The Music Dispatch: August 16th, 2022
Inside: King Princess, Girls' Generation, Megan thee Stallion, our generation's Björk, and chart toppers... in Austria. Also catching up with Rae Sremmurd!
Welcome to The Music Dispatch! This is a weekly part of this Substack where I shortly review every new(-ish) release I listened to. Out every Tuesday. All mentioned songs are available on your streaming platform of choice unless stated otherwise. Is there an album you want to recommend me? @ me on Twitter or head on over to the Retrospring!
Since we spent last week on The Queen herself, this week we’ll spend a lot of time catching up. I hear what you’re saying: why keep up with non-Beyoncés? Renaissance is still right there! Yes, this is true. Nothing I’ve heard since Renaissance has grabbed me quite like that album did. But there’s still enjoyable stuff! When December rolls around and you’re ready for new music, you can go back to this good old dispatch — why not, start from August — and see what the rest of the world has been up to. Will anybody see Renaissance? Time will tell! I don’t know! We still need points of reference and these upcoming releases will do just fine. And for everyone who isn’t into Beyoncé… well, how dare you… but welcome back to the broadcast. Let’s proceed as scheduled.
EPs and Albums
I don’t review albums on the day of — the writeup suffers. So The Boyz is on the next time I do a dispatch!
King Princess — Hold On Baby
Sophomore record Hold On Baby is chiefly written and produced by King Princess aka Mikaela Strauss. It’s very impressive considering the indie rock flavors attempted here, and for the most part it succeeds. I hear Vampire Weekend, St. Vincent sometime self-titled, but also an artist coming into her own, with far more flourish and style than debut EP 1950. I highly recommend it if you’re into indie rock music in any way.
Florist — Florist
The interludes are peppered through the record like I enjoy pepper on my pilaf, but in all honesty, it’s what saves the record from veering to the same lyrics-heavy and same-y singer-songwriter territory that plague other records out this year. It lends the album a meditative feel as well. Lead singer Emily Sprague has the litheness of Big Thief’s Adrianne Lenker, weaving and flying (not soaring — this is white girl indie folk, please!) through the arrangements. A big highlight of this record is Sci-fi Silence.
Girls’ Generation — FOREVER 1
I actually really like Girls’ Generation. They’re pioneers of groups that would later pluck strands of their all-encompassing sound (GFriend’s early years; Red Velvet with their concept-hopping style and big emphasis on vocal harmonies; aespa as a mutual brainchild of SNSD at their most electric and f(x) at their most commercial) and the first girlgroup I’ve ever heard, way back with 2009’s Gee. Forever 1 is the first album since Seohyun, Tiffany, and Sooyoung left SM, a momentous occasion, and an attempt to set the record straight unlike the disastrous Holiday Night rollout five years back. Musically… it’s a mixed bag. The title track is very bright to the point of being neon, some b-sides sound like retreads of attempts they did better, Villain is genuinely exciting if maybe The Boyz-esque, but the final stretch are a stunning highlight of this group’s immaculate vocal harmonies. Maybe it’s my bias on Holiday Night as an album, maybe it’s a final bow to fans who are bigger SONEs than I am. If you’re nostalgic for SNSD, you’ll feel right at home with the candy color painted world.
Megan Thee Stallion — TRAUMAZINE
Houston rapper Megan thee Stallion’s last release for 1501 Entertainment (Something for the Hotties from last year counts as album) is dark, moody, and brooding — this is perfect for the existential crisis on Friday night. It’s the natural continuation of SUGA and Tina Snow: the self-professed pimp takes no shit from anyone around her (Not Nice), she’s here to have fun (club anthem HER is poised to become the big hit off this album), but the events of the past couple years understandably haunt her. If that makes the album sound disparate, it couldn’t be further from the truth, with the gloomy atmosphere dominating most of the first half quite cohesively. The beat is with her at every song. Every feature sounds right at home and quite spirited (Rico Nasty on Scary is a natural match from the title alone, but Nasty doesn’t do anything too wild with her voice there), and solo she sounds great too. The midtempo songs work better here, allowing Stalli to fully emote, unlike some of the misfires on Good News. The synthpop tracks also sound far better, less an “effort” and more like songs on their own. Recency bias prevents me from calling this her best, but TRAUMAZINE comes very, very close. It’s definitely her most realized, most revelatory project yet.
Pale Waves — Unwanted
If Paramore and Avril Lavigne is all you listen to and you want to tell your friends you’re “branching out” while listening to the same songs with a different woman fronting your chosen flavor of pop punk/emo/power pop, Unwanted is the album for you. Fair warning: the pen is not strong. Besides pastiche, The Hard Way has a really cool guitar bridge, Without You is a pretty ballad, and Only Problem is very catchy. I wish we heard more of this guitar, it’s by far the best part of the record.
Omar Apollo — Ivory (Marfil)
The five new songs added to the record, one of which is the full version of interlude Endlessly — adding nothing new to that bit. As for the rest, the highlight is aptly named as such, a reggaetón banger that stands out among the rest of the r&b / soul songs. If you liked Ivory, you’ll like these new songs too.
Remi Wolf — Live At Electric Lady
How does she do that with her voice? All these high notes and belting like it’s the easiest thing in the world! This slim collection of live covers make me believe Remi Wolf is the Björk of our generation, especially on Woo! There’s also a cover of Frank Ocean’s Pink + White here that is quite pretty.
