album review: 'caracal' by disclosure

There's no easy way to do this review.

And to some extent that's my fault, because the more I think about it, the more I feel I got into electronic music in the weirdest way possible. Last year, when I decided I wanted to push my comfort zone beyond trance and some of the greats like The Chemical Brothers, I started covering weird, critically acclaimed acts that were getting that acclaim by pushing boundaries. Acts like Levon Vincent and Objekt and Jlin and Arca were building a reputation for off-kilter, difficult electronic music, and even the ones that had a closer mainstream connection like Ghost Culture or Todd Terje or Jamie xx were still well outside. 

So when I went back to dig into Disclosure's critically acclaimed debut record Settle from 2013, I found myself distinctly underwhelmed. Yeah, 'Latch' had been everywhere, but as someone who never really loved that song, finding a record that played very much to that formula didn't really engage me all that much. Yes, there was a certain tightness to the progressions I appreciated, yes, many of the guest performances were solid, and yes, I don't see anything wrong with calling back to the trends of the past - hell, I wouldn't say this album is bad. But I was definitely baffled why this became the electronic album that captivated so many people and crossed over - if it wasn't for the murderer's row of guest stars, the production was sparse and the melodies weren't particularly interesting, with production that didn't do much more to enhance it. But again, I'm coming from a weird perspective here - I do see the appeal in certain settings and 'Help Me Lose My Mind' was indeed awesome, especially as an album closer thanks to London Grammar, but I wasn't as blown away as I hoped.

And as such, when I started hearing the buzz that Caracal, the sophomore release from Disclosure with more expensive guest stars like The Weeknd and Lorde, was considered a step back from Settle, I prepared myself for the worst. Did it at least manage to be passable?

video review: 'b'lieve i'm goin down...' by kurt vile

Well, this was a surprisingly easy review. Glad I did it, though, pretty solid album.

Next up will either be The Underachievers or Disclosure, gotten plenty of requests for both. Stay tuned!

album review: 'b'lieve i'm goin down...' by kurt vile

I think I've been a bit unfair to Kurt Vile in the past. 

See, when I covered his album Wakin On A Pretty Daze in 2013, I was still very much in the learning curve when it came to album reviews, and finding an entry point into his woozy brand of half-stoned meandering rock music was tricky for me. I definitely found a lot to like about his knack for a solid hook, his fascination with smoky Americana, and his lyrics that knowingly walked the line of profound and asinine, depending on what level of irony you operated on. Where I initially took issue was how it seemed like with every record his textures were getting cleaner and more polished and losing some of the jangling momentum he had brought when he used to be a member of The War On Drugs - even though I'd agree with most that Childish Prodigy and Constant Hitmaker were uneven, I liked the rougher edges on those albums and they have some of my favourite cuts.

As such, by the time we reached the meandering and cleanest-to-date record Wakin On A Pretty Daze, I could appreciate the writing and a lot of the hazier melodies and hooks, but the cleaner production just didn't really gel as well as I liked, especially with some of the more tightly regimented electronic beats and pseudo-psychedelic textures. I missed the momentum and grit, and yet it seemed like with every record we were losing that, so when I heard that b'lieve i'm goin down was going to be even cleaner, I wasn't sure what I was going to get here, especially with buzz suggesting this album was emphasizing even a bit of a country sound. So okay, very different entry point than fuzzed-out psychedelia and lo-fi indie rock, I can work with this - so what did Kurt Vile deliver here?

video review: 'every open eye' by CHVRCHES

Wow, this was a ton of fun. Definitely recommending this, just so much energy and heart to this record, so easy to like!

Next up... see, I'm considering Silversun Pickups, but that album is driving off the wall... so I think I'll do Kurt Vile instead. Stay tuned!

album review: 'every open eye' by CHVRCHES

For me, this is one of the big ones.

See, I didn't expect much when I first planned to cover the debut album from Chvrches back in 2013. I had heard the gleaming, early-80s synthpop with gleaming high synths against spiky drum machines and distorted beats that seemed to careen off of modern indie pop on the strident vocals of Lauren Mayberry and while I suspected I'd like it, I didn't know how much. And yet at the end of 2013, The Bones of What You Believe landed on my year-end list, mostly buoyed by surprisingly tight songwriting and thematic cohesion.

