Stay Young Forever

New Music 23/06/25

Maintain the vigor of a well dressed 17th century Dutch child, with music!

This week, I am going to do something a bit lazy and recycle some writing. Firstly, because I have been feeling quite sick and not very brainy. Secondly, because since I wrote this many new readers have come along and this piece of writing really sums up why I think you should be listening to new music. The new music and new music write ups are of course not recycled and there are some curious and clever songs on there this week!

Every week I make these playlists with the aim of making it easier to listen to new music, but why you should even listen to new music? Why can’t you just listen to the same albums, the same artists that you’ve always listened to; why can’t you simply rely on a playlist you once made called “blast from the past” forever!? I will tell you why, because:

a) you are not boring

b) you have not given up

It makes sense that as we get older we seek out fewer new musical experiences. Our personalities are developed, we rely on music less to help define ourselves. We also like to go back to the music we were listening to at times that felt defining, when we felt like a new song was an opportunity; to have a new time, to feel a new way. All of those close music experiences have turned us into the listeners we are today, but when you stop engaging with new music you limit your enjoyment of it and your connection to it, you become lazy, a musical sloth hanging from your tree. Imagine actually saying or believing that “music is just not good now.” Ridiculous! Music is great now and it is also awful, the same as always. Putting these playlists together has pushed me out of some of my own musical comfort zones and it has been a heady experience, it’s felt almost health giving to wade through so much new music every day. New music: better than vitamins, more effective — and more chic — than sitting in a bucket of ice, cheaper than La Mer!

In a world obsessed with being young I would like to give you a great and basic tip for aging well and that is to just be curious. Actively engaging with new music is a way to be part of the world, it’s a way to understand the time you live in, it’s adventurous and it’s not even very difficult! My dad, who is 85, calls me every week and tells me which songs on the playlist he likes and why. When he does this he shows me a few things: that he loves me and reads my substack, but more importantly for our purposes, that he still knows that the world is an interesting place, that he can love all his songs, have all his memories to them and still want new ones. This is the way to live; fresh eared and eyed, knowing there are hundreds of new songs to move you through your days, times to be had, people to be loved; that the world is as big as you want to make it, and sometimes if you’re feeling stuck a brand new song isn’t a bad place to start.

Apple Music Playlist

I breathe a sigh of relief when an artist I’m not that familiar with has a small discography. It means I can spend some time (but not all my time) getting to know them, it allows me to understand their latest release in the context of where they’ve been before. It’s even better of course, when what I listen to is actually interesting. Fendrix (whose real name is Joscelin Dent-Pooley) released the tricky to define, sometimes loathsome, sometimes lovely Winterreisse in 2020. This album caught the ear of director, Yorgos Lanthimos, and Fendrix ended up creating the score to Poor Things, Kinds of Kindness and the upcoming Bugonia. This song, the first single from his upcoming album, feels anachronistic, pastoral and innocent but then voices stutter and shift, there’s grief here as well as glockenspiel sweetness. Finally the strings come in, and this slightly reticent, off-kilter, nostalgia laced song soars.

It works well on a song about power dynamics, about feeling small, but needing to appear big, to assert yourself from the start. “Don’t push me over/I’m half your size,” she sings over woozy guitars. It’s too sweetly delivered to be a threat, but there’s real confidence here that pushes the song into what sounds like slightly new territory for Billie Marten. It’s a little less whispered confessional, hardier and more playful for this confidence.

The song, which was originally teased on SoundCloud in 2021, has been one of PinkPantheress’ most requested unreleased tracks. She didn’t want to release it because she felt fans might find it “too simple,” but that’s the reason I (and many, many) fans love it. It’s twinkling and gentle, a night out lullaby.

Fillipino-Japanese artist, Ena Mori, sounds a bit like the littlest Kate Bush Matryoshka doll and this is sophisticated, smart pop with a stand out chorus made slightly erratic by the clever, percussive production.

While some of you were out having fun on Saturday night I was at home watching an hour and a half long Youtube video titled "Playland At The Beach: a nostalgic -- and melancholy -- look at San Francisco's vanished amusement park at Ocean Beach.” Honestly this was entirely unnecessary since I don’t want to I become a tour guide in San Francisco. Also I don’t like amusement parks because I don’t really like games, having fun in groups or rides. This kind of sunny attitude is probably why I was home on a Saturday night watching videos about amusement parks. The point is Whitney’s Playland takes its name* from the defunct park. (It was sometimes called that after its owner George Whitney). I love this song, which much like their name, sounds like a slice of nostalgia; there’s a real 50’s influence that sits alongside their fuzzy, jangly 90’s rock. If they’d just sprinkled a few some girl group doo-wap harmonies over it, I would have been in milkshake-at-the-diner heaven.

*In Cape Town we briefly had an amusement park called Ratanga Junction where you could ride a famous roller coaster called The Cobra. It too closed down, so my point is that maybe Ratanga Junction could be a cool name for your band. Actually if you want to start this band message me because I’m v keen.

I wish you were all South African so you could understand how funny this would be

A new Yaya Bey album is out already and it’s good! This track was released as a single earlier this year, but it’s still my favorite track on the album so here it is! It’s also the lightest track on an album that already floats, a breezy soca inspired number featuring Bajan dancehall artist Father Philis.

Here’s Lorde calling her phone “the liquid crystal. ” I like this track, but I really wish it went harder! The big synth chords and her vocals over them are the best thing about it and I would have loved them to push that more. Pop needs more brave explorers! Come on Lorde! This track is just sitting on the couch at the party not sure if it should dance or not.

In December I am going to leave my house and see Four Tet perform. I’m excited and if you’re a person who lives in / will be in South Africa then get tickets! This track samples Mazzy Star’s 1993 song “Into Dust, which he’s been playing live for several years and it’s a washy, blur of a song, something I feel like 90% of people (including me) do not know how to dance to without looking ridiculous. Can’t wait.

Here is a song that is marching down the street dressed entirely inappropriately for the weather. It is wearing a t-shirt that says “I DO WHAT I WANT.” It just told you to get out of its way and then strummed a guitar loudly. Here is a song that is afraid of nothing! It’s not an easy listen, it can feel aggressive and chaotic, although with moments of beautiful respite, but if you don’t like it, who cares, says the song. We should be pleased that music like this is being made, that someone is sitting around thinking about how they want to write a piece of music with machine-gun percussion, that someone is imagining. You don’t have to like what they came up with, but when there’s so much music that doesn’t want to even dip it’s toes into the realm of imagination and ideas, thank god songs like this exist.