Aisha Badru - The Way Back Home
The first thing any listener of Aisha Badru’s music has to notice is her uniquely haunting vocal tone. Soaring over simple acoustic guitar strums and the pulsing four-on-the-floor drumbeat of “The Way Back Home,” Badru’s lush lead vocal takes this emotive acoustic track to new heights. Shimmering, delicate synths in the background of the production are a clever touch to echo Badru’s own otherworldly vocal quality. This is a song to listen to on a misty night, possibly while tracing the steady beacon of a lit lighthouse over dark waters.
The lyrics of “The Way Back Home” are simple, possibly because they don’t have to do much more than provide a way for us to experience Badru’s voice. Lines like “There’s a world out there and it’ll come calling” are repeated with subtle differences throughout, evolving just enough to illustrate the song’s message of constancy and certainty even as new experiences beckon. However, the arrangement of this track is more layered than you might expect from a typical acoustic ballad. The choruses especially feature a thick, warm low-end that you could melt into. Overall, from the rich instrumentation to the moving vocal to the mantra-like lyrics, Aisha Badru’s “The Way Back Home” is a song that invites you to dissolve into it, trusting that it will carry you back to where you came from.
— Belle Shea on October 19, 2021
Ice Cube - It Was A Good Day
This is another bop/throwback for the car. I vibe out to this one pretty hard :) — Claire Rosinkranz
California native Claire Rosinkranz brings classical work ethic to alt-pop song-scapes in her 2020 EP BeVerly Hills BoYfRiEnd. At 16, Claire says the discipline and work ethic she learned from years of classical ballet training turned into a passion to be the best at everything she does — including making music.
— Alessandra Rincon on November 20, 2020
Emilee Emiko - Quiet
"Quiet" by Emilee Emiko is a cool and reassuring drink of water in a chronic anxiety-driven dry spell. The track opens with a mellow grove and dreamy harmonies that sound like a pastel, upbeat Phoebe Bridgers. Relentlessly buoyant and easygoing, Emiko’s voice flows through verses about embracing your own agency through acknowledging what’s outside of your control. After all, if everything’s in your control, the next logical stop is that everything is in some way your fault. (Spoilers, it’s not.) You don’t exist in vacuum; you’re influenced by your circumstances and sometimes you can influence them right back. Sometimes not. Or, as Emiko eloquently sings, “If the world’s gone mad, well so have I / I put up a good fight.” It’s not a resigned sigh of defeat — the upbeat percussion, major harmonies and cheerful picked arpeggiations definitely say otherwise. It’s more like an acknowledgement that in order to adapt to unusual circumstances, you’ll probably react a bit unusually. It’s not indicative of how you’d behave under normal circumstances; that speculation is like comparing oranges and bananas. Instead, it’s healthier to slow down a bit and yield control to where you are. Take some time to process where you are, honestly. You can figure out where you have agency to move somewhere after, but it’s always worth taking a moment to get your mind quiet first. You might even find a piece of peace in it. Photo by Elsa Oluja.
— Allison Hill on November 20, 2020
Felix Räuber - Colors
German singer-songwriter Felix Räuber exposes love’s intrusive side in his latest single, “Colors.” Minimalist, droning and orchestral, the track builds an echo chamber for pining verses and a chorus that gives full authority to the speaker’s love interest. “You even control the colors in my head,” he sighs in disdain, “You even control the choirs in my head.” Räuber surrenders his own sense of presence for a distant light projection. The genius here lies in the song’s tonality — ironically gray and chromatically chilled. Overall, it is a moment of silence for romance turned sour, interrupted by noise in the spirit of unrequited love’s persistent voice. Photo by Madlen Krippendorf.
— Daphne Ellis on November 20, 2020
Kishi Bashi - Penny Rabbit and Summer Bear
Today we are announcing In The Mix, our new collaboration with Desert Door Texas Sotol, supporting the music and food industries that have been devastated by the pandemic. In The Mix pairs artist-curated playlists, free merchandise and a discounted Desert Door cocktail with the purchase of a special restaurant creation from select partnering restaurants in Atlanta, Boulder and Nashville on December 7-14.