Fast forward to now and the highly anticipated sophomore follow-up to that synthpop heavy-hitter... but let's be honest here, Chvrches is stepping onto a different playing field. While there were a fair share of releases inspired by 80s synthpop that dropped in 2013, the past year has given us a huge cross-section of synthesizer-driven indie pop, and with the success of Taylor Swift's 1989 and 'Shut Up And Dance' by Walk The Moon, you could argue it's gone outright mainstream. And that's before we even take into account the indie scene, where acts like Lower Dens and The Wombats have released some of the strongest records of the year and others like Metric or even Carly Rae Jepsen aren't far behind. And sure, Chvrches being great songwriters gave them an advantage, but I was curious to see how they could push their sound in a fresh direction that'd enable them to stand out, especially after a few years of intense touring. Did they pull it off on Every Open Eye?

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - october 10, 2015 (VIDEO)

So this should have gone up last night, but apparently my upload freezes when the file is grotesquely massive or when my computer goes to sleep. Go figure.

Next up on a far lighter note, CHVRCHES! Stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - october 10, 2015

For all of you who wanted me to cover Drake & Future's surprise collaboration release, you're going to get your wish - because it effectively crushed everything in its path and for I think is the third time this year, turned the Hot 100 into the Drake show. And please tell me that I'm not the only one who's starting to get a little sick of it at this point. Coupled with my suspicions that Views From The 6 will probably still end up dropping this year - and the fact that Drake was responsible for cosigning The Weeknd and helping him become huge - the hip-hop story has been dominated by Drake this year, and yet he got there by making some of the least interesting music of his entire career. And given the somewhat mixed critical response I've seen for What A Time To Be Alive, I'm suspecting we're going to hit the backlash zone any time now, because Drake is reaching dangerous points of overexposure. But apparently the mainstream public disagrees, because we had seventeen new songs this week and nearly half of them had Drake on them.

video review: 'deeply rooted' by scarface

And that knocks my two biggest discographies to retrace off my list. Whew, maybe the next few weeks will be a little lighter... although judging by the release schedule, that seems like a fool's hope.

Next up, Billboard BREAKDOWN - stay tuned!

album review: 'deeply rooted' by scarface

I've said before it's hard to talk about legends, artists with careers that span decades and have made history in their respective genres. But you know when it becomes the hardest? I'll tell you - when you invest the hours of work to go through an entire lengthy discography of one of these legends... and realize most of it wasn't all that great.

And yeah, I'm talking about Scarface, member of the Geto Boys and legend of Houston hip-hop. On his own, the man has put out around a dozen albums of material and I went through every single one of them, including the double albums. And when I started, I was excited - Scarface throughout the first half of the 90s may not have seemed to do much outside of the gangsta rap formula, but he brought personality, strong wordplay, and a selection of pretty damn solid old school funk and soul to his beats, and I'll still hold that his album The Diary is damn close to a classic, taking the depression that has crept through all of his work to underscore his bleak insight. But going beyond that, there's a gap of about ten years where the albums were mixed to say the least. Quite frankly, there's only so many places Scarface could take his brand of gangsta rap, and it got repetitive in a hurry. Coupled with an influx of weaker guest stars and production that could be hit-and-miss, and you're left with a lot of filler, enough so that I understand why despite his longevity and his presence in the underground as a figure of southern hip-hop, his name doesn't always come up. Really, consistent quality only began to return by records like Made or Emeritus- after the latter of which Scarface announced that he was retiring. And really, I was okay with this- go out on a high note, nothing wrong with that.

And that's why the announcement of a new record threw me off-guard, and you have to wonder what it was that pulled Scarface out of a solid eight years of retirement that was only really split by a mixtape in 2010, one of the closest things to a significant departure in from hip-hop that wasn't caused by prison or drug addiction or death. But to be fair, the guest verses I've heard from Scarface over the past decade have been solid, especially when he worked with Freddie Gibbs on Pinata, so did Scarface come back with something worth caring about?

video review: 'poison season' by destroyer

And about time I could get this done! Fantastic record, so highly recommended!

Next up, the next of my extremely deep backlog before the tidal wave of CHVRCHES, Kurt Vile, Julia Holter, Silversun Pickups, The Underachievers, and so many more! Stay tuned!

album review: 'poison season' by destroyer

Let's talk a little about lyrics. I've often been told that in comparison with most music critics, I pay much more attention to the writing than the sound of the album itself, and in a few conversations with other critics, I've come to realize that I might be the exception than the rule with that approach. Where the conversation gets interesting is when it comes to the mainstream public, because where I'm fairly certain I care about the writing more than some critics, I know for certain I care more than most audiences, and even then it breaks down by genre how much one might care - lyrics matter more in folk and country and arguably most of hip-hop than they do in, say, electronica. Now I could argue that I care more about lyrics because I'm a writer myself and I love to decode poetry good and bad alike, but I reckon even in the cases where they're easy to ignore good writing plays a purpose. It's the primary method for the songwriter to convey their art's story or meaning to the audience, with the sonic palette around them being what sets the mood and atmosphere. For me, writing and instrumentation need to have a certain amount of balance when I consider an entire piece, with strengths and weaknesses in both being enough to save or sink an album.

