Table of Contents:
- Beth Gibbons – Lives Outgrown
- Cameron Winter – Heavy Metal
- Charli xcx – BRAT
- The Cure – Songs of a Lost World
- Dua Lipa – Radical Optimism
- Geordie Greep – The New Sound
- Jack White – No Name
- JPEGMAFIA – I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU
- Judas Priest – Invincible Shield
- Justice – Hyperdrama
- Kendrick Lamar – GNX
- Kim Gordon – The Collective
- MGMT – Loss of Life
- Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Wild God
- Pearl Jam – Dark Matter
- The Smashing Pumpkins – Aghori Mhori Mei
- The Smile – Wall of Eyes
- The Smile – Cutouts
- St. Vincent – All Born Screaming
- Vampire Weekend – Only God Was Above Us
- The Voidz – Like All Before You
- ¥$ – VULTURES 1
- ¥$ – VULTURES 2
Beth Gibbons – Lives Outgrown
Beth Gibbons releases a solo album.
Sixteen years after her last project (Portishead’s krautrock-influenced, Third), Beth Gibbons returns with her first solo outing — an album of dark acoustic chamber music, reminiscent of the works of artists like Nico and John Cale.
Any aging artist will inevitably talk about getting closer to death, though it’s not so much a cliché, but a matter of interpretation that matters here. It brings out a shared vulnerability that we all have in common. Death is a universal component of life that none of us can ever escape, so it’s only fair that we tend to base art around it, as it creeps toward us.
The production of James Ford (Arctic Monkeys’ frequent producer) is stunning and immaculate, and not only that, but he lends his instrumental talents on various instruments throughout the album. The album comprises of almost tribal-like drumming, married to delicate, gorgeous acoustic guitars, as well as other instruments such as viola, flute, dulcimer, Chinese lute and the Hammond organ; it’s very different from Portishead, but you can still connect the dots to her previous work in terms of her lyricism and melodies.
Tell Me Who You Are Today starts the album off on a dour note. Floating on a Moment floats on with its angular pedal steel guitar work. Burden of Life has droning violins and viola, reminiscent of John Cale’s work throughout The Velvet Underground & Nico. I usually despise whistling in music, as it almost always comes across as tacky, but Beth Gibbons manages to even make whistling work on Lost Changes. Rewind takes things into a slightly eastern direction and has some very chaotic moments. Reaching Out displays some of the best drumming on the album. For Sale shows off some stunning resonator guitar work from James Ford, along with haunting strings. Whispering Love ends the album with a slightly more elated vibe and the sounds of birds chirping.
We probably won’t get another Beth Gibbons project for twenty odd years, but this album is layered enough to warrant several re-listens. Lives Outgrown is as strong as anything she’s done with Portishead and dare I say, it might possibly be her best work yet.
10/10
Cameron Winter – Heavy Metal
The Geese vocalist goes solo, on this ironically-titled collection of folk songs.
Following Geese’s 2023 breakthrough album, 3D Country, frontman and vocalist Cameron Winter has released his solo debut album, Heavy Metal, which is anything but — instead, this is a sublime (yet somewhat twisted) collection of singer-songwriter contemporary folk, in the vein of some of his heroes, like Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan.
On the opening track The Rolling Stones, Winter compares himself to the titular band’s Brian Jones, a self-destructive artist who burnt-out fast, but who burnt brightly. The yearning love of Nausicaä (Love Will Be Revealed) references the aforementioned character from Homer’s Odyssey, who is perhaps some feeling that Winter is chasing, but unable to yet grasp onto. Love Takes Miles is a Rolling Stones-coded love song, bringing back the soft, country-adjacent early 1970s sound that ran through much of Geese’s 3D Country. Drinking Age is a sparse piano ballad with some strings and other delicate sounds that contrast Winter’s baritone voice and self-loathing lyrics. The disturbingly-titled Cancer of the Skull contrasts with the cheerful sound of its music. Try as I May sees Winter singing falsetto against electric piano. We’re Thinking the Same Thing implements some strings that give the song some early Velvet Underground flavouring. A beautiful chaos saturates Nina + Field of Cops. Winter’s self-loathing reaches its pinnacle on $0, where he laments of how the subject of his affection makes him feel absolutely worthless, like a “$0 man”, but then he finds salvation in God. The soulful closer, Can’t Keep Anything, has a weird, contradictory cynical optimism to it.
