I do not need to ever hear about “Mr. Cryptocurrency Scarface.” I do not need a third “NY State of Mind.” I do not need to hear a rapper shout out both the Mets and the Yankees like he is Andrew Cuomo. I do not need “Madmen” to poorly rehash Nas’ older, better work. I do not need the insincerity of “Bouquet.” I absolutely do not need a second crypto song.
This album is not as bad as my complaining. DJ Premier is workmanlike here, as is Nas’ flow. Neither one shows any of the inspiration or effort of their best work, but they can get a groove running every now and again. However, I do not need this album.
I thoroughly enjoyed watching A Hard Day’s Night. I first heard The Beatles before I could speak. Many people do. They’re not just an institution, they are the institution. Every piece of music currently made is in some way in conversation with The Beatles.
So, it’s astonishing to see them as just a bunch of very, very likable lads getting up to hijinks. It’s fun to see Ringo run a visual joke or John rebel against their manager. It’s magical to see the boys they were.
Of course, the magic is the music. The movie finds space for a lot of music and the album finds even more. “And I Love Her” is the first great McCartney ballad and the centerpiece of the movie. John’s edge in “I’ll Cry Instead” and “You Can’t Do That” is emphasized both by his performance in the movie and by the songs being cut from it.
For all four of the Beatles, watching the movie and then revisiting the album has shown me things I never understood about them. The majority of the movie is four lads from Manchester running away from teenage girls and enjoying every moment of it. I wish they had been able to do that forever.
Music, Fashion, Film is an album lacking in both good music and good ideas. I do not believe that it achieves a single one of its goals. It’s not an interesting enough experiment, it’s not an honest enough confessional and it’s not good enough as a rock album, a pop album or as a mixture of the two.
She does not have the voice for the rock styles that she chooses. It is particularly bad in the obnoxious and boring opener “Rock Music” that would be appropriative were it not so slight. It gets no better with the following “SS26” that adds a shallow cynicism and a hollow mock-profundity to the already uninteresting music.
The rock in Music, Film, Fashion is superficial. Hyperpop has already taken a great deal from rock. 100 gecs and Rina Sawayama have both mined ’00s rock to make fascinating music but they were able to do that because they clearly grew up with those sounds. Charli was clearly listening to Britney and N*SYNC instead and so she has an incredible ear for modern pop but this album shows no such understanding of rock.
She pulls two great sounds from her rock foray though. The first half of “Card Declined” and the chorus of “I’m Afraid” are both excellent. She gets harsher and harder with her rock and that works much better than the rest of the album. It makes me wish that rather than the anodyne rock she takes from for the acceptable but forgettable “Persona” and “Yeah” she had found Sleater-Kinney and Bikini Kill. I would have loved a Charli riot grrrl album.
She has some other decent music in “wink wink” and “2007”. They are both good Charli pop but nothing novel. “Camera” is more interesting and has both a strong opening and chorus. It also has some of her better lyrics on a very weak album lyrically. I’ve been listening to Charli for a long time. I saw her when she opened for Marina and the Diamonds. I saw her when it was me and a dozen other people at a free concert in the Golden Gate Park. I don’t claim to know her as a result but I can say that she’s much more convincing when she talks about ambition or hedonism than she ever gets in the introspection of this album.
This is fittingly at its worst at the end of the album. “No One Lasts Forever” is boring music and boring thinking and then made much worse by a trite David Cronenberg outro. It, like the rest of the album, is nearly devoid of originality.
Little Simz takes this short, almost entirely collaborative EP to try a more popular sound. It works well. It’s not her most individual or her most interesting work but it’s a new and effective mode for her and a fun 13 minutes.
Like all of us, Vince Staples is working through America. He’s not new to this. Baldwin once said that to be conscious is to be in constant rage. Vince is more fatalistic. He holds resignation in the standout chorus “White flag / I don’t wanna fight no more” and yet he cannot help but speak.
He speaks well too. The rapping in Cry Baby is never as challenging as his best work but the album is consistently propulsive and the slight move into party rap for “Go! Go! Gorilla” works well for him as does the combination of funk and politics of the song. Cry Baby is not Vince at his most experimental but it’s nice to see him a bit relaxed and he does great work in any mode.
“STAMPEDE” has the energy a song needs when it channels TV on the Radio. When the album has energy, it is very strong. “LIFE KEEPS GOING” has a great beat, a great beat shift and a fun dash of Robyn. “THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE” raps well and has fun voiceovers. “DEATH CULT ZOMBIE” is a fun Clash-style song. Unfortunately, the energy flags too often and so an album with lots of styles and lots of ideas sags under its own weight.
In “the cure”, Olivia sings the tremendous couplet “Used to play a game in my head when I’d date a guy / Tally up the girls that he fucked ‘til I started to cry” and she sings it softly as she matches an indie rock backing and indie twee music video to it. This rock swells and grows as she does over until it crests in self-acceptance. This is why you seem pretty sad is exceptional. She matches music to emotion masterfully and so crafts a spectacular narrative across the entire album.
