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[euniexenoblade]

Favorite music of 2023 :)

I've found myself dealing with a wave of writer's block, and in my desire to get past it I've decided to write whatever I can. Some people said they'd be interested in me talking about my favorite albums of 2023, so here's a short write up about albums I really liked and I hope everyone will give a try.

I found 2023 to be a pretty spectacular year for weird and interesting music. With artists like Lil Yachty doing a neo-psychedelia album (fantastic, give it a listen) and Avenged Sevenfold doing some progressive avant garde adjacent metal album (I think people are wrongly hating on it, it's spectacular), it shouldn't be too surprising to imagine that the bands the mainstream hasn't really heard of are making wild soundscapes unlike anything you've ever heard.

Kicking this off with one of my favorite Korean bands, Parannoul released two albums this year and they were spectacular - both in my top 10 of the year. Parannoul are a wonderful shoegaze band that create these songs that almost feel hypnotic, they create this dream like state for their songs in ways no other band seems to be able to. After the Magic, their third album, is no different in this, but brings a new warmth, brighter instrumentation, and just in general doesn't feel as self loathing and depressed as previous works. The other release, After the Night, is a live recording, which shows that the band can produce the same dreamlike style on a stage, but do it even better. My second favorite album of the year, this live album is so incredible, zoning out to the 46 minute "Into the Endless Night" while high was probably one of my favorite experiences of the year in and of itself. (Also, if you do chose to check them out, please listen to To See the Next Part of the Dream, it's one of my favorite albums ever made.)

Using Parannoul as a sorta link between things, I also found that they worked on a song on the new Turquoisedeath album, Se bueno. I won't claim to be an expert on drum and bass, but I had a killer time listening to Se bueno. When I discovered Se bueno, I also discovered a few other, more abrasive, albums that I kind of group together in my head. Namely Chaser by femtanyl (digital hardcore) and Sisterhood by lostrushi ("digicore" feels like a frantic version of trap). If you like this kind of music, give them a try, all three are on my list.

Everyone's top albums of the years seem to have their one and two spots stolen away by Javelin and Scaring the Hoes. Starting with the latter, Scaring the Hoes by JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown is cool as hell. Beats unlike anything I've heard in hip hop before, and the flows of both men really bring it all together. It's a great album (it's my third favorite of the year), but I also think some focus on some other hip hop titles might be cool. Integrated Tech Solutions by Aesop Rock is just as impressive and interesting and deserves your attention. Alongside that Michael by Killer Mike is a fantastic listen, though it doesn't compare to the previously mentioned two, it's still a great album that deserves your time - he won those awards for a reason. The man got arrested at an award show, the least you can do is stream his album once.

Now, as for Javelin by Sufjan Stevens, it's a great album, but it's also such a sad album. His pain is horrible, and he does a great job at making you feel it. However, the music never really hit me like other albums of the year had. The lyrics murder your heart, but I'm a tad past gay pains and want gay joys. Which is why I want you all to listen to Ultra Paradise by Angel Electronics. Half Ada Rook of Black Dresses, half Ash Nerve (I doubt you know him) this is a trans and gay power pop album that's just beautiful and fun. Songs like Return to the Sky and One Thousand and One Nights are fun ear worms, and the rest of the album just has a level of repeatability and a level of joy and fun that most other albums this year didn't have. Is it as technically impressive as Javelin? No. But, shit, it's nice to be happy for once.

Continuing off of this idea, in 2023 we saw transphobia become horrifically rampant, the right wing are really intent to get rid of us. You can't avoid how much this world hates us now and it makes you want to just scream. It creates this feeling of anger, a desire for violence, like we're past being sad and nice and understanding. In 2023 the Hirs Collective put out an album on par with that emotion. We're Still Here is an aggressive grindcore album put together by trans, gay, queer people in general. My favorite release from the band to date, it's fantastic to see Hirs screaming "We're still here!" as the world tries to erase us. This is my favorite album of 2023, please listen to it, please give Hirs your money, they deserve it and you deserve their music.

A few more albums I wanna recommend that I can't really think of anything in depth to say: God Cum Poltergeist by Crisis Sigil (Ada Rook) is a fantastic grindcore album, Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete by Crosses is a fantastic synthpop adjacent album and I got to see it performed live and it's amazing music, Reborn Superstar! by Hanabie. is a great Japanese metalcore album, and go listen to Kikuo Miku 7 for some rad Hatsune Miku bullshit.

My top 50 music releases of 2023:

We're Still Here by Hirs

After the Night by Parannoul

Scaring the Hoes by JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown

Dogsbody by Model/Actriz

Desire, I Want to Turn Into You by Caroline Polachek

After the Magic by Parannoul

Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete. by Crosses

God Cum Poltergeist by Crisis Sigil

uma by betcover!!

Ultra Paradise by Angel Electronics

Reborn Superstar! by Hanabie.

No Joy by Spanish Love Songs

Saved by Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter

Live in Japan by Mass of the Fermenting Dregs

93696 by Liturgy

Resistance and the Blessing by World's End Girlfriend

Kikuo Miku 7 by Kikuo

Javelin by Sufjan Stevens

Integrated Tech Solutions by Aesop Rock

Poil Ueda by Poil & Junko Ueda

Enola Gay by Asia Menor

Upal by Kostnateni

The Loveliest Time by Carly Rae Jepsen

Michael by Killer Mike

Exul by Ne Obliviscaris

Hellmode by Jeff Rosenstock

Hometown to Come by Minhwi Lee

Life is but a Dream... by Avenged Sevenfold

Chaser by Femtanyl

Sadness / Abriction by Sadness / Abriction

O Monolith by Squid

But Here We Are by Foo Fighters

Stone by Baroness

History Books by The Gaslight Anthem

Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love? by Kara Jackson

Rookie's Bustle by Ada Rook

Futility by Yakui The Maid

Let's Start Here. by Lil Yachty

The Age of Pleasure by Janelle Monae

Bee and the Whales by Galileo Galilei

Zach Bryan self titled

Everything is Alive by Slowdive

Let's Hope Heteros Fail, Learn, and Retire by Alice Longyu Gao

Se bueno by TURQUOISEDEATH

Yoshitsune by Poil & Junko Ueda

Perfect Picture by Hannah Diamond

January Never Dies by Balming Tiger

Jenny From Thebes by The Mountain Goats

Never Falter Hero Girl by Katie Dey

Sisterhood by lostrushi

[thelensofyashunews]

NEMZZZ FOLLOWS SMASH DEBUT MIXTAPE DO NOT DISTURB WITH BRAND NEW SINGLE ‘ATM’

The prolific Manchester rapper Nemzzz today drops his new single ‘ATM’. In a fast follow up to his recent debut mixtape DO NOT DISTURB which landed in March and reached #17 in the UK album charts.

Blending cinematic, sweeping orchestral instrumentation spliced with an icy industrial production from Zel, ‘ATM’ is brimming with Nemzzz’s sharp wordplay and playful adlibs as he reflects on his recent successes. 

Nemzzz is fresh from his sell-out second headline tour, hitting stages in Dublin, Glasgow, London (with a surprise drop in from K-Trap) and a homecoming show featuring Central Cee at Manchester Academy - Nemzzz’s biggest show to date in the city. Nemzzz will be returning to Wireless Festival this summer and has a sold-out EU tour set for this October including dates in Berlin, Amsterdam, Brussels and more.

Nemzzz’s debut mixtape DO NOT DISTURB landed in March to acclaim from NME (4*/Cover), Hypebeast UK, Wonderland, NOTION, DMY, Acclaim and support from Spotify (Global Hip-Hop Cover, Rap UK Cover), Soundcloud (Album of the Week), Apple Music, YouTube Music and more. 

