These reviews ran in the Waterloo Region Record in March and April 2018.
Cardi
B – Invasion of Privacy (Atlantic)
Here’s a question no one thought would
need answering in 2018: just how significant is Cardi B’s debut album? Yes, she
had one of the biggest singles of 2017 with “Bodak Yellow,” which became the
first solo female rap No. 1 hit since Lauryn Hill’s “Doo Wop” back in—whoa,
really?—1998. Twenty years after Hill’s debut album topped the charts, Cardi B
has now repeated that feat with her own debut—and again, one has to wonder what
took so goddam long. Not even Nicki Minaj pulled this off.
Anyone who underestimated Cardi B
because of her past—an Instagram star who vaulted to celebrity status on a
reality show—is eating crow now. Not just because Invasion of Privacy is such a blockbuster hit right out of the
gate, but because it’s really good: Cardi B is a commanding presence on the
mic, delivering rags-to-riches tales with a fierce and profane
take-no-prisoners approach. Musically, her collaborators—including Toronto’s
Boi-1Da—give her plenty to work with, especially on the Latin trap of “I Like
It.” For such a huge pop record, Cardi B’s team keeps the grooves ominous and
with few, if any, pop hooks to satiate the mildly curious. Whereas Nicki Minaj
lost her edge when she awkwardly catered directly to the mainstream, Cardi B is
playing by her own rules, sticking to it, and dominating the landscape. (April
20)
Stream: “Get Up 10,” “Bodak Yellow,” “I
Like It”
Paul Brandt – The
Journey YYC: Volume 1 (Warner)
The most commercially successful
Canadian country artist of the last 20 years—if not ever—is nothing if not
consistent, and this latest EP shows that he’s still at the top of his game.
For whatever reason—because no one listens to albums anymore?—he’s splitting up
his latest release into two EPs, which means that the six surefire gems here
are bulletproof evidence that this Calgarian is a class act, from his rich
voice to his songwriting skills to his ability to match his old-school skills
with the demands of modern radio. He’s also generous: many of these songs are
about paying respect, whether it’s to the love of his life on “All About Her”
or “Slow Down,” or to his audiences on “Thank You, Thank You.” And when he
sings about wanting “A Better Country,” he means it: off-stage, his
#NotInMyCity campaign targets sex trafficking, and he also advocates for
concussion awareness in the rodeo community. Most recently, he was on the CBC
dedicating his 2001 song “Small Town and Big Dreams” to the families of
Humboldt, Sask. The man is a mensch, and his cavalcade of hits is sure to
continue to shine a spotlight on the causes he cherishes. (April 13)
Stream: “All About
Her,” “Thank You Thank You,” “Slow Down”
Nels Cline 4 – Currents,
Constellations (Blue Note)
Guitarist Nels Cline
has an enormous discography, the best known components being his work with
Wilco, and most of it being considerably more abrasive and experimental. In
2016, he debuted with venerable jazz label Blue Note for the Lovers album, a sprawling set of
beautiful covers of artists ranging from Henry Mancini to Sonic Youth, and
everything in between. His second album for the label stems from a guitar duo
he formed with Julian Lage in 2014; here, they add a killer rhythm
section—bassist Scott Colley (Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny), drummer Tom Rainey—that
allows them even more room to roam. There are more pointy edges here than on
Lovers, but just as many lovely passages as well, like the cinematic “As Close
as That.” (April 27)
Stream: “Furtive,”
“Imperfect 10,” “As Close as That”
Felix Dyotte – Politesses
(Coyote)
It’s springtime in
Montreal, where the second solo album from this songwriter sounds like rays of
sunshine melting the still-remaining snow. (Qualifier: this actually came out
in the fall, but its profile in English Canada has been minimal.) Dyotte takes
a languid, dreamy approach to French chanson, with thick grooves underneath
that wouldn’t be out of a place on a record by Destroyer or Beck. Like a
poppier Philippe B or a more esoteric Coeur de Pirate (who shows up to duet on
“Croix”), Dyotte is yet another Quebecois artist making some of the loveliest
and lush pop music today. Leap over the language barrier and check it out.
(April 27)
Stream: “Que ce soit
toi, que ce soit moi,” “Croix,” “Jeanne”
Thompson Egbo-Egbo – A New Standard (EOne)
How
to get noticed as a jazz artist in Canadian media: have an amazing name, throw
in nods to John Coltrane, cover a Radiohead song, and have an interesting news
hook to boot (in this case, it’s the artist’s philanthropic foundation focusing
on education in disadvantaged communities).
