Switched on Pop - Total Request Live! Taylor, Lana, Kim, and More (with Sam Sanders)

Episode Date: October 7, 2019

NPR's Sam Sanders stops by to break down the tracks that Switched On listeners have been loving. Swedish dancefloor confessionals, songs that stop time, the specificity of Lana Del Rey, and the awkwardness of descending fourths: it's all on the table in this freewheeling conversation of deep musical nerdiness. Songs DiscussedTove Lo ft Kylie Minogue - Really don’t like uCamila Cabello - LiarAce of Base - All That She WantsTyler the Creator - EARFQUAKETaylor Swift - Cruel SummerLana Del Rey, Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus - Don’t Call Me AngelLana Del Rey - Happiness is a butterflyKing Princess - ProphetKim Petras - Hillside BoysIDK - PornoJai Paul - Str8 Outta MumbaiJai Paul - Genevieve (Unfinished)Many thanks to everyone who called in for this one: Amanda, Jackie, Melanie, Alec, Madeleine, John B, Steve, Courtney, Julia, Zach, Lee, Tara, Habbi, and of course - John from Baltimore. For more of Sam's great takes on culture, check out It's Been a Minute with Sam Sanders.  CORRECTION: A version of this episode incorrectly stated that Jack Antonoff was a writer on the song "Lover." Taylor Swift was the sole credited songwriter on that song, while Jack Antonoff has a production credit on the piece. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It's free for iOS users. Welcome to Switch on Pop. I'm musicologist Nate Sloan, and I'm so excited to welcome our special guest today. As you know, my usual co-host, Charlie Harding, is out on parental leave. He's out there taking care of Theo Otis. Good for him.

And we have an amazing substitute today. It's Sam Sanders. Hello. Thanks for having me. Sam, you're the host of It's Been a Minute with Sam. Sam Sanders, the wonderful NPR podcast that covers culture and society. And you are also, if I may dare to say, a music nerd.

Oh, my God, yeah. In fact, the last time we talked, I learned that you studied music in college. I did. I was a double major at the University of the Incarnate Word in political science and music composition. Wow. My instrument's saxophone, and I will say you will never hear those compositions. Saxophone. Are we talking alto, tenor, superiors?

I started out Alto, went through all of them. I landed with tenor because that just has, that just feels the most like, oh yeah, that's a saxophone solo. I couldn't agree more. And we're going to call on that expertise a little later to show. Expertise is a word. Because this is a new format for us that I'm really excited about. We did it once over the summer where we have listeners call in and tell us what they're listening to. And then we get to go through this kind of rolodex of new pop tracks.

It's so much fun. I love it. It's like my favorite way to learn about new music. Our listeners are incredibly intelligent, and I assume very attractive. So we'll hear from some of them about what they're listening to, listen to some of the tracks that they're digging on, and it should be a lot of fun. Let's dive right in. This first selection is from Amanda C. Hi, Swiss Jump Pop.

I'm from Brooklyn, New York. My new favorite release is Really Don't Like You by Tovlo and Kylie Minogue. Kylie is one of my favorite pop artists, and her and Tovlo sounded like a crazy, wonderful pairing. So I was in from the start. It's got a great synth beat, and the lyrics are fantastically honest, even though, as she said, they break the code. I feel like you can really hear that Tovlo's new album was recorded in both L.A. and Sweden, because it really has both of those sounds to me. Let's take a listen to Really Don't Like You by Tovlo and Kylie Minogue.

It's like this half-time bounce situation. It's one of those songs where you can dance low with it if you want to or dance fast with if you want to. Yeah, there's kind of two different temporal levels going on here. It's smooth. It's smooth. All right. So we're into this.

