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- Speaking of legacies, the siblings of the paradigm-shifting producer SOPHIE faced a serious task after her tragic death in 2021: to complete her final album, still in process when she passed. Our resident SOPHIE expert Hazel Cills talked to them about honoring the artist’s spirit.
- Nate Chinen spoke with composer Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek during the lead-up to the U.S. premiere of their new opera, The Listeners, which centers on a mysterious hum that only some of the population (and maybe, some of the audience) can hear.
- A sad coincidence connected Lara Downes and the poet-musician Aja Monet: When they met to talk for Downes’s NPR show Amplify, both women had very recently lost an important elder — Downes’s mother and Monet’s grandmother. The instant bond this established shaped a remarkable conversation about grief, bloodline and community.
- The biggest album in the country this week is a 10-year-old mixtape by Travis Scott that finally got pressed onto vinyl. Stephen Thompson tells us how that works.
- Deena Prichep profiled the composer behind one of the most-heard songs of our era – “Monkeys Spinning Monkeys," a catchy little tune that soundtracks countless tiktok and instagram videos of low-stakes hijinks.
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Here are a few things that have stirred my heart this past while: |
- Carter Hogan wrote a beautiful essay of his own about playing at the Mary Gauthier tribute. And if you don’t know Mary’s work, check it out. She’s one of the best folk storytellers living. Here’s her book and here is a playlist of her songs.
- I haven’t seen the Demi Moore body horror movie The Substance, and tbh I don’t know if I will, but I did recently watch John Frankenheimer’s Seconds, a very entertaining earlier spin on midlife crisis that may have partially inspired it. I recommend this trippy Rock Hudson vehicle. It’s my Criterion Channel pick this week.
- Speaking of legacies, I loved Daphne Merkin’s recent essay on why some artistic reputations grow long after an artists’ death, framed by the works of the German painter Paula Mohderson-Becker.
- And speaking of delving into history, no current rocker does so with as much flair as J.D. McPherson. I’m thrilled that he has a new album out this week. It’s called Nite Owls.
- As we honor the past, it’s crucial to remember that humans have done a lot of damage across its vast expanse. symbiont, the new album from two of my folk-adjacent faves, Jake Blount and Mali Obomsawin, mines indigenous and African diasporic songlines to offer a way to confront that legacy and cope in the present. It’s an electrifying listen.
- I was keeping my ears peeled for buzz at AmericanaFest and the biggest generator was definitely Jobi Riccio. If you haven’t listened to this razor-sharp songwriter and guitarist's 2023 album Whiplash, definitely check it out. More music’s coming from Jobi soon.
- Like every serious music lover I know, I’m super stoked to listen to Wesley Morris’s new Audible podcast on the divine Stevie Wonder.
- For the lactose-inclined, I must recommend this blue cheese with juniper berries that came in a remainders box from our local cheesery The Bloomy Rind. Just be careful and don’t crack your teeth!
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