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Music Quickspins

QUICKSPINS: Gucci Mane – Woptober II

Gucci Mane - Woptober II

The trap pioneer’s 15th studio album probably sounds as you’d expect it to

Gucci Mane, veteran Atlanta rapper and the new face of fashion luxury brand Gucci, released his 15th studio album as the second edition of his Woptober series. The album features a variety of features including young up-and-comers DaBaby, Megan Thee Stallion, Lil Baby and 66.6 per cent of Migos.

The rate at which Gucci releases new music is impressive to say the least, but this may take away from any of these records having any more longevity than the next. His clever bars and familiar flow are always welcomed, but Woptober II, like many of its predecessors, has little lasting power compared to some of the classics that Gucci released earlier in his career. The tracks with features always sound like a fun collaboration among friends, or between rookie and vet, while Gucci’s solo songs typically offer more introspection into the mind of a trapstar criminal turned multi-millionaire businessman.

6/10

Trial Track: “Big Boy Diamonds” ft. Kodak Black

Star Bar:
“I’m not talkin’ the Weeknd, but I’m talking ‘bout Abel / You see this shit that Cain did, and they weren’t even strangers” – Gucci Mane on “Highly Recommended”

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Music Quickspins

QUICKSPINS: Wale – Wow… That’s Crazy

Wale - Wow...That's Crazy

Wow… That’s Crazy sees Wale at his sharpest, making the few misfires all the more frustrating

After spending the last year and a half releasing a handful of well-received EPs, Wale has finally delivered his sixth studio album. Wow… That’s Crazy explores the many facets of the D.C. rapper’s personality, and a variety of topics. While this is one of the project’s strengths, it leads to some very out-of-place moments that keep it from being great.

This album is at its best when showcasing Wale’s poetic lyrics and smooth delivery over lush, layered instrumentals. The 6lack-assisted “Expectations” is a perfect example of this. On this song, Wale speaks on his struggles with expectations, as well as the pressure women face being expected to fit certain beauty standards. On “Set You Free” Wale dissects his own lack of self-love, and its effects on his relationships and mental state, featuring a beautiful vocal performance from R&B legend Kelly Price.

Unfortunately, the album strays away from these moments of maturity and reflection, opting instead for generic, formulaic bangers. “Routine” featuring Meek Mill and Rick Ross follows a run of smooth, R&B-infused songs, making immediately apparent that it doesn’t fit in there. The closer “Poledancer” featuring Megan Thee Stallion is so far removed from the vast majority of the tracks, both sonically and thematically, that it causes the project to end on a sour note.

Overall, Wow… That’s Crazy, is a solid body of work, with a mostly consistent sound and mature content throughout. Unfortunately, a few unnecessary and inconsistent songs keep the album from being as great as it could have been.

7/10

Trial Track: “Expectations”

Star Bar:
“Self-loathing is my addiction amongst
Other things I don’t mention ’cause you be itchin’ to judge
It’s love, it’s overrated and underrated because
It seem like a placebo when it be done” (Wale on “Set You Free”)

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Music

PHOTO GALLERY: MEUTE at Société des arts technologiques (SAT)

MEUTE at Société des arts technologiques (SAT) on October 10, 2019

Photos by Guillaume Knobloch

 

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Music

Joker’s soundtrack is a failure

Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck in Warner Bros. Pictures, Village Roadshow Pictures and BRON Creative’s Joker.

The inclusion of a song made by convicted rapist Gary Glitter continues to prove that Todd Phillips is an insensitive filmmaker

By now, you’ve probably seen Joker. You also probably have an opinion on it as the film’s been one of the most divisive pieces of cinema in recent memory. While the subject of debate surrounding the movie has been mainly around its plot points and characterization of its protagonist, Arthur Fleck, its soundtrack also reflects Fleck’s incel behaviour that goes a step too far, by including Gary Glitter’s “Rock ‘N’ Roll (Part 2).”

Glitter was convicted of one count of attempted rape, four counts of incident assault, and one of having sex with an underage girl in 2015. Although Glitter isn’t set to make any money off of his song, the inclusion of “Rock ‘N’ Roll (Part 2)” still acts as a giant middle finger to victims of child abuse.

