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0:45

quick note before the show, this

0:47

podcast contains explicit language. I

0:52

did have something that I actually wanted to ask

0:54

you about. Okay. Ooh. I don't want to blow

0:56

up your spot, but were you

0:58

recently salsa dancing in the office in

1:00

front of the tiny desk? Did I

1:02

see that on your Instagram? I'm actually

1:04

quite frequently salsa dancing in the office

1:06

in front of the tiny desk, which

1:08

is this is the first time someone

1:10

captured it. Okay, that was my question

1:12

and I have this idea in my

1:15

head that like you're salsa dancing everywhere.

1:17

So kind of. So if

1:19

you're listening at home and you don't know, I'm

1:21

Hazel Sills. I work at NPR out of New

1:23

York and I'm talking to Annemarie Assaire

1:25

who works out of DC. So we're

1:28

not often together in spaces where I

1:30

can witness the beauty of her salsa

1:32

dancing in person. The beauty

1:35

on the record, the beauty of my dancing.

1:37

Thanks Hazel. Appreciate it. This is my critical

1:39

opinion. But we're not here to

1:41

talk about salsa dancing as much as I wish this

1:44

was a podcast, just us talking about salsa dancing. Unfortunately.

1:46

It is New Music Friday for June 21st, 2024. We

1:48

are talking

1:51

about some of the best albums out

1:53

this week. Just to remind

1:55

you I'm Hazel Sills. And I'm Annemarie

1:57

Assaire. And we're gonna be talking about

1:59

new album. albums from Kehlani, super

2:01

exciting, a new album from the

2:03

artist Emiliana Torini. But

2:05

first, who do we have, Ana? Okay,

2:07

so luckily I'm almost maybe

2:09

more just as excited to talk about

2:11

this album as I am to talk

2:13

about salsa dancing. So this is Pesso

2:16

Pluma, regional Mexican star,

2:20

maybe the biggest artist in the movement right

2:22

now. And this is his second album, highly

2:25

anticipated, called Exolo. So

2:52

Hazel, I'm trying to figure out how

2:54

to consolidate the level and

2:56

amount of points and thoughts that I have listening

2:58

to this record. I mean, to

3:00

preface, back up, give people two

3:03

seconds of context, this is

3:05

one of the most highly anticipated albums

3:07

at least of my year as someone

3:09

who covers exclusively the Spanish language music

3:11

world pretty much. And that is because

3:13

Pesso Pluma is the artist

3:15

essentially that kind of took regional Mexican to

3:18

a global level. This is a type of

3:20

music that has existed in Mexico for over

3:22

100 years. It's

3:24

now been revamped by all these young

3:26

artists. And this is his second shot

3:29

at really doing a body of work

3:31

that encapsulates what is, you

3:33

know, the most forward-thinking part of this music

3:35

right now. And I'm honestly blown

3:37

away. He did some things I didn't love.

3:39

He did some things that I really loved.

3:42

So I'm kind of curious to hear

3:44

first what you thought as the outside

3:46

observer. Yeah, well, I think, you know,

3:49

Pesso Pluma, I've learned so

3:51

much about him through you and sort

3:53

of the ways in which he's kind

3:55

of like taking these very traditional genres.

