For My Friends
🔀 Shuffle Sundays #85 • King Princess, Marcus Mumford, Fado Bicha, Myriam Wares, and more.
🗣 Before we get started, would you take a couple of seconds and vote on this poll below, please? There’s no wrong choice, so don’t worry. I’m just trying to get a better understanding of what the readers are more interested in general. If you don’t want to vote on the poll, feel free to reply in private and share your thoughts with me.
💽 » Hold On Baby, by King Princess
singer-songwriter, indie-pop • 12 songs • 41 minutes
Hold On Baby is the sophomore full-length studio album of American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Mikaela Mullaney Straus, aka King Princess, following up the successful EP Make My Bed (2018) and their debut album Cheap Queen (2019), continuing on the same path of vintage-sounding indie-pop/rock anthems centered in queer relationships and everyday life. Hold On Baby feels like a logical step up in sound and production, presenting a more mature and coherent experience in terms of a full-length LP. If you liked the new MUNA album, I have a feeling this will be right up your alley.
🎶 » Cannibal, Marcus Mumford
I may have mentioned this before, but normally the lyrics are not the first thing that grabs my attention when I listen to a song for the first time. It’s always been like this, both in English and even in my native language Portuguese. But it’s practically impossible not to feel his pain right at the beginning when he’s singing “I can still taste you, and I hate it. That wasn't a choice in the mind of a child and you knew it. You took the first slice of me and you ate it raw.” The song narrates an episode of his childhood sexual abuse, and the music video was directed by Steven Spielberg, translating the raw emotions of the song into beautiful black and white cinematography with a minimal setting. Cannibal was the first single released by Marcus Mumford (which you may know from the folk-pop-rock smash-hit band Mumford & Sons) in his upcoming self-titled (and first) solo record, out Sep 16th.
🎶 » Estourada, by Fado Bicha
From Ocupação, Portuguese-duo Fado Bicha recently released the official music video for the single Estourada, one of the many highlights of the album. On top of pushing the boundaries of what most people know about fado, the traditional music from Portugal known for its melancholic tones and lyrics, this song brings elements of bullfighting, continuing to discuss, challenge, and break each and every tradition full of stereotypes. Kudos to them!
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⚡️ Visual Inspiration
Myriam Wares is a French-Canadian illustrator from Montreal, whose work touches on a variety of themes, notably natural sciences and technology, mythology and surrealism, as well as contemporary social issues. Check out her website or Instagram for more. Here are some favorites:
🎶 » New Music
this week’s new albums I'm curious to check out
Also, new singles from Jenny Kern, Arctic Monkeys, The 1975, Gorillaz, and many more. If you’re curious to hear some of these songs and more, make sure to follow my 2022 playlist on Spotify, updated weekly with new releases:
Apparently I'm not the only one to LOVE the visual inspiration section 🤪 Even though really it's the whole bouquet that makes it such a delightful newsletter 💐
Interesting poll, Leo, and I must admit that I cannot take part because there is always something else that I enjoy and I hope you keep up the mix. Not sure that helps though...