ALBUM REVIEW: Mac Miller-Watching Movies With the Sound Off
Mac Miller is one of several rappers that deeply confound me. I mean, just a few years ago, It was pretty easy to just ignore him. He was an act that teen girls always got really excited about. Back then I probably associated him with that idiotic Donald Trump song. Now (perhaps out of nowhere, or perhaps because I’ve just kind of ignored the guy) he drops an album featuring Earl Sweatshirt, Tyler the Creator, Schoolboy Q, Action Bronson…basically a ton of really talented and somewhat underground rappers.
I gave Blue Side Park a listen when it came out, and I found myself rather unimpressed. The production was OK, but Miller himself tends to stick to a monotone delivery that just kind of aggravates me. He also has a tendency to play with words sporadically, but what he’s saying never carries any weight. I was hoping, with all these features from proven lyricists, that he’d improve a bit as a rapper on Watching Movies With the Sound Off. Nope.
My biggest problem with this album, just like every other Miller project I’ve bothered to look into, is Miller himself. I can’t deny that he has some taste (Which I’ll get to). But he constantly puts himself with musicians that only accent how mediocre Miller is as a rapper. Miller relies almost entirely on a laid back and collected flow. Sometimes he does bring a slight variant to the style (like on the hilariously ignorant Goosebumpz), but for the most part his flow doesn’t change. Even worse than his flow’s tendency to switch into monotony is his bland delivery. Throughout the tape, Mac Miller just comes across as disinterested and bored. The guy puts the same lack of soul and effort into tracks that are supposed to be powerful (Like the missed-opportunity REMember or the painfully generic Youforia) as he does on tracks where he raps about smoking weed and having sex…which he does a lot. Plus, there’s no sense of lyrical creativity on much of the album. I mean, can someone tell him that Danny Brown did basically the same thing Miller did on Birdcall two years ago on Monopoly?
When Miller isn’t rapping, he’s delivering half sung hooks. The hooks on this album are probably some of the worst hooks I’ve heard on a Hip-Hop album this year. Miller delivers them with the same lazy lack of gravitas that permeates the rest of his music. Not one hook (Save the ignorant Goosebumpz) sounds different from another. It’s terrible. Miller tries for several catchy moments throughout the album, and a heavy majority of these attempts just fall flat on their faces.
What really saddens me about this album is that Miller brings in a hugely talented base of collaborators, but he completely underutilized them. Aside from shining moments of hope from Ab-Soul and Action Bronson (and Jay Electronica, depending on how I’m feeling), the guests and producers kind of sank into Miller’s bland quicksand. Schoolboy Q drops a sadly underwhelming verse, and Earl and Tyler bring serviceable yet forgettable contributions to the table (Thought it’s nice to note that Tyler is continuing to experiment with new production styles on OK).
Something else that makes Watching Movies With the Sound Off a mind-boggling bummer is the fact that, despite the plethora of great producers brought in, none of them can save some of the songs they’re on. Flying Lotus is one of the most creative producers around today, but his beat on S.D.S. feels kind of generic and uninspired. Plus, while I love Clams Casino, his contribution on tracks like Youforia and Bird Call feel like retreads…retreads that can’t save the mediocre songs they’re supporting. Alchemist and Pharrell bring some of the best beats to the table, but they don’t hold a candle to some of their finer work. The only beat I really liked on here, surprisingly, was the Tyler beat on OK. It wasn’t brilliant, but at least it tried something different.
Watching Movies With the Sound Off isn’t necessarily an excruciating listen. While there are some moments that are unbearable, most of it is at least tolerable. And there are some songs that manage to overcome the problems that bring the album down. As I said before, Red Dot Music has some ok production and a really nice Action Bronson feature. Ab-Soul practically saves Matches from being completely mediocre. Plus there are moments where Miller does get somewhere lyrically (He gets there on I Am Who I Am). What this album needed was more of these moments, and less of Miller’s unnecessary self-indulgence.
Summary: Watching Movies With the Sound Off just reaffirms Miller as rather bland rapper who relies too much on mediocre hooks and barely interesting subject matter. It also doesn’t help that the collaborators are surprisingly weak.
