Staff Pix: 10/28 New Releases
The Milk Crate staff’s favorite tracks of the week, presented with blurbs worthy of a promotional sticker on a jewel case. Tune in Fridays from 2-3 EST to the Staff Pix radio show.
Julia Norkus
handprints by chrysalis
chrysalis has proven countless times their ability to create songs that feel simultaneously like a gut punch and also like wanting to kiss someone. “handprints,” the artist’s latest release since their margarita sugar EP (2022), jarringly shifts the narrative they’ve created about love. Songs like “july” and “margarita sugar”—while both achingly beautiful—acknowledge the faith in love everlasting and the confidence they feel in the idea of having found their end-all-be-all partner. Meanwhile, “handprints” exposes the dark underbelly of what comes after that reality crumbles. In traditional chrysalis fashion, the song has a raw and natural feel, like something one might write in their bedroom deep in the night while the rest of the world is asleep. Based on feeling alone, it makes the song more human and resonate more heavily. Lyrically, chrysalis talks about leaving reminders and pieces of themself with their former partner, even if that partner has already moved on to someone else. I always used to say that I would be the blueprint to an ex’s family— everyone that would come after me would always be compared to me and that gave me some amount of consolation. “handprints” encompasses that feeling entirely, “Do you get my lipstick on her lips? / Do you get my handprints on her hips?” Both lines embody the idea of never fully leaving someone and almost assuming the role of a specter, haunting that former partner forever. The people we love still leave reminders of themselves as they exit our lives, maybe in the form of a t-shirt or a note left behind. Maybe it was an adopted mannerism, a phrase they said all the time— when people leave, they unknowingly leave “handprints” and often make moving on more difficult. However, chrysalis reminds us that whatever we do to move forward, we don’t have to explain ourselves—healing is personal, “Don’t wanna recall your face / So if I see you with her I won’t ache / Let me have my way.”
Anya Perel-Arkin
Jet Skis on the Moat by Arctic Monkeys
Every few years, Alex Turner emerges from whatever underground studio he hides in with ballads full of original stories and amazing one-liners. Truly, this man has given us so much content— from the nostalgic soundtrack to Submarine to The Last Shadow Puppets, Arctic Monkeys fans have a comprehensive amount of material to continue their sexually-charged brooding (a dig on myself). Their new album “The Car” was released just a week ago, featuring signature sounds that can be identified in their previous album, Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino as well as the longing of TLSP, but I should break my habit of making comparisons. The fourth track titled “Jet Skis on the Moat” features vignettes of saw-toothed lover boys, a poetic view of “showstoppers anonymous,” and the panoramic experience of CinemaScope. What I understand from this track is that Nick Carraway was in love with Jay Gatsby. I’m not kidding. While researching, I came across a Reddit post from u/sevencagedtigers_ that says “Who drives jet skis on the moat? It sounds like it could happen at one of Gatsby's parties (if jet skis had already been invented back then)”. I’m citing Reddit, we can ignore that, but it’s true. Visions of a burnt-out, big-name figure who once shone in front of anamorphic lenses and had their name in lights at illustrious parties, but now sits in an empty mansion full of unread books with an unspoken emptiness. The narrator of the song is a friend, a lover, a figure in this outdated star’s life, maybe the only person they have left— attempting to dig deep and reach out. Go cry!
Minna Abdel-Gawad
Wishy Washy by Alaina Ray
Boston based artist Alaina Ray released her debut single ‘Wishy Washy’ last week. After teasing her songs via social media over the past few months she released the first of many singles leading up to the release of her debut EP. The track features a vampy 2000’s guitar, Ray’s breathy but strong vocals and a catchy chorus that will be stuck in your head hours after listening. The song tells the story of someone constantly giving mixed signals, Ray takes this heart ache and turns it into a fun bop to dance around your room to. If you like artists like Olivia Rodrigo and Gracie Abrams you’ll love Ray’s bedroom pop.
Parker Bennett
El Puro (ft. Conway the Machine) by Armani Caesar
Buffalo rapper Armani Caesar released her sophomore album under the Griselda record label this Friday, entitled THE LIZ 2 (a sequel to her 2020 album THE LIZ, both dedicated to Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor). Just like its predecessor, Caesar’s new project is chock full of biting lyricism, grimy production, and the incomparable swagger of Armani herself. One of the most notable tracks is her collaboration with fellow Griselda signee Conway the Machine, “El Puro”, featuring production from Camoflauge Monk. The beat is a gorgeous arrangement of strings and orchestral swells, creating an atmosphere of lavish living and luxurious daydreams. Armani flexes both her rapping and singing muscles on the track, crooning the instantly infectious chorus herself with the aptitude of a seasoned R&B performer. The bars, though, are still the ultimate focus, and per usual, Armani delivers. Her lines are bitingly cheeky assertions of her utter disinterest in the majority of men that try to make a move on her, and how their attempts to shower her in gifts and designer fabrics fall short when she can already buy all those things for herself. At the midpoint of the track, Conway picks up the mic and provides the other side of the picture, spitting with an out-of-the-box flow that somehow manages to land back on beat with every single line. When all is said and done, the song is a laid-back, good-life-celebrating triumph that highlights Armani’s incredible talent for commanding a track like few other rappers can.
