Monthly Report: April 2022 Albums
1. Vince Staples - Ramona Park Broke My Heart
Ramona Park Broke My Heart is the first Vince Staples project in nearly 5 years that's longer than 22 minutes, and it's gratifying to hear him stretch his legs and make something on a larger canvas. It'd be easy to say it's his best record since Summertime '06 simply because it's the longest and most substantial one he's made since then, but it really is on that level of quality, even if it's quieter and subtler. It's also fun to hear Vince nudge towards the mainstream in these small ways that he never had to to get to this level, he and Lil Baby find a great musical and emotional common ground on "East Point Prayer," and "Magic" with Mustard is fantastic, the other night it was probably the first time I heard a Vince Staples song on the radio and it sounded surprisingly natural in that context. I think Vince's music gets underestimated sometimes because he has this really funny, engaging personality as a person that he doesn't bring into the songs very often, but I think he's really purposeful about the songs he writes and what he's saying, especially on this album, and I don't think it's any loss that he's not trying harder to lighten things up. Here's my 2022 albums Spotify playlist that most of these records are in along with every other new release I listen to.
2. Kehlani - Blue Water Road
The other day I put on this album, which opens with ocean sounds, directly after the Vince Staples album, which ends with ocean sounds, it worked out nicely. I've liked but not quite loved a lot of their music so far, but I knew when they released "Altar" a few months ago that this was gonna be the one that really hits me, Kehlani and Pop Wansel just got into the zone on this record, it's all so gorgeous and cinematic. The horns on "Shooter Interlude," the distorted drums on "Tangerine," so many great sounds, with Kehlani kind of getting into a more singer/songwriter mode in between the clubbier songs. The song with the chorus "it's the everything for me" makes me roll my eyes, but even that one has a great string arrangement.
3. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Omnium Gatherum
Abundance is kind of the defining feature of the Australian band King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, who have released 20 studio albums in less than a decade. But Omnium Gatherum is their first 80-minute double album, which they made in a sort of Physical Graffiti fashion, taking a bunch of songs that had been left off previous records and then writing more to go with them. The 18-minute opener "The Dripping Tap" is obviously the starring attraction here, and the point around the 9-minute mark where the twin guitar lead section gives way to this funky riff with a wailing harmonica is just sublime, one of my favorite moments in the band's discography. The 9/8 riff on "Gaia" is also badass, one of their best hard rock tracks, which segues directly into the slap bass funk of "Ambergris," great transition. There's a couple songs with quasi-rapped vocals I don't love, but overall it's definitely one of their best records.
4. Future - I Never Liked You
Pluto just turned 10, and it's gratifying to see Future, maybe the best artist of the 2010s, still reaching new heights, with his biggest first week numbers for a solo album ever, and his first two Hot 100 #1s in the past year (both with Drake, but ehhh okay fine). I Never Liked You doesn't uncover any real new ground, kind of in the same mode as everything he's done since DS2, but it might be his best project since HNDRXX, "Gold Stacks" and "Chickens" are early standouts to me.
5. Jack White - Fear of the Dawn
I wrote my Consequence review of this album very quickly after a couple listens on the release date, and that kind of thing can lend itself to getting caught up in the newness of a record. But a month later, I'd say I still feel pretty much the same as I did, this is very much the record for people whose favorite White Stripes song is "Icky Thump" -- that is to say, me.
6. Carrtoons - Homegrown
Ben Carr aka Carrtoons is a New York-based musician who plays bass, and creates these cool slinky funk tracks to showcase himself as a bassist. I did a little interview with him for Bandcamp Daily, seems like a nice dude, it was good to talk to him for a few minutes. "Lighta" with Rae Khalil is a definite standout, but the whole thing is such a breezy, enjoyable listen.
7. 3rd Secret - 3rd Secret
One quiet Monday last month, a six-piece Seattle supergroup that included Soundgarden's Kim Thayil and Matt Cameron and Nirvana's Krist Novoselic announced its existence to the world with a self-released debut album. And it's excellent, conjuring some of the members' past glories while feeling like its own thing thanks to vocalists Jillian Raye and Jennifer Johnson. In fact, this is kind of exactly what I was hoping for after Thayil and Cameron guested on a Pretty Reckless single last year and Soundgarden re-recorded a couple old songs with Brandi Carlile, there's not a lot of this 'classic grunge' sound with female vocalists. In a way 3rd Secret is even more Led Zeppelin than Soundgarden ever were with the alternating acoustic and electric tracks on this album, but I definitely prefer the songs like "Lies Fade Away" and "Diamond In The Cold" that feature weird tangles of lead guitar that are unmistakably Kim Thayil.
8. Redveil - Learn 2 Swim
The album Redveil released when he was 16, Niagara, was really excellent and surprising, and the one he just released on his 18th birthday is a step up from that one, I really dig the live bass and other instrumentation on Learn 2 Swim. The Odd Future stuff never resonated with me a whole lot, but I can appreciate that their example led a whole generation of teenagers to make weird uncommercial rap. And Redveil is from Prince George's County, Maryland like me, probably 20 minutes from where I live, so his success is really exciting to watch. I think "Better" is my favorite track, great piano riff on that one, but "Mars" is great too.
9. Willie Nelson - A Beautiful Time
I don't think people really appreciate how wonderful it is that at 89 years old Willie Nelson still makes an album a year, that he's lived this long and given this much and still has the drive to make more music. A Beautiful Time has a lovely leadoff track written by Chris Stapleton and Rodney Crowell, "I'll Love You Till The Day I Die," and covers of Leonard Cohen and the Beatles. But as usual I'm most interested in the handful of songs written by Willie, including the philosophical "Energy Follows Thought" and "Live Every Day" and the clever, flippant "I Don't Go To Funerals."
10. The Regrettes - Further Joy
The Regrettes are kind of a low level major label band who keep getting slicker and more pop but haven't seemed to get any closer to a commercial breakthrough on their third Warner Bros. album. They cite influences like Bikini Kill and L7 but this is pretty Top 40-friendly stuff, and I'm not complaining, "Anxieties (Out Of Time)" and "Rosy" are great songs.
The Worst Album of the Month: Ted Nugent - Detroit Muscle
Ted Nugent is an easy target because of his politics, but it's also fair to say that he's never been that good anyway, one of most inessential multi-platinum classic rock acts of the '70s. I mean "Stranglehold" is pretty cool but I wouldn't be that bothered if I never heard it again. And it's really pathetic hearing him try to spin his far right politics into cool rock star rebellion on songs like "Come And Take It," or make an attempt at his own version of Hendrix's "Star Spangled Banner" that goes on for an endless 3 minutes. It's also annoying to hear him namecheck people like MC5 and Bob Seger on "Detroit Muscle" because those guys definitely don't share his bullshit views.
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