Music Reviews

99 days I’ve been going through something…

So yeah, after what is probably my longest hiatus I have possibly ever taken I am finally back with another review and I really wanted to knock it out of the park with this one, so what better than one of my favorite artists PERIOD dropping a brand new LP after what felt like an eternity (so that’s one thing I have in common with Kendrick). So without further a do, let’s just jump right in to it, shall we?

So here we finally are, at the brand new Kendrick Lamar album – a sentence I was really worried I would never get the chance to say but yes, here we are indeed. Now the question on everyone’s minds right now is probably „was it worth the wait?“ and the short answer is yes, so for everyone that just wanted to know if it’s good well yeah it’s good, I would even go as far as to say it’s great. Now for those 2 people who actually care about what I have to say, here goes nothing – I’m gonna try to break this album down track by track to the best of my abilities but honestly nothing I can really say here can truly do it justice, but I’m gonna try my best anyways. So right off the back, we kick off things super strong with the opener „United In Grief“ an instant Kendrick classic and definetly a step-up opener from his 2017 effort „DAMN.“ (which can be said pretty much about this whole album). It starts very mellow in a classic Kendrick fashion, after that there is what feels like a musical number from Kendrick and right after that out of nowhere comes flying out these super fast and agressive drums over which Kendrick starts rapping – this song literally gave me adhd and i love it. Kendrick here as the title suggests talks about his struggles with grief and how he copes with loss – it’s a really touching moment that sets the stage pretty well for the rest of the album (themes like this are brought up all through the project, like if you thought DAMN. was personal then this is Kendrick literally putting his soul on full display for everyone to see, it’s heavy stuff). On the next song „N95“ Kendrick goes the opposite route and we encounter our first banger on the album and oh boy does this one bang. It’s like the DNA. of this album, but somehow even more energetic and honestly done to perfection in my eyes. This song goes criminally hard, like it should actually be illegal. I heard a lot of people criticizing Kendrick’s voice inflection here but honestly once you get used to it it adda even more to the track. And the Baby Keem influence I mean… Kendrick doesn’t even try to hide it here, he obviously is just having fun and it works like a charm. It’s probably not the most lyrically profound moments on the album, but definitely one of the most instantly enjoyable. After that comes what’s probably Kendrick’s most weird song, but in like a good way in the form of „Worldwide Steppers“. It’s a really solid story-telling track but the beat is what caught me off guard when listening to it. Its this wabbling wall of bass mixed in a really strange way that just shouldn’t work but it kind of does?? I don’t know, I still have a few mixed feelings about the track but overall I have to commend Kendrick for not playing it safe and trying out something new – and I’d say that overall he sticks the landing, for the most part at least. „Die Hard“ is honestly a song that I could just take it or leave it, it’s fine, the beat is fine, everyone’s performance is fine, but it just feels like a left over from the Black Panther soundtrack Kendrick worked on which isn’t like one of his best works or anything, but you know, it’s still listenable, I just tend to skip it most of the time and there are more intriguing tracks I’d like to talk about. Case in point „Father Time“ with Sampha on the hook and honestly this one was kind of bound to be great, like it’s Sampha, the man is incapable of missing – the whole song could absolutely suck and this man’s voice would make it one of the best on the album. Fortunately this song doesn’t suck, the opposite from that actually and is one of the most profound and yet banger-ish songs on the album. Up next we have „Rich – interlude“ with Kodack Black and „Rich Spirit“ a really weird choice of a song to make an interlude on considering it’s probably one of the least impactful ones here – don’t get me wrong, as with „Die Hard“ the song still sounds fine you know, it’s listenable, but would it really bother me if it was cut from this album? No, not really. Still, it’s really nice hearing Kendrick really feel himself on this song here and makes for one of the more relaxed songs on the album – which is funny considering what the next song is. Now if you’ve heard „We Cry Together“ I mean, there isn’t really anything I can add, the songs kind of speaks for itself. The song portrays a… Toxic couple, to say the least, in a heated argument that honestly is so well acted both from Kendrick and especially Taylour Paige, her performance here is what really sold this track for me. All I can say is that this is one of Kendrick’s best songs that he’s ever done period, and go listen to the clean version of the song, because that’s one of the funniest things I’ve heard all year, it’s basically an instrumental. Oh did I forgot to mention that this album is actually the first Kendrick DOUBLE album? That’s right, we’re just finishing off the first half with „Purple Hearts“ a song that I like more on paper than in actuality. Same goes for the opener of the second disc „Count Me Out“ – both songs are great, but I’m just missing that extra connection that so many people had with these songs, they just haven’t really fully clicked with me unlike some others yet. „Crown“, the next song, is another song that exists. I mean sure, it’s something new for Kendrick, but by this point we had like a 3 song run of songs that are just okay, which just isn’t the standart for a Kendrick project in my opinion. Fortunately things do pick up substantially from here on out, starting with „Silent Hill“ which is like a hybrid of „N95“ and „Rich Spirit“, just a smooth banger where Kendrick once again does his weird Baby Keem-esk voice inflection that actually compliment the track very well. Speaking of Baby Keem, the next song „Savior – interlude“ sure does have him featured – well featured, it’s more like an entire song, but don’t let the fact that it’s just an interlude keep you from seeing how actually good this interlude – the orchestral instrumentation compliments Baby Keem’s surprisingly introspective bars surprisingly well, it’s a mix that shouldn’t really work but it does. It also leads well into the actual song „Savior“, a song that’s slowly but surely becoming one of my absolute favorites from this album. There is just something so infectious about the production of this song, it’s like musical drugs, I love it. It’s very trippy and surreal and Kendrick just FLOATS on top of this beat, it’s just so smooth and natural and comes together in a really nice way, I honestly have zero complaints about this song, definitely a highlight for me for sure. Now, for the next song „Auntie Diaries“ I’m just gonna avoid talking about the controversy this song sparked up, because I think even though it may not have 100% stuck the landing with what it was trying to do with it’s message, I think the good intentions are definetly there and I feel like in a few years time, this will become one of the most important tracks in the rap genre, quote me on that. For more context the song talks about Kendrick coming to terms with a member of his family being a transgender and reflects on how his younger self just didn’t know any better but to call that person names, because at the time he didn’t understand. But he understands now. And that’s what I think should the main takeaway from this song be, accepting these things as part of life and that it doesn’t make anyone less of a human-being for just being what they are. After that comes the title track essentially „Mr. Morale“ a song that again, I like in theory (I mean c’mon, it’s a Kendrick song produced by Pharell AND it’s the title track, like all the ingredients to an instant classic are there), but with this one I think it’s just not pushed far enough if that makes sense? Like the foundation for a great song is there, but it just misses that extra… Something. Regardless still a great song and a much needed banger in between 2 most lyrically-focused songs on the album. The second of those being… *Sigh* „Mother I Sober“. Now this is the „Sing About Me…“ of this album, I legit cried the first time I heard this song and I still do most of the times when I put it on. This is Kendrick at his most vulnerable we have ever seen him be. An absolute emotional climax of this whole album and definetly one of if not the best song Kendrick has ever done and I will die on that hill (a Silent Hill, if you will HOLY MOLY THAT RHYMED). Finally we arrive at the last song on this album simply called „Mirror“. Now here is where I have to bring up the concept and structure of this album – the album is called „Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers“ and it’s a double album so what would you assume is that the first half represents Mr. Morale and the second The Big Steppers HOWEVER it’s actually the other way around – you know, like how MIRRORS work? So yeah, you already can piece it together much sooner considering how the entire first half is filled with these what I assume to be stepping sounds all throughout the disc, but hey, it’s definitely a more neat concept than just „OMG A NEW MESSAGE UNLOADS ONCE YOU PLAY THE ALBUM BACKWARDS!!!“ (looking at you DAMN.). But back to the song, „Mirror“ makes for a great, while a little abrupt end to the album and ties the whole together not only musically but thematically.

