If you came to this page wondering what Connor Eichenwald has been listening to this week then you definitely came to the right place. And if you didn’t – well then you’ll still hopefully find some pretty neat music.
Right off the bat comes some Neutral Milk Hotel because what’s a playlist without trumpets, Jeff Mangum and melancholy feels. “Avery Island/April First” is found in the middle of the album On Avery Island, which is pretty much always completely overshadowed by In The Aeroplane Over The Sea when anyone is talking about Neutral Milk Hotel but is still a great album in its own right. There’s no aggressive singing with minimal breaks for breathing on this song, but it is a beautiful and somber interlude that is really nice to listen to while pondering life.
Minimalist. Real. New. Sad. All words that could describe the next song on this playlist – “Dissapeared” by Majical Cloudz. Majical Cloudz are an interesting project that basically seem dedicated to making the most sad and real music out there. This song is like the sad male equivalent of Adele’s “Hello” if the man was still in love with Adele and Adele never made all of those calls. “If you won’t be seen again / I hope you were my friend” is the sentiment that closes the song and if that’s not a sad lyric I don’t really know what is.
As a break from the melancholy at the beginning of this playlist, I’ve thrown in some really weird music with little melody at all as a change of pace. FKA Twigs is an incredible dancer, an incredible singer, was/is dating Robert Pattinson, and she is only getting weirder as time goes on. “Glass and Patron” is haunting and arrhythmic but that is where the beauty lies in it. It’s raw, experimental and, honestly, really fun.
After “Glass and Patron” comes another almost 180 degree shift as we transition into “Return to the Moon” by EL VY. “Return to the Moon” is a remarkably fun song to walk around campus listening to, the bouncy guitar riffs propelling my feet to theology class. EL VY is the project of Matt Berninger, of The National fame, and his buddy Brent Knopf. Because of the presence of Berninger, they have similar vibes to The National but as a whole aren’t quite as sad sounding because of the much more upbeat backgrounds.
Bahamas is a really cool band and everyone should check out the album Pink Strat because it was the soundtrack to my August. Seriously great stuff. “All the Time” is some of Bahamas’ newer work and sounds kind of like it could be in a really cool Target commercial or something (in a good way). It’s infectious, sublimely downbeat and pleasant.
Next up is “No No No” by Beirut, also known as that song that plays in a bunch of Spotify commercials and is kind of annoying but actually good once you listen to it. Beirut’s music is becoming less aggressively folk and more poppy which is really interesting to see. It’s always fun to see artists evolving their sound and Beirut is definitely doing that as they grow into an older band. “No No No” maintains the melodic moaning that is one of Beirut’s hallmarks and expands upon it in a beautiful way.
The conclusion of this playlist is another song that is a really cool theme song for walking around campus. “Blonde on Blonde” actually was the only song on this playlist that showed up on my “Discover Weekly” playlist curated by Spotify and it’s really a gem. Contrary to my initial reaction, this song is actually about the Bob Dylan album of the same name so that’s a fun fact. It’s plodding and slow, pretty to listen to, and conjures up images of a sunny day in fall.
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