December 2017 Review

Finally, the year's reviews are done. I am fully 2 months behind where I want to be with these updates, and I'm done with the format now. I'm gonna go into some more  longread-y stuff from this point. Unless one of you fancy paying me to do this. Do.. any of you... fancy paying me... for this? Maybe one day. For now, there's the final 9 albums of the year. As with last December's there's slim pickings - I had to put in a film soundtrack to pad out the numbers. But I am very enamoured with the top 2 records, and I did really enjoy hate-listening to Eminem's latest dirge. Top 40 of 2017 to follow!


The Rest:

Eminem - Revival - C-

Eminem's new album Revival (hasn't he already released like 4 albums with that title?) conveniently illustrates the paradoxical dichotomy at the heart of his huge success. It is a confused mess of superstar guest spots, blunt-force attempts at socio-political commentary and downright ludicrous misogyny. Revival is Eminem's latest attempt to reconcile his Still Don't Give A Fuck bleach-blonde shock-rap persona with his No, Actually I Want To Be Serious Now version of himself he started in the mid-00's. As you may have gathered, it doesn't work.

Eminem would be far more credible and relevant if he picked a side. All the ham-fisted sincerity in songs like Untouchable, Bad Husband and Believe would be at least acceptable if it wasn't on the same album as songs like Framed, Offended and Remind Me, (the latter of which making a complete waste of the clearing fee for extensive sampling of I Love Rock 'n Roll) the lyrical content of which is frankly appalling.

He almost gets it right with progressive song structures. He shows brief flashes of the technical brilliance that made him famous in the 90's. But this is all buried in the quagmire of a terminally disoriented middle-aged stream of consciousness. There is no consistent tone or message, and it's about 20 minutes too long. Hip-hop is in it's third golden age. Records are being released that we will talk of in reverential tones in 20, 30, 40 years time. Boundaries are being broken. Legends are being made. This simply will not do.

G-Eazy - The Beautiful & Damned - C

Gucci Mane - El Gato: The Human Glacier - D

Minors - Atrophy - C


The Best:


01: Glassjaw - Material Control - A

It's tough for heavy bands to keep up the energy of their earlier years as they move in their 30's and 40's. This era of rock band come backs has yielded some mediocre offerings in that regard - You only have to look to At The Drive-In's thoroughly OK album from earlier in the year for an example of this. It's just not that easy to replicate the pure energy of your teens with an extra couple of decades between you and that age, with kids and a mortgage in tow.

With Material Control however, Glassjaw have bridged that gap with some vital, moany American Post-Hardcore. Material Control has all the bite of the best of the 90's output of that scene, with the added bonus of self-reflective hindsight. This is only the band's third album to date from a release history that spans over 20 years. That may be what is driving Glassjaw to such achievements - They still have a ton of energy left from the old days. They have unfinished business.

Material Control is a contained, clever piece of art, with every considered emotive phrase licking at the heels of it's predecessor. The intro suite of New White Extremity, Shira and Citizen suggests a relentless aggressive listen awaits, but as the album unfolds, Glassjaw enable their more experimental side to come out. They balance that out with quieter sections, although they are merely contextual to the soaring choruses in tunes like Golgotha and Closer, which are predictably the highlights, and help Glassjaw keep their stripes with the purists. Material Control is a triumph, and a huge statement for the band's first full length release in 15 years.

02: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Gumboot Soup - A

I made a point of doing these blogs at least a month late because I've always been bothered by major publications lopping off the end of the year and releasing their top albums list in November. After all, what if the greatest album ever recorded gets released on December 31st? King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard put that theory to test by dropping Gumboot Soup on the final day of the year. And it's... Just about worth the wait!

Gumboot Soup is the band's fifth album of 2017. It's been described as a collection of tunes that wouldn't fit on the previous four records, mainly for stylistic reasons. Normally this would set off the one-track 30 minute improv jam cop-out alarm, but King Gizzard are a hugely prolific group of musicians. Their final release of  the year is just as snappy and entertaining as anything else they've given us this year. I'd actually go as far as saying it's the best of the bunch, because even though it's not fully representative of their 2017 output, it's a lot more accessible on the whole. The jazzy meanderings and 9 minute songs take a back seat for this round. It's an easy gate into the overgrown garden.

