The Retrographer, Issue #124 (March, 2 0 2 5)

Phil Cook, Men I Trust, snuggle, After, HAIM, Great Grandpa, Hannah Cohen, Lady Gaga, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Kyle M

Author

Charlie Kaplan
April 08, 2025

Phil Cook, Men I Trust, snuggle, After, HAIM, Great Grandpa, Hannah Cohen, Lady Gaga, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Kyle M

The Retrographer, Issue 124 (March, 2 0 2 5)

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Ten Songs for March, 2 0 2 5 | Listen to these songs on Spotify and YouTube

“Appalachia Borealis”, Phil Cook – There is an Americanism to love: Bill Evans, Aaron Copland, Allen Toussaint, Sufjan Stevens, Thelonious Monk, George Gershwin. Phil Cook captures it, eddies it in a sparkling stream, channels it throughout this beautiful album.

“I Come With Mud”, Men I Trust – You may think of Mazzy Star, Kacey Musgraves, maybe even Chris Stapleton on “Joy of My Life”. The capaciousness, quietude, stillness, singing like exhaling, strumming like a stream passing over your fingertips.

“Dust”, snuggle – Shoegaze remains one of the more underexplored and underexposed movements in rock. It carries so much potential beyond its hallmark walls of sound and glide guitars, a feeling unto itself.

“300 Dreams”, After – That smooth millennium futurism: the roundness of the VW Bug, the smoothness of the iMac, the typeface of the CD Walkman, airy synths, breakbeats, autowah.

“Relationships”, HAIM – Reminiscent of their “3AM”: sexy, laid back, somewhat fed up. “Don’t they end up all the same?” Danielle asks after a Prince allusion. 

“Ladybug”, Great Grandpa – Such striking specificity in these lyrics: “Dressed like Mama Duggar as a 90s mother”; “Dressed like Donald Glover on a GQ cover.” Is it a bug-eyed portrait of hipsterdom in 2025, seeking luck through tattoos, accessing the natural world through abstraction?

“Draggin”, Hannah Cohen – Summery, jangly, groovy; a nice little photon in an otherwise chilly April here in New York. Particular shout out to Sean Mullins’ sturdy but deeply funky groove here, as well as the chorus’s gutsy “such a draaaaag”, bending upwards from the depths it describes.

“Perfect Celebrity”, Lady Gaga – Assuming the Kennedy Center survives, it seems inarguable that Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta ends up one of those beloved national arts figures, honored for Tony Bennett and “Born This Way”, while still slipping in grimy NIN-meets-Justice-style bangers like this one.

“River That Flows Two Ways”, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma – Try to step back and hear every individual component of this piece, and ask yourself what you are really hearing. Is that an organ? Low horns? Lapping waves? Tidal shifts in tonality, perturbations in drones, slow cyclical ululations.

“The Real Me”, Kyle M – All these years in, from Andy Kaufman to Tim and Eric, there is still tons of room in the art of anti-comedy to show how something is funny when it’s poorly done. In Kyle Mooney’s case, it’s the deep humanity and pathos in his work that’s absent or mocked in others’. In particular, enjoy the companion “The Real Me Show”, bringing to mind endless high school instructional videos and student projects.

#118.5.2 “In a Little Bit of Time”

#118.5 “Edie Got Away”

#117.5 “Mescarole"

#116.5 “Cloudburst”

#105.5 “Country Life in America”

#105 August, 2023 | “Rockaway”

#104 July, 2023 | “Gas Station Bathroom”

#103 June, 2023 | “Talkin’ French” 

#100 March, 2023 | The Feelies, “The Good Earth”

#99 February, 2023 | Judee Sill, “Judee Sill”

#98 January, 2023 | Pink Floyd, “Meddle”

#96 November, 2022 | RIP TOM PETTY

#95 October, 2022 | Cannonball Adderley, “Cannonball Adderley's Fiddler on the Roof”

#94 September, 2022 | Sheryl Crow, “Tuesday Night Music Club”

#93 August, 2022 | D’Angelo, “Live at the Jazz Cafe, London”

#92 July, 2022 | Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, “Southern Accents”

#91 June, 2022 | George Harrison, “Living in the Material World”

#90 May, 2022 | The Wild Tchoupitoulas, “The Wild Tchoupitoulas”

#89 April, 2022 | Joni Mitchell, “Taming the Tiger”

#88 March, 2022 | Young Thug, “Barter 6”

#87 February, 2022 | Stephane Grappelli and Stuff Smith, “Violins No End”

#86 January, 2022 | Nas, “God’s Son”

#84 November, 2021 | Milt Jackson with the Thelonious Monk Quintet, “Wizard of the Vibes”

#83 October, 2021 | For Against, “Coalesced”

#82 September, 2021 | Pat Metheny, “Bright Size Life”

#81 August, 2021 | The Chicks, “Fly”

#80 July, 2021 | Allen Toussaint, “Southern Nights”

#79 June, 2021 | Novos Baianos, “Acabou Chorare”

