video review: 'wildheart' by miguel

Man, this album was weird, but so much in the right way. Just wish it aimed for a little more heft, that's all.

Next up, Vince Staples, and then the mid-year review - stay tuned!

album review: 'wildheart' by miguel

So one of the biggest journeys I've taken throughout the creation of this blog is through modern R&B. I didn't used to care for the genre all that much a few years ago and have found myself really coming to love more and more of it as the years have passed. And one of the artists that I've always found myself a little fascinated with along the way is Frank Ocean - and by that, I mean Miguel.

Okay, that might not make a lot of sense, but it's bizarre how much Miguel seems to be overlooked in terms of hype and critical success. Maybe it was just bad timing, but for as colourful and genuinely fun as Miguel's Kaleidoscope Dream was in 2012, it was overshadowed by Frank Ocean's channel ORANGE and everybody seemed to forget Miguel existed beyond 'Adorn' and a few guest spots. And while I'm not going to say Kaleidoscope Dream was better than channel ORANGE - it's not - I've always felt that Miguel is an underrated R&B star, in the indie scene and especially in the mainstream. I mean, was it just a chance collaboration with Ariana Grande that allowed The Weeknd nearly a half-dozen top 40 spots while Miguel has to struggle to even get there?

But in a way it makes sense, because as a composer, Miguel is kind of weird. Lyrically, he doesn't often stray from typical R&B territory - arguably the biggest facet that held him back from challenging Frank Ocean in 2012 - but his personality and sound are much more eclectic, bleeding across genres in a way that reminds me more of Prince than most modern R&B histrionics. But the element that crept up on me about Miguel is a understated charisma that's genuinely charming - he's often just as explicit, but he makes it sound fun and has some class about it. Now as I said I didn't love Kaleidoscope Dream, mostly because the lyrics occasionally got silly and the production was a little overdone at points, not confident enough to let Miguel coast on a great groove. But as I said on Billboard BREAKDOWN, with the lead-off single 'Coffee' for his newest album Wildheart he got me really excited for this album - how did it turn out?

video review: 'haven' by kamelot

This review took WAY too damn long to get out, but I'm happy I did finally get a chance to do it before the midyear - which I'm steadily polishing up, btw.

But next up, Miguel, Vince Staples, Czarface, Tyga, King Los... whoa boy, lots of hip-hop and R&B, so stay tuned!

album review: 'haven' by kamelot

Back when I first got into metal in high school, I remember having a conversation with a fellow student who was a year or two older than me who was also into metal. I told him that I was listening to a fair amount of power metal and symphonic metal, and I remember him snickering and saying, "What, like Kamelot?" At that time, I was only just getting into the genre, so I had never heard of the band, so I went home and picked up what few tracks I could find, most of which were off of the band's 2003 album Epica. And I remember thinking that while there were a few songs I dug, the band just didn't impress me in the same way that Nightwish or Blind Guardian ever did. Sure, they weren't bad, but they didn't seem all that special to me. And just like my abortive attempt to get into the band Epica around that time, I put the band aside for nearly a decade.

Fast forward to, well, now, and I started getting requests whether I would cover the newest album from Kamelot titled Haven. And at this point, I was in the mood to hear some good power metal and I figured the band deserved a more complete re-evaluation, so I began working my way through the extensive discography of Kamelot and their almost dozen albums of material across line-up changes and nearly twenty years of existence. To me, the band started hitting more of their mark on their second album Dominion, with much tighter and cohesive tracks than their debut Eternity, which featured great guitar work from their one consistent member Thomas Youngblood but definitely needed work in putting together cohesive tracks, instrumentally and lyrically. But it wouldn't be until the replacement of their drummer and lead vocalist with longtime powerhouse Roy Khan that things would materialize more, with the next two records giving them a chance to get their bearings before the absolutely stellar three punch that was Karma in 2001, Epica in 2003, and The Black Halo in 2005. And let's make this clear, if I was looking for records to win a metal fan over on Kamelot, it'd be those.

After that, Kamelot went in a more aggressively heavy direction with their next two records... unfortunately to diminishing returns, with their 2010 release Poetry For The Poisoned probably being their weakest in over a decade. But that wasn't the only issue, as singer Roy Khan left the band due to burnout, something this critic can believe given how his vocals sounded on that last record. He was replaced Tommy Karevik for their 2012 album and their third concept record Silverthorn, which actually turned out to be a pretty damn solid return to form, even if it wasn't quite at their best. So, extremely late to the punch, I decided to dig into their follow-up three years later with Haven - how does it measure up?

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - july 4, 2015 (VIDEO)

Believe it or not, this review was absolute hell to get out - beyond just the lacklustre songs too.

