Madlib - Sound Ancestors
Madlib is one of the greatest hip hop producers of all time. His production usually revolves around collaboration projects, including some of the best projects of the past two decades with people like MF DOOM and Freddie Gibbs. His solo discography is fairly slim, especially with most of his work being under his rapping alter ego Quasimoto. This is as close to a solo album as he’s got so far, as Madlib did all the music, but it’s all arranged by electronic artist Four Tet. Sound Ancestors comes through as an overall great instrumental hip hop project. Songs like “Road of the Lonely Ones”, “The Call”, and “Riddim Chant” are easily some of the best beats of 2021. These songs feel a lot larger than a normal instrumental project, and while the rest doesn’t live up to that, the rest of it is still really good. “Two for 2 - For Dilla” is an ode to icon J Dilla and sounds like something off of his classic project Donuts. “The New Normal” is driven by this filthy, synth-led melody. Sound Ancestors is one of the first great projects of the year, and I’d be surprised if it’s not one of the top couple instrumental hip hop projects of 2021.
Arlo Parks - Collapsed in Sunbeams
Arlo Parks is being hyped up by everyone. Publications love her music, fellow artists love her music, and her promotion team is putting her on everything they can. I think this album definitely can live up to these expectations if you know what you’re getting into. This is a soft, indie rock album with some great and personal songwriting. The album is a bit sonically similar, but all the sticky choruses help differentiate the tracks. “Black Dog” is a harrowing look into what it’s like watching someone go through depression. “Hope” has another uplifting chorus for those going through tough times, “You’re not alone, like you think you are. We all have scars, I know it’s hard”. Being a 20 year old, black, bisexual women, many of her experiences are from a different perspective than most, but she still manages to make them relatable for the average person. I’m not sure if this is the album to make Arlo Parks a star, as it sounds like almost any indie rock album out there, but the potential is still easily apparent.
Celeste - Not Your Muse
Whether or not if you know who Celeste is, you’ve likely heard her song “Strange” before. It was recently in both Ted Lasso and Bridgerton tv shows, and has been making its rounds the past couple years as well. It’s an incredibly beautiful and heartbreaking song that fits her voice perfectly. While nothing else on the album lives up to that song, it’s still some good, timeless soul and pop. “Stop This Flame” has Celeste really showing her Adele influence, but the fast paced drums and subtle string additions make for a fantastic song. “Love is Back” is another timeless single that’s perfect for a soul radio station. “Beloved” shows Celeste getting back into the ballad bag, but it’s a beautiful tune with an almost film-like instrumental behind her. The album does make me wonder if she’ll be relegated to the person that wrote one incredible song and then a bunch of good ones, but she’s still clearly got a lot of talent and will pick up many fans wanting this old school soul sound.
Big Ghost Ltd & Conway the Machine - IF IT BLEEDS IT CAN BE KILLED
It took just over a month, but we already got the first release from Griselda this year and it’s just as fantastic as always. With a title like IF IT BLEEDS IT CAN BE KILLED, I knew we were getting into something with this one. Conway’s bars are just as ruthless and personal as ever. Songs like “Losses to Beginnings” and “Forever Ago” show Conway’s emotional vulnerability, but there’s also songs like “Kill All Rats” and “Red Beams” that will be some of the grimiest of 2021. Big Ghost brings some incredible production as well. The first project with Conway was more pure evil music, but this one has some beautiful soul samples spliced in throughout the album as well like on “Highly Praised”. “J Batters” has a similar beautiful quality, but over this luscious orchestra. It’s crazy that this is a project made to hold over people until Conway’s Shady debut, God Don’t Make Mistakes. This is easily one of the best hip hop projects of the year so far, if not the best. If you’re not on the Griselda hype train yet, now’s a great time to get on.
The Weeknd - The Highlights
It took just under 10 years for The Weeknd to go from near homelessness to performing at the Super Bowl and releasing a greatest hits album. It might not seem like he’s had enough hits, but the album is full of 18 different tracks spanning his entire career. 2020’s After Hours and 2015’s Beauty Behind the Madness dominate the tracklist, as they contain over half of the tracklist, but for good reason. Each of the albums has two number one hits, and another hit that reached in the top 5. Beauty Behind the Madness even has two more songs that peaked just outside of the top 10, and After Hours has one. Some other highlights include the recently retired Daft Punk associated hits “Starboy” and “I Feel It Coming”, the former also being a number one hit. “The Morning” and “Wicked Games” still sound as good now as they did in 2011 when they were released. He even throws on a couple collabs that were originally other artists' songs, like “Pray For Me” with Kendrick off the Black Panther soundtrack, or his duet with Ariana in 2014 called “Love Me Harder”, his first top 10 placement. Technically, this album also became the most streamed album of all time at its release with over 12 billion total streams on these 18 songs. It’s a victory lap for an already illustrious career, and After Hours shows that he’s only just figuring out how to make a cohesive body of work.
