video review: 'liberation' by christina aguilera

And this was way better than I think anybody expected it to be - go figure - but we're still not done with the updates!

video review: 'youngblood' by 5 seconds of summer

Okay, lot of updates to post here tonight, so let's start with something I should have posted on Thursday that is quite mediocre - enjoy!

album review: 'liberation' by christina aguilera

You know, I guess I shouldn't be that surprised that this record got so many votes so quickly on my schedule - it's her first record in six years, and she does have songs that are fondly remembered - but I'll admit I still am. And to explain why, we need to talk about Christina Aguilera's larger career and try to place some of it in context...

And even then, it's a struggle. Like many of her pop peers in the late 90s, Christina Aguilera started out in the Mickey Mouse club before transitioning into more adult pop tunes, notable because she actually had the pipes to back it up and become a serious player in pop and R&B. And while she was praised for that voice which helped her become a serious hit-maker around the turn of the millennium, get closer and the story becomes a lot more tangled. Part of this was inevitable as the early 2000s did a serious number on the careers of 90s pop divas, but ever since the beginning Aguilera's larger career seems strewn with weird choices and miscalculations. A strong debut is followed by an attempt to jump on the Latin craze of the time a year later with a record entirely in Spanish. Her 2002 album Stripped shows the dichotomies even more starkly, with pivots towards R&B and soul with 'Beautiful', rock with 'Fighter', and even hip-hop, none of which reflected any consistency. Her 2006 record Back To Basics showed a course correction towards a more flashy, almost old-fashioned brand of pop with tracks like 'Candyman' - even hiring P!nk cowriter Linda Perry to help. But that highlighted the unfortunate reality that while P!nk might not have the same register, her writing and edge had been consistently stronger since her breakthrough around the same time - P!nk knew exactly who she was and could build the cult of personality Aguilera struggled to assemble. Meanwhile despite artists like Lady Gaga highlighting Aguiilera as an inspiration, we got 2010's disastrous Bionic and the underwhelming Lotus in 2012 - at this point Christina Aguilera was becoming more well-known for her work on The Voice than as an artist in her own right, to the point where I'm surprised she hasn't leveraged that spotlight to push an album earlier, although she's continued to pop up on singles like 'Say Something' from A Great Big World and 'Feel This Moment' from Pitbull. But now we have a new album, with a producer list spanning from Kanye to Jon Bellion to Anderson .Paak, with guest stars from GoldLink and 2 Chainz to fellow pop diva Demi Lovato - and say what you will about Christina Aguilera, she doesn't play it safe, so what did we get with Liberation?

album review: 'youngblood' by 5 seconds of summer

Oh, this one is going to hurt.

See, I was never one of those who hated 5 Seconds Of Summer right out of the gate, even if 'She Looks So Perfect' was stupid: I reviewed their first EP and their full-length debut in 2014 and Sounds Good, Feels Good a year later and I actually saw a progression for this group: yeah, in terms of mainstream-friendly pop rock they weren't reinventing the wheel or even stepping close to the exploding pop punk underground, but the hooks were catchy, the writing was steadily getting better, and they had songs with genuine crunch and presence that could hit a little harder. And while I never expected them to get that much heavier, in the wake of that pop punk and emo underground picking up steam you'd think the natural choice would be to double down on the instincts that got them writing gems like 'Jet Black Heart' and push even further.

And then you remember that 5 Seconds Of Summer were signed to a major label who were probably paying more attention what Maroon 5 was doing in gutless pop or how Fueled By Ramen has been systemically neutering the rock out of their roster, so gone were producers David Hodges and John Feldmann and in came the pop songwriting machine to churn out desaturated, groove-centric pop... which I'm not against if it feels natural and flatters the group like with The 1975, but when you have a band perfectly primed to take advantage of a rising underground movement and you force them to imitate a sound that's closing in on its last legs, that stinks of artistic mismanagement. So no, I was not looking forward to this release - could 5SOS pull their band from the brink?

video review: 'EVERYTHING IS LOVE' by the carters (jay-z & beyonce)

You know, I kind of expect this review to face a backlash... but I'm not sure how big it'll be, we'll have to wait and see with this one.

