Sorry, but 2025 is half over, and that's a good time to check in on our Playlists for the past sixth months—though I'm sure I'll still be adding songs from earlier in the year as we go in. Here are the latest entries.
Local Picks
Another Heaven, “Macabre Subway”
These fellas were gazin’ at their shoes back when younger dream-pop feedbackers were still learning to tie theirs, and they’re never at a loss for hooks. Here Ali Jaafar scans a not-unfamiliar hellscape, declaring, “It’s not the undead, it’s the capitalists who scare me,” and then the track staggers to a halt, just like our economic future. They’re at Cloudland on July 11.
“I don't think this is entirely your type of thing,” Racket contributor Michelangelo Matos emailed, referring me to this posthumous EP from the late DJ he eulogized so well for Carbon Sound last year. “But I suspect you'd like track four,” he added. And while I’d say the late Liara’s style is less “not my type of thing” and more the type of thing I don't feel competent to assess professionally, he nailed it: Track four was my fave. Busy electro, with memorable bits bouncing into each other from all sorts of angles, it might be your type of thing too.
All music is world fusion now, more or less. St. Paul singer Moise Igeno met fellow Minnesotan Deva in Madrid. After they completed this buoyant Afrobeatsy Latin track, they filmed a video (linked above) of them dancing in front of some Holiday gas pumps.
Sorry, disco freaks, this is not a Van McCoy cover, though this blues rockin’ “ADM” (that’s their self-tag, for “acoustic dance music”) does groove nastily. “You think you're free?” Doc snarls. “Try going somewhere without money.”
Of course this guy can sing, he’s a VocalEssence member. But even the greatest vocalists need good material, and I'm glad Traiveon did with this ballad, which as a bonus is attached to a thicc guitar solo that is very Mpls Sound.
Non-Local Picks
One reason the Clipse reunion feels less monumental than it might is that an absence of No Malice has hardly kept Pusha T from dropping bombs. But monumentality is for myth-mongers anyway. I’m glad the team (minus Chad) is back together because I love how Pharrell flips those “exotic” strings (courtesy of Saudi musical giant Talal Maddah’s "Maza Akoulo Wa Qad Himto," or so the internet tells me) in the face of that woman’s prissy voice objecting “This is culturally inappropriate.” But most of all I’m glad Push has an excuse to start a verse with “C-L-I-P-S-E” so he can end it 20 or so rhymes and half-rhymes later on “baguette me, ski.”
Not even gonna try and fake expertise where it comes to this young Algerian-Indian U.K. rapper—he released 50 tracks over the course of last year, and I ain’t that dedicated. But of the 10 he’s already dropped this year (slowin’ down, kid?), this is my pick (at least today), not so much for his rhymes as for how the electroclashy throb that NYC production duo Suzy Sheer provides compliments his brash flow.
Key lyric: “Lick it up.” Runner up: “Mmm, mmm, mmm.”
Is it nostalgic loyalty that draws me in to this anti-gun, pro-child protest number even though Flav and Chuck have surely slowed with age? I dunno—is it novelty fetishism that draws you in to a track from whatever hot new MC you’re bumping? Anyway, let me know when your favorite rapper takes a stand on… anything.
A killer throwback to the days of catchphrase shoutalongs like Black Rob’s “Whoa!” or JT Money’s “Who Dat” that acknowledges its silliness with a smirky giggle after this outro: “What the helly Berry?/What the helly 'Burton?/What the helly 'Bron James?/What the helly Cyrus?”
Worst New Song
Oliver Anthony, "Scornful Woman"
I strongly discourage you from watching the video for this strident men's rights anthem, no matter how much camp value you might expect from lyrics like, "Well Eve grabbed the apple/And Adam took a bite/And now all these years later/And [sic] the math still ain't right." After just two misguided viewings, the dreaded algorithm has flooded my feed with reaction videos from Joe Rogan, a "pro vocal coach," a "therapist," a "veteran," "True Brodown," "Uncle Si" from Duck Dynasty, a shocked woman with her hand over her mouth, multiple Black men (both in and out of cowboy hats), and anyone with a YouTube channel who owes back child support payments. Still, I include it here in the vain hope that Americana fans might consider how many of their less problematic faves over-sing like this.
Wanna get a local song considered for the playlist? To make things easy on both of us, email keith@racketmn.com with RACKET PLAYLIST in the subject header. (Don’t, as in do NOT, DM or text: If I’m in a good mood, I’ll just ask you to send an email; if I’m in a bad mood I’ll just ignore it.)
