Every week at WSUM, our Music Director, Izzi, chooses her favorite new releases to add to our music library. In turn, WSUM's Music Journalism Club shares what records they've had on repeat. From new releases to classic albums, here's what the members of MJC have been listening to.
The Wicked Farleys, Make It It (1999, Big Top)
HIGHLIGHT TRACKS: “Love Squats,” “Find Shit Break Shit!,” “Opportune,” “Autonomish”
GENRE: Indie rock, math rock, post-hardcore, midwest emo, noise pop
RIYL: Polvo, Swirlies, Archers of Loaf, The Dismemberment Plan, 12 Rods
Make It It is the second and final album from the Boston math rock outfit, The Wicked Farleys. Whereas their debut album, Sentinel And Enterprise, explored similar territory of playful and introspective angular rock, Make It It adds an ever present sheen of wistful awkwardness into the fold of the band's sound. The album opens on the track, “Love Squats,” which sets the tone for the preceding 39 minutes of music with its infectious and lively lyrics and sound. Proceeding onwards, the track, “Find Shit Break Shit!,” lives up to the aggression that the title suggests, it is most definitely the noisiest and tensest track on the album barreling forward with jagged dissonant guitars and even shouted vocals towards the back-half of the song. However, Make It It in my own opinion starts to truly shine as the album draws towards it end, with the track, “Opportune,” changing from a curiously stilted math rock song to something much more romantic and straightforward towards the middle of the track. Along similar lines, the track “Autonomish” is by far my favorite on the album, mostly due to the multiple twists and turns the six minute song takes before reaching its conclusion, my favorite of those being the longing and passionate final verse that occurs towards the middle in the last third of the song with its vulnerable lyrics and vocals being accompanied by very sharp and repetitive guitar chords before the song drives itself into a frenzied instrumental outro. On a closing note, there's not many albums I can say gripped me as quickly as Make It It. Since I heard it first at the start of the week I have been listening to multiple times a day truly in awe of the adventurous songwriting and impassioned performances on this record. Thus, I absolutely recommend Make It It, a true forgotten American indie rock classic. — Matt Jarosinski
Guru, Jazzmatazz Volume 1 (1993, Chrysalis Records)
HIGHLIGHT TRACKS: “Take A Look (At Yourself),” “Loungin',” “Transit Ride”
GENRE: Jazz rap, east coast hip hop, acid jazz
RIYL: The Pharcyde, De La Soul, Q-Tip
Finding that perfect album to effectively block out any noise from my roommates, while simultaneously retaining the most information for midterms has proven to be a difficult task. For the past week, Guru has been my sweet escape. Most notably half of Gang Starr, Keith Edward Elam went by his stage name Gifted Unlimited Rhymes Universal, Guru.His blend of conscious lyricism with syncopated instrumental melodies has made his four part solo album series truly the blueprint for the lo-fi/jazz rap dominated alternative hip-hop world our generation seems to be so entranced by. With features from acid jazz legends, Roy Ayers, Donald Byrd, and N'Dea Davenport, Jazzmatazz Volume 1 is one of the first successful examples of melding east coast hip hop flavor with live jazz backing tracks in the studio. Next time you're searching for an album to cue in the never ending battle for focus, let Guru's silky bars ease the stimulus of the outside world. — Molly Phelan
Ben Platt, Sing To Me Instead
HIGHLIGHT TRACKS: “New,” “Better,” “Older”
GENRE: Broadway-pop, swing-pop
RIYL: Keith Harkin, Matt Walden, Phillip Vo, Andrew Lloyd Webber
Shoutout to my longtime friend from our first Spanish class together at UW for telling me about this album! Though I'm not too familiar with Broadway shows, fans of Dear Evan Hansen will surely recognize Ben Platt from that starring role; for me, I simply appreciate his voice and the lovely narrative of this album. Platt's vocal mastery and dynamics certainly show, deep and resonating in the bass but also sweeping up into higher, airy notes very impressively, creating the kind of music you can sing along to at the top of your lungs as if on a Broadway stage yourself. The songs themselves are personal and intimate, like Platt singing his diary to you – describing with beautiful lyrics the rocky road but reassuring reciprocity of a stable, serious relationship – and the piano-led instrumental melodies give the album a Broadway musical feel. What I like the most about this album actually are the similarities – either in music or in theme – between the songs on this album and some other songs I've heard. The bouncy intro and consistent swing of “New” reminds me of “You Worry Me” by Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, while “Older” shares a similar reflective mood of “Old Pen” by Cody Francis. Overall very melodic and pleasant to listen to, Sing To Me Instead is a refreshing album that truly highlights a wonderful vocal performance. — Martha Kowalski
DENNIS, Dennis das Antigas, Vol. 1 (2020, Galerão Records)
HIGHLIGHT TRACKS: “Tô Tranquilão,” “Prisioneira,” “Vem Todo Mundo,” “Dança Sensual”
GENRE: Brazilian funk, brega-funk, Miami bass, afrobeat
RIYL: I'm a firm believer there's nothing like Brazilian funk, therefore this is RIYL quality dance music.
If you go to any party in Brazil there is a single genre that brings every single person to the dance floor: Brazilian funk. The simplistic repetitive beats, the deep bass, and easy to memorize lyrics are all incredibly entrancing, making it impossible to not catch yourself in the groove… unless you were an extremely cynical lame teenage me. For all the time I lived in my home country I had this unnatural prejudice against Brazilian funk, with a messed up elitist perspective that it was somewhat “less valid” than the English-speaking alternative rock acts I was so obsessed with. It was only until very recently that I decided to fully embrace my nationality and cultural heritage, with this amazing genre being part of this rediscovery process.
The genre had its origins in Rio de Janeiro's black communities in the 80s, as DJs would fuse beats from samba alongside the more modern Miami beat and lyrical influences from gangsta rap. For many of those MCs and DJs funk was a way out of their harsh realities, sharing the social ascension motifs American hip hop would come to have. But it was only in the early 2000s that funk left the niche environment of the favelas to nationwide dance floors, and at the forefront of this trend was DENNIS DJ. The producer has over 5 million monthly listeners on Spotify and has worked with several Brazilian music superstars, headlining festivals like Tomorrowland Brazil and Lollapalooza São Paulo. But before he reached his current stardom DENNIS was a producer to the funk recording giant Furacão 2000, the label was behind the leading artists in Rio, like Bonde do Tigrão (Big Tiger's Crew,) MC Sapão (MC Big Frog,) and Mr. Catra. DENNIS is well known in Brazil for his extensive usage of samples in his tracks, high tempo drum loops, and the implementation of traditional folk Brazilian instrumentation in the songs.
While you must be a Portuguese speaker to understand the extremely obscene lyrics in tracks like “Joga a Perereca” and “Escorregou, Abaixa e Pega” DENNIS's produced bangers are the perfect energetic tunes to carry you through school's burnout, and this compilation album has his best work from his early days as a producer. I'm on a constant mission to break the stigma that Brazil's only worthy music genre is bossa nova, and this compilation serves as an outstanding introduction to how the genre was in it's classical days. If you're into dance music, or latin-influenced tracks this is the album for you, as you'll learn about the magnificent world of Brazilian funk. The tracks in this record and the genre as a whole have been constantly blasting through my speakers, and as I dive deeper into funk, learning to make my own beats and remixes I'll always have DENNIS's production standards in mind. — Arthur Machado