In Georgia our In The Mix artist is Athens-based singer-songwriter Kishi Bashi. He helped inspire the special dish from Atlanta's Talat Market — Thai-style sautéed bay scallop and persimmon warm salad, complemented by a Desert Door cocktail with Ancho Reyes Verde Chile, fresh pineapple and lime juice and agave.
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Listening to Kishi Bashi is comparable to floating through the most golden day that ever existed in the landscape of your favorite childhood storybook. “Penny Rabbit and Summer Bear” is a light and gleeful representation of the whimsical sound that Kishi Bashi is known for. With the delicate plucking of acoustic guitar accompanied by a soft stream of glimmering chimes, this track infiltrates the monotony of the day and creates within it a glimpse into a more pure, more courageous existence. This sentiment reigns true over all of Kaoru Ishibashi's musical inventions; there is a certain pureness and clandestine invitation into goodness surrounding his growing body of work. Photo by Rachael Renee Levasseur.
— Laney Esper on November 19, 2020
Becca Mancari - Bad Feeling
Today we are announcing In The Mix, our new collaboration with Desert Door Texas Sotol, supporting the music and food industries that have been devastated by the pandemic. In The Mix pairs artist-curated playlists, free merchandise and a discounted Desert Door cocktail with the purchase of a special restaurant creation from select partnering restaurants in Atlanta, Boulder and Nashville on December 7-14.
Nashville's In The Mix artist is indie singer-songwriter Becca Mancari. Nashville staple Butcher & Bee has put together a special dish inspired by Mancari's complex songwriting and Americana influence — charred octopus with fermented pepper sauce, broccoli rabe, charred citrus and a delicate blanket of country ham. Paired with the meal is a special Desert Door cocktail, the Mexican Queen, with blood orange juice, orange zest, ginger beer and lime.
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On "Bad Feeling," Becca Mancari's voice rings like a church bell, pure and clear and hanging in the air. “With your hands around my throat and I say baby, please, don’t” — she places each word carefully, as if it may break, but the music isn’t dramatic or intimidating. She has a bad feeling, but she doesn’t sound surprised. If anything, the music sounds laid-back, like a breeze streaming in the windows on a warm spring day. It’s soft-rock but in an intentionally sweet way. The nonchalant flavor is a stark contrast to the harsh lyrics: “Isn’t it hard when you see me for the first time and it breaks your heart?” After the second verse we enter what seems to be a bridge, but it’s really just the song deteriorating into voices, phrases, pieces of guitar and drums and bass harmonics echoing into the ether. Photo by Zac Farro.
— Mikhal Weiner on November 19, 2020
Big Head Todd and The Monsters - It's Alright
Today we are announcing In The Mix, our new collaboration with Desert Door Texas Sotol, supporting the music and food industries that have been devastated by the pandemic. In The Mix pairs artist-curated playlists, free merchandise and a discounted Desert Door cocktail with the purchase of a special restaurant creation from select partnering restaurants in Atlanta, Boulder and Nashville on December 7-14.
Our Boulder artist for In The Mix is the beloved local rock band Big Head Todd and The Monsters. Blackbelly has crafted a special dish in homage to the band — koji-cured pork with sugarloaf chicory, pomegranate, charred leeks, pistachio crumble and pancetta. Patrons can complete the meal with the discounted Bitter Heart cocktail made with Desert Door sotol, cynar, lime, simple syrup and bitters.
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To celebrate our collaboration, we are journeying back to 1993 with Big Head Todd and The Monsters’ “It’s Alright.” Off of these Colorado boys’ album, Sister Sweetly, this track is the epitome of every slow, swaggering jam this 90’s child grew up on; it’s riding in the back of my dad’s car on the way to school, sharing the same home-burned CD real estate with “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and “Mother and Child Reunion.” The vamping guitar, relaxed, methodical groove and ever-charismatic vocals of “It’s Alright” come together to create a track that’s as perfectly at home as I write this from a rainy San Francisco as it always is onstage at their native Red Rocks. Big Head Todd and The Monsters have carved a truly timeless place for themselves in the rock genre over their impressive 30-year career together, and as evidenced by their 2020 release, We’re Gonna Play It Anyway - Red Rocks 2020 (Live), they’re, thankfully for all of us, as tight as ever.
