Tag: Music

Categories
Music

Underrated albums of 2020, Vol. 1: Andy Shauf – The Neon Skyline

The Saskatchewan-born artist narrates a tale of a lonely man spending a night out with his friends, and his regrets.

Canadian singer-songwriter Andy Shauf has a seemingly innate ability to capture and express human emotion through the stories he tells. On his latest release, The Neon Skyline, Shauf plays the narrator in a first-person story with a full cast of characters that charmingly and intimately explores the full spectrum of human emotion.

Shauf tells the story of a young man who calls up his friend Charlie one night and they head to their favourite local bar, the titular Neon Skyline. While they’re enjoying their drinks together, Charlie breaks the news to our narrator that his ex-girlfriend Judy is back in town.

This news begins to consume our narrator’s thoughts, as he becomes ruefully nostalgic about their relationship, recalling everything from the pleasant times to the miserably bitter. From “Where Are You Judy” to “Things I Do” we hear the narrator’s poetic reflections on their time together, from more pleasant memories to those that led to their relationship’s eventual ending.

While reminiscing on the love that they once shared, he begins to hope that he’ll run into her while he is out so he can attempt to rekindle the flame they once had. As the night progresses, we see the narrator and his friends having deep conversations and drunkenly deciding to hit the town, when they run into Judy on “The Moon.”

This track and “Try Again” feel almost like a single song with two parts, as they both focus on the time the pair spend together after running into one another. During this time, our narrator becomes enamoured with her once again, though this doesn’t last long, as Judy reminds him, both directly and indirectly, that they can’t restore what they once had. These two tracks are clear highlights on the album, with beautiful writing that is simple and concise yet completely captivating as we see our hopeful narrator fumble his way through their time together.

The last two tracks see their night reach its inevitable end, and with that end comes clarity for our narrator. As he looks at the mostly pleasant night that he and Judy have shared, he realizes he’s gained the closure necessary to move on. Realizing that he doesn’t have to continue repeating his habits and actions, he may not be able to undo what’s been done, but he can grow from it.

This album is absolutely fantastic — it plays like a short film, with nuanced characters and real, tangible explorations into human emotion. Having written, performed, arranged and produced every song on the album, Shauf not only shaped a great story but gave it a living world. The warm, folk-tinged indie sound of this project, gives each scene character and context, creating a perfect marriage between the lyrics and the music. The Neon Skyline is as cinematic as it is poetic, and it excels greatly at being both, making it one of the best releases of this year.

Categories
Music

Let the music play: our staff’s all-time favourite songs

In the midst of a crisis, here are the songs that bring us comfort and joy

A person’s favourite song says a lot about who they are. Whether it’s attached to a special memory or maybe there’s just something about the way it sounds, we all have those special songs that we keep coming back to, no matter how much time has passed.

Katelyn Thomas, Editor-in-Chief

“Lego House,” Ed Sheeran and “Walls,” Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

There’s an Ed Sheeran lyric on my left forearm from his song “Lego House” that represents how I felt when I dropped everything and drove to New York for the first time to watch him play at Madison Square Garden. I guess you could say that’s my favourite. But I feel like I have different favourites for different periods in my life. Tom Petty’s “Walls” is one of them because of how beautifully simple it is: “Half of me is ocean, half of me is sky” is a lyric I’ve loved forever. It can mean so many things.

Matthew Coyte, Managing Editor

“Miracle,” The Darcys

It’s the soundtrack to all of my good memories. It just seems like whenever I think back to a good time in my life, that’s the song that’s playing. It’s got a killer 80s electro-pop feel to it and my favourite musical moment ever about halfway through: just a quick snap of the fingers between the verse and chorus. It just radiates cool, and there’s no song that pumps up the confidence and swagger like this one does.

Alex Hutchins, Creative Director

“I’m God,” Clams Casino

This takes me back to summer 2014 when I worked in Algonquin Park as a canoe trip guide, sitting on this massive rock that hung over crystal clear water while the sun set. It was magical.

Jad Abukasm, News Editor

“Ophelia,” The Lumineers

I love this song for personal reasons, but just in general I have so many good, bad, happy and sad memories related to that song.

Kayla-Marie Turriciano, Life Editor

“Bed of Roses,” Bon Jovi

I grew up listening to rock music with my dad and Bon Jovi was one of the bands we would listen to together. The song reminds me of times spent with him and it’s just my favourite song ever outside of that anyway. A lot of people can’t name their favourite song right off the bat, but that one is my holy grail.

