July and August 2025 Project Roundup (Tyler the Creator, Hayley Williams, JID, Ethel Cain...)
- Andrew Doucette
- 44 minutes ago
- 17 min read
Genre: Indie-country
Review
I first heard of Ryan Davis last year when he opened for MJ Lenderman, and it turns out that Ryan had actually inspired Lenderman while growing up. So being a big fan of Lenderman and impressed by Ryan’s performance, I kept an eye on his upcoming music, and less than a year later, we got New Threats From The Soul! Like its predecessor, this album is seven songs long, but it also stretches to almost an hour in length. The average song on here is just over eight minutes in length! Instrumentally, the songs don’t necessarily progress all that amazingly, but it's the lyrics that are the real star of the show! Ryan’s lyrics occupy the line between sincere and hilarity, all while using very specific situations. Even one of the first lines of the album is, “I left my true love in a West Lafayette escape room,” a good example of how some of the lines are hilarious. But then when you get to the end of the song, there’s a line line, “But can one really blame the soul? The strange positions I had put it in // The little mismeasurements between the place where I am and the place where I coulda been.” There are songs like that all over the project, my personal favorite being “The Simple Joy”, but I’ll save talking about that one for the end of the year songs list. For now though, I’m really enjoying diving into this lyrical odyssey!
Favorite Tracks: “The Simple Joy”, “New Threats From The Soul”, “Monte Carlo / No Limits”
If You Like…: MJ Lenderman; fantastic songwriting
Genre: Art-pop; soft-rock
Review
As I was finishing my Paramore discography article, Hayley decided it was the perfect time to roll out her new solo material! After teasing 17 songs on her website, they all came to streaming at the beginning of the month, but not as we expected. Instead of an album, all 17 songs were listed as their own single and each with its own cover art. Hayley then encouraged fans to create their own playlists of the new songs and put them in whichever order they liked. As someone that really loves the sanctity-like feeling of an album, this idea took a bit of time to wrap my head around. I still don’t fully feel invested in the idea, as I just took the average aggregate track order for my playlist, but I appreciate the creativity to just put out nearly an hour of material and just let your fans create their own albums. As for the songs themselves, Hayley tries a plethora of different sounds, and usually succeeds! I love the pitched vocals on “Glum”, and the classic pop-rock sound of “Mirtazapine” is always welcome to hear from her! Lyrically, she’s processing a lot of different things on here. “Kill Me” is about generational trauma and the pressure to have children, whereas “True Believer” and “Ego Death at The Bachelorette Party” are both about Nashville turning more conservative and accepting of racism. I especially find it funny how the latter of those tracks has a line about being in a, “racist country singer’s bar,” but there’s multiple artists that fit the bill no one is sure which one she’s talking about. There is also a lot of talk about breakups on the album, which would mean her and Paramore guitarist Taylor York could have broken up, but this isn’t a drama page, so I’m not gonna delve into that too deeply. Overall, I definitely enjoyed this collection of tracks, and who knows, maybe I’ll come up with my own tracklist at some point. If you want to use my playlist, I’ll put it here, or I would recommend this very helpful website a fan created to look at what other orders people are putting the songs in. (Or just wait a couple days, rumor is Hayley’s releasing her tracklist soon).
Favorite Tracks: “Mirtazapine”, “Kill Me”, “Ego Death at The Bachelorette Party”
If You Like…: Weirder Taylor Swift; choose your own adventure books
Genre: Alt-rock
Review
Wet Leg’s self-titled debut album from 2022 really grew on me after seeing them at Coachella the next year, so now that they’re back with their second album, I knew I had to give it the attention it deserved. Before I mention the music itself, Wet Leg was originally a duo between Rhian and Hester, but for this album, the other three touring members are now officially part of the group! You can really hear that “full band” feeling when listening to this one compared to the debut, especially when it comes to the details in the songs. The album did take a couple listens to grow on me, but I now think it’s great! The singles “Catch These Fists” and “CPR” just made it seem like it was going to be a lot like the debut album, but the rest of the album is much different. A lot of these songs are soft, indie-rock songs about love. I know that sounds like it could fit a lot of music out there, and it does, but when it comes to Wet Leg, that’s a big shift. All in all though, it does seem like a shift for the better, because I’m not sure if they could make a long career out of only the hilarious, semi-ironic rock anthems of the first album. But when it comes to Moisturizer, this sounds like a band maturing gracefully and proving that they have the chops to be around for many more years to come!
