Fine Line
Rating: NNNN When I arrive on Monday for the Fine Line listening session at British pub the Oxley in Yorkville, I hear a familiar sound: young women squeeing. "I'm so sorry," apologizes the publicist as she waves a hand in the direction of the enthusiastic group-selfie photo-takers in front of a large Fine Line album cover foamcore print. "The fan event is running a little late." I brush off the apology; after all, I'm among my people. We #AdoreYou...
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Free Nationals
Funky, groovy, and smooth, it's the Free Nationals that gave Anderson .Paak 's breakout 2016 album Malibu its sun-soaked textures. A busy touring schedule, and two more .Paak albums, thereafter, meant that the band had to put their own project on hold over the last few years, but they've now managed to finish piecing it together, lending the end of the year some breezy Cali vibes. .Paak only shows up on one track here, on the bouncy "Gidget", the...
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Heavy is the Head
After a career-defining performance at Glastonbury this summer, British grime artist Stormzy is now confronting his place on the throne—a place often as lonely and dangerous as it is rewarding. On Heavy Is the Head, Stormzy asks himself what kind of leader he wants to be, feeling the pressure of a divine test as he raps on early banger "Audacity." Will he be a villainous tyrant who flexes his crown with arrogant bravado, or will he use his platform...
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Uncut Gems [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
The title sequence of the new Safdie brothers film, Uncut Gems, brings the moviegoer along a CGI-assisted journey through light-years of celestial mist before the camera recedes into footage from a probe deep inside Adam Sander's ass. Watching the opening credits fade over shots of protagonist Howie Ratner's colon--pink and ribbed, like an aquatic worm--is bearing witness to an act that is in the macro graceful and in the micro grotesque, a confusing...
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