Category: Music Reviews

Where do I even start? 

Fetch the Bolt Cutters: by far Fiona Apple’s kookiest musical statement yet and arguably her finest? The vocal/acapella diversity and sound editing in Fiona’s voice is more expansive than ever. The rhythm patterns are so retaliating this time around and they alternate with such a rapid, off-guarding persona. The variation of instrumentals are—similar to each succeeding Fiona Apple project—more unpredictably charted than ever before. It’s so priding how forward and embracive Apple is in this album about her past trauma in unambiguous specifics; it’s abnormally inspiring and persuasive unlike a majority of albums I’ve heard before. This is not to say though that her metaphorical and literary abstractions aren’t also gripping and resourceful in the LP too; they’re just as understanding as her material storytelling. She’s taking insult after insult of what she’s received throughout her extensive stay on Earth and spitting them back out in entirely new meanings that make you rethink the common criticisms of the human individual and whether or not they’re actually still valid from the unique perspective of Ms. Apple. 

If I’m being honest, Fiona Apple’s projects are usually remarkable, and debatably, you could probably use most of the descriptions I’ve just listed above as means to illustrate her past LPs. But in spite of me expecting nothing but the best with this new album of hers, I’m still, believe it or not, shocked by how f***ing incredible Fetch the Bolt Cutters is. About 77% of the songs on this LP I could imagine myself listening to INFINITE amounts of times on their own—and that’s a damn rare compliment coming from me about a singular album. As of now, I can’t see 2020’s musical scene getting any richer than this. 

Track recommendations—brace yourselves, it’s going to be nearly the entire LP: I Want You To Love Me, Shameika, Fetch The Bolt Cutters, Under The Table, Relay, Newspaper, Ladies, Cosmonauts, For Her, and On I Go. 

Verdict: A- 

“Fetch The Bolt Cutters” is now available to stream on most other musical platforms, as well.

If you were to tell me around 4 years ago that the internet enigma Poppy would become an experimental alt/pop/hard rock/EDM/metal musical sensation in the near future, I would’ve laughed so damn hard at you. 

Pity me and my ignorance. 

In 2017 Poppy released her first LP Poppy.Computer (if you don’t count her strictly pop-oriented 2015 album under a different artist’s name) and in 2018 she released the harder side of her persona with her album Am I a Girl? Both albums unquestionably had songs I relished and some standout, in-your-face stylistic choices that intrigued me, but I wouldn’t say the albums consecutively won me over.

Fast-forward 1 year later. The end of a decade: 2019. Poppy releases an EP under the title Choke—a 5-track emphasis on her new, mature sound. Not only does the small collection have one of my favorite tracks of that entire year on it, Scary Mask (feat. FEVER 333)—a song with more tonal switch-ups than Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody or Radiohead’s Paranoid Android—but it furthermore reinvented Poppy’s devilishly ludicrous follower vs. satanist journey. The lyrics seemed more constructive and fascinating within the controversial topic, the instrumentals became a lot more inventive than obvious, and Poppy’s light-toned, adorable vocals managed to fit into the metal scene a little more appropriately. 

Now, fast-forward to January 2020. Only a little less than a year later, Poppy has a whole new album out called I Disagree. It’s an album that maturely reconstructs religious conversation (instead of simply repeating the basics like—cough cough—Kanye West’s Jesus is King). It’s a metal, electronic hybrid that will dumbfound the contemporary—and prove that a lot of mainstream 2010s female artists could have sung about much more than just their over-bloated bank accounts and glorified sexualizations.

This is an addictively, head-banging, satanic album that is plausibly about Poppy’s questioning of belief, of her despisement of the norm, and ultimately her polarizing emotions towards the paradox of ultra pro-positive culture—it’s very edgy, indeed. In terms of instrumentals and production design, I would easily describe this as the best one of her three albums. 

The first track Concrete isn’t exactly the most lyrically impressive work Poppy has done in all of her career—and even in those weird-ass YouTube videos. In fact, the weakest point of the LP I would say is her lyrical consistency. Sometimes her very straightforward and elementary lyrics work constructively, in the sense that they are mostly meant to mock predictable phrases, and sometimes they fall flat. The minimal use of the Japanese language in the song I Disagree is frankly needless and cringy, as well. Track 6 or Nothing I Need is a bit of a hit or miss; it feels awfully slow and out of place from the rest of the album, in my opinion. Nevertheless, when it comes down to it though, most of the tracks here are absolute bangers (notably, I Disagree, BLOODMONEY, Anything Like Me, Fill the Crown, Sit/Stay, and Bite Your Teeth) and you can’t argue with that unless you hate to just rock out to inventively executed, rebellious insanity every once in a while.