Okay, finally time to deal with some old business - stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - july 4, 2015

You ever see one of those charts on which not a lot really seemed to happen, but still gives you a feeling of foreboding regardless? Believe it or not, I got that feeling pretty strongly this week, because despite the fact very few new songs dropped or impacted the charts in any largely significant ways, I can see things are coming up for change across the board as the summer settles in.

video review. 'e•mo•tion' by carly rae jespsen

Well, this turned out way better than expected. Who'd have known?

Okay, Billboard BREAKDOWN tomorrow, and then finally I'll get that Kamelot review done... that is, if Vince Staples and Miguel don't get in the way. Stay tuned!

album review: 'e•mo•tion' by carly rae jepsen

I didn't like 'Call Me Maybe'.

And believe it or not, I wasn't miserable during the summer of 2012 because of that fact - mostly because 2012 was a great year for pop music and I had plenty of other great songs to keep me busy across pretty much the entire year - even in Canada, where that song's ubiquity was even harder to escape. But yeah, 'Call Me Maybe' did very little for me and the overblown hype behind it made things worse: I talked a little about dramatic stakes when I reviewed Kacey Musgraves' Pageant Material a few days ago, and the complete lack of them made the overly cutesy immaturity of 'Call Me Maybe' a little too precious, even for me, and the fact that Carly Rae was deliberately playing up adolescence in her image despite being twenty-six in 2012.

So why the hell am I reviewing her newest album? Well, despite not being a fan of 'Call Me Maybe', I do like Carly Rae Jepsen and think she's a pretty decent pop starlet, especially for her knack in crafting a sticky melodic hook, and when she's on her game, she can really deliver. Hell, I placed 'Good Time', the duet she did with Owl City, as an Honourable Mention of my top hit songs of 2012, and I stand by it. Coupled with the fact she does have some relatably attractive charisma and works with producers like Marianas Trench frontman Josh Ramsey, and she does have primary writing credits on all of her own songs means I will give her a fair amount of credit, even if I do find her technical songwriting to be the biggest point where she can slip up.

And look, even though 'I Really Like You' might have one of the most completely asinine choruses in recent pop music, I can't help but find more things to like about that song every time I listen through it, so I said what the hell and picked up E.MO.TION - is it any good?

video review: 'my love is cool' by wolf alice

Man, I don't expect the reception to this review to be great, but you get those on occasion.

Next up... well, I was going to do Kamelot, but I really should deal with Carly Rae Jepsen or Vince Staples or Miguel. And then Tyga decided to drop an album out of fucking nowhere to the general indifference of everyone, so there's that too.

Eh, we'll see - stay tuned!

album review: 'my love is cool' by wolf alice

So I've mentioned a number of times, mostly on Billboard BREAKDOWN, that rock radio is basically irrelevant to the mainstream pop charts, at least in terms of defining larger trends. Yes, there are rock songs that are big that might even do well on the charts, but rock music doesn't tend to go viral in the same way a hip-hop track or pop song can, or mutate at the same rate that country currently is. And part of that is because rock doesn't grip the popular consciousness in the same way it has throughout other decades, to the point where the rock songs that take the charts are so wildly different that it's hard to pin down a distinctive sound. When I look at the top ten 'rock' songs on the charts right now, three are folk with the barest hint of rock, three are outright pop rock, one is closer to soul or blues than actual rock music - doesn't make Hozier any less awesome, but it's true - and 'Shut Up And Dance' would have been called new wave synthpop thirty years ago. Of the two remaining, one is Muse's 'Dead Inside' and I'd be stretching to say its sour brand of electronic rock with emo lyrics is quality, and the other is 'Believe' by Mumford & Sons and is just terrible. And that's it - no metal, no punk, nothing close to grunge or hardcore, and god help you if you're looking for one of the subgenres.

What I see when I look at the rock charts is no clear direction and nothing resembling hierarchies or leaders except maybe The Foo Fighters out of sheer longevity - mostly because 'rock' is becoming a catch-all for whatever has a guitar and is too rough-edged for pop or too heavy for country. And I'm not saying I want rock to be monochromatic or dominated by one sound - I lived through post-grunge and I don't want that again - but I get no sense of defined identity when I look at rock radio, and this has been an issue for a good few years now. It looks a lot less like diversity and more like throwing whatever they've got at the wall until something sticks - and this is an American issue. Us Canadians never really marginalized rock radio in the same way, and the indie folk rock boom is solidly entrenched up here. 

