Cordavision Music Reviews

I had a reaction to this ready to edit, but I didn’t hit the record button. I’m an idiot. Posthumous albums walk a fine line. If they’re done well, it’s a tribute to the deceased artist. If it isn’t, it comes off as a shameless cash grab. In 2020, we got some pretty good posthumous albums, even if it did mean we had some tragic losses. Juice WRLD and Pop Smoke each had really good tributes with Legends Never Die and Shoot For the Stars, Aim For the Moon respectively, but 2020’s crown jewel was Mac Miller’s swan songs, Circles . It set a high bar for posthumous releases that I didn’t think could be reached this soon. Tragically, the newest posthumous album comes from DMX, who suddenly passed away last April at the age of 50. This project, Exodus , was mostly finished before his death and the production was mostly handled by his close friend, Swizz Beatz. Unlike DMX’s past projects, there are a bunch of features here. The LOX, Jay-Z, Nas, Lil Wayne, Moneybagg Yo, Alicia Keys, Bono, Gri...

I’m aware this came out a while ago, and yes I’m reviewing it now. Black Dresses aren’t a band. They aren’t one anymore, at least. In 2020, the duo consisting of Ada Rook and Devi McCallion dropped their breakout album, Peaceful as Hell . It was a noisy, ‘not-for-everyone,’ and dizzying album that sounded nothing like it. Then, it was gone. Not long after it was released, Rook and McCallion ended Black Dresses, mainly having to do with harassment from fans. The rest of their music also got taken off of streaming services, and you can only find their stuff on the group’s Bandcamp page. Even though they aren’t working as Black Dresses anymore, though, that doesn’t mean that new music has seen the light of day. This past Valentine’s Day, Forever in Your Heart was released onto the internet with no fanfare. It was essentially plopped into the laps of their fans, erratic or not. It also came with this message: ‘We're no longer a band, unfortunately. Regardless, we've decided to kee...

This one sparks joy. I honestly am not familiar with CHAI’s previous work and who they are. I’ve heard some singles from this project here, and they worked with JPEGMAFIA on the last Gorillaz album Song Machine - Season One: Strange Timez , which has definitely grown on me. The Peggy/CHAI collab is one of my favorites off that project, and since I already know about Peggy, I should wait to see what happens with CHAI in the future. Lo and behold, that new project is here. WINK is the name, and indie-pop is CHAI’s game. Let’s get into it. WOW, this thing is weird. First, the production is pretty nice. It’s nice to hear elements of future funk in a major album release, and it honestly gives me hope for that subgenre. The opening track “Donuts Mind if I Do” is relaxing and quite catchy. There are a lot of elements of dance in “Nobody Knows We Are Fun” and “IN PINK,” “END” is a legitimately strange track in the best ways possible, and “PING PONG” has some chiptune vibes that are so legitim...

I’m still blown away that Westside Gunn blocked me for complimenting his album art smh. Not much is known about Newark rapper Mach-Hommy. He’s 38 years old, and I’d tell you to listen to his projects if you were even able to. Not a lot of his albums are on streaming services, including his best, The G.A.T. At one point, he was on Griselda Records, dropping his big breakout project H.B.O. (Haitian Body Odor) on the label. He and fellow rapper Tha God Fahim fell out with the label, but now, it seems like Mach’s made some amends. Not only is his fifth major studio album, Pray for Haiti , a Griselda release, it was entirely curated and masterminded by label founder Westside Gunn. An added bonus is that this is actually on major streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify. How does Mach-Hommy sound on his Griselda return? Let’s find out. In a way, this is a bit of a spiritual successor to WSG’s 2020 project Pray for Paris . WSG’s project was a love letter to the luxury of Paris, but M...

This might be the best time to say that this album proves Olivia Rodrigo isn’t an industry plant. Before 2021, I had heard of the name Olivia Rodrigo. Hell, I’ve even seen hee act in some things. High School Musical: The Musical: The Series is mainly what I knew her from, and she’s done a pretty good job in that so far. When she truly hit stardom was the very beginning of the year with her debut single “driver’s license.” Arguably the biggest hit of the year so far, it took the world by storm and while I do feel it was a little overplayed, it was a phenomenal first single. She’s kept up the momentum with her latest two singles, “deja vu” and “good 4 u,” so what’s next? A streamlined debut project titled SOUR . If the quality of her first singles is any indication, we’d have something special here. Is SOUR that project? We’ll find out right now. It’s pretty obvious that Rodrigo is an artist of our generation. There isn’t a concept per se here, but each song has a common theme. This is...