Joker’s soundtrack features songs that directly reflect Fleck’s personality throughout the film. While many contain allusions to clowns, the songs include subtext that directly relates to Fleck’s social incompetence. “Everybody Plays the Fool” by The Main Ingredient starts with the singer speaking to an unnamed person who spends all their time moping and feeling sorry for themselves – a theme that drives the entirety of Joker.

Songs like “Send in the Clowns” and “White Room” both discuss the end of doomed relationships but, of course, Joker uses them to represent Fleck’s eventual dissociation from society, leading him to become the villain we know.

Naturally, filling a movie with music that could relate to incel-behaviour is an understandable move. The soundtrack sets the tone for the film and helps convey the film’s messages. Having a good soundtrack only elevates the film.

Except in the case of Joker.

Glitter’s inclusion in the film marks a gigantic failure for Todd Phillips, Warner Bros., and everyone else involved with the film’s production. It makes sense for a movie about an incel to include music that contains lyrics about incel-behaviour. The songs mentioned before don’t explicitly reference those themes, but when pairing the lyrics with the themes of the film, they can be interpreted as songs to which Fleck would relate.

“Rock ‘N’ Roll (Part 2)” doesn’t include any lyrics. The song is a three-minute rock fest that’s heavy on chaotic instrumentals and backed by the classic “hey, hey, hey” line repeated throughout. The song has no symbolism as the others do. Sure, it sounds fun, and in the moment you’d have no idea who made it, but its true purpose here is murky.

Did the studio know? I can’t say for sure, but they should have checked.

Joker doesn’t glorify incel-behaviour. It depicts it as truly as possible, but has nothing more to say. It’s an incredibly shallow movie that’s made even more numbing when paired with the inclusion of Glitter’s song.

This is just another addition to all the scandals surrounding the now-infamous film. Phillips has done a great job of showing how disconnected he is from society and with the discovery that Glitter has a song in the film, it further illustrates that maybe Fleck wasn’t the joker – it was really Phillips.

 

Feature photo: DC Films

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Music Quickspins

QUICKSPINS: Angel Olsen – All Mirrors

Riding the success of her recent releases, Angel Olsen takes a new orchestral direction on All Mirrors

Angel Olsen’s All Mirrors is a grand orchestral pop expedition into passion and loss. Just two years since the release of her last album, Phases, and three years since the major critical success of My Woman, Olsen has pivoted from her trusted folk-rock roots to a more bombastic, ambitious route on this newest project.

Olsen’s lyrics are often questioning and timid yet her vocal delivery carries all the power. This is especially apparent on the track “Impasse” where she belts “Take it out on me, I’m too caught up to see […] You know best, don’t you know” over gloomy swelling strings, creating a beautiful yet deeply unsettling atmosphere, a tone that appears often in the album.

Despite a sprinkling of upbeat moments on the album such as “Too Easy,” All Mirrors is incredibly dark. There is a palpable anger running through this project. Whether it’s anger at a past love like on “Lark,” or anger at herself as on the title track, Olsen isn’t letting anyone off the hook. All Mirrors is what a breakup album should be, Olsen’s songs of self-reflection and ire bring us even deeper into this powerful singer-songwriter’s mind.

9/10

Trial Track: “All Mirrors”

Star Bar: 

“It’s easy if you tell the truth

But knowing what it is, it’s not enough

And knowing that you love someone

Doesn’t mean you ever were in love” (“What It Is”)

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Music Quickspins

QUICKSPINS: Danny Brown – uknowhatimsayin¿

Danny Brown

Danny Brown goes back to basics on uknowhatimsayin¿

Danny Brown, hip hop’s resident weirdo, had huge expectations for the follow-up to his acclaimed 2016 drug-fest of an album, Atrocity Exhibition. The album was grand in scope, featuring a nominee for this decade’s best posse-cut that saw Kendrick Lamar, Earl Sweatshirt, and Ab-Soul trade bars with the idiosyncratic Detroit rapper.