Favorite Tracks: “CPR”, “Catch These Fists”, “Mangetout”
If You Like…: Fantastic indie-rock
Genre: Hip-hop; dance; funk
Review
Yeah, Tyler did it again! Don’t Tap The Glass is easily the most simple and urgent thing that Tyler has ever done, and it’s evident by the fact this album came out only nine months after his previous album, Chromakopia. He still has shows of the Chromakopia tour to finish after this new album came out! The album starts off by telling people to move while listening to the album, and to check your baggage at the door, both of which definitely make the album a better experience! While it’s not a dance album, this album was clearly made for having fun and not for personal delves into the soul. These songs are all upbeat, chalk full of dancy choruses, and incredible production! As usual, Tyler produced everything on the album, and although it’s clear his influences here are more West Coast oriented, every song is immediately clear that Tyler produced it. There’s not really much to say about it, it’s just so much fun to listen to! Tyler is building up quite the discography, and not only that, he’s only seeming to get more and more popular, so I can’t wait to see what he comes up with next!
Favorite Tracks: “Ring Ring Ring”, “Don’t You Worry Baby” (Feat. Madison McFerrin), “Sugar on My Tongue”
If You Like…: His previous albums; dancing
Genre: Hip-hop
Review
Ever since I first heard The Never Story in 2017, JID has been one of my favorite rappers. Every project of his has only elevated his artistry, so it took me a while to get my head around this project when it didn’t. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great, I think my expectations were just way too high, especially after Clipse’s mammoth album a month before. Sonically, this album has so much bass I actually have to turn my bass down in my car in order to hear the words as clearly as I want. The biggest offender of this is actually my favorite song on the album, “Gz”. The song shows JID talking about racial injustice, culminating in a story about his car getting robbed outside of the Falcon’s stadium, but JID forgiving them not only because he did the same thing as a child, but because he views generations of institutionalized racism as the overarching problem. It’s a genuinely moving song that’s disguised inside of a banger, but it’s songs like these that still make JID stand out. There are still plenty of other great songs, including getting Clipse on “Community”, Earthgang and Ciara on the Atlanta skate anthem “Sk8”, the introspective center of the album with “Of Blue”, and just a straightforward banger on “On McAfee”. As with every album of JID’s, there are also plenty of layers to peel back, and I’m looking forward to tearing it apart over these next couple months!
If You Like…: Atlanta hip-hop
Genre: Hip-hop; abstract hip-hop; “trauma bops”
Review
This was released the same day as the new Clipse album, so it took me a little bit to actually get around to this album, but after digesting it, I think it’s Open Mike Eagle’s best album in at least 5 years! While his previous two albums were good, they were missing the emotional aspect that I personally really like about his music. Those other albums felt like he just wanted to focus on the craft of rapping. This one feels like he’s back to making well-written, emotional, amusing, thoughtful songs. He’s able to take very mundane topics, and add meaning to them in both a humorous and emotional way. For example, “ok but im the phone screen” is about his phone getting run over by a truck. The first verse is his telling of the story, but the second verse is about the loss of all his ideas and grieving through that loss. I especially like the line, “I'm a little bit in mourning for the portion in my brain that's got to grab words before they circle down the drain”. The same can be said for “my co-worker clark kent’s secret black box,” which is about the people at the Daily Planet clearly knowing that Clark Kent is Superman in the first verse, but then flips the idea on its head in the second verse about how people at work can be jealous of your life outside of work. There are also moments on here that are entirely lighthearted, such as “wide leg michael jordan generation x jeans”, or entirely personal, such as “michigan j. wonder”. Neighborhood Gods Unlimited shows that Open Mike Eagle is back to making fantastic songs in what he calls his genre, “trauma bops”.
