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Dispatches from the Highlands
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Lenker's songwriting prowess. I've previously written that when I saw Big ief live, my mind couldn't shake o the Neil Young vibes pervading Lenker's performance. is album does nothing to dissuade. One can imagine Mr. Young craing a similar set, nestled among those all-acoustic albums that rank as personal favorites in his vast canon. Lenker even matches the Canadian's interest in delity. (For the audiophile nerds, myself included, Bright Future was recorded direct to tape, and for those picking up the LP (side note to my wife who worries about my vinyl addic- tion: I have not purchased this album. Yet.), it's all analogue, AAA, just like Songs/Instrumen- tals. She's also released it in 24-bit quality, for the non-vinyl audiophile nerds who are into that sort of thing; again just like Songs/Instru- mentals.) For a musician with an impressive, proli c past and a sterling present, the future is indeed bright. Nas Illmatic twenty year old who would go on to become one of the best to ever do it: Nasir Jones, aka, Nas. Illmatic is quite possibly the best hip hop album of all time and at worst on that shortlist. Drugs, gangs, violence, and other subject matter common to the genre are also xtures throughout Illmatic , but while much of hip hop has been accused of glori cation, Nas paints vivid pictures throughout his narratives of people, places, situations of the life he knew in Queensbridge. For those of us who can never truly understand that reality, Illmatic feels like an authentic peek behind the curtain, granted through the eyes of the young poet; 30 years in, it's worth taking a moment (or 40 minutes) to reect on the landmark beginning of what would become a pantheon career. irty years ago, the world was intro- duced to the dense rhymes and evoca- tive wordplay of a
Album Notes from Erickson “The Soundtrack to your Chill”
Vampire Weekend Only God Was Above Us Vampire Weekend's h album is a summation of their career thus far, a self-reection and at times winking
nod to the band's own past. While all four previous records resound throughout, Only God Was Above Us pulls most clearly from Modern Vampires of the City and Father of the Bride , its two predecessors. Nothing is as instantly catchy as "Diane Young" or " is Life," but Only God instead reaches textured depths previously unexplored. It's also their most mature e ort to date and a continued evolution of Ezra Koenig's songwriting. A grower more than a shower, Only God will age well, and when it's all said and done, likely contend with Modern Vampires as the best in their catalogue.
Adrianne Lenker Bright Future Adrianne Lenker comes out meekly on Bright Future , her rst solo album since 2020's Songs/Instru-
mentals . Kicking o with arguably the col- lection's weakest track, the lead singer of Big ief takes her time settling in but establishes early that the Bright Future will not be rushed. e subsequent 11 tunes range from com- pletely ino ensive to goddamn beautiful, but the simple arrangements, acoustic guitar plus another instrument or two (some combina- tion of piano/violin/banjo/percussion), allow the songs to breathe, and in doing so amplify
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