Album Review: TEEN ‘In Limbo’
Upon hearing of Brooklyn’s TEEN, you will likely be fed a shallow narrative that unfolds something like this: Rock chick leaves successful up-and-coming band. Rock-chick joins up with sisters and friends to form all-girl electro pop group. Look at them now. Aren’t they cute? (For evidence, see our Band to Watch post)
While this storyline is an accurate assessment of how Kristina “Teeny” Lieberson’s new project TEEN came to be, it fails to do their debut LP In Limbo justice. The album kicks off with “Better.” A song whose girl-power infused hook could be easily substituted for the shitty rendition of Irving Berlin’s “Anything You Can Do” from that old Mia Hamm vs. Michael Jordan Gatorade commercial. Yet, set against the backdrop of intricately woven synth and vocal lines and a foot stomping rhythm section, the chorus proves more irresistible than trite.
Follow-up “Come Back” is my favorite cut from the LP. The song turns the traditional narrative of the desperate female on its head. Here, Teeny spends the chorus begging for the return of a lost love. In the verses, though, we learn that her loneliness comes as the result of loving and leaving too many half-forgotten names on the road to now. Her regret stems not from whether she may one day find love, but rather the thought that she may have already cast it aside. A familiar storyline from your male rock n’ roller, but rarely one told from the female perspective.
Rather than present their brand of girl-pop in concise, pre-packaged three-minute infomercials, TEEN has chosen to challenge its audience. Seven of In Limbo’s 11 tracks stretch beyond five minutes. The band’s attempt to break down and re-purpose the traditional notion of a pop song is an admirable one, but testing the limits of listeners’ ever-shrinking attention spans proves a dangerous decision on a debut.
The B-side of In Limbo occasionally loses its focus, dissolving into trippy meditations. Even those moments manage to hit their mark on tracks like “Sleep is Noise” and “Fire“. The good news is that the few songs that fell flat for me on the album, I found captivating in the stripped down space of TEEN’s Secret Garden video session. Typically the reverse is true, a successful cut off the LP proves completely dysfunctional in a live setting. It’s an encouraging trait for a new band in an era in which live gigs provide the meat and potatoes and album sales increasingly cover dessert.
With a four-track EP and a fascinating mix tape of covers under their belt, TEEN is a band that appears road-ready from Jump Street. These girls have achieved an astonishing amount of depth both sonically and lyrically on In Limbo. This is achieved largely through a masterful layering of vocal arrangements and a relentless willingness to explore. Grab your copy of In Limbo from Carpark Records. Stream it in its entirety below.
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Written by Rob Peoni
EP Review: Spitta Andretti (Curren$y) & Harry Fraud ‘Cigarette Boats’
After releasing his official major label solo debut The Stoned Immaculate last month, inexhaustible New Orleans rapper Curren$y, aka Spitta, is back with Cigarette Boats, an EP produced by Harry Fraud (the man behind Smoke Dza’s stellar album Rugby Thompson). In my review of Rugby Thompson, I had some less than flattering words for The Stoned Immaculate, Curren$y’s first real stab at a crossover album. Curren$y delivered a solid batch of verses as usual, but the random big name guest appearances and glossy, overproduced beats put a bad taste in my mouth and left me wondering if Curren$y’s days of making elegant playa/pothead records with his rapper friends, and producers like Ski Beats and The Alchemist, were over. Curren$y’s smooth style usually made up for his limited subject matter, but his most recent material had me wondering if his lack of substance had caught up with him.
Not long after Rugby Thompson was released, Curren$y and Fraud announced they would be teaming up for a collaborative EP. Not only did the combo make sense, as Spitta’s appearance on Rugby Thompson was one of the album’s highlights, but it was a return to the one rapper/one producer format that has delivered all of my favorite material from Curren$y. I immediately had visions of a repeat of Spitta’s amazing EP with The Alchemist from 2011, Covert Coup. While it would be tough to match the creative peak that Covert Coup climbed to, Harry Fraud’s recent track record gave me confidence that Cigarette Boats could be a special EP. While Cigarette Boats clocks in at less than 15 minutes and only has five songs, not a second is wasted and both Harry Fraud and Curren$y contribute some of the best music of their careers. It almost feels as if Curren$y anticipated a degree of backlash from his major label debut and rushed to get a project out there to remind his longtime fans that he hadn’t forgotten about them.
Right from the jump Curren$y is in vintage form, laying one of his best verses on the opener “Leaving The Dock”. Curren$y’s laid back confidence and smooth delivery makes lines that might sound boring coming from other rappers stick in your head like mantras- “Fools hear our verses and rewrite that shit they scribblin’, bitches see my bitches and consider trying women”. Harry Fraud’s breezy synth beat rides out after Spitta’s verse and gives you a feel for the Vice City like vibes to come. Fraud’s stretched vocal sample and intricate drum pattern set the stage perfectly for Spitta and guest Styles P to trade wordplay rich verses on “WOH”. Styles shows he still has it, rapping “You ain’t real high, you mid-level/ smokin’ on that shit we let the kids peddle/ I made a couple ends off what those kids peddle/ Speak on my name wrong, you’ll see those kids’ metal”. On the wish-it-was-longer “Biscayne Bay” Curren$y glorifies material excesses over one of Harry Fraud’s best ever beats. Fraud recently spent some time with Rick Ross in Miami making beats, which makes me wonder if some of the tracks on this EP were born out of those sessions. Every track has an 80’s Miami feel without utilizing obvious Scarface samples or bordering on the cliché. Fraud’s resume is getting more and more high profile, but it is niche projects Cigarette Boats that are making him one of my favorite producers around.
Curren$y closes the EP with a collaboration with Smoke Dza on the plush playa anthem “Mirrors” followed by the late night burner “Sixty-Seven Turbo Jet”. The fully evolved “Sixty-Seven Turbo Jet” compares Curren$y’s grind as an artist to that of a successful hustler and features the addictive chorus, “Money in the floor case they kick in the door, Saran wrapped in the wall case they bring them dogs”. Curren$y ends “Sixty-Seven Turbo Jet” with the telling line- “The one’s that’s sleeping on it don’t deserve it”, an indicator that while Spitta may have signed to a major label, he doesn’t plan to abandon his roots, or his fans that have been along for the ride. Download/Stream Cigarette Boats for free below.
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Written by John Bugbee
EP Stream: Illogic & Blockhead ‘Preparing for Capture’
I highlighted a song and video from Columbus, OH rapper Illogic and his new producer Blockhead a few weeks back on Thought On Tracks. The song was a leak from their new EP Preparing For Capture, which is everything I could have hoped for in an introductory EP. I was a little worried that the EP would be a random collection of songs that didn’t make the cut for their upcoming full length album, but that is not the case. Similar themes run throughout Illogic’s rhymes as he tells tales of trial and error, growth, and cause and effect.
Blockhead’s shifting beats are great throughout and allow Illogic to be creative as he wants to be with his rhyme schemes and song structures. The final song “HERstory” is a standout song on which Illogic spins a story of generational family self-destruction over a chameleon of a beat from Blockhead. On “Nails” Illogic and Rob Sonic trade impressive stream of conscience verses and “Teach Me To Learn” sees Illogic in vintage form over a psychedelic, trumpet blaring banger from Blockhead. Illogic and Blockhead are two veteran musicians at the peak of their powers that seem to be building towards something really substantial, get on board now. You can stream the EP below, but it’s also available for free download. If you like it, grab a physical copy with two bonus tracks and poster for 7.99.
Connet with Illogic via Facebook | Twitter
Written by John Bugbee
Thought on Tracks 