Fluxblog Weekly #74: Nada Surf, Danny Brown, Mac Miller, D.R.A.M, Lil Yachty
September 19th, 2016
I Forget My Body
Nada Surf “Rushing”
I could say that this is a really great soft rock song, but that sounds like I’m making fun of it, right? But it really is, and the quality of it highlights how difficult it can be to write in this mode without getting overly sappy and sentimental, or having the softness of the song completely overwhelm the rock of it. I hear a lot of Matthew Sweet in the melody of “Rushing,” but the arrangement is much more strummy, airy, and overtly romantic than what he’s normally up to. It isn’t just that this song is romantic, it’s unabashedly so, and Matthew Caws sings about falling in love with incredible earnestness. The music makes everything sound crisp and focused and idealized, emphasizing the sense that meeting this person has suddenly shifted this guy’s entire perspective on the world for the better. The lyrics address feeling cynical and closed-off before this moment, and you could paraphrase pretty much all of it as “I was blind, but now I see!”
Buy it from Amazon.
September 20th, 2016
The City On Fire
Danny Brown featuring Ab-Soul, Kendrick Lamar, and Earl Sweatshirt “Really Doe”
My favorite hip-hop is almost always little more than a series of rappers taking turns on a beat, especially if that beat has a creaky, dilapidated aesthetic. Blame the Wu-Tang Clan. All four verses in “Really Doe” are remarkable, and work as good minute-long primers on each rapper’s style. Kendrick shifts his vocal pitch and rhythm midway through his intricate verse; Danny Brown is typically squawky and eccentric; Earl Sweatshirt is gruff and sullen yet slightly smirky. Ab-Soul is the revelation here, maybe because he has the most to prove relative to these other guys who’ve already attained icon status. His verse sounds twice as hungry, and actually outdoes Kendrick’s in terms of wordplay and meticulous attention to technical detail. I particularly love the bit where he mentions Aleister Crowley and “the GOAT” within a few seconds but doesn’t really nudge you in a “see what I did there???” way to notice the play on occult iconography. And that’s the general vibe here – four very technically proficient rappers having fun with the track and refusing to dumb anything down.
Buy it from Amazon.
September 21st, 2016
Other People Need Food
Mac Miller featuring Anderson Paak “Dang!”
I can’t say that I would’ve expected Mac Miller to make one of the tightest, most focused, and musically rich rap records of 2016, but 1) it’s on me that I wrote this guy off for no good reason 2) I’m very glad that he did. “Dang!” sets the tone for The Divine Feminine early on, tapping into a chill, sophisticated quasi-disco aesthetic that reminds me a lot of Beyoncé’s “Blow” while exploring anxiety about an on-and-off relationship Miller sounds desperate to save. (Both songs are very focused on cunnilingus though, so there’s that.) I like the contrast of the smoothness of the sound with the vulnerability of Miller’s words, which are cleverly written but delivered with a slightly mush-mouthed delivery that feels right in this context. The overall feeling of the track is light and perky, which lends an optimistic tone to Miller’s verses. He’s admitting to fucking things up, but it’s easy to get on his side and believe him when he’s making his promises.
Buy it from Amazon.
September 22nd, 2016
Plastic Bankroll
D.R.A.M. “Cash Machine”
The “my life is pretty great now that I’ve got a lot of money!!!” song is a staple of hip-hop, and a lot of rappers can sound like they’re crossing something off a to-do list when they make theirs, but D.R.A.M. really goes at the trope with gusto on “Cash Machine.” There’s so much joy in the sound of this – the bright notes of the piano hook, the cheeriness when he breaks into sing-song, the zippiness of his punchlines – that some of the more mean-spirited lines are softened a bit by context. Is this fundamentally a song about a guy lording it over other people for making more money and leaning into petty grudges? Yes, of course. Is this one of the best feel-good rap tracks of the year? Also yes!
Buy it from Amazon.
Lil Yachty featuring Skippa Da Flippa “Good Day”
“Good Day” is another “YES I AM FINALLY RICH!” moment-of-triumph song, but as much as Lil Yachty is expressing jubilation in his lyrics, there’s a vague melancholy in his voice that kinda tilts the song in an unexpected direction. Is that a note of doubt? A lingering paranoia? A fear that this is only a passing moment of reprieve from economic hardship? Is Lil Yachty just one of those dudes who can’t help but sound like a sad robot when he gets AutoTuned? I feel for the guy and genuinely want his good day to last.
Buy it from Amazon.