Cordavision Music Reviews

40-minute trap albums should be a blessing. Lil Yachty has been needing something. When he first blew up, he was this breath of fresh air in the Soundcloud subset of rap, but ever since then, he’s been slowly going downhill. I’ve pretty much lost interest in Yachty as an artist, especially after the whole ‘blow it like a cello’ debacle, and when I saw that this album kind of dropped out of the blue, I was pretty intrigued. There’s a concept to this album, but not really a story: Yachty is teaming with a bunch of up-and-coming Detroit/Flint rappers and riding on their sound to bring more of an audience to it. Even if the quality of his music has taken a dip, Yachty is still a name that can bring attention to other artists, so I think this could be a fun little detour or even the next stage of Yachty’s career, but does Michigan Boy Boat deliver? That’s what matters here, so let’s just see what went down on this project. Now, I’ve heard some of these Michigan artists pop up on my Twitter...

This cover is setting off my fight or flight reflexes, and I’m not entirely sure why. Kero Kero Bonito is a band that rarely gets talked about enough. One of the most consistent bands in recent years, the trio of vocalist Sarah Bonito and instrumentalists Gus Lobban and Jamie Bulled haven’t put out that many projects. If you’re into internet culture, you’ve certainly heard their track “Flamingo,” which I’ll link here . Along with this, their music has also been pretty rooted in video game music, even contributing to the theme song of the viral game, Bugsnax . Outside of this EP, they’ve put out two albums and two EPs, all of them ranging from pretty good to absolutely stunning. They haven’t missed yet, and Civilisation II is a pretty daunting task. It’s only three tracks long, and when you make a project this short, there’s a lot of pressure. Even though I know how consistent KKB can be, I was a little worried getting into this. Has KKB upended my expectations yet again? Let’s see. Le...

AUTHOR’S NOTE: It’s an honor to be in the early review circuit of legendary French metal outfit Gojira’s first new record since 2016, Fortitude . I’d like to extend a very special thank you to Gojira and the people over at Roadrunner Records for the opportunity to listen to such an anticipated album as this before it drops this Friday. Gojira has been evolving ever since their debut album back in 2001, Terra Incognita . For each album since then, they’ve dabbled in new sounds and their experimentalist approach to metal has been quite progressive and forward-thinking in recent years. For their first album in five years, Fortitude , they lean into the more groove metal side of things rather than death metal or sludge metal. I’ve been pretty excited to get my ears onto this album, and I’m so glad I can finally speak about it. Let’s get into it. I’m just gonna say right out of the gate that Fortitude is Gojira’s most diverse album yet. I’m not sure how the fan reactions are going to be, b...

No, I’m not just reviewing this because we have similar names. Cordae has been a rapper that’s really been making himself known to me. Ever since he broke away from his YBN group, he’s been putting out a steady amount of tracks that are legitimately great. His debut album, The Lost Boy , is one of the most underrated albums of 2019 and even earned him a Grammy nomination. Ever since then, he’s been relatively quiet. He dropped a single with Roddy Ricch which I thought was pretty good too! We’ve been waiting for his second album, reportedly titled From A Bird’s Eye View , for a while now and while there’s been nothing wrong with that, his fans have been pretty antsy for some new music. I’m in this crowd too. So, Cordae decided that he’d drop a surprise EP for us to tide us over for the next album, fittingly titled Just Until.... . It’s only four tracks long, so this’ll be a quick review too. Let’s get into it. Right off the bat, there are two eye-grabbing features: Young Thug and Q-Tip....

I wanna just lay in a field of grass, but I’m allergic to pollen :( I’ve always had a very strange relationship with electronic music. The bad music I’ve heard in the genre has been some of the worst music I’ve ever heard, and the good stuff is some of the greatest music I’ve ever heard. For some context, we have artists like The Chainsmokers on one end, and Daft Punk on the other. There are some subgenres in here too that work. Electropop is one of them, being an obvious fusion of pop and electronic music. In the little community of the AOTY website, the users there have been hyped as hell for this Porter Robinson album, Nurture . It’s apparently his first in seven years, and I’ve only heard one single from it, titled “Musician.” While it wasn’t the best electropop song I’ve heard, it’s certainly an interesting sound that I think can work pretty well. So, with how anticipated it is in the AOTY community, I figured I should take a listen and see what all the fuss is about. Let’s get in...

