Short and Quick - July 2025
Welcome back for the July edition of Short and Quick. As you probably (didn't) notice, there was no regular article this month. That's because I'm working on a slightly longer piece that will hopefully be published sometime in August. But now, onto the music I'll be talking about this month. The first record i'll be talking about is a sort of appendix to last month's summer special, Parannoul's To See the Next Part of the Dream, a record I strongly associate with summer. I will also say a few things about the new Clipse album, which I liked more than I expected. Not because I don't like their previous music, but because I had never heard of Clipse before. I think that's excusable, considering that I was 11 when their last record came out and was only vaguely familiar with Pusha T. Last but not least I will talk about Doves by Armand Hammer, one of my favorite songs of all time. Enjoy !
I will admit that I don't speak any Korean, so I have no idea if my interpretation or rather feelings about this record have anything to do with it's actual lyrical themes. But for me this has always been a record about the feelings of becoming an adult, or rather, the transitional stage from teenager to young adult. This association comes not only from the title, which feels like it describes some transition, but also from the album cover. I've associated the sky with possibilities, with that part of your late teens where you're not nostalgic for being a teenager, but where you are still excited to see where this whole thing is going to take you. Perhaps this is a natural association, perhaps it's because I listened to way too much In the Aeroplane Over the Sea when I was 19. In any case, this record not only capture that excitement but also the emotional turmoil and melancholy of those times, with songs like I Can Feel my Heart Touching You. Overall it feels just like it's cover, and those times, expansive, floaty, and mesmerizing.
Clipse - Let God Sort Them Out
Gangsta Rap
I was made aware of this new Clipse record through twitter. Even though I was only vaguely familiar with Pusha T, the hype surrounding the single So Be It made me listen to it. It immediately entered my heavy rotation, as much as it could considering there was no official streaming release due to a sample clearance issue. Well now that the full album is out, what can I say ? Basically, since it's release, it's been about 80 % of what I've been listening to. The record starts on a rather somber note with The Birds Don't Sing, a song in which Pusha and Malice talk about the passing of their parents. The rest of the album is filled with some of the most fun and infectious rap performances of the year. Some highlights for me include Chains & Whips which is has a great grimy beat and three great verses from Malice, Pusha and Kendrick. P.O.V., which has an amazing verse by Tyler, The Creator and M.T.B.T.T.F., which is just over two minutes long but contains two of the best verses on the record. If you're looking for a rap record that just full of quotables, great lines and well-crafted beats you should give Let God Sort Them Out a try.
Doves by Armand Hammer is a song that would probably deserve an entire article written about it. It's a one of a kind, and, in my opinion the best thing Billie Woods and Elucid have ever created, whether you consider their solo work or their releases as Armand Hammer. It takes the slow pensive approach of much of their work to it's logical conclusion with a nine minute drone/ambient piece. It's one of those songs that I get chills even thinking about it and even after so many listens it still has not lost any of it's power. The first half of the song is consists mostly of soft ambiance and singing by Benjamin Booker. He opens the song with a reflection on time and aging: "Seasons drain / Time, it breaks out of me / Call it age / Call it time / I was only a dove / Only in love / Pardon me / People are spilling out / Rush ahead / I keep holding out". Once he was innocently in love, like a dove, but now he's older and his lover and other people have moved on, spilled out. He is still holding out while they have rushed ahead and left him behind. Billie Woods further reflects on loss and death in the following verse with the lines like "It's letters I never sent / Jumbles of yesterday's packed on pages like storage spaces and basements / They called like "Come on, now he doesn't have long to live" (You should probably hurry) / I dress slowly / Came back that night and took my baby out the crib so I can hold him / I know it can slip away away, yo, You can loose it all in a moment". Elucid then brings the song full circle, returning to the topic of perception: "Is it me / Daddy, you're so silly". While he ponders his own mortality, his child remains innocent, like a dove.
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