Choice Cuts: Goosebumpz, OK, Red Dot Music
Leftovers: Youforia, Goes, Watching Movies
1.5/5
Watching Movies With the Sound Off is out now on Rostrum Records.
What’s your opinion on Watching Movies With the Sound Off? Is Mac Miller a fresh Hip-Hop sensation or just someone who can make an OK pop song…or is he an overrated and mediocre rapper? Also, what do you think I should review next?
ALBUM REVIEW: Mac DeMarco- 2
Mac DeMarco is a Singer/Songwriter from Montreal who specializes in a form of Jangle Pop. For those who don’t know what Jangle Pop is, it is a genre that focuses on jangly, bright guitars. For the most part, I normally love Jangle Pop. The guitar tone used in a lot of the music is easily one of my favorite instrument sounds (To give other examples of artists that utilize this style, there’s earl R.E.M. and The Smiths). However, Mac DeMarco makes it a bit hard to listen to those guitars.
The chord progression on a lot of these songs are fantastic. The post-chorus strumming on Dreaming is absolutely fantastic. In fact, there’s a lot of moments on this album where the guitar takes the lead and really shows itself off in fine form. In fact, some of the more mediocre songs on the album are made listenable simply with the inclusion of these guitars. Ode To Viceroy is a dreadfully miserable song, until that complex guitar solo ends it. I might be biased because they do have a guitar tone I’m inclined to like. But whatever.
However, while I really like the guitars on this album, I don’t care for very much of anything else. DeMarco is clearly a songwriter and guitarist before a singer. His low baritone often feels off key, wobbly, and lacking confidence. All of these are qualities that make a bad vocalist. So, if you get my gist, I think that Mac DeMarco is a bad vocalist. His low baritone falls into sleep lulls several times on the album, which is borderline aggravating (Annie is the biggest culprit here) Sure, there have been Singer-Songwriters that have bad voices that make it work (Bright Eyes, I’d dare say). But they have a kind of charisma or styling to their voice that makes their music tolerable. DeMarco’s vocals have nothing going for him.
Besides DeMarco’s really unbearable vocals, the songwriting is just…OK. There is nothing profound or deep or vaguely interesting about anything he says. All of his songwriting comes across as something we could easily get from other bands that have better sounds. So that also works against Mac DeMarco.
And then there’s the biggest offense this album commits: It’s boring. Aside from me being amused by the guitars every couple of minutes, there is nothing remotely interesting about this album. Songs that have long verses that rely more on driving percussion and DeMarco’s singing fall flat on their faces. Robson Girl has the most dreadful verse and chorus on the album. Speaking of Choruses, there are none of note. Not one infectious chorus. Nor are there any Guitar riffs that sink deep into your skin for much longer than…oh…15 seconds. It’s all in one ear and out the other.
This album isn’t horrendous. I like the guitars enough for me to be able to listen to the whole thing all the way through. Plus, tuning out DeMarco’s vocals is surprisingly effective. Maye if DeMarco kept the guitar and ditched the vocals, we could have a pretty crazy instrumental album. Or he could work with more talented vocalists and songwriters to put something else out. Or he develops his talents a bit more, which we get a very slight hint of on Still Together. Something that isn’t this.
Summary: 2 has some fantastic guitar work, but the vocals and songwriting leave a bit (a lot) to be desired.
Choice Cuts: Freaking Out The Neighborhood, Still Together
1.5/5
Stream Ode To the Viceroy below. 2 is out now on Captured Tracks
ALBUM REVIEW: Meek Mill- Dreams & Nightmares
It’s been a long 10 months. From mixtape to mixtape to mixtape…that MMG showcase album…that dissapointing-but-not-realy-that-bad Rick Ross album…we’ve finally reached what I and many others have been waiting for: Meek Mill’s solo debut album. Of all the Maybach Music signees (Which seemingly grow every month), Meek Mill has always shown the most promise. While fellow MMG members like Stalley and Wale rely on bland flows with “deep” lyricism, Meek Mill has been bringing a certain unhinged energy to everything he’s done with Maybach Music. The best tracks on Self Made 2 involved Meek Mill. Mill was also on God Forgives, I Don’t more than most of the other MMG members. He always had interesting verses, so of course I was most excited for his Warner Bros. debut.
