Non-Prog Album Reviews

Lupe Fiasco - Samurai (2024)

Genres: Jazz Rap, Abstract Hip Hop, Boom Bap, Conscious Hip Hop, Neo-Soul, Lo-Fi Hip Hop

Rating: 4.5/5

You know, besides Derbe Respect, Alder, I have not reviewed a pure hip hop album this whole year, especially one that came out in the year of our lord. Guess I should change that with this album.

Before going about this review, I didn’t really know Lupe Fiasco. Guess he flew under my radar beforehand, since he’s quite popular in the rap scene. His most popular song on spotify, Battle Scars, has about 378 million listens, and not only that but he has been on some very popular projects, like Late Registration by Kanye West, The Adventures of Bobby Ray by B.o.B, and Doo-Wops & Hooligans by Bruno Mars. This man has been around the music industry quite a bit, and hearing a release from him now, I can see why.

Fiasco is quite the rapper! He has this lush and calmness to his vocals and flows that feel tranquil to my ears. The way he goes from lyric to lyric with a very smooth rhythm makes him really pop. His singing voice is also quite nice, almost having this RnB like charm. He has an almost Frank Ocean-esque tone in his more soulful vocals, which, after listening to Blonde, makes me appreciate this high all the better.

I also really like the backing beats on here. Originally I was going to say that this album felt like a love letter to the rap albums of the past, say stuff from A Tribe Called Quest or Mos Def. While that sort of sound does resonate a bit on here, this is more of a modern take on the whole jazz rap and abstract hip hop themes, going through an almost pastoral level of moods in order to create something that feels both relaxing, whilst at the same time thought provoking. It’s like how Earthside’s Let the Truth Speak was a sort of pastoral answer to the metal scene, but here it is hip hop. I quite love it actually, especially on tracks like Palaces, Outside, and especially Cake.

Speaking of which, Cake is quite a blast to hear. The rhythms, the lyrical contents, the flow Fiasco has, and the backing vocals create an absolutely amazing number of pop rap sensations. Everything on the track just fits so organically together, almost as if Fiasco himself baked us an actual cake with this track. It has layers to it, and I really love it. Just a good fun song.

However, I feel like this album has a bit of a problem, and that is mostly stemming from the concept and length. The concept is mostly about the music industry and the struggle of being an artist in it, which I don’t mind. Many great acts I love have done music with the same concepts. My main issue isn’t that, more so the album with the first track and album cover paints a different sort of context. In fact, when I was about to get into it, I thought I was gonna get something like a Wu-Tang Clan inspired record, but instead I got something completely different, which I don’t think is a bad thing since I still heavily enjoy this piece of music, but I do kinda wish Lupe kept up with a sort of samurai theming throughout the whole, to sort of drive home a linking between each song other than just the concept of the music industry being crappy.

The length is more of the bigger issue though. All the songs are really, really great, so much so that after the album is over I get the feeling of wanting much, much more. I get the whole phrase of “short and sweet” and “quality over quantity”, but I think Lupe has shown quite enough talent that I believe he warrants some more time to shine rather than a measly 30 minute run. Guess there are other albums from him though, but I dig the sound off of Samurai so much that I don’t really know if I will enjoy his other works as much as I do this one. Guess time will tell about that.

Definitely, at least as of right now, my favorite hip hop release of 2024. It has quite a lot to really enjoy here, and I think any raphead should check this one out for a good time. Lupe Fiasco is now in my radar, so I will be sure to see what more he has to offer. Really great stuff!

Best tracks: Cake, Palaces, Outside

Worst track: N/A

My Bloody Valentine - Loveless (1991)

Genres: Shoegaze, Noise Pop, Dream Pop, Neo-Psychedelia

Rating: 4/5

I have sort of wanted to review a My Bloody Valentine album for a bit. Originally I wanted to review m b v first, but due to an album swap giving me Loveless, I guess I’ll start my endeavors with what is commonly coined as the best shoegaze record ever made.

Released in 1991, Loveless was sort of an experiment for the band, trying out new guitar vibratos and tunings to see what they could produce. This is why the record cover has a picture of a guitar on it, as all of the songs revolve around it.

In fact, I’d say this is one of the few records that actually sounds like the cover, as the guitars on Loveless sound distorted, colorful, and washed over in a mysterious light, much like the cover presents. It is as noisy as I described, but it is a good noise, for the most part. The noisiness the record advertises is certainly a highlight for me, weaving through dynamics the songs provide. While past, and even some future projects My Bloody Valentine has made did show off the distortion to great effect, Loveless is definitely where they put it to its most ripe use.

