Where the food sounds good, and the music is pretty tasty too.
Ben Talmi and KAMAU slow OutKast’s Hey Ya way down and infuse the track with a much more reflective time signature. I love the original version well enough but this right here is doing the most. Continue reading “hey ya | ben talmi & kamau”
Frank Ocean is laying the bricks of his legacy. Each song is a brick. The bricks are gold. Without much argument nor doubt, these bricks exist as intricately laid cobblestones leading Mr. Ocean to the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame of our hearts.
Blond. This album will win awards. If not a Grammy or two, then most certainly a place upon the mantelpiece of cherished memories. His music, the heartfelt lyrics and the luscious melodies of your favorite Frank Ocean songs linger. Frank’s songs touch upon not just familiar themes, but familiar emotions. They are exploratory in their honesty and density of truth. Blond has more in common with bodies of work reminiscent of What’s Going On (Marvin Gaye), Songs in the Key of Life (Stevie Wonder) and Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me (The Cure) or OK Computer (Radiohead) than with contemporary artists making music today. And above all the craftsmanship of Frank’s work is both substantive and relatable, and incredibly mundane in the most humanistic and provocative way.
Frank Ocean’s songs become our songs. The songs are where and when we need to hear them. Fuck a powdered line of this or a glassful of that, these songs are the remedy and the cure. Sweet potent words, and an ongoing body of work worth your while over and over again…Blond.
This album will win awards.
I am not going to get into the long four-year wait because ultimately it doesn’t matter. What does matter is the quality of the finished product and his latest release, Blond has plenty to get excited over and suss out. Songs of intricate beauty and sophisticated nuance. Songs draped in vulnerability, proclamations of struggle, accomplishment, fear and the much sought after compulsion to escape and dissect from a distance.
“Every night fucks every day up , every day patches the day up…”
It’s been two weeks and a day since Frank dropped his sophomore release on iTunes and as a fan, I am still coming down off of major euphoria. This is a great album with a wonderful collection of songs. And getting to know and discover each track is an exercise is both self-awareness and Mr. Ocean’s unique observation of the world he occupies. The material on this release is vastly different from what The Ocean has previously given. But to be fair so much of what Frank has released to date is divergent from and not easily paired with other material within his catalog. Yet, here I am trying to compare Nostalgia Ultra with the crazy, sexy and mature songs found on the Blond offering. Hey, it’s what I do. Continue reading “frank ocean | blond”
The Weeknd gets fans (haters too) all in a tizzy. His second (official) album Beauty Behind The Madness (via Republic Records) drops today! Continue reading “the weeknd | beauty behind the madness”
Kwamie Liv sets fire to the night sky with her latest track Pleasure This Pain feat. Angel Haze. This isn’t for the faint of heart, no puppy love ish here. And for those who bare the wounds of love lost, love found and love won will feel right at home inside this groove. This one is like pushing a big body Cadillac out into the furthest reaches of night driving therapy. Pleasure This Pain is the heart stuff love is made of. Peace. Continue reading “kwamie liv | pleasure this pain feat. angel haze”
Jane Jupiter (the alter ego of Kid Sister) along with the artist Chapman lay down an eerie bit of space soul with the track Stargazing. Continue reading “jane jupiter x chapman | stargazing | official optics”
Ibeyi (French-Cuban twin sisters Kaindé and Naomi Diaz) are the musical offshoots of legendary percussionist Anga Diaz, blaze their own musical trail with the track River. The song is taken from their debut EP Oya release, out now courtesy of XL Recordings. The Ed Morris-directed video finds Kaindé and Naomi submerged within an aquatic medium. surfacing to exhale beautiful lyrics and douse blessings upon us all with evocative incantations, first in English, then finally in Yoruba.
The Oya EP is available on iTunes
But there is more than meets the untrained eye and ear here, and for youthful 19 year olds there is wisdom aplenty. There exists a correlation between their stage name Ibeyi (meaning children of miraculous birth) and the titles and significance of the tracks River and Oya. I’ll let you suss it out on your own. But know this, these songs are more than pretty sounds and eclectic renderings. No simple sound trinkets here. No, there is an observance of tradition, and a love and respect for ancestors at work here. Mad respect, Asé.
Spiritual. Original. Beautiful. Peace. Continue reading “ibeyi | river | official video”
Tom Krell is a painter of the abstract. Dips his brushes into the night sky, and drags horse hair across the canvas of your numbed nerve endings. What he has managed to do with so little is to construct the grandiose into small pill-sized songs. Songs much like dreams, in that after you awake, you rub the fleeting fragments out your eyes and try to reassemble them before their beauty evaporates forever. From his Just Once EP we are given “Suicide Dream,” and it’s the proverbial bullet with butterfly wings. Here it is expertly reinterpreted by Solar Bears, and boy does it leave a soft bruise on your threshing heart. I also added “Decisions,” let it coil around your ears like bejeweled vibrations, and reverberate dulcet tones within the six chambers of your delicate heart. Peace. Continue reading “How To Dress Well – Suicide Dream 3 (Solar Bears Remix)”