New Music: Open Mike Eagle (3.28.2016)

Open Mike Eagle & Paul White

Hella Personal Film Festival

If Kanye has disappointed you lately (don't worry, it's happened to everyone), and you pine for the good-old days of his college trilogy (College Dropout, Late Registration, and Graduation), arguably his best work, then the collaboration of LA-via-Chicago-based rapper Open Mike Eagle and British producer Paul White will blow your mind.

Hella Personal Film Festival is the best possible combination of 70s-era samples and rhymes that bring TV On The Radio's Tunde Adebimpe to the front of your mind, and will keep you coming back for more rewarding listens. That's not to say Mike Eagle doesn't have his own voice; in Film Festival, his storytelling talent is on full display. Never repetitive, he pays those listeners willing to dive in and make the full commitment to album-long listening back.

Teaming up with Paul White is an inspired choice, and we are very much the better for it. The platforms he creates for Eagle to deliver upon are strong, challenging, and engrossing. Hella Personal Film Festival is an album that demands multiple listens; it is sprawling and difficult to unpack. But your recompense for such fastidious concentration is the joy of hearing musical and lyrical proficiency so excellent, you could swear you were part of its creation.

New Music: Underworld (3.22.2016)

Underworld
Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future

As the Conquest of Gaul is trying to write more--and more varied--reviews, today we also take a look at one of the titans of the electronic genre, Underworld.  Their first album in more than half a decade is the fantastically titled Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future, supposedly named for principal producer Rick Smith's father's last words: a sentiment both sad and immensely inspiring.

What the title phrase conjures in the mind is exactly what the album sounds like--understated, but still bursting from the seams with hope. Almost excessively elemental for Brit-electronica, Barbara Barbara is full of all the familiar, well-trodden sounds from the heady days of "Cowgirl" and "Born Slippy.NUXX," but somehow is able to combine them in such new and interesting ways that, even clocking under 45 minutes, it feels overly-generous, like receiving a gift you really don't deserve.

As a return-to-form, Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future is a masterpiece, providing any longtime fan with far more than they could ask for; but it is also such an interesting and expansive new take for a late-period album that it deserves vast dissemination to the uninitiated. It builds and builds until, finally, at the triumphant end, Underworld transform their work into a powerful statement on optimism and grace.

New Music: Iggy Pop (3.18.2016)

Iggy Pop
Post Pop Depression

Perhaps the greatest crime in music history is forgetting that, while David Bowie and Brian Eno heavily edited and influenced Iggy Pop's 1977 album, The Idiot, Iggy Pop was still there. The story is usually told as two geniuses using a punk rocker as their personal tool. The truth is much more fun: that that guy who rips his shirt off at a moment's notice, is still "heroin-thin" even after being clean for over 20 years, and does that weird hipshake dance like Elvis with seasonal-affective disorder, is secretly a musical wunderkind, constantly bouncing off collaborators while simultaneously influencing them.

Such is the amazing, wonderful, and totally fun Post Pop Depression. No album has given me such anxiety in waiting for it. At the time of its announcement, I was so excited--one of my favorite bands ever, Queens of the Stone Age (or more specifically it's founder, Josh Homme) would be collaborating with the Prince of Punk, Iggy Pop for, perhaps, his final album. Then...the ever-looming spectre...Metallica and Lou Reed. If this last Iggy album ended up like that shambling thing-that-should-not-be, I might just stop listening to music. Time to invest in some audiobooks. Goodbye iPod (yes, I still have one of those). Return the turntable. Put the CD's on eBay and Amazon. Cancel the Spotify subscription.

I am so very, very happy to announce, Post Pop Depression is a masterpiece. It is one of my favorite albums to listen to in several years, and I've done so nearly constantly since the NPR early stream was made available. Pop's vocal delivery--that warbling baritone--fits so perfectly with Homme's desert-garage-rock instrumentation, it's almost hard to describe. Basically, other than Funhouse and The Idiot, this is the album Iggy Pop was meant to make.

Every part is executed to perfection: obviously Pop's off-the-cuff singing, Homme's guitar and backing vocals (and production), Dean Fertita's...all the insturments, and Arctic Monkeys' Matt Helders' drums all fit so well that the result is a seamless musical tapestry. The supporting roles in this album are almost as exciting as the main feature; with a very QOTSA/Arctic Monkeys sound, songs like "Gardenia" and "Sunday" are given a brilliance to what would otherwise be dull, slow burns in anyone else's hands.

But don't think Homme's presence means it's all party all the time. Pop is still punk after all, and he expresses his rage quite often. Album closer "Paraguay" ends in an amazing rant that would make Lewis Black blush, and it's backed by an insane guitar riff and calmly delivered chorus that slowly fades until you realize you're yelling too.

As a final farewell to the music business, Post Pop Depression is undeniably sexy, fun, and solid gold. What it's not, however, is a lament. This is a primal scream, the last one that defies the laws of the universe and dares them to try and stop it. Despite having never heard an Iggy Pop album like this, this is definitely a very Iggy Pop album, like it's the one he's been waiting to make his whole life. Post Pop Depression shows that with the right framework, he can take what easily could have been a dirge and turn it into a celebration of what it means to be alive.

New Music: The Day of Many Albums (3.11.2016)

So, I have been very derelict on my music reviewing duties. To make it up, the following are snippets of albums that came out recently that I should have reviewed, but now all at once!

