Turn It Up - 1/16/2024
Earworms, obsessions, recommendations
We’re back again to start the week with some things we’ve been listening to. David goes first this week, then Charles, and we’ve also included some reading recommendations at the bottom.
Charley Crockett and Willie Nelson – “That’s What Makes the World Go Around” (single, 2024)
Crockett’s story here, what there is of it, tells of a woman gazing out the window and contemplating her future—that’s what she’s still doing years later at song’s end. The details are too vague to make them feel singularly interesting or universally recognizable, and the way nothing ever happens to this faceless woman, or changes for her, feels more cynical than poignant. But: Hearing Willie Nelson make this melody, what there is of it, his own while making Trigger dance in and around it, is a gift I’d advise you not to miss. –DC
The Leaves – “Too Many People” (from Pushin’ Too Hard: American Garage Punk 1964-1967, 2024)
Just as I’d guessed, Pushin’ Too Hard—a new three-disc set of American garage rock, from the UK’s Cherry Red Records—duplicates several tracks from Lenny Kaye’s Nuggets set. Still, because I’m more a garage rock enthusiast than full-on proto-punkophile, I discovered plenty that was new to me. “Too Many People,” for instance, by The Leaves, the southern California band best known for original artyfact “Hey Joe.” If you’re lucky enough to own the expanded four-disc Nuggets box from 1998, you already know “Too Many People.” I don’t and didn’t, but straight off I played it straight through half a dozen times or more. I dig the rudimentary, razory harmonica and frat-party bounce. I love lead shouter John Beck’s embodiment of John Lennon, too, the way he’s angry at all these people telling him to wear a suit and tie, chase that money and become some sort of middle-class hero. He’d rather “sit and die” than live such a life if you can believe that. No future sounds good to him, or at least like a line good enough to sing. –DC
Randall King – “Coulda Been Love” (from Into the Neon, 2024)
“Coulda Been Love” is my kind of nineties throwback. It’ll remind you a little of George Strait or maybe Brooks & Dunn, except it rocks far harder than it swings or boot scoots. In truth, the cut’s shout-along chorus, big drums and Brent Mason-styled guitar licks suggest that the Hot Country superstar King’s really channeling his time out is Alan Jackson—in “Don’t Rock the Jukebox” mode. (“Chattahoochee” mode too, as King’s chorus-concluding readings of “coulda been love” sure do echo Jackson’s “little ‘bout love.”) Here, a passing glance from a woman at some club has left King cussing how it could’ve been love if he weren’t so slow on the trigger. Probably just the beer talkin’ but for sure it’ll be a blast to turn this one up and order another round. –DC
Brittney Spencer – “Night In” (from My Stupid Life, 2024)
Britney Spencer says she’s weary to death of drunk boys like Randall King “mumbling, can I buy you a drink?” out at some bar. So, tonight, she’s invited her best homegirl over to hang out in sweats and maybe get high while they “binge snacks and stupid shows.” “All this turn it up ain’t turnin’ me on,” she complains—counterintuitively, as it turns out, because her song’s old-school indie-rock guitar opening and hands-in-the-air choruses sound nothing like Netflix and chill and quite a lot like the party starter you crank to prime before hitting the town. Perfect for the club or if you don’t make it that far, the couch. –DC
Carsie Blanton – “My Good Friends” (from Hope, 2024)
Singer-songwriter Carsie Blanton specializes in slyly and/or explicitly political broadsides, but inevitably clever, catchy and lilting either way. Her ode to recharging when our world or her spirit turns gloomy is lovely and wise, a cure that just might take: “When the darkness descends / Call up all your good friends / Bring ‘em down to the riverbend / We'll crack up until the light gets in.” –DC
Katie Pruitt – “White Lies, White Jesus, and You” (from Mantras, 2024)
