Music
[Album Review] Dessa ‘Parts Of Speech’
I was introduced to Dessa only last year. Since then, her album Castor, The Twin has been an album that I constantly rotate. Her snappy delivery and brilliant wordplay constantly entrance me and the fact that the music was cleverly and, often times, beautifully written only makes things ever the sweeter. It’s because of this that I was so excited to get my hands on a copy of Parts Of Speech. But did it match my expectations? Find out down below.
Rich piano chords and arpeggiated guitar chords open the album on “The Man I Knew”. Each passage then adds either more instrumentation or a new style, making this a song that keeps the listener on their toes. Meanwhile, Dessa adds beautiful vocal harmonies and her fantastic lyrical prowess, starting the album by stating, “By the time that you told me/it was already plain that you changed/And your conscience was clear/and as white as a line of cocaine.” It is the type of opening song that most artists wish they could write, one that not only set the tone for the album to come but also met and exceeded my expectations.
The album continues with her current single, “Call Off Your Ghost”, which carries that simple lyrical honesty and poignancy that calls to mind Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used To Know”. “Warsaw” brings out of the fierceness of Dessa, yet it is mixed with a pain. “Skeleton Key” didn’t speak as much to me as other songs, the over usage of the line “I’ve got my skeleton key ultimately becoming less impactful and more, “She’s saying it again?”.
“Fighting Fish” is one of the upbeat tracks of the album, one that got my toes tapping and my head nodding along. “Beekeeper” opens as a waltz, lilting back and forth. It is one of the more beautiful tracks of the album.
It is clear that the production and scope were magnified greatly for Parts Of Speech, with experimentation lauded and musicality embraced. This isn’t a hip hop album built around beats, it is a hip hop album that takes full advantage of the intricacies and talents of Dessa. It is also an album that is mature, full of pain, regret, hope, love, loss, and life.
The Final Word: Each song on Parts Of Speech is a testament to amazing songwriting and Dessa’s voice punches, soars, cuts, and dives right through to the heart, squeezing until every last drop is affected.
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It’s a new day, and you’ve got new John Carpenter to listen to. John Carpenter, Daniel Davies and Cody Carpenter have released the new track He Walks By Night this morning, the second single off their upcoming album Lost Themes IV: Noir, out May 3 on Sacred Bones Records.
Lost Themes IV: Noir is the latest installment in a series that sees Carpenter releasing new music for John Carpenter movies that don’t actually exist. The first Lost Themes was released in 2015, followed by Lost Themes II in 2016 and Lost Themes III: Alive After Death in 2021.
Sacred Bones previews, “It’s been a decade since John Carpenter recorded the material that would become Lost Themes, his debut album of non-film music and the opening salvo in one of Hollywood’s great second acts. Those vibrant, synth-driven songs, made in collaboration with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, kickstarted a musical renaissance for the pioneering composer and director. With Lost Themes IV: Noir, they’ve struck gold again, this time mining the rich history of the film noir genre for inspiration.
“Since the first Lost Themes, John has referred to these compositions as “soundtracks for the movies in your mind.” On the fourth installment in the series, those movies are noirs. Like the film genre they were influenced by, what makes these songs “noirish” is sometimes slippery and hard to define, and not merely reducible to a collection of tropes. The scores for the great American noir pictures were largely orchestral, while the Carpenters and Davies work off a sturdy synth-and-guitar backbone.
“The trio’s free-flowing chemistry means Lost Themes IV: Noir runs like a well-oiled machine—the 1951 Jaguar XK120 Roadster from Kiss Me Deadly, perhaps, or the 1958 Plymouth Fury from John’s own Christine. It’s a chemistry that’s helped power one of the most productive stretches of John’s creative life, and Noir proves that it’s nowhere near done yielding brilliant results.”
You can pre-save Lost Themes IV: Noir right now! And listen to the new track below…
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