kerpsreviews-blog

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Hey sorry for not posting reviews recently

its hard to keep up with all the music coming out and stuff, if you have anything specific you want me to review please let me know! 

I also have started making music related articles on this website, here's the most recent one: https://beat.media/funkadelic-wars-of-armageddon 

hope yall understand, thanks!

-Aaron

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Vista Kicks - Twenty Something Nightmare 

Rock band Vista Kicks has put out their new album and If you read my review a little while back on the teaser single, you’ll know how excited I am for this. Vista Kicks has been around for a number of years now and they’ve really been on a grind for the past couple, creating amazing cali-summer-rock music that really just gets to me. So how’s their new album “Twenty Something Nightmare”?

“Million Dollar Seller Pt. 1” kicks off the album which I actually did cover in the teaser review, however, this song is still great. The dirty guitar tones are great and this boisterous sound has so much attitude and it’s just sexy. “If I didn’t have you” is a surprisingly mellow and dreamy sound. Great reverb guitar and instrumentation, and nice personal vocals. This is a definite change in Vista Kick’s attitude and it’s refreshing and I kinda like it. The ending is very energetic and loud though, bringing the sound back full circle, great track. “Victim Of The Times” is a nice happy song, some country-western, Lou Reed, mixture of sounds. It has a catchy chorus and a really cool bridge too, definitely a low-key banger. “Live, You’re Gonna Die” has some good instrumentation, electric and acoustic mixture, as for composition and such, it’s a tiny bit boring. It’s not like that bad, but it’s a little predictable, however, it has a nice message. “I’m Yours” has a good sound, some reggae influences bleed through a bit, the lyrics are nice, happy and cute. The song gets really into the thick of it in the middle, thumping rhythms and great vocals, awesome guitar solo, and claps. Who doesn’t like claps? Definitely one of the best songs up until this point in the record. “Cool It” is actually a little funny, it takes on this old-school theme even from the first second. Even though it’s a little tacky, It’s entertaining and you can tell they probably had a lot of fun in the studio with this. “Wrong Side Of Town” is a high energy song, it actually reminds me a little bit of old-school video game music, but with a lot more focus and instrumentation. The rhythm is funky, I love the sound, the vocals are great, energetic and dirty. Also, that main guitar riff is sick. “Numbers” was one of the songs I was most excited about for this album because of the teaser. What I was most excited about was making it longer because the single did end at like 3 and a half minutes to go into a weird perspective of someone getting out of their car and stuff. However, they didn’t do that for the album they just kept it the way it is. I’m kinda disappointed in the fact that they didn’t, but I still like the song. The chorus will always be super catchy to me. “Million Dollar Seller Pt. 2” continues the first part by just jamming on the progression. It’s a pretty good way to mark the halfway point on the record, lots of great solos.  

“Machula” is a pretty interesting track. I like the chorus, I like the vocals a lot specifically, it sounds like there’s some guest vocalists. There are some weird piano points in the track, but the overall instrumentation is rad. “Why Do You Say You Love Me” cool lo-fi vocals kick off the song, and some nice sounds, hints of tropical influences for sure. The “Is This How’s It’s supposed to be” hook is really great. There’s a lot of emotion here and It’s a great track. “Having A Good Time” takes the band a little back in the years with the surf-rock vibes. This song, like the previous track, has some heartbreaking themes, it kind of contrasts against the mostly positive first half of the record. At this point, I have to shorten my descriptions of songs because this album is pretty long and I don’t want this review to take forever to read. “Kelly Come Back” has a nice little recognizable descending progression, but it keeps a little bit of a classic rock and roll sound to it. Definitely a velvet underground vibe with this track. Rad outro. “I Can’t Think Of Anybody But U” has a cool psychedelic rock sound, really awesome organ sounds as well as the dreamy classic 60s guitar. “Your Love Is All I Need” is kind of like the ballad for this album definitely, it’s an upbeat acoustic and low-keyish jam, but with dark tints in the lyrics. “Water Under The Bridge” is a nice little tune, kind of like an interlude between the songs, reminds me of Bob Dylan a bit. “All Over Now” has fantastic vocals, like almost angelic. Then it goes into a little folk-style diddy. The song slowly builds up. The final track “Twenty Something Wrong” is kind of dark, it sounds like it's from the perspective of people against the lead singer. Although the song has funky grooves and is pretty danceable, it’s not the happiest thing, but it does have its tint of rebellion. The song goes through changes, but all over keeps a really great ending feeling to it. One of my favorites on the record. Great way to send the listener off.

So this is the new Vista Kicks album I’ve been waiting for, but I’m not sure if it was 100% worth the wait. It’s a great album, there’s no question, but I guess what I mean is, it’s not as good as their previous works, but I think it’s also their most experimental. You can get a read off of the performances as if they had fun making the record and I think that ’s the really enjoyable part. So no the album isn’t “Booty Shakers Ball” or the “Chasing Waves EP” when it comes to the songs, but overall entertainment, I think this album is just as good. I have some things I don’t like, however, with this record I don’t really care about them because It’s just a fun time overall and that’s what matters.

