video review: "awaken, my love!" by childish gambino

So this record was a trip... not precisely great, I really do wish I liked it more, but still interesting, that's for damn sure.

Next up, Billboard BREAKDOWN and then an album that I would have ignored if not for Patreon... so stay tuned!

album review: "awaken, my love!" by childish gambino

I feel like I have a complicated relationship with Childish Gambino.

Hell, I get the feeling a lot of critics do, mostly because it's so damn rare to see an artist leap so fully formed and relentlessly talented across genres and indeed entire mediums. Whether you know him from his comedy sketches to his writing work on 30 Rock to the cult classic Community to his soon-to-be classic show Atlanta, he's a man of extraordinary talent, and that's before we get to his stand-up or his work as a musician and songwriter. 

But if I'm also being brutally honest, I feel I should like his music a lot more than I do. The odd blend of styles and production - most outside of his mixtapes which are done in-house with producer Ludwig Goransson - that are present in his music often juxtapose with lyrics that often feel intensely personal or eclectic. There's an defined artistic style and voice that's always been present, that will then veer in unexpected directions made from a pastiche of indie music, southern hip-hop, and bizarre pop culture references, all amidst a creative mind that's incredibly ambitious but also painfully self-aware. Relistening to his debut Camp and his much-lauded follow-up Because The Internet will give you plenty of evidence why Childish Gambino is a compelling presence behind the microphone as a charismatic rapper and singer... but between his cartoonish exaggerations that occasionally slide towards campiness, often masking deeper wells of rage and self-loathing, and a genuine feeling of earnestness that can either hit transcendence or deeply felt awkwardness, he comes across as the sort of precocious yet driven creator who is not afraid to aim high, overshare, hit big and miss hard. And those sorts of chances and effort are inspiring and powerful stuff, something I can relate to on a certain level - I just wish his aesthetic and craftsmanship of his sound and narratives worked better for me.

And that was my big concern going into "Awaken, My Love!" - mostly because while I admired his lead-off singles, I didn't love the sound or artistic choices. But again, I was only seeing fragments of the story, I had to hope the whole project - his shortest in some time - would have the focus and clarity to work - was I right?

video review: '24k magic' by bruno mars

...so this happened. Man, I wish I could connect with this more, but it just fell kind of flat for me. Eh, it happens.

Next up, my big review 666 - and you all know what that means...

album review: '24k magic' by bruno mars

Pop is artificial. But you all knew that - and I bet the majority of you don't even care.

Now the first part of that statement, every good music critic has known for decades, and the great music critics have never cared. Sure, a bunch of us will probably end up gravitating to genres that are branded more 'real', but there's admiration for pop's artifice and construction, the sleekness of its melody and production for capturing the sound of the moment, the fact that it could synthesize emotion so effectively, and at its very best perhaps even capture something transcendent. Now immediately by saying this, I've made the inherent assertion that pop is often much less than more authentic genres, which I don't even believe - hell, two years ago I made a Special Comment in defense of the genre asserting how the assembly of a truly great pop song is often far more difficult than anyone realizes. Otherwise, people would have figured out the formula by now.

But when I think about Bruno Mars, the songwriter who started off behind the scenes before constructing his own pop persona with Doowops & Hooligans in late 2010, some of that rock snob feeling comes back. Especially more recently, there's an odd distance I have to a lot of his material... and if I were to guess, he had an artistic identity with an established sound, and he threw most of it away. Maybe it was bad choices of singles and promotion early on - why 'The Other Side' was never pushed instead of 'The Lazy Song' is beyond human comprehension - but there seemed like a point where Bruno Mars abandoned sincerity. Instead, he put on the shades, leaned into his vast pool of pop knowledge from the past and amped up the showmanship and natural charisma - and what was alarming is that his music for the most part got better - catchier, cooler, he didn't have to care! It's always felt a bit like a facsimile to me, though, which seems to be why most critics have been appreciative but reticent to get closer. But it hasn't stopped the success - the public knows and just hasn't cared that he's shamelessly strip-mining the past for his sound with just enough of a modern flair to keep the audience engaged. Hell, you could argue that's what's burned away some of the lustre for everyone in modern pop - in the aftermath of poptimism where critics are expected to treat pop as art, instead of elevating the ideal too many critics just dulled the illusion and lowered standards to cater to an audience who never cared to dig deeper - and with how little some of the pop artists themselves seem to care in 2016, it's come full circle.

