This is our 200th playlist since we started back in January 16, 2015. 3603 tracks, 244 hours of music, way more than those 244 hours spent reading, keeping track and listening to the hundreds of artists featured in our playlist so far. Sounds like we’re going to ask you for money, right? Of course not. We’re only going to ask you to tell a friend or two about our playlists. We do this mostly to keep ourselves updated on what’s new and avoid falling into the “music these days just isn’t as good as it was back in the day” trap (which roughly translates to “I got older and gave up my interests”). But the best part about it is knowing someone out there actually listens and values what we do. We know algorithms are pretty cool, but nothing beats a playlist that was handpicked by a group of dedicated people.
‘what we say in private’ is the debut album by Canadian singer-songwriter/painter/visual artist Alexandra Levy, or Ada Lea. It’s been out for less than a handful of days but it’s already one of our indie rock albums of the year. Is it because its opening song sounds like a lost track off Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot’s recording sessions that eventually morphs into a more layered Big Thief song, while never sounding like a tribute to either bands? Or maybe it’s because of the stellar songwriting in it. We don’t know. Let’s just listen.
Time for our return after the usual early June festival break. Bill Callahan is back with his first long play in six years, an unusually twenty songs long record called Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest. It sounds like, well, exactly what you would expect from Callahan.
