September '25
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September was the month of Cro-Magnon. Spotify has been sneaking tracks from this album into my shuffle for like a year but I never stopped and listened to the whole thing until this month and gosh! boy howdy! it's a musical revelation! The fascinating thing about Cro-Magnon's music is just how goddamn varied it is. Technically they are (were) a jazz band, I guess, but they've got almost as many genres/styles as tracks on any given album. Hyouge Mono starts off with some slammin' disco-flavored city pop (BOWL MAN, the OP of all my nights recently), then it gets funky, then spooky, then goofy, then groovy, and on and on into more subtle flavors. You can certainly throw it on in the background (I have many times), but the sometimes drastic shifts in tone from one song to the next can wreak havoc on a vibe if you're not paying attention. Instead, I get the impression that this music is meant to challenge the listener to apprehend and appreciate each track on its own, build up a sort of index in one's head, and deliberately curate selections from there to best suit the current vibe -- sort of a DIY life soundtrack.