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Vinyl of the Year 2018, and Goodbye Forever, Tumblr

It’s that time of year yet again! Except this time, I’m leaving for good.

Tumblr has been good to me the two years I used it, but I’m going to move on to more ambitious things. I will be turning this music review blog into a podcast that should be available on SoundCloud soon, and the first episode will be an Album of the Year discussion with a couple of friends. 

Here is the SoundCloud page (currently empty) where the podcast will be uploaded. I will be also posting review summaries on my new user page at rateyourmusic.com, which you can find here. My favorite 2018 albums list is already there if you want a sneak peek. Or, if you’re lazy, here’s my top 10:

1. Saba - CARE FOR ME

2. Kero Kero Bonito - Time ‘n’ Place

3. Earl Sweatshirt - Some Rap Songs

4. KIDS SEE GHOSTS - KIDS SEE GHOSTS

5. Denzel Curry - TA13OO

6. JID - DiCaprio 2

7. Pusha T - DAYTONA

8. Smino - NOIR

9. Noname - Room 25

10. Mac Miller - Swimming

2018 was a great year for music, hip-hop especially, and I can’t wait to see what music closes out the decade in 2019. I look forward to giving the podcast to you all. One last time:

Thanks for reading, and happy listening!

[vinyloftheyear-blog]

Shout Out - twenty one pilots - Trench

Okay, so I didn’t fully listen to this album, and it won’t be discussed at the end of the year--I enjoy the hard rock of Jumpsuit, the bars on Levitate, and some of the pop production, I’ll admit, but this shout-out isn’t really about the music. It’s more about the fact that a pop group can make an album rife with bizarre and unique lore and still be listenable, which I didn’t think was really possible. Without even digging too deep, you can find out about some guy named Clancy, a world called Dema, and what a real life group of mathematicians sharing the same name has to do with it all. It’s really weird, but I’m also so proud that the band has fulfilled this vision on an album that still functions as a catchy pop record and doesn’t get bogged down with details. I wish every album had such a fantastical and rich story to tell.

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Shoutouts: Joey Bada$$ - 1999 and J.I.D. - The Never Story

Listen here

I confess that I’m not as musically-diverse as I used to be--these days the majority of my taste is rap music. I can hardly help it; the genre is exploding with innovation and dominating the culture that surrounds me, on and off the internet. Summer 2018 has already been jam-packed with some amazing music thanks mostly to Kanye’s recent GOOD Music album bomb, but also some singles from Childish Gambino and Chance the Rapper--and even more is well on the way, courtesy of Brockhampton and Anderson .Paak. With all of that going on, it can be easy to miss some lesser-known developments in the rap game, so I figured it was time for a couple of shoutouts.

Recently, Joey Bada$$’s 2012 debut mixtape 1999 released on streaming services, and now that it was easier to access I decided to give it a listen. And as much as I loved ALL-AMERIKKKAN BADA$$ last year, the rhyme schemes and pure rap talent is nothing compared to what Joey entered the game with. Every track is bars, nonstop, with Joey and his collective Pro Era delivering Brooklyn bravado and personal thoughts on war, pot, guns, et cetera. What’s more, the beats sampled for the tape come from legendary producers and artists like Knxwledge, MF Doom and J Dilla. So if you enjoy rap music at its core and at its best, you should really give this mixtape a listen now that it’s much easier to do so.

Also recently, the XXL Freshman Class of 2018 was announced and promoted, and member J.I.D. knocked his freestyle and cipher out of the park. Everyone was completely blown away except those who knew his pedigree already, including last year’s album The Never Story (which I unfortunately missed until now). Those familiar with him expected J.I.D. to shine, because The Never Story feels like his ignition point. It’s got all moods between buzzing synth bops and moody poetic R&B, tied together with distorted jazzy production and some top-notch lyricism. It really feels like this album is seasoned with something special when J.I.D. can put car-bopping bars like those in NEVER on the same record as the heartbroken melodies of Hereditary or All Bad and still have nothing feel out of place, and by the time LAUDER kicks in with J. Cole’s production and the chorus reminding you that J.I.D. is sick, you’ll know exactly why you have to agree.

Thanks for reading, and happy listening!

[vinyloftheyear-blog]

Lasting Impression 2018

Hello again! Hope the first half of 2018 has treated you nicely. There’s been a lot of interesting music lately--Saba, Kali Uchis, Jack White, and more have contributed to the year’s best records already, but we still have six and a half months until VotY 2018 comes around.

As I’ve done every summer, in the meantime, I selected a vinyl record to get from last year’s great albums for its musical staying power and innovative appeal. And among every artist that made something I liked last year, the only one that I still talk about consistently is none other than the rap boyband BROCKHAMPTON. Since the SATURATION trilogy wrapped up last December, the group has gained even more popularity and publicity for their infectiously-inspiring raps, large group chemistry, and wild beat compositions.

