There is something beautiful about a well executed concept album. From the album art, to the videos, to the music, when a clear theme is established, art usually follows. This held mostly true for the 4th studio album of Canadian R&B singer Abel Tesfaye, The Weeknd.

 era began its run with a sudden image change by Tesfaye. The darker figure behind 2018’s 

 was now clad in a red suit and larger-than-life sunglasses, blinded by the lights of the Vegas strip. The dark themes of his past projects came through music videos with this new persona bloodied and bandaged spread throughout. The album shares a very similar aesthetic to the 2019 film 

 with its retro styling and sonic contributions from Daniel Lopatin, better known as Oneohtrix Point Never.

With the creation of such an image, fans are led to believe that the music that this project consists of would follow suit. It does, but only to an extent.

The opening run of the album is thematically perfect. Luxurious synths and retro drum kits are under Abel’s signature pitch. “Hardest to Love” specifically holds a very classic 80’s flavor, sounding similar to Aha’s “Take on Me.” The next song “Scared to Live” introduces Lopatin’s signature anxious synths with powerful drums straight out of R&B ballads of years past. “Too Late” brings some late 80’s house flavor.

Mid-way through the 14-track run, the project loses some of its plot. Starting with “Snowchild” and ending with “Heartless,” the grimy synths take the backseat and let some painfully generic trap drums take the lead. While these tracks are not bad, they are too similar to previous The Weeknd projects to be notable.

“Faith” is a return to form that, while good, gets blown out of the water by following tracks. “Blinding Lights” features an incredible, attractive bassline and synth that makes you want to floor it in a white Ferrari Dayton like in an episode of Miami Vice. “In Your Eyes” features an instrumental that would find itself at home alongside the tracks of Revolver Digital’s 

The last leg of the album serves as an epilogue. “Save Your Tears” and “Repeat After Me” are transitive tracks, closing the more intense chapter of this album. Looking at the ever-present theme of nightlife, these songs would represent a last call.

The shame-filled drive home comes through in “After Hours” and “Until I Bleed Out.” The powerful bass lines contain a more reflective note, meditating on the debauchery of the last few hours. However, the last few notes of “Bleed Out” are familiar of a record stopping and repeating, leading the listener to believe that the intoxicated events are doomed to repeat the next chance he gets.

In terms of songwriting, Abel does not take any extra chances or step outside of the box. Behind the newer style of instrumentals is a continuation of Abel’s smile-through-the-pain style. Alcohol, drugs, and women still tinge every single line of the album.

Contributions by artists like Oneohtrix Point Never make the album a good listen for the more instrumentally obsessed listener. However, some modern generic points take away from a mostly cohesive 80’s throwback. For any fan of The Weeknd, there are no alarms to raise. It is a worthy attempt at a concept album without losing the feeling of a Weeknd project. It adds spice to a time-honored recipe, although listeners still hope that it might be reinvented at some point in the future.

‘After Hours’ is a worthy attempt at a concept album without losing The Weeknd’s touch

Jay Electronica is a rare beast. The NOLA-born rapper began in 1995, however he did not release a real project other than some loose songs until 2007’s 

 mixtape. Since then, Electronica has produced small amounts of songs to an extremely devoted fanbase, but no full LP. Most of his fans thought they’d never see an LP until Electronica announced he was working with Jay-Z on a project, but even then, they still did not believe it would happen. In February of this year, Electronica stated that his album was finished over the course of 40 days and 40 nights and was planned to be released 40 days after the last song was done, which would have been March 18th. However, Electronica surprised fans once again by releasing 

, are fans finally receiving what they wanted? It’s complicated, and there’s important context required to understand the album and it’s reception.

The album has a strong focus on the religious cultural groups Nation of Islam and the Five-Percent Nation, which Electronica has been involved since 1996. Almost the entire album features either lyrics or samples referencing the two bodies, their most prominent figures, and their teachings. The opening track is a direct sample of an older speech by current NoI leader Louis Farrakhan, who is controversial in his own right. With the inclusion of this divisive figure comes lyrics that can be considered problematic, specifically the reference of “synagogues of Satan” in “The Ghost of Soulja Slim”. This can either be interpreted as very anti-semitic or not, depending on how literally the listener takes the word “synagogues”. Therefore, the audience’s personal opinion will weigh heavily onto their opinion of this work.

