Rapper Vince Staples brings his brand of afrofuturism to The Jones Assembly.
The Weeknd
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Brother duo Disclosure comes to The Criterion
UK duo Disclosure’s first album, Settle, debuted in 2013 to near universal acclaim.
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The Weeknd — Echoes of Silence
Not so fast! “Echoes of Silence” continues with the cadre of really sad characters (such as the poor girl working “for your face-lift” on “XO/The Host”) in really sad, sexually exploitive situations spelled out on The Weeknd’s first two mixtapes, without adding many new elements to that signature hazy, narcotized atmosphere of industrial beats and […]
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Drake — Take Care
My feelings about this are complicated, although I found the record to be a languorous epic that rewarded dividends upon repeat listens. It’s certainly a winsome, good album — probably even a great one — but for reasons ascribed to Aubrey Drake Graham’s sense as a producer more so than his voice or rapping. The […]
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The Weeknd — Thursday
Far from it, in fact. “Thursday”’s a terrific R&B record, creeping and grinding along at a pace appropriate for a sequel to the menacing, borderline-nihilistic “Balloons.” What the second album (Tesfaye promised a trio by the end of the year — all to be downloaded online, for free) lacks is the cloak of enigma that […]