on the pulse - 2020 - week 21 - ice, gold & chrome

I’ll be very honest, this was a hard week to put things together. Hard to absorb new music, hard to stay ahead of schedule… but it’s been the one thing that’s kept me normal and sane right now, so hold if you can, we’re back On The Pulse!

True Body - Heavenly Rhythms For The Uninitiated - Okay, so this is a project that dropped back in April and I’ve been looking to discuss for a little bit, mostly because sometimes you need a bit of throwback post-punk and darkwave in your life like Drab Majesty and True Body kind of is filling the bill for me. Granted, when it comes to this sort of sound I’m going to be looking to hear what differentiates the band from what would have come out forty years ago, and for True Body… well, what I think separates them is that their tones are less obviously electronic, bringing in a thicker cushion of Beach House-esque dream pop and embracing more of the echoing, hammering post-punk edge with sharper drumwork, pealing guitars, and even some Nick Cave influence in Isabel Moreno-Riaño’s vocals to go along with the obvious Joy Division parallel. There’s some of that pealing, smoky gloss through the mix, but the underlying grooves are way more kinetic and build to real hooks in the way a lot of gothic darkwave and dream pop can occasionally miss, and there are more than a few moments that go for that pulsating, 80s ‘bigness’ in their hooks. And that leads to the writing and the rather inspired synergy the band found: interweaving traditionally 80s, smoldering gothic rock and synthpop iconography with a lot of distinctly trans subtext and themes, which takes the dreams of escapism, the questions of faith, the fractured romances, the desperate running wild in the city amidst uncaring power structures seeking to exploit and marginalize them, and gives it some real teeth. But it’s not just playing for shock in the juxtaposition - no, what’s more powerful is how romantic this album feels - it swings big, and it doesn’t shy away from a rather tragic moment epitomized in the final few songs. I will say there are a few things that could have been fine-tuned - I wish the vocals were layered to be a bit more strident, I wish the rattling post-punk grooves could cut amidst the dreamy side with a little more punch to match the drums, it can drag a little in spots, and I do think the band is a step away from what could be their best, especially if they push a little further from their influences. But as this is… yeah, it’s pretty great, and a nice quiet surprise that I’m happy I found. light 8/10

Off-Road Minivan - Swan Dive - So this is been on my schedule a few weeks, mostly because the lyrics weren’t published anywhere until pretty recently, but also because if patrons request the emo side-projects of underwhelming metalcore bands like Fit For A King, there’s not much to grab my interest here. I’ve heard some listeners find this different because the frontman is going for an early 2000s post-grunge huskiness with a bad head cold that doesn’t really match the visceral presence of other acts - or indeed convey much emotive personality at all - but that’s because the entire album screams of an established and polished radio rock act making a pivot towards this now popular subgenre in rock and losing a fair amount of raw intensity; hell, even a lot of the emo that got popular in the early 2000s had more punch than this. Now that’s not to say there isn’t advantages coming from this angle - if you’re not punks just coming up you probably know how to structure a cohesive song or strong hook or at least have better odds at better production, and even if there are moments where the band goes back to their metalcore roots and it doesn’t match with everything, there’s got to be more polish or punch, right? Well that’s the thing when you wind up on Tooth & Nail: between messy cymbal mixing, questionable elevation of the pitchier elements of our frontman’s vocals and some of the acoustics that can sound oddly canned, and guitars that increasingly slide towards grungey, downtuned riffing, it just winds up both sour and really running together - and if the production doesn’t get there for you, the content will. I’ve said before in talking about emo that if you’re going to hit rock bottom, maybe find some lyrical flair or glimmer of hope or larger societal commentary… whereas this act not only doubles down on the suicide songs, most of them are framed as sullen responses to breakups or lost love with enough self-awareness that it’s a guilt trip but not enough to stop, and that’s before the pseudo-religious faux-martyr angle slides in and it just becomes really unpleasant. In other words… yeah, boring as tar, and when it’s not, it’s miserable and not in the good way - 4/10, no recommendation.

