Cordavision Music Reviews

Australians are fucking crazy, man. That’s the biggest takeaway I got from this. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard really have it going for them. They’ve been a functioning band for ten years now, and not including live albums, they have twenty studio albums. Twenty. I’m on a trek to listen to all of them right now, and I think I have about seven down. Their third release this year, Omnium Gatherum , is their longest studio effort yet with 80 minutes in length. The Aussies gave us a lot to unpack in this album, so let’s not waste any time and get into Omnium Gatherum . At this point, it’s predictable for King Gizz to be unpredictable, and I’d say that this is one of the most all-over-the-place they’ve released yet. If they were throwing ideas at the wall to see what stuck, they did everything and included the wall. The elements of rock, metal, pop, electronic, soul, and even rap just combine to make a smorgasbord of sound. Even one of the band member’s grandmother plays the role of a ...

Just saw a comment that Macklemore runs the coke game. Going off Twitter for a while. Pusha T has been a part of rap for a long time now, and he’s shown no signs of slowing down. After his near-perfect album DAYTONA , there was no telling what he’d do next. From a savage Drake diss to a McDonald’s diss track for Arby’s, he’s been coasting on the waves recently. His latest album, It’s Almost Dry , has been highly anticipated by me for the past couple of years now. With one half being produced by Kanye West and the other half by Pharrell Williams, it’s gonna be a wild ride. Does it live up to the hype? Let’s get into it. Right off the bat, I feel like I have to say which beats I prefer on this album, and it’s an interesting case here. When it comes to consistency, I think Pharrell’s beats are the best here. His futuristic style has been something new for Push and that’s the perfect new sound for him to rap over. Speaking of his rapping, Push is once again in top form with his rapping. Ho...

The cover used is gorgeous alternate art for this album and might be cover of the year for me. I’ve reviewed SAULT before, and I’ve liked pretty much everything the group has released. Only one out of a couple of the known members, Inflo, has come out of the shadows since nearly every other member is anonymous. Their two UNTITLED albums, Black Is and Rise , are all great alongside their Nine album, which is currently only available on physical media like vinyl. Their signature neo-soul/R&B sound works very well, but on Air , we’re getting something entirely different. What is it? Let’s get into Air and unravel the mystery. Let’s just get the cat out of the bag: this is just a classical album. No way to sugarcoat it, this is a modern classical album. I’ve never heard SAULT go in this direction at all, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. One of 2021’s best albums, Little Simz’s Sometimes I Might Be Introvert , which has gorgeous classical-style production, was...

Dot. Dot. Dot. Acclaimed Swedish house producers Axwell, Steve Angello, and Sebastian Ingrosso make up the supergroup of hitmakers known as Swedish House Mafia. After 2012, the name pretty much disappeared for nearly a decade while the three producers still worked separately, even together in duos in some cases. All of a sudden, back in 2021, the name started popping up again, dropping a couple of loose singles. One of them, “Moth to a Flame,” ended up featuring one of the biggest musicians in the world right now, The Weeknd. It became such a success that it not only ended up on this album, Paradise Again , but it also ended up on the deluxe edition of The Weeknd’s latest album Dawn FM . They even shared a set at Coachella together just last night. Believe it or not, Paradise Again is the group’s first studio album. Does it live up to the decade-long hype? Let’s get into it. Admittedly, house and EDM music has really grown off me and my ever-evolving music taste in the past couple of ...

*put on hacker glasses* Looks like he’s off the grid… Fivio Foreign has been on a roll recently. Even if I’ve only heard features and a couple of loose tracks from him, I can’t deny that he’s been running drill music at this point right now. Ever since his absolutely wild breakout feature on “Off The Grid” from Kanye West’s Donda , Fivio has been on a lot of people’s radars and I’ve personally been waiting for an album to capitalize on that talent to become a superstar. I hope that B.I.B.L.E. is that album, so let’s get into it. I think that Fivio’s talent as a rapper is shown off pretty well here and his writing even holds up throughout most of the album. The production is surprisingly well done here too, but after seeing that Mike Dean had a large hand in it, I’m not surprised it’s this good. However, it just continued on and on and on and on and on and on and on. This project was too long for its own good and it got real old really quickly to me. It starts off very strong, but I t...