Patrick McGill
Somnambulist Blues by Destroyer (ft. Sandro Perri)
With a title with an art-school-know-it-all-kid word like “somnambulist”, you may sit down to listen to the new Destroyer song thinking you're going to get Dan Bejar’s most stereotypical tune yet. A few witty, intellectual, lines here, the dark croon of Bejar’s constantly ambivalent voice, and perhaps some synthesizers for good measure. Though all those features are here in full, miraculously what saves this Mexican Summer offering is just what might make you fear it: the length. Topping out at a long 6 and-a-half minutes, what begins as a slog of organ chords gets more intricate and hypnotizing. Jazzy, dissonant bass notes play while winds and brass inflections chime off distantly in the mix, creating a weird dreamspace that is only enhanced by Bejar’s stream of consciousness lyrics. Teetering between attention grabbing one liners (“I feel disfigured / Like time threw acid in my face”) and allusions to the artsy British filmmaker Peter Greenaway, every word in the song, along with the half-awake delivery, serves up an oddly psychedelic, horrific ballad. A ballad which I'm not sure Bejar and co. have ever made before.
Harry
Weekends by Field Medic
This goes well with my morning commute into town, feeling each bump on the Cleveland Circle Line’s iron rail connections while beaming morning sunlight peers through cabin windows. Halloween weekend is coming up, and I know that I should go out, but it’s getting harder and harder to push myself to go out. All I want to do is stay in, and I’m perfectly content with that—I’ve always been a table for one type. Field Medic’s single “weekends” from their newly-released album grow your hair long if you're wanting to see something that you can change from Run For Cover Recordsgets it. I love the golden country sound in that mystic slide guitar, mixed with those mellow and soulful lyrics. This is music for the heart.
Also, here’s my song choice for the Halloween Staff Picks from last week. The WECB live show got the best of me last Thursday night. “Magic Man” by Heart is the witchy song we all need for a ghoulish evening on All Hallows’ Eve. Happy Hallo-weekend, everybody!
Nathan Hilyard
Happy Ending by Kelela
Kelela second single in this year is a return to her beloved club sensibilities. After “Washed Away” with its fields of sound, Kelela turns up the dance-o-meter and leads her faithful fanbase back to the club. The song opens with twinkling synths and the ever-faithful amen drum break, gently she opens: “Too far away… You’re too far away” and quickly the bass joins in, completing the bumping club mix she is so well-versed in creating. With much of her other work, “Happy Ending” relies less on the big dance break and more on a subliminal oontz-oontz, with her catchy melodies and repeatable lyrics floating in and out over well constructed instrumentals. “Happy Ending” moves in and out through this dance beat, always returning reliably to a thumping resolution, and in the end concluding: “And if you don’t run away / Could be a happy ending after all / It’s deeper than fantasy.” Kelela’s latest single is a comfortable and long-anticipated return to her signature sound and aesthetics, leaving plenty of room for celebration and development into the future.
Lily Suckow Ziemer
Cartoon Earthquake by Blondshell
Blondshell released her new song “Cartoon Earthquake” October 19th as a Spotify single. She’s a new indie rock artist from New York and based in Los Angeles. Her first song “Olympus” was released June, 2022 but already she’s released this as her fourth single. “Cartoon Earthquake” is a song that questions the extent of love her partner has for her. She asks if a cartoon like crack were to spread across the earth, would her partner jump over it to her? She says this was partly inspired by the Tik Tok challenge in which people ask their significant others, “Would you still love me if I was a worm?” But she puts her own take on this, questioning, “would you risk your life and jump over a crack in the ground to be with me?” The song is both soft and dramatic, with lyrics demanding an answer. Paired with intense instrumentals, it is a light rock song.
Will Ingman
WW4 by Show Me The Body
NYHC renegades Show Me The Body are no strangers to change by now. Existing in one form or another since the ninth grade (for reference, frontman Julian Cashwan Pratt is now 28), the band has weathered lineup changes, incorporated new influences, and pivoted their electric, danger-music infused live performances to a pandemic-friendly format, resulting in 2021’s Survive E.P. In equal measure, however, Show Me the Body have also remained remarkably consistent, with every release since 2016 full-length Body War on the same label, featuring the sludge-punk stylings of Pratt on banjo and bassist Harlan Steed. Their latest full-length release, Trouble the Water, released at midnight on the 28th, reflects this — carrying the same metal-on-metal grind of previous records, still invoking spin-kicks and stage-dives (just don’t pull your phone out), fist clenched tightly around the essence that made them “the world’s most terrifying live band”, but giving everything from stoner rock to glitchcore a seat at the table. It’s no surprise a band who preach defiance could so easily buck the labels that have stuck to them over the years, but the ease with which they do so speaks to their capability not just as venue-destroying ragers, but true artisans of hardcore punk, always growing and changing while never losing what made them special.
Maura Cowan
Snowing, all at once by Kingfisher
Kingfisher, the band, has become a brand new mystery in my life over the past week. I stumbled across their latest release, “Snowing, all at once” through my Spotify Release Radar, and was transfixed by the track’s thudding guitar and echoing vocals. I knew at once that I needed this band to enter my life, so I turned to Google, which led me to… virtually nothing. Kingfisher is thus far nigh impossible to locate in the swirling mass of the Internet, but what the band lacks in SEO it makes up for in the kind of haunting, folksy indie sound that I can never quite seem to leave behind. With only two songs and about 1,000 listeners on Spotify, I feel like I’ve stumbled across a real hidden gem. This and their other single, “Regulate,” capture an aching energy with beautiful orchestrals, intimate vocal samples, and lyrics that hurt more with each listen.