Cordavision Music Reviews

American Idol -ass cover. I guess I’d say I’m a fan of Yung Lean. Ever since getting into that Drain Gang circle with Bladee and Ecco2k, I’ve always liked what I’ve heard from Yung Lean’s output, even if his last project Stardust didn’t really live up to the other things I’ve heard. However, I was completely out of the loop on this side project of his, jonatan leandoer96. Out of the other songs I’ve heard from this that I checked out after this project, it has more of an indie folk edge to it. On this album, Sugar World , Lean takes a turn into Bowie-esque glam rock. It’s certainly an interesting experiment that piqued my interest, so let’s ride off into Sugar World . I should start off by saying that I’m a fan of artistic risks, with Lil Yachty’s most recent project being the biggest example in recent memory, and while Sugar World is an overall enjoyable listen, there are just a couple of things holding it back from greatness to me. Lean’s vocals are pretty inconsistent in quality t...

Canada’s a real wild place, huh? Ah, the first review of the new year. It’s pretty exciting to see what the standard will be for the first big albums of the year, and the fact that there was a surprise album from The Weeknd that kicked off 2022 and that *wasn’t* the highlight really said something. 2022 was a banner year, and we’re already off to a good start this year. Canadian singer-songwriter Nicole Dollanganger is back, five years after her last album Heart Shaped Bed , with a new album, which came as a surprise to me. She dropped a great single in support of this album last year titled “Whispering Glades,” and mainly because I’m an idiot and didn’t keep track of any other singles, a new album flew off my radar. Basically, Married in Mount Airy came as a wonderful surprise when it came up last week on my calendar. Either way, a new album is here and, most importantly, I’ve heard it. Let’s get into it. I haven’t been riding or dying for Dollanganger’s music in recent months, but t...

Honestly, if you’re heart is quite literally glowing, you might have to see a doctor. Okay, hi. It’s been a hot minute. I’m gonna be more consistent with the reviews and do a little catch-up with some other albums I’ve heard, but this is one I’ve sat on for a while. Weyes Blood has been an artist that I’ve fallen in love with. I know I’m not the only one thinking that her last album, 2019’s Titanic Rising , is probably a contender for the best indie rock album of the 2010s. I think it’s a landmark album that set the bar for indie rock/singer-songwriter albums for this decade. Now, we have something that could match the quality of that: Weyes Blood’s next album. And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow dropped last month, and I’ve had a good amount of time to sit on it. Let’s get into how I felt about it. The reason why I’ve had to take some time with this project is because I’ve had a hard time putting to words just how nice this is to listen to. This has a nostalgic, old school feeling that...

If it’s not blocked in your country, I reacted to this album live on my YouTube channel. Click here to watch it. Okay, let me start off with this. I don’t have to do an intro to Taylor Swift. Whether you like her or not, she’s one of the most recognizable names on the planet. Hell, a testament to this is that this album, Midnights , is set to be the first album in six years to sell over a million copies in its first week. The last time this happened was Swift again. In an age where it’s tough to reach half of a million, it’s really impressive. But I’m not here to talk about sales, I’m here to talk about the music. During the height of the pandemic, she dropped two indie-inspired albums, folklore and evermore . Both of these albums, especially folklore, opened my eyes on how good she was at writing these relatively complex stories into her songs when she teams up with The National. I was blown away by it and, for lack of a better term, I realized I was a Swiftie. Now, in the middle of...

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...

It’s probably just me, but why does this cover make this feel pretentious? It’s been a while since a new Lykke Li project, and I’ve honestly been pretty excited to see what could be coming next from her. I’ve liked her last album, so sad so sexy , although I still have to go through the rest of her albums. This new album’s called EYEYE , and it’s been an audio illusion to try and figure out how to pronounce it, so that would be really appreciated from someone. I really don’t know how else to make an intro to this outside of the joke about the title, so let’s get into EYEYE . You know something? This simply just didn’t do it for me. I’ve typically liked what I’ve heard of Li’s music, but I think it was just too monotonous for me. After looking at the lyrics, though, I think that’s the strongest aspect of this album. While the production was very pretty throughout, I think that her voice just felt… off here. Like, I can’t put my finger on it. I’m typically fine with the airy vocals, but ...

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 ...

Getting some Fantastic Mr. Fox vibes on this one. Big Thief has always interested me, but what really caught my attention was lead singer Adrianne Lenker’s solo album from last year, songs . I just loved her voice and writing style, and after listening to some of Big Thief’s work, it translated very well to the band. Ever since then, I’ve been anticipating whatever Lenker or Big Thief would do next, and we have that in the form of a new double album, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You . It’s a mouthful, I know, but if it’s anything like the group’s other albums, we’re in for a good time. Let’s get into it. Right off the bat, I’ll say that this is a massive album. It’s 20 tracks and a little over 80 minutes long, but miraculously, I wouldn’t cut a single song from this. It’s almost like a jam session happening while you’re sitting around a warm campfire with the group, pretty much like the cover art. Like I said earlier, Lenker’s songwriting and vocals carry over from other proj...

