Lizzo - Big GRRRL Small World

ha, xpost!

I mean those lyrics are no match for these gems from Best New Track by Lil Uzi Vert

Make it rain in the club like a nasty day
Told 'em that I'm comin', oh, no ejaculate
Pastry, pocket, boy, you not havin’ cake
Fuck that overcoat and I swear your jacket late

sorry have all of perpetua’s takes been declared irrelevant yet

literally leaves a huge trail of garbage and slime and bullshit behind him whenever he writes

literal lol at Lil Uzi Vert

People are like “who is this crazy man on the bus giggling at his phone”

TIL some people genuinely take pride in working to afford the necessities of life. it really does take all kinds!

Have you literally not heard any black music before

Turn it off for five minutes Simon

if you grew up with no zapatos
you'd celebrate the minute you been havin' dough

Technically I was responding to JCLC there but I'm happy to FP myself anyway

i judge all lyrical content by how it comes across when i read it written down

kind of love how the discourse on this record has splintered a bunch of archetypal allegiances

new board desc obvi

my reaction to this record on first pass was that shes exceptionally talented, but a few of the song types felt a bit "this is the amy winehouse type song; this is the bruno mars type song;" of major label A&R ... but I also have not spent enough time w her work to know whether or not there's a thematic connectivity that makes these costumes serve a wider narrative, & if that wider narrative is interesting, etc. ... that said she's such an evident talent that I can see really getting into a stage of her career where she starts leaning into the personal, idiosyncratic etc.

this is not the same, btw, as lamenting the Algorithms the way perpetua is ... why did so many poptimists go anti-poptimist as soon as it became about spotify instead of record labels? lol

if this album were titled "Songs For Lizzo To Get Super Famous By" I wouldn't be mad about it

what's a "personal, idiosyncratic" song? Real question. Is there a gauge? A failed genre exercise is 'personal,' too, under this rubric.

i mean, i dont think this is something that a critic (or critically thinking listener) can really get prescriptive about, i'm more theorizing a suspicion abt what lizzo project I'll end up drawn to personally than telling her what kind of music she should make ... rap music for me is partly abt small-frequency idiosyncracies of narrative style, of word choice, of flow & the subtle ways artists weave together a persona & style and how those two interact ... shes more of a pop artist so I'm not like shocked her music isn't as concerned w this

so like when she does her "Nebraska" lol

it is amazing how often the handwavy arguments about algorithms in today's music business could just as well have been applied to the machinations of radio since at least, like, the mid 80s if not even earlier

yeah its exceedingly annoying!! suddenly after two decades of being a poptimist you decided the popular will is ... bad?? perpetua as adorno is just an unexpected turn

i honestly think its just abt getting old & the platonic idea of pop in 2019 being pretty difft from the platonic ideal of 'pop' in 2001

the Perpetua thing is really weird, like this is from 5 years ago, a project she did with a local Mpls singer Caroline Smith when she was just doing clubs here...this whole idea her vibe is engineered is odd to me having seen her come up

https://youtu.be/vd4aLl6A_o4

or this her old group, The Chalice from six years ago, obv feels a lot more amateur but I feel like her vibe here is p much in line with her now

https://youtu.be/mFCPSnHk6P0

That let em say song feels like it wd be in the perpetua sweet spot tbh... she’s a v v good singer

Those are separate points

to spin off what dyl said about 80s radio Lizzo actually feels more like an old fashioned all around talented entertainer with strong pop instincts

it is amazing how often the handwavy arguments about algorithms in today's music business could just as well have been applied to the machinations of radio since at least, like, the mid 80s if not even earlier

― dyl, Monday, April 22, 2019 9:36 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

complaining about algorithms is the new rockism, and I'm not even being remotely facetious, all the same arguments have been ported over

anyway a) this album is good but not my favorite by her, so much of it feels like it's 75% there; b) I didn't view the review as mean in the slightest, the tone was very much "I like this artist but not this particular album, so I'm going to go slightly out of my way to temper every criticism with a comment about how talented she is, in the futile hope that this will placate the stans." or maybe I'm just projecting because I do that a lot in reviews

Natasha Bedingfield is just a highly tenuous and random name to drop in 2019 (seriously how many readers would even remember her?) And putting her in this context, especially up against Aretha, is always going to look like you're ladling on the damnation and sprinkling on a tiny bit of faint praise.

