on the pulse - 2021 - #3 - slowthai, foo fighters, hayley williams, pink sweat$

So yes, this is later than I was planning - the last entry in this series kind of got away from me, but this takes us back to being only marginally behind schedule, and surprise, surprise, I still had a lot to say, so let’s get On The Pulse!

Aaron Lee Tasjan - Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan! - Okay, this was an odd request - initially Aaron Lee Tasjan built a bit of an underground following on the Americana, indie rock side of country with a snide, witty brand of writing, but he didn’t stay there, bringing in sharper elements of a vintage power pop sound which I’ll admit was kind of an odd fusion - not bad, just odd. He continued down that pipeline for this project… and honestly, I think the best way to describe this album is as if Barenaked Ladies were bisexual, hornier than usual, making late 70s pop country with a hint of a psychedelic twist and got a bit too excited with the synthesizers they found in the studio that they didn’t quite know how to use properly. And if that sounds wonky or at the very least kind of niche… it absolutely is, and there’s a part of me that thinks the gauzy synths clash with the rest of the mix in an increasingly distracting way, especially when the grooves feel a bit inconsistent as a whole. But there’s a part of me that also thinks it’s about the only way this sort of shambling, modern horndog hippie storytelling would work at all - especially with the singer-songwriter elements it reminds me a bit of Father John Misty, but where his work is drenched in florid nihilism, Tasjan’s material is more hedonistic, or at least not about to think about it that hard. And that yet that put me in mind of another act: Glass Animals - it’s not a far comparison either, especially in the willowy vocal timbre and questionably mixed synths and vague psychedelia and overwhelmingly nostalgic vibe. But I think where Tasjan actually works for me comes in the framing - not only are the points of nostalgia considerably older, there’s no attempts to affect coolness or obscure the fact that he’s kind of a burnout in how he drifts across his artistic influences, relationships to which he always seems to have a foot out the door, and a metric ton of weed. It also helps he’s looser and funnier as a whole without having to rely on references, and he knows he’s as much a part of the joke as anything, which gives the album populism. Now that’s not saying it doesn’t lose momentum by the end or that overall it could have afforded a bit more structure and tightness, and this particular point of nostalgia does have diminishing returns, but if you can slip into the right headspace, this is a pretty good listen, with ‘Up All Night’ as probably the big standout, so… light 7/10 - if everything I described is to your taste, you might have a lot of fun with this.

Grima - Rotten Garden - going into black metal here, this is the newest project from this Russian atmospheric black metal project that leans pretty heavy on the misanthropic pagan folk elements, complete with textured acoustic passages and even accordions on their last album! And overall while I feel like the lead work could be a bit more striking, I did want to hear this new project… and here’s the thing: I was really struggling to figure out why this was not clicking with me, because the sound is more furious and frenetic and damn near symphonic in parts, the acoustic passages have great atmosphere, the accordions are still well-placed, the vocals are certainly visceral - even if when translated the content is playing in pretty bog-standard decaying pagan neo-folk/nature documentary territory - and the album doesn’t really wear out its welcome in terms of length with the melodies being brighter than ever. So it’s just the bass and drums that would have to sound good for this to work… and there it is. The drums are less of an issue - the blast beats are certainly intense on cuts like ‘Mourning Comes At Sunset’, even if the kickdrum doesn’t have nearly the consistent impact it should, which when your sound is significantly cleaner is an issue - but when your basslines are barely present to drive these grooves, the album just does not have the momentum or foundational staying power to really grab me. It leads to a project that feels portentous and big, but when I go hunting for the moments that really grip me beyond that… well, at least the bonus track managed to mostly work. It’s good, netting a solid 6/10, but it’s not great and I really wish there were at least a few moments that rose above.