Intro track Beginner's Luck sticks straight in your head from the first listen, but once you've treated yourself to a few more spins, other pieces come to the fore. Down The Sink, The Great Chain Of Being, and Superposition are all songs that will inspire your creativity and have you reaching for your favourite Zappa records for months. There's far too many great moments on this album to mention, but my top cut is the marvellous psychedelic pop of Barefoot Desert, which positively glows with insight and energy. Gumboot Soup is a brilliant, smart record that is a fantastic sign off to 2017 for King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard.

03: Brockhampton - Saturation III - B

Coming out of nowhere, Brockhampton turned up to the 2017 rap party halfway through but still managed to get as wrecked as everyone else. Released in the space of six months, along with a companion film, the Saturation project spans 2.5 hours. It seems like an ambitious foray for what is the debut full-length offering from the self-proclaimed "internet's first boy band," but the burgeoning collective have appeared to find the whole thing totally natural. Saturation III is 2017's final slice of Brockhampton's easy alternative Hip-hop.

We're used to the drill, now. Saturation III is as tightly-packaged and well-considered as it's sister albums. It's tough to pigenhole so many rappers in one go, but their collective status plant their roots loosely in Odd Future and by extension, Tyler, The Creator's early progressive wordplay. That's just a vessel for their originality, though - In a world of battle-hardened MCs and galactic superstars, Brockhampton sit in their own compartment. Clean enough for mainstream rotation without losing any lyrical edge, accessible enough for casual listeners to dip into without being too sappy, the inclusive vibes of self-worth ripple across the surface gently, spiked with the confidence of a dozen-or-so young dudes who are inching into the spotlight.

Though the form is pleasant enough, you really really have to justify releasing three LPs in half a year. Brockhanpton don't even come close to producing enough quality material to fill out the space, and for that I have to mark it down. Saturation III on it's own is fair enough, but with the others, it's too much. I don't think Brockhampton are arrogantly releasing so much music - They are genuinely prolific. But with a fourth and possibly even a fifth record in the works for  2018, Saturation is an apt descriptor for this band's effect on the music world.

04: Jonny Greenwood - Phantom Thread - B

05: Tom Rogerson & Brian Eno - Finding Shore - B

November 2017 Review

Remember November? When Keith Chegwin was still alive, and we didn't know who the winner of the 2017 edition of The Apprentice was yet. It's like it was a different era! November's traditionally the last proper month of releases in music, after that everyone's wrapping up their tours and going on their jollies. November 2017 was no different, as it saw some final pushes for the top of end-of-year lists, some wonderful, some brilliant, and some not so good. This month's top 2 in particular are very good, and the 3rd place album ain't so bad either if you fancy a surprise release from an established artist.


The Rest:

Baths - Romaplasm - C

Hello Skinny - Watermelon Sun - C

MED - The Turn Up - C

Talib Kweli - Radio Silence - C

Yung Lean - Stranger - C


The Best:

01: Charlotte Gainsbourg - Rest - A

It's another female songwriter in the top spot this month. Charlotte Gainsbourg's much-anticipated Rest, her first album in 6 years, is a triumph of breathy atmospherics that bristles front to back with the kind of vitality usually displayed by artists in their formative years. Rest has a pulsating urgency that never lets up. Minor key piano sections form the lion's share of the musical soundscape and make each song flow effortlessly into the next. With occasional orchestral stabs and simple electronic beats thrown into the fire, Rest is a ruthlessly engaging album, one which demands your attention but doesn't punish you with harsh sounds. Everything is smooth and measured. It is a logical, evenly-spaced album, with plenty of hooks.

The start of Rest is virtually apocalyptic; the first song Ring-A-Ring O' Roses is like the opening credits of a film, the synth-harpsichord melody that forms the back bone of the song driving right through to Lying With You, an emotional keys-led piece, both with Gainsbourg's carefully produced vocal laid delicately over the top. Gainsbourg lives in London but she has roots from across the English Channel, and sings half the album in French. This (to a boorish Englishman who can't speak a word of French) creates an exotic, faraway feel to the record, and on huge beat-driven songs like Deadly Valentine, Songbird In A Cage, and the utterly wonderful Sylvia Says, Gainsbourg's mastery of her voice across two entirely separate languages gifts Rest a vibrant, ultra-saturated sound palate.

Rest combines electronic pop with post-punk and goth styles. It's bouncy, happy and clever, but it's also melancholic. The music is virtually all synthetic, but presented with so much honesty and pathos that it's one of the warmest listens you'll have all year. Rest's final track is Les Oxalis, ending the album with characteristic epic choruses, rich synth lines and the driving bass sound that keeps the whole thing bumping like a carnival right to the end. Gainsbourg enjoys a breakdown section at the finish, then resists the urge to drop into a 3rd chorus, instead choosing to turn a vocal sample from a young child (presumably Gainsbourg's daughter) into a big finish, aptly closing a record about the death of her father with the voice of the next generation. Flip it over and play it again, Rest is too good to leave alone!

