It's definitely tedious, yes, and that entire verse is definitely the record's sore thumb, but in terms of being problematic, I mean... I'm pretty sure Rocky's said much much worse shit than on this song.
I'm over the moon about this record. This is the fourth Low album that's come out since I started following them, and even though Ones and Sixes (which turns 3 today!) was and is one of my favorites from 2015, and even though Trust has since entered my all-time top 10, I still wasn't expecting this to be... *this*. Maybe it's because the longest and most severe period of depression and frustration of my life started very soon after O&S dropped and Low has ended up soundtracking so much of it, or maybe the political subtext undergirds the material in a more ominous way than it did on Drums and Guns, but this is basically exactly the album I need in my life right now and I've found it very hard to downplay my excitement about it. And it's not even out yet!
See, and that's the thing; I understand why people might be frustrated with the disconnect between his musical ambition and his talent as an MC, but for the life of me I cannot understand why that should be any more of a demerit on his part than it is for any other new school rapper that gets praised. Thug and Future have this instinctive gift for melody that collides with their producers' progressive tendencies in ways that result in this thrillingly different form of pop music; it's the exact same story with Travis for me, except that he has an admittedly smaller bag of vocal tricks balanced out by his way bolder ear for production. I guess the vocal sound he's zeroed in on just happens to do it for me; all different means to the same end IMO.
Always up for new Gorillaz but I'd also like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that H Jon Benjamin once called into The Best Show as George Benson's son and it was ridiculously funny
Having just last night rewatched the Twin Peaks episode where they pull up on the car bomb to that Uniform song and finally getting to the new Body album in my backlog today, I'm so primed for this
I know I've been spending too much time on the internet because I just spent two minutes convulsing with laughter at the fact that he actually said "we live in a society"
Not... totally sure how I feel about them apparently moving away from a sound that they did better than almost anyone else on Grandfeathered, but I'm also choosing to wait to hear these singles for the first time in context so I'm sure there's plenty of cause for optimism here
UGGGGHHHHH guys do I wait to listen to this so I can hear it in the context of the album or do I just press play? I don't know if I can hold out for two months!
Fuck. Over the last 11 months I somehow progressed from thinking that I only liked The Classical and Rebellious Jukebox to slotting Oh! Brother into my top 20 or so songs ever and resolving to listen to every album in order - up to Extricate as of two weeks ago - and buying Bingo-Master's Breakout and Adult Net maxi-singles as some of my first 5 or so vinyl purchases ever. This one knocked the wind out of me. RIP.
God, all I want is just a finished version of "Joyride" the song, at this point I wouldn't even care if the rest of the album was just her doing Wesley Willis covers
Man, I guess the New Year's lull is officially over, huh?
Also, I'm gonna wait until the album comes out to listen to this but this is definitely an intriguing change of pace for them
You just reminded me of Cindy Lee's existence! I remember downloading the WAVs of that first album and then never actually getting around to listening to it. Apparently they put out a new one last year... I know what I'm listening to today.
Ooh:
2010: The National - Terrible Love
2011: Wye Oak - Holy Holy
2012: Death Grips - Hacker
2013: Iceage - Ecstasy
2014: Damon Albarn - You & Me
2015: Young Fathers - Rain or Shine
2016: (still a tie) PJ Harvey - The Wheel or Jenny Hval - Conceptual Romance
2017: Charly Bliss - Glitter
no idea what this reveals
I listened to more new music than ever before this year, which somehow left me completely disinclined to make an AOTY list. But since my opinions are important and need to be heard I'll add to the pile-on here:
1. Charly Bliss - Glitter (like being stabbed in the heart with a lollipop stick)
2. Lil Uzi Vert - The Way Life Goes (ditto, plus the fact that the song manages to breathe life into such a thoroughly boring original)
3. Sun Kil Moon - God Bless Ohio (11 minute post-punk dirges about Middle America played on acoustic guitars can be pretty incredible, it turns out)
Freddie Gibbs - Alexys (I'd be perfectly fine with Kaytranada and BBNG just producing entire albums for amazing rappers for a few years)
Future - Draco (hearing Future essay genuine joy on a solo song for the first time in like 3 years was pretty addicting)
Ariel Pink - Time to Live (Video Killed the Radio Star + vaguely dystopian agitprop overtones = perfect psychpop)
Aye Nako - Arrow Island (I love music that sounds indistinguishable from what was coming out 3 or 4 years before I was born)
Show Me the Body & Mal Devisa - Halogen (sounds as apocalyptic as 2017 felt)
The Magnetic Fields - Cold-Blooded Man (this song, just like the past two or so months of the news cycle, really reaffirmed my optimism about romance and human connection)
Angelo Badalementi - Dark Space Low (this + Laura whispering to Cooper = one of the most haunting images I've seen on television) this decade
also:
The Blow - Summer
Yung Lean - Red Bottom Sky
War on Drugs - Strangest Thing
Migos - T-Shirt
The Mountain Goats - Rain in Soho
SZA - Drew Barrymore
Flaming Lips - One Night While Hunting for Faeries and Witches and Wizards to Kill
Slowdive - Slomo
Protomartyr - My Children/Windsor Hum/Male Plague
The National - Walk It Back
1) I think I"ve only actually heard like 3 pre-10s Neil Young albums so looks like it's time to dive into the catalog
2) I take back every snarky thing I ever said about the Pono
Yeah... even though the accuser's peace of mind should be paramount in a situation like this and it would be wrong to demand any emotional labor from the involved parties, I would still *really* like to know the extent of the accusations here. If it turns out that this is just him covering his ass for something much worse - which it very well could be given the ambiguity of some of the language here - I'll be deeply disappointed and disgusted but fully accepting of whatever reckoning needs to take place. But on the off chance that it's *not* that, then as someone who's long struggled with a battery of sexual neuroses which I can only imagine would be exacerbated by the added privilege he cops to here, then this whole thing is absolutely infuriating.
I can't fault the guy for seeking therapy, which is absolutely more important then a tour, both for him and the people who need him to change his behavior. That being said, the willingness of so many here to give him the benefit of the doubt and dismiss the seriousness of what this could be is a little disturbing in itself, though I suppose I do understand the impulse. But in the absence of more information this is just... yeah, baffling. I just hope that this doesn't become a flashpoint for any sort of backlash against the necessary moment we're having, I guess.
At SXSW last year I went to a free show that was supposed to be headlined by Travis Scott (instead we got Wale doing two songs and then going into the crowd to smoke a blunt) and which had a bunch of new-school rappers that I'd never or barely heard of at the time (21, Russ, Uzi, MadeinTYO). I spent a couple of hours in line for the show, right in front of a group of fratbros who evinced this weird girlish glee the entire time at getting to see 21 Savage in particular, so for whatever reason I assumed that he would crush it. Halfway through the night he came on and just sort of stood on stage mumbling with his crew behind him for 20 minutes. This was right after I'd just seen Flatbush Zombies and Uzi tear it up, so... not a great first impression. You'd think he'd have at least tried to get better in the last year and a half but yikes.
Pork and Beans is very near and dear to my heart, I can sorta-kinda appreciate the irony behind Can't Stop Partying, Beverly Hills is inextricable from my childhood at this point so I can't hate on it. None of the other songs register enough for me to go to bat for them.
I was ready to RAGE if a single song from Maladroit made this list though, so I'm glad that's not represented on here.
I haven't really spent any time with Susanna's back catalog, but Triangle from last year was very good, and the more I listen to Meshes of Voice with Jenny Hval the more it's one of my favorite releases this decade, so I'm 100% here for this.
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