![\"record.club](\"https://next.secretchoir.com/attachments/2025/11/25/25%2001%2033%2044%20AM%20(msedge).png\")
https://yacht.bandcamp.com/album/new-release
\nbut really I'm just testing my new Bandcamp auto-embedder
\n" , "tags": [ "YACHT" , "bakerite (meta)" ], "date_published": "2026-04-09T23:13:53Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1775714094330/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1775714094330/", "title": "Untitled Post", "content_html": "https://youtube.com/watch?v=gfF8jzBVWvM
\nI think that a Fred Again.. DJ set is a sort of Cirque du Soleil for The Ear, and I mean that in both the nicest and meanest ways possible
\n" , "tags": [ "single-link youtube post" ], "date_published": "2026-04-09T05:54:54Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1775538762652/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1775538762652/", "title": "Paul Allen analyzed the wear on individual tracks in Jimi Hendrix's record collection", "content_html": "https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxmhxJLbL84VyjAQqn1hBEsqsz0wZLwQQs
\n" , "tags": [ "jimi hendrix" , "single-link youtube post" ], "date_published": "2026-04-07T05:12:42Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1775098065934/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1775098065934/", "title": "Untitled Post", "content_html": "this post should have been on here by the way. I should make that easy to rectify somehow. hmm
\nhttps://bsky.app/profile/maincharacter.today/post/3mhwwi7tgkc2i
\n" , "tags": [ "robyn" , "tinashe" ], "date_published": "2026-04-02T02:47:45Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1774123844241/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1774123844241/", "title": "here's 75 minutes of people hanging out and listening to music", "content_html": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vbItFOxMt4
\n" , "tags": [ "ninajirachi" , "single-link youtube post" ], "date_published": "2026-03-21T20:10:44Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1773474712761/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1773474712761/", "title": "on (whispering to avoid the censors) getting killed ", "content_html": "I think the "how famous do you think 'Geese' is" question is a genuinely interesting one to have an opinion about right now because I think it says something about society, you, and your place in it, and it is good for us to embrace the idea that any of our individual opinions does not have to be the exactly correct one, but that some of us dare to share our honest and detailed opinions about it. but you first!
\n" , "tags": [ "geese" , "2026" ], "date_published": "2026-03-14T07:51:52Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1773211929583/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1773211929583/", "title": "a long-held belief", "content_html": "Owen Pallett should record a cover of Taylor Swift's "Never Grow Up"
\n" , "tags": [ "owen pallett" , "taylor swift" , "covers that should exist" ], "date_published": "2026-03-11T06:52:09Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1772436676208/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1772436676208/", "title": "PROC FISKAL MENTIONED", "content_html": "https://youtube.com/watch?v=DWnVfPBbvLY
\n" , "tags": [ "ag cook" , "proc fiskal" ], "date_published": "2026-03-02T07:31:16Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1772183630259/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1772183630259/", "title": "Untitled Post", "content_html": "we'd like to thank g chat
\nwe'd like to thank weed rap
\nthe best rapper is b real
\njokes, it's us, c'mon, be real
it is a club for people who have strong feelings about Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" and "Send My Love (To Your New Lover)" and no other Adele songs. Let me know if you are in this club
\n" , "tags": [ "adele" , "very special clubs" ], "date_published": "2026-02-27T08:00:06Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1768678514254/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1768678514254/", "title": "A Special Herbs PSA", "content_html": "Some people are probably familiar with the Special Herbs instrumentals, which MF Doom released under the "Metal Fingers" alias and represent beats he made for both his own albums as well as ones he contributed to artists like MC Paul Barman, but what I think some people might not know is that the "Box Set" release, because it was made in the pre-streaming era, has significantly shorter versions of each track than the individual (well, technically two at at time) "Volume" releases. If you really want to luxuriate in these beats, skip the "Box Set" and check out the split releases!
\n" , "tags": [ "mf doom" ], "date_published": "2026-01-17T19:35:14Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1768337563157/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1768337563157/", "title": "Dummy - Atonal Poem", "content_html": "I always liked how the end of Dummy's first album Mandatory Enjoyment sounds like it came off the dang Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles soundtrack
\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxxLcU11dFE
\nfor comparison:
\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSa0ZGT7VgM
\n" , "tags": [ "dummy" , "kumi tanioka" , "final fantasy crystal chronicles" ], "date_published": "2026-01-13T20:52:43Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1768329032480/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1768329032480/", "title": "2025 wrap-up", "content_html": "I did some end-of-the-year music type things across different "platforms" this year. Here are each of them:
\nI think that's it for 2025 as a real focus, though obviously I will continue talking about music that was released in all years, not just the present one, here on this website. I'm already looking forward to new albums and concerts and whatever else 2026 has in store!
