyperloop[ing] back to my place.”

We are enjoying this surprise track and anticipating what else she plans to bring!

70s Brazilian Bossa Nova Version of “Cardigan” Taylor Swift

The mysterious “80’s Box” Brazilian music producer released a 70s bossa nova sort-of cover of Taylor Swift’s “Cardigan”!

Similar to Nouvelle Vague’s bossa nova covers of 80s hits, 80’s Box has released bossa nova covers of Top 40 hits like Dua Lipa’s “Don’t Start Now” and Billie Eilish’s “everything i wanted” as well as 90s R&B versions of The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” as well as pop punk and disco covers of other songs of the summer.

Musical Connections – Folklore by Taylor Swift

Not gonna lie – I’ve been listening to Taylor Swift’s surprise release album Folklore. It’s so good.

I don’t feel like attempting a thorough analytical review of it that gives it justice. But I do want to share some musical style connections that some of the tracks immediately reminded me of because some really stuck out and can help make the experience even more fun exploring through the genres / subgenres Swift has experimented with in her “COVID-19 isolation album.”

the 1

I can’t stop listening to “the 1” – I keep getting stuck in a loop of “the 1” and “cardigan.”  

With the gospel-ish, blues, and sort of funk influenced sound reminiscent of Rilo Kiley’s Under the Blacklight era, specifically “Give a Little Love” (YouTube, Spotify, Soundcloud) and of course just like Swift’s own “Don’t Blame Me” being slow and sultry, it was an interesting take in breaking out to a new genre.

cardigan

There’s something about the percussion in “cardigan” and her singing cadence in the track that keeps making me think of the longing expressed in Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Hotel Shampoos” (YouTube, Spotify, SoundCloud) from her very first country-ish album. Also – Swift’s own “Wildest Dreams” matches and feels like the right track to listen to right after “cardigan” with its dreamy ethereal singing of the chorus.

exile

Of course, the duet with Bon Iver titled “exile” re-awakens memories of 2009 and listening to “Skinny Love” on repeat while regretting ruining things with a woman I was what I would realize later in love with.

mirrorball

Feels very 90s like breathy tracks by The Cranberries (e.g. “Put Me Down” (YouTube, Spotify, SoundCloud). But also very Japanese Breakfast (who also has very strong 90s shoegaze, The Cranberries inspiration) “The Woman That Loves You” (YouTube, Spotify, SoundCloud) or  “Soft Sounds from Another Planet” (YouTube, Spotify, SoundCloud) or maybe “Boyish” (YouTube, Spotify, SoundCloud) – like a high school prom slow dance in Ghost World and/or Mitski’s “Once More to See You”

seven

I couldn’t stop listening to “seven” because it reminded me so much of “All of Me Wants All of You” by Sufjan Stevens (YouTube, Spotify, SoundCloud) – one of his most devastatingly beautiful tracks off of the Carrie and Lowell album. It’s not just a track but a whole atmosphere of romance.

august

“august” starts with a very 90s soft guitar riff like The Sundays would begin a track (YouTube, Spotify, SoundCloud) but also the slight temporary switch to her heartbeat and occasional sax notes pop style during the bridge ties it back to her Reputation and Lover (specifically “False God”) era albums.

P.S. My friend Jaclynn brilliantly pointed out that “the 1” is not just a reference to someone being “the one” but also a reference to what we colloquially call “PCH” for the “Pacific Coast Highway” but is officially the California State Route 1 that’s also referred to as “The 1” for short and which runs along the coast – through Big Sur. 😉

“Stay on Your Mind” Album by MIYNT

Released last year, but new to us (because unfortunately we’ve been hibernating) – MIYNT’s Stay on Your Mind album brings together breathy, dreamy, trip-hop vocals and 60s French disco backing band riffs with an overall atmosphere of David Lynch’s Lost Highway.

At times, like in the track “Peaches” it almost feels like the vibraphone version of Air’s “Playground Love.”

“Vacation with Bond in South of France Part 2” leans heavy into the 60s French disco and funk mood.

Then in tracks like “Lucy in Disguise,” MIYNT sounds like she’s hijacked The Sundays in 1990 or Touch of Oliver’s “Candy Bottle Green” in 1993 while oozing a Serge Gainsbourg muse’s voice.

In the tracks “Subway Madness” and “Stay on Your Mind,” MIYNT finishes with more of a mournful Lana Del Rey sound but if, just like in “Lucy in Disguise,” she emulated Francoise Hardy on a cafe racer rather than 1970s cocaine depression.

MIYNT travels across a few eras of music to build a coherent mood across the album – leaving you with a light craving for a cigarette in the still night air.

“Lately” by Gold Spectacles

Released 5 years ago – “Lately” by the UK’s Gold Spectacles feels like the tropical-house inspired music from 2013-2015 along the lines of Magic Man and Pacific Air.

