Hi, everyone! August was a relatively busy month, between moving to Chicago and finally getting some other BR stuff set in stone. That didn't stop me from having a solid month of listening. If you're looking for some surprisingly good (and) bad records, there was really a lot of variation in ratings this month- but through it all, I hope you are able to find some great new stuff to listen to. Here are all the albums and songs I liked and reviewed during the month of August:
BLADEE SHRINE:
EXETER- Bladee
It’s kind of weird how my love for Bladee became so strong. Listening to his music is like getting that Cards Against Humanity card that says, “what would Grandma find disturbing, yet oddly charming?” After first hearing “Be Nice 2 Me” from his 2018 mixtape, Icedancer back in April, I was instantly hooked on his stuff. That lo-fi, auto-croon style he brought to the table is something that people like to meme on, but I feel like I’m one of the rare few that listens to his music unironically. In fact, he’s one of my top-listened to artists on Spotify over the last eight weeks, and here I am now with a review of the first of two 2020 projects from the man, the myth, the legend that is Benjamin Reichwald. A member of the artistic collective, Drain Gang, EXETER will be Reichwald's third full-length studio album as Bladee. Clocking in at just eighteen minutes, you definitely get a very vivid snapshot into the new Bladee style. Compared to other mixtapes and records Reichwald has done, the production is all over the place and ends up being kind of a musical abomination. Between Icedancer and now, there’s a looming question: what’s up with Reichwald’s vocals? Just listening to a few minutes of this thing will allow you to see that he has become absolutely lifeless behind the mic. Sure, the vocals are bearable on “WONDERLAND,” but I’d be lying if I didn’t say the Ecco2k’s vocals ruined the track’s entire mood. I was digging the beat on “MERRY-GO-ROUND,” but I could not stand the way the vocals were delivered over it. So much more could have been done there. Halfway into both “RAIN3OW STAR” and “EVERY MOMENT SPECIAL,” I pressed skip on multiple listens because of how disengaged I felt with everything that was presented sonically, then you’ve got “DNA RAIN.” That’s about the only half-decent track you’ll run into on the project. And with that, you’re left with the three of the most somnolent cuts in his catalog: “OPEN SYMBOLS,” “LOVE STORY,” and “IMAGINARY.” They all failed to give me anything to write home about. As a newfound Bladee fan, I feel bummed that I’m writing such a negative review. A lot of people regard Red Light as his worst album, but I disagree. There were at least a few decent cuts on there that I would go back and listen to. EXETER has proven to be the least musically rewarding project not only from Bladee, but maybe in all of 2020. Screw it, all of bazzreviews’ history. Well, I guess as the beat tag of his producer, Ripsquad goes, this album will make you want to “take a knife, and drain your life.” 1.5/10
333- Bladee
I was incredibly surprised to see that Reichwald surprise-dropped another Bladee album in mid-July, and I instantly added it to my review radar. That is, before I listened to EXETER... As you saw above, that record usurped The Big Day by Chance the Rapper to now hold the spot as the lowest-rated album I’ve reviewed. Needless to say, I was going into this fearing for the worst. I don’t really know how much lower he could really. On 333, the twenty-six year old Swede drifted even farther from his roots. To me, it felt like he was trying to reinvent himself with a more bare-bones, singer/songwriter approach. By now, if anyone reading this hasn’t heard Bladee, they’d probably be wondering why in the hell I’d be reviewing a guy who changes styles so quickly. I reassure you, my fears dissipated as soon as I dove into the record. Reichwald plays everything to his strengths pretty well here, with the production sounding pretty solid and songwriting not being half bad either. Things started off well with the opening three-track run of “Wings in Motion,” “Don’t Worry” and “Keys to the City.” “Mean Girls,” “Noblest Strive,” “It Girl,” “Oh Well,” “Finder,” and the finale, “Swan Lake” were other complementary pieces of note. What still stands as a red flag is that Reichwald continues to struggle to find an identity in his vocal performances. Yes, I will not disagree when saying that the effort is a massive upgrade from what he went for on EXETER. I still can’t help but feel like there are a few areas where he fell rather flat. For me, “100s,” “Innocent of All Things,” “Reality Surf,” and “Exstasia,” had decent production, but were otherwise monotonous vocally. Other than that, there isn’t all that much I can pick out as being “bad.” If we’re talking about this project in comparison to other Bladee records as a whole, this is actually one of his better outings. It was nice to see Reichwald get the ship back on course, and 333 presented a unique style that he could build off of for other Bladee records. 7.5/10
Starz- Yung Lean