Literally took a couple minutes to figure out what the hell this cover was, but it’s cool, I guess. I’ve been aware of Yung Lean for a while now and he honestly hasn’t done that much for me when it comes to his music. Sure, the pictures of him with Kanye West and Rei Ayanami from Neon Genesis Evangelion are insanely funny to me, but that’s the most positive I’ve been with him. Finally, Lean gets put in the Cordavision chamber with Stardust , his first project in a couple years that I’ve been eager to check out. Let’s get into it. You know, I’ll give it this one thing: It was never boring. Each track had something I liked about it, whether it was Lean himself, the production, or a featured artist, but for an odd reason, it all never really came together. I know it’s very cliche to compare an album to a rollercoaster, but it really felt like that. It took many twists and turns, and I really didn’t know what to expect from the next song while listening to it. The only track I really did ...

No, Mr. John Misty, get away from the lady in the radiator!! It’s interesting to see the discourse around Josh Tillman, known professionally as Father John Misty. It’s not that he’s a piece of shit person or anything, it all revolves around the music. I know people that adore his music. I know people that just despise his music. I really don’t know what it is, mainly because I’m just so divided on him. Yes, he’s a very talented musician who deserves to get critical acclaim, but in most of the music, he just comes off as a pretentious douche. Tillman has come out and said that FJM is a character and doesn’t reflect himself, but I can’t help but feel put off by it. Maybe that’s why his last album, 2018’s God’s Favorite Customer , worked so well with me. It was stripping back that pretentiousness and looking under the microscope of Father John Misty, like everything was planned. I’m hoping the same with Chloë and the Next 20th Century , with some fantastic art direction all around. Let’s ...

Ramona Flowers Broke My Heart. I’ve always liked Vince Staples in some capacity. Hell Can Wait and Summertime 06 are good albums for me to go back to every now and then, Big Fish Theory and FM! are boundary-pushing projects that are some of my favorites of the years they dropped, but the first time he kind of disappointed me was his Kenny Beats-produced self-titled album from last year. Admittedly, it did grow on me a little as time went on, but it’s still the project I revisit the least from him. That didn’t stop me from being hyped for Ramona Park Broke My Heart to the point where I didn’t even listen to the singles when they dropped. Let’s get into Ramona Park Broke My Heart and see what I thought about it. There’s still a part of me that really wants another Big Fish Theory -esque album with more electronic production, but it seems like that was for one album. I do think that there’s been a little bit of a trade-off in Vince as a performer, with the more bombastic deliveries go...

Why not continue to be great, you know? For how busy this week is for music, this is by far one of my most anticipated releases of the year. Ever since I saw Armand Hammer live, both Billy Woods and ELUCID have shot up some of my favorite artists working right now. When it comes to Woods specifically, it’s always been interesting to dissect what he’s speaking about in his music. It even began earlier with the announcement of this album, Aethiopes , where I discussed what the cover was with some friends and researched the topic. It sounds a little nerdy, but I think it actually helped me prepare for what kind of project we’re gonna get into with this. Aethiopes is produced entirely by Preservation and the features include ELUCID, El-P, Quelle Chris, Denmark Vassey, and Boldy James, among others. Let’s get into Aethiopes . I’m not gonna sugarcoat this statement, so I’ll just say it: I’m pretty sure I’m not smart enough to get the whole concept of this album just yet. I’ve typically run ...

“Graphic design is my passion.” You wanna know something? I love a surprise album release in general. This was announced the day before it dropped, and it honestly got me pretty hyped. The Dreamville label has been on a roll recently, especially with pretty good albums from J. Cole and EARTHGANG very recently (Where’s that album, J.I.D?). I honestly think now’s a great time for the label to prove that they should be watched by everyone. Does D-Day reaffirm their place in rap? Let’s get into it. Honestly, there aren’t many things I have to say about this. That being said, this project really didn’t do much for me, but the artists I focus on from Dreamville proved why I like them so much. J. Cole, J.I.D, and EARTHGANG all did their thing, and I’ve been warming up to Ari Lennox recently, but everything else on this project wasn’t it for me. It really only seemed like this was put out to keep the Dreamville name relevant, which I do think the label needs, but the artists could put much mo...