Shazamers' Blog

After a four-year hiatus following last album ‘Folie à Deux’, everyone’s favourite band named after a minor Simpsons character are back. A lot has changed for the emo-pop outfit in the intervening period. Singer/guitarist Patrick Stump put out a solo album while bassist/lyricist/angular-fringed heartthrob Pete Wentz had a kid and even got round to writing a book. Add it to your Amazon wish list immediately.

However, one thing that remains unchanged is the band’s love of songs with names wordier than the average lyric sheet. Where you stand on titles like ‘Sending Postcards from a Plane Crash (Wish You Were Here)’ and ‘I’ve Got a Dark Alley and a Bad Idea That Says You Should Shut Your Mouth (Summer Song)’ is a matter for your conscience, but they definitely come in handy if you’re trying to pad out a review.

While the unwieldy monikers might still be in place, Fall Out Boy have switched things up a bit at a musical level. The new track – henceforth known as ‘MSKWYDITD(LEU)’ for reasons of brevity – steps away from the breezy emo-lite of hits like ‘Sugar, We’re Going Down’ towards anthemic Maroon 5 influenced pop rock. The track’s big shiny choruses are unlikely to alienate any of their old fans, but it’s good to see the band growing up gracefully and not simply trying to rehash past glories.

“I think that the music dictated the return,” Wentz told VH1. “We definitely wanted to make new music and we wanted to make new songs that people would be able to embrace, and hopefully relate to. We tried a couple times in the past year and it wasn’t necessarily gelling, and then we tried again and it seemed like we were making something that was a little more compelling.”

‘MSKWYDITD(LEU)’ is the first track from forthcoming new album ‘Save Rock and Roll’, sneakily announced on the same day that the single dropped. Set for release in April, it will be interesting to see how they’re new direction pans out. In the meantime, be sure to check out the video for ‘MSKWYDITD(LEU)’, which inexplicably features rapper 2 Chainz burning a load of musical instruments in the woods.

Huw Thomas Tag Of The Day

Bastille’s rapid rise is a testament to the power of cooperation. Starting out as the solo bedroom project of songwriter/frontman Dan Smith, the expanded band have become one of the busiest live acts in the business. In the last year or so they’ve notched up dozens of festival appearances and regular gigs, all before they’ve even got their debut album on the shelves.

The LP ‘Bad Blood’ is now on the verge of its March 4 release, so it will be interesting to see if their recorded output lives up to the standards set by their work on stage. Judging by ‘Pompeii’, fans shouldn’t have too much to worry about. It’s a rousing and heartfelt track that throws everything at the wall to see what sticks. You’ve got some nicely pulsing synths, a tasty rolling bassline and a few group vocal breakdowns that are machine-tooled to ignite mass singalongs in big fields.

It’s a ‘more is more’ approach that initially seems somewhat odd for an act built around a single performer. Things make a little more sense when you discover that Bastille isn’t entirely a dictatorship with Smith in the Stalin role, but something far more collaborative.

“I normally start with the idea and record it quite a lot of it onto my laptop which will then get passed around to other members of the band and also a mate of mine who is a producer,” Smith told Fortitude. “When the demo gets passed around my original idea will transform with the help of different creative minds. You start to see little tweaks, ideas and improvements take shape and piece together quite nicely. It’s quite a patchwork process but I really like it.”

It’s clearly an approach that’s paying dividends, as Bastille unmistakeably sound more like a band than a disguised solo artist. To paraphrase those awful motivational posters found in the offices of terrible Brent-like businessmen: “teamwork makes the dream work.”

Huw Thomas Tag Of The Day

‘Dope’ is a curious mash-up of influences. The loping, double bass sample recalls Cypress Hill at their bonged-out best, while there’s a nice early Death Row feel to the menacing minor key chord stabs. Chuck in some escalating acid-tinged squelches and you’ve got a fairly tasty package. While Tyga’s lyrics – a relentless stream of data explaining just how amazing he is ¬– won’t win any prizes for originality, his tricksy delivery and capable flow easily take up the slack. In his 4,765th guest appearance this year, label boss Rick Ross provides some contrast with a more rugged verse of his own.

Despite the blinger-than-thou attitudes espoused in ‘Dope’, Tyga isn’t solely about the glitz. New album ‘Hotel California’ promises some soul-searching introspection amid the tales of booty and Bentleys.