Like on Geese’s 3D Country, Cameron Winter’s vocals may make or break one’s enjoyment of this music, but even then, the rich and vibrant instrumentation should be enough to warrant a listen and it may even be enough to convince you of the artistry and versatility of Winter’s admittedly unique voice. Like a lot of singer-songwriters, the lyrics on Heavy Metal can come off as pretentious, even verging on pseudo-poetic, but for those who see Winter’s vision, they will find nothing but beauty to unearth from Heavy Metal.
A masterpiece of contemporary folk.
9/10
Charli xcx – BRAT
Charli becomes the zeitgeist of summer ’24.
BRAT was simply the biggest album of summer 2024 and it’s easy to see why. From the vibrant production, to the simplistic graphic design and marketing, to the mix of boastful and vulnerable lyrics, as well as the overall confidence exuded from Charli, BRAT was destined to flourish, turning Charli xcx from a critical darling to the popstar to beat.
360 and 365 bookend the album, incorporating similar musical and lyrical motifs, giving the album a conceptual feel, but without them seeing derivative of each other either. Von dutch was the first single off the album, and shows Charli at her most playful and confident. The synths in Sympathy is a knife could cut through metal like a plasma cutter. Mean girls has a terrifically tasteful piano lick. The production in Club classics is like a rollercoaster. Rewind and I might say something stupid show Charli’s introspective and vulnerable side, something an artist like Taylor Swift isn’t artistic enough to do. Girl, so confusing is a self-aware banger about how confusing women are, even to other women. The experimental Everything is romantic is one of Charli’s best songs yet and finds a new use for the same sample found in Ye & Ty Dolla $ign’s VULTURES, which released several months prior.
BRAT is Charli xcx’s magnum opus and one of the best pop albums of the millennium — it’s deserving of all the praise and attention it has gotten.
10/10
Trivia: Brat won Best Dance/Electronic Album at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards.
The Cure – Songs of a Lost World
The Cure returns after 16 years and releases a masterpiece, comparable to their best work.
After a 16 year long hiatus and plenty of delays, the Cure finally release the follow-up to the underwhelming 4:13 Dream, with an album that rivals the band’s best works from the 1980s. A beautiful, brooding melancholy weaves itself throughout Songs of a Lost World and Robert Smith is as depressing as ever, at an age where grappling with one’s mortality becomes increasingly real.
Robert Smith sounds straight out of the 80s here – how his voice hasn’t changed in 40+ years is a marvel and should be studied. Listening to this right after Disintegration, you’d have no idea that 35 years had passed.
Songs of a Lost World features very long intros on every song and where one may feel that this detracts from the album, I find it to be quite the opposite, where these songs are hypnotic and draw you in like a vortex.
Lead single Alone arrived to let fans know that The Cure had been cooking up something real good over the past decade and a half. The drums to Endsong have been drilled into my head since the first listen. Drone:Nodrone feels like a classic Cure rocker. Warsong lives up to it’s name, by painting a sonic battlefield in your head.
Songs of a Lost World is one of the greatest long-awaited comebacks in recent memory and quite possibly their best album alongside Pornogaphy and Disintegration.
10/10
Trivia: Songs of a Lost World won Best Alternative Music Album at the 68th Annual Grammy Awards.
Dua Lipa – Radical Optimism
Dua Lipa works with Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker.
Four years after her blockbuster hit, Future Nostalgia, which made her a household name and an international popstar, Dua Lipa is back with a new collection of songs, with Kevin Parker of Tame Impala producing most of the album.
Opener End of an Era musically sounds like a continuation of what Kevin Parker was doing on Tame Impala’s super-underrated 2020 album, The Slow Rush, albeit with Dua Lipa vocals. Houdini was a massive radio hit with it’s catchy hook, colourful Kevin Parker production and danceable synths. French Exit has some lovely acoustic guitar et un petit peu de français dans les paroles — er, I mean a little bit of French in the lyrics. And of course, Dua Lipa sings wonderfully across the album (shocker).
