Turn It Up - 6/2/2025

Earworms, obsessions, recommendations

Ink introduces herself, and Shamir says farewell. Bing makes it look easy, and Bruce claps back. And more!

Bing Crosby – “Love Is a Many Splendored Thing” (from Bing at the Movies, Volume 2, 2025)

Bing Crosby was a superstar before that was a term. He dominated the pop charts and the silver screen for decades even as people encountered him most often as the convivial host of a series of variety shows on radio and, later, television. This second installment of Bing at the Movies collects performances from The Bing Crosby Show, a daily 15-minute program broadcast on CBS Radio in the mid-1950s. He’d chat with guests and sing a couple of songs, usually hits of the moment on which he was accompanied only by the trio of pianist Buddy Cole—spare arrangements that can still resonate in our century. Or at least I’d like to think they can: Crosby stands behind probably only Louis Armstrong in terms of inventing the pop world we’ve inhabited ever since, but at this point he’s a non-entity to most folks, not even preceded anymore by his reputation. On “Love Is a Many Splendored Thing,” the now-standard title song from a 1955 film starring William Holden and Jennifer Jones, Crosby comes off as the definition of relaxed, not seeming to perform so much as simply musing to himself about true love’s miraculous powers and not much minding when he falls a tad flat or lands a bit scratchy. As he so often did, Crosby makes you think, “I could do that!” You can’t. Crooning so easily is about as hard as it gets, and Crosby remains the master and chief inspiration for every crooner to come. Best just to drink it in and smile. – DC

Ink – “Turquoise Cowboy” (single, 2025)

You’ve heard songs by Ink (nee Atia Boggs) before: She’s a co-writer credit on a number of recent Beyonce songs, including Cowboy Carter’s “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages” and Renaissance’s “Summer Renaissance,” and she has collaborated with Kendrick Lamar and Lil Nas X, too. Now, her debut single, “Turquoise Cowboy,” takes the Cowboy Carter world she helped create and claims it for her own. It’s an earworm, for sure. I especially like the way her “wild, wild, wild, wild, wild” serves as a hooky-as-hell hat tip to Rihanna. Like a lot of country debuts, the song makes its necessary authenticity claims, even doubles down on them, but she’s also staking claim to what’s hers: She’s had it with (what I’m calling Nashville’s) rhinestone cowboys, but you can keep your fool’s gold. Turquoise is built to last. Can you keep up? – DC

Glitterfox – “Passenger” (single, 2025)

Portland’s Glitterfox were a trio—guitar and bass with lead singer Andrea Walker jumping in here and there to play standup drums—that exploded louder than you’d expect behind hooks and passion. Now expanded to a five-piece, the band has exploded to another level. “Passenger” hits me in key moments like a great lost Stevie Nicks track. Walker sounds riveting here but a little spooky. She’s searching for… something she’s not sure she wants to find and isn’t stopping till she finds it. – DC

Amina Claudine Myers – “African Blues” (single, 2025)

The jazz pianist and singer Amina Claude Myers first cut “African Blues” in 1980, the final epic track to her Salutes Bessie Smith album. (I wrote about another track from the reissue here.) On that earlier “African Blues,” Myers wailed and chanted and scatted for nearly 15 minutes, wordlessly, which isn’t to suggest you won’t understand her perfectly or that you won’t be on the edge of your seat for every second. This new version of the song, out ahead of Myers’ next album, Solace of the Mind (out in July), comes in at a concise 3:22. Maybe she’s tired of that age-long blues, or maybe she’s just gotten better at telling it. Maybe Myers, now 83, wants to look ahead for what time she has. This brief, and voiceless, version feels heavier and sadder from note one, all the same, but less painful. May even share a smile there, just before the end. – DC

Bruce Springsteen – “Repo Man” (from Tracks II: The Lost Albums, 2025)

The Springsteen that matters most right now is his new live EP calling out Trump and sounding the alarm for American democracy. (See Charles below). But I wanted to note this earlier release for a few reasons. From a country-vibing “lost album,” Somewhere North of Nashville, that he reportedly worked on while recording 1995’s The Ghost of Tom Joad, “Repo Man” is a rock-and-roll blast. It’s the kind of slighter-than-slight but fun-as-hell ramrod that Bruce has mostly steered clear of these last decades. You can imagine it as an especially welcome palette cleanser during sessions otherwise focused on socially conscious downbeat and down tempo ballads like “Sinaloa Cowboys” and “Youngstown.” But why is Bruce’s spirited heel turn—no matter your excuse, he’s taking your ride—being characterized as “country”? Hauling off a behind-on-payments Mercedes or “a “Gran Torino way up in the Bronx” doesn’t read very down-to-earth or suburban either one. The most obvious reason for the “country” label is the pedal steel guitar of Marty Rifkin that dominates the track from its first hyper twangy note and gets a couple whiz-bang solos to boot. Rifkin’s leering-but-light licks lift the record to a place Bruce hasn’t really ventured before but sound as if they lifted his heart. Urgent broadsides aside, we need that now too. – DC

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band – “Chimes of Freedom” (live) (from Land of Hope and Dreams, 2025)

