Category Archives: Reviews

Reviews

Album Review: What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World | The Decemberists

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The Decemberists
BY NICHOLAS HAGAR 

The Decemberists, a group that formed in 2000, has been around long enough to develop a constant sound. They know what their fans expect, and they know how to deliver that exactly. And this shows, not entirely in a good way, in their seventh studio album, What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World, released January 20, 2015, with Capitol Records

‘The Singer Addresses His Audience’ is a powerful start to the album. It’s an interesting, tongue-in-cheek monologue that critiques the relationship between a band and its listeners. With lines like “We’re aware that you cut your hair in the style that our drummer wore in the video”, it makes its point effectively, and that point is presented as the vocals step up and down in carefully measured increments. All of this happens over well-produced instrumentation, as acoustic guitar and cello give way to electric guitar, kicking drums, and a thundering chorus.

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Album Review: B4.DA.$$ | Joey Bada$$

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Joey Badass
BY TRENT KRESLINS

This year has begun with a bang and a handful of artists are prepping their album releases in these next few months. The “reigning rap supreme” Joey Bada$$ is looking to make an early mark on the year with his highly anticipated debut studio album, B4.DA.$$. Joey was one of the most influential figures in the Beast Coast NY movement that includes Flatbush Zombies and The Underachievers, his mixtape 1999 was a critical success, but his follow up Summer Knights was met with lukewarm reception as his smooth flow changed to a much rougher and stagnant style. B4.DA.$$ is the debut album that Joey fans were hoping for, it blends classic boom-bap style of New York with the upper echelon lyrical skill that Joey has become known for. It is a smooth listen from to back, and it contains some of Joey’s best songs yet.

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Album Review: Beast Mode | Future

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Beast Mode
BY DAN GARCIA 

Late last year, Future released his 9th mixtape in five years, with his Halloween inspired Monster (the followup to his second studio album Honest). Less than three months after Monster comes Future’s next project, titled Beast Mode and produced entirely by Atlanta producer Xavier “Zaytoven” Dotson. While Future brings the same emotion to Beast Mode as with previous projects, this mixtape (in large part due Zaytoven’s production) has a different feel and theme than Monster, although Future does not abandon his sound that makes his singing very appealing and catchy. Although Future and the ‘Versace’ producer have worked together since 2011, a full collaborative project was almost inevitable to combine the talents of Atlanta’s hottest rapper and one of the city’s best producers. Beast Mode isn’t Future’s best project to date, but is yet another example that Atlanta is easily in the conversation for being the rap hub of the world right now.

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Album Review: Evermotion | Guster

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Evermotion
BY NICHOLAS HAGAR 

Guster has been around for a while. The band formed in 1991 and went on to release six albums before Evermotion, their newest offering. This album will be released with Ocho Mule Records on January 13, 2015, but it premiered exclusively on Spotify on January 6. Evermotion stands as a respectable addition to Guster’s discography. It is definitely in the style of the band’s previous work, but it also has its own quality to it; it’s more outgoing and present. The band stretched out and explored with this album, unafraid of any sound or combination.Evermotion is a reflective work, a modern addition to a previous era of drug-infused, relaxed music.

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Album Review: The Balcony | Catfish and the Bottlemen

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The Balcony
BY NICHOLAS HAGAR

Catfish and the Bottlemen’s initial singles, all of which are present on The Balcony, led them to critical praise. They performed at over 30 festivals last summer, and their track ‘Kathleen’ was ranked as MTV’s hottest track last April. Whether or not the band deserves this acclaim could be debated. Their debut album The Balcony is an act of constant escalation. Many of its best tracks start out gently, but for better or worse, the band cannot seem to avoid intensifying until the guitar is wailing and the vocals screaming. Every song must keep moving forward at a near overwhelming level; on the rare occasions that the album hits pause, it seems to lose something.

The band, which formed in Llandudno, North Wales, consists of lead vocalist Van McCann, lead guitar Johnny Bond, bass guitar Benji Blakeway, and drummer Bob Hall. The Balcony was released with label Communion Records in the UK on September 15, 2014, and in the US on January 6, 2015.

