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nathanorenstein-blog · 6 years

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KIDS SEE GHOSTS - KIDS SEE GHOSTS Review

KIDS SEE GHOSTS (Kanye West and Kid Cudi) - KIDS SEE GHOSTS

Release Date - June 8, 2018

Genres - Experimental Hip Hop, Psychedelia, Rap Rock

Kanye West and Kid Cudi have been collaborating regularly for about a decade now, and it only seems right that they have finally come together for a full length studio album. Under the name KIDS SEE GHOSTS, Kanye and Cudi have developed a sound that blends their unique styles into a well-polished and near flawless album. Cudi brings his soulful singing and his infectious humming, while Kanye handles most of the chopping and provides some pretty “Kanye-esque” verses. West and Cudi have both publicly struggled with their mental health in the past, and KIDS SEE GHOSTS plays like a celebration of their successes and of life in general. Before KIDS SEE GHOSTS, Kanye gave us ye, his most candid album since his debut. It was dark, yet hopeful, and it showed how Kanye was taking steps to better enjoy life as a whole. KIDS SEE GHOSTS is his accepting of his new life, and the fact that he so perfectly meshes with longtime friend Kid Cudi makes the glowing positivity of the album radiate even more. Kanye and Cudi share the spotlight equally, and they both lend their talents to the album in amazing ways. Together, they have let their positivity and love for life lead them to create an album that I wouldn’t hesitate in calling a masterpiece.

“Feel The Love” opens the album with some of the best vocals that Kid Cudi has lent to a song in his life. They echo hauntingly, backed by minimalistic electronic production from Kanye. Strangely enough, Pusha T comes in with the first verse of the album. He approaches his verse with such swagger and triumph that you can’t help but feel like you truly are listening to a king. As the verse ends, the production just explodes into the most violent noises Kanye has created since Yeezus. The bass booms as Kanye starts making gunshot noises, which in theory sounds pretty terrible. However, the combination is one of my favorite choices of production Kanye has ever created. The percussion comes in to take the place of the vocals, all while Cudi continuously chants “I can still feel the love”. The juxtaposition between the gunshots and the lyrics is massive, but the sheer power of Kid Cudi’s vocals and emotion allow the song to have an incredibly positive vibe.

“Feel The Love” transitions flawlessly into “Fire”, which uses marching-style percussion with Cudi’s humming to create a dark and extremely powerful beat that carries the entire song. Kanye and Cudi each have a verse that they use to denounce those that have looked down on them in the past. As with most of the album, the two stand tall and confident, and they’re able to overcome the criticism to find peace within themselves. Clocking in at only 2 minutes and 21 seconds, the song is extremely short, but it doesn’t feel like it’s missing anything. There’s even a 30 second electric guitar outro that feels weirdly out of place but also perfectly executed, a combination that seems to happen a lot on this album. “Fire” is short, yet potent, and it’s just as important as any other song on KIDS SEE GHOSTS.

“4th Dimension” is perhaps the most out of place song on the album thematically, but it’s inclusion does not feel at all incorrect by any means. It opens with a sample of Louis Prima’s 1936 song “What Will Santa Claus Say”, which Kanye then loops as the base for the song’s production. He also adds a very quick drum beat to intensify the song. Kanye verse comes first, and he chronicles a sexual experience that he’s had. The verse comes equipped with some great one liners and sly word play, and doesn’t come off as horribly cheesy and gross like “Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1” from The Life of Pablo does. Strange cartoon-ish laughing interrupts the song, which is then followed by Cudi’s verse, which acts as a departure from Kanye’s very sexual lyrics. Cudi raps about how he’s recovered from his dark past, and you can almost feel the confidence that he exudes. His flow on “4th Dimension” is also amazing, and it meshes with the beat incredibly well.

The next song, “Freeee (Ghost Town Pt. 2)”, is the sequel to “Ghost Town” off of ye, and it basically follows right where 070 Shake left off. The song doesn’t really have much structure in the way of verses or anything like that, and it’s mostly just composed of variations of the chorus. As the title suggests, the song is about Cudi and Kanye’s freedom. More specifically, it’s about their freedom from the addiction and depression that afflicted them both in the past. Kanye and Cudi trade off on vocals, and every appearance ends with some variation of the line “I feel free”. The vocals come with a massive echo that engulf the entire soundscape, and the bass heavily production amplifies this even further. Ty Dolla $ign also makes an appearance on the track, and his vocals are so heavily layered that it sounds almost god-like. The song is a celebration in every sense, and it’s the perfect track to have right in the middle of the seven song tracklist.

