The golden age of JMH ("Introverted" to "FANATIC (Blue Eyes)" or 2/4/2022 - 7/1/2022 imo), has been gone for a long time as he traded quality for quantity. If T-Swift's latest album was equivalent to her complaining in circles to me about her breakup for two hours, this album was JMH doing it to me for half an hour but with a megaphone to my ear. Every once in a while, there were little motivational nuggets in "Lose Your Light" and "S A Y", but they ... read more

JHP's a great rapper, and that's definitely on display here, but there's not all that much else. The flows get pretty samey after a while, and the attempts at variety make the project feel scattered rather than various. Lyrically, JHP writes with so many layers that it's hard to know what she's talking about most of the time unless she spells it out. Overall, a fun project from a great rapper, and that's about it.

Favorite: Leave Me Alone
Least Favorite: Ready Or ... read more

The opener got my hopes high for the rest of the EP, the middle track kept the hype going, and the closer spoiled it. When helloworld got swag with this EP, it worked very well. When he tried to get emotional, it just didn't land with me. I'll definitely be bumping the first two tracks when I return to this, but as a whole project, I'm going back to part 1.

Favorite: Ghost
Least Favorite: Love & War

With an interesting theme and heavy bass design, The Third Kind bangs harder than most bass albums I've heard thus far. It does a good job of keeping the energy going and varying styles throughout its runtime. There were times I felt Dyatic was holding back a bit, but as a whole, this album is quite the banger.

Favorite: Redshift
Least Favorite: Don't Hold Back

This took a while to grow on me, but this is a beautiful EP! The instrumentals are gorgeous, delving into more genre variety than I first gave it credit for. The lyrics do get a bit corny sometimes, but the driving concepts of most of the songs are so strong and thought-provoking. Wistful, beautiful, and introspective EP from a talented songwriter.

Favorite: Losing My Accent
Least Favorite: Love You To Death

This is The National Parks doing what they do best! It follows their formula to a T and often leans on the band's common tropes, but they did anything but phone it in here. Tracks like "Whatever Comes" and "Hinterland Reverie" have a certain energy I haven't heard often from them, while tracks like "Ain't It Crazy" and "Where You Are" have some really sweet personal messages. It's fun, it's descriptive, it's The National ... read more

It's glitchy, it's complex, it's sometimes tempoless. But overall, it's an absolutely serene experience. The sound design is playful and fun, the vibe akin to walking through a forest in an alternate reality or an alien planet. The album does wander a bit in structure and direction, but it always brings me a smile by the end. A blast of a project from Hudson Lee!

Favorite: Celestial Egg
Least Favorite: Bedlocked

A bit of a mixed bag, with some of Mykyl's best tracks, some of his worst, and the rest in the middle somewhere. This album could have afforded to be a bit shorter, but what we get here is pretty good if you can get past the occasional meh tracks. The story, although a bit cheesy, is a fun element of the album and reconciles the tracklist into a sense of cohesion. Listeners of many kinds are likely to get at least something from this album, and overall, I got a good experience out of ... read more

depthOblivious's production was actually the best part of this collab album most of the time. Some of the features did well, but some of them needed a lot of work on their lyricism and vocals. Occasionally, you get a track that's quite nice, but you have to sift through a good bit of mess to get there. It's the kind of debut album an artist sometimes just needs to release so he can set himself up for a discography full of improvement. And believe me, depthOblivious has improved ... read more

Now THAT'S more like it! Every year, Ace Aura releases at least one thing that totally pops off. For 2024, this EP is that thing! As usual, it's the Ace Aura we know and love, arguably with one step forward in his sound. Several times, the EP put a big smile on my face and even gave me a few laughs. There's even a glimpse of a message here: poking fun at the content-creator musician's grind and alluding to a greater hope than mere musical success. And it goes without saying, ... read more

