EMS

ALEX REVIEWS MUSIC (ARM): THE MENZINGERS – AFTER THE PARTY | 2017-02-04

Yet another saturated and exciting musical phase (after what honestly was a pretty dull and modest first month of the new year) approaching yours truly, with new releases planned and expected soon from the likes of Ryan Fu**ing Adams – kind of a big deal because of this, this and even this – and indie rock kings Cold War Kids, as well as brand new music already announced for later on down the year by mighty Blink-182, 30 Seconds to Mars and Linkin Park. It is with such an uplifting and reinvigorated spirit in mind that I’m immensely excited to introduce you all to today’s artist, featured in 2017’s first ARM instalment: meet Pennsylvanian punk-rock minstrels The Menzingers.

After the Party is The Menzingers’ fifth studio album and comes after almost four years of restless touring in promotion of the moderately successful Rented World, released in 2014. This new effort is out on influential and devoted punk-rock Hollywood-based indie label Epitaph Records, founded by legendary Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz more than 30 years ago and that over its history has released major productions by seminal, genre-defining bands such as Pennywise, Social Distortion, Descendents, and, obviously, Bad Religion. It is precisely within such a sonic framework that one should broadly position The Menzingers, as more or less explicit influences of the outfits above and a handful more are easily to be found along the band’s catalogue so far. After the Party, which at time of writing came out officially yesterday, 3rd February, overall delivers a solid, 13-track release cutting at just under 45 minutes of unstriated and uncompromising melodic punk-rock which is overwhelmingly driven by loads, loads of guitars. Personally, it’s been quite some time I hadn’t revisited such a genre – which for me in the past had been taken care by folks like Rancid, The Gaslight Anthem and potentially a bit of Against Me! – and if anything it really felt good immersing myself in such waters again. Yet, even after repetitive listens, the album sort of leaves you a bit dry and longing for something more that was missing once closing track, albeit singularly convincing, “Livin’ Ain’t Easy” calls the curtains.

In fact, I guess the biggest problem of this record is its first half, with unfortunately really only presents  the wonderfully composed and melodically rich “House of Fire” at number six for future talks. This is despite side A of the album having included two of the three major singles releases off of After the Party, namely the pretty predictable and over-heard “Thick as Thieves” (number two on the tracklist) and the following, rather dark cut “Lookers”, which despite an interesting and touching intro kind of loses itself one minute into the song and at its best results too self-referential. Furthermore, album-opener “Tellin’ Lies” might even be ok for opening live shows and festival slots but in all frankness is not far from the exact reason why this kind of punk-rock simply got too boring at one point in history. “Midwestern States”, at number four, is certainly a pretty good song on average, though definitely not something to be remembered and quite possibly not one of the songs that will stuck with the listener after the album is over. The following “Charlie’s Army”, instead, is likely to be the worst track on the whole entire record, with not only a slim vocal lead but also heavy, at times disturbing disynchronization between all instruments included. Definitely one that could have been left off the final track listing.

Fortunately, things start to get much better with the album’s middle song “Black Mass”, a sweet semi-acoustic ballad that entails great vocal emotion and superior lyrics (“We used to want to take the back roads / But now we found a distance shorter / You used to call me darling / Now you prefer more formal“). Moreover, at number nine on the tracklist we find “Bad Catholics“, which was released as lead single late last year, arguably a right decision. The track is among the catchiest and radio-friendliest on After the Party and despite a wonderful and tempting main guitar riff doesn’t overstay its welcome and ends up at 2:52, making it the second-shortest song on the whole album. What follows is “Your Wild Years”, which alongside the aforementioned “Black Mass” contains some of the best words on the record highlighting and romanticising multi-ethnical backgrounds in form of an unusual love declaration, possibly more needed now than ever given present political times in the USA. Yet the very best of After the Party is without doubt found in its last two, closing songs “After the Party” and “Livin’ Ain’t Easy”. The former and title-track almost completely reaches songwriting and execution perfection mixing up raw emotion, fuelled guitars and drops of Taking Back Sunday, Bruce Springsteen and Foo Fighters here and there, which made me connect to it in a very intense fashion. Also, the intro guitar riff might be among the best in a good while within the recent punk-rock pantheon. Speaking of guitars, album closer “Livin Ain’t Easy” also decides to deliver chills down the listener’s spine via electric six strings, with its leading guitar lick wrapped up in beautiful reverb and chorus effects probably very reminiscent of last year’s Moose Blood’s Blush. Extremely well done and appropriate closing track.

There’s a lot of regret in me after listening to After the Party as a whole, precisely because of the last two tracks’ beauty and effectiveness. What I mean by that is that if it weren’t for the handful of boring and rather dull songs included in the LP (“Tellin’ Lies”, “Charlie’s Army” and “The Bars” leading the group), this album could’ve been really, really good and (already!) landed straight to this year’s list of best releases. Yes, because there are indeed songs that are truly exceptional (“Black Mass”, “Bad Catholics”, “After the Party” and “Livin’ Ain’t Easy”), and this Menzingers’ effort could have become a classic if, for example, released as an EP with its best of. However, in my opinion there are too many flaws to be acknowledged as such and sadly After the Party really can’t be labelled as more than an average, solid record. Yet, my love for certain, selected tunes might as well be catalysed precisely by those other poorer moments on the record, allowing them shine and emerge in contrast to the remaining ones and with regard to an overall perspective. And I guess this is exactly the splendour and magic of music: hard to explain and different for everyone. So please go on and come persuade me that this album is a masterpiece if you truly believe so, I’d be all ears.

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

AV

THE MENZINGERS

“AFTER THE PARTY”

2017, Epitaph Records

http://themenzingers.com

menzingers_atp

SAPPY NEW YEAR | 2017-01-05

Well hello there esteemed readers, welcome back to a fresh and shiny new solar year, called 2017!

I really do hope everyone has had a chance to spend happy and healthy holidays with their loved ones, whichever festivities one may adhere to. I had some fantastic time off at home and skiing on the Swiss Alps. I also got the best Christmas present I’ve ever received in form of a kickass necklace with two splendid pendants that represent two of my biggest passions in life and for that matter the whole single reason why I started this site in the first place (read this if you’d like to know more about it, + pic of said best Christmas present below). Before we go any further, I’d also like to take the occasion to wish every single one of you a wonderful and passionate new year from the whole team at Everything Must Swing, which in all true honesty it’s just me, no one else really. Nonetheless, I would like for everyone’s onboarding on the new collection of 365 days into a single unity to be as passionate and inspiring as possible, and therefore I thought I’d come up with scattered bits and pieces listing some of the things that are getting me excited during the first days of 2017.

