Ever since my first job at MTV working as a music programmer, I can't stop trying to match people with music they might like. So, I wrote a book called Record Collecting for Girls and started interviewing musicians. The Music Concierge is a column where I share music I'm listening to that you might enjoy, with a little context. Get everything I've recommended this year on Spotify, follow me on Twitter or Facebook, and leave a comment below telling me what you're listening to this week.
Rosalía “Milionària” and “Dio$ No$ Libre del Dinero”
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If you aren't already there, it's time to jump on Rosalía's train. Her new double track release, Fucking Money Man, is a takedown of capitalism and extreme wealth with the first track tackling it in a tongue-in-cheek way while the second is a more sincere kind of desperation. Rosalía is coming into her own as a pop star on the global stage with a film career already in the works, and to see her take on a topic that's so daring — and do it using modernized flamenco music while singing for the first time in Catalan rather than Spanish — is a boon.
Bat for Lashes "Kids in the Dark"
I've been obsessed with every musical move that Natasha Khan makes since her first Bat for Lashes album and, with her new single "Kids in the Dark," I can see that's not going to change anytime soon. Most of her albums are full-blown concepts, and this one looks to play with youth and death — and in the first video, that means vampires, baby. But more The Lost Boys as lost girls than Twilight.
Lucy Dacus "Forever Half Mast"
There are all sorts of ways to reflect on what being an American means, and the 4th of July is exactly the right time to do it. Lucy Dacus offers some thoughts in a song about hometowns, small towns, and those feelings of not always supporting what America has come to represent. Dacus wrote this one while touring in Europe, and explores her complicated feelings of loving her country but not agreeing with its politics.
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Kate Nash "Body Heat"
While you wait for the next season of GLOW to drop, why not drop in on Kate Nash? She's got a new single out that is about it catchy as they get. Along with it comes a quirky video where the love interest is an invisible man who represents self-love in the midst of a sweet but clichéd pop song. And, oh yeah, that is her real dog, Stella guest starring in the video.
Emma White "Ten Year Town"
For the people closely following the Taylor Swift saga, this song is practically written to soundtrack the whole thing. Emma White wrote a song about the difficulties of the music industry that hits on a lot of the notes of what's going on with Swift's drama, right now to the 10-year agreement Big Machine Records reportedly offered her to sign with them again. White also addresses the difficulties of being a woman and breaking through in country music, which is pretty near impossible now without giving up every part of yourself. In short: it's a heartbreaker, but wow, did someone need to write it.