Cordavision Music Reviews

Today’s Halloween, and what a time to review a horrorcore album. Earlier this month, I put up my review of clipping.’s latest album Visions of Bodies Being Burned , and it ended up being a relatively big hit. Many of clipping.’s fans consider this and Visions to be joined at the hip and essentially be a double album, so I decided for the Halloween spirit since I’m not doing too much today, I’ll write a quick review of their first venture into the horror realm, There Existed an Addiction to Blood . No further information is needed if you looked at my Visions review, so let’s just get right into it! There Existed an Addiction to Blood is a hip-hop record with experimental, horrorcore, noise, and even some ambient vibes in here too. Like Visions , Blood has the overall concept of Halloween and horror movies and fuses them with issues in the world today like racism, police brutality, and gang violence. The ‘gang violence’ tropes are most present on “La Mala Ordina,” which has features f...

I’m feeling awful about how I’m just now writing about this. Back in May, an upcoming rapper named Deante’ Hitchcock released his debut studio album, BETTER , to critical and fan praise. I had listened to it about a month after it, and it sadly fell through the list of things that I wanted to review. I’ve been recommended his music before, and I had first heard him on the track “PTSD” from the Dreamville collective project Revenge of the Dreamers III . No wonder he was on RotD3 because he sounds like a young J. Cole, nearly to a T. Well, why am I reviewing it in October now? Hitchcock just dropped the deluxe version of BETTER earlier this week, and I decided to not put it off anymore and finally write about this record. Short intro, but let’s get right into the deluxe version of Deante’ Hitchcock’s BETTER . BETTER is a hip-hop album with some soul and trap influences. Before I get to Deante’, I got to talk about his features. All of them are properly placed and fit the vibe of each ...

One of the biggest pop stars on the planet, Ariana Grande has been able to stay consistently relevant while putting out worthwhile music. Her last two albums, sweetener and thank u, next , were her most successful projects yet. While I do prefer Dangerous Woman over those two albums, I can appreciate that there has been a lot of growth and she began to carve her name into the pop hall of fame with her own sound. Now in 2020, after saying that she won’t put out new music during a pandemic, we have a new album. positions is the name, and in the week we knew about its existence, it’s become one of the more anticipated albums of the year, and I got the scoop here for you. The lead single, which is the title track, didn’t leave that much of an impression, yet I still liked it. It’s your typical Ariana song, but it’s definitely not her best. Now, let’s just right into the album. positions is a pop album with R&B and trap influences. Now, I mentioned growth and creativity because for ...

Ty Dolla $ign has always been one of my favorite underrated artists. He’s not really the best at making albums, but his features on songs from the likes of Post Malone and, more recently, Ariana Grande have been showcases of how good of a performer he is. He’s a go-to artist if you need a good hook or a verse that’s extra smooth, and he rarely fails on that front. That makes the case for his latest album here, titled Featuring Ty Dolla $ign , where he holds his own on some of the biggest names in hip-hop and R&B today like Kanye West, Anderson .Paak, Kid Cudi, Roddy Ricch, and Nicki Minaj, among many others. While I think some of his albums have faltered in the past, Featuring Ty Dolla $ign has the chance of being a breakout hit when it comes to releasing albums. Let’s get right into it. Featuring Ty Dolla $ign is an R&B album with hip-hop influences. I mainly had one concern about this album going into it, and there are A LOT of songs on this. To be specific, there are 25 so...

It goes without saying that Bruce Springsteen is a music icon. One of the most recognizable names in any industry, Springsteen has been able to command the stage with his presence alone, no matter what type of venue. The typical concert with the E-Street Band, alone on the Broadway stage, or even in front of a small and intimate audience, The Boss has cemented himself as one of the best performers and songwriters of all time. With Covid closing most venues, many artists have gone back to the studio, some of them even hitting their supposed creative peaks here. With Bruce’s new album Letter To You , this is his first album with the E-Street Band as his backing band since The Rising in 2002. When he released Western Stars , I thought that that was his best record since at least Nebraska. I was excited for this new album, but I had this thought in the back of my mind that couldn’t stop it from comparing to Western Stars . Never mind that, let’s just get right into Letter To You . Letter ...

I went through a giant Gorillaz phase in freshman year of high school. Because of that, I have Plastic Beach , The Now Now , and, most infamously, Humanz on vinyl. I have a love-hate relationship with Humanz. It is the album that got me into the group, but after hearing the rest of their albums, it’s legitimately so bad. I cannot understand why Humanz has fans. Throughout 2020, the group has been dropping single after single, and I’m quite surprised that there are more unreleased songs on the album than singles. I mentioned Humanz quite a bit because this is giving me a heavy Humanz vibe with all the features. Yes, I did like most of the singles from this upcoming Song Machine project. With the title of Season One, maybe this will be an ongoing thing. This is the apparent first instalment, fittingly titled Strange Timez . Let’s just get right into it. I’ll be shortening the title to Strange Timez . Strange Timez is an alternative album with hip-hop, dance, and pop vibes. Every si...

