ALBUM TALK with K.M. Anderson
By K.M. Anderson
Beyonce - BEYONCE (Columbia )
Anyone who wonders what Beyonce is doing in that glamorous life, the answer is apparently A LOT of fucking. By this point, you will have heard all the schmaltz about the way this album was released, or some numbers, or some other shit, but I will be the 456th person to tell you that this album is damn good. There are the obvious songs like “Pretty Hurts” or “XO,” which are the big pop anthems you would expect, there is “Heaven” a song about someone who heaven couldn’t wait for, and there is “Blue” which is 150 times better than the song Jay Z did about their daughter. BUT THEN there is “Partition,” which begins “Driver roll up the partition please, you don’t need see Yonce’ on her knees” and also speaks of him Monica Lewiskying all on her blouse, which is drastically more than I would ever want to know about “him.” There is also “Rocket” which begins “Let me sit this ass on ya” which could be shocking, but considering dudes wrote that song, you could kind of hear them sayin’ what would you want to hear coming out of Beyonce’s mouth in bed, and the song writes itself. Spacey R&B and trapp-ish in places, it is more than the hype, and not the thing you would want your daughter singing in the living room. Oh baby, she’s on her knees looking for something. Daughter: “What, like she dropped something?”
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Wig Out Jag Bags (Matador)
Stephen Malkmus can be called many things (sort of tall, white, bookish), but none of those things take away or add to the value of his contribution to all things guitar and rock. Malkmus is great at making slightly pop, avant garde-y rock songs. Songs that are singable, but not simple. “Wig Out at Jagbags,” a title every writer loves to transcribe, is more in line with “Mirror Traffic” more direct, or as direct as a song called “Cinnnamon and Lesbians” could be. It is classic rock-y (more in the sense of guitar driven than say Zeppelin), and it is still informed by obcsure rock (fill in your band here). You can never go wrong with Malkmus, and those who disagree with that have no taste in music and should be unfriended or unfollowed on social media webpages.
Pontiak-INNOCENCE (Thrill Jockey)
Pontiak music is that of a dragon’s roar, it is that thing that rose from the water and turned the sky dark. When people say words like “stoner rock,” or “psychedelic” if it is not derogatory, it means the kind of music you can out to (rock-out, jam-out, space-out) and in that way I would recommend Pontiak. These are the albums you buy on vinyl to hear the amp buzz. These are the albums that make you research tube amps and string gauges. This is the kind of music you listen to in your car and notice the hues of a sunrise or sunset. Pontiak are consistent in the creation of great rock albums, this album being no exception, but it is an experience that must be heard to be understood, for whatever words I may summon now, it may not accurately depict the aural power.
