Reads & Readings
A running journal of the songs we've been thinking about — what they mean, why they linger, where they come from.
Cover Story · 42 Dugg & Rylo Rodriguez
It Is What It Is: 42 Dugg, Rylo, and Lil Baby Do the Math on Loss
A grief-and-grind ledger from Detroit and Alabama, counting dead friends and made money in the same breath because stopping to feel either would break the count
In this issue
Also worth reading
№02
Toby Keith
Toby Keith's 'Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue': A Country Song as Retaliation Notice
A post-9/11 country anthem that promises American retaliation as a personal, patrilineal duty, framed through a veteran father's flag and a nation's black eye
№03
Rylo Rodriguez
Rylo Rodriguez's 'Ever Drank Tris': Brand Loyalty as Personal Code
A luxury-drenched flex track where loyalty to a specific brand of lean becomes the organizing metaphor for taste, discipline, and status
№04
Bonnie Tyler
Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart: Wanting Someone Who Won't Turn Around
A woman who can't stop needing a lover who won't fully arrive, dramatised as an astronomical event happening inside her chest
№05
Pastor Mike Jr.
Pastor Mike Jr.'s 'Suddenly': The Fall as Homecoming
A gospel plea from the perspective of a patient God (or someone speaking for God) who welcomes the fall of a struggling soul as the beginning of surrender
Also in this issue
The Reading Room
- 06 Noah Nine Mama, I still call your name
- 07 Shoshana Bean, Paul Alexander Nolan & Original Broadway Cast of The Lost Boys Wild
- 08 DJ Khaled Wild Thoughts (feat. Rihanna & Bryson Tiller)
- 09 Marshmello & Kelsea Ballerini Another Drink
- 10 Fat Les Vindaloo
- 11 Lil Baby Grace
- 12 Tucker Wetmore Who Told You That
- 13 Kim Na Young A Letter for You
- 14 Ruth Slade Better Off Single
- 15 Veeze, Lil Baby & Rylo Rodriguez One of Them Ones
- 16 Sonny Fodera, MK & Clementine Douglas Asking
- 17 Rylo Rodriguez Stir
