video review: 'bulletproof picasso' by train

So this happened. Overall, a fundamentally broken album, but still entertaining to talk about. Be sure to check out Mark's work over at Spin It! Reviews, he's got some solid material over there.

Okay, Chris Brown, you finally got around to releasing X, hit me!

Wait, bad choice of words -

video review: 'preparanoia' by lmno

Wished it was a little better, but overall a good record from a rapper I really do respect. Check it out.

Okay, tomorrow we could have a pretty interesting surprise - either that or Interpol, so stay tuned!

album review: 'preparanoia' by lmno

So last year, I received a request to review a hip-hop album from a rapper I had never heard of before, and yet managed to turn out as one of my favourite albums of last year thanks to great, well-structured bars and phenomenal production from a guest producer who I've already covered twice this year. That producer was Evidence, and the album was called After The Fact, by the prolific, highly skilled, and impressively monotone MC LMNO. 

And over the past year, I've begun to see more and more why LMNO has managed to carve out his niche defiantly outside of mainstream rap: not only does he produce new material at an impressive rate - not counting 2010, where he released ten albums worth of material in one year - but his delivery was icy, crisp, multisyllabic, and near devoid of inflection or drama. He was the sort of rapper who could deliver bars until the end of time, although his flat brand of intensity could prove to be a little difficult to tolerate.

Yet even with that, I really did respect his wordplay and creativity, and while it was a little disheartening to see him part ways with Evidence for his newest album Preparanoia, I still took the time to check it out regardless. What did I get?

video review: 'where it's at' by dustin lynch

Well, that was a surprising listen. Still wouldn't consider it great, but it definitely caught me off-guard and I do appreciate that.

So okay, still got a bunch more albums to listen through before I'm ready to talk about Opeth or U2. In other words, I'll either be finally talking about Mick Jenkins or Lee Brice, so stay tuned!

album review: 'where it's at' by dustin lynch

So let's talk a bit about labels in country music. Like in any other genre, you've got your big labels and your independents, but unlike other genres, you don't really have one independent label that has accumulated tons of critical acclaim or real powerhouse artists under their banner. In other words, country doesn't seem to have a label like alt and indie rock's Sub Pop, or rap's TDE, or pop rock's Fueled by Ramen. 

But that's not saying some indie labels don't have power in mainstream country - far from it, which takes us to Broken Bow Records. Founded in 1999, it has grown most prominent in recent years for signing Jason Aldean, Thompson Square, Craig Morgan, and the artists we're going to be talking about today, Dustin Lynch. Now Lynch comes as a bit of an odd arrival to mainstream country music, in that he released his debut in 2012 just before the bro-country wave took over and subsequently collapsed. If anything he seemed to be looking more for the neotraditional smooth adult country where you'd usually find Chris Young or Blake Shelton, especially off of his highest charting single from that album 'Cowboys and Angels', a pretty solid song that had a bit of lyrical clumsiness but made up for it with great guitar tones and instrumentation all around. It was enough to get me curious about his follow-up album Where It's At, which was set to be released this year albeit with a much less impressive lead-off single. What did concern me was that his number of writing credits had fallen off significantly, from well over half of his self-titled debut down to just a third of this record. But then again, he was working with established country songwriters, which could mean good things, including with longtime Dierks Bentley collaborator Brett Beavers. So I gave it a look - what did I get?

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: 'v' by maroon 5

Okay, glad that's out of my system.

Next up... well, we'll see here. I've got a few rap projects I want to talk about before Interpol or Opeth, so stay tuned!

album review: 'v' by maroon 5

I'm amazed this album exists.

Because if you had told me a decade ago that one of the few pop rock acts still charting singles highly on the Billboard Hot 100 would be Maroon 5, I probably would have laughed in your face. And it wasn't as if they were originally a bad band: their brand of funk was aggressively stiff but they could write some impressively catchy songs. I might not have been the biggest fan of Adam Levine's vocal delivery as he occasionally came across as more obnoxious and smarmy than he could really back up, but his voice was unique and he did have some versatility as a performer. And as much as many of Maroon 5's relationship songs screamed of douchebaggery and framing that was nowhere near self-aware enough to pull it off, they occasionally brought some swagger or even real sincerity to anchor their better material. 