Dua Lipa isn’t someone I’d typically listen to, but as a huge Tame Impala fan, I was quite interested in listening to Radical Optimism to see the influence he’d have on the music. Fortunately, the tracks with Kevin Parker’s fingerprints on them are all quite good, but that’s where the problem with this album lies — only 7 out of 11 tracks were produced by Kevin Parker. This isn’t to suggest that the other four songs are bad, but this causes the album to lose some consistency and cohesiveness, with those songs sounding noticeably different from the rest. Had Dua Lipa just had Parker produce the entire thing, it could have been that much better. Or did Dua Lipa not want this album to be more associated with Kevin Parker than herself, the way Parker somewhat overshadowed Melody Protchet on Melody’s Echo Chamber? Regardless, this is a decent pop album that I liked more than I expected to and while it could have been better, it still made for a handful of earworms.
7/10
Geordie Greep – The New Sound
Geordie Greep leaves black midi to go solo.
Leaning further into the jazziness of black midi’s last two albums, like a twisted, Zappa-fied Steely Dan, The New Sound finds Geordie Greep at the height of his powers on this explosive solo debut, which is chock full of impeccable musicianship.
The New Sound is practically a concept album about a hopeless romantic, looking for love in all the wrong places, with all the wrong women. Never before have musings about prostitutes seemed so passionate. vulnerable and full of desire. The music itself is as fiery as the S.T.I.s that the narrator encounters.
The New Sound is a perfect continuation of what black midi spent three albums doing, with one of the most precise, expertly-crafted albums in recent memory.
9/10
Jack White – No Name
Jack White returns to the garage rock of The White Stripes.
Ever since Jack White dissolved The White Stripes, I’ve wanted nothing more but for him to return to that style. Now, I’m not against an artist experimenting and evolving, and I actually quite enjoyed Jack White’s previous solo albums, but I still longed for Jack White to revisit the sounds that made him one of the biggest rockstars in the world, to the garage rock that made me fall in love with the guitar as a kid. That was until No Name, an album that sounds just like vintage White Stripes, from the killer licks to the raw, analog, bootleg-like production, which allows the songs to shine on their songwriting alone. White seemed laser focused on doing what he does best here, giving fans a taste of what they’ve wanted, but without feeling regressive or derivative either of his past either, as these songs sound as inspired as his best work.
No Name was initially given away for free to buyers at Third Man Record locations in Detroit, Nashville and London on a white vinyl with no writing or credits, other than NO NAME. Upon playing, the music (which was obviously Jack White) was then ripped from the vinyl and shared online, creating lots of buzz. About a week or so later, the official name of the album, the song titles and the proper album artwork were all unveiled — genius marketing.
Opener Old Scratch Blues feels as if you’ve been teleported back to sometime between 1999-2001, when Jack White had first cut through the decaying rock music of that day, with something far more genuine and tasteful than the post-grunge and nu metal muck of the time. The chunky distorted guitars of Bless Yourself has Jack White blessing the listener with such a raucous banger. Songs like That’s How I’m Feeling, Morning at Midnight and Missionary all feel like long lost White Stripes classics that White had been hiding inside the Third Man vault. It’s Rough on Rats (If You’re Asking) and Underground see Jack White return to the slide guitar. Archbishop Harold Holmes acts as an instruction to the sharing of the original files of No Name and is backed by a fantastic music video that features John C. Reilly. Bombing Out sounds like it was recorded live with a tape recorder, but the lo-fi production suits it perfectly. The blood-boiling What’s the Rumpus? has Jack White addressing how people have started treating facts like opinions. Number One With a Bullet alternates between frenzy and composure. The bluesy Terminal Archenemy Endling closes the album off on a high.
No Name is the one Jack White album where he allowed himself to sound like The White Stripes again and it ironically ended up being his best and most organic solo record yet.
10/10
JPEGMAFIA – I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU
JPEGMAFIA makes his most concise solo album yet.
Compared to JPEGMAFIA’s past projects, I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU does things a little differently by having (relatively) more conventionally-structured songs and an overall concise tracklist, devoid of the interlude-type songs that have permeated much of his work; on top of that, it’s also his heaviest album, incorporating a rap metal sound throughout.
i scream this in the mirror before i interact with anyone introduces itself with incendiary guitars and crashing cymbals. SIN MIEDO goes from sounding like something you might hear in a club to something you’d hear in a garage. New Black History features Vince Staples and ends with a killer beat switch that only leaves the listener wanting more. don’t rely on other men ends with wailing electric guitar and an orchestra. The Pantera-referencing vulgar display of power is another heavy, guitar-driven track. Exmilitary samples After Laughter (Comes Tears) by Wendy Rene, which was also the backbone of the 1993 Wu-Tang Clan song, Tearz.