The 11-track tape marked Nemzzz’s most expansive drop to date, an exploration of how the young artist is shaped by his upbringing and his fame. Nemzzz surprised fans the week after release, unveiling the Deluxe version featuring collaborations with rap heavyweights from both sides of the Atlantic, including Lil Yachty on the ethereal ‘IT’S US’, Headie One with the bouncy ‘I KNOW YOU CARE’ and  K-Trap on the siren-like ‘MAYFAIR’. The tape has already racked up over 120M+ streams since launch.

Marrying bars laced with Nemzzz’s wicked sense of humour, earworm hooks and a raw soulful-drill production - DO NOT DISTURB cemented Nemzzz’s status as the new titan of UK Rap. On singles including ‘ETA’ (a collaboration with German rap star Luciano), leadback mental health commentary ‘PTSD’ and the shimmering, jazz inflected ‘L’S’, Nemzzz drew acclaim from Central Cee, The Observer, Fader, CRACK, NME spins across BBC Radio 1, 1Xtra and more. The tape was rounded out by ‘MONEY AND VIBES’, which saw Nemzzz bring UK flavour to a flip of Justin Timberlake’s ‘Rock Your Body’. The single topped the A list at 1Xtra on release last year and continues to rack up over��+1M streams a week. 

Nemzzz is one of the most exciting breakout rap talents of recent years. An old head on young shoulders, Nemzzz is relatable in a different way than a lot of his rap peers; driven less by punchlines about Birkin bags and more by the challenge of helping his young fans navigate their way through growing pains. The rapper is shaped by his tough upbringing in Gorton, using his music to reflect on his experiences including heartbreak, fake friends, financial literacy, finding your own path, and managing mental health amid social media addiction.

2023 was a massive year for the young star with a consistent slate of releases including his debut EP Nemzzz Type Beat (which was pulled together in just 17 days in a flex of his innate talents) alongside a string of singles including ‘Therapy’ (Spotify Rap UK Cover) and ‘8AM IN MANNY’ which landed to props from some of the biggest rappers in the world - Drake and Lil Yachty. Last year saw Nemzzz deliver his first sold-out headline tour alongside performances at festivals including Glastonbury, Ibiza Rocks and more. 

Since bursting onto the scene at the tender age of 14, Nemzzz has relentlessly chipped away at his craft – building steady buzz amongst the industry, media and fans alike. With over 180M combined streams in 2023, 9 Million TikTok views, tips including BBC Radio 1xtra's Hot For 2023, Amazon Music x Hunger Magazine Ones To Watch, No Signal Class of ’23, Best Newcomer Nominee MOBO Awards 2022, plaudits from Pitchfork, The Face, DAZED, The Guardian, HYPEBEAST, CLASH, Complex UK and NME - Nemzzz is making serious moves.

[attallahmusic]

Top 10 September

We all know the drill, these are my picks for the best songs released in September of this year.

Listen to the full playlist on Spotify or Tidal.

To kick off the list, is a new song from our toxic king Brent Faiyaz. Another smooth R&B release from him, which on it's first released featured a woman's voice speaking sweet words in Spanish, which was then ridiculed because of her pronunciation and this bit has now been removed from the song and replaced with an instrumental interlude. Just a fun little fact.

If you really want to hear her accent, you can hear a snippet of it on my travel highlights on Instagram as I used this for a picture I posted. I will say, I used a part where her accent wasn't too bad.

Moving on to actual Spanish, Enrique Iglesias and Maria Becerra has released a great bachata song. It's clear that Enrique Iglesias brings his pop influence into this song, uplifting the genre itself for those who love some bachata sensual.

Bad Bunny is seemingly in his vaquero era and has released a great reggaetón banger, which looks to be a taste of the new album he has been promising would come out this year. It seems like we can expect something completely different from his previous album, Un Verano Sin Ti.

Pop, disco, house, a great mix for a great party. This song is smooth, fun, and fits perfectly into the darker winter months we are entering.

I didn't know Lil Yachty had BARS. I love seeing Lil Yachty try and play outside of his normal frameworks and playing into this extremely J. Cole beat, with J. Cole. If you like rap, you have to listen to this.

This is my new go-to song to play at a party when people don't listen to reggaetón. It's a perfect party mix with techno, reggaetón, and good beats.

Now if the party is with reggaetón lovers, this song will be on the playlist.

Now moving towards Danish afrobeats and rap mix you have Je Ka Jo by ICEKIDD. It's a great and fun song for a party.

Sleep is the cousin of death and it seems like Nas never really does sleep with how much he manages to put out. But okay, I don't complain he consistently puts out heavy beats and good flow.

Is this Drake's best? No. Is it good? Yes.

I have a very ambivalent relationship with Drake's work, because I would be wrong to deny that he has some amazing albums and great songs. I really do love the sound on this song, it reminds me of Views and I hope to see that the album has more of that vibe - that was a great time for his music.

[luuurien]

Lil Yachty - Let’s Start Here.

(Neo-Psychedelia, Psychedelic Rock, Neo-Soul)

Though shaggy and not always able to pull you in with its songwriting, Let’s Start Here. is a compelling listen from beginning to end, Lil Yachty’s playful cloud rap transitioning into a psych rock project where his wandering lyricism and laidback performances bring out the best and the boring in him.

