album review: 'clearview' by poets of the fall

If you've been following me since 2014, you should all know how much I've been looking forward to this record.

But for those of you who haven't, and might not otherwise be familiar with this band, let me add a little bit of context. Coming out of the alternative metal scene in the mid-2000s, Poets of the Fall is a Finnish band that immediately made a lot of impact for me thanks to a melodic focus, strikingly well written lyrics, and arguably one of the most versatile and expressive singers in the genre courtesy of Marko Saaresto. Their first four records might not have always been consistent, but you could at least count on at least three or four songs that kicked all amounts of ass, and would be frontrunners for some of my favourites in that given year - never quite as immediately abrasive as their contemporaries, but their knack for hooks and power ballads made them favourites of mine all the same.

And yet in 2014 things seemed to be changing. For one, coming after the damn near untouchable Temple Of Thought in 2012 there was a marked shift in direction towards more experimental pop sounds, which was a bold move. It's probably their most polarizing record - although for me it didn't shy away from any of their strengths and remained pretty damn kickass, landing on my list for my favourite records of 2014. But I'll admit I was going into their newest album Clearview with no real view into it, or any idea where the band would take their sound next. Would they continue down a pop path, venture back to alternative rock and metal, or do something unexpected altogether?

video review: '22, a million' by bon iver

I'm surprised there hasn't been more blowback on this record yet. I get the feeling it's coming - this sort of thing tends to have a delayed fuse - but you never know...

Anyway, finally time to talk about Poets of the Fall, so stay tuned!

album review: '22, a milion' by bon iver

Here's something you probably don't know: until these past few weekends, I've never listened to a Bon Iver record.

Oh, I knew Justin Vernon and his willowy croon. I knew he had a knack for melody and heartfelt but oblique lyricism over a misty cocoon of indie folk instrumentation with hints of electronic embellishment. I knew the waves of critical acclaim that had been piled on the record as one of the main acts behind the indie folk boom of the early 2010s. But it was one of those cases where I knew their sound far more by reputation and those they inspired over the past decade than their actual music. And in some sense that's a problem, not just in the inflation of reputation but also a sound we've seen grown and develop over the past few five or so years - and for the longest time that was fine, as I didn't think I'd have to care. After all, the band was on hiatus, there was no sign they'd ever make another album.

And yet they did and as such I went into Bon Iver's first two albums... and I'm not sure what to tell you all, because while I liked it, I didn't fall in love with it the way I think so many people did around the turn of the decade. It was pretty, the writing mostly worked, Justin Vernon did his ethereal thing... I just didn't get sucked into it as much as I wanted. I will say while For Emma, Forever Ago is probably the better record, Bon Iver, Bon Iver does have some strong standouts when the songs build a little more of a groove and foundation to them. So okay, with that in mind, did the newest major stylistic shift on 22, A Million work for me more?

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - october 15, 2016 (VIDEO)

Pretty short week here - actually skipped World Hit altogether mostly because there was so little to talk about (and you couldn't pay me to talk about James Arthur, someone who got booted from Syco because even SImon Cowell couldn't stand him - WOW).

Beyond that, though... Bon Iver. Stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - october 15, 2016

So after this week we're now in the final seven weeks of the Billboard year - which yes, ends in November - the last chances for songs to snag spots on the year-end Billboard Hot 100 list, which like it or not can serve as a pretty definitive historical record of this year in pop music. And thus for me, who uses that year-end chart as a strict guideline for tracking my best and worst hits of the year, this is where the horse race starts to get tight indeed. And given that 2016 has been such a dumpster fire of a year for pop music, it's more of a desperate hope that a few long gone songs hold their place and a few new arrivals rack up enough presence fast enough.

video review: 'atrocity exhibition' by danny brown

I'll admit I don't love this record as much as I want to - sort of like Death Grips in that regard - but this was one hell of a listen regardless and definitely worth everyone's time.

On the other hand... well, I've got Billboard BREAKDOWN first, then Bon Iver - stay tuned!

album review: 'atrocity exhibition' by danny brown

So here's something you probably know: as a rapper and artist, I tend to like Danny Brown. 

But if I'm being brutally honest, there's a part of me that likes the idea of Danny Brown and writing about him almost more than his music itself, mostly because he's the sort of fascinating artist you don't see very often anymore. His critically acclaimed breakthrough XXX held a fascinating split: a rapper who could descend into depravity that was borderline cartoonish, but who could also step back into more vividly detailed and conscious content, the sort of material that didn't just show a more thoughtful MC but aos provided the context to why he cut loose the way he did. That wildness was explored even more thoughtfully on his 2013 follow-up Old, which I did review, but outside of some harrowing darkness the dramatic contrast felt a little skewed, and I ultimately didn't find the record as enjoyable as I was hoping. 

