Well! How time does fly. I was feeling chary about putting up another What I've been Listening To Lately post because it felt like only a few days since the last one but I had a few really good tunes I wanted to share, so I thought I'd just check exactly how long it's been... and it's been two weeks!
Yes, that long! No, I couldn't believe it, either! Semi-monthly was always my target for this "feature" even though I've barely ever come close so this is totally justified.
Still, there could be a couple of arguments for holding off a little longer. One is the recurring problem I led with last time - repetition and familiarity. (Isn't that two reasons?) I'm afraid it is going to be a lot of the same people again. I have not been doing my due diligence and searching out new stuff so most of what I have bookmarked is new songs from acts I'm already following.
But they're really good ones! And I don't think it can be such a great idea to favor novelty over quality anyway, can it? Not all the time.
The other argument against is that I don't have quite as many tunes lined up as usual. I have enough though and perhaps a slightly shorter playlist might be a little less off-putting for the casual listener. Or then again, maybe the more there are, the more likely everyone is to find at least one they like. I don't know. I'm not a psychologist.
Anyway, whatever. It is, as the incredibly irritating saying goes, what it is. Or perhaps I should say these are what they are. And they're all great! Enjoy!
Playboy Bunny - Charli xcx
My favorite song of 2026 so far. Yes, even over Lana's White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter. Although I'm playing that one right now to see if that's really true and maybe they're tied. It's like comparing apples and amphetamines though, isn't it?
Often - usually, in fact - these posts, supposedly filled with songs I've been listening to lately, are more like lists of songs I've heard once or twice and bookmarked to share. Recursive argument. Playboy Bunny, is not that. Playboy Bunny has been on what passes for hard rotation around here, these days. I've played it on the desktop, on the laptop and on the big Google TV downstairs. Multiple times on all three.
I'd have played it in the car, too, if it was on CD but it's not and for the time being it won't be. Charli does this thing where she releases "B sides" to her singles only on the vinyl singles themselves and on her appropriately-named Instagram account, b-sides. I don't have an Instagram account (Maybe I should...) but fortunately if Charli sneezes it turns up on at least two of my music feeds so I heard about this one right away.
Oddly, even though it's kind of an Instagram/vinyl exclusive, it's also on YouTube as an "official video", albeit not on her own channel. Isn't modern life wonderful? Can you understand any of it?
So much for provenance, anyway. What about performance? Just perfection. (Anyone who's thinking "chef's kiss" or imagining the emoji for it, which I just bet there is one, gets a virtual slap. I don't condone violence (Well, I very much do condone imaginary violence, as I could hardly pretend otherwise, as a gamer...) but standards must be maintained somehow.)
Everything about the song and the video (But especially the song.) is perfect, from the abrasive mix to the stuttering images to the drops and the floods. She's a genius. She can do anything. Well, musically. I'm not saying she could re-wire a bungalow or swim the channel...
Lyrically, it's delicious: ironic, astute, self-aware and true. All the lines would look good on a placard, come the revolution. Or on a T-shirt, as she says in the song. Or in the title of this post.
I'm qfting this couplet, too:
All my music sounds the same
Well, that's because I made it
And the callback
All my music sounds the same
Sometimes I wish didn't make it
So I
could be a listener watching for the first time
Preach, sister!
Brutalist - Kim Petras
Pretty sure this is going to be in my top five for 2026, too. Also on rotation just now. Having ignored her forever, apparently now she's one of my favorites. These things happen.
The lyric is just fascinating. The YouTube comment thread is stuffed full of people affirming or analyzing it as a metaphor for transitioning but I came to it not even knowing Kim was trans so I took it on face value at first.
And I'm still going with that, mostly. I think she likes brutalist architecture and she was upset that they tore down one of her favorite buildings, as who wouldn't be, especially if the building in question was this one, as one architectural detective in the thread posits? Of course, all the rest of the subtext is there too but subtext doesn't negate text.
I love brutalism. I grew up with it so it's at one and the same time familiar, normal and now nostalgic and bittersweet as it vanishes. And beautiful. let's not forget beautiful. Just because the aesthetic was frequently misapplied, don't make the mistake of believing it was never there.
When A Good Man Cries - Olivia Rodrigo (CMAT cover)
Oh, it's all the big names again, isn't it? That's how it goes, though. We all know it. People have their moments, when everything they touch turns gold. Leave it a while and they'll fade back out of sight. Or maybe they'll be Madonna.
This is a great cover of a song I didn't know but I feel like I do. That's maybe because CMAT is such a classical songwriter. Well, she can be. I'm not sure Bacharach and David could have written Jamie Oliver Petrol Station.