Wow, I have like 14 different carpel tunnels from writing all of this but hey, that’s what I get for not posting 3 months I guess – in conclusion, „Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers“ while not perfect makes for one of Kendrick’s most realized and personal projects to date. Definetly can’t wait to see where he goes next after another 6 years!

-favorite tracks: United In Grief, N95, Worldwide Steppers, Father Time, We Cry Together, Silent Hill, Savior – interlude, Savior, Auntie Diaries, Mr. Morale, Mother I Sober, Mirror

-least favorite tracks: Purple Hearts, Crown, Die Hard

Light 9/10

Christmas came EARLy this year.

So after a 4-year long wait we gather here together for the new Earl Sweatshirt release. Honestly I’m not super familiar with Earl’s work up to this point, the only album I heard from him in it’s entirety was „Some Rap Songs“, which still to this day is a really special album to me – I think it’s the closest things to doing drugs without actually doing drugs. Like there is something just so haunting and fundementally broken about it, even after all this time I can’t wrap me hear around it – that album for me really solidified Earl as one oh modern hip-hop’s greatest offenders in terms off production and uniquness. Now as for this album over here, I think that it only builds on the foundation that „Some Rap Songs“ layed down with a more modern twist – this is a much more accesible album than that album was. It’s a lot more shorter, clocking in at only 24 minutes, which is basically mixtape length. The album is filled with the trademark Earl Sweatshirt druggy, hard-to-pin-down production with the inclusion of more trap beats as well as some muble rap-isms scattered throughout the project. Also I think that Earl is legitemately in a much better headspace than he was on his last couple of LP – this album is much more free and much less i guess depressed than „Some Rap Songs“ was. Earl also is noticably more vocally present on this album then before – these songs just burst with confidence.

Speaking of songs that vocally AND instrumentally burst with confidence, the opener „Old Friend“ is sure as hell one of them. For how short this intro is, it definetly doesn’t waste any time kicking the door right open with an ethereal beat that has little to no percussion whatsoever, just some crazy synths with Earl’s voice sliding on top of them, like you can tell this is Earl in his natural habitat. Almost as smooth as the song itself is the transition into „2010“ which overall is just a great song, even though a bit too repetetive. Earl sounds hungry on here and his rapping is just so effortless and it translates super well to the listener. Next up is the title track „Sick!“ and the first real showcase of this album’s much more accesible trap-flavoured beats – it honestly sounds like something that would prefectly fit on „Some Rap Songs“ weirdly enough (minus the raging trap hi-hats i guess). By this point on the album we start to notice that this album is a bit of a mess, but that’s something you gotta expect when listen to Earl’s music – the next two songs completely throw the „1 to 2 minute songs MAX“ format this album has been following so far out the window and drops at us not one but TWO 4-minute songs, both with the only features this album features (heh). The first of the two „Vision“ featuring Zelooperz (which I honestly had no idea who was, sounds like a name for a Pokemon, but then again this man named himself after a piece of clothing lmao) is i guess the less enjoyable of the two for me, but that’s like having to pick between your favorite child, you love them both pretty much equally. This one is one of the more trap-inluenced songs and it’s done well enough to where it’s enjoyable, it doesn’t drag on for too long and it leads pretty nicely into the latter of the two „Tabula Rasa“, and pretty nice it is. I love the little vocal chop samples integrated into the piano-driven beat, it has Earl Sweatshirt written all over it. This one also features Armand Hammer, which is a match made in heaven. Both artist are in their A game here. After this we are back to the shorter songs with the song „Lye“ and I’m not gonna lye, this song is pretty heat. Probably the most jazzy song on the album, and you know me, I’m somewhat of a jazz enjoyer myself, so this was a nice change of pace for me. The beat is so smooth it should actually be illegal, aaaah, it’s so good. Also somewhere around here is when I realized something when I was giving this album like me third listen – Earl REALLY abuses the hell out of the „fading-in and out“ effect on this album (don’t know what it’s called, feel free to educate me in the comments). Like he does that A LOT on this record, especially on songs like these and the closing track and I’m not really sure how I feel about it – on one hand it kinda ruins some of the songs for me, but on the other it really doesn’t, I don’t know, I guess it kinda balances out and I’m just indifferent to it. Moving on we have the song „Lobby(Int)“, which I could honestly do without – it’s not a bad song by any stretch of the imagination, but the fact that after one of the best beats of the entire album we get this just uninspired trap mess… I ain’t mad, just dissapointed. Like even Earl sounds half asleep on this song. But yeah, you wouldn’t find this in the list of my favorite songs of this album, let me tell you. „God Laughs“ picks things up a bit, but not by much – I do mess with the sampling on this song though, there is something really cathartic and mysterious about it. The song „Titanic“ is like a more fleshed out version of „Lobby(Int)“ with a beat that honestly might just take the crown for the best trap beat on this whole album. The closer „Fire in the Hole“ is probably the best song of the album if we’re being honest, it’s the perfect note to end this album on. The guitar-work on this song is really something to behold and the beat just has so much life and personality, like everytime I listen to it I just close my eyes and pictue myself floating in space, because the song really got me feeling like that. It’s also one of those songs when you finnish hearing you just wanna listen to the whole thing again – AKA a good closer. The piano fade-out is also a nice touch, makes it feel more complete.

