Hakuho's Twenty-One Legally Distinct Trophies - Music Reviews, 3/24/19
So for last blog, I had two more reviews started but I got sidetracked and chose to put out what I had rather than wait on re-listening to the others. But now we've not only got those two, but four others I had opinionsTM on since then. So let's dive into:
Mark Morton "Anesthetic" *** and 1/2
This made me feel like I was back in high school. The feeling after I went to Best Buy on a Saturday and got like four new CDs and sat and just listened. And I'm not sure why; the music itself isn't particularly 90's. (And that's in spite of the first two guest vocalists being from Linkin Park and Papa Roach, though the period I'm describing was about two years before they hit.)
Thing is, I've listened to this album twice, and I don't have much to say about it. "Cross Off" is one of Chester Bennington's best performances and it's a fine note to go out on if this is the last track in the vault. Jacoby Shaddix is a terribly generic lyricist, but has gotten better as a singer in the 20 years since "Last Resort". Track 3 has some dude sounding like Henry Rollins doing a lazy Johnny Cash impersonation. I liked the lyrics on "Save Defiance". "Reveal" was a great left turn, and I hope if he does another solo album there are a few more twists like this. Other than that, it's one of the songwriters from Lamb Of God primarily doing what he do, and doing it well enough. Overall: Pretty good.
Sungazer "Sungazer, Vol. 2" ***
Reminds me of a more video-game-y Mats/Morgan Band. "Drunk" has grown on me quite a bit, as it keeps coming up in random places I don't expect, and the 80's electro-groove of..."Electro" (walked right into that one) gets me pumped. The rest is fine, but considering how out there it sounds it shouldn't be this indistinct.
Offset "Father Of 4" *** and 1/3
I'm kinda surprised I liked a trap project of any stripe as much as this, especially considering this is supposed to be the least interesting member of Migos out on his own. But from the little I've heard of the trio, Offset has always struck me as the best pure rapper of the three. Quavo has the most distinct voice, but because autotune the way he uses it is like nails on a chalkboard to me, I could never vibe with him. Takeoff is...there, sure. I still haven't listened to his solo album (or Quavo's, or a Migos album come to think of it), so who knows?
Father Of 4 has lyrics about personal introspection and sociopolitical issues that I did not see coming from one third of the "Versace" clan. He opens the album with the title track, which details the struggle of someone who is not only broke and disowned, but has to take care of a child at 17. I couldn't do that at 37, I'll be honest. That made me think, maybe for the first time, about how hard a lot of these rappers had it on the come up and how hard they had to work to make it out of an impossible past (and to keep from going back).
The choruses are all long and repetitive and take up the bulk of each song, but I kind of like how that works. Offset's flow (not the slang term for "rap style", but the actual flow of his delivery with the beat) blends in to keep the vibe going through the whole song, and that makes it tighter rhythmically. It keeps the urgency up. It does get old after about the halfway mark and he starts recycling bars, so points off for that.
Highlights include "Father Of 4", "Lick", CeeLo Green's takeover of "North Star", "After Dark", and even though I'm not really on his side with the whole Cardi split, "Don't Lose Me" is effective at generating empathy. He doesn't convince you he's in the right or that he deserves forgiveness, or even pity, but he manages to get across in pretty raw terms how he feels about the situation. Given that art is human expression, I think that counts for something. (Speaking of Cardi, she's pretty good on "Clout".) The rest of the tracks are fine, but 16 was too many. If this was about 20 minutes shorter, it'd be a lot better.
Toro Y Moi "Outer Peace"
Aside from "Ordinary Pleasure", this album is some trend-chasing bullshit. Everything on here sounds like a bargain basement version of Offset or Travis Scott. Toro is trying to be trap, but he sounds desperate to catch up, not someone with something genuine to say. So I also listened to his 2013 album Anything In Return and holy shit is it better. Lyrically it's at a 13-16 year old's interpretation of R&B, but musically it hits a lot of right notes for me. Listen to that one instead.
VOLA "Applause Of A Distant Crowd" ****
It's not often a guitar-driven song makes me sit up and take notice anymore. (At least not outside of my own band.) But hot damn does this go harder than I expected it to. It starts off as kind of whispy alterna-prog, like we're gonna get some less dorky Unitopia or a second-tier Porcupine Tree disciple. Then the 8-strings come out, and let me just say that context is everything. If I'd heard these riffs five years ago it would have gone in one ear and out the other, but I think I'm ready to djent again. Especially if it's done this tastefully. "Smartfriend" has the Meshuggah groove, and does Catch 33 better than Meshuggah did it (I was never a fan of Catch 33, so your mileage may vary). My favorite is "Whaler", because the emotional swelling matches well with the F#-counterpoint.
