Major Lazer - Free the Universe

I first heard Major Lazer several years ago.  When this happened, I wasn't even trying to listen to him.  I was just doing what I do during every waking moment of my life, which is clicking links on Reddit.  This happened to be the link I clicked on at that moment:

I laughed...a lot, but I was also intensely confused, and somewhat offended by the obnoxious stupidity of this video.  "Who created this?" I wondered.  Who would have the audacity to make something so "pants on head" retarded and how did he make it so catchy? Major lazer has taken club music by storm with this obnoxious, Caribbean bro-step so intensely that you can almost guarantee you will hear him next time you're getting down at a nightclub.

When this happens, you will definitely know. Diplo and Switch, the producers who used to comprise Major Lazer, have consistently been able to put themselves ahead of the mainstream pop music by making their music at least as offbeat and insane, as it is catchy and well produced.  Also, their choice of features, musicians famous for making music in the genres Major Lazer was more or less lampooning, gave their music a sense of integrity rather than mockery.  Now Switch is off the project though, and Diplo has continued it solo on the new album Free the Universe.

With Switch leaving, I feel like a sense of restraint and focus has also left Major Lazer, which makes the project feel more insincere.  For instance, Amber Coffman's voice on "Get Free" is uplifting, like a sunrise over the Serengeti, but the lyrical themes about government oppression are simply unbelievable coming from a Texan-born singer and a British producer.  In this respect, the other reggae track, "Jessica," sung by Ezra Koenig from Vampire Weekend, feels much more unassuming.  Even though it is silly, it's still very likable.

Just Like Ezra Koenig is!

The rest of the album is more hectic than a Carnival parade.  The vocals on the first couple of songs "You're No Good" and "Jet Blue Jet" don't come close to matching the energy of the synths and drums, and the smarmy way that they are sung in the bridge on "Wind Up" makes me cringe...hard.  It sounds like Diplo gets anxious quickly and rather than let the beat continue, he just adds in random sounds, like that stadium announcer voice, or the comical laughing, or the one line guest spots.  It really breaks up the flow of most of these new songs.

Also, the weird mishmashes of guests he features on each track don't fit well.  They just aren't used as purposefully as on Guns Don't Kill People...Lazers Do.  Also, I have no idea what dumpster Diplo found Shaggy in, but he certainly didn't do him any favours by getting him to sing on "Keep cool (Life is What)."  Shaggy was tacky in the 90's when he was still a recognizable performer and ten years later he sounds even more ridiculous.  Ok, I'll stop with the Shaggy hate.  It wasn't him, after all.

In summing this album up, even though I praised Major Lazer for being wacky in the past, the way Diplo is going about it now has several flaws.  It's just too much.  The beats are consistently overproduced, and far too aggressive without sticking to any sort of theme or letting an idea play out.  The guest spots are bizarre and crowded like a clown car, and it doesn't feel like Major Lazer is actually putting any thought into them.  Major Lazer is at its best when the guest spots are limited and the production is more relaxed like in "Get Free," "Jah no Partial," and "Watch Out for This (Bumaye)."  Other than those tracks (which are pretty good), very little about this album appeals to me. 

Discussion!

• I avoided rushing into a discussion about cultural appropriation, but my review hinted at it anyways.  Do you feel like Major Lazer does this negatively? is it a problem for you?
• Does Major Lazer's zaniness appeal to you or do you find yourself overloaded?

Thanks for reading! let me know what you think in the comments.

The Knife - Shaking the Habitual

Hello everyone! I am sorry that it has been a while, but I hung myself up on this review because I found this album very hard to approach.  This shouldn't be a surprise for anyone familiar with the Knife's work in general, or with this album in particular.  They have always had a shadowy and evil character to their electro pop, but as they produce more albums they seem to fade even further into the abyss.

The last studio album from the Knife was 2006's Silent Shout.  Since then, the group has produced Karin Dreijer Andersson's sullen and haunting solo project Fever Ray, and an obtuse Avant-garde opera about the life of Charles Darwin, titled Tomorrow in a Year.  I wouldn't recommend the latter of these two, unless you feel like being confused and horrified for 90 minutes straight.  However, it does help to be aware of it, in order to understand the more acoustic and experimental direction they followed from that point to their new album Shaking the Habitual.  They experiment with the same instruments on both albums, but this time they have actually mastered them, rather than just experimenting wildly.

