Following Up with Record Club Alumni: Part 2

Alright, I already gave a pretty lengthy intro last time, so let's just dive right in.

CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST by Tyler, the Creator

Released: June 25, 2021

Follow-up to: IGOR, Week 55

With IGOR, we had an artist who primarily inhabited the hip hop world but who made an album that was mostly not hip hop. Despite this, the album won the Grammy for Best Rap Album. So I can see where Tyler is trying to do with CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST, which is very much a rap album. This seems like a "fuck you." It is very hard, and very in-your-face, and very distilled. This is an artist daring the Grammys to nominate him for the same category. If he is nominated, then they are proving they don't even give a shit about the music, they are just nominating based on name recognition; if he is not nominated, then they are proving that they have no fucking clue what rap even is. It's a savvy move. Unfortunately, as someone who has admitted fully that he doesn't know what rap even is already, this doesn't sound as fun to me as IGOR did. Not even close, honestly. So props to Tyler, the Creator for doing whatever he wants, and doing it well, and for not kowtowing to some fucking blog with terrible taste.

GRADE: 2.5 pukes out of 5 (-1.0 from previous review)

9 by Pond

Released: October 1, 2021

Follow-up to: Man It Feels like Space Again, Week 29

Alright, so the album 9, released exactly a month ago, was not a direct follow-up to the album we covered in Record Club. There are two in between. So it might not be fair to contrast the two, since Pond had like six years and two extra albums to adjust their sound. Fair or not, it's the truth that I like 9 A LOT better than I like Man It Feels like Space Again. It feels like Pond stopped trying so hard, if that makes sense. They stopped trying to be the biggest, baddest rock band at the summer music festival, and started just playing to the fans who are still showing up. In Pond's case, this means finding a really comfortable middle ground between MGMT and LCD Soundsystem. I have no idea if the intervening albums helped with the modification over time, or this is just a response to being away from the festival scene during the pandemic, but it doesn't matter. Over two years later, you can finally count me as a fan of Pond.

GRADE: 4 pukes out of 5 (only +0.5 from previous review, but that review completely overrated the album, so this should be more)

Jump Rope Gazers by the Beths

Released: July 10, 2020

Follow-up to: Future Me Hates Me, Week 33

It was more of a coincidence of timing, but the Beths were the first Record Club alumnus to release a new album after we covered said alumnus. That was over a year ago. I haven't said much about it on the blog in that time because, well, there isn't much to talk about. The Beths are great, and in Jump Rope Gazers, they made another excellent album. But there's nothing new here. Nothing! I get it—don't fix what isn't broken, and all that. This is their Room on Fire. That's their right, to do that for their sophomore album. Let's meet back in this space when LP3 comes out, though, and see if the Beths can really wow us with something unexpected.

GRADE: 3.5 pukes out of 5 (-0.5 from previous review)

Modern Fiction by Ducks Ltd.

Released: October 1, 2021

Follow-up to: Get Bleak EP, Week 47

It's been said in the majority of EP reviews in Record Club, and it's something that I promise I will never say in any Christmastime EP review ever again: EPs are designed to be slight, but that is still nevertheless to their detriment. It's unfair but it's also the truth. Get Bleak, though nice, felt tossed off, and yet what EP isn't? So credit to Ducks Ltd. (in Week 47, they were known as "Ducks Unlimited") for taking full advantage of their debut LP. Modern Fiction feels like a statement. That statement reads: jangle pop is here to stay, all you assholes and naysayers. What a goddamn delightful album. They aren't getting sued by conservationist groups anymore—it's time to hop on the Ducks Ltd. bandwagon.

GRADE: 4 pukes out of 5 (+1.5 from previous review)

By my count, there are four more Record Club artists we have yet to cover in this limited blog series, so we'll listen to and write about them next time (unless, like, Hot Chocolate or INXS surprise-release a new album in the meantime).