billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - february 11, 2017

So this was an important week on the Billboard Hot 100 - which on the surface might be a surprising statement, given that it didn't seem that out of the ordinary, at least on the surface. But for those who pay attention, something big happened this chart cycle: Billboard changed their formula. And despite what I might have said earlier on Twitter, upon giving it more thought, I'm actually entirely behind this change - looks like Billboard got it right for once!

video review: 'dear avalanche' by lights & motion

Man, I was so hoping this record would be so much better... eh, it happens, I guess, but still painfully disappointing. Gah.

Next up, though, Billboard BREAKDOWN, so stay tuned!

album review: 'dear avalanche' by lights & motion

So here's the truth of it: for as much post-rock as I've heard, I tend to like the genre... but I also don't tend to seek it out that much.

And I'm not really sure why that is. Yeah, I don't deny that some of it is because if I'm going to be listening to this sort of atmospheric, blurred over melodic rock tones I might as well take that next step and listen to black metal, but the truth runs a little more complicated than that. For one, a lot of the post-rock I've tended to hear doesn't have a lot of lyrics, and I've been well-known for citing that as a big factor behind a lot of my favourite music. But it also ties back to that for as much post-rock as I've heard, a lot of it starts to blur together, more than it otherwise should. I like the tones, I like the renewed focus on melody, I really like the commitment to crescendos and musical dynamics... but beyond that, a lot of these pieces don't tend to hook me as deeply as I would like.

So take Lights & Motion, for instance. This is a Swedish post-rock act, the solo project of Christoffer Franzén, and it's known for a certain cinematic swell and scope. And from the brighter guitar-driven tones of his debut in 2013 with Reanimation to the piano-driven Save Your Heart to the more lush and orchestral Chronicle in 2015, it was easily some of the prettiest and most serene post-rock I've ever heard - it's no surprise it's been picked as backing orchestration for a lot of modern TV and movie projects. But on some level that might be part of the issue - Lights & Motion make music that generally sounds appealing but doesn't exactly have a distinctive tone and feel beyond a couple of obvious comparison points to Explosions In The Sky - which yes, makes it ideal for advertising, but that financial blessing can also be a hidden curse. And yet thanks to Patreon the newest project Dear Avalanche wound up on my schedule, with buzz suggesting more strings textures to be shift and changed, along with more vintage synthesizers. And this raised some mixed feelings for me: I don't mind cooler synths, but Save Your Heart was easily the softest work this guy has put out by playing to that piano mold, and that type of melancholy can run out of steam quick in my books. But whatever, I was curious to hear more, so how was Dear Avalanche?

video review: 'puxico' by natalie hemby

Well, this was a lot better than I expected. Still not sure if it's precisely great, but I'll definitely support it all the same, it's a solid album.

But next... whoo boy, this'll be fun. Stay tuned!

album review: 'puxico' by natalie hemby

So I've talked a fair bit in the past about the 'Nashville songwriting machine', the list of names that you'll see crop up again and again if you dig through the liner notes of mainstream country. And while for a while I tended to have something of an allergic reaction to this industry... well, on some level I get it. For a mainstream public who is can't stand major change and would recoil from most auteur-driven music, you need people behind the scenes to help fill time on the radio, or at the very least enough songs to fit albums cranked out every few years.

But here's the thing: with the recent upheaval and swings back towards neotraditional and indie country, you're not just seeing a fair few artists grab hold of writing duties for themselves, but several long-time veterans who put in their time behind the scenes step out into the spotlight. The big name, of course, is Chris Stapleton who released Traveller in 2015, but go a year earlier and you'd see Eric Paslay, or a year later and you'd get Lori McKenna and her spell-binding record The Bird And The Rifle. And now one of the newest artists to step to the forefront is Natalie Hemby, most well-known for her affiliations with Miranda Lambert, Sunny Sweeney, Little Big Town, and a fair few of the more contemplative and borderline experimental side of the Nashville sound that came in the aftermath of bro-country. And while there are a few duds on that list, there's also a fair amount of quality, which left me intrigued enough to check out her debut record Puxico, named for her grandfather's hometown in Missouri. And I wasn't sure what to expect - normally songwriters who have worked behind the scenes for a while before going solo are not the most striking performers, but that's where writing can do a lot of heavy lifting, and I have no qualms with that whatsoever - hell, more often than not I'd prefer it. So what did we find in Puxico?

video review: 'new world alphabet' by ubiquitous synergy seeker (USS)

So this is certainly an album. Yep, an album alright... shame it really isn't better than the debut EP and full-length, that was some quality fun music. This really should be a lot better.

