All of the following (pithy) album reviews appeared in the JH Weekly.
Pilot Talk
CURREN$Y
Almost as a rule, I don’t listen to rap in the mornings. So I was surprised when I found myself digging on Curren$y’s new album, Pilot Talk, on a recent morning commute from Swan Valley to Jackson Hole. Though the guitars are blaring on the intro track “Example,” the New Orleans rapper’s woozy, blasé lyrical delivery gave me a welcome wake-‘n-bake contact high. Curren$y’s bread and butter are quotidian raps (such as these from standout track “Chilled Coughee”: “Quarter tank of gas in my seven one double-S/Quarter bag mostly shake but this’ll have to due I guess”) slung with unassailable casual cleanliness – he probably smokes a J the same way. There’s no big pimpin’ on Pilot Talk. Instead, Curren$y spits out lazy stoner lines like “Fast livin’ slow gin for these bitches/I got that game from my Pittsburgh nigga’/SV Diablo ‘96/Wings lift/Daniel-san crane kick, wah!” Producer Ski Beatz deserves major props for giving Curren$y prime sonic turf to rap over. (8 Sept. 2010)
All Is Falling
JAMES BLACKSHAW
On his first few albums, London-based guitarist James Blackshaw made a name for himself as the Gen-Y Leo Kottke. His chops on the 12-string guitar on Litany of Echoes and The Cloud of Unknowing were as impressive as the arrangements were long and sprawling. Blackshaw opens his new release, All Is Falling, at the piano with a short track inspired by Philip Glass. Though the track works, Blackshaw is at his best on the axe, and the album improves when he picks up his electric 12-string. Over the next four tracks, Blackshaw guides the listener on a nearly 14-minute long epic that recalls more Glass as well as Italian classical guitarist Carlo Domeniconi’s Koyunbaba. All Is Falling sounds like a concept album, as the tracks flow into one another and the brooding, burnished sounds evolve towards what sounds like the sunset evoked on the album’s cover. Blackshaw’s latest is the ideal soundtrack for the moody, cloud enshrouded months ahead. (25 Aug. 2010)
Forgiveness Rock Record
BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE
The newest release from BSS won’t get as much press as Arcade Fire’s latest, but for my money, there’s no question that Forgiveness Rock Record is superior to AF’s Suburbs. Compared to Arcade Fire’s nearly hook-exclusive rock, BSS’s musical terrain is vastly more adventurous, treading up- and down-tempo, through dense aural forests and across sparse sonic plains. The track “World Sick,” illustrates that point perfectly. Driven throughout by Justin Peroff’s bass-heavy drum propulsion, a lilting guitar hook and Kevin Drew’s cryptic-though-unforgettable lyrics, “World Sick” builds up to an anthemic chorus and then drops back to down-beat ambient chirps, cello drones and rattling drumsticks-on-the-rim. That control of pressure and release within a song is one of BSS’s principle strengths, and it’s displayed throughout Forgiveness, from the lilting Lisa Lobinger track “All to All” to the rocked-out “Forced to Love.” Forgiveness came out in May, but it’s a sleeper, and surely one of the best albums of the year. (18 Aug. 2010)