Chloë Lalonde, Arts Editor

“Maps,” The Front Bottoms

I have this very special connection to “Maps” by The Front Bottoms. The lyrics are directly @ing me. First of all, anyone who knows me knows I have big, big plans (among other things!) I’m always trying to sort through what big plan is realistic enough to accomplish and which isn’t. I love the noisiness of this song and the kind of group and call response—the way they are just kind of yelling myself at me. They’re saying everything that I have ever felt back to me, forcing me to face my own thoughts. Other than this song being my biography, I’m obsessed with the main singer’s Tom Delonge-ish way of pronouncing things (think I Miss You: “voice inside my yhead.”)

Please enjoy this video.

Matthew Ohayon, Sports Editor

“Spit Out The Bone,” Metallica

I’ve seen Metallica twice. The second time was during their Hardwired…To Self-Destruct tour which is the album that the song is on. Unfortunately, they didn’t play it live that time, but it’s a song that is really becoming more and more of our reality as it’s about how machines and technology are taking over. So that covers the meaning behind the song, but other than that, it’s my favourite type of music: fast and heavy metal.

Youmna El Halabi, Opinions Editor

“Layla,” Eric Clapton

When you have an eclectic taste in music, pinpointing a song as your favourite can feel overwhelming—but not for me. The answer has always been crystal clear: Eric Clapton’s “Layla.” Preferably a live version of this masterpiece because the minute that guitar solo starts, goosebumps arise—every damn time. This song, whether it’s on an acoustic or electric guitar, transports me and makes me believe in magic.

Fatima Dia, Head Copy Editor

“Habibi,” Tamino

I’ve always had a struggling relationship with faith and letting go of control. This song is poetically written and talks about a love so deep there’s no end to it. I’m a highly sensitive person—too sensitive, I feel too much—and his voice is angelic to say the least. I listened to it every day during the time me and my boyfriend were broken up (we’re back together now, happiness!) and things were happening with my family. It brought me closer to faith.

Maggie Morris, Copy Editor

“Monday Morning,” Death Cab for Cutie

I deeply love pretty much everything DCFC has ever done, but this one hits me right in the feels. Codes and Keys, the album this song came from, came out in 2011 just a few months before my dad took my brother and I to his home country in Wales. Every time I hear this song it transports me back to driving through the Welsh countryside.

Aviva Majerczyk, Copy Editor

“Buzzin’ Fly,” Tim Buckley

Tim Buckley is, in my opinion, a severely underrated singer-songwriter, and this song exemplifies his brilliance. The psych-folk instrumentals are warm and inviting, and they feel as if they wrap around you to shelter you as you listen. This mood echoes Buckley’s lyrics, which describe falling in love like finding a home. This song, as well as all of Happy Sad, has an almost magical ability to calm me down from any stressful situation. It’s good for both deep, headphone-wearing listening sessions and for creating a chill background mood (I use it for the spin-down on my radio show!). Once you listen, I think you’ll agree that Buckley should be placed with the 1960s folk greats.

*BTW, do yourself a favour and check out Aviva’s radio show The Alley on CJLO 1690 AM Wednesdays at 2 p.m.!

@sundaeghost, Graphics Editor

“Pictures of You,” The Cure

It captures longing in a really beautiful way: how you can miss someone and it’s devastating, but you feel cheerful about it because you have the memories of them and that belongs to you. It’s a wonderful example of the way The Cure used instruments to create a space. The guitar has this spacial quality: it’s lush and happy, but it sounds huge and layered like a big echoing cave, which is what I love about all songs by The Cure.

Clara Gepner, Video Editor

“Alchemy,” Above & Beyond

It’s sad but beautiful, has great beats and melody, the singer’s voice is amazing and you can really hear the emotion. Definitely one of my favourites!

Lillian Roy, Assistant Life Editor (me)

“Please, Please, Please Let me Get What I Want,” The Dream Academy

Picking just one song was difficult for me, as I’m sure it was for everyone else. In the end, I chose this cover of “Please, Please, Please” because of the way it makes me feel every time I listen to it. Originally written by The Smiths, the song was used as the soundtrack for one of the most iconic moments in cinematic history: the museum scene of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Like a lot of folks out there, I really identify with the character Cameron who, like me, is an anxious mess. For whatever reason, the moment he stares into the Seurat painting makes me blubber like a baby every time. The song certainly doesn’t help, I’ll tell you that much.

