Hi, everyone! First of all, Happy New Year! Hopefully, 2021 doesn't feel as long as 2020 did, and there are a lot of positive changes for EVERYONE going forward. As you can see by the very intimidating post length, December had a lot (and I mean A LOT) of music being covered. With my 2020 recap being due, I wanted to not only go over some of the more recent releases, but some albums that I had missed from this year that I had seen around on other year-end lists. I think there were some really great listens here, and some that left a little more to be desired. With all that said, here are the albums I reviewed in December, and my thoughts on each. Happy reading!
Sin Miedo (del Amor y Otros Demonios)- Kali Uchis
Kali Uchis is one of those very special once-in-a-generation talents. She’s so versatile, and has slowly become one of my favorite artists in the music industry today. She’s someone I’ve talked about a lot in the early days of bazzreviews, but not a lot since. Although I didn’t check out her EP from last year, Isolation was actually my favorite record from 2018. I was super stoked to find out she was releasing a new album last month, and this one is especially significant because it’s her first to predominantly be in Spanish. I say predominantly, because the marketed distinction was a bit of misinformation. If I could take a good estimate, there was maybe about 5-10% of English lyrics on here. But, I digress. She’s written in that Spanish for a few songs on past records, but I thought that hearing nearly an entire record in that language was bound to yield excitement. Overall, I thought it was interesting how this record was lighter than her past records. It’s pretty different from that very traditional “reggaeton” sound that you’ve heard on the radio, too, and I almost enjoyed that take on the genre a little bit more. She almost reminds me of a Spanish counterpart of someone from the darkwave R&B scene here in the states, seen both through the production and vocal range. I love what Kali was able to do across the record. She sounds like a completely different person on the writing side too, more mature is the better way to put it. The 13-song tracklist sports a lot of highlights, including “la luna enamorada,” “fue mejor,” “vaya con dios,” “quiero sentirme bien,” “telepatia,” “de nadie,” and “la luz.” When getting into some of the album’s negative points, I was a little disappointed with the way that it attempted to wrap up. Only for a brief minute does she defect back to that “reggaeton” sound I was talking about earlier, and I did not enjoy that. Take a look at “te pongo mal.” To me, it feels like it was meant to cater to its featured artists, Jowell & Randy, rather than to Kali. I also wasn’t a fan of some of Kali’s predominant rap efforts “aqui yo mando” with Rico Nasty and “no eres tu” later in the record. Other than those small hiccups, I’d say that sin miedo serves as a pretty good return for Kali Uchis. Out of the two Spanish-language records I listened to this year, this is certainly the better offering if you want to broaden your musical horizons. 8.5/10
Visions of Bodies Being Burned- clipping.
Before I start this review, I want to share a fun fact. I actually heard back from one of the producers of clipping. when I asked about their interview availability last March. While they did end up declining it due to my relatively unknown stature at the time, they’re a group I’ve come to enjoy more and more with successive listens. As many of you might already know, I reviewed their previous project, There Existed an Addiction to Blood, back in January, and liked it quite a bit. I was really excited to hear what they were going to end up doing on this next album after it was released in late October. Considering this is supposed to be a companion to Addiction to Blood, I never felt like that was the case. The devil is in the details on here. Throughout a first listen, you might think it sounds like a clipping record that will go down for the ages with its darker themes and noisy production. I urge you to listen closer, because to me, something is off with the group’s frontman, Daveed Diggs. It was rare to hear him give one-hundred percent on many tracks, which was easily the most disappointing part of this album. The flow he brings is cloaked, completely unlike the usual braggadocio we’ve come to expect from him. “Something Underneath,” “She Bad,” “Pain Everyday,” “Eaten Alive” and “Body for the Pile” were all pretty underwhelming efforts. Decent production, sure, but it’s nothing that really screams, “wow.” If I had to pick some standouts, I’d say“Say the Name,” “‘96 Neve Campbell” (only for the Cam and China feature) “Check the Lock,” “Looking Like Meat” and “Enlacing” are the ones I would recommend. Also, might I ask why there is no “Story” track this time around? Why did they scrap that staple for another unnecessary noisy outro- “Secret Piece?” Call it what you want, but I call it a dumb waste of three minutes that feels like a poor attempt to add “mood” to the record’s overarching theme. For all the success clipping. has had over the years, they’re a pretty volatile group. They either show up fully motivated to make a cool record, or don’t and end up shelling out a half-baked product. This falls under the umbrella of the latter. While I’ve had people tell me Visions of Bodies Being Burned is one of their favorite albums of 2020, I never found myself fully engaged with what was offered. Positive takeaways are few to come by, which leaves me to question how quickly I’ll be coming back to relisten to it. 6/10
