video review: 'a brief inquiry into online relationships' by the 1975

Well, this got the backlash I was expecting... eh, it happens.

Next up... well, one more post first...

album review: 'a brief inquiry into online relationships' by the 1975

You know, it's a common trope among movie critics that most sequences involving computer hacking tend to suck, because not only do most filmmakers not know anything about hacking in the real world, you're trying to add tension and gravitas to what is, for the most part, just people writing code and running scripts. And while I'm fairly certain other music critics have made a similar comparison, I want to drill into one particular point: I'm really goddamn sick of artists making songs and albums talking about social media. Yes, it can be a toxic waste dump of bad opinions, spam, stupidity and let's not forget the Nazis, but as a whole I still view social media as, if not a net positive, a powerful force in the modern age to be used for good or ill, and as a tool it doesn't make for good subject matter if the person beneath it isn't interesting or compelling. 

Granted, I'm also coming at this from a technical background and a higher-than-usual level of impulse control when I'm not making hot takes or livetweeting from the metal bar or karaoke, but I think my point stands in being able to shine a light upon a worldwide community with the possibility to give a megaphone to anyone - and like any other tool or mode of communication or entertainment, it has its limits and failings and the potential to bring out the worst in people. So while I'm not surprised artists like to target social media in their technological dystopia themes, I rarely see a level of realistic insight that doesn't feel short-sighted or hectoring or technophobic in a really crass way, especially when said acts are going to turn around and use said social media for promotion for their next project. And thus I think I can be forgiven for being skeptical of the newest album from The 1975, with the loaded title of A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships - not only did I hear whatever remaining rock element had been sanded away, I heard it was taking some thematic leaps into this territory. So in other words, I didn't have high expectations whatsoever, so what did we get with this?

video review: 'some rap songs' by earl sweatshirt

Well, this was... tough to talk about. And since I'm not lavishing it with praise I expect there to be backlash, but whatever, I can handle that.

Next up, though... The 1975 - stay tuned!

album review: 'some rap songs' by earl sweatshirt

So I've always struggled a bit with how to properly evaluate Earl Sweatshirt - or indeed, how much I can call myself a fan. Don't get me wrong, I've scored both of his albums thus far highly, I think he's a great rapper with a powerful knack of distilling complex ideas down to aggressively concise ideas and he has a knack for honest introspection that rarely gets the credit it deserves, especially given his origin within Odd Future... but I'd struggle to say that I've revisited much of his work outside of a few songs, and his very limited presence in the hip-hop world at large always gives me the odd feeling I could be hearing much more from him... and yet I don't. 

And thus it was with a little trepidation I was approaching Some Rap Songs - his first album in over three years and his shortest to date, clocking under a half hour, it nevertheless has already gotten a reputation for being a pretty dense and experimental listen at that length. And... honestly, I wasn't sure how to take that, as wild experimentation in tone and production hasn't really been a thing for Earl - he's favoured dusty, stripped back, usually very dark beats so I didn't really have a gauge for where he'd take this. I did know he had lost his father and a close family friend who he considered his uncle earlier this year and Earl has always had a complicated relationship with his family, so I expected that subtext to loom pretty heavily, so what did we get with Some Rap Songs?

video review: 'what is love?' by clean bandit

Overall a little surprised I had enough to say about this thing... but hey, it happens?

Okay, Earl is up next - stay tuned!

album review: 'what is love?' by clean bandit

So this is the sort of review that I have no idea why I'm making - well, at least beyond the most cynical of responses, which is that Clean Bandit have several songs that have attracted a lot of attention and this'll likely wind up getting traffic for relatively little effort on my part.

But is that a fair assessment, especially given how many singles worldwide Clean Bandit have notched with a more distinctive blend of tropical elements, classical strings, and grooves that don't feel beholden to overweight trap percussion? Well, yes and no - I'll admit I've never really loved a Clean Bandit song - they have a weirdly pristine but fussy nature that can come across as oversanitized and underwritten, and I include 'Rather Be' in that category - but I wouldn't say I dislike them either. Yeah, the personality of any given song is more dependent on their guest stars and to expect a cohesive album is a crapshoot, and it's hard not to feel like a lot of their music is custom-designed for department stores trying to sound hip... but they can land some good melodies and while their first album didn't impress me at all, maybe their follow-up would be okay... even if it feels like I've already heard a significant chunk of it. Yeah, that's the other thing about reviewing an electronic project like this, the albums feel more like singles compilations - but hey, that's normally the formula for great pop albums so I'm not going to hold it against Clean Bandit here, so what did we get on What Is Love?

