2020s

Album of the Week: Coco & Clair Clair’s Sexy (2022)

September 30, 2024 — Leave a comment

As we experience the Braternization of pop music (it was only a matter of time), I’d like to look back a ways to one of the most fun pop albums of our era. And when I say “back a ways”, I mean 2022, because time moves fast in music.

I first heard Coco & Clair Clair in 2019 on Deaton Chris Anthony’s “RACECAR”, then discovered their immaculate song “Pretty”. The girlies enlisted Kreayshawn on their 2020 song “TLG”, thereby showing some love to a forebear of their sound and style. It’s a fantastic track that cemented my place as a fan. Sexy, then, turned out to be about everything I hoped for in a C&CC album.

The first few tracks follow the group’s established style: candy-coated beats, Coco’s humor and Clair Clair’s dream-pop melodies. “The Hills” is like the musical equivalent of a Kirby plushy, and “U & Me” is a doe-eyed Britney tribute. “8AM” throws a curveball by going sunshine pop, while “Bitches” enlists the help of niche west coast rapper Marjorie W.C. Sinclair, with a rare and thrilling Clair Clair rap verse (“The Louis, the prada? / both mine / Your man and his friend? / both mine / Kissin’ my ass / full-time”). It’s a burst of serotonin that makes for one of my most-listened to tracks on the album.

“Lamb” taps indie artist Porches for some slacker guitar and proves another highlight. meltycanon’s toy music box beat for “TBTF” works perfectly for Coco & Clair Clair’s carefree approach, and there’s a hilarious slideshow video (see above). Single “Pop Star” rounds things out, appropriately, as the album’s most popular song. Coco & Clair Clair recently followed this one up with Girl, which plays more like an EP at 24 minutes, but is also worth a listen.

Listen to Sexy here.

Album of the Week: Batry Powr’s Un1ty Flute (2021)

May 20, 2024 — Leave a comment

Nicole Miglis recently released her single “All I Can See Is You”, which blew me away. It got me to revisit her solo album as Batry Power, Un1ty Flute, a Leaving Records tape of longform flute recordings. After a spontaneous recording of what became “Un1ty Flute” fell into Leaving founder Matthewdavid’s hands via a mutual friend, Leaving released the project along with a video for the title track. The description of the YouTube clip notes, “Batry Powr is the experimental ambient side-project of Hundred Waters frontwoman Nicole Miglis primarily recording acoustic or battery-powered instruments in public spaces & nature.“

The visual, with Miglis playing flute and plenty of skaters, complements the slow-motion, nature-loving ambience of this music. It’s not surprising that this project was released by Matthewdavid, whose own Trust the Guide and Glide (2016) leaned into these and other New Agey devices.

Track one is a pure flute session accented by the field music of chirping birds. Miglis’s playing is both relaxing and mesmerizing. “ii” is the night to “Un1ty Flute”‘s day, the flute traded in for sleepy piano and the bird noise for wordless vocal harmonies. It is, like “Un1ty Flute”, also unhurried and excellent. Track three on the digital version is a Kodak to Graph remix of “Un1ty Flute” with added zither – it’s heavenly! I haven’t listened to much Hundred Waters, but I’ll start soon.

Listen to Un1ty Flute here.

Album of the Week: Better Person’s Something to Lose (2020)

May 6, 2024 — Leave a comment

During my research for Jane Penny of TOPS’s recent EP, I learned about Better Person, the solo project of Adam Byczkowski. His lone album (unless you count the 23 minute It’s Only You) is 2020’s Something to Lose, which has quickly become one of my most-played picks in recent weeks. Byczkowski lived with Penny and the album is inspired by her.

In an interview with Breaking Glass Magazine, he described the record as “Heartfelt ballads sung by a Polish man who fell deeply in love.” Tender as all get-out, the Polish-language opener “Na Zawsze” (Forever) is a delicate expression of feeling, accompanied by a touching synth melody. This sets the tone for Something to Lose, which is indeed heartfelt and alternates between driving drum programming (“Hearts on Fire”) and more ambient production (“Glendale Evening”). MGMT’s Ben Goldwasser produced the album in LA after Better Person wrote the songs in Berlin, and it has a consistently lovestruck vibe that will be comfortable to any fans of smooth pop.

