video review: 'when i get home' by solange

So this happened... I wish I had liked this more, but I do think I grasped it.

Next up... hmm, I've got some ideas, so we'll see - stay tuned!

album review: 'when i get home' by solange

So I'm going to start this review with two neutral statements that nevertheless are bound to be controversial. The first is this: we primarily experience art emotionally - we might analyze or come to appreciate something intellectually later, but ultimately if we're giving an honest opinion on what moves us and what we'll revisit, it's emotional. And to follow that, #2: when the statement is made, 'it's not for you', that's a statement presumably made to speak to the emotional, lived-in experiences that is assumed to be held by someone who likes the art and how said experiences probably aren't held by someone for whom the art isn't clicking.

So why mention any of this? Well, it has to do with the larger discourse around Solange's critical acclaim in the past couple of years, especially surrounding her breakthough A Seat At The Table, a project I liked and understood but didn't love. And I even said in that review that it's not for me - I can certainly respect its appeal and thoughtfulness and I understand the text and subtext on display, but I was very much aware that it was marketed at an audience to which I don't belong. And let me stress this: that's fine! There's absolutely a place and market for that, and while I might make the argument the most powerful art can transcend emotive boundaries should it be heard by everyone, I'm also aware of the material that resonates most with me won't be to the tastes of everyone: that's why my favourite albums of the past five years have spanned an indie country compilation, a pop rock opera, multiple underground hip-hop tapes, and a twisted slice of jazzy adult-alternative blended with goth rock! 

Now where I take the most issue with the whole 'it's not for you' statement is when it's used as a defense mechanism to shield a project from criticism of the text or subtext, which of course hits the blurry line of whether the person understands it and that art is subject to multiple interpretations, but that's a conversation of nuance and detail, not defense. And with A Seat At The Table, it didn't really come up, mostly because the album was critically acclaimed across the board - more degrees of quality being disputed if anything. But the conversation surrounding the surprise release When I Get Home has been more mixed, and outside of the outlets that have a mandate to support it, I've seen the 'it's not for you' argument pushed more as a deflection surrounding the project's quality, coupled with the presumed lack of understanding. To me that was alarming, so I did proceed with both caution and curiosity into this listen... so what did I find?

video review: 'thank u, next' by ariana grande

...sigh, I really wish I didn't feel like I was going out on a ledge with calling out the issues of this project, but whatever.

Anyway, next up is something a LOT more indie, so stay tuned!

album review: 'thank u, next' by ariana grande

So as some of you know, I'm currently working on an extended video essay surrounding the separation of art and artist and how especially in the modern social media/tabloid landscape it's a theory that's increasingly unfeasible. Of course, my larger point will be that it was never that feasible to begin with, but you'll have to wait until I release that project in... I'd like to say a month or so before I explain further - just something to think about.

But really, if you're looking for a project that might as well prove my point in block capitals across every fiber of its being, it was the rushed creation and release of the album thank u, next by Ariana Grande, and yes, before even getting into the album directly I'm calling this a rushed job. Not only was sweetener released midway through last year, singles were still in charting circulation. And this was not a case like Taylor Swift's reputation where the album was tanking upon arrival - the singles had staying power and top 10 presence, and the reviews were solid. But like reputation, it was hard to avoid the feeling that thank u, next was being presented as a slice of spin control in the tumult of Ariana Grande's public life, with both the collapse of her engagement to Pete Davidson - which in going back to sweetener and especially the song she titled after him it was so easy to predict - and the tragic passing of Mac Miller, where in both cases Ariana Grande faced the sort of toxic social media backlash that would be hell for anyone. 

Now as I said last year when the song 'thank u, next' was first released, Ariana Grande had a few advantages over Taylor Swift in that she didn't have the insane weight of cultural expectations placed upon her, and that allowed the song and response to be so breezy and magnanimous, a moment of well-timed spin control that seemed to work in her favor. But that is what it was, especially with the inclusion of names which gives the song additional emotional impact and intensity - pull back from that, separate the art from the artist, and the entire track seems flighty and disposable, an underweight fusion of pop, R&B and trap that for an outside observer would make no sense to sit on the top of the Hot 100 for weeks, only made to feel more because Republic is throwing more money than they probably should to make it stick. And if 'imagine' increased those suspicions, '7 rings' confirmed it, along with the cheap, controversy-laden rollout that for an artist and her team so measured and big-budget over the past three albums that felt alarmingly slapdash. Combined with such a quick turnaround time - she's bragged that this album was written in a week and recorded in not much longer - that is actively cannibalizing singles from the previous project... yeah, I'll freely admit I was worried this would be a rush job and not nearly reflect the potential shown on sweetener for the sort of experimentation and emotional maturity that gave that project such promise - was I wrong?

video review: 'dna' by backstreet boys

So okay, I'm pleased enough with the review... less pleased that I only was reminded during the upload about the allegations against Nick Carter. Left a note in the description surrounding that whole business... yeah, ugly stuff, and Brian Littrell's response was even worse, gross.

