Semipop Life Presents: Turkey Nonlethal-Containment Zone 2020
You could be better than you are! You could be swinging on a star!
BTS: Map of the Soul: 7
This starts with a couple of (previously released) tracks that make me recall how excited I was by them in 2014, when they solved a problem as formidable as Fermat’s Last Theorem, shoehorning credible rap into the boyband format. There’s a solo by their most credible rapper RM, then last year’s single with feature queen Halsey, whom you could drop into any random universe and expect to deliver a decent chorus. And then there’s an Ed Sheeran co-write too thin for an Ed Sheeran album, and from there it’s mostly schlock insufficiently elevated by just-enough-effort production. The main exceptions are the few rappity one and the remainder of the solo tracks, each of which does express some kind of persona, even if in the case of V’s “Inner Child” it’s that of an abiding lover of schlock. It’s an ethos!
Grade: B (“Boy With Love”, “Ugh!”)
Post Malone: Duets & Trios
A 16-song playlist I made of the tracks on his three albums that feature collaborators. While it’s hard to pick out anyone who isn’t obviously more talented than him besides fellow white men Bieber and Eazy, he has a certain affability whether he’s cosplaying Jim Morrison or recounting relationship banalities he surely thinks are deeper than they are (so cosplaying Jim Morrison.) The way he retains his composure as everyone from SZA to Halsey-of-course to the entire population of Atlanta runs circles around him makes me hope he may yet turn into Margaret Dumont. Let’s be honest though, Alex Jones is more likely.
Grade: B (“Sunflower”, “Goodbyes”)
The Weeknd: After Hours
It remains strange to me that the coke-and-objectification mixtapes guy became one of the world’s biggest stars without becoming any more sympathetic (when he punched a cop IRL, it wasn’t on purpose.) There are few signs here that he’s learned anything, save the odd tell that he’s just having a laugh, unless you think that he's breaking into “Your Song” unironically. Still, when Max Martin finally wrests the keys from him, he’s a well-mannered passenger.
Grade: B MINUS (“Blinding Lights”)
Neil Young: Homegrown
Harvest minus the three great songs on Harvest leaves—well, perhaps not zero. Let’s get out our microscopes: Tim Drummond’s bass playing is unusually organic, and the rest of the band is adequate when Young lets them rock at a faster-than-gelatinous pace, which happens twice. Otherwise the minimalist arrangements only draw attention to his incapability to approach his best writing even once; at least the one where he feels up the insides of a piano attempts some kind of distraction. I guess you could praise him for understanding that Tonight’s the Night was a stronger expression of his pain and art, but even Republican elected officials would find that a low bar.
Grade: C
ANNUAL TURKEY PARDON: Katy Perry: Smile
You don’t care and I’m not sure how much I do, but this is her most consistent album. Accepting she isn’t going to learn subtlety at this point, I appreciate the jackhammered choruses and the self-help anthems that see her rising like a firework or a zombie or some other kind of possibly fatal spectacle, ably hookmeiestered by a motley crew of Carlssons and Karlssons. And I hope her daughter takes to heart the message that there are worse things to be than basic.
Grade: B PLUS (“Not the End of the World”, “Daisies”, “Never Really Over”)
DISTINCTIONS NOT COST-EFFECTIVE
Gil Scott-Heron: We’re New Again: A Reimagining by Makaya McCraven
Christ, again?
Grimes: Miss Anthropocene
It’s too easy to hate on her for her babydaddy—give her the respect her track record deserves and hate on this for the near-disappearance of her ability to songs, and okay, for the fact that the “we” in “We Appreciate Power” is royal.
X: Alphabetland
Halfway through my second play I was trying to remember the last time I played Wild Gift—it’s been years. So then I played Wild Gift.
Cornershop: England Is a Garden
Oddly, if you listen to the instruments individually, they sound great: ultra-clear percussion, effective guit- and sitar; even the flute is tasteful. It’s only in combination that they become a tourist trap.
The Soft Pink Truth: Shall We Go on Sinning So That Grace May Increase?
One of the year’s most acclaimed techno albums comes from this Matmos member, Pitchfork contributor, and tenured English professor, who shows off his literary chops by titling the first track “Shall”, the second “We”, and the third “Go”. I didn’t get to the fourth track.