Tag: review

Quickies from April 2, 2021

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Justice | JB Hi-Fi

Justin Bieber – Justice (Def Jam)

It should be noted: I am NOT a Belieber. Never have been, and at this point it is unlikely to be the case in this reality. Or in the next. Last year’s unlistenable offerings, led by “Yummy”, had me prepared to light this album a verbal witch’s pyre, making it an effigy of the creator. 

I can’t really do that, and I’m disappointed. Justice is a lily-white attempt at what I will call “plebeian car jams”. Honestly, if he was still that prepubescent bowl cut, a few of the tracks might have been forgivably innocuous. “Off My Face” will wind up somebody’s First Dance at their wedding in 2021 or 2022, briefly supplanting Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect” for that honor, but that doesn’t make it a good song. The other tunes that are decent all have featured artists, all of whom overshadow The Bieb. That list includes a number of high-rollers: Chance the Rapper, The Kid LAROI, Da Baby, Khalid, Lil Uzi Vert, Jaden, and several others. 

The most cringe-worthy thing on the album is the incredibly crass way in which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s words about justice and equality are shoe-horned in alongside songs about missing his girl or being loved despite his fragile mental state. It’s disgusting. The Reverend’s speech on the mid-album interlude is even cut short to bastardize the idea of standing up for something you would die for in order to allow JB and Dominic Fike to say, “If your kiss could kill me, you know I would die for you.” Without that lead-in, the song was actually kind of a bop, but I was too filled with righteous indignation to enjoy it. 

FFO: Kidz Bop covers of The Weeknd, unsalted popcorn

Start with: “Die For You”, “Holy”, “Know No Better”

-JR

Return of the Dragon by Sacred Oath (Album, Heavy Metal): Reviews, Ratings, Credits, Song list - Rate Your Music

Sacred Oath – Return of the Dragon (Angel Thorne Music)

Sacred Oath is not going to start a revolution. They are not stretching the limits of genre. What they do is power-metal, with a few other elements thrown in. Wailing leads, crunchy rhythms, pounding drums, and soaring vocals that recount battles with mythological beings and earning the ire of supernatural entities, be they godlike or demonic. 

It is also perfectly done, expertly performed and produced. It is not often that a power metal act makes me smile as much as Sacred Oath, and that probably has something to do with the hints of stoner/doom that dot the songs. You can’t go wrong with anything on the record. 

FFO: Iron Maiden (but less irritating), Katatonia, Solace

Start with: “Hammer of an Angry God”, “At The Gates”, “Return of the Dragon”, “Cthulhu Wakes” 

-JR

Godspeed (Glasvegas album) - Wikipedia

Glasvegas – Godspeed (Go Wow)

Right after the odd “Parked Car” intro to the disc, we are treated with a pulsing synth bass and staccato vocals that simultaneously bring to mind the ‘80s brilliance of Thompson Twins and Tears For Fears alongside the dark-pop sensibilities of The Weeknd. 

Without question, Glasvegas has mastered the art of the slow build, adding intensity as the song progresses. The next tune maintains that pretense, but adds the leather jackets and swagger of Julian Casablancas and the angular tones of Biffy Clyro. 

The album proceeds thusly, changing attitude with nearly every song. But oozing Glaswegian piss and vinegar from every pore. 

I know this review makes no sense. Kindly just listen to the songs and ignore me in this moment. 

FFO: Biffy Clyro, Duran Duran, We Were Promised Jetpacks

Start With: “Dying to Live”, “Cupid’s Dark Disco”, “Dive”

-JR

Demi Lovato – Dancing With The Devil…The Art of Starting Over

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Demi Lovato – Dancing With The Devil…The Art of Starting Over (Island)

On the heels of some concern for her mental health, and much advocation for those whose plight is the same, Demi presents a collection of songs that detail the emotions and embattled musings that come with bouncing back. The last decade, she has dealt with issues regarding her bipolar disorder and anorexia, some incidents with cocaine, and a few relationship struggles. This record is her reaching a sort of catharsis, working as a companion to the YouTube documentary series of the same title. 

