A number of new albums have gone into my listening rotation over the last week:<\/p>\n
The biggest surprise among these albums has been The Weeknd, which is what I would describe as dark R&B. It is dark in a similar way to Lana Del Rey,\u00a0eschewing the glossy, over-produced sheen of mainstream music in this genre and replacing it with an underground electronic music crossover vibe.\u00a0Most of the songs are about sex, drugs, and partying, tinged with bitterness and heartbreak. Sonically, the production is slick and is reminiscent of this\u00a0collaboration between Usher and Diplo<\/a>\u00a0a few years ago. In 2015 it feels like R&B is headed in an entirely new direction.<\/p>\n One of the most anticipated recent album releases is Meow the Jewels, a remix album of songs from 2014’s Run the Jewels 2<\/em>, one of the most critically-acclaimed rap albums of the last few years. The concept behind the remix album is to bring a collection of excellent producers (like Just Blaze<\/em> and The Alchemist<\/em>) together to remix the RTJ2 using cat sounds. Here’s one song from that album, accompanied by an off-the-wall music video:<\/p>\n