ten good songs 9/23

Bon Iver is sad

so if y’all didn’t catch it, Bon Iver released a new single this week to kick off the ramp up to his new EP. you may notice that this single is pretty stripped down and sounds a lot like the stuff that put him on the map in the first place, and this isn’t a mistake.

billed as a “rest and a reintroduction,” the upcoming EP SABLE, is the result a dignified existential crisis. does this sound familiar to you???? because it does to me.

here’s a not very hot take: Bon Iver creates his best music when he’s having a tough time.

take his first album, For Emma, Forever Ago as an example. the entire thing was written while he was suffering from mononucleosis while secluded in his father’s cabin in the middle of the woods of Wisconsin. he was also grieving the breakup of his previous band, DeYarmond Edison, so he wasn’t only sick he was also quite sad. if that’s not fertile ground for the next global indie sensation, idk what is.

so anyways, he gets interviewed on the Colbert Report (i swear this interview has been 100% scrubbed from the internet) and he blows up. he gets money to make his self titled record, he does world tours, and then……? silence.

….okay? where did he go?

Greece. he went to Greece. to find himself again. in his words “Don’t go to the Greek islands off season by yourself. (I was) trying to find myself and I did not.” but what did he find? a fucking magnificent album called 22, A Million. he literally created his own musical instrument to make this album. it was singular, unique, and era-defining

so that album happens. it gets all the positive press in the world. where do you go from there?

honestly, it was a very high bar to cross. how to you follow up on near-perfection? you don’t. you just shoot for a passing grade. and he got one with i,i.

listen. this album was not epic. but it was good! but by Bon Iver standards, “good” is equivalent to a “mid” out of ten. unfair i know. i don’t make the rules. but can you name a song other than Hey Ma from that record? me neither.

so then he disappears again like a fart in the wind. for five years.

AND NOW HE IS BACK. do you want to know WHY? because he was SAD. and he MADE MUSIC ABOUT IT! he reportedly had somewhat of a breakdown that had him considering quitting music altogether. but when our man falls down, he writes music about it. and boy is it beautiful!

the new track is truly harrowing, and yet incredibly simple. reminds me of the Holocene days. i could cri.

so here we are. we’ve come full circle. and Bon Iver is writing music like he’s stuck in a cabin again. EP drops October 18th.

the LCD Soundsystem fandom has declared war

this is a small story but it’s a funny story. earlier this week the LCD Soundsystem subreddit banned any posts about The Dare because The Dare is trying to sound like LCD but he’s really not that great and everyone was shitting on The Dare and the moderators didn’t want the subreddit to just be about shitting on The Dare. see below.

the reason we are here is because The Dare released an album last week and it made somewhat of a splash (kinda.) this is largely due to the fact that The Dare is a close collaborator with Charli xcx, and i imagine that her recent rise led The Dare to think “huh. this is probably a good time to release an album!? do ya feel me!?”

so he did that. it was fine. it didn’t affect me in very many ways. i forgot about it instantly but i heard one of the songs at a bar this week so there’s that.

anyways! i’ve always found that by trying to stop the haters, you end up encouraging the haters. if the mods of the community would have just let it go, i’m sure the hate would have died down in less than a week. but now here i am writing about it, perpetuating the news cycle for at least another day! this newsletter has power.

if i was LCD Soundsystem, i’d probably announce a residency at the Knockdown Center right about now….

a new way for musicians to make money

St. Vincent did something pretty fucking cool this week. she announced a new album. some of you are probably thinking, “didn’t she literally just release an album?” and the answer is YES!

but this album is actually the same as her newly released album, barring one little detail. it’s in Spanish. i think this is incredibly smart.

the Latin American audience for Spotify is booming, with Latin America being it’s second largest market (by far.) so it makes sense to recreate your record for that audience at a very low cost (essentially just re-recording the vocal tracks.)

so i’m really curious to see how this approach goes and whether other folks follow. but kudos to St. Vincent for doing the thing.