Very cool hip hop project. The production definitely shines here but don't think that means you should sleep on Tkay Maidza as a vocalist. She manages to tie together really dense production into beautiful pop songs. And somehow she can swing between neo-soul and quite harsh industrial hip hop.

Highlights: WUACV, Out of Luck, Love Again, WASP

Reviewing Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: #491

Overrated/Underrated?: Overrated

When Harry Styles released his first solo album, a lot of people were saying that he had real chops as a pop artist. "Sign of the Times" got a lot of critical attention but at the time I didn't see it. To me, he was just regurgitating pop tropes with halfway decent production. (I still feel this way about that record).

But Fine Line was where I really started to see it. Watermelon Sugar ... read more

Reviewing Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: #492

Overrated/Underrated?: Overrated

This is probably going to be the first in a long line of examples on this list where the music in question isn't for me but probably kicks ass for someone. Bonnie Raitt sounds like the progenitor to girl-power style country music. The kind of Carrie Underwood or Dixie Chicks style country that centers female empowerment. I'm all for female empowerment, but I'd be lying if I said if I'd listen to ... read more

Reviewing Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: #493

Overrated/Underrated?: Appropriately Rated

BROKE: Getting divorced and losing a ton of money in the process

WOKE: Getting divorced, losing a ton of money in the process and making an album about your divorce

BESPOKE: All of the above except the album goes hard as hell.

But seriously, is this the most petty album ever made? Which record label exec signed off on "Is That Enough", the song where Marvin Gaye complains ... read more

Kind of like if American Football became Shoegaze-y for a record. The general vibe of this album was enjoyable, especially if you're into shoegaze, but nothing about it really stood out to me. I think one of the risks with the layers of sound that come from a shoegaze-style album is that you can create something that's too formless, so that there's little to grab someone's attention. I think this was a bit of what happened here.

Still, I think a lot of people will enjoy this sound. Will ... read more

I've known about John Roseboro for some time now, I almost like his cover of Waters of March with Mei Simones better than the original. This EP really felt like a leap forward for his music which I already enjoyed a lot. I really hope he and Mei Simones continue to work together, her smooth vocals are a perfect compliment to Roseboro's delicate vocals.

It's conceptually really tight as it seems to focus on Roseboro's struggles with faith and guilt. And this theme plays really well to ... read more

Reviewing Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: #494

Overrated/Underrated?: Appropriately Rated

The Ronettes are one of those bands that really makes me wonder what could have been if they had a longer career. They were one of the defining girl groups of the era but they always read to me as the punk band amongst the girl groups. Ronnie Spector's voice was always grittier than Dianna Ross and their sound always carried a sharper edge. It would've been interesting to see what could ... read more

Reviewing Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: #495

Overrated/Underrated?: Overrated

When I was in college, the cafeteria where I'd eat rubbery eggs and dry pancakes before my 8 am classes would play old school R&B all day every day. Whoever had the aux in that place really longed for the old days of Motown-style music. The only modern thing that they'd play is Boyz II Men.

It may be directly downstream from this experience, but I've always viewed Boyz II Men as being music ... read more

Reviewing Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: #496

Overrated/Underrated?: Appropriately Rated

Before Shakira was giving white people permission to shake their hips, she made a record of pure 90's pop-rock perfection. Think the Cranberries or something in that vein. In fact, I'm tempted to criticize Rolling Stone for including an album that is so distinct from Shakira's discography as a whole. But I'll let that go because it is a great record.

While the album is a far cry from ... read more

ALBUMS THAT I WOULD HAVE PLACED ON ROLLING STONE'S 500 LIST: #1

Okay, so I'm going to do this concurrently with my review of the Rolling Stone 500 list and just highlight records I would've placed on it.