First of all, do yourself a favour and give a listen to the whole Frank Ocean‘s discography. It’s not immense, it starts with his debut mixtape nostalgia,ULTRA. (retrievable almost anywhere on the web with free download) and ends up with his latest, long-awaited LP Blonde that came out in August last year. In between these there’s the critically acclaimed first sensation studio album Channel ORANGE (released in 2012) as well as the totally unexpected, music-industry Trojan horse of a visual album Endless which came out a day before Blonde last Summer, however still only available through Apple Music. I’m suggesting to take a deep dive into his art because Frank Ocean is a pretty big deal. He used to be (or still is?) one of the most creative and daring members of the highly influential L.A. hip hop collective Odd Future and over time has received more praises and accolades in and out the music industry than almost anyone else in the past five to ten years. However, more than anything he’s a true R&B, soul sonic experimenter who has not been afraid to speak out on gender and sexuality issues as well as brilliantly setting up an elegant and refined strategy to screw a major record label – Def Jam Recordings/Universal, to be specific – through his double close-up release of Endless and Blonde. My personal take is that his music not only transcends genres and formats, but also possesses an extremely intense staying power, growing immensely on the listener at every new play. Try out for yourselves.

Secondly, in case you’re looking for some prompts and cues in terms of movies and television, I couldn’t recommend enough Dan Gilroy-directed thriller Nightcrawler, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and taking place in a dark and gloomy L.A. whenever one would like it to take place time-wise. Wikipedia says that the movie portrays “a thief who starts shooting live footage of accidents and crimes in Los Angeles, selling the content to a local news channel as a stringer while secretly sabotaging both crime scenes and other news reporters” and to be fair I think it’s a good description of what it is about. Yet beyond its plot I truly believe that the movie has some of the best on screen dialogues and cinematography around, and while it was released quite some time ago already, appears to remain more relevant than ever theme-wise hinting at modern society’s perverse and twisted relationship with breaking news as well as a long lasting crisis of contemporary journalism. Also, it’s no surprise given the excellence of the script and some of the exchanges in the movie that the producers even decided to release the movie script in full on the Interweb. Definitely worth a watch/read if you too like me enjoy dope convos, double meanings, and lightened lines while at the same time not sacrificing an engaging and suspenseful plot.

Third, this time moving to the literary dimension, I currently find myself deep in the reading of American author James Franco’s Actors Anonymous novel, published in 2013 and tracing parallel (mostly very weird) stories about different (mostly very troubled) actors in California. The semi-autobiographical book deploys heavy name-dropping and I believe borrows most of the storylines from James Franco’s own acting career, notably having starred in movies such as the first Spider-Man trilogy, Pineapple Express, Milk, 127 Hours and many more as well as having been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in 2011. The novel’s tale is inspired by Alcoholics Anonymous’ famous 12 steps and 12 traditions by adapting them to the acting world and the Hollywoodian high entertainment industry as a whole, converting the book into a dark, genre-bending ensemble that – as stated before – shamelessly mixes personal memoir and quintessential fiction, not least scrutinising all sins and excesses of those involved in the maintaining of said industry. Extremely funny at times, the novel represents a true and profound insight into Franco’s take on what it really means to be acting and which higher purpose the whole activity oughta serve. Though above all the book might as well be considered a first-account collection of anecdotes, trivia and little behind-the-scenes stories about the world of global celebrities and world-famous actors that might otherwise have gone unheard, mostly because of the extent of shame and mercilessness involved. Or, as Franco puts it himself in the book’s frontispiece: “Hollywood has always been a private club. I open the gates. I say welcome. I say, look inside”. Give the book a read if you’ve ever wondered what happens to big entertainment stars in between movies and projects.

Well I guess that’s about it for now, as you can see I’ve touched upon three fundamental artistic formats (music, film and book) so as to try to not overrepresent the Queen of them all – the sonic one – as it is usually the case with this site. To be fair, there could be other entertaining-escapist suggestions I could potentially be giving you for this rather downish period of the working year, such as a couple of other movies or TV shows I’ve been glimpsing at here and there, however I don’t want to feel like telling you too much what to do and see but I’d much rather give out some initial, core inspirations such as the above ones, from which then everyone goes on their individual journey to find what really enriches them perhaps ending up at a much different place than the starting one. Actually, looking back at my three artistic cues above I only now realise that there is indeed a deep, underlying theme that somehow connects them all: Los Angeles. That is, it turns out that the Californian city of Angels – unbeknownst to me – is the lowest common denominator to all Frank Ocean, Nightcrawler and Actors Anonymous, for many different reasons. Yet, the narration of how and what this comes to be might be as well be outside of the scope of this very blogpost, thus let’s just say that I’ll leave that to me alone by considering it my own personal artistic journey that has taken off out of those initial three ingredients. Now it’s your turn to make yours a reality. Enjoy (not so) responsibly.

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

AV

ems_newyear

ALEX REVIEWS MUSIC (ARM): BAD RABBITS – AMERICAN NIGHTMARE | 2016-12-18

An exceptionally interesting year is nearing its end and at this point it’s probably safe to say the best thing that could happen to us is a full reboot and restart from scratch in 2017. I will presumably devote a dedicated blogpost fairly soon trying to sum up some of 2016’s personally most interesting artistic bits and pieces (watch this space…), but before that I couldn’t bid farewell to this kaleidoscopic and eclectic year without one last instalment of the award-winning ARM column, so very much appreciated by yours truly’s esteemed readers. Also, I have a sense that the title of the record I will be reviewing in this very blogpost – Bad Rabbits’ American Nightmare – kind of already hints at a pretty faithful depiction of one of the most relevant developments that took place over the last twelve months and beyond. Yet, as the nature of ARM chapters calls for, there will be no room for other than pure, condensed and distilled musical critique within the walls of this very webpage’s frame. First things first. Set priorities straight. Enjoy.

Bad Rabbits are a Boston, MA, based funk-soul-rock quintet that’s been around for quite some time now, namely forming back in 2007 but in reality active for much more than ten years considering early line-ups and name changes. They might not be as well-known in Europe as they appear to be in the USA, and I personally might not had stumbled upon them either had it not been for Taking Back Sunday taking them as opening act on a long tour a couple of years ago. And boy am I glad they did, as these guys really do kick asses and their live performances are a true spectacle in their own right. So far the band has published five different records (3 EPs and 2 LPs). Their latest 12-track release is indeed titled American Nightmare (see artwork below) and was made available for free (!) – but after all, come on, it’s 2016… – via their website and all other blah blah digital stores on 21st November. Fun fact, despite its gratuity the album is also for sale on iTunes Store so I decided to actually purchase it after having dowloaded it for free just because it’s me and I like to be awesome most of the times. All joking aside, make sure to support original great music with every means you have at disposal. If you really don’t want to buy records and just like to stream tracks for free, at least inject yourself with ODs of live shows and merch and and and. Remembers, a cup of coffee at Starbucks costs around £4.

