OPE! Mixtape #37: We'll see
Well that was another longer-than-expected break
Welcome to OPE!, the ranch dressing of music blogs, by journalist and critic Brady Gerber. OPE! is a daily blog, but this weekly newsletter includes my column, more song reviews, and my favorite links of the week. All typos are intentional.
Well, hello there. How are you?
Apologies, everyone. I did it again. I disappeared for nearly two months after saying it would only be a week or so. The reason for my initial absence: A family member passed away. So I spent the past few weeks with family and helping with the various services and requirements that come with saying goodbye to the body of a loved one.
Saying goodbye to the spirit and the memory of that loved one: That’ll be a lifelong process.
(To those who had indirectly heard about what happened and reached out to check in: Your support means the world, thank you.)
So obviously, through all of this, I never felt a burning desire to take myself away from family time so that I could try to write some newsletter about why Charli XCX is our generation’s greatest B+ talent (don’t worry, more on her below). I’ve always taken OPE! seriously, yet OPE! is a means to continue connecting with all my followers (including the new subscribers who signed up since my last newsletter; hello there!) through my music writing in between all my other freelance work and life duties.
These words that I write are an enrichment of life, for myself and hopefully for you. These words are not life itself. And life right now had me focusing on other priorities at the start of this summer.
This reminds me of the one time I went to a newsletter webinar a few years ago where someone with a moderately successful Substack told us that we should publish content on a consistent schedule no matter what, even if we are sick or have family emergencies. Audiences, according to this person, grow forgettable and less trusting of writers who don’t commit to a consistent schedule. It gives the impression that you don’t care about your readers.
To that person,
You’re probably right
You’re a sad person
To you,
I care about you guys, obviously
See #1
This is all a long way of saying that I appreciate your patience through this medium that rewards constant communication and punishes those who need to step away for periods of time. Longtime subscribers know that I tend to take these random breaks whenever life becomes too much. It’s all part of the process, some might say. Maybe I should just take every summer off to counteract the temptations to randomly disappear. Maybe I shouldn’t make a big deal whenever I need to take a break. Maybe I should trust y’all and believe that you’ll be here whenever we’re both ready to dig deeper into some great (and not-so-great) music together.
We’ll see.
You probably also noticed that today is Monday and not Wednesday. I now realize that my current work schedule makes OPE! more feasible if I work on each newsletter throughout the whole week (Monday through Friday) and publish it Monday morning. I’m going to try this schedule for now and see how I feel. This might become a nice kickoff to the week for all of us.
We’ll see.
These past few weeks have had some bright spots. In addition to a lot of needed family time, I also received an official invitation to join the Recording Academy as a professional member, which I happily accepted. I now have an official relationship with the Grammys, which is a fun little acknowledgment that some Grammy big shot probably read my The 1975 pan years ago and thought, “Make sure this genius picks our next Album of the Year Grammy!!!” It’ll be fun to keep y’all updated on what all I’m up to as an Academy member and what fun projects I might be a part of.
I also have some exciting features that I’ve been working on that’ll publish soon. This has been a very busy writing year for me but a quiet year in terms of my freelance music journalism, but it’s a trade-off for spending more time on features that I care about and think are important.
There are also some fun changes coming to OPE! itself. The blog is currently getting a facelift! The initial new designs are on track to be done by the end of this summer. Shout-out to Zach Andrews for all his great help on these changes so far during the past few weeks.
I’m also playing around with turning these newsletter intros—which I’ve always informally called “my column”—and turning it into an actual column that I later publish on the OPE! website. All this would mean is that each week, I would hyper-focus on a particular link, topic, or idea floating around in my life and within the music world. This would be a fun way to parse through the kinds of news that I’m usually thinking intensely about but never considered fleshing out here. The daily reviews and weekly links round-ups will still live here, of course.
We’ll see. If that change happens, it won’t happen immediately, especially since I’m about to take a long weekend family trip to Denver, which means the next newsletter will go out Tuesday morning.
But enough about me. It’s great to be back and hang with y’all again. Happy late summer. I hope you’re staying cool and well.
Anyway, let’s get to the dang thing. Here are this week’s links and songs.
MY FAVORITE LINKS OF THE WEEK
Losing weight is easy, actually (Like most things in life, the hard part is just actually doing it and keeping at it consistently … hey, a nice tie-in to this newsletter!)
How to box breathe (apparently this is the “healthiest” way to breathe?)
This may be the simplest and most beautiful summary I’ve read of James Joyce’s Ulysses and why it’s worth reading
108 Beat Machine (now YOU can make sick beats from your internet browser)
THIS WEEK’S MIXTAPE
MJ Lenderman – “She’s Leaving You”
4/4
Y’all. I fucked up. The taste of MJ Lenderman bros who wanted to you-know-what to Mr. MJ Specialman left a bad taste in my mouth. I had a moment of weakness. I tried to take other people’s opinions seriously and convince myself that 1) Wednesday were a good band 2) Boat Songs wasn’t recorded in a toilet. Mistakes happen. I declared, “Never will I listen to 11-year-olds and washed-up rock critics who have never heard of Whiskeytown again!!” (Obviously not an endorsement of Whiskeytown, calm down.) But then I heard “She’s Leaving You,” scratched my chin, and checked out And The Wind (Live and Loose!), the album where all MJ newcomers should start. My third eye opened. I get it now. MJ has always been a great songwriter. He’s just now finally figured out how to record these dang songs. “She Leaving You” hits all my right buttons. Has anyone sung “Vegas is beautiful at night” and made it sound so believable and pretty? This new album is wonderful. I can’t wait to talk more about it and spend these late summer nights cooking outside to MJ. Wednesday still sucks.