However, I do find the noise to get sort of overbearing a bit, and at points not in a particularly good way. When it works, like on Only Shallow and I Only Said it is quite amazing, but sometimes like on Loomer, Touched, and To Here Knows When...it kind of makes me want to file a noise complaint. I feel like previous My Bloody Valentine projects, like the EPs and Isn’t Anything do a far better job with the noise then Loveless in my personal opinion. Sure they were very raw, and more punky, but they had a much stronger handle upon the noise than what Loveless loves to show-off. You Made Me Realise is a good example of this, as they work in the raw, unfiltered production into account for the EP. While Loveless certainly has good production, I sometimes feel like the guitars are too up in my ears for me to notice any of the other elements. I love noisy shoegaze, but sometimes I also want to hear more than just guitars blaring in my ears. At that point I will just turn on a Boris album.

However, the elements this record can showcase are quite superb! Kevin Shields and Bilinda Butcher are both excellent vocalists for the music. Bilinda especially has such a wonderful singing voice that I think complements the heartfelt lyrics incredibly, especially on the opening track of Only Shallow. Oh, and Colm O'Ciosoig is quite a great drummer here too, giving a lot of oomph in the wake of the distorted guitars. He is really strong in Only Shallow too! Actually, speaking of such, Only Shallow really is the best song on here in my opinion. It is an amazing opener, with a strong, almost proto-blackgaze hook with the guitars, perfectly showcasing what the album is about.

However, again, there is a part of me that finds this to be their weakest effort, at least in terms of the studio. Sure, it is still very, very strong in terms of the whole shoegaze mythos, but I feel like maybe this record is a bit...overrated. I hate using that word, but I just find this record to not be as amazing as some people say it is. Whenever I listen to the album, I sometimes ask myself “This is pretty good, but shouldn’t I be listening to m b v instead?” or “This song is great! But wouldn’t it be even better if it sounded more akin to the stuff on Isn’t Anything?” in a sort of vicious cycle. A part of me DOES want to view this as a five star, in fact it hurts me that I am giving something like this a low four, but the more I hear it the more I just find the other two records the band has made to be far more rewarding. I know this take is as hot as the pink upon the cover, but I cannot deny my feelings for this album. It is probably my least favorite My Bloody valentine project ever. None of their projects are bad, mind you, but out of any and all of their releases, I much rather listen to something like Feed Me With Your Kisses than Loveless again.

However, I do not want to end this review on a low note, so I do wanna give one final positive remark on this album, by saying thank you to it. Due to its popularity with the public, it practically created a movement for more of the shoegaze style of music. Because of Loveless, I can enjoy groups like Alvvays, Parannoul, Candy Claws; Groups that might’ve never gotten their sound if it wasn’t for Loveless. In fact, maybe some great blackgaze bands like Alcest and Asunojokei wouldn’t be around if it wasn’t for the love that Loveless has garnered since its release. So, if anything, it deserves praise for that, right? So, yeah, thanks Loveless.

I do suggest at least trying this out if you haven’t. You probably have, I mean it is one of the most celebrated records of the 90s, but still if you haven’t then maybe give it a spin to see what you think. Who knows, maybe it can be a masterpiece for you.

Best tracks: Only Shallow, I Only Said

Worst tracks: Loomer, Touched, To Here Knows When

The Microphones - Little Bird Flies Into a Big Black Cloud (2002)

Genres: Singer-Songwriter, Indie Folk, Poetry

Rating: 5/5

When you ask someone what the best Microphones album is, most often you'll hear people say The Glow Part 2, and perhaps in some cases Mount Eerie. However I say his best actually comes in between those two albums, Little Bird Flies Into a Big Black Cloud.

Odd choice to consider a masterpiece from Phil’s project, but there is something quite personally masterful about it. Sure it may not be as experimental as Mount Eerie, nor as expansive as The Glow Part 2, but Little Bird just has something that just clicked right for me when I first heard it.

Perhaps it is the very lite instrumentation, focusing more on Phil’s very somber sounding voice. Most songs here utilize an organ or piano in the mix, giving the backing a very personal quality, benefitting from the lo-fi quality the record has. Heck, sometimes there is no instrumental, and instead just pure silence with Phil’s poetry to comfort the listener. It is weirdly mystical, and I adore it in all aspects. It's sparse and introspective, but without the abundant faults such descriptors could show within an album.

The poetry on this record is also incredibly well put together. Microphones songs have good songwriting a lot of the time, but there is a sense of enigmatic beauty within Little Bird that no other album has shown. Stuff like Phil Elvrum’s Will, or Painful Storms Will Always Come to Blur My Way just has this incredibly detailed writing that both soothes and irks the core of my being in a way that no Microphones album has ever done. I feel as though I see a fraction of what Phil saw whilst making this album, and in some retrospect what he saw while making his, then, finale record of Mount Eerie.

