Very cool interview/feature! A total surprise and I enjoyed the Hell out of it.
Way Down in the Rust bucket kicks ass, and I say that as someone who hasn't done the greatest job of keeping up with Neil's flood of archival live releases lately (obviously I was all over Homegrown).
Hell yeah. People seen to prefer Kiwanuka's previous album overall, but the last one was the one that really made me a fan. The first 3 or 4 tracks are as good as any other first three or four tracks in a good while.
Actually it's funny because even though the new Lushlife and Urban Turban don't share much sonically in common, Redamancy DID remind me a bit of When I Was Born for the Seventh Time a couple times.
I liked it on first listen. Ritualize still holds up and I listen to it or big chunks of it a good few times a year. This wasn't exactly what I expected when I initially heard we were getting an new Lushlife album, but he was well-suited to something like this (reminds me a bit of some of the stuff Cornershop was up to in the '10s where they'd put out an album like Urban Turban and only do their own vocals for a couple tracks).
Same. When I first started hearing about them I guess a couple of years ago now I was initially interested - done right, I love music that straddles the rootsy-soul line and can pull its weight live. On paper, written in broad terms, they seemed like a sure thing for me. But the music they make is just boring and forgettable, plain as that. The first Leon Bridges album blows them out of the water for retro soul and these guys aren't worthy to carry Alabama Shakes' sweat rags, let alone My Morning Jacket's (to stick with artists that were mentioned for context in the article).
So do they, in fact, "do what they do, and...do it well"? Sorry, I don't think we can even give them that.
Fact. I'm excited for this project as much because I really like the vast majority of the original III as because this one has a stacked contributor lineup.
I spent half of 2018 thinking Dirty Computer had blown up and been a bonafide runaway crossover hit...I guess because it sounded like a platonic ideal of what good pop music could be in the late '10s and because I heard "The Way You make Me Feel" in public a few times. I was pretty disappointed when I checked and saw it hadn't really been the kind of next-level breakthrough I had assumed.
"Shakedown" (reminds me of It Still Moves-era MMJ)
"Astral Plane"
"Got Soul"
All from The Order of Time (it trends more restrained and ballady than "Shakedown" let's on).
I heard that album first, but I might slightly prefer 2013's Pushin' Against a Stone. "Wanna Be On Your Mind" is a good one there. But really either album is a fine start.
Love me some Val - both of her existing albums are excellent and I saw her play a small venue in '19 where she was just radiating charisma. She had a small band with her, but she as also played solo for stretches with just her guitar. That sort of thing isn't generally my preferred style, but she held that room with crazy ease.
Until this year I was afraid we'd never get new material from her since three years gave us two cover songs, but the advance tracks from here have been awesome.
That and the Lushlife have me stoked for Friday!
This was where I first tried out KV (I had just moved to China at the time, which is kind of funny since all the years I'd lived in Philly he had been off my radar and as soon as I moved to the other side of the globe I knew who he was). I didn't actually like it much - the two openers, yes, but then I just didn't connect with how dirge-y it felt.
Thankfully, I gave him another go when Wakin on a Pretty Daze dropped, fell in love with that album, and have been a fan ever since, including going back and realizing I was way too harsh on Smoke Ring. I mean somehow I hadn't even realized that "In My Time" is totally awesome, and that's an obvious highlight of both the album and his powerhouse catalog. I do still prefer Wakin and now Bottle It In, but I also am glad that I came around on this one.
+10 for Johnny Brenda's. The neighborhood it's in is now (and has been for a handful of years) been way popular, but JB's was holding it down there long before it went mainstream and it's still a lynchpin of the neighborhood. The last show I saw there was Wand in 2019 and it was killer (and loud AF!).
I've never been, but I always make sure to check its lineup each year when trying to talk myself into/out of fests. My Morning Jacket, being local boys, play often, which appeals to me, and it seems like a good size, well run, etc fest.
Does it match the advance talk she's put out so far about styles? Not much, no. Did I dig it on first listen? Why yes, yes I did. But what do I know, I love MASSEDUCTION and don't think she peaked with Actor.
Nice! If only it wasn't all the way in June - I need some good new albums already, 2021 (actually no I don't really, I've been using the last month to obsessively listen to classic Brazilian tropicalia and I'm fine with that...but come on 2021, get with it anyway)!
Easily Antonoff. I haven't heard Ronson discussed since, what...the last QotSA (which he got a bum rap for)? And DM has been on a hot run the last couple of years, so I think he's generally off the hook. People slept on that brilliant collab he put out with Karen O in '19 (Lux Prima), but it seemed like most people were on board (rightly so) for Wide Awake!
Her stuff is definitely thought out on a conceptual level each time (academic and theater kid-y), but I've never thought it lacked for genuine emotion or power. Her music can be fun, pull at the heart strings, rock out - I think she covers the bases pretty damn well.
I know it was divisive, but MASSEDUCTION is my favorite thing she's done, even if on paper it maybe shouldn't be (Antonoff, more synth, less guitar, etc). What does that mean for this new one, since on one hand that's her most recent proper new album and she's working with the same producer, but on the other hand this article has her talking about wanting to make an album that's a response to and move away from some elements of it? Who knows!
I notice there was less specific talk of funk this time, wonder if she got worried that she'd overstated that relative to how the album will sound (though the vibe she's describing is certainly on the There's a Riot Going On side of things).
In any case, I'm stoked, she doesn't have any real misses for me so far as a lead artist.
Oh Hell, and I left out Hail to the Thief. That would go....before The Bends, but it's a big step down from Amnesiac (due to filler - it could have been a fierce smaller album)
1. Kid A
1b. OK Computer
3. Amnesiac
4. The Bends (super uneven and bogged down by sounding like dated, murky, generic 90s alternative when it's not being brilliant...but it is brilliant for about half of its tracks)
5. In Rainbows (but I really don't think this or The Bends are anything special as albums and it never ceases to boggle my mind how affectionate people are towards this one)
6. A Moon Shaped Pool
7. King of Limbs
8. Pablo Honey
We're moving towards a world where new music is only released by King Gizz, Griselda, and Your Old Droog. Enjoy them now while they're still releasing separate music...by next year they'll be releasing music as one insane collective.
Grandmasters was definitely a cool, a cut above the average post-Liquid Swords GZA album (though honestly there's more good on Beneath the Surface than people like to pretend). But it might also be the last album I could have identified as a Muggs production.
Let's hear it for that awesome verse by the otherwise almost nonexistent Gigan (was that someone we'd know by a different name? I've always wondered his deal) on "Crazy World"!
Sound Ancestors & the Kikagaku live album.
The Wolf on Wall St wasn't bad, or the R.A.P. Ferreira, but neither felt like a real keeper. I should listen to the Weather Station.
1. Face the Truth
2. Pig Lib
3. Real Emotional Trash (maybe #2)
4. Sparkle Hard (nice recovery after he seemed low on steam for a while)
5. S/T
6. Traditional Techniques
7. Mirror Traffic
8. Jagbags
I didn't listen to Groove Denied enough to know where I'd rank it, now that I'm thinking about it.
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