Lately June 8
Recap of June 1-5
Hello!
Thanks so much for reading Lately. I’m working away each week combing the internet to find new music releases that speak to me, as well as sharing the music that I’ve been into lately.
New Releases
Ryan Beatty - Secret Language
Just the other day I was thinking “it’s about time we hear from Ryan Beatty again” as 2023’s Calico continues to be one of my most listened to album of the past few years, it’s aged so well and is completely timeless. And then he went ahead and announced his upcoming album Sweet Fortune, out June 26 (I absolutely love a short album rollout) and released the lead single. It’s absolutely beautiful, his vocal melodies and performances are really what anchor all of his music and they’re strong as ever here. Production remains simple and pleasant, and it evolves into this absolutely euphoric ending with a horn section and a twangy guitar solo. He’s such a strong songwriter, and how uncomplicated this song is while still being so captivating and gorgeous is a testament to his abilities.
Vince Staples - Cry Baby
Vince Staples is absolutely back, to me this is his best project in quite a while. I love the punk influences on the production, tons of really crunchy distorted guitar tones that give everything tons of weight. At 10 tracks it’s concise and biting, with unfiltered critiques of America and how it’s continued to unravel and revert concerning its political, social, and economical progression. Vince has one of the more captivating voices in rap right now, and I feel like rap has been in a bit of a strange place in the past couple years with not a lot of projects sticking around. A lot of releases feel a bit like a flash in the pan, but I think this one will be one I come back to a lot this year.
Bella White - A Sign In The Weather
Lovely third album from Bella White, I’d never heard her before but this has a really nice country/Americana vibe to it that is just so open and easy to listen to. Reminds me of Waxahatchee a bit, but even more into the Southern twang, which is funny because she’s actually from Calgary! I’m an absolute sucker for pedal steel and banjo and this one has both in spades, and I think her vocals are really charming especially on upbeat tracks like “Stuff.” Really nice summer album to have on deck!
DJ Seinfed - If This Is It
I’ve been a big fan of DJ Seinfeld since hearing 2017’s Time Spent Away From U, which is probably one of my favourite house albums ever. He’s back with a vibe that actually feels fairly similar to it, although there’s a lot more structured vocal features on it rather than just being heavily sampled. I actually think he would make a fantastic ambient/soundscape type album, he has a really good hear for these beautiful flowing textures and spacious atmospheres. This is a solid album but not sure if there’s a real outstanding track in here, it’s got great vibes and doesn’t necessarily feel bloated, but just nothing that I’m really dying to get back into outside of just bopping along to the entire album.
Bedouine - Neon Summer Skin
A few months ago a coworker recommended Bedouine’s self-titled debut album to me, and I liked it quite a bit! Coincidentally she’s now released her fourth album, and it’s really nice. She’s got a very classic chamber folk type sound, but the depth of her voice is really the star of the show. She has such a rich voice that is so engaging, it has this very soft authority quality to it. I didn’t get a ton of time with this one since its release so looking forward to getting back into it as I really liked my first listen through.
What I’m Listening to
A novel idea for me but I’ve been listening to Ethel Cain’s masterpiece debut album Preacher's Daughter, one of my favourites of all time. I wrote this article about her a little while ago that I’d encourage you to check out; I just think she’s such a visionary and has tons of ambition and integrity with her work. Her voice is unfathomably enthralling, she has so much presence in her music. The entire concept of this album is incredible, being able to create this fictional version of herself that blends her own experiences with this epic story is such a unique and deeply personal gift. Not to mention, the song are incredible; the aforementioned integrity shows up when she has nearly ten minute songs on here that just let her totally unravel her talent, writing a three minute song that feels worth it is a tall task let alone a track like “Sun Bleached Flies” coming in at 7:36 and completely flying by. I think she’s a generational talent and this album is inspiring to anyone who makes art.
I’ve also been listening to a lot of movie soundtracks lately, particularly tracks like "Marnie" from When Marnie Was There, or the classic "Leaving Hogwarts" from Harry Potter by the legend John Williams. On the one hand, I really love the direction that a lot of movie scores have taken; more innovative and experimental, oftentimes ditching the big traditional orchestral arrangements in favour of electronic elements weaved in. And while we still have a lot of those with themes like Dune, or Oppenheimer, absolutely every medium to big budget movie used to have these huge sweeping orchestral themes. Even frickin Cheaper by the Dozen has this beautiful and totally unnecessary dramatic score that is such overkill but also breathes so much life into the movie. At the end of the day the orchestral score isn’t going anywhere and sometimes when overused it can actually make a movie feel quite dated or overbearing (for example Carter Burwell’s score for The Founder is absolutely horrible and tells you how to feel every thirty seconds), I do feel like the consistency of beautiful orchestral movie themes has dropped off a bit and I do long for them. I think my favourite score in that style recently was Robin Carolan’s Nosferatu, it’s so dark and dramatic and creepy, with my favourite being closing track “Bound.”