Often seen as one of the least impressive songs in The Beatles’ catalogue, “Flying” finally gets its moment in the spotlight in this week’s episode. I’m surprised that fans of the fab four tend to ignore this one, as anything, it makes me think that the group should have dabbled in instrumental tracks more often.

Prelude

Of all the bands featured in this episode, or even just the show as a whole, The Millenium is probably the band that the fewest people will recognize. I had only heard of them through a YouTube Short that recommended albums to check out if you love “Magical Mystery Tour,” which of course is why I placed “Prelude” right after “Flying.” But I’m so glad that the algorithm showed me that Short, or else I never would have heard this incredibly underrated album. The drums in particular feel so ahead of their time, as they sound more like something Danny Brown would rap over than the opening to a 60s pop album.

Pet Sounds

And speaking of 60s pop albums, they don’t get any better than “Pet Sounds.” Much like “Flying”, the album’s titular song is never really viewed as a standout track, but it’s always been one of my favorite instrumentals. Fun fact, it was originally titled “Run, James, Run” and was intended to be used in a James Bond movie before being rejected and put on one of the most acclaimed albums of all time. 

Black Country New Road 

While “Pet Sounds” was intended for a spy movie, if I was ever directing a film in that genre, I would commission the work of Black Country, New Road. The opening track to their debut album, aptly titled “For The First Time,” always makes me think of a big chase scene, or even the intro to “Cowboy Bebop.”

[untitled]

Neutral Milk Hotel’s “[untitled]” continues the more abrasive and intense tone set by Black Country, New Road’s “Instrumental,” but instead of sounding like a spy movie or anime opening, it’s more reminiscent of the most beautiful funeral imaginable. I guess the bagpipes do a lot of the heavy lifting for me, because I’m a sucker for some good bagpipes.

Untitiled 3

Panda Bear’s “Untitled 03” is from his sophomore album “Young Prayer,” a far cry from the borderline maximalism of the acclaimed album that would follow it, “Person Pitch.” While that album was loaded with reverb, big choruses and creative samples, “Young Prayer” is comprised of lo-fi recordings of songs that were written and performed for Panda Bear’s ailing father. But as you might be able to tell from the album cover, it’s not a very depressing listen, and instead represents the moments of joy found in the darkest times.

Interlude 2

“An Awesome Wave” by alt-J was my first foray into indie music, so every one of its 13 tracks are essentially baked into my soul at this point. So it’s not just it’s big singles like “Breezeblocks” that I have a deep sense of nostalgia for, but the album’s handful of interludes strike that same chord for me as well.  

Silver Morning (Remastered 2019)

The influence of Brian Eno’s ambient work cannot be understated, as even the term “ambient music” as a genre wasn’t used until the release of “Ambient 1: Music For Airports.” As momentous as that album is, his collaboration with Daniel Lanois and brother Roger Eno, “Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks” is my favorite of his strictly instrumental pieces.  

The Night Me and Your Mama Met

Childish Gambino’s “Awaken, My Love!” was, and in many cases still is, Donald Glover’s most acclaimed work as a musician, and even spawned his first Top 40 hit with “Redbone.” But this success wasn’t a given, as the comedian–turned–rapper’s sudden shift into funkadelic soul could have easily been written off as a failed experiment, like Drake’s “Honestly, Nevermind” or Logic’s “Supermarket.” The quality of this album certainly helped prevent that scenario, as this collaboration with modern blues rock icon Gary Clark Jr. shows a genuine understanding of the genre, rather than being a cheap homage. 

Riot!

Earl Sweatshirt and his 2018 album “Some Rap Songs” both make their second appearance in this series, but there’s no actual rapping on “Riot!” Rather than closing the fairly bleak album on an even bleaker note with the penultimate track “Peanut,” this instrumental track provides a feeling of optimism. Much of what makes this song great can be traced to the song it heavily samples, Hugh Masekela’s song of the same name, but that’s not to say that Earl Sweatshirt simply copied and pasted the original track. I love the subtle ways he transformed the song, and clearly I’m not alone, as this minute long instrumental outro is the rapper’s most streamed song on Spotify. 

Coffin Nails

One of the rules that I set for myself when compiling songs for this episode would be that I would not include instrumental versions of songs that were released with vocals. Luckily for me, the beat to MF DOOM’s “Rap Snitch Knishes” was released months prior as “Coffin Nails” on the instrumental compilation album “Special Herbs, Vol. 5 & 6.” I’ve been surprised to know a handful of people who know this version of the song over the one with vocals, but if anything that just speaks to how great the song is with or without any rapping over it.  

