video review: 'starboy' by the weeknd

...so yeah, I definitely wish this was a lot better. It's not bad - 'False Alarm' pretty much redeems this record on its merit alone - but I was hoping for more in that vein or at least some sharper, more interesting writing and we didn't get that.

And on a similar topic... well, stay tuned!

album review: 'starboy' by the weeknd

I get the strong impression The Weeknd never thought he'd become famous.

Admittedly, all of this is guesswork, but if you go back through his early records, it became clear that despite how influential his sound was becoming and the cosigns behind him, he had his own sound, style, and distinctive lane, and considering how bleak and graphic that lane was, he probably never expected to crossover. Sure, you could make arguments that he was trending towards more of a pop sound on Beauty Behind The Madness, but also keep in mind that despite having two songs go to #1, the biggest hit of that record wasn't 'Can't Feel My Face' but 'The Hills'. Not the song where he embraced his inner Michael Jackson, but the track where he ripped away the veneer to reveal the toxic, self-destructive self-loathing that lurked at the base of it. In comparison to obvious singles like 'Can't Feel My Face' or even the stronger 'In The Night', it was a hard left turn... and as of now, it's his biggest hit.

And I get the feeling this wasn't lost on The Weeknd, and if we were going to reward his dark impulses, that seemed to be enough of an endorsement for him to plow into even weirder and more experimental territory - hell, everyone who has watched Billboard BREAKDOWN has seen how much praise I gave 'False Alarm' for its manic, darkwave-inspired sound and style. And when The Weeknd cited his inspirations were The Smiths, Bad Brains, Talking Heads, and Prince... well, my only surprise is that he didn't cite more gothic acts, given how obvious the influence has been for years. But at the same time, I didn't expect the album to completely fly into left field - credits from Kendrick Lamar, Future, Daft Punk, and Lana Del Rey proved he was keeping his feet pretty close to the mainstream, and that's before you dig into the production credits. In short, The Weeknd has an institution of modern pop songwriters and producers behind him, this was not going to be allowed to get that weird. Still, I had liked 'Starboy' and I had loved 'False Alarm', this record was easily one of my most anticipated in 2016 - so did it deliver?

video review: 'care' by how to dress well

As I said at the end of the review, I think I had more fun writing this review than actually listening through the album (though I still hold 'Salt Song') as fantastic, but given the shitstorm I've received over the past few hours... good thing to hold onto, why I put up with all of it.

Now before I get into the overloaded mess of upcoming records dropped yesterday, I've got two more I want to knock off my list that are priorities... stay tuned!

album review: 'care' by how to dress well

Let's briefly flashback to 2014. It's near the beginning of the summer, I'm listening through the new How To Dress Well album, the PBR&B project from singer-songwriter Tom Krell, and even despite hitting the absolutely gorgeous song 'Pour Cyril' that would later land on my list of my favourite songs of the year - we hit a bit of a snag. Even as that record is aspiring to more of a pop sound compared to the heavy melancholy of Total Loss from 2012, I wasn't certain he was pulling it off. His vocals were too thin and gentle, the self-absorbed bluntness not really fitting with the tones he was chasing, it was the sort of record that had all the ingredients of an insightful and potent pop record... that just ended up missing the mark for me.

So when I heard that Krell was taking How To Dress Well even further in a pop direction, recruiting Jack Antonoff of fun. and Bleachers and dancehall producer Dre Skull, I have to admit I was a little skeptical. On the one hand, sure, Jack Antonoff has a great ear for pop hooks and he's been the secret weapon behind some great songs before... but on the other hand the move to touch on dancehall struck me as yet another artist hopping towards tropical sounds in a bid for the mainstream, a lane that struck me as the completely wrong fit for Tom Krell. His writing might occasionally ring as simple and straightforward in a pop context, but his presentation demanded subtlety, and modern pop is nearly the furthest thing from that. And given the lukewarm response to this record, I was tentative to dig in, but Krell does have a gift for some powerful melodies, so I figured Care was worth a listen - was I right?

video review: 'the colour in anything' by james blake

I'm honestly not sure how this review is going to be received. I mean, the album is good, but I get the feeling people are going to be pissed that I don't think it's great... because I don't. Eh, it happens.

