In Revue- 'Cherry Bomb' (Tyler, the Creator)

What are we looking for from Tyler, the Creator circa 2015? We're five years removed from hearing "what the devil plays before he goes to sleep." Four from being introduced to the "f***ing walking paradox" who surrounds torch-bearing love tracks with stomach-churning rape jokes. All the protests and think-pieces have been dead for at least two years now. So now what? What then? With all of the artifice and hype swept away, what reason do we have to still pay attention to Tyler? Is he the kind of artist we don't want to grow up because his "immaturity" was what made him so fascinating to begin with? What the hell does artistic maturation mean for Tyler?

That central question is what makes listening to Tyler's fourth LP Cherry Bomb so frustrating; he doesn't have a meaningful answer. At times, flecks of musical evolution in Cherry Bomb are infinitesimal. "Pilot"'s got an incredible thrum to it, the kind you could fit on a percussive Dizzee Rascal track and then it’s swallowed by static before the chorus even starts. "Buffalo"'s lovely little chintz synths can't stand up to the unstable drum burbling, which makes you think the mic was inside the kit. There's a Clams Casino feel in the way Cherry Bomb is blown out, it sounds like it was mixed in a tin bucket of mop water then resuscitated with the exposed wires from a nearby light switch. You may need to consult Genius to find great lines like "Boy I got them epic shots like jaywalking in Missouri." The whole of closer "OKAGA, CA," with its cooing vocals and lithe strings, concerns escaping all of life's bullshit by flying to the moon with a loved one, but you'd never know that from the vocal effects applied to T.C.'s voice. I get the Yeezus aesthetic at work, but Yeezus was quotable from the words "Yeezus season approaching" in the opener "On Sight." Not so with Cherry Bomb; Tyler's trying to make a noise album while being lyrical, which isn't a workable dichotomy.

Not that everything Tyler says on Cherry Bomb is something people would want to hear. He still bounces the word "f****ot* around, which is far more frustrating now because he admits "I'm going harder than coming out the closet to conservative Christian fathers." That's a funny lyric undercut by his laziness to find a different word to finish verses. The more negative among us could take a line like "laying on my trampoline, gazing at the stars, "in the aforementioned "Okaga, CA," as the sort of inward-looking platitude appearing in a C-grade Kid Cudi effort. For people who eat maple syrup on a regular basis, hearing something so positive and sweet from Tyler is satisfying.

There are great moments on Cherry Bomb that don't need any caveats. If the instrumental from the title track didn't pop up in the 2015 horror insta-classic It Follows, then I must've been plugging my ears and closing my eyes. The opening notes sound like the devil waking up from a deep slumber. The dissonance works to Tyler's favor here because his rapping is so malevolent and fractured you'd believe he's trapped in this kind of hellscape. Elsewhere "The Brown Stains of Darkeese Latifah Part 6-12" (Remix) is flat-out marvelous and should be played to future generations of music lovers interested in 2010s music. It blends PC Music helium sighs; DJ Mustard plinks, clanging Pharrell percussion and an Arca-esque sense of build. I kept hitting repeat when I first listened to the album and logged 10 listens of the song on day 1 of the LP's surprise release. Tyler talking smack while nomming on Eggos is a detail that can't get old.  

And then there's "Smuckers," Cherry Bomb's unshakeable center of gravity that features both Kanye West and Lil Wayne. Compared to "The Brown Stains..." the "We Major" Jr. song is miles better. All three rappers are in near-peak form, so picking a winner is difficult but Kanye's "Richer than white people with black kids, scarier than black people with ideas," is too good to ignore. The track’s brilliance is clear long before the horns stop blurting and Tyler fires a final missive.

I wish could say that for all of Cherry Bomb because I do find Tyler compelling as a musician. He’s willing to entertain ideas most would run scared from. He’ll f*** around and put hokey skits where they shouldn’t be. He’ll have keyboards fight for Sunlight with dark synthesizer clouds.  The dude’s has enough respect and talent to bring Kanye and Wayne together and not be shown up. He believes in himself, but Cherry Bomb proves he still isn’t sure who he is as an artist.

"You Won't Believe What You'll Do"- The Disingenuousness of Pharrell's New Video

Before the excoriation and finger-wagging begins, I want to genuinely praise Pharrell Williams. Forget the legion of hits he's produced in the last 20 years with partner Chad Hugo as part of the Neptunes. In the past year alone he's lent his silky croon to colossal hits "Get Lucky" and "Blurred Lines," unleashed a firebreathing cleanup verse in "Move That Dope," manned the boards with Hans Zimmer for the Amazing Spider-Man 2 soundtrack and dominated the Billboard charts with the Oscar-nominated "Happy." If the time from January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2014 was all we had to judge Pharrell on, his discography would still be unassailable. 

