Review: Jens Lekman - I Know What Love Isn't

Jens Lekman has been relatively quiet since the release of his last full length, the critically acclaimed Night Falls Over Kortedala, 5 years ago. For 5 years, Lekman toured, weighed the idea of quitting music, got his heartbroken, and in September of 2011 he released a scant 5 song EP, An Argument with Myself. As he discusses in an excellent interviewfor the music blog Stereogum’s ProgressReport, during his off time the Swedish born singer songwriter reevaluated his approach to music. The end result is the album that Lekman set out not to create, the epitomic heart break album, I Know What Love Isn’t.

Over two albums and one compilation, Lekman has crafted a finite image, placing himself as Indie Music’s lovelorn troubadour. With an often witty approach, Lekman tackles the complications of human relationships while focusing most acutely on young and/or unrequited love.  Previous albums have been strongly driven by storytelling and detailed, graphic songwriting. I Know What Love Isn’t does not abandon this approach but grows from this foundation, crafting songs that build more on an idea while showcasing a concise understanding of pop songwriting.

Review: Rick Ross - God Forgives, I Don't

Rick Ross is a point of contention among Rap music fans. He has been criticized for a lack of authenticity and street credibility since 2008 when photos of a young Ross working as a correctional officer surfaced.  Those images conflict completely with the drug kingpin of Miami image that Ross has built for himself, going as far as to adopt the name and characteristics of real life Los Angeles drug trafficker “Freeway” Rick Ross. Despite the arguments of authenticity, Ross has become one of the largest figures in Rap music. With each album he has built a finite image of a luxuriant lifestyle with a cinematic scope that could easily soundtrack a film about the rise, and eventual fall, of a major cartel boss.

The two years since Rick Ross released his last album, 2010’s Teflon Don, have seen the rappers reach and presence within the game grow. His Maybach Music Group imprint label has acquired new talent, signing Ohioan backpacker Stalley, R&B singer Omarion and rapper everyman Rockie Fresh, as well as released two compilations, Self Made Vol. 1 & 2. Earlier this year MTV named Rick Ross the hottest MC on their annual list, and he released his Rich Forever mixtape to much critical acclaim. With his stock rising, Ross has capitalized on the moment and dropped a summer blockbuster of a fifth album, God Forgives, I Don’t.

Review: Joey BadA$$ - 1999

There is an oft ignored word in the discussion of Hip Hop, one that has played an important role in the rise to prominence of many an MC: hunger. There is much talk of talent, style and personality. But as Hip Hop continues to descend into monotony and artistic intentions become more fiscally focused, a truly hungry artist is a rarity (this of course is not the same hunger that motivates Action Bronson).  In 1993 Wu-Tang Clan released Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) which represented the ravenous vision of 9 emcees. During an interlude at the close of the track “Can It Be All So Simple”, Method Man, Raekwon and Ghostface Killah expound on the thesis of the Clan’s purpose citing: world domination, establishing a lasting legacy for further generations and displeasure with the current musical landscape.

All of this is an important consideration when listening to 17-year-old Brooklynite Joey BadA$$’s debut mixtape 1999. Stylistically the album harkens back to the 90’s glory days of the 5 Boroughs, combining boom-bap, do-the-wop, and East Coast grit. Lyrically BadA$$ and his featured cohorts display a consciousness that surpasses their age, taking a critical eye to their surroundings, while also displaying an array of battle tested, braggadocio drenched rhymes. Despite being born at the tail end of his influences’ prominence, 1999 sounds like an album lost in the crates and just now unearthed.

Review: The Walkmen - Heaven

What could be expected from a band on their seventh studio album? In 2004 The Walkmen released what many view as their best album; this denotation is greatly indebted to the song “The Rat”. With its rhythm section that builds a back bone from which a thunderous, blustery guitar riff that is all blown about by Hamilton Leithauser’s urgent rasp, the song came to define the band. A song that even eight years removed still closes out most Walkmen live sets, and a song that sends fans clamoring to each new record in hopes of “The Rat II”. 

However, with each release The Walkmen has become a quieter, more melodic act. The music has grown softer, as if aging gracefully along with those teenagers who were hooked with their first record in 02, Everyone Who Pretends to Like Me is Gone, or joined the band wagon in 04 (for reference I was 15 when Everyone was released). And with each album the band delves into the crates of rock history to produce a modern yet decidedly cool take on the classics. Despite the pigeon holding, The Walkmen’s  latest  album Heaven is capable of breaking the spell conjured by “The Rat”. Where Bows +  Arrows relied on bombast, angst and urgency, Heaven relies on a romantic, quiet subtlety.

Review: Twin Shadow - Confess

Preface: Much of current Indie music, and Popular Culture, is an act of self-referentialism, mining the crates and stacks of the past to create a modern product. Simon Reynolds in his 2011 book gives this phenomenon a name, Retromania which also serves as the title of the book. This practice, however, is nothing new to music. In 1963 The Kingsmen released a cover of Richard Barry’s 1955 “Louie Louie”; the song was a #1 hit for the band and arguably started the Garage Rock movement. Garage Rock as a genre is dedicated to a lo-fi recreation of 1950s Rock n’ Roll, Doo-Wop, Soul and Blues. Modern progenitors of the genre, like Jay Reatard, lean a bit more towards early Punk, which itself is an offspring of Garage Rock or Proto-Punk.