Uknowhatimsayin¿, on the other hand, is Brown’s most grounded effort to date. While still strange in comparison to most rap releases, this album is a far cry from what was expected. The intro, “Change Up,” begins with a single guitar string that echoes enough to give it the classic paranoid feeling of a Danny Brown track. His lyrics also reciprocate the eerie feeling of the song, as Brown raps about focusing on his own life (“Gotta keep a grip when the rent is due / N****s tryna get you for every last cent”).

Legendary rapper/producer Q-Tip executive produced the album, which is easy to see when listening to the songs he produced himself, such as standout “Dirty Laundry” and nostalgia-filled closer, “Combat.” This album is partly a love letter to 90s instrumentals, while also trying to add the signature Danny Brown touch to it.

Uknowhatimsayin¿ also stands out with its features as underground darlings Jpegmafia, Blood Orange and Run the Jewels all make appearances. “3 Tearz” sees a lively Killer Mike of Run the Jewels, where he delivers an impassioned verse targeted directly to U.S. president Donald Trump (“I don’t give a fuck ‘bout Trump, who got dump? / Who protesting collections at their garbage dump?”).

Danny Brown’s strangeness continues to flourish even as he approaches 40. The rapper never ceases to innovate in his work and on uknowhatimsayin¿, he does the most with as little as possible. Don’t mistake this project for a lazy return, this is exactly what he needed after Atrocity Exhibition.

8.5/10

Trial Track: “Dirty Laundry”

Star Bar: 

“Work all day ’til the work gone (Step)

Talkin’ back in the day when I had a chirp phone (Boop)

My n***a made a wrong turn, got flipped in the zone

Had to say I was a smoker just so I could go home (Home)”

  • Danny Brown on “Dirty Laundry”
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Music

Injury Reserve jailbreaks Le Belmont

Photo by Louis Pavlakos

Arizona rap trio Injury Reserve introduce themselves to Montreal in riotous fashion

The lights inside Le Belmont dimmed. A thick fog started to fill up the small venue. Suddenly, three silhouettes appeared on stage as the beat to “Rap Song Tutorial” started playing. The song, while different from the studio version, announces their arrival. The beat shifts and distorts enough to get the crowd riled up.

Silence follows. In an instant, the beat drops as the harsh yelling of “GTFU” begins.

Injury Reserve is here.

Following the release of their debut self-titled album, Injury Reserve, the group saw increased popularity and acclaim as their latest effort was lauded by fans and critics alike. The album took more than two years to complete as the group spent most of their time in Europe developing it. While Floss and Live From The Dentist’s Office showed their unwavering potential and their experimental tendencies, their self-titled project was their true introduction to the world.

In a small venue, the lighting made for a photographer’s nightmare. The three members of the group were barely visible, but their stage presence more than made up for the lack of clear vision. Really, they didn’t need to be seen; they needed to be heard. Ritchie With a T and Stepa J Groggs rapped like their lives depended on it on their live renditions of heavy-hitting bangers such as “Oh Shit!!!” and their most memorable track “Jailbreak The Tesla.”

The group’s internet-heavy aesthetic fit the overall tone of the concert. Their faces never showed and they never properly introduced themselves, allowing for a dark and anonymous concert that probably would have driven off any new listeners. Despite this, Injury Reserve still performed deeper cuts that couldn’t be singles. Songs like “What a Year It’s Been” act as personal reflections of the two rappers in the group.

Producer Parker Corey was the least visible member throughout the set as he mostly stayed at the back of the stage handling the song transitions and beat adjustments. Although he was never seen, his work behind the DJ booth was essential in providing the wild atmosphere they sought out.

The standout performance of the night wasn’t a banger, however. The auto-tune heavy and masterfully produced “ttkt” followed the mood switch-up after “Best Spot in the House.” Ritchie With a T’s auto-crooning is a perfect example of how auto-tune can make someone’s singing more enjoyable. The glitchy effect of Ritchie’s vocals doubled down on the already dark tone of the track.

The balance between bangers and introspective deep cuts shows how versatile Injury Reserve is. Their first performance in Montreal was truly a triumphant success. Having three full-length projects and one EP under their belt, their show expertly combined the best aspects of their music into one concise concert.

 

Feauture photo by Louis Pavlakos

In-text photo by Britanny Clarke

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Music

Heather Ragnars sings the stories that are too hard to tell

Photo by Britanny Clarke

There have been many debates throughout the years concerning whether an artist should be separated from their art. In Heather Ragnars’ case, however, doing so would be stripping her music from its essence.

