Jeff Rosenstock – N O D R E A M

Throughout his career, though especially the last decade of it, Jeff Rosenstock has done more than possibly any artist to remove the stigma from pop-punk. His earworm melodies, impassioned shouts, and nervous energy consistently produce cathartic listening experiences. His newest effort, the surprise-release N O D R E A M, is no exception to this rule. Acting as a soundtrack to yet another anxious breakdown, songs respond to perceived personal inadequacies (“Old Crap”, “Beauty of Breathing”) and political helplessness (“Scram!”, “N O D R E A M”). While many tracks aren’t more than four minutes, most have a tremendous sense of pacing and dynamism, never wearing out a melodic or sonic idea before moving onto the next. The title track’s different musical phases cover a massive range. As a soft and simple guitar riff naturally develops into a pummeling barrage, Rosenstock decries the inherent violence of capitalism. Other highlights include the ridiculous “***BNB” or the surprisingly mature “Honeymoon Ashtray” where he describes a mediocre honeymoon experience and the rejected temptation to see it as a symbol for the marriage. The album is sometimes silly, usually poignant, and a lot of fun. So essentially, it’s more Jeff. 

Charli XCX – how I’m feeling now

On how i’m feeling now, Charli XCX fully commits to the hyper-pop sounds of last year’s Charli, culminating in a near-perfect quarantine pop album. Since the release of 2016’s Vroom Vroom EP, a collaboration with acclaimed experimental electronic producer SOPHIE, Charli’s music has gradually strayed away from the Top-40 friendly sounds of early singles like “Boom Clap” and “Fancy”, instead seeking a more experimental and futuristic sound. How I’m Feeling Now executes this sound incredibly with a variety of high-energy, infectious pop songs laced with a mix of blown-out basslines and pristine electronic backdrops. Much of this album’s sound lends itself to its impressive lineup of producers, including PC Music founder A.G. Cook, Dylan Brady (100 Gecs), Palmistry, Tommy Cash, and Umru. Their cutting-edge production gives the entire album a truly futuristic feel with a vast pool of stylistic influences from modern trap and R&B to underground electronic, and most prominently, bubblegum bass. Songs like “pink diamond”, “claws”, and “forever” show Charli at her most experimental while also being some of her strongest songs yet. Over industrial synths and a pounding UK Grime beat in the opener “pink diamond”, Charli repeats “I just wanna go real hard” – and for the next 37 minutes, she goes pretty hard. 

Deerhoof – Future Teenage Cave Artists

Deerhoof are back and as delightfully zany as ever. Hailing from San Francisco, the noise-pop group has been releasing albums consistently since the ’90s with each new release building on the band’s signature style of quirky and experimental production. Future Teenage Cave Artists is no exception, as it is riddled with dissonant guitar chords, unorthodox time signatures, and colorful instrumentation. But this time, each track bleeds with themes of apocalypse and emotional unrest. Transitioning smoothly between songs that are abrasive and disjointed (“‘Farewell’ Symphony”, “Zazeet”), to dissociative and ghostly (“Fraction Anthem”, “Reduced Guilt”, “I Call on Thee”), Deerhoof’s signature character shines through always, even as they delve into new sonic territories.  

Backxwash – God Has Nothing To Do With This Leave Him Out Of It 

The looping cry of “Oh no, please God help me” on the opening track of Backxwash’s latest album sets the stage for what the listener is about to hear: aggressive bars with demonic themes over hard-hitting beats with dark twists. Beyond the horrific presentation—and often intertwined—is a deep reflective pain, as Backxwash grapples with difficult family relationships, the darker aspects of religion, and the world’s perception of her and her trans identity. The heavy subject matter is conveyed through witchy bangers, such as “Black Magic” with guitar from Ada Rook of Black Dresses, or “Amen” where she screams above choir vocals and heavy bass, raging against class disparity and fascism. Devi McCallion, the other member of Black Dresses, also appears on “Spells” to deliver an unsettling, yet captivating hook. This and the demonic screeching on the chorus, which rides the line between ridiculous and terrifying, plus Backxwash’s passionate delivery, make for one of the most memorable tracks on the album. Backxwash is a completely unique voice in rap, and both fans of left-field hip hop and traditional rap will likely find something to love on this record. 