☆☆☆

By its very nature, Let’s Start Here. invites conversation: Lil Yachty, an artist known for his druggy, feel-good pop rap trying his hand at the brand of funk and pop-infused psychedelia that dominated much of the 2010s indie scene and has now become a trademark sound of modern alt-pop. It’s not too surprising of a shift, considering Yachty’s feature on a remix of Tame Impala’s Breathe Deeper and professed love of artists like Impala and MGMT, but Let’s Start Here. makes a mark through Yachty allowing himself to try out many different avenues of this psych-pop sound without losing his trademark eccentricities - there’s bits of disco, bits of slow paced psych rock, bits of gooey R&B, but it feels like Yachty to the core. If the source material is familiar, the way Yachty uses them surely isn’t, his autotuned warble and aloof lyricism giving these vibe-focused tunes a weightiness his past rap offerings never could, Let’s Start Here. relaxed with its presentation but honing in on Yachty’s vision in every moment. It might not always turn out with the fullness these claustrophobic mixes and massive instrumental swells try to pull out of him, but not once does Let’s Start Here. feel less than anything but an honest offering from Yachty, even if the hour length and shaggy arrangements across these fourteen songs keep the album from honing in on his vision and making it as concise and potent as the ambitions he has for it. Where the album succeeds is in letting Lil Yachty refresh his sound and keep a humid haze hanging over it all, Let’s Start Here. not particularly risky as a whole but still making this loose psychedelic soul/rock sound his own through their wider atmospherics and emphasis on space. Producers and writers well-known around the indie scene at this point are all around the album: Justin Raisen’s dense production and pristine engineering work for artists like Yves Tumor and Angel Olsen bring the heaviness needed for tracks like the BLACK seminole. and the ride- to hit with that sensual yet noisy psych-rock sound; Magdalena Bay’s sticky funk pop brings a bubblier energy to early highlight running out of time; Mac Demarco’s loose but thoughtful lyricism is all over his writing credits for :(failure(: and drive ME! crazy. On every song, there’s a hefty list of collaborators bringing it all together - this isn’t to say that Let’s Start Here. is entirely derivative, Yachty’s trippy vocal effects and willingness to let his sound roam keeps the album its own distinct listen - but you can easily hear where he’s pulling from in these songs, and it can make the listening experience a bit of a bore once the novelty of Yachty’s genre shift wears off and the songs themselves are all that’s left. It’s easy to buy Yachty in this psych-adjacent lane of pop and rock where hooks and solid song structures are still there with the drifting guitars and snappy percussion loops there to provide that dreamy flair, but it’s when he tries to go for the extremes that Let’s Start Here. exposes his long standing struggles as a songwriter and performer. If you’re going to go for something less melodic and more reliant on atmosphere and mood, you have to have the lyrics and vocal delivery to keep things interesting - magical moments happen every so often, but Yachty doesn’t course correct enough for those little hiccups to go unnoticed. When the songs stick their landings, they're easily some of the best of the year so far: drive ME crazy!’s roller-rink disco is bolstered by a magnificent Diana Gordon performance, while the brash performances and gloomy instrumentation on the maddening I’VE OFFICIALLY LOST ViSiON!!!! and The Alchemist. feel like the peaks of a bad drug trip in the best way possible - Yachty’s never sounded quite so present and energized in his music before, and the songs are absolutely mesmerizing because of it . Even the poppier tunes on offer take advantage of Yachty’s floaty sound, the ride-’s glossy psych-pop accentuated by a killer Teezo Touchdown feature and running out of time’s plucky bassline matched with its funky horns and hypnotic drum groove, sitting comfortably in Let’s Start Here.’s sound while branching off the usual neo-psych path with heavier arrangements or fusion influences. Where the album struggles, though, is to make the rest of everything engaging as well, longer songs undercut by Yachty’s reserved vocals while tracks that are more middle ground with their tempo and composition don’t have anything exciting to offer: for as commendable tracks like the BLACK seminole. and WE SAW THE SUN! are for diving head first into atmospheric psych-rock, Yachty’s lyrics are too nonspecific to pull you in (“Love is not a lie / It just feels like a Tarantino movie scene,” he sings in the final verse of the BLACK seminole., gesturing at the off-kilter presentation often in Tarantino’s films but unwilling to try and write lyrics that have the same effect”) and the slower tempos leave room for a more dynamic vocal delivery he seems unwilling to try without potentially tarnishing the “vibe” of it all. That feel-over-songcraft dynamic is present all throughout Let’s Start Here., likely a result of his previous cloud rap offerings still lingering in the album’s new sound, and it leaves you wanting to be more immersed in Yachty’s world that so clearly has interesting paths to take - drive ME crazy! and I’VE OFFICIALLY LOST ViSiON!!!! are vibrant and effortlessly absorbing slices of psychedelia - and with a near hour runtime, Let’s Start Here. begins to feel waterlogged and undercooked before you even reach the halfway point. There’s a lot of good within Let’s Start Here., but past the excitement of hearing Yachty do something so far removed from his previous music there’s not much here to keep you coming back. You can hear his influences so palpably in each track, and when only a handful of songs eclipse what his contemporaries have already done with unique genre blends (running out of time, drive ME CRAZY!) or intense and playful performances (the ride-, The Alchemist.), the vast majority of Let’s Start Here. is either too underperformed or too musically mangy to return to and continually be rewarded with excellent songcraft. But for all the rough patches scattered across Let’s Start Here., it’s still a joy to see an already-established artist fearlessly flip their sound and make quite a bit of magic along the way, Lil Yachty still on his way to making psych-rock entirely his own but undoubtedly paving a path of bold artistic choices few others would be willing to take. It’s messy, but it’s always passionate, Yachty’s drive to do more than ever truly what makes Let’s Start Here. such a delightful listen front to back. He knows what he wants, and he’s incredibly close to fully achieving it.

[therecordconnection]

Ranting and Raving: "the BLACK seminole." by Lil Yachty

"It's like he downloaded the entire Pink Floyd discography into his mind and synthesized all of it into seven minutes. This is absolutely incredible."

That was my thought the first time I heard "the BLACK seminole.," the opener to Lil Yachty's newest album, Let's Start Here. "Lil Yachty makes psychedelic rock" is yet another surprise I can add to my growing list of "Unexpected 2023 Events."

It was the kind of song that once you hear it, you're blown away and you immediately start texting all your friends about it. I certainly did. The best way I can describe this song to people is that it's a perfect synthesis of everything Pink Floyd did in their career. It's all here. Guitars and soloing that sound like David Gilmour himself wandered into the studio. Grooves that are reminiscent of "Echoes," "Breathe," and the instrumental section of "Pigs (Three Different Ones)." Keyboard work that sounds ripped straight out of "Us and Them." An ambient section in the middle that brings to mind stuff like "A Saucerful of Secrets" and the intro to "Time." Diana Gordon's vocal runs during the second half of the song are pure "The Great Gig in the Sky." If any second of this song reminds you of something Floyd did, you aren't crazy. Yachty is very clearly a Floyd fan and he did his homework when it comes to making a track like this. It's absolutely stunning.

And yet... the more time I spent with it, the more I found the shine and the sheen had started to dull. Around my seventh or eighth listen, the flaws began to show more and more. I struggle with whether I still love this, and by extension, the rest of Let's Start Here.. I'm gonna do my best to try my struggles with this.

So, let's start here. (HA!) Musically, this song scratched just about every itch for me. With Pink Floyd being one of my favorite bands, it was easy for me to fall in love with this right from the drop. All the little moments that reminded me of Floyd songs kept me engaged and left me wondering how the hell Yachty pulled this off. But there's one problem with this song: it didn't leave me hungry for more Yachty, it just made me want to go back and re-listen to some Floyd that I hadn't gone back to in a while. "the BLACK seminole." is a great song, and it certainly did its job in terms of getting me to pay attention and listen to the rest of what Let's Start Here. offers, but I find it suffers from too much imitation. Yachty doesn't experiment or push the boundaries of psych rock, he just recreates one of the genre's most important bands. Even beyond this song, other songs on the album suffer from this too. "the ride-" sounds like a discarded Tame Impala track at points and "drive ME crazy!" has a cool disco and soul vibe to it, but in the same breath I would tell you anything by Silk Sonic or anything Kali Uchis has done herself or with Tyler, the Creator shines brighter.

When I say this song didn't leave me hungry for more Yachty, it's because I would argue he's the weakest element of this entire song. It's clear that he enjoys this music and it's clearly the music he now wants to make, but that doesn't exactly mean he's up to par when it comes to performing it. It's been a hot minute since I've encountered a song where the music absolutely outshines its performer. Yachty's stiff and heavily processed vocals end up being a detriment to him as he never really stands out. You could replace him with anybody and the song would remain the same, which is a shame because I think lyrically this song stands out and it's pretty strong and introspective, especially if you're someone who hasn't kept up with Yachty since he gained a lot of popularity back in the late 2010s.

Now, you may be wondering, "What is a Seminole? What the heck is a black Seminole for that matter?" For our purposes, all you need to know is that the Black Seminoles were a group of free blacks and runaway slaves that joined forces with the Seminole Indians in Florida from around 1700 through the 1850s. Specifically, the Black Seminoles were able to help their Native American brethren through their knowledge of the language and culture of Euro-Americans as well as their military prowess (that's what the lines "African Rambo with more ammo" and "The Black Seminole, a head general" are referencing.) If you're interested in knowing more, you can find more info here and here.

Lyrically, Yachty likens himself to the Black Seminoles and uses them as a metaphor for his own creative endeavors. The Black Seminoles escaped slavery to create their own culture, which is similar to Yachty escaping "Soundcloud Rapper" label try and create his own unique sound with psychedelic rock. Your mileage may vary on how well this works.

It's a good metaphor and it's definitely something that's out of left field for Yachty. If you're someone like him and you've been longing to be taken more seriously as an artist, writing a psychedelic rock song about an Afro-Indigenous group is a good way to go. And being taken seriously is the entire reason Yachty has taken the direction he has with this.

