New Music Week of January 1, 2019
As part of the New Year, I want to take a deep listen to at least one album a week. I want to make these albums something I wouldn’t normally listen to (aka everyone knows I’m gonna listen to the new K dot album regardless). I want these albums to be albums recently released but that’s not always possible. I want to try to expand the artists I listen to in my favorite genres (Hip Hop/R&B), and in genres I don’t listen to. Every week I want to write a small blurb for the week’s featured album and throw any other comments on music I listened during the week. Here’s this week’s blurb:
Album of the week: Parquet Courts — Wide Awake!
Brooklyn based rock band Parquet Courts released their 2018 project Wide Awake! last May. Like many other music projects of 2018, this album is heavily politically themed. At times, this could get a little too heavy, and could mess with how smooth the lyrics could be delivered. However, it does make it stand out versus other politically charged projects. The vocals are not my normal cup of tea, but through several listens they are growing on me. That being said, the instrumentation and production on this project is where it shines the most. The music is lively, and each instrument stand out on its own, but doesn’t clash with the other instruments. This is most apparent in the album’s title track, which opens with bright and fun upbeat drums. The bassline soon enters, and is groovy and infectious. The guitar licks are bright and unique. These could have easily clashed, but instead, they play off of each other very well, creating an upbeat song which makes you want to dance. Throughout the project, there is something new to listen to: the bass, the guitars, the percussion, the lyrics, the flow. All of these are independently unique, but work so well together. Overall I enjoyed listening to this project, and would recommend a listen.
Standout tracks: Violence, Before the Water Gets Too High, Almost Had to Start A Fight/In and Out of Patience, Freebird II, Normalisation, Death Will Bring Change
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, or Google Play Music
Tracks of the week:
Noname — Song 31
In an encore to her critically acclaimed album Room 25, Noname reaffirms her position in the game as one of the best rappers (no female qualification needed). This track again shows Noname’s strengths, in her ability to take rich complex beats, which in this case has very fun percussion and dissonant choral vocals, and create a smooth sound over it. Her rapping again lies in the subtlety of her rhymes.
Listen on Spotify
YBN Cordae — What’s Life
Cordae of the Hip Hop Collective YBN dropped this easy to listen to track. His J Cole Influence is apparent, and his lyrical content is nothing groundbreaking, but it feels familiar, yet new. It’s a nice track to sit on the train and look out the window to.
Listen on YouTube
