"ILYSB"- LANY

"And you need to know that I'm hella obsessed with your face," LANY's enigmatic vocalist tenderly croons in bouncy new single "ILYSB". Hearing that phrase delivered in such an endearing tone, I'm reminded of an ongoing "game" my friend Michael and I play. Over the last year or so, we've kept a running tab of artists who use "f***" so masterfully that it becomes a delicate word. Iron & Wine, Bon Iver, Lana Del Rey, Beyoncé, Kanye West, and Vampire Weekend have all been added to the hallowed ranks and while "hella" is far removed from the infamous four-letter word, LANY at least deserve an honorable mention for the way they use "hella." Instead of a fifth grader's favorite word, it's a paean of love; an innocent confession lacking any of the hazards "obsession" often comes with. Even the title, rendered in an acronym, is an ingenuous admission of affection. "I love you (babe) so bad" the singer repeatedly hums in the chorus, finger snaps and tidal synthesizer carefully accompanying him.

The cautious production is really what rescues "ILYSB" and LANY from dire romantic drama. When they sing "and you need to know that you keep me up all night" there's no agony dripping from the line. Right as the phrase ends, what sounds like a guitar is gently plucked and the pressure is alleviated. There's no pain or worry anywhere. The serene music would have you convinced he's up all night because it's a new love. The kind where everything done together is an important "event." A sort of love where you're sending texts that read "ILYSB" at 2AM in the morning as you go to bed. Or perhaps a simple smiley face emoticon. Considering the warmth of "ILYSB" the latter is more likely.



LANY's Acronyms single is now available on iTunes.

"Cash Talk"- Young Thug (Prod. Metro Boomin & 808 Mafia)

"Whatchu say?" Atlanta rap auteur/professional weirdo Young Thug squeals in "Cash Talk", his latest pairing with Atlantan producer Metro Boomin as Metro Thuggin. Considering Thug's pinched-off delivery of the line over the Galaga meets traphouse beat, it can be construed one of several ways. Emboldened by the sturdy bass, Thug is chest puffing and asking haters what shade they would dare throw his way. Or the syrup-addled ATLien is mimicking the most common question anyone hearing his music for the first time would ask, "whatchu say?" With the marble-mouthed Gucci Mane and Autotune loving Future providing competition, Young Thug still stands out in Atlanta rap as the most misunderstood. Check out any number of entries on Rap Genius for Thug's music and you'll find glaring lyric holes or debates over what exactly it is he's saying. Even if his words are properly transcribed there's a reasonable chance you'll still be asking "whatchu say?" Unless Thug’s a serious Transformers fan, "Y'all like we wear black diamonds, stingray, no bumblebee" doesn't mean anything. It's a liquid non sequitur that flows like rain on a slanted roof.

 Which leads to a third possibility. "Whatchu say?" could be an incomplete thought of "it's not whatchu say, but how you say it." Delivery is what matters more in our fast-paced communication and at this point Thug has his delivery perfected. He'll squeal, scream, bark, bellow and laugh, often on the same track. "Pull up in a hearse you're head imma burst" is a relatively minor threat unless it’s delivered in Young Thug's frantic tone. Hearing him speed through the line, you'd think he was going to kill everyone at the funeral and then hit another wake "just because." Maybe it's the Southern Gothic churn that so frequently accompanies him, but much of Thug's work has that feel. It's a do or die urgency few in any genre possess right now and it's a marvel to hear, no matter what it is he’s saying.



The Metro Thuggin mixtape is loosely pegged for a summer release.

"Heavenly Father"- Bon Iver

Though last year's soaring LP Repave by Volcano Choir essentially acted as a new Bon Iver effort, it's really been three years since the act Justin Vernon came to fame with has issued anything new. In the run-up to Repave's release in September, Vernon expounded on the silence surrounding Bon Iver, saying "I really have to be in a specific headspace to even begin to illuminate an idea that would create another Bon Iver record, and I'm just not there." At the time his words were effectively a death knell, terrifying fans (myself included) that a follow-up to Bon Iver Bon Iver would never come.

