The album Deliverance by the dubstep/IDM producer Culprate is a veritable masterpiece. On no other album is the composition so intentional, the sound design so flawless, and the experience so immersive.

The album opens with the song “Whispers, Pt. 1”, which is immediately shown to be a fully immersive and psychedelic song reminiscent of some songs on Kid A by Radiohead. Most of the instruments are treated with generous amounts of reverb, but never enough to ruin the experience. It ... read more

While I've seen this called dubstep, I don't think that really covers the scope of this project. This is some proper semi-experimental electronic music with heavy influences from early brostep and IDM. While the sound palate does get old after about three-fourths of the album, it's a nice sound to have drag out a little, and I can easily see why it does this, with the shortest song being just under five minutes and the longest being over seven. The short length in songs means nothing when all ... read more

Do you enjoy music by someone who thinks of himself as inspired by the most acclaimed rappers of all time but actually sounds like a combination of Ricegum, NF, and Spose while being far worse than any of those artists' worst work? Then this album is tailor-made for you.
I know this mindset because I lived it when I was in middle school. I wrote similarly head-up-ass lines about how "other rappers" only want to be popular while I eschewed pop tropes. I had terrible-sounding flows over ... read more

I already wrote a review for the normal-length album, so this will be brief. The extra segment scored 2 points higher, but it added nearly nothing to the album, so it wasn't enough to change the overall score. "Dance Monkey" is the third-worst song on here, with the only worse ones being "Fall Apart" and "Bars." It made me realize just how much more tolerance I had for bad music in middle school. I had also forgotten just how bad "The Kids Are Coming" is. ... read more

I finally got around to listening to this project. I'd seen critics and ordinary people alike tear this thing up, so I figured it was my turn to see how bad it is.

It is better than I thought. A lot of it sounds like AJR but more corporate and with the worst singing I've heard since Corey Feldman. There are several great ideas on here, but unfortunately they get buried under all the horrible choices made by both the producers and the artist herself. There are songs like "Just a Mess" ... read more

Why does this get so much hate? It's one of the best projects of the year. And this was the year that Little Simz album was released.

This really is 17 Part 0. Since this dropped, Flyysoulja apparently discovered what a flow is, and the lack of any flows anywhere makes for a really loose feeling. I actually enjoy that, as it keeps this from sounding the same as 17. It also adds a feeling of cohesiveness throughout this insane project.
The experience feels a whole lot more like a joke when you ... read more

This song gets too much hate. It's definitely one of Gayle's best. The first verse is pulled off well, the second verse has the same beat as the first, and Gayle actually sells the lyrics. She still comes off as unlikable, but now I can believe she might actually care about what she's saying.
That said, it still makes me cringe constantly with the attitude. She comes off as trying to be an indie, edgy, cool kid (oof), with lines such as "Life's a bitch and I'm not surprised / If you read ... read more

Before Fantasy: "I guess I'll review the other new Gayle singles since I'm in the mood."
After Fantasy: "When you gonna stop this, even 'A Study...' tops this / There I go again, back livin' in a fantasy"

Wow.
This is so corporate, it's actually one of the most disgusting releases of the year. Even the awful, boring, tacky video is better than the song. I'll see if I can list most of the main features that make this terrible.
First off, the instrumental is terrible. It's ... read more

Let's start off with the obvious: The mixing is awful almost all the time. It really is bad. Also, the screaming definitely feels out of place at times, especially on songs like "920LONDON" and "CURSE" because the emotion isn't earned, and the sound design is rather generic for this style. That said, the shaky singing works almost all of the time, as does the screaming about 70% of the time. It amazes me that a lot of people don't enjoy the singing, especially the glitchy ... read more

A bit too chaotic to get any coherent feeling out of most of the time. The sound design is perfect though. The only real problem is that I can't get a feeling out of large segments of this song.

B+

Chris Rock changed my ass. Permanently. Help please.

I find this change in sound generally welcome. PTM has gone for a more classic rock sound while still continuing the pop music project that was started with Woodstock. The biggest problem with this project is that nearly all of the songs are so forgettable. This can be attributed partially to the homogeneity in sound. I noticed even while listening that I wasn't able to remember a lot of the tracks that I had listened to before. They all ... read more

While Ada's singing is sometimes lacking in emotion, the mixing is a little rough at points, and the topics and sound get somewhat redundant after a few songs, these songs are well-composed. The sound design is mostly well-done, though with a few stock sounds in there. The lyrics are beautiful. The singing is often well-done and appropriate, though sometimes too subdued. The screaming is only used when absolutely necessary, and I like that. The songs also flow into each other very nicely, and ... read more

This doesn't really provide anything of value. It's a cool track I guess, but there is no reason for this to exist. It feels empty of purpose and direction. I am not even sure the song itself knows why it exists.

C

Her lyrics are getting better. It’s a shame it doesn’t sound like she writes much of them. Everything sounds so filtered and overproduced. I enjoy the fact that she’s going for a heavier sound, but it doesn’t work. Her voice doesn’t work well for this style, the structure is basic, the chorus sounds awkwardly placed, and Gayle often doesn’t sell the lyrics. It’s not that generic because her voice is so unique, but it doesn’t sound pleasant at all. ... read more

This is such a meme. This kind of semi-ironic fun rap is some of the most entertaining music out there. The buildup after the second verse especially is so stupid that it loops around to being hilarious and makes me nod my head like, “Yeah, I DO know who I B like my name Cardi!” To top it all off, the feature by discount Lil Jon makes the whole experience feel like one big joke. All in all, this is one giant meme, and I just have to thank Mr. Aha Gazelle for ballin’ like a ... read more

I appreciate just how well these songs are crafted. That being said, this is very one-note, with nearly all the tracks blending into each other so that nothing really stands out. In a weird way, I enjoy this fact, but I also enjoy when songs justify the space they take up in the world, and if many of these songs disappeared, I wouldn’t care in the slightest. It’s a cohesive listening experience, but the inconsequentiality and lack of dynamics make this a bit underwhelming.

A-

I love this EP. Sure, the beep in “Flatline” is annoying, the lyrics aren’t always on point, and Ada’s verses are invariably bad, but the tracks sound good. “Live it Down” is the better one; the hook is beautiful, and Chloe’s verse is great. Plus, the songs are cathartic for me, and while that shouldn’t factor into my score, I fear it might.

B+

The only low point is “Let Off…”. It interrupts the flow of the album, it’s not funny in the slightest, and it brought the score down by five points. The rest is generally funny, and there are a lot of high points that had me laughing my butt off. The best song is “Yeah,”’ containing references to B Dizzle’s previous EP, Prison Sentence, as well as some of his earlier works. It also has some of the best lines on the whole album. “Crack ... read more

This holds a massive level of nostalgia for me, so I might be over- or under-compensating for that here. This is absolutely generic 2010s pop rock. However, Pat’s voice is unique enough to set these songs apart from everything else that otherwise would sound exactly the same. This is sometimes a good thing, and sometimes a bad thing. Pat’s voice sounds very strained at times, taking away from the power in his voice. His accent is strange at times, which distracts significantly from ... read more

The good songs are few and far between, but Armageddon is a masterpiece. Salt Shaker goes hard if you don’t think about it. Naggin is a combination of hilarious and ass, with the two sides duking it out throughout the track. Naggin, Pt. 2 is significantly worse, with the ass really shining through (Get it, ass cause there’s a woman on the track? Hahaha I’m so funny. But why is ass always a core concept in party rap?). This is one hell of a project to bump ironically, and I ... read more