TAKE TIME: Giveon

1/16/20

3:15 PM

Long Beach born singer Giveon Dezmann Evans, mononymously known as GIVEON, found recognition through featuring on Drake’s “Chicago Freestyle” soon after releasing his first full body of work in TAKE TIME. The contemporary R&B project holds a lot of emotion and traditional rhythm and blues qualities matched by an equally soulful voice— and it has been running on repeat for about a month now.

No stranger to the music scene, the 25 year-old artist has been pursuing a career in music since high school and attended a program with the Grammy Museum after graduating. Giveon finally earned critical acclaim in 2020 and a wave of newfound fandom, Evans’ has since taken advantage of the momentum gained by releasing another EP titled When It’s All Said and Done. Giveon’s TAKE TIME was also nominated for the 2021 Grammy Award for Best R&B album.

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TAKE TIME’s success and high praises are self explanatory— Giveon’s deep and resonant voice fits perfectly into the genre and the attitude the record is set in; the lyricism is sensitive, yet passionate, elevating both audible and written elements respectively. A rare form of true R&B in the current spheres of contemporary music, Giveon utilizes classic R&B ideations and supplements modern components in constructing the production. The album is characterized by the singer’s deep and resonant baritone vocal range with an emphasized usage of weighted bass lines. The intricate balance between piano, guitar and percussive instruments all assemble the totality of the sound; the choice of each audible part in the instrumentation is laid well beneath Giveon’s evocative, yet recognizable vocals, resulting in an airtight production with a near pressurized atmosphere in the music.

The writing in TAKE TIME resembles the almost minimalist approach of the sound as well—saying a great deal while doing the least. The simple nature of the lyricism gives reality and transparent depth to the music. Much of the words in each track through show flashes of insecurity, melancholy, infatuation, and a hint of regret; the writing throughout the album isn’t exceptionally poetic or artistic, though it is intensely direct with overtones of desire and longing. Focusing on subjects that pertain to heartbreak and everything after, TAKE TIME becomes one man’s testimony to his accounts of love and its end.

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Perhaps the best part of this album is the musical efficiency, or maybe the written components that clarifies an anecdote of past romance, but the most probable factor is likely the emotional relativity of the project. Somehow listening to a stranger’s context of their history feel vastly familiar— while the exactness in the details are divergent, the overarching sentiments seem to strike a vein for listeners who find recollection in heartbreak.

Listen to the album below:

TAKE TIME

Nectar: Joji

09/25/20

11:59 PM

To be Frank, this album is pretty weird.

It came at a weird time, I’m not completely sure what it’s about, I don’t know if it feels completely right, and so it’s just a confusing piece of work that is neither really black OR white; Joji Enter stage left.

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Following his breakout debut BALLADS 1, George Kusunoki Miller’s cult following gained considerable amounts of momentum as someone who seemed to be the purest of all internet trolls turns solemn, somber, and sincere.

Nectar follows suit. The album begins with a few preludes that feels like the audial equivalence of the inability to fall asleep at 4:16 AM, feeling drowned out by your thoughts— the level where Joji looks to be the most noteworthy in a sense. The irony between his personas are stark, yet the satirical acts thrive as perhaps the complexity of the human state of being can be observed behind all the idiocy.

Probably not though, let’s be honest: Filthy Frank, Pink Guy, Salamander Man, Lord Chin Chin, and Joji all play off of stupidity and irony, and the musical themes of Joji are of no exception, and while BALLADS 1 and prior works mainly depict a more depressive scheme throughout, Nectar attempts to slowly find a more animated plane during its duration.

The emotional and physical metastacity of this album accounts for both the pros and cons of this album. Starting with negatives, It really is all over the place. The overall organization could be refined; rather than motioning fluidly between tracks, the transition from song to song sometimes seem adversely fickle and abrupt. As opposed to having a dynamic through the album, the tracks shuffle between seemingly polar moods at times, creating a possibility for listeners to be distracted by the lack of subtlety. Continuing to extrapolate on organization and track listings, it did feel like the the totality of the record could have been trimmed down a bit. At 18 tracks spanning through 53 minutes, Nectar’s issue with inconsistency could also be fueled by the inclusion of more dated singles that don’t quite fit the overall imagery that the album paints.

Past the negatives, the album is full of strong points— it’s weird to think that Joji has an ingenious aptitude for musicality, but he does. Each individual track is produced skillfully and is cohesive in its components. The choices for instrumentation composition in production is uniquely constructed; not overdone, nor hollow, the general makeup of Joji’s sound is formed by Eastern influences conjoined with popular styles of music. In comparison to BALLADS 1, which is almost entirely sobering and dark in its aesthetic, Nectar shows room for a little bit more liveliness and dynamic. With the usage of Classical influences fragmented between contemporary arrangements, the sexiness of the tonal atmosphere enhances the incredibly sleek tone of the album. The lyrical diplomacy between emotion and man is continued in this album as well, doing well to not stray to far from a successful ingredient from the previous album.

