Review By: Patrick Dillon Artist: Spoon Album: They Want My Soul (2014)

Review

By: Patrick Dillon 

Artist: Spoon

Album: They Want My Soul (2014)

Can you really fault a band for consistency? Over six solid studio albums (check out Kill The Moonlight, and GaGaGaGaGa) Spoon have proven, unlike so many other noughties indie rockers, that they’re in it for the long haul, consistently delivering killer grooves, varied instrumentation, and frontman Brit Daniel’s raw and impassioned vocal delivery.  It wasn't until their forgettable 2010 album: Transference, that the band began to show signs of deterioration.  Four years and many side projects later, (most notably Brit Daniel’s indie supergroup: Divine Fits), Spoon returns for their eighth studio effort with 10 new tracks, a new member (Divine Fit’s Keyboardist and Guitarist Alex Ficshel), and a new co-producer Dave Fridmann (of Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev fame).  Is it enough to keep Spoon sounding fresh into the new decade?

Yes….kind of. On They Want My Soul, Spoon offer up 10 solid Pop-Rock tunes full of sugary hooks, driving grooves, and great production.  The only major problem i have with this record is none of it sounds terribly, well, exciting!  Despite some really solid tunes on this thing i cant help but feel like we've been here before.  Songs like “Let Me Be Mine” and “They Want My Soul” aren't necessarily bad, on the contrary they’re well produced and well preformed, but they don't show much real progression as a band.  Its been over ten years since Spoon’s breakthrough Girls Can Tell, and Spoons sound hasn’t exactly evolved.

You get all the things you’d expect from a Spoon record; poppy hooks, solid grooves, and Spoon’s typical mix of layered pop, and soulful indie rock.  You also get the instrumentation you’d expect from a modern rock record; guitars, bass, and synths are all present with a few extra tricks to spice up the tracks.  And with only ten tracks, its not like They Want My Soul is exactly brimming with content either.

As far as I can tell the biggest risk Spoon takes on this new LP is enlisting new co-producer Dave Fridmann.  Fridmann’s typically psychedelic and layered production does wonders for a handful of tracks here.  “Knock Knock Knock”, offers probably the best beat i’ve heard on a rock record this year, and the layered and cascading synth leads on “Inside Out” nicely showcase Spoon’s slower, more stripped back side.  Even the tracks Spoon produce themselves seem to take influence from Fridmann’s style.  “New York Kiss”, builds and layers appropriately with a strong backbeat, poppy chorus, and powerful guitar, and lead single “Do You” is about as solid a pop-rock song as you could ask for, with a great hook, and some nice piano and synth closing out the track. 

Regardless of exactly who produced witch track, each of the ten songs on this album are mixed and recorded excellently.  I love the crisp, precision drums and warm bass that make up the rhythm section, and the thin crunch of the guitars are nothing to scoff at either.  New keyboardist Alex Ficshel’s cascading watery synths are a welcome addition to the Spoon line up and the extra instrumentation on some of these tracks really brings them to life with added personality.  Speaking of personality, frontman Brit Daniel’s trademark swaggering howl returns with full force on this LP, often improving the more generic tracks by injecting some much needed, well…soul! 

Spoon comes through with another very solid pop-rock record, full of well produced, well written, pop-rock tunes.  Other than some very small technical gripes, (some grooves fall flat, some endings are lackluster, a few generic lyrical topics) There isn’t much keeping me from recommending this album to anyone who loves indie rock.  It may not do anything really new or exciting, and it may only last under 40 minutes.  Still, what They Want My Soul does do, it does well. Rock fans will like it, Spoon fans will probably love it, I’d call that a success.

I Like These Tracks:  “Knock Knock Knock”, “Do You”, “Inside Out”, “New York Kiss”

I Didn’t Like These Tracks: “Outlier”, “Let Me Be Mine”

Score:  7.5/10

Because, Well, the Internet: Journalistic Review of Childish Gambino's album "Because the Internet"

Childish Gambino- Because the Internet

Entertainment conglomerate Donald Glover’s sophomore album Because the Internet is a showcase of lyrical talent, and stylistic promise; however that’s not to say that Glover, or Childish Gambino as he goes by, has yet to find his identity as a rapper.

Because the Internet isn’t really just an album, it’s rather a portfolio that Glover has created displaying the cleverness/wit in his writing, his experience in film scoring, and his talent in acting. The album itself has a reflexively titled seventy-three page long contextual screenplay, and a filmed prelude to said contextual screenplay, Clapping for the Wrong Reasons. This is really one of the albums greatest strengths, and coordinate downfalls.