The album is an impressively solid rock & roll release closing at about 46 minutes, proving that Bad Rabbits didn’t try to hold back so much and gave out as much as it made sense for them. In this regard, as the band itself later revealed over a tweet, the writing and recording process for American Nightmare took place in a much smaller, more intimate and modest context that however was able to bring inspiration and emotion back to the Boston group. Overall, the record swings between ambient/space rock atmospheres – always led by beautiful guitars and arrangements – and stripped down, raw rapping crossing funk, R&B and hard rock all in between. It’s by far one of the most intrinsically varied and articulated albums I’ve listened to this year, but in fact what strikes me as even more surprising is Bad Rabbits ability and skilfulness to create extremely catchy melodies throughout the tracklist. Take for example lead single “Original” and its angry, dirty, and in-your-face emotion, or for instance the landscape-y “Too Late”, or again the mid-album ballad “Flames”: all those choruses and recurring refrains just simply stick to you from almost the first listen and result very well placed. Try and see for yourself.

Yet the record doesn’t simply prove songwriting maturity in its overall melodic extent and accessibility but possibly more prominently through its themes and lyrics, ranging from acute self-awareness and exploration to recent socio-political frames. For instance, the chilling and breathtaking “Wwyd” at number eight on the tracklist heavily deals with street and police gun violence alongside bigger conversations about race and discrimination via a powerful, minimalistic rapping chant. Similarly delicate topics lead tracks such as the explicit and at times exaggerated opener “Stalker”, the hectic and frantic “Save Yourself” as well as curtain call self-motivational anthem “Push”, which by the way features the only guest spot on the album with brilliant rap bars Spnda. American Nightmare is clearly loaded with socio-political statements and pieces of protest, and whilst to some it might look like just another anti-establishment rock album at first glance, there is an undeniable depth to the final output which openly places the record alongside other massive mass awakening and system-rejector releases such as letlive.’s If I’m the Devil…

Another noteworthy attribute of this album is its ability to let tracks grown onto the listener and almost catapult them to each one’s personal favourite bucket off of it. That is, songs such as the legitimately weirdly synths-loaded “Game of Chess” or the rather hysterical and messy “The Wire” seem to possess this rare capability of shaping themselves into radically enjoyable sonic frames completely revolting initial impressions, at least as far as I was concerned. In fact, this dynamic affected me to the extent that I currently consider “The Wire” the best cut off the whole record (I know this is subject to change and always a dangerous statement, yet true to this moment in time). The above is not to say that American Nightmare doesn’t have its weaknesses too, not at all. Songs like the too obvious “The Cloud” at number three or the slow, stripped down semi-acoustic  (and semi-boring…) number “My Song” do in fact represent the lowest points on this album, however legitimately acceptable and by no means affecting the overall positive and enthusiastic judgement of this record.

All in all, Bad Rabbits have put out an extremely relevant, thought-through and melodically beautiful record that in so many ways could aim at representing a lot of that’s happened during this ever-changing and ever-surprising year. This is true also for the lessons that should be learned and the main takeaways after listening to it: above all it’s a record distilling virtues of hope, sacrifice and self-growth. Or, as Bad Rabbits put it themselves in closing track “Push”: “Just push yourself, no matter if you go through hell“. What better phrasing to wrap up 2016?

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

BAD RABBITS

“AMERICAN NIGHTMARE”

2016, Bad Records

http://www.badrabbits.com/

badrabbits_an

ALEX REVIEWS MUSIC (ARM): TAKING BACK SUNDAY – TIDAL WAVE | 2016-10-17

Alright folks, here we are. The time has finally come. After having hyped about it for months hinting at it through this Summer’s most anticipated releases list and scrupulously analysed one of its single’s music video, my very own and utterly personal take on Taking Back Sunday’s 7th LP Tidal Wave is here. The 12-track, 48-minute long record dropped almost exactly a month ago (16th September) and was released on independent Californian label Hopeless Records, as it was the case for their previous effort Happiness Is. The album was recoded and produced in North Carolina by Tell All Your Friend-magician and Taking Back Sunday’s longtime friend Mike Sapone, who again worked on their 6th LP too. In fact, if you’re keen on learning more about the whole album-making process and behind-the-scenes insights from the Sioux Sioux studio in Charlotte (NC) where everything took place – which to me is as equally fascinating as the finished product itself – the label recently put out a nice making-of video reportage of the whole recording process.

Actually, because of the existence of said footage and so as to preserve some of its exclusive value, I’m going to spare you the majority of the details as well as the background of what led the actual album to be recorded alongside some of the main creative narratives behind it, trying to get straight to what in the end represents the essence of it with no further ado: the music itself. However, there is one thing I’d like to mention indeed, namely the fact that this record represents the first time in the band’s history that the same line-up has released three records in a row. That is, up until this point the NY outfit always changed at least some parts of its formation before completing a third consecutive album with the same one (they got close after 2004’s Where You Want to Be and Louder Now two years after, only to be disrupted by shaky departures of bass player Matt Rubano and lead guitarist Fred Mascherino before 2009’s New Again [!] was put out). Moreover, the realisation that this very personal and to be fair not very impressive accomplishment is to be obtained with the OG line up that started it all in the first place, I think speaks for something that makes the gestation of Tidal Wave a little more special.

For this record the band abandoned the not very fortuned choice of a “preface”-like instrumental opener to dances (see Happiness Is), but rather come straight to the point with “Death Wolf”. And boy, oh boy, do they get straight to the point with a fast, edgy, and punky rollercoaster that in some ways is set to deceive the listener after its first ambient-y overture minute. This track is right to be placed at number one for many reasons, and even after a solid good month of repetitive listens to the whole effort to me it’s the one that stays with you long after you’ve pressed stop. It’s got everything I like about this band: it’s raw, emotional, groovy, unpredictable and its lyrics are quintessential Adam Lazzara and John Nolan (the band’s lead lyricists). Moreover, the song’s hilarious, juxtapositional and at times genius “music video” makes for an even better listening experience. Plus, how cool is it to have a song called “Death Wolf”?! Just dope. The record continues with a duo of tracks, “Tidal Wave” and “You Can’t Look Back”, that were the ones already known to the large public being the first and second lead singles off the record. The title track at number two is an unapologetic tribute to some of the band’s main influences (The Ramones, The Clash, pure punk-rock more in general) and might as well be one of the catchiest songs Taking Back Sunday has ever written. To me a wonderful choice for both a title tracked-song and a first leading single. Fun fact is that, apparently, if it weren’t for drummer Mark O’Connell insisting on developing the song’s first raw ideas coming from John Nolan, the track might as well never have made the cut into the record. As for the following, third track, I’d spare you any more commentary and simply refer to a recent piece where I take a look at its music video (warning: it’s highly interpretable!).

