Video & Audio: October 2021

It hit me like a train, the first time he called me dad

Benny the Butcher: “Flood the Block”

The beat is built by Rare Scrilla and Chop-La-Rock (good names) out of some disco-schlock thing called “אלה סינדרלה” by Quentin Tarantino’s father-in-law. Knowing things aren’t going to get better than the intro, Benny delivers one vivid verse and gets outta there. Male rap song of the year.

Carly Pearce: “29”

She enumerates “the year that I got married and divorced”; also, there was a pandemic you might’ve heard about. If the song resembles any number of country D-I-V-etc. classics, it’s differentiated by the level of personal detail—not unprecedented at the song level, but there’s a whole album of this that we’ll get to soon enough.

Oh My Girl: “Dun Dun Dance”

A counterpoint to von Trier’s Melancholia: here, astronomical apocalypse is welcomed with a color-coordinated disco. This pulls off the rare feat of using the seven members of the group very effectively, so it matters who sings what—note-revving Seunghee is the obvious eventual solo star, but it seems they’ll be okay with the kawaii group thing for several orbits yet.

Lucy Dacus: “Thumbs”

A triumph of narration, of what’s said and unsaid. The father’s sins (save that of absence, and even that is countered by his presence in the song) are unrecounted, and yet there’s no doubt that crushing his eyeballs would be totally cool. Solidarity!

Mdou Moctar: “Chismitten”

For a few years I’ve found Moctar’s guitar heroics a bit too eager to please classic rock enthusiasts. This, however, is just a well-performed, well-sung modernish rock song, 6/8 time signature and all. If he keeps up this rate of progression, he’ll be back to postmodern cellphone Auto-Tune in no time, one hopes.

Young Thug: “Tick Tock”

Speaking of people who deserve a Ser Gregoring, here’s Dr. Luke running out of new titles like he ran out of notes years back. Sadly, the song’s good, with Thugga as amiable as he’s been in years, detailing a life full of lust, trust, and flawless baguettes.

Robyn Ottolini: “Hold Me Back”

As previously discussed, a very impressive vocal performance in the way she code-switches between loose talk-singing and precise half-note melodies, as if to focus her anger into a Special Beam Cannon.

Punkt.Vrt.Plastik (Kaja Draksler, Petter Eldh, Christian Lillinger): “Natt Raum”

One really wants to bop along to Draksler’s piano hook, but the extra half-beats massively increase the difficulty of doing so. Meanwhile Lillinger’s drumming goes rhythmically way beyond me.

Rocket Punch: “Ring Ring”

The song is beside the point to the point that I can’t wait for the (fake) sung chorus to be over so we can get to the (real) chorus of pure-toned descending synth phrases and the flattened Eighties drums. Somebody saw how much money “Blinding Lights” made.

Elvie Shane: “My Boy”

“He ain’t my blood, but he’s my boy”—absolute cornpone, literally inspired by a Facebook meme, that country still does better than any other American music. For once the simply sentimental video (which climaxes with a “Most Valuable Pop” trophy) fits too. Bet on Shane to see his kid off to college, irises intact.