Hello again dear readers! This week and last week have absolutely blended together, after the week prior being fairly unexceptional in terms of releases. That is not the case now though. Starting with Tyler the Creator releasing Chromakopia on Monday morning, up to the multitude of songs and albums that came out November 1st, there’s much to talk about. Without further ado though, let’s start with Tyler!
We Have to Talk About Chromakopia.
Chromakopia by Tyler the Creator
What an album! I will immediately preface with my opinion that this is not the best album of the year. What it is however, is the most important album of the year. Tyler the Creator is a true theatrical artist, so when he does a rollout you will know about it. Chromakopia is yet another crowning achievement of Tyler’s career, continuing with the frankly generational run he’s been on starting with WOLF back in 2013. Chromakopia makes a sustained effort to almost go more so into R&B esque sounds for a lot of the more meaningful songs; the Hey Jane’s, Darling I’s, Take Your Mask Off, special mention needs to be given to Like Him, and a number of others fit that R&B niche. The other half of the album however is made up of some straight bangers. Rah Tah Tah, Sticky, Balloon AND OHHHH MAN Thought I Was Dead is genuinely one of my favorite Tyler verses. Chromakopia manages to strike a very delicate balance between the sort of songs you could bump at sporting events, play at parties, turn up to in general, and some real introspective sad stuff. Like Him is a song that hits exponentially hard if you’re familiar with the story of Tyler’s absentee father, and anyone else with daddy issues I am sure was absolutely sobbing at that track. Darling, I brings in Teezo Touchdown for a very groovy, clearly Neptunes/Pharell inspired track, being one of the grooviest ones that I’ve been deeply enjoying. I would also be remiss if I didn’t talk about Noid. Probably my second favorite song with that exact title, shout out Yves Tumor. The song heavily samples Nizaka Panga Ngozi by Ngozi Family, a Zambian funk group, who’s original has a number of lyrics relating to the sanctity of one’s own home. I might not be completely right on that though, so someone please check behind me. Either way, it was a strong single to start off with. The album is imperfect in my opinion though. I must admit, I don’t care for Judge Judy. I see why people like it, and I don’t hate it, but it just doesn’t work as well as a number of the other songs on the album. Balloon also doesn’t do it for me. Doechii is one of the most fascinating female rappers out right now, I’ve been following since Crazy. This performance didn’t do it for me. The album is great though, and any album with extended discussions of someone’s parental relationship will hit me right in the feels. If you’ve been putting this one off, you should listen to it. It’s worth the time investment, and if not a lot of the individual tracks hit sooooo!
The Other Album You Should Care About
Songs Of A Lost World by The Cure
The Cure hurt my feelings. I don’t say that to mean that the album is bad, this album is everything but, but these songs just make me sad. The Cure is (in my opinion) at their best when they’re going all in on the moody and the dramatic. When Alone, the first single for this album, came out, I likened it to the tracks of the Disintegration era, and A Fragile Thing I also described similarly to the more pop-y tracks on the album (as much as you could describe something like Lullaby as pop.) This album works as a continuation of that era. When The Cure released their self titled album in 2004, and 4:13 Dream in 2008, they seemed to audiences (and to a lesser extent, critics) like the beginning of a fall of, with them working with Limp Bizkit (and other)’s producer Ross Robinson. It’s not as good. Underneath the Stars is a really nice song, but I wouldn’t blame anyone for thinking it was the last great song from Robert Smith and co. This album knocks that out of the water though. Both of the singles are absolutely superb, so I won’t retread what I already said about them. New standout tracks from the album are I think best exemplified by Warsong and Endsong. This is not The Cure’s definitive album, but it would be a more then acceptable swan song. Robert Smith, you’ve done enough, I hope you can find some peace because lord knows you need it.
The Singles You Should Care About
x-ray eyes by LCD Soundsystem
Okay fine. I’m biased, I’m a LCD Soundsystem superfan, and it’s not a profound song about the merits of human life. It’s not genre boundary pushing. I don’t care. It’s a return to form for them, bearing a decent amount of sonic similarity to songs of the self titled days, and being ready for dance clubs more then for sitting down and analyzing. This song makes me excited about what the next album might be, and how it’ll build on the sonic history that LCD Soundsystem’s nearly 20 year career has been. This one is admittedly not as good as New Body Rhumba though, I’ll concede that one at least.
What Have You Done To Me? by Imogen Heap
Only found about this the day that I was putting everything for this article together, and that fact appalls me. Imogen Heap doing what seems to be a teaser single for a new album, with a distinctly darker direction and no one is talking about this? How. How is this possibly flying under the radar. The new track is great by the way. Picking up in the sonic footsteps Grimes has been occupying the past few years, this new track is a decidedly darker and edgier take on the Imogen Heap sound, with her angelic vocals leading through the track nevertheless. If this is what I can be expecting for anything else she’s putting out soon, then I am ecstatic and hoping she gets it out before end of the year so I can put it on that list.
Delusional by Ken Carson
It’s an alright Ken Carson song. Off of the strength of A Great Chaos and it’s deluxe, I expected more from the X Man. This song is not bad by any means, but it doesn’t do it for me in the same way that something like overseas does. If this is what we should be expecting for More Chaos then I worry about that album.
Past, Present, and Future Tense
What’s This Again?
If you aren’t already familiar, this section exists because I value keeping a lookout for what’s coming out soon (or super recently, depending on time of publication) but I also desire to add a section at the tail end where we talk about something from months, years, or even decades past that has either been something I’ve personally been very deeply enjoying since the last installment, or has been seeing renewed interest. I have one song I really would like to talk about, and then we’ll get into stuff to keep your eyes peeled for, and finally everyone can go home.
RTJ4 by Run The Jewels
Everything that needs to be said about this album can be summed up by the fact that it came out in June of 2020. Unfortunately, it’s just as timely now as it was back then. I cannot vocalize the anger I feel at the fact that I will be entering and leaving high school staring down the barrel of a Trump administration. Rear View Mirrors or Windshield, doesn’t matter. He’s still here, America is still messed up. Do you need music to vent your frustrations about what we all just witnessed? It’s right here. Check out the whole Run The Jewels discography if I’m being frank. Sorry this is short, but everything I need to say this album says for itself.
Wrap Up
What I’m Not Talking About
So I missed a few releases because I ran out of time or they were somewhat randomly dropped.
- Punish by Ethel Cain is a single I am leaving to someone who is reading this line and knows what they must do. I am not a distinct expert in Cain’s work, and what this is saying now is for her to describe.
- Merci, Non Merci by El Cousteau. I might talk about this one next week, as El Cousteau is one of the most interesting rappers out of the DC metro area right now, and his song with Earl Sweatshirt might end up at the top of my wrapped even though it’s been out for a few days.
- Night Palace by Mount Eerie. I didn’t have the emotional resilience for a new Mount Eerie album, especially not after the election. I can’t take it. I might get back to it and if I do you’ll hear my feelings, and if it’s good enough it’ll be on my year end list.
Wrapping Up the Wrap Up
Oh Man! So next week is pretty exciting looking album wise with Fimiguerrorero dropping a new project with Lancey Foux and Len and that’s probably gonna go hard judging by the singles. We’re also getting new Ab-Soul, and it’s always exciting to get new work from anyone who was in Black Hippy. Apart from that, seems to be pretty quiet. Somewhat lucky for me, since I still have much to catch up on and I still haven’t heard the Schoolboy Q album from earlier this year and I wanna be ready for a new Kendrick Lamar album. A girl can dream.
Thanks for reading this, hold it together everyone, signing off until next week.