Baker's Dozen: Gorillaz, Bebe Rexha, Lupe Fiasco

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 Memory column every one or two weeks where I write about stuff I watched lately.

And the very thing that form copy is describing is what you're seeing right in front of you—only, it's for free! For now, at least...as previously mentioned, a lot of the stuff that would typically be behind "the paywall" will be free for the next month in order to give new potential subscribers an idea of what they'll be getting if they take part of the fabulous "birthday layoff" sale I'm currently running.

And what is that "birthday layoff" sale, you ask? We're talking 39% off the first six months of a monthly subscription, or the same discount off of a year of the annual subscription. You can grab the monthly sale ($1.83/month) here, and the annual sale ($18.30) here. You won't regret it, and you'll be keeping this 100% independent publication alive and well, too.

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:

Siena Liggins, "Lazy"

This song from Atlanta R&B-pop aspirer Siena Liggins' so-so 2021 record Ms. Out Tonight mostly jumped out at me because it very nakedly feels like a rip of SZA's "Love Galore," it is what it is...seems like she's been touring as support act on-and-off since but, other than a follow-up album in 2023, it's been mostly crickets.

Twisted Teens, "Not Real"

Maybe my favorite rock song of the year so far, I love these guys as many do, they're very much doing a "Bayou Parquet Courts" thing and that's more than enough to satisfy me....I love this year's Blame the Clown but haven't gotten around to Florida Water Blues or the rest of their back catalog, perhaps I'll have done so before they release their third record of this year. I'm probably gonna share a few more Blame the Clown tracks in future installments and unpack what makes these guys so satisfying to me, for this one it's all in the lyrics as well as that howling chorus.

Duki, "Mi Diablo"

I didn't love all of Argentine rapper (and occasional Bad Bunny collaborator) Duki's 2021 record Desde el Fin del Mundo, but the tricky production of this one took me by surprise, a few tweaks here and there and this could very much easily be a Whole Lotta Red outtake.

Gorillaz, "Orange County" [ft. Bizarrap, Kara Jackson, and Anoushka Shankar]

First of all, all praise to Kara Jackson for getting that Gorillaz bag, from her IG activity she's clearly been on tour with them all summer and, given that I talked to her for my Hearing Things piece on musicians and money a few years back, I'm always happy to see someone that I find incredibly talented getting that guap. Unfortunately, I thought Gorillaz' latest, this year's The Mountain, was fairly dreadful, and I say that as someone who is Gorillaz-sympathetic when it comes to the project being a vehicle for Damon Albarn's decayed-Eeyore sigh of a voice; I appreciate the stylistic detours this one took but few if any of it actually works, as always the project seems to be at its best when embracing a fizzy simplicity as it does here (as well as the last Really Great Gorillaz Song, the Stevie Nicks-featuring "Oil").

Bebe Rexha, "Sabotage"

I get that she makes mostly terrible music, the fact that this song from 2021's mostly-awful Better Mistakes is the arguable standout certainly doesn't do much to dissuade that POV—but I still feel like people are weird about Bebe Rexha, this incident being something of a point of culmination when it comes to specific sects of social media and culture in general treating her like a lolcow to insulting, misogynistic effect. The way her body—her whole deal, really—is talked about in general is more proof that the ugliness of the 2000s really did take hold throughout the 2020s, albeit often filtered through the lens of corners of queer culture oblivious (or, worse, clearly unconcerned) about their own hatred of women. It is what it is!

Channel Tres, "Type"

Channel Tres is so known for one specific thing at this point that he makes explicit mention of it on 2024's Head Rush, a record in which he also tried to expand his sonic horizons towards different pop variants...I wish he was more successful in doing so, I did like this little and light slice of pop-rap though, he just put out a new record today which I'll be checking out with interest, mostly to see if he's continuing to branch out or returning to the sound that gained him notice to begin with.

OH MY GIRL, "Dun Dun Dance"

Ridiculously catchy chorus here from K-pop group OH MY GIRL's 2021 record Dear OHMYGIRL, to the point where it risks maybe being annoying...maybe it is just annoying and that's it! But, to quote Icona Pop, I don't care and I love it, there's flecks of "Get Lucky" of course but also it remidns me of something you'd see a celeb saunter out to during an episode of The Match Game or Hollywood Squares.

Lupe Fiasco, "Samurai"

I said this online a few weeks ago while spending time with Lupe's 2024 record Samurai, but I do think he's actually underrated at this point and has been for quite some time, more often than not when I'm checking out his projects they're quite solid, Lasers was a hit to his cred back in the day but he's more than recovered since...I have also always respected him for speaking out in support of Palestine long before it was culturally acceptable to do so, convictions are hard to find in popular music at large but he's seemingly always held by his.

Inigo Pascual, "First Impressions"

Filipino pop star Inigo Pascual hasn't really done much (alongside acting and appearing in a Jo Koy standup special) since 2021's Options, and maybe that's a bit of a shame; I was impressed by this Options cut which has a low-slung R&B feel not unlike the best tracks off of Justified. Say what you will about Timberlake these days but we need that Justified feeling back, for real!

Clairo, "Sexy to Someone"

Very funny to think about all the hand-wringing around Clairo as a nepo case back in the day, considering that she pretty much came out of the gate with a generation-defining debut album and has only continued to become better and more interesting since...2024's Charm is one of my favorite records in years, purely beautiful music that I find very spellbinding, jumping off of the Lupe convo she's also someone who was extremely vocal about supporting Palestine immediately after October 7, months before other artists in her field started speaking out. Practicing good-person behavior is not a requirement for enjoying one's music, but I do think it's notable when it happens! I'm gonna share a few more Charm tracks in the future to break down why I love this record so much.

ENHYPEN, "Not For Sale"

Another dispatch from the 2021 K-pop survey, what elevates this ENHYPEN track from their BORDER: CARNIVAL release is that sproingy bass that goes nuts during the chorus, a little eccentricity that adds some color to what would be otherwise a fairly unremarkable K-pop cut.

Sluice, "Fourth of July"

Good stuff here from this rustic quartet's 2023 record Radial Gate, Justin Edward Morris' vocals have a little bit of a Sam Amidon quality to me but more wandering and casual, definitely interesting to hear a band doing something like this in the alt-country-slash-alt-folk department amidst a landscape that's been more explicitly electric and Neil Young-esque.

Chloe Moriondo, "I Eat Boys"

Chloe Moriondo sometimes does an explicit electro-pop thing but I way prefer her in indie-guitar mode, this cut from 2021's Blood Bunny is a dead ringer for the Soccer Mommy-Snail Mail axis (when it comes to the latter, it may be better than anything she's done in the last five or six years), not terribly original but sometimes a nice-sounding song is more than enough.