a very interesting album. impressive and experimental sound design, with a consistent vibe throughout despite the genre-hopping. it's dirty, atmospheric, and with leaps and bounds of energy in just the right way.
some of the standout tracks are those with guest rappers, especially "heaven sent" (absolute banger, best on the album), "tangerine dreams" (weird, but i respect its uniqueness) "amplify" (pretty fire). instrumental tracks begin to become forgettable ... read more

some great tracks like "the light is always on", but overall underwhelming imo

well-designed sounds, consistently good energy, but not a standout to me due to lack of complexity, both lyrically and instrumentally.
impressively put together for a debut album

favourite tracks: "unfinished business", "tell me what it's like?"

Nothing groundbreaking, but some pretty good tunes here. Some forgettable ones also.

The Beginning is good, but that's about it. Lean Onto Me and Slaughter are decent but nothing new, Never Come Back is pretty fun despite its flaws, and the rest of the tracks are really quite disappointing.

pleasant, if a little generic. good background music as there's a progressive feel in each track. the lyrics are okay, could be more interesting in places but aren't bad by any means. it's pretty hard to rank these relative to each other, so i don't have a clear favourite.

I find this album quite beautiful, but Au5 is my favourite artist and I love melodic dubstep so not a big surprise. I love the way Au5 weaves sound to be both powerful and flowy, with great (albeit very 2019) sound design, a number of guest vocalists who do a good job, and a lot of complexity and depth, you can feel Au5's passion.

This was the first album that got me into listening to whole albums. I know it very well, I listened to it a lot in 2019, have always listened to it every so ... read more

A real mixed bag; some fantastic elements but with a few flaws. Overall, it's interesting and a worthwhile listen, I'd like to hear more from this artist.

Production is generally great, every track sounds and feels full of sound and the album has good depth. It's highly cohesive, with tracks fitting well within a grander project with a few consistent themes and similar sounds spun in different ways. The music itself is interesting, a chirpy and playful re-imagining of riddim, ... read more

The biggest disappointment of 2024 for me; the album's rating is absolutely saved by a few standout tracks and my general enjoyment of dark EDM.
BACK TO THE SHADOWS is fantastic, top 100 all-time for me. The atmospheric buildup sets the tone brilliantly for the spine-chilling climax. DUST TO DUST is a great followup, no complaints there and the second drop is great. The next few tracks are forgettable and nothing interesting, just edgy stuff and dark EDM you've heard before. HOLD ON ... read more

An album with a few good tracks but generally forgettable entries, fairly standard for dubstep in 2016 unfortunately.
Good tracks include Virus and The Paradox, but the album is very inconsistent, with different subgenres, no flow, and a few tracks that are just straight up awful, especially Africa. The album also shows its age; Throwin' Elbows may be a classic but it doesn't have the same weight to it any more (and sounds like 2014 not 2016, to be honest). Doesn't really do it ... read more

Yeah, that's not my vibe unfortunately.

It's pretty good, I enjoy it, but equally it doesn't do anything to impress me. It's easy to vibe to. The first four tracks are solid, but it begins becoming a bit forgettable from Phases onwards for me, picking up again for the last two tracks (Cages in particular is excellent). Across the album, the lyrics are a tad generic, but I often find myself liking their delivery. Instrumentals are a little inconsistent, they seem a bit safe in some tracks and I would've preferred ... read more

Interesting sound design and good lyrics in most tracks, although a few are underwhelming. It's cohesive, yet it still lacks flow from track to track. It's not what I usually listen to, but I can definitely dig it.
I can vibe to Carsick, Raw Raw is cool and different, Spaghetti is a great use of a duet, Shy has well-written lyrics, and Yes I'm Serious is generally enjoyable. Less keen on Punisher and both parts of Watch Me. Might listen to this a few more times and update my ... read more

Pretty good but not great dark EDM. A bit front-loaded; the first three tracks hit a lot better than the last four, which I find unmemorable surprisingly - there's clearly attempts to make each track distinctive, yet I still feel there's nothing new here.

Very good EP. Heavy and a little bit experimental too, a well-designed banger. Hard to choose a best track as they're all about as good as each other, but probably Unfinished Business.

Really good in the background and a number of nice tracks, but some forgettable ones too. As a whole the album is consistent throughout with great flow and good production, but not especially memorable; it's both samey and a bit too mild for me - but it's still enjoyable and I've listened to it a number of times now.

It's clearly good, just not my sort of thing really. His vocals are excellent and the album has a nice chill vibe throughout. Lyrics are a mixed bag; I enjoyed them in tracks like What's Going On and Save the Children, but I don't tend to enjoy religious or political topics in music generally. Nonetheless, glad to have experienced it (twice) as part of JLP.

A bit of a mixed bag. The dubstep is mainstream and nothing to write home about, but it's not terrible either, and you can definitely bop to it, and there isn't a single track I dislike. Every track is a collab with at least one other artist, and this adds some much-needed variety, but does leave the album a little inconsistent.
Shaq's vocals are actually pretty good, although the lyrics themselves are extremely generic (not the biggest issue on a dubstep album though).