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Americunt

Reycism: The Year in Reyview

By Americunt, in Music News & Discussion

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Andres

Andres 2,216

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This year marks the 4th anniversary of "Call Me Maybe", a song that spent a whopping six weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart and fared similarly in over 15 countries. The song propelled Carly Rae Jepsen to one-hit wonder status. However, the lukewarm critical and commercial response to her international debut, Kiss, is what encouraged to Carly to expand her musical horizons. This led to the realization that the duty of a pop singer is to focus on the album and not just the single. She accomplishes this and more with E•MO•TION, an album that combines her unique, E•MO•TIVE voice and bubblegum lyricism with immaculate and varied production from several different producers, both pop and #indie, including Rostam Batmanglij of Vampire Weekend and British producer Dev Hynes, also known as Blood Orange.

E•MO•TION is an album that takes influence from the 80s, with its synthpop production and persistent use of sax, yet prides itself on being a good pop album first and foremost, rather than a boring #throwback like the overwhelming majority of @CHVRCHES' disgustingly shitty excuse for an album. Anyways, from the booming sax and sing-along chorus of the album's energetic opener, "Run Away with Me", E•MO•TION impresses with its level of polish and diversity. "Over the weekend we could turn the world to gold," she sings over the signature Swedish dance-pop sounds of production duo Mattman & Robin. It's a match made in heaven, with the former's minimalist and hooky production perfectly complimenting Carly's pleading voice. "Gimmie Love", she begs. This album highlight later explodes into a booming bridge, in which she intones "Wanna feel like this forever!". Other highlights include the album's title track with it's tongue-in-cheek verses and anthemic chorus, as well as the Sia-penned "Boy Problems" with its slinky groove and charming story about venting to a friend regarding a crumbling relationship. "I think I broke up with my boyfriend today. And I don't really care. I've got worse problems." It's a charming and rare moment where she doesn't take herself too seriously. It's the album's later cuts that make it truly stand out from other pop releases. LA Hallucinations is a surprisingly mature number about the perils of dating in the public eye, with perhaps the most ear-wormy hook on the album. 

"Take me into your arms again, shake me from LA hallucinations."

2015's SOTY "Warm Blood" shows Carly at her most intimate. Distorted 80s synths, soft warbled instrumentation and Carly's husky yet innocent voice make a mysterious, woozy, captivating record that is both infectious and instantly replayable. The song perfectly captures the dizzying sensation of love and shows how Carly makes the most of the night her mediocre voice. Pitch-shifted vocals and simple yet interesting lyrics make this four minute epic a rollercoaster.

"I've got a cavern of secrets, none of them are for you."

The bonus tracks also hold a few gems that could've easily found their way onto the standard album. "Black Heart" almost sounds like something off a video game soundtrack, with its chiptune beats and Annie-reminiscent chorus. "I Didn't Just Come Here to Dance" is a shamelessly gay Kylie-esque dance floor filler that most noticeably resembles an 80s house jam. "Never Get to Hold You" is another winner that could easily have replaced the album's very few weaker cuts. All in all, E•MO•TION is a record made for summer. It consistently surprises and excites. It's nowhere near as good a record as I would've expected from a singer that released the fillertastic Kiss three years back.

"Taking off, got your hands in the air and you're feeling alright."
 

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Hunty Bear

Hunty Bear 12,485

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10 minutes ago, Andy said:

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This year marks the 4th anniversary of "Call Me Maybe", a song that spent a whopping six weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart and fared similarly in over 15 countries. The song propelled Carly Rae Jepsen to one-hit wonder status. However, the lukewarm critical and commercial response to her international debut, Kiss, is what encouraged to Carly to expand her musical horizons. This led to the realization that the duty of a pop singer is to focus on the album and not just the single. She accomplishes this and more with E•MO•TION, an album that combines her unique, E•MO•TIVE voice and bubblegum lyricism with immaculate and varied production from several different producers, both pop and #indie, including Rostam Batmanglij of Vampire Weekend and British producer Dev Hynes, also known as Blood Orange.

