The Smiths, “(Marie’s the Name) His Latest Flame/Rusholme Ruffians” (1986)

Most of the live Smiths stuff that I’ve heard is fine: pretty close to the recorded version, with maybe a little more energy. But occasionally, they transcend the recorded version, as with this one, where they acknowledge the clear origin of “Rusholme Ruffians”, but then absolutely rip on their version of it. Spectacular.

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Human Interest, “Better Press Repeat” (2024)

Sometimes I wish the algorithms would recognize that I’m a little more adventurous than they think, but then they nail my primary taste so perfectly that I forgive them.

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Jamila Woods & oddCouple, “Teach Me” (2024)

At first, it sounds good (it’s Jamila Woods, of course it sounds good), but holy shit, the way it ends.

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The Softies, “I Said What I Said” (2024)

I never got into them in the 90s, but a ton of people I knew liked them. What I’m saying here was: did I make a terrible mistake? I mean, another terrible mistake?

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Gustaf, “Weighing Me Down” (2024)

It’s easy to dismiss Gustaf as “LCD Soundsystem’s punky stuff”, but goddamn, do they ever kick ass at it.

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