I mentioned last year that my rank for the trilogy was 2>3>1, but as time passed I became less certain, and ended up loosely ranking every song one by one before deciding on a more definitive best album. SAT II was my favorite for a long time after SAT III released because JUNKY, GUMMY, and SWEET remain some of the boyband’s best work in my opinion--but SAT III actually had a much higher bar for consistent quality, with pretty much every song except LIQUID being memorable and enjoyable to me, whereas SAT II has a larger amount of forgettable tracks, like JESUS, FIGHT, or TOKYO. (That isn’t to say I hate these songs; the entire SAT trilogy still has its rightful place on the VotY 2017 list, they are just worse by comparison.)

So, in short, SAT III turned out to actually be a more consistently-strong album than SAT II, which had more peaks and valleys. And for that reason, 2018′s Lasting Impression vinyl will be BROCKHAMPTON’s SATURATION III... 

As soon as SATURATION III is actually available on vinyl. (Hopefully the recent signing with RCA will expedite this process.)

In the meantime, we will once again go back in time to ten years ago--which is now 2008, when America realized that black presidents were cool and housing costs weren’t. It was also the year that my parents first got divorced. The local indie radio station kept playing a song whose tumbling drums and melancholy choirs struck a cord with my wavering emotions at the time - Death Cab For Cutie’s Grapevine Fires. I looked further into the band and listened backwards into their catalog, realizing for the first time the great rewards that could come with actively seeking out lesser-known new music. So in part, this blog is thanks to the album that it came from, and is the reason I care enough about music to type this in the first place. Just like last year with We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, it is not the band’s best record by a long shot, but it was a great record that they released at a time in my life when I was most susceptible to the themes and messages they conveyed in their songs. Without contest, then, 2018′s backup Lasting Impression vinyl is Death Cab For Cutie’s Narrow Stairs. 

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3 years and 7 records down, several to go. Also, surprise! I forgot to mention that I picked up Telefone on vinyl when it got reissued a few months back. When SAT III appears on wax it’ll replace Narrow Stairs, and I’ll make a separate Classics section for it and WWDBTSES. Happy summer!

[vinyloftheyear-blog]

Vinyl of the Year 2017

It’s that time of year once again for a music recap! I know I’ve pretty much abandoned the “First Impressions” thing, but I realized that I prefer to let my opinions ferment for some time and serve them up all at once at the end of the year, so that’s what I’ll be doing instead from now on--and in lieu of those posts being reminders of what albums I like, I made a “Best of 2017” playlist out of selected songs from my favorite records of the year. You can listen to it here on Google Play.

I’ve done my album rankings a bit differently this year as well: I’ve compiled a Short List of every album that had at least one song I liked on it, and I’ll be going through all of them one at a time, getting a bit more descriptive the higher up the list I go.

Here’s the Short List, sorted roughly by release date:

And without any further introduction, let’s do this!

36. Joji - In Tongues EP

Joji is George Miller aka Filthy Frank aka Pink Guy’s moniker for more-serious music, and his record debut is a collection of mellow, lo-fi beats with some shallow lyrics on top. I like some of the sounds on here, especially the ukulele sampling on Worldstar Money, but overall this just sounds like any other amateur lo-fi artist on SoundCloud.

35. Electric Guest - Plural

Electric Guest’s second album features more indie-pop tunes, most of which are completely forgettable in the sea of similar music--but Oh Devil and Back For Me are a couple of rare exceptions that return with the magic and groove of their much-better first record.

34. XXXTENTACION - 17

After hearing about how X seriously abused his ex-girlfriend, I pretty much gave up on liking him and instead hope his mental health improves. The 20-minute album he released is mostly some super-low-effort “I’m depressed” music, but the one stand-out track is Jocelyn Flores, and that’s much more thanks to the potsu song it heavily samples. So at least I can thank X for introducing me to potsu before I never listen to him again.

33. Migos - CULTURE

The Atlanta trap trio climbed to the top of the game with this album, and Bad and Boujee will be remembered for a long time for popularizing their flow and production style (provided by Metro Boomin), for better or worse. T-Shirt is another catchy track with a wonderfully unique flow throughout, but the album pretty much drops off after that for me.

32. SZA - Ctrl

SZA’s debut full-length album is critically acclaimed as a soulful and personal take on modern urban romance and the role she takes in it. I can appreciate the album for that, but it’s not really a concept that I can connect with personally, so this album doesn’t stick with me like it did others. However, the songs with more blatant concepts like The Weekend and Doves in the Wind are more replayable--especially the latter, with its hilarious Kendrick Lamar feature.

31. Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked At Me

I really think this album should be labeled ‘FOR EMOTIONAL EMERGENCIES ONLY’. As the listener, you are taken through what is effectively just cathartic music-therapy for Phil Elverum after the very recent death of his wife, Genevieve. No deepy-contemplated lyrics or music here, just somber mostly-guitar ballads with very straightforward “lyrics” on top about his personal thoughts on various aspects of his life now that she is gone. It’s hardly music, but it’s not for the faint of heart--the first song, Real Death, however, is a good summary of the album’s aesthetic for those who don’t want to sob for 40 minutes.

30. Open Mike Eagle - Brick Body Kids Still Daydream

OME is very hit-or-miss in my opinion: he is capable of some excellent flows and lyricism, and can really knock it out of the park with the right production behind him. This album didn’t completely hit--it was mostly too slow, and I admittedly don’t like it when he sings sometimes--but Tldr (Smithing) and Brick Body Complex both had enough of a driving beat to keep me listening.

