A beautiful and endearing album with enchanting vocals and simple yet elegant instrumentation. The middle is a bit lacking in originality but overall the album has some really wonderful tracks that easily make up for it. The male and female vocals complement themselves perfectly. My only other major gripe is that most songs feel like they end too soon and aren’t really fully explored. Just as a song like Either Way or I Wish We Could Have Talked About It reaches its climax, it’s cut ... read more

new songs only

Westside Trapped is very distinctly inspired by african music - most notably afrobeat - and most notably Fela Kuti. The first track alone references Water No Get Enemy and Expensive Shit, and there are almost certainly more tracks throughout that contain other references that I missed. For about 5 tracks, it gives a modern take on Afrobeat. It has an indie-ish, hazy, maybe scaled back aspect, an unmistakenably electronic production, for better or for worse, and incorporates elements of ... read more

Way more scattered and untraditional than their last, darklight feels like if darksin w/ lightskin problems' demos were stitched to an ambient idm soundtrack. It has most of the same flaws of darksins, which are, at least for me, length and several underdeveloped songs, with the main difference being a more unreliable execution. There are more songs on this to me that feel almost unfinished or underdeveloped, but I can see the merit of it being a stylistic choice. I do think that what ... read more

Very scattered and at times abrasive, but some of the ideas that are going on in this album are pure gold. The album's length and several of its particularly experimental moments that seem developed drag it down for me, but when all the cool concepts going on in this album, like the glitchy collages mixed with R&B or the ambient beauties mixed with unrestrained vocals, are met with the perfect execution, like they are in southern style lemon peppers or back in action, there's some ... read more

Smooth and enjoyable but honestly just not doing that much. You don't know me is the best song.

Joao Gilberto with a backing band.

A very smooth, easy listen throughout but without any standout songs.

This album is masterfully and beautifully produced, but it's only able to shine through when Yung Lean is able to stay on beat and stop talking about his ballsack.

Cool lush art rock trip hop album for fans of the Smile

A much more erratic and unwieldy predecessor to CCOAK shows how much Black Kray refined and perfected his sound, but is still really good. Several of the songs here feel aimless and aren't really able to get their point across, and the album could definitely cut about half an hour of its runtime (tracks 15-21 could probably all be taken out except for Fuck Gucci Hucci). Even with all its stumbles, the album has a varied and experimental tracklist, and it's lo-fi quality only ... read more

Just sounds like a tamer version of Art Blakey. Amazing compositions though.

Even on his most sane, calm, and popular album (that I've heard) he's more erratic than pretty much anybody. I don't think any other person would write Fables of Faubus besides Mingus.

Very bluesy, soulful and varied album. It's impossible to get bored listening to Mingus.

It’s not bad, but it’s just bland. Nothing really sticks out to me. The songs themselves, although pretty varied, are just uninspired, and there’s not many solos that really stick out. The best song is probably Cheese Cake

A beautiful, mellow album that is enjoyable the whole way through while still being distinct and noticeable. It draws on eastern music a little less than implied, but its rhythms and several of its instruments are pretty distinctly eastern, especially on tracks like Love Theme From Spartacus and The Three Faces of Balal. Overall, it's not the most groundbreaking or majestic album, but it is great for what it is, and a very enjoyable listen. I would definitely recommend giving it a chance.

A very interesting use of eastern song structure and harmonies expressed through synthesizers. Can be samey at many points but with how unique the sound of the project is I don’t necessarily consider that a flaw.

This era of the Jazz Messengers are one of the most synchronized jazz bands I've heard. Every transition between soloists flows smoothly, each member, but especially Hubbard and Shorter, knows exactly what they want to do on their solo, and just the right flourishes to complement other soloists. One of the best examples of this is on Crisis, where the walkdown from Hubbard to Shorter to Fuller over around 5 minutes, with Merritt on bass perfectly playing along with each of their ... read more

While he experiments with several different styles here, the overall shift to trap disappointed me. I think Cloud Rap suits Rocky's voice and style much better, and the best songs on this album are definitely the ones that blend Cloud Rap or Psychedelia or even Alt Rock in with the sound of the rest of the album. I will say though that this album definitely has a lot of great features on it that were very well chosen for the specific songs they appeared on. Looking back on it, I feel like ... read more

Drenched in this thick atmosphere that takes you over as you listen, like all Siouxsie and the Banshees albums. It's more experimental and brash in its use of synths and drum machines than its successors, but this only adds to the eerie feel throughout the entire project. If Juju is Siouxsie and their catchiest, then Kaleidoscope is Siouxsie and their most unsettling.