The second notable aspect impacting album reception, much less serious than the latter, is Jay-Z’s surprising prominence on the record. He occupies nearly half the album’s runtime, with uncredited features on almost every song. He even raps the first actual bar of the record. Listeners expecting a full 40 minutes of Electronica will be left disappointed as 

However, despite these larger issues, the project is mostly enjoyable. Whereas the lyricism is unapologetically pro-black, focusing primarily on topics of black excellence and power, Electronica mixes in some of the more controversial beliefs of the Nation of Islam and the Five Percent Nation. However, it is more heavily weighed in the favor of Jay-Z’s style of celebrating community pride than the sometimes over-the-top, “Hotep meme” lyrics of Electronica.

Overall, the lyrics are clever and without any real flat moments. Both Electronica and Jay-Z flow incredibly well over beats lush with soul samples, courtesy of The Alchemist, Swizz Beats, No I.D., and a few others including Electronica himself. The-Dream lays some quality background vocals on a few of the tracks. On the other hand, there is an incredibly odd Travis Scott feature on “The Blinding”, which sounds nearly identical to the high-pitched autotune chorus of Kanye West’s “Heartless”.

“The Neverending Story” and “Shiny Suit Theory” are both standouts, however the latter was released as a single almost ten years ago. “Universal Soldier” features an absolutely haunting beat with lyrics referencing the pasts and beliefs of both Electronica and Jay Z. “Flux Capacitor” and “Ezekiel’s Wheel” are both incredible alternative hip-hop beats that work surprisingly well with both artists’ more traditional styles. The album ends with “A.P.I.D.T.A”, a more somber track reflecting on those they have lost. Jay-Z’s chorus is a sobering take on grief in the modern world, lamenting on screenshotting phone numbers of people he lost as to never lose them. This track is even more devastating knowing it was made as a response to the loss of Kobe and Gianna Bryant.

The weight around the ankle of the album is odd mixing and effects. At some points of the album, the vocals are drowned out by bombastic beats, whereas other points feature a piercing sonic high end. The weakest aspect is a tacky recurring sample of kids cheering that is very literally a default on Apple Garageband’s sampler instrument. It is incorporated into almost every song, with its shrill tone often cutting through a lot of the richer beats.

 is one of the better hip-hop records of this year, but gets itself into trouble with some questionable choices regarding production and cultural context.

Jay Electronica’s ‘A Written Testimony’ is full of questionable production choices

In the follow-up to 2018’s critically acclaimed 

Chilean-American producer Against All Logic (real name Nicolas Jaar) provides a crunchy techno complement to the techno-house fusion on the release 

Keeping up the spontaneity of the last album, 

 was dropped a week after his two song EP 

 and a particularly noisy set of original cuts on NTS Radio.

Going into the album, the audience is greeted with the familiar large, bold font with Jaar’s alias and the album’s title emblazoned across, however this time in a searing orange color. As if to act as a primer for the 45 minutes of techno the listener is going to witness, an image of a soldier using an older iPhone with included stock photo watermarking courtesy of Alamy takes center stage. According to Jaar, this image is supposed to represent the album’s general vibe.

The first track, “Fantasy”, lulls you into the sample-heavy style not all-too-different from 

, this time using Beyonce and Sean Paul’s 2002 track “Baby Boy”. The vocals are chopped and screwed, drowned by Jaar’s favorite method, distortion. The instruments used are off-kilter, with some squeakier synths, arpeggios, and a repetitive record scratch inhabiting the warm-but-metallic soundscape. It is a beautiful cacophony of sounds that is reminiscent but a far cousin from the last record’s opener “This Old House”. Following is the familiar “If Loving You is Wrong”, which has the same, however slower, DNA as its predecessors.

A definite style switch is seen in “With an Addict”, an ambient, Aphex-Twin-y, breakbeat-ish track based on a very tribal-sounding drum sample and some very minor inclusions of soul vocals. “If You Can’t Do It Good, Do it Hard” is a noisy, punchy banger that features an aggressive section of Lydia Lunch’s “Conspiracy of Women” over booming bass kicks, crunchy snares, and distorted arpeggios. It is undeniably an experiment in what is generally palatable electronic music, with shrill sound effects coming out of nowhere. However it never becomes unbearable, and dare to say adds depth.