Her flexibility allows for this. “the cure” could be a Phoebe Bridgers cut, “stupid song” shows her in Taylor mode, “expectations” draws from Madonna. When she brings in Robert Smith for “what’s wrong with me,” their vocal harmony is a pleasure.
I do wish however that she was able to transcend her influences. She keeps each song within genre lines and none of her forays truly approach the best of each of their respective classes. She often comes close though. I love the riot grrl of “my way” and her caustic lines are expertly placed in her narrative of the shaping and reshaping of her own personality. “u+me = <3” is very well crafted pop and “I know everybody changes but I hope we don’t / Carve our names into the carseat leather” are great lines.
More saliently, does it make sense to quibble over whether the songs are genre-bending when the album moves so freely? Does it make sense to say that the songs are merely very good when the album is exceptional? It is no matter, for you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love is truly an exceptional album.
I find myself surprisingly emotional listening to The Boys of Dungeon Lane. The best of the Beatles albums, Revolver, turns 60 this year and the best of the Beatles will turn 84 and somehow Sir Paul is still making music. He’s more bluesy than in his youth and his rock is harder and his voice is rougher. He’s often searching for the beauty of his truly great melodies and he never finds them and the rock never gets as complicated as one would like. It doesn’t matter. This is Paul McCartney, making music that he clearly enjoyed making and that I truly enjoyed hearing. This is a delight.
This is very competent indie rock. “What’s Right” is well done, well constructed music. Similarly, “Burn It Down” is crafted well. It’s good a good instrumental break and lots of nice sparkles in the sound. It’s unfortunate then that it has nothing to say. “At Peace in the Hundred Acre Wood” has some nice music but doesn’t match the wit of an incredible title. I come to indie rock like this for the epigrams and the razor blades and without that cleverness, an album like this sounds hollow.
Some albums should warn you about catchy they are. “Wish You Well” will get stuck in your head. “Do It” does Timberlake better than he has in a long time. “Hollywood Forever” is propulsive.
Despite a lot of great singles though, the album is variable in both experimentation and quality. “Lovefield” has an excellent knock on wood but doesn’t do much otherwise and “Tell Me (U Want It)” is too formulaic despite a decent beat switch.
Mostly though, the album is songs like “Innuendo” that have a great groove and clever ways to punch through it.
Gorillaz – The Mountain
My favorite track here, “Manifesto,” starts with a Bollywood backing and then brings in Trueno to drop reggaeton vocals only to hard switch to jazzy rap with Proof bookended by Albarn’s crooning to tie the whole thing together. I’m sold. Albarn’s omnivorousness results in the most unexpected combinations and yet his own voice is so consistent here that the album always works.
He’s also restrained. There’s a minor sitar in The Empty Dream Machine that lifts the song just before Black Thought’s excellent verse that goes back into Damon’s wistful singing and all of the pieces are proportioned expertly.
He does fall back into unexciting britpop for good chunks of the album though and while his stuffed rolodex leads to some great tracks like Omar Souleyman and Yasiin Bey in “Damascus”, it also means that the album could have done with some curation. Honestly though, this album sins much less than many in that regard and the music is consistently solid, often excellent and frequently fascinating.
FEMCELS – I Have To Get Hotter
I Have To Get Hotter is genuinely a very funny album. Zine-style random humor can easily be fatiguing instead of funny but this maintains an internal and hilarious logic and that lets them get away with a full stanza on the wonders of JavaScript.
I could have used more interesting music but their indie rock is impressively consistent. “Monster In You” breaks from the rest to mine retro emo-rock into something quite clever but besides that stand-out, it’s a collection of quite competent music elevated by outstanding humor.
Kim Gordon – Play Me
Play Me has truly excellent production. Justin Raisen has lots of space to play in this album and he uses it very well. It feels more like a rapper / producer collab album than anything else given his energy here and Kim Gordon’s spoken-word vocalizing. She is a star and she has the power of the star here, but she uses it with restraint. Her lyrics attempt to be poetic and evocative but are mostly trite, but that’s perfectly fine in so sonic an album and when you listen to “DIRTY TECH”, it’s impossible to have any complaints.
Slayyter – WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA
I really like the punk rock evolution of “CANNIBALISM!” Hyperpop, alongside other genres of the moment, seems intent on doing something with the raw material of my childhood. Slayyter is too omnivorous to stay there though. “BEAT UP CHANEL$” takes from everything and that makes for some interesting transitions even as it doesn’t stick every landing. This genre bending really wakes you up when something like “I’M ACTUALLY KINDA FAMOUS” slips in, and while this is a very good album, it does sometimes really need that kind of jolt.
Top Five Records 