We like the smooth kind of temporal shifts. And I think that chorus is really catchy. I really don't like you. You look prettier than I do. That's a sentiment I think we can all relate to. Well, it is this kind of dance floor confessional that we have talked. about before in Robbins dancing on my own. Dancing on my own. Like this heartfelt pouring out of your emotion on the dance floor, that kind of song will always get me. Yeah. And, you know, as the listener,

Amanda C pointed out, perhaps that's an innately Swedish kind of sentiment. Robin and Tovlo, both being from Sweden. Kylie Minogue, she never left. I love it. All right, fun. This is a great start. Let's move on to another listener, Melanie C. No relation, I presume. She is calling in to talk about Camilla Cabello's track, Liar. I can't stop listening to Camila Cabo's Liar. It's a super catchy song, makes me want to dance, and I hate dancing. It has these great flamenco and Latin beats, which I'm really into, and I love listening to it. When I go for a run, it's super upbeat, and it makes me want to run and keep on going.

Let's listen to Liar by Camilla Cabo. Yeah. We're dancing in the studio a little bit right now. The chorus gives me a little bit of ace of bass. All that she wants. Wow, yes! Camilla. Okay, yeah, I ship it.

Okay, so I want to zoom in on that. The song starts. It sounds like this, it has this clear Latin influence. As we move into the pre-chorus, you can even hear a clave beat in the background. Dut, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot. But then the chorus hits. It's so ace of bass. And it's like, yeah, it's like reggae through Swedish pop of the 90s.

I want to hear the chorus again because it really turned me for a loop in a great way. Yeah. I find her so interesting. Yeah, tell me more. Because everything about her presentation is giving me throwbacks to that 90s Latin explosion. It was Ricky Martin and J-Lo and Mark Anthony. And some of it felt cheeses. The way that Camilla Cabello is doing it, it doesn't feel as cloying.

You know, her last big single was Signoreta with her boyfriend, Sean Mendez. Right. And in spite of the title of the song, they didn't overdo it. Yeah. And like even her previous big hit, Havana, it was definitely Latin explosion vibes, but it wasn't corny. I know what you mean. It's hard to explain it because there was some of that, I mean, like, think back to Ricky Martin, his like first burst onto the scene. It was cheesy.

Yes. I'm right there, live in La Vita Loca. Yeah. Yeah. No, I see that. This is dare, I might use a word that's perhaps a little embattled, but it feels authentic. It feels authentic. And like not even to compare all Latinx artists to other Latinx artists, but there is a way that, like, the industry tries to package some of these folks.

And for whatever reason, the people around Camilla Cabello are letting her feel authentic and make these bops that work. And, you know, on that note, if I, on that note, if I. were kind of making an intellectual stretch which I'll go ahead and do. Perhaps the lie that this song is concerned with is about these

borders when it comes to music and when it comes to Caribbean Latinx identity and maybe recognizing that even the difference we're hearing between the sort of reggae chorus and the more Cuban kind of verse and pre-chorus is as much a fiction of identity

and colonialism as it is exposing how music travels in these. Oh, yeah. Music travels. These byways, yeah, music travels. And like if you think, I mean, like, writ large, what does it mean to be Latinx? It can be any number of ethnicities, any number of skin tones, any number of musical backgrounds. It's kind of, I'm not going to say melting pop, but, you know, it's a great big salad of lots of ingredients. Love it.

It's a delicious salad. So we should really move on Let this become the Camilla Cabo hour Which would be fine And yet I do need to call in your expertise Because if we go to the outro of this song There's an instrument I think you'll be familiar with Okay

That's good Yeah A little solo tenor sax moment I long for the return of the killer saxophone solo In poplar music For a while it was everywhere I'm just saying Sam If you wanted to, like, hit the karaoke bar and bring your horn, you could do this whole song and then...

Would you play the keys? Absolutely. Done. Sign me up. Let's get Camilla to come sing. All right. Head down to Ketown. Okay, moving on.

