Rosalía - Motomami
The singles leading up this album had me slightly worried. While I liked “La Fama” with The Weeknd, it didn’t feel as boundary pushing as Rosalía could be. “Saoko” got her back to where I hoped, but “Chicken Teriyaki” brought them right back down. But when the full album finally came out, it ended up being exactly what I was hoping for. It was apparent that we weren’t going to get another full flamenco album, so I was just hoping for something unique, and this album is one of the most sonically all over the place albums I’ve ever heard. It can go from a mainstream reggaeton track to a piano ballad that ends with these skittering, metallic drums that take over the track, like on the song “Hentai”. “Bizcochito” is under two minutes, but it still has an enveloping hook and this warped horn line that provides much of the backing instrumentation while she raps some of the verses in pitched-up vocals. James Blake randomly pops up at the end of another crazed track “Diablo”. “CUUUUuuuuuute” is maybe my favorite track on the whole album, as it goes from the verses having this insane electronic production that could’ve been on an Arca album, to a piano led chorus perfect for a power ballad. It’s a wild song that shouldn’t work, but it does. Luckily, Rosalía still gives us time to appreciate her vocals as well, like on “Sakura” and “G3 N15”. Of course, the entire album is in Spanish and I therefore understand zero of the lyrics here, so I can’t speak to the themes or subject matter of the album just yet. But sonically, Rosalía came through with a forward-thinking album that proves her status as one of pop music’s innovators.
Michelle - After Dinner We Talk Dreams
Michelle is an up and coming indie pop group with four equally talented female singers that all share the spotlight. Even with all the singers, they still manage to make the album feel cohesive and concise, especially with their songwriting. Most of these songs fail to reach the three minute mark, but they still manage to be memorable and instant earworms. The album starts out with all their singles back to back to back, but they are still some of the best tracks on here. “Mess U Made” is the pure R&B anthem with some of the best vocal lines on the entire album, while “Pose” is the newest single that is easily one of the most danceable songs I’ve heard all year! While their danceable songs are the best songs on here, the slower songs show off their ability for harmonies nicely, especially on ballads like “50/50” and “Talking To Myself”. Michelle also came to our school for a show this year, which was a nice surprise to catch this group now because I think they could definitely end up becoming really popular. After Dinner We Talk Dreams shows that they’re well on their way there.
Jensen McRae - Are You Happy Now?
It’s been two years since Jensen McRae has been teasing the release of her debut album and it’s finally here! Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your point of view, most of this album was already out. Out of the 12 full songs on here, 7 were already released by the time the album was officially released. So personally, a good deal of this album feels a bit like a retread of ideas I’ve been familiar with for some years, but it’s still a really great singer-songwriter album, especially for a debut! The writing itself is still the best part about her music, whether it’s the way she compares Adam and Eve to a love story on “Adam’s Ribs” or about creating a positive exterior instead of looking at the darkness inside like on “Happy Girl”. There’s something to lyrically unpack in every single song. There are still some easy flaws to look at though, one being how the album is sonically similar, for the most part. The upbeat songs like “With The Lights On”, “Good Legs”, and “Dead Girl Walking” really stand out among the tracklist. The project also feels slightly too long as well at almost 50 minutes, especially with the songs sounding fairly similar. But even with those seemingly negative aspects, Jensen still comes through with a great debut album that proves once again that she has a bright future ahead of her.
The Weather Station - How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars
How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars is a companion album to their 2021 album Ignorance. They were made at the same time, and even though Ignorance is the more important album, this album is still quality and full of beautiful piano ballads. Almost completely devoid of drums, most of this album is just the piano and Tamara’s voice. Because most of this album sounds extremely similar and minimalistic, it can be a bit of a chore to listen to the full thing, but the highlights on here are extremely beautiful! A personal favorite, “To Talk About” is a duet where she talks about love and how even though it’s lazy, it provides her a welcome distraction to the current state of the world. It was also really cool to see this song performed live while unreleased as well, which definitely helped it stand out on this tracklist. “Stars” is about Tamara being overwhelmed by the beauty of the night sky and the peace she finds in it among the new year. If you haven’t heard Ignorance, I highly recommend that album first, but this is a welcome companion full of singer-songwriter piano ballads.