The Knife could find a way to play a mean mayonnaise. 

This new work is still heavily experimental, but the structure is much more fluid, and feels more organic than Tomorrow in a Year.  However, Just because it flows well, don't think it's going to be a relaxing listen.  When the Knife says they are Shaking the Habitual, they clearly mean it.

Because of its name, I was expecting something more pointed and political.  Instead I received an amorphous, impenetrable blob of primordial ooze.  This fact alone would annoy me more if the cathartic experimentation wasn't the message in and of itself.  I think this decision goes hand in hand with the acoustic direction.  It almost feels like a regression through time, back to humanity's infancy.  There is less structure, and less electronics, and instead more unpredictability, and more emotional indulgence.

You want a nine minute, ambient, brainmelter with synths deep enough to hide the lochness monster in? and with only four lyrics about eating coffee and cake for lunch? Bam! "Cherry on Top," how about 20 minutes of tense, dissonant groaning created by recording noise in a boiler room with sputtering percussion that builds to nowhere? No? TOO BAD! "Old Dreams Waiting to be Realized!"

Shaking the Habitual is profound in its commitment to unbridled emotional expression.  The Knife doesn't shy away from a feeling or a thought until it has fully run its course, whether it takes 20 minutes or 37 seconds. Despite the huge variation in song lengths and styles, It is consistently dark, bold, and unapologetically ferocious.  These songs are so seriously far off the deep end; they could have been written by Cthulhu himself.  They do have their more accessible moments though.

Because Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn would be such a good chorus...

Like the single, "A Tooth for an Eye."  It has all the characteristics of a great Knife song: a steady build, intricate percussion, and disturbing vocal manipulations underwritten by a challenge of gender roles (which they expressed nicely in the music video).  This song and the other pagan dance ritual, "Without You My Life Would be Boring," are definitely the high points on the album for me.  They have a determined, satanic energy that makes me want to run until my lungs cave in, or scream till I start coughing up blood.

The second track "Full of Fire," is also a pounding, percussive, tour de force with some really devastating drum rolls, but I seriously hate the vocal delivery.  Despite its different manipulations, it remains displeasing to me in a way that isn't bold enough to make me more than mildly uncomfortable.  In fact, if I had to pick one thing I really didn't like about Shaking the Habitual, it would be the singing in general.  Usually, the Knife's strange vocals are blended seamlessly with their malevolent synthesizers, but their move to this more acoustic sound leaves the vocals sounding out of place in the beginnings of "Raging Lung," "Full of Fire," and "Ready to Lose."  They are eventually blended together, but the moments where they appear on their own are glaringly lacklustre.

At the end of this thing, and after reading the insane manifesto the Knife produced to describe it; I feel this album defies being rated on a traditional scale.  If someone were to give it a bad rating rating for being an inaccessible, shadowy behemoth without structure, catchy lyrics, or any semblance of comfort anywhere in it, then they would merely be confirming its existence as something disturbingly outside the ordinary.  It is long and disquieting and it may burn you out before it finishes, but this nightmare deserves your time and effort.  It will remind you that the strange, the beautiful, and the horrifying are not always separate when we encounter them within ourselves or hidden within the depths of the world.  By presenting them wholesale, and not parsing them down or separating them the Knife has created something truly disturbing and intensely thought provoking.  My god that was long.

Discussion!

• Honestly, the one thing I am curious about with this album is how other people experienced it.  Could you listen to the whole thing? Did it make you uncomfortable? Did it inspire you to think or did it just confuse you?

I really want to engage with people about this album, rather than just adding my review to the pile of positive reviews that already exist for it.  Please let me know in the comments.

Justin Timberlake - The 20/20 Experience

I never thought I would actually look forward to reviewing a Justin Timberlake album. I still find it hard to push out of my mind that NSYNC was a thing.  The boy band era is  long over now, and Justin Timberlake has clearly come into his own as an artist since then.