That's why, believe it or not, when I hear about records that are highly touted for their lyrics above all else and aren't hip-hop albums, I'm intrigued but cautious. Sure, I'm predicated to like this sort of thing more, but that means as a critic I have to make sure I'm not giving undue praise when it's not earned. Thankfully, today we're talking about Destroyer, the project of Canadian singer-songwriter Dan Bejar and an artist whose lyrical eccentricities often are matched by eclectic and interesting instrumentation that at its worst can feel sloppy or indulgent but at best can be genuinely breathtaking in beauty and melodic composition. Affiliated with critically acclaimed indie rock group The New Pornographers, who really have a disturbingly high record of producing great side projects from their members, the most striking thing about Destroyer is the choice to switch up musical sounds with nearly every album. From the tight cohesion that defined the excellent Streethawk and Thief to the meandering and yet compelling mess of This Night to the synth-touched and goddamn spectacular Your Blues to the drunken cacophony of Trouble In Dreams. Now since his 2011 album Kaputt - which I thought had some great writing and some gorgeous melodies but could meander a little in late-80s easy listening territory, Dan Bejar has been taken longer and longer between releases, and now he's finally got a new album: Poison Season. And with it came the explosion of critical acclaim: was the album actually worthy of it?

video review: 'fetty wap' by fetty wap

Oh, I bet there was a whole load of people who probably expected me to thrash this album. And I didn't, because it was a lot more fun than I expected. Man, it's nice to like things.

Next up... honestly, no clue, this weekend is going to be a complete shitshow, I'm going to be crazy busy. Stay tuned!

album review: 'fetty wap' by fetty wap

I've stated a number of times this year that 2015 has been great for hip-hop. From the revival of more conscious hip-hop to the explosion of potency in the underground to genre-bending experiments to old veterans returning with what's always worked, it's a good time to be in the rap game right now.

And yet if you look at the mainstream charts, there's one name that stands out like a sore thumb, an artist who seemingly appeared out of nowhere and yet won over a crossover audience with hit after hit. And his name was Fetty Wap, the 'wap' getting added later as a tribute to his favourite rapper Gucci Mane. Okay, already we're not off to a great start - and dig into Fetty Wap's story and it doesn't seem to ring as all that different to many rappers in that lane. He grew up in the projects in New Jersey, started working on his rap career, and decided to throw more singing into his delivery because he wanted to do something a little 'different'. Of course, he's not alone in rappers who add sung vocals to their bars, but there were very few who could match his warbling, part-Haitian, part-Biz Markie voice. From there, he released a song called 'Trap Queen' in early 2014 - and a year later, it started climbing the charts. The incredibly delayed reaction can probably be attributed to shifts in the mainstream taste - Young Thug's half-sung, half-rapped style hadn't yet broke through with 'Lifestyle', and Future spent most of that year wallowing in depressed, angry mediocrity.

But Fetty Wap was different. He had energy and personality, a knack for impressively sticky hooks and decent enough writing for pop radio, and his synth-heavy beats were breezy and bright enough to draw a lot of attention. And the amusing thing is that it doesn't seem like Fetty Wap's team expected this much success to come this quickly, as he snagged a spot on the XXL Freshman list for 2015 and people started clamouring for that debut album. And I'll admit I was interested: sure, Fetty Wap could hold down singles, but a full album is a much bigger proposition, especially when said album is seventeen songs and runs over an hour. Not what I'd advise for a starting rapper riding a wave of hype, but if they're looking to strike while the iron's hot, this would be the way to do it. So what do we get from Fetty Wap?

video review: 'sun coming down' by ought

Believe it or not, this one took a lot longer than you'd think. Really a tough one to dissect, especially when you can't find all the lyrics.