On it’s own the album starts strong with tracks such as “Crawl,” and “Worldstar,” which are very gritty, angered, well instrumented, well sampled, and trap inspired. The production level is there, and they genuinely seem, well, genuine to Gambino’s style. However after these tracks it feels that at times Gambino was testing the water with different types of styling. Tracks like “Shadows,” and “Telegraph Ave,” come off as overly soft and campy. The listener feels uninterested. The tracks suffer lyrically too, aside from Gambino’s verse in “Telegraph Ave,” the lyrics are unimaginative, and dull. That is until “Sweatpants,” and the album’s single “3005,” reign the listener back in with the style that Gambino should have based the album off of entirely in the first place. The tracks then become dark. “The Party,” and “No Exit” are short violent and tortured--they’re very interesting. However even then the listener’s attention isn’t held long because the transition song “Death by Numbers,” throws rest of the album into this drawn out dream state, with some good verses by Gambino in a sea of experimental instrumentals, and mediocre R&B vocals. Without context from the screenplay the second half of the album--post “3005”-- is trippy and confusing, it goes over your head; but, you can still appreciate some of the instrumental work, as well as Gambino’s strong, correctly applied, lyrical style. It just shows that context is necessary to make a listen to this album worthwhile.

The screenplay and prelude in conjunction are a character piece focused on adding a new level of depth to Because the Internet. And really, the duller moments of the album on a first listen bloom with the new contextual basis. It tells the story of “The Boy,” a man deeply apathetic, and depressed--perhaps due to his pretentiously simple name-- and his lonely life as the son of a rich and powerful man. The screenplay commentates on “the age of the internet,” with its memes and detached personal relationships, as well as an array of other topics such as the subculture of partygoers and aimless youth. Ironically the main character lacks an identity, something that Gambino as a rapper has struggled with since the release of his premiere album Camp. This is addressed in the screenplay in an exchange of dialogue at the beginning, where at the time “The Boy” really is just a boy, and is coming home from summer camp:

Gambino didn’t make any real friends (fans) off that album, it wasn’t good--mostly because it wasn’t Gambino, it wasn’t the style that really suits him. This makes me question whether this screenplay, and album as a whole, is reflective of Glover’s rap career. In the screenplay “The Boy,” who is actually portrayed by Donald Glover in the test footage, consistently denies that his friends are really his friends. Maybe this is reflective of his real life circle jerk of fans who tirelessly defend music of Gambino’s that isn’t even true to his rightful style.

Anyway, the screenplay adds lyrical parallels to the album that make you understand the character, allow you to add depth to the already substantial tracks, and appreciate some of the tracks such as “The Worst Guys,” and the whole post “3005” half of the album. It definitely strengthens the album as a whole; however, I can’t help but feel that the screenplay puts the listener into this perspective that gears towards the screenplay. As a listener--and reader, and watcher (sigh)-- I feel like I wanted to like this album so much because of all the effort I put into listening to it. But, this longing was shoo'd away by thematic contradictions and the lack of direction the themes have in this album when working alongside the screenplay. These flaws in relevancy are most noticeable in tracks such as “Shadows," and stylistic contradictions are noticed within tracks such as “Earth: The Oldest Computer.” Also, "Pink Toes," I have no idea what this song is doing in the album.

As a fan of Donald Glover I really saw promise in his rap career after listening to this album. Glover really does care about hip-hop and you can see that this is his favorite medium to work with. I think that it really honed what styles he needs to stick with. I hope with some self reflection he can make his next project, whatever it may be, grand and virtuoso.

Favorite Tracks: Crawl, Sweatpants, 3005, The Party, No Exit, Zealots of Stockholm (Free Information)
Least Favorite Tracks: Shadows, Pink Toes

Because the Internet:

6.5/10

Childish Gambino - Because the Internet

A not-in-the-slightest-expert analysis by Nimbi.

I’ve always dreamt of owning a zero gravity chamber.  There’s one daydream in particular where I’m floating around in one with some friends, one of whom throws a pan of jello at me from the other end of the chamber. Another friend is standing between us with a tennis racket, and as the jello glides towards him, he swings at it, slicing the glob into dozens of little jello cubes. I bound forward gracefully trying to eat as many of the jello cubes as I can in one passing. The cubes that I don’t manage to eat within thirty seconds turn into mini Flubber babies, and the rest of the daydream is spent unfolding much like a 1997 film. RIP Robin Williams.