JPEGULTRA! features Denzel Curry and goes from jazz to an outro with Spanish guitars. I’ll Be Right There and either on or off the drugs are both sensual, slow jams, with the last three tracks, loop it and leave it, Don’t Put Anything on The Bible and i recovered from this winding the album down with more meditative and gentle timbres and sounds. it’s dark and hell is hot is the only weak spot on the album, with a rather annoying pitch-shifted Spanish voice and an annoying sample that sounds like it’s saying “fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck” repeatedly, though it’s not his worst track ever by any means.
While some fans may feel betrayed by this somewhat straightforward album (by JPEGMAFIA standards), this is still far more experimental than most of his contemporaries would ever dare to be and shows artistic growth through his increased use of metal dynamics. I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU is another superb work from JPEGMAFIA and one of his most concise projects yet.
9/10
Judas Priest – Invincible Shield
Judas Priest releases a career highlight 50 years removed from their debut.
Judas Priest managed to make an energetic callback to their 1980s heyday back in 2018 with Firepower and have managed to continue that momentum with Invincible Shield.
Legendary vocalist Rob Halford shows no signs of slowing down, despite his age. Where many singers with high vocal ranges start gradually losing power over the decades, Halford is still in top form at 73. Like on their previous album, Richie Faulkner (the youngest member by 20-30 years) helps to inject some youthfulness into the band, along with Andy Sneap’s production.
While Invincible Shield doesn’t reinvent the steel, it frankly doesn’t have to. It’s a group of veterans who have spent half a century as pioneers of the genre, showing that they can still be relevant in the modern metal landscape.
8/10
Justice – Hyperdrama
The French dance music duo returns with another batch of groovy tracks, including the Grammy-winning Neverender.
8 years after their last album, Hyperdrama sees French house duo in strong form on this slick dance album that includes killer features from Tame Impala and Thundercat.
The Tame Impala-featuring opener, Neverender, is a tour-de-force and worthy of its Grammy win for Best Dance/Electronic Recording — it’s also one of the best things Kevin Parker has been associated with outside of Tame Impala’s music, as is One Night/All Night, the other Tame Impala feature. Funk-lord, Thundercat appears on the buttery finale, The End. The Daft Punk-like Generator is another highlight.
A fantastic, expertly-produced electronic dance album, which I’d describe as a mix of Daft Punk’s Discovery and Random Access Memories , along with Currents era Tame Impala, mixed-in with Justice’s usual futuristic arsenal of sound. There’s also a good balance between instrumentals and vocal tracks.
Daft Punk may be retired, but at least we still have Justice for top tier French dance music.
8/10
Kendrick Lamar – GNX
Kendrick Lamar settles the debate about who the current G.O.A.T. of rap is.
While Kendrick Lamar’s character assassination of Drake (via several singles earlier this year) may have indicated that a new Kendrick album was on the horizon, nobody knew exactly when an album would actually drop – then out of thin air, it did. The Pulitzer Prize winner continues his winning streak, with a mean, lean sixth album.
Every Kendrick Lamar album since Section.80 has dealt with Kendrick against his environment (him vs. his neighbourhood on Section.80, him vs. his city on good kid, m.A.A.d city, him vs. his country on To Pimp a Butterfly, him vs. the world on DAMN., him vs. himself on Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers) and the thematic narrative continues here, this time with Kendrick vs. other rappers in the industry.
This album is quite antagonistic (as foreshadowed by his Drake diss tracks), but if anyone in the past decade has earned the right to boast about being a true all-time great in rap, then Kendrick is a prime candidate. Drake’s best song couldn’t even rival Kendrick’s farts.
The minimalistic wacced out murals opens GNX with a menacing Kendrick. squabble up even made Obama dance. luther and dodger blue are the album’s sexy R&B jams (like Die Hard, LOYALTY.). man at the garden sounds like a sinister, west coast re-interpretation of Phil Collin’s In the Air Tonight. reincarnated is a 1990s throwback that samples 2Pac. tv off is a return to the sound of the smash-hit Drake diss track, Not Like Us. heart pt. 6 successfully continues the beloved decade and a half-running Heart series, reclaiming the title that Drake attempted to steal during their feud. hey now, peekaboo and gnx all feature compelling beats.