So here we are, the big debut for Meek Mill. And of course, it’s a massively disappointing album.
The opening track, Dreams and Nightmares is the best example of what I’m talking about. At first, it seems like we’re going to get some more dimensions to Meek Mill than the aggressive flow that made his mixtapes fun, but not great. But of course, the serious moment is abruptly broken by his aggressive flow, where he rhymes about the same braggadocio bull that MMG has made its name from. The song feels a bit odd, since he’s practically screaming about Rolex watches and things. Of course, the way the song went matches the song title, but it could have been executed much better.
Really, the things that worked well on his Dreamchasers mixtapes don’t work here. In God We Trust has a thundering southern beat, but it’s the background music to Meek Mill’s obnoxious empty rants about how famous he is and how much he loves his own penis. As a Hip-Hop enthusiast, such subject matter really gets old after hearing it 100 times. The main problem I notice about the album is that Meek Mill still has a mixtape state of mind throughout the tape. Bragging on a tape normally works better, since the tapes are meant to show off how good a rapper you are. Of course there’s some bragging involved. But on an album, you should prove yourself with things other than empty claims. Meek doesn’t provide much beyond that here.
Really, this feels like an early Rick Ross album. It might be kind of fun to listen to, but it’s nothing really beyond that. The comparison really sticks out. The track with Kirko Bangz (Young & Gettin’ It) is just a couple random rants about how rich and better Meek Mill is, with Kirko singing an awful (if a bit catchy) hook to tie everything loosely together (Side note, Kirko Bangz has the dumbest name…is it supposed to sound like Kurt Cobain? Because if so, that makes absolutely no sense.). Believe It (Which features Rick Ross) opens with Rick Ross grunting the following line:
All I Talk About Is Money
At least they’re somewhat self aware. However, the following song is nothing but expensive things they own, including Meek Mill talking about “Trying to get this money!” (Which, being signed to Warner Bros. makes no sense since he probably just gets cash automatically for just existing. That might not be true, but the line seems a bit false.). Plus the beat sounds like the same Teflon Don beats Rick Ross has been using constantly since he finally got some respect for that album. Except the empty claims are no longer humorous and astounding. They’re just obnoxious.
I could go into more than half the tracks here and how much the lyrics take away from everything else, but I’d rather not. I accept this kind of stuff from Rick Ross, but I just can’t from Meek Mill. Especially since it’s clearly just him emulating his label’s boss. The brags come across as less impressive and more pathetic.
Some tracks end up being at least somewhat better than the generic ostentatious songs that clutter this album. Traumatized has a nice, subdued beat with Meek Mill actually trying to tell a story (to mixed success) with a calmer flow. Maybach Curtains has a nice hook by John Legend and a classy (if slightly generic and synthetic) beat. Plus, the Nas verse is pretty solid. Plus, with this inundation of loud Rick Ross songs lately, it’s nice to hear him rap over a smoother track here. Plus, the previously released Amen has a great beat, a great hook, and some nice verses.
There are other little problems scattered throughout the tape. Tony Story Pt. 2 has some cheesy sound effects and some off-kilter flow from Mill that sounds nearly off beat. Mary J. Blige’s hook on Who You’re Around feels really out of place. Oh, and Meek’s yelling again for no reason. Then the last 3 tracks all have bad hooks and bland/mishandled production. But the worst offense is that Meek didn’t give us a debut album. He gave us Dreamchasers 3.
In a bigger picture, this album really has made me give up on Maybach Music. Nothing they’ve released this year has been more than “Alright”, and at this point they’re a loud noisy hype. And Meek just happens to be the loudest of the bunch.
Summary: Dreams & Nightmares really disappoints, offering little more than his mixtapes before gave us, plus it shows way too much dependance on braggadocios and generic beats.
