LORDE AND MORE - Music Reviews, 8-24-2021

 Dubba dubba nyooo let's get some reviews:

Lorde "Solar Power" *** and 1/3

A pleasant listen.  Gets repetitive around halfway and never really switches up.  I don't see the big deal about "Mood Ring", and I definitely think "Oceanic Feeling" has no business being almost seven minutes, but it's not like I had a bad time listening.  The title track, the opener and "Secrets From A Girl (Who's Seen It All)" stand out.

Left At London "T.I.A.P.F.Y.H." **** and 1/8

When I first listened to this, I had it cued up after the new David Crosby album (which is pretty good btw), and the two projects flowed together perfectly.  The opener "Pills & Good Advice" starts with just an acoustic guitar and soaring vocal harmony, on par with what I'd just heard from Crosby, then explodes into drum n bass n distorted melody.  Then there's some brief boom bap followed by...

Hyper pop.

I'm gonna probably get used to hyperpop at some point like I did with trap, but it's gonna be awhile still.  Thankfully, it's a breif diversion before it goes...hyperpop punk I guess?  Then it slows down and relies on vocal harmony to carry the load again.  Then a dub beat?  All of this flows seamlessly, by the way; it's a mural, a suite, a collage of musical ideas that come together in a magnificent opus.  I love that Nat Piff (Left At London) is taking whatever chances with her music she fucking wants to.  This takes guts to see through to fruition and tons of hard work.

And that's just track one.

"The Ballad Of Marion Zioncheck" is already on my shortlist for songs of the year.  It's about the first Democrat elected to the first congressional district of Washington state who wound up having a nervous breakdown of some kind.  This was in 1936, so there was no mental health care back then.  It's an emotional gut punch of a story song, and it gets me emotional every time I hear it.

The lyrics on this album are human as fuck.  They dig into what it's like to be a person and bring back some real shit.  Title track number one "there is a place for you here." (the acronym has two different meanings) starts with the line:

"Take a little food and water

I can let you share the shelter

Maybe this’ll help you find your faith

In mankind that you lost"

Faith in humanity is at an all-time low, so they'd have you believe.  (I know I'm at low fucking tide.)  Just the thought of human kindness with no agenda attached has some appeal to it right about now.

The second title track "THIS IS A PROTEST FOR YOUR HEART!!!" has an ear-splitting chorus straight out of 100 Gecs and FUCK I can't stand it at all.  (I really do think the album 1000 Gecs is either this generation's Bitches' Brew or Black Sabbath.  Something new, forceful and immensely polarizing started there, and I think sometime in the next decade, it will become the mainstream.  I just...really really don't like it.  (Yet.))  

What do I think of the album at hand?  In spite of having a few parts that super weren't my cup of tea, this album fucks all night and is a strong contender for the year-end Top 10.

The Armed "Ultrapop"

This is a gimmick trying to pretend it's a new genre when it's screamo mastered all the way in the red.  You can barely hear it through the distortion.  If I wanted to hear a sound like that, I'd just tune an FM radio improperly.  The band plays really tight, but that's all I can give it.

NOFX "Single Album" ** and 1/8

Based on reviews, I thought this would be a trainwreck and a half, and somehow, in spite of actually being quite bad in several spots and aspects, it might be their best studio album since Wolves In Wolves Clothing (2006).

And WOW does that damn NOFX's last 15 years of output.

I mean, not entirely.  The Longest Line EP, the Backstage Passport soundtrack and Home Street Home (the musical) are all much better, but yeah, studio albums aren't a thing NOFX has done well since the early to mid aughts.

The weird thing about the vocals is they seem to get better as the album goes on: ATROCIOUS on track 1, about up to Fat Mike's usual pedigree by the end.  

I can understand why some people are put off by the lyrics on this one; I am too.  They're not quite a deal breaker for me, but they are pretty groan-worthy ("Fuck Euphemism" in particular.)  "Linewlium" is pointless, but it's also totally something NOFX would write a song about during any point in their career so I guess I can let it slide.  Fat Mike's penchant for the maudlin over the last few years is too much to bear for a good chunk of the fanbase, but given what the last few years have been like for most people on the planet?  It's probably more honest than another dumb song about drugs or skating or whatever the fuck.

Was this album necessary?  No.  Was it as bad as I was led to believe?  Also no.  Is it worth listening to?  Eh...I'll let you decide.

Hiyatus Kaiyote "Mood Valiant" ** and 7/8

Cool ideas, but I wish I liked it more.  I think it's the vocalist.  Whereas she's perfectly fine from a music theory/genre trope standpoint, I'm just not clicking with her delivery at all.  90's R&B Oversinging has always turned me off (it straight up ruins track 9 on here).  But when she just sing sings, she's all right.  She helps the vibe along, but unfortunately also gives the feeling that there's no real lead vocalist; she just blends into the background.  So it's damned if you do, damned if you don't.

The music itself has some cool ideas in it, even a handful of songs I got into, but after the halfway point, I felt Mood Valiant got pretty forgettable.  I'd still recommend "Get Sun", "Chivalry Is Not Dead" and "All The Words We Don't Say" though.  Two of those are what got me in the door, and they're all well worth a listen.