“This album is very personal,” Tyga says. “It’s about my experience of being at a hotel and suddenly realizing how far I’ve come in my career. It’s also my desire to feel at home these days, since due to my success I mainly live life on the road. The only home I ever knew was California, so this album is about those dual feelings.”

Tyga has roped in an impressive list of producers for the new record, including DJ Mustard, Jess Jackson, David DA Doman and The Olympicks. He’s also recently announced that the next single to be taken from ‘Hotel California’ will be ‘For the Road’, a collaboration with his old mate Chris Brown. As long as Chris is involved, we’re sure it’ll be a massive hit.

Huw Thomas New Music Rick Ross, Tyga

Old-school meets new on ‘Unorthodox’ as hip-hop pioneer DJ Premier teams up with rising Brooklyn MC and typographic renegade Joey Bada$$. It’s a match that works out pretty well. Premier’s beats are vintage in the best sense of the word, demonstrating why he’s still one of the most important names in the game. His groundbreaking early work with Guru in Gang Starr would be enough to earn him a lifetime pass to the hip-hop hall of fame, but he’s stayed relevant over the subsequent decades by working with just about every major name in rap. True, he also collaborated with grunting backwards cap enthusiasts Limp Bizkit, but everyone has an off day.

Premier is on much surer ground with Joey Bada$$. Since dropping his debut mixtape ‘1999’ last year, the young Brooklyn MC been tipped as one to watch. ‘Unorthodox’ sees him living up to the billing with style. His verses are dense and knotty, telling tales of street life that ring with authenticity. Chances are he’ll land a million dollar contract and move on to talking about how much his shoes cost, but right now he’s offering a more grounded take on hip-hop than many of his contemporaries.

Hopefully, he’ll be able to hang on to what makes him special as his career progresses. A debut album, as yet untitled, is scheduled for sometime in 2013 so we should find out soon enough. Early signs indicate that his strong social conscience should keep him on the straight and narrow. “It’s the problems in the world that we often get our inspiration from, and these people need voices to speak for them,” he told Prefix. “Some people won’t speak up, and some people don’t have the ability to. We’re the voice of the people, and we support them.”

The oppressed and downtrodden could certainly have a worse spokesman than Joey Bada$$. Long may he make his voice heard.

Huw Thomas New Music Joey Bada$$

From beginnings as the parent-scaring face of grime, Dizzee Rascal has taken an improbable career trajectory to become something of a minor national treasure. Lest we forget, he popped up on that misguided 2004 remake of Band Aid and played a role in last year’s Olympic opening ceremonies. Hardly the work of a terrifying, hoodie-clad urban bogeyman.

Critics complain that Dizzee has forsaken the hard-edged sounds of his debut ‘Boy in da Corner’ for more chart-friendly bangers like the Armand Van Helden-produced ‘Bonkers’. We say pish to these critics. There are few things more annoying than a successful artist banging on about his life on the streets when we all know that he’s a millionaire who lives in a diamond-encrusted mansion on the moon. Dizzee’s situation in 2013 is probably pretty sweet, so why shouldn’t his music reflect that?

‘Bassline Junkie’ is certainly in keeping with Dizzee’s more party-focused outlook. A thumping celebration of bottom-end pleasures, it is a jolting shot in the arm for anyone jonesing for a low frequency hit. It’s a short, simple and brutally effective track, even if Dizzee’s repeated demand for ‘Bass, dirty stinking bass’ can’t help but remind you of this more culinary bass jam.

‘Bassline Junkie’ forms part of Dizzee’s forthcoming new album, his first in four years. The man himself is clearly enthusiastic about his latest release.

“I’m at a point where there’s so much music,” he told Radio 1. “It’s mad. It’s the best-produced album I’ve done so far because of the calibre of producers I’m working with. It’s all big league.”

“This past year or so, moving to Miami, I’ve actually had a life,” he said. “I feel a lot more settled now. I’m coming out ready just really wanting to get out there, perform new music. I’ve been doing the same songs for a little while now, and it’s cool, but it’s nice to do some fresh material.”

Huw Thomas New Music

Chemistry is a funny thing. You might think that a veteran hip-hop producer who grew up loving DJ pioneers like Red Alert, terminator X and Marley Marl would have little in common with a self-confessed ‘nerdy white kid’ who started out making house music. ‘Higher’ suggests otherwise.

