Cardi B – Invasion of Privacy [Atlantic 2018]
An avatar of vitality if there ever was one for the 2010s, hers is the story of an American Dream achieved because of – as opposed to in spite of – her New Yawk background and unfettered candor. Rendered over 48 minutes in glorious 3-D is Cardi The Shit Talker, Cardi The Sensitive, and Cardi the Party Animal among others that prove all of the casual racists, sexists (and by extension, prudes), and general haters in their fear that rap might somehow become “less than” because this woman achieved something they couldn’t. Likewise, making the case to show how right she is are her similes; she’s hot & ready; a walking wish list; and after her supporting cast works wonders with her, Chance and Takeoff especially, she moans her own name during sex! 4.4/5
Chance The Rapper – The Big Day [Independent 2019]
He loves his idol so much that he’ll even follow him into a middling sense of good vibes and peace on earth. 3.4/5
Mannequin Pussy – Patience [Epitaph 2019]
In which the narrative is rendered a tragedy after 9 tracks of extrication from a toxic relationship only for her to get back together with the prick. 3.4/5
Rilo Kiley – The Execution of All Things [Saddle Creek 2002]
For those of us who came of age after 2010 this group was a treat that only those who had cool older siblings – like the one Jenny Lewis came to be positioned as – would end up discovering. The pillars are the bookends and the centerpiece that mark the seasonal tonality of each, late fall (after all the leaves are off the trees), the dead of winter, and the spring thaw which in LA is always lake and driving weather. As for subject matter, in order, they set up emotional paralysis as aphasia, physical paralysis raging against the valley below, and a road trip climax about beauty liable to leave all listeners in its wake curled up in a ball weeping. In between are complications manifested angularly by a child’s memories and the ever twee Blake Sennett’s not unrelated lamentations of lost innocence to oblivion that make even the song about dreams feel like a profound expression of pathos. 4.3/5
Cosmic Hero 