billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - october 29, 2016

So this week was weird. I'm not going to say it was a bad week - it definitely wasn't, there's enough quality coming up new that I'm not going to call this precisely bad - but there are both shifts and new arrivals that extend all the way to the top ten that deserve some investigation, so this episode might run long, for as strange as things are...

video review: 'country songs' by karen jonas

Man, I really dug this. Was considering posting this and JoJo tonight, but this album is good and underappreciated enough that I'd prefer to give it the room and appreciation it deserves.

But JoJo and Billboard BREAKDOWN coming up next, so stay tuned!

album review: 'country songs' by karen jonas

I can imagine even if you're a fan of independent country you likely won't recognize this name, especially if you're newer on this channel.

And really, that's a shame, but it's also to be expected. I found Karen Jonas effectively by accident, as her album Oklahoma Lottery was picking up some buzz among critics and pretty much nowhere else. And while I remember being startled when I covered the record in 2014, I'm not all that surprised nowadays, especially given the kind of uncompromising and occasionally bleak material that Jonas wrote. It's the sort of regional, sharp songwriter-driven music that doesn't shy away from telling hard stories, less concerned with the flash you normally see around Nashville and more with the message and presence. Sparsely produced, intense without being overbearing, textured and gritty without playing it as a gimmick, there's a reason why Oklahoma Lottery was one of my favourite albums of 2014, edging out some stiff competition to snag my year end list.

So you can bet in a year full of standout women in country, Karen Jonas' newest record Country Songs was definitely on my radar. Again, I wasn't sure if it was going to be a big breakthrough for her - her sort of grassroots following can be tough to translate, even if she did look to be stepping in with a lighter touch for this album - but hell, I wasn't going to miss this. So in a banner year for country music, how did Country Songs turn out?

video review: 'sorceress' by opeth

I dunno what to say about this one, folks - I'm a little surprised how many people seemed to agree, given how much critical acclaim this record has received, but I guess more people were dissatisfied too...

Anyway, Karen Jonas and JoJo (for some reason) are next, so stay tuned!

album review: 'sorceress' by opeth

The last time I talked about Opeth, it got complicated. 

And it got complicated for reasons I find more than a little amusing, because for as much as I like progressive rock and metal, to say nothing of the production and mixing talents of multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer Steven Wilson, I found the overall blend of it with Opeth in progressive rock and metal to be a little less inspiring than I liked, especially when I dug into Heritage and the 2014 album I reviewed Pale Communion. Paradoxically, going back through Opeth's discography I found records like the progressive and blackened death metal - a genre of which I'm rarely a fan - of albums like Still Life, Blackwater Park, and the twin release of Deliverance and Damnation. As such, while I like Pale Communion I haven't gone back to it in the same way, especially not in comparison with Steven Wilson's amazing solo project Hand. Cannot. Erase. last year in 2015. Two great tastes that don't always work together, it happens - Steven Wilson did contribute to their more aggressive side on those early 2000s albums, maybe they should have stuck with that instead of going full retro-prog.

But it seems like Opeth themselves were looking to shift things up yet again. After four albums with Roadrunner Records, they left the label for Nuclear Blast for their newest album Sorceress, which looked to be infusing more of a metal flavour back into their material. More interestingly was the fact that Steven Wilson was nowhere near the production credits of the album, which hasn't been the case for Opeth in fifteen years. And as such, the critical reviews have suggested it's one of Opeth's best albums in years too, so I wanted to ensure I gave it full consideration... even if, again, it is a little late. So okay, what did we get with Sorceress?

video review: 'sit still, look pretty' by daya (ft. the lp club)

So this whole endeavor came together pretty quickly and pretty damn well, if I should say so myself. Definitely take the opportunity to check out Ethan's content over on The LP Club - he's a smart kid and way more articulate and informed about music than I was at his age - he brought solid game here, I'd love to see his channel grow.

On a different note, I'm still refining the Opeth review, but I also have Karen Jonas here as well, so stay tuned!

video review: 'oh my my' by onerepublic

Well, this was disappointing...but on some level, are you all really surprised this is only kind of mediocre and pretty far from great, more derivative than anyone could have expected?

You were? Yeah, so was I, so let's move on to an album nobody expected to be good and with a special guest along the way, so stay tuned!

album review: 'oh my my' by onerepublic

If you asked me if I liked OneRepublic, I'm not sure I could give you a straightforward answer.

