Listening Diary 23

On sampling, Mad Men references, and tanks in music videos

Good morning! I hope you had a pleasant weekend. Here are ten tunes that I recently enjoyed listening to. The first five, one a day for the working week, are free for all to hear and consider. The next five however are exclusively for my paying subscribers. For the full suite of tunes and other fun bonuses, subscribe now at $5 a month!

“Eye Know” by De La Soul (3 Feet High and Rising, 1989)

I can’t tell why, as a member of the file sharing generation, I never made the effort to catch up on De La Soul’s body of work despite its absence on streaming services. I always wanted to and meant to, but convenience kept winning out. Dragging my feet made “Eye Know” into a rare kind of rap song that I only knew from reading. Years before I got into either Steely Dan or De La Soul, I read about “Eye Know” in Joseph Glenn Schloss’s Making Beats: The Art of Sample-Based Hip-Hop. Schloss brings up “Eye Know” as an example where listeners might perceive the act of sampling as an ironic act, taking something square and corny like Steely Dan and turning it into something fresh, only to be corrected by Prince Paul that he sampled “Peg” because he thinks it sounds good. Finally hearing “Eye Know” with 2023 ears, with Steely Dan firmly rehabilitated into the millennial canon Paul’s reasoning is more sound than ever. This song’s a blast.

“Paris, Texas” by Lana Del Rey (Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Blvd, 2023)

I won’t profess to be any expert on Lana Del Ray, but I’ve kept an ear open for what she’s up to ever since I heard “Video Games” in college, and have respect for her songwriting perspective even if I lack sustained interest in it. Even with this dilettante approach turns up some real gems. A lot of the praise I’ve read for LDR focuses on her lyrics, and rightly so, but she’s no slouch at melody either. Get a load of that verse, for example. Her ability to make that upwards run feel natural is a masterpiece of phrasing.

“didn’t know” by NOIA (Gisela, 2023)

I should have caught it from the first line, but it was the second one that made me realize what was happening. All the English lyrics in this song are Mad Men quotes! The first, “didn’t know loving you is the worst way to get to you” is a Betty quote from season six. The second, “You love being bad and then going home and being good” is from Bobbi in season two. Both are directed at Don, of course. As a certified Mad Men freak, I find this to be an interesting pairing. Don’s affair with Bobbie is the true breaking point in Don and Betty’s marriage, and the two don’t reconcile meaningfully until the scene where Betty says the first quote. Neat!

“Filial Endure Ruthless” by Tzusing (Green Hat, 2023)

This is one of those dance albums that comes with a miniature dissertation about its socio-political themes. I don’t say that dismissively, there are some interesting ideas at play here, but you don’t need to know any of them to enjoy this isolated slice of ominous electronica. I’m a sucker for this kind of layered percussion and I love the metallic siren sound that punctuates the track every few bars. One for the gym playlist, the dance floor, or the next time you need to put on sunglasses slowly after leaving a tall building.

“Jungle Cat” by Manfredo Fest (Brazilian Dorian Dream, 1976)

Alex, keyboardist of the Dan Rico Band, turned me onto this one. It’s since been one of my go-to albums to put on if I’m having people over at the apartment. This might be one of the most honest album titles in music history. The band is from Brazil, the music uses the Dorian mode, and the whole thing glides by like a dream. Fans of Return to Forever or Weather Report will get a kick out of this, especially if they like their jazz fusion with a dash of samba. I love the way the synths double the vocal line in a lower octave, great combination of textures.