What initially kinda felt like a good but basic soft-rock album turned itself up in the end for the better. Charm is charming, but initially I was kinda underwhelmed. I mean the instrumentals were decent and Clairo is a good vocalist, but nothing was jumping out at me. That started to change with "Slow Dance" where I found things to start to feel more evocative and genuinely serene. "Thank You" and "Add Up My Love" are both great, more plentiful and upstanding ... read more

The Roots in the 90s were an unstoppable force. The group's unique quality of their live instrumentation has always made them distinct, but here it shines particularly. While it's not the most polished Roots album, it's extremely grounded, smooth, and leaves plenty of room for fun. It feels self titled in nature oftentimes giving reflective and boastful performances. Every track makes a statement, even the jarring "The Unlocking" and the interlude-esque oddity that is ... read more

ALERT ALERT. THE GOAT IS BACK.

How can people complain that they're already samey? It hasn't even been a year since Connla's Well. Just keep this shit coming man it absolutely bangs.

In the early 2010s it seems like Lofty wanted to release longer, more abundant projects, providing plenty of dope material but not always working in his favour. I feel similarly about this album as I do Haunted Clothes, though that album may have the greater peaks. Vaglord provides some of Lofty's cleanest and most quality sounding songs. It's a 50 minutes that doesn't drag but includes material that honestly doesn't need to be here, whether that be the underwhelming ... read more

Lil B deniers don't deserve this beat.

The most consistent and quality Lofty album I've heard yet. 32 minutes is also the perfect length for something like this. From the production to the quality features, it's so clear that Lofty tried to create something great here, and sorta did it effortlessly. It's amazing that something this good just lands completely out of the playing field. It's just pure cloud rap immaculacy. Pretty much the only complaints I have are that the skit on "Distractionz" goes on ... read more

It's another Chris Crack album. This one's got pretty weak features, the same stuff we've heard a million times, but actually a surprising amount of highlights. "Delete Your City Off My Weather App", "Card Declined At The Abortion Clinic", "Don't Pray For Me Do Sumn About It", "Single As A Pisces Man With A Girlfriend", "Only Take Bathroom Breaks On The Clock" were all pretty great, albeit typical. "Met The Plug On ... read more

It's foolish to believe this was gonna be another project like 2093, but it's still a pretty important release for Yeat. Similar to AftërLyfe, a project I actually quite enjoyed, LYFESTYLE is a refinement of Yeat's previously more basic trap sound heard on projects like 2 Alivë and Lyfë. While AftërLyfe was a little less adventerous, LYFESTYLE blends Yeat's ambition and creative leaps found on 2093 with his classic rage sound. The result is a pretty ... read more

I honestly was not expecting this project to be the way it was. Alternative Trap is easily the most put together-sounding Lucki album I've heard, which kinda comes as a shock considering it's his debut and considering the nature of his subsequent releases. He even says himself on "Alternative Outro", "this is my first project ever like, I'm surprised I even worked hard on it to push one out". Alternative Trap is sonically and in essence, adjacent to bigger ... read more

In case you haven't noticed or been keeping up, Cochise has been dropping trap's most exciting music over like the past year+ and that continues tonight with some absolutely electrifying production and a switchup to get the goddamn blood pumping. I do really want him to just drop an album but also I'm digging these consistent and frequent singles so as long as the mf keeps dropping I'm happy. Cochise fans eating good like they at Grandma's house.

Edit: 65 --> 70, better upon relisten with the new album.

This new Bon Iver EP....it's not bad "yaaaay" *confetti*.

Yea I mean this new EP isn't exactly substantial. A new Bon Iver EP was not what I expected to listen to tonight and I was pleasantly surprised, but underwhelmed. It's okay really, but I'm forced to compare this to the rest of the Bon Iver discography which, aside from it being actual studio albums, carries faaaar more weight than this. ... read more

Some of Lucki's best material lands on this EP, and while it is a very barebones release, it's one of the most consistent projects I've heard from him yet. The production and Lucki's energy generally sound more amped which is pretty nice to hear after what is generally more low energy in his mid-late career, not that I particularly have a problem with it though. Anyways, Lucki is pretty stripped down musically here, but that allows him to make what feels like one of the most ... read more

Absolutely bangin. Glad I discovered this.

This tape is pretty interesting, albeit kinda inconsistent. Don't have a lot to say. Lucki finds himself on some pretty cool production delivering some great performances some meh. While his effortless style usually works, "Run W Me" was the only song that really did not do it for me here, just feeling straight bland. And while not everything is tip top shape here, the tape still delivers quality highlights with "Speed Demon", "Clueless", "Whvts the ... read more

Somehow this works really well. Lucki often croaks his way through a track, sometimes feeling like a vent rather than a rap, over thin but really really creative trap production. The sort of "duhhhhh" personality of this album is honestly kinda perfect, especially given Lucki's emotional exhibition. He often feels apathetic or like he's seriously hit rock bottom on these tracks. The production is also nothing to just gloss over. What might seem like surface level production ... read more

A kinda skeletal and unoriginal but clean sounding r&b album. SAFE doesn't do much to separate himself from his clear influences (tory/weeknd), which isn't too much to complain about because he isn't trying to be groundbreaking. I first discovered the guy years back after hearing "Red Light" on a public playlist which I really liked and still quite enjoy to this day. It's one of my favourite songs on the album, feeling sonically lush and very passionate. There ... read more

Chief Keef studio albums always have the benefit of a better mixing and a more cleanly sound which is usually a good thing. That's the case here. Dedication offers good production, good energy, and overall, a Chief Keef that really feels like he cares to put out a good product. I didn't mind pretty much everything on here and found it to be really consistently solid. The first leg of the album offered some great material such as "Ticket", "Keke Palmer", ... read more

There is literally nothing wrong with this album. BigX just spits flames for half an hour over some dope southern trap production. His flows are simple but catchy, his pen game is dope, and his cadence is perfect. BigX has it all in him to make a really solid album, and that's what he's done here. The sound is pretty linear and unchanging but that's mostly not an issue. When you have a really good formula may as well keep things going. At 30 minutes it also doesn't feel like ... read more

Can Rod Wave please stop releasing albums that are so damn long? Like did you really need 23 tracks on this?

At this point I can't even complain about Rod Wave releasing the same albums over and over again cause that's probably what he's gonna be doing for the next 10 years undisturbed. As expected, I felt nothing from the vast majority of this stuff. There were a couple pleasant surprises though. "Federal Nightmares" and "Lost In Love" easily had the best ... read more