The Weekly Croissant: Songs On Repeat Lately

(lots by pals #humblebrag)

When I find a song I love, I like to listen to it on repeat over and over again until I’ve metaphorically eaten it all up. Each time I listen, I usually hear something new or find a new appreciation for a certain element. By the time I’m done I usually know every word, every instrumental turnaround, and every moment of vocal phrasing, and can take a guess at the production decisions. Then, once I’ve cleaned my plate and exhausted my ears of the song, I put it on the shelf for a while until a moment in my life draws me back to that one feeling, or that one lyric. Or, I hear it in a cafe and remember how much I love it.

I thought I’d make a short playlist of songs that have been on repeat for me lately. I’m lucky to be surrounded by some really talented pals, so many of these songs are by friends. But some are by people I only wish I was friends with, like the Anne Peebles.

My friend Anthony da Costa has a new album out called “I Should Call My Mother”, and the song that really gets me is called “You Can Always Let Me Down”. I love the smooth and satisfying groove which is perfectly melancholy for the clever lyrics. “I’m the one you can count on/ You can always let me down” OUCH.

Speaking of Anthony, I’ve got a new single out featuring him, called “Election Night”! I shall cheekily add it to the playlist to make you all listen to it! mwhahaha!

“I Can’t Stand The Rain” Ann Peebles. I don’t know what they are using to make that groove at the top of the song but it sounds like a plucked fiddle. It also sounds like some weird shit we would have done in my duo "10 String Symphony” which is why I was initially like wahhhhh? in this context????. OK but this is not about me, it IS in fact about Ann Peebles vocal which falls upwards on “rain” in the most addictive way possible.

As I write this croissant, I’m en route to Charlottesville, VA, the hometown of my longtime friend Caroline Spence. Her song “Scale These Walls” has been living rent-free in my head for months now. Caroline is one of the best song craftspeople I know, and this song is no exception, good lord. By song craft I mean that the form is always absolutely perfect, verse/chorus/bridge— concise, detailed and yet universal, the perfect shape with build and climax…. “Come on over here and scale these walls / I built them just for you”. This came on over the wonderfully loud venue speakers after a show I played, and I immediately went and listened to it 10000 times.

Kelsey Waldon is one of the first people I played music with in Nashville, and she has always written these epic anthemic songs about working hard and playing the long game. Her new album No Regular Dog is no exception. Her song “Tall and Mighty” is the song I need to hear every day to put my own mental roller coaster into perspective. “Everything’s gonna be alright, you just can’t stand tall and mighty all the time” It also reminds me of this song by The Deslondes about being a road dog, called Good To Go. “I never saved no money/ on the road/ but thats what it takes/ to get where you go/ and that’s what it’s gonna take to buy back my soul”.

“Always Alright” by Alabama Shakes is a song I feel like I should have already known about. I have been an Alabama Shakes and Brittany Howard fan for a while, but somehow I missed this one. I was watching the movie “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande” when I heard this song, although it was originally used in Silver Linings Playbook. Anyway, the movie is about a woman in her 60s (?!) who hires Leo, a male prostitute. Her sexual life has been extremely unfulfilling thus far and in this scene, he’s trying to get her to loosen up a bit through dancing. The scene is absolutely made by this song, which evokes the perfect mindset.

I have been loving the 90’s country bops of Plains, but more specifically the song “Problem With It”. Attitude, hook, harmonies, vocal phrasing, damn, so much to learn from this duo.

As we speak, I’m transferring my listener subscription from Spotify to Tidal (time to practice what I preach! Read this if you are curious about the differences), but while I figure out how to use that, I made a little Spotify playlist of these bops if you care to give it a listen:

What have you been listening to on repeat lately? Share your current favs below!