“Reborn” seems to have become the fan favorite from the album, and for good reason. It’s easily the most emotional moment on KIDS SEE GHOSTS, and it’s also the most solemn and lowkey. If the “Freeee” is the party celebrating the newfound freedom that Kanye and Kid Cudi feel, then “Reborn” is the kickback that follows. The themes are very similar, but the approach to “Reborn” is much quieter and emotional. The production, which was actually handled by Cudi this time around, is minimal and hazy but has enough bounce to keep the song from being a complete bore. Kanye and Cudi both talk about their low points in their lives, but they turn this negativity around into something positive and uplifting. The song does last maybe a minute longer than it has to, but that doesn’t take away from the overall emotion of the song. “Reborn” is very much a Kid Cudi track, as it greatly echoes his previous work, and he handles it with great skill and expertise.

Next is the title track, “Kids See Ghosts”, which has some of the most unique production I have ever heard from Kanye West. I saw someone describe the beat as the music that would play on the title screen of a stealth video game that takes place in a jungle. It’s such a ridiculously specific statement, but it actually is the perfect description of this song. Kid Cudi again handles the chorus, but he actually takes turns singing it with none other than Mos Def. Besides the production though, the star of the show here is Kanye’s rap on the second verse of the track. Kanye hasn’t sounded this good on a verse in years. His swagger is staggering, his flow is incredibly smooth, and his ability to flow from topic to topic within a single verse is as impressive as it was years ago. “Kids See Ghosts” is, in my opinion, the best song on the album, and I believe that it should be recognized as one of Kanye West’s greatest creations.

Finally we have “Cudi Montage”, which is built around a haunting plucked guitar riff from the legendary Kurt Cobain. The lyrics are equally haunting, as Cudi and Kanye both rap about how sad and violent the world has become. However, the chorus encourages the listener to “stay strong”, and Kanye asks God to shine his light on him. The chorus has an ethereal shimmer to it, and despite the darkness found within the two verses, the song still feels like a beacon of hope in a world where nothing seems fair. It serves as a perfect closer to an album about overcoming hardships and sadness, and it wraps up the albums central themes perfectly.

Although I doubt it will, KIDS SEE GHOSTS deserves to be recognized as one of the greatest albums in both Kanye West’s and Kid Cudi’s respective discographies. It’s production is loud in all the right places, solemn when it needs to be, and polished all around. Kid Cudi’s singing is at its best and he handles the hooks flawlessly. His humming serves as an instrument throughout the album, and his ability to shape it to the mood of each individual song is amazing. Kanye delivers some of the best verses he’s delivered in years, and his ability to produce the songs equally well remains unrivaled in this generation. KIDS SEE GHOSTS is a masterpiece from front to back, and it’s great to see Kid Cudi and Kanye West working so well together again, especially while in such an improved mindstate.

My Final Score: 10/10

Favorite Songs:

All of them

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deadcactuswalking · 5 years

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REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 3rd November 2019

I apologise for how late this will probably end up being posted, but we have a big week to talk about, with EIGHT new arrivals, two from Selena Gomez, three from Kanye West and two appearing here in the top 10 so I’m just going to get through everything as soon as possible to the best of my ability, although this week has several...mishaps on the BBC page to say the least, so I’ll try to correct them if I can, and I have had to wait for my week of non-stop Weezer listening to end or for me to accidentally slip up and listen to something else so I could actually write about the new arrivals here.

Top 10

Interestingly, none of the nonsense that this chart week ensued seems to appear in the top 2 or shake the #1 at all, as “Dance Monkey” by Tones and I is at its fifth consecutive week at the top of the UK Singles Chart.

“Ride It” by Regard featuring Jay Sean – well, it’s actually a remix of a Jay Sean single but just let me relish in the fact Jay Sean is on the charts again – isn’t moving either at number-two, the runner-up spot.

The first impact that we can see at the top level of the charts is the debut at #3 for Selena Gomez’s first US #1 “Lose You to Love Me”, which the BBC has interestingly misspelled as “Loose You to Love Me”, her 13th UK Top 40 hit, fourth top 10 and highest-peaking song ever, after “It Ain’t Me” with Kygo peaked at #7. We’ll talk more about Selena Gomez’s two new arrivals later.

Thanks to Gomez, Post Malone’s “Circles” is down one spot to number-four.

At number-five is Ed Sheeran with “South of the Border” featuring Camila Cabello and Cardi B, down three spots this week to number-five.

We have our second new arrival within the top 10, at number-six, “Follow God” by Kanye West from his ninth studio album, JESUS IS KING. He has several songs debuting here in the UK Top 40 this week, so we’ll talk more in-depth about his mini-album bomb later on, but this is his 44th UK Top 40 hit, which is crazy impressive, and his 20th top 10.

At number-seven, boosted up 11 spots by an Ariana Grande remix, is Lizzo with “Good as Hell”, making it officially her biggest song in the UK and her first top 10 hit, as well as Grande’s 16th.

Up two spaces to number-eight this week is “Memories” by Maroon 5.

Down two spaces from last week, we have Dermot Kennedy at number-nine with “Outnumbered”.

Finally, at #10, to round off the top 10, we have Lewis Capaldi’s “Bruises” down four spaces from last week.

