Friday Playlist

“Vacation” – Touch Girl Apple Blossom
We are off for our spring break tomorrow. This song is more about getting your heart broken than sitting in the sun, but it is jangly enough to evoke the right feelings.

“The Early Days Of Love” – Brigitte Calls Me Baby
Their album came out last week. There are at least five really good tracks, meaning I 100% would have bought in back in the CD era. Nowhere are The Smiths more influential than on this track, when the guitars are at their most Johnny Marr-ish.

“Kid Gloves” – Prism Shores
A perfect song for the season. It has a shimmer that speaks to the warming of the days, but a shoegaze bottom that represents those maddening cold snaps like what we had earlier this week.

“Knife In The Heart” – Lykke Li
The first time in ages I’ve liked an LL song. This track’s title fits into her normal, sad girl vibe. The music evolves into something brighter and bouncier than anything I can recall her doing. She manages to restrain it just enough so you never get the payoff of a full musical release, making it feel a very Lykke Li compromise. I appreciate her meeting us halfway.

“Dozen Roses” – Thomas Dollbaum
Dollbaum’s voice sounds a lot like David Bazan’s. That’s MJ Lenderman on guitar. Really good song.

“Worry Angel” – Witch Post
I’ve been kicking this song around for a month or two, debating whether to share it. It falls in the middle for me: I don’t dislike it but I also don’t find it super compelling. I decided to stop overthinking it and let you all decide if it was a good idea to include it in a Friday PL.

“Die Young” – Kevin Morby
Two new Morby tracks this week in advance of an upcoming album. Both are great, so you’ll likely hear the other one in a couple weeks.

“World End” – Opal Mag
I just read two books set in the Eighties. This sounds like it came from a movie of that era.

“Hawkmoon (Live)” – Hurray For The Riff Raff
I’m nearly a year into my switch to Apple Music. The one thing I’ve never mastered is finding new music that I’m not specifically looking for. Apple just can’t match Spotify’s Release Radar playlist, at least that I’ve been able to determine. I probably need to do a better job digging in. I was up early today so had a moment to scroll through the new albums and found a new live release from HFTRR. I’m not usually into live albums, but listened to the first two tracks, my two favorite songs of theirs. Including this, my #2 song of 2024.

“True Faith” – New Order
I read earlier this week that it was the 46th anniversary of the release of “Atmosphere,” the final Joy Division single. Which sent me into a mini-spiral of listening to some JD tracks, reading about the end of Ian Curtis’ life, and, naturally, sliding into New Order music from there. All the excuse for including the video of one of my 20 favorite songs ever for the first time in a while. This remains one of the greatest videos of its, or any, era.