Anyone who has ridden in my car can tell you that my music taste is quite diverse. When my phone is hooked up to the aux cord, at one moment you might hear some old Taylor Swift song, like “Love Story” or “Our Song”, only for the speakers to be blaring Nardo Wick a minute later. My playlists span vastly over multiple genres, and as such I consider myself able to have good recommendations about whether music is good or not (some of my friends may not agree with this statement). I often sort of flip-flop every week or so in terms of my mood about what I want to listen to, and in this blog post I am going to share with you all the music that I have been listening to recently.
About two weeks ago I had a phase where I was almost exclusively listening to the La La Land soundtrack when I would drive home from track practice after school. I think that this was inspired in part by a few of my friends telling me that they recently finished watching the movie in their Film as Literature class, and also in part by my sister who is involved in show choir at North. Anyways, there are some extremely catchy songs on th
is soundtrack that I found myself singing along to, like “Someone in the Crowd” and the iconic “Another Day of Sun”.
Speaking of sun, “Saturday Sun” by Vance Joy is another song that has been in my rotation as of late. He is one of my mom’s favorite artists, and I also like a few of his other songs like “Riptide”. The enthusiastic acoustic guitar on these songs is a nice departure from some of the other music that I listen to, and I enjoy playing some alternative every once in a while.
This month I also went back in time a bit and listened to some older music from one of my favorite artists, which is Drake. I revisited his surprise 2015 album If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, and I got a nice nostalgia blast. “Energy”, “10 Bands”, and “Used To ft. Lil Wayne” are all throwback hype songs that I like, but my favorite track on the album is “Jungle”, which is definitely a top-five Drake song of all time, and firmly in contention for his best as far as I’m concerned. The slow, booming kick of the bass pairs beautifully with the sample taken from Brooklyn musician Gabriel Garzón-Montano, which goes “Rock me real slowly/Put a bib on me/I’m just like a baby drooling over you,” and Drake’s v
ocals complete this 5 minute 20 second masterpiece.
I listen to a lot of rap music, and there were a couple new hip hop albums that I listened to this month. Don Toliver dropped his album Love Sick just a couple of days ago, and I intended to listen to it all the way through, but when I saw that Justin Bieber was featured on one of the songs I had to play it immediately. The song in question, “Private Landing”, did not disappoint. Don provides a nice hook, and Future’s verse on the song is stellar also. But the Bieber feature, OH MY GOD THE BIEBER FEATURE. He absolutely slides, and his part feels like a transfer back to his R&B era that he was in years ago. Having that song in my ears when I’m walking through the hallways is a great feeling. There are a few other songs on the album that I like as well, like “Leave the Club ft. Lil Durk and GloRilla” and “Slow Motion ft. Wizkid”, but I never listened to the album fully and mainly only played the songs with features that I wanted to hear.
Another new release that I listened to was Young Nudy’s album Gumbo. I saw a review of it on TikTok, and considering that every song on the album is named after a different food, I did not have extremely high expectations, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it. The beats are fun and unique, and the whole album is pretty lighthearted. My favorite song is called “Pancake”, and the chorus of it begins “Splat, pull up in the ‘Cat (Nyoom), whole neighborhood see that I got racks (That I got racks)”. There are only two features on the album, but they are both very good and from high-profile artists. Nudy partners with longtime collaborator 21 Savage on “Peaches & Eggplants”, and then Memphis rapper Key Glock delivers a verse on “Pot Roast”.
Another Memphis rapper that is frequently booming out of my AirPods is Pooh Shiesty. His album Shiesty Season has been a staple in my playlist for a minute. “See Red” is the best from it in my opinion. That song is a masterpiece and I won’t let anyone tell me otherwise. “Guard Up” is a close second place. I also discovered an artist named Caleb Gordon, who makes exclusively clean Christian rap music. I like his songs “Rocky Road Pt.. 2” and “Quick”. The last artist I want to shout out that I’ve been listening to is Young Thug, specifically his songs “Check” and “Wyclef Jean”. If you have any song recommendations for me, drop them in the comments.
Hey Jack, To be honest I chose to read your blog because I saw the La La Land movie poster and was surprised because you don’t seem like the average audience for music like that. I personally have never seen La La Land, but, like your sister, I am involved in show choir so I have definitely heard the soundtrack and had to sing a few songs for different choir things so I know that soundtrack is pretty good. I feel like you would be on the same page with me when I say that I don’t really have a specific music taste. When people ask me what my favorite genre is, I tell them I like literally every type of music and can find parts of any specific genre to like. I’m not really a playlist person, so I have my liked songs on spotify and a playlist called “all time” which is super long and super uncohesive that has every song I’ve ever listened to. I am probably less familiar with rap as you are, but I would say the rap artists (they are extremely mainstream) I listen to are Drake, 21 Savage, Kendrick, a little bit of Kanye, maybe a few songs by JID and Baby Keem, Doja Cat, Tyler the Creator, but all of it’s pretty causal. I think a problem with liking music from all genres means I can’t really ever go deep into one, so I didn’t know who Young Nudy or Pooh Sheisty were.
Hi Jack,
Like you, I enjoy a wide variety of genres. However, recently I have found my recommendations and listening habits stuck in the rock/indie pop genre. I want to curate a well-rounded music exposure, and as a result I need to break out of this cycle. Specifically, I have been getting into more rap/RnB music, so I was excited to read this blog.
I really respect how your music taste ranges from the La La Land soundtrack to Don Toliver. I have not yet watched La La Land, so I will hold back on listening to these tracks until I get the full visual experience. I did listen to some of the other tracks that you mentioned, and Jungle and Private Landing are new additions to my March playlist.
I listen to a lot of mainstream artists like the Weeknd, Kanye, Rihanna, the Neighbourhood, the Arctic Monkeys, etc: but a few that maybe you aren’t familiar with would be maye, Cottonwood Firing Squad, Montell Fish, Arlie… etc.
I have an unnecessarily hard time making playlists, and I often settle with playlists with insane combinations; I will be in the gym and suddenly the song shifts from Kanye to a ballad.
Thanks for a fun read– you should share your Apple/Spotify/whatever profile!
Hi Jack,
I definitely share your sentiment about having a diverse music taste. Mine spans lots of different genres on the periphery without ever penetrating too deep into any given one. I feel like my musical preferences fluctuate quasi-weekly. Each week, it seems as though the songs at the top of my listening queue are not the same as the ones there just a week prior. It’s part of the reason why I can never conclusively answer who my favorite artist or what my favorite album is. I don’t think I’m big enough of a fan of anyone to listen through entire discographies, much less formulate educated judgments or criticism about them.
I gave some of the songs you recommended a listen. I think the points you raised about If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late are illustrative of Drake’s abilities. I think a lot of the time, people underrate him as a rapper because they think that not enough about his work is rap, or “hip hop.” I think this is not without merit. After all, Drake is known for integrating R&B elements into hip hop: I think this is also where Drake excels. I think this album is especially underappreciated because it doesn’t contain any of Drake’s most iconic or career-defining tracks or moments. To be frank, I didn’t even remember this album as particularly noteworthy. Scrolling through the list of songs, I didn’t recognize any of them off the top of my head. But the fact that he can amalgamate high-energy hype songs and slow R&B, and do a good job at both of these things, as you point out, is a testament to his range and his versatility as an artist.