Tuesday, November 26, 2024

 





My latest Spin piece: I ranked Mary J. Blige's albums and The Cure's albums, and wrote about Sam Louis's album 8 Ball. 

8:47 PM

TV Diary

Monday, November 25, 2024

 





a) "St. Denis Medical"
Justin Spitzer's previous NBC sitcoms "Superstore" and "American Auto" were single camera shows, and his new hospital-based series goes all the way mockumentary with people addressing the camera and doing those "The Office"-style reaction shots. Not my favorite thing for a show to do, but it has a great cast, I adore Allison Tolman and this is the first time she's starred in a sitcom since the short-lived "Downward Dog." 

b) "A Man on the Inside"
I'm really enjoying Michael Schur's latest Ted Danson vehicle for Netflix. Danson plays a widowed and retired professor who answers a personal ad to be a private detective's mole investigating a theft in a retirement home, which is apparently something that really happened in Chile and this is based on a documentary. There's a little of the madcap energy of "Only Murders in the Building" here but there's also some really thoughtful and melancholy notes too, really funny and entertaining show. 

c) "Interior Chinatown"
"Interior Chinatown" basically takes off from the premise that the main character is one of those minor characters who witnesses a crime in the cold open of an episode of a "Law & Order"-type procedural. Jimmy O. Yang and Ronny Chieng are great in this, they both really have deserved a vehicle like this for a while. Like "A Man on the Inside," a lot of the humor is derived from an unusually mundane character being thrust into an exciting mystery plot, but there's also a lot more going on here that makes it really work. I haven't watched past the Taika Waititi-directed first episode yet, but I really enjoyed that one. 

d) "Dune: Prophecy"
I read half of the first Dune novel as a teenager and am not really all that into understanding all of the lore and subtext, but I liked the Villeneuve movies a lot, and this HBO spinoff seems like a good way to jump backwards into the mythology. Going back 10 thousand years almost seems like too much, but OK, whatever, I'm along for the ride, it's got a great cast. 

e) "Landman"
I wish this had a better lead than Billy Bob Thornton, I'm just kind of tired of that smug old weirdo, and Jon Hamm is right there all underused in a supporting role. But the first episode was pretty strong, I'm not a huge Taylor Sheridan fan but he definitely knows what he's doing with these shows. 

f) "The Day of the Jackal"
I'm not gonna say Eddie Redmayne is untalented, but I feel like none of the flashy roles meant to showcase his versatility have aged well, and yet they put him in this show where he's a master of disguise, it just has a terrible vibe right from the jump. 

Casting Kathy Bates as the lead in a new "Matlock" series qualifies, I suppose as a twist. The first episode opens with the additional twist that Madeline "Matty" Matlock practices law in a world where the Andy Griffith series exists. And then by the end of the episode, there's a whole other twist. It's a lot for a CBS legal drama rebooting a beloved old show, but it's pretty good, carrying a show like this is light work for someone like Bates. 

Nobody needs a sorority-centered series reboot of "Cruel Intentions," but I dunno, the first episode was not terrible like I expected. And Adam Arkin directed it and had a supporting role, I always liked him. 

i) "Joan"
The CW picked up this British miniseries where Sophie Turner plays a British crime boss from the '80s. Very stylish direction and good use of music, it starts kinda slow but keeps escalating and gradually getting to the darker parts of the story. 

I think I would've started watching "Murder In A Small Town" sooner if I knew it was about a small Canadian town. Now we're talking! The murder part isn't that intriguing to me and it goes heavy on the romance subplot, but I like the atmosphere and the British Columbia setting. 

I like Oliver Sacks, it bums me out that NBC took one of his books and turned it into a really bland boilerplate medical drama, Zachary Quinto is so offputting as one of those noble genius doctors. 

I know so little about Irish history and The Troubles that I don't really know how this show's depiction of it fares in terms of accuracy or whatever. Really gripping story with a great cast, though. 

Reba McEntire can carry a generic sitcom as well as anyone, but this one is really generic and feels a little beneath her. 

As someone who tends to defend network sitcoms against snobbier viewers, it brings me no joy to report that there are two new shows this fall called "Happy's Place" and "Poppa's House." The latter, starring Damon Wayans and his equally funny song Damon Wayans, Jr., is worth a watch, though. The writing is a little formulaic, but those guys just bounce off each other really well and sometimes really elevate the material. 

Damon Wayans Jr. also has a recurring role in the second season of one of my favorite new shows of 2023. And he seems to be serving the purpose of getting in the way of Jason Segel and Jessica Williams's characters permanently being a couple, which is a good idea, they probably shouldn't stay together, realistically and in terms of what's best for the show. Brett Goldstein from "Ted Lasso" co-created "Shrinking" and now also has a small but significant role in the show, which he probably loves because it's nothing like Roy Kent, but it's an odd choice, I'm kind of waiting to see how it all pans out. 

The first season of "Bad Sisters" was an Irish adaptation of a Flemish series which ran for one season, and now it's back for a second season without source material to follow. And that can spell trouble for a lot of shows, but I think this is very promising because I love the cast and the characters and the setting, but the way the first season constantly jumped between timelines and awkwardly withheld information to build up suspense about the murder was kind of exhausting. So I'm happy to just return to this group of characters in what is so far a season with less strained storytelling. 

q) "Silo"
Another show that built up so much suspense towards the season one finale that there's a vague "now what?" feeling hanging over the second season, which they haven't dispelled as well so far. It's Rebecca "Fergie" Ferguson, though, I am sticking with the show. 