Ugh, this is sounding more melancholic than it should, because Bruno Mars on the surface should be an artist I like a lot more: he's naturally charismatic, he knows pop history, he's an interesting songwriter, his production is often on-point... he can be wildly uneven in terms of song quality, that being my biggest issue with Unorthodox Jukebox, but that can't be it, right? So to finally get some closure here, I decided to check out 24K Magic by Bruno Mars, his big return album four years after his last release and almost two years since the explosion of 'Uptown Funk' with Mark Ronson- so what did we get?

video review: 'a seat at the table' by solange

I feel like this review shouldn't end up being controversial... but who knows, anything peripheral to Beyonce tends to make people flip their shit, so we'll see what happens. Still, thought-provoking album, and there really are some gems here.

Next up, though, something much more in my lane - stay tuned!

album review: 'a seat at the table' by solange

I wasn't planning on reviewing this album.

Part of this was my schedule - my stack of albums to cover over the next few weeks has reached a frankly staggering height, and there are records I've had to cross off my list purely out of necessity or delay until the very end of the year where I typically do some catch-up. And even then, there were going to be albums on which I was generally ambivalent or didn't show the sort of evolution to make a review worthwhile that I'd probably set aside.

And for the most part I was intending to do this for the newest record from Solange Knowles, the younger sister of Beyonce and an artist for whom I've been pretty lukewarm at best. Part of this is historical context: her debut album Solo Star in 2002 was a slice of underwhelming hip-hop-inspired R&B in an era where that was the norm, and when she followed it in 2008 with a generally tasteful retro-throwback record on Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams... well, it was definitely good, but it wasn't a record that I often felt inclined to revisit. It was pleasant enough, the lyrics were interesting, and I appreciated that Solange was generally making more subtle and listenable music than her sister was in the 2000s, but I was never gripped by it. I don't think she was helped by Janelle Monae coming in a few years later with a similar vocal style and yet more impressive production, writing, ideas, and charisma across the board. And from there... well, I didn't really hear much from her.

But it became very clear that just because I wasn't listening doesn't mean Solange wasn't working on projects, first with an EP cowritten with Dev Hynes in 2012, and now this, which has won over volumes of critical acclaim from some unexpected sources and spurred a tidal wave of requests. And hey, eight years is a pretty impressive distance between records and if this record was socially conscious and potent as suggested, it could make for a powerful listen. So I decided to check out A Seat At The Table - what did we get?

video review: 'freetown sound' by blood orange

I'm genuinely curious to see how fans of this guy respond to this review. I'm expecting it to be inflammatory, but hey, who knows. In the mean time, the lead-up to the third year anniversary has begun, so get your votes in!

Beyond that, Billboard BREAKDOWN, Weval, and American Authors coming up soon, so stay tuned!

album review: 'freetown sound' by blood orange

Let's talk about sex.

Specifically, what one would consider 'sexy' within the context of music - and unsurprisingly, there's a range when it comes to this sort of thing - what one person might consider sexy or racy or even kinky another might tedious or overdone or even offensive. And of course such ideas tend to evolve over time, but if you want to flip to an instantly recognizable period where 'sexy' music was dominant, an easy place to start would be 80s pop and R&B. This was the era of Prince and Madonna, artists testing the limits of explicit content and good taste, but doing it with enough sensuality and tightness to make some killer music out of it before most the 90s hammered much of it into a brick wall - I might like grunge, adult alternative, punk, and gangsta rap, but most of it wouldn't fall into what the popular conscious considers 'sexy music'.

As such, if you're on the fringe of R&B in the modern era, it tends to be an easy instrumental shorthand to call back to the 80s, which was the first big impression I got from Blood Orange, the stage name for Devonte Hynes. Now he's been around the indie scene for well over a decade, starting with a few indie folk records under the ridiculous name Lightspeed Champion, but in 2011 he'd reinvent himself into a smooth crooner trying to blend liquid indie guitar tones with the tight beats you'd remember from Prince. And yet I've never quite been impressed with him - instrumentally he gets most of the way there, even if I do think the tones aren't quite as tight as they could be, but Hynes himself never impressed me as a singer. Hate to say it but he's nowhere close to matching his instrumentation when it comes to personality, less Prince than El DeBarge or maybe even Eddie Murphy. And that's a problem when the writing isn't particularly interesting either, especially on that first album. So for his follow-up he called in all his indie connections for an even more lavish slice of 80s revival music on Cupid Deluxe... and yet somehow it was even worse. Maybe it's my fault for relistening to Prince after he passed away a few months ago and then coming to this expecting something with tightness or greater punch in the melodies to build to a real hook, or a vocal performance that can make any impact at all, or guest performances that remotely fit with this style of music, but this record fell incredibly flat for me. And yeah, I can appreciate the exploration of queer themes, but they sure as hell deserved better presentation than this - I might have issues when The Weeknd pulls from this era, but he at least can get the groove and atmosphere of this material a lot better.

