Music Reviews

The long awaited 3rd studio album by the infamous youtuber turned singer Joji is after what felt like an eternity finally here and right of the back I gotta say this one kinda flopped. I’m not sure if Joji’s label was just forcing him to release something but besides a few key tracks this album feels more like an EP than his literal EPs. Like the enitre second half of this album is as undercooked as it gets – also on that note this is the last album in the world that would need 2 fricking discs, like the material on here can barely be counted for one disc considering it’s just around 20 minutes long. However there are, as always with Joji, few incredibly high highlights but even the short runtime can’t save those from being burried beneath just so many filler and clearly unfinnished tracks. Let’s go through some of those now, shall we?

The album kicks off with the literal best track on the album and also the big single from this thing „Glimpse Of Us“ a heart-wrenching piano ballad that sets the bar up so high for the rest of this album that even actual non-rushed tracks would have trouble measuring up to it. The lyrics are really heartfelt and Joji’s singing is very on point, everything just clicks with this one and it also just sticks with you for a long time. Things go south from here super fast though. The next song „Feeling Like The End“ has a solid trap beat that I think could have worked if the song just had a little more meat on the bones – it just comes and goes before you even get used to the switch in sound from the last song and it just leaves you kind of confused and craving for more. I do like the song overall, I just think it would have really benefited from just being longer, maybe have anohter verse also something like a bridge and you’ve got yourself a pretty decent Joji song, but like this it’s just decent. However the next song „Die For You“ does picks things up quite substantially, it’s another really solid ballad, with actual drums this time around and honestly just ear-gasmic Space Song-esk guitar licks and synth work that just transports you into another dimension – this one’s another hit for me, really wish this album had more songs like this one. After that comes the song „Before The Day Is Over“ where the only redeeming quality is honestly the lyrics, they for some reason really hit close to home for me, but I just wish the rest of the song was as intresting to convey those lyrics. Like if I don’t get grabbed by the lyrics and the story immidiately, the song just starts to drag so much and I usually tend to skip it. The first disc if you can even call it that closes of with the song „Dissolve“ that’s kind of hit or miss for me – there are some parts of it I really like but overall it’s just super forgetable and uninspired, not much else to say about it, the autotune is used really poorly here and the watery guitars just do nothing for me, it’s just a nothing burger of a song.

Now the second half has only 4 songs out of which 1 is an interlude, 1 is a demo and 1 is apparently a freestyle that’s honestly barely a song. And the only actual song on this side „NIGHT RIDER“ just straight up is not good. The sound effects are obnoxious and super distracting and again, there is just nothing to talk about here, like if you removed this song and honestly the entire second half and just released this as a weird EP mixtape thing it would have honestly been just so much better. The „BLAHBLAHBLAH DEMO“ sucks, like the song is just bad. The vocal melody is kinda nice? But yeah, the song literally says to you it’s a demo, like why is it even included on here. „YUKON (INTERLUDE)“ is probably the best song out of the bunch here, it’s just the most listenable and solid cut on this side, but again nothing mind-blowing, I could take it or leave it to be honest. And finally the outro song „1AM FREESTYLE“ is just barely a song, it’s a nice outro song I guess, but it just tries to make this whole thing somewhat of a full experience when it’s just clearly just not.

And yeah, that’s Joji’s latest album SMITHEREENS – an album that had a lot of potential for being his best but ended up being arguably his worst. I’m sorry, I definetly can appriciate his growth as a singer and his song-writing capabilities have definetly improved as well over the years, but this is just blatantly unfinnished. I really think his label was just pressuring him to release something, because this album is the third of the length of his last and it has somehow double the ammount of filler.

-favorite tracks: Glimpse Of Us, Die For You, parts of Feeling Like The End and YUKON (INTERLUDE) and lyrics on Before The Day Is Over

-least favorite tracks: Dissolve, BLAHBLAHBLAH DEMO

Light 6/10

First review of 2022 hooray!!