Natalia Lafourcade – Un Canto por Mexico, Vol. 1

Best known for her contribution to the soundtrack for Disney’s Coco, but perhaps most hailed for her contributions to Mexican popular music, Natalia Lafourcade has become a staple in modern Latin American pop-rock and Mexican folk revivalism. Her latest album follows up her two-volume Musas, which were an exploration of traditional Mexican folk music, and a stylistic transition from her more poppy, commercially-successful Hasta La Raíz. Stylistically, Un Canto por Mexico is sort of a hybrid of those previous projects. Each track evokes the themes of pride, joy, struggle, and heartbreak that are characteristic of traditional Latin American folk. Some are renditions of classic huapango songs (“Cucurrucucu Paloma”, “El Balaju / Serenata Huasteca”), others are re-recordings of popular songs from Lafourcade’s earlier discography (“Hasta La Raíz”, “Ya No Vivo por Vivir”). On Un Canto por Mexico each track blends into a sonically consistent ode to national pride. 

Ka – Descendants of Cain

Continuing in a similar style to his previous albums, Ka’s new project is dense with wordplay and heavily descriptive of lived pain. Descendants of Cain is filled with biblical allusions, the primary one being Cain’s murder of Abel as an allegory for violence within oppressed communities. Each of Ka’s bars are filled with double entendres, to the point where full comprehension may take multiple revisits. He raps calmly in a cadence similar to spoken word, but there is a substantive weight to it all, and even when deploying quick multisyllabic flows the cleverness of his wordplay is never compromised. New listeners will note how scarce the drums are on many tracks, sometimes not appearing at all, allowing Ka to act as his own rhythm section. Some instrumental highlights are “Solitude of Enoch”, where rushes of sharp strings periodically encroach on the guitar and keys, and “PRAY”, an eerie track where the primary component of the beat seems to be monitor feedback. The choral vocals and acoustic guitar on “Old Justice” are a surprising choice that showcases Ka’s versatility, leading into the unusually tender and wholesome closing track, “I Love (Mimi, Moms, Kev)”. On Descendants of Cain, Ka further cements himself as a rapper without a single filler line. 

The post The Best Albums of May: Music Staff Picks appeared first on KRUI Radio.

At a first glance, you wouldn’t expect the two best friends would be able to effectively blend their respective musical styles. Farren writes sweet, soft tunes for the lonesome with pop hooks that will burrow into your brain and won’t let up for days. Rosenstock, on the other hand, wails 19 words a second in his punchy, punk rock odes to everything wrong with the world today.

When the duo teams up as to blend their pop-punk talents as Antarctigo Vespucci, they blend their power to create catchy pop-punk chorus’s and form something far bigger, and more infectiously sunny than anything they create on their own.

Most of the lead vocals on Love in the Time of E-Mail is Farren, which makes sense. He has more of a soulful voice that suits their lyrics, absolutely dripping with nostalgia. For example, on Breathless on DVD, Farren croons to a ex-lover from over a decade ago, “I haven’t seen you in a long time/Are you still 27 and mad at me?” Rosenstock’s iconic, burly vocals are barely heard.

If I’m not mistaken, he only sings on a single song. You can catch his back-up vocals on three tunes across the album.  But when the Antarctigo Vespucci sing together they fill up the entire room in that wonderfully aggressive punk style. Rosenstock’s presence is still felt throughout the 40 minutes with his electrifying buzzy guitar chords and piano smashing. 

Love in the Time of E-Mail is about, well, exactly that. Maybe not so much email anymore, but rather all the anxieties that come with being in love in a time of the internet and smartphones. Farren and Rosenstock even spell E-Mail in the old-person type of way as a little nod to how out of touch they are with the kids’ new types of online relationships.

Image the panic you get when it’s 2 am, you just texted the person you have a crush on and you see them typing to text you back. Then the three little bubbles go away. That feeling is spread throughout the entirety of this album.

Not all of the fears and neuroses on display are due to modern day relationships. Farren brings up a fear that never really goes way “When you really know me, and I mean really know me, will you wanna know me anymore?”

Anyone who is a fan of Jeff Rosenstock (or seen his Pitchfork set where he bashes an inflatable Donald Trump with a guitar) knows that his albums are heavily politically motivated, but his anxieties about our current climate only bleeds over into Love In the Time of E-Mail in one lyric: “I blacked out on election day.”

Overall, this is an album that functions as a collection of still images capturing relationship fears that ring deeply true, whether they’re relationships from the time of email or not. There’s the description of breaking down down in front of someone you don’t even properly know yet: “Kimmy, I’m a disaster, and I don’t wanna pretend / That I’m not gonna get more intense when we finally connect.” There’s the way we perform electronic autopsies on old relationships: “I read through all the emails that you sent to me / And again to the ones that I sent back to you.”

There’s the tortured and reluctant way we keep tabs on our exes online: “I wanted to see you, to see if I still wanted to see you.” These feelings aren’t going away anytime soon. As long as they’re around, Antarctigo Vespucci will write a catchy tune about them.

The post Album Review: “Love in the Time of E-Mail” by Antarctigo Vespucci appeared first on KRUI Radio.