And honestly, it doesn't seem like a bad direction for the US to go either - at least indie rock is more colourful and interesting, and there's plenty of upstart acts looking to break in. Case in point: Wolf Alice, a UK-based band that started off in the poppier side of indie folk before drifting towards heavier, grunge-inspired instrumentation and signing to the same label as The 1975. Like Misterwives, they spent last year building buzz and now have dropped a debut album that has come highly recommended from a few other critics, so I took a look at My Love Is Cool - do we have our new indie rock leaders?

video review: 'pageant material' by kacey musgraves

Huh, this took longer than I expected to get out. Eh, it happens.

Okay, next up... either Wolf Alice or I might finally get that Kamelot review finished. We'll see - stay tuned!

album review: 'pageant material' by kacey musgraves

When I first heard Same Trailer, Different Park in 2013, the major label debut from Kacey Musgraves, I was blown out of the water. Here was a woman whose love and knowledge for old-school classic country allowed her to load her songs with grounded, honest maturity and progressive tendencies that were anathema to country radio, even now. Coupled with just being a damn great songwriter both in terms of technical craftsmanship and selling it with real emotive presence, she won the hearts of a ton of critics, and scooped up some well-deserved Grammys in one of the few examples of that show getting it right.

But despite great sales, Kacey Musgraves is not a radio star, and in an era screaming out for women in country music, Kacey's lack of mainstream success frustrated a lot of people, including some of the critics who supported her. They could easily point the finger at the fact her brand of country is not the type that gets airplay, especially considering the consolidation of country radio places more of it in the hands of petulant assholes like Bobby Bones, who Kacey refused to give the time of day and paid the price for it, but they decided to go deeper. They wanted the tone and writing and instrumentation to be more modern or strident or at the very least less girlish or presumably immature. In short, they wanted Kacey Musgraves to be country music's new feminist savior in the vein of a 'Beyonce' or something, be more transformative and drive away the analysts who don't know the difference between correlation and causation and that say women are the tomatoes in country music's salad.

And from the beginning, I've never bought that was what Kacey Musgraves wanted, and I'd argue such aspirations took away from the greatest part of her appeal: populism. Sure, she loved decidedly uncool classic country, but her writing style and content was always grounded in the fact she was part of the same crushing system as her audience, not trying to lead it. Her material could be girlish in tone and writing, but it only emphasized by contrast wisdom beyond her years, and disguise how deeply her words could cut in a country where 'Girl Crush' by Little Big Town was nearly forced off the radio because it supposedly promoted a lesbian relationship. And by framing her material as more matter-of-fact and accepted, I'd argue her material worked in a subtler and more effective way than any amount of incendiary firespitting - anthems are nice, but they need humanity and nuance to have real punch.

So when I heard that Kacey Musgraves' newest release would be called Pageant Material, I was actually really excited. Taking her brand of progressive views to traditional southern views of femininity might require she play things with more subtlety, but it didn't mean the punch wouldn't be there... or at least I hoped that was the case. Was I right?

video review: 'ffs' by ffs (franz ferdinand & sparks)

Well, this was a tricky review to get out, but then again all of my reviews feel tricky these days.

Next up, Kacey Musgraves - stay tuned!

album review: 'ffs' by ffs (franz ferdinand & sparks)

I've talked a little about artistic team-ups before in this series, when two distinctive groups merge together to create a distinctly unique musical project. Sometimes the clash between the bands becomes the underlying arc of the album, like on the stunning performance art collaboration between Savages and Bo Ningen last year Words To The Blind. More commonly, one act tends to eclipse the others, especially when the styles of the two bands overlap. And with rare exception, that tends to be the older, more experienced act that takes dominance.

So on some level, when I heard about the planned collaboration between acclaimed, genre-bending cult band Sparks and indie rock group Franz Ferdinand, it almost seemed too obvious. Sparks had been a player in the first wave of glam, disco and synthpop, Franz Ferdinand had been one of the main frontrunners during the indie rock revival of the genres in the mid-2000s. Both featured frontmen who had a knack for overwritten, too clever by half lyricism that was always a little too hyperbolic and ridiculous for its own good and yet still manages to maintain its cool. Now Sparks has done everything as an act from changing genres about eight different times to releasing full on rock operas, and while the quality has been wildly uneven depending on the era, they've got nothing to prove. Hell, when Franz Ferdinand approached Sparks about the idea a decade, Sparks frontman Ron Mael sent Franz Ferdinand a demo titled 'Piss Off'.

But a decade later, with Franz Ferdinand maturing as a band and Sparks not having dropped any new material in about six years, they joined together into the supergroup FFS and dropped a self-titled record. And really, why not? For Sparks, it's a shot to introduce themselves to an audience who might never have heard of them, especially given the massive discography going back to the beginning of the 70s. And for Franz Ferdinand, it's a chance to work with long-time veterans and personal heroes and give them an excuse to get weird again. And while I absolutely adored Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action - which totally holds up as one of my favourite records of 2013 - Sparks might be able to add more focus to Franz Ferdinand's off-kilter experimentation. So, did FFS deliver?

