Friday Music Drops, 8/14/26
Introducing a new series of posts that I'll likely abandon after just this TENTH entry: it's Friday Music Drops! The idea is that every Friday I will listen to the handful of new release songs my Spotify account recommends to me based upon my previous listens and write my quick, off the cuff thoughts on each, without really doing any research, so that these posts are as pure as possible. Here we go!
Mastodon -- "In the Ruins"
The much-heralded Mastodon are a kind of uncanny valley for what I like in heavy music. For instance, I love drum fills, but sometimes the talented drummer's entire patterns for songs seem to be fills. That said, I have definitely liked some of Mastodon's songs, and the atmospheric "In the Ruins," with its surprisingly emotional first few minutes giving way to an almost classic metal sound, falls into that camp. In fact, I really, really like it.
Chat Pile -- "Same Rules"
Chat Pile are a band about feeling miserable. I don't even know what their genre is--they're called metal and noise rock, but they kind of just have a downbeat, trudgy rock sound, that gets heavy and screamy sometimes. I tell you what, though, if you want to feel bad, throw on Chat Pile's music. It's just a giant bowlful of despair. Their music is generally a bit too much for me in larger increments, but they have some songs I really enjoy, particularly "Masc." Put the atmospheric (I really need to find a good synonym for atmospheric), supremely moody "Same Rules" in that category. The song broods sufficiently, then explodes in beautifully repulsive emotions. It's like if Deftones "Rx Queen" was remade by humans.
Skillet -- "Lift Me Up"
Now this is exactly what I want from 21st Century Skillet: heavy and defiant. This is the mode I and surely many others wish Jon Cooper would stay in. Borderline screamed lyrics like "Lift me up/not backing down/let the demons come/I'm breathing dragon fire, they'll never drag me down/I won't give up and I won't give in/so lift me up/Not gonna die tonight, I'm gonna rise above it!" while the chugging music behind him flirts with djent. Inject it into my veins.
Moby, Jacob Lusk, BLOND:ISH, Kiko Franco -- "Natural Blues (TECIE)"
Like most people, there is one Moby album I really love, and that's 1999's Play. In many of the songs, Moby melds old gospel samples with electronic music, and the results are magic. This song takes that album's "Natural Blues" and says, "Instead of a sample, what if it was a real dude singing, and what if instead of nuanced electronic music, we just went full dance floor techno?" Well, I don't know why a song would say that, or even how a song itself could talk, but here we are.
Finally, apropos of nothing, here is Stephen Wilson Jr. performing the song, "Gary" for 14 minutes in Raleigh, NC and I wish I had been there to see it.
Mastodon -- "In the Ruins"
The much-heralded Mastodon are a kind of uncanny valley for what I like in heavy music. For instance, I love drum fills, but sometimes the talented drummer's entire patterns for songs seem to be fills. That said, I have definitely liked some of Mastodon's songs, and the atmospheric "In the Ruins," with its surprisingly emotional first few minutes giving way to an almost classic metal sound, falls into that camp. In fact, I really, really like it.
Chat Pile -- "Same Rules"
Chat Pile are a band about feeling miserable. I don't even know what their genre is--they're called metal and noise rock, but they kind of just have a downbeat, trudgy rock sound, that gets heavy and screamy sometimes. I tell you what, though, if you want to feel bad, throw on Chat Pile's music. It's just a giant bowlful of despair. Their music is generally a bit too much for me in larger increments, but they have some songs I really enjoy, particularly "Masc." Put the atmospheric (I really need to find a good synonym for atmospheric), supremely moody "Same Rules" in that category. The song broods sufficiently, then explodes in beautifully repulsive emotions. It's like if Deftones "Rx Queen" was remade by humans.
Skillet -- "Lift Me Up"
Now this is exactly what I want from 21st Century Skillet: heavy and defiant. This is the mode I and surely many others wish Jon Cooper would stay in. Borderline screamed lyrics like "Lift me up/not backing down/let the demons come/I'm breathing dragon fire, they'll never drag me down/I won't give up and I won't give in/so lift me up/Not gonna die tonight, I'm gonna rise above it!" while the chugging music behind him flirts with djent. Inject it into my veins.
Moby, Jacob Lusk, BLOND:ISH, Kiko Franco -- "Natural Blues (TECIE)"
Like most people, there is one Moby album I really love, and that's 1999's Play. In many of the songs, Moby melds old gospel samples with electronic music, and the results are magic. This song takes that album's "Natural Blues" and says, "Instead of a sample, what if it was a real dude singing, and what if instead of nuanced electronic music, we just went full dance floor techno?" Well, I don't know why a song would say that, or even how a song itself could talk, but here we are.
Finally, apropos of nothing, here is Stephen Wilson Jr. performing the song, "Gary" for 14 minutes in Raleigh, NC and I wish I had been there to see it.
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