Choi Yena — SMARTPHONE
This ten minute long EP is breezy, but beyond the cohesiveness of title track SMARTPHONE and Woodz-esque WithOrWithOutU Yena is not going where she needs to, which is drop the act and fully lean into pop punk like she did with Smiley and Lxxk 2 U. Who needs a variety of genres when you have five songs on a mini? That being said, U is the Sistar-title that never was, and Yena sounds very comfortable with this genre.
$uicideboy$ — Sing Me A Lullaby, My Sweet Temptation
On the New Orleans duo’s… let’s see… 47th project, and my first time with them, the mix of cloud rap and menacing, tight trap recalls both 21 Savage, and ASAP Rocky back when he wasn’t just Rihanna’s life partner. I found myself nodding my head for most of it, but the one-two punch of Matte Black and Fucking Your Culture sound the catchiest on a first listen. Also, big shoutout to the title No Matter Which Direction I'm Going in, I Never Chase These Hoes. Otoboke Beaver would go this long! (Thank you Duzi for the recommendation!)
Singles
Beyoncé — Break My Soul Remixes (+ THE QUEENS Remix)
Why the remixes EP starts off with will je suis (will.i.am of Black Eyed Peas notoriety) I don’t understand, but it gets significantly better from here on out, very danceable. I enjoyed Honey Dijon’s and Nita Anderson’s remixes best, but really all of them bring the sleek rap to the forefront, which is a net positive in my book.
As for THE QUEENS remix, it’s more of a mashup with Break My Soul and Madonna’s momentous Vogue, a towering achievement in Madonna’s career and the first of many love letters Madge would send her queer fans. Theoretically it’s very good, and Beyoncé shouting out important female black singers and each house in the rap (instead of Madonna, who rapped about white people on a song that she totally indebts to ballroom culture, lol) is exactly the kind of course correction Vogue needed. But the mashup feels awkward, a kind of oil on water situation where neither song don’t gel well enough to make it bang.
Carly Rae Jepsen — Beach House
We continue to get songs named Beach House that soil Beach House’s reputation. What in the world is this? Is this Kiss in 2022? Why is Carly singrapping? Why are men present in this song? Why are they singing most of the end? This chorus isn’t good enough for it. It’s kitschy. And horribly so.
The Killers — Boy
In a world where we all go back to synths, The Killers — who did the synth revival before anyone else did, with Human — updates 1990’s I Promised Myself with their particular brand of rock, and the results are great. If the reference doesn’t ring a bell to you, that’s fine. Per Wikipedia, “[t]he original version achieved success in Europe, including Austria and Sweden where it topped the charts.” I mean to say it’s a good, dramatic piece dripping in synths and guitars alike.
Ari Lennox — Hoodie
It’s been three years since R&B songstress Ari Lennox released Shea Butter Baby, one of the best R&B records of that year, and a year since the Soul offering Pressure! age / sex / location is out September 9th. Lead single Hoodie is a far cry from the poppy Pressure but right in Lennox’s wheelhouse of slinky, smooth music. Lennox sounds so good on it also, soaring at all the right places. I would not mind if the whole album sounded like this! (Although I’d be sad about the humor missing.)
DJ Khaled — Staying Alive (feat. Drake, Lil Baby)
This new DJ Khaled is not even a cover. It’s actually very trap but Drake sings the iconic Bee Gees song in the chorus very softly and I laughed ten seconds in as soon as I heard the ANOTHER ONE. Who asks for DJ Khaled to come back? Why is he in the Billboard top ten for this? Where is the Payola Police to investigate this?
Catching up to…
Once is a chance, twice is coincidence, three is a pattern. Welcome to this irregular new segment in which I randomly find out an artist I enjoy comes back and catch up with their singles leading up to the new album.
This week, we got one of my favorite trap artists: Rae Sremmurd. If the name doesn’t ring a bell (???), Black Beatles (the soundtrack to the Mannequin challenge of 2014) will; you definitely heard vocalist and one half Swae Lee before, on Post Malone’s Sunflower; and produced by Mike Will Made It, their particular brand of trap is quite unserious and therefore super fun. If you need an entry point, I think 2015’s SremmLife is really good! In either case, I thought they went on permanent hiatus after SR3MM (their take on Outkast’s Speakerboxx / The Love Below), but what do you know, the fourth album SREMM4LIFE is out soon and we got two singles for the record so far.
Denial: “This was a vibe / You were in denial”. I’m not in denial, and this is a vibe, but this is more trap that both Drake and Post Malone did (and, by extension, Swae Lee) and not X.
Community D**k (feat. Flo Milli): This one is bad. The squeaky bed sample in 2022? Hello? It’s uninteresting, uninspired, and by the time Flo Milli raps and tries to rescue what little of the song is left, it’s like the producer says save your breath, then lets Slim Jxmmi rap and the horrible chorus is back. The hook is especially annoying. Is it by Flo Milli? Yes. Will I act like it’s not by her? Yes!
Well, this was… a couple minutes in my life I won’t get back. I have hope? Maybe? It’s a good thing there’s no date on this album. Hopefully it comes out so late I can forget about these songs and get whelmed on the album listen.
I’m excited to announce that the Nine Inch Nails Sampler — after teasing and teasing and teasing — will come out next week! Maybe Tuesday? It will be part one of three, so… summer of NIN? Fuck-you-like-an-animal summer? Heat Like A Hole? It’s coming sooner than you think!