Speaking of which, we never had the official video, the one with the man himself, did we? Click through and treat yourself! In fact, you know what? It's too good to waste on a link.
Jamie Oliver Petrol Station - CMAT
If CMAT reminds me of anyone it's Tracyanne Campbell from Camera Obscura. I'd like to see Olivia cover Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken sometime. Or Jamie Oliver Petrol Station for that matter.
PARTY - Goldie Boultier
While I'm going over old ground, I left this out last time because, as I said, there was bound to be a video coming and now here it is. I don't exactly like everything Goldie does but I like this, particularly the interpolation.
That Lesley Gore was a bit of a dark horse, wasn't she? Did you know she co-wrote some of the songs for the movie, Fame? Or that she was in two episodes of the Batman TV show, playing Pussycat, "one of Catwoman's minions"? Her Wikipedia entry is massive and fascinating. I recommend it.
California Nights - Lesley Gore (As Pussycat)
Oh, heck... why not? This post sure isn't going the way I expected.
Song 2 - The Electric Mayhem (Blur cover)
Believe it or not, I really did have that one bookmarked for the post. There was a news item in the week about some band being removed from the Disney Rock and Roll Rollercoaster. Might have been Van Halen, which would have made William Reid happy, always assuming such a thing is possible.
Ah, no, sorry, it was Aerosmith. I quite like Aerosmith. At least I don't mind hearing them once in a while, like on the radio or something. The ride is now All Muppets All The Time and the Muppet house band, The Electric Mayhem, has pretty good taste. Their set includes Born To Be Wild and Walking On Sunshine, although there's also a Def Leppard number in there, so it's not all good news.
(Just as an aside, are Blur seen as one-hit-wonders in the States? I know Song 2 was a big deal there but did they have any other hits? I mean, I could look it up but where's the fun in that?)
I'll lay odds here and now that this is the only time Van Halen, Aerosmith and Def Leppard get a name-check in the same post here. It'd be a fair bet that none of them will never be mentioned again. Let's hope so.
Three artists in my subs have new videos out. Goldie Boutlier is one, Tiger le Flor is another and Aimee Fatale is the third. As I said last time, the Tiger le Flor song, Kodachrome, is so authentically sixties I don't actually like it all that much (Although every time I play it, it grows on me a little more...).
Aimee's new one is a song I've featured here before but only as a live version. The official release is a bit different in that it sounds as though it was recorded underwater until about a minute in, when the band kick in and the volume seems to jump a couple of orders of magnitude. Even then, it sounds woozy and strange. Judge for yourself if it works. I'm still not sure.
From Down Here - Lola Young
Lola Young's latest single sounds a lot better in this live version from Radio 1's Big Weekend than it does in the actual recording. She's put out three videos for the single, all in different locations - one in the living room, one in the pool and one from the water. They all start off, like the Aimee Fatale video, sounding as if either she's submerged or we are. Maybe it's a thing now? I really hope not.
In Heaven - Xiu Xiu
Well, that's a mood-killer. Possibly better known as the "Lady In The Radiator Song", it's yet another cover, this time from David Lynch's Eraserhead, which I still have never seen all the way through. We've had it here before, in a version by Princess Chelsea, which I very much prefer to this one. But I didn't remember that until I came to do the edit and now it's too much trouble to take it out, so here it stays.
Xiu Xiu has a whole album called "Eraserhead" coming. I might pass on that one. But since we're having all the covers today, how about a Xiu Xiu cover?
Sad Pony Guerilla Girl - Scarlett Sladek (Xiu Xiu cover)
We'll say this is for Pride Month since I haven't done anything else for it so far and that's the dedication Scarlett gave it, this time last year. Although I suppose I could have mentioned it when I was talking about Kim Petras earlier...
It's yet another one where half the time the vocals are inaudible but the bit where she gets the rosary beads out is stellar. Worth it for that alone.
WAX PAPER - Tierra Whack
Tierra Whack does not like to be constrained. She makes whatever music she wants. But she wants you to know that, for all her versatility and range, she is a still rapper.
Wonder why I don't rap much
'Cause when I rap, somebody's bound to get
wrapped up
They yellin', "Oh, shit" Like my stomach is backed up
I'm
so sick, I really think you should mask up.
Now you know. I'm not about to argue with her. Are you?
Telepathic Butterflies - Spacemoth
Saved this one for last so there'd be a banger at the end. Always end on a high. Is it weird, a moth singing about butterflies? Something to think about.
Until next time, then, when I might even have something new to offer. Although I wouldn't count on it.
Oh, and look at that! The post ended up as the classic baker's dozen after all. It's like I planned it or something.
I didn't plan it.
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