Tyler the Creator Earthquake. This recommendation comes from listener Alec J. Hi, Nathan Charlie. I'm just talking about how I'm really loving the album Igor by Tyler the Creator. This is a really, really interesting album. It's a breakup album, which I think can often be super one note and then maybe only sad or only really one emotion. I think you really just, you kind of can see him go through all of the stages of grief in the album. You see him being angry and you see him being sad and you see him being happy and you see him being confused.

And I think there just shows this sort of crazy amount of range and I've really been enjoying it recently. All right, Earthquake by Tyler the Creator. Have you heard this one before, Sam? I have. Can I tell you my Tyler, the Creator, truth? Yes, tell me your truth. I don't understand that, man. I don't understand him. And I have been a follower of his since he came on the scene many, many years ago.

And, you know, when he first started out, he was known for just making songs with some of the most incendiary lyrics that you can imagine. And throughout his career, I've always had a hard time trying to. to figure out exactly what he's trying to do. Yeah. And he's one of those young rappers that just makes me feel all. I know. I feel the same way. It's beguiling.

I think he speaks to a slightly perhaps different generation than we belong to. This is maybe, on that note, maybe one of the first tracks of his that I really can connect to. Yeah. Why do you like it? You know, I think what our listener, Alec wrote is like kind of the emotion he's displaying on this album. This track might be a nice evidence of that, and I can really hear it in the chorus. He's singing about an earthquake, which I guess is a metaphor for, you know, love or a breakup. And every time he does that chorus hits, there's this bass that is so intense that it creates the feeling of like a quake.

Yeah. Or a heart quaking. That's more poetic, Sam. I'm thinking of like a literal, I'm just thinking of driving in my car over to the studio to record this. And feeling is shaking. And my, yeah, my rear view mirror is just like. Yeah. I think it's a cool example of what we sometimes call. text painting where the music illustrates the meaning of the word.

Yeah. It's talking about an earthquake and it literally quakes your speakers. Do you know what it is about him? Yeah. His persona is that of like a jokester or a prankster, but he's also given you these very deep emotional messages. Yeah. And I never know when to take him seriously.

Yeah. If that makes sense. I think that makes sense. And again, I wonder if that's a generational thing. There's like a language seeped in irony that the kids are. The kids get it. It's like those whistles that only young people can hear. That is Tyler, the creator.

Oh, my God. There are many title songs that I love. And I find the trajectory of Odd Future entirely fascinating. Absolutely. Entirely fascinating. And the numerous artists involved with that and the different routes they've taken. Sid, Frank, Tyler, there's more. They're great.

Moving on now to a heavy hitter of pop. Hey, you've got John from Atlanta, Georgia, and I'd love to tell you why I love Cruel Summer by Taylor Swift. You know, you've got Jack Adjanoff. You've got St. Vincent providing. these incredible 80s-style synths and guitar riffs and this explosive chorus that really kind of takes you away. All you do is get like 40 seconds in the song. Everyone is screaming the chorus talking about a new feeling, a new body, a blue feeling.

Taylor Swift is enveloped in this love, this fiery, passionate, lust-filled, you know, experience with someone where she's worried that she may not even be able to keep this person, you know? She doesn't want to keep secrets just to keep them. She exclaims in the song, I love you. Ain't that the worst thing you've ever heard? You know, for me, I can just really relate to that, especially as someone in the LGBTQ plus community. I've had experiences where we're experiencing a lot together

and all of a sudden I have this feeling in my head, I love you, but I can't say that because I'm scared that that might be the worst thing they've ever heard and it only creates a more impossible situation for me and this other person. Just like Taylor exclaims in this song. Let's take a listen to Taylor Swift's cruel summer. Yeah, that's it.

I am the least likely individual to give Taylor Swift praise. Yeah. But she did what she had to do with this album. All right. She did what she had to do. Sam Sanders. I'm going to tell you what it is. Tell me.

For the longest time, it felt like Taylor Swift would get older. Yeah. But her music would not. And she was making these songs that felt like notes she'd, passed around in a homeroom freshman year of high school. And that worked for a minute, but after a while I was like, you're grown. Yeah. And this is the first album I've heard from her that feels like it is her age.