8/10

Have a song or album you want to see reviewed? Let me know!!

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Covet - Effloresce

If you’re like me and you’re a guitarist who follows other guitarists on Instagram, chances are you’ve heard of Yvette Young, founder of the band Covet. The math/alternative rock outfit recently released their first full-length album titled “effloresce” which, although hard to pronounce, has been a release I’ve been looking forward to for some time. So how’s this record?

“Shibuya” starts off with what one would expect from Yvette, beautiful riffs and crazy time signatures, but there’s such a great sense of exploration with the sound to me. I love how it makes me feel, I like how the instrumental factor makes me look more into the what each instrument is doing. It’s a great sound. Even with all the clean guitar sounds, there’s still distorted parts, adding more color and dipping their toes into hard-rock. “Glimmer” is definitely really cool mixing wise, I like how some parts automatically shift, but the actual instrumentation is still natural and consistent. This song has a slower and less complex feeling, which brings in more calm vibes for sure. There are some parts of the track where you actually feel like you’re underwater. “Sea Dragon” has a low-key sound before breaking into a complete math-rock jam. The bass here is really great, there’s distorted lines that really complement Yvette’s playing and almost meld together to create one singular wave of sound. There’s also a fantastic solo at the end here from I believe Mario Camarena, at least it sounds like a CHON style solo to me.

“Gleam” is very melancholy and beautiful in the way that it attacks ominous sounds and layers of guitars to fill all areas of sound possible, it’s almost like you’re just being surrounded by fish. It’s also interesting how it’s the shortest song on the record, but it was one of the most attention-grabbing songs for me. Funny enough, the next track “Falkor” is the longest and has a lot to offer. The first part of the song is very rhythmic and riffy, but it also includes some of the most complex parts we’ve seen yet. It’s so impressive all you can really do is just listen and admire how insane all of it is. This song could kinda be seen as a symphony with different parts, although mostly keeping similar motifs, it does have a lot of different riffs and changes, almost like a buffet of licks. There’s a nice method of reverb swelling, up until towards the ending where it starts doing the little toe-dips into hard-rock. Also, that one drum fill at the end is so good, oh god. “Howl” is one of those songs where it almost sounds like it could be a little poppy, or at least in the alternative sense, but the complexity of the instrumentation prevents it. That doesn’t matter though, this song is great. This song also fits so many cool little different riffs, even in its length, it’s a lot of greatness in one package. It may be my favorite song on the record. Great closer.

This is the new Covet album and I gotta say, It was definitely worth the wait. The band did an absolutely fantastic job on this record, there’s nothing really bad that I can say about it. Yvette Young is definitely one of the best musicians out there right now, insanely talented, do yourself a favor and check out all of her work. Highly recommend this listen.

9/10

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Body/Head - The Switch REVIEW 

Body/Head is an alternative rock duo who recently put out the album “The Switch” on Matador Records. This is so far their most successful album, previous works consisting of a couple other records and EPs. I’ve seen this album a good amount in my social media feeds in the past day or so, so I had to check it out, especially because I love Matador so much. As always, So how’s the record?

“Last Time” starts off the album with some pretty expected stoner/ambient rock vibes. A lot of movement in the sounds including the very dramatic vibrato effect and the static-sounding background noises. Very strange vocals. Not much build-up occurs as much as more experimental sounds, but there’s a sense of daylight towards the latter half of the song. It’s almost like everything clears up, the vibrato is gone, and the guitar sounds have a lot of clarity. But then it goes back into the dark vibrato world that you thought you just escaped from. It’s a strange provocative track that requires a lot to the imagination. “You Don’t Need” forms a good soundscape, that is simplistic, yet foreboding especially with the distressed vocal style put on by Kim Gordon. The sound goes from a more full fuzz to a kind of broken radio signal towards the end. The vocals somehow become even more disturbing here. “In The Dark Room” has a very close connection to its namesake. The sounds very much sound like they’re coming from a dark room, or at least the auditory hallucinations one might hear while exploring or being trapped in a dark room. The absence of any major vocal parts in the song, really play into the motif of fear, like being so disturbed that you’re mute.