No idea as to why the album is titled Nectar, but it’s sweet, it’s heavy, and it’s pure.

Listen to the album below:

Nectar

Decade in Review: Best Albums of 2010's

1/27/20

5:15PM

Seeing as the decade has come to an end, I figured it would only be appropriate to welcome the 2020’s by making a list of my personal favorite and what I thought to be some of the most influential and well made albums of these past ten years.

2010’s music made a lot of strives and shifted music in the sense of what has become, how it circulates, and even the culture surrounding the artform. Having said that, I made a fairly subjective list of some works that I felt was integral to the music scene as a whole, and some albums that I just really enjoyed as well (I felt that I may have left some projects out and such, ergo I am also including albums and projects that may be similar to the following albums that may be worth listening to).

Let’s get started.

Helplessness Blues: Fleet Foxes (2011)

Bringing in a piece of work that combines multitudes of complexities crafted from vocals, guitars, harmonies, bells, and percussive elements, Fleet Foxes’ Helplessness Blues seem to represent a lot of questions that one might have in their early adolescence in forms that seem not only universal, but oddly just as specific.

The overall aesthetic and sound of this album relies heavily on the myriad of instruments and styles that resemble an “almost gypsy” feel while incorporating a harmonic atmosphere to the folk rock genre. Combined with the intricate songwriting which add to the intrinsic nature of the work. The album has a nicely subtle balance between sound dynamics, and does an excellent job on keeping the listener engaged and busy, whilst providing a fairly easy listen to the passing person as well.

Listen to Helplessness Blues

Also listen to:

The Idler Wheel… : Fiona Apple (2012)

Two Hands: Big Thief (2019)

Emotion: Carly Rae Jepsen (2015)

Carly Rae Jepsen is almost exclusively known for her meme-ish single that was released in 2012, but the Canadian singer came back making waves in the indie pop scene in a way that compacts and cherishes pop music in a way that seems bring back the last thirty years of the genre.

Jepsen took a personal endeavor to this album by approaching A&R efforts herself, seeking artists and producers to collaborate with largely by herself, and the result was a body of work that places the listener through the nostalgic synth-pop influenced, yet very modern day album that is Emotion.

While breaking away from the idea of becoming a one hit wonder artist, Carly Rae Jepsen’s Emotion brings genuine song writing, extremely detailed production, and a culmination of what seems to be some of the best elements of pop music from the 80’s to the early 2010’s. Drawing from styles of city-pop— A genre popularized in Japan during the late 70’s— and working with retro instrumentation, popular songwriting topics in the 1980’s and storytelling that is reminiscent of pop stars of that era, all within the innovations of mid 2010’s setting earned Carly Rae Jepsen remarkable notes from critics and fans both.

Listen to Emotion

Also listen to:

1989: Taylor Swift (2014)

Body Talk: Robyn (2010)

American Football (LP3): American Football

Intricate and nostalgic, After LP2, which broke a seventeen-year hiatus, American Football’s LP3 marks the third project to be released by the band, which spans across the timeline from 1999 to 2019.

The album’s hyper sensitive and evocative nature seems to bring out some reflective lyrics that takes a huge swing to the author’s life. The melodic flow of the album paired with the songwriting brings an almost “expired” feel to the work, and while this is immediately noticeable, the production is interesting enough to captivate listeners in a strangely quaint manner.

The emo aspect of LP3, the seemingly fitting yet odd artist features, and the sobering tone that is brought out by Kinsella in his journey toward mid-life shows that we all do grow up eventually; leaving things behind in a timely fashion, and while we are becoming accustomed to these losses, insights about our pasts are motivations enough to accept the days ahead.

Listen to American Football (LP3)

Also Listen to:

The Monitor: Titus Andronicus (2010)

Kaputt: Destroyer (2011)

Chon: Chon (2019)

Paramore: Paramore (2013)

An album that seems really appropriate for the band’s metamorphosis. While the departure of the founding band members Josh and Zac Farro changed the aesthetics and the energy of the band, saying that the alteration was necessarily a negative would be misguided.

In making this project, the evolution of Paramore included a cross-genre incorporation in their musical performance, the direction of songwriting which seemed to break away from the niche of punk stereotypes while keeping in touch with subjects that still line up with the core values of the initial essence, and ultimately the stabilization and improvements in Hayley William’s vocals— an leading element in Paramore’s character.

Paramore’s self-titled album arguably reeled in their biggest commercial success in tracks like “Ain’t It Fun” and “Still Into You”; emphasizing the re-structure of the band’s sound and taking in a plethora of influences from many mainstream genres. If what they lost was the pure emo/ punk-rock energy, Paramore fills the gap by producing an ostensibly more complete album of rock music that is catered toward a general audience.

Listen to Paramore (Deluxe Edition)

Also Listen to:

When You’re Through Thinking, Say Yes: Yellowcard (2011)

Neighborhoods: Blink-182 (2011)

We got it from Here… Thank You 4 Your Service: A Tribe Called Quest (2016)

A curtain call… in so many different ways that celebrates so much for the Tribe. The life of Phife Dawg, the progress of music, the journey of Q-Tip, Phife, Ali, and Jaorbi, Artists that carry on the legacy of A Tribe Called Quest, and the generations of music that they have fostered are only a few things that this album symbolizes.