Black Country, New Road - For The First Time - Ever see the name of an indie band blow up right the hell out of nowhere and realize you might need to check them out just so you can keep up with the conversation? Yeah, that was my experience first hearing about this UK band, where I heard references to post-punk and 90s experimental rock acts like Slint, as well as black midi, who are actually referenced by name on the album. That piqued my interest, so I figured I’d dive in and… well, the funny thing is that those comparison points are apt, but not the one that leapt to my mind damn near immediately: the Canadian post-punk act Ought, specifically their more deranged first two projects, except infused with touches of klezmer music and a Richard Dawson-esque theatricality, right down to the album’s structure with just five extended pieces after the opening instrumental. But what becomes surprising is that they don’t sacrifice strong tunes or embrace sheer chaos - yeah, the mixes can feel melodically dense with the guitars and horns and strings, but right from the overture the syncopation is masterful, as is the production that gives the basslines plenty of simmer and the razor-sharp post-hardcore influences slipping into the percussion, melodies, and tempo shifts real focus. But I’ll admit what grabbed me more directly was the vocals and content - not just for Isaac Wood’s throaty delivery, but just how much the cyclical melodic progressions are mirrored in the text of the album’s relationship arc… before you realize that this album is just as much about Black Country, New Road themselves assembling after many members’ previous project Nervous Conditions fell apart after the leader singer faced sexual assault allegations. And Wood’s writing is self-aware almost to a painful degree, not just in failing to live up to expectations of authority figures or in the relationship drama but in how his band’s anxiety-wracked path runs in parallel, where veneers of ignorant cool and privilege come with success only to implode in the face of a new generation - or really anyone - seriously challenging them, the swing for the fences to try and salvage anything, and then the reflective moments at the end where he has to reconcile both the ending and his culpability in self-sabotaging it. If I have criticisms , it’s more from a lack of internal structure and how the entire project feels more like a self-contained theater piece than bothering to have much in the way of hooks, but you can also tell that was plainly intentional, even if it makes revisiting individual cuts a little difficult. But even as such a piece the album only gets stronger before one hell of an ending, and for a breakthrough this potent right out of the gate, it has leaves me plenty curious where the hell they’ll go from here - 8/10, idiosyncratic experimental rock that you have to hear to believe.

The Weather Station - Ignorance - The funniest thing about someone requesting The Weather Station isn’t just that they seem like they’ve gotten a mountain of critical acclaim out of nowhere and thus has me worried they might be the next indie darling who scored good enough promotion - or in this case signed to a slightly bigger indie label - to wind up on everyone’s radar. No, it’s that they’re a Toronto band and I hadn’t heard much about them prior to my research for this review, which means I guess I’m living up to this album’s title! But okay, catching up, The Weather Station started off as an indie folk act that’s gradually thickened and expanded their sound in a way that did kind of remind me of Laura Marling, but Ignorance was taking a leap into full-on sophistipop… and man, I wish it fit them better. This is one of those cases where I absolutely get the critical acclaim, but I feel I would be more on-board if a few mixing choices were revised - give the husky vocals a bit more presence either through a shade more volume or some multi-tracking, the synths a bit more body or swell to flesh out the tune and match the sharper grooves, maybe add a bit more melodic flair or any sense of climax beyond the very steady midtempo vibe and the occasional strings arrangement. Hell, it worked on ‘Parking Lot’, leaning into being tasteful to a fault runs the risk of losing any standout, especially the overall timbre isn’t far removed from the softer, less jangling indie pop and adult alternative of the late 2000s and early 2010s - or hell, even the synthpop of Vienna Teng. I think part of it is how there isn’t any sense of warmth or bite to any of the textures, which feels like a misstep when you have a singer with Tamara Lindemann’s breathy register, and her placement doesn’t really give the lyrics any great prominence, but then I thought about Shura and how a very similar low-key approach worked for her… but she also had great hooks, tighter grooves, and actual vocal arrangements that made even a low-key approach sticky as hell. It seems like The Weather Station is still very locked into a folk approach in their compositions and arrangements, but fine, that means the writing is bound to be great, right? Well, yes and no - what’s fascinating about this album is how the ignorance she’s looking to explode is her own and face all manner of uncomfortable truths along the way, be they the natural environment and emotive experience she’s often disconnected from in the modern world or confronting partners with the truth about her emotions. And while there’s a part of me that could say ‘Robber’ belongs in the pantheon of white guilt songs, my larger observations expand into the choice to go sophistipop with a writing approach that feels so myopic in its focus that could have used a folk palette to match the introspection. Instead with these tones even if the writing is sharp it feels clinical, which for an album that’s all about embracing emotion and feelings is almost at odds with itself - isn’t it ironic, don’t you think? The funny thing is that Alanis Morissette’s last album Such Pretty Forks In The Road had similar underlying themes and had its adult-contemporary moments, but it also got way more raw and expansive than this ever allows itself to feel - maybe that comes with middle-age or living outside of Toronto, but this feels like an experiment that should work better than it does. So… strong 6/10, its heart is in the right place, just doesn’t execute as well as it should.

