Hello, my name is Naz Kawakami. I’m the Deputy Editor of Monster Children based in New York City. Did you know that for a number of years, I was a radio DJ? You probably did because I never shut the fuck up about it. My show was called Night Drive, every Thursday from midnight to 3AM. Those were good times. A lot of sex, drugs, and partying were done in that little Honolulu radio studio. None of it done by me, but it’s still cool to think about. 

Anyway, since taking this Editor job, I spend most of my day the way I spent my days as a DJ: listening to music. Some good, some bad. Some old, some new. Every Friday, I compile the week’s worth of music into a playlist. Songs we’ve been enjoying, songs we’ve just (re)discovered, and songs that offer a preview into what features we have coming out soon. Not the newest, not the rarest, just good music. The mood of the week over at the MC New York City office for you to judge and enjoy. 

This week I am back in New York City and have pulled out of the sex classics toward more contemporary (kind of) listening preferences. For example, the new King Krule song, the head-clearing, ‘Seaforth’, and my favorite track from what I reckon will end up being album of the year (I’m calling it now), ‘Bull Believer’ from Wednesday’s recent album, Rat Saw God, which is a bit of a slow burning 3-song-mash that ends in a painfully cathartic screaming match that has to be heard more than twice to be understood or even really tolerated.

From back in the good old days, we have songs you can send your crush. Todd Rundgren, one of the most sentimentally vivid rockers of all time (perhaps only beaten out by Alex Chilton and Chris Bell of Big Star) is always a safe bet, and ‘A Dream Goes Forever’ is one of his more pensive, resolved tracks. While most of this listing is quite shy and delicate (Frankie Cosmos’ singing to herself and the Alessi Brothers’ ‘Seabird’, especially), if your crush is a bit on the heavier side or you’re just bad at expressing your feelings, there is also a considerable amount of sludge throughout, particularly on The Pastels’ ‘Nothing To Be Done’, a track that throws its hands up and surrenders to adoration, and of course, the fairy godparents of mucky guitar strums, my bloody valentine’s, ‘sometimes’. Tell them how you feel, or just send them this article and let them hear for themselves. Have a good weekend.

Feedback, complaints, hate mail, dating advice, hit me.

(honorable mention not listed on Spotify: Best Coast’s ‘Sun Was High (So Was I)’, listed below.