The East Coast jazz rap smooth factor is met by the cacophony of political frictions, creating a relevancy that surpasses music and form. The ever futuristic nature of the group is still visible, providing a platform for boundaries to be pushed and challenging significance of media while delivering musical substance is something many have come to expected from the collaborative efforts of A Tribe called Quest. Their trademark jazz influenced hip-hop still finds place in production as it did since the 90’s and creates a sentiment and a refreshing note to the listener as the quality and quantity of the Tribe is still just as prevalent today.

We got it from Here… Thank You 4 Your Service marked the end of a journey for a rap group who influenced music, culture, and a numerous amount of artists with their legacy, it also served as a project that allowed A Tribe Called Quest to pass the torch to the newer generation by working with them and including individual artists in their last album as the curtains of their very own artistic careers closed. The late Phife Dawg, chose the title for the album, and although the meaning of the title is unbeknownst to the other members of A Tribe Called Quest, it seems oddly fitting.

Thank you for your service Tribe.

Listen to We got it from Here… Thank You 4 Your Service

Also listen to:

4:44: Jay-Z (2017)

Tetsuo & Youth: Lupe Fiasco (2015)

channel ORANGE: Frank Ocean (2012)

Frank Ocean’s rise to superstardom can be traced back to the meteoric success of his second studio album Blonde, but the project placed the American singer & songwriter on the radar of both fans and critics was Ocean’s debut studio album channel ORANGE, where his bittersweet sentiments are unraveled to listeners in a way that seemed both untried, yet familiar.

The early 2010’s music scene was foregoing a shift of music as more traditional and stereotypical forms of music were tested and experimental factors were being flooded by new waves of artists from the advancement of the internet. One particular group that helped instigate this movement was Odd Future— a collective of artists that caught the attention of media outlets by rejecting societal norms that were placed onto them, rebelling against preconceived standard notions, and experimenting with multitudes of existing styles to present unique styles in their individual works. While Frank was a pivotal member of Odd Future, his introspective and reserved persona bypassed the more cynical nature of his group, but his blending of multi-dimensional influences like hip-hop, soul, funk, jazz, electro, and psychedelic in channel ORANGE gave way to creating a meta within music that influenced a great deal of artists that followed.

While channel ORANGE may not be Frank Ocean’s best work, the more reflective elements of his life revealed through this album which centralizes on his intimate memories of experiencing young love, contemplation in sincere narratives, and the engagement on the idea of duality through genuine emotions and the indulgence in the vain such as drugs, sex, and the cheap factors of life; proving perhaps to be the most critical point of his career in who he is as an artist and as a human.

Listen to channel ORANGE

Also listen to:

Blonde: Frank Ocean (2016)

Ology: Galant (2016)

American Teen: Khalid (2017)

Homecoming: The Live Album: Beyoncé (2019)

When you’ve been prevalent in the game for over twenty years, you’re bound to have some gold in your discography, and you should also know that you’re doing right. Beyoncé has been regarded now for some time as Queen B, and Homecoming: The Live Album seems like a flash of hits from the long-lived career of one of the most successful artists of all time.

Recorded during Coachella’s headlining acts, the album plays through a live recording of the performance— kicked off by a triumphant marching band intro and met with the roars of the present crowd, the listener is placed within the energy of possibly the greatest stage in the modern world. The track listing is comprised of a near two-hour, non-stop run of possibly the greatest display of music, dance, and a homage to a culture; Some of Beyoncé’s most prominent works were highlighted with the accompaniment of her husband Jay-Z, Solange, and roughly 100 dancers, earning the celebration of fans reveling in a historic pageantry of black culture and history. Topped off with the vocal capabilities of the veteran singer, Homecoming just feel like a fool-proof body of work.

You might need some boosted bass for listening.

Listen to Homecoming: The Live Album

Also listen to:

Lemonade: Beyoncé (2016)

Beyoncé: Beyoncé (2014)

A Seat at the Table: Solange (2016)

Bon Iver: Bon Iver (2011)

The musician for musicians, the beautifully jumbled up mind of Justin Vernon more famously known as Bon Iver’s self-titled album seems like a turning point for not only his discography, but also for contemporary music in its totality.

If one was to begin diving into the ever so inventive and avant-garde stylings of Bon Iver, many would start by listening to his earlier and more recognizable tracks like “Skinny Love” or even “Re: Stacks” in which simplicity is glorified as hollowness and deep yearning. However, as we start to draw nearer to his present works, the tracks become extremely complicated and almost illegible in nature. In the nine years between Bon Iver’s debut album For Emma, Forever Ago and 22, A Million, the arcane artist and the madman Justin Vernon is almost two in identity; transitioning from a familiar sound of indie folk to the creation of celestial folk— a subgenre of music that may only exist in trying to identify the experimental sound of Vernon.

