Music Review - Mystery Skulls - Forever

I've been keenly aware of up-and-coming Electro-R&B/Pop artist Mystery Skulls for several months now, having been exposed to a promo single off his debut album Forever called Number 1, which was notable for featuring both famous disco guitarist and friend to all electronic bands Nile Rodgers and R&B singer Brandy. It was a catchy, if not generic sounding upbeat R&B song with some flair. However, last week I was made aware of the rest of Mystery Skulls' album, and the fantastic animated video for the single Ghost, and now I'm convinced this album is a force to be reckoned with and needed to show it off to all of you.

Like I mentioned, Forever is the first album from Mystery Skulls, though it's brainchild Luis Dubuc has been around for awhile with different projects since the early 00's. Forever is an ambitious album and is exactly the kind of thing I really dig; slices of R&B, Pop, Disco and Soul with a predominant Electronic base and history rather than Hip-Hop oriented. While I don't think there is anything wrong with R&B traditionally being Hip-Hop or even Funk or Blues based, I was a kid raised in the electronic scenes of the late 90's and early 00's and when those influences cross-over to other genres of modern music like Electro has for the last decade or so I get more excited about the new combos more than I do the originators.

Daft Punk can easily be identified as one of Mystery Skulls biggest electronic inspirations, with some of the harder Electro and Disco based beats. One of my personal favorites on the album, Paralyzed, has a main synth riff that sounds like a combination of the secondary, end riff in Da Funk and Derezzed. One song, When I'm With You, I swear took a little synth rhythm from Eiffel 65 and if that is where he got the inspiration I would be so incredibly pleased. Dubuc has a very blue-eyed soul sound to his voice similar to the take the Black Keys take on their newest album, Turn Blue, and a cadence that places him definitely in this era and no sooner. The majority of Forever combines this voice with a particularly fun turn of phrase, some hard synth lines, crunchy basses and strong kick drums. On some songs however, Dubuc switches flavors up and tries to go more R&B or Disco-y, and strings and guitars are much more prevalent than kick drums or synths.


That flavor turn is most evident in Magic and Number 1, the two songs that prominently feature both Nile Rodgers on guitar and Brandy on vocals. Both songs, while enjoyable, I find lacking compared to the Electro-oriented Pop of the rest of the album. Rodgers has a very distinct playing style that, while very pleasing to hear, can sound very same-y, song to song, and it becomes more about what you put around that guitar that makes it different. Brandy does a great job and adds a level of credibility to the songs with her vocals, but unfortunately the lyrics on these two songs happen to be the most repetitive and least substantive. On their own, very good, comfortable songs for the genre, but on an album that has so many other high points there has to be a low point and for me these two are it.

The real star of the album is the track Ghost, which combines a really infectious Electro-beat, House-y Synths and super catchy vocals. This song is the defining track of the album. If you hear this song and like it, you'll love the album. It really embodies the main influences and directions that Dubuc is trying to accomplish with this album, and it's a sound I really, really enjoy. It doesn't hurt that a super groovy animated music video for it is currently taking the internet by storm.

I think the only other real criticism I have of the album is a nitpick, and it's the amount of swearing on this 41 minute, 11 track album. I know it sounds weird, but the amount of times Dubuc says fuck and shit in the album was a little bit of a detractor for me. While it does make him sound more of this era in his songwriting process, it to me sometimes just felt a little lazy, like he could've found something better to fill that word space in than fuck, but it really is a nitpick. I know I actually enjoy it in the song Paralyzed when Dubuc brings the song down to silence, says "fuck it" and the song breaks out into an instrumental interlude.

Overall, this is a stellar debut from Mystery Skulls and I can't wait for the vinyl release of Forever and whatever he has planned next. Oh, and stay tuned to the blog for some exciting news (hint, we have a new contributor!)






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Music Review - Kimbra - The Golden Echo

Kimbra made big impressions in the last few years, with her first album Vows originally coming out in 2011, being spotted on Gotye's Somebody That I Used To Know in 2012, and then having a re-working of Vows come out in 2012, it seemed like she could do anything, so..she did a little of everything on her follow-up The Golden Echo.

The album is a mixture of genres that are unified by a few key ideas, the main one being that Kimbra can pretty much do anything she puts her mind to. While comfortably sitting in a modern Soul/R&B positon, Kimbra also takes on some more Rock-Pop numbers and even the weird genre-bending pop hit 90's Music, a song that's as much of a homage in it's lyrics as it is in style. Kimbra's musical style jumps all over the place, and it's a good thing. You can never peg her down as being just one kind of style, even when she excels at it. The Golden Echo is a collage of styles that do nothing but good things for the young, but very talented Kimbra.

