music round-up: june 2025.
really exploded in the second half.
your day will come - chanel beads
i don’t know how i found this album??? i forget. i think i’d been seeing the name “chanel beads” around and i was like well i wonder what this sounds like.
i like this album! i throw it on a lot when i want to listen to something but don’t really know what my mood is. i’m kind of on a quest to find my next mk.gee, basically. you know, something to become completely consumed by.
chanel beads isn’t quite it for me, as much as i enjoy this album. his sound reminds me of a myriad of things: broken social scene, standing by the ocean at night, spotify deep dives in 2013, rookie mag playlists. this is a solid album from end to end, a peaceful thirty minutes filled with vibes and yearning. “idea june” into “embarrassed dog” is a particularly enchanting run. i love the strings that pop in around :45 on “embarrassed dog.” i also love “urn”—just the entire thing. the sound, the lyrics, the delivery.
overall, this is super solid for me. you should listen to it too!!!
tigers blood - waxahatchee
so i was on a train going from grand central to southeast, which is an hour and some change. so far that day i’d listened to the crux and two star and the dream police and i was sitting there and i was like well, what now? i scrolled down my spotify and saw one of their playlists, something like best indie songs of 2024. i was like well, okay.
i listened to about ten songs off of that, which gave me a good jumping off point for the rest of the train ride. one of the songs was “right back to it” by waxahatchee with mj lenderman. leo’s mother is an xpn devotee so i incidentally listen to a lot of adult contemporary music. this past year xpn was playing the fuck out of “right back to it,” to the point that i was convinced i hated this. this also happened to “the steps” by haim for me, but i do actually hate that song.
besties, i was so mistaken. “right back to it” is, like, it. it is so extremely my shit. it’s what i always return to, something more folksy and stripped down and uncomplicated. i love the vibe, i love the lyrics. i absolutely love the way their voices sound together, the way that his just sort of underscores hers on the chorus. like he’s reinforcing what she’s saying as opposed to necessarily, like, contributing. you know? i think what really changed my mind on this song was hearing it through my headphones. i could really appreciate the sound of it and how their voices layered. it felt so much more intimate like that than streamed through our household’s google device.
i listen to this song multiple times in a row like every time i stream it. i can’t help it!!!
so, i decided to listen to the album. unfortunately, i didn’t feel as strongly about the rest of tigers blood. the rest of the songs were fine-to-solid. there just wasn’t anything that felt as special as “right back to it,” for me. i am very fond of her voice and i’d like to hear more of it, so i might try a different album. i don’t know, the first few listens of this one were just kind of nothingburgers for me.
i’d love a full waxahatchee x mj lenderman album. like robert plant and alison krauss. i’ve listened to one solo song by him and i didn’t love it, so i might try again soon. maybe i only like them together.
charm - clairo
this was another discovery from that spotify playlist. i mean, i haven’t been living under a rock. i’ve heard of clairo. i know she’s a fashion icon to a lot of The Girlies. you know, the ephemeral girlies. but this was my first time listening to her.
“clairo? boring,” leo said.
well. i like this album.
i do agree with him that the album is “boring” in places. if you understand that her vibe (at least on this album, i’m a clairo newbie so IDK what her oeuvre is like!!!!!!!) is just kinda low-key, then you get it. but it does feel a little draggy in places for me. the song “sexy to someone” was the first i’d heard—it was on that playlist. i see why it’s one of the big hits. it’s smooth as silk and it’s aggressively relatable. i catch myself singing it, like, all the time. it’s a yearner, but it’s got a bluntness to it. i don’t like “second nature” as a follow up to “sexy to someone.”
the synth that crawls in during “slow dance” around 1:45 reminds me of another time. there’s something about it paired with the drums that just takes me to the late seventies, which i don’t even know if that’s the right vibe??? there’s a “vintage” quality to this whole record. not necessarily in its delivery through the entire forty-odd minutes, but in its vibe. sorry to use that word so much. it reminds me of nico, marvin gaye, “california dreamin’.” “terrapin” and “juna” are probably the worst offenders—both of their instrumentals makes me feel like i’m walking down a cracked city sidewalk in a brown plaid coat.
i see on spotify that this was released on july 12, 2024 (omg!!! look at that!!!) and that kind of boggles my mind because it is such an autumnal album to me.
i’ve listened to this album twice—once on the train and once at home while i was cleaning. it suits both experiences: as a travel companion, clairo’s voice is grounding and uplifting. as a soundtrack to a domestic task, it’s subtle enough to carry you through the laundry or vacuuming without demanding too much. this might become an abbie classic???
