Music Round-Up: Jan-Feb 2020

In the past week, a lot of high profile music has dropped, but life isn’t all Swift and Gaga. Since the beginning of the year, women artists have been putting it out there, and it’s worth our time to see what they’re up to. Originally, I was only going to review the videos dropped in the past two weeks, but I wanted to throw a larger net and catch Sa-Roc, so I just made it a broader stretch of time.

Keep in mind that I’m not the target audience for anyone, and no artist is under obligation to market to me anyway. However, I don’t want these artists to go unnoticed, and once I got started making notes for them, I figured I should do it for everyone.

Rapsody, “Afeni”

Laid over a clear narrative of a black women finding out that she’s pregnant and not getting any support from her partner, Rapsody spits bars on a very direct message asking black men to treat black women better and not project their self-hatred imposed by a racist society onto them. One of the most lucid social commentaries to come out lately, no one can claim they don’t get what Rapsody is on about or that she’s coming out of nowhere. Socially conscious rap ftw.

Furthermore, I’ll say that while I don’t always appreciate the “featured” on women rappers’ tracks, PJ Morton’s vocals blend pretty seamlessly into Rapsody’s work here. Nicely done.

Sa-Roc, “Hand to God”

Sa-Roc is a freakin’ flow MASTER. I don’t know how else to describe it. She rhymes Dracula with octopi without skipping a beat. Coming up after “Forever,” which got a lot of attention and analysis from people who actually know what they’re talking about when it comes to rap, and “Goddess Gang,” which is heart-pumping killer anthem, this track has the mellow of “Forever,” but expounds on a smaller message within one of its verses. Throughout the video for “Hand to God,” Sa-Roc is being posed and bound up, buried and thrown away, and praying before candles, trying to keep from becoming a plastic, fake rapper or pushed out of the game, trying to convince her audience that she is and always has been the real deal and she’s come too far to ever give up.

She’s so tremendously good that it’s hard for me to understand why Sa-Roc isn’t considered the best rapper in the game, and yet here we are. She’ll be going on tour with Rapsody, for which I’m grateful. I snatched up this track as soon as I saw it!

Snow tha Product, “Perico”

This video makes me feel like I’ve had three glasses of wine and some shrooms. And I don’t speak enough Spanish to follow what she’s saying. It seems like a pretty standard brag track: She’s better than those pencil-dicked rappers over there, or something like that. It is just REALLY fun to listen to.

I’ll do a list of tracks that are tight later, but one of my current favs from her is “Butter,” in which she raps about how she’s more interested in getting girls than taking your man, and there’s a break in which some guys come over and won’t believe that she’s out with her girlfriend trying to get home to have some fun. ;)

Taylor Swift, “The Man”

Tay-Tay’s take on Bey’s “If I Was a Boy,” except she takes it in a different direction, by going full drag king to become Tyler Swift and directing the video herself. Ty-Ty is a steam-roller of toxic masculinity, flashing dollars on a stripper, fistbumping only the men in the room, and manspreading all over the subway. Then pissing graffiti onto the wall.

The track itself is kind of catchy, although not as emotionally arresting as “IFWAB” (song and video). It’s pretty standard Swift fare in beat and lyricism. In fact, without the gimmick of the video and the message, it would be forgettable. I won’t be hearing it as I’m going about my day. However, the lyrics pretty strongly reflect some the stupider criticisms that Swift has dealt with during her career. For example, complaining that she writes about her exes and dates too much. Is that not pretty much the topic for most pop musicians?

Other gripes, about how people would let her succeed without constantly questioning whether she deserves it, come a bit close to self-pity and myopia, but are fairly relatable to most women, especially in regards to the way women-led media are often heavily criticized before even coming out. (This sort of ignores how women of color get it but… moving on.) Regardless, unlike some songs like “Bad Blood” or “Look What You Made Me Do,” the tone is not angry, but wistful. All in all, I liked “Bad Blood” better.

