Fluxblog Weekly #225: Taylor Swift, Anna Wise, Snoh Aalegra, Teyana Taylor, Ala.ni
August 18th, 2019
This Close Forever And Ever
Taylor Swift “Lover”
I’m not surprised that Taylor Swift would sound so good in a song that spends about a third of its running time sounding quite a lot like Mazzy Star’s “Fade Into You,” but I am a little surprised that it actually happened. “Lover” is Swift at her most tender and romantic. It’s a full-hearted love song with only minor levels of Swift celebrity meta-narrative to get in the way of being a perfect track for wedding playlists for years to come. As usual her lyrics thrive in specificity of details (“we could leave the Christmas lights up til January,” “with every guitar string scar on my hand”) and pithy aphorisms that nail extremely relatable feelings (“I’m highly suspicious that everyone who sees you wants you”). But aside from those Mazzy-ish verses and the ultra-swoony chorus, the peak of this song comes in a perfectly structured bridge in which Swift shifts from a low-key vibe to high-key Swift-iness in both melody and sentiment. The line about taking “this magnetic-force-of-a-man” to be her lover is delightfully extra, and when she swears to be “overdramatic and true” for him, she’s simultaneously winking to the audience and being extremelyearnest. This is not someone who’d ever be chill about this sort of thing and bless her for it.
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August 19th, 2019
In A Love Denial
Anna Wise “Nerve”
“Nerve” contrasts a clicky impatient beat with a vocal performance by Anna Wise that’s soulful, serene, and certain. The incongruity is the point – knowing what you need and what you want, and feeling an nagging anxiety and desperate urgency about making it real. The rest of the arrangement is all shifting planes of melody and texture, all of it feeling ephemeral and unsettled. There’s other fragments of vocals in counterpoint – background chatter, a few declarations that break into the course of the verses – but it’s just more distracting thoughts and feelings circling the calm center of Wise’s voice. Hearing her speak the words “but I got to do this for me” doesn’t sound half as confident as hearing her sing any other emphatic statement in the song.
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August 20th, 2019
Can I Ease Your Mind?
Snoh Aalegra “Toronto”
Snoh Aalegra spends most of “Toronto” spends about 75% of “Toronto” trying to invite herself over for a hook up, and the remaining 25% wondering if the other person is also horny. Given how much work she seems to be doing here to get things going, this just might be a coupling of mismatched libidos. But either way, this is a fabulous sexy and sensual piece of music with a sleek, low-key funk bounce that reminds me a bit of late ’80s Prince. Aalegra’s voice is impressively versatile too, singing her verses at the bottom of her register before seamlessly shifting up to the top for brighter notes for a flirty chorus that seems to float up on a breeze.
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August 21st, 2019
A Different Type Of Freak
Teyana Taylor featuring King Combs “How You Want It?”
“How You Want It” is an exceedingly horny song in which Teyana Taylor is like a waitress listing off the day’s specials off a menu of sexual action, and suggests a few of her favorite house specialities. The acoustic guitar groove is low-key and the beat is fairly subtle, with a lot of room in the mix for a sultry atmosphere. Taylor sings “what’s the quickest way to turn you on?” over the best melodic hook in the song, and the line leaps out – she’s earnest in her desire to please, but there’s also something a little bit funny and a tiny bit sad about the focus on expediency. Kinda odd to be so urgent in a song that sounds like it’s in no hurry at all.
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August 23rd, 2019
Darling You Hurt Me
Ala.ni “Sha La La”
The melody of “Sha La La” is warm and familiar to the point that I get a sort of deja-vu feeling when listening to it – where exactly have I heard this before? It sounds very ’60s to me on down to its arrangement, which feels a lot like when Studio One players would adapt American girl group music into ska and rocksteady. Ala.ni’s arrangement leans heavily on a cappella with just a bit of subtle percussion and organ to bolster the architecture of the song. Her voice is sweet and sad as she sings very direct and plain spoken lyrics about a breakup. It’s not angry or bitter, just honest in what she needs her former partner to know about her feelings. She just misses the connection and affection – “someone to hug and trust,” as she puts it. She feels betrayed by their initial promise not to break her heart, but it’s hitting her now that no one can ever guarantee a thing like that. It happened and she’s feeling it, and she’s moving on, sha la la, sha la la.
Buy it from Amazon.