Right, so next... honestly, no clue. Could be Fetty Wap, could be Destroyer, we'll see! Stay tuned!

album review: 'sun coming down' by ought

So close to this time last year, give or take a month or two, I finally decided to cover the debut of the Canadian indie rock group Ought, More Than Any Other Day. Based out of Montreal, cracking with the hyper-literate jittery energy you'd expect from university students recording while the student population was protesting, it won a lot of critical acclaim from critics for the obvious parallels to Talking Heads or maybe even Vampire Weekend. I was a bit more ambivalent on the group, mostly because no matter how much I liked the smart lyricism and the interweaving chaotic sound of the record, it definitely overstayed its welcome, occasionally wasn't as nuanced as it tried to be, and ultimately left me with a distinctive feeling of anticlimax at the end.

Since then, Ought has been touring extensively, patching a new album together between shows and reportedly doubling down on their influences from Sonic Youth or maybe even The Fall, cranking up the energy and groove. On the one hand, I didn't have any problems with this - Ought never seemed like a band lacking in nervous energy, but I've been looking for some more aggressive indie rock as of late and this could probably satisfy. On the other hand, it didn't look like the band's issues with succinctness had gone away - only eight songs, yet your average song length is about five minutes, with the longest at nearly eight. But hey, if the music doesn't drag, I'm not going to complain, so what does Ought deliver with Sun Coming Down?

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - october 3, 2015 (VIDEO)

And this week happened. Whew, it took way too long to get this out, and considering how insane my schedule is this week, I'm lucky I got this out at all.

Next up... I really want to cover that Ought record, but waiting in the wings we've got Fetty Wap, Silversun Pickups, Kurt Vile, CHRVCHES, Julia Holter, The Underachievers, and that's not even counting Destroyer and Scarface (the former of whom I'm ready to cover and the latter I'm way behind in my backlog listen-through)... hold on tight, folks, this might be getting crazy.

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - october 3, 2015

I can predict a lot of people will be celebrating parts of this week's Hot 100. Not all of it, obviously - there's too much Rae Sremmurd to really get away with anything jubilant - but I can see a lot of people seeing the new #1 and a few of the new arrivals and getting excited. And that only further defines the difference between music nerds who follow the charts and the mainstream population, because I look at this week and I can only wish I'm as excited as everyone else.

video review: 'illinois' by brett eldredge

Yeah, I wish I could have gotten out more albums today too, but I'm exhausted right now, that Ought review is on its way.

But first, Billboard BREAKDOWN! Stay tuned!

album review: 'illinois' by brett eldredge

So one of the trends I probably haven't given the same time of day to in mainstream country is the slow trickling in of more R&B influences. It's not all that surprising, given the huge growth of R&B on pop radio, and as soon as Jason Aldean's 'Burn It Down' was a huge hit, it didn't surprise me others would gun for a similar sound. 

And like with bro-country, I'm more conflicted than outright negative towards this slicker, more metropolitan brand of country music. On the one hand, the increased usage of drum machines tends to irk me because it can lead to choppy, groove-lacking records like Sam Hunt's Montevallo or Luke Bryan's Kill The Lights, and given the modern association with hip-hop I can see why country fans might recoil from R&B, but on the other hand if handled well that spacier sound can lead to solidly melodic, more groove-driven albums. I may not have loved Billy Currington's last album Summer Forever or Dustin Lynch's Where It's At, but aside from being one of the few people who remembered those records exist I also remember there being cuts I liked. Hell, even though the Zac Brown Band's Jekyll + Hyde was a genre-bending mess, there were experiments that worked off of that album. What I'm ultimately saying is that while I get the antipathy from country purists, especially with this material clogging up mainstream country radio riding the trends, this isn't that far removed conceptually from the vintage pop that Lindi Ortega or Whitney Rose pull from, nor the psychedelic rock for Sturgill Simpson or the more progressive rock tendencies for that last Jason Isbell record.

As such, I wasn't certain what to expect with the sophomore record from Brett Eldredge called Illinois. Early buzz was suggesting he was going more towards that 'metropolitan' sound, mostly thanks to the backing of producer Ross Copperman, who did a lot of excellent production work on Dierks Bentley's last album. And I'll say it, the presence of Thomas Rhett as a guest star, the poster child for calling his brand of vintage pop/R&B garbage 'country music' did not raise my spirits. But on the other hand, Brett Eldredge is a good songwriter with a distinctive voice, and I really did love the warped melodies against the acoustic grooves of 'Lose My Mind' and I hoped at least this could at least be salvaged. So what did we get?

video review: 'honeymoon' by lana del rey

Well, this is going over about as well as I expected. Think I'm going to stick with releases that spark less of a crazy reaction for the next few videos, I can only contain so many shitstorms at a time.

So next up, Brett Eldredge, stay tuned!