Brand New Music
Teyana Taylor | K.T.S.E.
The last of Kanye’s month-long roll out of new G.O.O.D. music we end up with a record that seems incomplete. Starting off strong with sultry, smooth R&B with Taylor’s incredible vocals, the ending goes against the albums namesake (Keep The Same Energy) and really fades quickly. Overall, however the record does a great job in pulling samples from the past 5 decades of soulful R&B which creates a great couple tracks of late night jams. More than all of this, even removed from the media circus that Kanye brought to these projects, what we’re left with is a record that highlights the talents of a singer that has been chronically overlooked for too long.
Let’s Eat Grandma | I’m All Ears
Showcasing the full effect that their youthful exuberance has on their music and recording process, I’m All Ears is a remarkable record about truly abandoning fears and leaping headfirst into the unknown. Although they suffer at points of fits of overindulgence, Let’s Eat Grandma rarely misses their mark. Like a kaleidoscope turning both randomly and in complete unison both Rosa Walton and Jenny Hollingworth work to create an infectious and creative record that moves, after repeat listens, from being merely intriguing to simply irresistible.
Gorillaz | The Now Now
Instead of creating swampish, generic hip hop beats we find Gorillaz on The Now Now making a solid 11-tracks of Pop that exudes energy and passion. Their abundance of ideas does not see the group fall into genre hopping either. While sticking mainly to this electro-pop feel, this is the Gorillaz most straightforward record to date. Stripped down from their normally guest-laden LPs it’s easy to lose sight that the record was rushed out to fit into festival season. Clearly not as legendary as Plastic Beach or Demon Days, it’s still a very good Gorillaz record.
Florence + The Machine | High As Hope
There’s an ability that Florence Welch has that makes her singing style stand out from her peers. Her knack for shifting gears effortlessly from melancholic softness to high-octane exultation is incredible. Even isolating her vocals you can hear this change be made with such grace that the backing tracks are almost unneeded in creating an emotional song. Combine this ability with her reflective writing style with it’s solid roots in the present, and you get an artist singing and performing with a graceful clarity about life’s biggest questions. Figuring it all out side-by-side with her fans in both the loud and the quiet moments.
Also Out Today…
Drake | Scorpion
Jim James | Uniform Distortion
John Coltrane | Both Directions At Once: The Lost Album
