God is a Woman 👩🏾🎤
Shuffle Sundays #54 featuring Elza Soares, Elise Trouw, Father John Misty, Ted Gioia, Termo, Belfast, The Weather Station, John Brinton Hogan, and more.
Hey there!
💔 This week’s issue is dedicated to the legendary Elza Soares, who passed away last week at 91. Such a powerful and incredible artist that continued to inspire many generations until the very end.
📣 Substack1 recently asked me to put together a playlist to be used at their Writing Hour co-working sessions. If you're looking for instrumental music to help you be present and focus on what matters most, maybe you'll find this useful too:
🎧 Soundtrack: Shuffle Sessions | Focus
💽 » Elza Soares - A Mulher do Fim do Mundo
samba, rock, afropunk • 11 songs • 40 minutes
How many artists can you name that, towards the end of their career, were able to find massive success again and inspire a whole new generation?
Elza Soares was already in her 80s when she released A Mulher do Fim do Mundo (The Woman of the End of the World, 2015), which would not only become one of the best albums of the decade, but also one of the most influential of this generation. Similar to what Caetano Veloso did in his 2007 record Cê, Soares found in a new generation of Brazilian artists a way to expand her (already broad) horizons by combining her signature samba with elements of jazz, afrobeat, rock, and even post-punk, reaching a younger audience that wasn’t that familiar with her work until that point. If you like what you listen to, make sure to also check the follow-up albums Deus É Mulher (2018), and Planeta Fome (2019).
Listen to the album on Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube
📺 » Elise Trouw - Foo Fighters Meets 70's Bobby Caldwell
I’ve always been fascinated by people who know how to play various instruments like it’s no big deal. Elise Trouw not only does that but manages to use looping devices to keep the melodies going while she changes to the next one, being able to then play a whole song by herself. Since I don’t follow her that closely, every time the algorithm recommends me I remember why I like it so much. In this video, watch as she moves around while mixing up Everlong, by Foo Fighters with What You Won’t Do for Love, by Bobby Caldwell. You will thank me later on this one!
Watch the video on YouTube
📺 » Father John Misty - Funny Girl
After leaving Fleet Foxes behind in 2012, Josh Tillman decided to adopt a new persona and reset his solo music career under the name of Father John Misty, becoming one of the most interesting singer-songwriters in the indie/folk scene. Funny Girl, the first single off his upcoming 5th album Chloë and the Next 20th Century, got a beautiful, surrealistic and hypnotic music video that’s getting me even more excited for the album.
Watch the video on YouTube
🧩 » Random Bits
📝 • This piece by musician and writer Ted Gioia speaks so closely to what I've been going through in my creative journey. Byung-Chul Han's book The Burnout Society has been on my radar for a while, and Ted gave me a bigger reason to finally pick up and start reading.
🇧🇷 • For my Brazilian readers, and other Portuguese speakers, Termo is a version of last week’s Wordly, but in Portuguese — pointed out by my friend and reader Fernanda Vidal;
🎥 • Finally watched Belfast, which was on my radar for a few months. It’s a great coming-of-age story with gorgeous black & white cinematography;
🎶 • The Weather Station announced a new album called How Is It That I Should Look at the Stars, which will be a companion to 2021’s Ignorance, one of my favorite albums of last year that I forgot to include on my list. The record will be out on March 4th, and you can check the first single/video Endless Time.
⚡️ » Visual Inspiration
John Brinton Hogan is an American Photographer whose work examines ideas, issues, and artistic interpretation associated with landscape and land use, primarily in the American West. Check out his website or Instagram for more. Here are some favorites:
🎶 » New Music
This week’s new albums I'm particularly interested in checking out:
Amber Mark - Three Dimensions Deep (Spotify | Apple Music)
Anaïs Mitchell - Anaïs Mitchell (Spotify | Apple Music)
Baco Exu do Blues - QVVJFA? (Spotify | Apple Music)
Ghostly Kisses - Heaven, Wait (Spotify | Apple Music)
Lady Wray - Piece of Me (Spotify | Apple Music)
Pinegrove - 11:11 (Spotify | Apple Music)
Samm Henshaw - Untidy Soul (Spotify | Apple Music)
Tuyo - Fragmentos 2 (Spotify | Apple Music)
Also, new singles from James Blake, Charlie XCX ft. Rina Sawayama, Scalene, 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:
👋🏼 See you next Sunday!
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This is cool. I need help knowing what to listen to. I'm gonna try the FOCUS playlist today while I write. And... Elise Trouw. wow