The album definitely sways back and forth between sad melody and brutal crunch, but in spite of that it's not a downer to listen to. I think because it rocks too hard. There are some seriously dorktastic moments, don't get me wrong: Like "Ghosts", which has a cheesy keyboard lick for a hook that sounds like the recent Google Doodle of Bach when you clicked on the amplifier off to the right and it switched from piano to synthesizer. Or on the title track when he starts talking about taking a picture of his food and you cringe in anticipation of some out of touch screed, but it goes in a sympathetic direction instead, which was a pleasant surprise.
I haven't heard a prog metal album I've liked this much in close to five years. That genre was so much deader than I ever realized, but maybe VOLA can come through and breathe some new life into it.
Tesla "Shock"
I hear a lot of critics complain about bad mixing on albums and it leaves me confused until I go back and really really listen for their gripes. This probably owes to the fact that I hate headphones and I'll only use them when absolutely necessary. (It's a personal thing.) So when I listened to this album and heard the vocals at three times the level of the music I'm like: "Cool. At least I can be with the consensus this time." (If anyone else listened to a Tesla album in 2019 to form a consensus, that is.) Mixing aside, the songs are parody level rock and roll, but not meant as a joke. (On track 3, I burst out laughing because I knew they were serious.) I'd recommend skimming this one for the hilarity if nothing else.
And now, here's one I've slept on for awhile. First time I tried to listen to it, I got 30 seconds in and the autotune was so in my face that I shut it off. But this album has garnered a big reputation and even spawned a Number One SingleTM, so I felt like I should take a deep dive and see what all the fuss was about.
Travis Scott "Astroworld" ** and 7/8
This would be so much better without the first two songs. Just start with "Sicko Mode". It's an incredible attention-getter, it goes a lot of places and in doing so kind of acts as an overture. It makes a lot more sense that sticking it third behind "Stargazing" and "Carousel". I feel like the only nitpick to make about "Sicko Mode" is Travis Scott's verse at the end kind of feels...unnecessary is too strong a word, but it feels like without it the song would be tighter. Other than that it's a hell of a statement.
I actually like that "R.I.P. Screw" doesn't have a lot of lyrics. It's just a hook and the slow jam that hook implies vibing in space together with a short, free association verse at the end for spice. "Stop Trying To Be God" deftly uses Stevie Wonder's harmonica as a refrain, with the lyrics fitting in the spaces around it. "Skeletons" actually has a beat on it that doesn't use 808's! Revolutionary! (And welcome!) That song reminds me a lot of Kanye, for better or worse: it's got a corny sex line in the middle of an otherwise dour, spacey soundscape, but the rest of the song is so lush you sort of look past it. (Due to the nature of the album though, it's one of the most memorable lines, so make of that what you will.)
"Wake Up" has a nice-ass guitar line from John Mayer. (He's good at that; he should stick to being a guitarist instead of a lyricist. Though whoever wrote "Wake Up didn't fare much better...) The lyrics here are toilets; they almost kill the song for me. It's generic, cornball sex rap shit. If the beat and the guest spot from The Weeknd weren't so nice, I'd have to pass
And speaking of that, miss me with the rest of this album, because HOOO BOY after track 8 it falls off a fucking CLIFF. Aside from "Astrothunder" and "Coffee Bean", all of side B is the same song. Its laziness at an insulting level, especially since the first half had lush soundscapes, different moods, even a few different topics. Lyrically and musically, the back half of this project could be on any album by anyone in the last two years. The drop off is astonishing.
So yeah, give me tracks 3-8, 11 and 17 and dump the rest. That adds up to 8 out of 17; less than half. But the eight good ones were good enough that I want to know what Travis is doing next ("Sicko Mode" alone has me wondering that), so he's definitely doing something right.
I'm definitely more acclimatized to trap now. I'm even getting used to autotune. (Which, for the record, if you're still mad at, means you're the guy mad at electric guitars taking over popular music 60 years ago. Autotune is the new electric guitar. Not saying you have to like it, but get used to it or you're gonna have a hard time listening to any music made after 2015.) But I'm also the guy who thought "Damn." was the most overrated album of all time (though I haven't got around to listening to it again), so getting into music like this has and probably always will be an uphill battle for me. But I'm trying to at least understand it, and I think I'm getting there.