JPEGMAFIA - EP2!
JPEGMAFIA already makes music that sounds completely unique, and this EP shows him going in yet another direction. Insead of aggression, this project is extremely soft and introspective. A great look into this project was the lead single, “FIX URSELF!”. Ambient synth textures and downtrodden horns drive the entire song, as well as Peggy’s heavily auto-tuned voice. The lyrics on here are peak JPEGMAFIA, especially with a line like, “I love my baby like Trump loves Putin, in the deepest way.” “THIS ONE’S FOR US!” is another lyrical highlight, with Peggy talking about racism and inequality. “PANIC ROOM!” lives up to its name, especially with the eerie production. It also makes the second song in a row with no chorus and just him spitting verses for the entire track. James Blake also helped produce this song, making him the only person who touched this project besides JPEGMAFIA. Fans have been a bit mixed on this project, and I can easily see why. It’s not his best project, but it shows that one of the most unique voices in hip hop is still trying different sounds.
Slowthai - Tyron
At 14 tracks and 35 minutes long, Tyron is split up into two different sides. The first seven songs are the bangers of the project and boast features from Skepta and A$AP Rocky, both of whom bring great additions to their respective tracks. The subject matter on this side ranges from cancel culture to ADHD, but it’s more about the aggression and feeling of these songs than the meaning. Side two of this album is introspective and shows Slowthai using more melody in his songs. This side also has phenomenal features, this time from Dominic Fike, Deb Never, and James Blake. “Feel away” with James Blake and Mount Kimbie was the first single, but it still comes through as arguably the best song on the entire project. Slowthai dedicated the track to his brother who had passed away recently, and the emotion bleeds through the track. Even though this is still a quality album, it hasn’t yet hit me over the head like I wanted it to. For people who like any facet of hip hop, you will find something to like in this project.
Dominique Fils-Aime - Three Little Words
This is the third album in the trilogy of albums Dominique has been releasing, and this is a fantastic conclusion. Her brand of R&B and neo soul is definitely something that’s already up my alley, and she comes through with many different genres of songs on here, sometimes even in the same song. “While We Wait” starts out like a 1950s doo-wop track, but then goes into this powerful ending about racial equality. That jazz-inspired sound continues on the straightforward “You Left Me” with these puchy saxophone notes and layered backup vocals. Speaking of her vocals, the vocals are what makes Dominique different from other artists in this vein. She’s not the best vocalist, but the way she layers backup vocals always makes the track that much better. This is likely due to the fact that her debut album has a couple fully acapella tracks, and most of the other songs don’t have that much instrumentation. There’s still so much to talk about; like the African grooves on the title track, the beautiful ballad that is “Being The Same", and the BB King cover that ends the album; but this is a project that is perfect for a musically detailed escape from the cold depths of this winter.
Various Artists - Judas and the Black Messiah: The Inspired Album
I could understand both viewpoints with this project. Since it is a soundtrack, it’s tied directly to Fred Hampton and his politics, which the soundtrack is far from accurately representing. But if you look at it as just a collection of songs, I think there’s loads of great stuff on here. H.E.R has the first official song and kicks it off with a great anthem called, “Fight For You”. Legendary MCs Nas and Black Thought come on next and outside of poor mixing, bring more great bars. “What It Feels Like” with Jay-Z and Nipsey Hussle was one of the most anticipated tracks, and it ends up as one of the best. Posthumous Nipsey Hussle verses have always been great so far, and Jay Z rapping like this at 51 is just unfair. There’s still great songs later in the tracklist from Smino and Saba, JID and Rapsody, G Herbo, A$AP Rocky, Nardo Wick, Hit-Boy, and more. The project is a bit too long, especially at 22 songs, but the majority are at least good and bring together a bunch of different sounds in the current day hip hop landscape.
R+R=NOW - R+R=NOW Live
R+R=NOW is a jazz supergroup led by Robert Glasper, but it also contains people like Terrace Martin on synthesizer and vocals, Derrick Hodge on bass, Justin Tyson on drums, and a few more. This live set was actually recorded back in 2018 when the group did a live residency for a month in NYC. You can tell that it’s a live album, as Robert tends to talk and laugh with the crowd in between certain songs. There are a couple songs that feel a bit too long and winding for me, but those come at the end and the rest of the project has some really good moments. “How Much a Dollar Cost - Live” is a jazz cover of the Kendrick Lamar song by the same name and it’s fantastic. “Change of the Tone - Live” is a great, traditional jazz cover with Terrace Martin on the talkbox and a quality piano solo to end the track. “Perspectives/Postpartum” has the best build on the project and maybe the best track on here. It obviously won’t be the most innovative or the best jazz project of 2021, but it’s nice for people that want some live jazz fusion music.
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