Music Reviews

Alright, let’s make one thing clear first – this is definetly an improvement from last year’s „changes“, not a major one, but an improvement nonetheneless. Now that being said this thing is still bloated as hell – the songs that are legitemately good can be counted on the fingers of one hand and the rest is either filler non-songs or unexcusable utter garbage. Also we really live in a universe where a song „MLK interlude“ by JUSTIN FRICKING BIEBER is a real thing, so that’s fun.

So, taking this track by track would be a suicide mission considering I only remember like three or four songs MAX, so I’ll just name the songs that stood out to me in some way, wether good or bad. The first third of this album is just an absolute snooze fest and the only songs that I truly can recall are „Deserve You“ which is legitamtely a great pop anthem and obviously „Holy“ with Chance, the Rapper, whose appearance is somehow even less underwhelming then Justin’s – the song overall is just so hollow and devoid of any emotion, it’s insane. The rest of the songs are just sort of there, they exist for the sake of album filler. The production is in fact so just boring and plain, it’s borderline not even there. After the completely unnecessary MLK interlude I have already mentioned, the tracklisting starts to gain a little bit more life, but it’s barely noticable. „Die For You“ is your typical Justin Bieber love anthem as is basically the rest of this album, but this one at least has some kind of redeemable production? I don’t really know, by this point in the album, I’m really just starting to lose focus, it’s so bland it’s actually physically hurting. The bass on „Hold On“ is actually pretty cool, but has just no balls whatsoever as does the rest of the instrumentation. The album’s lyrics also suffer from something I call „The Big Day“ effect, meaning the majority of them being literally just about how much Justin loves his wife, which gets kind of tiring after the tenth song you hear about the EXACT SAME THING. They just all start to blend together into one giant radio-friendly hollow mixbag of nothingness, it’s like it was designed to be background music. „Peaches“ is a nice change of pace, the guitar work is really gorgeous and gentle and the drums add so much life to the mix, it’s just really nice to the ears. By this point I’m really strugling not just to find anything to critique, but just anything to talk about in general, beacuse this album is just so devoid of anything substantive – the most I can give it is that it’s just decent background music, with the occasional pop banger here and there. The instrumentation throughout most of the album is also very nice and lively, but again, nothing never done before or sophysticated. Also I have a soft spot for the songs „Loved By You“ and the single „Anyone“, both towards the end of the album – but it just doesn’t excuse the lack of anything in the middle of the album. This album just lacks any punch whatsoever.

There is literally just nothing else I can tell you about this project, there is just no meat on these songs. But unlike changes, it’s at least listenable this time around.

Light 4/10

So I have an extremely brave confession to make – AJR, their music, everything about them? I can’t stand them, not even one bit. So saying I was excited for this would be a flat out lie, but I was at least intrested to see where AJR would take their sound next – from the few singles dropped before the album, you could already hear a few improvements, so maybe AJR would stop absolutely sucking ass and start to make listenable music, right?

