Staff Pix 3/28: Not on Streaming
No Spotify? No Apple Music? Easy. Bandcamp is cool though. Take it back to the days before streaming and into the days of endless YouTube doomlistening with some of our favorite deepcuts.
“u had it coming” by addison rae
Before the success of “Diet Pepsi,” Addison Rae spent two years coping with the backlash of her debut single, “Obsessed.” She had given up music due to the negative response, but somewhere in the meantime, a whole EP’s worth of singles were leaked. An enthusiastic fan base emerged, and Rae eventually released AR fueled by their support. However, not every leaked song was released, and most egregiously so is “U Had It Coming.” This was the first song I ever heard from Rae, and it instantly made me a fan. It’s the perfect pop song with a catchy chorus in which Rae sings, “I don’t feel bad for you baby,” and, “don’t even give a damn if you hate me.” Her intonation pushes the lyrics further, and as my friend says, “you can really tell she doesn’t care.” But I care about one thing – that “U Had It Coming” is Rae’s next release. —Lily Suckow Ziemer
“doyathing (feat. james murphy & andré 3000)” by gorillaz
There’s no stopping me from raving about this one. Three of some of the greatest ever (objectively!) joined forces in the name of freakin’ canvas sneakers to construct this streaming-adverse banger. Damon Albarn leads the track in his 2D alter ego as DFA Records and LCD Soundsystem himself, James Murphy, guides the beepy-boopy production and whiny chorus. It’s punchier than a lot of Gorillaz stuff, more playful than a lot of LCD Soundsystem. Not even halfway through the track, in comes André 3000 who, legend has it, recorded his verse in one take. Rhyming “onomatopoeia” with “you don't wanna be here,” it’s a feat of the musical art form. And this is just the standard version I’m talking about; in the thirteen-minute version, 3000 declares he’s “the shit” almost seventy times over absolutely electric feedback. Oh yeah, there’s also a wild music video that features a truly demonic Murdoc, a reference to the “DARE” video, and a Gorillaz-ified André 3000 being milked for sweat. There’s a lot going on here, there, and everywhere. It's a shame Spotify-heads may never experience the glory.—Sofia Giarrusso
“Sapokanikan” by Joanna Newsom
Ok, yeah, Joanna Newsom’s music is on Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tidal, Soundcloud, Samsung Fridge, whatever. But it isn’t on Spotify – my streaming service of choice, unfortunately – and also she’s the best, so I’m picking this song anyways. But what can I say about Joanna Newsom in this short blurb that would do even this one song justice? A mind-bogglingly intricate, unashamedly literary slab of verse that, over the course of its relatively tame five minute runtime (by Newsom standards), careens from one deftly worded, soul-shattering existential rumination to another – “Will you tell the one that I loved to remember and hold me” – while slowly puzzling together the entirety of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Ozymandias” throughout. This juxtaposition of Shelley’s classic meditation on the fall of empire only emphasizes Newsom’s transient visions, fleeting images of cities turned to dust and hidden loves lost to the interminable sands of time. The track’s animated, multilayered composition moves towards its seraphic climax as Newsom sends off the whole of human civilization with one final “look and despair.” It would be difficult to pare it down to just being “powerful”; like the best of Joanna Newsom’s music, it somehow manages to encompass everything. —Lucca Swain
“Just desserts” by marina & charli xcx
Before that FROOT looked familiar, there was MARINA (formerly Marina and the Diamonds) and Charli xcx’s incredible 2013 collaboration, “Just Desserts.” For reasons unknown, this song’s sole legacy exists on YouTube, remaining unreleased on music platforms despite its earworm of a chorus and bubblegum-pop perfection from beginning to end. Marina and Charli prove that revenge is sweet with their duet full of human truths – karma, justice, and indulgent revenge – set to a playful and edging beat. As always, Marina’s vocals scratch an itch I didn’t know I had, and Charli’s low vocals that verge on sultry satisfy me every time. The end result is everything you’ll ever need in a song… except for the fact it’s not on Spotify or Apple Music. —Heather Thorn
“love me too much” by car seat headrest