“Change My Brain” is the first of two 10-minute end pieces to the album. The song starts with one side of the sound forming an almost stoner-rock style, while the other side is really just more noise rock, however, I really think the vocals tie both together. So far in this album, this is the most comprehensible moment, instead of looking at a red dot on paper and spending most of your time figuring out what it means, this song paints half the canvas for you, allowing imagination to create a more accurate idea of what it means, but there’s still a bit of give. The track has a great palette of sounds besides the norm of fuzz guitars. Synths, clean guitars, and other effects make an appearance here, and the use of helicoptering tremolos create even more auditory tension for the listener. The ending of the piece strips layers off until there is nothing left. “Reverse Hard” is really just, pure ambient noise for the first 4 minutes or so, which is not enough to prepare you for the instant switch to droning guitars and panned delays, as well as the vocals that almost sound mechanical and inhuman. I think the vocals here are probably the most passionate performance from Kim. The song decipates and then builds back up slowly, this time with a more rhythmic vengeance, before once again falling into a single fuzz guitar, playing the song out.

So this is “The Switch” by Body/Head. I will admit that this album certainly isn’t for anyone, and I wouldn’t recommend it as your first introduction to noise/ambient music, however, I do feel like it is a powerful moment in the genre. I didn’t know about this group before this album came out and I think I’m gonna listen back on their previous work after experiencing this. It’s hard to describe, I tried my best to put meaning to the art, but I think Bill Nace from the band said it best stating “It’s a stoner record for non-stoners.”

8/10

Have any music suggestions for me to review? Let me know!! They are very appreciated! 

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T. Hardy Morris - Dude, The Obscure REVIEW 

Psych Artist/Singer-Songwriter T. Hardy Morris recently released his album “Dude, The Obscure”. The album is the third full-length LP in his discography along with his work with Diamond Rugs also being a big staple of his career history. I’m not too familiar with this artist and I’m also a bit late with this release, but from what I heard I think I’ll enjoy it. So how’s the record?

“Be” starts off the album with a very ambient and open psychedelic groove. Very melancholy and taking in some sounds from more indie vibes, especially the progression. This song really shows how much time went into the production for this record. There’s a lot of great color and texture here, The piano and synths really meld together and the guitars send you on a trip just from their sounds alone. “Homemade Bliss” has a more upbeat feel to it. Electrifying guitars with nice slapback delays, the vocals have that nasal modern-psych feel to them. I really like the guitar tone on this track a lot, and the overall sound, it almost has the catchiness of a 60s pop song, but still including experimental elements. “The Night Everything Changed” has some more ambiance to it, and you can definitely get more of a read on T. Hardy’s singer-songwriter abilities. It almost has a classic slow country song vibe, especially with the slide and acoustic guitar combo. “Cheating Life, Living Death” again keeps the singer-songwriter vibe here, and it’s actually pretty stripped down for the most part compared to previous songs. I think the more minimalistic vibe was a good choice for this track. “When The Record Skips” has a definitive indie and dream-rock sound. It kind of has that “happy-sad” vibe, but there are some pretty interesting music choices here, I like the sonic value. “Stage Names” sounds like a late Beatles song almost, especially the progression and the vocal melodies, the percussion also adds kind of that 60s psychedelic feel.

“No Reason” brings the singer-songwriter out once again with a side of depression. The structure is good, I like the simplicity and the lyrics are really hard-hitting, definitely the biggest downer on this track, but it’s beautiful in its sadness. “NY” has some more psychedelic-indie vibes to it, but also still keeping the simple idea. The reverb guitar has that “Demarco Lazy” feel. “Lit By Midnight” ironically has a lot more clear of a sound to it. There's a lot of clarity and it’s kind of like the actual sound is relatable like you feel comfortable listening to it. The vibrato has a lot of movement, and you really just get a nice vibe as you take in the song. “4 Days of Rain” is a mostly acoustic song, it’s not my favorite song on the album, but it’s nice. Each chord and piece of melody resolves nicely. “Purple House Blues” is a great psychedelic track with a lot of cool songs, and ends the album in a really great way. That slide guitar comes back and so do the full drum sounds. Great ender to a great album.

Overall I’d say this album took me by surprise and I really enjoyed it. It’s a nice album like there are some depressing notes every now and then, but you should expect that with a singer-songwriter artist. However, this a great album to play outside while laying in a field of grass. I like the album, I like the artist, and I didn’t really find a boring moment here.

8/10

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Childish Gambino - Summer Pack

Childish Gambino is the musical profile put on by the man with many hats, Donald Glover. He recently found major success in his 2016 album “Awaken My Love” which has received several awards and in my opinion has been one of the top highlights so far, not just in the past couple years, but this decade. His most recent presentation to the music world was “This Is America” which also received a hefty amount of positive feedback since its release. Gambino has just put out a new double single titled “Summer Pack”. So how are the songs?

The first song, “Summertime Magic” starts out with some steel drum chords, and it goes into an 808 kick background with some pretty pop vocals, but still featuring some interesting sounds like rain sticks and other percussion. The rest of the song has some synth covering the instrumentals and Gambino’s vocals attacking some pretty mainstream ideas, it’s pretty surprising. It’s a summer song obviously so I understand the idea behind it, however, it’s a little bit bland. It’s kind of just like a billboard dance song with just a couple more bells and whistles. I do like some of the sounds though, they definitely add some cool flavor.

