The Spotlight Radio

Welcome to Season 3 Episode 2 of the Spotlight Radio where your hosts, Aaron and Sarah Mae spotlight records they love. :^) This week, we started off our main program with the tracks from Pharrell Williams, The Neptunes and N.E.R.D. Aaron describes his love for Pharrell Williams as well as the undeniable influence he’s had on the current music industry. For the second half of the program, Sarah Mae highlighted ‘Yes Lawd!’ a 2015 rap and neo-soul album from NxWorries, a duo consisting of Anderson .Paak and Knxwledge. Aaron and Sarah Mae rave about the album’s production provided by Knxwledge. Thanks for listening! We hope you’ll join us for our LIVE program next week from 6pm-7:30pm at WGMURADIO.com, we’ll be playing a special program in anticipation of Valentine’s Day. ❤️

Welcome to week 9 of The Spotlight where Sarah Mae and Aaron highlight and discuss their favorite records! This week Aaron featured Playboi Carti's 2018 record 'Die Lit.' This is Carti's 2nd release and first studio album, one of the best trap albums of the year featuring an array of prolific artists like Skepta, Lil Uzi Vert, Nicki Minaj and more. Aaron praises Carti for his ability to make an album so minimal yet so vivid with sonic imagery. This was one of Aaron's favorite albums of 2018 and an instant classic that transcends space and time. Sarah Mae this week featured Thundercat's 2017 record 'Drunk.' Thundercat a bass player and singer is an artist that isn't afraid to combine humor and rigorous music playing into his music. Before 'Drunk,' Thundercat worked on Kendrick Lamar's 2015 record 'To Pimp a Butterfly' an album that will forever hold a special place in history, Sarah Mae even talks about their relationship together and the intentionality between them. 'Drunk' an album that has elements of funk, avant-garde jazz, and R&B brings out Thundercats strengths and pure talent as an artist. So make sure to give these albums a listen as you won't regret it! We also had the privilege to work with one of our best friends, Kylie Stamm, on her NEW podcast 'Better Out Loud.' Make sure to listen to this weeks episode to hear a snippet of the episode we are featured on. Check her out on Spotify by searching 'Better Out Loud' and on instagram @betterbytheletter Join us for week 10 on November 18th for the next LIVE show! Mondays at 6pm (EST) on wgmuradio.com

Welcome to week 8 of The Spotlight where Sarah Mae and Aaron highlight and discuss their favorite records! Sarah Mae started out the week with Father John Misty’s 2012 release, ‘Fear Fun.’ This record was Josh Tillman’s first album under the musical pseudonym, Father John Misty. Prior to his record he had released 7 previous records and before that he was also a drummer for the band, Fleet Foxes. Sarah Mae praises Tillman for his ability to create very enjoyable and listenable music while also making listeners uncomfortable (in a good way) with the messaging of his lyrics. Aaron brings up that even up to his most recent record (‘God’s Favorite Customer’ from 2018), Tillman has maintained this talent. This week’s second record was Sons of Kemet’s 2018 record, ‘Your Queen Is a Lizard.’ Sons of Kemet is a critically acclaimed experimental jazz group based in the UK. Aaron discusses how the record’s title refers to the queen of England. Meanwhile, each track begins with “My Queen is…” followed by the name of an influential, Black female leader (i.e. “My Queen is Angela Davis” and “My Queen is Harriet Tubman”). Aaron and Sarah Mae discuss the group’s intention behind these titles and the importance of uplifting the work of Black female leaders who have been too often sidelined by history. Both of these records give listeners much to think about! We hope you’ll give them a listen. Join us for week 9 on November 11th for the next LIVE show! Mondays at 6pm (EST) on wgmuradio.com

