Continuing the series of posts where once a month I’m sharing some of my favorite album covers from music released on the previous month. Here are the ones released in September of 2021:
Best Album Covers: September 2021
💽 » Big Red Machine - How Long Do You Think It's Gonna Last?
Big Red Machine is a band that serves as a side project from musicians Aaron Dessner (The National) and Justin Vernon (Bon Iver).
But what started as a collaborative experiment in the debut album Big Red Machine (2018), grew into something much bigger that none of them could have anticipated. How Long Do You Think It's Gonna Last? (2021) is not only a more extensive work in terms of duration but also a much more expansive one, since it features no less than 11 artists along with the tracklist. The lineup goes from huge names like Taylor Swift, who had both Dessner and Vernon collaborating in her pair of recent albums folklore and evermore, to some artists that were new to me and equally great, like Anaïs Mitchell. The best thing about the album though is that, with so many people involved and so many ways that everything could have gone wrong, the tracklist actually feels pretty tight and cohesive, instead of sounding just like a random collection of songs.
Listen on Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube
🎥 » Happier Than Ever: A Love Letter to Los Angeles
It’s been a little over a month since Billie Eilish released her incredible sophomore album Happier Than Ever, and I continue to enjoy every second of it. If you still haven’t listened to the record, this may be the best opportunity to do so, by watching the concert film “Happier Than Ever: A Love Letter to Los Angeles”.
Different than many concerts available on streaming, here we watch Eilish performing the album live back to back, from an empty Hollywood Bowl, the seminal venue in Los Angeles, where Billie itself claims to have had attended many concerts as a fan. It’s weird watching a concert with no audience, but that’s easily forgotten the minute you get sucked into her world — kudos to the great cinematography throughout the whole set. Another beautiful surprise is the addition of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, that accompanies the band on stage for some of the slower tunes, making the tracks sound even better than the original studio versions.
💽 » Fleet Foxes - Shore
Shore is the 4th studio album of Seattle-based indie-folk band Fleet Foxes, which also may be their most accessible one, being the perfect choice for someone to start listening to them.
Even Robin Pecknold (vocals, guitar) describes the album as (2017’s) Crack-Up’s friendly brother. Shore is definitely a “sunny” record, but it also works perfectly on a cloudy day. “I’m trying to celebrate life in a time of death, trying to find something to hold on to that exists outside of time, something that feels solid or stable”, Pecknold says. In my personal opinion, the album delivers all of that and much more. It was one of my favorites of last year, with Going-to-the-Sun Roadbeing the cherry on top, featuring beautiful vocals of O Terno’s Tim Bernardes.
Listen on Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube
Best Album Covers: August 2021
Continuing the series of posts where once a month I’m sharing some of my favorite album covers from music released on the previous month. Here are the ones released in August of 2021:
💽 » Meet Me @ The Altar - Model Citizen
Forget about MKG, Mod Sun, or Olivia Rodrigo. The real pop-punk revival has a name, and it’s called Meet Me @ The Altar!
Not that the genre has been completely dead, but it certainly doesn’t have the same energy or appeal compared to the early 2000s. But different than the predominant white/male bands that flooded the scene back then, Meet Me @ The Altar consists of three incredible young women that are bringing not only a fresh perspective but also contributing to a lot of important discussions in the music industry. Though their music is easily categorized as pop-punk, it also sounds so much more than that, especially in the drumming department, where Ada Juarez delivers a mind-blowing and hypnotic performance that sometimes brings the sonority closer to metalcore bands. Model Citizen is only their first release through a major label, and if it serves as any indication, they surely have a huge and bright future ahead of them, and I am so happy to be witnessing it.
» Listen on Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube
📺 » Billie Eilish - Happier Than Ever
‘Happier Than Ever’ may be the best and most different song on Billie Eilish's career to date, and it makes perfect sense that the song also names her sophomore record, released last week, which I also can’t stop listening to. The song is a perfect blend of different genres, something that Eilish is becoming famous for, and the video is the perfect companion, going from peaceful to cathartic, just like the song.
