Shadows, Soundwaves, and the Things That Matter

And just like that, we’re into the dark season. Living in Downtown Manhattan is thrilling, but it comes with long shadows cast by the tall buildings. In winter, the sun touches our home only briefly, and sometimes it is just reflected from a neighboring building. To help our plants survive the season, we installed a five-bulb planting light, which hopefully also lifts heavy winter moods.

It has been impossible to escape the news that 50,000 fully AI-generated tracks are uploaded to the French streaming service Deezer daily. They also conducted a survey that found 97% of listeners can’t tell AI music from music made by humans. Of course, they can’t. Most people also can’t tell if a song was made on a $1,000 laptop or in a studio with a million dollars’ worth of analog gear. The process doesn’t matter to the listener; the result does.

The real question is: who’s responsible for those 50,000 new tracks every single day?

According to Deezer, 70% are fraudulent. But what about the rest? No matter how easy it is to create an AI track, it still takes effort to upload it to streaming services. Do they really believe that having a large number of tracks out there will somehow turn micropayments per stream into a significant amount of money? Sometimes a track goes viral and is heavily reported by the media. But that’s like playing the lottery: somebody always wins the big prize, but it won’t be you.

Music is more than a pleasant movement of air pressure. There are enough people out there who appreciate the culture around it or want to idolize the artist behind it. While AI-generated music will have its place – for example, in the elevator – I’m confident that interest in human-created music rather grows than disappears.

Five Songs: Forgotten 80s

Listen to glamglare five songs on Spotify, Apple Music, or below on YouTube.

While driving in Germany, we listened to an 80s station that played an underwhelming, limited selection of evergreens. Here are five songs that could help spice up their playlist.

• Icehouse - "Street Café": Icehouse is an Australian band that scored numerous hits in the 80s. Elke and I agree: “Street Café” from the 1982 album Primitive Man is our favorite.
• Falco - "Auf der Flucht": Falco’s 1982 debut Einzelhaft is a masterpiece that perfectly captures the spirit of its era. It also introduced rap to many with “Der Kommissar”. Once again, Elke and I agree that “Auf Der Flucht” is our favorite.
• Heaven 17 - "Let Me Go": The British synth-pop band Heaven 17 released two iconic albums in the early '80s. “Let Me Go” (1982) is a dance track with an energetic beat that can hold the 12” version for over 6 minutes.
• Thomas Dolby - "Europa and the Pirate Twins": this 1981 synth-pop classic is about World War II, but I fell for the metaphor at face value: two childhood friends who are separated when she becomes famous.
• Anne Clark - "Our Darkness": Anne Clark recites a poem over a steady, industrial beat, which was a novel concept in 1982.

Song Pick of the Day

Listen to/watch all seven songs on [YouTube](Link Here). Follow our daily updated playlists on YouTube, Apple Music, or Spotify for the 50 latest Song Pick of the Day features, or subscribe here to receive them in your mailbox in real-time. Thank you for following us and sharing the excitement.

• A burst of indie warmth and first-love nostalgia — Krooked Kings’ “Parking Lot” lands right where it feels good.
• “Figure It Out” by Poster Girl is a slow-burning indie-rock track that traces the path from doubt to clarity, growing steadily like a thought that finally finds its shape.
• Folk-pop magic blooms as Charm of Finches unveil the luminous “Meteor”.
• Laeeqa’s new single “Motion” brings heartfelt vocals to an underground dnb backdrop, turning personal struggles into something powerful and hopeful.
• A quiet ache, a gentle release — Sunflower Thieves glow on “Already Taken,” a comforting companion for anyone who’s been there.
• Bright, bold, and bittersweet — “The Disappearing Girl” by Mollie Elizabeth turns old-school glamour into something urgent and modern.
• A quiet rush of beauty — Ásgeir’s “Sugar Clouds” sweeps you up before you know it.

New Albums Out This Week

As 2025 comes to an end, album releases become rarer. But this week we still have a firework with three highly anticipated glamglare favorites.

Wyldest – The Universe is Loading

“It’s a collection of songs about love and life in an ever-changing universe, and how we must constantly adapt and grow within it,” says Zoë Mead, aka Wyldest, about her fourth album The Universe Is Loading. Across 11 shimmering indie-pop songs, she guides us from space-age romanticism to our current tech disillusionment — with a few straight-up love songs woven in. The Universe Is Loading is probably my favorite Wyldest album to date.

Yndling – Time Time Time (I’m in the Palm of Your Hand)

We’ve been following the road to Time Time Time (I’m in the Palm of Your Hand) all year as Silje Espevik, aka Yndling, unveiled a string of singles and an early EP. Now the full album brings these pieces together into a quiet breakup story, wrapped in a dreamy sonic world shaped by her affection for 80s/90s shoegaze and trip-hop. It’s a gentle, immersive listen — and one that rewards sinking into its mood.

Austra - Chin Up Buttercup

Katie Stelmanis, aka Austra, looks so profoundly unhappy on the cover of her fifth album that you almost want to tell her, Chin up, Buttercup. But she has a better response to heartbreak than forced composure. From the opening track, “Amnesia,” onward, she shows how to turn sadness into motion — channeling emotional fallout into surging, dance-powered energy.

Nine Photos: Bavaria, Moonlight, and a Few Fuzzy Friends

We’re barely a week back, and New York already has us in its familiar, unstoppable grip — suddenly everything feels urgent again, everything demands attention at once. All the more reason to slow down for a moment and look back at the start of our trip: two days at the lovely Bavaria Hotel and some much-needed in-person time with my dad.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Burgrain even more wrap you in nature, mountains, and a little bit of farm life — a different pace than what we’re used to in New York. We wandered past content little sheep, watched the moon rise over the valley, and soaked in beautiful views. Here are nine photos from those first days: small pauses, and a reminder that calm places still exist. Enjoy!