Wow! It's MDW and also New Music FLYday! Who could have guessed? Certainly not me(atwad,FLY), but, I'm sorry to report, it's a quick hit again, as this weekend is surprisingly slim, and what did come out didn't leave much of an impression.
Another FLYday, another new Migos song. Not even going to look up what this one's called, because it's fine in the way the last two have been fine, but a pretty standard Migos song. Big congrats to Quavo though, he announced either today or yesterday that he's now officially a high school graduate!
Listened to that GaGa and Ariana song called (I think?) "Rain On Me" or something like that, which isn't based on Reign Over Me afaik. The GaGa parts are cool, but Ariana largely doesn't do much for me even though she has a strong voice. They work well together and compliment one another's style, this is likely a fine first single for Gaga's new album, but not sure how much I'll be returning to it.
That's it for the singles I listened to, I think? There's an Ellie Goulding one that I didn't listen to. So on to the albums?
The biggest release this week, at least what's at the top of my Spotify New Release section, is The 1975's new album. Tried some of it, but cut bait super early. Tbh starting it off with Greta Thunberg rubs me the wrong way in the sense that it really feels 'of a time' in a way that set a sour note that colored what I did listen to. Also, this sucker is, I'm pretty sure, exactly two hours long. Maybe I'll get back to it at some point, but probs not, if we're being honest.
The release I was most excited about would be Carly Rae Jepsen's B Sides companion album to last year's super solid Dedicated. It's a really strong collection of songs that has the unfortunate timing of releasing a week after that Charli XCX album, which I'm still listening to pretty regularly, so I'm unsure if I'll be compelled to pivot from that to Carly when put side by side. On its own though it is solid, and while the highs don't match the original album proper, there are a few songs on here that do some great work with sound in a way that I really CINECAST! with, specifically on stand out "Window". Well worth a listen, and I'll try to go back to it more if I can pull myself away from Chuck and Guapdad.
New HAIM EP Don't Wanna dropped today as well. Not sure how many of these are new, or which bonus songs have been floating around before. The bonus songs are the more compelling ones (ridiculous to have bonus songs on like a three or four track EP), but I struggled with HAIM's debut outside of a couple songs, they didn't stand out when I saw them at Made In America Festival, and I didn't follow them much, though their work on Charli's album last year was good. This EP is such a quick listen, and an engaging one, so while I wasn't floored, it didn't drop off for me either?
Checked out Gunna's new album Wunna (not to be confused with, or seen as a counterpoint to the previous HAIM EP Don't Wanna) that has a cool cover, but is probably about the most generic thing that Gunna could have made. Much like other recent albums that feature him, the Young Thug songs are the real stand outs (and the Travis song is surprisingly good), but with Gunna, who is so modeled on Thugger, the contrast between him and just how strong of a hold Thug has on the sound he's pioneered is so large that you kind of wonder why you're bothering with an entire Gunna album when there's so much Thugger Thugger baby.
This EVERYTHING from some guy named Koda The Friend came out today, and while there is an okay feature from Joey Badass, I kind of really disliked the majority of this project. It feels like Chance, but all the worst parts of Chance doing bad Chance. And it's all too positive and 'CINECAST! the haters' for me. This shit is as bad as this guy's rap name, tbh. CINECAST! Koda The Friend.
Anyway, getting back to FLY wheelhouse, I dipped in to Key Glock's Son Of A Gun, which is both a great album name and phrase, though mostly is just a good background album. Bars go a little hard, beats go a little hard, and I'm sure if gyms were open and I tossed this on while tossing up plates it would get the job done, were I not in the mood for shuffling my Purest Pump Spotify playlist that I am always adding to. In the past week I've actually gone back to that Polo G album more than I expected, which I wondered if it would be the case last week, but really not getting that feeling with this one.
And, finally, in this week's Bandcamp special, we get what I guess is, (sorry Carly, you're actually still number one) by default, the most interesting project released this week. The wonderfully titled Bumping Carti Leaks In A Walmart Parking Lot by the apparently everything BROCKHAMPTON should have been hip-hop collective Boof Bois. Tbh first I heard of these dudes who, from what I can tell, are a bunch of white kids/guys (and one guy who isn't white) making hardcore meme lord hip-hop that feels tailor made for an Anthony Fantano rapping feature at some point. Sadly, with it existing mostly on Bandcamp and Youtube I'm not sure how much I'll go back to it, but damn if this sucker isn't something. So strange in a way that I kind of CINECAST! with heavily/would be a guilty pleasure if I believed in such things, and everything about it just feels so CINECAST!ing raw in a way that you don't get. Or maybe you do and I'm just not familiar with the subgenre, so a breakout like this is a nice diversion, feeds an appetite I didn't know I had, and much more would piss me off a good deal? Who knows. Right now I'm kind of all about it, which is nuts for a project that basically concludes with one of them just going "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is overrated" and then ends. Like I said, it's BROCKHAMPTON, in a way, but I actually want to listen to it.
That's that. Like FLY said, kind of a bummer of a week in terms of music releases.