Niall Horan makes good Adult Contemporary when he could be making great Modern Rock. But for what it is, his new LP is a strong debut that I surprisingly recommend.

[three_fourth]This may come as a shock, but I was not very torn up when One Direction broke up. After years of being the biggest stars on Planet Earth, it felt natural and expected for the no-longer babyfaced musicians to branch out and try different things. ZAYN left to become a trap-soul crooner, Harry Styles went on to make dad-rock, and Liam Payne is trying to be Justin Timberlake. Each of them has produced at least one song that I genuinely (guiltily) like; the vocally impressive ‘Pillowtalk’ for ZAYN, the 70’s montage-ready ‘Kiwi’ for Harry, and the sleazy-yet-enjoyable ‘Strip That Down’ for Liam. The only member that did not embark on a solo career is Louis Tomlinson, who is taking time away from the spotlight to be with his newborn child.

This leaves us with the last member of the group, Niall Horan. After a bumbling single that sounded like 

©, Niall’s album was one I did not have high hopes for. After listening through his first LP, 

, I must confess that I did not give Niall nearly enough credit. His talents as 1D’s head writer and musician have really shown through on this record and I think it’s a sign of great things to come.

As the album started I was immediately thrown off guard by a delay-heavy clean guitar riff accompanied by a funky indie pop beat. I actually pressed pause and made sure I didn’t turn on The Colourist or something by mistake. I was convinced that this fun and ambient indie-rock song could not have come from a member of One Direction. ‘On the Loose’ features a great bassline, flairs of country, a touch of soul, and some impressively well blended vocal production courtesy of Julian Bunetta, whom Niall worked with extensively while still a member of 1D. It isn’t a masterpiece by any means, but it certainly set the tone of pleasant surprise for the remainder of the album. The indie-pop track that really blew me away on this album was ‘You & Me,’ which has a killer indie-blues lead guitar, a great hook, lovably gorgeous lyrics, and stellar production. It’s easily Horan’s best sounding vocal performance. I must have listened to that song 10 times the day 

 dropped, and I really wish there was more of this sound on the record.

The only other song that dabbles in the indie sound is the highest charting single from the album, ‘Slow Hands.’ The instrumental hook is solid and the production is good, but overall it feels very confused. Is it a slow-dance ballad? Is it a sex song? Is it a blues song? It tries to put its foot in too many pools and just doesn’t come out as one strong, cohesive piece of music. As a single, it does the job, as it rode the way to #1 on the Billboard Pop Charts. This makes One Direction the first group with 3 members to have individual #1 singles with the aforementioned ‘Strip That Down’ and ‘Pillowtalk’ also notching #1 spots in the Top 40. They beat Destiny’s Child’s previous record of two, not that it really matters, seeing as Beyoncé alone still has twice as many as a solo artist than the whole band’s solo endeavors 

The vast majority of the remaining tracks on this record float in a weird balance between Top 40 and Alt-Country. This makes a lot more sense of Niall’s duet partner on ‘Seeing Blind,’ Grammy winning Country Superstar Maren Morris, who will also be sharing the stage with Horan on his upcoming tour. The country songs are somewhat of a hit or near-miss, but I didn’t find any of them unenjoyable. After the second verse of a few of them I just skipped ahead and said “Alright I got the jist.” I went back on a few of these tracks and really enjoyed them, with one slight reservation.

The vocal hooks on many of these tracks are acceptable, and certainly fill their role as earworms, but none of them really spark a vested interest in me. ‘Fire Away’ and ‘Flicker’ have gorgeous instrumentals and build up to the hook with great choruses, but they seem to just kind of fall flat right as we reach the lyrical hook. This doesn’t mean the country songs are without memorable moments, as tracks like ‘On My Own’ and ‘Since We’re Alone’ provide solid choruses with phenomenal guitar riffs as intros and hooks. I hope Horan and his team of writers build on these strengths going forward.

The only major gripe I have with this album, which I mentioned at the beginning, is when Horan tries to be Ed Sheeran. The first single ‘This Town’ is a huge culprit of this, but not as much as ‘Paper Houses’ which is literally just a quilt of different Ed Sheeran lyrics put over a heartland country backing track penned by Snow Patrol hit-machine Iain Archer. Just the opening line “In this house of broken hearts, We make our love out of stacks of cards” sounds like “Thinking Out Loud but Hearts Don’t Break Around Here in this Lego House that’s Perfect.” Thankfully, these 

 (I hate myself) Sheeran rip offs are kept to those two tracks, leaving the rest of the album as genuinely enjoyable music.