Originally planning to title the album True Love, he changed the name after Devon Welsh released his record True Love (2019). Still, the theme comes across as on “Next to You” or the title track “Something to Lose”, an outstanding piece of pop magic. When BP sings “touch me baby” it comes off as completely genuine. Though the synths and programmed drums here might strike some as kitschy, they reflect more on the artist’s bedroom setup than a retro aesthetic.

Released on the heavy-hitting Canadian label Arbutus (as well as Mansions and Millions in Germany), Something to Lose is a worthy addition to their already superb catalog, and an album that unfairly fell through the cracks during the 2020 pandemic. The artist himself suffers from long Covid and has not released music since. Hopefully he will continue to recover and further explore his talent as a musician.

Listen to Something to Lose here.

10 Favorite Albums of 2023

January 8, 2024 — Leave a comment

As always, there is way more music being released than I can keep up with, and this list probably looks different if written next month (or even tomorrow), but here are 10 albums from 2023 that left big impressions. Honorable mentions are also included at the jump.

To a happy 2024, and free Young Thug!!!

10. Danny Brown – Quaranta

Danny Brown has never used so little of what I call his “crazy voice” as on Quaranta, and the result is his most pleasantly surprising and vulnerable work. He brilliantly flips a classic Geto Boys line into the chorus of “Down Wit Me”, a stark breakup song that leaves him sounding emotionally drained. Yet he is quick to bounce back on “Celibate” with the help of an excellent verse from MIKE. “Hanami” is a meditation on the passage of time(!) and “Bass Jam” is just full-stop beautiful. Though Quaranta was announced years ago (Brown turned 42 months before its release), it turned out to be well worth the wait.

9. Ken Carson – A Great Chaos

The state of rap is messy right now, and a lot of new releases leave me underwhelmed. But listening to Destroy Lonely’s “if looks could kill” in 2023 really scratched my itch for some youthful, Carti-like music, and coming from a guy I had never even heard of made it that much more impressive. Ken Carson does the same thing on A Great Chaos, which has 3 Destroy Lonely features but mostly finds Carson talking shit in his muddle-mouthed drawl over candy-coated beats.

8. PinkPantheress – Heaven Knows

After coming out strong in 2021 with the outstanding 18 minute to hell with it, PinkPantheress leveled up this year. The Ice Spice-assisted “Boy’s a liar pt. 2” was an absolute smash, and Pink followed it up with as great of an album as we could have expected. Full of bops and perfectly placed features, Heaven knows makes the 22-year-old star impossible to count out.

7. Drake – For All the Dogs

I don’t blame anyone who despises Drake at this point in his career: his wealth and influence is superfluous, and over a decade and a half his rap persona has morphed from an energized young upstart to a rich horny guy who abuses similes and kinda just says cringey shit. Nevertheless, I listened to songs from For All the Dogs as much as anything else in 2023’s final quarter. Like most big-name streaming era albums, it’s bloated, but there are still plenty of great songs. Chief Keef blesses “All the Parties” with a blink-of-an-eye verse that Drake riffs on, “8AM in Charlotte” finds Drizzy blacking out over a Conductor(!) beat, “Rich Baby Daddy” has SZA sliding over “My Boo” type production (not to mention the incredible chorus), “Away From Home” is surprisingly reflective etc. The Scary Hours edition released in November adds 6 mostly great songs that remind me of why I’ve been listening to this guy now for most of my life.

6. Yo La Tengo – This Stupid World

The evergreen talents of Yo La Tengo, going strong in their 5th decade, did it again on This Stupid World. “Sinatra Drive Breakdown” is their heaviest opener since 2006’s “Pass the Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind”. A pure jammer, it sets the tone for an exploratory yet succint 9-track album. Elsewhere, “Aselestine” provides the sweetness that both longtime fans and newcomers should love.

5. Maxo – Debbie’s Son

Maxo blew me away in 2019 with his Def Jam debut Lil Big Man, a tight and mellow collection of raps. It took 4 years for Def Jam to eke out the follow-up, 2023’s Even God Has a Sense of Humor. Though a good release, that album represents the closing of a tie with a label that seemingly offered little promotion or support. Released independently, Debbie’s Son is both the more experimental and more personal Maxo album of 2023. Featuring only Zelooperz is a bold choice that pays off early, and the jazzy bent of “#3” and “Boomerang” will please any listener who seeks something beyond the current status quo of rap music.

