CEILING STARSCeiling Stars(self-released)
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You’d never mistake GemStones for anything but a Chicago MC—on this mix tape, released by Lupe Fiasco’s label, he jacks beats from Kanye, trades raps with Lupe, and occasionally borrows Twista’s rapid-fire cadences. But between the frequency with which he swears to tell “the whole truth and nothing but the truth” and the number of times he claims to be carrying on Biggie’s legacy, it’s apparent that he also takes inspiration from the east coast, specifically a certain former Def Jam president. And occasionally he comes close to justifying a comparison to Jay-Z, especially with his cathartic performance on “Bury Me a Gem”—he makes the beat from Young Jeezy’s “Bury Me a G” his personal property.
JOAN OF ARCBoo! Human(Polyvinyl)
There’s an elegiac mood hanging over this dark, rootsy album that makes nearly every song sound like the perfect credits music for a movie where two lovers have to part at the end. That’s fitting, considering that Before the Guns is Palliard’s farewell to the world—the album-release show on June 21 was also the band’s last performance. The particular kind of sadness it evokes is the type best expressed by setting up a coolly muscular blues progression and then launching a ferocious guitar solo over the top—like one of those Neil Young joints where he plays like he’s wrestling a snake. Palliard may be delivering their own eulogy, but at least you can lift your lighter to it.
