Sunday Jamz | Shak | Album Review | Slowdive - Slowdive (2017)

'I wanna feel it'

Shoegaze juggernauts Slowdive release their first full length studio album in twenty two years, and after two singles I felt lukewarm on, I was unsure what to expect.

In terms of the sound, Slowdive embrace their indie roots here more potently than on any of their previous releases. The tempos and rhythms feel a lot faster and punchier than on an album like Souvlaki and the songs structures are a lot more straightforward than an album like Pygmalion. At the very least, this album succeeds in carving a unique identity within their back-catalogue, and so a fault one cannot push on this album is that it is a band trying to desperately grasp onto and reproduce their past.

There are moments on this album where they utilise this slightly more upbeat approach to create songs that are affectionate, catchy and colourfully rhythmic. Slomo, for example, features huge ascending and descending guitar wails and beautifully arranged vocals that sit on top of a slightly more up-tempo and fun drum beat than one you may have heard on previous albums. But the tender, dissolving beauty is not sacrificed here and is still ever-present, especially at moments like the harmonising between Neil and Rachel, showing their vocals are still able to blend and bleed into each other to create mesmerising sounds.

However, there are songs that move away from their old sounds at the expense of the glistening delicacy and emotive force. The lead single, Star Roving, has a clearer and more rhythmic dream pop sound than the smothering shoegaze of their early days. The riff is very discernible, and it seems the guitars are used less as bastions for brick walls of sounds and slightly more for their common rock and pop usage. Also, again the song has a distinct groove. In this though, there is a lack of that sonic singularity and feeling of oneness that songs on Souvlaki achieved so well. For example, tracks like Machine Gun and Souvlaki Space Station would smother you with blissful melodies, whereas a song like Star Roving lacks the towering stature of sound to do that. Because of this, the overwhelming, drowning emotion of those older songs are lost, and I find myself more detached in feeling. Similarly, Don’t Know Why has an even more bouncier feel, speeding up the pace even further in the verses. Luckily this song is redeemed by slower breaks where Rachel’s voice can bask in the ocean of reverb, and I can let it wash over me rather than jump around me. There is also a fragment of the song that Neil champions, again slower, and more able to stimulate some sentimentality in me.

The lowest point of this album, Sugar for the Pill, although does not suffer from the distracting bounciness, feels almost cheesy in its delivery of sensitivity. The riff is a pleasant aspect of the track, itself being very intimate. However, Neil’s performance lacks the vulnerability of a song like Dagger. Perhaps it is in the writing of the melodies, or perhaps it is an aged voice, either way, something here is missing. And although No More Making Time has a sombre and haunting riff, the chorus feels overly simple and full of beating chords which detracts from the soft emotional touch that their style and their voices are complimented by.

Luckily, the album goes out on two high notes. Go Get It finally packs an emotional punch with the ‘I wanna see it, I wanna feel it’ trade-off soaring amongst the various refrains on the project. What’s more, there is a noticeable depth and earthiness to the drums here, and a brilliant moment in the latter portions of the song where Neil’s voice drops to its lowest register and groans on top of some primal percussion. Following from this, the album closer has a delicate piano and soft guitar coupling, which gradually increases in layers, conjuring a building intensity until they produce a climactic duality. This is the album’s most touching and sweet moment undoubtedly.

As a reviewer, I have committed the cardinal sin, I spent much of the review comparing it to their ‘glory days’. However, those signature shoegaze ethereal walls of sound are still here (albeit less prominent), as are Neil and Rachel and their heavily effect-ridden voices. The components are much the same, and so I feel the comparisons are warranted. Although most of the songs have some redeemable quality somewhere, I find myself distracted by an unmatched energy on this album, and overall less emotionally impacted as I would have hoped.  

Highlights: Slomo, Go Get It, Falling Ashes
Lowlights: Sugar for the Pill

Rating: 6.5/10

Sunday Jamz | Shak | Album Blog | May

BLOG UPDATE: A lot of things on my plate lately so i'm going to have to put the blog on-hold.

So, I listen to quite a lot of albums. Usually I try to listen to around one a day, and naturally after every one I usually have a bunch of thoughts. I've now decided to start sharing these thoughts. For the most part, this is so I can refine my ability in writing about music through as much practice as I can get, but also largely because i'd hope others may share their thoughts on an album they have listened to as well, as this is something I always find interesting.

Anyway, I will be preserving these album blogs as a place where I share a few thoughts on all the albums I listen to. These are NOT reviews, any album I review I will listen to multiple times. Think of this as a diary, just a few lines of thought after the first listen and a reactionary score out of ten. Sometimes I will do a little update later on too, if I have a big change of opinion after a few more listens. The full reviews I will save for the Sunday Jamz Youtube channel and also some full written reviews outside of that, but this will very likely only be for 2017 releases. These immediate thoughts will be for any and every album I listen to, from any year and in any genre. 