02: Bjork - Utopia - A

It's tough to write about an artist as lauded and universally acclaimed as Bjork, because really, after years of mind-melting experimentation, everything that's going to be said has been said about her. She covers a vast width of musicality, taking inspiration from countless obscure and mainstream choices and constantly mutates her voice and the instrumentation around it to form music that is challenging, comforting, familiar and unique all at the same time. Utopia is the latest album from this wonderfully idiosyncratic genius.

Bjork attained escape velocity and left the solar system some time in the late 90's, after a wave of huge alt-pop hits left her balanced squarely in the golden spot between mainstream success and critical acceptance. Building on that position with her first 2 records Debut and Post, each of her subsequent albums have gone further and further in pushing the envelope of what can be considered music. Utopia is denser than most of the recent output Bjork has given us; it's altogether more lush than 2015's Vulnicura. This is actually what makes Vulnicura a better album, though. It's much more focused than Utopia; the album's meaning and direction can falter at times. It's easy to get lost in the forest of sounds, and it doesn't wait for you to catch up before hitting you full force with the next section.

This is of course, still a brilliant record. Utopia's pinnacle is Losss, a composition spanning nearly 7 minutes. It starts gently, with Bjork's inimitable voice seeping through stuttering beats, and evolves through newer and newer levels. The music gets more complicated with each passing minute, before the final chaotic section of madness, the gentle plucked strings give way to a full-on electronic-blipped freak out, the malevolent creeping percussion does what it's been threatening to do all song and breaks through the mix, overwhelming the rest and washing over you like an enormous cleansing tsunami. Then just as quickly - The song is over. What do you even call this kind of music? It's beautiful, dangerous, emotional and robotic. It's vibrant and stark. It's Bjork all over. She's been on top form for decades, and there's no sign that she's going to slow up any time soon.

03: Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - Who Built The Moon? - B

Noel Gallagher has spent the last few years building himself up from the wake of the breakup of one of the biggest rock bands in history. Since his debut solo release in 2011, he has managed to make a status for himself entirely apart from the lager-fuelled hedonism of Britpop, and the phoning-in of the post-90's Oasis years. His solo work has been pleasantly bereft of the trappings of his previous rock stardom, and has focused around what we knew he could do all along - Writing honest, accessible songwriter's pop-rock. The kids have been sent upstairs to bed, and now the grown-ups are cracking open that hours-chilled bottle of Rosé. Let's have a proper conversation, shall we?

Who Built The Moon? is different to what you'd expect from the 3rd Noel Gallagher solo effort. While it would be remiss to suggest that this album is experimental, (especially compared with Bjork's release from the same month) it is the strongest curveball Gallagher could possibly throw at this point in his career, and for that you have to give him a lot of credit. He could churn out a collection of brusque ballads every 18 months and be done with it, and a lot of his fanbase would probably be very happy about that, so for him to put out such a psychedelically informed record is a big statement. The compositions are brimming with guitar noise, euphoric choruses, and big beats. Gallagher's unmistakable calm voice leads the musical journey, and ties the whole of Moon together, to make a complete listening experience unlike anything else he's ever put out.

There are straightforward tunes like Holy Mountain and Keep On Reaching which maintain the no-nonsense Gallagher brand while simultaneously allowing the more adventurous pieces such as Fort Knox, It's A Beautiful World and Be Careful What You Wish For to shine brilliantly. While his brother plays around in the sandpit with rhyming couplets and 6th form guitar riffs, Noel Gallagher is spreading his wings and exploring new lands. Moon is more compelling than anything Oasis put out in their final decade of existence, and frankly if this is the sort of thing Noel wants to put out under his solo moniker, then that big money-spinning reunion can wait.

04: Converge - The Dusk In Us - B

05: Joji - In Tongues - B

George Miller, questionable Youtube starlet and instigator of the enormous Harlem Shake meme (remember that? 2013 feels like a different world, doesn't it?) also does music, as I discovered a few weeks ago. I'd heard nothing of Joji, his newest endeavour, and mainly picked this E.P from the fact that it was so highly rated on albumoftheyear, which is where I find most of this odd stuff I listen to. In Tongues is a wonderful little E.P, and it's a shame it's not any longer because it feels like the ideas Joji explores on it could very easily be stretched to a full-length effort. It's generally a sombre record; opening track Will He sounds a lot like something that could be on Sampha's early-year highlight Process. It stays the same all the way through In Tongues, and the tripped-out beats, drippy piano chords and floaty falsetto vocals means 16 minutes flies quickly by.