*insert funny quote here* Until this year, I’ve never even heard of Kenny Mason. The first time I’ve heard of him was on Denzel Curry and Kenny Beats’ UNLOCKED 1.5 from his feature on that project, and his single “Pup,” which reminded me of the punk elements that Playboi Carti was using on the more experimental parts of Whole Lotta Red . This is apparently an extended version of his Angelic Hoodrat album from last year, which I haven’t heard until listening to this ‘director’s cut’ style expansion of the album. Well, short paragraph moment. Let’s just get right into the review. Honestly, the most consistent thing about this project is the production. It’s pretty psychedelic and when Mason gives a compelling performance, it’s a killer combo. It doesn’t work all the time, though, and when that happens, it kind of feels flat and just boring. When it comes to features, though, they’re pretty killer. Freddie Gibbs and Denzel Curry are always on point with their features, but they don’t co...

“Oh, I love Led Zeppelin!” ~ Peter Parker, 2023. If you don’t know the lore behind Greta Van Fleet, you might be pretty confused on why I used a quote from Spider-Man: Far From Home as the intro. When this band here first started off, they were relentlessly compared to legendary rock band Led Zeppelin. There’s nothing wrong with wearing your influences on your sleeves by any means, but this almost felt like a very well-done parody of Robert Plant and company. Even Elton John has called the band out on this after performing with them. With this new album, The Battle at Garden’s Gate , they’re trying to shed away some of those notions while going for more ambitious tracks. How did it go? Let’s find out. Well, at least they don’t sound like Led Zeppelin anymore. I wanna get out of the way that everyone involved in the band is incredibly talented. Hell, I’d wanna be compared to Led Zeppelin’s music no matter if it’s positive or negative comparisons. It’s just that the ambition they’re goi...

I swear to god if Westside Gunn starts rapping over trap beats… Yep, I’m talking about Griselda again. Conway the Machine has always been one of the more consistent members of the label, and while Griselda has always been quantity over quality, both Benny and Conway have kind of been the opposite of that. Conway is starting to drop more, and while I do like Conway and is most likely my favorite member of the label, it’s set that he’s dropping at least three albums this year. His first album, the Big Ghost Ltd.-produced IF IT BLEEDS IT CAN BE KILLED , was one of the first great projects of 2021, and his upcoming Shady Records debut God Don’t Make Mistakes is still set to release some time this year. The semi-surprise release, La Maquina , certainly came out of nowhere to me, and like most Griselda projects, I made it a point to wait until the full album was out to listen to the singles. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s actually get into it. Unlike IF IT BLEEDS , which had more gri...

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Today marks the first anniversary of Cordavision Records. I want to thank every single person that’s read and watched my reviews on YouTube, even if they are now defunct in a way. I couldn’t have gotten to where I am now without you, dear reader, and I’m not going anywhere any time soon. Again, thank you for 365 days of reviews, and cheers to many more. Today’s review is below this blurb here. I love you. 🤍 Alright, let’s get this out of the way. Paul McCartney is a legend. Do I need to tell you why? Either way, ¼ of the legendary Beatles brought back his self-titled series of albums, II being released 1980, with III back in December of last year, and while I was a little late to the party on that, it was a pretty great return to form for McCartney. Then, he decided to release a remixed version of that album. The names here are pretty exciting. Beck, Phoebe Bridgers, Anderson .Paak, St. Vincent, Ed O’Brien from Radiohead, Damon Albarn, Josh Homme, and Blood Orange are...

This label should start making music for Nickelodeon with all the slime. I always get excited when Young Thug gears up for a new project. Admittedly, he’s not my favorite artist on the planet, but he’s never really disappointed in recent years when it comes to his own projects. He’s been around long enough to be considered a veteran, and he’s certainly got the track record to show that he’s a versatile artist that can slink into any style of rap, trap, and even country rap. His own label, Young Stoner Life, has put out a joint effort before, Slime Language , and that really didn’t do anything for me. With all the hype around its sequel, and along with it being new Young Thug music, I decided to give Slime Language 2 a shot. Let’s get into it. Also, I should note artists that are on the YSL label that appear on this project: Gunna, Dolly White, Yak Gotti, Lil Duke, Lil Keed, T-Shyne, Unfoonk, Karlae, Strick, Yung Kayo, and HiDoraah. It’s also worth noting that there are other collabora...

