RC f/u #32: Kaytranada and La Luz

I've done my best over the years to keep track of all these albums that Record Club alumni are releasing. The task gets more difficult as we keep adding more and more artists to the RC stable. Eventually, it'll become impossible. Either that, or I'll have to set up some google alerts or something. If any of the bands that continue to fly under the radar release a new album, you'll let me know, right? Thank you.

Timeless by Kaytranada

Released: June 7, 2024
Follow-up to: BUBBA, Week 51

I enjoyed this album but it's too long. That could be the review, but it gets more complicated when I reconsider Kaytranada's place in the pantheon of Record Club, my original reaction to the artist, how I've changed and grown, and how my growth rubs up against how Kaytranada himself has changed, or hasn't.

It's not that deep. Here is an hour-plus amount of dance music from a veteran dance music creator who only just recently peaked in popularity. This happened after BUBBA, but before Timeless. Timeless, then, feels sort of like a victory lap. "Here's what I do well, and a lot of it." But I didn't have the capacity to appreciate it five and a half years ago, when I listened to BUBBA and walked away nonplussed. I think I'm there at this point, in that I can listen to something like Timeless and appreciate it for what it is, and even like it a lot for what it is. I just don't know if that's enough for me to commit to it.

Here's "what it is," by the way: dance music, lots of guest stars. Kaytranada makes the music, he invited vocal-forward artists to take the mic and give each track flavor. A banger like the Lou Phelps-featuring "Call U Up" (the best song on here) is obviously going to sound way different than the skittering ballad-type song "Still" with Charlotte Day Wilson. And then that is going to sound different than "Video," which is another slow one featuring another R&B singer in Ravyn Lenae, but Lenae voice is at a way higher pitch than Wilson's, and it lends to a completely different feel, almost ephemeral. Meanwhile, Kaytranada is roping it all together.

It's a varied album, is what I'm saying. But perhaps not varied enough to justify the length. But the nitpicking about the length is on me, not Kaytranada. I'm just not fully invested in it. There's too much of the average dance-beat stuff, and there's not enough Anderson .Paak rapping about big asses. Tighten it up and balance it out, and I'll be singing Kaytranada's praises. Next time.

GRADE: 3 pukes out of 5 (+1.0 puke from original review)

News of the Universe by La Luz

Released: May 24, 2024

Follow-up to: Floating Features, Week 5

I've always had fond feelings for La Luz, due to their placement at the beginning of Record Club, the fact that my wife played their music a lot afterward, and the fact that they played a really nice dream-pop variation of "surf rock," a genre that seems mysterious and vague to me even after all these years. And yet, I would never claim that I was "into La Luz." They've never been at the forefront of my consciousness. I'm not familiar with any of their music pre-Floating Features. I rarely give La Luz too many spins. But I do like the band. So take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt, if you must: News of the Universe is their best album.

Promo material states that frontwoman Shana Cleveland had a child and then was diagnosed with cancer, and I assume the whiplash in those two major life events plays significantly into the urgency that can be heard on this album. It's still dream pop, but there's a driving force to it this time around. "Strange World," for instance, sounds like a cross between the best of that Slowdive album and the best of that Waak Waak Djungi album. I'm immediately into it.

Floating Features started strong and seemed to fade out as the album flipped to the second side of the vinyl. La Luz feels like it was fleshing out that second half, in keeping it psychedelically slow. News of the Universe instead focuses on that first half's drive. Might even take it up a notch. I like it a lot. I don't hear any surf rock (except the title track, which features a surf-rock intro, maybe as a reference to earlier work), but that was a trumped-up charge to begin with. News of the Universe maintains La Luz's signature sound while managing to breath an insane amount of new life into it as well.

This is the first time in a while I'm downloading an album that I only listened to because of this RC f/u project. That's what it's here for. I don't want to miss out on the story of any of the artists we've met along the way. La Luz's story culminates here. I'm only two listens in, but I can already tell that this is going to be a winner. But don't take my word for it.

GRADE: 4 pukes out of 5 (+1.0 puke from original review)

NEXT TIME: Speaking of follow-up albums I had no idea about, PoYB Fastball Correspondent Allison has informed me that, since Record Club covered The Help Machine in 2021, Fastball has released not one, but TWO albums. I didn't know about either one of them. Let's touch on the first one (2022's The Deep End) next week. We can also do FOREVER by Charly Bliss, since I already know that one.