folklore by Taylor Swift - ALBUM REVIEW

 

I always felt like the Taylor Swift story would end up here eventually. Here we are, eighth album in, and Taylor Swift has finally decided she doesn't need chart success anymore. And as a result, she delivers one of her best albums to date, which goes #1 anyway. Streaming really has taken over, and if albums like these get commercial recognition as a result, I'm all for it.

Folklore finally showcases a grown-up Taylor Swift, one that is able to carry the weight of crushing emotion for an entire album. This is an album of experience, one that takes all the baggage that came with Taylor Swift's success and presents a mature, yet world-weary, outlook on who she has become. That's evident through the musical style alone, where she ditches the glitz and glamour of her most recent albums, sheds the innocent face of her earlier work, and cuts right through the facade to deliver a well-written, emotionally raw indie folk record. I certainly have favourites on this album, but I won't deny that every song on here sounds gorgeous. Listening to this album puts me in a serene mood, walking through a forest, or a quiet night on a usually busy downtown street. Such an amazing comedown from her previous few albums, especially the last one.

If this is the Taylor Swift we get from now on, one that isn't trying to chase dated trends or capitalize on a garish media-painted image, I'm all for it. This album is masterful.

9/10

Best Tracks: "the last great american dynasty", "august", "this is me trying", "illicit affairs", "mad woman", "betty"

WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? by Billie Eilish - ALBUM REVIEW

 

Billie Eilish really comes into her own with this album, fully tapping into that weird and wonderful personality she exudes in her music. You only need look at the cover of this album to understand what you're getting into. Is it a perfect experience? Well... almost. (We'll get to it.) But I feel confident in saying that if you like your pop music a little weird, but also sincere, you can't go wrong listening to this album.

What I find most remarkable about this album is how cohesive it is despite half the songs containing some kind of joke or ironic self-awareness about them, while the other half could be described as ballads. It's two extremes in one album, and yet it all comes together because Billie Eilish (and her brother) are masters at lyricism. Every song tells such a captivating story with the most minute details exaggerated to convey just the right level of terror or heartbreak. It's what turns a song like "i love you" from being a simple ballad to being a masterclass in writing and performance.

Speaking of performance, Billie deserves a lot of credit for breathing these songs to life. All the great lyrics in the world are fine, but it's just written poetry if you don't have an appropriate medium to deliver them. Thankfully, Billie's eccentric vocal delivery combined with Finneas' wonky production give these songs exactly the stage that they need. Almost all of them work near-perfectly, minus... one.

"8" is the black sheep of this album. I guess it's not terrible, but the one decision they made to manipulate Billie's vocals to sound like a little kid is a bit too jarring, even for this album. The album is filled with decidedly unpleasant noises like overproduced buzzing, but they seem to work in the context of the album. "8" sticks out like a sore thumb, and I kinda wish it was left off, because it keeps this album from being perfect. But other than that, this album is perfect. It's the perfect full-length debut from Billie to really introduce her to the mainstream, and it's full of great moments that keep me wanting to listen over and over again.

9/10

Best Tracks: "bad guy", "xanny", "you should see me in a crown", "when the party's over", "ilomilo", "i love you"

Top Tensday - Billboard Hot 100 Review: August 22, 2020

 Well, we all saw this, didn't we? WAP at #1. That's some wonderful ass positioning on the charts right now. Obviously this pushes everything else back, save for "Blinding Lights" which the radio just will not let go. For good reason, I might add!

Oh, and Lewis Capaldi re-enters the Top 10. We can stop this experiment any time now, folks.

Predictions:

That new Drake song, as all new Drakes songs are, is pretty much poised for a Top 10 positioning, possibly as high as #2? Yeah, I don't think it's beating out the juggernaut known as "WAP". Beyond that "Mood Swings" by Pop Smoke is quietly gaining traction and could make a run for the Top 10 next week. Everything else looks relatively steady, but if "Mood Swings" does break through, it would be nice to knock out some of the shit-awful songs in the Top 10 right now.

Plastic Beach by Gorillaz - ALBUM REVIEW

 

Hard to believe this was released over ten years ago. I am getting old indeed.

Gorillaz are a truly unique band, in that their personas consist solely of animated characters. They blend the lines of many genres between alternative rock, pop, hip hop, and much more. They are a refreshing, always exciting presence in the music world. And Plastic Beach is no exception.