I liked "Based On A True Story"'s first season, but ended on kind of a cliffhanger that didn't really leaving me dying to know what happens next. So I'm pleasantly surprised that they've changed the dynamic between the characters in an entertaining way that's put some new life into the already risky comedic premise of a normal married couple befriending a serial killer. 

Good show, I'm glad it's finally back, although it's bittersweet knowing that Renee Rapp's going to have a much smaller role from here on out, Leighton is by far one of the best characters on the show, it could really lose something without her in the ensemble. The beautiful British girl, Mia Rodgers, though, I'm willing to be convinced that she's a good addition to the show. 

A cult show returning for a third and final season is good, I think, it would feel like unfinished business with just one or two seasons, but three is enough to kind of complete a satisfying arc. "Somebody Somewhere" has always been in a good-but-not-necessarily-great zone for me, but the characters are so likable that I'm not really asking for anything different. I feel like too many episodes build up to Bridget Everett singing, though, I know it's part of what she does but I'm gonna be a dick and say it feels indulgent after a certain point. 

I'm very happy that "What We Do In The Shadows" got all the way to six seasons, it's been a near flawless run and I love that they're possibly getting more outlandish at the end here with Laszlo's Frankenstein plot and his father's ghost and all. I met Harvey Guillen at work a few weeks ago, didn't have a memorable conversation or anything, I think I was like the fourth person in a row to tell him they're a big fan of the show, but it was still pretty cool. 

v) "Like Water For Chocolate"
I haven't read the novel or seen the film version, but I like this series adaptation so far, excellent cast. 

w) "It's All Country"
A docuseries about modern country music seems like a good idea regardless of execution, but this one, which features Luke Bryan interviewing contemporaries like the other big Luke, Luke Combs, really is not terribly interesting stuff, very surface level and light on history or real music talk. 

x) "Our Oceans"
I will watch any documentary about marine life. And this new Netflix one is narrated by Barack Obama, which, regardless of how you feel about the guy or his participation in the entertainment industry, he really does have a good voice and cadence for this kind of thing. 

I grew up watching LeVar Burton, I'm a big fan (also, he stole my phone for 5 minutes one time when I worked with him -- he just thought it was his phone and walked off with it after we talked, which is a story I always love to tell). I didn't really get too involved in the campaign for him to host "Jeopardy" but I certainly thought it was a good idea, and probably would've been better than who they wound up with. But he's hosting the new game show version of Trivial Pursuit and he really is an incredibly good host, just has that warm, calming but authoritative vibe you want. And Trivial Pursuit was always one of my favorite board games, so this is almost as good as watching him host "Jeopardy," at least for me. 

I've never been quite as big on Scrabble as a board game, and Raven-Symone is a less natural game show host, but this works pretty well as a pair of game shows, good semi-mindless entertainment. 

3:08 PM

The 2024 Remix Report Card Vol. 4

Monday, November 18, 2024

























Here's Volumes 1, 2 and 3, and the Spotify playlist of every remix I've covered this year:

"Aquamarine / Arcamarine" by Addison Rae featuring Arca
In three years, Addison Rae went from being a deeply uncool TikTok influencer who got famous doing arm dances and was widely mocked for her Benny Blanco-produced debut single to being a hip ascendant major label pop star who people like Arca and Charli XCX want to work with. A weird and unexpected turn of events, but good for her, I guess. "Diet Pepsi" is her biggest hit so far, and "Aquamarine" is her follow-up single, with Arca on the entertainingly retitled remix. I don't really like remix, though, it's like they took a middling house song and made it into a worse reggaeton song. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: C- 

"Baby I'm Back (Remix)" by The Kid Laroi featuring Gunna
Player's "Baby Come Back" was one of the biggest songs by a White band on the R&B charts in the '70s. Australia's The Kid Laroi is kind of one of the biggest White rappers on the charts today, but he's really more a singer than a rapper, and only really gets played on pop radio. Laroi's latest single samples "Baby Come Back" and it's not bad, but it's definitely better with the Gunna verse added.  
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B

"Critical (Remix)" by RXKNephew featuring Sada Baby, Tony Shhnow, Rx Papi, and Quadie Diesel
Everyone on this remix is some variety of regional rap star that a lot of other music critics like a lot more than I do. I lived in Delaware for 10 years when I was younger, so I feel like rooting for Quadie Diesel, though, cool to see a rapper from Wilmington doing things. It's funny that the "Critical" remix with four guest rappers is shorter than RXKNephew's original solo track. I really don't enjoy his rap style, just gracelessly stammering out a chaotic string of vaguely edgy punchlines, listening to RXKNephew feels a lot like listening to Uncle Murda (no pun intended). 
Best Verse: Quadie Diesel
Overall Grade: D

"DJ Play A Christmas Song (Remix)" by Cher featuring Kelly Clarkson
"DJ Play A Christmas Song" made chart history last year when it topped Billboard's Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales chart, making her the first artist to ever have #1 songs in seven different decades. It's not a very good song, though. Kelly Clarkson makes everything better, this song included, it's just a completely different track with all her runs and harmonies, if still not a great one. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B

