Playlist Reviews

Whats This Playlist About?: By now we all know Ms. Swifts rather fickle taste in men, so its refreshing to see 43 other things that she loves——at least for now. This playlist will be updated monthly, after all.What You Get: The old Taylor may be dead, but between a few f-bombs (which youre hit with straight away via Bazzis woozy R&B hit "Mine") and some feel-good hip-hop, she still wants——and needs——to preserve that cuddly every-girl image. The vibe here is almost exclusively mellow and moody. This is intimate pop for candlelit moments, with lots of silky post-xx dream-pop (EXES, Haux) and sensitive post-Bon Iver dream-folk (Bootstraps, Trent Dabbs). Filling in the gaps are a couple of her very own songs, because, you know, self-love is whats most important.The Track That Defines It All: Sylvan Essos stripped-down lullaby "There Are Many Ways To Say I Love You," a short but sweet distillation of everything Taylor stands for.Greatest Discovery: Kiwi singer/songwriter Holly Arrowsmith, whose pure, pretty folk number, "Love Together," is the most pleasantly modest track of the bunch.Biggest Surprise: Yoke Lores precious cover of Savage Gardens of "Truly Madly Deeply." Hes kind of like the male Birdy.Will This Playlist Turn Taylor Haters Into Lovers?: Not likely, but it may quickly put them to sleep (and shut them up).

What’s This Playlist All About? NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital wants to keep you alive with a banging list of songs to save lives too. Per their description, all songs are 100 BPM, “the right beat to perform CPR.” And, no, The Fray is thankfully nowhere to be found.What You Get: If you’ve had the pleasure of mumbling through “Stayin’ Alive” while pushing down on a dummy in CPR class, you’ll be happy to know that those Red Cross trainings could get a little more exciting. Like the Bee Gees’ go-to anthem, you’ve got some seriously apropos selections here, like Gloria Gaynor’s triumphant “I Will Survive,” Marvin Gaye’s silky “What’s Going On,” Beastie Boys’ fidgety “Body Movin’” and The All-American Rejects’ bratty “Gives You Hell”—a good choice for those more stubborn hearts.Biggest Surprise: Norman Greenbaum’s spiritually uplifting rocker for afterlife bliss, “Spirit in the Sky.”Will This Playlist Save Your Life? There’s no telling how effective it may be if an unfortunate emergency arises, but at least it stands as a pretty kickass playlist on its own.

If this list proves anything, its that "alternative rock" has always been a nebulous concept—especially by 1996, when grunge was already long deemed dead. Then again, many of the tracks here remain some of the weirdest slices of rock to ever see regular airplay (Butthole Surfers! The Presidents of the United States of America!). But its still a little silly to hear Jewels half-yodeling coffee-shop acoustic pop sit alongside Porno for Pyros crunchy, psychedelic riffs, or 311s reggae-infused rap next to Sleater-Kinneys snotty feminist punk and Underworlds euphoric, bubbling trance. But thats exactly how alternative rock radio operated at the time—all of these sounds actually made sense together, because all of them have that Gen X angst baked right on in em. (I dare you to find one track that doesnt have at least a little cynicism or sarcasm raging through it.). Even the "Weird Al" polka parody that kicks this list off takes from some of the decades darkest alternative hits (and, seriously, whats more depressing than a polka?).

What’s This Playlist All About? To spotlight the 40th anniversary of “Disco Demolition Night,” a vinyl-destroying stunt pulled off by disgruntled disco-hating disc jockey Steve Dahl at Chicago’s Comiskey Park on July 12, 1979, Stereogum’s Nate Patrin took on the task of proving that—even four decades later—disco was due a great deal more respect. According to Patrin, “This playlist is all the proof you need that no matter where it came from or where it went after it ‘died,’ disco had something for everybody.”

What You Get: The mix features only tracks from the 1970s, only one song per artist, no rock crossovers—and no Bee Gees, because, according to Patrin, “you’ve probably made up your mind about them already.” Sequenced chronologically, the list has plenty of sass, sex, and sleek beats, but it also features some of the decade’s weirdest and wildest jams, from indisputable legends like ABBA, Donna Summer, and Chic to Eurodisco maestros and funky misfits tearing up dance floors from New York to London and well beyond. Hear feminist knockouts (Chaka Khan’s “I’m Every Woman”) alongside dark and doomy theatrics (C.J. & Co.’s “Devil’s Gun”), soul-baring epiphanies (Teddy Pendergrass’ “You Can’t Hide from Yourself”), and, of course, The Trammps’ undeniable classic “Disco Inferno.”

Greatest Discovery: The smooth, nearly psychedelic “Could Heaven Ever Be Like This,” a slinky, brass-filled groove from 1977 by jazz drummer Idris Muhammad—it’ll make you fall for both jazz and disco at the same time.

Final Verdict: Has Disco Aged Well? Looking back, disco seems far more prophetic than anyone ever imagined. Without freaky, funky, forward-thinking tracks like Cerrone’s “Supernature,” Space’s “Magic Fly,” or Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love,” artists like Daft Punk and LCD Soundsystem would have never existed. That’s probably why the rock purists were so afraid of disco’s potential takeover.

