Filed under: Releases of the Week | Tags: Jay-Z, rated r, Rihanna, T.I., umbrella, Will.i.am
Rihanna's new album disappoints
PREVIEW: VISIT Rihanna’s Website
WE GIVE IT: 13/20
To many, Rihanna is the resident queen of pop. For the past three years, ever since “Umbrella,” pretty much every song she’s lent her voice to has turned to gold.
“Don’t Stop The Music”, T.I.’s “Live Your Life” and Jay-Z’s “Run This Town” all are huge hits, and more importantly, great songs. If you only listened to the radio, you would think that Rihanna is one of the best R&B singers working today. And, if you only judged her on the basis of her singles, you’d be right. Her voice is emotive and expressive, and she usually works with amazing producers. Unfortunately, Rihanna’s albums are a completely different story. Like so many other pop stars, her records are dominated by filler, with only about three or four truly good songs. (more…)
Filed under: Releases of the Week | Tags: Blakroc, Damon Dash, Jay-Z, Jim Jones, Mos Def, Nicole Wray, NOE, ODB, Q-Tip, Raekwon, RZA, the Black Keys
Blakroc is set to drop from V2 Records on November 27th.
PREVIEW: VISIT Blakroc’s Website
WE GIVE IT: 17/20 Watts
Regardless of any preconceived notions you may have regarding rap-rock, it’s hard to ignore a group with a lineup as stacked as Blakroc.
With the bluesmen of the Black Keys laying the foundation for tracks featuring the likes of Mos Def, Raekwon, Q-Tip, ODB (from the grave, obviously), RZA, Jim Jones and others, the collaboration, headed by hip-hop mogul Damon Dash, was set to turn heads, if nothing else. With the release of the group’s self-titled debut though, Blakroc is sure to shatter any of your dispositions against the genre.
Taking on a clearly Delta Blues inspired sound, the guys from the Black Keys refuse to assume a “backing band” roll throughout the record, and for good reason. Behind each of the notorious vocalists, the duo groove with a heaviness that would make their Delta predecessors proud. (more…)
Filed under: Releases of the Week | Tags: Animal Collective, fall be kind, Grateful Dead, merriweather post pavilion, unbroken chain, what would i want? sky
Animal Collective deliver once again with their latest EP Fall Be Kind
PREVIEW: VISIT Animal Collective’s MySpace
WE GIVE IT: 17/20 Watts
Met with the tough task of following up one of the year’s best albums, Merriweather Post Pavillion, Animal Collective’s Fall Be Kind had to deliver big. Lucky for us, the band that continues to rise to, and set the bar for the challenges of today’s music scene, was up for the assignment.
Fall Be Kind is everything Merriweather Post Pavillion is not. It’s raw, unstructured and loose. The tame pop conventions are gone, and in their place dance wild and schizophrenic sonic experiments in the mold of the band’s earlier material. Instead of aiming to recreate the sound of their hit album from January, Animal Collective remade their old sound in their new, more electronically-altered image. (more…)
A live album highlighting the best of Waits' latest tour
PREVIEW: VISIT Tom Waits’ Website
WE GIVE IT: 15/20 Watts
Getting older and piling years onto his prolific career hasn’t worn Tom Waits in the least. In fact, age has had just the opposite effect on the veteran.
For a musician whose work is characterized by a signature blend of bizzaro-noire grittiness, aging has really just added a complimentary texture to the mix. On his latest effort, Glitter & Doom, time mingles perfectly with the polka rhythms, marimbas, bouncing horn lines that teeter like a drunken circus bear, and of course, the grizzled voice that isn’t going to get any less grizzlier any time soon. (more…)
Real Estate's debut self-titled is set to drop on November 17th
PREVIEW: VISIT Real Estate’s MySpace
WE GIVE IT: 14/20 Watts
In Janurary, the indie scene was abuzz with anticipation of Real Estate’s debut release, brought on by a hint dropped in the form of demo track, “Fake Blues.” The promising foursome, who hail from New Jersey, invoked thoughts of the Jersey Shore with tuned-down surfer rock ripe for consuming today’s lazy-loving indie scene. Their self-titled debut album accomplished just that, but unfortunately with a bit less enthusiasm than may have been originally thought.
Real Estate opens the album with a lonely guitar riff that brings the group into “Beach Comber,” which starts setting sights fairly high. The simplicity seems promising, but a bit too similar to the same tuned down approach of groups like Fleet Foxes. The sound is hardly refreshing, but comforting nonetheless. The group settles into a security reminiscent of albums past (read: indie released in 2008), but rarely departs from that security, much to our disappointment. (more…)
Filed under: Releases of the Week | Tags: Annie, Britney Spears, Don't Stop, indie, Kylie Minogue, Madonna
Annie brings energy and joy to her sophomore album
PREVIEW: VISIT Annie’s MySpace
WE GIVE IT: 16/20 Watts
Annie is an interesting phenomenon. In almost all respects, she’s just a standard pop star, working in the mold of early Madonna. Yet, she’s still managed to attain indie credibility, the likes of which would normally be hard to come by.