I love that. And I also think that anytime you've got Jack Antonoff guiding your album, it's going to be great. One of my favorite albums of the last decade is probably Lord's melodrama, which is Jack Antonoff and Lord Opus. And you hear his influence. in this album as well. Totally. And Taylor is very good at this

and Lord's very good at this. They never give all of themselves away to a co-writer. You can still hear the Taylor as well as the Jack, especially on a song like this, Cool Summer. I like it.

Yeah. I love that analysis. I not only hear Antonov's influence, I hear Lords too. Yeah. The line, our listener, John, kind of called out here, I love you.

Ain't that the worst thing you ever heard? Yeah. That just feels like one of those melancholy. I should be happy, but I'm sad. That's Lord. That is Lord, and we love it. Also, she does this thing Taylor does.

And it's become kind of her trademark in the way that for years, Rihanna would do the Ella, Ella, Ella, A, AA. Taylor Swift has this little like uptick, up jump on some of these notes that she bends up, like a sing song. He kind of, you kind of, kind of way. Devils roll the dice. Degals roll the dice. She's very, it is this cheerleader-esque, ooh, Mickey, you're so far. fine sing-songy thing that she began doing

a few years ago and it graded on me but now she's very good at doing it and I'm like okay yeah that's interesting so she's like perfected that she's perfected the art of being Taylor Swift with this album I think the album itself was probably five or six tracks too long

but the ones that hit no disagreement they hit and it is interesting because for the longest time Taylor Swift in the presentation of Taylor Swift has gone on my nerves and I don't know what happened yeah something happened to her after the whole Kanye Kim brouhaha. She kind of, I don't know, maybe she sat in a quiet room and thought some stuff out, but something about her now feels extremely earnest and

relatable in a way that it didn't feel before. So I'm not going to say I'm Taylor Stan, but Taylor, you did what you had to do. There we go. You're inching closer to it. Thanks so much, John V for that beautiful message. All right, from one pop heavy hitter to another, let's move from Taylor Swift to the new song from Lana Del Rey, Ariana Grande, and Miley Cyrus. Don't Call Me Angel. I won't trust.

Thanks to listener John. Hey, this is John from Baltimore, Maryland. I just wanted to call in and say a little bit about why I'm really loving Don't Call Me Angel. So that song is just a total box. I mean, the production, I think, is amazing. I love that little bell sound in the background. background that do-d-d-d-d-d-do-d-do-d-do. I don't know, there's something really infectious about that

particular part of the song. And honestly, I just love the fact that it's these three women at the top of their game collaborating together, and it just feels very powerful. And it reminds me of, like, songs from the past where female artists would collaborate and make these big pop songs, like Bang Bang with Ariana Grande, Jesse J. and Mickey Minaj, and then, of course, Lady Marmalade, with Christina, Maya, pink, little Ken. So I think that's why I'm really feeling it. Sam, Sam, Gat is beside himself. Can I tell you?

And I don't know the listener that called in, but sorry to that man. John from Baltimore. John, we disagree. I do not like this song. It feels like smoke and mirrors. You know, in the run-up to the release of this song, everyone's like,

it's going to be this big, banging single for the new Charlie's Angel with three of the biggest women in pop. and I'm like, oh, I'm ready for this. And then I listen, much do about nothing. It is this, like, it pretends, like, it wants to be a good pop song. The drums are coming in. They're trying to do it.

You can tell that the production cost money. But nothing about this song lands. Nothing about this song sticks. Yeah. Does this song stick to you? No, it doesn't stick for me. I mean, I'm wary of, you know, pushing back against John. I know. John from Baltimore. Also, I'm sure that we would get along perfectly well in person,

and I'm sorry I feel bad saying this, but I don't like this song. I'm not sure I agree with the idea that this is a sort of throwback to Bang Bang or Lady Marmalade or even the original Charlie's Angels Bop independent women. The difference here is that I don't hear these three singers really melding together in any way. It doesn't sound like they even recorded together. Like, if you can fast forward to the Lanaverse, it literally sounds like she was in a different country. recording. Like, I'm like, Lana, where are you at? The grave? Lana, Mr. Flight.

