“Loudspeaker,” MUNA
“I don’t know where the blame lies / but you better believe I’m not going to carry it all / I don’t know where the shame dies / but it’s helping me to scream this is not my fault,” goes this MUNA track, more emphatic and exhilarated every time. It’s so triumphant because it’s so personal–the narrator in the song isn’t trying to apply feminist theory to her life, she’s just refusing to let someone cow her into taking all the blame for the confusing dynamics of a relationship and have her shrink her voice into herself. And that’s a hell of a feminist triumph.
“Wedding Song,” Reeve Carney & Eva Noblezada
Orpheus and Eurydice court each other in this Hadestown song, and Orpheus’s plan is presented as exactly as impractical and fantastic as it sounds here. Eurydice’s approach hews far more strictly to the actual conditions of their lives. But in the show, when Orpheus sings “his song,” a red carnation blumes in an industrial wasteland. He can sing just a little bit of his vision into existence.
“Finesse (Remix),” Bruno Mars feat. Cardi B
As much as I enjoy “Uptown Funk,” I realized at a certain point I tend to be grossed out by how Bruno Mars talks about women–not as a moral principle, just as a gut reaction. So why is this song here? Because it has a kickass throw-back New Jack Swing beat and Cardi B is drippin’ her signature vowels all over it. And if you haven’t seen the music video, enjoy the note-perfect homage to In Living Color.
Blue Thumb Music Collective 