"Fuel (Shady Edition)" by Eminem featuring Westside Boogie and Grip
The original "Fuel" features a verse by JID, and the remix features two artists from Eminem's label. One of them, Grip, is a rappity rap Atlanta guy, much like JID, and his verse is pretty good, but Boogie really kicks off the track well, great verse. 
Best Verse: Westside Boogie
Overall Grade: B+

"Mamushi (Remix)" by Megan Thee Stallion featuring Twice
It was a bit of a surprise when a song featuring Japanese rapper Yuki Chiba wound up being one of the biggest hits from Megan Thee Stallion's latest album, and the deluxe version of the album features a remix of the song with the Korean girl group Twice. Meg's new verse on the remix is great, in fact way better than her verse on the original "Mamushi," the Twice verse is pretty anticlimactic after that. And as always I have to give kudos whenever an artist puts a new verse on a remix of one of their own songs, it's so rare these days. 
Best Verse: Megan Thee Stallion
Overall Grade: B

"M.N.E.I.G. (Remix)" by idontknowjeffery featuring GloRilla, NLE Choppa, Juicy J and Marcus.901
"M.N.E.I.G. (G-Mix)" by idontknowjeffery featuring Duke Deuce and Marcus.901
idontknowjeffery released "M.N.E.I.G." in 2023 with guest verses by Duke Deuce and Marcus.901. In September, an all-star remix with GloRilla, NLE Choppa and Juicy J and a great new beat hit streaming services, and then at some point in the last few weeks it was pulled off Spotify (you can still hear it on YouTube). Then in November, another version was put on streaming services that just has the song's original verses over the remix beat. I hope the first remix gets put back on streaming soon, I love hearing a Memphis anthem with several big names from the city on it. A lot of people take NLE Choppa as kind of a joke, but his verse on there is great. 
Best Verse: GloRilla
Overall Grade: A-

"Mutt (Remix)" by Leon Thomas featuring Freddie Gibbs
Leon Thomas III was in the cast of Nickelodeon's "Victorious" alongside Ariana Grande and got a foot in the door in the music industry working on Grande's first album. Since then he's worked on hits by huge artists like SZA and Drake, and has been getting a lot of enthusiastic buzz for his second solo album on Motown, Mutt. I think it's an alright album, the title track and lead single is pleasant, but I've never really seen what people see in Freddie Gibbs and don't think he adds much of value to the song. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: C 

"People's Favorite (Remix)" by Chicken P featuring 42 Dugg
I feel like I should be up on more Milwaukee rap because my brother and mom live there and I occasionally go out there for visits, it's a nice town. Anyway, Chicken P's from Milwaukee and I really like "People's Favorite." 42 Dugg feels like an appropriate guest because this song kinda reminds me of his hit "Maybach." 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B+

"South of France (Remix)" by Future featuring Travis Scott
Future has never done a lot of super short songs like many other Atlanta trap guys, but Mixtape Pluto had a few songs under 2 minutes, including the 108-second "South of France," and those songs sounded almost incomplete by his standards. A "South of France" remix with Travis Scott was released 6 weeks after the album, which makes me wonder if that song was always supposed to be a collaboration and Travis just missed the album deadline. In any event, Future and Travis have a lot of songs together and I've found very few of them to be particularly good or memorable, but I like this one. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B 

"Sympathy Is A Knife (Remix)" by Charli XCX featuring Ariana Grande
Back when Brat was released, people very quickly figured out that "Girl, So Confusing" was about Lorde and "Sympathy Is A Knife" was about Taylor Swift. Charli and Lorde worked it out on the "Girl" remix, which naturally made me wonder if it was possible that Taylor would come down from the mountaintop and do a remix with Charli. That didn't happen, but "Sympathy" did get the biggest guest on the Brat remix album so it still felt like an event. Charli and Ariana say "it's a knife" on here so many times that I kind of wish they had 21 Savage on here too. 
Best Verse: Ariana Grande
Overall Grade: B+

"Team Tomodachi (Bun B IITIGHT Remix)" by Yuki Chiba featuring Bun B
"Team Tomodachi (Duke Deuce Remix)" by Yuki Chiba featuring Duke Deuce
"Team Tomodachi (Will Smith Remix)" by Yuki Chiba featuring Will Smith
Yuki Chiba, the Japanese rapper featured on Megan Thee Stallion's "Mamushi," evidently wants to expand on his newfound fame in America, and his latest single has three different remixes with U.S. rappers. Will Smith has had a few of these "wow, Will Smith still raps and he doesn't sound bad" viral moments the last few years, but this one feels pretty minor even by that standard. But Bun B, one of the greatest guest verse gunslingers of all time, has not appeared in this column since 2013, and it's so nice to hear him kill a remix again. Duke Deuce's verse is really funny too, he should get invited to do remixes more often. 
Best Verse: Bun B
Overall Grade: B-

"10PM In Miami (Remix)" by Trillian featuring Cash Cobain and R2R Moe
You would never guess from Trillian's music, which is kind of riding the 'sexy drill' wave, that he's the son of Busta Rhymes (which kind of makes me wonder if Busta is a Hitchhiker's Guide To The Universe fan). The original song really sucks, the remix is a slight improvement. 
Best Verse: Cash Cobain
Overall Grade: C+

12:32 PM

Saturday, November 16, 2024

 




I ranked Madonna's albums for Spin.

2:46 PM

Deep Album Cuts Vol. 371: Beastie Boys

Friday, November 15, 2024

 





The longer this series goes on, the more it feels absurd that I haven't certain covered certain artists, and the Beastie Boys feel like one of them, but Licensed To Ill was released on this day in 1986, so it feels like a good time to look back at their catalog. 