Climbers

Naturally, there aren’t many climbers here because of the album bomb and influx of new arrivals, but we do have some unfortunate boosts for “hot girl bummer” by blackbear up five spaces to #25... and that’s all.

Fallers

Fallers on the other hand... we could split this up into genre, actually.

For pop, rock and EDM, we can start with “Lights Up” by Harry Styles deservedly flopping six spaces down to #17, then continue with “10,000 Hours” by Dan + Shay and Justin Bieber down 12 to #29, “Higher Love” by Kygo and Whitney Houston down eight to #31, “Sorry” by Joel Corry featuring uncredited vocals from Hayley May down 10 to #32 and finally “Don’t Call Me Angel” by Ariana Grande featuring Miley Cyrus and Lana Del Rey down 13 to #39 – but that’s not all.

For hip hop and R&B, we have “HIGHEST IN THE ROOM” by Travis Scott down seven to #12, “Be Honest” by Jorja Smith and Burna Boy down five to #14, “Professor X” by Dave down seven to #21, “Take Me Back to London” by Ed Sheeran featuring Stormzy and remixed by Sir Spyro featuring Aitch and Jaykae down nine to #28, “Playing Games” by Summer Walker down nine to #33, “Ladbroke Grove” by AJ Tracey down 10 to #35 and finally, “Taste (Make it Shake)” by Aitch down nine to #39... but again, that’s not all.

Dropouts & Returning Entries

We have no returning entries but we sure do have a lot of dropouts, some of them genuine hits such as “Strike a Pose” by Young T & Bugsey and Aitch out from #36 and “Beautiful People” by Ed Sheeran featuring Khalid out from #39, hits that never really hit the landing with the British general public but have been on the middling section of the charts for a while and could easily rebound like “Motivation” by Normani out from #27, “Truth Hurts” by Lizzo and remixed by DaBaby from #31, “frick, i’m lonely” by LAUV and Anne-Marie out from #32 and “Lalala” by Y2K and bbno$ and remixed by Carly Rae Jepsen and Enrique Iglesias out from #37, as well as some genuinely premature drop-outs such as “Graveyard” by Halsey out from #29 and finally, “47” by Sidhu Moose Wala, MIST, Steel Banglez and Stefflon Don out from #38. Now, finally, after all that time spent on stray UK Top 40 observations... let’s talk about Kanye.

ALBUM BOMB: Kanye West – JESUS IS KING

On October 25th, Kanye released his ninth studio album, JESUS IS KING, after missing several release dates and changing name from YANDHI. Kanye, a now born-again Christian, makes a “gospel” album free of any explicit lyrics, accompanied by a short film of the same name. It features an all-star guest list of vocalists and producers, including frequent collaborators Ant Clemons, Benny Blanco and Mike Dean, the reunion of legendary rap group Clipse, trap beat-makers Pi’erre Bourne and Ronny J, and smooth jazz saxophonist Kenny G. Obviously, it went #1 in the US, #2 here, but to mixed reviews – now, I won’t be focusing on the politics that surround the album and I am not very knowledgeable of religion so I cannot really comment on much beyond my understanding of Christianity and arguably more importantly, the lore of Kanye West. Mark Grondin of Spectrum Pulse already quoted more Bible quotes in his album review than I could remember digits of pi, and several people, like DeadEndHipHop, Sean Cee and even Anthony Fantano, whether you like them or not, have made several in-depth discussion videos about whether West’s sudden revelation is a genuine moment for the rapper, a mental breakdown or a cash-grab. I’m here to discuss the music... but even that’s not very good. I wrote a very lengthy review for the album two days after it came out (And before it went through an additional few fixes for mixing quirks, sigh) which will be linked here if I remember, and overall, it was disappointing, a light 4/10 and easily the worst record in West’s discography. Regardless, let’s talk about the debuts here.

#20 – “Closed on Sunday” – Kanye West

Produced by Kanye West, Angel Lopez, Brian “AllDay” Miller, Federico Vindver and Timbaland – Peaked at #17 in the US

Features uncredited vocals from the Sunday Service choir and A$AP Bari(?)

