Holy Moly, There Was a Ton of Great Releases (Last) Week: Part Two
Catching up on a scorching June release calendar with Jayda G, Anna St. Louis, and 猫 シ Corp.
I intended this newsletter to drop last Friday, but I’ve been on the road. The U-Haul I drove back to Santa Fe had no way of listening to anything but Nowheresville Christian radio, so shoutout to Taos’s KNCE 93.5 and their weekly show, Fire on the Mesa, which got me through the final ninety minutes of the drive with a scorching Grateful Dead set from 1974 (is there any other type of show from that year? I think not).
Let’s dig into the rest of the solid albums from 6/9 that I haven’t covered yet!
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Jayda G - Guy
I first came across Jayda G two summers ago when her set was featured as a release in the legendary DJ-Kicks series. It quickly became one of my most-played records of the year, but I ultimately left it off the year-end list as it was a DJ set.
Jayda G is back just in time as the summer heats up with Guy, her second set of original songs. The album’s title and inspiration are a tribute to the Canadian producer’s late father, who passed when Jayda G was only ten. When he found out he was terminally ill, her father recorded videos about his life. After watching them in the past few years, Jayda G set out to write an album telling these stories through her signature blend of house, disco, and soul music. It’s not every day that you come across a dancefloor-filling house record as tender as Guy, which makes it such a remarkable record.
Jayda G runs through many moments in her father’s life with snippets of these videos interlaced between dance-pop anthems. “Blue Lights” tells of his time being stationed in Washington D.C. and getting caught up in the riots during the fallout of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. All of this unfolds over sweaty house beats in a song where Jayda G found parallels while writing it during the BLM movement in 2020. “Scars” is about being bullied and overcoming your demons by facing them, while “Lonely Back in O” delves into missing the signs of a failing relationship. Other highlights like “Heads or Tails” keep things a little breezier by diving into the carefree feeling of a big night out, or the George Benson-inspired “Meant To Be.” This culminates with the Sade-esque (those classical guitar accents, though) “15 Foot Waves,” where Jayda G switches to her mother’s perspective in dealing with grief.
With co-producer Jack Penãte, Jayda G has crafted a touching, cohesive story in Guy. It’s a rare house album that works great as a pool party record and as an audio scrapbook of ancestral moments that mean so much to its creator.
Guy is available now on Ninja Tune.
Anna St. Louis - In the Air
Another great sophomore effort you need to hear is In the Air, by Anna St. Louis. For this record, the Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter chose to switch up her surroundings and leave her creature comforts for a one-bedroom cabin in upstate New York. After touring her gorgeous debut album, If Only There Was a River, St. Louis wrote these songs while working part-time as a front desk clerk at a nearby hotel, and the open upstate spaces manifest throughout In the Air.
On In the Air, St. Louis and producer Jarvis Taveniere (Purple Mountains, Woods, Waxahatchee) assemble an expertly sequenced set of songs, and even though things never move faster than a muggy afternoon, we’re treated to a record that knows when to pick things up after a few great ballads. Opener “Trace” sets the mood by accompanying St. Louis’s celestial voice with some wonderful piano from Spoon’s Alex Fischel, a weeping pedal steel guitar, and a string section. “Morning” is one of the best songs of the year, featuring guest vocals from Jess Williamson (check out her also new album, Time Ain’t Accidental, if ya dig this record) and Kacey Johansing, who provides lovely harmonies throughout In the Air. Also not to be missed is the single “Phone,” a brilliant soft rock number that allows for interplay between all the fantastic musicians on this record.
Forget the sophomore slump because Anna St. Louis has released one of the year’s finest indie folk records with In the Air.
In the Air is available now on Mare/Woodsist.
猫 シ Corp. - LUXURY GIRLS
When I covered Limousine’s Dusty Roads in April, I received a handful of messages from those of you that love the niche genre of mallcore/mallsoft, so I have to include the latest release 猫 シ Corp. (pronounced Cat System Corp.), another OG from this electronic scene. For my money, 猫 シ Corp. is still the best at this sound, with 2016’s ショップ @ ヘルシンキ being one of my favorite records of the past decade. Where that album took a funky yet sophisticated (think back to the sounds of the white-gloved piano player filling your local mall’s atriums) approach, LUXURY GIRLS is all about the gross excess of the 80s. Billed as an “original television series soundtrack” for a show that never existed, yet we’re all familiar with, LUXURY GIRLS works in samples from what sounds like the decade’s most vapid commercials, and it works perfectly. It’s the second album of the year from 猫 シ Corp. following the headier Class of ‘84, but LUXURY GIRLS is the Dutch producer firing on all cylinders.
Fire on the Mesa!
This Anna St. Louis record is killer!!!