Part of the intrigue of Lana Del Rey's breakout "Video Games" was its two-sided nature. It's ostensibly a love song in which the singer rhapsodizes devotion to her man ("Heaven is a place on Earth with you/Tell me all the things you want to do"), but there's a stinging quality to both the words and her blasé delivery: "Open up a beer/And you say get over here...It's you, it's you, it's all for you/Everything I do." It's unclear who's being played: the guy, who might actually think he's worth her time, or Del Rey, deluded and desperate enough to stay with somebody who's so clearly no good for her.
This slippery question of identity and intention is also, of course, what's made Del Rey the center of a national conversation in recent months. Simply put, Del Rey isn't the singer the viral "Video Games" had led people to believe she was—the "authentic" singer-songwriter ingénue plucked out of obscurity based on the merits of a DIY music video. Her Lana Del Rey persona is the latest incarnation of several years spent putting in time in the industry. Nor is she the kind of pop artist we've come to expect these days—the primetime-savvy vessel of club-ready hits. She's awkward in interviews and on stage, with a high-pitched speaking voice and vampy mannerisms, expertly imitated by Kristen Wiig on Saturday Night Live last week. She seems to be both trying too hard and not trying hard enough, stoking questions about whether she even means any of what she's singing. Continue Reading »
by staff on February 6th, 2012 at 11:36 am in Music
RECORD OF THE YEAR
"Rolling in the Deep," Adele (WILL WIN)
"Holocene," Bon Iver
"Grenade," Bruno Mars
"The Cave," Mumford & Sons
"Firework," Katy Perry
Sal Cinquemani: Predicting the top three catgories this year seems suspiciously easy. I can't see any of these songs upsetting Adele's inevitable sweep, except maybe Katy Perry, and I'm only saying that because I feel obligated to write more than 10 words here. Jonathan Keefe: Rocket Tits is my new Black-Eyed Peas in the sense that, after writing these Grammy predictions for the past five years, I've run out of creative ways to convey the depth of my absolute, utter loathing of her and her execrable music. Eric Henderson: As someone who nearly earned myself a toaster oven in a karoke contest busting hip rolls to "Teenage Dream," I can't fully sign off on your malcontent, but that song still represents the sole time Perry's formula struck on something winsome and enduring. "Firework," in contrast, is as arch and addicted to whip-its as anything else in her catalogue, and ergo hypocritical because of it. That still places it one notch above the smarmy nothingness that is "Grenade" though. Continue Reading »
This Sunday, Maya Arulpragasam is going to the Super Bowl, which is like Harold Bloom going to Disney World. It's hard to imagine M.I.A. having much fun at America's premiere chauvinist orgy of consumption, and her recent interview with BBC's Radio 1 suggests she was still trying to psych herself up for the event. "If you're gonna go the Super Bowl," she told Zane Lowe, "you might as well go with America's biggest female icons." And indeed, it's somewhat gratifying to think of M.I.A., Nicki Minaj, and Madonna unleashing the hot pink stinker that is "Give Me All Your Lovin'" on the most hallowed ground of American masculinity, during a halftime show typically dedicated to the geezer-rock pantheon. Ultimately, though, not even M.I.A. can make playing the Super Bowl sound badass or defiant. Walking into the epicenter of the American media to sing and dance between millions-per-minute car commercials with two thoroughly mainstreamed pop stars can mean only one thing, and that's that you yourself must also be a pop star. Continue Reading »
"Have you ever watched a dog vomit and then immediately lap it up?" That was one of the only notes I made after a demo of Madonna's new single, "Give Me All Your Luvin'," leaked last November. I can't be 100% certain where I was going with that indelible image, but it seems instructive, perfectly encapsulating the essence of Madonna's music career as she approaches the end of her third decade as a pop star. Indeed, the very title of "Give Me All Your Luvin'" tells you all you need to know about Madge's primary purpose for continuing to make music today. That might sound cynical, but for the last few years, the Queen of Pop has been peddling a brand, not necessarily art, regurgitating the same themes and images and asking us to continue to consume them, no questions asked. After all, what were songs like "4 Minutes" and "Celebration" if not commercials for Madonna Inc.? Continue Reading »
by staff on January 31st, 2012 at 1:27 pm in Music
Wild Nothing, "Nowhere." While "Nowhere" features Jack Tatum's distinct vocals, the tracks' production and overall instrumentation are obviously upgraded from the likes of the echo-y Golden Haze EP, the last batch of songs Tatum released under his Wild Nothing moniker. Surprisingly, "Nowhere" is downright jangle-pop, with a twangy, lighthearted tone that's miles away from the C86-inspired jams of Tatum's past work. With a hint of twee sentimentality, a dash of accordion chic, and a little help from Twin Sister's dainty-voiced Andrea Estella, "Nowhere" calls for constant reminders that it's not a Tatum side project, simply Wild Nothing heading in a new, conceivably wonderful direction. Mike LeChevallier
by staff on January 23rd, 2012 at 10:03 am in Music
The Shins, "Simple Song." Contrary to what James Mercer sings during its first verse, "Simple Song" isn't really all that simple. Decked out with surprise key changes and expertly layered vocals, not to mention characteristically perceptive lyrics from Mercer, this is power pop with brains and guts, exactly like we've come to expect from the Shins. True, Mercer intended the song to serve a fairly uncomplicated purpose (telling a girl how she's made him feel), but in fulfilling that purpose he ends up recounting an imagined rendezvous on a football field, a capsized boat, the ocean being warmed by the sun, and a fateful nighttime walk during which a "fumbling play for [her] heart" turned out to be exactly the right move. Matthew Cole