4. Jess Williamson – Time Ain’t Accidental

When I met Jess Williamson after her show in Healdsburg in 2023, I complimented her choice of walk-out music: “Only Time” by Enya. She noted that since her album’s called Time Ain’t Accidental, “Only Time” made sense, which I hadn’t even considered. A music lover at her core, it only makes sense that Williamson is having her moment now as an outstanding new voice in country amidst a blockbuster time for country music in general. Seeing her perform these songs in a small venue was an absolute treat, and highlighted the pure excellence in her songwriting that stands out on tracks like “Roads” and “God in Everything”. That, and the drum machines in the title track and “Topanga Two Step” are perfect.

3. Animal Collective – Isn’t It Now?

Having listened to live versions of these songs for almost 4 years, Isn’t It Now felt wonderfully familiar to me the first time I pressed play. As a longstanding Animal Collective stan who gushed over 2022’s Time Skiffs, getting the counterpart album (songs from both albums were written around the same time) a year later was like receiving a big hug.

2. Dougie Poole – The Rainbow Wheel of Death

The more I play these tunes, the more they feel like permanent parts of my brain. “Worried Man Blues 2” is coming out the speaker while I’m driving, “Beth David Cemetery” is coming out my mouth while I’m working. The pedal steel cries, the guitar strums on, another day goes by and these songs live rent-free in my head. “I Lived My Whole Life Last Night” is perfect – a funny, scary, just plain brilliant riff on mortality. Destined to become a classic, I would recommend The Rainbow Wheel of Death to anyone who loves good songs.

1. Nourished by Time – Erotic Probiotic 2

Since 2019, Marcus Brown has been releasing singles and EPs as Nourished by Time (including the two-track Erotic Probiotic), in total about an album’s worth of material strong enough to rival that of most contemporary R&B/pop artists. That is until Erotic Probiotic 2, which lapped his previous output and finally gave the artist some deserved love: Oneohtrix Point Never recently described Nourished By Time as the “only new music I absolutely swear is next level”, and this coming from an artist as consistently on the vanguard of both the experimental and pop worlds as OPN is high praise. But Erotic Probiotic 2 warrants this claim.

A one-man production, Nourished By Time’s music averts current pop’s too-many-cooks syndrome, while still containing songs as catchy and hummable as any pop artist. Opener “Quantum Suicide” itself is a revelation, a banger and a prayer: “The journey, the pain / May it all be the same,” he belts (and there is a lot of fantastic belting on here). Initially I felt the album was front-loaded, but then it became man, I love these last 3, 4, 5 tracks on a 9-track album. After the delightfully busy productions of “Rain Water Promise” and “Soap Party”, the relatively sparse “Workers Interlude” allows NBT to bare his soul (“Now people pass me by / And all I ask is why?“) before “Unbreak My Love” provides the closing catharsis to put a bow on it all. Erotic Probiotic 2 is a watershed moment for Nourished by Time, and almost certainly a harbinger of more next-level shit.

Honorable Mentions:

André 3000 – New Blue Sun

Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily – Love In Exile

Bad Bunny – Nadie sabe lo que va a pasar mañana

bar italia – Tracey Denim

Earl Sweatshirt & The Alchemist – Voir Dire

George Clanton – Ooh Rap I Ya

Ice Spice – Like..?

Jessy Lanza – Love Hallucination

jonatan leandoer96 – Sugar World

Kali Uchis – Red Moon in Venus

Karina Rykman – Joyride

Lana Del Rey – Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd

Laura Groves – Radio Red

Lil Yachty – Let’s Start Here.

Mac DeMarco – Five Easy Hot Dogs

MIKE – Burning Desire

Natural Wonder Beauty Concept – Natural Wonder Beauty Concept

Pink Siifu & Turich Benjy – It’s Too Quiet..’!!

Sampha – Lahai

Titanic – Vidrio

6LACK – Since I Have a Lover

Album of the Week: Domo Genesis & Evidence’s Intros, Outros and Interludes (2022)

March 6, 2023 — Leave a comment

This release from two LA-to-the-core hip-hop artists is an overlooked joint project. It’s a merging of two different generations: The 31-year-old Domo Genesis cut his teeth as a member of Tumblr-era phenoms Odd Future, and the 46-year-old Evidence co-founded the group Dilated Peoples in the 90s. What the two have in common is a laidback, uncomplicated approach to rap music. While this trait may have kept both artists from achieving the mainstream success achieved by some of their peers, it rewards listeners as they age with confidence and consistency in their respective outputs.