3:57

Like, I feel like you and Felix

3:59

Contreras are not with you. Latino are

4:01

always talking about, you know, regional Mexican

4:03

being like your grandparents' music and really

4:05

sort of bringing his own perspective as

4:08

like a young artist who's also really interested

4:10

in pop music, really interested in rap and

4:12

sort of infusing that into the music that

4:15

he makes. And I feel like listening to

4:17

this album, it's very long. There's many angles

4:20

and sounds to this album. It

4:22

really felt like he was expanding

4:24

outward. Like there were some surprises

4:27

on this record that I didn't

4:29

totally expect from him. And it

4:31

seems like he's thinking about his

4:33

place in popular music more

4:35

widely than just like, I'm

4:37

a regional Mexican artist who is breaking

4:40

through, you know, the charts in a mainstream

4:42

way. Yeah. And the way that

4:44

I see this record is really almost like

4:46

the main body of work. And then you

4:48

have kind of this extension disc too, which

4:50

we'll get to. So speaking first about the

4:53

main record itself, I think it's

4:55

important to take a step back and realize

4:57

that in my opinion, one of the reasons

4:59

that this music is exploding in the way

5:02

that it has is this desire and interest

5:04

in supporting live instrumentation. It's

5:06

super integral to this type of music. It's

5:08

like these young guys who are doing quote

5:11

unquote, like a slightly urban sound. But

5:13

what they're really doing is they're taking tubas

5:15

and trombones and accordions and

5:18

they're working with these actual live

5:20

instruments and giving them what we

5:22

would call an urban twist. And

5:24

he really does that in

5:26

an impressive way. In my opinion, on this record, if

5:29

we look at the first track that I want to

5:31

talk about, which is Bruce Wayne, he

5:33

gives every single instrument its

5:36

moment to shine. You have

5:38

beautiful piano moments,

5:46

beautiful trumpet moments. And this is something

5:48

that you see across the

5:50

record. The musicianship to me is at some

5:53

of the highest I've heard actually in this

5:55

style of music, which this style of music

5:57

is called Corridos de Maros. And so, Characteristically,

5:59

Corridos have always had these beautiful accordions and

6:01

big horns and all of these things that

6:04

pool at the heartstrings beyond just the lyricism

6:06

and the vocals. But what he's doing here

6:08

is he's taking that, he's dialing up, he's

6:10

adding moments like on this track where he

6:13

has almost like a little bit of a

6:15

rap sprint and it really shows some

6:17

of his versatility and also some of his

6:20

darker side, would you say? Yeah,

6:22

I the darker side, I mean even just like

6:24

the nod to the Bruce Wayne you

6:27

know imagery, Batman imagery, like I had said

6:29

to you, you know before we tape this

6:31

I was reading interviews with him where he

6:33

sort of talked about his last album Genesis

6:35

as being like the superhero side to him

6:37

and that this album was

6:39

going to be like a little bit darker, was

6:42

going to be a little bit more about his

6:44

feelings about celebrity. And I

6:46

definitely like, I hear those darker tones on

6:49

this album, you know throughout. But it's really

6:51

interesting when you talk about like him as

6:53

an artist who is

6:55

really interested in live instrumentation,

6:58

which is like it shouldn't be that rare for a

7:01

young art, like it shouldn't be that you

7:04

know special to say like oh, this is

7:06

a young artist who's like really interested in

7:08

like pulling these instruments into their

7:11

work, but it just feels like among

7:13

his like age cohort in terms of people

7:15

who border different genres or maybe interested in

7:17

like you know rap and pop

7:19

and things like that, the fact that he's

7:22

doing that not just in his genre, but

7:24

like in general as an artist is really

7:26

compelling. And I think I mean if you

7:28

take a step back once again, like this

7:30

is something that we're seeing not just with

7:32

regional Mexican music, like for the space that

7:35

I cover like across the board in Latin

7:37

America, there are other scenes I've talked to

7:39

you about Cuarteto coming out of Argentina, very

7:41

similar re-imagining of an old sound with live

7:44

instrumentation. Even when you think about all

7:46

of the biggest hits on the charts right

7:48

now, like a Maluma track or a Grupo

7:51

Frontera track, all of these artists, even

7:53

if they have synthetic sounds, they're

7:56

actually pairing it typically with

7:58

a live instrument. And I think that... that

8:00

speaks to a larger desire

8:02

from a generation of young people that's

8:04

supporting and listening to this music that

8:07

I don't know why the timing is interesting

8:10

or maybe it's exactly perfect that I don't

8:12

know coming out of COVID. I mean this

8:14

specific type of sound it's like

8:16

everything is accelerated and you hear that

8:18

and how he talks thematically in

8:21

this song. He's already talking about the struggles

8:23

of fame and things that Bad Bunny talked

8:25

about on his last record but he's talking

8:27

about it within like two years of starting.

8:29

So it's a very interesting

8:32

accelerated moment for a very old

8:34

type of music. Yeah. But the

8:36

way that they do mix these sounds

8:38

I mean they always pair something new

8:40

with something old and a song

8:42

that really struck me was El Rello.

8:47

Now this is really

8:49

a special track

8:51

because there is an

8:53

incredibly famous

9:11

bolero that has been sung year in

9:13

year out over and over and over

9:15

again called El Rello and basically the

9:18

conceit of that song it's incredible conceit.

