Genre: Neo-soul; psychedelic hip-hop; experimental
Review
This is the newest, and possibly final, posthumous album from Mac Miller. Most of these songs had leaked in some capacity throughout the years, but that doesn’t mean that this wasn’t already being planned for being released. Mac had already commissioned the artwork and had talked about releasing it when he was still alive, it just took them a while to come to the decision to actually release it after he passed, and it’s not hard to see why. While his other posthumous album, Circles, was full of subdued positivity and pop-oriented songs, Balloonerism is nihilistic and full of psychedelic and experimental tracks. Heck, the final song on the album is an eleven minute, mainly instrumental song that is basically an ambient track, but created by someone who is considered to be a rapper. There are some easily enjoyable tracks though, including the single “5 Dollar Pony Rides” and the funky “Stoned”. But for how hard of a sonic shift this album is, there is something else that likely made this album hard to release, the content.
While Mac does do a lot of storytelling on this album, whenever he does talk about himself, it’s evident that he wasn’t in a good place. On his very first verse on the album, which doesn’t come until the third track by the way, he says the line, “I gave my life to this shit, already killed myself”. There’s also “Rick’s Piano”, which was recorded at Rick Rubin’s house. Now, even without knowing that Mac was at Rick’s house to help him get clean and stay sober, hearing the final two minutes of the song with Mac repeating, “What does death feel like?” is sobering to say the least. There are lines on here that unintentionally aged poorly, such as how he opens up the song “Funny Papers” by remarking how he thought no one dies on a friday. So even aside from the unorthodox production, this album is far from the easiest piece of art to digest, lyrically or emotionally. I do feel like if you’re a Mac Miller fan, you should definitely check this out, because there are some absolutely incredible moments on here that I can’t believe weren’t released until now!
Favorite Tracks: “Funny Papers”, “Stoned”, “Do You Have a Destination?”
If You Like…: Mac Miller; psychedelic music
Genre: Experimental hip-hop
Review
Only JPEGMAFIA would drop a director’s cut that is basically a whole new album. There are 14 new songs, but a little over half of them are inserted into the tracklist of the original album. They do fit wherever in the album they were at, so it doesn’t feel like they were just shoehorned in there for no reason. And in fact, they weren’t! According to Peggy, this was the original version of the album, but he decided to pair it down, and I do think it was for the best. Although all of these new songs are awesome, they don’t necessarily make the album as a whole more enjoyable. Still though, I’m glad we got to hear more from this era, because the songs really are great! “Protect The Cross” is one of the best bangers on the album, new or old, while “Cult Status” shows Peggy rapping over the beat originally at the end of “New Black History”. There is also a little EP on Side 2 of completely new songs that are nice to hear! If you like the original album or JPEGMAFIA as a whole, these new songs are worth checking out!
Favorite Tracks: “Protect The Cross”, “Cult Status”, “What the Hip Hop Hell is This?”
If You Like…: Weird, yet accessible hip-hop; rap-rock in the best way possible
Genre: Hip-hop
Review
This is one of the best surprises of 2025 so far! I’ve been a fan of all three artists for a little bit now, but even after the full album was announced, I still felt a bit iffy on how it would turn out. Thankfully, this has turned into maybe my favorite hip-hop album of the year so far! It’s so straightforward, just ten songs of 2 Chainz and Larry June rapping over Alchemist beats, but that simplicity also makes it so easy to play over and over again! Alchemist’s production continues to be fantastic, and hearing 2 Chainz do a full solo album over this type of production was wonderful to hear! Larry was kind of the weakling on the album, but he was still pretty solid overall and provided a nice contrast to the presence that 2 Chainz brings. Overall though, it just makes me want 2 Chainz to really sit down and make a full solo album in this style, because every time he’s done it so far has been exquisite!
Favorite Tracks: “Colossal”, “I Been”, “Generation”
If You Like…: Any of the artists associated with the project
Genre: Psych-rock
Review
The cover art from the album drew me in, and I’m glad it did because it ended up being a pretty cool psych-rock project! This is the debut album from the UK-group, and even though it didn’t break any boundaries, I really enjoyed the whole thing. The lead singer being a woman is already a bit unique for this sound, but her voice is pretty solid too! The jams themselves progress really well too, especially for the longer songs that reach nine minutes in length. The title song closes out the album with a great example of their sound! Both the lead singer’s vocals and the group vocals work wonderfully, but the most important part is the second half of instrumental jamming. The second song, “Hypersonic Super-Asterid”, was my favorite song though! It’s eight-and-a-half minutes of psych-rock jamming with hits of experimental noise elements.Hopefully they continue to progress from here, but Earth-Size Worlds is a pretty awesome debut album!
