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Let’s Start Here. / CHAOS NOW*

21 Feb

Lil Yachty – Let’s Start Here.

You have to start with Let’s Start Here. being a psychedelic rock album by an Atlanta rapper. There are albums where the means of production are key. Let’s Start Here. would be a much less remarkable album were it not made by Lil Yachty.

A lot of the album is pretty forgettable psychedelic rock. The frustrating thing with this album is that psychedelic rock is so close to Soundcloud rap. They both love soundscapes and they even use similar ones, they just get there from very different places. There could have been a quite interesting album that fused the two better.

Let’s Start Here. sometimes even finds that space. “IVE OFFICIALLY LOST ViSiON!!!!” has some trap vocalizations and some interesting hit-and-runs in the soundscape and is a very impressive track overall. “the BLACK seminole.” emphasizes blackness to good effect and starts the album the right way. “the ride-” works well with a falsetto that could have come from any psych-rock band you could name, but then transitions very nicely into Soundcloud yelps.

However, the majority of the album is just a substandard, uninteresting rock album. “THE zone~” is as boring as rock ever gets and “:(failure):” is, possibly unsurprisingly, the same. There’s even a Bob Ross clipping to really cap off the lack of imagination. He also drops in some more funky songs like “running out of time” and is even less fun there.

Even in the boring parts, this album is something of an intervention and there are pieces that show what this album could have been. The simple fact that it exists is the most interesting part of the whole project, but it finds enough fragments to be at least a little more than just that.

Jean Dawson – CHAOS NOW*

When I was a kid, I would watch VH1 after school and I got fed a lot of 00s alternative rock as a result. I loved it then but when I look back, it’s hard to get away from the fact that a lot of it was garbage. It was a cultural wasteland and there’s not much more to say about it. Jean Dawson tries to take the pieces of it and make something interesting out of them in CHAOS NOW* and succeeds, albeit sporadically.

“THREE HEADS*” has a strong energy to it and punches hard. His changes of pace do well and he keeps a good intensity throughout. “SICK OF IT*” does 00s alt-rock better than any of them ever did and is what it should have been. “0-HEROES” is the song that Blink-182 wishes they made. Unfortunately, even that doesn’t make for a very good song. It just spends too long playing with uninteresting sounds. Sadly, the same is true for “GLORY*”, which sticks too close to the Blink-182 it draws from, even if it has the wonderful line “My mom thinks I keep a gun tucked / Yes ma’am.” There are glimpses of a better song in there, but only ever glimpses.

CHAOS NOW* isn’t as consistent as one would like and so not quite as groundbreaking as one could hope, but it’s always fun to see someone make something of my misspent youth.

Top Five’s Picks of the Albums

https://open.spotify.com/embed/playlist/16JYGCeftP3Sxdh5Fwcndi?utm_source=generator

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Ice Spice – Like..?

4 Feb

Neeharika just put up her list of the most anticipated albums of 2023, but I already got mine with Ice Spice’s debut. “Munch (Feelin’ U)” was comfortably my favorite song of 2022 and “Bikini Bottom” wasn’t far behind. Her boastful, playful, sexy drill is the most exciting thing in music right now. It’s a little disappointing then that the rest of the EP doesn’t quite live up to the singles.

Firstly, both “Munch” and “Bikini Bottom” are as magnificent as ever. She drops incredible punchlines with tremendous confidence. That whole chorus from “Munch” is infinitely quotable and “Ayo, baddie, what it do? / Ayo, Maddie, what it do?” from “Bikini Bottom” always draws a laugh. When she says “Flow the nicest, but I’m rude” it’s just true. She has solved the question of how to do drill.

Unfortunately, the rest of the album is not close to the same quality. Save for a guest verse by Lil TJay, it’s never actually weak and she brings an interesting deepness to “Gangsta Boo” and “Actin’ a Smoochie.” It reminds me a lot of Pop Smoke. I don’t think it’s her at her best, but it’s an experiment that I really appreciate. She also has bars like “No, you cannot have your boo back (Huh) / If I’m shootin’ my shoot, he gon’ shoot back (Grrah)” in “Smoochie” and “I’m think ’cause I be eatin’ oats” in “Princess Diana,” strong lines that her delivery makes unforgettable.

All told though, the EP really doesn’t do much to expand beyond what her glorious singles already put down. Those are strong enough to carry the EP by themselves, but it would have been very nice if there was something more here.

Fred Hersch & Esparanza Spalding – Alive at the Village Vanguard

15 Jan

Alive at the Village Vanguard does exactly what you would want; it places you right in the middle of the club. This is a recording of a live show at Village Vanguard and it manages to hold all of the energy of a live performance just to drop it on unsuspecting listeners. More importantly, it delivers the abundant charm of the two performers.

