Turn It Up - 1/29/2024

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. (Including a special one!)

Flavor Flav (featuring Chuck D) – “Every Where Man” (from Every Where Man, 2024)

I must say I did not have Flavor Flav-riffs-on-a-1962-Hank Snow-country-smash on my 2024 Bingo card, but Snow’s chorus hook (Americanized from the original Australian) is what Flav’s fallen in love with. Guest Chuck D., for once, plays the hype man (“Frequent flyerrrr!”), so Flav can brag, over guitar blasts and trashcan beats, about what a globe trotter he’s become. Points docked for not actually sampling Snow’s record (I’d’ve even settled for using Cash’s version, which these days is probably the better known?), but points added back for following it with 21 other versions of Flav’s rap, each in a different language—from Arabic and Chinese to Hindi and Malay to Spanish and Swahili. No fear of a multilingual planet here. – DC

BRELAND (featuring Nelly) – “High Horse” (from BRELAND & Friends, Vol. 1 Live, 2024)

This live EP is a fun reminder that BRELAND has himself a nice little resume as part of some of recent country’s finest, including his “My Truck,” Dierks Bentley’s “Beers on Me” and, my favorite, Nelly’s “High Horse.” On that last one, Nelly himself shows up here at the Ryman to rap his country grammar in support of BRELAND. The live version of the song is way looser, less polished, almost tossed off, but what it loses in bounce and groove from the studio perfection of the original it gains in rock virtues, especially on the squalling guitar at the close. (Also, if you don’t know Nelly’s original, from his 2021 Heartland, you should fix that right now. It’s Go-Go goes to Nashville by way of St. Louis, and it’s a banger!) – DC

Melanie – “Brand New Key” (from Gather Me, 1971)

Got “Brand New Key,” one of my very first 45s, when I was barely ten and it was still in heavy Top 40 rotation. I’d never seen Melanie at that point, so I didn’t know she was a hippie chick, or even what that was, and I didn’t get any of the song’s not-so-sly sexual references either. Wondered more than once why her new roller skates hadn’t just come with a skate key in the box to begin with. (For years, I also misheard “Sometimes I think you’re avoiding me” as “….you’re a boy to me.”) No, I picked it out at the Safeway for one reason and one reason only: “Brand New Key” was, and remains, insanely catchy. Today Melanie’s reading of the song strikes me as having real coy Donna Fargo energy, and the retro melody almost feels to me like oom-pah-pah music hall. But that hook still rules, and catchy-so-you-want-to-hear-it-again is still pop music job one. R.I.P. Melanie Safka. –DC

Sarah Jarosz - “When The Lights Go Out” (from Polaroid Lovers, 2024)

Sarah Jarosz’ remarkable voice – a cool, crystal alto that bends around the corners of her melodies – has remained at the center as the singer-songwriter has traveled from her folk and bluegrass roots to her new album’s vibrant exploration of pop and rock. (And don’t forget that she’s also an expert multi-instrumentalist, which she shows off in this track on a graceful octave-mandolin solo.) On the gliding “When The Lights Go Out,” she yearns after an intended over a bed of cascading guitars and popping drums with all the momentum and nervous excitement that such moments require. With images that poke through, like the Swift-recalling “Polaroid lovers” that gives the album its title, and a swirling melody that Jarosz delivers with texture and agility, “When The Lights Go Out” is a pure pop gem. - CH

Megan Thee Stallion — “HISS” (single, 2024)

Anybody who’s awake and honest already knows that Megan Thee Stallion is one of the best recording artists of our moment. (Notice that I didn’t qualify that by genre.) On her flame-throwing new single “HISS,” she brings the Pimp C-inspired Tina Snow persona out to slay on a relentless takedown. She’s got plenty of reasons to be pissed off – all the misogynoir-ist bullshit she’s faced is more than enough – and she spares no one’s feelings as she brilliantly unleashes her fury. But she’s also an artist at the top of her game, and you can hear the confidence, joy, and even humor when she delivers lines like “Bitches swear they Gs, but that G must stand for GOOFY.” (And then there’s her laugh – a rich, resonant reminder that recalls the great research of scholar Amalia Mallard on the traditions of Black laughter on record.) Whether this is a Nicki Minaj diss track ultimately isn’t that important to me – what is important to me is that “HISS” is a sterling example of how rhymes, beats, and flow can still combine to make for a block-rocking blowout. - CH