Sure, the album may not be quite as theatrical as Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers and good kid, m.A.A.d city, or as groundbreaking and epic as To Pimp a Butterfly, but what it is, is an album full of bangers and everything we’ve come to expect from Kendrick Lamar. GNX probably has the most in common with DAMN., but that’s not to say it’s derivative of that album. GNX is an (expectedly) great new chapter in the Kendrick Lamar saga.
10/10
Trivia: GNX won Best Rap Album at the 68th Annual Grammy Awards.
Kim Gordon – The Collective
Kim Gordon embraces the abrasion of industrial hip hop and trap.
Back in 2019, Kim Gordon released her first solo album, No Home Record, which showed Gordon embracing her freedom as a solo artist, venturing into new territory like trap and industrial hip-hop, while still retaining the alternative, noise elements she is known for. Five years later, and The Collective leans even harder into its abrasive, dissonant beats.
Released at age 70, Kim Gordon sounds both as wise and youthful as she’s ever sounded, as she criticizes technology and its spell it has over modern society, while also embracing it. This album is a reflection of the hypnosis that our phones have on us (as evident by the cover art) and how so many of us have swapped out oxygen for Instagram and Tik Tok. Some people may reduce the message of the album to “old person doesn’t like technology”, but most people would be shocked if you told them this was the work of a septuagenarian.
Lead single and opener BYE BYE introduces the distorted synths and trap beats, which she began toying with on her debut. Her classic spoken-word vocals sound like they haven’t aged a day since the 1980s. The Candy House mixes 808s and sounds of broken glass. I Don’t Miss My Mind is as nasty as it is blissful and displays Gordon’s knack for weaponizing abstract noise and turning it into avant garde art. I’m a Man may be an attack on her ex-husband/ex-songwriting partner, Thurston Moore, or a playful and satirical take on sexism and gender.
The Collective was quite polarizing, with some listeners seeing the album as adventurous and experimental, where others just see a 70 year old ex-art school student trying to sound like she’s 20 again, but goddamn, what other veteran rocker is doing this type of music and doing it this well?
9/10
MGMT – Loss of Life
MGMT contemplates about life and death on their most mature work yet.
More than half a decade after their last album, 2018’s synthpop masterpiece Little Dark Age, the duo returns with their most mature and introspective work yet — after all, “loss of life” is another way of saying “death”, so you’d expect to stumble into some deep thoughts and revelations here.
In contrast to their first four releases, Loss of Life uses a lot more acoustic guitars, though it still has the usual flourishes of their neo-psychedelic brand sprinkled-in everywhere. These songs are their most emotionally-resonating yet and despite the heavier subject matter, this albums feels positive and cathartic, especially on the epic and moving Nothing Changes. Elsewhere, Mother Nature is one of their most uplifting songs they’ve penned. The delightfully weird Bubblegum Dog features Sean Lennon on keyboards. Dancing in Babylon feels like an ironic take on 1980s pop ballads. The liberating Nothing to Declare features some finger-picked guitar.
MGMT has come a long way since Kids and Time to Pretend and I’m all for this trajectory they’ve been on, even if it takes five years for every album.
9/10
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Wild God
Nick Cave finds joy in life again.
As much as I enjoyed Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds’ masterful 2010s trilogy (Push the Sky Away, Skeleton Tree, Ghosteen), where the musical focus was on texture and ambience, I was also hoping for an eventual return to the rock sound found in their work in the mid to late 2000’s on Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus and Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! Wild God blends together both eras, which results in yet another great album from the legendary Australian band.
Song of the Lake is an optimistic opener, guided by gentle synths and setting itself apart from Cave’s recent works. The title track starts off calmly, but then explodes into a powerful, gospel-backed climax, where Cave urges the listener to “bring your spirit down”. Frogs is another song that elevates the soul. The sparsely-arranged Joy and Cinnamon Horses both sound like Skeleton Tree/Ghosteen era tracks. Conversion brings back the gospel choir climax of the title track, with Cave chanting “You’re beautiful”. O Wow O Wow (How Wonderful She Is) is a lovely ode dedicated to the late ex-Birthday Party and Bad Seeds member, Anita Lane.
