Lilliputian Album Roundup #3: Charli XCX - Carly Rae Jepsen - Phoebe Bridgers - Dorian Electra - The Beatles - Kanye West - Pink Floyd

New terminology: Platinum Saga Banger. I feel like some albums are best as holistic projects, particularly concept albums (Lingua Ignota's Caligula for example). Thus, it's unwieldy to take view the songs as singles of their own strengths instead of part of a unified whole. When Platinum Saga Banger! is in the "Fave Tracks" section, it means that I enjoy the songs not as individual pieces but part of one larger performance. 

Charli - Charli XCX (2019)

Hyperpop 

8.5/10

Charli's songs don't always land on this album, but when they do, holy shit.

I don't quite hail this project as a masterpiece like some do, but I still thinks it's an incredible showcasing of Charli XCX's skill, range and creativity. The last time I heard of Charli XCX, she was still boom-clapping hearts and being featured on Iggy Azalea songs. Now she has ascended the world of commercial pop, sacrificing her Top 40 Hits potential for Hyperpop's experimentation and innovation. It's a transformation I was completely unaware of until recent.

While there are ideas of difficult love, futurism and nostalgia scattered throughout the album, each song stands on its own. This is a more "single by single" approach, which is not a detraction at all as many of great artists use this method (hey T-Swizzle!!). This works as a strength to the album, as we get everything from chart-friendly club bangers to some far out weirdo joints. Particularly interesting here is "Click feat. Kim Petras and Tommy Cash", which sounds like it takes some nods from Kanye's "Clique" except this time it sounds like Charli and co. are fighting off a malfunctioning ice cream cyborg. Then there's "Shake It" with an all-star cast: NOLA Bounce legend Big Freedia, nasty girl CupcakKe, Ms. daddy herself Brooke Candy and Paballo Vittar who I do not know. If you want to listen to some experimental bootyshake music, here's your shot.

Most of the songs have their merit and all are interesting, there's just cracks within them that hold them back from transcendent status. "1999" is fun, but the nostalgia theme wears out its welcome. "Blame on Your Love" is fine as a pop song but it doesn't exhibit Charli's daring, and is a major underutilization of Lizzo's guest apperance.

That said, there are two songs I need to talk about. The first, "White Mercedes", is a familiar-sounding love ballad with a typical chord structure. But all the parts come together so well: Charli's insecure singing on the verses with a steady guitar/drum combo transitions into a dreamy, crooning chorus full of longing and despair. The small, high-pitched Charli puts into a bridge at the end is a very nice touch.

Then, "Next Level Charli". Jesus Christ. I think the rest of the album was somewhat disappointing after this opener, and yet it's still a very solid album. This track is just that good. Sonically, it's an uptempo excited fast-pace club banger. I don't know if it'll impress many people, but personally I have no problems calling this song a perfect masterpiece. Good art is enjoyable, great art inspires you, and masterworks present to you a truth about life itself. My favorite single from last year, Cruel Summer off of Taylor Swift's Lover, accomplished something similar. That song, more than any other piece of art I've ever encountered, captures a truth of the human condition: it is the experience of a summer love affair, fraught with ecstasy, sorrow and bittersweetness. Charli's song is another perfect capture of a truth, it is exactly what it feels like to dash down the highway in a car with your friends, the music pounding so loud that you have to scream to be heard, the streetlights going on into oblivion and the stars glittering above. It is more than just a song, it is...correct.

Fave Tracks: Next Level Charli, White Mercedes, Click, Shake It

Dedicated - Carly Rae Jepsen (2019)

Pop

10/10

This is a magnificent pop album. There are scholars of music who can explain why much better than I can. I'm just an English major after all. So here is my contribution to the Dedicated discourse:

When I give an album a 10/10, there has to be more than just great music. There is a theme, concept or idea that ties everything together, that gives the album as much weight and character as a novel or film. So what is it for Dedicated? The maturation of Carly as a person, reflected in her more sophisticated music and lyrics, is really cool but she is far from the only artist to successfully evolve in this way. So is it the love? The sex?

It's the sex. Specifically, Carly Rae Jepsen combines her pop musical mastery with a concept I've seen in very few musical spaces. Obviously, musicians like everyone else, can't stop thinking and talking about sex; a great deal of our collective human discography is about fuckin'. We sing about how much we love sex, how much we want to have with a certain person, how hard it is to get, how desperately we need it, how much we hate having to want sex, how sex is a war, how sex is a myth, how sex is a religion.

