Etikett: Album

February 2024 – Music recap.

Howdy!
February has come to an end, and just like i did at the end of January, i will provide a small recap of the albums i have listened to. My first thought back in January was for these recaps to just be about new releases that i listen to, but i figure i might as well add albums that are new to me, like stuff i have never listened to before. This month i listened to quite a few EPs.

Let us dive right in.

Dreamfear/Boy Sent From Above [EP] – Burial
Burial is one of my favourites. Since i was introduced to his album Untrue a while back, he’s always on my radar, i wasn’t the biggest fear of Antidawn EP, but i appreciate that he evolves and tries new things.. There’s something so fascinating and magical about his music, and the way it’s produced, with the samples and groove. Dreamfear/Boy Sent From Above is no different from many of his other things, it’s a 2 track EP with a total length of 26 minutes and 16 seconds. With his latest releases i think that he has come back to the sound that i like and love, and this new EP is a perfect example of the magic that he creates. As written above, this EP only contains two songs, but those two songs feel like they each contain five different songs, because there’s so much happening, and so many breaks and changes taking place.
9/10.

Drop 7 [EP] – Little Simz
My first introduction to Little Simz was when she featured on a Gorillaz song, and then she was the warm up act when i saw Gorillaz perform in Stockholm back in 2018, and i fell in love. Little Simz has since then released three full length albums that i’ve been bumping ever since, and many of her songs are part of my main playlists. For me, i very much enjoy the lyrics of her songs, and i really like how she masters the flow and lyrical presentation. Drop 7 is a bit different from her earlier works, and it has a more electronic/industrial focus – something that i often enjoy. My first was that i did not really like it, but it also intrigued me, and challenged me. Since the album has been out for about a month now, i’ve spent some time listening to it several times and it has grown on me.
7/10.

Loss of Life – MGMT
MGMT released a new album that i was looking forward a lot to. I’ve been a massive fan of MGMT ever since they released their first album, Oracular Spectacular, back in 2007. One thing i do enjoy about MGMT is that they evolve and change their approach and sound a lot – and their albums tend to have a ”red thread” that brings the album together as a whole entity. And that is what i did not like about Loss of Life, i could not find that red thread that brings the album together, and creates the magic that you can find in an MGMT album. No doubt about it, the production is great, the instrumentals are great, the song is great – but they are not working together as i would expect.
6/10.

Birthday Girl – Sun Kil Moon
Sun Kil Moon is the moniker of Mark Kozelek, who was in the band Red House Painters. As Sun Kil Moon he has released 13 studio albums. I have over the years listened a lot to Sun Kil Moon, with my first introduction to Sun Kil Moon was with the release of Common as Light and Love Are Red Valleys of Blood which opened up my eyes for his work. The songs are often very downtempo, with melancholy lyrics often describing very ordinary and mundane things in a beautiful way – and that is what i have enjoyed from Sun Kil Moon. Birthday Girl somehow misses the point completely, something just does not work here. The lyrics might be melancholy, but something is just off. I don’t know how to describe it – but i did not find this album intriguing or good, at all.
2/10.

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.