Favorite Tracks: “my co-worker clark kent’s secret black box”, “ok but im the phone screen”, “michican j. wonder”
If You Like…: Alternative hip-hop; everyman hip-hop
Genre: Art-pop; folktronica; experimental hip-hop
Review
I really liked this album. There are still a couple glaring parts that keep me from loving it, but there’s plenty to enjoy! As a producer and arranger, Quadeca is only improving! These soundscapes are genuinely striking, and the fact that he started out as a teenager on Youtube making KSI diss tracks only makes it even more insane that he can make something like this. The songwriting is also improved in parts, especially when it comes to the singles. Both "Godstained" and “Monday” are fairly accessible pop songs, whereas I still can’t believe “Forgone” isn’t an age-old religious melody. Genuinely though, the melody that he carries through the chorus and on the piano is so perfect and timeless that I could see this song becoming something special to a lot of people. Now, his singing and rapping are still just decent most of the time. Occasionally there’ll be a song or moment where his vocals really work for me, but most of the time, it’s just the voice that doesn’t connect with me. Still though, it’s an incredibly produced project that has some of the most gorgeous songs I’ve heard all year!
Favorite Tracks: “Forgone”, “Monday”, “I Dream About Sinking”
If You Like…: Conceptual art-pop; gorgeous soundscapes
Genre: Americana; slowcore
Review
After Ethel’s 90-minute EP of ambient music she put out to start the year, she is back already with the proper follow-up to her cult-classic debut album, Preacher’s Daughter. This album expands on the character Willoughby Tucker and Ethel herself from the previous album, but this review isn’t going to delve too much into the lore surrounding the music. The story doesn’t matter if the music doesn’t live up to the hype, but Ethel managed again to put out another great album! As with all her other projects, I need to be in a certain mood to put this on. The songs are all so slow, and they tend to meander on quite a bit, so much so that the last two songs are ten and fifteen minutes long respectively! This one has more instrumentals than its predecessor, likely influenced by her putting out Perverts, but I tended to enjoy these instrumentals more! There’s just an air of levity surrounding these tracks that isn’t in a lot of her other songs. I really need to dive into this project more, as I’ve only gotten a few listens in since I haven’t been in much of a mood for this album. But from the 4-5 listens I’ve had so far, it’s a pretty awesome project and a worthy followup to Preacher’s Daughter!
Favorite Tracks: “Nettles”, “Waco, Texas”, “Willoughby’s Theme”
If You Like…: Preacher’s Daughter; very slow americana music
Genre: Electronic; bass; EDM
Review
I’ve been a Moore Kismet fan since they were just a teenager with talent during the pandemic. Now on their second album, Moore is finally starting to come into their own talent! Sure, Saturate The World still has quite a few flaws, but the skill level that Moore has is improving yet again! One of the things that’s especially helpful with them is how you can immediately tell it’s a Moore Kismet song just from the sounds that they use and how they use them. The snares tend to be on beat and unflinching, but the synths are what brings the saturation into the world. Each drop has this explosion of color that only intensifies the soundscape that is already there. As someone who likes when people push boundaries, the weirder songs on here are definitely more intriguing, with “KAAHO” being undoubtedly my favorite. The tempo during the drop feels so unorthodox, and along with the blaring growl, creates this super unique drop that has tons of tension. Now, the album does run a bit long and become a bit samey at points, but the vast majority of the music on Saturate Your World shows Moore Kismet at their best, so far!
Favorite Tracks: “KAAHO”, “RAINBOWFISH”, “kk.”