The most memeable yet also one of the most detestable tracks on the album, this is his 45th UK Top 40 hit. “Closed on Sunday” was one of the few tracks set to fail off the pure concept, as the biggest issue with most songs on JESUS IS KING is the lack of development or complete mishandling of great ideas, to the point where there basically is no effort to, you know, write a song here. “Closed on Sunday” is essentially one verse split into half due to a flow switch at the midpoint, and despite a runtime of only two minutes and 32 seconds, it drones on endlessly, with a solemn guitar melody leading into what could sound like a pretty cool, dark ballad, built up by the choir vocalising in harmonies that sound actually pretty great but then the 808s come in and ruin any sense of harmony. Kanye comes in with some of the worst mixing I’ve ever heard vocals have, especially on an album with the budget Kanye has, with a lot of background noise and I can even hear the buttons pressed on the phone or other device Kanye is using to record at about 0:38, which signals a drastic change in how the vocals are mixed, but it’s still shoddy and allows them to have some pretty severe clipping during the “chorus”, until a sudden shift where a turgid beeping sound works as a pathetic excuse for you know, an actual synth, and until now, Kanye’s vocals have not had reverb or Auto-Tune added onto them, so his vocals being drenched in effects actually sounds great here... but he still has a sore throat and sounds like he’s struggling here, although unlike “God Is” and just about the entirety of 808s & Heartbreak, where it adds to the emotive performance, Kanye sounds bored and with no choir backing him like they could have been, the release here just isn’t as cinematic as it could be and it just sounds like a melodramatic Kanye aimlessly spouting random Bible motifs over 808s without taking his daily Dequadin lozenge... and there are no drums... ever. Oh, and A$AP Bari comes in at the end to shout “Chick-fil-A”, abruptly interrupting the beat’s natural progression and making it clear as day that the album is unfinished. Also, speaking of those lyrics, should you really be comparing YOURSELF to a fast food restaurant that donates charity to anti-LGBT hate and pressure groups? That’s not very Christ-like, Ye. It probably wouldn’t matter if they didn’t either, because a thinly-veiled Taylor Swift reference (Yes, I know the Bible mentions “snakes” and “vipers” as much as reputation does, but the two aren’t on good terms so it’s no coincidence in my opinion) and calling God your “number-one with the lemonade” don’t exactly make you sound like a wordsmith. Oh, and A$AP Bari, the uncredited vocalist on the outro, pleaded guilty to sexual assault earlier this year, which again doesn’t exactly sound like a Christ-like thing to be supporting either... but I digress. The version he performed on Jimmy Kimmel with a genuine choir backing him and a brass band is miles ahead of this, so don’t bother with this version, or better yet, don’t bother with this monotonous crap at all.

#19 – “Selah” – Kanye West

Produced by Kanye West, E*vax, BoogzDaBeast, Federico Vindver, benny blanco and Francis Starlite – Peaked at #19 in the US

Features uncredited vocals from the Sunday Service choir, Ant Clemons and Bongo ByTheWay

Now, I’m slightly more positive on his 46th UK Top 40 hit, “Selah”, the opening track (Aside from the short “Every Hour” interlude / intro track which is only Sunday Service) of JESUS IS KING, yet that might actually make it more frustrating and it’s easily the track I come back the least to because overall, it’s actually pretty uninteresting and doesn’t have a true “hook”. It starts with some cloudy synth noodling that sounds kind of cool with the subtle strings but then Kanye comes in with some pretty awfully-mixed vocals that is incredibly unprofessional, teasing his fans for wanting YANDHI, and saying it was coming before “Jesus Christ did the laundry”, and quoting John 8:33 to excuse his “Slavery is a choice” comment, which he’s been trying to respond to the backlash to for about a year and a half now, failing each time. Also:

Pour the lean out slower

Hold up –that ain’t Christ-like. The explosions of marching band drums come in in a similar fashion to “Feel the Love” off of KIDS SEE GHOSTS, and then honestly the bridge, which is insanely repetitive but builds up tension perfectly with Ant Clemons and the Sunday Service choir repeating “Hallelujah” incessantly with distant guitar strings, handclaps and sudden pitch shifts reflecting the change in Kanye’s mindset and the intensity soon becomes a lot more ramped up from now on, finishing the bridge with a pretty beautiful vocal line that the 808s hilariously harmonise with. Then, Kanye comes back in with a verse co-written by Pusha T, and you can REALLY tell, and it’s still awfully-mixed, when there’s no true excuse. He’s drowned out by the bursts of drums and bass as well as the choir’s recurring vocal sample. The best part of the song soon kind of fizzles out in a chaotic outro, in which fireworks literally go off while Kanye screams nonsense as well as “Yeezus” which isn’t exactly Christ-like, but it sounds insane and honestly a tad odd and unfitting for the album, which is supposed to be an uptempo Christian rap album? While there are parts of this song I don’t approve of, especially Kanye, who ruins pretty much every song he’s on... on his own album, this is pretty tolerable, albeit somewhat contradictory lyrically and far from my favourite Kanye track. At least there’s some grandiosity and emotion here.