One of the things that strikes me about Gorillaz is the level of craftsmanship put into each album. I've always said that good albums should feel like experiences, rather than a bunch of songs thrown together. Plastic Beach feels like a cool summer night, actually perfect to listen to during the summer. It's like the headlining performance of an electronica concert. There are a lot of guest artists on this album, but none of them feel forced in; each one makes a great addition, from Snoop Dogg's smooth delivery on "Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach" to Bobby Womack's soulful performance on "Cloud of Unknowing". It's a near-perfect album, with only a few songs that don't do it for me as much. But the majority of them hit hard. Love Gorillaz, love this album.

9/10

Best Tracks: "Stylo" (ft. Mos Def and Bobby Womack), "Superfast Jellyfish" (ft. Gruff Rhys and De La Soul), "Empire Ants" (ft. Little Dragon), "Some Kind of Nature" (ft. Lou Reed), "On Melancholy Hill", "Cloud of Unknowing" (ft. Bobby Womack and Sinfonia VIVA)

Top Tensday - Billboard Hot 100 Review: August 15, 2020

 Sorry guys I missed the last two weeks for pretty much no reason but I'm back! And hoo boy, the charts have changed. Luckily, all the predictions I made in my heaqd were correct, so we don't need to mull over that. Cool? Cool.

"Watermelon Sugar" at #1! That's nice to see a more summery song take the top spot, though "ROCKSTAR" kind of matches the mood better for this summer. New Billie Eilish,  which I haven't heard yet but will try to peep soon. And Chris Brown is here. Yep. In 2020.

Predictions:

Expecting a big debut for "WAP" next week, certainly top 10, but could it have the momentum to go all the way to the top? If it does, "Watermelon Sugar" and most of the other songs probably won't fall too far. We can only hope the opposite is true for Chris Brown, though.

Chromatica by Lady Gaga - ALBUM REVIEW

Lady Gaga is back! And... better than ever? Well, maybe not, but as far as a Lady Gaga album goes, this one still works pretty well.

Man, what a time to release an album full of dance tracks, a time when no one is going to the club or partying (or at the very least shouldn't be, lookin' at you, Chainsmokers). I feel like this album became under-appreciated as a result in favour of more lowkey releases like Charli XCX's how i'm feeling now. But it still did the numbers. Big numbers, in fact. so maybe it also works as an escapist album. The two lead singles, "Stupid Love" and "Rain on Me" with Ariana Grande, certainly evoke feelings of joy and excitement in an era where that's hard to come by. But those are just the singles. Does the rest of the album shake out?

Well, for the most part, it's perfectly great pop music. Some songs are better than others, and I'm not sure I agree with the grandiose tone this album tries to strike with three different musical interludes. But as a pop album, it works. I'd say the only song that really doesn't fit is "Sour Candy", which scans more as a BLACKPINK song featuring Lady Gaga than the other way around. But it's still a decent BLACKPINK song. I wouldn't say any of these songs fall flat, and the singles certainly soar. It's not Lady Gaga's best album by any stretch, but it's far from disappointing.

8/10

Best Tracks: "Stupid Love", "Rain on Me" (with Ariana Grande), "Free Woman", "Fun Tonight", "Plastic Doll", "Replay"

Top Tensday - Billboard Hot 100 Review: July 25, 2020

It's a Juice WRLD, and we're just living in it. Seriously, making up half of the Top 10 is damn impressive, even for an album bomb. Obviously people are prone to support a posthumous album if they were fans of the artist, but the question becomes now whether any of this will stick around. Beyond that, "ROCKSTAR" has all but cemented itself as the song of the summer, while other songs tumble thanks to the album bomb.

Predictions:

If the Juice WRLD album bomb didn't happen, "Savage Love" would be in the Top 10. I think it's all but locked for next week. We may also see a new DJ Khaled/Drake thing, and of the Juice WRLD songs that may stick around in the top 10, I could see "Come & Go" and "Wishing Well". This doesn't leave much room for anything else to rebound, but "Watermelon Sugar" will probably do it.

BLAME IT ON BABY by DaBaby - ALBUM REVIEW

The DaBaby backlash is real. If you go on RYM, there is a steep drop-off between DaBaby's albums in rating, this one clocking in at just under two stars. Now, why is that? Have DaBaby's albums gotten progressively worse? Or have we all just gotten sick of him in record time?