9:20

It's someone looking at the clock and

9:22

basically saying please stop because

9:24

this is the only time that I have

9:26

with her you know once morning comes I

9:29

lose her and it's something that is it's

9:31

like lore that has been repeated in Mexican

9:33

households and Latino households for years and years

9:35

and years and I saw this song

9:37

actually very much as a reaction to

9:40

that conceit. You basically hear him opening

9:42

the song saying which is basically him

9:44

saying there are no more minutes left

9:46

on the clock my love

9:55

I spend the whole night looking at the phone

9:57

I read your messages and I start smiling. So

10:00

he's basically like part two extension of

10:02

the story of the relló, is Peso

10:04

Pluma sitting here and being like the

10:06

clock's over, it happened, our time is

10:08

done, and I'm just sitting here in

10:10

this very modern take on this conceit,

10:12

right? Staring at my phone thinking about

10:15

how your text used to make me smile.

10:17

It's like Peso Pluma the softy is coming

10:19

out. Exactly. Well, and then

10:21

of course, of course, he brought

10:23

on the ultimate softy heartbreak lover

10:26

boy, Yvonne Cornejo, to

10:28

be on this track with him. I heard the reverb

10:31

on his vocals when this track

10:33

started and I was like, wow, this is really giving

10:35

some Yvonne Cornejo. And then of course there Yvonne was

10:38

with his very fun reverby,

10:40

synthy tragic sound. Yeah. What

10:43

I know about Yvonne learning from you is

10:45

that he's kind of like regional Mexicans, like

10:47

Justin Bieber, like he is really like heart,

10:49

really like heart, Justin

10:51

Bieber, early Justin Bieber. He's got

10:53

this real like youthful heartthrob energy. So

10:56

to hear him on this track with

10:58

Peso Pluma, and then of course it's this

11:00

like they're playing on this classic bolero is

11:03

like, okay, I didn't really expect this from

11:05

you, Peso Pluma, but this is you showing

11:07

your sensitive side. I

11:10

kid you not, Hazel, like I hear

11:12

the voice of this 20 year old

11:14

man, boy, man, and I can't not

11:16

cry. I don't know what it is,

11:18

but that is the energy

11:21

of this sound of regional Mexican is

11:23

you have all these really young artists

11:26

who just have these old souls and

11:28

something about him and

11:30

the way he sings and the emotion he sings

11:32

with, he says things like the

11:34

moon only knows my feelings. Like

11:36

he's so just expressive in his

11:39

vocalizations of these ideas that

11:42

he's able to take a conceit from

11:44

100 years ago and make it feel

11:46

current and relevant and meaningful

11:48

to people today, which is just

11:51

incredible to me. Yeah. I

11:53

mean, we're talking about that's very much a

11:55

collaboration on this album that feels very much

11:57

of his world and of the Latin music

11:59

industry. There are so many collabs

12:01

and features on this album. Were

12:04

there others that stuck out too? Okay, well,

12:06

first of all, I mean, the Yvonne choice

12:08

was interesting because even though it's very much

12:10

within his world in some ways, not quite

12:12

the Corrido Tumbado world, which is pretty expansive.

12:14

The regional Mexican world is very expansive. But

12:16

beyond that, tons of collaborators from his growing

12:18

label that has these tiny, tiny baby Corrido

12:20

Tumbados artists who are now like, this is

12:22

their big explosion onto the scene as being

12:25

on this record. But

12:27

then, if we're talking collaborators, we have

12:29

to go to disc two. Because that's

12:31

just like an entirely other way

12:33

out the box, completely different record

12:35

that I think was just attached

12:37

to this original one. He has

12:39

talked for a long time

12:42

about wanting to play with a

12:44

rap travregetón space. And he clearly

12:46

was not kidding because,

12:48

I mean, Hazel, I don't know, what

12:51

did you think of this section of

12:53

the record? So there are several collaborations

12:55

with American rappers as you

12:57

say, the disc two of the record. There

12:59

is a song with Quavo, there's a song

13:02

with Rich the Kid, and there is a

13:04

great song called, "'Put Him in the Fridge'