What’s This Playlist All About? With the release of the singer/songwriter’s 2019 album, The Unseen in Between, Matador Records’ best-kept secret (though not for long!) updates his playlist of “recent and all-time favorites.”What You Get: Alongside some of Gunn’s own sprawling, psych-laced rock (definitely check out “Paranoid”) is a carefully curated mix of vintage crate-digging gold—especially for those of you who dig out-there folk and rock from the ‘60s and ‘70s. There’s warm, wistful folk from prolific English singer/songwriter and Gunn collaborator Michael Chapman; spacey, border-blending psychedelic noise from the Sun City Girls; lighter-waving-worthy prog-pop from Greek rockers “Aphrodite’s Child”; and a perfect pop melody from the “one-man Beatle” Emitt Rhodes. He also gives room for some sweet New Zealand pop from The Chills and David Kilgour and The Heavy Eights, as well as indie electro heroes Stereolab and Broadcast.Greatest Discovery: The breathless, poetic musings of “Sell-Out Agitation Waltz” from Joan Baez’s sister Mimi and husband Richard Farina, who tragically died a year after the recording, at just 29 years old.Why “Cold Embrace”? There’s something so warm and cozy and analog about this playlist, but it seems the title is inspired by a seemingly inconspicuous cut buried deep in the mix, Sam Gopal’s sizzling psych-rock epic “Cold Embrace.” Be sure to listen to that one—we certainly dig it.

What’s This Playlist All About? “America’s greatest living composer” and minimal music pioneer Steve Reich compiles a few of his favorite tracks to celebrate the return of his landmark Different Trains / Electric Counterpoint to vinyl for the first time in more than 25 years via Nonesuch Records.What You Get: Phenomenal sax work from John Coltrane balanced by stunning trumpet soloing from Miles Davis and plenty of majestic compositions from his oft-cited greatest influence Igor Stravinsky. There’s also a classic Dylan cut (“Maggie’s Farm”) and Radiohead’s most alien masterwork (“Everything In Its Right Place”).Greatest Discovery: Male vocal quartet The Hilliard Ensemble performing composer Perotin’s haunting four-part version of “Viderunt Omnes,” an 11th century Gregorian chant.What’s This Playlist Missing? Frankly, we’d love to see a much more comprehensive playlist featuring all of Reich’s major influences over his long, impressive career.

What’s This Playlist All About? The folks over at Pitchfork attempt to tell the wild and rebellious tale of outlaw country—which could sometimes get as stubborn and subversive as ipunk—from its not-so-humble ‘60s and ‘70s pioneers to current-day torchbearers of the alternative country lifestyle.What You Get: According to Pitchfork, the playlist “traces this music’s grit and glory from its contested origins to the present moment.” It takes you from Bobby Bare’s lonely “Streets of Baltimore” to Johnny Cash’s cold-blooded masterpiece “Folsom Prison Blues” performed in the California institution itself, to the Texas dancehalls where Willie Nelson had been kicking up plenty of dust with road-tripping gems like “Me and Paul.” It then winds its way through the bulk of the ‘70s with wisecracking tracks like Jerry Jeff Walker’s “Pissin’ in the Wind” and Tanya Tucker’s “Texas (When I Die),” before reaching the 21st century with beloved outsiders like Eric Church and Sturgill Simpson.Greatest Discovery: The tragic, traditional-leaning “Hands of Time,” an intimate piece from 2016 that unleashes all of Margo Price’s vulnerabilities in a gorgeous mix of string-filled soul and twang.Does This Have the Power to Convert a Non-Country Fan? Outlaw country is quite possibly the best gateway into the genre—especially for music fans craving inspiration beyond the mainstream.

Subscribe to the Dowsers Spotify account for all the best playlists from Tame Impala and more.Listeners across nearly every streaming service love putting together track-by-track comparisons meant to meticulously chart how one artist has influenced another. While the erudition displayed in these playlists is phenomenal, they almost always make for lousy listening. Thirty-four tracks bouncing between just Tame Impala and The Beatles gets really old really quick. I’m checking out after about six. What I’d rather hear is a playlist that maps out Tame Impala’s influences on a macro level, one that, in addition to The Beatles, spotlights Led Zeppelin, The Flaming Lips, and Air. After all, what makes Tame Impala unique isn’t the fact that they’re inspired by any one classic rock group, but that they manage to synthesize an absurdly diverse array of influences cutting across multiple genres and generations.

Free jazz is a bit of a nebulous thing. All Music Guide lists Thurston Moore, Charlie Haden, and Eric Dolphy, among others, as its key artists, and even Ornette Coleman, whose album Free Jazz arguably launched the genre, later publicly dismissed it as a genre. Still, whatever you want to call it, the type of playing that Coleman pioneered -- the endless tangents, aborted themes and searing improvisational stabs of noise -- became a style that would influence generations of jazz and rock artists. This playlist, from the Village Voices archives, captures some of the highlights of that style. This is definitely a narrower (and more current) take on the genre -- there is no Thurston Moore, but Sharp also leaves out Don Cherry and Cecil Taylor, two very important musicians I generally have associated with the genre. Still, this remains a compelling playlist.

This list is great. One could argue that there’s too much Chi Ali and not enough Queen Latifah, or that “Jazz (We’ve Got)” doesn’t belong in the top 10, or that the list would be better if they opened it up to Native Tongue “affiliates” such as The Beatnuts or Pharcyde. But, really, it’s fine. The tighter focus on the core Native Tongue members makes it more cohesive and gives the playlist a flow as it progresses from the rougher sketches that dominate the early tracks (the playlist is in reverse order) to the tighter, tauter “classic” songs in the top 20. Why this all only kind of works, and one of the great tragedies of the digital era, is that only 57 of the 100 greatest Native Tongues tracks are currently available on Spotify. This is largely, though not entirely, due to sample clearance issues around De La Soul’s catalog. De La does show up on “Fallin’,” their collaboration with Teenage Fanclub from the “Judgement Night” soundtrack. The song reminds us of everything we love about that group — their competing pull of whimsy and melancholy; the back-of-the-classroom absurdity that gives way to twilight-youth pathos and then comes full circle as that sadness loses focus and dissipates into fits of giggling.