When I first heard Daughter's You Wont Get What You Want in 2018, I loved it. It was dark and ugly and twisted and a testament to the quality writing and characterization, the way the band could write this completely depraved and evil character from fiction. I then learned that this character was (allegedly) not from fiction and was in, in fact, loosely based on the (allegedly) actual real-life actions of the band's frontman. I now find it very difficult to listen to that album ... read more

Clairo's music is quiet. Unassuming. Some might say dull. It's something that has always felt at a distance to me, as if any song sung with this little energy must be equally lacking in emotion, or effort, or intent. Even the album's most upbeat rock tracks, like Sexy to Someone and Add Up My Love, felt like they deserved an amped-up performance to match. As if such well written tracks had been squandered by its lethargy. As if Echo and Pier 4 were worse because their hazy ... read more

In the past, artists have complained about an inherent bias in the music community against terms like "hip-hop" and "rapper", where artists or works are automatically labeled as such regardless of the genre and style of their work. In particular, Ye commented on how he was derogatorily labeled as a rapper instead of an artist, while Tyler, the Creator spoke out about IGOR being labeled a rap album instead of a pop album. This musical purism mentality, rooted in racism and ... read more

The flaws of Vultures 1 are active. They jump out as clear missteps, a chipmunk launching themselves into a flying attack at your face as it sings about how he wants to fuck sumn right now. But the erratic, violent, confrontational artistry that led to its flaws also lead to some successes, like the severely underrated/overhated Hoodrat with its carnal screams, depraved croons, and demonically possessed chants. It's garish and ugly, but bold and striking, in a way that intentionally ... read more

It's getting harder and harder to defend Ye. Not because the racism, antisemitism, misogyny, and general creepy behavior, because it was pretty easy to stop defending him for that. But the level of detail, quality control, and general care towards the final product has been on a slight but steady downfall. At least on ye, the album reveled in its raw and spontaneous creation. At least on Jesus is King, the album was and remained enjoyable and artistically sound. At least on Donda, the album ... read more

Drake has a lot of haters and a lot of complainers, and he takes it to heart far too often. His albums are too long, so this one's only 6 tracks and 24 minutes. He doesn't rap like the old Drake anymore, so he raps at his highest level in years, with smooth flows and smart wordplay over his coldest beats yet. He's too soft and sensitive, so he spends the entire project firing back on artists, ex-lovers, fans, and the industry. And he's not relatable anymore, so he spends his last moments ... read more

Drake is not a comedian, even though he tries. The album is plagued by an overuse of punchlines, including my least favorite "You tried to grease me, but we're not in Mykonos". It's not even that bad, which is the worst part. It doesn't make sense for Drake to format a joke as a bar. Jokes should be effortlessly funny, but Drake takes his songs and verses too seriously, so a constructed joke in his verses feels forced and tacky. It's especially true in the RnB songs, where the comedic ... read more

The biggest music wildcard these days is an album where almost every song has a feature. Sometimes these albums are canvases that allow features to put their personal spins on a common themes. Sometimes they allow artists to explore genres while retaining their signature identity. Sometimes they’re really shit and have boring ass cash grab features with no personality. This album averages over one feature per song, and not in the way Quest For Fire does. For a producer like Skrillex ... read more

Gun to your head: if I picked a song at random, could you hum the instrumental? Aside from an assortment of Baker riffs and the outro of Revolution 0 (which has a vocal harmony so does it really count?), I doubt you'd make it. It's a bit like a Christian rock record, where the instrumentals are purposefully plain and unobtrusive so that listeners can focus on the vocals and lyrics. Take the song Not Strong Enough, which might be the most collaborative song here. Aside from it literally sounding ... read more

Have y’all ever heard Tidal? By Fiona Apple? One of my favorite albums of all time. But whenever I’m listening to it, I’m absolutely loving each and every song (especially Criminal, my favorite song of all time) up until track 7, Never is a Promise. And then… The Child is Gone. Mid. Pale September. Mid. Carrion. Mid. The closer is better than the other two, but it pales in comparison to the first seven tracks. So when I’m listening to the album in full, I’m ... read more

Everybody is always talking about a "return to normalcy", but albums from throughout the year have approached the idea of return differently. Beyoncé and Drake returned to the dance scene of decades past, Kendrick Lamar and Ethel Cain to the source of their childhood traumas, and Viagra Boys even flirted with a return to a pre-human era. But Big Thief's Dragon New Warm Mountain represents a return to something even more primal than genre, childhood, or the theory of evolution. ... read more

Get ready for a lot of fucking numbers. Skip to the last four paragraphs for the actual point.

