THE BEST ALBUMS YOU'VE NEVER HEARD #1: "Splendour & Misery" by clipping.

This is the start of a new series I am planning, in which I will be writing about some of my favourite albums that might not have been given the widespread recognition they deserved (in my humble opinion). Hopefully in doing this I will be able to turn you on to some records you might never have heard of otherwise.
The first record I'm going to talk about is Splendour & Misery by LA-based hip hop trio clipping. It is the group's second full-length album after 2014's CLPPNG (not including their 2013 Midcity mixtape), and I stumbled over it without really knowing anything about clipping. or the album. My experience with Splendour & Misery was immediately one of infatuation and obsession, and I was baffled by the fact that so few people had heard it, and more so by the generally mixed reviews it had received (but hey, what do I know).
Without going into too much detail and spoiling the narrative, the album is essentially a science-fiction story set in space, told to us through the medium of hip hop across the 15-track album. Without any prior knowledge of what to expect my mind was blown the second "The Breach" opened with Daveed Diggs' machine-gun flow, setting up the narrative to come, and I was riveted until the end. The production from William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes creates eerie, cold and desolate soundscapes that serve to enrich the experience of the story, and it all comes together as something unlike anything else I've heard in hip hop. Narrative driven hip hop isn't a new discovery by any means, but to hear it so neatly wrapped in genre was and still is an absolute treat.
If you like Splendour & Misery then I would highly recommend not only their earlier LP CLPPNG but also their 2016 EP Wriggle (but don't say I didn't warn you; it's absolutely filthy).
Have you already heard this record? What did you think? Let me know in the comments, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Comments

A Response To 'Christian' Views On Secular Music

Is there such thing as music that Christians shouldn’t listen to? Should we be dismissive of music with either explicit language or sexual, violent or substance oriented themes? Should anyone even be telling anyone else what they can and can’t listen to? These are questions that are thrown around a lot in Christian circles, and given what I do here on this blog and how that overlaps with my job working for the church, I thought I would share my thoughts on this topic. I’ll say this at the outset so that we’re on the same page – I think any attempt to dictate what people should and shouldn’t listen to is stupid and disrespectful on a fundamental level. I’ll go into detail about why I think that later on, but for now here are some thoughts I have on some of the “Christian” opinions I come across pretty regularly. The first and most ludicrous thing that seems to follow me around is the idea that because I listen to underground genres, particularly on the heavy metal

1 YEAR LATER: "22, A Million" by Bon Iver

Bon Iver's third studio album turns 1 in about a week (where did that year go?), so I thought it would be interesting to talk a bit about how my impressions of the album have changed - or how they haven't - over the last 12 months. When this album was released I was more excited than I think I ever have been to hear a new album. For Emma, Forever Ago is one of my all time favourites, and I love his self-titled second album too, so I had huge expectations for this album, but was also wary that expectations might ruin my experience of the music. This was particularly the case for 22, A Million , because it is unlike anything else Justin Vernon has released. There have been hints at this more processed, electronic direction previously, like the song "Woods" on the Blood Bank EP and occasional flourishes on Bon Iver , but 22, A Million is a drastic departure from the Bon Iver sound we had grown accustomed to at this point in time. Or at least, that's what I thought

Should Brand New be in my top 20? (CONTENT WARNING: sexual abuse)

For those who read both top 20 albums lists that I did - one here on thatmusicnerd and one over at Kill Your Stereo - you will have noticed, I'm sure, that one had The Ongoing Concept's album Places at number 1, and the other had Brand New's Science Fiction at the top. Full disclosure, I initially had Brand New at the top of just the one list, but the readership of Kill Your Stereo reacted very strongly against the allegations of sexual misconduct against Brand New frontman Jesse Lacey and so I removed it entirely. In fact, none of the KYS contributors' top 20 lists featured Science Fiction at all. Of course I was happy to follow the general consensus in regards to whether or not an artist accused of such things should be promoted by a music publication, but I still stand by my opinion that Science Fiction was the best album of 2017 and as such it was number 1 on my thatmusicnerd top 20 list. 2017 has been a pretty crazy year in terms of the fairly b

Read Poets Society

Search This Blog