29. Pink Guy - Pink Season

I was honestly surprised when the In Tongues EP came out that it didn’t have production nearly as good as Pink Season’s: regardless of whatever offensive thing he raps on top, Pink Guy has several solid beats on this album, especially in the food-based songs where the raps are more typical and less off-the-wall raunchy. Adding a few comedic diamonds in the rough, like She’s So Nice and Small Dick, makes the album worth coming back to every so often.

28. The Shins - Heartworms

The Shins have really carved out their own bubbly-indie-rock niche in music and made themselves comfortable, and Heartworms is no departure from that in the slightest. The result is an album that’s both easy to enjoy but hard to really celebrate. A few stand-out tracks are Rubber Ballz, Name For You, and Mildenhall, which each have a slightly different tone, but belong well within the Shins’ signature aesthetic.

27. Portugal. The Man - Woodstock

It must have been one hell of a year for PTM since they’ve gone from a lesser-known indie-rock group to Top 40 hitmakers, since it’s been weird to hear Feel It Still on the radio even as a fan of theirs. Besides that song and a couple others though, Woodstock just feels like a more popped-up and watered-down version of the slightly-less popped-up and watered-down Portugal that I grew to like when Evil Friends released.

26. Alt-J - RELAXER

The indie-rock powerhouse returned this year with a woefully underwhelming third album, stuffed with nicely-composed but lullaby-worthy tracks following in the wake of the more ambient sounds from their second record. In Cold Blood is by and large the standout track, bringing back the punchy rock feel and dynamic shifts that made An Awesome Wave so catchy and groundbreaking. Deadcrush also lends to this with its tough drum beat, but beyond that, a strange and ill-fitting attempt at garage-rock, and a much gentler cover of House of the Rising Sun, this album can be missed with no regrets, even for an Alt-J fan.

25. San Fermin - Belong

The eight-piece baroque-pop outfit came to my attention when opening for Alt-J live, and their infectious stage presence and unique ensemble led me to find their studio recordings, which were good in concept but unfortunately poorly-mixed for the most part. Their newest record, however, seems to be mixed and recorded much better, with songs like Dead and Cairo bringing that live energy properly into my earphones. Many tracks are good enough but a bit poppy and smooth for my taste, like Belong, but overall this is a great album for anybody who wants more horns and violins in their pop music.

24. N.E.R.D. - NO ONE EVER REALLY DIES

N.E.R.D. finally explains their name on their latest album, which still brings the experimental genre-mixing hip-hop that got them their initial fame, but the experiments seem to be overcooked a bit: there are some interesting samples and beats here, even going so far as combining an 80s new wave style beat with a Future feature on 1000, but most of the songs drag the beats out too long for me to stay interested. Lemon is an exceptional standout track, with one of the bounciest beats of the whole year, and Rihanna with an unprecedented rap feature.

23. Mac DeMarco - This Old Dog

The New York indie-rocker popularized his own “slacker rock” genre with his excellent album Salad Days, and This Old Dog proves that Mac is still the master of his own domain. He branches out his song foundations on this record to include acoustic guitar and piano, among other things, but maintains the psychedelic guitars and wavy synths that characterize his style. His lyrics also get more somber and personal than usual, a rare side to Mac’s music that slows it down a bit too much for my liking, but not enough that this album should be ignored.

22. Gorillaz - Humanz

Pretty much all of the singles from Humanz were great examples of genre-defying instrumentals with fitting rap features on top--Vince Staples does an awesome job on Ascension, DRAM gives Andromeda a nice bit of depth, and Let Me Out is a wonderful gospel-rap-fusion track with Pusha T and Mavis Staples (and the album’s De La Soul and Danny Brown features are good too). Unfortunately, the rest of the album is overloaded with production so all-over-the-place you can never stay immersed for more than a little while before you’re either bored or confused.

21. Smino - blkswn

The underground St. Louis rapper’s debut album is full of wavy beats that have a neo-R&B feel to them, similar to Chance the Rapper or Noname’s recent work, and flows in his own slightly-off-kilter sometimes-singing-sometimes rapping style. The whole album is definitely worth a listen, but most of the tracks are a little too off-balance in their beats and rhythms to really stick; the flow overtakes the underlying rhythm and makes it sound messy. Some tracks, however, like Blkoscars, Innamission, and Spitshine, strike a much better balance--and the soulful final track Amphetamine makes a wonderful closer, especially with Noname’s feature.

20. Vallis Alps - Fable EP

The Australian electropop duo released another EP that is wonderful in every sense of the word, with the only true crime being its short length. As with their self-titled EP, Fable is loaded with glittering synths and Parissa Tosif’s beautifully-airy voice on the high end, with driving percussion in varying amounts to balance it out and change the tone. Sometimes the composition is a little samey, like the repetitive chords in East and Fading, but that doesn’t stop me from coming back.

19. Lorde - Melodrama

Lorde needs no introduction at this point, and her newest album chronicling a relationship and subsequent breakup brings more of her personal side out, which is a welcome change--but the tone of the album is much more poppy, and most of Lorde’s characteristic darkness is washed out. Tracks like Homemade Dynamite and The Louvre show how the production behind her has improved and diversified, filling in the gaps in her old minimalist music quite nicely, but it is a balance that not a lot of the album strikes.

