If 7G was the vast orchard, the diminutively-titled Apple is its ultimate issue, the most fully realized version yet of Cook's iconoclastic take on pop, polished to a sheen.
Happily bridging the gap between synthetic and organic, Apple is one of Cook's most satisfying obliterations of the borders between genres, authenticity, and artifice.
In the way that 7G meticulously unpicked Cook’s innards so fans could see the master’s mind at work, Apple weighs out the specifics and pours them into the meting pot.
Slimmed down to forty minutes split between ten tracks, Apple has the feel of one cohesive whole when compared to 7G’s daunting monolith.
Where 7G was sprawling and without a discernible single, Apple is crisp, concise and gloriously slick.
At times, its tonal shifts cause whiplash, but the real magic appears when Cook manages to coalesce these two sides in the same song.
Apple ... is a staggering and potent amalgamation of numerous genre influences, but it also has moments of information overload, where its boundarylessness becomes too much.
With Apple A. G. Cook shows plenty of potential, but ultimately more consistency is needed with his songwriting if he is to really make his mark.
Cook is clearly a master of sonic manipulation, but at times Apple proves that the old-fangled classical skills aren’t beyond him either.
Despite being a quarter of 7G's length, Apple is somehow the less consistent album.
Apple is a vacuous waste of time that makes whatever cohesion, credibility and engagement he generated with 7G seem like an extended bit with a 40 minute punchline.
I can't help but feel underwhelmed by A. G. Cooks latest effort 'Apple', I enjoy a lot of what comes out of the PC Music camp and I enjoy A. G. Cooks work as a producer but 'Apple' doesn't really see him working to his strengths or innovate with anything interesting in the landscape that he created. Often times it comes off to me as a rehash of ideas and structures that we've seen already, done better on previous projects, most notably Cooks behemoth of an album '7G', a lot of the guitar based ... read more
Who would have thought A.G. would follow up his 7777777 hour long debut album with a tutorial on how to smoke weed out of an apple????
But seriously somehow how is he still able to have fresh ideas after releasing an epic of an album only a month ago.
This is my favorite electronic album of the year so far, it’s just so fun and wild one moment and beautiful and bright the next and most of the time it’s a mix of the two.
The singles are a good spread of the sound of Apple, ... read more
There's a lot of really promising concepts on here, but that's really all I see this as -- the framework for something greater. AG is undeniably one of the best pop producers and writers of the past decade, but once he starts singing I just feel like I'm listening to a reference track for someone better.
1 | Oh Yeah 3:32 | 73 |
2 | Xxoplex 2:35 | 68 |
3 | Beautiful Superstar 4:42 | 67 |
4 | Animals 4:07 | 59 |
5 | Airhead 4:37 | 66 |
6 | Haunted 2:50 | 55 |
7 | The Darkness 5:11 | 64 |
8 | Jumper 3:04 | 52 |
9 | Stargon 4:51 | 74 |
10 | Lifeline 4:06 | 70 |
#14 | / | Dazed |