I Disagree which was the first track to be released by the artist on this album is a solid introduction into Poppy’s ear-catching whisk of cute, adorable tonalities and dismal, vicious lyrical content. BLOODMONEY I’ve said my piece on; it’s a bafflingly mind-blowing track especially in terms of production that ended up on my favorites singles of 2019 list. Anything Like Me is an extremely catchy song that follows a similar formula to Scary Mask in which the style and sound of the song are constantly at war with each other. It’s easily one of the best tracks on this LP and one that has some of the most fruitful production decisions. Fill the Crown is essentially a children’s motivational PSA gone wrong, with some monumental electronic and metal elements that really push forward a sort of a late “Korn” sound, as well as some “Korn-like” lyrical content. 

Sit/Stay is a blatantly Nine Inch Nails inspired track that literally sounds like it could’ve come off of any one of Nine Inch Nails’s three recent EPs (which I consider a good thing) if it weren’t for Poppy’s occasional feathery vocals. Bite Your Teeth sounds like if Metallica meet Disney’s It’s A Small World, so, very appropriate. It has that sort of “parody” vibe going on that tackles the cheesy, motivational lines that we often come by in life when we feel emotionally exhausted. Sick of the Sun can be best described as “casually cynical.” It’s as if the happy instrumentals and vibe of the track are supposed to be normal for such hilariously dark lyrics; it legitimately made me chuckle the first time I heard it. The outro of the LP Don’t Go Outside is a fitting closing track and arguably the most interesting of the 10 songs. It has very harmonious and gorgeous-sounding string-work and some well-organized transitions placed throughout the single. I adore, as well, how the track ends with the lyrical hook of the 2nd track, I Disagree, but sung in a more angelic manner. 

So yeah, I don’t usually review albums, but I thought this one was certainly worth reviewing, because its quality caught me off guard, and considering the hate Poppy has gotten throughout her entire career, I wanted to add some more positive thoughts to the unfortunate mix of hatred Poppy usually receives even in her musical career. All in all…

Poppy’s. I Disagree. Gets. A. Letter. Grade. Of…

Verdict: B+ 

“I Disagree” is now available to stream on most musical platforms.

I went to Earl’s semi-secretive listening party in Los Angeles for Feet of Clay during Halloween evening, and I swear to you, I felt like I was the only dude jamming and totally digging the track EAST. 

Feet of Clay is essentially just an extension of Some Raps Songs, but like, in what world is that a “bad” thing? 

That’s right. In no world. Now excuse me, I need to buy a big-ass poster of the album cover for this because it’s taking the #1 spot for coolest LP artwork of the year.

Verdict: B+

“Feet of Clay” is now available to stream.

Men I Trust, an alt-pop/neo-psychedelia band from Montreal, Quebec, Canada, continues their reign of producing the most heavenly-inspired, borderline Twin-Peaks-porn music there is on the platform by gifting fans of the wildly pacifying and transcending tunes with their brand new 24-track (yes, you heard correctly) album, Oncle Jazz.

A few songs on this LP, to be fair though, have been released before in the past two years; Tailwhip being the band’s most popular single in all their 5-year career and placed slightly behind Tailwhip‘s #1 spot, we also have their exotic hit Show Me How. The atmospherically dynamic piece You Deserve This has been around since 2017 and their more recent single Say Can You Here rides victoriously due to its refreshingly speedy pace. Then comes Numb (my favorite song of the year thus far), Seven, and I Hope to Be Around; the three being my all-time personal favorites of Men I Trust’s entire discography. And last but certainly not least, Norton Commander, being their latest bestseller. The track has nearly a half-million views and was released only four months before the album’s official release.

The weight has been lifted off my shoulders because I can safely say the rest of the tracks on Oncle Jazz are nearly as emblematic or as fruitful as the tracks previously mentioned above. Emma Proulx’s vocals on every single track are so heavenly and divinely presented that many may consider them the closest sound that can convince one into a pure, unalloyed relaxation mode.

Oncle Jazz (the track) is an endearing introduction to the album, in fact, all of the short interludes on the LP are exquisite; this is not limited to tracks like Slap Pie which has an orgasmic bassline and immediately right after, Fiero GT which sounds like it was pulled straight out of Pink Floyd’s The Wall with a Men I Trust touch to it. Poodle Mud would have to be my favorite intermission of the group considering its droopy aesthetic but slight edge and rebellious bassline really adds a neat tonal inclusion to the album.