As of this post, Beyonce's has 361 points on the year end aggregate, a 127 point lead on the runner up MOTOMAMI by Rosalia, with 15 1st places compared to Rosalia's 3, according to 86 lists. This is the fourth highest point lead in the site's records.

The point lead has surpassed 100 points 5 times before this year. In 2020, Fiona Apple's Fetch the Bolt Cutters had a 110 point lead on Phoebe ... read more

I’m seeing a lot of chronically online behavior regarding the Grammy noms. For all categories. And it’s got me thinking of something I’ve been thinking in the back of my head for a while. It’s kind of the popular opinion to hate on the Grammy’s in the online music community(s), but I am a Kanye fan and must be a contrarian at all costs. And my contrarian take is that many of the criticisms people ledge on the Grammy’s are misplaced.

One event I’m ... read more

Prologue - 3/16/22, 22 hours before release

CRASH? More like TRASH!

...is the joke that we've all been saying since the release of Good Ones. Most people agree that the singles for this album have been underwhelming, especially after Charli XCX dropped three classics in a row and made a name as one of pop's best, at least from a critical standpoint. The backlash is twofold. On one hand, there's the obvious quality issue, but the other is a question of artistry. Charli is seen as an innovator ... read more

Lil Nas X reminds me of Industry Baby producer Ye, and I’m not talking about the music (yet). Both artists are thinking on the grand scale, making some of the biggest moves in culture this year. Both use the public as a surface to reflect upon, and each exposes their inner-self to outward scrutiny and discussion. And most importantly, both artists know how to get attention and will do whatever it takes to get it, from lap-dancing the devil to setting yourself on fire. And if 2021 has ... read more

I can’t figure this out. On the on hand, it seems like these covers completely miss the point. The Velvet Underground and Nico has a very specific aesthetic that is absolutely essential to the record. Lou Reed’s twisted and demented but sarcastic and snobbish vocal style gives the record it’s jarring and obtuse flair, but it’s replaced with performances like those of Michael Stipe and Matt Berninger, who play their respective vocal lines as straight as possible. This is ... read more

Prologue - 7/21/21, the night before LP1

In 2016, Kanye released a trailer for the video game Donda, with his mother rising through the clouds and ascending to heaven. This game never happened, likely because Nintendo, the only company Kanye was willing to work with, declined on the offer, and Kanye’s short lived video game era (along with the fabled Turbo Grafx 16) met its end.

However, the theme of family has always stuck with him. 2015’s Only One was originally set up for what ... read more

The golden rule of online video conferencing in 2020 is to not post the link online for any rando to join, but Charli XCX broke that rule many, many times during the creation of her album, which was recorded primarily in front of a live audience on Zoom. Charli has always been a rule breaker, and in the most restricted year of her life she has managed to break the barriers and reach more people than ever. Despite having 100% less features compared to her previous self-titled album, she is more ... read more

Something that I think gets overlooked when talking about this album is its humor. Many of my favorite lines are the wryly sarcastic ones where Bridgers lets us in on her lighthearted and fun side. My favorite lyric is "It's amazing to me how much you can say when you don't know what you're talking about" which is funny to me because I am totally unaware about how shit and inaccurate my reviews are. Phoebe seems like a funny person; she dresses up in a skeleton costume and sings in ... read more

It's really just a compilation, so the songs are best reviewed as individuals, or at least by grouping the similar songs together. Generally speaking, and based on one to three listens for each track (I don't think this is getting another listen as a whole), the better tracks are the ones that avoid the trap of making something absurdly experimental just because it's 100 gecs related. Songs like the A.G. Cook, and to a lesser extent, Injury Reserve fail in this category, though the latter is a ... read more