billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - january 27, 2018 (VIDEO)

My god, this was a messy week... and honestly, I think the thumbnail kind of captures that, admittedly not one of my best. 

Next up... hmm, it could be interesting, let's see!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - january 27, 2018

It feels weird when, for once, my predictions are actually mostly right on the money. Granted, they were pretty obvious predictions in who was going to #1 or was going to fall out of the top 10 or even some gains and loses - and if I were to say this week that both Drake songs are going to chart next week, that's not going to blow any minds - but still, it's an odd feeling, especially when there are songs coming up that look pretty damn promising!

video review: 'ruins' by first aid kit

So it looks like I'm going to be in the minority big time with this one just being lukewarm on it instead of more excited... eh, I wish I liked it more, I'll be very honest about that!

Anyway, next up is Billboard BREAKDOWN and who knows what sort of wackiness is to come after, so stay tuned!

album review: 'ruins' by first aid kit

Can you believe it's been four years since the last First Aid Kit album? Can you believe it's been a decade since they first gained a bit of virality with that Fleet Foxes cover on YouTube before becoming the sort of folk act that can move a truly surprising amount of units - seriously, the fact that Stay Gold moved around two hundred thousand copies in 2014 kind of blows my mind. And part of it is that First Aid Kit don't really seem to attract huge buzz, not quite blowing your mind but building real groundswell as they expand their sound.

And to be fair, it's not like the sisters duo went away - throughout the past several years they've been releasing covers and tributes and singles and touring extensively, bringing on another new drummer and even a keyboardist/trombone player for their backing band last year. Now this didn't surprise me much - given the sounds that are becoming more prevalent in the modern folk and alternative country scene, this could well be an interesting expansion, especially if they played more in country tones. What definitely caught more of my interest was a change in producers, swapping out Mike Mogis for Tucker Martine, who has worked with everyone from The Decemberists to Modest Mouse to Spoon to R.E.M. to even that case/lang/veirs project that was underrated by entirely too many people! So with a veteran further guiding the sound, coming off of Stay Gold - which going back to it now is really just as great as it was four years ago - I had high hopes for this - did Ruins live up to it?

video review: 'm a n i a' by fall out boy

Okay, let's be honest, you all expected this. I'm not sure you'll expect my final conclusions or how it's presented, but on a broad level, you could see this coming.

Eh, it happens. Next up, something better, so stay tuned!

album review: 'M A N I A' by fall out boy

We all knew this was coming. Ever since 'Young & Menace' was released failed to notch any real success, we all that sinking feeling of exactly what Fall Out Boy was going to do with this album, and when it was delayed from mid-September of last year to now...

Hell, let's put all of that aside and just consider Fall Out Boy's progression since they reunited. Going back to it Save Rock And Roll is a glorious mess and it definitely pushes its obnoxious middle finger to an audience that abandoned it, but the hooks and tunes were there, even if they threw away many of the pop rock tones that made them in the mid-2000s. But hell, they were doing that in 2008, and despite some truly questionable creative decisions, Fall Out Boy had a project that held together in concept and execution... something I can't say about American Beauty/American Psycho. And again, that's not a bad project either, but as I said when I reviewed it, it had the feel of a 'now what' record, a band successfully regaining their clout in the mainstream only to find no more mountains to climb, which led to even more slapdash production and writing as well as a continued infatuation with hip-hop on that mixtape Make America Psycho Again that doesn't make anyone sound good. Thankfully just enough of the rock edge was still there to keep the music mostly compelling, but just as so many acts have sacrificed that tone to remain relevant, I knew Fall Out Boy's turn would come - hell, they had been on the cusp for multiple projects now!

And with 'Young & Menace', I knew that moment had come: the sellout, where like Maroon 5 and Linkin Park before them their distinctive sound would be sacrificed for a chance of mainstream success... that didn't happen. Yeah, not going to lie, the failure of that song and Fall Out Boy returning to the studio gave me a bit of hope that maybe they had seen the precipice and had swiveled away in time. But I was also being realistic: we weren't going to get another PAX AM Days or even something close to what Andy Hurley is doing with Sect right now, it was going to a pop project with rock elements rather than the other way around. So with that in mind... is this salvageable?

video review: 'really nice guys' by ron gallo

Man, I'm so happy I got to cover this before (sigh) Fall Out Boy... and yeah, of course that's next on the docket. Stay tuned!

album review: 'really nice guys' by ron gallo

At this point of his career, you can tell Ron Gallo is simply enjoying the practice of screwing with our expectations - and boy, does he want you to know it. His last project HEAVY META was half targeted at the gentrified faux-hipster Gen-X and millennial crowd falling in line... and half-targeted at himself for being not far from that crowd himself. He's smart enough to earn his nasal obnoxiousness, but doesn't spare himself from the crosshairs with his dry sarcasm and some genuine fury lurking beneath - and when you factor in he's pairing it with some of the best garage rock in recent years, it should be no surprise at all he wound up on multiple year-end lists from me.