Beastie Boys album cuts (Spotify playlist):

1. Time To Get Ill
2. Rhymin & Stealin
3. Posse In Effect
4. Slow Ride
5. Car Thief
6. High Plains Drifter
7. Egg Man
8. B-Boy Bouillabaisse: Hello Brooklyn
9. Finger Lickin' Good
10. The Maestro
11. Stand Together
12. Live At P.J.'s
13. Heart Attack Man
14. Flute Loop
15. Alright Hear This
16. The Update
17. Super Disco Breakin'
18. I Don't Know featuring Miho Hatori
19. The Move
20. Just A Test
21. 3 The Hard Way
22. Hey Fuck You
23. B For My Name
24. 14th Street Break
25. Nonstop Disco Powerpack
26. Long Burn The Fire

Tracks 1, 2, 3 and 4 from Licensed To Ill (1986)
Tracks 5, 6, 7 and 8 from Paul's Boutique (1989)
Tracks 9, 10, 11 and 12 from Check Your Head (1992)
Tracks 13, 14, 15 and 16 from Ill Communication (1994)
Tracks 17, 18, 19 and 20 from Hello Nasty (1998)
Tracks 21 and 22 from To The 5 Boroughs (2004)
Tracks 23 and 24 from The Mix-Up (2007)
Tracks 25 and 26 from Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (2011)

The Beastie Boys appeared on a 1999 episode of "Futurama" (which briefly featured "Super Disco Breakin'"), and I chuckled when Fry told them, "Back in the 20th century, I had all 5 of your albums," to which Ad Rock replies "That was a thousand years ago! Now we got 7." That line was kinda prophetic because, depending on whether you count the instrumental album The Mix-Up, they really did end up with 7 (or 8) albums before Adam Yauch died. 

I feel like I sort of took the Beastie Boys for granted growing up, they were so ubiquitous and in some ways symbolized the commercial advantage that white rappers tend to have. But given that their music is so much better and more creative and fun than most of the white rappers that came after them, and they frequently returned to their roots as a guitar/bass/drums band and played all kinds of music, I'm a lot more fond of them in retrospect. The way they kept doing those old school back-and-forth flows and rapping in unison like the Treacherous Three or Funky 4 + 1 sounds cool as fuck sometimes, it's kind of shame that the rest of the hip hop world moved away from that kind of rapping decades ago. 

There are so many Beastie Boys hits that I've heard so many times that I feel like I don't need to ever hear them again (which may be partly why Paul's Boutique is my favorite album, it doesn't have any overexposed singles). So I really liked just trying to put together a bunch of their best songs without the overplayed stuff and, The Mix-Up aside, without a lot of the jammy instrumental stuff that's all over the '90s albums. I think this might be one of the most enjoyable deep cuts playlists I've ever made. This might be one of the most enjoyable deep cuts playlists I've ever made, the tracks just keep coming at you with so much energy. I won't even get into all the samples the Beastie Boys used on these songs, but I will point out that "Car Thief" was sampled on the Faith No More hit "Midlife Crisis," and the "Hello Brooklyn" section of "B-Boy Bouillabaisse" was the basis for Jay-Z and Lil Wayne's "Hello Brooklyn 2.0." 

