video review: 'flamagra' by flying lotus

Okay, so this was a little messy, but still quality, still worth talking about too.

Next up... I think I've got Resonators and maybe a Top 10 list, so let's see what happens, stay tuned!

album review: 'flamagra' by flying lotus

So I'll admit I had to go back and relisten to Cosmogramma and You're Dead! before making this review - and it probably was the first time in five years that I've done so.

And that looks bad, obviously, as both are genuinely great albums that take tangled, jazzy experimentation in their electronic tones and dive into rabbit holes rife with strange samples, twisted analog synths, and the sort of alien vibe that commands the sort of pit-in-your-stomach dread as much as it does my respect and wonder. And that's the funny thing for me: Steven Ellison aka. Flying Lotus creates thematically cohesive, amazingly intricate, and remarkably textured albums that can synthesize genuine beauty... but often cycle around existential themes and central ideas that can be deeply unsettling if you stare into that abyss, and are really best consumed as one long look. People tend to forget that certain tones of Cosmogramma were synthesized from samples of vital-sign monitors and respirators in his dying mother's hospital room, and it's also one reason I've always found it strange that Flying Lotus recruits guest artists for verses on projects like You're Dead! for isolated pieces that feel like fragments separated from a larger album - what might be more startling is how often it manages to work.

So we're dealing with prodigious amounts of talent here... so why has it taken us five years to get a new album when they normally come around a fair bit more quickly? Well, Ellison put out a contentiously received anthology film called Kuso in 2017 and he's been contributing music to other projects, but this year we got news about his newest and longest project planned to date, a concept album surrounding fire, filled with guests from long-running collaborator Thundercat to notable names like Anderson .Paak, Solange, Denzel Curry, and Shabazz Palaces, all the way to surprises like George Clinton, Tierra Whack, and David Lynch. So okay, what rabbit hole is Flying Lotus pulling us into this time?

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - june 1, 2019 (VIDEO)

Frankly I'm surprised this video is holding up as well as it is... well, we'll see where everything lands as I work on Resonators and that Flying Lotus album - stay tuned!

sonic temple 2019 - review / vlog

Yeah, a little late with this one, but I had a lot of footage to cut together and a lot of reviews to push out the door - still, I'm pretty proud how all of this came together, enjoy!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - june 1, 2019

So I'll admit I didn't quite predict this. I knew that Tyler, The Creator would have his album bomb - and with just enough songs to squeak into my qualifying rules, for the record - but I'll admit I did not expect DJ Khaled to do as well as he did. Now part of that is the suspicion that DJ Khaled didn't have the blowout single ready to hit beyond a song like 'No Brainer' - which was released last year, packaged on the album, and didn't re-enter the Hot 100 here - but he did see enough measurable chart success that I have to pay attention... even if I have less than zero interest in reviewing the album and it'll probably wind up on the Trailing Edge at best.

video review: '4REAL 4REAL' by yg

Well, this was better than I expected - and I'll admit I was close to calling it really good, but it did just fall short at the end.

Anyway, I'm thinking I'll have my Sonic Temple wrap-up video today (just need to add in my b-roll footage and some music, and in the mean time I've got Resonators, Billboard BREAKDOWN tomorrow, and Flying Lotus, so stay tuned!

album review: '4REAL 4REAL' by yg

Believe me, it was not my plan to start liking YG's music.

Because for the first half of the 2010s, I didn't - he had some singles to start the decade and I still don't really like My Krazy Life. Not really a bad hip-hop album, but it was a project drilling into the bare bones in production courtesy of DJ Mustard at his peak and the content... and little else. I understand the everyman appeal, don't get me wrong, but it didn't nearly stand out as much as it could, and I'd argue that you could put any number of more capable MCs in the same spot with the same production and you'd probably get a better album.