While I haven’t saved up enough cash to snag one of these zero gravity chambers quite yet, (I peruse craigslist twice a day just in case there’s a good deal), Donald Grover, aka Childish Gambino, has graciously provided me with the next best thing: the simulated experience of floating in a giant purple lava lamp.

Yes, specifically purple, with occasional hints of blue. That’s what his latest album “Because the Internet” was for me, in essence: 57 minutes and 52 seconds of floating in a giant purple lava lamp.

At first, this was freaking awesome. I mean it was new, exhilarating, weird at times, but altogether fresh…until the nausea kicked in and it felt like the walls of the lava lamp were closing in on me as I spun around aimlessly. Now there came a point, about half way through the album, where not even Pepto Bismol could’ve saved me, because pink is too close to purple, and that would’ve only made things worse. What I’m saying is, I feel that as an album, ‘goofy’ is a representative word at first, and then towards the latter half, ‘trippy af’ is a better explanation.

If you read the screenplay that goes along with the 18.142ish tracks (the first is literally four seconds sooo…), the music begins to make more sense, complementing the story line pretty well. As a screenplay, the themes are pretty depressing and static, but ultimately effective in what it’s trying to do. The goofy lyrics and upbeat stuff going on at the beginning of the album correspond with the lighter parts of the story (around the time I lawled at the ‘Kangaroo Jack’ joke early on in the script). But by the end of the plot you feel kinda empty and ‘meh’ about existence, feelings that are mirrored in the vibes of the later tracks.

Cool concept for the album and screenplay, and everything as a whole. The dude’s really ‘making moves’ if you will, and while I’d recommend people to check it out just for what it is, I can’t see myself necessarily listening to/reading/engaging in “Because the Internet” on my own accord, and certainly not for my listening pleasure. I am genuinely curious to see what other wacky stuff this guy comes up with though.

“Don’t be mad cause I’m doing me better than you doing you…Better than you doing you, fuck it, what you gon’ do?” –Sweatpants

^First of all, telling me not to be mad about something is just going to make me mad about it, and secondly you’re probably right: I’m not doing me too well right now so thanks for that reminder, mom. But even without this little interruption, “Sweatpants” is a sweet song, and a catchy one at that.

As an album, without the screenplay and context from “Clapping for the Wrong Reasons” to back it all up, my initial feelings hovered around a 4 out of 10. Just didn’t really didn’t do much for me towards the end and I found myself dosing off mentally. He’s trying to do a lot in each track, and it ends up switching motifs so often and abruptly that the sounds get cluttered, busy, and borderline claustrophobic for the listener. But after reading the screenplay and everything as it was intended to be experienced, I’d bump that up to a 6.5 out of 10.

Conceptually, the project is worth checking out as a whole, and if you want good tracks, check out the first ten or so, especially “Sweatpants” and if you’re feeling edgy, “Flight of the Navigators.”

If you’re like me, on the market for a zero gravity chamber and sick of living vicariously through Sandra Bullock’s space expeditions, try “Because of Internet.” It’s like floating in a giant purple lava lamp, and quite possibly the next best thing to being in space itself.

Favorite Track: Sweatpants
Least Favorite Track: Zealots of Stockholm

6.5/10

REVIEW by Patrick Dillon

REVIEW

By: Patrick Dillon

“Artist” (air finger quotations implied): Childish Gambino AKA Donald Glover

Album: Because The Internet (2013)

I think my favorite moments on Childish Gambino’s latest LP, the ambitious and largely experimental Because the Internet, are the short instrumental tracks and musical segways between tracks that attempt to create the album’s flow.  What these tracks lack in length they make up for in emotion and atmosphere.  Mostly though, they provide a focus that the rest of the album seems to bypass in favor of overindulgent experimentation, and an overwhelmingly boring second half. Gambino was so intent on creating some conceptual, multimedia, art house masterpiece, he forget to make a good album.

Of course, it didn’t start out like that.  With the release of singles like “3005” and “Sweatpants”, Gambino seemed to have dropped the poppy production and stale instrumentation of his last effort, (the awful 2011 LP Camp) in favor of trendy new sounds like trap flavored beats(Sweatpants), and ultrasweet hooks (3005).  The final single ,“Crawl”, seemed to confirm this theory, combining Gambinos new found trap influence with strong production, gorgeous instrumentation, and a solid hook. Even if Gambinos verses can come across more than a little corny, the overall musical progression from his last LP seemed promising.

