Brockhampton - Saturation
*******HIGHEST RECS*******
Formidable hip-hop collective that may initially turn heads with their blue ones or by moshing in the streets of South Central, but truly noteworthy is their ability to both go harder-n-nastier than most and soft-n-sappy so convincingly. Armed with a tight+detailed production crew and emotionally protean throat roster, each representative of this misfit-leaning boy band seems to be going out on a financial/personal limb to do this thang and that cumulative passion shines through. They're missin' Mama's kisses and chicken nuggets while out in the shadows with bullets and bad habits, taking acid and spilling brain, thumpin' in that trunk but playing some guitar too, twisting belligerence into self-improvement and pining for a sofa pal. Said roster synthetically swollen and kinda unclear due to pitch shifts and robots and flexibility for all. But off the top of my head: Kevin Abstract prolly most prevalent and the true hook maestro; Merlyn Wood a time travelin' Honda swervin' book learnin' Somali pirate lookalike who just applied for food stamps; Joba reserved for blood-curdling screams and fab falsetto; final track and only final track done by someone named "bearface." 8/10
The Caretaker - Everywhere at the End of Time (Stage 2)
Quotation from Bandcamp explanation: "Featuring the sounds from the journey The Caretaker as artist will make after being artistically diagnosed as having early onset dementia. Each stage will reveal new points of progression, loss and disintegration. Progressively falling further and further towards the abyss of complete memory loss and nothingness." This being Stage 2 of 6 to be concocted. I mean, very, er, deep-n-ominous concept ya got there, but is this not mostly just music a la the ballroom scene in The Shining maybe slowed down a tad with some soft record-skip fuzz plopped in? Which is hauntingly jaunty and overflowing with dreamy subaqueous nostalgia, sure. But moreover it's tedious and passive time warp schmaltz. Perhaps experiencing Stage 1 would lead to some insight, but nah. I'd rather dig for the stuff at Savers. ~*~meh~*~
Fleet Foxes - Crack-Up
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Striking me first was the ability to pass through a six-year lapse, stick by that grand folkie feel they excelled in more than most before it quickly seemed dated-n-homogenized, and still no-prob triumph with a labyrinthine piece of pastoral majesty. Striking me second was the emphasis on ambition -- lengths, structures, flow-wise, odd passages, and so forth. The second, though it no doubt spices things up, tends to make this more knotty than it needs to be. Song-by-song songwriting suffers a bit and despite its winding it can also just become a blur of vanilla lushness. Uplifting, heavyhearted, rich, vanilla lushness. 7/10
Allan Kingdom - Lines
For a lil while there AK comes off as another surefire Kanye producer/rapper/crooner protege-of-sorts -- like Cudi without as much mope, like Travis Scott but less twisted and facepalmy. More funky and natural than both of em, really. But despite the five could-be-hits with unescapable hooks right off the bat and sweepingly discernible space+bass beat crafting, its vacuity and novicehood are eventually if not instantly glaring. Like he says, "it's all about the vibes ooo yeah". More or less other than that: late night party, comin' up, fiddling on his phone, surrounded and astounded by fucked up bitches. Like he says, "I do not really got nothin' to say / I check my balance and order a lobster and steak". Duly noted for promise tho. 6/10
Nkisi - Kill [EP]
4 trax of established electro -- percussion centric, flashily haunted club synth, hyper but trancelike, bouncy but dark, panning laser worm, bit of repeato voice for good measure. And at ~15 minutes, over before you know it. 7/10
Tee Grizzley - My Moment
Tee's momentous mixtape shines in that it feels proper and purposeful and tidy too; fresh-outta-jail 23-year old showcasing savvy for both hard as nails rappin' and single-ready singin'. But between the mechanically resolute flows and so-serious permanence, oh does it exhaust. And get predictable. Grim tales and acappella opener and alotta piano are bound to equal heavy, but here it just weighs on ya hard -- it says something when the funniest lines involve having ISIS on speed dial to bomb someone; the most lovey for a girl he encourages to stay in her relationship so long as they continue to fuck. Tenderness is reserved for the deceased, and reputable to boot. Voice-wise, think Kevin Gates meets Froggy Fresh. But, you know, not very funny. 6/10
Shugo Tokumaru - Toss
*******HIGHEST RECS*******
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To call Shugo's compositions congested or erratic wouldn't be inaccurate, but it would be doin' them a disservice. Though a trusty acoustic takes precedence overall, he's a restless multi-instrumentalist and ain't afraid to show it: and even at their busiest, the coloration of his aggregations eclipse the confusion. Probably helps that his whimsy-n-warmth are infectious as heck -- dynamic fantasy pop-rock briefly plunging into a backwoods hoedown, a circuitous and condensed could-be movie score called "Cheese Eye", a stockpile of instruments tumbling out of a closet, bricolage music called "Bricolage Music", sensitive tape-hissed bedroom ruminating -- a striking-tho-tangled compound of impish and intimate. "Bricolage Music"s bricolage: bells+whistles, raspberries+farts, rapid-fire extra etceteras. 8/10
Vince Staples - Big Fish Theory
Thinking back, Staples sure has been buoyed by beats and buddies. And that's very verified here. Arguably this is just as much his and hip-hop's album as it is commonplace companion Kilo Kish's and inventive electronic producers -- which ultimately does make for a pretty pithy package. But with all the best hooks being via guest and not exactly alotta charisma besides, it never fully meshes. Ya do gotta love blankly braggin' bout being boring and Kendrick on top of Sophie's jerky screeching though; and of course telling the one percent/government/president to suck it on the bodacious banger that is "BagBak". 6.5/10
Young Thug - Beautiful Thugger Girls
As a stab at softie singin' it's largely a success -- the beats stylistically adhere to a sumptuous degree and it's still very much full of tried-n-true goofball Thugger flow, albeit with extra emphasis on lust-n-love (mostly lust duh). Not to say it don't drag on many-a song/as a whole or get samey sorta swiftly, both qualities that last year's catalog crux 'Jeffery' evaded in spades. And while elastic verses and giddy hooks persist, they can oft come off uninspired, particularly topically and the per ushe assortment of one-liners. Freely unintelligible and creaky as ever, a lyric-look can result in unearthed gems ("She look at him like he roadkill and I turned 'round her life like I'm Dr. Phil"), but mainly confirms shrug-worthy tedium ("I want that cat like a leopard"). 6.5/10
Zeal and Ardor - Devil is Fine
*******HIGHEST RECS*******
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Kinda comes off as a brusque draft for an ingenious amalgam, but genuinely ingenious it surely is. And seemingly sweeping at 9 tracks in ~25 minutes -- 3 of which provide amply sacrilegious interludes -- the brevity is honestly a bolster if anything. Amalgam At Hand: black black metal, anti-god straightup spirituals, Ray Charles, glitchy electro-hype, Tom Waits, crystal-laden hidden rooms in NES games, chants+chains melding with digitized double bass+scuzzy screechin'. And yep, somehow so seamlessly and righteously rousing. 8/10
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