Versions of Me
Shuffle Sundays #65 • Rosalía, Jon Batiste, Empress Of, Grindstone, Stranger Things, Oliver Burkeman, Roman Robroek, and more!
Greetings from New York City!
🙌🏼 • A big welcome to all the new people that came from the recent soundtrack feature on Substack. I hope you enjoy what you’ll see here from now on. And congrats to my music writer buddies Fog Chaser and Kevin Alexander that were also included!
💽 » Rosalía - Motomami
pop, reggaeton, latin • 16 songs • 42 minutes
If you’ve been following me and/or this newsletter for a while, you probably saw this coming, as Rosalía was one of the most featured artists in this publication over the past few months, and her third studio album was one of my most anticipated of 2022.
After a beautiful debut, Los Ángeles, and a masterpiece sophomore album, El Mal Querer, the subsequent singles were pointing Rosalía to a much more pop and mainstream atmosphere than her previous releases, and I was not sure what to expect of the whole album. But to my surprise, Motomami is a much more interesting experience, as a full album, than I was expecting.
On one side yes, she dives deep into the reggaeton beats to create delicious pop songs that will stick into your head right away, but at the same time, the album also navigates through traditional Spanish music in songs like Bulerías, one of my favorites on the record, which obviously brings back a little bit of what she created in El Mal Querer. And the exciting thing about Motomami is exactly its capacity to take you on a journey through a bunch of different genres on a piece of work that could end up sounding completely lost and generic, but that actually maintains its quality and remains full of identity and coherence from the opening track Saoko to the beautiful closing with Sakura.
🎶 » Jon Batiste - Movement 11’
I’ll be honest with you: although Jon Batiste was the artist with most Grammy nominations this year, I was caught completely by surprise when he won the biggest award of the night — album of the year — with the great We Are. From that album, I could feature many of the great R&B or soul tunes, but I’ll leave you with the part classical part jazzy instrumental track Movement 11’, which cuts the album right in the middle. Well done, Jon!
🎶 » Empress Of - Save Me
Lorelay Rodriguez, aka Empress Of, is another great contemporary artist flirting with more experimental beats in the so-called art-pop. Save Me is a delicious song ready for the dance floor, following the same path initiated in her previous album I’m Your Empress Of (2020). Really hoping that there’s a new one on the way!
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🧩 » Random Bits
🕹 • I’ve been hooked on the mobile game Grindstone, an interesting mix of match-three (think Two Dots) with sword-slashing action/adventure gameplay.
📺 • It’s been 3 years since the last season of Stranger Things, and I wasn’t sure how interested I would be in the 4th (and apparently last) season until I watched the epic trailer that came out a few days ago. Season 4 will drop in two separate volumes on May 27th and July 1st.
💬 • Nice chat between Austin Kleon and Oliver Burkeman on his latest book Four Thousand Weeks, which has been on my reading list since it came out last year.
⚡️ Visual Inspiration
Roman Robroek is a Netherlands-based travel Photographer specializing in abandoned homes, empty buildings, and urban decay. Here are some favorites from one of his series exploring a variety of churches across Europe in different states of decay. Check out his website or Instagram for more.
🎶 » New Music
this week’s new albums I'm curious to check out
Also, new singles from Lizzo, Conan Gray, 100 gecs, Jamie XX, 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:
Thank you for the mention, Leo! And like Kevin said, another excellent collection of music. Looking forward to that new Flock of Dimes. Thanks!
Thank you for the shout out!
Great list as always. This week, I’m excited to check out Kurt Vile’s new record. I wasn’t too big a fan at first, but he’s really grown on me.