Esperanza Spalding: Emily’s D+Evolution
Release date: March 4, 2016
Esperanza Spalding has been playing unique, powerful music since releasing her debut album Junjo in 2007, and, one can assume, well before that as well. (Actually, you don’t have to assume). Her mastery of the bass, the voice, and the art of composition placed her in a league of her own; the absolute embodiment of Jazz, deeply respected by musicians all over the world. However, nothing in her catalogue could have prepared us for this titan of an album.
All of her previous albums, although far from straightforward or conventional, have yet been, unambiguously, Jazz albums. Emily’s D+Evolution, although not without ample doses of Jazz, could not be described as such. Adding prog-rock, funk and even folk to a pot that already included R&B, samba, and countless other flavours of Jazz, the result is something that could really only be called a Pop album, if one was foolish enough to insist on calling it anything.
Centering around the protagonist Emily, Spalding’s alter-ego, it is also a concept album, and a dense and rewarding one at that. Emily is a wide-eyed idealist, but woe to anyone who sees that as a weakness, and double woe to anyone who sees it as a strength. Spalding has stated in an interview about the album that Emily “is a spirit, or a being, or an aspect who I met, or became aware of. I recognize that my job…is to be her arms and ears and voice and body.” This allows her to present the character without any trace of positive or negative judgement. Emily speaks for herself. Through her ruminations on everything from love to sin to the state of higher education, Spalding/Emily presents a nuanced and fascinating world-view.
More than anything, this album is a statement. In that sense, I can’t help but think she has been inspired by a trend towards hard-hitting song writing which has revitalized the music scene over the last years, and by the widespread interest that has been given artists such as Kendrick Lamar. And honestly, the world probably wasn’t ready for this Esperanza in 2010.
Production: 9
Content: 8
Delivery: 10
Overall: 9
Kendrick Lamar: Untitled Unmastered
Release date: March 4, 2016
Speaking of Kendrick. This album was released, as is fairly common these days, with no prior announcement or publicity. It is also without song titles. (And is Untitled Unmastered even an album title?) Mostly comprised of songs that didn’t end up being included on To Pimp a Butterfly, Kendrick further proves that he is light-years ahead of most of his competition. His out-takes are better than most people’s album cuts.
In fact, these songs are better than many of his own album cuts. Kendrick is firing on all cylinders right now, feeling himself to the highest degree and making music with some of the best musicians in the world, and on this album we get to hear him (and them) let loose. This results in some of the farthest-out-there production that Kendrick has ever spit to, and in Kendrick coming with some zanier delivery even than we heard on TPAB. And you know the dude has challenging, witty lyrics and powerful stories for days… centuries probably. And that he is absolutely vicious, spitting “Justice ain’t free, therefore justice ain’t me/So I justify his name on obituary,” continuing to state that he will “Watch you when you walk inside your house,” before “Creeping through your fuckin’ door and blowin’ out/ Every piece of your brain.” All in all, it makes for a truly exhilarating experience, a master of his craft in his what-seems-likely-to-be long and prolific prime, holding no punches.
Production: 8 (despite the title)
Content: 10
Delivery: 10
Overall: 9.3
Flatbush Zombies: 3001: A Laced Odyssey
Release date: March 11, 2016
The Flatbush Zombies keep up the Stanley Kubrick theme of their last release Clockwork Indigo, a collaborative effort with the Underachievers, on this, their studio debut. As the first official release from a group with huge amounts of buzz, you would expect them to bring everything they have to this album, and they do not disappoint. Rappers Meech and Zombie Juice provide bombastic delivery reminiscent of Bone Thugz n Harmony, the perfect MCs for the eery zombie-space-funk provided by producer Erick the Architect, whose production really brings the affair to masterpiece level.
While the lyrical content on this album is not what you might call deep, with the 2 MCs for the most part sticking to blunted-out boasting, and lines like “She call me Meechy over, I slide in that coochie/Nosedive in that coochie,” it may be that this is the ideal back-drop to these brilliant beats, allowing the listener to focus fully on sounds and vibes instead of words or meaning. And the sounds on this record are truly a revelation, integrating 90’s style drum loops and trap drum patterns into one of the most cohesive representations of modern New York hip-hop that has yet to receive widespread attention. Like much of the best music, it is smooth yet rough, clean yet dirty, residing at the border between despair and ecstasy. And working with such a great musical framework, the Flatbush Zombies have the potential to reach even higher levels than they have already ascended to; meanwhile, as we wait for their next release, which will hopefully be titled Barry LITdon, this album should provide enough, erm, Zombie Juice to more than satisfy our cravings.
Production: 9
Content: 7
Delivery: 10
Overall: 8.6
Iggy Pop: Post Pop Depression
Release date: March 18, 2016
Before Post Pop Depression, Iggy Pop had not released a rock album for over ten years, and this album marks a complete return to form. In fact Pop has not put out any music this catchy and this clean since making his first two solo albums with David Bowie almost 40 years ago. And like those albums, while clean and polished, and even gleeful at times, it is at the same time darkly sinister.
The same could also be said of the past output of Pop’s collaborator on this project, Josh Homme (of Queens of the Stone Age), who both produced this album and provided much of its instrumentation. It is truly a match made in heaven, or if you would prefer, in the fiery pits of hell. This is Homme at his most bombastic, channeling glam-rock glee and, of course, the industrial wryness of Bowie. This is music for cigarette-laden streets, dark alleyways, abandoned warehouses; for “lowly deeds/ that no one sees.” Homme has said that working on this album really helped him get into a better headspace after witnessing the attack on the Bataclan in Paris, where he was performing, and the album certainly can be a cathartic experience. The main lineup is rounded out by QOTSA bassist Dean Fertita and Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders.
Pop’s lyrics fit perfectly with the tone set by the music, ruminations on death and violence softened by a permeating faith that “when you get to the bottom you’re close to the top/ [and] shit turns into chocolate drops.” The album concludes with the wistful Paraguay, complete with the old-maniest of old man rants, where Pop contradictorily laments the state of fear and terror many are living in, and then goes on to suggest the listener shove their laptop down their throat and shit it out, “with all the words in it” and that he “hope[s] the security services read those words/And pick [the listener] up and flay [them].” Yikes. An all around infectious and engaging album for fans of Iggy Pop or punk-rock in general.
Production: 9
Content: 9
Delivery: 9
Overall: 9
Bonus!
March albums I thought were really great, but do not understand the language they are in and thus did not want to write a review for:
Ceu: Tropix
Production: 9
Delivery:10
MODULAR: Fuga al Paraiso
Production: 8
Delivery:9
