Tag: Entertainment

• Charli XCX – Artist
• how i’m feeliing now – Album
• May 15th, 2020 – Release Date
• Atlantic Records – Label

Inspiration comes during some of the most difficult times in life and one has to recognize the strength of the quarantine-produced latest from Charli XCX.

‘how i’m feeling now’ is a lens into this electro-pop star’s mindset and apparently life routine whilst being holed up somewhere in LA during our curent COVID-19 pandemic.   On the track anthems, she talks of the routine, mundane and even the anxiety with dealing with this pandemic, “Sometimes I feel O.K. / Sometimes I feel frightened.”  Later on in the tempo setting i finally understand she proclaims, “my therapist says I hate myself real bad.”   While she sounds like she is having a tough time, one thing she is not, is unproductive.   This album, which was created start to stop in just six weeks, bounces around from sweet tender love songs like forever to bouncy pop tunes like detonate that will be soon filling home gyms across the US/UK.   Tracks like opener pink diamond are perfectly suited for the club scene, dizzying laser beams, synthesizers keeping tempo overlaid with repetitive spoken lyrics – and yet – we cannot “go real hard” as she proclaims….at least not yet. 7 years is a reflective piece of her relationship, apparently her quarantine mate, that is reminiscent of other crossover artists but takes it to another level in terms of track’s overall sonic depth. 

This album is deftly produced by Charli herself,  A.G.Cook and BJ Burton – the latter being associated with Bon Iver’s latest eletronica masterpiece, ‘i,i’. 

While Charli XCX by no means fits the typical reader demographic of >2M – given she is a mere 1.6M…but taller guys tend to gravitate towards those shorter girls you know, and I recommend you do so now with ‘how i’m feeling now’ to keep you refreshed and re-energized….for now.

• Waxahatchee – Artist
• Saint Cloud – Album
• March 27th, 2020 – Release Date
• Merge Records – Label

Admittedly, I have not had the privilege of diving into Waxahatchee’s catalog prior to listening to Saint Cloud, their fifth release.  From the second track, Can’t Do Much, I find myself whisked away to an early summer evening, on an open prairie, intoxicated by the prospects of what the evening may present.   Katie Cruchfield’s soft, melodic voice provides narration while the easy-down-tempo rhythm provides the energy, with a light telecaster providing the right amount of twang and flourish.  Katie sings “I’m wiser and slower and attuned” on the track Fire, as if to remind us all that she is reborn, refreshed, or simply has matured.   The imagery of her songs makes me feel there has been a rediscovered willingness to love that has come from time out in the country.   Separating oneself from their surroundings to give necessary perspective and no better place to do this then out in nature. “I’m in a war with myself and it’s got nothing to do with you” – she proclaims on aptly named track, War, to drive home her newfound revelation. It’s clear she packed her acoustic guitar on this journey only to return and share her tales of reflection, confession and even redemption.  Katie is offering us all a ride in the back of her beater pickup truck to join her and the fireflies on this early warm summer eve to come hear her songs; I recommend you climb aboard, you won’t regret it.