\n" , "tags": [ "2025" ], "date_published": "2026-01-13T18:30:32Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1766389996428/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1766389996428/", "title": "Untitled Post", "content_html": "\n" , "tags": [ "ruze" ], "date_published": "2025-12-22T07:53:16Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1766384251472/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1766384251472/", "title": "Untitled Post", "content_html": "https://youtube.com/watch?v=Rr1QcUhr1ZA
\nthis is a nicely done performance. It's got Boiler Room voyeur appeal, Pink proving she can sing appeal, she is totally deserving of a victory lap in 2025, etc. there is a downer of a moment where the crowd struggles to figure out how to deal with singing along to the downward gearshift at the end of "run again" though
\n" , "tags": [ "pink pantheress" , "victory lap" , "youtube studies" ], "date_published": "2025-12-22T06:17:31Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1766122679714/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1766122679714/", "title": "Untitled Post", "content_html": "https://youtube.com/watch?v=3Og8buUYiyY
\none thing that's kinda great about Confidence Man is that they are basically doing the "Planet of the Bass" bit but unironically, and they're incredible
\nsee also last year's "I Can't Lose You"
\nhttps://youtube.com/watch?v=jYuCk37DSYE
\n" , "tags": [ "confidence man" , "kyle gordon" ], "date_published": "2025-12-19T05:37:59Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1766038481899/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1766038481899/", "title": "Untitled Post", "content_html": "https://youtube.com/watch?v=Kl3SlFb32dM
\nIce Spice makes a Bill O'Reilly reference in this song from 2025, something I did not clock when it first came out
\n" , "tags": [ "ice spice" ], "date_published": "2025-12-18T06:14:41Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1765445399402/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1765445399402/", "title": "Untitled Post", "content_html": "if you make a 2025 list of albums and the weather station's "humanhood" isn't on it I am prepared to do fisticuffs with you
\n" , "tags": [ "2025" , "the weather station" , "humanhood" ], "date_published": "2025-12-11T09:29:59Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1764063411003/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1764063411003/", "title": "I absolutely love what is happening on the website record.club", "content_html": "
no whatever you're wearing is great. yeah we'll just work with that. great job lads
\n" , "tags": [ "vampire weekend" ], "date_published": "2025-11-24T09:35:56Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1763976955747/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1763976955747/", "title": "me on my first day on the job as costume advisor for the vampire weekend music video shoot", "content_html": "no whatever you're wearing is great. yeah we'll just work with that. great job lads
\n" , "tags": [ "vampire weekend" ], "date_published": "2025-11-24T09:35:55Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1763972040111/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1763972040111/", "title": "just try and tell me oklou wouldn't sing over this ", "content_html": "https://youtube.com/watch?v=ge45RopzQ50
\n" , "tags": [ "oklou" , "chrono cross" , "yasunori mitsuda" , "ps1" , "jrpg" ], "date_published": "2025-11-24T08:14:00Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1763539589721/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1763539589721/", "title": "actually hey google?", "content_html": "" , "tags": [ "video posts" , "dirty projectors" , "google" ], "date_published": "2025-11-19T08:06:29Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1763111226776/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1763111226776/", "title": "who builds the future?", "content_html": "kinda cool in hindsight that Vampire Weekend's "Capricorn", a song that celebrates things that come into being at the very end of the year and considers the challenges they face, happened the same year that Cameron Winter released "Heavy Metal" on December 6 a full 25 days before the end of the year AND YET was excluded from many "Best of the Year" ("BOTY") considerations AND is now awkwardly being shoehorned into some of this year's lists instead out of a sense of regret for not recognizing its impact, partially because of the work itself and partially because of the way it was leveraged into an increased sense of hype for Cameron's band's incredibly hyped record Getting Killed, which will also surely earn many accolades in this year's considerations
\n" , "tags": [ "vampire weekend" , "cameron winter" , "2024" , "boty" , "geese" ], "date_published": "2025-11-14T09:07:06Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1763110572560/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1763110572560/", "title": "this is a "Birdbrain" appreciation post ", "content_html": "https://youtube.com/watch?v=0iVlSNpq8i8
\n"Birdbrain" is a song of the year contender, for me, someone who is not at all invested in the vocaloid or larger(?) anime community, except possibly in the most general of senses (is a nerd). Thank you for your consideration
\n" , "tags": [ "song of the year" , "2025" , "jamie paige" , "kasane teto" , "ok glass" ], "date_published": "2025-11-14T08:56:12Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1762935191979/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1762935191979/", "title": "Untitled Post", "content_html": "do you ever just sit and think about how talented kelela is
\n" , "tags": [ "kelela" ], "date_published": "2025-11-12T08:13:11Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1761724108446/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1761724108446/", "title": "Untitled Post", "content_html": "my "youtube algo" just went from a straight playthrough of MC Paul Barman's "Paullelujah!" into the Caroline Polachek Desire, I Want To Turn Into You-era Tiny Desk Concert
\n" , "tags": [ "youtube studies" , "algorithms" , "mc paul barman" , "caroline polachek" ], "date_published": "2025-10-29T07:48:28Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1761631097938/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1761631097938/", "title": "Untitled Post", "content_html": "KRAMER: the kids have revived indie sleaze, jerry. They're making crystal castles interpolations.
