Fluxblog 532: 60 soft rock masterpieces from the 70s
Plus new songs by Car Seat Headrest, Valerie June, and Um, Jennifer?
This week’s playlist is 60 SOFT ROCK MASTERPIECES FROM THE 70s, which is exactly what it says it is – 4 hours of AM radio classics, including music by Elton John, Carly Simon, 10cc, The Carpenters, Wings, Electric Light Orchestra, Steely Dan, Fleetwood Mac, Doobie Brothers, Bee Gees, Chicago, Linda Ronstadt, Joni Mitchell, ABBA, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Todd Rundgren, and more!
[Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube]
A Hundred Thousand Hymns
Car Seat Headrest “True/False Lover”
Car Seat Headrest’s The Scholars is a dense concept album with several very long songs on it, and it’s sung from various characters’ point of view, but mostly by Will Toledo. That is very confusing, and I haven’t had enough time with the record to form any sort of opinion on the rock opera of it all. That could take weeks, months, years. But “True/False Lover,” the brief up-tempo rocker at the end of the record? I can tell you right now that this one rips. When that synth riff hits after the first verse, sounding like a burst of neon pink against a grey backdrop? When the beat gallops forward while Toledo sings about getting out of court custody and being excited to see someone again? That’s the stuff. I don’t need to know the whole story to understand the stakes of this music, and while it feels like sprinting towards freedom. It’s all right there in the song.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
Um, Jennifer? “Went On T”
The big question in this song is basically, do you know yourself well enough to predict exactly what will happen when you deliberately make a huge change in your life? In this case, the change is going on testosterone and transitioning, and worrying about how that might impact a new relationship. The song is under two minutes but there’s some big time jumps – starting the transition without knowing how drastically they’d change, cutting to six months later when they feel like the same person but stronger and sexier, and then to some other point when it’s clear the guilt and anxiety was largely coming from their partner. It ends on a very bitter note in lyrical terms, but with the music, it’s cathartic and freeing.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
Valerie June “Joy, Joy!”
I’m trying to get as much mileage out of this song as possible right now before it inevitably gets licensed to death. It’s at a very widely accessible intersection of soulful, funky, and rocking, and the chorus feels like a burst of sunshine with simple, direct lyrics: “You’ll find that joy joy in your soul.” Do you get what I’m saying here? This is going to be in ads and trailers and everything, sooner than later. It’s a ticking timebomb of commercial potential, and I recommend getting in now before it explodes and runs the risk of being more annoying than joyous. Because it really, truly is joyous.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
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⭐️Caitlin Wolper Phillips recently started a newsletter called Music & Musings centered on an ongoing featured called Grooving Through in which she writes a bit about every record she owns. As she puts it, “it’s music writing, but it’s also about memory, feeling, discovery, and looking back at what we love most.” Her most recent issue includes three mid-60s Beatles albums, Beirut, and Belle & Sebastian.
🎉 The third issue of the new independent music magazine Antics is available now and features Momma, Sasami, Model/Actriz, Car Seat Headrest, and MJ Lenderman in conversation with Lance Bangs about Jackass. The magazine is very well produced and worth your money!
Digging the Soft Rock (thanks for not using the “y” word) playlist. Grew up with this stuff—“Sister Golden Hair” is my quintessential back-of-the-station wagon AM Gold song—but it’s so interesting to hear this with fresh ears, decades away and out of the context of say an oldies station or chain restaurant.
“Brandy”, which I can’t say I ever thought much about, is an incredibly well produced and arranged (the dynamics?) song and damn if “Superstar”, “Alone Again”, and “It Never Rains in Southern California” are *dark*
Thanks for the shoutout!