“Alarms” builds a house banger out of an odd, high pitched synth pattern. Jaar uses punchy, distorted bass hits between his signature snares and chime samples. This track flows beautifully into “Deeeeeeefers,” a straight, techno song with some more industrial instrumentals. Metallic bells and feedback-type scraping fills a gorgeous synth baseline covered in spacy, industrial snares. “Faith” takes away the background fuzz, leaving a simple but groovy techno beat that grows into a silent, ambient feedback outro. The following track “Penny” brings back the Aphex Twin, JUSTICE vibes to produce a more uptempo, ethereal club hit. The overarching feedback motif finds its way into the beat as well, providing a deep backing among the widened synths and bell patterns. “You (Forever)” forgets what song structure is, primarily consisting of a single bassline and a plethora of random, shrill effects. The outro, however, is a chilling synth harmonic that brings you down from the album. It has a similar effect to a chime bringing a person back from meditation or having a chair you are sitting in kicked backwards into a bathtub a la 

Fans of industrial, techno, or experimental electronic dance music will find a home in 

. However, the prominent use of cacophonous, shrill feedback and spooky industrial tones may go over sour with the fans of the more ambient, soulful house of the previous project. People that were looking for more of that style will be undoubtedly confused and maybe a little scared. Each group, however, can enjoy the visual-audio rorschach test of figuring out whether the soldier represents the noise.

Against All Logic’s ‘2017-2019’ will put a roof over the heads of EDM fans

Canadian house DJ and producer Kaytranada brings groovy heat and puts himself in the running for album of the year with 

 comes three years after the release of his debut LP 

, which was heralded as one of the best albums of 2016. While producing a plethora of different vibes and styles that displayed his masterful production, the album suffered from an identity crisis, better suited as a compilation album rather than a full LP. 

 takes a different approach, nailing Kaytranada’s gritty, funky dance sound for the full 51-minute runtime.

 feels more similar to vibing out at one of Kaytranada’s Boiler Room sets than listening to a portfolio of sounds. The DNA found at the core of all Kaytranada projects is still there but even better. You still hear his signature synths, punchy drums, and echo-y effects. Most of all, his love of collaboration is still center stage. 

 features verses by a wide range of acts from Charlotte Day Wilson to Pharrell, Mick Jenkins and SiR to Estelle. Neo-jazz collective BADBADNOTGOOD also contributes percussive elements on “Vex Oh” and “Puff Lah.” The opening track “DO IT” is a sample heavy, lo-fi banger that gives the listener a taste of the sound that is to come. Following are the dance and club hits that are “2 The Music” and “Go DJ.” The latter revives the early club, slightly crunky sound of Akon and T-Pain from the early noughties. It shares the same sound as some of the older Pharrell/NERD/Neptunes projects, which is fitting for the later feature. “10%,” “Oh No,” and “What You Need” are gritty, funky masterpieces in their own rights, featuring powerful vocals from Kali Uchis, Estelle, and Charlotte Day Wilson, respectively. Each features Kaytranada’s signature, powerful synths, a sound that hits its peak with the vibe-meets-cry-for-help “The Worst In Me” featuring Tinashe. The DJ’s lo-fi punchy drums mix with waning synths and her R&B vocals to form a stunning listen.

 are remarkable. “Puff Lah” and “Scared to Death” lack vocals but shine with their masterful production. The latter is a rollercoaster of a track that sounds like a direct recording of a DJ set with its muffled parts and incredible mixing. Another key moment in the album is the R&B ballad that is “Freefall” featuring Duran Bernarr. His vocals are layered over another amazing instrumental creating a powerful, modern R&B tune. Kaytranada also plays with international flavors in “Vex Oh” and “Midsection.” The latter, featuring Pharrell, is an expert showcase of production skills, modernizing reggae and 70s soul town sound. This track features the most pure instrumentals, using more analog sounding drums, bass, and a distinctly Parliament/Funkadelic-sounding guitar.

