Monthly Report: August 2022 Albums
1. Julia Jacklin - Pre Pleasure
I really liked Australian singer-songwriter Julia Jacklin's 2019 album Crushing, but I think this album very quickly grabbed me in a more immediate way when drums hit in the second half of the opening track "Lydia Wears A Cross." And really this album is just full of ingenious arrangements where a new sound or instrument transforms the song in the second half, like the acoustic guitar that enters in the last minute of "Too In Love To Die." Though the music has gotten my attention more immediately, Jacklin's also a pretty compelling lyricist, "Magic" is kind of a beautifully clever song about sexual intimacy. Here's the 2022 albums Spotify playlist I update with every new album I listen to.
2. Demi Lovato - Holy Fvck
I was a big fan of Demi Lovato's first two albums when they stood out from other Disney Channel-famous pop singers for playing guitar and namechecking metal bands in interviews. And while their more conventional Top 40 music of the last decade has also been pretty good, I also hoped they'd pick up their guitar and make a rock record again someday, and Holy Fvck actually surpassed my expectations, it's great fun. I'm sure the success of Machine Gun Kelly or Willow Smith helped motivate this direction, but I like that it's not all straight forward pop punk. There's some pretty heavy tracks like "Heaven," and "Bones" has a cool sort of disco groove, and Lovato's just wailing like Rob Halford for a lot of the album, it kicks ass. Warren "Oak" Felder, who's known for more pop/R&B stuff including Lovato's biggest hit "Sorry Not Sorry," surprisingly produced most of this album, and it sounds great and not too much like everyone else's Travis Barker-produced albums.
3. Roc Marciano & The Alchemist - The Elephant Man's Bones
The Alchemist is one of those producers that works with so many people now, and people still want him to do albums with everyone else. But I think he genuinely has a good chemistry with Roc Marciano, kind of brings out some Prodigy vibes in Marciano's terse delivery on the songs with more Return of the Mac-like production. I was disappointed that the Ice-T feature is just a sort of spoken word cameo, though, I wanted to hear him rap on one of these beats.
4. Black Thought & Danger Mouse - Cheat Codes
I've really enjoyed Black Thought's run of finally really making a lot of music outside The Roots the last few years, even if I haven't loved every producer he's paried with for an album or EP. The one with Salaam Remi, Streams of Thought, Vol. 2, is still by far my favorite, but Thought is so good and consistent that it almost doesn't matter if the beats are great or just okay (although hey, an Alchemist one would be exciting, I admit). And I will give Danger Mouse credit, I don't usually love his production but he sticks to some simple sample chops that work well here, "Belize" and "Close To Famous" are standouts for me.
5. Megan Thee Stallion - Traumazine
Quickie mixtape appetizers have been upstaging the album that's supposed to be the main course for decades now, and last year's Something For Thee Hotties might be my favorite Megan Thee Stallion project at this point. Traumazine is pretty good, though, I think it has a better idea of what a Megan album should sound like that Good News did. Memphis's Bandplay has been one of my favorite producers of the last few years so I love "Ungrateful" with Key Glock, and "Southside Royalty Freestyle" is a long overdue old-fashioned Houston posse cut. But even the more pop stuff like "Her" feels a little more natural, although "Sweetest Pie" is unfortunately still tacked on at the end of the album. "Ms. Nasty" really feels like the one that should be a single, though, feels like the closest thing she has to another "Savage."
6. Teen Suicide - Honeybee Table At The Butterfly Feast
Teen Suicide decided to retire its name a few years ago, remaining a band and releasing a couple records under the name American Pleasure Club. But those records are now under Teen Suicide on streaming services and I guess they've gone back to the old name for keeps now. I like the louder stuff like "Death Wish" and "New Strategies For Telemarketing Through Precognitive Dreams," and the beat on "Get High, Breathe Underwater (#3)" is crazy, but it feels like the point of their records is partly the collage of different styles, lo-fi and hi-fi and acoustic and electric and pop and experimental sounds all bouncing off each other.
7. The Paranoid Style - For Executive Meeting
Elizabeth Nelson is a fellow D.C.-area rock critic and musician, I've really enjoyed some of her writing in the past couple years, and her band just released their 3rd album for the pioneering indie label Bar/None Records. And Nelson's command of music history frequently bleeds into the lyrics of songs like "Doug Yule" and "Steve Cropper Plays Femme Fatale," although other tracks like "Alive And Vexing" explore more universal themes with vivid imagery and sharp wordplay. And the band kicks up a nice noise here and there, I love the guitar solo on "The Worst of My Love."
8. JID - The Forever Story
It's always amused me that the most overtly Kendrick Lamar-influenced major label rapper is also the only rapper signed to J. Cole's label that anyone feels strongly about. But then, it still takes a lot of talent to rap in that style, and JID really goes off on this album, particularly on "Raydar" and "Crack Sandwich" and "Lauder Too." Probably good fortune for him to release a breakthrough album in the year of Kendrick's worst album, too.
9. Butch Walker - Butch Walker as... Glenn
Butch Walker's first album of songs written on piano comes with a '70s piano man character, complete with crowd noise for a faux-concert atmosphere throughout the album. It's a little silly, but there's some strong songs here like "Roll Away (Like A Stone)" and "State-Line Fireworks," his best album since 2015's Afraid of Ghosts.
10. Panic! At The Disco - Viva Las Vengeance
I'm fond of saying that I didn't even like Panic! At The Disco even when they were allegedly good, even though I'll be the first to admit that Panic is that much different from their mentors Fall Out Boy, who I love. And they got even more annoying once it became Brendon Urie's de facto solo project and scored a monster hit with the ubiquitous "High Hopes" (although I actually really liked the follow-up, "Hey Look Ma, I Made It"). But I never would've guessed that Urie would follow up his big pop moment and lead singles for a Taylor Swift album and Frozen 2 with a fairly stripped down album recorded on 8-track with older power pop vets Mike Viola and Butch Walker. It almost feels like Urie is directly catering to me, one of his biggest haters, and ignoring all his chance to become a pop star to make a record that sounds like early Elvis Costello but with hammy oversinging like mid-period Elvis Costello. "Say It Louder" and "Middle of a Breakup" are two of the more immediate standouts on the album for me.
The Worst Album of the Month: Calvin Harris - Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 2
I kind of rolled my eyes at Calvin Harris flipping over from EDM to R&B nostalgia for one album. But enough people loved Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 1 that they've spent the last 5 years begging for the next installment, and none of them seem to be happy with the album now that it's hear, which is hilarious. I liked the Young Thug/Dua Lipa single but it seems like they're pushing that terrible Timberlake one harder, and a lot of the songs here just never live up to the assembled talent of the guests, who are often combined haphazardly (Charlie Puth and Shenseea? Why?). So it's safe to say the best Scottish R&B album of all time still belongs to Average White Band.
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