LISTEN NOW

YouTube playlist

Apple Music playlist

 

 

 

 

PS, we are hiring for the 2020-2021 academic year! For more information visit theconcordian.com/work-with-us/.

Graphic by Sasha Axenova.

Categories
Music Quickspins

QUICKSPINS: U.S. Girls – Heavy Light

U.S. Girls’ Heavy Light is a testament to their writing strengths, despite being a mixed bag

On Heavy Light, Toronto band U.S. Girls continues to make provocative pop music, while taking an experimental trip through the genre’s past, touching on funk, psychedelia, motown and more.

Heavy Light starts out with a bang. The first two tracks “4 American Dollars” and “Overtime” are the strongest on the album. Both songs are incredibly groovy pop tunes highlighting major social issues, with the former discussing the false trappings of capitalist ideology and the latter speaking about alcoholism and being overworked and underpaid. This is U.S. Girls at their best, combining danceable beats with hard-hitting social commentary. Yet, sadly, this high isn’t quite preserved throughout the rest of the album.

The album contains three interludes, about a minute apiece, where voices share advice to their teenage selves, the most hurtful thing that’s ever been said to them and finally, the colour of their childhood bedroom. While these interludes certainly put the listener into U.S. Girls’ desired emotional state, they disrupt the flow of the album in a way that is too jarring to come back from.

The track “State House (It’s a Man’s World)” kicks off with a pitched-down reworking of the beat from “Be My Baby” by The Ronettes. Yet, unlike The Ronettes’ classic love song, U.S. Girls’ lyrics eerily discuss the role of women in society. In lyrics that sound as if they were lifted from The Handmaid’s Tale, front-woman Meg Remy sings, “But it’s a man’s world, we just breed here. We don’t have no say, we only bend.” While this song has a solid concept, it remains just that—a concept. Clocking in under two minutes, “State House” isn’t given the time to evolve into something more satisfying.

On Heavy Light, Remy’s energetic dance-pop tracks are worlds more exciting than her balladry. “And Yet It Moves / Y Se Mueve” is a highlight in the middle of the tracklist, with its Latin-inspired beat and psychedelic distortions. Contrasted to the slow-burners “IOU” and “Woodstock ‘99,” which are not nearly as gratifying.

The penultimate track, “The Quiver to the Bomb,” chronicles the birth of humanity to the climate crisis from the perspective of a “mother earth” type of character. The lyrics are downright scary and justifiably angry. In the second half of the song, the instrumental switches up to some vaguely prog-rock synth passages à la Pink Floyd, as Remy’s vocalizations become more and more desperate-sounding. This song should have been the closer, as “Red Ford Radio” doesn’t have nearly as much in the way of lyrical or instrumental intrigue.

Overall, while Heavy Light contains a few low-points, it is still a strong testament to U.S. Girls’ songwriting and conceptual abilities. In a time of mass uncertainty, corrupt leaders and failing systems of control, albums like Heavy Light seem more necessary than ever.

Rating: 7/10

Trial Track: “4 American Dollars”

Categories
Music Quickspins

QUICKSPINS: Megan Thee Stallion – Suga

A hard-hitting playlist of songs to hype you and your girls before a fun night out.

As a vengeful parting gift to her ex-record label 1501 Certified Entertainment, Megan Thee Stallion mic dropped her new nine-track EP Suga.

With plans to release the album on her late mother’s birthday, May 2, being blocked due to her attempt at renegotiating her contract with the record label. Megan took matters into her own hands by filing a lawsuit against the label demanding that she be removed from the contract. After the Houston-born rapper was granted her request, she took the small window she had to drop her unfinished album on March 6 with no strings attached.

Throughout this album, Megan showcases her versatility as a rap sensation whilst touching base with 90s hip hop and R&B. Megan channels 2Pac in her track “B.I.T.C.H” where she samples his hit song “Rather Be Your N****.” She also uses her talent to incorporate a slow and sensual R&B vibe to the album in her track “What I Need.” The artist carries herself as an influential figure in female empowerment as she embraces her sexuality, diversity and her overall love for contemporary rap.

