Living Smerz' Big city life
+ 5 NEW SONGS YOU NEED RIGHT NOW
ALBUM OF THE WEEK
Smerz — Big city life
Are you ready to go out?
The new album from Smerz captures all the buzzed anticipation of not knowing where the night will end. A soundtrack for pregames with coffee tables scattered with shot glasses, menthol Juuls, and blunt guts. For scrambling into the Uber on the way out and stumbling in on the way back. For the bodega side quest for Celcius and a lighter.
Big city life is a series of moments from different nights in different cities that all sort of blur together. The Norwegian duo’s weird electronic pop is playful and disarmingly low-key. The simple, personal songwriting feels real and lived-in: “I heard that they broke up,” “I’ma make them switch this tune, this is shitty,” “I like the restaurants that you choose.”
The centerpiece here is “You got time and I got money,” one of the year’s best singles. Extending the night-out metaphor, this is the slow dance, the shimmering montage, the moment where time slows down and irony fades into genuine longing. You feel your heart beating faster and start picturing the rest of your life.
The song changes. Someone spills a drink on your new jeans. The night’s still young. It’s time to go to the next spot.
5 NEW SONGS YOU NEED RIGHT NOW
Nourished By Time — “Max Potential”
Just stop what you’re doing and listen to this.
Playboi Carti & YoungBoy Never Broke Again — “Alive”
I don’t have time to figure out the context of this song, which apparently dropped as a Ye/YoungBoy collab before Carti posted his own version with the caption “DIS MY SONG LIL BRA @ye.” It sounds monumental and evil.
Erika de Casier — “Miss”
Icy ambience has characterized some of the year’s best music, notably albums from Oklou and Maria Somerville. “Miss” is all weightless trip-hop R&B. Janet and Mariah on the plane of Aphex Twin’s “#3.”
Larry June & Cardo Got Wings — “Black Man”
Touchscreen Larry. Absolutely immaculate beat. Magic.
Jody & The Highrollers — “Will You Love Me”
Even as a longtime RiFF RAFF defender, I haven’t really been keeping up the better part of the last decade. But this one caught my eye. Listen, you’re either going to love or hate the idea of him doing retro synthwave with a band, singing about having a stutter as a young boy with lines like “Can you work towards a perfect love or is it in your fate?” I think I’m leaning toward the former.
THROWBACK TRACK
Inspired by Adam Duritz talking to GQ about life and fame and white guy dreads, I ran back August and Everything After and it holds up, particularly the crown jewel: “Rain King.”
Goodbye:
