5 new releases we love: Billy Woods gets weird, Nick Cave begins again, and more
Carla dal Forno, Look Up Sharp
[Kallista, October 4]
To quote a late viral sensation, Carla dal Forno’s world is roughly the opposite of “everything happens so much.” Her music moves at such a modest pace and contains so few instruments that her songs veer on non-existence, their nothingness propelling listeners toward profoundly deep bouts of introspection. On her 2016 debut album, You Know What It’s Like, dal Forno’s cavernous minimalism took the form of songs that smothered post-punk and trip-hop with a playfully droning, sinister pillow. That album’s follow-up, Look Up Sharp, sharpens the formula via clearer vocals (though bleary instrumental interludes still abound) and an open-armed embrace of ambient synths. Where coldness once festered, warmth now exists, such as in cooing opener “No Trace,” the empowerment-via-breakup narrative of “So Much Better,” and the organ-like plinking of “I’m Conscious.” Even in high-definition, dal Forno doesn’t need much to shine. [Max Freedman]
DaBaby, KIRK
[Interscope, September 27]
DaBaby enters the beat like someone owed him money inside it. On “Off The Rip,” he kicks down the front door (“you know I don’t wait for the drop”) with a boast about going out to eat with his kids and his mom, then proceeds to black out on the flute loop, slapping the shit out of the listener and everyone else for two breathless minutes. DaBaby entered 2019 like this, too, dropping his charmingly goofy “Walker Texas Ranger” video on January 1, followed by the smash “Suge,” then a make-good mixtape, and then a zillion scene-stealing guest verses. KIRK’s more focused than any of those: DaBaby raps with a chip on his shoulder, like he still has something to prove, his gravelly timbre and light Raleigh drawl packed into endless, effortless bars. He’s had the type of stratospheric growth this year that could easily lead to overexposure, but on KIRK, he proves that he knows the only way to beat that curse: Continue to out-rap everyone around him, and he’ll be just fine. [Clayton Purdom]