2020 has been a crazy year for Drain Gang, as a fellow Stockholm rapper, Jonatan Håstad blessed us with his fourth full-length back in May. From seeing him struggle to even speak English on his debut mixtape, Unknown Death, to currently having over one million listeners on Spotify, Yung Lean has had quite the transformation. Hell, that’s putting it lightly. He’s a pioneer; his presence in the cloud rap scene has been felt worldwide. A young Travis Scott ended up working with him on the Lean track “Ghosttown,” and he also got to work with Frank Ocean on Blonde. Seven years into his career, the twenty-four year old still has quite a bit of potential left in the tank. I wasn’t necessarily blown away by his last project, 2018’s Poison Ivy, but Starz had a little bit more going for it musically. Choosing to go down the emo route, the collection of sixteen songs reminded me of other “sadboy” contemporaries like Joji, Post Malone, or Lil Peep. Håstad worked significantly more with Auto-Tune and more lo-fi instrumentals than he had on previous projects, and I think it was fine for the most part. Some of that had made its way onto 2017’s Stranger, but the lyrics seem to be a lot more reflective and filled with pain compared to that record. This new Lean style worked well on front-half tracks like “My Agenda,” one of the album’s three promotional singles, “Boylife in EU,” and “Outta My Head.” The Ariel Pink-featured title track, “Butterfly Paralyzed,” “Dogboy,” and “Iceheart,” also showed some promise. Out of the bunch, I’d say that “Dogboy” is my pick for the album’s best song. Even though there’s a lot to like here, the tracks “Yayo,” “Violence,” “Dance in the Dark” were ones I didn’t care for too much. It was either a mix of lazy production or underdeveloped vocals that left me unsatisfied. It also seemed like Lean was running out of ideas of what to make by the end of this thing. The final four tracks were so sludgy and unsure of themselves to the point where I skipped over them on the second or third listen through. It was disappointing to have a wimpy finish, because while Starz is far from being the best Yung Lean album, it still packed some unique musical moments in its front and middle sections. 7/10
Miss Colombia- Lido Pimienta
I’m currently certified as bilingual in English and in Spanish, so I’m really trying to broaden my horizons towards foreign artists who don’t get a lot of attention. I hadn’t heard any music from this Colombian/Canadian musician until I saw her third full-length record get some traction from various news outlets. That, paired with the fact that she won the 2017 Polaris Prize (basically the Canadian Grammy for best record) for her previous album, La Papresa, sealed the deal for me to check this puppy out. Once I dove into it all, I really couldn’t decide how I felt about it all. Considering she was the sole producer and arranger of all of these tracks, everything felt very hot-and-cold. I think Lido has a great voice, but time and time again, she gets held back by a fair share of some instrumentals that are either over or underdone. Both iterations of “Para Transcribir” are super cool, but had no supporting instrumental to complement her lyrics. Having a little more substance underneath would have made it an even more memorable listen. These aren’t as much of a problem as other tracks I took offense to: “Eso Que Tu Haces,” “Te Queria” y “Resisto y Yo all sounded really cheesy and poorly crafted. No disrespect whatsoever, but it’s almost akin to some of the stuff you’d hear on some really cheesy kids’ show like Dora the Explorer. On the flip side of that coin, there are tracks where the vocals are really off but the instrumental thrives. “No Pude,” “Coming Thru” and “Pelo Cucu” were the biggest examples of this theory. Granted, I might be saying that as a neophyte towards indigenous music, but I think my point stands that the style should have been a little more accessible and not a drag to listen to. Out of the bunch of eleven songs, “Nada” is easily the most complete and coherent on the record. It wonderfully balances great production with a nice vocal melody... Why couldn’t we have gotten another ten tracks like it? Overall, Miss Colombia wasn’t ever boring or lazy musically, as I mentioned at the top of the review, quality control is what held Lido back. Maybe the record needs more time to grow on me, but I’m disappointed that I couldn’t enjoy the entirety of the record as much as others could. 4.5/10
Alfredo- Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist
I’ve become a huge Freddie Gibbs fan over the last couple of years. I loved both his collab records with Madlib, and I was even more excited to see where he would take his abilities when working with another veteran producer, the Alchemist. I’m not super familiar with the LA-based producer’s past work as a whole, but I know that many people in the rap scene have dropped his name before. Compared to last year’s Bandana, this new record - and style - feels very cinematic. I don’t know if that’s me deriving that from the old movie samples the Alchemist uses on some of the cuts, or just the overall feel of the degraded, yet beautifully-crafted instrumentals here. This honestly could have ended up making a sick visual album if they had chosen to go down that route. I also love Freddie’s more mellow delivery on this project, it’s definitely a lot less aggressive than it was on past project. It meshes beautifully with a lot of the soundscapes that were created. I guess that’s a good segue into how I felt about his lyrics. I felt it to be much easier to understand what he was trying to say here. “1985,” “God is Perfect,” my personal favorite of the bunch, “Scottie Beam,” “Something to Rap About,” “Baby $hit,” and the closer “All Glass” were all songs I’d recommend checking out if you’re not into listening to the full project. Going back to the whole “mellow” flow and instrumentals, I feel like the balance wasn’t great on two tracks in particular: “Look at Me” and “Skinny Suge.” I also was not the biggest fan of the tracks with members from the Buffalo, NY-based rap collective, Griselda: “Frank Lucas” with Benny the Butcher and “Babies & Fools” with Conway the Machine. I think Freddie does fine lyrically, but I’ve spoken about my dislike for Griselda before. They seem like knock-off versions of rappers from the 90s and don’t have much of an original sound. I don’t think their appearances on here helped out their image, either, as each performance felt devoid of any energy whatsoever. Across the ten tracks, Alfredo proved once again that Freddie Gibbs has the power to make nearly any old producer come back in style again. Needless to say, I am excited to see a possible collab from them down the road! 8.5/10
