In an age when so much art is introspective Keyna Wilkins dares to look outwards, and not just to other people or Mother Nature, but to the wider cosmos. Apparently, Autumn in June's gang-banging mates have come around to his music. The guitar synths and thumping percussion of I Guess It's Cool to Be Lonely could be Depeche Mode at their dark pop heights. The by turns bright and sinister treatments mean this collection never becomes maudlin. Witness the strange, honking riff of HEROin Kidz XX, matched to sweetly sung lyrics such as "In this bag of heroin / I'm not alone, I have a loyal friend" or the fog bank synthesisers driving the creeping menace of "Jupiter Six". These are sombre songs matched to fizzy, popping synth beats. The strange darkness of that career progression is obvious on Magenta, a deliriously impressive debut album.
But the former part-time drug dealer got here somewhat by accident, peddling pills at EDM festivals until he himself became a fan of the music. With such a 90-degree career turn it would be easy to shorthand singer-producer Autumn in June with the cult Mexican-American Morrissey fan clubs that have emerged from a similar area. KISH LALĪ South Central Los Angeles Latino 20-something turns away from gang-banging rap music to make gliding euro synth-pop. Having achieved chart-topping success only when carried by his peers, the album creates more questions about French Montana's ability as a musician than it answers. Jungle Rules is a frantic jumble of dancehall, trap and pop and it's a pleasant enough listen, but that's as far as it goes. Despite the plea of the single, the rest of the album is forgettable, with the only standouts being A Lie with The Weeknd and Max B Black Out with Young Thug and Migo Montana featuring Quavo on all of which French Montana is upstaged. Swae Lee, of hip-hop duo Rae Sremmurd, outshines the rapper on lead single Unforgettable – French's verses feel like nothing more than an afterthought. What the record does best is highlight the talents of the artists he features. The Bronx rapper's sophomore album is a lacklustre showcase of his capabilities. TIM BYRONįrench Montana has all the makings of a superstar he has dated a Kardashian, owns a string of multimillion-dollar properties and was given a Maserati by Akon, but musically something is amiss. Instead, it's on the cooler tracks, such as Bacharach's What the World Needs Now Is Love – that the collaborators find some of their early 1970s magic.
Don't go in to this one thinking, man, it's a hot one: the more upbeat funk-rock tracks here feel leaden. Ronald Isley's voice still has much of its old power and finesse but Santana has a tendency towards noodling without coming up with the kind of distinctive lick that characterises his big hits.
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Indeed, Power of Peace is exactly what you'd expect: a covers album full of '60s/'70s hippie soul tracks such as Gypsy Woman and Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology). With that shared history, Ronald Isley's versatile soul vocals interacting with Santana's guitar should work a treat. Both acts, too, had genuine hits around the turn of the millennium, collaborating with younger artists such as Rob Thomas, in Santana's case, or R. The Isley Brothers and Santana both made waves in the early 1970s with their funked-up hippie covers see the Isleys' revelatory version of Summer Breeze or Santana's Black Magic Woman. Carlos Santana has combined with soul legends the Isley Brothers for an album of covers.