MUSIC REVIEWS, 9-30-2024
Welcome back to music reviews, here on the NutterBlog. First up is the album everybody's talking about (and at least two music reviewers I know have already locked in for #1 on the year), so I should have an opinion on this:
Charli XCX "Brat"
Late to the party, but I've never been much for parties anyhow, so par for the course.
"360" is fine, I guess. "Club Classics" annoys the piss out of me. "Sympathy Is A Knife" gives me a little more to work with. It deals with the insecurity of not living up to a partner's expectations, suicidal ideations and the feeling of how anyone feeling sorry for you feels worse than if they didn't care because if makes you feel like you lost even harder.
"I Might Say Something Stupid" is kind of wild to think about now, talking about how Charli's "famous but not quite" after this album literally got acknowledged by a presidential campaign. And "I Might Say Something Stupid" being followed by a song begging for 'you' to "Talk to me" ("Talk Talk") is intentional, make no mistake. Who cares if you fuck up: say what needs to be said.
"Von Dutch"'s lyrics suck, but musically it's a bop. (Wow do I feel like an outsider saying that word, but that's literally the intent of the song: to be a bop.) Kinda annoying, but the album's called Brat; that's its character.
"Everything Is Romantic" seems like it's going to be a beautiful ballad, but it spits at you with rapid fire rap flow. There is a weird disconnect with the words being all this posh European upper middle to high class shit and being this brutish union of hyper pop and UK drill. It ends up interesting, but I don't know how to feel about it.
It's starting to feel like a yo-yo in here, because "Rewind" is another bop, then "So I" is slower, just like most of the songs on this album have bounced between in rapid succession. (Did I mention the songs are mostly under three minutes? Not a crime; just an observation.) I'm not saying Charli needs to pick a lane, this tightrope can be achieved; I just feel like this album doesn't have as consistent a sonic vibe as it could.
"Girl, So Confusing" is the first time I feel like Brat starts to repeat itself. The metatext has become full text as the lyrics are no longer a metaphor about artistic integrity or career, they're just straight up about that. Musically, I feel like I just heard this song. "Apple"'s a little softer, but I don't feel much differently. "Back To Back" is booooring. "Mean Girls" earns the title a little too predictably with shit talk, petty drama and gossip that I could not give half a shit about, with a beat that does less than nothing for me. (Though I will give the back third credit for going hard with that piano part. I liked that.)
"I Think About It All The Time" sounds like some 2000s indetronica, and I can fuck with that. It's different enough that I'm starting to get interested again. It ponders whether or not Charli would want to be a mother or should she keep trying to have a career. (It sucks that women have to make that choice at all.)
"365" is a faster part II of album opener "360" and I can't help but think a few things here: 1) It would hit harder if I hadn't heard four or five songs that sounded just like this, 2) That take I had about not enough of a consistent vibe seems real dumb in the face of that complaint and 3) "365" doesn't feel like a conclusion. It's the end of the album by default.
Over all, I think I like Brat, but I definitely don't love it. It feels kind of low effort, to be honest, like she shot for chill and in places the album feels a bit lazy instead. Still, some cool ideas and some good execution in spots. (I still think non-album single "Guess" with Billie Eilish lays all of this to waste.)
Kacey Musgraves "Deeper Well"
Surprised how good this is, considering everybody else I've heard seems to think it's a 4 out of 10. Her dreamy sense of melody is still here; not all of the lyrics are the most relatable, but strangely enough "Lonely Millionaire" connected with me (broke as fuck though I am). It's a song about getting everything you've wanted and worked for and it being the most lonely, empty thing that you could ever imagine.
Point is, this album is good and if you like shiny, folksy music with a depressive edge you should check it out.
The Warning "Keep Me Fed"
The real Warning you need going into this is every song is exactly the fucking same. "S!ck" was okay enough to get me in the door, but outside of a few slight variations, this is the same thing twelve times. The sterile production and the boilerplate, repetitious vocal delivery (with BOG standard lyrics to boot) make it even worse. All twelve songs are competent, but utterly soulless facsimiles of one another.
Pat Metheny "MoonDial"
Speaking of songs that all blur together, at least this is well played solo acoustic guitar and some of it is pretty enough to be a vibe. But it's still 61 minutes of incredibly similar music. Might be nice in the background.
GUM & Ambrose Kenny-Smith "Ill Times"
Better produced and with more room to breathe than King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, but with similar vibes because Ambrose Kenny-Smith is in that band. A nice tasty indie rock treat with some synths for ambience. Comparably good as Giz's own entry this year Flight b741.
And that'll do it this time. It seems so soon, but next week, I'm already dropping the Fall Hit Mix because I want to get the Winter one out in late November ahead of the year-end blogs (speaking of so soon). All of this assumes the world won't end on November 5th, but if there is to be a future, you have to act like it's going to happen and plan accordingly. (Always have a backup plan, but if you don't believe success is possible, then it isn't.)