Today then is a cause for minor celebration amongst Bon Iver torch-carriers. As previously reported on the blog, Bon Iver is contributing a new effort to the upcoming Zach Braff film Wish I Was Here and today Line of Best Fit points out the song "Heavenly Father" has officially debuted. In terms of sound, it owes at least a bit of rent to Repave closer "Almanac" which was similarly constructed around an electronic figure. That said, the synthesizer in "Almanac" was far more confident and forward-moving than the electro manipulation we hear in "Heavenly Father". The piece hiccups and stutters in shifted pitches as Vernon's familiar ache floats atop. At times invading hi-hats tics make you think "Heavenly Father" could launch into trap territory if given enough time. But the song doesn't have that kind of certainty. Vernon's perpetually wondering if he can ever come to accept a higher power, or so it seems. "I was never sure how much of you I could let in," could be a religious skeptic's call to the Lord or an explanation offered to a former lover why things didn't work out. With "Heavenly Father" Bon Iver show why love and religion aren't the right answer for everyone, they're riddled with far too many questions that can never fully be answered.

(You can listen to "Heavenly Father" now through the All Songs Considered Media Player on NPR and look for the Wish I Was Here soundtrack to drop digitally July 15.)

"Go"- Grimes

Not even 10 minutes after Vancouver native Claire Boucher aka Grimes put up her latest song "Go" on Soundcloud, there were loading problems for the track. I can't imagine I was the only one nervously clicking, "praying" I'd get through in time to replay "Go" to my heart's content. Though I'd just heard it on Zane Lowe's BBC 1 Radio show at 1:30, I wanted to hear it again. If I spent the rest of day letting it boom out of my speakers and failed to get anything else done, including this review, it'd still be a successful day.

Now some of that is obvious hyperbole, but not much. "Go" is that kind of entrancing effort. The same week Pitchfork's Ryan Dombal told us about the joys of well-timed bass drops in a music culture desensitized to them, Grimes upped the ante further. Rustie's "Raptor" features an unquestionably terrific drop, one best compared to a waterfall of noise if you're intent on using any kind of "dropping" or "falling" verbiage. But "Raptor"'s drop is necessary when you consider it comes after a stretch of silence. You need noise to drown out the quietude in that case. The reason "Go"'s anvil-like drop is so fascinating is that it may not even be needed. Before its leaden appearance "Go" is a mid-tempo languisher with an eerie clock rhythm and elegiac piano ringing out. Grimes half-whispers about dreams and memories being indistinguishable and time cruelly stretching out past some far-off horizon. Bolstered by mechanical drum claps, its best described as "haunting."

However once the bass goes from a mid-volume rumble to a speaker busting boom, "Go" becomes something else entirely. "Bubblegum trap rave" may be a clunky way to describe it, but that's what immediately came to mind. If that is the descriptor though, it's not syrupy sweet bubblegum pop you'd hear on an AM station in the 60s. This is the sugar-free variety, where the bubble's been popped and disappointment hangs where a smile once resided. Under Blood Diamond's massively stuttering samples, you can hear Grimes' head hanging down when she sings of "stupid dreams." Her best work often captures peril in mundane situations (night-walks becoming panic-stricken runs on "Oblivion") and "Go" is no different. We all dream, it's just rarely as vivid or panoramic as this.



In an on-air interview with Zane Lowe today, Grimes intimated she'd be releasing a new album "sometime next year" so "Go" will have to tide you over until then.

"Scars"- GEMS

"You know all my scars, no we can't hide," GEMS singer Lindsay Pitts tenderly puffs on the duo's new shadowy pop track "Scars". Instead of registering as an act of committal though, it scans as resignation. She's invested so much time in this current person that starting over seems nearly impossible. There's a familiarity linking the two that neither can extricate themselves from. And rather than develop new shorthand with a new person, they'll continue to let dusty webs weave around one another.