Bon Iver’s self-titled album, lies near the median of that spectrum, placing those heavenly and divine tones into a traditional folk background to find the equilibrium in pure and phantasmal. A play between nothingness and the whole, the album represents being; each song is attributed to a physical location. Many of the songs point to a place of importance in Justin Vernon’s life: A place in which his deceased friend was born, where his parents met, where he grew up, and many more personal places.

“Holocene' is a bar in Portland, Oregon, but it’s also the name of a geologic era, an epoch if you will. It’s a good example of how all the songs are all meant to come together as this idea that places are times and people are places and times are… people?”

Listen to Bon Iver

Also listen to:

22, A Million: Bon Iver (2016)

Birthplace: Novo Amor (2018)

Life’s Not Out to Get You: Neck Deep (2015)

In an era where the pop-punk genre has become somewhat outdated and can be seen as a past thrall in our years of youth, The Welsh pop punk band Neck Deep comes out with a timeless work in Life’s Not Out to Get You.

Following up with the band’s successful debut project, Neck Deep guides the momentum and adds to the swing of things. The band members, committing fully on to music and signing to a label, begin to zero in towards a product that edifies the genre, all while keeping true to their sound and polishing individual talents. The result is incredibly reminiscent of the early 2000’s punk scene, but rather than sounding dated or archaic, each track seems to be appropriate to the advancements in music, and is something that might be hard to come across in recent projects due to bands commercializing their sound or lingering on melodically tired formulas.

Neck Deep’s evolution was multifaceted as well, vocals, instrumentation, compositional content, songwriting and entire aesthetic saw leaps and strides as the band was able to spend more time in making music. In ad era where pop music is dominated by hip-hop influences rather than rock, this album is definitely a lively change of pace to kick up some of your roots.

Listen to Life’s Not Out to Get You

Also listen to:

The Finer Things: State Champs (2013)

What You Don’t See: The Story So Far (2013)

Random Access Memories: Daft Punk (2013)

One of the most influential artists in music, and one of their most influential albums.

Daft Punk has been a huge impact for many artists by venturing into the mechanical components of music— digitally producing, sampling, recording, and creating music was something that the French musicians Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo helped culminate. Daft Punk was also revolutionary in their sense of combining unlikely genres of music to make for a unique sound that broke ground for the direction of music; fusing elements of house, funk, disco, techno, rock, and pop among many other genres, the electronic genres began to take shape.

Random Access Memories, while still very much a Daft Punk album, took to a more human aspect, replacing the usage of sampling with the addition of live musicians. Wanting to find more structural base in actual people and organic ingredients, the duo sought out collaborations with some of music’s best.From Pharrell Williams to The Stroke’s lead singer, Julian Casablancas, Nile Gregory Jr. to the Father of Disco, Giorgio Moroder, the star studded cast of featured artists attributes to possibly one of the most carefully created albums in the last few decades.

Listen to Random Access Memories

Also listen to:

Settle: Disclosure (2014)

Funk Wav Bounces Vol.1: Calvin Harris (2017)

The Bones of What You Believe: CHVRCHES (2013)

Golden Hour: Kacey Musgraves (2018)

Seems new, but really isn’t; but 2018’s Kacey Musgraves seems like a different person when inspecting her perspective carefully. Describing her current state of life to resemble the golden hour of the day, the eclectic country artist presents a change of pace in her “cosmic country” spin to a her personal experiences of love and heartbreak.

Golden Hour swept the 2018 music awards in a range of categories— 4 Grammy’s, including a recognition for the best album of the year, Country Music Award’s best album of the year, and the same award for Apple Music. Such high praises seem almost excessive, but the easy, yet deep nature of the album’s songwriting stays true to characteristics of Americana Country while backed by Kacey’s inclusion of unlikely complements of electronic instrumentation, usage of funky beats, and vocal modifications.

In the singer’s third studio album, Kacey Musgrave’s somber and cynical tone throughout her career is replaced with a more dazzling and comforting outlook on things; Golden Hour feels like greeting sunrise or a sunset— warm, sincere, and euphoric, all while keeping the listener grounded to reality.

Listen to Golden Hour

Also listen to:

Born and Raised: John Mayer (2012)

Red: Taylor Swift (2012)

Room 25: Noname (2018)

The latter half of 2010’s were dominated by music characterized by electronic elements in composition— synths, 808’s, pitched samples, overproduced instrumentals, and modifications to the more organic components were prevalent in genres like rap, pop, and other mainstream forms. Noname’s official debut album reversifies the present state of music into a complex, yet old-fashioned aesthetic.

Noname could be presented as a rapper, but would be better identified as a poet. Room 25 was recorded in roughly around a month, and out of financial necessity, adding a hint of irony to a seemingly artistic and personal album in which the Chicago native independent artist extrapolates on her maturity in moving to LA, encountering sex, and her experience in doing music.

