All about the ladies this week. Well, kind of. There is a male artist in the PL, but as you’ll learn, he was “in a phase,” as my mom would have said.
“the 1” – Taylor Swift
I give Taylor all the credit: show knows how to write a fucking song. I keep getting drawn back to her folklore album. It might be the best album I’ve listened to this year. My only quibble is it is a little long and a few of its 16 tracks could have been pruned. That said, she saves one of the best for very late in the running that makes fighting through the middle worth it. I’ll likely share that song down the road. This is the first track and is a perfect tone-setter for what is to follow.
“Berlin” – Fenne Lily
I had never heard of Fenne Lily before about a month ago. I’ve heard three songs of her up-coming second album and have liked each one a little more. This one smolders and smokes and it just wonderful.
“A/B Futures” – Land of Talk
I love it when artists stretch their boundaries a little. This doesn’t sound like any Land of Talk track I had ever heard before. It is a delightful surprise.
“Sorry” – beabadoobee
A couple firsts here. Definitely the first Philippines-born artist I’ve shared here. And perhaps the first artist born in the current century? Beatrice Laus was born June 2, 2000. Which kind of blows my mind. Especially when she makes music like this, which sounds like it’s straight from 1996.
“Cosmic Day” – Prince
Another “lost” track from the Prince vaults. In 1986 he recorded a bunch of tracks featuring sped-up vocals that sounded more feminine than his normal voice. A handful of these tracks were collected and set to be released on an album called Camille which would be attributed to an artist named Camille rather than Prince. That album was scrapped, as were two other albums (Dream Academy and Crystal Ball). In 1987 songs from these sessions, along with some new additions, were compiled for Sign ‘o the Times. “Cosmic Day” was never pegged for any of those projects. It’s a fun little track. Most of, it’s a reminder of how much freaking music he was making at the time. After Around the World In A Day was released, he managed to record enough music to fill multiple albums and still had songs left over.
“Everything for Free” – K’s Choice
I’ve said many times that I don’t have the same nostalgic pull towards ‘90s music that I have to ‘80s music. I do have the SiriusXM Lithium station in my favorites, but it is buried behind a lot of others and takes awhile to get there. And when I pass it, I often keep going. But occasionally I hear a song I haven’t heard in a long time and go, “Oh yeah!” and crank it up for the next few minutes. That was the case with this, which I heard earlier this week. Pretty good song. Worth mentioning that then lead singer Sarah Bettens has since transitioned and is now named Sam Bettens.