This album, at least for me, was a series of many red flags. First off all how it was announced basically like not even a year after After Hours, Abel’s last album and one of my personal favorites of that year, the really confusing almost non-existent roll-out to this album and, of course, the in my opinnion still not so great album cover, (which is me after waiting for this thing to drop since it’s been announced). Then the album actually came out and I gave it a full listen and… Well all my red flags proved to be right, or at least innitialy they were. I couldn’t remember a single note from this album besides „Take My Breath“, which I’ve already listened to death at that point and I was starting to get genuinely worried, because everyone LOVED this album when it dropped. I felt like I was going crazy – what does everyone see in this that I’m overlooking? It must be just me, right? So I decided to give it a few more shots and well, long story short, this album is amazing (that’s what I call character development right here). Speaking of character development, Abel REALLY build on the 80s inspired foundation he layed down on his last album and I feel like this album is him fully embracing it. It may not do as well commercially, but don’t let that stop you from how much this album actually bops.

You notice the tone shift instantly on the first actual song on this album „Gasoline“, where Abel, for the first I ever heard him do it like this, really explores the capabilities of his lower register voice. And admitedly it was a bit off-putting the first time I heard it, but there is honestly something really mezmerizing about it – it just clicks with you after a while for some reason. Also this is where you start to notice how rich and layered the production on this album is – the lush 80s synths with punchy crisp drums in the hands of some excelent producers make this a treat to listen to. „How Do I Make You Love Me?“ is honestly one of my favorite songs here, the chorus goes so hard it should actually be illegal – there is also this underlying feeling present throughout the entirety of the song that something just isn’t right. What definetly must be illegal though is the transition into „Take My Breath“, which is so good I still can’t proccess how excelently that is done. The song itself also took a new form on this album, clocking at around almost 6 minutes, almost double the length of the original single version and I gotta say, it really does the song justice, I’ll take this version over the original any day. If I had just 6 minutes left of my life… I probably wouldn’t listen to this song, but it’s still really good. Instead I would play the next song „Sacrifice“ two times, because that guitar thing that’s going throughout the entire track goes SO HARD IT DIDN’T HAVE TO GO SO HARD BUT IT DOES OH MY GOD IT’S SO GOOD. The Quincy Jones interlude „A Tale By Quincy“ is one of the better interludes I’ve heard in a while for sure and it ends on a really dark note aswell. „Out of Time“ is really uplifting instrumentally and yet so miserable lyrically, it just creates this contrast that I absolutely love. The flute or whatever it is that’s going on constantly in the background really makes this song work. „Here We Go… Again“ with Tyler is fitting title, because right as that first note hit I said to myself exactly that. The song has no drums and is all just vibes with a so so Tyler verse, which I still can’t help but enjoy, because you know, it’s Tyler. It kind of works as the halfway point of this album, almost making the album two parts. The next song „Best Friends“ I enjoy a lot, the abrasive synths and the earworm that is the chorus, this should be an instant favorite for me, right? Well I think the song is good, but it’s just missing that extra something to really make it GREAT. Still one of my favorites just because of the reasons stated above. Here I think the album start to lose it’s focus a bit, the next few tracks „Is There Someone Else?“ „Starry Eyes“ and „Every Angel is Terrifying“ just don’t really do it for me, they all just blend into one forgetable expirience and I usually tend to skip this section (I like to call it the „Yawn FM“) while listening to the album. „Don’t Break My Heart“ puts the album back on track with a really gentle beat, I really like how the hi-hats mix with the somewhat burried synths and Abel’s storytelling. I also especially enjoy the section in each chorus where he says „I don’t know if I can take it anymore“, something about the way he says that just gets me everytime. Overall just an okay song though. „I Heard You’re Married“ featuring Lil Wayne coincidently also has a really nice vocal line in the chorus and a pretty catchy beat, but that’s about it for what makes this song stand out – oh and Lil Wayne is here too. The true highlight of the album comes in the form of „Less Than Zero“ though, with the really quiet guitar playing, the excellent synths, the absolutely bombastic chorus and just the overall aesthethic, all the pieces are there and the whole picture is excellent. The outro song „Phantom Regret By Jim“ is basically just an interlude, but it surpasses many of the whole song on here. Really convinving performance from Jim and a compelling way to close off the album and tie the whole thing together.

So yeah, this album is pretty good – I think the middle second half is significantly less exciting than the first one, but it also has „Less Than Zero“ on it, so it ballances out. Overall a solid effort from The Weeknd, I don’t think it’s on the same level of enjoyability as After Hours for me though, where I grew to love really every track on there, but it’s a natural artistic progression for The Weeknd to continue this path of 80s anthems and if he continues to do them as succesfully as here, then I think he’ll be just fine off doing exactly that. So yeah, a pretty good start to 2022 music-wise.

