Two AotW notes
Apr. 27th, 2011 09:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seekingferretDessa- "A Badly Broken Code"
Dessa's a female hip-hop artist from Minnesota. Um... I don't know anything about rap, females, or Minnesota, so bear that in mind as you read this review. She's apparently the sole female member of a Minnesota hip hop collective called Doomtree. I bring this up because it'll be relevant later in the review, but also because I want to ask if anyone else was aware that there were Minnesota hip hop crews?
On the album, Dessa raps, sings, talks, and makes interesting sounds with her voice. It's an impressively versatile set of performances. Her... flow? Is that the right word? I told you, I lack the vocabulary to talk about rap. Her flow is aight- nah, I'm just kidding, I can talk about her flow more specifically. She clearly takes influence not only from mainstream rap, but from slam poetry. Her lines are constructed as fluid lines, not as mere rhymes but as rhythmic streams. (I saw Donizetti's "The Elixir of Love" the other night, and the classic bel canto vocal line has something in common with what I'm trying to describe.)
Oh dear, that last paragraph was brutal. Let's move on to something I'm actually qualified to talk about, like the lyrics.
There are thankfully few lumberjacks in these songs. Actually, none at all that I could detect, though I wouldn't put a hidden lumberjack past a Minnesotan. Instead, I guess, it's the usual mix of subjects on a debut rap album- reminisces about childhood challenges, boasts brags and taunts, a little bit of light political commentary...
The part of the album I was on the clearest footing on was the boasts, brags and taunts part of the album. The string of songs with "Dutch" "The Bullpen", "Crew" was witty, fun, well-spoken, and thoughtfully classic. Great choruses, flowing verse, references to the Chicago Manual of Style, Minneapolis Edition. And also it's the right balance of personal and impersonal, generic feminist critiques contrasted with specific incidents, vague platitudes about friendship built up with classic in-jokes. The chorus of "The Bullpen", to give an example, is "Forget the bull in the china closet, there's a china doll in the bullpen" and it declares Dessa's intention to crash the men's party that is hip-hop by being smarter than the men, better than the men, classier than the men. But the song is a boast song in the grand tradition of rap, so she's not declaring her intention to destroy hip-hop, just clear out enough space for herself. And her chorus is wryly self-deprecating, acknowledging her position of vulnerability in the same moment it's proclaiming her triumph. And at the same time proclaiming her cleverness- the thing I love about a good boast song is the overloaded meaning every word carries, because when you're cleverly and smoothly rapping about how clever and smooth you are, the song is its own proof text.
In "Crew", she talks specifically about Doomtree, the hip hop collective she's a part of. I admit I find that fascinating, music as team sport. It's hard to get to grips on someone's solo album of how the personalities interoperate, though I gather a number of her crewmates produced various songs on the album (unlike the only other crew I have much experience with, Wu Tang Clan, where the music gains a sense of cohesiveness from the production efforts of RZA). The collaborations probably explain the sense of eclecticism on the album. In a way, an album like this anthologizes talent in the exact opposte way to Tiesto's "Kaleidoscope", where that showcases the talent of a skilled producer by complementing him with a variety of vocalists, while this showcases the talent of a skilled vocalist by complementing her with a variety of producers. I think if my familiarity with the vocabulary of hip hop music were deeper, and if I'd had past experience with these producers as I had with several of the vocalists on Kaleidoscope, I'd be better positioned to appreciate the value the crew adds to the album.
I liked some of her other rap songs- "Children's Work" and "Mineshaft II", especially. Aha! Mineshafts are a Minnesota thing, aren't they? I just read a book that had a scene in a Minnesota mineshaft. Still no lumberjacks. I don't have any real objection to her sung music, but I didn't particularly warm to it. I liked some of the songs that skated the edge between rap and song, too.
Metric- Old World Underground, Where are You
Now that Alai is no longer recommending me Iron Maiden albums, we're heading into new and different territory. This is, I suppose, indie pop? Which is a meaningless label. Sometimes, a better label would be Casio Pop. Actually, the best I can tell about Metric's style after listening to the album a half-dozen times through is what they don't want to be. As "Dead Disco" proclaims, Metric regards disco, funk, and rock and roll as dead forms. They're clearly interested in creating a pop sound, but what they're looking for is a new pop sound. They're almost obsessive about it, in the way musicians who live deep in the shadows of their predecessors can be.
