#votyfirstimpression

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Lorde’s previous and debut album Pure Heroine got lots of acclaim for its minimal pop style and dark/cynical lyrics about teenage life. This time around, Lorde ditches most of the minimalism in favor of more generic pop instrumentals, which is a pretty big disappointment in itself--but the record holds up anyway as pretty dang decent overall. The New Zealand singer’s lyrics are still a great mix of poetic and to-the-point, and well matched with the instrumentals behind her while she goes through a relationship and subsequent breakup from cover to cover (with a few clever moments of pop-star self-awareness thrown in). The only reason this album can hold a candle to her previous record, however, lies mostly in the unique mixing and dynamics that some tracks seem to have, which bring a cool new energy to her music. It feels like Lorde may quickly be running out of ideas, which makes me concerned for her next project--but she hasn’t done so quite yet, and I’m very interested to see where she goes from here.

Melodrama: Lorde’s less idiosyncratic breakup album, potentially at the end of her creative rope--but maybe not.

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Fleet Foxes’ newest album goes wider and deeper than anything they’ve made before, and the result is quite a doozy of a record. The group is very well-known for their angelic harmonies, stunning instrumentation and musical variety, and sudden song dynamics that give each track multiple movements. None of that has changed one bit--in fact, the dynamics have only become more abrupt, even jarring at times, and the vocals have joined in on them to evoke different time periods or states of mind within the same song. These quick dynamic shifts are the key to this album’s quality: as soon as one beautiful arrangement seems to drag on, suddenly another will appear with new drums, new harmonies, or every instrument dropping out or joining in. For the most part, Fleet Foxes keeps the listener just on-their-toes enough to stay engaged through the whole album, even though its complexity may take some getting used to. This should not be someone’s first FF album, ideally, but it is a real treat to hear how much the group has expanded since their simpler beginnings.

Crack-Up: Fleet Foxes’ most beautifully complex, musically dynamic, and inaccessible record, with sudden musical jumps that may make you crack up too.

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I’ve loved the planets since I was a baby, and the concept of Gustav Holst’s orchestral suite that represented them so beautifully was always one I adored--and now a new group of musicians has taken on the same feat, with stunning results. Modern production techniques and masterful composing, with lyrics from the great Sufjan Stevens, all come together in the most appropriately-grandiose way possible, with instrumental movements that jump from industrial-sounding drum tracks to gentle piano progressions in a slow fade across the solar system. I’ll agree with Pitchfork that the album is slightly bloated--more than an hour long, with many minutes of instrumentals between the vocals that tie it together--but this to me is necessary to capture the tone of objects so vast as the planets. Overall, this album is one of the most varied and grand expressions of modern composition that I’ve ever heard, and very beautiful in its own right.

Planetarium: A magnificent album chock-full of grand soundscapes and electronic techniques, but still not as visually appealing as the real thing.

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The thing I’ve loved Vallis Alps for since their debut EP release in 2015 is how well they blend the punchy drums and effects of your typical EDM song with airy, gentle vocals and synth progressions into a beautiful balance that’s suitable for listening just about anywhere--and their new EP Fable shows that they can still hold that balance without breaking a sweat. That being said, this album slips a little bit into the samey nature of pop music with songs like East and Fading, which both have fantastic vocal performances and crisp beats, but forgettable, repetitive synth chord progressions. The wild dynamics and instrument changes on their first record prevented this from happening, and while this trend is still apparent (but subdued) in the song Run and its nice use of effected guitar and piano, it’s a key element to Vallis Alps’s sound that I think needs to be revitalized by their next project, or risk overblending their dichotomous music into just another pop slurry.

Fable: A great cannon of bass that shoots you into a swirling vocal and synth atmosphere, but a slightly more tepid trip than its predecessor.

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Death is real, and Phil Elverum knows that better than most--and in A Crow Looked at Me, the latest album from his solo project Mount Eerie, he’ll make sure that you know it too. However, while Elverum certainly isn’t the first to explore death in an album, he does so in such a raw, direct way that it practically blindsides you with the cold reality of loss. “When real death enters the house, all poetry is dumb,” he claims within the album’s first thirty seconds, and the truth that statement holds is what makes this album such an artistic masterpiece. The instrumentals are almost entirely somber guitar, with gentle fingering melodies that for the most part aren’t very substantial (save for the awesome layers of electric and acoustic guitar on Soria Moria), which give the lyrics center stage--and boy, do they really smack you. No amount of artistic narrative or multi-layered instrument composition could cut straight to the core like Phil Elverum does, because he just talks to you; sharing his thoughts and slice-of-life narratives like in a diary. I thank him immensely for having the strength to do so on this album, because I think I will be hard-pressed to find a record so personal again.

A Crow Looked at Me: The official album of grief in its purest form.

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Even though he’s from St. Louis, up-and-coming rapper Smino is practically part of the Chicago rap family--and if the Noname feature on this album doesn’t convince you, then the album’s mellow, lo-fi-esque, soulful production style will. Unfortunately under the radar, blkswn is one of the most well-composed rap records I’ve ever heard that wasn’t a concept album: nearly every song flows into the next, there are zero jarring or out-of-place dynamic switchups, and every feature on the album is incorporated where it really feels like it belongs. What sets this album apart from similar records, though, is Smino’s unique flows and wide vocal range--which would be enough to give the album his distinct touch even without the personal lyrics littered throughout (he even laments on his identity, too). This record is proof that Smino has talent worthy of a big break, and for the sake of rap I hope he gets it soon.

blkswn: Like the movie, but with only 2/3 of the letters--also not as gay, half as long, and at least twice as good.

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I first took to Spoon when their previous album They Want My Soul came out, which was the group’s first step into using extensive synth sounds alongside the characteristically-huge repertoire of instruments they already played--which, naturally, was a tad sloppy and forgettable. Hot Thoughts is the album where they become much more comfortable and professional with the electronic side of their music, and even go on to try other sounds entirely, like an ambient, persistent jam a la early Modest Mouse (but mellower), or the haphazard sax-driven instrumental closer to the album. Not everything has changed, though--the old groovy punch you get in classic Spoon lives on with the added depth of synth backings in tunes like Can I Sit Next to You and Shotgun. Overall, Hot Thoughts is a welcome direction for Spoon to take; and while it may not stick in minds like their music did a decade ago, I’m still excited to see how they expand even further in the years ahead.

Hot Thoughts: A pleasant migration of musical style for the band--but you can still get a hotter spoon after stirring your tea.

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It’s hard to pick out specific elements of a Shins album that I like, because every aspect of them is always so well-mixed into pleasant tunes, and this album is no different. I could complain that they’re not changing their sound enough to stay interesting, or that really only the instruments/effects are the only thing they significantly change between songs, but neither of these things actually detract from the quality of the album. Music doesn’t always have to push boundaries to be good--but it does to be memorable, and admittedly The Shins’ newer records don’t stick in your mind (or change your life) like they once did. Ultimately, Heartworms may not end up being Top 10 material by the year’s end because of that, but I still really like this album as more of the same, and hope it keeps on coming.

Heartworms: Just another Shins album, fortunately.