Music Notes: A Busy Music Weekend, including Silk Sonic, Britney Spears, an NFT Band (???), and More on Astroworld
Hey! How are you? I hope you’re well, and that you had a fun weekend! Obviously, last weekend was an absolutely crazy one in terms of music, so we’re gonna just go ahead and talk about as much of it as possible.
Before we get started, it would be great if you subscribed to Music Is Good to get two of these in your inbox per week, and shared this edition (volume? article?) around to get my undying love and affection. Okay, selling out over, time to talk about music.
I’m not a Taylor Swift scholar, so I want to take some extra time to do some in-depth research (talk to my girlfriend about it) before I put together some words on her album. If you’re looking for that, check back in like a week and a half. But really, how CAN a person know everything at 18, but nothing at 22? I need some answers.
An Evening With Silk Sonic’s Five Songs
Oh, hey, this album came out! It’s really, really good! It also has nine songs (including the intro), of which we’ve already heard four (also including the intro).
Don’t get me wrong, the five new songs were great. “Put On A Smile” and “777” are two particular standouts for me. The vocals (especially the harmonies) on “Put On A Smile” are beautiful and the instrumental work on “777” is really fantastic.
The album is full of earworms, and pays fantastic tribute to the sounds that have influenced both Bruno and Anderson’s prolific careers. I loved it. It was just… really short.
It just seems like the duo wanted to release the “song of the summer” with “Leave the Door Open,” which came out in early March, without having the rest of the album fully ready for release. If they did, they waited quite a long time to get it out into the world.
This ruined some of the mystique, in my opinion, because they were forced to keep people’s interest by releasing more singles than needed.
“Leave the Door Open,” also isn’t the most “summery” song on the record. They could have released “Fly As Me” so it could have been used in some back-to-school Old Navy ads or something. I joke, but that song really is so damn catchy. The whole album is.
I also have one other, MAJOR beef with this record. You’re gonna have Thundercat on “After Last Night,” who can play like THIS:
And sing like THIS:
And you’re gonna have him do some bland bass line and provide backing vocals on it????? What a horrible, horrible misuse of one of the best bass talents in history.
Anyway, like I said, I really liked it. Those two gripes are really all I had with it, and although I made some pretty tall mountains out of those two molehills, I still have this pretty high up on my list of 2021 releases.
Good work, Bruno and Anderson. Now make another. I’m waiting.
Some More Astroworld Info
There are now more than 200 lawsuits in the wake of the Astroworld tragedy. Good, honestly. The attorney that filed a large portion of them is Ben Crump, who represented the families of George Floyd and Travon Martin.
Crump is also representing the family of nine-year-old Ezra Blount, who passed away this weekend after injuries sustained during the festival. This brings the total to 10 deaths.
Drake, who was a special guest at the Astroworld festival the night of the incident, reportedly went out the night after and spent $1 million in a Houston-area strip club.
I don’t have a lot to say about that, but it certainly speaks for itself. I’m going to let it.
There’s also yet another wrinkle in this complicated, tragic and wide-reaching story that involves the former Mayor of Baltimore, who is now the Spokesperson for Travis Scott.
Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was the city’s mayor during the 2015 protests prompted by the death of Freddie Gray.
Rawlings-Blake utilized the Maryland National Guard during the protests, and was criticized for her use of the racially-motivated term “thugs” when discussing the protestors.
The Astroworld story is ongoing, so I’ll do my best to continue to aggregate content from the fantastic local journalists doing the reporting on the ground.
The Stupidest Thing Ever is Happening
Yeah. It’s like Gorillaz, but with those stupid-looking NFTs, and with music made by Timbaland instead of the incomparable Damon Albarn (album review coming in the Best of the Month).
Look, man, There’s not much to say about this, other than the fact that NFTs are really lame. It, like crypto, Wall Street Bets, and any other get-rich-quick schemes that Elon Musk thinks are cool are actually not cool.
They’re very obviously terrible for the environment, which is probably the main complaint behind NFTs.
Another main issue that I think gets glossed over is this: they’ve been used time and time again to scam the so-called “free thinkers” that buy them.
The article I’ve linked below likens NFTs to a Casino. “If it goes up 100 times you resell it, if it doesn't, well, you don’t tell anyone,” said one interviewee.
Casinos, NFTs, sports betting, the lottery, all of these things are DESIGNED to take your money from you, and only give it back to an insanely lucky few.
You are NOT smarter than your fellow man for buying an NFT. You’re just like the rest of the gambling addicts you know, except Elon Musk told you to do it instead of a Draftkings ad.
Another minor complaint: most of the popular ones, ESPECIALLY the Bored Ape Yacht Club, just look...bad.
Like… Come on, man. I’m no visual artist, nor am I properly equipped to critique art, but even I know these just look awful, and I guarantee the music behind them isn’t going to be much better.
No disrespect to Timbaland, who is a fantastic producer, but this project is going to suck. Like, suck the life out of the planet. But also suck as in like, be bad.
Can’t wait to right click all their music videos.
“Free Britney” is Now Backwards
She’s out! Britney Spears has finally been released from her toxic conservatorship, after 13 years of total control.
There’s some great context in the NPR article I just linked above (I <3 you, NPR) as to why the conservatorship was as awful as it was, and why #FreeBritney became a rallying cry across the internet in recent years.
Sometimes, the results of legal battles can be disheartening. Justice can often go without being served, so it’s hard to hold out hope that a judge or jury will make the right decision. Another ongoing but unrelated legal battle, over the fate of Kyle Rittenhouse, may be shaping up to be one of those cases.
In this instance, though, it seems that the good guys have won. Britney Spears is free to make her own decisions, live out her life how she sees fit, and we will all hopefully be better for it. Congrats, Britney.
I think that’s all I’ve got for you today - just know that reviews on Damon Albarn, Courtney Barnett, IDLES, Taylor Swift, etc. are all gonna be coming in the end-of-the-month wrap up, once I’ve had some time to breathe on their work.
No playlist this week, I hope you’ll forgive me. Have a good week, and I’ll talk to you on Thursday about something that I haven’t decided on yet. Byeeeee!