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J-street

(commissioned by the jazz hop café)

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Hey guys and gals, I haven’t posted in a while so I thought I’d share another playlist with y’all. This one is pretty self-explanatory and is actively, sincerely, convincing me that metal is one of if not the best musical genres out there. Give it a listen if you like metal or share it with your metalhead friends. 

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ASTROWOLRD: Wish You Were Here Tour, Pittsburgh: Concert Review

           Travis Scott is arguably one of the world’s greatest musical artists due to his many years of work into perfecting his musical craft and his creative vision. In constructing his latest album, ASTROWORLD, and giving sneak peeks of snippets of the music he was creating, he explained that the influence on his creative vision for the project came from a theme park that came to his hometown annually. AstroWorld, the theme park, was run by Six Flags in Houston, Texas and operated seasonally January through March since it’s opening in 1968 to 2005. Piquing the interest of many, this seemed like a homage to his hometown and the festivities they held, but fans still wondered how exactly that vision would translate to his music and his performances.

When Travis Scott announced his ASTROWORLD: Wish You Were Here tour, fans got a chance to see just what he intended. Having the chance to see it myself, I went to the PPG Arena on the 25th of November 2018 and before walking in the door, the vision was already clear. In front of PPG Arena was a gold colored inflatable Travis Scott head, resembling the one on the artwork for the album, with its mouth open for people to walk through in the entrance of the venue. It looked and felt like the entrance to a theme park that counted on a large, interesting gate to attract patrons. Once inside the venue and watching Travis Scott perform, his energy resonated with that of his audience. After his opening acts, Travis sang most of his hits and popular songs from his latest album and later some of his older songs that brought emotion and excitement to older and more dedicated fans.

Travis Scott’s live performances have been described to be full of energy and screaming as Travis proves to be a rambunctious character and loves to convey and incite that same energy in his fans. I was luckily able to see it myself as I watched Travis pace and run and jump and scream his lyrics from one end of the stage to the other. His creative vision was continually manifested through the performance as there was another inflatable head positioned on a second stage and there was a roller coaster track rigged to the ceiling on a system that raised and lowered it throughout the course of the concert. At different moments of the performance, he got in and out of a roller coaster cart that was on the track and continued to perform as the cart moved back and forth along the track. Another interesting part of his performance were the visuals that he presented that were familiar to the psychedelic visuals and sounds that are particular to his artistic style. The screens on the stage displayed footage of him performing with various “trippy” filters over it, distorting and saturating colors, conveying that psychedelic effect. Travis also had two long black and transparent curtains hang from the outer edges of the central arena in order to project many of the artworks that are a part of the ASTOROWORLD visual theme.

After a relatively short performance, fans left the arena with their tour merchandise, satisfied with the performance. Travis’ creative vision is truly a thing to marvel at in person.

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“What are you doing on the computer all the time?”

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             Swimming is the fifth studio album of artist and rapper Mac Miller, and I never listened to Mac much, but this album has demonstrated the artistic capacity that he has to reinvent himself and dominate different singing and rapping styles, an ability I’ve seen only among other great artists.

             Swimming is the music project I’ve been waiting for.

Not because I follow Mac and I was anxious for it to drop, but because when I heard the first sample off first track Come Back to Earth, I realized, “this is something different”, and when I finally heard a few songs at a party thanks to my new friend Stephanie, my expectations for the album were met and surpassed.

I wasn’t expecting Mac Miller to give me the sound I’ve been looking for, but he did it, and now I can’t see anybody else who could have done it better than him. It makes me wonder what would have happened to the project if Mark Ronson or Pete Rock were involved in the production.

There’s a certain balance that artists must maintain in their music, between the quality of their lyricism and their actual track production and instrumentation. I believe that on this record Miller puts a great deal of effort into both aspects, and even though his lyricism might not be the best, the production is indisputably fantastic.

             This album is everything I’ve been needing because it spins musically gorgeous and funky tracks on the personal rap that Miller dished out on this record, classically layered with Mac’s laid-back voice. The jazz influence on the production of this album is probably my favorite part about it. Hearing an album and knowing that I could listen to the instrumentals alone is already a huge plus for me, proving the quality of the production on each track, just like instrumentals from Childish Gambino to Dr. Dre.

