Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You
This project sits in the middle of the mammoth indie albums this month from bands that start with the letter “B”, as it came out in between the Black Country, New Road and Beach House albums. For many people, I’ve seen them claim this album as the best one out of the three, but personally, I’m going to need more time with this one. At 20 songs and 80 minutes, this is a mammoth album to digest in a month that actually had lots of amazing music, and I’m not sure I was able to fully grasp it. Granted, there’s lots of great things all over the project. “Time Escaping” has this insane feel that I’ve never heard done in this folky/singer-songwriter style the band falls into. “Spud Infinity” is also another big highlight on the album that has an immediately catchy chorus. “Simulation Swarm” was the last single, and for good reason. It has this upbeat drumbeat and whirling guitar passages in the best way possible. “Little Things” is an almost six-minute long song, but it makes full use of that runtime with Big Thief at maybe their most upbeat on the entire album! If you like folk rock and indie singer-songwriter type music, I doubt you’ll be able to find much better than this album. I just hope I can personally start to love the full thing with a few more months of picking away at it.
2 Chainz - Dope Don’t Sell Itself
You know what to expect going into a new 2 Chainz album, especially one called Dope Don’t Sell Itself. He brings his usual style of trap bangers and mixes in some of the biggest current names in trap music. The production here is fairly minimal for the most part, which works really well most of the time, especially for the first two tracks on the album, “Bet It Back” and “Pop Music”. These extremely minimalist and spacious trap beats give 2 Chainz the room for his bombastic voice to be at the forefront of the song. The rest of the first half of the album is also nothing but great bangers, like the Lil Baby assisted “Kingpin Ghostwriter” and the lead single “Million Dollars Worth of Game”. Now, the second half of the album is super hit or miss. Features like Lil Durk, Swae Lee, and Jacquees don’t really fit their respective songs, but Stove God Cooks absolutely kills it and carries on “Vlad TV”. I do kind of hope that 2 Chainz is serious about this being his last trap album because as solid as this album is, I think he would sound really great over some soulful and boombap-ish production. 2 Chainz definitely didn’t disappoint with this album, but hopefully he changes his sound and can end his career with some really great material.
Saba - Few Good Things
Saba had a hard job with this album, considering he was coming off of his magnum opus. Care for Me, his previous album released in 2018, is one of the most emotional, thoughtful, and incredibly written hip hop albums I’ve heard in a very long time! I knew coming into Few Good Things that it wouldn’t live up to that album, and it doesn’t, but he still comes through with a great Chicago hip hop album. He tries many different styles on this album, but it normally revolves around his brand of positive, beautiful, and poetic hip hop. But there are also departures, like “Survivor’s Guilt” with G Herbo, which is a straight trap banger about the harsher parts of growing up in Chicago. “Fearmonger” has Saba singing about growing up Black and the money issues he’s seen his family face. “If I Had A Dollar” almost sounds like Saba’s version of a melodic trap song, with this blown out beat and Saba wailing during the chorus. But for all the different styles, the best tracks are still his thoughtful, powerfully written tracks that you would expect from him. “Make Believe” is an incredible track that shows Saba in a depressive state and looking back at losing friends to drug abuse, and the rest of the track has this beautiful string section and outro from Foushee. “2012” is right up there with the same level of emotion behind it, except it takes a more positive view of his past. He even brings on legend Black Thought to end the album with an emotionally potent verse about his mother. Few Good Things doesn’t reinvent the wheel for Saba, but it shows that he’s still putting lots of effort into crafting a well thought out and executed hip hop album.
Dr. Dre - The Contract
Let's get this out of the way first, this isn’t an official Dr. Dre project. For an update to the video game GTA V, they had Dr. Dre as a character in the story and there were six new Dr. Dre songs exclusively in the game for almost two months. Now, they finally got uploaded to streaming services, but only as six separate singles, not a project. But I can’t not talk about new Dr. Dre music, he’s too legendary. He brings many of the classic features he’s used before on these songs; including Eminem, Anderson .Paak (twice), Snoop Dogg, and more. None of these songs really stand out as amazing, which is why I’m totally fine with these not being on an official project in his catalog, but most of them are somewhere between really good and great! “The Scenic Route” has Dr. Dre and Rick Ross going back and forth beautifully, but Dr. Dre and Anderson Paak going back and forth on “ETA” is even better! The latter track also has features from Snoop and Busta Rhymes, each of which fit perfectly. Nipsey Hussle also shows up on the track “Diamond Mine”, which also has extra production from The Alchemist. It would’ve been cool if he and Dre worked together before he passed, but anything new Nipsey feels important, especially for the west coast. I wonder if these songs are a prelude to a new Dre album, especially with the Super Bowl Performance, but we’ll just have to wait and see.