This is an emotionally heavy album, especially if you know of the circumstances around it. Nick Cave had lost one son back in 2015 (which was felt on 2016’s Skeleton Tree and 2019’s Ghosteen) and another one in 2022. By the time of the latter’s death, Cave had already dealt with the sorrows of losing one child and I don’t think he was ready to do that a second time, so you can tell this album and its supporting tour were ways to fight those demons and stay positive. I’m not suggesting that this didn’t affect Cave as much this time, but that it might kill him to spiral into that kind of sadness again.
Wild God is a fantastic album for having been released 40 years into the band’s career and an album that seemed necessary and cathartic for Nick Cave to make.
8.5/10
Trivia: Radiohead’s bassist Colin Greenwood played on the album and was on the supporting tour.
Pearl Jam – Dark Matter
Pearl Jam releases their 12th studio album.
Pearl Jam’s previous album, Gigaton, was their worst yet. It was boring and even cringey at times. On Dark Matter, the Seattle rockers sound more revitalized, with much more energy and spirit on display, though it’s still a footnote compared to their classic albums from the grunge era.
There are no surprises here and a lot of the album falls into the category of Pearl Jam album filler, but these songs have far more passion than what was found on their last record, though that’s not saying much.
6/10
The Smashing Pumpkins – Aghori Mhori Mei
The Smashing Pumpkins ditch the synths for guitar and drums.
Following two albums in a row of uninspired and dull synthpop (with the odd guitar track mixed in): the double album Cyr and the triple album ATUM (a combined 200+ minutes of late-era Billy Corgan ego), Aghori Mhori Mei finds the band finally going back to their guitar-heavy sound and no longer wasting the talents of drummer Jimmy Chamberlin or guitarist James Iha.
The music here is the heaviest the band has sounded in years, but Billy Corgan’s voice is still well past its best before date; his vocals are shot and the mixing here makes no attempt to mask it. The singing really brings down an otherwise okay album, but otherwise, this is by far the best project the reformed Smashing Pumpkins have released, though it’s still a far cry from anything the band released in their glory days.
6/10
The Smile – Wall of Eyes
The Smile proves that they are more than just some one-off Radiohead side project.
After six years of radio(head)-silence, The Smile’s 2022 debut, A Light for Attracting Attention, was a welcome surprise. While it wasn’t a new Radiohead album, it featured the two most important and prolific songwriters of that band, as well as Nigel Godrich as producer, so it was a satiating experience for those wanting their Radiohead fix.
Working much faster and efficiently than Radiohead, The Smile was already back with a new batch of songs only two years later. This time around, production was handled by Sam Pett-Davies, who worked as an engineer on Radiohead’s 2016 album A Moon Shaped Pool.
Compared to the band’s debut, Wall of Eyes makes more of a use of atmosphere and texture, with generally slower-paced songs, like the beautifully eerie title track, the intense car-crash song, Bending Hectic (not the first time Thom has discussed his fear of cars) and the ethereal Teleharmonic. There are also tracks like Read the Room and Under Our Pillows, which are both driven by math rock riffs.
An incredible follow-up that sees the trio hone in on their tight musicianship and prove that they are not just Radiohead-lite.
10/10
The Smile – Cutouts
The Smile releases their second album of the 2024.
Fans like myself were already feeling grateful for getting two new albums from Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood in the span of two years, so it came as a complete surprise when the band announced their second release of the year with Cutouts.
In contrast to Wall of Eyes, Cutouts is more about math rock guitar riffing and jamming, like the Windows 95-referencing Zero Sum, the jazzy Eyes & Mouth, and the National Anthem callback, Colours Fly, but like its sister album, it also features plenty of gentler tracks, like Foreign Spies and The Bends era Radiohead sound of Instant Psalm. Don’t Get Me Started verges into TOOL-like prog rock territory. The string-laden Tiptoe could be an outtake from Radiohead’s A Moon Shaped Pool.
Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood seem to have a renewed vigour since working together, pumping out 31 great songs since 2022 under The Smile. At this point, I’m nearly just as excited for a new album from The Smile as I am from Radiohead and considering anything new from their other band is unlikely to be released any time soon, there’s solace in knowing that The Smile is here.
10/10
St. Vincent – All Born Screaming
Annie Clark goes Industrial.