I am one of the three things in the title of this project. Miguel has really been one of the most underappreciated artists for the past decade. His three previous albums have been some of my favorite R&B projects, especially Wildheart . What had gotten him famous was an EP series called Art Dealer Chic , three small projects that led to his debut, Kaleidoscope Dream . Now, quite a while after the last installment, we have the fourth volume of the Art Dealer Chic series, and it’s pretty exciting to hear this come out. Since it’s only four tracks long, this is gonna be a somewhat shorter review, so let’s not waste any more time. The opening track “Funeral” reminds me of beats that the late producer SOPHIE would make, and that’s in very high regard. It’s very VERY sexual, and Miguel’s voice fits this very electronic beat surprisingly well. “Triangle Love” is about, well, a love triangle, and while it’s a fine R&B track, it ends with a Julia Roberts sample, which I cannot place whi...

Yes, I know this review is short. I've been busy. I’m gonna be totally honest, I don’t really have an intro for this review. I just listened to this on a whim simply because the album art looked cool. ECCO2K is an artist in the Drain Gang collective, who I’ve only heard from ECCO2K’s debut project, E , but I’m aware that they have a bit of a cult following. So, I simply decided to give it a listen a few weeks after it dropped. No one was really talking about it, so that’s why I decided to cover PXE . Let’s just get into it. Based on what I’ve heard from E , I feel like he’s forging his own sound and diverting from the sound of his DG cohorts. The sound of PXE is just a lot lusher than his stripped-back debut album. Based on influences, I feel like I’m getting some Kevin Abstract or Jean Dawson vibes, and I think it fits his vision very well. This is an EP, though, being only five tracks and 10 minutes long. The songs themselves are just okay to me, but it just feels way too short ...

Is this 'nu-disco?' YUKIKA is the best K-pop artist working right now. That may be a hot take in the K-pop community, but I can back up my claims. Her debut album, 2020’s Soul Lady , is my favorite K-pop project out of all of them at the moment, and the lead single from this project, “Lovemonth” is one of the best singles of the year so far. Once I heard there was a new project coming from YUKIKA earlier this year, I was super excited. If anything she put out next was on the same level as Soul Lady , this is gonna be insane. Now, we have that project in the form of timeabout, which is one of my most anticipated projects of the year. I’ll stop gushing so we can talk about timeabout, . The genre-mixing on this project is divine, honestly. Many tracks range from city pop to K-pop to a disco revival that’s modernized for the 2020s. For such a short project, the consistency of only six tracks is absolutely on point. Instrumentally and vocally, ESPECIALLY VOCALLY, YUKIKA fucking kil...

Once more with feeling. We have a very special case here. Back in 2019, music businessman and manager Scooter Braun bought Taylor Swift’s rights to her masters from her old label, Big Machine Records. They were a pretty shitty label, everybody knows this. So, instead of trying to buy back those masters, Swift had decided to start re-recording her first SIX studio albums to regain the masters back while giving something to her rabid fans. This is a pretty ambitious undertaking, and honestly, I had no idea how this was gonna go. Right here, we have the first album in this (Taylor’s Version) series, her second studio album, the most awarded country album of all time, 2008’s Fearless . You’d think that ‘Oh, it’s just her old album with some bonus tracks.’ Well, there’s actually quite a bit I have to say, but first, let’s get a little personal. I’ve been a pretty big fan of Taylor Swift since 2012’s Red , which shaped my taste in pop music for at least 5-6 years, along with her pop music m...