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - june 27, 2015 (VIDEO)

You know, for a week that was pretty lightweight all things considered, this review was absolute hell to make. Between so many reshoots and that damned video glitch... ugh, I'm just happy it's over.

Next up, I think I'm about ready to talk about FFS or Kamelot before Kacey Musgraves comes through - stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - june 27, 2015

So here's the mixed blessing of a week like this one. You look at the charts, see that very little actually happened across the board with perhaps one of the smallest numbers of songs new or returning to the Hot 100, and it allows you to breathe a sigh of relief. Finally, something that's pretty light across the board. But then it's the creeping question of whether I'll be able to keep all of this interesting on a week where - gasp - there's little to actually complain about!

video review: 'breathe in, breathe out' by hilary duff

Heh, so this happened. Not a lot to say, but I am happy I did this, it was fun.

Next up, Billboard BREAKDOWN, and then I've got FFS, Sun Kil Moon, and maybe I'll finally handle Kamelot... stay tuned!

video review: 'algiers' by algiers

Nearly forgot to post this. And I really shouldn't have, because the album is fucking excellent.

Anyway, next up... heh, you already know. Stay tuned!

album review: 'breathe in, breathe out' by hilary duff

Okay, confession time: I used to be a huge fan of Hilary Duff.

No, really. Back about a decade ago when I was a teenager and I was listening to Eminem and symphonic metal, I still listened to her. I watched the Lizzie McGuire Show, which on some level has not aged well at all. I watched the movie based off of the show. And perhaps most embarrassingly for a music critic, I listened to her music - and I was a fan too, to the point where I actually saw her live in concert.

And going back to those albums in the early-to-mid-2000s, most of the material is okay at best. Let's be honest, Hilary Duff was riding a wave where young starlets who could pull off a veneer of acoustic pop authenticity could rack up a fair number of hits. And considering Hilary was being backed by Disney and was signed to Hollywood Records, it was clear her handlers were aiming to capitalize on whatever residual buzz she had from Lizzie McGuire to turn out over-produced schlock that frankly Brie Larson was doing better anyway. The funny thing is going back to it, which she does have some real duds - that self-titled album is mediocre at best - her 2007 record Dignity saw her move in more of a electronic dancepop direction and it worked pretty well for her, as she had writing credits across the board. For me, I always got the impression she was a better writer than actual singer - she didn't have a ton of presence as a vocalist, and unlike Britney Spears, she wasn't about to pile on effects to compensate for it. 

And yet as dancepop was set to blow up with the club boom in the late 2000s, Hilary Duff left pop music entirely for a good eight years. She got married and divorced, had a baby, and did a lot of acting for TV and independent films, mostly in an effort to ditch the more wholesome Lizzie McGuire image. The interesting thing is that while her career hasn't been stellar by any stretch, she also hasn't had the stage of running wild and flaming out that hit other teen stars of her era like Amanda Bynes and Lindsey Lohan, which gave me the impression that the down-to-earth elements of Hilary's writing actually had some authenticity. But at the same time, until the requests started pouring in, I had no interest in looking into her most recent album. For one, she only had writing credits on a third of the record, and for another, it looked a bit like a cash-in, to rope back old fans who want to recapture those glory days almost a decade ago. Hell, that's why I'm here, so I took at look at Breathe In, Breathe Out - is it any good?

album review: 'algiers' by algiers

There are some genre fusions that sound so insane that you'd never expect to see them work. Ambient music and country, for instance, two genres that rarely have ever crossed... until Devin Townsend created Casualties of Cool, one of the best albums of 2014. Or take, say, the entire genre-mashing careers of twenty one pilots, and they put together Blurryface, one of my favourite records of this year. My point is that oddball genre fusions can blow up in your face, but they can create something special and defiantly unique, especially in a world where the internet has proven anyone will try anything once.

But then there are the genre fusions that the second I heard about it, it made way too much sense, the sort of material that made me sigh and wish that I had thought of it first. Algiers falls into that category, an American band from Atlanta reportedly fusing post-punk, gospel, and industrial sounds for a distinctly unique debut to be released through Matador Records, the same label that's been responsible for giving us Savages and Iceage. And really, considering how much post-punk and goth culture crossed over in the late 70s and 80s, with the latter incorporating so much religious iconography it's not surprising Algiers might take a stab at pushing through a less classical and more gospel-inspired take. And given how strong the critical reception has been, I decided to give it a look - was it worth it?