Explanation
Ask the average member of my social circles and you'll be told music is my entire personality. I am obsessed with it it's my favorite it's my whole life I love it. I have for some time been keeping a list of albums I wanna listen to which I notoriously overstuff (seriously I'll have my content for the year set by February) but I don't mind that because it keeps me going back to all corners of my music taste. This page will be all about narrating my impressions of that journey of music discovery
Album count 2021: 58
Album count 2022: 110
Album count 2023: 82
Album count 2024: 3 and counting
Slut Pop Miami - Kim Petras
I got dragged into this one by the sheer force of morbid curiosity. The original Slut Pop absolutely fascinated me, it seemed like the first Kim Petras was presented with no filter to the Kim Petras brand. It was incredible in its commitment to being completely tasteless. Underscoring it all was a surprising commitment to proper house music from the elephant in the room, Dr Luke. Lukasz Gottwald is a scumbag and it is questionable that I'm discuss his work but the thing is he is such a deeply ingrained presence in 21st pop music I don't think anyone who actually cares enough to condemn Kim Petras has Dr Luke, Kemosabe Records and Prescription Songs fully purged from their music listening habits, and I don't care for moral differences between Kim Petras and Doja Cat seen as he gets paid either way. That said, his presence is particularly felt here. Slut Pop was a true collaboration. The instrumentals were tightly produced and Kim Petras was giving you the most Kim Petras possible on top of them. Slut Pop Miami is more a house album than an album by a popstar. I'm not an audio engineer so I'm going off of vibes here but I think Petras' voice is mixed to be flully blended with the instrumental rather than on top of it. The original album was also committed to letting her self aggrandize, while this one has her cranking the valley girl thing up to 11 to deliver collections of one liners rather than verses. She doesn't come across as the artist the album is credited to so much as a plug in on a DJ's setup. Mind you, it's a good DJ set. Slut Pop Miami seems even more committed to the glory of house music past, but it delivers that by way of the idea of Kim Petras rather than the real thing. Kim Petras's approach to being a female American popstar is colored by the fact that she is both trans and German, meaning she is as precise as she is because she approaches her schtick kinda from the outside. It's hard to really have thoughts about this record besides 'I regret to inform you that it's kinda good' so I'll just leave with this: I'm convinced Kim Petras' is Dr Luke's passion project. I mean originally he continued to have a career after Kesha due to being good at his job, but now his work with Nicki and Latto has been crap, Doja Cat alleges he has credits on stuff he didn't work, and yet Kim Petras' sluttiest album get cohesive consistent production. You can make it a crappy thing where this sex offender is just getting his vision out through the cartooniest version of a woman available to him but I'm not gonna go that far, I just think for some unknown reason he's go all out for Petras like Nile Rodgers did for Madonna. Weird stuff
02-03-2024
14:39
Hounds of Love - Kate Bush
For all my love of Björk you'd think I'd have listened to a Kate Bush album by now. This one is a great place to start too, not only because it has the song that has probably made her a one-hit-wonder in the minds of a bunch of people younger than me but because it's a two for one deal. 5 songs of mainstream friendly pop (the actual Hounds of Love), and a 7 song conceptual piece about a woman drowning (this part is called The Ninth Wave). The Hounds of Love is a glimpse at a world where Kate Bush cared about having pop hits, and in that world I assure you she was bigger than Madonna. It might be the most timeless, perfectly executed version of 80s pop I've ever heard. It reminded me of certain video game soundtracks, in that its visionary use of synths leaves you wondering whether this is an enthusiasm use of them or a different kind of masterpiece limited by the technology of its time. "Running Up That Hill" is a masterpiece for the ages with its romanticist drama, but the rest deserves just as much love. Madonna was excellent, but she went all of the 80s without achieving a bassline and upbeat performance combo quite like the "The Big Sky". This is gonna sound insulting, but I think the way "Hounds of Love" the song has a sense of grandeur and an abandon to the performance that makes the song feel like it just becomes 'more' the further it goes makes this song hit for me the way "Out Of The Woods" by Taylor Swift hits for other people. "Cloudbusting" is perfect in every way so let me just highlight that the way Kate Bush sings 'but every time it rains' seems to be made to stick in my head specifically. "Mother Stands For Comfort" impressed me most with how modern it sounds. It sounds like one of those chronically online masterpieces that you find once in a blue moon. As for The Ninth Wave my single main thought throughout was "Oh. So that's where Ethel Cain gets it from". Mind you I liked Ethel Cain's album but haven't done much revisiting because it was too slow burn for my taste. The Ninth Wave is also a slow burn compared to the Hounds of Love half, but it just has so much subtance to it. The heaviness is more urgent, the grief more stressed. Mind you that's not to say Preacher's Daughter lethargy and agony isn't poignant, but Kate Bush captures me a lot more by the power of theatrics. Her use of vocals effects is also very daring in a way you don't expect from such a pop adjacent 80s album. Its bold choices (and an excellent remastering in 2018 that translates the vision perfectly) mean this album will often sound like it was released yesterday. It really sounds like essential listening for all sorts of music audiences. Oh and shoutout to the bagpipe bit on "Jig Of Life". Kate Bush really can pull off anything
30-01-2024
19:36
Homogenic - Björk
Yk, Björk is the kind of artist whose greatness you can take for granted. Yes she makes refreshing, transformative work, it's what she does, so what. Björk's genius, like the miracle that is the atmosphere, is just a fact of life. Homogenic is something different though. It's a different kind of great. It's the kind of great music that feels like it has existed and been revered since before the oldest surviving memory. It has an aura like that of classical music. It sounds like great music that just need to exist. I recall reading the Pitchfork review of Vespertine and it made that album out to be a dissappointing follow up to Homogenic. While my love for Vespertine will never fade, I can see how one comes to that. That album is intimate and uses simple sounds, whereas this is the most grandiose Björk would ever sound. Both albums suffer from the same 'issue' though: They are very front looaded. By which I mean the initial track run is an out of body experience that belongs in the pantheon of the greatest music ever made in human history and the rest is 'just' excellent. That run from "Hunter" to "Bachelorette" was something I didn't know was possible. Honestly good luck to the music I listen to for the rest of the year in its endeavor to beat this
11-01-2024
20:54
Debut - Björk
I'm noticing I tend to have more to say about shitty/bleh music that great music, so I don't expect this entry to be as long as the last one. It is a timely one too. Recently Björk released a charity single for the protection of salmon in Iceland. It's called "Oral" and it features Rosalia. Now I knew the degrees of separation between those two were low because they were both on KiCk I, but their songs there were notably quite out there in that so when I heard they were coming together I expected something that sounded like nothing I'd ever heard before. Instead the song ended up being an inventive, fun blend of dancehall and electronica that surpassed all pop reggaeton I've ever heard. I love that song, and I bring it up because it provoked a similar sentiment to Björk's Debut. The first Björk album I ever heard was Post and I also got to follow up close when Fossora was released, so I became used to expecting Björk's work to have nothing to do with anything else. I guess that sort of lead me to take that inventive nature of her work granted. Debut though? That is a dance album in the most recognizable sense of it. What you're hearing here is the least respectable genre of music of its time. And it is GLORIOUS. Those weird drumbs on "Human Behaviour", the reggae (of all things) vibes on "Venus As A Boy", the bajillion hooks on "One Day", all of it is pop, all of it is dance, and yet it is twised in a way that shows a new version of what those genres can be. Björk really created something memorable here, it's the kind of album that expands your understanding of music, but also I wanna see vogue routines to "Big Time Sensuality" and "Violently Happy"
16-12-2023
16:37
Angel Face - Stephen Sanchez
TikTok and on the nose pastiches are the cornerstone of the music industry rn. Enter Stephen Sanchez. I listened to some fragments of his first album and all I saw was a generic and dull corporate singer-songwriter who would end up soundtracking a very forgettable CW show some day. He was a songwriter though. Most of the songs only credited him as a songwriter. One of those songs however, was called "Until I Found You". It's a good song. A pastiche we had yet to see much of: blue-eyed soul. He did it very well too. It became a TikTok edits staple for a bit, got a remix with a TikTok girl (Em Beihold, of "Numb Little Girl" fame), a music video with TikTok's biggest Marilyn Monroe impersonator, all this done over time along with a radio push got this absolute nobody a #23 hit. Nothing major, no Olivia Rodrigo, but he had the best and worst thing an artist could have: a gimmick. He had one hit with a very distinctive characteristic, and chasing after it would either make him a trendsetter or an embarrassingly by the books one-hit-wonder. Whether him or the label made the decision we'll never know, but I do know this: This album's average amount of songwriters per song went from one to three, so clearly he couldn't make 13 tracks of "Until I Found Her" on his own. And did it work for him in the end? Nope. Lol. Absolutely the fuck not. That album made no noise whatsofuckingever. His one hit clutched a nice little year-end hot 100 spot (though this year's list is notoriously inaccurate on account of how early it was released) but he has nothing more to his name. I chose not to ignore him though, cuz if Carly Rae Jepsen and The Neighborhood have shown us anything it's that sometimes there's a lot of great stuff hiding behind a one-hit-wonder. So how did Angel Face turn out? Honestly, good. A very well executed recreation of a 50s sound that hasn't really seen the light of day again since its heyday. It would be easy to just call Stephen Sanchez an Elvis impersonator, but his vocal style is very his own, so in the very least his end goal is to sound like a unique generic 50s star. I'd say he sounds like he's sincere about this, but "Shake" makes me bring that into question. This album is not presented ironically, and this party time 50s jazz-blues is played straight and quite well, but of all 50s styles this is the one that has aged into the most corny legacy, so does he actually like this or is he just that trapped by the gimmick. Adding to that, "High" has 50s hints on its guitar and twinkling piano, but it's really just an indie-rock song if you don't play it with the rest of the album. Mind you, a pretty good one, but is this a creative decision to expand the sound of the album or someone desperately trying to sneak out of the gimmick they cornered themselves into? Can't really tell you, the album goes right back to the 50s shit after this middle blip. "No One Knows" with Laufey does seem to somewhat stretch the definition of that but it does so little it's hard to claim it is or isn't anything. The last bits of the album skew more country, and once again I'm left wondering how genuine he is about this when he goes for a full on Westener soundtrack tune on "Death Of The Troubadour". Again, it's done well, but is this really your artistic expression? The closer is a more stripped back slow-dance 50s tune, so back to chasing that first hit ig. This album is through and through solid, not one sloppy bit in sight. I looked on Twitter and the few, hardly engaged with mentions of this guy often talk about his concerts being very good. The album shows it too he works excellently with his voice. Unfortunately he sounds more like a guy that's really good at his job than a real artist, so unless he manages to make his gimmick into a trend I don't see a future with hits for him. I hope he continues playing small venues for niche but kind crowds forever though. He is truly skilled
16-12-2023
13:36
STARFUCKER - Slayyyter
Quite some time back, when I wrote about Slayyyter's self titled album, I said its Barbieness was unfocused and that it wasn't polished. This is... different. It's not the Barbiecore magnum opus I was calling for on the last Slayyyter post. She hasn't lost the chronically online nature of her work entirely, but the amateurish looseness is certainly gone for better or worse. This album seems about as concerned with The Fame as it is concerned with fame. That's another change. Her flavor of fashion has switched from bimbo to heroin chic (she calls herself that). Her whole imagery has traded pink for red, plastic for silk and velvet, Barbie dream house for Chateau Marmont. It takes itself more seriously overall, even when it's being camp. Camp is still her best mode though, which is why "I Love Hollywood" is my favorite song on here. The seriouness does mean the production is slicker. These are songs that could work both on the club and on the radio. Obviously she's still a big time provocateur, see the videos in latex fetish gear and/or straight up nothing. That said there are moments like "My Body" and "Memories Of You" where she tones it down or even gets vulnerable that show Slayyyter could work fine as a mainstream hitmaker. The sad thing is that this more carefully executed version of Slayyyter sometimes can some times lack an element for you to hold on to and then you end up with competent filler like "Rhinestone Heart". I haven't given up on her though, as songs like "Erotic Electronic" shows if Kim Petras won't give us Slut Pop pt. 2 we can count on Slayyyter to indulge one's need for musical excess. In the end though... it's not a masterpiece. It's like The Fame yes, but without the world changing hits. The best songs in STARFUCKER would be B-tier on The Fame. Good material but not the kind that makes an icon. Too many songs without a hook I can come back to again and again. It's a good record but dammit, I want Slayyyter to be even better than this. I know she can do better than a thoroughly competent 6.8/10. Time will tell I guess. I know I'll be seated for her next release.