13:06

featuring Cardi B." ["Put

13:08

Him in the Fridge"] And

13:20

I was really, I don't know, I was kind of

13:22

surprised by the selection of rappers

13:24

that he chose to feature on that disc

13:26

two. There's no disrespect to Cardi B and

13:29

Quavo and Rich the Kid, but

13:31

I've read

13:34

interviews with him, as you said, where he's talked

13:36

a lot about wanting to collaborate

13:39

with American rappers. And it just

13:41

feels like he really kind of

13:43

went for the most mainstream

13:45

of the mainstream in getting

13:47

someone like Cardi B on this track. But what did

13:49

you think of this song? I think

13:51

it's interesting as someone who is so

13:53

cutting edge in terms of the collaborators

13:55

he chooses within his own space. It

14:00

was really interesting to me that he

14:02

did almost the reverse in his foray

14:05

into the quote-unquote mainstream

14:07

world. And I do think that there

14:09

is still a leftover feeling within the

14:11

Latin music space of like, oh, in

14:13

order to cross over, quote-unquote, he already has,

14:15

but in order to be relevant

14:17

and significant in a mainstream

14:20

space, you have to go for

14:22

the most, you know, excessively mainstream

14:24

artist. I mean, I'm thinking about

14:26

Beyoncé on a J Balvin record

14:28

or Cardi B once again popping

14:30

on a Latin track or even

14:32

the Drake moment. I mean, there's

14:34

been so many instances of really

14:37

big names being on a

14:39

Latin music song. So it

14:42

was really interesting to see him. There's almost

14:44

no trace in some moments of his,

14:46

you know, Corrido Tumbado essence. I think

14:48

on this track specifically, I do hear

14:50

some horns that feel reminiscent of a

14:52

Corrido Tumbado track, but otherwise

14:54

he really did something entirely different

14:56

here, which I'm

14:59

interested to see if that's something he continues to

15:01

do moving forward. Yeah, there is so much

15:04

on this album, so much to explore. But

15:06

now we have more albums to get to

15:08

after a short break. We're going to be

15:10

talking about a new project from Kehlani and

15:13

a new album from Emiliano Torini when we

15:15

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16:37

we're back. I'm Ana Maria Sayer here with

16:39

Hazel Sills. We're talking about some of the

16:42

best new albums out on Friday, June 21st.

16:46

So the artist, Kehlani, has a new

16:48

album out today titled Crash. And this

16:50

is the song After Hours. We

16:57

don't gotta

17:02

take

17:05

it

17:08

slow.

17:11

I'm gonna hit the gas if you're

17:14

ready to go. I wanna feel the

17:16

sweat breathing through your

17:18

toes. The way you touch

17:20

my neck, I'm ready to

17:23

fold. I wanna make magic. I

17:26

want you to feel me. I want you

17:28

to grasp it. I want you to steal

17:30

me. If you want it, you can have

17:32

it. I want you to

17:34

free me. I'm not trying to lock you down.

17:39

So this is Kehlani's fourth studio album.

