Staff Pix 3/25: Colors

The Milk Crate staff select their favorite hue-inspired songs for this week’s technicolor Staff Pix. Our director, Lily, doesn’t think black is a color but they let a bit of gray slide: the cloud in our rainbow. There’s even a pot of gold at the end.

Lauren Larking 

Pink Moon by Nick Drake

Soothing and slow guitar strums make this 70’s track perfect for a beach day in the winter fog. The album by the same title is equally mellow, but only gained mass attention after Nick Drake’s passing. Fans loosely connected the short four verse song to the symbol of a pink moon as rebirth and cleansing, as a pink moon only occurs in April. With the repeated lyric “Pink, pink, pink, pink / Pink Moon,” it’s clear Drake deeply wanted us all to know the moon was pink. An acoustic lullaby fitting for dark and cloudy skies, “Pink Moon” forever has a spot on all my playlists for rainy days. 

Everly Orfanedes 

Pinkish by Gerard Way 

My Chemical Romance’s frontman Gerard Way sparked a brief solo career for himself in 2015, shortly after the breakup of the band in 2013. “Pinkish” is what I might call one of his most “underground” tracks from his solo career era. The song was released shortly after the release of his debut album Hesitant Alien as a single coupled by the song “Don’t Try”. Gerard Way fans are well aware of the psychedelic pop/rock songs that defined Gerard Way as a solo musician. “Pinkish” features heavy distorted electric guitar, as well as distorted vocals that make lyrics blend in with the instrumentals, and as he does on many of his solo songs, we hear a heavy feature from the fuzz pedal and a multitude of effects on the guitar. I absolutely love how hectic and stressful “Pinkish” is, completely on brand for Way. All My Chemical Romance and Gerard Way fans need to put this banger on their mental breakdown playlists. 

Maura Cowan

Pink in the Night by Mitski

To say that I have not yet written about Mitski’s work for Milk Crate seems insane, but it’s true–despite being my top Spotify artist four years in a row, I have not yet found the right things to say about her on paper (or, perhaps more literally, on screen). Today, I write not about my favorite song of hers, or even a particular critical darling, but one that is simply very close to my heart. “Pink in the Night” is something special. Every note seems to float and hang in the air, pulsing with the same warm rosy aura that Mitski herself describes. Lyrically, it is so simple and straightforward, but captures such a raw and intense feeling of longing. It is the perfect representation of the hours after the first kiss or first move in a relationship–the reflection, the calm elation, the desire that creeps into every thought. It is a pink song if I have ever heard one, and I don’t think there will ever be a day when I don’t hear her refrain of “And I know I kissed you before but/ I didn’t do it right/ Can I try again, try again, try again…” when I don’t feel that glow cast over me too.

Sara O’Connell

Red Right Hand by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Inspired by John Milton’s “Paradise Lost” this is a spooky tune that touches on the theme of death. This song is one of my favorite from this group due to it’s haunting melody and tubular bell used. For me, this song brings back memories of long walks with friends mimicking Nick Cave’s voice. 

Nia Tucker

Red Eye by Kid Cudi ft. HAIM

This oft-forgotten collab on Cudi’s 2013 album Indicud, is an expert mashup of both acts’ proclivity for interesting melodies and layered harmonies. It’s synth heavy but the drum track and whispering electronic sounds work well with Cudi’s sing-rap style, which surprisingly, appears less than HAIM’s own vocals. Danielle Haim commands most of the track, singing verses like “the visions in my head, I just can’t make sense of it.” She repeats this verse, and then they all join together for the chorus which also repeats multiple times. The track loops, becoming representative of the song’s theme of trying to grasp one’s sanity in an overnight state of confusion and loss of self. 

Sophie Severs

Cherry-Coloured Funk by The Cocteau Twins

“Beetles and eggs and blues and pour a little everything else…” Not your average recipe, right? The Cocteau twins whipped something special up for listeners with their “Cherry-Coloured Funk.” Serving as the first track on their 1990 album, Heaven or Las Vegas, this dreamy, poppy melody is a true earworm. Though beware, singing along is almost sure to fail, as Liz Fraser’s arbitrary lyrics weave complexities that cannot be easily understood after your first listen. While many get caught up trying to find a deep meaning within the words, one should consider that maybe, they are meant to be felt instead of analyzed.