If You Like…: EDM; semi-relaxing trap music
Short Reviews:
I’ve never listened to Nitepunk before, but this 5-song EP is 18-minutes of high energy bangers! I don’t know if Nitepunk usually makes this kind of techno-inspired electronic music, but he’s really great at helping these songs progress throughout. Don’t get me wrong, the songs don’t shapeshift, but he’s able to arrange the sounds that are in the song really well. I hope he continues to incorporate this sound into his future music, because he’s really good at it!
This is sometimes a bit too dubstep-y for me, but it’s still an easily enjoyable electronic album! I love how Effin weaves in all these older vocal samples, as well as keeps the energy fairly restrained. It makes the project feel more unique and styled compared to some other EDM. My only criticism of the project is just my personal taste isn’t exactly what he’s going for, but for people that can’t get enough dubstep, I feel like they might love this!
I first got into this duo after the Bonnaroo lineup came out, and their album last year became one of my favorite finds from the lineup this year. This mixtape actually came out on the Thursday we were actually at Bonnaroo, so my first listen of this was on the farm. I did really enjoy this project, but it is definitely more laid back than the actual album. This is the most wook/hippie/psychedelic electronic project I’ve heard in a while. Everything is fairly laid back, minimal, and full of alien synths. While I’m still definitely disappointed that I didn’t get to see them live, I’m still glad I got to learn about and enjoy two more artists.
This is along the same lines as the CloZee and LSDREAM collab mixtape that came out a couple months ago. Inzo was also going to be at Bonnaroo, and this project is also full of midtempo, psychedelic electronic tracks. I don’t enjoy this album quite as much as I do the LSZEE mixtape, but Nexum is still pretty enjoyable. I wish there were a couple more slightly more upbeat tracks like “Go Mode”, but for what it is, Nexum is still good.
This is a pretty decent alt-rock album. A good portion of the album is just run of the mill college rock music, but there are also quite a few songs on here that are fantastic! If you are a big fan of either Djo or indie rock, this album might be worth a listen!
Terrace has had a bit of a quiet year, but he did put out this collaboration project with Kenyon Dixon. I’m pretty unfamiliar with Kenyon, but the project is another timeless R&B project in the style that Terrace has done quite a few times before. It’s just missing anything unique to really draw me back to the album.
These were just four extra songs that JID put out a month before the album to get people excited for the full album. Now that the full album is out, it makes sense why these are loosies. They don’t fit the sound of the album, and most of them are worse than anything on the actual album. It’s also kind of funny that he had an Eminem feature and only had it on this prelux and not the actual album. It also shows his artistic integrity though, to not just shoehorn it on the actual album for higher sales. These are just loosies though, make sure you check out the overall album first.
Don’t get me wrong, this project definitely isn’t great, but if you like Travis Scott, I think you can find something to like here. Sure, this is still one of the worst things he's put out, but it’s not horrendous. It does feel a bit like all the other big, awesome hip-hop projects that came out in July are overshadowing this one and making it look worse. It’s not good, just not terrible. I do like how they have Bun B as the narrator though, it adds to the Texas energy nicely.
I mean, it’s a Larry June and Cardo album. If you’ve listened to any of their previous albums, you already know what this one sounds like. I really like their other albums, and to no surprise of my own, I like this one a lot as well. Cardo provides some laid back, west coast beats, and Larry matches it perfectly. There’s nothing else to really say about this one, it just is what it is, for better or worse.
I’m sorry Kesha. I really liked her 2022 album, I thought it was great! On the other hand, this one feels like a mess that I don’t want to return to.
This is the first ever project released under Nia Archives’s new label, Up Ya Archives. As someone that really likes jungle music but doesn’t know where to find more current jungle artists, seeing Nia Archives starting a whole label behind that idea is fantastic! This new EP did not disappoint at all, as it’s just five fast paced jungle-influenced bangers!
I don’t think this album is necessarily bad, but it doesn’t hold a candle to their previous album. I still enjoy quite a bit of these songs, just as a whole, the songs themselves just aren’t as memorable.