— Stephanie Lamond on November 19, 2020
Briston Maroney – Freakin’ Out On The Interstate
I always listen to this song while driving to the beach with all my windows down. It has the best carefree vibe to it :) — Claire Rosinkranz
Claire Rosinkranz has referred to her sound on the BeVerly Hills BoYfRiEnd EP as "alternative-blues-pop." Throughout the EP, she sonically depicts the see-saw of emotions associated with being a teen in 2020, especially on tracks like "Tough Guy" and "Seriouslaaay.”
— Alessandra Rincon on November 18, 2020
Bleachers - 45
There are few songs that can capture the eccentric high — the particular nostalgic fusion of elation and melancholy — of speeding through your hometown streets with the windows down. Everything around you is familiar down to the electricity in the air, but even though you may have a story for every insignificant landmark on the map, the pang in your stomach reminds you that, in many ways, what has changed most is you. Sometimes we outgrow places and, sometimes, it instead feels like they have outpaced us — as if our goals, dreams, and lives in general should have somehow been bigger by the time we’ve returned. Bleachers’ “45” nestles into this odd comfort; into the reckoning and glistening hope that we can feel all at once when we feel out of touch with the world around us. The track sees the soul of Bleachers, Jack Antonoff, construct this towering moment by swapping out his characteristic vintage synths for an acoustic guitar, light electronic tones and delicate vocal layering. Over this ethereal atmosphere, he sings of this disjointedness (“I'm torn exactly into two pieces / One who wants you and one who's gone dark”) and paints us a picture of two 45 records “spinning out of time.” Despite this, Antonoff reminds us that even in this looming gray uncertainty, the greatest thing we can do is give all we have to one cause: to endlessly seek and shine a light on the deepest and darkest parts of ourselves and those around us, and to love them, even when we feel like we might break. The anthemic chorus is undeniably true to form for Bleachers, who will leave you searching for the nearest yellow-lit concrete tunnel to speed through, aching to understand your love’s own legacy, singing, “But I'm still in sight / Your fast machine / Always holding your love supreme.” Photo by Carlotta Kohl.
— Heddy Edwards on November 18, 2020
Beharie - Me and My Lonely
Identity is complicated. There are so many facets to it. Some aspects are shaped by fate, others are shaped by yourself. Still others are domino effects of shaping fate that shapes you back. Sometimes these facets help you lock into a community or build kinship with others; however, it’s just as true that no one has ever walked the exact same path you have. Beharie’s "Me and My Lonely" holds that idea in its palm and inspects it from every angle. The first verse explores the isolation of being aware that there are aspects of yourself that might not make sense to anyone else. Narrating your internal existence can be tedious and uncomfortable — especially when you’re used to just existing without having to justify it to anyone else. The second verse questions what the threshold is to be known by someone else, how genuine it is and if it’s worth the effort. After all, no matter how much time you spend with someone, they’ll never spend as much time with you as you do with yourself. Any depth of knowledge compared to that seems shallow, but does that really mean it is? "Me and My Lonely" doesn’t settle on an answer, but it continues to ponder on it against a pensive acoustic guitar backdrop. Each chorus picks up new textures and tries them on for size. They simultaneously fit and don’t. They all sound pleasant together but also each tugs on your sleeve for your attention. There is too much going on to notice and appreciate every facet, but you can fall in love with it for how they fit together. I guess people are like that too.
— Allison Hill on November 18, 2020
Dean Keeton & Cole Bauer - That Sound (feat. Andi Rella)
Austin-based duo dean keeton and singer-songwriter Cole Bauer join forces for “That Sound,” a bedroom R&B tune with a classic touch. Having collaborated twice before on 2018’s “Different Eyes” and this summer’s “Unread,” the trio tap even further into a synced-up late night sensibility and affinity for retro sounds. “Gimme a reason we should keep this on the ground,” they seek, vocals floating higher and higher over an electric jazz piano à la Herbie Hancock. Andi Rella’s sublime guest vocals preserve a sense of soothing warmth over the crisp drums and crooning that characterize their sound, modern R&B production putting a contemporary twist on easy listening. “That Sound” features alongside four other tracks on their upcoming EP of the same name, due out November 20.
— Ysabella Monton on November 18, 2020