3.5/4
When I reviewed Wishy’s EP from last year for Pitchfork, I had a feeling—isn’t it great to feel things?—I was writing about a band that was one EP or album away from greatness, as opposed to just being really good and hinting at greatness beyond their reach. I was right! I love being right. I love being right when I want to be right. A minor spoiler: The new album out next month has many, many moments of greatness. And all those harmonies! Bonus points for Wishy being from Indiana, my home state. If OPE! gave out ranch dressing packets as trophies for bands who made sick music and learned the right lessons from shoegaze (don’t forget the melody) and had actual drummers, Wishy would receive the finest ranch dressing packets I could find throughout the sticky dustbowl that is LA County, which will never be as good as ranch dressing from any sweaty Midwest Outback Steakhouse. The music video sucks, which is a bummer. Lack of budget or ideas? Who cares. Pick this record up in August you filthy, disgusting nerd.
Johnny Blue Skies – “Right Kind of Dream”
3/4
Sturgill Simpson’s been gone for what feels like forever after a very public and (questionably) sincere declaration that the music industry really really really sucks. Which, well, yes. Then he randomly comes back, changes his moniker to Willie Nelson’s Bond villain name, and releases a new album out of nowhere. And all he has to show for it is … that he really got into Arcade Fire and stole Funeral‘s piano and violins??? Well played, sir. He probably saw Zach Bryan and thought, “You illiterate son of a bitch, I was doing emo country a decade before your Barstool Sports-ass learned guitar. And what the hell is a pinegrove.” Fight fight fight. Get ready for the beef between Johnny Blue Skies and Zach Bryan to see who can jerk off Bruce Springsteen the most. “Right Kind of Dream” is a good song that hints at better ideas. This is how I feel about most Nashville music. “I wish that happiness left scars too” is an amazing line. That line alone gives the song three solid and respectable stars. I would listen to album number two.
3/4
You mean Jeff Parker isn’t the only LA musician who plays jazz that normies can like and not make an innocent bystander want to eat their own hat??? SML clear a low yet important bar. Quirky atmospheres that make you want to enjoy the silences that come between the notes. “Rubber Tree Dance” (great title) isn’t quite a “song” in the usual way that I like to review songs for OPE! … imagine KROQ trying to hype this up. “Rubber Tree Dance” is good though. So is the rest of this album. Another win for International Anthem, which continues to be one of the more interesting record labels working today. I’m about to go for an evening walk, so I’m thankful for a tune like “Rubber Tree Dance” to put me in the mood to enjoy the swirling purple sunset and the cotton candy clouds gently floating by, waving unrushed hellos and goodbyes on their way to some land of peace and, dare I say it, vibes. There are worse ways to spend an evening. Not even Jerry Seinfeld’s horny bee can ruin this jazz.
1.5/4
But why would you expect more? The one star is for me not getting my politics from pop music and safely ignoring these words that are supposedly apparently allegedly lyrics in a song that would have been snorted up by Alice Kinnon and Charlotte Pingress in one go. If you got that reference, please go outside and never listen to a podcast again. I can’t ignore the feeling that “WOMAN’S WORLD” would have soundtracked a scene from Bojack Horseman in which a 32-year-old discovers irony. I’m glad she screams “I’m Katy Perry” at the end of the song so that I know it’s Katy Perry. Imagine discovering the color “chrome” and finding a pile of rejected Robyn beats and thinking, “This!!!” This is my first OPE! review after a month hiatus and I’m glad music has gotten the same ever since I left. What would you guys do without me. Probably continue to ignore Perry’s third comeback in a row. I was gone when BRAT came out (pretty good, sometimes great) and in my review, I would have asked if Charli XCX was the pop star who worked the hardest to make A- music. At least Perry works little to give us little.
And that’s it!
Until next Monday Tuesday, as always this time.
With love and all the other good things,
-b
Like this newsletter? To steal from Austin Kelon, OPE! is free but not cheap.
Here’s how you can help (if you’re a billionaire, a millionaire, or if you have five dollars in your pocket)
Tip through OPE!’s coffee fund.
Become a paid newsletter subscriber to get more exclusive goodies.
Here’s how you can help (for free)
Consider me for writing work for yourself, a friend, or a colleague. My website has more information about contacting me and my favorite writing samples. (Believe it or not, despite my OPE! reviews, my writing is very professional.)
Become a free newsletter subscriber.
Share OPE! on one of your social media platforms.
Share OPE! directly with one of your friends, family members (the cool ones), or colleagues.
Bookmark OPE! (the blog and the newsletter) on your computer or phone.
Heart, comment on, or repost this specific newsletter post; see the buttons at the top of this page.
Seriously, y’all sharing this newsletter is how OPE! grows organically. Sharing is caring.
Connect with me on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, or LinkedIn. (For LinkedIn, please include a connect note saying you found me through this newsletter.) OPE! is also on Facebook, Bluesky, and Letterboxd.
Website | OPE! (the blog) | Donate to my coffee fund | Find your local reps
Original OPE! logo by Claire Kuang. Words and cartoons by yours truly. Stock photos by Substack unless credited. Animations made using FlipaClip and EZGIF. My views don’t reflect my clients or the publications and brands I work with. All typos are intentional.