Lana, where you at? Man. Lana's singing through a sheet right now. While on Kualoos. I'm really sorry to John from Baltimore. John, let me make it up to you. Well, we have a chance. John also has some thoughts about Lana.

Well, let's continue to hear from John. now. And I'm also just to comment as well, feeling happiness as a butterfly, which is exclusively just Lana's song, simply I think because the lyrical content of that song is so precise and so beautiful, and it really captures, in my opinion, what I think is the essence of happiness. It is a fleeting moment, and we just have to learn to cherish it and remember that it's not always going to be there, but when it does come, it's something to really hold a lot of value. Let's listen to Happiness is a Butterfly by Lana Del Rey. Happy day is a lullaby from my babies on the tour.

If he's a serial killer, then what's the word? The specificity of Lana Del Rey's lyrics, cut to the bone. Cut to the bone. Some of the songs, kind of like the other songs, and she likes to stay in that place. Right. But when she goes to that place,

she can occupy it so well. It really is so beautiful to see her stay in the game long enough to really hit her stride. Because you'll recall, when she started out, everyone just trashed her and said, what is going on? What is she doing?

And now with this album, especially, you're like, oh, she knows exactly what she's doing. This is maybe my chance to get back, on John from Baltimore's Goodside because I maybe was similar to you. I listened to this album when it came out and it kind of, I didn't really get it.

But then after John called in, I really listened to this track carefully. Probably for the first time, just uninterrupted, just focus. And like you said, it really got to me. It really, the specificity of her lyrics, like you said, and the close micing, the vulnerability because you're like hearing every,

like, her lips almost like separating and like even maybe a little bit of like spittle in her mouth or something. It's like, whoa, it's very intimate. Yeah. The moral of she's as bad as they say, then I guess I'm cursed looking into his eyes. I think he's already hurt. He's already hurt.

The moral of Lana Del Rey's story is that she is hurt, and you're hurt too. And, like, everything that she does is tapping into this lingering, not quite melancholy, but maybe perhaps. And, like, she lives there in this way. that lets you kind of live there with her too. And it's just relatable. And it's hard to explain, but like she made the album that was like perfect for her to make.

Yeah. Which is perhaps the exact same reason that it doesn't work on, Don't Call Me Angel. Exactly, because that's not her vibe. I will say was this album from Lana is also a Jack Antonoff production. That's right. Yes. Wow. He is the...

He's everywhere. Yeah. The hand behind the wheel of modern pop. You know, we tried to book him on the show. a year or two ago, I couldn't get him. But I'm really interested in what it means to be a man making pop music right now with such powerful women.

You know, Taylor, Lord, Lana, St. Vincent. He's helped to make all of their last few albums. That's a fascinating position to be in. Yeah. All right, Sam, I hope you get them on your show because I really want to hear the answer to that. If I get them, you're gonna come on with me. All right, see you there.

Yeah. So at this point, let's take a quick break. and when we come back, we're going to turn our focus away from the top of the pop charts to some of the more fringe music that our listeners are hearing right now. Maria, you have a podcast now and you need to start acting like it. What's the first step as a podcaster? Well, you have to ask lots of questions. I'm Maria Sharpova, and I'm hosting a new podcast called Pretty Tough.

Every week, I'm sitting down with trailblazing women at the top of their game to discuss ambition, work ethic, and the ups and downs that come on the path to achieving greatness. I have a few pretty tough questions for you. Okay. Ready? Ready. Do not sugarcoat something for me. No.

