Album Reviews

Album: American Beauty/American Psycho
Artist: Fall Out Boy
Release Date: January 16, 2015
Label: Island/DCD2
Genre: Pop Punk/Pop Rock

American Beauty/American Psycho is Fall Out Boy’s sixth album. The album finally completes the band’s total transformation from one of emo’s least-inventive forerunners to one of pop rock’s most experimental groups. But their previous albums were so much fun! What happened? Fall Out Boy takes themselves so seriously now, and it sucks the personality right out of these mostly pretty good collection of tracks.

First of all, what happened to the band? It’s just become an electronic side project for Patrick Stump, since the only real instrument we can hear is his (granted) powerful voice. The other members are so masked by over-production that they just sound like synths and white noise. However, this doesn’t make the album bad, it’s got some really good songs on it, like “The Kids Aren’t Alright,” but then again, it has some really awful songs too, like “Favorite Record,” which is just a silly fluff song. Mind you, Fall Out Boy’s never been the face for great lyricism. It doesn’t take a harsh critic to point out that they mostly write about girls and dancing (Like on “Favorite Record”).

The title track concerns me for the future of the band, because they experimented with this sound on their EP PAX AM Days. A giant clashing of instruments fighting for the loudest spot; you know, if the background noise doesn’t eventually overtake them all and the band just becomes Merzbow (which I personally wouldn’t mind, but the transitionary period would be torture)! In regards to the popular singles, “Immortals” and “Centuries,” I really don’t have an opinion. They’re both songs with silly lyrics and an overly poppy sound, but a lot of good pop songs are that way. These are just fine.

Some songs really shine through, like the opening track, “Irresistible,” or “Uma Thurman,” despite the silliest sounding refrain on probably the whole record. They work sonically! The album isn’t grotesque or poorly made or anything, it lacks character and has meaningless lyrics (and I hope they’d agree to that second part).

Great tracks: “Irresistible,” “Uma Thurman,” “The Kids Aren’t Alright,” “Twin Skeleton’s (Hotel in NYC)”
Not-so-great tracks: “American Beauty/American Psycho,” “Novocaine,” “Favorite Record”

FINAL RATING: 5/10

Album: Uptown Special
Artist: Mark Ronson
Release Date: January 13, 2015
Label: Columbia
Genre: Funk/R&B/Pop

Uptown Special is producer Mark Ronson’s fourth studio album. Included on the track listing is the immensely popular “Uptown Funk,” a great track featuring Bruno Mars that’s been all over the radio.

I was a little upset to find out the rest of the album didn’t all sound like “Uptown Funk,” but that doesn’t mean the album wasn’t good. The strange thing was that a lot of the album is pretty mellow, as opposed to the impossibly catchy Bruno Mars-featured track. The album is filled with featured artists, most notably Kevin Parker and Andrew Wyatt. Kevin Parker’s first two tracks are low points on the album; while his airy, ethereal vocals may work well in his own band, Tame Impala, they don’t usually here, because they make for some pretty boring songs. “Daffodils” is very sleepy-sounding, with no real progression from beginning to end; the instrumentals are boring and repetitive from beginning to end. This is true, too, on “I Can’t Lose,” featuring Keyone Starr. While this track is more lively than “Daffodils,” it’s very repetitive and feels extremely dated, which is another problem facing the not as good tracks on this record (like “In Case of Fire”). I understand that there’s supposed to be a throwback sound, but it’s hit-or-miss on if it works right, and it certainly doesn’t on “I Can’t Lose.”

On to the good- Andrew Wyatt’s tracks are stand-outs, as well as the mega-hit “Uptown Funk,” and “Leaving Los Feliz,” Kevin Parker’s redemption track. At this album’s best, it becomes a Las Vegas soundscape for the mind (Las Vegas is mentioned on “Crack in the Pearl”). The most bizarre track has to be “Feel Right,” featuring Mystikal. The song is good, but it’s so unnecessary! It’s so explicit for a pop album with no other violent tracks. I’m not going to rate down a track for cursing, but damn, there’s a lot of it.

Great tracks: “Uptown Funk,” “Crack in the Pearl (Parts I & II),” “Leaving Los Feliz,” “Heavy and Rolling”
Not-so-great tracks: “I Can’t Lose,” “Daffodils”

FINAL RATING: 7/10

Album: Evermotion
Artist: Guster
Release Date: January 13, 2015
Label: Ocho Mule/Nettwerk Records
Genre: Alternative Rock/Indie Rock

Evermotion is Guster’s seventh studio album, and their first in a little over four years.

