Music Op - Intro
It is with my great excitement that I welcome you to my monthly music journal: Music Op, available exclusively here on Sacred Spiral Studios. My name is Atticus Deeny, and I am a 23-year-old fervent music enjoyer currently residing in lovely Philadelphia, PA. With this platform, I plan on giving you my outlook on anything music related such as news, new releases, personal stories, and the industry in general.
Since this column is going to be a personal opinion section of mine, I feel like I should introduce you to myself and my background in music to help you contextualize my later entries and takes. I will try not to ramble too much, but I think it will be important and hopefully somewhat interesting to hear about what led me to care so much about music in my short life so far.
I grew up in the small town of Ellsworth, Maine, where most music happenings were local operations. There was one store called Mainely Music that sold instruments, sheet music, and audio equipment, which may still be around? Not completely sure but it was cool to me as a kid to see all that stuff. At that point, my dream job was to be a rockstar.
As a kid I would sink all my computer time into the iTunes Store, and around 3rd grade I helped pay for an iPod Nano (5th gen). Eventually I learned about Spotify, and mostly moved on from buying music online. But these two platforms provoked a fascination for new releases. Tuesdays and now Fridays became big days for me, and I’d be sure to check the curated lists of new music each week. One thing I plan on covering in each edition of this journal will be standout new releases from the prior month.
I have known our wonderful moderator Ian for many years, as we grew up in nearby towns and similar friend groups, and I’ve had the privilege of sharing many soundwaves with him on and off the stage. He was one of the biggest collaborators in my collaborative group Waao, under which most of the music I have ever made was released. Waao started as a band creating hip-hop music in high school (as many aspiring musicians do), and evolved into a tighter-knit entity once I left Maine for college. Attending Drexel University’s music industry program was quite fun and educational, plus it guided me to Philadelphia, where I plan on staying for a while now that I’m done with school.
My current status with the music industry is interesting; I work close to full time at a grocery store, do small part-time video work with Common Beat Music, host a music-centric YouTube channel, and write freelance articles for the local radio station WXPN. It is not the rockstar dream job I used to believe I was destined for, but it is far from a waste of my swanky degree. As of right now, music journalism is the most attractive career path for me, hence my decision to spend my free time pumping out demonetized YouTube content and lengthy opinion pieces in hopes of something being heard and enjoyed by the masses. However, I do plan on getting back into the technical side of music soon. The inspiration just needs to hit hard enough.
For now, that’s all you need to know about me. There’s gotta be some things left to talk about in the coming months! To start things off, I’ll leave you with my top 10 favorite tracks from September 2024. I don’t have many rules for these lists; a singular artist could land all 10 of the spots if they really kill it, but that’s never been the case. This is something I’ve been doing since 2017, and I’ve got Spotify playlists for each month if anyone is curious of the evolution of my music taste.
Friday the 13th really came through with three powerful albums: Allegra Krieger’s Art of the Unseen Infinity Machine, Laila!’s Gap Year!, and Fousheé’s Pointy Heights. These albums each placed a few songs that will undoubtedly be contending for my year-end best list (which is a top 50 — stay tuned).
10. “What’s It Take To Be A Star?” - Montell Fish
9. “Smoke (feat. Kenny Mason)” - Toro y Moi
8. “Roosevelt Ave” - Allegra Krieger
7. “Over and Out” - Allegra Krieger
6. “loverisland” - Fouhseé
5. “New Mexico” Allegra Krieger
4. “birds, bees” - Fouhseé
3. “Want 2” - Laila!
2. “If U Don’t Know By Now” - Laila!
1. “closer” - Fouhseé
Link to Spotify Playlist - top 10 of September