Previous playlists in the Deep Album Cuts series:
Vol. 1: Brandy
Vol. 2: Whitney Houston
Vol. 3: Madonna
Vol. 4: My Chemical Romance
Vol. 5: Brad Paisley
Vol. 6: George Jones
Vol. 7: The Doors
Vol. 8: Jay-Z
Vol. 9: Robin Thicke
Vol. 10: R. Kelly
Vol. 11: Fall Out Boy
Vol. 12: TLC
Vol. 13: Pink
Vol. 14: Queen
Vol. 15: Steely Dan
Vol. 16: Trick Daddy
Vol. 17: Paramore
Vol. 18: Elton John
Vol. 19: Missy Elliott
Vol. 20: Mariah Carey
Vol. 21: The Pretenders
Vol. 22: "Weird Al" Yankovic
Vol. 23: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Vol. 24: Foo Fighters
Vol. 25: Counting Crows
Vol. 26: T.I.
Vol. 27: Jackson Browne
Vol. 28: Usher
Vol. 29: Mary J. Blige
Vol. 30: The Black Crowes
Vol. 31: Ne-Yo
Vol. 32: Blink-182
Vol. 33: One Direction
Vol. 34: Kelly Clarkson
Vol. 35: The B-52's
Vol. 36: Ludacris
Vol. 37: They Might Be Giants
Vol. 38: T-Pain
Vol. 39: Snoop Dogg
Vol. 40: Ciara
Vol. 41: Creedence Clearwater Revival
Vol. 42: Dwight Yoakam
Vol. 43: Demi Lovato
Vol. 44: Prince
Vol. 45: Duran Duran
Vol. 46: Rihanna
Vol. 47: Janet Jackson
Vol. 48: Sara Bareilles
Vol. 49: Motley Crue
Vol. 50: The Who
Vol. 51: Coldplay
Vol. 52: Alicia Keys
Vol. 53: Stone Temple Pilots
Vol. 54: David Bowie
Vol. 55: The Eagles
Vol. 56: The Beatles
Vol. 57: Beyonce
Vol. 58: Beanie Sigel
Vol. 59: A Tribe Called Quest
Vol. 60: Cheap Trick
Vol. 61: Guns N' Roses
Vol. 62: The Posies
Vol. 63: The Time
Vol. 64: Gucci Mane
Vol. 65: Violent Femmes
Vol. 66: Red Hot Chili Peppers
Vol. 67: Maxwell
Vol. 68: Parliament-Funkadelic
Vol. 69: Chevelle
Vol. 70: Ray Parker Jr. and Raydio
Vol. 71: Fantasia
Vol. 72: Heart
Vol. 73: Pitbull
Vol. 74: Nas
Vol. 75: Monica
Vol. 76: The Cars
Vol. 77: 112
Vol. 78: 2Pac
Vol. 79: Nelly
Vol. 80: Meat Loaf
Vol. 81: AC/DC
Vol. 82: Bruce Springsteen
Vol. 83: Pearl Jam
Vol. 84: Green Day
Vol. 85: George Michael and Wham!
Vol. 86: New Edition
Vol. 87: Chuck Berry
Vol. 88: Electric Light Orchestra
Vol. 89: Chic
Vol. 90: Journey
Vol. 91: Yes
Vol. 92: Soundgarden
Vol. 93: The Allman Brothers Band
Vol. 94: Mobb Deep
Vol. 95: Linkin Park
Vol. 96: Shania Twain
Vol. 97: Squeeze
Vol. 98: Taylor Swift
Vol. 99: INXS
Vol. 100: Stevie Wonder
Vol. 101: The Cranberries
Vol. 102: Def Leppard
Vol. 103: Bon Jovi
Vol. 104: Dire Straits
Vol. 105: The Police
Vol. 106: Sloan
Vol. 107: Peter Gabriel
Vol. 108: Led Zeppelin
Vol. 109: Dave Matthews Band
Vol. 110: Nine Inch Nails
Vol. 111: Talking Heads
Vol. 112: Smashing Pumpkins
Vol. 113: System Of A Down
Vol. 114: Aretha Franklin
Vol. 115: Michael Jackson
Vol. 116: Alice In Chains
Vol. 117: Paul Simon
Vol. 118: Lil Wayne
Vol. 119: Nirvana
Vol. 120: Kix
Vol. 121: Phil Collins
Vol. 122: Elvis Costello & The Attractions
Vol. 123: Sonic Youth
Vol. 124: Bob Seger
Vol. 125: Radiohead
Vol. 126: Eric Church
Vol. 127: Neil Young
Vol. 128: Future
Vol. 129: Say Anything
Vol. 130: Maroon 5
Vol. 131: Kiss
Vol. 132: Dinosaur Jr.
Vol. 133: Stevie Nicks
Vol. 134: Talk Talk
Vol. 135: Ariana Grande
Vol. 136: Roxy Music
Vol. 137: The Cure
Vol. 138: 2 Chainz
Vol. 139: Kelis
Vol. 140: Ben Folds Five
Vol. 141: DJ Khaled
Vol. 142: Little Feat
Vol. 143: Brendan Benson
Vol. 144: Chance The Rapper
Vol. 145: Miguel
Vol. 146: The Geto Boys
Vol. 147: Meek Mill
Vol. 148: Tool
Vol. 149: Jeezy
Vol. 150: Lady Gaga
Vol. 151: Eddie Money
Vol. 152: LL Cool J
Vol. 153: Cream
Vol. 154: Pavement
Vol. 155: Miranda Lambert
Vol. 156: Gang Starr
Vol. 157: Little Big Town
Vol. 158: Thin Lizzy
Vol. 159: Pat Benatar
Vol. 160: Depeche Mode
Vol. 161: Rush
Vol. 162: Three 6 Mafia
Vol. 163: Jennifer Lopez
Vol. 164: Rage Against The Machine
Vol. 165: Huey Lewis and the News
Vol. 166: Dru Hill
Vol. 167: The Strokes
Vol. 168: The Notorious B.I.G.
Vol. 169: Sparklehorse
Vol. 170: Kendrick Lamar
Vol. 171: Mazzy Star
Vol. 172: Erykah Badu
Vol. 173: The Smiths
Vol. 174: Kenny Rogers & The First Edition
Vol. 175: Fountains Of Wayne
Vol. 176: Joe Diffie
Vol. 177: Morphine
Vol. 178: Dr. Dre
Vol. 179: The Rolling Stones
Vol. 180: Superchunk
Vol. 181: The Replacements
Vol. 364: Charli XCX
Vol. 365: Tinashe
Vol. 366: The Greg Kihn Band
Vol. 367: Sabrina Carpenter
Vol. 368: Rich Homie Quan
Vol. 369: Tracy Chapman
Vol. 370: Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly

6:48 AM

Monthly Report: November 2024 Singles

Wednesday, November 13, 2024

 





1. Doechii - "Nissan Altima"
Doechii pretty much only sings on the first two singles TDE pushed to radio after signing her, "Persuasive" and "What It Is (Block Boy)," so I was a little concerned that she'd kind of end up with a career like Tink where radio listeners only ever hear her R&B stuff and don't even know she raps. So I'm glad she's got a banger like "Nissan Altima" getting spins, even if the Grammy noms are really doing more for her profile than the single at the moment. Here's the 2024 singles Spotify playlist I've been updating every month all year. 

