It's got that Julien Baker effect - screaming over a solo guitar or a single bass pluck. It sounds sort of like the behind the scenes footage of a rehearsal, black and white filmed in front of the studio setup, they're like sitting on folding chairs, practicing for when they're going to play the "real” song on stage. Vocals are typically overlapped voices - I suspect it's one person overdubbed, but could be two different voices? Somewhat talky singing, a voice looking for a punk song but stranded in an Adam Sandler type strum strum strum strum sing-song.
I’m not actually sure about their genders. Not a drum to be heard, nor keyboard to be found. One important thing - this is a bass and a guitar. Wearing matching dresses before the world was big I just miss how it felt standing next to you One review says it sounds like “an angrier, socially conscious Kimya Dawson” (of Juno soundtrack fame). I don't say juvenile about the content or sharpness, I just mean it straight up sounds like maybe high school kids? Very YA-novel soundtrack of a student film. #119 Girlpool, Before the World Was Big (2015) Rating: 2īefore I research anything about this artist/band, my impression of the sound is that it's like a more juvenile-style voice attached to the same Big Thief / Soccer Mommy / Frankie Cosmos situation. He takes stock of his emotional development, too, as he raps on “Where This Flower Blooms” with pride: “I rock, I roll, I bloom, I grow.” It marks Tyler’s departure from the artist he was-a trouble-making scoundrel who used homophobic slurs and graphic imagery throughout his incendiary songs-to a more compassionate rapper, ready to embrace the softer parts of his personality Over sweeping, orchestral funk arrangements, he earnestly addresses his anxieties about fame, his paranoia about being canceled were he to come out, and the terrifying reality of police brutality. My favorite is probably “I Ain't Got Time,” and not just because it samples the same 1969 Belly Dancing riff as Dee-lite’s 1990 "Groove is In the Heart" does ( it's time to dance.and have some fun), although that helps. The featured artists are really "featured" and there’s lots of room for them. Lots of sampling, though it's really built around Tyler's gravelly and grouchy flow. I wish I could have a music theorist explain some of the chords - they’re clearly cool jazz and R&B chords, but I don’t know the science. Some fun features - Lil Wayne (“Droppin Seeds”), Frank Ocean, A$AP Rocky. There’s not much of that here, no slurs or sketchy topics, at least certainly no more than the other hip hop records on this list.īottom line, I think he just doesn’t give a f*ck. Tyler himself was banned from the UK for a few years and de facto exiled from Australia, ostensibly because of his misogynistic lyrics, rape and murder fantasies, etc. He’s obviously smart - the rhymes are dense as hell and the cultural references come fast - and he has production talent, he self-produces and writes everything.Ī complicated history for Tyler - he was the leader of Odd Future, the hip-hop collective that, well, got in lots of trouble for their lyrics and style. There’s a lot going on - it’s versatile, it goes back and forth between traditional soulful R&B and glitch and “horrorcore” weirdness. He's talking about rags to riches (“Where This Flower Blooms”), love (“See You Again”), the grind of success, touring, recording ("Boredom"). Tyler has a flow and sticks with it - his lyrics are interesting enough that I explored a few of them to “read”, but there's no real musical value whatsoever to his vocals, he's talking.
Nice to have some fun now and then listening to these. #120 Tyler, The Creator, Flower Boy (2017) Rating: 3