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Sam Fender - People Watching

My first encounter with Mr Fender was a couple of years back when he headlined R&L my reaction was "who the hell is that?" listened to a couple of tracks, decided he wasn't for me and promptly forgot he existed. Let's see if he makes more of an impression this time around.

People Watching

At time of writing this is my third listen through and Sammy has grown on me, my initial notes were I can't stand his voice but it's actually not too bad. Still not an amazing track, it's a bit too basic indie radio rock for my taste but it's fine.

Nostalgia's Lie

Second verse same as the first, completely inoffensive but not my kind of thing.

Chin Up

Yeah this is the first one where his voice actually grates on me third time around, the instrumentation is screaming banking advert which doesn't help.

Wild long Lie

I like the sax, makes this one stand out a little bit more.

Arms Length

This one's definitely a grower, I feel more positively about it every time I listen. My initial notes contain a snotty joke about not wanting to know him at all that i no longer stand by, I've grown a lot in the past 6 days.

Crumbling Empire

This right here is the high point of the album, it really surprised me how much I liked this one on first listen. Really hits the nail on the head on what it's like to live in this declining country, absolute vibe. While I'm not the biggest fan of his singing style, it really works for me on this one.

Little Bit Closer

The mid-point is the strongest for me as i also quite like this one. He's singing clearer on this track and doesn't sound like he has a mouthful of food, which I enjoy.

Rein Me In

This one bucks the trend as it's the only track I like less the more I listen to it, I was fairly positive about it initially but now i just think it's a bit meh. I think i was initially just riding the high of Crumbling Empire and Little Bit Closer

TV Dinner

Unfortunately I'm back to not liking his voice, I might just be Geordie racist but when he's being quieter and less clear i'm not a fan.

Something Heavy

Completely inoffensive radio tune, fine but not my vibe.

Remember My Name

Thanks to crumbling empire i will remember your name Sam but i highly doubt i'l remember this song. It's got a bit of a Disney song vibe to it, like a shitter "Part Of Your World"

This album is completely fine, I have no real strong opinions either way. It's the kind of thing that wouldn't annoy me if it was playing, but I'd never choose to put it on myself. This has never been my kind of music but i'm not upset it exists, I'll take finding one track I really like as a win.

I'd say this is a prime example of a straight 5/10 but because crumbling empire exists I'll instead say it's a 5 but it's closer to a 6 than a 4.

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Troupeau Blue - Cortex

Big fan of jazz, luke warm on the French let's go.

La rue

Yeah very nice, nice piano, funky,

Automne

Also nice, maybe slightly less nice but nice none the less

L'enfant samba

Geg you little sket, doing this track by track is hard. Also very nice, great sax in the second half. 

Troupeau

New strat just mention the instrument that stands out untill a song really shakes it up. Nice Bass.

Prelude a go around

Slower, sexier, sleepier just as I'm drifting off the sax wakes me up love abit of sax.

Go Round

Cheeky lil bit of slow piano, nice.

Chanson d'un jour d'hiver

First one that's not doing much for me, might like it more if understood her, my french basically isn't. Picks up abit but then goes back to wailing in a dead language. 

Mary et Jeff

Ooh yeah immediately clicked with this, got that skipedi groove.

Huit Octobre 1971

Very nice, is that abit of synth in my jazz record or have they just done something funky with an instrument. Either way I dig it.

Sabbat PT 1 -

Short, Sweet, Nice

PT 2

Very nice, spicy drums cracking off for the meat of this gets chaotic at the end (compliment)

PT 3

Just the end of Sabbat, it's fine.

Mad bass

It's nice, good funky and fun. However Sabbat kinda felt like the end so feels abit odd.

Yeah very nice I liked this one. I doubt il ever listen to the whole album again in one sitting but I've chucked the entire thing onto my Jazz playlist. It doesn't do anything too special to make it standout but it is very pleasant background listening.

Gonna go with a 6 for this one, closer to a 7 than a 5.

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Why Lawd - NxWorries

Did not know this was an Anderson Paak project going in as soon as I learned my expectations went way up. A decent amount of these arnt full tracks so I might skip over a couple in my break down.

ThankU

Oh God Dave Chappelle jumpscare. His little ramble is doing basically nothing for me but he's not being transphobic atleast.

86Sentra

First proper track and it's exactly the kinda shit i was anticipating, smooth as butter. Unfortunately it feels like it ends a bit prematurely but the small taste we get is great.

