In My Mind
Feature Track: Love Inside
Deep Cut: Jeremiah/World Needs More Love
Keep Listening: Crazy
Even one more worth checking out: Falling On My Face
Rating: 5
Church is a strange song. It's about about a guy's woman that is trying to get him to drink, do drugs and have sex, but he can't because he has to go to church in the morning. That got my attention for the same reason Ray Stevens did when I was younger. This is that subtle rhetoric that gets me laughing.
This turns out to be the setup for several knockout blows delivered in succession. Starting with Love Inside (The next track). From there every song gets better. The changes are pure and classic, the songs are strong. I'm not sure how awards work, but I reckon this album will end up with some kind of grammy. If it doesn't, that means there is even something better coming down the line! Yay!
This album features a hidden Kendrick Lamar gem in the track New Cupid.
In My Mind straddles that fine line between sanctified and damned. It lays bare many of the societal and cultural dissidences in an apolitical, powerfully artistic way. The tracks switch fluidly between Soul/R&B/Motown and really progressive Hip-Hop. The world is reflected through this artist in an honest, introspective and observatory tone.
Case in point: tracks 11 and 12. Woman's World is an anthem, a great song and a statement. It is followed by Crazy, which sets you up for a huge drop at 2:50.
In my mind I am crazyFalling On My Face returns to the songwriting format and is arranged with gorgeous strings and slight piano.
Crazy about the right things
Crazy about the things that could change my life
And Honestly, if you ain't crazy about something
I can't rock wit'chu
So at the end of the day, man
Get crazy about somethin'
A very, very good record.
Jack Garratt
Phase
Feature Track: Weathered
Deep Track: I know All What I Do
Rating: 5
I try to resist writing about an album until it demands my attention, good or bad. The production on Phase is confident and immediately engaging. By track 2, Far Cry I feel confident that this will be an enjoyable experience. This is my first time every hearing Jack Garratt's name or his music.
I immediately thinking of AWOL, Tool, and Mumford & Sons.
Weathered begins with vocal samples that make me remember standing/laying alone in the middle of a large stone church in England surrounded by PA speakers while Juffage tuned up his soundcheck for the Cauldron of Sound. This memory is abruptly cut short into a hard beat in a clipped off style that soon becomes an inherent part of the vocabulary of this album. Smooth and very heavy.
I'm loving every track and by The Love You're Given I'm at the point that I start taking spotify play counts into consideration of my written observations. Let's take a look-see... Several tracks have 6 or 8 million and one with 17M! This album came out less than a week ago.
Again, we are reminded that the world is a huge place and that at any given time there is somebody, some place or some thing on fire, burning out of control. This does not equate to fame, notoriety or even recognizability.
If he gets a couple of good visibility or live support bumps, he can hit Kevin Gates numbers very quickly. And Kevin Gates is trending music news. Why haven't I heard of this guy?
I would say that this record is being pushed properly in whatever market it is from (UK?) and it has a lot of heat to have so many plays and be so new. So, that's all I'll say about this one. It's good and a whole bunch of people agree with me.
Josef Salvat
Night Swim
Projected Rating: 3.5
Feature Track: Punchline'
Deep Cut: The Days
Current Rating: 5
I wasn't able to find this album available for streaming. It is a debut album for this artist and the clips I found of him on youtube are impressive. Hopefully this will end up on spotify and I'll remember to go check it out. I bet it will be pretty dope. The cover is really impressive.
EDIT (2/25) [Up on Spotify now] Listening currently... 5 tracks in. At least a 4. The Days. A solid 4. I'm looking for the gas at the end that sets this whole experience on fire. Six more tracks. A Better Word, 4.2. This Life, 4.4. Diamonds, 4.5. In The Audience, Yahtzee!
Mavis Staples
Livin' On A High Note
Feature Track: Action
Deep Cut: Dedicated
Keep Listening: In the Audience
Rating: 5
Here is a legend putting out relevant and powerful material. An artist from another time. Bringing the fire into the 21st Century! These songs are really classic sounding, yet have a very current feel. Action sounds a forgotten pop hit, but the words are no-bullshit. They hit like a Kendrick Lamar anthem.
Sick and tired of feeling sick and tired
They say my words might get me fired
What a terrifying time to raise our voices
But see I'm not left with many more choices
I gotta put it in to action
Doing it A to Z
I till I set myself free
I don't care if you refuse to see
I gotta put it in to action
Consider this a sign of an emergency
Who's gonna do it if I don't do it
Dedicated is a raw emotional gratitude of a song. History, Now is a love song crafted around a clever geo-political narrative. It gets the emotional and political point across with just enough sugar to get the medicine down.
Wolfmother
Victorious
Feature Track: Baroness
Deep Cut: Best Of A Bad Situation
Keep Listening: Happy Face
Rating: 5
This record stayed on in the background while I was really buried in some paperwork, so I didn't have a chance to break out my thoughts as it was playing. I really enjoyed every track. Just enough Sabbath for legitimacy, just enough Black Crows for palatability, just enough Zeppelin for edge. Instead of beating these old motifs to death like some 'genre-centric' artists, Wolfmother manages to arrange very familiar sounding riffs and changes into a new landscape, proving that there is still a lot of juice in those old vibes.
And I'm caught up again. It's easy when people don't stream, cancel, move, miss or otherwise don't meet the date the wikipedia has them in.
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