Ragnars is a Concordia student of Icelandic origin, currently pursuing a degree in Music Studies, after completing a BA in Psychology. She moved to Montreal when she was eight years old, after spending most of her childhood in Maddison, Wisconsin.

She also happens to be a verified Spotify artist, and a frequent performer at The Wiggle Room on St-Laurent Boulevard. Just recently, she performed a collection of new songs in a show called “Your Money is Not a Gift,” a 1950s/60s-inspired Burlesque show.

Ragnars was raised by opera singers, and was taught the piano at age five. However, such a classical upbringing did not stop her from interpreting the standard musical pieces the way she believed would sound better. 

“I could sing before I could talk,” she proudly said. “I often wanted to change the classical pieces I would learn, and my dad would always tell me not to, but I would go ‘well, wouldn’t it sound better if I played it this way?’ and so it wasn’t long before I started writing my own music.”

She describes the writing process as such: an idea comes to her because there’s something she needs to say to someone but can’t, because it is a difficult conversation. Either it can’t be said, or it’s too hard to say.

“It just comes out like that, and it’s usually not something very pleasant,” Ragnars said. “Hard to say but needs to be said. Some people would maybe think [the song] is empowering or negative. The feeling that I describe might be ephemeral, and it might be something is long-lasting.”

Her music is extremely personal, a sort of musical diary if one would choose to describe it. Her website best describes her songs as “heartbreaking, yet barefaced accounts of the many things we think but don’t say.” 

Some of her musical influences include The Supremes, motown music in general, Etta James, Billy Joel, and Cat Stevens. She is also inspired by contemporary artists like the late Amy Winehouse, Lana del Rey, and The Weeknd.

Ragnars’ show, “Your Money is not A Gift” was inspired by a song she wrote under the same title. Despite having a 60s theme – something she is quite taken by – the song is also a recollection of a time when someone tried to buy her off with gifts and money – things that don’t come for free.

“The song felt relevant to that whole idea ‘are housewives getting a free payout from their husbands?’,” she said. “I’m really fascinated by vintage, the aesthetic, because it also has an economic importance to it. The idea that the woman takes care of everything in the home, looking good while she does it is something that fascinates a lot of people, because the housework never ends. So why not take the housewife as she is, and put a little sexy in it too? Maybe these wives were fulfilled, and maybe there weren’t, but they spark a lot of mystery and fascination.”

 

Photo by Britanny Clarke

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Music

Stereolab hypnotize at Corona Theatre

Photo by Laurence BD.

English-French avant-pop legends sound as fresh as ever after their 10-year hiatus

After many of us were drenched in the Tuesday rain, Stereolab revived our spirits by playing a sold-out show that later released more tickets to keen fans online with Evenko. Stereolab haven’t performed since 2009, and have recently released a long list of upcoming new shows across Europe and North America.

The music of Stereolab is an enigma. They have been labeled avant-pop, indie pop, electronic, and were among the first to be considered a post-rock group. Emerging in 1990 in London, England, they incorporated 60s pop, krautrock, and French and English leftist politics into scattered, surrealist songs that didn’t receive much attention at first. They later began to incorporate funk, jazz, bossa nova, and lounge into their music, with a cleaner, more danceable sound.

Over the years, the band began to receive recognition for its experimentalism. Lead by Laetitia Sadier of France and Tim Gane of England, the only two members remaining from the very beginning, they still sound fresh today, and are truly one-of-a-kind.

The crowd at Corona was full of many long-time fans, and even some children and babies were attending up on the balcony seats. Although Stereolab tend to play their live shows with a little more reverb and noise, their organ sounds and beeping synths are still pleasant to the ears of all ages.

Laetitia Sadier addressed the audience freely in French, and confidently lead the rest of the band throughout the night, performing songs from their hit albums Peng!, Emperor Tomato Ketchup and Dots and Loops. Sadier’s airy voice hasn’t aged a bit, and every band member was full of energy and passion, making it a timeless experience. Those who wanted to dance along to their swaying sounds made their way into the crowd and weren’t afraid to let out a few shouts of excitement upon their return.