             Listening to this album is extremely gratifying because it’s so easy and fulfilling to listen to. When you start to listen to the lyrics, they reveal Mac’s personal details about dealing with trial and error, and how his failures weigh him down. The metaphor and thesis of the album is precisely what he expresses from his personal life to us. The act of swimming and/or treading water (as well referenced on the album) is an act of survival we do to avoid drowning, and the hopeful tone of the first song Come Back to Earth, leads to Mac singing “and I was drowning, but now I’m swimming”. Sometimes, however, we feel like life is weighing us down more than it should, and it makes it harder for us to swim. In Perfecto, Mac reassures “I'm treading water I know / If I stop movin', I'll float”.

             Mac also talks about heartbreak as one of those problems that weigh him down (after losing Ariana Grande, who wouldn’t feel the same honestly). During interviews, he has addressed his long break away from social media, a topic I believe he refers to when he says “Nowadays all I do is shine, take a break and ease my mind” on Small Worlds, as he has expressed that he prefers to not have to worry about other people’s opinions about him and his music when he already has to worry about his own.

              So far, this album has had no problem whatsoever in terms of replayability for me. I have listened to this album maybe 4 times today only. I believe this album will stay in my memory and personal collection, if I get the opportunity to buy a physical copy, I will.

Don’t listen to the people that say this album is subpar, because honestly, I believe this album stands alone against the rest of Miller’s works.

8.

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             Far out man…

I wish I could’ve been to the original Astroworld theme park in Houston, it would probably make listening to this album a lot trippier. For those who don’t know, Travis’ third studio album is named after a theme park that was based in his home town, Houston, inspiring the direction in which Scott decided to take his tour in, meaning every tour performance for this album will be set in theme parks.

             From the first trailer featuring STARGAZING, we could hear that Travis’ production value hasn’t yet degraded, and his will is as strong as ever, expressing his vision through every channel possible, letting us know just how out-of-this-world Astroworld was going to be.

             His music in this release maintains that trippy, (listen high for best experience) type vibe. We hear Trav use sounds and effects already familiar to us, like his classic ad libs and using echoes in his vocals and varying the depth of each vocal track to add dimensions to the tracks.

             In this release we get to hear features from Frank Ocean, Drake, Gunna, Juice WRLD, The Weeknd,James Blake, Takeoff, 21 Savage, Don Toliver, Kid Cudi, and even Pharrell.

The album is pretty hype from the start with STARGAZING, leading off into CAROUSEL and SICKO MODE, which feature Ocean and Drake respectively. The album keeps its trippy melodic sounds while slowing down the pace on R.I.P. SCREW, and when STOP TRYING TO BE GOD comes on, the first thing that takes over me is Kid Cudi’s soothing hums.

             Shit hits the fan as soon as as NO BYSTANDERS comes on. Juice WRLD kicks off the song, but Travis takes it from there and leads the hype train straight into the chorus with no delay.

             It’s evident that wherever Travis’ pilot landed after flying for 10 hours without any flight plans, they definitely fucked the club up.

SKELETONS dials it down with the slow key progression, and WAKE UP keeps it mellow with its chill guitar plucking and strumming. I liked listening to WAKE UP because its chord progression even reminded me of a certain Three Days Grace song, and it was funny to realize its just about how they don’t want to wake up from their trip, but they just want the girl that keeps them awake. Maybe staying high is the key to forgetting the pain of losing that girl, as usual. (sorry Weeknd, ur not getting selena back).

Yosemite is a song to bump to, it’s vibey as hell with the guitar chords, opening flute and banging bass, followed by CAN’T SAY, WHO? WHAT!, BUTTERFLY EFFECT, and personally two of the best tracks on the album, HOUSTONFORNICATION and COFFEE BEAN.

This album is classically Travis. I honestly wouldn’t expect an artist like Scott to release an album filled with social commentary and criticisms, verbosely composed and elaborated in a similar artistic manner as that of Kendrick’s. The only song where Trav gets into that subject of discussion is on COFFEE BEAN, where he criticizes his girlfriend and her family for not liking him and saying he’s “bad news”. He seems to believe his girl has much more shallow problems than him, as he’s “stressin’ over award shows” while “she stresses over her wardrobe”.

As an artist, Travis Scott does what he does masterfully, and I feel that he’s one of the most respectable artists in the game just for his dedication and fidelity to his vision and his own lane.

That being said, this album overall has its highlights, but thematically, it seems a bit conflicted, as the lyric work is quite base and rudimentary, but the production is fantastic.