Dominique Fils-Aime - Three Little Words - I remember struggling to review Dominique Fils-Aime’s excellent album in 2019 Stay Tuned, mostly because it was playing in a brand of R&B and jazz-inflected soul that was certainly very tasteful and well-written and well-performed, but didn’t leave me a ton to say beyond that, and I was hoping that some of the experimental touches she had brought to that last project would translate here and… well, in my last review I highlighted how an underlying theme of the last album were the parallels of societal upheaval from the 60s to now, mantras that echo across time. I certainly didn’t expect her to make said thematic parallels more literal here, not just in the inclusion of a key-bending cover of ‘Stand By Me’ that was absolutely fascinating, but also in bringing in some brighter vintage soul arrangements complete with horns that could have been imported from those eras, plus African percussion that adds more diversity to the grooves. It’s still tasteful to a fault in its arrangements and has some of that traditionalist streak, but there’s more melodic flair to the compositions as she’ll switch keys effortlessly and even instrumental styles midsong without feeling awkward or forced, and you can tell she’s taking the opportunity to add more variety, which makes for a more interesting and still pretty great album. But that matches the greater sense of urgency given current times, which is precisely balanced with the self-assured poise that she’s always had but now infused with an optimistic spirit that’s really magnetic. That said, I will say she leans on more straightforward sentiments across a few cuts on the midsection of this album and while songs like ‘Could It Be’ and ‘Mind Made Up’ lean on conventional relationship and breakup song sentiments, but they’re delivered with such maturity and knowledge of the healing that must commence that they’re really damn easy to like - she has the talent to convey a lot of implied emotional complexity with few words, even if I do think as a conclusion the writing doesn’t quite have the punch Stay Tuned! did. Still, this is some excellent R&B and soul - light 8/10, great stuff.

Pink Sweat$ - PINK PLANET - Okay, I’ll be honest: I’ve heard a lot of underground and viral buzz around this artist and given that this is his full-length debut album, I was intensely curious what the draw was to his particular brand of pop/R&B. And let me put it like this, like with Dominique Fils-Aime: this is the sort of R&B that’s a really easy sell for me in leaning into a lot of buttery guitars, supple basslines, splashes of horns and synth, and live percussion, but that doesn’t always go the pure retro well when it comes to composition. On a purely textural level, the album is immensely agreeable, and Pink Sweat$ is a likable and potent if not immediately distinctive singer… and man, I wish more of it was all that memorable. The word that immediately leaps to mind is languid - many of these songs barely run three minutes, and while there’s the occasional flirtation with hints of a pattering nu-disco rollick when he wants to flex - and the bizarrely dark pivot and rigid groove of ‘Not Alright’ that comes out of nowhere and fits with nothing - the lack of tightness and momentum means that over eighteen tracks - a fair few included from older EPs - the album starts feeling its length. And that’s a real problem when you start digging into the writing. In an odd way I’m reminded of issues I had with KYLE, and not just because Kehlani is also on one of the album standout cuts, in that the songs don’t really evolve beyond the basics in their emotional framing and scenes, and that means they can really start to run together. It’s funny, Bazzi’s production was nowhere near as good, but the sharper hooks at least made his short underwritten snippets punch a bit harder… but this album is clearly designed for either a sprawling romantic afternoon… or more likely, a bunch of TikTok dances, and I can’t deny this mostly clears that low bar. But beyond that… light 6/10, I can imagine I’m going to forget a lot of this in record time.

