Matt's Music Week-List for 1/30 - 2/5/2024
This week’s playlist is a little on the short side, so I’ll also use this as my sounding board for Grammy feelings, too. Grammy Feelings! Everyone seems to have them! What are mine? Read below to find out!
So yeah, there’s a lot to dig into here, so I’ll start with the good stuff. Tracy Chapman! Joni Mitchell! Dua Lipa climbing some sort of jungle gym! Annie Lennox honoring Sinead O’Connor’s legacy by calling for a ceasefire in Gaza! Boygenius, Paramore, SZA, and Victoria Monet all getting well-deserved wins! There was the not so good, too, including Trevor Noah’s insistence on being bland, U2’s sphere party, and Billy Joel.
With that all out of the way, let’s talk about the current main character of Earth, Taylor Swift. Suddenly, everyone has an opinion about whether or not Midnights, the winner for Album of the Year, truly deserved it. The truth? Probably not. But the way people are going out of their way to trash it seems revisionist at best, and weirdly cruel at worst.
I want to be clear: SZA’s SOS should have won. I’ve said it on the show, and I’ll say it again. It’s deep, fun, interesting, and textured in a way that Midnights isn’t. Also, as many people have pointed out, the Recording Academy has been awful at awarding Black women for Album of the Year; it hasn’t happened since Lauryn Hill won in 1999, and several excellent, culturally important Beyonce albums have been snubbed because of this. The Grammys made an error here, surely. But I want to be clear that Midnights is not a trash fire because of this. SOS can be the true winner, but Taylor deserves recognition for Midnights. Don’t make me tap the sign, folks: Two things can be true at the same time!
Anyway, here’s a playlist!
2/5/2024
Game - Vessel
Big Love - Camera Obscura
Shortest Fuse - Softcult
Go Away - Sofia Bolt
Eternal - Sweet Pill
Pile of Photos - Dogs on Shady Lane
April 25 - The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick
Burning Down the House (Talking Heads cover) - Paramore