Regardless, next up is either 5SOS or Christina Aguilera, so stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - june 23, 2018 (VIDEO)

Well, this was a pretty decent week. Not quite one of my better episodes, to be honest, but alright enough...

But now onto the true controversy, stay tuned!

album review: 'EVERYTHING IS LOVE' by the carters (jay-z & beyonce)

You'd think this would feel bigger.

That's been the thought that's lingered in my mind for the past few days in the wake of the surprise album from Jay-Z and Beyonce,  their first as a couple and already hailed by some as the triumphant conclusion to a multi-year arc where hip-hop's most notable power couple lay their grievances to rest and celebrate their love amidst overflowing stacks of money and fine art...

Huh, maybe that's what's it, the larger culture and especially the younger generation unable to relate to the dizzying heights of Jay's business ventures and wealth that they've given up and stopped paying attention altogether. I'll freely admit that was a major niggling issue that ran through my coverage of 4:44, but it has run deeper, with numerous black publications and essays being circulated on how in the larger American class war Jay and Beyonce wound up on the wrong side. And that's not to take away from their success or even their cult of personality - both are great artists and I really do love both Lemonade and 4:44 - but it's been increasingly difficult to overlook how said cult of personality has been assembled through black artistic associations that aren't their own, or that for as much as Jay has sought to pass along aspirational advice or for those to bask in Beyonce's mere presence, it's always come with a hefty price tag. And yet for me it's always been the more grounded and human moments of their relationship that's pulled me back, when the pinnacle has fractures or outright collapses that we have actual stakes in the drama. So yeah, I wasn't exactly lining up for the victory lap that some have said EVERYTHING IS LOVE represents - they rented out the goddamn Louvre for their video, for god's sake - but again, they're both great artists, I had the hopes this would be at least good. So what did we get?

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - june 23, 2018

So I'll be honest: if there's a week that feels like a bit of a breather for me, it's this one. Yes, we got an album bomb from Kanye and Kid Cudi, but thanks to it actually being pretty good and not having an avalanche of other new arrivals, this week actually feels a little more restrained for once, and before Scorpion crashes in a few weeks, I'll take what I can get.

video review: 'oil of every pearl's un-insides' by SOPHIE

Yeah, I kind of expected the backlash here... eh, it happens.

Next up, Billboard BREAKDOWN and then 5 Seconds Of Summer, so stay tuned!

album review: 'oil of every pearl's un-insides' by SOPHIE

So I tend to find it interesting what people's threshold for 'weird' is in electronica, mostly because I'm fairly certain mine is pretty skewed. Most of this I can attribute to when I started getting into electronic music in the first place a couple of years back, which found me delving into the critically acclaimed experimental electronic music that seriously challenged the art form rather than the foundational artists in house, techno, and other associated subgenres, most of which I found later. But what this means is that it set a strange baseline for what I would consider 'challenging' electronica, one that's probably not common with anybody else.

So for an easy example, let's talk about SOPHIE - known to work with Charli XCX and the PC Music group with chipper, burbling synths, lumpy, overblown and distorted progressions, and a sensibility somewhere between late 90s bubblegum pop and k-pop for synthesizing maddeningly catchy music, I had been aware of SOPHIE going back at least as far as her 2015 project Product, but I hadn't been thrown off-guard as so many were. Yeah, the mixes could feel slapdash and unbalanced, and the frequented pitched-up vocals could grate on my nerves, but beyond that... well, she at least had a pop sensibility in comparison to a producer like Arca, but that gave me the impression that this was considered so mindblowing and genre-pushing only with respect to modern electro-pop. And yeah, while it felt undercooked lyrically and I wasn't remotely convinced this was that experimental, I enjoyed it for what it was, and as such I wasn't nearly as surprised when she notched credits on Vince Staples' newest project, or that she'd have a larger release following up on the compilation Product waiting in the wings that's getting the bandwagon critical acclaim. So did SOPHIE manage to live up to all of those expectations with Oil Of Every Pearl's Un-Insides?

video review: 'the mountain' by dierks bentley

Yes, I know this is late. Yes, I know I'm behind schedule again. I'm working through it, folks, just stay tuned!

album review: 'the mountain' by dierks bentley

So I'll admit it wasn't really my plan to review this. 

