Sean Mayle

Writing About Music In The 21^stCentury

WP #1

            Travis Scott’s latest album “Astroworld” will be his best yet, he ventures out of some comfort zones to create an album full of hits. Recently Travis Scott has been appearing more on artists songs instead of creating newer albums, but finally with the release of “Astroworld” tha fans have what they wanted. The following is a track by track analysis of the album.

Stargazing:

The first song of the album, starts off a little slower than expected and all of a sudden goes into a completely different beat.

Carousel:

Frank Ocean is featured, interesting beat with an awesome combination of the two artists.

Sicko Mode:

Drake is featured in the song, yet another change we experience midway through the track yet still a very good piece. Drake and Travis Scott compliment one another well.

R.I.P Screw:

Swae Lee brings a similar set of vocals to the song, seemed to slow down a bit from the first few songs.

Stop Trying to be God:

Stevie Wonder, James Blake and Kid Cudi are all featured. Interesting combination of the artists…

No Bystanders:

Juice WRLD as well as Sheck Wes are featured, Travis seems to be slower with his background vocals, but incredible song regardless.

Skeletons:

Featuring The Weeknd, Tame Impala, and Pharrell Williams, a more upbeat and autotuned song, The Weeknd doesn’t really add much but doesn’t hurt the song.

Wake Up:

Featuring The Weeknd, this is more like what you think about when you hear The Weeknd on a song. Travis Scott plays off The Weeknd very well.

5% Tint:

A heavier song with a combination of incredible lyric play by Travis.

NC – 17:

Featuring 21 Savage, normally I don’t really like 21 Savage but this is an exception, purely because it is a Travis Scott song which never fails. 

Astrothunder:

A little bit all over the place with definitely an interesting sound that makes you want to listen more. Travis seems to be talking more than singing but the autotune makes it sound good.

Yosemite:

Featuring Gunna and NAV, the song just flows, really really well.

Can’t Say:

Featuring Don Toliver, A slower song on the album, definitely.more sensual than the others. Flows very well with clever lyrics.

Who? What?

Featuring Quavo and Takeoff, sounds like a Migos song with the addition of Travis Scott’s initial vocals.

Butterfly Effect: 

Great song, was around for a good amount of time before the release of the album.

Houstinfornication:

Enjoyed listening to Travis with this tempo and was more focused on the flow and clever set of lyrics.

Coffee Bean:

Loved this as the final song of the album, made me feel like I knew the end was sadly near.

Part A:

Kim Cooper’s “On Neutral Milk Hotel” clearly had a lot of background research done prior to the article being written. Cooper researched all the events going on throughout that time period, and clearly the most important were the events that occurred during World War 2 with the Nazis and the Jews. She was able to draw comparisons to the artist and their lyrics regarding Anne Frank and a potential relationship that was there or even just some sort of idolization. Cooper was able to add these research points into her track by track annotations by simply going one at a time while providing historical background on what was going on and how the song related to these events. The annotation that stuck out most to me was the portion on “Ghost.” This stuck out to me most because of the comparisons between old and new, for example the Americas compared to the old times prior to the war. I just found this one specifically to be the most intriguing to me and the farthest thing from sexualizing the events as I could. 

Part B:

The differences in lengths amongst the annotations was clearly done on purpose. With the longer and wordier writings, they are able to compile more information while each piece stacked on top of one another for important and viable information. Whereas with the shorter annotations, because there are so few words that just makes each one more important than the last in order to decipher what is being said. For example, with the analysis  of “The Story of Us,” she is quoted saying, “Listening to this song is the only time I see myself fist-pumping.” This allows the reader to think about this a little more and attempt to interpret why, the obvious explanation is because it is clearly a great song and gets the juices flowing a bit, but others may view it differently. Another example is with “Everything has Changed” and how we see the shortened version of the analysis where it simply is saying the song is perfect. Finally, with the analysis of “Fifteen” we see the author dive in more and try to decode what is being said from their interpretation of the song. Also, this shows that there is clearly some controversy over the messages that are being broadcasted to people through music. 

Part C:

Jonathan Letham’s piece on the Talking Heads was definitely an interesting interpretation of the group performing during live shows. He clearly was disappointed with the group and discussed how they just aren’t the same as when they originated. The addition of more people and more instruments definitely threw the band off during the live performances and it didn’t go unnoted. Letham talked about his own feelings about the live performances with a series of complaints about the changes being made. One quote that stuck out to me in particular was the portion early on in the piece calling the original band simply a tombstone of what they are now, just a memory. 

Part D:

Shea Serrano and Patterson Hood provide the reader with a different form of track by track analysis by incorporating a wide variety of artists and their tracks into their pieces. What this allows the two authors to do is simply compare and contrast the tracks within one another and provide concrete examples on why they are similar or different, as well as common themes between all of them. Their goals for each of the pieces is to critique as well as provide insight into what the artists were attempting to do, and with the addition of other tracks that just made it easier for them to show how differently a similar message could come across as. 

