Dijon – Baby [R&R/Warner 2025] R&B new dad has a lot of experimentalism in his sound – Prince plus Bon Iver – but melodically underwhelms. 3.5/5 (“Yamaha”, “Rewind”, “Automatic”) https://open.spotify.com/album/3hKlec1wgYVJcI0YvwCFJB?si=yOe7hyoFQKeHDyfXFa2tDQ Water From Your Eyes – Everyone’s Crushed [Matador 2023] Album three from the duo of Nate Amos and Rachel Brown – these two are art …
Continue reading “Reviews This Week: Water From Your Eyes, Billy Woods, Creedence, Dijon”
Having sat on my hard drive now for almost 6 months it’s probably good that these compendium follow up pieces see the light of day. This (the Jay-Z stuff) was approximately 3 years in the making, starting at the end of ’22 and following me through a move, an engagement, and a promotion. Jay’s own …
Continue reading “I Reviewed All Of Jay-Z’s Solo Work: Jay-Z Compendium”
Billy Woods – History Will Absolve Me [Backwoodz 2012] If you couldn’t tell by the album title and cover art, Woods is the son of a Zimbabwean Marxist, based in NYC. As such he’s got stories about being the foreign kid in school, colonialism and post colonialism as metaphors for the music industry, and a …
Model/Actriz – Pirouette [True Panther 2025] On their second one they get closer to properly recording their strengths, especially by emphasizing texture that pleasantly irritates while holding the listener’s focus as opposed to Dogsbody’s dull thuds of noize. There’s also more room to breathe, and their rhythm section creates audible grooves for Cole Haden to …
Illuminati Hotties – FREE I.H.: This is Not the One You’ve Been Waiting For [Tiny Engines/Self-Released 2020] The backstory, which is quite explicit in the lyrical content, is that her label wasn’t paying her and in order to release herself from her contract Sara Tudzin released these 12 songs in 23 minutes. Her voice now …
Continue reading “If You’re Reading This, You Should Watch Road House (1989)”
Benjamin Booker – POWER [Fire Next Time Records 2025] Eleven years after his debut as a garage/blues wunderkind backed by a Jack White co-sign, Booker sheds his traditionalist skin by consciously corrupting his sound with the aid of underground hip-hop architect Kenny Segal. It’s a move that obsessives might’ve read in the tea leaves – …
Previous industries – Service Merchandise [Merge 2024] In the age of Divorced Dad Rock’s return why not add Divorced Dad Rap too? Against a production backdrop of wheezy cold sweat loops the cast is three Chicagoans who’ve known each other for decades and who’ve both hit 40 and moved to the City of Angels in …
Continue reading “We Watched Dinner In America the Other Day, Good Shit”
Kendrick Lamar – GNX [PG Lang/Interscope 2024] In the age of the bro-cast having enough political weight to help determine elections it should be noted that despite how funny his A-minor line was, it’s the history lesson about Atlanta that actually held water. Now we’re left with a west coast victory lap where he’s never …
Illuminati Hotties – Power [Hopeless 2024] More difficult because it subverts expectations, Sarah Tudzin’s follow-up to her breakthrough is also much quieter and more ruminative. Her mother’s death, the subsequent workaholism that arose as a form of denial, and her (now) wife’s ability to change Tudzin’s life by slowing down and not putting up with …
JPEGMafia – I Lay Down My Life For You [AWAL 2024] Black Ben Carson, Black AOC, Black Marjorie Taylorie Greene…really he’s running out of comparisons. And with enough built in pop culture references to make Dan Harmon cream himself. Always the scarer of hoes and never the hoe, eh? 3.2/5 https://open.spotify.com/album/1ezs1QD5SYQ6LtxpC9y5I2?si=fh_YRZZBQB6H_EucuHtTwA Big Thief – Two …
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