Here is the album blog from April: http://sundayjamz.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/sunday-jamz-shak-album-log.html

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Artist: XXXtentacion

Album: Revenge

Genre: Trap Rap / Alternative R&B / Hip Hop / Post-Hardcore / Electropop
Year of Release: 2017

On First Listen (21st May 2017): Internet rap sensation XXXtentacion has a compilation released, and it seems to be a mix of older and newer tracks. It kicks off with the artist’s most known song, Look at Me! The song has a blistering, distorted and haunted beat and a delivery that builds in aggression throughout. It’s characterised most by its tight rhythmic flow and cadence in the earlier part, which is a testament to the potential catchiness of a rap verse. The next track, I Don’t Wanna Do This Anymore, is another fan favourite of X’s, as he sings a crude ode of love to some subject in contemporary R&B style over some soothing, reverb-drenched moans.

After this we get to less familiar territory, with songs that have not gained as much acclaim and traction as the two openers. Looking for a Star seems like X’s clear attempt at making a trendy banger, as Diplo produces a house-inspired electropop instrumental, however X does manage to blemish this with some weirder, more abrasive sound effects which pop up later in the song. Valentine is a very forgettable, cloudy mix of R&B and what sounds like Post-grunge, alongside questionably mixed vocals. King tries to capture the Post-Hardcore sound of the 2000s but does so with poor production and no real uniqueness, also whilst mirroring the melodrama that much of those bands suffered from. Slipknot aims to capture the sound of 1990s East Coast Hip Hop, and does a pretty decent job. Yung Bratz is reminiscent of Tyler, The Creator’s tracks Tina and Bitch Suck Dick, an annoying, obnoxiously loud joke track which serves as just an annoying detour from the music. And finally, RIP Roach is taken from the closing track of Drown-in-Designer and is a re-capturing of the kind of energy in Look at Me! just with a more forgettable, less organised verse from X. Ski Mask however easily has the stronger, as his more laid back flow provides a brilliant contrast to the (once again) loud, low-heavy, distorted production. XXXtentacion is a jack-of-all-trades but master of none on this small project, as he tries his hand in at least five different genres, but excels in none of them (with the exception of the opener, which is a notably well-written song not just for him, but for the modern Trap movement).  

Highlights: Look at Me!, I Don't Wanna Do This Anymore, Slipknot

Lowlights: King, Yung Bratz

Rating: 6.5/10

Artist: Oneohtrix Point Never

Album: Returnal

Genre: Progressive Electronic / Ambient
Year of Release: 2010

On First Listen (20th May 2017): Oneohtrix Point Never paints vivid pictures of sparse, unknown world with electronics like no other. For a large portion of this album Daniel creates spacious, eerie and towering fields of sound with space-y synths and unsettling vocal snippets. However, Returnal begins with a change of pace, as Nil Admirari delivers a sound more like Noise. The galaxy Lopatin puts us in here is abrasive and treacherous, with what starts as subtle screams swallowed by the music but ends up as bellowing, pained vocal loops sitting on top of piercingly high synths. Then we get a move to Describing Bodies, which feels more like quintessential Oneohtrix in this era. Light keys float around in the huge hum and echoing ring. These first two tracks create a brilliant juxtaposition overall. Stress Waves seems oddly similar to the prior track, with a likeness in the low-end bedding of the track. However, it replaces the heavenly high rings with two sets of keys in different registers which bounce off one another, making for a less sedated experience. This for me may have just been poorly placed by virtue of its similarity, and may have worked better as a reprise of the sound later on.

Much of the rest of the album consists of looping sounds which rarely evolve or progress. Much of it feels like a glitch in space-time, as sound represents the nature of cyclicality. The song Returnal achieves this in methods somewhat unusual to Lopatin of this era, as he brings the contorted vocal samples to the forefront and has a much bolder and more defined synth lead than the prior songs. This album succeeds, for the most part, in what it wants to do, in creating these scenes of static, orbiting experiences. And the closing track, Preyouandi, echoes the sentiment even further as the project loops back to its first point with another busy, harsh atmosphere. This album perhaps lacks some sort of flare in idea, similar to Zones Without People. Nevertheless, on no level does it fail, it just does not exceed my neutral expectation of this point in Lopatin’s career. I believe he went on to significantly expand his musical scope from Replica onwards.   

