Thank God for the Waters // Don’t Follow your Head, Follow your Heart

Perhaps you’re like me: you find or are told to listen to a new song. You like the song and listen to more of the album. After a couple listens (which you don’t like so much because you find it hard to differentiate between tracks and remember which of your favorite bits and pieces belong in which songs) you decide conclusively that you are a fan. The next several listens are bliss; they last for a few weeks, stay in your mind through class and bus rides and long runs, and guide your thoughts and emotions. This music is the only thing you want to hear and it feels good and new each time you listen. Until, inevitably, you’ve outplayed your welcome. The songs no longer carry such enormous power and your grow tired, wanting, within the first thirty seconds of each song, even the best song, to change towards something new. A few days later, the album is finished. No more chills, no more appreciation, no more obsession.
Well, if you’re like me, there seems no other option than to continue searching for more albums, more new music, more chills. Here are a couple that served me extremely well this summer, and so far into fall.

The Head and the Heart’s “The Head and the Heart”

Chances are you’ve listened to this album before. Not sure how I missed its release in 2010, but I couldn’t be more thankful that I found it four years later. This is the ultimate sunny day music, full of pleasant harmonies and multiple voices and the feel-good kind of folksy rock you see in really good music trailers. (for more on good music from movie trailers, see here). My favorite aspect of The Head and the Heart is the various singers they have in the band, and the way they blend melodies and create different choruses.

Favorite Tracks: Down in the Valley, Rivers and Roads, Winter Song, Lost in my Mind

Mick Jenkins’ “The Water[s]

“Started from the bottom of the map, roll tide at the end of the wave.”

Words from Mick Jenkins, the 23 year old rapper from Chicago, on his recent mixtape The Water[s]. Jenkins was born in Alabama, and the “Roll Tide” reference reminds us that the city’s next great voice is not a native. Don’t be fooled, though. Jenkins’ project surfaces at the top of an incredibly long line of burgeoning music from Chicago. In my opinion it’s the best collection of tracks since Acid Rap, despite the two artist’s dissimilar styles. Jenkins plants an extended metaphor, comparing water to truth, in each song on the mixtape, working the theme until it becomes so visceral and real that I was shocked my laptop didn’t turn into a faucet and spray H20 in all directions. His lyricism is creative, bursting with social commentary and full of complex comparisons. He shares none of Chance’s pretty aesthetic, and instead relies on softer, powerful beats to lay the groundwork for his piercing voice and words. The production is incredible (some tracks from big names like Statik Selectah, Ongaud and Cam from JUSTICE League) and the overall effect of the mixtape is one of awe, deep thought and genuine admiration.

Favorite Tracks: Vibe, Jazz, Comfortable, Martyrs

Happy listening!