The fan-favourite “Savage” tackles her self-reflection as she repeats, “Classy, bougie, ratchet/sassy, moody, nasty,” delivering the track with force and intent whilst allowing her audience to exude their true identity and fully accept who they are.

As always, Megan Thee Stallion never fails to deliver. The 24-minute EP is well balanced, incorporating Gunna and Kehlani as key features. The album is yet to be finished so this EP can be considered as an entree to her soon-to-come main dish.

Rating: 9/10

Trial track: “Captain Hook”

Categories
Music

Independent music and the fight against mistreatment

As the music industry evolves, record labels continue to use exploitative tactics that place their artists in compromising positions.

The music industry is arguably one of the most exploitative industries around. Artists are often faced with a difficult decision when evaluating whether they should sign to a label, as that can determine how their career will pan out and whether they could reach their full potential.

Labels offer artists the opportunity to sign record contracts that require artists to produce a certain number of albums and promote them over a specific period of time.

The majority of mainstream and up-and-coming artists whose projects often receive acclaim have signed to a label prior to the release of their work. Whether the label is independent and running on a smaller scale, or major and owned by huge corporations, artists are capable of receiving the financial backing which will allow them to tour, and get in contact with managers, booking agents and publicists who will promote their projects to media outlets. Without having established a team of professionals to guide them, most new artists have little-to-no knowledge of the means to navigate it.

Having access to these necessary resources in exchange for signing a recording contract seems like a fair deal. Nevertheless, that does not stop musicians from being exploited, which is why they must constantly be in the loop when it comes to the hidden clauses in their contracts.

Streaming has become the most popular way of consuming music over the past decade, leaving record sales to plummet over time. A recent analysis made by Music Business Worldwide demonstrated that major labels such as Universal Music Group, Sony Music and Warner accumulated an average of $22.9 million USD every 24 hours in 2019. This is absurd given that artists will not even make a fraction of that revenue, as services such as Spotify pay artists approximately $0.003 USD per stream.

Over the past couple of decades, there have been countless notable cases of artist vs. label feuds that have exposed unjust practices. Some of the noteworthy feuds include  the story of Prince’s longlasting fallout with Warner in the 90s due to ownership issues, or Dr. Dre’s lawsuit against Death Row Records, who failed to compensate him with any of the proceeds made from the reissue of his acclaimed debut, The Chronic. Although these cases deal with prominent labels, independent labels are equally complicit in taking advantage of their artists.

In 2015, Catalonian punk quartet Mourn issued a statement explaining how their Spanish label, Sones, who also served as their management team, had attempted to stop the release of their sophomore LP while withholding all of their funds. In fact, the band’s lead singer, Jazz Rodriguez, mentioned being neglected by their team and how that took a huge toll on their mental health in an interview with i-D in 2018.

A story that made headlines earlier this month was when rapper Megan Thee Stallion disclosed that her label, 1501 Certified Entertainment, was not willing to renegotiate her contract and therefore attempted to stop the release of her follow-up EP Suga. On a recent Instagram live stream, she mentioned not knowing the contents of her contract at the time, since she was not supplied with a real management team and did not have  awyers to guide her. Megan also stated that she had a good relationship with her label and even considered them to be like family but it was greed that played a major part in their decisions. According to a court document provided to Rolling Stone, 1501 Certified Entertainment received 30 percent of Megan’s sources of income whether it was from touring, selling merchandise, sponsorships, endorsements or hosting.Jordan Bromley, a specialist in entertainment transactions, considers this number to be “a massive overreach.”

Evidently, the safest way to pursue a career in music is by doing so independently. Having the ability to possess full control of both the content behind the record as well as release dates seems to be a luxury that has served many artists well.

Quebec’s indie-pop band Men I Trust has managed to release three well-received records and have been playing headlining shows internationally over the past couple of years without being backed by a label. Australian-based psychedelic rock group, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, released the majority of their extensive discography via Flightless Records, which is entirely owned by the band’s drummer Eric Moore. Also, established artists such as MGMT have recently pushed towards releasing their latest numbers independently, despite still being signed to Columbia Records.

Perhaps the push towards releasing music independently and more frequently will be the new trend throughout the decade. 

Graphic by Sasha Axenova.

Categories
Student Life

Jad Does Things! One album a day

Graphic by @sundaeghost

Hi! I’m Jad Abukasm, News Editor at The Concordian, and in this segment, Kayla runs my life!