And really, I should be able to at this point, because for a band as mainstream and accessible as OneRepublic, coming to a concrete opinion should not be as hard as it is... but it's hard to ignore how the band has evolved radically throughout the course of their decade-long career. They started in the tepid side of adult alternative, somehow finding ways to make Timbaland's production boring, and their second album was somehow even less tolerable. Hell, there was even a part of me around the turn of the decade that considered OneRepublic just a vanity project for frontman Ryan Tedder, especially as he had gotten far more traction as an in-demand producer, sort of like how Maroon 5 is effectively a vanity project for Adam Levine at this point. And in terms of sanitized pop rock, a Maroon 5 comparison is not unfair...

And then Native happened. Suddenly OneRepublic was back on the charts... but the songs didn't suck. I'm not too proud to admit that 'Counting Stars' was a pretty damn great track, and their follow-up 'Love Runs Out' might have been even better. More surprisingly it showed OneRepublic experimenting with different, rougher sounds and lyrics that aimed for more complex territory. Coupled with the fact that Tedder knew his way around a good hook and was willing to push his vocals a little harder, it was the first time I cared about OneRepublic, and I reckon I wasn't the only one.

But man, I had mixed feelings going into Oh My My - I didn't really like 'Wherever I Go', and despite Tedder promising to still have organic presence, all indications were that this was going to be another scattershot and messy pop album - one probably going long, too, clocking at around an hour. That said, Ryan Tedder had somehow roped in Santigold and Peter Gabriel of all people as guest stars, so Oh My My was bound to be somewhat interesting, right?

video review: 'the holographic principle' by epica

Well, this... not as good as The Quantum Enigma, and it'll probably miss my year-end list overall, but still a damn great record all the same, and definitely worth your time if you're curious.

Next up... well, might as well get OneRepublic out of the way, along with a little surprise... stay tuned!

album review: 'the holographic principle' by epica

So I don't tend to talk about critical trends that often - as I've said before, critics all have distinct opinions, and if they're expressed well, I can be understanding. But there is a trend, particularly among some metal critics, that I want to address: the critical dismissal of symphonic metal.

Oh, don't act like you haven't seen it, it can happen with power metal too. It's often considered too cheesy and melodramatic, or it's too poppy and accessible and doesn't try to be as complex as 'real' metal bands. Frankly, I'd like to say that we as metalheads have moved beyond this, but that's obviously not the case, and if Evanescence ever follows up with their threat to release another album, I'll explain why in greater detail there. And look, it's not like those stereotypes and criticisms can't have a vein of truth - I've heard acts like Delain, I totally get it - but it also sells short a crop of symphonic metal acts that actually have more ambition and power than are given credit.

So let's talk about one of the most perennially underrated bands in the genre: Epica. I'll admit that it took me a while to come around on this group - growing up Nightwish and Within Temptation were both more accessible, and Epica did take some time to refine solid melodic hooks, but they are one of the most lyrically ambitious bands in any genre that I've covered, tackling big idea material with the sort of insight and depth that deserves a lot more attention, easily as cerebral as most progressive metal bands can be. I still hold The Divine Conspiracy and Design Your Universe as fantastic records, but in 2014 Epica finally managed to hit a sweet spot with The Quantum Enigma, which had their best ever hooks and showed frontwoman Simone Simons finally bringing the dramatic presence to match it. It was also one of their most successful records, and given how they were describing their upcoming project as even bigger, it looked like Nuclear Blast had seen that success as a chance to give them an even meatier budget. And all the more promising was the thematic idea of exploring the universe as a digital hologram - okay, not the most unique theme to explore, but Epica was bound to go deep with this and potentially could reconnect with the human drama that ultimately felt a little slight on The Quantum Enigma. So okay, I was entirely on board with this as one of my most anticipated records of 2016, what did we get with The Holographic Principle?

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - october 22, 2016 (VIDEO)

Look, I don't need to say anything with this one beyond HOLY SHIT FALSE ALARM IS AWESOME and you all need to be listening it - okay, I'll stop.

On a different note, we've got Epica, Opeth, OneRepublic, and Daya on the way, so stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - october 22, 2016

So here's the other thing about the last weeks of a Billboard year - more than ever, it becomes a game of timing if you're looking to land a song on the year end list. Release the song early enough and it's no issue, but unless you've got a guaranteed smash hit heading for an inevitable #1, it might actually serve you better to release your songs a little later - keep in mind that most tracks will only ever stick around for twenty weeks on the charts, and the last thing you want is to release a track where midway through its lifespan the year shifts and you're only left with a portion of that time to rack up the accumulated sales, streaming, and airplay to get on the next year's list.

video review: 'revolution radio' by green day

Well, this happened. Overall, I really wish I could love this as much as Green Day's best, but at the end of the day it's only pretty good with an inspired closing track, and you don't get to the top on that alone.

