Album Reviews
Pop Smoke’s Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon Secures the Late Rapper’s Legacy: Review
The Lowdown: Last summer, at a congested intersection in Flatbush, the hip-hop rule book was left to smolder in a fiery, steel mesh garbage can. Passersby extinguished the fire, but by then Pop Smoke had already scored an improbable hit with “Welcome to the Party”. Pop Smoke (born Bashar Jackson) hardly seemed destined for superstardom; only a Noo Yawker could love those carelessly dropped “R’s” and that honking bassone cadence. And “Welcome to the Party”, with its retro drum’n’bass synth riff, could have been recorded between rounds one and two of the Bush tax cuts. It was the song that time forgot. Yet, it was streamed 80 million times. Coming to a barber shop near you is Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon, Pop Smoke’s posthumous new album. (He was killed in a February home invasion; ...
Static-X’s Project Regeneration Vol. 1 Properly Cements Wayne Static’s Legacy: Review
The Lowdown: In the late ’90s and early 2000s, Static-X were one of the bands the helped define that industrial/nu-metal era. Their debut album Wisconsin Death Trip went platinum with the video for “Push It” earning rotation on MTV (back when the channel still played videos). Over the next decade, Static X would release five more albums before drifting apart in 2009. When the band’s singer Wayne Static tragically passed away in 2014, it seemed to signal the end of Static-X forever; that was until original bassist Tony Campos uncovered demos of material that Wayne had been working on. Campos got together with fellow original members Ken Jay (drums) and Koichi Fukuda (guitar), and reworked the unearthed demos along with outtakes from previous albums. While there was an initial plan to recrui...
My Morning Jacket’s The Waterfall II Offers a Slice of Thoughtful Summer Escapism: Review
The Lowdown: In our diseased and never-ending present, 2015 feels like a hell of a lot longer ago than just five years. That April, My Morning Jacket released The Waterfall, a record that our Sheldon Pearce praised for its “stunning sonic scenery” and “perceptive, generation-bending kind of songwriting about lost love and nostalgia.” In addition to producing their best-received record since 2005’s breakthrough, Z, the sessions at Panoramic House in Stinson, CA, also produced a second album’s worth of material that Jim James and company decided to save until they needed them most. At the time, James told critic Steven Hyden in an interview for Grantland that “the two records aren’t related or anything” and that he “[didn’t] want to put it out as, like, The Waterfall 2 or anything like that....
HAIM’s Women in Music Pt. III Brims with Nuance and a Smorgasbord of Sounds: Review
The Lowdown: Summertime milestones are shaping up to become a staple in HAIM’s career. Just about a week shy of the three-year anniversary of the release of their sophomore album, Something to Tell You, the trio — composed of sisters Danielle, Alana, and Este Haim — put their latest work, Women in Music Pt. III, out into the world. Like the adorable video of their parents opening their Women in Music Pt. III vinyl in matching “Go HAIM or Go Home” t-shirts (which, if it isn’t already, should definitely be added to all future merch tables) that the band posted on Instagram, the album contains a raw tenderness that drums up its own sense of quiet magic on each track. Equally cool and cozy, Women in Music Pt. III sees HAIM tackle incredibly vulnerable subject matter against a musical smorgasbo...
Run the Jewels’ RTJ4 Takes Aim at Systemic Oppression amid National Uprising: Review
The Lowdown: Run the Jewels 4, which was released on June 3rd (two days earlier than originally announced), couldn’t have come at a better time. The duo, comprised of hip-hop mainstays Killer Mike and El-P, have ostensibly grown since their 2013 self-titled debut album. It’s imperative to recognize that the… Please click the link below to read the full article. Run the Jewels’ RTJ4 Takes Aim at Systemic Oppression amid National Uprising: Review Matt Melis You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blogging and help give users back their fair share of Internet revenu...
Lady Gaga’s Chromatica Dances Through the Pain and Trauma: Review
The Lowdown: It feels strange listening to dance music at a time when dance clubs themselves, nights out with friends, and, for many, friends in general are impossible to access in person. Like so many of the joys people have managed to find in quarantine, kitchen-floor dance parties and celebrations shared via Zoom and FaceTime — while necessary reliefs and real, genuine joys — can also sometimes feel tinged with a hint of delirium. But Chromatica feels like an appropriate answer to the vacancy created by this dissonance — as a lot of Lady Gaga’s work has done in the past, it offers up some honest-to-God bangers side by side with some honest-to-oneself reckonings with trauma, pain, addiction, and the very idea of what it means to be flawed and how this idea shifts depending on who’s defin...