I think this album more than anything is a sign of something much more ambitious coming down the line – it shows not only artistic growth but Earl’s growth as a human being. The biggest flaws this album has are honestly just what it doesn’t have – it doesn’t have much of a direction nor ambition and it’s generaly just a little too short and a little too repetetive for my liking – like cut some of the longer songs short and add like 3 or 4 more songs – that i think would only make this an even more cohesive expirience. That being said, this album is still a fantastic display of talent and artistic growth and while I still prefer „Some Rap Songs“ over this, I can’t WAIT to see what Earl has in stock for us next.

Light 8/10

Um… What?

I- I don’t even know where to begin… First off all, believe me when I say that there are 2 things in this world I love and those are trap metal and especially when ZillaKami is on the mic. But this… Something feels very wrong with this project. And I can’t really put my finger on what that is for some reason… I tried to pin-point the issue to 2 main factors though – first of all the choruses, how do I say this… They just don’t hit, not at all. I don’t remember a single hook from this thing not a second from it. The second reason I think this project doesn’t work is, well, ZillaKami himself. Don’t get me wrong, I wish nothing but the best for the guy and I loved his music thus far, but here he just delivers these really akward kinda safe hooks over what seems to be just looped guitars with trap beats that probably even I could make in like 5 minutes and it all just comes out really forced and mashed together. There are some stand-outs I guess, I like the song „Not Worth It“ no matter how melodramatic it can be, it at least isn’t another trap beat slapped over some mediocre guitars, it’s different, gives the record a bit of variety. Also that’s another problem not only with this song but so many god damn songs on this record – THEY ARE SO FRICKING SHORT. Like even for this genre’s standarts, where songs are usually shorter – these songs don’t go anywhere, because they don’t have the TIME to go anywhere. Also I was laughing my ass off when the song „Hello“ came on – that’s like the most lazy tribute to Nirvana I’ve probably ever heard, it’s comically stupid and uninspired, Post Malone did this s**t 3 times as good, even though admiteddly he did just covers, but I’ll take covers anyday over whatever this is. I DO like „Bleach“ with Denzel Curry though, that feels like legitematelly the only song that had some care and thought put into it. After that rare moment of clarity we go back to the pointless wannabe ragers that just don’t get any better nor memorable. That’s the thing, if these songs were like really bad, I would at least remember them, but they are not bad, just really mediocre and therefore forgetable and boring and that’s just not the level of quality I’m used to from ZillaKami and City Morgue as a whole. The either make Ws or here and there some Ls, but you are entertained the entire way through – here I was just waiting to hear something I didn’t the million times before that. „BADASS“ with Lil Uzi Vert seems to also be one of the more positively rated songs on the album and why exactly is that? Once again, the production barely gets a pass, the hook is somewhat better than the majority of this record I guess and Uzi does just alright – like what makes this song so different from the rest of them? The Denzel Curry cut at least had some uniqueness to it, this just blends together with the rest of thie songs on here. 5 songs left and I’m DREADING for this to be over – however the quality does pick-up somewhat on the song „Nissan Only“ where you immidiately hear that this song had some effort put into it. For the first time on this whole record I felt like I was listening to an actual ZillaKami song, instead of a parody of it. „Black Cats“ has a similar vibe to it like „Not Worth It“ does and they both are just a cut above the rest. However after this the album ONCE AGAIN remembers it’s trying to be as boring as possible and realising it almost made a good song throws a couple more non-tracks on us in the form of „dedgrl“ (which is honestly fine) and „FROSTY“ (which not so much, easily the worst vocal performance of the whole album and the emotional weight just isn’t strong enough to carry this song, I’m sorry), before closing with „Space Cowboy“, which I’ll admit, FROSTY leads to pretty well and this song… I’ll just say he definetly saves the best for last. Well I guess not the best, but definetly one of the better cuts here, for sure – I’m glad ZillaKami remembered how to make good songs again a shame that it’s only at THE END OF THE ALBUM.

