Soundcheck

Joy Denalane’s been back in my ears. Maureen came five years after Born & Raised, and her voice has that quality where it settles into a room and makes you hear what you’re already feeling—clarifying rather than amplifying. Soul in its simplest form: just a voice and whatever it touches.

DJ Mad’s mixtape is free, which changes everything. Nas, Kid Cudi, Gil Scott-Heron in the same pocket. It’s the kind of thing that plays in the background of a summer you barely remember until it’s over.

What’s Going On is impossible to listen to without hearing the anger underneath. Marvin made this against everything Motown wanted—against Vietnam, against Tammi Terrell’s death. You hear the fury in the horns, the way they cut at you. Raw in a way that polished soul records never are.

A Tribe Called Quest’s Anthology doesn’t need defending or reissuing. The songs are still here, still exact.

Monarchy’s behind their masks throwing remixes into summer. It works.

Still waiting for Phillipa Brown to release new Ladyhawke. The 2008 album was as close to perfect as pop-electronic gets. I check obsessively like she owes me something, knowing she doesn’t.