Dear listeners,
Today, Jack White released a new solo album named “No Name,” joining the ranks of the many artists throughout history who have finished a piece of music and, confronted with the challenge of giving it an all-encompassing title, simply shrugged and said, “I’d rather not.” Elliott Smith, for example, had a whole numbered series of “No Name” songs, while the Breeders called their 2002 album “Title TK,” publishing shorthand for “to come later.” The rapper Noname has confused things further, cheekily titling a recent song “Namesake.” The mind boggles.
But when it comes to music without a name, one particular title has been used more often than any other: “Untitled.” And so we have arrived at the theme of today’s playlist, filled entirely with untitled tracks.
“Untitled,” that neutrally toned cop-out of a name, has been used by all kinds of artists past and present, Interpol, R.E.M. and Mk.gee among them. To call a song “Untitled” can be either pretentious or practical, depending on the ear of the beholder. Sometimes, as on Kendrick Lamar’s demo collection “Untitled Unmastered,” it’s used to suggest that there is a certain rough, unpolished quality to the material. Other times, as illustrated here in songs by Kate Bollinger and the Cure, a lack of a title echoes a narrator’s struggle to communicate the right sentiment. Every so often, it’s all a bit of a lark. Consider the playful wink that D’Angelo gave this whole phenomenon when he titled what is perhaps his most famous song, “Untitled (How Does It Feel).”
What’s in a name? These nine songs just might make you wonder. For all their differences, though, they share an understanding that an untitled song lets the music speak for itself.
Never quite said what I wanted to say to you,
Lindsay
Listen along while you read.
1. Interpol: “Untitled”
The post-punk revivalist group Interpol kicks off its beloved 2002 debut “Turn on the Bright Lights” with this glimmering mood piece that effectively sets the tone for the rest of the album. With vibes like these, who needs a title?
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2. D’Angelo: “Untitled (How Does It Feel)”
Arguably the definitive untitled song; inarguably the definitive untitled music video. D’Angelo attempts to have it both ways on this track from his sublime 2000 album “Voodoo,” rejecting the need for a title but giving his song a subtitle that references its recurring refrain. With abs like those, he’s allowed to call this song whatever he wants.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
3. Kendrick Lamar: “Untitled 08 I 09.06.2014”
One untitled track? Kendrick Lamar will raise you an entire album of untitled songs (albeit numbered and dated) on his 2016 collection “Untitled Unmastered,” which features demos recorded around the time of his 2015 opus “To Pimp a Butterfly.” The tracks on “Untitled Unmastered” feel weightier and more fully realized than most demos, as you can hear on this magnificently funky tune co-produced by the bassist and “Butterfly” collaborator Thundercat.
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4. Mk.gee: “Untitled”
Earlier this year, the producer, singer and guitarist Mk.gee — co-signed by none other than Eric Clapton — released his debut album, “Two Star & the Dream Police.” Before that, the 26-year-old rising star had been putting out a steady stream of self-recorded music, including this murky, atmospheric 2019 single.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
5. Kate Bollinger: “Untitled”
“The worst thing you could do is leave when I tell you, ‘Just go,’” the Virginia-born singer-songwriter Kate Bollinger sings in a jazzy, run-on cadence on this track from her 2019 EP “I Don’t Wanna Lose.” “Don’t listen to me, don’t listen to me, no.” The song is untitled, as if to echo the tongue-tied emotional indecision of its lyrics.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
6. The Cure: “Untitled”
The closing track on the Cure’s great 1989 album “Disintegration” is another untitled song about an inability to communicate: “Never quite said what I wanted to say to you,” Robert Smith sings in his morose croon. “Never quite managed the words to explain to you.” In a retrospective piece in honor of the album’s 25th anniversary, the Billboard writer Kenneth Partridge offered another theory, calling the song “so depressing that Smith couldn’t even give it a name.”
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7. R.E.M.: “Untitled”
Only 10 songs are listed on the back cover of R.E.M.’s 1988 album “Green,” but there is actually an 11th: this beautifully bittersweet hidden bonus track. Since a song needs some sort of name in order to be copyrighted, the band initially registered the track as “11,” but on digital editions of the 2013 “Green” remaster it is listed as “Untitled.” Whatever you want to call it, it’s a great song.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
8. Neutral Milk Hotel: “Untitled”
Not sure what to name a song without lyrics, like this 10th track on Neutral Milk Hotel’s cult classic “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea”? There’s always “Untitled”!
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
9. Blink-182: “Untitled”
And finally, from my favorite album of all time circa sixth grade, I will play you out with the buoyantly bratty eighth track off Blink-182’s “Dude Ranch.” I am convinced that Tom DeLonge wanted this song to have a name but that no one else could understand what he was saying so they just left it untitled.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
The Amplifier Playlist
“Untitled (The Playlist)” track list
Track 1: Interpol, “Untitled”
Track 2: D’Angelo, “Untitled (How Does It Feel)”
Track 3: Kendrick Lamar, “Untitled 08 I 09.06.2014”
Track 4: Mk.gee, “Untitled”
Track 5: Kate Bollinger, “Untitled”
Track 6: The Cure, “Untitled”
Track 7: R.E.M., “Untitled”
Track 8: Neutral Milk Hotel, “Untitled”
Track 9: Blink-182, “Untitled”
Bonus Tracks
“Brat Summer” continues on today’s Friday Playlist, which begins with an irreverent new collaboration between Charli XCX and Billie Eilish. (Yet another reason to tell your friends to subscribe to The Amplifier: Regular readers learned everything they needed to know about Charli before she became the surprise main character of the summer.) Our roundup of the week’s most notable new songs also includes tracks from MJ Lenderman, Kacey Musgraves, Meshell Ndegeocello and more. Listen here.
The post Untitled (The Playlist) appeared first on New York Times.