7.6

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Deadmau5’s 2018 release Where’s The Drop is a collection of classic Deadmau5 tracks reworked in a classical symphonic shine of lights.

           Even though this album came out March 30, of this year, I’m writing this now because I’ve just recently realized it existed, and it seemed curious to me seeing the track list full of familiar song titles, with “-ov” written after them. Once I started listening to them, I realized just what the project was, and inferred that the letters stood for “orchestral version”.

           The music on this release is a gorgeous reinvention of most of the already beautiful tracks that were on the 2014 release, While (1<2), which were mostly comprised of simple, profound and pulsating melodies. Other songs included in this release are Strobe from 2009 For A Lack Of A Better Name, Imaginary Friends from 2016 W:/2016ALBUM/, Luxuria from 2013 7, Monophobia, which was released after this in mau5ville: Level 1, and hr 8938 cephei, a single from 2011.

As Joel Zimmerman laughs, searching for fan reactions to the album on his tidal page, a young woman wrote “whenever I try to listen to any of your songs, dude, on Where’s the Drop?, all I hear is this orchestral music.'” And I feel like the rest of the EDM community can relate in terms of hearing something unexpected.

The wonderful thing about Deadmau5 is that he’s not necessarily trying to change his style or sound, but as he put it best, “I’m always up for branching… I’ll be doing some synth-wave shit next week. I’m not locking myself in some pre-set path. I just throw spaghetti at the wall and see what I like.”

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a project similar to this one, with Nas’ participation in the RE:Generation project with the Berklee Symphony Orchestra back in 2012 and Varien’s rework of some of Skrillex’s work in 2011 on “Skrillex Orchestral Suite”.

Zimmerman was worried about the reception of his project, admitting that “It might not go down with EDM bros, but I’m not exclusively catering to EDM bros.”

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2001, released by Dr. Dre under his label Aftermath Entertainment in 1999 is the follow-up to his 1992 debut album The Chronic. Not having released an album in 7 years, Dre released this album in response to public claims of doubts against his rapping abilities, and manages to develop his G-Funk sound and express the “gangsta rap” thematic. 

Throughout the record, Dre and various featured artists rap about sex, violence, drugs, street gangs, conflict and crime, linked through various tracks and interludes that reflect a sort of comical aspect of Dre´s humor and his desire for it to be enjoyed. Dre himself explains that they made the whole record like a movie, planned out to include multiple different types of situations “So you've got buildups, touching moments, aggressive moments. You've even got a 'Pause for Porno.' It's got everything that a movie needs."”. Not only does Dr. Dre reassure his place in the rap game with this record, but he slams everyone who doubted him and said he “fell off” with songs like “Forgot about Dre” and “Still Dre”, featuring his two greatest protégés, Eminem and Snoop Dogg. 

Recurrently addressed throughout the album, is the struggle with “bitches” and how they “ain´t shit but hoes and tricks”, meaning they´re deceitful and disloyal as they are promiscuous with multiple men even though they are in committing relationships. Even with it´s gangsta rap themes, 2001 was received positively by critics, Chris Massey from PopMatters said “Musically, 2001 is about as close to brilliant as any one gangsta rap album might possibly get.”, and Kanye West mentions in the Rolling Stone that “'Xxplosive', off 2001, that's [where] I got my entire sound from…” highlighting the lasting influence that this record possesses.

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In the meantime for my next upload, I'm sharing a playlist I made with music that I enjoy. It's not themed, just a quick composition of overall music that makes me feel happy.

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Concrete and Gold

I´m convinced that the Foo Fighters are one of the last bands keeping rock alive and relevant. Not only are they quintessential factors in the discussion, the quality of their music has always stood for itself, always showing up and bringing a new project to the table maintaining it’s sound throughout the years. 

In their latest release, Concrete and Gold, they keep their signature sound while further implementing acoustic sounds and heavy riffs. There´s something about Dave Grohl´s scream that always hits that sweet spot, with the distortion and fuzz they add on it, it has such a grizzly feel to it, while still managing to come off clean. The drumming sounds new, yet familiar, with new patterns being tried with the same signature style, accompanying the deep and powerful harmonies present in the chords and vocals.

T-Shirt is an amazing intro to this album, setting the mood for the rest of the album. It starts with Dave singing a sweet melody about singing love songs with an acoustic in the back, shortly after being interrupted by an abrupt break in silence by a fuzzed out, loud guitar, screaming into your ear; then slowing back down into the next song, Run. 

