These songs are so much stronger when they're together, holding each other up. I was a little nervous listening to them trickle out, as some of them seemed a little limp. But after listening to the record as a whole, her agenda is clear and executed with merciless precision. Charli XCX knows what she's wants and she's not stopping until she gets it.
My early assessment of her in relation to this album still stands; she HAS to rule the world.
If I could continue my experience on the internet (hell, or in life) without EVER hearing the term "indie mafia" ever again, I'd be much better for it.
Every publication that has reported this story has said that Cobain "deleted" the tweets, but if you click Tweets and replies, you'll see those direct tweets to Lana are still there, as they've always been. Are all you that fucking lazy?!
Kelis has done it all, man. She's helped usher in The Neptunes, and make their sound something that once had the entire music landscape in a choke hold, she's done big Atlanta 808 trap music years before it was a "thing", she's done atmospheric electronic dance stuff, and now she's on some retro, big band shit. She doesn't get enough credit for being able to fearlessly pull all of this stuff off and not even appear to be trying.
I'd like to take a moment to apologize to all girls that exist on Pharrell's behalf. These songs kinda suck.
The lack of juxtaposition and contrast makes for a very one-note album. It's all quite literally jangling tuxedo music for people in tuxedos. His first record was a mess (and really hasn't aged well, at all) but at least there he seemed to showcase a sense of adventure. I don't know, man. I just think Pharrell's capable of way more than this tired Frank Sinatra shit. I didn't like it when Justin Timberlake did it and I don't like it here.
I heard Happy on an amazing system at a party a couple weeks ago and fell in love with what I once considered an "adult contemporary Christian pop song". I'm not sure if the rest of the record will have a similar fate with me (more than likely it won't), but I am disappointed in an album I was secretly hoping was more than 10 quick-grab songs that don't really live up to the splendor its title.
It's interesting to see Pharrell re-emerge (he never really went anywhere) at a time where pop music is dramatically trying to shift itself out of the EDM, untz-untz era. He's never really reinvented his sound, but at the precise moment when things are changing his music and ideas sound fresh again.
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