Justice - Hyperdrama
Genre: Electronic; french house
Review
It’s been eight years, but the iconic electronic duo is back again with their newest album, Hyperdrama! After seeing Daft Punk retire, Justice is the closest thing to that duo that we’ll get, so it was an extra special pleasure for one of those groups to still be putting out music. This album doesn’t live up to the best from either group, but there’s no arguing that this is a really good electronic project! Sure, everything does feel a bit too polished at times, and nothing on here is mindblowing, but Hyperdrama is chalk full of consistently great tracks! Every feature on here brings their A-game, no matter if it’s the multiple Tame Impala collaborations or the slower tracks that Miguel and Thundercat have to end the album. Even when they’re no features, like on the singles “Generator” and “Incognito”, the duo manages to keep strong song structures and melodies that are fascinating throughout. If you’re looking for a cleanly produced, high-budget electronic album released this year, I doubt you’ll be able to find one better than this!
Favorite Tracks: “Incognito”, “Generator”, “Muscle Memory”
If You Like…: Daft Punk; house music
St. Vincent - All Born Screaming
Genre: Art rock; industrial rock
Review
This one surprised me. From the single, I expected the whole album to be full of distorted guitars and industrial drums, but that’s not what this album is. Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of that on here, but we don’t even get a crunchy guitar until midway through the second track. “Hell is Near” starts off the album with a slow, soulful rock instrumental before the album really explodes with the next track. To help create these sounds, she brought on people like Dave Grohl and Josh Freese to help make the drums what they are, but she tends to handle all the nasty guitar work herself. A song like “Flea” shows the combined power of Annie and Dave together, whereas the crazy synths on “Big Time Nothing” are all done by her! “Violent Times” manages to combine these 80s drums that sound like they’re from a Janet Jackson record and these blown out horns into a ballad-esque track that allows Annie to show off her vocal range! The only track that doesn’t completely work for me is, “Sweetest Fruit”. The song is an homage to the legendary electronic producer SOPHIE, but the weird arpeggiated synths don’t do the song any favors and I think she could’ve expanded on the concept a bit more. Still though, All Born Screaming is another fantastic album from one of rock’s best artists!
Favorite Tracks: “Flea”, “Violent Times”, “Broken Man”
If You Like…: Nine Inch Nails; Foo Fighters
Maruja - Connla’s Well
Genre: Post-rock; post-punk
Review
Maruja is officially joining the collection of fantastic post-punk adjacent music coming out of the UK! If you like any of the bands Black Country, New Road, Black Midi,or Squid, you’ll definitely find something to enjoy about Maruja! They land on the more aggressive side of those bands, especially when it comes to the drums. The drumming on here is done at a breakneck pace and is the basis for all the distortion and aggression to follow. The other big part of this band is how much personality the vocalist has. He doesn’t do much singing, but rather does spoken word-esque verses and choruses that are somewhere between raising your voice and screaming. All the songs with the vocals are aggressive sounding, but they prove that they can strip it back into an emotional, semi-ballad with the ending song, “Resisting Resistance”. At this point, we just have to wait for their debut album, and I hope it comes sooner rather than later!
Favorite Tracks: “The Invisible Man”, “Zeitgeist”, “Resisting Resistance”
If You Like…: Black Midi; Black Country, New Road; know what the UK post-punk scene is
Dua Lipa - Radical Optimism
Genre: Dance-pop; electro-pop
Review
Dua Lipa is the queen of pop so far this decade. No album has dominated the radio like Future Nostalgia. Even multiple years after it came out, songs were still peaking on the charts. Heck, the album came out in March 2020, but “Levitating” was the biggest song in the US in 2021! With the longevity of that album and her smash hit for the Barbie movie, the four year break between albums felt like she never left the public eye. As for this album, it doesn’t feel as immediate as Future Nostalgia, but it’s still a fantastic pop album! She brings on Kevin Parker and Danny L. Harle to help produce the entire thing, so it’s no surprise that it sounds pretty immaculate. Dua’s voice is also still fantastic, especially on a track like “Falling Forever”. The lyrics aren’t anything special, but they usually aren’t for most pop stars like her. The singles are the highlights of the album, energy wise, but don’t let that deter you from listening to the full album. I can imagine this album sounding even better when played this summer, so even though I still think it’s really good, I am reserving judgment until the end of the year.
