KAYTRANADA - Bubba



This being the final year of the decade it seems fitting
we’ve seen albums released from some of the defining acts of last ten years.
Kanye West, whose Yeezus and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy are
each shew in’s for most top ten lists, dropped Jesus is King, the gospel-infused statement-album that will either
set the pace for what we’re going to expect from him in the 2020s or prove just
one more example of the years countless contradictions. Tyler, the Creator and
Angel Olsen both delivered their best albums to date in discographies entirely defined
by the 10s, and KAYTRANADA waited until the final moments of the decade to
reaffirm his role as a definitively consistent producer. Thanks to him, going
into 2020, we have at least one thing to look forward to.
KAYTRANDA is the project of Haitian-born, Canadian-raised
DJ, Louis Celestin. A prolific worker,
Celestin began producing music at 15, steadily releasing mixtapes starting in
2010 and building enough word of mouth through his various remixes that he
would eventually get signed to XL Recordings with which he would release his
first proper full length, 2016’s powerhouse 99.9%.
That album, like his newest, featured a very similar cast of backing musicians
and contributors but was more indebted to the KAYTRANADA moniker, and
specifically his unique blend of production quirks. On 99.9%, Celestin was willing to incorporate the seemingly disparate
trap beats and Hip-House-style R&B that had influenced him and self-assured
enough to place artists like Vic Mensa and BADBADNOTGOOD next to each other
without raising an eye. That same kaleidoscopic nature for sound design and the
freewheeling confidence luckily has stayed with Celestin over the last few years
and on this year’s Bubba he makes the
case that backing up those features is really where he finds his best footing.
At the end of 2016, 99%
ended up going on to win the 2016 Polaris Music Prize. It proved a critical
success and helped lead to collaborations with Chance the Rapper, Kelela and
Mick Jenkins in the years that followed. When it came time to head back in to
the studio to its follow-up Bubba,
Celestin decided he wanted to acknowledge the strengths of what made his debut
work while attempting to make something different. The result is another
feature-based outing but with a different cast of musicians backing him up.
Although we do hear from the familiar face of new RCA label mate Goldlink, the
strongest tracks here offer some of the more surprising features. Kali Uchis
steals the show with lead single “10%”, an effortless showcase of the way she
can command a song, and the strength of the Celestin’s more dance-centric
beats. Similarly, Mick Jenkins delivers a typically strong verse on his
contribution “Gray Area” and Tinashe provides sultry vocals that carry all over
“The Worst of Me”. The biggest name here by far is Pharrell Williams, who
delivers a bubbly and incessantly fun take on the final cut here “Midsection”.
A shimmering would-be song of the summer that leaves the listener on a high
note, its one captivating and buoyant, and in stark contrast to the tracks that
come before it.
Even on Bubba’s
weakest tracks, Celestin finds something to keep the listener interested;
Estelle’s sweet and catchy vocals on “Oh No” help to elevate a synthy
instrumental and a chorus that otherwise wouldn’t go very far. “Need It” has a
pretty ineffective contribution from Masego, but Celestin, stubbornly gives him
one of his stronger instrumentals. And even “Go DJ” although a bit repetitive
has an ear worm that’s hard to ignore and a great feature from SiR. Although
not insignificant, these faults add up less to a failure than to the nature of
an album with as many creatives working at the same time, without the risk, the
best moments here would be out of reach.
Throughout
Bubba, Celestin manages to carry a
lofty run time - just over 50 minutes, over the course of 17 songs - without
letting the mood come down. He succeeds and effectively cements himself among
the leading producers of his generation, someone who seems at the precipice of
a Top 40 collaboration or generational zeitgeist. The album itself plays as a
follow-up and a self-referential nod to 99%
and in the best way possible, Celestin links his past to the present and avoids
the conventional reinvention. Instead, after a long gestation period and
dealing with the ramifications of coming out of the closet, Celestin opted to
give his fans exactly what they expected whilst acknowledging the world he
lives in now and the inherent differences therein.
~8.0
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