Welcome to week 7 of The Spotlight where Sarah Mae and Aaron highlight and discuss their favorite records! The first album that we featured this week was Earl Sweatshirt’s long awaited 2018 record ‘Some Rap Songs’ (SRS). A record that dives into Earls mental health (“Shattered Dreams”) grieving with the death of his father (“Playing Possum”), substance abuse ("Azucar") and his relationships with people he considered his friends (“Red Water”). Earl uses a series of vignettes to execute these themes and does it in a way that catches your attention. ‘SRS’ is such a mature record sonically, it has a very dark undertone and includes a lo-fi and sample heavy production, which draws many comparisons to MF Doom’s ‘Madvilliany'. Overall SRS is dark record that shows Earl in his most darkest moments but also growing/learning from those moments. The second album that we featured this week was UK singer/dancer/producer FKA twigs' 2014 record “LP1." This is her debut studio album which includes production from herself and UK artists like Arca, Sampha, and Dev Hynes (Blood Orange). A record that includes very cutting edge/dense production--something that wasn’t being done at the time. Lyrically she focuses on the dualism between love and lust, reality and fantasy. We see that in tracks like “Give Up” where she sings about wanting to change for the benefit of a partner, which comes off as toxic and unhealthy. We also talk about her work as a dancer and how that has influenced her music, tracks like "Video Girl" touch on her biography as a backup dancer and how she doesn't want to be known merely as the girl from music videos where she's danced in. Overall, LP1 is a record that has a very euphoric feeling to it which sucks you into FKA twigs' reality. Make sure to give these records a listen! Join us for week 8 on November 4th for the next LIVE show! Mondays at 6pm (EST) on wgmuradio.com

Welcome to week 6 of The Spotlight where Sarah Mae and Aaron highlight and discuss their favorite records! The first album we brought to the show this week was model-turned-pop-star Rina Sawayama’s 2017 EP, 'RINA.' We discuss the EP’s infectious pop style which harkens back to the Britney Spears era of pop music. Tracks such as “Ordinary Superstar” and “Alterlife” (which we mistakenly/affectionately call “Afterlife”) carries the nostalgia of the aughts, but are still unique to Sawayama’s voice and style. We also talk through the lyrics of the EP which as a whole, seek to grapple our relationships with technology. Our second album of the week was Toro y Moi’s 2019 album, 'Outer Peace.' We discuss the ways in which Toro y Moi is unafraid to challenge himself through his music. Aaron points out that Outer Peace is unlike any of his previous projects which is bold and unusual for many artists. The album within itself takes on many different styles and we showcase that by contrasting tracks like “Ordinary Pleasure” and “Monte Carlo (feat. WET)” with one another. We hope you’ll give these projects the listen they deserve! Join us for week 7 on October 28th for the next LIVE show! Mondays at 6pm (EST) on wgmuradio.com

Welcome to week 4 of The Spotlight where Sarah Mae and Aaron highlight and discuss their favorite records! This week we highlighted the 2019 record 'Titanic Rising' by Weyes Blood. A Baroque Pop album that incorporates a lot of themes of climate change, existentialism and modernism. Tracks like 'Movies' and 'Something to Believe' makes you think of the world we live in today. We dive into this record and discuss a lot of the instrumentation, the choices of timbre she uses, and her lyric choices. Following 'Titanic Rising' we discuss the 2018 record 'Be the Cowboy' by Mitski. An album that means so much to us as a whole and shows Mitski's constant growth as an artist. 'Be the Cowboy' is a record that uses a series of vignettes to reach an overreaching theme of wanting to be just like a cowboy and her love of music with tracks like 'Geyser.' Hope you enjoy this weeks episode! :-) Join us next week for Ep. 5 Mondays at 6pm on wgmuradio.com

