SMLAEN 5: 1 to 15

No, I didn't forget about you. Wouldn't even think of it.

Hi all,

I’ve abandoned a high-concept playlist that was proving difficult to put together and bringing you a playlist that, while thematically unadventurous, should be an interesting listen. You’ll notice that 11 of the 15 tracks here were added on September 2, and yet here you are getting it in late November. Very simply, for this playlist, each song will feature the number one through fifteen, in order.

Link here and below.

1. The One For Me - Rahsaan Patterson - After Hours

   This track from the underrated Rahsaan Patterson first appeared, I am not making this up, on Steve Harvey’s (?) compilation album (??) Sign of Things to Come: Steve's Pick of the Year before ultimately being put on Rahsaan’s After Hours. Album art for the former below. It is on Spotify, weirdly, and the tracks are interspersed with Steve talking about how this is “real music” unlike most of what is coming out “these days” (in 2002).

   

2. Give It Up 2 Me - Ojerime - B4 I Breakdown

   Ojerime is a London-based artist clearly influenced by greats like SWV as well as the more melancholy aspects of 90’s R&B and new jack swing. I have spent weeks looking for more information on this artist or song and have been left empty-handed.

3. Three Man Weave - Injury Reserve - Injury Reserve

   This track is a fairly significant motivating factor behind my choice to do this playlist. Pop on some good headphones and just experience the incredible, wailing sax and bass behind the braggadocious bars of a group that’s made it. I have listened to this track every day since mid-August and I’m getting goosebumps listening to it right now. Credit here must go to the wonderful Will Moustakakis, who texted this track to me in 2019, knowing I’d like it. To be clear, I ignored that text for some reason, and then found it of my own accord two years later. See below:

   

   

   R.I.P. Groggs.

4. It’s A Blue World - The Four Freshmen - Voices in Modern

   The beauty of the Four Freshmen, in this track sampled by the late, great Mac Miller on “Blue World,” comes through in their humility where so many acapella groups have been felled by unearned confidence. Through a light, jazzy drum beat, perhaps a delicate guitar strum here and there, and a meandering upright bass, the instrumental on “It’s A Blue World” highlights the incredible vocal talent of the group and shows that instruments - hot take alert - are a crucial part of music, and not something to be shunned away for social reasons in college.

5. My Song 5 - HAIM - Days Are Gone

   On this song, titled after the GarageBand default title for your sixth song, (after my song, my song 1, etc) Este, Alana, and Danielle Haim, the three sisters comprising HAIM shred, slam, and rock out. Also, how about that sweet bridge at 1:51? So unexpected and delightful. There is a remix with an A$AP Ferg verse that I refuse to link to, as it has proven to be a unfortunate precursor to years of poorly-considered rap features on tracks that don’t need them (looking at you, Levitating feat. DaBaby).

6. Hangover Tavern - Hank Thompson - A Six Pack to Go

   Credit to the George Clanton’s Favorite Songs playlist once more. On a chilly February evening this year, I was looking for new music and ended up in a rabbit hole of this specific type of hokey country music. Refer to the texts below:

   

7. Seven - Men I Trust - Oncle Jazz

   This is one of my favorite songs. I am such a fan of Men I Trust’s unique soft pop/rock. The Montreal-based group, however, shows their guitar chops on this track. Right when the song reaches the peak of its soft, pleasant groove, vocalist and lead guitarist Emma Proulx absolutely SHREDS a guitar solo. Its volume and rock-i-ness contrast with the rest of the track to incredible results. The Pearl Jam-esque guitar work in juxtaposition with the whispery vocals is just unbelievable musicianship. So good.

8. Eighth Avenue - Hospitality - Hospitality

   The formerly Brooklyn-based and now defunct band Hospitality are yet another example of a group finding their groove and knocking it out of the park. This track describes traveling on New York’s Eighth Avenue as a metaphor for aging. For a significant period of my college career, I peppered Hospitality’s Facebook page’s with messages for crumbs as to their activities or possible new singles. I have since left them alone, though I continue to maintain that it’s weird to cease being a band and not make an announcement about it. The guitar chords from 1:08-1:14, though simple and probably unremarkable, are some of my favorite music.

