Monthly Music Club - Jan Jams '23 (Patreon)

Hello and welcome to the inaugural entry of Song vs Song’s Monthly Music Club, where we’ll be sharing actual new music we like every month. That’s right! New music! Did you know new music is still coming out? It is! Every day!

Todd usually focuses on pop hits. Lina usually digs into the indie stuff. Recently we've shared what we listened to with each other. And these are the tracks we're sharing with you.

Lina picked tracks she and Todd both like. Todd chose some songs he found interesting or that challenged him. We’ll give you a little background on the artists, the songs, and why we each enjoy them.

Due to time constraints and other obligations, future posts will usually feature song picks from Lina only.

As such, we're treating this new type of post as a proof of concept for the time being and leaving it available to all patrons. However, eventually these posts will move behind an additional paywall.

For now, here's what we're listening to!

Lina's picks

1. Gracie Abrams - “Where do we go now?”

Listening to Gracie Abrams’ “Where do we go now?” you might think that it's very similar to “driver’s license” by Olivia Rodrigo. And it absolutely is. But if you think Abrams is knocking off Rodrigo? Not so. Incorrect. Rodrigo actually got the idea for her breakout breakup hit while driving around listening to Abrams’ 2020 ep “minor”.

Undeniably there are sonic and structural similarities between “driver’s license” and “Where do we go now?” But whereas Rodrigo’s ode to lost love is direct and clear in its presentation of teenage heartbreak, Abrams latest single is far more ambiguous. And it comes from an almost antithetical place because, unlike Rodrigo, Abrams seems to be the one ending things.

“You look hopeful, like we're supposed to work somehow,” Abrams sings. “Can't you tell our light burned out?” “Where do we go now” is one of those achingly beautiful songs that reminds you that breakups don’t have winners, just loss.

2. Belle & Sebastian - "I Don't Know What You See In Me"

Baby's first '90s twee, Belle & Sebastian, faded from popularity in the 2010s. But 2022 saw the release of the appropriately titled "A Bit Of Previous" - a good album that feels like a bit of a throwback to the bands origins. If you like "If You're Feeling Sinister" it's definitely comfort food.

As nice as that is, the real exciting reveal came in 2023 with their second record in as many years: "Late Developers". This record feels more like their shift to the more Thin Lizzie-esque sound of their 2003 record Dear Catastrophe Waitress. But wherever you expected B&S to go, it probably wasn't mid-2000s era Scissor Sisters.

And yet "I Don't Know What You See In Me" has the exact bubbly bounciness that "I Can't Decide" does. In fact all the "la da dees" and "la da das" remind us of the queen of poptimism herself: Carly Rae Jepsen. In another life, B&S sold this track to Jepsen, it wound up on "The Loneliest Time" and became a massive hit.

But we're happy it stayed with B&S because it's the most fun the band's been in over a decade.

3. Steady Holiday - "The Balance"

Dre Babinski really does compose songs in the key of life. That's not a comparison with Stevie Wonder, it's an acknowledgement that Steady Holiday is the kind of music that perfectly encapsulates personal moments in a profoundly cinematic way.

There's a simplicity to "The Balance". There's an economy to the lyrics. "Time, you can't stop it. It goes one way. It's a lot to manage." I mean holy cow, YES, that is very true.

The complexity is in the arrangement. The way the bass sits high in the mix and hits off the beat and that orchestral bass drum sneaks up. It's very McCartney-esque (unsurprisingly Steady Holiday covers 'Temporary Secretary live).

And then the piano comes in and things get ethereal in a hurry. It feels like the oxygen's left your body and you're starting to float. Literally breathtaking stuff.

4. Shalom - "Happenstance"

"I'm waiting for the day I can finally walk away from all this bullshit." What an opening line. But the thing that makes Shalom's lyrics work so well is the contradiction. Because "Happenstance" is a bop. It's bubbly. Its' infectious.

There's something almost Gen X about "Happenstance". You know the New Radicals "You Get What You Give" music video? That. "Happenstance" sounds how that video looks.

"What's a girl got to do to just not be me?" That might be the most relatable lyric of any song on this whole list.

5. Alex Lahey - "Good Time"

Life is pretty absurd, isn't it? We have these seemingly arbitrary rules for how things are supposed to work even though life is chaos and nothing makes sense. And just when you think you've got some of the nonsense figured out, the world collapses!

"Good Time" is not a pandemic song per se. But it is a song about going hard "post pandemic" because literally who even knows anymore, right? And the music video, which features Lahey as a stand up comic whose jokes cause peoples heads to fall off, reflects the hilarity of what feels like a constantly inevitable demise.

"Good Time" itself has this casual talky quality to it. The whole thing is fuzzy as hell. it feels like listening through beer goggles, if that's a thing. And after a whole lot of not getting lit, there's something slacker anthemic here that feels insistent and necessary.

And if you'd like to hear everything Lina listened to in January '23 you can check out her full playlist.

Todd's picks:

6. HARDY - "The Mockingbird and the Crow"

I don't know if this song is good, exactly -- honestly, I lean towards not -- but it is extremely interesting, which, when you're a music critic, is its own kind of good. HARDY wants to sell himself as a new and different kind of country singer (as evidenced by the mononym), and his big point of differentiation is he likes nu-metal and hard rock. Thus, the two sides of this song, the one where he calls himself a mockingbird, mimicking other people like every good country artist should.

Then the song takes a turn and he becomes the crow, singing loud and angry. It's a tortured metaphor, the crow seems as much a mimic as the mockingbird (it could have been made by Puddle of Mudd, a band he's covered), it's not as rebellious as he thinks it is and it steps on the noble humility of the mockingbird section.

But for a country artist, it may as well be Death Grips. I have no doubt it came from a genuine emotional and artistic conflict; one of the most fascinating songs a country artist has released.

7. Lil Yachty - "the BLACK seminole"

Speaking of people who won't stay in their lane, Lil Yachty set off a discourse bomb that engulfed Music Twitter by releasing a psych-rock album. I think a lot of critics were afraid to like it -- no one wants to be the kind of hip-hop fan that likes hip-hop the more it sounds like rock and roll.

I can sidestep that by being the kind of person who's never much liked Lil Yachty (my favorite thing from him by far is his verse on "Speed Me Up," from the "Sonic the Hedgehog" movie soundtrack), but fortunately I don't generally like the kind of music he's emulating -- I've heard it most often compared to Tame Impala, a band I don't care for at all.

And yet, this kicks ass. I don't know if the album works for me all the way through, but for the opening track I was hooked, and god is it a trip to look at the Hot 100 right now and see a seven-minute multi-suite song with a guitar solo and no hook and an entire trailing section of a soulful backup singer wailing.

8. Ava Max - "Million Dollar Baby"

Ava Max is one of four major Albanian pop divas out right now, alongside Dua Lipa and Bebe Rexha and Rita Ora. I saw her live promoting her make-or-break second album a couple weeks ago.

My verdict is she's not gonna make it -- she just doesn't have the hook that would make her more than background noise. But she's a little better than completely fraudulent (I was surprised how many songs she had that I recognized). Of her newest album, the best is the opener, "Million Dollar Baby." In a world where '80s nostalgia hadn't worn out its welcome on me, this "Flashdance" throwback might have been a song I really went hard for.