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More Life

Drake

Hip-Hop/Rap - Released March 18, 2017 | Cash Money Records - Young Money Ent. - Universal Rec.

After releasing the hugely popular but artistically underwhelming Views in 2016, Drake went back to the mixtape approach for his next release, 2017's More Life. Over the course of 22 songs and almost an hour and a half of music, Drake shows again why he's one of the most frustrating rappers in the world. The main problem is that he's a better hip-hop-inspired R&B singer than he is an R&B-inspired rapper, but he refuses to acknowledge it. Listening to track after track of molasses-slow trap featuring Drake going on about how once he was on the bottom and now is firmly cemented at the top is tiresome at best, painful at worst. He only really comes to life on the songs where he drops the hard façade and lets some of his emotion show through, like the lovely island-inflected groover "Get It Together," which features Jorja Smith killing it in the role often occupied by Rihanna, or the dark-night-of-the-soul ballad "Nothings into Somethings," which balances his intimate crooning with introspective rapping. The bubbling "Passionfruit" is Drake at his smooth, melancholy best, showing off his skill at creating surprising melodies and entrancing atmosphere. These moments are too few and far between and most of the record sits right in the center of the rut Drake has dug for himself over the years. There are some tracks that break free of the boredom and show some kind of pulse -- usually the tracks where guests drop by and add their skills to the mix. Young Thug, in particular. His dramatic rapping and outsized persona put Drake to shame on "Ice Melts." He's Technicolor, while Drake is various shades of gray. That track and Sampha's feature ("4422"), where the singer gets deeper emotionally than Drake ever has, don't do Drake any favors. They only serve to showcase his flaws and make it clear that More Life is another overly serious, musically uninteresting effort. The few choice tracks, high-profile guests, and occasional stylistic shifts aren't enough to keep More Life from being another disappointing release. That it proved immensely popular upon its release will only serve to reinforce his misguided belief that he's the best rapper around.© Tim Sendra /TiVo

Oneohtrix Point Never Magic Oneohtrix Point Never

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Magic Oneohtrix Point Never

Oneohtrix Point Never

Alternative & Indie - Released October 30, 2020 | Warp Records

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After Age Of in 2018 then his remarkable soundtrack to the Netflix film Uncut Gems, New-Yorker Daniel Lopatin aka Oneohtrix Point Never has released a staggered album (three tracks on Drive Time Suite and then five more on Midday Suite before the release of the complete product), a strange approach for such a conceptual work. Magic Oneohtric Point Never (which references the Boston radio which inspired it, Magic 106.7 FM) is a somewhat distorted reflection of the artist’s adolescence. A record which gives its listener the impression of continually changing frequencies on a car radio, a collage of jingles and presenter announcements that are superimposed with twisting violins and sonars. There are also songs on this record, good ones, like ultra-lo-fi pop/folk of Lost But Never Alone, the ballad made up entirely of blips The Whether Channel, the futuristic new wave I Don’t Love Me Anymore and also No Nightmres, an alt-pop ballad featuring the synthesised voice of The Weeknd. Rife with emotion, introspection, abstraction, manifesto and hidden meaning, with Magic, Oneohtrix Point Never has created an entirely surrealist work of art. © Smaël Bouaici/Qobuz

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Essential Thorogood

George Thorogood

Rock - Released January 1, 2009 | Capitol Records

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More Life

Drake

Hip-Hop/Rap - Released March 18, 2017 | Cash Money Records - Young Money Ent. - Universal Rec.

After releasing the hugely popular but artistically underwhelming Views in 2016, Drake went back to the mixtape approach for his next release, 2017's More Life. Over the course of 22 songs and almost an hour and a half of music, Drake shows again why he's one of the most frustrating rappers in the world. The main problem is that he's a better hip-hop-inspired R&B singer than he is an R&B-inspired rapper, but he refuses to acknowledge it. Listening to track after track of molasses-slow trap featuring Drake going on about how once he was on the bottom and now is firmly cemented at the top is tiresome at best, painful at worst. He only really comes to life on the songs where he drops the hard façade and lets some of his emotion show through, like the lovely island-inflected groover "Get It Together," which features Jorja Smith killing it in the role often occupied by Rihanna, or the dark-night-of-the-soul ballad "Nothings into Somethings," which balances his intimate crooning with introspective rapping. The bubbling "Passionfruit" is Drake at his smooth, melancholy best, showing off his skill at creating surprising melodies and entrancing atmosphere. These moments are too few and far between and most of the record sits right in the center of the rut Drake has dug for himself over the years. There are some tracks that break free of the boredom and show some kind of pulse -- usually the tracks where guests drop by and add their skills to the mix. Young Thug, in particular. His dramatic rapping and outsized persona put Drake to shame on "Ice Melts." He's Technicolor, while Drake is various shades of gray. That track and Sampha's feature ("4422"), where the singer gets deeper emotionally than Drake ever has, don't do Drake any favors. They only serve to showcase his flaws and make it clear that More Life is another overly serious, musically uninteresting effort. The few choice tracks, high-profile guests, and occasional stylistic shifts aren't enough to keep More Life from being another disappointing release. That it proved immensely popular upon its release will only serve to reinforce his misguided belief that he's the best rapper around.© Tim Sendra /TiVo

Muddy Waters Breakin' It Up, Breakin' It Down

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Breakin' It Up, Breakin' It Down

Muddy Waters

Blues - Released June 5, 2007 | Epic - Legacy

In March 1977, Muddy Waters, Johnny Winter, and James Cotton did a concert tour together in support of Waters' then-recent Hard Again LP, on which Winter had played guitar (as well as produced) and Cotton had played harmonica. This CD, not released until about 30 years later, has an hour of music drawn from three different shows on the tour. It might have been spurred by a Muddy Waters album, but in fact Waters, Winter, and Cotton all took vocals -- sometimes alone, and sometimes on the same song -- on stage, and these 11 songs feature the vocals of each of the three in about equal measure. Often these kind of touring combinations are too many cooks in the kitchen, or, if not quite that, at least more fun to attend than to listen to on tape. The latter could be said of the material on this disc, which is really just okay, not great, and not even among the best recordings that have been issued of Waters in the mid-'70s. It's still solid and decent, including some Waters classics ("Can't Be Satisfied," "Got My Mojo Workin'," "Trouble No More"), Cotton originals, and covers of staples by Jackie Brenston ("Rocket 88"), John Lee Hooker ("I Done Got Over It"), J.B. Lenoir ("Mama Talk to Your Daughter"), Lowell Fulson ("Love Her with a Feeling"), and Elmore James ("Dust My Broom"), as well as the famed jump blues "Caledonia." It's undeniable, however, that Waters was, even at this relatively advanced age, by far the most commanding singer of the trio. The songs on which his vocals are prominent (especially "Can't Be Satisfied" and "Trouble No More") kind of dwarf the ones on which his singing is absent or secondary, making the cuts that emphasize Cotton and Winter seem rather workmanlike in comparison. Nevertheless, the sound is good, and the band filled out competently with sidemen (particularly Pinetop Perkins on piano), making this a satisfactory listen for serious blues collectors, though a little superfluous for most fans.© Richie Unterberger /TiVo