This album’s genre jumping makes it difficult to pin down into a solid category, so I’m just going to call it a solid Adult Contemporary album. However, I think Niall was smart to feel around a bit on his first LP. His former bandmate Harry Styles went head first into 70’s Rock, and after decent but not impressive critical reception, I would find it very difficult for him to pivot in another direction for his sophomore effort. If Niall had done a hard lean into indie, singer-songwriter, or country, he would have likely encountered the same problem after similar reviews. Niall has shown himself to be a much more dynamic writer and artist on this record, and I could optimistically see him bringing his flair of country based indie-pop into the Top 40 in upcoming projects. I think this album is fun and well written, and I had a blast listening to it. Now someone go tell 13-year-old me that hell has frozen over.

Niall Horan releases full-length ‘Flicker’

On her 7th studio album, P!nk follows in Lady Gaga’s footsteps; becoming dreadfully boring in the wake of the excitement and edge that made us fall in love with her.

[three_fourth]Today, our glasses remain down. Today, the party will not be started. Today, I listened to a P!nk record that didn’t give me the sudden urge to call my ex and tell her that she can bite my shiny metal ass. Instead, P!nk’s 

LP lulled me to sleep in the very worst way possible. This is very much going to be an 

type review: I love P!nk… so I should be the one to put this album out of its misery.

It took me over three hours to get through this album. This is problematic for several reasons, not the least of which is that the album is barely 50 minutes long. This is the album’s biggest downfall: Its exhausting and bland sound is so far from the artist that always loved to live on the edge, that I had a hard time getting behind it, mostly because P!nk isn’t selling it to me like she used to.

The opening track, for which the album is named, begins the 50 minute ride into mediocrity. No need to listen to this track; I found a way for you to recreate it at home. Just take the beat to Katy Perry’s ‘Roar,’ cut and paste the lyrics from Ke$ha’s ‘Your Love Is My Drug’ and Halsey’s ‘Now or Never’ over it, and you made it yourself. Even worse, the instrumentals sound like they were recorded on a classroom keyboard. From the flat sounding strings and keys to the poorly produced bass and synthetic-horns, it certainly sets the tone for a rather disappointing track list. Many tracks follow a similar and certainly well-treaded path, including ‘Where We Go,’ ‘Better Life,’ ‘Secrets,’ and ‘I Am Here’. They stay in P!nk’s comfortable wheelhouse, but they don’t deliver anything I couldn’t see coming or could find myself enjoying.

P!nk channels Chance the Rapper on the soul-inspired ‘Revenge,’ which I guess is her shot at making a break up anthem a-la ‘Blow Me (One Last Kiss)’ and ‘So What.’ It falls spectacularly flat, which is mostly due to some of the most embarrassing rapping I have ever heard. But enough about the 

. Much like her Trump-dissing trackmate, P!nk attempts to ‘spit some mad rhymes’ on this song, which gives me PTSD to her cringe-worthy cash cow ‘Just Like Fire.’ Her rapping is so appalling that she actually has to follow it with the lyric “Now here comes that singing part,” just in case we forgot this was a P!nk song. I’ve read a lot of reviews that say that this song is bound for radio play. I don’t have the words for this claim, but I know 

 who does. This is one of the two songs on this record that I can say with certainty I downright detest.

The worse track of the two is ‘Barbies,’ a dreadfully tiresome and nostalgia-centric ballad that actually forced me to turn this record off and listen to 

“Why can’t we just be kids again, things were so much easier then”

 crap that you hear on every pop record you’ve ever listened to and every Girlpool record you wished you didn’t. This track sounds like an ultra-pretentious acoustic guitar set that would make you leave the coffee shop you are sitting in, and after looking at the writing credits, I understand why: The song was co-written by Julia Michaels, a white noise machine that made a wish on a shooting star to become a real person. This track got under my skin for its sheer lack of originality, but its painfully minimalist instrumentals is what brought me to call it my least favorite song on the record. The only ballad I will give props to on this record is ‘You Get My Love,’ where P!nk sings a lullaby to her family with easily the most stellar vocal performance on the record. It’s a shame that this is the last track, because this is one of two moments on this LP that I actually enjoyed.

The other moment that I enjoyed was the leading single, ‘What About Us.’ The song, unlike many songs on this record, shows some level of complexity in its lyrics and subject matter. ‘Barbie’ and ‘Beautiful Trauma’ are unenjoyable pop songs because they are instrumentally bland and lyrically two dimensional. ‘Barbie’ is just about nostalgia and ‘Beautiful Trauma’ is just about a complicated relationship. ‘What About Us’ takes the leap to talk to her lover and say, “The past seemed blissful, but looking back it was toxic. We can’t go back, and if this is going to continue we have to work towards a better future.” The anthemic chorus is backed by bright EDM synths that contrast nicely to P!nk’s rising-legato vocal melody. Its great pop songwriting, great production, but unfortunately, not enough to save this record.