[Upbeat music] 

Before you rant on how this is no challenge, let me explain. I never listen to full albums. I spot the only song I like and play it on repeat, hence my list of Spotify-liked songs including Oum Kalsoum, Joe Dassin, Billie Eilish and Pop Smoke. I never feel the need to go through a whole album if I don’t hardcore love all the songs. I’m also that detestable person that skips songs after three minutes, NO MATTER WHAT.

So without further ado, here are the albums I listened to.

Day 1: African Giant by Burna Boy

Day 2: Black Messiah by D’Angelo

Day 3: Negro Swan by Blood Orange

Day 4: I Had a Dream that You Were Mine by Hamilton Leithauser

Day 5: Blonde by Frank Ocean

I initially thought I was going to get bored really fast. I feel that listening to a 50-minute album seems different than listening to 10 five-minute songs—but I was quickly proven wrong.

The fact that I was listening to new albums I never even heard of made me want to stick to my headphones and get the most out of the experience. I was so surprised by African Giant that I listened to the album a second time before going to bed.

Now, not all albums necessarily fit in with my type of music, but I still really loved exploring new genres. And yes, I added many songs to my Spotify-liked list.

I learned two things from this challenge. Firstly, only listening to your favourite songs from an artist will quickly make you lose interest in them. Secondly, artists offer albums with songs in a specific order for a reason. Okay, call me Mr. Oblivious, but I hadn’t realized it before. At the end of the day, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

I will definitely start listening to full albums from now on. I think this will make me explore the potential of every artist. I also really look forward to listening to albums from artists I already listen to, with the exception of Oum Kalsoum…my Arabic friends will understand the reference.

Graphic by @sundaeghost

Categories
Arts

Look, listen and now you’re hooked

Thoughts on the Fondation Phi’s current exhibitions

Listen and be amazed. These words from The Meaning of Style followed me home after seeing the Eva & Franco Mattes and Phil Collins’ exhibitions at the Fondation Phi pour l’art contemporain. (No, not Genesis’ Phil Collins, this Phil Collins is an artist and filmmaker, and yes, they are both from England.)

The title of the video [The Meaning of Style] doesn’t seem to fit with the piece. The short, four minute and 50 second film “features a group of anti-fascist Malay skinheads who appear to transcend reality and representation, circulating between the imaginative and literal spaces of cinema,” according to Harvard’s Carpenter Center for Visual Arts.

the world won’t listen (2004-2007), Phil Collins. International tribute to The Smiths.

This specific information, about all of Collins’ shorts at Phi, isn’t as readily present, even in the exhibition’s programme. Instead, you’re left to wander from screen to screen and soundproof booth to soundproof booth wondering if Genesis’ Phil Collins had a secret filmmaking practice. It would make sense if he did, all the videos in the exhibition are about the relatability of music and creating various intimate installations to sit and listen.

Juxtaposed with Eva & Franco Mattes’ What Has Been Seen, the Collins’ exhibition becomes even more intriguing. According to the duo’s website, “the title refers to the “What Has Been Seen Cannot Be Unseen” meme, an internet axiom which states that repulsive, disturbing, or horrific sights can never be erased from memory once they have been seen.”

Their work forces the viewer to change the way they approach, view and generally interact with, and on, the internet. Viewers are first confronted with a smashed old desktop computer looping videos you may or may not recognize from the early 2000s. Then, you’ll walk into an open, white room, entirely empty except for a large screen and an orange cable. The individuals on the screen look back at you in shock, and you’ll wonder if they can actually see you; if Eva and Franco Mattes installed a webcam and instructed people at the other end to react to your presence. I won’t ruin the surprise.

Then you’ll continue onwards, heading up Phi’s four floors, and maybe you’ll notice the Ceiling Cat, or then again, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll just climb up the stairs and be totally thrown off guard by the TV tents and the fuzzy red carpet. Are you supposed to lie down on the ground and actually watch these videos? Or appreciate them as a sculptural object? You can definitely hear them.

Your choice. Either way, you’ll be confused. All the different Phis (Fondation Phi, Centre Phi), Phil Collins, and now this?

