5 new releases we love: An effervescent R&B album, a sultry love song, and more
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Rico Nasty & Kenny Beats, Anger Management
[Sugar Trap, April 25]
There are a lot of short rap records out there, but it’s hard to imagine withstanding much more than 18:47 of Rico Nasty’s latest. That righteously airbrushed metal cover tells it all: Anger Management is a portal straight into the howling depths of the rapper’s id, delivered via the liquid fire of her flow and Kenny Beats’ most maxed-out production work. She flips “Dirt Off Your Shoulder” into an act of regal disdain on “Hatin,” indulges her inner rock god on “Big Titties,” and scorches her post-fame hangers-on in the elegiac “Relative.” It’s only after a few listens that the sonic assault subsides, and the through-lines become clear. Anger Management is a concept album about telling people to fuck right off, delivered the only way it should be: raw and bloody, like an uncooked steak. [Clayton Purdom]
Bad Religion, Age Of Unreason
[Epitaph, May 3]
Bad Religion’s latter-day career has been as vital as any period in its history, thanks to the post-2000 addition of superb drummer Brooks Wackerman and the return of founding member and songwriter Brett Gurewitz. Now, with the departure of both Wackerman and longtime guitarist Greg Hetson, the band has followed a back-to-basics approach for Age Of Unreason. Taking a page from the more straightforward tracks off True North (more than six years old now, the longest gap between albums in the band’s history), the overall tone is even bleaker than usual, presumably the result of an especially dire state of political and cultural affairs in America. All but one of the tracks clock in under three minutes, delivering the usual pissed-off inveighing against stupidity (“Chaos From Within”), sarcastic homilies to the decay of democracy (“Candidate”), and—as always—handy indicators as to what BR’s been reading (“Do The Paranoid Style,” “End Of History”). Age Of Unreason is more akin to the uneven Dissent Of Man than the elegant rock-and-punk balance of True North, but hey, it’s a new Bad Religion album. It’s about damn time. [Alex McLevy]