Each week on the FACT Singles Club, a selection of our writers work their way through the new music of the week gone by.
With the way individual tracks are now consumed, the idea of what constitutes a single has shifted dramatically in the last half a decade, and its for this reason that the songs reviewed across the next pages are a combination of 12″ vinyl releases, mixtape cuts, Soundcloud uploads and more.
Rated and slated this week? Kendrick Lamar, Wiley, Azealia Banks, Andy Stott and more.
Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 1/7)
Wiley – ‘On a Level’
Joe Muggs: Wiley is beyond good and evil, and this is fun enough, but ultimately it’s just another bulletin to drop out of his brain. He’s been relatively quiet lately so it’s welcome, but it’s not a ‘Heatwave’ or ‘Money Man’ in terms of his recent output. Quite excited about Snakes & Ladders though – a Big Dada Wiley album is usually a good Wiley album. (6)
Alex Macpherson: At this point, I’m tempted to assume that Wiley’s alternations between chartbait and Proper Grime formed some kind of masterplan, were it not that random vacillating based on his whims in any given month is so much more plausible. It’s interesting that his quality doesn’t necessarily correlate with his direction, though (see: the triumph that was ‘Wearing My Rolex’, the bore that was Evolve Or Be Extinct): he’s beyond the concepts of both selling out and contrived back-to-basics moves. ‘On A Level’ is tight, brilliantly produced, not quite as witty as peak Wiley, best when he comes over all financial advisor at the end because he’s always had a touch of the grumpy middle-aged provincial accountant about him. (8)
Angus Finlayson: ‘On A Level’ marks a distant point in Wiley’s pendulum swing from business-minded populist to guardian of grime’s core values. Though maybe the two aren’t so distant after all – if ever there were a time when “credible, historicised grime figure” was a sellable prospect, it’s now. “I don’t want my career to end up a joke” – don’t worry man! It won’t. (7)
William Skar: Worrying title – where the rhetoric on the Step series was all about levelling up, beating the boss and moving onto the next stage, ‘On A Level’ implies complacency, cruise control . Wiley’s definitely cotching on his laurels here, but the beat (strong) and the flow (tight) are hard to quibble with – if everything on Snakes And Ladders scrubs up this well, it’ll be a great LP. Video’s a bit Free Yard: The Reunion, though. (7)
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Ryan Hemsworth – ‘Snow in Newark’
Joe Muggs: Those asthmatic vocal sounds are very Aphex Twin. Then it turns into underrated early ’90s drunk skate-rapper DC Basehead only with expensive sounding pop choruses, which is nice. Nice for the autumn and nights drawing in, less annoying than Drake, all very promising really. (7)
Angus Finlayson: Confirmation that Hemworth’s brand of cutesy electronica is this generation’s emo – i.e. music for teenagers whose hormones demand of them hours of morose self-reflection. If that was you then it’s difficult not to look fondly on this. (6)
Alex Macpherson: Piss-weak indietronica with intolerable milquetoast vocals exhumed from the mid-’00s: so fussy, so mimsy, so in love with the idea of being sensitive that it can’t see how redundant it is. Because if you make sad eyes at the world for long enough you can get away with any old bullshit, right? Fuck all sad boys forever for thinking we should give a shit about their feelings. (0)
Chal Ravens: I’m into the production quirks (quivering pipes, lapping water? Go on then) but the creaky bummed-out vocal is repelling me. I always preferred my emo with screaming in it. Mind you, imagine Drake on this. All part of the whole faux-earnest earnestness thing that the post-PoMo generation have been hashing out on Tumblr for years, the emo revival being its latest incarnation. (5)
4.5
Kendrick Lamar – ‘i’
Chal Ravens: Kendrick, I hardly knew ye. This is like a second date where the dude turns up wearing jeans and brown shoes; he’s made the effort but obviously I’ve got him all wrong. And despite the funk-fluff veneer, radio-bait hook and FlyLo-lite outro, it mostly reminds me of the hollow proficiency of late-period Eminem. I’m gutted, mate. (3)
Alex Macpherson: I’m not mad that anything has a touch of Arrested Development about it, or that Kendrick’s gone all soft and friendly (like anyone went to him for hardness in the first place). I’m pretty mad at anything that puts me in mind of ‘Happy’, and by token corporate conferences communally bonding over their profit/loss statements, though. It’s Kendrick’s own ‘Shake It Off’, which means it’s not just potentially irritating depending on how ubiquitous it becomes, but so disappointing to hear a wordy, precociously talented songwriter do self-affirmation in such an empty way. This move towards carefree fun from both Kendrick and Taylor Swift is actually more in keeping with how people grow up than the more usual artistic journey from party jams to “serious” cred moves – but really, both of them should have been able to convey that there’s actually something at stake in affirming yourself, not just a rush of clichés. Carefree shouldn’t extend to ceasing to care about your craft. (3)
