Youthquake TGIF Mixtape #3
TGIF Mixtape: Rebecca Black Album Review and New Music Friday featuring Ximena Sariñana "On The Divide," Hope Tala "MAD," Treasure Bloom "Stepping Out," The Dee Gees, & Nessa Barrett "Counting Crimes"
It’s finally Friday which means New Music Friday. The TGIF Youthquake Mixtape is always on shuffle, so here are some of the latest tracks you should hear and watch now. Get into it below.
🎧 Ximena Sariñana On The Divide
Pop culture collides as Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Ximena Sariñana presents an original song for the film On The Divide, which made its sold-out premiere at the 20th Tribeca Film Festival.
Directed by Maya Cueva and Leah Galant, On the Divide follows the story of three Latinx people living in McAllen, Texas, who, despite their views, are connected by the most unexpected of places: the last abortion clinic on the U.S./Mexico border. As threats to the clinic and their safety mount, these three are forced to make decisions they could never have imagined.
As part of the soundtrack for the documentary, Ximena Sariñana wrote and performed Aquí No Hay Pena. This original song champions support among women and perfectly complements the participants’ plight throughout the story. Listen to Aquí No Hay Pena (which translates to, there is no shame here).
About the song, Ximena comments: “I feel it really resonates with the feminist movement and how we are always supporting each other with our voices, be it with words in private to protests in public. Just like the people in the clinic, supporting these women that have to go through the protesters, the opinions, and the overall experience of feeling judged for choosing is something I wanted the song to convey.”
🎧 Hope Tala MAD
West London-based genre hybrid Hope Tala reveals her stunning new single, MAD, which follows critically acclaimed EP, Girl Eats Sun. MAD sees Hope Tala continue to cultivate her lyricism and build on the bossa nova-inspired R&B that exhilaratingly cements herself as an artist to watch. Listen to Mad here.
Speaking on the release, Hope states, “I wrote ‘MAD’ about having feelings of frustration and hysteria in a long-distance relationship. It’s about being unable to communicate properly and feeling lost in loneliness—so it’s ironic that I wrote most of the song a week or two before the first lockdown started in the UK. Foreshadowing, almost.”
🎧 Rebecca Black Rebecca Black Was Here
Last week, singer/songwriter and creative tour de force Rebecca Black reclaimed her time and her power of viral fame that once swept her under its scope. Rebecca delivers a hypnotic yet emotional 6-track project with Rebecca Black Was Here, her first new full project in a decade.
The project starts strong with the entrancing dance club hit, Better in My Memory, which will surely be reverberating in clubs soon. Similar to Rebecca herself, the song Personal is unapologetically her; it’s a cathartic banger. Next is NGL, offering a brooding distorted and glitched-out hyper pop anthem that mirrors throughout the entire project. I found myself repeating this one, infectious and heavily loaded with a bittersweetness of haunting relationship memories to anyone post-breakup.
The 6-tracks emotionally resonate while the riveting beats keep you locked in. While Rebecca knows beats and hooks, she also knows sultry and slinky, which is exactly what Worth It for the Feeling is. Rounding up the emotionally shimmering tracks is the wretchedness of heartache with Blue. It’s a femme fatale of a song with honeyed vocals and a relatable hook of ignoring warning signs when the stomach flipping of a possible new love is worth that sensibility.
Rounding up the 6-tracks is Girlfriend; Rebecca galvanizes her queer identity with the twinkling melodic vocals and lush synths. Without realizing this project has quickly become a favorite, having been fortunate enough to listen during my coverage of the Tribeca Film Festival, I still get entranced with every listen. Listen to Rebecca Black Was Here.
To further entice pop nostalgia and ICYMI somehow, Rebecca also released a remix to the zeitgeist of Friday for the 10th anniversary. The Friday remix features a climaxing electro-pop hysteria that includes Dorian Electra, Big Freedia, 3OH!3, & is produced by Dylan Brady of 100 gecs.
🚨 Lastly, Rebecca Black will be going on tour, so make sure to get your tickets now.
Thursday, January 13, 2022 - Washington, DC @ Union Stage+
Friday, January 14, 2022 - New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom+
Saturday, January 15, 2022 - Toronto, ON @ Velvet Underground+
Tuesday, January 18, 2022 - Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall+
Thursday, January 20, 2022 - San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop - Popscene+
Friday, January 21, 2022 - Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour+
+Supporting artist Alice Longyu Gao
🎧 Treasure Bloom Stepping Out
Coming down and helping to alleviate my festival daze is Treasure Bloom with a golden hour-like glow of soothing and an intimate array of dreamy vocals and haunting harmonies.
Electro extraordinaire Kelvin Beyioku writes and produces all his music in his home studio, with musical influences ranging from Frank Ocean to progressive R&B to stripped-down acoustic folk to his musical upbringings in metal. The self-produced, bedroom-recorded songs are rightfully garnering attention to the artist formerly known as Treasure and metamorphosing into Treasure Bloom while teaming up Berlin-based underground boutique label Kommerz Records. Co-owners and brothers Lukas and Jonathan Nixdorff discovered the London-born and Hertfordshire-based creative genius through an artist friend in common, Jay Lewn, and connected through social media months later.
Listen to Stepping Out via Kommerz Records via your preferred streaming site here.
🎧 The Dee Gees
Record Store Day Night recently passed, but it’s still Saturday Night Fever with the Foo brothers and their brilliantly named debut album, Hail Satin, as their disco alter egos, The Dee Gees.
Due for a July 17th release, the limited edition vinyl album packaged era-appropriately in a dazzling rainbow mylar sleeve. Hail Satin ignites the dancefloor while giving a new reason to mosh in the pit.
More recently, the Dee Gees made their debut while performing at Madison Square Garden, “Motherfuckers, tonight we’re gonna give you a little taste of the fucking Dee Gees,” he said, his delivery bringing to mind Jack Black of all people. “Are you ready? I don’t want to see nobody sitting down, ’cause you know what? You should be dancing, motherfuckers.”
🎧 Nessa Barrett Counting Crimes
Rising singer-songwriter Nessa Barrett continues to raise the temperature and the bar with her new track and accompanying video for Counting Crimes. With glitching elements and a fun party distortion, even calling out a past lover’s indiscretion, as she croons, “I could never love me again. I could never trust me again; if I did half of what you did, it’s enough to make me sick.”
In the accompanying video directed by frequent collaborator Andrew Sandler (Machine Gun Kelly, YUNGBLUD), Nessa leads her local girl gang to pull off a heist with a Spring Breakers vibe in the process. To complete the Bonnie Parker-inspired sartorial heist are the gang’s pink balaclavas in a seeming nod to Pussy Riot.
About the song, Nessa said, “‘counting crimes’ is about moving on from something toxic with an empowering bad bitch energy. Admitting that you have made mistakes, but the other person has done worse than you and understanding who is really the bad guy in the situation. I hope this song inspires all the other bad bitches out there!!”
This weekend I’m celebrating a much-deserved weekend off from my still overflowing inbox as well as my birthday on Sunday because, as the Diosa Solange Knowles says, Cancer szn is forever.