Move on

Similar vibe to the previous track just smooth as hell and a chill bop

KeepHer

Now this ones a bit special, vulnerable Paak isnt something we get that often and it's the first inkling that we might be getting sumit a little bit deeper on this record. Very nice feature from Thundercat.

Distractions

Also smooth as hell and that guitar is beautiful. Do wish it was a little bit longer

Where I Go

Yeah this slaps, great feature from H.E.R.

Daydreaming

Still good but i don't vibe with it as much as the earlier tracks

FromHere

Paak and October are doing good work but i just find Snoop so lame

Fallthru

Yeah smooth, sexy, rad. "Girl that pussy like a sweet plum wine" is such a great line.

Battlefield

Paak continues to kill on the verses but i'm not sure the chorus works for me on this one

Hereiam

This one of the short ones but i can't pass over something this emotionally raw, what a great track.

OutTheWay

As background chill music it's a solid track but at this point in the album it's not doing much for me.

MoreOfit

I'm not really a fan of the voice Paak's doing in this one.

WalkOnBy

Paak and the beat is great but i've never been much of a fan of Earl Sweatshirt unfortunatley.

All in all this is good album with some killer tracks, i struggled a lot to say more than just yeah this is smooth and chill, even the tracks i didnt vibe with as much still fit that vibe. I found the latter stretches of it a bit of drag, there's a run of small forgettable tracks on the back half which didn't do the pacing any favours. But when this record hits it really hits, tracks like Where I Go, Keep Her and Fallthru slap hard and the emotional moments like HereIAm stand out. A lot of the tracks i'm less in love with are still chill beats that i'd be happy to have on.

So yeah solid, gonna go 7/10, closer to an 8 than 6.

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CHROMAKOPIA - TYLER THE CREATOR

Tyler The Creator is one of those rappers who i'm vaguely aware of but never bother to check out their releases, same goes for all of Odd Future really. I think the last full album I listened to was Flowerboy and didn't particularly enjoy it. But that was a few year backs, let's see if he's grown on me.

St. Chroma

I'm not vibing with the whisper rapping, harmony bits are all right, the normal rapping at the tail end is decent.

Rah Tah Tah

It's fine, not really my flavour of rap

Noid

More like made me aNoid, got em. Yeah didn't vibe with this at all, found it quite irritating.

Darling

Nice i actually quite like this one, not sure if im liking Tylers rapping more on this track or if it's all just Teezo

Hey Jane

I may be a basic vanilla bitch because this more stripped back one is far better than the overload of production on the earlier tracks.

I Killed You

Nah not a fan, i cringe every time he says I Kill You

Judge Judy

Verses are alright, the chorus is really annoying.

Sticky

Is this a joke? The "its getting sticky" refrain sucks. I normally quite like Glorilla but she's doing nothing for me here.

Take Your Mask Off

Yeah this ones pretty good

Tomorrow

Two in a row that I like, very nice change of pace

Thought I Was Dead

When they actually rap i quite like this one, but half the song is that one line and i found that pretty tiresome. Second half better than the first because they stop doing that.

Like Him

I liked the emotion of this but cant say i'l be in a rush to listen to this again.

Balloon

Fucksake why is the Doechii track the shortest by far? I like Tyler more on this one but yeah Doechii unsurprisingly steals the song.

I Hope You FInd Your Way Home

Decent end tbf but on both listens through it was an end i was very much waiting for.

Yeah my opinion on Tyler hasn't really changed, mans rapping style is just not for me most of the time. The highlights of this album were almost entirely the features. I find it hard to articulate why some rappers works for me and others don't but unfortunately Tyler just doesn't pass the vibe test and I found some of the production on this a bit obnoxious.

4/10 from me dawg.

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Why Lawd - NxWorries

Did not know this was an Anderson Paak project going in as soon as I learned my expectations went way up. A decent amount of these arnt full tracks so I might skip over a couple in my break down.

ThankU

Oh God Dave Chappelle jumpscare. His little ramble is doing basically nothing for me but he's not being transphobic atleast.

86Sentra

First proper track and it's exactly the kinda shit i was anticipating, smooth as butter. Unfortunately it feels like it ends a bit prematurely but the small taste we get is great.

Move on

Similar vibe to the previous track just smooth as hell and a chill bop

KeepHer

Now this ones a bit special, vulnerable Paak isnt something we get that often and it's the first inkling that we might be getting sumit a little bit deeper on this record. Very nice feature from Thundercat.