The record then carries on to what might arguably be its most sophisticated and sonically mature part, showcasing the triade of songs “Fences”, “All Excess”, and “I Felt it Too”. At the same time, these tracks also represent some of the biggest departures in the band’s previous sounds, proposing solid and cohesive modern-day rock songs that encompass elaborated guitar sounds and unexpected electric/acoustic switches (“Fences”), incredible melodic feel entangled with signature emotional rawness (“All Excess”) as well as cradling, stripped down, and somehow hypnotic soundscapes that just don’t make you leave until the last note (“I Felt It Too”). From there, the album gets picked up by “Call Come Running”, a song that might have easily competed for first single from the start and that sees the band wearing their 80s influences pretty unapologetically offering another big, harmonic chorus similarly to what has long characterised one of Taking Back Sunday’s most widely appreciate traits. Next on the tracklist is “Holy Water”, and I have no shame in explicitly saying that, alongside “Death Wolf” and “Fences”, it is up there for the contender of personal favourite of the whole record. The track delivers emotionality from all its components and does a fantastic job in mixing songwriting, structure, and sound effects in a sustainable way that just works. In many ways it’s one of Taking Back Sunday’s best songs ever, in that I feel it enables each member to shine justifying their contribution in a way that actually enhances the creative constellation of the musical outcome without falling into risky self-referential schemes. “In the Middle of It All”, next one on the list, changes the landscape yet again pulling a lot of the band’s past sounds but reverting them back into a rocky production that has rarely been left so “dirty” and “gainy” ever before. Also, take a closer listen to Mark O’Connell’s drumming on this one, really going the extra mile delivering one of his best performances.

Tidal Wave, the artwork of which is as usual reported below and as a good friend of mine made me aware, has too many (more or less subtle) references to Nirvana’s Nevermind to go unnoticed, approaches its end with a trio of acoustic-led tracks, which from an overall musical standpoint could even make sense but unfortunately doesn’t really convince. My feeling is that one among the three tracks could’ve been left out (“We Don’t Go In There”?), a decision which by the way would’ve landed the record on to eleven tracks, which has always been the case for all previous Taking Back Sunday albums. While both “Homecoming” and “I’ll Find a Way to Make It What You Want” definitely have great ideas and display some interestingly looking-forward folk/americana influences, I just can’t abandon the sensation that the three tracks presented like this in a subsequent row are hard to sustain. Shame, because as just hinted at it would’ve been enough to simply drop one tune and it would’ve made for an even more brilliant record, overall. In other words, this kind of track listing ending has sometimes found me quitting the album listening experience at its peak, i.e. just after “In the Middle of It All”, not so much for lack of excitement to carry on but rather for impending fear of bringing this record “back to normality”, where it definitely shouldn’t be.

With that said, Tidal Wave is no doubt up there in the pantheon of Taking Back Sunday’s best work, representing a perfect snapshot of where the band is at right now both personally and artistically. There’s a lot of maturity, sound development, and lyrical refinement to be found among the twelve album tracks. In this regard, one of the things that work best here to me are song transitions, as they’re never hard placed or in any way forced, making for an extremely seamless and streamlined listening experience and giving even more legitimacy to the concept of “album” as a whole. The overall feeling is that with this release the band is at its most transparent and honest it has ever been, while one can totally tell that something special was started again by the original line up when they reunited with their 2011’s self titled record. The musical and lyrical narrative of the current incarnation 2.0 is there to be grasped with full force and in a much more tangible way than ever before, and this is successfully accompanied by innate compositional talent too. All in all, to keep this progress going, it simply looks like the NY alternative rock veterans have no other choice other than to ride this (tidal) wave for many, many other years to come.

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

AV

TAKING BACK SUNDAY

“TIDAL WAVE”

2016, Hopeless Records

http://www.takingbacksunday.com

tbs_tidalwave

RAIN ON AMERICA | 2016-09-25

The past couple weeks have been extremely intense music-wise for me. On 16th September my all time favourite band Taking Back Sunday released their seventh studio album Tidal Wave, which has doubtlessly been on a loopy repeat ever since, whereas two days ago – on Friday 23rd September – Buffalo, NY, hardcore natives Every Time I Die dropped their highly anticipated and already acclaimed new LP Low Teens. Both made (and are still making…) for a very dense musical listening period which will likely fruit in some form of review on this frequencies sooner or later. I wouldn’t want to give away too much at this stage yet but I’ve got to say both of them offer, in very different ways, loads of interesting talking points and somehow represent new sonic frontiers for both outfits. More on this soon(-ish).

I just really wanted to touch base and highlight a little piece of art by alt-folk singer songwriter Ryan Adams that caught my attention during the past days. Interestingly enough, this time round I’m not talking about a song or album, but rather a free poem called Rain on America he released within his collection “Infinity Blues”, published back in 2009 and followed by a second instalment titled “HelloSunshine” during the same year. To be fair there could indeed be some room for musical excerpts, considering that the 41-year-old North Carolina minstrel recently announced the release of yet another LP in his already incredibly prolific career (18 studio albums and 11 EPs recorded in about 20 years!), provisionally called “Prisoner” and which Rolling Stone rightfully listed among its 35 must-hear albums of this fall. Yet I’d rather leave said musings to after it comes out, due in November, and let Ryan’s pungent and at times thorny verses do the talking for this one instead.

There’s not much to say really to introduce the following poem other than it truly resonates and emerges as relevant as ever to the current socio-political landscape, not only in the USA but other major Western countries too, even though it was most likely written about a decade ago. Enjoy it responsibly:

so dirty
so dirty and so mean
is a rainbow
is a letter-stained
is a blowhole sewer
that’s right
just a touch of little america
in a small town
wishing you were gay
or allergic
to something
anything
symmetrical lines ripe with train machines
like arms
branches of trees stuck to this rock
out-stretching
blowing up fast
through
shadow mole-holes
and
rain
rain rain rain


so dirty
so dirty and mean
hands like a battling machine
like a failed robotic attempt
like an interruption at the movies
like texting your former lover
or future
because he will not stop your nevers
not here
with a little touch of america
at your service door
flags in the yard
dogs in the house
his name above
loose and no growl
little ones go teary and cross
while the plate gets heavy with
cigarettes and lip gloss
and gin-scum breath
and cigarette-tray stains
and a hand gets bit by an animal
but nobody screams
or says anything
the mall dies
so eventually
store by store
the zombies outside they aren’t scary anymore
before the movies went cold before before
and the film backed up on the shilling and trade post
and chicken meat got hormonal and plain


so dirty
so dirty and so mean
little and loud
angry
and effortlessly proud
of nothing
and plain
just a little touch of america
rain
rain rain rain.

