[Shuffle 5] 4U4ME4US
Semper Femina, Laura Marling
Coconut Oil, Lizzo
But You Caint Use My Phone (Mixtape), Erykah Badu
The Harrow & The Harvest, Gillian Welch
Servant of Love, Patty Griffin
"Such a moment," I wrote last May, first envisioning this Collection, throwing myself back into a dark place (somehow not as dark); 2017 vibes. The albums I kept in heavy rotation as nightmares realized around me. Rabbit holes that deepened my grief and lifted me up. Meditations on friendship and feminity, self-love, internalized technology, dearth and wealth, artists and lovers. Now, amidst distant glimmers, this music haunts with naiveté, occasionally fearing yet unable to contemplate our dark realities. Vocal chord and guitar string, heart and drum, echo and hum. Briefly; after long-following Andrew into Laura's lyrics, I lost myself in Semper Femina; he first pointed me to Lizzo too, who dominated my earholes with her radical self-worship; Erykah grabs, smashes and grooves to these dang gadgets we drag through our lives, live them through; there's Andrew again as Harrow/Harvest and Gill live near the center of our venn diagram; Patty's latest (at the time) looped into my spiral-worship, echoing Gill and Laura, at least. Stark storytelling, heartbreak and healing, earthbreak and I easing into we. Where the loop closes and they become me, universally personal, love-fear — for you, for me, for us.
Heard this go’round: December 26, 2020
"One of these days I'm gonna laugh again. One of these days I'm gonna smile." Slippery fingers glide down ribbed strings, descending in loops, down and out, wrapping around a minor key. "That's the way it will be." Down so far you end up, all the way up, goddess and glory. Trumpet herald and angel verse, touching me inside out. Outside inside out. Lit! Rambling word brook spilling forth; ripple, fall, strain and settle. Techno twang chugga-chugging thru my inner-wirings, tubular and flying. "Fickle and changeable," oh elle, elle oh. "Hello-hello Hey Hello Hello … it's me babe." "Fah-la-la-leee..." Pained voices harmonizing. Raga-like repetitions and rolls, underside over. "There is something just beneath. Something shy and hard to see." Is it real? Going with the flow and riding it out. Tumbling forward too, hurtling into whatever comes next. Plucking stank face out of my brow and thrumming. (Hard.)
Hurt a Little While
The Way It Will Be
Worship
Nothing, Not Nearly
U Don't Have To Call
Nouel
Hello
Tennessee
You Never Asked Me
Wild Once
The Way That It Goes
a way to listen