Starting with the arpeggios that ended T-Shirt, Dave continues singing with a sort of hopeful tone, it´s beautiful really. Then the kick drum starts, fast, you know this is really going to pick up pace; then a second guitar comes in as the drumming becomes more complex, and out of nowhere, it turns into a moshpit with the guitar getting distorted to hell, along with Dave´s screaming voice. The main riff maintains the status quo by keeping that pace and playing some higher notes as well, all the while, our arpeggio from the start is always there in the back, keeping us company. 

The Sky Is A Neighborhood  begins with a harmony of strings and vocals, then Dave interrupts with his grunge-y voice. The echo they put on Grohl´s voice on this song helps bring forth the simple drum beats and guitar, up until they fill the silence with the fuzzy guitar and the rest of the set on the drums. 

La Dee Da is incredibly aggressive, distorted and loud from the get-go, and it keeps a pace that just won´t let you rest. The rapid strumming and screaming make you feel like thrashing around and kicking a few things over, which is a lot of fun if you´re like me or any other thrasher. The calm after the storm comes surely however.

Dirty Water starts out peaceful enough, with a Jack Johnson type acoustic strumming and plucking, but the drum keeps the pace up. It has a very sweet sound, but foreshadowed in itself, “I feel an earthquake coming”, so halfway through the song, everything picks up again, slamming on the distortion pedal, drumming gets busy, and Dave gets louder. The transition however isn’t incoherent, it keeps the regular patterns, basically just louder.

Arrows sounds a lot like Wasting Light, maintaining a stable level of aggressiveness all throughout and keeping Dave’s voice loud. Having Happy Ever After (Zero Hour) to oppose it, being totally peaceful and having a feel-good type melody all throughout.

The Line has a Kings of Leon feel to it, with higher pitched guitar riffs and similar drum patterns, it makes me think of Come Around Sundown, which really is a good thing. Good memories there. 

Overall, Concrete and Gold is a good album, but it actually lacks new material. Dave has a knack for writing extremely long choruses, but it’s nothing we haven’t seen before at this point. Being a fan of the Foo Fighters since I was a child, I actually like the fact that they haven’t changed their sound, like Fall Out Boy or Panic! At The Disco. The Foo Fighters are the poster boys for durability and dependability, especially after 9 studio albums. Judging the album independently, I’d definitely listen to songs like Arrows, La Dee Da, Run, T-Shirt again, meaning this work will not be forgotten. 7/10

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Free 6lack

Like the great Jay Z once said, “you can’t listen to an album and rate it in a day.”, and in agreement with this, I´ll take about a week to listen and internalize an album completely.

This album is one I never get tired of hearing, and in admiration to the passion this man put into his work and the quality of the outcome, I´ve chosen to make it my first review.

Starting with Never Know, 6Lack´s debut album “Free 6lack” is the result of 10,000 hours of work and dedication. On Never Know, 6lack talks about people and his old label holding him back and prying free from them, “Old label wasn't talking bout nothing/ Meanwhile, I'm getting ready for a run”. He also foreshadows the birth of his daughter, Syx Rose Valentine, and mentions her as an inspiration to his work. I believe this song conveys his need to express himself how and when he wanted to. 

Rules is a song about setting standards, rules and boundaries to interact adequately with others after his experience with his old label. “Rule number one no explaining/ Rule number two no complaining” these are explicit mentions of rules he’s set for himself but also “I tell truth and nothing but it, I'm in love with that” is also clear in itself. He explicitly mentions what made him come clean with himself and set these rules saying “And I just came off of six years of them shits/ From exes to labels and being homeless” 

PRBLMS is about his personal problems while dealing with women and how for example, he might love one, but then the following week he just wants to be alone, even with the sentimental attachment to her. “Tell her you love her when next week you just want your space/ Why you do, why you do that?/ Tell her you want her but next week you do your own thing/ Why you do, why you do that?” I think it’s important to take notice that when he says “Why you do that?”, he’s referring to his own flaws and how he doesn’t why he is the way he is.