The way objects occupy space will really change the way you interact with them, in art museums, online and out and about in the world. We go about our lives intrinsically knowing what is okay to sit on and what isn’t. The floor usually isn’t it, especially in galleries and museums. But I’m a big floor-sitting advocate. Eva & Franco Mattes appear to be too.

Follow their collection of personal photographs upstairs. You won’t be able to actually see the images, but they’re there, through the wires and under the floorboards.

Data surrounds us at every turn, but we rarely confront it physically. Eva & Franco Mattes’ maze forces us to but doesn’t privy you to their contents. They are personal photographs after all.

The last stop is entirely different. Finally, wall art, something normal. Except it’s not. Oh and there’s another cat. Turns out they’re taxidermied (yeah, the Ceiling Cat too), creepy.

This last piece forces you to sit on the floor and look up at the video.

Abuse Standard Violations depicts images and text leaked from the duo’s interviews with web content moderators. One of these things is not like the other? Which images are ‘clean?’ How should they be classified? To flag, or not to flag?

Content moderation is one of the most interesting, mundane and horrifying professions that exist in today’s internet-dependent world. What has been seen, the three videos that follow Abuse Standard Violations, truly cannot be unseen—the duo’s way of forcing you to connect to these works in the most uncomfortable way. They moderate your behaviour. (Unless you live by a strong politics of refusal, are no fun or have bad knees.)

The work forces you to confront a world you aren’t familiar with, a world of the matrix, the other side of our crystal clear, greasy and cracked screens, changing the way we relate to our physical surroundings and to each other.

Now is your last chance to visit both exhibitions at the Fondation Phi pour l’art contemporain (451 and 465, Saint-Jean Street) until March 15. The gallery is open Wednesday to Friday from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m. and from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the weekends. Admission is free.   

 

 

Photos by Chloë Lalonde.

Categories
Music

The Memphis Rap Renaissance: A look at the city’s best works of 2020 so far

With an already stellar lineup of releases so far in 2020, Memphis hip hop is surging

Two months into 2020, Memphis, Tennessee’s hip hop scene has been heating up. The region, mainly known in hip hop for the incredibly influential Three 6 Mafia, is seeing a surge of great young talent and starting the decade off with some very strong releases.

Yo Gotti: Untrapped

Unlike the other three artists on this list, Yo Gotti is an elder statesman in the genre. The self-proclaimed “King of Memphis” is over 20 years into his career, with Untrapped being his tenth studio release.

While the album doesn’t break any new ground sonically, Gotti himself displays some real growth. There are a handful of moments on here, such as on “Big Homie Rules,” where his reflections on life and his stature in the industry display a new, more mature side of Gotti.

The album also has a lot of crossover appeal. After 20 years in the game, it’s clear that Gotti knows what makes a hit. With consistently great production, some genuinely catchy hooks and a star-studded feature list, this project is solid throughout.

Moneybagg Yo: Time Served

Since signing to Yo Gotti’s CMG record label in 2016, Moneybagg Yo has been building a strong buzz as an artist to watch from Memphis. On his third studio album, he has mastered his formula, delivering arguably his best effort yet.

On Time Served, Yo’s ability to create fun, bouncy and boisterous bangers is on full display. The production throughout is filled with rattling hi-hats and thudding 808s that match Yo’s energy perfectly.

The incredibly deep roster of features on this tape range from solid to fantastic. Future’s verse on “Federal Fed” is a standout as his influence on Yo is extremely apparent, resulting in the two meshing very well together. 

This is an extremely solid project; what it lacks in content, it more than makes up for with fantastic instrumentals and catchy hooks. While the few attempted “love” songs are obvious lows, they are not enough to take away from how consistently great the album is otherwise.

Key Glock: Yellow Tape 

From the opening lines on the album’s intro “1997,” Key Glock’s Yellow Tape is an all-out show of confidence and charisma.

Laid over instrumentals that take heavy influence from his hometown’s rich hip hop history, Glock’s verses command the attention of the listener. The level of conviction in his vocal delivery makes even the simplest of hooks catchy and captivating as well.

The only real negative is the repetitive nature of the content through the project. Still, this is a great album and it’ll be exciting to see where Glock goes from here.

Duke Deuce: Memphis Massacre 2

There’s something to be said for Duke Deuce’s admiration for the southern legends that came before him. The sound of Memphis Massacre 2 bounces between reviving the crunk era, revisiting the dark and atmospheric sound popularized by Three 6 Mafia/Hypnotize Minds and a few autotune-drenched trap bangers for good measure.

