May and June 2025 Project Roundup (PinkPantheress, Kali Uchis, Addison Rae, Lil Wayne...)
- Andrew Doucette
- 18 minutes ago
- 12 min read
Genre: Hip-hop; soul
Review
I didn’t doubt Little Simz all that much, but without the Inflo production, I was worried it would be a step down from her previous releases. On the contrary, Simz came through with something that’s just as good as her previous releases! Speaking of Inflo, a big part of the album is about how he screwed Little Simz out of almost two million dollars of her own money. This separation between two people whose music means a lot to me really sucks to see, but it does seem pretty clear who was in the right and who was in the wrong. Simz starts out angry with the song “Thief”, a scathing attack over this fast-paced instrumental, whereas the penultimate song is a meditation on her trying to make an album without her producer she trusted so dearly. There are also plenty of other beautiful, quiet moments on the album that really stand out to me. “Blood” features a make-believe phone call between two siblings who clearly have a complicated relationship. “Peace” boasts a feature from the wonderful artist Moses Sumney, and he works fairly well with Little Simz over this minimal, guitar-driven instrumental. It should come as no surprise that Little Simz continues to be one of the greatest rappers of this decade, and she’s made one of the best hip-hop albums of the year!
If You Like…: Great, timeless hip-hop
Genre: Psych-rock; jam-rock
Review
I’ve heard of Goose before, but I never really dug into their stuff until it was announced that they would be on the Bonnaroo lineup this year. I’m glad I did because they’re fantastic, and this new album is wonderful! Sure, 90 minutes is a bit excessive, but it’s a great album to really just get lost in. Just let all the accessible jamming and weird lyrics flow right in. “Give It Time” is the second song on here, and it’s one of my favorite tracks of the year! Sure, the lyrics are a bit simple and kind of corny, but they manage to cut deep. Sonically, the pace change in the middle of the song and the build during the jam adds so much to the track. On the opposite note, the lyrics on a song like “Animal” seem like nonsense, but the song is so sonically engaging that it doesn’t matter. The same goes for “Dustin Hoffman”, which I don’t think is about the actor. The song is so enthralling and dynamic that the lyrics don’t matter that much. I know not to expect a jam band to play anything specific at a show, but I do hope they play at least one or two of these songs at Bonnaroo! (Editor’s Note: Welp)
Favorite Tracks: “Give It Time”, “Animal”, “Dustin Hoffman”
If You Like…: Jam bands
Genre: Indie-rock
Review
It’s time to focus a bit on local music this month, starting with Boxing Day! This group first started at a show put on by a club I was a part of at the time, WUD Music. They were having a battle of the bands, and it ended up being the first ever show from Boxing Day, but they ended up winning the contest! I’ve been keeping track of them ever since that show, and their single from last year even showed up on my favorite 50 songs of the year! Instead of starting out with an EP, the group decided to drop their debut album at the beginning of May, and it ended up being fantastic! Sure, it’s still rough around the edges and sounds a bit DIY, but that’s part of the appeal. It sounds like your talented friends in college actually put together a full body of work and are chasing their dreams. I don’t know if this album will push them into the spotlight or anything, but I truly think they are good enough to make a career out of music, if the right people hear this album. For us normal listeners, just enjoy the 33-minutes of awesome indie-rock!
Favorite Tracks: “Motorcycle Ride”, “Shoes Untied”, “Wishing Well”
If You Like…: College radio stations; alt-rock
Genre: R&B
Review
This is now the third straight year we got an album from Kali Uchis, and she’s back in her R&B bag. For those that don’t know, she alternates between English and Spanish albums, so this one is an English album. It follows up with a similar sonic palette as her last English album, Red Moon in Venus. There isn’t a lot of genre blending on here though, this is a pure R&B album. One of the things that makes this album stand out in her discography is that some of the songs extend to longer than normal lengths. “Lose My Cool,” and “Angels All Around Me…” are each over five and a half minutes long, which easily makes them the longest in her entire career! It’s not a big thing, but I like how it shows Kali is still willing to try new things as an already established artist that is selling out arenas. Sincerely, is Kali’s most mature album so far, and I’m ready for what I’m sure will be her next Spanish album in the next year or two!
