Fluxblog Weekly #162: R.I.P. Stewart Lupton, Pusha T, Red Velvet, A$AP Rocky, Shawn Mendes
May 30th, 2018 3:37pm
The Welcome Home Party I Never Had
Stewart Lupton has died at the age of 43. As the singer of Jonathan Fire Eater and the leader of The Child Ballads he was one of the most fascinating and charismatic rock frontmen of the past few decades, but his addictions and erratic behavior kept him from reaching a level of fame commensurate to his talent. His body of officially released material is quite small – a handful of EPs, a few stray singles, and one full album with Jonathan Fire Eater. I was fortunate enough to have produced a radio session that he recorded for PRI’s Fair Game back in 2008, when he was making a comeback with Child Ballads. One of the songs from that session was an adaptation of Lou Reed’s “Street Hassle” which was never officially released. Here it is, along with the copy I wrote for it when I originally posted it a decade ago. It’s beautiful and intense, and I think it’s particularly poignant now in how the lyrics provide some insight into his troubled, complicated life.
Stewart Lupton “Stewart Hassle”
Stewart Lupton has a new strategy: He’s writing new lyrics upon the foundations of respected classics, which is both supremely ballsy, and in line with the folk tradition. “Stewart Hassle” is his variation on Lou Reed’s epic “Street Hassle.” In this recording, he transposes its main theme to acoustic guitar, and replaces Reeds’ “great monologue set to rock” with a personal story about a homecoming, a reckoning, and a lost love. Lupton’s words are stark and colloquial, and linger in a place halfway between wisdom and regret. At the core, it’s a song about wounded pride — Lupton sounds genuinely embarrassed at certain moments, particularly when he explains “I did some things out in the streets / and some things were done to me / and the scariest thing / is just how it looked / the same as it does on the tv.” Throughout, he clings to the remnants of his dignity, and does his best to put his worst days into perspective, but in the end, the most gutting sentiment is expressed with only a slight modification of Reed’s words — “Love has gone away / it’s stripped the rings from my fingers / and there’s nothing left to say / except that I miss you, baby.”
(Originally posted March 27th 2008)
May 26th, 2018 4:27pm
This Thing Of Ours
Pusha T “If You Know You Know”
Kanye West may be going through a… difficult phase… right now, but it’s a huge relief that he’s bounced back as a producer after his dull and uninspired work on The Life of Pablo a few years ago. “If You Know You Know,” the opening track from Pusha T’s new record, is essentially a strutting glam rock song built entirely out of very Kanye sounds culled from obscure samples and expertly programmed beats. The music is dynamic and carefully calibrated so that the cool bits hit with maximum impact, whether it’s the introduction of the keyboard sample about 35 seconds into the track, or how the stuttering staccato vocal sample seems to bounce off of Pusha’s words. Pusha thrives on a track like this – it suits his gloating supervillain vibe, and gives him space to be a bit more playful than usual. His voice always conveys an even balance of cool and cruel, but the way he delivers the title phrase on this track is a new peak: so casually taunting, so glibly dismissive.
Buy it from Amazon.
May 26th, 2018
Brush It Off Like It’s Nothing
Red Velvet “All Right”
“All Right” is a ruthless pleasure machine designed to smash every joy button in your skull. The melodies are unstoppable earworms, the chords are designed to elicit maximum euphoria. Even by the chipper, hyperactive standards of K-Pop, this song is a lot. And oh god, I LOVE IT. But of course I do: I spent the first decade of this blog chasing this sort of pop high, and will always be a mark for well-constructed joyful dance pop. “All Right” is a hodgepodge of pop tics from the late ’90s and early ’00s – a bit of pop R&B melody on the verses, super-charged Britney on the chorus – with just enough English lyrics sprinkled in to keep it from sounding too alien to Western ears. And having read a translation of the lyrics, I can assure you that you don’t need much more than “ALL RIGHT, ALL RIGHT!” to grasp the meaning of this song.
Buy it from Amazon.
May 28th, 2018
Love Comes With A Price Tag And A Barcode
A$AP Rocky “Changes”
A$AP Rocky has been arty from the start, but early on he had a way of smuggling strange textures and unlikely samples into songs that passed for mainstream rap. His new record Testing goes much further out into experimental territory – there isn’t anything remotely like a banger, several songs resist form and structure, samples and vocals often overlap like clouds rather than click into rhythms, and everything feels like a woozy audio hallucination.
“Changes,” a song built around a sample of Charles Bradley cover’ of Black Sabbath’s ballad of the same name, swaps a standard verse-chorus-verse form in favor of a three-act structure. The first verse is a homage to Andre 3000’s famous verse from “International Players Anthem,” but flips that tentative ode to monogamy into a story about getting rejected and acting out. The narrative shifts along with the music, with Rocky’s lyrics growing more introspective and self-critical as it goes along. It’s a bittersweet song – he’s obsessing over changes in himself and others, and scrolling through Instagram envying other people who are embracing stability while he feels totally adrift. (Very relatable!)
Buy it from Amazon.
May 28th, 2018
A Little Excited
Shawn Mendes “Nervous”
Something about “Nervous” felt very familiar when I first heard it, but I couldn’t quite place it. But then I saw the credits and it all clicked: This song is co-written by Julia Michaels, and the verse melody and lyrics are very similar to her work on Selena Gomez’s “Bad Liar” last year, and Janelle Monáe’s “Make Me Feel” this year. “Nervous,” which was written by Michaels with Shawn Mendes and producer Scott Harris, is expertly composed blue-eyed soul filtered through a very neurotic perspective. Given the similarities between “Nervous,” “Bad Liar,” and “Make Me Feel,” it would seem that Michaels’ talent is in how she can lace raw, vulnerable feelings into big, generous melodic hooks that have more to do with classic ’80s pop by the likes of Madonna, George Michael, and either of the Jacksons than anything that’s been commercially successful over the past decade or so. Mendes is a great vehicle for the Michaels aesthetic – he’s got a terrific vocal range, sings with an obvious joy, and isn’t afraid to dial it back and focus on nuance while delivering those finely detailed lyrics on the verses.
Buy it from Amazon.