ARM

GARY CLARK JR HAS UPLOADED | 2024-01-26

The command completed successfully. More than five years to the day after the release of his 2019 Grammy Award-winning exploit This Land, 49-year-old Austinite Gary Clark Jr has finally uploaded the first teaser pack of new music from his upcoming fourth studio effort, JPEG RAW. Dubbed a nifty and portable sampler, the bundle couches four brand new cuts, all featured on the full album sequence of the blues rocker’s highly-anticipated 12-track project. Fully unfolded as an acronym into Jealousy, Pride, Envy, Greed Rules Alter-Ego, Worlds, JPEG RAW is slated for a street date at the end of March, and continues to fulfill a multi-album obligation with major label Warner Records.

Generously previewed across almost twenty minutes of material laced into four songs at once,—”Maktub“, the title track, “This Is Who We Are“, and “Hyperwave“—the LP is set to also feature samples of Thelonious Monk and Sonny Boy Williamson music, and sports noteworthy co-signs from royalty such as Stevie Wonder and George Clinton. If the sampler is anything to go by, JPEG RAW is poised to both build and expand on the already vast range of sounds and influences championed by the prodigal guitarist on previous outputs. Take the rusty and smokey guitar lick on album opener “Maktub”, which is as immediate and sticky a riff as it gets. While the rest of the same track might get filed as a somewhat canonical Clark Jr effort through and through, one need only press play on “Hyperwave” at number nine on the tracklist to wander into pop-adjacent psychedelia that heavily flirts with a current day singer-songwriter canon.

Elsewhere, the eponymous cut at number two on the record slows things down a smidge, by smoothening some of the opener’s razor edge—yet not without seizing the opportunity to undercut the tune with exuberant tongue-in-cheekness covert as alarm-sounding for talking turkey. One shouldn’t let the apparently harmless lounge-backtrack vibe get it twisted, for the bluesman wastes little time to take no prisoners while preaching his views: “My daughters ain’t gotta shake hips to make tips / No judgement if it makes sense, it made sense / But I ain’t with the ratchet / Only racket they’ll be havin’ is if they pick up a good habit where“. Locked and loaded in the trials and tribulations of fame plus all its dues, Clark Jr attempts to combat inner demons with a healthy dose of self-reflection (“I shoulda paid more attention / All my fault, I did it all for the pictures“), before asking his interlocutor the only question that can redeem him: “If this is what you want, what you waitin’ for? / If this ain’t what you want, what you want?“.

Meanwhile, “This Is Who We Are” is a five minutes and a half epic. Coasting through seas of expansive sonic magnitude before diving headfirst into a pronounced R&B flair, the number is less a responsive answer than a proactively assertive statement. The joint also features angelic BV touches from London-based singer/songwriter and producer Naala, and might double as a central cornerstone of the whole listening experience once the full record becomes available (apparently it’s the first thing Clark Jr wrote for the album). With its lopsided marriage of orchestral elements with dense and viscous tapestry of edgy blues guitar weaves—paired with pierce-loud drumming in the mix—this might not necessarily be the song we deserve, but it’s definitely the song we need.

And then there’s “Hyperwave”. Handily the biggest show-stopping teaser as part of this initial collection of singles. Calling this type of jam unexpected from the Blak & Blu creator would be an understatement. Packing a soft and tender melody into an intelligent psych-rock wireframe, this is the type of material one would peg a post-indie band from the UK with making—yet the Austin six-string prodigy pulls it off in both a tasteful and extremely gratifying fashion. With its bona fide ear worm refrain, the track doesn’t sacrifice soulful transudation at the expense of memorability and accessibility; not the smallest of feats. In a lengthy interview with Forbes, the Warner recording artist revealed the writing sessions that led to JPEG RAW to be loose, pandemic-constrained, and unentangled; admitting how he and his band simply “got together in my studio every Thursday and […] smoke a brisket and […] just sit there and eat barbecue, have a few drinks and play music“.

The haphazard impetus behind the sonic Rorschach inkblot test that became the twelve cuts on the album can certainly be noticed on this sampler. Moreover, hearing how Andre 3000’s recent foray as a flautist into new age jazz inspired him to follow his raw unedited instinct in the same interview draws every door open to a prescient full-blown range and experimentation on the record. Adding that to a more clued in hint where he recalls specific cross-pollinated genre contaminations (“I want my drums to sound like Willie Big Eye Smith meets Jay Dilla. I want my bass to be James Jamerson and Mike Dean“) has us at the edge of our seats to find out what the full project will hold. For Gary Clark Jr is the kind of important artist people will happily wait a long time for. His music and lyrics manage to capture vivid vignettes of fractured modern America, and translate them into universal language and feelings that transcend border and state lines—all the while cruising as one of the biggest rock flagbearers in the mainstream. It’s time he tells us all how we’re really feeling, again.

We’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and we hope to feel your interest again next time.

AV

ALEX REVIEWS MUSIC (ARM): ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2023 | 2023-12-21

SMASHING PUMPKINS — ATUM: A ROCK OPERA IN THREE ACTS (MARTHA’S MUSIC)

LISTEN HERE. READ MORE HERE.

