Kassa Overall- I THINK I’M GOOD
Brownswood Records
Visible walls,Please don’t kill meFind me,I know you see me,Sleeping on the train,Show me a prison,Landline,Halfway house,Landline,Darkness in mind,The best of life,Was she happy
A yellow sleeve frames the photo of a young kassa in the middle in which he wears a basketball vest staring out looking troubled .framed by the album title which almost sounds like a mantra ,one of a hesitant second moment of doubt but its a conformation underneath a list of collaborators 24 in total most of them based in new york .The reverse a family holiday photo ,track listing and a little note about his own confirmation and acknowledgement of his own talent. Which only a paragraph made me think about my own achievements experiences which have been temporary ,fleeting and some a constant permanence that you just have to live with .my mental health has been awful the worst i have experienced and i am good at nothing ,i have failed at life i’m existing but I ain’t living in a bleakness that’s new and unfamiliar to me.saying that i always put myself down.I think im good is the second album by multi talented kassa overall. The album I can really connect to ..The American prison system, the dangers of trust and romance,hospitalization which is never a nice experience the stigma that still surrounds it along with the demonetization in that you can be ostracized this feeling i know so well.The taboos he speaks about brings the issues out into the open. I live with many myself the expressive quality I found it quite close to the bone in some ways which made me uncomfortable within myself but you do create your own dialogue relationship with the album. The album though is very good if not great an album that gets easier to play/listen to over time.I can never understand why awful auto tune Is used it creates a sense of artificalness yet it features throughout the albm which is a somewhat shame. the production is rather slick maybe too much so its more hip hop with politics than jazz and sometimes it seems a little sleepy,full of ambition sometimes the music becomes a little too samey but the album is exceptional the ideas , the voice the stories told.The rapidity of the album the beats and tones become an audio version of overalls mental state/mental health issues that have impacted his life and life experiences the state of a managible fragility among chaos the music can become bleak ,sombre,mournful,gloomy ,bright beats .
Kate tempest
Book of traps and lessons
Republic records 2019
Kate tempest seems like marmite to a few people then there are those that love her work.
The sleeve shows a Great Britain of complete nothingness. Typography set like a header n footer in a word document the rear sleeve large fonts typography centralized like a pillar holding weight.
A rather grand booklet accompanies the lp a scale I’ve not seen almost of that war of the world booklet from Jeff Wayne.
Each page depicts daily life /suburbia landmarks which everyone knows as the mundanity or pleasure in visiting these places.
It’s an album that sounds more intimate subdued in fairness totally unrecognizable those precious big beats, build ups vanished previous earworms memorable hooks gone instead we are hearing another voice another side of Kate tempest pianos, strings and Capella spoken word. The intimacy makes it feel darker more emotional.
This album I find hard to listen to the only album of hers ive not played that much not because i dont like it , its just too much to take in.
Looking at that which waits to ambush us how far we can to delay that inevitable outcome to not knowing what depths. Like previous albums have a narrative story this does but without characters directness. Implicit with human nature with our self-absorption, stupidity on decisions decided. It’s all easier to destroy then work at, in our actions everything is being killed off intellectual disagreement can’t be voiced or reasoned we are simply detestable, our actions have total repercussions .ignorance egos the division which unfolds itself .
Deception lies, deceit, the despair we breed nurture a contemptuous criticism of private enterprises greed whilst there’s a notion of materialism want and need.
It’s a total change in musical direction yet her words still cut through the bone.
originally published 14th may 2020
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