18. Foster the People - Sacred Hearts Club

Foster the People went much more electronic for their newest installment, bringing to the front lines what was once just some background effects. In many ways the change is great for the dancey energy of the band’s music, like in Doing It For the Money and Pay the Man, but other times it just makes the songs less interesting. The rare punk-rock track Lotus Eater also brings the band’s typical energy with a welcome new style that I hope to see more of in future albums.

17. Sufjan Stevens, Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner, James McAlister - Planetarium

Stories of eponymous Roman myths with Sufjan’s poetic twist are sung through several effects on top of grandiose and often-overwhelming production throughout this technically-huge album. The main setback of this record is its length and overindulgence in its composition, like a musical all-you-can-eat that just keeps coming (and it’s a slight thorn in my side that the track order seems meaningless). In moderate doses though, tracks like Jupiter and Mars serve up lots of beautiful soundscapes with interesting dynamic shifts throughout.

16. 21 Savage, Metro Boomin, Offset - Without Warning

The back end of 2017 saw the release of several collaboration albums between various trap artists and producers--and this surprise Halloween-themed album is the only one worth coming back to. Metro Boomin provides beats that are as spooky as they are sticky for 21 Savage to rap on, but Offset is the true star of the album, bringing crazy flows that amplify the groove of the whole record, especially on Ric Flair Drip and Ghostface Killers.

15. Tame Impala - Currents B-sides & Remixes

The remixes on this album are okay, but it mostly has this rank because of its bonus material from my 2015 Vinyl of the Year. The three tracks sound from a time between Lonerism and Currents, where real drum beats dominate the driving percussion but synth leads take over the instrumental. List of People (To Try and Forget About) and Taxi’s Here are both excellent tracks that are better than some that actually made it to the real Currents, but I’m happy they hold their own separately, too.

14. Fleet Foxes - Crack-Up

Fleet Foxes continuously push the boundaries of folk music to new heights, and this album is no different, featuring an impressive amount of dynamic switches (especially in I Am All That I Need / Arroyo Seco / Thumbprint Scar), strange time signatures, and of course the characteristically-angelic harmonies and ambient guitars. Third of May / Ōdaigahara is the best blend of complexity and accessibility that Fleet Foxes has yet produced, with the rest of the album leaning a bit heavy toward the former, but I’m excited to see what they’ll do next.

13. Father John Misty - Pure Comedy

The ex-Fleet Fox brings another dose of well-composed irony to the record press, this time focusing the negative energy of Americans everywhere in 2017 into a concentrated mass of pure sarcastic cynicism. The theatrical compositions Father John is known for get even better on this record as he places it in the modern age by singing about having VR-sex with Taylor Swift and updating his status one last time before dying. The result is a wonderfully relatable and over-the-top message about the folly of man and just how funny it can all be sometimes.

12. Jaden Smith - SYRE

I still can’t take Jaden seriously after this album came out, but the production on it is so good it makes me almost wish I could. Lido’s beats and instruments, especially in the opening medley BLUE, are impressive enough that they bring up the album quality by themselves, and while Jaden’s lyrics range from platitudinous to cheesy to insane, his flow is usually a pretty good fit with the beats, so not all is lost--though he could stand to use the triplet-style a little less.

11. Richard Dawson - Peasant

If Lord of the Rings is high fantasy and Game of Thrones is gritty low fantasy, then Peasant is scraping the bottom of the barrel. Dawson’s folk songs each discuss a different story from 6th-century Britain, most dealing with brutal subjects like a child prostitute or a poor beggar losing his dog. The compositions are also period-authentic with amazingly erratic guitar work and some modern production scattered throughout, for a wonderfully unique and just-accessible-enough blend of old and new.

And now, on to the Top 10!

10. The National - Sleep Well Beast

I heard rumors that this album would be more electronic before it came out, and I was hoping for more of a 22, A Million-type situation combined with Matt Berninger’s characteristically deep and smooth vocals. That did not happen (yet) but this album is still a great addition to the National’s catalogue, bringing their downtempo slow-burners like Guilty Party alongside more traditional tracks like Day I Die--a welcome change from their slightly-too-mellow previous record. The National also had their own foray into faster rock music with Turtleneck, which gives the album a nice dynamic change.

9. Vince Staples - Big Fish Theory

Quick disclaimer: I have yet to listen to Vince’s earlier and more-acclaimed album Summertime ‘06, so I can’t really discuss comparisons to it--but in a vacuum, Big Fish Theory is a grimy, groovy rap record in all the right places. Dirty industrial beats carry Vince’s top-notch flow while he raps about darker perspectives on fame and his current position. A lot of tracks are repetitive--sometimes making the song catchier and increasing overall bump-ability, other times dragging it out into a monotone--but both are seemingly by design, which shows that the producers really know their stuff, though I hope that Vince branches his sound out somewhat in his next (or previous) records.

