Cupcake - Ephorize. Holy shit. I don't remember the last time I truly, deeply, honestly laughed out loud at music. Maybe some old Eminem or something. But in this age of super serious rap like Kendrick and super terrible brag garbage like Migos, this style of over-the-top hilariously raunchy rap is amazing and refreshing. I mean, dirty. Like someone ate only spoiled curry and drank Strawberry Kiwi Mad Dog and then vomited in the center of Bourbon Street, directly on a pile of horse manure, which then sat in the sun for a week before it was placed on your pillow. Dirty. "Spoiled Milk Titties" literally just made me laugh out loud and then look around my office to see if anyone else had heard that so that we could discuss. And "Duck Duck Goose," similarly nasty as they wanna be. Funny stuff. Her top song on Spotify ("Deepthroat," with 16.7 million streams) isn't in this album, so I have to give you "Cartoons," which only has 738k.
Justin Timberlake - Man in the Woods. This is not a good album. Just going to get that out of the way first. "Flannel" sounds like JT accepted a bet to make a non-denominational Christmas song in the style of the Fleet Foxes. The rest of these songs are perfectly pleasant milquetoast pop tunes with Timberlake's effortlessly great voice bopping along with them, but nothing on here even sniffs the songs on FutureSex/LoveSounds. It is also over an hour and 16 songs long. I hate what streaming numbers are doing to the world. "Midnight Summer Jam" is not a jam. In fact, none of these tracks are really great dance tracks. They might have some bass, and some trappy hi-hats, but nothing ever actually launches here. "Say Something" has promise, combining Timberlake with Chris Stapleton's soulful voice, but its just a generic acoustic strum over a generic beat combined with uninteresting lyrics. Boring. "Filthy" is the top single with 37 million streams, so here you go.
Black Panther Soundtrack. I am excited for this movie - my son keeps mentioning it and so I have kept it at the forefront of my brain for the past few months. Ought to be another good one in the Marvel line of flicks. So this soundtrack has been "curated" by Kendrick Lamar, which apparently means that he just got all of the Top Dawg Entertainment artists to give him a track and slapped them all together to make the album. Not really that blatant, but you definitely have SZA, Schoolboy Q, Jay Rock, Ab-Soul, and many others on here who might be part of TDE. There are a few good tracks on here, but I'd say that it is very uneven. I also don't much care for SZA or The Weeknd, and those two artists bookend the album with Kendrick collaborations that are alternative R&B stuff I don't really need to hear anymore... But of course the rest of the world loves SZA with passion right now, so that track is the top one on here my a million miles. 87 million streams for "All the Stars."
Franz Ferdinand - Always Ascending. Funny thing, I heard the first single from this album the other day on the radio and mentally thought - oh, this must be a new Arcade Fire song. That was followed by the thought - oh, no, maybe this is an old Velvet Underground tune? Which was followed by the thought - shit, is this Franz Ferdinand? Sweet. Here is that first single, the album opener, and title track of the disc.
Anyway, so what did you hear at the opening of this tune? Lou Reed-fronted Velvets? Me too. Then when the disco kicks in? Total Arcade Fire track. Then the chorus is pure old school Franz Ferdinand. I fully enjoy this tune. Same with several of the other ones, like "Paper Cages" or "Lazy Boy," or "Finally," but then I hit a pretty big speed bump with the boring, treacly, "The Academy Award." Annoying song, bad sound, whiny sounding. With the groan-inducing, oft-repeated line, "The Academy Award for Good Times goes to yooooouuuuuuu." I like the groove of "Lois Lane" as well. But as a cohesive album, I just wish that they would have more fun. Feels like too much of this is spent plodding along with a hint of their old disco jam party selves, but never fully getting out of that Lazy Boy.
(see what I did there?)
2 comments:
ChVrches FOREVER!
They sound different than anyone else, and I always am more excited to hear on of their songs than I expect to. They are bad ass.
Franz Ferdinand's is definitely disappointing...and i LOVE me some FF. Their first few albums are pop gold. Just hooks on top of hooks and clever lyrics. That Academy Award song matches the Killers' awful "The Man" lyrics, but without the cool music. Shake yourself Franz!!!
I love Justin Timberlake in a way that makes my wife uncomfortable...but yes, this album is milquetoast. Remember his first few albums? they were dope!
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