"The List" coyly quotes a half-dozen pop hits in its opener, from "All Along the Watchtower" to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and seems to dismiss them all as of a moment that is now past, yet it acknowledges their greatness at the same time. And by quoting them, Metric gets caught in a funny trap, unable to fully establish their irrelevance. Or perhaps I'm misreading them. Perhaps they're not trying to shove Nirvana out the back door in a song that says, "Who we are now we will always be- the best haircuts are taken." I suppose the song could be read as daring contemporary bands to create something as outrageous as those tunes from the past, but I find that less interesting and certainly less persuasive, not to mention less consistent with the rest of the album..
Emily Haines's voice is the star of the album, capable of conveying dark or bleak without dampening the party. But it's abused or misused at various points in the album, as when she sings the deliriously nonsensical "Now that your wallet is all lit up" 8 consecutive times in "Hustle Rose", pushing the lyric's value far beyond the breaking point.
As I mentioned before, there's an element of casio pop on this album. And in case that's unclear, that's not a compliment. Much of the time, I wanted this music to challenge me more, to offer a richer musical experience. Instead, it was often content to offer simple beats, blips and beeps to back Haines's voice. She's capable of better than this. I mean, a couple weeks ago I heard her do better than this on Tiesto's album "Kaleidoscope".
I'm happier with songs like the opener, "IOU", which let a guitar chug along in the background to give at least the sensation of motion to the song. And I have to admit that the minimalism of "Calculation Theme" grew on me a little over the course of the week, because it made no demands on Haines and just let her tell a story. But all in all, I think I'd say this album is a disappointment. The potential is here for much more ambitious and impressive music.
I also listened to Timbuk 3's "A Thousand Lovers" before Passover screwed up AotW plans. I uh... don't really have much to say about it. But give me time, I'll find an angle that isn't bitter ranting about how all of my friends send me leftist propaganda.
Dessa's a female hip-hop artist from Minnesota. Um... I don't know anything about rap, females, or Minnesota, so bear that in mind as you read this review. She's apparently the sole female member of a Minnesota hip hop collective called Doomtree. I bring this up because it'll be relevant later in the review, but also because I want to ask if anyone else was aware that there were Minnesota hip hop crews?
On the album, Dessa raps, sings, talks, and makes interesting sounds with her voice. It's an impressively versatile set of performances. Her... flow? Is that the right word? I told you, I lack the vocabulary to talk about rap. Her flow is aight- nah, I'm just kidding, I can talk about her flow more specifically. She clearly takes influence not only from mainstream rap, but from slam poetry. Her lines are constructed as fluid lines, not as mere rhymes but as rhythmic streams. (I saw Donizetti's "The Elixir of Love" the other night, and the classic bel canto vocal line has something in common with what I'm trying to describe.)
Oh dear, that last paragraph was brutal. Let's move on to something I'm actually qualified to talk about, like the lyrics.
There are thankfully few lumberjacks in these songs. Actually, none at all that I could detect, though I wouldn't put a hidden lumberjack past a Minnesotan. Instead, I guess, it's the usual mix of subjects on a debut rap album- reminisces about childhood challenges, boasts brags and taunts, a little bit of light political commentary...
The part of the album I was on the clearest footing on was the boasts, brags and taunts part of the album. The string of songs with "Dutch" "The Bullpen", "Crew" was witty, fun, well-spoken, and thoughtfully classic. Great choruses, flowing verse, references to the Chicago Manual of Style, Minneapolis Edition. And also it's the right balance of personal and impersonal, generic feminist critiques contrasted with specific incidents, vague platitudes about friendship built up with classic in-jokes. The chorus of "The Bullpen", to give an example, is "Forget the bull in the china closet, there's a china doll in the bullpen" and it declares Dessa's intention to crash the men's party that is hip-hop by being smarter than the men, better than the men, classier than the men. But the song is a boast song in the grand tradition of rap, so she's not declaring her intention to destroy hip-hop, just clear out enough space for herself. And her chorus is wryly self-deprecating, acknowledging her position of vulnerability in the same moment it's proclaiming her triumph. And at the same time proclaiming her cleverness- the thing I love about a good boast song is the overloaded meaning every word carries, because when you're cleverly and smoothly rapping about how clever and smooth you are, the song is its own proof text.
