A really good Geese cover
Cameron Winter’s off-kilter warble is so distinctive that it’s not immediately clear his songs can survive being covered. The point of view can feel too specific to him, and too impenetrable to outsiders, for someone else’s interpretation to land.
King Princess' faithful cover of “Au Pays du Cocaine” — that’s “in the land of cocaine,” if your French is rusty — puts that idea to bed. Mikaela Mullaney Straus tackles Winter’s plea for a lover to stay with easygoing confidence. In her hands, it feels more obviously a love song than it did in Winters', and is better for it. I’d love to hear her do “Taxes,” too.
Why is every Chappell Roan song so hard to sing?
One of the best things that happened to me in 2024 was that I had occasion to see your favorite artist’s favorite artist at the 1,400-person Vic Theatre in Chicago. The following day, she would perform to the largest daytime audience in the history of Lollapalooza. But that night, in a venue small enough that every chorus shook the rafters, I got to see my favorite new musician in ages take the stage and muscle through her catalog with power and grace.
The main thing I notice when I watch Chappell live is how difficult her songs are to sing. High notes like the ones in “Good Luck Babe!” and “Red Wine Supernova” stretch to the very top of her voice. Uptempo numbers like “HOT TO GO!” threaten to leave her out of breath. Kiss-offs like “My Kink Is Karma” require that she stomp and belt and scream.
No wonder, then, that as her tour went on she adopted the trick of so many performers before her: extending her microphone into the audience and asking them to sing the words. This is at once a totally reasonable compromise and (to me, an unreasonable fan) a disappointment. For the most part, I did not click on the YouTube video to watch the audience sing. I want to hear Chappell!
What a delight, then, that the most recent upload to Roan’s YouTube channel captures her singing the whole of “The Subway.” A power ballad that requires more power than most, “The Subway” has been a staple of Roan’s live set since I first saw it two summers ago. It has evolved less than some of her other songs, having been conceived as a live performance from the beginning. But when she hits those final glory notes, the moment still stuns. There is only one person at that festival who can hit those notes, and it’s the genius onstage.
Robyn returns to form
It’s been well over a decade since we’ve heard Robyn this bright and bubbly. “Talk to Me,” like the earlier (and sublime) “Dopamine,” returns her to the studio with Swedish super-producer Max Martin, and the resulting track — in both music and lyrics — traces an effervescent route from near-climax to thrilling release. The new album is called (awkwardly, beautifully) Sexistential, but the songs released so far suggest we’re about to get Body Talk Pt. 3.
See also: Jill Mapes on Robyn, Heated Rivalry, and pop culture’s phone-sex moment.
It's always a good day to listen to Phoebe Bridgers and Arlo Parks sing "Fake Plastic Trees"
This collaboration with Arlo Parks from 2020 is so good it makes me wish this duo would cover the rest of The Bends. Or, falling short of that, perhaps Phoebe could release her next album? It’s been five years. I’m ready.
A millennial-Gen Z collab I can't get out of my head