9. Love 2 the 9’s - Prince - [Love Symbol]

   The weird, chaotic, orchestral, intoxicating pre-chorus (starting with “don’t use the magical”) on this bad boy made it a shoo-in for inclusion here.

   To do something “to the nines” is an ancient turn of phrase dating back to ancient Scots; its first usage came in Scottish poet William Hamilton’s 1719 Epistle to Ramsay. He wrote, “The bonny Lines therein thou sent me,
   How to the nines they did content me.” In modern English, it simply means "to perfection" or "to the highest degree".

10. Mean Streets - Tennis - Ritual in Repeat

    This track only qualifies on a technicality (TENnis) but it’s a track I feel passionately about. Between the almost angry-sounding pounding of the piano and Alaina Moore’s vocals, this husband-and-wife duo created a great project worthy of a listen through. Coincidentally, Tennis was HAIM’s opener for the 2015 Days Are Gone tour, primarily playing songs from Ritual in Repeat.

11. 11th Dimension - Julian Casablancas - Phrazes for the Young

    My habit of looking for new music from all places began, very simply, with giving this song a try back in like 2011 or something. Essentially, I was at a sleepover where a classmate was playing various Lonely Island music videos. Julian Casablancas was a guest on SNL to promote Phrazes on one of these weeks, and so he featured on the song “Boombox.” I then began enjoying Julian’s solo stuff, then the Strokes, then Arctic Monkeys, then Franz Ferdinand, then Radiohead, and now I have a useless senior capstone project on neocolonial exploitation of musicians from developing countries and an inscrutable urge to want to talk to strangers about Ethiopian jazz.

12. 12.38 (feat. 21 Savage, Ink, Kadhja Bonet) - Childish Gambino - 3.15.20

    Without a doubt the standout track on Gambino’s confusing start-of-pandemic titleless album, I’ve seen “12.38” described as having the same kind of intricate plotline one would expect from an episode of Atlanta. The 21 Savage feature is excellent, and Kadhja Bonet, who you may know from backing vocals on Anderson .Paak’s Oxnard, has what was originally a full song chopped and screwed into the outro. I am also a huge fan of the fuzzy, Wurlitzer-y keys.

13. Tender - Blur - 13

    Tender, a breakup track inspired by Damon Albarn’s high-profile split with Elastica frontwoman Justine Frischmann, features all kinds of call-and-responses and gospel influence. In fact, the song features the vocal talents of the London Community Gospel Choir, whose work as a group has been heard on tracks from artists as disparate as Paul McCartney to Brockhampton. This track would have hit #1 in the UK if not for the genre and era-defining “… Baby One More Time” deservedly being there instead.

14. 143 - Musiq Soulchild - Aijuswanaseing

    143, here, stands in for “I love you,” as I has 1 letter, love has 4, and you has 3. I have a real appreciation for the way Musiq finds a way to work “garden variety” into the lyrics of this track. He’s also a major source of inspiration for Hope Tala, and I can hear the similarities here. We’ll get into this on a future playlist.

15. 15 Step - Radiohead - In Rainbows

    I don’t know if I can add anything noteworthy or useful to the discussion on Radiohead’s incredible In Rainbows. Any description of it will describe its pay-what-you-want release in 2009. I think it’s fun to note that this track is in the unusual 5/4 time signature- a future playlist theme, perhaps? The bass work from 2:07-2:09 is also a real treat.

    With regards to the title and the theme, from Songfacts:

    • One suggestion for the meaning of the title is that the majority of popular songs are written in or 4/4 or less frequently 3/4, which would require a 12 or 16 step to stay in time when dancing. However, somebody dancing to a song with a 5/4 time signature could confidently stay in time with a 15 step dance. Another possibility is it refers to the 15 steps of the Courtyard of the Temple in Jerusalem, on which the Levites stood and sang the 15 Songs of Ascent (Psalms 120-134) during the offering of sacrifices.

Thanks all for your patience and continued reading of this newsletter. Note that this newsletter/website will be the only place on the Internet to access my Spotify Wrapped when it drops later this week- there will be an emailed description and apologies if needed.

Multiple playlists are either done or are in the final stages of crafting and I look forward to bringing them to you soon. Talk soon.