Set My Heart on Fire Immediately- Perfume Genius
Once again, here is another record I’m heading into rather blindly. And yes, I’ve also seen this on some top albums lists. I’ve probably missed some better records from West Coast singer/songwriter Michael Hadreas, who dropped his fifth full-length earlier in 2020. Overall, I just don’t know how to comment on this album. Like I said, I’m going into this album without much knowledge of his past music, so that’s probably an issue on my part. I feel like I was missing something that other people saw in this. People I know in the industry like this record, friends I know like this record, but me? I was almost shocked with how the hell this managed to get a 91/100 on Metacritic and a 9.0 from Pitchfork. At its best, it feels like Hadreas was slightly tweaking and overdoing a formula that so many artists have done before: maximalist production and heavily reverbed vocals that are supposed to evoke emotion. While I liked some of the production and darker lyrical tones on here quite a bit, I think that Hadreas’ vocal delivery just isn’t my thing. Even with all those added effects, It’s pretty hard to listen to him for one song, let alone nearly an hour of it. I thought that songs like “Without You,” “Describe,” and “Your Body Changes Everything” were all decent, but once again, it’s another album that suffers from a pretty forgettable front and middle section. Hadreas never seems to really know where he wants to go, leaving a listener like me to not be as invested in the product at hand. I’d say he does rally at the end, though. “Nothing At All,” “One More Try” and “Borrowed Light” were solid cuts to end the record on. I think If you were to ask me a few months down the road, “have you heard Set My Heart on Fire Immediately by Perfume Genius?,” it would have taken me a minute to remember if I had or not. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not leaving out the possibility that the record might grow on me if I revisit it down the road. At this moment in time, however, I’m just not feeling content enough to give it the positive score it supposedly “deserves.” 6.5/10
Saint Cloud- Waxahatchee
Like Hadreas, Alabama-based singer/songwriter Katie Crutchfield dropped her fifth full-length in 2020 as well. Once again, I came across Saint Cloud only from its inclusion from various year-end lists, so here’s another poorly-analyzed “blind review” on my part. Let’s just say I definitely enjoyed this album a bit more than Set My Heart on Fire, and I think its higher ranking on year-end lists is pretty justified. I would honestly classify this album more as “country” than “indie rock” or “indie folk” (basically country music for hipsters). Considering I am not the biggest fan of the genre as a whole, I think Crutchfield’s performances across this thing were a cut above. For one, she’s talking about something other than Jesus, trucks, women or alcohol: Crutchfield wrote this album as a memoir of her experiences with substance abuse and how that impacted her so deeply. As a listener, you can hear the years of repressed memories and all the heartache it caused flooding out onto these eleven tracks. There’s not really a minute across the forty where you’ll not be feeling some kind of emotion. Songs like “Oxbow,” “Can’t Do Much,” “Fire,” “Lilacs,” “Witches,” “War,” and “Arkadelphia'' really stood out to me for that reason. I don’t know if I’d put them on my year-end list, but I’d say they’re in the running for being some of the most empowering in 2020. That being said, I think she really doesn’t seem as impactful on the back end of the record. That’s where the emotion of boredom starts to come into the picture. She starts out on the album so strong, but then everything she built up fades out with a whimper. “The Eye,” “Hell,” “Ruby Falls,” and the closer “St. Cloud.” all really fell short for me. I think “St. Cloud” was the one I felt the most disappointed about, and I take a quote from Crutchfield’s Pitchfork interview that I thought was interesting: “[St. Cloud] takes more of a macro looking-down-at-the-world perspective, and is not hyper-focused on my own experience.” In my eyes, that’s not how I would have ended the album. I’m glad you’re in a better spot now, Katie, but closure seems better than ambiguity in that regard. If I were writing about substance abuse or something, I’d leave the listener with a sense of hope. Like, “hey, I’m better now, I hope this inspired you to change, too,” so to speak. Yes, that is getting borderline nitpicky, but just know that St. Cloud is worth a listen if you’ve not heard it so far this year. 8/10
Under Pressure- Logic
