| 2.5 average | Gene Gol-Jonsson CONTRIBUTOR | December 2nd 21 |
Yann Lemoine said in relation with his first album at one point that he wanted to make his listeners feel like heroes. The strong audiovisual narrative certainly made sure they did. On the other hand, 'S19' feels more like some kind of twisted Watchmen situation, where the heroes of yore are seen as dirty, grimy and unpleasant, but this time not at all on purpose. It's an oddly ugly album, despite its faux grandiose presentation.
Bump |
| 0.0 | Red D | November 18th 20 |
As much as ?The Golden Age? was hell of a strong debut - both musically and visually -, Woodkid?s sophomore effort sounds like he?s narrowing down his focus and thinking less. Despite the menacing undertone of his musical universe this second time around, it?s hard to imagine the sensual ?So Handsome Hello? on the first album - the track has a side to Woodkid seldom heard 7 years ago meet his ingenuous musical instincts; and the intersection of the two creates magic. It?s also very clear (and has been for a long time) that Woodkid is both a visual and musical artist: and each world cannot escape the pull of the other. There?s just something about the theatrical arrangements, the combination of orchestra recordings and metallic pulsation percussion that begs for a feature film to go with it. Woodkid took his time with S16 and it shows: the album sounds every bit like it was carefully thought out. The sequencing of the tracklist is instrumental in developing a narrative - on top of the individual arrangements that translate each piece into its own movie scene. S16 is bookended by particularly strong moments that question our ability to take responsibility in leading the world on an accelerated path towards collapse and in how to start correcting its course.
Bump |
| 2.0 poor | Panzerchrist | October 17th 20 |
This kinda absolutely sucks and I'm really irritable about it. Dude instantly found his niche with
these bombastic pop epics on his debut and he follows it up with a series of slow, meandering,
stripped back ballads. It's absolutely a chore to listen to in one sitting and none of it
plays to his strengths.
Bump |
| 3.0 good | osey | October 20th 22 |
| 3.0 good | gilly | November 2nd 20 |
| 3.5 great | Sowing STAFF | October 22nd 20 |
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