2. Charli XCX - "Apple"
I'm not that into the biggest single from Brat, "360," but I'm glad that TikTok's favorite song from the album has started to get some pop radio airplay as well. Of the songs Charli has done with George Daniel so far, "Apple" is the one that almost sounds like The 1975 could've made it, in fact I'm a little disappointed that the band did a different song on the Brat remix album. 

3. LL Cool J f/ Saweetie - "Proclivities"
LL Cool J making a legit great album is one of my favorite things that's happened in music in 2024. And while he and Q-Tip mostly focus on beats and bars on The Force, as someone who thinks "Doin' It" is one of LL's masterpieces, I'm glad he threw in one absurdly horny club song on there, even if the beat is probably still a little too left field to blow up these days. The "Proclivities" beat was made out of part of Gary Numan's "M.E." that wasn't sampled on Basement Jaxx's "Where's Your Head At," but I especially love the bass guitar noodling on the outro, which based on my recent Raphael Saadiq interview, was probably played by Q-Tip himself. 

4. Blink 182 - "All In My Head"
I didn't like Blink 182's first two big singles after reuniting the Enema era lineup, "Edging" and "One More Time," which each veered too far in opposite directions. "All In My Head" is the first song they've done in a long time that's reminded me of the 2003 self-titled album, though, that's the Blink that I like the most. 

5. The Linda Lindas - "All In My Head"
Oh look, another good song called "All In My Head" that's on the alt-rock charts right now! I love that the Linda Lindas really seem to be building a solid career off of the viral moment they had in 2021. 

6. Hozier - "Nobody's Soldier" 
As much as I like "Too Good," I respect that it's probably going to remain a unique moment in Hozier's career that doesn't substantially change his musical direction. And I love that he decided to follow up his big pop moment with an anti-war song that one of those psychedelic soul-era Temptations songs Norman Whitfield produced in the early '70s. 

7. The Marias - "No One Noticed"
I really liked "Run Your Mouth," the most immediate and uptempo song from the album the Marias released earlier this year, and I kind of assumed that would be the biggest hit from it. But then one of the quieter, more introspective songs, "No One Noticed," took off on TikTok, and has become their first Hot 100 hit, which is kinda cool and unexpected. 

8. Mario - "Space"
Mario's never really had a particular sound, but his voice usually sounds good in whatever style he tries on. And I really dig what he's doing on his recent singles co-written by James Fauntleroy. I saw people on social media try to dismiss "Space" as him doing wannabe Lucky Daye music, but I don't think Lucky Daye or anyone else has an exclusive claim to retro soul and Mario has an excellent voice for it. 

9. Latto - "Brokey"
I'm not very snobby about the emphasis on money and wealth in hip hop, people are just writing about our world in less polite terms than many would prefer to hear, that's a big part of what hip hop is to me. Mocking people who don't have money, though, usually doesn't sit well with me. "Brokey" has a great beat and is just catchy enough to kind of get past my defenses, even in a stretch of October when I'd just spent thousands on car repairs and paying off my 2023 taxes and barely had a dollar to my name, I was still driving around nodding my head to "Brokey." 

10. Eric Church - "Darkest Hour (Helene Edit)" 
Eric Church has always been happy to step over the line of what will be received well by Nashville or his fans and expand his sound, and his polarizing set at this year's Stagecoach festival seemed to be a significant chapter in that story. Church is from the part of North Carolina that was hit hard by Hurricane Helene, and the benefit single he released is another big departure and I really like it, I kind of hope his next album really goes off into some new directions. 

The Worst Single of the Month: Marques Houston - "Cowgirl"
I'm down with "Old Town Road," Cowboy Carter, Shaboozey, and a whole lot of other country and country-adjacent records by Black artists in recent memory. This just feels like pathetic trend-chasing from someone who barely ever made any good music to begin with, though. 

8:11 PM

Movie Diary

Tuesday, November 12, 2024

 






a) Piece By Piece
I play music when my family eats dinner but I don't really trouble my kids with my musical obsessions, I think my older son just listens to the same rap that most 15-year-olds today listen. So I was a little excited when he asked me to take him to see a movie about a musician I think really highly of, even if it's the Lego movie about Pharrell Williams. In fact I think that big silly conceit makes what's a pretty standard music documentary into something with wider appeal. The thing I didn't expect that really cracked me up was the Lego remakes of music videos -- I died at the Lego "Rump Shaker" video and another lady in the theater totally lost it at the Lego "Shake It Fast" video. I could do my usual thing and complain about the way the movie twisted or simplified music history at various points, but it felt more natural for them to take some liberties given how stylized it was. And it ultimately felt like a really fun way to celebrate the incredible career that Pharrell and the Neptunes have had. 

b) Trap
I always try to give M. Night Shyamalan a chance because I really think that even on his worst day he's one of the most creative big name directors we've got. But this may be the most incoherent movie he's ever made. I'm not even going to get into Josh Hartnett's undeserved return to leading man status, because even if they had an actor who could pull off that role, the story would still be a mess. I just wish Shyamalan had a co-writer or something with more discipline to implement his ideas into a functioning plot. 

c) Civil War
I didn't get around to watching this until right after the election, which felt appropriate even if Alex Garland, a Brit, seemed to shy away from any specifics about exactly why a civil war is plausible in near-future America or coming up with a plausible geographic scenario. As an action movie, it's great spectacle, there are excellent Kirsten Dunst and Cailee Spaeny performances and some well chosen needle drops (De La Soul and multiple Suicide songs), but by the end, though, it feels a little hollow, anything that it's saying about America or war or journalism feels very surface-level. 

d) A Quiet Place: Day One
This was pretty good, Lupita Nyong'o and Frodo the cat were excellent leads. I don't really agree with people who say it's the best movie in the series, though, if anything it was my least favorite -- the 'day one' opening in A Quiet Place Part II was a lot more thrilling. 

