CIVL Station Manager Aaron Levy squandered his increased word count and got, appropriately, sliced back down to 200+ words. A lesson, to those of us with privileges, to value them.
Charli XCX – “Anthems”
I saw The xx in about 2009 and it wasn’t really my jam, so excuse me for imagining, upon first hearing “Boom Clap” from Charli XCX’s sophomore album, that the act was an ***xx spinoff. Wrong. This one, from likely the original 2020 pandemic record, is her best yet.
Bo Burnham – “White Woman’s Instagram”
I watched this special on the last leg of a cross-country flight, after months of urging on the part of friends and colleagues. Some of these songs, like this one, are genius. Some are tropeless topical novelty songs, like “Bezos.” All are informative and illuminating of generational identities today.
Beyoncé – “Black Parade”
If this wasn’t your feel-good, revolutionary dance song for the summer, you must have been looking for something that doesn’t quite resemble that at all! This is easily my favorite Beyoncé song to date, and even more easily my favourite song with this title by any artist; sorry-not-sorry, MCR fans.
Lil Baby – “The Bigger Picture”
This is Baby’s best Bob Dylan impression, except it isn’t quite a finger pointing song — though it’s certainly a protest song. If there’s any finger pointing, it’s pointed as inward as out: “I can’t lie like I don’t rap about killing and dope, but I’m telling my / youngins to vote.” And they did.