As the follow up project to her largely successful Telefone mixtape, Room 25 was met for even higher remarks, showing the progression in Noname’s life which she compares to a transition from PG to R in terms of content. The syncopated and rhythmic elements of her tracks are met with a soothing constant through her rapping, which is more effectively described as spoken-word. The lyrical nature of her songs resemble poems or written narratives in servings of musical verses, making this album paint an audible masterpiece for both easy and attentive listening.

Listen to Room 25

Also listen to:

Ctrl: SZA (2017)

CARE FOR ME: Saba (2018)

Legacy! Legacy!: Jamila Woods (2019)

A Crow Looked at Me: Mount Eerie (2017)

The most emotional album in this list.

An album in which the writer talks about the death of his wife, losing her to cancer, living without her, remembering, raising their infant daughter, and every other excruciating detail in between.

In what the author Phil Elverum labels as “barely music”, the listener is immersed in his sadness as well. Death, an overlooked element in many artforms, is made painstakingly real in this album, genuinely. A Crow Looked at Me, made with the late Genviève Castrée (Elverum)’s instruments and equipment, is a reminder of mortality in the face of the living, and accounts to a perspective of a widowed husband and a father.

Through all of this, Phil Elverum creates something akin to written reports of his emotions and recollections; in doing so, he finds things to actively notice, so that he can remember his beloved.

Listen to A Crow Looked at Me

Carrie & Lowell: Sufjan Stevens (2015)

Another album thematically rooted in death, Sufjan Stevens’ recollections of his faint relationship with his mother who’d left at 1 is beautifully recorded into a mystical and perplexing beauty of an album.

Carrie & Lowell, titled after the authors mother and stepfather, includes numerous intricate and obscure references and lyrics that add to a layer of questioning and possibly creates an allusion of his relationship with his ailing mother. Austere in character, the album has multitudes of advertence toward Greek and Biblical details, further masking his direct feeling and thought to the complexities of his familial relations.

Stevens wrote and recorded the album as a means to cope with the death of his mother and his stepfather, to whom he had a more fatherly bond with, finding inspiration in both their lives and passing. Coming back to the more cautionary, yet peaceful aesthetic, Carrie & Lowell necessitates a deeper analysis and benefits greatly from some context from the author; in an interview with Pitchfork, Sufjan Stevens descends into greater details about his family and his childhood.

Read Sufjan Stevens’ interview with Pitchfork

Listen to Carrie & Lowell

Born To Die: Lana Del Rey (2012)

If there was a way to engage in a cinematic experience within the scope of music, Lana Del Rey does an excellent job in placing the listeners through an apparent narrative through her songs. Evocative of the old fashioned Americana, Born to Die contrasts the harsh thematic influences of 1950’s films to contemporary music components.

Using strings and orchestral elements to achieve a more grand and cinematic atmosphere, Lana Del Rey jumps between an almost drab tone of singing to a bewitching voice effortlessly, seducing listeners to an intoxicating trance. Appropriate to the movie-like essence of the work, the lyrics are often apropos of money, love, sex, and grandeur.

The distinctive features that separate this album from its alternative/ indie-pop equivalences in similar timeframes include Lana’s unique deep pitch in singing and the mainstream introduction to trippy and sad aesthetics to classical influences to make for a particular rarity that helped characterize a subgenre which became a trend for artists in following years; earning Lana Del Rey a cult following for her success in gaining popularity in the early 2010’s with singles like “Summertime Sadness” and “Video Games”.

Listen to Born to Die

Also listen to:

21: Adele (2011)

Melodrama: Lorde (2017)

WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?: Bille Eilish (2019)

To Pimp a Butterfly: Kendrick Lamar (2015)

Kendrick Lamar has been dubbed as the best rapper in the game for some time now in the eyes of many critics and fans alike, and that idea probably gained a lot of momentum from the Compton native’s third official studio album under his moniker and the second under a major label.

Lyrical finesse, provocative flows, dexterity in his articulation, unconventional rap beats, and the notorious “Control” feature verse— these are just a few things that K-Dot’s got on his utility belt as far as rapping goes, but a particularity of Kendrick that took him to the peak of the rap game may be his ability to back up every single word that he declares. From calling out his peers in the industry, to sniping down political topics and racial issues, Kendrick Lamar deftly combines the many personalities of himself and his demons in To Pimp a Butterfly to organize a body of work that seems to cover a vast number of observations in his world.

The cohesion in the record is strengthen by the continued usage of the phrase “I remember you was conflicted. Misusing your influence…”, a fragment of a poem in which Kendrick matches segments of the poetic lines to each song and memory. To Pimp a Butterfly has so many layers in meaning and on the surface; on the musical side, the unorthodoxy of laying down jazz and funk beats in a mainstream setting and including verses of spoken word and poems set Kendrick Lamar apart from majority of other content being released at that time. Thematically, the narrative of the album served to strengthen and remind the black man, to advise each person- listening and reading- to remind themselves of their own mortality, and how that mortality can and should guide one’s life decisions. Giving many references to historic accounts and figures and adding his commentary and viewpoints, Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly is often regarded as a musical, cultural, and historical trophy in multiple aspects.