\nJERRY: what about Sleepyhead? I miss Sleepyhead! It was a good song! Maybe Passion Pit could just come back and do that again?!?
\nKRAMER: (desperate) there's no time to worry about passion pit, jerry! It's only a matter of time before they find out about lil debbie!
twitch chatter radstache, asking "is that a ps1 game?", when confronted with the existence of drakeo the ruler and his 2017 album cold devil
\n![\"a](\"https://next.secretchoir.com/attachments/2025/10/6/05%2011%2014%2003%20PM%20(msedge).png\")
https://youtube.com/watch?v=5fJLYs9RUBU
\nI haven't gushed about Velvet Negroni on here yet I guess. One of my favorite artists, especially relative to the acclaim that he gets overall? an absolute all-timer pop songwriter imo. I can feel the paint on the walls of the room this video was filmed in
\n" , "tags": [ "velvet negroni" ], "date_published": "2025-10-05T06:51:10Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1758693060789/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1758693060789/", "title": "Some Track Star* videos I liked recently", "content_html": "to me, Track Star* is one of these kind of broad celebrity interview brands that are kind of interesting to me but that I am wary of, along with Hot Ones, Chicken Shop Date, The Terrell Show, Therapuss, Ziwe, Nardwuar, and apparently SubwayTakes now?
\nFor me the central problem with Track Star* is that I am unable to watch it without trying to decide how much of it, for this particular guest, is a "work". I'm even pretty sure that no matter how much of a work the central trivia concept is, it probably is more of a work than that.
\nBUT DESPITE THAT I do find myself enjoying both of these fairly recent videos from this channel. Check these out, first the one with Spike Lee and A$AP Rocky, then the one from yesterday with Mark Ronson:
\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8w4VZteJVg
\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AR_ElChyHM
\nLike... pretty fun!
\n" , "tags": [ "youtube studies" , "track star*" , "spike lee" , "a$ap rocky" , "mark ronson" ], "date_published": "2025-09-24T05:51:00Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1758433926123/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1758433926123/", "title": "Madonna - "Frozen"", "content_html": "https://youtube.com/watch?v=XS088Opj9o0
\nI remember having a complicated relationship with this song when it came out in (checks notes) 7th grade. It was a weirdly compelling banger to a random white kid in sort of the "strip mall belt" of the midwest? the costuming was not of interest to me, a kid terrified of a) sex and b) the occult, which is funny to say on the other side of the grimes experiment. I did like that there were stringed instruments (I was a self-identified Suzuki Kid, so violins felt like representation). unfortunately, thanks to my NPR-listening ass, I had the gall to suggest that the vocal melodies were derivative of Enya. but like, this moment exists:
\n" , "tags": [ "madonna" , "music videos" ], "date_published": "2025-09-21T05:52:06Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1757873739671/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1757873739671/", "title": "MJ Lenderman - “Just Be Simple” (Jason Molina cover)", "content_html": "\nI first learned of MJ Lenderman via people who were comparing him to Jason Molina but, while I do like much of the Lenderman stuff I have heard, I feel like this cover very efficiently demonstrates why I think that is not an apt comparison
\n" , "tags": [ "mj lenderman" , "jason molina" ], "date_published": "2025-09-14T18:15:39Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1757230369275/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1757230369275/", "title": "uffie boiler room good", "content_html": "like not technically but conceptually
\nhttps://youtube.com/watch?v=fLYSOBmJROU
\n" , "tags": [ "uffie" , "boiler room" , "dj sets" ], "date_published": "2025-09-07T07:32:49Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1757147963139/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1757147963139/", "title": "Untitled Post", "content_html": "I did think we were going to get a Robyn album this year, but at this point it seems unlikely?
