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Kendrick Lamar - GNX ALBUM REVIEW

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Woah, a new review? After this long? Yeah, sure. Why not? I got some plans in the works to keep this active in some form, and I’ll show off some more details in the post after this! What timing for an album to end up bringing this little site back, even if it’s just for a little bit of time. The last post on here was last June, and a lot has happened in my life since then, whether it’s in music or my personal life. Arguably, the biggest moment in music of the year was the beef between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, which exploded just before this summer with “Like That,” a song off of the first of two Future and Metro Boomin’ albums from this year, WE DON’T TRUST YOU . I don’t need to go into just how massive this beef was (and in still is in some ways), but if you need one major takeaway, I’ll say this: One of the biggest hits of the year, regardless of genre, essentially boiled down to Kendrick calling Drake a pedophile for four-and-a-half minutes. “Not Like Us,” a song where one of the m...
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King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard - PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation ALBUM REVIEW

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Just when I think I’m out, I’m pulled back in. Okay, hi again. I’m not saying I’m back for good, but I just hit a stride, and I’m not gonna lie, I miss writing for the fun of it. Anyway, I’ve talked about this band on the site before. I might just have to make a tag to link all their albums together. King Gizzard went on a damn-near-perfect streak of three separate projects last October, and knowing that whatever they did next was a spiritual successor to 2019 fan favorite Infest the Rats' Nest , it’d certainly be up my alley. Now, we have PetroDragonic Apocalypse , which I will just shorten it to that because of the long-ass album title you can see at the top. It’s a mouthful, I know. Either way, let’s get into it. PetroDragonic Apocalypse sees the group move into a genre they’ve dabbled in before: metal. Throwing in dashes of thrash, speed, and even stoner metal helps make the Aussie band’s most chaotic, in-your-face, and probably entertaining project as a whole yet. Environment...
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jonatan leandoer96 (Yung Lean) - Sugar World ALBUM REVIEW

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American Idol -ass cover. I guess I’d say I’m a fan of Yung Lean. Ever since getting into that Drain Gang circle with Bladee and Ecco2k, I’ve always liked what I’ve heard from Yung Lean’s output, even if his last project Stardust didn’t really live up to the other things I’ve heard. However, I was completely out of the loop on this side project of his, jonatan leandoer96. Out of the other songs I’ve heard from this that I checked out after this project, it has more of an indie folk edge to it. On this album, Sugar World , Lean takes a turn into Bowie-esque glam rock. It’s certainly an interesting experiment that piqued my interest, so let’s ride off into Sugar World . I should start off by saying that I’m a fan of artistic risks, with Lil Yachty’s most recent project being the biggest example in recent memory, and while Sugar World is an overall enjoyable listen, there are just a couple of things holding it back from greatness to me. Lean’s vocals are pretty inconsistent in quality t...
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King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Live at Red Rocks ‘22 ALBUM REVIEW

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Did you know that King Gizz’s discography is the length of two football fields? How many times have I raved about King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard? Like, I shined praise onto them five times last year alone for all of the projects they dropped. What else can they even do? And yet, they continue to surprise. A huge highlight of not only their 2022 but their careers up to this point is playing three 3-hour shows in a single weekend over at Red Rocks, Colorado. Each of them were completely different sets, and while I was excited to hear about this massive achievement for the group, I’m a broke college student and couldn’t get to Colorado, which I bet I’m not the only one that felt this. However, each show they played has now been released as a massive 86-track, nearly 9-hour box set for the fans to enjoy. It took some time, but I actually listened to the whole thing. Let’s dive into it. I’ve had to edit this review down a couple of times, but I’ve slowly realized that this is just gon...
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Lil Yachty - Let’s Start Here. ALBUM REVIEW

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I gotta keep holding to my promises about reviewing. I always love it when an artist takes a risk with their material. Whether or not it works out, I usually admire the risk and appreciate the fact that any artist can do something out of their comfort zone. Either way, the artist in question today is Lil Yachty, a rapper that has basically become a joke the longer his career’s gone on. However, going into a new genre out of left field isn’t totally new to rap. Childish Gambino jumping into the world of neo-soul with Awaken, My Love! , along with later projects from Mac Miller and Tyler, the Creator having more jazz influences, have proven that turning to a new genre for new ideas has worked out pretty well. Yachty, however, has turned to psychedelic rock in the vein of Tame Impala for this new album, Let’s Start Here. to mark the new chapter of his career. Let’s get into it. Having stuck around with Yachty during the rough patches, I can easily say that Let’s Start Here. is his best ...
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Nicole Dollanganger - Married in Mount Airy ALBUM REVIEW

