Just Good Bops: August
Image: Kiyana Salkeld / Just Good Shit
It’s Leo season! Which, to the best of my understanding, means it’s time to…show off your good hair??? I don’t know y’all, I’m doing my best to decipher whatever the hell the Co–Star app is telling me. But what I do know is that Rachel is a Leo, and when it’s your birthday you get control of the metaphorical aux cord — so a bunch of this month’s songs are requests. [Ed. note: Listen, if you can’t handle me at my Taylor Swift “Delicate,” you don’t deserve me at my Tracy Chapman “Fast Car”!!!]
Once you’re on Spotify, you should really click through and listen to these albums in full:
Dedicated, Carly Rae Jepsen
Back in July, I — and all of Brooklyn, it seemed — saw Carly Rae Jepsen perform at Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan, and this tweet perfectly sums up my experience:
Dedicated is relaxed ‘80s pop — Jepsen joked that the working title of the album was Music to Clean Your House To. It’s chill, romantic disco, and I can personally attest to the life-changing magic of Carly Rae Jepsen soundtracking the act of scrubbing a toilet. (Dedicated makes tedious and awful chores fun! Or at the very least, tolerable). “Want You In My Room,” “Real Love,” and “Too Much” are my stand-out tracks.
i,i, Bon Iver
i,i is Justin Vernon’s fourth album released under the Bon Iver moniker, and per the band’s own description, “The 13 new songs on i,i complete a cycle: from the winter of For Emma, Forever Ago came the frenetic spring of Bon Iver, Bon Iver, and the unhinged summer of 22, A Million. Now, fall arrives early with i,i.” With fall just on the horizon, this album feels like a lovely treat. It has all the familiar elements of a Bon Iver song — it swells, towers, and then crashes; it feels lush, warm, and dreamy — but with a newfound fearless conviction. The lyrics are as obtuse as ever, though.
And here’s the usual disclaimer! I’ve never been good at curating a playlist that ebbs and flows in just the right way, so just throw this shit on shuffle and have a good time. 🎧