This article was featured in RVAMag #26: Fall 2016. You can read all of issue #26 here or pick it up at local shops around RVA right now. You can read Part 1 of our Record Reviews here and Part 2 here.
This article was featured in RVAMag #26: Fall 2016. You can read all of issue #26 here or pick it up at local shops around RVA right now. You can read Part 1 of our Record Reviews here and Part 2 here.
Frank Ocean
Blonde
(Boys Don’t Cry)
The beloved R&B star continues to grow the genre while simultaneously blurring it with psychedelic, rock, and even glitch. The sonic focus and musical clarity here is a stunning improvement over his earlier works, with the use of countless production tricks and methods creating a vibrant world of characters, melodrama, and reward. By the end of the hour-long record, one thing is for sure: This was surely worth the wait. (DN)
The Julie Ruin
Hit Reset (http://pitchfork-cdn.s3.amazonaws.com/content/TheJulieRuin_LP1.jpg)
(Hardly Art)
Hit Reset is required listening for just about any music fan. The Julie Ruin have conceived a record that plays with musical tropes in electronica (“Hello Trust No One”) and confessional piano ballads (“Calverton”) while never letting up on Riot Grrrl attitudes found on “Be Nice” and the title track. Everything about this record is relentlessly great and of course, it’s always exciting to hear Kathleen Hanna behind a microphone again. (SC)
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Skeleton Tree
(Bad Seeds Ltd.)
An unexpected late-career triumphant that might go down as the greatest achievement of Nick Cave’s storied career. Listening to the painful and elegiac songs is not an easy undertaking, but once you’ve begun, it’s hard to shift your attention elsewhere. You’ll find yourself right at the emotional bottom with Cave exploring his own personal desolation, where anguish and agony somehow produce something beautiful and unforgettable. (DN)
Thee Oh Sees
A Weird Exits
(Castle Face Records)
Catching Thee Oh Sees live over the past several years often meant that one could witness two drummers on stage at once. With this new album, the band has finally brought that element to a studio recording. The songs here are trademark Oh Sees fuzzed-out garage-gone-psych rock, providing that little extra sunshine that these times desperately need. (CE)
Owen
The King Of Whys
(Polyvinyl Records)
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Mike Kinsella is a musician of all trades. On the newest effort from Owen, he trades his former penchants of frantic fingerpicking and musings about subsequent depression that comes from feelings of exclusion for songs that feel filled to the brim with warmth and lush sonic tapestries. The King Of Whys is great for the sheer execution and dynamics that Kinsella has at play and how he has coalesced every facet of his musical lineage into yet another phenomenal release. (SC)
Russian Circles
Guidance
(Sargent House)
For a decade now, Russian Circles has been one of the most consistently enjoyable acts playing instrumental metal. This release contains more of the sprawling post-rock and crushing black metal-influenced post-metal that this trio is known for, supported as always by the phenomenal drumming of Dave Turncrantz. When “Vorel” comes on, crank the volume. Trust me. (CE)
Schoolboy Q
Blank Face LP
(Top Dawg Entertainment)
Existing between the commercial appeal of Oxymoron and the artistic statement of Habits & Contradictions, Schoolboy Q’s latest record is a re-affirmation in his status as one of hip-hop’s finest. Lyrics are packed with sincere emotion and sensational inflections, while the production deftly finds a happy ground between infectious and introspective, showing that Schoolboy Q can balance accessibility and advancement better than most in history. (DN)
Shura
Nothing’s Real
(Polydor Records)
This debut record is a striking collection of the singles that brought this English musician to international recognition, with her polished electronica production and frank songwriting at the forefront of every song. The only downfall is that it offers few surprises and serves as a summation of the last few years rather than the next step, but this doesn’t come close to diminishing the light that radiates from this music. (DN)
