R. Stevie Moore
Make It Be
Release Date: Mar 10, 2017
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Indie Pop, Power Pop
Record label: Bar/None Records
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Album Review: Make It Be by R. Stevie Moore
Excellent, Based on 6 Critics
Based on rating 4/5
Described as his "most focused album yet," and possibly his nine-millionth, Make It Be is Moore's collaboration with Jason Falkner of Jellyfish (among others). Both bring exactly what you'd expect to the table - Moore a childish baritone that can somehow make even the mundane statements ("strictly prohibited") seem potent, while Falkner provides a breezy power pop that's most effective when pinned down under Moore's vocals. I H8 Ppl opens proceedings rather misanthropically ("No expections!" Moore bellows at one point), but the rest is less hateful.
Based on rating 8/10
Strange bedfellows can make great music together, as evidenced by this collaboration between R. Stevie Moore and Jason Falkner, Make It Be. Moore's impulse-driven lo-fi aesthetic serves as the perfect counterpart to Falkner's thoughtful, refined power pop. It's not so much a second coming of Lennon and McCartney as it is the marriage of Let It Be's rougher, tougher tendencies and Magical Mystery Tour's mind-bending melodies all swaddled in unforgettable hooks that dig in deep and fast.
Based on rating 8/10
The pairing of power pop wizard Jason Falkner and legendary weirdo R. Stevie Moore may at first seem like a strange match, but it's clear right away that the two musicians bring out the best in each other. Falkner's studio wizardry and tight arrangements rein in Moore's predilections for formless noise, and Moore's careening songs give Falkner's sometimes too tightly buttoned-up approach a goose.
Based on rating 4/5
P rolific doesn't begin to cover the output of lo-fi eminence grise R Stevie Moore, a man who scarcely gets out of bed without releasing an album first. But of the 400 or so releases he's put out over his career, few have been recorded in an actual studio, which makes this latest effort all the more intriguing. For it he's teamed up with Jason Falkner, former member of underloved 1990s power-pop outfit Jellyfish and producer for everyone from Air to Paul McCartney.
Based on rating 4
The Upshot: At times odd, others pristinely poppy, the collaboration ultimately seems perfectly natural. BY MICHAEL TOLAND R. Stevie Moore and Jason Falkner may live in different worlds, but they have a lot in common. Both are multi-instrumentalists and songwriters dedicated to the art of the hook ….
Opinion: Excellent
Kendrick Lamar, "The Heart, Part 4" (Top Dawg Entertainment). The new single by the superstar Compton rapper arrived suddenly last week, and on it he sounds like he's been storing this venom since birth. Lamar lunges at anyone in his way on the fourth installment of a song series he started in 2010. In one set of couplets, he slams the president with rhymes about complicity and truth: "Donald Trump is a chump/ Know how we feel, punk/ Tell 'em that God comin'/ And Russia need a replay button/ Y'all up to somethin'." (Warning: The clip below contains cussing.) In another, he tears into unnamed rappers (Drake? Big Sean?) and derides disgraced former L.A.
'Make It Be'
is available now