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Canada’s a real wild place, huh? Ah, the first review of the new year. It’s pretty exciting to see what the standard will be for the first big albums of the year, and the fact that there was a surprise album from The Weeknd that kicked off 2022 and that *wasn’t* the highlight really said something. 2022 was a banner year, and we’re already off to a good start this year. Canadian singer-songwriter Nicole Dollanganger is back, five years after her last album Heart Shaped Bed , with a new album, which came as a surprise to me. She dropped a great single in support of this album last year titled “Whispering Glades,” and mainly because I’m an idiot and didn’t keep track of any other singles, a new album flew off my radar. Basically, Married in Mount Airy came as a wonderful surprise when it came up last week on my calendar. Either way, a new album is here and, most importantly, I’ve heard it. Let’s get into it. I haven’t been riding or dying for Dollanganger’s music in recent months, but t...
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The Best (and Worst) Albums of 2022

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Okay, let’s cut to the chase. 2022 was a pretty incredible year for music. However, I’m not gonna do a formal year-end list. I wanted to make a list of all the essential albums of 2022 that need to be heard, along with the honorable mentions and even the worst of the worst. These aren’t ranked, just albums I enjoy. Any genre is open, but there’s only one album per artist. I also want you to comment what your favorite album was this past year. I bet you’ll be surprised by some of the choices I have on here. Have fun reading, and I’ll definitely be more active in 2023 once things start to ramp up. The Best of the Best A Light for Attracting Attention - The Smile      Genres: Art Rock, Post-Punk, Art Pop, Chamber Pop, Math Rock, Jazz-Rock      Favorite Track: The Smoke Aethiopes - billy woods      Genres: Abstract Hip Hop, Experimental Hip Hop, Drumless, Jazz Rap      Favorite Track: Heavy Water (feat. Breeze Brewin & El...
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Metro Boomin’ - HEROES & VILLAINS ALBUM REVIEW

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Loving the Pink Floyd homage, not gonna lie. I think it’s a safe bet to say that Metro Boomin’ is a modern legend. I’ve always liked him and his contributions to rap and trap specifically, and he’s also had a huge hand in some of my favorite albums in trap. His collab albums with 21 Savage, mainly Without Warning with Offset and Savage Mode II , have been the standouts to me. Also, while writing this, I also found out he produced the entirety (sans one track) of Future’s DS2 , one of my favorite Future projects. It may also be a little bit of bias, but he’s also done a good amount with The Weeknd as well, who appears on this album. However, I think his last solo album, NOT ALL HEROES WEAR CAPES , is just fine. I don’t really remember a bunch of it, but I still got pretty excited for this when it got announced. Let’s just cut to the bullshit and see how I felt about HEROES & VILLAINS . I’m just gonna say that I don’t know how he connected with Morgan Freeman, but he always sounds s...
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Weyes Blood - And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow ALBUM REVIEW

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Honestly, if you’re heart is quite literally glowing, you might have to see a doctor. Okay, hi. It’s been a hot minute. I’m gonna be more consistent with the reviews and do a little catch-up with some other albums I’ve heard, but this is one I’ve sat on for a while. Weyes Blood has been an artist that I’ve fallen in love with. I know I’m not the only one thinking that her last album, 2019’s Titanic Rising , is probably a contender for the best indie rock album of the 2010s. I think it’s a landmark album that set the bar for indie rock/singer-songwriter albums for this decade. Now, we have something that could match the quality of that: Weyes Blood’s next album. And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow dropped last month, and I’ve had a good amount of time to sit on it. Let’s get into how I felt about it. The reason why I’ve had to take some time with this project is because I’ve had a hard time putting to words just how nice this is to listen to. This has a nostalgic, old school feeling that...
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BROCKHAMPTON - The Family ALBUM REVIEW

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Might as well review an album called The Family on Thanksgiving. Well, happy Thanksgiving. At least on the day I’m writing this, it’s a happy Thanksgiving. Or a year from this post. It doesn’t matter, though, because it’s typically a time where you sit and argue about whatever comes to mind. There’s also food there too. I have no idea how to segue into the next part of this, so… The Family . BROCKHAMPTON, everyone’s favorite boy band, had slowly been falling apart for a couple years now and, as of today, the group is no more. There’s a lot of history there to unpack, but I’ll let you do that yourself if you want because there’s a *lot* of ground to cover there. Last week, the group’s final album titled The Family dropped. They also dropped a second album with it, TM , and if I’m being honest, there’s not a lot to talk about, other than how underwhelming it was, in my opinion. I have much more to say about The Family , though, so let’s not waste any time and get into it. Right off the...
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Quadeca - I Didn’t Mean To Haunt You ALBUM REVIEW

