“If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power” by Halsey
“If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power” by Halsey Introduced by the 26-year-old Queen regnant of alternative pop herself on Instagram as “a concept album about the joys and horrors of pregnancy and childbirth,” Halsey’s latest LP is exactly that. Released just a month after giving birth to her first child, the lyrically charged and industrial[1]heavy album was produced by Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross with an intentionally cinematic, darkly mood-shifting scope. No current working artist has mastered the art of composing the subversive, untraditional “love song” quite like Halsey has this decade. And last Friday, she unleashed thirteen new catchy-as-they-are candid encapsulations of her mental and physical health struggles while embracing motherhood as the ultimate artistic catalyst. “I am not a woman, I’m a god” was the first single released, but the expressly ‘90s-influenced record’s early standout is “You asked for this,” due for release on Sept. 7. The album’s sixth track flaunts a chorus that will earn Halsey favorable vocal and musical comparisons to Gwen Stefani, no doubt about it.
“Screen Violence” by CHVRCHES
Their sophomore album “Every Open Eye” (2015) was their best-charting. “Love is Dead” (2018) triumphed past it, in terms of radio play and sheer excellence. When all is set and done, “Screen Violence” – predominantly recorded and produced during quarantine – may surpass each in one or both categories. But it’s early yet for the Scottish synthpop group that operates as a modern-day Fleetwood Mac: turn intra-band clashing or near-breakups into the musical gold all arguments in favor of continued togetherness typically hinge upon.
“These lyrics are about a time when I just wanted to disappear, and the only time I ever thought about quitting the band. I felt like I was in over my head at the deep end and not sure how to get back,” lead vocalist Lauren Mayberry, 33, tweeted about “How Not To Drown.”
The album’s second single is a collaboration with their personal hero, The Cure’s Robert Smith, 62, who provides co-lead vocals – complimenting Mayberry’s signature soprano with his unabated emo. Though, as strong as the song is, “He Said She Said” is the album’s de facto hit, if it has one. Released as the album’s first single in April, the track utilizes a reliance on repetition and high energy to unmask the pain of being stifled and the devastation of sanity called into question.
“Donda” by Kayne West
Self-indulgence does not mean zero quality. But what’s ever-present in this highly-anticipated, proclaimed and named-as-such tribute to his mother is actually very much a tribute to Kanye.
Producer “Ye” and vocalist “Ye” constantly get in each other’s way quite often, here. Why mid-load a massive undertaking most are going to listen to chronologically and therefore tail off before stumbling upon what few tracks genuinely work? Moreover, West, 44, has fallen into a habit of prioritizing spirituality over spirit. Saying several things at once is often akin to saying nothing at all, as far as the masses are concerned in a commercial medium. He may think his “Synecdoche, New York” (2008) – which stars the late Philip Seymour Hoffman as a playwright who takes advantage of a bottomless grant by spending twenty years too long on crafting his autobiographical opus – is bathed in the sunlight emitting off the highest church’s stained glass window. In reality, it’s another entry in a discography recently stained. Don’t be mistaken, though; rude-of-the-mill, second-rate Kanye is no slouch. To earn the acclaim of yesteryear he so covets, he doesn’t necessarily have to go back to, and subsequently drop out of college again to win the people over. If he insists on breaking hearts, he ought to consider implementing some 808s as well. It sure worked on a vintage Kanye[1]sounding track like “Believe What I Say,” which benefited from less-is-more simplicity more than anything. It’s post-pandemic 2021; people don’t want a preacher. They want party music again. No Kanye left behind, save for half the tracks on “Donda.” But the other half…