Next up, though... man, so much metal and rock I want to cover. OneRepublic is going to wait a bit, let's hit either Epica, Joyce Manor, or Opeth first - stay tuned!

album review: 'revolution radio' by green day

And there were people who thought I wasn't going to review this.

In truth, I wasn't going to miss covering a new Green Day album for the world, even though I'd make the argument that I've got a complicated relationship with the band. Like most people of my age I gravitated to American Idiot in the mid-2000s, but as those of you know who saw my review with Jon over ARTV, the album that really won me over the band was 21st Century Breakdown, a gloriously rock opera that was scattershot lyrically and about the furthest thing from raw punk music, but was too damn catchy for me to resist and ultimately has aged a lot better than other Green Day records. And from there, I went backwards - I dug into the early 90s Green Day albums that set the stage, including the record Kerplunk which with its sharp songwriting and drop-tuned grooves probably remains my favourite of their early years. Their work throughout the mid-to-late 90s... I don't hate it by any stretch, but I definitely get why it took American Idiot to reignite the sharper creative spark, even though I did really love some of the weirder twists on Warning like 'Misery' - that album at least tried to tell more stories.

And then 2012 happened. Those of you who read my blog can go back to find the three reviews I wrote for Green Day's triple release in the fall of that year, but suffice to say it did not go well. I'll admit I wasn't exactly a great writer back then, but I also went back to revisit those records for the purpose of this review and that was a mistake. It's not that there weren't a few good songs scattered across, but the bad and especially the bland outweighed the good and it really should have been compressed into one great record instead of three mediocre to bad ones. But one of the most damning criticisms was that the trilogy made Green Day look and sound out-of-touch and disconnected, not with the youth that's always been their audience but the social and political issues now, that could have had ripe material for commentary.

So fast forward to 2016, Green Day have a new album... and look, when I got my copy early I almost didn't even want to cover it. In a year where so many pop punk bands have struggled for relevance, I'm not sure I could take Green Day screwing it up again, and they were significantly older. That said, given how absolutely turgid and unstable this year has been in terms of politics, they've got the most fruitful material since the Bush administration and I had to hope that they'd at least do something interesting with Revolution Radio... so did they pull it off?

video review: 'a seat at the table' by solange

I feel like this review shouldn't end up being controversial... but who knows, anything peripheral to Beyonce tends to make people flip their shit, so we'll see what happens. Still, thought-provoking album, and there really are some gems here.

Next up, though, something much more in my lane - stay tuned!

album review: 'a seat at the table' by solange

I wasn't planning on reviewing this album.

Part of this was my schedule - my stack of albums to cover over the next few weeks has reached a frankly staggering height, and there are records I've had to cross off my list purely out of necessity or delay until the very end of the year where I typically do some catch-up. And even then, there were going to be albums on which I was generally ambivalent or didn't show the sort of evolution to make a review worthwhile that I'd probably set aside.

And for the most part I was intending to do this for the newest record from Solange Knowles, the younger sister of Beyonce and an artist for whom I've been pretty lukewarm at best. Part of this is historical context: her debut album Solo Star in 2002 was a slice of underwhelming hip-hop-inspired R&B in an era where that was the norm, and when she followed it in 2008 with a generally tasteful retro-throwback record on Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams... well, it was definitely good, but it wasn't a record that I often felt inclined to revisit. It was pleasant enough, the lyrics were interesting, and I appreciated that Solange was generally making more subtle and listenable music than her sister was in the 2000s, but I was never gripped by it. I don't think she was helped by Janelle Monae coming in a few years later with a similar vocal style and yet more impressive production, writing, ideas, and charisma across the board. And from there... well, I didn't really hear much from her.

But it became very clear that just because I wasn't listening doesn't mean Solange wasn't working on projects, first with an EP cowritten with Dev Hynes in 2012, and now this, which has won over volumes of critical acclaim from some unexpected sources and spurred a tidal wave of requests. And hey, eight years is a pretty impressive distance between records and if this record was socially conscious and potent as suggested, it could make for a powerful listen. So I decided to check out A Seat At The Table - what did we get?

video review: 'clearview' by poets of the fall

...yeah, it's a good record, but man, I wish I liked this a lot more. Why couldn't they have just kept the production in house like every other time before, they could have saved this...

Eh, whatever. Next up, time to see what all the fuss is about surrounding Solange, so stay tuned!

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?