\n" , "tags": [ "robyn" , "2025 predictions" ], "date_published": "2025-09-06T08:39:23Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1756876937194/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1756876937194/", "title": "Teddy Ruppleberry's "FIRST TIME Hearing Aesop Rock"", "content_html": "I have discovered the kind of YouTube React video that I actually like and it's "random hip-hop fans discovering underground rappers I love". I actually found Black Hole Superette underwhelming within the Aesop Rock discography but videos like this make me appreciate it more!
\nhttps://youtube.com/watch?v=cr7PFU1VTsU
\n" , "tags": [ "youtube studies" , "aesop rock" ], "date_published": "2025-09-03T05:22:17Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1756186885989/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1756186885989/", "title": "Lorde - "Virgin" review", "content_html": "\n\n\nnew Lorde album (but good this time)
\n#lorde #good ideas
\n
almost!
\n" , "tags": [ "good ideas (ex post facto)" , "lorde" ], "date_published": "2025-08-26T05:41:25Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1756186404963/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1756186404963/", "title": "Untitled Post", "content_html": "commissioning a thinkpiece about how there's no "where are they now" for the guys who played the musical saw in the wonderwall music video unlike the nirvana baby or the blind melon bee girl and what that means about music criticism's obsession with youth
\n" , "tags": [ "good ideas" ], "date_published": "2025-08-26T05:33:24Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1755763167850/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1755763167850/", "title": "gabby start & Knapsack - Cagematch", "content_html": "\nhey uhhhhhh this is great
\n" , "tags": [ "gabby start" , "knapsack" ], "date_published": "2025-08-21T07:59:27Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1755242004658/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1755242004658/", "title": "this is a pretty charming promotional piece", "content_html": "https://youtube.com/watch?v=EwAXmA8YhIM
\non both the interviewers' and interviewee's side! Great job everyone?
\n" , "tags": [ "ninajirachi" , "triple j" , "coffee run interview" ], "date_published": "2025-08-15T07:13:24Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1754466831246/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1754466831246/", "title": "Sudan Archives - "My Type"", "content_html": "https://youtube.com/watch?v=9vhoQJuC7UU
\nrealizing too late that the reason I like Sudan Archives' "My Type" is because it sounds like an uptempo version of "The Truth" by Handsome Boy Modeling School
\n" , "tags": [ "sudan archives" , "handsome boy modeling school" ], "date_published": "2025-08-06T07:53:51Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1754034718313/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1754034718313/", "title": "Untitled Post", "content_html": "https://youtube.com/watch?v=h-VvUPp6BgE
\ntwo things can be true: Pink Pantheress's "Illegal", especially the Nia Archives remix, is possibly the biggest earworm of the summer for me,
\nand also,
\n"you're recommended to me by some people" is possibly the most TMBG-ass lyric to make it into a mainstream pop song in quite a while
\n" , "tags": [ "pink pantheress" , "nia archives" , "they might be giants" ], "date_published": "2025-08-01T07:51:58Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1753946938876/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1753946938876/", "title": "Untitled Post", "content_html": "https://youtu.be/watch?v=9gL0F1xIt2I
\nThis song/video is such a great encapsulation of the different talents within a given "movement" I see in any genre of music right now. It's from a little over a year ago so things might be different now (or in the future) BUT
\nHere's three and a half minutes of music billed to Latto but featuring Flo Milli, a slightly more gimmick-credited rapper, and Megan Thee Stallion, who is herself a kind of regulated, brand-safe version of Nicki Minaj. The breadth of their careers/statuses/talents is important here. Also Glorilla, ANOTHER trending female rapper, who has her own distinct place in the zeitgeist, is hanging out and does lip syncing at key moments in the video. She's not credited at all, she just wants to be around. It's a distinct cultural moment!!!
\n" , "tags": [ "latto" , "flo milli" , "megan thee stallion" , "glorilla" , "youtube studies" ], "date_published": "2025-07-31T07:28:58Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1753945951295/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1753945951295/", "title": "Untitled Post", "content_html": "https://youtube.com/watch?v=qB7kLilZWwg
\nI am having complicated feelings about this just-barely-above-mid Latto single that is interpolating Aaliyah's "Are You That Somebody?"