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

AV

ryanadams_usflag

ALEX REVIEWS MUSIC (ARM): TAKING BACK SUNDAY – YOU CAN’T LOOK BACK (MUSIC VIDEO) | 2016-08-28

Watch the video first:

So last Tuesday my favourite band of all time Taking Back Sunday released a new single off their upcoming seventh studio album Tidal Wave (out on 16th September on Hopeless Records) titled “You Can’t Look Back”, which obviously got me overwhelmingly excited and all. Then, a couple of days and hundreds of plays later, I stumbled across a very funny and interesting article reminiscing about early Noughties punk-rock/emo nostalgia in which the author scrutinises frame-by-frame and with extreme meticulosity the band’s cult music video for fan-favourite track “You’re So Last Summer” released in late 2003. I immediately really liked the idea – less so the form and method used though – and hence thought to myself that, considering that thus far within my critically-acclaimed music review feature Alex Reviews Music I’ve only considered full records and or live shows, I might as well have a try myself at considering a music video as fundamental unit of my analysis. So here I am taking a closer look at the New York emo veterans’ latest single disguised as official music video (do they even still exist?!) directed by Anthem Films‘ DJay Brawner, also responsible for the band’s videos for Happiness Is‘s singles “Flicker, Fade” and “Better Homes and Gardens“. Yet, before I’d dug into any kind of reasoning or reflection and therefore somehow influence someone’s understanding of the track, I’d like you, my reader, to immerse yourself independently into the video hence why I copied it at the top of this page. Please do have a look at it before continuing reading if you’re interested in what I’m writing about.

The video starts off with a young man in a bright jeans jacket picking up a girl from what one understands might be her job place then driving off across desolated desert streets with a middle-range pick up truck. The couple then appears to be riding through unpaved roads before joining other friends at an outdoor party surrounding an impromptu fireplace on an empty clearing, all in an extremely joyous and intimate way. Nothing too spectacular so far. But more importantly, nothing that could somehow be misinterpreted or that is left hanging searching for meaning. This is when Taking Back Sunday themselves come into the game, as we find  – in order of appearance – lead guitarist John Nolan, drummer Mark O’Connell, singer Adam Lazzara, bassist Shaun Cooper and rhythm guitarist Eddie Reyes all already gathered around the festive rendezvous.

It is exactly from this point in time onwards that finding a common and indisputable meaning to the developments in the video, especially when paired with the enigmatic lyrics, becomes truly hard. That is, for example, as soon as the couple of leading actors joins the rest of the group I start noticing dark expressions and moderate discomfort on frontman Adam Lazzara’s face, who in the end is the one not only writing but also singing the lyrics in question. This impression doesn’t fade with time as Adam incidentally remains the only one not pouring with joy and light heartedness even when the lead actors mix themselves up with the rest of their friends and everyone else seems to be having a good time. In fact, this theory appears to be confirmed from minute 2:47 onwards, as an unexpected dramatic twist hits the so far linear and harmonic plot of the video, when Adam suddenly starts throwing up tons of blood from the depth of his stomach and searches his way through the crowd surrounding the fire, seemingly unaware of the whole thing.

Adam then starts to touch, approach and cover up other people with the dark blood coming out of his throat while every single one of them doesn’t bat an eye and keeps going on with what they’re doing. At one point, he then reaches for the lady who got picked up by the main character at the beginning of the video by touching her shoulder but even herself, albeit with a small and quick sign of awareness, ignores him altogether and keeps flirting with her alleged fiancée. Adam then collapses on the floor suffering in pain and rolls on his sides while at the same time covering himself up with sand and everything else that’s on the ground, before walking away from the feast and the group of people on a small path, not without falling back down the hill and adding to the existing damage even more. The video ends with Adam reaching the young couple’s truck parked not far from the party starting its engine seemingly ready to leave.

I guess my overall interpretation of the music video depends greatly from a few lines of the song’s lyrics that to me seem to ornament and complement the actual development in the visual story line. These verses are “I’m not the same man / not since you came in”, “Still feel the same way / Still don’t know where I’m going”, “I’m going to get you if it takes me all night long” as well as “Don’t know how you did it other than you did / I was there beside myself in my own skin”. My takeaway from them is that the young lady who joined the party with her man at the beginning of the video is the one Adam is (metaphorically) referring to in the song and obviously played an important part in his life, most likely sentimentally. Then, as soon as she joins the game he starts losing control of himself and so begins his physical downfall until he needs to leave the gathering altogether (“I’m not the same man / not since you came in”). Since he doesn’t seem able to explain such kind of reaction (“Don’t know how you did it other than you did”) he thus seeks time for himself and acquires ownership of one of the only things that could take him back to her later on, her fiancée’s car (“I’m going to get you if it takes me all night long”).

At heart, the track sounds to be about not being able of letting go of the past but at the same time convincing yourself that looking at the rearview mirror is only making things worse. As with all best songs, there’s much juxtaposition to be found and while for a great part it is a song about emotional weakness – not least when considered alongside its music video – after having listened to it one can’t help but feeling motivated to overcome said challenge and convincing themselves that moving forward in order to stop suffering about the past is not only an option but also the right one.

All in all, the beauty of art pieces is precisely that everyone is allowed the privilege of drawing different meanings and interpretations from them, sometimes very far off from what the creator first might have wanted to transmit, and this latest music video by Taking Back Sunday is probably no exception. I’ll leave you below with the complete lyrics for the song, perhaps they might help shed some clarity on its original meaning for the band and Adam most of all, looking back at how it all ties together with sounds and images. Or did we not just learn that we can’t look back?

[Verse 1]
I was living day to day
As the meetings they would suggest
Sitting pretty having one foot out that door
I didn’t know how to act
Started running and I didn’t look back
Still feel the same way
Still don’t know where I’m going
Oh, then you let me in
I don’t know how you did it other than you did

[Pre-Chorus]
You cut your wrist and said ‘come get you some’
It only works if you don’t look down
Bought the ticket, now you’re on the track
You can keep it but you can’t look back
You can keep it but you can’t look back
You can keep it but you can’t look back
You can keep it but you can’t look back

[Chorus]
I didn’t know what I was looking for
And come to think I wasn’t looking at all
I’m not the same man, not since you came in
I’m going to get you if it takes me all night long
I’m going to get you if it takes me all night long
I’m going to get you if it takes me all night long
I’m going to get you if it takes me all night long
I’m not the same man, not since you came in
I’m going to get you if it take me all night
I’m going to get you if it takes me all night long

[Verse 2]
I was nearly four states away
Mamma calling from the other end
Something about someday a woman’s gonna need you most the time
I didn’t know how to act
I started running and I didn’t look back
Still feel the same way
Still don’t know where I’m going
But now I’m in it until the bitter end
So if you’re gonna do me then you do me like that

[Pre-Chorus]

[Chorus]

[Bridge]

[Outro]
Don’t know how you did it other than you did
I was there beside myself in my own skin
Unfamiliar, I tried it on and liked the fit
I don’t know how you did it other than you did
I’m going to get you if it takes me all night long
I don’t know how you did it other than you did
I was there beside myself in my own skin
Unfamiliar, I tried it on and liked the fit
I don’t know how you did it other than you did
Don’t know how you did it other than you did
I was there beside myself in my own skin
Unfamiliar, I tried it on and liked the fit
I don’t know how you did it other than you did
Don’t know how you did it other than you did