*sigh* yeah, this was disapointing to say the least. It’s not bad and if you’re a die-hard City Morgue fan, you will definetly find some enjoyment on this album, but for me, this felt like a weird way to compile some random ideas Zilla had into a full half-baked album. Also this is all just my opinnion, you’re completely free to have a different one and honestly, if you enjoy this album, don’t let my trash-talking get to you, like all power to you for seeing the good in this album – but even still, I’m gonna go ask you to do one thing. Take ANY song of of this album and compare it to, I don’t know, like „DRAINO“ by City Morgue. You see what I mean now?

Strong 4/10

It finally clicked.

4 months. That’s how long I was trying to get into this album, but for some reason just couldn’t. I was going crazy – everyone around me was calling this the easy album of the year and I was just sitting over here not understanding the hype at all. But today that changed – I finally just sat down and listened to it, no pre-judgements, just turn all my attention to the music and it’s meaning – and it was at the 5th track „Ground Zero“ where this record just suddenly made complete sense. You see, this album doesn’t make NO sense whatsoever, BUT THAT’S WHY IT WORKS. This album really makes you question what even music is. It doesn’t try to follow any musical formulas, it doesn’t follow basically any genre restrictions, it just does what it wants and that is to musically express grief – grief is the main focus of this record and the hardships and struggles that come with loosing someone really close to you. The feeling of how the world just keeps spinning even though you still haven’t dealt with your loss – all of that becomes apparent on track seven, „Top Picks For You“, AKA the first, and probably also the last, glitch hop song to ever make me break down into tears. Once you get to this point in the album there is no turning back, everything just clicks, but it’s not an easy journey to get there – the opposite in fact. The world that the album creates through it’s music is dark, glitched, fundamentally broken and just incredibly tough to swallow. There is constantly this paranoid feeling that something is a little off and that feeling haunts you throughout the whole listening expirience. And what an expirience it is, I don’t think any album this year has made me so just… emotionally drenched. Now I personally never lost anyone that I was super emotionally tied to, so for me, I can’t even IMAGINE how horiffying of an expirience that must be, but if it’s even half as bad as this album’s sound is portraying it to be, then good god. It’s hard to talk about each individual track here, because the expirience works as a whole and taking individual tracks out just isn’t how this album is supposed to be listened to – it’s a journey through the grieving mind, a painful f***ed-up journey, that ends on a somewhat of a hopeful note, in the form of the song „Bye Strom“. This song says to the listener to keep their head up, that even though that someone else’s journey came to an end, doesn’t mean your own does too, even if that person was super imporant to you – „the show must go on“. And even though it may take weeks, months or hell even years, eventually, you will move on. It doesn’t try to downplay the grieving process, it let’s you very well know that it will be incredibly difficult and painful – but not impossible.

Now I got a little too introspective there, but it’s crucial to undestand all of this in order to truly appriciate how powerful this record really is. The music’s dark, it’s distorted, it doesn’t make no sense in some places, but it’s clear that it’s all calculated and intentional, I haven’t heard a depiction of grief this accurate since I think „A Crow Looked At Me“. Some key tracks would be the opener „Outside“, which is an ambitious opener that really lets the listener know, that what you’re about to hear is nothing short of insane, both singles „Knees“ and „Superman That“, the first of the two being one of the more accessible tracks on the album, while the latter being funnily enough one of the least accessible ones and also the track „Footwork in a Forest Fire“ which is honestly kind of beyond words, it’s one of those things where you gotta expirience it to truly understand it – that also kinda goes for this whole album to be honest.

… s**t. I mean this album broke me. I can’t even put into words what this music does to you, but it’s really something to behold… Anyways yeah, I see the hype now lol (also I realise this probably should have been a disclaimer at the start of the review, but I usually like to keep the swears out of my reviews, but with this one I felt like it really helped to express how truly just f***ed this album is).

10/10

One word – snore fest.

„He can’t keep getting away with this!“ is what I though right after finnishing this album – I mean this dude has just made like the 5th album he’s being making for the past like what, 6 years? And of course, he is a very succesfull artist, if not THE most succesfull artist of our generation, so he can afford it – this dude could release literally anything and his fans would still eat it up. He could release an album full of mp3 files of him at the toilet and his fans would still call it „life-changing“. It’s no wonder that there has recently been an outburst of those „Drake the type of dude“ memes, because that’s all he is, a clown and a f*ckboy. Man the last time I fully enjoyed a Drake studio album was in 2015, like what happened? This album also tricks you into thinking it’s good with the opening song being somewhat listenable and his „Scary Hours 2“ EP being actually pretty damn good. It gave me false hope that Drake will finally leave all the Pusha-T stuff behind him and come into his own as an artist, but he is just so indulged in it, it’s frustrating. And it’s not like I want to see this man fail, the opposite in fact, I really am trying my hardest to find one fricking song on this record I would consider great but if my life depended on it, I just can’t. The closest this album comes to an actual good song is the opener „Champagne Poetry“, „You Only Live Twice“ and the song „Fair Trade“ featuring Travis Scott, where Travis must have actually broken his back, because of how much of this song he carried. Those are genuinely the only three examples of a good song on this album, that’s IT. I’m not even gonna talk about the rest of this album, because all the song sound the fricking same, there is no deversity, no flavour, no texture, no anything to these songs – Drake sounds half asleep on most of them and the song „F*****g Fans“ is excuse my language a f*****g joke. I’m honestly not gonna spend more time writing this review then Drake did on making this album, I don’t wanna waste more of anyone’s time here.

Look, here is a question for you – did you like Scorpion? Did you like Views? Then congratulations, you’ll enjoy this record. But if not then please spend your time on something more worthwhile, go check out that new Injury Reserve album for example (review on that one coming soon).

Strong 3/10

„Hold on, let’s get this shit, let’s get this shit
Let’s get this shit, let’s, hmm
Top of the mornin‘, top of the mornin‘, top of the mornin‘
Top of the mornin‘, top of the mornin‘
Top of the mornin‘, top of the mornin‘
Hold on, let’s get this shit, let’s get this shit
Let’s get this shit, let’s, hmm“

… Alright now that I fulfilled my citizen duty, let’s get to the actual review.