Welcome to week 3 of The Spotlight where Sarah Mae and Aaron highlight and discuss their favorite records! This week we discussed two of our favorite records of 2019. Coming off his prolific 2017 record 'Flower Boy,' Tyler the Creator does it again! His 2019 record IGOR is packed with themes of love, jealousy and so much more! We discussed the themes behind tracks like NEW MAGIC WAND and the production off of tracks like RUNNING OUT TIME. Brace yourself for the blaring synthesizer chords on IGORS THEME as it starts off the show! The next record we talked about was Injury Reserve's 2019 self titled record, 'Injury Reserve.' Coming off of multiple EPs and Mixtape this is the first studio album that the rap trio is putting out after signing with their label. Injury Reserve is full of themes of brotherhood, growth, and the effect of the industry. With Parkers quirky production and Ritchies witty/emotional verses and Groggs powerful verses the group has become one of the better Hip Hop groups this year! Make sure to listen to 'IGOR' and 'Injury Reserve' Join us next week for Ep. 4 Mondays at 6pm on wgmuradio.com

Welcome to Week 2 of The Spotlight where Sarah Mae and Aaron highlight and discuss their favorite records!! This past week Sarah Mae highlighted one of her favorite albums from middle school, Metronomy's 2011 album 'The English Riviera.' On the show, Sarah Mae explains the emotional connection she has with this album; it holds special memories she has with her sister. Although the album has a sound that has been oversaturated since its 2011 release, it is nonetheless enjoyable. "The Bay" is her personal favorite of the record. Aaron highlighted a very special album that holds a lot of sentiment, The Pedrito Martinez Group self titled 2013 record. The Pedrito Martinez Group an Afro Latin Jazz album highlights a lot original Cuban music known as Timba. An exemplary album that was on NPR's best albums of the year list and was nominated for a Grammy. Give these albums a listen! Join us next week for Ep.3 Mondays at 6pm on wgmuradio.com

Welcome back to The Spotlight, where Sarah Mae and Aaron highlight and discuss their favorite records!! Our first episode back we highlighted the 2019 mixtape, 'Angels Pulse' by the one and only Blood Orange (Dev Hynes) which carries several themes of grief and growth. Coming off of his prolific 2018 album, 'Negro Swan,' we dive in to what this mixtapes means in relation to his previous record and what it means to us. The next album we highlighted was the 2019 Steve Lacy debut album, 'Apollo XXI' which carries an overarching theme of self discovery and acceptance and according to Steve Lacy himself is his "coming of age record." Coming off of his 2018 record with The Internet, 'Hive Mind,' he goes in a different direction for his solo debut release and we discuss what that means to us. Join us next week for Ep. 2 Mondays at 6pm on wgmuradio.com

Welcome to the offseason of The Spotlight Radio!  In this bonus episode we aren't in our typical studio but we still wanted to give you all some content during the winter time! 2019 was full of great albums and we wanted to highlight our top 10 albums of the year. This list is made up of albums that we both enjoyed together and is important to note that they aren't ranked in any sort of order. We hope you enjoy this special bonus episode and keep a look out for more special content coming later this offseason. Here are our top 10 albums of 2019: 1. Angels Pulse (Blood Orange) [track 'Dark & Handsome' (feat. Toro y Moi) is featured]  2. ZUU (Denzel Curry) [track 'SPEEDBOAT' is featured] 3. Bandana (Freddie Gibbs & Madlib) [track 'Palmolive' (feat. Pusha T & Killer Mike) is featured] 4. Titanic Rising (Weyes Blood) [track 'Something to Believe' is featured] 5. IGOR (feat. Tyler, the Creator) [track 'WHATS GOOD' is featured] 6. Beware of the Dogs (Stella Donnelly) [track 'Mosquito' is featured] 7. Schlagenheim (black midi) [track '953' is featured] 8. CHARLI (Charli XCX) [track 'Next Level Charli' is featured] 9. uknowhatimsayin¿ (Danny Brown) [track 'Best Life' is featured] 10. Flamboyant (Dorian Electra) [track 'Man to Man' is featured] Thank you all for joining us on this journey this past year and we can't wait to give you all so much more great content for 2020! Happy New Years!