What reviewing year would be complete without a review of the guy that everyone says I look like? Maryland-based rapper Sir Robert Bryson Hall II recently retired from the rap game this past year, citing he wanted to spend more time with his family… but then proceeded to sign a lucrative deal with streaming giant Twitch. Conflicting loyalties, am I right? Anyways, Hall left behind an album that some people are calling one of the year’s sharpest rap offerings. I used to listen to a fair amount of Logic back in the day, but upon revisiting his work for the review, I can’t say I feel the same about him as I once did. I realized I wasn’t too fond of many of his records post-Incredible True Story, yet I was still banking on Under Pressure to be a positive step. I would say that wasn’t really the case. It was good, but there was definitely missing something that could have made it elite. You’ve got two pretty decent offerings on the front stretch like “Hit My Line” and “Open Mic//Aquarius III,” but not much else really stood out to me from that stretch. Much of that, and the middle, feels rushed to the point where I can’t take it seriously. Though I can’t really put myself in an artist’s shoes, I’m gonna play the hypothetical as I did in the Saint Cloud review. I think it goes without saying that you have to put every damn ounce of life you have into your swan song. The most egregious of these lazy tracks was an earlier offering, “GP4.” The song’s sample was just a direct lift of the drum pattern from “Elevators” by OutKast. No attempt was made to alter the original sample at all, giving it the feel of a mashup made by some sixteen year old kid instead of something produced by someone as respected as No I.D. You’ve got “Celebration” and ‘Soul Food II,” another two tracks that failed to strike a chord with me at all due to Hall’s incredibly weak delivery on the mic. Even “5 Hooks” had Toro y Moi going god mode and channeling his inner Just Blaze on the beat, but that great effort gets overshadowed by another poor vocal performance. I will say, though, the ending of this album is actually pretty fire. The closing three-track run of “Heard Em Say,” “Amen,” even the sampled audio track “Obediently Yours” all felt like a super fitting end to the album - and Logic’s career. It’s really what boosted the rating up by a half or full point on the BazzScale. Though it’s a little bit underwhelming on both the vocal and productional fronts, Under Pressure delivers to its listeners in the moments where it matters. At the moment, I feel confident with the score I’m giving it, but I don’t know how I’ll feel revisiting the record in full down the road. 7/10
Man on the Moon III: The Chosen- Kid Cudi
The newest batch of songs cooked up by esteemed Cleveland rapper Scott Mescudi dropped earlier this month, and it was one that was highly anticipated by many. As many of you know, Cudi came to fame with his 2009 album, Man on the Moon: The End of Day. That was one of the first hip-hop albums I came to love, and I guess it’s kind of a nerdy thing to say I have a pair of Stance socks with the album art on them. It’s a shame, though, because like Logic, many of Scott’s subsequent efforts have never really “done it” for me. Though I appreciate a few of his songs from the last few album cycles, it was really his work with Kanye West Kids See Ghosts that revived my interest in him. I was also excited to see how he would kick off his musical efforts in the 2020s. Would it be more of the same, or would he move to something more mature? Turns out, it was different for a few reasons. For one, he never really nails down a sound across the eighteen tracks, making it that much harder to give Man on the Moon III a firm analysis. Every project from him- good or bad- has had a clear identity and flows pretty well; this was not necessarily the case with MOTM3. I think the album stands out in a very negative light for one specific reason: some of the songs just sound like they’re intentionally appealing to this “new” generation of hip-hop, which I absolutely hated. Steer clear of “Tequila Shots,” “Another Day,” “Damaged,” “Sad People,” and “Rockstar Nights” with Trippie Redd. These do not resemble who Kid Cudi is as an artist, and I wish they could have been scrapped altogether to make this a cleaner project. It also feels like there are a lot of productional choices lifted from Travis Scott’s production on Astroworld. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but a little more “originality” would have been nice. Some interpretations were better than others, my favorites being “She Knows This,” “Dive,” “Mr. Solo Dolo III,” “Sept. 16,” “Lovin’ Me” with Phoebe Bridgers, and the finale “Lord I Know.” There was also a pair of drill-influenced tracks, which I honestly think Scott could rock on a future project. The solo cut “Heaven on Earth” and “Show Out,” featuring Skepta (and giving a middle finger to the Woo with Pop Smoke’s pathetically repetitive four-word feature) are ones that I would recommend checking out. Considering I wasn’t expecting much out of this project, Kid Cudi makes a pretty decent return to the music landscape. It does its job serving as a nice conclusion to the Man on the Moon saga, but it’s clear to see he still has some work in deciding where he wants to go sonically. 7/10
We Will Always Love You- The Avalanches
One of the most historically silent, yet revered, groups of the 21st century dropped their long-awaited third album on the 11th of December. This is an album I’ve been waiting for patiently. It has been nearly five years since their sophomore effort Wildflower was released. I enjoyed it a lot, but I still feel as if Since I Left You will always reign supreme. Though they’ve delayed the record a few times up until this point due to COVID-19, they’ve certainly released some great teaser material to hold us over. The songs still contain hints of that atavistic, Plunderphonics style that gave them their fame to begin with, but the more ethereal and club-heavy fusion the Australian production duo took this time around is quite interesting. March’s “Running Red Lights” with Rivers Cuomo and Pink Siifu was one of my favorite songs I heard this year, plus “Take Care In Your