Well okay, that's not quite true, I was planning on adding this to my schedule naturally, but then nobody added the Kanye and Kid Cudi collaboration and given how quickly it attracted attention, I really had to stop everything and ensure it got attention. But even then, I still had other albums that would have come ahead of this... and yet the more listens I gave them, the less I had to say, with this becoming especially true for Lily Allen - where decent writing was squandered on utterly forgettable production - and Sugarland, which might have landed a few good hooks but was crippled by slapdash production, underweight writing, and the awful decision that they should try to rap.

And honestly, if I hadn't been aware that Dierks Bentley had intended The Mountain as a course correction, I would have been concerned similar tendencies could creep onto his work - it wasn't like he wasn't heading in that direction. He's always stayed a little adjacent to popular trends in the mainstream - which is one reason why he took off to make the bluegrass album Up The Ridge in 2010 - but several cuts on 2014's Riser took him perilously close to bro-country and Black was damn near a desaturated pop record, only saved by Bentley having better taste than many of his peers and deep cuts that tended to be of high quality - keep in mind that his song 'Here On Earth' made my top ten favourite songs of 2014 across all genres, he can be that good when he wants to be.

So yeah, I had high hopes with The Mountain - buzz was suggesting he was making a hard pivot towards heartland rock-tinged country and he was recruiting Brothers Osborne and Brandi Carlile to do so, and if there's a sound that could flatter Bentley's voice, it's that. I had every reason to believe this would be pretty damn solid at the very least - did he get there?

video review: 'so sad so sexy' by lykke li

Man alive, I wasn't planning on making this review... but overall, I wish this had been a lot better. 

Next up, Dierks Bentley (finally) - stay tuned!

album review: 'so sad so sexy' by lykke li

So a few weeks back when I reviewed the newest record from CHVRCHES I called out how the majority of the production issues of that project were endemic to producer Greg Kurstin, a talented producer that has an unfortunate habit of swallowing his mixes in reverb and emphasizing percussion over melodies. But I would be remiss to not call out the moments when his approach actually works, and there's one example I always return to: 2014's I Never Learn by Lykke Li, a bleakly emotive breakup album that somehow sustained real melodic hooks amidst the hollow darkness that may not have been the follow-up guaranteed to snag mainstream attention after 'I Follow Rivers' snagged attention in 2011, but that wasn't necessary. To this day I still consider I Never Learn as Lykke Li's most potent, cohesive, and emotionally gripping project to date, one record where Greg Kurstin's production seemed to really fit...

And thus I can't help but see a certain irony that four years later, just like Lily Allen did for her new album No Shame - a project destined for the Trailing Edge, stay tuned for it there - Lykke Li ditched Kurstin for her new album so sad so sexy for a much bigger team. And I'll admit I was a little concerned about this one: seemingly like the mainstream-adjacent follow-up seven years later incorporating elements of R&B and trap with rap guest features, this was about the furthest thing I was expecting from Lykke Li... but I won't deny I wasn't curious. So alright, what did we get with so sad so sexy?

video review: 'kids see ghosts' by kids see ghosts (kid cudi & kanye west)

Well, here we go. Enjoy the shitstorm, folks!

Next up... honestly, not sure yet, so stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - june 16, 2018 (VIDEO)

Okay, album bomb, but a solid week regardless...

Next up, more Kanye, but with bonus Kid Cudi...

album review: 'kids see ghosts' by kids see ghosts (kid cudi & kanye west)

I was going to skip this album altogether.

