This Week In Music
Welcome back to Sound Bite! This week we are going a bit of an unconventional route and covering some new and old releases that I feel deserve to have been covered. From country to alternative hip-hop, this issue will have a little something for everyone.
Starting with “Welcome to the Plains,” a new release by up and coming country artist Wyatt Flores. The album deals with themes of self discovery and is a deeply emotional project. A few standouts for me come from the instrumental sections, with Flores’ band really showcasing their extreme range and prowess over some unconventional sounds. This growing trend of the Oklahoma sound is really making its way into the mainstream, and I think Wyatt is going to be a key part of that sound.
Up next we are taking it way back to this past May, when an almost decade long narrative series was finally wrapped up. That’s right, I’m talking about “Clancy” by Twenty One Pilots. The series, which started in 2015 with the release of their album “Blurry Face,” chronicled the tales of the character Clancy who fought to free himself from an ever oppressive fictional city. I have to admit that I slept on this album, really the whole series of albums, for far too long. It’s so rare to see well constructed overarching narratives executed this well between albums, and for that I felt like I had to go back and give them their flowers.
In upcoming news Tyler, The Creator just announced that he will be dropping his next project at the end of this month, Oct. 28. The album, which will be titled “Chromakopia” has already sparked major headlines across the internet for its stylistic debut teaser shared on most social media platforms. With the album being written, produced and arranged entirely by Tyler himself, it’s clear that Tyler’s dominance over the hip-hop and experimental scenes will continue as long as he keeps making music.
Yeat also released a new album this past week. “LYFESTYLE” marks his latest entry into the heavily electronic and experimental side of rap. Personally, I am not a fan of the album. It feels too long and too muddy, with a couple great concepts buried underneath layers of excessive sound. However, I am not a Yeat fan and Yeat fans love this album. Yeat has been a divisive figure for awhile now in the music scene, and I think it’s fair to say that his music just isn’t for everyone. If you’ve liked his stuff in the past you’ll love this album. If you haven’t, this one definitely won’t change your mind.