RYAN ADAMS — BLOOD ON THE TRACKS, MORNING GLORY, ALIVE – VOL. I, RETURN TO CARNEGIE HALL (PAX-AM)

LISTEN HERE. READ MORE HERE.
LISTEN HERE. READ MORE HERE.
LISTEN HERE. READ MORE HERE.

ODDISEE — TO WHAT END (OUTER NOTE LABEL)

LISTEN HERE. READ MORE HERE.

PARAMORE — THIS IS WHY & RE: THIS IS WHY (ATLANTIC RECORDING)

LISTEN HERE.
LISTEN HERE.

GORILLAZ — CRACKER ISLAND (PARLOPHONE RECORDS)

LISTEN HERE.

EL MICHELS AFFAIR, BLACK THOUGHT — GLORIOUS GAME (BIG CROWN RECORDS)

LISTEN HERE.

FOO FIGHTERS — BUT HERE WE ARE (ROSWELL RECORDS)

LISTEN HERE. READ MORE HERE.

KILLER MIKE — MICHAEL (LOMA VISTA RECORDINGS)

LISTEN HERE.

DOMINIC FIKE — SUNBURN (COLUMBIA RECORDS)

LISTEN HERE. READ MORE HERE.

GEORGE CLANTON — OOH RAP I YA (100% ELECTRONICA)

LISTEN HERE. READ MORE HERE.

TRAVIS SCOTT — UTOPIA (EPIC RECORDS)

LISTEN HERE.

EARL SWEATSHIRT, THE ALCHEMIST — VOIR DIRE (TAN CRESSIDA)

LISTEN HERE. READ MORE HERE.

NONAME — SUNDIAL (AWAL)

LISTEN HERE.

THIRTY SECONDS TO MARS — IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD BUT IT’S A BEAUTIFUL DAY (CONCORD RECORDS)

LISTEN HERE. READ MORE HERE.

DRAKE — FOR ALL THE DOGS (REPUBLIC RECORDS)

LISTEN HERE.

BLINK-182 — ONE MORE TIME… (COLUMBIA RECORDS)

LISTEN HERE. READ MORE HERE.

THE ROLLING STONES — HACKNEY DIAMONDS (POLYDOR RECORDS)

LISTEN HERE.

THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM — HISTORY BOOKS (THIRTY TIGERS)

LISTEN HERE. READ MORE HERE.

TAKING BACK SUNDAY — 152 (FANTASY RECORDS)

LISTEN HERE. READ MORE HERE.

COLD WAR KIDS — COLD WAR KIDS (AWAL)

LISTEN HERE.

I’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and I hope to feel your interest again next time. And happy holidays this time around.

AV

A PRELIMINARY INTRODUCTION TO: THE 2024 PAXAM ALBUM TETRALOGY | 2023-11-27

Safe to say it’s been an eventful 2023 for Jacksonville, NC-native singer/songwriter Ryan Adams. The current calendar year began on a tributary note for the 49-year old country rocker, with back-to-back releases of three significant cover albums in the shape of Bruce Springsteen‘s Nebraska, Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks, and Oasis‘s (What’s the Story) Morning Glory, all between Christmas and Easter. In-between unveiling those reimagined collections, he also found the time to get his old Cardinals band back together after over a decade of hiatus (with a supergroup-worthy line up, no less), drop a new single with them, and take them on a nationwide US tour over the summer. Before all of that, he managed to squeeze a limited leg of solo shows in the UK and Europe. Meanwhile, sometime later in spring, he saw fit to announce the highly-anticipated live acoustic sequel to his 2015 Live at Carnegie Hall compilation—aptly titled Return to Carnegie Hall. Recorded during his acclaimed return to the storied New York City namesake venue last year, the tape was eventually released on music outlets worldwide on 25th August.

You’d think that would do it for even the hardest-working artists in the business, but nope. It’s the most prolific songwriter of his generation we’re talking about here. So halfway through the feel good heat of July, the PaxAm founder came through once more and gave away another new live album. This time couching a highlights reel of salient performances recorded during the first round of shows with The Cardinals, Alive — Vol. I remained available as a free online download for a few months. Then in early fall, a cancelled run of solo shows due to poor health between September and November followed suit, only to be trailed by the surprise announcement of “I Was Here”, a purported new instant-gratification single teasing toward a previously unannounced forthcoming project, named Sword & Stone. Surely, this should be enough for a year-in-review round-up? Well, here comes the kill.

During the first week of November, the former Whiskeytown leader revealed what might be his biggest milestone of the year yet: the majorly hyped ‘PaxAm Relaunch’. Touted as a fresh new clean slate for the artist in anticipation to its d-day, skyrocketing new creative enterprises such as book publishing as well as a slew of previously unreleased original music, the big reveal turned out to be a bit of a chimera to most. Granted, Adams did stay through to some of his prior advertisements. Excitingly, included at launch there was indeed his first ever fiction novel, 100 Problems, on top of your regular update of merch capsules, ranging from fine grade tees to scented candles. However, what built out to be the crown jewel to the buzzed PaxAm reset, his latest tetralogy of albums, ended up leaving fans eagerly salivating, and still mostly dissatisfied. At best. While he did unveil the title of the four new bodies of work in said tetralogy—Heatwave, Star Sign, the aforementioned Sword & Stone, and the long-rumored follow up to his hardcore punk Hüsker Dü worship 1984, 1985—the catch is that at the time of this writing, those projects are only available for vinyl pre-order, with a tentative mid-January 2024 shipping date.

