Hi, everyone! November was not my strongest month of listening, but that doesn't mean I didn't have a great time listening to stuff. I have a lot of great stuff to share with you from this month, and I hope you guys are able to discover some new music in the process! Happy listening!
Pray 4 Paris- Westside Gunn
Buffalo-based rap group Griselda has been quite active in 2020. Members Westside Gunn, Conway the Machine and Benny the Butcher have all released a collective five records this year alone. Westside Gunn, better known as Alvin Lamar Worthy, has released three of those five. As many of you know, I’ve not had many great things to say about this group and its members- especially Worthy himself. I wasn’t really sure which of the three records I should have listened to, but many people were telling me Pray 4 Paris is the best listen. Well, if that’s the case, then I can’t really say my opinion has changed on him. After listening to this record so many times, once again, I could not find where the hype was located. I think the producers he worked with made some great beats, but to me, I can’t help but feel like Westside Gunn set himself up for massive failure. It's amusing to see how all of his solo tracks are significantly shorter. It's almost as if he himself didn’t have all that many good verses to spare. That is what really makes Pray 4 Paris so underwhelming. To me, it's merely an excuse for a hot rapper to use the talents of other big rappers as a crutch to make it appear as a “good” record. Sure, I think Westside did a pretty good job with his verse on the record’s best song, “327” and on “Shawn vs. Flair.” However, so many rappers ended up taking the spotlight here. In fact, his own labelmates were the ones that I had a different opinion on. Both “George Bondo” and “Allah the Machine” featured labelmates Conway and Benny the Butcher, and their spots made me a little interested in revisiting some of their new stuff. Even on “327,” guys Tyler, the Creator and Joey Badass really hit it out of the park with their verses. I think the only other solid cut on this project was “French Toast” with Wale and Joyce Wrice. Other than that, the back half of the album is a complete flameout. “$500 Ounces,” “Claiborne Kick,” “Party wit Pop Smoke,” and “Le Djoliba” make convincing cases for being some of the most deplorable rap tracks from this year. To think this is what some outlets have called one of the best rap albums of 2020 is an outrage. If I’m being completely honest, Pray 4 Paris would have been better off just serving as a longer EP. Like I've said up until this point, many of its tracks do not add much relistening value, and makes the forty-five minute runtime feel like ninety. More to the point, Westside Gunn has yet to prove himself for me, and he consistently gets outdone on his own record. 5.5/10
Apple- A.G. Cook
Founder of the PC Music label A.G. Cook has created an empire in the last few years. It’s crazy to see how much of a rise Hyperpop has seen, and many can thank Cook for being one of the pioneers. The 30-year old released his 2 hour and forty-minute debut, 7G, back in August, but I felt as if Apple might have been a better choice to review because it was significantly shorter and more accessible. Looking back on things, I kind of regret picking this one after giving it a few listens. I don’t know how fellow PC music fans are feeling about this one, but I sure as hell know this was incredibly painful to listen to. This ten-track project feels like two sonically divergent ones, plain and simple. If this is the first A.G. Cook record you’re going to be listening to, I have no choice but to say you should start elsewhere. The styles he dabbled in do not make him look like the auteur he’s become known as, and I hope to God this is not the direction he seeks out down the road. You’ve got beats that were likely remnants from the 7G cycle such as “Xxoplex,” “Airhead” and “Stargon,” which I liked a lot. If Cook had just made an album that was just ten unreleased beats from the album, it would have fared much better for him. Then, we go over to the darker side of things: you’ve got the country/singer-songwriter part of this record, where Cook mixes 100 Gecs-esque vocal presets over various guitars. Yes, you heard me right. That is one of the most abysmal-sounding musical ideas I’ve heard this year, and I couldn’t even get through more than ninety seconds of “Oh Yeah,” “Animals” or “Haunted” before I had to press the skip button. Tracks such as “Beautiful Superstar” and “Jumper” are not even worth mentioning because they’re both so forgettable. By the time this comes out, I’ll have probably forgotten about them. Out of the more vocally charged tracks on here, “The Darkness” and the finisher “Lifeline” were my two favorite offerings. They genuinely sound like the direction Cook should have gone in if he wanted to go deeper on being lyrical. The production is smooth and airy, but not too over the top to where his vocals get washed out. Overall, Apple didn’t serve as the great follow-up that was needed from his ambitious 7G, and we can now only hold our breath and wait to see where he goes next. 6/10
K.G.- King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard
Let’s face it: one year in normal time is nearly an eternity on the King Gizz timeline. As soon as I saw the band post about the record in late October, I instantly wrote it into the review cycle. The Aussie psych-rockers are some of the best in the game right now, and I’ve loved so many of their records over the years. They’re not afraid to branch out into new depths with their style, which I am in tremendous awe of. They released their dabblings into metal, Infest the Rats’ Nest last August, which I gave a pretty favorable review. Since then, it’s just been a string of singles, plus a live album, Chunky Shrapnel. I think K.G. is more of a Gizz fan album; the band took a nostalgia trip back three short years ago. For the majority of the record, they opted for a sound similar to Year of the Gizz projects like Flying Microtonal Banana, Murders of the Universe, and Polygondwanaland. I guess the FMB connection might further explain why the album’s subtitle was “Explorations into Microtonal Tuning, Volume 2.” I really loved that decision, and every track on here felt