The second song, “Feels Like Summer” Comes in with some pretty rad key chords and again with the cool percussion sounds here. This song has a more tropical vibe to it, and it’s almost like a melancholic happy combo in the sound. The vocals are pretty good, and the beat is nice, you can definitely bop your head to it. Gambino outdid himself with these airy falsetto vocals, and there’s cool instrumentation, but this song also falls short with grabbing my attention fully. This one is better, but it still brings in some of those vibes of just the songs that play when you wanna go get a drink at a concert, it’s not one you wanna be in the moment for.

Overall the two songs are a bit disappointing, not horrible, but disappointing. Now I can’t be too surprised by this because so far, Gambino has had a pretty good track record and especially his more recent works giving me all this hype, am I really expecting another Awaken My Love? No not at all, if anything I would want him to explore more areas of music as much as possible, but for me, this seems like a backstep in his usual progressive nature. I hope that whatever the next album is, he experiments a little more.

6/10

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Prophets of Rage - Hearts Afire

Prophets of Rage is the anti-system offspring of the two legendary political and inspiring groups Rage Against The Machine and Public Enemy. The supergroup has been in formation since 2016 and has one album on their belt, which in my opinion was pretty mediocre. Although I’m a fan of the RATM sound, it does get old and even the original band knew how to spice things up on every track. This new single “Heart Afire” was recently released, so how is it?

The track kicks off with some chorus-heavy guitars that goes into overdrive with energetic drums and distorted bass tones. The verses are pretty okay. As for instrumentation, it’s funky and definitely has some of that original hip-hop/metal formula, but some cool things added. I like the funky bass and the theremin-like guitar sounds. As for lyrics, it’s pretty bland. It reminds of someone doing black-out poetry with a newspaper and calling it edgy political stance art, it’s not really that good. The song doesn’t get me all that pumped and for a band whose main purpose is to get people riled up and thinking about the world they live in, this stuff is easier to scoff at than trying to debunk. Honestly, I say this, but I’m not quite sure what I would really like to see from this band, maybe just go back to basics and make politically charged hip-hop and just do it well. I know that’s easier said than done, but come on man, America isn’t really that hard to write an angry song about. Instrumental is cool but needs some touch-up, and the lyrics need a complete overhaul. I hope the next album has some better tracks on it.

4/10

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Wsabi Fox - Yes Ma’am REVIEW

Wsabi Fox is a Brooklyn based Art/Experimental Rock group who recently released their first lead single “Yes Ma’am” which is to promote their upcoming debut EP “Gushing”. There isn’t too much other info about this group but, how’s this single?

The song starts off with an interesting rhythm, accompanied with some wild saxophone playing. It really creates this very menacing tone to the song, the vocals help it as well. The song has a really nice build up into machine gun snares and basically into free jazz instruments for a few seconds, before going back to that same riff. This helps add a great deal of tension, especially knowing what this artist is not afraid to incorporate in a song. The latter half of the song is essentially just building off the original riff. I like how the song strips to it’s cello parts at the end, it helps portray how sensitive the dynamics of the track really are. This single  is pretty good overall, it does have its flaws, but it’s not bad. The production is great, it’s bold and noisy and really fitting for the song, however, it could have had a little bit more variety. For the style, it’s surprisingly more commercial, but I would’ve liked to see a little more contrast in certain parts, maybe another riff or bridge. It’s not bad the way it is though, I’m interested in the EP that’s going to come out.

6/10

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Beastmaker - EP.8

Beastmaker is a Doom/Stoner Metal band from California who has been making their way through the underground metal scene. Currently, on their Bandcamp they have released 8 EPs all on June 30, a pretty big choice for the band, however loading their catalog with a massive amount of great music. Today I’m reviewing their 8th EP, appropriately titled “EP.8” So how’s this record?

“Night Of The Eagle” kicks everything off with very heavy gross fuzzy guitar riffs that immediately make me think of Black Sabbath. However, the band has their own little unique style to them, mixing classic metal and newer stoner metal styles. This song in particular shows off the great vocal talents and sound the band is capable of. The Lo-Fi production for this record actually really compliments their sound quite a lot. “True Believers” brings back some more chuggy riffs, very demonic vocal sounds for the verse. There’s a great guitar solo on this track which has a lot of really interesting technique incorporated in it. It’s definitely unique, and I think that really reflects on this band as a whole. “Unholy Communion” kind of has a really similar vibe to the previous song, it could almost be like a continuation of it. This isn’t necessarily that big of a deal, because the band keeps a consistent sound that’s enjoyable, however, a little bit of a switch up could create a little bit more contrast. The riff for this song is pretty badass though. “Unpure” has a very doomy opening to the song. There’s a lot of great layering, I think I can hear even a little bit of synth in it. This song again keeps some of that consistent style, however, this song definitely finishes the album on a high note. The track is practically evil like I need to consult a priest after listening evil, it’s amazing. The guitar work again is really great, this guitarist is definitely pushing some boundaries and I’m loving his technique from what I’m hearing.