But as the 2000s became the 2010s, it became clear that Maroon 5 was becoming less of a rock band in any capacity and more of a vehicle for Adam Levine's solo career, one that was supported by an arsenal of professional songwriters. In other words, they sold out, which honestly wouldn't have been a problem for a pop act if the music had stayed strong or at least maintained some vestige of individuality. And that really didn't happen, culminating in the album Overexposed in 2012, a record that has only gotten worse every time I listen to it. It was a record that somehow stripped away even more of Maroon 5's unique sound with even worse lyrics. It was a sour, bitter, unpleasant listen with the exception of the gentle and heartfelt piano ballad 'Sad', and it left me with little hope the band would ever recover any artistic integrity, especially considering the record sold shockingly well, so why would they have any reason to try?

And even with the return of keyboardist Jesse Carmichael from hiatus, I didn't have high hopes at all for their new album V, and I was not looking forward to covering this album. But then again, this meant Maroon 5 had nowhere to go but up, at least in my books, so I gave the album a chance: how did it go?

video review: 'moonshine in the trunk' by brad paisley

Man, this album should have been so much better. Still good, but there's was potential for something awesome here that just wasn't realized.

Okay, next up... well, I want to talk about LMNO, but I should probably take a look at Mick Jenkins before everyone starts screaming for me to cover another Maroon 5 record. Stay tuned!

album review: 'moonshine in the trunk' by brad paisley

So I want you all to imagine that you're a world-famous country singer. Easy enough, I know, but imagine that you've managed to release a series of critically well-received records, albums that straddled commercial and critical appeal... and yet, you want to go further. You want to push the boundaries of country music while still maintaining commercial accessibility to country radio. You've already released a well-received instrumental album, but you're not willing to give up airplay to be that weird, at least not in your instrumentation. In the mean time, you're kind of stuck and very quickly getting bored with your genre of choice. What do you do?

Many critics have hypothesized this is the internal dichotomy Brad Paisley is struggling with right now. Ever since the mid-2000s, he's been straining and pushing at the edges of what is traditionally defined as mainstream country, adding more instrumentation and songwriting subjects, which culminated in last year's album Wheelhouse, a release largely overshadowed by 'Accidental Racist' with LL Cool J, a song attempting to tackle race relationships and pissing off everyone.

But people who have followed this series likely know that I didn't dislike Wheelhouse as an album - in fact, it featured two songs that featured highly on my year-end list of my favourite songs of the year, 'Karate' and 'Southern Comfort Zone', and there were other songs on that album that were close to the list too. The fact is that Brad Paisley as a songwriter still has a knack for a ridiculously catchy hook, a decent bit of lyrical nuance, and some interesting instrumentation and production - if he releases a record, at least it's not going to be boring.

So even though I wasn't impressed at all by his debut single 'River Bank', I made sure to give his new album Moonshine In The Trunk a lot of attention: how is it?

video review: 'sparks' by imogen heap

Wow, this took way too long to get out, but I'm happy to get it out all the same. Damn great album, too.

Okay, Brad Paisley next, time to get back on schedule. Stay tuned!

album review: 'sparks' by imogen heap

The more you think about it, the more you realize how much indie pop in the modern era owes to Imogen Heap.

And believe me, you wouldn't have thought that, especially when you look at the odd arc of her career. Starting in the late 90s with i-Megaphone, Imogen Heap stepped into the indie scene with an album blending fuzz-saturated alt-rock with gorgeously, surprisingly intricate keyboard melodies and a breathy voice that proved incredibly versatile and emotionally compelling. And while on reflection that record is so 90s it's painful, Imogen Heap's talent does shine through and would be a sign that her opulent, genre-bending sophomore release in 2005 would be worth the wait.

And oh dear god it was. Let me make this clear: i-Megaphone is a decent album. Speak For Yourself is a goddamn masterpiece that's one of the best albums of the 2000s, hands down. Raw, uncomfortably intimate, overloaded with memorable melodies and genre bending with production that Imogen Heap all did herself without a record label and nearly went bankrupt for the trouble, it's the sort of desperately small-scale conceptual record that sounds so much bigger and and more meaningful than it should be... and then goes and earns that drama. The fact that it managed to be cohesive, emotional, and incredibly catchy along the way won Imogen Heap critical acclaim, but popularity would come when the ghostly autotuned and absolutely gorgeous song 'Hide & Seek' used on The OC and then sampled by Jason Derulo for one of the worst hit songs of 2009 and possibly the decade in 'Whatcha Say'.

