Very Spice-Girl-Britpop, but the cheeky attitude and some of the campy hooks on tracks like "I Am The Greatest" (including that sample) are enough to make this a tolerable release - just a shame that some of the other deep cuts are pretty major duds.
Received on Twitter-now-known-as today, and although the guy asking folks to give it an ear and a thought seems sweet enough, I'm going to have to be honest here and say I think more work is needed. The production is just kind of there, some of the vocal performances (particularly on Problem) are more than stretching it, and lyrically I found "Digital Silence" a bit corny.
"Nightingale" is genuinely decent on all fronts, although it does feel like it is sonically at ... read more
An album that made me think of Mark Fisher. A very British class-politic going on here, at times beautifully put together, at times haunting. Mostly, though, I struggle to understand all the 0-9s. Did you give it a chance?
Music, to me, is about whether you enjoy it and often about whether it has something worth saying, too. This is music I enjoy in big part *because* it has something to say - a howl into a void about how unforgiveable it is that this world is so alienating, painful, ... read more
is fine i guess. bit of an indie-dreamy nostalgia for a few decades ago thing going on here.
Julee Cruise for the Gen Z-ers lounge bar. Very pleasant and holds your attention - either as a cafe soundtrack, as sleep music, or as an instrument to make you think about the things you have loved, lost, or regretted.
I've been waiting for Ms Gomez to discover the depth many of her contemporaries did years ago - and instead, she produces this vapid, adolescent, lovesick project. One that forgoes substance for an attempt at diversified sounds to the extent that it thins out on the ground and hits my ear like hot air.
I ascribe no credit nor disappointment to Blanco, who proved himself comprehensively to be a busted flush worth no thought or attention years ago.
Selena is in her thirties, now. Not an ... read more
So this is what the algorithm (and, as a result, a bunch of middling fame-hungry hacks) decided the Sound Of Today is?
Abysmal. No substance and no texture. Screw this.
A Welsh language, reggae, new-wave, rock-adjacent album from the late 70s. I understand how this album isn't more widely-recognised, but *still*. Not often am I so easily able to make it through an entire album without losing my enthusiasm.
+ Steddfod Yn Y Ddinas, Ethiopia Newydd, Merch Ty Cyngor,
The most successful elements of her earliest singles stitched together in this almost scientifically *correct* way.
It doesn't always have to be "so bad it is good". Sometimes it can be "so bad it is bad". Points only for the unintentional humour in how for-the-ladies faux-deep this so clearly is, but those can only go so far when the overarching product is legitimately a nightmare to listen to. Chinese Water Torture indeed. Fucking hell.
The production sounds cheap and the vocal here is usually *dreadful*, which is an accomplishment all its own with how little this track seemed to require of him.
Say No To Nepotism!
it isn't her most impressive single, nor is it her most artistically notable, but it soars, it howls, and it beats along. can't argue with that;
breaking out the capital F FIDDLES for this one
the specific way chappell stretches and strains her voice lends itself so, so, so perfectly well to a country-tinged sound, so i'm thoroughly unsurprised that the result here is so unambiguously effective. great writing, great performing, a *fabulous* instrumental.
Much like Xtina's "Bionic", Gaga's ARTPOP was a flop at the time that has since been reframed as a misunderstood masterpiece. Unlike "Bionic", however, ARTPOP genuinely is a misunderstood masterpiece.
The first three tracks are some of her best work period. The title-track a magnificent space odyssey that is often left behind in the praise. Applause always an overrated single but it is still a high-power Gaga single. Swine an exceptional pang of desire and ... read more
Madge, still wet behind the ears, lacking in technical ability, and about as unpolished as she was ever going to be, kicks ass on this record. Eight tracks, and only the kind-of-middling "I Know It" really gets lost in the shuffle - but both the production and her raw unbridled power, hunger, and ambition come together frequently, particularly on the club smacker "Burning Up" and the euphoric "Holiday", to produce a level of magnetism that cemented her as one to ... read more
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