Favorite Tracks: “Hypersonic Super-Asterid”, “Earth-Sized Worlds”, “The Change and The Changing”
If You Like…: King Gizzard; jam bands
Genre: R&B
Review
There wasn’t a high chance I was going to like this. Drake’s recent albums have become so long that it’s usually hard to enjoy as a full project, and is more of a collection of tracks made to take your favorite tracks away and put them on your playlist. Not that anything’s wrong with that, it’s just not the way I usually consume music. But to be honest, the big reason I knew I wasn’t going to like this was PartyNextDoor. I’ve just never been a fan of anything he’s done, and this didn’t prove me wrong. Pretty much the only thing Party did on here that I enjoyed was the weird chorus on “Nokia”, everything else was either annoying, middling, or borderline an AI Future parody. If you like PartyNextDoor and Drake, you’ll probably really enjoy this project, but if you don’t, this isn’t going to convince you of anything.
Favorite Tracks: “Nokia”, “Die Trying” (Feat. Yebba)
If You Like…: PartyNextDoor or Drake
Genre: Shoegaze; alt-rock
Review
This is the first of two albums from Jane Remover this year! This one is under the alias of Venturing. It’s a very shoegaze-orientated album, almost too much so. As much as I do enjoy this album, and I really do, it feels like yet another example of Jane showcasing her potential, but not yet making the incredible project that I know she can make. There are some incredible tracks on here! The closer “Sister” was one of my favorite tracks last year, and I love the pace changes during the song “Famous Girl”. The overall sonic palette of noisy shoegaze also fits perfect for wintertime, even if this winter hasn’t felt like a normal winter. Just, it feels like she can make something better than this. I don’t want to compare her to her contemporaries, but it feels like she should be operating on an Underscores level, and she’s just not yet. But oh well, we’ll see if Revengeseekerz will finally be that album! And for the time being, Ghostholding is still a pretty good project filled with great tracks!
Favorite Tracks: “Famous Girl”, “Sister”, “Dead Forever”
If You Like…: Shoegaze; amateurish rock music
Genre: Heartland rock
Review
People Watching is the newest project from British rocker Sam Fender, and I’m feeling a bit conflicted with this one. To be clear, I do enjoy it and wish that just about everyone reading should check this out, but it does feel a bit too simple and too similar to people that he’s inspired by. The obvious influence is Bruce Springsteen, almost too much so. It sounds like most of Springsteen’s material, but it came out forty years later! It’s a bit weird hearing something that sounds this unstuck in time coming out in 2025, but it’s so endearing at points that it doesn’t fully matter. The title track starts off the album with a perfect heartland rock anthem that’s punctuated with Fender’s elevating vocals. If we’re talking about his vocals, you can’t forget the last track, which is easily the most minimal and heartfelt on the record. My main problem, aside from the sometimes imitation, is that it’s not really a sound I listen to all that much. Still though, it’s clear to me that Sam is not just using this sound as a gimmick to become popular, but a thoughtful writer and artist who cares deeply about his art!
Favorite Tracks: “People Watching”, “Remember My Name”, “Wild Long Lie”
If You Like…: Bruce Springsteen; 80s pop-rock
Short Reviews
I mean, it’s another new album from Mike. That means it’s pretty good, but if you don’t like his brand of unorthodox, impressionistic hip-hop, you won’t like this one either.
Once you get over your expectations for a Zelooperz album, this is actually pretty good! It’s nothing amazing, but Zelooperz is still a great rapper and Real Bad Man laced him with some intricate, quiet beats. If you like straightforward hip-hop, you might like this.
A pretty cool little trap/dubstep EP. It’s a bit too dubstep at points for my personal taste, but we’ll see how it ages. “Bass Is Bumpin” is definitely the highlight if you only want to check one song out.
It’s just a live EP of tracks captured on Jack’s recent tour this fall, but they provide a great advertisement for his upcoming live tour. Too bad the entire thing is sold out already, but at least you can live vicariously through these few songs if you’re like me and don’t have tickets.
This is the debut album from new pop-punk group, Winona Fighter, and it’s pretty awesome! Sure, it can be a bit too Paramore-esque at points, but there are also quite a few tracks that go a bit more hard rock than Paramore’s stuff. “You Look Like a Drunk Phoebe Bridgers” is not only just a hilarious name, but a kickass tune! The rest of the album goes pretty hard as well! There’s not much to really say about this album, but the whole thing goes hard and is an awesome pop-punk release!
There was an almost six year break between full albums from Mereba, and it feels like she missed her chance to blow up. But still, even if she won’t blow up in popularity, The Breeze Grew a Fire is still a pretty solid R&B album. The combination of her voice and timeless production makes this a quality release people might check out, but as long as you like R&B music.
The Dolly Parton remix of “Please Please Please” is pretty disappointing, but the other four new songs are easily enjoyable. If you enjoyed the original album, these new songs could be worth a listen.
While I do think Skaiwater is doing some pretty interesting things, I have yet to fully love a full project of theirs. There are quite a few good tracks on here though, “pop” being the main one.
After Dody6’s great feature on Kendrick’s GNX, I wanted to check out a full album. Unfortunately, this album didn’t live up to that feature, but there were a couple interesting tracks. I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone that doesn’t love west coast hip-hop though.
This newest EP from Maruja is made up of 20 or so minutes of completely improvised instrumental music! So yeah, it’s a bit different than what they normally do, but it’s still pretty good! I do hope their debut album comes out later this year, but for now, this will fulfill my requirement of Maruja’s brand of post-punk.
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