Does maturity have any place in pop music? As someone who doesn’t listen to a lot of contemporary music that would be considered “pop”, I don’t know that I’d be the one to answer that. But I want to say the answer is “yes”, and especially in regard to the current generation of pop music that not only has the potential to achieve cultural ubiquity, but critical ubiquity as well.

I’m not exactly sure when this shift happened, where pop artist started being taken seriously as just that – artists. But you could make the case that it happened around 2013, when Haim released their supremely awesome debut Days Are Gone, while that year also saw the release of Lorde’s Pure Heroine. This shift probably has something to do with us millennials having less discriminatory taste, and a general willingness to embrace any and all things, whether they’re massively popular or not. Also, I will admit that talking about “millenials” as a thing in general makes me feel about a million years old, but just stick with me here. Continue reading →

Among other similarities, Jay Som and Vagabon just released debut(ish) albums that make me feel old and obsolete in a good way. What I mean by this is that both Jay Som (aka Melanie Duterte) and Vagabon (aka Lætitia Tamko) are both indie rock artists in their early 20’s, and also happen to not be white males. I know, my first instinct as a white male that has an affinity for the last 20 years of indie rock – which of course has been mostly dominated by white males – should be to feel completely alienated.

But fortunately, this seems to have been the way my music listening habits have been leaning in the past few months, for fairly obvious reasons. Looking at the albums I’ve responded to from this year so far, other than the one-two punch of my last Compare/Contrast, it’s mostly been female-led. But I realize I probably sound like an over-compensating male wannabe feminist libtard, who has all of the sudden made a cultural conversation about himself. And since no one wants to hear that, I’ll just proceed to talk about what makes Jay Som’s Everybody Works and Vagabon’s Infinite Worlds pretty great, regardless of whether you care about what perspective they’re coming from. Continue reading →

“The future’s under fire. / The past is gaining ground. / A continuous cold war between my home and my hometown.”

Yes, this is the opening lyric to the Japandroids’ new album, and yes, I suppose it does feel appropriate for the disparity that exists between rural and urban America in 2017. But then again, Japandroids are Canadian, so maybe it’s not as topical as it sounds. And it becomes even less topical when you think about the fact that its a lyric that could’ve been on any Japandroids album, since these guys tend to paint with big broad strokes designed to speak to whatever personal anguish you seem to be going through, no matter what year it is. Continue reading →

I’m not sure how this happened, but I somehow managed to be absolutely riveted by the same story twice this year.  You see, back in February, FX launched the first season of American Crime Story, which was dubbed The People v. O.J. Simpson, and it was fantastic.  Every episode was much-watch TV just as much as the 1994 trial that it depicted was, and I honestly didn’t think I was going to see a better piece of American television this year.  Then, by no one’s intended design, two months after the FX mini-series concluded, ESPN released their own mini-series — a five-part documentary under their 30-for-30 moniker called O.J.: Made In America — which somehow managed to be even more captivating than the fictional series that preceded it.  And what’s great is that I don’t think Made In America does anything to diminish what The People v. O.J. Simpson accomplished.  They both compliment each other quite nicely as two distinct and marvelously done retellings of this insane story that could have only happened in America. Continue reading →