12 December 2024 - Connor Price & Bens - Spinnin'

This was literally the #100 song on my Spotify Wrapped Top 100.   Which makes me happy.  I've been on a bit of a Connor Price kick lately. 

This song is from his 2023 concept EP Spin The Globe.  The concept is that Price would literally spin a globe and put his finger down on the globe, collaborating with an artist from the country he landed on.  In the case of this song, his finger landed on the Netherlands, and he made Bens TikTok famous as a result. 

The song itself is lively and catchy - and does experiment with world beats, as is his style. 

Connor can spit them mad beats live, too!  He started his career as a child actor, but really, I think he found his calling, and he's also good to his fans. 

11 December 2024 - Caroline Polachek - So Hot You're Hurting My Feelings

On my Spotify Wrapped, this song landed at #61, but when I posted a different Caroline Polachek song back in January, this was almost the pick.  Since then, this has been the more listened-to song. 

Released in 2020, the song was not initially a hit song, but did get TikTok famous in 2022 and hit the alternative charts then.  Co-written by Polachek, producer Dan Nigro and singer/songwriter Teddy Geiger (from Rochester, NY!), the song was really kind of an extension of her Chairlift days (that was her former band). 

Also, the song AND video are both very cool. 

Anyone who doubts that Caroline Polachek can sing (and we admit we had doubts - her Jimmy Kimmel performance was too perfect) need not doubt any further - because this stripped-down version is absolutely beautiful. 

We do prefer her performance when she interacts with a live crowd - who react to her and know every word.

10 December 2024 - The Lonely Island ft. T-Pain - I'm On A Boat

This summer jam was my #59 song on my Spotify Wrapped this year.  It was only the fifth song I had not written a post about - and three of them were by Charlotte Cardin and I'm debating the other one right now. 

Anyway, this song started off as a Saturday Night Live skit, a parody of the over-the-top hip hop videos and matching angry-sounding lyrics about flippy-floppies.  The song ended up charting on the Billboard Hot 100 - and in other places, too! - and got a Grammy nomination!

It's also a great jam to crank when you're on a boat.  

If you prefer your songs without curse words - you don't know how hard it was to post this without saying "motherfucker!" repeatedly - check out this performance featuring classroom instruments, Jimmy Fallon and The Roots.

To be fair, they were NOT afraid to curse when they performed the song on The Tonight Show with the Roots. 

9 December 2024 - Charlotte Cardin - Jim Carrey

Last week was the week that the entire world got their Spotify Wrapped.   Shockingly, mine is dominated by songs and artlists I post about on this blog.  

This includes my most listened to artist according to Spotify, Charlotte Cardin.  I dispute that somewhat, and I will angrily discuss that more someday, but going on their word alone, that's it.    But I definitely did listen to a LOT of Charlotte Cardin, without shame.  

I started going down my list of most listened to songs in 2024, and said I would make posts about the ones that have not yet been posted.  I did not think I'd have to go all the way down to 16 (to be fair, one of the top 15 is a scheduled post for 2025, but it is already written).  And it's a great song!

It's also not REALLY about marrying Jim Carrey.  In her words in an interview with the Globe and Mail: 

"I was always a fan of Jim Carrey’s acting, and I was going through a bit of hard time during the summer we were writing this album, so my producer suggested I listen to some of his talks about the ego. I went home that night and watched all his interviews and speeches about how our fears and desires to fit the mould are the main things holding us back from achieving our goals and growing into the person we should be."

The song is about her letting go of her ego.  And, her multiple-Juno-award-winning Celine-comparing ego was probably being fed pretty abundantly.  But instead, she turned it into a fantastic song.  

About marrying Jim Carrey. 

By the way, YES, he knows about the song, and YES, he loves it.  

Of course she performs the song live.  It is performed without a hint of ego.

6 December 2024 - Zoe Ko - DIRT

Zoe Ko is an up-and-coming artist.  Originally a pop artist from NYC, she's added a lot of rock influence to her sound of late.  

She has a heck of a TikTok following as well.  

Anyway, this is one of her newer singles, with the rock influence.  It is absolutely a better sound than her earlier work, and it suits her wel. 

By the way, she's also performed this song live, and, I may like it better this way.  It seems like she's a very genuine person and an engaging performer, and the stage suits her better. 

Of course, then there's the DIRT(ier) version with Sophie Powers (whose name you might have noticed on the drum head in the video above) and Emi Grace - it's just a little grungier and still pretty cool.

5 December 2024 - The Temptations - Ball Of Confusion

I have a lot of respect for the old Motown sound and what they did.  I have never been a fan of the music itself.

As an adult, I have gone back and listened to a lot more of it, and 1) it's a lot deeper than I thought it was and 2) I like it a lot more than I used to.

Take today's artists.  This is a group that has had a LOT of hits, and been around since 1960, and are STILL AROUND, nearly 65 years later.  The group is older than I am, by a LOT.  This classic song, released in 1970 and written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, was a very big hit, reaching #3 on the US pop charts and hitting similar heights in the UK.

But listen to the lyrics.  It's not some lighthearted song.  It's about racism and war and politics.  It is very much a protest song - anti-war AND anti-racism.  And it's powerful.  

Yes, there have been deaths, and there have been lineup changes.   In fact, Otis Willians is the only surviving original member.

But still, they tour.

4 December 2024 - iskwē ft. Nina Hagen - I Get High

I debated saving this great song for March - iskwē is Canadian - but 1) it's great 2) Nina Hagen is from Germany, which is very much not Canada.

iskwē is not the name on her Canadian birth certificate - that is Meghan Meisters - but it *is* a Cree word, and in fact she is a Cree Métis and a citizen of the Manitoba Métis Federation, which Canada recognizes as a soverign and official government. In Cree, her name is written ᐃᐢᑫᐧᐤ and translates to "blue sky woman", which a lot of media like to reference.

The artists co-wrote this song with Damian Taylor, and it's very very cool.  It appears on iskwē's fourth album, nīna, which is not an overt homage to her collaborator on this song, but rather the Cree word for "me". 

I've been a fan of iskwē for a while, but I've never posted her stuff here, so here is it.  

3 December 2024 - Helium - XXX

Yesterday, I posted about an artist I discovered last week. 

Today, I am posting about an artist I've known about for thirty years, and that's not just Helium.  It's Mary Timony, who has continually made music since the late 1980s.   I rediscovered her music this year, but didn't post that here.  I instead used this opportunity to throw back to an old favorite, by a band that guided a lot of my early taste - a grungy/poppy combination that works.  

And, by the way, Mary Timony STILL performs her Helium catalog solo.

2 December 2024 - Soccer Mommy - Driver

I want this December to be the strongest month we've had this year.  You see, I have discovered a lot of new music this year. It's been one of my goals this year to do this - to listen to music that isn't just the same thing over and over.

And last week, I dove HEAD first into that with a bunch of Coachella posts - a theme I'll be revisiting through April.  But as I was discovering that group of artists, I accidentally discovered a few others I had never heard of.

So, this week, I'm going to be posting songs by artists I have NEVER posted before.  

The first is Soccer Mommy (real name: Sophia Regina Allison), who released her fourth album a couple of months back.   Evergreen is that album, and it is a contender for my favorite of 2024.  This song features heavily on that album - a "light hearted love song", according to her - and is thus far the only one from the album to chart, garnering a lot of adult alternative airplay.

Anyway, she's a revelation and you should check her out now. 

Prior to the album's release, Soccer Mommy performed the songs live in a more intimate setting.  Here's "Driver" in a more stripped down manner. Her performance is accessible and down to earth - which is a trait most of her music shares.