Big Fish Theory - Review
It is a bit disconcerting to listen to a new album by one of your favorite artists, and to hear something entirely different. Vice Staples’ dark, almost monotone voice has been rapping bars about the harsh reality of life for years, stripped away all of the glitz and the glamour that we sometimes see, leaving only vivid imagery of drugs and violence over a bare beat.
Big Fish Theory just goes in the complete opposite direction. Instead of focusing on growing up in a gang environment, it is about Staples’ future. Instead of stripped down rap beats, it takes spacey, EDM styling to create a sort of futuristic dance mix. It’s experimental in all of the right ways. When it hits, it has some great tracks, but even on the misses, we get to see Vince step outside of his comfort zone in a way that excites me about the future.
Memories... Do Not Open - Review
My opinion on The Chainsmokers is well documented, but somehow I had hoped that their first real album could somehow be different, break new ground and make good music. To say that didn’t happen is an understatement. There is nothing new here, just more of the same beats, more of the same subjects. More of the same everything. I’m not mad. I’m disappointed.
Dim Mak Greatest Hits 2016: Remixes - Review
I spent a long ten hours in a car this weekend, and due in part to my own self-loathing, I decided that I would use that time to listen to some of the worst albums that I have in a long time. First up was Dim Mak Greatest Hits 2016: Remixes which probably should have alerted me with its album art. Much like a brightly-colored poisonous animal, the album cover here is a garish collected of outdated memes slapped over a rip-off of the already terrible The Life of Pablo cover. It is, honestly speaking, the worst piece of product related art that I’ve ever seen, and it feels like a bad photoshop that someone put together to be as shitty as possible, but some memo got lost along the way and it was actually used.
Collage EP - Review
Think for a moment about bologna sandwiches. I love a good bologna sandwich every now and then. Some Wonder Bread, a slice of Kraft American cheese, and some crappy bologna. They are cheap, technically tasty, and just generic enough to be good sometimes. You hand me a bologna sandwich and I’m generally a happy guy. You give me two of them, and I’ll probably be okay for a while. Give me five of them, and I’ll be like “Please stop with the bologna sandwiches, you’re ruining my life.”
The Chainsmokers like bologna sandwiches, which is appropriate because they are the Wonder Bread of EDM. They are pretty good at making them, and they want to make sure that everyone is eating them. And if they were a little more conscious of this fact, it would be fine. Instead they think that every sandwich they make is gilded, when in reality, they’re just shitty bologna sandwiches. Or in this case, some of the most formulaic EDM-lite that I’ve heard in a while.
Two Vines - Review
With the release of their third studio album, outside of the box electro music duo Empire of the Sun, sought to capture the beauty and tranquility of nature with a breath of Hawaii infused into their synths. They make an admirable effort at making a summer’s afternoon condensed into an album. Warm and soft in its electro/EDM beats, the music sounds almost breathy over the lyrics of Luke and Nate. Ephemeral and floaty, it carries along softly even when it picks up the pace in some tracks.
Encore - Review
Listening to DJ Snake’s smash hit collaboration with Lil John “Turn Down for What”, gives you a certain expectation for his music and about Encore, his debut album that just came out. Something big, flashy, bombastic, and more than a little stupid. Full of pulse-racing EDM tracks that will worm their way into your brain and leave you jumping for more. What we got was ok at best, with a few tracks that will sit with me for all of the wrong reasons.