Week of 6/2: Chloe Moriando, Navy Blue, cursetheknife and Sharon Van Etten & Angel Olsen.
The inaugural edition of the now-*weekly* Endless Scroll newsletter. Hellyeah.
Welcome to Endless Scroll, the brainchild of Eli Enis (he/him), Eric Bennett (they/them), Michael Brooks (he/him) and Miranda Reinert (she/her). Since Feb. 2019, we’ve been a weekly podcast about music, the internet, and where those two things intersect. On Substack, we’re also a weekly roundup of songs. Our format is simple: each of our four hosts picks a song they love and writes about it. There will be one free post every week, and more at the end of every month for paid subscribers. For the sake of your wallet, don’t start a paid subscription on Substack. Instead, sign up at the 2$ tier or higher on Patreon and we will gift you a subscription.
For this week’s edition, we write about songs by Chloe Moriando, Navy Blue, cursetheknife and TKTK.
Chloe Moriando — “I Eat Boys”
Miranda Reinert:
Chloe Moriondo is my favorite of the ultra-charming teenage bedroom pop musicians born of YouTube cover culture of the last five years. After a debut of mostly ukulele-driven indie-pop, their new album, Blood Bunny, is expanded to a more electric, full-band sound without losing any of the bouncy charm of Chloe’s voice that made their music so immediately likeable for me.
While fellow murder referencing track “Bodybag” made its debut on late night TV accompanied by Chloe Moriondo’s backing girl band (including Alex of Shortly and singer-songwriter Ally Evenson), “I Eat Boys” is like Speak Now-era Taylor Swift in Jennifer’s Body in the most perfect way. Since the first listen I was sold. Just a catchy, breezy pop song about murdering boys with a music video to match. What could be better than that?
Navy Blue — “Ritual”
Michael Brooks:
It’s been a little over a week since rapper Navy Blue released his latest album, Navy’s Reprise, and I’ve had the album’s introspective lead single “Ritual” stuck in my head all weekend long. The production on here is absolutely delightful and Navy Blue gently coasts over those jazzy chops and fractured loops like a seasoned vet, delivering some of my favorite soccer bars I’ve heard this year: “Head up underwater, David Edgar with the goggles / A 9 like Ronaldo, Navy been a baller like Carlos Tévez”. Navy Blue has been doing a great job at carving out his own lane in the crowded world of underground hip hop, making the kind of music that’s just different enough from his peers to stand out and reach different audiences, and “Ritual” makes a convincing case that bigger things are on the way.
cursetheknife — “Too Solid Too Fresh”
Eli Enis:
It’s a humbling experience to be a music journalist who misses something that’s so totally your shit. Oklahoma, City’s cursetheknife put out a pair of EP’s at the end of last year that found the sweet spot between burly grunge, melodic post-metal and shoegaze that sparkles like a spiderweb in the sunlight. I didn’t catch either of them until they were reissued as a full-length last week, but now I’m hooked. “Too Solid Too Fresh” is a cut from Thank You For Being Here pt. 1 that’s practically sonic bait for people like me who hold bands like Nothing, Cloakroom and Greet Death to the highest regard. If you like those bands, you’ll love this. If those bands are too slow for you but you dig their general vibe, then cursetheknife’s energy and catchy songwriting might win you over. Play it loud.
Sharon Van Etten & Angel Olsen — “Like I Used To”
Eric Bennett:
The art of the duet has been muddled over the last few decades. It doesn’t feel like we get many that feel truly special ones. The most recent one that comes to mind in the vein of “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” or “Islands in the Stream” is Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper’s “Shallow.” There’s something about a duet where both artists have the right chemistry, it makes them feel delightfully camp. One can hear it and envision the soundstage and glittering lights behind them. Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen, while artists I love independently, seem like they would have that kind of electric chemistry between them, and while “Like I Used To” isn’t imbued with 70’s charm, nor Dolly Parton’s aesthetic, it’s a song that I can’t help but think of as part of the same lineage as “Islands in the Stream.”
The two play well off each other and the song's instrumentation sparkles. If this was made remotely, it’s all the more impressive. Few could manufacture the interplay here. The song is an ode to returning to normal after the end of a relationship, and once one could read into it, that may be each performer is playing one half of that failed couple. The other reading, and one I prefer, is that the two are simply there to support the other. I hope this isn’t the last collaboration we see between the two, but if it is, at least we got a new, truly special, duet.