Distractions

Also smooth as hell and that guitar is beautiful. Do wish it was a little bit longer

Where I Go

Yeah this slaps, great feature from H.E.R.

Daydreaming

Still good but i don't vibe with it as much as the earlier tracks

FromHere

Paak and October are doing good work but i just find Snoop so lame

Fallthru

Yeah smooth, sexy, rad. "Girl that pussy like a sweet plum wine" is such a great line.

Battlefield

Paak continues to kill on the verses but i'm not sure the chorus works for me on this one

Hereiam

This one of the short ones but i can't pass over something this emotionally raw, what a great track.

OutTheWay

As background chill music it's a solid track but at this point in the album it's not doing much for me.

MoreOfit

I'm not really a fan of the voice Paak's doing in this one.

WalkOnBy

Paak and the beat is great but i've never been much of a fan of Earl Sweatshirt unfortunatley.

All in all this is good album with some killer tracks, i struggled a lot to say more than just yeah this is smooth and chill, even the tracks i didnt vibe with as much still fit that vibe. I found the latter stretches of it a bit of drag, there's a run of small forgettable tracks on the back half which didn't do the pacing any favours. But when this record hits it really hits, tracks like Where I Go, Keep Her and Fallthru slap hard and the emotional moments like HereIAm stand out. A lot of the tracks i'm less in love with are still chill beats that i'd be happy to have on.

So yeah solid, gonna go 7/10, closer to an 8 than 6.

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THE NEW SOUND - GEORDIE GREEP

I think I briefly listened to Black Midi once before but can't really remember what I thought of them so I went into this one relatively blind. Aidan described this as weird so I was cautiously optimistic, though one mans weird brilliance is another mans absolute trash. Let's find out which side I fell on.

Blues:

Starting off fairly strong, musically it's a lot of fun a bit jazzy and builds up to going quite hard. Lyrically it's a bit odd and I'm not sure if I'm enjoying his vocal style but instrumentally I dig it.

Terra:

I really enjoy the Brazilian influences on this track, bit Bossa bit Samba very nice. His voice is working for me better on this track.

Holy, Holy

This track starts off good before losing me fairly quickly, his voice has become grating, giving cringey lounge singer vibes. Not a fan of the Holy Holy Holy refrains. I get he's supposed to be portraying a piece of shit but that knowledge doesn't make listening to him any funner. Instrumentally it's still good, my issue is with Geordie himself.

The New Sound

It's title track time and I'm loving it, seeped in Brazilian vibes, it's an absolute bop. It is however concerning that I'm enjoying the track where Geordie is MIA a lot more than the previous one.

Walk Back

Geordie and his lounge singer routine is back and I can't say I missed him, by this point in the album i'm a bit tired of his schtick. The musics not doing as much for me on this track either. The country bit at the end is abit fun though.

Through The War

Don't really have anything new to say about this one. Still liking the music still not vibing with Geordie

Bongo Season

The first proper musical dud for me this one, which is a real shame as Geordie barely features on this track. Just didn't vibe with it, found it a little bit grating. The ending refrain is really annoying.

Motorbike

Wait that's not Geordie whose this new bloke? Can he stay please, much preferring his voice. Song goes hard and gets proper discordant as it goes, really digging this one sounds messy in the best way.

As If Waltz

And we're back to the rapey lounge singer vibes, musics not really standing out either apart from the last minute or so when Geordie shuts up.

The Magician

Now you may be thinking with my Geordie fatigue I'd hate the 12-minute track but for some reason this one really works for me. I like the build up and it goes hard at the end.

If You Are But A Dream

Wait, what is sincerity doing on this record? Actually quite a nice closer to the album. He's playing the lounge singer aesthetic straight and it's working for me.

So all in all, a bit of a mixed bag for me. Musically, I find myself really enjoying most of the tracks. I was not surprised to find out a lot of it was recorded in São Paulo as the Brazilian influences are absolutely all over this thing. However, as much as I was enjoying what was going on with the instruments, I found Geordie a negative aspect on the majority of songs. For the most part i just never vibed with his vocal delivery and I got pretty tired of him as the album went on. This is exemplified by my two favourite songs being The New Sound and Motorbike, the only two he doesn't sing on.

I don't know if you do ratings in Hull Big Listen but I'm going with a 4/10, it has aspects I like but I doubt I'll ever listen to it again. Apart from The New Sound, that shit got saved.

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