Popular culture revisiting the past comes in waves; in the early 00s it was a revitalization of Classic Rock complete with reissues of classic albums, reunion tours and a slew of new artists, like Wolfmother and Kings of Leon, who grew up on the staples of Classic Rock radio: Hard, Arena and Southern Rock. And of course there was the invasion of the The bands, like The White Stripes and The Walkmen, who mined the annals of Rock n’ Roll and Garage Rock. Newer acts, like Girls and Wavves, continue this building backwards, adding Surf Rock to the repertoire; while groups, like Best Coast and Dum Dum Girls, call to mind girl groups of the 50s and 60s.

This discussion brings us to the present landscape of Indie music and its fascination with the 80s supported by acts, like Twin Shadow and Wild Nothing; a decade just 30 years removed, but one that was vastly over mined earlier in the 00s with the popularity of VH1’s I Love the 80’s and 80’s theme parties becoming a mode du jour. The internet of course plays a large role in retromania as it allows people to forgo physical artifacts of the past and easily visit decades gone by digitally through television and cartoon shows, movies and music. This leads to a growing number being without a generation as the sign posts of one are absorbed and appropriated by another. This could lead to a black hole in Popular Culture wherein the gravity of the past pulls at the edges of the current fabric leading to what Reynolds views as a “death knell for any originality”.

Twin Shadow’s sophomore album Confess, much like its predecessor Forget, could unarguably have been released in the 80s, sitting alongside Synthpop forefathers and New Wavers. The bands sole member, George Lewis Jr., displays a genuineness in his presentation and production, gathering equal parts of Gary Numan in a dedication to the simplicity of a pop song and the synthesizer, dance inducing beats via Soft Cell, a deep emotionalism akin to Depeche Mode and at times the tone of his voice and phrasing is reminiscent of Morrissey. The finished product, again much like his debut, is a rich ode to the time period for which Lewis grew up.

Review: Curren$y - The Stoned Immaculate

Curren$y’s The Stoned Immaculate is being prefaced as Spitta Andretti’s first major label release, and the sheen of a major’s money can be gleaned from the diversity of producers and featured artists. Previous releases have found him working with two producers at the most, typically Monsta Beatz and Ski Beatz, but The Stoned Immaculate boasts 13 producers for the Deluxe Edition’s 16 tracks, including production juggernauts The Neptunes and J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League as well as contributions from regulars like Monsta Beatz. As for the features, there is the usual cast (Wiz Khalifa and Big K.R.I.T., as well as Jet Life Recording artists Smoke DZA, Corner Boy P, Trademark da Skydiver and Young Roddy), but also major label signifiers like Estelle, Pharrell, Wale and the ever featuring 2 Chainz. Despite these changes in the supporting cast, Curren$y has produced an album that both lives up to the major label expectations of accessibility while remaining true to the laid back grind he started in 2008 with mixtapes like Higher than 30,000 Feet.

In the past four years Spitta has released roughly 20 projects, be it mixtapes, EPs or independently released albums. His prolific pace alone has made him a point of contention, an argument of flooding the market but also perfect utilization of internet social marketing that caters to listeners short attention spans. What these releases represent though is a singular vision, coined “life style rap” by Curren$y: a laid back, smoked out and jazzy world informed by weed, women and cars with the occasional sports reference. All of this amounts to a monument of an independent man using independent money to make independent money. The Stoned Immaculate in a way represents a compromise; the signs of major influence are present on the album but the record also represents an artist indulging in the privileges of major label money rather than conceding.

Review: Big K.R.I.T. - Live from the Underground

Preface: I have, as a listener of rap music, never been much for Southern Rap. My Hip Hop experience and exposure has been dedicated mostly to lyricism which I found lacking in a majority of Southern artists. Also as a Midwesterner I have no real reference point for the regional archetypes of Southern Rap. This is not to say I am ig’nant of Southern rap but have only focused on a select few artists, namely Outkast, Goodie Mob and Scarface. Despite this Meridian, MS’s Justin, Big K.R.I.T., Scott has delivered an album steeped in Southern Rap idioms (old school candy coated slabs with the wood grain and featuring Southern stalwarts like 8Ball & MJG and Bun B) but with a level of developed lyricism and personality that has sparked an interest in the artists that have influenced him, leading me musically backward.

Regionalism has always played an important role in the development and progression of Hip Hop. The impact of the internet has changed not only the marketing and consumption of music but has also begun to blur regional lines. A$AP Rocky represents the singularity at the center of regional collapse, an East Coast rapper who is largely influenced by Houston and Cincinnati. 

As an artist Big K.R.I.T. could easily be dismissed as a rehash of nearly two decades worth of Third Coast Rap, his inflection even at times sounding eerily similar to Pimp C. But instead of allowing this history to overshadow his efforts he has focused them into what amounts to a primer in Southern Rap. Given Southern music regionally brewed for roughly ten years before reaching the populace in the early Aughts, K.R.I.T. stands in the perfect position to become an historian for a movement, giving Southern Rap both a future while also remaining firmly rooted in the past.