17:41

And I sort of think of Kehlani

17:43

as being this artist who their

17:46

strength is expressing their vulnerabilities

17:49

in their music. I think of them as a

17:51

very confessional artist. They go to very deep, dark

17:53

places in their work. And their last album, Blue

17:56

Water Road, was very personal about it. their

18:00

experiences of you know just becoming a

18:03

parent and this album is

18:07

very different like this album

18:09

I feel like is this

18:11

kind of bold fun big

18:13

album that really prioritizes feeling

18:15

and it's not you know I

18:18

listened to an interview that

18:20

Kehlani did about this album recently where they

18:22

were sort of talking about their tendencies to

18:24

get really intellectual with their music and they

18:26

didn't want to do that with this album

18:29

and I feel like that energy

18:31

is so exemplified in this song after

18:33

hours which is this big kind of

18:35

banger that's inspired by you know

18:38

their memories of going out to the

18:40

clubs with their friends and it has

18:42

that incredible sample of the

18:44

early aughts hit move your body by Nina Skye

18:47

I mean what what did you think about this

18:49

song? Oh I

18:51

100% Hazel agree this is

18:53

like them at ultimate

18:55

peak fun I think

18:57

Kehlani has historically you know gotten

19:00

into things talked about a lot

19:02

of stuff gotten moody gotten you

19:04

know spoken to all of our

19:06

like kind of broken

19:09

twisted dark lover girl

19:11

hearts a little bit and

19:13

this is really them coming out of

19:15

that I mean that house baseline on

19:17

this track is so infectious it's almost

19:19

has that like marimba feel to it

19:21

of like a passion fruit or something

19:24

like it's so classic it's so I

19:26

literally wrote down light fresh and funky and

19:30

I like that you you mentioned the samples of

19:32

the early aughts because I kept hearing that come

19:34

back on this album if

19:37

not sonically at the very least just

19:39

kind of an energy and vibe they've

19:41

mentioned I think in previous

19:43

interviews that that was something they spent

19:45

a lot of time listening to growing

19:47

up and beyond that listen to like

19:50

Hector Lavoe and kind of all these

19:52

really fun energetic artists and so this

19:54

almost feels like a return to that

19:57

childhood to me of just like energetic fun

19:59

and And this track was obviously extremely

20:01

emblematic of all of that. Yeah.

20:03

This is like a song that I want to hear

20:06

in the club to dance to. Oh,

20:08

absolutely. Yeah. But I mean, we're talking about

20:10

this album being really fun and energetic. But

20:12

there are also some twists and turns on

20:15

this record. Like, I'm thinking of the song

20:17

Better Not. I love that track. What's

20:19

going to find you, but I

20:21

didn't know where you was. In

20:24

broad day, post it up outside the bar.

20:29

I almost died, and I would

20:31

not call you when somebody spins.

20:34

But better not get you to a

20:37

night in Shadykin. And

20:39

you're not wrong, because

20:42

you're not mine. I would

20:44

choose as days with you

20:47

and every night, though

20:49

we're just a little more

20:51

than friends. I'd

20:56

better not get you doing that

20:58

Shadykin. We

21:01

both were like, what's going on here? Because it's

21:03

a country song. What

21:06

were you thinking when you listened to this

21:08

song? I wasn't capable of wrapping my head

21:10

around it. Every single sound from the opening,

21:12

I was like, huh. That's

21:15

not a country sound. Their

21:17

voice on this was the first moment

21:19

to me of like, that

21:22

is a country vocal, is what I heard. That was

21:24

the really like, I think this might. And then you

21:26

get that kind of like twangy acoustic guitar. And I

21:29

was like, this is not what they're

21:31

doing right now. Is it? It took a couple of listens

21:33

for me to fully accept. I was like, oh, yeah, this

21:35

is fully a country track. Though we're

21:37

just a little more than friends.

21:41

I'd better not get

21:43

you doing that Shadykin.

21:47

I feel like this happens with every Kehlani album where

21:50

I know they're an incredible artist, and then I listen

21:52

to their new work. And I'm like, oh, they

21:54

are like one of the best vocalists. I

21:57

feel completely underrated in a lot of ways.

21:59

And I mean, this song is

22:01

interesting because it's like, as you said, it's like

22:04

a country song, but it's very like Kehlani does

22:06

country. Like if you're really listening to the lyrics,

22:08

the vibe is like, the vibe is like, I

22:11

better not catch you doing

22:13

that again, because that's not going to be cool

22:16

with me. And that feels

22:18

like a very, you know, Kehlani

22:20

bringing their essence and their energy

22:22

to a genre that we don't

22:24

normally hear them working in. Yes.

22:26

And I kept trying to kind

22:28

of disentangle whatever it was, was

22:30

the nature of this relationship.

22:32

And I was like, are they in

22:34

love? Do they hate each other? Did

22:37

someone cheat? Are they like 80

22:40

years old and this is them reflecting on

22:42

a beautiful, like I literally couldn't tell you

22:44

and that feels very Kehlani to me as

22:46

well. Yeah. Let's leave it

22:48

kind of delightfully, uncomfortably obscure.

22:50

Yeah. And like you said, Hazel, I

22:52

think I forget just how versatile they

22:54

are. Like, even in my head, I have

22:57

them boxed into maybe like the sounds

22:59

of some of their bigger songs, but

23:01

really, they were all over the

23:03

map in a really like impressive way

23:05

on this record, in my opinion. And this

23:07

is this song, I mean, doing country is just one

23:10

moment of that, but it really wasn't just that, but they

23:12

did it well. They did it very well. Everything felt a

23:15

different style, but still distinct to Kehlani.