Vistas - Everything Changes In The End - Well, this is something I haven’t seen in a while: a Scottish three-piece indie rock band with Black Keys-esque scuzzy guitars, chunky basslines, and a commitment to the sort of early Strokes bouncy rawness that could be sanded back just enough for a car commercial! And if that sounds cynical… well, it is, but the odd thing is that I haven’t had a group like this come up on my radar for a while that it almost feels novel - you’d expect more of them between 2013 and maybe 2016, they even use ‘tiger blood’ as a reference to courage and I was suddenly reminded Charlie Sheen existed - and for another, I don’t tend to dislike these bands as much if the melodic grooves, strong hooks, and content punch above their weight class. And credit to Vistas on their debut here, this isn’t bad - it’s energetic, it has more texture and bounce than it needs, the hooks are pretty solid, the basslines are by far the best part of this album, and while the mix can absolutely sound blown out by the fuzz in patches, a lot can be forgiven on an energetic debut… to a point. Because between the occasional millennial whoop, shout-along chorus, a not particularly distinctive frontman that reminds me a little too much of Alex Ebert, and lyrics that can feel really basic, chipper, and inoffensive in their upbeat poetry… look, for me they fall in similar territory as American Authors, another band I’ve probably been too kind to for coasting on easy marketability and strong hooks, but they aren’t really doing much wrong either - it’s one-dimensional for sure, but it’s a niche they handle pretty well. Unfortunately, that doesn’t really make for a memorable project, so… strong 6/10, give it a listen if you want a quick boost of upbeat adrenaline.

Nicole Atkins - Italian Ice - So I’ll be brutally honest: I went back to revisit my old review of Nicole Atkins and I have no idea what I was thinking when I wrote it, mostly in terms of the comparisons I tried to draw to her scattered musical influences. The progressive rock elements mashed into sultry baroque pop and indie country, coupled with a very ‘noir’ presentation - she’s not quite as stately and composed as an Angel Olsen, not quite nailing the smoky danger of an Amy Winehouse, but I can see something of a parallel to both. Granted, going more towards alternative country on her last album did make things seem a bit easier to describe - even if I don’t quite think it caught the same vigor… which unfortunately might be the case with this album too. The easiest parallel I’ve been able to draw with this is the last U.S. Girls album from earlier this year, albeit probably leaning a little more heavily on the smoky country and faint touches of 70s progressive rock. But the vintage baroque pop swaddled in reverb, the hooks that aren’t hitting as strongly as they used to, mostly because of the choice to wash out the vocals, the lyrics that feel more undercooked but could have landed if the themes didn’t also feel a bit more diffuse along the way - considering how distinctive she could be on previous projects, it’s frustrating that this feels so backwards-looking and not even rising to the best of those older AM rock standards. And it’s not like I dislike her approach to the romanticism of this content, or that it doesn’t sound opulent and textured, and she still has a fantastic voice to sell it… but outside of ‘AM Gold’ and ‘Never Going Home Again’, the latter of which is a glorified tour song, the writing can start to seem underweight in painting these pictures, often caught in the give-and-take of relationships where she’s either exasperated they’re still here or pining for them to come back in some form. Honestly, for the most part this feels like an old soul record minus the firepower, and unless the songs aim a little higher… well, she says that this is something she can ride and trace forever, following those dreams - but forever can be a mighty long time. 6/10