The project kicks off with extremely high energy, and Deuce carries it throughout the entire runtime. With a variety of flows in his arsenal and a knack for aggressive yet infectious hooks, the rambunctious bounce in his delivery is absolutely contagious.

Tracks like the remix of the viral hit “Crunk Ain’t Dead” exemplify these qualities. The song features Three 6 Mafia co-founders Juicy J and Project Pat as well as crunk pioneer Lil Jon and is an absolute firecracker, exploding with high energy performances from all parties.

Overall, this is one of the year’s most entertaining and enticing hip hop projects. Its ability to sound contemporary while revisiting sounds from past eras gives this album an identity that is all its own and makes for an extremely entertaining listening experience.

 

Categories
Music Quickspins

QUICKSPINS: Craig Stickland – Starlit Afternoon

Craig Stickland starts off strong with his debut album

On Feb. 28, Craig Stickland finally released his debut album, Starlit Afternoon, in which he explains his journey through 12 songs.

Eighteen days before the big release, the Vancouver-born singer-songwriter started sharing the inspiration and story behind each one of his 12 tracks on Instagram and Facebook. In doing this, Stickland took us on the adventure with him; making us feel as if we were present in those moments, and sharing details of his personal life.

Without these short descriptions, we would have never guessed that the story behind “History” is him bumping into his ex-girlfriend at a “fake, trendy LA party” after not seeing her for a year.

In the opening track, Stickland gives us a good taste of the rest of his charming album. He describes a person singing and dancing under a “Starlit Afternoon,” making us feel as though we are right next to them.

His soothing voice, along with the calm acoustics take us to whatever place he’s singing about so beautifully. High notes heard in “Warning” and “Break Every Rule,” for example, make listening to him even more pleasant.

Stickland couldn’t have made a better debut album than Starlit Afternoon.

Rating: 10/10

Trial Track: “Starlit Afternoon”

Categories
Music Quickspins

QUICKSPINS: Grimes – Miss Anthropocene

Bubbly with a twist: Grimes’ new album might be the Grimesy-est yet

Grimes is unapologetically herself. Yeah, she’s pretty weird, but she’s committed. She’s committed to her own aesthetic, sound and digital perception. Quite frankly, it’s impressive.

Miss Anthropocene brings back the artist’s darker side, similar to her older music, but continues to evolve ideas present in Art Angels (2015). This new album includes an array of sounds, some trendy mixes and continued collaboration with Japanese rapper 潘PAN, painting the twisted and cynical content of her tracks in an upbeat light.

Grimes imagines a digital future populated with AI robots and fast moving vehicles, and the songs on Miss Anthropocene speak true to that. “4AEM” feels as hazy and dreamy as “Genesis” with a busy twist. The album is certainly existential, and her climate anxiety, or anxiety in general, merges with a dark and tacky feel, especially in “New Gods,” that makes this album feel like a joke and a masterpiece all at once. The name itself is an obvious play on “misanthrope” and “anthropocene,” and each song is a biography for one of the four horses of the apocalypse (except there are 10).

Rating: 8/10

Trial Track: “You’ll miss me when I’m not around”

Categories
Music Quickspins

Pop Smoke Lives On

From Brooklyn to Brixton, drill music keeps growing and Pop Smoke was proof

When TMZ tweeted that 20-year-old drill rapper Bashar Barakah Jackson aka Pop Smoke passed away after being shot during a home invasion, messages of shock and condolences flooded social media. Death is the great equalizer; it does not respect status or person. But it seemed especially cruel that Pop Smoke’s life would be taken away just as he was climbing the ladder to superstardom and less than a year after the release of his breakout single.

While he had already garnered some buzz before its release, “Welcome to the Party” was the song that introduced most people to the distinct vocal stylings of Pop Smoke. His voice was deep with the type of gravelly, coarse texture usually reserved for 63-year-old, pack-a-day smokers. He was able to manipulate his pitch or tone to stretch and pull it in different directions.  This combined with his brash, confident delivery—comparable to fellow New Yorker 50 Cent—managed to turn what would otherwise be throwaway lines into quotable, or more aptly, captionable bars.

It is a testament to his talent that he was able to transform “Welcome to the Party,” a statement usually followed by “bathroom is over here, snacks are over there” into a menacing warning cry, one that said, “enter this party at your own risk.”