8. Sampha - Process

This album is a real masterpiece of electrosoul: lyrically founded on Sampha’s personal struggles and tragedies, and musically ranging between punchy drums and soulful piano, the one-of-a-kind compositions on this album are still seriously impressive, and vary enough that there’s something for everyone to enjoy, from the trap-head to the chorus singer. What’s more, the production fits the mood of each song to the point where you’re joining Sampha on his cathartic journey across the record--and that immersion only makes Process more memorable.

7. Rapsody - Laila’s Wisdom

Rapsody entered my radar with her features on To Pimp A Butterfly and Malibu, and I’ve been waiting for a project from her ever since--and now that it’s here, it satisfies pretty much every expectation I had. The raps are personal and candid but also inspirational and confident, showing how Rapsody lets her past strengthen her present. She also hosts a huge variety of features that all fit very well where they’re placed, including a strong verse from Kendrick Lamar, a couple of choruses from Anderson .Paak, and a slightly-discomforting love rap from Busta Rhymes. The production is also top-notch, making great use of tempo shifts, sampling, and sound effect transitions. The thing that keeps me from really bouncing to these tracks though is Rapsody’s casual, off-tempo flow--it’s enough to make the raps sound more genuine but it also throws off their rhythm. That’s a small gripe for an overall-solid project, though.

6. Everything Everything - A Fever Dream

One of my favorite indie rock bands released their fourth album this year, and it did not disappoint. Like their past records that have a loose theme, this one roughly revolves around the crazy society that seems to have developed in the past year or so (as a lot of music this year also focuses on). Unlike their past records, however, the quality seems to be more in the slow-burner tracks than the energetic ones, which are seemingly more under-written than ever. That isn’t to say I don’t like them, though--the louder songs really punch with amped-up guitars, a driving rhythm section, and the band’s characteristically choral vocals. However, the mellower tracks have much more interesting and introspective lyrics, as well as instrumentals that are unique to the group’s discography and make for a unique tone in each song.

5. Big K.R.I.T. - 4eva Is a Mighty Long Time

There isn’t a lot about this album that really breaks any molds, or pushes any boundaries--it’s just a very, very solid rap project. The production is some of the best on any album this year, and most of it is done by Big K.R.I.T. himself, and his flows are marvelous whenever he raps. Tracks like Subenstein and Big Bank bring the hard beats on the first disc of the double-album without being overbearing, and the second disc has more melodic tracks like Miss Georgia Fornia (with some excellent vocals from Joi) and Bury Me in Gold (a wholesome wrap-up for the whole project). 4eva Is a Mighty Long Time is a mighty long album, though, so anyone listening might want to split it up into its two discs so they’re not too tired of it before it’s even finished (both are self-titled, the first his rap name, the second his real name). Oh, and the two skits are both hilarious.

4. Kendrick Lamar - DAMN.

The legend returned this year with an album that is equal parts evocative and enigmatic. Ignoring the lyrics/narrative for a moment, the production is very different from any prior project of Kendrick’s: he brings in instrumentals founded on guitars, ambient and/or erratic samples, and even U2, with the vocal effects varying across the album, matching Kendrick’s own vocal virtuosity. He even tries singing a few times, which is more fitting on some tracks than others. Lyrically, it feels like Kendrick is also getting more repetitive, but he uses that repetition to his supreme advantage when conveying ideas he wants to stick in your head, like his feelings of anxiety with fame and his worst fears throughout his life. The album’s narrative also takes different directions depending on how you listen, which is an amazing feature of this album that shows Kung-fu Kenny’s genius storytelling once again and reminds everyone why he’s staying on top.

3. BROCKHAMPTON - SATURATION trilogy

Out of nowhere, this fourteen-person boyband collective hailing mostly from Texas saturated rap music with three full-length albums in the past six months, and they’re all insanely good. Mostly produced by Romil Hemnani, the instrumentals are incredibly eclectic and use an insanely wide variety of sounds, drums, and effects, that somehow blend really well together into a solid beat. Each of the rapping members of the group then use that beat to its maximum potential with their own characteristic style, akin to boybands of the past: Kevin Abstract gets passionate about his homosexuality and leads the group, Ameer Vann discusses his drug-dealing past to solidify his tough-guy persona, Dom McLennon brings fast, rhythmic, and candid bars, Matt Champion raps with infectious confidence and bravado, Merlyn Wood adds a not-usually-serious energy to the mix, and JOBA is a wild-card that can go from singing beautiful harmonies on one track to screaming about breaking necks on the next. I am confident that this type of prolific, eclectic, and personalized rap is where the genre is headed, especially now that this group is around, and I can’t wait for their next album--already slated for early 2018.

(The albums themselves are pretty similar, but I would rank them 2, 3, 1 (descending), which is really just based on the number of less-memorable tracks they have.)

2. Joey Bada$$ - ALL-AMERIKKKAN BADA$$

Lots of musicians had their take on the current events of the past year or so, but I don’t think anybody had a political message that was as focused, thought-out, and powerful as Joey Bada$$ did on this album. For starters, the instrumentals are really immersive, with triumphant horn sections and choirs leading some of the more confident tracks and grimy samples backing the more passionate and angry beats--and it’s all mixed pretty much perfectly, leading to a combination that keeps you moving to the beat. On top of the stellar production, Joey raps about what it’s like to be a black man in modern America, taking perspectives on fear of the police, gang violence, and hatred of the current government, all with the incredible rhyme schemes and flow that he is known for, even singing a few of the choruses pretty well. The overall theme is a duality between anger and disappointment at the current system and an inspiring call to action to improve the future, which is a large chunk of why I think this album is both firmly rooted in the present and timeless in its quality.