At a surprise listening party for the album, Alphonse Pierre's review on Pitchfork quoted a statement Yachty had made: “I really wanted to be taken seriously as an artist, not just some SoundCloud rapper or some mumble rapper.” Pierre then writes, "This is the speech rappers are obligated to give when it comes time for the drum loop to take a backseat to guitars, for the rapping to be muted in favor of singing, for the ad-libs to give it up to the background singers, and for a brigade of white producers with plaque-lined walls to be invited into the fold."

What's clear to me, is that Yachty wants what Tyler, the Creator got when he made Flower Boy, Igor, and Call Me If You Get Lost. All of them successful albums made by a guy who got big making weird, offputting, almost silly rap (early 2010s/Odd Future era) only to later transition into a more genuine and more experimental artist. Playboi Carti also ended up getting that same acclaim with Whole Lotta Red. The difference between these men and Yachty, however, is that neither Tyler nor Carti completely abandoned the sounds they had already made. Rather, Tyler and Carti were simply pushing the envelope of their previous sound into new and more experimental avenues. Neither sacrificed their identity, Yachty does and it's very obvious. Then again, Tyler and Carti have also enjoyed more respect than Yachty ever got, as Yachty was often pointed at and blamed for everything wrong with modern rap (Pierre cites guys like Pete Rock, Joe Budden, Anderson .Paak, Kendrick Lamar, and J. Cole as guys who criticized and singled him out).

Pierre nails exactly what makes me feel conflicted about what Yachty has done on this song and the rest of the album when it comes to what kind of "respect" Yachty is after:

The respect Yachty is chasing on Let’s Start Here. feels institutional. It’s for the voting committees, for the suits; for Questlove to shout him out as the future, for Ebro to invite him back on his radio show and say My bad, you’re dope. Never mind if you thought Lil Yachty was dope to start with: The goal of this album is to go beyond all expectations and rules for rappers.

Everything about "the BLACK seminole." starts to change when you begin looking at this song and the album as Yachty attempting to chase acclaim and respect he's never gotten. I can't be angry about it, because it worked. Here I am, writing a post about Lil Yachty, somebody who doesn't really interest me as an artist but found a way to make something that feels like it was tailor made for me and get my attention. It worked, but I don't think it'll work for much longer. Like I said before, the shine and the sheen had started to dull after more listens and Yachty's flaws and weaknesses began to creep in more and more.

I already spoke about how lyrically, the song's topic and focus on the Black Seminoles makes for an interesting song, but it doesn't feel like it was really a Yachty idea beyond the initial metaphor. This is to say that I think the words sound a bit disingenuous, because I don't believe Yachty penned them. The guy who is infamous for stupid bars like "All my bitches come in pairs like balls in my nutsack" or, even more infamously, "My new bitch yellow / She blow that dick like a cello." I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Yachty was confused about that because, "I fucked up. I thought Squidward played the cello. He don’t. That’s a flute. I fucked up. But it do sound good." It would... if Squidward didn't play the c l a r i n e t !

I don't want to come across too mean, especially because people grow and change and are always capable of getting better at writing, but forgive me if I find it a bit hard to believe that the lyrics to this song came from the mind of Yachty. I want to be optimistic and believe that he penned the lines, especially because if he wrote the line, "Love is not a lie, it just feels like a Tarantino movie scene," he should be damn proud of that one.

Do I still like this song? Yes. Very much. I can recommend it and I can say that the rest of Let's Start Here. might end up surprising you in some fun ways. Yachty is clearly trying to go for something different with this song and the album. I always appreciate an artist stepping out of their comfort zone and trying something new, but sadly, I think Yachty ends up missing the mark by a hair and ends up coming off as more of an imitator than an innovator. But if this is where we're starting, I can at least happily say I'm interested in where we're going. This song and this album ended up surprising me and while I'm not 100% head over heels for it, it certainly was unexpected and that's something that makes following modern music fun for me.

At the close of the spoken word piece ":(failure(:," Yachty offers this gem of wisdom that I think is worth keeping:

Oh, man, failure, that took time to understand, you know? Like, failure doesn't mean defeat, more so, like, "Try again, shit, try even harder" Revise your steps and rewrite your future Failure to me isn’t, like, always a negative thing, more so, more so, like, just a way to relook at things You know, you never know how close you are to success

"Revise your steps and rewrite your future." That's good advice for any artist. If you find something isn't working, revise your steps and rewrite your future. If Lil Yachty can do it, there's hope for all of us.

Ride on against the tide, lil boat. Let's start here and let's keep going.

[teruthecreator]

okay just finished Let’s Start Here by lil yachty and i have to say like. i was gonna agree w brad taste in music’s score of an 8/10 but after hearing the last track i GOTTA bump it up to a 9/10. 

there’s a LOT of audio distortion so if that’s not ur thing then u might not vibe w this album but i implore all of you to at least try listening to it once bc. fuck. the bass and drums on all of these tracks are so fucking good and the way yachty layers his voice on a lot of the songs is so dreamy and spacey (which i think is his typical style? but here it really compliments the instrumentals bc theyre so hard while his vocals are almost floating above it). 

fav tracks rn are: the BLACK seminole., running out of time, WE SAW THE SUN!, drive ME crazy!, IVE OFFICIALLY LOST ViSiON!!!, sHouLd I B?, and  REACH THE SUNSHINE 

honestly if u listen to anything just listen to the tracks i bolded theyre so. oh my god. oh my god. lil yachty took the wock to poland and then ascended 

[bigfatmusicblog]

Current Joys - East My Love ALBUM REVIEW

The leaves are changing, the hot cocoa is starting to be made, sweaters are coming out of their hiding smelling like mothballs, hurricanes are ravaging the southeastern United States, and I just changed my bong water which means one thing - IT’S FALL BABY!! And what genre of music goes better with the fall season than folk music? The acoustic guitars, slow soft songs with heart wrenching lyrics that you listen to despite already feeling super fucking sad, plus guys in flannels?? I literally cannot think of anything more fall. One album that was released at, seemingly, the perfect time for me to open the windows and take in the newly cool autumn air, as if they planned it that way, is the new Current Joys album - East My Love.

I won’t say I’ve followed Current Joys for this long but I have been listening to them since 2018, specifically their album A Different Age. I pull this album out yearly like Halloween decorations, trying to feel something in a season where I already feel too much, let’s say I use it for special reasons. A lot of their other releases have fallen under the radar for me except for their previous release LOVE+POP with features from bigger named artists like Lil Yachty, a fun dive into a different sort of genre overall, but didn’t resonate with me personally. 

East My Love, similar to LOVE+POP, is another exploration into a different genre for the multi-instrumentalist Nick Rattigan, the driving force behind Current Joys. As I mentioned before in my Alien Nosejob write up, there is a lot of fun to be had from making music solo especially as a multi-instrumentalist where you can delve into whatever genre of music you want to make - and this time Current Joys sheds the indie droning of A Different Age, as well as the pop sensibilities of the aptly named LOVE+POP, for one that’s dripping with influences from the Alt-Country phase of the 90s to the pop-folk craze that owned the radios in the early 2010s. East My Love is thick with folk cliches, including songs titled “Oh, Sister” and “Lullaby for the Lost” - just based on the album art alone you know what you’re getting yourself into when you click play. 