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - december 8, 2018 (VIDEO)

So hmm, I'm not sure this'll get all the way past the copyright bullshit, but this is a new tactic I'm trying, we'll see how it goes - enjoy!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - december 8, 2018

So I've talked before about deceptive weeks on the Hot 100, where there seems to be a lot of activity at first glimpse before a closer look reveals a more stable week - and I think if that assessment is appropriate for this week, it's entirely coincidental, a culmination of three stories that all seem to either cancel each other's impact or will be rendered irrelevant by the next week. Somehow this also wound up giving me a second shorter week, so I'm not complaining, but it's still worth pointing out.

video review: 'the pains of growing' by alessia cara

So yeah, I really wish that I could like this more. I mean, it's not bad by any stretch and I'm still rooting for Alessia Cara, but man, this should be better.

Next up... honestly, not sure, but I've got Billboard BREAKDOWN next, so stay tuned!

album review: 'the pains of growing' by alessia cara

I can't help but find it a bit strange that going into this review, I was rooting for Alessia Cara.

And let me make this clear, I've been at least trying to be on her side since 2015 and the influx of Lorde-wannabes in which she came up - I'd certainly prefer her to Halsey or Daya, that's for damn sure. But Alessia Cara's success has frustrated me, because as much as I liked her breakthrough single 'Here' and her follow-up 'Wild Things', I had the sinking feeling that given the success of 'Scars To Your Beautiful' and her feature on Logic's suicide hotline song, that would be the direction Def Jam would shove her in. Yes, she had won the Grammy for Best New Artist off those singles, but that award can be the kiss of death for a lot of new acts, and poor management has destroyed more promising pop artists than bad albums. 

And I can't stress how much I didn't want that to happen, because I've always been convinced that Alessia Cara was a more interesting and vibrant personality and songwriter than just churning out self-esteem anthem pablum, and given how rushed Know-It-All felt, I had to hope that her follow-up would show more refinement, especially as her competition had gotten stiffer with Lorde's resurgence and the striking rise of Billie Eilish. Yeah, I'd still prefer to listen to Alessia Cara than Camila Cabello or Halsey or especially Bebe Rexha, but this project had to stick the landing. And by all accounts it could - Alessia Cara had taken a much bigger writing and production role with her sophomore album with no guest stars, and major labels don't tend to offer that freedom unless they've got faith in the release... or are looking to cut their losses by keeping the team and budget as small as possible. And I didn't think it was the latter case here - Know-It-All had moved a lot of units on the back of Alessia Cara's writing - but I was cautious about The Pains Of Growing, so what did we get?

resonators 2018 - episode #011 - 'earth a.d./wolfs blood' by misfits (VIDEO)

Nearly forgot to post this - but yeah, bit of a frustrating review to put together for Resonators. Eh, it happens.

Next up, time to catch up on a slow weekend where I wasn't doing much - stay tuned!

resonators 2018 - episode #011 - 'earth a.d./wolfs blood' by misfits

So in my loosely sketched out plans for this show, I was planning on covering this last month. I figured it would fit: the band many people attribute to the breakout of horror punk with a video set for around Halloween, that's almost too easy. But my plans went awry when you all wanted me to cover Husker Du and fair enough, I totally get why, but I still hoped that I'd get a chance to discuss this band in particular, especially as we're dealing with two very unique facets: not only were they band that broke horror punk, but they're also an example of a band that started in more traditional punk rock before shifting into hardcore... which wasn't really common. Normally it was the other way around, with hardcore punk bands expanding or shifting their sound either towards crossover thrash, punk rock, post-punk, or just outright alternative.

But this band was different - in the late 70s in exchange for a trademark with Mercury Records they got enough studio time to hammer out an album that wouldn't see release until the 90s, and like most punk bands around the turn of the decade they saw most of their success off of singles. But they built notoriety in the scene for an increasingly exaggerated and macabre image, along with a reputation for criminal antics and a rotating cast list of members. By 1982 they had managed to push out a proper debut that won some acclaim for solid melodies and a distinctive, schlock-horror theme in their songwriting, but the band was in mid-collapse even then and the frontman Glenn Danzig had confided in his friend and frontman of Black Flag Henry Rollins that he was planning on quitting himself. By 1983, Danzig was even including songs he was intending for a future band on the sophomore project just to push the album through to completion... and it wouldn't be enough. The band would break up two months before this album's release after a disastrous Halloween show and would not reform in any capacity until the late 90s, leaving behind what some have deemed a hardcore punk classic. That's right folk, we're talking about Earth A.D./Wolfs Blood by the Misfits, and this is Resonators!

trailing edge - episode #011 - november 2018 (VIDEO)

Man, this series always takes so long to put together... still pretty pleased with how it came out, even despite that minor edit in the video and the goddamn copyright claim. Resonators is up next, so stay tuned!

video review: 'dicaprio 2' by j.i.d.