Listen to To Pimp a Butterfly

Also listen to:

Summertime ‘06: Vince Staples (2016)

Born Sinner: J. Cole (2013)

The Sun’s Tirade: Isaiah Rashad (2016)

Take Care: Drake (2011)

If Kendrick Lamar showed you the realistic and critical disposition of life, Drake provides a perspective of life in an emotional and intoxicating approach. In a way, there is a lot of similarities to Drake and Kendrick, constructed however, as polar opposites. If the young Aubrey Graham received his heartaches from the fractures of being placed in a fatherless household in the suburbs of Toronto, Kendrick’s survival in Compton reflect the nature of the two artists’ paths.

In the case of Drake, his struggle doesn’t comprise of gang violence, drug addiction, or death, but rather comes from the pursuit of success and emotional void. Seeking proof of worth and confirmation, the young Canadian actor turned musician’s success is laid bare in Take Care— a turning point and defining moment in the artist’s forthcoming decorated career, Drake is disguised as both boastful and bleeding from the weight of his rise to fame.

Take Care cemented Drake’s persona as emotive and “in my feelings”, and the capitalization of that image has won the hyphenated artist a plethora of awards and chartered a near unrivaled commercial success. The model in which the themes of Take Care include have been analyzed in order to formularize the flagship OVO sound that can be identified by the dark, sensory, and evocative styles that stem from existential and hollow attributes in the life of an artist known as Drake; to which the listener is left wondering— Is this the real Drake? Or has that man died to himself only to be reborn as a simple desire for success?

Listen to Take Care

Also listen to:

T R A P S O U L: Bryson Tiller (2015)

Trilogy: The Weeknd (2012)

I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It: The 1975 (2016)

Since the formation of English Alt Rock band The 1975, The band has always been accompanied by the support of their cult following and fans, and while the musical allure of the band is a large part of their draw, the image of the band and their character was something that drew a lot of attention; the slacker attitudes, the drug-obsessive, the charm of a British boy band that does little to hide their accents and dialects, and the face of their group-Matt Healy, who perfectly fit all the above descriptions.

Graduating from some of public criticisms of their earlier and premature works The 1975 returns to the alternative pop rock with some flair to add to the aesthetics, sound, and the account of their growth both as a band and as individuals.

The band’s second studio album seems to replace the grungy and inebriated tones into bright and rosy melodies, while staying true to themselves. The fun, dreamlike synth-wave pop sound is something that The 1975 can be distinguished by. Evolving from their debut album, I Like It When You Sleep… refines the duality of The 1975’s music- between frivolities and sincerity- finding a perfect balance that makes the lightly humored but not lacking substance in content. Veering away from plausible negative influences, the band suddenly finds itself coming to a level of maturation and development in their product, reaching a level of stardom that stemmed from intricate and innovative applications in their music.

Listen to I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It

Also listen to:

The 1975: The 1975 (2013)

After Laughter: Paramore (2017)

Modern Vampires of the City: Vampire Weekend (2013)

Black Messiah: D’Angelo and the Vanguard (2014)

The album Black Messiah shows a lot of credit to some of music’s best individuals— virtuosos in the industry such as Questlove, Pino Palladino, Isaiah Sharkey, and late Roy Hargrove are involved in D’Angelo’s long awaited return project, Black Messiah.

The product of many great artists coming together to collaborate on a fusion of jazz, soul, funk, rock, and R&B influences, Black Messiah is a masterwork of the experimental neo-soul genre bending. While D’Angelo saw much success earlier in his career, complications that arose from his branding and tough losses led him to a time of personal struggles, after fourteen long years of hiatus, the man once named to be the next Marvin Gaye returns with a message regarding the current state of affairs in the US. From rejecting the idea of a whitewashed imagery of Christ, to declaring the hardships of living as a black person and what that means in today’s society, Black Messiah seems to hit just about all the marks that the songs intended to.

Besides a hyper relevant message in the record, D’Angelo’s involvement and contributions to earlier decades of music is professionally displayed; Having worked with some of the all time greats like Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, and Kamaal Ibn John Fareed, more commonly known as Q-Tip, Black Messiah is overflowing with technical proficiency. The styles of music that come together in this album seem dated and even murky at times, but upon a closer examination, intricate details and complex standards are hitting the listener every second, creating a compelling atmosphere for a story that needed to be heard.

Listen to Black Messiah

Also listen to:

Drunk: Thundercat (2017)

Malibu: Anderson .Paak (2016)

Because of the Internet: Childish Gambino (2013)

As far as conceptual albums go, Because of the Internet may be one of the most relevant to have dropped in its contemporary setting.

Donald Glover: actor, comedian, writer, producer, director, and musician, you’d rarely find people with more talent or even just as much. The young entertainer’s second studio album and the one responsible for a majority of his notoriety was loosely based on the idea around the internet, and the relation of self and the worldwide web. Written as if the album was a film, the listener is able to experience a chronology of which multiple layers of a life deeply engaged in social media- almost to the degree where one finds him/herself devoured by it- is constructed through references of viral episodes, memes, and pop culture references that were both evident and subtle. Because of the Internet becomes more impressive when considering the fact that noticing obvious details about a particular objectivity can be ironically difficult; and the album itself is built on the foundation of irony and satire.

