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Showing posts from January, 2025

The Best Songs of January 2025 // New Music Friday!

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"Basic Being Basic" by Djo Djo is back with the lead single off of his upcoming album The Crux ! "Basic Being Basic" is such a playful and simultaneously thought-provoking look at internet culture and superficiality. Of course, Joe's signature enigmatic performance style is on full display, as he sings about yearning for deeper, more meaningful connections. In a press release, he said that it is a "kind of a shot fired to anyone who's trying to be of the moment." It may be too early to say, but I can definitely see The Crux becoming one of my top favorite albums of the year - I can't wait to hear more from it! "The Abyss" by The Weeknd The third and final installment of The Weeknd 's After Hours trilogy of albums is here with Hurry Up Tomorow . "The Abyss" comes toward the end of the sprawling hour and a half long album, symbolizing much of what this end of an era means for him as an artist. It also features uncredited ...

"That's So True" by Gracie Abrams // Song Review

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"That's So True" by Gracie Abrams is so cheeky and fun to listen to, but also so sharply written. I love how endlessly catchy it is too, so many lyrics from this song have been stuck in my head ever since I first heard it. It was released in late 2024 as one of the four bonus tracks on the deluxe edition of her album,  The Secret of Us . She had been working on this song for about a year at that point, but didn't end up finishing it until after she already turned in the final version of the standard album. Prior to "That's So True" being released, Gracie performed it several times on her tour, which gained a lot of traction on social media leading up to its official release. Eventually when The Secret of Us (Deluxe) came out, "That's So True" was an immediate fan favorite and even marked her very first time topping the UK charts. It's no wonder why it has become such a massive viral hit, as it fits the formula to a perfect pop song, w...

"Love It If We Made It" by The 1975 // Song Review

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"Love It If We Made It" by The 1975 was written between 2016 and 2018 - undoubtedly one of the most harrowing and chaotic times that many of us have lived through up to that point. George Daniel , the band's drummer and producer, first started the song in 2015, after completing the band's sophomore album . The 1975's lead singer and primary writer, Matty Healy , gathered headlines from newspapers during a two-year period to use in the song's lyrics. He ended up rewriting much of the song to better capture the volatile political landscape we were living through at that time, which unfortunately has not slowed down since. It was released in late 2018 as the lead single of The 1975's third album  A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships . In the song, Matty is laying out a succinct timeline of events over the past few years, one after another for every verse. It basically serves as sort of a newsreel of every major headline and historical event in the cultu...

Charm by Clairo // Album Review

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Third time's a charm! The beauty of Clairo 's Charm   truly lies in it's simplicity and subtleties of her artistry. This album is made up of simple musings that are so inherently personal and deeply relatable at the same time. She has such a talent for storytelling in a way that is innately modern, yet very rooted in pop aesthetics of the 1970's. Each song is so layered, with a warm and inviting atmosphere that the listener is engulfed in from the start. She and her core collaborator on this album, producer Leon Michaels, took an analog approach to the creation of Charm , bringing together a live ensemble of horns, woodwinds and synthesizers to capture the vintage sound. In an increasingly digital music landscape, I love to see her going back to basics in that way and creating something completely away from the trends. Clairo draws from a range of influences, but I particularly love the jazz elements incorporated throughout. "This record was a lot about showcasing ...

"California" by Joni Mitchell // Song Review

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Joni Mitchell wrote "California" all over the world, each verse was written in a different country and vividly depicts both the physical and emotional place she was at in those moments. From France, to Spain, to Greece, she writes a travelogue of her time in each country, but continuously wishes she were home in California instead. "Sitting in a park in Paris, France, reading the news and it sure looks bad," Joni sings in the opening lines of the song. "They won't give peace a chance, that was just a dream some of us had". She wrote this song in a very conversational, stream-of-consciousness style. Her talent for storytelling is like no other, her writing is so vivid and detailed that allows the listener to be transported right to the setting of the song. "California" was written sometime in the summer of 1970, while she was traveling through Europe. Throughout that journey, she ended up writing much of  Blue , which was released the followi...