#6 – “Follow God” – Kanye West

Produced by Kanye West, BoogszDaBeast and Xcelence – Peaked at #7 in the US

I should be thankful for the grandiosity and emotion behind “Selah”, because this sure doesn’t have any of that. How the HELL does this have three producers? How on Earth does this album have 11 people on the mixing and mastering and yet this still sound like absolute gutter trash in my headphones? “Follow God” is easily the least interesting song on the JESUS IS KING album, and that’s pretty impressive for a record that contains the song “Water” with Ant Clemons, yet it’s the biggest and I don’t see why at all. There straight-up isn’t a chorus by any meaning of the word, or its many synonyms, and its dated production almost resembling 90s hip hop in the soul sample from 1974’s “Can You Lose by Following God” by Whole Truth and the genuine 90s groove and funk that is somewhere here in the beat, doesn’t exactly make it sound like a catchy trap banger that would reach the US top 10 in 2019, but it’s there. It’s called by many fans a spiritual successor to 2016’s “Father Stretch My Hands” from The Life of Pablo but other than using the lyric “Father, I stretch my hands”, I don’t see it, mostly because the 2016 effort doesn’t actually have much relation to Christianity outside of the beautiful gospel choir harmonising with Caroline Shaw on the bridge of that single. In fact, that song does a better job at flipping Christian rap on its head – it’s a two-part trap banger featuring verses from Desiigner and lines about... bleached posteriors. This song on the other hand is only one minute and 44 seconds, with one badly-mixed and distorted verse from Kanye that is as repetitive as the mind-numbing recurring “Yeah” vocal sample and prone to making me roll my eyes with its one verse and the... outro of sorts. But since this beat is so minimalistic, surely he wants us to hear what he’s saying, right? Well, no, probably not, because not only is his “wordplay”(?) and half-rhymes embarrassing, but I have so many questions to raise to this drum pattern. I want to interview the 808 and the kick drum and ask what the heck they think they’re doing.

People really know you, push your buttons like type-write

That’s not a sentence. “Like type-write”? Excuse my brief, unsubtle blasphemy, but Jesus.

Every single night, right? Every single fight, right?

The ‘i’-based rhyme scheme here is cool in concept and he finds his way around it pretty well, in a fast-paced rap flow that I actually really like, but it reeks of laziness, especially since not only does he completely abandon the rhyme scheme 55 seconds in but – yes, I counted – his verse is 69 seconds, that’s one minute and nine seconds. To put into perspective, Rick Ross’ verse on “Devil in a New Dress” off of Kanye’s 2010 album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is one minute and 28 seconds, only twenty seconds longer than this one, and it includes ten times as much clever wordplay, story-telling, interesting flow switches and bars that are really epic, making the song feel really celebratory of sorts actually – and that’s without the epic guitar solo that precedes it. What a fantastic song. On the other hand, this song is substance-less and Kanye says very little of anything despite how much he crams into every bar in the rapid yet sometimes pretty awkward flow. What he’s supposed to be discussing is his situation with his father and how when he was yelling at him and having a massive argument and fall-out, Ray West told him, it wasn’t Christ-like, leading to a revelation and possibly becoming the catalyst for the already-kickstarted Christian rebirth. Surely, his dad and God are the two most important men in his life, right? Then why does this feel passionless and boring? Why doesn’t this feel genuine? Fellow Christian rapper NF, a white rapper who makes bland piano-lead pop-rap with sung hooks, would call this flavourless, dull and more importantly, grey. It doesn’t feel blue and gold like he wants it to as he uses the colours to imply royalty, luxury and loyalty to God on the album cover and lyric video. This doesn’t show loyalty. You made this in five minutes, Kanye. You made this on a whim because you had an idea and you ran with it but you had no idea on how to actually develop it into something interesting or even listenable. What part of this shows royalty, luxury and a rich, graceful connection with God? This sounds cheap and gross, and frankly incredibly disappointing from such a talented artist. I haven’t even gotten onto the rest of the song, man, and I don’t even want to. “Decimal” doesn’t rhyme with “wrestle”, Kanye. “Wrestlin’ with God, I don’t even want to wrestle”? That’s the deepest you want to go into your confusion and conflict between Christianity and fame? That’s pathetic, as is the random screaming at the end of this track for quirky or emotive bonus points. There’s nothing lifelike or Christ-like about your lifestyle, Kanye West. Get some help.

NEW ARRIVALS

#34 – “Nice to Meet Ya” – Niall Horan

Produced by Julian Bunetta – Peaked at #9 in Ireland and #83 in the US

Sorry to any of the Niall Horan fans who crashed his website when this single was announced, but I have considerably less to say about the rest of these new arrivals than I do about Kanye West and/or Jesus Christ. I have to talk about them regardless of if I have anything I can actually add, and this one is one I’ve actually already heard since I watched the MTV EMAs and he performed it. I thought nothing of it initially, but this is the Irishman from One Direction’s comeback single after his debut studio album Flicker. This is Horan’s third UK Top 40 hit and first since 2017’s “Too Much to Ask” which peaked at #24, and I did not expect this shift to late 90s and early 2000s dance-rock, but I am definitely not complaining. It starts with a catchy piano line that’s pretty Robbie Williams-esque, then the drop comes in and it is killer. The sleek synths decorating the rock drums in a lot of slickness that you wouldn’t expect out of such a meek stage presence add to the chorus pretty well, but the best part of that chorus is the distant pitch-shifted vocal sample yelling in the background, making it feel even more industrial which again is out of character for Niall, the quiet, shy folk boy, but he definitely has the charisma to pull off this type of swaggering, stomping pop rock anthem, and he proves that in the sing-along bridge, where even his murmuring hums stand out, and while he’s drowned out by the cool bassline and drum pattern most of the time, his vocal delivery really is the highlight of the song, even if that is equally vintage and in a way, pretty nostalgic for the era it replicates. Funnily enough, it has the same lack of care for organised structure that “Lights Up” by Harry Styles had just two weeks ago, but the careless, reckless groove of this song works a lot more in Horan’s favour than Styles’. Just saying.