Jazmine Sullivan - Heaux Tales, Mo’ Tales: The Deluxe
After releasing one of the best R&B projects of 2021, Jazmine Sullivan is back again with a deluxe that lives up to the original! It’s nowhere near as sonically diverse as the original. Most of these songs occupy the same space of an acoustic guitar ballad, but Jazmine’s voice and songwriting make up for any lack of instrumentation difference. “Hurt Me So Good” is a story about the narrator feeling stuck in a toxic relationship because she just needs the love the partner provides to make herself feel good. “Roster” turns the idea of the player on its head with switching the genders so that the female is the one putting guys on her roster. It’s even better with the interlude beforehand on “A Breaux’s Tale” where he tells his side of the story of finally catching actual feelings for this girl instead of just sexual and she kicks him to the curb. “Selfish” closes out this new deluxe perfectly with another sad acoustic ballad with fantastic vocals from one of the best singers currently out there! Jazmine does it again with another helping of her emotional, powerful, storytelling R&B songs!
Big K.R.I.T. - Digital Roses Don’t Die
Big K.R.I.T. started the 2010s as one of the best rappers and even though he never reached the stardoms of his contemporaries at the time, he’s always put out quality music. His 2017 double album opus 4eva is a Mighty Long Time is one of the best hip hop albums of the 2010s, but with 2019’s K.R.I.T. Iz Here being a let down, I had no expectations for this new album. To my surprise, this is less of a hip hop album and closer to a funk/soul/R&B album with someone who’s been a longtime rapper at the helm. It’s not very deep or conceptual, but it’s hard to put this album on and not just smile and be in a good mood. For a longtime rapper, he somehow manages to make insanely catchy choruses all over this album! “Rhode Clean”, “So Cool”, “Just 4 You”, and “All The Time” all have these hooks that will be stuck in your head on the first listen! “Show U Right” has these fantastic talkbox vocals that help make the track sound both current and from the late 70s/early 80s simultaneously. There is some introspection towards the end of the album, like on the gorgeous highlight “Generational - Weighed Down”, but most of this album is him singing about love and having fun. It definitely took a few listens to get over the change of him actually making an album like this, but I’m glad he did and will likely be playing this a lot once it gets warm outside.
Moonchild - Starfruit
Moonchild is a textbook R&B/soul group. Their music revolves heavily around downtempo grooves that consist of snappy drums and watery bass. Amber Navran is the lead singer, and she sings this entire album in her falsetto, which while it is really fantastic, it does get a bit tiresome throughout the 50+ minute runtime. Starfruit is their first album to have features, and boy does it have a lot of features. Rapsody shows up and gives yet another quality performance on “Love I Need”, while Lalah Hathaway is on the opening song and provides a beautiful bridge. Tank and The Bangas is a welcome break in the mix on “Get By”, with her deeper bass and deeper funk groove that the group always has. While most of the songs on this album are pretty good and passable, there’s nothing special that makes me want to return to this album over other ones in the same genre. But if you do need some really smooth soul and R&B for your background music, or just to check out in general, don’t let this miss you.
MonoNeon - Put on Earth For You
MonoNeon is back with his lighthearted, funky vibes on his newest album, Put on Earth For You. Let’s just get the negative out of the way, the mixing on the vocals is still ok at best and annoying at worst. “All Hands on Deck” features rapping from someone called Declaime, but his vocals sound like they were recorded through a phone on speaker. But the instrumentals are just as groovy and fun as always. “What You Think In The Shower Means More Than You Know” is a classic, funky MonoNeon song and instrumental with a hilarious premise, as is “Theme For Stank Mouth”. “Million Lives Will Shine On As One” has a super detailed instrumental with him talking about accepting everyone no matter who they are. There is also a bit of experimentation on here, like the title track that closes out the album feels like a traditional indie rock song, which is a far cry away from the straightforward funk he normally does. I’m not sure if this album is better than his previous work, but it’s still a really good time!
