Cordavision Music Reviews

Ther's a great Hulk Hogan bit on here. Quite frankly, I have no idea who The Koreatown Oddity is. I’ve heard his music, especially one of the best albums of 2020, Little Dominique’s Nosebleed , and that certainly grabbed my attention for his career. To put it in perspective, I think Nosebleed is one of the best releases on the Stones Throw label, which includes classic albums like Madvillainy , J Dilla’s Donuts , and Yes Lawd! from Knxwledge and Anderson .Paak. It’s in very good company, and now, we have an official follow-up to it titled ISTHISFORREAL? , so let’s not waste any time and get into it. I should most likely state that I’m not looking for this project to top Nosebleed in any way, mainly because I think that project’s the closest thing we have to that lightning-in-a-bottle feeling in rap this decade. That being said, I still really fuck with this album. No matter if it’s an entire album or a feature, you can tell that a lot of passion has been put into this and cares ...

Yes, we know what the color pink is made of, Uzi. I think it’s safe to say that we’re past the peak popularity of SoundCloud rap, and I’m not gonna lie, it was pretty fun. Now, I’m just curious to see who will try to break free of the mold and find out how much longevity their careers have. Rappers like Playboi Carti and even Denzel Curry to some extent have shown in their own ways how they can stay relevant and even innovative, but one of the bigger names that still has some way to prove himself, at least in my opinion, is Lil Uzi Vert. Their breakout track, “XO Tour Llif3,” is arguably the best song to come from this wave, but it’s been many ups and downs since then. Now, as a prelude to the long-teased PINK TAPE , we have the RED & WHITE EP. How does this little taster sound? Let’s get into it. I’m just gonna cut right to the chase here: This is the best Uzi has sounded since LUV is Rage 2 . Having viewed his last project Eternal Atake as a massive disappointment, I feel like ...

Nas jumpscare. I’m gonna be honest with you guys: Joey Bada$$ has never stood out to me that much. Maybe I was late to that party, but I do like his last studio album, 2015’s All-Amerikkkan Bada$$ . Maybe I was just not in the right mindset for his breakout mixtape 1999 , and his The Light EP from a little while back just came and went. Luckily, his loose single “The Revenge,” which was pretty awful, doesn’t make his new project 2000 , the sequel to the aforementioned mixtape that put him on everyone’s radar. Does this album bring him back to his own standards? Let’s get into it. What I probably like the most about this project is the beat choices. Nearly every beat complimented Joey’s voice and flow pretty well, so it was a very nice combo of the two. I’ve always been critical of his writing, but I really liked it when he got personal like on “Survivors Guilt” and “Eulogy,” which I think were the peaks of this album. Any track with Westside Gunn is also a little bit of a neuron activ...

This cover just reminds me of Vespertine . Rico Nasty has been an artist I’ve been keeping my eye on for a while. The mixtape she released with Kenny Beats was really the first time I had even heard of her, and it was great. Her debut album from a couple years back, Nightmare Vacation , was also very enjoyable, and it even got her that mainstream appeal that I think she’s been deserving for a while now. After Nightmare Vacation , I was wondering if she’d stick with the more mainstream sound or not. After announcing her next mixtape Las Ruinas and some of the singles, it seemed like it was going to get much more experimental, which really excited me. So, let’s not waste any time and get into Las Ruinas . I’d say that the biggest change when it comes to Rico herself is her lyrics. They’re much more vulnerable than the other stuff I’ve heard, and this gives the mixtape a whole new layer that I like to hear. Alongside that, the turn to a more experimental sound helps make Las Ruinas a pr...

First off, Tinker Bell isn’t overrated. Honestly, I’ve always liked the sound of beabadoobee. The first time I’d even heard of her, like most of us, was being sampled on that one Tik Tok song about a cup of coffee or something. I’m not even bothered to look up what that song is because I’m not even a fan of it. Either way, it helped me discover bea, and her debut album, 2020’s Fake It Flowers , is actually pretty good, so I’d be tuning in to whatever she did next. Lo and behold, we now have Beatopia in our grasp, so let’s just get into it. What I like the most about this is the production and overall vibe of the album. It reminds me a lot of the radio hits of the late 90s and early 2000s, and quite frankly, the rose-colored nostalgia glasses are on for that era. The use of genres like folk, indie pop, singer-songwriter, and dream pop keep the sound of this album evolving throughout to keep the listener on their toes. Combining that with the impressive vocals from Bea makes for a dream...