And if the song titles and album art weren’t convincing enough to you that this is a folk album, what greets you as the first song is the beautiful Echoes of the Past. The simple instrumentation, just guitar and violin/fiddle (The difference being a tone thing or a speed thing I don’t know) is all they need to intro an album like this. It lulls you into thinking it’s just a simple solo-artist folk album before it goes into the full band sound of California Rain. It feels almost out of a Matchbox 20 album from the beginning, then at the chorus it gets loud only in the way that non-traditional folk artists know how to. After a repetition of the verse and chorus there is a breakdown featuring the fiddle, with some guitar in the background too almost making a brass effect to it. Seriously, it’s difficult to tell if there are trumpets in this or not, as it’ll make you think one thing before showing you something different. To be included with this song is Days of Heaven, sort of an interlude after California Rain - invoking the feeling of being at church on a Sunday morning.

Next is Never Seen A Rose, another example of the 90s influence on this album - as Nick’s voice takes on a higher raspier pitch, androgynous like how Wheatus sounds on Teenage Dirtbag. This utilizes dual vocals, as well as Nick’s general vocal range and ability, creating a feeling that he is singing a duet with himself. Especially as the big chorus comes in, using both their falsetto and head voice to create a robust sound. Then after that large sound comes the soft slow drawl of a fiddle/violin (fiddlin?) reminding me of informational videos at museums, before going back into that 90s sound. The song fizzles out and sizzles right into the next track Lullaby for the Lost - another classic folk song with some fun production choices, especially the back and forth with the vocals and violiddle (I really should’ve done more research) in the second and third chorus. It’s sort of an energy killer, but good if you’re just chilling out, going for a nice long drive.

We pick up the pace a little bit with Oh, Sister another song that plays into folk cliches to help familiarize the audience immediately to what’s going on. It’s a very relatable track for anyone else who has family members that don’t necessarily agree with their lifestyle. This is a plea to his sister to treat him the same, but to also respect who he is as a person. Ending the song with the haunting lines “Time is an ocean, but it ends at the shore, you may not see me here tomorrow.” Then we have the unfortunately titled They Shoot Horses, this song has a classic country ride to it, you could almost hear Toby Keith crooning those lyrics, although if they were truly written by him they’d probably be a little more insincere. It uses the imagery of having to euthanize a horse after they are injured in what is the rider's fault. They didn’t do anything and yet this innocent creature must suffer for your mistake. These deep lyrics with a beautiful chorus sandwich two huge swelling instrumental breakdowns before slowly fizzling out.

SPEAKING OF SLOWLY, next is Slowly Likely the Wind. Another simple acoustic song, they leave the frills behind in this one, even the violiddlin isn’t even present as acoustic guitar and bass ring out. Just the walk up to the chorus gets me so pumped to hear what’s gonna happen next, with a beautiful hook to tie it all together. This I think is where a lot of their 70’s folk rock influence comes out, conjuring up The Band and the Eagles especially in the simple but impactful chorus. Lullaby to Slowly is definitely longest part of the album with some of these songs kind of falling into almost boring territory, though bringing you back in with a solid riff or breakdown. This album is for a long car ride, okay? You gotta be in it for the long haul.

But we pick things up a little bit with Tormenta, finally using electric guitar as the main rhythm force, something we have yet to hear on this album. You can definitely feel a lot of Bright Eyes inspiration in a lot of this album but it’s truly on display with Tormenta. There are great harmonies when there needs to be in this song, using it to amplify the uniqueness of Nick’s voice as it’s against this angelic backdrop. 

Now I will say I am starting to get a little tired of the song structure all of these songs take, verse chorus verse chorus bridge chorus/verse outro, I want something fast, that I don’t have to think too hard about, OH WHEN WILL YOU COME?

Bitch I’m right here! says Sister Christian the next song on the album. One of my absolute favorites for sure right here, this song fucking rocks. So very alt-country, I love it when any song can use a riff as a hook/recurring theme. They do meander a bit, pushing the song to be a little bit longer when it really could’ve been a tight 1m50s, GET ME IN THE EDITING ROOM! But really I love this song, definitely a huge stand out track, I wish it were earlier in the album just so I could’ve heard it sooner. 

The second to last track is the title track, East My Love, and boyhowdy what a title track it is. The longest song on the album it starts off with Nick going into their falsetto rasp during the first verse into the chorus. Then the second verse comes along and I’m just gonna type it out not say anything else about it, just, it’s good - AND I WILL BURY ALL YOUR TEARS/CAUSE THERE’S ALWAYS USE IN CRYIN/AND I WILL CONSUME ALL YOUR FEARS/SO YOU’LL NEVER HAVE TO HIDE THEM/WHAT’S IT LIKE TO DISAPPEAR/ FROM EVERYTHING YOU ONCE RELIED ON/SO WHEN YOU’RE STUCK OUT IN THE EAST/THERE WILL ALWAYS BE A LIGHT ON. Man, I love that. After that we hit up the chorus one more time then end with another instrumental outro. Lastly is a Simon & Garfunkle cover, Feelin Groovy, I kind of wish they used this as a secret track at the end of East My Love just to be a little fun. It almost seems with how the previous song ends, maybe that was the intention? I don’t know if there are rights issues since it’s a cover or something. But it’s a fun way to end a pretty sad album, leaves ya with a good taste in your mouth.

Overall: This is a great driving album. As someone who spends a lot of time on the road, you have no idea how much that means to me. With catchy hooks that aren’t too simple or too complicated, songs that make you think and relate to. It’s these types of albums that feel so good to listen to at full volume, windows down in your car. It’s okay if you’re a little cold, grab that sweatshirt from the back of your car and let yourself be made warm by the sweet sounds of acoustic guitar and viofilinddle.

Grade: A-

Favorite Songs: Never Seen a Rose, Sister Christian, They Shoot Horses

[mrentertainerkaraoke]

Hate Me - Lil Yachty & ian (Karaoke Version) | MrEntertainerKaraoke

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhUttK6CLDM Hate Me - Lil Yachty & ian (Karaoke Version) | MrEntertainerKaraoke Welcome to Mr Entertainer Karaoke, Premium Karaoke Versions made by real musicians using real instruments. Checkout our channel for thousands of high quality karaoke videos with new songs added regularly covering the latest chart hits from the biggest artists. Click link below to SUBSCRIBE and be the first to see all the newest releases... https://ift.tt/8FPeo4T Want a song made into #karaoke? Mention it in the comments and our production team will look into it ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ If you are new to our channel, we're happy you clicked on our video! Hope you enjoy. Please show your love💓 and support🤝 joining "MrEntertainerKaraoke" community now by subscribing and press (🔔) to join the Notification Squad and stay updated with new uploads✨ 🔴 𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐮𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝟏𝐌 𝐒𝐮𝐛𝐬���𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐞𝐫 : @mrentertainerkaraokechannel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8saA2uSz4hIUAo31Y5cM2w 👍 Like the video (it helps a ton!) 💬 Comment below to share your opinion! 🔗 Share the video with anyone you think might help :) ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ Want More to Sing? Checkout our Mr Entertainer Karaoke Playlists... https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxOgX7k3V0GuJt1mkGsSbkUoXmIFTxL87 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxOgX7k3V0Gtm4f5mLOXEFZrqic6qEZK6 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxOgX7k3V0GsXDNmGNh2tDaALYZFvqHmh https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxOgX7k3V0GuKVsIvjPd28YqcvKyHAp9l https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxOgX7k3V0Gssu40-J1ZfQzHgkspfKbP5 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxOgX7k3V0Gt_kQOrAPeT1X6HlKGhrkC3 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxOgX7k3V0Gv3IZJKpfdpWvA8wDY5bKdS https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxOgX7k3V0Gtt-CL7zGMRa94cavojmHQV https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxOgX7k3V0GsXDNmGNh2tDaALYZFvqHmh Or checkout some of our other Popular Videos... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2al3qI9eAA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrCO-wYZevM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4icB8OqRr_o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxrRTB1R5jI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wrmt5VKQ8-E ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ 📲 Stay Connected : 📷 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦: https://ift.tt/EcuRX9l 🔵 𝐅𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤: https://ift.tt/RNKvtZh 🌐 Karaoke Hardware 𝗪𝐞𝐛𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞: https://ift.tt/PQSG65p 🌐 Karaoke Downloads Website: https://ift.tt/NGmJXOP 📩 𝐄𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐥 (Business Enquiries) info@mrentertainer.co.uk ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ 𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐑 : We do not accept any liability for any loss or damage incurred from you acting or not acting as a result of watching any of our publications. You acknowledge that you use the information we provide at your own risk. Do your research. 𝐂𝐎𝐏𝐘𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐄 : This video and our YouTube channel contain dialogue, music, and images that are the property of MrEntertainerKaraoke. You are authorized to share the video link and channel and embed this video in your website or others as long as a link back to our YouTube channel is provided. ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ 🔎𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐕𝐀𝐍𝐓 𝐇𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐒 #HateMeLilYachtyian #HateMeLilYachtyianKaraoke #HateMe #LilYachtyian #HateMeKaraoke #LilYachtyianKaraoke #Karaoke #KaraokeVersion #KaraokeVersionWithLyrics #KaraokeSongs #Kareoke #KaraokeSongsWithLyrics #KaraokeLyricsSongs #KaraokeParty #MrEntertainerKaraoke via MrEntertainerKaraoke https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8saA2uSz4hIUAo31Y5cM2w August 20, 2024 at 09:16PM

