Hey y’all. I was listening to this album in between flights from London to India, and I have a lot to say. Frankly, it’s terrible. Problem though- I can’t really pinpoint the reasons for this in a succinctly catchy header to ensure my AOTY review will receive maximum retention.

So, here are a few ideas for an intro one liner that I’ll just spitball here:

1. Bullshit bougie bars wearing black (literally)
2. Experimental NAP
3. Incredible how Peggy just mimicked ... read more

I think what makes rage as a genre beautiful is its loud and abrasive exploration into that sort of hedonistic, euphoric anger that otherwise has no outlet. The kind of anger that is nihilistic and violent and addictive because that it is a complicated, imperfect exploration of a general, bubbling frustration at life that a lot of the younger generations are feeling. An anger that is reformed into celebration, uniting everyone under one mode, transforming a concert into an unmatched spiritual ... read more

is art sanctuary?

Perhaps the most striking aspect of Skeletrix's latest album, from the diction to the production, is how clinical it is. There is overbearing, passionate, Shakespearean somber, which tints the halls blue through reflections. It casts a shadow over every scene, hiding the faces of the characters to create caricatures that better captures the acridity of the personalities. Wails can be heard in the very back of the stage, jagged and blunted, bruised peoples walk out of the ... read more

Veteran is one of my favorite hip-hop albums ever.

As the years have passed and my opinion has shifted, I think my appreciation for Veteran has only increased because it represented a period in JPEGMAFIA's career that he has struggled to recapture- a period where he was actually defined as a sharp edge of left-wing nihilism. Veteran is grotesque and honest and uncomfortable. It rarely settles into rhythm and lets the listener sit with its violent, abrasive, and grimy nature. It shows the ... read more

If I showed the intro track of this soundtrack to anybody without context, I could guarantee that they would never guess it to accompany one of the best crime dramas ever made- and I think that is the point.

Anurag Kashyap's Gangs Of Wasseypur is about men constantly looking to satiate their big egos with big actions that match the visions of their own insane movie that's playing in their head. Part of that is in the constant attempts to 'look cool' while committing acts ... read more

I'm going to start on a personal note here- as an Indian American, a lot of life living in the west has been split between my parents teaching me their culture and the area I exist in imbuing its own culture into me. I talk in both American and Kannadiga accents, wear American and eat Indian. My childhood life consisted of Hindu celebration and Bollywood movie consumption as I begged my mom to get us pizza because we only ate Indian at home. Yet, despite this, my consumption of Indian ... read more

dis·co
/ˈdiskō/ - noun

2. a style of pop music intended mainly for dancing to, typically soul-influenced and melodic with a regular bass beat, popular particularly in the late 1970s.

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America has this truly wonderful ability to take something specific, characterized, and cultural just to then strip it of all forms of identity; homogenizing and commercializing it until it discards it as yet another outdated wave. Everything becomes junk, washed and schizophrenic color with no ... read more

The ambient album tackles a more complicated balance than most other genres- targets are marked at the back of the brain to solely envelop the subconscious and create something that exists behind. In this way it is like breathing, or blinking, or sleeping, or loving- it happens without will, it doesn't take a visual form. You close your eyes and let it take you away. Like dust, feathers, water, blood, going all, up.

Lush is clearly inspired by many of the greatest ambient artists in this ... read more

POMPEII // UTILITY

Q: Why would they create a trap album and move away from real abstract hip-hop?

A: Why is trap considered less real than any other form of hip hop? It bleeds the same culture and spirit. So does the rapping that white people so easily write off as 'non-lyrical'. It exists further from you than you could possibly imagine. Both do. Until you can see the worlds that sound has to offer then why bother with abstract rap?