Dee Snider "Leave A Scar" * and 1/2

The same song twelve times.  "In For The Kill" is in a different tuning, but is lyrically the same as track 4 or 5 (I couldn't be arsed to look up which).  One of the songs has the Cannibal Corpse guy (barely), and I suppose that one is thrashy instead of the same fist pump, mid tempo, four on the floor song as the rest, but it doesn't feel that different and it's track nine so too little to late.  Solos on track one and two sound pretty great, but by the fourth time you've heard the same thing, it gets old.  Could've at least doubled its rating with a little variety.

Bruce Hornsby "Non-Secure Connection" (2020) * and 3/4

I've always kind of liked Bruce Hornsby; Hot House has some pretty nice songs on it.  I even liked his 2019 album Absolute Zero quite a bit.  But THIS?  I'm not even sure where the fuck to begin with this.

Thing is, it's subtle.  The first track "Cleopatra Drones" starts well enough, it's kinda laid back, it's even got a hint of some of his swing to it.  The production is...off.  The drums and keyboards sound like cheap 90's stuff and the vocals sound like they cranked the room tone to make it sound out of phase on purpose.  As a song, it might've worked and been a bit underwhelming, but instead it makes me crinkle my nose and think of a pungent stench.

"Time, The Thief" is slower still.  The vocal cadence is choppy, but the song is trying desperately to be smooth, and it just clashes.  Again, if not for that decision, this might've at least been pleasant.  The piano sounds real here at least, and though the vocal production still doesn't sound like it blends with the music, it's better than "Cleopatra".

The title track is where I knew we were in trouble.  The choppiness from "Time, The Thief" is present, but now each word is drawn out agonizingly, and it's an old man trying to talk about computer shit so when you finally figure out what he's talking about you're groaning all the harder.  Then he busts briefly into the Migos flow, and I'm like "Word?"  It makes me remember I'm an old-ass white dude, and I don't like being reminded of that either, especially when throwing stones out my glass house.

What was I saying?  *Ahem*  Right.  This song is ass.

Track four has a feature credit from Rob Moose (who apparently joined Bon Iver in 2011, so there ya go).  That's all there is to say about it.  It's over before you know it, and there's nothing to the song.

Then "My Resolve" happens, and it's actually pretty good.  For one, it feels like a song and not an unfinished idea like the first four.  The vocal harmonies are on point, but again not really produced in a way that feels like they mesh with the music.  It's the first track that doesn't feel like it's Bruce Hornsby and a few overdubbed snatches from other musicians.  The violin parts soar pretty high and set the atmosphere well.

Next is "Bright Star Cast" featuring Jamila Woods and Vernon Reid (from Living Colour).  You wouldn't know Reid was there (which is unfortunate, because he's a ripping guitar player and a blues solo would have been a great fit for this).  On second listen I'm feeling it a lot more, so yeah, another one in the good column (though I wish it didn't end so abruptly.  Like I said, a blues solo right at the stopping point, then another chorus would've rounded it out nicely).

But then "Shit's Crazy Out Here" happens.  My first reaction is "Oh, great.  Back to the tortured, drawn out delivery and sour, deliberately out, modal piano lines."  The chorus (if you could call it that) has some force to it at least; it's more of a drop really, leaning on sinister chamber music and bringing in full drums to make its point.  Then it's back to another pseudo-minimalist verse and some weird voices and...kind of rapping?  I don't know what the fuck is going on.  The song ends on a solo, and I admit though its aesthetically heinous, I have to respect its downright strangeness.

Another one that struck me on second listen was "Anything Can Happen" (featuring Leon Russel).  It's an R&B kind of thing, but with...this production.  The beat is washed out, the kick often gets lost with the plucking of the standup bass (kinda sounding like they sampled said pluck and put it through some filters to make the kick) and the snare sounds like a clap with a phaser on it with some watery ghost notes between the two sounds.  But the important thing is it's got a groove.  It has something to latch onto.  Russell's backing vocals add a lot to the choruses as well.

"Porn Hour" on the other hand...more "out" piano, and banal lyrics about "Ooooh, technology exists and it has PORN!  OOOOOOOOOO SPOOOKYYYYY" like nobody's had this thought before.  Also, saying most of the internet is porn as a way to dismiss all of modern technology is not just tired, but a bullshit argument.  Man, stop.

"No Limits" closes things out well though.  The chorus is easily twice as fast as anything else on here, so the energy is a nice change of pace.  It's got low B bass on the pre-chorus; I dig that.  It doesn't ride it, it hits the low notes tastefully; just enough to give the song a backbone most of the rest of the album does not have.  I like the incredibly subtle guitar solo too.  Maybe could've mixed it a little higher because you almost miss it, and again the song just stops when a final chorus would've brought it home more satisfactorily.

Listening to this again (which I didn't think I'd ever do, let me tell you) I was a little too harsh on it, but not by much.  He tries too hard to be Bon Iver for half the album, and it's not something he's good at (though to be fair, I don't think Bon Iver are very good at it either).  When he tries to write real-ass songs, he excels.  A frustrating, bizarre listen through and through.


That'll do it for this go 'round.  Let me know what you think in the comments, I would quite enjoy that.  Be on the lookout for The Night Howl's next album, coming soon (one of the reasons I haven't been writing as much).  It's named after the sign off I came up with during the pandemic: Love Over Fear.