Tag Archives: september

Drunken Library’s Suggested Listening for September

First, I’d like to have a disclaimer that this is my first “music” post since 2017, which is frightful and embarrassing. There has been a flood of great music that I missed writing about. I won’t be able to catch up, unfortunately. We are just going to start now — and enter the present moment. Hope you understand. xoxo – H

King Princess by Quinn Wilson for Porter Edit 6-29-20 (3).jpeg
Source: https://anneofcarversville.com/fashion/2020/6/29/king-princess-porter-edit

Her name is Mikaela Straus. Her essence is King Princess. This Brooklyn-based goddess entered the scene with single “1950,” and has spiraled up into queer stardom now working with Mark Ronson. (If you’d like more intel, Spotify has a really great bio that you are not going to read here, but here.) I’m impressed mostly with her vocals and her attitude of self-producing. She seems to have grown up in a recording studio by result of her parents being recording artists.

After absorbing more of King Princess, I have come to the conclusion that she’s full of herself — to which I think, as opposed to what? What else should she be full of? She ought to be full of herself. We all should be full of ourselves. And this is the magic of KP. Her fullness is not “conceited,” her fullness is focused. She’s focused on being exactly who she is on every level and sharing that with us as listeners. It’s brave and heart-felt. Musically smart, and, just wow. So I’m obsessed.

If you’re not already listening to her, my top 2 starter songs are “Talia” and “Holy.”

September is about new beginnings. Listen to KP for a new beginning in self-love and self-expression. Be unafraid of who you are.

This first video below is King Princess talking with other people about who they truly are, too. (I love this.) And Mikaela, if you read this, can we be friends, like right now?! I’m rooting for you. ❤

“The Snakes of September” – Stanley Kunitz

All summer I heard them
rustling in the shrubbery,
outracing me from tier
to tier in my garden,
a whisper among the viburnums,
a signal flashed from the hedgerow,
a shadow pulsing
in the barberry thicket.
Now that the nights are chill
and the annuals spent,
I should have thought them gone,
in a torpor of blood
slipped to the nether world
before the sickle frost.
Not so. In the deceptive balm
of noon, as if defiant of the curse
that spoiled another garden,
these two appear on show
through a narrow slit
in the dense green brocade
of a north-country spruce,
dangling head-down, entwined
in a brazen love-knot.
I put out my hand and stroke
the fine, dry grit of their skins.
After all,
we are partners in this land,
co-signers of a covenant.
At my touch the wild
braid of creation
trembles.

Drunken Library’s Album of the Month – September

September marks the end of beachy hakuna matata tunes to a moody “wake me up when September ends” attitude. Autumn opens a realm of transition into winter that will be best paired with FKA twigs’ album LP1.

“I know it hurts, you know, I’d put you first . . .”

Tahliah Barnett’s sound is like a “little lovely gun” dreamily searching for any reason loss or pain has come her way. With lyrics like “so lonely trying to be yours / when you’re looking for so much more,” FKA twigs will carry you through your recent break-up, an unexpected change, or any blue day in September.

fka-twigs-video-girl-mp3-main

Also check out an earlier single “Water Me.” http://wwwater.me