Next up, Death Grips, so stay tuned!

album review: 'the colour in anything' by james blake

So on Billboard BREAKDOWN earlier this week, when I was covering Beyonce's 'Forward', the collaboration interlude she made with PBR&B and post-dubstep artist James Blake, it was implied by someone that I'd like to see James Blake drop an album sometime in the near future. And while that's definitely true, I started trying to dissect why, because he's not often an artist I seek out, but one I'm happy exists all the same. His brand of moody yet soulful atmospheric electronic R&B can be surprisingly compelling, albeit more for the performance than the content. All of James Blake's biggest strengths shine through in subtlety, and the details, and while I never really loved his self-titled record or his 2013 sophomore release Overgrown, they were both records I found myself revisiting to try and extract more.

So little did I expect that James Blake would seemingly follow up on my suggestion and drop a record with no warning whatsoever! Now as much as I'd like to say I called it and would love to further test my precognitive powers, in reality it's probably just a matter of timing. After all, for the first time in his career James Blake has landed a featuring credit on the Hot 100 thanks to 'Forward' with Beyonce, so why not push that moment of hype further with the long-teased third record The Colour In Anything. But on a similar note, I was concerned that the release might be overshadowed by louder or more famous entries, especially when hours later Radiohead announced they were releasing a new album this Sunday! And that's not considering the album itself, which running over an hour is nearly double the length of previous James Blake albums, and I was a bit concerned how well that sort of atmosphere would translate to a longer project. But enough dancing around the issue: how did I find The Colour In Anything?

video review: 'lemonade' by beyoncé

Well, this happened. Trust me, I'm no Beyoncé fan, but I'm not going to deny quality when it shows up. Goddamn fantastic record.

Next up... Billboard BREAKDOWN, we'll see where we go from there - stay tuned!

album review: 'lemonade' by beyoncé

There's no easy way to talk about Beyoncé, especially nowadays when her status as a 'icon' has easily become bigger than just the music. And while you could tag some of it as the outgrowth of celebrity culture to where it becomes hyper-focused online, I can't argue that Beyoncé has defied expectations when it comes to how art and music is consumed in the modern age, most of which culminated with the surprise release of her self-titled record in 2013 after most critics had already assembled their lists of albums for the year. And the fact that it sold so damn well is all the more indicative that Beyoncé cannot be stopped at this point...

And I just wished I liked more of the music. Again, I will not deny that Beyoncé  has talent, but more often than not I've found her an incredibly frustrating performer and songwriter. I'll admit right out of the gate that I was never a Destiny's Child fan, and while Beyoncé has had a fair few songs I liked when she inevitably went solo, I can easily assemble a longer list of Beyoncé songs I just can't stand. And the issues are all over the place: sometimes Beyoncé has lacked the finesse or subtlety as a singer, though she has shown a lot of improvement here; sometimes the writing has fallen short or not delivered the nuance she needs; many times her guest stars have let her down. But more than ever what I've found frustrating about many Beyoncé tracks is the instrumentation: you'd think that for as many people work on Beyoncé songs, more of them would have a recognizable melody or tune! That was the biggest factor holding me back from liking her 2013 release when I covered it, along with the fact that it ran long and had much better intentions than execution.

So when Beyoncé surprise-released her newest record Lemonade through TIDAL and accompanied with an hour-long short film on HBO - you know, two services that just drip with populist appeal - look, I wasn't even surprised at this point. I was intrigued, though, because digging through the liner notes there were a fair few surprises: of course Kendrick Lamar and The Weeknd were bound to show up, but Jack White and James Blake? Production and cowriting credits from Ezra Koenig and Josh Tillman? Interpolations of Animal Collective and Led Zeppelin? That, combined with a much tighter running time gave me a feeling that maybe the music and her costars won't let her down this time, so how's Lemonade?

video review: 'beauty behind the madness' by the weeknd

Well, this happened earlier than I expected. Wish I liked it more, but eh, it happens.