Charli XCX "Brat"
Late to the party, but I've never been much for parties anyhow, so par for the course.
"360" is fine, I guess. "Club Classics" annoys the piss out of me. "Sympathy Is A Knife" gives me a little more to work with. It deals with the insecurity of not living up to a partner's expectations, suicidal ideations and the feeling of how anyone feeling sorry for you feels worse than if they didn't care because if makes you feel like you lost even harder.
"I Might Say Something Stupid" is kind of wild to think about now, talking about how Charli's "famous but not quite" after this album literally got acknowledged by a presidential campaign. And "I Might Say Something Stupid" being followed by a song begging for 'you' to "Talk to me" ("Talk Talk") is intentional, make no mistake. Who cares if you fuck up: say what needs to be said.
"Von Dutch"'s lyrics suck, but musically it's a bop. (Wow do I feel like an outsider saying that word, but that's literally the intent of the song: to be a bop.) Kinda annoying, but the album's called Brat; that's its character.
"Everything Is Romantic" seems like it's going to be a beautiful ballad, but it spits at you with rapid fire rap flow. There is a weird disconnect with the words being all this posh European upper middle to high class shit and being this brutish union of hyper pop and UK drill. It ends up interesting, but I don't know how to feel about it.
It's starting to feel like a yo-yo in here, because "Rewind" is another bop, then "So I" is slower, just like most of the songs on this album have bounced between in rapid succession. (Did I mention the songs are mostly under three minutes? Not a crime; just an observation.) I'm not saying Charli needs to pick a lane, this tightrope can be achieved; I just feel like this album doesn't have as consistent a sonic vibe as it could.
"Girl, So Confusing" is the first time I feel like Brat starts to repeat itself. The metatext has become full text as the lyrics are no longer a metaphor about artistic integrity or career, they're just straight up about that. Musically, I feel like I just heard this song. "Apple"'s a little softer, but I don't feel much differently. "Back To Back" is booooring. "Mean Girls" earns the title a little too predictably with shit talk, petty drama and gossip that I could not give half a shit about, with a beat that does less than nothing for me. (Though I will give the back third credit for going hard with that piano part. I liked that.)
"I Think About It All The Time" sounds like some 2000s indetronica, and I can fuck with that. It's different enough that I'm starting to get interested again. It ponders whether or not Charli would want to be a mother or should she keep trying to have a career. (It sucks that women have to make that choice at all.)
"365" is a faster part II of album opener "360" and I can't help but think a few things here: 1) It would hit harder if I hadn't heard four or five songs that sounded just like this, 2) That take I had about not enough of a consistent vibe seems real dumb in the face of that complaint and 3) "365" doesn't feel like a conclusion. It's the end of the album by default.
Over all, I think I like Brat, but I definitely don't love it. It feels kind of low effort, to be honest, like she shot for chill and in places the album feels a bit lazy instead. Still, some cool ideas and some good execution in spots. (I still think non-album single "Guess" with Billie Eilish lays all of this to waste.)
Kacey Musgraves "Deeper Well"
Surprised how good this is, considering everybody else I've heard seems to think it's a 4 out of 10. Her dreamy sense of melody is still here; not all of the lyrics are the most relatable, but strangely enough "Lonely Millionaire" connected with me (broke as fuck though I am). It's a song about getting everything you've wanted and worked for and it being the most lonely, empty thing that you could ever imagine.
Point is, this album is good and if you like shiny, folksy music with a depressive edge you should check it out.
The Warning "Keep Me Fed"
The real Warning you need going into this is every song is exactly the fucking same. "S!ck" was okay enough to get me in the door, but outside of a few slight variations, this is the same thing twelve times. The sterile production and the boilerplate, repetitious vocal delivery (with BOG standard lyrics to boot) make it even worse. All twelve songs are competent, but utterly soulless facsimiles of one another.
Pat Metheny "MoonDial"
Speaking of songs that all blur together, at least this is well played solo acoustic guitar and some of it is pretty enough to be a vibe. But it's still 61 minutes of incredibly similar music. Might be nice in the background.
GUM & Ambrose Kenny-Smith "Ill Times"
Better produced and with more room to breathe than King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, but with similar vibes because Ambrose Kenny-Smith is in that band. A nice tasty indie rock treat with some synths for ambience. Comparably good as Giz's own entry this year Flight b741.
And that'll do it this time. It seems so soon, but next week, I'm already dropping the Fall Hit Mix because I want to get the Winter one out in late November ahead of the year-end blogs (speaking of so soon). All of this assumes the world won't end on November 5th, but if there is to be a future, you have to act like it's going to happen and plan accordingly. (Always have a backup plan, but if you don't believe success is possible, then it isn't.)
Stay safe out there.
You Never Know...
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