Well, that statement holds up to an extent – there is still an enormous ammount of overblown passages, that more often then not, just sound absolutely unexcusable and unlistenable. But this time around it’s actually mixed in with a few listanable passages and even whole songs?? Is this even still AJR we are talking about here? Well yes, they said it couldn’t be done but here we are – OK Orchestra sees AJR make their most consistent bunch of songs so far. Now there are still so manz things about this I can critique, but truly and honestly, my biggest complain this time around is definetly some of the one liners hidden in the lyrics – the politics on this album are sometimes just borderline enough for me to turn off the album (prime example being the song „3 O’Clock Things“). All of that is ballanced though, by the sound being way more richer and sounding like actual piece of music then on their previous efforts. To kind of take it track-by-track, we have the absolute mixbag that is „OK Overture“, which is like the definition of the word mixbag – there are some absolutely great passages on this song, burried beneath some absolute horrible ones, that make up for just one giant mess, that actually kind of works as an opener though. Nothing terrible, but nothing great either – one could say it’s just OK. Then the song „Bummerland“ is uh… Okay?? I guess?? The thing with AJR songs is that one never really knows how to feel about an okay-sounding song from them. Is it great? Hell no, not in you wildest dreams. Is it listenable? Well, yes, and that is kind of an accomplishment in of itself for AJR. Also by this point in the album, you start to take notice of the weird vocoder thing AJR has been experimenting with lately and well it’s not great, but at the same tame, it serves as kind of a breath of fresh air if I’m being honest. Now the song „My Play“ is, at least for me, actually one the songs that are just good. Yes, you heard me right – an AJR song that is legitemately good. There are a few things holding back from being actually just great, like some of the vocal lines and melodies, but the chorus on this song is legitemately one of the most statisfying and explosive things AJR has probably ever done. The follow up „Joe“ is a weird song, it uses beatboxing instead of actual percussion and mainly play-ground-like melodies on piano and sub-bass is also added on the chorus, but that’s pretty much it – it feels kind of rough and empty, though it’s not the worst thing in the world. The song „Adventure Is Out There“ uses some pretty impressive instrumentation at parts actually, especially the background guitar melodies are a nice touch, but overall it’s not the most impressive thing in the world, especially when you take into consideration some of the lyrics literally just being about socks. But at the end of the day, it is one of the more instrumentaly fulfilling songs on here, so I can look past that. What I CAN’T look past, is the absolute abomination of a song that is „BANG!“. The quality drop from the previous to this one is actually quite impressive – this song is just an unexcusable mess. Fortunately the next song „The Trick“ pickes up thing a bit, though not by much. The guitar plucking and orchestral instrumentation are legitemately beautiful, reminds of something Sufjan Stevens would do on „Carrie & Lowell“, which definetly was a huge inspiration for this one, though once again the song is plagued by some AJRisms, that just kill the vibe. The song „Ordinaryish People“ is so forgetable it’s actually painful. There literally isn’t anything I could tell you, I just finnished listening to it and I don’t recall a single passage or a note from this song, except the drum breakdown towards the end of the song, that was actually somewhat cool. „Humpty Dumpty“ is definetly a song, that’s for sure – though not a really good one. The instrumentation has some cool elements here and there, but the chorus instantly reminds me of something of „The Click“ – it’s just stomach-turning and giving me PTSD everytime I listen to it, which is a shame, because with a better chorus, this could’ve been one of the more enjoyable and, more importantly, listenable songs on this album. „World’s Smallest Violin“ just sounds like an accoustic Twenty One Pilots song with some extra trumpets added in – I’m sorry, but it just does. That being said, it’s not as insulting as some other songs here, so props to that. Now, the song „Way Less Sad“ is your typicall AJR formula, but done RIGHT. Once again it isn’t anything ground-breaking and on the surface sounds like something of of „The Click“, but it just for some reason sort of works. Not my favorite here, but at least it’s up there. Now we get to the closer „Christmas In June“ which is an OK (get it) way to close of the album. Definetly sums up the more mature, but still childish sound of this album pretty well. And the chorus is also catchy to an extent, so why the hell not, it’s a good vibe overall.

So I have done, I listened to a full 40+ minute AJR project without wanting to vomit more times then I can count on one hand – this definetly isn’t something I’ll be returning to, but it at least deserves some credit for being the most consistent and listenable thing AJR has done.

Decent 3/10

Alright so I listened to the whole EP about 4 times now (sounds cooler on paper considering the album is three songs and 12 minutes long) and I gotta say, this is EASILY the best thing Drake has been involved in since „If You’re Reading This…“ – like what the heck man, you just can’t drop this out of the blue and expect me not to lose my mind. It’s not even that there is much to talk about, the EP is literally just 3 songs, but all of these songs manage to prove one thing – Drake’s still got it.

Alright so let’s take this track-by-track, shouldn’t be too hard considering the album’s tracklisting, right? The album opens up with the kind of rough but charming „What’s Next“ featuring some heavy synths and what sounds almost like a „Whole Lotta Red“ type beat – Drake rides those typical flavoured trap beats with some cold confident flows and introspective lyricism that follows him throughout the whole EP. Drake also gives a little time to shine to the instrumental at the end, as he does with all the other songs on here – really shows you that he actually cares about what he’s doing here. The second song in the tracklist is the song „Wants adn Needs“ featuring Lil Baby, which sounds like an „Astroworld“ leftover, though in a good way – Lil Baby shows up almost immidiately after Drake’s few introductory lines and absolutely murders the beat, just absolute slaughter – Drake’s delivery is also purposefully a little off-key in again, it somehow manages to work pretty well. The closer „Lemmon Pepper Freestyle“ may actually be my favorite here, soulely beacause of the instrumental, which is actually just pure bliss to my ears and compliments Drake’s delivery insanely well – I’m just blown away by this point in the EP, this is actually just stunning.

Soo… Yeah, Drake’s new „album“, pretty good huh? I mean besides the fact that it’s literally just a collection of 3 songs, all of them bang better then the previous one – it all has a lot of replay value and depth, that even though it’s just 12 minutes long, there is still so much to go through and dig into. Overall just a great project, really giving me hope for the full album that hopefully drops this year.

Decent 8/10