Overall, BUBBA is an extremely enjoyable listen for anyone who wants a collection of summer jams to clear up some seasonal depression or to piece apart Kaytranada’s prodigious production skills. Despite being released right before the year closes, this album has found a rightful place among the previously-considered albums of the year.

Kaytranada’s ‘BUBBA’ is right to be considered an album of the year

Since his start in 1989, Beck has been on the cutting edge of twangy indie/alternative music. His lo-fi and semi-experimental style have launched smash hits in “Wow” and cult classics in “Loser.” He has also been the subject of critical acclaim, earning multiple awards including Grammys for multiple projects in his relatively prolific career.

The next step in his musical journey released with The Neptune’s co-op’d 

 picks up where the self-described “trial-and-error” formed 

left off and delves into some of the same themes. Beck continues to lament on past relationships — most prominently, his recent divorce from wife Marissa Ribisi. Each song is steeped in wishes for love and promises to wait for a non-descript significant other.

 is also soaked in a cyberpunk/outrun aesthetic from the cover to each track. The cover features Beck standing in front of a red 90’s hatchback with a distinctly lo-fi filter and the albums title in katakana. This aesthetic bleeds into the track with synths and trappy beats provided by the more well-known half of the duo The Neptunes, Pharrell Williams.

The product is an interesting blend between Beck’s twangy indie pop and Pharrell’s more futuristic style. Its success is definitely varied. Songs like “Saw Lightning” are more fun, resembling what a folk future bounty hunter would listen to. However, the feeling of most other tracks are just shallowly dark and sanitized.

Over its forty minute runtime, Beck does not end up making any objectively bad tracks, at worst just generic ones. Synthesizers, 808s, and FL Studio can revolutionize and add never before seen levels of creativity to stale genres. Tracks can become more gritty, dark, futuristic, or beautiful. However, the use of these methods in Beck’s music is the equivalent of deep cleaning a mortar and pestle, all the “flavor” from the analog roots of indie and alternative is wiped away and replaced by not-always-fitting trap drums.

Ill-fitting production is not always a sign of the apocalypse, see Danny Brown and Earl Sweatshirt’s latest releases for perfect clashing. However, again, for Beck it does not always end up working. “Star” comes off as more fitting for a rap verse than an alternative ballad. Despite its more detracting qualities, Beck’s 

 finds itself at home with the artist’s cult fans.

Disregarding the critical lens of journalism, 

 is a perfectly listenable album with a couple songs that could definitely fall into popular music playlists across the genres of pop, alternative, rock, and (more tame) experimental. However, it still comes off as a glaringly shallow attempt at the aesthetic of cyberpunk or outrun. Such rich aesthetics deserve a much more well thought and fleshed out attempts.

Beck continues to lament past relationships on ‘Hyperspace’

Tan Cressida/Warner Records · November 1, 2019

For fans of the now-defunct California rap collective Odd Future, life is great. Tyler, the Creator, the unofficial leader, released the critically acclaimed 

. Frank Ocean, notoriously sporadic, has released two more tracks recently after a year long hiatus following the release of “Moon River.” Then there is Earl Sweatshirt, another fan favorite of the collective, whose career progression has been interesting to examine.

Earl, the pseudonym of Thebe Neruda Kgositsile, blew up along with the collective’s success, but was set back when sent to a boarding school for troubled youth in American Samoa. When he returned, he dropped 

to both commercial and critical success. Following its release was 2015’s 

, which was similarly acclaimed. Then there was nothing. Years of silence, his fan base growing starving for more Earl. Other than the occasional feature, there was no public release of an Earl track until 2018. November 11, 2018 saw the release of a single titled “Nowhere2go,” a fresh, comparatively experimental track teasing a similarly experimental album, 

. Like most OF-collective releases fans expected a hiatus after this album. However, almost a year after 

, Earl surprised fans by announcing an EP named 

 to be released at midnight on Halloween.

The term “feet of clay” refers to a weak point in a structure or figure, and it could not be a more apt title for this album. 

 brings listeners into the mind of Earl after the death of his father in January 2018. 

’ rough, unfinished style bleeds into this project as well, contributing heavily to the chaotic feel of someone going through the loss of an important figure in their life. For Earl, his father was his weak point, his clay feet. With a fifteen minute run-time, 

 manages to chew up and spit back out the listener with ease.

