Written by Gabe Fine
Track of the Week: “Stupid Rose” by Kweku Collins
When Kanye tried to return to his rough-cut roots with Yeezus and Life of Pablo, he was probably shooting for something similar to what Kweku Collins just put out on his new mixtape, Nat Love: a slow jam driven by a scratchy cut of a D’Angelo song, with the College-Dropout-esque melodiousness that West will probably never find again. The fact that Collins hails from Evanston, Ill., rather than the South Side, might explain the feeling of stoner carelessness that pervades Stupid Roses and makes it so harmlessly appealing. Whether or not the song is about Collins’ naïve love for a girl he used to sit behind in class or his equally naïve love for weed, the image of Collins “stand[ing] there holding a dozen of these roses” with no idea what to do seems just as calmly careless as the beat of the song makes us feel.
Any other track like this might come close to drawing a Shwayze comparison for its lazy beat and endearing lyrics. Yet Collins never lets his words about childhood foolishness sound too childish. Later in the song he even spits out a few lines of fast Chance-like metrics: “My curiosity coiled like a snake around a finger/ like another bouquet of these f**king roses.” Through his combination of excellent production and casual lyrical flow, Collins has started to make a name for himself. Last week’s write up in Pitchfork will likely not be the last we hear about him.
Album Review: Love Letter for Fire by Sam Beam and Jesca Hoop
Sam Beam and Jesca Hoop’s Love Letter for Fire, released by Sub Pop, is both an accomplishment as a duet album and as an album that tells a story. Beam, well known for his work as Iron & Wine, teams up with the highly versatile Jesca Hoop to make an album that is more reminiscent of a crackling campfire and the impending darkness that surrounds it than a blazing inferno. The album, by feel of the songs alone, seems to have a narrative arc. This, paired with poetic (and only at times over the top) lyrics, makes for an album that is worth experiencing in its fullness.
Though we enter the album with the strong lilt of “One Way to Pray,” the first five tracks feel darker and more mysterious. Beam is certainly in tune with his musical past, and this folk driven album explores many aspects of gospel tradition. “The Lamb You Lost” seems to be about an attempt to forsake one’s religion, and yet finding that it can never really be left behind. This tension is compounded in “We Two Are a Moon,” when the music struggles to arrive at a melodic euphony in the same way its singer believes that “the world can withhold so much beauty.” The songs feel even more Job-like when Beam sings, “Heaven isn’t always kind,” on “Midas King.”
Eventually, the album makes a successful transition through the nostalgic, “Know the Wild That Wants You.” The drawn out call to “come home” to the peaceful country after experiencing the terrors of the city marks the album’s shift towards a placid and hopeful exploration of love and the natural world. Beam and Hoop weave a multi-track story of someone who has struggled with a past of personal and spiritual loss, ultimately rediscovering what was lost in nature. Though most of the stronger songs are all on the second half of the album, “Valley Clouds” might be the best. An excellent country-folk tune, the lyrics also point towards this notion of divinity and a reconciling of faith in the natural world: “See the serpent and our savior laying side by side/ Heaven was a corner where we tried to hide/…And the wind will baptize our skin,” Beam and Hoop sing.
By the end of the album, despite the fact that “Sailor to Siren” ends on a more ambiguous note for its singer, the listener feels a sense of narrative completion. We have left the darkness, and have found that the light of the campfire still burns in the daytime. As Hoop first advises early on, almost as a premonition, “Know when the sky is dark/ the light will come tomorrow.” Whether one finds themself blasting this album as they step outside after the calming of a fierce Southern rainstorm or as they speed down a winding road flanked by pines, they can be sure to find a light in this album’s beautiful orchestration and the thrilling harmonies that Beam and Hoop produce.
Must Listen: “Valley Clouds,” “Kiss Me Quick,” “Every Songbird Says”
Songs to Skip: “Chalk It Up to Chi”
Rating: 7.9/10