[thesinglesjukebox]

RM - "COME BACK TO ME"

Permission to shower?

[5.17]

Anna Katrina Lockwood: BTS' thoughtful leader, RM, is actively rejecting the aggressively populist tropes his group has traded in for the past five years or so. "Come Back To Me" is a pretty nice song! Languidly downtempo, minimally arranged, acoustically instrumented — it's a trope in and of itself how much this song slots in the playbook of the post-boy group redefinition in progress. OHHYUK's production is the dominant attribute, which is not a bad thing but perhaps not quite what one would expect from a release from a BTS member. RM's vocals kind of drift on by indistinctly — so, perhaps less of an active rejection of the boy group tropes than a meditation. [7]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: RM takes the typical café-friendly Korean ballad and makes it "respectable," bringing on OHHYUK and Sunset Rollercoaster's frontman. The result is something closer to the former's music but with a faux-deep seriousness (a common problem with BTS solo projects). The switching between English and Korean is fun, highlighting the differences in mood between both languages, but this is a song whose relaxed mood is too manicured and labored over. RM is in the shadow of the 2017 class of KRNB artists who could do this stuff effortlessly, from Rad Museum to 2xxx to offonoff. [4]

Nortey Dowuona: Apparently Sunset Rollercoaster were in the off-hours playlist. I hope none of my fellow writers who suffered the shocking betrayal of 2022 by Lil Yachty are surprised by this. I was though, so I will close my mouth. Praise Kuo for his fantastic guitar riffs, praise OHHYUK for having the good sense to trust RM to stick to his range so the Melodyning wasn't v obvious, and condemn Tame Impala for teaching young men my age all over the world the best way to make guitar driven music is to lock it in Logic.  [10]

Michael Hong: RM assembled some of Asian indie's biggest — here, he's got Hyukoh's OHHYUK and Sunset Rollercoaster's Tseng Kuo-hung — for an album engineered to sound tasteful. The result feels like a room dressed in the soft lighting and refined fixtures meant to look stylish but never lived-in. Beyond the pleasantness, "Come Back to Me" feels like nothing: a cursory outline of feelings sluggishly pulled together into roll credits that work better closing out the album than they do as a lead single. Even in the case of the former, it still sounds uninspired. [2]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: There's a cafe that I go to in my neighborhood fairly often — I'm not a regular or anything, but I know the different baristas and their tastes. There's a set that lean towards crowdpleasers: Motown, lite-'80s pop, some of the sunnier elements of the Jason Mraz-wave of the 2000s. Some lean more toward the Boygenius-National-Bon Iver constellation, and then a few more opt for even more anonymous choices: piano covers of pop hits, lo-fi beats to study and relax to. "Come Back to Me" is one of the few songs that could slot into any of their playlists, a pleasingly blank object with just enough heavy-handed marks of artistry that it sounds bespoke. [5]

Ian Mathers: This feels almost aggressively shapeless, and I mean that as a compliment. "I forgot the hour/I don't want to know about the hour" is pretty much the mood the song both engenders and reflects, and even when it hits a kind of stumbling crescendo, there something appealingly weary and wary about it. It kind of reminds me of Jack Johnson, but for once I don't mean that as a pejorative. [7]

Katherine St. Asaph: Drifts perilously close (and the verb here truly is "drifts") toward a set of sounds I normally don't love: Post Malone, How to Dress Well, Jack Johnson, "The Lazy Song." RM alternates between barely trying to sing and trying way, way too hard. Yet while I still don't love this, I like it well enough. He sounds genuinely introspective, maybe that's why. [6]

Alfred Soto: Maybe I'd prefer it in Korean, but I suspect it would sound like Post Malone or something. [3]

TA Inskeep: So sleepy it feels as if he took some Ambien before recording. I miss the old Rap Monster of “Do You.” [3]

Will Adams: If you're willing to put up with the first two minutes of post-coital guitar noodling from your worst college hookup, you'll be rewarded with four minutes of blazed-out relaxation on a blanket on the quad after finals week is over. Your mileage will vary based on how fondly you recall your college years. [5]

Mark Sinker: Every time I had this playing while I worked – concentrating, barely even half listening probably – I was loving it, for the mood and the simplicity and the whistling; for the husky lightness at the edge of my attention. And I like that even when you point your thinking listening mind at it, it’s still not much more than a feather dodging your grasp. It doesn’t firm up or settle or clarify, quite the opposite.   [7]

Jonathan Bradley: At close to a third of the way through these six-and-a-half interminable minutes, RM allows some drums to kick into his dorm room serenade, suggesting he has Anderson .Paak's stoned beach-soul headiness in mind for "Come Back to Me," rather than a deliberate attempt to whistle his way into Jack Johnson's deck chair. "I forgot to shower," he muses, and I think he's trying to suggest there's something filthy about his attempt at funk; he does, after all, pronounce "staying good" as if he hopes listeners might hear "stank good." Get dressed, dude. Use some deodorant. [3]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox]

[rideoutmusicgroup]

The Artifice of Singing Off-Key in Hip-Hop/R&B Music Explained

​Though art is subjective, we can seemingly identify a “bad” song instantly. A “bad” song; is mostly identified by its defiance to sonic conformities and cultural conformities amongst others. So, for the same reasons a Billy Joel fan may not appreciate Death Grips; a Metallica fan may very well dislike them too! They’re awfully different! Throughout the evolution of Hip-Hop and R&B music, there have been technological advancements that impacted the sonic landscape of the two genres. What remains constant through Hip-Hop transitioning to Rap; is the artist’s unique choice to sing.

The earliest form of an MC or Rap Artist like we know today; is identified as a Griot; a kind of bard or itinerant minstrel found in western African societies, who usually sings of local legends, histories, genealogies, or heroic deeds. (Oxford) Griot was later used to identify verbal messengers in American Slave Communities who’d indirectly and openly speak to their contemporaries in a chatter that their over-seer could not understand. That is why there is such emphasis on slang and rhythm in these genre’s today. (Dozier) The genre’s identity is founded on non-conformity. Auto-Tune: paved the way for rude and funny offkey rhymes sung by 80’s Hip-Hop legend Slick Rick the Ruler, to evolve to the candid lyrics that 2000’s Rap & R&B Legend, T-Pain, belts into the digital analog; vocal enhancer. Melodies are constant in music. However, Rap & R&B culture is infatuated with off-key singing. From Biz-Markie’s “He’s Just a Friend” to Lil Yachty’s “One Night;” we hear artists in this same space conjure unique singing-hooks with wild notes that do not theoretically conform to a classical musician’s standard for staying “on-key.” The trend is reasoned purely by artistic expression and the flowing river of new artistic-capabilities enabled by Auto-Tune amongst other vocal synthesizers and note-decoders.