Pianist
Thompson Egbo-Egbo has more than that, however. Listening to his debut record
for EOne, it’s more than obvious that his talent opened up more doors for him
than anything else. Those covers—of Radiohead’s “Exit Music for Film,” of the
incredibly obvious standard “My Favorite Things,” even a nod to the ’70s
Spider-Man theme—are all just red herrings to get the listener in the door.
Once there, Egbo-Egbo wows with the delicate dexterity of, yes, Oscar Peterson
or any other jazz artist with cross-genre appeal. He’s not showy, either; one
of the most impressive tracks here is the gentle “You Must Believe in Spring.”
His rhythm section of drummer Jeff Halischuk and bassist Randall Hall are just as
impressive as their bandleader; this is a formidable trio.
Now
that he has our attention, we’ll be listening for a long time. (March 9)
Stream: “Softly as in
a Morning Sunrise Golden Earrings,” “You Must Believe in Spring,” “Favela”
Esmerine – Mechanics
of Dominion (Constellation)
This Montreal
instrumental group, comprised primarily of members of Godspeed You Black
Emperor (Bruce Cawdron) and A Silver Mt. Zion (Rebecca Foon), is usually
enthralling, but on their sixth album they prove that they keep getting better
as well. Their take on modern chamber music involves fascinating, tiny textures
underneath pianos, pizzicato strings and marimbas, with a strong melodic
undercurrent to even the most abstract pieces. This is rainy-morning music par
excellence, especially when Foon’s cello steps to the forefront, but drummer
Jamie Thompson also helps propel some pieces to the epic sweeps of labelmates
Do Make Say Think. More than 20 years after Constellation Records began—the
history of which was documented in an excellent article in a recent issue of
Maisonneuve—Esmerine display how that label’s signature sound has evolved and
refined, with one of its strongest releases in years. (April 27)
Stream: “The Space in
Between,” “La Penombre,” “La Plume des Armes”
Kacey Musgraves – Golden
Hour (Universal)
There’s a reason why
Kacey Musgraves gets attention from media outlets that don’t normally cover a
lot of contemporary country music. No, it’s not because she’s socially
progressive in a conservative context, nor because her music is particularly
raw or that far removed from mainstream country radio. First and foremost,
Musgraves is a fine songwriter of the highest order, with melodies that match
any of Nashville’s most successful production teams.
Central to her appeal,
of course, is her no-frills approach. She’s not a showy singer and until now
her music has been fairly free of slick production. On Golden Hour, her third album, Musgraves moves closer to the
mainstream without compromising what made her special in the first place.
Granted, she dips into ’70s soft-rock disco on “High Horse,” and there are some
Daft Punk-ish Vocoder backing vocals on “Oh, What a World.” But the woman who
met her husband at the Bluebird Café in Nashville generally keeps her
arrangements simple and unadorned, regardless of whether or not she’s straying
from the country template; “Butterflies” could easily be an Alicia Keys ballad.
It’s vintage Musgraves, the way she articulates the comma in the phrase, “You
can have your space, cowboy.”
She might claim that,
“I ain’t Wonder Woman / I don’t know how to lasso the truth out of you.” But
like any great country songwriter, Musgraves speaks truth in volumes, and this
is indeed her Golden Hour. (April 13)
Stream: “Slow Burn,”
“Love is a Wild Thing,” “Rainbow”
Sting and Shaggy – 44/867
(Universal)
For whom was this
record made? For Shaggy fans? For Sting fans? For the two artists themselves,
just for a lark? Or is this whole project a way for Sting to recover some of
the money he lost in his Broadway show a few years back?
When these two
appeared all over the Grammy Awards in February, one had to wonder who got paid
off to promote this oddball collab. It’s not at all odd, of course, for Sting
to make a reggae record; after all, the Police drew a not insignificant amount
of inspiration from Jamaica on their earliest records. It is odd, however, for
him to co-write a limp pop song called “44/876,” a song about the international
calling codes for Britain and Jamaica. It’s even more odd for him to, on a
record that is ripe for parody and ridicule, write a song with the chorus, “My
name for you is sad trombone.”