This isn’t really a project, just three singles he put out in one week. I just wanted to mention this because he’s put out close to 10 singles in the past couple months, and there’s some real gems in there! A couple personal favorites are “In The Name of God” and “Belly of the Beast”, but he’s doing everything from straightforward folk ballads to blues/shoegaze/metal combinations.
I don’t know why I thought this would be entertaining, but this was mainly a slog to get through. There’s a couple other decent songs that aren’t singles, most of the album is middling.
I first heard of Ninajirachi when she was featured on ISOxo’s 2023 epic debut album, kidsgonemad!, and this is Nina’s debut album. After the single “IPod Touch” was released, my expectations were pretty high, and it ended up reaching those expectations! The production here is definitely the star of the show. It’s not saying that her vocals are bad, they’re not. In fact, my favorite song might be “Sing Good”, an emotional track about how she’s going to sing and make music no matter what. But when it comes to the overall project, Nina’s production is definitely the highlight! The build on a song like “Infohazard” is fantastic, whereas the drops on “Battery Death” prove she could make more straightforward dubstep/EDM music very easily if she wanted to. The songs on here also transition between each other nicely, which is always a little thing I appreciate. This may not be my favorite thing released this year, but Ninajirachi came through with a fantastic debut album!
I can’t say I liked everything about this EP, but I definitely enjoyed listening to it! I really liked “Pressure”, especially the vocal melody. In fact, I’d say the vocal melodies were the highlight of this project!
When your friend releases an awesome EP, you gotta support it! This is her debut solo project, and it consists of five gorgeous contemporary classical songs that show her violin talents!
On first listen, I wasn’t impressed with this EP at all. But after revisiting it a couple more times, it’s grown on me. It still doesn’t blow me away or anything, nor while I think this will convince people that don’t like anything he’s done before, but I now see this as a pretty solid teaser project to his upcoming album. Having FKA twigs on here was a nice surprise too!
I mean, it’s another Young Nudy album. I always forget that I enjoy his albums more than I remember, but they do all sound the same. This one starts off pretty good and starts to tail off towards the end. If you don’t like Young Nudy though, no need to start now.
The original Alfredo is easily one of the best things that Freddie or Alchemist has ever done, so when they announced they were doing another one, expectations were very high. While I do think that the album is a bit overshadowed by how incredible the Clipse album that came out two weeks earlier is, I do think that this is an objectively great album! Compared to the simplicity of the original, this one has a bit more gravitas to it. You can feel the intention in the verses, and especially in the production from Alchemist. Still though, there’s not much to say about this besides it’s a great rapper making a full album with a great producer. So unsurprisingly, it’s great!
This is a pretty good bass/dubstep EP. The songs with TroyBoi and PEEKABOO are especially bangers, but none of the songs are bad. This EP was also released through Monstercat, so I wonder if this is also just a bit more dubstep-y due to that. Either way, I’m still down for whatever Jon decides to release.
Yeah, this is my least favorite thing I’ve heard all year. I did really like BigXThaPlug’s album from last year, but him putting out a breakup album with a country singer on every song was certainly a choice to people that liked him mainly from rapping. It’s probably a great choice commercially and monetarily, but I really hope he goes back to rap songs and not just rap verses on country songs.
This EP is just four instrumental songs from The Dare, but this is also more of what I like from him. His combination of indie-sleeze and electronic production always works for me, while his voice is more hit or miss. So while I enjoyed this EP a fair bit, unless you’re down for his instrumentals, this isn’t essential.
This was solid enough for a couple listens. He’s clearly not the best vocalist out there, but the instrumentation was overall good. This definitely got overshadowed by his fellow band member dropping new music only a couple weeks later.
Ok, I really like 2 Chainz, but this project wasn’t it. It’s also a soundtrack to this film that he’s taking around to different film festivals, so maybe these are just loosies. I’ll mainly stick to his previous project this year with Larry June and The Alchemist. The song with The Isley Brothers was pretty good though.
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