#34 - The Week of July 6 - 10
Hello,

For all of my U.S. readers, I hope you had a fun and safe Independence Day this weekend.

Honestly, I'm pretty pumped about the third album this week. As you'll see, it's different from my normal recommendations, but that is the beauty of it. There's so much music out there, we need to appreciate it all!

Now, turn your speakers up!
- Henry

Possession

Joywave

Genre: Alternative/Indie
Release Date: March 13, 2020
Top Tracks: Half Your Age, Like a Kennedy, Blastoffff, Obsession
Similar Artists: MISSIO, Saint Motel

Joywave is ascending, and there is no doubt about it. Their most recent album, Possession, is spacey, comforting, inquisitive, and groovy, all in one package. They poke fun at modern problems to minimize them, and then establish what they really care about. On “Like a Kennedy”, they sing, “Do you think they’ll build a wall? I don’t know. I just want to be fat and old and happy.” This type of playfulness is timely and refreshing in a time when we are consumed by anxiety. Other tracks focus on catchy repetitive builds-ups and synth bass lines, which cement this album as a must hear of 2020.

Everything's Strange Here

G-Eazy

Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap
Release Date: June 26, 2020
Top Tracks: I Got You, Good Shit Happens, Breaking Down the Door
Similar Artists: Tyga, Mac Miller, Mike Stud

This is definitely a breakup album. G-Eazy opens up about every aspect of his previous relationships (most likely with Halsey) over lo-fi psychedelic beats. He starts off confused and longing for the loss, singing “I need your lovin’ like the sunshine”. Quickly he moves into a terribly vulnerable state, disappointed with how his lover went “Back To What You Knew” and reverted into old habits. This is followed by a “Nostalgia Cycle” of feeling that he is “living” in borrowed time” and remembering the good from the relationship. By the end of the album, though, G-Eazy has moved on, but his ex-lover has come back and stirred up old wounds in his life. He finishes with, “I don’t hate you now, but for the right too. I had, I had, I had enough...We fell out of love.”

To Know Without Knowing

Mulata Astatke & Black Jesus Experience

Genre: Ethio-jazz
Release Date: May 15, 2020
Top Tracks: A Chance to Give, Mulata, Kulun Mankwaleshi
Similar Artists: The Heliocentrics

Let me be perfectly honest, Ethiopian Jazz is not a term that I had ever heard before this week, but I’m so glad I did. Also called, “Ethio-jazz”, it blends traditional Ethiopian sounds/melodies with jazz, funk, and even Latin influences. If that sounds confusing, let me reassure you that it is a dynamite combination. To Know Without Knowing has all of these great Ethio-jazz sounds, plus hip-hop. This is what happens when you combine Mulata Astatke (commonly known as the father of Ethio-jazz) with Black Jesus Experience - Astatke’s hip-hop influenced backing band. Many of the tracks flow nicely, with trumpet, saxophone, piano, and other jazz rhythmic instruments. But then, Black Jesus Experience lays down smooth, timely rhymes overtop, and it just sounds meant to be. This album will be a part of my working playlist for a long time, it is perfect to have on while powering through something.

Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too

New Radicals

* This is a guest review by Brady Gerber, writer and founder of the 7 for Seven Newsletter

Genre: Pop
Release Date: October 16, 1998
Top Tracks: You Get What You Give, Gotta Stay High, Flowers
Similar Artists: Chumbawamba, Primal Scream

1998’s Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too is OK Computer made for shopping malls. A nice burn, except the album – which blew up thanks to a megahit (“You Get What You Give”) that called out Hanson and Marilyn Manson in the same line – is much better than it should have been. Gregg Alexander, on his third album (this time, under a new name) and burnt-out on the music industry, probably knew that this would be his last album. He also was self-aware; he knew that any anti-establishment music that didn’t compel the soul was a waste. Ridiculously silly corporate rock making fun of corporate rock, and it’s closer to what the actual ‘90s sounded like. Unlike James Murphy years later, Alexander was too earnest to make fun of you for wanting to listen to him. Try to find a more bittersweet sound than Alexander singing “You’re 22, why aren’t you free?” in “Flowers,” or the sad-gloss guitars starting at 1:53 of “Gotta Stay High.” If Billy Corgan wore lime-green sweatpants. One of the best one-album wonders of all time.

Tiny Little Movies

Will Hoge

Genre: Americana/Rock
Release Date: June 26, 2020
Top Tracks: Midway Motel, Con Man Blues, That’s How You Lose Her
Similar Artists: Devon Gilfillian, John Mellencamp, Jason Isbell

Will Hoge seems like he would be really fun to hangout with. He can get serious and inquisitive, like on “Even the River Runs Out of This Town”, but he can also rock out with the best of them, as seen on “The Overthrow”. You never really know what you’re going to get. Maybe he will hit you with a nugget of wisdom that blows you away, or maybe he takes you on a one of a kind adventure. That variability is what makes this album so intriguing, and one that I believe will hold up well over time.

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Album Daily - To Know Without Knowing

Possession

Joywave

Everything's Strange Here

G-Eazy

To Know Without Knowing

Mulata Astatke & Black Jesus Experience

Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too

New Radicals

Tiny Little Movies

Will Hoge

Referrals = Rewards

Spread the word and get prizes in return

Connect With Us

On social media or simply reply to this email

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