From the opening ballad, “Anyone”, her lyrics display the turmoil that plagued her internally while she struggled. With voice straining, almost unhinged, she wonders aloud what the point is of praying, or even talking to people, if no one is listening. “Dancing With The Devil”, the title track, follows that up with more controlled, more pop-accessible discourse on hiding in drugs and alcohol, covering up the torment underneath. The result is a powerful treatise. 

Demi has always been one of the most recognizable and strong voices in pop music, but she has never been as POTENT as she is on this record. She’s giving us a glimpse of her mindset as she fell apart, then rebuilt herself, all in the public eye. Particularly captivating is the way she starts the album at track 4. She allows the first 3 songs to be her past self, then reinvents herself to continue the album. It’s sort of like Taylor Swift killing off the old Taylor, but it comes across as endearing and powerful, instead of pompous and self-aggrandizing. 

The moments that feel the most vulnerable and pure are the aforementioned first track and “The Way You Don’t Look At Me”, wherein she talks about how the most difficult part of bouncing back is the judgment of those who were around during the fall. Mostly, the rest of the record is filled with beautifully choreographed pop songs, tinged with that hint of darkness or sadness. The collaborations with Sam Fischer and Ariana Grande are particularly accessible. The former, an on-the-nose account of how temptation and pressure are ever-present. The latter, a more allegorical and poetic account of meeting “the devil” at a club. 

While a couple songs fall short of wonderful (“The Kind of Lover I Am”, “My Girlfriends Are My Boyfriends”), there is nothing that I would consider drivel. None of this is pandering. None of this is watered down. Demi is strong. Demi is a diva. 

Demi deserves our respect. 

FFO: Alessia Cara, Kelly Clarkson

-JR

Note: The Deluxe Edition of the record has live acoustic versions of the first 3 tracks. It’s miraculous.

*Special Edition*

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August 14, 2020

We don’t often do this. This is an album review, but unlike our normal review posts, this one took on a life of its own. For that reason, we felt it needed to be removed from the herd. It’s for safety reasons. You understand.

Sexbat – Diurnal Curse (Sid Records)

Sexbat proved a difficult artist to track down on streaming services.  I found Sexton, Sexweather, G. Sexate, and The Sexbots, but I could only track this release down by searching for the album title, Diurnal Curse.  Just a word to the wise when you look this one up.  And you’ll want to look it up, because it is outstanding – which you will see below.

Every track on this album refers to a week, one through seven.  I originally wanted to review each song for a week, making this a seven week long review, but that seemed ill-advised.  So instead, every week will be condensed into a few paragraphs, based on what a week as each track would consist of.  That may not make sense right now, but never fret: it will become clearer as we go.

Or it won’t.

Onward!

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May 29, 2020

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Dive Index – Waving At Airplanes (Neutral Music)

In the past, I have been accused of comparing too many artists to Radiohead, to the point where that comparison loses some meaning. As such, I hesitate to use that as a jumping off point, even when the record is screaming for it. 

Dive Index is an L.A. based collaborative electronic project led by producer and composer, Will Thomas. Waving At Airplanes is the fifth full-length album under this name, and collaborators for this effort are vocalists Natalie Walker and Merz. In a convenient arrangement of songs, the tracks alternate back and forth between the two of them. 

Stylistically, this is shoegaze electronica at the top of the class. Most of the music is static pulses, electric blips and ethereal, atmospheric chord progressions. Every sound on the album is made using a modular synthesizer, with the exception of the construction sounds that happened to breach the studio soundproofing. 

Natalie’s vocals are beautiful and intoxicating, singing about deeply emotional moments of self-discovery, ignorance in relationships, and being absorbed by the things around us. “She’s Exploding”, “Wish I Had A Pulse” and the eponymous track stand out as jewels in this particular display case. Merz’s tracks, on the other hand, are a pretentious word salad that only occasionally stumble across a message. The most egregious example is “Pristine Wilderness”, which makes as much sense as a stroke victim with Tourette’s.     His tracks SOUND good, though, and ultimately, that’s what is most important. 