Musically "Scars" is familiar as well. Clifford John gives the guitars the same heavy dosage of reverb the xx do. Autotuned ghosts sough in the background like something out of a Clams Casino production. Drum machines strike with a dulled precision typically reserved for zoned out rappers. Even the first half-second of "Scars" feels oddly primed to launch into "Ocean Breathes Salty". "Scars"'s saving grace from being denounced as "derivative" is Pitts' pained vocal take. It suffers without languishing. She exhales in disappointment, but doesn't breathe too much. Separated from the wonderfully obfuscating production, her decree "I can't bear it alone," would be too much emotional baggage for the listener to carry. However, placed in the middle of a melodic blur her situation is engaging. No one really wants to lose someone who knows them so well; Pitts isn't any different.



GEMS are set to go on an abbreviated tour starting June 22. No word on when an EP/LP might drop.

"Every Morning"- J Mascis

Hearing J Mascis' effusive first single for upcoming sophomore solo release Tied to a Star, it's hard not to imagine an alternate career path for the Dinosaur Jr. singer/guitarist. One where his Neil Young influences weren't guitar epics "Down by the River" or "Cortez the Killer", but homespun folk tales "Round and Round (It Won't Be Long)" and "See the Sky About to Rain". Songs defined less by the fists they ball up and more by the open hand they extend.

Impeccably strummed without much intensity, "Every Morning" does precisely that. Throughout the sanguine tune, Mascis can be heard searching for someone to make it through the days with. "Every morning makes it hard on me," he wearily mewls. Each morning begins to feel less like a "fresh start" and more like a "continual slog." Day and night swirl together rendering time irrelevant. The longer you're around, the more you ask "why am I here?" But with someone else around, the eternal harshness of time begins to feel less severe. "Oh baby won't you see me?" he gently asks before settling into one of several guitar solos. Instead of thrashing about though, they softly envelop the track. Good company can soften almost any blow.

Tied To A Star drops on Sub Pop August 26. The tracklist can be found below, along with tour dates for a solo tour Mascis will embark on.

 

Tracklist:

1. "Me Again"2. "Every Morning"
3. "Heal the Star"
4. "Wide Awake"
5. "Stumble"
6. "And Then"
7. "Drifter"
8. "Trailing Off"
9. "Come Down"
10. "Better Plane"

 

Tour Dates:
7/26 Carnation, WA - Timber! Outdoor Festival
9/24 Hamden, CT - The Ballroom at The Outer Space
9/25 Philadelphia, PA - World Cafe Live
9/26 Baltimore, MD - Ottobar
9/27 Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506
9/28 Asheville, NC - Grey Eagle
9/30 Birmingham, AL - Bottletree
10/1 Nashville, TN - Exit / In
10/2 Athens, GA - 40 Watt Club
10/3 Atlanta, GA - Terminal West
10/4 Louisville, KY - Zanzabar
10/5 St. Louis, MO - Off Broadway
10/7 Lawrence, KS - Bottleneck
10/8 Omaha, NE - Waiting Room
10/9 Minneapolis, MN - Minneapolis Institute of Arts
10/10 Madison, WI - High Noon Saloon
10/11 Chicago, IL - Subterranean
10/13 Ann Arbor, MI - Blind Pig
10/14 Cleveland, OH - Grog Shop
10/15 Pittsburgh, PA - Club Cafe
10/16 Washington, DC - Black Cat
10/17 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
10/18 Boston, MA - Sinclair
11/7-9 Austin, TX - Fun Fun Fun Fest
11/11 Phoenix, AZ - Crescent Ballroom
11/12 San Diego, CA - Casbah
11/13 Long Beach, CA - Alex’s Bar
11/14 Los Angeles, CA - The Echo
11/15 San Francisco, CA - The Independent
11/16 Sonoma, CA - Gundlach Bundschu
11/19 Seattle, WA - Tractor Tavern
11/20 Portland, OR - Dante’s
11/21-22 Denver, CO - Larimer Lounge

"Hella H***"- A$AP Mob

Phrases like "controlled chaos" or "measured urgency" are some of the only ways I can describe certain efforts by A$AP Mob members Rocky and Ferg. On the cuts "Wild for the Night" and "Shabba Ranks" they're incredibly collected, but there's always a certain agitation in their voice that suggests they could fly off the handle once their verse ends. They've got a finite amount of time and if you dare ask them to repeat themselves, you're guaranteed to end up with a knot on your forehead. 