However, the 20/20 Experience is not something completely new or estranged from its roots in early 2000's pop music.  Every now and again you do actually hear the same quiet aside "Take em to the bridge" from "Sexyback" on Futuresex/Lovesounds, but it is cohesive and spectacular in its own way. Plus who really get tired of 2000's pop music.  Like a finely crafted suit; even after many wears it will still impress. 

In many ways, this album rejoices in its predictability. To me, It basically begs the question: if something isn't original, but is still executed with expert precision, is there anything wrong with that? Like when JT takes the love/drug cliche in "Pusher Love" and plays it out for 8 minutes until it basically implodes, or the song "That Girl" with its crisp 70's, soul style, brass. Yes we have heard these themes many times before, but that doesn't make them less true, or less appealing to me. The 20/20 Experience serves as a reminder of why we love these old tropes: they are simple and they are beautiful.

Plus we have all had enough surprises from JT in the past.

A sense of familiarity also manifests itself in the song lengths.  Most of them clock in around 7-8 minutes, which is a gutsy move, but he pulls it off with smooth transitions, catchy hooks, and glitzy instrumentation.  He is much more comfortable here than on Futuresex/Lovesounds, where I found that most of the songs became stale far before they ended. These tracks are long enough that you could easily memorize the choruses on one listen, which means that if each song didn't have strong, catchy lyrics, this album would have fallen flat on its face...hard.  At least it wouldn't have broken its glasses!..hah 20/20 vision.

That being said, its not like the beats can't stand on their own. They are spectacular and grandiose, and they borrow from many different worlds of music. The track "Don't Hold the Wall" has a very salsa inspired drum beat. The muted arpeggio in the song "Tunnel Vision" sounds like something Flying Lotus could have produced. The backwards strings in the song "Blue Ocean Floor" are just sublime, and set against JT's silky voice, the whole effect is otherworldly.  However, as I listen to this album more and more, I honestly wonder where the 20/20 Experience will get played.  It's not high energy enough for a club, and its consistently too long for the radio.  I normally wouldn't ask this question, but since it's a pop album, I feel compelled to.  The songs are unquestionably meant for dancing, but their control of energy makes me think that only a trained dancer could handle them in a performance; someone like Justin Timberlake.  Which I think really validates the album's name.  Is is an experience, like some gargantuan piece of musical theater.

And I have always wanted to hear more from The Pusher

Once Justin Timberlake sticks into a groove he doesn't let go of it.  He gives each song its own time to run its course.  It is a testament to his self confidence and it also serves as a metaphor for the love and commitment that he praises constantly.  Because above all, this album is about love, not the "Hey I just bought you the on-special highball, so let's we go fuck in a dark corner of the club" kind of love that most pop stars relish, rather the "Hey I taped Grey's Anatomy for you so we can watch it while i give you a foot massage" love. That classic stuff.

Discussion!

• Are the lyrics too bogged down in cliche to carry deeper meaning for you?
• Can you dig into the song lengths? or do you find them becoming boring?
• Does Justin Timberlake's past identity as a boy band member make it hard for you to take him seriously as an artist?

Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think.

Foxygen - We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic

Hello everyone! we recently just passed 1000 views, which is a big milestone for me.  I am so happy people have been taking the time to read my opinions on music.  Thank you so much.  Why don't we celebrate with an album review. This week I am thinking people might like Autre Ne Veut's Anxiety, but screw you man! I'm a punk at heart, so I'm doing Foxygen's new album, We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic (I'll save Anxiety for next week).

Wow that is a mouthful, and I think it really goes a long way to demonstrating the bombastic, sassy energy that this band puts into their music. On this album, they seem far more comfortable settling into some steadier grooves then in their previous LP, Take the Kids off Broadway, but they still come off sounding like the Rolling stones haven't been taking their ADD medication.

"I see a red door and I want it painted black, no blue, no yellow, no lets leave it red, no LETS KNOCK IT DOWN!"