Highlights: Nil Admirari, Describing Bodies, Returnal, Ouroboros

Lowlights: None

Rating: 7.0/10

Artist: Buckethead

Album: Population Override

Genre: Jazz-Fusion / Progressive Rock / Jam Band

Year of Release: 2004

On First Listen (18th May 2017): Buckethead’s twelve studio album (which for Buckethead, is a very early point in his career) is one that attempts to craft and mould what is essentially a jam into a cohesive and emotive experience, and to a significant extent, he succeeds. We kick off with a very Jazz Fusion-style track. The keyboards maintain a prominent funk atmosphere whilst the loud bass guitar and lead guitar dance over the percussion in a Jazz-like intricacy. The next few songs then follow a fairly strict order. Too Many Humans has at its helm a more emotional playing style from Buckethead, all the while the drums fill the base with some rolling hi-hats to keep the percussion light. Technicality and sentimentality can often be a tightrope, where an artist can trip into indulgence and snobbery and lose all emotion they were trying to convey, but Buckethead avoids this pitfall. The spacious guitar and the moaning keyboard notes which hold and then scatter are all great ways of manipulating the tempo to mirror the experience of sadness. The next song picks up again, and then after that we have a little, beautiful guitar interlude in Humans Vanish, and then the next song is another softer moment. The first seven tracks resemble a wave, peaking and falling in energy. In one sense, it shows Buckethead’s careful plotting of track procession, but in another sense, the idea seems worn out by the time we get to Earth Heals Itself. The static track progression leads to a mechanical feeling, like a machine who only transitions between two activities.

Following this, the rest of the tracks decide to stay in this softer dimension, however do not necessarily explore it in much newer ways. Although on a song like Clones he is successful in conjuring the feeling that he wants to invoke from the listener, he was invoking this very same feeling more potently in earlier songs like Cruel Reality of Nature. On this earlier song, he uses a lack of percussion to wonderfully accent an isolation and vulnerability, and every softer moment following this cannot really live up. The final two tracks are very unusual. Super Human is a lull moment but rather than a serious low-energy emotion, this seems to aim for a more easy-going, relaxing vibe, which seems very misplaced here. And finally, …, although certainly enjoyable, is essentially a solo guitar tribute to seventies hard rock music. And thus, bizarrely, an album that was so heavily calculated in its structure in the earlier half, becomes very unusual in its last quarter, with songs feeling slightly out of place.

This album has its merits: Buckethead must be given praise for his playing, synergy with his fellow musicians and his ability to translate feeling without words (which is a difficult skill). However, some tracks feel as if they did not belong, and others felt like they added nothing new that earlier parts of the album had not already explored.   

Highlights: Unrestrained Growth, Too Many Humans, Humans Vanish, Cruel Reality of Nature

Lowlights: Earth Heals Herself, Super Human

Rating: 7.0/10

Artist: Mac DeMarco

Album: 2

Genre: Indie Folk / Jangle Pop / Psychedelic Pop / Singer-Songwriter

Year of Release: 2012

On First Listen (15th May 2017): 2 is perhaps the most unlikely riff fest of an album you will ever come across. Whilst Demarco’s overall monotony has a certain simple charm, and whilst the moments where he finally breaks from that are satisfying, his glaring talent is in his guitar work. Cooking Up Something Good is led by a funky and memorable riff, and beneath that Demarco arranges layers of guitar to compliment. A song like Ode to Viceroy creates a great contrast through a call-and-response between Demarco’s deadpan vocals and bright, sunny guitars in the refrain. And then on Freaking Out the Neighborhood, we get what I would argue is his highest point of playing. The riff to kick the track off is exceptional, and it can take the spotlight atop of the unassuming, light percussive tambourine and drums and Demarco’s equally modest singing (although we do see his vocal capabilities in this song also, especially in his delivery of the line ‘starts freaking out the neighborhood’). Demarco champions versatility with funky, jangly rhythms, folky chord progressions, psychedelic atmosphere and soaring lead work, a diversity one may not expect in a singer/songwriter/indie style, and as such feels fresh and innovative in his genre.

The album seems to lull in the latter half though, as the guitar begins to take more of a backseat. My Kind of Woman does not seem to have much in the way of a memorable riff, and tries to compensate with lingering, reverb-y notes hanging in the background and a multiple-track vocal psychedelics. But what made the first half special is not here, and without those guitars, Demarco struggles to distinguish himself as a sound. Even in the purely instrumental interlude Boe Zaah, this is nowhere near his most interesting or explorative instrumentation on the project. And finally, on Still Together, although this may be a vocal highlight, the guitar work feels quite derivative with regards to his Indie Folk/Indie Pop contemporaries and predecessors. On first listen, this seems to be to be a top-heavy album, and he does not play to his song-writing strengths enough in the latter half. 