#78 May, 2021 | One Direction, “Four”

#77 April, 2021 | Bob Dylan, “New Morning”

#76 March, 2021 | Ty Dolla $ign, “Free TC”

#75 February, 2021 | Ghostface Killah, “Fishscale”

#74 January, 2021 | Minnie Riperton, “Minnie”

#72 November, 2020 | Sufjan Stevens, “Seven Swans”

#71 October, 2020 | Common, “Resurrection”

#70 September, 2020 | Herbie Hancock, “Thrust”

#69 August, 2020 | Special Issue

#68 July, 2020 | Cam’ron, “Purple Haze”

#67 June, 2020 | Jorge Ben, “A Tabua de Esmeralda”

#66 May, 2020 | The Meters, “Rejuvenation”

#65 April, 2020 | Eddie Kendricks, “People… Hold On”

#64 March, 2020 | Thelonious Monk, “Solo Monk”

#63 February, 2020 | Cat Power, “Moon Pix”

#62 January, 2020 | Yusef Lateef, “Eastern Sounds”

#59 November, 2019 | Frank Sinatra, “In The Wee Small Hours”

#58 October, 2019 | Steely Dan, “Gaucho”

#57 September, 2019 | Bonnie Raitt, “Streetlights”

#56 August, 2019 | Daft Punk, “Alive 2007”

#55 July, 2019 | John Coltrane, “Interstellar Space”

#54 June, 2019 | Big Pun, “Capital Punishment”

#53 May, 2019 | Paul Simon, “Rhythm of the Saints”

#52 April, 2019 | Dirty Projectors, “Rise Above”

#51 March, 2019 | Kate Bush, “The Sensual World”

#50 February, 2019 | Sonny Rollins, “Next Album”

#49 January, 2019 | Sade, “Diamond Life”

#47 November, 2018 | Curtis Mayfield, “There’s No Place Like America Today”

#46 October, 2018 | The Blue Nile, “Hats”

#45 September, 2018 | Lucinda Williams, “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road”

#44 August, 2018 | Aretha Franklin, “Amazing Grace”

#43 July, 2018 | Teddy Pendergrass, “TP”

#42 June, 2018 | Dennis Wilson, “Pacific Ocean Blue”

#41 May, 2018 | Bobby Brown, “Don’t Be Cruel”

#40 April, 2018 | Amy Winehouse, “Back to Black”

#39 March, 2018 | Q-Tip, “Kamaal the Abstract”

#38 February, 2018 | Miles Davis, “In a Silent Way”

#37 January, 2018 | Beck, “Sea Change”

#35 November, 2017 | Slum Village, “Fan-tas-tic Vol. 1”

#34 October, 2017 | Steely Dan, “Two Against Nature”

#33 September, 2017 | Baaba Maal and Mansour Seck, “Djam Leeli”

#32 August, 2017 | Billy Joel, “The Stranger”

#31 July, 2017 | Big Daddy Kane, “Long Live the Kane”

#30 June, 2017 | Janet Jackson, “Control”

#29 May, 2017 | Steely Dan, “Aja”

#28 April, 2017 | The O’Jays, “Back Stabbers”

#27 March, 2017 | Wire, “154”

#26 February, 2017 | Professor Longhair, “New Orleans Piano”

#25 January, 2017 | Elvis Costello, “Live at the El Mocambo”

#23 November, 2016 | Erykah Badu, “Mama’s Gun”

#22 October, 2016 | Donald Fagan, “The Nightfly”

#21 September, 2016 | Aretha Franklin, “Young, Gifted, and Black”

#20 August, 2016 | The Dave Matthews Band, “Under the Table and Dreaming”

#19 July, 2016 | Clams Casino, “Instrumental Mixtape II”

#18 June, 2016 | James Brown, “Love, Power, Peace”

#17 May, 2016 | Ali Farka Toure & Ry Cooder, “Talking Timbuktu”

#16 April, 2016 | RIP PRINCE

#15 March, 2016 | Prince, “Prince”

#14 February, 2016 | Big L, “Lifestyles Ov Da Poor & Dangerous”

#13 January, 2016 | Bill Evans, “Live at the Village Vanguard”

#11 November, 2015 | Donny Hathaway, “Live”

#10 October, 2015 | Paul McCartney, “McCartney”

#9 September, 2015 | Talk Talk, “Laughing Stock”

#8 August, 2015 | B.B. King, “Live at Cook County Jail”

#7 July, 2015 | Miles Davis, “Filles de Kilimanjaro”

#6 June, 2015 | Joni Mitchell, “Hejira”

#5 May, 2015 | Kanye West, “The College Dropout”

#4 April, 2015 | MF DOOM, “Operation: Doomsday”

#3 March, 2015 | Bruce Springsteen, “The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle”

#2 February, 2015 | Eric B. and Rakim, “Paid in Full”

#1 January, 2015 | Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers, “L.A.M.F.”

ANNUAL

#121 | 1 0 0 2 0 2 4

DECENNIAL

THEMED