For the full record (pun probably intended), the bells and whistle-y PaxAm comeback also came with the dispatch of five additional products. Still, vinyl pre-orders all the same. Most notably, these encompass an exclusive live unplugged rendition of Adams’s exquisite Prisoner LP from 2017, as well as the second pressing of his remarkable and patchworked 2022 album quartet (Chris, Romeo & Juliet, FM, and Devolver). Just for shits and giggles, inclusive of the upcoming tetralogy, yet sans his bunch of live records in-between, this projected music pipeline would bring his accrued tally of music projects released since his 2020 return to an otherworldly thirteen studio efforts (!). All within just about three years of time.

In the midst of it all, the 2024 PaxAm album tetralogy appears to be happening. The aforementioned four outings all have (somewhat graphically questionable) respective cover art, as well as an official track listing. In lieu of formal chronological release timelines, the album sleeves are embedded below in alphabetical order, whereas according to the label/publisher’s website all of the projects’s sequencings range from Star Sign‘s compact ten songs to a whooping 29 (!) on what’s poised to be a rabid and hard-hitting 1985. Yet, not official street date in sight—whether that goes for the nominal release of vinyl, or for the highly-demanded streaming outlets’s sales availability. For all we know today, these four exploits are all slated for a 2024 release. So while it is true that their announcement and promotion fall on this side of the year, this is legitimate enough a reason for this to be considered as a 2024 tetralogy, for all intents and purposes.

And then there’s the Grammy Award-nominated act’s typical set of scattered, contradicting, and excessive marketing of upcoming music. Now wholly contained on the author’s own Instagram page—alas, with the store relaunch, even the nail-in-the-coffin PaxAm newsletter updates appear to have been indefinitely nixed. The promotional roll out of well, basically everything and anything all at once, has hitherto been an outright spray and pray. With all its shows and tells, uploads and takedowns, and hodgepodge of juxtaposing information, not one soul would admittedly have been able to even commence to make head or tails of it all, if it weren’t for the benevolent Ryan Adams archivist vigilante graciousfew. To date, almost thirty different track previews have been rolled out by the alt-country mainstay within the projected tetralogy. For the most part, without much rhyme or reason as to what kind of picture one is to expect from each of the four full lengths.

Adams has been most generous with 1985, teasing as many as ten cuts from the expected twenty-nine. Undoubtedly the most focused and cohesive-sounding of the four new LPs, the record appears to be building and expanding on the distorted, fast, and zany street-rage displayed on its almost ten year-old predecessor. The more somber and reflective Star Sign follows suit with a whole eight records out of the available then having been peppered and then recanted throughout the pinball cult leader’s IG feed within the last year or so. Here, the picture appears to be clearer, one painted by way of a more refined, song crafted, and lush brush. A vastly ambitious affair, Star Sign enlists the richest arrangements and the longest track runtimes of the bunch (with its title track previewed at as many as eleven minutes of playtime, and another four teasers clocking in longer than five minutes). As far as an early guessing is concerned, this might end up being the best received and most gratifying of the four projects by the lion’s share of DRA’s fanbase, with evident callbacks to a wide range of back-catalogue issuances, such as Jacksonville City Nights (“Shinin Thru the Dark”), Love Is Hell (“I Lost My Place”), and his self-titled (“Darkness”).

Regrettably, Heatwave and Sword & Stone are both rougher around their edges, and more of a mess. At least on paper. Going off its first six teasers, the former appears to pick up from the power-pop and alt-rock inklings Adams left us with both FM and Devolver last year. While the latter—beefed up with an additional quartet of previews (“Blown Away”, “I’ll Wait”, “I Can See the Light” and the title track) to complement the aforementioned official lead single “I Was Here”—sounds more like a spiritual successor to last year’s brotherly tribute Chris. The issue at face value here, with the benefit of doubt tied to the missing full album listening experience, is that both projects tend to blend into each other à la mixtape—not always in a flattering way. Take for instance the minute and change fire and fury of “Lies”, Heatwave‘s opening tune, and you might be wondering how on earth it didn’t make the 1985 cut to round up its track listing to thirty songs.

