The Weeknd – Dawn FM.

I have a friend that listen to a lot of new music and releases, every year he publishes a list of albums and artist, with a simplistic overview of the score that he gave the release. This has inspired me to try and do the same, but also try to write more here.

This weekend i listened to the new release called Dawn FM from the canadian phenomenon called The Weeknd. This is his tenth album and i believe that there are few who have missed his rise to stardom and fame. During earlier album he’s done collaborations with giants such as Daft Punk, Lana Del Rey, Kendrick Lamar, Ed Sheeran and Drake, to name a few. Giants within the business and musical sphere.

I will state that The Weeknd isn’t one of my favorites, and i rarely listen to him on purpose as his music isn’t for me. I have tried, because i don’t believe in writing any artist off, without listening to them and forming my own opinion on their work. However The Weeknd isn’t for me. However, with that in mind i listened to The new album, Dawn FM, by The Weeknd.

The Dawn FM concept runs through this album like water and it really tries to conceptualize something but it doesn’t go the whole way. The obvious concept that this album tries to connect to is the FM part of the album title. The album has soundbites that could be used on a real radio show, and there’s even a segment with a fake commercial – however, does anyone want this? Every day we’re constantly bombarded with messages from persons and business the second we jump into the car, to when we go down in the subway, to when we watch TV, or try to watch a video on YouTube. Especially in a time where atleast i, do what i can, to get away from commercials and advertisement, i do not want to hear it blown in, inside of an album. It made me think of the first of second season of Donald Glovers show Atlanta, where they had the concept of a fake tv show, within the show, filled with very well produced, but fake commercials.

The production and the sound quality of the album is very good, and the instrumentals for some of the songs are stunning and beautiful. This is the redeeming quailty of this album, however not without some criticism. A couple of months ago i read the book Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures by Mark Fisher, and since then i’ve been thinking about the concept of nostalgia and how rarely anything ”new” is published. That often the thing that is ”new” is just an old thing or concept, put in a new suit. I had the same feeling when i listened to An evening with Silk Sonic by Silk Sonic (Bruno Mars & Anderson .Paak), it’s so flirty with the funk and the disco, but it sounds better, it’s too polished, it doesn’t feel alive, or real. It’s so clearly a product that took an old concept, in this case, genre of music, and refined it with modern tools – however in the proccess, the soul within it died a bit.
I had the same feeling with Dawn FM, it’s extremely well produced and the melodies, the instrumentals and the sound is so good, but it doesn’t make me feel anything other than: ”hey, this sounds good.”.

And to the last part of this text, and what to me is the weakest part of this album.
Unfortunatley the weakest part of this album is The Weeknd himself, or atleast his singing. I’ve been watching Seinfeld lately, for the first time, and there’s the same case there, that Seinfeld himself is the weakest link of the show. This album sounds like nothing new, it feels like i’ve already heard the lyrics in his other albums, years ago.

As for some end disussion i’d like to point out that the quality of the production is stunning, yet rather lifeless, the commercials inside of the album wasn’t for me, i have however read that people have been enjoying that element. The lyrics and the singing from The Weeknd himself is the weakest link in this album, but as i mentioned in the beginning of the text, i am not a fan of his, and i want to be as transparent as possible. The Weeknd is one of our biggest artists and acts right now and his songs has been streamed hundreds of millions of times.
This album is a product that is very well put together, it’s excellent for commerce and if seen as a product, it’s good. But seen as an album with conceptual ideas, it’s not good.

Dawn FM by The Weeknd can be found on every streaming platform, and wherever you buy your music.

The weakest link of this review might be me, myself and i.

Until next time, take care.
SLQT.

New releases.

The other week we had many new releases from big artists, and as always smaller acts. However the bigger the release seems to be, the bigger the performing artist, the bigger the drum and PR around the release. When it in face should be the smaller acts that gets written about. This inquiry from me will be hypocritical since i am going to write about one of the bigger releases.

The week of releases i am thinking about is the week where Kanye West released Donda, Drake released Certified Lover Boy and Iron Maiden released Senjutsu. The smaller release that i was hinting towards in the beginning of the paragraph is Space Werewolves Will Be the End of Us All by Blockhead.

I’ve given them all a listen, however, i have very different feelings toward them all, apart from Kanye & Drake. I can’t, i was able to listen to like four or five songs from their respective albums. I’ve never been a fan of Drake, he has a couple of songs that i’ve had on repeat and that follows onto every newly created playlist on Spotify, but overall i find Drakes music rather bland.