#27 – “Orphans” – Coldplay

Produced by Rik Simpson, Dan Green, Bill Rahko, Max Martin, Angel Lopez and Federico Vindver – Peaked at #14 in Scotland

Coldplay, with their most recent upcoming album Everyday Life, are getting pretty experimental. It’s an hour-long double-album kept a secret until a month before it is set to release featuring a track list full of songs that have odd stylisations like “BrokEn” and share song names with Arabic poems. “Arabesque”, the B-side to “Orphans”, is a storm of nu-jazz trumpets with a Fela Kuti-inspired breakdown and uncredited guest vocals from Stromae, as well as profanity, which is a first for the band. I’m not surprised at all that one didn’t kick off but we are instead left with their 24th UK Top 40 hit and first since “Something Just Like This” with the Chainsmokers peaked at #2 in 2017, “Orphans”, which is a lot tamer of a track to say the least. That doesn’t mean it’s any worse though. It starts with a kids’ choir singing before we get into a tropical rock jam with a funky bassline that I wouldn’t be surprised if Flea wrote, it’s that tight. Chris Martin sounds as focused on Christianity as he did on the Avicii album earlier this year, directly name-dropping Heaven in the first verse, and then joining in with the nonsense words that the vocal samples had been repeating prior to the verse. The chorus is pretty reminiscent of arena rock, specifically “Paradise” I feel as it has that same nasal falsetto but in a lot more palatable fashion, mostly because this actually has groove and you know, a pulse. Yeah, this is pretty great, and I love the bridge of purely the mythical guitar and Chris Martin’s ethereal vocals. Something I didn’t notice on initial listen is how that the song is about a girl, Rosaleem, during the Damascus bombing in Syria from last year (That’s what the nonsense words and sound effects are all about), who is greeted by angels who talk to her about what Heaven will be like, which is “almond and peach trees in bloom” but also a place for her dad to get drunk and talk with his friends so he can feel young again. That’s actually pretty deep subject matter, and together with Niall Horan, I’m glad we can have some fantastic rock on the charts again. “Arabesque” is the better of the two Coldplay songs though.

#26 – “Look at Her Now” – Selena Gomez

Produced by Ian Kirkpatrick – Peaked at #7 in Slovakia and #27 in the US

Man, those last two songs were so powerful and organic, I almost want some disposable garbage to review next. It’ll just be easier. Oh, we have two Selena Gomez songs and a new AJ Tracey single to cover? Perfect, that’s just what I asked for! Yeah, this is Selena Gomez’s 14th UK Top 40 hit and it is awful, but not even close to as offensively bad “Closed on Sunday” or “Follow God” are. It’s just a mistake on all fronts. The passionless vocal samples drowned out in the background that peters out by the verse and the nothingness of the synths and a glitchy beat that abruptly kicks itself out of the mix every other second, as well as Selena Gomez’s weak, whispery vocals don’t exactly scream “passionate, boasting kiss-off” to me. The chorus is absolutely PATHETIC, if it even exists at all – I mean, it’s just a bunch of different sound effects Selena Gomez made pretty much, with her rhythmically humming as if that’s an excuse for an actual chorus with some unintelligible, stuttering and sometimes whispered repetitions of the song title as well as several “W-w-w-w-wow”s that add very little to the song and seem pretty pointless. This is mixed well for the most part, despite the synths clipping at times and Selena’s vocoder-ed ad-libs in the second chorus being way louder than anything else in the mix, but I have no idea what the composers of this song were thinking. What a trainwreck. It almost sounds like glitch-pop to be honest, it’s chaos, and if it were marketed as that maybe I’d appreciate it more, but if this is supposed to be a genuine brag to Justin Bieber asking him to see what he’s missing, he might as well have dated a robot. I think a RateYourMusic user summed it up best: “This is so monumentally mediocre that it barely even exists.”

