InRO Weekly — Volume 1, Issue 16

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ALBUM REVIEWS feature that “nineteen’s kitsch” is a hilariously obvious rewrite of a demo about being a nineties bitch. But where “Kitsch” is a breezy introduction to the era, “I Am” is a triumph. The group’s previous singles were distinctly fun, but this latest one is grand. The melodies challenge the vocalists in new ways, making each determined, sky-high launch into the chorus feel earned (“Life is a beautiful galaxy”), and the production sparkles with powerful synths and even a glittering electric guitar in the final chorus. On a technical level, “I Am” is not the group’s most interesting track (the pre-chorus and chorus are just the same melody repeated), but it’s maybe more impressive how the girls make it so that it doesn't matter, generating a stronger emotional pull here than on any of their previous releases. Importantly, both singles make obvious what was previously mere subtext: IVE’s music is about watching their own star being born. I’ve IVE stands at 11 tracks total, and the B-sides range from interesting to serviceable. A few stand out as new territory for the group: namely, the anthemic chants and minor-key strings of “Blue Blood” (title reinforcing their branding), the genuinely cute Disney Channel pop of “Not Your Girl,” and the clanging piano chords of “Hypnosis,” which could have soundtracked a rap song as easily as it does IVE’s light vocals. (After playing it straight for a year and a half, they have the right to be a bit obnoxious for two minutes.) Elsewhere, “Lips” takes another prominent piano line in an entirely different direction, with the same breezy mood as “Kitsch,” but with a less nuanced arrangement. (It’s still enjoyable, but you can tell that the singles on this album were made to hold up to much more concerted scrutiny than the rest.) And then there’s “Shine With Me,” which is a standard album-closing power ballad, not much worth any further commentary beyond that qualification. The rest of the tracks — “Heroine,” “Mine,” “Next Page,” and “Cherish” — all occupy a very similar sonic space: first, start with some tasteful percussion, throw in a gentle synth, and then choose a simple titular hook to pull things together. “Mine,” for its part, at least does a particularly good job at the classic “mid-tempo pulsing synth” sound, but “Heroine” has nothing to say that the other songs don’t already, and could have easily been cut. They’re all perfectly pleasant enough, though very much B-sides, with no capacity to take on a starring role. And although everything sounds like IVE’s style of “make good pop music with a young, chic twist,” the divide between the big event songs and the ones always intended to be tracklist filler is too apparent not to be observed. For all its ups and downs, IVE’s latest comeback is the group’s first attempt at an album statement of any significant length, which is a considerable milestone for any rookie group. The results roughly meet the expectations set by their previous work, with a clear focus dedicated to perfecting the handful of songs that will actually linger in the public’s memory, while the rest are handled with similar polish but less underlying ambition. There’s nothing particularly novel about the music of it all, but the project does boast great singles and solid enough deep cuts to keep dedicated fans hanging around: in other words, the classic pop album dynamic for a group who have dedicated themselves to the craft of classic pop music. — KAYLA BEARDSLEE LABEL: Starship Entertainment; RELEASE DATE: April 10 MICROPHONE FIEND Zelooperz At first, it wasn’t necessarily clear how seriously one should take Zelooperz, his defining traits being “Internet rap oddball” and “Danny Brown protege.” Discovered in the lead-up to his much-hyped 2014 album Old, Brown plucked the then 20-year-old rapper out of obscurity and gifted him the hook on “Kush Coma,” a standout A$AP Rocky-featuring track. A member of Brown’s loosely organized Bruiser Brigade from then on and up to current day (at this point, the collective has evolved into a genuine label), these two Detroit-based rappers have been tethered to each other in more ways than one ever since, with Zelooperz’s signature squawky vocals and taste for esoteric production (both knowingly silly and devotedly avant-garde) echoing the preferred aesthetics of his mentor. Debut album Bothic fell victim to dismissive critical comparisons of this nature, unfavorably casting it against the still-celebrated Old, and ultimately looking past its qualities in anticipation of Brown’s fourth album, which would arrive a few months later. Zelooperz seems unbothered by this narrative, or at least hasn’t allowed it to 31
slow him down, with the rapper/painter (now 30) only building momentum in the seven years between Bothic’s release and now, dropping eight records along the way. A new one, Microphone Fiend, which landed at the start of April, puts Zelooperz at an impressive nine albums since 2016, a rather remarkable pace for any musician, even in the hyper-fast streaming era. It's also remarkable that his output remains solid and dynamic, Microphone Fiend offering no particular drop in quality from the horror-tinged Gremlin, nor the more freewheeling Dyno-Mite (on which he and Danny reconvene to trade verses over the Crash Bandicoot music) — both highlights of this recent rapid-fire release schedule. On the other hand, Microphone Fiend isn’t so much better or so much more distinctive than those other projects (pop R&B concept album Get WeT.Radio could at least claim the latter), all of them decent enough, often amusing, but generally a few songs short of being wholly great. Album opener “Climate Change” kicks things off by sampling Little Richard’s 1988 Grammy presenter gig (“And the best new artist is… Me!”), as if to signal Zelooperz frustrations with the continued lack of industry respect, before launching into a jaunty, rolling Chuck Inglish beat worthy of Chance the Rapper. His vocal affectations end up landing somewhere near Chano’s as well, ALBUM REVIEWS while still often bringing DB to mind, operating on a gradient that runs from a yelp to a bark. To his credit, Zelooperz never appears constrained by these seemingly narrow parameters, challenging his delivery to adapt to a range of production possibilities (“Demon n Deities” taking this to a near experimental extreme), though really it’s mostly the more aggressive, hard-hitting beats (“Bustin Jieber,” “Can’t Fill Your Tank”) that provoke his strongest performances, as has often been the case in the past. At times a charming, elusive figure, at other times a bit too taken with juvenalia and “weird humor,” Zelooperz continues to define his world with Microphone Fiend without necessarily making huge progress. Still, one gets the sense that this record, like the rest, could be a piece of a bigger picture. The last few years have found Zelooperz collaborating fruitfully outside and underneath the Bruiser Brigade umbrella, finding worthy peers like Earl Sweatshirt, BbyMutha, Pink Siifu, Fly Anakin, etc. — inspiring artists with interesting approaches to the genre. This, in tandem with the consistent quality of his projects, is reason enough to continue to believe Zelooperz is carving out a notable space in hip hop right now. — M.G. MAILLOUX LABEL: Bruiser Brigade; RELEASE DATE: March 28 32
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Page 9 and 10: KICKING THE CANON In the '80s, afte
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Page 34: Photo Credits: Cover - Courtesy War

InRO Weekly — Volume 1, Issue 16

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