Favorite Tracks: “Territorial”, “Breeze!”, “ILYSMIH”
If You Like…: R&B in general
Genre: Pop; dance
Review
This is the second mixtape from PinkPantheress, and she continues to drop fantastic music! There are clear moments of growth here, even when compared to her official debut album. She had explicitly said in 2024 that she didn’t realize people actually cared about tracklisting, and you can hear that she took the criticism from that statement to heart for this project. These songs flow together beautifully, even when it’s such a simple transition, like from the lead single “Tonight” to easily danceable “Stars”. As always, PinkPantheress’s sample game is elite, even if I didn’t recognize most of the samples themselves on first listen. The one I did recognize was completely unexpected, an interpolation of Nardo Wick’s menacing, “Who Want Smoke?” into this bubbly dance ballad on the track “Noises”. At the end of the day, it is just a mixtape though, so some of the songs don’t have that much of an impact on an individual, but the 20-minute runtime is perfect for a project like this! PinkPantheress remains one of the most interesting names in pop music, and I’m definitely looking forward to whatever she’s dropping next!
If You Like…: Her previous music; awesome dance-pop
Genre: Rock; hip-hop; pop
Review
Rico Nasty used to drop music fairly often, but after her 2022 mixtape Las Ruinas, she disappeared from music for multiple years. After a quick 3-song EP with Boys Noize released last year, it was announced that she was signed to Fueled By Ramen, the same label that helped popularize acts like Paramore, Panic at the Disco, and Twenty-One Pilots. This signing had me wondering if she was going to fully embrace rock music, and she definitely does more than ever before! “Smoke Break” is a hardcore punk song that Rico fits so well over! The way she’s able to scream on the track is better than I ever could’ve hoped for, and I hope she puts out a project of punk tracks, because it could really be her calling! The song is also followed by a more accessible punk track, “Crash”, that sounds like what you would hear on an 2000s-emo Spotify playlist. This doesn’t mean she doesn’t rap though, tracks six through nine are straightforward bangers! While I do love the two-dimensional “Eat Me” the most, all four tracks are awesome. The singles are also pretty solid, but each of them did need a few listens to grow on me. It’s really the deep cuts here that standout the most! Lethal is a rowdy welcome back for someone that is far more influential than she gets credit for!
Favorite Tracks: “Smoke Break”, “Crash”, “Eat Me!”
If You Like…: Emo music and hip-hop bangers in one album
Short Reviews
UK-soul group Sault put out a new album on Easter this year, and it’s yet another quality example of their sound. But I can’t lie, after knowing how Inflo’s relationship with Little Simz deteriorated, I can’t emotionally connect to their music the same way I did before.
This just hasn’t been my vibe the last couple months, so I haven’t listened to it more than once. I did enjoy the one listen I had, but I had to put it in here just so people who like soft, introspective indie-pop could go listen to this! Jensen’s been a fantastic songwriter, and this album is no exception.
This really should’ve been better than it was. Putting a seven minute skit at the beginning of a four song EP was certainly a choice, but even the songs themselves aren’t that entertaining. Hearing Ravyn Lenae on a Flume beat was wild, and “AI Girlfriend” was kind of catchy, but the project as a whole is way too forgettable for a collaboration with these two artists.
I wish I had more to say about this one, but it’s been hard to digest music the past couple months, and billy woods’s music deserves a lot of time to digest. For now though, I’ll say it feels like another awesome, thought-provoking album from woods. This is definitely the darkest project I’ve heard from woods, and it’s his first in a few years with multiple producers, but he’s able to really balance everything well. I hope to really digest it more in the coming months, because his music always deserves as much love and time as possible.
This experimental-rock/dance group continues to make awesome music with this new album! You definitely have to be in a certain mood to really appreciate and enjoy a lot of what Model/Actriz does, but this album hits really hard when you are in that mood.
As the title says, these are just 7 piano sketches from Andre 3000 that were recorded a decade ago and never meant to be released. So when I see people hating so passionately on it, I’m surprised because the context doesn’t make it seem like it would be a good album. So if you check this out, just know that these are phone recorded, piano improvisations from a decade ago.
This is the sound I want MIKE to start rapping on more often. I know he’s more known for the soulful, hip-hop sound, but his semi-mumbling flow over Tony Seltzer’s trap beats really comes together nicely. Hopefully they continue to work together, because this is so much fun to listen to, and they’re only getting better!
This is my first album of Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, and I need to listen to more because this was absolutely fantastic! It alternates between hard-rock, almost metal inspired material, and beautiful rock ballads. They somehow manage to make both of them fit into one project without it feeling too chaotic. While I am really enjoying this album, I am also curious to see if their other albums live up to the same hype as this one. Also, I highly recommend checking out the video for the song “March On For Pax Romana,” the claymation is so sick!