E•MO•TION is an album that takes influence from the 80s, with its synthpop production and persistent use of sax, yet prides itself on being a good pop album first and foremost, rather than a boring #throwback like the overwhelming majority of @CHVRCHES' disgustingly shitty excuse for an album. Anyways, from the booming sax and sing-along chorus of the album's energetic opener, "Run Away with Me", E•MO•TION impresses with its level of polish and diversity. "Over the weekend we could turn the world to gold," she sings over the signature Swedish dance-pop sounds of production duo Mattman & Robin. It's a match made in heaven, with the former's minimalist and hooky production perfectly complimenting Carly's pleading voice. "Gimmie Love", she begs. This album highlight later explodes into a booming bridge, in which she intones "Wanna feel like this forever!". Other highlights include the album's title track with it's tongue-in-cheek verses and anthemic chorus, as well as the Sia-penned "Boy Problems" with its slinky groove and charming story about venting to a friend regarding a crumbling relationship. "I think I broke up with my boyfriend today. And I don't really care. I've got worse problems." It's a charming and rare moment where she doesn't take herself too seriously. It's the album's later cuts that make it truly stand out from other pop releases. LA Hallucinations is a surprisingly mature number about the perils of dating in the public eye, with perhaps the most ear-wormy hook on the album. 

"Take me into your arms again, shake me from LA hallucinations."

2015's SOTY "Warm Blood" shows Carly at her most intimate. Distorted 80s synths, soft warbled instrumentation and Carly's husky yet innocent voice make a mysterious, woozy, captivating record that is both infectious and instantly replayable. The song perfectly captures the dizzying sensation of love and shows how Carly makes the most of the night her mediocre voice. Pitch-shifted vocals and simple yet interesting lyrics make this four minute epic a rollercoaster.

"I've got a cavern of secrets, none of them are for you."

The bonus tracks also hold a few gems that could've easily found their way onto the standard album. "Black Heart" almost sounds like something off a video game soundtrack, with its chiptune beats and Annie-reminiscent chorus. "I Didn't Just Come Here to Dance" is a shamelessly gay Kylie-esque dance floor filler that most noticeably resembles an 80s house jam. "Never Get to Hold You" is another winner that could easily have replaced the album's very few weaker cuts. All in all, E•MO•TION is a record made for summer. It consistently surprises and excites. It's nowhere near as good a record as I would've expected from a singer that released the fillertastic Kiss three years back.

"Taking off, got your hands in the air and you're feeling alright."
 

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I miss liking Emotion I'm such a twat oprah4

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Hunty Bear

Hunty Bear 12,485

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#HuntySUGGESTS: Caught, Third Eye, Queen of Peace, Delilah, Conductor

#HuntySKIPS: Pure Feeling, Various Storms & Saints, As Far As I Could Get

#HuntyREVIEWS

I’ve always been appreciative of Florence’s talents, but I never was able to let her music fully wash over me because I felt that her sound was way too melodramatic and histrionic for me to resonate with. She has an extremely powerful voice and her writing prowess is … beyond words. But there was always something I found about her music that made her seem way too over-the-top. I think that HBx3 totally nuked that blasphemous sentiment from my mind.

Florence's third effort successfully manages to tread new ground while still maintaining some of the fun spirit from Lungs and the brooding, cinematic darkness from Ceremonials. She may have gone smaller in scope with her theatrics, but her music has never been more grounded. My favorite songs on here are the more quiet ballads here like the gospel-tinged “Caught” and the piano-fronted “Conductor”, where her beautiful vocals really shine through (with intimacy to them that I never really heard from her before). Her writing is also a lot less whimsical this time around, which is kinda sad ig, but it’s also much more personable this time around, which I appreciate a lot because the lack of relatability in her music was a huge problem for me before. Interestingly enough though, the most graphic and evocative track here is among the weakest ("Various Storms & Saints"), but I guess that's probably because she wasn't able to transmit that intimacy with her vocals that permeated through in all of the other ballads here.

