The Music Dispatch: March 29, 2022
Inside: waiting for too long, Kilo Kish, Charli XCX (again), New of The Boyz, and Bree Runway!
Waiting always feels like too long somehow, especially when it’s something you’re looking forward to. The other day, I said May felt really far away — until my friend pointed out I said the exact same thing about March back in January. Now we’re at the end of March. Already! Time is just not a real concept and they expect us to be okay with it and also go along with Daylight Savings. When does the terror end! When I’m dead? Then who will listen to all the music! What’s happening in May, you ask? Uh... nothing. Maybe. Listen, it’s too far away.
DemJointz Produced This So I Gave It A Spin
NCT Dream’s Arcade is a B-side of their second full-length record, Glitch Mode. It’s a bonafide hip hop song, so much so that it did not feel out of place during my Melt My Eyez See Your Future listen at all. For DemJointz standards, this goes down very easy, there’s no surprises and it’s not particularly abrasive, but that’s not a bad thing at all in my book.
EPs and Albums
We’re already pretty stacked over here, but I did very much like Stromae’s newest record Multitude! It sounded rather Turkish to me. As a compliment.
Kilo Kish — AMERICAN GURL
The newest record of Kilo Kish is perfectly produced, edgy and vibrant at every turn, and overall a much more coherent effort than the last time I visited her, which was EP Mothe to me. My issue with Kilo Kish is just that either she doesn’t like singing, or this flat, unbothered vocal style really is her singing — in either case, I usually end up feeling like the songs are this close to being amazing, and just aren’t. It speaks a lot to the production and the strength of the melodies overall that I really liked this. NEW TRICKS: ART, AESTHETICS, AND MONEY is my personal favorite.
Denzel Curry — Melt My Eyez See Your Future
Denzel Curry is a firecracker, but on this record, he channels the fire inward, turning the album to an overall more introspective record than the last couple. There’s no ragers here, no RICKY and no 13LACK 13ALLOONZ, which is a bit of a shame, but Melt Session #1 earnestly made me fear Denzel would altogether switch to underground hip hop in the vein of Earl Sweatshirt. That didn’t happen, thankfully. It’s a competent record, it’s a very solid effort, it’s very much an album experience. It’s also much better than UNLOCKED and falls more in line with TA13OO and ZUU, My personal favorites would be the Kenny Beats-produced Troubles, Ain’t No Way with a great feature verse by Rico Nasty, and X-Wing.
Simge Pınar — Sevgideğer
Simge Pınar, Turkish label Rakun Müzik’s only other musical act besides founders (and my personal all-time favorites) Mor ve Ötesi released her second record on Friday. The singles left me mostly whelmed, and they still leave me whelmed here (Kendim Olmaliyim is the worst offender by a long shot with that irritating, repetitive chorus; on the flip side, Cevap sounds very solid within album context). It’s the B-sides that are the most charming, most notably the title track. There’s a lot of stunning guitar moments on here, and it doesn’t feel like Harun Tekin just let a female vocalist sing on his own penned songs anymore, but there is also no momentum that builds up as you listen to the album; in fact, it kind of deflates right before it starts.
Charli XCX — Crash Deluxe
This time around, I started the album with Yuck. Such a good decision, as that meant I would spare no more mean words on an album I was already meh about. So, onto the new tracks — Selfish Girl and How Can I Not Know What I Need Right Now are both excellent and feel very Charli-esque. Sorry if I Hurt You is a track where I do not get why it had to be relegated to deluxe status at all. It’s a moody song that does the contemplative vibe a lot better than Move Me within the album, and in all honesty encapsulates Charli’s mission statement of big, grand 80s inspired pop best while still sounding like Charli. The worst track, by a landslide, is closer What You Think About Me, the kind of pop music that only sounds good when you got the charisma of Gwen Stefani circa Hollaback Girl. But even then, Hollaback Girl had the kind of obnoxious hook that veers towards the positive. This one here is grating and anger-inducing to no end. Maybe this is what her fanbase deserves. If I was her, I’d have Will Smith’d them a long time ago, if you catch my drift.
Aldous Harding — Warm Chris
I don’t get why this got Best New Music by Pitchfork. I suspected it would be a Sunday morning, reading kind of album based on its cover (and my previous venture with Aldous Harding, Designer), but while it started off promising enough with Ennui, this quickly bored me. It’s a combination of too-slow guitar plucking and an unengaging vocal (which, if I’m being honest, is what saves Big Thief from being boring about sixty percent of the time — Adrianne Lenker’s helium voice demands your attention). Maybe it’ll be to the liking of people that generally like guitar plucking music, so don’t take my word for it. It took me two listens spread out by like three years to get Designer to begin with.
Singles
New of The Boyz - Spring Breeze (A Business Proposal OST)
I love The Boyz, I love New’s vocals within The Boyz songs. As for himself solo, I didn’t like 0329, his Soundcloud song, as much as others did, but here he sounds incredibly clear, with beautiful high notes and vocal runs, and the production also helps quite a bit. It goes both ways too: this is a by-the-numbers K-drama ballad in the melody, but the vocals elevate the song a bit. I admit I’m biased, but I liked it!
Summer Walker ft. Cardi B and SZA — No Love (Extended Version)
Summer Walker and SZA, two beautiful chirpers, are joined by Cardi B for a rap verse, and this is some of the best she’s ever sounded. All of it sounds luscious and lazy, the perfect song for summer nights.
Bree Runway — Somebody Like You
This is such a good, moody song. I almost hesitate to call it a “b-side that sounds great standalone” because it’s a single, we do not know when her album is coming, but that’s the kind of vibe it gave me on a first listen? Bree Runway can do no wrong and I’m so, so happy to hear her with the kind of midtempo framework that she’s only hinted on in her EP 20004EVA.
Hatchie — Lights On
This is a b-side that will sound excellent within the album context. A shoegaze sound like this always sounds better when you cushion it with songs like it; as single it’s tricky, because unless you do something outsized (First single and personal favorite This Enchanted is a very good example of this), it’ll just land in “okay” territory.
Soccer Mommy — Shotgun
And here’s the outsized shoegaze-y single in question. It’s really good! Soccer Mommy’s last record didn’t grab me as much as I thought it would, but this got me right on board. I heard Oneohtrix Point Never produced the record, which has me doubly excited.
ITZY — Voltage
ITZY’s Japanese single sounds like their first three songs. The problem is it’s nowhere near as exciting as that run, it almost feels too predictable at points. I actually rather like last comeback LOCO and I’m not the type that wants their K-Pop group to always sound the same, because you end up with songs like these where you just feel like turning it off halfway through, just on the instinctive basis that you’ve been here before. I mean, all this to say that the chorus just doesn’t hit like I want it to, really. The music video’s rather pretty, though, kind of like NCT 127’s Cherry Bomb with less purple and more neon colors.
Something you missed? Your opinion on one of the tracks? Let me know over in the comments, on my Twitter @nymphspond, or, if you want something totally anonymous, you can try the Retrospring!