Somehow it finally happened. As was the case with most weeks, I'll give a quick glance of HHH before bed on Thursday to get an idea of what's going to be hitting the next day as I begin to set some expectations for the week. I'll let you know, it seemed like a wasteland around 11:30pm last night, with perhaps the most notable release being "FRANCHISE" coming hot off the success of Travis Scott's The Travis Scott meal at McDonald's. But, while it is a very rare occasion, sometimes even FLY can be wrong. And, I am happy to say, this New Music FLYday apparently FLY was very long. This might even be a two nighter in terms of typing this up, because there's a CINECAST!ing mountain to get through. Tbh, not even sure where to start. Guess we can go in order until it doesn't make sense to go in order any more. Maybe blast the the singles really quick though since there weren't a ton? Sounds like a plan.
So the week is headlined, like I mentioned up there, with "Franchise" from Travis Scott featuring Young Thug and MIA. At this point I'm not sure what to make of MIA or have much of an opinion on her music, and she's also kind of only briefly here anyway. So we get to the Travis talk. On the real, I have not had the Travis meal as FLY doesn't eat fast food anymore, but it seems pretty low effort. Most of the merch with it was too. And it kind of tracks here, because you pretty much get a Travis Scott song, an artist who seems to be well beyond the early promise he showed and has just kind of settled in to a sound that I find difficult to get excited about, even when it has the Slime God himself. As usual, Thugger Thugger baby is the best part of the song, but of all the collaborations they've had together this one is such a far cry from even something like "Pick Up The Phone", much less the all time classic "Maria, I'm Drunk".
We'll hit the others pretty quick. YG dropped "Out On Bail", which is a relative heater, and I wonder if it's leading up to an album or if he's just releasing singles to stream. Not sure, but he's been in pretty strong form lately, and FLY is a notable YG fan, so I'm about it, no doubt. Another (new) FLY favorite, Polo G, released "Epidemic", which is a solid follow up to his album from earlier this year. Excited to see how he continues to build on his recent success. Keeping things in the personal favorites category, we have "Blotter Acid Reflux Syndrome" by the way of Atmosphere. Again, not sure if they are building to an album, though I'd be inclined to say that's the case here because of how long they've been playing the game. Think Aesop Rock has one hitting in October as well? Could be some cool shit in the pipeline if FLY is in the mood.
But now it's the main course, so we're really getting to do the whole 'in the order I listened to until that stops making sense' because we've got a big one that FLY is pretty CINECAST!ing pumped to get to.
So kicked things off relatively safely with the latest from A$AP Ferg, Floor Seats II. Though it also starts in perhaps the most jarring way possible with the song "Marilyn Manson" that also features Marilyn Manson doing some real scream shit in a lot of the song that works surprisingly well in a weird way. If we're really getting down to it though, this sucker is a Ferg project, and a pretty good one, but also hits the limitations that he kind of always has as an artist. It's easy for him to fall in to his flow, the writing is fun but not mind blowing, and it just kind of plays out how you'd expect something from the Trap Lord without the real high points that he hit either sooner or longer than I remember (Duh, "Shabba" is his hottest song for a reason). Fortunately he loads it pretty much top to bottom with features, and you get a lot of women on here which is surprising but gives the album more life than I expected it to have coming from Ferg, so at least there are things to build on, so hopefully we get there eventually. This sucker is pretty alright.
Actually, that's kind of it for the whole order thing. Might have pumped it up a bit, in hindsight. So we hit on P4K favs Fleet Foxes earlier in the week, and now we move to another that I've been more warm on in the past with Sufjan Stevens. I've passed on the past few projects, but there was a time when Stevens was at the top of the game that FLY was very much about his music. Things have kind of changed a lot since then, though, with artists like Father John Misty and Bon Iver rising as prominent figures in their genre and someone like James Blake operating more where sound and instrumentation almost becomes a part of the songwriting. Which results in Stevens falling somewhere in the middle ground that becomes more difficult to navigate. This new album, The Ascension, skews more towards the Blake end of things, which puts it in line with The Age Of Adz than COFTI. Of course, the latter is such a big part of that early success that it's still jarring a bit when he goes against it, as he did with TAoA, and how this splits the difference. The writing is sharp, even though it's overly long at an hour and twenty minutes, but the instrumentation doesn't always compliment the writing, so that tension never completely settles. Which is a bummer because there are moments here when it all comes together beautifully, and Stevens very much capitalizes on that early promise. But the world has changed, and Stevens hasn't completely changed with it. But take that as someone who skipped that other album from a few years ago that people seemed to enjoy a good deal, so FLY is hardly the authority on this.
Back in to my lane, we have this debut project from 18veno, Pablo. Didn't know much about him prior to listening to this, and it's a rather lean album that clocks in under thirty minute, I believe, but came away really surprised. There's room for growth, for sure, but it sounds like another strong voice from the south and has me interested in seeing what else we're going to get from him. Like, in actuality this does exist in the same sphere as that NLE Choppa album from a few weeks back, but I also took to that because it's just really well performed trap music that leans more towards the harder side of the streets than what you'd get with like Future's take on the genre. The songs are fun, they are hard, and this one was definitely good. 18veno is definitely on my radar.
