on the pulse - 2022 - #19 - demi lovato, panic! at the disco, muse, ingrid andress, american aquarium, redveil, chat pile, arcade fire
Arcade Fire - WE - Another one that came and went fast, where if you don't remember my Reflektor or Everything Now reviews you might be surprised this is late. And… yeah, it’s better than Everything Now, but it’s still a frail, synth-heavy and portentous mix cribbing openly from Radiohead, especially in the acoustics - thank Nigel Godrich on production - and for every attempt at cinematic bombast, only “Lightning I & II” connect… as b-tier Bleachers castoffs, albeit terrific ones. it’s exasperating: the production can be striking and there are melodic fragments that evoke the grandeur of Funeral and The Suburbs, but wonky synths, weak falsettos, and the poor man’s Josh Tillman lyrics exploring apocalypse and modern existential emptiness feel shallow or outright embarrassing. And yet… the driving, desperate earnestness might be enough to just save it for me. Definitely corny, but not bad.
Chat Pile - God’s Country - Alright, noise rock / sludge metal debut out of Oklahoma, with smatterings of post-punk and death metal with parallels to the last Daughters album, maybe a welcome replacement? There’s certainly potential: the riffs and grooves are absolutely filthy off the clanking percussion but balance out actual tunes to match their frontman’s spoken word and desperate howls, less malevolent, more struggling to claw out of the decaying late capitalist muck rife with addiction, depression, gun violence, and succumbing to your own internal demons, trapped at every angle. And yet something isn’t quite working: the tempos never quite create that urgency, the strained vocals play for more theatre than reality, and it never quite feels revolutionary. This is a wallow - vivid and cathartic in its downward spiral, but limited as such; pretty damn good, not quite great.
redveil - learn 2 swim - I should have checked my IG DMs back in April, I’d have covered this months ago... Anyway, redveil is a Maryland rapper, broke out in 2020, paralleling the lo-fi fragmentation of Earl Sweatshirt or MIKE, but with self-produced melodic sensibilities closer to Tyler The Creator or Quelle Chris. But there’s a leap here: the jazz and soul-inflected samples are more robust, the mixing is way more consistent, and there’s even hooks and compositional structure! And it allows redveil to both rap and sing, an ongoing evolution in choppy waters that’s integral to aspirational lyrics and themes, going beyond rap capitalism and street violence which has left peers stranded - patient yet playful, and reflective enough to give back to family while planning freedom. Still a bit fragmented, could cut deeper… but it might be the most this style has clicked for me to date. Terrific album!
American Aquarium - Chicamacomico - For as much as I've praised BJ Barham’s project in the past, I think some might be wondering why I'm so late to this. Well, it’s why this has slid under the radar for a lot of folks: by American Aquariums standards, it's easily the most middle aged, domestic, neotraditional album they've released in years. That doesn’t mean the tear-jerkers aren’t here - he grapples with miscarriage, death in family and friends, and fracturing long-term relationships with the homespun detail that helps them really stick, the clear album highlights - but they’re alongside more settled, chipper, family-oriented songs that can feel schmaltzy - more mature, not quite as interesting. Coupled with Brad Cook’s competently smooth but not exceptional production, it’s BJ Barham in his comfort zone, for better and for worse… and still a good album.
Ingrid Andress - Good Person - You know, Ingrid Andress had such promise in 2020; near Kelsea Ballerini’s pop country lane but with more mature, organic elegance and nuance. And yet with this… it feels deliberately targeted at a younger pop audience, with more programmed percussion, more synthetic vocal mixes, far less consistent mixing and mastering, and even Andress’ more girlish vocal lines and inflection. And yet even as her writing tries to play younger, songs like ‘Yearbook’ around her parents’ faded relationship, growing apart from a partner on ‘Seeing Someone Else’, the breakup of ‘No Choice’, and opening up to trust again on ‘Feel Like This’ reflect the world-weary wisdom that I found so charming - now it just feels oddly dated and disjointed - a similar arc to Carly Pearce’s 29/Written In Stone, just nowhere near the gravitas. It’s still good… but I expected more.
Muse - Will Of The People - Let’s get real: Muse hasn’t made consistently good music in a decade - and I like The 2nd Law, to some it’s longer! But Will Of The People might be their worst yet, marrying the slapdash Queen imitations of The 2nd Law to incoherent lyrics that like the aesthetics of liberatory populism, but lean on cheap, cynical deconstruction instead of taking any real stand, the Game Of Thrones finale of modern self-produced arena rock. Now Muse doesn’t have to be deep with their huge anthemic hooks and outrageous theatricality, but this is just bad camp, from the sloppy sequencing and atrocious bass and drum production to so many disasters of tonal juxtaposition that after a joyous attempt at escape on ‘Euphoria’, we get the nihilistic and deeply stupid note of ‘We Are Fucking Fucked’. This is revolution without cause, solution, or anything to say - not worth your time.
Panic! At The Disco - Viva Las Vengeance - I was planning a longer review, but at this point neither Brendon Urie nor this album are worth my time - it feels like the Queen jukebox musical We Will Rock You in its cheaply plastic production, atrocious synth mixing, and vocal harmonies, but minus the basslines, competent drumwork, and hooks, delivering the most sanitized and sexless Queen imitation I’ve ever heard. Never has it been more obvious this is a Brendon Urie solo work at his screechiest but also weirdly detached, but he’s also doubling down on ‘overwritten, self-referential music industry existential emptiness’ as his primary theme, and with potshots taken at ex-Panic! members and Maroon 5-esque faux-rock star preening, it’s so self-aggrandizing, but also joyless and hollow. And against The Josh Ramsay Show this year, the debate is over - this is trash, all the way down.
Demi Lovato - HOLY FVCK - I think we've been waiting for this since the late 2000s - we knew about Demi’s alternative streak. So now that they've delivered at the intersection between Hole, Garbage, The Pretty Reckless, and Bring Me The Horizon, we finally have proof that Demi's always made the most sense in snarled, alt-rock with raw vocal firepower and reclaiming the darker edges of their sexuality and modern stardom. Shame the mix was compressed and processed to an unholy degree - staying with Oak was a mistake and once again production prevents Demi from being way better - and given it doesn't modulate much over sixteen songs and can stray from personal, visceral storytelling towards something more clichéd and general, it gets oppressively shrill fast with its underpowered grooves and so much clipping. So yes, it’s flawed… but easily their best in years, good stuff.