This record is definitely not for everyone, but it certainly struck a chord with me. 

FFO: Amnesiac-era Radiohead (Sorry. Had to.), Roger Eno, Ian Masters

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May 22, 2020

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BRELAND – BRELAND EP (Bad Realm Records)

Oh boy, where do we start.

So what Breland – I apologize, I mean BRELAND – and his team have produced here can definitely be considered “music”.  I will give him that.  But that’s where the compliments end, because the BRELAND EP is doodoo.

The tracks on BRELAND EP are mostly bad hip-hop songs with bad country aspects shoehorned in.  The best tracks are the ones that don’t feature any of those country leanings – for example, “WiFi” is pretty solid.  But there are plenty of tracks in the other category, including “Hot Sauce”, “Horseride”, and the absolute abomination known as “My Truck”.  I’ve heard plenty of samples and beats in my day, but never one that sounded like forest animals in various levels of distress.  It’s easily the worst song I’ve heard this year; I would gladly put it up against several other years too, and feel good about my chances.

I’ll also say that none of this is a knock to BRELAND’s vocals, as he sings pretty well!  But his voice is ridiculously overshadowed by the overproduction inherent in most of the track, and that’s a shame.  I’d definitely give him another chance if he stepped out of the contrived country-rap space and made a more traditional R&B album.

FFO: Lil Nas X, Sam Hunt (who unsurprisingly features on a “My Truck” remix)

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May 15, 2020

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The Dears – Lovers Rock (Dangerbird)

Before getting into the music on this album, a couple points of clarification need to be made. Firstly, this is not a band. It is an undefined collective led by Montreal-based icon and presumed Bond villain, Murray Lightburn. Secondly, any act that self-indentifies with Serge Gainsbourg is saying 2 things: 1) “We don’t want to be pigeon-holed into a genre”, and b) “We might be French”. 

Their eighth studio release is a collection of reflective tunes that can best be described as eclectic orchestral pop. From the Bowie-esque “Is This What You Really Want?”, to the early-Weezer sounding “I Know What You’re Thinking About And It’s Awful”, to the Motown love song “Play Dead”, the instrumentation is always full and rich. This is no surprise, since the list of contributors on the album may as well be the Montreal phone book. 

Throughout all of it, Lightburn’s voice shifts between styles effortlessly, doing what is needed to float, cut through, punch up and generally take control of every track. His charisma has a Neil Diamond-at-the-cabaret quality to it that’s undeniable and enchanting. The flow of the record feels more like a well-crafted playlist, easily moving from song to song without seeming repetitive or jarringly different. 

It’s brilliant.

FFO: Serge Gainsbourg, Broken Social Scene, British Sea Power

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May 8th, 2020

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Mark Lanegan – Straight Songs of Sorrow (Heavenly Recordings)

Since the dissolution of Screaming Trees in the mid-90s, Lanegan has pumped out a steady stream of solo, quasi-solo, and collaborative projects. Each of these projects falls inconsistently into the generic and not-so-descriptive genre of “rock”. While some of his work has a definite and undeniable relationship to blues, folk, and shoegaze pop, a large proportion of it is rather tightly related to Leonard Cohen’s brand of nearly monotonous croaking. This places the emphasis on the dark poetry of the lyrics, rather than be distracted by trifling diversions like melody and beat.

Straight Songs of Sorrow is not an exception to this tendency. Rather, it feels like Lanegan digging his heels in, daring us to challenge his brand. His voice is croakier than ever, nary finding a foothold on whatever staggered melodies exist. In most of the tracks on the record, we have a choice to make: do we focus on the poetry or the attempt. When the poetry is good, it’s emotive and colorful and we hear his internal struggle. When it’s not good, it’s super-repetitive and banal, grasping at overused imagery and ‘sung’ with no connection whatsoever. 