Annie Clark reinvents herself again, this time with her darkest and moodiest music yet. There’s Nine Inch Nails-like industrial touches all over the album (albeit far less abrasive, depressing and nihilistic), especially on singles Broken Man and Big Time Nothing, the latter of which is also reminiscent of U2’s 1993 single Numb. Then there’s Violent Times, which sounds like it could have been a James Bond theme song.
Two of the Foo Fighters show up here (Dave Grohl and their new drummer Josh Freese), lending their talents to the album’s hard rock sound. The first half of the album definitely has a harder edge and features all the singles, whereas the back half is a bit more in line with Clark’s infatuation with Talking Heads-like art rock (after all, she did a collaboration album with David Byrne in 2012).
The second half of All Born Screaming is slightly weaker than the first half and mostly seems to abandon a lot of the industrial influence, but the overall project is still good and sits comfortably in the the company of St. Vincent’s other albums.
8/10
Vampire Weekend – Only God Was Above Us
Vampire Weekend returns with one of their best albums yet.
Few would have thought it was possible for Vampire Weekend to surpass or even match 2013’s Modern Vampires of the City, but I think they just might have here with Only God Was Above Us.
Five long years after the extravagant Father of the Bride (which was basically a Ezra Koenig solo album), comes a far more concise Vampire Weekend album. This time, the group adds some dissonance and neo-psychedelic elements to the mix and to great effect, with psychedelic guru Dave Fridmann contributing to the album’s mix.
The curiously-titled Ice Cream Piano starts the album off with chaos. The band adds a new song named after a woman (continuing on from Diane Young and Hannah Hunt) with Mary Boone. Connect dances along with a cascade of piano notes. Classical is a classy, jazzy affair. Capricorn is a new theme song for those of us (like myself) born between late December and early January. The guitar work across the album is also quite fascinating, like on Prep-School Gangsters and Gen-X Cops. The Surfer is another highlight, with its psychedelic slacker sound.
Only God Was Above Us is a brilliant return after five years and is tied with Modern Vampires of the City as my favourite Vampire Weekend album.
10/10
The Voidz – Like All Before You
Julian Casablancas ❤ autotune.
The Voidz’ last album, Virtue, was deemed by many listeners to be one of the strongest albums from Julian Casablancas in years and was considered a major improvement over The Strokes’ 2010s output (though those albums are definitely underrated). This was followed by that band’s The New Abnormal in 2020, which saw the Strokes back on top of the world, with what was easily their best album since their seminal 2001 debut, Is This It. With The Voidz’ third album, Like All Before You, Julian Casablancas brings back the autotune vocals of his 2013 Daft Punk collaboration, Instant Crush, much to the dismay of his fans.
Two instrumentals, Overture and Walk Off (Outro), bookend the album, but are rather superfluous — the most bizarre thing though, is that Overture was released as a single, but I suppose that the Voidz aren’t supposed to be your typical band. Square Wave starts off sounding like The Cure, then gives way to unintelligible autotune vocals, which will become a staple throughout the rest of the album. Lead single, Prophecy of the Dragon plays like both an homage and satire of hair metal, with a riff similar to Ozzy’s Crazy Train, but different enough to be it’s own beast. 7 Horses dances around a reggae beat. Spectral Analysis is a drumless piece that kind of meanders. Flexorcist incorporates a groove that recalls New Order’s Bizarre Love Triangle and was another single released to promote the album. Perseverance–1C2S is a moodier piece and features a killer guitar solo. All the Same uses plenty of autotune and while it’s not the best track on the album, it’s playful and fun. When Will the Time of These Bastards End makes the “interesting” stylistic choice of pitch-shifting Casablancas’ voice to sound much deeper, sounding like Dracula.
Many fans seemed to have made up their minds about the album before it even released, due to the use of AI artwork on the cover. This, mixed with Julian Casablancas insistence on using autotune (a stylistic choice, as he has already proved that he’s an excellent vocalist) left many listeners feeling betrayed and letdown. What began as a very jarring listening experience, has evolved into more than just a guilty pleasure. It’s not great and has its flaws, but Like All Before You is an interesting album all the same. That shoddy A.I. artwork sucks though (the composition of the eyebrow makes no sense).
7.5/10
¥$ – VULTURES 1
Ye forms an unpronounceable duo with Ty Dolla $ign.