Anyway, next up looks like Bring Me The Horizon, so talking about controversy, stay tuned!

album review: 'dna' by backstreet boys

So here's a difficult question: what does a Backstreet Boys album sound like in 2019?

Here's a better question: what should a Backstreet Boys album sound like 2019? Because while I'd argue there might be a market for the long-running boy band to deliver a project that imitates the sound of what made them famous twenty years ago, the group has always striven to update their sound with the times, from the pop rock flourishes on their underrated mid-2000s output to the Red-One-infused club boom pivot of 2009 to the embrace of broader, sunnier textures in 2013 for In A World Like This, of which I defended in one of my first ever reviews because it gave all of them the space to really exercise their harmonies. Yeah, there were some dull acoustic moments, but big flashy pop has always been a good fit for them and I really enjoyed that album - hell, a song from it even made my list of the best songs of 2013!

But in 2019... look, pop music is not really in a healthy place, and I wasn't at all convinced the Backstreet Boys would be able to persist amidst trap beats and an increased unnecessary reliance on Autotune - I hadn't been a fan of 'Don't Go Breaking My Heart' for succumbing to those cliches, and I had no reason to believe this new album wouldn't face similar issues. And again, this is coming from a fan who has seen them live twice and could compile a healthy list of favourites from all of their albums... but I call it like I see it. especially when I saw their list of co-writers and producers. But hey, I had to hope, right, so what did we get off of DNA?

video review: 'love train 2' by asiahn

And here we go - really damn good little project, definitely deserves to get Asiahn more attention.

And next up... yeah, let's deal with the controversy now...

album review: 'love train 2' by asiahn

So I'm in a bit of a funny place with R&B right now, especially the stuff that's more mainstream-accessible - namely that I get the impression that the more sensual tones are due for a subtle shakeup, both in tone and the artists involved. And while I'll wholeheartedly admit a big part of this is me waiting for the inevitable Jhene Aiko breakup album that tears into Big Sean, part of it is linked to how pleasantly surprised I was with Mariah Carey's last album and how indifferent I've been feeling with Ariana Grande recently - mostly because I'm surprised at the relative lack of competition! Hell, last year we got some spicy takes surrounding who the 'king of R&B' is prompted by Jacquees of all people, why does it seem like the modern era of queens are ceding the crown to Ariana so quickly?

And while I could make a bunch of excuses - SZA is between albums, Ella Mai is just starting out and doesn't quite have the pipes, H.E.R., Alina Baraz and Kali Uchis are still underground, Teyana Taylor got screwed by Kanye, Janelle Monae is too weird and amazing to even be a part of the conversation, and I don't even want to get into Tinashe right now - the truth is that a lot of major labels are losing money by not capitalizing on that lack of competition. So I'm stuck going into the underground to find those artists with the chops to compete - and early in 2019, I actually found one. Meet Asiahn, a singer-songwriter who also goes by Asia Bryant who you might recognize if you dig through the liner notes behind some pretty sizable acts, but she started coming into her own with the release of the Love Train EP back in early 2017. And going back to it now, I'll admit I'm a little surprised she didn't get more traction - thanks to her work behind the scenes she's racked up a few Grammy nominations, but more than that, her debut EP is actually really good! I'd struggle to call it precisely great - a stunningly subtle voice and solid lyricism can only get you so far if your production and hooks aren't the sharpest - but she had a lot of taste and potential and I had hope for this full-length follow-up, so what did we get out of Love Train 2?

video review: 'CARE FOR ME' by saba

Man, this... has actually turned out to be not as controversial as I was expecting. Huh, nice to see.

But next up... man alive, I'm so damn happy I knocked it into production by executive order, this thing is something special - stay tuned!

album review: 'CARE FOR ME' by saba

Well, this has been very long in coming.