Lil Yachty - Lil Boat 3 - Let’s keep this quick: I think it’s pretty obvious that Lil Yachty’s time in the mainstream faded fast - he was somewhat right in that his brand eclipsed his actual impact - and outside of writing he’s done behind the scenes, his star has been eclipsed by artists who somehow show off less variety and quality - and even then, with every project targeting the mainstream, Yachty’s sound has gotten less homegrown and melodic and more of his oddball personality has fallen away to reveal a painfully limited autotuned croon-rapper with weak flows and haphazard wordplay. Now this is his first solo project since dropping Nuthin 2 Prove and Lil Boat 2 in 2018… and Lil Boat 3 proves in spades over nineteen tracks that there wasn’t anything worth missing here. The kooky melodies are often faded against increasingly sterile, cheap and basic trap percussion - which somehow Yachty is still struggling to ride effectively in his increasingly flat and disaffected autotuned flow - and midway through the album a lot of the actual tune just evaporates or gets even uglier, and outside of basic repetition, there’s little in the way of distinctive melodic hooks here, or even much coherence in structruing a vocal crescendo to a hook. It’s very clear that most of this album is cobbled together from undercooked, underproduced fragments with little beyond the utterly boring gunplay, brand names, and sex references only split up by the occasional punchline that isn’t so much weird in an interesting way but corny in the same way Big Sean used to be! But even in terms of pure bangers he gets handily outshone by most guests that show up, most obviously on ‘T.D.’ courtesy of Tierra Whack and Tyler The Creator, but even by Future a song later, and that’s not even counting moments when Drake, DaBaby, and Young Thug show up. I’ll give Lil Yachty credit that it’s not as embarrasingly incompetent as he’s been before, but there was pretty much nothing here that stuck with me or that I cared about beyond mild disgust, and when I did, it wasn’t because of him. strong 3/10

Freddie Gibbs, Alchemist - Alfredo - I didn’t formally cover the last time Freddie Gibbs worked with Alchemist in his collab project with Curren$y Fetti - half because I’m really not much of a Curren$y fan but also because it didn’t give me a ton to say; a lot of gangsta hustling over smooth production, but not quite as punchy or potent as it could be. And I’ll admit I had similar expectations with Alfredo, even coming off of Bandana showing Gibbs continuing to evolve as a rapper, although I do stand by Pinata still being his best work to date. But I’ll be honest, I’d probably put Alfredo in a similar tier as Bandana - it aims lower and feels much more streamlined and the content is nothing unfamiliar if you’re used to Freddie Gibbs flexing, but that can work to great effect when you have production this buttery and smooth and sample-rich opposite Gibbs’ relaxed but still intensely charismatic delivery with really damn solid flows. Hell, Gibbs’ technical prowess is one reason I’m more accommodating of his luxury rap moments than most - he makes it sound so damn chill it’s hard to dismiss or dislike! I wouldn’t quite say this is Gibbs’ best when it comes to storytelling, per se, and you do have to go digging for the more introspective commentary on the toll a gangsta life takes - the two biggest factors as to why Pinata remains his best work for me - and on a purely aesthetic level in his poetry, some of the smoothness can feel a bit compromised when he’s rhyming words or phrases with themselves; a nitpick for sure, but it got a bit distracting. That said, the production blending and grooves are so robust, and the guest performances from everyone did add some differentiation and dimension to the content, especially with Tyler The Creator delivering a lighter focus and just on a roll with guest performances in recent memory, and Conway focusing on his struggles as a family man. And when Gibbs opts to get more serious - his alarmingly timely verse on ‘Scottie Beam’, the utterly vicious darkness of ‘Frank Lucas’ along with Benny the Butcher, the come-up reminiscence on ‘Something To Rap About’, and especially the more sober reminiscence against the guitar sample behind ‘Skinny Suge’ - he delivers exactly what I want to hear from gangsta rap. So yeah, very strong 8/10, it’s what you’d expect, but when your expectations can be this high, that speaks volumes.