Meanwhile, when listened to in isolation, records like “Mercy”, “Why”, “Sword & Stone” and “I Can See the Light” absolutely sound like they would belong on the one and same body of work. An upbeat, catchy, and fun one at that. A companion piece to FM of sorts. Too bad the first two are sequenced on Heatwave, and the other two appear on Sword & Stone. No harm no foul—it’s not like the LA-transplant hasn’t repurposed and recycled a wealth of material across his numerous, numerous records. Especially so in his more recent spate of third act career releases. For instance, Chris and Romeo & Juliet have a lot in common, musically and lyrically. His comeback 2020 full length Wednesdays brings it back all the way to a post-Whiskeytown, early solo DRA era. Not to mention his past B-sides and bonus tracks; all systems go as far as where they truly fit amidst their up- and downgrading across deep cuts and official tracklisting slots. Whether deliberate or not on Adams’s part, that is all definitely part of the charm and allure of his fine craft. A little bit like remaining uneasy and on edge until the godforsaken day his 2024 PaxAm album tetralogy finally becomes available for listening. The only assurance we have at this point, is that that will be a good morning.

We’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and we hope to feel your interest again next time.

AV

ALEX REVIEWS MUSIC (ARM): TBS – 152 | 2023-10-28

Taking Pop Sunday. After almost 2,600 days since the release of Tidal Wave in 2016, Long Island alt rockers Taking Back Sunday choose modern pop over alternative, making their triumphant return to the scene with 152. And it worked wonders. Eight years of absence is a lengthy time off for any musician, all the more so for a band approaching a quarter of a century of age—and boy did a revolution and a half take place during those years. Both societally and for the band members. Inter alia, the American outfit celebrated the twentieth birthday of both the band as a whole (2019) and their trailblazing studio debut Tell All Your Friends (2022) with corresponding deluxe record reissues, peppered one-off non-album singles here and there—including a cover of Weezer‘s “My Name Is Jonas“, an improbable co-sign with the Wu Tang Clan, and the late-stage emo wet dream “Love You a Little” assisting both The Maine and Charlotte Sands—and let go their longtime founding member Eddie Reyes (2018). Crucially, considering how their second coming of a self-titled turned out to be, last year TBS also unexpectedly partnered with megastar DJ Steve Aoki, an unlikely long shot that yielded the sticky and defiant dance-rock number “Just Us Two“.

Such a link up was a sole degree of separation from glossy pop production extraordinaire Tushar Apte, who ended up getting enlisted to orchestrate and execute the group’s eight studio album in its entirety. Side-kicked by Neal Avron on mixing engineering duties, the Australian sound crafter—whose previous production pedigree includes BTS, Blackpink, Nicki Minaj, and Adam Levine amongst others—ended up exerting a perhaps greater musical moulding than any other producer TBS previously worked with. Each of the ten records bundled as part of this full length is enveloped in a thick membrane of sanitization unprecedented for the outfit. Even on grittier and more punk-adjacent cuts, such as the fierce and galloping second and forth single respectively (“S’old“ and “Keep Going“), there permeates a layering of lavishness as well as a tender loving care for sound that only a mystical mind such as Apte’s could instil into the pioneering alt rock quartet’s imprint. Conversely, a juxtaposition contributing to arguably the single biggest success factor of this project, lead singer Adam Lazzara’s lyrical flair remained as disarrayed and perturbed as ever, aptly demonstrated on the aforementioned fourth teaser track: “You could forget about the devil / But the devil won’t forget about you / Just because you’re winning / That don’t mean you’ve got nothing to lose“.

As a whole, 152 sounds big, expansive, and very polished. Musically and recording-wise, this half hour and change committed to tape stands as an outing more akin to the latest Thirty Seconds to Mars record, than say this year’s Paramore or Foo Fighters rock and roll canon offerings. Yet once again, perhaps counterintuitively, this is not a bad thing for TBS. For they pulled this off. With the benefit of twenty-twenty hindsight, the electronic and dance-affine sonic leakages on “Just Us Two” last year now resplend as a true blue litmus test for it all—a canary in the coalmine of sorts. Two of the album’s highlights, the gentle soft pop touch of “Lightbringer” at number seven and climactic soaring coda “The Stranger“, are washed up in synthesisers, clean effects, and pitch-correctors. This is something flat out unthinkable if one is to call back to their last record in time Tidal Wave—a no-frills affair dabbling in early punk tendencies and heartland rock inclinations. Well, perhaps unpopularly so, 152 is an overall better album than Tidal Wave.

Don’t take it from us, you ask the core fans. Correcting for recency bias handicap, their reception and hype so far for the new record seem to be at their most glowing since the quartet’s 2011 self-titled, a record that brought the original Tell All Your Friends line-up back together—drafted today counting Lazzara on vocal duties, John Nolan on guitars/keyboards/BVs, Shaun Cooper on bass guitar, and Mark O’Connell on drums and percussions. Case in point, as part of the Concord-distributed Fantasy Record’s sneak peek listening party that took place a few days before the album’s street date on 27th October, the label saw itself forced to go back for seconds to give the full playthrough another unplanned spin, on the heels of thunderous positive vox populi in webchat. Having attended said event first-hand, we can attest that particularly the aforementioned “Lightbringer” and the sticky groove of Spotify SEO-finessing “New Music Friday” struck as immediate first-listen standouts (aside of course from the four previously available singles).

