What I’m Listening To – August 2023

It’s that time again. Another month, another selection of music I’ve been listening to a ton. Wide variety this month, actually so let’s just jump in.

Christine and the Queens isn’t a project I knew about before this (and I call it a project because this is one of three stage names the singer goes by, the others being just… Chris… and Redcar) but I need to dig much deeper now. The album, Paranoïa, Angels, True Love is an hour and a half long experience best broken into three separate 30 minute acts. It will not surprise you to learn each act is one of the words in the title. This still tells you nothing about how the album sounds. Based, loosely in spirit, on Tony Kushner’s play Angels in America, the album crosses a ton of tones and approaches as it goes. I think the track I am dropping here, Track 10, (which is track 7 of the first section but hey) ropes in a bunch of it, but not nearly all.

In another realm, Violet’s HEART/BREAK HARD/CORE is a 4 track EP that charts a heartbreak through techno/dance/jungle music. It’s visceral and at only twenty-four minutes the whole thing speeds by you, leaving an indelible stamp on your brain.

Finally this month, Cory Wong has a new release. The Lucky One is fascinating since most of Wong’s releases foe the past few years have been recorded live on a stage, including things like Power Station, but this was a studio effort and that really does change how it feels. Petar Janic, often Wong’s drummer of choice, isn’t here but Michael Bland (the drummer for Prince and the Revolution) is, and that will never be a bad thing. The album has plenty of guests on it, as usual, and plays with rock and pop as well as Wong’s amazing versatility with funk alone.

That’s a wrap for this month but soon enough it’ll be time for more music picks!