Bubba (album)
Bubba is the second studio album by Canadian electronic music producer Kaytranada, released by RCA Records on December 13, 2019. The album's release was preceded by the release of the single "10%" which featured singer Kali Uchis, which was released on December 9, 2019. In the lead-up to the album release, Igloofest, a winter music festival, announced Kaytranada as a surprise guest. Just after the album release, Kaytranada announced a one-day pop-up shop and DJ set in Montreal.
Kaytranada's previous album, 99.9%, was listed by Pitchfork as a dance record, which set the expectation for his new album, Bubba. Bubba follows the current trend of short songs with a larger list of songs on the album.
Recording
In an interview with GQ, Kaytranada said that recording Bubba was a very different process to his previous album. Previously, songs would be edited on his laptop or recorded remotely and sent to collaborating artists for them to listen to and add their own ideas or parts. With Bubba, recordings took place mainly in-studio with both the producer and the artist in person.The technical aspect of creating sounds and recording have also changed since the previous album, 99.9% writes Kinfolk magazine. The artist had to adapt from recording and creating sounds on his laptop in his bedroom to creating chemistry and personal relationship with artists.
In an interview with GQ Kaytranada revealed that some of the artists on the previous album 99.9% turned down Kaytranada, when they were asked to make an appearance on Bubba. As a result of the change in imagined artists, the whole album headed in a slightly different direction than what he had originally intended. The album began to focus on the "Kaytranada sound", evolving his unique style of music with an emphasis on developing sounds that would appeal to his audience he stated. The "Kaytranada sound" refers to a unique blend of neo-soul, hip-hop, and other varying genres in a dance style that the artist describes as "funky".
Musical style
The Haitian-born Canadian producer Kaytranada expands on the house and techno genres to create modern Disco tracks using what Billboard describes as an "inventive, funk-meets electronica sound". Kaytranada’s music has its own unique sound which National Public Radio notes, creates the sense that “the night has come and gone”.Bubba does not stick strictly to any one genre, Reviewer Miguel Perez from NPR identifies that the album morphs between Afrobeat, house, funk, R&B, disco and hip hop. These are ubiquitous styles found in the Nigerian popular genre from where Afrobeat gains its heritage. Bubba is stated by NPR to rely heavily on its Afrobeat elements to give the listener music they can feel. This is an effect that is resultant from the throbbing bass and soul in the production. In a Pitchfork review, this was said to create an effect which has been described by Jonah Bromwich as “pushing the audience’s boundaries away from what they are comfortable with”.
Atwood Magazine noticed that while Kaytranada’s style of music is categorised as Electronica, Kaytranada deviates from the usual musical audience that Electronica attracts, namely musical festival goers. Instead, Kaytranada focuses on diversity and blending together different genres to give listeners a variety of tracks on the album which NPR stated, gives the album some versatility.
The term Afrobeat refers to a musical genre invented by artist Fela Anikulapo Kuti in the 60s. In an article from Rivers State University, Afrobeat was described as a musical style developed in Nigeria and is associated with social change and evolution. The Nation writes that the thematic concepts of the album include hiding, love and culture and summarises the album as musically disconnected. This similarity between the background to the Afrobeat genre and the themes of the album supports a conceptual link between “Bubba” and Afrobeat which was identified by Kinfolk magazine and NPR.
Crack magazine takes the perspective that Kaytranada’s use of backbeats and synthesisers show the evolution of R&B over time and pay homage to this evolution throughout the album. Mixtures of Club, love song, Afrobeat, 80’s, Hip-Hop and other genres create a new R&B sound that is unique to himself. This unique appeal is what the album relies on to find its own identity as stated in an album review by Kinfolk magazine.
The album is unique for the reason that it appeals to audiences that, like Kaytranada, have a hard time fitting in in society as he stated in an interview with The FADER. As a result, the album is an extension of Kaytranada’s own personality to some extent. The “Kaytranda sound”, a unique blend of genres is an example of the concept put forward by Rentfrow et al. identifying a link between an audience’s social context and environment and the music they listen to. This is said to be the result of music’s role in social bonding, and its use as a vehicle for historical knowledge as identified by Levitin in his study into the effect of music on the brain. Kaytranada revealed the album was influenced by the events in his own life between the release of his previous album 99.9% and Bubba; including opening up about his sexuality, coming to terms with his newfound fame and dealing with the anxiety and stress that came with this. “Bubba” focuses on this theme of loneliness and being an outcast, which is stated by Kinfolk to be what appeals most to his audience.
The sub-genre of neo-soul heavily influenced Kaytranada’s musical style on this album. He focused on an up-tempo, soulful R&B feel to the album that people could dance to in clubs as he told Rolling Stone Magazine. This contributes to Kaytranada’s psychedelic vision which is synthesised into song.
“Culture” – Stephen Bijan from The Nation identifies this as a series of scattered scenes, depicting a lover, lost in their search for love.
“Taste” – Pitchfork summarises this song as a snapping beat complicated by an uncooperative bass. The Nation similarly states that the repetitive lyrics create a trance-like effect.
“10%” – 3 different layers of beats are identified by Pitchfork, where singer Kali Uchis appears as a lyrical accompaniment. Kali Uchis’ vocals are layered over a kickdrum, bass line and synthesiser chords which Rolling Stone reviews as creating an overall laid-back effect.
“Midsection” – The Nation critiques this song as being disconnected both musically and thematically from rest of the album. This track was disappointing for many reviewers, Music OMH described the hook of the song as disconnected and poorly incorporated into the track. This was disappointing to many listeners because the pairing of two well-known producers promised more.
“Scared to Death” – The only instrumental on the album which uses strobing synthesisers layered over a bassline. Pitchfork’s review states that the gradual build and melodic repetition gives the song a rotating cycle.