24-11-2023
23:04
The Record - Boygenius
So after a good month getting my bearings and going through a thing or two I'm launching an earnest bid to get this blog going again. Thankfully the stuff that got on my way from updating this blog soon enough stopped me from listening to new albums so I'm not as far behind as one would expect. And what an item to restart with. Boygenius is the supergroup for a generation. From the cover of their debut EP they very intentionally presented themselves as modern feminine heirs to Crosby, Stills & Nash, much like the Highwomen and the Highwaymen. Now, cards, on the table, as of right now I know exactly two CSN songs and am really not well equipped to evaluate their connection to Boygenius (I'll fix that soon enough). I do know a different trio of songwriters I can very much recognize in them though. Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie (RIP) made excellent Fleetwood Mac albums because their styles didn't clash nor were they samey, meaning their work together felt very complete. In much the same way, the sharpness of Julien Baker, the melancholy of Phoebe Bridgers and the sentimentalism of Lucy Dacus make for an experience that captures the fullness of indie rock beautifully. Their songs are through and through human, lived in, vulnerable, sincere. Every generation refuses to learn and one day people will be saying "back when music was good" about today, and when that happens this album will be one people point to. I'm not gonna name specifics because every song here hits and this album does not drag for a single second. Melodies for days, poetry for days, hooks for days. Truly a record to remember. Recently announced to be up for a metric fuckton of Grammys, hoping they go the distance
21-11-2023
21:36
Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd - Lana Del Rey
Lana Del Rey is one of those artists that reminds me that there's more good music out there than I have the time or the brain capacity for. As my music taste develops checking out her catalogue becomes more and more something I probably should do, but I've so far not really bothered. I have checked an album of hers out, yes, but Norman Fucking Rockwell was an album that broke the Lana stan containment and was enjoyed by many people who never cared for her, so my love of it didn't seem to promise I'd like the rest of her catalogue. However, recently I found myself checking out her single "A&W" and not only was I surprised, I was impressed. That song has a lot going on and it all works. I've only listen to the album once so I won't be giving it the all out music journalism treatment it deserves, but I'll say this: Lana Del Rey is a Nina Simone fan and it shows. The touch of the tragic genius permeates their work. Nina Simone was a trainwreck that lived before social media, and didn't write her own music, so the mythological aura that permeated her work came by accident, purely because it was meant to be. By constrast, in this album Lana Del Rey goes on a close exploration of herself, her name, her sound, her fame. It all feels lived in, even at its most dramatized. Her voice is just as much an element of her poetry as her words. Again, I can't go into detail about an album of an hour and 17 minutes I only listened to once, but one thing will stay with me: I expected that trap remix of "Venice Bitch" to be a spell breaking turd and instead it turned out to be very good. Way to go Ms. Grant
01-10-2023
17:24
AR - Addison Rae
So scratch the bye on the last post because it being so that I'm behind on literally everything in life I am also behind on this blog, which means sometime after listening to Preacher's Daughter I afforded the 9 minutes needed to get through this piece of online buzz. Seriously, stan twitter? This is your icon? I'll grant that out of the many celebrities that gave music a go Rae manages to not fall on the 'this is straight up not music' territory but this just has no backbone. I'm starting to notice my love for pop has limits, as I was straigth up too bored to make it through Kylie Minogue's Tension. As for this, "I Got It Bad" is the one that tries the hardest to drag something out of Rae's voice, and it's definitely a solid work of production. I checked out the two producers' discography and I can only describe them as corporate pop veterans, which given what they delivered here I guess I could call a compliment. If you don't exclude Addison Rae from the equation, this is the best song on here. Worth noting she has a writing credit, make of that what you will. Still, her voice has no meat to it so the song is just incomplete. "2 Die 4" with Charli XCX sounds like something Ms. Aitchison wrote in 5 minutes for an ad. She is also a corporate pop vet, the issue is she keeps all her best stuff for herself, so this is quite the go girl give us nothing. "Nothing On (But The Radio)" joins "Sour Candy" as another example of a pop starlet with a squeak of a voice accidentally showing how important Lady Gaga's voice is to her music. There is just nothing special about this song when it's on Rae's hands. "It Could've Been U" is a tragic case in which there's only one credited producer, and he is a relative newcomer who is also putting out his own stuff, and boy is his talent wasted here. I came to this EP because I heard that new Tate McRae song and I was like 'wow this is as boring as Addison Rae' but honestly I wish McRae had gotten this song instead. Rae's vocal inability requites the song to reel itself in. This is shit. We just don't need Addison Rae as a popstar, even in the most chronically online circles. The crap I deserve for ignoring Slayyyter I guess
29-09-2023
19:22
Preacher's Daughter - Ethel Cain
I mean, what the fuck do you even say to that. I'm super, super late to the party with this one. I heard about it for the first time from Mic The Snare, who called Ethel Cain the 'Phoebe Bridgers of americana'. That... does not even begin to cover it. First of all Ethel Cain has fuck all to do with Phoebe Bridgers and tbh that comparison is kinda ridiculous save for the fact that there is some overlap in their chronically online fanbases. Second of all Phoebe Bridgers feels inhrerently current, even at her most old school. Americana is a genre I didn't think could feel current but boy don't I look stupid. No matter how much this album came to sound like the soundtrack of an old Hollywood western it still sounded so modern. And that is just the sound. I listened to this album while being all over Genius, as if I was reading the divine comedy, and what a narrative. If this was made into a movie it would be an extremely critically acclaimed thriller, but I do not mind that it came to be as an extremely critically acclaimed concept album. The story feels alive, and even at its most surreal there is something about the underlying emotion that just lands. For me it was mostly how she could be in the worst circumstances, including but not restricted to dead and canibalized, and she was still an insecure people pleaser. That and how even in heaven she kinda wished she could go to the church that annoyed the shit out of her. I can't describe the feeling she captured with that you just gotta listen for yourself. I don't think I'll be revisiting this one much, it's an album that takes time and patience to get into. The cynical peppiness of "American Teenager" is kind of a fakeout. The whole album is a masterful slowburn (and according to her Tumblr her projects will be ever more so going forward). There is time for every feeling to hit you, and it sure is a layered experience. Besides it's not like I listen to much americana so it was a very unique experience sound wise. Shame I missed the hype but it's not like I'm about to start making sure I listen to the important new releases on time. I mean I could have listened to and reviewed Kim Petras, Slayyyter and Doja Cat in the past wek but I didn't because I am soooo tired lately. Anyways Ethel Cain is great and the underground icon this generation deserves, byeeee
29-09-2023
19:01
Un Verano Sin Ti/Mañana Será Bonito/Mañana Será Bonito (Bichota Season)- Bad Bunny/Karol G
I hate that all these albums are getting from me is a short overstuffed triple feature but I'm too tired to do better these days and I don't want the pending items to stack up too much. These albums all have the same central conceit too: The biggest stars in reggaeton doing albums where they escape the monotony of reggaeton by just trying out all sorts of different styles. Dance pop, a bit of indie, the second Karol G one had some regional mexican which is pretty hot rn, it's all very cool. Truth is reggaeton, as much as I'm defender of it, is extremely repetitive, and that makes it a hard genre to drag an album out of when you're not genius experimentalist Arca. Un Verano Sin Ti was, from what I read, meant to be a summer playlist. In that it succeeds. Not that it was a bad headphones experience but I could just tell I would have gotten more out of it if it was playing from a speaker and I was one or two mojitos (or should I say "Moscow Mule"s) deep. It's a double album, with the first half being the high energy bit and the second half being the chiller one. While "Moscow Mule" might be my favourite Bad Bunny song, I think I'll find myself going back to the second half more. For all its role as a party genre I've always loved a softer reggaeton beat in between an atmospheric instrumental. I remember first discovering Bad Bunny through his song "MIA" with Drake, and at the time I thought he was just a random latino that wanted to be Drake. After this album he feels more individual than ever, but also if he's trying to be anyone it's definitely The Weeknd. Both for the attempt at presenting a more interesting version of a very mainstream and for the fact they've both graduated from manwhore to self-reflecting manwhore. Make no mistake, all Bad Bunny wants in this album is sex, but this time he at least admits that he's needy and toxic so it's definitely more compelling. He also tends to slot well into whatever sound he's retrofitting himself into. He's not a great vocalist, but he's also not in the Ozuna/Chencho Corleone (who is here to ruin a song)/Peso Pluma line of Latin artists that ruin their own music by having voices that are straight up unpleasant. It's also worth noting that he writes all his lyrics. I don't know how artistically ambitious he is, but if he enjoyed the acclaim then I expect he'll move further and further from reggaeton. Who knows. All I know is this album is real long and I might never fully appreciate it because of that.
