The Music Dispatch: May 17th, 2022
Inside: Kendrick Lamar, Ethel Cain, My Chemical Romance, Florence + the Machine, and somebody's first good single in years
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.
I’m realizing time and time again that taking breaks is important. I was aware of it with writing, of course, but recently I haven’t had a proper lunch and instead stood in front of the screen. I could barely concentrate, my head was pounding that bad, so I decided to log out for a while, go into the living room... and play Pokémon, as one does. It did help, though, just to do that for half an hour, before I went back to my room and continued with work. I’m not sure how these breaks work with musicians; if all people that create art have a similar need to recharge, or if it’s more like in spikes, where you really power through one album and one tour after the next and then take a break for a long time. Rina Sawayama announced her new album on the last stop of the Dynasty Tour; the album is slated to come out in September. On the other hand, famously The Avalanches took sixteen years between two records. You have one life and one shot at immortalizing your idea in that specific form as a product of that specific time and environment. I find it fascinating. Is a work worse because there hasn’t been a break at all, or better just because there’s been a long time? K-Pop stans will tell you no, and will probably scoff a little at you. But all the same, patience lends to myth, and myth will make everything seem a little glossier than it really is.
EPs and Albums
Ethel Cain — Family Tree
The debut record of Ethel Cain (real name Hayden Silas Anhedonia), which she has produced, composed, and written herself, is a stunning display of genres and a complete disregard for anything popular right now. Only at the start do you get a vibe of Lana del Rey — even the pop of American Teenager immediately afterward is dismissed for a brooding vibe, songs that go over 5 minutes (if not longer, Thoroughfare clocks in at nine minutes), the instrumentation given ample room to envelop you to her world. It’s like post-punk that sounds too poppy, too rocky, too rigid to be counted as such. I actually feel a little reminded of Parannoul’s debut, who was committed solely to their vision and not much else; with Cain, there’s the added concept of the horrors of the Southern small town. I haven’t heard a debut this fully formed in a while; it’s really, really good.
Kendrick Lamar — Mr. Morale and The Big Steppers
Oh God. The long-awaited new album of Lamar is, first, longwinded. Like with a lot of albums that go over an hour, you get the sense some of these songs can be cut. The baroque production interspersed throughout is quite interesting, although there’s also more modern sounds on cuts like Silent Hill, N95 and Count Me Out. Well, the whole idea of intergenerational curse and the unpacking of the man that is Kendrick Lamar Duckworth is most effective at the beginning and the end, which means in the middle you have a lot of... odd choices, like the absolutely bizarre fight between Lamar and Zola star Taylour Paige on We Cry Together (in which Paige yells: you the reason why R. Kelly don’t think he’s abusive! and Lamar’s character tells Paige you bumping him too) — can you believe this is the sole production credit of The Alchemist on this record and samples Florence + the Machine? For a lot of the record, the strongest topic revolves around reconciliation and taking accountability of your own wrongdoing, as well as the plea to let black women be; but then there’s Kodak Black on this thing, and often. There’s also two other death knells here: Auntie Tales, which describes Kendrick’s tale of having trans relatives, who he regularly deadnames (alongside Caitlyn Jenner), complete with so many f bombs dropped that whatever good intentions Lamar had for the song and the record sound too crude. And, to cap it all off, of course on Mr. Morale Kendrick Lamar openly wonders if [Robert Kelly] weren’t molested, if life’ll fail him. I believe he believes what he’s saying is profound. And it could have been if it was approached with the appropriate nuance and depth. I don’t think it was. But I acknowledge this record isn’t one for me, per se. There’s cuts I enjoyed despite that: from the first CD United in Grief, N95, Father Time; from the second CD Count Me Out, Mother I Sober (Beth Gibbons featuring!?), and Mirror.
Sasha Alex Sloan — I Blame The World
This is such a good second album and a big step up from the first. Sloan was one of the artists mentioned in the Spotifybait article a couple years ago; here, she varies her sound, no longer content with being pleasant and not much else. There’s synths, guitars, and overall much spirited production throughout. Her pen is still very crude and goes beyond diaristic, and actively approaches the level of somebody’s private account on Twitter. I guess that can alienate some, but to me, there’s nothing worse than the last record’s Is It Me? But the same crude pen leads to some of the most relatable songs on it; Adult especially hit right at the bone.