Of course, I would not necessarily count this against them, but I can easily see how their music could seem ridiculous or uncommitted.  The high energy, tempo changes, and strange lyrics don't exactly paint a graceful picture as much as they do a burlesque parody of 70's rock and roll.

However, on this new album, the lyrics are a lot more comprehensible and more personal than on Take the Kids off Broadway.  Like in the song "On Blue Mountain" which seems to detail a fracturing relationship with Christianity.  The control of energy in this song is just fantastic; the tempo changes smoothly a couple times as the bass and organ swell and burst, and Sam France just screams "On blue mountain God will save you" till it sounds like he basically dies of exhaustion.  Another quite personal track on this album is the song "No Destruction," which talks about getting rejected by a girl for being a pot smoking ne'er do well.  The first verse is quite calm, but his depression turns to frustration in the second verse as he comes back to repeat the same phrases in such an angry sarcastic spit.  It's no mystery how he feels.

Rejection, frustration, failure, and fun all seem to be pretty major themes in this album.  Even on the more relaxed elevator, psych-rock single "San Francisco."   Though I was initially put off by the mockingly cheerful melody and the vocalists' disinterested delivery, the chorus of this song is seriously infectious.  The reverb on the female voice makes it sound like it is inside the singer's head, telling him his decisions are o.k. because "She was bored anyway."  The crass attitude of this song also carries over into my favourite track "Oh Yeah" which should have you dancing at least by the time they start singing the hokey pokey in the second verse.  There is also some stellar guitar work hidden in the background.

The whole album is deeply rooted in smart ass sass, but what really makes it alluring for me is that they are able to take a fun attitude to some downtrodden topic matter.  It is teenage angst at its finest, where frustration and anger are motivated by excess energy and boredom, and validated by rock and roll and drugs.  I feel this album also stands against and mocks some of the music we most associate with rebellious youth culture, like it is a recognition of how patronizing it is to have music made specifically to appeal to the youth.  Foxygen's take on rock and roll is full of sass, which can make it sit uncomfortably between homage and parody, but this album is so full of Holden Caulfield likability and youthful exuberance, its hard not to love it.  Stay gold Foxygen.  Stay gold.

Discussion!

• Would you feel like this album could be a parody or an homage to 70's rock and roll?
• Do you enjoy Sam France's vocal delivery? or does his swing from flat monotone to hoarse screaming put you off?
• Is it too sassy to seriously convey some topic material you can relate to?

Let me know in the comments!

Youth Lagoon - Wondrous Bughouse

Oh boy.  This one is exciting.  I hope you all have had a chance to listen to Youth Lagoon's 2011 album, The Year of Hibernation.  The album is a sleepy, minimalist hug, that fits perfectly for any rainy afternoon.  Even though it explores topics of mental distress, it remains quiet and comforting all the way through.  In some spots it may also feel like it needs you to hug it back, especially when Trevor Powers quietly croaks "You make real friends quickly, but not me." on the opening track "Posters."  The album felt so friendly, it disappointed me greatly that it was only 35 minutes long, but now Youth Lagoon is back! and is he ever.

The first thing I noticed on Wondrous Bughouse, is that the comforting, careful ambiance is gone.  We have been thrown into a fuzzy , wild, unpredictable dimension of experimental dream pop and noise.  Someone must have given poor sweet Trevor Powers drugs...lots of drugs.

A Wondrous Bughouse Indeed

This new album is a very bold move from Youth Lagoon.  He has moved in a direction that I did not expect at all, the songs, and the whole album, are longer(almost 50 minutes), the tone is much brighter, the effects are heavier, and the song structures are much looser and more experimental.  It really reminds of the decision   that MGMT made on their sophomore LP Congratulations.  Rather than produce another accessible record in the same style, Youth Lagoon has decided to get more psychedelic and really see how far the rabbit hole goes.

And Boy Does It Go

 It definitely seems like a much more intuitive exploration of various mental states, than The Year of Hibernation, especially thanks to the more experimental song structures.  The first song that really grabbed me in this respect was the track "Attic Doctor", the song has this tipsy melody and a strange rhythm that makes it turn back in on itself like a snake, or a caterpillar.  Also, the intro,"Through Mind and Back", has this dissonant and hazy, droopy quality where it sounds like music were used to from Youth Lagoon is bubbling and melting away.  It sets the tone perfectly.