You know what? I might buy this on vinyl for the cover alone. Damon Albarn is a musician I’ve admired for a long time now. He ended up being a gateway to some of my favorite artists ever because of Gorillaz and I’ve always liked his work for Blur, but he hasn’t truly had much of a solo career. He’s released one solo album, 2014’s Everyday Robots, and he confirmed that he has another Gorillaz album planned for some time next year. In the meantime, he’s recorded The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows , announced back in 2019 as a tribute to Iceland. I’ve been excited for this for a while now, so let’s not waste time and get into it. Honestly, there was one album that came to mind when listening to it, and that’s David Bowie’s final album, Blackstar . This album has the oddball, jazzy tone that made Blackstar so beloved and I’m finally glad that there’s a similar album to that. I try not to use direct comparisons like that, but I feel that this was too big to ignore. The pro...

It’s crazy that literally everyone I know was talking about Silk Sonic and I forgot this dropped the same day. When the first album in this new era of Taylor Swift’s career, Fearless (Taylor’s Version) , I ended up giving it a perfect score. It’s not a giant deal or anything like that, but by that logic, would I have to give the other ones the same score? So, we’re gonna change something up. I’ve heard the original Red album from 2012, and it’s safe to assume that the re-recorded songs are going to be relatively the same. So, here’s what’s gonna happen for this review. I’m gonna focus on the From the Vault songs, the cut songs from the original album that were recorded for the first time. So, let’s not waste any more time and get into Red (Taylor’s Version) . Let’s just get through the most anticipated aspect of this album, and that’s the new version of “All Too Well.” Widely considered to be one of her best songs, there was much to this song that was left on the cutting room floor, a...

I’m not one to talk about sound quality, but this sounds so much better on Apple Music than on Spotify or YouTube, it isn’t even funny. Was this a surprise release? If it wasn’t, I didn’t know anything about it. Either way, Lana Del Rey has had a pretty weird history on this site. I gave her last album, Chemtrails Over the Country Club , a perfect score and that caused a little bit of controversy. Looking back on it, it may be an 8 or 9 now, but I still think it’s one of the best albums to drop this year and was a great experience listening to it for the first time. Why did I not hear about Blue Banisters ? After doing some research, this wasn’t a surprise drop. It just wasn’t marketed at all, which is very strange for such a big artist like Lana. I forgot that there were singles for this, so let’s just get right into Blue Banisters . Unlike her last two albums, this has no Jack Antonoff whatsoever. The production team includes Lana herself, Mike Dean, Zachary Dawes, Loren Humphrey, Ba...

I really do love the retro aesthetic of the cover art, though. I don’t cover country music that much here, but I honestly think I should try and give modern country a shot. Why not let it be Kacey Musgraves? Her last album, 2018’s Golden Hour , ended up taking the coveted Album of the Year trophy at the 2019 Grammy Awards and she essentially became a critical darling. In between albums, she ended up going through a divorce, and most of the content on this album is based on Musgraves’ emotional reactions to past events. It could be good, and with the appealing title of star-crossed and a nice album cover, I feel like this could at least be good. So, is star-crossed any good? Let’s see. Look, I don’t wanna start off being negative at all, but what the hell happened with the writing? Even if I’m not the biggest country fan, I do think Musgraves has been a good writer. If this was the first record I’ve heard from her, I wouldn’t have believed you if you told me her writing was good. It’s...

Gonna be flexing some religious/Renaissance painting knowledge here. Halsey has been an artist that’s been incredibly hit or miss for me. Her first couple albums really didn’t do too much for me, if I’m being honest, but her last album, 2020’s Manic , really caught me. Unlike the title, that album seems very refined and ended up really intriguing me to see if Halsey was going to progress as an artist. Right as this album was announced, though, I felt that there was something new happening. I mean, that’s with most albums, but this was special. Before any other details came out about this album, it was revealed that Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross from Nine Inch Nails would be producing the entire album. Then, the title got revealed to be If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power , and with that, I was pretty excited about this. There’s even an IMAX short film, but I personally haven’t seen it yet. There really weren’t any expectations for this since there weren’t any singles released before it,...

I cannot express enough how terrifying this woman is to me. For those that don’t know, that is a positive. Kristin Hayter, known professionally as Lingua Ignota, is someone I’ve had trouble explaining why she’s one of my favorite artists. It’s not every day that your parents ask you what you’re listening to and you answer with “DO YOU DOUBT ME TRAITOR” or All Bitches Die , the name of her breakout album. Hell, I actually credit her for why I decided I wanted to write about music like this. Her last album, the mind-blowing and all-too-real CALIGULA , is a devastating look into abuse and misogyny. In her own words, she stated that CALIGULA takes the listener “through a cycle of abuse," along with looking at "abusive power, madness, depravity, narcissism” that are prevalent in politics and communities alike. I could write a college paper on how visceral CALIGULA is just from Hayter’s lyrics alone, but now, we look to the future. Her newest release, Sinner Get Ready , is here an...