“Puff Lah” – In a review by Crack magazine, this song was characterised as a lite-funk exercise.
“The Worst in Me” – The “woozy” feel of the synthesisers and the pulsing bass pay tribute to Kaytranada’s R&B influence. A review form Time magazine states that Tinashe’s vocals echo and weave through this club dance track, alternating between leading the melody and melting into the rest of the production, adding another layer to the track.
“Vex Oh” – Genius notes that Kaytranada may be paying homage to the Afro-beat Genre with this track. In a review from The Nation, fast-paced basslines and lyrical melodies are said to be managed with precision and this song showcases this.
Lyrics and Themes
On an interview with NPR, Kaytranada stated that his vision for the album is that it be used as a dance album. Further supporting this, Pitchfork critiques that the tracks on this album are designed to keep the listener in a constant state of motion, oblivious to the events happening around them. This is a result of Kaytranada’s focus on disco and creating a sound that could be played in clubs. In an interview with NPR, Kaytranda tells us that his album has a last call feel to the story he tells with it, which NPR interprets as using songs to set an end of the night mood.A review from The Nation writes that the album tries to express the thematic concepts of love, culture, need, and hiding behind masks. Individual songs and artists don’t thematically blend across one another or create a chronology of events, and instead songs transition musically rather than thematically. Further to this point, Stephen Bijan from The Nation states that the songs “What you Need” and “Vex Oh” give disconnected, almost opposing views on issues such as love.
The album plays at creating a psychedelic feel to the songs, with repetitive lyrics and instrumentals that create a trance-like effect. A review from The Nation states that this repetition has a hypnotising effect which is found in most club songs.
Promotion
In the first year of its release, Bubba topped Billboards Dance /Electronic Albums Chart. Kaytranada spoke out about his experience continuing producing for RCA records despite his experiences with depression from touring to promote his previous album.The album was preceded by the single “10%” which was perceived in a review by Forbes, to give audiences a preview of the album to come. This was followed by Kaytranada touring in Australia in January of 2020 as part of the FOMO festival line-up in Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. More tour dates include the III Points Festival in Miami, Florida in May of 2020 and concerts at the REBEL Entertainment complex in Toronto, Ontario.
Reception
Bubba received critical acclaim upon its release. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized score out of 100 to all reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 82, based on 7 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Jonah Bromwich from Pitchfork compared the album to 99.9%, describing it as "another set of coherent, well-sequenced set of tracks without any major drop-offs, all the more impressive as the album runs more than 50 minutes", and writing that Kaytranada "blesses this woeful decade with one last great dance record." Max Freedman from Paste commented on the queer sound of the album, noting that "it's hard not to read some of its traits as directly stemming from just how much happens in the first three years after someone comes out."Kaytranada's previous album 99.9%, was called a dance record by Pitchfork, which was attributed to the collaboration between drums and synthesisers. Pitchfork writes that this previous album set the expectation for his new album, Bubba.
NMEs review summarises the album as being aimed more at giving Kaytranada’s existing fans a great album in his own style, rather than producing hit tracks focused on appealing to a new fan base and expanding his own fanbase.
This has contributed to criticism that the album has received. Paste magazine states that “Bubba” does not deviate much from the formula established by “99.9%”, which deducts from the impact the album has. Clash magazine also critiques the album, noting that brevity and unevenness make the album choppy and creates rough transitions.
The effect of this showcase of genres and versatility is that this album does not suit the usual musical festival nature of the Electronica genre as pointed out by Atwood Magazine’s review of the album. Instead the album focuses on developing music in a unique, Kaytranada style. An article review by The Concordian draws a link between “99.9%” and “Bubba” in terms of style and critiques that improvement could be made with bolder and more daring deviation from Kaytranada’s previous development styles.
Impact
writes that in the 80’s, club DJs needed to constantly satisfy a dynamic crowd with dynamic music. The innovations that were developed during this period are relied upon by artists today. Tracks such as “What You Need” from the album demonstrate the relevance of producers’ ability to meet the ever-changing needs of the crowd.In a Rolling Stone review of “Bubba”, the 80’s track chopping techniques used in the album allow Kaytranada to express his own personal journey over the last four years. Kinfolk writes that the disco theme appeals to alternative and individual crowds, to which Kaytranada feels a sense of belonging, whilst the R&B and House elements of his music incorporate a much broader crowd. This achieves an overall sense of giving comfort to outsiders of a community – through music as interpreted by NPR.
The blend between R&B and Afrobeat production on the album develops tracks into music that isn’t just heard but is also felt as NPR states. NPR also writes that listening to the album becomes a physical experience of feeling the thumping beat and hearing the melodic accompaniment.
Alternatively, some reviewers feel that elements of the album do not work together and at times production elements can get in the way of each other as a review by Keymag states. In this review, Keymag reviews the album as “stifled with moments of utter inertia”. Keymag similarly lends some criticism to “Midsection” and the incorporation of Pharell Williams’ falsetto into the track.
Track listing
Credits adapted from Apple Music and Tidal.Personnel
Credits adapted from Tidal.- Kaytranada – production
- Colin Leonard – mastering engineering
Kaytranada perceives vocals and lyrics as another instrument rather than as a vehicle for meaning. His collaboration with a range of artists and the way he uses their voices demonstrates that he values the sounds and texture that vocals add to songs rather than the meaning that lyrics can convey. On Bubba, he frequently uses the voices of his collaborators to reference the sounds of the early 2000s.
Kaytranada stated in an interview with Pitchfork that he wanted the audience to be able to feel the sense of collaboration and chemistry between himself and the individual artists which change on each track.