underscores – U
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 