But then Still Brazy came out in 2016, and YG took west-coast revivalism with more expanded production, a genuine sense of humor, and a blunt political angle that actually packed a wallop in a generally underwhelming year for mainstream hip-hop... which might be why that album didn't produce notable singles on the charts to my vast irritation. And thus I can't blame him that much when Stay Dangerous returned to a similar formula to My Krazy Life and actually got some singles success - the only problem was that it was lazier and generally worse, but it did make sense he'd be able to turn around a follow-up more quickly. Hell, it would have been released earlier than even this if it hadn't been for his friend Nipsey Hussle's tragic passing. And I'll be blunt, I didn't have high expectations, mostly because the production team hadn't changed much with singles like 'Go Loko' it looked like things were getting even worse... but hey, maybe it'd work out on 4REAL 4REAL?

movie review: 'pokemon: detective pikachu' (VIDEO)

Well, this turned out better than I expected - great stylism married with some solid acting performances and shows a ton of promise going forward. 

Anyway, next up was an improvement I did not see coming - stay tuned!

video review: 'fever' by megan thee stallion

Okay, this turned out a bit more interesting than I expected - wish there was a little more to the project as a whole, but it happens, I guess...

Anyway, now onto something legit great!

album review: 'fever' by megan thee stallion

So I'll admit I was a little surprised to even consider this review - it's not like there aren't other albums I could cover on my schedule, so why this? Why review a project for which you're fairly certain you won't have much to say and if you do might be best suited for the Trailing Edge?

And then I immediately questioned why I thought any of that - yeah, Megan Thee Stallion might have gotten her initial traction off of Instagram twerk videos and being hotter than hell, but she could spit her ass off better than a fair few of her male counterparts, her mixtapes had some genuine sizzle over pretty solid trap production - again, better than a lot of her competition - and it wasn't like Cardi B hadn't surprised me with the longevity and flair of some cuts from her debut album; I might be the only one who still genuinely thinks 'Money Bag' is a great song, but if Cardi is settling into a comfort zone, I wanted to find someone where the fire was still lit. Sure, the content wasn't about to be all that deep beyond flexing, sex jams, and taking guys for all their worth, but her meteoric rise did prove there was an audience for that sort of material, and my general liking for 'Big Ole Freak' proved that she had the charisma and command of her mix to make it work. So I figured why not give that debut a listen and ignore that mess of a new DJ Khaled project, what did we get from Fever?

video review: 'i am easy to find' by the national

Okay, this actually turned out way better than I thought (thank god), and I'm actually a bit surprised I was able to pull the review together this effectively, but hey, I've got some momentum right now, might as well use it.

Next up... hmm, I really do need to get this Sonic Temple stuff down, but there are albums to be reviewed... we'll see, stay tuned!

album review: 'i am easy to find' by the national

You know, when a band you really love is on a hot streak, you do feel a little nervous before opening up any new album, with the high hopes they'll continue it but the niggling feeling in your gut they're going to slip up. And that possibility of the slip-up does have more weight in terms of expectations than I'd like to admit, because it can blow a big hole in how much you might care about a new project, especially if it hasn't quite received the avalanche of critical acclaim the band might have used to get.

And can you tell I'm talking about The National here? But let's back up, because after 2013's potent Trouble Will Find Me, I've noticed my opinions on the indie rock veterans tend to diverge from the popular consensus, from my passionate love of frontman Matt Berninger's side project EL VY and its release Return To The Moon in 2015, to my much more lukewarm at best reception to the band's 2017 release Sleep Well Beast, which took philosophically questionable ideas and married them to underwhelming production compromised in groove and overall tone. To me it stood as their worst album to date, but being in the minority of that opinion, I had no earthly clue if The National would double down on those tones and get even worse, or whether they'd pull a sharp face turn and recover... and frankly, I wasn't sure I was all that enthused to hear them fumble a response, especially given how ponderous their albums could be. But hey, who knows, maybe divorced from some of the questionable political reaction that contorted too many albums in 2017, this would be a return to form, so how was I Am Easy To Find?

video review: 'IGOR' by tyler, the creator

Yeah, guess it just wasn't for me...? It happens, folks.

Next up... see, it might be Megan Thee Stallion, it might be The National, we'll have to see. Stay tuned!

album review: 'IGOR' by tyler, the creator

At this point, what can you even expect from Tyler, The Creator anymore?

