VICE Album Reviews, October 2: Kyle Gordon, Quavo, Dexter and The Moonrocks, and More |
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VICE Album Reviews, October 2: Kyle Gordon, Quavo, Dexter and The Moonrocks, and More
Laughing through the pain while listening to the latest releases from Swans, Greg Freeman, Spike Fuck, Fat Dog, Garefowl, and RAP.
By Adam Christopher Smith
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Music journalism is going to the wall, and places for sensible, well-informed, nuanced takes on the latest releases are dwindling. So we thought we might as well put the final nail in the coffin.
Read last month’s album reviews here, here, here and here.
Kyle GordonKyle Gordon Is EverywhereBMGIf you’re someone who has never had a single laugh in their life, then you might say something boring like “Satire is meant to ridicule power!” But the targets in many of Kyle Gordon’s parodies achieved massive popularity precisely because they never took themselves all that seriously—nu metal and pop punk were defined by band names, lyrical couplets, song titles, and album artwork that make the pseudonyms from this review section look positively intelligent. Here, the ridicule is a form of fan service, a comforting reminder of a time when men in giant shorts danced around on top of the World Trade Center and you could run naked through the streets of Los Angeles without losing your job.
Judging the past by the standards of today is one of our main online pastimes, so “If You Break Up With Me”, a perfectly off-key take on ’90s alt-rock’s “toxic” romantic sensibilities, was always going to cut through with crate-digging TikTokers, as well as self-hating millennials and gleefully uncanceled Gen Xers keen to ridicule themselves back into relevance. But after being bombarded with clips of the music industry’s new number-one funnyman, you might find yourself missing many of the bands he’s mocking and longing for a time when artists got popular in the old-fashioned way (by signing deals with major labels with massive marketing budgets for radio time, festival slots, magazine coverage, and hiring porn stars for their music videos).
Perhaps I’m a killjoy, but if a song begins its life as a joke then you’ve lost me before I even smash play. This is why comedy music has the unfortunate distinction of being both the worst-sounding and least funny of all the genres. Gordon is a particular affront, as his carefully composed songs are lovingly produced and shot........