Kesha, “High Road”

Coming out after some absolutely ethically bankrupt court decisions, Kesha’s “High Road” celebrates moving on from assholes by um, I guess going to have a party out in the desert at an abandoned waterpark in the desert. There’s shots of wildlife and at one point… chickens. At one point she’s in a Miss America crown sitting in the back of a pick up filled with the balls from a ball pit.

Okay. I’m not wild about this video. It’s kind of messy and all over the place. That may be the aesthetic they were going for, fallen Miss America/outsiders. But whatever. I really enjoy the song itself. In a way, Kesha is not as inclined as Swift to just put out song after song about herself, even though her latest tracks suggest she’s been compelled to comment on all of the press surrounding these events, or at least use her music to process some of it. “My Own Dance” does this more so (while still being fun), and “Praying” very famously did in a raw way. This track is a good mix between commenting on her new direction as an artist and the kind of songs people can enjoy and have fun with which she has always said she wanted to do.

All in all, I think both strategies are worthwhile, and Kesha is underrated.

Lady Gaga, “Stupid Love”

“Born this Way” and “Perfect Illusion” joined a thruple with “Edge of Glory” and gave birth “Stupid Love,” a bouncy pop track that cries out to be loved, dammit. If the sound didn’t give you enough bubblegum, Gaga wears pink top to bottom in the video, including her wigs.

The concept is that the world is overcome by division, and while others passively pray to make things better, the “Kindness Punks” fight for it. So they dance battle in the middle of a wasteland, trying to make things better. It’s like if Fury Road became a musical.

The positives of the song are that, in spite sounding a mash-up of Gaga’s early work, the messages of love, shedding shame, letting people see you, and protecting yourself from pain via love are decent. And sounding like a mash-up of Gaga’s early work… it does evoke a lot of nostalgia. This song will be in your head forever, and I’m sure it was designed specifically to be an anthem for gay and young people in the way her earlier works were.

(Doesn’t mean I don’t wish we could get more experimental works from her. Sometimes, I think I’m the only person who liked Artpop.)

The video has a lot of movement and reads clearly as a concept, but it isn’t terribly deep. There was a time when I waited to see the next one because there so many layers of symbolism, and since then, Janelle Monae has far surpassed her in the futurism department for videos. In the end: I expected more?

Doja Cat, “Say So“

While everyone else is jacking off to 80s nostalgia, Doja Cat takes us all the way back to the 70s, complete with period outfits and fonts, and cinematography mimicking home videos from the time. And of course, by the end of the video, they head out to the disco. In interviews, she describes the choice as something she built up from the song, so it really was a sharp way to make her video completely cohesive with her song.

Apart from the visuals (which are just… neat), I really enjoy the smooth vocal of the main hook in contrast with the bars that Doja throws into the middle of the track. It’s infinitely re-listenable.

In short: Sa-Roc, autobuy. Kesha and Doja have extremely enjoyable tracks, and Rapsody continues to queen. Okay song and video from Gaga, but I’m expecting more from the next releases. Swift is… Swift. In pants.

POETRY REVIEWS: Captive

Captive by Madeline Dyer is a volume of poetry produced from her therapy writings as she worked through OCD and psychosis induced by Autoimmune Basal Ganglia Encephalitis. As the title suggests, this disorder causes brain inflammation, and this book circles on her feelings and experiences during this time.

Thematically, we see several clear messages regarding disability and mental/physical disorders arise. Often, frustration and helplessness come not only from Dyer’s illness, but also as a response to the way she is treated by various individuals in the medical profession, as her condition forces her to go to the, repeatedly for help. Instead of getting help, she is dismissed, refused tests, and made to feel that she is just seeking attention. In that way, this volume of poetry is very timely, as there have been a number of studies coming out on how women are not believed by doctors in their pain.