🔴
2. The Tortured Poets Department
4. Down Bad
5. So Long, London
6. But Daddy I Love Him
8. Florida!!!
9. Guilty as Sin?
11. I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)
12. loml
13. Can Do It With a Broken Heart
14. The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived
17. The Black Dog
22. So High School
24. thank you aIMee
27. Cassandra
29. The Bolter
31. The Manuscript
🟡
16. Clara Bow
18. imgonnagetyouback
19. The Albatross
26. The Prophecy
🟢
1. Fortnight
3. My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys
7. Fresh Out The ... read more

Doesn’t reach the highs of his other projects but does reach the lows occasionally. Thankfully, Conro is a consistent producer, so the lows aren’t that low. It has its moments, but much of it lacks what makes Conro a standout pop/house artist: his great foreground vocals, interesting writing, and experimental production. Overall, a relatively fun project that kept me occupied for a while but that I probably won’t return to.

Favorite: Somebody With You
Least Favorite: Violet ... read more

Although I think this is a good album, it disappointed me a bit. Augustana's composition and lyricism are great here, well deserving of a much higher rating. But the production hinders the project significantly from achieving the heights it could have reached. The overly even and compressed mixing removes the dynamics Augustana clearly envisioned so that most of the album sounds weaker than it could have been. Sure, it's one element, but it's one of the primary elements in music, ... read more

🔴 Over the Edge
🟢 The other 11 tracks

Following the 2020's trend of melodic EDM producers that tend toward poppier styles, Tristam still proves himself to be a rare gem in the sea of his contemporaries. This album packs an absolute sucker-punch to the heart in several places (and when it doesn't, it masterfully builds up inertia for the next gut-punch). His songwriting and vocal delivery are in rare form, the lyrics being as poetic as ever but more transparent than ever. ... read more

🔴 Anime Eyes
🟡 Too Good To Be True, Moving Out
🟢 The other 11 tracks

Sweet, introspective, chill, and mostly well-written. More musically creative production choices than I was expecting from her, which was a pleasant surprise. What you see is what you get with most of this album, but what you get is quite good! Check out the deluxe for some of the best and worst the album has to offer (which is an extreme descriptor, as it's pretty consistent).

Favorite: Cardinal
Least ... read more

🟡 JUPiTER
🟢 The other 9 tracks

Consistently great music all the way through with some of those truly serene moments Coldplay has always been great at capturing. Even the tracks that don't hit the mark as well are at least a fun listen. It doesn't emotionally connect with me too much, but it does put me in a nice headspace. Every listen has me feeling better on the other end!

Favorite: MOON MUSiC
Least Favorite: WE PRAY

🔴 Believe It, Supercharger, Slow
🟡 Falling
🟢 The other 9 tracks

Not as creative a work as I expected from this duo, but it has its moments, both good and bad. I find this album to be little more than the sum of its parts, and its parts are a mixed bag. Some really fun tracks, some really messy tracks, and some tracks that go in one ear and out the other. A nice-enough listen, but nothing spectacular.

Favorite: Cloud Monsters
Least Favorite: Supercharger

A gorgeous album that steadily leads the listener to look outward, appreciating what is around them in the midst of a cloudy inner dialogue. The introspective and wistful songwriting gets this message across effectively--however polarizingly, as it is home to some of Glacier's best and worst lyricism yet. The music is able to shift between emotions quickly and frequently without compromising cohesion better than any other album I've heard this year. And there are both old and new ... read more

Only thing bad I can say about this EP is that "Clouds Rest" bores me a bit, and I wasn't a big fan of the distortion on the sounds in the intro and outro. Other than that, such a serene yet energetic EP! It has some great melodies that don't grow old with repetition. This is the type of thing I love to hear from Liquicity and from the DnB+ artists that release there.

Favorite: Effloresce
Least Favorite: Clouds Rest

🔴 Cancer
🟢 The other 13 tracks

No tracks with bad decisions, just some tracks that have a greater amount of stronger choices and some that have a greater amount of weaker choices. The album sneaks up to a 75 due to strong theming and a satisfying progression, along with a good bit of musical variety and creativity. Definitely has some weaker mixing in the first half, but the impact and worldbuilding only gets better as you go along.

Favorite: Aquarius
Least Favorite: Aries