And so when I hear he put out an EP called Really Nice Guys, you know deep down he's going to be taking the piss out of that archetype and sound amazing doing it, stripping out the gratuitous moments that might have dragged on HEAVY META for something ruthlessly effective - so yeah, of course I was going to cover this as soon as I could, especially if it was to be a quick listen. So how was it?

video review: 'blue madonna' by BØRNS

Well, this should be way better than it is... gah, it happens, I guess, but still, I'm not sure that Lana influence is doing him any favours.

Fortunately, the next act uses all his momentum to fantastic effect even if the project is short, so stay tuned!

album review: 'blue madonna' by BØRNS

The more I think about BØRNS as an artist, the more I get the impression there is less to think about than I'm assuming, that he's actually less interesting than he might appear. 

Granted, some of this is not helped by me covering his debut Dopamine a full year after it was released for my anniversary in 2016, where he felt all the more out of place in the larger context of the year. But even with that there's a part of me suspicious that the image and flair was more compelling that BØRNS himself would ever be, considering he didn't quite play to his strengths as a singer and he had a bad tendency to indulge in production gimmicks and lyrics that felt increasingly hollow in their hyperstylized Americana, especially considering there was often a rock-solid glam and pop rock core to many of his compositions. It was a good project, but it's not one I found all that memorable just a year and a half later.

And thus I was skeptical about Blue Madonna - I drew comparisons to him sounding a little in his delivery and content and production like Lana Del Rey, and look who has two guest appearances on this project! And when you consider he pruned away all other producers and cowriters besides Tommy English, it was hard to avoid the feeling he might be doubling down on influences that didn't always flatter him, but could result in a more focused experience overall. And hey, Lana Del Rey has steadily been getting more tolerable, maybe this would be pretty stylish or fun, right?

video review: 'offerings' by typhoon

So I'm not making any fans with this review... but then again, I said that right at the very beginning, I'm not surprised here.

Right, so next up is BØRNS, and that'll be coming tomorrow... then probably some quick Ron Gallo as I start work on the next top ten, so stay tuned!

album review: 'offerings' by typhoon

Oh, I'm not going to make any fans with this review. 

And part of this starts with an observation about the increased commercialization of indie rock, because there's really two distinct schools of it nowadays. You have the roughscrabble upstarts where if they get any crossover appeal it comes by fluke, where the textures or vocals or presentation or content might be offkilter or abrasive, but there's something about it all that sticks, usually in the fine details of great compositions or smart writing or just a damn solid understand of their strengths.

And on the flip side you have the indie groups that are flagged as 'indie' because they're just quirky enough to not fit mainstream pop or rock but safe enough to play for your average gentrified afternoon beer-run and picnic in the park. You know the groups, the ones that a decade ago would be called adult alternative and will be soundtracking comfortable middle-brow sitcoms and commercials for a steady paycheque - and that's not always a bad thing, for the record. Hell, I'd probably put The National in this category, and they're a genuinely terrific band even despite that last record - but I always get worried when I start hearing about groups in this vein branded as 'experimental' or 'progressive', because more often than not they're labels used for cheap marketing to disguise pretentiousness or a lack of cohesion while never being truly challenging. And even then, it can still work - look at Elbow, even though I'd argue they're more just straight progressive rock - but on the flip side you get acts like alt-J, and the group we're discussing today, Typhoon. They broke out in the very early 2010s and I can emphatically say I'm not a fan, mostly because they have the sound of a profoundly boring and stuffy group that tried to substitute wonky song structures for depth and experimentation. Some critics tried to compare them to Arcade Fire for their massive lineup - they have a horns and strings section - but it holds shockingly little water to me, mostly because even at Arcade Fire's most pretentious and least earnest they could still write a decent hook or had some interesting production. With Typhoon it always felt way too clean and sanitized, with the content on records like White Lighter trying to bring an edge but with no clear idea how to do so in production or composition - out of nowhere tempo shifts and transitions don't always make you progressive; without a foundation, you're just obtuse.

So yeah, not a fan, but apparently their newest record was their most ominous and sonically demanding, so either someone in the band decided to grow some testicles or a spine and they had somehow managed to stick the landing on this fourteen track, seventy minute album, or it was going to be the biggest mess they ever made. So, what did we get?