23:17

Like everything had that signature. Totally. And

23:19

I mean, you're talking about this album

23:21

kind of being all over

23:23

the map. Like something that I really picked

23:25

up on listening to it is, you know,

23:27

Kehlani is an artist who really borders the

23:29

pop world, R&B, and there are

23:31

a few collabs on this album that

23:33

I feel like speak to trends, bigger

23:35

trends in pop right now. You know,

23:38

there's kind of this African pop crossover

23:40

with the Nigerian singer Omele, and then

23:42

there is kind of a Latin crossover

23:44

with the rapper Young Miko who

23:46

appears on the track Sousia, which

23:48

also features the R&B singer Jill

23:50

Scott doing this crazy interlude

23:53

about being nasty. I'm

23:55

nasty. Cause

23:58

I said her proper name. And

24:00

precisely what she does Then

24:03

I'm nasty then I'm baptized in

24:05

your taste You

24:07

look me in the face When

24:10

you touch me we feel some Amazing

24:13

and extra particular with

24:15

cosplay our characters ecstasy

24:17

savage arms for you I

24:36

Missus caught us on I'll

24:39

take you by the hand when you're alone

24:43

And we can go to town What

24:48

did you think of this song and and

24:50

young Mikko's feature on it oh I

24:53

You know I'm a big young meek of we

24:55

both baseline. Yeah, we're big This is

24:57

a young Mikko household and really Before

24:59

I even heard her hop on say a

25:02

word on this track. I was completely hooked

25:04

I think that Jill Scott opening is phenomenal

25:08

So much about it is just hooks you in

25:10

and the Interplay of like the

25:12

guitar and the double bass and all of these

25:14

things happening and it's funny too

25:16

because I read that they also Grew up listening

25:18

to a ton of Jill Scott And I

25:20

love a full circle moment like that of

25:22

being able to include I mean I can't

25:24

imagine how special of a moment to include

25:26

an artist you've spent a lifetime being inspired

25:28

by Yeah on a track like this, and I

25:30

think you can feel the energy and

25:33

the excitement of Having

25:35

her there. I mean just the

25:37

intensity of the vocals

25:39

and the instrumentation on this and then You're

25:42

already there. You're already like this is amazing and

25:44

then young Mikko comes in with a verse and you're like Them

25:48

together makes a lot of

25:50

sense to me So

25:57

Sl I

26:00

think there are two

26:02

artists who kind of

26:05

work in a similar

26:07

vein. They

26:22

both are artists who sing

26:24

very frankly about their sexuality. Their

26:26

music is very sexy and Young

26:29

Miko is this rising rapper from

26:31

Puerto Rico and it's really exciting to

26:33

see her be featured in

26:36

a collaboration like this. Oh absolutely.

26:38

I think Young Miko's whole... It's

26:41

like a connection that I wouldn't have made until they

26:43

put it in front of my face. But

26:46

Young Miko in many ways is Latin,

26:49

rap, trap, hip-hop's answer to Kehlani

26:51

at the moment, honestly. In a

26:53

way, Young Miko's newer, definitely, but

26:55

I think if you give her

26:58

a few more years, she

27:01

has the versatility, she has the

27:03

dynamism, all of these things are

27:05

true and it's the unapologeticness. I

27:07

mean, Kehlani

27:09

has not had to explain in a way that

27:11

Young Miko has really not explained besides just being

27:13

like, this is who I am. And that's been

27:16

really refreshing, I think, for a lot of people. So

27:21

that was Kehlani's crash. And

27:24

now we're gonna go in a bit

27:26

of a different direction with a new

27:28

album titled Miss Flower by the artist

27:30

Emiliana Torini. And this is the

27:32

title track, Miss Flower. I

27:34

have just completed mowing your lawn.