MSMSMSM 

No celebrity death has affected me quite like SOPHIE, whose life was cut tragically short in 2021 at the age of 34. Because of that, I still have a bit of a hard time writing about her work, other than saying things you’ve probably heard before about how much she changed the landscape of modern music. “MSMSMSM” is from her debut compilation album “PRODUCT,” and sounds like a remix of a long lost Mega Man chiptune, only somehow even cooler than that sounds.  

 Fashion Week

For a lot of Death Grips fans, “Fashion Week” being solely instrumental tracks makes it rank towards the bottom of the band’s discography, as it lacks lead vocalist MC Ride’s primal vocals. I understand this complaint, but when said instrumentals are this good, it’s not one I can agree with. But hey, if you’re my mom, this is about the only Death Grips release she can tolerate listening to.  

COVER STORY: “These Boots Are Made for Walkin” by Nancy Sinatra and Parquet Courts 

OK, so fun story. When I was originally workshopping this show, back earlier this summer when I somehow thought it would be easy to create an hour worth of radio content each week while simultaneously being enrolled in college courses, one of which was accelerated, and—hold on I’m getting off topic. Basically, when I was planning out which songs would be in each episode, I realized I had a very unique problem. A vast majority of the episodes featured a song from Parquet Courts. I guess that’s a good problem to have, since they’re one of my favorite bands working today, but I don’t know, it felt like I was maybe going a bit overboard with them. I mean, it’s bad enough that Tyler, the Creator showed up in 3 out of the 4 episodes so far, I didn’t want this show to be nothing more than a revolving door of the same handful of musical acts. While I think I’m doing an OK job at making that not the case, sometimes I just have to indulge because this week’s Cover Story features Parquet Courts.  

These Boots Are Made For Walkin’ by Nancy Sinatra

If you don’t happen to be in the room next to me as I blast them over the Bluetooth speaker when I take a shower, Parquet Courts are a post-punk band from Brooklyn who started really making a name for themselves in the early 2010s. I’ve been a casual fan since 2016, but became a bit of a superfan in the fall of 2022 when I relistened to their album “Wide Awake” and it kept me sane during a nightmare of an online class. (If you know, you know.) My obsession with this album made me want to go through their entire discography, which is where I found their cover of Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made For Walkin”, a song I’ve known for as long as I could remember. Since I love Parquet Courts and their signature danceable punk rock sound, I immediately fell in love with their version, which in turn, made me go back to the Nancy Sinatra original. And maybe it’s just because I always associate the song with the Shrek 2 bonus feature “Happily Ever After Idol,” but I don’t remember the original sounding like this. I remember it sounding good, but I was surprised by how much of what I love about the cover was already there to begin with.  

These Boots Are Made For Walkin’ by Parquet Courts

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HAT TRICKS: “I Want You To Love Me,” “Shameika” and “Fetch The Bolt Cutters” from “Fetch The Bolt Cutters” by Fiona Apple 

 I Want You To Love Me

While it’s sadly gone down 2 points since then, Fiona Apple’s fifth studio album, and first in 8 years, achieved a rare 100 on the online review aggregator Metacritic. When I first sat down to listen to it on the day of release, I heard the first song, and remember thinking to myself “Aw man, am I not going to love this as much as I want to?” This fear completely evaporated once the next song began, but honestly, I still don’t really know what I was thinking. Because not only is “I Want You To Love Me” now my favorite song on this album, but it’s also my favorite song out of Fiona Apple’s entire discography.  

Shameika

While “I Want You To Love Me” eventually overtook it, “Shameika” was the first song on the album that made me realize how much this thing was going to live up to the hype. While full of quotable lines and elements of dry humor, “Shameika” remains genuinely earnest with the story told throughout the song’s runtime. Shemeika said she had potential, and clearly, she was right.  

Fetch The Bolt Cutters

“Fetch The Bolt Cutters” is practically equal parts song, diary entry, and academic paper. Obviously the musical factor is great, it’s Fiona Apple, she’s never dropped a less-than-stellar album, but the lyrics are incredibly honest, even by her standards. The line “I thought being blacklisted would be grist for the mill, until I realized I’m still here” strikes me as one of her most poignant, especially because of the conversational nature of Apple’s delivery, which is more spoken than it is sung. The rest of the album continues in this vein, and in many ways, even expands on it, so if you haven’t heard the whole thing, I’m sure you can guess by now that I highly recommend it.  

EPISODE #6 PLAYLIST 

PROFESSOR KIM 

KAZI

JALEN

TARYN

ELLIE

NATHAN

GRANT

JAKE

NIKKI

DJ

KEVIN

TAMIKA

SUMMER