The Weeknd - 'False Alarm'

The Weeknd is on his comeback grind. His new album Starboy is out in two months (November 25), and after releasing the eponymous track 'Starboy' featuring Daft Punk (see our review here), we were left wondering what the new album would have in store for us.

'False Alarm' is the follow up single, and it's a bit hard to swallow. Dynamically and elementally different from 'Starboy', it provides a different look on the record. The new song features a strong EDM influence, especially in the chorus, complete with singing in a panicked fashion "False alarm!" before distorted screams straight out of a Skrillex song lead back into the verses. The verses feature smooth vocals with a cheesy melody and various instruments, including synths and guitars.

This song doesn't raise much hype for the album. If anything, it polarizes it further. There was already confusion about how underwhelming 'Starboy' was, and it feels as though 'False Alarm' was not the correct answer to it. The song feels very uninspired and the chorus does not have the signature Weeknd feel. His music was so noteworthy because of his unique sexiness that resonated in each one of his songs. Both 'Starboy' and especially 'False Alarm' miss that aspect of him. The song is also plagued by trying too hard to fit into the EDM feel. It's reading out of a textbook what it means to be a pop EDM song, down to the siren sample in the intro. His melody feels lazy and completely uninspired, as well. The experimentation is appreciated, but this song doesn't have any direction.

Things aren't looking great for Starboy. Two underwhelming singles in, and it's becoming increasingly harder to look forward to the record. We'll see what the full record holds for us - hopefully more substance than the singles.

Rating: 65 / 100

Die Antwoord - Mount Ninji and Da Nice Time Kid

Die Antwoord and "safe" can never go together in the same sentence. South Africa's most eclectic group is back with their fourth record Mount Ninji and Da Nice Time Kid is just as odd as their premise.

You can never go into a Die Antwoord album expecting something, not because it won't live up to those expectations, but because there's nothing you can expect from it: it's going to be weird. Intro track 'We Have Candy' - also the album's original title - is a long skit, which really just sounds like an odd family dinner. 'Daddy' follows up and continues being odd, where the spoiled daughter of the family begs her dad for whatever she wants. It's super catchy though, so the weird premise can be excused. 'Banana Brain' continues on with the playful feel of the beginning of the record, EDM beats making up the instrumental.

Nothing is quite as playful (if that's the right word for it) as the center of the album, when Lil Tommy Terror comes in. There's nothing like half-paying attention to a record and all of a sudden hearing a little boy praying to God, asking "When I wake up, can I please have wings on my penis," then continue to rap about drawing dicks everywhere and cursing. It's a truly enlightening experience. After edgily ending the song off with one final "Fuck you," another skit plays called 'U Like Boobies?' where Yolandi tries to convince Lil Tommy to buy access to a hole, that has many, many crazy things within it: guns, aliens, rats...

As Tommy buys into the hole, Jack Black creepily sings about rats in the next song on top of a Halloween-esque organ instrumental. The instrumentals on the album are pretty diverse; from the EDM influence in 'Banana Brains' to the epic rave vibes of closure track 'I Don't Care' to the odd carnival vibes in 'Shit Just Got Real' featuring Sen Dog, a lot of ground is covered. Other great moments include the dark and mysterious hip-hop beats of 'Darkling' and oddly captivating atmosphere of 'Alien'. It's creepy, but absorbing.

My main gripe with the album is that I don't really understand the direction. I get the whole weird concept of the group, and what they try to accomplish with their music, but is there some big message? Is this album just meant to be fun? The intro skit sets it up to be some story about a family and a boy who suddenly gets super powers... but why? How? There's so many questions that this album raises, and not in a good way. Questions from albums should be generated from a bigger picture, or if it's a narrative, what's going on in the narrative. The question shouldn't be what happened to the narrative and plot?

Die Antwoord isn't for everyone. Their weirdness is a bit too much at times, but at all the same time it's grabbing. You want to search for something within the music, regardless of if something's in there or not. There's a certain curiosity their music creates, and that's worth it in the end. Mount Ninji is a wildly confusing album, which takes away from that. I've taken little in from it, and at the end I just don't understand what I've heard. I guarantee there's more to it than what I can put together, but after all of this, I'm unsure of if I even want to know what's happening.

Favorite Tracks: Daddy, I Don't Care

Least Favorite Tracks: Stoopid Rich, Fat Faded Fuck Face, Street Light

Rating: 59 / 100

Noisia - Outer Edges

Dubstep often times goes two ways. It's big and upfront, or its subdued and moody. Noisia went for the upfront route with their new album Outer Edges, but to mixed results. This album has its moments of drum and bass jamming but often times sounds like a mish-mash of sounds clustered together very incoherently.