But it didn't look like Blood Orange was done yet, so out of nowhere he dropped a surprise album called Freetown Sound, which in following the grand 80s tradition of R&B goes straight into politics. And immediately I had justifiable concerns - I can point to a string of bad political albums and songs out of the mid-to-late 80s and a lot fewer success stories - and also because of his guest stars to help define his black queer vision, he pulls on icons of that community like Carly Rae Jepsen, lead singer of Blonde Debbie Harry, and Nelly Furtado. Okay, yeah, that's not fair - he's worked with Carly Rae Jepsen before and he also got Zuri Marley, spoken word artist Ta-Nehisi Coates, slam poet Ashlee Hayes - but as someone who hasn't really liked the last two Blood Orange records or their attempts at sensuality, I didn't have high expectations here. But that means it can only get better, so what did we get with Freetown Sound?

video review: 'the getaway' by red hot chili peppers

I'm actually genuinely curious how people receive this record, given the stylistic departures in the production. Overall... eh, it's decent, but I do wish it was better.

Next up, probably YG or Swans, so stay tuned!

album review: 'the getaway' by red hot chili peppers

You know, in nearly six hundred reviews, I don't think I've ever talked about the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Now, part of that is that they haven't released an album in a couple of years and they're a considerable distance out of their heyday, but on some level, what is there to say? I've yet to find a person who seriously dislikes the band and their genre-pushing blend of alternative rock, rap rock and funk, and while I'd never say they made classic albums, they sure as hell kept up a steady stream of singles that have always been a ton of fun. I always found it a little interesting that they managed to chug through the 80s with very little success before blowing up for a solid two decades and becoming rock staples. And yet with that in mind, while I can definitely say I like this band, I'd never say they were one of my favourites or that we need more Red Hot Chili Peppers material, it's not like their string of classic songs in the 90s and 2000s are going anywhere.

But you can tell in the post-Frusciante years that the Red Hot Chili Peppers are not simply content to rest on their laurels, first putting out a pretty decent record in 2011 with Josh Klinghoffer on guitar. But even that didn't seem like enough, so after a collection of EPs and live albums, they left longtime producer Rick Rubin to try something different for their newest record The Getaway, enlisting Brian Burton aka Danger Mouse. Now I've had mixed experiences with Danger Mouse in recent years - a few good, but most underwhelming - but I had no idea how his style would meld with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who have tended to be a wilder, more colorful group than he'd usually work with. In other words, I was definitely willing to give The Getaway a chance - so what did we get?

video review: 'malibu' by anderson .paak

Man, I was expecting to like this, but this is such a ridiculously fun and catchy release. Can't recommend this enough, so much fun.

Next up... okay, Panic! At The Disco, don't screw this up. Stay tuned!

album review: 'malibu' by anderson .paak

The place where everyone starts talking about Anderson .Paak - and where many consider his stories begins - is with Compton.

And that's mostly because that was the first place where people actually heard him. He'd been flitting around the indie scene in California for some time under the name Breezy Lovejoy and had some traction with his 2014 album Venice, but it wasn't until Dr. Dre pulled him aboard Compton that he began getting serious exposure. And let's make this abundantly clear: Anderson .Paak is the biggest reason why that album works, operating as the over-eager observer caught up in Dre's hyper-stylized Compton, nearly drowning in it before becoming the spirit of Dre's oft-ignored social conscience. All of that, combined with his presence on The Game's Documentary 2.5 gave me the impression there might be a fair bit more to the guy beyond the distinctive nasal voice, a bit reminiscent of Kendrick but higher pitched and a shade more melodic and elastic.

So I dug into Venice, and wow, talk about an overlooked gem. Taking a west coast flavour with gentle soul, funk and R&B flourishes and sparse oscillating grooves, it's a remarkably chill and quiet listen that managed to be surprisingly sticky thanks to some great melodies, some unpolished but fascinating writing, and Anderson .Paak's earnest and yet surprisingly chill performance. Yeah, it does drag at spots, especially on the back half, but songs like 'Milk & Honey', 'Already', 'Get 'Em Up', 'Off The Ground', and the excellent 'Miss Right' are explanation enough for what Dre saw in this guy. And thus, with an bigger budget, a greatly expanded arsenal of producers and guest stars and riding some pretty impressive momentum, Anderson .Paak seemed set to deliver an even stronger sophomore release. So you can bet I was psyched for this - how did it turn out?

video review: 'vega intl. night school' by neon indian

So, not too big on chillwave, but this was pretty solid, and I'm finding it's grown on me with every listen.

