A worthy follow-up to "Dawn FM", "Hurry Up Tomorrow" sees The Weeknd venture into gloomier territory whilst holding onto a fine yet strong narrative thread. The result is a somewhat bloated yet ambitious exploration into the destructive forces of fame, heartbreak, and death.
Subtlety is for nerds!
"Who Let The Dogs Out" reminds me a little of another British debut album, which came out a few years ago: Yard Act's "The Overload". Both of these albums are well-crafted and brimming with potential, but not as fine-tuned as the critics gushing over them claim they are.
Do you see the sunbeams, dear reader? Do you see how dusk pokes her gentle fingers through the bed of clouds and shines her light on the city below? Do you see how it paints everything gold: the train tracks? The wide roads? The skyscrapers and all that is steel, concrete, and glass? I point them out to you, because I believe Asian Glow picked them out of the sky, cast them into strings, and wound them onto their guitar. That is why the melodies of highlights such as ‘The Worst Way to ... read more
"Perverts" is not what I expected it to be. Then again, I don't know what I expected it to be.
A couple of weeks ago, in perhaps one of the most curious notes an artist has ever shared with their audience, Hayden Silas Anhedönia (Ethel Cain) discussed her fascination with the defunct Bruce Mansfield Power Plant in Shippingport, PA. "They became a beacon of religiosity, of sexual liberation and enjoyment, of contentedness," she wrote of its imposing concrete ... read more
The contrast between Joanna Newsom's debut and her sophomore album is surprisingly stark. The fundamentals are the same, yes: baroque songwriting brought to life with eccentric yet passionate singing. "The Milk-Eyed Mender", however, is a comparatively much less fine-tuned album than "Ys". Its tracklist is diverse, its production is intimately lo-fi, and Newsom's Americana influences truly shine through.
An absolutely spellbinding two hours filled with washed-out guitars and echoing vocal harmonies that make the prairies at the edge of town vibrate and dissolve into planes of psychedelic light.
Intiem en betoverend. "Heimwee" klinkt als engelengezang maar blijft dankzij haar subtiliteit gegrond.
Kicking myself right now for not listening to this right away when it came out in May, because this is just one of those quintessential Spring releases that I would've come back to throughout the rest of the year.
Preach, Father John Misty, Preach! Relieve us of the tragi-comedy of our lives, if only for fifty minutes, with your wonderfully produced and soulful anthems for the misanthropes!
My dad badly wanted to listen to this in the car. Some pretty solid chamber rock interspersed with some wilder cuts. Could've been a little more adventurous across the board, but still nice.
Even after having won the war, Kendrick Lamar still sounds ready for battle on this surprise album. "GNX" is packed with braggadocious and fiery trap bangers, such as standout tracks like 'squabble up' and 'hey now'. Yet Kendrick is careful not to oversaturate this album with banger after banger. Tracks like 'man at the garden' and 'reincarnated', for example, see him reflecting on the journey he took to get to this moment, and serve as perfect ... read more
A descent into the Hell within us.
I can't even begin to express how much I respect Vylet Pony for the honesty and ambition on display on this album. Taking these complicated feelings of shame and trauma over the violence inflicted upon you during your fragile teenage years, as well as your own role in perpetuating this cycle of abuse, is already admirable enough. To then take these feelings and pour them into this tale of self-inflicted torture and sacrifice that is as unforgivingly ... read more
De zeven kerstliederen vooraf aan het verhaal van Lutke Krub zijn een perfecte weerspiegeling van alles wat Spinvis als artiest zo interessant maakt. Het zijn nummers die in het algemeen spreken van een intieme alledaagsheid die de stilte, de droefheid en de komedie van de kille feestdagen op een uiterst Nederlandse wijze weergeven. Tegelijkertijd komen de onderliggende religieuze thema's ook op transcendentale en merkwaardige wijze aan bod, waardoor deze nummers samen weinig weg hebben ... read more
This is probably the most I've ever been charmed by Shawn Mendes. Turns out the man has quite the soothing voice when he isn't wasting it on overblown radio choruses! Overall, however, his second self-titled album isn't particularly good or memorable. It's a collection of frustratingly safe folk songs that don't delve nearly as deep enough into Mendes' self-image as they could have. "Shawn" is a step in the right direction, yes, but just because it's ... read more
[93 -> 95]
A reinvention and a return to roots at once, "Night Palace" is perhaps the quintessential Phil Elverum experience. It's incredibly dense yet fragmented, layered yet built on simple concepts. It's a mosaic crafted out of letters in bottles and pages torn out from journals, in which stories of talking fish and reflections on the continuing wounds of colonialism on both mental and physical landscapes can sit side by side quite comfortably. What is most ... read more
A beautiful mosaic of sound and memory. "CHROMOKOPIA" sees Tyler, The Creator blending genres as he delves deep into paranoia, regret, and commitment. The finished product can be grim, brooding, or explosive, yet also shimmering in its beauty.
The trees are dying a beautiful death along the lane on your morning walk, yet Autumn need not be the season of endings. It can be a time for reflection, for memories to come alive again, yet it can also be a time to look ahead and celebrate new beginnings, new lives brought into the world. This, to me, is what “Patterns in Repeat” is about: about the motions we go through as the year begins to close, and about how the autumn leaves hold a golden gleam of hope.
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