Also I don't think it's controversial to suggest that the boundaries of what does and doesn't constitute 'good rapping' (or good rap lyrics) have become so elastic over the last decade or so that it's OK to raise an eyebrow when a writer or publication chooses to start enforcing them in some cases and not others. And to interrogate the reasons for that.

FWIW I don't actually enjoy Lizzo's music that much and haven't felt the urge to hear this yet - but the review doesn't read to me like its meeting the music half way. It might be trying to meet the artist half way, or the message, or the fans, but that's not quite the same thing.

Natasha Bedingfield is just a highly tenuous and random name to drop in 2019 (seriously how many readers would even remember her?)

I really thought you were joking at first

Dan... your jacket late on that one homie

tashbed is one of those artists like ashlee simpson whose reputation is wildly different between the critical bubble and most other people

I have no dog in this fight but someone here at work just played that "juice" song and surely I'm not the only person to notice its similarity to this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4306i99LMXo

it is amazing how often the handwavy arguments about algorithms in today's music business could just as well have been applied to the machinations of radio since at least, like, the mid 80s if not even earlier

― dyl, Monday, April 22, 2019 9:36 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah its exceedingly annoying!! suddenly after two decades of being a poptimist you decided the popular will is ... bad?? perpetua as adorno is just an unexpected turn

― ILX’s bad boy (D-40), Monday, April 22, 2019 9:43 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i honestly think its just abt getting old & the platonic idea of pop in 2019 being pretty difft from the platonic ideal of 'pop' in 2001

― ILX’s bad boy (D-40), Monday, April 22, 2019 9:44 PM (yesterday) Bookmark

it needs to be acknowledged tho that the fixation on algorithms and pop music is an outgrowth of the fixation on algorithms and our every day lives in general. radio programmers weren't organizing our friendships or news in the mid 80s. it's a relevant conversation your points notwithstanding

also for all the handwringing about how algorithms and cultural cartography and ad placements are affecting our relationship w pop music..... lizzo isn't popping on any charts

I guess the album was number 1 on iTunes but who knows what that means anymore

but yeah I really agree with everyone that Lizzo is an EXTREMELY weird artist to hang the algorithms have changed music argument, she's had a very traditional career arc building up little by little over 6-7 years through working, touring, steady releases until signed to a major, tv and festival appearances, placement in tv and commercials, making music videos etc....

I'd argue her arc honestly could have been about the same 20 years ago

The album is currently #1 on iTunes and #12 on Apple Music in the US, so it will probably debut quite high on the Billboard 200 next week.

ha xp

itunes is a small sliver compared to apple

she's had a very traditional career arc building up little by little over 6-7 years through working, touring, steady releases until signed to a major, tv and festival appearances, placement in tv and commercials, making music videos etc....

she even "broke" on Ellen's show.

itunes is a small sliver compared to apple

fwiw, on the (US) spotify chart the highest she is currently is #91 with "Truth Hurts," so if the evil algorithms are conspiring they're not doing a very good job of it

i've heard "juice" on one of the adult r&b stations here a couple times. (it's #28, down from its peak at 26 but still bulleted, on that format's billboard chart.)

the same station has played an ad for the album plenty of times tho. i noticed the same kind of ad for janelle monae's album when it came out, so i assume that's the kind of thing a label will do for an artist with a new album when their single isn't very far up the airplay charts yet. ("i like that" from janelle's album did end up being a big hit at that format, but not until like 6 months after the album's release.)

relatives of mine who aren't big rap fans, are excited by her. The retro aspects and Missie Elliot influence and the singing are likely factors I am guessing

.@Lizzo slayed "Truth Hurts"!! 😍👰🏾 #BETAwards pic.twitter.com/BxtjsgzuWG

— BET (@BET) June 24, 2019

her breakthrough hit being a song that is nearly two years old is not something i expected

the power of the Netflix soundtrack bump.