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

AV

TBS_CantLookBack

ALEX REVIEWS MUSIC (ARM): BLINK-182 – CALIFORNIA | 2016-07-31

It’s another time of great artistic inspiration the one that led to me to the present new ARM instalment that scrutinises Californian pop-punk legends blink-182’s latest full length effort. That is, a renewed wave of exciting and refreshing TV shows has been fast approaching delivering, among others, Mr Robot‘s second season as well as Netflix original new cult series Stranger Things, which I’m sure will keep me busy for a good while during my holidays (yours sincerely writing this on the second day of well-deserved Summer vacation, indeed). Moreover, more time resources have been found lately being devoted to catching up with readings that had unfortunately been forced to be put aside for too long, such as Hermann Hesse, Dennis Lehane as well as good ol’ Chuck Palahniuk. Lastly, and possibly most closely related to the output of this blogpost, a number of new musical discoveries has permeated my non-work-related time over the past month, with the likes of Temple of the Dog – incidentally having just announced their first tour ever, though as of now only confined to the USA – Butch Walker and Phosphorescent adding up significantly to my personal list of new obsessions.

Back to the main purpose of this writing. Blink-182’s seventh studio LP California, recorded during the first months of 2016 and produced by notorious hitmaker John Feldmann (Panic! at the Disco, The Used, 5 Seconds of Summer), had been long on my radar of most highly anticipated releases of the year and couldn’t therefore get away from my fiercely ferocious and deeply feared sonic analysis. In fact, there are a ton of good and legit reasons to be objectively excited about the record, not least it being the first one after founding member Tom DeLonge’s departure – replaced by on guitar and vocal duties by Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba – and pretty much coming together not long after blink-182 being an inch away from splitting up and never playing together ever again. The album, previewed by catchy and explosive lead single “Bored to Death” and whose original artwork was created by UK street artist D*Face (cf. image below), did however get released on 1st July and has therefore been marinating in my mind for almost a month, which I believe is a fairly adjusted amount of time for a properly comprehensive tell all about it.

California cuts at just about 43 minutes of length with a total of sixteen (!) tracks, which I guess places itself well along a punk-rock pantheon made of collections of numerous, speedy and immediate songs. To be fair, two of these songs (“Built This Pool” and “Brohemian Rhapsody”) can’t really count as such being more of old-blink skits/jokey songs about male and female nudity with some shredding and drums fills spread across a handful of seconds running time each. The remaining fourteen songs don’t exaggerate in length either, with basically all of them ending at about the 3-minute mark exception made for opening track “Cynical” and live-favourite “The Only Thing That Matters”, both not even reaching two minutes and actually representing some of the best moments on this record, with some honest in-ya-face fast punk rock drive married with extremely catchy vocal melodies. Said formula unfortunately doesn’t seem to succeed in many other tracks of the album, with rather miserable attempts undertaken on “The Rock Show”-rip off “She’s Out of Her Mind”, “Kings of the Weekend” and “Teenage Satellites”, by far the most unnecessary, repetitive and overstayed songs on California.

Instead, it’s when blink-182 change the formula that things start to work out much better. One way of crystallising this is going back to thinner, basic songwriting towards a place that couldn’t be further apart from the punk rock edge that defines a big chunk of this album. Songs like “Home Is Such a Lonely Place”, which could have easily been developed in the same writing session as of fan-favourite “I Miss You”, and their homeland tribute “San Diego”, represent both pleasant acoustic surprises that, sonically and considering the overall tonal mood of the record, help mellow things out at number eight and thirteen on the tracklist. Another pattern that could roughly be spotted across the sixteen songs it’s the involvement of electronic sound touches that lie somewhere between +44 (bassist Mark Hoppus and drummer Travis Barker’s short-lasting side project borne out of blink-182’s first hiatus crisis in 2005) and the latter ambient incarnations of the band manifested in 2011’s Neighborhoods and the poorly-received EP Dogs Eating Dogs released in 2012. This pattern is found at best in tracks such as the anthemic and paramount “Los Angeles” as well as the album’s title track, possibly my favourite song off the LP. Less successfully, and somehow in disagreement with the band members themselves, such intersection between raw punk rock roots, big stadium sound and electronic finishings doesn’t really seem to take off in “Left Alone”, which was apparently long in the shortlist for the first lead single off the record.

Speaking of singles, besides the aforementioned “Bored to Death” the So-Cal punk rockers opted for the fast-paced and quite dark “Rabbit Hole” as a follow up shortly before “No Future“, where one can’t miss to find a wealth of similarities with classic blink “Adam’s Song”, found the light of the day as third preview of California. The picking choice of the three singles isn’t surely one that will go undiscussed and holds significant room for alternative suggestions, yet, at least from a commercial perspective, the final selection seems to have been a reasonable one given that the album debuted straight at number one in both USA and UK. It is however through a catchy, up-beat and generally great song like “Sober”, co-written with Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump, that one finds grand pleasure in welcoming blink-182 back to the scene, in many ways it seemed like the mainstream punk rock world had been missing them for too long.

blink-182 is currently on a headlining tour supporting their latest release, accompanied by an impressive list of supporting acts including A Day to Remember, All Time Low and The All-American Rejects. It looks however as if the California tour is only touching US ground so far, hence my suggestion would be (Pokémon) go catch the punk veterans live if you’re lucky enough to be based in America, though let me make damn sure that this very last sentence entailing said judgement of quality can only be used in conjunction to the above topic and bears no further reference to present tumultuous political times. Unless prank song “Built This Pool” turns into a new version involving the construction of something else, obviously.

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

AV

BLINK-182

“CALIFORNIA”

2016, Viking Wizard Eyes LLC

http://blink182.com

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THAT TIME I RESEARCHED THAT THING U2 DID WITH APPLE | 2016-03-26

One of the useful things that I did in the past few years was completing a Master’s programme at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). In order for me to obtain the degree certificate and therefore complete the curriculum I had to undertake an extensive and comprehensive research project that would broadly fall within the field I studied, what others, especially in the UK, usually call a dissertation. I decided to explore the public and media cataclysm that exploded after legendary Irish rock group U2 and the biggest brand in the world Apple decided to partner on an exclusive promotional deal for the band’s latest album “Songs of Innocence” in September 2014, realising it for free for over half a billion iTunes customers. I did this not because it was – and unfortunately in many ways still is – highly fashionable to criticise and be against U2, but rather for the exact opposite reason: I was excited about the distribution strategy and couldn’t really understand all the rage and resistance that was being put forward by not only the public but also by social and mainstream media outlets themselves.

