jmwwrites

Bridges has perfected what I believe he was going for on Gold-Diggers Sound. While the arrangements are less intricate and more generalized on this self-titled album than in past works, the sound overall is intoxicatingly smooth. The language, both musical and lyrical, is very direct, and these simpler, more direct arrangements really allow Leon’s strength to lead the way on each tune: his voice. He sings with charm as always, this time with a cathartic sense of nostalgia and reflection. ... read more

Godspeed has always been able to draw evocative soundscapes out of relatively simple, sometimes even sparse materials. They have always excelled as musical architects at setting those materials about the task of haunting us. Admittedly, my first listen of this album was without any context for its meaning, though the off-putting album artwork and the distressing title were plenty to key in a particular mood from the start. At times, on first listen, the simplicity of the materials came across ... read more

Cutouts accomplishes what I believe has been the point of The Smile all along. It lowers the stakes.

Noel Gallagher once said that Thom Yorke could “shit into a lightbulb and…it'd probably get a 9 out of 10….” And while that's a colorful exaggeration (it's just an exaggeration…right?), it also can't be helped that the work of Yorke and Greenwood will always bring with it a tsunami of fan expectations. No matter which band they are ... read more

This is Childish Gambino’s Humanz. A genre-hopping party playlist for the end of the world stuffed to the brim with colorful collaborations and soundbite interludes, with some high-reaching standouts over the course of the hour and some middling offerings filling the spaces between.

Childish Gambino has always been a jack-of-all-trades, and the wide span of genres on this record seems to showcase the second half of that expression. In “Running Around,” it’s fun to hear ... read more