As someone who did not hate "I LUV IT" upon landing like most folks, I thought the discourse was being unfair to Ms Cabello.
Then the album dropped, and I listened to the second track: the truly dreadful, grating, discordant, hookless "Chanel No. 5". And I got it.
One of my least favourite tracks this side of 2020 so far.
The album continues along this general direction with the utterly bland "experiment" with Lil Nas X, whose career rightfully deserved to get ... read more
This track fits very much within the vein of "The Collective", but feels a lot more unsettling somehow (in a good way!)
I'm always going to be happy to get more Kim Gordon, particularly when she continues to plunge headfirst into this fascinating and really quite fantastic artistic direction.
Her bouncy beats and bubbly synths, some of her trademarks, are very present on here, while moving into what is intriguingly less "experimental" but somehow still new-feeling territory for her. The house elements and the pop elements here are v well conjoined and this is one of the better tracks Petras has featured on in any capacity for a solid while now. Which, given the time-period recording presumably took place for this in, tracks to some extent.
We really did lose a giant, ... read more
Kesha's least commercial and most artistically interesting work to date. The first half of this album is absolutely incredible in particular.
Fuck Dr Luke. Hoping she continues to make the art she truly desires to make now that she's finally managed to unhitch herself from his wagon.
Almost something fascinating about RuPaul's ability to continually rip off of both himself and more talented queer artists a third his age.
The soullessness is unforgivable.
If there's anything I appreciate here, it's the joke they played with just about every facet of this album on any unsuspecting audience.
Every. Single. Thing is just unnerving and off-kilter. And I *love* it. "Hot On The Heels Of Love" is one I come back to for the sheer undercurrent of like. Passion in a haunted house type vibes? Persuasion is what being followed sounds like. The title track is a fun intro that sets the whole listening experience up beautifully.
They ... read more
No amount of over-play and over-exposure is going to make this album anything less than what it is: a, maybe even *the*, defining album of the 1990s. Certainly the early 1990s, anyway. The band itself saw this as their more Commercial, Pleasant Effort vs both their first and their last LPs, and this is pretty obvious even if there was some resentment for it. Sure, it's become cool to say that In Utero is the *real* masterpiece, owing to the mass-appeal this one had.
But my god, every ... read more
What is there to really say about this album? It drips with sensuality, fear, comfort, warmth, and so many other things.
A predictably experimental piece that achieves so much given its heavy reliance on vocal sampling to create an entire soundscape.
This is an EP that I stumbled upon purely by accident; I am not typically a drum-and-base kind of girly, but I have some appreciation for the genre and have done for years.
All that prefacing out of the way: This record goes hard. As with many in the genre, it's extremely "warehouse-rave-at-2-am" fodder, but boy does it pack a punch. The composition and vocal sampling on "Nothing To Say" makes it easily my favourite track on this thing, and the high-octane rattling ... read more
After "Paris" (2006), you'd think someone would've explained gently to Ms Hilton that there is a way to utilise autotune to a track's benefit, rather than to its detriment or as a lazy corrective. But apparently not, because listening to her vocals on this track is like watching a movie where they've smeared Vaseline on the lens.
Add to this an unlistenable opening 18 seconds, vocal stylings that do not necessarily work with whatever the production was aiming for ... read more
Murphy's best solo work, and a fabulous, fantastic, disorientating shift from her tenure with Moloko. Given the strong consistency of her catalogue, this is high praise.
FAVE TRACKS: SOW INTO YOU, RUBY BLUE, LEAVING THE CITY, RAMALAMA (BANG BANG)
LEAST FAVE: OFF ON IT
Everyone takes Sexyy Red more seriously than Sexyy Red takes Sexyy Red, but this mixtape is fun, catchy, nothing redundant is really going on, and her assertiveness and raunchy who-gives-a-shit gives everything she does some serious power in a very entertaining way. The production is hit or miss, but that's not necessarily surprising.
Idk. I like this project, and I quite like her.
THE BRITNEY REVIEWS, 4: SELF-TITLED
From here on, I'm going to format this as reviews track-by-track, followed by a brief summary of the package.
However, firstly: after two efforts from Britney that felt low on distinctiveness and identity, with most tracks feeling like outright discards, copies of more successful singles, etc., I went into this mildly optimistic: I remembered strongly "I'm A Slave 4 U" and "Not A Girl" and figured this, finally, had to be ... read more
THE BRITNEY REVIEWS: 3: OOPS! I DID IT AGAIN!
This title is exceptionally appropriate, given that even the title track is essentially a perfect and lazy remake/rehash of the two best tracks from her otherwise dismal debut effort. Hell, Stronger leans so heavily on "Crazy" from that album that teenage Spears would have a genuine case to drag slightly-older Spears directly into court. You'd get an F for self-plagiarism in any college essay for this shit.
Her cover of "I ... read more
THE BRITNEY REVIEWS: 2: ...BABY ONE MORE TIME
What to say about the album that launched a teen mega-star into a baby-madonna career trajectory?
Mostly that this album, from start to finish, so clearly owes a debt to Robyn's back catalogue so massive she might as well repossess, because there's no way the payments could be kept. Which is not to say that the album is bad (though it is), but the lead single off this thing is nigh-on-identical in parts.
The star power and ... read more
THE BRITNEY REVIEWS. 1: IN THE ZONE
Me Against The Music should *not* have happened. Abysmal album opener. Low low low point and I cannot believe they closed the album with a godawful remix of the thing! (I Got That) Boom Boom feels aggressively early aughts and not in a good way. That the two opening tracks are by far two of the worst on this record set me up poorly, but...
ultimately, though, it is just a very serviceably mid album that ambles around a lot looking for a voice, remembered ... read more
More polished and commercial than "Pretty On The Inside", and yet undeniably raw, supercharged with pain and *rage*. Love's vocals hit hard most of the time, and it's an album I will always turn to when I'm pissed off and looking for catharsis.
FAVE TRACKS: Violet, Softer/Softest, I Think That I Would Die, Doll Parts, Miss World
LEAST FAVE TRACKS: Rock Star
A perfectly serviceable but ultimately imperfect and occasionally even bland record that still leaves me wondering who Normani even is, and given all of the internet hype around the potential of a solo debut, idk.
For a first solo effort, it isn't bad, but you can't help but consider the missed opportunities. Some hits and some misses. But a perfectly reasonable start.
FAVOURITE TRACKS: Lights On, Take My Time
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