Everything Is Love Jay-Z

Beyoncé and Jay-Z released what they're calling the third installment of a trilogy of albums. Everything Is Love, which they released as The Carters, is a joint work in which they reflect on art, black excellence, personal drama and luxury. It follows Beyoncé's Lemonade (2016) and Jay-Z's 4:44 (2017). Greg thinks there are good moments on Everything Is Love, like Beyoncé's singing on "FRIENDS" and Jay-Z owning up to his transgressions. However, he believes this record is merely a PR effort to get people to buy tickets to their concert, and this album doesn't say nearly as much as the previous ones. He gives it a Trash It. Jim agrees in many respects. He loved Lemonade because Beyoncé sung honestly and beautifully about her personal issues as well as bigger picture themes like how black women are treated in society and the Black Lives Matter movement. He wishes there was more substance on this record, and thinks Jay-Z hasn't been at the height of his rap game since the early 2000s. Jim gives the album a Trash It.

Wide Awake! Parquet Courts

Indie rock band Parquet Courts is back with Wide Awake!, their first album since 2014. Jim thinks they are the perfect slacker band, and their lyrics come equipped with plenty of socialist rhetoric. He adds that "They've got a formula, and they work it, and it's delightful every time."

Greg, agrees that they have a solid punk rock formula; however, he thinks that this record does show growth, particularly in their work with producer Brian Burton, also known as Danger Mouse. Songs like Wide Awake bring in funky "danceable elements"; and he was also surprised to find "tenderness" on tracks like Back To Earth. Both Jim and Greg give Wide Awake! a Buy It.

Hell-On Neko Case

Neko Case brings us a new Americana/alt-country exploration of Mother Nature's edgy side with Hell-On, her seventh solo album. Greg notes that though other people collaborate with her (including Bjorn Yttling of Peter Bjorn & John, who served as co-producer on six tracks), she is the writer of these songs, he is the main instrumentalist on her record, and she is a producer. "This is her baby," he asserts, "You can bring on anybody, and it's still going to sound like a Neko Case record because of her massive role in how it sounds." The album provides what Jim thinks is one of her best lyrics ever on My Uncle’s Navy, about a relative that used to mutilate animals. Jim wonders if "that's what sent Neko down this strange nature path." However, Jim says that ultimately, this is "merely a very good Neko Case record." Jim and Greg give the album a Double Buy It.