But I actually think the biggest reason why I personally love this album is that it came to me at a time when things were changing very quickly. I listened to this album on a car ride, leaving a home I grew up in. You see, a month or so back me and my family were moving away from Wyoming to Texas, and for a lot of people moving is a massive change. It didn’t help that I was gonna be turning 18 years old in a few days, so I myself was experiencing a change that was pretty great. So, with all that in mind, you can see why I have become adoring for this extremely retrospective, and personal album.

I know for a fact I won’t make people feel the same way for this album as I do. After all, in a more objective light The Glow Part 2 and Mount Eerie are 10x better than this record, I can admit that, but in my more subjective oriented ways, I find this record to just be pure magic. Just an amazing piece of music that came at a time when I needed it most.

Best tracks: I Got Stabbed, Phil Elvrum’s Will, Three Steps, Painful Storms Will Always Come to Blur My Way

Worst tracks: N/A

Chat Pile - Cool World (2024)

Genres: Noise Rock, Sludge Metal, Post-Hardcore, Industrial Metal, Deathrock, Nu Metal

Rating: 4/5

Two years ago I reviewed an album by a relatively new noise rock outfit called Chat Pile. The album, God’s Country, was what I considered to just be purely ok, with some things I quite liked, but also a good amount of stuff I felt didn’t lend to the band’s benefits. Two years later, the band would release their second (or third if you count Tenkiller as their second album) studio release, titled Cool World.

I wasn’t too sure on how I would like this record. While I did like God’s Country, I felt like its direction wasn’t as good as what some people seem to make it out to be, especially with the pretty lackluster production and mixing. However I was pleasantly surprised with how much they grew in terms of making music, right from the get go of the album’s first track of I Am Dog Now, which is easily one of the plentiful highlights this album brings.

I feel like what really sets this album apart is the band really diving deep into a more sludge metal sound, akin to that of Today Is the Day, with some industrial and nu metal aspects occasionally straying into frame. I felt like the more post-punk direction wasn’t really working for God’s Country, so them upping on that album’s strongest genres here, as well as doing some new stuff in some cases is what I really like to hear from this group. They really are putting the SLUDGE in sludge metal on here, and I think that is really something to admire.

The noise rock also has been improved quite dramatically. It is still very noisy, especially in the production (we’ll get to that) but I feel like it isn’t as egregious as before. In fact, I kinda like how it feels like a cross between something incredibly intense, but also mellow enough for it to feel kind of accessible in a way. It’s kind of like Sonic Youth’s brand of noise rock, but in a way that makes the melancholy of their music fit within the aggro of Chat Pile’s sound. Speaking of melancholy, I also quite like the emotions here more than in God's Country. God’s Country I felt like was angry, certainly at something, but still has a sort of directionless basis in its wake. Cool World though I find to be angry but in a very depressing way. Legit, I feel as though sometimes Randy Rulz is holding back tears with how overwrought his voice comes out at times, almost like he, and the music itself, are having a panic attack at the current state of the world. I especially like this because I can definitely relate somewhat. Politics and current affairs in practically every place ever gives me stress. A lot of stress actually. A lot of modern day stuff just makes me feel very tired and stressed out in many ways, so honestly Cool World’s biggest strength, in my mind, is that it perfectly within my levels of stress at the world in any moment. It's a sonic anger that pushes and pulses, and for that I think it's a really good effort!

However, while Cool World is a massive improvement to God’s Country, I still feel like there are still some issues that need to be addressed. Particularly, the production, while still a bit better than their previous output, still feels a bit too muddy, especially in the bass. Some things are just a bit too loud, and not in a really good way either. I wish the production was still very noisy, but still had an edge of less headachy volumes.

Another thing this album does kind of fall short on is the second half. Yep, I’d say this album has a curse of the forbidden top heavy treatment. While the first five tracks of I Am Dog Now through Camcorder are really good, I feel like the last five just doesn’t really do as much for me as the previous tracks did. They’re still good tracks, don’t get me wrong, but they just don’t hit on the same level or are as strong as stuff like Funny Man or Frownland.

Even if Chat Pile still has some shortcomings in their music, it is clear they have improved greatly in my mind. Cool World is a glow up and a half in practically every sense of the word, and it does give me some hope that this band will continue improving and making awesome new music. Definitely keep an eye out for this group now, because they really rock!

Best tracks: I Am Dog Now, Frownland, Funny Man, Camcorder

Worst track: Milk of Human Kindness