» Watch the music video on YouTube
💽 » Leon Bridges - Gold-Diggers Sound
In Gold-Diggers Sound, Leon Bridges continues the path he created in his debut album Coming Home (2015).
But while getting inspiration from the same ‘50s and ‘60s sounds that brought him recognition, his third full-length record comes with a much more modern finish, bringing Bridges much closer to his contemporaries.
I had extremely high expectations for this album since I listened to the first single ‘Motorbike’ (shared on SS #21) a couple of months ago, and not only Gold-Diggers Sound is better than I was expecting, but it’s now one of my favorite albums of 2021.
» Listen on Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube
Best Album Covers: July 2021
Continuing the series of posts where once a month I’m sharing some of my favorite album covers from music released on the previous month. Here are the ones released in July of 2021:
📺 » Paul McCartney & Beck - Find My Way
Super fun and trippy music video for Find My Way, a reinterpretation of the track of the same title, originally heard at McCartney III (2020), here reimagined and featuring Beck as a guest, as part of McCartney III Reimagined (2021). Good luck trying to remain still through this delicious funk!
💽 » Rodrigo Amarante - Drama
8 years after releasing his debut solo album, Rodrigo Amarante is finally back with another full-length release.
While Cavalo (2013) was heavily influenced by Amarante’s immigrant life in Los Angeles, where he moved to after the massive success with his band Los Hermanos, Drama (2021), sounds like a much more cohesive effort to finding his own identity as a solo artist. The self-titled opening track serves as a prelude to what we’ll experience throughout the record, which sees Amarante switching back and forth in between English and Portuguese (his native language), with extreme naturality.
My favorite track (so far) is Tara, a lovely old-school samba that is both minimal and grandiose at the same time.
Listen on Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube
Best Album Covers: June 2021
Continuing the new series of posts where once a month I’m sharing some of my favorite album covers from music released on the previous month. Here are the ones released in June of 2021:
Best Album Covers: May 2021
Continuing the new series of posts where once a month I’m sharing some of my favorite album covers from music released on the previous month. Here are the ones released in May of 2021:
🕹 Tetris Effect
Tetris is probably one of the most famous videogames of history, and one that almost everybody has played at some point, whether you are a fan of videogames or not. Its simplicity makes it easy for anyone to have fun with since it’s one of those games that you can play super casually or take it as seriously as you want. And although it was released in 1984, I’m amazed to see how relevant and fun it still is, thanks to many iterations it had over the years.
This brings us to Tetris Effect, a re-imagination of the classic, released in 2018 for the Playstation 4 and later to other platforms. The core of the gameplay is still exactly the same, where “players complete lines by moving differently shaped pieces (tetrominoes), which descend onto the playing field. The completed lines disappear and grant the player points, and the player can proceed to fill the vacated spaces.” What Tetris Effect brings to the table is the addition of various themes and music across several different stages where the gameplay is tied up to the beat of the music, bringing the original experience to a whole different level, especially if playing with headphones.
💽 Duda Beat - Te Amo Lá Fora
Have you ever started to listen to an album with very low expectations, only to be completely blown away by the first minute of it? That’s exactly what happened when I pressed the play button on Te Amo Lá Fora, the second studio album from Duda Beat.
Not that I didn’t like her first album, which was extremely well received by critics and fans, but there’s something about this new one that really hit me differently. Beat continues to follow the path paved in “Sinto Muito”, mixing regional Brazilian rhythms to her (essentially) pop songs, but here adding a much bigger layer of electronic sounds through the heavy use of synthesizers, that surprisingly never feels overwhelming. And for me, it was the perfect flavor that I was probably missing on her debut.
It was love at first listening and it’s already one of my favorites of 2021.
💽 New Music Friday: Jorja Smith, Majur, Scalene, Shaed, St. Vincent, & more!