No. We'll dive into their stories and get valuable insights from top executives, actors, entrepreneurs, and other individuals who have inspired me so much in my own journey. Pretty tough is your front row seat to the women who have demonstrated the power in being unapologetic in their pursuits. I hope you'll join us. New episodes drop Wednesdays on YouTube. or in your favorite podcast app. Immigration may be Donald Trump's signature issue.

President Trump is now targeting predominantly democratic cities for ice raids and deportations. Dozens of protesters clashing with immigration and customs enforcement agents in Minneapolis Tuesday. We will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came. But what we want to do in this space is talk about America and politics beyond the current president. So what do most Americans think about deportation and border security, period? I think that Americans are definitely against the kind of violent displays that we've seen in the street from ICE. When it comes to the question of deportation, the answer is more complicated. My sense is that people want border at the border.

They don't like the idea of having no idea who's coming into the United States at any given time. The view on immigration from the bottom up instead of the top down. That's this week on America. America Actually, every Saturday in your audio and video feeds. We're back with Sam Sanders, and we're listening to your favorite tracks of the moment. Let's move right along into an artist I've been wanting to talk about for a long time. This is a track from King Princess called Prophet, and here to tell us about it is listener Steve G. He's switched on pop.

This is Steve from Oakland. I'm calling because I can't get King Princesses profit out of my head. It's that groovy, repetitive chorus, which sounds like a motor struggling to start up, and those lyrics in which every phrase and every thought ends in you. The song's like a meditation on obsession. No wonder it's stuck in my head. Let's hear this meditation and obsession. Where is she from?

I'm not sure where King Princess is from. I know she was a student at the USC Thornton School of Music, where I teach until she dropped out. This whole song is really in the pocket. This is a song that to me belongs to a subgenre of songs, as you say, in the pocket. They kind of like stop time in a way. Yeah. I was listening to this and it just sort of soundtracks your world. It's like everything starts to move in time to it, someone biking by in perfect rhythm,

someone yelling on their phone in time to the beat. You're like, oh yeah, and then it's over and you're like, that could have been a minute or 20. I'm not totally sure. Yeah. Now, she's related with Mark Ronson, and I actually heard her. on the new Mark Ronson album because she has a track on there with him. And he's really interesting to me

because he does these collabo albums every few years. He just finds new people and says, oh, you, come show yourself to the world. And it's like, I don't know, I like her already, but with Mark Ronson's stamp of approval, I'm like, I know I'm going to love whatever she does. In premature, yeah. This is definitely an artist on The Come Up.

I'm glad we got to listen to a track. Thanks Steve G. for bringing it to our attention. Moving right along, artist, this is now, we're fulfilling some items on our wish list here, things that we've been mean to talk about for a while. One of those artists is Kim Petrus. And here to recommend her track, Hillside Boys, is our very own producer, Megan Lubin. Hello, this is Megan, and I'm here to tell you about Kim Petris. Kim is a singer and songwriter from Germany. She makes electronic dance pop. So think Charlie XX, X, X, X, X, Thin, those kinds of artists. I first discovered

Kim earlier this summer when a friend sat me down to watch her song Hillside Boys. There's this video of her doing it live in New York, and it's just her and a single acoustic guitar for accompaniment. And I was struck by two things right away. So one is that she's a really emotive performer. When she sings, you can see it in her face and hands, and I just loved how she put her whole body into this song. I think when the vast majority of the music we listen to is recorded and streamed, it's really easy to forget that the way that an artist physically is on stage can actually pull you in as much or even more than the music. The second thing that I noticed is that in this video, she belts out the song so intensely that she has to continuously catch her breath

throughout the performance. And through it all, she's just about perfectly on pitch, all while nearly shouting this song. It is so earnestly and convincingly performed. From there, I found her song's heart to break and I don't want it all, which have streamed a cumulative 47 million times on Spotify. She is a bona fide pop goddess. I love her. I think she just put out a Halloween album. Who does that?

