Dawn FM is The Weeknd cashing in on the hype generated around After Hours, continuing the nostalgia soaked, 80s inspired synthwave pop music. Personally, I found myself rather bored overall by the album, it's perfectly bland inoffensive radio synth pop that just left zero impression on me, almost as though this album is a collection of B-Sides that The Weeknd couldn't find space for on After Hours. A lot of the beats across this album feel really similiar to me too, either in the structure or ... read more

This album may truly be the most one note, monotonous slog of a project that I've heard this year. Clocking in at almost 2 hours and I struggled the whole way with the only brief relief coming from the brilliant track 'Believe What I Say', a true gem surrounded by really uninspired quasi-trap and drill beats that fail to leave their mark completely. There are some moments where I can hear a little of the magic that made Yeezus so special such as on 'God Breathed on This' which makes it far more ... read more

Big return to form for IDLES after Ultra Mono on this album. The sarcastic biting lyricism is back without any hint of the self fellating backpatting cringe of Ultra Mono. There's definitely a bit of one-notedness about, but when this album is good it's really, really good. I always loved when IDLES were unashamedly aggressive and heavy, and this album definitely has tracks that deliver, such as Car Crash which is up there for my favourite song of the year.

++ Car Crash

THIS BITCH / 10

After Malibu and Ventura I've been waiting for that truly special album from Anderson Paak that would really elevate him, and I really thought that if that was going to happen it'd be on this album. However, this just does not do it for me, it feels far longer than what it actually is, and while it's for the most part quite energetic and pleasant to listen to, this album just is not compelling in the slightest. On top of that, I really feel like this collaboration is far more ... read more

Yeah this is a very pleasant listen, some of the most easy listening and straightforward songs that Sufjan has ever released. I do think that this album is a little front loaded though, towards the end of the album my interest was starting to wane a little. I feel like if this album was released earlier back in the summer that I would have loved this album a lot.

++ Back to Oz

There are points throughout this album that I really love that are inexplicably let down by terribly slow and sparse tracks. When this album gets going, it really carries that gloomy groove that can be felt on other Nicholas Jaar projects such as the two Against All Logic albums, and those moments are absolutely great, the track 'The Limit' being the most notable for this.

I've been listening to this album on and off for a while now just to try and really gather what I actually think about it, this is just such a huge change in sound from what Injury Reserve have shown on previous projects that it's honestly a little hard to digest immediately. Before listening to this album I was hearing big claims about how it's something completely new to rap, how it's the most experimental rap project people have heard before, and drawing parallels between the impact this ... read more

Over the course of the year, this album has become one of my most listened to releases so far, the peaks of this album are brilliant, glitchy deep bass electronic tunes that are typical for a Hyperdub release. The beats across the board here are immaculately crafted while still remaining varied, the album twists between haunting glitchy beats on tracks like Built to Last and and more typical trap/drill inspired tracks like Black Ting and We're Building Something New.

Outside short moments of nice instrumentals, this album doesn't do anything for me. There's nothing here that really caught my attention or got me excited, it's just a rather run of the mill generic synth pop record.

Aggressive and desolate are the first words that come to mind about Alexis Marshall's debut solo album, it's familiar to his work as the frontman of Daughters, especially the band's latest album 'You Won't Get What You Want' in that gloomy, almost horror like atmosphere that surrounds the tracks. Where this album departs from Alexis Marshall's work as part of Daughters is the where 'You Won't Get What You Want' is full of passionate vocal work and beautiful harsh instrumentation, the vocals ... read more

After the disappointment that the Drop 6 EP was last year, I was a little aprehensive coming into this album, especially with the length of it, I really thought that Little Simz had basically peaked and wouldn't be able to show any growth or improvement from the stellar 2019 album GREY Area. While I do still think this album is a little long, I can honestly say that Little Simz surpassed what she did on GREY Area, this really is a must listen album for the year. Sometimes I Might be Introvert ... read more

I've struggled to really put down into words how I feel about this album, it's a glitchy hyperpop post industrial album that varies between pure bouncing off the wall energy, to slow introspective tracks so hard there's a whiplash. There's some lovely pieces of lyricism on this album buried until the harsh tones such as in the track Concrete Bubbles, or the closing track (Can't) Keep It Together that I really liked, and really distinguishes this album from quite a lot of the hyperpop stuff ... read more

I really do not get the praise that this album gets one bit, like sure Olvia Rodrigo's voice is grand, but the lyricism all over this album is so basic and immature that it just does not connect at all with me. The whole 45 minute runtime is spent exploring the themes of being broken hearted, and the jealousy of seeing your ex move on, but my God is the entire thing so one-noted and generic that I feel that if Olivia Rodrigo wasn't backed by the Disney machine, that this album would not have ... read more

For an artists that I felt has always been willing to explore different sounds within the pop genre, Lorde played it very safe on Solar Power make it feel very shallow and rather one note. I feel like Lorde herself was quite good on this, some nice lyricism and her vocals are generally pleasant barring a few whispery sections that really didn't feel like Lorde. My issue with this album lies totally in the folk band that Lorde and her producer brought on that just make the album feel so dull ... read more

At this point I'm looking forward more to BROCKHAMPTON breaking up than I am another release by them, purely just to hear some of the members on non Brockhampton beats, I just feel like the Brockhampton sound has gotten so cliche and worn out even if it's only been 4 years since they really broke into the mainstream. The thing with this album is that it's not really bad, and there's definitely some good tracks scattered throughout the 46 minute run time, but I just feel like it's been done ... read more

Isaac Brock is as whimsical as ever, and says even less than he did than on the last few Modest Mouse records. It's silly to wish for old Modest Mouse back, with half the band members having left and the other half having used 10 albums worth of material and aged over 20 years, but the more pop-rock oreintated Modest Mouse does absolutely nothing for me. Comparing something from this album such as Japanese Tree to a song like Polar Opposites or Cowboy Dan from Lonesome Crowded West gives such a ... read more

This album is perhaps the best I've heard The Antlers since Hospice, but even then there's nothing that really blew me away on this album. The album sets a lovely, sleepy Sunday kind of atmosphere around it, with these little soft sounds and touches complementing Peter Silberman's high notes, which makes for a very nice listen. That said, no tracks from this album really caught my attention, and I can't really see myself returning to this album very much.

God's Pee At State's End is the fourth album in Godspeed You! Black Emperor's post-hiatus discography, and arguably is the weakest album they've released to date. Quite a lot of this album feels to me as though the band were trying to recreate the soundscapes that earned them their reputation within the Post-Rock scene on albums such as Lift Yr Skinny Fists and F# A#, but after 24 years, these attempts routinely miss the mark and don't have nearly the same effect that the previously mentioned ... read more

I don't really get the whole hype for Dave, I felt like the choices for beats all over this album were boring, uninspired and repetitive, and I felt like the lyricism he's lauded for is just about fine. The beats have this over reliance on slow piano pieces played over what I'd call pretty generic grime/drill beats, making quite a lot of the album kinda blur together personally. While I don't massively rate Dave's lyricism, there's definitely tracks were I could see why people are appreciative ... read more

I just wasn't wowed by this at all, I thought it was rather what you'd expect in the dream pop genre. I was expecting something more along the lines of Velocity: Design : Comfort and while it's not a bad thing for artists to grow and evolve their sound, this really does not do anything for me.

I'm sure fans of Sweet Trip won't mind the runtime at all, being that this is their first release in however many years, but at a point this album just became dreary for me to listen to. Tracks just ... read more