The Early Bird: Top New Recorded Releases 5-27-22 – 6-2-22 Reviewed
Kanye West’s “True Love” saw the light of day in February on Donda 2, an album I am the only person in the world to love unreservedly and still believe it is his worst to date, and even there the song featuring an XXXtentacion chorus was far from a standout. Ye has fiddled with it since then (he had problems with the drums) and here it is completed and off his Stem Player, and it is a whiny piece of crap about children and divorce… the rest of the album is much better (Grade: C-)
Let’s move to albums, I reviewed Liam Gallagher’s third and best and yet still generic Oasis facsimiles with maybe three strong bangers solo album C’mon You Know even earlier today (here) (Grade: B), if you weren’t there it is difficult to express how life changing UK Punk was, late 1976 and over by the Sex Pistols disbanding in 1979, it was a social upheaval and the sort of teen dream heavy metal gave the midwest in the early 1970s. The Original Recordings is 20 songs, most of Nevermind The Bollocks and then eight tracks straight off a cliff, tied into Danny Boyle’s dreaded Hulu biography undoubtedly (Grade: B), wow the Venezuelan soprano Samuel Mariño brings glam to opera on Sopranista, excelling where the music is best -(aka Mozart) (Grade: A-), Top Gun: Maverick (Music From The Motion Picture) would be Lady Gaga’s worst album if it was, in fact, her album (she gets credit on some instrumentals), so let’s settle for “Hold My Hand” being a bathetic, big ballad that’ll leave you nauseous (Grade: D+), the old timer pianist Bruce Hornsby meets up with his indie buddies some generation later for an irritating album of quasi-experimental, instrumentally unique but fundamentally boring songs, featuring everyone from Danielle Haim to Blake Mills but mostly just Bruce (Grade: C+), you know Def Leppard sound a little Who-y on a typical UK metal (which moves closer to classic rock everyday) Diamond Star Halos (Grade: C+).
Back to singles, M.I.A. is always well beyond welcome, her art meets electronic dance is a blast and “The One” is well worth the wait, immediately one of the best songs of the year (Grade: A-), The XX bassist Oliver Sim writes about discovering he was HIV positive and how it upset him on his first solo work, “Hideous”, an excellent song with Bronski Beat’s Jimmy Somerville as the angel on his shoulder (Grade: A-) . the return of Sky Ferreira, the heroin(e) on a loud beat, electronic dance track (Grade: B+). And finally… the return of Chance The Rapper who wrote “A Bar About A Bar” by himself, which maybe explains the abrupt ending 65 seconds in (Grade: B).
‘Flicted – Bruce Horsnby – C+
A Bar About a Bar – Chance the Rapper – B
Diamond Star Halos – Def Leppard – C+
True Love – Kanye West – C+
C’mon You Know – Liam Gallagher – B
Sopranista – Samuel Mariño – A-
The One – M.I.A. – A-
Hideous – Oliver Sim, Jimmy Somerville – A-
The Original Recordings – Sex Pistols – B
Don’t Forget – Sky Ferreira – – B+
Top Gun: Maverick (Music From The Motion Picture) – Various Artists – D+
