Album Reviews
The Diverse Appeal of King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard’s Omnium Gatherum
Australia’s King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard are easily among the most prolific and versatile acts of the last couple of decades. They’ve put out nearly two dozen collections since 2012, with several years spawning multiple releases each. Plus, their highly adventurous blends of psychedelic rock, hip-hop, garage rock, metal, ambient, dream pop, and electronic evoke artists as wide-ranging as Pink Floyd, Motörhead, Childish Gambino, Japanese Breakfast, Black Midi, and Tame Impala. Considering their talent and tenacity, it was only a matter of time before they pushed themselves further than ever by creating a double album. Indeed, Omnium Gatherum — which has more in common with 2021’s welcomingly exploratory Butterfly 3000 than it does last month’s avant-garde Made in Timeland — is essen...
On It’s Almost Dry, The Game Pulls Pusha T Back In
Almost every gangster movie or its sequel features a character going legit. Or trying as hard as they can. Scene after scene in The Godfather and The Godfather Part II show Michael Corleone telling anyone who will listen that the Corleone family is walking on the side of the angels after one, two, or a dozen more scores. For Pusha T, his 2018 opus Daytona was his massive score. Push distilled everything about his dope brand of hardcore hip-hop into an almost perfect seven-track piece of work. It’s Almost Dry, due out this Friday (April 22nd), feels like the reflections of a former gangster doing his best to live a regular life. But, to paraphrase the head of the Corleone family, just when Push thinks he’s out, the game pulls him back in. While not as strong as Daytona, It’s Almost Dry is m...
Father John Misty’s Chloë and the Next 20th Century: Doomed Love Songs For the Pseudo-Nostalgic
“What’s ‘deeply funny’ mean anyhow?” Father John Misty asks on “Q4,” a single from Chloë and the Next 20th Century. The song is the album’s clearest, most cutting satire, but this question feels earnest, the stakes intimate to the singer — as a performer and person seeking connection in a modern wasteland. Over five albums, singer-songwriter Josh Tillman has been a craftsman of story-songs delivered via absurdist personae, scaffolding ironic provocation with heartfelt croons and soaring folk-inspired instrumentation. On Chloë, singer-songwriter Josh Tillman returns with his first new material since 2018’s taciturn God’s Favorite Customer. Written and recorded in fall/winter 2020, the album sees Tillman continuing to collaborate with multi-instrumentatlist/producer Jonathan Wilson and engin...
Soul Glo Turn In a Landmark Hardcore Album with the Political and Personal Diaspora Problems: Review + Stream
In the roiling summer heat of 2021, Philadelphia hardcore act Soul Glo took to their practice space to record the 12 songs that would form Diaspora Problems. The material was conceptualized over a five-year period and harnessed in true punk fashion, under tumultuous and budget-conscious conditions. In many ways, Soul Glo have followed the tried-and-true punk trajectory, gradually building a fanbase via touring, DIY releases, and EPs. It’s culminated with the band inking a deal with storied punk label Epitaph Records, home to legends such as Bad Religion, Rancid, Social Distortion, and many more. But Soul Glo are far from your average hardcore band. With predominantly Black band members, the band is inherently distinguished among a scene long dominated by whiteness — a topic Pierce Jordan d...
Weezer Go Vivaldi-Rock (?) on SZNZ: Spring EP
For a band still very much defined by the crunchy alt-pop of their very first album (and by the departures from that sound on their classic follow-up), Weezer has used its unlikely second and third decades as a band to practice a surprising amount of eclecticism. For Decade Two (roughly 2003 through 2013), this translated to never knowing whether a Weezer song would be pop-rock bliss or appalling disaster, leaving only the certainty that any given album would have at least several tracks’ worth of each. But since 2014 or so, the band has seemed less defiantly scattershot in their experiments. Their albums still come out at a steady clip, but they feel more sonically and thematically cohesive — without sacrificing their playfulness. Appropriate for its debut in a season of blooming, the ban...
Mitski Blazes Forward on the Enigmatic Laurel Hell
Mitski had made up her mind after finishing her “Be The Cowboy” tour in late 2019: after months of frequent shows, press, and supporting her biggest album to date, she was quitting music for good. “I felt it was shaving away my soul little by little,” said Mitski in a recent profile, describing the anxiety, pressure, and existential dread she was experiencing as simply too much to bear. Of course, endings aren’t always that simple. She began working on Be The Cowboy’s follow-up quickly after, but only because she was contractually obligated to do so; yet, after over two years of writing and recording in the midst of a global pandemic, Mitski arrives this week (February 4th) with her sixth studio album, Laurel Hell. And by all measures, Laurel Hell is yet another phenomenal entry in Mitski’...
