Margo Price, Gil Scott-Heron, Jessie Ware
Pitchfork #177 - 175
#177 Margo Price, All American Made
Rating: 2
Jaunty 70s-style pickup truck country; got some real yee-haw hay bale vibes; nominated for Best New Artist Grammy, and Jack White signed her to Third Man after hearing her debut so that seems legit. Influenced by the whole Tammy/Loretta country singer songwriter thing, but personally I think her voice has more Kristen Chenowith tinyness than those other influencers. Not her fault of course, but it's in such a high register I can't let it go. Acoustic guitars, three chord ballads. Willie Nelson shows up on one track (“Learning to Lose”). “Pay Gap” is about making ends meet as a woman, it’s a sweet country rumba. (“Pay gap, pay gap / rippin’ my dollars in half”) The lyrics are probably good. But I'm not really paying attention. Maybe that's what it is - maybe she's a great songwriter and it's over my head. It sort of sounds like you're watching an 80s movie and there's a scene in a "cowboy bar," this could be the band on the stage. Or, for the older readers, I could picture a couple of these tracks on Hee Haw. “Heart of America” has “big banks” and “the men in suits” and “when the crops came in” and all that apocryphal farmer stuff. I know this got a lot of love, but, meh, I dunno it seems too small. And to answer what you’re definitely not asking - I’d pick this one over the Miranda Lambert one.
Pitchfork writers:
Price mingles the political and the personal until they're indistinguishable on songs like “Heart of America” and the barnstormer “Cocaine Cowboys,” leading a band that draws on old-school honky tonk rhythms without coming across the least bit revivalist (Narrator: it’s VERY revivalist]. “Pay Gap” couches its income disparity blues in flourishes of accordion and Lone Star guitar, while the Dylanesque title track wanders a desolate America as Price wonders if her pain—all our pain, actually—might be specific to this place
#176 Gil Scott-Heron, I’m New Here
Rating: 4
This is the "Revolution Will Not Be Televised" guy from the 70s, but you wouldn’t recognize that. It's pretty much a poetry record, in the vein of Kate Tempest with a very different voice. Just enough beat and samples and melody to be scaffolding for the words. The opener (and ending) sample is the same as Kanye’s “Flashing Lights” and is about Gil’s mother. The title track is my favorite; like the whole record, it's a hybrid of Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen, the confident storytelling and the feeling that this person really inhabits the world they’re describing. (“No matter how far wrong you’ve gone, you can always turn around”) “I’ll Take Care of You” is a bluesy confessional. “New York Is Killing Me” is a handclap-driven shuffle with a gospel chorus. This is not an "activist" record by any means, it's not about the black experience or anything, it's extremely personal, about his own family, his own regrets, his own hometown(s). He’s sharing beautiful wisdom. At the end you feel like you’ve just spent time with him at his house. You'll need to do headphones or otherwise be very focused to enjoy it, it's not a party record
Pitchfork writers:
On I’m New Here, his 13th and final studio album before he died in 2011, he doesn’t just swerve into icy, minimalist electronics for the first time—he, along with producer Richard Russell, uses them to bring new friction to his aching, burnished voice. Over 15 tracks of wry philosophizing and solemn reflection, Scott-Heron honors everything in his rearview, from the strong women who shaped his character to the many mistakes that cost him dearly. He seems deeply lonely at times—a secluded insomniac who’s seen it all and knows change is stubborn to come—but at times, he also sounds reinvigorated. It’s a beautiful note he bows out on
#175 Jessie Ware, Devotion
Rating: 2
Wow, this is super bland. It sounds like a selection of background music options that are preloaded into video-montage software. Like the opening minute of the track "Running" swear to god sounds like it's the soundtrack for an 80s VHS video about “How to use the World Wide Web.” The song "Wildest Moments" sounds like a carbon copy of...you know, that song? that one song you hate? that almost catchy but sappy one? (Ok, maybe there isn't one, but you get the idea) It's like club music for people who are too tired to dance, or hate to. Her voice is OK but I miss the power and uniqueness of Jamila or Janelle, this is airy and whispery. Not sure if she’s trying to do Anita Baker or something similar. Surprised this one is here, it's like the opposite of Pitchfork
Pitchfork writers:
Devotion flits between sumptuous pop-R&B and sweeping power ballads, but it’s never missing Ware’s gentle, discerning touch: a surprisingly earworm-y Big Pun sample speeds behind “110%”, while the anthemic “Wildest Moments” gave both Adele and Welch a run for their Top 40 money. Much of Devotion went on to soundtrack TV dramas and romance movies, which feels like a badge of honor