Some Songs Feel Like a Movie. A Gut Punch. A Summer Romance.
From retro-futurist visuals to bittersweet Italian summers, Ally's picks reflect a listener who experiences music as much as she hears it.
Ally (@allys_vinylhub) moves through the March 24 to 26 prompts like someone who doesn't just listen to music but pictures it. The picks come with visuals attached: a cover that captures everything, a song that feels like the end of a summer, and a new artist who showed up in a recommendation and never left.
The prompts pull in different directions but Ally has a clear picture for each. One asks which album cover with a car she loves, and the answer is less about the car and more about how perfectly the whole thing comes together conceptually. Another goes after the album track that deserved to be a single, and Ally's answer is a Lana Del Rey deep cut that got buried when it should have been the focus. The last one asks about a recent discovery, and for Ally that's an artist she stumbled onto through a Spotify recommendation and hasn't stopped playing since.
There's a cinematic quality to the way Ally listens. The Boys Will Be Boys breakdown is the clearest sign of it, someone who listens closely enough to catch what a song is really about. The Lana deep cut tells you something too, a listener who responds to atmosphere and imagery as much as melody. The visual instinct runs through all of it, and so does the conviction.
Which album cover with a car do you love?
The album cover is iconic and one of my favourites because it’s so fun and perfectly encapsulates the record’s entire aesthetic. Even though the car is only partially visible, its vintage yet somewhat futuristic design is the perfect visual representation of album’s classic vintage disco and modern pop.
A song that really hit me is ‘Boys Will Be Boys’. It is such a gut punch because it strips away all the fun and vibes of the album and talks about issues woman face on a daily basis and forces a conversation that is way overdue. It’s so poignant because it perfectly captures the way that woman are on a constant alert.
The lyric about hiding your keys between your knuckles when you’re walking home? It hits so hard because it’s a universal experience that most men never even have to think about.
The lyric about hiding your keys between your knuckles when you’re walking home? It hits so hard because it’s a universal experience that most men never even have to think about. I can’t even count the amount of times I’ve walked down a street and see a man approaching or coming up behind me and I do a quick scan of my surroundings for anything I could potentially use… just in case. For generations the phrase, “boys will be boys” has been used as a get out of jail free card to excuse men’s behaviour. Dua flips that on its head by pointing out that while boys are being excused for their bad behaviour, woman are being taught to be on constant alert and how to survive them.
What’s an album track that deserved to be a single?
It is one of Lana’s most beautiful and cinematic songs that reminds me of an old black and white Hollywood movie. The vocals, the production, everything about the song is a masterpiece and it deserved to be highlighted and not hidden away in the middle of the album. Even though the song was released as a promo single a few days before the album released it never got the spotlight it deserved.
This song always gives me the same feeling I get when summer is about to end. Whenever I hear it, I always think about a 1940s Italian summer romance that has a bittersweet ending. It is the kind of romance you reminisce about 50 years later with your grandchildren while you show them a scrapbook of your Italian vacation when you were younger and tell them about this charming Italian man who swept you off your feet.
Which artist have you recently discovered?
I discovered Susannah Joffe last year when ‘Sofia Coppola’ popped up on a Spotify recommendation. The track immediately gave me Lana Del Rey vibes, so I decided to dive deeper and instantly fell in love with her sound. Her EP, Cult Leader, is definitely Lana coded in production, yet it’s still so uniquely hers both conceptually and visually. I resonate with her music so much that I can honestly leave her discography on loop for hours.
If you haven’t listened to Susannah yet, I would start with my favourite song, Call Me Pretty. It’s ones of those songs that I listen to when I want to be all in my feels. It’s so raw and haunting and is the perfect ‘lie on your bed and stare at the ceiling’ song. It’s so well written and the way the song builds is just perfection.
Ally's picks don't separate the visual from the sonic. A cover has to earn it. A song has to transport you. An artist has to have something real to say. What connects the picks is a listener with an eye for what works, an ear for what lasts, and the taste to tell the difference.
A listener with a cinematic ear and a soft spot for songs that feel like they were written about her life experiences. Shawn Mendes has been her comfort person since her teens.
