Turnstile – Glow On [Roadrunner 2021] Don’t think about it too hard, these Baltimore hardcorer’s bread and butter is energy. Pulling from those late 90’s funk-metal bands who transitioned to reggae or alt by the turn of the millennium their biggest strength is their physicality – which here means the music’s ability to affect one …
Choco Taco
Lucy Dacus – Home Video [Matador 2021] These reflections of Christian youth in the South show Dacus to be more of a clear-eyed memoirist than Julian Baker’s self-loathing diarist or Phoebe Bridger’s wan documentarian. That she’s also the one who isn’t afraid to increase her bpm to the point that it induces a groove is …
“If I can prove that I never touched my balls”
Fontaines D.C. – A Hero’s Death [Partisan/Rough Trade 2020] It’s smoked out, stoned if you will, and so there’s more pleasure in the guitars’ textures and the rhythm’s syncopation that catches you off guard. Grian Chatten’s still concerned with television like his beloved poets of the 20th century might’ve also been, the difference is how …
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Danny Devito probably won’t see this
Lomelda – Hannah [Double Double Whammy 2020] She’s a gentle and beautiful self-reflector, but the ears perk up most when the big bright one farthest from her bedroom aesthetic opens up. 3.3/5 Pavement – Slanted & Enchanted [Matador 1992] Irony done for irony’s sake, these are my people; the ones shit talking and snickering about …
Info Dump
Drake – Take Care [Young Money/Cash Money/Universal Republic 2011] In a conversation that the great critic Ann Powers has with NPR’s Frannie Kelley she mentions something that I had only half been noticing; Aubrey Graham’s perspective comes as a 25 year old upper middle class biracial kid from Canada. “You’re a fucking idiot” you might …
Almost a year later
Beabadoobee – Fake It Flowers [Dirty Hit 2020] She has a cult following of people that FEEL her (who doesn’t these days to rise up?). As far as 90’s fetishism goes, sound-wise she’s more than a little hollow. Lyrically she’s Rupi Kuar. 2.1/5 Superchunk – What a Time to be Alive [Merge 2019] Four 50 …
“Take her to the moon for me”
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 …
For the leftists with feelings
Touche Amore – Lament [Epitaph 2020] Jeremy Bolm’s reaction to Stage Four’s reception. I don’t know what its like having kids in every city try to share their pain with you from death like you’ll know what to do (and based on the WHOLE record neither does Bolm). Knowing his insecurity and anxiety it’s wracked …
Pop Stars
Dua Lipa – Future Nostalgia [Warner Records 2020] Sultry, heavy handed toward the end, “Good in Bed” is hot but a little toxic, She’s a diva-lite whose Albanian heritage is the signifier. Expect her to do even better next time. 3.8/5 Westside Gunn – Pray for Paris [Griselda 2020] One third of a classicist rap …
“I love my dead gay son”
Moses Sumney – grae [Jagjaguwar 2020] Double down on the space, the prog, the folk, the LENGTH, throw in some messages about being isolated and distill it into painful listening. I miss the light material like an ex-junkie misses being allowed to celebrate. Can appreciate bringing race into in more explicitly even if utilized mostly …
Cosmic Hero 