billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - september 5, 2015 (VIDEO)

Man, the shooting of this episode was absolute hell. Goddamn, I'm amazed it turned out at all.

Next up... well, might as well get The Weeknd out of the way. Stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - september 5, 2015

You know, I wish the summer months would just make up their damn minds if they were interested in being slow or not, it'd definitely make my scheduling a hell of a lot easier! Because this week, so little happened on the Hot 100 - no recurring entries, barely any shifts in the top 10, five new songs, and only a few changes - that I was seriously considering whether or not I should include the Canadian charts. And you know, it might have been close - we have returning entries from Drake and twenty-one pilots, and a charting hit from the Cold War Kids that was pretty decent - but then I saw we also had a song featuring Chris Brown and I think I filled my quota for that about six months ago.

video review: 'wild ones' by kip moore

Not sure anyone really gives two shits about this album, but I thought it was pretty damn good.

Next up, one of the lightest Billboard BREAKDOWNs yet - which is good for me, gives me time to get Beach House and Ghost reviews ready, plus a little something special. Stay tuned!

album review: 'wild ones' by kip moore

So I've talked a bit before about the Nashville songwriting machine, the group of songwriters and producers that churn out songs or even entire albums for our country stars, sometimes with those stars not even having a single writing credit. For a critic, this can be pretty galling, especially in determining an artistic voice behind the music, but to be fair, it's not like pop or R&B or even rock and hip-hop are much different.

Which is why an artist like Kip Moore stands out as something of an anomaly, because his debut album Up All Night was released in 2012 and he had writing credits on every single song. And to go a step further, his material fit completely within mainstream radio, even at the genesis of bro-country - songs about girls, beer, trucks, nothing in the writing you haven't heard before. But remember how I said that bro-country can actually be good? Well, I'd add Kip Moore to the very short list of acts like Jake Owen or Billy Currington who can make this work while still maintaining a defiantly country sound with prominent melodies, grittier yet atmospheric production that reminded me a lot of a rougher Dierks Bentley, potent grooves, and a lot of raw passion from Kip Moore. The fascinating thing is that Up All Night seemed to draw more inspiration instrumentally from Americana-inspired rock like Bruce Springsteen, even as the subject matter rarely rose above bro-country standards, although thankfully delivered with enough heartfelt sincerity to rise above. And yeah, there were points that were a little too synthetic to really work, but what raised Kip Moore above the pack were the details...

And as such, it's no surprise that after a few strong singles, Kip Moore struggled to land hits on country radio - something which didn't surprise him, given his visible contempt for the songwriting by assembly line process in bro-country. Two non-album singles flopped on the radio, and I suspect part of it was just a flooded market, where if you played things with more restraint and class, you weren't going to stand out, even if your writing and production were a cut above. As such, I was a little worried when I saw the list of cowriters that Moore had brought on - he still had primary writing credits, but there were more hands in the pot and that did raise a certain amount of concern. But hey, I really liked Up All Night, and if Brett James was still handling production, maybe it'd still have that quality. Does it deliver?

video review: 'wave[s]' by mick jenkins

So you know using the [s] can represent the strikethrough tag in some cases? Pit of a pain in the ass, really...

Anyway, Kip Moore's coming tomorrow, along with Billboard BREAKDOWN - stay tuned!

album review: 'wave[s]' by mick jenkins

I rarely cover EPs. I almost never cover mixtapes. So why the hell am I talking about this?

Well, in this case it's the artist himself having a reputation for dropping projects that really should be full albums at this point. I might have been skeptical when I covered Chicago MC Mick Jenkins' mixtape last year The Water(s), as I didn't exactly love his earlier mixtapes, but that tape caught me by surprise by how startlingly fully formed and articulate it was, exploring its themes surrounding water with a depth that I never could have expected. It was a potent release and very nearly missed my year-end list of albums, but even with that the song 'Jazz' was one of my favourite songs of 2014, and I'd have to be crazy to pass it up.

That said, I did have a bit of pause before approaching this EP, which is just under a half-hour, which has been longer than some albums I've covered this year. I heard it was more jazz-inspired and more eclectic, and while I've been appreciating the revival of this brand of hip-hop, Chance The Rapper's project with Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment Surf proved it could go wrong if there wasn't a clear artistic direction, and that can be tricky to sketch out on a shorter project, at least to the same depth. But Mick Jenkins is still a great rapper, so I dug into Wave[s] - what did I find?

video review: 'i cry when i laugh' by jess glynne

Yeah, I know, I was planning on dropping this yesterday, but I discovered I had plans/a social life. It happens, folks.

Next up, let's see if I can get this Mick Jenkins out of the way before another crazy week ahead - stay tuned!

album review: 'i cry when i laugh' by jess glynne

So I think I was one of the few critics who cover pop music who didn't love 'Rather Be' last year, the breakthrough single from electronic music group Clean Bandit. Yeah, it was very elegant and very pretty and had a vibrant clarity to the sound that reminded me of Imogen Heap in a good way, but it was one of those tracks that just fell completely flat for me. Maybe it wasn't weird enough or that it never reached those transcendent moments it kept gunning for, or maybe because it felt bizarrely overmixed and the songwriting wasn't all that great, but it didn't do much for me.

