Mystery Mini Mix is a shiny new feature dredged up from somewhere within the collective imagination of the WTD crew. Basically, we’ve made a huge list of song prompts (eg. Song with a colour in the title) and are getting our favourite writers and music people to curate a list of songs according to the randomly-assigned prompts they receive. It’s then up to them to craft their very own ‘EP’, and if they want to write a little bit about their choices then that’s cool too.
Magana is the haunted alternative pop project of Brooklyn resident Jeni Magana. She is soon to release her debut EP, Golden Tongue, with our pals at Audio Antihero, who describe the record as “brittle and erratic guitar pop… delivered with both anger and acceptance”. Our review will be posted closer to release, but in the meantime Magana kindly agreed to play our little game and make us a Mini Mystery Mix.
Life and Love and Growing Up
Song with a colour in the title
Lianne La Havas – Green & Gold
What a lovely young lady. Everything about her is appealing. This song is celebrating her unique heritage. I feel like it’s about growing up and learning to love yourself and where you came from. Green and gold are representing the Jamaican flag. Neat.
Song with a name in the title
Dolly Parton – Jolene
Dolly Parton is the best and this song is such a classic. Super simple and catchy but a unique perspective of a relationship that might fall apart. It puts responsibility on the other woman, but not even in anger. I feel like her husband is actually just her pet in this song and it makes me laugh.
Song from at least 50 years ago
Johnny Cash – Ring of Fire
I’ve been listening to this song constantly since my childhood. I can’t believe it’s more than 50 years old. Released in 1963. Time moves too fast sometimes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6ViaGyzfAk
Song that reminds you of school
Ryan Adams – Why Do They Leave?
I listened to this record a ton when I was in college, but I chose this song specifically because one time my friend Luke drank too much and missed a flight the next day and so my friends made a cover of this song called “Luke, why do you drink?” and it was pretty amazing. I’m sure it exists on the internet somewhere but I can’t find it anymore.
Song in a different language to your native tongue
Yael Naim – Selcha
I went to college in Boston and after college I moved to NYC, which is about a 4 hour drive. For a while, I played bass for my friend Gina who also moved to NYC, but the rest of her band still lived in Boston. This meant her and I took a lot of long drives and I got to know her CD collection way too well. This was one of the CDs that we could agree on and so for a while this was one we played all the time. Eventually I broke down and listened to Taylor Swift the whole time like she wanted to, but this song is still beautiful. Yael Naim is Israeli-French and that is super cool.
Quietest song you know
Keaton Henson – You
I first heard this dude on Tiny Desk, and the description of the set was that he basically whispered the whole time and people had to crowd super close to him just to hear what he was saying. The recording has a bit more instrumentation, but you can tell that he’s still basically whispering into a microphone. I’m so into quiet music; I feel like it can be so emotional and it’s often overlooked because people think of loud wailing and yelling etc to be the emotional stuff.
Here’s the entire ‘EP’ as one thing, if you want to kick back and listen:
Magana is releasing Golden Tongue EP on the 28th of October on Audio Antihero. Pre-order it now via Bandcamp. And if you’re in New York, head to The Studio at Webster Hall on the 26th of October to catch the EP’s release show.