From there, though, Danny Brown seemed to drift from project to project in a way that either implied he was just screwing around or that something had gotten knocked loose in his brain. Aside from saying he was writing a children's book inspired by Dr. Seuss - which if this exists I need to find - he also would show up for guest verses in all sorts of odd places, from the 'Detroit vs. Everybody' compilation which had him working with Eminem and Big Sean to working with Freddie Gibbs and Madlib on a song off of Pinata to collaborating with Aesop Rock and Busdriver. Overall, we haven't seen a lot of Danny Brown over the past few years, to the point where he showed up twice on the new Avalanches album Wildflower - including its best song opposite MF Doom 'Frankie Sinatra' - it was a legit surprise. And I'll admit it was a real surprise to hear he was dropping a record called Atrocity Exhibition on a new label with a posse cut that included Kendrick, Ab-Soul, and Earl Sweatshirt - because of course it did. Much more interesting was that the executive producer was Paul White, who you might recognize from earlier this year on the collaboration project with Open Mike Eagle on Hella Personal Film Festival, which remains my favourite hip-hop project of this year. But Danny Brown seemed to be working with a lot of people and styles I liked, and considering this record was reportedly his most wild and eclectic to date, I had to hear it... so what did we get?

video review: 'who the hell is damone tyrell?' by damone tyrell

Well, this takes care of the last of my real backlog... now onto the meaty challenge, the huge list of records I need to discuss over the next two weeks! Lord help us all here...

Okay, Danny Brown and Bon Iver first, let's GO!

album review: 'who the hell is damone tyrell?' by damone tyrell

I try to avoid talking about other critics online.

Now there are times I can't avoid it - if I'm collaborating with someone it's bound to come up, and we're always curious on some level what other people might say or think - but to me we've all got our own lanes and approaches, and as long as things stay civil I'm generally pretty pleased. And full disclosure here, I actually have collaborated with an affiliated member of the group behind the artist I'm covering today, where they actually sent me the project to review in full. That doesn't mean I'm going to go easy on anybody - I'd be less of a critic if I did - but I feel it's necessary to provide context.

So, for all of you who saw the name of this artist and then asked the question in the title of his album, Damone Tyrell is an Atlanta MC by way of Buffalo who at the last minute decided to compete in an open mic competition called The Bar Exam when he learned it would be judged by the team over at Dead End Hip Hop. And hell, if I was an aspiring MC, I'd probably give it a shot too, but when Damone won he attracted some real attention, which led to a congregation of producers to give this guy a real independent push. And before I even start with the review, let me stress how much I admire this sort of idea - they've always said that Dead End Hip Hop is a movement beyond the reviews, and with projects like this and The Joint mixtape last year, I can definitely respect the idea of becoming the force not just of promoting the music you love, but enabling its creation.

But I've wasted enough time - let's ask the big question, who the hell is Damone Tyrell?

video review: 'vinyl' by william michael morgan

Well, this turned out about as well as I could have hoped. Solid record too, really did enjoy this.

Next up... well, I'm not sure I'm ready to really deal with Danny Brown quite yet, so I might tackle something else... we'll see, so stay tuned!

album review: 'vinyl' by william michael morgan

So as I've mentioned a couple of times, country in 2016 has been overall pretty promising. Sure, the indie scene is having an absolutely fantastic year, especially on the edges of the genre, but I'd be remiss not to mention that the mainstream seems to finally be recovering from the stiff and sterile metropolitan trends that came after bro-country collapsed in on itself in 2014. Sure, there are still plenty of mainstream country records that play to that more synthetic sound, but the winds are changing, and the growth of huge sellers like Chris Stapleton or even reliable staples like Jon Pardi are telling the industry that an old-school or neotraditional sound might be viable again.

And coming right into that mix is William Michael Morgan. Born in Mississippi, he caught some traction with a song cowritten with, yes, Sam Hunt called 'I Met A Girl'. Not particularly a great song - felt a little run-of-the-mill lyrically for a love song - but the production definitely intrigued me, with more pedal steel to match the gentle acoustic vibe than I had heard on a mainstream hit in a long time. Coupled with a voice that reminded me in the right way of George Strait, I was among the critics who were going into his debut album with skepticism - we've seen too many upstarts get sucked towards trendy sounds or fall off the radar, look what happened to Easton Corbin - but also some hope. Given that I've never really been on board with Jon Pardi, I had some hopes this kid could be the real deal - maybe not at the level of an act like Cody Jinks, but I could hope, right? So I made sure to check out Vinyl - did we get the return to neotraditional quality country radio has been missing for so long?

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: 'illuminate' by shawn mendes

So this was terrible. Already some people are getting peeved, but look, writing this bad needs to be taken to task, especially given the audience it's directed. Miserable listen, and when my backlog is so long, there's no excuse for something like this wasting my time.