If You Like…: Vacations on the beach; positivity
Kamasi Washington - Fearless Movement
Genre: Jazz
Review
Arguably the most important composer to debut in the last decade or two is back with his first album in six years, and it’s up there for his best work yet! On the simplest level, I think that has to do with the fact this is his shortest album by over an hour. Both The Epic and Heaven And Earth are over two and a half hours each, so even though this album is just under 90 minutes, it still feels like a breeze to get through, comparatively. For the first time on his studio albums, he also has vocal features. Now, not all of them really add to the songs, but they almost never take away from it. For example, “Asha The First” starts out with frantic soloing from Thundercat and Kamasi, before two rappers from the east coast group Coast Contra dominate the second half of the track with their verses. Now, did we need three minutes of rapping from them, not really, but their verses aren’t bad or anything. The same can also be said for the single, “Get Lit” with D Smoke and George Clinton. But when the album gets into the jazz-oriented things, it really blossoms into something otherworldly! “Prologue” ends the album with a mind-altering flurry of jazz solos, while “Dream State” with André 3000 sounds like a better, more composed version of what he was doing on his album. It will take a while to fully understand and appreciate everything in this dense 86-minute masterpiece, but it feels like a masterpiece nonetheless.
Favorite Tracks: “Prologue”, “Dream State” (Feat. André 3000), “Lesanu”
If You Like…: Jazz
Mdou Moctar - Funeral for Justice
Genre: Rock; saharan rock
Review
If you like Mdou Moctar’s previous work, you’ll like this one too. That’s not necessarily a knock on the album because at what they are good at, they excel at it to the highest level! Mdou’s guitar work is second to none, and he lets it fly on here even more than ever before! Songs like “Imouhar”, “Sousoume Tamacheq”, and “Oh France” are classic Mdou Moctar styled rock bangers, but then there’s a song like the title track, which revolves around a riff that sounds straight out of the 80s rock days. Even the slower songs have interesting polyrhythms going on with the drums and handclaps, while the group vocals make you want to sing along even though you have no idea what they’re saying. Oh yeah, that’s something to note for new listeners to them, the lyrics on this album are all sung in the Tamasheq language native to him. Even though we can’t understand the lyrics, they are still vitally important to this album’s experience. They are about the systemic issues and colonization that has happened in his native Niger. So as much as the guitar work here leaves us astounded, the lyrics are also here to enact positive change in the work, and I hope that Funeral for Justice will do just that.
Favorite Tracks: “Imouhar”, “Sousoume Tamacheq”, “Tchinta”
If You Like…: Electric guitar; Jimi Hendrix
A. G. Cook - Britpop
Genre: Electro-pop; alternative
Review
As with other A. G. Cook albums, this is far from a conventional release. In fact, Britpop is a triple album consisting of the sections past, present, and future. The past is Cook going back to the classic days of PC Music with his sound. These primarily consist of skittering electronics and weird song structures. The present disc is almost a singer-songwriter album. Every song revolves around an acoustic guitar and Cook’s voice, along with some weird electronic things as well. Those electronic things are just more of the background in this disc compared to the entire thing that they were on the past disc. The future disc is supposed to be Cook’s look at what the future of pop music could be. This is definitely the most sonically interesting and diverse disc. These songs range from drum n bass inspired electro-pop tracks to soaring pop anthems sung by Charli XCX and even to the breathtakingly gorgeous “Pink Mask”! Overall though, this isn’t the type of album that works for a one paragraph description. I can say that I think each disc is better than the one before it and that the SOPHIE tribute, “Without”, will likely be one of my favorite songs this year, but Britpop feels like another purposeful non-album album from the producer. Instead, just enjoy the massive amount of awesome music that he dropped here and try to digest as much of it as you can.
Favorite Tracks: “Without”, “WWW”, “Nice To Meet You”
If You Like…: PC Music; Charli XCX
Moore Kismet - Huemor Me
Genre: EDM; electronic
Review
It’s been almost two years since the massive debut album from Moore Kismet, and they’re finally back with new music in the form of a six song EP! Something different about this project is that it came out on Sable Valley! For those that don’t know, Sable Valley is the record label started by RL Grime and has progressed into a hub for creative new electronic artists to grow their craft. Over the last few years, they’ve had people like ISOxo, Knock2, Pauline Herr, Juelz, and more that have put out fantastic, forward thinking electronic music. This was Moore’s opportunity to add to that growing legacy, and they came through with their best overall project yet! The main thing I noticed with this project compared to their previous work is that these songs all progress wonderfully! Previously, the drops and overall sonics of their songs would stay relatively the same, but they are able to add in layers of noises and tempo changes that make the songs feel like they are transforming. Still, it’s not a transformative project, but rather one that sees Moore continuing to progress into hopefully making a landmark project in this scene!
Favorite Tracks: “Surface”, “Energy” (Feat. Wink), “getSLAPPED!”