I honestly did not expect to have this review ready to go for tonight... but it came together faster than I expected, which was nice to see. 

Next up, Resonators/Trailing Edge - stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - december 1, 2018 (VIDEO)

So yeah, still fighting some copyright nonsense with this one, but one of the claims was released so I've got a hope that it reflects well going forward. Beyond that...

Well, J.I.D is out and I'll probably get Resonators and the Trailing Edge out soon, so stay tuned!

album review: 'dicaprio 2' by j.i.d.

I think my reaction to J.I.D. was pretty much the same as just about anyone who stumbled across him on hype alone, beginning with, 'okay, his voice is a little weird and pitchy but man he can flow', followed by 'my god, this guy's debut is seriously good', and of course followed by 'holy shit, J. Cole signed somebody to Dreamville who doesn't sound like him - and is actually quality!'

I kid - somewhat - but seriously, J.I.D. came right the hell out of nowhere for me and a lot of other people, and one of my biggest mistakes in 2017 was not reviewing his debut album The Never Story, mostly because it was a really damn good album but also because he's the sort of Atlanta rapper I don't feel gets enough attention - lyrical, but unconventional and offkilter in a way that reminded me of some of the old Dungeon Family crew, along with a fair bit of Lil Wayne, Kendrick, and Anderson .Paak. Now there were some moments that didn't quite click as strongly as I'd like from that debut, but given that the buzz for DiCaprio 2 was pretty high - a sequel to his breakthrough EP and following a string of pretty impressive guest verses, especially with Denzel Curry - I really was excited about this. So, what did we get from DiCaprio 2?

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - december 1, 2018

And so begins the fifth season of Billboard BREAKDOWN, the fifth year that I've been making this weekly show and what many folks have outright told me is the biggest draw to this channel. And you know, deep down there's a part of me that does have optimism for the future and the rough hope that things will improve in 2019, following off a particularly rough year in 2018 that may not have been as bad as 2016, but it certainly feels close. And yet if this week is any omen for what's to come... well, we'll get to it.

video review: 'cease the day' by in the woods...

So here we go... yeah, kind of disappointing with this one, but it happens, I guess?

Next up, new season of Billboard BREAKDOWN, and hopefully it'll be something interesting in the next week, so stay tuned!

album review: 'cease the day' by in the woods...

So it seems like for the past three or so years I've reached the end of the year to discover I haven't covered as much black metal as I'd like to, and in 2016 I was relatively enthused to discover that the 90s atmospheric black metal group In The Woods... had reformed with a new vocalist and a new album Pure that year. I was a little bit less enthused to discover while listening to the album that Pure wasn't exactly a straightforward black metal album by any stretch. If anything it felt like a bait-and-switch - I remembered the huge melodic swells of Omnio and I had high expectations... only to get a project that was just as melodic, but also way more contemplative, clean, and owing more to both progressive metal and doom metal along the way. And here's the thing: in comparison to a lot of fan response I'd seen, I was a lot more positive on it than most, as I thought the writing put in a lot of heavy lifting and the melodies were as strong as ever - even as somebody who isn't really into doom metal or its offshoots, In The Woods... clicked for me.

So fast forward to now, I still have the feeling I haven't covered enough black metal, and out of nowhere I discovered In The Woods... was putting out another project! Seriously, I put this on the schedule myself, and I was excited for this: from the track listing it seemed more streamlined, reportedly they had increased the tempos and brought back more of the black metal elements with even some death metal touches... yeah, I had every reason to believe this could be great, so what did we get from Cease The Day?

video review: 'caution' by mariah carey

Okay, so this was better than I was expecting, I dug this! Glad I got a chance to cover it... and I already know the Mariah Carey stans will tear it apart, but such is the world.

Next up... hmm, not sure, schedule looks pretty flexible, we'll see!