The Retrographer, Issue 43 (July, 2 0 1 8)

July 31, 2018

The Top Songs of Summer 2018, the 1975, Nine Inch Nails, Popcaan, Drake, Charli XCX, SOPHIE, Nef the Pharoah, 03 Greedo, ALLBLACK, Freddie Gibbs, the Internet, Ovlov, Laurel Halo, Teddy Pendergrass

The Retrographer 43 (July, 2018)

Bulletins

1. 🚨SPECIAL PLAYLIST ALERT🚨

YOURS FOR AUGUST AND BEYOND

YERD??

2. I’m proud to say I just started as Audiomack’s Director of Product Management and Growth! Excited to be working on a project this big and important to artists and music discovery.

Ten Songs for July, 2018 | Listen to this playlist on Spotify and YouTube

Listen to this playlist on Spotify and YouTube“Love It If We Made It”, The 1975 (Spotify / YouTube) – Matt Healy is a rock star with no compunction or irony – no worries about “saying controversial things just for the hell of it.” But he doesn’t do that here, at least just not for the hell of it. This song is a time capsule for a future that asks why the world burned in 2018 while we grinned back, “Thank you Kanye, very cool.”“Over and Out”, Nine Inch Nails (Spotify / YouTube) – New NIN as cool and nefarious as anything they’ve done in a decade or more. Spooky, low synths, a bassline that pulls hard to the left, saxophone played at the other end of a storm drain, a pocketful of piano endless loops and yet “Time is running out…”“Firm and Strong”, Popcaan (Spotify / YouTube) – The young voice of Jamaica is 30 now, and he’s got so much trouble on his mind – women, business, strife among friends, the media. This prayer for strength is met, mercifully, by a cloudburst choir, baptizing his lofty dreams and washing away his hindrances.“In My Feelings”, Drake (Spotify / YouTube) – Like Marvel Studios, Drake meets us in the same place every year to take over our summer. This is not as triumphant as “God’s Plan”, or as winning as “Nice for What”, and frankly it's dance craze seems a bit contrived, but nonetheless its ubiquity makes certain it’ll be etched into these summer 2018 memories indelibly.“No Angel”, Charli XCX (Spotify / YouTube) – Charli shacked up with pop’s uncanny valley, including producer SOPHIE, at the end of last year for a critically-beloved (if commercially vexing) record. Here she’s stepped back into her infectious songwriting still dripping with that cybernetic amniotic fluid.“Ball Out”, Nef the Pharaoh, 03 Greedo, and ALLBLACK (Spotify / YouTube) – Stroganoff? There were only two minutes to work with on this track from his with a 5-song EP with Nef, but 03 squeezed in enough personality to show how badly he’ll be missed when he goes back in the pen.“2 Legit”, Freddie Gibbs (Spotify / YouTube) – Art imitating life, life imitating art: Gibbs sounds as cold as the uncut “dope in Terre Haute” the Gary, Indiana native peddles. The raps have always been there for Freddie, but when the Scarface soundtrack-like production matches his narratives, it’s hard to see him as anything but one of the best working rappers. Also: Album cover of the year, (shouts to Teddy Pendergrass).“Come Together”, The Internet (Spotify / YouTube) – Syd & Co. open their new album with Patrick Paige II’s best Ron Carter impression, flute harmonies, light handclaps, and perhaps a message of unity in this moment of ugliness: “They gon’ get us to come together…”“Spright”, Ovlov (Spotify / YouTube) – The monotony of homeostasis, or maybe goodness. The shapes swimming in all that distortion, writhing fingerpicking following the melody sometimes, sometimes doing its own thing, are like the body as the mind tries to keep it cool.“Raw Silk Uncut Wood”, Laurel Halo (Spotify / YouTube) – Naturalistic minimalism – synths that sound like far-off birds, or swelling tides – flecked with rich sounds that closely hew the quality of live instruments (a low organ sounds like a cello, and sometimes maybe is, or maybe an oboe), close enough to earn the realness invoked by this song’s title.