The musical attempt is pretty typical of Lanegan’s tendency toward slow, three-chord progressions. By itself, it isn’t much to write about, as it relies heavily on a relationship with his voice. When that relationship is evident, it bangs. It’s a vibe that Lanegan has repeatedly dubbed “Dark Disco” in the lyrics to his songs (“Ode to Sad Disco” from Blues Funeral, “Dark Disco Jag” from Somebody’s Knocking). 

The big problem with Songs of Sorrow is that the 2 elements rarely line up. When the poetry is keen, the music is dispassionate, and the song falls short (“Burying Ground”). When the music is cool and reaching for attention, the lyrics are rambling and incoherent (“Bleed All Over”, “At Zero Below”). And sometimes neither is there (“I Wouldn’t Want To Say”). The middle of the record has the songs that stick out as examples of what Mark is capable of. For 3 contiguous songs, everything lines up, the clouds allow the light in, and we get to bask in his post-grunge, drug-addled perfection (“Stockholm City Blues”, “Skeleton Key”, “Daylight In The Nocturnal House”). 

FFO: Screaming Trees, Afghan Whigs, Leonard Cohen, PJ Harvey

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April 24th, 2020

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The Homeless Gospel Choir – This Land Is Your Landfill (A-F Records)

This album is a change in direction for Derek Zanetti, whose act used to consist of “his voice, his emotions, and his acoustic guitar.” The Pittsburgh native has an actual band now, playing louder and faster than his previous work, moving from indie-folk-punk to pretty straightforward punk rock. What has not changed is the content. This Land Is Your Landfill is protest music and social commentary focusing primarily on politics and mental health issues, but occasionally branching out into people just being generally shitty to each other. 

Truthfully, I tend to shy away from anything that labels itself as ‘protest music’. The lyrics of such artists are usually angry and so on-the-nose that the lack of creativity is cringeworthy. Derek and his new crew don’t suffer from that problem, most of the time. I mean, the album opener, “Global Warming” is exactly what you would expect it to be: a condemnation of politicians using the destruction of the planet as a rally flag for personal freedoms. But throughout the rest of the album, things get more nuanced. “Lest We Forget” is a plea for people to just stop being dicks to each other. “You Never Know” is a ballad about taking personal everything that you read or see or hear, and is probably my favorite track on the record. 

Derek’s acoustic guitar makes enough of an appearance to feel like he is sticking to his roots, but the band really fleshes out the quality of the production, adding a depth of emotional field that is new for The Homeless Gospel Choir. Unlike other acts in this particular milieu, no two songs sound alike and every song feels like it was given the appropriate amount of attention to give it life. 

This is what punk is supposed to be. 

FFO: Desaparecidos, These United States

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April 17th, 2020

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Nils – Caught In The Groove (Baja/TSR)

Let’s face it: these are trying times.  We’re all stuck inside, oftentimes without much to do.  Some of us are locked down with significant others, boyfriends/girlfriends, husbands/wifes, etc.  After that 5th or 6th ep of your rewatch binge of The Office, you glance at one another, and it’s time.  Clothes go off, deodorant goes on – don’t pretend that you smell good right now – and from there it’s into or onto the bed, the couch, or even the washing machine.

You know what’s missing in this scene?  The music, of course.  But not just any music; it has to be right.  The two of you (or more, I don’t judge) deserve it to be right.  And that’s where Caught In The Groove comes in.

I can’t claim to know much about German jazz musician Nils Jiptner, or what exactly he was thinking as he conceptualized this album.  Maybe it was an audio illustration of the rolling German countryside, or an ode to the neo-gothic architecture still on prominent display in Munich.  Perhaps it was more of a call-to-action, to encourage all who listen to unite and make the world a better place.  But regardless of any of that, this is very clearly a sex album for doing sex with other sex-doers.

From the uptempo “Good Times are Better” and “I Like The Way You Do It”, to the slower “My Mornings With You” and “All Roads Lead To You”… oh.  I guess Nils knew that he was making a sex album all along then.  As smooth as a fine whiskey, and as layered as a fine dip, Caught In The Groove delivers as a complete listening experience.  Good luck getting through the whole 12 track ride with your pants on.

FFO: Sex

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