Next up, I think I finally might have enough in me to talk about Beach House. Stay tuned!

album review: 'beauty behind the madness' by the weeknd

Well, it's been quite the road to get to this point - because if you had told me the guy making bleak, shamelessly debauched party songs revelling in self-destructive nihilism now has had a fair few of the biggest hits of the past year, I'd have called you crazy.

But now here we are, and now it's time for me to make a definitive statement on The Weeknd, Canadian R&B star who surged through the underground with his goth-tinged debauchery before getting recruited by Drake to break into the mainstream. And to say The Weeknd is a complicated character is kind of understating it: in the process of preparing for this review, I revisited both the mixtape compilation Trilogy and his debut Kiss Land, and putting aside the fact that they're both way too long and underwritten to really support themselves, The Weeknd is an odd sort of artist. On the one hand, I like when his production steps into pummelling, groove-heavy darkness, the sort that dominated the second and third mixtapes in Trilogy, the excellent Thursday and the quite strong Echoes of Silence - on the other hand, if it didn't have that momentum or atmosphere or grit, the songs nearly all went long and could start to blur together, even despite some nifty sampling. I did like that most of his songwriting did improve to tell more complicated stories as Trilogy proceeded that owned their framing of The Weeknd as a shameless, sex-and-drugs-depraved artist spiralling out of control - and the women that would be drawn to that persona - but it was very easy for that melodrama to lose some of its dark, enticing flavour as it repeated over and over. As I've said, nihilism just gets boring after a while if you don't vary the formula. I think my biggest hangup on The Weeknd has always been his voice, but I think that's an issue of him actually sounding engaged on a song - when he tries, he can be a potent presence behind the microphone.

Either way, enough of it came together for The Weeknd to get signed and release his debut Kiss Land, a prime example why it can be a dangerous thing for acts like The Weeknd to get a major label budget. The record sounds opulent and huge, but it pitches so much of the atmosphere and grit to get there that the tracks become nowhere near as immersive, mostly courtesy of The Weeknd leaving behind the producers that got him to the top, especially Illangelo. Coupled with lyricism that seemed to devolve straight back to his oldest material and were again repeating subjects he had tackled before with an even more delicate falsetto - again, not the best fit for this subject matter - I couldn't help but consider Kiss Land a real disappointment.

And then two things happened in rapid succession that took The Weeknd to the top: he collaborated with Ariana Grande on the absolutely stellar song 'Love Me Harder', and Fifty Shades Of Grey happened, where he landed on two songs including the smash hit 'Earned It' - which really wasn't any good, if I'm being honest. That said, I had reason to believe Beauty Behind The Madness would at least be interesting. For one, he pulled Illangelo back on board, and for another, his features and producers list suggested some obvious collaborations - Lana Del Rey and Kanye West - and a few surprising ones, like Max Martin and Ed Sheeran. It also looked to be less bloated than his mixtapes and Kiss Land, which was only a positive step, so did we find actual quality behind Beauty Behind The Madness?

video review: 'souled out' by jhené aiko

Holy shit, I did not see this coming. Seriously, you all need to get this record, it's fantastic and will likely land on my list of one of the best albums of the year, bar none.

Okay, next up... I think it's time for a bit of country, wouldn't you say?

album review: 'souled out' by jhené aiko

So in case you haven't noticed, the biggest new wave in pop music seems to have finally materialized... and it's R&B and soul.

Now this sort of thing comes in cycles, usually on the opposite side of when pop music goes for shiny, electro dance pop, but when you think about it, R&B hasn't exactly been dominant in mainstream music in quite some time, not really since the early-to-mid-2000s. I mean, of course there was always Beyoncé, but she's a force in and of herself. This sort of evolution is broader, and like most musical waves, it was driven by the rise of the glitchy, off-beat, minimalist indie R&B that would come to win tides of critical acclaim at the beginning of the decade. And now that it's finally reached the mainstream, we're getting all sorts of new R&B acts cropping up.