It wouldn't be hard to argue the latter. This is his third studio album put out in just over a year. And with complaints that DaBaby doesn't really have a lot of tricks up his sleeve, yeah, it can get boring to hear the same thing over and over. But is this album really that bad? I'd actually argue it's more good than bad, but only slightly, and make no mistake, there are stinkers on this album that probably either could have used another run through or just been scrapped altogether. Though with this album's runtime of just over 30 minutes, maybe you need every scrap you can get.

Let's get this out of the way: DaBaby can't sing. I'm sorry, it's the truth. And the fact that he's trying to use his singing in a legitimately emotional way is just laughable in the worst possible way. What the hell is a song like "SAD SHIT" doing on a DaBaby album? It's not like he can't handle serious subject matter ("INTRO" is in many ways his best single), but I cannot take this seriously for the life of me. The only song where his singing sounds good is "ROCKSTAR", and that's only because he's clearly not trying.

Also, try as he might to differentiate himself, it all just ends up sounding mostly the same anyway. Which, for me, is mostly fine: I like DaBaby! I like his scattered stop-and-start flow. But if you're looking for any huge departures in his sound, you're mostly going to get disappointing snippets. There are a few highlights, though. "JUMP" is the most energetic and fun song on this album, and "NASTY" brings an always welcome feature from Megan Thee Stallion, as well as an interesting flip of an old Ashanti song, with her coming back to add some more lyrics. So no, I don't think this is as bad as the ratings signify, but all the same I can understand why some might be disappointed. Maybe it's time for DaBaby to take a break; it's not like he can go and tour for new albums right now anyway. I don't want to see his star burn out too soon; this is the type of guy you like to have around. But still, it's possible to have too much of a good thing.

6/10

Best Tracks: "ROCKSTAR" (ft. Roddy Ricch), "JUMP" (ft. YoungBoy Never Broke Again), "DROP" (ft. A Boogie wit da Hoodie & London On Da Track), "NASTY" (ft. Ashanti & Megan Thee Stallion)

Rodeo by Travis Scott - ALBUM REVIEW

At the end of 2019, I compiled a slapdash list of my favourite albums of the 2010s. This album was on that list. I am not sure that, listening to it now, I would keep it on that list, but it is still a damn great album that deserves recognition for revolutionizing trap and mainstream music.

Let's start by saying that in a lot of ways, this album sounds ugly. It's a lot of blaring synths, almost foghorn-like, coupled with either similarly blaring vocals or tonally dissonant ones. And I think the album's ugliness and dissonance are its strengths. The entire album feels like it's bleeding an afterparty; the musical choices are laid on so thick that they practically drill into your skull. It's a very moody album.

The mood of this album is mostly helped along by its guest stars, who, like I said, do their part to either add to the ugliness or the dissonance of this album. (In Young Thug's case, he does both.) While I'm not exactly a huge fan of every song on here, and definitely think some could be better/some guest stars could be cut, the whole thing plays out like an experience. A journey that Travis Scott has taken us on. And that's what every great album should do.

8/10

Best Tracks: "3500" (ft. Future, 2 Chainz), "90210" (ft. Kacy Hill), "Pray 4 Love" (ft. The Weeknd), "Nightcrawler" (ft. Swae Lee, Chief Keef), "Piss on Your Grave" (ft. Kanye West), "Antidote"

After Hours by The Weeknd - ALBUM REVIEW

The Weeknd has proven to be an elite hitmaker over the past five years or so. In 2020, he released his fourth album, After Hours. And while I think I prefer some of his previous work, this is still a slick, emotionally impactful album.

As with many projects, the hype for After Hours came from its bombastic lead singles. They certainly deserve to put The Weeknd back on the map. However, they don't really provide a good impression of what this album actually is. It's a lot darker and slower-paced than what "Heartless" and "Blinding Lights" would have you believe. Not that that makes the album bad or anything; I think quite a few songs on here are excellent. But it may provide a tonal whiplash.

Most of the songs on here toe the line between older Weeknd and more pop-friendly Weeknd. I'm not really a fan of "Too Late", where the chorus sounds like Mike Tyson recorded it through a radiator. But every other song is at least passable, and if you like The Weeknd, this is certainly another project that you won't be disappointed by.

8/10

Best Tracks: "Escape from LA", "Heartless", "Blinding Lights", "In Your Eyes", "After Hours", "Until I Bleed Out"