Albums I’m Excited About, July 26th

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The Big Day — Chance The Rapper

Chance has been off my musical radar since his incredible puppet show tour supporting his “Coloring Book” mixtape, apparently he has been busy buying newspapers and telling the mayor of Chicago not to build expensive police academies instead of schools.

It’s weird that this album is technically his debut, since he’s been rapper royalty for a while — but on a technicality, this is his first album. It’s heavily guested, most unexpectedly by Ben Gibbard (for a very cringy hook), CocoRosie, his little brother Taylor Bennett, and Randy Newman. In the predictable column is Nicky Minaj, Timbaland, Bon Iver and of course Francis Starlite. The album is insanely diverse, and boasts a 22 song tracklist that bounces from fun freestyles to pop bangers. It’s more of a journey than his past mixtapes, but despite including some skits it’s not a story as much as a retrospective on getting older — a funny topic for a 26 year old, but enjoyable vicariously. This album won’t change anyone’s mind, but Chance is likeable enough that I doubt that’s much of an issue for him.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-big-day/1474378343

https://open.spotify.com/album/7bgi7zCoDsZdlLKPonHZqP?si=lgqNCMLNRRmddF2fVIoUKQ

Kiri Variations — Clark

Clark, the musical project name name for Chris Clark, is a difficult to describe idea. At times he’s Eno-esque, and always experimental, ambient, or both — but it seems that the more music he produces, the further from a traditional concept of music he strays.

Kiri Variations seems to push even the extremes of the already experimental world he’s created for himself. Eschewing almost all electronic sounds for whispery flutes, bowed double basses and haunting vocal compositions that sound like they belong in a Kubrick film, this album is is as rewarding as it is challenging. It’s anti-pop ambient, but doesn’t go so far to fall off the cliff into noise. It’s genuine art, connected to what you think of as music, if only by a thread.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/kiri-variations/1465368263

https://open.spotify.com/album/2x3toNpynOT9W9FV4kZNSQ?si=jKZ7iVHGRFayLy5RZ5V9vA