Clocking in as the shortest LP in TBS’s discography—Tidal Wave, their longest, has almost twenty more minutes of material by comparison—152 is groomed by mainstream pop formulas through and through. Fascinatingly, there seems to be a runtime sweet spot optimized around 3:15 of playback, with as many as six out of ten tracks adopting the format—if this isn’t pop craftsmanship down to a T, then we don’t know what is. Even more intriguingly so, all these songs happen to make up the core backbone of the record, by being evenly woven along the ten-slotted tracklist. As a net positive externality, less constrained than inspired by similar machinery blueprints, Lazzara and Nolan found ways to muster up enough wherewithal to step up their lyrical game. Whether it’s post-mess up regret bars on the musically lukewarm intro “Amphetamine Smiles” (“Half-drunk Messiah with a smile on her face / She told me not to take them pills / I said “Girl, you got no faith in medicine“), romantic liberation on arena-sized lead single “The One” (“Now I’m close enough to reach you / All the walls that I could see through / Still, the words that I can’t say go on and on“), or free mundane mad libs-like associations on “Quit Trying” (“Something safe words make you vibrant / Northern lightning, ultra violet / I just quit trying“).

With all that being said, the best song on the album is “I Am the Only One Who Knows You“. Sequenced halfway through at number five, the tune not only has the most convincing songwriting at its core, but everything enveloping it, from its execution to individual performances and production, is of a spotless persuasion as well. On the track, lines such as “Keep ’em out, let ’em in / Unrepentant, unforgiven / Holy hell, high heaven / It’s a destination wedding” and “Give a smile, give a nod, find yourself / Find your god, holy hell / Tell yourself it’s a match made in heaven” transcend even the most literate of Lazzara’s sometimes corny lyrical leanings of the past, thrusting them into more legitimate poetic waxing conversations. Meanwhile, Apte’s white glove production is ethereal, formidable, and immaculate. As a big plus, something about this cut’s X factor makes it one of (if not the) most easily listenable songs in the band’s entire catalogue—no matter a listener’s walk of life. Sure-fire classic potential, hands down.

Yet by no means is this a pitch perfect album. While not enough credit could possibly ever be given to TBS for going so pop with this—lest we forget, they had something to the effect of a scene crown on their emo veteran heads to lose—there are lowlights to be found on this thing. For one, album opener “Amphetamine Smiles” feels like a misstep placed where it is, at least musically. This is the one instance where Apte’s radio-ready production chops didn’t translate as well on a creatively raw, acoustic, and soulfully unplugged composition. It’s also neither fish nor fowl as it builds up into a more traditionally rock track on its back-end, never quite managing to shake off a somewhat subpar packaging. We would’ve loved to have heard this on Tidal Wave instead. Along similar lines, the intentional pop dimension adopted on 152—led by such guiding principles as brevity, punch, and conciseness—could’ve caused certain tracks to leave listeners wanting more from them. Particularly on “Lightbringer” and the undeniably sticky “Juice 2 Me” as penultimate on the tracklist, the feeling is that both could’ve used more fleshing out, and that an even better song lurked beneath the glossier surface of theirs that ended up making the cut.

No harm, no foul—overall, for TBS this is not just an A for effort, but it’s also an A- in execution and output. Handily one of their best albums hitherto. Undoubtedly an outlier in the band’s discography. Here’s to hoping Adam, John, Shaun, and Mark keep on leaning in, pushing this new-found creative endeavour further and further in projects to come, without taking another eight years whilst at it. After all, TBS is back with new material after almost a decade (without the influence), their handsome faces are slapped on the album’s front cover for the first time, and in Fantasy they have finally found a record label that genuinely supports and elevates them. Chances are they now feel comfortable enough to keep scratching their true artistic itches going forward—irrespective of scene, industry, and peer pressures. For what it’s worth, best we can do as fans is to keep not treating TBS like a stranger.

We’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and we hope to feel your interest again next time.

AV

TAKING BACK SUNDAY

152

2023, Fantasy Records

https://takingbacksunday.com

ALEX REVIEWS MUSIC (ARM): BLINK-182 TIER LIST | 2023-10-20

Support blink-182:

https://www.blink182.com
https://music.apple.com/se/artist/blink-182/116851?l=en
https://www.instagram.com/blink182/
https://twitter.com/blink182

We’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and we hope to feel your interest again next time.

AV

FAUX DIRE | 2023-10-09

Drake finally dropped For All The Dogs, so we guess it’s as good a time as any to talk about Thebe Neruda Kgositsile, the 29-year-old rapper, singer, and songwriter better known by his stage name Earl Sweatshirt. His latest Alchemist-produced LP VOIR DIRE, the highly-anticipated follow up to last year’s hermetic SICK!, has now officially come out. Twice. The first time on 25th August, exclusively as a ledgered transaction in its blockchain-powered non-fungible version, offered via decentralized peer-to-peer platform Gala Music. Yup, you read that right. While the 11-cut project still remains fully free to stream on said project’s site, for all intents and purposes that record is solely being offered as a digital collectible. With any additional content, merch, or experiences having to be purchased at an additional crypto-cost.