\n" , "tags": [ "aaliyah" , "latto" , "interpolations" , "youtube studies" ], "date_published": "2025-07-31T07:12:31Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1753428881752/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1753428881752/", "title": "The Impossible Kid", "content_html": "https://youtube.com/watch?v=lwoyo0Rt4Bw
\nAesop Rock's "Get Out of the Car", the track that contains in its lyrics the title of the album it was on, is a tribute track to his friend and collaborator Camu Tao and a reflection on the extended period of time between Tao's death in 2008 and the album's release in 2016 during which Aes admitted to struggling with in terms of mental health and social connection. It's a beautiful song and a great video to accompany it.
\n" , "tags": [ "aesop rock" , "camu tao" ], "date_published": "2025-07-25T07:34:41Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1753339100672/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1753339100672/", "title": "You should be watching Connie TV", "content_html": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3pcYOJ2z0k
\nHave I seriously not talked about Saving Connie on this blog? This is a YouTube channel by a producer/DJ/mashup artist/music influencer who does a variety of music-related things on his channel. One of them is called "Connie TV" and is a series of videos that are like a mashup DJ set of popular hip-hop infused with R&B/pop/indie music with well-curated video footage that mixes music videos and footage from the music's creators alongside some ~ good content ~, providing a sort of just-voicy-enough aesthetic that feels trend-chasing but also original at the same time. I'm not sure there's a vibier way to spend an hour or two than one of these compilations.
\n" , "tags": [ "saving connie" , "youtube studies" ], "date_published": "2025-07-24T06:38:20Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1752821319886/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1752821319886/", "title": "Untitled Post", "content_html": "![\"Plex](\"https://next.secretchoir.com/attachments/2025/7/18/17%2011%2045%2034%20PM%20(Plex).png\")
Neil Cicierega dropped a "Bustin"-like yesterday and imo it's the song of the summer
\nhttps://youtube.com/watch?v=2AqY7fMJjqU
\n" , "tags": [ "neil cicierega" , "john mayer" ], "date_published": "2025-07-18T06:23:29Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1752308526182/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1752308526182/", "title": "Untitled Post", "content_html": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fusIZJwzgqE
\nsorry for the thumbnail!!!
\n" , "tags": [ "mashups" , "rihanna" , "edward maya" , "vika jigaluna" ], "date_published": "2025-07-12T08:22:06Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1752133084686/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1752133084686/", "title": "Untitled Post", "content_html": "part of what makes Hot Chip great is that when you look at them you're like "yeah that could be a guy I know". You get the sense that any member of Hot Chip could, instead of making great indie dance music, contribute to a popular open-source project or be really good at quoting Futurama episodes
\n" , "tags": [ "hot chip" ], "date_published": "2025-07-10T07:38:04Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1752131540762/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1752131540762/", "title": "Geese - "Taxes"", "content_html": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fV5BBjOUw_c
\nListened a few times last night, then again tonight... I'm ready to declare this new Geese song something special
\n" , "tags": [ "geese" ], "date_published": "2025-07-10T07:12:20Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1752044794020/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1752044794020/", "title": "Untitled Post", "content_html": "(a Eurovision fan, seeing a successful major label artist for the first time) oh, she could definitely be on Eurovision
\n" , "tags": [ ], "date_published": "2025-07-09T07:06:34Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1750871224777/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1750871224777/", "title": "Aesop Rock - Black Hole Superette", "content_html": "awfully bold of Aesop Rock to make a bodega-themed album from a city with maybe the worst bodega culture in all of America’s major cities (Portland)
\n" , "tags": [ "aesop rock" ], "date_published": "2025-06-25T17:07:04Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1749801371465/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1749801371465/", "title": "Alvvays - "Pharmacist"", "content_html": "workshopping a karaoke bit where I sing the lyrics to TMBG's "Pet Name" over Fiona Apple's "Criminal" instrumental but the lyrical structure needs a complete rework :(
\n" , "tags": [ "they might be giants" , "fiona apple" , "karaoke" ], "date_published": "2025-05-23T06:09:36Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1746771450200/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1746771450200/", "title": "VEVO.REPACK", "content_html": "if you were reasonably certain that you could hear a misprogrammed snare in a song that has 500k views on YouTube by an artist with 600k monthly listeners that is generally fun but obviously (as a result of the snare) now is unlistenable, would you try and contact someone in the song's production team to issue a corrected version on streaming services or do you live a normal, happy life
\n" , "tags": [ ], "date_published": "2025-05-09T06:17:30Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1745737412819/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1745737412819/", "title": "mos def on mf doom", "content_html": "this is one of the canonical youtube videos btw
\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTBIvIDnnv8
\n" , "tags": [ "mos def" , "mf doom" ], "date_published": "2025-04-27T07:03:32Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1745650887371/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1745650887371/", "title": "DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ - "In Silence"", "content_html": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAxEJAwseeA
\n" , "tags": [ "dj sabrina the teenage dj" ], "date_published": "2025-04-26T07:01:27Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1745392620488/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1745392620488/", "title": "Untitled Post", "content_html": "there should be a ritual that happens when I make a post that includes a new tag that will have... implications later (the first tag for an artist, or else a bit that I am thinking of doing)
\n" , "tags": [ "secret choir meta" ], "date_published": "2025-04-23T07:17:00Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1745390769165/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1745390769165/", "title": "(losing on pop culture jeopardy)", "content_html": "what is "there exists a tunnel under ocean boulevard"?