Then there's Karol G. I'll be for real I am very shocked she's the dame that leads reggaeton. I expected much more gringa, much more girlish, much more popstarry Becky G to be the one to achieve that. Boy was I wrong. I also knew Karol G first from a collaboration. "Tusa" with Nicki Minaj is not a song I like. I find it very boring, and it showed no talent in my opinion. In contrast, Mañana Será Bonito saw her trying sounds outside of reggaeton even better than Bad Bunny. She's not as acclaimed as Bad Bunny, due to a mix of sexism, not being taken seriously because she has cowriters, and the fact that when she goes reggaeton she is still much more conventional than Bad Bunny. Even still, Mañana Será Bonito at its most generic is just a grab bag of nice bits for one's reggaeton's party mix. When the tracks do nothing, Karol G herself and her boss energy can carry a tune. On that note Mañana Será Bonito (Bichota Season) is an earned companion piece after the hit the original was. She sounds even more confident here, really leaning into the rapper end of her singer/rapper style. It's shorter, clocking in just 27 minutes excluding the remix at the end (almost a whole hour shorter than Un Verano Sin Ti's hour and 21 minutes). That makes it to me the project that is the most focused and wastes the least time. It's also the one that spends the least time on generic reggaeton for the sake of Karol G's trap and pop endeavors (among others), so maybe it's the simplest one of the mix in terms of artistic thought put into it but it's the most enjoyable to me. Certainly the one I'll come back to the most. Nothing gets me faster than a long, skip free run. Oh and Kali Uchis is here. I have got to check her out. So yeah this is my underthought piece on a whole three albums which is half of the Teenage Dream one. I hope I figure out my routine enough to do this a little better soon
18-09-2023
22:16
Guts - Olivia Rodrigo
At some point when my brain gets a rest from uni that doesn't involve procrastination I'll get back here and write an Un Verano Sin Ti post (yes I only listened to it today this music critic is so in touch with the zeitgeist) but for now have a link to my latest official review and if I don't die soon then see you next time
13-09-2023
14:16
The Fame - Lady Gaga
Recently on Twitter a video Lady Gaga did to promote her makeup brand Haus Labs has been going viral because she throws on a look that is rather reminiscent of her early days. At the same time, rumours of new music sparked by some comments from her latest collaborators the Rolling Stones have people hoping Gaga will finally deliver the proper return to form Chromatica wasn't. I don't think so. It took years for us to accept it with Rihanna but I'm settling faster with Gaga, the original Lady Gaga of her first three records is dead and gone (boy won't I look stupid if that's not the case). Still, too see those bits of virality, to see fans throw the phrase "Stefani Germanotta you will always be famous" around yet again, I feel like that says something. Something I see heavily reflected in this debut album my list coincidentally just got to. In 2008 there was something intriguing about Lady Gaga. About this new girl whose shallow pop songs and outlandish antics were everywhere in all forms of media. Manufactured spectacle seemingly, calculated controversy, all profit motivated. If you looked closer though, you could see something peering from behind the curtain. The album's liner notes credited only her and whomever the song's producer was as songwriters. Yet what she wrote was lines like 'cherry cherry boom boom'. She didn't even vaguely try to steer clear from the bimbo image. Until that is, she went on TV and showed some serious jazz piano skills over those same shallow, silly songs. Look her up online and you'll find a history of classical training in music and acting. Cleary she was too clever to be doing this, so why?
The answer was both textual and subtextual: the fame. Stardom and wealth are seemingly The Fame's sole concern. Not just in that the songs are literally titled things like "Beautiful, Dirty, Rich", but in that they sound like hits, and not just because they're catchy. They sound like something made by someone who knows and reveres hits. The title track is the most telling moment of all, its guitar frills reminiscent of a radiot hit by an overconfident rockstar, the lyrics concerning their favourite topics: Alcohol and hot women. It's still dumb and shallow, but it shows that Gaga behaved like a self-indulgent rockstar because she adamantly refused to be anything else. Clips resurface all the time of her performing at any venue that would have her before she took off, and the album rubs on your face that she did. Tracks 1 through 4, "Just Dance", "LoveGame", "Paparazzi" and especially "Poker Face" are among the most recognizable bits of pop music of the era, and only because Gaga was confident enough to throw herself at them with the kind of conviction popstars had not shown since the 80s. Hell she is so confident she is self referential. "Money Honey" besides being another one about fame has a hint of "Just Dance" over it. Starstruck repeats the 'cherry cherry boom boom' of track (and hit) #5 "Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)". "Paper Gangsta" lifts a sound effect from "Poker Face". Don't let the repetition fool you though the songs still pop. She slowly goes more from popstar gravitas to rockstar swagger towards the end and she does both very well. I'll be real, this might be my least favourite Gaga album, simply because I have not heard Joanne and for the rest the comepetition is too stiff. I know this is Little Monster herezy but hey my favourite is the Fame Monster EP where she incorporates what's behind the curtains into her spectacle so we're good. Anyhow this is still possibly the one I respect the most simply because the hunger for fame, the calculated effort for fame, the dedication, the striving, it never stops shining through. Her all is in this to the very details. Stefani Germanotta, thanks to this I'm sure you will always be famous
08-09-2023
18:44
Prioritise Pleasure - Self Esteem
Finally I stop torturing myself and listen to a proper hyperpop record with reputation to spare. Can the congregation say MOOD. Relatability is the main course here, everything is truthful and straightforward and very easy to connect with, and paired with top notch pop production. The title track is the centerpiece for me. Imagine "Unholy" if it actually had an artistic statement to make. The statement being, I suppose, that pop can speak to, and about, normal people. Every line about awkwardness and exhaustion and poor decisions and being treated shittily is just so very real, and the music is catchy in an actually creative AND focused and cohesive way. Who knew such a thing could be. "John Elton" also deserves highlighting for the rare achievement of being the obligatory ballad in a pop album but not compromising its lyrical and sonic identity in any way. Deserves the hype for real. I'm gonna try to focus more on the list for a while, which I suppose my upcoming uni commute should make all the more doable, but I'm glad I took this detour. This record just feels artsy. It scratches a nerdy itch in my brain and leaves me wanting to analyse it forever. I mean for crying out loud "I Do This All The Time" has spoken word verses which is a brand of artschool bs that usually makes me physically uncomfortable but I have that song on repeat. This album has more to it than its songwriting but most things gain their power from being paired with this brand of songwriting. I get why a record like this isn't more popular, it's niche to put it mildly, but I wish it was more popular just for how quotable it is. "Sexting you at the mental health talk seems counterproductive" as an opening line in a song is a bold choice. So yeah let's pause this fanboying because who knows just how much I'll replay this record, but it is 100% worth the hype.
29-08-2023
17:22
Court and Spark - Joni Mitchell
In a stance of pure coincidence I am once again looking into a notorious female auteur's most pop record. This is the closest Joni Mitchell has ever come to the sound of the Carpenters, but it absolutely retains the aura of a Joni Mitchell record. And what an aura that is. Joni Mitchell sounds like influence. She is the matriarch of something, you can tell even if you've never heard of any of her followers. All sensitive singer-songwriter dames are here somehow. Mitchell sounds like Taylor, Phoebe, Lana, all of them, but unburdened. She is what others are striving for. Her work carries a magical quality. It captures the emptiness in the center of wanderlust. Mitchell sings of romance, journeys, life among the hippies of the day, but there is something more to it. At its most melodramatic it doesn't feel romanticized. Her songs are lived in. Her albums are trips through dream realms. This is the third album of hers I listen to. One of them, Blue, is occasionally my answer for my favourite album of all times. Another thing with Joni Mitchell albums is they're not samey but they're so cohesive in themselves and so disntict from each other it all just feels like the pieces of one single song. Because of this, and the fact that between the pure folk of Blue and the inventive jazz of The Hissing of Summer Lawns the mid 70s easy listening sound is the least memorable flavor of Joni Mitchell I've gotten so far (and it's still immaculately and unforgettably executed), I have not yet got stand-out songs to name from Court and Spark. Maybe "Down to You", as it's kinda hard to ignore what comes after an opening line like "Everything come and goes/Marked by lovers and styles of clothes". I'm gonna have to get to know this one better, but it's still a blessed delight to discover a Joni Mitchell record. Truly a talent for the ages.
29-08-2023
12:23
I Put A Spell On You - Nina Simone
Moving on with my Nina Simone journey, here's probably her most recognizable album of all. Its two most popular tunes, the title track and "Feeling Good", perfectly fit the 'high-priestess of soul' mystique often associated with Simone, and one of them being the title makes that look intentional. A more representative title, however, would be that of the intrumental track 9: "Blues on Purpose". Some reviews quoted in the Wikipedia article called this the closest she'd ever get to pop. While that just strengthes my point from a few posts back that no one's ever listened to Broadway-Blues-Ballads, it's not untrue to say Simone here shows herself a talented superstar in the blues boom of the 60s. She still gets in her moments of wisdom and strength, notoriously "You've Got To Learn", another one of those quotable tunes sung with such passion it's hard to believe it didn't start out as a Nina Simone song. Curiously, it started out as a French song, and I couldn't tell you why she chose the translation of this one but not that of "Ne Me Quitte Pas", which aside from very American-ly murdering the French language in she does a pretty solid rendition of. "Tomorrow Is My Turn" and "Marriage Is for Old Folks" are notable to me because though they resonate with the human, freewheeling spirit of Nina Simone, of all the songs that do so they're by far the most conventional sounding. "July Tree" and "One September Day" see Nina Simone at her most romantic, and it's really quite capturing. "Beautiful Land" is a cutesy lullaby not worth lingering on except for the fact that when I first heard it I could have sworn it sounded like something I'd heard on a Bjork record. "Take Care of Business" is the only one that made it to my playlist, simply because I thought it sounded like hot girl shit. So yeah that's I Put A Spell On You. It's really a great one to be her most recognizable, as it strikes quite the balance between the work of an intriguing artist, and being one of the many 60s corporate-approved displays of skill that make up fancy-soirée jazz playlists everywhere. It's good for sure, but also very entry level, and I know Nina Simone has much better stuff in store.