Well, VOIR DIRE came out again last week—this time in its altered licensed DSP-version. Albeit still sequenced with eleven individual tracks, as many as three of them fell on the cutting room floor (“All the Small Things”, “My Brother, the Wind”, and “Geb”), in order to make room for “Heat Check” at number four, as well as a combo of superb Vince Staples-assisted collabs (“Mancala” and “The Caliphate“). These tweaks, in addition to the previously included staccato-beat feast “Dead Zone” upgrading its tracklist sequencing by one slot, tacked on another minute of runtime to the official Tan Cressida/Warner Records distributed version—yet still keeping the project lean and compact, clocking in at less than half an hour of material.

This kind of two-pronged roll out antic does warrant the question; which of the two versions, tracklists, and musical narratives does the Some Rap Songs MC hold for true? Or truer? Does his standpoint differ from that of The Alchemist? Is there a fake rendition of the LP at all? Aside from fanning flames of contemporary discussions around albums becoming subject to continuous updates in a way not dissimilar from software and apps, the intrinsic semantic valence of its veracity fits like a glove on a record like VOIR DIRE. The clue is literally in its title (‘voir dire‘ is an old French expression translating to ‘telling the truth’). Although alluding to the legal standard of prospective jurors being questioned to determine whether they can be fair and impartial as part of their trial duties, one could argue that by unveiling two different varieties Earl Sweatshirt is superimposing a heuristic interpretation to VOIR DIRE‘s creative meta-state. It’s either that, or dude’s simply covering his bottom due to “All the Small Things” taping a potentially unprotected lyrical interpolation from blink-182‘s namesake smash hit.

Musically, the newest version, the one dropped this month and widely available for streaming and download, is superior. It flows better, has a harder crop of tunes, and does without the more pronounced highs and lows of its fluctuating NFT counterpart. Even its front cover looks like a more accomplished and thought-through graphical affair (compare both artwork versions below). “Heat Check” is plain and simple a stronger joint than “All the Small Things”—albeit eerily similar in its blueprint and sound, raising more suspicion around this being some kind of elaborate art installation. Elsewhere, Thebe and Staples masterfully feed off each other’s energy and pockets with unparalleled chemistry on “Mancala“, while their penultimate heart-on-sleeve confessional “The Caliphate” is a top five all time Earl Sweatshirt song. Period.

Without getting too ahead of ourselves, it’s worth mentioning how the former Odd Future fixture has historically set an awfully high yardstick for himself, with his last two studio exploits in a row making both the 2018 and 2022 Albums of the Year shortlists around here—the October version of VOIR DIRE does have everything it takes to be considered for such accolade again. Yet, this bears the natural query: which one is the true VOIR DIRE up for nomination? Had the second public availability edition not come out, its AOTY merit and buzz would admittedly falter a smidge more (plus, part of us feels it wouldn’t even deserve it, by virtue of the tacky and cornball-y distribution method chosen…).

Should one only zero in on the core constituent parts found on both versions, it’s not like the conundrum naturally dissipates, either. Sure, the MIKE-cosigned “Sentry” as well as “27 Braids” contain some of the coldest and rawest bars Earl’s ever committed to tape, but it’s not like deeper cuts “Mac Deuce” or “Sirius Blac” don’t get topped by more exciting moments on each single one of his past four records. Yet again, album bookends “100 High St” and “Free the Ruler” are exactly the Alchemist-type beats of spineless and concentric sampled pockets that couldn’t call for a better rapper’s flow to be enveloped in than Earl’s. And then “Vin Skully“, at number two on the project, is perhaps the most triumphant belter upon repeated listens, not least on account of its fervent lyrical poignancy: “I don’t know what it is / I remember the ghost inside the crib / Hosin’ down the problem with gin and tonic / How to stay afloat in a bottomless pit / The trick is to stop fallin’ / Only option to start with a step, bet“.

Whether Earl and Al devised this in a deliberate way or not, one thing no one can take away from VOIR DIRE is its gnarly existence across multiple dimensions. There are of course the two sonic plains, embodied by both the non-fungible and licensed DSP version of the full length. Then there’s the greater performance art piece of the album assuming its title’s form, by thought-provoking the epistemological materiality of its meaning. Maybe, the whole point of it all is that there even exists an Earl Sweatshirt version, and an Alchemist one—who knows, perhaps even more? Nonetheless, we can’t quite shake off the feeling that the revered abstract hip-hop producer/rapper duo wasted a giant pun by not naming the record FAUX DIRE. Regardless, we think the joke’s on all of us.

We’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and we hope to feel your interest again next time.

AV

ALEX REVIEWS MUSIC (ARM): THIRTY SECONDS TO MARS TIER LIST (UPDATE) | 2023-09-15

30STM_Updated Tier

This is an updated Tier List—find the previous version here.

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We’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and I hope to feel your interest again next time.

AV

ONE-FIVE-TWO | 2023-08-31

2,597 days. That’s how much time will have passed since the release of Taking Back Sunday‘s last album Tidal Wave in 2016 by the time their eight studio project 152 comes out on 27th October. Announced yesterday in conjunction with their defiant and rabid second lead single “S’old“, the LP is slated to feature a scant ten songs, clocking in at just about half an hour and change of new music—officially making this their shortest album to date (for comparison, their seminal and raw emo-punk 10-track 2002 debut Tell All Your Friends is a whole two minutes longer). That is like around four minutes of new music on average for every year that has passed since Tidal Wave. Not exactly freehanded, but we’ll take it.