Dreaming” and “We Will Always Love You” with Blood Orange were other nice previews as well. Another thing that makes We Will Always Love You different from past projects was their decision to collaborate with more artists. It’s certainly a step up from the number of collabs they had on Wildflower (sixteen out of the twenty-five tracks having features), but I never really minded that. Some outlets are comparing this to what Gorillaz were doing on the Song Machine projects from this year. Unlike that project, though, most of the featured artists meshed well on the production they were given here. Other than the collaborations I’ve already touched on, I thought MGMT and the Smiths’ Johnny Marr were great on “The Divine Chord,” the same with Leon Bridges on “Interstellar Love.” In fact, the latter ended up making my top-20 songs lists, which you can find on the next post! I also enjoyed “We Go On” with Cola Boyy and Mick Jones, “Until Daylight Comes” with Tricky, “Gold Sky” with Kurt Vile, and Pink Siifu’s second feature of the record on “Always Black.” Even when the duo is producing solo tracks like “Music Makes Me High” and “Overcome,” and “Born To Lose,” they don’t miss. I think the only songs I didn’t care for all too much were “Reflecting Lights,” “On The Sunn!” and “Wherever You Go.” I also never really got down with the ending of this record, as it felt rather weak to me. However, it’s merely a microcosm on an otherwise well-crafted album. I think it’s so incredible how these guys managed to pull off a record for the ages with We Will Always Love You. I know it has only been about three weeks since I’ve heard the record, but hear me out. Something tells me it will go down as one of the better ones of this generation as it continues to age. The Avalanches got inventive, and kept me, as a listener, engaged for well over an hour with its transcendent production and diverse lineup of artists. 9/10
Alone Together in Los Angeles- Boyo
We ended June with a Boyo review, so I think it’s only fitting to end another month in review six months later the same way. Let’s just say a global pandemic has certainly not stopped my good friend, Rob Tilden, from having a musically active year. In my opinion, their earlier release of 2020, Where Have All My Friends Gone? goes down as one of the most underrated projects in the calendar year. Hearing that they were going to be putting out one last hurrah to end the year was really exciting for me. According to Tilden, the record is meant to act as a “spiritual sequel” to their 2018 record, Dance Alone. Some of you might already be familiar with the seventh track on that album, the sleeper TikTok hit, “Hit or Miss.” Alone Together in Los Angeles was supported by one single, “Feel,” which I thought was a weaker offering for promo material. I hope that doesn’t put you off from listening to this project, because Rob absolutely brings his A-game once again. I love the newer production they explored on here, as the dance-psych elements Rob has been known for were being pushed to their absolute limits once again. The A-side is definitely way stronger here, “Tough Love,” “OCD,” “Ghost Noise,” “Analyze This,” and “Sunday” were all incredible. I honestly would have liked hearing one of those songs- specifically “OCD” - as the lead-in to this album. I also enjoyed “Memory Lane” and “Lost And Found” from the B-side, but I felt as if I heard a few things that were hard to avoid bringing up. There were a couple of songs that sounded like they might have fit better on Where Have All My Friends Gone? The aforementioned “Feel” being one, and “Father” being the other. I also wasn’t necessarily the biggest fan of “Flashbacks,” nor the closer “Paradise.” It might have sounded a little bit more enjoyable provided they put it around the middle of the album. The penultimate cut, “Fade Out,” might have served as a better choice, in my opinion (hence the name). Once again, these are all pretty minor complaints on my end. I’m someone who’s been a fan of Rob’s music for years now, and I would consider them a close “music friend.” They have broken down a lot of their albums for me over the years, so that’s why the critique and feedback might come off as being catered to them rather than my audience. In any case, I think Alone Together in Los Angeles is another stellar offering from Bobby T themself. Expect a feature on the YouTube channel sometime soon with them to talk about the writing process of the album! 8.5/10
SONGS OF THE MONTH:
Enseñame- David Marez
Try A Little Tenderness- Otis Redding
La Passerella Di Otto E Mezzo- Nino Rota
sympathy 4 the grinch- 100 gecs
What I’m Here 4- Gang Starr
Marco- Binki
Crunk Ain’t Dead- Duke Deuce
Light My Fire- The Doors
Hungarian Dance No. 5- Johannes Brahms
Gas Drawls- MF DOOM
So, did you agree with my picks? Was there an album that you thought should have been ranked higher or lower? If so, feel free to reach out to me! I'm always down to hear your opinions.
Well, this marks the last official "blog post." Every subsequent post will now just be links to videos I post. Stay tuned on the bazzreviews youtube channel for a few new videos this month. If you're not already subscribed, the link is down below! I've been dealing with some mental health struggles as of late, so that's why content might be a little bit slower for the time being. In the meantime, have a great start to the new year, and see you on the channel with more stuff soon!
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