The pacing of this album is pretty odd to begin with. Opener 'The Approach' is a chill (albeit, somewhat boring) introduction to an album before 'Anomaly' kicks in with a speedy beat. 'Collider' starts with a more ominous sound and introduces a darker sound that carries through stays unique to the one track. "Weird" describes the next few tracks - 'Vigilantes' brings in the rave-dubstep vibes, but features some off-putting vocal samples that don't play well to the overall vibe of the track. The next track 'Tentacles' is weird in a different way - it's really unsettling. The "tentacles, tentacles, tentacles..." vocal build up makes you squirm before the underwhelming drop kicks in.

While the first half of the album will make you feel a variety of ways, the second half has many tracks that are just plain boring, and, at times, stupid. Songs like 'Surfaceless' and 'Exavolt' sound like a cluster of random noises that build up to nothing and have nothing climactic to carry them somewhere. Other tracks including 'Motion Blur' just don't go anywhere and fail to create an interesting experience. The album concludes on an absolutely dead note, the song 'Sinkhole' being one of the worst things I've heard in awhile and 'Get Deaded' just being plain stupid.

To its credit, this album has some solid drops in it. 'Voodoo' starts off sludgy but kicks into something actually worth getting into later on. 'Mantra' has some massive vibes going on with it, the first track on the album that is truly enjoyable and has a big dance demeanor - 'Into Dust' reprises this later on with a fantastic drop accompanying it. 'The Entangled' almost reproduces this but doesn't climax quite as well as it could have. Much of the song is a great build up to something that never comes. 'Stonewalled' is another track with a fat drop but the rest of the track feels like they just threw a bunch of sounds together into one progressive mess.

Dubstep isn't good if it's messy. Throwing in noises and sounds where they shouldn't be can kill the whole vibe of the song. Noisia struggled with that in this record. A lot of things feel unnecessary and often times don't climax as they could for something big. Perhaps its part of their drum and bass nature, but this album felt empty and anticlimactic for the most part. Maybe their next release will be more of a jam.

Favorite Tracks: Mantra, The Entangled

Least Favorite Tracks: Sinkhole, Get Deaded, Straight Hook, Tentacles

Rating: 59 / 100

Baauer - Aa

After years of building up a career with a wide array of remixes and taking over the club scene, the ‘Harlem Shake’ legend Baauer has released his debut record, Aa. It brings together elements of hip hop, electronica, grime, and more to form each track, but sacrifices originality for energy at points.

The album begins with a splash of soothing noise with ‘Church’, that’s a bit off-putting in it’s disjointed nature despite being a refreshment before the meal is served. Unfortunately, the meal doesn’t seem fully cooked. It starts off nice with ‘GoGo!’ and ‘Body’, which balance flow with energy in a strong ratio. Sadly, this trend doesn’t hold too well by the thick of the record. It hits a peak of energy with the grime-influenced track, ‘Day Ones’ before it hits a bad streak, the next two tracks being just plain boring, especially ‘Way From Me’. ‘Temple’ almost brings the album back up, despite going a bit overboard with the animal sounds to hit the “jungle” effect, but it falls back to a low after. ‘Make It Bang’ is just downright questionable, and Future delivers his same, bland flow on top of a hip hop beat on ‘Kung Fu’. ‘Church Reprise’ is where the album should have ended, it taking that pure, washing sense from the intro track and elaborating on it with guitar and more synths. Sadly, what would’ve been a beautiful ending to a bumpy album ends at an all time low with ‘Aa’, the most painfully cliché club track this year.

Baauer’s debut is a bit of a mess. It has a few high moments, but the energy just isn’t sustainable throughout. It sacrifices any trace of originality of his own sound to make up energy, which doesn’t even live up to what it should. The high moments just don’t last long enough, either. Aa isn’t the electronic album of the year, nor will it be very close.

Favorite Tracks: Day Ones, Church Reprise

Least Favorite Tracks: Aa, Way From Me, Sow, Kung Fu

Rating: 5.5/10

Disclosure - Caracal

Being among the leaders of house and a new album packed with all star guests (The Weeknd, Lorde, Sam Smith, and more), it’s easy to see where electronic and pop music fans alike are being drawn in. Perhaps the only way to try and match the success of Disclosure’s previous effort Settle was to get this pop appeal. But can their new album match the quality fans so adored in its successor?

Caracal stays very true to itself. It embodies everything house is, and should be. While this has both its ups and downs, for the most part, it does everything it attempts to do in a complete fashion. The beginning of the album is an onslaught of soul - The Weeknd and Sam Smith’s guest spots appearing consecutively after one another. The album opens on a big note: the seven minute house monster that is “Nocturnal” featuring The Weeknd. The Weeknd’s R&B voice shines bright and provocatively on top of the typical deep bass notes and pretty little synths that compose the instrumental. The song centers around the atmospheric chorus (which is really just Weeknd singing, “Nocturnal, yeah!” over and over) and progressive build ups. On the surface the track seems a bit tacky and long, though the length is justified by the catchiness of the track. Even if you hate it, the track is extremely infectious. Unfortunately, the album peaks just as soon as it begins.