Beyond his own abilities, one of the things that stood out in his music was the beat, a collection of syncopated hi-hats and 808 slides that in theory shouldn’t have worked, but somehow did. If Pop Smoke was the party’s host, the instrumental was its ambience.

It was like nothing we had ever heard before, that is unless you had been paying attention to the other side of the Atlantic.  

Drill music began in Chicago in the early 2010s. In a genre like hip hop that can be reticent to sub-categorization, drill carved out a niche with its hard-hitting ominous take on trap instrumentals, dark and aggressive lyrics, and DIY aesthetic.

The fact that drill’s earliest stars like Chief Keef, Lil Durk, and producer Young Chop were teenagers added to its notoriety as it juxtaposed the innocence of youth with the violence, both in the music and outside of it.

There was a raw authenticity about the whole thing. When Chief Keef told us what he didn’t like, we f*cking believed it.

The internet was the primary method of sharing and consuming the music, there weren’t middlemen. When you watched a video you got the sense that it was produced, recorded and shot all in the same house—possibly because the person was on house arrest.

Drill quickly made its way to the UK and not content with just being consumers, young people began making their own tracks. While the subject of who did it first is hotly debated, crews from Brixton—150, and 67 (pronounced six seven) began making their own songs around the same time.

Just like drill stateside, these songs told stories that were specific to the lives and neighbourhoods of the people who made them, but most of the initial instrumentals were the same as those their American counterparts were rapping on, often sourced from “type beats” channels on YouTube.

As the genre grew, producers and rappers in the UK crafted a sound that was their own, distinct from its original windy city origins.

It was that sound that provided the backdrop for Pop Smoke’s “Welcome to the Party,” as well as his mixtapes Meet The Woo 1 & 2 which were mostly produced by Londoner 808Melo.

Drill has come full circle. American rappers influenced their contemporaries in the UK who in turn created and developed their own sound. That sound came back to influence drill in New York where Pop Smoke would find it.

Pop Smoke wasn’t the first one to use these beats, but Michael Jackson wasn’t the first to moonwalk either. He started his career by remixing songs from other popular Brooklyn drill rappers like Sheff G and Sleepy Hallow who had already been spitting on UK drill beats.

What he did was catapult that sound from a niche audience to anthem status. “Welcome to the Party” currently has 34 million views on Youtube and “Gatti,” his collaboration with hip hop superstar Travis Scott, was telling of the rapper’s rapid ascent to hip-hop’s upper rungs.

The UK’s urban music scene is probably the healthiest it’s ever been, drill songs like Russ’ “Gun Lean” and Unknown T’s “Homerton B ” have achieved chart success. The next stage of commercial success is breaking into the US which has almost five times the population of the UK.

Pop Smoke was a bridge between the scenes in the UK and the US. The level of success he achieved in his short career is a positive for drill worldwide and could be an important step in opening up US hip-hop consumers to sounds from the UK.

And one last thing, you cannot say Pop and forget the Smoke.

 It is important.

Graphic by Sasha Axenova.

Categories
Music Quickspins

QUICKSPINS: Justin Bieber – Changes

After taking over four years for himself, Justin Bieber is back with a new style in Changes

After four years of ups and downs, Justin Bieber’s long-awaited return arrived on Feb. 14 with the release of his fifth studio album, Changes.

Unlike some of Bieber’s most popular tracks, “Baby,” “Boyfriend,” and “Despacito,” overall this album has a slow tempo. Yet, some songs distinguish themselves with stronger bass and catchier beats, as heard on “Forever,” featuring Post Malone and Clever, and “Running Over,” featuring Lil Dicky.

It could have been better. The 17-track album is way too long. With most of the songs being slow-paced with low or moderate vocals, it gets repetitive after a few tracks. Besides, “Yummy”—other than being annoyingly catchy—is a complete waste of time.

Whether this album is about Bieber’s wife or his ex-girlfriend, his desire to put his feelings first is evident. Although effort alone is not enough, as he said, he’s been “going through changes.”

This album could have been a total disaster or a total success, and somehow it’s right in the middle. Some songs are enjoyable and some are regrettable. Fortunately for him, Beliebers will always be satisfied with his music because they belieb in him.

Rating: 7/10

Trial Track: “Habitual”

Exit mobile version