Found Me, All Night, Pines, and Pierre are definitely the newer standouts on the LP that clearly aim to be the more mature pieces of Men I Trust’s discography; the production sounds grander and more applicable to a wider range of music listeners. These four songs additionally have the potential of becoming smash hits for the band since they embrace their pop recipe with vitality. Found Me reminds me of an 80s synth hit (and a good one at that) with Men I Trust’s usual catchy ballads. All Night takes the band a decade further and presents itself as this mixed mutation of a 90s jazz/pop piece that took its tempo down to a much slower pace in order to produce soporific implications. Emma’s vocals even seem to be a bit more prideful than usual on this track. Pines is an interesting song that has graciously authentic acoustics and an unexpected robotic vocal accompaniment that secretively sounds like one of the legendary robots from Daft Punk. Pierre sees Emma distinctly at her most persuasive and boldly takes the spot as the LP’s primary emotional puller. The instrumentals are dazzling especially when it came down to the involvement of flutes which was a delightful surprise.

Tailwhip Revisited is the only track I would have to say I wasn’t too cheery about on Oncle Jazz. It’s a pointless remix that should’ve unquestionably been replaced with their single Lauren, which I’m still left a tad confused on why it isn’t on the album in the first place. Furthermore, one could argue that a lot of their songs are too tonally similar, and while I do think it’s a fair criticism, I think there’s just enough musical diversion in the album as a whole to justify its extensive mood. It’s hard to argue or deeply critique such a gifted group of individuals who produce some of the dreamiest of dreamy melodies. You simply don’t really witness music like this being crafted anymore in the 21st Century.

Men I Trust are doing what The Beatles did for Rock and Roll or what Madonna did for Classic Pop, but, instead, with Dream-Pop. Yes, indeed; Oncle Jazz will be forever remembered as a quintessential landmark for its genre.

Verdict: A-

“Oncle Jazz” is now available to stream on Spotify, Deezer, Play Music, iHeartRadio, and Apple Music.

Evan Ambrose and Fabian Garcia sit down to talk about BROCKHAMPTON’s sixth studio album GINGER. Cheers.

FG: When I think of BROCKHAMPTON many things come to mind. I think of their unique production, I think of their impeccable gang of rappers and singers, but one thing I don’t usually think of is how they make me feel. GINGER is an album that makes the listener feel. Starting from NO HALO all the way to VICTOR ROBERTS there’s a lot of emotion that emanates from this incredibly introspective record.

FG: Ever since iridescence I’ve been disappointed in BROCKHAMPTON. I didn’t like the album, I miss Ameer, and quite frankly I was tired of the popularity they had gained following the release of the SATURATION trilogy. In the time since the boy band has traveled a fair amount and Kevin Abstract released another solo album to what I would say received a mixed reception. BROCKHAMPTON took the world by storm in 2017 but the year is 2019 and things have changed, for better or for worse.

EA: GINGER is arguably BROCKHAMPTON’s most “mainstream” release yet. The production design can sometimes sound nearly algorithmic within a few tracks that are evidently structured and performed like modern-day radio pop and R&B songs—SUGAR is a prime example of this. With that said though, it’s undeniably the groups most mature in terms of the profound themes that it graciously brings to the table. The lyrical intricacy is there, and the album seems significantly more focused than any LP the massive group has released in all of their career. The whole affair feels like a succession of deep confessions that they’ve been dying to get out about Ameer’s parting and the rough process that occurred during the creation of iridescence.

FG: It’s clear that they went into GINGER with a clear, defined purpose. This is a nice change of pace since iridescence was an incomprehensible mishmash of broken motifs and instrumentals. Regardless of its “mainstream” appeal (whatever that means) many of their unique quirks still manage to bleed through their production. SUGAR is riddled with vocal filters which is something BROCKHAMPTON has continually experimented with since their SATURATION days. Remember this is the brainchild of 13 separate artists all putting their blood, sweat, and tears into a single record. They’re all-inclusive, anything goes. Even if that anything is a little more accessible.

EA: The tracks I’m head over heels about, I am truly and sincerely head over heels about. IF YOU PRAY RIGHT and BOY BYE are endlessly re-listenable; I can’t count how many times I’ve jammed to them aggressively and they arguably have some of the album’s finest verses. DEARLY DEPARTED might end up being the zenith of the album for two reasons: one, the instrumentals are unprecedentedly epic (taking possible influence from Pink Floyd’s earlier works) and two, every single member’s module are exemplars of pure, emotional R&B perfection.

