Edited by Eliana Simpson and compiled by Laura Weinstein
The blog team compiled our favorite albums and soundtracks from this past month. Hope you enjoy :)
Eliana Simpson
Floral Green - Title Fight
Busy, Deafening, Therapeutic
I don’t know about everyone else, but this month’s music is a drastic change from my hushed, mellow November playlist. With finals just around the corner, I’ve found that what I need right now is to supplement the countless hours of studying with total distraction. Title Fight’s Floral Green is the most satisfying attack of sound to occupy every single millimeter of my eardrums and erase every thought in my mind. I’ve been listening to it so much that Spotify decided I needed a “noise addict” playlist. Standout tracks include; “Numb, But I Still Feel It”, “Secret Society”, “Head in the Ceiling Fan”, and “Lefty”. To all my fellow noise addicts, I urge you to give in to your cravings and indulge yourself in pure, blissful, auditory pandemonium.
Bash Cruz
The Social Network (Soundtrack) by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross
Brooding, Intense, Cerebral
I hate winter here so much, dude. I’m sick of muddy days and gusty nights. Sometimes when I’m in my room and feeling really chained to a rock, or speed-shuffling between buildings to spend as little time as I can outside, I like to imagine I’m Mark Zuckerberg. Except not actually Mark Zuckerberg—the Mark Zuckerberg I picture when I listen to the soundtrack. Despite it being meant to accompany an entire other medium, the amount of careful layering in each track supports the work just by itself. A lot of the songs have this palpable space, whether between sounds themselves or between moments in the song’s pacing. That’s not to say it’s slow; sometimes, it’s the exact opposite. It has the type of dynamism that makes this album perfect for movement in a cold environment; when your elbows are tight against your side and your vision becomes narrow. Or, if you really want to feel like a misunderstood genius for 66 minutes when your heater’s off.
Al Herrera
Twilight New Moon Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Various Artists
Moody, Crunchy, Indie Royalty
Gloomy weather is a quick route to a Twilight rewatch, but out of all of the indie and alternative-filled soundtracks, the Twilight New Moon Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is a perfect atmospheric album for when the sun sets earlier and earlier. It’s a soundtrack that works well in order or on shuffle; one that will have your friends asking for the link to your playlist and end up surprised that it came from a Twilight movie. The album is filled with heavy hitters from the 2010s scene like The Killers, Muse, Thom Yorke, Death Cab for Cutie, Bon Iver, and St. Vincent. Standouts for me have to be “Hearing Damage” by Thom Yorke and “Roslyn” by Bon Iver and St. Vincent. Even Alexandre Desplat’s “New Moon (The meadow)” from the score fits in perfectly with the melancholy soundtrack. This album is sure to be an enjoyable listen, whether these tracks make you feel like you're running in Forks, Washington with vampires and weirded out by Edward’s mixed messages or you just enjoy a good synth and moody vocal delivery.
Laura Weinstein
Take Care by Drake
Nostalgic, Moody, Sexy
With December being my birth month, I get very sentimental and nostalgic during this time. As I reflect on the past year, I have also been revisiting artists from my past that I have stopped listening to for one reason or another. Whether this comes to you as a surprise or not, I grew up loving Drake. My teenage years were defined by Nothing Was The Same, If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, What A Time To Be Alive, Views, and most notably, Take Care. Heavily influenced by The Weeknd’s sound, Take Care also somehow sounds like 2016 Christmas to me. Even though it was released in 2011, songs like Headlines, “Shot For Me”, “Crew Love”, “Marvin’s Room”, “Doing It Wrong”, “HYFR (Hell Ya Fucking Right)”, and “The Motto” all scream hyper-consumerist Tumblr sad girl winter. The rose gold iPhone 6s. PINK. Bath and Bodyworks. American Apparel. The smell of cinnamon emanating from Auntie Anne’s mixing with bath bombs in LUSH. Getting Starbucks at the mall with your friends before the boycott. Man, the freaking Boca Town Center Mall. Christmas in South Florida. Click here and here and here and here for some visuals. Anyway, it’s also a great album to yearn to. Whether that’s for that shitty guy that broke ur heart or another chance to experience a day at the mall with your friends in 2016 </3.