This is one of the many great tracks that this band has up on Bandcamp and I highly encourage any fans of metal to check this band out. They got an old sound, but with a new flow and it really creates a great sound that is practically universal when it comes to the wide spectrum that is metal. My only critique for this band is that although the consistent style is good, some motifs and ideas are a little overworked here, maybe it’s different in some of the EPs I haven't checked out yet, but a little contrast could do wonders. However, this band is great and I really love the sound, I’ll definitely pick up a couple of the EPs on vinyl when they are pressed!

8/10

Have any music recommendations for me to review? Let me know!!!

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Coheed and Cambria - Unheavenly Creatures REVIEW 

New York Prog-rockers Coheed and Cambria have yet again released another single which is leading up to their upcoming album “Vaxis - Act I: The Unheavenly Creatures”. The album is said to continue the Amory Wars storyline and it’s very exciting to get an 8th LP installment of it. So how’s this new single “Unheavenly Creatures”?

The song begins with an 8-bit sounding introduction which was very surprising to hear. The vocals start and so do the guitars and the rest of the band. The song has that little tint of pop attributes, especially towards the chord progression. Claudio’s vocals have a different sound this time around, they’re a little more exhausted, but still aggressive and powerful in a way. I wonder if this style is purposeful to fit with the concept of the album. The song is pretty cool, it definitely has that classic Coheed feel to it, which yeah it is a little predictable and does sound like a couple previous songs, however, it adds a few elements to make it stand out a bit. The lo-fi, 8-bit keys add a very interesting flavor for sure. This song is very exciting to hear for me, I’m definitely looking forward to this album and the teaser singles so far have only heightened my interest.

7/10

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Drake is a Canadian rapper who has been in the headlines for a good amount of time now. In my opinion, he has a pretty good start in the industry which was followed by a string of bad albums that has been continuing for years. Not only that but he recently was honestly destroyed by Pusha-T and It really isn’t looking good for the man. So how’s this new album “Scorpion”?

“Survival” comes in with a not horrible instrumental, the low end is really bumping, the lo-fi snare adds a nice flavor, it’s not bad. The bars are not bad either, it’s good flow and it sets a pretty good bar as an opener to the album. “Nonstop” isn’t anything too crazy, compared to the intro it’s pretty much an immediate drop in quality of songwriting and flow. The little hook with the sample isn’t bad, but as for actual Drake on the song, it’s not his best whatsoever. “Elevate” comes in with a little more emotional track, the singing kinda breaks this vibe, like really bad. The vocals aren’t good, the flow is okay but more predictable than not, honestly, it’s just a mood killer. “Emotionless” has a great opening for sure, beautiful, soulful singing, honestly, though the drums are wayyy too overpowering. I really would wanna hear more of the sample he’s using. However, Drake’s bars and lyricism is pretty good on this track, I can actually feel some legitimate emotion and meaning in his words here. “God’s Plan” doesn’t need really any explanation, if you’re not living in a remote village, you already know what this song is about. It’s okay in my opinion, it’s a little annoying, but it’s not bad. “I’m Upset” I also don’t have to really talk about because I already reviewed it, but just in case you missed, it sucks.

“8 Out Of 10” is probably the best song on this entire first disc of the album. The instrumental is pretty great and the flow is actually kind of amazing. The drums are bumping too, it really fits the instrumental well and really just glues the whole song together. Great track. “Mob Ties” once again is another example of when there’s a good song and then the album just falls flat on its face. It’s not really that great, the percussion is pretty predictable and so is the flow, honestly, the samples aren’t great either. “Can’t Take A Joke” is annoying as hell. Drake’s style on this cut isn’t catchy in any sense, his vocals sound even whinier than ever. It’s not good. “Sandra’s Rose” is once again throwing a good track in the middle of a bunch of shit ones. This track is good, the instrumental is probably the best part here, good sample, good production, and drakes flow isn’t too whiny and fits the sound pretty well. “Talk Up” is kind of in a gray area for me. It’s not horrible, but it’s not really that great either. The Jay-Z feature here really brings it down and it kinda sounds like failing slam-poetry rap, but did you really expect any more from him? “Is There More” has a weird ass sample, it’s almost eerie, really just out of the blue compared to everything else. It’s also annoying and gets old really quickly, considering that it’s on a loop with a non-progressing beat for 3 minutes before bringing in some great vocals that really could’ve been the actual sample used.

So that’s Side 1 to this album. Just as a little intermission here I wanna do a conclusion to the first side before moving on to the second. To be honest, the fact that we’re only halfway through this album and I’m finding it difficult to sit through anymore really shows how not good this album is. It’s just dragging out way too much and I don’t know who in the right mind thought anyone would want to listen to an hour and a half of this. However, there is some hope that the second side may be better.