And indeed, Saba is a name that's been on my radar for some time, even despite the fact it has taken months for his album to ascend my schedule. He's loosely affiliated with many of the indie acts in the Chicago scene that I've covered - he's shown up on Chance The Rapper's Acid Rap and Coloring Book, Donnie Trumpet's Surf, and he and Noname have traded guest appearances on each other's respective projects - and while he built a fair amount of buzz off a few mixtapes, he first came to my attention proper with his 2016 debut Bucket List Project. And for the most part I did like it, but I wouldn't say it was something that really resonated with me as much as I'd like, because for as versatile as Saba was as an MC, he definitely wore his influences on his sleeve. Sure, detailed flair to his writing and he had good taste in instrumentals... but I'd struggle to say I was in a huge hurry to come back to it, and it was tricky to pinpoint why. Maybe the songs just weren't quite there yet or he hadn't quite refined his unique voice, but I did figure that'd likely come on his follow-up. And given the critical reception that CARE FOR ME has received, I had every reason to believe this would be great, so what did we get with this?

video review: 'caution' by mariah carey

Okay, so this was better than I was expecting, I dug this! Glad I got a chance to cover it... and I already know the Mariah Carey stans will tear it apart, but such is the world.

Next up... hmm, not sure, schedule looks pretty flexible, we'll see!

album review: 'caution' by mariah carey

So I got a lot of backlash the last time I reviewed Mariah Carey.

And while there are times I've gone back to old reviews and winced, this was never one of them, mostly because I'd like to think my opinion on Mariah Carey isn't that controversial! She was great in the 90s, four or five excellent albums, and then it went awry in the 2000s. You can argue where and when things went wrong, but even fans had to realize that by the end of the decade, it was not looking or sounding nearly as good as it once did.  So she did the smart thing and took some time off to recharge for her 2014 album... and look, it was not a bad project, but through the combination of poor guest star choices, haphazard writing, and production that rarely lived up to her promise, it was a comeback that felt abortive, and while '#Beautiful' remains a great song, you can make the argument nobody is going back to that album in the same way they do her 90s or even 2000s work. And when you couple it with that New Year's Eve performance a few years back... look, you can't tarnish Mariah's legacy, but beyond the diehard fanbase, I don't know who was asking for another album.

But hey, we've got another one - and I'll admit I was really curious. It didn't seem too long, the production credits were all over the place but potentially promising, and while I was dreading the Gunna collaboration deep in the track list, the critical reviews haven't looked this good since the 90s. In other words, I was looking for any excuse to like a new Mariah Carey album, and I'd certainly prefer it if Ariana Grande got some competition, so what did we get with Caution?

video review: 'lm5' by little mix

...yeah, I wanted to like it more too. Hopefully will be better next time.

But next up... let's get a little weird here, so stay tuned!

album review: 'lm5' by little mix

So this is the fourth Little Mix album I've covered on this channel, and by now I think you all know the beats I've hit. Yes, the girls can harmonize their asses off and the writing is often punching above their weight class, but the group's pivots towards pop in recent years have been handicapped by slapdash production that doesn't always flatter them as much as they could, most likely because of budget constraints because they're a reality show girl group assembled by SYCO and Simon Cowell. Like their peers in Fifth Harmony, they were a group assembled for disposability, and I'll admit that I was waiting for the moment when they self-destructed just like Fifth Harmony did...

And that hasn't happened, and for the life of me, I'm a little stunned they've lasted with as much quality as they have. Hell, not just lasted but prospered! They get their most flamboyant pop push on Get Weird... and nab their first #1 in the UK with 'Black Magic'. They're saddled with the most slapdash collection of ideas and cowriters on Glory Days, and not only did that album get better with every single listen, they snagged a second #1 and a respectable number of solid hits even before UK radio began remixing them with everyone under the sun. Oh, and despite its terrible video, Little Mix made 'Touch', which is one of the best pop songs of the decade and also wound up becoming a top 5 hit in the UK! Let's make this clear, while Little Mix hasn't quite won the critical acclaim of Girls Aloud, their sheer amount of success and consistent quality despite everything deserves to have them put in the conversation of the great girl groups, and the surprise is that they haven't had the US crossover yet - hell, if they had released the fantastic new jack swing of 'Private Show' to US radio, they'd have beaten Bruno Mars to the punch by a solid year!