Highlights: Cooking Up Something Good, Freaking Out the Neighborhood, Ode to Viceroy, The Stars Keep On Calling My Name

Lowlights: My Kind of Woman, Boe Zaah

Rating: 7.5/10

Artist: UNKLE

Album: Psyence Fiction

Genre: Trip Hop

Year of Release: 1998

On First Listen (15th May 2017): UNKLE’s debut album is an interesting and unmissable venture in the Trip Hop sound. Although, it gets off to an awkward start, with Guns Blazing being dominated by the rapping features and not being able to truly showcase any kind of identity of UNKLE. UNKLE’s contribution to this track feels too minimal, as if they simply provided a beat for these rappers. What’s more, the rapping arrangements here could do with some tidying. It seems to me it would have made much more sense to have started the album with U.N.K.L.E. Main Title Theme. However, one recurring signature which we do see here and we also see manifested and developed throughout is the exploration of drum sampling. The brash and bold snare hits feel reminiscent of the 80s Hip Hop drum sound. The drums continue this but also begin to evolve throughout the track-list. Bloodstain is a high point for the drums, as they transform throughout, throwing in different loops and patterns to accompany guitar cuts and menacing keyboards. By doing this, UNKLE create a more natural and organic sound than their contemporaries, comparable almost to live band instrumentation. In The Knock, Mike D is able to encapsulate and reflect the character of the drums with his signature 80s rapping style. All the while, UNKLE creates a darker world for Mike D to inhabit, and thus we have the two artists pushing each other and creating a highlight.

Where this album gets very hit-and-miss is in the features. Features such as the perfectly placed Mike D and the emotionally fierce Richard Ashcroft work to help diversify the experience of the album but maintain UNKLE’s atmosphere. Thom Yorke also, who always suits more discordant arrangements, spearheads the ominous and unusual Rabbit in Your Headlights, with oddball compositions and unpredictable song progression. However, Alice Temple seems somewhat flat on Bloodstain, luckily for her the production is stellar enough to pick the song up, and more vocals come in towards the end of the track to bring the missing emotion to surface. For that reason, I would still consider it a high-point. Badly Drawn Boy on the other hand, have an irredeemable contribution to the album, as they deliver an emotionally vapid vocal section over a total mess of a song which basically amounts to an overly-loud loop of harsh guitar and erratic drums. Another weak and unfocused track is Chaos, which seems to have no bearing on the rest of the project, as Atlantique provides an acoustic ballad-style song. Both tracks seem to not fit into or reflect any kind of over-arching idea of the album, and merely serve as tangents of an otherwise cohesive project. It proves even more questionable when we see that UNKLE can shine on their own, like in the layered and exciting Celestial Annihilation, in which they display manipulations of vocals and samples in an original and captivating way. With perhaps a rethinking of the features, the track ordering and which tracks even made the final cut, then this could have been a really great album. On first listen however, I’m not too sure I can go as far as to call it that. Nevertheless, this album intrigued me and perhaps its low and middling points will grow on me.

Highlights: U.N.K.L.E. Main Title Theme, Bloodstain, Lonely Soul, Celestial Annihilation, The Knock (Drums of Death Pt. 2), Rabbit in Your Headlights
Lowlights: Nursery Rhyme / Breather, Chaos

Rating: 7.5/10

Artist: Steve Roach

Album: Structures from Silence

Genre: Ambient / Space Ambient

Year of Release: 1984

On First Listen (12th May 2017): Steve Roach’s Structures from Silence creates a sound which feels as vast as the cosmos. His music here travels to the peaks of heaven, using keyboards and synths to mirror the orchestral strings of paradise. This is in every song, blistering electronic bliss staying always in the high notes and submerging the listener in some form of sonic purity. However, accompanying this on the first track is a shady spot. Reflections in Suspension is populated by a darker, more ominous synth. It runs through the veins of the piece, never allowing the immaculate comfort that the lighter synths tease. And to me, therefore Reflections in Suspension is the most potent and most effective of the three tracks. The atmosphere is complex and almost paradoxical, like the eternal space he seeks to photograph. This alien, melancholic, existential synth lingers always, and in doing this, creates a unique and even more powerful muddied beauty. A beauty that can speak to the bleaker emotions.

Another moment of this occurs on the latter portion of Quiet Friend, the angelic section maintains but is met by a dark but delicate, galactic synth lead. Until this point though, which is not until around the eight-minute mark, the song feels more unified in its positive sound. And Structures from Silence, the title and final track, is entirely in these higher, more optimistic spaces. Structures from Silence has a pulsing, droning beauty, but lacks the lower frequencies to round the sound off like the album opener. As an album where atmosphere and feeling is paramount, the submergence in atmosphere and emotional stimulation I feel is unfortunately uneven on this project. For this reason, I could not claim to love it like I do some other ambient records, but it still is faultless in execution and a pleasant listen. 