Vultures 1 got a lot of hate when it came out and it wasn’t just from detractors, but from fans as well, but to be perfectly honest, a lot of the criticisms felt like they were aimed at Ye and his controversial statements and not at the music itself. To be fair, Ye has said some pretty controversial things in the past couple of years (even by his standards), but that has little to do with the music found here on VULTURES 1.
STARS opens up the album in dramatic fashion, followed by the soulful KEYS TO MY LIFE and TALKING, the latter of which features Ye’s daughter North. PAID is a bit similar to the Life of Pablo cut, Fade, except with an interpolation of The Police’s Roxanne briefly thrown-in. BURN, should please old school, chipmunk soul Ye fans, those who long for simpler times, when Ye was just focused on making music and wasn’t such a controversial figure yet.
Songs like PAPERWORK and CARNIVAL evoke a somewhat more industrial Yeezus-like sound. BACK TO ME is built around a Jay & Silent Bob dialogue sample that works surprisingly well. VULTURES acts as a fitting theme song for the project and as a mission statement for the duo, with dynamic synthesizers throughout. BEG FORGIVENESS is an epic ballad and one of the best cuts on the entire album. GOOD (DON’T DIE) was unfortunately removed due to an uncleared Donna Summer sample, which is a shame, because it was a great song and showed a softer side to this era of Ye — fortunately, I bought and downloaded the album before it was pulled.
Unlike many Ye albums since The Life of Pablo, V1 was released with no post-release changes and had plenty of variety and the trademarks we’ve come to expect from Ye. Fortunately, the album tends to avoid most of the controversial opinions Ye was uttering prior the album’s release, though people will still target the album without even listening to it. Like most Ye albums since the College trilogy, haters are going to hate and will take years to admit that they like the album, but that’s not the case for me, as I enjoyed V1 upon my first listen and subsequent listens have only reaffirmed my stance.
VULTURES 1 is ridiculously over-hated, with people taking out their hatred for Ye, and his views on the music itself.
10/10
¥$ – VULTURES 2
¥$ actually follows-through with a sequel to the first VULTURES album.
If you thought that VULTURES 1 was hated, the hate for VULTURES 2 took hatred to a whole new level of contempt and disdain. People were acting like this was the second coming of Corey Feldman’s Angelic 2 the Core, but this is instead another decent Ye collaboration, full of interesting production and sampling and contradictions between faith and sin. Sure, it might not be of the caliber of some of his greatest works, but it still packs some gems.
SLIDE is built around a sample of the THX music. which makes for a hell of an opener. TIME MOVING SLOW is a heartfelt, piano-based song. FIELD TRIP samples the legendary drums from Portishead’s Machine Gun. FRIED sees the return of the hooligans from the previous volume’s CARNIVAL. On LIFESTYLE, the duo utilizes the famous drums from Led Zeppelin’s When the Levee Breaks, which has been a classic drum loop since the first Beastie Boys album. 530 sees the debut of a song originally intended for DONDA 2, with this version originally having a mumbled verse from Ye on the second half, but that has fortunately been fixed since the album’s initial release. SKY CITY is another holdover, this time from JESUS IS KING and is a beautiful, soulful song. RIVER and MY SOUL are two other songs that sound like they could have fit on JIK or Donda, helping to balance the album’s more vulgar songs with songs of faith.
The only truly terrible song here is BOMB, which is easily the worst song from any of Ye’s projects; it seemed more like it was just Ye letting his daughters have a contribution on the album. There’s also HUSBAND, which is more tolerable, but also meandering and cheesy, and ISABELLA, which is an unnecessary 9 second interlude that doesn’t serve much of a purpose.
Critics and the public alike have been acting like VULTURES 1 and VULTURES 2 are not only amongst the worst albums of both Ye or Ty Dolla $ign’s careers, but of the entire decade, but would they really be hating them this much if not for Ye’s recent outbursts on Twitter? Are so many people really unable to separate an artist from his opinions? None of these songs promote hate, yet people would lead you to believe that these songs are absolutely vile, yet they are more innocuous than most of the rap music out there. Sure, compared to V1, V2 was admittedly a bit rushed and was released in an unfinished state, (which resulted in months of updates and fixes) and Ye reportedly used A.I. modulation to finish some of his verses, but there is still plenty to like about VULTURES 2, despite its haphazard release.
7.5/10
FIN
Brett Nippard
