a-song-for-eunuch

Today's Song: Cooly G featuring Simbad 'Landscapes'

Rich Juzwiak · 08/01/12 03:45PM

This song has been around for a while, but England's Cooly G released her full-length, Playin' Me, on which "Landscapes" appears just a few weeks ago. It's a stunning piece of work that has me racking my brain for a new term to replace the horribly clunky, barely descriptive "post-dubstep" label. (Don't even get me started on "bass music.") Cooly describes her work as having a "deep house tribal dubstep vibe," but that pile-on of words doesn't reflect her sound's sparse elegance. There's also a dash of neo-soul — her approach to songwriting reminds me a lot of Joi's "Sunshine & the Rain," in that many of her songs consist of just a few chanted lines. "Landscapes" is one of them. Instead of sounding undercooked it is hypnotic.

Today's Song: Miguel 'Adorn'

Rich Juzwiak · 07/31/12 04:35PM

For his new EP, Kaleidoscope Dream: The Water Preview, singer-songwriter Miguel has expanded a highlight of the free Art Dealer Chic EPs he released earlier this year. At full single length, "Adorn" is more stunning than ever — the perfect meshing of modern minimal R&B and easy, breezy quiet storm classics like Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing" and Gregory Abbott's "Shake You Down." This will soon be everywhere that R&B is welcome.

Today's Song: Mary J. Blige 'Reminisce' (What's the 411? at 20)

Rich Juzwiak · 07/27/12 02:15PM

Tomorrow marks the 20th anniversary of the release of Mary J. Blige's debut album, What's the 411?. No single disc of the past two decades did more to define the sound of R&B (though Aaliyah's One in a Million came close). The idea of singing straight R&B over hip-hop breaks (including classics like that of Audio Two's "Top Billin'," as heard in "Real Love") was a foreign concept at the time of its release. After 411? it become commonplace. Sometimes landmarks alter things so definitively that they end up subverting their own importance — 411? redefined sound so much that it's easy to forget just how revolutionary it once was. In today's context, it can sound like just a really tight collection of great songs.

Today's Song: Fiona Apple 'Every Single Night (LOL Boys Edit)'

Rich Juzwiak · 07/26/12 03:05PM

Internet-producing partners LOL Boys have never recorded in the same room — they pass tracks back and forth online from their respective locations of Montreal and Los Angeles. Earlier this week, they released an excellent mix (via Fader) of their revisions of recent (and some not so recent) songs by the likes of Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Avicii and Carly Rae Jepsen. They've converted these tracks into woozy, pulsating dog-day summer jams. We got our hands on the original versions of what went into the mix, and are sharing one of the most unlikely remixes: a clattering, pumped-up rerub of Fiona Apple's recent "Every Single Night." The setting has her sounding even more unsettled than usual.

Today's Song: Kreayshawn 'Go Hard (La.La.La)'

Rich Juzwiak · 07/24/12 02:37PM

Like any person with functioning ears, I am inclined to hate Kreayshawn, but with "Go Hard," she's hitting really close to the hypnotic inanity of the entire reason why anyone still talks about her in the first place, her breakout track, "Gucci Gucci."

Today's Song: Bat for Lashes 'Laura'

Rich Juzwiak · 07/23/12 03:50PM

Now that Kate Bush is actually making music again (although who knows for how long), it'd be especially pointless for Natasha Khan (aka Bat for Lashes) to continue making music that wonders what Kate Bush would sound like if she were making music again*. And so she is not. "Laura" is the lead single from BFL's third album The Haunted Man (look at its insane, not-quite NSFW cover). What this song lacks in velocity it makes up for with its intensity. This is straight-up drama — perfect for a slow dance with a drag queen.

Today's Song: Storm Queen 'Let's Make Mistakes'

Rich Juzwiak · 07/20/12 02:50PM

Once a year, we are blessed with a new track from producer Morgan Geist and subway-singing soul man Damon Scott. In 2010, it was "Look Right Through." 2011 saw "It Goes On." And now, coming at you in 2012 is "Let's Make Mistakes." Storm Queen straddles electronic disco and house, and the tension between the grit in Scott's voice and Geist's ultra sleek production is never less than gripping. I particularly love how the multi-tracking lifts the already very sticky chorus.