Highlights: Reflections in Suspension
Lowlights: None

Rating: 7.5/10

Artist: Arca

Album: Arca

Genre: Glitch Pop / Latin Electronic

Year of Release: 2017

On First Listen (10th May 2017): My first experience with Arca is a unique and exciting one. Arca creates a distinct universe of his own through this album, one that thrive on bright flickers amongst an eternal ominous space. Another unique thing about this experience is the oddball electronic soundscapes being clashed together with his native vocals. Anoche in particular explores this mix, employing what sounds like maracas to accompany his singing, emphasising what is already a vocally intensive song, and highlighting the sharp contrast even more. This whole project in fact is very centred his vocal performance, with a loud mix demanding listener’s attention. So naturally, one of the high points on the album, Desafio, is special through a vocal performance that rises above much of the rest. The vocals here are softer, higher and bleed into the background very nicely, all the while still winning your concentration. However, interestingly, my highest point on this album is the instrumental track Urchin. Much of the composition here is stellar, with the huge bass filling the floor of the song, and the creative implementation of the melodic release points at the end of each bar. The sound in this track is expansive, whilst still maintaining the very dark and spacious core of the album.

This album is very consistent, but unfortunately, I could only describe as consistently good, rather than consistently great. There seems to be a lack of distinction here. This may be just because it is an album that must be listened to many times to really stick, but on first listen I cannot give it an abundance of praise. Whilst there are small variations, like the more traditional (but still heavily manipulated) lead piano in Coraje or the memorable and menacing synth lead in Miel, most of this album seems to blend together. As a whole, it is successful, but when reduced to its parts, much of it does not stand out amongst the rest. 

Highlights: Urchin, Reverie, Desafio, Miel
Lowlights: None

Rating: 7.5/10

Artist: Del the Funky Homosapien

Album: I Wish My Brother George Was Here

Genre: West Coast Hip Hop / Funk 

Year of Release: 1991

On First Listen (9th May 2017):  Eccentric rapper Del the Funky Homosapien released his debut solo album I Wish My Brother George Was Here in 1991. Although related to Ice Cube, his sound and, more specifically content diverged greatly from the likes of his cousin. Del manages to create captivating raps about much more every day phenomena, weaving observatory but non-intensive narratives together. A notable example of this being The Wacky World of Rapid Transit, where Del explores the insignificant struggle of waiting for and then travelling on a bus, all the while making the listener wholly engaged as if it was something much more eventful and exciting. And then again later, Del does a similar thing Sleepin’ On My Couch. However, Del still dedicates a track to delving into the street life on Hoodz Come in Dozens, however takes more of a commentary approach than perhaps the first-person style of a rapper like Ice Cube. In doing this, he provides a valuable and unique perspective onto the world and, accompanied by a funky, bouncing beat and a great four-bar beat switch in the second verse, creates a clear highlight on the album. The production on this album is responsible for many of the high points. Mistadobalina has powerful, booming drums and perfectly funk-inspired guitar licks all over, which combines with the brilliant hook and flawless delivery by Del to emerge as the clear peak of the album. Also, Pissin’ On Your Steps has bright and colourful production, again utilising the vintage, energetic guitar sounds and this time it is merged with soulful vocal samples to embellish it even further.  

However, the album has very low lows unfortunately. Dark Skin Girls, is ill-thought out, tacky and has lyrical themes that border on ignorant discrimination. Also, the subtle tongue-in-cheek vibe cannot compensate for the so poorly constructed and irritating hook. Money for Sex is also tackily handled with shallow, pseudo-intellectual lyrical themes. Combine this with a few other songs around the album’s middle that are only decent, and this album falls short of maintaining the consistency of its early, towering moments. 

Highlights: Mistadobalina, The Wacky World of Rapid Transit, Pissin' On Your Steps, Hoodz Come in Dozens 
Lowlights: Dark Skin Girls, Money For Sex

Rating: 7.0/10

Artist: Gorillaz

Album: Plastic Beach

Genre: Electropop / Hip Hop 

Year of Release: 2010

On First Listen (8th May 2017): Plastic Beach is Gorillaz’ most other-worldly album, but also their most funky and most sunny. This is showcased immediately with Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach, which has a great funk=inspired bass and drum section with Snoop delivering sporadic ad-lib style contributions, all of which steer clear from anything that might sound too earthly. And as with usual Gorillaz fashion, straight away the eclecticism is on full show. The next track is very different to what we begin with, as White Flag blends together an unlikely pair of UK Hip Hop and Classical. This album, and Gorillaz in general, tend to put rappers on unorthodox, beats, but when this is done successfully, the rappers feel very much transported to the worlds that exist in this fictional universe. The greatest moment of this for me is undoubtedly Superfast Jellyfish, that features a very bright and fun instrumental section, with playful keys and De La Soul delivering a lively and light-hearted rap to match. However, there are points in this album where this does not work quite as well, as both of Mos Def’s features are questionable. The first, Stylo, is him being underused and the second, Sweepstakes, containing this grating, repetitive refrain, a messiness and, ironically, perhaps a little too much Mos Def.