Luna Li - Duality
Luna Li’s become a fairly well known name in indie music, especially with her opening for Japanese Breakfast on their tour last year. Duality is her official debut album and even though she had a new EP last year filled with jam sessions, this project has been in the works for four years and contains her earliest songs. There are plenty of dreamy indie-pop songs, including the single “Afterglow” and the beautiful “Trying”. Some of the songs on here are straight indie-pop anthems that are up there with the best, including the opener “Cherry Pit” and the newest single “What You’re Thinking”. She’s no wizard on the guitar, but she proves she’s no slouch either on the outro to “Flower” with Dreamer Isioma. She keeps the jam-esque interludes in the tracklist as well, including the single “Alone But Not Lonely” and “Misery Moon”, each of which don’t reach the two minute mark and are completely chorus. Duality isn’t an album that separates Luna Li from her peers, but it shows that she can be one of the most diverse and make some of the dreamiest indie-pop out there.
Benny the Butcher - Tana Talk 4
Benny the Butcher’s become one of the most consistent names in hip hop, and Tana Talk 4 shows him going back to his roots after a couple small detours with his previous two projects. The detours weren’t bad at all, in fact, Burden of Proof still might be my favorite Benny album, but this sound is what Benny’s bread and butter is. With the entire thing being produced by Alchemist and Daringer, they help give Benny the desolate backdrop that really helps bring Benny’s stories to life. A song like “Super Plug” has this incredible piano beat from Alchemist that fits Benny unbelievably well, while a song like “Johnny P’s Caddy” somehow fits both him and J. Cole wonderfully. “10 More Commandments” is a sequel to the iconic Biggie track “Ten Crack Commandments”, and Benny even gets a cosign from Diddy, who features in a spoken word outro on the track, which helps give him the validity of this being as close to an official follow up as possible. There’s really not that much to say about this project that hasn’t already been said about anything Benny’s done before. It’s another fantastic helping of hip hop from one of the best currently doing it.
KayCyy - TW20 50
KayCyy might be more well-known to Kanye fans for being a bit of a troll/insider for the past few years. Kanye’s taken him under his wing and KayCyy even wrote a few of Ye’s recent songs, but this is the first time I’ve listened to anything KayCyy related, and I ended up being more impressed than I thought! It helps that this entire 3-song EP is produced by electronic producer Gesaffelstein, who’s a really big name in his own right. He creates these minimalistic, eerie backgrounds for KayCyy to maneuver over. Lyrically, KayCyy doesn’t bring much to the table, but his ear for melodies is his strong suit on these songs. For example, the first song, “Okay!”, never actually drops into a beat, but his vocal delivery and flow keeps it interesting for the entire runtime. The same goes for my personal favorite song, “The Sun”. That chorus is insanely beautiful and catchy at the same, but it’s really the melody that gets stuck in the listener’s head, not the words. Apparently they have a full length album coming together soon, so I’ll be really curious what that sounds like if it ever materializes, but this is a very promising appetizer.
Avril Lavigne - Love Sux
I haven’t heard anything about Avril Lavigne in a long time before she was featured on Willow’s album from last year, so when she announced a new album, I figured it might be worth a listen. For better or worse, this album sounds directly out of 2005. While the reason for that is mainly the production, Avril’s voice just has this nostalgic feel to it now after she was everywhere back in the day. So no matter what she does, it’s going to sound a bit like 2005, but the production here is pure pop-punk. Every song has these upbeat drums and fuzzy guitar chords that drive the track. Even when the songs get slower, like “Dare To Love Me”, it’s still fairly quick and has the same fuzzy-guitar-driven sound as the rest of the album. Avril’s subject matter is similar to back in the day as well, which is just songs about all the ins-and-outs of love. Even with the title, she doesn’t really delve deep into any particular facet, because for every song like the title track that sounds like a break up track, there’s one like “Kiss Me Like The World Is Ending” that’s clearly about the positives of being in love. But for what it is, Love Sux is far from the worst pop-punk currently being made, and if you’re nostalgic for the mid-2000s, you’ll likely love this.