Just Blaze has been in the game for years, producing tracks for Jay-Z’s ‘Blueprint’, ‘Blueprint 2’ and ‘The Black Album’. Baauer is quickly making a name for himself with monstrous electro/hip-hop party anthems like the irrepressible ‘Harlem Shake’. Together they’ve produced one of the most infectious tunes of this young year.

‘Higher’ starts big and keeps going bigger. An aural assault of hip-hop prowl and concussive dancefloor electronics, its crescendos have crescendos. It sounds immense when listened to on YouTube, so we can only imagine how truly megalithic this would be out of some massive speakers in a packed room.

The track also has the major distinction of featuring a vocal drop from none other than Blaze’s bud, Hova himself. It’s good to have friends in high places.

“I got a call [from Jay-Z] when we were working on ‘Higher’,” Blaze told MTV Hive. “I figured it might be cool for Baauer to meet Jay, so I took him over there with me. When we left, I was like, ‘Wait a minute. I just had an idea.’ Ran back in and I told Jay-Z, ‘Could you do a drop for the tour?’ It was originally just something we would utilize somehow during the show. I had him record it for me, right into my phone. The night we put it out, we were trying to figure out an intro and I was just like, ‘We got it. Just put the Jay-Z track at the top’.”

It all sounds so simple, but then the best recipes often are.

Huw Thomas New Music

Just once, it would be nice to see a rapper namecheck a slightly cheaper and more practical car. Sure a Bentley, Rolls Royce or a Lexus is classy, but what kind of fuel consumption does it get, what insurance bracket is it in and how easy is it to park? Beck bigged up the humble Hyundai on his ‘Midnite Vultures’ album back in the 90s, but no one followed suit. Hip-hop just doesn’t care about N-CAP safety ratings and generous manufacturers’ warranties.

Just like spud-faced, manufactured outrage-generator Jeremy Clarkson and his Top Gear accomplices, rappers don’t want to talk about vehicles that their audiences can afford. They’re about the aspirational, big-ticket rides which are solely the preserve of the mega-rich. Top businessmen, royalty and – yes – successful hip-hop artists.

The popularity of tracks celebrating vehicular excess suggests that most listeners aren’t too concerned that their idols are rapping about things they’ll never own. They just want to go along for the ride. Florida’s Ace Hood clearly understands this. By naming his latest track after the maker of the world’s most expensive car, he’s clearly aiming high.

Much like it’s namesake, ‘Bugatti’ is a low-slung and glossy creation. Ably assisted by Rick Ross and Future, Hood delivers an autotune-inflected paean to life’s pricier pleasures. There’s not much going on behind the shiny surface, but who ever said a good party needed a subtext?

At least Ace Hood is working hard for his money. ‘Bugatti’ comes from his forthcoming album ‘Trials and Tribulations’ but he’s also just released a new mixtape. Titled ‘Starvation 2’, the tape features guests like Meek Mill, French Montana, Yo Gotti, Choo Choo and Kevin Cossom. It’s something that Hood is intensely proud of.

“‘Starvation 2′ is my latest but greatest creation thus far,” he told AllHipHop. “I’m proudest of my growth with this mixtape. Seeing life through my perspective, I think this is the purest form of substance and hunger.”

If the dude’s hungry, he should think about getting a less expensive car. We hear Hyundais are very economical.

Huw Thomas New Music

The latest cut from Kendrick Lamar’s all-conquering ‘Good Kid, MAAD City’ is initially perplexing. He’s known as a rapper who’s operating on a different level to many of his peers – an artist who’s more interested in the realities of modern life than banging on about his bling, bitches and Bentleys.

It’s therefore a little surprising to hear him nakedly lusting after money and power on ‘Backseat Freestyle’, as well as expressing the wish that his ‘d**k gets as big as the Eiffel Tower’. This genital fixation continues elsewhere, with what could be the first use of the word ‘scrotum’ in a mainstream rap track.

Divorced from context, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Kendrick had forsaken his thoughtful principles in favour of a more conventionally commercial approach to hip-hop. However, when taken as a part of the overarching narrative of ‘Good Kid, MAAD City’, it starts to make a lot more sense.

The album tells a story of a single formative day in Lamar’s life. As such the section covered by ‘Backseat Freestyle’ reads as the thoughts of an inexperienced kid growing up on the streets. He wants all the things that mainstream hip-hop tells him he should want. If these desires are chiefly focused on the financial and the carnal, that’s hardly surprising. They reflect a key stage in Lamar’s development to the artist he is today.

