MONDAY, AUGUST 22, 2016
PAGE 12 | OPINION
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Summer brings handful of musical highlights Chance the Rapper kicks off summer; Frank Ocean brings it to satisfying close First things first — if you haven’t heard the two new albums released last COLUMN BY week by Frank ANDREW Ocean, do LINNABARY yourself a favor and check them out. One is a visual album, “Endless,” and the other is a traditional LP, “Blond.” “Endless” is a bit more experimental and off the wall (and only available in video format), while “Blond” is more scaled-back and commercial. With that said, here are a handful of album highlights from the summer. Chance the Rapper’s “Coloring Book,” his third mixtape, technically dropped right before summer began, but it’s good enough to warrant a mention. After running off the forward momentum of his verse on Kanye West’s “Ultralight Beam” (seriously, this may be verse of the year – there really isn’t “one gosh-darn part you can’t tweet”), Chance delivered with a very gospel inspired tape. It’s quite a contrast to 2012’s “Acid Rap”, which found the young rapper dealing with drug use, lost friends and the violence of Southside Chicago. It seems Chance has found happiness in religion, and he wants us to be happy with him. There’s nary a bad track on the whole thing (though the Young Thug and Lil Yachty featuring “Mixtape” is underwhelming). Highlights include the 2 Chainz and Lil Wayne collaboration “No Problems,” which features Wayne’s best verse in who knows how many years, and the piano led, Peter Pan-inspired ballad “Same Drugs.” The Netflix sci-fi series “Stranger Things” came out of nowhere and blew viewers away.
Sure, it wears Spielberg and Stephen King on its sleeve, but it does so unashamedly and with a good heart. What really takes the show to the next level, though, is its soundtrack. Scored by Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein, the synth-led music touches every emotion, but one sticks out in particular – nostalgia. There are a handful of tracks on here that somehow, through their melody and the way they are mixed, make you reminiscence of childhood. This is sometimes even noticeable in the more horror, John Carpenter inspired cuts. It’s an excellent soundscape that even without the show’s context remains strong – not a small feat for a TV show soundtrack. As for standout cuts, “Kids” completely nails the nostalgic factor previously described – someone needs to sample this track for a rap beat. After numerous delays, Rae Sremmurd, the duo composed of brothers Swae Lee and Slim Jxmmi, are back with SremmLife 2, their follow up to 2015’s SremmLife. Once again helmed by Mike WiLL Made-It, the Sremm brothers deliver another dosage of their high energy, charismatic party rap, albeit in a stranger and more mature package. Things start off as expected with “Start a Party,” a very in-your-face banger that has the brothers describing the various steps of a good night. It’s a good track, but things get really interesting once the Sremms start throwing some curveballs. The Gucci Mane featuring “Black Beatles” is a clear standout, sounding like some kind of ‘80s inspired new-wave rap, with Swae Lee “rocking John Lennon lenses” on his verse. Seriously, the hook on this cut is something else. It
almost transcends rap. Another highlight is the Swae Lee helmed “Swang.” Lee takes things to the top of his register and then even higher with some pitch manipulation. It’s powerful. Seriously, when is that Swae Lee solo album coming? Purple-dreaded Lil Uzi Vert delivered a solid mixtape this summer, “The Perfect LUV Tape.” Yes, he continues to ape the sounds of Young Thug and Future, but as far as clones go, Uzi is a standout. This release still lacks depth and maturity, but if you’re looking for pop-tinted trap music, Uzi continues to deliver. He does riff off many of the same flows and melodies that he has used in the past, but if it’s not yet broke (or completely worn-out), don’t worry about fixing it. It is a bit worrisome that this early on in his young career Uzi seems to be on autopilot, but he’s still fresh enough that there’s a good chance he’ll throw in some unpredictability in the future. Or he may stagnate – only time will tell. “The Perfect LUV Tape” delivers a handful of standout tracks. The hook on “Of Course We Ghetto Flowers” is a highlight, despite merely being Uzi repeating the word “whoa” again and again. Uzi shows an apparent chemistry with producer Zaytoven on the back to back tracks “Money Mitch” and “Sideline Watching.” On “You’re Lost,” Uzi nails the pop-punk sensibility that he frequently flirts with. Overall, the summer didn’t have many standout releases, but music fans had plenty of strong spring projects (Radiohead reemerges!) to hold them over. Yes, the drought was apparent, but Frank Ocean dropping last minute reconciled any thoughts of the summerT:10.25 being a complete ‘’ music bust.
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