A$AP Ferg - Still Striving. This album came out just before I saw him at ACL Fest, so I had heard it like twice before I went into that show. The crazy thing is that everyone around me at that show was yelling along to this thing like it had been out since the 80's. Crazy as hell. Made for a very fun show, everyone obviously loving these tracks and being very into it when they kicked off. My first few listens of this were not all that impressive, mainly because I think a lot of his collaborators (and almost every track has a guest on it) are pretty weak. But the beats are brawny and hard, and some of the raps are kind of sticky - you keep saying in your mind that the rubber band man is like Usain Bolt because he's running this shit. For example, take "Trap and a Dream," the album opener. The beat, an echoing, ethereal sample of singing is layered with bass and trap clicks and some bells, which adds up to some mighty thump, but then Meek Mill starts his usual braying whiny garbage, and I don't want anything to do with it. Such a bad rapper. Same with Lil Yachty farting around on "Aww Yeah." Just stop ruining things with the bad rappers. But then get a look at "Plain Jane," which is by far the most popular track from this album at 42.7 million streams.
Yeeeaaaahhh. Check that beat, sing along with that chorus, talking shit about stuff being plain jane. Check out his explanation on Genius about what that means:
The last piece I got done with Ben would probably have to be my hood pope chain, which got different color stones in it. I got the infamous Yamborghini piece, the bull with the horns, and the Hermes link with the diamonds in it.
“Plain Jane” means when you ain’t got no diamonds or nothing in it. This represents class to me without all of the diamonds and everything in it. It does have baguettes on the inside of it. When you keep it plain Jane, or OG or somebody that’s very classic, they be like, “Oh, yeah, he didn’t …” You kept the stock rims on your car, that’s what it’s like. You didn’t have to throw the spinners and all of the trinkets on it to make it stand out. You ruin a watch that way. It’s like you buy a car and you just fuck it up with everything else. You buy it stock and keep it that way. The only diamonds that you’ll see on my watch is the ones that come with the watch.
When you add diamonds on to your watch, you lower the value of it. This is like an investment. If I ever go broke, I could really just trade this in and I’ll be good. But once you add the diamonds and you start flooding it out, it just ruins the art. It’s like taking a Picasso and just saying, “You know what, I think I should add green on it.” You don’t need to do none of that. You keep that Picasso the way it is.
Something about that is perfect, man. In this age of adding more and more junk to make things more xxxtreme and better, just get something legit and keep it like it is. "Nasty (Who Dat)" was another that was cool in person and pretty good on the album. I'll just keep the best tracks from this album. And if you have the chance to see this guy live, I'd go do it again. Alvvays - Antisocialites. I really liked their last album, especially the lovely anthem "Archie, Marry Me," and had high hopes for this album as well, but after a handful of listens, nothing on here is too terribly interesting. They are still doing the very sweet indie pop thing that was endearing last time, and I do generally like it here, but its one of those albums that is pleasant as it is playing, and then the next album starts and you struggle to recall anything that you just heard. The top track is "Dreams Tonite," and it will encapsulate all of that for you. 2.9 million streams.
Achingly beautiful, just a lovely track. Would be a great addition to a mixtape of some sweet person you need to woo appropriately, but an entire album of this just washes out your brain for 32 minutes and then is gone. Although I've kind of crapped on it, I'll actually save this one because I think it will work well to offset a lot of my music and relax me in my jamming. Backdoor thumbs up! Just like she likes it! Action Bronson - Blue Chips 7000. If you don't know Bronson, he's a heavy white dude with a vocal like Ghostface Killah and a propensity to rap about food. The best thing about this album are the super chilled out soul sample beats. None of that new school trap-synth-808 bull, this is some real organ and real snare and real guitar lick stuff. Hold on, before I get to the music, let me show you him making sandwiches while very high.
And:
I mean, damn. I actually tried to emulate that second one right there, without the cool bullet salami, by using honey and Sriracha on a leftover meatloaf sandwich that was freaking FIRE. UUNNHHHH!! So, now that we know about how awesome his sandwich making skills are, back to the tunes. The top tune from this album is "Let Me Breathe," which boasts a rad, old school beat and some silly ass lyrics.
That video makes it a little hard to enjoy the song because of the gaps for documentary style funnies. But the beat is good enough to make this a fine popcorn rap song. If that doesn't make you want to lay back the seat in your car and cruise, then you are me are different. No lyrics on any of these songs are changing my life, but a lot of these things make me grin for a sec. Like this one, from the album closer, "Microphone attached to my hand so I can dance my little heart out, Don't make me bring the white guitar out, Like the one in Wayne's World, That was shining in the window." Weird but funny. "The Chairman's Intent" is good stuff too. This will be another where I just keep a few tracks. A$AP Mob - Cozy Tapes Vol. 2. I enjoy me some A$AP Rocky, like Ferg pretty well, and think the Twelvy album is pretty solid too, but this mixtape of the A$AP Mob is pretty piss poor. I can't really tell who is rapping half of the time on these, but the overuse of Autotune is annoying and this is just way too uneven. The top track is called "RAF," which of course stands for Royal Air Force. (not really, you shouldn't trust what I say) 44.6 million streams.
I feel like I just watched a clothing commercial. According to the internet, Raf Simmons is a clothing designer who apparently makes exceedingly unattractive shoes that cost an ungodly amount of money. Go look at this page, where you can spend $500 to get some sneakers that look like something sold at Academy in the early 90's that had Dennis Rodman as the spokesman. No reason to check out this album.
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