Lizzo’s upbeat personality and epic vocals, as well as some nice rnb/pop production make Cuz I Love You a brief, but really enjoyable rnb/pop album. Lizzo proves herself to be a great entertainer on this record and it makes me excited to see what she will release next.

Favorite Tracks: Cuz I Love You, Like a Girl, Juice, Jerome, Crybaby, Better in Color, Lingerie

Least Favorite Track: Soulmate (slightly overproduced)

This is awful. Trippie Redd has had good moments previously in his career, but ! is easily his worst album to date. The songwriting is beyond uninspired, the production ranges from decent to really generic, and Trippie Redd’s vocals can be absolutely abysmal at points. A very lazy and lousy trap record that I’m willing to forget about.

Favorite Tracks: Immortal, Under Enemy Arms (these tracks aren’t good, but they are tolerable compared to everything else)

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To Feel Alive is sadly, a really lackluster EP from Kali Uchis and it pales in comparison to her previous material, it’s also quite forgettable as well.

Favorite Track: I Want War (But I Need Peace)

Least Favorite Track: To Feel Alive (the instrumentation is unambitious)

Excluding some repetitive hooks, Innocent Country is a commendable hip hop album that has nice boom bap production and Quelle Chris provides entertaining vocals and personality.

Favorite Tracks: Where the Wild Things Roam, We Want It Alive, Well Running Deep, Nothing Moves, The Plan, I Asked God

Least Favorite Track: Drugfest Toothousandtoo (the instrumentation becomes dull)

Vince Staples’ tough and impactful vocals and the gloomy production make Summertime ‘06 an impressive debut hip hop record, though it isn’t perfect.

Favorite Tracks: Lift Me Up, Norf Norf, Birds & Bees, Dopeman, Jump Off The Roof, Señorita, Summertime, 3230, Surf, Street Punks, Like It Is

Least Favorite Track: Get Paid (quite repetitive)

Despite some underwritten and repetitive choruses, Guns is a phenomenal jazz rap album that has great lyrical content about guns and politics. Guns is definitely one of the best records of 2019.

Favorite Tracks: Spray and Pray, Mind Ya Bidness, It’s the Law (Farewell Goodbye Addio, Uncle Tom), Wild Minks, Box of Wheaties, Sunday Mass, Straight Shot, Obamacare

Least Favorite Track: PSA Drugfest 2003 (Sleeveless Minks), (the hook is underwritten and repetitive)

Vroom Vroom is a good electropop EP that has a really nice futuristic aesthetic, like what Charli would have 3 years later.

Favorite Tracks: Vroom Vroom, Secret (Shh)

Least Favorite Track: Paradise (the pitch-shifted vocals during the hook are obnoxious)

Westside Gunn’s fun, nasally voice and the incredible boom bap production he raps over makes Pray for Paris one of my favorite hip hop albums of the year. Some tracks could be fleshed out more, but it’s an enjoyable record that has some great flows and production.

Favorite Tracks: George Bondo, 327, French Toast, Allah Sent Me, $500 Ounces, Versace, LE Djoliba

Least Favorite Track: Claiborne Kick

Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery is a spectacular nu jazz record that has some really enjoyable and peppy tracks. There is so much energy and personality to every track here that it’s difficult not to appreciate. I like how every track starts with a beautiful atmosphere, and then transitions into these great harmonies that are really enchanting and immersive. Overall, a stunning nu jazz album that is one of my favorite projects of 2019.

Favorite Tracks: Almost All

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Beautifully heartfelt, Pure Comedy is an outstanding folk record that laughs at current society and comments on many different themes in current society and elsewhere in a sometimes sarcastic manner. Some of these themes can really stop you in your tracks. For example, In Twenty Years or So is about existentialism and that in the grand scheme of things, we ultimately are unimportant, though in the end there is nothing to fear. Or Ballad of the Dying Man where a man who is soon to die has ... read more

Skins is obviously a shameful cash grab by his label to make as much money possible off of his name and it is absolutely pathetic. The material here is much weaker than Xxxtentacion’s previous releases, but understanding that his label is greedy, it’s not hard to see why.

Favorite Tracks: Guardian Angel, Train Food

Least Favorite Track: Staring At The Sky

Though it is has some poor vocals like his previous record, ? is an improvement over 17 and has some really admirable tracks.

Favorite Tracks: Moonlight, Sad!, Infinity (888), Schizophrenia

Least Favorite Track: $$$

There are a few tracks here I enjoy, but hearing Xxxtentacion’s boring and fake depressed vocals for a majority of the tracks here over sad acoustic guitars and pianos is unbelievably edgy and boring. When Xxxtentacion isn’t edgy and boring vocally he can make a good track, but that isn’t the case most of the time. 21 stands as a project that had potential, but was ruined by uninteresting vocals and sentimental instrumentals.

Favorite Tracks: Jocelyn Flores, Fuck Love, Carry ... read more

Plastic Anniversary is a quirky and fun IDM record that uses plastic to create its sounds. As strange as that is, it manages to be a great album that is also one of my favorite projects of 2019.

Favorite Tracks: Breaking Bread, The Crying Pill, Silicone Gel Implant, Plastic Anniversary, Thermoplastic Riot Shield, Collapse Of The Fourth Kingdom

Least Favorite Track: Platisphere (underwhelming and uneventful)

She Is Coming only has two tracks coming back to for me and the rest of the album is mediocre to awful. Basically, this is just a really forgettable pop EP.

Favorite Tracks: Mother’s Daughter, The Most

Least Favorite Track: Cattitude (overwhelmingly obnoxious)

Easily one of the wackiest albums of 2019, 1000 gecs is a really fun bubblegum bass record that is absolutely one of a kind. The album’s weird vocals and production choices make it an intriguing listen and a project to come back to.

Favorite Tracks: 745 Sticky, Money Machine, 800db cloud, Stupid Horse, Ringtone, Gec 2 Ü

Least Favorite Track: Gecgecgec

Since this is obviously a joke album, I can’t hate it, especially considering some decent instrumentation, but it’s not good and I’m never coming back to it.

Favorite Tracks: Private Time, Goodnite

Leas Favorite Tracks: Everything else

Though not groundbreaking, Streams of Thought, Vol. 1 is a great hip hop EP that shows off Black Thought’s great flows and lyrical ability. It also has great production as well.

Favorite Tracks: All

Least Favorite Track: N/A

The Kids Are Coming is essentially an EP full of modern pop cliches, but with awful vocals. It’s honestly hard to get through this album, despite its brief run-time. Instead of being obnoxious, it almost feels boring most of the time because it goes for the same thing every track. Almost every track has basic pianos, claps, or finger snaps that come off as very bland and irritating. On top of that, the aforementioned bad vocals don’t help the already lost cause of many of these ... read more

With what may be one of the most harrowing albums of 2019, The Origin of My Depression is a very disturbing record that is atmospheric and intense. For much of the album, an atmosphere is built up for some time and then screamed vocals come in, making these tracks very profound and strangely compelling. Though not a positive record by any means, The Origin of My Depression is a distressing death industrial project that will stay with you for some time.

Favorite Tracks: Almost All

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