Unknown Mortal Orchestra – II
Psychedelic-inspired music has recently enjoyed a resurgence in popularity, blending the ’60s-era genre with anything from modern rap acts to contemporary indie rockers. Coinciding with this new wave of psychedelia, indie three-piece Unknown Mortal Orchestra haven’t tread any new ground with their appropriately-titled second album, II, but they make an amazing case for the trippy genre’s return.
Lead by singer/songwriter Ruban Nielson’s expansive repertoire of guitar licks, II takes listeners on a surprising genre-spanning journey from the R&B-infused falsetto vocals of “So Good at Being in Trouble” to the steadily up-tempo jam “No Need for a Leader.”
The first half of the album is laden with tightly-wound guitar riffs, like Nielson wanted to squeeze as much complexity as possible into the simple toe-tapping pop melodies that define much of the album. This constant dominance of the guitar structures can grow tiresome, but at just the right time they start to give way to the driving funkiness of Jake Portrait’s basslines on “Monki” and “No Need for a Leader.”
Unknown Mortal Orchestra seems to be hiding a lot of complexity underneath the lo-fi fuzz of Nielson’s guitar on II, making it a satisfying album to both finish and revisit.
The Bronx – IV
Formed in 2002, LA punk rockers The Bronx have returned to their hard rock roots after recording nothing but mariachi music for five years. Titled IV, The Bronx prove that making mariachi music has yet to dull their gritty edge, delivering 12 intense tracks to remind old fans of the band’s early days.
Sadly, given all the album’s intensity, IV feels offensively safe coming from a band known in the past for songs like “Kill My Friends” and “Rape Zombie.” From track to track all that stands out on IV is the monotonous slog of one catchy chorus to another.
The album’s second track, “Along for the Ride,” has enough adrenaline and drive to match the intensity that punk rock is known for, but that intensity is ultimately undermined by a chorus that sounds like it was cherry picked right from a Foo Fighters record and spliced directly into this one.
Much later in the album, IV offers a few gems to attract new listeners such as the soul-bearing “Life Less Ordinary” and the surprisingly complex “Torches,” however the rest of the album fails to reach beyond anything further than familiar territory for The Bronx.
Cakes da Killa – The Eulogy
New York rapper Cakes da Killa just released his first full-length mixtape and it could not have come any sooner. In all of its flamboyancy, The Eulogy is probably the best answer to the ongoing debate over homosexuality in hip-hop.
For the uninitiated, hip-hop is a relatively young genre that is currently going through some growing pains in getting over its homophobia. That homophobia is altogether thrown out the window on The Eulogy, as Cakes fearlessly spits bar after bar of extremely clever lyrics, bragging that he can turn a homophobe into a hypocrite over an instrumentally complex collection of trap, footwork and juke-inspired beats.
Lyrically, Cakes sounds just like old school Lil Kim, almost to the point that you could sneak a track from The Eulogy onto Kim’s Hard Core and no one would notice. Unlike Lil Kim however, there is something unequivocally fresh about Cakes da Killa despite his use of New York hip-hop’s tradition of boastful lyrics and depictions of cartoon violence.
The Eulogy is an extremely fun listen accessible to almost anyone, but more importantly, The Eulogy is not Cakes da Killa trying to present the world with some kind of statement or message about homosexuality—it’s just a guy being himself.