So yeah, Baby Keem’s debut studio album is finally here and honestly after some of the mixed teasers for this album and also the mixed reception it’s been getting, I didn’t really expect much going into this, just to kind of zone out and feel the vibe and I pretty much got that for the most part, but this record definetly isn’t anything ground-breaking, not even close actually – it’s just an okay trap-rap record with a few serious highlights that make it stand out a bit more amongst the sea of rappers copying this exact sound this album is going for. What even made me check out this album in the first place was truly and honestly the family ties (pun very intended) this guy apparently has with Kendrick Lamar, who also makes some… appearances on this record. It’s clear as day from the get-go that Kendrick was involved in some capacity in the making of this album, but most creative choices are still clearly Baby Keem’s and one thing this album proves for Baby Keem moving foraward is definetly potential – Baby Keem has an ear for catchy hooks and melodies and the production for the most part on this record just clicks – guess it’s in the family to have musical talent.

There in total 16 tracks which all vastly vary in quality. The song that kicks this album off is „trademark usa“ which is honestly all over the place – there are some mic-dropping moments here and there and memorable bars for sure, but the song just can’t seem to fully flesh out one idea, it constantly keeps beat-switching and never stays on one beat for more then a minute – it’s cool in concept and definetly gets my blood pumping for the majority of the song, but there is already just a certain cohesion lacking to this record. Cool song all around, I just wish it was more tied together instead of constantly jumping from point a to point b, it’s almost like as if adhd was a song. „pink panties“ is the next song and this one just ain’t it – for the possitives, well I guess the synths were cool and some bars here and there weren’t too shabby either, but that’s about it for the good stuff, the rest of the song is just another really uninspired boring trap song with those annoying group vocals that keep reappearing through the track, it reminds me of „No Bystanders“ by Travis Scott, but like a discount version of that song, because that song made this chanting work, this song just ain’t doing it for me. „spacegoats“ is a very much needed nice change of pace, even though it lasts only for about a minute – I honestly think this song is kind of a missed oppurtunity making it only an interlude, you could easily stretch this song out for like another minute or two and it would make for a one gorgeous hell of a track. „range brothers“ is admitedly kind of a gulity pleasure for me – the song is just so fun to listen to and that Kendrick verse? Honestly I can’t decide which is funnier, the verse itself or the memes that came out of that – either way I’m grateful for the existence of both. The song „issues“ is where Baby Keem’s talent for melody and all that really comes to life, the song is just an earworm that I can’t get enough. It’s also one of the more darker tracks here and for some reason these tracks tend to just be the much more enjoyable tracks of the bunch. „gorgeous“ despite what the title might imply is not that gorgeous of a song, but I like what Keem was trying to do here and the keys at the end are very nice too, solid track, but not one of my favorites. „south africa“ is a song I like more in concept then in execution – I get what it’s going for and I appriciate the message and the sound honestly fits that message, I just don’t feel like it goes around as well as expected. „lost souls“ I remember only for the beat sounding really sweet to the ears, I honestly don’t have much else to say about it then that. And of course „cocoa“ with Don Tolliver is great, it’s fricking Don Tolliver, the man has one of the most beautiful and instantly recognisable voices in rap right now. Now for this next one, before I get crucified for it, let me just say that I DO enjoy the song to some degree and Kendrick does reasonably well on it, but I’m not the biggest fan of „family ties“ with none other then the man, the myth, the legend, Kendrick Lamar. The song isn’t bad, the word bad isn’t even in the discussion, it’s just sort of underwheling? The problems with most of this record is that I feel like Baby Keem really just underdelivers while his feature artist steal the show, when he should be the center of attention. Again, not a bad track, just a bit underwheling for me personally, but I get tha hype behind the song one houndred percent. Things do pick up fortunately in the last leg of this album – we have the song „scars“, one of my personal favorties, which just shouldn’t work as much as it does, but shoot me in the face if this isn’t one of the catchiest things I’ve heard all year – the beat, with the drums and the pianos, it’s so good – honestly nothing I can say here won’t make the production of this song justice. After that comes the song „durag activity“ with Travis Scott, which is alright I guess, it didn’t really leave a big impression on me, could have used some more flavour though, for the constantly evolving anc changing nature of this album this song comes of really one-note. Then we have the songs „booman“ and „first order of business“. Now the last two songs that finnish this album off are both in my top 3 of this record, they just examplify what I mean by saying this dude has some serious potential – the first one is „vent“ which is honestly the banger highlight of this album, the beat is so nasty it hurts, Baby Keem really goes off and it all beautifuly and not in a way that feels unfitting transitions into „16“ the 16th and also the last track of this album and what I consider to be the most beautiful song on the album – I just can’t get enough of those punchy drums combined with the piano melody, it’s such a beautiful mix, with Baby Keem also delivering one of his better vocal performances of the album, it’s clear as day that he really cared about making this song.