\n" , "tags": [ "lana del rey" , "pop culture jeopardy" ], "date_published": "2025-04-23T06:46:09Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1745041654688/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1745041654688/", "title": "2024 Safe Bets: Charli XCX - _Brat_", "content_html": "\nWhat can I say about Brat? It taught me it was okay to be weird
\n" , "tags": [ "2024" , "safe bets" , "charli xcx" ], "date_published": "2025-04-19T05:47:34Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1745041039293/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1745041039293/", "title": "Dreaming about new Directors Label collections", "content_html": "\npretty sure this DVD series is the reason that music videos are one of my primary interests? I would like to see a reboot that features Hannah Lux Davis, Director X, Sophie Muller, and Dave Meyers
\n" , "tags": [ ], "date_published": "2025-04-19T05:37:19Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1742659677189/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1742659677189/", "title": "2024 Fringe Records - Bubble Love s/t", "content_html": "This is the first record in the "fringe" category that I'm posting in my will-probably-take-all-of-2025 2024 retrospective, so I'll explain briefly that this category represents stuff that I had some vague appreciation for but never quite "took to" in 2024. (For those keeping track, that makes the current category list for 2024 records: "Safe Bets", "You Could Make a Case For", and "The Fringe"; there are 6 more categories making up my notes that I have yet to write any reviews from). I'll be writing about "fringe" records either because they became more important to me in the months that followed or because I still have some nagging idea that there's something there, even if I never found myself listening to the album regularly. This first one is a case where I've actually found myself reaching for it more in the first few months of 2025!
\nBubble Love took a while to grow on me because I wanted more Tread and this is not that–but of course it's not, it's even released under a different name! Tread's tracks had this cool forward momentum to them; they were headed somewhere and I was getting to hear what happened along the way. This one in contrast simmers, perhaps giving the DJ the reins with any track selection to stay somewhere for a moment before their work takes people on to the next destination. The sampling simultaneously feels blunt and like a more restrained DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ, and there are some gloriously 90s steel drum and panflute patches that sound like they come from a CD-ROM where a cartoon dog teaches you chemistry concepts. The "Love"/"Hate" combo is very good back to back, but I'm partial to "Ugly"
\n" , "tags": [ "2024" , "the fringe" , "ross from friends" , "bubble love" ], "date_published": "2025-03-22T16:07:57Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1741845125866/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1741845125866/", "title": "JDirtyReacts - First Time Hearing Your Old Droog "Bangladesh" Reaction", "content_html": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMV-1uO3TBM
\nI unironically love this music video reaction video on youtube dot com. The way this guy responds to the moment of discovering who Heems is makes me so happy. I have not looked at literally anything else he has said or done so apologies in advance but yeah man
\n" , "tags": [ "youtube studies" ], "date_published": "2025-03-13T05:52:05Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1741534169256/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1741534169256/", "title": "Oklou - choke enough", "content_html": "here’s an album that’s a great example of “I put it on while doing something else and found it vaguely pleasant; I sat down and listened to it while doing little else and realized it was extremely my shit”. The little synth horns and flutes on this thing are so good. Love how many moments just don’t have drums? The Taste or Waste crew heard Stardew Valley in “thank you for recording” but I hear, like… Microsoft Encarta? Computer programmers who are obsessed with Kraftwerk? It’s icy and weird but kinda boppy, it’s got features by bladee and underscores, it’s hitting all the right notes for me. I’m not quite convinced it’s all-timer album material but I am definitely going to enjoy it right now
\n" , "tags": [ "oklou" ], "date_published": "2025-03-09T15:29:29Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1741130846552/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1741130846552/", "title": "Cheekface - _Middle Spoon_", "content_html": "Last year's album It's Sorted felt kind of like they had polished the whole Cheekface bit to a perfect point so it's not surprising that this one would be a ~transitional record~; it sounds like the members of the band have been through a lot in the last year (relatable!) and this album is being kind of press junketed as the result of that but I'm not sure that really pays off. I think it's cool that they collaborated with McKinley Dixon for "Military Gum" but I'm not sure the result is as good as a Cheekface track or a McKinley Dixon track. "Growth Sux" has a funny and possibly insightful point but to me it feels like they barely scratched the surface and I find it hard to say where their commonly-employed satirical voice ends on the topic, which sort of defeats the point of their whole schtick.