25-08-2023
12:07
Jaguar II - Victoria Monét
And here's another official one for the records. Victoria Monét tweeted about the Rolling Stone review of her album and it was a shake up cuz they were way less afraid of going there yk, throwing tomatoes at Silk Sonic or pointing out the whitewashed state of mainstream R&B. I wish I had been a tad more out there, most importantly with the score. Should have been an 80%. But ah well, I was still glowingly positive, and some cunt at Pitchfork will probably publish a review of this one that misses the point much like they did with the first one and then I'll feel better
25-08-2023
11:16
Clear EP - Summer Walker
Summer Walker is a star modern music. She's not an amazing vocalist, an amazing guitarist, probably not even the cleverest of songwriters, but she does all of it, and always in a way where each one of her skills plays to the other to create a sentiment that can only be described as real. There's this she can't do that others can, but even if her peers can be as compelling as her they're not compelling like her. "Riot" feels like the defining Summer Walker song (or well it would in a world without "Session 32"). Not even 2 minutes of guitar and voice, but the unfiltered sentiment coming through is something special. "Grave" shows an earlier, less smoothed out version of the self contained frustration that would go on to become (or it sounded like it to me) her song "Insane". "Wasted" is a trademark Summer Walker confessional where she lusts for things she should let go of over perfect jazzy instrumental. "Settling" shows Summer Walker's unique skill of being both vulnerable and accusatory. She shows her hurt exactly the way it is. It's a lot of emotion to have contained in 10 minutes of music. Who knows how long Summer Walker will be able to remain relevant for, seen as her albums do numbers but her individual songs not so much (call that reverse Bebe Rexha), but I'll be a fan even after that. She's just a special talent and I love her stuff
21-08-2023
12:16
Slayyyter - Slayyyter
The chronically online Barbiecore sound has yet to find itself in album format. Ayesha Erotica quit before she could find time to stop trolling. Heidi Montag and Paris Hilton never returned to music even after they became the muses of a whole movement. Kim Petras sold out. Charli XCX has too much of an identity of her own. Sophie would probably have gotten there but with her tragic passing the only album we have is way too human and from the heart. Oil Of Every Pearl's Uninsides is an excellent album but it infuses soul into its plasticity rather than revelling in it, making it very not Barbie. And let's take a moment to define what it means to be Barbie in music. Against Mattel's best wishes, Aqua's "Barbie Girl" permanently attached the name Barbie to a certain brand of oversexualized 'bimbo' mainstream culture is weirdly obsessed with. Then came the 00s and the heyday of Kim K, Lindsey Lohan and Paris Hilton. Beyond their overexposed messy lives, the sex appeal people criticized them and sought them out for, and overall engineered to be hated personas, they had another common point: venturing into music. Tasteless, overproduced club music that buried their vocals even when they seemed like they could carry a tune. Music that made them seem talentless. Music that seemed to require no talent to make. On came the 2010s, and some young people decided to test that theory out. Unlike her reality star idols, Slayyyter writes her own music, and does so with no shame. Allegedly she recorded her first tracks in between shifts as a hair salon manager. She is feminine in a way that isn't respectable, and in the age of third wave feminism that is (accidentally?) quite punk. The music itself invites you to revell in that with her. "BFF" with Ayesha Erotica is a trashy celebration of the messiest possible version of friendship and it's just a blast. E-Boy is a widespread brand of generally unspoken horny being given full spotlight. Through autotune and loud club ready synths, Slayyyter's party girl enery reaches a level of infectious that makes you want to stop whatever you're doing and go out to make some horrible decisions. The only problem is that a work this underground gets unfocused fast. For every accidental hit there's an equivalent of filler whose Frankenstein of mainstream ideas comes out generic. It's a good time, and in the age of being queer online I love that people can listen to Slayyyter and embrace night out vibes like "Daddy AF" and "Motorcycle". It's just hard to see how this could be polished enough to be an album without losing its appeal entirely. Kim Petras has so far tried and failed, but I wish her success just so maybe Slayyyter gets herself a big budget deal. She may not intend to create masterpieces of metamodern irony, but a lot of her work can be taken both as dumb fun and as that (honestly the difference can be unclear). Idk how much I'll be returning to this but I know I support it. Stream "Heidi Montag" by Ayesha Erotica I guess
10-08-2023
14:49
The Loveliest Time - Carly Rae Jepsen
Well here's a Carly Rae Jepsen release that certainly has an aura to it. For one it's not a side B, technically. Despite the shared aesthetics it's being presented as something entirely separate. Back on the Bebe Rexha post I established my love for CRJ so that I am happy she dropped something is hardly news. What is news is that Pitchfork, a website notorious for being among the few spaces of music criticism that kinda refused to give her her flowers or in the very least was never over the moon for her, gave it the same score as Emotion. It's not best new music, just a 7.4, but think about it. When they gave her that score the first time CRJ wasn't underrated pop icon of the decade CRJ, and Emotion wasn't the pop masterpiece of the decaded yet. Now music nerds everywhere have been obsessed with her and her work for years and Emotion was so influential it birthed the subreddit where pop music is discussed. It's an important album. Therefore a 7.4 doesn't say this is a 7.4/10, it says "this album is just as good as Emotion". And ngl? I kinda agree. For all my love of her songs I have given CRJ's full lengths embarassingly little replay, but this one I came back to right away. If Emotion was a love letter to pop music at a time when pop was the most fun it'd ever been, The Loveliest Time is a work of reverence to pop that nears Daft Punk's level of dance music nerdiness. I'm not a musician so I don't have the knowledge to say whether this is her most musically ambitious work yet, but it certainly feels like it. "Anything To Be With You" is not a banger of an opener, but I admire its out there nature both because it's fun and because I love that my first thought on this CRJ project was 'okay at what point is it just indie rock'. It's also the most wacko display of a defining trait of this album. While Emotion was steeped in the grandiose pop tradition of the 80s, when pop became pop, and showed that through plucky synths, the occasional horns and drum machine sounds, The Loveliest Time feels (to me) thoroughly 70s, and that shows in the many drum beats, basslines and guitars that sound like real instruments. It moves her sound from Madonna to Chic in a lovely way. The grooves in this are impeccable, the songs simply don't lose steam. "Kamikaze" is more scream along, and "Come Over" is more sway along, but both are songs that will have you equally hooked from the first to the last second. "Stadium Love" and "Shy Boy" see girl-next-door CRJ show us how she can be arena sized. The former is a habit of hers: the late album oddball. It sounds very strange and it might not work for you at first because it's not a sound that should work, but by the end of it it just lands. The latter is actually the lead single and gave us a high quality taste of the not often seen overconfident CRJ. Hooks upon hooks while the singer gets her flirt on, it's a good time for all involved. "After Last Night" and "Weekend Love" were also new CRJ territory for me in that I thought they sounded like Caroline Polachek, with the former in particular resembling an upbeat cut on Desire, I Want To Turn Into You and therefore having so much replay value. "Aeroplanes" and "Shadow" are the more bare bones items in the tracklist. "Aeroplanes" is also kind of a pop experiment and you'll be hard pressed to skip it because it has hooks, except they don't sound like hooks, which just makes them hit your brain in a very interesting way. On the other end of the spectrum "Shadow" is pretty traditional CRJ fair and it's just sooooo cute. Leave it to CRJ to put a smile on your face. "So Right" and "Put It To Rest" bring us the skill I most easily forget CRJ has: pure, overflowing drama. "Put It To Rest" is so cinematically emotional Raye could probably do it just it and I love that. "So Right" meanwhile is a proper karaoke banger with that air of subtle, second guessing, thrill seeking romance that CRJ pulls off so well. It's a type of emotion pop music hardly ever nails and I'm overjoyed every time it does. Speaking of things pop music seldom does, CRJ has gone on record saying she doesn't make music with TikTok in mind, which explains why the two best songs on this album are over 4 minutes long. "Kollage" is actually getting some TikTok attention through 'I can't believe this is Carly Rae Jepsen' posts, and fuck it I'll accept that if it's what it takes for her to get the immense amounts of credibility she should be getting from this. It feels like course correction on everything that made people go 'meh' when she put out "Western Wind" (though I've come around on that one). It's a perfect sparse indie pop ditty with the right atmosphere and the right melodramatic performance. I hope this stays on rotation in hipster restaurants for numerous years to come. That that song exists is just a flex of CRJ's versatility. That said, she got her respect by doing pop bangers better than the mainstream, and oh boy did she deliver. I feel like saying anything other than "Run Away With Me" is her best song is heresy, but a CRJ album couldn't match Emotion without an equivalent to that iconic opener, and it's early to declare "Psychedelic Switch" is it but I might dare to do so. I can say I think I might go on to replay it even more. It sounds straight out of Daft Punk's Discovery. The chorus is an experience. The production is reminiscent of all the best things disco is capable of being. When you're done with that experience of audio strobe lights and glitter you'll want to find CRJ and say thank you. The Loveliest Time may not be presented as The Loneliest Time sound B, but it accomplishes being its version 2.0. It achieves the goal of broadening CRJ's sonic palette much more succesfully and maintains a higher level of quality throughout, outdoing its predecessor more than both side Bs before it (and that's saying something). So yeah, 0 skips. It's so well made and so classic it's the first time I dare think maybe CRJ should win a Grammy. It's also the first album I was there to see released while fully properly immersed in her catalogue and boy what gift it is to be here for it. It's funny to me that the mainstream pop scene is dead while in the underground Jessie Ware, Caroline Polachek and Carly Rae Jepsen are making this the best year ever. Thank you for the album of the summer Ms. Jepsen. Really, thank you
10-08-2023
01:04
The Highwomen - The Highwomen
I'm a Brazilian from the countryside. I know any country that has a strong tradition of country music will also have a barrage of horrible strictly commercial country music and a parallel culture of strong disdain for country music. I love country music though, and this album is a great example of why. We live in a time when the mainstream of the music industry is watered down and there's only a handful of true superstars. Of those, the only whose identity is really that of a singer songwriter first and foremost is Taylor Swift, and there's constraints to what her work can be because of how much the idea of Taylor Swift is attached to what she sings. This album though? This is as human and real as art can be. I don't know the background of this album, and there's a lot of it. I know one Marren Morris song, I don't listen to Brandi Carlile, the like, one song I know by Miranda Lambert wasn't written by Natalie Hemby and I'd never even heard of Amanda Shires. I also don't know the Highwaymen. I've heard of all of them in a tone of immense praise, but I only barely know a bit of Johnny Cash. I feel the need to say this to constrast it with The Velvet Underground. Unlike with them I got every song here immediatelly, and even at their silliest every sentiment here hit. Family love on "Crowded Table", tongue-in-cheek maternal struggle in "My Name Can't Be Mama", small town queer awkwardness in "If She Ever Leaves Me", the battle of imagination and ennui in "Old Soul", it all really did hit. It's a beautifully played, beautifully written and beautifully sung album, and the day the Highwome reunite I will be streaming. I love complex art but there's something special in that which is true, simple and from the heart. I'm just glad this one exists. Worth noting thanks to the somewhat fresh wound of my very country great grandfather passing "Cocktail and a Song" almost made me cry at work, which is the highest praise I can offer
09-08-2023
15:30
Barbie: The Album - Various Artists
I made an attempt at writing out my thoughts on the Barbie movie over on the films page but I'm not a film critic, I'm a music critic, which is why you can find my officially published review of the Barbie soundtrack here. Ngl I'm pretty proud of this one. Could have done with another round of editing but I like the end result anyways
09-08-2023
14:38
The Velvet Underground & Nico - The Velvet Underground
I have an odd relationship with music that can be deemed abbrasive. Notoriously, metal does not do it for me in the slightest, while I only seem to grown fonder of the distorted experiments of Arca and Sophie. With that in mind, even if I had more preexisting knowledge than I did I wouldn't have known what to expect from my reaction to The Velvet Underground's first album. I suppose I should have expected a negative reaction on account of Andy Warhol's involvement but he didn't really make the songs so that'd be a moot point. In the end what happened at first was that the abbrasive side of it just... went over my head? Like honestly, first of all I could barely comprehend the lyrics through the mix so the themes escaped me entirely, and as for the rough edges of the sound I kinda saw through them, like I perceived the sound they were making a harsher version of. It was the soft rock of the late 60s, just a more mature version of it. If anything I liked it more easily than the poppier ones. I relistened though, and I read through all the lyrics separately, and eventually I started to see. Rock purists may find this comparison ridiculous, but it in some ways hit the same spot as Jazmine Sullivan's Heaux Tales, one of my favorite albums of all time. Both albums take the current sound of their genre in a different direction than the current trend, VU making their soft rock unpolished and basically allergic to the radio, Sullivan updating R&B traditions in the face of minimal, digital alternative. They also both deal with heavy topics in matter-of-fact ways that neither condemn nor glamorize, Sullivan with sex and the modern woman, VU with meth and life in the big city. The main difference comes in the nature of their styles. Sullivan is an underrated diva, VU was a scrappy underground band. Lou Reed couldn't sing, and that is great. A competent singer would have robbed those songs of their punch, and punch they do not lack. Art about the topics Lou Reed addresses is not uncommon anymore (probably thanks to this record) but the way in which he approaches them still feels different. The sound shows that too. It's Beatles era rock but in a mature, more developed way that wouldn't be seen again because mainstream rock just became something else entirely. I'm fascinated by the uniqueness of they achieved here, especially since it's not something entirely unfamiliar to the ear. On that note, a moment to address Nico. This has been the year of soft spoken international 60s singers for me. Astrud Gilberto and Françoise Hardy have both been on rotation in my playlist from the moment I first heard them. Enter Nico. From what I've read her relationship with VU wasn't contentious necessarily but it was less than perfect, and also she didn't write any of the music here. Still, her delivery on the songs she does perform is integral to tying the whole project together. If VU created something special by removing the light hearted fun of the Beatles and the Beach Boys, Nico did that for the young soft-voiced type of singer I mentioned before. I don't know how much of her effect comes from her really having been a mysterious, intriguing woman and how much is just her being German, but she just transmits this adult, real life energy to a kind of sound that is reminiscent of cutesy jazz and folk standards singers. Nico would go on to a great artistical transformation, and I believe I'll explore her catalogue further earlier than I'll do so for VU, but in this record she is just the auster muse of the kind of modern artistic vision Andy Warhol wanted to put out to the world, and she is amazing at it. Sometimes when you first experience a work of art you can just tell it'll take you a while to get to know it enough to fully appreciate it. The Velvet Underground & Nico is the rare case of a record I finished and promptly felt the need to spin again. It's quite a loaded body of work, and most of it loses its might out of context. Even if the songs aren't bad on a playlist they clearly weren't made to stand on their own, with one notorious exception. "Heroin" is a song that feels designed to be a microcosm not only of this record but of everything VU is remembered for. It's not just a great rock song it's a wholly unique one that manages to be extremely creative while being the easiest thing to like in this whole record. I am in awe of it. Truly this record was something special, and a touchstone for music that had a very limited commercial reach but whose legacy outlasted the vast majority of the material that was outselling it. Completely merits its legacy
09-08-2023
13:18
Broadway-Blues-Ballads - Nina Simone
It's worth noting thanks to a rather intense week or so I'm returning to this blog with a good 5 albums worth of deficit, and that's just the albums. Good luck for me with catching up but I'll get there. I'm certainly not about to give up. Anyways...
