All the Way, As it Comes

6/17/2021

1. Z4L - Smino, Bari, Jay2
   Smino’s a rap artisan, one of a handful of young MCs in their prime who’ve chosen the path of irreproachable quality over stream-count-seeking quantity. Although he does still run up numbers. This track from the Missourian’s sophomore LP showcases his facility for meter and melody.

2. Bussdown - Jorja Smith, Shaybo
   Been a big fan of Jorja since she exploded onto the scene entreating Drake to Get His Shit Together. She’s a devastating storyteller whose songs positively seethe with sense of place.

3. RUBBER BANDS - BERWYN
   We love a song built around a singular, strained simile, don’t we folks? Like a rubber band, the UK-based, Trinidadian transplant BERWYN stretches this track’s core analogy to its extreme and then releases the tension just as it threatens to snap.

4. Interblaktic - Muzi
   Muzi’s alternate nom de plume, “The Zulu Skywalker,” is an apt encapsulation of his sound. The South African DJ draws from the proud and generative Afrofuturist tradition for this 2021 single, which imagines a Martian dance utopia populated by interplanetary, black party people.

5. Interlude - Rostam
   All my dogs love the new Rostam album. The man who Pro Tools-ed the music of my youth is back with another jewel box of a record. Come for the signature reverby keys, stay for the warm, brassy embrace of the album’s saxophone protagonist.

6. What Can I Do (To Prove My Love Is Real) - Harvey and the Phenomenals
   Harvey and his boys were asking this question in the clubs and backrooms of 1960’s Cleveland. Here we are today, still pondering: How can we ever really communicate the boundless love we feel for those closest to us? Shaping our ungovernable emotions into timeless tracks like this one is definitely a start!

7. Big Sur - The Beach Boys
   An expansive 50th anniversary box set of “Sunflower” and “Surf’s Up” are on the way, and the project’s curators have plucked this breezy teaser from the annals of previously unreleased “Sunflower” session tracks. If one were to play Beach Boys Song Bingo while listening to this tune, they’d fill their card within 45 seconds. California? Check! Crimson sunset? Check! Exalted harmonies? *many voices singing in perfect consonance* CHEeeEeeEEcK!!

8. Kriminal - Mach-Hommy
   The perpetually bandana’d Mach-Hommy’s 2021 “Pray For Haiti” is a straight buzz saw of a record, with some of the funniest and most incisive songwriting I’ve heard on any album this year. Kriminal is my pick of the bunch, but tracks like Makrel Jaxon make choosing a favorite almost impossible.

9. Mam Pe’ela Su’ure - Florence Adooni
   Adooni has been called a “queen of frafra-gospel,” a Pan-African synthesis of reggae, rock, soul, and traditional music that’s sung as hymns during church services in Ghana and throughout West Africa.

10. Keep on Keeping On - Curtis Mayfield
    Because what else can we do?

⛺