WHO LET THE DOPE BOYS OUT? BROCKHAMPTON has been a group that has always been in the limelight for the wrong reasons to me. Their one-two-three punch that was the Saturation trilogy from 2017 was an incredible breath of fresh air for hip-hop to me, but with that came some controversy. Ameer Vann, the de-facto leader of the group and the one on all of their album covers so far, was accused of sexual misconduct and abuse allegations by multiple women. While he denied these allegations on Twitter, the group came to a decision for Vann to leave the collective, canceling the rest of their tour and shelving an entire album that was set to come up a month later. After this, BROCKHAMPTON’s music hasn’t entirely clicked for me. Yes, I do feel like their two post-Ameer projects iridescence and GINGER are good in their own ways, but they haven’t felt the same. The guy that made them household names isn’t there anymore, and it took a big toll on their mental health. Going into this new project, ...

An unborn child dropped before Frank Ocean. Let that sink in. If I hadn’t heard about this on Twitter, I would’ve never searched for this. This is gonna be a shorter review mainly because the concept of the album is much more interesting than the album itself. When this album was recorded, Luca Yupanqui wasn’t born yet. Her parents, Elizabeth Hart and Iván Diaz Mathé, had decided to make up a massive experiment. They recorded Luca’s in utero movements were translated to sound using biosonic MIDI technology. The result of five one-hour sessions is Sounds of the Unborn , an ambient album that is unlike anything I’ve heard. Is that a good thing or a bad thing, though? We’re about to find out. Dude, this baby is talented. Imagine what she can do once she’s fully grown. I’m just messing with you, but really, this is some harrowing stuff. Like, this is a DARK album. There are some legitimately disturbing sounds on here that I don’t ever wanna sit through again, but kind of in a good way? I a...

The time in the top left isn’t the right font, this art isn’t even a real screenshot. I honestly didn’t think I was gonna cover this. Either way, let’s at least set up the context for this project. Justin Bieber, one of the biggest pop stars on the planet, has just released his newest album Justice a few weeks back. While I personally think it could’ve been without the tasteless MLK samples, it was definitely an improvement over some of his past work. Bieber was in a bit of an upward trend, and I was honestly pretty excited to see where he goes next. Out of the blue, on Easter Sunday, he drops Freedom. , a short little gospel EP just because? I’m not sure why he did this, but it’s out. Wanna see how I felt about this? Keep on reading to see. Justin Drew Bieber. What the actual fuck happened here? Does he only have yes men? He has to, right? How the fuck did the idea of a gospel EP get inside your head? As I was listening to this, I was thinking ‘Is this a joke? Did he lose a bet?’ and ...

Apple Music crashed when I was doing my first listen. Maybe it was a sign… I feel like I’d fit into Lil Tjay’s demographic. I’m a suburban white kid, and most of his fans that I know of are suburban white kids. I may be wrong on the demographic part, but that’s just from who I know. I also feel like this trend of bloated trap albums is so bad. We really just need some shorter projects, cut out the filler and all that! The only reason why I’m covering Destined 2 Win is that I feel like these trends are all too real here. The singles from this are actually okay, though. The track with 6LACK is pretty nice, and I get why it was a hit. So, is Destined 2 Win an album full of hits? Let’s find out. No. This is not an album full of hits. The singles that were dropped are the only tracks that stand out on this project. God, this is so BORING. Did this have to be an hour long? Who wants an hour of Lil Tjay? I certainly don’t, and I can’t think of anyone that would want an hour of new Lil Tjay ...

You ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight? I’m gonna be totally honest with you on this project. I had no clue this was even dropping until a couple weeks ago. I don’t know when this was announced, and honestly, I’m glad I found out about it later rather than sooner. I’ve been pretty critical of Demi Lovato’s music in the past, but I’ve never thought of her music to be completely bad, you know? I heard a couple singles from this, and it got me intrigued, so I decided to sit down and listen to it, as one does for an album review. Also, since the title of this album, Dancing With the Devil...The Art of Starting Over , is so LONG, I’ll just be shortening it to Dancing With the Devil... for the review. If I’m being totally honest, I don’t have that much to say about this project, for how long this is. For the darkest times of Lovato’s life, it’s pretty nice that she’s looking back on them and showing that she’s pretty optimistic about her future. I do enjoy the content and aspec...