Finn Sipes
INSIDE by Bo Burnham
THE INSIDE OUTTAKES by Bo Burnham
Touching, Introspective, Dancey
I recently revisited Bo Burnham’s INSIDE and THE INSIDE OUTTAKES and was reminded of how intense and incredible of a journey it was. The music, able to bounce from silly to deeply saddening, brought me back to a nostalgic place that I didn’t necessarily reject. Even tied with such a rough time in our lives, the music holds up beyond the context of quarantine and reaches the loneliest parts of myself in a comforting way, not a painful one. It has thus far paired very well with my turning 20 crisis and my “finals make me want to put myself in a box forever” moments this month. In short, Bo Burnham ate with this one.
Top Songs: “Content”, “30”, “Goodbye”, “The Future”, “1985”
Hayden Asiano
Xuvetyn by Lovesliescrushing
Haunting, Soothing, Gorgeous
90s ambient duo Lovesliescrushing softly sings you to sleep with lullabies from a different dimension. Their lushly layered soundscapes are made even more impressive upon learning that they craft all their sounds with just vocals and a guitar (treated with a violin bow and a mosaic of pedal effects). Something I find really unique about their work is the way each song evolves to build and release tension. Melissa Arpin’s angelic vocals submerge themselves amongst Scott Cortez’s waves of surreal distortion, before reemerging to float off into space.
This dance between them is at once experimental and organic, allowing them to tell stories without the familiar language of rhythm and lyrics. Sure you can’t understand them, but oh can you feel them — soul-stirring stories about comfort and unease. Writing now from an era when ambient music has come to be a computer-generated assemblage of agreeable chords, Xuvetyn sounds refreshingly alive.
Jonah Covell
In Waiting by Pillow Queens
Faultline, Charge, Riparian
It’s 2023 and we have lots of ways to find out about new music. And yeah, word of mouth or scouring interviews for your favorite artist's influences might be the cooler options, but sometimes algorithms do it for you. I've got Apple Music to thank for this one; the first algorithm-induced contact with music that has genuinely improved my life since I ditched Spotify in January. The Pillow Queens are a rock band from Dublin, and they're really good. In Waiting is their 2020 debut album. It's filled with tension and anticipation, hope in the throes, and is drenched with smart language that depicts the effect of growing up queer and brazen in a deeply catholic place. With Sarah Corcoran and Pamela Connolly, Pillow Queens have not one, but two strong, interesting lead singers. Give it a listen.
Favorite Songs: “Handsome Wife”, “Liffey”, “Harvey”.
Shaye Frenkel
The Opposite of December… A Season of Separation by Poison the Well
Haunting, Soothing, Gorgeous
December is a month for reflection, both of the good and bad variety. It’s for reminiscing on happy memories from the year, and simultaneously trying to not let all your mistakes from the past twelve months linger. That’s why I chose The Opposite of December… A Season of Separation by Poison the Well for my album of the month. Name coincidences aside, this is a piece of metallic hardcore history that has managed to perfectly encapsulate the angst, the longing, the coldness, and the desire for connection that I find myself clinging to as the months get colder. Poison the Well was a high school freshman discovery of mine, and ever since then, they’ve become one of my all-time favorite bands. The hardcore riffs combined with emotional singing was an intoxicating combination to me during the wintertime all those years ago, and I find myself coming back like clockwork during this season. They were one of the first to mix these elements together, and to this day I think they’re some of the best to ever do it.
Maybe December is just an excuse for me to embrace my emo days of yesteryear, but there really is something special about the Opposite of December. For a band from Florida, Poison the Well seems to understand winter pretty well. They, like their fans, have matured throughout the years, changing their sound to a more refined post-hardcore package that largely ditched breakdowns and chaotic song structures, and yet this is the album that has stayed with so many people. It is very messy and raw, with no click tracks or fancy edits here, and yet that almost adds to the atmosphere that Poison the Well cultivates. A bunch of young adults in a room together writing emotional music with breakdowns, how could they ever guess that over twenty years later, someone would be still listening?