This is our intermission for posterity's sake where I go to bed because I have to work tomorrow morning and we've saved the best for last (and also another one that I'll just mention quickly).
Forgot to say that the "Video Game" song on the Sufjan album is really good, and I listened to the 18veno again this morning while working and found it to still be very good.
I did listen to the Tim Heidecker album Fear Of Death, and it's also pretty good. Didn't listen to the one from 2016, or even realize that Heidecker did music that wasn't a type of comedy, but this thing reminds me of Jimmy Buffet a little bit in terms of his singing, even when the material is notably different. Went back and listened to some of his older work and that seemed to play better for me, this one didn't have the same tone when compared to some of those 2016 tracks. But I did only listen once and kind of passively. Like I said, not much to say about this one.
We're at the moment we've all been waiting for though. I'd have to check, but I think the other week or so I wrote about this "Baptize" song from Spillage Village and mentioned that I wasn't familiar with them, and a month or so ago "End Of Daze" did make my playlist when that hit (though it's possible that was when I wrote about being unfamiliar with them and I skipped "Baptize", again, FLY doesn't really fact check these things), so in a way I was already prepared to like Spilligion, but the extent to which I took to it was certainly a surprise. This sucker has already skyrocketed up my best of the year list, and I've listened to it more times than I even expected to in the past 24 hours or so. Seems like Spillage Village is a collective that was formed by due EARTHGANG and includes some other rappers and producers, with JID and 6lack probably being the biggest names. Mereba seems to be the other standout, as her vocals come through on a number of songs. There are other artists/producers I'm less familiar with involved as well. Wikipedia probs has a full list, if I had to guess.
Anyhow, saw some people on HHH saying two major things, both sort of connected to one another. The first was that the singles released in the lead up to the album were the darkest songs on the project (this would likely be correct, with "End Of Daze" fitting in with the slew of songs released around the most covered BLM demonstrations earlier in the summer), and that they end up delivering a folk album. That second part I still don't get, and not because I'm still pretty close to when I listened to the Fleet Foxes, because almost immediately you feel the soul and gospel influence. I mean, this shit is a portmanteau involving 'religion' and there are songs on here that are very much religious in their titling (though not all Christian, I suppose it should be mentioned, to give a better idea of the album's scope and focus). In the past I've been very skeptical of the 'jazz rap' sound, prevalent on that album from Anderson .Paak that people really like, and is most apparent on the near-unlistenable To Pimp A Butterfly, yet while you definitely get some of that here I'd say the production is much more in like with something like "Ultralight Beam" or a lot of the sounds that Chance was using with Coloring Book/the Donnie Trumpet project. Fittingly, there's even a Chance feature on "Judas" that has him in about as top form as he can get with the awareness that he'll never top that song "Juice" and that this sound is pretty much the one he's been pursuing for the past two projects. But yeah, the production on this, even in the singles which are more on the dour side, is remarkable and played incredibly well both on headphones and in the car.
It's tough picking out my favorite songs, because they all blend really well together, though "Mecca" has likely been the one I've listened to the most over the past day, but top to bottom you're getting complex, well written bars, great delivery, and such a refreshing sound that feels very much in line with the moment while also going beyond that. I did listen to that latest EARTHGANG album, and there's something there for sure, along with their work on the J. Cole/Dreamchasers or whatever compilation albums, but when they started to really breakthrough there was such a pressure to the put 'new Outkast' label on them that it becomes kind of impossible to meet expectations, even with "Proud Of You" being a certified banger and a fantastic Thugger showcase. JID I've heard featured, but never took to much of his solo work. Same with what I've heard from 6lack. Yet the way they all come together here, and knowing that EARTHGANG are kind of the architects of the collective, maybe collaborative works are where all involved are at their best. The easy winner of this week's etdoesgood should listen to this award, this album really does feel like something else. I came away largely stunned by it, really from start to finish. It's just such a magnificent artistic statement, celebration of voices, and raw outpouring of energy and emotion. Maybe it's possible some of the shine fades over the next few months, but right now I find it hard to see a way this doesn't hang with the best the year has to offer.
I listened to about half of the new Public Enemy album as well, which wasn't bad, but didn't do that much for me outside of the song with Run-D.M.C., Ad-Rock, and Mike D (the latter two are just an intro skit, I believe) and the "Fight The Power Remix" that I wrote about a little while back, so I didn't finish.
Regardless, not sure what next week will bring, but reckon it's going to be difficult topping this one.
EDIT: The J. Cole label is Dreamville, I believe, DreamChasers might be someone else's thing or something I made up.
Also, that Spillage Village album honestly wins the award for anyone who has even a passing interest in hip hop should listen to it award.