Cruise Control, Acoustic Doja, and a Life in Chromatica
From nostalgic R&B to stripped-back pop fantasies and albums that feel like entire worlds, Corazonciito Vinyl’s picks reflect a listener who connects with music through nostalgia, vulnerability, and escape.
Corazonciito Vinyl has loved music since he was a little boy. He remembers finding comfort in the girl groups he grew up with, and how their songs and videos gave him the courage to be himself. Destiny’s Child, The Cheetah Girls, and Danity Kane became some of the first artists to make music feel like that for him, and that feeling has stayed with him over the years.
His September 13 to 15 selections move through some of the sounds, artists, and ideas currently catching his attention. The first prompt asks him about a song that could have come from another decade, bringing up musical influences and why certain sounds can feel both familiar and completely current. The second imagines an artist making an acoustic record and opens up a conversation about vulnerability and hearing a familiar performer in a more exposed setting. The final prompt focuses on an album cover he would want to step inside, taking the conversation into visual worlds and the way an album can meet us at exactly the moment we need it.
Which song sounds like it belongs in another decade?
There are so many choices that I feel could fit in different decades, but I’ll go with a song I’ve been listening to often lately. Honestly anything on Kehlani’s self-titled album can be reminded of the 90s/early 2000s. The one song that’s been on repeat for me lately is “Cruise Control.” It sounds like it could live in the world of Brandy with the stacked harmonies, the softness in her voice and just a very laid-back vibe. The reason why I like this song is that it makes me feel like I’m flying. The type of vibe where I’m just looking out the window driving through the city and finally feeling free. It’s something just straight out of 2000s music video. Although it could fit into this decade or R&B it also still sounds so fresh and new.
I would say my top 5 songs from her album currently are, of course, “Cruise Control,” “Back and Forth,” “Sweet Nuthins,” “Oooh,” and “Out The Window.” For this album, I wasn’t expecting the amount of collaborations that it had, but I liked that she brought artists that brought 90s and early 2000s R&B to life and they did it again for this album.
Which artist would you love to hear make an acoustic album?
It’s hard to pick just one, but I would really love to hear what Doja Cat would do with an acoustic album. We’ve already seen all the things Doja can create, but I want to hear what that could sound like if all of it was stripped back. I feel like it would be reminiscent of something like when Ms. Lauryn Hill did MTV Unplugged No. 2.0 specifically the song, “Mystery of Iniquity.” I just think Doja would sound so dope with the rawness of her vocals and a guitar. A whole album of stripped songs would be so good.
I would really love to hear “Agora Hills” with an acoustic guitar. I just think that Doja is already such a top tier performer that I want her to showcase her vocals more because we know she has nice vocals. She has shown us that she can deliver bars, visuals, choreography and sing down, but now I think it would so amazing to see the vulnerability behind Doja.
Which album cover would you want to step inside?
The album cover I would like to step inside is Chromatica by Lady Gaga. She essentially created a whole new world with Chromatica. The concept she created for that album was so needed especially given our reality in 2020 and still to this day. Gaga created an escape for people like me to take our trauma and turn it into beauty through music and to appreciate life, even the challenging parts. That album cover was physically photographed and not digitally generated. I would have love to have seen that set being made and the process behind all of it. With every detail having an intention behind it, Gaga created, in my opinion, one of the most iconic covers.
For me, “Rain On Me” is such an important song that I feel speaks on everything she meant for this album. I interpret this song as although we will face a lot of difficulties in our lives we must try to stay grateful for the life we do have. I feel that she is allowing us to be vulnerable and to cry and is showing us that through this pain there will always be a bright sun on the other side waiting for us. This album is about the trauma Gaga has faced in her own life and her bright sun is the music and the sound she creates to overcome the pain she feels. Hence why she called the album, Chromatica, which is a literal meaning of colors and the musical scale. This album came at a hard time in my life and it’s like she knew I needed to hear this message.
For Corazonciito Vinyl, Lady Gaga occupies a pretty unique place in his life. Not just as an artist he loves, but as someone whose music has been there through completely different versions of himself. He remembers his first concert, the Monster Ball in 2010, going with his dad and sister and feeling an “immense feeling of love from her stage presence,” he shares. Getting to experience that moment with his dad made it even more special, and years later, in 2025, he finally lived out another dream: standing front row at the Mayhem Ball, this time with his boyfriend, his soulmate. In between those two concerts are fifteen years of memories, and Gaga’s music has been there for some of the hardest and happiest ones. During his “darkest and loneliest moments,” he says, her music gave him the strength to continue being himself and something to look forward to. And if the last fifteen years are any indication, there will hopefully be many more Gaga memories, eras, and milestones waiting for him ahead.
An elementary teacher, coffee enthusiast, music lover, vinyl collector, and plant daddy, with a personality he describes as strong-willed, sensitive, and compassionate.
