Friday Playlist

Not to ruin your expectations before you work your way through this week’s songs, but I’m not sure about a few of these. Feels like we’ve reached a lull in the new music where I have a lot of B songs. Don’t get me wrong, there are some decent ones in here, especially in the front half of this list. I’m just saying if you get distracted and can’t finish it, I don’t think you’ll miss anything life changing.

“September Gurls” – Big Star
December boys got it bad.

“Rock A Bye Baby” – Jean Dawson
Holy 1985!!! This sounds like every song that came out that year trying to capitalize on Prince’s success, or was made by a Prince-produced act. I’m not complaining.

“Another Life” – Alabama Shakes
After ten years apart, three of the four original members of Alabama Shakes are back together playing music again. This is the first new track to come from that work. Pretty solid.

“Lose It Again” – Hatchie
My girl Harriette Pilbeam has a new album lined up for November. She brought in Jay Som to produce, which pushes the indie rock slider up a few notches without losing her standard dream pop goodness. I just realized I think I like that new Chappell Roan song so much because musically it really lines up with Hatchie’s sound.

“Act Like Your Title” – Rocket
This is the fourth Rocket track I’ve shared over the past few months. Another sign of the modern music industry: at least four advance singles well before their album comes out. At this point I’m not sure it will be worth listening to when it drops next month, as surely I’ve heard all the good songs already, right?

“Lucky” – Mên An Tol
A big change from the first MAT song I shared, which was all noisy and distorted.

“Eidolon” – Hibou
I’m not sure where I came across this song, as a quick search this morning didn’t show it being discussed in any of the major music sites I follow. It sounds springy as hell but I’m not going to sit on it for eight months.

“Godlike” – Twen
Stereogum described this as a “breezy, late-summer chiller.” I guess that fits the moment. I’ve also seen this band’s name presented three different ways: Twen, twen, and TWEN. Someone needs a style guide.

“Play The Game Tonight” – Kansas
There’s kind of a big football game involving my alma mater tomorrow. It’s being played in Missouri during the afternoon, so I’m not sure how much it applies. The best I could do to reference the moment.