But eh, next up... well, I'll see where the Patreon shakes out. Stay tuned!

album review: 'new world alphabet' by ubiquitous synergy seeker (USS)

So let's talk about the Canadian alternative scene a little bit. 

Now for those Americans in the audience, alternative and indie rock never really went away in Canada, not quite thriving in the same way as the pop music that still monopolizes mainstream radio, but there's a real chance you'll actually hear alternative rock if you turn on the radio, mostly because the Canadian Radio-Telecommunications Commission requires the radio play a certain amount of Canadian content. So not only does this mean a large quantity of the overblown streaming trends haven't quite crossed over in the same way, but in order to fill time radio producers have had little choice but to pull from Canadian acts that have the flexibility to get a little weirder and rougher.

So into that scene comes Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker, otherwise known as USS, an alternative dance duo that might as well have been imported straight from the late 90s in their fusion of drum n' bass with crunchy pop rock. And it's a little tough to directly define the genre and style of this group - think of a frenetic blend of Cobra Starship, Fatboy Slim, a little Primal Scream, and all with the sense that you really shouldn't take them too seriously. And hey, that was fine with 2009's pretty damn fun Questimation, which followed the even better EP Welding The C:/... but despite their 2014 EP Advanced Basics being their most successful EP to date, their splatter-painting approach to genres seemed to be having diminishing returns across the board, from less articulate lyrics, flatter production, less interesting delivery, and slower tempos. But hey, maybe that was just EP experimentation, and though the lead-off single to their newest record seemed to be going in even twangier, more lethargic territory, maybe they could capture some that frenetic momentum on the rest of New World Alphabet, right?

video review: 'rennen' by SOHN

Man, this was tedious to cover. But hey, it's Patreon - you guys wanted it, it happens.

Next up is also off that rack... and whoo boy, this'll be interesting. Stay tuned!

album review: 'rennen' by SOHN

You know, there's something I've been thinking about ever since The Weeknd released Starboy and called out R&B artists for copying his old style... where the hell are the copycats?

Seriously, I've been covering hip-hop and R&B for the past couple of years on both the Hot 100 and the underground, and for as many people have ripped off Drake or Future pretty blatantly, The Weeknd doesn't really have the same group of imitators - mostly because his style and content have a fair amount of unique identity and flair that's harder to replicate. Sure, there have been those who have mimicked some of the content, but it's not like bleakly framed debauchery was totally foreign to the R&B charts - hell, even if you go into the darker and more experimental PBR&B acts, many of them have charted their own course - it's not like How To Dress Well or Miguel stayed in that lane with later records over the past two years.

Okay, so what about acts like SOHN? An English singer-songwriter, you could definitely make the argument with his higher crooning delivery, bleak lyrics and melancholic tone that he could be seen as in a similar lane when he dropped his debut album Tremors in 2014, arguably the peak of that sound. But going back to that album, I'm not sure how viable the comparison is - the tones SOHN chose were more blocky and electronic, inspired more by chiptune or Kanye's autotune experiments more than The Weeknd's brand of chilly gothic abrasion. Kind of a shame, really, because I didn't find Tremors interesting - I can see why people like the tonal balance and vocals, and when it did pick up more of a groove it was indeed pretty solid, but beyond that I tended to find it underwritten and meandering, decent ambient and electronic textures not really adding up to solid songs. But hey, that can happen with a debut - maybe it would feel more refined and tighter on his sophomore album Rennen, which thanks to Patreon managed to climb up the schedule. So how is it?

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - february 4, 2017 (VIDEO)

Well, this was absolute hell to put together. True facts, you never want to review or cover material, much less edit something, when you feel sick as a dog. And while things are getting better, this was still a miserable shoot all things considered.

And on that topic - okay, maybe not that bad, but still - stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - february 4, 2017

...look, they can't all be good weeks. But to quote a favourite critic of mine, often times the worst kind of bad is the absence of good, and the more I looked through the charts this week, the less I found that was all that promising, not just in our new arrivals but in the songs that took measurable hits. Now don't get me wrong, the Billboard Hot 100 has had worse - look to most of last year - but if 2017 has been characterized by a noticeable positive uptick on the charts, which I'd argue it has, this is not a good sign.

video review: 'hang' by foxygen

Well, this was something of a disappointment... but hey, considering the last thing Foxygen dropped before this, I'm not that surprised.