So now we're in 2018, Fifth Harmony has been knocked off the board, and Syco is even out of the picture now - unfortunately they were involved in production of this album but now Little Mix is on RCA UK and Columbia. The marketing was priming the band for the US market, and while I had high hopes for the girl group - especially given how many genres they've managed to leap across over the past five years - pop and R&B are in a very different position in 2018 and I had genuine concerns whether this would be what they need, especially with even more producers and cowriters joining them. There's no excuse for this to not be good and I had high hopes - so what did we get with LM5?

video review: 'oxnard' by anderson .paak

So yeah, I do wish this was a lot better - but eh, it happens. Let's hope we get a course correction soon.

Next up, something where the course correction is never going to happen...

album review: 'oxnard' by anderson .paak

Man, expectations were high for this one, weren't they?

And indeed, it's been a bit amusing seeing the fallout from the early reviews of Oxnard come through - a lot of critics had seen tremendous potential and had gotten captivated by Anderson .Paak's infectious charisma and blend of genres, and I'll admit at first, I was definitely one of them. Venice had primed the pump, .Paak had stolen the show on Dr. Dre's Compton album, and following in that wake with some terrific guest performances, I was ready for my mind to be blown with the textured smash that was Malibu, easily one of the best albums of 2016. But I was also kind of lukewarm on his work with Knxwledge on their collaboration that same year, Yes Lawd!, because it exposed just how Anderson .Paak's charisma couldn't save fragmented songs, undercooked ideas, and a sleaziness that could get actively distracting if mishandled. So I was more cautious going into Oxnard - the guest performances looked promising and I had liked what I heard from the singles, but reception has been lukewarm thus far and I was a little surprised that Dr. Dre seemed to have stepped up his production oversight - I guess he wanted to ensure Anderson .Paak finally became the household name he deserves to be and I liked their balance on Compton, but would it work here for Oxnard?

video review: 'ella mai' by ella mai

Well, this was... kind of a mess, but I wound up being a bit more charitable because 'Easy' is a legit great song to end the album, really dug that.

Next up, Kurt Vile - stay tuned!

album review: 'ella mai' by ella mai

So here's a serious question: who the hell was expecting 'Boo'd Up' to be as big as it was?

Because I sure as hell didn't, I'll say that right now - when I first covered Ella Mai's breakout single on Billboard BREAKDOWN on a week chock full of better R&B tunes, I was underwhelmed by this... hell, I think on some level I'm still underwhelmed by it, or at the very least stunned that it was a top 5 hit! And I'll be very blunt and say that it seemed like the odds were stacked against Ella Mai - signed to DJ Mustard's label of all places from getting discovered on Instagram, unlike so much modern R&B 'Boo'd Up' was not a darling of streaming so much as the radio, which made me very curious what sort of organic groundswell Ella Mai would be able to carry into her full-length debut. Yeah, those EPs had gotten a little traction, but it was hard to avoid the narrative that this album was as much of a trial for the redemption of DJ Mustard's career than it was for Ella Mai. And really, I won't lie and say that I was incredibly interested in this beforehand, but I did want to see if Ella Mai would stick the landing on her own, so what did we get from this self-titled, full-length debut?

video review: 'always in between' by jess glynne

Damn, I really do wish this was better... but it happens, I guess...

Okay, this week is going to be crazy for personal reasons outside of video production, so we'll see where this goes, but Billboard BREAKDOWN is up next, so stay tuned!

album review: 'always in between' by jess glynne

So here's something I've realized about myself and pop music: when it comes to sheer competence in song construction, more often than not I'll give acts that might not be the most innovative more of a pass than most. Part of this is the appreciation and acknowledgement that crafting a damn solid straightforward pop song is often just as hard if not harder than making a track in any other genre, but I do think it runs a little deeper, to the pop that did work so damn well in the late 90s on which I was raised. Hell, one reason I've gone to bat for S Club 7 more than I think anyone should is that they put out at least three albums of damn solid, well-produced pop music that might not have blown apart any paradigms but did exactly what it was designed to do - that consistency rarely gets the hype it deserves.

And I think there's some truth to that surrounding how much I like Jess Glynne, because I was much more positive on her debut album in 2015 than pretty much any other critic. Yeah, there were a few misfires in production and the lyrics were never great, but Glynne was a solid enough singer and the hooks were there, enough so that I was genuinely interested in her sophomore follow-up this year, even if I had the expectation that like last time I might not have much to say. But what the hell - what did we get out of Always In Between?