Every Tuesday, we focus on new music releases by naming our top tracks, album highlights, lowlights and important takeaways for select albums.
Jessie Ware – If You’re Never Gonna Move [EP]
Top Tracks:
“If You’re Never Gonna Move”
“Sweet Talk”
Album Highlight: Tracks from the tail end of the Devotion LP like “If You’re Never Gonna Move” and “Sweet Talk” get the proper spotlight in this EP.
Album Lowlight: Not much to complain about here.
Takeaway: Jessie Ware is already a star to many. Ware should be a force to be reckoned with by the end of 2013 due to her MTV-pop appeal and her credibility within the EDM scene.
A$AP Rocky – LongLiveA$AP
Top Tracks:
“Fuckin’ Problems” feat. Drake, 2 Chainz & Kendrick Lamar
“Long Live A$AP”
“1 Train” feat. Kendrick Lamar, Joey Bada$$, Yelawolf, Danny Brown, Action Bronson & Big K.R.I.T.
“Goldie”
Album Highlight: The diversity of beats, track production and supporting players. LongLiveA$AP has appearances from Schoolboy Q, Santigold, Skrillex, Drake, Joey Bada$$, Danny Brown, Action Bronson and Kendrick Lamar, which means A$AP has surrounded himself with some of the most creative names in music from the last couple years.
Album Lowlight: Repeated use of “purple.” We get it, you love purple swag, purple drank and probably the fact that purple doesn’t rhyme with shit.
Takeaway: With his first LP finally arriving — and delivering — A$AP Rocky takes his place as one of the top rappers in the game. It’s not surprising the best tracks on the album are super-collaborations that involve Kendrick Lamar.
Yo La Tengo – Fade Out
Top Tracks:
“Before We Run”
“Ohm”
“Cornelia and Jane”
“The Point of It”
Album Highlight: The amazing penultimate track “The Point of It” and the slow-building, triumphant finale “Before We Run” end the LP on a high note.
Album Lowlight: The pacing of the record slows down around “I’ll Be Around” and “Two Trains,” but the energy lull around the two-thirds mark works to enhance the wonderful ending.
Takeaway: Fade Out is a slow-grower. Give it an extra listen if it doesn’t strike you the first couple times. The subtleties add up to a sum that is greater than it’s parts.
Parquet Courts – Light Up Gold
Top Tracks:
“Stoned and Starving”
“Master of My Craft”
“Borrowed Time”
Album Highlight: “Stoned and Starving” feels like some magical mix of Broken Social Scene and King Tuff. Any way you look at it, this is a great track.
Album Lowlight: The chord repetition becomes a bit monotonous during some of the slower tracks.
Takeaway: Distortion, lo-fi sound, stoner singing and lyrics and surf-rock-meets-Brit-rock chord simplicity. Light Up Gold feels familiar but offers originality with its genre-blending tracks.
Christopher Owens – Lysandre
Top Tracks:
“Here We Go”
“A Broken Heart”
“Lysandre”
Album Highlight: When the guitar solo allows the record’s best track “Here We Go” to take off. This tracks sums up Lysandre pretty well.
Album Lowlight: It’s a bit too minstrel with the reoccurring Lysandre’s theme. At times, it feels like the pied piper is traveling down a lonesome road with you.
Takeaway: Owen has crafted a record with even more confessional whispers in his first solo since the breakup of Girls. The attempts at cohesive pop are more straight forward than Ownes’ work with Girls, but the themes of insecurity and dwindling confidence continue on.
Leave a Reply