On the one hand, it’s
refreshing to hear the normally ultra-serious Sting having fun; there is
absolutely no weight of the world bearing down on him here. Shaggy is still
capable of reminding us why his ’90s singles were so much fun—but also why he
hasn’t had a hit in 15 years. (Nor, for that matter, has Sting.) 44/867 is nowhere near as bad as one
might expect, but that doesn’t stop it from being a head-scratcher best left to
the dustbins of history. (April 27)
Stream: “Waiting for the Break of Day,”
“Just One Lifetime,” “Night Shift”
Victime – Mon VR
de reve (Michel Records)
The three members of
Quebec City no-wave band Victime are not going to be quiet about whatever it is
that made them choose their name. Bassist and vocalist Laurence Gauthier-Brown
leads her francophone trio through a short, sharp explosion of noise formulated
into danceable rock songs on this thrilling EP. Not dissimilar to the band
Weaves, but stripped of that group’s pop hooks, Victime are a tiny tornado of
creativity who show great promise. (April 27)
Stream: “Fatigue,”
“Robot ou humaine,” “Brocher un doigt”
The Weeknd – My
Dear Melancholy EP (Universal)
The Weeknd became a
huge pop star with “Can’t Feel My Face,” which masked the darkness at the heart
of his music since day one: the misanthropy, the misogyny, the fetishization of
cocaine (though the song in question was about cocaine, few realized it). Those
elements were certainly present on 2015’s Beauty
Behind the Madness and 2016’s quick follow-up Starboy, but were somehow overlooked as his celebrity status took
off, with Oscar nominations and high-profile lovers. Now he returns to the
down-tempo brooding that defined his masterful debut, 2011’s House of Balloons, and it suits him
perfectly. The eerie music behind him makes for a much better fit than the pop
bangers. He’s still emotionally stunted and wallowing in misery, but there are
several signs that his rampant, bitter misogyny is evaporating; at one point on
this EP where he repeatedly laments the loss of a lover, the heartbroken singer
even promises, “I’ll take my time to learn the way your body functions.” (What a guy!) Elsewhere, of course, he
promises to “fuck the pain away,” to borrow a phrase from Peaches to mean
something very different than what she intended. Throughout, of course, Abel Tesfaye
commands our attention with the one thing that was so compelling right from the
beginning: his voice. (April 13)
Stream: “Call Out My
Name,” “Hurt You,” “Wasted Times”
Charlotte Day Wilson – Stone Woman EP (independent)
Wilson is a
multi-instrumentalist who runs her own show, including producing and
engineering duties. In a male-dominated industry, that’s something she’s
justifiably proud of. Too bad, then, that all of these songs—and those on her
debut EP—limp along with little life or direction, tilting toward the tedious.
Her voice is great, the textures are lovely, the grooves are strong—yet she’s
still missing a key ingredient. One hates to challenge the pride of a talented
and politically motivated 25-year-old, but maybe the self-described “Stone
Woman” who goes to a funeral “just to feel something” would benefit from some
collaboration.
The track listing
itself sums it all up: “Stone Woman.” “Doubt.” “Nothing New.” “Let You Down.” “Falling
Down.” “Funeral.” (March 2)
Stream: “Stone Woman,”
“Falling Apart,” “Funeral”
Yo La Tengo – There’s
a Riot Going On (Matador)
There are most
definitely riots going on, but you won’t hear them on the new Yo La Tengo
record. On the contrary: this album is meant to be a soothing balm acting as an
antidote to the tumult of our times. For a band already prone to dreamy
soundscapes—along with guitar skronkfests, free jazz, bossa nova and anything
else they put their mind to—this is the most featherweight they’ve ever been,
outside of their film soundtrack work. Even the somnambulant 2000 album And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out
is a barn-burner next to this.
Only a band this
seasoned and in-tune with each other—James McNew has now been in the band for
25 of their 34-year history—could pull off something this seemingly effortless.
Songs are barely there, but such is their skill as texturalists that it’s never
entirely dull, not even when a track is little more than a wash of sound,
somewhere on the spectrum between Brian Eno and Tim Hecker. Then, seemingly out
of nowhere, they’ll pull up a catchy little ditty like “Esportes Casual,” which
sounds like a jingle for a modern furniture outlet, or “Forever,” which
consciously echoes the Flamingos’ “I Only Have Eyes For You.”
This is no means
essential listening for Yo La Tengo fans, and even less so for everyone else.
But it’s a sign that even on auto-pilot and at low volume and the slowest
possible tempos, Yo La Tengo can still hold our attention. (March 16)
Stream: “For You Too,”
“What Chance Have I Got,” “Forever”
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