Fun fact: This is the first Bleachers album cover to not just be in black-and-white. I really don’t need to speak about superproducer Jack Antonoff. I’ve already mentioned him in multiple reviews and I already plan on talking about him in future ones, so let’s just get into this. Bleachers is the pseudonym for Antonoff’s solo work, and this is the first time he’s released an album under this name since 2017 and granted, I’ve been pretty excited for this. I’ve only heard one single from this, and it’s the behemoth of a track “Chinatown” with Bruce Springsteen, and it’s pretty much my favorite rock song of the year so far. Along for the ride with Antonoff and The Boss are St. Vincent and Lana Del Rey, who have production and writing credits, respectively, along with a pretty long album name: Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night , which comes from a lyric from the aforementioned “Chinatown.” How’s this looking in the pretty strong space for indie rock this year? Let’s find out. There’s ...

The art department could’ve at least photoshopped out the chair smh. Whether you like it or not, Billie Eilish is one of the biggest stars on the planet right now. Regardless of whatever press she’s getting as a person at the moment, she knows how to make a good song. When Happier Than Ever was officially announced, I was worried mainly because it was April. I may be on the younger side, but that’s quite a while for an album to drop. Either way, the singles didn’t stand out to me either. The only single I genuinely liked from it was “Lost Cause,” which has a whole different thing happening but we don’t have to talk about that now. Now, that album is here, one of the most anticipated albums of the year at that. There’s a lot of hype and industry backing here, and don’t get me wrong, I’m nervous about this album. So, let’s not waste any more time and get into Happier Than Ever . I just gotta say this in both a positive and a negative way: This is a mess. There’s a lot happening here wit...

I didn’t know that John Mayer had such a fascination with wet stones. I’m pretty torn on John Mayer, honestly. It’s pretty obvious that he’s not a great person, but dammit, he’s made some great music. “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room” is one of my favorite songs of all time, and Continuum is hands down one of my favorite albums ever. It’s kind of shocking to me, knowing my taste and all that, but this is really the only solo John Mayer material I like. The rest just hasn’t appealed to me, but his collaborations with Frank Ocean are pretty top tier to me. Now, he returns to the public eye with Sob Rock , his first album in four years. I didn’t listen to any of the singles off this, so I don’t know what to expect from this. Let’s see what Sob Rock has going for it. For an interview as promotion for this album, Mayer called this album a ‘shitpost.’ The official definition of a ‘shitpost’ follows: A deliberately provocative or off-topic comment posted on social media, typically in order t...

I’d buy a Clairo-patented sling blade if she put that merch out, honestly. If you go all the way back to August 2020 for my review of Clairo’s debut album, Immunity , I stated at the very end of it this sentence: ‘I also hope that she gets with Jack Antonoff like Taylor Swift did for folklore in the future.’ I guess I’m fully psychic now, so that’s a plus. The Atlanta-born singer-songwriter has finally dropped her highly anticipated sophomore album, Sling , and guess what? It’s fully produced by Jack Antonoff, who has produced for and worked with Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey, Bruce Springsteen, Carly Rae Jepsen, and Kevin Abstract. Fun fact: That’s only within the past two years. He also already has confirmed work coming out soon. Later this month, he’s returning to his Bleachers name for his newest album Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night and is producing the entirety of Lorde’s next album, Solar Power . He’s a busy man, and Clairo is definitely someone to make time for. How is Sl...

Well, this review was supposed to come out Thursday, but the VHS tape got stuck and scrambled. That’s probably not how you’d describe a VHS tape not working, so let’s just say it broke. Ah, yes. boygenius. The indie-rock supergroup that introduced me to one of my favorite singer-songwriters at the moment, Phoebe Bridgers. That group also includes fellow indie rocker Julien Baker and the artist we’re talking about today, Lucy Dacus. With this new wave of albums like Bridgers’s sublime Punisher and Baker’s eye-widening Little Oblivions , it was only a matter of time before we got Dacus’s next solo effort. Right here, we have Home Video , a brand new album that comes with a very hypnotic cover. Like most singer-songwriter albums, I avoided all the singles from this because I simply like the experience. How does this sound? Let’s find out. I think the main thing about this album that sticks out amongst the rest of her projects is that it’s much more personal. Instruments like strings, per...

I find it great that in literally every picture I’ve seen Faye Webster in, she just looks different but the same…? It’s tough to explain. Let me just use this post to say that June 25th, 2021 has been one of the biggest New Music Fridays in a long time. It’s pretty nice that throughout all of this Tyler, the Creator and Doja Cat and Lucy Dacus and Hiatus Kaiyote that Faye Webster is getting a bunch of press as well. The first time I heard of Webster was her song “Kingston” from her last album, Atlanta Millionaires Club . I didn’t listen to the singles going into this album, I Know I’m Funny haha , mainly because I didn’t get to, but I’m pretty glad that I didn’t. I personally enjoy listening to these types of albums without knowing the singles from it, so let’s just get right into I Know I’m Funny haha to see what all the fuss is about. The folk/country/alternative style is a pretty niche combination, yet it tends to work on paper. Webster has rocked this sound for her past albums and...