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The Album Effect episode 21 reviews Astroworld by Travis Scott, Raise Vibration by Lenny Kravitz, Be the Cowboy by Mitski, and a special listener submission from artist/producer @dj_zerp for his Connecticut-based indie-grunge rock band, Sophic Bloom and their self-titled album release, plus more. Hosted by Manny, Nick, Dave, and Britt.
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Episode 21 Albums:
Astroworld (2018)
Travis Scott
Travis Scott began his career as a rapper and producer at age 16, forming rap duo The Graduates with Chris Holloway. A few years later, Scott attended the University of Texas for a year before leaving to further pursue music in New York. While there, he worked with Illroots website owner Mike Waxx, but eventually moved to Los Angeles after becoming frustrated with a lack of career momentum.
After a tumultuous period that saw him move back to Texas, he returned to LA and signed his first major-label record deal in 2012. Later that year, he also signed with the production side of Kanye West’s GOOD Music. After releasing two well-received mixtapes, debut studio album Rodeo was released in 2015, debuting at number one on the Billboard Rap Albums chart.
Scott is known for his affinity for broad collaboration, something that has been viewed in both positive and negative lights, as some have criticized him for being more of a curator than an original creator himself. His third studio album, Astroworld, also features a vast array of contributors, including Drake, The Weeknd, Swae Lee, Frank Ocean and Kid Cudi, as well as a number of different producers. However, Astroworld received overwhelmingly positive reviews for its blend of hip-hop, trap and psychedelic music, with critics citing its excellent production and futuristic sound. Named for a Houston theme park that was torn down, Astroworld proved a commercial success, entering the Billboard 200 chart at number one.
Raise Vibration (2018)
Lenny Kravitz
Known for utilizing a heavily retro sound, Lenny Kravitz was influenced by the wide variety of music he heard in his household as a child. The son of an actress and a television producer, Kravitz knew he wanted to become a musician at age five and grew up playing a variety of instruments. Debut album Let Love Rule was a 1960s-inspired rock/funk record that was moderately successful in the US, but took off significantly in Europe.
In 1998, Kravitz gained a wider appeal in America, when single “Fly Away” became popular due to being featured in a number of commercials. The next year, he won the Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocalist, an award he would also win in the three following years.
Kravitz has said that after completing his world tour in 2015, he wasn’t certain where his next work would go musically. He eventually began work on eleventh album Raise Vibration at his home studio in the Bahamas, playing most of the instruments himself. What resulted was a record featuring his trademark blend of soul and rock, but with a demonstrably more political leaning. Tracks such as “Here to Love” and “Who Really Are the Monsters?” call for peace amidst rampant societal ills, while the video for “It’s Enough” is overtly political, referencing Black Lives Matter protests and the NFL anthem kneeling controversy. Reviews for the album were mixed, with some critics feeling that the political context gave Raise Vibration more of an edge than previous work, while others believed it was too simplistic lyrically to achieve the desired reaction.
Be the Cowboy (2018)
Mitski
You can’t get a much more ringing musical endorsement than punk legend Iggy Pop calling you the most advanced American songwriter he knows. But that’s just what happened for Mitski when Pop discussed her music on his BBC 6 show, saying that “She writes and sings and she plays too…she can do whatever she wants.”
Born in Japan to a Japanese mother and American father, Mitski Miyawaki has always had a musical career in her sights, having grown up with her dad’s folk records and her mom’s J-pop CDs. Due to her parents’ jobs, she moved around a lot as a child, something she felt caused her to focus completely on music, as friendships were hard to maintain. While studying at Purchase College’s Conservatory of Music in New York, she self-released her first two albums, both of which leaned toward classically-influenced singer-songwriter fare. After graduating, Mitski moved on to a more guitar-driven indie rock sound, releasing two critically acclaimed albums, Bury Me at Makeout Creek and Puberty 2.
Mitski’s fifth album, 2018’s Be the Cowboy, strays a bit from the indie sound she became known for, incorporating elements of disco and musical theater, as piano, horns and synthesizers join her guitar melodies. Working with longstanding collaborator Patrick Hyland, Mitski said they wanted to create a “person singing alone on stage” dynamic and chose not to layer any of her vocals in order to achieve this solo effect. While her songs are often interpreted as diary-esque lamentations on romance, Mitski says that her writing is often more abstract, and on tracks such as “Geyser,” the connection she sings about is her relationship with her music.
