A$AP Rocky – Don’t Be Dumb
A$AP Rocky finally returns after an eight year gap.
Since 2018’s TESTING, listeners have been eagerly awaiting A$AP Rocky’s follow-up album, to the point that it had become the thing of legends — but, after eight long years and plenty of delays later, Don’t Be Dumb is finally out.
On Don’t Be Dumb, A$AP Rocky throws a bunch of different genres at the wall to see what sticks, making for a fascinating, albeit incohesive album — one that feels more like a traditional rap album with some experimental moments, but when he does experiment, the results are mostly good.
ORDER OF PROTECTION is a pretty tame opener, acting more like an intro, which then takes us to HELICOPTER, which feels like something N.W.A might have made back in the late 80s (808 cowbell and all). NO TRESSPASSING, STOP SNITCHING and STOLE YA FLOW are all menacing bangers. STFU is one of the most interesting and experimental songs here, sounding a bit like a Death Grips track. AIRFORCE (BLACK DEMARCO) is an electronic song that also evokes some Death Grips, until it slows down and sounds closer to something like Purple Rain. ROBBERY sounds like something you’d hear in a 1920s speakeasy. PUNK ROCKY is best described as an indie rock song, making it the biggest outlier on the album — in fact, I’d love to see an entire album in this style from a major rapper — well, as long as it doesn’t end up like Lil Wayne’s Rebirth.
WHISKEY (RELEASE ME) is listenable up until the last minute, where there are several annoying ad-libs (“boo-boo-boom!”, “skrrrrrrrrrrrt!”, “doot doot doot doot”, etc.), and there’s a few boring R&B slow jams, like STAY HERE 4 LIFE, PLAYA and DON’T BE DUMB / TRIP BABY.
It could have leaned harder into the experimental angle and it didn’t really live up to eight years of anticipation, but Don’t Be Dumb was still a decent listen with some solid experiments.
70 / 100
Charli xcx – Wuthering Heights
Charli experiments with an orchestra on this brilliant and ambitious film soundtrack.
Released as the soundtrack to the newest film adaptation of Emily Brontë’s famous and controversial work, Wuthering Heights sees Charli xcx experimenting with orchestral instruments and noise on this compelling work, which is so much more than just a mere soundtrack.
The opening track, the gothic and haunting House, which features spoken-word vocals from John Cale of The Velvet Underground, minimal instrumentation and a distorted industrial climax, was an incredibly bold choice for a single, let alone the first single since Charli xcx’s critically and commercially successful BRAT era, only two years prior. This song sees a surreal combination of two musicians whom are separated by half a century of age, and from different generations and completely opposing ends of the musical spectrum, but sees Charli thinking outside of the box of pop confines by having sought out a collaboration with such an artist in the first place, seeking a sound that was both elegant and brutal (as John Cale had described VU). Considering John Cale’s production work with the late German chanteuse Nico and with New York City punk rocker Patti Smith (on her seminal 1976 album, Horses), he’s had a legacy of working well with women.
Chains Of Love was a slightly more conventional single that followed House only a few days later, but is no less rich or exquisite. Wall Of Sound is appropriately-titled, with a wall of strings that push up against Charli’s vocals. Dying For You and its delayed synth intro feel like something Kate Bush would have made in the 1980s. Altars is a grandiose romantic ballad with a sensual drum beat. Eyes Of The World sees an appearance from singer/actress Sky Ferreira. Funny Mouth is an epic closer, with some intense industrial flourishes.
Charli promised that her next album would be the anti-BRAT — and this does fit the description, as the instrumentation on Wuthering Heights is primarily vintage, rustic and a little bit industrial, so it doesn’t feel much at all like BRAT, though it does still feel 100% like Charli. There are still flavours of 1980s revivalism throughout the album, and no other song gets quite as dark and strange as House, but this is far more experimental than most pop artists would ever dream of being. If Charli’s goal was to make an album that was both elegant and brutal, I’d say she succeeded. Every track here was immaculate and theatrical and I love seeing pop artists be this adventurous and unpredictable.
Charli xcx’s Wuthering Heights works very well as a standalone album, something many soundtracks fail to do, and while I’m yet to see this music in the context of the film, I can still say that this has the potential to become one of the memorable film soundtracks of all time — that’s how great it is.
100 / 100
Megadeth – Megadeth
Megadeth releases their final album.
The final album from Dave Mustaine’s Metallica-spite machine, simply titled Megadeth, finds the metal pioneers giving one last hurrah before bowing out after four decades of ass-kicking thrash metal
Tipping Point was a strong lead single that has Megadeth still sounding fierce and fiery. Let There Be Shred shows that age hasn’t slowed down Dave Mustaine’s ability to shred. The album ends with a re-recording of the 1984 Metallica song Ride The Lightning, which Dave Mustaine had co-written while still in the band. It obviously sounds inferior to Metallica’s version, but it’s still nice to see Dave returning to one of his songs that preceded Megadeth.
Yes, Mustaine’s lyrics can be cheesy and his vocals aren’t what they once were, but this is Dave Mustaine, a man who was always known more for his shredding than his lyrics or singing. Even then, considering both the throat cancer that he battled at the start of the decade and his age (64 as of writing), Mustaine’s voice could have sounded much worse.
Megadeth may not be the grand and epic finale that many fans may have envisioned or wanted, but it’s Dave Mustaine doing what he does best and going out on his own terms and it’s still a respectable ending to one of metal’s most legendary bands.
70 / 100
FIN
Britain Chambers