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - january 20, 2018 (VIDEO)

So for as short as this is, it actually wound up going up pretty late... hey, what I can say, I was busy.

But not enough that something might be dropping early this evening, so stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - january 20, 2018

I feel like this week is close to the flip side of the coin to the last - and I'm honestly not sure if that's better overall. Where last week the Top 10 was fairly static with a huge amount of upward movement and no significant losses - with a relatively small number of new arrivals - this week the top ten saw major disruption, the gains were pretty modest, and the losses and dropouts were quite significant... all with a relatively small number of new arrivals. Now, whether this makes this week better remains to be seen, but I'd argue it does seem to be a return to form, and thus is a little more interesting overall.

movie review: 'paddington 2' (VIDEO)

Well, this was a sweet little movie... and I think the last post for tonight. I need a little more time to finish editing for Typhoon, so thus Billboard BREAKDOWN is likely up next - stay tuned!

video review: 'encore' by anderson east

And here's the first video of the night... man, I wish I liked this a bit more. It happens, and it's still a damn good project too.

Next up, a movie review - stay tuned!

album review: 'encore' by anderson east

There's a part of me that thinks it's a little ironic that only days after releasing my top ten best hit songs of 1967 I'm now talking about Anderson East in 2018, and if you saw that list and my lengthy discussion surrounding white people cribbing from black music, you might see why.

Granted, the conversation about this brand of R&B and blue-eyed soul is complicated and has been for decades, with some highlighting it as conducive to cooperation while others consider it cultural appropriation, that dread phrase that's bound to make my comment section just a joy to behold. Of course, with blue-eyed soul you could make the argument it's more about cultural exchange and there's a certain code that should be understood by the artist: if you're going to use that sound, understand the history, bring respect, help to elevate those who pioneered the sound as much as you can, and you better not suck. And thankfully Anderson East seems to get this: his breakthrough came in 2015 with the album Delilah, produced by Dave Cobb and even partially recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, which made sense for the hardscrabble blend of Americana and southern soul he was making. Of course, you all might know him better for two things: one, he's currently dating Miranda Lambert and showed up on her 2016 project The Weight Of These Wings, and two, he was also on one of the most fiery tracks on Southern Family, the Dave Cobb-produced compilation that was one of two records I've ever given a perfect 10 on my channel. Suffice to say with his release this year the expectations were high, and considering how good the critical buzz was, they had every reason to be. So, with the hope that we can redeem this album title from Eminem's critically reviled 2004 record, what did we get with Encore?

video review: 'camila' by camila cabello

Well, this was inconsistent... and disappointing. But really, I'm not all that surprised...

Beyond that, next up is Billboard BREAKDOWN, Anderson East, and hopefully Paddington 2 soon, so stay tuned!

album review: 'camila' by camila cabello

So there's an unspoken and kind of uncomfortable truth about a lot of pop music: while it helps to have talent, if you're in the right place at the right time with the right people, it doesn't matter if you do or not, you're going to find success. Hell, on average you'll probably get even more famous than folks who have talent but are lacking in either the place, timing, or people department - and thus on that note, Camila Cabello.

Okay, that's really mean, I admit it - but there's also always been some truth to it and not just about her - hell, more than I think a lot of people want to admit. I remember both of my Fifth Harmony reviews when Camila was with the group and she was always the weakest link, both as a singer and an interesting pop personality, and when she left I thought Fifth Harmony got better on their self-titled release - and yeah, I realize I'm pretty much the only one who thought that, but I stand by it. And when Camila Cabello started releasing singles and collaborations, I was fully expecting her to flame out like other girl group acts going solo - I'm not too young to forget Nicole Scherzinger and what happened to the Pussycat Dolls. 

But then 'Havana' happened - and I remember what I said when I reviewed the song on Billboard BREAKDOWN, it was the first time I actually had a hope that Camila could release something worthwhile... but when you have nine cowriters including Pharrell, you can almost hear the pop machinery muscling this into becoming a hit - as much as people don't want to admit it, the system can still do that. And thus it was only a matter of time before we got a new album - short enough that it probably didn't cost too much, even though it's not like Syco spends money on producers anyway, but also released in mid-January when there's literally no competition and if it flops they could cut their losses. Now if you can't tell, I was not expecting to like this, especially coming with the forgettable follow-up single 'Never Be The Same' - but hey, 'Havana' was a good surprise, this could be too, right?

the top ten best hit songs of 1967 (VIDEO)

Ooh wow, this was a ton of work (and I'm a little annoyed so many of the transitions fucked up, GAH), but I'm still pretty proud of it all the same.

Okay, next up, back to something from this year - stay tuned!