5 new releases we love: Drake issues an all-timer, Marika Hackman keeps it raw, and more
Music Features A-Sides
There’s a lot of music out there. To help you cut through all the noise, every week The A.V. Club is rounding up A-Sides, five recent releases we think are worth your time. You can listen to these and more on Spotify.
Drake featuring Drake, “5 AM In Toronto”
[OVO, August 2]
In our frankly sort of rude review of Drake’s 2018 effort Scorpion, we wrote that “the worst thing that ever happened to Drake was becoming a great rapper.” You can hear that happen, in glorious real-time, on “5 AM In Toronto,” an absolutely grizzly loosie originally released in the run-up to 2013's Nothing Was The Same and now repackaged on the odds-and-sods omnibus Care Package. For Drake, this is no minor effort: he’s done some of his best work outside of the album format, floating feelers for new sounds and issuing state-of-the-union decrees that felt too urgent to wait for the marketing team to get their shit together. Which brings us to “5 AM In Toronto,” a ferocious, hook-free missive that helped transform the rapper’s “aggrieved lothario” persona into a battle-rap throat-slitter, so overflowing with effortless quotables that it singlehandedly marks the crest of the rapper’s imperial era (cc 2011-2015). It’s an instant aux-cord classic, as good now as ever, and finally available somewhere besides freaking YouTube. [Clayton Purdom]
Tyler Childers, Country Squire
[Hickman Holler/RCA, August 2]
Country music is having a welcome, if somewhat unconventional, summer revival, with Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” officially breaking all kinds of Billboard records and perceived genre norms. The opposite end of the spectrum finds Tyler Childers’ third studio full-length, Country Squire, which is already shaping up to be his most successful to date. Earlier this month, Childers gave us a more traditional honky-tonk collection that still plays with genre expectations in his own particular, tripped-out way. Country Squire makes use of the Kentuckian’s newfound acclaim with lusher production values across the board, highlighted particularly in his album’s first two singles: “House Fire,” a sexy barn-burner (sorry) of a dance track, and “All Your’n,” a worthy entry into Childers’ already sizable catalog of road-worn ballads (with a music video featuring the national debut of “Tammy Chiggers,” no less). If Purgatory was Childers hovering between Lawrence County, Kentucky and the rest of the world, Country Squire announces his ascendence into country’s newest royalty. Here’s hoping for (yet another) “Old Town Road” remix featuring Tammy Chiggers by the summer’s end. [Andrew Paul]
Infinity Crush, Virtual Heaven
[Joy Void, August 9]
Caroline White’s celestial folk as Infinity Crush tends to unfold like a translucent white sheet billowing in the wind. That spectral quality remains on Virtual Heaven, her follow-up to 2016’s wonderful Warmth Equation, but, this being the project’s first proper studio album, White’s feather-light vocals are forefronted, layered, and backed by robust instrumentation that, thank goodness, never smothers her tender lilt. Lyrically, the songs linger on the physical sensations of touch and environment—warmth, cold, wind, and snow drift across a number of the songs, filling the space between White and what’s beyond. “And I’m staying up all night again, I’m sitting on the roof,” she sings on “Minnesota,” “hoping that the wind that touches me might touch you, too.” It’s all pretty enough to make you wish the songs lasted longer—only one hits the 3-minute mark—but, considering White’s themes of fantasy and longing, it’s only fitting that they come and go like gasps of vapor. [Randall Colburn]
Marika Hackman, Any Human Friend
[Sub Pop, August 9]
Marika Hackman’s newest album, Any Human Friend, picks up where 2017’s girlfriend-stealing hit “Boyfriend” left off, with jokes and dirty talk lambasting heteronormative notions. On “hand solo,” Hackman admonishes the stigmatization of non-male masturbation and non-heterosexual sex (“Under patriarchal law / I’m gonna die a virgin”). On “conventional ride,” she scorns non-queer folks who experiment with queer women and then disappear (“Is that not enough? / The feminine touch / Could it be that you need / A conventional ride?”). Even the lesbian sex anthem “all night” subtly excoriates the notion that lesbian women shouldn’t be as sexually forthright as gay men (“Our mouths are just for eating / And our mouths are just for moaning / Kissing / Fucking”). Throughout the album, Hackman’s lucid contralto glides across unclouded two-guitar shuffles and gleaming synths, ensuring that her humor, rage, and queerness are as clear as her inescapable melodies. [Max Freedman]