I know, I know. There’s more Griselda albums. This most likely is the last one of the label’s dominant 2020 run, and they might be saving the best for last. Benny the Butcher’s last album, Tana Talk 3 , is beloved by fans, and his EP The Plugs I Met is equally loved. There’s a lot of hype surrounding this project, even if the famous Griselda over-saturation of 2020 has been showing Quantity > Quality. With the entirety of Benny’s new album Burden of Proof being produced by Hit-Boy, this only adds to the anticipation. Why am I still talking? Let’s just get right into the highly-anticipated Burden of Proof . Burden of Proof is a hip-hop album with jazz influences. If you know Griselda projects, you’re probably gonna go into this expecting lo-fi, loopy, and drum-less beats. The only thing out of those three is loopy. Nearly every single beat here is absolutely addicting to listen to. The beats here are a lot more joyful and triumphant, best shown on the opening track, which is also ...

Everyone loves Twitter, right? No? Well, it has its fair share of good and bad things. Most of the time, discovering new music falls under the good category. Last week, I was seeing the name Lil Brick put up with new releases from Benny the Butcher and Black Thought. From there, an explosion of hype for this little project that seemed like another rapper throwing his hat into the ring. Yes, I’d usually dismiss something like this, but the amount of hype that was surrounding this project was something I’ve never seen in a while. Well, this is his newest EP, The Intro . Let’s get into this little bite-sized project. The Intro is a hip-hop EP. I mean, it’s a straight up rap project. Nothing wrong with that at all. The first influence I can hear out of the gate is artists like Logic or even Joyner Lucas. I hate the term ‘lyrical miracle,’ but that’s a pretty accurate description of Brick’s delivery. It’s fast-paced nearly throughout the entire project, and it’s quite impressive for someon...

Thank 100 gecs for introducing me to Dorian Electra. For those that don’t know, Dorian Electra is, to me, one of the innovators of the relatively new genre of hyperpop. It’s one of the more zany types of music, but there’s also a deep amount of creativity that I’ve been appreciating a lot more. 100 gecs introduced me to this sound, and artists like Charli XCX and Kero Kero Bonito have also taken their careers into this direction. I’d also like to mention that Dorian Electra is one of the first artists that have taken this sound into the stratosphere. They aren’t worried to get weird and experimental in an already weird and experimental genre. Their debut album Flamboyant is pretty great, while I haven’t covered it here just yet. This is their second album, My Agenda . The biggest features here are pretty eclectic as well. Russian rap trio Pussy Riot and LGBT icons The Village People (yes, the Village people that made “Y.M.C.A.”) are on the SAME SONG, Rebecca Black (IT’S FRIDAY) is slo...

(Author’s Note: This is an advance review of Visions of Bodies Being Burned . I’m writing this on October 12, and when this review releases, the album is set to release this Friday, October 23. I’d like to extend a very special thanks to clipping. and everyone at Sub Pop for giving me an advance copy for reviewing purposes.) Even if you’re not a fan of anything relating to horror, you gotta love the Halloween season. Usually, there’s a celebration. Kids are running in the streets, looking for tricks or treats and wearing the costume of whichever character was popular to them at that moment. I have to admit, I haven’t done trick-or-treating in the past couple years, but I’ve been to Halloween parties. That’s where it gets crazy, but I’m not here to talk about partying. I’m here to talk about the overall atmosphere of Halloween. Of course, horror films are pretty successful during the month of October. With theaters closed across the globe this year, there’s a strange emptiness to the us...

This was not the planned review today. I did something funny, and now I simply feel like doing this because this will also be funny. Earlier today, Chance had decided to put out a specific tweet: “What’s your favorite part about The Big Day ?” Infamously, this album was met with harsh criticism from his fan base because of the lack of overall talent that populated his earlier mixtapes was nonexistent on this album, his first full length album, actually. I replied to the tweet with my opinion, and, uh, he blocked me. He blocked a lot of people, but it’s just so petty to put out a tweet you know is gonna have a reaction you hate. Maybe he needed attention, who knows? Either way, just for fun, let me give a good analysis on the uninitiated of why The Big Day sucks ass. The Big Day is a rap album with pop and gospel influences. Now, let me go through each song to show you the worst bar to show you how bad the verse is. I will also add a sentence or two after it: All Day Long "And sh...