That’s not to say her music isn’t totally epic still; some songs on here still hold that fiery passion that most of her old material did. Torch song “Queen of Peace” has an intensity to it that harkens back to Ceremonials epic “No Light, No Light”, and the surging “Third Eye” BLASTS with fucking insane energy, and I personally believe that it's not only one of her most fiery songs to date, but also her most anthemic song to date. “What Kind of Man” has an awesome rock punch and “Ship To Wreck” is a fast-paced guitar-laden yodel that totally prides itself in its Stevie Nicks-esque influences (though I think the Stevie Nicks and Joni Mitchell influences are apparent on really almost every track on here; I just personally feel it's the most apparent on the opener). This album alternates between those sorts of sounds every other track and the juxtaposition is really great, it almost has a whole hot-and-cold dynamic going on. And Florence is so good at conveying emotion in her music that both types of songs end up holding the same amount of gravity.

That’s not to say this album is perfect though. The tracklisting is still pretty choppy for the most part and some songs still seem kinda half-baked (“Pure Feeling” and “As Far As I Could Get” come to mind instantly). But HBx3 makes up for those faults in every other department. Florence's writing still is as graphic and as intelligent as ever, especially shown on the hilariously and impressively clever "Delilah" and the equally impressive "St. Jude", both of which are among the best songs on here solely because of the way Florence spurred their narratives. Florence's voice is also as dynamic as ever and it's great to hear her voice in a more quiet fashion. Also the production here is sharp as well (and as ever) and I don't even miss the harp that much anymore, tbh. Overall, HBx3 is easily one of the best albums of the year and I’m happy to say that I now have a Florence stan card in my back pocket.

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Hunty Bear

Hunty Bear 12,485

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#HuntySUGGESTS: Glitter, Peppermint, Nothing but a Heartbeat, Games for Girls, Beloved

#HuntySKIPS: Hard for a Man, Electrify, Skylights

#HuntyREVIEWS

Say Lou Lou is a dream pop duo whose debut record had been in the making for about 3 years following the release of their breakthrough single, and it’s definitely been worth the wait.  Say Lou Lou has the penchant of making very dreamy and cinematic but very hushed torch songs, and I’ve kept casual tabs on them for like a year now but I became serious with my standom a couple months back. When suggesting this record to someone via PM, I likened the process of listening to this album to the constant progression into a gelatinous blob; this album is extremely cohesive and really entrancing, and as you get further into the tracklisting, you get even more drawn into the heady and atmospheric world of the two Kilbey-Jansson sisters. 

Lucid Dreaming’s greatest asset is its breathtaking production. The foggy productions resonate hard, like on the ethereal, whirring “Nothing but a Heartbeat” and the quiet and spacious dystopian “Julian”, and the tone remains consistent throughout the record. The small musical diversions on the tracklisting here provide for some fucking fantastic bops too (that still adhere to the theme of the record, it's a really cohesive record), like the reverby, echoing and throbbing midtempo “Glitter” and the 80s disco smash “Games for Girls”, but it’s the slow-burners and languid torch songs that constitute most of this record that really shape this album for the most part. “Peppermint” is almost an orchestral piece, utilizing quiet strings, a piano, and whispers to help accentuate the stormy atmosphere and “Beloved” is a moody, wistful and melancholic downtempo number, both of which make up the centerpiece of the record, sonically and even emotionally. The album has consistently lush synth soundscapes,  and I think due to its dreamlike, soft textures, it’s essentially a winter album. I find that especially weird given that they were born to a famous rockstar daddy who's been churning out grungy rock his entire life I bet.

The album is also very vivid and lucid (:)) in terms of lyrics as well. While its lyrics usually paint similar pictures (night setting, glitter and gold, tales of unrequited love, running away from your problems), it does it pretty well, barring a few missteps. “Glitter” and “Games for Girls” are wild party smashes and with both of them, Say Lou Lou manages to capture that whole perky ‘reckless youth’ perspective extremely well, despite the rest of the album being much more elegant and poised in its showcasing. “Peppermint” is very evocative and paints a graphic picture of longing and despair and “Julian” is a cute little young-adult dystopian narrative piece, and both of which are extremely cinematic on their own merits. There are a couple points on the album which I felt disappointed by the half-assed or uninspired lyrics though, like on “Hard For A Man” and “Angels (Above Me)” for instance. The former has a really awful, annoyingly subdued, yet overblown chorus (and has some trippy ass shoegaze outro that I almost choked on my coffee with listening through it the first time) and the latter of which has a couple cringey spouts here and there and has really awkward one-liners scattered across the song, though I'll be graceful given that it's definitely one of the best tracks on here from a production perspective. 

