Drake – Thank Me Later [Cash Money/YoungMoney/OVO 2010]
Groundbreaking when it came out for all of its navel gazing and reverbed beats. Now looked at fondly even because of its slightly fuckboy qualities because of the world conquering but emotionally stunted titan he has become. Here Drake still felt like he could grow, especially because his guests showed him up regularly. Never not shallow and only mostly platitudinal. 3.7/5
Haim – Women in Music Pt. III [Columbia/Polydor 2020]
A grower in some ways but off the bat what should be most apparent is the strength of the pastiche genre exercises and how much sexism is still out there, ready to be used as a muse because people suck. After two previous records, one middling and one more middling, this one succeeds due to a groundedness that these Jewish LA sisters have refined because they’re older now. Be sure to get the one with the bonus tracks, that Lou Reed homage is meant to be listened to stoned. 4.0/5
Dogleg – Melee [Triple Crown 2020]
Detroit post hardcore wailers are anxious, but this isn’t worth the 8.6 p4k gave it, unspecific and not enough hooks despite impressive adrenaline. 3.5/5
Phoebe Bridgers – Punisher [Dead Oceans 2020]
I’ll try to be as nuanced about this as I can be but first I have to rip a Band-Aid off: I think Phoebe Bridger’s sigh doesn’t convey the emotion her stans insist it does. With that said she has without a doubt claimed the Voice Of A Generation mantel for all the sad girls, gays, and theys who see her as a North Star. I’m reminded of how Robert Christgau once wrote of her hero Conor Oberst; “Respect him as a co-equal and he’ll drive you out of the room in nothing flat. Feel or indulge his suffering youth, however, and he’ll kindle something like awe”. Only this was written by a man much older than his subject. Bridgers is actually 2 years older than me. So what we’re not doing is indulging suffering youth but leveling with a young woman who is smart, funny, horny, and empathetic; keenly aware of the contradictions she lives like when she lets herself enjoy the “America First rap country song” even though she hates John Lennon and Eric Clapton and promises to make a Nazi plant food on the outset. As a snapshot of queer leftist women who are at the tail end of the millennial generation and forefront of Z these songs without a doubt will provide comfort because she’s looking at her subjects with a documentarian’s eye. The problem for me is the sonics, she sticks to slow ones with so much reverb and so little melodic relief that they feels like hangovers, making “Savior Complex” “Chinese Satellite” dull and “Graceland Too” a breath of fresh air as a result. If only “Kyoto”’s tempo made up for what sounds like a poorly baked cake; the base ingredients were improperly measured but the sweet sweet icing is the horn line, so it tastes…fine I guess.
The Mountain Goats – All Hail West Texas [Emperor Jones 2000]
Lo-fi cult classic from the turn of the millennium by John Darnielle in Iowa is so twee that it threatens to sicken those of us without a sweet tooth. But the man is a writer even with a loud nasally voice that almost overwhelms. The vignettes are works of casual joy and when they start to lull there is always an entrancing chord change in the guitar strum to pull you back in. Songs about losers, hard-luckers, empathetic bums, and new parents in an imagined west Texas researched enough to create a curious sense of longing. What a treat. 4.1/5
The Hold Steady – Separation Sunday [Frenchkiss 2005]
Craig Finn at arguably the height of his powers although I prefer Boys and Girls in America. A narrative tighter than anything he’s tried since tells the tales of a burnout Minneapolis crew as they get sober, fall off the wagon and repeat until getting born again. Violent, scary, downtrodden, joyful, life affirming, funny, sweet and cheap, the catholic notions of a Bible allegory – Christ? Prodigal son? Both? – are so jubilantly backed up by addictive party music that they might as well be any modernist’s novel. That’s a compliment I swear. For an example take “Banging Camp”’s 3 section split: power chords, guitar wash to simulate euphoria, palm muted with horns (those HORNS!) creating more emotion than would be expected for getting “high as hell and born again”. 4.3/5
Cosmic Hero 