Next up, Billboard BREAKDOWN... and I really don't have a lot of ideas where things are going to go, my schedule will probably be a little weird given the votes. In other words, stay tuned!

album review: 'hang' by foxygen

So as I think I've mentioned in passing a number of times on this show, I'm a big fan of going out to karaoke bars - and whenever I say this, I tend to get a lot of side-eye glances and comments of 'Wait, you're a music critic, how the hell could you stomach that?' Well, part of it comes from the privilege of living in Toronto and getting exposure to a ton of fantastic singers and genuine artists that come from a prolific arts scene - I imagine it's much the same in New York and L.A. - so on average the quality tends to be a little better. But at the same time it gave me an acute sense of perspective - many of these folks are incredible performers, they do this for a living far better than I ever will even at a karaoke bar, and despite my side project pretensions to making original music, for some of these folks it's their life, with karaoke just being an outlet for practice and letting out steam. I'm not going to sell myself that short - I'm a pretty good singer when I want to be - but at the end of the day even despite being a critic there's a difference between being a hardcore music fan with a penchant for showing off and an actual musician with poise and training, especially when it comes to the creative process of writing and performing.

I say all of this because when I started listening to early Foxygen albums, I got the immediate impression that this would probably be the sort of music I would make if I lacked the restraint or self-awareness to pull away and realize my own limitations. Because look, I love 70s rock, but that 2012 album Take The Kids Off Broadway was very much an example of loving the sound and style and textures but not really having a grasp on cohesion or composition. Now they definitely improved considerably on their next record We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors Of Peace & Magic - an half-ironic title, given how much their style nakedly aped the 20th century, although I would seriously question in terms of songwriting how much capacity this band has for irony, even if I did think the overall writing felt tighter. But then came ...And Star Power, a double album a year later, diving back towards rougher, lo-fi territory and that same sense of cacophonous composition, and yet the splatter-painting style of writing didn't have the same energy or groove or momentum, to say nothing of some painfully redundant lyricism - you do not want to get me started on how painfully weak the 'concept' of this record feels, especially given how sloppy some of the recording and playing feels. Now granted, some have argued that it was representative of the duo's famously contentious relationship, but for as much as Foxygen idolized the 70s, you'd think they'd take a lesson from Fleetwood Mac when they made Rumours and not throw cohesion out the window. But hey, they managed to hold it together to pull together an album that they've called their 'California record', going bigger and grander than ever - so did it connect?

special comment: 25,000 subscribers Q&A!

As I said in the video, it took longer - a lot longer - than I had hoped to get to this point, but I finally made it. Thank you all so much for your ardent support, both on the channel and on Patreon, it's really been a thrill to see it all.

Oh, and with regards to that odd thing cropping up behind the album art in the honourable mentions... pay no attention to it, it's nothing.

Next up is Foxygen, so stay tuned!

video review: 'the anthill' by eric taxxon

So I enjoyed this a fair bit more than I thought I would - it's a little quirky piece of synthpop that has more cohesion and solid melodic arrangement than I think a lot of people will give it credit, and it certainly is pretty damn memorable. Overall, you're going to want to check out this guy, he's pretty chill.

But next up... whoo boy, it looks like I've finally hit 25,000 subscribers! I'm thrilled to get there, but man, it took a while. So what to do next.. well, stay tuned!

album review: 'the anthill' by eric taxxon

So I've talked a little in the past about accessibility to music, and how in today's day and age anyone with an internet connection can find ways to get their music out there, record labels be damned. But over the past couple of years as a music critic, I've observed both sides to this issue, especially for independent acts - sure, you might not need a label for promotion or to ensure your music is vaguely listenable, but that means that the floodgates have been torn open and for every act of high quality we get a whole lot more copycats, recycled material, and weirdness that for everyone's sake should have gotten lost in the avalanche. And I definitely think this is worth restating: just because an artist might have a weird idea that seems different doesn't mean they get a free pass - points for creativity, but execution also matters.