Mashed Potato Records, Vol. I and Vol. II
[Mashed Potato, August 9]
Mashed Potato Records’ origin story has an appropriate touch of the Depression era about it: In the spirit of Alan Lomax and his famed folk recordings, the upstart record label began with musicians Duff Thompson and Bill Howard driving around New Orleans in a van full of reel-to-reel equipment, recording the city’s many street buskers in their natural habitats. Now, three years, a stationary recording studio, and a successful Kickstarter campaign later, those recordings have been collected into two eponymous compilation albums, Mashed Potato Records Vol. I and Vol. II. Fiddles and washboards abound on these Americana-focused tracks, whose moods range from Esther Rose’s lonesome “The Game” to Twain and The Deslondes’ “Run Wild,” an ode to youthful misbehavior with a rockabilly hepcat strut. And the label’s methods are more than just an interesting hook, as the cavernous sound of DIY recording adds an ineffable timelessness to the throwback material. Take The Lostines’ “It’s Been Wrong;” one could easily be convinced that this clattering, deceptively upbeat banjo-and-guitar knee slapper came from a different, more crate-digging type of boutique record label (think the Numero Group or Smithsonian Folkways). But it was, in fact, recorded in the spring of 2017, further proving that time moves differently in New Orleans. [Katie Rife]
52 Comments
Alessia Cara is hit or miss for me, but “Rooting For You” from this week is quite a bop. Happy friday!
Since when is Drake a “battle-rap throat-slitter”?
since he bodied Meek. And he mostly held his own against Pusha (obviously in the end Pusha had the inside knowledge of Drake’s kid and also that photograph, but verse for verse he was doing fine.)
He buried Meek but it wasn’t even close with Push
Push is one of my favorite rappers of all time and Daytona was the best album of 2018, but as a song The Story of Adidon is incredibly overrated. Pusha basically just talks through it (in all fairness, he didn’t need to go off like I know he can for those punches to land). I actually think Duppy Freestyle is the better battle song of the two.I’d still pick Pusha as the winner because of the content he came with (and the INCREDIBLY underrated Infared) but it was definitely closer than people think of it now.
No. It wasn’t. You are wrong.
I mean no one can really deny that Pusha won that battle. It’s just a fact of life. But he did it by submitting evidence for the jury’s consideration as opposed to dropping great bars.
Yeah I came out of it feeling like Duppy Freestyle was underrated and would have been a solid response if the fight was the fight Drake thought it was: Drake brought an exacto knife to a fight against a dirty bomb
since white 20 somethings write these idiotic posts
Ha, I watched Neal Brennan’s set on “Comedians of the World” last night and Clayton Purdom DOES kinda seem like that one white guy at a Jay-Z show who knows every word of every song and is rapping with his hands.
Well said! Complete lack of taste from these tools
And where is the love for new Bon Iver?
New Bon Iver is so good – a lot of the more experimental stylings from his more recent stuff but relying less on autotune. Really digging it – the way Hey, Ma builds is just stunning.
I didn’t like the 22 million much, but this new one is somehow a mix of the cabin in the woods stuff and things from the Kayne album and it’s pretty phuckin’ great.
Umm, excuse me, but there’s a marshmallow-soft Drake loosie from 6 years ago that needs to be pointed out. Priorities.(It’s a goddamn masterpiece, btw. Vernon is 4/4)
lmao
Yall are behind, that Tyler Childers album came out last week. Need to not be so sleepy! Still miss when AV Club focused as much on the A as they do on the V, and werent covering the same things as Pitchfork. Bring back Jason Heller!!!!!
This isn’t the ‘new release’ post, this is a ‘good things that have come out recently’ post.
Whiny fucks like you have driven out the good commenting community here so every post now is just salty morons whining about how bad the AV Club has become. Nothing of substance. So fucking tiring.
I’m sorry buddy, but if you truly believe the music coverage on this site hasn’t dipped in quality, you’re so fucking clueless. LOL. You can still enjoy AVC while expressing disappointment in how things have changed. I’ll patiently await your snarky “fuck” filled response and then not even give you the courtesy of a retort. I hope you lose sleep over it. HA!
All the replies are proving my point.
