Odds & Ends 119
Chill house, House blues, developmental dancehall, Seniors Tour rap: where do I begin
StayC: Young-Luv.com EP
More than the usual K-pop girl group quota of funny noises plus at least one very good singer—Sieun, I think—makes this easy to enjoy despite the lack of drama, let alone emotional complexity, outside of the apologetic title track; they should learn that young luv means never having to say you’re [Ali McGraw hits me in the face with a leukemia] (“Young Luv”, “Run2U”, “Same Same”)
DJ Python: Club Sentimientos Vol. 2 EP
Brian Piñeyro, Queens’s most utilitarian house DJ, continues to pad cutting-edge internationally-sourced dance beats with cotton-wool synths to more-claret to—to quote a previous album title, más amable (“Angel”, “Club Sentimental Vol Three”)
For the few undecided on whether they need to hear these unearthed, Dan Auerbach-scrubbed 1964 tapes: on the first half, House’s singing has as much focused expression as he ever mustered post-comeback, while on the second it doesn’t, so pretend it’s an EP (“Preachin’ Blues”, “Death Letter”, “Empire State Express”)
Mary J. Blige: Good Morning Gorgeous
An also-gorgeous Usher aside, the guest list is too SEO-driven for this to make my top MBJ tier; pleasures nevertheless abound, as she eases into her fifties with self-assurance and a strong grasp on what she can get out of her well-maintained voice (“Good Morning Gorgeous”, “Need Love”, “Come See About Me”)
Shenseea: Alpha
Pleasant-voiced Korean-Jamaican dancehaller Shen-se-ea retains her ease while reflecting monetizable friends, including an uncharacteristically open-hearted 21 Savage and a not-uncharacteristically open-leggéd Megan Thee Stallion (“Lick”, “R U That”, “Blessed”)
Pusha T: It’s Almost Dry
On this par-for-Seniors-Tour-Rap album, with one birdie felicitously rescued from Donda, I wish Push retained any ambition beyond being “cocaine’s Dr. Seuss”: at least occasionally be cocaine’s Theo LeSieg for variety (“Dreamin of the Past”, “Neck & Wrist”, “Diet Coke”)
Marta Sanchez: SAAM (Spanish American Art Museum)
Madrid-born New Yorker writes short, shifty melodies for her quintet to stretch out unassertively into cohesive, sometimes moving passages (“Dear Worthiness”, “The Eternal Stillness”, “The Unconquered Vulnerable Areas”)
Red Velvet: The ReVe Festival 2022: Feel My Rhythm
The other song I might play next month is the token semi-banger (“Feel My Rhythm”, “Bamboleo”)
Saba: Few Good Things
The slightly more than few good things here happen when he and his Pivot Gang producers stop chasing Kendrick’s shadow and lighten up with the assistance of the good shit I assume Krayzie Bone brought to the studio, though paradoxically the goodest thing is Kendrick-but-(hey-Kendrick-remember)-fun (“Fearmonger”, “Come My Way”, “Soldier”)
Jon Batiste: We Are
For your bourgeois pleasure, a condensation of the entirety of postwar New Orleans music (including, awkwardly, rap) illustrated with keyboards so respectable they could be published next to Zadie Smith in the New Yorker; as someone with their tote bag, I can’t complain too much (“We Are”, “Show Me the Way”)
Twice: Formula of Love: O+T=<3
A regrettable tendency towards English lyrics notwithstanding, K-pop’s best-selling girl group does, barely, enough to stay interesting, which is more than I can say about K-pop's best-selling boy… wait, is the left-hand side of that equation hole plus penis (“Last Waltz”, “Cruel”, “Candy”)