Black Dresses - Forever In Your Heart - I’ll be honest, I was really sad and angry when it looked like a bunch of transphobic trolls tied to a 4chan opp had driven Black Dresses to break up - even if I hadn’t loved Peaceful As Hell, they had so much raw promise, flair, and punch that I wanted to see them refine their formula and kick ass. And yet post-dissolution, the duo has been steadily releasing music and now we’ve got a whole album despite them breaking up… and honestly, I’m not sure if it’s just me becoming more comfortable with their whiplash brand of abrasive sound and the slurred over, entirely-too-online writing style, or the fact that it seems like the mixing and mastering has improved considerably to lean into grooves with a more industrial timbre, but I think the duo got better here yet again! Maybe it’s the shockingly visceral screams complimenting the heavier, industrial grooves that really work, but this feels like the first point where Black Dresses have synthesized a cohesive formula rather than relying on the clash of disparate pop and noise elements which had diminishing returns with its impact. More importantly there’s a sense of greater space across these songs, where the mixes feel cavernous and huge enough to let both the chunky riffs and the gleaming pop touches breathe, and show a newfound sense of dynamics - there are still bricked out moments and even flirtations with power electronics, but they feel judicious and deliberate rather than just an incidental factor of questionable mastering. And where Peaceful As Hell could drag and become clunky as the shock wore thin, the greater variety did help this album’s staying power… even if I’d argue it still does drag in patches as Black Dresses play loose with song structure and an engaged sense of delivery; the almost casual placement of ad-libs and studio chatter give the project a feel of being cast-offs or b-sides and while I disagree, I can see why some folks might buy that. But it mostly fit the lyrical sentiment and themes: dragging you into the abyss - where they know the ‘edge’ only obscures the more tender and raw side that you could never handle - and then trying to synthesize something of value, find some brand of stability amidst the nightmare world that their generation is going to inherit and be expected to fix, against all of the odds, especially when they’re not sure if they can fix themselves and they kind of just want to chase their dreams and live… in today’s day and age, it can feel like too much to ask, especially the revelation comes that it’s not their pain that needs understanding, but other people. But for the album… I still think they’re a shade away from greatness if the tightness and focus came through, but this is the closest they’ve gotten to date. Very solid 7/10, check it out!

Hayley Williams - Flowers For Vases / Descansos - …well, at least it was better promoted than the three EPs mashed together? Yeah, this came out of nowhere - purposefully so, according to Williams, who basically threw out any promotional plan for this - and spawned a lot of furious fan backlash when critics were generally lukewarm on it. And all of this was enough so that I made an executive decision to seek this out directly… and while this feels more consistent overall in comparison with Petals For Armor, I’m frankly shocked that this album drew this much attention. Y’all can’t be serious going so hard to bat for this, right? A sleepy, predominantly acoustic folk pop project that’s short on hooks, layering, distinctive wordplay - hell, writing as a whole, the entire project feels weirdly underwritten - where in going for cohesion Williams has made her most placid and underwhelming project to date. Here’s the thing: I get the impression this is a project that might strike more deeply if you’re invested into Hayley Williams’ personal story, specifically as this album is framed as something of a detour to Petals For Armor, between a few of the EPs, revisiting the emotionally messy scenes of her divorce with more stark, visceral detail where feelings linger but she really does need to cut herself loose. But the composite elements to create that atmosphere don’t mesh together: her vocals lean into ethereal, Laura Veirs-esque folk timbres with very gentle, plainly presented acoustics and padded keys, but her writing has never been detailed enough add more to it, and the groove passages seem to be crying for more immediate presentation. I made a comparison to Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton with Petals For Armor, but honestly this album can’t even get to that point considering how clunky any blending is and how little space her vocals have - honestly, looking back through her producer Daniel James’ catalog doesn’t remotely impress me, especially with the underproduced adult alternative this album mostly becomes and especially with the abortive rock sizzle tacked onto the end. And I could rattle off a half dozen women in country folk who would run circles around Williams’ with writing this lane, but even going for more cutting, blunt immediacy places her against Fiona Apple and she’s just not a potent enough writer or performer here. Now I will give her points for again building a solid enough arc to move past her grief and pain and go forward, find a sense of normalcy she’s never quite had, find closure in old fractured relationships… but again, if you’re not enamoured with her story, this won’t really give you enough change that. 5/10, again, maybe just not for me, but I found this very underwhelming.