27:37

It remains a laborless of love but

27:39

there need to be around you. And

27:42

the grass keeps growing and so

27:44

needs cutting. So I'm there

27:46

for the doing. And

27:50

I go backwards and I go

27:52

forward, striping my way to the

27:54

borders, looking at you through the

27:56

window. I want to taste

27:58

you, taste your Your lips

28:00

feel your hair, I wanna breathe you

28:03

Taste your hips, taste your skin, I

28:05

wanna oom Taste

28:07

your mouth, taste your fingers, I wanna

28:10

love you Taste your

28:12

breath, taste your sweat, let me adore

28:14

you This

28:22

is a new album from the Icelandic

28:24

singer-songwriter and electronic artist She's

28:26

been making music for the last 30 years I

28:29

feel like she's most well known for her

28:31

1999 album, Love in the Time of Science

28:34

She did an album last year with the orchestra, The

28:36

Colorist which reinterpreted her

28:38

previous material But this

28:41

album, Miss Flower, is her first solo

28:43

album of new material in over a

28:45

decade And it has such

28:47

a interesting story It's

28:50

kind of this concept record inspired

28:52

by a box of letters written

28:54

to a woman named Geraldine Flower,

28:57

who is the late mother of

28:59

one of Emiliana's friends, Zoe And

29:01

so the two of them went through these letters

29:03

and they found that Miss Flower lived

29:06

a really fascinating life There were stories

29:08

of love and heartbreak and secrecy And

29:10

so each song on this album

29:13

is inspired by an individual letter

29:15

written to Miss Flower And it

29:18

really feels like I'm listening to a

29:20

correspondence And I feel like that's really

29:22

embodied in this title track Which

29:25

is kind of this love letter that someone

29:27

wrote to her expressing

29:29

their feelings of admiration

29:32

But it sort of begins with this weird

29:34

image of them talking about how they had

29:36

to cut her lawn It's like

29:39

a love letter that begins with this image of

29:41

cutting someone's lawn So

29:44

yeah, I mean, what did you

29:46

think about this song and this album? So

29:49

if I'm entirely honest, when I

29:51

heard this track And I

29:54

heard her come in with those super breathy

29:56

vocals talking about mowing the lawn I was

29:58

like, I'm a little bit scared This

30:00

is a little bit crazy. Like too intense? Like

30:03

it was too intense for you? Yeah, I was

30:05

just like, ooh, I kind of feel like what's

30:07

happening? It's super intimate.

30:09

And then I was like, but I'm

30:11

not above making, you know, certain

30:13

tracks making me feel a little uncomfortable. I

30:16

was like, okay, what's happening here? And the

30:18

more I learned about the conceit of the

30:20

whole record and really listened to the lyricism,

30:22

I was like, oh, this is a really

30:24

fascinating exploration of

30:26

this woman's life. And

30:29

I think specifically the fact that so

30:32

much of it besides one track that

30:34

I think we're going to get to

30:37

later is told from the alternative perspective,

30:39

whatever it is, like a lover, people

30:41

writing letters to her. I

30:43

really liked pairing that with this feeling that

30:45

I had, because in a way it kind

30:48

of feels like, oh, someone kind

30:50

of like insistently pursuing you or someone like

30:52

in your space or trying to talk in

30:54

your life. And it's like, oh,

30:56

that should feel a little bit uneasy. Or

30:58

that should feel a little bit sticky. And

31:00

so I thought that she did a really

31:03

good job of representing that well while

31:05

still maintaining some lighter track,

31:07

some nicer moments. Yeah. Yeah.

31:10

I mean, you talk about the intimacy of

31:12

the album. Obviously there's like the intimacy of

31:14

the subject matter, you know, these very private

31:16

letters becoming public songs. But I

31:18

also think that something she does really well on this

31:21

album is like the production of the music and the

31:23

way that the music sounds. She

31:25

very specifically wanted to make a

31:27

pop electronic album with, as she

31:30

says, the vocal intimacy of Leonard

31:32

Cohen's 1988 album, I'm Your Man. She

31:35

wanted, in her words, in your

31:37

face vocals without the music disappearing.