In gradually becoming more and more of a Nina Simone fan I've gotten the impression that though the handful of jazzy tunes that comprises her pop culture legacy is an oversimplification of who she was, her (I guess) fandom's obsession with the civil rights side of her isn't really that much better. Exhibit A: Broadway-Blues-Ballads. Of her Philips albums, this is the one for which there seems to be the least interest. In the Pitchfork review that lead me to go through these records, this is the one with the lowest rating (still a solid 8.0). Its Wikipedia article is almost empty. Its sound, too, has very little to do with Nina Simone's legacy. It only has one track that would remain associated with her, "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", I suppose because that song fits with the ethos of troubled genius eternally attached to Ms. Simone. All this seeming disdain makes one look over one thing that is on full display here: Nina Simone became a jazz singer as a job, and it's a job she was damn good at. This album's sound seems very intentionally reminiscent of old Hollywood movies, particularly since a lot of the Broadway tunes chosen had eventually made it to movie musicals. Nina Simone once said 'sometimes I sound like gravel, sometimes I sound like coffee and cream', and Broadway-Blues-Ballads is far into the coffee and cream end of the spectrum. It's such a pleasant record it almost contradicts the seriousness attached to the singer's legacy. Of course, it has emotion to it. "Nobody" for example is one of those songs that it may shock some listeners to find out she didn't write with how naturally she embraces it. Even so, the album's heavy use of strings creates an atmosphere I'd never heard Simone be placed into before, and it was a great experience to get through. Whereas Nina Simone In Concert reaches indescribable musical heights but demands the proper headspace to get into, Broadway-Blues-Ballads is Nina Simone on easy mode, and I expect I will find myself returning to it quite a bit
07-08-2023
20:24
In Concert - Nina Simone
For my own peace of mind let me make it clear that this album does not count towards the year end total because it was on last year's list. Anyhow idk when or why the thought to do this hit me but I intend to listen to every album Nina Simone released under Phillips because those contain pretty much all her hits and also there's a pitchfork review of all them which along with the shared label makes this scratch my brain right. No you're arbitrary. I'll be doing Astrud Gilberto for Verve next btw. Wait wasn't this post about an album?
Ah yes, Nina Simone In Concert from 1964, recorded live at Carnegie Hall (not to be mistake for Live At Carnegie Hall by Nina Simone from 1963). What an album this is. I remember long ago reading in one of the Percy Jackson books something being described as "from before shapes had been defined". This is how I'd described this album. Something that is what it is because it existed before there were norms for what it was supposed to be. What is long and what is short, what is simple and what is complex, all of it feels upside down. Let me point out that "Porgy" being as short as it is is insulting. Not a note on it is less than gorgeous. Simone's surprise breakout hit fully shows why it deserves that honor here. A beautiful composition that should be beneath her skill but she always dragged so much out of the simplest melody. Less is more is never more present than in "Plain Gold Ring" though. It's the kind of bass heavy, intense, atmospheric blues that warranted Simone being called the high priestess of soul. It's also the kind of sound she would use when she herself wrote "Four Women". She was such a talented performer that it's always a little weird to remember she didn't write most of her songs. Especially songs that can connect in some way to her own story and the things she's known to have felt leave you thinking either she meant it or broadway lost one great actress with this one. The revenge fantasy of "Pirate Jenny" matches strangely well with the woman that said "I'm not non-violent" to MLK's face. It helps that she delivers every line with pure drama, making for a strange piece of music but certainly an admirable one. On the other side of the spectrum "Don't Smoke In Bed" had been in her repertorire just as long as "Porgy" by that point and while I get that the latter was the hit, I love the former even more. Nina Simone would know her fair share of marital trouble in her life, in ways no woman ever should, but it's not knowing that that makes the song work. It works because of Simone's beautiful unique voice and her ability to mean every word. It works because there's not a piano flourish that isn't right where it should be. It's a standard like any other that works because the diva brings it to life. In contrast to all of that there is "Old Jim Crow" and "Go Limp", the former more lighthearted than you'd think and the latter straight up a joke song. It's interesting to catch a glimpse of something so human in Simone's catalogue given how much of a mythical aura her legacy has. And then in the end sitting between human and myth is "Mississippi Goddamn". The song's history and legacy are mythical, but the song itself? It's a showtune. It's what the director makes of it. Simone performed that song angry, poker-faced, laughing, and in every which way it was her song so she was doing it right. There is no video to go with this record, but she sure sounds like she's having fun. Isn't that the core of Nina Simone after all? A story to tell, a mission in life, an inspiring legacy, but in the end all of it is just built atop great songs and a lot of talent. Personally I can't wait to get to some more of that
26-07-2023
10:49
The Who Sell Out - The Who
One of the pains of trying to be someone who seeks out and appreciates art is that sometimes you'll be faced with brilliance and it won't compell you in the slightest. As anyone who read the 'much ado about nothing'-s that are the two longest posts on this page, concerning the notoriously hollow and notorious for being hollow Katy Perry and Anitta, I have a tendency to overthink the living shit out of vapid pop music. I'm rather lukewarm on Katy and Anitta and yet I did all that. On the other end of the spectrum I barely found anything to say about Summer Walker's Soft Life EP, and I fucking love Summer Walker. This whole preamble is to say I am very embarassed by my relationship with The Who. I'd only listened to one album of theirs previously, Who's Next, and I recall finding it very good. I've barely revisited it though, despite finding the two songs from it that I have in my playlist very good. A few days ago I listened to The Who Sell Out and I don't even have it in me to pretend it's not gonna suffer the same fate. I'll never know what it is about classic rock at its purest and really best that doesn't quite attract me to the replay button. What is it I liked about Pet Sounds that I didn't find in Revolver. Frankly I have no idea. Maybe it's not pop enough? Regardless, let it be said, The Who Sell Out is great regardles of what I end up doing with it. Pete Townshend just had an ear for melody. Who's Next certainly rocked harder, but this one is certainly not dated 'teens back then' fluff like My Generation (which is also very good but much more a product of its time). This record breezes lightly by but it's still very artsy. The instrumental is rather 'trendy' in that I hear a bit of Rolling Stones here, a bit of Beach Boys there, and bit of Beatles elsewhere. It's all done with a distinct flavour though, and while it's not 70s Fleetwood Mac precise it's also not 70s Led Zeppelin loose rock and rolling. As the title indicates, it's a faustian bargain. It's The Who's Clash. A parody of commercialism that still sounds commercial. Not subtlety either, see all the jingles thrown into the mix. They really work in the context of the album but I wish they were separate tracks as their out of context awkwardness stops me from adding the songs to any playlist. Still, those songs sound great. It's a sound that feels important. It's rock fully past its Elvis/A Hard Day's Night infancy but not fully transformed into the obvious answer for greatest music genre of all. I revisited it while writing this and who knows, maybe I'll be kinder to it than I've been to other records. I'm glad at least I understand rock music is great even when I don't quite 'get it'.