Happy Friday! Here are some albums being released this week that I’m personally interested in checking out, in alphabetical order:
» Damien Jurado - The Monster Who Hated Pennsylvania (Spotify)
» Giant Claw - Mirror Guide (Spotify)
» J. Cole - The Off-Season (Spotify)
» Jorja Smith - Be Right Back (EP) (Spotify)
» Majur - Ojunifé (Spotify)
» Rodrigo Y Gabriela - The Jazz EP (Spotify)
» Sarah Neufeld - Detritus (Spotify)
» Scalene - Ao Vivo No Sesc 24 de Maio (EP) (Spotify)
» Shaed - High Dive (Spotify)
» Sons of Kemet - Black To The Future (Spotify)
» St. Vincent - Daddy's Home (Spotify)
» The Black Keys - Delta Kream (Spotify)
Follow my 2021 playlist on Spotify, updated weekly with new music releases.
🎙 BRIT Awards 2021: performances
The BRIT Awards 2021 happened on May 11th at the O2 Arena in London and featured many great performances. With a few exceptions, most of them happened inside the arena on a huge stage with an interesting curved backdrop, making it for some extremely creative stage designs. Check it out:
Arlo Parks - Hope
Dua Lipa - Future Nostalgia Medley
Olivia Rodrigo - drivers license
The Weeknd - Save Your Tears
Griff - Black Hole
Headie One - Edna Medley
Rag'n'Bone Man & P!nk - Anywhere Away from Here
Elton John and Years & Years – It’s a Sin
Coldplay - Higher Power
10 favorite Newsletters
Continuing the celebration of my first 100 subscribers, here are 10 newsletters that inspire me to keep going:
01 » A list of 10 things, by Austin Kleon
02 » Maker Mind, by Anne-Laure Le Cunff
03 » BrainPint, by Janel
04 » Dense Discovery, by Kai Brach
05 » The Slice, by Nic
06 » Creativerly, by Philipp Temmel
07 » The Curious Bunch, by Vidya
08 » The Land of Random, by David Nichols
09 » Plan Your Next, by Nate Kadlac
10 » Adventures in Life, by Coach Willis
» bonus: Snubsta
Celebrating 100 subscribers: 10 learnings so far
It took 4 months for my newsletter to hit 100 subscribers, and just another week to double that. In celebration of this important milestone, here are 10 things I learned along the way:
01 » Write the newsletter that you would be excited to receive in your inbox.
02 » Don’t wait for validation, just start.
03 » You won’t be equally excited with every single issue, and that’s ok. Just keep shipping.
04 » You never know which content will resonate with people, so just share things that you genuinely love.
05 » No one has it all figured out.
06 » No matter how small your audience is, people are paying attention to what you're doing.
07 » Changes will not happen overnight. So just keep going, and make adjustments along the way.
08 » Writing allows you to discover what it is that you like to write about.
09 » Celebrate all victories, no matter how small they look
10 » Remember to enjoy the journey and have fun along the way!
bonus: make sure you keep track of your learnings, milestones, appreciations, and everything that inspires you to keep going!
💽 New Music Friday: Amy Winehouse, Iceage, New Order, Sufjan Stevens, Weezer & more!
Happy Friday! Here are some albums being released this week that I’m personally interested in checking out, in alphabetical order:
» Aly & AJ - a touch of the beat gets you up on your feet gets you out and then into the sun (Spotify)
» Amy Winehouse - At The BBC (Spotify)
» Angel Olsen - Song of the Lark and Other Far Memories (Spotify)
» Dodie - Build A Problem (Spotify)
» Dorothea Paas - Anything Can't Happen (Spotify)
» Green-House: Music for Living Spaces (Spotify)
» Iceage - Seek Shelter (Spotify)
» L'Orange and Namir Blade - Imaginary Everything (Spotify)
» Lucinda Chua - Antidotes 2 (Spotify)
» Nasimiyu - Potions (Spotify)
» New Order - Education, Entertainment, Recreation (Live) (Spotify)
» Oblomov - Oblomov II (Spotify)
» Rag'n'Bone Man - Life By Misadventure (Spotify)
» Sophia Kennedy - Monsters (Spotify)
» Squid - Bright Green Field (Spotify)
» Sufjan Stevens - Convocations (Spotify)
» Weezer - Van Weezer (Spotify)
Follow my 2021 playlist on Spotify, updated weekly with new music releases.