Killroybastion

With two years gone by since The 1975's last record, closing the saga of "so many cringes and heroin binges," unsurprisingly a new chapter of Matty's journey as an artist is fronted by this frankly polarizing single—even more head-scratching, for me, than their return with Give Yourself A Try, which seemed to channel a deeply electronic rock sound. This single, however, continues the folk and baroque elements found throughout their discography, the latter of which has been ... read more

[6/25/22] (86/100) — Illusory and yet comprehensible & fantastical while yet relatable, The Grand Illusion functions as a simple yet powerful narrative following a man as he faces disillusionment, hope, and—perhaps most importantly— the uncertain (and sometimes nihilistic) nature of his very purpose in a world perhaps even more mysterious than his own existence. The ambiguous lyricism doesn't behold itself as a down-to-earth coming of age story any more more than a grand ... read more

Listen #1 [undecided/100] — in its 30-track lineup, Maryland's rapper 'anomaly' Logic has produced a modern mixtape that's both reflective and humble despite a challenging journey with Def Jam, the record label that practically injected Logic into the hip-hop mainstream—for better and worse. Though Logic's frustrations towards Def Jam are clearly evident in Vinyl Days, he's equally appreciative of the platform they gave him so he could give himself and his passions to hip-hop by way ... read more

Listen #1 [67/100] (6/15/22) — Hospice somehow shifts fluidly between minimal lyricism to rich imagery and metaphor, conveying somberly (if not down-right depressingly) its primary themes—trauma and death—in a sometimes accessible way for the listener. In its 51-minute runtime, the atmosphere is contained yet presents a rather plump narrative thanks to its aforementioned rich lyricism. With all this considered, however sonically the album wasn't as interesting as the story ... read more