\nI do think there's something cool that's happening with Cheekface's particular blend of music and writing and comedy and politics and I want to see it continue and get better and smarter. There are individual moments on here that are catchy enough that I'm sure they will pop into my head unbidden for years to come ("Wind is Gone"'s refrain of "Dial 999-9999" has been on loop, maddeningly, for the past 48 hours), but... I dunno. I'm not seeing the depth that I know they are capable of.
\n" , "tags": [ "cheekface" , "album review" ], "date_published": "2025-03-04T23:27:26Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1740989632973/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1740989632973/", "title": "2024 You Could Make a Case For: Your Old Droog - "Movie"", "content_html": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKOpb-fZdnI
\nYour Old Droog is the kind of rapper who can release a song with Denzel Curry and Method Man verses and a Celebrity Death Match-inspired music video in 2024 and still be someone you might not know exists; a weird mix of access to the ability to realize a creative vision and also criminal near-anonymity in the mainstream. I was made aware of him via his 2017 collaboration with Heems "Bangladesh", a song I'll probably dedicate at least one full post to at some point, and I did listen to the album it was on (Packs) a decent amount, but I somehow checked out for... 6 albums in 7 years after that?
\nMovie, from last year, has Pretty Toney-era decadence vibes. "I Think I Love Her" is a slick parasocial love song complete with a music video that feels like the perfect companion to Charli XCX's "Boys" visual. "Mantra" addresses his upbringing as a Russian immigrant. "The Interview" is maybe the funniest skit I've heard on a hip-hop album since Prince Paul's peak? "What Else" recalls Clipse's "Mr. Me Too" with its confidence.
\nThere's also an incredible punch-in tactic at play on a handful of tracks on this album where Droog acts as his own... hype man, sort of? Because one of the things that he does is self-consciously shout "what?" or "who?" whenever he makes a reference that I guess he thinks is too obscure? It's so funny and weird and charming and is honestly the best argument for why you should listen to this album, so I'll stop there.
\n" , "tags": [ "your old droog" , "2024" , "you could make a case for" , "who?" ], "date_published": "2025-03-03T08:13:52Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1740985539329/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1740985539329/", "title": "Untitled Post", "content_html": "![\"Ice](\"https://next.secretchoir.com/attachments/2025/3/3/02%2010%2058%2001%20PM%20(Plex).jpg\")
The whole Ice Spice thing has maybe not panned out so far the way it looked like she might when she co-starred with Nicki in the "Barbie World" interpolation in 2023 but nothing can take away the moment of watching this video when it came out and being like "oh shit Worldstar is actually breaking a genuine new star in 2022?"
\n" , "tags": [ "ice spice" , "WorldStarHipHop" , "music videos" ], "date_published": "2025-03-03T07:05:39Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1740940846055/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1740940846055/", "title": "Untitled Post", "content_html": "https://youtube.com/watch?v=v6HBZC9pZHQ
\nKendrick saying “brother” at the end of every line in the middle part of his verse never fails to crack me up
\n" , "tags": [ "kendrick lamar" , "baby keem" ], "date_published": "2025-03-02T18:40:46Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1737830932336/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1737830932336/", "title": "2024 Safe Bets: Cliffdiver - _Birdwatching_", "content_html": "Cliffdiver's second full-length album really delivered for me. It's not surprising in hindsight that their debut album Exercise Your Demons wouldn't live up to the high expectations set by their 2020 song Gas City; it's by all means a good album but for me it lacked the sort of top-tier memorability that I'm looking for when listening to this sort of on-the-nose pop-punk "DIY" music. Birdwatching, as a counterpoint, sold me from the very start with opener "thirty, flirty, and thriving!!!" Co-lead vocalists Joey Duffy and Briana Wright are both extremely charming, the band's work continues to be my favorite use of the saxophone in recent memory, the whole album kinda breezes by and dares you to go back to the start and listen all over again like many of my favorite albums this year, and I would like one hundred more years of Cliffdiver songs to put me in a good mood and make me feel thirty years old again.