What to say about Kanye? I don’t know.
I really enjoyed The Life of Pablo and i strongly feel like that’s the last good album Kanye has released alone and under his own name. I do however think that the KIDS SEE GHOSTS project he did together with Kid Cudi was fresh and intresting. I felt a bit let down by Donda because of the route Kanye’s been taking these last years doesn’t please me and my taste. I prefer when his album contains rap with some chorus, and not like it’s been on these last releases, chorus with some rap. I don’t want artists to be stagnant and get stuck in whatever they’re doing, i love when they try different things that might push the artform forward, and i believe that is what Kanye’s doing – he’s trying, and that, i appreciate greatly. I value his work and what he’s trying to accomplish, and i believe that something amazing will come out of it, however, Donda, isn’t that, for me. Compared to Kanye, i feel that Drake has become stagnant in his style, it works, he sells and streams a lot, but it is no longer appealing to me.

I’ve been listening to Blockhead on and off for a couple of years, i discovered him through the discovery of Aesop Rock. I read somewhere that they went to school together and through that they started to make music. Periodically i’ve been more into Aesop than Blockhead, and for periods it’s been swapped.
With that background, i’ve been listening to snippets and stuff that Blockheads been releasing for this new album, leading up to its actual release. I have a softspot for electronic artists that actually release albums. It usually tend to feel like there’s releases of singles and EPs, but rarely albums. I think that Space Werewolves Will Be the End of Us All is very well worth a listen. Blockheads style of producing and putting songs together is very well done and overall i find that this is a good album that i will be rotating for a while.

The last, but not the least.
Senjutsu by Iron Maiden. I must admit, when i saw the name of the upcoming album, i was skeptic. I felt from the name that the old rockers were trying to be woke. However, i was very wrong, and i was floored by this album. I’ve had it on repeat since release, and it keeps on growing on me. It’s full of that classic imagery that you find in Iron Maiden lyrics and i feel like that the sound that they’ve found their way back to a sound that resembles the sound of older albums. I know, this sounds hypocritical of me to say, but an Iron Maiden-album sounding like an Iron Maiden-album will always be the best sounding Iron Maiden album. Senjutsu for me is a strong contender for the best album of the year so far, and i think, and i recommend you to listen to it!

I’ve been walking a lot over the summer, i got a good application on the phone for tracking steps, so i can easily get oversight of my progress. Since May, and 4 months ahead, a couple of days ago, i registred my 750km (465 miles) in four months of walking. It feels good, and it feels like an accomplishment.

I also feel like i should adress the fact that i haven’t finished listening to the new Kanye and Drake album and the fact that i give my opinions on them here. I will finish them, and i will listen through them thoroughly and i might write something about them in the future.

Until next time, take care.

SLQT.

Brightest Star Tonight – Daedelus.

In an effort to try and work around this whole feeling of music being lackluster, i’ve tried to listen to some new music. And on fridays Spotify updates their Release Radar-playlist. If you’re unaware of the Release Radar-playlist, in it’s essential its a playlist that automatically once a week updates with new releases from artist that you’ve previously listened to, or that Spotify choses for you! I try and listen to it atleast once every week, with some reservation.
One of the songs i got on the Release Radar-playlist this week was Brightest Star Tonight by Daedelus. I stumbled upon him a while ago when i was researching who made the original song, that is sampled in Accordion by Madlib and the now late MF DOOM in their duo project Madvillainy. And i learned that the sample is from the track Experience by Daedelus. I got impressed and i liked the sound, so i kept Daedelus in my rotation!

I fell for the sound of Brightest Star Tonight, it’s so soft and somewhat comforting, it almost resembles somekind of lo-fi, and it sounds much different from songs like Experience, albeit, be it, these songs do have many years between them.
Daedelus keeps on impressing me, and i recommend that you give him a listen, and his now song, Brightest Star Tonight that is out today (26/2-2021) on all platforms where you can experience music – i assume. Atleast, i’ve seen that it’s available on Spotify and Youtube.

Other honorable mentions from this weeks Release Radar:
This is love – demo – PJ Harvey
Another World – Kimchii Remix – Rebecca & Fiona, Kimchii.
TOXIC – Pussy Riot, Dorian Electra.
The Princess and the Clock – Kero Kero Bonito.

Also, i’ve been thinking about writing about books i read. Nothing’s decided and time will tell.

Until next time, take care.

SLQT.

Songs For The Deaf by Queens of the Stone Age.

Howdy.