It’s the soundtrack of Huckberry-outfitted adventures, a stylized “dad shirt” Hawaiian print on a slightly torn button up, smelling of broken-in leather jackets, motorcycle diesel, and salt water from a recent cliff jump.

Is this an aesthetic and visceral experience we now miss due to the COVID-19 lockdowns?

As the clouds release heavy but much-needed raindrops across California this week, this song is a reminder of how the sun’s rays felt last summer.

Mitski’s “Nobody” – A Surrealist Exploration of Anxious Attachment, Loneliness

Mitski recently released “Nobody” – her latest track off of her upcoming “Be the Cowboy” album.

In this surrealist, maybe even magical realist Peewee’s Playhouse of loneliness, Mitski explores her loneliness as the apparently sole character of the world. It’s a playful sad girl’s Un Chien Andalou (there’s even the damn orange that Bunuel and Dali are so in love with) – or even a cousin of Yelle’s style a la Safari Disco Club.

The track itself evokes light influences of 70s French space disco sound through cosmic synths, staccato guitar riffs but it’s all layered on top of the lead of the, in fact possibly even the forcefulness created, by mid-range piano chords.

You want to cry but you want to dance.

The track begins with staccato high-hats that lead in the steady piano chords, setting the stage for the anxious but heavy loneliness with the first lines of “My god, I’m so lonely, so I open the window to hear sounds of people, to hear sounds of people.”

The guitar riff comes in, adding to the fun of the song but also layering on more anxiety, particularly as Mitski admits “I don’t want your pity; I just want somebody near me. Guess I’m a coward. I just want to feel all right.”

Then the cosmic synths introduce the chorus of “Nobody”s – a single word repeated and given more depth, more strength, more fullness, more of that heavy ache in your chest right at the moment with the most layers of sounds (so far).

When Mitski sings of having “been big and small and big and small and big and small again and still nobody wants me,” you wonder if this oscillating of roles has resulted in or is the result of her feelings that “I was so young when I behaved twenty five, Yet now I find I’ve grown into a tall child” in “First Love / Late Spring” of 2014’s Bury Me At Makeout Creek. And overall – is that just the anxious attachment speaking that continues its soft pleading in the next lines: “And I know no one will save me; I’m just asking for a kiss. Give me one movie kiss, and I’ll be all right,” possibly influenced by the romanticism from films we’ve all grown up with.

The second set of repeated “nobody”s are the most catchy and at the loudest, most layered (in total) portion of the song but also act as a reminder of the loneliness that can then, 2 minutes and 40-seconds into the track, turn into a dreamy echo. Is it acceptance? Is it falling into a depression nap?

Missing Munich – “Faking Gold” – Mr Little Jeans

In 2010, “Faking Gold” by Mr Little Jeans was featured on the Neon Gold Records blog.

I instantly fell in love with the track, listening to it on repeat.

A few weeks later, I was out with some friends. Toward the end of the night, we went back to one of their apartments where we accidentally woke up their friend who was visiting from Germany.

She and I started talking about music, and we immediately bonded over “Faking Gold” and our shared backgrounds and travels. It was like instantly gaining a big sister.

We didn’t get to hang out beyond that because she was leaving for Munich shortly after. We kept in touch here and there via Facebook Messenger. I updated her on school and work. I always promised I would visit her in Germany some time. I said that when I got there, we’d go to concerts and grab drinks and flirt with people at bars. A couple years later, she told me she was getting married. Shortly afterward, she excitedly messaged when she was expecting a kid and had me guess whether it was a boy or a girl. Then a couple months after, I found out she passed away in a car accident. I never got to visit her, so now I’m just mentally wishing her a Happy Birthday wherever she is today.

Share music with all your friends and visit them if they’re far away. These are our connectors.

“Can’t keep a promise. Flakes faking gold.”

“Talk to Me” by Blonder

Blonder definitely gets an 80s feel with their track “Talk to Me,” especially with each verse’s Casio-sounding tick-tock metronome beat that then transitions to the bridge’s staccato snares that mimic the first few beats of New Order’s “Bizarre Love Triangle.” Capturing a Boy George “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me” style, Blonder evokes the type of longing felt by their new wave predecessors.

Anna of the North – “Baby”

Anna of the North is the a recent (as of last year) musical import from Scandinavia – her social media accounts literally state “Scandinavia” except for Twitter – which specifies “Norway.”

Last week, she released “Baby” – a dreamy yet heartsick electropop track evoking both the ghosts of past relationships (“Baby – am I still the one you think you know?”) and the anxiety (and excitement) of a potential romance (You make my heart start beating in my chest. Baby, hold tight. Don’t fight it.) – much the way Sorcha Richardson’s “Petrol Station” portrays excitement and regret about love.