I don't know. Anyway, Kim Petrus, check her out. Thanks, guys. Let's spin a little bit of Hillside Boys. Cool. Yeah. You know what it is. It's like, this song could be cheesy, but her earnestness makes it work.

Wow. Ding, ding, ding. I think that, I think you hit the nail on the head. This is like pop with a capital P. Yes. And a capital O. Yes. And another capital O.

Yes. This is mall pop. Where's Tiffany? Yeah. Just, and a genre that like the mall itself, you might think is dying, but here's Kim Petrus bringing it back. Yes. And everyone loves a good mall.

Yeah. And I think you're right. It works because her voice just, there's no room for you not to be convinced. Yeah. Hillside Boys, you call my name. You make my heart. Sparkle like sham. You break my love machine.

It only works when she sings it. No. Yeah, yeah. So we can't, we're not expecting a Sam Sanders remix of this. No, no, no. I will say I began to play her Halloween album last night. It's very Halloween-ish. All right, there we go.

So we're not, we won't listen to it here, but if you're feeling in a spooky mood, yeah, go out and check it out. Let's wrap up before we turn the mic over to you, Sam, for your own recommendation on what to listen to. We've got one more selection here from Zach Mack, and he's been listening to... Oh, Zach Mack. He's in a podcast where I know Zach. Hi, Zach. He's been listening to an artist called IDK, and he recommends the track, Pornow.

I shouldn't have laughed at that. Hey, what's up, guys? Zach Mack here. I wanted to recommend IDK's new album, Is He Real? And I heard this album, and I immediately was just, like, really interested. it kind of has like an ADHD style where there's these moments with really aggressive, abrasive hip-hop lyrics and sounds and beats and then moments oftentimes in the same song where it'll just like chill out and become really melodic and change.

There's this song Pornow with Pusha T. The song's only three minutes and 22 seconds and just in that short time, it feels like you're listening to four or five different songs. It really kind of changes up pace. tempo and energy and even the beat. So like everything will change about this song in the middle of the song several times. And it and it just, the album in general just takes you on a ride. It has really weird and interesting skits and throws a lot of curveballs at you. I just, I had a lot of fun listening to it. Check it out.

The strawberry lemonade lips make a fucking blood pressure go drip, drip drip, drip, bad. What is the devil like six, six six? Six. Six. What is the devil like six six? One. I got you on my mind Ain't no room for a thought When you laying on my chest Ain't no room for my heart Girl you know we're wasting time Like tick, tick, tick, tick

Girl, you're sucking up my time Like tick, tick, tick, tick. The Bible say And killing is equal But probably be considered cereal This is like the kids in the band hall After the band director has left rehearsal And they just keep jamming on their own

Making stuff up But I like it. Yeah, similarly, I'm really, this really strikes me. This is like something I feel like I need to go back and listen to a few times. It's all over the place. It's funny.

It also seems really honest at points and is really like tackling addiction. I also love that. Yeah. And this has been a thing that I've noticed in hip-hop albums for the last several years. There'll be these songs that start one way and all of a sudden become a different song

in the midst of the track. Yeah. I love that. We hear that perhaps on a track like Sicko Mode by Travis Scott. It's like three different songs. Yeah. And I am just so into it.

And I wonder if part of that speaks to the shortened attention span that our smartphones and the internet and social media and streaming has given us. Perhaps. But like they mix it up every minute or so. Yeah. So it's like watching a series of TikTok videos turned into a single pop song. Yeah. That's interesting. I'm into it.

All right. IDK. I want to check them out. All right. Thank you, Zach Mack. We have more listener suggestions that, unfortunately, we just don't have time to cover here. but they're all great, so we'll make a playlist and we'll share that in the show notes of this podcast. At this point, Sam, let's turn it over to you.