If You Like…: RL Grime; trap music
Mach-Hommy - #RICHAXXHAITIAN
Genre: Hip-hop
Review
It’s been years since the last solo Mach-Hommy album, but he’s stayed relatively active. He put out a series of EPs in 2022 that are only available through a random website, and he did a collab album with Tha God Fahim last year that was pretty good, but Fahim just isn’t as good as Mach. Thankfully, #RICHAXXHAITIAN lives up to the hype that Mach has built up over the past few years. It follows a similar sound and formula as his previous solo albums, but he does change it up enough to make it feel fresh. A big example of why is the lead single, “#RICHAXXHAITIAN”. Instead of a normal Conductor or Sadhu Gold beat, he taps Kaytranada for a bouncy, summer-anthem that also has 03 Greedo on the chorus. If I had to make a list of who Mach-Hommy would work with, I could easily say a hundred people before 03 Greedo, but he somehow works on this track. As with all Mach-Hommy projects, the lyrics are extremely dense and hard to figure out, so I can’t speak too much to the lyrical content here, but I like how Mach is continuing his theme of being proud of his Haitian heritage. It’s cool to see someone embracing their heritage and bringing a new viewpoint to this genre. Even though it’ll take months to fully digest, #RICHAXXHAITIAN is another top tier rap album from the most enigmatic people in music.
Favorite Tracks: “Same 24” (Feat. Big Cheeko), “#RICHAXXHAITIAN” (Feat. Kaytranada & 03 Greedo), “Sonje” (Feat. Hephzibah)
If You Like…: Abstract hip-hop
Chief Keef - Almighty So 2
Genre: Trap; drill
Review
Chief Keef is already a legend in the genre, especially when it comes to influence, but he’s not even 30 yet! He was still a teenager during his heyday and has steadily been putting out quality projects since then. Almighty So 2 is another awesome project that shows the growth of Chief Keef, both as a rapper and a producer. The production is both aggressive and polished, which has always been a hard balance to strike for him before. Keef’s way of programming 808s is instantly recognizable, and he makes sure to keep that uniqueness in this project. He has also matured as a lyricist, but he’s still far from actually dispensing wisdom. I mean, he says the Earth is flat and literally brags about getting sexually assaulted on this album. Now, you can argue that that’s far from the most horrendous thing that’s happened to him when you grow up where he grew up, but I feel like people should know that being sexually assaulted is bad. Still though, there’s no doubting the production or his rapping ability here! Almighty So 2 is another step forward for Chief Keef and will likely be one of the better hip-hop projects in this lane this year!
If You Like…: Bangers; getting lit at a work convention
Childish Gambino - Atavista
Genre: Alternative hip-hop; R&B
Review
This isn’t really a new album. Atavista is the finished version of 3.15.20 that Gambino released right at the beginning of the pandemic. Most of the songs here are the same, except for being mixed and mastered like a normal album would be. There are a couple added features, namely Young Nudy on “Little Foot Big Foot” and Summer Walker on “Sweet Thang”. Arguably the biggest addition to the album is hearing a final version of “Human Sacrifice”! This is a song that Gambino has been playing live since 2018, but after it didn’t make 3.15.20, it didn’t seem like we would ever hear a finalized version. Thankfully, it made its way onto this album and even though it doesn’t have every single thing about it that I loved, it’s a satisfying version that I’m just glad to have released. There is a completely new Childish Gambino album coming later this summer, but for fans that are keeping up with his music, Atavista is an entertaining re-release.
Favorite Tracks: “To Be Hunted”, “Final Church”, “Human Sacrifice”
If You Like…: 3.15.20
Terrace Martin - Grounded
Genre: New Age; ambient
Review
It’s been a few months since the last Terrace Martin project, and although Grounded doesn’t hit the spot like his usual work, I understand why. Instead of the project revolving around the jazz or soul genres, this one is a new age album. It’s a spiritual and minimalistic genre that revolves around frequencies and sounds to promote spiritual healing. This album was made for that purpose. He explained in an Instagram Story when the album came out that this was made to help himself and his family cope with the loss of Terrace’s father. After almost a year from the loss, he decided to put it out in case it might help someone else with their life. So while I do recommend this album, don’t just sit there and focus completely on it. Let it be the background music to your meditation time or while journaling.
If You Like…: New Age music; meditating
Snow Strippers - Night Killaz Vol. 2
Genre: Electronic; electro-pop
Review
This is the second installment in an EP series by the duo, and even though it does improve on the first one, I’m still slightly disappointed. It’s the all-too-familiar syndrome of when an artist releases an amazing single, but then the rest of the project doesn’t live up to that single. “So What If I’m A Freak” was the single from this album, and is easily one of the best pop bangers of 2024! It’s such a club banger that combines the trashiness of the early 2010s pop hits and the wild production of a European eurodance anthem. Of course, the song isn’t complete without the random gun noises and sampling a viral meme right before the drop. The rest of this EP is still good, it’s just lacking the immediate replayability of this song. Nothing is as catchy or as unique as the single. Still though, Night Killaz Vol. 2 is a fun time for your friends that like weird music and going clubbing.
Favorite Tracks: “So What If I’m A Freak”, “Need To Know”, “Favorite Lifeline”
If You Like…: Clubbing; listening to 3OH!3 in 2024
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