What Pharrell should be criticized for is the bizarre "pro-woman" campaign that's accompanied sophomore LP G I R L. Before the album had been released, Pharrell spoke to GQ about the "Women and girls, for the most part, (who) "have just been so loyal to me and supported me."" The stylized album title then was Pharrell's way of paying tribute to members of the opposite sex that had helped him out so much.  What Pharrell seemed to be forgetting in his tip of the Dudley Do Right hat was using the word "girl" infantilizes those heroic women who had helped him along the way. If you're a man reading this, ignore the "would you call your mother this?" test and think about it this way: if a woman consistently referred to you as a "boy" wouldn't it start to rankle you? I know it would me. The word "boy" connotes a doe-eyed naivety I'd like to think I've pushed past. Boys and girls are people who don't know better; with minds that worry about things like lunch and the time until recess. When you insist on using either to describe someone who has reached adulthood, all you're saying is their mind is set to childish.

If Pharrell's facile campaign had stopped there, I wouldn't be writing this article. Only when he released the video for the clattering funk of "Come Get It Bae" did I find myself compelled to write something. The song itself is undeniably catchy, with rallying handclaps that recall "Iko Iko" and strutting guitar Pharrell might've swept up from the floor of the "Get Lucky" sessions. I wish it was left there and we never had to see Pharrell's grand cinematic vision for G I R L's third single. Instead what we as viewers are provided with is the zenith of Pharrell's ludicrously mixed message. In red block lettering recalling "Blurred Lines," the words "BEAUTY HAS NO EXPIRATION DATE" dominate the first frame of the video. By itself, that kind of hokey "Dove Real Beauty" message is blandly inoffensive. The problem is with who Pharrell trots out to "prove his point." "None of them boys know the first thing about your fantasy," he assures a parade of under-40 women from his director's chair. The supposed lack of a black woman on G I R L's cover is "replaced" by the absence of a woman who has made it past her fourth decade on Earth.

Now I understand when you're casting a video you go with the best, most qualified candidates. It is part of the reason I took offense to the controversy that swirled around the casting for Arcade Fire's stunning "We Exist" video. In the clip, which premiered in late May, Amazing Spider-Man actor Andrew Garfield plays a young person struggling with gender identity while living in a small town. For an excruciating six minutes, Garfield's character is leaving home in women's clothes and getting into fights at the local watering hole. Ultimately Garfield's unnamed character steps on-stage with Arcade Fire at Coachella and finds a "home." When Against Me!'s lead singer Laura Jane Grace saw the video she took to Twitter "Dear @arcadefire, maybe when making a video for a song called 'We Exist' you should get an actual 'Trans' actor instead of Spider-Man?" Grace (formerly Thomas James Gabel) has been open about her own personal battles with gender dysphoria and was understandably upset about the exclusion. I don't share her same frustration, a. because I'm "cishet scum" and b. I believe Garfield gave a real portrayal of an extremely disenfranchised minority. The women in "Come Get It Bae," through no fault of their own, fail miserably in conveying the agelessness of beauty. There isn't even an attempt made to capture beauty in its twilight years. No pieces of flab, no grey hairs, and zero wrinkles are shown as striking women nod in approval to the luridly repetitious "come get it bae." 

Not that I personally mind lurid come-ons in R&B. The Weeknd has staked an entire career on being a hedonistic lecher. In "High for This" he's coaxing a woman into popping ecstasy to have better sex. "Enemy" has him doing his horrifying best to make a lover into a rival. Elsewhere in the Indie R&B circuit, Miguel begged "tell me that the p**** is mine," in "P**** is Mine," and came away with one of 2012's most beautifully desperate songs. The difference between those two and Pharrell is they weren't trying to mask their material as The Second Sex. They understood misogyny was under-girding their material, because men can be misogynistic. They know they don't deserve applause for telling a sad truth and they're not looking for any. Despite his assertion being a "feminist" is an impossible aspiration, Pharrell's seeking credit for wearing the sheep's clothing of one. The whole thing is remarkably disingenuous, telling women they can go their own way while ensuring what they need in their life is Skateboard P. "You won't believe what you'll do," he insists in his feathery voice. What's significantly harder to believe is that Pharrell thought any of this could be uplifting.

 

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please feel free to leave them below. And if you just want to yell at me and say "you're wrong," you're welcome to do that as well.

"Here"- Pharrell, Johnny Marr, & Hans Zimmer

Orchestral folk-singer isn't exactly a hat you'd expect omnipotent singer/rapper/producer Pharrell to don, but on Amazing Spider-Man 2 track "Here" he wears it extremely well. After manning the boards on faux-disco cut "It's On Again" with Alicia Keys and Kendrick Lamar, "Here" sees Pharrell working with the far more random duo of Smiths-guitarist Johnny Marr and go-to film-scorer Hans Zimmer. Even knowing ahead of time that the three would be working together on the superhero flick's soundtrack didn't stop me from marveling at the credit list when I first saw it. If I was forced to create a more-random trio to craft a song this year, under penalty of death, I'm not sure if I could.

