Hi, everyone! October was another awesome month of listening, as I heard a lot of really solid new records and songs! Here are some of the albums I listened to and my opinions on each.
The Lost Boy- YBN Cordae
This is the debut studio release from the Carolinian YBN member, and it’s one I was actually quite fond of. At twenty-two years old, Cordae already shows that he has the polish and style of a rapper that would be much deeper in his career. He has so many deep verses about his family and personal issues and incredibly diverse instrumentation to compliment his style. Additionally, his flow is super mellow and I did not find it being intrusive on my listening experience. The instrumentals got me hooked, and his lyrics kept things interesting as I kept trekking through the project. What’s crazy to me is the fact that he got some of the biggest names in rap to work with him so early in his career. If this doesn’t beg the question of his overall talent and potential, then I don’t know what does. He got artists like Chance the Rapper to be on “Bad Idea”, “Way Back Home” had a thoughtful contribution from Ty Dolla Sign, and “Nightmares are Real” gave us another great guest outing from Pusha T. Along with these three standouts, “RNP” with Anderson Paak and “Broke as Fuck” were two of my other favorites for this album. I’ll be honest, I came into this album with low expectations, but The Lost Boy left me hungry for more from YBN Cordae. 9/10
The Sailor- Rich Brian
It seems as if 88rising can take even the goofiest of singers and turn them into bona fide stars. If you’re not convinced by this theory, take a look at fellow label mate Joji-- formerly making YouTube videos and music under the names Filthy Frank and Pink Guy. The fact that he was able to give up his goofy ways and channel his talent towards making genuine music was very respectable. Like Joji, Rich Brian (fka Rich Chigga) moved from making meme music and releasing very well-developed music as well. All in all, The Sailor really cemented his versatility as an artist. He not only puts together some great flows on tracks like “Rapapapa”, “Kids” and “100 Degrees” but he also demonstrated his equal ability in crafting some deep ballads-- as seen on “Yellow”, “Drive Safe” and “Where Does the Time Go” with the aforementioned Joji. The production value here is great, his lyricism is well-crafted, and these six tracks that I have listed off are prime examples of Rich Brian bringing his A-game. While I think the middle of the record gets a little stale (“Confetti”, “Vacant” and “No Worries” were some of the weaker spots on here), he hits you the hardest at the album’s bookends, making this album worth countless relistens down the road. 8/10
Jesus Is King- Kanye West
After multiple delays and aborted release dates, Kanye West has dropped his long-awaited ninth studio project. Though he’s far removed from his Renaissance, I would argue that this-- along with 808s and Heartbreaks-- is one of the most ambitious musical directions in Kanye’s entire discography. Due to his recent spiritual awakening and the creation of his “Sunday Service” concert series, Kanye turned to make more of a gospel/rap fusion on his latest outing. It’s a shorter record like ye (27 minutes), but to me it sounded like more effort was put into this project. The production on here, for the most part, is spectacular. It’s fluid, clean, and rivals some of his better production outings like My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy or Yeezus. Songs like “Every Hour”, “On God”, and “Use This Gospel” were some of my favorites on here and are very richly layered. Other songs like “Water” and “Follow God” had a solid foundation on production as well, and some nice verses from Kanye. While we’re on the subject of rapping, I’d like to bring up the biggest glaring flaw for me: Yeezy’s lyrics. Some of his lyrics about God and spreading his message weren’t really doing it for me, and some of his verses felt very one-dimensional and uninteresting as a whole. Additionally, for all the cop-outs Kanye made about “mixes needing to be fixed”, I still feel like there are a few holes musically on here that left me feeling empty. Songs like “God Is”, “Hands On”, even the fan-favorite “Selah” kind of dragged on for me. At this point in time, I feel like Kanye is on his way out. He’s done so much for revitalizing the rap scene, so the question is, how much more can he possibly contribute? Both this and ye seem incomplete, and I hope this isn’t the way he finishes his amazing career. Time will tell, but as a whole, Jesus is King was a generally benign return from the “unquestionably, undoubtedly, the greatest human artist of all time.” 8/10
All My Heroes Are Cornballs- JPEGMAFIA
This is the third album from the bombastic Baltimore rapper, Barrington Hendricks, and one that I’ve been looking forward to diving into for a while. Even though he maintains his trolling style of rap from Black Ben Carson and Veteran, so many of his lyrics are brilliant and well-constructed. Sometimes, they’ll have me chuckle at how outrageous they are, and other times I might be like, “wow, this is actually kind of sick”. The production on here, per the norm, is glitchy and experimental, a common theme across all three of his projects. JPEG isn’t afraid to experiment with some out of the box instrumentals and sound effects, and that’s what makes me enjoy him even more. Songs like the leadoff “Jesus Forgive Me, I Am A Thot”, “PTSD” and “Papi I Missed U” were some of my favorites off the album, and there are a lot of other gems sprinkled in. However, the biggest glaring flow of this JPEG record-- and his other projects-- is that this is quite superfluous in track length. Five of the eighteen tracks on here are less than two minutes long, and it seemed as if I’d be listening to filler content a little too often. Don’t get me wrong, I still really like this record, but I wish that some of the shorter and more interlude-type tracks could have been scrapped on the cutting room floor. They don’t really add much value to the record as a whole, and I think Peggy would be better off keeping the ten or twelve really solid tracks that he’s got on here. It’s an easy fix for the future, and doesn’t deter from my overall enjoyment of AMHAC. 8/10
House of Sugar- (Sandy) Alex G
This was the first thing I’ve heard from the Philly artist Alex Giannascoli, and will most likely be the last. Despite being on the shorter side, this record was really hard to get through. I’ll say his songwriting is passable, but the musical direction on this record was all over the map. The two biggest influences on here were folk and techno, two genres I don’t see working very well together. I know what I’ve said about Bon Iver and folktronica, and I stand by that. However, this is not Bon Iver, nothing close to it. instead of having a ping-pong match between the two genres, what might have been nice to see is if one half of the record had the folk songs and another half having the electronic songs. I think the worst aspect of this music had to be Alex G’s voice- it may be one of the hardest I’ve had to listen to all year. To me, he tries to sound like some amazing crooner, but I just couldn’t get behind that. On the Panda Bear wannabe “Walk Away”, the lousy techno cut “Project 2” or the Sufjan Stevens knockoff “Cow”, I was pressing the skip button more often than not. Even when all hope was lost for this album, I still saw a few standout tracks. Other than “Hope”, “In My Arms” and “Crime”, there is nothing else of note that I’d like to discuss. All in all, SAG relentlessly attempted to sound like other artists, and that really made me get bored with this project; House of Sugar ended up a runaway train of musical ideas that could have been more fleshed out. 4.5/10
SONGS OF THE MONTH:
Beach Comber- Real Estate
Aloha- Charlie Heat
Where Angels Fear To Tread- Disclosure
212- Azealia Banks
With Them- Young Thug
On God- Kanye West
Got To Get You Into My Life- Earth, Wind & Fire
Gook- Denzel Curry
Fantasy- Khai Dreams
Drive Safe- Rich Brian
So, do you agree with my takes? Is there an album you saw and liked or didn't like? I'd always love to hear a new viewpoint, so feel free to reach out to me! I hope that you are able to find something on this list to enjoy like I did, and we'll be back with some more amazing bazzreviews content later this month!
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