On that note, How To Dress Well is next - stay tuned!

album review: 'illuminate' by shawn mendes

Oh, I haven't been looking forward to this.

Hell, anybody who has been watching Billboard BREAKDOWN or my last review already knows that, but let's skip back a year to chart out how we got here. Believe it or not, when I covered Handwritten last year I was going in with some high expectations, or at least a hope that Mendes could rise above his Vine star origins to flesh out actual songs. For the most part, that didn't really happen, which is why Handwritten fell below a pass for me, as he tried emulating Justin Timberlake by way of Ed Sheeran that lacked the interesting instrumentation or witty writing to get there. But still, a part of me wanted to root for this kid, and I still hold that 'Something Big' is a damn good song.

But ever since then, my opinion on Shawn Mendes has been plummeting in record time, as more singles have exposed flaws and issues that I was hoping Mendes could avoid. His writing was slipping perilously close to the self-aggrandizing douchebaggery that is symptomatic of the 'white guy with acoustic guitar' moniker, and the increasingly sterile production and delivery was not helping, all the more evidence Mendes was being pushed by his handlers in that direction. And from what I had heard going into Illuminate... well, suffice to say I was gearing up for a real disaster, even if I had some hope this fellow Canadian might be able to pull something together on his sophomore project. So what happened?

video review: 'i remember' by alunageorge

Not going to lie, I may have chosen to cover this just to avoid Shawn Mendes for another day, because yikes. 

But no point wasting any more time... stay tuned!

album review: 'i remember' by alunageorge

Let's talk about female vocals in pop music.

Now I recently heard a comment from one of my close friends that she's exasperated with so much of modern pop because nearly every female singer is trying to imitate Rihanna, or at least a similar sort of mid-range nasal, husky tone. And really, I can't fault her on that, but I did start thinking where that trend came from. After all, Rihanna's been around for over a decade now on the radio, and yet this trend has been much closer to the forefront over the past few years, so what's changed?

Well, the argument could be that with the advent of autotune, less refined voices have been allowed to proliferate in the mainstream, but I think that's only a small part of this story. What's much more likely is that refinement in vocals goes in and out of style in pop, just like any other trend. Right now, it's more common to hear vocals that have a bit more of a rasp or bite to them - give it five years and I predict we'll have another subset of angel voices dominating the radio, mark my words.

So why bring this up? Well, in preparation for AlunaGeorge's sophomore album, I was struck by the odd contradiction of their sound: vocals that were clean and cooing, perhaps only a shade rougher than the pop princesses around the turn of the millennium, but production that was straight out of UK garage and modern, offkilter electronica. It's not a new phenomenon - two years before AlunaGeorge dropped Body Music Purity Ring dropped their debut, which was considerably stronger, but thanks to a fortuitous remix, AlunaGeorge actually got popular in the mainstream and was one of the acts responsible for elevating DJ Snake. As such, I was definitely curious to check out their sophomore album - they had delivered a pretty slick collection of R&B tinged electronic pop in 2014, what was their plan for 2016?

video review: 'the healing component' by mick jenkins

Well, this was ridiculously solid. So close to snagging a 9/10, but ultimately I eased back, just a tad too much bloat to enter into the tightest part of the race. Still damn great album though, definitely worth your time.

Next up... hmm, I still don't want to talk about Shawn Mendes, so let's delve into some old business... stay tuned!

album review: 'the healing component' by mick jenkins

This is one of the big ones, one of the albums I've been looking forward to for well over a year now, probably close to two, ever since I covered Mick Jenkins' star-making mixtape The Water(s) back in 2014 and he landed a song on my top fifty of that year - in the top 20. This was an MC with serious chops, not just as one of the most potent and subtly charismatic rappers I've heard in some time, but also proving himself as a thoughtful but hard-hitting presence who was willing to experiment with poise and consideration. I might not have loved the EP Wave[s] he put out in 2015, but that was more because he was testing the waters with different sounds and styles that I expected would be refined considerably on this upcoming debut.

And to be honest, I was surprised he was going to release a full-length album at all - like fellow Chicago native Chance The Rapper he had been running up considerable buzz and critical acclaim just on mixtapes alone, and considering he's not on a major label, he could have easily continued this hype until the radio got a clue and gave him a push, or he got a big name collaboration. But from what I saw of The Healing Component, at least from the features list, he didn't appear to be making that mainstream play, with his guests including BadBadNotGood, Noname, and Kaytranada - and sure, the latter two might have hype now but it's not precisely mainstream.

But I've wasted enough time here - this is a big one, so how did The Healing Component check out?

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - october 8, 2016 (VIDEO)

Well I can't imagine that this'll be contentious at all... eh, whatever, I still hold it was a good week.

And on that note - Mick Jenkins, so stay tuned!