I thus found myself analysing a whole lot of content and material deriving from traditional media outlets (newspapers) and social media (tweets) trying to make some sense of both the mainstream narrative as well as the opinions deriving from bottom-up reactions of social media users around the globe, all from a predominantly journalistic perspective. Well, long story short, after having handed in my dissertation last August 2015 – entitled “Songs of Guilt”: When Generosity is to Blame – A Content Analysis of the Press and Social Media Reactions to U2’s “Songs of Innocence” Giveaway on iTunes – I was lucky enough to be considered for external publishing and included within a working paper series called Media@LSE MSc Dissertation Series hosted by LSE’s Department of Media & Communications. I wouldn’t onboard on such a shameless act of self-promotion other than for the fact that the research project is now publicly available and downloadable here and maybe of interest of you, esteemed reader. As one does with pretty much anything new that’s being presented and/or launched nowadays (especially cultural and artistic artefacts), I’m attaching the dissertation’s abstract here below as a preview/snippet/trailer/extract in case you’d still wondering whether this whole explorative journey could be something of your interest (though come on, you could still download the freaking file and just skip to the 2-page results section, isn’t this what we all do anyway? Also, some of the figures are cool.):

“The present research project aimed at delivering an update on networked journalism practices within hybrid media systems’ theorisations. It approached such a theoretical framework, completed by the notions of framing and (inter-media) agenda setting, through the consideration of the case study of tech giant Apple and Irish rock group U2’s promotional deal directed at the giveaway of the band’s latest album “Songs of Innocence” on iTunes, which was notably accompanied by widespread disapproval and a questioning of its means. The study set out to appraise and analyse the reactions of the mainstream and social media to the promotional stunt as hybridised phenomena. A quantitative content analysis of 145 English-speaking press articles (further subdivided into general-interest and specialised music press clusters), as well as of over 1200 tweets, published during the course of the operation, allowed the researcher to assess the narratives of the two dimensions in relation to their interactive development.

The research concluded that the mainstream and social media shared various patterns of content development, such as the predominance of negative tone over positive tone and the reliance on framings relating to both the top-down imposition of “Songs of Innocence” and issues of privacy. The study also found that the two media dimensions employed significant cross-referencing, with social media relying relatively more on the mainstream than vice versa. However, key events in light of the overall public discourse concerning the operation were found originating on social media first and being later taken up by the mainstream. Thus, in general the research could further contribute to the conceptual acceptance of a fluid hybrid media system in which traditional and online media ought not be seen so much as replacing each other, but rather as complementing themselves in a fast-paced supportive symbiosis.”

I obviously had to reformat the whole document in order to comply to the series’ standards and I guess that made for a very long article in its final version, but I’d say that in general it’s pretty enjoyable and worth a read if you’re even remotely into music. It was definitely an interesting experience for me as I got to gain really surprising and fascinating insights into people’s perception of privacy and intimacy in the modern social media age as well as key thinkings surrounding the music industry after its digital disruption that happened over fifteen years ago. If any of these buzz words sound remotely exciting for you, I’d say you wouldn’t waste your time reading the research. If not, no problem, there are a lot of exciting TV series out there to spend your time with. If you’re currently searching for inspiration, give Daredevil, Better Call Saul, Mr Robot or House of Cards a try. All highly addictive. Otherwise, simply stop by Kanye West‘s Twitter timeline and that should keep you busy for a good while too. Either way, I guarantee for quality to be found.

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

AV

Apple&U2_SOI

ALEX REVIEWS MUSIC (ARM): ANDERSON .PAAK – MALIBU | 2016-03-05

I’ve been heavily into hip hop lately, blasting almost literally no other type of music into my ears for over a good couple of months. This is certainly partly due to recent explosive releases, such as Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo or Kendrick Lamar’s untitled unmastered., which surprisingly dropped overnight just 48 hours ago. Though I would say that a greater element justifying my latest musical inclination would definitely be the genre’s ability to get under the listener’s skin while at the same time activating juxtapositional feelings like probably no other genre can do. Certain rap songs simply beautifully succeed in sparking emotions of anger, excitement, sadness, angst, and freedom all within a single fully amalgamated track, which to me is an incredible sensation. While this phenomenon might be partly explained by the actual observable mixture and contamination of different genres found in the musical creations of, for instance, Kanye West, Oddisee, Kendrick Lamar, Rozz Dyliams or even Chance the Rapper, I genuinely feel that there’s something really specific to the genre itself that opens the door for multi-layered, holistic conceptions of sonic outputs originating the close-up series of feelings outlined above. The latest exponent of the like wonderfully succeeding in developing said process to me is Anderson .Paak, 30-year old Los Angeles-brewed rapper who’s just ended up becoming the new Dr. Dre’s protégé after releasing his second major release Malibu early this year. Let me tell you a little more about his recent album. (Interesting fact: the full-stop “.” preceding his last name is totally on purpose, reminding people of the importance of details in arts. I already like him)

Being praised – or rather grilled by too many, I should say… – as the new Kendrick Lamar for his poetic-narrative ability as well as the fruitful combination of soul, R&B and possibly jazzy elements all into one is probably not one of the lightest pressures to cope with, especially in this moment in time after the Compton MC literally took over the world and still has all eyes on him. Add to this the fact that after Dre’s endorsement the hype surrounding him is risking an unprecedented blow up and you’ll immediately get a big fat mountain to climb in the first place. Yet, his hypnotising latest 16-track release Malibu – excerpt: another reason why I love hip hop is heavily extensive tracklists –  thankfully speaks for itself and leaves all cheap talks and gangsta gossip aside.

As already hinted at, Anderson .Paak’s effort nods at a variety of musical influences, ranging from sexy soul atmospheres to edgy unspoken tributes to Motown, all mixed up in modern fresh production and an undisputed talent for hip hop storytelling (dawg’s got some flow there…). Though one should not be deceived by the initial trio of songs “The Bird”, “Heart Don’t Stand a Chance”, and “The Waters”, as albeit totally pleasant and low-profile, one of the LP’s best cuts already sits at number four. “The Season/Carry Me” is a rare beauty encapsulated into a little more than five minutes that perfectly showcases Anderson .Paak’s musical flexibility and lyrical refinement. And its live performance is possibly even more flawless, amplified by Anderson’s past as a drummer and expressive emotionality. Skipping the rather dull “Put Me Thru”, the best cohesive 5-piece segment of the album follow. Lead single “Am I Wrong”, featuring Lamar’s buddy ScHoolboy Q, is to me exactly what modern hip hop should be with great exposure to newer electro/ambient elements, while the edgy and raw “Without You” is for the redeemed angry ones, plus Rapsody’s guest appearance on there is incredibly intense and rad. The album takes a well deserved leaning-back break during “Parking Lot”, in which listeners can get smoothly transported by the sound while imagining of wandering though some sunny corner of L.A. The hypnotic and daring “Lite Weight” might definitely not please everyone, though over time it turns out to be one of my personal favourites, not least thanks to its whirly beat and vocal huge-quiet performance accompanied by Anderson’s smokey voice. The central and arguably best part of the LP comes to a close with latest single “Room in Here” at number ten, a witty and at times sensual track where a catchy piano riff and a master-verse by guest The Game dominate the scene.