JUST CROP THE COVER BETTER. IT WOULD’VE BEEN SO GREAT IF YOU COULD SEE MORE OF THAT STUPID DRAGON. Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun, better known as twenty one pilots, have been a very scattered band for me. I’ve always found their music enjoyable, though, don’t get me wrong. They haven’t put out an inherently bad album yet. Their two best in my opinion, Vessel and Trench , just mean that they were the most consistent releases, the albums I’ve returned to the most. Their other albums like their self-titled, their breakout Blurryface , and even their often overlooked Regional at Best just haven’t hit that hard even with their standout singles. Three years after Trench and a couple loose tracks, they’re finally back in full capacity with Scaled and Icy , their sixth studio effort. How did I feel about this? Let’s find out. Let me just get this out of the way: I was very very VERY nervous about this album. Nearly every single on here just didn’t vibe with me. “Shy Away,” “Saturday,” and “Choke...

An old car on a Black Keys album cover. What can go wrong? I’ve never really the biggest fan of cover albums. I don’t have anything against covers, though, they can be very fun. One of my favorite songs of all time is Frank Ocean’s cover of The Isley Brothers’ “At Your Best (You Are Love)” from his album, Endless. It mainly has to do with the ‘album’ concept of covers that I don’t really get. Looking at more recent examples, Weezer put out a covers album a few years back, their Teal Album , and it was fun and certainly was technically sound. At the completely other end of the quality spectrum, Glen Danzig put out an Elvis covers album. Sounds decent on paper, right? It was awful. Everything about it was bad, Danzig’s vocals and the production included. Hell, I don’t even pay attention to mixing on albums, but good god the mixing was bad. Now, we have a covers album from Ohio duo The Black Keys, which is renditions of blues rock songs from blues-rock artists that were around in the 50s ...

Since I just watched some Alpharad videos, I could only think of Dr. Bustdown while listening to this. I like R&B. I tend to gravitate to the 70s-80s R&B like Marvin Gaye, but I always like to give this new generation a shot. Jorja Smith is definitely one of the newer artists that caught my eye when I first heard her on the Black Panther soundtrack, and when I listened to her debut album Lost & Found , I was instantly captivated. She has such an amazing voice with a lot of emotion, and because of those reasons, it made her into a name to watch for in R&B. Now, I’ve been waiting for her second album for a while now, and to tide the wait, she’s just dropped an EP aptly titled Be Right Back . I don’t have any reason to doubt her talent, so this is a pretty exciting drop. Let’s get into it. Again, let me say that Smith sounds fantastic on this whole project. Like on her debut, you can feel the weight in her voice and just how talented of a singer she really is. Outside of ...

Come on, these boys aren’t anonymous. Their faces are on the cover, silly boys. Louie Pastel and Felix, better known together as Paris Texas, really caught my attention on Twitter. BROCKHAMPTON member Kevin Abstract and Detroit rapper Danny Brown have championed this duo and it definitely caused me to decide to listen to their debut project, BOY ANONYMOUS . I really don’t have an intro to this mainly because I don’t know anything about these guys. Let’s get right into BOY ANONYMOUS . So, the sound of this project is pretty much some alternative rap, that left-field kind of stuff. Where I do think Paris Texas struggle are the slower songs, but I can commend them trying to be as dynamic as they are on this project. I really liked the track “HEAVY METAL” a lot, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a single leading into it or will become a single. “CASINO” and “FORCE OF HABIT” were also a lot of fun. I personally enjoyed the more energetic tracks like “PACK 4 DA LOW” and the aforementio...

