Hanif Abdurraqib is one of the most unique voices in modern journalism and poetry. His 2016 poetry collection The Crown Ain’t Worth Much was a standout last year, and his often calm delivery of poetry is hypnotic. Like Crown, this essay collection They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us is a beautiful meditation on pop culture, race, personal history, and the places where those conversations meet. Abdurraqib sculpts his prose in a conversationally engaging but also comforting tone. Continue reading →
To me, The Grammys are the Super Bowl. I always want to gamble on it. I usually know what’s going to happen. I’m glued to the TV for hours, and I get drunk while doing it. Unlike the Super Bowl though, the person who wins is either met with indifference or excitement, rarely anger. This year, BurgerADay are laying out the pics for who will win versus who should win. Check out our picks, and either way, just remember it’s much more important than the Patriots and Falcons. No one’s deflating these balls.
Album Of The Year:
25 — Adele
Lemonade — Beyoncé
Purpose — Justin Bieber
Views — Drake
A Sailor’s Guide To Earth — Sturgill Simpson
Should Win:Lemonade-Beyoncé
I may have been late to the party for a long time, but at the tail end of 2016, I listened to Lemonade, and it’s pretty damn great. Beyoncé is completely worthy of all the praise she’s gotten for this album. As most of the best albums of the year, Bey mixed the political with the personal, and the record can transition from an emotional gut-punch like on “Pray You Catch Me” or “Don’t Hurt Yourself” to a genuinely fun as hell hype song like “Formation.” There may be a little protest to the politicization of Beyoncé, but as someone who’s never been on board with her as a simple pop-artist, she’s certainly left a great impression this year.
The 2017 Grammy Nominees have been announced! Some interesting choices include Chance the Rapper as best new artist, Beyoncé’s nomination for best rock performance, Twenty-One Pilots in both rock and pop categories, and just seeing Bowie, Panic! At the Disco, Weezer, blink-182, Bon Iver and Radiohead nominated in one year are all pretty incredible. Check them all out below! Continue reading →
As album-of-the-year season approaches, we’ve been reflecting on the music we’ve heard this year. While a more formal list is coming, these items are all honorable mentions for a number of reasons. While it may just be that we felt our list was better, for many of these albums it has to do with the fact, we just didn’t get to spend as much time as we would have liked with them. These are still some of the best records of the year, in no particular order.
Chance the Rapper-Coloring Book
Chance’s third mixtape is one of his strongest. With gospel-infused hip hop, he brought some of the best feel-good songs of the summer.
Following an excellent cover by Aaron West, I’ve been listening to a lot of The Weakerthans lately. Since there is not a lot of new music out at this time of year, I’ve found myself listening to Left And Leaving a lot lately.
Kanye West-“Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1”
Yeezy is still in the hospital, but The Life of Pablo is sure to be on many Album-of-the-Year lists. Most of the tunes that have been played lately have been checking back on old songs for the year-end lists.
Joyce Manor-“Reversing Machine”
This cut from Cody sounds the most like an old Joyce Manor song, and it’s perfect foe late fall and early winter.
Modern Baseball-“Note To Self”
MoBo have been one of the hardest working bands of the year, while touring behind Holy Ghost. They’re about to close out the year at the inaugural Something in the Way fest, and “Note to Self” is one of the best most restrained tracks on Holy Ghost.
Chance the Rapper-“Same Drugs”
Coloring Book was one of the best mixtapes of the year. Where a lot of the music was celebratory gospel-rap, “Same Drugs” is the kind of soul ballad perfect for cuddling up with some tea or hot chocolate.
Brand New-“Degausser”
The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me just turned ten, and there have been a number of pieces about the importance of this album. One of the most memorable moments from seeing Brand New on their most recent US run was during “Degausser” as the stage was soaked in red lights.
Mitski-“Happy”
Mitski’s Puberty 2 is sure to appear on my year end list, and “Happy” has been a stand out since seeing her recent Webster Hall show.
My Chemical Romance-“Welcome to the Black Parade (Steve Aoki Remix)”
While a MCR reunion seems unlikely, Steve Aoki has kept the spirit of their breakthrough album alive by turning it into an absolute fucking banger.
At a recent rally, Hillary Clinton supporters were treated to a performance by A-Listers Jay-Z and Beyoncé (plus guests Chance the Rapper and Big Sean). The following day, Donald Trump bashed Jay-Z’s use of profanity. He also tried to tell the audience that he was better, because he had “no guitar, no pianos.” Continue reading →
The way I see it, Justin Vernon was walking down a Wisconsin road and reach a place where two roads diverged. He could have created a standard, mostly acoustic follow up to Bon Iver, Bon Iver or he could make a batshit insane electronica album with titles that include symbols for sigma and infinity. Justin Vernon opted for the latter.
Upon first hearing some of the earliest tracks released, it would be easy to concede that Justin Vernon had lost the essence of what Bon Iver is. He has simply reimagined what it means to be Bon Iver. He’s still given us a concept record as solid as For Emma, Forever Ago, just with much less acoustic guitar. This album sees him exploring mortality, religion and aging, which makes all the distortion, samples and autotune seem all the more fitting. Bon Iver still has all the warm production, virtuosity and songwriting that make those first two albums such great albums, but he does it with more of a focus on electronics. Vernon hasn’t abandoned live instruments entirely though. The saxophone work on “22 (OVER S∞∞N)” and “____45_____” steals the show, creating distorted, glitchy jazz. “____45_____” also has some sweet banjo at the end. Original instrumentation and interesting songwriting is definitely not an issue for Justin Vernon.
Bon Iver’s hip hop and R&B collaborations have shown some influence, as this is probably his most soulful record. Justin Vernon’s signature falsetto still shows on songs like “33 “GOD.”” Unlike his previous work, he sings as if he’s a rapper spitting a sick verse here. A songs like “8 (circle)” and “00000 Million” have him singing autotuned soul anthems. It’s very similar to what Kanye West and Chance the Rapper have done with their recent releases.
While there are moments that seem cold and emotionless on this album such as “22 (OVER S∞∞N),” 22, A Million sees Justin Vernon revealing some of his most heart wrenching emotions. This is most evident during the outro to “715 – CRΣΣKS” where Vernon is practically screaming, “God damn, turn around now. You were my A-Team.” “10 d E A T h b R E a s T ⚄ ⚄” also sees Vernon vocalizing frustrating during a heavy track. Most of the album seems to see Vernon trying angrily to make numerical values out of life, but the closing track’s calm piano and refrain of “the days have no numbers” seems to show that he came to grips with an existential dread. He notes that sometimes you have to let harm in.
22, A Million is definitely controversial for Bon Iver fans. It’s much more ethereal than what it seems, because it merges all the different worlds that Bon Iver has been involved in. Had Bon Iver done this as an acoustic guitar folk album, it would have been good, but since he traveled down a new path, it’s incredible. Two roads diverged in a Wisconsin wood, and Justin Vernon took the path less traveled by, and that has made 22 millions differences.
Burger-A-Day 