Pieces of Me 🧩
Pieces of Me 🧩
Shuffle Sundays #56 • Lady Wray, Nilüfer Yanya, Rosalía, Cuphead, Lightyear, Oscars 2022, Eric Lefaure, and more.
Hey there!
📣 The nominees for the 94th Oscars were announced this past week, and soon after I released the 2022 version of my popular Oscars Notion Tracker, which has been getting great attention and feedback already. If you are a Movies and Notion lover, I think you’re really going to enjoy this product:
💽 » Lady Wray - Piece of Me
r&b, soul, pop • 12 songs • 43 minutes
I love albums that don’t really grab me on a first listen, only to grow on me more and more on each subsequent play. And that’s exactly what’s been happening with Piece of Me, the newest record from American singer-songwriter Lady Wray, who honestly was new to me until now, although she’s been in the industry for quite some time.
Piece of Me is an incredible mix of r&b, soul, gospel, and the right amount of pop that blends together bringing a well-known genre to contemporary ears. There is a high chance that you’ll think about Amy Winehouse right at the beginning of the album, and you won’t be wrong. Lady Wray goes very deep into the whole Motown era, with songs that will even evoke the Jacksons 5 at times. Besides the late Winehouse, I can also hear lots of similarities with contemporary soul artists like Leon Bridges.
Piece of Me is a perfect modern classic that will certainly appear amongst my favorite albums of 2022.
🎶 » Nilüfer Yanya - midnight sun
Nilüfer Yanya is an English singer-songwriter with Irish and Turkish heritage whose latest singles are getting me extremely excited about her upcoming new record. While her two first albums relied on a more indie-pop/guitar-based sound, the newer songs are pointing in a very different direction. Midnight Sun has an alternative flavor that reminded me of Radiohead’s In Rainbows era, and I’m all for it!
🎶 » Rosalía - Saoko
I must confess that this was not the direction I was expecting Rosalía to take after the incredible masterpiece El Mal Querer (one of these days I’ll talk more about this album!), but considering that each of her two albums is so unique and that her more recent singles were already distancing herself from the sophomore album, this should be no surprise at all, and Rosalía continues to be one of the best and most interesting names in pop music nowadays. Saoko goes heavy into the reggaeton beats, but did you notice that brief instrumental jazz breakdown out of nowhere? Her new album Motomami will be out March 18 and it’s one of my most anticipated of the year!
🧩 » Random Bits
👾 • Remember when Cuphead took the videogame industry by surprise with its gorgeous visuals and music inspired by old-school cartoons? Turns out that now we’re getting an animated series based on the game, and the trailer looks promising!
🍿 • So far I’ve seen 5 of the 10 movies nominated for ‘best picture’ at the 2022 Oscars, but I’m sad to report that nothing is really exciting me this season. Is it just me or most of these films are incredibly unsatisfying? Either way, you can click here and check out all the categories.
🎬 • And speaking of movies and trailers, Lightyear may be the best Pixar film I never knew I need it.
⚡️ » Visual Inspiration
Eric Lefaure is a France-based 2D animator whose hand-drawn animations evoke some classic anime vibes in hypnotizing loops that can keep you staring at each piece for minutes. Check out his website or Instagram for more. Here are some favorites:
🎶 » New Music
click on the album and listen on your streaming service of choice
This week’s new albums I'm particularly interested in checking out:
Also, new singles from Caroline Polacheck, Ibey, Gabriel Ventura, Father John Misty, Everything Everything, 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:
Yay, loads of new music to listen to! I absolutely fell in love with Lady Wray's voice. I'm new to her music. Sooo cool to hear something fresh from Nilüfer Yanya. And I'm also super excited about the Lightyear movie. Thanks for sharing.
only two songs into the Lady Wray album and already hooked. can't wait to keep digging in