Sam Harkey

This album has a little bit of everything, so it’s near impossible to not enjoy in some capacity. Calculated and cohesive, there’s very few misses. Most tracks showcase the individual musicians’ artistry that finds the collective group feeling conviction toward their experimentation at the heart of the record. Definitely much room to grow from a lyrical and songwriting standpoint, but an impressive debut nonetheless.

Bad. Pretty corny and heartless. The features don't add too much minus a couple of standpoints from Lil Wayne, Westside Gunn, and surprisingly Kanye.

Not much to write home about here. Headie One has been an artist that has ridden the coattails of other Drill and UK Hip-Hop artists for a while, being able to secure some creative and high fidelity collaborators. The outcome: diluted "hip-pop". I will get it credit, the album has cohesiveness and consistency, just not at a very high bar. it's easy listening for the most part, but a listen through in one swing is a challenge.

This album feels all over the place, which is at least consistent with the window into Matt's brain that he's allowed us to see over the years. Overall, there may be one of two tracks that I'll return to, with about half the record being promising. The other half, not so much.

I thought this was solid. A few good country and prog pop tunes to come back to, but I also found some tracks to completely miss the mark. At the end of the day, I was left wanting more out of their 1st record in 11 years.

The production is consistently great on this. However, it's still missing the magic of 99.9%. The features are more hit or miss and some of the instrumentals struggle to get anywhere. The front half of the record (minus "Dance Dance Dance Dance") is really terrific and there are consistently enough bangers that you don't have to wait too long between them. This is definitely an album to be experienced live, just like Bubba. Overall satisfactory, but not wowing me.

It took a couple of listens for this album to start really clicking with me, but now I really appreciate it. Opting for much sparser production and a smoother sonic landscape, this album really needed tracks to be mostly be under 3 min. I love the dichotomy of a darker side to .Paak's vocals over "baby-making music". Most of the features were spot on and the album plays through tremendously well. However, a couple of things that hold it back are that there isn't enough sonic diversity to make some tracks stick out from the rest and sometimes the length of the tracks leaves some tunes feeling half-baked. Overall, an awesome experience and a satisfactory follow-up to Yes, Lawd!

A classic that pumps so much energy into your blood, you're ready to flip a car.

A true formative album for techno, big room, and the 90s/00s rave scene. I would do just about anything to see them live.

To me, this is when Bowie really started hitting his stride, where you get assurance that he's going to a force to reckon with. Opting for more of a traditional rock direction with some baroque and glam elements, songs like "The Width of a Circle", "Black Country Rock" and obviously "The Man Who Sold the World" showcase his songwriting and composing ability. Obviously this was a wonderful tee-up toward the next stretch of records...

To me, this is when Bowie was really starting to find his voice. Yes, it's very hit or miss, but you get some classics like "Space Oddity", "Letter to Hermione", and "Cygnet Committee".

Really was expecting more from this release. I thought it was pretty uninventive and comfortable. It was somewhat easy listening, but with shoegaze, if you're not producing something a) unique or b) lyrically dense, then songs get lost in the background. I feel like this is one of their weaker records.

A very solid and long-awaited debut for Elkka. You can tell this is meant for late nights in the club when you're looking to get lost in the music and don't truly care what's playing. However, not much is inventive, no matter how catchy and vibey the performances are. While there are no "duds" per se, there aren't many, if any, dedicated bangers. The album floats along, sometimes a bit aimlessly.

This really does feel like the magnum opus Charli has been carefully working toward after redefining her career about 5 years ago. This is hyperpop at its finest and most refined, and Charli is carving out a unique place for herself amongst the pop greats. It's filled with club anthems that feels perfectly in tune with the state of the world today: as we become even more connected to the chaos (both beautiful and horrifying) of the world via the internet, we want to turn to creative outlets (like dancing/clubbing) to distract ourselves. This album is glitchy yet calculated, scatterbrained yet cohesive, retrospective yet pushes pop forward, and more. It's near perfect in my eyes and ears.