Stereolab played a setlist that was at times mesmerizing, slow and hypnotic, and other times times frenzied with angular tension. They went back and forth between the more energetic tracks like the jazzy “Ping-Pong” to the more droning, reverb-filled songs like “Crest.” The standout tracks included the cerebral “Metronomic Underground,” the frantic and electric “Percolator” and the playful “Lo Boob Oscillator.”

No matter which direction Stereolab went with their setlist, they never failed in locking the crowd into their magnetic grooves. They came back on with an encore of the long-awaited “Brakhage” – one of their most well-known and defining tracks, that is both experimental and relaxed. They then finished with the 16-minute long “Blue Milk,” and their droning guitars and dreamlike synths put us all in a trance.

It was truly a pleasure to see Stereolab back at it again, as professionals continuing to surprise us with their technical and creative abilities. Stereolab are as seamless live as they are on record, and Montreal was so happy to have them. 

 

Photos by Laurence B.D.

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Music Quickspins

Anniversary QUICKSPINS: OASIS – (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?

One of the most iconic British rock albums of all time, revisited

On this week in 1995, English rock band Oasis released their second studio album, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?. The record is considered by some to be the greatest album of all time and the album that propelled them to worldwide stardom, being declared the greatest British album since 1980 at the 2010 Brit Awards. It includes timeless classics like “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” “Champagne Supernova,” and the song we’ve surely all sang in a large group at a drunken house party a few decibels too high: “Wonderwall.”

Despite the current state of Liam and Noel Gallagher’s relationship, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? and the many albums that followed solidified Oasis’ place in rock and roll history and as the creators of the world’s greatest sing-along song.

10/10

Timeless Classic: Wonderwall

Star Bar: “Take me to the place where you go / Where nobody knows if it’s night or day / But please don’t put your life in the hands / Of a Rock n Roll band /Who’ll throw it all away” – “Don’t Look Back in Anger”

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Music Quickspins

QUICKSPINS: DaBaby – KIRK

DaBaby

DaBaby has canonized himself in the game faster than he starts rapping on any song off of KIRK

“Straight off the rip, you know I don’t wait for no drop,” raps DaBaby on “OFF THE RIP.” It’s a running joke that he never waits more than a few seconds into the track to go in, and during a white-hot 2019, DaBaby has canonized himself in the game faster than he starts rapping on any song off of KIRK.

After his tape Baby On Baby birthed the hit Suge earlier this year, DaBaby’s phone has been ringing off the hook for a feature. Derided by some for making the same song over and over again, DaBaby’s eagerness combined with his undeniable rap ability and the fact that this album has at least three different song formulas means that the Charlotte MC is only on his way up.

On KIRK, DaBaby reminisces about his father who recently passed. Not all of DaBaby’s lines or flows hit as hard as they could, but if you’re bored by any particular moment, you can count on him switching it up before you have time to think about it. Complete with appearances from Migos (sounds like Migos feat. DaBaby), co-baby rapper Lil Baby, and an Acid-Rap loosie of a Chance The Preacher feature, among others. While the songs run together at times, it is clearly more diverse and polished than Baby On Baby, and is a show of momentum that promises DaBaby will take much longer to fade than he did to come up.

7.5/10

Trial Track: BOP

Star Bar: And I still got a lotta shit on my mind that I can’t undecide/

Got me ready to slide, feelin’ like Doughboy when his brother died – DaBaby on INTRO

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Music

“Youth and optimism”: The first time I heard the Beatles

The Beatles - Abbey Road tribute

The Fab Four’s pride and joy, Abbey Road, celebrates 50 years and remains iconic in the music industry.

I can’t remember consciously falling in love with music until my first year of high school.

Sure, music has always been around in my life. I remember my kindergarten gym teacher handing me a plastic guitar to sing in front of the class when he saw me mouthing the words to “Highway to Hell” at the age of five. I remember my older brother showing me the cover art to Sam’s Town the day it was released in 2006, and enjoying it just as much as The Killer’s first album, Hot Fuss. I remember my dad buying the Guns N’ Roses Greatest Hits and my sister’s love of Bon Jovi in highschool. My mom’s teen crush on Donny Osmond and my grandfather’s man crush on Dean Martin. Music has certainly always been around me, but I didn’t necessarily always care for it.