As I mentioned before, this album takes a firm hold of everything it attempts to do. The negative side of that is that it holds on to these principles throughout the entirety of the album, making it an enjoyable yet forgettable experience. The tracks following “Nocturnal”, “Omen” featuring Sam Smith and “Holding On” featuring Gregory Porter, while great as standalone songs, ruin the flow established with the debut track. Not only that, but they feel like secondhand knockoffs of it! “Hourglass” featuring LION BABE rebuilds the charm of “Nocturnal”, with LION delivering great harmonies, with a fun backing track. The album quickly shoots low again, nothing separating “Willing & Able” from being a KWABS feature and a KWABS track. “Magnets” with Lorde and the first track on the album without a feature, “Jaded” are the last high points on the album. Lorde delivers a great performance with her signature ominously charming harmonies, even while the instrumental may not fit the mood the vocals seem to want to set up. “Jaded” has a driving charm with a very catchy chorus yet again. Your suspicions are built up and broken down throughout the first half of the album, ultimately leveling off into a very average expectation for the second half. While there are memorable moments scattered few and far between the second half of the album (songs like “Moving Mountains” and “Molecules” are quite well written and groovy), nothing truly stands out like the better tracks of the beginning. Not to mention the absolute disasters that are “Bang That” and “Good Intentions” featuring Miguel.

Caracal isn’t the follow up you’d expect from Disclosure, but it definitely holds its ground. It has its ups and downs (well, mainly downs), but it’s a solid house record. Great to put on in the background to get work done, or to put on at a chill party. Dropping big names definitely helped the album get some fresh ideas and pop exposure, so hopefully the trend continues in Disclosure’s future endeavors.

Favorite Tracks: Nocturnal (ft. The Weeknd), Magnets (ft. Lorde), Jaded

Least Favorite Tracks: Bang That, Good Intentions (ft. Miguel)

Overall Rating: 6.5/10

Steve Aoki - Neon Future II

I’ll start this off by saying, I enjoyed this album more than I did the first Neon Future. Steve Aoki released the first half of the Neon Future experience last year, spawning singles such as “Free The Madness” with Machine Gun Kelly and “Delirious” featuring Kid Ink. This album doesn’t fall short in the guest department, either. Arguably, this album holds an array of even more notable guests: Linkin Park, Snoop Lion, and ever J. J. Abrams makes an appearance to close out the album.

With Neon Future II, it’s clear to see why Aoki is dominating the EDM scene at the moment. Even non-electronica fans can’t resist bobbing their heads to the heavy beats and awesome drops in his songs. Sometimes cliché, sure, but always infectious - a key in EDM music. Each song is varied in their own respect, and the fun stayed consistent throughout the album.

The storyline of the albums takes its next step (as expected). Neon Future I introduced the concepts of the neon future, and what it could hold. Neon Future II explores it, everything from traveling to the future with the intro to finding paradise in “Heaven On Earth”. And what better way of returning to the present than being narrated out by J. J. Abrams? Priorities.

Sonically, though, as much praise as I’ve given it, it is relatively average. Sure, each song is respectfully different, but it gets to a point where there’s no progression. Things begin to become a bit stale after the halfway point. Being the Linkin Park fan I am, I feel “Darker Than Blood” is the most sonically impressive song on the entire album, even though the entire song is based on a loop that should really only be used as a 30 second build up for another, grander song. Chester and Mike’s duet is simply beautiful, and Chester does some of his finest vocal work in quite some time during the chorus. In this regards, the album is still a good listen, but could be improved on a broader scale when it comes to instrumentals.

The Neon Future series allowed for Aoki’s popularity to massively grow, becoming some of mainstream EDM’s most vital hits. With tracks like “Free The Madness”, “Delirious”, and “Darker Than Blood” hailing from these albums, its easy to see why. Neon Future II explores the dark and light concepts of the proposed dystopian land, and even gives the listener a dance while having the adventure. That being said, these albums are definitely nothing groundbreaking. A lot of improvement is to be had, as these albums begin to drone on at points. Though when concluding with such a feat as to have J. J. Abrams accompany you back to the present, maybe it’s time to reconsider what’s “standard”.

Favorite Tracks: Darker Than Blood (ft. Linkin Park), Hysteria (ft. Matthew Koma)

Least Favorite Track: Holding Up The World (ft. Harrison)

Rating: 7/10