As I said in the opening though, Pharrell wears the hat of orchestral folk-singer incredibly well and not simply because he looks great in any hat. The collaboration works because no one is stepping on anyone's toes. Hans Zimmer's strings don't have the same massive oomph that marks his other superhero scores. They still glide skyward, but it never feels like an overreach. Likewise, Marr abandons his guitar wizardry for a plaintive acoustic figure that undergirds Pharrell's tender crooning. Lyrically nothing Pharrell is saying is revelatory; he generally sticks to unfettered declarations of love "on all existence." But he's so remarkably self-assured that you buy every word he's saying. By pulling back the curtains, "Here" places the spotlight firmly on Pharrell and he doesn't shy away in the slightest. 

(The Amazing Spider-Man 2 soundtrack is out April 22, but you can hear "Here" on Stereogum now.)

"It's On Again" ft. Kendrick Lamar- Alicia Keys

If there's a key to the city for soundtrack features, go ahead and hand it to Kendrick Lamar for 2014. In the same month he laid waste to the psychedelic wonderland of Tame Impala's "Feels Like We Only Go Backwards" he's returned to decimate the Pharrell produced, Alicia Keys anchored "It's On Again" with the brute force of the Rhino. While the doleful, twinkling keys demand a degree of reverence, Lamar has none to offer. He's snarling before the first note can ring out, the veins in his head bulging as he offers a song "for the warrior, for you and I." He name checks "David and Goliath" and while his runaway success puts him far closer to the Philistine at this point, his intensity befits the scrappy underdog. He's willing to run through the flames because he can see what's waiting on the side. He'll land on his dreams, no matter how much exertion or exhaustion it takes.

For her part, Alicia Keys doesn't appear to be exerting herself at all. She croons over Pharrell's slowly propulsive dance beat with ease. Her breathless exhortations to "go on" disappear almost as soon as they are said, fading into a billowy cloud of silky disco strings and blooping keyboards. In that way Keys acts as the yin to Lamar's yang; a cold passivity to a red-hot ferociousness. She's willing to "sacrifice my ego" because she has no need for such inanities. She'll go it alone as a shadow in the middle of the night. Keys is no less of a warrior than Lamar, she's just far more reserved about her profession.





"It's On Again" is available through iTunes tomorrow.

What's New(s)?

Kendrick Lamar appearing on Amazing Spiderman 2 soundtrack

Less than a week after making a ferocious appearance on the Divergent soundtrack, it's been announced that "King" Kendrick Lamar is set to appear on the upcoming Amazing Spiderman 2 soundtrack. Out April 22, the soundtrack will also include appearances from: the omnipresent Pharrell, Smiths-guitarist Johnny Marr, alt-country rocker Phosphorescent, and R&B star Alicia Keys. Keys is teaming up with the aforementioned Lamar on the cut "It's On Again", which was created specifically for the film and produced by Pharrell. 

Composer Hans Zimmer, who co-wrote "It's On Again", brought together the appropriately named "Magnificent Six" for the film, which includes: Pharrell, Marr, Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics, Incubus' guitarist Mike Einziger, Junkie XL, Andrew Kawczynski, and Steve Mazzaro. The high-profile album will feature new songs from Pharrell, along with Phosphorescent's "Song for Zula" from last year's standout Muchacho LP. 

Check out the film trailer and Phosphorescent's swooning orchestral piece "Song for Zula" below.

"Song for Zula"

Iggy Pop and New Order play "Love Will Tear Us Apart"

It's safe to say without much hyperbole that "Love Will Tear Us Apart", Joy Divison's first chart hit remains not only the band's most well-number known number, but one of the most beautifully pained efforts of the 80s. Curtis' bellowing voice on the song is one of fear and wonder, knowing the warmth love affords but also the brutal cold it can bring.

Last night at Carnegie Hall during a benefit for Tibet House, Curtis' former bandmates (who famously reformed as New Order) trotted out the iconic number, with help from punk-rock luminary Iggy Pop. Considering Curtis' own admiration for Pop (whose The Idiot album he listened to not long before tragically committing suicide), the move was one of pure wonder. Pop's performance on-stage suggests he's very aware of the magic as he struts and flails around the stage, calling to mind the way Curtis himself used to chew up a stage. By the end, the entire crowd is applauding and it's easy to understand why. Joy Division's own shelf-life wasn't long, but their impact certainly is.

 

See the video for Johnny Cash's "She Used to Love Me A Lot"

March 25, Columbia/Legacy records will release Johnny Cash's Out Among the Starts, a "compilation" album that gathers together lost works from Cash recorded during the early 80s. To promote the work, a stark video for "She Used to Love Me A Lot", directed by The Road's John Hillcoat has been released.

In the black-and-white clip, Hillcoat captures uncompromising scenes of America, where individuals toil away in obscure poverty and the line between prison and the outside world is impossibly blurred. Scattered amongst the frayed images are: pictures of Cash's burnt-out lake house, the cave where he attempted suicide, and the room he last recorded in. "I'm in need of something, something you ain't got," Cash sings with his freight-train voice. Whatever that missing element was, the Man in Black never stopped chasing it.

Check back in tomorrow for more of the newest in new(s) and follow AllFreshSounds on Twitter for updates throughout the day.