 2D (Albarn) has many fantastic moments on this project. Lots of vocal layering and texture in Empire Ants bolsters up 2D’s already beautifully toned performance. Also, the brilliantly catchy hook in Broken and the tenderness and innocence on display in On Melancholy Hill and the bouncy, raw and unpolished falsettos in Plastic Beach.

Unfortunately, this album has spots of weakness, like the Mos Def songs mentioned above and the directionless instrumental interlude of Glitter Freeze. Cloud of Unknowing also feels somewhat out of place, as it seems to want to capitalise on its late position on the album with a slower, more epic atmosphere but comes off more as lacking ideas and unengaging.  What’s more, Bobby Womack does not seem to be able to capture the same mood and feeling that has shined through this album. At least however, Pirate Jet brings us back into the right vibe with unusual imagery like ‘we left the taps running for a hundred year’ and some signature space-y synths.

Overall, this project is a good project and a testament to Gorillaz’ unwavering form at the time of this release. However, now I would say it falls somewhat short of their self-titled album and Demon Days. But the experience was undeniably very enjoyable, and I see this album only gaining fondness over time.

Highlights: Superfast Jellyfish, Empire Ants, On Melancholy Hill, Broken, Plastic Beach
Lowlights: Glitter Freeze, Sweepstakes, Cloud of Unknowing

Rating: 7.5/10

Artist: Have a Nice Life

Album: Deathconsciousness

Genre: Shoegaze / Post-Rock / Post-Punk 

Year of Release: 2008

On First Listen (6th May 2017): Have A Nice Life create a work that is eclectic at its core, exploring a variety of genres and ideas on this project. At many points on this album, the characteristics of Shoegaze are brought out and exceptionally handled. For example, the drowned out and smothered vocals in The Big Gloom. However, they contrast this with a clearer, rockier riff and an unusual drum sound that feels somewhere in the distance. Another defining Shoegaze moment is the opener that employs a constant ethereal hum and huge waves of perhaps electric guitars, washed in reverb, that come and go, painting the vivid picture of a time coming in and fading away. However, there is an abundance of moments on this album stray quite clearly away from this. Black Metal Records for example, has a heavy rock form with a hard and memorable riff paired with a soaring presence in the vocals. Also a song like Telephony, with the post-punk, Joy Division-esque atmosphere. And even within songs, we find sharp turns in sound, such as in the song Holy Fucking Shit: 40,000, which begins very intimately with just the vocals and an acoustic guitar, almost reminiscent of a folk song. But the song progresses into a much harder rock sound, with electric guitars and pounding drums that burst through to take centre stage.

This album even fluctuates in volume and mixing. Songs like I Don’t Love fill the entire room with beautifully abrasive and overwhelming clusters of sound, whilst other songs like Telephony keep their jangly guitars and rhythmic drums to a quiet level. You have songs with huge bass, like the earth-shaking There Is No Food.  Also songs where vocals are booming but quite indiscernible like Who Would Leave Their Son out in the Sun? and others where they are much clearer but also quieter, like the dazzling, soft beginnings of Hunter. There is truly too much to say about this album that I can hope to sum up in a couple paragraphs after a single listen, but this is a great album that I will be absolutely returning to. I only have two small gripes, one is that whilst this album overall is strong, and every song is very good if not great, there’s only a couple moments that manage to astound me, the most notable one being Hunter, with its fantastic ending refrain, building atmosphere and explosive distorted peak. However, this may just be a first impression thing, I think many other songs may well hit me in this same way in the future. My other gripe, controversially, is the ender. For such an explorative and unpredictable album, Earthmover feels like simply a mix of Shoegaze with a drawn out Post-Rock crescendo. For now, I am missing the magic of this track, and although it is good, it is my weakest moment.

Highlights: A Quick One Before the Eternal Worm Devours Connecticut, Hunter, There Is No Food, Waiting for Black Metal Records to Come in the Mail, Holy Fucking Shit: 40,000, I Don't Love
Lowlights: Earthmover

Rating: 8.5/10

Artist: Grimes

Album: Visions

Genre: Synthpop / Experimental Pop / Electropop

Year of Release: 2012

On First Listen (5th May 2017): Grimes showcases her experiments with pop clearly here. Her versatility of synths, layering of vocals and overall challenging yet pop-bound composition is all on display. We see the poppy bounciness in the playful pianos and dance beat of a song like Genesis, but on top of this, Grimes creates a textured, ethereal image with her vocals. And although perhaps this song may have benefited from a more immediately catchy and mesmerising use of refrains, this is not a problem on most of the album. Oblivion has very heavenly and catchy vocal arrangements through the verses and a chorus that, although doesn’t burst away from the song, is very memorable. The way Grimes handles her vocals in general undoubtedly takes the spotlight on this album. A song like Visiting Statue for example, has a masterful use of vocal multi-layering, as you hear the different vocal tracks play off each other on top of a glitch-y, but fun dance-able groove. And then later, on a song like Skin, we hear some astonishing falsetto beauty as Grimes exercises the range and capabilities of her voice. She also manages to create multiple hypnotic refrains throughout, an example being the ‘see you on a dark night’ moment in Oblivion, or ‘I'ma, ready to say, I'ma working to the bone all day’ in Circumambient.