The sadder, scrappier sister to Nervous Young Man, Will Toledo’s album of seemingly rejected B-sides, Disjecta Membra, is indie lofi perfection. A ballad, though, stands out amongst the screeching angst anthems characterized by cheap recording equipment and endearing voice cracks throughout. “Love Me Too Much” marks the halfway point of the tracklist and a turning point in Toledo’s defined sound. With clear influences from The Beach Boys and Leonard Cohen, the song is straightforwardly sappy in its backing harmonies and yearning lyricism. It’s unusually short for the singer-songwriter known for his ten plus minute tunes, yet it still reaches the raw clarity in such. —Sophie Parrish
“pecking order” by alvvays
As a golden B-side from their 2017 album Antisocialites, “Pecking Order” proves that Alvvays can really do no wrong. Lamenting all the classic love tropes through perfectly millennial lyrics, Alvvays revs behind Molly Rankin’s vocals like a well tuned engine. Beginning with some penitent melodrama, Rankin drops flower petals to the floor as the band builds up to a rumble. By the final chorus, she trades verb for verb, showing the slow, hopeful process of being devoured by love: “And your brain still bows / To your racing heart / And your brain's devout to your racing heart / And your brain devours your racing heart.” And the band runs behind her in their power-pop semi-twee glory. —Nathan Hilyard
“all flowers in time” by jeff buckley & elizabeth fraser
The collab you never knew you needed. Unlike her vocals for the Cocteau Twins or her feature on Massive Attack's classic “Teardrop,” Elizabeth Fraser sounds so lucid on this track. Her powerful twang melds with Buckley’s melodic croon to create shimmering adlibs of yearning. They sound like two eagles soaring around each other in a dramatic aerial courting dance above a sunlight-golden bed of acoustic guitars. As they chant over and over, “All flowers in time bend towards the sun,” I find that I am a flower and they are the sun. —Christian Jones
“true blue” by billie eilish
High school me struck gold when I stumbled upon “True Blue,” a leaked Billie Eilish song. “True Blue” fits well into Eilish’s discography, emanating the melancholic atmosphere she often creates. This track was constantly removed from YouTube and SoundCloud for copyright infringement, so I thought two steps ahead. I screen-recorded the three-minute song and have listened to it via the Photos app for about four years. I never would’ve predicted that the song would find its way onto HIT ME HARD AND SOFT, her third album, years later. With more mature vocals, Eilish ends the album with “BLUE,” which includes the lyrics from her unreleased songs “True Blue” and “Born Blue.” There’s so much Blue-Billie lore to be explored. —Delaney Roberts
“five get over excited” by the housemartins
I’ve come to realize that no romantic love affair will ever hold a candle to my adoration of UK socialist-Christian janglers (what a combination!), The Housemartins. When Spotify carelessly stole them from me at the beginning of 2025, I thought I might never go on… then I remembered the existence of YouTube, and everything was right again. It’s hard to pick a single song from The Housemartins’ excellent two records (and equally excellent compilation Now That’s What I Call Quite Good), but with a knife to my throat, I’m picking the truly demented “Five Get Over Excited” and I’m not looking back whatsoever. Nestled on the band’s 1987 anti-royalty statement The People Who Grinned Themselves to Death, “Five Get Over Excited” is a jaunty slice of death pop, a hilariously contradictory number that pits car crashes against Smiths-esque guitar. Is there a deeper message in there about not trusting ole’ Maggie Thatcher? Probably! I haven’t done the necessary research, because I simply have too great a time singing “fun, fun, fun” while the carnage blares through my speakers. God bless you, you sick British freaks! —Charlie Desjardins
“pray” by kendrick lamar
Woof, the opening of “Pray” immediately gives me chills every single time. A haunting and soulful instrumental originally by T-Fire serves as the musical foundation on this unreleased Kendrick Lamar track. Never failing to impress with his flow, Lamar ruminates on the lives of two influential figures: Michael Jackson and Martin Luther King Jr. On top of this gorgeous orchestration, Lamar discusses both their legacies and the controversies that tore them down. Rapping from the point of view of Jackson and MLK, Lamar provides insight into the harsh truths of each figure and the all-too-often toxic nature of fans and followers. In the third act of “Pray,” he brings listeners back to present time, speaking from a personal perspective. He poses the age old question: Can we separate the art from the artist? Lamar argues yes. He closes his beautifully thought-provoking tune with a strong point: “I can’t help we jump in these bodies and you called them a God / Just know the Earth is just a rock without the voices of art / Sincerely yours.” —Izzie Claudio