Leikeli47 — Shake Up
The wait is finally over! Leikeli47’s newest record Shake Up is finally on streaming. This was my Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers. There is not a dull moment here; the bars are excellent, Leikeli47’s presence is extremely song, and there’s a great variety of both hip hop and balroom songs on here, as well as r’n’b and pop. There’s even a sad song about the world, and it’s good!
Florence + The Machine — Dance Fever
I could never connect with a F+TM even though I really do like the vibe that Welch goes for; perhaps something about all the songs soaring and doing not much else, kind of like the indie variant of a lot of Adele songs, only meant for a specific mood and time. But I’m happy to report that this is the first album I enjoyed on a first listen since Ceremonials. There’s a bit of a disco on here, but the songs feel clear and the narrative of dancing till you get sick at times of the pandemic is a wonderful idea to me. It feels very Florence, also — which marks the first time that I believe people saying that Jack Antonoff (who produced a lot, though not all, songs on the record) is an incredibly malleable producer on the board. I think the best song on it that aren’t the singles is Daffodil, a stunner.
Singles
A$AP Rocky — D.M.B (Dats My Bitch)
The last time I heard of A$AP Rocky solo was when he was freed by Trump (via Kanye West) for Babushka Boi, which had a very fun music video but a song that was fine and not great. Since being the baby father of Rihanna’s new child, this is his first song and his first good song in years. It’s brooding, it’s catchy, the flow is good, turning from a harder song to a slower, hazed tail end in which Rocky sings. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel on anything Rocky, but it doesn’t have to.
My Chemical Romance — The Foundations of Decay
I have not had a MCR phase in my teenage years, but I enjoyed this a ton — it’s an excellent, brooding, dramatic piece of rock. I’m reading the reception; apparently this is different compared to most of their work? Is this true? In either case, I need to get into MCR’s discography soon.
I’ve been getting into Monsta X these days (the irony is that they’re currently discussing contract renewals with label Starship Entertainment, of course). They’ve been a part of my high school senior year, and even though I never kept up with them the same way my friends did, I enjoy their particular blend of noisy yet accessible music — both firmly rooted in the kind of hip hop pop music that Block B did a generation before them, but unlike Block B, they bring in elements of pop music into this hard template that makes them irresistible. (For Block B, they toyed with metal and rock elements a lot; Very Good is a very good example). With this in mind, here are my favorite five singles by Monsta X:
Who Do U Love — the song that informs their American discography, most of which largely melodic and synthy, this has been my go-to Monsta X song for years now. Despite the cringy French Montana feature, everybody sounds excellent here, and the chanted Who do you love? sounds both like a question and like a haunt. Wonho’s solo music is more closely related to their American than their Korean output.
Beautiful — nothing beats the adrenaline rush that the first minute brings. The bubbly, warped synths recall a bit of sanitized SOPHIE, and the song itself feels as high-stakes as the lyrics, which depict a woman so beautiful that the pain resulting from the love is worth it. This alongside early highlight Hero a year prior is classic Monsta X.
Jealousy — this leans closer to their pop sensibilities than to their noise sensibilities, what with the yeahyeahyeahyeah that Kihyun provides throughout the verses before his strong vocals take center stage in the chorus, which recalls a bit of VIXX in the K-Pop sphere, but also the 80s with its synths and high volume.
Gambler — the best lead since Wonho left the group, this song is full of swagger and impeccably cool. The electric guitar (and I.M in the first verse) always remind me of Maneskin’s Zitti e Buoni but the rest of the song sound like an updated, mature Monsta X. This also has one of the best verses of Jooheon and I.M both (Me? I’m a handsome sum of money). The tail end of the song is easily one of the most interesting part as well, what with the amazing dance break and the dramatic flourish at the end.
Shoot Out — Monsta X at their possibly noisiest, this has one of my favorite prechoruses, thanks to the confidence that Wonho displays and the frail vocals of both Minhyuk and Shownu. The rest of the song is as foreboding as an alarm, with its chorus strong on the synths. The song sounds like an action film of the Die Hard kind.
Honorable mentions go to Hero, All In and promoted B-side Stuck, and the moment when Monsta X embraced halay in their music, Follow.
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!