Staff Pix 4/21: 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.

Karenna Umscheid

Letter to an Old Poet by Boygenius

“Letter to an Old Poet” is to “Me & My Dog” what “Secrets from a Girl (Who’s Seen it all) is to “Ribs,” if that makes any sense at all. boygenius’s beautiful ballad is a call to reflect honestly and move on from the past, and though they sing of a past relationship I find this applicable to ex-friendships as well. They rewrite the brain-rotting pain of “Me & My Dog,” singing of their desire to be happy, not emaciated, a desire to live in golden daylight instead of crushing pain. They clear the smoke away from their lover’s face and instead see the evil that always was, and finally understand the happiness and love they truly deserve. This track will be the background to my summer, to learning lessons and moving on, and making myself ready to love and to be happy, like an emotional superbloom.

Kaitlyn Hardy

Let The Light In (Ft. Father John Misty) by Lana Del Rey

“Let The Light In” is the 12th track on Lana Del Rey’s latest album, released on March 24. It’s such a flush of sweetness and emotion; a warm, beautiful melancholy. The song manages to replicate the feeling of complete, giddy infatuation into a specific setting and sensation – the melody, a tiptoe across a dew-dampened lawn in the earliest hours of a summer morning; the honey-soaked harmonies the warm illumination of a front porch light on a summer night, with two lovers standing in its halo. The lyrics themselves are bittersweet, the singer expressing her love for someone, yet longing for more than what they have. It’s the love of the moment and the love of a possible future, but the pang of want that cuts like a knife. Yet, Lana’s sultry voice drapes a veil of beauty over it all. The song slow dances through your ears, wrapping itself around you, letting you fall into a swoon.

Lily Suckow Ziemer

Princess Diana (with Nicki Minaj) by Ice Spice

As if Ice Spice’s “Princess Diana” couldn’t get better, on April 17th the rapper dropped a new version featuring Nicki Minaj. Unlike many features, Minaj integrates herself into the song in a way that is more than just a five second verse. After Ice Spice opens the song, the duo collaboratively sing the chorus. Minaj’s first solo verse ties in perfectly with the song. She ties in catchy lines from the original, such as, “And I just fell in love with a gangster.” Minaj also leans into the title, referring to Ice Spice as the princess. The song is fitting for the queen, ushering in a new generation of female rappers. This camaraderie makes the song.

Stephanie Weber

4EVA (ft. Pharrell Williams) by KAYTRAMINE, Animé, KAYTRANADA

Amassing close to seven million streams since its release on April 7, “4EVA” is one of my favorite collabs of 2023. KAYTRAMINE, as they’ve called themselves, is a group effort between Aminé and KAYTRANADA, who are set to release an album on May 12. As a lead in to the album, the duo has released a single featuring the angelic and full voice of Pharrell Williams. The song is danceable (would you expect anything less?) and provides a summer house resonance sound. Aminé raps over the repetitive beat, singing lyrics about a girl and “how that means forever.” “We so loud it sound like a discussion / I hit it with some percussion, call it pussy percussion” are my favorite lyrics from the song. It’s perfect to lay back to, put on in the background of your spring or summer day.

Will Ingman

Popular 2 by Cheekface

Cheekface are a delightfully uncomplicated band, pairing thoroughly bouncy instrumentals with conversational songwriting. Lines like “I just perturbed the pigeons / now the pigeons are perturbed” capture their earnest and enthusiastic approach to music, free from the self-centeredness that plagues L.A. indie rock throughout the ages. Greg Katz, Cheekface’s bandleader, understands something few musicians can grasp: if pressing play once is all it takes for a listener to think they understand a song, they’ll probably listen to it twice. In this way, “Popular 2” is a sort of musical attention-deficit disorder, a quick hit of instant gratification that not only incentivizes, but welcomes re-listeners - and I’m more than happy to oblige.

Matt Kugel

Nevin by Community College

Boston based band Community College’s sophomore album SCHMOMCO dropped April 14th, and in it, the indie rock act reinvents and builds on a lot of the sounds from their debut in 2019, titled after the band’s affectionate nickname Comco. Their first album is notable for its impactful lyricism and catchy songwriting, despite not doing much stylistically to differentiate itself from a lot of the hallmarks of modern slowcore. As a big slowcore lover, I’m not complaining, but all that emotion, especially thought the lyricism, is only amped up as the band explores new directions in their recent album. Band leader John Margaris’ creativity shines through brightest on the sixth track, Nevin. His effortless vocals and confident guitar work are complimented well by the tuned-in cymbals of his brother Dan’s drum playing and the fuzzed-out bassline from Dimitri Giannopoulos, who also plays in cult favorite slowcore band Horse Jumper of Love along with John. The band is on tour right now to celebrate the album release and they’ll be coming to O’briens Pub on the 24th this April with Joyer and Alexander!

Nathan Hilyard

pawnshop by kara jackson

“pawnshop” is a clear favorite from Kara Jackson’s debut folk album. Jackson’s voice is full and crackles to bend the folk doing into a peaceful and flexible place. Her instrumentation is prideful and classic, able to connect her lyrics to the pounding narratives on losing love.

Salem Ross

I been Young by George Clanton

How could you be nostalgic for something you never experienced? How have abandoned shopping malls and neon signs make us think of a time before we even existed and longed for it? Time travel is now readily accessible with George Clantons new synthwave single. Declaring mistakes of the past, being old enough to learn from them but also having the youth experience to understand why they happened, Clanton’s track (as well as music video) makes the listener sit down in what seems to be the late 80s, that coming of age feeling that so many long for but can only achieve artificially.

Harry Bates

White Rabbit by Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway

A classic of Jefferson Airplane, “White Rabbit” has been a mainstay of exploratory sound since its debut on Surrealistic Pillow back in ‘67, bringing listeners on a sort of magical journey through inner-space. Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway’s version, released April 7 on Nonesuch Records, packs the trunk for this five-minute-and-fifteen-second getaway with heartfelt licks of banjo, violin, and acoustic guitar. Upon hearing this song, I imagine swimming in a pond somewhere up north, roasting some corn on the cob over a campfire, and hiking up some long, wandering path under a canopy of sturdy pines and oaks. Some 56 years have passed since Jefferson released this masterpiece into the world, yet this sound continues to endure in the hearts of young and old people wandering to find their true place of purpose in life. All in all, the music never stopped.

Izzy Desmarais

Outlook by The Front Bottoms

Every few months or so, The Front Bottoms have a resurgence in my music rotation. I think it has something to do with the changing of the seasons. Lead singer Brian Sella’s minorly tone deaf yet visceral vocals seem to resonate more when the weather abruptly shifts from one extreme to the other. It happened around Christmas, when the air started to freeze, and it’s happening again now that spring has finally sprung. When I opened Spotify to help me decide what song I should pick for today’s show, I didn’t even know The Front Bottoms had recently released a new single. But there it was, right on my homepage, begging for me to listen and write about it. “Outlook” fits in perfectly with the rest of their discography — it has acoustic guitar, upbeat drums, and nostalgic lyrics. Something that I think sets this single apart is the chorus’ rockabilly inspired harmonies. Paired with their pop-punk sound, it reminds me of Green Day’s “Prosthetic Head.” All in all, this is a great song and I can already see myself listening to it in Gert (my beloved Honda Civic) with the windows down, happily screaming along to the lyrics as I celebrate the semester’s end.