Joe Muggs: Why’s he doing that funny voice? (3)
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Cooly G – ‘Wait Til Night’
Angus Finlayson: Kind of sombre for a song about new love, fucking etc. There are better things on the album. (6)
Alex Macpherson: A jolt back into life, sudden and electrifying; that moment when you become hyper-aware of all your physical responses to someone, from the sweat prickling on your skin in anticipation to the mirage-like murmurs of your thoughts. (Spoiler: in the narrative of Cooly G’s incredible new album, they’re mirage-like for a reason.) (9)
William Skar: Playin’ Me was just stunning, but the new album is more of a sober-sex-with-the-lights-on affair: ropier, clammier, stinkier, occasionally a bit farcical. There are a few stygian knee-tremblers par excellence on the record, but, regrettably, this piece of gimcrack coldwave isn’t one of them. (5)
Joe Muggs: Funny: ages ago, like before her first album, I sent Cooly G a couple of Chris & Cosey tracks and said her songs reminded me of them. She was like “oh right whatever”, but I stand by it. Even more so now. This is just splendid – even though she’s ditched the four-to-the-floor, it sounds totally Cooly (and a little bit Chris & Cosey). Takes its time, doesn’t make a fuss, but gets where it wants to be relentlessly and inexorably. (8)
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Andy Stott – ‘Violence’
Alex Macpherson: Is there anyone better at juxtaposing prettiness and grim industrial grind than Andy Stott right now? This moves further away from the dancefloor than his brilliant Luxury Problems album, which decreases its immediacy but increases its foreboding: I’m happy to follow him down this dank corridor, because this is an icy grip that’ll take more than a few days to really take hold. (8)
William Skar: Now this is what I wanted from the Cooly record. Enjoying Alison Skidmore in electroclash sexxxfoxxx mode. (8)
Angus Finlayson: Those weird, roiling chords pretty much deserve an album of their own. But if you’re gonna have a crack at pop then you need to pay more than lipservice to the idea of a vocal. On Luxury Problems Alison Skidmore was well-suited to her role as techno wraith. Here she’s more like the party host who, after having made the effort to invite you round, spends the evening listlessly drifting from room to room, or hanging sulkily out of the kitchen window, fag in hand. You brought us here: at least try to entertain us. (6)
Joe Muggs: Grabs me in a way that Luxury Problems tracks didn’t immediately. I still hanker after more Passed Me By style material, so sometimes I resent the vocals and want to be left alone with the perfect sound-making, but if I push that aside this is fundamentally brilliant and blimey it’s a while since I’ve felt quite such a sense of anticipation for a second drop like that. (8)
7.5
Azealia Banks – ‘Chasing Time’
Angus Finlayson: Three different songs on shuffle, each more hectic and unpleasant than the last. (4)
Alex Macpherson: I’ve come full circle and started rooting for Azealia Banks again. Make no mistake, her laughing stock status is entirely down to her not playing the industry game. If acting like a dick online was enough to get tastemakers to snub you, we’d be rid of many worse artists than Banks by now; Banks’ problem was that she went after the wrong people. (Let it also be noted that half her beefs were justified: the Stone Roses, Richard Russell, Lily Allen and Iggy Azalea all deserved the full force of her vitriol and more.) Anyway, it’s heartening to see that extricating herself from her label has actually paid off in terms of material. ‘Heavy Metal And Reflective’ was her first real banger since ‘212’ and ‘Chasing Time’ isn’t far behind, even if the singing hook is less of a peak (à la ‘212’) here and more of a momentum-halter between her fire verses. (7)
Chal Ravens: This is a bid for a bite of the Disclosure-flavoured dance-pop apple, I guess? It’s got some cool bits in it, i.e. the bits that sound like Lone, but it all fits together like a charity shop jigsaw. Then again, who else is doing ’90s-influenced trance-rap with quite such conviction? Bonus point for hanging on in there. (4)
Joe Muggs: Obviously she’s a silly arse, but this is alright. Bit overloaded and clattery, bit all over the place, but definitely alright. (6)
5.3
Final scores:
Andy Stott – ‘Violence’ (7.5)
Cooly G – ‘Wait Til Night’ (7)
Wiley – ‘Snakes and Ladders’ (7)
Azealia Banks – ‘Chasing Time’ (5.3)
Ryan Hemsworth – ‘Snow in Newark’ (4.5)
Kendrick Lamar – ‘i’ (3)