Bitter Fuck is the best song on In Tongues. Joji's style on this song melds elements that bring to mind the styles of Frank Ocean and Beck into a simple mix of instrumentation that ends the E.P on the highest note of all, even though the lyrical content is about loss and despair. It encapsulates the mood Joji wants to explore on In Tongues - Life is shitty, but I'm making the most of it. So even though Joji wanders around morosely throughout this E.P, the overall experience is nourishing and positive. It's a mature project from a young artist who's trying to move to the next level. Someone give this kid a full album deal!

06: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Polygondwanaland - B

October 2017 Review

Remember October? These are coming through a bit late! Just the nine albums from the latest crop, with a couple of bangers and several also-rans to pore over. I heard possibly the worst album of the yer this time round - Weezer's Pacific Daydream. If there's one thing I cannot stand, it's rock music with no edge at all. It's so sugary it rots your teeth after 5 minutes. It's like Rivers Cuomo is terminally ill and he's decided to just be really nice to everyone for his last 6 months. It's hard to tell if it's a joke or not, to be honest. Anyway, don't listen to it.


The Rest:


Liam Gallagher - As You Were - C

After the demise of Beady Eye, Liam Gallagher's shameless stab at forming Oasis 1.5 in spite of the absence of his brother, (which is like reforming Nirvana without Kurt Cobain) it looked like he was artistically finished, shying from the limelight for a few years in the shadow of Noel's much more successful solo venture. But in summer 2017, Liam came back on to the scene. He had a new band, a new clean attitude and new songs. As You Were was released to a huge commercial reaction, becoming one of the fastest selling albums in British chart history.

This is an unreservedly sincere album, which is probably what has won it so much surprise critical acclaim. Unfortunately though, the quality is lacking. After the initial burst from Wall Of Glass, As You Were drops irretrievably into 2nd gear, and stays there for the rest of the album. Gallagher's voice sounds better than his scratchy late 00's years, but his lyrics are often embarrassingly immature, with hammy references and clumsy imagery. This is very much one of those albums that is only given credence because of the name behind it. As You Were is middle of the road from start to finish.

Kele Okereke - Fatherland - C

ORB - Naturality - C

Weezer - Pacific Daydream - D


The Best:


01: St Vincent - MASSEDUCTION - A

St Vincent is one of those artists that has been unfairly and narrowly categorised. Like people labelling System Of A Down as simply Nu-Metal, and like Blur being cast off as Britpop, St Vincent has been given that dreadful catch-all moniker: "Indie." That's completely unjustified, as across 5 separate albums now, St Vincent has proven herself proficient in countless styles of music. Like pop super-luminaries such as David Bowie, Bjork and Prince before her, St Vincent should be seen as one of the standard bearers for uncategorisable genius. She is a musical polymath, and it's already exciting to think about how album 6 is going to sound. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. MASSEDUCTION is her 5th and best record to date.

MASSEDUCTION is front-loaded, with virtually all the key moments and peaks coming in the first half. My top pick on this album is the title track, an instant classic, modern pop masterpiece. St Vincent claims a wide range of musical influences and Masseduction is a microcosm of  those. In one song we get vocoded textural singing, buzzing synth lines, heavy Grunge guitar, and of course St Vincent's clear-cut melodic singing, which is reminiscent of some of Kate Bush's finer moments. It's a skeleton key for the rest of the album, which is probably why it was chosen as the title track. It's easily one of the best songs of 2017.

The rest is just as good, mind. That's why MASSEDUCTION was at the top of so many end-of-year lists, it never lets up, there's not a bad song or a note out of place on the whole album. There are multiple moods that shape the experience, and St Vincent explores them all thoroughly. The Electro-pop sheen on Sugarboy, the blippy experimentation on Saviour, the exhilarating pop-rock sound of Young Lover, all these songs represent an artist at the absolute peak of her creativity. The lyrical content deals with just about anything you can think of in the human experience; St Vincent herself has said that the album focuses on themes of "Power, sex, drugs, sadness, imperiled relationships and death." - To name but a few. Throw in the more sombre down-to-earth pieces like Happy Birthday, Johnny and you realise this is a very personal record, which makes it all the more vital and listenable. A solid shout for album of the year.

