There’s been a popular meme on Instagram recently of Bill Clinton sitting listening to music with a smug smile on his face. I got tagged in it about a week ago, but honestly, I was not sure what it was about until my roommate explained it to me. You go on Google and search “Bill Clinton Swag” and you are taken to a meme generation page where you select your four favorite albums. The website generates an image of Bill Clinton listening to records in isolation - I wonder if he knows all of this is going on. I enjoyed what all my friends were posting, but since I post music pretty regularly it seemed redundant to post what I like listening to without further work. I decided to use mine as an opportunity to write about the albums that I’ve been listening to most while quarantined
Brandon Banks - Maxo Kream - 2019 - (Rap)
Maxo is the kind of rapper that makes me frustrated when people lump rappers into a single group. Maxo is a lyricist and a damn good one at that. In Brandon Banks, Maxo documents what it is like to grow up in a poor, immigrant family in the hood. The album begins with “Meet Again,” a laundry list of his friends and family who are dead in jail. It’s just a fact of his life, people move in and out, through prison and suddenly die. This extends to his family, particularly his father who was in out of jail.
Maxo throughout the album is coming to terms with the dualities in his surroundings, his family, and his life. He reflects on what it means to be a man, and how he can do that within his world. Much of this is told through his relationship with his father. Maxo clearly looks up to his dad but is also hurt that his dad spent so much time in jail away from his family. Similarly, his dad is proud of him but worried that his life as a rapper will be insufficient. Ultimately, he concludes he is proud of his dad despite his separation.
The music matches this back and forth. The beats bounces and Maxo raps on the off beats clearly enunciating his lines so that you can clearly understand the story without much work. It’s great music for a workout - you’ll get lost in the story, but the variety of uptempo beats will keep you going.
Turn Out the Lights - Julien Baker - 2017 - (Soft Rock/Folk)
Julien Baker is a year younger than me, and she writes beautiful music about living with mental health issues and through substance abuse disorders. But it is not self-pitying - instead, she focuses on how it affects her relationships with people she loves. Julien is incredibly vulnerable, discussing with eloquence the obsessive thinking of her noisy mind. You can feel where she feels like her brain fails her - you feel like you’re inside her head.
While I love Julien’s albums, she’s an even better live performing. I saw Julien in concert in Seattle with my friend Bobby. We were dressed up in blazers because it was my buddies birthday that night. I can attest that her voice is every bit as beautiful in person - maybe more, plus her humble demeanor is very lovable. She has not one but THREE Tiny Desk concert appearances. Her second is the most relevant to this album.
Telefone - Noname - 2016 - (Rap/R&B)
There have been more and more female rappers recently - Lizzo, Meg the Stallion, SZA, Tierra Whack, just to name a few. It’s an awesome change in a genre that has been long dominated by men. More, these women are not just hyper-sexualized, but authentic lyricists rapping with swagger and confidence.
Noname was the first of the bunch that I dove into and she remains my favorite. Telefone is a conversational album that reflects on her rise from an insecure teenager to a self-assured star. “I wanted people to feel like they were on the telephone with me.” She raps on “Reality Check”:
Opportunity knocking and a <expletive> was out for coffee.
Inadequate like my window, the Grammys is way too lofty.
The beats are easy and yet very creative - a solid drum set mixed with xylophones, pianos, and has. You feel like you are on a journey with her from Chicago to Los Angeles - from high school artist to music festival star. I first heard of Noname, when she was “Noname Gypsy” on Chance’s Acid Rap. No longer a gypsy, Noname is triumphant on Telefone, overpassing insecurities and moving on from her childhood.
The irony of me liking Noname is that she feels frustrated that her music liked by predominantly white audiences. I remember I saw her at a music festival once and tried to snap a self with her and she looked at me coldly and said: “Get the fuck away.” Artists maybe aren’t always the people we want them to be. Still, that doesn’t change how authentic her music is.
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel - 1998 - (Indie/Folk)
This album has been one of my favorites since high school. I know, I know, it came out in 1998 - I’m a poser. But before I listened to it, I didn’t know what a concept album was, and man is this a weird concept. Jeff Mangum writes about the story of falling in love with the ghost of Anne Frank. While the concept is weird, Mangum uses it as a focal point to discuss the confusing emotions of awkwardly growing up. All of this combines for sensationally emotive poetry over ten tracks, crescendo-ing into the haunting finale “Two-headed boy part II”, where Mangum finally let’s go of his love.
It’s hard to describe why this album works. Jeff seems like he should be a bad musician - his voice is off, his chords are simple. The music, however, is so unique, you feel like it could have only been created by him and his mind. Bob Dylan-esque lyrics mixed with a diverse ensemble of instruments including trumpets and singing saw. In that way, you relate to the way it makes you think of all the idiosyncrasies of your mind.
In retrospect, I realize that a common theme that pulls these all together though is their lyricism and emotional authenticity. I think that is something I appreciate in music - the words and feelings. I think all of these artists are writing purely about themselves and I hope you can see how some of these ideas may have influenced my thinking as it presents in this blog. The other unifying theme may be “artists whom you may find performing a Tiny Desk Concert”. I hope you like them - comment below or reach out if you want to discuss and feel free to send albums recs!