In our new feature TYF Monthly Mixtape our music writers share Spotify playlists of the songs – new and old – they’ve had on repeat for the last month.
Think of it as a successor to our old Newish Music Tuesdays column. Here’s what we loved in July 2019.
Beth Winchester
For the first time, I actually made my playlist at the beginning of the month and have genuinely spent the rest of July listening to these tunes. July was a bit of a funky month, so I’ve filled this with hazy, hot weather-ready bummers alongside some weirdo songs that just fit my weirdo mood. That former category includes “These Days,” “Blues Run the Game,” “Operator” and “Hang Me, Oh Hang Me” while the latter category includes songs by Ex Hex, Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood (their collaborations are bizarre but somehow amazing ), The Zombies, and Paul McCartney. There’s also a song, “I Go to Sleep” by Peggy Lee, which I had heard a cover of that I did not know was a cover until now. Peggy Lee’s songs and their darkness always surprise me, and so I have to include her in this. I’ve sub-labeled the playlist as “psychedelic country mope summer” and I think that about covers it.
Mark Wesley
The theme of this month’s playlist is exploration! In the past, I’ve always enjoyed the act of discovering new musicians. So, I went on a mission to find some new music that is relatively obscure or at least new to me. After a month-long Bandcamp deep dive, the results proved very fruitful. These range from Anna Roxanne’s entrancing ambiance on “~~” to MIKE’s cleansing raps on his latest release “Tears of Joy”. Also, I found my new AOTY through this search process! I plan on doing many more of these in the future.
Ryan Gibbs
This month’s playlist includes newer songs I’ve dug mixed with some artists whose discographies I’m revisiting. The Nashville (via) Boston duo Twen have released four singles in advance of their upcoming debut full-length Awestruck, and all of them are fantastic slices of airy dream pop. I’ve included “Damsel”, my current favorite of theirs, and it’s almost certain another one of their songs will appear in my playlist next month. Former I’ve also really been loving “Door”, the first solo single from former Chairlift vocalist Caroline Polachek and “Admission”, track from the awesome new album from shoegazy metal group Torche. July 6 marked the 40th anniversary of The B-52’s’ debut album, an excellent, singular piece of post-punk that sounded like nothing else at the time and was major influence on the quirkier side of alternative rock. There’s an awesome concert video of them from 1980 on Youtube that shows what an awesome live band they were that I definitely recommend giving a watch once you’ve finished listening to our playlists this month.
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