What happened this week? What didn’t happen?
No more rock gods died. We’ve got that going for us. Aside from continuing my Prince binge and getting cereal lessons from Kendrick Lamar, I replayed one of the greatest video games of all time. I luxuriated in some deep house tunes. Oh, and Beyoncé dropped one of the biggest surprises I’ve ever heard from a pop star.
Things are looking pretty good from here.
Prince created dozens of songs that will never leave my head, but this one stands out especially strong this week. To my ears, it’s the ultimate track off the second Prince & The Revolution album, Around The World In A Day.
When Taylor Swift dropped 1989 a year and a half ago, I was kind of awestruck. I’d enjoyed a few songs of hers before, but now she was onto a whole new level. While the entire album isn’t perfect, the first half is a breathtaking run of near-perfect pop gems.
At the center lies Out of the Woods, a song that gripped me immediately and never let go. I tried to share it before, but her record label was way too good at getting streams taken down. However, just this week someone pointed out that she finally made a video for the song. So here it is in all its glorious, wolf-chasing, hot nonsense:
One of the biggest pleasures in music is the feeling of hearing an artist sprout new wings, soar over new territory, doing something completely unexpected. We love to chart trajectories and project the future onto the nearest wall. We love to dissect an artist, especially an up-and-coming one, to see what makes them tick. But despite all indications that they’re going to swerve right, they sometimes veer left. Some are left grasping for nothing; I’m excited to chase through unknown places.
Sometimes I fall so hard and so fast for a new artist that, when their meager output has been exhausted, I don’t know what to do. The sound is perfect, but there’s only so much of it. This is what happened with beat scientist Bullion. How do I keep up with a guy who may or may not release something in the next year, next few years? The honest answer is that enthusiasm wanes and I start to forget.
But it all comes rushing back the moment I hear there’s new material: the hunger, the excitement, the unabashed shouting from the hilltops for all to listen. This just happened again.
One of my many talents is the ability to be surprised, I guess. Because it seems to be happening more and more often lately.
As the news of a Grammy nomination were swirling around CFCF, aka Michael Silver, I noticed a message slipping in: he’s got more music coming soon. Very soon. Like, there’s a full album out right now. It’s called On Vacation.
And so it goes.
I feel like I’m going to start doing a weekly post about the albums I’m listening to. That way, even if I don’t end up writing something lengthy about a given album, I’m still spreading the good word.
So here goes.
Optimistic Underground 