Today's Song: JoJo 'Demonstrate'

Rich Juzwiak · 07/19/12 03:30PM

A short history of JoJo: She released her self-titled debut in 2004 when she was 13 and scored a Top 20 hit with the Kidz Bop-perfect anthem "Leave (Get Out)." In 2006, she released her follow-up, The High Road, which contained the Top 5 hit "Too Little Too Late." Along the way, she has suffered record-company bullshit and picked up a legion of stans. Last year, she released "a riff on Drake's "Marvin's Room," in which she said "fuck." Maturation had set in.

Today's Song: Nas featuring Mary J. Blige 'Reach Out'

Rich Juzwiak · 07/17/12 01:00PM

Nas' 10th album Life Is Good is officially out today and it is...not Illmatic. While it is generally assumed that the rapper is chasing the elusive glory of his classic 1994 debut, there is a confidence that pervades Good. The result is a spotty-as-ever Nas record that is as enjoyable as it is dismissible. For example, the kiss-off to his ex-wife Kelis, "Bye Baby," is more exhibitionistic than it is profound ("Reason you don't trust men, that was ya daddy fault / He in the grave let it go he no longer living / Said you caught him cheating with mom, fucking other women / Fuck that gotta do with us? Here's the keys to the newest truck"). On the album cover, he sits with her green wedding dress draped over his knee.

Today's Song: Talking Heads 'Once In A Lifetime (The Reflex Near Re-Vision)'

Rich Juzwiak · 07/12/12 04:00PM

Here's an almost-re-edit of Talking Heads' 1981 classic from London's The Reflex. "Almost" because, as explained on the track's SoundCloud page, "I added claps and a couple of sound fx but everything else comes from the stems, all carefully chopped up and replayed." Basically, if you've been wanting a slightly more dance-oriented version of this song for the past 31 years (or however long), today is your lucky day.

Today's Song: Jennifer Paige 'Crush'

Rich Juzwiak · 07/11/12 03:00PM

The other day, I realized I had not listened to Jennifer Paige's "Crush" yet this summer. I fixed that immediately. What Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You" is to December (fine: September through December), Mariah soundalike Paige's "Crush" is to the summer months of my life: a quintessential sound of the season. As such, it is only rivaled by DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince's "Summertime."

Today's Songs: Those On LateNightTales' Music for Pleasure Mix

Rich Juzwiak · 07/10/12 02:40PM

The Music for Pleasure entry in the LateNightTales DJ mix series has been out for about a month now, but it's worth a listen if you've missed it and love lite '70s and '80s cheese. Mixed by Groove Armada's Tom Findlay, this is basically an A-Z of yacht rock. All it's missing is the infomerical full of people drooling over the halcyon days '70s am gold. If it had Boston's "More Than a Feeling," E.L.O.'s "Don't Bring Me Down" and Heart's "Magic Man" were on it, it would have every single non-disco-oriented song from the '70s and by white people that I ever would want to hear.

Today's Song: Frank Ocean 'Sweet Life'

Rich Juzwiak · 07/06/12 03:20PM

I can think of no better end to a week full of words from and about Frank Ocean than with some music. Speaking for its sun-kissed self, "Sweet Life" is off Ocean's official debut Channel Orange, which is out a week from Tuesday. The New York Times' Jon Caramanica says the album is "beautiful," and from what I've heard of it so far, I'm inclined to agree. I would be even without all the gay stuff.

Today's Song: Nelly Furtado 'Spirit Indestructible'

Rich Juzwiak · 07/05/12 04:08PM

Here's Nelly Furtado's second attempt to launch her The Spirit Indestructible album (due in September) following the flop of its first single, "Big Hoops (The Bigger the Better)." You don't win friends with freestyle and her voice sounds accordingly unwieldy and shrill. That said, nothing says freestyle quite like balmy summer days, and for that reason alone, this one is doing it for me.