Best New Music for October 25th, 2024

Tiny Desk Concerts, Addison F*ckin' Rae, Laufey, Raveena + more!

Oct 25, 2024

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I hope..…this...email... (or substack notification 👁️👄👁️) …finds you…well.

This substack is about the best new music I’ve stumbled upon and loved over the last month, since my last full update where I talked about how much I loved Katy Perry’s 143. I still stand by my statement that it’s one of 2024's best albums—and one of the best of her career! The masses will understand one day. I dream. Anyway, before I lose you, here’s all that I’ve been loving in the world of music for the past month!

Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso: Tiny Desk Concert.

The Argentine power duo Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso flaunt their chops on this exciting 17-minute Tiny Desk Concert that has gone somewhat viral online in the last two weeks. I’ve watched it 4x already and is most definitely worth a watch.

I meditated under a tree in LA with Raveena.

After catching Raveena open for Tinashe’s Match My Freak World Tour at the Greek Theater last week, under a full Aries moon, I saw that Raveena's hosting free meditation meet-ups at every stop on the tour. My phone died while on my way to the park last Sunday, so I have no photos from the experience, and in the moment I had no idea where to go or which tree to find her under. But I did find swaths of people who looked like Raveena fans: friendly-looking souls carrying a park blanket and a water bottle aimlessly walking around also. So, I broke the ice, made a few new friends along the way, and, eventually, we found her under a big tree. Then, Raveena led a guided meditation for about 50 people amongst the noise of a nearby playground, and the practice felt electric. I bought a shirt (pictured below), even though she almost forgot to plug it at the end of the session. I also gave her a big hug. To experience a free event of this nature (pun intended, #tree) was glorious, and you really don’t see many artists doing these types of activations, so I was grateful to attend and meet her. If she’s in a city near you in the next month, I highly recommend you join for one! Find out where here.

Raveena is one of those artists that the Spotify algo pushed my way in 2017 for her ethereal first EP Shanti, and I’ve been obsessed with her sound and vibe ever since. She’s equal parts a beautiful soul as she is an amazing artist—and her newest album Where the Butterflies Go in the Rain is 1,000,000% worth a save wherever you listen to music.

To complement her latest album, she shared the 28-minute film titled Where The Butterflies Went on YouTube two weeks ago; it provides a perfect glimpse into who she is as an artist and is absolutely worth checking out.

Aquamarine by Addison Rae.

I worry about the effects of longterm covid, because I posted about this on instagram and immediately started getting backlash? Is anyone else worried about these people so obviously losing their taste? It’s concerning me.

This is the second smash single this year by new queen of pop Addison Rae—and I even think it’s better than Diet Pepsi. The music video choreo and visual choices are unique and she’s clearly hungry for “it”—there’s so much more drive, ambition to succeed, musical risks being taken, and art being shared by Ms. Rae when compared to other “staple” popstars of today, in my opinion.

I also love it when artists release the music video the same day as the single. You can watch the it below and let me know if you disagree—I’m curious—and will gladly send you one of the 30 covid tests I’ve been hoarding, free of charge. <3

Can we talk about Laufey?

Icelandic jazz-inspired popstar who’s actual name—as I just learned—is Laufey. She first showed off her insane (complimentary) vocals belting on Iceland’s Got Talent at age 15—now, at 25, and with one Grammy under her belt, she’s making some of the most lovely traditional pop songs of the 2020s. She’s cited her major influences as Ella Fitzgerald—love—and Chet Baker—I don’t know him, but he was a jazz musician known as the “Prince of Cool” in 1950s America.

Recommend listening for your next night in with some chamomile tea:

Best new find: Chinese American Bear 华裔美国熊

You probably haven’t heard of them yet, as they currently have 3.6K followers on IG, but this “Mando-pop” duo from Seattle has been on repeat as I drive around LA. I’m going to see them in a few weeks for $17, which is an unheard of concert price these days, so I’ll most def report back on the experience.

In their own words (and emojis):

They write, produce, engineer and mix everything themselves. They often combine retro sounds from the 60's/70's, with lighthearted lyrics about food, flying through space, and other topics that don't take themselves too seriously. 🌸 🐼 🐻 🌸

Their sophomore album Wah!!! came out last week, and the bilingual earworms make for perfect easy-listening.

And if just streaming the music wasn’t enough, I highly recommend watching the “Full album + Mukbang” on YouTube. It’s the kind of content—and marketing—that I’m obsessed with.

Lorde is posting Instagram Stories and wearing red.

You already know Lorde’s upcoming album is gonna be One for the pop history books. Please, please, please - watch this space.

NOID music video by Tyler, The Creator

I will always have a deep fascination and adoration for Tyler’s music. He serves visuals like no one else and his music hits. I feel lucky to have seen him twice in concert because—semi-hot take—his dedication, grit, aesthetics, and stimaina for a great performance are all rarely seen by other artists today. His new music video for NOID has me counting down the minutes until Chromokopia drops next week.

That’s enough curation for today. I hope you found some value in the music recommendations and breakdowns above! If you feel so inclined, please like this post in the Substack app to help with the visibility of my posts in the algorithm and please leave a comment with any song, album, music video, etc. recommendations YOU have for ME! Or your thoughts on any of the above!

I will leave you with this post I found inspiration from, even though it doesn’t really tie in to anything I wrote about. I just loved it.

From @beamingdesign: