Songs You Need To Hear Now Playlist #13

All killer no filler from Limousine, CATS, Jessie Ware, Triptides, Indigo De Souza, Loma Lion, Neggy Gemmy, John Carroll Kirby, Billy Woods & Kenny Segal, Bethany Cosentino, and Jimmy Climbs!

May 04, 2023

Here are all of the highlights from the great new music I’ve been listening to this week. Please be sure to follow for all of the latest updates:

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On top of this past Friday being a fully-loaded release day, we also have some fun announcements for upcoming records. I’m looking forward to Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast trying out a solo record, and her first single, “It’s Fine,” dumps the indie-pop in favor of a Sheryl Crow FM radio hit. As a huge fan of Crazy For You, The Only Place, and the underrated California Nights, it sounded like Best Coast hit a wall with Always Tomorrow, and I’m curious about this new phase for Cosentino.

While we got album announcements from Check This Out! favorites like John Carrol Kirby, I’m most looking forward to billy woods and Kenny Segal’s new collab, Maps, out tomorrow. The last woods/Segal effort was the excellent Hiding Places in 2019, and I love that this new single, “FaceTime,” features Sam Herring of Future Islands (also known as Hemlock Ernst when Herrying dons his hip-hop persona).

billy woods’ Aethiopes also ended up as my third favorite record of 2022. Here are my thoughts on it:

What I said in my review: Best of the bunch is Aethiopes by the prolific New York rapper billy woods. Last heard working with Elucid as the long-running Armand Hammer on last year’s excellent Haram, here woods elects to collaborate with producer Preservation, who pulls samples from a global treasure trove to give the record its eerie undertones. It’s a fantastic pairing with woods lyrically exploring the scars of slavery, immigration, and ideas of both new and old Africa. At the same time, Preservation provides an almost hallucinogenic yet minimalist pallet full of traditional African percussion. The front half deliciously slithers, but Aethiopes' b-side keeps me coming back. Beginning with the claustrophobic Rembrandt album cover, there are references to Dutch colonialism throughout, and woods elects to give “Haarlem,” the Dutch settlement spelling for the neighborhood that would become Black America’s cultural mecca with erratic jazz sampling. The dubbed-out “Versailles” through closer “Smith + Cross” is one of the most captivating runs of the year, as each song flows to the next. If this universe of abstract hip-hop is your thing, you can’t miss the features on Aethiopes from Boldy James, Quelle Chris, El-P, and more. This is one that keeps giving - a complex record full of multiple timelines and narratives that will have you digging up something new with each listen.

I also want to give a shout-out to Jimmy Climbs, a friend of the newsletter and one of the rising talents in New Mexico’s tight-knit music scene. His new single “Hello Lady” is a bluesy groover and a great follow-up to last year’s debut album, Platypus. Climbs’s voice floats between Jeff Buckley (really!), Jack White and Robert Plant (not in a fake-ass Greta Van Fleet way), so if that’s your thing, give him a listen!

What albums/songs are you listening to this week? Let me know in the comments!

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