This droopy warbling sound is definitely a centerpiece on this album, and I absolutely love how the track "Mute" uses it in the keys to make it sound like some kind of broken carnival game.  This same tripped out carnival fun-house also makes an appearance in the song "Third Dystopia," but the picture is more painted by the wacky percussion here than anything else.  It also features nicely on the song "Sleep Paralysis" which wilts away slowly before turning into a introspective psychedelic waltz.

Make Sure to Dress Appropriately

Of course if all these fuzzy, rippling effects are too much for you, there are remnants of Youth Lagoon's older style, like in the songs "Raspberry Cane," "The Bath," and "Dropla."  All three of which have nice straightforward builds that were explored greatly on The Year of Hibernation.  They still differ from his earlier approach though, in that they are brighter, louder, and far more distorted.  Actually, if I had to point out one thing I did not like about this album, it's that the loud effects and distortion on these songs make it nearly impossible to discern the lyrics.  It can be uncomfortable and overpowering, but in most places it adds a hazy and watery lens through which to view this golden afternoon.

Discussion!

• Is this new album too much of a change in mood from The Year of Hibernation for you to still connect with Youth Lagoon's music?
• Do the effects obscure more than they reveal? Does what they communicate about the atmosphere come at the expense of connecting to the lyrics?
• Does Trevor Power's voice fit nicely with the other instrumentation? or is it too easily overpowered by the bright noisy, synths and keys?

Let me know what you think in the comments!

A$AP Rocky - Long Live A$AP

It has been nearly two years since A$AP Rocky stomped out of Harlem with the Live Love A$AP debut mixtape.  The critically acclaimed collection of songs got Rocky a three million dollar record contract with Sony and RCA Music, and when you listen to it, you can hear why.  Rocky has a wide range of appeal, and although the topic matter is not always there to back up his focused and well crafted image, his confidence will keep you entertained as long as you don't pay too close attention to what he is actually saying.

Live Love A$AP had Rocky constantly rapping about what he was wearing, drinking, smoking, and little else.  This makes him quite similar to other top forty artists, but where A$AP Rocky stands apart is in his expertly crafted, smoked out aesthetic, and his lurching, swaggering, self assured delivery.  Basically, he raps the same way Captain Jack Sparrow stumbles around in Pirates of the Caribbean.

On Long Live A$AP, Rocky keeps up this style fairly well.  Frankly, the beats are impeccable.  They are consistently dark and hazy, but each one is unique enough to keep the album engaging.  He also ventures into some new sonic territory with the uplifting "Hell(feat. Santigold)," and the epic finisher "Like i'm Apart(feat. Florence Welch)."  Rocky's flow works quite well with these two fabulous singers, and he actually talks about some personal, emotional material when rapping with Florence Welch, which is a nice change.  The only song that felt seriously out of place was Skrillex's addition "Wild For the Night."  Rocky and Skrillex, just shouldn't do any work together, period.  You can't possibly tone down Skrillex's frantic, dial up modem style, electronics enough to match Rocky's drunken flow.

On this same topic, the only real problem I have with Rocky's flow is his tendency to abuse the pitch shifted vocals, especially on the songs "Lvl" and "Pain."  If he didn't constantly remind his audience that he is a pretty nigga with french braids and gold teeth, I would assume he looked like a thugged out Frankenstein.

UNNNNGH...BASS...UNNNGH...BASS.

I also found myself much more engaged when Rocky strayed away from talking about his appearance.  The songs "Phoenix" and "Suddenly" are great examples that Rocky can carry a song with material about his poverty and his youth, even when the beat is understated and calm.  The sad thing is that there just isn't enough of this interesting topic material for me to stay seriously engaged with this album.  Rocky has always been more about style and appearance, than he is about depth and substance, which seems to work for him commercially, but for me that will only keep me engaged for so long.