That'll do it for this week. Stay tuned, because there are a few plans I have to spruce this blog up a little bit.
Mark Morton "Anesthetic" *** and 1/2
This made me feel like I was back in high school. The feeling after I went to Best Buy on a Saturday and got like four new CDs and sat and just listened. And I'm not sure why; the music itself isn't particularly 90's. (And that's in spite of the first two guest vocalists being from Linkin Park and Papa Roach, though the period I'm describing was about two years before they hit.)
Thing is, I've listened to this album twice, and I don't have much to say about it. "Cross Off" is one of Chester Bennington's best performances and it's a fine note to go out on if this is the last track in the vault. Jacoby Shaddix is a terribly generic lyricist, but has gotten better as a singer in the 20 years since "Last Resort". Track 3 has some dude sounding like Henry Rollins doing a lazy Johnny Cash impersonation. I liked the lyrics on "Save Defiance". "Reveal" was a great left turn, and I hope if he does another solo album there are a few more twists like this. Other than that, it's one of the songwriters from Lamb Of God primarily doing what he do, and doing it well enough. Overall: Pretty good.
Sungazer "Sungazer, Vol. 2" ***
Reminds me of a more video-game-y Mats/Morgan Band. "Drunk" has grown on me quite a bit, as it keeps coming up in random places I don't expect, and the 80's electro-groove of..."Electro" (walked right into that one) gets me pumped. The rest is fine, but considering how out there it sounds it shouldn't be this indistinct.
Offset "Father Of 4" *** and 1/3
I'm kinda surprised I liked a trap project of any stripe as much as this, especially considering this is supposed to be the least interesting member of Migos out on his own. But from the little I've heard of the trio, Offset has always struck me as the best pure rapper of the three. Quavo has the most distinct voice, but because autotune the way he uses it is like nails on a chalkboard to me, I could never vibe with him. Takeoff is...there, sure. I still haven't listened to his solo album (or Quavo's, or a Migos album come to think of it), so who knows?
Father Of 4 has lyrics about personal introspection and sociopolitical issues that I did not see coming from one third of the "Versace" clan. He opens the album with the title track, which details the struggle of someone who is not only broke and disowned, but has to take care of a child at 17. I couldn't do that at 37, I'll be honest. That made me think, maybe for the first time, about how hard a lot of these rappers had it on the come up and how hard they had to work to make it out of an impossible past (and to keep from going back).
The choruses are all long and repetitive and take up the bulk of each song, but I kind of like how that works. Offset's flow (not the slang term for "rap style", but the actual flow of his delivery with the beat) blends in to keep the vibe going through the whole song, and that makes it tighter rhythmically. It keeps the urgency up. It does get old after about the halfway mark and he starts recycling bars, so points off for that.
Highlights include "Father Of 4", "Lick", CeeLo Green's takeover of "North Star", "After Dark", and even though I'm not really on his side with the whole Cardi split, "Don't Lose Me" is effective at generating empathy. He doesn't convince you he's in the right or that he deserves forgiveness, or even pity, but he manages to get across in pretty raw terms how he feels about the situation. Given that art is human expression, I think that counts for something. (Speaking of Cardi, she's pretty good on "Clout".) The rest of the tracks are fine, but 16 was too many. If this was about 20 minutes shorter, it'd be a lot better.
Toro Y Moi "Outer Peace"
Aside from "Ordinary Pleasure", this album is some trend-chasing bullshit. Everything on here sounds like a bargain basement version of Offset or Travis Scott. Toro is trying to be trap, but he sounds desperate to catch up, not someone with something genuine to say. So I also listened to his 2013 album Anything In Return and holy shit is it better. Lyrically it's at a 13-16 year old's interpretation of R&B, but musically it hits a lot of right notes for me. Listen to that one instead.
VOLA "Applause Of A Distant Crowd" ****
It's not often a guitar-driven song makes me sit up and take notice anymore. (At least not outside of my own band.) But hot damn does this go harder than I expected it to. It starts off as kind of whispy alterna-prog, like we're gonna get some less dorky Unitopia or a second-tier Porcupine Tree disciple. Then the 8-strings come out, and let me just say that context is everything. If I'd heard these riffs five years ago it would have gone in one ear and out the other, but I think I'm ready to djent again. Especially if it's done this tastefully. "Smartfriend" has the Meshuggah groove, and does Catch 33 better than Meshuggah did it (I was never a fan of Catch 33, so your mileage may vary). My favorite is "Whaler", because the emotional swelling matches well with the F#-counterpoint.
