Fluxblog 406: Lil Yachty • Mac DeMarco • babybaby_explores
Plus a soundtrack style playlist heavy on moody R&B
This week’s playlist is MORE THAN WORDS CAN EVER SAY, a moody and romantic soundtrack-style playlist featuring different generations of R&B – Otis Redding, Ray Charles, D’Angelo, Al Green, J Dilla, Madlib, Steve Lacy, Mavis Staples, Erykah Badu, Sly and the Family Stone, and more. [Spotify | Apple | YouTube]
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Stay Up And Watch The Sun
Lil Yachty “Running Out of Time”
Lil Yachty shifting from trap to post-Tame Impala psychedelia on his new record Let’s Start Here is an odd pivot but it totally works because he’s clearly way into the genre and had the resources to hire on a lot of talented indie artists including Patrick Wimberly formerly of Chairlift, Magdalena Bay, Mac DeMarco, Alex G, and members of Unknown Mortal Orchestra and MGMT. In some ways I’m surprised a major label supported a big swing like this, but I can see how Steve Lacy’s success gave everyone involved some confidence that they were on the right track and if this works out Yachty could become a festival staple. I’m rooting for him!
“Running Out of Time,” like all the best songs on Let’s Start Here, takes the Tame Impala vibe as a starting point for music that ends up heading off in other directions. In this case all the gravity is pulling towards R&B, particularly in the guitar parts that remind me specifically of Bill Withers’ “Lovely Day” though I’m not sure if it’s actually the same chords. (Similarly there’s a touch of Sly and the Family Stone’s “Running Away” in the song’s DNA.) Yachty’s voice is limited but he commits to the bit well enough that when he reaches up for higher notes here he at least indicates where someone like Stevie Wonder or Frank Ocean would go with the melody. But it’s hard to imagine singers like that pulling off his drowsy affect here, which suits the spaced-out introversion of the music. As with Lacy on his hit “Bad Habit,” there’s an underdog vulnerability in his performance that makes it all resonate beyond the raw appeal of the groove.
Buy it from Amazon.
There Are No Easy Hot Dogs
Mac DeMarco “Chicago”
A decade ago I would not have guessed that Mac DeMarco would become such an influential guitarist and that basically an entire lane in indie rock would develop largely based on his and Kurt Vile’s respective vibes. But it makes sense to me now – his style is distinct but not tremendously difficult to emulate, and the feel of his music is seductively relaxed and low-key. In retrospect when he first hit it was like “new indie guy archetype just dropped” and a ton of guys threw up their hands like “ooh ooh, he’s like me!”
Five Easy Hot Dogs, his fifth record, is entirely instrumental and that just feels like a natural conclusion to me. It’s basically a travelogue, each song written and recorded on a road trip. It sounds like the soundtrack of a guy drifting along and passing through, no particularly heavy emotions but a lot of undefined wistfulness. Songs like “Chicago” convey a curious mindset, like it’s the music you’d play when you’re checking things out and trying to really click into the groove of some unfamiliar place.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
Trying To Live Out Of The Past
babybaby_explores “Pants”
“Pants” is about as catchy as a song can be while also being actively and intentionally disorienting. It mostly sounds like an indie-punk song, something that might have been released on Dischord or Kill Rock Stars years ago, that has some been concussed. Everything wobbles, there’s no straight lines, but there’s still a clear shape and structure to the sound. Another way to put it – imagine a song being planned on an old VCR, but the tracking is way off. In any case it’s a song that feels like trying to drop out of reality but not quite making it all the way out.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
LINKS LINKS LINKS LINKS LINKS LINKS
• Larry Fitzmaurice posted a terrific interview the other day with Stuart Murdoch of Belle & Sebastian that gets into why he had to cancel a big US tour due to his ongoing long term health issues, his love of ‘80s R.E.M., and how when you see him on stage that’s the real him.
• The Talkhouse podcast posted an interesting conversation between Phil Selway, the drummer of Radiohead, and Dave Rowntree, the drummer of Blur. They talk a lot about their roles in those bands and getting up the courage to pursue solo side projects.
• Hamilton Leithauser of The Walkmen has had a pretty weird week! Weird enough that the situation was covered by the New York Post twice.
• Patti Smith wrote a lovely tribute to her friend Tom Verlaine in The New Yorker that just happens to mention that he was a big fan of the Entenmann’s chocolate covered donuts.