All in all, I feel that Lucid Dreaming is really a magnetic and gorgeous pop record and I’m really excited to see where they plan to go with their sound next because at this rate they can go anywhere with it. I’d love to see a disco record from them along the lines of “Games for Girls” and “Glitter” especially, since they pulled that off so well. But if they wanted to continue fleshing out their dreamy, languid trademark sound that they have at present, I wouldn’t mind, because their sound so realized already.
 

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Andres

Andres 2,216

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57 minutes ago, Gabe. said:

</3

 

where's the good sis @Andy at? loved her Slaymotion rihview cry2 curious what she has to say about Sellirium. jj2 

you're too sweet <3

and yeah I like/love Delirium but it's also really easy to nitpick orangu1 the standouts remain stellar though

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Americunt

Americunt 16,422

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Top Tracks: ILYSB, Made In Hollywood, Kiss

Major Weaknesses: Production style is too understated for the songs they’ve written

Major Strengths: Really timely sounding lyrics and general vibe to the music

 

LANY is a Los Angeles-based American synthpop band comprised of lead singer Paul Klein and fellow members Leslie Priest and Jake Goss. The group formed in 2014 and released their first EP, i loved you. in early 2015. Make Out is their second EP released this year, but the only one to make my list.

 

This is the most recent release that made my list for 2015 and it was largely part of a scramble to find something to bump me up to 25 total releases. I’m glad I was desperate enough to give anything a try, in a way, ‘cause this EP is actually really nice. It’s the kind of slow and chill music that you’d want to end a year with, I guess. I’m happy I found it when I did, even if it wasn’t under the most ideal of circumstances, compared to many of the other artists who did end up making the list. I’m not totally enamored with their sound yet, but they have potential to go far.

 

The problem with their music is the choices, they’ve made on the production side of things. It’s just chill to the nth degree in every respect. I’m all for being artistically uninterested in making music that’s complicated and fast, but after a certain point, it feels like they’re just doing it to make themselves seem more underground than they actually are and disguise the fact that the songs aren’t that complicated from a lyrical perspective, at points. I take issue with this the most on Walk Away, a track whose lyrics are pretty much entirely just the phrase “I’m too good at leaving love, walk away, walk away” repeated over and over for the whole song. It’s just a little much.

 

Overall though, I do like the way a lot of these songs are constructed. Several tracks are suffused with this heady white noise synth, which sounds great when combined with a livelier vocal. Overall, there’s this sense that the songs are a melange of different musical eras. The synth patterns are very ‘80s, but combined with a highly modern sense of lyricism, including such lines as “I’m hella obsessed with your face” and “BRB, I’m gonna cry myself to sleep”. This EP could be described as many things, but predictable is certainly not one of them.

 

If there’s one track I have to call out as amazing, I’d have to say I’d pick ILYSB, whose title is an acronym for “I love you so bad”, a phrase that’s prominent in the chorus. It’s a millennial anthem about staying up late doing nothing, having faceless sexual encounters and being generally young/stupid. There are two versions on the EP, serving as bookends to the experience. The first version is more fully orchestrated, while the second is stripped bare of all the synth elements and vocal trickery, so lead singer Paul Klein’s husky tones take center stage. Another highlight of the EP is Made In Hollywood, a song with some disco inflected drums, brassy piano and muffled backing vocals, leading to a shout-along chorus of “Young love, west coast, who cares, who knows”. The final highlight for me is a hidden track, Kiss. After a 30 second silence at the end of the song BRB, Kiss begins in grand fashion with a beeping synthesizer as a clear dig at a cheating ex. Klein spits “I hope it was worth all this and I know that you feel like shit, don’t you tell me it was just a kiss” over a pleading brass section on this track, in which I think is one of the catchiest hooks of the EP.

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