Bad Gyal - Worldwide Angel
Spanish dancehall whose only discernible function seems to be serving as club fodder, and it's forgettable fodder at that. Simultaneously shrill and stale and a steaming pile of auto-tune mush, I find myself pausing numerous times during this sub-half hour listen for sanity breaks. Not wanting to blame a language barrier for contributing to the drivel, I searched and struggled to gather translations; eventually settling for this FACT Magazine excerpt that summed up my suspicions: "On 'Realize', she sings about smoking a blunt at the party wearing Luis Vuitton, while on 'Trust', her heart pines for her "baby" and his sadness is "the worst thing in the world"." ~*~meh~*~
DJ Taye - Still Trippin'
Refreshingly proportional+proper welding of hip-hop and footwork, of the vocalized and the non-; but winds up a somewhat tepid tangle. Out of the gaggle-o-guests DJ Paypal probably pays off the most, assuming you prefer it blippy and blistering and kind of annoying. On the whole tho its chill ain't really celestial, its birr rarely floors, and raps so oft tend toward torpid tales of doing drugs and how potent those drugs are it just might make ya crave more abstract sputterin'. 6.5/10
Hobo Johnson - The Rise of Hobo Johnson (2017 release)
If you want premium Hobo I propose his 'Live From Oak Park' YouTube video series; which cutely chronicles the indisputably better half of this release in all its unfussy flubbing jokey awkward glory. This merely suffices -- puerilely wailing and witty and whiny, grating as fuck eventually if not immediately, this sunk cynic-comic is best in small doses and preferably watched. Stuck on a twin-size mattress and "fucking starving" while he tries to proceed past viral, he's got an ear for pretty piano and a bad case of bacne; the most salacious stuff he'll do to your mom is eat her sandwiches and call her a great woman; his split parents and substance abuse are causes for concern. And tho his desperation can get dour, it can produce humble poignancy: "I'm an artist with a certain special something / And that something makes me really really sad because of nothing." 7/10
Keiji Haino & Sumac - American Dollar Bill
Haino a guru in outlandish improvisation and collaborating, Sumac a three-piece supergroup of post-metal sludgsters. And over a presumably unedited and definitely extemporaneous hour-and-then-some you'll get the desultory gamut: pandemonium, rumbling, squealing, meandering, shriek-rants, psychedelic sprays, time-outs. A glorified jam that's capable of cohesive invigoration but also tends to sound hesitant, a challenge due to its intensity and patience-testing span but also cuz there's a paucity of ideas. 6/10
Lil Yachty - Lil Boat 2
Be it the flourishing fame or haters or turning 20, this ain't the same Yachty that sheepishly sang "Minnesota" or penned a 'positivity song'. Thing is tho his tude seems tacked on trying to stand up against this bevy of moody-banger beat-men and superior guest spots. Some silly shouts and softie mope and hooks sure; wealthy toughguy monotonous mumbler who insists he'll get my bitch and emptily shit-talks baby daddies however don't impress-a me much. Notice how finale "66" is such a bright breath of fresh air. Notice how hard Trippie Red outshines him in it. 5.5/10
The Lovely Eggs - This Is Eggland
*******HIGHEST RECS*******
"Repeat it repeat it repeat it repeat it.." goes their seventh mantric hook in seven songs. Said and remaining songs don't impart much beyond their titles and operate on an average of two chords per, so repeat it repeat it they do and do. This hubby/wife drum/guitar duo has the android propulsion and sunny snot tude down pat, unadorned however they might seem of meager means -- fortunately the production shoots for concentrated buzz-saw; the processed everything and shameless psychedelia and pedal profusion past in-your-face and on towards larger-than-life. Blunt+blaring funny fun, really. Methinks Mark E. Smith would've been proud of her word-ending 'eh's and the 2-minute ode to a dickhead. 8/10
Mount Eerie - Now Only
*******HIGHEST RECS*******
Chronicling a coda to something as crushing as A Crow Looked At Me less than a year after the fact reads like exhaustive therapy and an unnerving fixation. To continue down this conceptual path is a stretch, but the guy undeniably groks; plus who's gonna be the callous fuck that tells him to cease? This isn't a copy of 'Crow' cuz nothing really could ever be but also cuz instrumentally it reflects Elverum gradually moving forward -- bleakness broadened via fuzz and layers and numbness and some melody. There's a slight sense of solace among the suffering, some wit within the weariness, bit less recording "the death songs" and more recording songs about recording the death songs. Full of detailed memory-floods and spooky speculation and random rants in an attempt to dot-connect, very aware of the absurdity of playing those death songs at a music festival alongside Skrillex. Of course when he thinks he can have a lil romp in the grass with the sweet kid up shows those once-buried bleached bone chunks and up comes the exact process to secure said bone chunks. Dryly rosy chorus that's becoming sadly befitting for all of us: "People get cancer and die / People get hit by trucks and die / People just living their lives get erased for no reason / With the rest of us watching from the side". 8/10
Rolo Tomassi - Time is Dead and Love Will Bury It
*******HIGHEST RECS*******
///BRAV-FUCKING-O\\\
Their fierceness and delicacy both sport a sheen so clean and an aura that could soundtrack compilations of anime scenes -- and for the level of beaut they produce it's a satisfying shock when they go all opposite on ya and turn savage; only to meld it all magnificently to boot. It can come across long-winded and fickle but what an exceptional-n-powerful weep+roar patchwork: dreamy drones, post-y segues, bearable prog, menacing metalcore alongside epic emotional swells, Eva Spence vocally back-n-forth killin' it as subdued seraph and bestial shrieker. The thoroughly dramatic flow's decisive moments include the twinkling affability of "Aftermath" morphing into its game-changer aftermath and the stunning 8-minute blast of bliss that is "A Flood of Light"; which immerses you in exactly that. 8.5/10
Screaming Females - All At Once
I mean not to say there ain't a notable tune or four, but stylistically there is just something so pedestrian about em. A notion that's particularly prominent over the course of a near 50-minute runtime -- there hasn't been a full listen in which upon thinking it was almost over I wasn't astounded to find there were still 5 or 6 tracks to go. And when it comes to a cogent quaverer, I'll take Corin Tucker any day. 5.5/10
Vundabar - Smell Smoke
90s-centric indie-rock that's versatile and moderately melodic and pretty loud; albeit not particularly peerless in the stuff. They're cryptic but chipper, jittery and anthemic, unifiers of the jaded jagged structurally strange and emotive power-pop fun-times. Not afraid to mellow out but clangy+jangly at large. Lotsa guitar and guitar lines that are sung along to. And perhaps in homage to their Bostonian base, the catchiest chorus borrows from Mission Of Burma. 7/10
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Bbymutha - Bbyshoe [EP] ~*~meh~*~
The Breeders - All Nerve 5.5/10
Caroline Says - No Fool Like an Old Fool 6/10
Essaie Pas - New Path 6/10
Hop Along - Bark Your Head Off, Dog 5/10
Ilsa - Corpse Fortress 6/10