Don’t laugh at pee. Don’t laugh at pee. Don’t laugh at pee. This is new territory for me. I’ve never reviewed a post-rock album before, let alone a field recording album. I have listened to them before, though, and most of them have just come and gone for me. Not this band, though. Godspeed You! Black Emperor has been a band that have consistently put out some of the most harrowing music I’ve heard in my life since the late 90s, with some of their early works being some of the most beloved post-rock albums ever. After a four-year break, we have G_d's Pee AT STATE'S END! , another addition to arguably one of the best discographies in all of music. Let’s not waste any more time on the intro and get into the music. Even though it clocks in at 53 minutes, this feels like an absolute epic. I liken it to the hellish year of 2020. It starts out hopeful with “Military Alphabet” and slowly becomes more defeated when it hits “Fire at Static Valley,” almost like the start of the coronavir...

I've never called anything progressive rap, but I guess this is a new rap subgenre...? Now that I have that out of the way, this is the first time I’ve ever heard of Quadeca. I know he was big on YouTube for a little bit, but I just never checked his stuff out until now. I saw a lot of my Twitter mutuals buzzing over this album right here, From Me To You , and I decided to check out one of the singles from it, “Sisyphus,” and good lord, that was amazing. The production was off the walls insane, and I liked Quadeca’s voice quite a bit. So, I decided to check the full-length project out this past Wednesday, the day it was released. Here are my chronicles of that album and how I feel about it. First off, let’s get to what I think is the most important thing about an album: production. Holy SHIT, this is the best-sounding album of 2021 so far. That’s a strong achievement when Madlib drops in the same year. I could actually name quite a few albums that I think were inspired by the sound...

“You’re so fucking fly, you belong in the mile-high club” ~ Eminem, 2017. I think a lot of people found out about Rod Wave right during the pandemic started at around this time last year, just when the pandemic began. His breakout album, Pray 4 Love , ended up debuting at number two on the Billboard 200, seemingly out of nowhere to my knowledge. I listened to that album, and I thought ‘Holy shit, this guy has a lot of potential.’ I could see the appeal, but his songs mostly sounded the same. Maybe his next project would be the one that would be that pushes the envelope. Is SoulFly that project? Let’s find out. Damn, this project annoyed me. Not that the content of it is bad, I actually think it’s quite good. It’s just that I have the same problem with this as I had with Pray 4 Love : there’s no variation. Nearly every song except for the intro has the exact same sound, even some of them have a similar piano loop. It feels like Rod Wave is searching for ‘rod wave type beats’ on YouTube...

There’s a very obvious pun here and I can’t think of anything else to write as an intro, so my head was in the clouds while writing this. I don’t get NF. I’ve never heard of anyone that’s said ‘I think NF is okay,’ mainly it’s because you either devote your life to him or you hate him with all of your guts. I might as well say that I’ve heard some of the singles off of this, the title track and “Lost” with Hopsin of all people. While “Lost” was a little underwhelming, I surprisingly enjoyed the title track quite a bit, but I guess that didn’t make me too excited for this new mixtape right here. I’ve only heard the singles from his past material, so I’m not even sure if I can say he’s evolved from his past sound. NF stans, help me out with that. So, since I gave the two singles a shot, I might as well give the whole project a chance. Let’s get into CLOUDS . Hear me out on this: I think NF is pretty consistent on this project. In each track, he brings a good amount of energy and has a pr...

Huge missed opportunity not calling it Xiuets , but that’s just me. Experimental rock outfit Xiu Xiu has really been fucking up my vibes lately. I’ve been trying to listen to their albums, but I’ve been trying to listen to some of their albums. Some of their newest projects have been pretty mixed for me. Plays The Music of Twin Peaks is where the group, well, plays the music of the show Twin Peaks , and I ended up liking that quite a bit. Their most recent studio album, Girl With a Basket of Fruit , is just really incoherent and just never clicked for me. Now, we have a duets album from them titled OH NO . There are some names I recognized on here like Liars and Sharon Van Etten, and many other names I didn’t recognize. Well, let’s just say that this album was aptly titled. I can give points where they’re due, and I’m glad that frontman Jamie Stewart is showing off his musical chops pretty well. It’s an overall cohesive project, with most of the songs sounding the same. That’s where t...