Noots Letter: SOFT ROCK SPRING 💐
March 2025
The bad thing about great music is that I’ve bought 5 concert tickets in the last 24 hours. I’m being drained!
The great thing about bad music is that the downtime allows for going outdoors and living your LIFE. Just kidding, there’s no such thing as bad music!
But there was a lot of living and there was a lot of outdoors and there were great tunes intermingled with a fair amount of just okay ones. This time of year always picks up pace, and with that comes less time to spend researching new releases that have been highly acclaimed by the experts (people who make a salary/health insurance writing about music). In turn, I found that I was prioritizing albums by artists that I already recognized, rather than discovering new favorites. I found that I was not being brave. God grant me the strength next month!
First things first, SOFT ROCK SPRING…
Every spring I’m like “really getting into yacht rock rn” but what can I say, the earth keeps rotating. I came across this video on my IG feed—the only good thing that app has ever given me—and boy did I binge it. Enter ‘70s/‘80s soft rock: “So Hard Living Without You” by Airwaves from their singular album New Day (1978) is my new favorite song. And there’s next to nothing about them on the world wide web! Then that led me into Chris Rainbow, The Chris Rainbow Anthology (1974-1981), then the Alan Parsons Project, Eye In The Sky (1982). There’s something so evocative and wistful with piano as the primary instrument on these albums. I turn on this music and suddenly I am an old man on his plaid La-Z-Boy wondering how the years have passed him by!!!! Ugh.
For something less sad: try Sadistic Mika Band, Kurofune (黒船) (1974). This husband-wife duo was the first Japanese rock band to tour the UK in the ‘70s. The guitar on some of these tracks is WILD. Will I spend this April digging further into the greatest Japanese rock bands of all time? More at 11!
If you want your modern music to sound old…
Neal Francis, Return To Zero (2025). This guy is someone who’d be like “I was born in the wrong generation” and he’s actually correct about it. Francis is astute at recreating the funky sounds and fashions of the ‘70s. The intro of “What’s Left Of Me” will have you asking, “Jackson Browne who?”
Or if you want to time travel into the fuuuuuture…
Fertita, One year一年間, un año (2025) absolutely blasted me through a portal into the next universe. We’re literally underwater in the Mediterranean ocean. We’re literally in space babes.
If you don’t want to stand at concerts but want the live vibe…
Girl same, not even Dr. Scholl’s can support these puppies. Good thing we have albums like Kelela, In The Blue Light (2025). This absolutely stunning performance was recorded live at Blue Note, and it is a religious experience.
If you’re watching White Lotus…
Unknown Mortal Orchestra, IC-02 Bogotá (2025). This… sounds like the soundtrack. I had to google. Turns out the composer of White Lotus—Cristobal Tapia de Veer, who is in no way connected to Unknown Mortal Orchestra—also did Babygirl, and he loves sampling actors’ actual moans and groans in his music. I’m suddenly sweating for some reason.
If watching White Lotus has planted a seed of a need for ~ going abroad ~…
Tamino, Every Dawn's a Mountain (2025). I saw him live a few years ago, and in addition to being talented and nimble with a classical guitar, he’s also dreamy. Giving that guy who you meet in Europe one night and think about for the rest of your days.
If you need any more indications that we’re plummeting into a recession…
Lady Gaga, Mayhem (2025)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No notes!!!!!!!!!!! No skips!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We’re so back baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Another indie artist who has turned pop is Sasami, Blood on the Silver Screen (2025). Bad for the economy, great for my ears.
If you’re in your lover girl era!!!!
Lucy Dacus, Forever Is A Feeling (2025). GOD I’m so glad she announced her relationship with Julien Baker before releasing this. There’s no need for speculation—Julien is Lucy’s best guess at the future and I’m obsessed with that. Highly publicized lovers Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco also released I Said I Love You First (2025) if you watched that Jay Shetty podcast interview and are warming to him/realizing he produced like all of the biggest hits of the 2010s (starting when he was 20 years old mind you).
A few more I’ll toss in because I LOVE YOU: Q, 10 Songs (2025). Q had my favorite album of 2023, SoulPRESENT, and while this one is self-produced and therefore very different, he leans into his sweetie-pop nature. I knew nothing about Rose Cousins ahead of Conditions of Love Vol. 1 (2025), but listen to “That’s How Long (I’ve waited for your love)” if you want your heart shattered.
Or if you refuse to leave your sad girl era…
Japanese Breakfast, For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women) (2025). A hard pivot from Jubilee (2021) to Sad Women, but I will take what Mother feeds me.
The first *9* rating on my spreadsheet…
SPELLLING, Portrait of Myself. Wow. A blend of ‘90s grunge, ‘00s R&B, and—dare I say—musical theatre?? SPELLLING really cannot be confined to any single definition, and that’s my favorite type of artist.
If you’re going on SPRING BREAK…
Listened to St. Lucia, Fata Morgana: Dawn (2025) on a flight to warmer climates this month and it was soooo fitting. 😎
If you’re going through a divorce…
Sorry about that one, pal! Jason Isbell’s solo Foxes in the Snow (2025) details the real-life dissolution of his marriage and new relationship to this album cover artist. Sad! Or maybe Divorce, Drive to Goldenhammer (2025), if we’re being on the nose.
If you like musicals…
Only three this month, but what a variety!
Adding Machine: A Musical (2008): People have told me for years to listen to this but no one told me how DARK it is. Would love to see this freaky little show IRL.
Suffs (2024): Okay call me corny but this one did make me tear up at the end (I do this with every musical). It’s sooo that screengrab of Saoirse Ronan in Little Women.
American Psycho (2016): Continuing with the 1980s theme, I dove into this soundtrack, which is much more Kraftwerk/New Order than expected. Really not sure why this was made into a musical but it does, in fact, slap.