Album Reviews by Bradley Christensen
James Barrett – Twenty
Record Label: Self-released
Release Date: May 26 2017
If there’s one thing that I want to achieve with my reviews, it’s that I want to talk about unknown, indie, or unsigned artists that you otherwise wouldn’t have heard about, especially if you listen to “mainstream” music. I’m not trying to say that I’m a hipster, and that I only listen to obscure stuff, but I like to bring that kind of stuff to peoples’ attention, either way. I say that, too, because there’s this reviewer on YouTube that’s getting a lot of traction, but he refuses to review albums from bands / artists that aren’t very well known, because those are some of his “least-performing” reviews, as he put it, and that’s awfully disgusting to me, because you’d think that you’d want to expose your viewers to exciting, new, and unknown bands. It shouldn’t be a shock that those videos won’t do as well as the ones where he talks about the most mainstream, popular, and accessible bands (to get some perspective, this guy’s favorite band is Green Day, even though no one has cared about Green Day since 2004), because those aren’t huge bands, but don’t get discouraged over it. Views and clicks shouldn’t be the reason why you’re making videos, and if that’s the reason why you’re doing it, you should stop immediately, frankly. That’s such a disgusting thing to say, and recently I noticed that the guy had the nerve to ask for an advanced copy of an album on Twitter, even though he’s known for downloading illegal leaks of albums. If a label found that out, they wouldn’t want to do business with the guy. Moving on, though, I love talking about unknown bands, because I want people to be more acquainted with smaller acts that need some recognition. Even if that act is unfamiliar to me, I’ll give them a chance.
That’s what happened with PA singer-songwriter James Barrett. I was turned on to his music through a friend of mine (you might know him as Staten, actually, but I really love his music), because he tagged me a status from Barrett, asking people if they would be interested in reviewing his new EP, or if they knew anyone that would be interested. I was definitely interested, even though I had never heard of his stuff before, but I love listening to new music. Unfortunately, I’ve been sick almost all week (well, for a few days, but I’ve just been trying to get my energy back for the last couple days, anyway), so I haven’t had the chance to listen to his upcoming EP, Twenty. I also picked up his other couple of EPs on his Bandcamp page, so I’ll be listening to those soon enough, but I wanted to spend some time with this one. I was able to listen to it a few weeks in advance, like I said, but I’ve been listening to the EP for the last few days now, so how is it? Well, I’m kind of conflicted on this record. I like this album, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t quite love it, either. I know why, though, and it’s because I don’t really listen to this kind of music. The best way to describe this 24-minute EP is that it’s acoustic, singer-songwriter, and folk music. Yeah, that’s not my go-to genre of choice, but I can admit when a record is done well. This album is done quite well. Barrett’s voice is very nice, the lyrics are interesting, and the overall sound is good, too. While I can admit that this album is done well, it’s just not something that I find myself coming back to that often, so I’m not exactly the right person to be listening to this. I mean, I don’t mind listening to it, and every time I’ve played it, I’ve liked it, but I haven’t been foaming at the mouth over this record (if that’s the case, I should go see a doctor pronto).
That’s the thing about certain types of music, though. I don’t mind listening to singer-songwriter / acoustic stuff, but I don’t really care about a lot of it. You need to be really, really awesome for me to care, and to be fair, Barrett is a good artist. Like I said, I like everything about this EP. There’s nothing inherently wrong with it, but I’ll admit that I’m not partial to this type of music, so I’m not the right demographic here. In other words, take my opinion with a grain of salt, because I’m not the right person that should be listening to this record. What I will say, however, is that I don’t mind listening to this kind of music from time to time. Barrett’s lyrics are very emotional, heartfelt, and compelling, and his voice is very good, like I said, so it’s not like I don’t want to listen to this at all. The instrumentation, unfortunately, doesn’t do a lot for me, which is the main reason why I don’t listen to this kind of music. The instrumentation is almost always too boring, lackluster, or too bare bones for me, per se, but I have to give credit where it’s due, because if you’re a fan of this kind of music, you’ll enjoy this. You’ll most likely enjoy this a lot more than I do, too, but I can’t say this sucks. Just because I might not be the target audience for something, or I’m not too crazy about a genre, doesn’t mean that it’s automatically terrible, and I’ll tell you to skip this, because you shouldn’t. This won’t change your mind if you’re like me, and you’re just not into this kind of stuff all the time, but if you enjoy singer-songwriter, emo, acoustic, and folksy music, give this a listen. You definitely won’t regret it. I don’t regret checking this out, because it’s always a pleasure to listen to unknown, indie, or unsigned artists that need people to spread the word about them.
The Massachusetts State Police are now responsible for protecting the residents of a small town in Massachusetts after its entire four-member police department resigned on Monday, citing unsafe work conditions.
The news of Rapone's discharge came via the announcement that he would be one of the speakers at the Socialism 2018 conference in Chicago in July. Below is the bio provided by the organization describing Rapone as having "separated from the Army in June 2018 with an Other Than Honorable discharge".
The clash between a Black Lives Matter group and a pro-Trump rally in D.C. over the weekend went a direction that no one on either side saw coming.
Hank Newsome, leader of Black Lives Matter New York, took the stage, while another organizer announced on the mic that he was going to give the protest group a chance to give their message.
"It's about freedom of speech. It’s about celebration," said the Trump rally organizer. "So what we are gonna do is not something you’re used to, and we’re going to give you two minutes of our platform to put your message out. Now, whether [the crowd disagrees or agrees] with your message is irrelevant — it’s the fact that you have the right to have the message."
This is so refreshing to see. An actual dialogue of some kind!
"You are so right, my brother, you are so right. All lives matter, right?" he said. "But when a black life is lost, we get no justice. That is why we say black lives matter. If we really want America great, we do it together."
The pro-Trump crowd loudly applauded in response and broke out into a chant: "USA! USA!"
