Obsessions (September 2025)

I started Five Obsessions as an homage to my long defunct Pigeons and Planes column “5 On It.” But why confine myself to five of my favorite songs or albums each month when I could simply list more things I like? So starting this month, I’m expanding the scope because I can’t see a good reason not to. Same ethos as before. Some new songs, some old. Some new to me, some revisited. Published in the middle of every month (typically on the second Saturday).

You can listen to the running list of Applied Science favorites in the Spotify playlist below and read about this week’s specific picks below that.

Sideshow – “How to Kill a Man”

Just Great Rap Music Pt. 1

King Hendrick$, That Mexican OT, MG Lil Bubba – “Cowhide Boots”

Just Great Rap Music Pt. 2

Boylife – “1Time”

In a just world, this would be a multi-platinum pop star turn.

KTMelodies – “Put Ya Hands in the Air”

Finally not just a snippet on TikTok.

Mach-Hommy – “Sonje”

Sometimes the future feels like the past without being stuck in it.

Geese – “Trinidad”

Like recording a broken memory of a Sly Stone song during the worst acid trip in history.

Young Nudy – “Chains On”

Young Nudy quietly has become rap’s current beat selection king.

Verses GT (Nosaj Thing & Jacques Greene) - “Left”

Gorgeously adrift.

Don Toliver – “Tiramisu”

I regret to say that I could listen to Don Toliver sing my Venmo activity from the last five years to me and I’d probably be hypnotized by it.

System of a Down – the whole catalog

Every few months, I find myself deep diving a band or artist I either never got into or listened to as a teenager but didn’t explore thoroughly. The world feels increasingly inscrutable, the news terrifying, the microplastics closing in from all sides like an invisible, suffocating fog. The absurd, thrashing, melodic metal of System of a Down felt like a fitting antidote as summer burned past Labor Day here in LA. System hasn’t been lavished the revisionist “cool” that bands like Deftones and, to an extent, Slipknot and Korn have earned through survival and well-received late career releases. In contrast, System’s last album arrived in 2005 and their singular blend of thrash, theatrical vocal performances, Armenian folk melodies, confrontationally political lyrics, and Dadaist imagery make their music as compelling as it is ostensibly “uncool.” They still have the power to sell out stadiums, in no small part due to the blistering honesty and historically unmatched blend that comprises their catalog.