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Shoutout Hivemind. Right off the bat, I’ll say that I didn’t expect this from Quadeca. The section of YouTuber-turned-musicians that are on my radar are pretty big, especially since I upload on YouTube. Of course, there’s Joji who successfully made the jump, but there are other YouTubers that happen to make music like KSI that really just don’t hit hard to me. Quadeca’s last album, From Me To You , really set up some potential for Quadeca to be a pretty successful YouTuber-to-rapper jump and I still enjoy that project today. His latest release, I Didn’t Mean To Haunt You , leans into a much more experimental and ambitious project. I plan to watch the accompanying visual album too, but it’s just been busy. So, let’s just get into it. So, if I didn’t make it obvious, this project is a whole different beast compared to the other Quadeca projects I’ve heard. This is much more of an art pop album with some alternative R&B, experimental rap, and even a little tinge of industrial thrown i...
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Nas - King’s Disease III ALBUM REVIEW

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He mentions the best character in Super Smash Bros. on this album. It’s getting a little ridiculous over here. Starting this decade, Nas has been on an insane run. The first two King’s Disease albums are pretty good, with the second one being great, but his last release, Magic , is one of my personal favorites of his since its drop a little less than a year ago. The gel between all of these projects is Hit-Boy, producing every one of the aforementioned albums. Now, they’ve brought King’s Disease III to the table. Not really a lot to make an intro for, so let’s get into it. I definitely don’t agree with this, but apparently there are some people out there that aren’t fans of the Nas/Hit-Boy pairing. So, I’ll counter that with this: I think that this is some of the best beats Nas has ever been over. The funniest thing is that Nas even has said on tracks that you buy my stuff for the lyrics, not the beats. I think that’s a good case for a lot of the middle section of his career, but ev...
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Backxwash - HIS HAPPINESS SHALL COME FIRST EVEN THOUGH WE ARE SUFFERING ALBUM REVIEW

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I’d just love to have this cover on a shirt, you know? I’m ready to fully admit that this review is coming out way later than I was hoping it would, but I’m glad I’m writing it at all. I’ve spoken about Backxwash (a.k.a. Ashanti Mutinta) in the past and even got the chance to get an advance copy of her last album, I LIE HERE BURIED WITH MY RINGS AND MY DRESSES , which ended up being one of my favorites of that year. The overall darkness of her sound has just been so compelling to me and feels so different from not just rap but from music alone. That being said, there’s no reason for me to doubt that whatever she did next would be one I’d look forward to. We now have HIS HAPPINESS SHALL COME FIRST EVEN THOUGH WE ARE SUFFERING , the conclusion in a trilogy of albums that she’s been releasing for the past three years, the cherry on top being its Halloween release date. Let’s not waste any time and get into it. While this whole series of albums that started with God Has Nothing To Do With ...
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King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard - Changes ALBUM REVIEW

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They’re just farming for XP to level up by the end of the year, don’t worry about quality over quantity. Since I literally wrote about these guys a few weeks back, I have no idea how to properly introduce you other than to link you to my Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms And Lava review so you can get the full picture. However, there’s even more context behind this release. In 2017, King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard put out five albums, just as they did this year with this album, Changes . This album, however, was meant to be the fifth album of 2017. With most King Gizz releases, there’s a core concept, with this one having every track in D major / F# major chord changes. I’m not even sure if I worded that correctly, but you get the idea. There’s also a pretty visual reference to the track titles, if you’ve got a keen eye. King Gizz have continued to raise the bar all this year and this shouldn’t be any different. Let’s get into Changes and see how I felt about it. As I looked ...
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Cities Aviv - Working Title for the Album Secret Waters

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Still mad that I never got the vinyl release of his last album. Every time I review something that ended up being a surprise release, I always talk about how nice surprise releases are. Even if it’s by an artist you’re not a giant fan of, a surprise drop is always something cool. Memphis rapper Cities Aviv is one I got real excited about. Then again, I was always gonna be excited to see what he did next after his two-hour-long epic MAN PLAYS THE HORN , which is in my top 10 favorite albums of this year. I would’ve never expected there to be a new album so soon given just how large his last project was. Now, we have Working Title for the Album Secret Waters , a damn good surprise release that genuinely caught me off guard. Knowing that this project is only a fraction the length of HORN , does that addictive, hypnotic sound translate into a shorter project? Let’s tread into Secret Waters . What I think stands out here the most is the production, more specifically the sampling done here. ...
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