lil kim - lil kim season

March 31, 2016

i'll be honest with y'all, i've never listened to a lil kim project in full before now. i barely even know lil kim songs and i definitely don't know any verse of hers in full. i probably should rectify that, but i probably won't.

i did listen to this tape and found myself enjoying it. from what i've heard about her recently, she sort of "fell off" and is trying to get back on? if this is true, i'd say she's on the right path for sure. if it's not, then we as listeners don't have much to worry about. she's got a commanding flow and nice lines here and there. her "beemix" choices are good ones, each one sounds like she could've been the original artist outside of the panda one, i think i'm just too used to desiigner on it.

all in all, it's a mixtape in the right direction. quick listen, keeps me interested. not a whole lot of replay value for me, but a lil kim fan would enjoy it.

top tracks: fountain bleu, summer sixteen (beemix), i'm dat bitch

score: 55

asking alexandria - the black

March 29, 2016

exit danny worsnop, enter denis stoff. if it weren't for denis' ukrainian accent, you wouldn't really notice a major difference in their vocals. denis does seem to have a larger range on both screams and cleans but it's really irrelevant here because he's never saying anything worth a damn anyway. i'm not one to get mad at explicit lyrics but how many f-bombs does one album need? we're still dropping them before breakdowns? they even spell it out for you on the last track. it was done "best" on their first album.

i'm glad the band decided to work back in some metalcore and there are times where i'm legitimately enjoying myself. however, these points never last an entire song because that hard rock influence rears its ugly head and i get bored again. who decided that ballads were what anyone wants from them? so many questions and i don't know if i want the answers.

i don't think i ever want to hear this album in full again. i don't think i really love anything about this album. just a lot of mediocrity.

top tracks: let it sleep, circled by the wolves

score: 30

carly rae jepsen - emotion remixed +

March 25, 2016

most people know that emotion was one of my favorite albums of 2015 and there's two new tracks on this remix album so i figured i'd check it out. first time could've easily been an addition to emotion's main tracklist, fitting well within the sounds of making the most of the night or boy problems. fever's a little bit different, not really a major addition but welcomed anyway as it's a solid track.

the remixes here attempt to pull the 80s vibes out of the tracks for the most part and many of them succeed. would've loved to hear more takes on other tracks besides the four here but there's a few jams i wouldn't mind listening to again. not going to give this album a rating since it's not really a full effort but i'll suggest checking out the top tracks.

top tracks: first time, run away with me (y2k remix), your type (skylar spence remix), all that (the knocks remix)

say anything - i don't think it is

March 24, 2016

the album's inspiration, not sure if i'm feeling the cover though

the new project from the mind of max bemis is a step in a whole new direction. apparently influenced by kanye west (he even goes to say that he wanted this to be say anything's twisted fantasy) and hip hop in general, he brings a whole new aggression to the band's catalog. working primarily with the drummer of mutemath, each track is laced with half sung half screamed lyrics over top of some hard beats. i love how gritty and hard the tracks hit; lyrically they're just as potent.

the previous album hebrews was made with no guitars and interesting arrangements. this album is almost its antithesis; guitars and samples are piercing and cutting everywhere. even through all this, the drums always find a way to cut through the mix and as a drummer, this is awesome.

i'm not sure if other people will feel as strongly as i do about this thing, it really isn't as easily approachable as the self-titled is. there's one thing that's for certain: no one's really taking risks like this that i know of.

top tracks: 17 coked up speeding, attaboy, rum, #blessed, give a damn

score: 90

the word alive - dark matter

March 23, 2016

where do you go after metalcore? most bands in the scene seem to be nearing this point where they either don't seem to like what they were doing or they want to break into the mainstream with a more accessible version of their sound. so what does that mean? it's time to do the thing everyone does, dig 20 years into the past and blend in the popular sound of that time; in this case we're channeling in nu-metal and arena rock.

many members have quoted this as their most honest record yet, and lyrically i hear that. however, this is the same angst that most people hated on in the nu-metal bands of years past. i can look past this most of the time, but some of these lyrics are mad cheesy. musically, we're dealing with a lot of that cheese too; every track has this sludgy feel to it that works for some and not at all for others. simply put, it's a trek to get through this stuff.

i wouldn't say that this is a bad album, but it just doesn't do any of what it tries to do better than its contemporaries, past and present. it's better than real though.

top tracks: trapped, oxy, sellout, suffocating

score: 51

hands like houses - dissonants

March 22, 2016

it's not on spotify, google play or apple music because streaming is "bad"

with this third installment in hands like houses' career, they're going at it without their keyboardist. normally, one would think that a post-hardcore band doesn't really need one of those, but i always enjoyed how real his parts sounded on their first two records. on this one, they continue to use synths/keys but they just don't have that same flair or the same flourishes. they held their own in the past and now the electronics are very typical.