Next up... okay, Carrie Underwood next. Stay tuned!

album review: 'vega intl. night school' by neon indian

So remember chillwave? Remember when that was a thing, a trend that seemed to spring partially from the warped edges of gleaming early 80s synthpop and the gummy, lo-fi production of Ariel Pink? Remember how it was a big thing in the indie scene for seemingly a year or two before evaporating in the hot sun for the next big trend?

Because I certainly don't. Now part of this was just time and place - I was listening to very different music in and around the latter half of the 2000s, and chillwave was one of those nebulously defined genres that completely passed me by, there and gone and I had never cared. But going back to listen through it now, I'm a little baffled why there was so much hype in the first place - yeah, the lo-fi eclecticism of the synthpop was a nifty trick, but many of the synth textures didn't really stick with me or blend into particularly solid wholes. it wasn't that it was bad - although there was a fair amount of mediocre stuff around the edges of the genre that was coasting on the fad - but again, Ariel Pink was already making similar music and doing it with more cohesion both in melodies, production, and lyrics.

That said, I do give Neon Indian a certain amount of credit for at least trying to bring a loose sense of humour and fun to a genre that often proved oddly humourless. The main project of frontman Alan Palomo, his debut record in 2009 got a lot of critical acclaim and buzz - so much so that it catapulted him into the festival circuit where he did surprisingly well for being loose, catchy, occasionally funny, and genuinely fun. So it wasn't surprising that as the backlash towards chillwave came in force, Palomo worked to double down on the bigger, buzzier, thicker sounds - even teaming up with Flaming Lips producer Dave Fridmann to overcompress and add more density to the mix. And yeah, the melodic core was still there and some of the quirkier elements did creep through, but I was among many who felt it was a slightly less satisfying effort, even though I never found much chillwave to be all that exhilarating to begin with.

So when I heard that Palomo was looking to bring in more elements of disco and future funk for his upcoming third album, adapted from the VEGA sideproject, I was interested at least, especially considering the critical acclaim started pouring back in. Did it pay off?

video review: 'psycadelik thoughtz' by b.o.b.

So this thing happened. At least it was better than Underground Luxury, if that says anything.

Next up... hmm, I want to cover Jess Glynne, but that Mick Jenkins project... we'll see. Stay tuned!

album review: 'psycadelik thoughtz' by b.o.b.

I can't imagine what it might feel like for a rapper who loses their hype, especially one who made it big for a second in the mainstream before it all fell apart. And the more I've reflected upon the career of B.o.B., Atlanta MC that was once being compared to Andre 3000 for his flow, eclectic fascination with other genres, and guitar skills, the more I'm starting to think this is the case. After a series of well-received mixtapes he smashed into the scene with The Adventures of Bobby Ray, which despite being pretty uneven did show off a rapper with real chops, a unique brand of production, and a fair amount of charisma that could play to the mainstream. Which of course was what happened, with huge songs like 'Airplanes' and 'Nothing On You' and 'Magic'. He followed it up with Strange Clouds in 2012, which was just as uneven but still had some solid songs I really love to this day, including 'So Good' and 'Where Are You (B.o.B. vs. Bobby Ray)'.

And then it all fell apart. His buzz seemed to evaporate without good singles, and as hip-hop went for the darker trap sound he struggled to keep up. But 'struggle' might be the wrong word, because I reviewed his 2013 record Underground Luxury and it sucked, not just because of messy trap beats but because B.o.B. was just wallowing in lazy, badly written hedonism. For a rapper who once had such imagination to devolve into that was incredibly disappointing for me, and for once it seems like everyone else agreed, with many critics trashing the album and the sales being miserable.

So what do you do when you're a rapper who has lost your hype? Well, from my point of view you've got one of four options: you retire; you slink back into the indie scene and try to rebuild your cred, you stay signed to the major label and hope to God you can follow trends well enough to churn out hits at the expense of your identity, or - and this came out of nowhere - you decide to title your next record Psycadelik Thoughtz and drop it with no promotion or lead-off single in the hopes surprise will draw curiosity, especially with a rumoured change in sound: go big or go home. And I was worried here: Tyga already tried this strategy with his long-delayed surprise release, and nobody seemed to care, and he had hype going in. What was B.o.B. going to deliver?

video review: 'uptown special' by mark ronson

Wish I did like this album a bit more, but it definitely was a lot of fun. Make sure to check it out.

