Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Miguel-Wildheart




Miguel
Wildheart
Bystorm/RCA records

Entering his third album, Miguel’s was facing more pressure than ever. Coming off his excellent sophomore album Kaleidoscope Dream which included the Billboard top 20 hit Grammy winner “Adorn”, Miguel was naturally going to garner more attention with his third effort. The handsome R&B singer appears to have been refreshingly uncompromising with his sound on the third record. Miguel always has stated that he refuses to be a conformist. The spacey Prince-esq. production and blatant sex appeal Miguel is known for remains intact along with a selection of tracks that were not crafted to be radio hits. Unfortunately this collection of tracks entitled Wildheart lacked the strength Miguel had shown with his previous record.

The album which was almost entirely produced by Miguel himself is very hit and miss. On some tracks he wears his Prince and Hendrix influences on his sleeve, implementing seductive crunchy guitar licks. Tracks like these such as the opener, “A Beautiful Exit” are excellent and pair very nicely with the reverb effect Miguel puts on his voice. “Hollywood Dreams” also features an excellent guitar piece while Miguel describes a narrative of a woman who dreams to make it in show business but is distracted by that world’s drug culture. The track serves as a rare break from Miguel’s typical sex ballad themes and proves Miguel can produce a solid R&B track. The final track, “Face the Sun” featuring Lenny Kravitz is everything Miguel can do well on a track all at once. The synths create a nice texture for Miguel to wail his huge vocal range over then step aside while Kravitz wails a downright sexy guitar solo as vocalists harmonize in the background. The collaboration seemed to fit perfectly unlike the Kurupt rap verse that just felt out of place. The lyrics show the introspective side of Miguel. While he discusses philandering for most of the album in an anxious and even angsty way at times, this touching closer finds Miguel sounding content about knowing he belongs with one woman.  These guitar driven tracks that bookend the album left a lot to be desired in between.

The biggest disappointment of Wildheart was that Miguel rarely showed off the immense vocal power he possesses. He lets loose on “Face the Sun” as well as “Flesh” which is another strong track on the album, but for the rest of the album Miguel implements a singling style you would typically hear from Drake. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but by the third record we have come to expect more from someone with a powerful voice like Miguel. The piercing wails that are found all over Kaleidoscope Dream and All I Want is You are much less frequent on the new release. The album also made me question Miguel as a producer. While he did land production credits on a lot of Kaleidoscope Dream most of those tracks were massive collaborations. Wildheart was almost entirely produced by Miguel himself and the production sounds too similar. The atmospheric synth driven vibes began to run into each other a bit creating a feeling of familiarity.

Repetition also plagued Miguel lyrically on this album. Many of the verses are only four lines with a chorus that featured one or two repeated lines. “DEAL”, “The Valley”, “Waves”, and “…goingtohell” suffer from this syndrome the most. The fact that many of these songs are so lyrically without substance make the songs feel like a quick passing thought rather than a well fleshed out idea. On the flip side a few of these tracks feature some of Miguel’s best lyrics. “Flesh” is one of Miguel’s most starkly romantic and sex driven tracks where he worships the female figure. “What’s Normal Anyway?” has Miguel tackling discrimination and the rejection that can come with growing up a mixed individual. Miguel treats this subject with a sincerity and experience that make these tracks memorable despite the production being hardly so. This track stood out especially because it was surrounded by tracks that became more and more sexually banal as the album went on. Steamy R&B is Miguel’s style but the approach often felt either cliché or downright forced like on “The Valley” where Miguel discusses making love to a woman in the pornography film capital.

This album was supposed to be Miguel’s coming out party, but Miguel simply missed the mark with too many of these tracks. The stand out songs fail to hold up the weaker tracks on this album mostly because they are vastly outnumbered. Strong production and strong lyrics rarely match up on the album the way Kaleidoscope Dream did track after track. Look for Miguel to improve his production skills for the next album and hopefully create a project with a bit more exciting material, but Wildheart is probably one to pass provided you are not a massive Miguel or R&B fan.

4/10
-
Tom Kliebhan
6/30/2015
Check out this piece at more at http://thebestnewmusic.com/

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Hydrangea Benison-The White Lake





I try to listen to a number of independent artists as well as ones signed to labels although I will hardly write about them unless they warrant high praise. From my sample size, the folk/Americana genre tends to produce the highest number of independent releases that are painfully uninspiring. For about the last year the music world has been just emerging from the folk music trend of minimal instrumentation, all male harmonizing, acoustic ballads, and melodramatic lyrics. With how over-saturated the folk market was during the 2000s due to a 60s folk revival the genre is in need of innovation and inspiration from somewhere, but this group of musicians hardly hails form an area of folk tradition. Chicago has always been a blues town but it is nonetheless where Hydrangea Benison calls home. Thankfully their new record “The White Lake” avoids all the tropes and clichés mentioned prior.