Ugly is Beautiful- Oliver Tree
In recent interviews with both Anthony Fantano and the H3 podcast, newfound pop star Oliver Tree Nickell announced that he would be retiring from music after the release of his debut record. He cited that the inextricable demands of record labels were the reason he won’t be making music down the road. It’s a shame, too, because I actually liked a lot of the music he made as Oliver Tree. With the success of his track “Alien Boy” across 2018 and 2019, Nickell began pushing out single after single. The original release of the record was slated for March, but delayed until June due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was moved once again to July after the social justice movement took center stage. And alas, here it is! Overall, I was really surprised with how much I got into this project. I was kind of shocked to see this getting some mixed reviews, but I just loved how versatile Oliver got on here; he was not afraid to frolic back and forth between different genres and styles of music past and present, and I respect the efforts. What’s even crazier to believe is that Oliver said some of these tracks had been finished since 2015 or ‘16. That’s pretty damn impressive, because if he was showing that much musical and lyrical depth with cuts from that long ago, Oliver makes a case for being one of the biggest “what-if’s” in the more recent era of music history. I don’t mean that in the sense of just having one song and dropping off the map, just what could have happened if he started releasing other albums before this one. On the note of fame, Ugly is Beautiful has some of the tracks that led to his fame: “Alien Boy,” for one, as well as other successful singles like “Hurt” and “Miracle Man.” I really wished we could have gotten a couple newer tracks thrown in, but that’s really a minor complaint that isn’t as much of Oliver’s decision as it is the record label’s. But I digress. On another very positive note, the opening four-track run of “Me, Myself, and I,” “1993,” “Cash Machine” and “Let Me Down,” are all incredible. Aside from the aforementioned singles, “Again and Again,” and “Waste My Time,” were other songs that I enjoyed quite a bit, also. I think where Oliver loses a little bit of focus is on some of the rap tracks. The very 90s hip-hop inspired “Bury Me Alive” felt a little too niche-y for my liking, the same applies to the early Tyler, the Creator mini-me, “Joke’s on You.” I also was not the biggest fan of a track towards the bookend of the project, “Introspective.” There was a decent instrumental going here, but I don’t really like Oliver’s lyrical sense nor his vocal delivery. While I didn’t hate the closer, “I’m Gone,” I feel like Oliver could have used another song in its place to create a stronger ending. After all, this is the only album he is planning to release… In terms of 2020, Ugly is Beautiful had a lot of amazing things going on it. It could seriously be a dark horse candidate to sneak onto a year-end list. With his over-the-top personality, there are no doubts in my mind that Oliver will be successful in whatever discipline he chooses to dabble in. Wishing you the best of luck, man! 9/10
SONGS OF THE MONTH:
Dance with the Devil- Immortal Technique
Don’t Worry- Bladee
Guilt Trip- Kanye West
Dooley- the Dillards
The Horror- RJD2
Love Never Felt So Good- Johnny Mathis
Dogboy- Yung Lean
Descendant of the Stars- Action Bronson
Sex- The 1975
Chelsea Dagger- the Fratellis
SINGLE REVIEW: “Dirty Grind”- The Scummies
These guys reached out to me and asked if I could review their single, to which I happily agreed. I know Scummies member Rowland somewhat well, as he runs a brilliant little indie magazine and cassette operation, called Weird Smells. He and I have some overlap, having interviewed some of the same people over the years. I really like what he and Alex put together on this track. The spoken word delivery reminds me a lot of indie legends Built to Spill to some extent, and the lyrics are quite amusing and unique to take in. I think my biggest criticism here was the mixing job- the drum track overpowers the vocals and bassline on the track. It also might have been nice to have heard more of a chorus section around the middle instead of at the end, too. Other than that, I wish these guys the best of luck in their musical endeavors. Go check the song out- it’s on YouTube!
So, what did you think of August? Have you listened to any of the albums and songs featured on here? Was there an album you thought should have been rated higher, lower, or one that I need to review? If so, feel free to reach out to me. My DMs are always open for suggestions and recommendations, and I hope more people start taking advantage of that. If you've made this far, thanks for reading this. I hope you continue to consume more BR content down the road!