One person I won't blame here, though, is Jess Glynne, the guest singer on that track who was actually pretty solid and who was steadily building herself a respectable career in the UK while everyone on this side of the Atlantic had no idea who she was. And let's make this clear, she's big over there right now, with multiple songs cracking the top ten and even one taking the #1 slot for three weeks - and considering the turnover of the UK Official Charts, that's saying something.

So who is Jess Glynne? Born in the UK, she grew up working music management and record labels before a few chance collaborations, the biggest being with Clean Bandit that netted her a Grammy before she had a full debut album. Reportedly drawing on soul, R&B, and house music, it promised to be interesting at least, so I made a note to check out I Cry When I Laugh when it finally dropped - how does it turn out?

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?

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - august 29, 2015 (VIDEO)

So the reason this is late is because my computer decided that it no longer wanted to render the correct file format - for no adequately explained reason. I suspect it's an issue as my computer constantly tries to update to Windows 10 despite the fact that said update will not promote properly on my particular machine, but fortunately I have ways around this.

Next up... I dunno, probably B.o.B. or Mick Jenkins, just to get them out of my system and try desperately to get back on schedule. Stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - august 29, 2015

Right, so let's explain why this didn't drop on its regular Tuesday timeslot. Well, believe it or not, I suspect it wasn't Billboard's fault the charts were delayed, mostly because the sales data that they got from Nielsen surrounding a certain song was wildly inaccurate, originally placing its debut in the top ten instead of midway down the chart where it belongs. This frantic revision - which other chart analysts had already estimated properly earlier this week - caused Billboard to delay a day to make sure the numbers are in properly on what was otherwise a pretty regular week.

billboard BREAKDOWN - a look at the canadian hot 100 (2015) (VIDEO)

I've been looking to do this episode for a long time, and I'm happy I had an excuse to finally get it out (even if it does mean my review schedule got more complicated, but I should expect that at this point).

Next up, the real episode of Billboard BREAKDOWN, so stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - a look at the canadian hot 100 (2015)

So on regular episodes of Billboard BREAKDOWN, a frequent tagline is that the Canadian charts are always better than those of the United States, and that has drawn responses from curiosity to outright skepticism. I mean, this is the nation that gave the world Justin Bieber, Celine Dion, and Nickelback, surely anything that charts there must be bland, derivative junk that was clearly not good enough to make it south of the border, right?

Well, you could argue that might be the case, particularly Canadian acts are jumping on trends that American acts already started, but it tends to be more complicated than that, and the place to start would be the Canadian Radio-Telecommunications Commission, otherwise known as the CRTC. The idea behind it ties into the preservation of uniquely Canadian content - given our proximity to the US and the fact that sheer size means the US market is so much bigger than ours, there was a desire to give Canadian artists a boost nationally so that they wouldn't have to rely on international hits to succeed. It's a bit of a controversial system, as any sort of regulation tends to be, but when you look at the bigger picture, I tend to support the CRTC for a few key reasons. It's not like it's preventing the massive hits from the States getting huge up here with very rare exception, and in the mean time it gives a greater audience to Canadian creators who might never get it in the States, especially with increased consolidation of radio.

But here's the thing: since the Canadian Hot 100 debuted in the mid-2000s, it's increasingly departed from US trends to fall somewhere between them and international audiences. And this means that more off-beat oddities will land on our charts - a smaller population means that a song doesn't need to appeal to the increasingly massive audiences required for US hits. And since hip-hop and country radio tends to be a fair bit smaller simply thanks to demographic demand, what fills in the blanks is an odd assortment of pop rock, electronica, and indie songs that defy categorization - and the hilarious thing is that a fair chunk of them aren't even Canadian! Since our market has become more accustomed to weirder stuff, it's meant that where songs like 'Come With Me Now' by KONGOS barely had an impact in the US, it was a top ten hit up here!

And all of this got me thinking: there's a whole swathe of music that as of this date has not hit the US yet or likely ever will - to qualify for this list, it must not have charted at all on the Billboard Hot 100 in the past six months - so let's put some of it on display, shall we? Prepare to get mostly Canadian up in here, let's get this started! In no particular order...

video review: 'positive songs for negative people' by frank turner

Fairly solid release, fairly solid review, no complaints there. Honestly hope my throat feels a bit better, Billboard BREAKDOWN is always crazy.

And speaking of that... whoo boy, get to talk about Lana Del Rey tomorrow, joy...

album review: 'positive songs for negative people' by frank turner

On some level, punk is always going to be a young person's genre. The raw anger, the focus on passion and energy over meticulous craftsmanship, the vitriolic power with maybe the nuance coming later, all of this shows up most in the heady rush of youth. So what happens when a punk grows up and encounters the crushing weight of adulthood?

Well, any number of things happen. Some will keep the faith, some will fade out of the scene naturally, some will even double down and rage all the harder, and some will opt to refine their simple songs into something with a little more weight or maturity or complexity. As such, it's not all that surprising that some punks will drift towards folk rock or rock operas or even alternative country, trading explosive energy for tighter songwriting or more grandiose presentation.