like the ones on those records, times a million. The A-side is absolutely stacked. You’ve got “Automation,” “Minimum Brain Size” and “Straws in the Wind” and “Some of Us,” which were all awesome. While it did have a couple of odd entries, the B-side sported “Oddlife,” “Honey” and “The Hungry Wolf of Fate.” I want to touch a little bit more on those “odd” entries so to speak: “Ontology,” and the arabesque “Intrasport.” “Ontology” was the only track that I felt was rather weak, but I don’t know why, or even how “Intrasport” made the cut. I thought it was a really cool effort, but just added a kink in the record’s flow. I think they could make a whole record with that sound and still have it be good, and I’m wondering if that’s the direction they might go in on another record. So, if you can’t already tell by now, I’m ecstatic with how K.G.turned out. Considering this is their sixteenth full-length album, I was thinking it might have been a bit on the weaker side. They’ve been going for ten years strong, and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard once again proved that they have some tricks up their sleeves. 9.5/10
Savage Mode II- 21 Savage & Metro Boomin
Savage Mode II is another record that a lot of people have recommended to me in 2020. I was sort of considering whether this was worth a review, because I, personally, am not the biggest 21 Savage fan. He’s one of the more annoying rappers to sit through, but I think I came out of this album with a different perspective on him. What I first want to note about this record is it’s actually super accessible. Fifteen tracks, forty-four minutes, and DEBUTING at the #1 spot on the Billboard charts proves that you don’t need to pull a Drake or Migos and shell out a massive twenty-five to thirty track album to be successful. And for once, I feel like 21 Savage is alive and well on the mic. He meshes really well with Metro Boomin’, and I almost want to go back and listen to their first collaboration to see if this is better or not. I’ve always thought Metro’s beats are pretty diverse compared to other producers like Pi’erre Bourne, Mustard or Maaly Raw. If you listen to the first five to ten seconds of their beats, you can easily tell it’s one of theirs. Metro is one guy who will always surprise you. If you gave me a pair of headphones and hadn't told me who the album’s producer was, I probably would have been stumped. Songs like “Glock In My Lap,” “Rich N- - - a Shit,” “Slidin,” “Many Men,” “Brand New Draco,” “RIP Luv” and “Said N Done” are easily some of the best trap offerings from the mediocre year the scene has had 2020. Oh, and you can't talk about Savage Mode II and not mention the top contender for being meme of the year: Morgan Freeman’s voiceovers on the “Snitches and Rats” and on the outro of “Said N Done.” Completely left-field, but completely badass. While I do think the project is pretty consistent throughout, some of the generic trap tracks like “Mr. Right Now” with Drake, “Snitches and Rats” featuring Young Nudy, “My Dawg” and “No Opp Left Behind,” probably could have been left off the record entirely. I won’t lie when I say Savage Mode II was one of the more surprising projects I’ve heard 2020. Like I said before, I came out here with a completely changed opinion on 21 Savage, and the record has a lot of material that I can revisit for the time to come. 8/10.
Dreamland- Glass Animals
Once again, here is another long-awaited record for me. The UK-based electropop group released their first album in four years back in August, and this is one that a lot of people have been sharing around. I really liked some of the stuff from 2016’s How to Be a Human Being, and that got me excited to check out this new album. Unfortunately, Dreamland was yet another record where I ended up feeling completely let down. That unique nature that was found on their last release is not to be found here. It’s not that I think experimentation or being abstract is what makes music worthy or commendable, but what I object to the most is they’re playing it too safe and selling out. It’s axiomatic. They’re using extremely simple melodies you’ve probably heard in at least fifty to seventy-five tracks alone this year, and deciding to throw trap beats on songs to make the music sound more hip. I think that’s kind of becoming a problem with a lot of electropop music nowadays. It’s one of the genres that has become so aggressively commercialized through apps like TikTok. Glass Animals feels like they’re only marketing this record to that demographic specifically, plain and simple. Most of the songs on here feel like they’re meant to be heard in ads for TV and YouTube, or playing in your local off-brand retail store instead of being consumed through a good pair of headphones. I don’t think I’ve ever had to say such a thing about an album, but Dreamland exemplifies that to a T. If I had to pick any of the songs I enjoyed, I’d pick “Tangerine,” “Tokyo Drifting” (only for Denzel Curry’s feature), and maybe, just maybe “Helium” at the end of the album. That’s honestly pushing it, if you ask me. Every element of this record is so one-dimensional to the point where I have hardly anything good to say about it. There are some people who genuinely like this record, and that's all the power to them. I just could not find much to engage with on this project. I really hate giving negative reviews, much less ending any month in review on a negative note. I think this at least taught me a good lesson, though; sometimes, you really have to listen to the crappy music out there to appreciate the good stuff. 2/10.
SONGS OF THE MONTH:
i don't want that many friends in the first place- p4rkr
Blue Notes- Meek Mill
Pet Sounds- Beach Boys
Knock Knock- Madlib
Play No Playa- Shawty Pimp
Swimming- Kero Kero Bonito
Baby Blue- Badfinger
6ruh Moment- kn1ghted
Sweet Va Breeze- SHELLEY (fka DRAM)
Naked- Bickle
So, did you agree with my takes? Was there an album that you thought was better or worse, or an album you want me to review down the road? If so, I'd love to hear from you! I have my list set for December, but I have plenty of openings for the Classics Months of January through March to review your picks. Anyways, have a great start to the holidays, and keep your eyes peeled for more bazzreviews content coming soon!
