Donnie Trumpet and the Social Experiment- Surf
This album started out pretty great with the song 'Miracle', but my interest soon waned. I wasn't expecting Acid Rap 2 or anything, but as Chance the Rapper is a member of this group, I was expecting maybe a little more contribution from him. I found some of the production here to be a little muddy, with some less than amazing features (with the exception of Busta, Noname Gypsy and Saba). I think this album may have fared better with me with some better production value, some more input from Chance, and maybe some editing, as some tracks just cluttered up the flow of the album, with the instrumentals feeling like little more than interludes.
Sun Kil Moon- Universal Themes
If you follow this blog at all (and I assume you do jk), I had previously listed Benji as one of my favorite records of last year. With that being said, expectations were high. Unfortunately, Mark Kozelek did not really deliver a product as cohesive or relate-able as Benji this time around. This album got bogged down in some minutia, long song times that did not hold interest, and some very personal, but ultimately mundane song topics (having an inconsequential conversation with Jane Fonda in a hotel is not an entirely fitting concept for a song). I do appreciate Kozelek's interest in expanding beyond his acoustic arrangements with some garage rock sounds, but the mixing here was a little sub par, which rendered some of his vocals incomprehensible. I can respect the more experimental nature of this album, but I think it was a bit of misstep.
I was a pretty big fan of Jamie xx's remix album of Gil Scott-Heron tunes, We're New Here, and the xx is a pretty decent band, so I came in pretty interested here. I have to say, I wasn't entirely bowled over. This album is pretty much a compilation of every UK electronic development in the past decade or so, but with a little less urgency or emotion. There's hints of garage, dubstep, and all that, but something just seems cold about it, like its being viewed from a distance. I realize its club music you aren't supposed to dance to, but it could've had a little more energy. Really dug the steel drums on 'Obvs' though. Some fun tracks, but all in all, not that engaging for me personally. Also, too much Young Thug. Any Young Thug is too much Young Thug.
So those were pretty much my opinions on those projects. All a little disappointing to me, but not terrible. What did you think of these albums? Do you have any new projects that you're excited about? As for me, I'm looking forward to a pretty good number of projects, but I'll just have to see how they turn out.
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