Slim pickings this week. Matter of fact, without Frank Ocean's new album, which was released on iTunes last week but everywhere else today, the new album release list would be a desolate wasteland (something something Ocean/desert wordplay).
Frank Ocean - Channel Orange
If you care about pop music (meaning the zeitgeist, not any particular genre), then you owe it to yourself to listen to this album. Among a certain type of person, it's going to end up being incredibly over-hyped (if it isn't already): this album is certainly the current favorite for being the most common "Token Hip-Hop/R&B Album Added to Indie-Loving Critic's Best-Of Year-End List to Create a False Sense of Eclecticism." Think of how every music critic lost their shit over Kanye's "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy": this album has a similar type of critic-baiting "depth" (although probably not the same type of radio crossover potential; more on that later).
Additionally, there is the important news story of Ocean being the first big-time performer in the hip hop community to come out as a gay man (or bisexual; it wasn't entirely clear), which he did only two weeks ago. Whether this announcement will actually help in album sales considering hip-hop's traditional... heteronormativity (to be charitable) is a very open question (although early sales reports have been promising), but there is no question that the announcement has at the very least raised the profile of an album by a singer who before this was known primarly as the dude who sang the hook on "No Church in the Wild."
Both of these facts mean this album will almost certainly be one of the more important ones of 2012 but does nothing to answer the question "Is it any good?", to which I answer, "Eh, I guess it's alright: feels like a B, maybe B+." I've been listening to it since it came out on iTunes last week, and it definitely has its moments, but it seems to fall short of being the singular work of genius that a lot of music critics seem to have anointed it. Personally, I think the album could have used more variety, particularly in the energy department: there are a few too many indulgent introspective songs with slow tempos, and they end up blurring together before long. Also, hooks are conspicuously absent from a lot of the songs, the notable exception being the almost ten minutes long song "Pyramids," which is a legitimately great song. Outside of it and the beautiful (if kinda by the numbers ballad-y) "Bad Religion," I'm not sure there's anything else on here that I can imagine hearing on the radio, although I guess no one really listens to the radio any more anyway. For the record, I think my favorite song is the 39 second long track "Fertilizer," which reveals a playful bouncy vibe that could have been better incorporated in the non-throwaway tracks of the album.
Selections
Fertilizer
Pyramids
Bad Religion
Soul Asylum - Delayed Reaction
Do you like Soul Asylum? This album sounds like Soul Asylum.
Selections
Into the Light (Breaking Horses)
The Streets
That's it for this week. I listened to a couple other things, but nothing I liked, and I don't really see the point in writing about something just to criticize it. But don't worry: next week is looking much more promising on the new album front.
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