Choice Cuts: Maybach Curtains, Amen
1.5/5
The video for Amen is below. Dreams & Nightmares is out now on Warner Bros./ Maybach Music
ALBUM REVIEWS: Mellowhype-Numbers
If you wanted BlackenedWhite part 2…well…you’re going to get more of a Part 1.5
Mellowhype is a duo made up of Odd Future members Hodgy Beats and Left Brain. In most cases, Hodgy is the one rapping and Left Brain is on production, but sometimes Left Brain will rap on tracks. On this years OF Tape 2, Hodgy proved himself to be one of the best rappers in the entire group. That might not be saying incredibly much, but the only two who sound any better are Tyler and Earl. Sure, those two might (subjectively) be great in their own regard, but Hodgy has shown a lot of growth since the first OF Tape. His voice has a solid charisma and flow to it.
Now, this is Mellowhype’s “Debut”, kind of. They’re last effort, BlackenedWhite, was a mixtape that was re-released as an album. I did enjoy that effort quite a bit. It had some chill vibes and some fun songs. I’ve never been the biggest fan of any of Odd Future’s production, but Left Brain’s beats on that tape worked fine with everything going on. The tape was also thematically all over the place, not keeping a consistent mood. Luckily, it managed to be a solid project overall.
Flash-forward a year later. Odd Future now has its own record label, Earl returned, Frank Ocean pushed Tyler aside for “Break Out OF Star”, and the entire group has experimented in solo work. In terms of growth, this is easily the weakest Odd Future release so far this year. One thing I liked about OF Tape 2 was that it showed off some great growth from several of the supporting characters in the crew. Domo Genesis established himself as something worth attention, and Hodgy proved to be serviceable cohort to Tyler’s antics during Earl’s absence. Then, throughout the year, we’ve gotten some solid material from everyone. The Internet dropped an alright album, Domo Genesis did a mixtape with alchemist (Note: Odd Future members will always sound better on outside production), and Hodgy had a short little EP farther back.
I was hoping that Numbers would be Hodgy’s big coming out moment, as a rapper to be reckoned with. However, instead we got “BlackenedWhite 2: 2 Times the Ignorance!”. Hodgy sounds fine throughout the album (When he should be sounding great, but I won’t focus too much on this gripe). Instead of focusing on lyrics, we get some of the worst hooks I’ve ever heard (Grill is excruciating). And that’s coming from the group that made a chorus out of “Swag! Swag! Punch a! Bitch!”…
The other major problem I have here is Left Brain. The guy is serviceable to the group, but not musically. He’s funny in interviews and kind of acts like the old guy of the group. However, he can’t rap at all. His flow is slow, disjointed, and nonsensical. He has an interesting voice, but the guy can’t utilize it for the life of him.
Then there’s the production. Like most Odd Future releases, my main problem is the production here. It was probably made on some Sam’s Club keyboards, but this time they’ve thrown in some incredibly annoying melodies to it. A lot of the beats are overly repetitive, too sparse, and lack any originality whatsoever. Some of the beats even come across as childish and obnoxious.
Now, I didn’t hate absolutely everything about this tape. Overall, the aesthetic they go for kind of works. If you want an album that “Sounds” like a Mellowhype album (AKA a smoother Odd Future record), that’s exactly what you get. You don’t get much more than that, but if that’s all you want, this should be fine. Plus, as much as the beats lacked any punch, they did generally go well with the mood of the album. However, outside of the mood, I was not behind this project at all.
Summary: Numbers fails to show any growth for Hodgy and Left Brain, relying too much on uninteresting production and poor hooks.
Choice Cuts- Astro
1.5/5
Watch the video for La Bonita below. Numbers is out now on Odd Future
MIXTAPE REVIEW: Rick Ross- The Black Bar Mitzvah
Before I say anything, this is easily one of the funnier album covers I’ve ever seen.
Alright, down to business. Rick Ross has been pretty busy this year. And by being pretty busy, I mean he’s slowly became incredibly annoying. In 2010, it seemed like he was finally on top of the world. Teflon Don managed to be a great album, and he had some fantastic verses on other people’s albums (His verse on Kanye’s MBDTF on Devil In a New Dress is still one of my favorite Hip-Hop verses, period). However, this year, his cartoonish personality became less charismatic and entertaining. It transformed into something annoying and obnoxiously omnipresent.
With all his Maybach Music cronies trying to make names for themselves, Rozay has been all over. He had his first mixtape way back in January (Which was pretty solid), that MMG compilation in early Summer (Which was OK), and then he had his OK but disappointing album God Forgives, I Don’t in late July. Plus he’s been running around trying to prove that Meek Mill and all those other guys on MMG our worth our attention. By releasing so much material in a small amount of time, Rick Ross has in a way watered down the quality of his own music.