Songs like 90's Music and Miracle sound poised to take the pop charts, while others like As You Are and Love In High Places are like the modern comeback of Soul, like Amy Winehouse or even Adele. While still others like Teen Heat and Madhouse sound like the Funk-induced R&B of the likes of Prince. It's a kaleidoscope of genres flavors that all combine to give you an authentic sense of what Kimbra is capable of, and that you at the same time don't know where she'll go next, whether it's the low-key trap-based Goldmine or the Soul of Waltz Me To The Grave. There are no sour notes on The Golden Echo, there are just different flavors rotating through.

The instrumentation is absolutely delightful. Besides Kimbra's magnificent voice that can hit the lows as well as the highs, you have multiple appearances from accomplished bassist Thundercat, Michael Jackson's drummer John Robinson, and Morris Hayes, a keyboardist for the NPG-era Prince. On 90's Music, Muse's Matt Bellamy plays guitar, Mark Foster from Foster the people makes an appearance, John Legend is on a track, the album really is just a collage of all the things Kimbra likes and wants to incorporate into her work, and it shows. Though instead of being a Hodge-podge mess of styles, The Golden Echo holds together as it's own standalone piece of work, a reflection of who Kimbra is and what she wants to bring to music, and I'm on-board for wherever she wants to take me. 

I will mention that while the vinyl lacks all the bonus songs of the deluxe version, it not only sounds fantastic, but the digital download they include also has the bonus tracks.

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Music Review - Pharrell Williams - G I R L

Pharrell had a tremendous 2013, being involved in a ton of high profile projects, including the latest Jay-Z, Beyonce, Frank Ocean's Channel Orange and Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines, to name a few. The one that related the most to me was his work with Daft Punk on Random Access Memories. So when I heard Columbia asked Pharrell to record an album for them after his work with Daft Punk I got pretty excited. I like his production, and I like a lot of his contributions, but I've never been a huge fan of his solo work. Not that it's not good, just that I've never gotten into it. G I R L changed that for me. I'm real into this album in a big way.

Pharrell seems to have taken a page from Daft Punk and explored older styles of his own music that he could bring back into style, and this album is just layered with Soul and Funk on top of R&B. It's fun, carefree and catchy. After the negative press that Blurred Lines caught for being incredibly disparaging to women, Pharrell reportedly wanted to work on music that represented what he actually thought of women. As such, G I R L is an album dedicated to Pharrell's views on women. Though it can be raunchy, it's never the way Blurred Lines was.

My favorite track on the album, and the one that caught my attention most was "Gust of Wind" a track that has Daft Punk producing and providing some guest vocals for Pharrell, returning the favor for his work on Random Access Memories. It's a Disco-Funk tinged R&B jam. It sounds like an outtake from the RAM sessions, it fits so perfectly into their recent sound. I absolutely love it to bits. I thought the album as a whole sounded familiar to RAM, and then when looking it up found that Mick Guzauski, the man who mixed RAM did the majority of the tracks on this album, and you can tell. Every song he did sounds big, open and warm, dipped in 70's-80's R&B essence. Another thing I thought was interesting is that iconic film composer Hans Zimmer was responsible for the strings arrangements on a handful of songs. Huh, I wouldn't have called that in a million years, but those strings do sound damn good. I guess Pharrell was one of the session drummers for Hans' Man of Steel score and that is probably how they met. Whatever the case, I want Hans Zimmer arranging more damn strings. Happy is of course another standout track. Originally penned for the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack, it fits right at home here. It's just pure fun.

Features on the album other than Daft Punk include Justin Timberlake and Timbaland on Brand New, Kelly Osbourne on groovy album opener Marilyn Monroe, Miley Cyrus in Come Get It Bae, JoJo on Lost Queen and Alicia Keys on featured duet Know Who You Are. Though I wasn't a huge fan of Timberlake's verse on Brand New, the production and added beatboxing from Timbaland made it feel like a crossover of male R&B world's. Lost Queen is a nearly 8 minute song about how Pharrell falls head over heels for a women, asking what planet this girl is from, because she must be a lost queen, meaning she is this amazing and powerful person and no one else is like her, so clearly she must be missing from the place she's actually from because there is no way she could be from the same world as he is. It's a charming epic, and an unexpected turn. One thing I noticed is that this album seems to have taken a lot of it's song-structure idea from Justin Timberlake's 20/20 experience, in that several songs are two part-ers, finishing off one song idea, then having an interlude and finally switching up to a second half. It's most evident on Lost Queen due to it's 8 minute length and very clear two half split, but it also happens on opener Marilyn Monroe. While I don't think it's necessary, it provides an interesting dynamic to the songs it happens on.

All in all, I really dig this album. I'm not huge into R&B, but I enjoy Justin Timberlake and some female R&B artists, but if more people took this kind of retro-look at the genre I'd probably jump right into it. I like big horn sections, big strings, and infectious beats and melodies on traditional instruments. As much as I love the sound of synths, it's nice when someone can create something that still sounds like them but in a style that isn't as popular anymore. This album is 10 tracks and lean at 45 minutes. No filler, this is the exact album that Pharrell wanted to make, and I can respect him for that. G I R L is one big 45 minute exercise in fun with 70's-80's R&B style.

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