“Peak” kicks off the second side and it’s a pretty emotional track, it’s not horrible, but it's also kinda boring I’m not really feeling it. “Summer Games” has a pretty good synth sound to it, but it’s nothing really that great. It kinda sounds like a sad boy indie song hiding behind hip-hop themes. There are some cool sounds though, I will give it that. “Jaded” has some more melancholy themes, it’s not bad either, but it’s also kind of hard to take seriously every time he says “Yuh”. Not bad vocals though, good job. “Nice For What” has a mixture of different samples in the beginning and seems to be an uplifter from the drowning sadness we’ve been exposed to up to this point of the second side. The sound could be filled out a little more throughout the song, but it’s okay. “Finesse” starts out with even more depressing sounds, the piano sample ain’t bad and the flow is okay, but it’s kind of a beaten horse by this point. “Ratchet Happy Birthday” is a funny song, I’m assuming it’s not supposed to be serious at all so, if that’s the case it’s enjoyable.

To save a lot of reading, I’m just gonna summarize the rest of this album because there’s honestly no point in doing a song by song dissection when the rest of it is literally the same thing. Some highlights here are “Don’t Matter To Me” featuring some Michael Jackson vocals that were probably stripped from a B-side or something. It’s not a bad song, but it’s still boring. Just a little different. “After Dark” has some cool Neo-soul vibes, so that’s pretty nice as well. “March 14” is okay, but I would hope that Drake would make up lost time with his son in person, rather than through a ghostwritten song.

Overall this album is just a drowning and overwhelming mess, it went from not really knowing what it wanted, to just being depressing and boring for a solid 40 minutes. The sad thing is, if you took all the great songs from this album, you could’ve had a banger EP that would’ve gotten great reception and would’ve been a lot easier to sit through. It was an actual chore to listen to this album, let alone review it. That’s not how an album is supposed to be. The listener is supposed to be excited about new songs and getting ready for what the next track is supposed to be. How can I be excited about that when almost every song was the same. It’s a bad album. Drake is on extremely thin ice right now.

4/10

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Gorillaz - The Now Now REVIEW 

Gorillaz are a well-known alternative hip-hop/rock outfit based in London that consists of digital members. The band is most known for their Debut album featuring hits that got a fair amount of radio-play like “Clint Eastwood” and “Rock The House”. The band also has had massive success with their other albums even their recent release “Humanz”. So what’s this new album “The Now Now” like?

The album starts out with “Humility” featuring George Benson. The song features some pretty upbeat synth and almost tropical vibes with the rhythm guitar and filter enveloped bass sounds. It’s nothing insane, but pretty chill. “Tranz” has some pretty nice buzzsaw bass and synth sounds, but again it’s really nothing to poke at. It’s kinda just like dance music that sort of adventures into darkwave. “Hollywood” starts with some bouncing grooves and some lines from Jamie Principle. The song is a little minimalist, but it does have some pretty nice rhythms to it, it’s pretty clean production wise. Snoop Dogg’s feature is pretty rad. “Kansas” comes in with a sick bassline here, and great supporting synth. This is probably the best track on this record by this point because of the really rad synth sounds and the catchy rhythms and chord progression. “Sorcererz” has some more funky synth sounds here, but I don’t really think it’s as well executed as the previous song. However, the vocals are a lot better on this cut, something that really should have been further explored in previous tracks. “Idaho” starts in with some laid-back guitars and lo-fi keys in the background. The sounds build up for this song is nice with the chorus. It’s super laid back, it almost sounds like a closing track if anything. “Lake Zurich” introduces some very funky drum grooves as well as accompanying synth sounds. Very 80’s dance-centric themes here. There are some cool percussion samples featured, the sound flows really well with it. “Magic City” by this point in the album is super predictable, but it still has some cool synth sounds. “Fire flies” is a rad song. There’s a strange rhythm to it, giving the song a pretty interesting color, the sounds are still pretty psychedelic sounding like previous songs, but it builds a little better. This is definitely one of the better cuts on the record. “One Percent” is almost like a Bowie-centric interlude into the closing track of the album, nothing to bark at. “Souk Eye” has some nice tropical vibes incorporated into the song, while still keeping some of the electronic themes we’ve seen so far. It’s an Okay closer, it has some nice danceable parts, almost disco sometimes.

So this is the new Gorillaz album and I gotta say it’s a pretty major disappointment when compared to 2017’s Humans. A lot of the songs are either predictable or they’re just kind of not really interesting. There are some good moments on the record, but honestly, this is a big low point in the band's discography.

