While a handful of you reading this are likely nursing a hangover from a few too many glasses of wine and slices of pie over Thanksgiving last night, I’m here, prying my eyes open after living in front of an oven door for the past two days, trying to feast my ears on as much New Music Friday content as possible. It’s a daunting task as I wade through the faint chimes of sweet carol bells looming in the background, beckoning me to usher in the Christmas season. So far the tempting Black Friday sales have benefited nobody but the company wallets I’m filling, my personal wardrobe and skincare routine.
This week I’ve got SIX crazy good tracks, and a grip of bonus content because it’s Black Friday and some artists are doing the abso-fucking-lute MOST.
Please reach out to me via the handy dandy contact page on the cmd+f website, or on Twitter with your thoughts about any of the tracks I’ve selected this week. As you already know, I love chatting about music. Let me in on your new favorite band; they’re looking for new fans, too!
As always, you know the drill: if you like what you hear, spread the cheer. Tell your friends about the songs you liked in this letter, but most importantly, let the artists know. There’s a good chance they’ll see your comments. Let them know how good their tunes are, and they’ll crank out even more magic.
P.S. If you would like to have this letter sent to your email every Friday, please head over to this link right here to subscribe to never miss a weekly roundup!
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“Bom Bom” - Tkay Maidza x Danny L. Harle | I’m already kicking my own ass for even bringing this up, but I know this thought is lingering in the back of many people’s minds: you ever think about what we could have had in music if Azealia Banks had her shit together??? Tkay has her own flow and sound, but this was my first thought when I heard the opening notes on this FIRE collab. Azealia fucked with this head-spinning, heavy 90s house vibe. Throw in PC Music producer Danny L. Harle to wonk things up a bit and you got a monster track. “Bom Bom” sounds like that threat of nausea and the rush of adrenaline after a rollercoaster ride on a full stomach. Big, big tune this one Listen here
“Feel the Same” - Bully | Sounding straight up like a long-lost Hole track, “Feel the Same” is a jittery, frantic ode to lethargy – or rather the anxieties of struggling to maintain relationships with people, fearing those friendships are crumbling, all the while dealing with the fact you feel nothing and everything all at once. And it fucking slaps. Go figure. I’ve declared it the depressives club anthem. Listen here
“Stonewall Frank” - Nelson Can | Nelson Can have adopted the “no guitars but still gonna belt out a chooooon” approach to their music, a la The White Stripes’ claim to fame. Armed with nothing but a drum kit, a juicy bassline, and killer vocals, “Stonewall Frank” is a bop, banger, AND a jam all at once. What an honor, to be honest. I wouldn’t use such strong qualifiers if it wasn’t true Listen here
“Get These Things Out of My Head” - Pale Honey | Swedish duo Pale Honey dropped their sophomore album Devotion last month. Diving into the 10-track album completely submerged me into a liminal space, hovering over this sense of unease in the lyrics mixed with an unexplainable tension of nostalgia. “Get These Things Out of My Head” sounds exactly like a song I’ve heard a million times before I heard it for the first time last week. It felt I had listened to it many a times walking through a ghostly supermarket at midnight Listen here
“Big Girls Cry” - Mimoza | I had to slip this monster tune in this week because I couldn’t have you wait another week for it. Mimoza is another case of a hit making songwriter testing the waters as a solo artist. While the instrumentals echo some Kygo-esque vibes, the vocals punch through a Sia-grade pre-chorus. Quality pop tune. Listen here
“Collect” - Matthew Young | Huge thanks to my pal Ana who provided me with a couple rising artists in her homeland of New Zealand. The world currently only knows New Zealand for three things: kiwis, Lord of the Rings, and Lorde. The rest of the world has slept on the fact that the Oceanic plate, particularly New Zealand, is a hotbed of fresh talent. The entire region is churning out perhaps (actually clearly) the best left-of-center pop music in the world right now. While that may be a bold ass statement, I’d advise you to sit down and have a moment with this week’s pick Matthew Young. RnB pop may be oversaturated with male solo artists, but Matthew’s got the gravely yet velvety smooth vocals and wicked clever lyrics to set him apart. “Collect” is an earworm. Listen here
BONUS
Top album to dive into this weekend is Sufjan Stevens’ The Greatest Gift—Outtakes, Remixes, & Demos from Carrie & Lowell. Stacked with unreleased tracks, remixes, and raw demos for tracks on 2015’s Carrie & Lowell, I must admit Sufjan has bestowed the greatest gift of the week upon us Listen here
Sleigh bells ring, deck the halls, fa-la-la-la-la, et cetera, et cetera, it’s Black Friday, bitches, AKA the first official day of The Holiday Season. Every kind of person has dropped a damn Christmas album/EP/song today. We have your garden variety artists, Gwen Stefani and People’s “”“Sexiest Man of the Year””” Blake Shelton, who’ve have unleashed their joint Christmas music revue, from Why Don’t We’s classic Christmas boyband ballads, to yet another fucking Glee-tastic cover of “Last Christmas” by Stanaj that nobody asked for, in contrast with Phoebe Bridgers’ tender cover of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” we don’t deserve, to DRAM throwing down a bit of holiday cheer with the help of BigBabyMom. Between this and the cobwebs collecting in my wallet, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
Beyonce got the best Christmas-themed merch I ever seen. This holiday season, she’s got Beyonce ornaments, onesies, and WRAPPING PAPER. SHOP HERE
Meanwhile Frank Ocean’s out here selling ugly ass hoodies to throw approximately five hundred Hypebeast’s off their game as they queue up to cop the new Nike Air Max 97s on Black Friday
Rihanna, Queen of Selling Me Anything and I Will Actually Buy It Because Yes Of Course, has developed a UNIVERSAL red liquid lipstick that allegedly matches with any skin tone for Fenty Beauty, and while that sounds fake, if you do end up copping one, let me know how it works out for you
Little Mix have re-released a platinum edition of their latest album Glory Days which includes (I believe) four unreleased new tracks and a few acoustic versions of original tracks. The greatest crime of this album is allowing the “feat. Kid Ink” version of “Touch” on there Listen here
Bjork has a new album out today, and I’m shocked as hell. Fans of her work are familiar with the extremely long hours and attention to detail she pours into her craft, so frankly I’m stunned she has managed to crank out an entire new album two years after her last. During those two years since her last album, she’s managed to tour VR experiences/art installations across the globe in support of the previous album on top of recording Utopia Listen here
It’s a surprisingly quiet day for new music releases, so please enjoy yourself to a helping of this mid-80s soaked Initial Talk remix of Dua Lipa’s “New Rules” Listen here
Can’t forget to tell you Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds have a new album too Listen here
My personal fav pop acts of the year, Rae Morris, has dropped “Atletico,” yet another incredible, frantic, fresh pop tune I am going to be spinning for months and months on end Listen here
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If you’re interested in hearing what else I’ve been rinsing this month (aside from the tracks listed above), peep my personal November 2017 playlist. There I will be dumping in new (and occasionally throw back) tracks as the month carries on. You can dive into the cmd+f archive to hear what I’ve been listening to in previous months this year.
A(lmost a)ll of the tracks I’ve shared this week and past cmd+f newsletters are archived into a single playlist on Spotify for you to follow here. You’re welcome.
See you next week!