Strong 7/10

I’m gonna keep this one short and sweet, kind of like the album itself. Silk Sonic is a Soul R&B duo consisting of two members rapper and singer Anderson .Paak and the hit maker Bruno Mars – sounds like a match made in heaven, right? Well they definetly didn’t dissapoint in that regard – their chemistry on this record is out of this world and they both play off of each other super well. Anderson’s more rough emotionally-packed voice compliments the sweet angelic voice of Bruno Mars impeccably.

Now this record isn’t flawless, it stills has a few issues holding it back from being that sweet sweet 10/10 I was pulling for this to be, the main reason definetly being it’s length. I understand that there is only so much you can do within this specific blend of genres for a long period of time, but 9 tracks clocking in at 33 minutes just isn’t enough – they never really get super adventerous on this record, it’s all played very safe within a certain formula – the formula works, but I just wished they branched out a little, that’s all. Anyways, there still is some variety to be found here, especially on tracks like „Fly As Me“ which has got to be one of the nastiest, grooviest most slickest piece of music I’ve heard all year (Silk Sonic more like SLICK Sonic… Yeah, that definetly hasn’t been done before) and „Put On A Smile“, which surely is the emotional highpoint of the record. The other issue with this album, and that is mostly just a minor personal nit-pick that I have, so don’t worry, is that the album doesn’t seem to follow any concept whatsoever – sure you could make the argument that there actualy IS a narrative hidden in this album, but even so, that clearly wasn’t an intentional artistic choice – you could call this a concept album, if the concept was partying and making some good-ass music to go along side with it.

That’s actually about all I have to say for the „negatives“ I feel towards this album – now let’s dive a little more deeper into the good stuff and oh boy, is there a lot of that – the rest of this review is basically going to be me just simping over Anderson and Bruno on this record. The album opens with the short introduction „Silk Sonic Intro“, which sums up the album’s musical pallete and gives the listener a pretty good idea of what they’re going into – however the next song and the main single of this album „Leave The Door Open“ completely throws that out the window (don’t say it, don’t say it…), sounding like typical Bruno Mars R&B production with just the right ammount of soul – both artist steal the show here, a prime example of their chemistry on this album, it’s really just on full display here. The next song is the previously mentioned „Fly As Me“ and this one’s special, because Anderson RAPS on this one. That’s right, if I’m not mistaken, which I sure as hell might be, I think this is the only instance of that occuring on this whole record and Anderson really doesn’t hold back because of that. Easily one of the best songs on the whole album and keep in mind, the whole album slaps, so that’s saying a lot. The next song „After Last Night“ also has Thundercat and Bootsy Collins on it, so of course it’s great, what did you expect me to say. Actually I’m just gonna leave (don’t say it, DO NOT SAY IT) it with that, I think everyone who knows Thundercat’s production style knows that the dude doesn’t miss and this is no exception. Now we arrive at my personal favorite song on the album – „Smoking Out The Window“ and there are many reasons as to why that is indeed my favortie song. First and foremost it’s in my opinnion the most layered song on here with such a complex yet catchy chorus and it all manages to feel so natural, I’m really impressed by the song-writing on this one. Second of all, the performances themselves are also one of the more heartfelt and emotinally-packed if you ask me – Anderson is really the star of the show here. And last but not least, it’s just so much fun – I can’t help but to put on a smile (DON’T) everytime I hear it. SPEAKING OF PUTTING ON A SMILE (oh god…), the next song is, you guessed it, „Put On A Smile“ and this one despite what the title implies takes my smile away and replaces it with pure unfiltered sadness. This is the so called „hidden gem“ of the record for me – Bruno’s lyricism is surprisingly tight, like everytime he says „tryna fight these tears from cryin‘, but Lord know I’m dyin“, I FEEL that. Also just the way he says it, it’s just an overall emotional gut-punch and I love it. The song „777“ kicks off the final third of the record and it’s a great song, don’t get me wrong, but the problems with this album starts to become a bit apparent by this point, it’s not different enough to be supper intresting and it’s kind of just more of the same – NOW BEFORE YOU GO AND TRY TO CRUCIFY ME I still think it’s good, but by this point in the album, I would welcome a bit of a pace-change. Still a good song nonethenless. And I hate to admit it, but basically the same goes for the next song „Skate“, except this one looses me honestly even more (which is still a joke to say, like the quality difference between the songs on this album is I think strictly a matter of just subjective preference of each individual listener). The existenc of the closer „Blast Off“ is really only to fulfill the purpose of closing off an album, as I feel the song on it’s own is significantly less impactful then in the context of the album. It does it’s job fairly well and honestly, at the end of the day, you still feel like you got the whole expirience by the end of it and that’s what really matters.