And in terms of musical progression, this album easily surpasses its poppy predecessor.  I have very few complaints in terms of the overall production and instrumentation of this album.  Gambino provides trappy pop fare (“Crawl”, “Sweatpants”, “Worldstar”) synth laden instrumentals (3005) and syrupy neo-soul slow jams ala Frank Ocean (Miguel even provides guest vocals on the track “No Exit”).  The Beats fit the instrumentation nicely and the result is similar to some of his contemporaries, but oddly unique in its execution and personality.  If i have any complaints of this aspect of the LP, its that Gambino may have gotten a little too carried away.  In a rush to pack so many sounds into his album, the latter half became overproduced and dull until the tracks all start to blend together and you're left periodically glancing at your watch.  Still, The basis of the tracks themselves are solid, and renews my faith in Gambino’s potential.

Unfortunately, most of the albums pitfalls are due to Gambino himself, as well as the concept the album relies so heavily on. The album comes with a 72 page screenplay, essential in the understanding of the albums themes, plot, and character.  As a character portrait of the pretentiously titled: “The Boy” (no, really, that's his name), it functions, but as a story, it falls very flat.  Bad pacing, a lack of any real character development, and an extremely unlikeable character hamper would could have been a unique and interesting concept. Instead Glover delivers 72 uncompromisingly boring pages, with no real resolution, or message.  When synced with the album I can see what Glover was going for, and the narrative even improves some tracks by adding the much needed context (“Playing Around Before the Party Start”, “Death by Numbers”, “Shadows”).  For the first half or so of the album, the songs make up for and compliment (even improve) the screenplay, displaying the character’s inner monologue well and providing a nice contrast with his quiet, outward demeanor in the screenplay. However toward the second half, as the plot starts to actually pick up, the music instead begins to fall apart.  

Flight of the Navigators and Zealots of Stockholm are two tracks in particular that i think best represent the underwhelming second half.  Gambino trades his lightning fast quips for honest to goodness R&B vocals and the results are spotty.  Gambino sounds decent but in a genre that showcases vocal talent, he ends up sounding generic and dull.  Which is a problem as its Gambinos clever and introspective personality that makes his poppier tracks more interesting and, well...memorable.  On top of that the songwriting is poor, and the hooks on these tracks are just awful. (Not they weren't bad on the first have either, ex: Shadows, Telegraph Ave.) The closer, Life (The Biggest Troll) fares better as it sums up the album well and acknowledges some of Gambinos prior efforts.

As a rapper Gambino is technically sound, his lyrics are witty (“Girl why you be lyin, why you mufasa,” is probably my favorite), his flow is solid (and reminiscent of Kanye & Lil Wayne the way he spews punchlines), and his speed and control are admirable as well.  But being good at rapping doesn't ultimately make you a good rap artist, you need to be honest and you need to have something real to say.  Gambino lacks both and ultimately that's why his album falters.  Donald Glover probably thinks he’s being a lot more clever and artful than he actually is on this release, but regardless of what he may think his album suffers from lazy hooks, lack of focus or message, undeveloped songwriting, and boring slow jams.

Still, I think Gambino really finds his sound on this album and tracks like “Sweatpants” and “Crawl” showcase this transformation best as Gambino drops punchlines over a beats equally trap and jazz inspired, additionally “Worldstar” and “No Exit” prove he can occasionally add complexity to his music.  This combination of Great production and instrumentation, as well as smart, funny, and cocky wordplay almost make him “Alternative” Rap’s answer to Lil Wayne.  Almost.

Favorite Tracks: Crawl, Sweatpants, Worldstar, 3005, No Exit

Least Favorite Track: Zealots of Stockholm

Score:

4.5 / 10

Childish Gambino: Because the Internet

            Rapper Childish Gambino—actor/comedian Donald Glover in all other contexts—has come out with an album that is much more than just a set of twenty tracks in your iTunes library.  There’s a short film that’s integrated into a screenplay, and an album cover that’s one of those weird image things that changes pictures as you look at it from different angles.  It’s an all around artistic effort from an artist that’s well known for his ambition and refusal to categorize his art into any specific genre, motif, or medium.

            The album – titled “Because the Internet” is, or is supposed to be about, loneliness, fear of the future, and the effect the internet has had on society. These themes are much more pronounced in the complimenting screenplay and film—but I’ll talk more about that later.