CAPRISONGS vs. Gemini Rights . Fight. I’ve always enjoyed Steve Lacy’s work with a catch. Oddly enough, his first solo album Apollo XXI really didn’t do anything for me at all, but his work with Odd Future-adjacent R&B group The Internet has always stood out to me more than his solo work. I am a sucker for some good neo-soul though, so why Apollo XXI didn’t click for me is beyond me. Either way, I’ve been pretty excited about his next release, Gemini Rights . How does it sound? Let’s get into it. In a weird way, there was an immediate comparison that I made a little bit after my first listen of this, and it was André 3000’s The Love Below , the second half of Outkast’s iconic double album. There’s no deep comparison on it like a similar theme or Lacy sounding like 3 Stacks at all, that’s just the vibe I felt while listening to this. Another thing about this is that this is beautifully produced across the board. Lacy’s voice, the beats, everything just comes together so smoothly. H...

Luckily, this didn’t sound like hell was engulfing my eardrums. There was a little phase last year where there were a bunch of post-punk albums that really clicked for me. One of my more controversial takes is that I thought that black midi’s Cavalcade , which is considered by many to be one of the best albums of last year, was just a little bit overrated. I understand the raw talent from each member, but I thought that it didn’t gel as well as their first album, Schlagenheim . However, this might be a different story. I haven’t heard any of the singles ahead of Hellfire , so I’m going into this completely blind. This is getting even higher praise than Cavalcade , not that that matters to me, but it’s worth pointing that out. Let’s not waste any more time and get into Hellfire . Since I never went into detail about it, I prefer Schlagenheim over Cavalcade because the more chaotic sound suits the group much more. I think that was sacrificed with more complex tracks on the latter, whic...

There are three different people with the name Chris involved in one song, it’s basically the Marvel movies now. It’s no secret that Lizzo is a star at this point. While I appreciate her social media game about positivity (even if it’s not necessarily for me), I thought her last album, Cuz I Love You , is quite good. Some songs from that project are still in my rotation, and “Boys” is one of my favorite pop hits from the past decade. That being said, whatever Lizzo did next from a music standpoint would have my attention. While “About Damn Time” was certainly a fine song, it just didn’t do anything. Either way, we have Special now, so let’s just get into it. Right off the bat, I’m very happy that the song she did with Cardi B isn’t on this because it’s one of her worst songs. That’s a good start. Like on her past music, her voice is honestly what hits it out of the park for me, and while it doesn’t hit the same heights as her last album, it’s still very good. Where this project lacks,...

They’re just little trolls. If you know, you know. I’m still just a little baby when it comes to metal in general, so grindcore is basically a new concept to me entirely. I’ve heard the iconic one, the great Nails’s Unsilent Death , and I covered the last Full of Hell album on this site. This time, though, is essentially my first dive into grindcore without any background on the group, this group being Wormrot. Hiss is the name of the project, so let’s get into what I thought about it. I’m of the mindset that grind needs to have that nasty edge, you know? I feel like it’s a given, but I feel like I gotta state this since this is one of the first times I’m covering it on here. So, that being said, I don’t have all the knowledge there is about grindcore or powerviolence or anything like that. However, this project is nasty as all hell. This has a lot of ambition laced into the performances and songwriting as well, with vocalist Arif Rot having had to sell his soul to the devil for his s...

I certainly hope this album isn’t a wasteland. I really don’t know much about Brent Faiyaz, and I was pretty late to the party when it comes to him too. The first time I heard him was as a feature on Tyler, the Creator’s CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST , and he sounded great. I gave a listen to his Sonder Son album not long after that and liked it too, and it ended up being the same with Fuck The World . It may not have been as long for me as the fans who’ve been with him for years, but we now have WASTELAND , a brand new project from him. How does it sound? Let’s get into it. First off, the production is rich and full of life here. It feels very cinematic, and that’s helped by the surprisingly great skits that are placed throughout the album. It’s not often where the skits can be that engaging, but what about the actual songs? A great throughline is Brent’s voice, which is always mesmerizing enough to keep your attention on the music. Something that I think has improved here is his songwriti...