On this latest tape (The 4th Rick Ross full length this year…), Rick Ross pulls a Dedication and raps over the beats of others. Normally, if you rap over beats people are already familiar, you’re supposed to bring something to the table lyrically and stylistically. Rick Ross does neither of these things.
The one original beat on the album, on Intro, is basically a Maybach Music Group newsletter. He announces Meek Mill’s new album, the MMG tour, Shouts out “All his partners” (AKA His labels Def Jam and Warner Bros. and the corporations that pay him to wear their sneakers and drink their liquor). It’s painful to listen to, as it starts the tape off in weak fashion and really does nothing to better the tape.
The first track on the tape, he raps over the G.O.O.D. Music remix of Don’t Like, replacing Pusha T’s verse. He basically talks about what he always talks about (Crazy street stuff and how he’s rich now). His flow is typical, and isn’t anything different or interesting. Oh, and he shouts out his labels and sponsors again. Then, instead of ending the song early, he just includes the rest of the original song, keeping the entire verses of Kanye, Chief Keef, and Jadakiss. This is a bad idea because all three show how weak Rozay’s verse is in comparison.
Some of the beats he borrows just don’t suit him well. Ross tries to rap fast over the Mercy beat but it just makes him seem slow and incredibly out of place. Rockie Fresh also drops a verse, but the song is produced so weird that it just feels tacked on and out of place. Not to mention it’s incredibly forgettable. Oh, and then he still keeps better verses by Kanye and 2 Chainz on the song. The same problem happens on his redo of Clique. Burn is another one that kind of works, but again Rozay’s slower flow doesn’t really match the intensity of the beat.
Some of the beats do work better. Rick Ross sounds good on the southern boom Us (Drake, however…). Birthday is such an ignorant song that it does work with Rick Ross. That’s one thing that makes this Mixtape at least kind of work. The amount of beats that Rick Ross sounds OK over is at a higher percent than other mixtapes similar to this (Like that Lil Wayne disaster Dedication 4).
He then redoes his own song on 911, adding 2 Chainz. The song works better on this mixtape than it did on the album, but it still isn’t anything incredibly special. The second half is built off of beats I’m not as familiar with, but none of them work to astounding degrees. Some of them have obnoxious hooks (Or beats in general), and Rick Ross doesn’t really add anything to them. Some of the songs do become original (Why are they at the end of the album?), but they don’t really do Rick Ross or his guests any justice.
Most songs are just OK, or worse. The whole tape just feels like a throwaway advertisement for (hopefully) better MMG projects and whatever else Rick Ross is being fed…I mean…paid to promote.
Summary: The Black Bar Mitzvah is forgettable and mostly a throwaway that feels more like an advertisement than an actual mixtape.
Choice Cuts- 911, Birthday Song
1.5/5
You can download the mixtape here.
ALBUM REVIEW: Deerhoof-Breakup Song
Deerhoof is an Indie Noise Rock group from San Francisco, and they’ve been dropping albums since 1996, Breakup Song being their 11th. I’m not overly familiar with their past work, including last years Deerhoof Vs. Evil, so this is my first time really observing their music. And I left this album a bit…unimpressed.
The main problem with the album is it’s combination of noise rock with a vocalist who just doesn’t seem to realize that she is singing on a noise rock album. It’s an odd, contradicting, and ultimately confusing sound. For example, on Bad Kids to the Front, these weird, dissonant synth plucks hit every few seconds, and while I don’t really care for the sound they make, they sure sound threatening. There’s also some bells and whistles, making the instrumentation loud and uninviting. But vocalist Satomi Matsuzaki has a light, bubbly, very inviting voice. It doesn’t mesh well with the instrumentation on the album, at least for me.
My distaste for this album is somewhat swayed since the sound itself bothers me. Even though the instrumentation itself is OK, a lot of the synths and electronics are just too sharp and plucky to really be inviting. The music is very unsure of what it wants to be throughout the album. Some songs hit the right note, like Mothball the Fleet, where the instrumentation manages to keep that noisy element without coming across as too complicated and messy to not compliment Matsuzaki’s voice. However, Mothball the Fleet is an exception on the album, as most of the rest of the album is just ugly noise with some sweet but forgettable vocals over it.