Listening to her sophmore album, Don’t Stop, it’s easy to see why. Annie doesn’t do anything too differently from her dance floor contemporaries like Kylie Minogue or even Britney Spears. However, she excels by cutting out most of the filler that those similar artists are wont to include in their respective efforts. (more…)
Filed under: Releases of the Week | Tags: Lil Wayne, Eminem, Kanye West, R. Kelly, 50 Cent, Ne-Yo
50 Cent's Before I Self Destruct starts strong, but ultimately falls short
PREVIEW: VISIT 50 Cent’s Myspace
WE GIVE IT: 14/20 Watts
Within seconds of the start of “The Invitation,” you can’t help but feel like something has fundamentally changed about 50 Cent. Emotional, gruff and almost angry, the rapper responsible for one of the biggest hits of the decade, Get Rich or Die Tryin’, sounds like he has something to prove.
And truth be told, he does. Since the landmark release of Get Rich, 50’s released a series of duds that have simply paled in comparison. Combined with an ever-evolving popular hip-hop scene now centered around nemeses Kanye West and Lil’ Wayne, the past few years have threatened to plunge him into relative obscurity.
How much his latest, Before I Self Destruct, does to change that, however, is debatable. (more…)
Filed under: Releases of the Week | Tags: Battle Studies, Common, John Mayer, John Mayer Trio, Robert Johnson
John Mayer's Battle Studies
PREVIEW: VISIT John Mayer’s Website
WE GIVE IT: 10/20 Watts
There was a period when John Mayer had a lot of potential– right after the release of Heavier Things, when he started dabbling in side projects like the John Mayer Trio and collaborating with Common. Through these musical risks, it seemed as though his sound was evolving and maturing. After Continuum, Mayer’s latest album, Battle Studies would be the ultimate test – would he remain a crooning bedside lover with an acoustic guitar or, at the “Crossroads,” choose the more daring direction of his blues idols?
Unfortunately, Battle Studies is a step backward. For the most part, it sounds like a compilation of recycled melodies and second-rate lyrics left over from the past. Almost every guitar composition enclosed within each song is identical to one from a previous album. His duet with Taylor Swift in “Half Of My Heart” would have been cute a decade ago, but now it only represents his musical stagnancy and inability to break through the mainstream. (more…)
Filed under: Releases of the Week | Tags: Gucci Mane, Kanye West, Lady GaGa, Seinfeld, Wale
Wale's debut album delivers in pieces, but overall, lacks a theme
PREVIEW: VISIT Wale’s MySpace
WE GIVE IT: 15/20 Watts
With an entire mixtape inspired by Seinfeld, and his own brand of not-quite-conventional hip-hop, DC-based rapper Wale already made a splash even before releasing his first studio album. Leaning heavily on soul, jazz and funk samples, along with a bevy of pop-culture references, one would assume Attention Deficit to be one of the year’s most interesting and unique hip-hop releases. Unfortunately, however, this does not come to be. (more…)
Filed under: Releases of the Week | Tags: Bibio, Stephen Wilkinson, Clark, Wax Stag, Keaver & Brause, Leatherette, Boards of Canada, DJ Vinroc
The Apple and The Tooth is set to drop from Warp Records on November 10th
PREVIEW: DOWNLOAD Bibio’s “Lovers’ Carvings (Leatherette Remix)” MP3
WE GIVE IT: 16/20 Watts
The UK’s Stephen Wilkinson, aka Bibio, has graced the math-rock world with yet another 2009 release, following Ambivalence Avenue and Vignetting the Compost, which both dropped earlier this year. The record, The Apple and the Tooth, features four original tracks from Wilkinson, alongside seven remixes from the likes of Clark, Wax Stag, Keaver & Brause, and Bibio, among others. Once again, he’s put himself at the forefront of the genre, a feat that seems as effortless for him as some of the tracks found on The Apple and the Tooth.
Wilkinson is at his peak on the four original cuts that open the record, an aspect that may keep listeners from venturing into the stellar array of remixes that follow them. The title track features melodic guitars beside tastefully distorted percussion that Bibio has become so synonymous with. This pattern follows into the subsequent three cuts, which transfer into one another beautifully, with each possessing one unique characteristic to set it apart from its predecessor. (more…)