Wow, I didn’t know that Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg could reinvent themselves so drastically. I gotta be honest with you, this isn’t my type of music. I’ve always had an appreciation for rock music like this, but it’s never been my personal favorite. Annie Clark, better known as St. Vincent, has always been an artist that has consistently brought her a-game to every release she’s done. Now, her latest project, Daddy’s Home , is one of the most anticipated rock records of the year. Straight to the point intro here, so let’s get right into the album. Right off the bat, this album isn’t what I expected. The cover gives off some vintage, 70s soul vibe and it’s actually a really great look for Clark. As I said earlier, this is a rock album through and through. The production on this is clean and smooth as fuck, it almost feels magical. Super-producer Jack Antonoff gave his golden touch to this, and as always, it’s fantastic across the board. It’s really going for that 70s style and nosta...

Slaughter Gang doing a horror movie soundtrack is so perfect, it’s unbelievable it hasn’t happened sooner. For those that don’t know, I’m a bit of a film buff. Since I’m fully vaccinated and theaters are starting to open back up where I live, I’ve been to the theaters a little more. I saw Mortal Kombat and I thought it was just okay, and at the time of me writing this, I’m actually going to see Army of the Dead tonight. A few days ago, I also saw Spiral , the new SAW film with Chris Rock. Once it came out that 21 Savage is executive producing a soundtrack to the film, my excitement for the movie just went through the roof. Admittedly, I was disappointed to see that it was just an EP, but maybe this could mean that it’s the best of the best. Not only is 21 Savage heavily involved, his group Slaughter Gang have a posse track too. How did this little side-project for 21 go? Let’s find out. Now, let me just come right out of the gate and say that this is no Black Panther soundtrack. It...

The way that Dreamville basically stole the hype from TDE should be in the history books. J. Cole has been a rapper that I’ve always been very hot and cold on. His features in the past few years have been fantastic, his contributions to his label’s compilation Revenge of the Dreamers III are pretty great, and his album 4 Your Eyez Only is one of the most underrated and underappreciated albums of the 2010s. He has the technical ability as a rapper, and he’s shown in the past that he can be an entertaining artist, but most of his albums to me have just been a little… boring. That may send wildfires through the internet like Fantano’s opinions on Cole, but that’s just what I think about it. I’m really hoping that The Off-Season is different though, with his career officially coming to a close soon. Is it different? Let’s find out. Let’s get my favorite part of the album out of the way, and that’s the production. The beats done on here are absolutely fantastic, especially “m y . l i f e...

How does Gene Simmons say that rock music is dead but we have bands like this working? I’ve been telling you that I’ve been moving into post-punk music, right? If you haven’t seen my high praises for the new Squid and Black Country, New Road albums, I’m a new fan to the genre. I’ve also been listening to a lot of Iceage, a band that most fans of the genre consider to be one of the more consistent groups of the bunch. Their latest project, Seek Shelter , is set to be another entry into their discography that will please longtime fans, along with bringing in some new ones. I’m in the latter of this crowd, although I’ve heard most of their albums beforehand. How is Seek Shelter ? Let’s find out. To new fans, this is just a new album to check out, but for someone who’s listened and relatively enjoyed a bulk of Iceage’s music, this is a pretty big switch in sound for them. Yes, it still has a dark and gothic vibe, but now there are elements of country, Americana, and even some mainstream al...

There are sadly no sea creatures involved in this album :( Call me crazy, but this post-punk craze in 2021 has been a tiny bit underwhelming. Bands like Idles and Shame have had decent records in the past few months, but what really picked up the scene for me was Black Country, New Road’s debut record For the first time . That album is one of my favorites of the year so far and has really inspired me to dive into the post-punk scene. When I had entered this scene, I had heard rumbles of a relatively new band, Squid. They had dropped a few singles from this album, Bright Green Field , and I decided to intentionally avoid them, just like I did with For the first time . Simply put, I had to give this a few extra listens before I sat down and wrote this out. Is that a good thing? Is that a bad thing? Let me tell you. Going in without listening or even knowing the singles from this album was a pretty great decision. God, this album is catchy as fuck. My favorite track off this was “Narrator...

