Since my first activity at MTV as a tune programmer, I can not prevent looking to suit human beings with music they may like. So, I wrote an e-book called Record Collecting for Girls and commenced interviewing musicians. The Music Concierge is a column in which I proportion the tune I’m listening to that you would possibly revel in, with a touch of context. Get the entirety I’ve endorsed this year on Spotify, follow me on Twitter or Facebook, and leave a comment beneath telling me what you are attentive to this week.
Brittany Howard, Stay High
If you had been seeking out an operating-class hero, put down the Bruce Springsteen cassette tapes and, let’s speak, approximately Brittany Howard. The Alabama Shakes frontwoman is losing a solo album in September, and her video for “Stay High” is about her father, who did shift work in a factory. The tiny moments Howard remembers of him. Terry Crews plays her dad in the video shot in her native Athens, AL, and features cameos of her circle of relatives and buddies. Please make no mistake: Howard is making Americana. However, it’s also rock music, soul track, and indie. Howard is one of those as-soon-as-in-a-technology artists who bend song to her will; she cannot be quantified as one issue or any other. This experience-good gem gets you through tough times and slaps a smile back on your face.
The High Women Redesigning Women.
This is not music. This is not a supergroup. It’s a motherfucking motion. Maren Morris, Brandi Carlile, Amanda Shires, and Natalie Hemby are the Highwomen (with a little help from producer Dave Cobb and Jason Isbell co-writing a few tracks). And they’re here to burn down the concept that girls stick out/do not fit in on United States radio. The music rings a bell in my memory of blistering ’90s usa hits like Mindy McCready’s “Guys Do It All the Time,” 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 at the ’70s us of a supergroup, the Highway Men) are brazenly feminist, inclusionist, and about equality. There’s no conflict of the sexes here. It’s about letting ladies share their perspectives and giving them a voice in a layout that continues shutting them down.
Hayley Kiyoko, I Wish
Ahhhhh, Hayley Kiyoko is the lower back, and her new video has a sturdy The Craft vibe. Do I have to inform you more than that to make you watch it? If so, it is approximately a love that’s not being back in pretty the incorrect manner, and that “I want, I want, I desire” that maintains repeating is putting it on course to be the tune you cannot prevent listening to for the relaxation of the summertime. In a fight with your S.O.? Is it hard to be healthy with a person who is not an asshole on Bumble? Yeah, you want this tune.
Sarah Jaffe Lay Low (Take Care)
Look, going through a breakup is hard. Going via existence is, from time to time, hard. Sarah Jaffe, who dropped two new E.P.s, nails the sensation with this pep speak masquerading as a tune. The Dallas local has created an anthem for everyone who does not have their shit together, which is me, a long way extra often than I care to admit.