There are a few lull moments on this album though. Eight seems rather pointless, with the tacky robotic voice samples, although on it she delivers a very high register, almost traditional Asian-sounding vocal performance on this song, which gives it at least some appeal. Also tracks like Symphonia IX and Nightmusic seem to lack any sort of catchiness, and Nightmusic especially feels a little too laid back in its execution. I do not think these kinds of songs compliment what she excels at, namely her incredible vocal soundscapes and expansions on pop principles. The album ends on a high note however, with a perfect showcase of these talents through vocal tracks that were presented all over the album being brought once again to the forefront, and leaving a reminder in the listener’s mind that she has a towering skill in this avenue of sound. As it stands, I don’t think I prefer it to Art Angels, as Art Angels seems to have less weak tracks. Although, Art Angels grew on me over time and even went up a score, and this may well too. 

Highlights: Oblivion, Circumambient, Visiting Statue, Skin, Know The Way

Lowlights: Eight, Symphonia IX, Nightmusic 

Rating: 7.5/10

Artist: Slowdive

Album: Slowdive

Genre: Dream Pop / Indie Pop / Shoegaze

Year of Release: 2017

Full review here: http://sundayjamz.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/sunday-jamz-shak-album-review-slowdive.html

Artist: Travis Scott

Album: Rodeo

Genre: Trap Rap / Experimental Hip Hop

Year of Release: 2015

On First Listen (3rd May 2017): Travis Scott shows on Rodeo that he clearly has the artistic edge on many of his direct contemporaries. Much of the loud production and song progressions and deviations give the album and experimental flavour. Rodeo is at its best however when it manages to fuse this with the safe sonic appeal of Trap, catchy hooks and addictive melodic arrangements. Nightcrawler uses a piercing alarm sample in the earlier portion with various layers of synth added throughout the song, and brilliant verse from Chief Keef, all the while maintaining a catchy chorus, something Scott is a master of crafting. Oh My Dis Side is a song of two distinct parts, and he uses his musical curiosity to play with his hook in the first part, shifting pitch and register with the repetition of ‘oh my’. In doing this, he encapsulates the strength of the album, using something so emblematic of the Trap genre, but playing with it to make it far away from the norm. Antidote serves as the height of this fusion, with lots of vocal warping, and quiet lulls in the beat, all the while using constantly intoxicating vocal arrangements underpinning the raps in the verse and one of the strongest hooks on the album. 90120 is another positive, although for quite a different reason. The Kanye West influence is evident all over this, with the first half having the electronic spark of 808s and Heartbreak and the second half with the nostalgic-feeling, sentimental samples you may find on The College Dropout or Late Registration. Underlined by a hard snare drum beat more reminiscent of classic Hip Hop.

On some of the tracks however, the ambition of Scott seems wasted. Ironically, this seems evident most on Wasted. A weak feature from Juicy J and lack of a remarkable chorus leaves the song quickly forgettable. Pray 4 Love delivers another underwhelming guest performance, with The Weeknd being lost in the heavy effects of the hook, and giving a below part verse when he is finally audible for his outro verse. 3500 also did not go down completely positive with me, feeling overly-long due to the dragging, disappointing verse of 2 Chainz, which If axed, would have made for a much stronger song.

Rodeo is a mixture of an artistic push of Trap Rap, an embrace of Scott’s influences (most obviously Kanye West and Drake) and a desire to still be entertaining on a simpler level. It succeeds in parts and on certain songs, and fails or under-performs on others. On first listen, the magic has not hit me as hard as some, and this album strikes me as perhaps somewhat overrated, but I am curious to how I will feel after more.

