Baker's Dozen: Cassandra Jenkins, Jasiah, SG Lewis, and the War on the War on Drugs

Baker’s Dozen is a weekly thing for paid subscribers where I share a playlist and some thoughts on the music I’ve been listening to.

Ten Ven, "Free"

Another Magic Tape 100 cut, will probably end up highlighting one more in the next installment. Trashy piano-house ain't a bad way to kick off anything.

Babyface Ray, "Allowance" [ft. Kash Doll]

I like what Babyface Ray is doing on this project when it comes to choosing beats, at least half the thing (including this track) has John Carpenter/Miami Vice vibes. Kash Doll is obviously wack on this but I really like the way her verse ends, hitting that weird higher register when the track hits the chorus again. Cool.

Jasiah, "Zit" [ft. Pouya]

More post-XXXTentacion, post-"Gummo" teenage antagonism. I'm a sucker for stuff that sounds like this—specifically, a kid drinking Monster energy drinks while crashing a monster truck with Faces of Death clips playing on his phone that's sitting on the dash. It's so loud and aggressive that it sounds psychedelic, truly transportive music.

maassai, "Nine Lives"

Listen to this song on Bandcamp.

Great beat, whole record is fire, not much more to say than that.

The Armed, "A LIFE SO WONDERFUL"

Truly thrilling and inspiring stuff, sounds like someone running up a mountain. ULTRAPOP is obviously one of the best records of the year in any genre, The Armed are as usual fantastic but they are truly on another level. The way this record goes hard with melody reminds me of Songs of the Deaf—another classic, of course.

Conway the Machine and Big Ghost Ltd, "Highly Praised"

At this point it's basically a running joke for me to put a Griselda song on here and be like "Griselda! Are you sick of them yet?" But seriously: Are you sick of them yet? I feel like a lot of people are, but also their appeal is so specifically successful (people over 30 who are too annoying about how they've "aged out" of keeping up with new music) that they've got at least five more years of gas in the tank when it comes to being critical darlings-ish. Have I said all of this before? Probably! And I'll end up saying it again too.

SG Lewis, "Heartbreak on the Dancefloor" [ft. Frances]

I feel for SG Lewis, it's hard to make an Actually Good crossover dance-pop album. (Disclosure did it, and I wrote about that—and a lot of other things—here.) Despite the just-okay nature of Times, there's some jams, this is one of them. Not terribly original-sounding, but does it need to sound new to inspire a feeling?

Cassandra Jenkins, "Crosshairs"

Confession time: I don't really like "Hard Drive." Let me correct myself—I like "Hard Drive," but I think the things about Jenkins' songwriting that are interesting aren't really in the song per se, in that it seems pretty isolated from what she does on her fantastic debut album. This song is a vibe, overall I'm really excited to hear what she does next.

Mogwai, "It's What I Want to Do, Mum"

Heavy shit. Mogwai delivering one of the year's best records? NOT ON MY BINGO CARD!!!! (Sorry.)

Wild Pink, "Family Friends"

A few people had a very "wyd..." reaction to my recent claim that the War on Drugs are one of the most influential acts of the past five years, but whatever. Stop booing me, I'm right! Seriously though, you can hear that project's whole deal in so much lately ([Trump voice] and we'll be hearing it more and more), and that's including in the new Wild Pink album. This is probably one of the less War on Drugs-y songs on it, but I like it a lot probably because of that? It reminds me of Jimmy Eat World's "Hear You Me."

Mr. Eazi, "Love For You"

Vibes.

Chris Crack, "Flip Phone Hangup" [ft. U.G.L.Y. Boy Modeling]

I love Chris Crack, I've written about him before here. He's incredible with punchlines and truisms, funny and real. The latest album is a little more scattershot than some of his previous albums, but how do you even measure that shit anyway when someone like him puts out so much? Good Statik Selectah beat too.

For Your Health, "Push the Fucking Rock, Sisy"

Pretty good album, hard to isolate a track from it because the whole thing kind of washes over you in one huge wave. As I get older I'm getting more into screamo again, what can I say. [Blink-182 voice] I guess this is growing up.