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Track Review: Only One | Kanye West ft. Paul McCartney

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BY DAN GARCIA ★★★★★
BY DAN GARCIA 

It had been awhile since we had heard new music from Kanye West and over a year since the release of Kanye’s latest studio album Yeezus. However, to kick off the new year Kanye surprised us all by dropping a new single, one nothing like Yeezus, and the one we had all been waiting for. Last year, rumors circulated that Kanye and The Beatles legendary frontman Paul McCartney were recording together and now we know the reports were true. Kanye’s newly released ballad ‘Only One’ features Sir Paul McCartney, as Kanye sings from the perspective of his late mother, Dr. Donda West, about Kanye and his new wife and daughter. If combining the talents of one of the greatest rappers of all-time and the leader of the most influential band of all-time were not enough in itself, the track as it stands could not be more beautiful. Only time will tell, but ‘Only One’ may likely be known as one of the best songs ever recorded. Continue reading Track Review: Only One | Kanye West ft. Paul McCartney →

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Album Review: Black Messiah | D’Angelo and The Vanguard

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Black Messiah
BY VIKASH DASS 

For a long while, D’Angelo followed the critical praise and fan-driven buzz of his first two records Brown Sugar (1995) and Voodoo (2000) by plunging himself in complete darkness for almost fifteen years. Of course, the odd feature and collaboration would pop up during this time, but so would troubles with the law and ongoing battles within his own personal life. Even through all of this, there was ongoing chatter of a tentative third album that was closer and closer to being completed as the years passed by, which had details changing often whether it was rumors of Prince and Cee-Lo being involved, or even a working title of James River. Throughout this entire process, though, what materialized was a sonically unique and refined piece of work called Black Messiah, credited to D’Angelo and The Vanguard, the latter being his in-house band.

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Album Review: SremmLife | Rae Sremmurd

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Sremmlife
BY DAN GARCIA 

2014 was Rae Sremmurd’s year. In the summer, Rae Sremmurd (rappers Swae Lee and Slim Jimmy) released their first single ‘No Flex Zone’ through EarDrummers Entertainment (producer Mike WiLL Made-It’s Interscope Records imprint), making the track one of the summer’s anthems and an instant favorite on the internet. To kick-off the fall, the Mississippi rappers proved their doubters wrong by the release of their equally successful track ‘No Type’, making the duo two-for-two on making rap hits and quieting any one-hit-wonder predictions. Months later, and in just one week on January 6th, Rae Sremmurd is releasing their debut album SremmLife (available now for streaming), when rap fans did not know their name less than a year ago.

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Album Review: Blame It On The Streets | YG

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YG
BY TRENT KRESLINS 

 

It is no secret that 2014 has been a tough year for music. Aside from Taylor Swift’s record breaking album, this year has been hit and miss on sales for the large part. Even with album sales aside, the quality has been lacking across many genres; one of the exceptions has been YG. On March 18th he dropped My Krazy Life which managed to unite critics and fans alike to not only say it was a high spot for 2014, but also an important album for gangster rap.

Looking to follow up on the success of My Krazy Life, YG put together a short film and a soundtrack to go along with it. It is a fairly bold move for any artist, let alone who only 9 months ago dropped his debut album. For the most part it works well and keeps the gangster vibe going. The soundtrack somehow manages to come off as even grittier and more gangster than My Krazy Life. When played in unison with the movie it begins to come together well. YG already gave the media what they (and his fans) wanted, this is strictly for the streets.

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Album Review: 2014 Forest Hills Drive | J. Cole

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2014 Forest Hills Drive | J. Cole
BY DAN GARCIA 

On June 18, 2013, J. Cole went head-to-head with one of the rappers he looks up to the most, Kanye West, as their albums Born Sinner and Yeezus were released on the same day. Although Yeezus was received with more critical acclaim and sold more in the first week, do not chalk things up as a loss for Cole. J. Cole may have been only the second best rapper/producer on June 18th, but such a spin is selling the rapper short, as with his new and best album to date 2014 Forest Hills Drive, J. Cole has solidified himself a second only to Kanye when it comes to the best rapper/producer in music today.

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