Let it sink in that this was supposed to come out a year ago… Weezer has been one of the most overrated bands to me for the longest time. I’ve tried my hardest to like some of their music, but I just couldn’t do it. I understand that they’re a beloved alternative band, but come on, I don’t get the appeal of this nerdy power pop band. A big red flag for me during the lead up to Van Weezer was that this was supposed to come out ONE YEAR AGO. Literally, the first single came out at the end of 2019. I listened to their album from earlier this year OK Human , and it was actually alright. They were considering that album as a little side album to feed the fans before this big release, and honestly, OK Human actually convinced me that I should actually sit down and write a review on Van Weezer . Let’s sit down and sift through this, shall we? Let me throw some positives into the air first. It seems like Weezer are still really passionate about music and don’t sound bored on this project. Th...

I think this is definitely one of the better pop album arts of the year, just saying. Bebe Rexha has been an artist that has always perplexed me as a popular name. She’s written some popular songs over the years, the biggest being Rihanna’s chorus on Eminem’s track “The Monster.” Ever since then, she’s just slowly become a bigger and bigger name, much to my surprise. I just didn’t understand it, honestly. Even after hearing all of her EPs and her last studio album, I still didn’t get anything from it, content or popularity. It just felt like the generic pop music that Spotify would cram into any of their pop playlists. Outside of some great hooks she’s written and performed, she didn’t have a defined personality yet. Maybe her newest album, Better Mistakes , would be a change of pace. Is this the project that finally defines Rexha? Let’s find out. When it comes to the production, there’s mainly a pop/R&B vibe to it. There’s even some emo-trap aesthetics thrown in, but it feels very...

This just proves how much I miss DOOM, man. It’s okay if you don’t know who CZARFACE is, so let me update you on that. CZARFACE is a rap supergroup masterminded by 7L and Esoteric. The underground duo formed this group with Wu-Tang Clan member Inspectah Deck for this comic book-sequel persona, very similar to MF DOOM’s aesthetic. They put out a few albums that were okay, but what really caught my attention was CZARFACE Meets Metal Face , an entire album with MF DOOM. That was absolutely insane to hear. A Wu-Tang member with MF DOOM on a whole album? That’s crazy. Now, before the pandemic and DOOM’s sudden passing, they recorded a second album together. Super What? hasn’t seen the light of day until now because of the pandemic, and this is the first posthumous appearance of DOOM on anything since his passing. It’s a big deal, and with that comes high expectations. Did it live up to those expectations? Let’s find out. As you expect, nearly all of the beats on here are jazzy, chilled, an...

The crayons on the cover are just not that pleasing to me, just saying. You remember when the disco revival was going down last year? Dua Lipa, Jessie Ware, Kylie Minogue, and Katy Perry were all getting in on that trend. In all of that whirlwind was an album that completely slipped under my radar: Róisín Murphy’s Róisín Machine . I only heard it earlier this year, and while I thought it was good, I just simply enjoyed Dua Lipa’s album better. Now, when I had heard that there was a reinvention of this album coming out this year, I had to see what was going down. Crooked Machine is a remixed version of Róisín Machine , and instead of a futuristic new take on disco, her frequent collaborator Richard Barratt decided to move into a completely different direction: house. Specifically, deep house. It’s very unexpected, but something that caught my eye enough to write about it. Who knows, this review will most likely flop, but I hope it doesn’t. Let’s get into Crooked Machine . As stated, Cr...

Oddly enough, I ate some broccoli when I listened to this album. Dude, you have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for this album. It hasn’t been high up on my list of anticipated projects, but god dammit, I’m so excited about this. Shelley is one of those artists that I’ve been dying to drop at some point. If you don’t know the name Shelley, you’d know the name DRAM. You remember “Broccoli” with Lil Yachty? Yes, that guy. Shelley FKA DRAM is his first studio effort in five years, and he’s quite different since we last heard him. Coming with the name change, Shelley has introduced a more sophisticated and even seductive sound that could work very well with his new image. Let’s get right into it, shall we? If you were (or still are) a fan of his breakout tracks like “Cute” or the aforementioned “Broccoli,” you’re not gonna find anything like that here. Changing to his stage name comes a new sound: classic 90s R&B. He isn’t really reinventing the wheel here, but it’s still a smooth ...

it honestly really bothers me when people type like this, but for the sake of artistry, i will keep the artist and album name in all lowercase letters. Marie Ulven, better known as girl in red, has been an anomaly in music to me. Bedroom pop is a genre that’s usually right up my alley, and if done right, tracks about mental health can be very impactful. I’ve liked some of her earlier tracks, especially “we fell in love in october.” She’s already been winning Norwegian Grammys (or a Spellemannprisen), but why am I not more excited for her first studio album? That’s where the anomaly comes in. I’ve heard all the singles from this and I’ve liked all of them, but now that the album’s out, I just haven’t been as excited as I thought. Who knows, maybe when I sit down and write out my thoughts, they’ll finally form. Let’s speak about if i could make it go quiet . Let me start off by saying that Ulven is a decent songwriter. My favorite single and overall track from this, “Serotonin,” is a ver...