Earl Sweatshirt’s SICK!: Flawless Rapping That Doesn’t Overstay Its Welcome
How does one find the perfect words to describe life-changing events, the oppressiveness of living in a constant state of stress caused by a pandemic, and reflections of the past? Nobody pays me enough to answer that question. Luckily, I don’t have to, because Earl Sweatshirt discovered the cheat code. SICK!, his fourth album, is inspired by this moment in time. But it’s not just the COVID in the air on his mind. Since the last time we heard him in 2019, Earl said “hi” to fatherhood, cut back on his alcohol, and rediscovered his religion. Any one of those things is enough to pen something the size of a Greek epic poem. But all three? And in the face of, well, all of this? That’s a lot to process. The mere fact Earl only took 25 minutes to say it all with his chest is a testament to his tal...
Adele’s 30 Is Much More Than a Divorce Album — It’s a Hard-Won Journey to Self-Love
“To be loved and love at the highest count, means to lose all the things I can’t live without.” When Adele croons that line on the devastating piano ballad “To Be Loved,” one gets the impression that it is not only emblematic of her latest album, but also the journey of the past six years of her life. On the surface, 30, out Friday (November 19th), could be perceived as a divorce album, but it’s more than that: It’s about depression, new love, rebirth, choosing the harder road even if it means self-preservation. Here, the singer digs deeper than she ever has before. Though Adele has always mastered the art of remaining notoriously private, despite being one of the biggest pop stars in the world, 30 unveils the extreme change she’s experienced over the years. Advertisement The world has bee...
Snail Mail Hits the Emotional Sweet Spot on Valentine
Love hasn’t gotten any easier for Lindsey Jordan, but her heart is better equipped to sustain it on Valentine, her second studio album as Snail Mail (out November 5th via Matador Records). The 22-year old indie rock upstart reemerges after grappling with a tumultuous rise to stardom from her 2018 breakout debut Lush, which recounted a series of relationships that left her burned. However, she returns not hardened by her experiences, but enlightened, accountable, and against all odds, open to falling in deep once again. Now in sequence as the opening track, the album’s debut single “Valentine” serves as an even greater introduction to Snail Mail’s next phase; the initial enveloping synths and warbling flourishes tucked deep into the verses hint at both the vast expansion of sound and subtle...
Sly and the Family Stone’s There’s a Riot Goin’ On Resounds 50 Years Later: Classic Review
Editor’s Note: Sly and the Family Stone released their fifth studio album on this day 50 years ago. Read Okla Jones’ retrospective essay below, and stay tuned for an exciting giveaway on Consequence surrounding the anniversary. When There’s a Riot Goin’ On was released in 1971 — exactly 50 years ago today, November 1st — America was a nation in transition, feeling the effects of the previous decade. The shadow of Dr. King’s assassination loomed over the black community; and the Vietnam War divided an entire country. What Sly and the Family Stone’s fifth album did was give a voice to a new generation yearning to be heard. The revolution, as it was referred to by some, was when the hip, twenty-somethings of the world experienced an awakening, so to speak, and pushed the limits of sex, drugs,...
Jerry Cantrell’s Brighten Shines a Light Back on His Stellar Solo Work: Review
The Lowdown: As one of the main creative forces of Alice in Chains for decades, singer-guitarist Jerry Cantrell is responsible for penning some of rock’s all-time great guitar riffs. He has remained busy with Alice in Chains (regularly issuing albums and touring after the arrival of singer William DuVall in 2006), and as a result, his solo career took a backseat — his last solo offering, Degradation Trip, dropped all the way back in 2002. So, nearly 20 years later, Cantrell is ready to go at it solo once more with Brighten. For the new album, he enlisted the aid of such renowned names as Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan, ex-Dillinger Escape Plan singer Greg Puciato (who supplies background vocals), and producer/composer Tyler Bates, among several additional respected musicians. The Good:...
Mastodon Explore Every Facet of Their Musical Language on Hushed and Grim: Review
The Lowdown: The four-year wait for Mastodon’s eighth studio album, Hushed and Grim, felt like an eternity. As one of the definitive modern metal bands, the group has displayed a level of craftsmanship that’s elevated its discography to the top of the heap. There’s a reason Mastodon garnered so many Metallica comparisons early in their career; not that they sounded alike, but rather, people could sense that the Atlanta quartet were going places. After releasing four now-considered-classic LPs, the band took a similarly mainstream turn, and for good reason. Mastodon had amassed a global audience that yearned for their cracking brand of prog-tinged sludge metal. If the wait for Hushed and Grim felt long, it’s because Mastodon were prepping a double-album opus spanning 15 tracks — a huge unde...