In particular, “Girl Talk” expertly recontextualizes an old, chauvinistic standard, refutes the original and reclaims the space with tremendous intelligence and humor. Spalding’s conversations with the crowd are both confident and fun and she interacts with the crowd throughout to great effect. In particular, they add a lot of charm to the already fun “Little Suede Shoes”

It’s not the most challenging album, however. Neither Spalding nor Hersch does much to complicate the music and the piano solos tend to move too slowly. Spalding does some great tonal work through the album though and Hersch plays excellent counter-point to her there.

It’s also just much more fun than your typical jazz release and much more approachable as well. If you’re looking for a pleasant evening with a couple of very talented, very likable performers, it’s hard to find something better than this.

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Top Five Albums of 2022

3 Jan

This is another year with some major disappointments. There are definitely some developments in music that we would have been happier without and some big-name releases that we feel could have spent more time in the oven, but through all of that, there was also some really good music and these are our picks of 2022’s Album of the Year.

5. Bad Bunny – Un Verano Sin Ti

This album takes you straight to the best Latin dancefloors. It’s a compelling and often unexpected mixture of sounds and influences and you’re never quite sure what’s through the next floor and the adventure is exhilarating. There’s so much texture to every sound and Bad Bunny himself paints with only the richest colors.

4. Big Thief – Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You

Big Thief has never been more likeable. This album is funny, it’s intelligent and it’s warm in a way that their earlier music missed completely. They have gone from strength to strength of late and this is easily their best yet. They kept all of their usual poetry and all of their usual skill and added humanity to boot.

3. Kendrick Lamar – Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers

There’s a lot of really good music in the latest Kendrick and if I could put his concert on this list, it would be an easy number one. There’s also a fair bit of filler though and I just can’t listen to “We Cry Together” any more. His personal growth is impressive as is his synthesis of the various themes he played with earlier albums. The whole thing really comes together with a very coherent thesis as well. It’s not quite at the standard of his best albums, but it’s still complex, rewarding and often innovative. It could have still used an editor though.

2. Wet Leg – Wet Leg

Wet Leg is very, very good punk rock. They know who they are and they are fantastic at telling you who you should be too. They’re the center of the room at the party, they’re the girls you wanted to be friends with in high school, they’re the people who will always be cooler than you. Enjoy spending time with them.

1. Rosalía – MOTOMAMI

Sometimes, an album takes a single feeling and weaves its way back to and around it at every step. MOTOMAMI is not that album. It takes from everything that seems to interest Rosalía in the moment and fearlessly makes it all hers. Even The Weeknd gets absorbed seamlessly and so ends up with music as good as any he’s ever made. There’s no pandering with MOTOMAMI and no compromise, just the best reggaeton album ever made.

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Top Five Songs of 2022

31 Dec

2022 was a stellar year for singles. There was a lot of bold, exciting music and culling this list was particularly difficult. At the end of it, I ended up with five songs and one that I could not bring myself to keep off.

Special Mention: “Mother I Sober” by Kendrick Lamar feat Beth Gibbons

There is some overlap between Kendrick and the indie rock of a band like Portishead, but I never expected the two to fuse so well. Kendrick’s introspection works beautifully over a simple piano loop and a swirling chorus from Beth Gibbons. This was only one part of an album filled with interesting ideas and surprising thoughts, but I personally hope that some young rapper takes this song and runs with it. I want to hear a lot more in this vein. I want to hear rap-rock from the indie side instead of Aerosmith. Let’s see where this can go.

5. “Wet Dream” by Wet Leg

Speaking of indie rock, this is as a top tier example of one of my favorite subgenres, riot grrrl. Wet Leg are brutal and hilarious. “Wet Dream” is ruthless, incisive and exceptionally clever and does it all with explosive, energetic, pure rock. The sneer of “What makes you think you’re good enough / to think of me when you’re touching yourself” is flawless and the shift of “It’s enough to make a girl blush” to the chant of the abbreviated “it’s enough” is sublime.

4. “psychofreak” by Camilla Caballo feat. Willow

“psychofreak” hits exactly my intersection of mainstream and interesting pop. The basis of this song is nothing but straightforward and the lyrics are honestly short of par. However, her voice complicates the song wonderfully. The pauses in the chorus are enough of a tease, but she adds a little bit of disharmony too and it’s classic pop. She pushes her voice to breaking through the entire song and the roughness plays very well against the shiny structure of the song. This was easily the most perfect pop of the year.

3. “Simulation Swarm” by Big Thief

This is easily the most beautiful song on this list. It’s exquisitely textured and strongly grounded in a classic folk-rock tune, but shockingly intelligent, slightly askew and endlessly compelling.

2. “LA FAMA” by Rosalía feat. The Weeknd

Did I think that the best Rosalía song of the year would be a Weeknd collaboration? I did not. Did I think that the best Weeknd song of the year would be in Spanish? Absolutely not. They work wonderfully together though. The beat somehow fits perfectly on MOTOMAMI and wouldn’t be the least out of place on a Weeknd single. Their verses flow wonderfully from each other and they harmonize well together. Also, The Weeknd flopping around after being stabbed is the best thing that I’ve seen all year.