Cool Bug Fact: This is the best cover art of the year so far. The Alchemist is back. Again. Earlier this year, he dropped a collaborative effort with Armand Hammer titled Haram, which ended up being my favorite Armand Hammer project and one of my favorite albums of the year so far. Now, he’s back with a new solo EP called This Thing of Ours . He’s never really disappointed with his recent EPs, Bread and Lunch Meat. This EP here follows the same structure as those last projects. It’s 8 tracks, the first half is the songs with vocals, the second half are the instrumentals of said songs. It’s got a good lineup of features from Earl Sweatshirt, Boldy James, Navy Blue, Maxo, Pink Siifu, and Sideshow. I’m pretty excited for this project, so let’s just get right into it. God, the beats on here are so good. Al really outdid himself yet again, and for a career so impressive and legendary, this is something else. They really match the gorgeous cover down below, which makes this album feel like a...

LET FLYLO DO THE BLADE  SCORE PLEASE. I support anything Flying Lotus is involved in. He’s one of my favorite producers of all time, he’s been involved in and has made some of my favorite albums of all time, and he’s really influenced my taste in music. First, let’s give a little context to this project right here. In 2018, Netflix announced that Studio MAPPA, a Japanese animation company behind popular anime like Yuri!!! on Ice , the final season of Attack on Titan , and the upcoming adaptation of popular manga Chainsaw Man , is creating a miniseries for the platform called Yasuke , a story about recorded history’s first black samurai serving under Japanese warlord Oda Nobunaga. While there are slightly more fantastical elements in the miniseries, the core story is still there. LaKeith Stanfield voices Yasuke and executive produced the series along with Flying Lotus himself. Flying Lotus also did the score for this project, which is being considered his seventh studio album. Along...

The mysterious shit prevails again. DJ Khaled is a bit of a hypocrite. After criticizing Tyler, the Creator’s rollout of IGOR (announced Monday and dropped Friday with no singles), which helped him top Khaled’s last album Father of Asahd on the charts, Khaled did a very similar rollout: KHALED KHALED was officially announced Tuesday and dropped Friday with no singles. Well, actually, two Drake collaborations were on this but I totally forgot about them. Either way, DJ Khaled albums are always a star-studded affair, and with that comes a bit of anticipation, no matter what type of reception the album gets. So, before we get into the album and how I felt about it, let me show you all the names that are on this (in order of appearance): Lil Wayne, Jeremih, Lil Baby, Lil Durk, Cardi B, H.E.R., Migos, Post Malone, Megan Thee Stallion, DaBaby, Justin Bieber, 21 Savage, Bryson Tiller, Roddy Ricch, Drake, A Boogie wit da Hoodie, Big Sean, Rick Ross, Puff Daddy, Nas, Jay-Z, James Fauntleroy, ...

Honestly, the goblin on the cover of this would make for a great image on a facemask. I’ll admit something that I had a pretty hard time grasping before I started writing reviews on here: I had very poor music taste. As an example, I pre-ordered both Eminem’s Revival and Migos’ Culture II . That should explain where I was in 2017-2018 pretty well. Ever since then, especially within the last year, I’ve really begun to expand my palette not only on what I listen to but how I listen to it. One of those genres I’ve really dove into is metal, and all types of it too. Black metal, death metal, thrash metal, speed metal, etc. It’s really helped me look into songs as full compositions instead of focusing on one aspect of a track, and let’s just say it’s been an interesting ride. One of these artists that really made me appreciate it in the metal genre is Paysage d’Hiver, a Swiss group that just happened to appear on my radar with their behemoth of an album from last year, Im Wald . When looki...