1. Tyler, the Creator - Flower Boy

Tyler has always been one of my favorite rappers in the abstract, with his lyrical schemes, unpolished production, and unconventional narratives being the driving force behind his work--but Flower Boy is a newer, more mature Tyler than the one that’s been heard before. Both his lyrics and his production have stepped up so much on this album that it’s hard to even believe it was all done by Tyler himself. The lyrics are incredibly candid and rooted in Tyler’s own anxieties about fame, friends, and relationships, with his uniquely dynamic, almost chaotic rhyme schemes adding to the fittingly-awkward aesthetic of the lyrics. The production is also butter-smooth and usually based on laid-back, jazz-like piano or psychedelic guitar chords, with soulful vocal performances from Tyler, Frank Ocean, Rex Orange County, and Estelle to name a few--all of this culminating in a sound that’s just as much chill psychedelic rock as much as it is hip-hop. Tyler’s talent and maturity have really bloomed with this album, and its message connected with me personally: in a year that was filled with worries, loneliness, and shifting friendships, I could put this on and find peace in the moment--and that is why Flower Boy is my Vinyl of the Year for 2017.

That about wraps it up! If you liked what you read and are interested in any of these albums, remember you can listen to most of the music I just talked about in my Best of 2017 playlist. I’ll see you again this time next year with another playlist, countdown, and Vinyl of the Year.

Thanks for reading, and happy listening!

[vinyloftheyear-blog]

Shout Out: HDBeenDope - PHeace Be the Journey

Listen here

This album came out last year, so it is unfortunately not qualified for Vinyl of the Year, but I wanted to write about it anyway because more people need to listen to this awesome rapper. This album takes no breaks in impeccable flow, HD’s lyrics always fit so damn well over the production (that he puts together himself in his bedroom, making it even more impressive for what it is). His humor is fantastic also: a hilarious narrative ties the album together, and there are a lot of memorable lines that made me crack a smile across the record. I hope this guy gets the fame he deserves--if this year’s XXL Freshman List is any indication, there’s lots of room for more talent like him in the mainstream.

PHeace Be the Journey: An underrated rap album with excellent flows, fresh homemade production, and a great sense of humor.

Favorite Tracks: Yellow Goose, Post Conventional, Not Yet

[vinyloftheyear-blog]

Lorde - Melodrama - First Impression

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Lorde’s previous and debut album Pure Heroine got lots of acclaim for its minimal pop style and dark/cynical lyrics about teenage life. This time around, Lorde ditches most of the minimalism in favor of more generic pop instrumentals, which is a pretty big disappointment in itself--but the record holds up anyway as pretty dang decent overall. The New Zealand singer’s lyrics are still a great mix of poetic and to-the-point, and well matched with the instrumentals behind her while she goes through a relationship and subsequent breakup from cover to cover (with a few clever moments of pop-star self-awareness thrown in). The only reason this album can hold a candle to her previous record, however, lies mostly in the unique mixing and dynamics that some tracks seem to have, which bring a cool new energy to her music. It feels like Lorde may quickly be running out of ideas, which makes me concerned for her next project--but she hasn’t done so quite yet, and I’m very interested to see where she goes from here.

Melodrama: Lorde’s less idiosyncratic breakup album, potentially at the end of her creative rope--but maybe not.

Favorite Tracks: Homemade Dynamite, The Louvre, Hard Feelings/Loveless

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Fleet Foxes - Crack-Up - First Impression

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Fleet Foxes’ newest album goes wider and deeper than anything they’ve made before, and the result is quite a doozy of a record. The group is very well-known for their angelic harmonies, stunning instrumentation and musical variety, and sudden song dynamics that give each track multiple movements. None of that has changed one bit--in fact, the dynamics have only become more abrupt, even jarring at times, and the vocals have joined in on them to evoke different time periods or states of mind within the same song. These quick dynamic shifts are the key to this album’s quality: as soon as one beautiful arrangement seems to drag on, suddenly another will appear with new drums, new harmonies, or every instrument dropping out or joining in. For the most part, Fleet Foxes keeps the listener just on-their-toes enough to stay engaged through the whole album, even though its complexity may take some getting used to. This should not be someone’s first FF album, ideally, but it is a real treat to hear how much the group has expanded since their simpler beginnings.

Crack-Up: Fleet Foxes’ most beautifully complex, musically dynamic, and inaccessible record, with sudden musical jumps that may make you crack up too.