Highlights: Oh My Dis Side, 90210, Nightcrawler, Piss On Your Grave, Antidote

Lowlights: Wasted, Pray 4 Love 

Rating: 6.5/10

Artist: Black Tape for a Blue Girl

Album: Remnants of a Deeper Purity

Genre: Neoclassical Darkwave / Dark Ambient

Year of Release: 1996

On First Listen (2nd May 2017): This album has two very distinct sounds and two very separate takes on the Darkwave genre. The four three and a half tracks embody the Neoclassical edge to Darkwave. Redefine Pure Faith makes a success of this sound, using the bleeding violins, operatic backing vocals and a spoken word shadow to bolster the dramatic vocals. This song feels like the darker moments of classical pieces captured and expanded, where atmosphere is paramount. Unfortunately, the next two and a half songs do not do the same level of justice to the idea. Fin De Siècle has a very beautiful ominous drone that fills the back of the song, but at the front the female vocals here don’t hold me with the same captivation. Although they sound blissful and angelic when in the falsetto registers, the vocal arrangements in the lengthy lull periods feel uncreative and lacklustre. Similarly, it is the vocals again on both With My Sorrows and the first section of For You Will Burn Your Wings Upon the Sun that hold it back. In the former track the vocals again are too unassuming at their tamer, medium points, but in the latter, they feel overdone and overdramatic to the point of cheesy. The second part of For You Will Burn on the other hand, consists solely of an instrumental ensemble, creating, by the lack of vocals, a much more ambient experience, which leads nicely into the second half.

There is no doubt for me that the second half of this album is much stronger. Black Tape for a Blue Girl seem to craft Darkwave songs that are more focused on Dark Ambience better than they do the more classically inspired style. Wings Tattered, Fallen is pure atmosphere, with the harshly reverbed vocals melting into the sea of swirling ambience beneath conjured by the incredibly smoothed out string sections. This new direction is continued on Fitful with wordless moans wailing atop another bed of ambient sounds. Remnants of a Deeper Purity then throws a brilliant oddball with an acoustic-led Dark Folk track, and then following from this, we have the beautifully simple piano led interlude in Again, To Drift, and subtle vocals and a wave of vocals drawing you in on the finale. The strange thing about this album is that it has a quality that is both a great strength and flaw: these unobtrusive vocals. They seem to just feel incomplete and lacking memorability in the earlier Neoclassical section but blend perfectly in the hyper-atmospheric latter portion. 

Highlights: Redefine Pure Faith, Wings Tattered, Fallen, Fitful, Remnants of a Deeper Purity

Lowlights: Fin De Siècle, With My Sorrows 

Rating: 7.0/10

Artist: Freddie Gibbs

Album: You Only Live 2wice

Genre: West Coast Hip Hop / Gangsta Rap / Trap Rap

Year of Release: 2017

On First Listen (1st May 2017): Freddie Gibbs tries to find middle-ground between his West Coast Hip Hop roots and the modern trends of Trap on this project, all the while mixing in blemishes of soul-esque tenderness through the instrumentals and lyrics. Whilst I have no back-catalogue to compare this album to (I know, I know, I’ll listen to Piñata soon, it’s on my list), the cadences and flows on most of these songs seems an embrace of the West Coast Gangsta Rap traditions found in the 90s and early 00s. However, this contrasts with a softer take on the beats. Alexys, for example, uses perhaps an instrument as light as a xylophone as the meat of the track, accompanied by an epic beating string section. However, I am not convinced that the emotions that these production tricks attempt to bring are all that successful in relation to reflecting the content of the album. Alexys, along with many other moments and songs on the album, do not seem to have a fresh lyrical outlook on the tribulations of the street life that are so often reported on in Hip Hop, and it’s hard to find a lyric on this project which doesn’t feel very slightly stale in the larger musical context. The strength of Gibbs on this project is really with the more tonal and structural qualities of his rapping rather than the semantics. His flows are often catchy in their rhythmic patterns, and are also very diverse. A song like 20 Karat Jesus has an exposition of multiple different flows, all of which blend well. There are also two separate beats used, the earlier more ethereal one, and the later more soulful one, both of which complement the changing deliver, and thus the overall variety in this song makes it an easy highlight. Another highlight of the album for me is Amnesia, a very contemporary sounding song with a full adoption of the Trap sound. The song is bouncy and fun but also eerie, with a looped and manipulated male moan to remind the listener of the darker side of the song’s ideas.

However, as I began to state earlier, this album is plagued with weaknesses. Another glaring weakness for me is the project’s choruses. A song like Dear Maria has a painfully uninspired and basic chorus: ‘See the game, it gon' never change, Cocaine, Mary Jane, got me everythin', yeah’, which sits on top of an irritatingly busy drum section and is surrounded by slurred and awkward verse deliveries. What’s more, the singing of this chorus feels like something from the early-mid 2000s: where forced, r&b-esque sung choruses were a mandate for a marketable rap song. A similar thing can be said about Phone Lit, with a chorus that sounds so dated it could be out of a Ja Rule song. This album boasts technically proficient, exuberant and dynamic rapping, and alongside it, production that at the best of times can capture a choral-filled sentiment comparable to Kanye. But, the album is held back by an uncreative concept, a lack of powerfully resonating lyrics and choruses and a failure to hit home emotionally. Homesick makes a good attempt, but in the end just feels like a cliché ultimatum point for a semi-sensitive project.

Highlights: 20 Karat Jesus, Crushed Glass, Amnesia

Lowlights: Dear Maria, Phone Lit

Rating: 6.5/10