“This is me, this is a 100 per cent true story – everything that happens on this album was one day that changed my life,” he told Metro. “A lot of these songs really admit to wrongdoings, whether in deeds or thoughts. But that’s what separated me, when I started doing that, from a lot of artists who were out.”

Saying all that, the track’s pretty easy to enjoy even without the analysis. Built with customary minimalism around a clanging bell and what sounds like the sonar ‘ping’ you’d hear on a submarine, it’s a solid canvas for Lamar’s assured flow. Starting off languid and building to frenetic finale, his lyrics are dense and meticulously constructed. Another reminder – if one were needed – that Lamar is one of the most distinctive voices in hip-hop today.

Huw Thomas New Music

As one half of OutKast, Big Boi always seemed to get something of a raw deal. He was often viewed as the more conventional part of the group, the straight Mindy to Andre 3000’s outlandish Mork. To be fair, even Liberace would look a little dowdy when placed next to the intergalactic peacock that is Dre, but Big Boi’s music marks him out as anything but a hip-hop also ran.

Go and listen to ‘Speakerboxxx’, BB’s half of OutKast’s defining double album – don’t worry, we’ll wait. Even today it is a crazily inventive and properly bonkers offering, packed to the rafters with weird electronic squelches and head-spinning lyrics. Latest track ‘Mama Told me’ continues to demonstrate just why Big Boi remains one of the distinctive voices in hip-hop. On the surface, it’s a bouncy pop track, given extra chart heft with the involvement of former Destiny’s Child Kelly Rowland. Listen closely though and this is a very different beast from much of the rap music currently clogging up the airwaves.

His verses are meticulously constructed, looping back in on themselves and packed with unusual references. In a scene where lyrics often consist of rattling off a list of brands and bigging up the amount of jewellery you wear, that’s pretty refreshing. Musically too, BB is operating on a different level. ‘Mama Told Me’ is very clearly a pop song, but there’s so much going on at the fringes you can’t help but give it another spin. We’ll take that over any amount of swag.

It’s also heartening to know that Big Boi continues to draw much of his inspiration from his hometown. “I always called Atlanta home,” he told Grantland. “Never moved away from there, traveled all over the world, and there’s not a better place to live than Atlanta, except for maybe Sydney, Australia. Maybe. Because it’s just real chill over there. But, to have the type of admiration and respect I get in the city, I love it. I tote the city on my back. And I know it’s like an anomaly, like ‘How does this guy keep getting better and better at what he’s doing?’ It’s because I’m having fun. I’m living life, I’m raising my kids, and I’m making music. I got my studio there, and the vibes are incredible. So, as long as the people keep buying, I’ma keep supplying. Everyone knows the track record of the group I came from, but at the same time, it don’t stop. This is some Jedi rap shit. And to see the way people are receiving the record, I’m definitely humbled and happy, and it’s motivation to make more music.”

Huw Thomas New Music

Much like the country from which he takes his name, Trinidad James is pretty hot stuff. Off the back of a single mixtape – ‘Don’t be S.A.F.E’, released summer 2012 – the young Atlanta native has been building major buzz and putting labels on alert. Following a fierce bidding war Def Jam have just emerged victorious in the battle to secure his signature. Big things surely await.

He’ll need all that success if he’s going to continue feeding his desire for expensive jewellery. As the title suggests, ‘All Gold Everything’ is an ode to Trinidad James’s love of the shiny stuff. Gold chains, gold rings, gold watches; he’s the rapping offspring of Mr T and a classic Bond villain.

The track is taken from James’ aforementioned mixtape, but it seems the man himself had no idea that it would prove to be such a breakout hit.

“‘All Gold Everything’ was the last song I wrote,” he told Creative Loafing. “If you listen to the other songs, there isn’t really anything hood hood on there – no banger, no trapped-out type shit. So I was like, ‘Damn, I need something for the hood,’ because that’s where I come from. My cousin sent me the beat, and I started writing at work. I finished writing it in the car and finished the song that night. I kept telling my cousin, ‘This song hard, man. I f**k with this song’ – but, I didn’t even think that was going to be the song.”

Just goes to show that it’s impossible to predict what’s going to hit and what’s going to miss. As thoughts now turn to what is surely going to be a hotly anticipated debut album, it will be interesting to see if Trinidad James can maintain his gold standard.

Huw Thomas New Music