10/23/20: clipping., Gorillaz, Adrianne Lenker and more
Welcome to the October 23rd edition of First Listen Friday!
clipping. released their new album Visions of Bodies Being Burned today. The experimental hip-hop group’s new LP is presented as a sequel or the continuation of the project they started with their 2019 album There Existed an Addiction to Blood which was also released for Halloween and had a horror theme. This new album brings “sixteen more scary stories disguised as rap songs, incorporating as much influence from Ernest Dickerson, Clive Barker, and Shirley Jackson as it does from Three 6 Mafia, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, and Brotha Lynch Hung.” This album blew me away and it’s definitely one of my favorite releases of 2020. The sound is made up of hip-hop (“Check the Lock”, “‘96 Neve Campbell”), industrial (“Looking Like Meat”) & noise (“Make Them Dead”) and often it feels like a perfect combination of all three. Even the harsher tracks here feel eminently listenable and just as essential as the tracks I’d expect to start popping up on lots of playlists very soon like “Check the Lock” (probably my favorite song here). Absolutely recommend this one.
Gorillaz released their new album Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez. The new collection of collaborations features an impressive list of contributors from The Cure’s Robert Smith, Beck, ScHoolboy Q, St. Vincent, & Elton John among others. Across 17 tracks and with such a variety of guests I have to say the album felt very consistent. I really enjoyed most of the tracks here and given the “Season One” in the album title I’m hoping collaborations continue as a series and we see more collections in the future. My favorite tracks were the funky “The Lost Chord ft. Leee John”, “Momentary Bliss ft. slowthai and Slaves”, and “Pac-Man ft. ScHoolboy Q”.
Adrianne Lenker released her new solo album songs today. Another great contribution from one of the most prolific and consistent songwriters going right now. Adrianne’s band Big Thief has released four albums since 2016 and her own solo album abysskiss was released in 2018. Those releases were all met with critical acclaim (and even a Grammy nomination) and this new project will be no exception. This feels like Adrianne’s most stripped-down project to date, just her voice and acoustic guitar and it’s gorgeous throughout. There’s no doubt some of her best work is here, both “anything” and “zombie girl” stand-out to me not only on this album but as favorites of mine in her entire catalog. I thoroughly enjoyed this one, give it a listen, especially if you’re looking for a good folk album.
Nilüfer Yanya released “Crash”, the first single on her new EP Feeling Lucky? which will be released December 11, 2020.
The Magic Gang released a fun new single, “Somebody Like You”.
Com Truise released “False Ascendancy” from his upcoming album In Decay, Too.
That’s it for this week! Here’s the Spotify playlist of selections from this week’s newsletter, enjoy!