Jhené Aiko isn't quite one of those 'new' acts, in that she's actually been involved in the music industry for over ten years and got her first steps in the door thanks to family connections to B2K. She could have started her career right then, but label tensions, pregancy and a desire to continue her education caused her to take a long hiatus from recording. She eventually returned in 2011 with a well-received mixtape and EP, and even a few legit charting hits that I wouldn't quite say were stellar, but weren't bad either. They showed that Jhené Aiko did have an impressive amount of charisma and vocal presence, and enough wit in her lyrics to back it up, so provided the production was on point - which is often was, thanks to collaborating producers Fisticuffs and No I.D. - I mostly liked her material. That being said, I was skeptical going into this new album Souled Out, mostly because Jhené was saying it was going to be a concept record, and those sorts of ambitious projects right out of the gate can misfire if not directed carefully. So what did I find here?

video review: 'goddess' by banks

Wow, not impressed with this album at all. Okay, maybe a little, but it did very little for me as a whole.

Okay, my schedule has gotten a lot more full... and then U2 decided, 'Hey, let's collaborate with Apple and release a free album out of fucking nowhere!' Well, U2, you've got to wait. In other words, next up is Jhene Aiko, so stay tuned!

album review: 'goddess' by banks

So over a month ago when I reviewed the debut album from UK girl group Neon Jungle, there was one song in particular that stood out in terms of its production and placement on this album: an eerie, reverb-punctuated song called 'Waiting Game' that had well-framed lyrics and context that could back up the heady drama of the track. It was an interesting shift for Neon Jungle, and I liked the song's inclusion... but it wasn't long before everyone informed me that I couldn't really give full credit to that band.

No, more credit belonged to Jillian Banks, often going by her surname as her stagename and who was the American R&B singer-songwriter who originally wrote and performed that song. So I checked out that version and honestly it might be even better, concentrating the emotion on one performer and heightening that sense of intimacy across the track. So you can bet I was curious to check out that debut album when it dropped, a composite record composed of tracks from her first two EPs and new material. Which... okay, not exactly a good sign in terms of album cohesion, but surely the album would come together somewhat, right?

video review: 'lp1' by fka twigs

Not giving this record as much critical acclaim as everyone else, but is still definitely worth your time for one of the best new talents of the genre.

Next up.. gah, need more time for Spoon and Dilated Peoples. Need another debut album... okay, stay tuned!

album review: 'lp1' by fka twigs

So let's talk about sex.

More specifically, let's talk about sex with regards to music. It's long been held that sex sells in some capacity, and you can point to dozens, if not hundreds of artists who have used sexuality in some way to sell their records. Tellingly, the number gets smaller when said sexuality is placed within the music and not just the image, and it gets smaller still when you discount the many acts who have simply made music about sex in order to titillate and nothing else. And if you want to shrink the number even further, discount all of the artists who use their music to talk around sex, using metaphors and symbolism to describe sex to get around censors or to make their songs have some additional class and poetry.

No, today we're going to be talking about a very small group of artists: those who use music that is written about sex and can even sound like sex, but in reality sex is the metaphor being used for other emotions driving the material. This is a much trickier balance to pull off, because sex is one of the most intimate, powerful, passionate experiences one can have in their lives, and using it to represent other things in art can be tricky indeed, mostly because the majority of audiences will simply focus on the sexual imagery and take things literally. You want a prime example of this dichotomy playing out in modern music? 'Do What U Want' by Lady Gaga featuring R. Kelly - easily one of the best songs off of ARTPOP, and yet it suffers the frustrating lack of lyrical cohesion where Gaga is using sex as a metaphor to describe her tempestuous relationship with her audience and the press and how they judge her work, and then R.Kelly gets on the song and makes it, quite literally, about sex. And the startling thing is that R.Kelly is such a force of personality on the song that he can make even critics like myself think the song is really about sex all along.

So how do you get around problems like this? Enter FKA Twigs, with the 'FKA' standing for 'formerly known as' in order to get around a naming controversy with another artist. She started building serious buzz in the independent scene last year with her second EP through the Young Turks indie record label and a series of music videos that didn't shy away from thought-provoking imagery. And with a simply stunning voice, some fairly potent lyrics and instrumentation that blended spacious PBR&B and indie-electronica that recalled acts like James Blake, it was music that sounded like sex and yet seemed to be saying a lot more. So of course I picked up her debut album LP1, especially after the tidal wave of critical acclaim started pouring in...