We Finally Have Good New Music After Weeks Of Bad Releases
I thought this was fantastic convo with three guys who make a living playing the guitar and have had huge amounts of success in the music industry between the three of them. This blog is via my guy Colin Budny, frontman for Philly's Foxtrot And The Get Down and our co-host on Barstool Backstage. Wanted to throw this up today because there's a lot going on in the music world right now
2023 has been a year of incredibly high highs & shockingly low lows for some marquee releases from A-List artists.
After years of pretty paint-by-numbers formulas for successful commercial releases from major label artists, it seems as though everything we know about popular music is changing in front of our eyes. Raps spot as the top genre commercially & critically seems to be slipping. Country, off of the strength of pop country superstars like Morgan Wallen & Americana heavyweights like Zach Bryan is having a moment where the future has never been brighter. Rock has young talent like Turnstile moving the genre forward while still relying HEAVILY on legacy acts to keep the money moving in a positive direction. Pop has Taylor Swift running the show while young guns like Olivia Rodrigo continue to deliver solid records like the recent "GUTS". And EDM has never been in a more prime position to take the level of excitement and adoration that the genre gets for its' live shows to the charts.
What I'm driving at is, no one really knows what the fuck is going on with music right now. While the early-mid parts of the year have given us some truly solid records, no one is really delivering bodies of work that we'll be talking about 5 years from now. There have been several records putting crazy Billboard stats up (Shouts out Bad Bunny), but culturally and artistically we haven't seen output that moves the needle.
Travis Scott's "UTOPIA" was a fun moment & obviously is streaming well, but that records' momentum in everyday conversation died out quickly. Drake's "For all the Dogs" did UNBELIEVABLE numbers for anyone not named Drake, but critically & amongst fans it's clear that the record wasn't even close to his finest work. As October draws to a close, the music industry has been in a bit of a rut.
THANKFULLY, we got a truly solid week of releases this week. Let's run over some of the standouts:
Blink-182 "ONE MORE TIME..."
It's been 12 years since the OG lineup of Pop Punk's greatest band has made a record together. The journey to this record has been well documented, so I won't bore you with the hearalding tale, but MY GOD DOES IT FEEL GOOD TO HAVE THE REAL BLINK BACK. "Anthem Part 3" is a crowd pleasing opener, "One More TIme…" is a heartfelt Angels & Airwaves era cut, and "Terrified" is clearly a reworked Boxcar Racer cut. You can feel traces of everywhere these guys have been over the last 20 years, and the results are BEAUTIFUL. BTW Shouts to Travis for the stellar production
IDLES "Dancer"
IDLES have been a stalwart of the English/Irish new punk scene with bands like Fontaines DC for a few years now. They came out so incredibly hot with bangers like "Danny Ndelko" & "Never Fight a Man with a Perm", songs that make you want to fight your step dad while considering the state of the world. Over the past few years, they've stretched their creative legs with songs like "Beachland Ballroom" that have drifted away from their volatile roots. But with "Dancer", with the help of LCD Soundsystem, they've married their two halves into their best work to date.
Sampha "Lahai"
I've long wondered if we'd ever get a new full length Sampha record. He's infamous for popping up on Drake or Kendrick Lamar records, but the reclusive crooner had yet to follow up 2017's masterpiece "Process". That is, until today. Songs like "Dancing Circles" remind you why Sampha is so sought after in the industry, while "Jonathan L. Seagull" feels like the love child of Stevie Wonder, War on Drugs, and Bon Iver. PLEASE, I urge you to listen to this record and spread the word.
Ken Carson "A Great Choas"
The perfect title for a truly wild record. When you're attached to Playboi Carti's Opium imprint, you're bound to have the attention of the youth. With this new album, Ken Carson capitalizes in a big way. Rage beats, hot producers like F1lthy, and songs ready to play to hoards of rowdy fans mark a shift to the mainstream for Carson. This record sounds like NOW. Will it still band in a year, we'll see. But right NOW, it's hot as fuck.
HONORABLE MENTION: "Hackney Diamonds" by The Rolling Stones
We're still getting new Stones records in 2023. How good is God? Mainly just posting this to shout out Sydney Sweeney.
Let us know what we missed, and SUBSCRIBE TO BARSTOOL BACKSTAGE. Here's this week's episode breaking down the greatest guitar players of all time with Robbie Fox