            Since, for all the ambition of the project, the music isn’t terribly interesting.  Each song up until (and including) “Zealots of Stockholm” has its moments, most often when Gambino is rapping, and rarely when the lyrics are contributing anything to the overarching themes.  The problem is, there are few actual rap verses on this record.  When I first looked at the album on my iPod, the twenty track listing was daunting— twenty tracks for a rap album suggests a mountain of content to get through.  But there is just a ton of excess fat on this album.  Many intros are over a quarter of the song’s run-time.  What seem like extended interludes between verses never end, and just turn into the end of a song.  There may be twenty tracks, but Gambino raps for about eleven songs worth.

            This wouldn’t be a problem if Gambino was an excellent producer, but he’s not.  The production is functional under his rapping, but when it has to stand on its own—as it does for much of the album—it its utterly un-interesting.  I don’t want nor need to hear him repeat the same vocal sample long enough to turn a song into an effective three-minute single.

            The album has three separate and distinct tones.  The first seven tracks are spacious, vibe-y cuts that are good to chill to, have some great one-liners, but all fail to have an interesting enough chorus to stand out from each other.  The division between the first and second half of the album comes with the two singles, “Sweatpants” and “3005”, which are both great songs in their own ways, though I’d say I lean towards “Sweatpants” if I had to pick between the two.  I think it captures precisely what Gambino’s good at.  He’s a comedian at this core, and a bombastic song of wit, one-liners and swagger is precisely where he can showcase his skills.  The final eleven tracks more closely follow the themes of the screenplay—mirroring “The Boy’s fall into depression and isolation.  I really like the first couple tracks of this section; “The Party” and “No Exit” venture into this dark Earl Sweatshirt-esque world of blaring bass and depressing parties.  But it’s over very quickly.  I really wanted to see the album go in this direction, but what follows isn’t really related, and completely different sonically.  So, we enter into the worst part of the album—Gambino seems to run out of ideas towards the end, and there isn’t much more to say than the last couple songs are just kinda bad.

            Donald Glover/Childish Gambino is a man with no allegiances.  He bounds from one medium to another with no real pattern or sense of purpose.  For this reason, I think his art suffers.

Let me show you what I mean, in a way that I can understand.  The best player in major league baseball is named Mike Trout.  He is the best hitter, a great base runner, and a fantastic defender in center field.  All of these skills, despite being completely independent parts of the game, all contribute to one thing—Trout’s value as a baseball player.  Trout’s different skills all contribute to his value as a player, and they can be added into one number.  In the 2014 season, his value was 7.8.  My point is, I don’t think that art works that way.  I have heard Glover called the most talented person in show business, but just because he is very good at many things—screenwriting, directing, acting, comedy, rapping—doesn’t mean he’s going to create art that is any greater than one of its parts. 

The “Because the Internet” project is a great example.  Glover created a related, but not intertwined, artistic experience involving his album, screenplay, and film.  Though the themes and story line of the project were developed across all three media, none of the three required the other two to work artistically.  This created a fragmented experience, where I was unsure how to proceed,  (Should I have listened to the album while reading the screenplay? When does the screenplay match up with the film?) and left me with three, decent, but separate works of art that didn’t add up to anything greater than their own separate values.  Donald Glover is a very talented individual, but I think he needs to do one of two things: learn to make mixed media art projects that are better integrated into one experience (Hip-Hopera, anyone?) or concentrate on one thing, and stick with it.  Otherwise he may just end up being a entertainer who created many good things, but never one great one.
4/10

Gopa Cobra: The Next Nasty Nas?

Author's Note: Since The Editor refuses to post anything on the site, this will remain the only thing posted until he finally gets around to editing our reviews.

Yes, the wait is over.  Gopa Cobra has released two new singles.  Titled "Novacane" and "Madtown", G. Cobra pounces all over these dope beats and KILLS IT.  In the past Gopa has been said to be the Indian Nas, and I tend to agree.  He jumps all over these tracks, with extended metaphors and double meanings.  For instance, when he says, "You best believe we ball/We always know what's happening/With that shit like a bathroom stall" Cobra is using seemingly superficial brag-rap lyrics to subversively make biting social commentary about the the lack of sanitary conditions and indoor plumbing in third world countries.  Gopa Cobra also appears to be assembling a crew, giving collab credit to Steve B and Bartender Chris, already big names around the UW Madison Ogg Hall freshman rap scene.

But seriously, there's an admirably large amount of production on these tracks.  Also Bartender Chris makes a butt sex joke at the end of "Madtown", which is awesome.