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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2020 | Electropop | Listen
PARTY FATIGUE AMID THE DAILY DATING GRIND
I'm Your Empress Of is Empress Of's best album to date. Temper excitement though, as compared to Me and Us, that's not saying much. The Latin-infused songwriter, mending generic Electropop with a dash of spicy, salsa flavor, hasn't really stood out from the droves of intimidating female forces in the inundated Pop scene. She rides a line of comfort, discussing - more often than not - relational quarrels over bouncy, bubbling production. I'm Your Empress Of changes none of that, adding a thinly-veiled subplot of feminine acceptance through the spoken word passages by her mother on the title track and 'U Give It Up.' That is a nice touch and helps gravitate towards something larger the production seemingly lacks.
What allows I'm Your Empress Of to surpass its predecessors is, simply, consistency. In fact, both Me and Us had better standout performances ('Icon' on the former, 'Timberlands' on the latter), but none ride a wave of feel-good Dance-Pop quite like this LP. 'U Give It Up' is likely the strongest candidate, though one could argue for 'Bit Of Rain,' 'Give Me Another Chance,' and 'Not The One' as well. It's a fine Pop album that showcases an artist coming into her own, steadfast in her ascension on the charts. To simplify it, look at the covers. In 2015, she was shy, common, unimpressive. 2018, curious, colorful, minacious. 2020, wild, arresting, confident. It's the typical trajectory of a scarlet destined for Pop stardom. The shopworn production and textbook content may prevent that from happening though.
C
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2020 | Indietronica | Listen
THE RAMIFICATIONS OF FAME ROTTING THE BRAIN
It has been months, if not years since I've been this conflicted over an album. The distinction between greatness and incompetence has never been so drastic. Which is why I find Making A Door Less Open quite the fascinating case study into fame, and how it affects those unaccustomed. I mean, for no reason in particular Will Toledo - unequivocal leader of Car Seat Headrest - donned himself in apocalyptic PPE attire for this album's promotional rollout. It was to draw attention away from him as leader, ironically achieving the exact opposite result. Those pictures provide a great visual aid to MADLO, with three plainly-clad rockers complicit in the aberration of an outlier, similar to the jarring juxtapositions found all over the LP. In one instance, Car Seat Headrest appeals to the fans of yore ('Deadlines (Hostile),' 'Life Worth Missing'), in another their detachment from reality conflates artistic haughtiness with an inflated sense of self-importance ('Hollywood,' 'What's With You Lately'). It creates contradiction in the messages Toledo intends to convey, standing against the prudent and utterly human belief systems of his past. This calculated discrepancy, as outlined by Car Seat Headrest in the album's press release, fails at achieving its goal. For ataxia can not be manufactured.
From its very onset, it feels as though MADLO consciously incites divisiveness. 'Weightlifters,' a solid opener with a rewarding structure, unique lyrics, and a playful spirit, is reduced to irritation for many with a lingering synth drone that persists, like a wasp buzzing around your ear, for the duration. It borders on The Knife's provoking usage of synthesizers. Personally,I don't mind it, hence why it's one of five tracks I genuinely love here, but it's that thought process of needless complication and artistic encroachment that mares MADLO. The end result just feels incoherent, for as introspective and thought-provoking as Toledo is on 'Weightlifters,' tracks like 'Hollywood' expose a totally deviant counterfeit. The variation in songwriting, especially from someone whose proven more than capable - thanks to Teens Of Denial and, essentially, Car Seat Headrest's entire discography - causes red scars from all the head-scratching that ensues. Sardonic or not, you can't go from "Hop inside, come see my movie / catch a ride, it's kinda groovy" ('Hollywood') to "I will find strength in your power, I'll stop running like a coward" ('Martin') in the span of one song. Your overall message will only diminish.
However, as mentioned before, I can personally find appeal in this unintended consequence of ego. MADLO is gripping when the changed mannerisms of Car Seat Headrest is pried upon more intently than the music itself. Speaking of which, never have the highs and lows of an album been so equal in reach, yet so extreme. It's damn near a 50/50 split of songs I adore and songs I loathe, with the lone commonality resting on 'Life Worth Missing' and its late-era National inspiration. In theory, along with 'Deadlines ('Hostile'), it's the only "safe" song here. Outright failures occur in 'Hollywood,' a Rap Rock nightmare that reduces the clever hypocrisy of 'Destroyed By Hippie Powers' to a mudded mess of imitative self-grandeur, 'Hymn (Remix)' which somehow manages to be even worse with its brutal, tasteless Electroclash, 'Deadlines (Thoughtful)' that delineates the descent of The Strokes with an obsession over maximalism, and 'What's With You Lately' for interrupting this preposterous chain with pretentious acoustic drivel that serves no purpose on MADLO.
Privy readers will note a missing track that's typically paired with the most-hated; 'Famous.' For that, I disagree. Yes, it is disgusting, obtuse, and tarnished by cheap gimmicks one can muster in five minutes on GarageBand. But it's precisely that direct excessive that appeals, as each chipmunk chop and Glitch smack tickles my aural canal, catapulted by Toledo's candid lyrics ("Please let this matter") which include a callback to 'Weightlifters,' successfully - in my opinion - summarizing, both sonically and conceptually, the efforts of Car Seat Headrest on MADLO. That is my most out-there opinion, of course. My other favorites are more down to earth. 'Can't Cool Me Down' works wonders with its nifty hook and frisky Indietronica akin to LCD Soundsystem, 'Martin' builds oddly to an uproariously-good hook and droll outro, while 'There Must Be More Than Blood' takes the cake as MADLO's best for being the only track to incorporate Car Seat Headrest's previous level of ambition. A hook borrowing from the realm of Neo-Psychedelia, and a single note riff akin to 'The Ending Of Dramamine' from How To Leave Town are the main reasons my love falls on this track.
