Music Reviews

What’s a better way to kick the new year off than with me once again being super lazy and doing one of these instead of fully fleshed out reviews! Well anyways, since quite a lot has came out already and I didn’t really get the chance to review anything yet, I thought we might aswell start with another „Albums I Missed“ installment to kinda just keep up with everything. So here you go, I hope you enjoy!

Kid Cudi – INSANO (pop rap, trap)

Yeah I’m sorry, but this really wasn’t it. This album fails in almost everything it tries to do – the beats are mixed horribly and sometimes straight up don’t even sound good to begin with, Kid Cudi sounds like he’s barely even awake on half of these and when he is it just sound abysmal a lot of the times. On this whole 21 TRACKS LONG album there is legitimately only one song I ever return to and that is „BLUE SKY“ which I actually really don’t recommend checking out because once you do, the rest of the album will sound even that much worse to you – that being said, this one song is pretty alright. But besides that, this was overall just a colossal failure (even though Dj Drama REALLY tries his best to salvage a lot of these songs, emphasis on „tries“) and I honestly expected a lot better from Cudi.

Strong 4/10

Green Day – Saviors (pop punk, alternative rock)

I mean, this is still pretty mediocre for Dookie era Green Day standarts, but compared to their last LP it’s a goddamn masterpiece.

Light 6/10

Kali Uchis – ORQUÍDEAS (latin pop, R&B)

Lush, sensual and just all around great. This was my first full-length Kali Uchis project and I gotta say, I’m pretty impressed. The album deinitely drags on a bit in the middle, but the first three tracks and „Te Mata“ are absolutely stellar and it also ends on a pretty strong note too. Kali’s buzzing personality and really imprressive vocal delivery is what really sold me on this one. Definitely recommend it, especially to people who speak a little bit of spanish because it really enhances the experience I feel like.

Strong 7/10

21 Savage – american dream (trap, southern hip-hop)

„Live on the toilet, I stay on my shit“ is like one of the worst bars I’ve heard in my life but the album is pretty alright besides that. I feel like a lot of the more introspective moments („dark days“ etc.) actually work really well and while there is also just some blatant filler in the mix too, the overall „killer-to-filler“ ratio on this album is not that bad. Pretty alright.

Light 7/10

6ix9ine – BLACKBALLED (trap, gangsta rap)

Reggaeton didn’t work out huh?

Light 1/10

SPRINTS – Leter To Self

This one’s tough, because I like a lot of the ideas on here plus the instrumentals quite a bit but I really can’t stand most of these lyrics if I’m being completely honest. They are just so bland and have no real depth to them to the point where it’s really distracting a lot of the times. Take for example one of my favorite songs on here „Cathedral“ which right off the back has one of the most pummeling and hard-hitting instrumentals out of any song on here – but then the lyrics come and it’s literally just:

„Maybe I’m living, with eyes closed shut. Maybe I’m giving, maybe not enough. Maybe that’s the beauty, maybe that’s the pain. Maybe living’s easy, maybe dying’s the same“

It’s just such a nothing-burger! I don’t know, maybe I’m digging too much into this but this album overall is just alright, I don’t return to it like ever though.

Strong 5/10

SLIFT – ILION (space rock, heavy psych)

It definitely drags on a bit too much, but for what it is, I actually really enjoyed this. Especially like the first 5 tracks, those make for a really solid cohesive experience, but admittedly the latter half of this album isn’t as captivating as those songs are. The closer was a nice touch though and the opening title track „Ilion“ is like one of the best songs of the year I feel like. For a genre I’m not that familiar with, I think this was a really captivating project.

Decent 7/10

glass beach – plastic death (art rock, indie rock)

Wow. This was one hell of a journey. I haven’t listened to the first glass beach in full, but I’ve heard some songs from it before, but this definitely out-does anything I’ve heard from that project. There are just so many amazing tracks – the opener „coelacanth“ with its beautiful piano and guitar passages, „rare animal“ with it’s beautiful passionate vocals and the pure instrumental bliss that is the second half of this track and then of course the ambitious and breath-taking „commatose“ which is just stunning front to back. Honestly besides a few vocal passages I’m not that used to and some forgetable moments, this album is just through and through pretty amazing. Definitely my aoty as of writing this.

Decent 8/10

twikipedia – still-life (indie folk)

This album definitely exists alright. At least I think it does – I don’t really remember anything from it, but it was nice while it was on. Some decent background indie folk that doesn’t really go anywhere but it does what it does and it does it pretty well so I can’t hate on it too much.

Light 6/10