Vox's 7 Best Songs of February Reviewed By Me

In trying to keep up with the musical times I've decided to take a peak at the songs linked in a Vox.com article titled "The 7 best songs of February". I've only previously heard of two of these artists before, so most of this is entirely new to me. The fact that some of these artists already have as many as 6 albums and I've never heard of them is a bit shocking.

The article I liked has all these songs embedded, so if you want to listen along just head there.

Drake - "Energy (If You're Reading This It's Too Late)": Seriously, hip-hop artists are still opening songs by saying stuff like "Turn it all up" 12 years after Fisticuff? Anyway, Drake complains about his enemies trying to drain his energy and he says "niggas" a lot. Good news is this song is only 2 1/2 minutes longs. Usually rappers like to drag this shit out for nearly 5 minutes.

Sufjan Stevens - "No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross": Can't complain too much about a gentle acoustic guitar song. I can complain about the useless multi-track vocals. Makes Mr. Stevens already breathy voice sound really hollow and distant.

Hot Chip - "Huarache Lights": I've never heard of Hot Chip, but apparently this song is off their 6th studio album. And they have a fanbase. Anyway, it's weird for me not to mind a mostly electronic song, but I don't feel like the beat is canned. It kinda sounds like a real drummer recorded this part. And the bass line is clever and varying. I could do without all the vocoder and other digital junk that I guess is there to mask the song's lack of melody for the last 3 minutes. Despite my complaints, I kinda like "Huarache Lights". Not really enough to check out Hot Chips albums, but that's still more than I usually say about modern music.

Kendrick Lamar - "The Blacker the Berry": I was really hoping to hear a rap song that didn't include the word "nigga". I really just don't know. On the one hand I'm fine with black artists using whatever words they want, especially if it means reclaiming derogatory slang (to put it lightly). But I can't help feel that too many hip-hop artists are just being lazy with their lyrics at this point. Anyway, Mr. Lamar really wants me to know that he's black and he's got a big dick and he thinks I hate his people because of it. Or something... I always wind up missing the point of these songs because they talk too damn fast.

Makthaverskan - "Witness": There's so much echo on the vocals that I can't understand a damn word. Maybe she's not even speaking English. Makthaverskan shows a lot of technical ability- they sound like a really tight and powerful band. It's just been wasted on a 3-chord unvaried bit of nothing. It sounds more like an overlong coda for a much better song. If "Witness" had included a B section, or really anything other than a simple 3-chord descending progression, it might have been good.

Elle King - "America's Sweetheart": What a shame. Elle King does sound a bit like Amy Winehouse, but here she's singing pop-country. King uses more twang than I'd expect from modern teeny-pop princesses, but the song winds up sounding mostly like a Taylor Swift cover of "Cotton-Eyed Joe".

Unknown Mortal Orchestra - "Multi-Love": Such an over-digitized mess. I don't even know what to say about it. The drum track is just strange and I can't figure out why, somehow feeling like it's a half-beat ahead of the rest of the song. I really hate how sharp and tinny this song sounds as if the entire studio were lined with aluminum foil for the recording. OK, turns out I did know what to say about it.