Like the multifaceted factor of its author, Because of the Internet is comprised of many surfaces of many different things— Hip-hop, yet Glover’s vocal hooks and other major and minor components of the album seem so far away from traditional attributes of the genre. The mixture of commercial and artistic, serious and sarcastic, happy and sad, make up the temperamental face of this album which only goes further in characterizing this tool we now know as the internet, is Gambino annoyed, content, indifferent, or conformal? Google it.

Listen to Because of the Internet

Also listen to:

Acid Rap: Chance the Rapper (2013)

Flower Boy: Tyler, the Creator (2017)

SATURATION III: BROCKHAMPTON (2017)

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy: Kanye West (2010)

I really didn’t mean to save this for last, and it’s not because I think that this album is THE best album of 2010’s, but if somebody told me that it was, I wouldn’t disagree.

In 2008, Malcolm Gladwell proposed the 10,000 hour rule— a thesis that in order to achieve complete mastery of a skill or study, you must first spend 10,000 hours in practice and perfecting it. Kanye claims that he spent 5,000 hours on writing “POWER”, it wouldn’t be out of line to assume that the perfecting of Kanye’s magnum opus My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy clocked in a rough proximity to Gladwell’s proposition of proficiency.

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy mirrors its creator almost perfectly- clear, straight to the point, dark, arrogant, vain, and grand— so grand. Kanye’s escape of reality traps him in a factory of madness in which the Chicago rapper-producer mad genius gives birth to something that encompasses all of his past works, possibly surpassing each project; the outcome is arguably the single greatest musical project in history. The encapsulation of Kanye’s entire discography to date is demonstrated, his talent for producing and creating as well. All the strengths of this album are reinforced by a wealthy cast of featured artists including Jay-Z, Bon Iver, Kid Cudi, John Legend, Raekwon, Nicki Minaj, and many others, containing some of the best verses in the latter artist’s career. (Nicki Minaj, Monster)

Past all the troubles caused by Kanye’s belligerence and acting out, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is timeless; even after a whole decade, the production and the amount of detail, as well as the innovative qualities of the flamboyant extraordinaire seem ahead of its time, A true piece of work, even accompanied by a bizarre, aptly paired film which spans the majority of the album across its viewing.

Watch the short film Runaway

Listen to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Also listen to:

DAYTONA: Pusha T (2018)

Watch the Throne: Jay-Z, Kanye West (2011)

Albums not mentioned in the list, but still praiseworthy:

The 20/20 Experience: Justin Timberlake (2013)

AM: Artic Monkeys (2013)

Freudian: Daniel Caesar (2017)

Dirty Computer: Janelle Monáe (2018)

Love, Pt. 1 & 2: Angels & Airwaves (2011)

Run the Jewels 3: Run the Jewels (2016)

DiCaprio 2: J.I.D. (2018)

Wasting Light: Foo Fighters (2011)

Village: Jacob Banks (2018)

Culture: Migos (2017)

Hozier: Hozier (2014)

The Suburbs: Arcade Fire (2010)

A Song For Every Moon: Bruno Major (2017)

…And obviously I may have left out some albums that may be needed in this list, but compacting a 10-year’s worth of music in a matter of three or four months is really hard… So if you feel that I may have missed an album or a project in particular, let me know!

…And also if you’re reading this, I would like to let you know that I really appreciate your time and attention. I promise I will continue to come up with better content and more often too. Here’s to another good year (and decade) of music, friends.

Thank you,

Always.

Erik.

WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?: Billie Eilish

4/11/19 

7:19 PM

This whole album seems like a really intense joke told in a cheerful manner. 

Dark, deep, and dreamy— Billie Eilish’s. album, WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? catches the unsuspecting listener in a fun and/or a creepy way. The 17-year-old’s debut album after her success in multiple careers as multiple personas in music, modeling, and pop personality is explained through something that resembles sleeping and the reactions that we experience as we sleep, lucid dreams, night terrors, sweet dreams, nightmares, they’re all just little pieces to a whole which reflects in the album as individual songs.  

WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? is a weird culmination of today’s musical elements coming together to create something…. alien??? The mixture between pop progressions with trap drums and EDM-ish components, many of the tracks come strangely familiar while still being fresh in terms of genre configurations. The album comprises of dark and gloomy productions beneath Eilish’s innocent and calming vocals, creating an unlikely cacophony that somehow manages to work out anyway. The writing in her songs is actually quite nice too; albeit some content seems a little too tense for someone so young to have written about. Top that off with some really subtle ASMR level details in the tracks and you have 2019’s top notch production quality. Nevertheless, the cryptic atmosphere of her music and her lyrics add to her character and sound, and while the album starts off more defiant and galvanic, it does end up being more somber and yearning towards the end to bring the collection to a nice quiet finish, which is a really nice note to end on. 

