For the past few months I’ve had Quilt’s music spinning around in my crappy white earbuds. The band’s delicate but enveloping songs have been a calming force when those commutes feel extra long, when the overloaded trains and sidewalks feed claustrophobia, and when I just want to escape. It may sound hokey, but then, it’s right there in the name.
Continue reading Quilt: ‘Held In Splendor’ A Comforting Patchwork Of Sixties Pop
When people think about the music of Broken Bells — the project of The Shins’ James Mercer and producer and multi-instrumentalist Brian Burton (a.k.a. Danger Mouse) — it’s easy to imagine Mercer writing the songs and Burton coming in to “make them weird.” But really, Broken Bells is a collaboration in the truest sense.
Continue reading Broken Bells: A ‘Disco’-Tinged Musical Partnership
There’s often a unifying quality with some of my favorite record labels that tells me, “Yeah, this will be good.” At best, a label’s feel for musical curation — or sometimes, even a logo or design aesthetic — helps gives some idea of what to expect. This has certainly been the case with Sacred Bones — the Brooklyn label with a roster that includes The Men, Zola Jesus, Crystal Stilts, and Destruction Unit, among many others. Seemingly from its start, Sacred Bones’ “sound” — a bit of gothy electronic pop, some reverby garage rock, a lot of scorching noisy punk all come to mind — established a personality that carries through its entire lineup.
For those who went to bed at a sensible hour last night — with your “Best of 2013” listicles locked and loaded — you likely awoke this Friday the 13th morning to a discover a strange, unfamiliar new world where a new Beyoncé album exists.
Simply titled Beyoncé, the so-called “visual album (her fifth LP as a solo artist, dropped overnight exclusively on iTunes to the surprise of practically everyone, and consists of 14 new songs coupled with 17 new music videos directed by a wide variety of directors, among them Hype Williams, Terry Richardson and LILINTERNET.
As these megapop albums tend to go, Beyoncé includes a bunch of big-name guest spots from her husband Jay Z (“Drunk In Love”), Frank Ocean (“Superpower”), Drake (“Mine”), and Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (“***Flawless”). And despite Beyoncé’s sleek, almost-restrained electronic template to these songs, the record actually showcases a small battery producers: Pharrell, Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Noah “40” Shebib, The-Dream, Hit Boy, Terius Nash, Boots, and Chairlift’s Caroline Polachek on “No Angel.” Even Blue Ivy — Beyoncé and Jay Z’s now two-year-old daughter — makes a “featured artist” appearance on the song “Blue.”
Needless to say, people are pretty geeked-out by the sudden pre-Christmas gift: new jams from Beyoncé.
But the most surprising part of Beyoncé, is not how it was so suddenly unleashed, but its cohesion. Typically these towering monolithic albums from enormous megastars tend to feel a little all over the place from song to song — if not within the same song (looking at you, “Countdown”) — often as a result of patching together a bunch of tracks with the fingerprints of a billion different producers and guest verses. So, considering how many producers are attached to Beyoncé, the album shows admirable restraint.
So singular is the musical vision — focusing mostly on Bey’s voice over relatively minimal production built around icy keyboards and chopped-up sequencers, serrated electronic dance beats, and a deep, gut-rumbling sub-bass. The record explores one dark, alluring mood and remarkably sticks with it throughout all 14 songs. This is not another collection of songs but a true album, a full statement, a masterpiece. Which is why I love it so much.
In fact, every song is so strong it’s actually difficult to locate the true “hit single” — although you could certainly make your case for the big time Jay Z-starring “Drunk In Love.”
Or the synth pop anthem “Pretty Hurts,” or the sexy electronic gospel ballad “Haunted,” or the slinky 90’s R&B jam “Blow” or the feminist anthem “***Flawless.”
But if you’re still searching for that next feel-good song, look no further than the arena-full-of-fans shout-along track, “XO.”
It all adds up to what is sure to be one of the biggest records to be released in 2013, and one sure to dominate in 2014.
It’s always illuminating to discover the music of a longtime sideman when left to their own devices. At best, it’s an opportunity to hear what songwriting choices they make, what style and voice they inhabit, and hear a musician often relegated to an accompaniment role come into their own.
Such is the case with Doug Keith, an accomplished New York-based songwriter and solo artist in his own right, but one many people — including myself — first came to know as the guitarist and bassist behind singer-songwriter Sharon Van Etten. Keith’s collaborated and toured alongside Van Etten since 2009, and his fantastically versatile playing added new textural depth and a more epic scope to her intimate songs in concert; on stage, there’s a true musical kinship.
Continue reading Douglas Keith: A Rustic Reintroduction To A Skillful Songwriter
Even in a crowded field of hip-hop megastars, there’s no denying Danny Brown is a straight-up original. Recording since his teens, the dynamic young rapper burst out of Detroit’s underground hip-hop scene — first with his self-released 2010 record The Hybrid, and again with the highly-praised XXX in 2011, an album that pushed Brown to hip-hop’s top shelf thanks to his skillfully concise lyrical voice, a hypnotic flow, and sharp humor.
In 1997, Kathleen Hanna — the no-holds-barred frontwoman of the influential ’90s band Bikini Kill and later of the band Le Tigre in the early 2000s — released a solo album under the moniker Julie Ruin. The self-titled album was a lo-fi but fierce collection of bedroom ballads and socially-charged songs that touched on feminism and politics, all in Hanna’s distinctive ecstatic voice.
Now, 16 years after that album — and seven years away from music dealing with a long-undiagnosed case of Lyme disease — Hanna is back with a new record. This time, what was once a pseudonymous side-project is a full-fledged band — The Julie Ruin.
Continue reading The Julie Ruin: Kathleen Hanna’s Noisy And Empowering Return
The Philly-based power punk band Swearin’ is one of the groups that was born after the break-up of P.S. Eliot, a much-loved indie rock band from twin sisters Katie and Allison Crutchfield. While the Crutchfields have gone their separate ways — Katie with her solo project Waxahatchee, and Alison with the noisier Swearin’ — both share an honest lyrical sentiment with songs that reflect on restlessness and crumbling relationships.
Ryan Lott is a classically-trained musician and composer who has written for films, television ads, and dance companies in New York. But since his stunning 2008 debut as Son Lux, At War With Walls & Mazes, Lott has been making lush and experimental songs that blend new classical, rock, electronic music in fascinating and ambitious ways.
Continue reading Son Lux: A Vivid And Arresting Musical World
Bassist Ben Allison is one of jazz’s best “glue guys,” a versatile musician’s musician whose presence in the liner notes enlivens practically anyone’s recording. But it’s as a composer and bandleader where his idiosyncratic musicianship truly shines. Allison has been banging around a good while at this point, with a resume that includes numerous awards (seven SESAC Performance Awards) and notable citations in places like DownBeat Magazine‘s Readers and Critic’s poll. (He even composed the theme for WNYC’s program On The Media.)
Continue reading Ben Allison Turns To The Jazz Cosmos With ‘D.A.V.E.’