Foo Fighters - Medicine At Midnight - There was a part of me that thought it would probably make sense to make this its own distinctive review - would likely be way better for my channel than an ASMR video reviewing all ambient albums, that’s for damn sure. But is there really a point? I’ve been on the record saying the Foo Fighters peaked in the 90s and have only recaptured the magic in piecemeal fragments ever since, with the accompanying statement for every album since being ‘well, it sure is a Foo Fighters album’, especially given that their experimentation has been hit-and-miss especially in the 2010s. This time… well, it’s funny, considering how bright and upbeat a lot of the chord progressions are I’d almost say it’s their answer to Pearl Jam’s Lightning Bolt from 2013, but that album benefited from being lean and way punchier than it had any right to be, whereas this time the Foo Fighters are hopping on the sort of buzzed out, wonky grooves that sounds like producer Greg Kurstin is trying to synthesize Mark Ronson by way of Jay Joyce - sorry Dave Grohl, this barely worked when Queens of the Stone Age tried it on Villains and I’d argue it’s working for you even less. That’s the frustrating thing - if the experimentation was able to accentuate the band’s strengths or unveil new ones, like a killer groove section or crank their hooks to a different level, that would be one thing, but there’s none of the surging punch in the guitar lines that have made the best of the Foo Fighters singles. Instead we get undercooked experiments like ‘Shame Shame’ or the hideous synth behind ‘Holding Poison’, and speaking of undercooked we might as well mention the lyrics, where in between some increasingly awkward attempts at dance jams, the Foo Fighters attempt to get a tiny bit more political and it’s kind of an awkward fit? You’d think they’d have the populism on lock, but on songs like ‘Cloudspotter’ and ‘No Son Of Mine’ they get their intensity from writing from the ‘villain’s’ perspective, the over-privileged power couple looking great as the bombs fall and the self-righteous hypocrite leader - and ironically they’re probably some the best songs here! Yeah, ‘Waiting On A War’ shows Grohl getting his U2 on - which works better than the Beatles tribute of ‘Chasing Birds’ - but by the time the album leaps into the full major chord hard rock gallop of ‘Love Dies Young’, the Foos are back making what they’re clearly most comfortable with… and hell, at least in that, they’re pretty good. So very light 6/10 - if this album hadn’t ended with one of its best songs it’d be much lower.

slowthai - TYRON - One of my more glaring oversights in 2019 was not covering slowthai’s debut album. It was a breakthrough full of so much piss and rage in the systemic inequalities and failures across the United Kingdom that you could almost overlook how its shambling construction and slapdash presentation was barely holding together at the seams. The comparison that immediately came to mind wasn’t any grime or UK garage act but IDLES’ debut album Brutalism, especially for slowthai’s bellicose snarl and the unsteady balance of rampaging, nihilistic id and genuine sincerity slipping around the edges. That said, it wasn’t an album I loved - it felt like there was just as much self-serving provocation, which might have been the point but also can reach diminishing returns… and said returns start running out on TYRON, which is a project that has the weird issue of being more structured and “refined”, but I’m not sure it’s as good. Let’s break this down: the album feels like a ‘more money, more problems’ flex slammed headlong into the social conscience and lingering sincerity that slowthai has, coupled with him reflecting over that fracas at the NME awards and social media backlash, which I have to assume is the only reason ‘CANCELLED’ with Skepta is on this album and seems to utterly miss the point, even if I like the hook a lot. On the flipside, one of the running themes of this album is a discombobulated feel of intrusion into a class with money when he used to have nothing and a disconnected feeling from his roots, especially if he’s compromised himself to get there. So while the first half of the album is more of a ‘I’ve got money and I’m not supposed to, deal with it’ and tends to bang rougher and harder, I found more potency in the smoky, BROCKHAMPTON-esque introspection on the back half, where he outright admits how much there’s a balance between projection and provocation and that adds a lot of humanity to the album… even if we really could have used that Denzel Curry verse on ‘terms’. That said, by necessity for as much as this album is on the defensive it’s not as explosive as his debut, and that means the bangers on the first half don’t quite go off to the same degree, missing some of that ragged edge even as the vocal samples warp and break over the skittering trap and drill percussion… which is odd when the compositions themselves still feel short and abortive; the album’s flow is pretty great, but the standouts don’t hit as strongly. Overall, I don’t see this is as a sophomore slump as a lateral move, and given that I’m not quite fully on-board with slowthai yet, I see this as a very good project, but a shade away from greatness., even if this album took a lot of steps in a promising direction. Solid 7/10, it’s damn good stuff.