Ratboys largely play it safe on an undeniably passionate record.
It heats up in the second half, but it still doesn’t prove that Cole has enough in him to push boundaries or even push past some of his past bad habits.
Don Toliver’s more amped and aggressive approach to this album is definitely admirable, but the problem lies in the times where he backs the wrong horse too hard - or backs off entirely - times which occur too often to be glossed over.
It’s not nearly a finished project, and the overflowing talent they show constantly throughout practically confirms the existence of a debut album in the near future. This is the first great release of 2026, and in the passionate delivery of “the world is waiting for you, you don’t need a head start”, they may well be addressing themselves.
The thing about Don’t Be Dumb is that for an album that is 8 years in the making, it comes off at times like Rocky really isn’t trying hard enough. It’s a perfectly competent trap album, with some highlights like HELICOPTER and the title track. Other parts really don’t seem to be innovative enough in terms of production or have bars that could really use a more vicious and convicted delivery. Overall a good album, but perhaps not quite the album that people believed ASAP ... read more
It sounds very much like what TLDP expects a baroque pop album to sound like - almost overly theatrical, with flourished vocals and orchestral instrumentation - albeit without any of the experimentation or innovation.
Tame Impala’s foray into a more electronic sound deals out far more misses than hits.
No, this album is not watertight, nor does it reinvent the wheel in which pop rotates perennially. Instead, Fine Line is the epitome of a personal journey through fame. From the fame of One Direction - a fame shared collectively, and thus able to be diluted and spread across many facets - to the fame he singularly holds now, we see his personal ambitions for music realised and perfected.
Don’t get me wrong, this album IS boring, and this album IS uninteresting and generic and sounds like another corporate cop-out, which is part of the problem because it’s clear Tay Tay is obviously still dealing with the same infantile emotional impulses she’s been dealing with for the last couple years. But, but, BUT, it may not be quite as aggravatingly BAD as the tortured poets’ department.
It is an album that will, quite simply, be spoken of in the same breath as the great rock and roll albums - The Beatles’ “Abbey Road”, Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon”… Geese’s “Getting Killed”. A completely spectacular, comprehensive and beautiful masterpiece that gives the apotheosis to the argument that rock and roll is well and truly alive.
TL:DR: if this was released as their debut, then we’d praise it even more than we praise Is This It now.
2 years previously, The Strokes released their debut album Is This It. At the time, it was a completely groundbreaking album, and a reinvigorating and monumental moment for guitar-driven rock. Its follow up, 2003’s Room On Fire, is perhaps most well known for being “more of the same” of its predecessor.
Not only is this throwaway jibe harsh, anyone who has listened ... read more
Get To Heaven is almost paradoxical in its delivery of harrowing, almost paranoid stories with music that is captivatingly beautiful.
7 years after the (commercial) success of Invasion Of Privacy, Cardi B returns with an album that’s just plain bad.
JADE’s full length solo debut often gets carried away in its own experimentation and exploration.
Perhaps in future times we will look back at this record as the most prescient of its time; perhaps we may already be aware of the world it describes. What we know for sure is that this is one of the most visceral, connective, and at the centre genuinely compassionate records of this decade.
Twenty One Pilots break their losing streak with a concentrated effort that consistently plays to their strengths. The result is some of the best indietronica they’ve released since Trench.
Big Thief’s follow up to the universally acclaimed ‘Dragon New Warm Mountain…’ shares a lot of similar tunes and ideas as its predecessor. However, there are definitely some incredible moments that are par for the course with Adrianne Lenker’s songwriting brilliance.
Highlights: Words, Los Angeles
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