The album definitely sways back and forth between sad melody and brutal crunch, but in spite of that it's not a downer to listen to. I think because it rocks too hard. There are some seriously dorktastic moments, don't get me wrong: Like "Ghosts", which has a cheesy keyboard lick for a hook that sounds like the recent Google Doodle of Bach when you clicked on the amplifier off to the right and it switched from piano to synthesizer. Or on the title track when he starts talking about taking a picture of his food and you cringe in anticipation of some out of touch screed, but it goes in a sympathetic direction instead, which was a pleasant surprise.
I haven't heard a prog metal album I've liked this much in close to five years. That genre was so much deader than I ever realized, but maybe VOLA can come through and breathe some new life into it.
Tesla "Shock"
I hear a lot of critics complain about bad mixing on albums and it leaves me confused until I go back and really really listen for their gripes. This probably owes to the fact that I hate headphones and I'll only use them when absolutely necessary. (It's a personal thing.) So when I listened to this album and heard the vocals at three times the level of the music I'm like: "Cool. At least I can be with the consensus this time." (If anyone else listened to a Tesla album in 2019 to form a consensus, that is.) Mixing aside, the songs are parody level rock and roll, but not meant as a joke. (On track 3, I burst out laughing because I knew they were serious.) I'd recommend skimming this one for the hilarity if nothing else.
And now, here's one I've slept on for awhile. First time I tried to listen to it, I got 30 seconds in and the autotune was so in my face that I shut it off. But this album has garnered a big reputation and even spawned a Number One SingleTM, so I felt like I should take a deep dive and see what all the fuss was about.
Travis Scott "Astroworld" ** and 7/8
This would be so much better without the first two songs. Just start with "Sicko Mode". It's an incredible attention-getter, it goes a lot of places and in doing so kind of acts as an overture. It makes a lot more sense that sticking it third behind "Stargazing" and "Carousel". I feel like the only nitpick to make about "Sicko Mode" is Travis Scott's verse at the end kind of feels...unnecessary is too strong a word, but it feels like without it the song would be tighter. Other than that it's a hell of a statement.
I actually like that "R.I.P. Screw" doesn't have a lot of lyrics. It's just a hook and the slow jam that hook implies vibing in space together with a short, free association verse at the end for spice. "Stop Trying To Be God" deftly uses Stevie Wonder's harmonica as a refrain, with the lyrics fitting in the spaces around it. "Skeletons" actually has a beat on it that doesn't use 808's! Revolutionary! (And welcome!) That song reminds me a lot of Kanye, for better or worse: it's got a corny sex line in the middle of an otherwise dour, spacey soundscape, but the rest of the song is so lush you sort of look past it. (Due to the nature of the album though, it's one of the most memorable lines, so make of that what you will.)
"Wake Up" has a nice-ass guitar line from John Mayer. (He's good at that; he should stick to being a guitarist instead of a lyricist. Though whoever wrote "Wake Up didn't fare much better...) The lyrics here are toilets; they almost kill the song for me. It's generic, cornball sex rap shit. If the beat and the guest spot from The Weeknd weren't so nice, I'd have to pass
And speaking of that, miss me with the rest of this album, because HOOO BOY after track 8 it falls off a fucking CLIFF. Aside from "Astrothunder" and "Coffee Bean", all of side B is the same song. Its laziness at an insulting level, especially since the first half had lush soundscapes, different moods, even a few different topics. Lyrically and musically, the back half of this project could be on any album by anyone in the last two years. The drop off is astonishing.
So yeah, give me tracks 3-8, 11 and 17 and dump the rest. That adds up to 8 out of 17; less than half. But the eight good ones were good enough that I want to know what Travis is doing next ("Sicko Mode" alone has me wondering that), so he's definitely doing something right.
I'm definitely more acclimatized to trap now. I'm even getting used to autotune. (Which, for the record, if you're still mad at, means you're the guy mad at electric guitars taking over popular music 60 years ago. Autotune is the new electric guitar. Not saying you have to like it, but get used to it or you're gonna have a hard time listening to any music made after 2015.) But I'm also the guy who thought "Damn." was the most overrated album of all time (though I haven't got around to listening to it again), so getting into music like this has and probably always will be an uphill battle for me. But I'm trying to at least understand it, and I think I'm getting there.
That'll do it for this week. Stay tuned, because there are a few plans I have to spruce this blog up a little bit.
Comments
Post a Comment