Fluxblog 450: speed running
New and new-ish music by Kylie Minogue, Janelle Monáe, Frost Children, Cosmetique, Yeule, and Mia Carucci
I’ve been working on the 2023 survey playlist so I don’t have a new playlist for this newsletter, but I did write about more songs than usual this week because I’m trying to get through some music I meant to cover earlier but put off for various reasons.
Shivers And Butterflies
Kylie Minogue “Padam Padam”
You have to be in the right mindset for some songs. “Padam Padam” was a big deal this summer in mostly queer circles, but despite being a long term Kylie fan I just didn’t really have space for it in my mind or my heart at the time. That changed a week ago for no particular reason, and now it’s just padam padam padam padam looping in my head all day. Sometimes you just hear it and you know, y’know? Ina Wroldsen and Lostboy wrote the song for no one in particular, but it turned out to be a brilliant vehicle for Minogue that brings her back to the mix of elation and tension in her early 00s hits “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” and “Come Into My World.” There’s always something so pure and earnest in the way Minogue sings about lust, like she’s investing a lot of spirituality and romance in even the most fleeting of flings. Other singers might do that but indicate some disappointment, but in a song like “Padam Padam” it’s all thrilling adventure and starry eyes.
Buy it from Amazon.
Everything Happened In Slo-Mo
Janelle Monaé “Only Have Eyes 42”
My first impression of The Age of Pleasure was confusing and stuck with me for months – I appreciate the vibe and mindset of the music, but couldn’t shake the feeling that it seemed unfinished and overly abbreviated. It is still frustrating to me that a little under half the songs are basically interludes that present strong musical ideas that evaporate within a minute or so, right when they’re just starting to cook. (If you’ve got Grace Jones and Sister Nancy, why not go for a second minute?) But now I get that these moments of pleasure are intentionally fleeting, and that Monaé and her Wonderland collaborators were aiming for more of a “DJ by the pool” aesthetic and I think they absolutely nailed that.
“Only Have Eyes 42” is one of the fully formed songs on the record, a rocksteady ballad co-produced by reggae legend Derrick Harriott that hovers on the edge of novelty status – it’s a polyamorous take on “I Only Have Eyes for You” – but is so overwhelmingly gorgeous and mellow that the physical response to the music is much stronger than any impact it might make tickling your brain a bit with lyrical cleverness. It’s a sound that loosens you up, opens you up, and asks you to turn your mind off a bit, follow your instincts, and surrender to a beautiful moment.
Buy it from Amazon.
Don’t Be Frightened By A Brand New Beat
Cosmetique “Drink and Jive”
“Drink and Jive” has the lyrics and groove of an early rock and roll “let’s show you the new dance” song, but the tone feels very prim and English, with Sarah Churchill singing lines like “step out of the shadow and on to the dance floor” and “don’t be frightened by the brand new beat” with the gentle cadence of a school teacher encouraging her shy students to party. It’s definitely twee, but there’s an inexplicable dark current that brings a saltiness to a song that could just be sweet.
Buy it from Amazon.
Frost Children “Flatline”
On a musical level “Flatline” is an indie dance/blog house banger, the sort of song you could’ve played in a DJ set between Justice and Hot Chip at a party circa 2008. The sound is consistent, but the lyrics come across like fast forwarding through a bad relationship. The guy falls in love with a girl, and at first he loves the dumb happiness. Then he seems to spiral into despair, then suddenly it’s all aggression and accusations in the end. The Frost Children’s album is titled Speed Run, maybe this is what they had in mind?
Buy it from Bandcamp.
Praying For A Planet Alignment
Yeule “Sulky Baby”
“Sulky Baby” is a song written to a past self that has no perspective beyond an immediate moment of frustration and sadness. There’s a lot of empathy for the past self but also some dismissiveness in the implication that the sulky baby version of oneself has no idea that life will get better, but also much harder. The bubblegum shoegaze vibe of the music is perfect for this sentiment – the whole thing sounds like it’s a thick pink haze, but with an underlying tension that cuts through the warm nostalgia.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
Mia Carucci “Slip of the Tongue”
I think a lot of the most profound industrial music is the stuff that juxtaposes raw sexuality and heightened emotion with a harsh mechanical sound. Sure, there’s the irony, but I think it’s more about making the dramatic stakes of lust and passion seem extraordinarily high and situating that in a sound we commonly associate with “techno dystopia” really does the trick. “Slip of the Tongue” is an excellent example of this type of song – the beats sound punishing in a very BDSM sense of the word, and Mia Carucci sings about being seduced by both angels and demons in a way that makes it unclear which she identifies with and might just go for both.
Buy it from Amazon.
LINKS LINKS LINKS LINKS LINKS
• Here’s the No Bells crew writing about how the future of rap – or at least internet rap – is going to be cranked up and cacophonous.
• Glenn McDonald, the early music blogger whose The War Against Silence was a major influence on Fluxblog, was laid off from Spotify this week. Glenn was doing a lot of really impressive and important work there, and he wrote about his frustration about being let go unceremoniously after over a decade on the old site.