So that about wraps it up – this album starts strong finnishes strong and even though it had some duts in the middle, those are just beginner mistakes, if Baby Keem keeps doing what he’s doing, which I don’t think he’ll stop doing any time soon, I think he has a bright future ahead of him and I wish hime nothing but that.

light 6/10

After what I consider to be one of the most confusing album roll-outs in recent memory (4 different concerts that took place before the release of this album, each varying in quality, also the fact he literally kept his producers locked somewhere in the basement night and day just producing this thing) and with a name like this (named of course after mr. West’s late mother), DONDA was setting up to be one of the most intresting albums in Kanye West’s carier, which is not an easy thing to do mind you, the dude literally changed the entire course of modern pop music with one of his albums, which alone makes him one of if not the most influential artists of our generation. On Ye’s last album „Jesus Is King“ he tried to embrace this more spiritual no-swearing christian character, which resulted in mixed results, the album was mostly a fluke, but if done right, this new path for Ye had shown at the very least some maturity and also some serious potential for future projects along the way. So of course, the expectation of this album here were sky high and so was my initial reaction to this album – that’s why I took my time with this review, just to kind of let the hype around this thing die down so my real opinions on this album come through and I’m honestly really glad I did so, because this album is in two words just a „beautiful mess“. It has easily some of the best song this man has EVER recorded point blank period, but at the same time, some of the biggest L’s this man has ever taken. Now nothing on this record really comes nearly as close to the level of badness like the song Drunk and Hot Girls does (only exception being Tell The Vision, which I’ll come back to later…), but still, there are some duds that are holding this record back from being the true masterpiece it was meant to be.

Let’s start with some of those misses, beacuse I kind of wanna get the bad stuff about this record out of the way, so we can focus more on the positive side of things, which is fortunately a much greater chunk of this record. Now right of the back, easily the worst track hands down no competition on this whole 27 TRACK LONG ALBUM has got to be „Tell The Vision“, which is barely a song – to this day I can’t tell you what in God’s name (pun very much intended) this track is suppossed to be, it’s this weird horrendously mixed interlude with Pop Smoke as the feature, where he literally just repears himself over and over saying „We made it“ – the song not only doesn’t sound finnished, it doesn’t sound like they even really started working on it, this is the demo of all demo’s, the song could have easily been cut from the record and actually nothing would change – honestly the only reason I unfortunately think this song is on here is just to expose Pop Smoke even more after his unfortunate passsing, which is kind of disgusting if you ask me. Alright, now that’s out of the way, the rest of the tracklist varies from good, not so good to spectacular or just really forgetable. Also technically this album has 27 songs on it, but the last 4 tracks are just second parts of already existing usually much better songs on the album, so I won’t be talking about those, with the exception of „Junya pt. 2“ which IS the superior version and I’m still left here wondering, why this isn’t the one we got on the „official“ album. Coincidently the only other song besides Tell The Vision I can really say is „bad“ is definetly the song Junya – the bass on this song is atrocious, even for someone like me, who has terrible ear for music theory stuff, it’s just mixed waay too low and it’s just really distracting and un-fitting. Playboi Carti nor Kanye can’t save the song and honestly they don’t even really try to, definetly a low point on this album. Now to some of the good stuff, I think the mixing overall throughout this record turned out to be not so shabby actually – some of the song might need a remastering somewhere into the future, but I was left mostly statisfied regarding this aspect of the record. Now to take it more track-by-track, the record opens up with the interlude song „Donda Chant“ which was a really confusing start initially, but once I learned the background to this song and what it meant (Ye’s mum’s last hearbeats before hear death), I got a new found appreciation for what the song was trying to do. It also lead smoothly into the next, first real song of the album, „Jail“. This song is a 5 minute monumental opener with no drums, only electric guitar and it somehow just works wonders – something Kanye has been known to do for a long time now, is taking something that in theory just shouldn’t work and makes that thing work and this song reflects that beautifully. The next song in line „God Breathed On This“ is much more abrasive, much more dark, but keeping it still kind of low-key, it’s an okay song, but the 2 minute dragged out musical outro was really unnecessary and honestly it kind of overstayed it’s welcome. Now the first real banger this record has to offer is „Off The Grid“ featuring Playboi Carti and Fivio Foreign and sweet Jesus was I not expecting this to go as hard as it did when I first heard it – this song absolutely slaps and completely justifies it’s almost 6 minute run time. The highlight of this song is definetly the drill-style beat switch, that occures around the one minute mark, which I seriously didn’t even notice until like a minute later or so. Now after this point, the record kind of starts to loose it’s focus and starts being all over the place – „Hurricane“ featuring The Weeknd is a highligh for many, but for me personally, the song doesn’t click as much as it did with so many people – still a good song, I just don’t think it’s as crazy as everyone is making up to be, like it’s the physical proof of God’s existence. Some highlights for me also include „Believe What I Say“ which is so groovy it hurts my brain (seriously, try not to move to this beat, you either can’t or you’re a liar), „Moon“ with Kid Cudi, which never not makes me cry, „Heaven and Hell“, where Kanye really let’s himself go off, though the song structurally isn’t the greatest thing ever and „Jesus Lord“ which in it’s 9 minute long runtime really goes for that Runaway nostalgia factor and I’d be lying if it didn’t succeed. Now here I wanna take a quick moment to talk about what I consider to be not only the best song on the album, but also one of Kanye’s best songs in general, and that is the song „Come To Life“ – now when I first heard this I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, this song is actual magic in audio form, it’s enough to make a full grown man break down and cry. Kanye pours his heart out on this track and it just cuts so deep, the piano switch in the second part, the beautiful melodies, Kanye’s angelic singing, everything in this song just comes together to create something magical, one triumphant expirience, I’m telling you people this is what plays when you enter heaven after you die. It’s just really touching, I have nothing more to add, it’s stunning. Some other stand out tracks include „Remote Control“ just for that ridiculous Globglobgabgalab sample (can’t believe this sentense I just wrote is real) and „Pure Souls“ featuring Roddy Rich and Roddy absolutely carries this song. The closer „No Child Left Behind“ has one of the most gorgeous and infectious melodies of this whole abum, it’s beautiful lush production compliments the simple yet effective lyricism and comes togehter to form one really strong and moving closer that wraps up the whole record pretty nicely.

So ther you have it, the long-anticipated DONDA. The question that everyone’s been asking recently, was it worth the wait? And to that I say yes, for the most part it lived up to the set expectation (not that it realistically completely could). I guess if there is one thing this record proves, it’s that Kanye has still very much got it, even in his new christian-friendly form and he can still make good life-changing songs with it.