Seriously, I was - and I'm not saying that to shock you or be provocative, there's no shortage of records that I'm a lot more interested in covering than Kanye's tangled mess of underwhelming contradictions that'll be excused by diehard fans no matter what is said or done. And when you factor in Kid Cudi... well, I haven't actually ever reviewed a Kid Cudi record in full, but I have heard a fair chunk of his discography and my general impression is a wealth of genre-blending musical ideas and interesting language, but often falling way short in terms of execution, leading to records that can be really intriguing but also extremely frustrating. Ambitious for sure, but the gulf between his best work and his worst is vast, and while his well-publicized mental state might make said projects explainable, it doesn't really make them all that listenable.

That said, Kid Cudi and Kanye have managed to find wavelengths where their material has worked before, going back as far as 808s & Heartbreak, and the positive but varied critical reception to this project was intriguing, especially as critics have not held back when it has come to Kid Cudi in the past. And when you pair all of that with a certain overwhelmingly positive review that I don't think anyone saw coming... look, basically for the health of my general operation I had to cover this and put it on my schedule myself, so how is Kids See Ghosts?

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - june 16, 2018

Kanye album bomb. Yeah, I know there are other things going on right now - a new #1, a sizable amount of activity further down the chart, but the big story is all of Kanye West's 'ye' crashing into the top 40, triggering a shockwave down the Hot 100 that'll likely be a mess to clean up next week... presuming of course Kids See Ghosts doesn't create its own impact!

video review: 'stranger fruit' by zeal & ardor

You know, I have absolutely no idea how controversial this review will wind up being... but if anything, I'm more disappointed that I didn't like it more.

Next up, Billboard BREAKDOWN, and then whatever my Patrons vote for - enjoy?

album review: 'stranger fruit' by zeal & ardor

So the honest truth about much of the criticism I create is that it's pretty agnostic when it comes to the intent of the authors... or at least I try to be. As much as I might take issues with the ideology at the core of some work, I try to give everything its fair shake in execution. And sure, while there is something to be said for liking art that affirms your worldview and disliking art that rejects it, that's more amplification rather than a deciding factor - after all, I've heard enough anarcho-punk that while I might like or admire the politics, presentation ultimately pushes me away. 

But all of this comes from the fundamental assumption that the intentions of the artist are sincere, and while you do get your fair share of satires and genre deconstructions, artists that are openly disingenuous in their artistic pursuits and don't really give a shit about the aesthetic or ideas they're promoting can exist as well in a weird space. Now there are not that many acts in this lane - authenticity is a prized commodity from country to metal to punk to hip-hop, and flaunting your disdain for that tends to get you shoved out of a lot of spaces - but when there's a lot of money to be found they tend to pop up. You could make the argument that Limp Bizkit or the very least Fred Durst fell in this space for a time in the late 90s, using nu-metal and rap rock as a openly nihilistic cash grab artistry be damned, but I put that more along the lines of studio creations and reality show artists, where the money is the primary motivation but art can happen along the way. Then you get acts like Lil Dicky, who entered hip-hop to get famous to go on and do other things and to make a point that he could, which is one reason why so much of his music is one-note, nakedly contemptuous of good taste and tends to suck.

And then there's Zeal & Ardor, an act that when I first heard about it I was genuinely excited - following the wake of Algiers to fuse traditionally black spirituals, soul, and blues with black metal, that sounded awesome and indeed my first few listens really sucked me in... until I started seeing interviews where the band's frontman Manuel Gagneux said the band primarily started as a joke and dare on 4chan. And that would be fine - execution can overrule original intent, and I've seen art made for worse reasons - but both black metal and spirituals are two genres and styles that prize authenticity, and co-opting the latter for a cheap Satanic inversion felt in poor taste, especially given the current state of affairs in the world. But then something strange happened: the first Zeal & Ardor record actually got critical traction, and suddenly Gagneux had to expand a concept that he had approached somewhat haphazardly on the debut for something with a little more meat, and I was curious how on earth he could follow it up, especially considering he named the record in a clear reference to the Billie Holiday song. Maybe he'd take on these topics with more gravity, so okay... what did we find on Stranger Fruit?