album review: 'BUBBA' by KAYTRANADA

I don't know why I didn't review KAYTRANADA’s debut album back in 2016.

I was thinking about it, to be sure: I saw the critical acclaim and going back to 99.9% now I heard the songs that would slip into the jazzier night clubs I liked - hell, he's Canadian, it makes sense that I would have heard him! And yet I'm perplexed that I never took the opportunity to fully explore it - maybe it's the watery blend of bassy funk, off-kilter but colourful keyboards, and more textured percussion that struck a lukewarm note instead of a hot one, but more likely it was my own tentative steps towards R&B where I wasn't as ready for it. Now that's not saying I precisely love the project three years later - it can definitely meander at clocking nearly an hour, and I'm fairly certain I gravitate more to BADBADNOTGOOD's rougher texture or Flying Lotus' eccentricity, but 99.9% was certainly a pleasant listen and one that got me curious to give some real time to the follow-up this December. The guest list looked just as stacked, the construction seemed a bit tighter, and somehow I've hit another year without covering enough electronic music - 2020 should be better, I suspect, stay tuned for more there - but okay, what did we get on BUBBA?

Well… in all due honestly, if I didn’t say in some capacity that I was going to review this in full, it’d be the sort of project I’d probably not cover in a ton of detail or before things changed I would have put on the Trailing Edge. Don’t get me wrong, BUBBA is good enough for what it is: a loose selection of bouncy, mostly organic electronic cuts that don’t wear out their welcome and prove that KAYTRANADA can still deliver… but even putting aside the wait which for me wasn’t even really a thing, I feel underwhelmed by this, where even the moments that spark don’t quite hit as hard as they should here. If I was more cynical I’d say that’s the reason why it’s dropping in early December than in the middle of the summer, in order to satisfy a different set of expectations… but I’m not quite sure it gets there.

So let’s start with the lyrics and the obvious assertion: they don’t matter. That’s not saying that certain artists don’t have fun with them, but the vibe across sexes regardless of singer is where any sort of deeper analysis might slip in: the men are wallowing in flexing hedonism and it’s an open question from song-to-song how well it works or how much control they even have, and the women have some control and idea of what they want, but feel perpetually unsatisfied with what they’ll get. In other words, in both ways there’s not really much of explicit, fulfilling satisfaction or deeper payoff - kind of an ironic metanarrative when it comes to the album as a whole, but I’m not going to get that cute with it. The larger point is that even if you see names like Goldlink or Mick Jenkins, you’re not getting much in the way of depth or insight - hell, with Jenkins you’re not even getting much in the way of bars as he brings his croon-rap side to bear, which is not his strongest lane. I like that SiR manages to hit that balance between cocky hedonism and being likable - something Pharrell can’t nail on his verses even in the best of times and it feels awkward here, especially with some of the splashes of autotune - but as a whole it’s hard to feel like the lyrics add up to much of anything or even that we’re getting a particularly magnetic performance. Yeah, Kali Uchis sounds fine enough on ‘10%’, but I’m still not as wowed by her as I’d like to be - same with Tinashe on ‘The Worst In Me’. The big disappointment for me came with Estelle on ‘Oh No’ - for a presence whose subtle vamping can normally draw me in, I’m just left a little cold, especially following VanJess on ‘Taste’. I’ll also say Teedra Moses sounded solid on ‘Culture’ and Charlotte Day Wilson sounded great on ‘What You Need’, probably the biggest draws of those songs - and that’s the thing, I don’t think there was a bad performance on this album - but if I'm making a comparison to when Phonte showed up on the last KAYTRANADA project… well, there’s not the same magnetism or spark.

But frankly, I’d make that statement about a lot of the production here too - again, not that it’s bad, but that it’s rarely exceptional or produces any sort of dynamic climax point. The album gets to a pretty solid, liquid groove, with nice developed basslines, watery keyboards - except for when Pharrell drops his weedy and frankly overused guitar pickup all over his closing track - and a blend of organic percussion and drum machines… and then doesn’t leave it. And yes, this is cohesive and pretty smooth - although there’s a few cuts where they definitely feel a little more fragmented and piecemeal than they should, like those weird pieces tacked onto the outros of ‘Taste’ and ‘Scared To Death’ and ‘Midsection’, which kind of break up the vibe and album flow more than they should - but as a whole the album never increases in momentum or intensity. It sets a somewhat melancholic mood of sensual longing, which is fine if you’re simply setting up an extended late night playlist at an after hours club, but it doesn’t feel like there’s an arc to the sound beyond playing to various shades of the same tone. Which would be fine - you don’t need a ton of dimensionality if you nail the vibe - but unfortunately there are a few production quibbles that prevent me from totally getting on-board, the biggest being the odd warping, slightly compressed filter he occasionally tacks onto the drum machines, mostly obviously on ‘Grey Area’ and ‘Taste’. Combined with some of the chill, slippery synths that slide ever so slightly off-key, it perpetuates that odd feeling of unease where you’d expect resolution… but it never really comes. So you get tracks like the tinny oscillations against the rigid snare of ‘Need It’, one of the more interesting progressive drumlines on ‘Oh No’ riding off some ugly synth warbles, the runny elongations of ‘Freefall’, the oddly spongy percussion on ‘Culture’, and the drippy synths on ‘The Worst In Me’… and sadly, I don’t have nearly the same list of highlights. I guess my favourite groove is the slightly off-kilter ‘Go DJ’, and the watery texture of ‘10%’ and ‘2 The Music’ are good, but I’m rarely gripped by them, not helped by when a project doesn’t vary its mood much, it can absolutely drag, and even despite Pharrell’s trying to make things a bit more zany for the conclusion, it doesn’t really stick the landing.

But as a whole… folks, I gave this album a lot more spins and patience than I originally thought I would, tried to get the more sultry and liquid dance grooves moving for me, and yet the lingering feeling was that it was good, but never great. There’s a part of me that almost thinks this album feels a little safer - I’m expecting to hear this in damn near any nightclub I go to in downtown Toronto, guaranteed - and while I’d agree this does what it’s trying to do well, it’s not nearly as infectious or colourful as his debut: streamlined, but at the cost of the bigger swings. So for me… very strong 6/10, recommended for the fans or any promoter looking for an easy project to throw on if the DJ has to cancel, but I was hoping for a little more, that’s all.