6/10

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Death - ...For The Whole World To See CLASSIC FRIDAY REVIEW

Death is a rock/proto-punk band from Detroit in the mid 70’s. The band has a pretty great story to them, being one of the earliest examples of American punk music and even style. The band did not reach much limelight in their time besides the release of a handful of pressings of a single, now considered to be one of the most collectible pieces of punk’s history today. Recently, however, because of the discovery of this single in the 21st century, the band has been called to the attention of the underground scene. This ultimately led to the release of the band's technical first album “...For The Whole World To See” which is all the original master recordings the band made before they split. So although this album technically isn’t a classic because it was officially pressed in 2009, these songs were actually recorded almost 40 years prior. So what makes this album great?

“Keep On Knocking” starts out with very classic early punk sounds and inspiration from other rock sounds of the time from bands like The Who. Very clean and basic production here, setting the sound for a revolution of music to come. “Rock-N-Roll Victim” introduces one of the bands notable features of the ability to bring very snarly and attitude-filled vocals. Again, this type of sound would later be very inspirational and seen in future punk acts to come. Very energetic and great track, “Let The World Turn” starts off with psychedelic spacey guitars and pan-delay vocals. A huge curveball for the rest of the songs with this album, and it really makes you think about the band and its history here. The song eventually builds up back to the classic rock jams we’ve heard thus far. Some cool phase-colored guitar fills and soloing here as well, and some parts reminiscent of some prog-rock elements. “You’re A Prisoner” has almost a political undertone to the song, something you’ll see in a handful of points on this album. Again, political themes are a heavy part of the future of punk music. Really cool instrumental on this track, great bass, some more prog elements thrown in some parts.

“Freaking Out” is my favorite song on this album. This song is probably the closest this band gets to absolutely insane punk and it’s amazing. I love the chorus so much and it’s almost impossible to not headbang or just jam out to this song. “Where Do We Go From Here???” has a pretty slick bassline and great energy for the verse and it bumps up a notch for the very memorable and catchy chorus. Amazing sound. “Politicians In My Eyes” ends the album and is one of their most notable songs because of it being the A-side to their elusive and collectible first single that really started the rollercoaster for this band. Great bassline here, and really awesome snarling and practically evil vocals. Energetic and an amazing moment to end this album on.

So this is Death, the punk before the punk. I think that if anyone has any liking towards punk music or just general rock music, they should check out this band. What’s even cooler is that the actual band’s story is almost as great as their beautiful music. There’s a rad documentary called “A Band Called Death” that I think it’s really worth checking out, it’s awesome. Anyhow, Yes this is death and their amazing music. Highly Recommend.

9/10

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Yazmin Lacey - When The Sund Dips 90 Degrees REVIEW 

Yazmin Lacey is a UK soul and R&B singer who has been around since the release of her first EP “Black Moon” which was released in the summer of last year. I do not know much about this artist, however, I got a little taste of this new EP here “When The Sun Dips 90 Degrees” and I really enjoyed what I heard. So how’s the album?

The album starts with “90 Degrees” which comes in with this head bobbing bass and drum groove. Very clean and gorgeous vocals on this track, great piano, and guitar filling the space. Very floaty and atmospheric percussion scattered around the latter end of the track too. “Something My Heart Trusts” opens with a cool full band riff, which then goes into a great groove, very good vibes here. The song keeps the same enjoyable and laid-back grooves that the previous song had, identifying this album’s overall major motif. “Burn and Rise” has beautiful piano work, and very spacey drums. The percussion makes a lot of use of cymbals on a handful of these tracks, it really tints the atmosphere. The song almost kind of has a lounge feel, but more lively. “Heaven” brings a different feeling to the track. There’s use of multiple vocal tracks and interesting background noise to help create this very active sonic environment, especially with the addition of a harsher Synth bass sound. This song is really interesting because it incorporates a lot more instrumentation and focuses more on experimental sounds than the others. Really enjoyable cut. “Body Needs Healing” closes the track and starts out with a lot less clustered sounds like the previous and includes a lot more cleaner production. The use of rain sticks in the song really adds a nice flavor to the atmosphere. Great vocals and cool sounds here, I like the little delay being added to the drums in certain parts, it’s a really nice touch. A great closer to the album.

So that’s the new Yazmin Lacey EP and it’s awesome. I really enjoyed listening to this record, so much so I was surprised when it ended because It went way too fast. I wanna hear more! I’m really excited for this artist and I hope to see a full-length LP in the near future.

8/10

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Nas - Nasir REVIEW

New York rapper Nas has released his first new release since 2013’s “Life Is Good”. Kanye West has a hand in this new record here titled “Nasir” again continuing Kanye’s massive and very successful spree of releases this being the fourth major record he’s put out since the end of May. I love Nas a lot as an artist, Illmatic being one of my favorite hip-hop and rap albums of the 90s. So how is his new record?