Following the ground-breaking release of “808’s and Heartbreak” Kanye West admitted "I get a lot of backlash for using [Auto-Tune] because it's a tool people use when they can't sing... What it does for me, if I sing off-key, it really points that out. It points out the bad notes. So, what I have to do is sing more perfect.” Ben Rogerson insightfully explains that rather than a rap artist generically employing auto-tune solely for pitch correction, Ye used it as a clearly audible effect throughout the album. In a rap landscape which some artists might have hidden the fact that they implement it, Ye’s choice to double down on his use of vocal synthesizers shifted the sonic standards for the genre.

Auto-Tune turns rappers into singers or a unique combination of both. It enhances the musicality present in the rhythmically cadenced speech, and pushes rapping towards crooning and adlibbing, encouraging rappers to emit trills and melodic flourishes that would otherwise be outside their reach. The introductory song to Yachty’s fifth studio album: “Let’s Start Here,” titled ‘pRETTy,’ is characterized by the magical instrumentations that seemingly grant the listener euphoria, and the trippy chorus that is capitalized by auto-tune. (Banerjee) Future, another artist branded by his uniquely textured auto-tuned vocals “reinvented blues for the 21 century,” curating a style of delivery (somewhere between speech and singing) as a mode of feeling, and outlook. “My music—that’s pain,” Future has said. Paradoxically, Auto-Tune’s most flagrantly artificial effects have come to signify authenticity at its most raw and exposed. (Reynolds)

To further discuss the identifiable reason for rap artists to sing off-key or improper and present it as high-valued talent, we can look closely at the prolific Mixtape Rapper, Max B. Max, whose given name is Charley Wingate, was most musically active in the years, 2006-2008. From more than 20 mixtapes, one full-length on a small independent label and a substantial number of hooks and verses with New York City’s Dipset/ByrdGang crews; the body of work that Max B recorded vary wildly in tone and sound quality from release to release: referencing the stark contrast between the hallucinatory grime of the Coke Wave tapes with French Montana and the crisp G-funk of Vigilante Season. Lyrically, Max explores the depths of inebriation, crime and incarceration, misogyny, money as a means and a motivator, and these lyrics evoke an aggressive stance toward anyone with doubt in his status as the greatest gift to New York City, if not the world. (Cohen) Max B’s delivery exudes confidence, intentionality, and purpose all while singing off-key without the use of auto-tune.

In a recent interview with Complex led by Grant Rindner, Wingate states: “I Don’t Need Auto-Tune. My Voice Is Beautiful.” Max B, renowned as an influential figure whose melodic style predated the current wave of singing rap artists, explains his ear-catching delivery by admitting: “I’m not trying to sing, I’m just trying to be vulnerable... I’m trying to put my soul on there for you. I’m trying to give you me... I’m not getting respected for my musical gifts, so now I’ve got to do the unthinkable, and come with [something else].” (Rindner) Max B. Very early into his contract with Koch Records, Max told his contemporary Jim Jones, that they needed a new sound, one that moved away from the hard-hitting drums and choir samples and horns we’d typically hear in popular New York rap music at that time. Max referred to this sound being a soulful flavor that best resembles the musical roots of Harlem. Considering the cultural significance of the Harlem Renaissance, and the cultural significance of a Grigot and slave chatter in Hip-Hop and Rap music; rap artists who choose to sing off-key tap into a vulnerability and creative consciousness that is inspired by captivity, longing, non-conformity, and revolution.

Future hits it on the head when he describes his music to be simply “Pain.” T-Pain glamorously wears his moniker with the same notion in mind. Though there are many upbeat songs which feature rap artists singing; the creative consciousness inspired by slavery is inherent. Therefore, the artists vulnerability that off-key singing conveys, is most attributed to pain and suffering. It takes painful history from the genre’s lineage and sculpts it into modern chat toward people who feel painfully oppressed in their circumstances. Max B’s intentional vulnerability in his creativity comes from his own painful experiences as a child and the painful lessons that he struggled to learn in his adulthood: when he sings about being incarcerated, his adaptable keys for attaining success, and ways that he is persecuted from the Music Industry and the public. Max was trapped in a non-lucrative record deal, while facing criminal charges that loomed a 35-year sentence over his head and he directed his stress and his pain into his music and rapid productivity; amassing a cult following that awaits his eventual release this coming Autumn. This artist-model or artistic approach works with any rap artist who is confident enough to make the great, powerful choice to be vulnerable and sing honestly instead of correctly and uniformly.

O. Daley

Work Cited

Banerjee, Rhys. “Lil Yachty Made a Psychedelic Rock Album and It’s Pretty Good.” The Chronicle, 13 Feb. 2023, www.dukechronicle.com/article/2023/02/lil-yachty-lets-start-here-psychedelic-rock.

Cohen, Finn. “Lord Is Tryna Tell You Something: How Charly Wingate Became Max B.” Complex, Complex, 4 Feb. 2023, www.complex.com/music/a/finn-cohen/max-b-jail-interview1.

Dozier, Barbra. “The History of Slavery and Its Impact on Contemporary Hip-Hop Music.” Barbra Dozier’s Blog, 24 Apr. 2018, barbradozier.wordpress.com/2018/04/24/the-history-of-slavery-and-its-impact-on-contemporary-hip-hop-music/.

Mahadevan, Tara. “Kid Cudi Says Lil Yachty Is ‘What I Hoped for in the next Generation.’” Complex, Complex, 19 Jan. 2024, www.complex.com/music/a/cmplxtara-mahadevan/kid-cudi-praises-lil-yachty-what-i-hoped-for-next-generation.

The Miscellany News. “The Impact of ‘808s & Heartbreak’ on Modern-Day Rap.” The Miscellany News, 29 Apr. 2021, miscellanynews.org/2021/04/28/arts/the-impact-of-808s-heartbreak-on-modern-day-rap/.

Reynolds, Simon. “How Auto-Tune Revolutionized the Sound of Popular Music.” Pitchfork, 17 Sept. 2018, pitchfork.com/features/article/how-auto-tune-revolutionized-the-sound-of-popular-music/.

Rindner, Grant. “‘I Don’t Need Auto-Tune. My Voice Is Beautiful’: An Interview with Max B.” Complex, Complex, 23 May 2023, www.complex.com/music/a/grant-rindner/max-b-interview.

Rogerson, Ben. “Kanye West Says Auto-Tune Makes Him a Better Singer.” MusicRadar, MusicRadar, 2 Dec. 2008, www.musicradar.com/news/tech/kanye-west-says-auto-tune-makes-him-a-better-singer-185278.