Khruangbin & Leon Bridges - Texas Moon
This is a follow up to a previous EP they made together called Texas Sun, which has the hit track of the same name on it. By naming this one Texas Moon, it’s pretty clear the type of vibe that this project will have even before pressing play. And after listening to it, it lives up to the title. This project is full of lowkey, funky soul ballads that I imagine would perfectly soundtrack a Texas night. “B-Side” is easily the most upbeat song on the album, and even with it being the single, it’s still the best track on here. Everything about the instrumental is perfectly layered and Leon’s vocals glide over it effortlessly. Both “Doris” and “Chocolate Hills” operate at a turtle’s speed, but they exude this satisfied calmness really well that would help end a day nicely. The other two tracks on the project follow this same, slow formula that the other two tracks have and closes it out nicely. Texas Moon doesn’t reinvent the wheel, or even adds to any existing design, but it’s more quality music from talented soul artists.
Sampha - Process (Bonus Edition)
This album came out five years ago and for the five year anniversary, they put the two Japanese exclusive tracks on streaming as bonus tracks! So yes, I’m kind of just using this as an excuse to recommend and talk about how amazing Sampha is, but there is technically new Sampha music for the first time in a while. Process is his only studio album, and it came out right at the time where I started to pay attention to music. This was one of the first albums I found and loved from someone I had no idea who they were previously. He combines sporadic electronic beats with gorgeous piano ballads for all 10 songs. “(No One Knows Me) Like The Piano” is easily one of the most beautiful and heartfelt ballads I’ve ever heard. He wrote the song about helping his mother through her second time having cancer and how the piano in her home helped him grieve. “Blood On Me” personifies his anxiety into a monster that’s chasing him that he’s constantly trying to escape, and he sounds out of breath while trying to sing the song, which helps add to the story of the track. “Plastic 100” has Sampha looking at how losing both his parents to cancer, becoming distanced with his physically-disabled brother, and finding an unknown lump in his throat affected him on his rise to fame. Now, to at least mention the two new tracks to streaming, “In-Between and Overseas” is another beautiful ballad, while “Answer” is easily the most electronic track on the record and features no vocals. I hope there’s a fully new Sampha project sometime this year, but this bonus edition made for a nice revist to a beautiful album by one of music’s most mysterious and elusive songwriters.
Curren$y & The Alchemist - Continuance
Curren$y and The Alchemist have worked together plenty of times before, but maybe none more popular than 2018’s collaboration album with Freddie Gibbs, Fetti. They’re back again with another full length album only a few years later with another collab album. There’s no denying Alchemist’s production and sample choices once again. The piano on “Reese’s Cup” is one of the most beautiful things I’ve heard on a rap song all year, and drums pair with it perfectly and don’t overtake the song. Another person with many Alchemist-produced projects, Boldy James, showed up on the track “No Yeast” over this drumless-looped sample and stole the show from Curren$y. Even though he got out-rapped on that song, Curren$y is still fairly competent and delivers quality vibes on most of these songs. He’s someone that you either really love or you don’t, but there’s no denying that he doesn’t know how to rap. Because of the other rappers that The Alchemist usually works with, I’m not sure if Continuance will get as much replay value as his other produced projects, but it’s still another really solid hip hop album from two of the most prolific people in the game.
Metronomy - Small World
Metronomy is a group from the U.K. that has actually been around for 20 years! They’ve opened for Coldplay, Bloc Party, Justice, and more. Apparently there have been some members of the band changed over the 20 year history, including now having the former drummer of Lightspeed Champion, Dev Hynes’s original name. But for all that history, I found them completely randomly through their song “Things Will Be Fine”. It’s become one of my favorite tracks of 2022, even though it’s super straightforward. It’s just one of those tracks where the lead singer can just say “Things will be fine” during the chorus and make you feel like everything will actually be fine. The rest of the album isn’t slouchy at all though. “It’s Good To Be Back” has these whirling synthesizers that combine with their indie sound nicely. “I Lost My Mind” is another quality indie track that has a unique vocal performance. While I would recommend the song “Things Will Be Fine” more than the actual album itself, the album is still fairly solid all the way through as well.
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