Weekly Roundup - Unreviewed Releases: June 9-16, 2023

 

Calliope Music Weekly Roundup

Unreviewed Releases

June 9-16, 2023

Rated Albums

Janelle Monáe - The Age of Pleasure

4.5/10

Best Tracks: Float (feat. Seun Kuti & Egypt 80) -- Know Better (feat. CKay, Seun Kuti & Egypt 80) -- Only Have Eyes 42

RnB savant, Janelle Monáe dips her toes into Pop, Trap and Reggae in her fourth studio album. Where Monáe has been known for expansive and seductive Contemporary RnB compositions, The Age of Pleasure focuses on the bold, utilizing equatorial drum patterns, smashing horns and traditional Pop effects for simpler affections. Bopping bass, swift hand claps and sultry backing guitar usher sweaty instrumentals fit for Monáe's smooth vocalizations. Where lush production creates sweltering environments, trite Pop developments damage a tantalizing tone. The wordplay meets a similar depth, engaging in platitudinous sex sentiments, further driving pleasure into nudnik. While Monáe's exploration of Contemporary Pop is coquettish and sumptuous, it is ultimately limited in routine progressions upon repeated listens.

Amaarae - Fountain Baby

5.5/10

Best Tracks: All My Love -- Wasted Eyes -- Disguise -- Come Home To God

Alternative RnB artist, Amaarae glides over Afrobeats in this sensual Dance affair. Bongos and other hand drumming set up tropical rhythms that are enhanced by delicate lute, banging bass, synth waves and electric guitar. Amaarae covers a diverse conglomerate of genre, bending soft RnB to match energetic Dance-Pop, Funk and Afropiano. There are even slices of Rock thrown in to sybaritic RnB tracks. The highlight of the project is Amaarae's seductive voice, effortlessly flowing across a barrage of different beats and tempos. Her high pitch vocals coast across voluptuary rhythms, emphasizing a sultry wave of hedonism and desire. While the production is quite alluring in its sexy finish, progressions tend to stick to safe developments instead of expanding further in their genre fusions. Amaarae also fails to stretch the imagination lyrically, plainly claiming luxury and sex activities as the core topics. Whilst there is genericism in some movements and the lyrics, Fountain Baby is still able to be an attractive merging of provocative RnB and pleasurable Afro-dance. 

Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit - Weathervanes

6/10

Best Tracks: Death Wish -- King of Oklahoma -- Cast Iron Skillet -- When We Were Close -- Miles

Country songwriter, Jason Isbell makes his mark with saddened Alt-Country and pristine Southern Rock. A classic mix of raunchy guitar, robust kicks and perky piano set the stage for a variety of sensitive narratives. The more desolate tracks are decorated with clean acoustic guitar and snare happy drums, giving more room for Isbell's strapping Country voice. Isbell employs a balanced approach to songwriting, sticking heavy topics into simple progressions. Topics of suicidal lovers, pandemic isolation, gun violence, abortion, criminal friends and regret are expertly traversed through coherent metaphors and Western imagery. The seventh track, 'Cast Iron Skillet,' points out how many traditions are to be scrutinized, comparing America's progression away from prejudice to the Southern myth that it's bad to wash a cast iron skillet. This, along with several other tracks show how well Isbell is at covering nuanced subjects with brevity and perspective. Although Isbell challenges Southern customs, he and the band fail to the same musically. Many developments become schematic as commonplace Country movements wear away at otherwise well produced songs. There are times of instrumental ingenuity, such as the breakdown on the final track, 'Miles.' It is these moments, along with relevant lyricism that make Weathervanes an upstanding Alt-Country project.

Christine and the Queens - PARANOÏA, ANGELS, TRUE LOVE

5/10

Best Tracks: Tears can be soft -- A day in the water -- Track 10 -- Overture (feat. Mike Dean) -- We have to be friends

Synthpop artist, Christine and the Queens surprise with a sprawling peregrination of atmospheric Art Pop and moody Trip Hop. Vast chambers of trickling high hats, booming 808s, wiry synths and spaced out digital effects form spiritual appointments of echoing Pop. Highly reverberated vocals ramble over extended progressions, becoming prayers in dark caverns of whirling guitar, sporadic synth and distant drums. While extravagant melodies create an incredibly epic Alt-Pop environment, it is difficult to ignore bloated developments. As intriguing refrains form in cultivating storms of crashing cymbals and scuttling synth, structure is lost in favor of fumbling constructions confused in direction. This creates a puzzling dilemma, as beguiling sonic habitats begin to devour themselves under their own extension. Similarly, the lyrical topics seem to be stuck in this cycle of interest and eventual delusion. Topics of desire, empowerment and romantic worship are elegantly introduced before being saturated to drifting vocal directions. In the end, PATL is a project that introduces some astonishingly gorgeous Art Pop sounds, but ultimately loses sight due to an unfocused and disconcerting structure.