I don’t think I’ve ever heard a project quite like this one. I first heard of Nick through his 2017 album, Green Twins. It’s a more straightforward, but still unique and great soul album. So when I heard he had something new coming out, I was excited to hear where he would go. The first single Qadir is still a highlight, with the song being about his friend and isolation. The multitude of instruments that come together help make the 7 minute run time worth it. But when the full project came out, I was surprised by what I’d heard. It’s extremely lofi, with Nick sounding as if he’s whispering in your ear a lot of the time. The combination of soul, funk, lofi hip hop, and quite a few more make for some crazy instrumentals that Nick somehow maneuvers his way over. Even after quite a few listens, I’m still not sure what to think of this. As cool as a lot of these ideas and songs are, it just washes over me as a whole. I can for sure see myself loving this album in the future. But for now, there’s still songs I’ll go back to, but not as a whole. Definitely recommend this for anyone that wants a unique album to listen to right now.
If you’ve heard a Future project before, you’ve probably heard this before. At 21 songs and 70 minutes, the project is way too long to remain interesting throughout the entire runtime, especially for Future. Future’s an artist where at this point, you either love him or hate him. His version of Atlanta trap has become one of the most popular sounds in hip hop in the last decade. This album is just another 21 songs of about the same style that he’s done before. Like with every project, there are some highlights on here. Ridin’ Strikers has a great beatswitch towards the end of the track that slows the entire thing down to the point where it feels like it’s being dragged through molasses. The glittering instrumental on Hard To Choose One pairs nicely with Future’s delivery. One of My is extremely hypnotic, with Future starting the line off the exact same way the entire song. Even with the highlights, the length is just too long for the album as a whole to have much replay value.
Same goes for this project as the Future project, if you’ve listened to any of Carly’s projects from 2014 until now, you know what this sounds like. She doesn’t stray far away from the traditional dance pop style with a bit of disco influence that’s helped her gain a cult following. To the mainstream, she’s still just the one hit wonder, but she’s quietly become one of the most acclaimed pure pop artists in the last half of this decade. This project is a B-sides record to her album from last year, Dedicated. She said she wrote about 200 songs for Dedicated, so this project is just more songs from those sessions. There’s some pros and cons from making that many songs for one project. The positive is that it gives you loads of choices to figure out what types of songs and melodies you want to include on your project. But the negative is that it’s hard to perfect a song or a new style of music if you make that many songs in a short period of time. If you like some straightforward dance pop, I recommend at least checking this out. But if you don’t, probably not worth a listen.
Speaking of B-side projects, Lil Wayne dropped a deluxe version of his 2020 album, Funeral, a couple days ago. Instead of dropping another complete project like some hip hop artists have done this year, he decided to drop eight new songs. It fits in with the normal version of Funeral, as he covers all different types of songs in these eight songs. Shimmy is the strip club anthem that features Doja Cat, who’s had an eventful 2020. Happen To You is the slower and more melodic song that Wayne likes to throw in on his albums. Russian Roulette with Benny the Butcher and Conway from the Griselda crew is the highlight of the deluxe version. Wayne had to bring the bars in order to keep up with the Griselda guys, and he rose to the challenge. Both of the features did their things with their verses, and it was cool to hear them rap over a traditional Wayne beat. As a whole though, there’s not much here that Wayne hasn’t done better quite a few times before.
Deante’ Hitchcock is someone who’s in the same vein as many of the artists on the Dreamville label. He was even on a song on Dreamville’s label project last year, Revenge of the Dreamers 3. This project is a combination of bangers and more conscious tunes. He’s already got some high profile features on here like J.I.D, Young Nudy, Miguel, and more. I Got Money Now with J.I.D and Attitude with Young Nudy provide some high energy at the beginning of the project, with Angels providing a heartfelt ending to the project. But as good as the project is, there isn’t much that he does better than anybody else. There’s a lot of people that have the same sound as him, and at least a few of them do the sound better. There is still lots of potential here for him to create something great and at the top of this sound, but he’s not there yet. It’s definitely worth a listen if you like more conscious and lyrical hip hop.
Wisconsin residing artist KennyHoopla refuses to be burdened by a single genre on this EP. The title track brings together a myriad of different genres, from a catchy indie pop chorus to the punk sounding vocals to an alt rock sounding instrumental. Even with all of these sounds clashing, the song is still one of the most unique and catchy songs I’ve heard this year! While the rest of the EP doesn’t quite live up to this song, it's still a great starting point. The first track, thinkingoutloud//, provides a really colorful instrumental that helps set the mood for the rest of the album. Plastic door// has another extremely catchy chorus and shows off Kenny’s voice more than most of the other songs. While not everything on here is a smash hit, it shows that Kenny is one of the most adventurous artists coming up in the indie scene right now.
Indie/alt/emo singer Deb Never is back with a quarantine made project to benefit coronavirus relief. The whole project has this extremely lofi and demo-ish feel to it, which is probably why she didn’t put the project on streaming services, as it only exists on Youtube, Soundcloud, and Bandcamp. While other artists have made projects about this time period we’re currently experiencing, Charli XCX being the main one, this project sonically contains the overarching darkness that’s over the country, if not the world right now. The anxiety of what’s currently happening just radiates off of this project. The songs vary from a literal voice demo being the opening track called, Blue Moon, to full thought out songs that sound like something that could be on an official project, like End of the World and Dangerous. If you’re already a Deb Never fan, you’ll most likely really enjoy this little project. If you’ve never heard of her, this is still something that can be appealing if you’re in the right mood, but may not be the best idea to start with her kind of demo project.
Kamasi Washington is one of the biggest names in jazz in the last decade. His debut album, The Epic, is a three hour long, triple disc project that landed on quite a few publications best of the year lists. This project alone had critics heralding him as the future of jazz. He’s followed it up with another album of equal length in 2018, Heaven and Earth. On this particular project, he scores the new Michelle Obama documentary, Becoming. It’s a lot more subdued than any of his other projects. Most of the time, it sounds as if the saxophone is screaming when he’s playing it. This time, it’s mainly soft and more about being in the background instead of the forefront. The project’s length is also just over a half hour, which is a big difference compared to his albums. He brings a lot more friendly and minimalistic melodies on here, instead of the traditional jazz big bang stuff he normally uses. The whole album works really well together, but there are still a couple standouts. The song Becoming has a nice, laid back groove with some nice and simple saxophone playing. But even aside from his sax, Kamasi is credited as every instrument on that song, as he is on most of these songs. It’s a nice change of pace to hear this short, soft project out of Kamasi, and will definitely provide some nice listening until he’s able to make his next album.
Comments