RC f/u Pt. 21: Margaret Glaspy, Burna Boy, CHAI

I will repeat my claim from before: if you feel personally invested in an artist that we've previously covered in Record Club, and you want to write a review for their new album, then I'd be more than happy to receive that submission, and post your words here in this space instead of mine. Let me know!

Echo the Diamond by Margaret Glapsy

Released: August 18, 2023

Follow-up to: Devotion, Week 61

I feel like Record Club did Margaret Glaspy dirty. Not that the reviews weren't accurate—Devotion was fine at best, and a disappointment at worst—and not that I'm salty about the fact that there were only two reviews—we can't control interest in this hobby, and we can only patiently wait for it to grow (we're up to an average of seven-point-something reviews per week here in 2023). I just feel like maybe Devotion is going to end up being a temporary lapse in the span of a hopefully long career in music for Glaspy.

Her first album, Emotions and Math, was filled with sharp guitar work and clever wordplay and a really pleasant singer singing in a really cool mid-pitch, occasionally phlegmy or eggy-type voice (I can't describe it without seeming like I'm insulting, but I swear I'm not). Devotion stripped a lot of that away and added some strings and became weirdly boring in the process.

On Echo the Diamond, Glapsy's guitars announce their return from the very first note, on the outstanding "Act Natural." This is Margaret Glaspy's strength. It feels like putting on an old shoe and having it fit just right. Yes, some of the songwriting in the back half is a bit lacking and a little sleepy. No, it still doesn't reach the highs of her debut album, suggesting that this is one of those things where an artist has their whole life to write their first album and only a year and a half to write their next album. Oh well. I'm just happy to be here.

I don't even know that she does the pastiche of alt-rock all that well (as heard on "Female Brain"), but I'd much rather her go in that direction than in the direction of that last album. I like when an artist tries something new, but occasionally it's nice to hear an artist tacitly admit that the new thing wasn't necessarily the best thing. Oh well. Keep trying. Despite how it seemed all those weeks ago, Record Club will be right here with you, Margaret Glaspy.

GRADE: 3.5 pukes out of 5 (+1.0 from previous review)

I Told Them... by Burna Boy

Released: August 25, 2023

Follow-up to: African Giant, Week 219

Amadou Balaké briefly got me on a kick last year of the sunny African guitar-driven dance music known as "Soukous." The "kick" just consisted of a couple compilation tapes, but still! It's fun stuff! And I was really appreciative that I heard that sound again on the first track, "I Told Them." I thought maybe Burna Boy might be leaning into his roots on this one, as opposed to the Afrobeats by way of autotuned R&B from African Giant.

Alas, it was a feint. Most of the rest of the album feels Americanized in the worst ways. I'm not saying Burna Boy isn't good at what he does. He's good. It's just that there are certain sounds with a higher barrier to entry for me, and this sound that he has chosen as his raison d'etre is not for me.

I don't even mind the whole "I achieved success despite the odds against me" shtick that every dime-store rapper employs. The one defense against libel is the truth, and Burna Boy seems to be telling the truth here. But at a certain point, it's like, can we stop pretending to be the underdog? Every music listener worth his salt knows who Burna Boy is at this point. His net worth is in the millions (if not $22 million). If he's in danger of becoming cliché, then retreading this theme is not the way to fight against it.

I don't know. Maybe I'm overstating it. There are a lot of lyrics on this thing, and a lot of it is in Pidgin English, so what the fuck do I know? All I know is what I like. I really like the sounds of the title track, and the halfhearted version of that sound that finally shows back up in the penultimate track, "Thanks." Everything in between? Like the boilerplate-ass high-pitched soul sample on "Cheat on Me"? Meh.

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

CHAI by CHAI

Released: September 22, 2023

Follow-up to: PUNK, Week 7

I found my tolerance to be a lot higher than most of my blogging peers when it came to CHAI's breakthrough album, PUNK. I can appreciate a sugar rush every once in a while, even (or maybe especially?) when that sugar rush is hitting you in a different language. What surprised me was going back and seeing my reaction to PUNK's follow-up, WINK, released in 2021. Apparently I liked that one a lot too? I literally forgot that it existed until the 2023 self-titled was released a few weeks ago.

I believe in appreciating "doing something different," and clearly that's what CHAI was trying to do with WINK. It was chill. They were taking it easy on the sugar, content to just relax and hangout and give us the vibes, man. But now CHAI gives us more of that, and I find myself, almost five years later, kinda missing what originally drew me to CHAI in the first place. Give me the batshit insanity!

Sucks to blame it on this kind of thing, but: I'm very, very tired as I write this. Rough week for the K*** household. I'm thinking that maybe I could have used a shot of adrenaline from our pals from across the globe. The video game loading screen music of CHAI is pretty good still, but it drains me a little bit. I wish they had taken a queue from the song "I Can't Organizeeee," which doubles its tempo halfway through. Don't just do it for one song. Take the whole album, and double the speed, and then we'll talk.

GRADE: 3 pukes out of 5 (-1.0 from previous review, -0.5 from original review)

Doing three artists per week for the past month in this follow-up column has actually put a pretty big dent on the list. As mentioned before, we have new ones from Hidden Things, American Trappist, and Cautious Clay that were just discovered. We also have new ones from Animal Collective, Mary Lattimore, and Sufjan Stevens to get to now. Then, in two days, we'll have Jamila Woods, the Menzingers, and Margo Price gracing our large speaker systems. Still lots to do! I'll keep at it!