Kate Beckinsale as a spy in an action movie is a pretty good idea, but I kinda put this on as background noise, it seemed decent but I didn't hold it up to any kind of scrutiny. 

Another decent movie that kinda wound up being background noise, charming cast but for a period piece the visual detail was really lacking, it just didn't rung true. 

It's weird to think that "time travel slasher movie" is its own genre now. I like the idea of combining sci-fi and horror in this way, but it helps if it's done in a clever and self-aware way like the Happy Death Day movies. Time Cut just felt pointless and not even as good as last year's Totally Killer, which wasn't that great itself. 

h) Thanksgiving
Eli Roth's fake trailer for Thanksgiving in 2007's Grindhouse was a good bit, and turning it into a real movie would've been a good bit maybe a year or two later. But 16 years later? Just feels like an idea way past its expiration date, even just culturally, it doesn't hit like it would've in 2007, and the twist at the end was pretty dumb. 

i) Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
There are already some pretty excellent Springsteen concert films, but Road Diary is something different, a look behind the curtain and how the E Street plans out and prepares for a tour. I especially like the rehearsal scenes, where they're shaking off the cobwebs and playing "She's the One" way too slow. For this latest tour, Springsteen mostly stuck to one setlist and didn't divert from it a lot, and really building a deliberate narrative flow, and it was interesting to see how and why he did that and how they still left room for spontaneity and kept refining the show and doing things like making the Commodores' "Nightshift" into this cool showcase for the backing singers. 

j) Olivia Rodrigo: GUTS World Tour
Olivia Rodrigo only has two albums and I love them both, so it was fun to watch her concert movie knowing I'd get to hear all my favorite songs -- "Love Is Embarrassing" kicks so much ass. But she's still learning how to command a stage and her audience is so loud and so excitable that it doesn't translate to film that well -- she does a lot of yelling and hyping up the crowd instead of focusing on singing every line as well as possible. Still, her band is great and as a pop star who makes rock songs she gets to sort of split the difference in an interesting way. 

k) Megan Thee Stallion: In Her Words
Megan Thee Stallion is easily one of the best rap stars of the last few years and the whole situation with Tory Lanez shooting her is just horrible and it's a shame that it's still reverberating and is still the primary subject of a documentary about her. There's still some good stuff about the music and her career, but not as much as there could be. I didn't like the anime dramatization of the shooting, I don't think that was the right way to address that situation, but I'm glad she got to tell her story in this way. 

3:12 PM

Saturday, November 09, 2024

 




I wrote about the Baltimore band Combat and their excellent second album Stay Golden for the Baltimore Banner. 

8:19 AM

Monthly Report: October 2024 Albums

Wednesday, November 06, 2024

























1. BigXthaPlug - Take Care 
I really liked Dallas rapper BigXthaPlug's single "MMHMM" when it broke through nationally earlier this year. But I was a little surprised when his latest album debuted in the top 10 on the Billboard 200, an indie project distributed by UnitedMasters with no features, I guess he must be really building a strong regional following. I don't know why Take Care has the same title as Drake's biggest album, but it's a really strong record, dude has that kind of classic Texas flow where he can do pretty fast flows and still sound really relaxed and almost slow motion, and he does well with slightly conceptual stuff like "Therapy Session." I love southern soul beats, it's one of my favorite styles of rap production, and Bandplay and the other producers on the album sample a whole lot of R&B and gospel including The Whispers, Willie Hutch, Gwen McRae, War, the Isley Brothers, Rick James, and T.L. Barrett. Here's the 2024 albums Spotify playlist I fill with all the new records I listen to. 

2. GloRilla - Glorious
GloRilla already released a great mixtape and a couple of huge singles earlier this year, so it was exciting when she just kept that momentum going and dropped more hits and her official debut album. I feel like a lot of people checked out and raved about Glorious that slept on Ehhthang Ehhthang, but they're both excellent projects, I'm just glad at least one of them is doing numbers. The gospel track "Rain Down On Me" has gotten a lot of attention, but "Stop Playing" is really good too, she's got the anthems locked down but she's getting more versatile with each release. I'm annoyed that there's a Fridayy hook on here, though, that's absolutely the worst staple of 2023-2024 major label rap albums. 

3. Leon Bridges - Leon
Well before it was apparent that 2024 would be a historic year for Black artists in country music, Leon Bridges recorded his fourth album with two producers, Ian Fitchuk and Daniel Tashian, who are best known for Golden Hour by Kacey Musgraves. I've always been a little snobby about retro soul and hadn't been grabbed by the stuff I'd heard by Bridges in the past. But I loved the song he had on the country-heavy Twisters soundtrack over the summer, "Chrome Cowgirl," and was curious to hear Leon. And this album sounds fantastic with the folk and country influences woven into his sound in interesting and creative ways, while also drawing on his experiences growing up in Texas, much like Cowboy Carter. 