So there you have it. A divisive album for the ages. Frustrating in that that was Car Seat Headrest's intent, though not for the reasons outlined above. Take one half of greatness and one half of failures and what do you get? An average album with virtually nothing average on it. Making A Door Less Open is a true conundrum, and one I won't be opposed to revisiting. It pins Car Seat Headrest as determined revolutionists, content with disappointing as long as it maintains them relevancy. That is, as long as the negative reaction doesn't torment Toledo. Those words on 'Famous,' "someone will care about this / please let somebody care about this,' may prove troublesome for the future.
C
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2020 | Conscious Hip-Hop | Listen
MOMENTS FLASH BEFORE A LIFE CUT SHORT
Consider me one of many who jumped into Innocent Country 2 without having heard the first collaboration between Quelle Chris and Chris Keys. High off his excellent 2019 LP Guns, concept failed to matter more than simply hearing what Chris had cooking. Turns out, a whole lot. While Innocent Country 2 pegs itself as a sequel, complete with intro, recap, outro, and sporadic skits, whatever concept loosely ties these tracks together pales in comparison to the heavy-handed lyrics, melancholy production, and subdued sense of hope and optimism that guides its way through the album. It is a depressive yet gorgeous sign of the times in black America, offsetting trials and tribulations with occasional bouts of lighthearted humor Quelle Chris has been known for. Much like our current climate, anxiety and apprehension outweighs gaiety and purity. This is no age of innocence, despite what the title might convey.
Fans who frothed at Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly can find solace here, as Quelle Chris has often drawn similarities to Lamar with his ability to entertain despite a cerebral form of empowerment that typically sides Conscious Hip-Hop rappers with banality and tedium. Chris Keys' Neo-Soul production, which playfully uses pianos, strings, and offbeat drums for an organic sensation most akin to Jazz Rap, bridges a gap between Detroit's golden era, with Slum Village and prominently J Dilla coming to mind, and the uplifting work of Exile and Oddisee. In fact, the entirety of Innocent Country 2 reminds me of Blu & Exile's seminal work Below The Heavens for its grim, yet sensible outlook on street life. Other artists like The Roots, Little Village, Cunninlynguists, and Common can be heard here too, essentially making this a backpacker's wet dream.
While the entire album presents a consistency one can admire, occasionally drifting off into tedium with unnecessary skits ('Moments,' 'Ritual'), the final five songs presents one of the strongest streaks a Hip-Hop album has seen in quite some time. The whimsical bounce of 'Sudden Death,' devoid of any Quelle Chris verse, kicks things off with nostalgia reminiscent of a 90's cartoon theme song. The sing-a-long hymn reminds me specifically of Doug. Then there's 'Graphic Bleed Outs' and 'Mirage' which, along with 'Sacred Safe,' feature Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs, a strong inclusion but one that works wonders when her voice expresses itself in tranquil kinship. She steals the show on 'Graphic Bleed Outs,' proving that she can exist outside the realm of kitschy, zonked-out Art Pop. As for 'Mirage,' let's just say it's the best Hip-Hop track of 2020 thus far. Earl Sweatshirt has garnered much attention, and rightfully so, but praise must be bestowed upon Chris Keys for crafting a sublime beat that weeps through an antiquated piano melody.
Features play a crucial role in Innocent Country 2, and they come in all shapes and sizes. Mosel & Nelson Bandela help elicit the inanity of 'Black Twitter,' the album's most tongue-in-cheek track, while Pink Siifu and Billy Woods invade reality quite literally, exposing a taste of the latter's enigmatic personality with a moment-in-time skit. Elsewhere, Joseph Chilliams has an excellent verse on 'Living Happy,' as does Nappy Nina on 'When You Fall...,' another standout due to Chris Keys' biotic production. Overall a fantastic album looming over the genre of Hip-Hop that, in 2020, has been sorely idle.
B+
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Machine+ has quite prolific in 2020, capitalizing off the moderate attention given to Saṃsāra, an adventurous take on genre spooling using home-brew, DIY techniques. With nothing but time and musical taste on his hands, Machine+ runs the gamut of influence, investing time in everything from Shoegaze to Glitch to Slowcore. In reduced fashion, these are evident on NO MOONS, an experimental EP that values ambience over substance. This is very much a textural landscape, emphasizing Lo-Fi tactics like muffled vocals, static disarray, malfunctioning Glitch, and distant samples lost astray a winding path. That is to say, the bulk is inessential material used primarily to flex Machine+'s creative wherewithal. That excludes 'Stars,' which is easily the best track here, assimilating all these pieces into a cohesive whole with bombastic drums and longing vocals. Falls very much in line with bands like Weatherday, primitive Car Seat Headrest, and the early experimental stages of The Microphones. Stay for that, the rest is merely ancillary world-building..
D+
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