Single Saturdays: October 7, 2023
Single Saturdays is Five Cent Sound’s weekly roundup, where our staff members share a song that they’ve fallen in love with and make their case for why others should give it a listen.
“Pretty Girls” by Reneé Rapp
by Rachel Hackam
It’s cute, it’s catchy, it’s queer—it’s Reneé Rapp. “Pretty Girls” has been on repeat since its release in August. The song describes the very common queer experience of straight girls starting to flirt with other women when they start drinking. In the morning these girls pretend nothing happened, blaming their behavior on the alcohol.
Reneé Rapp’s queer identity shows through in the song primarily with the repetition of the phrase “pretty girl.” Do yourself a favor and listen to this song, but don’t come at me when it’s stuck in your head. And while you’re at it, watch the music video starring Reneé Rapp and Scarlett Rose Leithold, directed by Cara Delevinge.
“Cannibal queen” by miniature tigers
by nicole armstrong
Miniature Tigers’ album Tell It to the Volcano is an indie gem of the new millennium. The band’s debut album is short and sweet; it established what would become Miniature Tigers’ signature sound: funky distortion, guitar-heavy and high-energy.
Tell It to the Volcano’s stand-out track “Cannibal Queen” is the perfect tune for a crisp fall day. Maybe my discovery of the song gives it its autumnal charm—burgling it from my coolest friend’s Halloween road trip playlist—but it makes me want to skip around Salem with warm apple cider and a lover. The track also presents an animalistic love; the narrator is hunting for a specific woman’s affection. Lead singer Charlie Brand declares that he is “comin' for your heart like a cannibal,” which gives the song a good-natured, ghoulish vibe.
October is the perfect time to listen to a morbid love song. The pumpkin spice and red leaves melt into the witchiness and horror of Halloween, just as “Cannibal Queen” combines a cheerful melody with almost macabre lyrics detailing an all-encompassing relationship.
This spunky love song expresses the perfect amount of adoration for the titular “cannibal queen.” Brand croons: “if she ever left me / I would break down and die”. The devotion expressed in the song adds to the coziness it emits. These almost-crazed statements really speak to my sappy, hopeless romantic—sometimes red-flag-ignoring—soul. I mean, who doesn’t need a boyfriend who is totally obsessed with them to keep them warm when it hits 40 degrees? I know I do; I have abnormally low iron.
Even if you can’t string a boy along this fall, this song will keep you warm. There’s nothing better than a good soundtrack to round out the seasonal ambiance. “Cannibal Queen” is the backing track that everyone deserves this fall.
“All that i’m craving” by Aidan Bissett
by Annaliese Baker
I miss having a crush. I miss having my heart skip a beat when I see a notification—any notification—on my phone. I miss having a specific person to stalk on Instagram instead of staring at my search bar for ten minutes. I miss having my heart ripped out of my chest over a three-week talking stage with a 6’0” (5’10”) blonde boy who still sleeps on navy blue sheets.
Aidan Bissett’s “All That I’m Craving” captures those across-the-room looks and late-night conversations with an uplifting beat; it’s one of those songs with intense, emotional lyrics that you should scream—or cry—to but instead make you want to dance.
“All That I’m Craving” has been on all of my playlists since I was introduced to the song in May, while Bissett was opening for Valley on their Lost In Translation Tour. The lyrics dive into a situationship—that liminal space between a hook-up and a relationship—where one person begins to catch feelings while the other seems to want to continue the lack of commitment. The song perfectly captures the trials and tribulations of dating in your college years with a memorable chorus and catchy chords.
Instead of listening to a guy ask you what your name is (again), why don’t you listen to “All That I’m Craving” by Aidan Bissett this Saturday?
“Dawns” by Zach Bryan ft. Maggie Rogers
by Megan richards
There’s a specific kind of serenity evoked when listening to “Dawns” by Zach Bryan featuring Maggie Rogers. It feels like driving with the windows down, cascading twilight and the break of dawn clawing its way and begging for its space in the night sky. It feels like the eerily calm exhaustion as you drive to the airport to leave home again.
Zach Bryan, originally from Oklahoma, is rising in country fame right now. To call him a star would be an injustice— he’s a growling and gravelly supernova.
When you think of country music, what comes to mind isn’t the emotional grit that Bryan brings; He explores nostalgia, heartbreak and homesickness in a vulnerable way that men are typically discouraged from. “Dawns” is about messy breakups, fearing love and missing his “mama’s Southern drawl.”
The grief he experienced from the loss of his mother is a reoccuring theme in the song. He writes how if heaven’s not real like the girl he’s dating believes, that indicates his mother—who passed away last August—is gone forever. The song grapples with the intersection of heartbreak and grief and how different losses can bleed into one another. An impressive stride in emotional storytelling—typically uncharted waters for male musicians.
As for indie rock artist Maggie Rogers, country is a genre she is not typically known for. Her sophomore album Surrender was alternative tinged with pop and rock. Hailing from Maryland, country music may have been geographically close but was artistically far from how her music would typically be characterized.
However she hits the nail on the head in “Dawns”. Her rich, buttery alto perfectly compliments Bryan’s gruff and husky belt—though Rogers can growl too when the time comes.
Ultimately this song perfectly showcases an unlikely pairings’ strengths, both together and separately. Both artists pushed the boundaries of what is expected of them in “Dawns” and both achieve it effortlessly.