4. Orla Gartland - Everybody Needs A Hero
A radio station I listen to regularly, WTMD, uses the backronym tagline "total music discovery," and I'd say it's earned, because they've introduced me into several bands I love over the last few years (including The Lemon Twigs, Illiterate Light, and Bailen). On Monday afternoon, I was driving to pick my son up from school and put on WTMD in the middle of Irish singer-songwriter's Orla Gartland's "Little Chaos." I was immediately hooked, and took my son home and started listening to Gartland's new album. And that may not even be the best song on the album, I also really like "The Hit" and "Three Words Away." 

5. Halsey - The Great Impersonator
Halsey's last album was my favorite of the decade so far, so I was really looking forward to The Great Impersonator, even if they didn't work with Trent Reznor again on this one. And I think it's a pretty solid follow-up to a masterpiece, an incredibly ambitious attempt to come to grips with mortality while dealing with a serious illness while also synthesizing decades of different influences into a set of original songs. Some of the songs are pretty on-the-nose stylistic exercises (the Stevie Nicks one sounds just like "Dreams," the Bruce Springsteen one sounds just like "I'm On Fire," etc.), but I'm kinda glad most of the album just sounds like Halsey songs and not a pastiche. There's some very raw emotions, but also occasionally funny, self-aware lyrics ("I don't know if I could sell out my own funeral, at least not at this point in time"). This album became kind of instantly infamous among people who probably haven't and would never listen to a Halsey album because of one negative review, but I think it's excellent, not really interested in all the social media noise around it. 

6. Kelsea Ballerini - Patterns
I'm sure it's probably a coincidence, but I was amused to note that Halsey's 5th album and Kelsea Ballerini's 5th album came out on the same day. Halsey and Ballerini worked together on the single "The Other Girl" and an episode of "CMT Crossroads" in 2020, but Ballerini made a thinly veiled reference to the end of their friendship on the 2022 song "Doin' My Best." Don't know what happened there, but I'm a fan of both artists and both albums are good. Since Ballerini ripped the bandaid off and wrote and released some songs about her divorce as quickly as possibly on an EP last year, Patterns feels a little free to be about different things, including breakups and divorces. Ballerini wrote pretty much the whole album with a songwriting team including Karen Fairchild of Little Big Town (who released an excellent Christmas album in October) and the great Hillary Lindsey, and it just sounds like a few friends sharing experiences and turning them into songs, "Sorry Mom" in particular is an excellent song. 

7. EarthGang - Perfect Fantasy
I interviewed these guys recently and really enjoyed talking to them and learning about their influences. I feel like it's almost too obvious to compare them to OutKast, but out of all the contemporary Atlanta or southern rappers who pay lip service to OutKast being greats, they're one of the only acts that you can really hear the influence in. 

8. Rich Homie Quan - Forever Goin In
Putting together my Rich Homie Quan deep cuts playlist in the days after his death in September, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the quality of his music never wavered much even after the music industry had turned its back on him and he had fallen deeper into addiction -- he really didn't stop goin' in! And on Quan's 35th birthday, less than a month after his passing, his team released a posthumous album that all sounds like well finished and mostly very good songs, including collaborations with 2 Chainz, Plies, Skilla Baby, and more. At 100 minutes, it could've been edited down a bit or even broken up into 2 or 3 posthumous albums, but either way I'm glad it exists, "Mi Hermano" is one of my initial favorites. 

9. James Bay - Changes All the Time
I feel like an odd James Bay fan in that I think that 2018's Electric Light, the sophomore slump that nearly killed his career, was a masterpiece and by far the best thing he's ever done. He's done a couple albums then trying to convince people he's still the rootsy balladeer of "Let It Go" and Changes All the Time opens with a nice little acoustic rave up with Noah Kahan and the Lumineers, "Up All Night." I'm happy that the album still contains a decent amount of alt-rock stuff like "Easy Distraction" (co-written by Brandon Flowers of the Killers) and "Some People" (co-written by Dan Wilson of Semisonic) that reminds me a little of Electric Light, though, there's a nice balance of different sounds. 

10. various artists - Bad Monkey (Apple TV+ Original Series Soundtrack)
Both times a TV series has taken place in Florida with Bill Lawrence as the showrunner, there's been a nod to Ton Petty in every episode -- in "Cougartown" it was episode titles named after Petty songs, and in "Bad Monkey" it's new covers of Petty songs by 20 different artists. Between this soundtrack and ranking Petty's albums recently, I've been really enjoying a nice Tom Petty phase, although I never seem to go long without enjoying his work. The Bad Monkey soundtrack probably isn't as consistent as the Petty Country tribute album from earlier this year, but there's some great stuff, I love Nathaniel Rateliff's creative arrangement of "Don't Come Around Here No More," and Jason Isbell and Kurt Vile pick good deep cuts. As much as I hated The Teal Album and Weezer's general approach to recording covers, I was pleasantly surprised at how well they pull off "Here Comes My Girl." 

The Worst Album of the Month: Ian - Goodbye Horses
I find authenticity debates over White rappers to be kind of repetitive and exhausting, but White rappers continue to thrive commercially and many of them are cartoonishly inauthentic, so here we are. Ian O'Neill Smith, a 19-year-old who played rugby at Clemson University, at least until he recently dropped out to release his major label debut, raps in a post-Playboi Carti rage patois that almost makes me long for the quaint corniness of Asher Roth. It's hard to see this guy becoming Jack Harlow-level big, but this album is actively unpleasant to listen to and he's getting features from Chief Keef and Lil Yachty, so whatever, I'm hating. 

7:46 PM