5 Songs I Love w/ Baby Condor

Following the release of their latest single, 'Seventeen', Flex caught up with Dutch brothers Baby Condor to find out what influences their unique sound, blending pop, country, folk, and indie. If you enjoy Baby Condor's picks, be sure to check out 'Seventeen' at the end of the article.

1. Beach Boys - God Only Knows

One of our favourite songwriters, Brian Wilson took pop music to the next level with his 1966 Pet Sounds album. Filled with beautiful progressions, complex harmonies and unique sounds, this song and record are almost perfect. Mr. Wilson was a master of counterpoint and orchestration, respecting all of Western music from before his time. While at the same time experimenting heavily with crazy sounds, voicings and studio gear. The guy literally brought his dogs into the studio for recording the perfect bark. Really someone who knows what he’s doing, and then chooses to play around. For us, that’s a great artist.

2. Jonathan Wilson - Love to Love

We love Jonathan Wilson, one of the best artists at it today. We like his songwriting, his approach to recording and producing, but most of all, we like his lyrics. A great storyteller, his lyrics are very personal yet relatable and poetic yet readable. They sound magical, but are almost always grounded in actual events that occurred in actual places. He also really beautifully utilizes what we call "musical scenes”, where a verse, chorus or whatever can have a dramatic change in vibe. Something we are used to in cinema, but a little less in pop music. Jonathan Wilson is a master of this craft. His success as an independent (recording) artist is something that inspires us and keeps us going.

3. Paul Simon - Still Crazy After All These Years

This song famously uses all 12 notes in the Helmholtz-Ellis pitch notation, so it literally takes you everywhere in a little over three minutes by using progressions more familiar to jazz than pop. But it doesn’t sound like that at all, it’s very easy listening and pretty easy to sing along with. In our book, that’s a great pop song: instantly recognizable but full of hidden gems for the curious listener. The production style is very minimalistic, with just drums, bass and a beautiful tremolo’d Fender Rhodes. And of course topped off with those amazing woodwind and string arrangements.

4. Alain Toussaint - Last Train

Alain Toussaint really did an impressive job in this song. The soul and vibe are so spot on, it’s just right. You really feel it when the groove kicks in and the bass starts rolling. The production style is very cool. They used vocals as a percussion instrument, and on occasion, even mimicking tape-echo. Alain Toussaint is not shy about using panning! Something that we really love doing ourselves too. If you would listen to the album in its entirety, which you should always do, you hear the title track ‘Southern Nights’ fading in and out between songs, emphasizing the skill of Alain Toussaint of producing albums as a whole, and not only singles.

5. Steely Dan - Aja

Well, where to start… We know one thing about this song, you will hear something new every time you listen on different speakers or headphones. So please do so. Now. Steely Dan is so clinically well produced and filled with little surprises it makes you sink deep into your chair, feeling musical humility, or even despair. But it also makes you feel that anything is possible. This track features Beinte’s favorite drummer Steve Gadd and man, what a performance. The drums are dynamic, very original and feel contemporary even today in 2025. A timeless performance. And again, not shy on panning. Why would you?

Listen to Baby Condor 'Seventeen'

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