I honestly believe Free can be interpreted as a song that talks about the one that got away, except it came as a sort of relief. This girl was clearly important to him, “Why am I waking up out of my sleep/ Thinking of ya babe/ You had a hold on me” but for some reason she always seemed to stay away from falling in love. “You been around love but you never been in” and “You had just what you needed to be/ Everything you want to be/ But you'd rather run round these streets/ Now you're feeling freer than you've ever been/ But really you feel trapped, no need to pretend”. He later expresses his relief by his separation from her and his travels 

In Learn Ya, it’s clear the woman he’s speaking to is one that he couldn’t deal with because of her immaturity. She just looks for flings but he says he could bring more to the table “I'm just trying to show this ain't no temporary love”. Regardless, he’s still there for her when she needs a quick fix.

Next up is MTFU, an acronym for more than fucked up. that refers to the time he cheated on his girlfriend with her friend. The unapologetic tone he takes with this song makes you wonder why he would be so upfront about this. He says that he knew better, but continued to do wrong by her, which is one of the reasons i don’t really fw this song, aside from the weird flow and beat. I like, however, that as expected, he refrains from regret, but says he’ll learn from the experience instead “Now I’m tryna figure out the lesson”.

Luvin’ U is one of my favorite songs off this album because of the simplicity and explicitness of his thoughts and emotions. Particularly the second verse is very clear in getting his point across “You know everything cause I put it in my songs If I tell you that I'm working, I ain't out doing you wrong” and “I ain't asking you for space just some room to fucking breathe/ But I can't stress myself by tryna prove my fucking love” are lines I appreciate deeply because I can relate from my own experience. Overall, he wants to be true now, but he’s lost trust and probably isn’t going to get it back, making him question the strength of the relationship, so he he says “I don’t wanna lose myself loving you, loving you”.

Gettin’ Old is the poppy-est song on the album, talking simply about how he wants to shower his girl with new knowledge, things and experiences. “Ima make breakfast 'cause going out is getting old”, “You can leave your man cause that nigga is getting old, yea” and “ Yea, let me bring you out to the places that you wanna go/ I put you on game, teach you everything you didn’t know” are a few clear examples, there’s not much more to say about this song, it’s really simple.

Next is another sentimental track, Worst Luck, where he speaks to his girlfriend, trying to convince her to leave him. He says he has the worst luck with love, so to protect her, he wants her to be free from him. “I swear no matter what I touch it breaks/ So I no longer wanna see your face”. He tries to undermine himself but she still loves him for who he is and stays. “ You could have it all/ Why settle for me?”.

This is the banger of the album. Ex Calling is about like thinking out loud when your ex calls, but lyrically. “There's something wrong with my hand/ Can't pick up the phone, goddamn/ Hope you understand/ I can't have you fuck up the plans”. What makes this song so special is that he wishes the best for his ex, but he just wants her to stay out of his way and his progress, “You the ex calling for the sex Want me cause I'm next”. He says he just wants to ball and do his own thing while staying lowkey like he usually does. “All these hoes is on me/ All this ice on me/ All these lights on me/ Not really, I like to stay lowkey”.

Alone / EA6. definitely gives closure to this album. Even though this song(s) is great, my favorite parts are the intros and interludes, where he doesn’t need to put his thoughts into a rhyme or rhythm, and he just says it straight up. “Half of them don't even know your name. I don't want that, I want people to know who the fuck I am. I want people to know what I stand for. I want people to be personal and know, "This is 6LACK, this is what he believe in....””. Mainly we have the memory of his old label trying to change his style, “’Cause I've been told a couple times like, "Hey, do this shit man, do that..." And I'm like man, I don't want, I don't that for me man.” but he’s steadfast in his process, evidently leaving and doing his own thing under Interscope Records. 

Even though I’ve listened to this album many times now, this exercise has made me focus and write more on a few details that I missed on my listenings. I admire 6lack greatly for his passion, and the dedication he put into producing this masterpiece of an album, where he talks nothing more than what is true to him. I believe it’s best when an artist talks about their own experiences, and expresses them in the most honest and lyrical way possible, this is why even though he hasn’t put out so much music, 6lack is one of my favorite rappers out there.

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Getting Focused

This blog will now have an actual purpose, and i’ts going to be dedicated to music reviews. The reasoning behind my decision comes from my passion and appreciation for the music I listen to, and the search for a creative outlet to voice my opinions and exercise my writing skills for the future. As I will review and link most of the music that I personally already listen to, I welcome different opinions and new suggestions for music. I’ll try to listen to them and if I enjoy them enough I will write a review for them as well. I’ll try to write as often as possible so stay tuned!