My dreams are often set in airports, subway stations and on highways, but last night my unconscious placed me in the role of a fashion photographer on the red carpet of a music awards show. That’s the surprising power of PnB Rock’s tellingly titled TrapStar Turnt PopStar. On the surface, the glossy synthetic rap album differs little from the recent work of Juice Wrld and Travis Scott. Yet the empty musical calories of rudimentary songs like “I Like Girls” taste so good that I can’t tear myself away from the hallucinatory project. “Middle Child” is the best track.
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I reviewed the Flyover festival at Providence Medical Center Amphitheater for The Kansas City Star.
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I grade the 2019-20 season of the Folly Jazz Series at Plastic Sax.
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I write weekly concert previews for The Kansas City Star.
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The immaculate sheen Kneebody applies to songs including Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun” and the Band’s “King Harvest” on By Fire fills me with so much rage that I want to throw bricks through the windows of shiny performing arts centers. RIYL: Snarky Puppy, transcribing solos, Sting.
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Had I not seen Rhiannon Gidden and Francesco Turrisi preview the album at the Big Ears Festival in March, the duo’s enthralling intercontinental folk collaboration There Is No Other would almost certainly have struck me as insufferably twee.
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I hope album narrations catch on. Mark de Clive-Lowe offers insights into his latest release for the 21 Soul label.
(Original image of a highway fire by There Stands the Glass.)
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