This is one of those albums that I have been meaning to listen to for many months, but it has always just been on the backburner. Now that I have finally gotten around to listening to it, I'm pretty impressed. St. Vincent crafted an exquisitely enjoyable album of indie rock and art pop. To be frank, nothing truly blows me away all too much more than other albums similar to this (despite it still being a really cool album). Strange Mercy is great, however it doesn't do enough to ... read more

Pusha T has a banger, Weekend is one of the most boring songs I've heard this year, Depth Charge is cool I guess, and Fanatastic turns out to be the opposite of its name. Was bored by this album way too much, although I do think that Flume is on to something here as far as a music goes. The generic pop sound that was on his last LP is fading away, and some more unique and special music seems to be on the horizon.

Flume's follow up to his mediocre LP Skin is better, but not that much better. He is more focused on the wonky style sound rather than dance pop, which was all over Skin. But even with that change, it fails to bring in much more substance than its predecessor.

Future tries rapping over some trendier beats that are much more clean cut compared to what we heard him on previously. Most of the production is too busy and doesn't really add any positive aspects to this album. On a more positive note, Future raps pretty well all throughout this album, but again, nothing new is here. At this point, if you've heard everything Future has released up until this, there is no real reason to listen to it. But it isn't bad, and I would take this over Culture ... read more

If the next two albums aren't any better, I'm gonna be pissed. Tetsuo and Youth was incredible, then we get Lasers pt. 2 right after that. At least Lupe consciously released this knowing it wasn't any "high art" that you could argue some of his other work is. Every song is a generic trap banger that has little authenticity. DROGAS Light is gonna be a money maker for Lupe, but it is far from being one of his more well done albums.

fav tracks: NGL, Jump (maybe?), Pick Up the Phone ... read more

A milestone album for southern hip hop, and Houston style production. Not only are the hooks very catchy and well written, the beats are smooth as hell. Moe's self proclaimed "rapsinging" is the most original part of City of Syrup, blurring the lines between hip hop and r&b; his voice is rich and deep, but still can move pretty rapidly when rhyming. The skits are pretty useless and are a little too long, but they serve as moderately entertaining interludes, which isn't ... read more

Lion's Den is a pretty lackluster song that sounds like something that would have been one of the weaker moments on Atrocity Exhibition. But Accelerator is a fucking crazy industrial hip hop track that pumps me up every time I hear it. Danny Brown's lyrics are nothing super special, and as intended, the instrumentals are what truly stand out on this EP. A full length Paul White instrumental album is something that would for sure be pretty interesting if released sometime in the future.

Better than the majority of what was on Painting With, but Animal Collective still tries to hard to be "weird" with their annoying instrumentation and unnecessarily changing vocal inflections. Jimmy Mack is a great pop song, and Goalkeeper is pretty good as well, but Kinda Bonkers is what would be one of the more mediocre songs on PW and Peacemaker is just bad.

Generic loops and rhythms that have been released thousands of times over. Really nothing worth going back to, but the album is very accessible and listenable.

A very creative take on hip hop that failed to capitalize on the potential that it had. The lyrics were mostly uninteresting, and the production was pretty inconsistent.

fav tracks: Voices of the Ether, Forever Close My Eyes (standout), Classical Homicide

An interesting listen from the perspective of it being one of the very first black metal albums, but it lacks much of the characteristics that makes some of the best black metal good.

With a relentless force of anger and aggression hurled at you, In the Nightside Eclipse is for sure the best thing to come from the second wave of black metal. Emperor's execution of 48 mystical minutes of paganist lyrics, thrashing guitars, and hard-hitting drums all come together to make a truly stunning album. The vocal delivery is some of the highest quality that I have heard in black metal; being not too screamy so you can't tell at all what the singer is saying, but just high pitched ... read more

The opening track, In Dark Denim, has quickly become one of my most listened to hip hop songs of the last few months, it's really great and I recommend it highly. After that, the album kind of slows down and loses speed. Antwon has some really comical and clever wordplay, as well as a couple well execute flows. He has some pretty experiment and unique beats on this thing as well, heavy shit with electronic influences to it. But the songs just get a lot less exciting, and I tend to lose ... read more

Acting as something like a prerequisite to Loveless, Nowhere is an album that explores some of the deepest ideas of the shoegaze genre, and does them in outstanding ways. The drumming is a standout feature, because the drums are much faster than they usually are in shoegaze; the drums here bring more energy and attitude to the instrumentation of this project. As always with much of the shoegaze coming from the late 80's and early 90's, the guitar effects are fucking awesome. Ride made a ... read more

Heems' first solo LP shows some of his best lyrical content yet. He was always the more skilled songwriter in the group (although I do like Kool A.D. a little bit more) and his talent shows on Eat Pray Thug. There is a good ratio of typical Heems songs, with upbeat semi-serious attitudes, and more political songs about his heritage, which is where I believe his wordplay truly shines. He's got some great hooks, verses, and stories told through his raps. At this point, I'm not sure how much ... read more

A pretty bland album for Kool A.D. standards, but still a lot more fun than some of the other rap projects from last year.

fav tracks: Official, This Mane

Grouper made me a fan of her work with her project A I A Alien Observer. On that album, she produced some beautiful songs that literally give me chills. It's one of the few albums that I listen to that I can consider an experience.
Unfortunately on Ruins, Grouper moves toward a safe and less intriguing musical style. Many of these songs are piano driven, with her barely decipherable vocals buried beneath the keys. There is nothing that is at all bad; Ruins is a fine listen. But Grouper has ... read more

Travis Miller's return to the rap game after a quiet 2016 is perhaps his darkest and most demented work yet. Although inconsistent, some of the best rap songs that Miller has released since Mista Thug Isolation are on here, in particular, Stoop Lights. The themes of this record deal with depression, loneliness, and what stands out to me to be alcoholism. Haze of Interference had me really fucked up, when Miller's voice turns into a possessed shrieking of fury and confusion. When he says ... read more

On Shut Up, Dude, Das Racist sounded like a couple of funny guys rapping. On Sit Down, Man, Das Racist sounds like two rappers who happen to be funny.
The production and lyrical quality is much further ahead of the group's first mixtape, with even more clever and poignant bars. DR has a few catchy pop-rap crossover songs on here, like Fashion Party and Commercial, two of my favorites. Even with this only being 6 months younger than it's predecessor, Sit Down, Man is a highlight of mixtape ... read more

Some of the best hip hop production of 2016, if only the actual rapping were more memorable. Heems obviously is not at the top of his game, but he's still better than your average rapper on their normal day. Riz MC has a lot of space for improvement, and I am hopeful that he will actually get better over time. The eastern cultural references and sounds that are used in the beats are what makes Cashmere stand out from every other hip hop album this year, or pretty much any rap album ever. ... read more