[thelensofyashunews]

LUCKI shares "Heavy On My Heart" video from new 'GEMINI!' LP

After receiving heavyweight co-signs from both Drake and Lil Baby, Chicago underground legend LUCKI has just shared the video for "Heavy On My Heart" from his new album GEMINI!— out now. The project boasts features from A-listers Future, Lil Yachty, Veeze, Rylo Rodriguez, and 42 Dugg, as well as production from sonic tastemakers Tay Keith, Wheezy, Southside, and Bobby Raps. GEMINI! arrives on the heels of the announcement that LUCKI's first US headlining tour, The Gemini Tour, will kick off on July 18th in Raleigh, NC. Produced by Live Nation, the 27-date tour will make stops in Miami, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Boston, Brooklyn, and more before wrapping up on September 7th in Atlanta, GA. The recently-released 2-pack of singles titled 2 Faced, Pt. 2 (the Coupe-produced "Heavy On My Heart" and the Brent Rambo-produced "Courtesy Of") offered the first glimpse into LUCKI's follow-up to 2023's s*x m*ney dr*gs, with the former serving as an upbeat outing buoyed by LUCKI's candid bars over a soulful instrumental while the latter is a hard-hitting victory lap draped in his distinct raspy flow. A longtime staple of Chicago’s underground scene, LUCKI’s hazy cloud rap confessionals saw the then-teenager grow a cult following in the Windy City and beyond before garnering mainstream recognition with his 2022 debut album FLAWLESS LIKE ME (which had appearances from Future and Babyface Ray) and hit track “New Drank”(200M+ Streams). GEMINI! marks LUCKI’s first full-length outing since the aforementioned s*x m*ney dr*gs and arrives on the heels of a high-profile appearance on “Broke phone” (7M+ Streams) from Veeze's 2023 album Ganger as well as a strong run of 2024 singles, including “PAIDNFULL”, “COLORFUL DRUGS”, and most recently “All Love”, where he linked with Lyrical Lemonade for a Cole Bennett-directed music video, as well as a guest outing on Southside’s latest track “Elegant”.

LUCKI’s fourth full-length album GEMINI! marks the entry point into what will be a busy summer for the Chicago artist. After performing at last weekend’s Lyrical Lemonade Summer Smash, he's currently slated to make an appearance at Rolling Loud before embarking on his nationwide headlining Gemini Tour — with a fall European tour also on the horizon. An artist as multifaceted as his star sign, LUCKI has grown from an underground Chicago mainstay into a critically-acclaimed international icon, using hazy cloud rap confessionals to pave the way for the sound of modern Hip-Hop. With his GEMINI! era officially in motion, LUCKI is continuing to assert his legacy while proving just how far his movement has carried over the past decade.

[transitdesigner]

album review: FAYE WEBSTER - UNDERDRESSED AT THE SYMPHONY

i’ve been steadily listening to faye webster more and more during the past year and a half as time goes by. her repetitiveness and instrumental minimalism and almost bored drone-y voice and journal-page-to-song lyrics appeal to my heart more and more as time goes by. i was super excited when i saw Underdressed at the Symphony on my home page the other day. I don’t even know she was releasing an album, despite me having seen and listened to her Lil Yachty single a few weeks earlier. I’d thought that was a one-off, besides being surprised at the random collab.

This album is very Faye, and is so far the Faye album that I’ve enjoyed the most on first listen. Which is probably mostly because I’m so used to her sound by now. The minimalism and repetitive final minutes of songs aren’t absent here. But it’s soothing instead of annoying to a me that finds myself longing at times and wanting music to match.

Lego Ring sounds way better within the context of the album that it did as a single, and I actually appreciated it here. The next track, Feeling Good Today, takes the grating autotune to another level that made my fingers itch to skip the song nearly the whole way though. There are times on the album where I wished she leaned into orchestral instruments more, especially during the more repetitive parts. It would tied the album together better as a whole and saved some of the more monotonous moments. But Not Kiss is a standout with the rock sound, and He Loves Me Yeah! is one of the more fun tracks instrumentally, even if it’s one of the simplest lyrically.

My biggest gripe with the album is the ordering of the last two tracks… the ending section of track 9, Underdressed at the Symphony, is such a beautiful instrumental section, one perfect for the closing of an album. Hearing the beginning of Tttttime after that feels jolting and wrong. Which is unfortunate because Tttttime is actually a track I enjoy, but my ears almost don’t even want to receive it after hearing the beautiful string section that the track before ended with. Switching the order of these last two tracks and removing Feeling Good today would take this album from a 7/10 to an 8 out of 10 for me.

Favorite tracks: But Not Kiss, Underdressed at the Symphony, Thinking About You

[heartsleevemag]

REVIEW: Zooey Celeste explores sonic and mortal transition on debut full-length, Restless Thoughts

by Shea Roney

Reaching through the haze and darkly obscene adventure that is Restless Thoughts, stands Zooey Celeste. As an embodiment of the creator’s alter-ego, the astral shaman known as Zooey Celeste is here to lead the newly departed to whatever lies beyond this enchanting world he has created. With this debut full-length, coming from a novel that he is writing simultaneously alongside the songs, Zooey teams up with producer and friend Nick Hakim (Lil Yachty, Lianne La Havas) to excavate this physical world into the multitudes of strange outer places. 

The album begins its pilgrimage with “Effortless”, an ethereal tune that stands apart from Zooey’s nostalgic voice and the wistfulness of the backdrop. With swooning lines like, “From way up in the heavens / To the underground / I thought I saw you screaming / With Your voice unfound,” “Effortless” sets the stage for a unique and unrestrained journey. The world's first introduction to Zooey Celeste’s Restless Thoughts was through the debut and title-tracked single that follows the opener. What begins as a subtlety of avant-punk drum tracks and lo-fi guitar drones, becomes a dark comprehension of eternal conflict. As Zooey sings, “Why can't we just live alone / And why can't we just get along gently,” the track takes a dark turn to self destruction. With Zooey’s hypnotic, baritone voice, there is a degree of pleading that is beautifully portrayed and heavily felt. 

There is of course darkness that lies within this odyssey that we learn only Zooey can help us comprehend. “Running All Night,” driven by beautiful chord voicings and minor intonations, is a sinister lo-fi track that shines in its simplicity. “Torture Me” is a melodic diddy that is light in rhythm and melody, but weighed down by the unsubtle torment. “Walk By,” an industrial chamber-pop song, is determined to guide us to our next storyline destination. With the hauntingly cathartic chorus of, “Walk beside me,” otherworldly elements come into vision. With a strange yet established folky backdrop, “God Awful” is a poppy exchange of honesty for acceptance. With steady guitar chunks and clappy drum beats, the track acts as the bridge between humanistic faults and the purity of the great beyond. 

One of the emotional highpoints of the album comes from the track “Cosmic Being.” Having had it as a voice memo for years, Hakim has turned it into a deliberate song of heartbreak and promises. With a rich piano track drenched in lo-fi guitar and drums, Zooey’s vocals reach a height of desperation. “Comeback”, a track dedicated to love, finds textures in lo-fi arrangements and saxophone squeals. “Big Trouble,” accompanied by friend Tei Shi, is a track of funked up basslines and ethereal composure that allows space for the vocal features. Just as this futuristic dance track drops off, it returns with a fortified groove to parade out the remaining instrumental characters. 

The album comes to a cinematic conclusion with “Stay Up.” One of the most sonically sparse tracks on the record, “Stay Up” is composed of heavy,  staccato string arrangements and raw vocal tracks. Without dropping the poppy melodies, Zooey finds comfort in getting a second chance despite all of his internal dilemmas. As the album comes to a close, we reach the end of our journey with a collage of sounds as Zooey disappears from our earthly senses. 

Restless Thoughts drops tomorrow, Friday, November 10. For now, you can stream "Big Trouble" wherever you listen to music, and be sure to follow Zooey Celeste to get to know more about the album and stay updated on his live performances.

[1892]

is this album perfect? no. but does it have a vision? oh absolutely. yachty is a really great like. creative director. as much as i didn't like her loss...all of the parts he inserted were good (he chose the cover art, some bars, adlibs) so like. idk. i like lil yachty i think he's a funny guy who also thought a cello was a woodwind instrument