By the title of the text you might’ve figured out what the subject of todays text will be, and if you’ve guessed Songs For The Deaf by Queens of the Stone Age, you are indeed, correct. Excellently guessed.

When i was in high school i started to get into music, like a lot of people do. You’re growing up and you’re exploring your own taste in music. My high school years correlated perfectly with the emo music wave and my music taste had evolved in that direction for a while, but the emo wave made the evolution go way faster. These last couple of weeks music hasn’t had the same taste and i guess it’s just one of those lows that eventually will return to your regular taste. However, this has made it difficult to find music to listen to, and i felt like i only listen to the same kind of songs all the time, something that i know isn’t true, but the feeling is hard to beat. The other week i read about some french study, and im paraphrasing here, said that the music you listen to when you were around 14 years old is the music that has the biggest impact on yourself and your future music taste.
With this study in my head i started to go back to what i listened to when i was around 14-15 and it was a lot of emo, a lot of postpunk and similar things – and i must admit, it still sounds great. However i assume that there’s a big portion of nostalgia affecting the feeling towards the music.

With this in mind i started to think about an episode of the podcast called Strong Songs that disected the song No one knows by Queens of the Stone Age, that i listened to this summer.
I somehow totally looked past Queens of the Stone Age while growing up, even though it would’ve fitted me perfectly during high school, and Songs for the Deaf was released, so there’s nothing that really stopped me, except the fact that i probably just didn’t stumble upon it. The evolving of the Internet and programs such as Spotify sure has made it easier to find music. Anyway, back to the album. The first album by QOTSA that i remember listening to was when they released …Like Clockwork and that didn’t really speak to me at that time, however it does now. It wasn’t until later when i started to go through their older discography like Songs for the Deaf and Era Vulgaris it clicked for me. And over the years i fell deeper in love with QOTSA, however, i am not a hard core fan of theirs, i just know that whenever my taste for music gets a bit duller – i can always go to Era Vulgaris and Songs for the Deaf and have an excellent listening experience.

I think that Songs for the Deaf is absolutley excellently produced and the sound, the voices, the instruments, all together works so well and that is what makes Songs for the Deaf one of my favourite albums of all times.

I hope you have a fantastic weekend.

Until next time, take care.

SLQT

Medicine At Midnight by Foo Fighters.

Cheers. There’s been one of those hiatuses again – sorry about that. Had a stint where music didn’t taste as good as it usually does. However it feels like my aptite for music has come back again, and for that i am grateful.
I’ve been listening too Foo Fighters for a very long time and i always make time to listen to their new releases and i get excited for every new release, even if i wished that the evolution of their sound would’ve taken a different approach i always look forward to a ned Foo-release. This time was no different. I saw that they released the single Waiting on a war and i took a listen to it. I wasn’t floored, but i didn’t expect to be floored either. It sounded like later Foo Fighters and there’s no mistaking it for something other than Foo Fighters. I felt like the album had potential.

Fast forward a while, to the 5th of February 2021 and it was time for the album release of Medicine At Midnight, i waited some days before i listened to it, and at this point i’ve spun the record a couple of times.
I have to confess, and build on what i wrote earlier in this post – i don’t love the general direction of how Foo Fighters sound has changed over the years. I really enjoy that they really try to do different stuff and concept albums like Sonic Highways. I feel like a grumpy old man whenever i think ”their older stuff sounds better” or ”their older and rawer sound was better”; however i can’t deny it, because that’s how i feel about them. I thoroughly enjoyed the direction they took with songs like Run of off their 2017 album Concrete and Gold. That raw, heavy and harder sound is my personally prefered sound of Foo Fighters. And this new album just doesn’t hit that spot for me. Nothing against the lyrics, they sound well written and are somethimes thought provoking; however the instrumentals just doesn’t do it for me.

Medicine At Midnight will stay in my rotation and it’s easy listening. But as i keep on listening to it, i will be dreaming of their next album with a, hopefully, heavier sound.

Until next time, take care.

SLQT.

Spirit World Field Guide by Aesop Rock.

”Hello from the Spirit World
My days here have been as rewarding as they are troublesome
And often dangerous.”

Such is the opening lines of the newest release from Aesop Rock, Spirit World Field Guide. I wrote about the first two singles in an earlier post and finally, today, friday the 13th year 2020, the album was released. There was a leak online but i decided that i didn’t want to listen to it before the actual release dropped, so i waited. However since there was a global midnight release as soon as it hit midnight it meant that here in Europe i managed to listen to it once before i went to sleep.
I’ve listened to the album four times in total, and i really do enjoy it, i find it to be one of his best releases ever, if not even the best. I have to admit, i am a sucker for Aesop Rock and his music, so, this text will be biased, very much so.

