July 18, 2025
SOMETHING OLD
Connie Francis - Fallin'
1958
Connie Francis - Fallin'
1958
Connie Francis has left us.
Francis grew up in New Jersey and was quick to become a musical spectacle. As a child, she’d go to talent shows, pageants, and other local events as a singing, accordion-playing little girl.
Through the mid-50s, she slowly worked her way up with anywhere from little to modest commercial success. She considered taking a different route and studying medicine at NYU. But on January 1st, 1958, Dick Clark’s American Bandstand rang in the new year with her new cover of Who’s Sorry Now and her success skyrocketed from there.
Connie Francis passed away on July 17, 2025 at age 87.
Fallin’ is a rock and roll tune that shows off an endearing ability to flip into falsetto after tapping into the richer, smoother layers of her voice. It was a less successful follow-up to Stupid Cupid, but I think this one carries even more personality and intrigue.
SOMETHING NEW
Silas Carpenter - Reverse Reverse Psychology
July 10th, 2025
Silas Carpenter - Reverse Reverse Psychology
July 10th, 2025
Silas Carpenter is 18 and gaining a cult following on TikTok, where he primarily posts videos making music in his bedroom. You get the impression that he and his instruments are seldom estranged, which is also proven by an already impressive four-album discography.
His TikTok comments are abundant with Elliott Smith comparisons, and you can hear it – but in this new single, it’s more like if Smith hit the club.
The song starts off acoustically with very slight lingering synth sounds in the back, until he breaks into the chorus and we’re met with more effects and digital instrumentation for the duration. It tells a young heartbreak story of an ex-partner changing after a separation.
I find this song irresistibly catchy with a fresh sound I think we’re all searching for.
Bob Marley and the Wailers released Concrete Jungle in 1973 on their fifth studio album. It’s quite the contrast to something like Three Little Birds. Here it feels like we have a lot to worry about, and every little thing is NOT going to be alright. Its commentary about the urban struggle potentially refers to Marley’s home in Trench Town, Jamaica. It also speaks strongly to systemic inequality even when things appear to be equal: No chains around my feet, but I'm not free.
The message may seem lost through the mouth of a young Brazilian woman of a different generation. But Brazil’s history evokes a similar feeling, particularly in the “second slavery” era that expanded slavery despite the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, and which the country’s diverse society has yet to have fully healed from.
On her debut record, Céu transcends the Wailers’ classic Jamaican reggae sound to a distinctly Brazilian feel. Yet, there’s something familiar about both of their coastal sensibilities.
SOMETHING... SUMMER-Y
Brian D’Addario - This Summer
2024
Brian D’Addario - This Summer
2024
For those not as obsessed with the Lemon Twigs as I am, allow me to introduce Brian: the elder of the fraternal New York duo of Brian & Michael D’Addario.
Brian deserves all the credit he can get as his own person, but let’s face it, this one from his debut solo album gets to practically be our own secret Lemon Twigs songs with brother Michael very prominently on vocals.
The song opens boldly with thoughts of a somehow hyper-suicidal yet indestructible mentality: This summer I kill myself, I’m never gonna die, I’m never gonna die. Along with last week’s Taxes by Geese... is this blunt, nihilistic lyricism maybe the new trend?
The song is made complete by Brian’s pedal steel impression (he sure tricked me!), continuing the super Gram Parsons-esque feel throughout the record – most audible in One Day I’m Coming Home, perhaps my favorite track.
This was produced on tape by the eccentric Daryl Johns, who also played drums. I discovered Johns, served as the duo’s touring bassist from 2018-2021, the day this album came out earlier this year. I was so blown away by my discovery that I saw him live a few short weeks later.