Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest (2010)

I love Halcyon Digest, but I'm not sure why. I tried reading Pitchfork's review, and though it was effusive in praise, but it offered little insight in what made Digest great.

Halcyon Digest's greatest asset is mood. It's sometimes ambient, and sometimes foot-tappingly playful. The album cover is dark and a little creepy, but Digest is quite accessible. It's almost poppy, but that's not a bad thing.

Of course some songs are stronger than others, but that's to be expected. Standouts were  "Revival", which sounded a lot like an upbeat track that Yellow House-era Grizzly Bear would have released, and the epic "Desire Lines".

Still, I can't pin down what makes Halcyon Digest so good, and what makes it fall short of a 10. I do feel I could've done without "Fountain Stairs", and maybe opener "Earthquake" could've been trimmed a bit, but Halcyon Digest is superb, unique rock.

9/10

Bad Timing (1980) dir. Nicolas Roeg

Moral of the story: don't fuck with crazy. But who's the crazy one?

It's funny that Art Garfunkel's most famous performances have been in films that tackled sex with alarming frankness. Bad Timing, by Nicolas Roeg, is a beast of a movie. After all, this is from the guy who did Don't Look Now, a masterpiece with one of cinema's most iconic sex scenes.

Invisible Man (1952) by Ralph Ellison

Maybe somewhat ironically, Invisible Man has been one elusive book to me. It was only last year did I learn that there was another Invisible Man besides H.G. Wells sci-fi lore. This one, by black author Ralph Ellison, is an exploration into American racism in 1920's New York.

Our man is black and unnamed, and seemingly loony when we first meet him. He has a story to tell though, and we go along for the ride because we've got nothing better to do (or have heard so much great stuff about the book). What follows is twisted fiction, impossibly surreal, and episodic almost. The first chapter is incredible, as it describes the sweat and blood from an animalistic battle royale where blacks are pitted against blacks for entertainment sake. This chapter, and the final hundred so pages, are riveting.

Travis Scott - Days Before Rodeo (2014)

I have so much to thank Kanye West for. Somehow, his release Yeezus was what got me interested and excited by music. It made me realize that albums were more than haphazard song compilations, instead they could be something rich and cohesive, even if they have lyrics like "I be speakin' swagheli".

Part of what made Yeezus such a sonic departure was the no-name producer/rapper Travis Scott. He's a credited producer on three of Yeezus' tracks, and to say he has parallels to the former Blueprint/College Dropout era West wouldn't be incorrect. Like West, Scott's a producer and rapper with a sound of his own. He's also got a mischievous streak.

Drake - If You're Reading This It's Too Late (2015)

Simply put, If You're Reading This It's Too Late was bound to be iconic. Even the dang cover is iconic, from its plainness to its chicken-scratch handwriting that looks like a suicide note from the Chick-Fil-A cow. But most of all, If You're Reading This It's Too Late validated Drake's status as rap's superstar. Only he can really get away with releasing a mixtape with a price tag (and do it twice in one year).

There's serious debate on whether or not This is a mixtape or not. If it is, it's certainly one of the most polished and well-done mixtapes I've listened to. If not, it's a worthy entry in Drake's album output. Even the wikipedia article for the project can't decide whether or not it's a mixtape.

Justin Timberlake - The 20/20 Experience (2013)

The most notable thing about Timberlake's one-two punch of albums is that they have a combined length of two hours and twenty four minutes. Even in separate halves, they are both seventy minutes or so. It's hard enough for a movie to justify a time longer than two hours, and even harder for an album. Is Timberlake justified to make music this epic in length?

Really, Timberlake can do whatever he wants. But The 20/20 Experience takes a hit because of how massive it is. Not only are the albums long, but the songs are too. Many of them are at least five minutes in length, but many of them reach to eight, nine minutes or more. The opener of part one, "Pusher Love Girl" is eight minutes, but doesn't feel as much like one song as it does multiple. This idea of songs composed of multiple different parts is continuous between both projects.

ScHoolboy Q - Oxymoron (2014)

ScHoolboy Q is an artist I haven't paid much attention to. He's not a socially conscious rapper like fellow Top Dawg Kendrick Lamar, nor does he have the husky aggression of Jay Rock. Q's kind a of booty rapper. He's the type of artist that moms use as evidence for why rap isn't music. And that's okay.

Oxymoron is ScHoolboy Q's major label debut, and it could have easily ridden the good kid m.A.A.d city hype had it not been delayed a long time. But as it stands, Oxymoron is a solid album. It's not cohesive and cinematic like good kid m.A.A.d city, but Oxymoron hits the target it's gunning for. It's chock full of bangers, from "Los Awesome", "Collard Greens" to "Man of the Year".

Besides the intense walk through memory lane "Hoover Street", Oxymoron isn't important or substantial. The broad themes are sex and drugs, and though there is quite a bit to be desired, Oxymoron is fire. The features are all pretty good, especially Jay Rock and Tyler, The Creator. The latter I haven't given much a care for, but he fits in perfectly on "The Purge". Highlight tracks are the frantic "Los Awesome", the bilingual "Collard Greens", and "Hoover Street".

