Henry Hsieh

It’s a feature-length pacifier that works as advertised until your child begs you to buy Skye’s jet figurine. But if that’s the goal, they’ve done a damn good job.

Eyeing a long line of commercial hits, “The Hill” attempts to reverse-engineer the process, scraping together exceedingly overused truisms to concoct a hackneyed imitation.

Although its emotional ceiling is limited by its writing, "A Thousand and One" still delivers a moving, aesthetically cohesive selection of snapshots of one’s upbringing, all while acting as a remarkable case study of gentrification and poverty.

On Ugly, released March 3, the medium is most certainly the message, with Slowthai’s post-punk-influenced performances adding another dimension of expression that no mere combination of words could ever do.