And then CRJ reminds us, "You know what? Sex is fun." It's a neat thing to do, much like making music and art and going on adventures and discovering new stuff. Sex is a type of play. There's a cool double entendre song about self-empowerment and masturbation. This remarkable sex-positive attitude is pretty lacking especially in pop music, which tends to be sentimental and melodramatic about the sex stuff. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Nor does music have a moral incentive to "tell the listener what's right". If you want to make a concept album about someone committing incest or sleeping with their drug dealer's spouse then go ahead, art has no mandate to be didactic. By the same token, it's just really cool that CRJ presents a healthy, safe and enjoyable musical space to think about sex. 

Also, CRJ has a Reggae song on here ("I'll Be Your Girl"). How is this not a 10/10?

Fave Tracks: No Drug Like Me, Want You In My Room, Everything He Needs, I'll Be Your Girl, Too Much, Automatically In Love, Party for One

Punisher - Phoebe Bridgers (2020)

Indie Folk / Emo Folk

10/10

I don't know how to write about Folk music, but I guess I like it now. This is a sad album. The lyrics are really interesting with hyperspecific anecdotes. This is...good. It's a very "lunar" album, as the moon (and the aesthetics of lonely nighttime) keep making their way onto songs. 

Since I don't have a lot to say, I present the "Phoebe Bridgers" challenge: Don't fall in love with Phoebe Bridgers. If you do, you lose.

Fave Tracks: Platinum Saga Banger! (Tho Kyoto and Moon Song can stand on their own)

Flamboyant - Dorian Electra (2019)

Hyperpop / Bubblegum Bass / Metal

10/10

Damn bicch!!! I didn't know you were gonna do it to them like that! I've been listening to Dorian for awhile now, and finally sat down to listen to the whole thing. This is perfection. It's fundamentally an experimental pop project that discusses gender, identity, masculinity (both positive and negative aspects), and queerdom all over some fucking good music. Sometimes its pop. Other times its metal. There's a 100 Gecs style track (courtesy of 1/2 of the Gecs, Dylan Brady) called "Musical Genius" which is a genreblend where Dorian says how they are the best musician in the world. I'm really glad the hip-hop braggadocio ethos about talking how you're the best musician is now extending to other genres. Anyways, fukkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk dude

Btw, if you listen to this, make sure to watch the music videos. Trust me, you will change.

Fave Tracks: Career Boy, Daddy Like, Musical Genius, Flamboyant, Guyliner, Live By the Sword, Adam & Steve

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Beatles (1967)

Psychedelic Rock / Chamber Pop

6.5/10

There are some interesting ideas on this album.

would it kill the beatles to learn how to sing 

lennon sounds quite good on the ending track

Fave Tracks: With a Little Help From My Friends, She's Leaving Home, A Day in the Life

The Life of Pablo - Kanye West (2016)

Hip-Hop / Gospel

8/10

I fucking loathe Kanye. There are a lot of reasons to, and most of them are legitimate. For much, it's a much pettier reason in the scope of reviewing music. I have never encountered an artist who makes such great music, only for it get to dragged down by atrocious lyrics and anti-charisma. I still hold that Kanye West is easily one of the best and most influential musicians of the 21st century thus far. I also think he's one of the worst lyricists. He's a mediocre rapper at the best of times. I honestly prefer his singing to his rapping, at least that has a charm in how raw and amateurish it is. 

Kanye will make this magnificent, mind-blowing track that combines Hip-Hop with R&B with Rock with Electronica. And then, over this genius piece of music, he'll rap about how much SNL gets him upset. On this album, he samples Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit", the immortally haunting song confronting lynching. And Kanye samples it well. So what does he decide to rap about? How frustrating it is to have a wife and mistress at the same time. 

He compares civil rights protesting to fisting. He'll say shit like this, and not have the decency to be so offensive and over-the-top that it becomes funny. 

To be fair, he has one hilarious bar in "30 Hours": "My ex says I gave her the best years of her life / Saw a recent picture of her, I guess she was right". If Kanye could do more of this sleazy douchebag thing, he would be a lot better. But he's mainly a little bitch. Such is the tragedy of genius.

Fave Tracks: Famous, nah ho, you thought i would love this track and u might have been rite and then you talk yo little bitch ass mouth about taylor. get yo trick ass wife to lie for you on the internet. fuck u and ur house, taylor oughta come up and smack the fuck outta u in front of yo kids dusty racist motherfucka. i aint forget abt u kanye, ur scared ass. how bout you come meet me in the rap battle arena like a fuckin man that you so claim to be and we see what the fuck happen to u then. bitch

Fave Tracks: Ultralight Beam, Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1/2, Waves, Real Friends, Fade

The Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd (1973)

Prog-Rock

10/10

Hey! These guys are almost as good as Kanye West!

Fave Tracks: Platinum Saga Banger!