Just before she was publicly shamed with a plate of planted truffle fries, M.I.A. tried to secure her avant-pop bona fides by going after Lady Gaga, accusing the ascendant starlet of ripping her style (dubious) and of getting the ratio of awesome songs to awesome outfits wrong (pretty fair). One couplet in Santigold's "Big Mouth" could be interpreted as a swipe at Ms. Germanotta ("Ga-ga-ga all slightly off/Not me I'll take the loss"), but that would be just one more example of Santigold running congas-first into the M.I.A. comparisons that have dogged her since her debut. Santigold's M.I.A. problem is actually a lot like Adele's former Amy Winehouse problem: In one corner, you have a trendsetter who also happens to be an unstoppable font of charisma, and in the other, a challenger with a more powerful voice, a purer pop sensibility, and a thankfully diminished tendency to show up to shows on Ketamine or go on contentless rants about Sri Lankan terrorists. Continue Reading »
by staff on January 17th, 2012 at 4:32 pm in Music
Tanlines, "Brothers." It would be easy to dismiss the understated "Brothers," the first single from Tanlines' upcoming debut, Mixed Emotions. Evocative of the Brooklyn duo's Tropicalian "Real Life," the track is drenched in the kind of jungle-thumping world pop that so endeared Vampire Weekend to the indie world four years ago. But to call "Brothers" derivative is to overlook its quiet appeal, a combination of warm, pulsating crescendos and syncopated Afro beats. United by the low, plaintive chanting of vocalist Jesse Cohen, "Brothers" is both seductive and deliberate, and hopefully indicative of Mixed Emotions's overall mood. Kevin Liedel
Grimes, "Genesis." Claire Boucher's work as Grimes has always played like an exercise in arty distraction. Just when you think you're going to get a beautiful electro-pop song (see "Swan Song" and "Crystal Ball"), she dives headlong into loop-fueled flightiness. On "Genesis," the second single from her upcoming album, Visions, Boucher defies expectations in the opposite direction, sticking to the lilting climb of the track's opening bassline and building on, rather than abandoning, its octave-skipping melody. There are points when "Genesis" sounds like Enya backed up by CANT, but it's one of Grimes's most fully realized songs—catchy without having to jettison its intricate details, percussive while melodic, and wonderfully weird. Kevin Liedel
Destroyer, "Leave Me Alone." On New Year's Day, Destroyer delivered what was either a belated Christmas present or a really early one. Though the track is faithful to the original, Dan Bejar's bizarre and beautiful vocals make for an addicting update to New Order's "Leave Me Alone," from Mojo magazine's covers comp of the band's seminal album Power, Corruption & Lies. It's a delight to hear Bejar swim around inside a genre—and decade—he's famous for so tastefully emulating. Kenny S. McGuane
by staff on December 28th, 2011 at 9:43 am in Music
Frank Ocean, "4 Tears." "4 Tears" is skeletal enough that the overblown earnestness that rendered "Made in America" the wishy-washy low point of Kanye West and Jay-Z's Watch the Throne actually works here. Accompanied by only a basic drum-machine beat and a keyboard riff that evokes a keening harp, Ocean's brief ballad withholds weeping for a more dramatic description of single tears running down the singer's face, imagery he somehow manages to pull off. It's a nice, uncynical love song to no one in particular, a bravely simple track that feels like a little step forward for Ocean. Jesse Cataldo
by staff on December 19th, 2011 at 9:43 am in Music
Sleigh Bells, "Born to Lose." The trailer for Sleigh Bells' sophomore album, Reign of Terror, shows singer Alexis Krauss primping in front of a mirror while rocking a severe haircut and a military jacket. "Born to Lose" is animated by the same martial pulse, with Krauss singing over pummeling blastbeats and lurching power chords. The track is only differentiated from the duo's established sound by its far slicker production: Treats's everything-in-the-red approach was integral to its charm, adding to the impression that Sleigh Bells were a couple of kids fighting over scraps in the pop-music junkyard, but the sound here skews distinctly toward polished mall-metal a la Victory Records. Derek Miller's alien guitar coda, which sounds like a huge machine powering down, shows that the group's soundsmith still has an innovator's mind, but it will be equally important that he hold on to his underdog's heart. Matthew Cole
by staff on December 5th, 2011 at 10:57 am in Music
Lana Del Rey, "Born to Die." I initially found reason to be annoyed by the artifice of Lana Del Rey's ostensibly focus-group-tested Amy Winehouse-meets-Betty Draper image, and yet still marveled at the effortless way in which "Video Games" established her as America's new, enigmatic indie-pop diva who might or might not be faking the streetwise starlet act. "Born to Die," the title track from Del Rey's debut (out next month on Interscope), does nothing to ease my internal conflict. The song is unhurried and trippy and cavernous in that retro-baroque way we've come to expect from her, like Nancy Sinatra singing over a slow-burning Portishead tune, and retains all the misery and beauty of Del Rey's star-crossed persona. The track doesn't necessarily answer the burning question of who Del Rey is or isn't supposed to be, but that's probably irrelevant at this point: Like its singer, "Born to Die" is intended to be a maddening, contradictory, and gorgeous riddle fueled by the excess and tragedies of twentysomething fame, and to that end, it succeeds wildly. Kevin Liedel
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