Bonus Notes: January 2021
Freshly Minted
Going forward, I plan to make Freshly Minted a weekly-updated playlist of 50 recent releases I’m really digging. As I listen far across genre lines, not everything will be for everyone. But there should be something for everyone within!
MWE!
Every February, Gary Suarez hosts #MWE (Music Writer Exercise) on Twitter. The goal is to listen to an album you’ve never heard every day and write about it on Twitter. It starts today! Join me if you like (even if you’re not currently a writer), or just follow along :) You can see my first post and list below:
January Album Recommendations
The freedom in Arlo Parks’ voice is so inviting. She sounds like a best friend, asking us to share heartaches, but also offering affirmations as she sings, “Just know it won’t hurt so much forever.”
Oh, I love the playfulness inherent in Leeds punk group Yard Act. I need them to release more than four songs immediately because this is already my favorite thing. The title track is just so dancey; the narrated story that interrupts “Peanuts,” so unexpected.
Combining traditional Ghanaian music with Western influences—notably rap and reggae—Alostmen bring attention to the kologo (a two-string lute) and other West African instruments as they “put on their dancing shoes” and defy the feeling of being lost with hope.
I just spun this record a couple times yesterday and don’t even remember how I came upon it. But Istanbul producer Anıl Berk Çetin has a way of marrying the digital and analog—architecture and nature—with ease. I’ll keep coming back to this mix for hope in 2021.
For SOPHIE. RIP.
Reading Recommendations
Read a lot of wonderful tributes to the late MF DOOM, including this one from Craig Jenkins. Also, this profile by Te-Nehisi Coates in 2009 is phenomenal.
Speaking of Craig Jenkins, he got me to listen to country’s new superstar, Morgan Wallen, and I had a surprisingly good time.
Really enjoyed this conversation between Yard Act and Janessa Williams for Loud and Quiet.
As always, Tom Breihan’s The Number Ones column is a delight. Loved his exploration of The Bangles’ “Walk Like An Egyptian” this month.
Hunter Harris interviewed Jazmine Sullivan about her new excellent album, Heaux Tales for Vulture.
Shameless Plugs
I wrote about David Bowie, Pink Floyd, Janelle Monaé, and the Flaming Lips for a collaboration with Rashad Grove and Clara Scott on Space/Alien albums for Consequence of Sound.
I also explored the pop music context into which Adele’s now-10-year-old album, 21, was released and how she breathed fresh air into a scene that forgot to have soul.