With Mdou Moctar, you really are looking for energy. You definitely get that here with some incredible performances, but at the cost of sonic exploration that evolves beyond the last two records. While the band will never put out anything even mediocre, this left more itches to be scratched than its predecessor Afrique Victime.

Don't let the first two tracks fool you, because after a hot start that feels reminiscent of their french disco and electropop roots, the band reverts back to their comfortable sound as a slightly dancier Khruangbin or less rocky Parcels. With some smooth jams interspersed with quality features from Flatbush Zombies' Erick the Architect or Maggie Rogers, about half of this record will fade into the background of their discography and overall aesthetic.

It was all very OK. I miss the days of Once through her DJ Kicks mix, instead of this poppier sound that is quickly becoming the new big room. That said, the beats were slick and everything flowed well.

This album is a triumphant comeback for Beak>. It has better production and more cohesive vision than previous, showing they're still committed to growth, even if these pieces are more familiar and comfortable to them. In the end, it pulls from obvious influences of Radiohead, Flaming Lips, and Piper at the Gates of Dawn in a wonderful and concise progressive indie-rock LP.

Pure chaos and I actually enjoy it. Some tracks seem to end prematurely and the end meanders a bit, but overall there's lots to like here if you're into that industrial electronic vibe, which I sort of am.

Not crazy about this debut release. Definitely some strong signals, but overall just sounds like another slickly-produced R&B/Pop record. That said, her talent is undeniable and should feel more free to experiment with her sound in the future.

I enjoy how personal and dark this record is. However, my problem with the last few records have been the same: he went from a place of pushing hip-hop forward to returning to a comfort zone of relying on his storytelling to carry the album forward. I do think this is his best release since either Vince Staples in 2021 or FM! in 2019.

Mach-Hommy has been very busy since his breakout album Pray For Haiti, which was a favorite of mine in 2021. 7 albums/mixtapes in between RICHAXXHAITIAN and PFH in 2.5 years is typically would result in burnout, creating more content than quality. However, RICHAXXHAITIAN has a breath of fresh air and energy around it with some experimentation and collaboration that hits and some that misses. I appreciate this record, but when readying myself some an album that was supposed to pay homage to his Haitian roots, I expected a little more sonic exploration like there was on the title track. Regardless, I'm not left feeling dissatisfied, but more excited for him to take that next big leap forward in… More

While there were some standout instant heavy rotation cuts like “RESPEK”, “I LIKE U”, and “KILL_U”, the rest quickly fell back into background music, all sounding uninventive for Travis this late into his career. Overall, it was too hit or miss, even if no particular song is bad, per se.

Definitely dragged at parts and felt a bit one dimensional for 80% of the record. She's trying to take you to a liminal space, but instead I fell asleep.

Plz do something different for once

I was excited about the prospect of Sean Lennon producing this record, especially coming off of a top 25 album in 2023 Everything Harmony. Kicking off the LP with "My Golden Years" and "They Don't Know How To Fall In Place", they didn't lose a step. However, as the record progressed, I found that the sonic profile mixed with the songwriting let this record meander a bit.

I find this to be a slight improvement from 3.15.20, but the content and songwriting are inherently not where it needs to be. I find that some tracks like "Algorhythm", "The Violence" and "Why Go To The Party" definite benefitted from a second look and are very solid inclusions into Childish Gambino canon, but the features and poppier cuts are still only okay at best. He did trim out some fat in favor of more cohesion and better listening experience.

About half of this record were some absolute heaters and the other half was a bit of a snooze.

This album showed some real growth from Lorely Rodriguez. Tapping into futuristic electro-pop that really starting to blow up with the likes of "Lorelei" and "Femenine", and an unbelievable 3-track run in latin pop with "Cura", "Facil" and "Sucia", For Your Consideration is one of the better pop releases of 2024.

I enjoy the sonic exploration and experimentation in the production of this LP. Also enjoyable is the apocalyptic perspective on life in 2024 that errs on the side of satire. It's how we all feel about the world right now. However, the songwriting seems to take a step backward from Freedom, being much more literal. In the end, I'm not disappointed, but am left wanting more.