And I say this as someone who can admit to being more tolerant of the guy at his most foul and abrasive, but also someone who never quite celebrated him at his various peaks either, at least not in comparison to the diehard fans. Don't get me wrong, at his most shocking I've always been convinced there was more damaged pathology than even he would admit, but as much as I really dug Flower Boy, damn near the polar opposite of those early albums, it wasn't a project that stuck with me longer as much as others, or one that in this era I quite found as revolutionary as most in its content, which at points could feel underwritten. Hell, what I found most striking was the production, which had its off-kilter edge and clear influence of Pharrell, but also attracted a peculiar, homegrown beauty that Tyler could make his own. So when I heard that more than ever this project IGOR, dropped with little warning or promotion, was even further away from conventional hip-hop in his delivery and had reportedly picked up even some production elements from the messy, much-maligned but fascinating Cherry Bomb for a bittersweet breakup album... well, it was sure to be unique. So okay, how is IGOR?

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - may 25, 2019 (VIDEO)

Another pretty lightweight week overall (thank GOD for that), but now it'll be fascinating to see how Tyler hits next week.

And perhaps on that topic...

video review: 'dedicated' by carly rae jepsen

Okay, so this is actually better received than I would expect... huh, interesting...

Anyway, I think it's Tyler coming next, but before that...

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - may 25, 2019

So I'll be honest, I'm so happy this week is a slower one: I just got back from Sonic Temple in Columbus, Ohio - I'll have a recap/review video dropping in a few days and there'll be plenty of other videos I'll pop up in - and when you consider last Friday was one of the biggest release weeks of this month, I've got a lot to catch up on, so the relative lack of stories is encouraging.

album review: 'dedicated' by carly rae jepsen

I'll admit to being surprised it took this long to get this album.

And sure, some of this comes of a question of momentum, which for a cult act like Carly Rae Jepsen might not matter - and I'll admit it's strange to refer to her as a cult act when in 2012 'Call Me Maybe' was nearly the biggest song of the year but seems to have mostly vanished from even a more nostalgic conversation. But I remember actually being ahead of the curve when it came to E.MO.TION, where I covered it as a fan who was fond of her earliest stuff and then saw the hipster crowd embrace her in spades, which carried into her short follow-up the next year on Side B. And then... well, the singles kept coming and the hype was there, but the reception felt increasingly lukewarm, and it wasn't like mainstream pop was in the best of places for the sort of crossover she probably deserved earlier. So when I started hearing the mixed reception for this album, I'll admit to being worried, especially with no credits from Josh Ramsay or Devonte Hynes. Still, I'm still a fan and I wanted to believe she could stick the landing, so what did we get from Dedicated?

video review: 'the juice: vol. 1' by emotional oranges

So yeah, this was concentrated wonderful - absolutely killer project, definitely a debut with a ton of potential, you all need to hear this!

Now for the next couple of days I'll be at Sonic Temple, so uploads might be a little more sporadic, but stay tuned all the same!

album review: 'the juice: vol. 1' by emotional oranges

So we're venturing back into the muted, murky R&B rabbit hole and let me pose to you a somewhat unique prospect: a duo, comprising of both a guy and girl working together on vocals, picking up slick elements of 80s funk, some of Janet Jackson's sultriness, but a lower timbre overall to play to a more sultry and "mature" vibe. Would you bet on a group like that?

Hell, you probably would have sold me based on the R&B duo dynamics alone - I've long held the private belief that mixed gender groups with effective balance can rarely be matched and it's been decades since you've had one with consistent success. Hell, the surprisingly long running success of Little Big Town and Lady Antebellum in country have proven there's a lucrative market, but if you look at R&B or hip-hop, you typically get the 'token' girl who winds up having as much talent as everyone else combined, like with City High and arguably The Fugees. The closest I can think of to making that balance work is Doomtree with Dessa holding up her end with the rest of the crew, but again, that's hip-hop, not R&B. So when I started hearing underground buzz for Emotional Oranges - and when I say underground buzz I mean the measurable promotion through the Joe Budden Podcast and a certain manager who will go unnamed - I figured like with Asiahn I'd give them some airtime. So, eight songs, just under a half hour, what did we get from The Juice: Vol. 1?