New Logic Album, Xbox Presentation Discussion, and More: Fanboy Roundup #3
July 24th 2020: Fanboy Roundup #3
7/24/20
DISCLAIMER: Really sorry to anyone who cares about my schedule for this screw-up. I'll try my best to not let it happen again, but I may face some more unavoidable and personal situations like this one. Most of this essay/collection of mini-essays was written by the end of the 24th, but I never found enough time to finish writing. That doesn't include editing, re-writes, and adding photos. I'm aware that none of these things are valid excuses, but please bare with me when I say I have my own personal reasons. Also, this one's gonna be meshing big things in gaming with new music that I like instead of doing one essay per grand topic. Let me know if you like them this way or the other way, but I'll probably do this way from here on out just because it's more fun.
Topic #1: New Logic Album
Most artists take at least two years to put out a quality record like this one, but this album was recorded, finished, and I believe all written within a week. Surprisingly, also comparing this to Logic's more recent track record, it was amazing. The whole album had a very chill and groovy vibe to it, with masterful production from No I.D., that Logic tackled very well. Though, the fact that this album was made in a week does show in a couple of areas. On the more negative side, there was no vocal chopping so the vocals had many breath takes in between which is something very rare in hip hop today. This still worked though, and gave the album a more natural and human feel. It also showed in the perfect ways it tackled racism issues which have been very prevalent as of late. I personally never liked Confessions of a Dangerous Mind because of its seemingly lazy songwriting and most of the songs coming with very iffy production. I couldn't pick a favorite track because every candidate was equally smooth and good. My least favorite track would have to be "A2Z" because the skit at the end of such a short song pointed out the songs lack of substance, and the chorus vocals got a little repetitive and annoying. Overall, the album was unique and amazing, and if Logic hopefully comes back for more, I'd love to see him with an album just like this. I didn't want to make this into a full review just because I didn't have enough specific thoughts on it unless I wanted to discuss racism, which I didn't want to for obvious reasons. Also, I thought it was funny that people are so desperate for new trap music they had to milk the little interlude barely over a minute and a half.
Topic #2: New Singles from Christian Leave and cavetown/Tessa Violet
In news of my indie music likes, we have a new collaboration single from cavetown and Tessa Violet called "Smoke Signals". It was a sad song, and it felt pretty minimalistic in many areas, but it was very fleshed out and complete. It's a nice break from something like Sleepyhead, and it's nice to know that Robbie wants to break out of that specific style for a bit, despite how much its good songs can shine. Off memory, we also have two new singles from bedroom-pop artist Christian Leave. These include June's "No Use", and "Adult" that debuted today. "No Use" has a groovy pop drum beat and a strangely indie-sounding guitar riff that carries the song throughout. This is followed by interesting verses and a catchy hook, but probably not the best Christian Leave song. "Adult", on the other hand, is certainly even better. The production feels unique and profound with little instruments and sounds it includes. Within the first 40 seconds, we have 3 different beats that all flow with the clearly singular lyrics at the beginning. This song also shines in its lyrical content, good singing, and vocal mixing and mastering. It's what I consider to fall into the pinnacle of bedroom pop.
Topic #3: Song Machine: Season One Closer
I wasn't sure when Gorillaz's "Song Machine" project was going to end which is why I reviewed every song in June. I'm not sure if we're getting a season two just yet, (seeing as this was teased to be the first season), but Gorillaz said that "Song Machine" would be back in September. So, I'll just review this track quickly instead of saving them up for another multi-track review. The song is called "Pac-Man", and it utilizes the video game aesthetic to its production very well. The melody of the song sounds as if it were a song straight from the game with improved quality. Overall, the production is very creative and so are the lyrics. ScHoolboy Q, a rapper I truly admire, drops an amazing verse that lasts for almost the whole second half of the song. The whole thing quickly wraps up with the classic Pac-Man death sound, and a ScHoolboy lyric (that I won't spoil) to make you think. As usual, the mixing and mastering is some of Gorillaz's best, and I'm very excited to see more of these to hold us off for an album in seven-some years.
To add a bit of more game-related spice, we finally had the Xbox Game Showcase for the Series X on Thursday. I hear it didn't live up to a few people's standards, but a lot of people were very pleased with it. I never had any strong opinions about this, so I'm honestly not sure what to think. None of the games looked particularly eye or wallet-grabbing to me, but I do still want to buy at least the Series S for Microsoft Flight Simulator alone. Then again, I won't be rushing to pre-order anything if there aren't enough launch games that grab me like Nintendos IPs. I didn't want to make an essay about this, because this is about all I had to say. I'm certainly more interested in PlayStation's exclusives, but the Series X still looks more tempting. Honestly, I'm unsure if I even want to buy the PS5 or Series X, and I might just wait until Nintendo puts out the first 10th generation console. Thank you for reading, and I will see you all very soon.
Image sources (in order):
https://hypebeast.com/2020/7/logic-no-pressure-tracklist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tanz2wHqNQ
https://musicfeeds.com.au/news/hear-gorillaz-new-song-about-pac-man-featuring-schoolboy-q/
https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/07/23/xbox-games-showcase-news-and-announcements/
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