Q: Why create a collaborative album if ... read more

"we migHt die for tHis sHit"

Complicated feelings on upbringing that are difficult to balance. Vice galore; I still love it, god. I have a sense of morality, but can that really offput that desire for idealized violence I was homegrown with? I want blood. We all desperately search for a nostalgia fueled drive of the memories that are blurred so we only see the abstractions. Childhood was everything, is everything, will be everything. This is how I was raised- how can I exist in such ... read more

Severely outclassed by his previous work in terms of conceptual soundness and originality. I feel like Ye has retread over a lot of ground here and it lacks the punch of his old LPs that really fed into maximalist soundscapes painted by ego that felt engaging.

That being said... I did not hate it. It feels like the most cohesive bundle of Ye tracks we have gotten since Donda. It has an actual vision and that semi-corny self aware presentation of Ye's personality that is the highlight of ... read more

I press my cheek against the car window just to feel the cold air outside, the barrier between the cabin and the void.

It's 5 PM, driving god knows whereto and from, and I observe silent the world outside. The sky reaches that pale blue in between the set of sun and the full darkness of the night, clouds defining its texture, blanketing everything. Landscapes become dark and indiscernible- the green and the brown merge into the black, the only difference becoming the shade. I can hear the ... read more

Denzel's feature choices and rapping can't save how painfully generic this album is. The singles are the most interesting aspect of the project because they feature production that doesn't induce sleep (partially). It's pretty disappointing to see so many great artists be wasted on such a mediocre and unengaging project, especially when compared to the much more well defined KOTMSvol2. I hope whatever later projects that come out of this group will reflect better quality.

Back when I was younger, one of the main channels for my puberty destabilized emotion was music. And perhaps there is no band more relevant to this period in my life than Linkin Park. Wholy nu metal over the demonic screams of Bennington, translated into verse by Shinoda in such a simple, yet cathartic way. Meteroa was my ultimate outlet for the anger, the ultimate pond of sadness and anger to immerse yourself in. Teenage angst personified.

While Jane Remover's debut album ... read more

"Hay que estar vigilante"

Revisiting this album after the tragic passing of the incredible Willie Colón is bittersweet, but it also gives me a greater appreciation of the fact that we were able to experience the man's genius. No album gives me that feeling more than his collaboration with other late and great singer Héctor Lavoe, Vigilante.

What an absolute gem this is. From its very first moments the stunning composition of Colón pulls you into this world ... read more

I can't believe that artists make music about SEX. I can't believe this album about SEX has something SEXUAL as the cover! That's so inappropriate. Don't they know SEX is ICKY and YUCKY and WEIRD? I think we should BAN SEX. That would stop all these inappropriate, non kid friendly artists. Ew!

"When I was a kid you could buy a saxophone for $500 and today it costs a person $5000 to buy a saxophone, so quite naturally, young kids, the young culture of today are rapping, instead of blowing their horns or playing pianos or some other instrument, because the possibility of acquiring those instruments, acquiring music lessons, has become much more remote."

...

I think it is a pretty safe bet to say that there has never been an easier era to make music than now. The tools to ... read more

the most masterful, perfect kick into your own goal

To be able to set such impossibly high (and unearned) expectations just to totally whiff it is impressive in its own sick and twisted way. I was not a fan of Keem's first album at all, but back then I viewed him in as a much more hit or miss rapper. Someone who had the pieces to create an engaging trap album but just never really put them together in a way that didn't feel messy and contrived. The exceptions of songs like trademark ... read more

What the hell does BUSDRIVER mean?

Typically, with these written reviews, I approach the process of dissection with this perspective that there is always going to be some greater concept that raises its hat over the whole album to enhance an understanding. Once I find an overall interpretation that I like, one that ties the consistencies and inconsistencies and themes of the album together, I can get to the actual writing. But as I've listened to more and more music from different scenes, ... read more

"I love my wife and my coat"

Materialism is such a vast an encompassing aspect of the culture that we live in. The expression of ourselves through the items we have, their history, and how it connects to our personality is so core to the human experience that I think I could reasonably bet there is at least one sort of physical medium that every human engages with consistently. Our personality gravitates to the items that we feel represent our interests, and we connect to them and ... read more