Coachella Reviews with DJO, 2hollis, Sam Fender, LISA, & JENNIE: Rapid Fire Reviews
It's getting to that time of the year already where I'm seeing just how many albums I want to talk about have already begun passing by. That's where these shorter, rapid-fire reviews come in handy. While I was working on my Jane Remover review for Ringtone Magazine, weekend 1 of Coachella was going on. Each year, I like to take the time between Coachella's two weekends to review some records of artists performing there that I probably wouldn't cover otherwise. SO that's exactly what we're gonna do, enjoy.
Alter Ego - LISA
The Crux - DJO
My interest in DJO began last year and was pretty short-lived. The music project of Stranger Things actor and former Post Animal member Joe Keery scored a surprise chart hit with the dreamy “End Of Beginning,” which took off last year. I liked the song well enough and gave it an honorable mention on my best hit songs of the year list last year. But once singles started dropping for this new album with sun-kissed ultra-casual disposition, it reminded me a lot more of some of the lamest eras of a band like Porches. I thought I might have to eat those words when I heard the record's opener, the languid, optimistic, and incredibly catchy anti-love song “Lonely Is A State Of Mind.” But that momentum never really materialized.
A big reason for that is the three singles make for three of the next four songs, and I'm not sure any of them have grown on me a bit from their slumpy to flat-out awful first impressions. The best of the bunch is probably “Delete Ya,” which had a pretty cool opening verse and catchy hook, but the thematic posturing of wishing you could “delete” somebody because nobody else will ever be as good doesn't get the mature songwriting it deserves.
The shimmering sunny indie pop songs were probably never going to work for me in a world where a band like The Drums do it brighter, better, and about a million times catchier. But some of the more reserved songs here do at least manage to serve up a touch of instrumental wandering and ever so slightly more serious songwriting. “Fly” is a good example of a track I started to like on repeat listens, as is the closing piano ballad “Crux.”
But unfortunately, far too much of The Crux as an album is like “Gap Tooth Smile,” so hokey it's almost unbearable. I think Djo is plenty capable of dishing out more songs I like in the future, but across a full-length album, he'll need to prove himself as more of a songwriter instead of just a sunny, good vibe curator to win me over. 4.5/10
star - 2hollis
I can't ignore 2hollis anymore. Across his rise in the past few years, I've associated him mainly with two things. The first and far more valid is fellow trans girls speculating on how good an addition to the squad 2hollis would be if he ever came out, something I entirely agree with. But mostly he's been a hero to the rap “underground,” or at least the one 16-year-old rap Instagram meme admins made up and have since hammered the term into meaninglessness. But I have a confession to make. Even though I haven't covered any of 2hollis’ material yet, I've heard almost everything he's ever released and, at times, seen a lot of potential.
In a scene of young artists fighting to see who can be the loudest, most blown-out, and ridiculous, 2hollis jumped the shark a long time ago. But in wading through those waters, star feels like the first moment he wants to be taken seriously, signified by the presence of messages delivered directly to the listener in spoken word passages and outros throughout the record. An early sign is on “cope,” where he uses an interpolation of David Bowie's "Heroes," and even though it doesn't result in a good song, it does show off the ambition laced underneath Star.
It's on the tracks where 2hollis feels like a confident dancefloor commander that the album is at its very best. “you” is a club-ready banger with a beat that grabs me tight and won't let go. On the poppier side of that,, there's the utterly irresistible “Nice” which has been glued into my head since the record first dropped.
Unfortunately as far as actual charm goes, 2hollis isn't really ever able to conjure much. In fact, his garish romantic fumbling outright ruins a few otherwise good songs on the record like “girl” and “tell me.” The full resulting listening experience is an incredibly mixed bag. Star is dominated by two major forces: 2hollis’ obvious creative ambitions, and the current limitations of his writing and style. The result is an album that shows plenty of promise, but also makes it obvious just how far he has left to go to reach his peak. 6/10
People Watching - Sam Fender
Sam Fender is a British singer-songwriter who pops up every few years to a chorus of attention from various music publications that never quite reaches a level I'd describe as “praise.” The novelty of his work mainly comes from how heavily he draws from American heartland rock, with the opening track of this album, “People Watching,” sounding like it was lifted directly out of a Killers album. I heard Sam's 2021 album Seventeen Going Under, and despite some fans insisting upon its importance, it hardly registered with me at the time. Now, Sam is back and once again garnering similar attention. More importantly for me is the addition of The War On Drugs mastermind Adam Granduciel on production for a third or so of this new record, something that comes to life on vibrant, lush songs like “Crumbling Empire.”