In "Crew", she talks specifically about Doomtree, the hip hop collective she's a part of. I admit I find that fascinating, music as team sport. It's hard to get to grips on someone's solo album of how the personalities interoperate, though I gather a number of her crewmates produced various songs on the album (unlike the only other crew I have much experience with, Wu Tang Clan, where the music gains a sense of cohesiveness from the production efforts of RZA). The collaborations probably explain the sense of eclecticism on the album. In a way, an album like this anthologizes talent in the exact opposte way to Tiesto's "Kaleidoscope", where that showcases the talent of a skilled producer by complementing him with a variety of vocalists, while this showcases the talent of a skilled vocalist by complementing her with a variety of producers. I think if my familiarity with the vocabulary of hip hop music were deeper, and if I'd had past experience with these producers as I had with several of the vocalists on Kaleidoscope, I'd be better positioned to appreciate the value the crew adds to the album.
I liked some of her other rap songs- "Children's Work" and "Mineshaft II", especially. Aha! Mineshafts are a Minnesota thing, aren't they? I just read a book that had a scene in a Minnesota mineshaft. Still no lumberjacks. I don't have any real objection to her sung music, but I didn't particularly warm to it. I liked some of the songs that skated the edge between rap and song, too.
Metric- Old World Underground, Where are You
Now that Alai is no longer recommending me Iron Maiden albums, we're heading into new and different territory. This is, I suppose, indie pop? Which is a meaningless label. Sometimes, a better label would be Casio Pop. Actually, the best I can tell about Metric's style after listening to the album a half-dozen times through is what they don't want to be. As "Dead Disco" proclaims, Metric regards disco, funk, and rock and roll as dead forms. They're clearly interested in creating a pop sound, but what they're looking for is a new pop sound. They're almost obsessive about it, in the way musicians who live deep in the shadows of their predecessors can be.
"The List" coyly quotes a half-dozen pop hits in its opener, from "All Along the Watchtower" to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and seems to dismiss them all as of a moment that is now past, yet it acknowledges their greatness at the same time. And by quoting them, Metric gets caught in a funny trap, unable to fully establish their irrelevance. Or perhaps I'm misreading them. Perhaps they're not trying to shove Nirvana out the back door in a song that says, "Who we are now we will always be- the best haircuts are taken." I suppose the song could be read as daring contemporary bands to create something as outrageous as those tunes from the past, but I find that less interesting and certainly less persuasive, not to mention less consistent with the rest of the album..
Emily Haines's voice is the star of the album, capable of conveying dark or bleak without dampening the party. But it's abused or misused at various points in the album, as when she sings the deliriously nonsensical "Now that your wallet is all lit up" 8 consecutive times in "Hustle Rose", pushing the lyric's value far beyond the breaking point.
As I mentioned before, there's an element of casio pop on this album. And in case that's unclear, that's not a compliment. Much of the time, I wanted this music to challenge me more, to offer a richer musical experience. Instead, it was often content to offer simple beats, blips and beeps to back Haines's voice. She's capable of better than this. I mean, a couple weeks ago I heard her do better than this on Tiesto's album "Kaleidoscope".
I'm happier with songs like the opener, "IOU", which let a guitar chug along in the background to give at least the sensation of motion to the song. And I have to admit that the minimalism of "Calculation Theme" grew on me a little over the course of the week, because it made no demands on Haines and just let her tell a story. But all in all, I think I'd say this album is a disappointment. The potential is here for much more ambitious and impressive music.
I also listened to Timbuk 3's "A Thousand Lovers" before Passover screwed up AotW plans. I uh... don't really have much to say about it. But give me time, I'll find an angle that isn't bitter ranting about how all of my friends send me leftist propaganda.
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Date: 2011-04-27 02:04 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-27 02:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-27 10:26 pm (UTC)My mom and I have a long-running joke where we threaten to push each other down a mineshaft. How do a mother and daughter develop a meme like that?
Next time you're looking for a suggestion,
Date: 2011-04-28 01:38 pm (UTC)