I mean, we all need a good warm-up every now and then. The fact that I’ve covered him on this site five times should say how I feel about Westside Gunn. I don’t even think he needs a proper introduction at this point. For the past few months, he’s been teasing his next album, Michelle Records , but after attending Fashion Week in Paris, he decided to make a new project titled Peace "FLY" God simply because he wanted to. He was so hyped about this project that he released it without mixing or mastering, which God knows what that means at this point. Either way, let’s get into Peace "FLY" God and see how I felt about it. I don’t really mention mixing and mastering and all that because I try to keep these reviews understandable to the masses; I especially don’t want to come off as pretentious or have a holier-than-thou attitude because I know how it works. However, it has to be mentioned here because it could completely affect how you react to this project. Because o...

Honestly, the fact that you’re reading this review now is a big deal to me. I *very* rarely mention anniversaries of albums that I love, but this is simply different. To go even further, hearing channel ORANGE for the first time as a kid was transformative. I saw this little orange CD on the new release stand at the local library and decided to pick it up. Again, I was literally 10 when this came out, so I had no idea what the intricacies of love and romance even were at that point, but putting that little disc inside my shitty portable CD player was certainly something. I literally didn’t know that a song could as perfect as “Pyramids” was and still is. Let me just be honest with something: This is my favorite album of all time. I gave it a relisten last night/this morning just to see if it’s in the running, and it easily took the cake. The only thing that bothers me about the digital version is that the final track doesn’t include the hidden track, “Golden Girl” with Tyler, the Crea...

Is it bad to say that I want Moor of this? I’ll see myself out... I’ve spoken about Moor Mother on here before, and I think she’s one of the most important artists working right now. Her last album, Black Encyclopedia of the Air , was one of last year’s best albums and I continue to go back to it every now and then. Now, we have Jazz Codes , which could be seen as a love letter to jazz, and every section of it is written by one of the mystifying artists of this decade so far. Let’s get into what I thought about Jazz Codes . Let me just say right off the bat that, like most of Moor Mother’s records, this isn’t that much of an easy listen. While it’s still very much an abstract rap album to its core, there are many more genres of music at hand here. Multiple subgenres of jazz like spiritual jazz, free jazz, and avant-garde jazz are just as prevalent as abstract and jazz rap. Even the ambient undertones here add more and more layers to this project. Many tracks on here feel uncanny and et...

Welcome to the new edition of The Gauntlet Run. I’m gonna go through some albums/EPs that I didn’t get the chance to review when they dropped within the past few months! These aren’t going to be too thorough, but hopefully, it’s enough to tide you over on the projects I didn’t check out. Alanis Morissette - The Storm Before the Calm An Alanis Morissette ambient album was certainly something that wasn’t on my bingo card, and admittedly, this isn’t that bad. However, this is longer than Finding Nemo , and any album longer than Finding Nemo automatically loses a couple of stars. Angel Olsen - Big Time I’ll state once again that country music has never been my thing, but when I do pick out country music I like, it’s mainly because of the writing. Angel Olsen is no different, and even with this, the production is very nice too! Artificial Brain - Artificial Brain Science fiction-inspired death metal is a very cool concept on paper, and it sounds even better when it hits your eardrums. What...

If you wanna know my thoughts on the movie itself, click here ! If you anything about director Baz Luhrmann, he’s always used music in his movies in relatively weird ways, whether you like it or not. A prominent example is his adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby , which has heavy involvement from Jay-Z, serving as an executive producer for the film and its soundtrack. Oddly enough, one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in a movie recently is Tobey Maguire narrating over “No Church in the Wild” from Watch the Throne . We now have a similar soundtrack for Luhrmann’s latest film, a biopic of music icon Elvis Presley. The movie’s fantastic, but since the music is so tied to it, it’s gotta be judged on its own. Let’s see how the ELVIS soundtrack does. There are a few distinct categories for the tracks: 1. Recordings of Elvis repurposed for the movie, 2. Austin Butler actually singing Elvis songs taken from the movie, and 3. Existing Elvis tracks being remixed by artist...