Stevie Nicks Gives Miley Cyrus's 'Edge of Midnight (Midnight Sky Remix)' a Much-Needed Boost
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I’ll allow it: Miley Cyrus ft. Stevie Nicks, “Edge of Sun (Midnight Sun Remix)” – What does it say about Miley Cyrus that her music is infinitely better when she’s not actually performing original material? Her recent cover of “Heart of Glass” only solidified the fact that Cyrus kills it whenever she’s singing other people’s music. I thought her song “Midnight Sun” was pretty boring when she released it a few months ago,” but it gets a much-needed boost of energy when it’s remixed (or is it mashed?) with Nicks’s classic “Edge of Seventeen.” And why wouldn’t it?! That’s a perfect song, it makes everything better, see “Bootylicious.” I dig the remix, but I can’t exactly credit Miley with its newfound power. That’s all Nicks. —Hazel Cills
Y: MAMAMOO, ‘Dingga’ – K-pop girl group MAMAMOO’s latest offering exists somewhere between BTS’s “Dynamite” and BLACKPINK and Selena Gomez’s “Ice Cream,” and the familiarity works—it’s energetic retro-pop, wholesome, high-concept polish that delivers—especially when Hwasa is on screen. Also: according to K-pop fan site Soompi, “Dingga,” is taken from a Korean phrase, “dingga dingga,” which is “the act of lazily enjoying one’s free time.” That’s certainly something I can get behind. —Maria Sherman
Sure: MONSTA X, ‘Love Killa’ – K-pop boy band MONSTA X’s latest full-length album, Fatal Love, is loosely themed around murderous love and, apparently, brazen self-empowerment. I’m into it, but I’m mostly into rapper I.M’s spoken word break in the single “Love Killa,” when he offers the very horny: “That’s right / You look at my eyes / Straight into my eyes /And just say…” before rapping, “I want you to eat me like a main dish.” Yes, sir!—MS
Look, I’m not sure: LEBENDEN TOTEN, “Inferno” – Portland, Oregon noise-punks LEBENDEN TOTEN teeter atop a musical line where one side is “torturous, irritating, audial punishment, like sticking shivs under your fingernails” and the other is “very good, artful noise.” Most of you will hate this, no doubt, but it truly embodies my emotional state this week, and in doing so, offers some fucked up, distorted kind of catharsis. As music critic Zachary Lipez wrote in his great Abundant Living newsletter, it is a musical template “set by Japanese bands such as Confuse and Gai… that template being “all the sounds guitarists try to avoid… plus yelling, and then add even more static, repetitive barking, and, if there’s any unused treble still lying around in the wreckage, they throw that on the fire as well.” Intrigued? —MS
Yes, absolutely: Brittany Howard, “You’ll Never Walk Alone”— RIP to the Alabama Shakes, a band that brought Britttany Howard to national attention, but I have been very much enjoying her solo career, because for me, the best part about the Alabama Shakes was Brittany Howard. I first heard this cover during one of the breaks in relentless election coverage on MSNBC, and it was powerful and good enough to let me just be still and listen to something nice and not stressful. The fact that this cover exists because of a Johnnie Walker ad campaign does not change how wonderful it is for me. Sometimes advertising is good, what can I say. I’ll be listening to this as I sit in the bathtub, fully clothed, having a think, for at least 2 hours this weekend. Try that and let me know how it goes. —Megan Reynolds
Yep: Suzi Analogue, “Watch Me Jump” – NYC producer and electronic musician Suzi Analogue’s work is delightfully frenetic: bouncy, colorful music made for dancing. But today she released a pair of ambient tracks, which is new territory for her. I’m especially into the trippy “Watch Me Jump,” which churns with echoed audio of kids goofing around, screaming. I’ve been visiting a lot of my favorite contemporary ambient composers the past few days (Ana Roxanne, Emily Sprague) because the vibes are stressful as hell and I’m happy to add Suzi’s latest to my rotation. —HC
Y: MAMAMOO, ‘Dingga’ – K-pop girl group MAMAMOO’s latest offering exists somewhere between BTS’s “Dynamite” and BLACKPINK and Selena Gomez’s “Ice Cream,” and the familiarity works—it’s energetic retro-pop, wholesome, high-concept polish that delivers—especially when Hwasa is on screen. Also: according to K-pop fan site Soompi, “Dingga,” is taken from a Korean phrase, “dingga dingga,” which is “the act of lazily enjoying one’s free time.” That’s certainly something I can get behind. —Maria Sherman
Sure: MONSTA X, ‘Love Killa’ – K-pop boy band MONSTA X’s latest full-length album, Fatal Love, is loosely themed around murderous love and, apparently, brazen self-empowerment. I’m into it, but I’m mostly into rapper I.M’s spoken word break in the single “Love Killa,” when he offers the very horny: “That’s right / You look at my eyes / Straight into my eyes /And just say…” before rapping, “I want you to eat me like a main dish.” Yes, sir!—MS
Look, I’m not sure: LEBENDEN TOTEN, “Inferno” – Portland, Oregon noise-punks LEBENDEN TOTEN teeter atop a musical line where one side is “torturous, irritating, audial punishment, like sticking shivs under your fingernails” and the other is “very good, artful noise.” Most of you will hate this, no doubt, but it truly embodies my emotional state this week, and in doing so, offers some fucked up, distorted kind of catharsis. As music critic Zachary Lipez wrote in his great Abundant Living newsletter, it is a musical template “set by Japanese bands such as Confuse and Gai… that template being “all the sounds guitarists try to avoid… plus yelling, and then add even more static, repetitive barking, and, if there’s any unused treble still lying around in the wreckage, they throw that on the fire as well.” Intrigued? —MS
Yes, absolutely: Brittany Howard, “You’ll Never Walk Alone”— RIP to the Alabama Shakes, a band that brought Britttany Howard to national attention, but I have been very much enjoying her solo career, because for me, the best part about the Alabama Shakes was Brittany Howard. I first heard this cover during one of the breaks in relentless election coverage on MSNBC, and it was powerful and good enough to let me just be still and listen to something nice and not stressful. The fact that this cover exists because of a Johnnie Walker ad campaign does not change how wonderful it is for me. Sometimes advertising is good, what can I say. I’ll be listening to this as I sit in the bathtub, fully clothed, having a think, for at least 2 hours this weekend. Try that and let me know how it goes. —Megan Reynolds
Yep: Suzi Analogue, “Watch Me Jump” – NYC producer and electronic musician Suzi Analogue’s work is delightfully frenetic: bouncy, colorful music made for dancing. But today she released a pair of ambient tracks, which is new territory for her. I’m especially into the trippy “Watch Me Jump,” which churns with echoed audio of kids goofing around, screaming. I’ve been visiting a lot of my favorite contemporary ambient composers the past few days (Ana Roxanne, Emily Sprague) because the vibes are stressful as hell and I’m happy to add Suzi’s latest to my rotation. —HC
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