The opening track “74” uses a plethora of sports analogies to detail his living post the death of his father. Earl provides deep messages for his audience about living to the fullest and making sure that both mental and physical health are kept in balance, with truisms like “Protect your neck and don’t forget the heart.” “EAST” reflects on his past struggles with addiction and the loss of his loved ones, backed by an almost circus-like accordion. The title designates the east as the “old world,” the past he left behind in order for a better future. He realizes the mistakes he made in his past as he tries to live in the present. The rest of the EP tackles similar themes, consistently self-reflecting and working through his current chaos.

“OD” and “EL TORO COMBO MEAL” are the highlights of seven track run with their skillful uses of sampling mixed with Earl’s masterful songwriting. “EAST” constitutes the lowest point. While the lyrics are great, the repetitive accordion begins to feel grating after around thirty seconds. On the whole, this record’s lyricism and beats are on an extremely high level of quality throughout the entire body of work, with his signature delivery and analogies on full display. The best and worst quality of the EP is that it leaves the listener wanting more. This want has nothing to do with the tracks’ quality, but rather the fact that the world needs more Earl, and soon.

Earl Sweatshirt’s ‘Feet of Clay’ leaves listeners wanting more

Kero Kero Bonito exists at an interesting intersection of the experimental, noise pop, and bubblegum pop genres. There is no better way of imagining what their fan base would consist of than going to a show. Upon entering the venue, Boston’s own Paradise Club, attendees found themselves surrounded by an extremely diverse crowd ready for an energetic night of interesting music and entertaining antics from the performers.

Opening for the British band was LA-based and (usually) solo project Negative Gemini. Her brand of loud, bass heavy, and snappy yet drony alt-pop was compelling, bolstered by a skillful band and good sound. Her set lasted around 40 minutes before the awaited headliners came on stage. Instead of the standard lineup of Sarah, Gus, and Jamie, the band was accompanied by drummer Jennifer Walton and guitarist James Rowland. Opening their set with the relatively new “Battle Lines”, they instantly established a definite sonic difference between their album and live performances, the original bubblegum pop sound was now tinged by hard rock with the live guitarist and drummer. However, this was not a detriment given their fantastic show. The band played tracks from their whole discography, with hits from 

Intro Bonito, Bonito Generation, Time n’ Place, 

and singles like “Flamingo” booming throughout the venue. Hearing songs like “Sick Beat” and “Pocket Crocodile” from 

 along with “Lipslap” and “Break” from 

backed by a live band definitely gave the audience a chance for a new appreciation of the tracks, as well as making them feel more fresh.

Another aspect of the show that made it uniquely entertaining was their humor. Simply put, the show was just funny at points, starting with Gus giving a shout-out to a Chinese restaurant in the area. While the other members would be playing, Jamie would be plucking at the bass with a silly face, moving like a member of an animatronic band at some cursed children’s birthday party venue. Gus and Sarah would be acting out the skits using props at the end of songs such as “Break”, one example being Sarah talking into a toy telephone to Gus and Jamie telling them that she did not want to do anything today. Between songs, there were intentional periods of silence where Gus and Sarah would mess with each other. About midway through the set, you could hear Gus play the iconic Harry Potter theme, to which a crowd member yelled “WHAT HOUSE ARE YOU SARAH?”, which Sarah coyly replied with “Slytherin” then started the next song.

Sarah continued the shenanigans during songs like “Flamingo” and “Pocket Crocodile”, holding up stuffed versions of each animal and conducting the crowd with a random stick during “Sometimes”. Crowd interactions were also top-notch, with almost every person singing along loudly (and accurately) to each song. Shouts of “I LOVE YOU SARAH!” occurred every couple of songs (to which Sarah responded after the fourth time). Once the show ended, the passionate crowd started to chant for an encore, to which the band obliged. Their first encore song was a cover of U2’s “Vertigo”, followed by a minute-long cover of Boston’s “More than a Feeling”, concluding with an explosive, punk/hard rock rendition of their own “Trampoline”, and the crowd went wild. The excitement brought by the audience matched the high energy of the band, which made for an extremely entertaining and engaging concert that anyone should make the effort to see given the opportunity.

Kyle Janko