Although her experiences are specific to her life and having a disorder that is very rare, people who struggle with chronic conditions will be able to relate to a lot of elements exhibited here. As Dyer crafts her poems, she blurs the lines between metaphor, hallucination, and literal occurrence, taking the reader with her as she relies on natural imagery, but then describes actual hallucinations. As she discusses her illness, the ever-shifting relationship between her and it unfolds: at once a monster, a captor, a tormentor, a friend, and sometimes, an object that she diminishes into a humorous image (a dancing beetle) to take control over it. She describes it as the one that whispers to her how to be safe, will never let her to be free, and lies to her that it is her only friend.

There is also a sense of claustrophobia created by the poems when read together. Dealing with mental illness, whether induced by a physical cause or not, can be incredibly isolating. Whether it is due to your loved ones growing tired of your needing help, or you pushing others away, doesn’t really matter. In the end, part and parcel with all of this is feeling very alone with your illness.

It’s easier to process this volume as a whole rather than a selection of poems, but I’ll mention a few that particularly resonated with me.

“Things People Say/Things I Want to Say”

Again, I think it helps to read this volume in one go, but if you have to take a break, make sure to read these two together. They reflect how people talk to those with mental illness and things Dyer is struggling to communicate.

“but my tears feed it [the monster]

and my breaths

are the beat of its wings”

“Men in White Coats”

One of several poem detailing her complex relationship with doctors and the fear that’s been inspired by hospitals.

“I’ll run away,

don’t make me go

to a prison too white

with screams as loud as silence

and whispers that cut.”

“There’s Nothing Wrong with You”

In this poem, I recognized the feeling of going to a doctor, and having that doctor shocked when I cried that my results showed nothing. Anyone with chronic problems knows that a negative test is good for what they tested for, but you are still sick and still in pain, and something is wrong. They just haven’t found it. And when you spend a huge amount of money for tests that find nothing? Hello. I’m gonna cry.

“I see my soul, pink, inflamed, fleshy,

reduced to a watery, flat nothing

in the doctor’s hands.

Hands that are supposed to care

but his hands are callous because his mind

is set and he’s not willing to believe me

and research my symptoms to save me.”

“The Beetle from My Mind”

“Little legs and little arms.

A briefcase, glossy shoes, and a top hat.

A monocle, because he thinks it looks so cool.”

Personifying her psychosis as this little beetle that she dresses up and tells to dance, owning the space of her mind. It’s just such a great concept, and I think others who deal with mental illness and disorders can definitely relate to visualizations that help them cope with the bullshit their brains are trying to pull.

“My Hands”

There’s an element of body horror to not recognizing parts of yourself and feeling vulnerable and unable to be an actor in your own life. That’s what struck me about this one. When the monster is most in control “a parasite, reaching with long, sweet limbs.. he pulls the levers and my fingers obey.” This really pulls the reader into the terrifying feeling of losing of control.

“Psycho”

Losing connection with your friends through the process of trying to keep your head above water during an illness like this… It’s just crushing. It emphasizes the sense of isolation because it isn’t all at once. The longer it’s dragged out, the more painful it is.

“But the wasp thrives after leaving its poison,

and I am wasteland, watching friends evaporate,

lost in the grid.”

Honorable mention: I just like “An Apology to the Ponies.” Dyer has Shetland ponies. I liked this one.

I will say, in the beginning, I had some difficulty parsing the meaning of the poems as they were.  I think that this could’ve been resolved for the reader by putting “Sometimes, I Get Really Good Days“ first to make it easier to ease into the volume and follow Dyer’s poems. At the same time, I sort of value the struggle to find meaning in an experience that is so different from my own. For me, with anxiety and depression and chronic pain, a lot of my issues don’t even come close to Dyer’s, and cognitively putting in the work to understand her words is very important. By the end, I thought, “Oh no, it’s over.”

And you know that makes a powerful volume of poetry. I definitely recommend giving it a try.

I received a copy of this ebook for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.