FG: The standout tracks that come to mind for me are definitely NO HALO, BOY BYE, and I BEEN BORN AGAIN. NO HALO sets a much more somber tone for the rest of the record; something that is rare for the group considering all their openers have been high octane bangers. The feature from Deb Never was also very welcoming. On the flipside, BOY BYE needs absolutely no introduction. Dom spitting absolute gibberish in the first portion still manages to sound pleasing and Merlyn’s chorus is endlessly quotable. I BEEN BORN AGAIN kicked off the series of singles leading up to the release of the record and it was incredibly telling for what the record would eventually end up becoming. All the religious undertones they’ve been using have been really interesting and a good indicator that this record is meant to be taken more seriously.

EA: The singles I’m a bit split down the middle about, unfortunately, are some of the LP’s more publicly applicable singles and some of the LP’s fruitier hits. NO HALO, their first track is alright to me. I think it has a lot of greatness going for it; all the members plus Deb Never, who is a solid feature on the track (like Fabian mentioned), share fairly sentimental parts and I’m sure most will be won over by it. When it comes down to it though, there is nothing to the song that sounds distinctive, that makes it stand out; it emulates like a basic bittersweet pop tune. What attracts me to BROCKHAMPTON has always been how divergent they’ve sounded when compared to any other R&B artist or “boy band” out there. I have this concern with a couple other songs on GINGER to an even higher degree. SUGAR, as I mentioned before, sounds frankly uninspired in its instrumental presentation as well as its excessively auto-tuned vocals (sorry Fabian). GINGER—the single, not the album—is like if the Black Eyed Peas and Daft Punk were forcefully contracted to make a song together and both decided that no passion should be devoted to the project because it was just something that the artists were required to do. The instrumentals for LOVE ME FOR LIFE are amateur and the vocal performances have this “on-purpose” laziness to them which just did not sound engaging one bit—except for Merlyn’s part; you go, sir.

FG: In some respects, I can agree with Evan. LOVE ME FOR LIFE isn’t my favorite either. However, I genuinely feel like on most fronts BROCKHAMPTON was trying to challenge themselves on this record. All tracks take a seriously deep look at themselves and the ugliest aspects of their lives. Some of the deeper cuts do fall short in some regards but in its entirety, it’s a meticulously crafted package. VICTOR ROBERTS ties it up affectionately with a beautiful bow; much like the end of a letter, it’s a bitter goodbye to a portion of their lives that they’ll inevitably have to revisit time and time again.

EA: Yes, indeed. I whole-heartedly believe that, in the end, GINGER undoubtedly has more successors than it does duds. I BEEN BORN AGAIN has an interesting structure, and carries some pretty nifty piano key-ins and uses its artificial percussions effectively. Plus, Matt’s verse is tremendously catchy. HEAVEN BELONGS TO YOU is a very haunting intro into ST. PERCY—another track that I went bonkers for considering its simplistic but practical bass line offered a bewitchment to its totality. BIG BOY starts off rough with, again, its excessive utilization of auto-tune, but the track thereon after only gets grander and grander. Victor Roberts portion on…VICTOR ROBERTS…is profoundly written and even more profoundly performed. As negative as this may sound, that track does sort of sound like a Macklemore song, but like a decent Macklemore song, like something like Wing$ from The Heist album.

FG: If I had to give any sort of serious criticism it would be DEARLY DEPARTED. The entire song is really just a harsh criticism of Ameer Vann. On paper, this should be one of the most memorable tracks from the whole record but in reality, it falls flat on its face. From awkwardly flowing verses from Kevin Abstract, to the melodramatic verse from Dom, the track collapses in on itself. Whatever, Emmanuel is out now.

EA: Wow, I see how it is.

FG: That’s a first.

EA: Bitch.

FG: Mhm, sure.

FG: Anyways, GINGER has some of BROCKHAMPTON’S most unforgettable moments. It’s a calculated, well-crafted, introspective piece of work that sits comfortably among the likes of their most acclaimed pieces of work.

EA: I think it’s indeed, fair to say that GINGER outdoes BROCKHAMPTON’s previous LP iridescence. While iridescence did have plenty more “bangers” in its catalog, its unquestionable that GINGER functions as an overall album much more capably. It’s an interesting step in the right direction and one could only hope that the collection will gain them a god-like rise to fame—one that they’ve, for quite some time, deserved.

Fabian’s Verdict: Great

Evan’s Verdict: B

Follow Fabian’s Website – turnoffthebrightlights.blog.com/

“GINGER” is now available to stream on literally everything.