Baker's Dozen: Navy Blue, Aly & AJ, Cassandra Jenkins

This is a free post from Larry Fitzmaurice's Last Donut of the Night newsletter. Paid subscribers get one or two email-only Baker's Dozens every week featuring music I've been listening to and some critical observations around it, along with a Screen Memories column every one or two weeks where I write about stuff I watched lately.

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Now, for the uninitiated, a brief explanation of what the "Baker's Dozen" actually is: Once or twice a week, I send out a playlist of stuff I've recently spent some time with that came out over the last five or six years, along with critical observations made about said stuff. If you want a slightly more involved explanation of the methodology that goes into putting the Baker's Dozens together, you can head right here. In the meantime—if you like what you see here, make sure to grab that subscription sale so you can keep seeing it when it goes back to being for paid subscribers only. OK, on with the show:

Hannah Jadagu, "Say It Now"

I liked Hannah Jadagu's 2023 debut Aperture a little more than I liked her record from last year, Describe—although with a lot of singer-songwriter fare of this ilk, it really is a game of inches...what makes this track specifically appealing to me is that squeal of guitar that plays during the chorus and then extends a little afterwards, it's honestly more memorable than the chorus itself (whether that's a good or bad thing, you can be the judge of that).

Amy Shark, "The Wolves"

A-my Shark, do-do-do-do-do. Hey, I may not have kids myself, but I've hung around toddlers enough that certain things break through regardless...this is a very capable, dare I say even moderately powerful, Halsey-like from long-running Australian pop concern Amy Shark's 2021 record Cry Forever, in 2009 she released an EP called Love Is Anorexia that she had to defend from criticism, and I'll give you one guess as to why. (I say this as the rare "39-year-old straight white male Halsey fan," but stumbling early in your career by calling an EP Love Is Anorexia is an extremely Halsey-esque move.) Shark (not her real last name, btw) has also been a judge on Australian Idol for the last three years running, yet another addition to the pile of Pop Stars I've Written About On Here Who Have Done Time On A Singing Competition In Some Form.

Navy Blue, "Pillars"

Between Navy Blue and MAVI, we saw a bit of a speedrun in the last three years when it came to the underground's new-ish crop taking a shot at the majors, in Sage Elsesser's case the stint was extremely short-lived with 2023's Ways of Knowing, in the realm of "underground guy makes a record for the majors" I found the record frequently fascinating and occasionally beautiful, if you're familiar with the Navy Blue catalog you can hear the moments where there's clearly some audience bridge-building but they're not too heavy-handed, this is a good example of a cut that's so Navy Blue but also feels a little (not a lot, but a little) like something an A&R might be looking for on one of the big imprints. I'll share another track from this in the future to give an even better example of the sensation I'm talking about here.

Pavel Milyakov and Bendik Giske, "Untitled 1"

In the last Baker's Dozen I shared a cut from this year's sublime full-length collab between Bendik Giske and Caterina Barbieri, here's a cut from Giske's self-titled 2021 record with Pavel Milyakov (aka the notoriously-named Buttechno) that I really enjoyed as well...it's such a "can you actually name more than one experimental saxophonist" thing to compare the fiery plumes that Giske lets off here to newsletter alum Colin Stetson, but the similarities do persist anyway and not at the expense of either extremely talented reedsman.

Clairo, "Terrapin"

Last one I'm sharing from Charm, promise...geez, four Clairo tracks on one newsletter, performative male much?!? As impressive as it is that Clairo has switched her sound up to great success on every one of her full-lengths, this song seems to me like the thorough line that connects Charm's swirling, hazy-day R&B to the pastoral and heartbreaking intimacy of Sling, a record that was so "maybe I don't want to be doing this anymore" that I honestly feared it would be her last. Thank god it wasn't!

Parker McCollum, "Why Indiana"

I still need to listen to his self-titled record from last year but I'm quite a fan of this guy, specifically his 2023 record Never Enough, he absolutely tore with "Stoned"...despite some heavy-hitters in the booth with him (see: a Miranda Lambert cowrite) I didn't like 2021's Gold Chain Cowboy as much as what followed but this is a satisfying anthem that his voice sounds undeniably great on.

underscores, "Innuendo (I Get U)"

The beat goes absolutely crazy on this, it might be my favorite song of the year so far period honestly...the level of complexity in the lyrics here adds a lot of tension, it's so impressive how she's able to convey a range of emotions from lyric to lyric, "guy who hears Lil Peep in everything" alert but I do hear a little bit of Gus in the bridge, as with everything on U it feels like she packs 25 years of electronic pop in the production and presents a perspective regarding trans-femininity and queer sexuality that modern pop rarely engages with in general. What an artist! I'll share one more from U next time, why not.

Parmalee, "Greatest Hits" [ft. Fitz]

I promise I'm not sharing this because of the nomenclatural specificity regarding the feature...I was driving through Connecticut this past weekend and saw that these guys (the drummer of which survived a fucking armed robbery in 2011!) were playing a casino gig somewhere, they'll make a lot of weekend warriors happy with that one. Parmalee are way too "we have Florida Georgia Line at home" for me to earnestly appreciate, but I felt like sharing this one from 2021's For You if only because the lyrical conceit combined with the clear rip of the Chainsmokers' "Closer" reminds me a lot of Anne-Marie's similarly miserable pop-history speedrun single "2002"...the difference between the two, of course, is that while Anne-Marie was accurately anticipating Y2K nostalgia, these guys are already saying "Remember 2015?" when the body's not even cold yet. Dark stuff!

Sandrider, "Tourniquet"

Good grungy fun from these Seattle guys' 2023 record Enveletration (say that three times fast), one interesting thing about my own listening habits in general is that my tolerance for shoulder-length stuff like this has become significantly stronger as I've gotten older, who knows what that's about but when it rips, it rips.

Aly & AJ, "Paradise"

I'm just realizing now that the latest Hilary Duff record, as many crimes as I believe it committed, was also a fairly careless reheating of the nachos that Aly & AJ have been unassumingly serving up in their own corner of pop's B-team luncheonette...I liked quite a few songs off of 2021's (deep breath) A Touch of the Beat Gets You Up on Your Feet Gets You Out and Then Into the Sun, which featured collabs with Justin Raisen and erstwhile Mexican Summer alum Jorge Elbrecht, it's nice that the two of them finally got to play Bonnaroo this year because they sure as shit won't be there next year.

Wye Oak, "I Learned It From You"

Here's a great and typically power-packed cut from Wye Oak's 2023 singles comp Every Day Like the Last, great band, huge fan of what Jenn and Andy are up to separately and together, when it comes to the former I had Jenn to talk about all things her solo career last year, you can read that great convo right here.

Anna Meredith, "BPM 178: Heartbreak Staircase"

At first I had a hard time with Anna Meredith's stuff but I've come to appreciate her as a Dan Deacon-esque figure (her music being included in Eighth Grade helped quite a bit), ginning up head-spinning synth concoctions like a mad scientist with test tubes smoking and beakers overflowing...lots of candyfloss concoctions across 2021's Bumps Per Minute (18 Studies For Dodgems), this particular tune makes me feel absolutely freaking crazy and I say that as the highest of compliments.

Cassandra Jenkins, "Petco"

I get the sense that Cassandra Jenkins' 2024 record My Light, My Destroyer was a little under-appreciated, I actually liked it even more than its predecessor in terms of breadth of sound, I think she's extremely talented in general and this straightforward rocker is more than enough proof of that...she played an event for my wife's library branch a year or so ago, shout out to longtime friend Brandon Stosuy for helping make that one happen of course.