LR10
Featuring Adrianne Lenker, The Lentils, and Mk.gee in a playlist for your late winter/early spring consideration.
Welcome back to Melissa Recommends Music! Despite the optimism of my last newsletter, it’s been an entire month since I last wrote you… but that’s okay. I may be meandering, but I can assure you I am making my way towards a sense of consistency with the blog. I have a backlog of playlists burning a hole in my pocket and they will be in your inboxes in a hopefully reasonable amount of time!
Today’s playlist is our second-ever seasonal one. I got some positive feedback on my fall playlist back in October, so I started working on a winter playlist a couple months ago. As we know, I was also in the throes of existentialism at that point, so it never saw the light of day. But with the temperamental weather in NYC this month, I thought I’d reimagine it for that awkward season between true winter and true spring — sprinter? Wing?
Apologies if the weather where you are is fully in spring mode already, in which case maybe you can suspend your disbelief for 33 minutes and imagine yourself feeling a little bit chilly while you listen to this very dreamy playlist.
Track Listing
“Philadelphia Raga” - Peter Matthew Bauer
“Hedgehog” - Black Market Karma
“Ahhhh (This Isn’t Ideal)” - Good Morning
“Alesis” - Mk.gee
“Purple Land” - Amen Dunes
“Tokyo In The Spring” - Kitty Craft
“Capricorn” - Vampire Weekend
“Fool” - Adrianne Lenker
“Jar of Cardinals” - Guided By Voices
“Sunday’s Jammers” - The Lentils
I love a bright winter day. While the season is, yes, bleak, I find it can be very romantic, and I am most inclined to feel that way on a bright winter day. Think late February mornings when the light filtering through the clouds is gray but vivid, so everything looks crisp and clear (i.e., think that Photography 101 tip that cloudy lighting is more flattering than harsh sunlight). Or blustery January days when there’s not a cloud in the sky and you realize you forgot your sunglasses at home, which was a mistake because it’s so glaringly bright outside. That’s the kind of winter sun that illuminates rather than warms, and is made all the more precious because it is fleeting (cue romanticism).
Of course, your winter may differ depending on your location, but the feeling of a chilly day can be romantic whether you’re in LA or Berlin. I guess summer is more typically thought of as such, but it’s romantic in a sensual way, whereas winter is romantic in a more detached, abstracted way. You get an excuse to stay in and get cozy, spend more time with yourself, and if you’re like me then that can feel luxurious and indulgent. I’ll nestle up in my room (one of my favorite places), enjoy the gorgeous winter light (I’ve been blessed with great windows at home), and feel all dreamy and in my head under that vivid gray blanket of light. And of course, I’ll listen to music.
So that’s where this playlist started: bright winter mornings at home looking out the window, or crunching up the sidewalk with my earbuds in, going for a brisk walk and feeling good about myself for leaving the house. Then it evolved to encompass the early spring vibe, which is still dreamy but less so. Early spring is a time for tentative hope, measured excitement, and tempering your expectations — you’re starting to feel the renewal of warmer days but getting restless too, because for every 70-degree afternoon there’s a return to leggings-under-pants cold just around the corner.
Enough with the poetics, just talk about the music please for the love of god
Okay I’ll be honest, most of the songs on today’s playlist skew towards the winter vibe (dreamy and languid). “Hedgehog,” “Alesis,” “Capricorn” and “Jar of Cardinals” are decidedly wintry to me, for example. “Fool” on the other hand is perhaps the only true spring song on the playlist. That leaves “Philadelphia Raga,” “Ahhhh (This Isn’t Ideal),” “Purple Land,” “Tokyo In The Spring” and “Sunday’s Jammer’s” in the middle. To me they could skew winter or spring, which is great because the whole point of the playlist is to chart that middle ground at the intersection of both seasons. I’ll let you be the judge of that though…
Speed notes on the tracklisting
I obviously had to include a track from Mk.gee’s latest EP, Two Star & The Dream Police, not only because it’s so good but because it was sort of unanimously praised by all of my friends who listened to it. “Ahhhh (This Isn’t Ideal)” is another new release, one of a number of singles Good Morning has been putting out in anticipation of their upcoming album, and can I just say that I love getting a slew of singles before the full album. Some might prefer otherwise, but I like the opportunity to get to know bits and pieces individually before jumping right into a whole album.
“Capricorn” is also a new release, Vampire Weekend’s first single since Father of the Bride in 2019, and while I’ve been skeptical of Ezra Koenig ever since I found out he maybe probably dated Tavi Gevinson when she was 18, I am allowing myself to recommend VW’s song today1. It feels very Modern Vampires of the Weekend to me in its production, very pretty (love that sweet piano riff at 00:55), but I think they overdid it towards the second half of the song. Would’ve been a lot stronger if they’d stuck with the simplicity of the verses and leaned into that piano instead of cluttering up the last choruses with what feels like unnecessary noise.
“Fool,” meanwhile, is a perfect song. I have nothing but praise for it and Adrianne Lenker’s newest album, Bright Future, as a whole. It’s layered but airy, every element is intentional and adds its own distinct flair, and it feels true to Adrianne Lenker’s style while bringing something fresh and innovative to her repertoire.
However, “Purple Land” has to take the cake as my favorite song on today’s playlist. Since its release back in February I’ve continued to come back to it. Something about it just moves me... It’s Amen Dune’s first single since his acclaimed 2018 album, Freedom, and the buildup is three minutes long but the payoff is well worth it.
Closing the playlist is “Sunday’s Jammers” because I wanted to send you off on a sweet hopeful note. (I find this lyric particularly charming: “but I broke my last mirror seven years ago today”) I first heard The Lentils in high school, back when Pitchfork was still putting out quarterly magazines; specifically, it was The Pitchfork Review #3 that I picked up at Pegasus Books in Berkeley, CA, and it came with a split EP featuring “Biggest Hearts” by King Tuff and “That Sweet Disease” by The Lentils. Did I have a record player at that time? Absolutely not. But I looked those songs up online and they became very formative to me… nothing like finding awesome songs in the wild to build a teenager’s sense of self, amiright?
Thanks for reading today’s newsletter! And again, sorry it’s so LATE! I hope you got to enjoy it anyway. As always, if you care to share your thoughts, reactions, suggestions, etc. I’d love to hear from you in the comments. Did you also have a formative moment finding a great song in the wild? Do you have thoughts on Ezra Koenig? Let’s discuss. The next newsletter will be out in a hopefully reasonable amount of time.
If you’re curious about my decision making here, feel free to shoot me an email/text/comment etc. I’m happy to talk through it but I think it calls for a longer discussion, and I’d prefer not to write a whole essay on it now, or alternately risk not doing this topic justice by rushing through a short explanation.