Album of the Week: Paris Texas - MID AIR | 2023 Week 29

After a brief hiatus and reemerging on the scene in 2021, the Californian experimental hip hop duo of Louie Pastel and Felix AKA Paris Texas have gone from strength to strength, turning heads with their intense and energetic fusion of post-punk and alt-rock inflected hip hop, where distorted guitars and tight rhythm sections are as common as booming 808s and trap beats.

Building on what we heard with their 2021 eight song collection Boy Anonymous, MID AIR is an epic record in every sense of the word, packing 16 cuts of wild, off the wall hip hop flavours, with plenty of humour injected in the often bizarre and metaphorical bars. Forgoing the hip hop trope of stacking the record with features, MID AIR does feature two collabs, with Kenny Mason jumping on DnD, and Teezeo Touchdown on the appropriately titled Full English.

Felix has been quoted as saying “You never want to waste someone’s time”, with the record written under the seemingly obvious yet often overlooked ideology of “Is it worth listening to?”... Yes, MID AIR is worth listening to. And again. And again….

The best of the rest of this week's records:

Among our other picks of the week - Britpop legends Blur release their ninth studio album, Brazillian drum & bass icon DJ Marky drops first album in 8 years on influential Shogun Audio label, the Barbie movie soundtrack releases and more!

Allegra Krieger - I Keep My Feet on the Fragile Plane [Double Double Whammy] USA

Folk / Pop

Andrew Bird - Outside Problems [Loma Vista Recordings] USA

Alternative / Folk

Blur - The Ballad Of Darren [Warner] ENG

Alternative / Pop

Bruno Major - Columbo [AWAL] ENG

Pop / Folk

Cut Worms - Cut Worms [Jagjaguwar] USA

Alternative / Country

DJ Marky - The Time Is Right [Shogun Audio] BRA

Drum & Bass

Mittere - Boy [Mittere] AUS

Ambient / Alternative

Mizmor - Prosaic [Profound Lore] USA

Black Metal

Various Artists - Barbie: The Album [Atlantic / Warner]

Pop