Lily Hartenstein

Orange Color Queen by Ty Segall 

Orange is an underrated color: both energetic and calming, Segall captures the gentle joy of the hue in this psych-pop love song. It’s a much softer track than most of those put out by the garage-rock whiz, layering mellow acoustics with tender lyrics, but it maintains classically Segall grit with some fuzzy electric guitar and hazy falsetto. It sounds like a long lost radio hit from the early ‘70s, maybe an omitted track from the White Album. Dedicated to his girlfriend at the time, who helped quell his fear of flying, the track oozes with the comfort brought by the presence of someone you love. 

Sarah Fournell 

Lemon Glow by Beach House

“Lemon Glow” puts me into an absolute trance every time I listen to it. The “lemon-colored honey glow” that the lyrics describe shroud me in a hazy warmth. However, this warmth is countered by the feverish and urgent synth beat that guides the track, and paired with the organ, creates a haunting atmosphere. The tension created by the pulsing beat creates a perpetual spiral of “candy-colored misery.” “Lemon Glow” is a raw reflection of intimacy, describing a pair of lovers who make each other “come alive” while simultaneously being stuck in a sometimes miserable stupor.

Izzy Desmarais 

Green Light by Lorde 

I will never forget the first time I listened to “Green Light.” It was 6:00 AM on Friday, March 3rd. I should have been getting ready for school but instead I was laying in bed, scrolling through Instagram. That’s when I see Taylor Swift’s post gushing over Lorde’s new single. I started freaking out because nobody had heard anything from Lorde for the past four years, so I immediately got off Instagram and opened Spotify to listen. I must have played it at least ten times that day. It was so overwhelmingly good, I just couldn’t get enough of it. Three months later Melodrama came out and still to this day it is one of my favorite albums of all time. While it is a song about heartbreak, “Green Light” is such an empowering track. It sets the tone perfectly for the rest of the album and uses, what I think, is one of the smartest metaphors for struggling to move on from an ex—“Oh, I wish I could get my things and just let go / I’m waiting for it, that green light, I want it.” It will forever and always give me chills every time it comes up on shuffle.

Nora Onanian

Greens and Blues by Pixies

There are a variety of analyses that have been made on what the Pixies mean when they are “slipping into the greens and blues” of a relationship in this rock ballad. Some say that the color represents love, so the greens and blues must simply mean moving away from love. Some think it sticks to the Pixies’ long standing theme of singing about aquatic life (citing “Wave of Mutilation” and “Manta Ray” just to name a couple) and is about algae, the beginning lifeform that developed. Others think it’s about green and blue colored drug capsules. And that is the beauty of the Pixies’ music. Regardless of what is drawn from the lyrics, the instrumental progression and feelings come across in a way that allows listeners to find content in its ambiguity.

Will Ingman

Blue Monday by HEALTH 

Electronica and post-punk have always been two shades on the same gradient, and no group blends them together quite like New Order. Further along that spectrum, however, shades of industrial music and noise rock begin to appear, and that’s where L.A. noise gurus HEALTH come into the picture. With their colors pressed onto New Order’s canvas, the melodrama that tinges post-punk is recast into a neon-tinted nightmare. Mixing a palette of live and sampled drum sounds with low, sweeping synthesizer buzzes, HEALTH’s take on “Blue Monday” is a club banger for the end of the world.

Julia Norkus

Lavender Boombox by Miniature Tigers

“Lavender Boombox,” while seemingly harmless, is a soul crusher. Miniature Tigers designed an 80’s inspired track with strong elements of alto saxophone and synthesizer to sugar coat their heartbreaking lyrics, not to mention the beautifully misleading title. With lines like, “Baby I’m in so much pain/You said ‘I’d never make it without you’/And goddamn, you were playing,” the listener is taken on a journey of attempting to release heartbreak with some dancing and jamming, as you bop and move with the infectious beat. “Lavender Boombox” gives you the sensation of driving to the beach at twilight, with the radio blasting, and tears streaming down your face as you scream to whatever might be on the radio. It’s a reminder that as the sun sets and rises again, you’re capable of doing so, too, even if you have to dance to get to the next sunrise.