Guster’s Evermotion is an extremely cohesive album, each song seems to flow into the next (if one were to listen to them altogether). However, this doesn’t do the songs any justice. Guster is seven albums in, they know what they’re doing, but it feels like they’re pouring creative ideas into a mold that washes away the personality from any of their songs on the album. There is not a single bad track on this album, but only a handful of standout ones, and you really have to listen for them, or else you’ll get sucked into the album, only returning when the album is over and you say, “that was nice.”

The really sad thing, as I said before, is that every song is better than okay, some are even great songs, but the album feels like watery. You stick your head under for a while and then resurface.

Great tracks: “Doin’ It by Myself,” “Simple Machine,” “Kid Dreams,” “It Is Just What It Is”
Not-so-great tracks: None

FINAL RATING: 6.5/10

Album: Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper
Artist: Panda Bear
Release Date: January 9, 2015
Label: Domino
Genre: Experimental/Electronic/Neo-psychedelia

Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper is Panda Bear’s fifth solo studio album. When he’s not working with the great Animal Collective, he’s creating great music on his own that has its own identity, different from that of Animal Collective.

The album feels like two separate albums, the first half and the second half. The first half is pretty good, but each composition fails to grow past a good idea. The main theme repeats and repeats and repeats until the song stops. This is most noticeable in the track “Boys Latin,” which is a frustrating series of refrains. Same with “Butcher Baker Candlestick Maker,” which never seems to build upon itself, no composition, just a beginning to end. The rest of this half is pretty good, the first single “Mr Noah,” is an excellent track, even if it tends to fall to the same pitfalls as the other tracks.

The second (loosely-defined) half starts with “Tropic of Cancer,” the undisputed best track on the album, a dreamy soundscape filled with Panda Bear’s beautiful singing. His singing can’t be over-appreciated, it is wonderful. Every track through the rest of the album is wonderful. “Principe Real” and “Selfish Gene” are surprisingly fun tracks, and the other ones play more with the experimental nature of the composer.

I listen to Animal Collective a lot, and for me, it’s impossible not to compare Panda Bear to his band’s work. This a very good album, but whenever I listen to Panda Bear or Avey Tare’s solo music, I feel like it’s missing something. It feels like they need each other to create one cohesive work. Otherwise, the album just becomes experimental and psychedelic ramblings. This can be fun as well, as evidenced by this album, but it’s really hard not to want more.

Great Tracks: “Mr Noah,” “Crosswords,” “Tropic of Cancer,” “Lonely Wanderer,” “Principe Real,” “Selfish Gene,” “Acid Wash”
Not-so-great Track: “Boys Latin”

FINAL RATING: 7.5/10

Album: Title
Artist: Meghan Trainor
Release Date: January 9, 2015
Label: Epic
Genre: Blue-eyed Soul/Pop

Title is the debut album by recent pop-superstar Meghan Trainor. Her EP, also titled Title, introduced us to the hit songs that we would later see on the full-length (and also hear dominating the radio). Yes, this is the “All About that Bass” girl.

I would like to start this review by saying something from me, so you can get to know me better. I have nothing wrong with pop music. There’s nothing wrong with using formulas that are proven to work to create music either meaningful or meaningless that ends up on the radio. I have nothing wrong with vapidity. That being said, I have to give this album the honor of being the worst album I’ve listened to in full.

The album starts fine. “All About That Bass” is arguably the best song on the album. It’s fun and it’s not forgetful. Although, the implications of the song are a bit off. Body positivity is something that we should all get behind, but “skinny-shaming” is very present in this song. The concept of skinny-shaming seems ridiculous, but the song is saying “move along, skinny girls, we don’t want you anymore,” while pretending to be a song about body positivity. It’s lyrics are contradictory and unfocused, and just upsetting.

The bizarre thing about this album is how anti-feminist it is. In a progressive world, it’s strange how popular this conservative musician is. This album is targeted to 6 to 15 year old girls, and the album deals with topics inappropriate for those on the lower end of the spectrum, and dangerous to those on the higher end. This can be most clearly seen on the title track “Title,” the worst song on this whole album. This is encouraging girls to think of themselves as trophy girls (“You gotta treat me like a trophy, put me on the shelf”), and only have sex with people that they can call their boyfriend. This song, and others like “Dear Future Husband,” are dangerous to the youth, who might be learning that they must keep with the traditional concepts of “women’s purity,” and that only a prince can release them from their prude-like lifestyle through marriage or serious commitment. At this point, it’s backwards to think this way.

