Despite that its legacy is likely to forever be "the album that has 'Work It'," Under Construction has a whole lot more to offer than that. With the passing of Aaliyah seemingly gutting the weightless dance floor euphoria of Miss E... So Addictive (her best record, in my opinion), Missy went back to the drawing board, viewing herself and others as work's in progress. Missy's New York maturation and the title's architectural terminology carry obvious connotations to 9/11, another ... read more

Kinda feels like we’re applauding her for doing the bare minimum (making a song mostly free of half-assed politics and cringey lyrics), but it’s serviceable. That wordy hook really does grow with each listen.

Shoutout to DJ Diamond Kuts for creating PC Music with this instrumental.

Feels to me like the delineation between "Compilation" and "Album" is fairly relative for PC Music. This thing certainly feels unfocused, but that seems to be more on a micro level that bleeds into the macro. The songs that rely on banal chants ("Red Silver Blue," "Lover," "Kiss") are some of the most likable for just how inane they are, but I also appreciate that her knack for experimentation is also in the compositional, with elements like the ... read more

I think the Youtube algorithm has no clue what to do with me based on its recommendations, but I was watching the channel ForHarriet's review of Jordan Peele's Us, and at one point Kimberly Foster says that she felt the film was trying to do too much with symbolism and imagery, but that that increased her enjoyment, commenting "We love a messy text." Somehow that also seems to be how I feel about this album. When it comes to records with 14+ songs I just love getting a huge ... read more

More on the unremarkable side of his electronic work, and also continues to gentrify pride month, but we Stan an ally, I guess!!!

Ironically, her album that most directly delves into familial roots is also the one least indebted to the Scandinavian pop scene. Family Tree really delivers on the promise of first single "Human Error," and I have to commend Fabricius for coming into this project with a vision and sticking to it. This record is easily her most lyrically and aesthetically consistent album, inspired by her divorce and relocation from New York to Copenhagen and the discombobulation and feelings of ... read more

Of course Britney had nowhere to go but up after the colossal disappointment that was Britney Jean, but Glory is refreshing by its own right. While there's still a decent amount of Brit lore to get lost in (the scrapped, tantric original video for "Make Me," the relationship speculations of "Just Like Me"), Glory has no unifying sound or concept the way records like Blackout or Femme Fatale did - maybe it's a little more directly focused on sex, but that's about it. For the ... read more

Britney on autopilot still manages to be better than your fav on a good day. A near-flawless opening half of the record lends a lot of goodwill to Brit and company, with its only major gaffe being someone named "Sabi" claiming to be "steaming like a pot full of vegetables." "How I Roll" remains one of her funnest deep cuts, and is refreshingly sparse against the dance pop maximalism she fully embraces here. And while the purveying narrative that Blackout's ... read more

I owe these girls an apology because disgusting 11 year old me used to leave super mean comments on their website back when they were Smoosh. I'M SORRY. I was literally just jealous you were in a cool band and I wasn't.

This is a fun and artsy set of synth-rock tunes that serves as a logical turn from the wunderkind peak of Withershins. Where their songwriting was initially cluttered, "Pink Politics" and "Dripping With Fire" provide some serious hooks, while the haze of ... read more

Track 10 = All is Full of Love (Howie B's Version)
Blame it On Your Love = All is Full of Love (Video Version)

UPDATE: I like this song and I feel like some of y'all only hate cause of the cognitive dissonance of her taking a mixtape Charli piece of music and giving it a makeover that will satisfy the dusty old men running Atlantic. Don't forget this girl gave us After the Afterparty only a few months after Vroom Vroom.

This thing's grown on me in the past few weeks and I think it will be a ... read more

Gorgeous reprises of two of the best songs from his last album. Wise's greatest asset remains his emotive vocals and flawless melisma, which are even more stark here than on anything he's previously put out. The additional lyrics he adds to the end of "bless ur heart" are so tender and sentimental, they make what was the obvious gem of Soil even more radiant. "messy" also gets a near-jazzy makeover that masterfully repurposes its perverted lyrics.

I saw him at Björk's ... read more

I think you guys kinda over-mythologize this album because of the backstory associated with the artist. It's fine, and definitely invokes a feeling of serenity and wanting to look at bugs, but occasionally just kinda sounds like a slightly folkier Jack Johnson.

Favorite Song: Banana Pancakes

Ultimately the biggest drawback of this album is just that it does absolutely nothing to innovate indie rock - not that that responsibility should fall squarely on her shoulders, but it does make for an occasionally all-too-familiar listen.

Fortunately Donnelly's songwriting, both in terms of lyrics and melody, is extremely sharp. The guitar arrangement on a song like "Allergies" is just *puts fingers to mouth and makes kissing noise like an Italian chef*, and Donnelly's pitch ... read more

Did not know much about this artist beyond their appearance on Charli XCX's "Femmebot" (where they were completely upstaged by Mykki Blanco), but this song and video are just completely bonkers. A constantly shifting and evolving instrumental reacts to the lyrics instead of upstaging them, and buttresses a fantastic hook on queer performance. Electra's vocals are commanding, and the overall confidence they exude is addicting.

Big recommend for fans of PC music and people looking for ... read more

Like many stupid 2000s millennials who like to pretend they are ***90s kids***, I was introduced to this song through its eerie presence on ABC's Lost. It's definitely regarded as Cass Elliot's solo calling card track, and deservedly so. The composition is simple, but that chorus buildup is worth a million dollars. The "E! Ven! If! No! Bo! Dy! Else! Sings! A! Long!" of the chorus, relishing in a glorious 3-count that gives the song a bumpy feel, is such funny payoff, and a great way ... read more

Honestly love everything about this. The shrieking vocals, the incredibly weird song structures, the occasionally amateurish playing. There's actually a solid sense of melodicism on songs like "If I Confess, Act Surprised" and "The Pyromaniac," and a deep sense of anger and sadness is not-so-subtly couched in the absurdity of it all, like when the instrumental drops out in "I Am a Taxi Driver in Paris" for our singers to begin syncopated beep boop noises.

Check ... read more

This might be an unpopular opinion but I really think In the Zone is a bad record by Britney standards. The singles are obviously great (some of her best really), but that’s about all it has going for it.

Elsewhere on this album we have:
-Two of her most shameless attempts at pandering to black audiences (”I Got That (Boom Boom),” “The Hookup”)
-A boring-ass rewrite of Avril Lavigne’s “I’m With You” that should’ve come earlier in the ... read more

It's hard not to cheer for Lizzo. She's a reliable emcee, she's absurdly charismatic, her flute skills are on point, and even the most anti-PC cynic would have a hard time arguing her rise to fame was a product of idpo-laden industry planting rather than her own natural talent and charisma. For those of us free of the conspiracies, it's also without a doubt thrilling to watch a woman of color with a larger body get her long-deserved come up. Cuz I Love You, technically her first full-length ... read more

Her equivalent to Marvin Gaye's Live at the London Palladium - a concert display that solidifies her legacy better than any compilation record could have. Our Yoncé deserves a moment to step back; in just over five years she's released two visual albums, a collaborative record with her husband in the wake of publicly handling his infidelity, went on four massive world tours, and mercifully finally injected activism into her music (did I mention she gave birth to twins in the middle of ... read more