23-07-2023
17:08
Mini World - Indila
You know what? I deserve this. Once again I went for an off the list item, and once again it was a pop album without a reputation to back it up when I've yet to listen What's Your Pleasure?, That! Feels Good! or Prioritise Pleasure. I deserve a disappointment at this point
Okay some background. I didn't listen to Mini World for no reason. One thing about me that's been ommitted from the About Me page is that I have a thing for language learning. I can read and understand 5 languages and am currently learning a 6th. Indila being a French singer whose work I came across on TikTok, I added some of her stuff to my French playlist both for the practice and because the songs were pretty good. She only had one studio album though, which peaked my curiosity enough for me to listen to it. It opens with its two big singles, "Dernière Danse" and "Tourner Dans Le Vide". The former is the one that first saw fame through TikTok edits and one can see why. It has that bigness of early 2010s pop matched with that dinstinctive flavor of drama that only French art seems to achieve. Rather cinematic, and quite replayable. The latter is a song whose concept is basically 'what if "Dernière Danse" went harder' and I really enjoy it. The rest of the album however is just perfectly competent mid 2010s fluff whose lyrical content, my understanding of which was rather limited, didn't have anything in the 60% I understood or in the musicality to make me wanna seek it out. In one ear out the other, a thorough disappointment. At then end I went and listened to the two extra songs from the deluxe version and it was quite the microcosm. "Ainsi Bas La Vida" is basically "Tourner Dans Le Vide" but cuntier and I wish it would be used in drag race. The following track, "Feuille D'automne", has a melody very reminiscent of Pachelbel's Canon (it's strings too) and it does so little with it its straight up giving "Memories" by Maroon 5. All around disappointment. Had to follow it up with How I'm Feeling Now by Charli XCX so I didn't forget pop music can have a raison d'être
18-07-2023
23:30
Buckingham Nicks - Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks
In a bit of poetic irony the final chapter in my Fleetwood Mac journey is the furthest back I've ever gone. This is also possibly the least Fleetwood Mac album of the whole journey, as Buckingham and Nicks cut this record before joining Fleetwood Mac. You can tell too, it lacks the fine tuning that is characteristic of their work there. That said, it is still a songwriting showoff by the two in their youthful prime, and it's SO good. There's drums in this record, sure, but it being a singer and a singer/guitarrist before they joined a band named after the rhythm section this album is melody melody melody. Doesn't feel stiff for one second. "Crystal" was the only song here that got remade by Fleetwood Mac and one can see why. The soft rock melodrama they would create there is fully present here, though this version is less delicate than what the full band would produce. All around the record you can feel the difference of not having their pianist and fellow harmonizer or their rhythm section yet, but their talent is all over this. The entire side A of the record sounds like top notch Fleetwood Mac album tracks, leaning more than they ever would on Nicks' hooks and Buckingham's guitar work. "Long Distance Winter" hints at the guitar style that would make "Never Going Back Again" but with more of an edge and honestly I like this one way more. "Crying In The Night" and "Without A Leg To Stand On" are just characteristic bops by the two of them. "Stephanie" and "Django" are very well made instrumentals, and though I get that stuff like this would have affected the pristine nature of their future work I wish I could have seen Buckingham do more of this sort of things. "Don't Let Me Down Again" has the peppy pop rock that would become "Second Hand News" which I love. "Race Are Run" is the most atmospheric thing they could do before they had access to the studio magic that made Sara and I love it. "Lola" is a fun southern rock ditty that would make passed for a "these two really liked Lynyrd Skynyrd" moment if it didn't have sprinkles of "The Chain" all over it. Closing it all off is the 7 minutes long "Frozen Love", which is really the only song on this album that I don't think could have come to pass within Fleetwood Mac. It's gorgeous. They have a proper duet here such as they would never really have in the band. The instrumental sprawls in a way emblematic of the rock and roll of the era, but the genius of Lindsey Buckingham makes even long solos land smooth as butter. Within Fleetwood Mac they would be called easy listen by some and real rock 'n roll by others. This song is proof that they always were both. With its brief 36 minutes it's a very easily digestible record but there carries a lot of substance. I know for sure I'll be returning to this a lot, and it also better get reissued and added to streaming, particularly now that they've both sold all their publishing rights for a few hundred million. Great record and I could not ask for a better not in which to end my journey with my favorite band
09-07-2023
17:57
Teenage Dream - Katy Perry
The state of pop music from the start to the end of the 2010s is a change so complete and so swift it finds no comparison beyond the state of mobile phones from the start to the end of the 00s. At the start of the decade trends of electronic music seeping into the radio meant pop music was at its least respectable state ever. At the same time, slowly but surely certain auteurs were entering the business of pop music with a soul, with artistic vision, and by the end of the decade a new generation was bringing sincere, carefully constructed pop music straight from their hearts to the mainstream. The trailblazers of the latter trend have built long-lasting, respected careers for themselves in the years since, mainstream or otherwise. Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Charli XCX, Carly Rae Jepsen, Lorde, they've all made and continue to make a huge impact in pop music. On the other side of the spectrum though, we have Katy Perry. When the critical reappraisal of pop music's value first kicked in, Perry was the poster child for 'but not that kind of pop music'. She was just so damn easy to hate. Throw any insult you want at her. Bimbo. Pick me. Regressive. Shallow. There's a case to be made for it, specially seen as an aching desire to break free from all those labels was what caused her career to crash and burn. That sentiment was what had kept me from this album so far. I never wanted to come around on Katy Perry, so why try. At least two songs of hers made me feel like she had a place in the conversation about the reappraisal of pop music though: the iconic "Teenage Dream" title track, and her swan song in the Hot 100 top 20 "Never Really Over". Neither is the reason why I gave this album a shot though. I came around to doing it because twice recently I've been confronted with mediocre pop projects. Bebe Rexha's Bebe and Kim Petras' Feed The Beast were both disappointing, but when you care a lot about pop music you have to wonder what they were going for. My first instinct was revisiting Emotion by Carly Rae Jepsen but that wasn't it. No, the woman Rexha and Petras wish to be is Katy Perry. Petras wants to be pop music's Barbie doll like Perry was. Rexha wants to own the radio like Perry did (something she's been trying to achieve for so long she's competed for dominance against... Katy Perry). I know Katy Perry isn't an albums artist, so what is it about her that made her such an attractive module to emulate? Why is a singer with such a short shelf life and such a spectacularly messy fall from grace subtextually present in pop music's zeitgeist? (The answer is obviously 'nostalgic hit singles for days' but I'm gonna go ahead and make a thing out of it anyways)
The album with the title track, and I believe the best thing I can say about this song is that its Wikipedia article has a 'retrospective acclaim' section. It is a perfect picture of everything that is great about Katy Perry, and unfortunately, as it can't be escaped when discussing this album, everything that is great about Dr. Luke. On a sheet music level its an embarrassingly simple composition. 4 chords, two of which are basically the same. The power of Dr. Luke is his ability to take a melody that is this simple and therefore will inevitably get stuck in your head, and present it in a lot of different ways, dragging hooks upon hooks out of basically nothing. Ms. Perry hersel doesn't fail to delivery. In all of its imperfection, her voice always just sounded like the shallow and yet genuine sentiments she was putting out there. Sure being high on a crush like this is naive and stupid, but her delivery reminds you people are prone to being naive and stupid like this for a reason. It's just nice. If the opener shows what this htitmaking duo could do, "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" shows just how much they could get away with. It's unabashedly trashy, almost tasteless, but they both sell the fuck out of it. Perry narrates her way through hungover rememberances with a joyful gusto that makes every consequence worth it, and Luke just knows every choice to make in framing that. A Kenny G sex solo and a crowd chant are things that need proper execution to fit in a song, and the man nailed it. Well remembered songs, but they pale in comparison to their original shared crowning achievement. "California Gurls" hasn't seen a reappraisal so much as been forgotten by its haters, giving way for those who love it. In a world where the trend is shitting on the idea of California for edginess points, it's all the more interesting to see this candyland feast with 0 nuance and a lot of summer fun within. Also memorable for not misusing a Snoop Dogg which pop music struggles to more than it should. These three songs alone are towering enough to suffice for Katy Perry's legacy. They were what pop music was when they were on rotation. They are why Katy Perry is so immitable. And I'm glad we got those out of the way at the start cuz everything from here on out comes with caveats.
"Firework" is Katy Perry's qualities, to a fault. She's 100% genuine about all of this, and it's why she fell. Pop culture became too cynical for this brand of inspiration, her fans outgrew it and she could never rise above it. If you can still connect with the moment in time this song was though, it's pretty special. If you can allow nostalgia to take away your critical lensens then sure Katy Perry, I do feel like a plastic bag sometimes. Not all the material here is that forgivable though. "Peacock" is the first time Perry fails to sell her insults to good taste (notably, Dr. Luke didn't work on this one) and it has the unfortunate effect of turning the cynicism right back on. The 'rock adjacent' power pop ditty "Circle the Drain" is a real victim of this cynicism, as it's all too easy to be hung up on the flaws of this attempt at being musically interesting. "The One That Got Away" and "E.T." may have been hits but they prove that 'Katy Perry' is a concept that will fall flat if done so much as 99% correctly, the former being way too dull and the latter being way too out there for a pop star that needed her hits to be airtight. "Who Am I Living For" and "Pearl" with their shallow contemplations showed just why Perry had to sell out. Sure if she had stayed in this lane it would have been harder to throw tomatoes at her, but it also would have been absolutely impossible to love her. "Hummingbird Heartbeat" and "Not Like the Movies" are attempts at infusing Katy Perry sentimentalism onto power pop and piano ballads respectively, with the result being something that would work if you were a Katy Perry fan. The problem is that the rest of the album shows she is not exactly an artist you need to be a fan of to appreciate
So that's it. This is the supposed pop bible that gave Katy Perry her legacy. It really does show why it's so easy to nitpick her whole persona. Most unforgettable artists will have a handful of all time classics as the frosting to their kick ass discography cake. Katy Perry got away with being all frosting by having the frosting be just that good. I mean this post just overtook the title of longest on this blog so surely there was something alluring in her hollowness. She was a popstar that appeared in the very last moment a popstar like her could appear. Fascinating at first glance, and you really, really don't need to look twice.
01-07-2023
18:02
Behind The Mask - Fleetwood Mac
Minor disclaimer that my opinion on this one has very little value as I paid very litte attention. The second to last chapter on my Fleetwood Mac journey comes as a sad, sad dissappointment. The first run of songs has Christine Mcvie and Stevie Nicks all over them, like the band is scared of letting people there's new guys. "In the Back of My Mind" is a whole group piece of grandiosity that lacks substance so much it's basically a bilboard saying 'no Lindsey Buckingham is not in the group anymore'. The first song to mostly not feature the ladies is "When the Sun Goes Down" and look. I know Fleetwood Mac changed a lot, I know their sound morphed a ton of times through the years, let me be real, I don't care. This is not a Fleetwood Mac song. I'll have nothing to do with this corny (and not in the endearing way) country bs. Not with my favorite band. The album also often fails to justify the length of its many rather repetitive songs, dragging itself along with repetitions of choruses that really don't warrant that. That's mostly an early 90s issue though they just did shit that way back then. Now is the album an all around unsalvageable trainwreckord? No. Nicks' material is b-tier for her but it's well executed and enjoyable, and McVie's material is basically a superior version of the vision for her sound seen in her solo album. The lady could always write a hook. The problem is remembering this is the follow up to Tango In The Night, an 80s masterpiece. Under the leadership of Buckingham, in two different decades Fleetwood Mac took the sound of rock at its most pop and executed it with absolute perfection. They were the band to point to to explain why the trends in vogue were in vogue. With that in mind the okayness of Behind The Mask at its best is just a crying shame. Who knows whether the Buckingham/Nicks/Mcvie trio could have written another classic record at the level of their iconic 5 album run, but part of me would have loved to see them try and fail if it meant I didn't have to witness a shadow of their greatness like this one.
29-06-2023
14:10
Bebe - Bebe Rexha (feat. E•MO•TION by Carly Rae Jepsen)
In a shocking turn of events, people have been talking about Bebe Rexha outside of features lately. Sadly it's not her music that's getting the surge of attention but her face after someone threw a phone at it. This moment feels like a culmination for Bebe Rexha, the irrelevant pop "star" that has not caught a break since the first time her voice hit the radio. After her last album failed to make even the top half of the Billboard 200 and then she got a major radio hit that has been all around loathed by critics and audience she's definitely become one of the more interesting flops out there, and since some people said her new album was "pretty good actually" I decided to go and form my own opinion, particularly since the Kim Petras album meant my bar had been lowered.
Good grief, what a sad little nothing to get through. Bebe's various attempts at a banger, like "Heart Wants What It Wants", "Call On Me" and "I'm Not High I'm In Love" show a level of passable competence that is heartbreaking. It's like even at her best Rexha is contractually obligated to not do anything interesting in her music. And if just being somewhat let down isn't enough for you there's the staleness of "Miracle Man", the embarassing California-Gurls-from-the-Wish-dot-com-clearance-bin feel of "Satellite" with Snoop Dogg and the shamelessness of "I'm Good (Blue)" to suck out whatever value you might have found on the rest of the album. The end is the biggest victim of this heightened cynicism, with attempts at balladry that can't excite anything besides an eye roll and a Dolly Parton feature one cannot believe showed up in here for any reason other than the fact that "Meant To Be" was certified diamond.
I had such an intensely negative reaction to this bland pop offering I started questioning myself. After all, since when am I too good for bubblegum pop? With that line of thinking I decided to revisit what is probably the most respected album of pure bubblegum ever, Carly Rae Jepsen'sE•MO•TION. The answer appeared in the first notes. Sure, it is extremelly unfair to compare the work of reliable radio fodder maker Bebe Rexha with "Run Away With Me", a song that made at least 4 major best-of-the-decade lists, but it explains it all. The main element would be confident, and I have a Charli XCX tweet to back me up on this so you know it's true. Jepsen doesn't have an asservative, intense voice like Charli XCX, but the lightness of her unburdened delivery removes all the irony, the cynicism and the second guessing. At her most Disney-y or her most cheesy 80s-y, she means every word. It's quite the constrast to Rexha's sharp, laboured, intense overperforming that ends up highlighting either her weaknesses or the songs'. Another immediately noticeable constrast comes in the unforgettable sax riff that made "Run Away With Me" as enduring it is. What that riff is is interesting, unusual, and not quite like what you hear on other pop songs. It's the very thing I kept missing on Bebe Rexha's album, and it's all over this album. In every single song of this skip free masterpiece you'll get either a cheesy synth riff or a catchphrase or a fun bit in the background vocals, something to hold on to. In its lack of self-conscious restraint this work of bubblegum pop allow itself to have substance. Towards the end, when in Rexha's album you get the most milquetoast ballads, Jepsen gives us the most unnusual sounding songs, experiments which without exception land. It's a work of love for pop music for the sake of it, and something someone like Bebe Rexha could never achieve because she wants hits and E•MO•TION bit the dirt commercially. Truly sad people don't follow Jepsen's steps in the mainstream, but at least as long as they're both there I get music to make fun of and music to enjoy, so hurray.
