Lazy Girl Does Her MOPOP Homework

"I am pleased to announce that I listened to 10ish WHOLE ALBUMS in preparation for MO POP Festival."

by Nadia Ayad

Published

Every time I get tickets to a show or festival I make a huge playlist to prepare then get busy/lazy and resort to my usual stuff, which lately has been a playlist of a few really inappropriate hip hop songs. While I still haven’t figured out where I’m going to sleep in Detroit tomorrow night, I did do a ton of preparation by checking out a bunch of new releases (and old releases I hadn’t listened to yet) by artists playing this weekend.

I am probably one of the only people in AROUSE who doesn’t always listen to albums in their entirety (and will publicly admit it). To anyone who’s offended by my heinous behavior, I am trying to change, I promise. If you’re pissed at me, don’t click a new page just yet—because I am pleased to announce that I listened to 10ish WHOLE ALBUMS in preparation for MO POP.

However, if you’re looking for written reviews of those albums, go ahead and visit a new page.

I will tell you about a few songs I loved from my extensive work.

I made a comprehensive playlist of favs, but here are my favorite favs.




MILLION ENEMIES - WAVVES

Photo: Northern Transmissions


I’ve been a half-assed Wavves fan for a while now, mostly because they have a special place in my heart for exposing me to punky stuff before my palette was ready for it. Even if you’re not a huge Wavves fan, you can’t deny their Make-U-Wanna-Mosh hits like “Nine is God” or “King of the Beach”. Million Enemies is catchy as hell, and I really hope some movie doesn’t use it as its trailer’s theme song. The song would be perfect for that sort of thing, but then I would hate it.

HIT ME LIKE THAT SNARE – ALT J

The song starts with some screeching that’s reminiscent of Robert Plant, which immediately caught my attention. Then about halfway through—a terrifying woman’s voice starts mumbling possessed-sounding gargles. If you’re suuuuper on the fence about Alt-J, try this song. It’s perfectly Alt-J-weird but also really garagey and cool.

HARDEN THE PAINT – FOSTER THE PEOPLE

Foster The People does heavy bass? Harden the Paint sounds similar to stuff you’d hear from Phantogram and I am not mad. I would argue it’s the best song on Sacred Hearts Club, just because it’s not Foster The People’s usual sound, but it still really works.

RUSH - JAY SOM

I was super excited when I noticed Jay Som on the lineup, especially after reading this amazing article. “Rush” is simple, romantic, and totally infectious. It’s a dreamy song you want to listen to outside in the sun.

REDMERCEDES – REMIX – AMINE, MISSY ELLIOTT, AJ TRACEY

This might make me sound like an old person, but I had been seeing this name “Amine” around everywhere and have been curious (but lazy, so I never looked up what type of music he made). After listening to some of his stuff, I come across the 2016 single “Caroline”. I thought to myself, “wait, is this THAT Caroline? The ‘Gory like a Tarantino movie’ Caroline?”

My inner snob rolled her eyes, but then I remembered Caroline is low key a banger. You know what else is a banger? REDMERCEDES remix. I immediately played it super loud in the car with my little sister. She hated the song’s high pitch, repeated siren noise, and I hated her for trying to say this song was bad.

CALL TICKETRON - RUN THE JEWELS

Photo: Spin Magazine


So I know Run the Jewels 3 is old news now, but TBH I never checked it out until a few days ago when my other sister’s boyfriend’s mom told me she loves “Ticketron” and I felt super not-hip. If you couldn’t guess by the title, this song is super spacey, robotic, and I can’t stop playing it. I bet that once you hear Killer Mike say, “I'm the shama lama doo ma lama danger dick'll do your mama”, you’ll be hooked too.

FADED HEART - STEF CHURA

Stef’s charming, twangy, ambiguous lyrics paired with grungy but beachy guitar riffs captured my heart. I’m most excited to hear her play “Faded Heart”. TBH I really wish I had her entire album “Messes” in my repertoire sooner so I could play it all summer. 😦

I AIN'T GOT TIME - TYLER THE CREATOR

I got lucky because Flower Boy came out during my super productive phase of music exploration. I was on another level on July 20th and listened to the whole thing, in order, within minutes of it being released. I really love this album. I Ain’t Got Time! was already out when I listened to the album, but it’s one of my favorite songs. I’m also a big sucker for any hip hop song that samples anything that sounds Arabic/Southeast Asian.

Nadia Ayad studies Industrial Design at Ohio State, and is host to The Study Session on AROUSE, and will be providing official coverage on the official AROUSE twitter.