After said fortunate and brilliant section the album unfortunately loses itself a little in a bit of self-indulgence and tracklist-filling numbers, where above all interlude “Water Fall” and “Come Down” could have easily stayed off the LP’s final incarnation without doing any harm whatsoever (on the contrary…). However, even with the risk of sounding repetitive, Anderson .Paak unveils his real magic on album’s curtains call “The Dreamer”, in my opinion one of those striking and anthemic songs that only get release once every couple of years. One can’t help but picture themselves on the beachy coast along Santa Monica – or in this very case I should say Malibu – escaping from every day carnal sins embracing the sonic journey that this gem is offering. The straight outta 70s chorusy guitar melody entangled with a contextual feeling of liberating chants and a reverberating choir make up for a song to be remembered for long. It’s somewhat at the same time a sound familiar to warm souls and a sonic architecture that has not been around for a long time, unlike anything else that’s come out in decades. Safe to say in this case that Anderson kept his best as last.

All in all, an L.A. born and bred album that definitely follows major recent hip hop patterns while – and I stress this as very important – simultaneously offering its own original angle shutting down all detractors accusing Anderson of stealing someone else’s authenticity. Moreover, the icing on the delicious cake in this case is the artist’s live ability (I haven’t seen him live yet but his YouTube clips are there to prove this), something that in this day and age of relentless touring and albums’ cross-monetisation through live shows should definitely not be taken for granted and could be the key element in the surviving-of-the-fittest race that’s the music industry. In this sense, Kendrick Lamar is the one to copy.

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

AV

ANDERSON .PAAK

“MALIBU”

2016, Steel Wool/OBE/Art Club

http://www.andersonpaak.com

anderson-paak-malibu-album-cover

THE LIVES OF PABLO & KANYE | 2016-02-20

It’s been over a week since Kanye West‘s extremely highly anticipated seventh solo LP The Life of Pablo (TLOP) hit the stratosphere and got previewed on earth on 11th February at New York’s MSG via a bombastic and cataclysmic listening party that converged fashion and music into a single global event. Yet, in the history of recent major pop releases there has probably never been less clarity and straightforwardness about an artist’s longly awaited effort. For once, almost 10 days after its “release” – or revelation to the mere mortals I should say – the album is still unretrievable for purchases in digital stores and has therefore been illegally downloaded over 500’000 times bringing back old early 2000’s memories (Kanye opted for the solution of assigning to buddy JAY Z’s Tidal music streaming service TLOP’s exclusivity for a period of time that only God or Yeezy truly know how long it really is). Second of all, the album went through at least three different sonic versions after its disclosure at the MSG event, and no one really knows how many others may see the light of day knowing Kanye’s distinct unpredictability and perfectionism. Third, just recently it was revealed that an another album-worth of demos and outtakes from TLOP (9, though the number may be rising quickly in the future) got leaked online and I would add could also be reinvigorated by Yeezy himself for further version of the album that may as well arise shortly. I guess the fourth point of this introductory “set-the-scene” list would be the multitude of claims and revelations that Kanye has been shooting out on the Interweb through his hysterical and unfiltered Twitter account, though at this point you’d all have probably read way too many news stories and reports analysing and assessing every single chirping the Chicago man has published. Therefore I’m explicitly avoiding contextualising this last point and I’d rather leave it to the differently layered channels of mainstream media.

The irony of all this, however, is that this whole single draining confusion had begun way before TLOP was actually debuted, as Kanye managed to push forward in time the release date multiple times, changed the album’s title four times and periodically took to Twitter to reveal significant restructurings of the track listing (at least three major changes). Such artistic incoherence and mind-changing, irrespectively of how planned they were, actually made for a pretty genius marketing and PR move, as with every single alteration and amendment of an album’s element there was always a new huge opportunity to talk about Kanye and TLOP (yet) again. To be fair, I do believe that a major part of the said confusion was actually due to authentic and artistic sudden steering changes, mostly of recording and production nature, that seemed to have shaped Kanye’s approach to the album and possibly also denoted some traces of insecurity. Nonetheless, I can’t believe that Kanye is the only one managing Kanye and that what he’s been tweeting over the past months were just instincts and honest opinions, thus there must have been some kind of thought building up to TLOP promotion and release. Having said that, I guess we’ll never really know the true motives causing such trouble and mess surrounding Kanye’s latest album, and in the end I believe the only thing that counts is the musical output as such, which is what I’ve been trying to focus on for a while despite all of the above external stimuli and distractions.

I don’t want to make this an ARM blogpost, i.e. I’m not going to review TLOP in the way that I’ve done for other albums in the past. Also, I’m sure by now there are some many album reviews out there on the Interweb that one could potentially read a new one every day for the rest of 2016 and not running out of it. What I’d like to stress in this case is that, again voluntarily or not, I actually came to really like this idea of an album that’s never finished, that’s work in progress even after it’s released, that’s changing shape according to the creator’s feelings of completeness and culmination. Obviously, there are rather natural and for a good part also artistic limits to this approach, though hypothetically speaking, given the amount of TLOP-related tracks and versions that are now available out there and the easiness of procurement of such songs online, one could bucket together their very own personalised version of the 18-track LP. This way, someone would have the demo versions of “Waves” and “FML” in their tracklist and skipped all the spoken (and probably rather unnecessary) interludes while someone else would add up to 24 songs in their own TLOP including some of the alleged “outtakes” too, exactly because Kanye himself is still not sure what version of the new album is the real one. Make your version of TLOP, patch it together the way it appeals most to you, make it somehow your own. I think this mechanism also steers a bit towards the tendency of personalising the fruition of art more in general, thanks to the resources and capabilities of the cybersphere and the enhanced connectedness between all of us that, as with other domains such as journalism and media, go to blurry more and more the boundaries between creators and users, musicians and listeners, directors and watchers. I believe there is something really powerful in such a thing and instead of seeing it as a flaw or a representation of lack of quality I’d like to think of it as a true artistic accomplishment.

My opinion on Kanye has changed over time (also thanks to that time I got to meet him in London, see pic below), I love his music and I feel like he’s given genius inputs to the public opinion, though for many reasons he himself makes it virtually and ontologically impossible to be fully likeable. Regardless of the shape, to me TLOP is phenomenal and offers so many interesting musical cues and insights that it’d be impossible to narrow them down in written form whatsoever. As Kanye himself revealed on Twitter before the LP’s release, his latest album is “actually a Gospel album”, and in many ways he really stayed true to such claim all the way through the creative process. For gospel music is notoriously sung in large groups and is a celebration of single contributions among a tight togetherness: Kanye somehow wants us to take TLOP and make it our own, by putting our perspectives to its completeness forward designing the perfect end-version for every single one of us.

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

AV

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