Trust me, it's gonna be great...

Anderson .Paak
Malibu

This is premium R&B. As the Who would say, "maximum R&B," except actual R&B, not like the Who. Not that the Who aren't awesome and haven't earned the right to call their music whatever they want. Okay, we got off on a tangent there, but we can save this...Anderson .Paak knows what he's doing, is what I'm saying. Having spent years producing the albums of various high-profile hip-hop and R&B stars, this marks a true revelation. Like D'Angelo's album last year (technically 2014, but let's not get picky), this is one of the most emotional and heartfelt albums you'll hear.

Steven Wilson
4½

I apparently missed the hubbub that was Wilson's Hand. Cannot. Erase. last year, and now I'm very sorry I did. This fast-paced, highly technical, but still very light-feeling rock album is one of the better things I've heard come out of the whole "singer-songwriter" scene a few years. Wilson combines the mystique of Steely Dan with the beauty of Sufjan Stevens and the head-on approach of a Paul Weller or a Foo Fighter(s?). It's also a breezy 37 minutes, perfect for your morning commute, and will get you pumped for your day.

Suede
Night Thoughts

Have you ever heard an album so amazing on first listen, your jaw drops? That album is Night Thoughts. After being defined by David Bowie's influence, Suede released perhaps their best album mere weeks after the legend's death, and it is a fitting eulogy. The glam rock spectacle on showcase here is absolutely fabulous, and their alt-rocker chops aren't even remotely questionable either. This is the sound that filled 1,000 arenas, and the first three songs might be the best opening trio in well over a decade. Seriously people, Suede. Suede is awesome.

(P.S. As I mentioned on Twitter earlier this week, Spotify calls them "The London Suede", which is confusing to say the least, but in case you actually want to hear this album, which you definitely must, look there.)

(P.P.S. Also, the album cover is bad-ass. Look at that thing, it's ridiculously cool.)

Money
Suicide Songs

Besides being very, very, VERY, depressingly named, I wasn't really sure what to expect from an album titled Suicide Songs, besides it being a little on-the-nose. Boy was I wrong. Money is the great-grandchild of Echo & The Bunnymen's Ocean Rain coupling with The Beatles more experimental songs, like "Tomorrow Never Knows" or "Within You Without You." It's equal parts gorgeous string arrangements and mind-bending songwriting. Expertly performed and recorded, Suicide Songs isn't nearly as depressing as it could be...on the surface, but it is indeed a romantic miserablism, the thing you listen to both to reassure yourself that love is real and to remind yourself that it's for suckers at the same time.

DIIV
Is the Is Are

This album has been in the works so long, I almost forgot DIIV existed, save for a few lazy scrolls through the ol' iPod. But finally, the new record is upon us, and Is the Is Are doesn't disappoint. While the new sound eschews a lot of the hazy backfill that so heavily defined Oshin, the driving bass lines and jangling guitars are still as prominent as ever. DIIV is still one of the most exciting and creative bands in the indie rock arena, and the flawless Is the Is Are is proof that sometimes, just maybe, good things really do come to those who wait.

Kanye West
The Life of Pablo

I've defended Kanye for a really long time, saying that almost anything is worth the price of genius. Yeezus proved my point even better than I could have hoped; seeing an artist so well-known for a particular sound to turn the world on it's ear like that was both intriguing and genuinely fun to hear. That defense is getting much harder these days, as the man's apparent unhinged-ness is so ever-present it's impossible not to start making Syd Barrett comparisons. The Life of Pablo didn't help my case either. Sure, it's a return to form, and yeah it's nice to hear Kanye do what he does best: sample soul records and orchestral movements to perfect effect as backing loops. But the rap is becoming so lazy it's hard to stick with this album all the way through. Certainly, Kanye can write, rap, and produce nearly everyone else in the industry out of a job, but this just isn't up to his (admittedly, overly) high standard. Maybe take a break, raise the kids, go back to Paris for a while. You've done way more than anyone else could hope to accomplish, let your work speak for itself for a time. I promise people won't forget you.

(P.S. "FML" is one of the best-produced songs you've ever created. Hold off making another album until you get one full of songs like that.)

Animal Collective
Painting With

You know, how a TV show can long exceed it's necessary length? Like how House of Cards followed Kevin Spacey until he became president and now...why are we still watching? Or how Homeland (SPOILER ALERT) killed off the main antagonist and yet still exists? That's what Animal Collective is now, a group of people trying to keep a good thing going that was only meant to last a certain time. Merriweather Post Pavillion is a masterpiece of songwriting and technique. Painting With...is not those things, but it's trying really hard to be. I won't dismiss the album entirely because the ideas are there, but when something's done, it's done, you know?

Kendrick Lamar
Untitled. Unmastered.

This. This is what dedication to craft and the erasure of all distractions can get you. Kendick has now, alone, taken over the throne of hip-hop. If for no reason other than his To Pimp a Butterfly definitely marked the first time white hipsters complained about a rap album NOT getting the Grammy for Best Album. The production and near-unbelievable level of quality in beats and rhymes hasn't dropped a step since his first mixtape, and Kendrick shows no sign of slowing down. I mean, obviously, he released an album of entirely "untitled" songs less than a year after his magnum opus, and it's as good ans anything else he's made. Kendrick Lamar is statistically impossible, and his uncanny ability to create would be infuriating if it wasn't so damn awe-inspiring.