Listen Up

From dramatic tunes to disco tracks, experimental to electronic, our favorites from the week

Angel Olsen: All Mirrors With a pared-back introduction featuring synths and sporadic percussion that gives way to a 14-piece orchestra and a stirring string-ladened interlude and conclusion, Angel Olsen’s “All Mirrors” is a cinematic ride. The layered melody is at once brooding and elating, with Olsen’s vocals guiding the track. Produced by John Congleton, with arrangements by Jherek Bischoff and Ben Babbitt, the song will …

Link About It: This Week’s Picks

Packaging made from soap, a seesaw at the border, the women who invented popular music and more

Bright Pink Seesaw Unites People at US-Mexico Border A set of neon pink seesaws along the US-Mexico border (in Sunland Park and Ciudad Juárez, respectively) have been installed by Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello—who work together as Rael San Fratello. The installation—called “Teetertotter Wall”—is playful and powerfully defiant. Rael calls it the “literal fulcrum for the US-Mexico relations” where it’s blindingly clear that “the …

Blarf: Banana

Starting off with a sample from Jorge Ben’s “Vendedor De Bananas,” “Banana”  by Blarf (aka comedian Eric Andre) soon embraces utter chaos. The track appears on Andre’s debut album under the Blarf moniker, Cease and Desist—and it’s aptly titled considering its reliance on samples. The album, somewhat a sonic replication of Andre’s comedic style, masks brilliance with madness. And the track itself bangs along until it …