I was not floored with Beach Fossils' What A Pleasure EP. I did really enjoy it though. It weighs in at a timid 23-minutes long. This Brooklyn-based surf-pop group is well versed on the difficult-to-balance relationship between bass and guitar, and they test its limits on this album. The bassist's riffs draw you in and hold you wherever in is. The bass is hidden, but once you find it, you never lose it. It becomes a little hard to stand back and hear a track as a whole once trapped, but then the guitar does something cool and whips you back into reality. The guitars use very little effects so they sound natural. The best part about the guitars is the great alternate picking (I counted only two rhythm parts). The guitarist chose not to make his parts perfect, but it's barely noticeable when he rarely misses an up-pick. The vocals are not what I had expected after hearing the guitars. They're a little too soft for my taste. A more assertive vocalist would probably sound better. As for the drums, they come in two main packages. The general sound is that of typical indie drums, which is very simple and plain - they set the beat and don't do much more. The first package is bass and snare centered. The second is tom and hi-hat centered. Combine all these and you have something that's very good, but not great. Two things happened immediately after the album finished. 1) I wanted more. I love this kind of psychedelic surf pop. I find it incredibly soothing and just the right amount of distracting. 2) Beach Fossils sound a lot like Real Estate, except they're a tad more upbeat, they're not as good as Real Estate, and their recordings are better quality. Verdict: 3.8/5 (very good, but not great). Favorite tracks: Moments, What A Pleasure, Distance, and Adversity.
I'm a big fan of Wiz Khalifa. He has worked closely with another favorite of mine, Curren$y on the How Fly mixtape. On Wiz's latest release, Cabin Fever, he raps about how he can get your girlfriend to cheat on you with him, how he's better than you are, smoking marijuana, bitches, sex, money, and cars. I'm one of the few people who thinks his lyrics are useless. He has a way with rhyme, and there he is creative, but his lyrics get boring when all he does is rap about the same thing over and over. But that's not the reason to listen to Wiz. Wiz is known for his beats, and on this mixtape he does not fail to deliver. They are solid and unusually simple. The bass is deep and heavy and the high end is experimental and plain. Wiz doesn't need much more to make a great beat. Check out the second track Cabin Fever. This mixtape came out not long ago. And guess what? Wiz is dropping Rolling Papers, his third studio album, March 29th on Atlantic (in association with his normal label, Rostrum). Should make for some good head bobbing. I give Cabin Fever a 4/5.
Best, Jonathan
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