New Music Thread

Here's a mini-review followed by a not-so-mini review. 

Charli XCX - how i'm feeling now - 7/10

Mixing art and pop as hard, since the nature of art is to be innovative, original, and challenging, with a level of craftsmanship that's often only appreciated with time; while the nature of pop is to be catchy, immediate, and fun, with a level of insouciance that sounds easy and natural. On this album, Charli XCX vacillates between these two paradigms with often mixed, but always interesting results. Personally, I'm finding the tracks where she leans more towards pop the more satisfying here. "enemy" is another entry in the contemporary trend of awesome 80s pastiches, with its moody, echo-drenched (likely synthesized) guitar and bass; while "anthems" is driven by an appropriately epic, staccato electronic pulse. I also like the strangely hypnotic "party 4 u," a track where the lyrics seem bizarrely out of whack with the beautiful, even poignant, music.

Still, I find myself ambivalent towards much of the album's first half, which often sounds like it was scored for a malfunctioning Space Invaders arcade game. "pink diamond" is one of those songs that's just too cool by half, ending up being as inconsequential as it's trying to sound indifferent. "forever" is a track where the electronic experiments seems to clash most with the poppy lyrics and vocal melody. However, when these two elements come together well the results can be stunning. "c2.0" is the album's best mix of fritzing electronic soundscapes, 80s atmosphere, and catchy vocals. It's also the album's most surprising and dynamic track, in which, at one point, the music fades out, leaving an electronicized vocal repeating "clique" until the vocal is rejoined by a bass line, subtle synth, and eventually Charli's catchiest vocal line on the album.

Despite the complaints, I'd still say this is Charli's best album to date, though part of me still prefers the more pop-oriented Sucker, which, though not very artful, was certainly hella fun. It's definitely an improvement over last year's Charli, which attempted a similar meshing of art and pop and came out neither fish nor fowl.

Hayley Williams - Petals for Armor - 9/10

I'm imagining a world where Hayley brought this album to a record company and said "you know how Paramore fans love big guitars with bold hooks and belting vocals? What if I did the exact opposite of that?" Rather than being Paramore with a twist, Petals for Armor is closer to Radiohead and Bjork, but with an ear for consistent, if understated, pop hooks. Two things stand out on the album: one is the atmosphere, which is intoxicating in its intimate minimalism, often carried by little more than warm bass hooks; skittering, slightly off-kilter drum patterns; and mellow, jazzy guitar chords; two is how consistently excellent it is despite the hefty ~56 minute runtime. It's also an extremely subtle album, one that requires your full attention to absorb without commanding it, or being overbearingly dense in the way much progressive music is.

One of the most satisfying things about the album is how the artier elements often effortlessly transition into its pop hooks. Take Cinnamon, where Hayley's tribalistic opening vocals are supported by an odd drum patterns that accents the 1 and 2, but then pauses before accenting the "and-3-and-4" beats. The verse mutates the tribal vocals into exotic, electronic harmonies, while the drums vary the patterns--now shuffling, now skipping an accept, now accenting with a different drum. The bass is late to enter, and tries to provide a funky foundation, but is illusive and elusive about doing so... until the chorus hits, and everything lines up with a traditional 4/4 beat and consistent bass line and Hayley's seductively delivered chorus; and this is just one example in album full of such brilliant touches.

Like everything else here , Hayley's vocals are a thing of restrained beauty, frequently whispered, spoken, cried, and with dozens of colorful inflections that paint a rich, multi-varied portrait of the all-too-human suffering she's often writing about. In a way, the music's attenuated intensity is at odds with the lyrics, but on the opener Simmer Hayley probably hints towards what she's aiming for here: "Rage is a quiet thing / You think that you've tamed it / But it's just lying in wait," and indeed there is an underlying menace to the music that so often seems coiled like a viper waiting to strike. Later in the same song she sings: "Oh how to draw the line between wrath and mercy?," and again the music can be seen as an analog in trying to find that middle ground.

But I fear I'm painting the album as something so serious and artful that it's lacking in fun. In fact, the album also has plenty of straight-up bangers, especially in the album's middle and ending sections, that provide pure ear candy oases. Over Yet's chorus is another pure-80s homage, with its funky bass, 16th-note hi-hat work and echoing synths (though even on this track, the jazzy bridge adds a touch of sophistication). Pure Love is similarly driven by a funk bass and atmospheric, muted guitars until the chorus hits with its shimmering synths and arguably the catchiest vocal melody on the album; though it definitely has a challenger in Watch Me While Bloom, perhaps the most straight-forward funk track here, but still with multiple allusions to other genres, especially during the spacey bridge.

If I had to pick one track to call the album's masterpiece it would be the multi-layered Why We Ever. It starts as a slow, sexy, and sensual R&B jam--pleasing, if not particularly profound; but around the 2-minute mark the music fades, transitioning with Hayley's wearied vocals. In its place is a delicate, lingering piano, recorded with a demo-like immediacy, so close you can hear the keys being pressed, over which Hayley's vocals enter with a quiet intensity, mixing pain, regret and wistfulness, repeating "sorry... I just want to talk about it," until they eventually fade into nothingness.

I'm a sucker for tonally complex music, and Petals for Armor is nothing if not tonally complex. Every track is a mix of moods, often ineffable, delivered with a level of subtlety and sophistication that's incredibly rare in pop music, and requiring patience and sensitivity on the part of listener to really absorb. In retrospect, the reason I didn't care for the singles is simply because this isn't a singles album. As good as individual tracks are, they are magnified exponentially in the context of the album, especially when you allow yourself to sink into its atmosphere and tune into its progressions of moods and feeling. The end result is about as rewarding both intellectually and emotionally as pop music gets.

Carly Rae Jepsen just dropped Devotion Side B. Can't wait to give the whole thing a listen tonight:

New Lady Gaga is out:



I suspect opinion will be divided between those who appreciate the return to her electro-disco dance-pop roots and those who are disappointed at the lack of musical diversity and experimentation she showed on her last two albums. Count me in the latter camp. Though I definitely enjoyed Gaga's first two albums, that minimal, repetitive style only worked because of the sheer force of her personality (or persona) and the strength of her hooks, and when you have hooks as massive as Paparazzi and Born This Way you could probably score it to wet farts and it would still be a hit. The new album isn't without hooks or personality, but both are nowhere near the level of The Fame or Born This Way, so it just ends up revealing the music for being as superficial and monotonous as it is. It's still an album I can put on an enjoy, but unlike most all the other female pop albums this year--Charli XCX, Hayley Williams, Carly Rae Jepsen--this one just leaves a bland aftertaste. It's a shame, too, because I really enjoyed the direction she'd taken on Art Pop and Joanne, even though neither produced any massive hits they're the kind of albums that repay repeat listens because of the diversity. Joanne, especially, felt like Gaga finally starting to get personal, while Chromatica seems like a retreat back to a persona that she's really grown out of.

Of course, I suspect this means it will be a big hit, and it's already a critical success, so what the hell do I know?

Yeah, Paramore began as a pretty bland emo band, developed into a really good pop-punk band, but then the Farro brothers left and it was basically Hayley and Taylor York doing the music and they turned Paramore into a pure pop act, and a really damn good one. I think After Laughter competes with Riot! for their best work, and they're so different it's hard to compare. Their self-titled has one of my favorite songs of this century in Ain't It Fun too. I was really interested in hearing what they'd do after After Laughter. Hayley going solo was a surprise, but it turned out to be a really pleasant one.