Riding on the fresh and reinvigorated coattails of the soaring and anthemic comeback single “The One” from a few months ago, the full length reveal broke the ice by way of injecting more speed and grittiness in earnest into the Long Islanders’ projected sound to come. Once again produced by radio-pop mainstay Tushar Apte (a connection via last year’s co-sign Steve Aoki, as it recently transpired) and mixed by Neal Avron, new cut “S’old” increases both pace and aggression compared to its softer and perhaps more agreeable predecessor, all the while relishing in a degree of carelessness rarely seen displayed by lead singer Adam Lazzara before: “You’re going to get s’old / You’re going to get so old / You’re gonna get so old either way“.

Undoubtedly, this second teaser packs a tighter and more nostalgic punch than “The One”, yet succeeds in couching enough of a lyrical arc into itself that ends up becoming even more gratifying, in spite of its shorter runtime—this both cathartically and lyrically: “Science never lies it only learns / I could use a bit of both / A little less your high hopes / A little more your love“. Standing as a spiritual love child between something off the edgiest moments on Happiness Is and Tidal Wave‘s “Death Wolf“, the exploit’s fierce delivery does not come at the expense of melody or replay value. Judging from these first two previews, on account of the somewhat unprecedented range displayed on them, most bets are off as to how the rest of the material on 152 is going to sound like.

That is, aside from the more surface-level remark about seven years having gone by since Tidal Wave (making this the largest gap between any two Taking Back Sunday releases to dare), a whole lot of life has happened for the band and its members in-between. For starters, there was Twenty in 2019, their career retrospective compilation celebrating twenty years as a band while keeping in touch with two previously unheard bonus tracks. Then there was the experimental, off-the-beaten path, vocal-only, lockdown-imposed side project Fuckin Whatever—we’re still owed some more explanation that can’t be chalked up to the pandemic cabin fever. Most importantly for the band, there was the departure of storied founding member and longtime rhythm guitarist Eddie Reyes in 2018. The umpteenth line-up change impacting the alt rock outfit, now officially a quartet (Adam Lazzara, John Nolan, Shaun Cooper, and Mark O’Connell).

In an attempt to make some sense of it all, their new US West Coast imprint Fantasy Record summarizes said ebbs and flows permeating the last seven years as catalysts for an album “[i]nspired by the long layoff and the cloud of uncertainty that blanketed the world (and music industry) these past few years”. Continuing by stating how “152 stands among the most genuinely reflective and emotionally pure efforts of Taking Back Sunday’s illustrious career“. Self-indulgent record industry jargon notwithstanding, a similar earnest sentiment seems to come straight from the horses’ mouth:

152 offers a lot more hope and light than we first realized when we were in the thick of it, putting it all together. We’ve been fortunate enough, through our music, to grow up with a lot of people going through the same things at the same time, and probably feeling the same way. Our hope is that you’re able to find a little bit of yourself in this new collection of songs, because you’re not alone, and neither are we.

You would think after 20 years, we knew what each other is going to do. But there were so many times making this record where I heard the initial idea and thought I knew where it would go, but then I was super surprised. It’s those kinds of surprises that make it so exciting. That’s why we all still want it so badly.

When we’re writing songs, the one thing we ask ourselves, ‘Is it capable of making people feel something?’ You try to make people feel emotion. That’s the one goal we went in with, and we think we did it.

In short: this thing is riddles with incognitos. Fantasy is a brand new label for the band (their fourth), putting out, amongst others, Americana, jazz, and R&B. Australia’s very own Tushar Apte is an unchartered and frankly unlikely choice to executively produce what’s arguably the most highly anticipated project of their career. For context, his production pedigree hitherto includes Chris Brown, Demi Lovato, and Nicki Minaj—not exactly scene pals to the emo rockers. And yet, there’s the 152. Even the occasional Taking Back Sunday fan knows about its symbolism and semantic, and in all likelihood has sculpted their own version of what it truly means. For what it’s worth, Fantasy saw fit to set the record straight by providing a somewhat diplomatic and collectively agreed upon answer, explaining how Exit 152 is “the section of road in North Carolina between Highpoint, Chapel Hill, and Raleigh where the band and their friends would meet up as teenagers“.

Regardless of what version one runs with, the lore surrounding 152 almost seems like the only familiar through line die hard fans can still cling on to, for now. Amidst so much wind of change for the New York group, another two months of patient wait before getting the full body of work looms as an agonizing gust at best. Here’s to hoping another teaser will see the light of day between now and late October. The boys seem very excited about the new record: they’ve been testing as many as the aforementioned two cuts off it live during their recent US headlining run at Sad Summer Fest—something almost unheard of for the band. What’s for sure is that, by and large, Taking Back Sunday has grown up. And that can’t but be a comforting beacon to rely on, still after so long.

We’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and we hope to feel your interest again next time.

