It works well as background music, and you can definitely hear this album's influence on a lot of later electronic albums.
I feel like this flew under the radar a little last year, because this is really great. I love PremRock's very lowkey rapping, and how it juxtaposes well with Curly Castros much more aggresive emotive style. The production here is also really good, Controller 7 isn't a name I'm familiar with, but they do a great job with making this album sound distinct. The album will go from dark and brooding to energetic, and the production manages to pull it off by reflecting the writing ... read more
A peculiar album that feels like your head is spinning the whole way through. The genre combinations can definitely work sometimes, but also make the album sound a little disjointed, an 8 minute spoken word song directly following an insane psychedelic hip hop song can make it so that the album is paced weirdly. However, when this album is good it's GOOD, it reminded me at times of cLOUDDEAD's self titled, with its unique approach to hip hop and weird song structure. Also, while I ... read more
It's an ambitious album, and for the most part, I think it succeeds. It's easy for something like this to feel bloated, but I think the fact that the album explores so many themes makes it so that the album never feels repetitive, or just trying to make the same points over and over again. I personally found the second disk a lot stronger than the first with how well it executed its themes. It feels like an extension of Innervisions both thematically and instrumentally. Not only does ... read more
Thanks @block_idk for the recommendation!
This album is really well made and pretty, I'm surprised it doesn't have more eyes on it. The vocals are really nice and easy on the ears, which can be said about a lot of this album. This style of indie folk can run the risk of feeling derivative of other releases, thankfully that isn't the case here, Darci Phenix injects this album with enough personality to set it apart from her contemporaries.
Ora Cogan's singing here feels out of place a little here, she has a good singing voice, it just feels a little awkwardly placed among everything. They just feel like she wanted to go for a more lo-fi, almost live approach to the vocals that just wasn't carried over to the instrumentaton for whatever reason. It's only super present on a few tracks, where others just flow more naturally. The mixture of folk, rock and indie is somethig that has been done before, so this isn't ... read more
This is a case where my respect for the historical impact and long term influence this album had, greatly outweighs my personal enjoyment of the album itself.
Shame I missed this last year, it's such a great album, and such an unexpected and fascinating evolution of her sound.
Such a sinister undertone to everything here, the production, the singing, it all feels haunted. Such a fun and interesting listen, with an amazing, off-the-wall closer.
It's just a weaker "Please Please Me", the songs here are less catchy, and don't have as high highs, but has MUCH lower lows. I also thought that "Please Please Me" did a bit more with experimentation and combining different styles of music which made that album stand out a little more. This just came off as monotonous more tthan anything.
Tracks 1-4 is practically flawless, if the album kept up that level of quality, this could honestly be AOTY for me. Unfortunately, the album takes a dip in track 5 that it doesn't really recover from, the producion is still fun and bouncy, and Gelli Haha has a pretty infectious personality, which makes up somewhat for the album's shortcomings.
Everything about this EP is so smooth, his voice is so classy, and the production is sleek to compliment. It's a modern take on classic soul music, but it doesn't sound like he's trying to imitate anyone specific, he's managed to find his own style and sound. The result is a breezy, brisk wonderful little ep.
A really interesting listen, some tracks can feel a little incohesive, but the fact that they were making stuff like this in the 70s boggles my mind. Even if I don't love every song here, I have to respect the ingenuity present, they were pretty much in their own lane at the time with the music they were making.
An extremely political album, and very reflective of the era it came out, it's handled in a really compelling and mature way. On top of that, this is just a really well made album, everything comes together nicely, I don't think I loved this album as much as others did, but then again, I've yet to hear this album within the context of Stevie Wonder's other releases.
There is an undeniable warmth that comes from this album, the summer feel to everything, Corinne Bailey Rae's gorgeous singing voice, and the very sincere writing. The high points of the album are incredibly high, but I also think there's a lot of songs that are just okay
Considering it's their first album as a duo, it makes sense that their chemistry isn't as great as it would become in later years. There were also elements of the production which feel a little rough around the edges. The writing is great, as to be expected, but as a whole, this album feels like a lesser version of "History Will Absolve Me".
It's really hard to give this a rating. The whole EP is really bizarre, the low quality of these recordings does a lot in adding how claustrophobic everything sounds, but I'm not sure if I can say that I necessarily "enjoyed" this.
Thanks @kalos4l for sending me your album!