And one of the best examples of that is Frank Turner, who initially started in post-hardcore before going solo and making highly lyrical and yet no less passionate folk rock drenched in the grubby pub tradition that drew upon Celtic folk, disillusioned punk, and even hints of alternative country and piano rock. And there's a lot to really like about his brand of abrasive yet confessional songwriting, his clever knack for a great hook, and his eclectic hodgepodge of influences that are half tongue-in-cheek and yet often completely sincere. For me, my favourite album of Turner's is easily his second Love Ire & Song, as it felt like it brought the most instrumental flavour and excellently crafted songs to the table while still maintaining that punk edge. If I can find areas where Turner can stumble, it'd be some of his material can get a little sleepy and lacking in momentum, which would probably be the biggest criticism I'd have of his third album, or that his newest albums can occasionally feel a tad too polished, especially in his vocals. But none of that was going to stop me from reviewing his newest album Positive Songs For Negative People - does it live up to its title?

video review: 'cry baby' by melanie martinez

You know, it's funny, the comments have been, 'Yeah, we didn't expect you to like this, but we wanted you to cover it anyway.' So there's that.

Next up, Frank Turner - stay tuned!

album review: 'cry baby' by melanie martinez

I've been getting requests to cover this artist since 2014.

And if I'm judging at all by the cavalcade of requests begging for me to cover Melanie Martinez, the hype has reached critical mass and it'd be questionable if I didn't cover her... even though she's never had a charting single off of any material that wasn't from The Voice. Yeah, for those of you who don't know, Melanie Martinez was once on that overexposed show and got eliminated midway through, and yet to judge by her buzz and following nowadays she's easily eclipsed many of the winners, thanks mostly to viral success off of her EP last year and her videos. And after a few listens, I got the impression she was the sort of artist I wanted to like more than I did, with the striking lyrics, shattered porcelain persona, brittle instrumentation, and creepy videos. 

But the more I listened to Melanie Martinez, the more I was convinced that the image was eclipsing the actual music, which really wasn't as interesting as the ideas behind it. I didn't think she was a bad singer - somewhere between Lana Del Rey at her most tolerable and Natalia Kills - but she wasn't great, and a lot of her instrumentation and production didn't impress me. I could go a step further and say that most of her image and style both Marina & The Diamonds and Kimbra did with better actual music, and if I were to admit I listen to j-pop or k-pop I'd say that Kyary Pamyu Pamyu is considerably weirder - and better - but the larger issue is that the whole faux-lolita to emphasize girlish creepiness just doesn't appeal to me whatsoever. And yeah, I definitely know I'm not the audience for any of this, but at the same time I wasn't buying into the hype machine.

That said, when you get down to the songwriting, outside of some minor technical issues I'll admit Martinez has ambition and big ideas, and she's got enough personality to make up for a lot. I was significantly more skeptical when I heard it was a concept album - which is certainly bold for a pop record, and even moreso for a debut album - but I figured this would at least be interesting, even if it was a trainwreck. So what did we get with Cry Baby?

video review: 'faded gloryville' by lindi ortega

Man, I wish this album was stronger - it always kind of stinks to not give stellar reviews for artists you really like, but it happens.

Next up, either Frank Turner or Melanie Martinez. Either way, both will be out in the next few days, so stay tuned!

album review: 'faded gloryville' by lindi ortega

You know, considering how much indie country I cover and especially on the Canadian side, I'm a little astounded I've never covered Lindi Ortega. Maybe it was poor timing - her last album Tin Star dropped in late 2013 where I was still very much getting a handle on my reviews - but let's make up for lost time and discuss one of the more fascinating indie country acts you'll hear. Born in Toronto, she spent most of the 2000s trying to land a deal through a selection of independently released albums and EPs before signing with Interscope through Cherrytree in 2008... and if you know anything about Cherrytree and a rising star named Lady Gaga affiliated with that label, it was perhaps the worst possible timing for her. It wasn't long before Lindi returned to the indie scene and signed with Last Gang - the label behind K-OS, Lights, and Metric - which proved to be a much better fit and gave her more flexibility to drop records.

And starting with Little Red Boots in 2011, she did just that. Blending a dusty brand of alternative country with a vintage rockabilly image and jazz-cabaret inspired vocals, Lindi had a theatricality that might have felt broad if it wasn't for the great textured production and sharp writing. She followed it with the dustier snarl and general all-around awesomeness of Cigarettes & Truckstops in 2012, which started earning her some serious critical acclaim - and for good reason, as Lindi's sultry vocals had a lived-in reality that belied the smoky glam and dark lyrics. Lana Del Rey wishes she could appropriate vintage flair this well, it's stunning. She followed it with Tin Star in 2013 working with producer Dave Cobb, and while he definitely brought his brand of vintage production that worked wonders for the atmosphere, I missed some of the smoky, noir darkness and ragged edge which was replaced with a gentler, more neotraditional sound. And frankly, with Dave Cobb handling production for her newest album Faded Gloryville, I expected more of the same. And of course it'd be good, but would it reach the greatness she hit with Cigarettes & Truckstops?