BAD. If was very brave to try all of the different styles and flows and beats that 4mel does on this record. None of it sounds good yet, but there's definitely potential there.

POOR. A woefully bland record that sounds like a loose collection of Joji b-sides before he learned how to sing. Nothing interesting or compelling on the record, but it makes for a decent easy listen.

GOOD. Unknown T delivers a varied, rich, and cohesive Drill production core across the record, and dips into genres like afrobeat for further inspiration. Despite being cursed with Britishness, Unknown T avoids sounding like a clown, aided in no small part by his witty and sharp penmanship on this record. The features are well-placed, and the record has a very polished quality that pushes the credibility of Drill as a genre.

POOR. The vaccines are starved for ideas on this record, evident through the dismally similar tracks and tired indie pop style that they've been drowning in since 2011. If you're wondering what this album is like, listen to any of their songs and then imagine listening to it 10 more times in a row.

VERY GOOD. An enjoyable record from start to finish; Ryder-Jones' talents for singing, composition, and instrumentation coalesce beautifully to form Iechyd Da. A nostalgic selection of instruments and soft-rock performances undergird a very modern lyricism concerning quarantine-era anxieties and the timeless anxieties of love.

BAD. This one really hurt. Listening to this album as a Man on the Moon series or KSG fan is like watching your cool granddad become an empty shell of himself as he succumbs to cognitive degradation. Within this record, you'll find a comically late xxxtentacion feature, a weak rip-off of the DJ Drama bit from Tyler's last record, and a mind-boggling lack of genre or even vocal variety. The still living featured artists are pretty good at least.

FINE. Excluding some highlights on the record like Cannonball! and Fungus Bop, the record sits behind the curve of more influential artists like Animal Collective and Alex G. There are no outright unpleasant tracks, but the album feels long despite being only 26 minutes.

POOR. If you only listened to one of the songs off of this record, you'd probably walk away feeling decent about it. However, the album suffers from being a collection of very generic and nearly identical tracks with little to speak of in terms of interesting instrumental choices or impressive vocal performances.

GOOD. Repetitive structure, ignorant lyrics, and tightly genre-bound beats: Savage stays well within his comfort zone for the majority of the record. The songs are good, if unexciting. When trying to follow the recent trend of more emotionally vulnerable or mature bars, he falls short.

VERY GOOD. Maria Hackman gives a series of beautifully vulnerable performances across the album, smartly driving home the theme of the record being a Big Sigh (of relief). Hackman's honesty and maturity are tangible through her penmanship. While its elements are far from mindblowing on their own, the concept of the record is realized flawlessly.

AMAZING. While Kali Uchis has always brought a lot of variety and creativity to her music, ORQUÍDEAS takes everything to new heights. Aside from the stellar production adapting to fit every genre she hops to, what Uchis may lack in raw vocal prowess, she more than makes up for with her stunning versatility and skilled songwriting.

FINE. Clean production and strong vocal performances throughout, but neither the lyrical content nor the instrumental choices were impressive. Enjoyment of the album steadily decreased as the tracks went on, as the second half of the record is far less engaging than the first.

GOOD. A solid debut album for the group. Aside from a great three-track run toward the middle of the record, nothing was too impressive, but the record as a whole shows a strong progression toward a sound unique to Yungatita, and away from their blander bedroom pop beginnings.

POOR. A very unsurprising queer aesthetic noise/bitpop record. While there's nothing glaringly wrong with the record, the sheer sterility of the project leaves me feeling disappointed. A record like this seeming so safe and riskless is a good sign for queer representation in music, but a bad sign for this record's creative merits.

BAD. The tracks, vocals, and lyrics are so painfully uninspired that this record sounds AI-generated. Very uncomfortable listen, I'm not even that big of a fan of the best K-pop has to offer, and this record is FAR from the best of the genre.

GOOD. Peñate has a beautiful voice, and while it may not be the most experimental or novel record, his confidence and soul bleed through every sung word and instrumental choice. At the end of the day, it's just another singer-songwriter record, but it's a good one.

POOR. While the tracks are listenable, there's nothing unique or that interesting about even a single track, and the record does absolutely nothing with the genre other than create another ultra-safe, stock-sound-packed entry in an already stagnant genre. Dated New Aesthetic is a great name for this record, for all the wrong reasons.

POOR. From what I've seen from the band, they're more interested in their live shows than the actual music itself, which shows on this record. While not horrible, there's nothing particularly new or interesting about any of the tracks, and all of it is quite forgettable. Even the lyrics, which would have been funny half a decade ago just seem a little tired.

FINE. None of the tracks on here are strikingly bad, and more than a few of them were quite good. That being said, as a concept album, this record fails to accomplish its narrative and atmospheric goals as well as most other concept records I've listened to.

FINE. Nothing particularly unique or special about this UK Bass record. It was a pleasant if unremarkable listen.