And yet given that I've now opened my own schedule doors thanks to Patreon, we have one of those more experimental acts who have climbed the list: Eric Taxxon. An electronic producer from Santa Cruz, California, the claim on his bandcamp is that none of his projects will sound the same - and having gone through all dozen or so of them, he's definitely correct in that regard, because his material tears through every reach of electronica like it's going out of style. From plunderphonics to drone to midi-driven electro-pop and noise, this guy has gone into a lot of territory with his disjointed grasp of melody, fascinating collage of samples, and occasionally fascinating conceptual frameworks. Oh, and did I mention that the majority of them were dropped over the past year? We're past Drake and Ty Segall levels, folks, the sheer amount of material Taxxon has released is a little astounding - but it's also indicative that some of his pieces could afford a bit more care and refinement - Taxxon puts his toes in these waters, but perhaps a little more refinement might make them stick the landing a little better, or feel like more cohesive and developed songs? Because here's the thing, he has made some stuff I've liked - the more developed synthpop of Fymynob was pretty solid, and some of his plunderphonics experiments have been fascinating, especially Copy - but I'd be curious to see what would happen if Taxxon decided to dedicate more focus to a singular project and really refine it. That said, his newest project The Anthill did seem like something I could get behind - pivoting back towards synthpop, it could very well be interesting. So what did we get with The Anthill?

video review: 'oczy mlody' by the flaming lips

Well, this was a real disappointment. Probably should have come down even harder... but then again, I do tend to like a lot of these textures, so take it as you will.

But next up... hmm, stay tuned!

album review: 'oczy mlody' by the flaming lips

So here's a fun question: when did you stop liking The Flaming Lips?

A bit of a bizarre question to start things off, but if you take a look at the output of this band since the 2000s, you slowly start coming to the realization that Wayne Coyne seems to be taking steps to alienate pretty much everybody. Was in the late 90s with Zaireeka, an album designed to be played on four separate sound systems simultaneously? Was it in 2006 with At War With The Mystics, the Grammy award-winning step that tends to be regarded as a dip in quality coming after their stronger work around the turn of the millennium? Was it the 2009 dive into nightmares of Embryonic, or their full-length cover of Pink Floyd's entire The Dark Side Of The Moon the same year? Was it the massive collaboration in 2012 that called up everyone from Nick Cave and Bon Iver to Chris Martin and Kesha? Or was it The Terror, a more subtle brand of nightmare fuel in 2013 that might be one of the most bleak cuts of nihilistic existential horror ever made? Or was it the full, track-for-track cover of Sgt. Pepper's in 2014 that recruited everyone from Foxygen and Dr. Dog to Tegan And Sara and Miley Cyrus? Or was all the collaborative work they did on Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz, an album for which you could make the argument is one of the worst records of the decade? Or was it their assortment of public stunts that alternated between incomprehensible and just in horrifically bad taste?

Look, the point is that intentional or not, The Flaming Lips seem to have spent this decade in particular burning whatever good will they have left with an audience that seems to be diminishing, especially when it is coming at the expense of the music. Even as someone who liked the majority of the records I described - with the exception of the Miley collaborations and the covers albums, obviously - it's been hard to work up a lot of excitement about The Flaming Lips, especially for this upcoming record. I've already said my lengthy piece about their continued work with Miley, but buzz was suggesting that those pop influences would be drizzling into their upcoming record Oczy Mlody, which might have been described as 'back-to-basics' but raised every indicator of following the Miley-influenced sound that did not flatter this group at all. Coupled with the loss of long-time drummer Kliph Scurlock, I wasn't sure what to expect with this, especially considering despite how alienating it was, I actually found The Terror pretty compelling in its monolithic darkness. But hey, I've actually stuck with The Flaming Lips for this long, so how is Oczy Mlody?

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - january 28, 2017 (VIDEO)

I have to say, I'm still enjoying those Ed Sheeran songs more than I think anyone expected. Yeah, still pretty damn solid, I'm kind of looking forward to the record...

But on the topic of something I wasn't really looking forward to - well, stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - january 28, 2017

Well, isn't this a fascinating development... and yes, I did call it last week. Even though the rest of our chart really isn't all that interesting, everyone's eyes are fixed on the big #1 debut, the sort of return that if you had told me that this could have happened even five years ago, I would have called you crazy. And yet to some extent it is historic, because for the first time in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, this is the first time two songs from the same artist ever debuted in the Top 10 at the same time. I knew people had missed Ed Sheeran for some time, but that they missed him this much is a little amazing, at least to me.