But by that point Imogen Heap was moving onto her newest project Ellipse, which also came out in 2009... to mostly middling reviews. Critics and fans were baffled - it wasn't like Ellipse was a bad record, overstuffed with the same rich plethora of musical ideas that formed Speak For Yourself, so why wasn't it as good? Well, after a few relistens, an answer was easily apparent: the drama and emotional intensity that defined Speak For Yourself was downplayed on Ellipse, and it made the instrumental flourishes and flowery lyrics appear a lot less gripping and much more indulgent. And the more I heard about the development of Imogen Heap's newest record Sparks, the more I was concerned that same indulgence might come up again. Sure, the music would undoubtedly be pretty, but would there be the emotional intensity that drove that sophomore masterpiece, especially after a recording process that took much longer and featured instruments Imogen Heap helped design and all manner of art campaigns accompanying the many, many singles released over the past three years. But Imogen Heap has earned a ton of good will with me, so I dove deep into Sparks: do we have another masterpiece?

video review: 'TRXYE' by troye sivan

Okay, next is Imogen Heap. You all wanted this, you got it.

But until then, stay tuned!

album review: 'TRXYE' by troye sivan

Okay, in case most of you who are new here haven't gotten the message, I don't tend to cover EPs. I tend to like looking at fully formed albums that have definitive presence and a theme behind them, which even shallow dance-pop albums can deliver.

And on that note, I tend to be a little cautious when covering fellow YouTubers. I've talked about this way back when I reviewed Karmin's major label debut album, because YouTube is a smaller community than you might think and there's always the chance that whatever I review gets back to the artist in question. Now the conclusion I ultimately drew was that I'm still a critic, and it doesn't matter what platform they started on, they deserve the same level of criticism as any other act, and to soften my typical style would be a disservice to Troye Sivan, because the implication would be, should I go easy on him because of YouTube or because it's an EP or because he's 19, that I don't feel his art can stand in the big leagues, and that's not fair to him. And considering so many of you recommended this guy, I figured I'd do my due diligence and take a look.

So, Troye Sivan. Australian, does a lot of acting and theater work, and a prominent YouTuber who has built a pretty impressive platform. He got his major breakthrough with one of his songs featuring in the hit romance movie of this year The Fault In Our Stars, based on a novel written by author and fellow YouTuber movie. Now I haven't seen that movie, mostly because that particular brand of cancer drama tends to gun for sentimentality that I don't tend to like, but I did hear Troye Sivan's charting single on the lower end of the Billboard Hot 100 'Happy Little Pill' and wasn't exactly impressed. But I kept getting requests for this EP so I figured there had to be something that was gripping everyone and gave it several listens. What did I get?

video review: 'my everything' by ariana grande

Hopefully this'll satisfy everyone who kept requesting that I talk about this.

Anyway, next up will be Imogen Heap. Stay tuned!

album review: 'my everything' by ariana grande

It's been an eventful year for Ariana Grande.

And let's be fair here, it wasn't exactly like 2013 was a bad year for her, considering the breakthrough success of 'The Way' and to a lesser extent with 'Baby I', songs that did a fair amount to showcase her talent and did enough for me to review her debut album Yours Truly. Which, for the most part, I quite liked: the songwriting was well-framed and complimented Ariana Grande's image and delivery quite well, and it featured a fair few songs that really stuck with me, including her collaboration with Mika 'Popular Song', which landed on my list of my favourite songs of 2013. Sure, I didn't think the instrumentation and production was all that stellar, but I figured that would be something that would take a little time to iron out.

Now one element I noticed about that debut is that even though Ariana wanted to distance herself from her Nickelodeon sitcom roots, her material was still fairly 'innocent', all things considered. Sex and sexuality were referred to through innuendo, the romance took center stage, and the songs had a much lighter tone - and like someone who has seen so many teen starlets go down this road before, or even Ariana's vocal predecessor Mariah Carey, I knew that pristine image wasn't likely to last, especially as Ariana rocketed up the charts and as of this recording has three songs in the Billboard Hot 100. And with a larger stable of writers and collaborators jumping behind her, you could tell that the marketing push was looking for this album to sell a lot. Yours Truly was the warm-up, this was the real deal, so how's the record?

video review: 'maximum overload' by dragonforce

And that'll probably end off a streak of records/videos because I'm going to have company this weekend (spoilers: Imogen Heap video might be delayed until next week or Sunday, because I'm exhausted). Still pretty pleased with how it turned out, though.

Well, regardless, it's Imogen Heap and then finally I'll talk about Ariana Grande like all of you have gone on about. Stay tuned!