Walking on a Pretty Daze – Kurt Vile
What initially sounds like a strange Bob Dylan impersonation quickly becomes a gradually sprawling, nine-and-a-half minute long lo-fi indie-rock jam revolving around a blissfully repetitive guitar riff that Kurt Vile uses as both the opening track and the blueprint to his latest album Waking on a Pretty Daze.
It’s not surprising that song, “Waking on a Pretty Day,” would set the tone for the rest of the similarly-titled album, making Vile’s intent clear: he’s taking his time with this one. Gone are the compact pop songs of Vile’s previous albums as they have been replaced almost exclusively with five-to-eight-minute-long tracks that often emulate 70s-era rock.
“Girl Called Alex” is perhaps the most gradual track on the album, taking almost a full minute just to unwind its intro into something Vile can mumble his equally laid back and self-aware lyrics to. “Alex” might go largely ignored due to all the other gems that surround it like the short and upbeat “Never Run Away” that follows it, but “Alex” is one of Daze’s most impressive tracks as it swells into a massive cascade of sounds only to slowly drift away into nothingness.
That mastery of pace shown by Vile is what makes Waking on a Pretty Daze such a success: there’s no hurry, yet the urgency in some tracks is never sacrificed to meet that spaced-out end.
Twelve Reasons to Die – Ghostface Killah
Ghostface Killah’s concept album based on a comic book Twelve Reasons to Die may seem underwhelming with its runtime clocking in at just under 40 minutes, but this small package is wrapped so tightly that it feels selfish to want more.
Known as one of Wu-Tang’s most eccentric members, (not an easy task, mind you) Ghostface teamed up with producer/composer Adrian Younge to produce this chilling concept album chronicling a deadly clash between mobsters, and the combination couldn’t have worked any better as the visuals evoked by the album will leave you begging for a movie tie-in.
While props must be given to Ghostface for trying something new so late in his career, a couple of tracks that deviate from the “hip-hop banger” formula simply fail outright, such as the rhythmically-lacking “Enemies All Around Me.”
The album’s second track “Rise Of The Black Suits” is probably the best example of a song on Twelve Reasons that is able to deliver on the thematic front without compromising the aspects of a song that make it enjoyable. In that regard, Ghostface even allows himself to have a little fun with the lyrics on “Rise Of The Black Suits,” making a reference to his early Wu-Tang days with the hook “chase the paper cause it’s the cash that rules.”
At the end of the day, Twelve Reasons finds Ghostface and his large cast of featured artists doing what they do best: recording a solid rap album with insanely vivid lyrics, and at less than 40 minutes, how can any hip-hop fan pass it up?
Free the Universe – Major Lazer
Guest Editor : Orlando Flores, Jr.
Electronic super group slows down tempo on new LP
Electronic producers Diplo and Switch have teamed up again for another outing of their super group Major Lazer with the release of Free the Universe.
The duo continues the same trend they started on 2009’s Guns Don’t Kill People, Lazers Do, putting their electronic touch on classic dancehall and reggae rhythms.
While Reggae and dancehall legends like Vybz Kartel, Elephant Man, Shaggy and Wyclef Jean make appearances on this album as they did on the last, the major difference between Lazers Do and Free the Universe is the newfound pace and rhythm techniques the two producers experiment with on this album.
Where Lazers Do attempted, and succeeded, in pushing the rhythm and temp at an almost spastic pace as each track progressed, Major Lazer’s usual bubbling and bouncing beats have slowed down to crawl during the album’s high points.
Standout tracks like “Get Free”, which features Dirty Projectors’ Amber Coffman, and “Jessica”, a show-stealing track featuring a crooning Ezra Koenig from Vampire Weekend, demonstrate that the two producers know how to make a calm and breezy track just as well as the in-your-face dance hits they’ve built their reputation on.
While there are still the same examples of absurd dance tracks, like the Tyga, Bruno Mars and Mystic-featuring “Bubble Butt,” it’s clear that Free the Universe is out to prove that Major Lazer want to be more than just your average dance duo. At times, the album does just that, but the two producers have a long way to go before they fully shed their past reputations.