27-06-2023
14:04
Kim Petras - Feed The Beast
I suppose I oughta link my official reviews here too. This new Kim Petras (debut?) album really did not give what needed to be gave, you can read my thoughts on it here
27-06-2023
12:52
Say You Will - Fleetwood Mac
Though there's still two more projects from Fleetwood Mac and its people on the list before I am done with them a while, I have settled my feelings about it being okay that the Buckingham/Nicks/McVie trio never made another album together. I've settled that NO, IT'S NOT OKAY AND SCREW THOSE GENIUSES FOR REFUSING TO BE IN THE STUDIO AGAIN WITH THE PEOPLE THAT BROUGHT OUT THE BEST IN THEM DAMMIT. I'd seen Say You Will be referred to as a late career masterpiece and I fully back that. It's not at the level of artistry of Rumours or as captivating as Tango In The Night but it blows their solo work right tf out of the water (It might be tete à tete with Bella Donna if comparing whole albums and I don't say that lightly). Buckingham impressed me the most. Seriously it's like he needs the presence of Fleetwood Mac to remember who tf he is, and who he is is a rockstar. Nicks isn't exempt from this sentiment though, it was rather nice seeing her remember she makes rock music. After solo albums that felt like chores, for the first time in forever I can't wait to revisit this one multiple times as it feels like I did it a disservice with the amount of attention I paid. I reckon my opinions of this album are not entirely fair given I listened to Buckingham and Nicks' output completely out of order and there's stuff from before this I've yet to listen to so maybe there was a lead up to this level of quality, but as it stands the more good songs went by the angrier I got. "What's The World Coming To" is a well made though mostly just passable opener, but "Murrow Turning Over In His Grave" starts the spectacle for real. It features Buckingham's experimentation, but much more finished, and with guitar work worthy of the man who made "So Afraid". He wrote the song alone and there are no external producers credited, I swear all he ever needed was the band keeping an eye on him. "Illume" brings rockstar swagger back to Nicks' witchy coolness in a delightful way (and the guitars are also great; really this might be the Fleetwood Mac record where Buckingham's prowess with the instrument shines the most). "Thrown Down" has a spot on groove brought by the namesake rhythm section, and the vocals blend in a way that can only be expected from two voices that have been together a thousand times before. It's a real band effort where everyone does their part, which obviously had me fuming since they never were together in the studio again. "Miranda" is the first song to veer back into 'okay' territory but over the course of it the competence of it wins you over. Basically, that's the album. It doesn't have individual moments worthy of Fleetwood Mac's greatest hits, but all of it is well made, and there sure is a lot of it. According to Apple Music this album is one minute longer than their previous longest, the double album Tusk. It's not a tough listen though. Buckingham's experimentation is at its most refined, the production favours real instruments for almost the whole thing and the few and far between bits of songs that see synths are tasteful and never take away the rock feeling. Even at its poppiest/fluffiest, the record feels genuine; the songs are made out of need, not obligation. If anything I'm consoled by the thought that the album is only as good as it is because Nicks and Buckingham wanted to make every song they had left to make together, as evidence by them each doing a goodbye song ("Say Goodbye" and "Goodbye Baby", for Buckingham and Nicks respectively), whose parallel only serves to highlight their difference. It hurts man. This album is more complete than anything they'd do apart. Add to that the fact that it's devotion to at its poppiest still being rock is respectable but I could maybe chuck it not having a single 'have it on repeat' song might be the fault of there being no Christine McVie hooks. Just a shame. Still, Fleetwood Mac is my favorite band and this record was reminder of why. Christine Mcvie has left us and even if Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham were to make music together again, the middling McVie/Buckingham collaboration album leaves me feeling the product probably wouldn't be all that. So this is it, the swan song of a band, lead by the two people who both ruined them and made them legends. Iconic stuff
17-06-2023
20:10
Kisses - Anitta
For a good decade now Anitta has been my country's great pop hope, with her devoting herself to the international market for about as long as I haven't lived in Brazil. Become Shakira she has not though, as her success has been rather intermittent and the United States has been far less receptive then one would hope. Thanks to her catering to the ginormous market that is Latin America she's pulled decent numbers on YouTube and spotify with the occasional song passing 100 million on either one, but her chart placements aren't usually stellar and she is certainly not an artist that gets attention for her full length projects over her singles. What she does deserve credit for is one of pop's great workaholics as features and remixes ensure she's probably been in enough songs to fill 10 albums while only having released 5. Her last project was her most dedicated plight for international superstardom yet. Versions Of Me was recorded and released in the US by Warner with executive production by veteran hitmaker Ryan Tedder. It is a thoroughly calculated project with a devotion to commercialism that is hard to overstate. Save for one none of its singles is without known hitmakers in their credits. Synth pop ditties "Boys Don't Cry" and the title track are written by Bibi Bourelly, ill conceived tourism brochure "Girl From Rio" was produced by Stargate, "Faking Love" and "Me Gusta" rely heavily on their guest verses by Saweetie and Cardi B respectively, and "Gata" counts with the help of the wish.com Ozuna American radio seems to so gladly welcome, Chencho Corleone. But the most notorious thing about all those singles? They bit the dirt. "Me Gusta" pulled the numbers expected from an inoffensive piece of Latin radio fodder that got some push but otherwise the album was not showing promise prior to release. What then was it that broke it through? Why the same thing that breaks fucking everything through these days: TikTok. Yet the curious thing, and it may be luck but I must remark it, was the song that went viral on TikTok, topped the Global Spotify chart, went #2 on the Billboard Global 200 and actually showed some legs in the Hot 100 even if it peaked at #70 was not one of the aforementioned singles but Envolver. Now Envolver also bit the dirt when it came out in November and it didn't really take off until March with the TikTok trend, but said TikTok trend was inspired by the video which Anitta directed herself, and used a song with writers and producers that don't even have their own Wikipedia articles. As live performances would go on to show it still carried enough pop pristineness that Anitta couldn't show her wild side too much but it is arguably the closest she's ever gotten to playing the American pop starlet properly. It eventually rose to become her second most streamed song ever and by a very, very large margin her most streamed solo song. The album still bit the dirt in the US despite all the promo effort and the presence of an actual hit. I followed her press run throughout, she is such a cool person, and I was so fascinated by her plea for attention. It captured the zeitgeist of Brazil in the online era, where my country won't stop comparing itself to and copying its North American counterpart to middling results and less of a place in pop culture and the international stage than it wants to admit. As for the music itself? It's all unambitious and almost afraid to exist in its okay-ness. Heart-breakingly impossible to love. A ridiculously anticlimatic cake to have under all this icing. Kinda hilarious if you ask me
Now I don't know if anyone stills remembers at the end of this rant about the Versions Of Me era, but this post is titled Kisses. That is the one I listened to yesterday at long last, and also Anitta's first album devoted to the international market. On a Pitchfork interview Anitta explained how this album was made as a way for her to show what she was capable of so she could pitch herself and get herself a manager and a team for her international career, as she was managing herself at the time. As I only knew a few songs from that project I went and listened to the whole thing so I could see what Anitta cooked up without a manager/executive producer's playbook guiding her. I don't like the idea that artists have to suffer for their art, but I certainly believe there is something special that comes through when an artist thinks they have something to prove. In this album Anitta shows us everything she is capable of, and it's quite the take it or leave it experience. Opener "Atención" is interesting because it felt to me like the most genuine Anitta's presented herself in a long time. It's hype, carries a hint of trashy drowned in pure confidence, and the video shows her at her favela girl sexiest in equal standing with other women, with the shots of the self-examining of their breasts being particularly humanizing. It's not a great song but it's a surprisingly solid album intro and reminds you that Anitta started in a music genre known more for its rappers than its singers. "Banana" is a hate it or love it show of Anitta's strengths with both the atmosphere and the lyrical content really not toning it down and it only working if you like over the top stuff. "Onda Diferente" and "Voce Mentiu" are two wildly different moments demanding respect, the former bringing Snoop Dogg into a funk song with a verse that leaves you wondering whether he really committed to this song or whether his autopilot is just that good while Anitta joins a different lady for a performance just as committed to the bit as in "Banana" (even if she's a little outshined here), and the latter shows Anitta toning it down and joining a national icon to remind us that even if she's not the most technical vocalist her voice is actually very pretty. The rest of the album lands in a "respectably okay" middle ground where it's painfully clear Anitta doesn't really make artistic statements but give her a song in her range and she'll do it justice with milimetric precision. It's not an amazing album, but it's one that felt like it had a point to make, even if that point is "Anitta can sell", metaphorically and literally. I'd say it's one that gives me hope for Anitta, but its follow up being already out all I can think is that the devotion to pop stardom kneecaps Anitta, who's repeatedly won big by comitting to a real "came from the favela" vibe rather than a pristine manequin of the "girl from Rio", adapted to contemporary sensibilities as that material may be. We'll see where she ends. Never not rooting for my country's biggest star
I think this will stay this blog's longest post like, forever. It being so that I liked the album from the last post way more just shows that there's a difference between music you like and music you have something to say about
12-06-2023
23:22
Clear 2: Soft Life - Summer Walker
I like Summer Walker. A lot. I don't quite recall how I first heard of her, I think it was on TikTok but I couldn't tell you what kind of TikTok seen as I don't think she ever had a viral hit there. Regardless, her album Still Over It was very important in getting me through my first breakup, besides kicking ass of course. R&B is a genre full of exaggerated drama and divas, and in that landscaped Summer Walker sticks out as someone who peels off the layers. Her lyrics are often almost conversational, replacing carefully constructed poetry with the earnestness of the every day. She's the latest in the Mary J. Blige dinasty of "R&B women who do have Soul smoothness and Rap realness". In this EP she peels even more layers as it was recorded with a live band and largely foregoing autotune. She's said this project her in a different place than where she was when she made the sadder original Clear EP, and it's not too hard to tell. Her songs are not devoid of melancholy, but this time she seems more capable of taking care of herself. Themes of not needing to stay with a bad partner, having her own money and just wanting to have her own peace. It sounds beautiful throughout and really makes you feel like you're sharing on Walker's personal life. I love it. It's always a breath of fresh air to get a project from someone as easy to like as Summer Walker
05-06-2023
22:27
Go Insane - Lindsey Buckingham