This is a really great and medititative piece of ambient music the rock influences here are subtle, and sparse, but they add so much to the album's sonic depth. As for the more straightforward ambient songs they work really well, they manage to not be boring or repetitive in any way, which is an achievement when these song lengths go up to 14 minutes. Also the last trakc is fantastic
It's rare that an album sounds so messy and boring at the same time. None of the songs here really have any connection with each other, so the album has pretty much zero cohesion as a single project. You go from experimental folk and rock music, to examples of early electronic music, to classical music, but not in a way that was at all interesting, and it just came off as annoying. Also the almost entirely spoken word songs just stopped what little momentum this album built up. The only ... read more
Nothing too special about this album, just some decent jazz with some impressive piano playing at points.
Create an account to rate and review albums.
Recent Review Comments
On twenty one pilots - Clancy
"@avg_music_enjoy nearly 2 years late but just listened to trench and holy shit it was incredible"
On JID - God Does Like Ugly
"@Phiroman I think it comes down to a personal preference thing, my favourite JID tracks are the ones where he's the main focus throughout. Not saying he can't bounce off others well, but I think he really shines when it's just him rapping his heart out."
On JID - God Does Like Ugly
"@Phiroman I expected this album to be weaker than the forever story, but it's weaker in ways I wasn't expecting, if that makes sense? I appreciate him not trying to recapture the forever story's magic, instead stretching his legs and trying out different musical influences on some tracks. I think by "disappointed", I just mean that I wish this album was more consistent quality-wise. Also by "Not giving it his all" I was referring to the tracks where the features feel like they do a lot of heavy lifting, and JID is less present than I was expecting."
On Armand Hammer - Race Music
"@Phiroman I know they've collaborated before, but this is one of the first times they've come together to make an entire project with a shared vision. Because of this, there are ways they bounce off each other that would be refined over time. Their rapping abilities and writing are still really impressive."
On TorpedoArma's review of Alex Warren - Ordinary
"Better question, why is it STILL the #1 in the UK?"
On Little Simz - Lotus
"@Cnd185 Probably will either sometime today or tomorrow"
On FootballVertigo's review of Doechii - Alligator Bites Never Heal (Extended)
"Kendrick Lamar did the exact same thing with Mr Morale, adding a single song on the deluxe that had already been out for a while. I don't see what makes this in paticular a cash grab."
On A.R.E.A.S - You Won't Last Forever
"@Alius9 Probably "It's Still There", that song sounded like an entire city being destroyed, if that makes sense. I also thought the ambience and the more blaring noises juxtaposed each other really well."
On Kobold's review of E L U C I D - INTERFERENCE PATTERN
"I think Peggy's only listed as a producer because the album samples a different ELUCID song that Peggy produced. This is pretty much entirely ELUCID's own work, not counting samples."
On Quadeca - I Didn't Mean to Haunt You
"@ol_iv_ei_ra I think we can both agree that it's actually Question mark"
On Quadeca - I Didn't Mean to Haunt You
"@CaptainSquirrel You must be mistaken, it's has to be quesadilla"
On Quadeca - I Didn't Mean to Haunt You
"@CaptainSquirrel It might be Quagmire"
On Quadeca - I Didn't Mean to Haunt You
"@CaptainSquirrel Nah, it's gotta be quantamania"
On Quadeca - I Didn't Mean to Haunt You
"@CaptainSquirrel Are you sure it isn't quetzalcoatl"
On Quadeca - I Didn't Mean to Haunt You
"@CaptainSquirrel I thought it was Quendrick"
On Radiohead - OK Computer
"@davFaithid Thank you!!"
On Sezen Aksu - Firuze
"I actually never thought of the albums being connected in that way, really interesting!"
On Shygirl - Cruel Practice
"@NeedlefluuJr I'll have to check it out before finishing my year-end lists"
On Shygirl - Cruel Practice
"@NeedlefluuJr She has such a unique take on British rap and electronic music, I've heard some of Shygirl's stuff before, but I've never actually sat down and listened to her stuff."
On HEAL XO - dis/ambiguate
"@healio I suppose music like this would be better to experience live, I'll have to check out some of the music you suggested, it's not a genre I have that much experience in"
On HEAL XO - dis/ambiguate
"@healio No problem! Do you have any recommendations for albums that sound like that song?"
On HEAL XO - dis/ambiguate
"@healio I would say my favourite track would be "nuit (poissons lune)": the way all the different vocals are layered on top of each other is simply angelic, there's something so soothing and meditative about that song, it's the highpoint of the album for me."
On healio's review of Tristwch Y Fenywod - Tristwch Y Fenywod
"@healio Yeah I get that completely, as someone who's only experience with Welsh music was pretty generic pop rock and folk, this album hit me like a truck. Definitely has an underlying sinister atmosphere to it."
On healio's review of Tristwch Y Fenywod - Tristwch Y Fenywod
"Great review, love the track by track analysis you gave"
Advertisement