6- Kanye West- ‘The Life of Pablo’
One of 2016’s
most highly anticipated, and highly contentious, albums was Kanye West’s latest
offering ‘The Life of Pablo’. Upon release, the album appeared to split
opinions with many people viewing it as the ravings of a self-indulgent,
arrogant lunatic. Yet, I feel that ‘The Life of Pablo’ is one of the most complex,
sophisticated, assured, conflicted masterpieces of the modern era. Presenting
itself with a full 20 track listing (yes you did read that right, your eyes are
not deceiving you), TLOP feels to me to be 20 pieces of a broken soul. Devoured
by the media’s representation of him, and his somewhat troubled past, West has
challenged the listener to piece these fragments together in order to create a
modern masterpiece. ‘The Life of Pablo’ is a genre spanning piece of art with
West sprawling from gospel (Ultralight Beam) to combining a Nina Simone sample
with Rihanna (Famous) to brief 30 second intermissions expressing his love for himself (I love
Kanye). This album is a truly brave
effort from the 38 year-old and it feels more like a self-portrait than an LP
with West using his lyrics to paint the truest and most emotionally unstable portrait
of himself that he possibly could.
Overall Rating- 9/10
Fave Songs- ‘Ultralight Beam’, ‘Fade’, ‘Facts(Charlie Heat Version)’, ‘No More Parties in LA’, ‘Saint Pablo’
Least fave songs- ‘Pt.2’, ‘Highlights’, ‘Feedback’,
‘Freestyle 4’
7-
Radiohead- ‘A Moon Shaped Pool’
In
my opinion, one of the greatest British band’s of the last 20 years, Radiohead
returned in 2016 with ‘A Moon Shaped Pool’. Somewhat of a finishing album if you will with many of the tracks featured on the
album being around since the turn of the century (Present Tense, Burn The Witch
& True Love Waits have all been in the pipeline since the ‘Kid A’ era)
Radiohead’s latest album is an atmospheric, ambient, eerie, haunting,
mesmerising stride into the abyss from Thom Yorke and his bandmates. Standout
songs include ‘Daydreaming’ a lullaby-esque, dreamy 6 minute trip that
transports the listener into a relaxation state that is difficult to return
from, ‘Present Tense’ is a bossa-nova inspired groove that swoons its way
through the spine of this LP, whilst ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor Rich Man Poor
Man Beggar Man Thief’ is a slow-burning epic built around a small
electro bass backing. ‘A Moon Shaped Pool’s apparent melodic sweetness may
present Radiohead in their most accessible form since their creation; however
the richness of this album is something so complex and self-assured that not
even Einstein could understand it completely.
Overall Rating- 9.5/10
Fave Songs- ‘Daydreaming’, ‘The Numbers’, ‘PresentTense’, 'Glass Eyes'
Least Fave Songs- ‘True Love Waits’
8- Richard
Ashcroft- ‘These People’
The ex Verve
frontman Richard Ashcroft has harnessed a fairly new approach to his most
recent LP ‘These People’. Taking inspiration from electro-pop, folk rock, and
even symphony orchestras, this 10 track long album presents Ashcroft’s
representation of the modern world. The underlying themes of this album are
clear as day for the listener. Politics, death, riots, technology and revolution
underpin this lyrically strong album, themes that appear to be light-years away
from Ashcroft’s previous, and relatively disappointing, solo albums. This
blogger is under no illusion that ‘These People’ can appear on the face of it
to be a relatively easy album,
especially considering that this is from the man who wrote ‘Urban Hymns’, one
of the greatest albums of the 1990’s. However’ ‘These People’ is a
retrospective album, reflecting on the modern world in all its atrocity and it
feels to me to be a work that is most aligned to Ashcroft’s Verve peak. I for one
am a great believer in resurrection, and it feels as if ‘These People’ is
Ashcroft’s resurrection from the Britpop wilderness.
Overall Rating- 8/10
Least fave songs- ‘Ain’t the Future So
Bright’, ‘Picture of You’
9- Skepta- ‘Konnichiwa’
Tottenham grime-king Skepta returns
4 years later from his acclaimed 2012 mixtape ‘Blacklisted’ with an epic
12-track long album full of punchy verses, booming beats and catchy hooks.
Featuring guest spots from Pharell, A$ap Nast & grime pioneers Wiley and D
Double E amongst others, ‘Konnichiwa’ is a raw reflection of the DIY attitude
Joseph Adenuga (Skepta) has towards music and it also represents a seismic
shift in the way in which grime is viewed. From backstreet garages and tower
blocks in North London to a sold out show at Alexandra Palace, Skepta’s
‘Konnichiwa’ has propelled grime into the forefront of modern British culture. For me the stand-out track is the gang anthem
‘Man’, where Skepta spits about his love for his BBK family, “No fake ones,
trust no one; It’s Boy Better Know ‘til I die”. The song’s backing beat is
mostly based around a Queen’s of the Stone Age sample from their 1998 song
‘Regular John’, truly displaying the complex dexterity and broad mindedness of
Skepta and ‘Konnichiwa’. ‘Konnichiwa’ displays Skepta in his most nakedly
vulnerable guise yet, gifting us an album that is as banger-filled as it is
complex. ‘Konnichiwa’ has given a glimpse of the future of grime with it
offering a stepping stone for this up-and-coming genre, it is our role as
listeners to remove our preconceptions and explore it for all that it all has
to offer. Greatness only, Mr Adenuga.
Overall Rating- 9.5/10
Least Fave Songs- ‘Text Me Back’
10- The 1975- ‘I
Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It’
Not many albums are forced to
have a comma within its title due to the fact that it’s so long, however indie
pop shimmers The 1975 have successfully mastered that with their latest
offering... well I’m not going to type the whole thing out again, let’s just
call it ‘I Like It’ for the time being. Don’t be put off by the pretentious
title of this album as ‘I Like It’ is a hugely ambitious project by the
Manchester band. The band’s frontman Matt Healy described the album as an “emotional
investment”, and despite the pretentiousness of something like that, he’s not
actually that wrong. The album is a deeply interesting and in parts humorous nod
to the hashtag culture of the online world with tracks such as ‘Love Me’ and ‘Ugh!’
having a tongue-in-cheek approach to these topics. Yet, moving songs such as ‘If
I Believe You, ‘Nana’ and ‘Somebody Else’ also counteract these songs to create
a profound, complex and deeply introvert nature to this album. It’s clear to
see that the strength behind ‘I Like It’ lies solely to the writing style of
Healy as he knows the exact ingredients which make a good pop song, yet also
offering the listener something else in order to create a solid album. A dash
of pretentiousness, a sprinkle of youth-driven lust, a teaspoon of humour and
fistfuls of emotion, ‘I Like It’ is the perfect recipe.
Overall Rating- 9/10
Fave Songs- ‘Somebody Else’, ‘The Sound’, ‘She’s American’, ‘A ChangeOf Heart’, ‘Loving Someone’, 'This Must be My Dream'
Least Fave Songs- ‘The Ballad of Me and My Brain’, ‘Paris’
No comments:
Post a Comment