Fixed for you:I’m sorry buddy, but if you truly believe the m̶u̶s̶i̶c̶ coverage on this site hasn’t dipped in quality, you’re so fucking clueless. LOL.
isn’t the headline of the article “5 new releases we love”? Just saying…Still enjoy the AV Club, just the music section has dwindled and it makes me disappointed as this site used to lead to so much discovery. This site lost most of its commenters of past during the kinja switch anyway. I hope you do have a wonderful day though and can feel less irritated!! Godspeed
One week is still new.
not to split hairs because I understand your point…. but Friday’s are known as the day for “new” releases. By the time the next Friday comes around, the music released the week before has been covered and discussed. I would hope that a “new release” post would be focused on the music newly released for today. That is just my preference, and too each their own.
Fuck no, shitty articles have driven out the good commenting community. I’ve literally been here since 2006 and I was reading the AVC in paper form back in Madison, WI in 1990. This is the worst the AVC has ever been. That being said, this article wasn’t terrible and he is nit picking a bit. But you’re being more of an asshole.
Loving the new Tyler Childers.
Slipknot and Dirty Heads? No?
Not sure if it’s getting its own review, but Bon Iver’s new album is quite excellent. One of the best of the year, for sure.
So we’re just going to ignore Slipknot’s new release today? That should have been all 5 entries! If it isn’t album of the year I’ll start throwing stuff!
Also have to say that the new Bon Iver was pretty good. Not willing to go further than that because when listening to “i, i”, it really felt like I was listening to part two of “22, A Million”.
I wish you guys would talk more about things in the rock/metal world more. There’s been some amazing stuff released in the last few months but every single A-Sides seems to exclusively talk about the rap/pop/indie world.
These lists are always whatever the staff is listening to this week, and their tastes are fairly predictable. (Part of me wonders if reporting on more metal would throw off the gender balance of their coverage, which I could see being an issue around here…)
Because girls only like pop music and non-threatening boy bands, right?
No, I meant that metal bands are still pretty dude-centric – that is, comprised primarily of dudes. A.V. Club tries to do an equal spread of male/female artists.
On that subject I would recommend keeping an eye/ear out for the new Disillusion album. It’s out next month and it’s spellbinding stuff.
Seriously? Rock and metal would send AV writers running to their safe space. They’re only interested in waif-ey out of tune depressed girls with peanut allergies
Easily the best and funniest comment I’ve read in a long time. Take a star, you fulgent sorcerer.
AV Club isn’t great on music and this regular feature isn’t confined by style (or obligated to include a wide variety) or really by release date, feel free to write a post about what’s good and recent.
I’ve heard Childers lead single and will be listening to the rest soon. From his earlier works I’ve got a good feeling about that young man. I expected the production would change since I heard a while back he was working with Sturgill Simpson. Still waiting for his next album/anime film, apparently.
On what fucking planet is Drake anything remotely close to a “battle-rap throat-slitter”?
“the worst thing that ever happened to Drake was becoming a great rapper.”I don’t remember this happening. Last I heard, Drake was still a boring-ass, monotone rapper whose fame and popularity is utterly baffling. His music sucks, he sucks, and I’ll never understand anyone who thinks he even approaches “good,” much less “great.” Also, “Drake, feat. Drake”? Get out of your own asshole.
What about that new Tool single though lmao
The Lostiness track seems like a song Tarantino would use in one of his films.
nice, love listening to pedophiles
God enough with drake already you mainstream twats!!!
5 AM in Toronto……not as good as Hotline Bling
I’m pretty happy to write Drake off for working with Chris Brown again. The argument that you’re missing out on shit by skipping Louis CK or not encouraging Brown is like a meat-eater saying to a vegetarian “I like the taste of bacon.” It’s a perfectly fine response as long as you’re fine with what it really says about you. Like, don’t get upset when somebody jerks off in front of your daughter or beats her up is all I’m sayin’.
Drake is a piece of shit for that collab. So disappointed that more people aren’t taking him to task for that. I was never a devoted Drake fan but I liked some of his stuff. Will never listen to him again though. I’m done.
1: How’s Frank Stallone doing these days?
2: He’s doing good but he made the questionable decision to release a song collaborating with the ghost of Adolf Hitler.
1: Gee whiz, I sure like his tunes…hmmm moral quandary…sorry, Six Million Jews we’re talking about Frank Fucking Stallone here!
Y’all missed the Tech N9ne album “N9NA”?For Shame!
I like the Murs record. But, it will get overlooked like a lot of his previous ones, I’m sure.
Drake is terrible garbage music.