Strong 7/10

After 2019’s IGOR, which still stands as my favorite Tyler, the Creator album and personally one of my favorite concept albums any artist ever, my expectation for this new album over here were sky high. Now were my expectations surpassed? In a sense yes – Call Me If You Get Lost is a beautiful amulgamation of all the past Tyler, the Creator releases into one gorgeous abrasive mess.

There is something for everyone on this album, if you’re either talking about the raging bangers that are „LUMBERJACK“ and „JUGGERNAUT“, more introspective cuts such as „WILLSHIRE“ and „MASSA“ or just good vibes that the songs „WUSYANAME“ and „SWEET/I THOUGHT YOU WANTED TO DANCE“ provide. And somehow, Tyler and his right hand on this album DJ Drama manage to make sense out of all this into one cohesive experience. To kind of take it track by track here the album opens up with the dreamy „SIR BAUDELAIRE“, which honestly feels like a damn sunrise – it sets the tone for the rest of the album and just works excelent as an opener. It also transitions smoothly into the next track „CORSO“, which is one of my favorite bangers on here, it’s got a little bit of everything, heavy trademark Tyler, the Creator bass, with blissful keys and memorable melodies, the track throws you into the album head-on. The next song „LEMONHEAD“ featuring 42 Dugg I have mixed feeling on – the song in it’s core is great, the tune is there, it’s abrasive as hell, feels like a killing machine robot marching towards me, also the tuba slaps. This track’s biggest weakness though has to be the feature, 42 Dugg sounds like ass on here, I’m sorry, he just does. The outro here is nice though an fades smoothly into „WUSYANAME“ and wow, this track is honestly just pure bliss, this is music for my ears. Tyler does great here and I was honestly a bit sceptical about Youngboy NBA coming on here but shoot me in the head if this isn’t his best performance on any song PERIOD. The first teaser track to this record „LUMBERJACK“ once again revives the streak of bangers on this album and so far it’s honestly 3 to 3. The song is really good, it sounds a little demo-ish, but that is clearly what Tyler and the gang were going for, so it works as an atristic choice. The following track „HOT WIND BLOWS“ is another amazing track, but I gotta say, the real highlight of this song is the Lil Wayne feature, the dude hasn’t sounded this confident and in his zone in a long time, really shows how Tyler bring the best out of each and every one of his features. „MASSA“, the next song, is one of the many songs on here that baits the listener into thinking it’s gonna be one thing, but then just out of nowhere a beat switch comes in and is something completely different – this and later on in the tracklist the song „JUGGERNAUT“ are the prime examples of this. The song sees Tyler going more personal about his life, really going in at like the last minute of the song, where Tyler pours his heart out about just about everything that’s been bothering him in the past few years. Now the song „RUNITUP“ is by no means a bad song, just a little boring for my taste – I personally see it as more of a transition point in the album, essentially splitting the album into two halves. Right after this comes the song „MANIFESTO“ and oh my god, what a banger this track is, without a competition one of the best beats Tyler has every been on, really makes me wish he would do more often experimental stuff like this. The sample is top-notch, the rapping is on point, overall just one of the best songs on the album, everything just clicks for me with this one. Now the song after this „SWEET/I THOUGH YOU WANTED TO DANCE“ is a really intresting one ranging at almost 10 raw minutes and somehow never gets boring throughout – the song is a blissful two-parter, first half feeling like an IGOR leftover and the second half going into more Reggae style, both halves complimenting each other quite well, it’s just heaven to the ears, especially the latter half. Now I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes, when I don’t feel like listening to the whole 10 minutes I tend to skip this song the most, not because it’s bad or anything, but just beacuse it can be very long-winded and kind of ruin the momentum of the album for me. What then follows is one interlude track „MOMMA TALK“, where, you guest it, Tyler’s momma gives a few words, then comes the track „RISE!“ which has a really beautiful chorus and a nice performance from Tyler, but that’s really about it and then another interlude in the form of „BLESSED“, where Tyler talks about how people don’t appriciate what they have. Now after this exhausting 4 songs run comes the song „JUGGERNAUT“ and holy mother of god, somebody call the fire department, beacuse this song is absolutely fire. Like seriously, Tyler, the Creator on a song with Lil Uzi Vert and Pharrell Williams, what’s not to like? The feature list on this one honestly speaks for itself, they all do extraordinarily well on the song and it’s just all and all a fantastic display of talent. The second to last track „WILLSHIRE“ sees Tyler going in a Kendrick Lamar Sing About Me, I’m Dying Of Thirst type fashion and it wokrs wonders. My biggest complaint about this song is that it just has this weirdly mixed drum in the right ear channel when listening to the song on headphones, not sure what’s up with that, but besides that, the song is really impressive. Last but not least the closer „SAFARI“ ties the whole travelling theme of the album together in a somewhat satisfactory way, but the song on it’s own isn’t anything ground-breaking, it does what it’s supposed to do.

One major criticism that I guess I have with this album is that it doesn’t feel nearly as cohesive as IGOR or Flower Boy did – it’s kind of a big mess, but nonetheless a beautiful one at that. Still a huge accomplishment for Tyler and I can’t wait to see what he does next.