This is clearly a concept album, and i love the idea of concept albums, some are great and some not – but the idea behind concept albums intrigue me. As Rhymesayers said in their release post, they called the tracks chapters, rather than tracks, and as speculation pointed to, aswell as the name of the album, this is a field guide to the spirit world of Aesops fantasy. The first chapter of the album is called Hello From The Spirit World and this chapter is very important to listen to, if you want to understand the concept running through the album. The chapters are stand alone, and works by themselves since they are tracks – but to get the whole experience from the chapters this first chapter gives us the premises that this field guide is built upon.

I’ve listened to this album from start to finish and on shuffle. I think that everyone that wants to listen to this album should start with listening to it in order the first time, and after that you can shuffle it. I’m very bad at this, but it is something that i’ve been trying hard to change in my later years – and i feel that the first time you experience and album, it should probably be intended the way the author (artist) wanted it. Since this is a concept album and a field guide, you probably will, i know i did, draw parallels to literature – and you wouldn’t read the book from the middle the first time you read it. That you can do when you’ve experienced the conceptual art.

However, i do wish to point out that this is not a difficult album to listen to. Conceptual albums, and literature and anything that’s conceptual has gotten a rumour about it that it’s difficult and complex to understand – this is not. I mean, it’s a Aesop Rock album, so it will be filled with complex lyrics that got metaphores within the metaphores, but that’s just Aesop Rock. I believe that if you’re new to Aesop Rock this album is as good a starting point as any other of his albums.

The album is very well made. I’ve seen discussions online about mastering and sound levels and equalizer options being off. But i don’t hear it. I’ve listened to this album on three different setups, a pair of in ears, a pair of studio headphones and a regular speaker setup. The difference is that, the better the speaker/headphones you listen to, the better it will sound. I don’t believe the problem is mastering here, i believe the problem is that people listen to it with different audio setups and that’s what makes the difference – atleast that’s my point of view on the reported issues.

To round things off:
This album will roll steady on Spotify for me, i’ve been finding new chapters (tracks) that stick out every time that i’ve listened through it so far. However i am really feeling Crystal Sword, Jumping Coffin and Coveralls.

You can find the album at places that you find music. I hope you give it a listen this weekend.

Until next time, take care.

SLQT.

”Might be a trap, shit, it’s probably a trap
Might be a possum in the trash
It’s probably a trap”

Run The Jewels with Rick Rubin.

Sometimes i get stuck figuring out how to start one of this texts, but, in the future i’ll just jump right into it.

So, in yesterdays post i wrote that i just discovered the podcast called Broken Record with the legendary producer Rick Rubin, which in this podcast holds coversations with musicians.
Today i took a walk in the sunny late autumn weather, the sun doesn’t shine too often during autumn, so when it does, you really have to catch it. I sometimes struggle with what to listen to during these walks, i am very much a seasonal or periodical listener – i either listen to music or podcasts. During this summer i could barely stand listening to podcasts during my walks, but now i’m back to pods again.

Anyway, today i listened to the first podcast with Run The Jewels, they have since come back for another episode. I’ve always loved to learn where musicians and artists come from, what their parents listened to and what music shaped the artists that i love. I first stumbled upon Run The Jewels because their music was used in the TV-show Silicon Valley and i was floored, it hit so hard. Since then i’ve listened to everything Killer Mike and EL-P has released, i even managed to see them perform live during their RTJ3 tour, with Danny Brown as opening act. It was magical and it hit so hard. And as i wrote in the earlier post about Stankonika by OutKast, i’ve known about Killer Mike since they released The Whole World together.

The podcast is extremely intresting, Rick is such a zen, relaxed person with an amazingly soothing voice. And i love how Killer Mike and EL-P interacts and how they bounce off each other while talking.

I don’t want to spoil it too much, as i want you to listen to the pod. But i found it extremely intresting to listen to and i recommend it a lot. The pod itself is about and hour or so long.

Until next time, take care.

SLQT.

Andre 3000 and Rick Rubin in Conversation.