The bulky six-minute “Wild Long Lie” takes its time getting started but it eventually reaches a really satisfying and dramatic conclusion with some subtle instrumental flourishes that go a long way. The self-produced “Arm's Length” definitely borders on Killers' pastiche once again, but it features several refrains that have drilled their way right into my head.
Unfortunately, there's another half of this record that has less obvious influence and sinks into a kind of pop-rock slop that leaves absolutely no impression on me whatsoever. “TV Dinner” is a particularly bad example, but there are several more earlier on the record. This is probably my favorite of Sam's released yet, but it's absolutely still burdened with all the shortcomings of its predecessors, so the improvements are only marginal. 5.5/10
I'm not the biggest K-pop fan in the world, but I've always had a soft spot for Blackpink. With the wavering uncertainty of NewJeans, it seems like Lisa, Rose, Jennie, and Jiso are in position to go forward as easily the best of the big contemporary K-pop outfits. That's why I was excited to hear that they were taking a break to release their own solo content, and I was hopeful that they would carve out distinct identities for themselves in the process. That decidedly did NOT happen with Rose, who was first out of the gate with a very middling album last year, led off by the deeply annoying Bruno Mars-assisted lead single “APT.”
The singles for LISA's album had the opposite effect on me; they're actually the reason I was looking forward to this one the most. The album opens with “Born Again,” which sees Lisa teaming up with Doja Cat and Raye for an irresistible cut that deserved to be the hit “APT” was. That's followed by “Rockstar,” the most Blackpink song on the album, and one that LISA absolutely eats up all on her own.
Unfortunately, the album sort of starts to waver from there and never really gains its momentum back. I was really excited for the Rosalia-featuring “New Woman” when it dropped last year, only for the song to pull a “Don't Call Me Angel” and shift into an entirely different instrumental just for Rosalia's part without even trying to find artistic common ground between the pair. Somehow, the Future collaboration that follows it on the record actually manages to have more cohesion.
From that point on, the record is a deeply underwhelming combination of undercooked dreamy pop songs and more hip-hop-influenced Blackpink pastiche that never hits as hard as it should. Most of the blame is with the songwriting, as the instrumentals here certainly walk the walk. But far too many hooks on this record go in one ear and out the other, and Lisa's lyrics don't do much to actually develop any kind of recognizable profile for her. Despite being my most anticipated of the 4 Blackpink solo projects, I think it may have turned out to be the least interesting of the bunch. 4.5/10
Ruby - JENNIE
A lot of what I said to start the LISA review can also be applied here, except I actually liked the feature-packed collection of singles even more this time around. I also thought that the JENNIE-assisted song “One Of Your Girls” was one of the few redeemable parts of The Idol, even though JENNIE is probably the Blackpink member I had the least appreciation for based on her contributions to the group as a whole. i thought those fears may be coming true on first listen as this album gets off to a ROUGH start with the cringey rapping on “like JENNIE” and the following track “start a war,” which was clearly written by someone who had been listening to a little bit too much of The Strokes’ album The New Abnormal.
That's why it's so refreshing that Dua Lipa helps the next track, “Handlebars” soar. In fact, I kind of like all the big collaborations on this record, and I'm impressed at the variety they pull off by leaning into the styles of her collaborators. The Childish Gambino and Kali Uchis cut is probably the best of the bunch but JENNIE even got me to appreciate Dominic fucking Fike on the morning after anthem “Love Hangover.”
But that's not to say the JENNIE solo songs don't hold up. Right as the album gets good, we're served up “way up,” which has an irresistible throwback beat built around a simple drum loop and JENNIE actually elevating herself to the confidence and swagger that Blackpink convey as a group, something none of her fellow band members have been able to manage so far. She does it even better a few tracks later on the hot girl anthem “Mantra.”
Unfortunately, the album closes on a somewhat middling sequence of songs. The ballads on this album don't convey anywhere near as much personality as the bangers, and with the exception of the simple but lovable “twin,” I can't really recall much of anything from the rest of the slower tracks. Despite its slip-ups, I think Ruby may actually be the best of the Blackpink solo projects, something I would have never guessed going into this whole era. If I could only pick one of the girls' solo albums to carry momentum off of into the next Blackpink release, it would definitely be this one. 6/10
