Oliver Tree is something that many solo artists aren’t, a character. He’s turned into a walking meme, where you can’t really take anything that he says at face value. But even without that, many people are still here for his brand of pop rock. What comes out of this project is a surprisingly not unique project for someone who’s an anomaly as an artist. While most of the songs are catchy, have high production value drops, and more, there’s nothing unique that he does that other people don’t. Many of the songs give off a Twenty One Pilots feeling, especially with the vocals. There are still some highlights, like the brief “Let Me Down” and the opener “Me, Myself & I”. Even though he’s said that he’s retiring after this project, hopefully he can make something more unique and genre bending in the future.
With this many names of this caliber, the expectations will always be high. And even though it’s not very adventurous or uses many of their best talents, I think it lives up to the hype. At only seven songs, many of them feel more like vibe and great background music instead of some insanely talented, all out jazz songs. The reason for that comes from Robert Glasper, saying that because people’s attention spans are so low, they wanted it to feel like long interludes. But even with that, they still manage to get across themes of love, police brutality, and togetherness. While it’s easily not the best project any of them have put out or been a part of, there still won’t be much better jazzy hip hop vibes than this in 2020.
After taking a three year break from his last project, prolific underground rapper Oddisee is back again with a new quarantine made EP, Odd Cure. While it’s obvious that it’s rap music, Oddisee always has 100% live instrumentation and keeps his lyrics clean of profanity. In that sense, he’s a unique artist among rappers, and this project holds no different. The guitar licks on “The Cure” or the drum outro of “Shoot Your Shot” are just a few of the obvious instrumental points that make it sound more like a rock or soul project than a rap project, but Oddisee flows flawlessly over all these instrumentals. The project also consists of five different skits where Oddisee calls his family members and checks up on them. While I originally thought it would be annoying, it was actually really nice to hear someone making sure everyone in his life is doing well. This is definitely another quality project from Oddisee, and hopefully we don’t have to wait another three years for another project.
Lianne is a folk/soul singer out of the UK who became one of Prince’s last true proteges, as she sang on quite a few of his songs in 2014. Going into this album, I really didn’t know what to expect in any aspect of her music, which can result in some of the best experiences. This album is something I think everyone can find something positive in. Her voice is really great and is especially marvelous when she belts out these powerful melodies, like on the opener “Bittersweet”. The sonics of the album isn’t as adventurous or crazy as I wanted it to be, her songwriting really carries most of these songs. She alternates from these slightly upbeat rock songs like “Can’t Fight” and “Read My Mind”, to these slower ballads like “Paper Thin” and “Green Papaya”. There’s even a Radiohead cover in here, where she tackles the In Rainbows classic, “Weird Fishes”. Overall, this is a really good project, no matter which way you slice it.
After randomly hearing about this group on Reddit, I decided to check this out, and it’s some great, jazz inspired neo soul! It’s worth noting up front that the music is heavily jazz inspired, as 3 out of the 4 songs stretch on for at least 6 minutes long. Everyone really does their thing on here, especially the singer, Vanisha Gould. The songs all have some catchy choruses that help implant the songs in your head, and then the instrumentalists carry the verses with various solos and melodies. I will say that even with it only being four songs, it does feel a bit samey and long towards the end, as it’s still 25 minutes long. But even with the couple shortcomings, this would fit in perfectly with a playlist of some laid back, vibe inspired music.
After stumbling across her album on Bandcamp not too long ago, Ego immediately places herself as one of the most tranquil voices I’ve heard in a long time. Everything she sings is so peaceful and perfectly in line with the production. While she does have a couple really good love songs on here, such as “Song for Bobby”, most of the project revolves around her personal feelings and social issues. “Girls Don’t Always Sing About Boys” is the biggest example of this and talks about wanting sanitary kits for the homeless, air pollution, and how it’s harder to get people to listen to music that talks about social issues. “Table for One” is easily the jazziest song on the album, and features a minute and a half long ending of pure jazz music. There are many other highlights, including “In The Morning” and “How Long Til We’re Home”, but it’s something that needs to be listened to front to back. As of now, I’m really enjoying it and highly recommend it, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it just continues to grow on me throughout the rest of the year.
On what would’ve been Pop Smoke’s 21st birthday, his label dropped the deluxe version of the album. Unfortunately, this project doesn’t go over as well as the official album. It starts out with some aggressive, drill inspired bangers. Showin Off Pt. 1 and 2 are great examples of this with another up and coming NY drill artist, Fivio Foreign, who was recently featured on Drake’s new project. When the more mainstream features start coming in, like PnB Rock and Jamie Foxx, the project starts to go downhill. It’s easily apparent now that he was experimenting with some slower songs as well, but these songs feel like ones that weren’t supposed to come out. There’s also three remixes at the end to songs that were on the original album, and while they’re all good, they don’t feel necessary. Personally, I’d recommend just sticking to the original and maybe checking this out if you love the original.
After dropping two of the worst albums of 2019, a middling 2018, and some rough personal problems, there wasn’t much reason to be excited for this, but Logic somehow came through with a solid project. Many of the beats consist of chopped up samples of everything from Outkast to Erykah Badu. Logic sticks with the same subject matter of positivity and not letting other people tear you down. There’s still not really anything special in this project compared to his other well-loved projects, but hearing him actually rapping well over quality production is good enough after what he’s been dropping as of late He has also stated that this is his final album, as he wants to spend more time with his wife and kid, so congratulations to him on finishing his career on a high note.
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