continuing on the typical, it seems like they're embarking on the trendy arena rock stylings that a lot of bands seem to get into as they become more popular, seemingly in hopes that they'll grab more fans/shows/whatever. to counteract this, they've brought back some breakdowns and gritty scream-like clean vocals which can be nice.

all in all, these guys put together a solid album but one that really isn't that memorable and slowly gets more boring as it progresses.

top tracks: i am, colourblind, new romantics, grey havens

score: 59

future - evol

March 21, 2016

i'm going to be blunt this time around. this will be my fourth future review since i started doing these and quite frankly, that's two too many. being prolific is great in some instances and bad in others. on the one hand, this album is full of great beats and future does his job over them in future fashion. on the other, this album is full of great beats and future just does his job over them in future fashion.

what i'm saying here is "did we really need this project?" most of you all will say "of course, are you stupid?", in which i'd respond with a sound "no". i'm glad we have evol, maybach is a great song. however, i'm still playing march madness whenever i need an automatic turn up. where ya at still gets major hype when i'm out at the bar. hell, even move that dope is more relevant than half the tracks on here.

we got a lot of future doing future and that's great. but we also got a lot of tracks that aren't really pushing any new ground. i'm getting bored.

top tracks: maybach, seven rings, lie to me

score: 58

kendrick lamar - untitled unmastered.

March 15, 2016

i've seen people discuss these tracks as throwaways and i don't agree with that. to me, throwaways implies that these weren't meant for general consumption, but it's obvious that they are. i've seen people say that these are b-sides and i think that's pretty much it (kendrick's said that they are himself) but still slightly off. basically what i'm saying is that i don't think that the songs are directly connected to to pimp a butterfly's narrative, but are other songs existing in its environment. people were saying that they could easily trade in tracks from this project and put them on the album and that's ridiculous simply due to how the poem/spoken word piece is; it would have to be re-written for it to work. (now, these people may be thinking the same thing as me but not elaborating on their ideas but who knows.)

but on to the actual music of this collection of songs: we're getting straight artistry. there's more jazz and hip hop fusion, more catchphrases, more flows. the features he brings in are in sync with his mood, cee-lo being the standout one for me. i love how a simple chant of pimp pimp, hooray can unite otherwise distant tracks.

even in it's unmastered form, it's still more quality than most rappers' finished products. kendrick makes me excited when he speaks.

best tracks: 5, 6, 7, 8

score: 91

kanye west - the life of pablo

February 21, 2016

i could spend ages explaining to you why this album is important and how long it took to bring this thing to light, but that wouldn't be my style. i think everyone's speculated and gossiped enough about this thing, so let me come to you as real as i know how.

what we get on this album is kanye west. introspective, soul samples, punchlines, sex, industrial moods, danceable beats, uplifting passages, brooding lows, real talk, boastful talk, family talk. all of it is unadulterated kanye west. but as a listener, you are most definitely not kanye west. so how do you parse all of this? so far, i honestly am not sure. i'm sure this conclusion isn't what you expected.

i've listened to this album in its various states about 5 times now, and every time i feel something new with the progression of the story of pablo's life, so to speak. sometimes i feel like this album is immensely chaotic and doesn't even know where it's going. other times i look at the tracklist and see the focus; i can understand the ebbs and flows. it's a very spiritual journey that i believe "ends" after wolves, but the 4 tracks after the intermission are very important side quests.

i don't really get it yet, but i like it a lot.

best tracks: ultralight beam, highlights, 30 hours, fade, feedback, no more parties in la, i love kanye

update: with this 1.2 patched version of the album, i've gotta say, he improved on so much. i'm in agreement with every change except for the ad-lib outro on 30 hours. i have no idea why it now falls off the beat. i'm not going to change the score or anything, but man is this album enriching. it's hilarious how i totally didn't care about father stretch my hands on my first few listens/in my first review. my credibility is trash.

i get it now and i still like it a lot.

also best tracks: father stretch my hands pt. 1, pt. 2, famous

score: 94

rihanna - anti

February 1, 2016

simply put, the packaging for this album aptly describes how this long-awaited project sounds. this is anti-mainstream convention, deconstruction in a pop world dominated by edm production. i'd even go as far as to say that this album may be rihanna's yeezus in how jarring it is compared to her past work. every track is slathered in murky tones, even lead single work is a very night-like approach at the rising trend of island sounds in top 40 songs. this all speaks towards the album's title, but when you look at the artwork, there's another motif that's explored. amongst the distorted image, we clearly see a crown. i feel like she's very content in who she is after all the craziness she's been through over the past couple years. she's feeling powerful in the darkness.

speaking strictly musically, i think the textures here are gripping. i fancy the more active songs she has more than her ballads, but nothing really was all that bad to go through and it all makes sense within the context of each other. i find that i don't exhibit too many feelings towards the album though, but i know that it is a valuable album for the pop scene at the moment. at the very least, i know the world needed that tame impala cover. more genre blending please.

favorite tracks: same ol' mistakes, work, consideration