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Though this is billed as a concept album depicting the persons, cities and history of Illinois, I feel that this almost sells Sufjan Stevens' epic short. Illinois reaches further, presenting a wider mural of American optimism, whimsy, freedom and war, religion and traditions, childhood and adulthood, superheroes and historical heroes, and more besides. At one moment, Sufjan describes a terrible murderer (John Wayne Gary, Jr). The next, he celebrates World Fairs and famous poets (Come On! Feel ... read more
I've gone back to this project multiple times now given the reverence it receives nowadays, and every time I fail to see why it's always held in such high esteem. This is adequate manufactured pop for adolescents. Most of the songs deal with relationships in surface-level (and often irritatingly contradictory) ways, and the song template of pre-chorus - chorus is repeated ad-nauseum. Without sounding harsh, I don't think Taylor's vocals are great either - there isn't much range and her tone ... read more
Run the Jewels turn it up a notch on their sophomore album. The beats are harder, more intricate, and more diverse overall. The lyrics are more aggressive, witty, somehow even more boastful, and also occasionally provide insightful social commentary (as on Early). The chemistry between El-P and Killer Mike has also fully blossomed; the verse trading and minor interjections on Blockbuster Night, Pt. 1 present two MC's on unstoppable form. Mike's line "The gates of hell are pugnaciously ... read more
An album that I loved when it was first released, but retrospectively harmed by the subsequent creative evolution made by Run the Jewels on future records. This is a lean 33 minutes of no frills, aggressive, grimy hip hop. You can tell that El-P and Killer Mike are still in the early stages of their collaboration, trading verses one at a time relatively devoid of the other's context. The beats, whilst always hard-hitting as you would expect from El-P, mostly lack the creativity to come in Run ... read more
Maybe the greatest pivot ever undertaken by a rock band - even Bowie's many reinventions pale in comparison to Radiohead's evolution into an ambient-electronic-techno-rock hybrid. Whereas OK Computer was an amazing observation of a world crumbling apart, Kid A places you amongst the rubble, left with your own contemplation of what the hell happened.
Haunting and beautiful in equal measure. I love that the album has this dark pessimism throughout but with an undercurrent of peace and, well, ... read more
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Member since May 19, 2024