One Album for July, 2018Teddy Pendergrass, TP, (Philadelphia International Records, 1980) (Spotify / YouTube)

The 1960s had Motown and Stax, but the 1970s had Philadelphia International Records. Motown had Berry Gordy, but Philly International had Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, Motown had Detroit and its vibrant garden of talent, but Philly had, well, Philly: The O’Jays, Patti LaBelle, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, and, at the top of the heap, Teddy Pendergrass. Pendergrass started out as the lead singer of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, and for “If You Don’t Know Me By Now”, which he sang at 21 with the pain and power of a man three times his age. If Philadelphia International was Motown’s analogue, Pendergrass was its Marvin Gaye or David Ruffin – a supreme, sensual, manly singer whose ascendance exploded in financial acrimony for the label and his close collaborators. By 1975, Teddy left the Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes. But unlike Gaye or Ruffin, Pendergrass’ best days lay in his next chapter.Teddy Pendergrass was the first black soul artist to put out four consecutive platinum albums – the first four he released after going solo. Teddy Pendergrass, Life is a Song Worth Singing, Teddy, and 1980’s TP created a new, mature genre for soul music. Pendergrass’s sound – and the irresistibly sexual effect he had on his audiences – began with his towering, changeable voice, which could sway from cooing invitation to wailing, desperate cries in a step. Audiences fell for him: By his fourth album, TP, his manager Shep Gordon started booking “women-only” shows for Pendergrass – the demand was too high.That album, TP, was his last at the peak of his powers, followed by a commercial decline and released only two years before a car accident that would render him quadriplegic. It is as concise a statement he ever made of that magical period, the blinding beauty of his voice, and the irresistible charisma that defined his moment.TP begins with “Is It Still Good To Ya” from Motown’s pantheon songwriters Ashford and Simpson – writers of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” and “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing”. There are few songs that so showcase Pendergrass’s voice: The song moves in steps, beginning with intimated pleas, and then rising, rising, and rising still to a triumphant chorus, modulating fully to a new key. Teddy’s voice bends upwards, cracking and rising like a rocket to the stratosphere. The composition gives a stage for not just Pendergrass’s vocal gifts but – as importantly – his interpretive gifts. He performs as if confessing his love to you in the parked, idling car on Lover’s Lane, then giving in to a desire he could no longer contain. No wonder so many fell for him.The same effect comes up on “Feel the Fire”, one of two duets with The Wiz’s Stephanie Mills. But for every candlelit serenade, TP has an ace disco cut: “Girl You Know” – another Ashford & Simpson – and “Take Me In Your Arms Tonight” both groove in that limitless, disco way, like the closing hook could keep looping until the club burnt out.But through all its work, TP reaches a height almost never reached again in Philadelphia International’s illustrious history: “Love TKO”. On dreamlike, oscillating electric piano, a bassline doubled with guitar, and Philly International’s signature octave guitar licks, Pendergrass gives his greatest ever performance. He weaves in and behind angelic backup singers and swelling strings, sometimes pleading, whimpering, but other times exploding in the agony of heartbreak and discouragement. “Tried to take control of the love, but love took control of me,” he sings. How could you not fall in love with this man – vulnerable, powerful, devoted?Toward the end of that song, Teddy sings, “Tried to hold on, my faith is gone, it’s just another sad song.” This might have described another man after the injury that left him paralyzed, but not Pendergrass. He fought back from his injury, and through two album flops, to play Live Aid in front of 1.5 billion TV viewers. By 1988, he was back on top, with the #1 hit “Joy”. Mr. Love TKO showed it’s not how many times you get knocked down, but how many times you get back up.

Best-Of Playlists

Though these playlists are all on Spotify, not every song (including many of my favorites) is available to stream. To see which tracks are missing, go to "Preferences", scroll down to "Display Options," and then switch on "Show unavailable tracks in playlists."