\n" , "tags": [ "2024" , "safe bets" , "cliffdiver" ], "date_published": "2025-01-25T18:48:52Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1737793501006/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1737793501006/", "title": "Untitled Post", "content_html": "bards will be like "so baby listen carefully / while I sing my combat song"
\n" , "tags": [ "mark morrison" , "weird ones" ], "date_published": "2025-01-25T08:25:01Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1737690228269/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1737690228269/", "title": "2024 Safe Bets: Armlock - _Seashell Angel Lucky Charm_ ", "content_html": "This second album by the Australian slacker-rock duo is a perfect example of why I love Run For Cover Records. It's unfortunately brief, weighing in at just 19 minutes across 7 tracks, but I had it in the rotation pretty regularly in 2024. The lofi music videos put out over the course of the year match the vibe pretty well. More of this please!
\n" , "tags": [ "2024" , "safe bets" , "armlock" ], "date_published": "2025-01-24T03:43:48Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1737187355122/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1737187355122/", "title": "2025 wishes", "content_html": "new Lorde album (but good this time)
\n" , "tags": [ "lorde" , "good ideas" ], "date_published": "2025-01-18T08:02:35Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1737186514048/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1737186514048/", "title": "listening to "Classical" again and", "content_html": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP2FbpYs4t0
\nthere's a sort of weird slowed-breakbeat-ness to the drums on this track, right?
\n" , "tags": [ "vampire weekend" ], "date_published": "2025-01-18T07:48:34Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1737096845064/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1737096845064/", "title": "Untitled Post", "content_html": "just thinking about how if we got new music from both sadurn and cartalk this year that'd pretty much be all I need
\n" , "tags": [ "sadurn" , "cartalk" ], "date_published": "2025-01-17T06:54:05Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1736927939285/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1736927939285/", "title": "2024 You Could Make a Case For: Durante - _Enter_", "content_html": "the "You Could Make a Case For" series is for albums that did not spring to mind for me immediately, but when reviewing the stuff I did actually listen to this year, I noticed them as things that I definitely did find myself pressing play on during the course of the year.
\nI first learned about Durante via the 2019 Fabric DJ mix by electronic artist Bonobo, an album I listened to constantly both by myself and when putting on music for other people. His track "Maia" swoops in beautifully and while he didn't have many tracks released at that point, I was excited eventually to discover his 2021 song "Thread Tension", a driving, hypnotic track. There were some releases here and there but it was this year's Enter and the accompanying February and May DJ mixes that I could tell there was something special he was doing, creating a sound I'm really glad to have had available to me this year.
\n" , "tags": [ "2024" , "you could make a case for" ], "date_published": "2025-01-15T07:58:59Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1736924679776/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1736924679776/", "title": "2024 Safe Bets: Vegyn - _The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions_", "content_html": "I dunno what to say about this one, it just is the mood I felt in the most this year. I felt ready to put this on just about any time-- as a plane was landing, when I couldn't sleep, when I had a quiet afternoon sitting around peacefully with my parents in my new living room, when I was walking around a new part of San Francisco I had never been in before (near the Moscone Center? lol), just any time really. I guess that makes it the next in a series:
\n2024 - this one
\n2023 - overmono - good lies
\n2022 - sadurn - radiator
\n2021 - ross from friends - tread
\n2020 - cartalk - pass like pollen
\n2019 - glass beach - the first glass beach album
I had very complicated feelings about Father of the Bride, though ultimately came out pretty positive about it. I do feel like this is a return to Modern Vampires success but also I feel a little bit guilty about feeling that way because of the signifiers
\n" , "tags": [ "safe bets" , "2024" ], "date_published": "2025-01-15T06:51:49Z" } , { "id": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1736923709481/", "url": "https://next.secretchoir.com/post/1736923709481/", "title": "2024 Safe Bets: Saeph - _Verdant_", "content_html": "Listening to this album does make me feel alive-- alive because I can hear the influences from Porter Robinson and Madeon, from chiptunes to blasted out VHS copies of anime series you've never remembered the title of recovered from a friends of the library table sale. Listen to this album if you're a little goblin in the forest in an RPG Maker game
\n" , "tags": [ "2024" , "safe bets" ], "date_published": "2025-01-15T06:48:29Z" } ] }