Bruce Springsteen’s condemnation of Donald Trump at the start of his new tour provoked an unsurprising bit of bilious bullshit from the president. In response to Trump’s rant, Springsteen released the songs and comments from Manchester on a new EP. I’m happy to revisit all of it, but I’m most struck by the presence of “Chimes of Freedom,” the Bob Dylan song in the Byrds arrangement that became its most enduring. Springsteen hadn’t played it live since a 1988 Amnesty International tour, so its presence at the end of the Manchester show (and subsequent setlists) carries particular resonance. Backed by the extra-large E Street Band, which adds a horn section and background chorus, Springsteen finds both the power and mystery in the song’s imagistic verses and prayerful chorus. It’s an anthem and evocation, steeped in the gospel impulse and committed to the promise of rock and roll as collective experience. Nobody does that better than Springsteen, and it’s good to have this Bruce back. Meet the new Boss, same as the old Boss. – CH

Kali Uchis – “All I Can Say” (from Sincerely,, 2025)

Kali Uchis’ new album is a luscious pop dream, with the Colombian-American artist embracing her cross-genre auteurism on a record that dances across sixty years of hit-parade sweetness. The girl-group swoon “All I Can Say” is a highlight. Both a breathless appeal to a lover and a statement of self-assurance, “All I Can Say” pairs the aching 6/8 of the prom slow dance with an Uchis vocal that takes both root and flight. She comes up close when she reminds us “I’m not sorry for the way that I love or the heart that I have,” before fluttering away in falsetto syllables that seem ready to escape at any moment. Hopeless romanticism at its most hopeful. And romantic – CH

Esther Rose – “New Bad” (from Want, 2025)

The guitar-punctuated stomp that opens “New Bad” comes in like an old friend, over which New Orleans-based Esther Rose finds paths both familiar and unpredictable. The verses are straightforward (and delightful) in their crunchy twang, as Rose admits her inability to settle her restless heart despite the costs. Then, in the chorus, she dissolves the track into waves of post-‘90s rock shimmer, floating alongside the pools of guitars until it resolves back into the forward-march of the next verse. The juxtaposition works perfectly, especially since – even though I’ve listened to “New Bad” a whole bunch already – it always comes as a welcome surprise. – CH

Shamir – “Offline” (from Ten, 2025)

Shamir has been one of our most exciting recording artists since his emergence in 2015, and he’s announced that the appropriately named Ten will be his final album. In an act of charming generosity, the gifted songwriter and producer has turned over the writing and production to others on this album, resulting in a final (?) statement that allows this iconoclast to place himself in community and shine a spotlight on his remarkable singing. A genre transgressor, Shamir is rooted here in rock, particularly the overdriven ring of alt-rock, emo, and their contemporary heirs. But one of the most affecting moments is quieter. The graceful “Offline” is a love song backed only by acoustic guitar and piano, where Shamir details an IRL love story that allowed him to unplug from the virtual-verse. It’s tender and lovely, with hands moving across bodies and eyes gazing into hearts, and the piercing heights of Shamir’s voice serve both the passionate and peaceful impulses outlined in Ben Lee’s lyric. “Looking back in the end, I guess I needed a friend,” Shamir admits, adding “I found a reason to hide.” I’ll miss Shamir if this truly is his farewell, but I wish him all the happiness that this song suggests. – CH

Southern Avenue – “Upside” (from Family, 2025)

Southern Avenue is a great young rock-and-soul band from Memphis, and their new album Family is their best yet. Recorded at the city’s legendary Royal Studios, the burning “Upside” finds lead singer Tierinii Jackson preaching a message of perseverance over a smoking mid-tempo groove powered by guitarist Ori Naftaly. The magic really kicks in when Tierinii is joined by sisters T.K. (who plays drums in the best, popping style of Al Jackson, Jr.) and Ava (who also adds percussion and violin throughout Family) in punching three-part harmony that recalls the Staple Singers and, particularly to my ears, the Pointer Sisters. “Upside” luxuriates over 5 minutes, which allows the group to break it down, build it back, and then ride out with a closing instrumental section that spotlights a Naftaly solo. This is a great track, from an album that delivers on the promise of the musical past while writing a new chapter for its future. – CH

Recommended reading:

-Andrea Williams on Shaboozey, Lesley Riddle and country music, for The Tennessean

-Chris Riemenschneider reports on Bob Mould receiving his honorary doctorate from Macalester College, for The Minnesota Star Tribune

-Maura Johnston on the 50 best one-hit wonders of the 2000s, for Rolling Stone

-Jeff Gage on Lotti Golden’s 1969 Motor-Cycle, for Rolling Stone

-Alphonse Pierre on the New York Knicks and New York hip-hop, for Pitchfork

-Sheldon Pearce on Common, Kanye West, and the 20^th anniversary of Be, for NPR

-Caryn Rose on Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench, and rock’s “sacred archive,” for Salon

-Alex Greene on the late Memphis musician Luke White, for Memphis Flyer

-Annie Zaleski on the enduring popularity of 4 Non Blondes’ “What’s Up"?,” for Salon

-Elliott Wilson on the late writer Sacha Jenkins, for Uproxx

Coming soon… (Billboard 5/11/1974)

If you like what you’re reading here, please think of subscribing to No Fences Review! It’s free for now, although we will be adding a paid tier with exclusive content soon. Also, if you’d like to support our work now, you can hit the blue “Pledge” button on the top-right of your screen to pledge your support now, at either monthly, yearly, or founding-member rates. You’ll be billed when we add the paid option. Thanks!