Part 1:

Hi Everyone!

My name is Sean Mayle and I am a 5^thyear here at Denver. I am majoring in communications as well as minoring in criminology. I currently reside in Redwood City, CA, where I was also born and raised. For my summer plans, I am currently playing in the MLL which is a professional lacrosse league for the Chesapeake Bayhawks. The season goes from early June until the end of September so I sadly don’t have any vacations or plans other than traveling weekly for my games. As for my music taste, there is no specific genre that I like or dislike more than others, just as long as it is catchy, has a good beat, or has great lyrics I will most likely enjoy it. There are certain genres I prefer more in certain situations, for example rap/hip hop for working out and prior to lacrosse games, or something like country for long road trips.

Email: Seanmayle7@gmail.com

WordPress page link: https://wordpress.com/view/seanasem.music.blog

Part 2:

Three key features of album reviews as a genre would definitely be the writers ability to be critical of the album, the writers personal experience while listening, and finally the writers ability to take in information that others may have wrote about the same album. The first example I saw regarding the critical portions of the reviews was through Powers’ article on Daft Punk. “There is one glaring omission from Daft Punk’s foray into vintage pleasures. Where is the female voice representing those who truly defined that liberators spirit?” Next, was the example that I found regarding the writers personal experience with the album that I found in Derogatis’ article on Simon and Garfunkel. “Nothing is resolved, but the musical coda of Garfunkel’s amazingly pure and soaring vocals and Simon’s soothing guitar and organ indicate that maybe, just maybe, our heroes and their many peers will eventually find what they are looking for.” Finally, regarding the writer needing to read and research using other individuals pieces, I found an example in the Powers article once more, where he specifically quoted another album review. “”It’s confusing. There are no drops,” declared a write for the site White River Rafting, referring to the moments when a fast computer-generated beat suddenly breaks and shifts its rhythm.”

Amanda Petrusich was able to add important background information regarding Courtney Barnett into her album review that allowed the reader to get a better understanding of the artist and album. The initial wave of information given to the reader simply gives a depiction of the life of Courtney Barnett and the personal issues that she went through. This shows the reader why her music may be the way that it is. An important detail that I thought about was the calmness in her voice during a particularly depressing portion of a song. Her ability to sing with such calmness makes her the unique artist that we see and hear today. Ultimately, this allows the reader to get a better understanding of the life of Courtney Barnett, and why her music is the way that it is.

Part 3:

The latest album dropped by rising star, Khalid, is titled Free Spirit and already has the world talking about his catchy beats and amazing voice. The artist has had several albums and/or singles drop prior to this, but none have been this anticipated by fans. Khalid seems to be a bright spot in modern music today, the latest releases from hip hop and rap stars seem to all be getting more inappropriate by the minute. It is changing the way we as fans view the hip hop scene. Children all over are learning of behavior that should not be condoned by society through many of these artists, their lyrics, and their media. Khalid goes against a lot of these stereotypes and has chosen a much more appropriate approach.

Khalid was born in 1998 in Fort Stewart, Georgia. As a child he moved all over the place due to his fathers career in the military. Khalid began creating his own music in high school where he used Soundcloud, the popular music streaming service, to get his music out to the world. Shortly after releasing a few songs on the app, he was picked up by Right Hand Labels and has been a sensation ever since. Prior to the newest album released, many of his popular hits have been “Young, Dumb and Broke,” as well as “Location” that definitely put him on the map. Since the rise of Khalid, he has also partnered with many other high end artists and has been featured in a lot of their work, which has only jump started his career even more.

The album is full of many hits that are sure to be sung at any local bar throughout the night. With Khalid, he sings most of his songs as if he is talking to someone that he has feelings for or longs to speak with. It is refreshing to have an artist that doesn’t objectify women and treat them as objects. Through many of these hits, he shows society that you don’t need to use profanity in lyrics to create a catchy song.

When listening to Khalid’s latest album though, I can’t help but think that the directed audience is teenagers struggling with relationships. The cleanness of the lyrics really allow the younger audiences to connect more, and for high school kids there is also plenty of relationship drama. Khalid seems to be telling the stories of his past that has troubled him through his lyrics and that can be very relatable to the modern day teen, but maybe not so much to an adult. One big issue that has been said about Khalid and his music that I will reiterate is the fact that all of his songs sound very similar upon first listen.

Khalid’s music is very safe. He is able to connect with more people than most artists because his lack of profanity and willingness to give up personal emotions and stories, but is that a good thing? Quite simply, Khalid has created many hits, but at the end of the day they all sound fairly similar. In order to continue to be successful, he may have to find a way to potentially change things up a bit and maybe use something a little more fast paced from time to time.

All and all, the album was and will continue to be a huge success, but can he continue on this upward trajectory to stardom?

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