31:40

And I hear that on a lot

31:42

of these tracks, but it really stood

31:44

out to me on the song Lady

31:46

K, which

31:50

has kind of a sinister, like

31:52

there's a sense of mystery and intrigue to

31:54

that song and the way that her vocals

31:57

are sort of like very up close to

31:59

your ear. I have been

32:01

waiting to tell you it's hard to find

32:03

the words But my secrets are been running

32:05

right through London And

32:08

I cannot bear you hearing it from

32:10

someone else Today

32:14

my love affair broke, she left

32:17

me inconsolable She captivated me, pickled

32:19

me like a siren Went

32:21

to process her to own her

32:24

lovely lines My heart

32:26

is slow to mourn and slow to act But

32:29

when it catches fire it's almost

32:31

spiritual My obsession with the lightness

32:33

of her promise Thought I was

32:36

put your own message to survive,

32:38

goddess I

32:40

decided it was very fun and slinky

32:42

That's how I felt I was like,

32:44

it feels very fun and slinky, kind

32:47

of ethereal in a way And that

32:49

felt to me very

32:51

representative of this character Of this

32:53

Miss Flower character that I really

32:55

liked the idea of Getting

32:58

to paint this image of her in so many

33:00

different ways But I think that's really interesting The

33:03

idea of the vocals staying up front and the

33:05

music not being lost Because that

33:07

is true, they both really hold their own on

33:10

kind of every single track Like you don't forget

33:12

that they're there But you're also so focused on

33:14

that voice and what she's saying And the ways

33:16

that she's telling the story It's

33:19

really like a unique way to

33:21

be able to do it Yeah, it's like the

33:23

sort of creative liberties that she's taking The

33:26

subject matter There's

33:30

a kind of wordiness to a lot of these songs Because

33:33

they're based on letters And

33:36

I feel like it's how Emiliana writes

33:39

music But I think, as

33:41

you said before about it being really intimate And

33:44

kind of scary If

33:46

your word's scary or uncomfortable The vulnerability

33:48

of this music It's

33:51

kind of weird reanimating A

33:55

person in this way through music Through

33:57

their private letters That have been

33:59

written This.

37:16

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Details at Capital one.com. It's.

37:34

World Cathay hey, I'm Calais. I am

37:36

a fan of those who are deeply

37:38

passionate about their craft, who love the

37:40

nitty gritty how the smallest detail can

37:42

make the biggest. Difference And they want

37:44

to tell you why. up

38:00

has been recording works by the late

38:02

composer Julius Eastman. They are

38:04

releasing their fourth installment in that

38:06

series today. It's titled The Holy

38:09

Presence. Okay,

38:30

so first record I'm bringing in is

38:33

the new Lake Street Dive record. It's

38:35

called Good Together and the track is

38:37

called Better Not Tell You, which I

38:39

brought this track in in particular because

38:41

they go almost a little bit funky

38:43

on it, which I really like. It

38:45

feels a little different from them, from

38:48

their typical standard Lake Street

38:50

Dive sound. It's really fun and dancey.

38:52

It's them at their best, their tightest.

38:54

And I love those horns. The

39:00

ride and the road. I

39:05

got me a system. I

39:07

don't even need a crystal.

39:13

The sweet recognition

39:15

is pretty convincing

39:17

after all. Because

39:20

I'm sure I know what

39:22

the future holds and what

39:24

cars are going to fold.

39:27

But I better not tell

39:30

you, better not tell you

39:32

now. I got

39:34

a secret, baby. Better

39:36

not tell you, better not

39:38

tell you now. And I'm

39:41

going to keep it. The

39:44

pop star Gracie Abrams made a big

39:47

splash last year with her debut album,

39:49

Good Riddance. It earned her a Grammy

39:51

nomination for Best New Artist. And

39:53

she has a new album out today and it's

39:55

titled The Secret of Us. This

40:29

is a track off a new record

40:32

called Miles Away, Volume 1. Now, this

40:34

is a compilation record that is actually

40:36

being done by the label Miles Away,

40:38

which is basically a reissue label that

40:41

was founded in 2019, bringing back a

40:43

ton of different soul tracks of all

40:45

kinds of varying levels of notoriety. This

40:47

song in particular I really loved. It's

40:50

by Eugene Smiley and The Essence of

40:52

Love, and it's called Yes, It's You.

41:00

Yes, it's you. Whoa, baby, baby, baby. Is

41:08

it you? I've got

41:10

the same thing as you, girl. You're

41:13

the best thing that's ever done to me.

41:16

I can feel your metal

41:19

feet. Oh,

41:23

this is the day we met. The

41:31

singer-songwriter Linda Thompson also has a

41:33

new album out today titled Proxy

41:35

Music. It's her first album in

41:37

over a decade, and it

41:40

has a really interesting concept. It's a collection of songs

41:42

that she wrote, but they're performed

41:44

by her friends and family, including

41:46

her son Teddy Thompson, her daughter

41:48

Cammie Thompson, Rufus Wainwright, and more.

41:51

She also recreates the cover of

41:54

Roxy Music's self-titled

41:56

debut album for this record with herself as the

41:58

model.