AV

ALEX REVIEWS MUSIC (ARM): TAKING BACK SUNDAY – THE ONE | 2023-06-30

Being a bona fide Taking Back Sunday stan has not been a breezy stroll in the park over the past seven years. Since their robust classic rock-indebted LP Tidal Wave in 2016—their seventh—the band’s musical output has all but run on slim picking leitmotivs. Maybe through a little bit of fault of their own. Like it or not, they didn’t capitalize on the latter end of the past decade’s emo revival, fell prey of not one, but two new nostalgia-fueling anniversary traps in-between, kept us trippy during the pandemic with their Fuckin Whatever side-project, and embarked on an eyebrow-raising yet sticky one-off joint with OTT electronic dance DJ Steve Aoki right around this time last year. Today, Friday 30th June, marks the day they’re back with their first slice of new original music in four years.

The Long Island outfit, now officially a quartet after the painful departure of founding member and longtime guitarist Eddie Reyes in 2018, has released “The One“, a number that embodies all guises so as to pass as the lead single in anticipation to a forthcoming eight studio album. Accompanied by a tongue-in-cheek and self-aware DJay Brawner-directed music video, and backed by new imprint Fantasy Records through Nashville-based indie circuit powerhouse Concord, the record finds Taking Back Sunday in a tender and content mood. Billed by the band as a “sweet love song—full-on John Cusack holding a boombox”, the alt rocking cut coasts through a soaring compositional dynamic, culminating in an emphatic post-chorus refrain aptly delivered by lead guitarist and backing vocalist John Nolan: “Now I’m close enough to reach you / All the walls that I could see through / Still the words that I can’t say go on and on and on“.

More than on any other recent sonic teaser dished out by the foursome, the trademark vocal call and response dynamic between frontman Adam Lazzara and Nolan is fiercely on point here. Underpinned by a spacious and expansive electric guitar-led soundbed, it’s the principal vocal delivery that pulls the biggest heavy-lifting for the track, both melodically and performance-wise. The songwriting is injected with a solid dose of romantic honesty, doubling as an unconditional tribute to one’s significant other—a thematic impetus acutely elevated by the broad and big Tushar Apte-assisted production, lending the main chorus a fitting revelatory closure: “Oh, I’m better off for betting / I’d be better off forgetting / Go big, or go home / If I was the one / Like you’re my one / You are the one / You arе the one / The onе“.

The overtly pop-oriented and former Chris Brown, BTS, and Demi Lovato-collaborator Apte is actually a fairly unorthodox production decision for the outfit, and one which could prove enthusing in charting a speculative new artistic direction the whole—yet to be formally announced—project might be leaning toward. After their watertight two-album run on California’s Hopeless Records over the past ten years with legendary underground New York producer Mike Sapone at the helm (2014’s Happiness Is and the aforementioned Tidal Wave), the band looks to be on the prowl for a different and riskier approach, perhaps nudged by the new incubating record label. Safe to say, it’s starting to show from this initial appetizer. Case in point, “The One”‘s got radio-friendly hooks, a lavish and perhaps overly sanitized mix, as well as an overall compositional arc arguably more at home with pop-first material, than a landmark Noughties emo band’s eight career album. The good news is that the overhauled format is neither off-putting nor impulse-warping, allowing for the band’s storied and signature songwriting to still bleed through in earnest.

Speaking of which, Taking Back Sunday had this to say about the initial pre-pandemic gestation of the single:

This song came from a riff that [bassist] Shaun Cooper wrote the day he lost his grandmother while she was in a nursing home at the start of the Covid pandemic. Devastated with overpowering sadness, he found comfort in writing music and initially titled the riff ‘Posivibes’ in an effort to find some light through the darkness. He never shared the story of the title or how that riff came together with us until after it was complete. Shaun didn’t want his story affecting the ultimate meaning of the song, because it’s actually an uplifting one.

The somewhat laid-back and unintrusive instrumentation committed to tape here suits the prime valence of the reclaimed sugary messaging, which takes yield over anything else. Such an understated ethos, slyly laced into the three minutes and change record, concedes only to a mightier and grander chorus—effectively preempting what could’ve been a flashier return to the scene after seven years. While the choice is an unexpected one to say the least, “The One” ultimately stands as an accomplished example of a group putting the song at the core of this tune first, over any embellishment or heady instrumentation—not necessarily something the band has historically always excelled at.

Furthermore, fans ought not mind the seeming void of ancillary leave behinds accompanying this latest single, without much pointing to a larger project coming in our later in the year; for the branding overhaul on Taking Back Sunday’s online properties—as well as a general tangible momentum surrounding this one drop—possesses all of the crucial signaling that past standalone single releases didn’t. If nothing else, with an imminent summer on the road in the USA headlining the touring Sad Summer Fest with fellow scene fixtures The Maine, PVRIS, and Hot Mulligan, it’s high time for the Long Islanders to usher into their next album cycle, with a new line up formation, and a restored creative phase. We missed them so much.

We’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and we hope to feel your interest again next time.

AV

TAKING BACK SUNDAY

THE ONE

2023, Fantasy Records

https://takingbacksunday.com