Fluxblog 549: 1993
Plus new songs by Geese, Dawuna, Fine, and Maren Morris
This issue’s playlist is THIS WAS SUMMER 1993, a look back on the summer of WHOOMPS and WHOOTS, and of dreamlovers in the Alternative Nation. This includes classics by Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, 2pac, The Smashing Pumpkins, Dr. Dre, Sade, TLC, The Cranberries, Gin Blossoms, SWV, Depeche Mode, Cypress Hill, Björk, PJ Harvey, Liz Phair, Madonna, The Breeders, Pharcyde, Toni Braxton, RuPaul, Primus, Tool, Collective Soul, Ice Cube, Stone Temple Pilots, U2, Porno for Pyros, Sebadoh, and many more.
🔺 Spotify
🟡 Apple
🟧 YouTube
Break My Own Heart
Geese “Taxes”
Cameron Winter’s voice can get a bit ugly and awkward and honking, but he sings with so much raw soul and earnest feeling that it becomes beautiful and sometimes totally heartbreaking. There’s no shame in how he performs, only total commitment, so even when he’s expressing totally pathetic feelings he sounds like a man with great dignity. That’s certainly the case in “Taxes,” a song with lyrics so grandiose in its self-pity that at one point he demands to be crucified. The lyrics work because Winter has found the ideal balance of cartoonishness and earnestness, so both the humor and the pathos land just right. And the arrangement does the same thing – meloddramatic, but also bright and crisp and light.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
Dawuna “Love Jaunt”
I don’t know much about Dawuna or how this track was made, but it makes me think of the term “demoitis” – the thing where an artist’s demo is so good that every attempt to fully flesh it out in the studio feels wrong because it’s not capturing what’s already been put down on tape. “Love Jaunt” feels like a home demo in the best sense – low-key, understated, a set of feelings and musical ideas laid down without any fuss. Could this be better as a slicker production? Sure, this has the bones of an excellent R&B song for any era. But I’m not convinced you could improve on what Dawuna conjures here, unless you wanted to drop the “low-key” aspect entirely and then you just have a very different song. I like that the music doesn’t feel uptight, but also that she’s singing quietly enough to make it seem like she’s choosing her words very carefully.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
Find The Hint Of Magic
Fine “I Could”
The component sounds in “I Could” are very familiar after decades of alternative rock – a bass line halfway between Peter Hook and Kim Deal, a high breathy female vocal, miscellaneous layers of off-kilter and/or abrasive guitar – but the feel is kinda strange. This could easily be a lot more plodding and flat, but there’s some swing to it, and some touches of delicacy and sophistication cast in stark relief with elements that are entry-level simplistic. It’s a song that’s somehow both thudding and sensuous.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
Maren Morris “People Still Show Up”
A lot of people think they have a handle on Jack Antonoff’s sound, but for the most part, they’re really just thinking of what he does with Taylor Swift, or clients who likely show up saying “hey, can you give me The Taylor Swift?” Dig a little deeper, and he’s a very odd and versatile artist. He’s a guy who composed Lana Del Rey’s masterpiece “A&W,” figured out how to merge ABBA and Dolly Parton on Sabrina Carpenter’s “Please Please Please,” and has transitioned into a strong hip-hop producer on Kendrick Lamar’s GNX. At this point I wouldn’t rule out anything for the guy, particularly as he’s chasing vibes more than following mainstream pop templates.
“People Still Show Up,” one of a handful of tracks he produced for Maren Morris’ first post-country record, has a peculiar feel to it. It’s aiming for a loose, bluesy energy, but in an intentionally odd and inorganic way. You get it right away – a stiff drum machine, keyboard tones bending wildly, sounding like neon blobs smearing across the stereo image. It’s a really cool sound, and going in this direction with the song is so much more interesting than playing this song very straight with an expected traditional arrangement. It makes sense in the context of Morris’ lyrical POV too, as it’s very much about her getting nudged out of the country space and taking stock of where she’s at. And here she is, in some odd simulacrum of an “authentic” sound, and while she sounds a little befuddled and bemused, she sounds very much at home.
Buy it from Amazon.
LINKS LINKS LINKS
💃🏻 Molly Mary O’Brien is back at GQ with a piece pondering why many young people are so weird about Sabrina Carpenter and Addison Rae being overtly sexual. She doesn’t say it, but I will: I think a lot of this is the result of a generation who’ve come up seeing Taylor Swift as the platonic ideal of a pop star, as opposed to Madonna, Janet Jackson, Britney Spears, Katy Perry, etc.
🎸 Gabbie of New Bands For Old Heads has shared her list of the best albums of 2025 thus far.
🎹 Sam Valenti IV also has a mid-year 2025 retrospective over at Herb Sundays.