The Archive’s Songs of the Week: 2/12/2024

Each week the Archive will shine a spotlight on our (my, I’m the only one on staff here) favorite songs. All songs are welcome, from swooning ballads and plucking folk ditties to pounding club bangers and sugary pop confections.

Genre(s): Country, Americana, alternative folk, Latin pop, electronic

1. “Deeper Well,” by Kacey Musgraves: Miss Musgraves has returned with the lead single off her new album. Both are named “Deeper Well.” On this track, which unspools with airy, springtime freshness, Musgraves recounts the lessons she’s learned, kicking off the track with her musing over the notorious Saturn’s Return. Saturn’s Return is an astrological event occurring around the age of twenty-nine in which the planet Saturn returns to the spot it appeared at the time of a person’s birth, often signifying great change in a person’s life. It’s a concept I’ve been in tune with lately, and so “Deeper Well” oozes with a quarter-life crisis relatability few songs capture. It’s cliché, but you never stop growing up, you never stop learning. As she addresses energy-sapping individuals, a dependence on marijuana, and a growing resolve to change, Kacey Musgrave begins her new album cycle with a promise that life continuously propels one to new and different levels of existence, and it is okay to leave some people behind. “No regrets baby, I just think that maybe you’ll go your way and I’ll go mine,” she sings, the plainspoken declaration like a cathartic release.
2. “Don’t Forget Me,” by Maggie Rogers: I will admit, I’ve seen Maggie Rogers as a little bit of a late 2010s music fad. Though I was a fan of her breakthrough single, “Alaska,” and subsequent debut studio album Heard It in a Past Life, my love for her stagnated. Now, with the release of the debut single “Don’t Forget Me” from her upcoming album of the same name, Rogers makes a miraculous return to my music library. I have never doubted her skills, just her vision, and with the Americana sound she seems to be exploring on this single, I have high hopes for the album. The lyrical content is nothing new: Rogers insists to her partner not to forget her, though the partner reads as better off gone. Combined with classic coming-of-age truths and anxieties, this plainspoken admittance is charming, revealing another vulnerable layer for the singer. All that said, I’m excited for this release, just in time for the blossoming of spring and a chance for change. I look forward to that change to come.
3. “two reverse,” by Adrianne Lenker: For the last few weeks, I have been exploring Big Thief, and by extension the solo releases of its various band members. This week, I’m on songs, the 2020 album released by lead singer Adrianne Lenker. Album opener, the stunning “two reverse,” sets the tone: a gossamer track, laden with opaque, metaphorical meaning, all revolving around love and its intricacies. Recorded in a cabin in Massachusetts, this track channels bucolic mystery. Evoking natural imagery, Adrianne Lenker creates a story of love lost. “Is it a crime to do what you ask me to?” she inquires, at what I would argue is the song’s emotional highpoint and a lyric of stunning clarity, shedding light on a rather natural subject following a breakup: how can we move on if we will not leave?
4. “¿Cómo Así?” by Kali Uchis: Thundering out the gate like a grand racehorse, the opener for Kali Uchis’s latest album, ORQUÍDEAS, sets the scene. Translating to “that way,” the title only shows a snippet of the sultry track to follow. Capturing so much of what Uchis does best, the song ripples with feverish energy, welcoming us into her world with a warm hand. It’s a great introduction, its dancefloor-ready beat like a conveyor belt pushing us along to parts unknown, all while inspiring hips thrusts and grinds like none other. In truth, it’s not the most complex track on the project, but a brilliant introduction to what comes afterward.
5. “Raven (Agazero Remix feat. bbymutha),” by Kelela: Kelela has finally released the remix album for her 2023 project Raven, titled RAVE:N, The Remixes, and with it comes a new set of over-the-top, sexy, and imaginative mixes that capture the intersection of dance, electronic, and alternative R&B with vigor. On RAVE:N, Kelela crafts the soundtrack for a rave thrown in heaven. The Agazero remix of the original album’s title track mixes a momentous beat with twinkling piano, pitching up Kelela’s voice to take her to new heights, all framing bbymutha’s standout verses, in which she raps her resilience and her strength. As I explore this remix album, this track, I believe, will always be the anchor, and its placement at the start was a genius move. With the angelic Agazero remix, Kelela opens the gates to a paradise of her making, where no fruit is forbidden.