Kygo - Golden Hour - I’ve mentioned this before, but by far the best way for me to cover electronic music like this - especially given how they can feel like glorified singles collections as it is - is in a format like this, especially given my warnings that even despite my foundness for Kygo’s hyper-earnest, breezy house bounce, he was heading towards an artistic ceiling if he didn’t expand his sound or content… which is exactly what happened on Golden Hour. And while I can’t begrudge him the fact this might be the worst possible time to release a bouncy, optimistic vocal house project - the pandemic, the social unrest - even with that this is an album that feels like it hit a brick wall when it came to growth in content and sound, with fewer standouts that once again heavily dependent on the guest presence, which doesn’t help a project that runs long at a solid hour. Seriously, there are eighteen songs here, and the most striking performances come from the late Whitney Houston in the remix of ‘Higher Love’ and from Zac Brown of all people on ‘Someday’, because he can still put together a killer vocal arrangement. Outside of that, there’s very little in the way of standout content and even less in production, where Kygo defaults to some combination of piano, acoustics, or washed out guitar that build into an increasingly flimsy groove, with a few Avicii-esque synth progressions and nowhere close to the textured tropical house percussion for which he’s been known. And what’s bizarre is how he’s occasionally try to throw in an odd synth modulation or a weirdly slower groove and none of it clicks, especially at the expense of the big bouncy progressions for which he’s know - granted, he’s not helped by a few singers like Haux and Jamie x Commons who can’t stay on groove, but that’s a mess all around. As for the content… come on, it’s EDM, it’s very flimsy love songs with a smattering of turbulence and a few breakups, the most interesting moments probably coming from Oh Wonder’s tense interplay on ‘How Would I Know’, Kim Petras’ bitter melodrama on ‘Broken Glass’, and on ‘Like It Is’, a kissoff from Zara Larsson to Tyga of all people - and him not sticking the landing is the point! Beyond that… look, I’ll admit outside of some kind of skeevy and quasi-manipulative cuts like ‘Beautiful’ and ‘Hurting’, this is fine and I’m a complete sucker for this vibe - but it’s Kygo’s worst album and is only saved from a lower score by ‘Higher Love’. So… extremely light 6/10

Lady Gaga - Chromatica - Here’s a hard question: what are people looking for from a Lady Gaga album these days? Because she’s had chart longevity without precisely having pop longevity, especially in recent years, and if we’ve been very honest, she hasn’t released a great album since The Fame Monster - and this is coming from someone who’ll defend more of Born This Way and even ARTPOP than I probably should. When I reviewed Joanne four years ago I made a comparison to Eric Church but in reality for as much as she’s tried to make her metatext about celebrity and being a pop star stand for more in pop than it actually has, she reminds me more of The 1975, up-to-and-including going massively over-the-top, the clumsy political pivots and acts that are at their best just making straightforward, ball-to-the-wall music in their lane, hitting greatness with genre flourishes that make sense with some refinement. So I was actually kind of encouraged by her ‘going back to her roots’ and making a straightforward electro-pop album with way too many obvious nods at Madonna - it’s not her fault she got overshadowed by the worst possible timing courtesy of everything else, so how’s the music? Honestly, for what it is, it’s good - it’s probably her most cohesive project as a whole and her return to tighter, piano-backed house with sharper grooves and a lot of Ray Of Light-esque electro-pop callbacks is a natural fit for Gaga, and she’s got the huge voice and real charisma to back it up, especially when she can play off of Ariana Grande or Elton John. The problem comes in looking for anything transgressive or challenging or boundary-pushing in pop, and even if ten years ago it was more marketing than truth - which it was - at least the lyrics felt a bit more transgressive and off-the-wall than this, mostly because Gaga’s pop writing has collapsed in scope to feel more intimate and honest, aiming to be more empowering and healing. Which is fine, but when she goes for the more outright pop cuts… it’s not like plastic dolls, candy metaphors or Alice In Wonderland are untapped territory in making commentary on pop music, and it doesn’t feel as potent as it could. But I’d argue the bigger problem is probably the production - most of the album is handled by Bloodpop - an ironic name, because a lot of these beats fell shrinkwrapped, sterile, and bloodless, with a little too much vocal compression for its own good and questionable sample blending - and while there are moments that have punch and some legit great songs like ‘911’ and ‘Fun Tonight’, the middle drags starting with the mediocre BLACKPINK collaboration and the lack of greater flair and variety in production means it starts to run together. Now again, this isn’t bad by any means - it’s probably Gaga’s most consistently catchy and well-formed project since Born This Way - but I’m left thinking if she was looking to make her grand pop return, I wish she had done more than just go back to her most obvious influences, because continuously going to the past doesn’t make the future. 7/10