Other than the singles and the additional songs I mentioned, the beats are so good on this album, that Rocky doesn't really add much by rapping over them.  I find this particularly true for the song "Fashion Killa" which has these dreamy vocal samples, bouncing off the lively percussion, and the song "Ghetto Symphony" that takes an Imogen Heap sample, and switches it back and forth into this airy, threatening swarm of strings.  These beats are so lush and dynamic, they don't really need anyone rapping over them.  Rocky's excellent taste in beats usually does a great job in showcasing his style, but when his rhymes fall flat, they outshine him by miles, and expose his weaknesses clearly, making him seem like a superfluous and unnecessary presence.
 

My Bloody Valentine - MBV

As an Avalanches fan, I understand what it is like to wait a ridiculous amount of time for an album.  Its a terrible process of checking the band's website, praying, listening to nothing in your headphones trying to imagine what it might sound like, and always...always dealing with the crippling doubt that it might not even be worth listening to after such a long wait.  How could one deal with that disappointment after such a patient vigil.   Hypothetically of course...waiting like that would be ridiculous...

seriously, I feel like a victim of emotional abuse.

It has only been about 12 years since Since I Left You, but I still feel like I can sympathize with My Bloody Valentine fans whose last album came out a whopping 21 years ago.  As another side note, it's very strange to think that I have basically lived my entire life in between these two My Bloody Valentine Albums.

And what a time it has been! other bands have flared up and died out like distant stars, and all the while people still listened to, and loved My Bloody Valentine.  What kind of band could inspire such a sustained reverence?

Well, My Bloody Valentine's album Loveless is often considered the pinnacle of shoegaze music, a subgenre typified by the heavy use of effect pedals which drown the music in oceans of fuzz and distorted noise.  The effect is hypnotizing, sexual, and surprisingly relaxing.  My bloody Valentine is especially talented at creating this torrential ocean of noise, and while listening to their music, it often feels as if you could just dissolve yourself in it.  To top it off, Belinda Butcher's voice fits in with the wailing, distorted guitars so snugly, and smoothly there is not one gap in this infernal shower.

Now, on this new album, My Bloody Valentine tries to shoot for the same sound, but falls quite short for  several reasons.

The first track, "She Found Now" is quite slow and methodical.  It is mostly a wall of fuzz that starts to pick up with some barely noticeable strumming towards the end of the song.  Like a lot of the songs on MBV this song does not develop or do anything interesting at all for its entire five minutes.  I like some of the distorted soloing on the next track "Only Tomorrow," but it's so understated, its barely noticeable.  In fact I found that the waves of fuzzy sustained guitar in this entire album were consistently dull.  Rather than thick and murky like an ocean, they are light and airy like a fog, and equally as captivating.

My Bloody Valentine has always been more about the textures of the distortion than the actual song writing, which is fine, but on this album, I found that none of the textures were that finely crafted or well put together.    This leaves nothing engaging in the music at all.  On the tracks "Who Sees You" and "Wonder 2" for instance, I thought that the textures of the vocals did not compliment the sound of the guitars even slightly.

The album really picks up in energy towards the end.  The drums are much more noticeable from "The New You" onward  but even in these songs, they just don't develop enough for them to really be interesting to me.  "Nothing Is" has an incredibly hypnotic repetitiveness to it, but the way it ends is just so abrupt that it makes me think they literally had no other ideas.

To me, this whole album just feels rushed.  They really tried to get it out suddenly without paying enough attention to the pacing, and the blending of the various elements.  It's consistently dull, and none of the songs develop or change in an interesting way.  Even the cover art smacks of intense laziness!  Its bland blue boxes and poorly rendered, 90's style letters represent the disinterested lack of attention with which I feel this whole album was composed.  In the 21 years My Bloody Valentine has been apart, it doesn't sound like they have grown as musicians in any tangible way.  They have been left behind in the 90's, as all of these songs sound like they could have been on Loveless but were cut from it because they had better material.  It really is a shame, because these songs are just so close to being listenable, and if they had taken more time to prepare them, it wouldn't have ended up being the dull grey parade of distorted lethargy that it is.