The other day i stumbled across the podcast called Broken Record on Youtube and the episode is called Andre 3000 and Rick Rubin in Coversation and it is just what it sounds like. It’s a conversation between Andre 3000 and Rick Rubin. They chat about music, influences, health and similar things. It’s very, very intresting. I’ve listened to a lot of OutKast and see Andre as one of my big heroes in life and i’ve, and im sure you have, listened to a lot of albums that Rick Rubin has produced. They are both very articulate and understanding towards each other, and the conversation flows like a river – it’s very soothing to listen to. They raise a lot of intresting topics and gave me some new aspects and thoughts on things. I decided to listen to this podcast on Spotify, so, that i could listen to it while on a walk.
I recommend that you check it out, it’s about an hour, and i don’t think that you’ll regret it.

Until next time, take care.

SLQT.

Spirit World Field Guide by Aesop Rock.

The 13th of November 2020 Aesop Rock releases his new album that’s been named Spirit World Field Guide and as before Aesop Rock is still on the Rhymesayers label.
So far two singles from the upcoming album has been released: The Gates and Pizza Alley. The latter one has stirred up some controversies online partly because people has linked it to some absurd and insane conspiracy theories that wander around social media like a ghoul. Apart from this controversy the other outcry i’ve seen online, about this song, is the mixing. I do not understand what they’re on about, i must admit. But i, on the other hand, really like the sound and i always assume that the released version of a song is the way it’s supposed to sound. And i feel like redacting and updating versions of album, like Kanye West did with Saint Pablo, just makes it hard to keep up with how an album sounds and it gives you this incentive to keep on coming back, just because you cannot be sure if the albums been changed or not. However, back to Aesop.

With these things out of our way, we’ll carry on with this text. From what Rhymesayers write on their website about this upcoming album it’s easy to get the feeling that this is a concept album of sorts that connect to literature. The album is called Spirit World Field Guide which implies that this indeed is a field guide to help us navigate the Spirit World of Aesops imagination. The 21 tracks on the album is referred to as chapters, again tying the knot of this being some kind of literature.
From the sounds of the singles we’ve heard so far, this gives me the feel like it’s tied to some 80s dungeons and dragons-fantasy, The spirit world. The track list really do enforce the feeling of this being 21 chapters that stand alone in themselves, but together they tie this field guide together.

The Gates was the first single that was released from the upcoming album. It appeals to me, i am a sucker for tracks that goes hard. And the beat together with the bass in this track holds hand and makes this slap hard. Pizza Alley has this underlying vibe that makes you a bit uneasy and it feels eerie. And how the sounds in the song switches it makes the feeling that we’re out on a DND-mission hard to ignore. Especially with the other clues we’ve gotten in form of the name of the album and the literature comparision with the tracks named as chapters. The sound of these two tracks differ a lot from each other and i have a feeling that we’ll get 21 tracks that sound very different.

I am truly looking forward to this album and to see what Aesop Rock has managed to pull together this time. I am also very much looking forward to see what lyrical masterpiece Aesop Rock has managed to do this time. As mentioned before, the album drops the 13th of November and will (hopefully) be available on all the regular places you find music.
I will, surely, write something about the album when it’s out.

Until next time, take care.

SLQT.

Handsome Boy Modeling School.

So, uhm, about ten years or so i heard a song with such a fantastic melody that it’s been stuck in my head since then. And i don’t make it any better by constantly listen to the song in question, which is, The Truth by Handsome Boy Modeling School. It’s just something about the sampled piano and the way it’s been modified to make it sound more like a beat rather than a piano piece. The sample comes from the song called Coffee Cold by Grant MacDermot, and the original is absolutley bonkers aswell – the raw talent and skill that MacDermot shows is extremely impressive.

Handsome Boy Modeling School’s The Truth is on the album called So…How’s Your Girl? and was released in 1999. It’s an album full of featuring artists that together with the mastermind producers behind the Handsome Boy Modeling School, Prince Paul and Dan the Automator. Prince Paul has worked with acts such as: Gravediggaz, De La Soul and Stetasonic. Dan the Automator has worked with acts such as: Deltron 3030, Gorillaz and Dr. Octagon.

I have this sweetspot for genres and songs that take old sounds and older genres and gives them new life by sampling them or just change up the whole genre by electrifying it. A great example of this is the Austrian musician called Parov Stelar, who is one of the biggest in the renewed genre called electro-swing, which takes the 1920s swing sound and makes it with a type of electronic sound instead. It sounds like a mix between swing and house i’d say.

Unfortunately for us, the listeners, Handsome Boy Modeling School has just released two albums, but if you like the sound you can always check out other projects that Dan the Automator has produced and the same goes for Prince Paul.

Hopefully from now on, you’ll like me, have The Truth stuck in your head.

Until next time, take care.

SLQT.