New Music Friday!

Lee Newman said:
Getting a second listen to Cowboy Carter in.

Few thoughts…

1. I like this a lot more than Renaissance. Related to that, I am very happy that this is coming out in the middle of a moment for Black Country. I’m also happy that Brittany Spencer and Britti hit before this to further temper my thoughts on what country is/can be. Musgraves started me down a path of letting go of more purist thought and I think these ladies have obliterated them.

2. That Blackbird is goddamned beautiful.

3. As with most concept albums the conceit doesn’t hold up, but I’ll be damned if her exploration of what it means to be American isn’t compelling as hell.

It will need a few/lot more listens to fully digest, but it is worthy of Beyoncé and could end up just below Beyoncé and Lemonade in my personal esteem of it.

I also wonder how I’ll feel about Renaissance in conjunction with it, as well as how all three acts will work to paint a larger picture/project.

I don’t think it will my top ten for the quarter but it has every possibility of crawling into my top ten for the year. I also kind of regret not preordering it.
Click to expand...
I actually got my copy of the record yesterday, but I won’t be spinning it till tonight. I also really enjoy this album. There’s so much to unpack with it, but it’s also very approachable as just a solidly catchy album - for the most part. What I will say about the vinyl itself…apparently all the copies are missing 5 tracks, one of which is Spaghettii, one of my favorites.
 
February and March listening. Not nearly as much as the past few years. Saving Mar 29 (and subsequent) releases for late April.


🔥
  • Four Tet – Three [best from Kieran in over a decade. Hyping “Daydream Repeat” as a standout song from this year. “Three Drums” is also an atmospheric, textured dreamscape]
  • Julia Holter – Something in the Room She Moves [OMG art pop mom you’re my fave]
  • Kali Malone – All Life Long [I think you’re onto something @jt4527, even if I do not fully agree. Kali da 🐐, no 🎓]
  • The Messthetics x James Brandon Lewis – The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis [it is not just the Fugazi rhythm section hard carrying, as James Brandon Lewis more than pulls his weight. Another winner]
  • samlrc – A Lonely Sinner [20YO trans musician from Brazil; one of the latest hypebeast RYM projects, but I do think it was worth hyping]
  • Astrid Sonne – Great Doubt [a brief art pop effort with interesting drone/trip hop/experimental excursions]

👍
  • Allie X – Girl With No Face [very fun! Maybe a bit one-note throughout, even if the songs cut deeper here. Don’t sleep on Cape God tho]
  • Erika de Casier – Still [I really wanted this to be at the top. Some unconventional production choices that had me scratching my head. Still fun for the most part]
  • CRIMEAPPLE x Preservation – El Leon
  • Amaro Freitas – Y’Y
  • Future Islands – People Who Aren’t There Anymore
  • Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou – Souvenirs (archival) [casual W for Mississippi Records]
  • Brittany Howard – What Now
  • James Brandon Lewis Quartet – Transfiguration [a promising sign that I haven’t given this man anything less than a “👍” so far knock on wood]
  • Lustmord – Much Unseen is Also Here [thanks N&G bros. Deeply meditative]
  • MGMT – Loss Of Life [my 2nd favorite MGMT album, just behind the sinister Little Dark Age]
  • Moor Mother – The Great Bailout [mom I’m scared]
  • ScHoolboy Q – BLUE LIPS
  • Tyla – TYLA [R&B with relaxed afrobeat influence. Easily envision her potential to be THAT next R&B girlie. Loving “On and On” from the onset]
  • Waxahatchee – Tigers Blood [oh. I found this to be (fairly) enjoyable, with a neat vocal highlight in “365.” So I guess Jess didn’t necessarily hard carry in 2022]
  • Chelsea Wolfe – She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She

🤷‍♂️
  • Kirin J Callinan – If I Could Sing
  • Danielle Durack – Escape Artist [wanted to like this sooo much more. Not nearly as memorable as No Place]
  • Empress Of – For Your Consideration [a few highlights, but not enough of them]
  • Sierra Ferrell – Trail of Flowers [by no means a bad album, but not something I would return to. I can see why she has a following]
  • Ariana Grande – eternal sunshine [uhhh “we can have Omakase (お任せ) in Tokyo if you wanna”? LOL WTF ARIANA]
  • Norah Jones - Visions
  • The Last Dinner Party – Prelude to Ecstacy [industry plant alert]
  • Adrianne Lenker – Bright Future [the opening track is crushing, weary, and beautifully performed. Initially had me thinking, "oh is THIS gonna be the one I'm going to finally give in and say 'ya she's great' at long last?" No, I didn't feel that way immediately after that opening track. Also, that's Michael Gira on the cover art]
  • Mannequin Pussy – I Got Heaven
  • Middle Kids – Faith Crisis Pt 1
  • MIKE x Tony Seltzer - Pinball
  • Helado Negro – PHASOR
  • Joel Ross – nublues
  • Faye Webster – Underdressed at the Symphony
  • Yard Act – Where’s My Utopia? [more annoying than interesting]