Favorite Tracks: Third of May / Ōdaigahara, Mearcstapa, On Another Ocean (January / June)

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Sufjan Stevens, Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner, & James McAlister - Planetarium - First Impression

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I’ve loved the planets since I was a baby, and the concept of Gustav Holst’s orchestral suite that represented them so beautifully was always one I adored--and now a new group of musicians has taken on the same feat, with stunning results. Modern production techniques and masterful composing, with lyrics from the great Sufjan Stevens, all come together in the most appropriately-grandiose way possible, with instrumental movements that jump from industrial-sounding drum tracks to gentle piano progressions in a slow fade across the solar system. I’ll agree with Pitchfork that the album is slightly bloated--more than an hour long, with many minutes of instrumentals between the vocals that tie it together--but this to me is necessary to capture the tone of objects so vast as the planets. Overall, this album is one of the most varied and grand expressions of modern composition that I’ve ever heard, and very beautiful in its own right.

Planetarium: A magnificent album chock-full of grand soundscapes and electronic techniques, but still not as visually appealing as the real thing.

Favorite Tracks: Jupiter, Moon, Saturn

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Summer Vinyl 2017!

The first half of 2017 is coming to a close, which means it’s time to decide on a vinyl record to get. After a while of thinking about what criteria to use, I finally came up with a solution I like:

Lasting Impression: This title (and the vinyl) will henceforth go to any album released in the previous year that exceeded listening expectations set at the time. An album worthy of leaving a Lasting Impression usually takes a bit of time to grow on me, but once it does it becomes a previously-underrated classic.

With all of that in mind, the Lasting Impression Vinyl 2017 is:

Noname - Telefone

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The Chicago rapper most well-known from her features on Chance the Rapper albums released her own mixtape last summer, which made it to my 2016 top 10--but this year I’ve been listening to it probably more than any of the other records on the top 10 combined. Noname’s knack for poetic lyricism and flow, combined with the gentle, wavy R&B/electronica production style, makes this one of the kindest rap records ever made, shattering many common stereotypes about rap music. I’ve since used Telefone to break those stereotypes in some of my friends, the end result being a newfound appreciation for the genre. That alone gives Telefone a special place in my heart--but there are so many songs on here that are so damn soulful and groovy and catchy, that I can’t help but listen over and over again myself. For all of these reasons, Telefone is my Lasting Impression Vinyl for 2017--

Wait a second. They don’t sell Telefone on vinyl? That really sucks!

Time for vinyl plan B, which I’ve appropriately named Side B.

Side B: For any record that isn’t offered on vinyl, a replacement record will be bought from 10 years ago. This allows me to build my collection of favorite classics as well as modern records, and my collection doesn’t just have to be a bunch of second-bests.

The Side B year is then 2007: when iPhones threw the world into a new era of portable tech, YouTube was at the apex of its first golden age of viral videos, and I was a dorky kid in elementary school listening to classic rock while my friends jammed out to the new Fall Out Boy and Paramore albums. It took me a while after that to get into modern music as much as I am now, and since then I’ve realized 2007 as one of the more remarkable years in music of the new millennium: LCD Soundsystem, Radiohead, Arcade Fire, Kanye West, and many others all dropped projects still hailed as classics. For me, however, one of these albums was a favorite even from the very beginning of my indie days:

Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank

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Nothing quite fuels a high-school cynical angst binge like good ol’ Modest Mouse. The songs in this album range from upbeat and even groovy little diddies to long, multi-movement laments, but they’re all riddled with eccentric and elaborate guitar work and uniquely intense lyrics that’ll make anyone consider following nihilism. One of my favorite songs ever was and still is Parting of the Sensory, the song that got me into this band and the best memento mori anyone could put into song form. I also adore how much the band’s sound ranges between classic, angry Modest and gentler, indier Modest in a pretty even mix. This album isn’t AOTY material to many, especially with such strong competition in 2007--heck, this isn’t even the best Modest Mouse album--but it’s my favorite album of the year, and that’s all it needs to be my Side B Summer Vinyl.

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A partial farewell, with a couple of big updates

I’ve done a lot of growing in the past few months while I was trying to maintain this blog, which in itself has made it hard to keep up with new releases. After the spring wave has come and gone, with summer releases looming already (looking at you, Fleet Foxes), I’ve decided not to review every new album I listen to. 

When I started this blog I had the idea that I would be a sort-of Anthony Fantano as a side project to my real life, giving thoughtful reviews to every new album that caught my eye--but I forgot that this kind of thing is Fantano’s full-time job, and I had other stuff to worry about. It made listening to music more of a chore, and reviewing it on the blog a job, which is not the kind of relationship I want with the music I enjoy.

I still want to share my musical opinions with the world, but writing about them all the time is just not worth that much time to me anymore. Instead of the old process of first impressions, therefore, every time I get a vinyl I’m going to make a post like the one I made at the end of last year, highlighting briefly a bunch of albums I liked and ending with my vinyl pick. I will occasionally post other stuff too, when I have something worth sharing, but that will be the main focus--as it always has.

Also, I’ve decided on a criteria for the summer vinyls: Lasting Impression. As a sort of juxtaposition to the First Impression reviews I’ve been doing, the summer vinyl will go to a record from the previous year that I continued to enjoy through the first half of the current year--regardless of how it was ranked in the past. Everything Everything’s Get to Heaven, for example, fits this criteria very well: I didn’t enjoy it as much when it came out in 2015 as I did when I was listening to it non-stop in 2016, and I think records that make a splash like that for me deserve their own merit, despite being delayed.

So that’s that. You won’t be hearing from me for a little while, when I do a little write-up for the Lasting Impression vinyl for summer 2017, so until then...