If I could look back and pinpoint one moment in time when this all changed, it would have to be the first time I listened to The Beatles. Sometime in late 2007, my brother’s friend brought all 12 studio album CDs of the greatest band of all time, along with a few B-sides, to our house to burn onto our computer. After a few long hours of transferring, nearly every song The Beatles had ever released was available on our iTunes library.

Having always had faith in my brother’s taste in music, I took my third generation iPod Nano and plugged it into the computer. “Sync music.” I vividly remember running upstairs to my bedroom, plugging in my earphones, lying on my bed, and pressing play.

Paul McCartney’s “One, two, three, four!” countdown at the beginning of “I Saw Her Standing There” was a metaphorical countdown to my fall into a rabbit hole of rock n’ roll that I would never find my way out of. This song is the first song on the Beatles’ debut studio album, Please Please Me, listed at No. 39 on Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” list.

Front to back, the Fab Four’s back-and-forth transition of John Lennon to McCartney on lead vocals, and from upbeat rock to soothing love ballads was like nothing my 12-year-old self had ever heard before.

“Twist and Shout,” the outro song of the album, made it an absolute no-brainer that I would be spending the rest of my night enthralled in the evolution of The Beatles.

With The Beatles and A Hard Day’s Night delivered just as much as their predecessor. “All My Loving” and “Can’t Buy Me Love” went on to become fan favourites. Through the lyrics and their tone of voice, you could hear the youth and optimism that resided in the band members in their early days. Youth and optimism that had not yet been crushed by the pitfalls of the music industry; riddled with drugs, money, fame and empty promises. Youth and optimism that had not yet felt heartache, heartbreak, divorce, and regret. Youth and optimism that made all their love songs to date ones of glee and hope, as if they truly believed being in love was always a pleasurable experience.

Oh, how quickly things would change.

The Beatles’ fourth and fifth album, Beatles for Sale and Help!, toned down the cheery love songs and added more depth and transparency to their work. Songs like “I’m a Loser” and “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” address fallen love and hardships that the Beatles had experienced with a few more years of musical fame under their belt, as well as being the stars of two movies. Lennon claimed that these songs were written during his “Dylan period,” a time when the band found major influence from American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, who changed the focus of their songs to a more mature subject matter.

Not enough can be said about Rubber Soul and Revolver, argued by some as two of the strongest albums in the Beatles’ repertoire. Then came Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, proclaimed by Rolling Stone to be the best rock album of all time, calling it “an unsurpassed adventure in concept, sound, songwriting, cover art and studio technology by the greatest rock & roll group of all time.”

By this time, the Beatles had had their fair share of fun; dabbling into hallucinogens. Their mind-altering state was beginning to rub off on their music – evidently for the better. Masterpiece singles like “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and “With a Little Help From My Friends” remain timeless classics that will be sung along to just as loud another half-century from now. Magical Mystery Tour feels like a continuation of the same acid trip.

The Beatles ninth studio album, a self-titled double album often referred to as The White Album, did not halt their momentum. After writing the songs while on a religious retreat away from stardom, the Fab Four returned and released a 30-song album just over a year later. Their transitions between soft melodies and hard rock, all while offering each of the band members a turn at lead vocals, puts every listener on a musical roller coaster.

Abbey Road and Let It Be often get confused as the last albums that the Beatles recorded, although the real timeline doesn’t matter. The two albums were said to be recorded during the band’s “low of all-time” by lead guitarist George Harrison; and were the band’s final hurrah to the world. Both albums are riddled with tear-jerkers and songs of beauty, perhaps some of their most beautiful work ever; “Let It Be,” “Here Comes the Sun,” “The Long and Winding Road.” The lyrics to their songs preach that there is hope for a better world, regardless of the band’s fate.

Despite the cause of Lennon’s death 10 years later, one could still assume that he would continue to stand by his mantra: give peace a chance.

Thank you to The Beatles: for their countless classics, their diverse catalogue, and their lifelong words of wisdom that we could all use every once in a while.

Happy Anniversary, Abbey Road.

 

Collage by Alex Hutchins

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