CHAOS NOW* - jean dawson
i’ve kinda always wanted to listen to a jean dawson album. one time we were in the car with a friend and either he had the aux or it was his car and he was driving and a jean dawson song came on shuffle and i liked it.
as most of you know, in 2024 i became a Guitar Guy. this is because of mk.gee. which isn’t to say i’m not learning how to play the guitar or studying the instrument in any way or anything. i’ve just been Noticing guitars more often, which does feel like a natural progression considering i got really into metal last year and that tends to be guitar-heavy. all this to say that—disregarding “*” as an opening track—“THREE HEADS*” opens with a sick riff that pops in and out of the song and it totally pulled me into the album. well, less pulled than yanked. “THREE HEADS*” demands to be played loud. i love it.
i love “GLORY*” as a follow-up track less. it does set the tone for the next few songs, as it’s more on the side of “KIDS EAT PILLS*” than “THREE HEADS*”. these songs are a little poppier than i like. a little more edge pours back in with “POSITIVE ONE NEGATIVE ONE*” and then “BAD FRUIT*” is all atmosphere.
the rest of the album is rock-solid, and the closer “PIRATE RADIO*” is a fucking epiphany. after this album, i definitely want to sample the rest of his discography…
a deeper understanding - the war on drugs
i had an essay to work on while i was visiting my beautiful friend megan in new york, so i asked her to just put on some music while we parallel played in her basement so we weren’t just sitting together in silence. she put on this album, landmark, love gibberish, and golden hour. i cannot lie, this album left no impression on me. it was like staring at a wall painted in a shade of off-white.
landmark - hippo campus
i’m so sorry, megan, but i felt the same about this album.
love gibberish - post animal
another pick from dj megan. i haven’t relistened, even though i am a post animal enjoyer. i get the vibe that it might be the red-headed stepchild of their discography based on the fact that i’ve seen people over on djotwt make jokes about it and they didn’t have a single song from it on the setlist for djour, if i recall correctly. from what i remember from that weekend, it was more low-key as a package than some other post animal cuts i’ve become accustomed to.
golden hour - kacey musgraves
kacey musgraves has existed on the periphery of my music-listening for a long time. she’s made appearances on my spotify wrapped several times since i discovered the spotify playlist “songs that make gay people scream” and heard “high horse” for the first time. i think she has a great voice, and her songs are deceptively simple. so, while megan was the one that put this on, it was a long time coming for me.
this is just lovely. it strikes a plethora of emotions—loneliness, nostalgia, infatuation. “lonely weekend” has been a staple on the playlist at work and even in the context of the album, i’m not tired of it. “butterflies” is sweet as punch. “space cowboy” is a tender ballad. “velvet elvis” is a kitschy romp. the last three songs are a real treat: “high horse” into the titular “golden hour” into the frustratingly saccharine but no less sincere “rainbow.” it’s a slam dunk (or something???). there really isn’t a bad song on it. there isn’t even really a so-so song on it. it might be a little perfect.
golden hour is a cozy listen, especially during the summer. i highly recommend streaming it while you sit outside enjoying the sunshine.
and i would be remiss if i didn’t mention that leo was the first on the kacey train. pre-pandemic, he used to go into his office and they would have the radio playing throughout the office. a couple times, his ears caught “rainbow.” i remember him describing the song to me and the way the singer’s voice sounded, and how sweet the song was.
short n’sweet - sabrina carpenter
don’t know if i’ve ever mentioned this but, at the risk of doxxing myself, sabrina carpenter is from the same small town that i’m from in pennsylvania. of course, according to her wikipedia entry, she was homeschooled while she lived here and moved to los angeles at a young age so we can’t really claim her, but yeah!!! fun fact!!!
anyway: it’s a pop album. it’s a pretty tight pop album. the hits are hits and the album tracks are great, too. it’s fun and it’s silly.
so that was june! so far in july i haven’t listened to much. i haven’t even streamed two star and the dream police yet this month!!! here’s june’s playlist. stream it!!!
what have i been doing??? nothing much!
in june i traveled all by myself up to new york to go see a friend for her birthday weekend. this was huge because i have not traveled by myself since i was like thirteen and my mom used to put me on a bus or a train to visit my sister in her city. so. this was huge for me. i am almost always with other people, whether it be leo or my sister or my friends. i am almost never alone somewhere.
i’m, like, really proud of myself! i know that sounds pretty stupid considering i’m an entire adult, but everyone is different, y’know??? everyone’s on a different journey. you know!!! everyone went exactly right. nothing bad happened. i didn’t get stranded two hours from home with nothing but my boots.
so that was my big thing in june. besides that, there wasn’t much going on. the usual: hangouts, shifts, drawings. i mentioned in a previous ‘stack that there was a mk.gee show in new jersey recently that i was not able to grab tickets to, agony, but i did make contact with someone who attended and was able to get me some of the merch. we linked up almost a week after the concert at a wawa and he DELIVERED!!!
the quest for the song of the summer continues. i don’t have a frontrunner as of right now, though. though, i did see this tweet and i was like well… why am i even searching???
quick before i leave, i’d like to say something. this sounds stupid, but: my substack is an extension of myself. it’s my thoughts and my feelings. this substack is pro-palestine, pro-choice, anti-cop, anti-capitalist, anti-trump, anti-everything. GTFO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!