Monday Mixtape is another path towards music discovery, featuring people whose taste I admire answering a series of questions and prompts with songs (which might change from time to time).
This week on Monday Mixtape, we've got Squirrel Flower, the project of Chicago songwriter Ella Williams, whose fourth studio album, Say a Prayer to the Gods of Getting Going, came out August 21st on Polyvinyl. She wrote it during a relentless touring stretch between 2024 and 2025 and the record sounds a bit like a travelogue - unending stretches of highways, the feeling of being untethered, fleeting encounters, ambivalence, freedom. Each song seems to reflect a different landscape, all of them beautiful, each reflection reverent in its own way, the whole album containing one through line: the inertia of motion. I love it.
Here is her Monday Mixtape:
Ella
Leo sun, cancer moon, scorpio rising, cancer venus, cancer mars…. Eek!
Chicago, Illinois, USAHow do you find/discover music?
Lately I’ve been discovering music by reading zines, going to shows, getting recommendations from friends.
What was the first song you put on when you woke up this morning?
Tammy Wynette “Stand By Your Man”
What song have you listened to more than once this past week?
Madonna “Live to Tell” (ed note: LFG)
What is a recent song you think everyone should know about?
“My Friend’s an Entomologist” by Sweeping Promises
A song off your workout playlist:
I don’t work out like that but when I bike around Chicago nothing hits like “Arm Around You” by Arthur Russell. Or “Don’t Forget About Me.” anything by Arthur Russell really. OH or “Reckless” by Kassie Krut.
What song can you do at karaoke without looking at the tv screens?
“Total Eclipse of the Heart” by Bonnie Tyler
Song you associate with being 13 years old:
“Untouched” by The Veronicas
What’s a song you play when you want to cast a spell into the world?
“Horses” by Sea Oleena
What song do you listen to when you want a lobotomy?
“Double Dare Ya” by Bikini Kill. Nothing like feminine rage to get you out of depression + apathy! CHOOSE LIFE!!!! Revolution girl style nowwwwwwww
What song do you use to indulge your wallowing?
“Heart like a Wheel” Linda Ronstadt
What song do you use to renew your spirit?
“A New Day” by ESG (ed note: the fucking best)
What is your favorite cover song?
Anything by Springsteen
What song would you like to hear just before you die?
Deep and dark and beautiful question... Probably “Grove” by Elysia Crampton…or any recording of my family making music together.
Almost all of the songs on Ella’s Monday Mixtape can be found HERE
I love their new record so much! "Cleveland" is an all-timer in my book. Thanks for this!