All the songs in between are just vanilla, I can’t even remember most of them. Definitely not future hits. Even a duet with the great John Legend can’t save “Like I’m Gonna Lose You” from being just as easily forgettable as the rest of the album. Also, she really needs to stop pretending like she’s a black girl. I know it’s a common criticism, but it’s just embarrassing to hear her rap and try to sound ethnic. She has no voice of her own.

I will defend my right to hate this album.

Least Annoying Track: “All About That Bass,” I guess.
Most Annoying Tracks: “Dear Future Husband,” “Bang Dem Sticks,” “Walkashame,” “Title”

FINAL RATING: 1/10

Album: SremmLife
Artist: Rae Sremmurd
Release Date: January 6, 2015
Label: EarDrummers/Interscope
Genre: Hip-hop

SremmLife is the debut studio album by hip-hop duo Rae Sremmurd. Most of the tracks were produced by Mike WiLL Made-It (if you can’t tell by the annoying audio-watermark at the beginning of a few of their songs). The album was definitely not made to listen to as a full work, because doing so would infuriate anyone. They have money and like weed and nobody can tell them what to do. That sentence can replace the whole album in terms of lyrical content. There’s nothing of substance here, it’s like the outside world is foreign to the young duo. As for how the songs actually sound, they range from tolerable to just bad. Swae Lee and Slim Jimmy’s half-strained-yelling/half-kind-of rapping do not work over the surprisingly bland production. The beats feel copy-pasted from one song to the next.

I’m just surprised by how little work seemed to go into the songs. Most of the songs contain an overlong and often annoying hook that pretty much take up the whole track length. Themes and phrases are repeated infinitely, and to be completely honest, I just finished listening to the album and I can’t even think of any verses specifically, because it’s just so bland. All I know is an instinctual feeling not to play any of these songs ever again.

Am I being too harsh? We get it, you’re rich; I should be jealous! Ha ha ha! The banality of the tracks can’t be overstated. There’s not even a so-bad-it’s-good factor, it doesn’t feel like they care about their own music. Usually I have a list at the bottom for “great” and “not-so-great” tracks, but I’ll have to change those terms to more accurately represent how I feel.

I still have the sound of Slim Jimmy yelling in my ear.

Least Annoying Track: “No Type”
Most Annoying Tracks: “Unlock the Swag,” “My X,” “Up Like Trump”

FINAL RATING: 2.5/10

Album: Fashion Week
Artist: Death Grips
Release Date: January 4, 2015
Label: Third Worlds
Genre: Industrial/Instrumental Hip-hop

I’m one of those people who stops doing things once they do those things for a short while, which is why this website hasn’t been updated in over a year. I guess I share this in common with Death Grips, who decided to break up last year simply because they made music, got popular, and got bored. However, due to the unconventional and aggressive nature of the band, being broken up doesn’t seem to really mean anything. Fashion Week is a surprise instrumental “soundtrack” album that the band just released for free on their website. I’m not going to complain about a new Death Grips album ever, but their volatility can be tiresome after a while. Regardless, it’s an album and it shall be reviewed.

Fashion Week is a collection of instrumental tracks recorded without any input from MC Ride. Despite the good idea and the total viability of instrumental music, this album has a few tracks that sound like they just should have had vocals in them. This seems more like a vocal-less version of an album than an instrumental main event. The songs never really develop either, they either go on way too long or they’re really great for the two minutes they exist. The main problem with this album is that some of it is just boring. Tracks like “Runway Y” and “Runway A” don’t really go anywhere and aren’t all that interesting to begin with.

All that being said, the album is not a bad one. It works better if you think of it as a compilation of tracks as opposed to a cohesive album. Some tracks just attack you and engage you right until their end. “Runway H” (both of them!) are fantastic tracks. The second featuring a fitting guitar. That track in particular doesn’t even really feel like a Death Grips song, but it’ll slide.

I’m afraid there’s not much more to write about this album. It’s good, but it’s not stellar. It’s not even really an album. Think of this is as a mini-review for the new year.

Great Tracks: “Runway E (I),” “Runway N (I),” “Runway H (I & II),” “Runway W”
Not so great Tracks: “Runway Y,” “Runway A”

FINAL RATING: 7/10