02: King Krule - The OOZ - A

With such a delightfully understated jazzy penchant rolling out tastefully across the musical landscape of the mid-10's, a lot of ground has been covered in the genre in recent times. In times like these, it's hard to stand out from the crowd, but King Krule, an anonymous looking kid from south London, has managed to dig himself a unique trench in amongst the noisy muck of his contemporaries. At 23 years of age, he has already released his third full length record to critical acclaim. The OOZ is a chaotic, dank storm of sounds and textures, and is his best release to date.

King Krule's braying caterwaul is distinctly familiar; he shares a lot of vocal tones with fellow Big Smoke songscaper Jamie T. His music is altogether much darker though, the inky instrumentation adds to the sparse, loosely structured compositions. There's no pleasant electronic blips or sunny hooks to help drag you from the briny depths. You're thrown in at the deep end and invited to find your own way home.

And while that leads to some unforgettably superb moments on The OOZ, that's why this one falls a bit short for me. It's all well and good if you like that sort of thing, but after a while the pained cries of "So lonely!" over scratchy guitar noodlings gets grating, and several songs outstay their welcome. At an hour and 6 minutes, The OOZ is an effort to keep enjoying. If it were 20 minutes shorter it could be the album of the year. It just goes to show, that even with some of the high quality pieces on The OOZ, and with some song writing way beyond King Krule's years, it is possible to have too much of a good thing.

03: Wu-Tang Clan - The Saga Continues - B


Wu-Tang Clan are kinda like the Oasis of rap music - A flurry of  legendary, genre-defining releases in the 90's, followed by increasingly average albums based around the quality of 2 or 3 single-worthy tunes. So while I get that twinge of excitement when my favourite Hip-hop group get back together for another record, I never expect it to be 36 Chambers. With that level of expectation setting in mind, The Saga Continues can be a good listen.

This is a bit of a switch-up for Wu-Tang. With the production handled chiefly by Mathematics, this is the first Wu record that doesn't feature RZA as the head beatsmith. His music is instantly familiar to fans of solo Wu-tang records and fits comfortably around the verses to set the scene. There's no U-God on here (regrettably, as I've always found him an underrated MC) and only one GZA verse, so the project is a little lopsided. Inspectah Deck and Method Man have by far the most enjoyable turns, and do the lion's share of the work. Longtime Clan affiliate Redman is also one of the most prominent rappers on Saga, holding court with the key verse on lead single People Say. This is an oversight, it makes it feel more like one of the unofficial Clan compilations like Wu Block. That's what a lot of the critical advice has been with Saga - Treat it more like a mixtape than a full Wu-Tang Clan album and you'll enjoy it more.

Saga doesn't scale the heights of the first decade of  Clan releases, and I doubt any future Wu-Tang record will ever do so. But it's far better than 2014's atrocious A Better Tomorrow, and apart from a couple of dud tracks (My Only One is exactly the kind of throwaway, weakened R 'n B RZA was ranting about on the intro to the the second side of Wu-Tang Forever - I guess you always end up becoming what you hate) the overall flow of the record is pleasing, and tracks like Lesson Learn'd, If What You Say Is True and Hood Go Bang pump out the stereo with at least a genuine desire to recapture the energy of the earlier Wu-Tang releases. At this stage in the Clan's history, it's the best we can hope for.

04: Ty Dolla $ign - Beach House 3 - B

05: Beck - Colors - B

While he is a celebrated and universally respected artist, with a clutch of huge records to his name, even the most ardent Beck fan would admit that he hasn't done anything truly worthy for some time. With the high water mark of his releases firmly behind him, and as classic albums such as Mellow Gold, Odelay and Sea Change celebrate 10th, 15th and 20th anniversaries, it feels like it's getting harder and harder for him to recapture the golden touch. With Colors, Beck hasn't exactly got back on form, but it is certainly the best thing he's done in a while.

The smart indie pop aesthetic is something Beck has been courting for some time now, and on Colors he plunges deep into the sound that has characterised some of the most commercially successful releases from alternative pop bands like MGMT and Foster The People. For the first time in a while, he's doing what he does best - Snappy, quirky, hook-laden tunes. Beck has eschewed the palate of samples and multi-genre-spanning songs and gone for a consistent sound on Colors, which inevitably exposes the samey songwriting, but doesn't detract from what is an enjoyable listen on the whole. Colors isn't going to change the world, but it's a safe bet from an artist who hasn't knocked it out of the park since the turn of the century.