Next up, I settle an old request. Probably won't get a ton of hits from it, but I am a man of my word here. Stay tuned!

album review: 'uptown special' by mark ronson

So, by now you've all heard 'Uptown Funk' if you live anywhere close to a radio, and for most, I reckon it hasn't quite worn out its welcome yet. I mean, a funk track with a ton of energy from one of the more talented pop performers in the industry right now, what's not to like?

Yeah, I've already talked plenty about this song on Billboard BREAKDOWN, but I knew at some point I had to get deeper and go beyond the hit to see if the backing producer Mark Ronson might have some staying power. Now to some extent I already knew this was the case going in - this is Mark Ronson's fourth record over the course of a decade, he's been around for a while now. His debut album Here Comes The Fuzz came out in 2003, where he managed to wrangle collaborations not just from Ghostface Killa, Sean Paul, and the late Nate Dogg, but also Daniel Merriweather and Rivers Cuomo. It also had more of an alternative hip-hop focus, which he abandoned for his 2007 album Version for a slicker, funkier sound. Like his previous album, the reviews were mixed, mostly noting the guest-overloaded covers often lacked restraint and didn't show off the best of his talent. Undaunted, Mark Ronson kept working, accruing acclaim as a producer thanks to working with Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse, and Adele, and making a slightly more diverse album with Record Collection in 2010. Sure, it was still swollen with name guest stars, but to be fair he's a producer putting out albums - you kind of expect it.

As such, I wasn't sure what to expect for the newest album from Mark Ronson. I mean, 'Uptown Funk' is a great song, but how much of it is because of Bruno Mars and how much of it is Mark Ronson? And some of the other guest stars did raise eyebrows? Stevie Wonder? Jeff Bhasker? Keyone Starr? Mystikal, the semi-deranged rapper from the early 2000s that sounded a little like Ole Dirty Bastard and got the prison term that R.Kelly should have gotten? Well, at least it was going to be interesting, so I gave it a couple listens - how did it turn out?

video review: 'black messiah' by d'angelo and the vanguard

Damn, this was definitely worth the wait. Fantastic record, one of the best of the year, and it's a good thing I didn't finalize my year-end lists yet, because this might just land on it.

Next up, Billboard BREAKDOWN, and one final album review - what will it be? Stay tuned!

album review: 'black messiah' by d'angelo and the vanguard

So imagine you're a music critic for a major publication, and you've just finished submitting your picks for your year-end list of the best albums of the year. A stressful choice, and a list that will inevitably be inundated by angry protests and comments why other albums weren't chosen, but you're secure in your picks - it's not like anyone drops albums worth caring about in December, right - 

Wait, didn't I say all of this last year with Beyonce's self-titled album that came out of nowhere? Well, if anything, this release might be even more surprising, from one of the most critically acclaimed and respected and yet reclusive R&B artists to ever chart, one of the men responsible for starting the neo-soul movement in the 90s with music drenched in the iconography of the past while still making music that felt relevant and modern.

Yep, we're talking about D'Angelo, an R&B star who emerged a wave of potent buzz in the mid-90s with Brown Sugar, which eventually became a commercial success but was a critical darling right out of the gate. And having revisited that album since, I can see why: D'Angelo wasn't a forceful presence behind the microphone, but he didn't need to be - the man wrote slick, beautifully textured music, had buckets of charisma and sensuality, and was a pretty damn good songwriter to boot. This was a guy who was a peer of Usher, R.Kelly, Raphael Saadiq and Boyz 2 Men, and yet he stayed away from much of the histrionics of the times to stick with more subtle, restrained, yet just as passionate music. As such, his albums have a timeless feel to them that's impossible to fake. This is a guy who could cover Smokey Robinson's classic 'Cruisin' and do it justice, and that's pretty damn impressive. 

From there, D'Angelo took several years off and came back with Voodoo in 2000, and while I can't say I was the biggest fan to move more in a groove-centric direction over melodies, it doesn't make the album any less great. And make no mistake, Voodoo is a damn great record: smooth as hell, funky, poetic, and sexy as all hell. It was Voodoo's commercial hits that led to D'Angelo becoming a sex symbol in R&B - which sadly was one of the reasons he stopped touring. Between that and some personal problems, he took a long hiatus from recording his own projects, vanishing from the spotlight outside of a few scattered guest appearances. And while there had been rumours D'Angelo was going to make that third album, it was often compared to the long-nascent project Smile by Brian Williams - a record that was actually completed ten years ago after decades in development and is goddamn amazing.

And yet, in one of the biggest surprises of the new year, D'Angelo is back with a new album, and from the rave reviews and sheer panic from sites that already published their year-end lists to praise it, I had to hear this record. So I checked out Black Messiah - how is it?