Music to Reflect and Move Forward

As many held their breath for several days as key battleground states returned ballot counts ~ at a glacial pace ~, Saturday’s result has certainly proven a day of exhalation and reflection on the last four years, and as a day of hope for the future. Like many, I cope with stressful moments in my life, which are often tied to the broader political situation, by retreating into the depths of my Spotify playlists.

During the past four years, music has served as both a celebration and a rebuke; a celebration of the voices of people of color, the disabled, the queer, and those a part of persecuted religious groups, as well as many others. Simultaneously, it has said f*ck the system that repeatedly has f*cked us, with a breadth of artists often coming together to express their solidarity with social movements. Though Biden’s victory and the historic election of Kamala Harris to the Vice Presidency will provide a breath of fresh air at the end of such a ~ garbage ~ year, the following songs remind us of the struggles and triumphs of the disenfranchised over the past four years, while reminding us that the fight for equality is far from over.

First Pick: “We the People” — A Tribe Called Quest

Nothing could encapsulate the mad confusion and calamitous dynamics of the first year of a Trump presidency quite like one of the main singles off ATCQ’s final studio album We Got it from Here… Thank You 4 Your service. While “The Donald” on the second half of the album, makes more explicit references to the man in orange, the former song is a bitter repudiation of Trump’s often xenophobic remarks that often became policy decisions. Phife and Q-Tip retain their awesome ability to balance smooth, rhythmic rhymes with biting political commentary. No where on the album is the better encapsulated with the lyric, “All you Black folks, you must go/All you Mexicans, you must go/And all you poor folks, you must go/Muslims and gays, boy, we hate your ways.” The song’s beat is infectious and raucous, a rallying cry for anyone feeling personally attacked by the soon-to-be former administration.

Second Pick: “Binz” — Solange

Yes, “Cranes in the Sky” or “Don’t Touch My Hair” could have been fantastic choices for Solange’s most powerful social commentaries, but there’s something about her second album that sets it apart from the first. While both were beautiful albums focusing on the trials and triumphs of black womanhood, among other various social issues, the second album’s more dance-forward aesthetic makes it, to me, compulsively listenable and a whole lot more fun. The chorus line “Sun down, wind chimes/Break it down, one line, a line/Can't no see me, no flex, be kind/Dollars never show up on CP time” perfectly tows the line between expert lyrical flow and, in the case of the last line, more opaque allusions to the struggles of Black artists than in her previous album. More than the lyrical content, however, is the casually entrancing beat and pared-down production, making it a song that will lift your spirits in virtually any setting. Such

Third Pick: “Patience” — Mannequin Pussy

What a name. It connotes the feeling of being a body and nothing more, something to be ogled or grabbed at without any say in the matter. Nothing can quite encapsulate the rage felt by many women over the soon-to-be former administration both dictating the conduct of and politicizing women’s bodies. Not only does this album get pretty damn close to doing so, but the titular song acts as a 2-minute reclamation of a woman’s, or person in general’s, body. The direct allusions to “my body that was yours to own” double as both reflections on relationships, whether sexual or romantic, and references to making the personal political. The song is imbued with a fierce, driving punk energy (90s punk specifically), and specifically recalls the Riot Grrrl movement that grew out of the Seattle area during that time period. More than that, however, Mannequin Pussy’s 2019 album demonstrates a great degree of versatility, at times veering into shoegaze and metal as well.

Fourth Pick: “Gospel For A New Century” — Yves Tumor

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Yves Tumor is one of the most fiercely original and exciting artists in the last ten years. His first album was an amorphous, strange, brooding electronic album that resisted easy categorization. Though his second album, Heaven to A Tortured Mind, is far more traditional in terms of structure, it is no less powerful and exciting to listen to. From the first notes of the album, it becomes clear that rock is in fact NOT dead: it has been reclaimed by a queer person of color. To make comparisons between Tumor and other artists would be doing a disservice to the extent of his originality, even though I did so A LOT in a previous article. It’s hard not to snuff out references, but regardless, this album opener is an exciting mashup of several genres, and even though the song does not exhibit the experimentation that Tumor is well-known for to the same extent of other songs, its fantastic beat and unorthodox instrumentation repeated listens.

So, I’ve given you my picks from this past week, and I hope you enjoy them! Here are some more of my favorites:

“U.N.K.L.E. Main Title Theme” — UNKLE

“Les Fleurs” — Minnie Riperton

“Appletree” — Erykah Badu

“PDLIF” — Bon Iver

“Finally” — CeCe Peniston

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