Hydrangea Benison do an excellent job with their short first track, “Molly May & The Drunken Widow” which acts as a nice piece of foreshadowing for the rest of the album. The instrumental guitar and violin pieces do an excellent job complimenting and existing within each other. Each piece has a life of its own yet they seem to be a perfect intertwined match. The two instruments create an irresistibly catchy folk twang that serve as Hydrangea Benison’s most effective tool and one they implement throughout the album without monotony. Tracks like “A Little Hurt”, “Peaches”, and “Rome” really stand out because of this feature combined with layers of lush instrumentation. Pianos and keyboards along with timely guitar solos brighten up the standard folk instruments and create a much fuller experience than typical folk or Americana records deliver.

Hydrangea Benison used eight vocalists for this record, five of which are men and three women. The vocal arrangements are crafted cleverly and uniquely. Because of the numerous vocalists the harmonies stand out from one another yet still create a familiar sound. “Nights in Heaven” in particular does this well. Another interesting track is “Five Little Prayers” where a male and female singer trade off lines with a faint familiarity to “Nothing Better” by the Postal Service. The vocal arrangements will also use a low alto voice while the singers with a wider range will drive the song’s pace allowing whichever singer is commanding the microphone at the time to really stand out. The lyrics provide simple narratives, but remain endearing and honest. Love and longing is hardly an unexplored topic, but the accounts are delivered in varied styles that keep the listener engaged.

This band is most enjoyable when they are a maximal and cohesive unit. They use big instrumentation combined with excellent vocal harmonies of male and female singers to create exciting climaxes like on “Rome”. When the violin, electric guitar, and vocals are all wailing at the same time the band sounds so large it cannot be helped but to join in the catharsis similar to the way Arcade Fire’s first album feels. For a moment on this song Hydrangea Benison captured that type of energy which proves to be extremely difficult on a recording. It is when the group moves away from this formula and creates the slower more minimal songs that the album becomes less engaging. The ballad tracks like “Wayfaring Stranger” and “Garnet Stones” are clearly included to change the mood, but remain the less interesting tracks on this offering. In this regard “Bonsoir Lune” redeems the other ballads a bit. The contrast of the trickling piano and the swinging vocals that detail a parting of two lovers creates an appropriate closer.

When this band maximizes the potential of their litany of musicians, Hydrangea Benison functions at their largest and most powerful. Fans of a more rock oriented style of folk and Americana should enjoy this record which reminded me endlessly of the first Houdmouth record. Part of the fun of independent artists is following them in hopes that one day they break out. This is a group that would be worth keeping an eye on, especially because of how young the members are and how much growth was shown on this recording.

7.5/10 
-
Tom K. 
6/25/2015 

 

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Albums that Shaped My Taste: The College Years 2012-2015



College is supposed to be four years of development and change. When I think back to some of the music I listened to in high school it astonishes me just how much my tastes have changed over the past four years. I tried to expand my palate and learn to appreciate other genres as well as dive deeper into what I already enjoyed. I listened to hundreds of albums and here I have picked the six most significant albums that came out in the last four years, 2012-2015. This restriction forced me to keep some albums I had in constant rotation off my list such as My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Flockaveli, Deathconciousness, Spiderland, In the Court of the Crimson King, most of the Boris discography, etc; however, I still believe this list is filled with great albums that you should check out. These albums either changed the way I think about music or have a personal connection that I will try to elaborate more on below. 


July 10th, 2012
The R&B revival was something I was at first apprehensive about. Around this time Odd Future was at the peak of their power when one of its members named Frank Ocean dropped Channel Orange. The day before the album’s release Ocean gave a heart wrenching performance of “Bad Religion”on The Jimmy Fallon show that served as his coming out party. Whether this was a marketing ploy or not I was immediately more interested in the album although the song performance was phenomenal as well. Before this album, Frank Ocean only had one mixtape out where was singing over many different musicians’ music along with a few originals, but Channel Orange was a complete departure from that formula. The album was a completely original work filled with honest songwriting about growing and relationships alongside colorful and lively production. This album legitimized the new school or R&B for me while proving that Frank Ocean can stand on his own outside the Odd Future collective. Although there have been other excellent R&B albums that have come out recently none stand as significant as Channel Orange. 


