What's a Listening Log? Well, the idea is quite simple. It's a weekly segment that consolidates all the mini-reviews Dozens Of Donuts has given on RateYourMusic over the past week, split between the Past and Present. A straightforward grading scale has been put in place, ranging from A+ to F-, with C acting as the baseline average. There is no set amount of reviews per week, just however many I get around to reviewing. And don't expect week-of reviews. I wait one month - with at least three listens under my belt - before I rate and review an album. Enjoy!
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King Krule has once again outdid himself. Ever since his prodigious 2011 EP debut - released at just 17 years old - King Krule has steadily developed his fringe outsider aesthetic with sophisticated production and pensive lyrics. Prior to Man Alive!, picking a favorite between Krule's two LP's 3 Feet Beneath The Moon and The Ooz could be done with a coin flip. That is no longer the case, for while Man Alive! doesn't reach the consummate highs of those previous albums ('Neptune Estate,' 'Dum Surfer'), the consistency in ambience and synthesis of style and tone cause Krule's most mature project to date to ascend, or descend, into the caustic loneliness of a night left with one's feelings.
In terms of atmosphere, one would be hard-pressed to find something more invasive. Throughout the 42 minutes Krule manages to drift down a solitary bar crawl, mingle with street rats and dank mire, slink under the sewers, and gaze upon blurred stars covered by smog. Perhaps my affinity towards this dreary desolation has to do less with a mental state - for which Krule finds himself equally engulfed - and more with my years working the graveyard shift. Alongside Burial's most treasured Future Garage (Truant as an example), I can't think of a more suitable companion to a time when the world, briefly, stops. During my three-year stint working overnights, I would travel as a photog for a news station, picking up any reports of breaking news over police scanners. Think Nightcrawler. With a nefarious foible lingering under every song, take the puddle splash of a stray car on 'Theme For The Cross' or the manic instability of Tricky-esque Trip Hop on 'Supermarché,' Man Alive!'s dead of night atmosphere really highlights the unpredictability and pressing vulnerability I experienced while cruising dead-end streets with minimal lighting for that night's crime scene. To know, a street - like any other - that promotes an agreed-upon silence come nightfall was, moments ago, the location of something heinous never failed to make my skin crawl. To those who've yet to withstand such a peculiar uneasiness, Man Alive! does a sensational job equating it with a sonic palate.
It's not just the quiet moments that accomplish this either, as Krule's surreal Art Rock erupts on tracks like 'Comet Face' and 'Perfecto Miserable,' powering the combustible ego of an insomniac fighting sleep and the thoughts lining his mind. It's the moments of reality, like 'Alone, Omen 3' and 'Theme For The Cross,' that ground and bound Krule to the nighttime ritual of isolation, allowing for volatility to seem extra potent when 'Stoned Again' or 'Energy Fleets' roll around. That duality not only lies at the heart of Man Alive!, but also a great deal of surrealistic work defined by the inherent mystery of darkness. 'Dum Surfer's' music video proved Krule a mighty Twin Peaks fan, and unsurprisingly the Lynchian vibes become more pronounced here. The Noir-lit Jazz Rock of 'Comet Face' recall Trouble's excellent Roadhouse rendition of 'Snake Eyes,' while the hypnagogic romance of '(Don't Let The Dragon) Draag On' contort the show's Soap Opera lean. The latter, one of Man Alive!'s weaker tracks, finds a lone comparison to HOMESHAKE, and that band's shaky apprehension shows. Nowhere is Twin Peaks seen better than on closer 'Please Complete Thee' though, with the haunting static oozing from Krule like it would a Woodsman, before the song itself morphs into a Black Lodge-esque escapade of time-shifted mystification.
'Please Complete Thee,' and others like it (namely the gorgeous release of 'Underclass' or the schizophrenic transformation of 'Alone, Omen 3') are decided examples of Man Alive!'s sublime production. The beauty that emerges in the crevices of night's unknown really highlights King Krule's command of sound design, offsetting a nocturnal aesthetic that's typically reserved for austere horror with piercing moments of bleak hope. Combine that with a myriad of engaging set pieces, like 'Cellular,' 'Stoned Again,' 'Comet Face,' and more, and it's no wonder how King Krule was somehow able to top himself once more. Man Alive! is a marvel of authentic atmosphere with the wherewithal to entertain.
A-
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Five years and countless spoonfuls of hype has led to this. Tame Impala's fourth LP is a lukewarm, archaic take on modernized Disco, incorporating Kevin Parker's knack for brazen dramaturgy and overblown sound design. It reaffirms Tame Impala's position as this past decade's most overrated artist, finding success on the stray coattails of the bygone psychedelic era. For what influence they imparted with records like Innerspeaker and Lonerism, The Slow Rush finds the roles reversed as a five-year absence has found Tame Impala decidedly behind the trends rather than guiding them. All that being said, while The Slow Rush is their worst project, it isn't the black mark that errs an otherwise stainless discography. Compared to Currents - an album whose soul transported itself here - it's a marginal step-down at worst.
