Introducing….
Welcome to the best new weekly music column. Every week we’re going to go over a few albums to figure out what albums you should listen to, what albums you should skip, and what albums you should be excited for. The week of the 9th has been a notable one for music, so without further ado, what should you be listening to?
Untitled 9 (9.11.2024)
The previous draft of this week’s column was based around The Dare’s newest album: What’s Wrong with New York? which could be considered the spiritual successor to BRAT summer, but as of last night we have bigger fish to fry. Kendrick Lamar has dropped again.
At about 8:00 pm EST (5:00 PST) on September 11th, Kendrick Lamar posted an untitled song to his official Instagram account, releasing in a similar way to his second Drake diss 6:16 in LA. Similar to that song, this is also a song based around a soulful sample, except this is significantly lighter on drums and not produced by Jack Antonoff. Either way, the song is a scalding critique of not only Drake and many of his allies, but the greater culture at whole. With the cover depicting a pair of battered, black Air Force Ones, the focus is really emphasized on the musical content of what he’s saying. He repeatedly utters the phrase: “it’s time to watch the party die,” seemingly implying this is his chosen moment to shift from the energetic, scathing, but nevertheless hype Not Like Us to something more soulful and reflective. Where Kendrick goes from here is still unknown, but an album is expected soon, and with a Super Bowl performance in the coming months: it’s been written in stone. 2024 is Kendrick’s year, and given some well timed drops, maybe 2025 will be too.
All Red
Kendrick Lamar has been having a generational run, but frankly so has Jordan Cartier, better known as Playboi Carti. Following a superb series of singles in December including Hoodbyair, Different Day, 2024, BACKR00MS, Ketamine and others, Carti’s track All Red dropped on the 12th and has been the catalyst for a renewed excitement about the artist. All Red is a notable shift for Carti, as his voice alteration in Travis Scott’s FEIN last year was marked with positive reception, and that voice continued through the winter singles, but seems to have taken a pause there. All Red is a song more vocally in the tradition of Future, the Atlanta superstar responsible for rap’s inciting incident: We Don’t Trust You, alongside producer Metro Boomin. The beat is still incredibly energetic, and continues with the production style we’ve seen from Carti since 2020’s Whole Lotta Red. With I AM MUSIC not only announced but available for pre-purchase, I anticipate we’ll be hearing more from Carti within the year.
Stuck in a Car with Angels
If you were lucky enough to catch Faye Webster in July, then you most likely caught a glimpse of her opener, Julie. Overlapping elements of shoegaze, grunge, noise, and post punk, an elegant combination of the genres that defined the 90s, reincarnated with the aesthetics of today. my anti aircraft friend is one of the most exciting album releases of the year. Being Julie’s debut, their sound and identity are clearly still in development, but if you consider yourself even remotely interested in alternative rock, then take your nicest pair of headphones and turn the volume down to a safe level and check this album out.
We Carry On
September 20th, or midnight tonight (as of publishing) we have two notable expected drops. MIXTAPE PLUTO by Future, and In Waves by Jamie xx. MIXTAPE PLUTO will be the third release from Future this year, and his first solo release as the other two were collaborative albums with producer Metro Boomin. With no singles thus far, anticipation is high to see what Future has for us on the third album of the year. We’re also expecting In Waves by Jamie xx. The second full length solo release from producer and member of The xx Jamie xx, with a number of singles already out the quality is all but assured. How exactly good it’ll be? Who knows! Either way, if you enjoy electronic music of any variety, and if you’re still not over this year’s Kaytranda album, then go ahead and pre-save this one now.