👎
  • Kim Gordon – The Collective [POV: you’re doing dry cleaning but you’re making it drier]
  • I DON’T KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME – GLOOM DIVISION [incredibly bland]
  • Ariel Kalma, Jeremiah Chiu, Marta Sofia Honer – The Closest Thing to Silence [hmm, not for me. I loved Recordings From the Åland Islands from ’22, but this one just gave me a headache at times]
  • Kacey Musgraves – Deeper Well [better than Star-Crossed at least (not saying much)]
  • Little Simz – Drop 7 (EP) [lackluster production]
  • Kanye West x Ty Dolla $ign – VULTURES I [ughhhhh]
  • Tierra Whack – WORLD WIDE WHACK [the six year wait was not worth it. Similar ideas to Whack World, but does not expand upon any of those ideas. Honestly feels hollow and like a missed opportunity. A few cringey puns in the early tracks]

🤮
  • IDLES – TANGK [congratulations on the transformation into the Imagine Dragons of post-punk 2k20 👏]
  • Justin Timberlake – Everything I Thought it Was [had no idea this was dropping at all until I stumbled across an ad. Bland and sometimes gross modern R&B production with bland features to match (sorry Toby Nwigwe). The entire tracklist was neither enjoyable nor memorable; apparently “Selfish” is the lead single from this album cycle, something I had never heard until struggling through the album?? So bland. Hard for me to accept that the FutureSex/Lovesounds days are long gone and never to return. Least favorite release I’ve come across this year]
 
On Thursday, Cindy Lee released "Diamond Jubilee," a 32-track, 2+ hour masterwork of guitar virtuosity, classic songcraft, and subtly confrontational lo-fi aesthetics. It's only available as a download for purchase directly from the artist, but they put the whole thing on YouTube yesterday.

I'm biased as a massive fan of mastermind Patrick Flegel going back to the days of his former band Women, but from my perspective, this is clearly the album of the year, and a major creative statement. It's so thrilling to hear an artist bend pop music into such personal yet instantly resonant and memorable shapes, and to do it on such a scale...mindblowing.
 
blenoxsmith said:
Yasmin Williams with a take on the new Beyonce in the Guardian:

www.theguardian.com

Beyoncé’s country album drowns out the Black music history it claims to celebrate | Yasmin Williams

For all her declarations of being authentically country, Cowboy Carter arrives on the back of booming business for the genre and is all about the star, not the roots music supposedly at the project’s heart
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
Click to expand...
I don't even know how much I like the album (the sheer number of interludes announcing this is a country album are a bit tiring) but this feels like an ungenerous assessment. It's more focused on the media narrative surrounding the album, the fact that it's a pop album which centers the pop star, and who they wish worked on it; when you hit the final two paragraphs and the author admits they know very little about the process behind the recording I'm wondering what they're actually addressing in the music itself.
 
Radar List, 5th April 2024
  • Einstürzende Neubauten — RAMPEN (apm: alien pop music) (Experimental / Avant-garde / Sound Art / Field)
  • BIG | BRAVE — A Chaos Of Flowers (Metal / Noise / Industrial / Extreme)
  • FYEAR — FYEAR (Jazz / Fusion)
  • Adam Wiltzie — Eleven Fugues For Sodium Pentathol (Modern Classical / Ambient)
  • James Rushford — Turzets (Modern Classical / Ambient)
  • Coral Morphologic & Nick León — Projections of a Coral City (Modern Classical / Ambient)
 
Radar 📡 List for 04/05:

The Black Keys - Ohio Player
Bartees Strange - Magic Boy
Khruangbin - A La Sala
Mount Kimbie - The Sunset Violent
Phosphorescent - Revelator
The Reds, Pinks and Purples -
Unwishing Well
Still Corners - Dream Talk
Vampire Weekend - Only God Was Above Us
 
Radar List for 4.5.24


Cedric Burnside – Hill Country Love
Josh Jackson – Unusual Objects
Old 97’s – American Primitive
José James – 1978
Adam Wiltzie – eleven fugues for sodium pentothal
Various – Imaginational Anthem Vol. XIII : Songs of Bruce Cockburn
A Lily – Saru l-Qamar
John Moreland – Visitor
Anoushka Shankar – Chapter II: How Dark It Is Before Dawn
Sheila E. – Bailar
Acid Mammoth – Supersonic Megafauna Collision
Katie Pruitt – Mantras
MДQUIИД. – PRATA
Matthew Shipp Trio – New Concepts in Piano Trio Jazz
Marv Won – I’m Fine Thanks For Asking
Einstürzende Neubauten – Rampen (apm: alien pop music)
Sinkane – We Belong
Ivo Perelman Quartet – Water Music
Temple of the Fuzz Witch – Apotheosis
Vampire Weekend – Only God Was Above Us
 
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