Light 9/10

Alright, so, right off the back, this guy was always really hit or miss with me and it will probably always remain this way – some of the teasers for this project however get me very intruiged in what was bbno$ up to this time, especially with the gorgeous single „Help Herself“ which still remains to be one of my favorite singles this year periodt. Still though, it’s clear that bbno$ is still in the phase of experimentation and is still trying what sound fits him the most, but I gotta say, he really hit the nail on the head this time. This 5-track EP has it’s shortcomings but when it really comes to it, this thing is just all killer no filler – front to back just 13 minutes of pure fun in musical form. The opener „sorry“ is one of those songs that may not grab your attention at first listen, but once it clicks, it just fricking clicks – the rush of dopamine I get from this song everytime I hear it is just unbelievable. The production is immaculate, the rapping is on point, for all my money (pun so much intended) it just works. The following title track „my oh my“ takes a much more mellow approach, it’s much more calm and tame in comparison, however the tune is certainly there, it’s still catchy as hell and overall keeps the momuntem going fairly enough to where it’s not out of place but still manages to smoothen things up, which works perfectly for the next cut, the remix of „help herself“ with none other then Benee and the chemistry here is unmatched, it goes without saying that Benee kills her verse here and her vocal contributions compliment the song quite well. Now the fourth track here is also probably the most underwhelming of the bunch – „bad to the bone“ is not a bad song as the title may suggested, it’s just really underwritten compared to the rest of these cuts – the beat switch is cool though and I like some of the melodies here, it just that the core melody isn’t enoug hto carry the song. Now last but not least we have the closer „help herself“ which I just can’t get enough of – this song is an aboslute joy to listen to. Bbno$’s vocals sound just so defeated and broken, I adore the melody here and the song just gets better the more you listen to it – this more indie approach is really what Bbno$ shines at the most.

Now while this little project does contain some fatal flaws, biggest one being that there is just zero ambition whatsoever, it still is a fulfilling and statysfying listen, really hyped for the whole studio album now.

Strong 6/10

The best boyband since One Direction is back, better then ever – if you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, BROCKHAMPTON is an universally aclaimed hip hop collective from Texas that has made their fame of off the currently-sitting-at-legendary-status „SATURATION mixtapes“. Ever since the unfortunate departure of the past member of the band Ameer Vann BROCKHAMPTON were trying their best to find their voice again, with the harsh and abrasive sounds of „iridescence“ or with the more intimate and delicate sounds of „GINGER“. Both these records showcased a very different approach for BROCKHAMPTON and now after a 2 year hiatus, I can safely say that they menaged to strike the perfect balance between these two.

The album kicks off with the raging banger that is „BUZZCUTTER“ featuring the man himself Danny Brown, which honestly speaks for itself – the song just speaks for itself. The follow-up „CHAIN ON“ is a song we did get a slight taste of previously, but now in the context of the album, it sounds much more complete – the sound is heavy, JPEGMAFIA does his thing and even though the beat might get a little tiring after three minutes of just that, I think what really sells this track is the performances – everyone on here just absolutely kills their part. Now the track „COUNT ON ME“ is probably my least favorite cut here – doesn’t mean it’s bad or anything, it’s just that comparing this to the rest of the album, it has the weakest performance out of any song on here – the whistle driven beat sounds intresting at first, but I just feel like they don’t do much with it, after a while it just kind of gets in the background – the vocal melodies are a nice touch, though really nothing extraordinary, just an okay tune. Now from here thing get a little bit more… All over the place. The next song „BANKROLL“ is another banger featuring ASAP Rocky and ASAP Ferg, whose both contribrutions to the song are undeniable – the beat is very mellow whichin a weird way compliments the more agressive delivery on this song. Now „THE LIGHT“ is easily the biggest emotional gutpunch out of anything here – for once the instrumentation itself is just heavy, dark, guittar-driven and it just absolutely slaps, the beat is just nasty – but thst itself doesn’t make this song good, what really sells this one are the lyrics and they are… Off the chains if you will. Joba talks about his expirience with his father’s suicide in a really open and brutal way, it’s really just too much. The song „WINDOWS“ being the longest song on here in 6 minutes actually managed to keep my attention throughout the whole thing (mainly because it’s placed right after THE LIGHT, but that’s besides the point) and once again, it’s a killer track – from here on though, the song start to branch out into more experimental territory. The song „TAKE YOU ON“ is just this earhug of a song, just 4 minutes of pure musical bliss – it’s really sweet, it’s dancable, it’s groovy and it has Charlie Wilson on it, really the whole package. „OLD NEWS“ follows a similar formula, except this time it goes into more hip/hop driven direction, not much to say about this one to be honest, it works just fine. „WHAT’S THE OCCSASION?“ however is a grand rock-driven tune with just and amazing last chorus where all the instruments just go absolutely nuts, it’s super catchy, super anthemic, one could even say larger than life, definetly one of my favorites here. „WHEN I BALL“ comes again with this more hip-hop sound majority of this album is going for, but this time it’s more light-hearted – there are string that go throughout the whole song, little piano passages that add a nice flavour to the track, it’s just really easy-going, down to earth and fun to listen. Now the next track „DON’T SHOOT UP THE PARTY“ is only one of those things and that is fun as hell to listen to – this song is an absolute banger, not only on this album, but one of the best ones the group has ever put together. Everything about this song just works, from the slow yet intense build up to the explosion into that west-coast beat that just absolutely slays to the dark yet again dancable bridge towards the end of the track – everyone here does their thing and they even get space for the instrumentation itself to shine, it just through and through works. Now the ending of this album is rather depressing, you have the minimal yet absolutely gorgeous interlude „DEAR LORD“ where all the band members just pray for Joba’s father it’s a really powerfull moment which lead beautifully into the last and final track „THE LIGHT PT. II“ and to be honest, the title kind of says it all – this is Joba saying goodbye to his father in the most heart-wrenching yet powerful way possible, I couldn’t imagine a world where this isn’t the closing track. The instrumenation surrounding it also is just so somber, so vivid, so just gentle and sweet, it’s enough to make full grown man cry.

So yeah, this has been the latest installment in BROCKHAMPTON’s discogrpahy, pretty neat one at that. Honestly I think this is the group just perfecting the blend of different sound they were attempting for the past few years and if there is one word I would describe this album with, it’s maturity, they’ve really come a long way and I can’t wait to see where they go next.

Strong 8/10