So uh, so much for short and sweet, huh? Yeah it’s hard not to get passionate about something that these two make, like leave some talent for us dudes – all jokes aside, this album is stellar. Definetly give it a listen if you haven’t, I don’t think there is a single human being on this album that doesn’t enjoy this record at least to some degree (so yes, if you in fact dislike this album, I’m calling you a non-human).

Light 9/10

So I’m gonna keep this sweet and short, sort of like the EP itself. This little project from the phenomenon known as ECCO2K is definetly his most abstract and adventurous yet. Instead of his usual ambient production, ECCO2K uses more abrasive approach to things here with the usage of electric guitars, walls of insane synths and sounds and even dabbles into noise music on the last track here. It’s a really weird yet captivating mixture of sounds that definetly showcases ECCO2K’s, in my opinion, not fully realised potential.

The EP consists of 5 tracks, one weirder and more abstract then the other – first we have the opener PXE which is barely a song, just a mixture of random sounds and sound effects, a somewhat haunting mixture in that. The follow-up „In The Flesh“ is the most truly ECCO2K song on here, but even that uses some really tasteful electric guitars and a really creative 8-bit beat, when it all clashes together in the last leg of the track, it really comes full circle. The song „Jalouse“ goes further down the rabbit hole with more accoustic approach to things with noise freak outs placed throughout the track. „NO***’s Song“ is indeed a song, or at least I think it is – by this point in the album I forgot what actual music sounds like. Still, the song showcases more of the same insanity the first track presented with more rhyme and reason to it this time around. The closer „Big Air“, which is also the longest song on here (that doesn’t say much, considering it’s still just 3 minutes long) is a harsh noisy ballad with some really smooth almost magical electronic keys in the background – it helps to distract you from the fact that the rest of the instrumentation sounds like a tortured vaccum cleaner. Still probably my favorite song on here, if you can even call it that.

So uh, I have no idea what have I just listened to and neither do you, so don’t even pretend like you do. Still I found this to be a very exciting and for lack of a better word intresting project, definetly check it out if you haven’t already, I’m really hyped up to see this new sound fully realised on a new project from ECCO2K.

Light 7/10

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

After the mixbag that was 2015s „Starboy“, The Weeknd realy needed a new direction to go to. And I don’t think that anyone expected the direction to be 80s inspired R&B dream pop. Though this album still has that signature The Weeknd sound, with its overuse of hi-hats, structured trap beats and obviously the godly voice that The Weeknd offers. The album sounds nostalgic yet somehow futuristic – this new approach resulted into The Weeknd’s most conceptually realised album yet, with its simple yet powerful songwriting and broken aesthetic through out the whole album, with few exceptions here and there.

One of the exceptions is definetly the first single „Heartless“, which is easily the biggest banger of this whole thing. But even though this song just slaps, it still has that significant dark undertone, that’s present through out this whole project. The opener „Alone Again“ on the other hand is a slow-paced low-key track, with some really captivating production – and then when the actual instrumentation kicks in? Oh boy, you know you’re in for something special. The song „Hardest To Love“ features some of the most beautiful vocal melodies I’ve heard all year and it really shows how much has Abel grew as vocalist over the years. „Snowchild“ is this gentle and sweet track with moody synths and raging hi-hats, that has some big potential, but is kind off ruined by the second verse of the song – it just felt really out of place and disengenious. „Escape From LA“ is another miss for me – while the song’s introspective lyricism might be enough for someone to keep their attention through out the whole thing, I just find the instrumentation surrounding it to be really weak and forgetable, that I really just can’t pay attention to the message of the song. But it’s truly only hits from here – „Faith“ is a beautiful and heartbreaking gem in the track list, that always manages to make me teary-eyed, „Blinding Lights“ is an absolute 80s inspired masterpiece with melodies that will be stuck in your head for days to come (same goes for „In Your Eyes“, but with a more thick instrumentation this time around) and „Save Your Tears“, even though it sounds like a more well-produced rip-off of Post Malone’s „Circles“, still has that emotional power to it, that you just can’t deny. The only weak track in this half of the album is the interlude „Repeat After Me“, which is, in two words, just forgetable. But then we get the absolute best song on the album, the title track „After Hours“. This 6-minute behemoth of a song is really something else – from the atmospheric and genuenly haunting intro, to when the drop finally kicks in and you just feel like you entered a different dimension. The keys and bass in this are absolutely out of this world, the singing feels tortured, yet gorgeous and the lyrics really tie this whole album together. Then plays the last song „Until I Bleed Out“, AKA the last cry for help – truly a teriffying, yet somehow fitting way to close off the album.

