Staff Selects: R U Strong Enough

October 10, 2013



Every week, a different FADER editor compiles a playlist to highlight a new release and give you a guide to that artist’s web of influences and peers. These Staff Selects live in our Spotify app, alongside GEN Fs from our archives and playlists for each issue. This week, Naomi Zeichner draws a line between Sheryl Crow and Haim.

A couple days before my birthday in July, a childhood friend named Nichole passed away. It's hard to say with certainty, but I remember her as my first-ever friend, a person I wasn't set up to play with but wanted to be around and felt safe next to. She was also my first-ever older girl buddy, my introduction to what it felt like to have a chosen ally to learn things with. Nichole was bold where I was tentative; she knew she had good instincts and trusted them. If not taking shit is a core value of mine, I owe it to her. She lived way across town and we didn't have many mutual friends, so our sleepovers felt like our world against the bogus world: we'd watch Daria and Loveline, gasp at secrets and listen to CDs. From what I can remember of the music, we peaked together in 1995, a banner year for TLC and Dr. Dre. This summer, when Haim covered Sheryl Crow, I thought of Nichole. She bought Tuesday Night Music Club and I probably never would have; "Strong Enough" is still perfect. Here's a playlist starting with that song and spiraling out from there—to other '95 forces like Monica and Des'ree and the 2013 women that girls may be bonding over now, like Kacey Musgraves and Katy Perry.

Staff Selects: R U Strong Enough


From The Collection:

Staff selects
Staff Selects: R U Strong Enough