Sasami - Squeeze
Sasami is someone I haven’t been very familiar with until this album. But between hearing one of the singles to this album, her opening up for HAIM on their upcoming tour, and her possibly coming to Madison this summer, I had to check this out. Squeeze is far from something you would expect from a HAIM opener, that’s for sure, but it’s still highly entertaining! Sasami includes lots of nu-metal and heavy guitar riffs into lots of these songs. Tracks like the opener “Skin a Rat” and “Sorry Entertainer” are pure nu-metal and even feature some screams from Sasami. But then, in the middle of the album, there are the indie songs one would expect from an artist like her. “Tried to Understand” sounds so much like a HAIM song I’m surprised they didn’t write it. But when Sasami combines the indie elements and the heavy electric guitar, like on the single “Say It”, that’s where she succeeds the most. Squeeze is far from your typical indie album in a unique way that almost no one else is doing.
Charli XCX - Crash
This album has been promoted for the past 6 months by Charli and her label. It was clear from the first single, “Good Ones”, that this was going to be a mainstream pop album that draws from the 80s. I knew that this album likely wasn’t going to be for me like her last album was, and I was right. That doesn’t mean this is bad by any means, it’s an enjoyable and passable 34 minute album, it just doesn’t leave any impact on me. There are many songs on here that I could see getting popular on the radio, like the newest single “Baby”. All of the innovation that she’s shown from her previous albums is gone on here, so I do hope that this is a one off idea for her, because I know she can do much better than this. But if it isn’t and this is what she wants to make from here on, I’m still thankful for the previous albums and artists that she’s made much more popular because of her featuring them.
Nigo - I Know Nigo
Nigo is a lauded fashion designer and was the creator of Bape, one of the biggest fashion companies in streetwear. What is he doing creating a studio album with some of the biggest names in hip hop, I don’t know. It appears that he ends up playing the DJ Khaled role here, where the only thing he actually does is just assemble everyone together and doesn’t actually do any of the producing. Instead, what this project is is a collection of tracks, many with Pharrell production, and many of which end up being surprisingly great! A$AP Rocky and Tyler the Creator open the album with a lost freestyle from years ago that shows each of them as hungry as ever. Each of them has a solo track on here as well, both of which are equally great. Pusha T shows up on here with a single that’s better than his official single he dropped off his new album, but what he also did was bring back his brother and made the first solo Clipse song in quite a long time. While the song isn’t mindblowing, it’s still a quality new song from one of the most lauded duos of the past couple decades. But for each great track on here, there’s one that’s just decent to passable at best. For what this album is, it’s still a better attempt than most other executive produced albums.
Fana Hues - flora + fana
I first heard Fana Hues for the first time like most people did, which was her feature on Tyler, the Creator’s 2021 album Call Me If You Get Lost. She knew that there would be a lot of ears on this project that she’s never had before, and she rose to the occasion with a fantastic R&B album! It’s a laid back listen that clocks in at just under half an hour, which is helpful considering this can feel almost like background music at points. Her voice is very light on the ears, and it can almost put you to sleep, in a good way. She’s able to get the high pitched background vocals like on “Bad Bad” and the upbeat vibe that is “Pieces”. The album’s runtime also allows for it to easily be put on repeat and just appreciating the aura this project gives off. In the future, I think it’d be a good idea for her to try more styles, kind of like how Kali Uchis did on Isolation, but either way, flora + fauna is definitely one of the best R&B projects I’ve heard in these past few months.
Dreamville - D-Day: A Gangsta Grillz Mixtape
Just a couple days ago, Dreamville released a surprise mixtape before their festival with 15 new tracks! While the entire project seems to be loosies and throwaways from most of the artists, it’s still nice to get new songs from one of the top labels in the game. “Stick” has been teased by JID and Kenny Mason for years now, so finally getting to hear it in CDQ and the addition of J. Cole and Sheck Wes features are amazing! The song is easily the hardest song I’ve heard this year, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that title’s not topped the rest of the year! Earthgang also has two of the better songs on the tracklist, including “Ghetto Gods Freestyle” with 2 Chainz that was previewed in Chicago at their listening party I was lucky enough to attend. Ari Lennox flips a Mary J. Blige classic on “Coming Down” really well and definitely does the original justice. JID goes absolutely off during his verse on “Barry From Simpson” and shows once again that he’s one of the best rappers currently making music. There are some songs on here that feel like filler, but it’s clearly not a project to take too seriously. I mean, DJ Drama mentioned the Chris Rock and Will Smith incident on here less than four days after it happened, so clearly there wasn’t that much thought put into the project as a whole. So I’m not going to take this project too seriously as a whole. Just enjoy the bangers and great tracks that we might not have gotten otherwise throughout this project.
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