Nashville singer-songwriter Pruitt has released 2024’s first entry in one of my favorite (and yet most frustrating) sub-genres: songs that would be country hits in a just world. Not only is it structured around a tripled, punning central image – a foundational technique to country songwriting – but it explores the ways that professed faith serves as a mask for a man’s personal failings in a way that country women from Sara and Mother Maybelle to Loretta to Reba and beyond have explored in rich and sometimes heartbreaking detail. With an unstoppable hook, piercing guitar line, and swelling arrangement, Pruitt’s track is ready for the airwaves in the wake of Lainey Wilson or boygenius. But, of course, it’s not likely that anything as honest as this – and as bitingly rejecting of “White Jesus” – will break through the tiny space offered to women-identified artists. But that shouldn’t stop you from sending this one up your personal hit parade. It damn sure won’t stop me. - CH
Jeymes Samuel (feat. Lil Wayne, Buju Banton, and Shabba Ranks) – “Hallelujah Heaven” (from The Book of Clarence, 2024)
Samuel’s soundtrack for The Book of Clarence is my first stand-out album of 2024, a cross-genre journey with guests ranging from Kid Cudi to Alice Smith to a sampled Terry Callier. The nine-minute collaboration with D’Angelo and Jay-Z is getting most of the attention, but – though that one’s languid groove is growing on me with multiple listens – the crew here leaves them in the dust. Built around a stomping beat, humming organ, and insistent sampled choir, “Hallelujah Heaven” bespeaks the gospel music evoked by its title and illustrates how deeply the sounds of the church have infused the hip-hop and reggae practiced by its guest stars. Lil Wayne is in his most effective mode, the one where he rhymes with such unstoppable, joyous momentum that he sounds barely in control as the syllables come dancing out. Banton and Ranks respond in kind with powerhouse verses that dance and declaim with equally solid foundation. A block-rocker from start to finish, and a standout from an album very much worth hearing in full. - CH
Lu (feat The Wu-Tang Clan) – “The Art of War” (single, 2024)
I don’t know much about Lu – the performing name of Miami-based artist Anjelica Morales – but any friend of the Wu-Tang Clan is a friend of mine. This brooding track is pure 36 Chambers rumble, with Inspectah Deck, Masta Killa, and Ghostface Killa joining Lu (who quotes Ol’ Dirty Bastard in her lyric) on flexible verses that pop off and around the minor-key arrangement. And then, just to add another surprise, an extended M.A.S.H. sample at the end brings Alan Alda to the cypher. “The Art Of War” won’t change much, but it’s the kind of modest, renewable-resource pleasure that sometimes pops up on a playlist and gives you faith in the almighty algorithm. - CH
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – “Look What You’ve Done To Your Brother”
Patterson Hood with Peter Buck & Scott McCaughey – “Let’s Go Dancing”
(from Let’s Go Dancing: Said the Firefly to the Hurricane: A Kevn Kinney Tribute Album, 2024)
Two digital drops from a limited-edition Record Store Day tribute to Kevn Kinney – best known from the mighty Drivin N Cryin – offer vigorous versions of two Kinney classics by his colleagues and fans. (It’s heading to streaming soon, and is part of a massive 100-song project that began last summer.) Isbell, whose 400 Unit includes Kinney’s Drivin N Cryin cohort Sadler Vaden, finds a perfect vehicle for his full-hearted rock roar in “Look What You’ve Done To Your Brother.” Singing with particular bite over a post-Bo Diddley guitar groove, Isbell brings the appropriate mix of anger and sadness to the song’s depiction of the forgotten and abandoned. His former bandmate and Drive-By Truckers stalwart Patterson Hood teams with R.E.M.’s Peter Buck and the Young Fresh Fellows’ Scott McCaughey on a warm, chiming version of “Let’s Go Dancing.” Driven by mandolin and rooted in the power-pop gleam that Buck and McCaughey have explored as a team in The Baseball Project, “Let’s Go Dancing” features a sweet Hood lead vocal and echoing chorus where the harmonies emphasize the inviting, evocative imagery of the lyric. If these two tracks are any indication, the larger collection is going to more than live up to its source material and esteemed roster of contributors. I, for one, can’t hardly wait. - CH
Reading recommendations:
-Zandria F. Robinson on Tyre Nichols and Memphis, for MLK50: Justice Through Journalism
-Elizabeth Nelson on Bob Dylan’s Desire, for Pitchfork
-Andrea Williams on Nashville and country music’s race problem, part 2
-Kaleb Horton talks to Jason Isbell, for GQ
-Carl Wilson on Sly Stone’s autobiography, for Bookforum
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