Well, this review is actually a pretty special case. There’s not a bunch of new releases from this past week, so I had decided to go through the list of albums that I made that were requested. Some projects got one or two requests that I’ll get to soon, and others are older albums that I’m saving for a special event week in December. This right here, though, is something else. I’ve gotten many, many, MANY requests to go over the music of Harry Edward Styles, or mostly known as Harry Styles, specifically his second solo album Fine Line . The defunct(?) boy band he was a part of, which honestly needs no introduction, made a mark in pop culture that cannot be ignored. While the other members have gone on and made their own paths in the world, it’s not hard to say that Harry is the one member out of the boys that has actually consistently made hits, most of them being on this very album. Now, as some of you might know, I’ve developed a bit of a Directioner persona during quarantine. Just t...

I honestly have no reason why I felt so compelled to check this album out. REASON is a rapper that is one of the newest artists on Top Dawg Entertainment, the empire that includes artists like Kendrick Lamar, SZA, and ScHoolboy Q, among many talented others. While the eyes of the world are focused on Lamar and SZA’s forthcoming projects, TDE has started to push their other artists to the spotlight. While ScHoolboy Q’s latest album CrasH Talk underwhelmed and SiR’s Chasing Summer flew under the radar, TDE didn’t have the best 2019. With REASON, though, they’re looking to change that. New Beginnings is his TDE debut, after his first mixtape There You Have It was re-released by the label in the fall of 2018. As I said, I had no clue why I decided to take the time out of my day to listen to it, and let me tell you if New Beginnings was worth it or not. New Beginnings is a hip-hop album with jazz rap influences. When an album is released in TDE’s label, you can expect there to be a lot...

Well, this is three times now. I made this website back in April, and this is the most times I’ve covered a specific artist here. This is Westside Gunn’s third project this year, with one of my favorite rap records from 2020 so far Pray for Paris and his victory lap FLYGOD IS AN AWESOME GOD 2 both hitting the market this year. While Pray for Paris was a grand showcase and example of a curator at his artistic peak, FIAAG2 felt incredibly rushed and I haven’t even come back to it since its 3 months ago. Now, on his major studio debut in collaboration with Eminem’s Shady Records, Gunn is back to the curator role on Who Made the Sunshine . While he isn’t the best rapper on the Griselda label, his role as the caretaker of his albums are unmatched. I’m excited, so let’s just get right into Who Made the Sunshine . Who Made the Sunshine is a hip-hop album with jazz and boom-bap influences. A good way to describe this record is ‘less is more.’ Specifically, this has to do with the beats. T...

Blackpink is one of the biggest K-pop acts around the world, and it makes sense why they’ve been attracting these big names to this project. Selena Gomez, Ariana Grande, David Guetta, and Cardi B all had their hand in this album’s creation, and their influences are shown quite a bit throughout The Album . Yes, the album is called The Album . I get why Blackpink named it this, it’s been highly anticipated for throughout most of 2020, and letting fans know that this is the thing they’ve been waiting for is a tongue-and-cheek thing to do. To me, though, it just seems like this is just going to be more Blackpink music. Technically it is, but I think they could come up with something better than The Album . Either way, this is a new album. Let’s just get right into it. The Album is a K-pop album with pop and rap influences. This first thing has nothing to do with the quality of the music, but is this really considered an album? This just feels way too short to be considered a full LP. Then...

When I first heard of 21 Savage, I didn’t think much about him. I just felt like he was one of the copycats in the crowd of Soundcloud rappers. Boy, I’m glad I was wrong. The first installment in the SAVAGE MODE series was a morbid, dark, and horror-inspired mixtape which has become beloved by the trap scene. While I personally prefer Without Warning with Offset, I can’t deny the impact of SAVAGE MODE . These two projects have in common Metro Boomin’, one of the best producers to come out of the game this past decade, and when he and 21 collaborate, it’s fireworks. There’s no reason why fans shouldn’t be hyped for this, and with the inclusion of Morgan Freeman’s narrations, it’s pretty crazy to not be hyped about this. Well, I’ve talked for long enough. Let’s just get right into SAVAGE MODE II . SAVAGE MODE II is a hip-hop album with trap influences. Now, while this still has that dark and morbid vibe, it’s not as prominent as the first installment. Instead, what we have is a more s...

I’m entering brand new territory for myself with this review. I’ve always known about Sufjan Stevens, and I’ve only listened to one of his albums. If you’re a fan of his, you can assume that it’s Carrie & Lowell , Stevens’ somber masterpiece that is one of my favorite indie records ever. Funny enough, I could never get into his other records. They just haven’t hit as hard as Carrie & Lowell , and while I do understand the different sound he was going for on his other releases, I just connected so well with Carrie & Lowell that it was tough for me to like his other projects. Five years after his Carrie & Lowell , which was his last solo effort, Sufjan now has The Ascension . As I mentioned earlier, this is a new territory for me because The Ascension has a more electronic flavor to the music while Carrie & Lowell was much more indie and acoustic. Either way, that’s useless information. I’m hoping I like it. Let’s get right into The Ascension. The Ascension is an i...