1. “Munch (Feelin’ U) by Ice Spice

Ice Spice has figured out what drill needed to get to. She has the flow,she has the lyrics and she most definitely has the attitude. The future is here and it looks amazing.

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Ethel Cain – Preacher’s Daughter

25 Dec

Preacher’s Daughter is very lush pop, sometimes to the point of being purple. At it’s best, it feels like an exciting detour into a particularly maximal kind of mainstream pop. At it’s worst, it’s slightly insipid, rather overdone, fairly predictable pop.

For instance, “American Teenager” is too classic pop for my tastes. It needed more complication and this is where the unsophisticated lyrics that run through the album come up short. It’s kind of exhausting to get through and the subthemes of the song simply reinforce it as tired.

Similarly, “A House In Nebraska” just doesn’t have enough in it. It tries to go over the top with some very large sounds, but it’s not quite good enough and the lyrics are just uninteresting cliche. Her belting the song out grates a lot more than it impresses.

She does better in the mix of lush and louche of “Gibson Girl.” The more understated and evocative “Western Nights” also does better. The very personal “Hard Times” is heartfelt and has a couple of very sharp moments.

The opener of “Family Tree (Intro)” is also incredibly promising. She has a fantastic voice and there’s some truly excellent dream pop in this album. There’s also a strong cinematic streak in her music that I greatly appreciate. It’s just that there are songs that are clearly meant for broad consumption, and while there’s nothing wrong with being mainstream, these songs are just boring and given how prominent those songs are, they drag the whole album down with them.

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Wet Leg – Wet Leg

9 Dec

When Wet Leg hits, they are as good as indie rock gets. Whether it’s the warm beer of “Chaise Longue” or the scream in “Ur Mum”, it is just stellar indie rock. Aggressive, clever lyrics and aggressive, clever music elevate each other and the result is some of the most memorable music of the year. In particular, “Wet Dream” brings the entire package. It’s incredible, ruthlessly funny storytelling with a top-tier riot grrl chorus and a spectacular chant in the middle.

Unfortunately, there’s also plenty here that doesn’t quite reach the same bar. “Piece of Shit” is clever lyrically, but lacks complication in the sound and something like “I Don’t Wanna Go Out” feels like something left on the cutting board of a Long Blondes album.

Overall, Wet Leg skews more to filler than to hits, but the good songs are too good to be denied. They bring resonant, danceable music with serious jokes and impressive intelligence and end up with tracks almost without parallel.

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Lil Uzi Vert – RED & WHITE

28 Oct

As always, Uzi just brings fun energy to every project of his. The joy that he takes in his work is infectious and often feels needed in a genre that quickly slips too far into seriousness. In particular, “GLOCK IN MY PURSE” is mad fun and gloriously silly. He’s not the first to rap about designer goods and masculinity but he is definitely the rapper having the most fun with the conflict.

He finds occasional lightness through the rest of the album, but unfortunately the album is still more filler than not. There’s some music here that can still hook you, like in “ISSA HIT” and the closer of “F.F.” is very well done, but there’s just not that much that sticks. He’s fun when he’s fun though and “GLOCK IN MY PURSE” has more fun in every minute than most albums can find in an hour.

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Makaya McCraven -In These Times

15 Oct

I want to start this by talking about the magnificent “So Ubuji.” The track takes from so many inspirations to meld together something that remains delicate while layered and intricate. There’s beautiful, rain-like percussion flowing through the whole thing and a very nice, tripping cadence to the whole piece.

This mix of tastes surfaces again and again through the album. “High Fives” gets a very nice funk line running through some world music themes and a nice space-jazz screech every now and again. “In These Times” puts in a solid sax solo, but the later “The Knew Untitled” is essentially a rock guitar solo that is as unexpected as it is competent.

Possibly due to the mix, the album has very strong fragments, but ends up a little too smooth for my taste. There’s too much that doesn’t really demand attention and only has so much to offer when given it. However, when an album is unobjectionable at its worst and unmissable at its best, that’s more than enough to recommend it.

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Built To Spill – When The Wind Forgets Your Name

3 Oct

Starting with the best track of the album, “Understood” is good, compelling rock. When this album clicks, as it does here and in “Elements” and “Never Alright”, it lays down some excellent psychedelic rock. While the lyrics are awkward and unfortunately dehumanizing, they add a menace that bounces quite well of the song and provides a depth that you can sink into.

They also find space to switch things up a little with the very good “Fool’s Gold.” It’s too lush to be straight blues-rock, but that lushness does a lot to benefit the song and it’s a very successful branch of the trunk of the album.

However, the rest of the album doesn’t have the same quality to it. “Rocksteady” is at least a good, pleasant psych rock piece, but entirely too pleased with itself. The other tracks never rise above forgettable. There’s enough good music here to forgive some filler, but not quite enough to make this a must-listen and no one track that really pulls you to the album either. It’s still a fun album though.

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