Ever in view that my first task at MTV working as a song programmer, I cannot prevent trying to suit human beings with music they might like. So, I wrote an ebook referred to as Record Collecting for Girls and started interviewing musicians. The Music Concierge is a column where I percentage track I’m paying attention to which you may enjoy, with a little context. Get everything I’ve advocated this yr on Spotify, comply with me on Twitter or Facebook, and leave a remark under telling me what you are paying attention to this week.
If you had been looking for a running-elegance hero, positioned down the Bruce Springsteen cassette tapes and let’s communicate about Brittany Howard. The Alabama Shakes frontwoman is losing a solo album in September and her video for “Stay High” is all approximately her father, who did shift paintings in a manufacturing facility, and the tiny moments Howard recollects of him. Terry Crews performs her dad in the video shot in her place of birth of Athens, AL and capabilities cameos of her own family and buddies. Please make no mistake: Howard is making Americana. However, it’s also rock track, soul track, and indie. Howard is one of those once-in-a-era artists who bend song to her will; she can’t be quantified as one factor or some other. This sense-appropriate gem gets you thru any hard instances and slaps a smile back to your face.
This isn’t always a song. This is not a supergroup. It’s a motherfucking movement. Maren Morris, Brandi Carlile, Amanda Shires, and Natalie Hemby are the Highwomen (with some assist from producer Dave Cobb and Jason Isbell co-writing a few tracks). And they’re right here to burn down the concept that girls stick out/do not healthy in on united states of America radio. The music reminds me of blistering ’90s united states of America hits like Mindy McCready’s “Guys Do It All the Time” and Deana Carter’s “Did I Shave My Legs For This?,” and Shania Twain’s “Any Man of Mine.” The one difference is that the High women (a takeoff on the ’70s country supergroup the Highway Men) are overtly feminist, inclusionist, and approximately equality. There’s no struggle of the sexes here. It’s about letting ladies proportion their factor of view and giving girls a voice in a format that continues shutting them down.
Ahhhhh Hayley Kiyoko is the lower back, and her new video has a totally sturdy The Craft vibe. Do I have to tell you extra than that to make you watch it? If so: it’s about a love that’s now not being again in quite the wrong manner, and that “I desire, I wish, I want” that continues repeating is putting it on the right track to be the tune you can’t stop listening to for the rest of the summertime. In combat along with your S.O.? Just finding it hard to match with someone who is not an asshole on Bumble? Yeah, you want this music.
Look, going through a breakup is tough. Going through lifestyles is every so often difficult. Sarah Jaffe, who dropped two new EPs, nails the sensation with this pep communicate masquerading as a tune. The Dallas local has created an anthem for everyone who does now not have our shit collectively. Which is me, a ways greater often than I care to confess.