7.5/10

Big Grams - s/t (2015)

Outkast is certainly one of hip-hop's great duos, arguably the greatest there ever was. But whenever Outkast is discussed, it feels like André 3000 comes up more than Big Boi. Three-stacks is certainly the more artistic and flamboyant of the two, but I (and a growing number of others) believe Big Boi, aka Daddy Fat Sax is a better rapper. Not many have a voice for the genre like Big Boi. He can spit fast, and make it seem cool and easy.

Though we haven't really seen much music from André 3000 in the past decade, Big Boi has stayed busy. His two solo albums, though not smash hits, are universally well-liked. This EP, Big Grams, is not a solo effort, though. It's a collaboration between Big Boi and electronica duo Phantogram, and it marks Big Boi's first collaborative release since Outkast's Idlewild.

Ryan Adams - 1989 (2015) / Taylor Swift - 1989 (2014)

Okay, it's already September 23rd of 2015, and I still have yet to listen to Taylor Swift's pop smash 1989. I've heard the singles "Shake It Off" and the "Bad Blood" remix featuring Kendrick Lamar, but I somehow have avoided the other eleven tracks... until today. I realized I was in a pretty good position to compare Swift's album, and Ryan Adams' cover version, which was released two days ago. I listened to Adams' first, so most of my thoughts on Swift's album will be compared to the cover version.

Lana Del Rey - Honeymoon (2015)

When making Honeymoon, I feel like the hardest part for Lana Del Rey was deciding the track order. She makes sultry singing sound easy with her smokey voice. But how the heck did she decide what order to put her songs in? Really, a lot of them do sound the same.

Honeymoon is incredibly easy listening. If you're looking to be challenged, check Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly, because you won't be finding anything difficult here. Highlight tracks are all of them, or none of them. It depends if you are a Lana fan or not.

Just like with Future in What a Time to Be Alive, Rey isn't gonna convert any haters with Honeymoon. But I bet her fanbase is pleased and rightly so. The sun-dappled high spirits of Lana's lifestyle are ever present, making Honeymoon a sweet swan song to a summer gone by.

Many of the songs follow a pop formula, so it does get a little tiring, but Lana is doing Lana, and I'm pretty sure she knows what her fanbase wants. This is probably good kissing music.

7/10

Black Mass (2015) dir. Scott Cooper

Johnny Depp is a very talented actor. You'd be hard pressed to find someone who would disagree with that statement. But, it has been hard to stand by Depp's side as in the 2010's, he's been delving deeper into the makeup and weirdness and avoiding all things challenging. But forget Alice in Wonderland's Mad Hatter or the iconic Jack Sparrow. Depp is weird as hell and still coated in makeup for Scott Cooper's Whitey Bulger pic Black Mass, but you can see he's challenging himself. It's great.

Okay, it's not all great. Scott Cooper is a competent director of actors, and everything looks good onscreen, but it's hard to enjoy Black Mass when it feels like everything onscreen has been done before. Even the "family recipe" scene from the first trailer feels like it's trying to be the "funny how" scene from GoodFellas. Black Mass doesn't even touch GoodFellas or The Godfathers, but for what it is, it's a decently good watch.

Drake / Future - What a Time to Be Alive (2015)

"Moon pie... what a time to be alive!" -Jasper Beardley, The Simpsons

This is exactly how I feel. September 20th, 2015, will not be a landmark day in rap history in the way September 11th (2001: The Blueprint; 2007: Graduation v. Curtis) is. I am not even sure if Drake and Future's new collaborative mixtape, What a Time to Be Alive, will be talked about or even remembered clearly a year from now. But boy am I glad that it's here.

Beasts of No Nation (2005) by Uzodinma Iweala

As for the mediums I spend the most time with, movies has got to be it. Sure, the extended storytelling of television has its perks, and music is great when my eyes are sore. Books, however, are the weird medium. They're the ones I feel I neglect the most. I wish I read more instead of watching a seemingly endless amount of movies.

This year I told myself I would read more, and I have. I am in the back half of Ellison's seminal Invisible Man, and nearly finished with Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge. Recently, I read Beasts of No Nation, by Uzodinma Iweala (try saying that three times fast), yes, because of the Fukunaga movie that's coming on Netflix next month. However, Iweala's book is fantastic in it's own right, regardless of film association.

Jay Rock - 90059 (2015)

It's been nearly ten months since Jay Rock released the outstanding single "Parental Advisory" on soundcloud. Since then, I've been waiting patiently and anxiously for Rock's album, which has been a long time coming. In 2011, he released the poppy Follow Me Home, which featured the decently popular "All My Life (In the Ghetto)". Though it's fun to hear Rock and Lil Wayne exchange bars in the song's second half, there's something about Rock's aggression and conviction bubbling under that deserves something bigger.