Song of the Week w/c 4th May 2026

Today I did some of the worst cooking I've ever done. I don't think they should ever let me cook again. As I told my friends, my creation would've been a fantastic replacement for human skin but was not, in fact, edible. I think potential possibly also exists in the novel material industry, or in a mad scientist's laboratory. I'm not trying to be too dramatic here, but I believe I now understand how Frankenstein felt. Unfortunately I fear my mind has been addled by the monster of mine own creation and I fear its escape from its prison (the food bin). If you don't hear from me tomorrow, you'll know it got me. Or that I'm really tired from the inexplicable boner I've had for exercise recently, who knows. Anyway, point is, I was deeply stressed out by this experience and it was at that exact moment that the perfect song came up on shuffle and reattained a positive overall rating for the day while leaching the stress from my clenched and concerningly tight shoulders. What was the song? Oh, you know me. I like to be a tease. Let's take a detour first.

So my beloved Penguins did bad. I've been genuinely upset about this for a while but I think I've finally achieved a state of zen normally only found in zen masters or perhaps particularly stupid aquatic creatures. I will permit the my-sports-team-losing to pass over me and through me. And when it was gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the my-sports-team-losing has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. I can finally listen to my Pittsburgh-associated rappers again, is what I'm saying, which is good news, because their music is great. First of all, obviously, I have to shout out Wiz Khalifa (deep cut who I'm introducing all of you to for the first time). Everyone loves hit song Black and Yellow but I'm not sure if you guys know it's about the Penguins. And just in case you think I'm fucking with you, that's not a joke. Ok, technically, it's also about the Steelers and the Pirates and sort of the whole city but I don't really care about those teams unless the Pirates are involved in some other insane inning of baseball (7 walks in a row !?!?!). We all share the same colours and I love that shared identity, along with the Terrible Towel. I am very lucky to get to be a part of this community and it means a lot to me. Thanks, The People of Pittsburgh for letting me root for your sports team. That's part of why I was so sad their season is over, but as Sinatra would say, that's life. Thirty-one teams lose a year. Anyway, the song's a classic, and that's really all I meant to say about it. But the song from Wiz Khalifa I wanted to talk about more is No Worries, which I was introduced by via an incredible edit of Ben Kindel's rookie season. That's what swung me back round to enjoying the season we'd had again, and appreciating everything we've been lucky enough to witness. Also, the song goes really fucking hard. I'm just focused on what I'm gettin/ I ain't worried about what I don't got. That's what it's all about baby. No worries !!!

Perhaps the most hype Pittsburgh-associated rapper who makes me sad whenever I think about him (narrow category) is Mac Miller. I'm not getting into all of that right now because we're trying to keep this day an overall positive, so let's get right in to my favourite of his songs, Knock Knock, from his fourth & breakout mixtape K.I.D.S. It's got one of the best uses of a sample ever, totally transforming Linda Scott's song from 1932. Holy shit I didn't realise the song was that old. Mixing that, the simple but powerful beat, knocking sound effects, and Miller's of-that-era frat rapping, it's so much more than the sum of its parts. He was barely eighteen when it released, and you can feel that it's a maturation of his song-writing while also being unapologetically teen-aged; revelling in it. It's a fantastic song that doesn't get less fun the more I listen to it. Also, some fun facts -- I have just discovered it's the song chosen by the Pirates to play during their seventh inning stretch. For some reason as a Yankees fan I'm stuck with God Bless America and I'm honestly really offended to discover that we seem to be the only team that does it? I do argue it would be a better choice of national anthem than Star-Spangled Banner but that doesn't mean I think it's as money as Mac Miller, or in fact a number of other more fun songs like Good 4 U (Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim), Can't Hold Us (Mariners) or Take on Me (Nationals). It's just so nationalistic. C'mon. I know the team's called the Yankees. But. Anyway we're getting off the point. Another fun Pittsburgh-specific note is that Mac Miller references Keep a smile like an Eat'n Park Cookie, which is a brand you will be very familiar with from advertisements if you watch the Pittsburgh home broadcasts. As far as I know, they only operate in Pennsylvania and West Virginia!

Worst songs to play when you've finally been allowed on aux again while driving an hour in the car with your father (other than everything else you play): Sextape by Deftones. I was accused of not playing enough "upbeat" songs and that he was risking "falling asleep at the wheel" which would be "dangerous". I'm not doubting the veracity of this statement but given he kept veto-ing Linkin Park and then it kept coming up on shuffle again I was inevitably a little flustered and didn't do the best job at finding replacement music. Anyway, it ended up reminding me that the song was a banger and that I needed to listen to it more later when I had a chance, which I have done. Deftones is very my brother music. Read: depressing, navelgazing, slow. It's good though. It kind of reminds me of King Woman, with less aggressive yelling. I love a swirling song that catches you up in its current and spits you back out at the end. There's some drum that doesn't come in properly until like two and a half minutes in after the bridge, and I love the second wind it gives the song, transformed in to something not wholly new but subtly different, too. Also, it's a lot of fun to imagine some kind of postmodernist sextape accompanied by this song. Makes me laugh just thinking about it.

Ok, fine, I've fucked around enough, I'll get to the point. Roll your shoulders back and take a deep breath and enjoy the beautiful sounds of When the War is Over from Nourished by Time. I love the cool calm energy of the syncopated beat that provides the perfect foundation to the swirling lo-fi/synth-pop inspired textures that overlay it. It's kind of Taxes-core in that I love it so much and it means a lot to me and I've got no fucking clue what it's on about. I feel like there's an extra layer that I'm missing and I don't know what it is, but there's also something kind of beautiful about the feeling that it's there. I think there's also something I really love about the beguiling simplicity of the song. The piano part is sparse, the beat repetitive, the singing unbothered and relaxed. But there's so much more than that, and you can keep unpicking more and more details the more you listen. God, it's a beautiful song, and I worry I'm not doing it justice, so please give it a listen and absorb everything that can't be conveyed by words but exists in the plane of pure meaning; feeling. Hopefully you can find yourself there. Good luck!

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