#22 – “Floss” – AJ Tracey featuring MoStack and Not3s

Produced by The Elements and AJ Tracey

AJ Tracey is a British rapper who had his break out this year and he released his self-titled debut studio album back in February, but it now has a deluxe edition, with five extra songs, this being one of them. I wasn’t exactly impressed with the album as it’s mostly pretty bland Americanised trap fluff with only some promising elements of dancehall (“Butterflies” with Not3s and remixed by Popcaan), grime (“Horror Flick”) and UK garage (“Ladbroke Grove”, one of my favourite songs of the year) propping up whenever AJ sees fit, but it’s 48 minutes so these moments can’t carry the whole track listing. Lucky for us, he’s increased that runtime to just over an hour and included a couple more boring trap songs to listen to. Joy. This is AJ’s seventh UK Top 40 hit, MoStack’s eighth and Not3’s sixth. This song relies on a pretty sweet falsetto vocal sample under a surprisingly energetic trap beat, with some pretty nice steel pans and cowbells in addition to the skittering hi-hats and 808s. AJ Tracey is pretty okay here, but I feel with these lyrics and beat he could have gone for a faster and more impressive flow than what he brings out here. I’m still in love with his “bling-blaow” ad-lib though. MoStack is embarrassing as always, with an oddly-mixed verse and sometimes off-beat flow, with the most obvious difference between him and AJ being that there aren’t any ad-libs or multi-tracked vocals, which is mostly the same with Not3s’ non-existent and actually pretty unnecessary bridge (He should have just added to the final chorus, though his last few bars sound nice). Mo does have a pretty funny line about how you wouldn’t be able to notice him on CCTV and would confuse him with Dave though. This is better than I expected, but still nothing of interest to me. Sorry.

#3 – “Lose You to Love Me” – Selena Gomez

Produced by Mattman & Robin and FINNEAS – Peaked at #1 in the US

Now, much like Coldplay, Selena Gomez also released two lead singles, however both charted and they are drastically different to Coldplay’s, quality-wise at least. This is supposed to be the big massive smash ballad hit that hit #1 in the US, becoming her first ever song to reach that peak, but I can’t bring myself to care, because honestly, this is one of her least interesting singles she’s ever released. Out of all of her songs, including some I actually like such as “It Ain’t Me” and “Same Old Love”, this seems like one of the most unlikely #1s yet it tugs at our heartstrings with the pianos from FINNEAS, Billie Eilish’s brother and producer, and it’s about how Justin Bieber dumped her with wordplay revolving around “purpose” – wow, it’s almost like she’s talking about Justin Bieber’s ALBUM, Purpose! Ugh, her mind! Okay, I’ll stop mocking her fanbase and the general public, because this really isn’t a bad song. Selena Gomez can’t sing, so through thinly-veiled Auto-Tune, the producers cleverly multi-track her vocals to create a grand, powerhouse chorus out of the repetition of “To love, to love, yeah” and because it’s a pop ballad, the vocals can be breathy and untrained and it’s fine, right? It’s a ballad, it doesn’t need to be perfect, and hence we can take advantage of the complete lack of singing talent this person has. I don’t know, it just seems so cliché and predictable to me. You can only tell it’s a FINNEAS beat once the second verse hits and the synths get jerkier with the bass wobbles, and he usually has a pretty signature sound, so yeah, that’s the best way to put it. Or, perhaps, this song is also so monumentally mediocre that it barely even exists.

Conclusion

Again, I’m sorry this is out so late but it was a big ordeal to write, especially due to all the Kanye songs. I’ll try and get the next one out a lot sooner, I assure you, but there’s an album bomb this week too, so we’ll see about that. Anyways, the Best of the Week is going to Coldplay for “Orphans”, who just barely edged out Niall Horan, who gets the Honourable Mention, with “Nice to Meet Ya”. Worst of the Week should be obvious, in fact, it’s not going to a song, it’s going to three songs, all by Kanye West. “Saleh” isn’t all that bad, but JESUS IS KING was such an immense disappointment that I think he should be crowned Worst of the Week based on not only “Closed on Sunday” or God forbid “Follow God”, but also on principle alone. The Dishonourable Mention is going to Selena Gomez for “Look at Her Now” for being hilariously misguided in the production area, Jesus. I’m going to wrap this week up with a Top 40 ranking of the whole chart on Twitter, which I’ll try to do bi-weekly, no guarantee, so follow me there @cactusinthebank for more musical ramblings and shoddy attempts at humour, and I’ll be seeing you here again next week. Peace!

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thesinglesjukebox · 5 years

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MAREN MORRIS - GIRL

[6.22]

Take a minute, girl, come sit down, and tell us what's been happening...

Alex Clifton: "Girl" is a pep talk that you give yourself in the mirror while your life breaks apart. It's the feeling of having sobbed into a pillow for ten minutes and not really wanting to get up, but knowing you have to because you have things to do, and being annoyed with yourself for having emotions in the first place. It's the quiet voice in the back of your mind that reminds you to treat yourself like a friend, console yourself with kindness instead of wearing down another anxious path. It's the relief of drinking a cup of hot tea as you sit on the edge of your bed, trying to regain your breath while hoping no-one heard you cry. Morris makes no guarantees in the song other than "everything's gonna be okay," and that's the only kind of promise I can hope for, to be honest. I don't need any empty promises that will only fuel my anxiety and depression further. Instead, I want to know, right now, that one day I'll be okay again. [8]

Stephen Eisermann: Maren Morris never fails to deliver an impassioned vocal. "Girl," her latest effort, is no different on that end, but is extremely different when compared to her other singles. The confidence of the girl from "Rich" and "My Church" has evaporated, and we aren't left with a woman singing to remind herself of her worth. It's certainly impressive, but the vague lyrics just don't resonate enough to give the song the necessary power to overcome the platitudes, so what's left is a well-sung song that aims for anthem and lands at corny. [5]