So, at #497, Rolling Stone places the Indestructible Beat of Soweto and in my review of that, I wrote: "but still contrary to what the review says, there are better albums that fall under the overly-broad "world music" label." So I figured I'd rate one of my favorite ... read more

Reviewing Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: #497

Overrated/Underrated?: Overrated

Based on the review written up in the Rolling Stone list, one can't help but wonder if the only reason for the inclusion of this album on the list is because it was an inspiration for Paul Simon's Graceland. There are worse reasons to include an album, but still contrary to what the review says, there are better albums that fall under the overly-broad "world music" label.

Okay, now that ... read more

Reviewing Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: #498

Overrated/Underrated?: Overrated

This is what it would sound like if the Velvet Underground & Nico were released in the late 70's. It had all the same griminess, nihilism and brutality that made VU&N a masterpiece. But this time it was layered in proto-drone electronics and so dark that it's, at times, hard to listen to.

There's no denying the impact that this album had. It feels like it spawned genres all it's own. But ... read more

Reviewing Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: #499

Overrated/Underrated?: Overrated

I get the sense in a lot of lists like this that the creators of the list have a strong desire to include certain artists and sometimes the inclusions feel a bit forced. I am a huge fan of funk and soul but (and maybe this is a hot take) I find Chaka Khan to be a tad overrated as an artist. As a representative of the genre of funk, this record is a poor showing, in my opinion, I wouldn't even rank ... read more

Reviewing Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: #500

Okay, so a brief intro to what I'm doing here because I plan to do this for awhile. Starting from when I was little, I had a weird fixation with lists. I really liked reading lists and making lists of all different kinds of things and changing where the items in that list went over and over to see how different orders looked. I remember having a piece of lined paper with my top 50 songs on it, except it was covered in eraser ... read more

I think internet music reviewers have a tendency to take stock in their ability to hold "edgy" opinions. It's hip and cool to say that the Beatles are overrated because it makes you sound like you have unique and interesting takes but, in my opinion, there's often a good reason why a certain band or record achieves acclaim, it's usually much deserved. And so, it's more honest to just join the choir of voices singing praises than to be a miserly asshole shitting on a fantastic record ... read more

So is "Van Weezer" going to be Weezer's equivalent of Brian Wilson's infamous "Smile" or what?

In order to properly understand Weezer as a group, one must necessarily look back at Pinkerton. Pinkerton is, of course, the cult classic Weezer foray into emo which was critically panned upon it's release and later came to be known as one of the finest emo albums ever made. Since then, Weezer really has not recovered and they are, it seems, a perfect example of a band getting ... read more

Reviewing Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: #466

Overrated/Underrated?: Appropriately Rated

Alright so apparently I did this review of the Beach Boys Today! a long time ago and honestly I have nothing to add to this review. I've been a huge fan of this LP for years and I said everything I need to say back then so, here ya go:

OLD REVIEW:

I'm a defender of early Beach Boys but I can recognize that there's a distinct moment when the Beach Boys finally broke the mold and started ... read more

Shame's record is clearly the darkest album that dropped this week, but following that is the album which opens thusly: "I want to be right where I’m supposed to be
I want to kill everyone close to me
I want to wreck everything and then say that it’s mine
That’ll be fine"

But in order to grasp just how grim this record sounds, one must actually listen to it. Knox's vocals can be compared favorably to Scott Walker and his general sound can be compared to the likes of ... read more

Shame's frustrated and angst-driven post-punk in many ways seems to best represent the times we're living in. "Drunk Tank Pink" plays like the releasing of all of the pent up rage that's built up in the almost year since the Covid crisis began. The breakneck speed of the progressions on tracks like "Born in Luton" "March Day" and "6/1" give the record a cathartic feel which pairs well with the lyrics which hold back nothing. The album is brutal, grim ... read more

A quick and shallow listen to the Beach Boys will reveal a bunch of vague and, honestly, sometimes downright cringey references to surfing, hanging out with your boys, cute girls and other high school cliches. I imagine if a group of aliens wrote a bunch of songs about what it was like growing up in the 60's, this is what they'd come up with. Probably the worst example of this is "Surfer's Rule," which unironically opens with the line "It's a genuine fact that the surfer's ... read more