STRONG 8

STRONG 7 TO LIGHT 8

On Extraordinary Machine, Fiona continues to rely on the formula she established on her debut Tidal, but perhaps that sound has ran a little stale, especially in combination with the damning absence of Jon Brion in production. However, Fiona's sheer talent as a songwriter and performer manages to overshadow the record's faults (most of the time), retaining a mostly compelling listening experience

Favs: Get Him Back, O'Sailor, Parting Gift
Least Fav: Red Red ... read more

In the span of a year Sade crafts another stellar album to follow up their spectacular debut "Diamond Life", this time ever-so-slightly tweaking their formula to create something more subdued and downtempo. This leads to a few songs being relatively uneventful, however the highs absolutely match those of her other albums

Favourites: First 3 songs + Never As Good As The First Time
Least Fav: Punch Drunk

DECENT 7

It is evident from this short project that Rebecca Black is a diligent student of underground pop, drawing from the likes of Charli xcx and Slayyyter, the infamous ‘Friday’ girl assembles together 7 tracks that are tightly-wound, well-produced with sufficient charisma, even though she still has a long way to go to match the greatest of her genre.

Favourites: Sugar Water Cyanide
Least Fav: Tears In My Pocket

LIGHT TO DECENT 7

The moments on /\/\ /\ Y /\ when M.I.A. retires from the industrial cacophony are among her most dull; monotonic synth melodies that seem to trudge along absent of intent. However, when she does embrace the off kilter noise, she manages to create some of the most innovative, hard-hitting and predictive music of the last 20 years, a feat she should be recognised and lauded more for.

Favourites: STEPPING UP, TEQKILLA, MEDS AND FEDS
Least Fav: IT IZ WHAT IT IZ

It's interesting to finally listen to the album that the infamous hit "Paper Planes" is included in, because while Kala is considered the album that finally broke M.I.A. into the mainstream, in a way it is wilder, more ambitious and more experimental than her predecessor Arular (which is a personal favourite of mine). "Paper Planes" also logically should not fit into the album, featuring more melancholic synth-heavy production that significantly contrasts the jagged, ... read more

"Eat, Sleep, Slay, 🔁" is easily the best song on here, it's campy and fun with a very cool gabber-influenced breakdown at the end that serves as the most memorable part of the EP, the rest of the songs range from decent to passable, predictable EDM. I felt that some of the ideas (especially on the last 2 songs) could have been better developed and the songs longer so it could be given more progression.

wtf.

the concept. the execution. the ambition. the lyrics. the vocals. the production. the versatility. the energy. how the album doesn't feel long at all, WOW

my fav moments on the album:

- the seamless trans. from dance to die to locked inside
- TIGHT ROPE
- the reintroduction of the motif from suite iii overture in 57821
- say you'll go clair de lune outro
- the entirety of BABOPBYEYA like how do you make something like this

I was a bit iffy on make the bus, and come alive is ... read more

The first installment of the Kick series sees Arca at her most dynamic. The frequent back and forth between deconstructed club bangers, to futuristic, glitchy reggaeton and amorphous artpop, means that the listener does not know what to expect, and the listening experience was made more riveting this way. It also helps that the material on this album is some of Arca’s most accessible (accessible for Arca standards of course), you skip the initial confusion that a lot of Arca’s music ... read more

Arca over the past decade has built up an extensive and impressive repertoire within the music scene, contributing production to the works of many artists, including that of Björk’s “Vulnicura”, FKA Twigs “LP1” and Kelela’s “Take Me Apart”, albums that I’m familiar with and greatly adore.

And it is precisely that reason I have grown to be quite familiar with Arca’s production style. Characterised by jittery, scurrying, and ... read more

Soaring whistle tones and old-school pop soul balladry — all the things you’ve come to expect in a Mariah Carey record are present in Butterfly. But what made people recognise this 1997 release as a gem in Carey’s discography, was not because of how well she had perfected what she’d been known to do, but how she had greatly expanded her musical vernacular, expediting the artistic progression that she began on her prior multi-platinum release Daydream. We see Carey now ... read more

Massive Attack and Nine Inch Nails were the two acts that instantly popped into my head while listening to the latest effort from gothic singer Chelsea Wolfe, the former for the album’s sonic tilt towards the genre of trip hop, and the latter for the industrial sound, but also for the masterful manipulation of space and ambience in this album to create an ominous and brooding atmosphere. The album rarely strays from this formula, which I definitely attribute to one of “She Reaches ... read more

British singer-songwriter Rachel Chinouriri first caught my attention when a clip of her music video of “Never Need Me”, which featured actress Florence Pugh, appeared on my internet at the beginning of this year. I wasn’t particularly enraptured by the song however, which was why I did not bother checking out her debut album until now. While I did observe great potential from Chinouriri, especially on the front of songwriting, I was overall quite disappointed with this ... read more

On her third studio album "Charm", Clairo explores the genres of soul and sophisti-pop, incorporating lush and swingy instrumentals, while still retaining the lo-fi, bedroom pop characteristics that her music has come to be known for. This sonic blend results in an album that is perfectly engineered to be listened to during a cool autumn breeze. While the songs on the album tend to blur together during certain moments, especially towards the end. Strong standouts, usually the more ... read more

Porter Robinson released the definitive “sad twerking” album of the year. The honest, vulnerable and introspective lyrics are juxtaposed by the very danceable and catchy beats, a dichotomy that I found to be the record’s greatest strength. Though the production here is almost always crisp and clear, it is relatively one-dimensional and one-note, which makes individual songs stand out less and the album to feel like it dragged longer than its 4o-minute duration would suggest. ... read more

As the frontwoman of the pioneering trip hop trio Portishead, Beth Gibbons has remained relatively reserved in the near two decades since their breakup. Finally dropping what is technically her first official solo album in 2024, Gibbons presents to us a musical style vastly different from the electronic and jazz-tinged flavors that her former band had proffered, instead opting for a chamber folk sound with incredibly ornate and dense orchestral instrumentation. The resulting sonic palette is ... read more

One of the biggest forces in the modern alternative hip hop scene, I had been wanting to listen to JPEGMAFIA’s music for a very long time and this album was my introduction, and I was thoroughly impressed by how unique and rich the sound was on this record, one that I had never really heard in any other rap album before. Sonically, I would split the album into two halves, the first being much more aggressive and braggadocious while the latter being more mellow and introspective. I was a ... read more

I know this is considered as one of Xiu Xiu’s more accessible albums but even still, it seems that their music is simply not for me. I was still following along during the first half of the album, I thought the trio of songs, the ambient and introspective “Arp Omni”, the industrial and aggressive “Maestro One Chord”, and the heavily distorted “Common Loom” were interesting and each had aspects which I really enjoyed. Moreover, I was pleasantly surprised ... read more

Magdalena Bay’s third EP was the first to receive notable attention, for the song “Killshot”, which went semi-viral on social media, and it’s not hard to see why. It’s slow, sensual and dark with a unique allure that the duo’s previous works did not quite emanate. Which makes it unfortunate that the EP did not further expand on this sound, and yet continued to utilise the bright, bubblegum sound with only very minor modifications. That’s not to say that ... read more

This is the best mini mix! Here I said it!

One of my biggest issues with the mini mixes was that a lot of the ideas for the songs felt underutilized, and by that I meant that some of them would’ve worked a lot better if they were expanded to full songs instead of being forced to become vignettes. This problem almost completely disappeared on Mini Mix Vol. 3. The shorter track lengths actually serve the songs this time, especially on the songs such as “Top Dog” (which is ... read more