Kyle Woolery

Digital Versicolor by Glass Candy

Retrowave legends and Italians Do It Better veterans Glass Candy, the duo comprised of vocalist Ida No and producer Johnny Jewel, are perhaps best known for their song “Digital Versicolor,” a minimalist electronic number driven by a hypnotic synth bassline and accentuated by mesmerizing Italo-disco riffs and uncanny vocal reverberation. The lyrics (“this is red,” “this is orange,” “this is yellow,” and so forth) are cryptic, and Ida No’s delivery is eerie—like a haunted marionette performing in a twisted cabaret show or a technopagan cult leader reciting a ritualistic chant on the dance floor, summoning the spirits of glitter, debauchery, and disco. However, according to Johnny Jewel, the song is actually about aligning your chakras from the ground up, beginning with muladhara—the root chakra, symbolized by the color red—and ending with sahasrara—the crown chakra, “the brilliance of white light.” The juxtaposition of such enlightened lyrics with such haunting sounds only boosts the enigmatic allure and intrigue of “Digital Versicolor” and makes it all the more entrancing.

Harry Bates

Touch of Grey by Grateful Dead

The title may lead some to assume that this certified, good energy bop is rather something of a lukewarm, day-old soup kind of sound. Once hitting play, however, a rainbow of stellar vibrations emits from any speaker, propping open a steel gate into a world of bright, infectious optimism. Its uplifting beat paired with that signature Jerry Garcia charm makes this a song capable of transcending its listeners into greener pastures. “Touch of Grey” teaches us that a wider perspective – beyond the stresses and worries of the present – will inevitably bring us the comfort we so desperately need. WE WILL GET BY! ☮️♥️🌞

Adri Pray

We Were Raised Under Grey Skies by JP Cooper

As the title track off of JP Cooper’s 2017 album We Were Raised Under Grey Skies, this song acts as an acoustic commentary on the hardships of growing up without a parent. The track builds over time, and features a choir echoing Cooper’s main message: “when you left us, you didn’t really go.” The tone of Cooper’s voice suggests an almost unbothered attitude surrounding the issues, but the lyrics speak on the reliance he has on this absence in his life in order to grow as a person. “When you left us you didn’t really go / I know you’re watching me from my head to my toes / And I will not go without, I will not walk without you.”

Karenna Umscheid 

Gold Dust Woman - Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac single-handedly got me through the worst of quarantine. Their sweet, timeless 70’s sound promised me a better future of endless summers, sunshine, and joy. They have a way of validating every emotion I’ve felt, and in every song I feel their empathy and understanding. “Gold Dust Woman,” in particular, is about drug addiction in the literal sense, chronicling the life of a person whose heart has been broken by a wealthy girl with an affinity for cocaine. But the lyrics and the sentiment can speak to any sort of pain or disappointment, with Stevie Nicks splicing in bits of advice and sneaky anecdotes of her own love life. In the song, she says “Rulers make bad lovers,” a piece of advice she knows firsthand. She later advises that the person “pick up the pieces and go home.” Stevie is reassuring that wherever you’ve been, she’s been too, and she knows exactly what to sing to make you feel better. My worries are often temporary, but I know Fleetwood Mac as my comfort forever. 

Maxwell Reid

Velvet Goldmine by David Bowie

This is glam era Bowie at the height of his powers. A forgotten Ziggy B-side that served as inspiration for the fictional glam biopic of the same name, this song is the epitome of glitter and guitar. Starting out in a typical rock verse before transitioning into a baroque chorus that sounds like it belongs in a Vaudeville show more than a 70s rock album, that melody has been stuck in my head for actual years. Years! I think about it every damn day! That choral, almost gang puffing outright triumphantly carries us out of the track. What I’d do to see Ziggy perform this live.