| Skid Row | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | November 13, 2015 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 56:51 | |||
| Label | Break World | |||
| Producer | James Ferraro | |||
| James Ferraro chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Singles from Skid Row | ||||
| ||||
Skid Row is astudio album by Americanelectronic musicianJames Ferraro, released on November 13, 2015 by Break World Records. Lyrically, it had previously existed as a series of poems before it turned into a set of lyrics for an album named after the crime-and-poverty-heavyLos Angeles areaSkid Row. It is the Los Angeles counterpart to Ferraro's previous studio effortNYC, Hell 3:00 AM (2013). Its sound palette includes elements offunk,news reports,new jack swing,film scores,smooth jazz and 1980srock andhip-hop. The album garnered generally positive reviews upon its release.
"I remember seeing theRodney King home video beating on TV. I remember adults being around T.V. talking about it. And I remember there being this sort of energy around it, that this was different to just watching a primetime sitcom or something. There was a little more tension; adults seemed a little more worked up. I remember the visuals too – I was at my grandma's house and there was this huge old wooden T.V. It was just the lexicon for a while. It was something people referenced pretty easily. That's the thing about L.A. – it's still referenced in the actual behaviour [of people]. You see the actual shell-shocked nature of what these things have done to L.A. It sheds a light on a certain character of the environment."
When James Ferraro was raised in the early 1990s, his mother lived inNew York City and his father inLos Angeles. While traveling back and forth to these homes every few years or less, he noticed the difference of trends and cultures that took place in the cities he went through, describing the experience as "like the internet before the internet had really evolved."[2]Skid Row is a follow-up and the Los Angeles equivalent to Ferraro's previous LPNYC, Hell 3:00 AM (2013),[2][3] aHippos in Tanks release that was about the unwholesome part of New York City Ferraro saw that was unknown to most of the world and "a surreal psychological sculpture of American decay and confusion" as Ferraro described.[4][5]
One time, when visiting theUniversity of Southern California to meet a friend, Ferraro was authorized to use thevirtual reality therapy software Bravemind, which is normally used by war veterans to re-experience traumatic war events in order to relieve severe symptoms ofpost-traumatic stress disorder.[2] He described the virtual area he viewed as "lifeless and really void," and it inspired him to create the three-trackextended playWar (2015) shortly after using the software, around the same time he began writingSkid Row.[2] The experience with Bravemind painted the mood of the album that Ferraro conceived, saying that his Los Angeles experiences felt like ahyperreal war zone or a "psychic battlefield".[2][3]Skid Row is about the city's relation to how the media dramatizes information about topics like the1992 Los Angeles riots and the 1994O. J. Simpson trial.[1] Some parts of Los Angeles he saw are used on the record as metaphors, such as burningToyota Prius cars, showcasing howconsumerism have caused people to ruin climate.[1] The album is interlaced with samples fromonline shopping commercials, a take on the culture ofSilicon Valley according toGod Is in the TV.[6]
In the tradition of making most of Ferraro's records where he imagined an album as being a stage play, film or opera,[2] what would later be an album named after the crime-and-poverty-heavy Los Angeles area ofSkid Row[3] began as a series of poems named afterThe Terminator (1984), a film set in Los Angeles.[2] The filmsColors (1988) andBoyz n the Hood (1991) were influences throughout the whole writing process when he the turned the poems into album lyrics and changed the name toSkid Row. As Ferraro said, "I kind of see it as if, you know when you go to a movie house, there'sColors andBoyz n the Hood, and then there'sSkid Row, this weird B-movie from the time that nobody really saw."[2]Skid Row was the second record in Ferraro's career where he produced in an actual studio.[A] Ferraro said in an interview that "it's cool to be in an actual space that is just dedicated to you crafting this work. You really hone in [sic] on certain things and spend more time being focused."[2] One difference of makingSkid Row from his previous releases is that the recording was done first before mixing instead of all at one time.[2]
Skid Row utilizes influences and sound palettes fromLos Angeles' music culture, different fromNYC, Hell 3:00 AM in the style of "cold and brittle"contemporary R&B.[7] The online magazineGod Is in the TV categorized the LP as avaporwave album due to its use ofnews snippets overlaid on top of each other, samples oflounge music andsmooth jazz, slow track tempos, and 1980srock andhip-hop samples.[6] APitchfork reviewer also noticed morepop hooks inSkid Row than onNYC, Hell 3:00 AM, which suggests that "he might be starting to come to terms with his innate pop talents, or it could just be a new tactic of dispensing hints of traditional pop pleasures into the gloom to keep his audience off balance."[7]
Ferraro's lead singing onSkid Row serve as aninternal monologue about the feeling of isolation while in a car, a vehicle that is a big part of the overall lifestyle of Los Angeles.[1]God is in the TV described his voice on the album as a "slowed-downMaxi Jazz" with occasional influences ofGeorge Michael on tracks like "Sentinel Beast."[6] Sonic aspects of the album are arranged to represent conflict associated with the city, and cinematic strings are played to enhance the movie-like feeling of the album.[1]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| God is in the TV |   [6] |
| Pitchfork | 6.6/10[7] |
| Tiny Mix Tapes |   [8] |
On September 24, 2015,Vice Media's electronic music publicationTHUMP premieredSkid Row's title track, and announced that the album would be released on November 13, 2015 through Break World Records.[3] On November 15,Stereogum premiered the official video for “Thrash & Escalate," which Ferraro directed with Elsa Henderson. The video consists of white silhouettes of angels laid on erratically arranged footage of smog, factories and dark streets.[9]
Reviews ofSkid Row were generally positive. APitchfork critic described the album as "solidly built cohesive" and "a worthy addition to the long line of punk albums about Los Angeles that render it as a city built on fantasy with a nihilistic streak that runs to its core."[7] A review published inGod Is in the TV spotlighted Ferraro's knowledge of Los Angeles which was unusual for a person who usually lives in New York, and described its "metallic"chopped and screwed style as "idiosyncratic".[6] ATiny Mix Tapes review was put under the site's "EUREKA!" column, a section for albums "so incredible we just can't help but exclaim EUREKA!"[8] The review described the album as "a sad, chaotic, asymmetrical report, but it's honest."[8]Skid Row landed at number three on the publication's list of best albums of 2015.[10]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Burning Prius (for the World)" | 1:34 |
| 2. | "White Bronco" | 4:32 |
| 3. | "Pollution" | 3:48 |
| 4. | "Street Freaks" | 4:28 |
| 5. | "Million Dollar Man" | 1:14 |
| 6. | "Thrash & Escalate" | 3:14 |
| 7. | "Skid Row" | 4:32 |
| 8. | "To Live and Die in La" | 8:33 |
| 9. | "Rhinestones" | 5:32 |
| 10. | "Doctor Hollywood" | 6:54 |
| 11. | "1992" | 4:18 |
| 12. | "Sentinel Beast" | 4:54 |
| 13. | "At the Beach" | 3:18 |
| Total length: | 56:51 | |
| Region | Date | Format(s) | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| Worldwide | November 13, 2015 | Break World |