After his feature on GNX, Lefty Gunplay seems to be one of the names that has taken off in popularity. Adding JasonMartin to produce/curate this album definitely helps bring this sense of polish and cohesion to a project of West Coast gangsta rap bangers. A lot of talented people don’t have that older, more established artist to show them how to make an actual project instead of just a bunch of random tracks, and it seems like Lefty Gunplay now has one of those people to help him. The album’s good, but we’ll see if he’s able to continue to do this in the future by himself.
It honestly just feels like 2hollis-lite. It’s not that it’s necessarily bad, there’s just an obvious collaborator of his that makes much better music who I would rather listen to.
This is a collaboration EP between Eprom and Alix Perez, two talented electronic producers. This EP definitely didn’t reinvent the wheel, but there’s a lot of cool bass tracks on here. I do like it the weirder it gets, like on “Fatalism”, but the songs themselves are all fairly interesting. If you don’t like them, this isn’t changing any opinions.
This is my introduction to MSPAINT, and I ended up liking it a lot! Sure, the songs can be a little too aggressive for my personal taste, and the lead singer can sound a little too nu-metal-y at times, but the combination of synths and electric guitars work really well together! I’m definitely intrigued to hear what their next full length project will sound like.
I never had much of a thought about Addison Rae, but I also don’t have TikTok, so she was never pushed in front of my face constantly. I remember her debut single, “Obsessed”, was universally panned and I assumed she would be laughed out of a music career. But here we are with her debut album, and it’s actually solid. The main thing she’s good at here is making choruses that stick in your head. Songs like “Diet Pepsi”, “Headphones On”, and “Fame is a Gun” all have these earwormy choruses. My problem with it is that the verses of the songs, especially for “Diet Pepsi”, are just dead space. It just feels like a great chorus wrapped up in a not 100% finished package. There are other songs on here that feel similar, but overall, this is an enjoyable listen. Maybe it’s just because I had low expectations though, but I think maybe pop fans should give this a listen.
This is damn-near a disgrace to Tha Carter series. It’s not that Lil Wayne doesn’t have some moments on here where he’s rapping well, just everything else about the album is iffy at best. The production here is actually bad, for the most part. Most of the features are trash, but there are a couple highlights, like 2 Chainz and BigXthaPlug. It’s just, for every good thing on here, there are so many more that are bad. To keep using features as an example, for every 2 Chainz, there are features from Bono and Jelly Roll. Oh well, I’m already tired of talking about this album, just ignore it and pretend it doesn’t exist.
Takaat is the other three members of Mdou Moctar besides the incredible lead singer and guitar player Mdou himself. The other three members are still pretty fantastic, so it’s no surprise that this EP is full of awesome Saharan rock! Sure, I do miss the extravagant guitar solos, but I do enjoy the slightly more punk-oriented material of this one.
I really like Hamdi, but this EP is a slight disappointment. It’s still good, so I’m not exactly holding it against him, but the project just feels a bit below Hamdi’s skill level. There’s still some bangers though, the song with LYNY especially, but if you don’t like Hamdi, you don’t need to check this out.
This is the second EP from the Canadian producer, and I think it’s even better than the first! There’s not really a lot to say about it besides it’s an awesome, club-oriented EP that shows Bambii evolving into a complete artist.
This is a pretty decent dubstep EP. The first and last track are definitely the highlights, but the project as a whole is still worth a listen for people who need more dubstep/bass music in their lives.
This came out the day before I saw her open for Smino, so I made sure to check it out. Backroads is a bit more soulful and sing-songy than her other material, but it still fits fairly well for a night drive. The final song on here features Smino, and their styles mesh really well together. Samara is definitely someone to keep an eye on, but her talent is far from realized yet.
I appreciate how Miley threw everything against the wall for this album. She tries a lot of different things for this album, and as expected, I enjoyed the weirder material the best! It does feel a bit overproduced and a bit too plastic-y for my taste. It still may be the best album she has, but it still doesn’t hit the potential that she has.
For some reason, this album has really left a great impression on me! I’ve never really loved a lot of Macie’s work, but I usually tended to enjoy it. No matter if it was when I first heard of her, playing live on the Terrace in an art-rock duo called Ohmme (now called Finom), or the more folk material on her solo albums, they were always entertaining. When The Distance is Blue is neither of those things; it’s a contemporary-classic, ambient, improvisational album! While I don’t listen to this genre very often, sometimes there is something that sticks with me, and I think this is going to be that album! There’s just something about the piano playing, the tension in the strings, and the overall sonic palette that is drawing me in. I haven’t seen many people talking about it though, so maybe it’s just a me thing. Either way, I think this is an absolutely stunning body of work!
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