P!nk is an artist that I grew up loving, especially because she was one of the first artists that my whole family listened to, so this review wasn’t fun to write at all. Listening to this album was one of the most uninspiring musical experiences I’ve had in a long time, and unfortunately, I can’t see many more records in P!nk’s future. With an MTV Music Video Lifetime Achievement award in hand and another Top 10 single, this album could have been a hell of a last hoorah before starting the ‘Greatest Hits Tour’ circuit. However, I don’t think this is how the badass queen of pop wants to go down. I think, after this unfortunate exercise in lethargy, I can optimistically hope for one more kickass album. The world is full of evil clowns, girl. Hope this is the fire under your ass. Burn it down.

P!nk releases full-length ‘Beautiful Trauma’

Back? Yes. Like he never left? No. Macklemore plays catch-up with his latest solo album, but he still manages to stay endearing from start to finish.

[three_fourth]There aren’t many insults that haven’t been thrown at Macklemore. He has been called an awful lot of things in his career; cocky, entitled, goofy, campy, self-centered, and even racist. Back in the days of 

, I would jump to say that those attributes, true or not, do not change how good of a rapper and performer Macklemore is. However, after the ungodly disaster that was 

, you could find me as far away from the rapper as humanly possible. The album was not only a commercial flop, it was almost unanimously rejected by critics and audiences alike. After a misstep this large, it was evident that something needed to change. Macklemore then split from his beat-maker and partner of ten years, Ryan Lewis, to embark on a solo career. His first LP since the split, 

, is a course correctional quilt of hip-hop; never entirely committing to one sound but rather dabbling in anything rap has become in Macklemore’s absence.

Before continuing, I would like to address what many critics have pointed out, which is Macklemore’s silence on politics on this album. Many would say that his ability to ignore the country’s political climate is in itself a display of white privilege. I won’t say that those people are wrong. However, I will say that it is important to take the album for what it is, not for what it isn’t.

The album starts with a bang and a boom, as the first two tracks blew me away. ‘Ain’t Gonna Die Tonight’ reunites Mack with Eric Nally, the hair metal vocalist from his last big hit ‘Downtown.’ Mack claims, “Wake up bitch, I ain’t dead yet! / And if I was in heaven I would be the best dressed,” harkening back to the days of popping tags. The second track, ‘Glorious,’ is one of my favorite singles of the year. The infectious hook on the track is sung by co-writer Skylar Grey, who I swear only writes comeback singles for rappers after they become irrelevant. Macklemore’s verses on this track are killer, and I agree with his grandma if she said “Woo, that boy got bars.” These tracks, however, set a standard that is not met for the remainder of this exhaustive 16 track LP.

Many tracks on this album are sound-alikes of rap songs we have heard in the past year; namely ‘Marmalade’ ripping off ‘Broccoli’ and ‘iSpy,’ ‘Willy Wonka’ trying to be ‘Loyalty,’ ‘Church’ clumsily imitating anything from 

, ‘How to Play the Flute’ taking a pretty sad jab at ‘Mask Off’ and ‘Good Old Days’ ripping off… ‘Glorious?’ Damn it, Macklemore, you can’t rip off your own music. That’s Drake’s thing. However, despite these shortcomings, there are a few highlights on the album past the first two tracks. ‘Firebreather’ teams Mack up with Reignwolf, a Seattle-based blues trio, for an enjoyable rock track on which Mack spits some of his best lines. ‘Corner Store’ and ‘Intentions’ lean on nostalgia and Macklemore’s uncanny ability to stay composed even when talking about something goofy. It pains me to call the rest of the tracks on this album filler, but I have to call a spade a spade, and they unfortunately do not bring anything interesting, engaging or genuinely entertaining to the listener. The album’s final track, ‘Excavate,’ is a love letter to his daughter and the new life she brings to his world despite his own doubts on his self-worth. It’s touching, vulnerable, and I think a solid end to a mediocre album.

More than anything else, this album shows how much Macklemore needs Ryan Lewis. The beats on this album, spare a few aforementioned tracks, are just not as strong without Lewis in the studio. They lean very heavily on light piano, which after 16 tracks gets a bit exhausting and sounds too safe compared to the bold sounds we used to hear from the hip-hop duo. There are a few moments where the album attempts to make songs connect, with both lyrical content and smooth production, but most of the time it ends up sounding a bit clumsy. The album is still worth a listen through, especially if you are a fan of Macklemore. While nothing spectacular, it brings Mack back to relevance in Hip-Hop and certainly is a listenable and enjoyable rap album. A 

 predicted that the album would be “white rice without soy sauce.” I would say the album is closer to a salad with dried cranberries. You pick through and eat the enjoyable parts, but after that, you have to chew through a whole lot of lettuce.

Matt Wikstrom