Katherine St Asaph: A massive Shania Twain/Mutt Lange blimp of a song, except it's too cumbersome to manage even an Up! exclamation point, let alone take flight. [4]

Danilo Bortoli: In a piece for his (sadly) long-extinct Poptimist column, Tom Ewing pondered on the then recent wave of life-affirming, self-empowerment pop involved in songs such as Lady Gaga's "Born this Way", P!nk's "Raise Your Glass" and Katy Perry's "Firework" released in 2011. The trend was there to see: the difference between previous iterations of the life-affirming sound in pop and (for instance) Lady Gaga's gay pandering is represented, obviously, by the internet, the place where the individual (social media) meets the universal (Jodi Dean's notion of the "blogipelago"), culminating in those songs being plastered in what I call the postcard effect: by sending a message to everyone who wants to accept it, it reaches nobody specifically. Eight years in, that diagnosis is still standard and rings true: in an interview about "Girl," Morris admitted early drafts of the song started out as a private conversation between friends and then moved on to becoming "like a tough-love call to action in a sisterly way, to myself." Yet calls to action move necessarily outward. Inner voices become anthems as universal as they can be. And anthems are effective, you see. The problem with Morris's "Girl" is one of scale: the only way to confer meaning to all the vague signifiers is by the means of catharsis, the emotional outpouring she can't simply generate. Which is to say, "Girl" works fine as a message from Morris to herself, but cannot get through past her experiences and into the listener's perspective. [4]

Thomas Inskeep: The guitar riff that opens and underpins "Girl" is so distinctive, you're not gonna mistake this song for anything else on country radio. Yeah, it's co-written and co-produced by pop maestro Greg Kurstin, yet between its tempo -- very slow, though this isn't a ballad -- and the lyrics and vocal from Morris, no one's gonna mistake this for anything but country. There's definitely an element of "I can make this and it's country no matter what you've got to say about it" here, and there's also a strong empowerment message here, actually from a woman as opposed to, say, the well-meaning Keith Urban -- which feels directed in part at country radio programmers, which I'm more than good with. And they can't ignore this, the lead single from a sophomore album destined to be as big as Morris's debut. [8]

Crystal Leww: Anyone who thinks that country music hasn't had its share of feminism throughout the years just doesn't know country music, but commercial country music over the last decade has shifted hard to the Florida Georgia Lines of the world. I find capital F Feminism to be exhausting from any genre, but Morris has more than earned her right to put out one of these. Hero was an incredible debut where Morris was allowed to be powerful and bitchy, messy and sad, complex and complicated. "Girl" was co-written with Greg Kurstin and Sarah Aarons, who are known for their pop songwriting and have the subtlety of a bear riding a bicycle. But it kinda slaps -- reminds me of a country pop version of "Independent Women." Fitting that this evokes Beyoncé -- that bridge is basically "Halo" after all. [8]

Tim de Reuse: The real star of the show is the unyielding three-note melody in the guitar, and the unresolving chord progression that traces out circles underneath it. It's the perfect platform for an "it'll be all right" tune: no grand gestures, no bombastic climax, no particular pattern of tension and release -- a reassuring sense of forward momentum and a spirited but tender performance from Morris. If anything, I wish she'd scaled back a bit on the vocal flourish and let the track sprawl out more organically. [7]

Alfred Soto: Greg Kurstin has helped a lot of records I love, but his Flinstones Vitamins approach to pop sound hews too closely to the industry idea of how developing artists should "evolve." The success of "The Middle" mean that Maren Morris had to go big. The cymbal and drum at 0:25 signal the bigness to come. Not a powerful singer, Morris and Kurstin rely on multi-tracked vocals to sustain the nyah-nyah sarcasm. What does "Girl" cohere into? A rather solemn approximation of what she did more effortlessly on "Rich." [6]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: Living life can sometimes be the most unbearable of tasks. Every now and then, there are moments where you look back on how you've managed to survive day after day after day, and -- if you stumble upon the most fortunate of moods -- things seem like they'll be all right. When I listen to "Girl," the simple guitar melody is akin to readings on EKG machines. The high note that appears every two measures recalls the monitor's incessant beeping: a constant, mocking reminder that you're actually alive. Maren Morris's lyrics are Instagram caption-levels of inspiring, and they only exacerbate any dissonance one feels upon hearing its forced uplift. And yet, it's these gentle messages of self-worth and resilience that can mean a world of difference in the most unexpected moments. As "Girl" progresses, the guitar line gets buried underneath a robust arrangement of instruments, its heart beat melody suddenly sounding like it's part of living, breathing flesh. It ripples into a spritz of delay-pedal flurries in the outro: a loving affirmation that you're actually in bloom. [6]

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#Maren Morris #pop #country #music #music review #writing

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