Believe it or not, The Slow Rush opens with a track that, in short time, has become my favorite from the Australian group. 'One More Year' is a sublime take on the kaleidoscopic House aesthetic instituted back in 2015 with 'Let It Happen.' It's decidedly lighter, inviting Trance rhythms byway of Balearic Beat, and Parker's best vocal performance (lyrically and in the sound effect department) on the LP. Comparisons to Caribou's early career as Manitoba can be felt with the sunburnt percussion and frail vocals. In fact, much of The Slow Rush owes certain stylings from the backs of others. On 'One More Year' the homage thrives due to Parker's promotional tour predilection that Dance rhythms would define the LP. But after that moment where simple, sensible patterns grace the stage, Parker descends back to Tame Impala's maximalist tropes. Acts like Neon Indian ('Posthumous Forgiveness'), Unknown Mortal Orchestra ('Is It True'), and even Ariel Pink ('One More Hour') emerge in this grand bombast of color. The Slow Rush becomes inundated with saturated and blinding hues, like the kitschy Synthpop of the 1980's. A style MGMT effectively imitated on 2018's Little Dark Age.
Like every Tame Impala album, the total lack of nuance found in The Slow Rush's 57 repugnant minutes prevents iconic moments from shaping. All flash and no substance, one could call it. Especially given Parker's prosaic lyrics that pin him as a below average songwriter at best. Even when he attempts personal introspection, he can't help but exist in cliche. There is such a thing as too much, and The Slow Rush is evident of that. Like devouring candy, knowing sickness and regret will soon arrive. It's delicious in the moment, what with its biting sugars and ineludible flavors, but eventually the crash will happen and candy will be off the menu until the next bout of contrition. Moderation is what Tame Impala need.
C-
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2020 | Sophisti-Pop | Listen
TO TRIUMPHANTLY UPLIFT THE ONE DRAGGING YOU DOWN
A Girl Called Eddy's career is quite fascinating for an outsider, in that it never really was. A promising Singer/Songwriter around the turn of the millennium, a record deal and ensuing debut circa 2004. Then nothing. A career presumably halted due to poor timing, given the behind-the-curve, contemporary Pop Soul best suited for the 80's and 90's. That silence, a 16-year absence filled with, something, inadvertently breathes a distinct authenticity to A Girl Called Eddy's sophomore release Been Around. This isn't a singer destined for stardom anymore, though tracks like 'Been Around,' 'Someone's Gonna Break Your Heart,' and 'Two Hearts' would have you thinking otherwise. This is a woman, whose life is like ours. The same uproarious highs instigated by the same romantic pitfalls. There are no marketing suits enforcing contentious romanic melancholy due to some statistical analysis. The beauty of Been Around - though Erin Moran would've preferred it differently - lies in the humanity of normalcy brought on by her pragmatic livelihood.
This normally isn't my kind of music, as Moran dabbles awfully close to Singer/Songwriter, which is a genre I often detest due to systematic apathy. Certain tracks here, like 'Lucky Jack' and 'Finest Actor,' fail thanks to that genre's tendency to inflate one's self-importance that their voice, and their message, exceeds that of any competitor. With how inundated love songs are in society's lexicon, no single artist can invoke imagery previous unheard, and Moran is no exception. Rather, what saves A Girl Called Eddy is the humble candor by which Moran treats those captured within her lyrics. These are honest folk tethered together by a thing called love. The euphoric passages rife with trumpeting horns and impassioned saxophones (see: 'Been Around' and 'Judy') execute this sentimentality, while simultaneously breathing an invigorated sense of moxie into the oftentimes plaintive and drab Sophisti-Pop and Blue-Eyed Soul. The musicianship is orthodox, the manner in which its played is where Been Around shines.
While my experience with familiar artists is minor, I know - given the rampant indulgence of Contemporary Pop circa 1990 - that Moran's stylings owe a lot to others. Aimee Mann comes to mind, as does Judee Sill when a low-key Folk element is added in ('Big Mouth,' 'NY Man'). Elsewhere, the whimsy and bullishness of Jens Lekman appears on Been Around's preeminent cuts like 'Judy' and 'Two Hearts,' swapping his unabashed exuberance with levelheaded maturity. Beyond that, the general transparency of Easy Listening and early Pop Soul fill the gaps, offsetting the necessary highs for a modern album with moments of passive placidity, seen best on the bonus track closer 'Pale Blue Moon.' Overall, Been Around is a solid Pop album that, in another era, would receive far more attention from aging romantics who're less concerned with self-inflicting drama and more with finding a companion to settle down with.
B-
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