Evidence and Domo first collaborated on 2017’s “Deez Nuts”, a Domo track produced by Evidence. A year later, Ev rapped on Domo’s “Fuck a Co-Sign”, from his brief yet excellent Arent U Glad Youre U tape. Evidence produced the entirety of last year’s Intros, Outros and Interludes, and his beats are absolutely lush. I find myself playing this album early in the morning as it relaxes me. “Trust the Process” finds Doms riding over a 70s soul sample, his lyrics unadorned observation: “This hash is in my lungs / a bunch of plastic in the ocean”. The sunny “Stay One More Day” sample fades in and out as Evidence proves himself a master beatmaker.

Ev’s one guest verse is smooth: “Drive slow, homie / Like my son is in the car / My summers as a kid in Brooklyn made me to a star”. This is a reference to canon hip-hop (Late Registration), a sly nod to his age, and a reflection on his come-up in one rhyme. Domo follows with “I never had a chance / I lose my life to seek a new one, look we movin’ through the dance”. It’s just two guys ruminating on how they got where they are, but in the context of the album it feels almost like a passing of the torch moment.

The beat on “December Coming” is heavenly, another delicious piece of a brief yet worthy album from two rap devotees. Here’s hoping they team up again.

Listen to Intros… here.

Album of the Week: Allblack’s No Shame 3 (2020)

March 14, 2022 — Leave a comment

First off, I want to give a shoutout to DJ Fresh. For 15 years he’s been making killer beats for artists in the Bay Area and elsewhere. His Tonite Show series of full length collaborations with various rappers never fails to impress me. He only produced 2 tracks on No Shame 3 (“All My Children” and “S.H.E.”), but they both stand out.

I first heard Allblack on Nef the Pharaoh and 03 Greedo’s “Ball Out” (2018). That one’s a slapper, opening with an Allblack verse over a beat from DTB, who produced almost half of No Shame 3. Allblack is from Oakland, but he has a fast, punchline-filled approach that would fit well with the contemporary Detroit sound. Indeed, Detroit’s Helluva has 2 beats on here including the title track.

The vibe throughout No Shame 3 is fun, an impressive display of lyrical energy with distinctive Oakland swagger in both beats and rhymes. The aforementioned DTB pumps bass into tracks like “Pizza Rolls”, with its hilarious depiction of drug-induced paranoia (“I watched Silence of the Lambs and had a bad dream / I stopped smokin cause I caught my potna lacin weed”). Overall, I’d call it one of the more under-appreciated rap full-lengths of the last couple years.

Stream No Shame 3 here.

Album of the Week: NoCap’s Steel Human (2020)

February 14, 2022 — Leave a comment
In the streaming version, the eagle has a chain, too.

NoCap! If you’re unfamiliar, the name might be too ridiculous for you to commit to the music. But I implore you, if you’ve never heard “Ghetto Angels”, listen to it. The song is an incredible ode to the artist’s fallen friends, expressing a vulnerability (“I end up cryin’ on my best days”) that is often missing in hip-hop, over an appropriately heavenly beat.

It’s hard to say “Ghetto Angels”, from The Backend Child (2019) isn’t the young rapper’s best song, but lately I’ve been stuck on Steel Human, which as it stands is the most recent project from the 23-year old artist. Like a lot of newer rappers, Cap does the rap-singing thing. He stands out for a couple reasons: for one, he has a great voice and ear for melody. And lyrically, he has a unique and clever approach. The song that really sold me on NoCap (besides “Ghetto Angels”) was Lil Baby’s “Dreams 2 Reality” from 2018. Produced by frequent collaborator and fellow Alabama native Al’Geno, it features the NoCap line, “I’m on top of all these n****s, I can see when all these angels piss.” It’s such a weird way of bragging that it stuck with me.

Steel Human contains similarly confounding gems. “If I leave the game, will my Xbox love me?” “I’m a drunk boxer / I pour lean in my Hawaiian Punch”. “Playground love / I let her slide and she got mood swings”. The more you listen to NoCap, the more wordplay you uncover. As far as younger rappers with a pop/melodic sensibility, NoCap is one of the best. Also, all the features here are great. Here’s hoping for more from NoCap.

Listen to Steel Human here.