I'm so curious to know what you have been listening to lately. Yes. So I have been low-key obsessed with this artist named Jai Paul for years. He came onto the scene five or six years ago with this breakout single that was on all the year-end best-of lists. It's called B-T-S-T-U. B-T-U. And the song was big, people loved it, and everyone was like,

where's a Jai-Paul album? He got signed to Excel Records. Oh, sure, yeah. Excel Records, yeah. They're responsible for some big indie acts, and the thinking was, Jai Paul is going to be the next big thing. He is this Indian, British, R&B funk dubstep artist

whose music is a wonderfully post-genre and just transcendent. But what happens is after BTSTU is a big single, his album or mixtape is leaked online. Uh-oh. And it's only available online for two or three days before it's pulled. And then Jai Paul says, my brother leaked it. He wasn't supposed to. You weren't supposed to hear that.

Leave me alone. And for years, the only way to find these songs is through weird roundabout sound cloud vimeo links and there was this small cult following that would just seek out these Jaipal songs that were never actually released flash forward to 2019 yeah he releases the whole thing and he calls it leak oh 413 oh my god wait yeah what a story full of family drama and twists and yeah yeah and so we never figure out if he wanted it all to be this way or if his brother actually duped him but i want to play one of the songs from the album that speaks to how he is just entirely post-genre in a good way.

The song is called Straight Out of Mumbai. Great. Oh, FutureFund. And it's got a little Bangra in there, too. So good. And so the whole thing about this whole mixtape, and it comes from even now, he never finished the final mix. So you hear the bass is really heavy.

Some of the levels are distorted. Some of the things come in and out. It sounds real choppy. Totally, a little unfinished, yeah. On purpose. It's so good, though. I know. And it works because it's got this, like, say yes philosophy.

It's like, do you want a Bangra sample at the top of this? Yes. Do you want, like, video game sounds? Yes. Do you want weird glitches that make you think that the song is stopping? But then it goes again, yes. Do you want a saxophone? Here we go.

Yes. Yeah. This is the first full track on the album. The next one that I love is a track called Genevieve from the same album. Also, all of these songs have unfinful. in the title. So the official title of this song is Genevieve Unfinished. Can we hit that one? This one's going to blow your mind, Nate. It's going to blow your mind. I'm ready. What is happening? It's future funk. That is wild. You know, I feel like I've been looking for an artist to fill the void left by Prince for some time. This is it.

You hear this? There's elements of that in here. It's funky. And it's fat, you know, for a long time in pop, I feel like there was this desire to make your music as meticulous and perfectly engineered and flawless as possible. I wonder if this represents another approach that we're seeing more. Keep it rough. Rough, unfinished. Yes. It gives me basement jacks vibes. There was a lot of stuff on like the first two basement jacks albums that it sounded like

they just threw everything in the blender. And we're like, what is this going to sound like? I like that. And Jai Paul's kind of doing that. Yeah. This is really cool. There's sense. There's vocal.

There's this. It's all just like this. like this wonderful mashup. And you can just hear his talent. Like he's a musician. Yeah. Sam, thank you so much for putting Jai Paul on our radar. I'm definitely going to be listening to this record more.

Oh, yeah. And I'll be looking forward to whatever comes out next. Oh, yeah. This has been so much fun. I love this. I can't thank you enough for joining us today. Let's do it again sometime.

Done. Thank you to everyone who wrote, called in with a recommendation. If you didn't make it on the show, we still so appreciate it. and we're going to throw up a playlist of all these songs in our show notes. Go check out Sam Sanders' fantastic NPR podcast. It's been a minute.

You can hear it on your radio dial or anywhere you get podcasts. Switched on Pop is produced by me, Nate Sloan, and Charlie Harding. We're engineered by Brandon McFarland, and Megan Lubin is our production fellow. We had special engineering help today from NPR West's own Josh Newell. Thank you so much, Josh. The executive producers have switched on pop are Liz Nelson and Nishat Kurwa, and we're a member of the Vox Media Network. You can find more episodes anywhere you get podcasts.

We'll be back in another week with a hot new episode. And until then, thanks for listening. Should I apologize once more to John from Baltimore? I'm sorry, man.