And onwards with the Fleetwood Mac journey. Yk I put these items in my list a long time ago back when I'd listened to Tango In The Night and wanted to convince myself that the fact that the Nicks/Buckingham/McVie trio never wrote another album together was Fine Actually(™) and it's getting increasingly hard to believe that. This album definitely shows Buckingham remembering to try and make some hits but it's still full of his desire to experiment, and the issue with Lindsey Buckingham's experimentalisms is that he was doing them in the 80's, which made them soooooo dated. It's like stumbled and bumped his head in the late 80's so Björk could do pirouettes and backflips in the early 90's. All that out of the way I'll say he still has more success in his experiments here then in any record prior, including his curveballs within Fleetwood Mac (save for "Big Love' but that's one of the best songs ever so it doesn't count). "Play In The Rain" in all of its two track grandiosity is possibly the finest bit of Buckingham's solo material I've heard yet. The rest of the album after it shows more finished versions of his experiments as well but none that land as much. Apple Music showed me that "D.W. Suite" was featured in a playlist of songs inspired by the Beach Boys, and while I do hear it it didn't help Buckingham's credibility so much as tell me relistening to Pet Sounds (which I love deeply) would have been a better use of my time. As for the first half at its best it was still way too 80's and honestly the whole product kinda tested my patience. It just seems misguided. I mean think of every record I've compared Buckingham's work to so far, solo Stevie Nicks, 90's Björk, Pet Sounds, even Fleetwood Mac's discography with Buckingham, all of those had an element of collaboration at their core. Hell, Tango In The Night, which was admitted to be a Buckingham solo record that got retrofitted into Fleetwood Mac, wouldn't have attained the heights it did without the dynamic between Christine McVie's songwriting and Buckingham's production. On Go Insane meanwhile Buckingham plays every instrument, and the mastermind behind some of the most expansive (and expensive) projects in rock history just doesn't thrive equally in a project this narrow. I listened to the only single from his album after this one and it was a noticeable improvement what with the prioritizing guitar and not synths, but he's gonna have to regain a lot of good will with Say You Will and Buckingham Nicks or I am not exploring his discography any further (something Stevie Nicks is safe from cuz I already had more solo material of hers on the list before Rock A Little made me question that decision)
03-06-2023
17:14
Rock A Little - Stevie Nicks
And on we go in the solo Fleetwood Mac train. I know I said The Wild Heart was very 80's but holy guacamole does this one sound of its time. It is very overproduced, to at least decent results always. "I Can't Wait" is a textbook banger but a banger no less. Definitely an album highlight. For the rest I just found myself thinking this songs sound like other people's. Like the production was neat and tidy, the performances were precise and contained, but that's not what I want from Stevie Nicks. I couldn't help thinking this 80's schlock would have been brought to greater heights if it had been given to Cher or Madonna or even Janet Jackson at points. Finally "Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You", this album's "Beauty and the Beast", is so dull it makes me mad. The rest of the album, even in its textbookness, stays enjoyable for anyone who likes Stevie Nicks, but this boring nothing sandwich at the end turns your cynicism right tf back on. This album is a skip unless you're determined to get through Stevie Nicks' discography. That said if you're doing that that means you like Stevie Nicks so for the most part you'll find it just fine
29-05-2023
20:36
In Between - Lauren Jauregui
I have a rather odd relationship with Fifth Harmony's legacy in that I don't like Fifth Harmony and never have. That would be a pretty common, reasonable stance on its own except year ago I emigrated at around the same time Camila Cabello hit it big, and a latin girl singing about feeling out of place really conneced with me. While nowadays I have a love hate relationship with her where everything she makes seems to hit immediately and then age horribly, having loved her then lead me to look up the solo work of the other, much less succesfull Fifth Harmony members, and they all have made songs I really like in fairly different ways. Lauren Jauregui in particular seemed to take a while to find herself first as a major label artist and then as an independent one, but she's had the most consistent release schedule and I've liked pretty much all of it. Prelude, her first EP, was a rather low-key project whose main selling point was that it put the beauty of her voice on full display. Now on In Between we get a sonic continuation with production that's less rough around the edges and her voice still sounding beautiful. "Trust Issues" and "Always Love" are my two favourites largely because I love a lullaby. "All In My Feelings" is quite fun also and I like the 'and now he answers my text' bit at the end. Overall it's a nice follow-up to the last one and leaves me hoping that Lauren Jauregui will eventually find herself a great producer because she has a lot of potential
29-05-2023
20:13
The Wild Heart - Stevie Nicks
So I checked this one out last night and while I know it being Nicks' second record probably means I should compare it to Lindsey Buckingham's second record I haven't listened to that one yet so Law And Order stays the comparison. It's not entirely unfair either. Whereas Bella Donna walked the line between late 70's and early 80's, Law And Order foresaw the way the 80's would go on to sound and The Wild Heart is as 80's as it can afford to be. Curiously, what makes this record something of a disappointment is also what explains why Nicks had hits and Buckingham didn't: It's kind of a sellout move. Whereas Bella Donna took the preconceptions of Stevie Nicks established within Fleetwood Mac, reframed them and proved they were something you could build a whole skip-free record around, The Wild Heart is simply the Stevie Nicks record for 1983. Now let's be clear, that's not a bad thing. 1983 was one of the best years in pop music history, and a classic rock diva wrapped in some 80's gloss makes for a fun listen. It's just very clearly much less of an artistic statement. Where the last record was built around Stevie Nicks, here her whailing, her vibratto, her choosing spontaneity over proper tempo, it can all kinda seem to be reverse engineering 80's pop into Stevie Nicks songs. It recalls the parallel between Kelly Clarkson's songs "Since U Been Gone" and "My Life Would Suck Without You". "Since U Been Gone" helped Clarkson shed the image American Idol forced her into and show she was more than a cute girl with a pretty voice. "My Life Would Suck Without You" is just a well made Kelly Clarkson song. And you know what? I like "My Life Would Suck Withot You", and I like The Wild Heart. Special shout out to "Stand Back", the "My Life Would Suck Without You" to "Edge Of Seventeen"'s "Since U Been Gone". The album's biggest hit, the song is also emblematic of why Nicks albums work where Buckingham ones don't: Stevie Nicks is here to perform. Law And Order sounds pristine and spotless, a smooth recording through and through. The Wild Heart is a fucking mess. Echoing, whaling, straining, being off beat, Stevie Nicks make sure the album is a lot. It's also fairly long, 45 minutes for 10 songs, so everything gets to unravel. If Nicks ditched art for a blockbuster, a blockbuster she got, be it doing synth-pop, southern rock, reworkings of Prince hits, or songs written 100% by Tom Petty and 0% by her, it all hits, and she remains one of my all time favourite singers
P.S. Beauty and the Beast is so boring. Stevie Nicks is normally quite good at ballads so it feels tragic. It's the last song too, what an afterthought
24-05-2023
16:38
Gag Order - Kesha
This new Kesha album was released by Kemosabe Records. When I saw that I went and looked up when Kesha first sued Dr. Luke. It was in 2014. For almost 10 years now Kesha has had to deal with the fact that she made her abuse public and yet had to stay tied to her abuser. It was hard to stay the party girl/autotune poster child she was that way, specially if the abuser in question was the one who produced the songs. As for how she deals with it, in 2017's Rainbow the answer was "by turing off the autotune, being more thoughtful and showing my voice off more". Unfortunately rather than freeing her that made "former party girl now serious artist" the new box she got shoved into, so in 2020's High Road her new approach was being above both sides of the coin through a mix of raw emotion, self parody, and sound experimentations. That record swung for the fences and hit more times than it got credit for. This time? She's tired. Kesha is 36 year old and exhausted. This album sounds heavier than anything else she's ever done. Songs like Fine Line, Eat The Acid and Too Far Gone tell of a woman that's been put through way more than anyone should. Living In My Head hints at the folkier side of her I fell in love with on High Road. Hate Me Harder edges on cliché, but Kesha puts enough sentiment behind to make it worth listening to. It's all very striking, and whatever this record may lack on replay value it makes up for in the cohesiveness of the experience. I hope Kesha doesn't take too long to release again, because if there is one thing this record achieves it's making you think about her
19-05-2023
21:31
Tous Les Garçons Et Les Filles - Françoise Hardy
Conveniently as I prepare to take the exam for a French certificate I had French TikTok lead me to the title track of this 1962 album, which I liked enough to warrant listening to the whole thing. First let me stop and say that much with the jazz of Edith Piaf, the blues/rock and roll of this album is a genre where many notorious performers didn't write their own material. Because of that, much like I was shocked to find out Ms. Piaf penned dozens of songs including "La Vie En Rose" and "Hymne à L'amour", I was shocked to find this album is almost entirely self written. It falls under the music genre yé-yé, which was the name given to the French approach to the blues, rock and roll and pop rock of the late 50's and early 60's anglophone world. Being a 1962 release this album is certainly more Elvis than Beatles, but its cheesy moments are forgivable thanks to how the often exaggerated markings of the commercially dominating styles it takes on are presented in a subdued way. It reminds me of another record I fell in love with this year, Astrud Gilberto's I Haven't Got Anything Better To Do. That album also presented a subdued take on a culture mixing genre (bossa nova) filtered through the warm, welcoming voice of a young woman. Indeed, the soft, sunshiney colors of Hardy's voice make this album's brief 28 minutes a delightful reminder of why some of the most commercialized music styles of all times were allowed to become that popular. Late 50's pop is yet to see the reappraisal things like disco and new jack swing have received, but if you're willing to open your mind and change your opinions of it this album will prove itself a thoroughly rewarding listen
18-05-2023
00:01
Law and Order - Lindsey Buckingham
It's been a while since I've had the time to cross an album off my list but today I managed with Law and Order by Lindsey Buckingham. Of the three songwriters on Fleetwood Mac Buckingham was the only one I'd yet to listen to a solo record from. It was quite the disappointment. It's not comparable to Christine McVie's solo album because that one got rid of expectations with the first note, like it was all cheesy fun 80's tunes and there were quite a few hooks there. Buckingham meanwhile does way too much weird stuff to be considered a maker of cheesy fun pop but also not of it rises. The guitar parts on "Johnny Stew", probably the album's best moment, are a display of why it fails: Lindsey Buckingham is a rockstar but for the most part he isn't playing like one. After I was done with that thing I went back and listened to Stevie Nicks' first solo album and the difference was bonkers. Bella Donna is deeply rooted in southern rock, and Nicks took the approach of calling upon every friend she had in the industry to make sure her songwriting was brought to life in the best way possible. It was her spreading her wings and finding new sounds, never fully divorcing from Fleetwood Mac but adding a lot to the musical identity she'd carved there. Buckingham had always been a producer, so he did pretty much everything himself. He brough in the producer from Tusk so he could make more of the experimentation he'd done on that album, but though creative as a musician Buckingham was a pop producer. The majority of the record ends up being a mildly pleasant run of 80's blandness whose biggest merit is finding the decade's standard brand of boring before the rest of the music industry did. I'll still listen to his second album whenever it comes up on the list since it's already on it but I'm not looking forward to it. Makes me wonder if his work on Tango In the Night would still have been as good as it was had it not been for Fleetwood Mac
13-05-2023
16:23
Opera is so good
I was home alone for a bit just now and putting furniture up so I could vacuum clean but that meant more empty space in the living room and I was blasting arias from the living room speakers and it just sounded... wow. It was magical. Even the moments of silence were enrapturing I loved it so much 10/10 want more
08-05-2023
16:45
Shoutout to Vespertine by Björk for still being That Good(™) no matter how many times I listen to it. Stream "Pagan Poetry" for clear skin
07-05-2023
23:07
Simp hours
Not to detract from my journey of music discovery but it sure does suck vibing over shared musical loves wit a hot guy you know is not interested in you. Thanks for that Björk, Arca and Astrud Gilberto
06-05-2023
18:17