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A good amount of discussions have popped up over the young artist’s start and continuing career, rumours of her connections within the industry being the reason for her stardom turns her off for many people. While it’s interesting to look at, who cares? It’s her actual talent may be questionable at this point of time and such, but the product is quite nice still, and the care that she displays for music and her work in general is notable. Billie herself quotes, “If you put 14 people who like different genres into a room and plop WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? in front of them, I want every single person in that room to like at least one song.”  

Thanks Billie, I liked a few songs. 

Listen to album below:

WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?

A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships: The 1975

12/5/18

10:43 PM

“You learn a couple things when you get to my age”

It’s true, at age 29, Matt Healy and his electropop band The 1975 has since evolved from their earlier works. A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships takes the indie pop formula that they’ve been running with since their self-titled debut album and matures it into a smooth and easy listen that still carries the lyrical delivery as well as their synth and rock based sound.

The internet-themed album bounces between energetic and upbeat digital rhythms to deep and ardent heartaches into the past life of lead vocalist and lyricist Matt Healy. From “TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME”— the cheerful track about infidelity and inability to be faithful— to more composed and serene ballads like “Be My Mistake” that tells of relationships that Matt struggles to forget and attempts to neglect with fleeting satisfactions, The 1975 has mastered the art of duality within the human emotion and evokes empathy from far ends of its spectrum, as well as everything in between. Not only does the band have carefree and pleasant tunes contrasted with desolate and  melancholy songs, they also have tracks that are neither of those polar feelings, displaying a balance of both bliss and depression. The lyrical play from Matt Healy still goes back to drugs and girls quite often, but is polished enough to retain content and weight; all the while relating these ideas back to online interactions. As Healy playfully scribbles on his songs with contradictions and almost meme-like lines, he still shows his talent for writing with subtle references and revelations of personal angles in his writing; strengthening the dearness of his songs to a intimate, yet widely relatable direction.

“I”ve been watching you walk

I’ve been learning the way that you talk

The back of your head is at the front of my mind

Soon I’ll crack it open just to see what’s inside your mind” 

Looking from where they have come from in terms of technicality, a prodigious leap has been made in their sound. Matt Healy’s shaky and raw vocals have been refined to a more clear and charming tone. The band’s established driving, young, and rhythmic qualities have been sophisticated into a more relaxing and engaging atmosphere by tapping into jazz instrumentation and influences while maintaining the core values of their sound. Overall, achieving a more complete level of music elevates this album to a new height, where the band continues to mature and grow. The compound of acoustic instruments with digital complements draw out a new vibe that The 1975 is known for, yet also is still refreshing because it’s done just a little bit more elegantly with each subsequent album and with a little more detail to the incomplete and broken life of its author.

Listen to the album below:

A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships

BALLADS 1: Joji

11/16/18

11:55 PM

Surprising, in the most pleasant way.

One of 88rising’s preeminent artists, George Miller, otherwise known as Filthy Frank, Pink Guy, and Joji, released BALLADS 1 on October 26th, 2018. In his past works as youtube troll and viral personality as Filthy Frank to a bizarre comic rapper Pink Guy, Miller often plays with social mediums and musical platforms to gain viral status on the internet. Going off of his preexisting persona as an entertainer, the artist Joji becomes a stark contrast to his past selves, dropping the facetious acts to portray a more serious and seemingly sober character.

It’s like that one friend that nobody takes serious until they get genuine, then everybody just goes, “whaaaaaaaaaaaaa…?”

BALLADS 1 is a play off of ballads (wow who would’ve guessed?), adding his own personality into a established genre of music to form a new sound. Joji’s latest album can be seen as '“sadboi” music, but really becomes a personal memorandum of heartache and lovesickness, as well as loneliness and realizations of disconnect. The gritty, yet simplistic production and the raw emotion emanating from his voice adds an eerie austerity to what seems to be a personal remembrance to past relationships and his newfound lifestyles.

The split-screen outlook evident in his character throughout his album and also in his career is put on display for anyone to understand as they dig into the lyrics, “Give me reasons we should be complete/ You should be with him, I can’t compete” in “SLOW DANCING IN THE DARK” shows just a glimpse of his struggles with being lonely, as he compares his torn state as a metaphor of slow dancing in the dark (wow who would’ve thought?).

The element of duality is so apparent in this album, from being in love to longing, friendships turning into fake friends, the way that Joji bounces from one to the other is admittedly depressing, yet amusing and delicate. The forlorn content is only reinforced by the production— the deep and ringing bass, the calming wave-like synths, and piano instrumentation that has proved to be traditional to the ballad genre. Between production and writing, BALLADS 1 becomes a pensive piece of work to the artist Joji.

This album seems to be a highlight for Joji’s career as he creates a musical remnant from his head and heart, because (filthy)frankly, beneath every obnoxious and self-pleasing troll, there lies a sadboi that just wants to be genuine to themselves— just waiting for the platform and the right heartbreak to rely on.

Listen to the album below:

BALLADS 1