Abel has once again proved, that he isn’t just another cash-grabbing face in the never-ending pop crowd – he proved that he cares about the art that he makes and that he can manage to make a conceptual maserpiece, such as this one, while experimenting with other styles and genres. This really was a ride, from start to finnish, even though I didn’t feel like every song hit the nail on the head, it still was a fulfilling listen through out and in the end felt like a complete and statysifing expirience.

Decent 8/10

George Miller, famous internet YouTube star turned proffesional artist, AKA Joji, was someone I never expected to like, After the colosall failure that was in my eyes Joji’s debut EP „In Tongues“, I pretty much wrote him off as another face in the ever expanding sad boy trap genre. But Joji came back swinging – with his 2018 single „Slow Dancing In The Dark“ he proved that he had potential – great potential in fact. The follow up album „Ballads 1“ didn’t necesarry meet the expectations that Slow Dancing set the bar for, but it still was a reasonable effort from Joji – more then In Tongues anyways. But now we’re here, on Joji’s second studio album „Nectar“.

Before I start to talk smack about Joji like I usually end up doing, I would like to just say, that this is EASILY Joji’s most profound, well-produced and admirable record to date. The singles tha dropped before the album’s release all showed that Joji is taking this whole music career thing really seriously and that he is taking the steps to become a better not only vocalist, but artist overall. „Sanctuary“ is a synth-driven 80s inspired ballad with some really sweet vocal harmonies and melodies. „Gimmie Love“ is your classic lo-fi Joji sad-boyish song with an accoustic twist in the second half, while „Daylight“ is a little pop tune with some amazing production choices from none other then „Diplo“. And don’t even get me started on „Run“ – that’s, in mz opinnion, easily Joji’s best song, period. But this is also the biggest sin that this album commits – releasing all the absolute best songs as singles before the albums’s release. Not gonna lie, I had some prettz big expectations for this album when it came out – but what we got wasn’t anything like what the singles promised. Instead, it’s an 18-track long lofi hip-hop album, when it could’ve been just 12-tracks long. Also when I say lofi hip-hop album, I REALLY mean that – at least half of the songs on here follow the absolute same formula and sound. And to be honest, it gets really tiring – like what do songs like „Nitrous“ or „High Hopes“ truly and honestly bring to the track list?

That being said, there are still some highlights in the tracklisting here and there: the opening track „Ew“ is a moody and powerful opener which sets the tone for the whole album really well. The following track „MODUS“ is the start of the lo-fi hip hop tracks trend on this album, though this one actually has some nice melodies and especially instrumentation. The same goes for the songs „Afterthought“ and „Mr. Hollywood“, which both again feed into the same formula as MODUS but actually have some substance – especially Mr. Hollywood, that song is just gorgeous. „Tick Tock“ is another intresting one – it starts with this corny low-pitched rapping that is luckily quickly over and this nice accoustic beat comes in, while Joji is giving us those nice vocal harmonies. Then there is the surprisingly crushing „Like You Do“, which is this piano ballad about one’s persons love being more then the love of all the others – „no one loves me like you do“. It’s definetly a beautiful moment in the album, but the album could really use some variety – the closest thing to that we get on „Pretty Boy“, which is easily the catchiest song on the whole album – the beat’s pretty simple, but it works in the song’s favour. Also Lil Yachty’s verse is surprisingly awesome, the two of them with Joji have some really nice chemistry. Finally the song „Your Man“, that closes the album off is a trendy EDM banger, which is a overall a nice send off to the whole thing.

Now there are a LOT of things I didn’t like about this album – some of the songs, like „Reanimator“, should’ve really just been longer and some other songs like „Upgrade“ should’ve been just cut completely. But while there is a lot to not like about this album, there is still a lot to enjoy here. And I can only commend Joji for trying new things and experimenting with his voice and his music aswell. As I said, I still think that this is Joji’s best realease yet and I can’t wait to see where he takes this next.

light 7/10