October 22, 2012
Concept albums typically are not albums played at social get-togethers. No one likes the guy that puts on the 20 minute prog-rock track that was recorded in 7/8 at what should be a fun gathering of friends. This is especially true if the album’s themes revolve around addiction, self-destruction, and violence. Kendrick Lamar’s Good Kid, m.A.A.D City is possibly the greatest concept album I have ever heard yet it had numerous tracks that found its way to the airwaves of the seediest bars everywhere. The irony of blacked out twenty somethings screaming the lyrics of Swimming Pools was always entertaining in a dark sort of way but if anything highlights this deep album’s crossover appeal. The “credits rolling” feel that the album’s closer “Compton” along with the vivid descriptions of street life Kendrick shares give the listener a full cinematic experience. This album may not have had a drastic effect on my taste in music, but as soon as the record dropped it felt significant. Good Kid, m.A.A.D City was an album with immediate staying power. Rarely do hip-hop albums have singles that are still played in clubs years after they drop but Kendrick Lamar’s sophomore effort was an album that appropriately succeeded in this regard whether he wished for the music to function in that way or not.




December 18th, 2012
College is not only a time for intense study and reflection but also a time to let loose a bit. The soundtrack to many of the parties I went to was hip-hop so I had a tough time choosing which specific album I wanted to highlight. A lot of great party rap albums came out such as Habits and Contradictions, Long Live A$AP, and Sremmlife but I settled on Finally Rich by Chief Keef. Being so close to Chicago, it was impossible to go to a party without hearing “I Don’t Like” blaring through the speakers for months before and after this album dropped, and I loved every second of it. The album put Chicago drill rap on the map and paved the way for numerous trap rap singles that played after Finally Rich came and went. Finally Rich made the cut above the others not only because of its significance within the trap rap/ drill scene but because it taught me not to take music so seriously. I mean this is an album called "Finally Rich" that was created by a 17 year old. Music can be silly and making music that is meant to be partied to does not mean it carries any less weight or significance than an album trying to tackle larger issues. Finally Rich is not the best rap album of all time, but it does not even set out to be that. It's simply a fun listen. Infections hooks, brilliant production, and a unique persona is enough to create a great album. And don’t ever suggest that the Kanye West remix of “I Don’t Like” is better.




June 11, 2013.
Growing up I listened to a lot of 80s thrash metal and was a pretty big fan, but as time passed I started to lose interest. The genre began to feel stale and cliche to me. I don’t think I ever saw myself listening to metal as closely as I did when I was younger again until 2013 when Deafheaven dropped Sunbather. I was one of the many who had never heard of blackgaze until Deafheaven achieved mainsteam success with this record. The presentation of the album was so different that I felt like I had to give it a try. The album completely changed how I view metal and showed me what new things musicians were trying with the genre. The album was powerful, dramatic, tense, and beautiful all at once. Where I thought metal was cold and dark Sunbather used texture and color in brilliant ways even down to the album art. I had never thought someone would use techniques Kevin Shields pioneered on Loveless and apply them to a metal and post-rock sound. This album was the beginning of the rabbit hole for me. Sunbather got me interested in black metal which lead to my love for drone and doom metal as well. I am now more interested in metal than I ever was in my life and I attribute that to Kerry Mccoy’s unique style of playing and a killerstage presence from lead singer George Clarke that I have been lucky enough to witness three times.  Deafheaven completely revitalized my love and appreciation for metal and for that I will always be appreciative.



January 21, 2014
Transgender Dysphoria Blues is a strangely significant album to me. It is an album I liked but did not love initially, but its themes and songwriting from Laura Jane Grace were so honest and memorable that the album has kept me going back to it. I will even admit that I was not very knowledgeable about the transgender community and what they deal with, but this album got me interested as well as more respectful and supportive of their cause. I think the album came at a brilliant time because I believe that as a society who is becoming more and more accepting of the gay community the transgender community has not received that same welcome. Laura Jane Grace’s howls seem to have a refreshed fire and fierceness for me after two albums I thought were pretty forgettable. She sounds like a truly rejuvenated musician. What I love about the tracks on this record was I felt like the songwriting was able to place the listener right into Laura’s mind. She does an excellent job expressing her feelings and setting a scene for the listener. It just so happened that the next album I listened to for the first time was Jordaan Mason and the Horse Museum’s Divorce Lawyers I Shaved My Head. Without knowing that this album had similar themes, I couldn’t have been more surprised or lucky. Both albums worked together to teach me how the transgender community should be acknowledged and supported much more than what they currently receive. I thank both Laura Jane Grace and Jordaan Mason for this more well-rounded world view.  

Other albums I wanted to include but didn't other than those mentioned above: 

Cloud Nothings- Attack on Memory 
Disclosure- Settle
A$AP Rocky- Long Live A$AP 
The Hotelier- Home, Like No Place Is There
Kanye West- Yeezus 
Sufjan Stevens- Carrie and Lowell 
Ambersmoke- Une Femme Est Une Femme
Sun Kil Moon- Benji