"Hella H***", the first taste of the long-delayed L.O.R.D. album, continues the trend. Aided by A$AP role players Nast and Twelvyy, and a booming music box beat from Nyrell OC, Ferg and Rocky team up to unravel a laundry list of recent acquisitions and beefs . Through diamond imprinted teeth and adapted patois, Ferg details dusting off Versace and sending people to their new home at the bottom of a lake. Even at his menacing high, Ferg still manages terrific jokes like "open your chest like your Janet Jackson". As the gunshots die down after Ferg's rapid-fire verse, Rocky engages in some gun play of his own. "Pretty mothaf****" that he is, he has to keep himself protected at all times, so he's "loading up the clip" and keeping a finger firmly on the trigger. If this sounds a bit lurid, it is. But "Hella H***" is delivered in such an unflappably cool tone, it's hard not to listen.



L.O.R.D. still doesn't have any release date, but as soon as it does you'll find news on it here.

"Little Mouth"- Los Campesinos!

"Sedate" isn't exactly what you expect or maybe even want from manic indie pop band Los Campesinos!, but it's precisely what you get on "Little Mouth", their cantering effort for the upcoming film Benny & Jolene. Featuring Craig Roberts (of Submarine) and Fresh Meat's Charlotte Ritchie, the movie concerns a young indie folk duo struggling to become the next big sensation. 

Seen in that light Los Campesinos!'s contribution to the film, which opens tomorrow in select cities, starts to make more sense. Though "hyper-literate" may be a faulty word to use in this scenario, Kim Campesinos' need to make up the distance between her and a significant other is its own struggle. Each hour away feels "more like two." Robbed of a physical presence she lingers on details of nearly dry spit settling in a flower bed and specks of dirt still clinging to rough hands. When you no longer have someone you care about around, any shred of their existence is accepted. Melodically whispered over a panoply of: gentle guitar strumming, inconspicuous piano trilling, and nibbling percussion, Campesinos' problem is one that's crushingly personal, but instantly relatable. In that sense "Little Mouth" is a welcome fit into Los Campesinos!'s glum, but steadily maturing catalog.

"Beautiful"- A.G. Cook

At this point I'll admit to a near obsession with the ever-expanding, England originated PC Music crew. For me, "leader" Hannah Diamond's "Attachment" ranks as one of the year's best breakup pop songs. Compatriots the Lipgloss Twins' "Wannabe" continues to boggle my mind and is a chaotic effort on par with punk-rap anarchists Death Grips. Even recent additions to the group like Brooklyn producer Maxo lay claim to synth mashers that release waves of endorphins in my brains. Right now "too much of a good thing" is utterly impossible.

Today's appearance of A.G. Cook's "Beautiful" only ensures that the good times keep on rolling. I'm not big on the inevitable "synth storm" that overwhelms so many dance minded tracks, but the way it’s used on "Beautiful" is splendidly unobtrusive. Instead of acting as the linchpin of the entire track, those rapid fire synthesizers guide "Beautiful" to rousing handclaps, shifting bass, and what registers as xylophone chatter. They never blot out the sentiment Cook expresses on the track either, "baby when you look at me you that I'll be here forever, baby when I look at you I know that will be here together." Delivered in a Chipmunk effect, that emotional candor rings as loud and as clear as anything on "Beautiful". Plenty of dance artists don't mind blurring stray elements together, with "Beautiful" Cook is considerate to let you hear everything.