To be honest I’ve never really liked the screaming metal genre — and personally I still don’t love the screaming here but mannnn those drums are killer as well as the prod overall. Prob the best song I’ve heard in this genre.

A smaller album from Simz after SIMBI, but a very nice one. I personally like the first half a bit more -- especially the first 3 tracks, but I really like the project overall. I agree with consensus that the last 3 tracks are significantly weaker than the rest in terms of creativity, but I still like them. There are tracks on here that are at SIMBI quality and ones that are just a notch below, which net net makes it a great experience. It also has its own satisfying, smaller-scale life ... read more

Finally getting around to reviewing this. This is an immaculate album by Simz-- I know it's a great album when I'm actively excited every time it comes on my album shuffle playlist. The variety, beauty and creativity shown on this album can't be understated. While I can appreciate Simz's more aggressive style on GRAY AREA artistically, I really vibe with and love the gorgeous style of tracks like Miss Understood, How Did You Get Here, and Little Q, Pt 2.

On the flip side, there are awesome ... read more

FIRE-- W sample and fire bars.

Stephen-Sanchez-core, but good Stephen-Sanchez-core

I like Kendrick and am on his side, but this is fire. Flawed, but really solid. Love the metro line-- "make" some drums is so much more infantalizing than "play" lol -- happy, this is what I wanted out of this rap civil war.

Amazing (Interlude) song of the summer?!?! 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Eh-- Apart from Houdini I haven't felt like these other two singles really touch almost any of the material on Future Nostalgia. I like the little outro tho. The rest is kinda bland tho.

I like Re-Entry a lot, I totally get why Sensory Nectar is not on the project tho-- very off kilter and weird.

The album has great highlights like PRIDE and DUCKWORTH but also have by far the most "bangers" of a Kendrick record-- the reason I love Kendrick's stuff is because he doesn't usually just make commercial tracks for the sake of it, and this album has by far the most of them in Kendrick's discog. GKMC, for instance, has a ton of commercial hits, but they're also really artistically stunning.

I think it's nice the record had them since it cemented Kendrick once again as a huge ... read more

Great record from Jalen-- beautiful soul all around. Occasionally gets a little boring, but If You Don't Want My Love is actually quite inventive for me in the soul genre, and there are a ton of really good 70s-feeling soul tracks on here. Has a high floor and a high ceiling.

Beat's great, but lyricism feels kinda basic/underdeveloped for the song to fully work.

Nice but doesn't quite end up lifting off the ground in the end.

Some of the elements are a little basic, but overall this is a great (innovative for Khalid) track that hypes me up for this new long-awaited record.

Not quite as standout as nerd and especially Control, but it's nice-- really nice continuation of a great run from La Reezy.

ik its weird to rate my own songs but dis one's fire

I think some of the tracks like girl I've always been, stranger, and scared are good tracks-- I just don't gravitate towards that more folksy sound usually. Obsessed and So American are really nice and would have fit super easily into GUTS, whereas the others definitely feel more like a very nice deluxe. That said, even so american does have some more unfiltered feeling elements than the original GUTS.

KENDRICK FEATURE GOATED...

...but apart from that, Metro really carries. Not that he's always perfect on here-- some beats are just OK, but he's definitely the highlight of the project. Future really drags the whole project down IMO-- on most of these tracks, I would almost always rather hear another rapper on these good to stellar Metro beats. I get that Future is responsible for a lot of really big, pretty influential rap bangers, but I generally speaking don't find his voice interesting... ... read more

Happy to say that after two underwhelming singles, this is another great Stoop project. Singles work better in context and they're my least favorite tracks on the project. Excited to relisten and dig the new sound from Stoop. Timeskip is insane.

Track Ratings:
RED INTRO - 80
DUNDEE - 78
TIMESKIP - 84
GENEVA INTERLUDE - 76
I JUST WANNA BEACH - 70
VERMILLION CITY - 81

Fine, but clearly not a track JVKE is really putting a ton of effort into vs. his excellent recent singles (winter, space, autumn)