A- (87%)
A+ (80%)
A- (74%)
The Flaming Lips
Embryonic
Warner
The Flaming Lips are entering their fourth decade of making music, and they sound as fresh as ever. Embryonic is an amazingly creative album that stretches the limits of psychedelia and experimental
rock music.
The collection of songs plays like a concept album about space travel, but really it’s just The Flaming Lips harnessing the atmospheric beauty of the cosmos and channeling such headiness into a sonic manifestation.
Either that or, as suggested by the album’s title, this is music that captures the magical process of birth. In actuality, I think it’s a little bit of both and that makes for a very powerful listening experience.
The songs can be intentionally grating, like the opener “Convinced of the Hex,” but have the ability to do so while retaining a certain head-nod inducing quality, as on the closer “Watching The Planets.” There are beautiful lullabies like “The Impulse” where Wayne Coyne sings through a vocoder over ambient keys with minimal percussion. Songs like “Evil” and “If” are in the same vein as previous Flaming Lips ballads and serve as touchstones of accessibility and humanity amidst a temperamental sea that fluctuates between aggressive waves of jagged experimentalism and a wash of encircling sound.
At the end of the day, despite all the avant-garde within, this album is still rock music. The ability to experiment at the same level as the best free-form jazz musicians while keeping two feet firmly grounded in rock is what makes artists like Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa and even acts like the Grateful Dead and Pink Floyd so great. Embryonic proves that The Flaming Lips are of this high caliber of artists.
—Jacob Morgan
Raekwon
Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Part II
Ice H2O/EMI Records
“North Star (Jewels),” the last track on Raekwon’s classic 1995 album Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…, segues seamlessly into “Return of the North Star,” the first track on 2009’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt II. Chef Raekwon, along with the other members of the Clan and East Coast MCs like Jadakiss, Styles P, Slick Rick and Beanie Seagel paint verbal pictures of unapologetic criminality with cinematic vividness. Meanwhile, a host of top-notch producers handle the beats including the late J Dilla, Dr. Dre, Pete Rock, Marley Marl and, of course, RZA, the resident Wu-Tang production guru.
Three tracks are taken from the extensive Dilla vaults, the two most noteworthy being “House of Flying Daggers” and “10 Bricks.” The former is the second track on the album and features plodding drums laden with RZA-esque strings. In the first verse “Inspectah Deck”: “… pop[s] off like a mobster boss/Angel hair with the lobster sauce…” and in this singular line he captures the commanding air that each MC brings to the table—as remorseless and unfaltering as mafia dons.
In the latter, a lone tortured guitar note whines over a boom-bap knocker of a drumbeat while Raekwon, Ghostface Killah and Cappadonna flex their well-honed skills on the microphone with play-by-play descriptiveness.
Ghostface’s ferociously jacked-up flow is definitely the most complementary to Raekwon’s understated and reserved deadliness. A standout track is “Pyrex Vision,” the calm soundtrack to cooking crack, on which Raekwon is the only performer accompanied by a chilled out guitar loop provided by Marley Marl. The song clocks in at a mere 55 seconds, short-lived and glorious just like the high of the song’s subject.
—Jacob Morgan
Jason Collett
Rat A Tat Tat
Arts and Crafts
It’s hard to hate Jason Collett, mostly because he makes some seriously listenable music—he’s cute, too. With his latest album Rat A Tat Tat, Collett collaborates with his favourite back-up band, Zeus. They truly shine through on this record providing back-up vocals, harmonies reminiscent of The Band and shredding guitar solos. It’s a good thing Zeus are going solo, as they almost outdo Collett himself.
Once again, Collett draws on his aging rock idols—Bob Dylan’s intonation is practically
stolen—but he does so playfully and with a Canadian sense of humour. His old-school style of rock may seem easy-going and sweet, but it’s all carefully crafted. A regular on the Canadian music scene, Collett is meticulous and pays close attention to musical form—probably one of the reasons why you’ll be singing along almost instantly after listening to his album once. He also draws a little on 1970s dark disco, something that’s hard for anyone to deny.
Collett’s preoccupation with the Canadian landscape comes through loud and clear on Rat A Tat Tat. With songs like “Lake Superior” and “Winnipeg Winds,” this album could easily be used in a Canadian geography class. Collett gets to the heart of the Canadian spaces through his literal, but
heartfelt lyrics.
It’s refreshing to hear someone singing so proudly about our nation’s nuances. Collett is documenting the unique Canadian experience while channeling Robbie Robertson on this album. Who could ask for anything more?
—Emily Whalen
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