Thanks for reading, and happy listening!

TL;DR: I’m not doing First Impression posts every time I listen to a new album anymore. Instead, I’ll do one post every time I get a vinyl, like I did with 2016. The summer vinyls will now be decided based on how much of a lasting impression they have into the next year.

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Vallis Alps - Fable - First Impression

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The thing I’ve loved Vallis Alps for since their debut EP release in 2015 is how well they blend the punchy drums and effects of your typical EDM song with airy, gentle vocals and synth progressions into a beautiful balance that’s suitable for listening just about anywhere--and their new EP Fable shows that they can still hold that balance without breaking a sweat. That being said, this album slips a little bit into the samey nature of pop music with songs like East and Fading, which both have fantastic vocal performances and crisp beats, but forgettable, repetitive synth chord progressions. The wild dynamics and instrument changes on their first record prevented this from happening, and while this trend is still apparent (but subdued) in the song Run and its nice use of effected guitar and piano, it’s a key element to Vallis Alps’s sound that I think needs to be revitalized by their next project, or risk overblending their dichotomous music into just another pop slurry.

Fable: A great cannon of bass that shoots you into a swirling vocal and synth atmosphere, but a slightly more tepid trip than its predecessor.

Favorite Track: Run

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Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked at Me - First Impression

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Death is real, and Phil Elverum knows that better than most--and in A Crow Looked at Me, the latest album from his solo project Mount Eerie, he’ll make sure that you know it too. However, while Elverum certainly isn’t the first to explore death in an album, he does so in such a raw, direct way that it practically blindsides you with the cold reality of loss. “When real death enters the house, all poetry is dumb,” he claims within the album’s first thirty seconds, and the truth that statement holds is what makes this album such an artistic masterpiece. The instrumentals are almost entirely somber guitar, with gentle fingering melodies that for the most part aren’t very substantial (save for the awesome layers of electric and acoustic guitar on Soria Moria), which give the lyrics center stage--and boy, do they really smack you. No amount of artistic narrative or multi-layered instrument composition could cut straight to the core like Phil Elverum does, because he just talks to you; sharing his thoughts and slice-of-life narratives like in a diary. I thank him immensely for having the strength to do so on this album, because I think I will be hard-pressed to find a record so personal again.

A Crow Looked at Me: The official album of grief in its purest form.

Favorite Tracks: Real Death, Ravens, Soria Moria

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Smino - blkswn - First Impression

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Even though he’s from St. Louis, up-and-coming rapper Smino is practically part of the Chicago rap family--and if the Noname feature on this album doesn’t convince you, then the album’s mellow, lo-fi-esque, soulful production style will. Unfortunately under the radar, blkswn is one of the most well-composed rap records I’ve ever heard that wasn’t a concept album: nearly every song flows into the next, there are zero jarring or out-of-place dynamic switchups, and every feature on the album is incorporated where it really feels like it belongs. What sets this album apart from similar records, though, is Smino’s unique flows and wide vocal range--which would be enough to give the album his distinct touch even without the personal lyrics littered throughout (he even laments on his identity, too). This record is proof that Smino has talent worthy of a big break, and for the sake of rap I hope he gets it soon.

blkswn: Like the movie, but with only 2/3 of the letters--also not as gay, half as long, and at least twice as good.

Favorite Tracks: Blkoscars, Long Run, Amphetamine

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Spoon - Hot Thoughts - First Impression

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I first took to Spoon when their previous album They Want My Soul came out, which was the group’s first step into using extensive synth sounds alongside the characteristically-huge repertoire of instruments they already played--which, naturally, was a tad sloppy and forgettable. Hot Thoughts is the album where they become much more comfortable and professional with the electronic side of their music, and even go on to try other sounds entirely, like an ambient, persistent jam a la early Modest Mouse (but mellower), or the haphazard sax-driven instrumental closer to the album. Not everything has changed, though--the old groovy punch you get in classic Spoon lives on with the added depth of synth backings in tunes like Can I Sit Next to You and Shotgun. Overall, Hot Thoughts is a welcome direction for Spoon to take; and while it may not stick in minds like their music did a decade ago, I’m still excited to see how they expand even further in the years ahead.

Hot Thoughts: A pleasant migration of musical style for the band--but you can still get a hotter spoon after stirring your tea.

Favorite Tracks: Pink Up, Can I Sit Next to You, Shotgun

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The Shins - Heartworms - First Impression

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It’s hard to pick out specific elements of a Shins album that I like, because every aspect of them is always so well-mixed into pleasant tunes, and this album is no different. I could complain that they’re not changing their sound enough to stay interesting, or that really only the instruments/effects are the only thing they significantly change between songs, but neither of these things actually detract from the quality of the album. Music doesn’t always have to push boundaries to be good--but it does to be memorable, and admittedly The Shins’ newer records don’t stick in your mind (or change your life) like they once did. Ultimately, Heartworms may not end up being Top 10 material by the year’s end because of that, but I still really like this album as more of the same, and hope it keeps on coming.

Heartworms: Just another Shins album, fortunately.

Favorite Tracks: Name For You, Mildenhall, Rubber Ballz