Polo G’s The Goat Laments Chicago’s Violence with Poetic Precision: Review
The Lowdown: In this winner-take-all economy, the owner class is shrinking faster than you can read a foreclosure notice. Yet, Polo G’s talent for quivery, upwardly inflected sing-rapping made him a homeowner. He has a backyard. He can come and go as he pleases. No more agonizing wait times at apartment security checkpoints; no more having to dodge the prying eyes of too-inquisitive neighbors. On his sophomore album, The Goat, Polo G — who was raised in a squat brick mid-rise on Chicago’s Near North Side or, as he calls it, “the zoo” — marvels at his sudden freedom of movement. But he’s restless and slightly remorseful in his new life. Privacy is one of those benefits that redounds down to the upper, petty bourgeois. As long as his friends on Sedgwick Street are still living under state su...
Carly Rae Jepsen’s Dedicated Side B Delivers More of the Same: Review
The Lowdown: To maintain her almost decade-long reign as the ultimate trustworthy, sword-toting synth pop songwriter, Carly Rae Jepsen has had to write a lot of songs. Like, a lot of songs. For her latest record, Dedicated, which was longlisted for last year’s Polaris Music Prize, Jepsen told Rolling Stone that she wrote around 200 tracks. “You have to promise you won’t think I’m a maniac,” she warned her interviewer before displaying a series of post-it-covered poster boards of song titles. Since the full-length version of the album was narrowed down to a mere 15 songs, it’s safe to assume that Jepsen was keeping a couple of bangers in her back pocket. And considering the success of Emotion: Side B, which turned out to be even more critically acclaimed than the 2015 album it referenced, f...
Whitney Houston’s Self-Titled Debut Introduced a Voice for All Times: Classic Review
The Opus: Whitney Houston premieres on Thursday, May 28th and you can subscribe now. You can also prep for the experience by listening to Whitney Houston via all major streaming services or enter to win a copy of Vinyl Me, Please’s 35th anniversary Whitney Houston box set. Spotify | Google Play | Stitcher | Radio Public | RSS Follow on Facebook | Podchaser Music allows us to feel an array of emotions and is one of the universal aspects of the human experience. It can be the cause of laughter or the reason for momentary sadness. It sparks fond memories and serves as a time stamp of the most pivotal points in our lives. The music industry is forever changing, and even the most skilled of artists can fade into obscurity if they fail to adapt. Musicians come ...
The 1975’s Notes on a Conditional Form Marks a Definitive Moment in Time: Review
The Lowdown: The 1975 are undeniably divisive. From the start of their roughly 18 years together, frontman and lyricist Matty Healy has generated mass deliberation on whether or not The 1975 are a “serious” band. But that’s typically the case, right? Once something becomes “mainstream,” critics have to re-evaluate, for whatever reason. Can the cult curtains be pulled back to reveal a more substantiated, dynamic legacy? Are fans unanimously delusional to admire a band that talks a lot about crying, erections, and Internet love. I mean, how many times will “she say” something? Spoiler alert: she says a great deal on their latest record, Notes on a Conditional Form. Matty also still cries a lot, too, so don’t worry about that. But to be fair, the skepticism surrounding the band isn’t unwarran...
Charli XCX’s How I’m Feeling Now Offers Honest Expression for Uncertain Times: Review
The Lowdown: Throughout her musical career, Charli XCX, born Charlotte Aitchison, has occupied both sides of pop stardom — the radio mainstream and the small, sweaty clubs where experimental pop flourishes. Coming onto the scene in 2012 with “I Love It”, Icona Pop’s chart topper, which was written by and featured Aitchison, was quite the breakout, reaching car-commercial levels of unavoidability. Not long after that, Aitchison’s feature on “Fancy”, which she co-wrote with Iggy Azalea, was named Billboard’s song of the summer, and her song “Boom Clap”, featured in teen-favorite The Fault in Our Stars, rivaled “Fancy” for that title. Despite Aitchison’s ability to craft radio hits, her affinity for experimental hyperpop is what makes her a cult-pop icon who continually pushes the genre forwa...
Bad Bunny’s Las Que No Iban a Salir Keeps the Heat Coming with Surprise Outtakes: Review
The Lowdown: Bad Bunny is still doing what he wants on his latest album, Las Que No Iban a Salir (or The Ones That Were Not Going to Come Out), which was a surprise drop last week. The 10-track collection spans outtakes from Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio’s YHLQMDLG album and music that he recorded while in quarantine in Puerto Rico. The Latin trap and reggaetón artist continues his hot streak as today’s premiere perreo pop star. Since dropping YHLQMDLG (Spanish shorthand for I Do Whatever I Want) on Leap Day, Bad Bunny has not only become Latin music’s biggest artist but a global superstar transcending genre or labels. In early March, YHLQMDLG debuted at No. 2 on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart, the highest placement for an album primarily recorded in Spanish. That 20-track set remained...