The songs are all pretty repetitive as well. Fête D’Adieu the album closer feels like two choruses that just keep going back and forth and back and forth. It’s kind of excruciating. Songs like this also rely way too much on the vocals (I’ll get back to that), and the instrumentation (which while not not fantastic, it is more interesting) is completely buried by melody and the production.
Satomi Matsuzaki’s voice isn’t really my cup of tea, as she’s kind of an uninteresting vocalist. Her voice stays in the same higher range the entire album, and really just sings some boring melodies over the noise rock below. The melodies are all bland, and she just repeats the same words over and over for choruses and “hooks”. To be a good noise rock vocalist, in my opinion, you have to be just as noisy as the arrangements you’re singing over, kind of like a Sleigh Bells. Here, it sounds like a little girl’s tea party backed by crashing computers and nasty guitar licks. She seems totally out of place, and even if she were in place, she’d remain a very uninteresting vocalist.
There are a few moments on this album I’d say I legitimately like. The opening of To Fly or Not to Fly is pretty captivating (Even if the rest of the song isn’t), and The Trouble With Candyhands has some weird Latin-flavored horns and is actually an enjoyable song. There are also moments, that while they kind of fall flat, are interesting through their weird and new sounds. The rest of this album, though, just doesn’t hit any of the right notes.
Summary: The combination of noise rock on and sweet vocals on Breakup Song doesn’t work at all, despite some interesting experimentation.
Choice Cuts- The Trouble With Candyhands
1.5/5
The video for Fête D’Adieu is below. Breakup Song is out now on Polyvinyl.
ALBUM REVIEW: Bloc Party- Four
Oh, Bloc Party. The Rise and continual fall of the English Indie Rock band has been pretty sad to witness, especially considering how great their 2005 debut Silent Alarm was. However, in the years since that album, most everything has just been downhill for the group. Each follow-up album has been consistently worse than one before, from their Debut to A Weekend in the City to Intamacy. Most would hope that this pattern would be reversed on this album, but sadly it hasn’t been.
Four kind of was/wasn’t Bloc Party’s comeback. This album, while kind of staying consistent with their original sound, still manages to sound even more generic and forcefully radio-friendly than ever before. So He Begins to Lie, which kind of feels like an old Bloc Party song, has a chorus that has a hook that feels like something I’d hear Brandon Flowers wail with The Killers. Real Talk is a slower song that has been done by every band on your local alternative station (Kind of like a slow Red Hot Chili Peppers song). Meanwhile Kettling has crunchy guitar riffs that fit more on a Smashing Pumpkins or Silversun Pickups track than a Bloc Party track. Not to say that if they were to be influenced by these bands is a bad thing, but all the sounds they experiment with here just sound better by a lot of other artists.
Most tracks are just so generic and bland, you can’t get much from them. The closest thing to an old Bloc Party track was Octopus, and we all know that they did that song much better when it was most of the tracks on Silent Alarm. Other tracks are just so boring. Nothing’s wrong with them on a technical level, but the album tries so hard to sound unlike their original sound and doesn’t get away with it. Maybe if some of the lyrics were a bit more interesting, but that’s just not the case. They tend to play second fiddle to the musicality of each song, and that wouldn’t be a problem if the musicality was a little less boring. But…
Not to say EVERYTHING about this album is bad. Day Four is a pleasant slow song, which even if it’s a generic little song it sure sticks out here. Plus The Healing is nice too, with some slower percussion. And again, it isn’t aggravatingly hard to listen to. It would fit in just find if it were to come on the radio or something. But that’s the problem. It seems like it was crafted to sound like that, and it feels too forced for it to be more than some pleasant background noise.
Summary: Four tries a bit too hard to sound radio-ready with boring songs, and it’s attempts at getting back to the good old Silent Alarm days don’t work out as well as they should.
Choice Cuts- Day Four, The Healing
1.5/5
The video for Octopus is below. Four is out on Frenchkiss now.
Vantage Point Music 