Lucius — “Housewarming” (single, 2024)

It’s now been over ten years since Lucius’ remarkable debut LP Wildewoman, which announced the arrival of duo Holly Laessig and Jess Wolfe. What a decade they’ve had since then: Beyond their own great follow-ups, which explore new facets of the duo’s expansive pop vision, they’ve brought their distinctive vocals (equally powerful in unison and harmony) to artists from Brandi Carlile to Mavis Staples to Roger Waters. Their new single “Housewarming” finds them in one of my favorite Lucius modes: a mid-tempo simmer where the rootsy touches (Everly Brothers harmonies, twangy guitar) mix with electronic drums and moody atmospherics that leave plenty of sonic space. The song is a tender declaration of love, but - in the best tradition of all of the group’s many influences - there’s an unmistakable undercurrent of uncertainty. When they sing “I won’t let you down,” you know that it’s laced with the plea that you won’t let them down either. - CH

Willi Carlisle — The Arrangements” (from Critterland, 2024)

I imagine that we’ll have more to say about Willi Carlisle’s Critterland as the year progresses. We were both big fans of Carlisle’s previous album, and this new one feels both like a natural next step and a noteworthy step up for this remarkable Midwestern songwriter. With a precision of imagery and analysis that doesn’t overwhelm his commitment to musicality, Carlisle presents a group of songs that are simultaneously devastating and invigorating. (The warmly supportive production from Darrell Scott serves them perfectly.) “The Arrangements” is the one that knocked me sideways on the first couple of listens. A reckoning with a just-departed “bastard” who we learn is the protagonist’s father, Carlisle doesn’t shy away from any part of the ambivalence as he sings about a loss that feels neither truly liberating nor fully tragic. “It’s still sad when bad men die,” Carlisle admits in warm baritone over weeping steel guitar, later altering it to the even more poignant “bad love.” And he leaves listeners with a realization that feels as layered and complicated as the story he just told, or as life itself: “I’m my own father now.” - CH

Kali Uchis (feat. El Alfa and JT) — “Muñekita” (from ORQUÍEDAS, 2024)

Kali Uchis’ new album is another rich mash-up of sounds, lenguas, and sensibilities from an artist who doesn’t so much blend styles as create worlds in which the old borders don’t exist. While the intoxicating album is largely composed of what Isabella Herrera calls (in an excellent Pitchfork review) Uchis’ signature “shimmering daydreams,” “Muñekita” is among the album’s livelier moments. Built from a sample of Puerto Rican artists Andy Boy & DJ Blass, the song’s explosive reggaeton incorporates Dominican singer El Alfa and Miami-based City Girl rhymer JT as it travels across multiple rhythmic and tonal registers. Like all the best pop music (of whatever source), “Muñekita” sounds like you’ve never heard anything quite like it before and yet also like you’ve somehow known it your whole life. It’s a chiqui-chiqui-chaka-chaka joy all the way through. ¡Súbele! - CH

Reading recommendations:

-David Peisner on Brittany Howard, for New York Times

-Hillary Crosley Croker on hip-hop and motherhood, for New York Times

-Sarah Paolantonio on Pitchfork, for Hippies and Hipsters

-Ann Powers on Pitchfork, for NPR

-Craig Jenkins on Pitchfork, for Vulture

-Maggie Blackhawk on Killers of the Flower Moon, for New York Times

-Emily Yahr on Brittney Spencer, for Washington Post

-Paula Mejía on Mary Weiss, for The Atlantic

-Greil Marcus on why he writes, for Yale Review

-We also wanted to shout out the new journal/newsletter Good Country, founded by our friend Justin Hiltner and the good folks at The Bluegrass Situation. Its first issue just dropped, and it features an all-star team of writers who are doing some very good work on country music and beyond. It’s free to sign up, so please make your way over there and support this excellent work. Here’s to Good Country!

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