“Not For Radio” starts out with very symphonic and epic sounds for the instrumental. Very controversial and pretty opinionated and political lyrics as expected. The bars are good and the production is pretty impressive, not the most insane thing we’ve seen from Kanye’s previous records, but it’s just enough to push Nas and his bars across in the mix. Features from Diddy here too. “Cops Shot The Kid” features a pretty cool sample from Slick Rick’s classic “Children’s Story” very obvious lyrics here, but has some pretty sick wordplay. I like Kanye’s line “Who do we call to report crime, If 911 doin’ the drive by?” A pretty short song, but still packs its punch with the lyrical themes. “White Label” contains pretty cool production here, but nothing insane. Nas has very tight and great flow here, the lyrics expressing his views on fame and that it doesn’t run his life as an artist. There’s a lot of mention about how the money doesn’t make the music it’s the emotion and if the music is good, which I can respect a lot. The next song “Bonjour” is definitely my least favorite here. The lyrics are kind of like okay, its entertaining yeah and some wordplay is funny, but it’s also super annoying. Also considering the previous song having themes of ignoring the fame in the money, the song immediately after being the most conceited shit we’ve seen from Nas in a minute, kinda brings down the vibe.

“Everything” is the longest cut here, coming in at just over 7 minutes and 30 seconds, and is also the most emotionally ambitious track too. The vocal harmonies and chorus are absolutely beautiful and there’s some pretty cool production work here as well, featuring some of Kanye’s newly found staples. Also, I gotta say, Kanye’s vocals have really improved a lot. It’s especially prominent on this track. Nas does great work on this track, lots of straight from the heart lyrics and really great flow to get the points across. Some lines here hit really hard, especially when Nas brings up some past Civil Rights actions and the line “The future’s us, but every citizen is in prison.” This song really is some of the best efforts I’ve seen on this record and even from the past couple records he has put out, this is amazing work, lyrically and flow wise. It’s beautiful. “Adam and Eve” has a cool old piano song and some Shakespeare references in some of Nas’ lyrics. The Dream does a good job on the chorus as well, the rest of the song doesn’t have anything too insane in it, but it’s a good track. “Simple Things” features some neo-soul vibes to it, including Gospel samples flourishing in the background. Here is some more lyrics boasting himself from Nas, but some good flow and although a tad annoying, still listenable. The production and instrumental really catch me on this track in particular. It’s an okay closer.

So this is the new Nas album and I gotta say it’s not that bad. I saw a few mixed reviews here and there and I will admit, this is probably my least favorite of the major releases from Kanye’s hand so far. It’s not bad and I really like the song “Everything” however there are just some points on the record that do take me out of the immersion the album first put me in with the opening track. However, I’m excited to see what else gets dropped to the Good Music label, because so far it’s been pretty decent.

7/10

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Death Grips - Year Of The Snitch REVIEW 

Death Grips is an internet-cult followed experimental hip-hop group formed by MC Ride, Zach Hill, and Andy Morin. The band saw success towards the beginning of their career with “The Money Store” and their controversial antics saw success as well after the fiasco with releasing “No Love Deep Web” both in 2012, kickstarting their underground fame to new heights. They have released their sought-after newest release “Year Of The Snitch” which I’ve been looking forward to for the past several months. So how’s the new album?

“Death Grips Is Online” starts out the track with a surprising almost upbeat rave vibe. It then goes into a kind of like a cyber-punk and Skinny Puppy but less hard sound for what I assume could be considered a verse. Pretty cool sounds, but really not what I was expecting to hear when I came into the album. “Flies” is pretty cool, it has a mixture of Ride’s low-key vocals and also his aggressive style that he’s known for. Some kinda death-grips expectable sounds here, some stuff I’m used to, but a really trippy ending. “Black Paint” was one of the teaser singles that I heard before the record release and I actually really love this song. It’s very hard and really has just like pure disgusting hard rock sounds. Very aggressive. “Linda’s In Custody” has some pretty interesting sounds and composition. It’s a little hard to describe really what the song is, I can’t compare it to anything I know. It’s weird if you listen you’ll know what I mean. “The Horn Section” has what I think is a little Led Zeppelin sample at the beginning of Robert saying “Here’s John Bonham on drums”, but I could be wrong. However, it does make sense in the context of the song because there is some crazy drum work here, like, so much so I don’t think this was performed by a human.  “Haha” starts out with some weird samples, and then it goes pretty hard. I dig this song, it’s a little out there, however, there’s cool sounds here and good flow. The production is also pretty impressive how it captures some lo-fi sounds but still makes it pretty listenable. “Shitshow” is pretty much what the title says. The production and composition are quite frankly insane. It kinda sounds like if you took a garage metal band that only made one EP and you played it at a faster speed and it got really wild, you would get the instrumental for this song.

“Streaky” is another one of the preview singles that I listened before the album, this song being one of the underwhelming ones. It’s a cool song yeah, but for Death Grips it kinda loses some of the hype that I would want to get from them, however, it is pretty cool production wise. “Dilemma” comes in with some big keyboard and synth sounds, almost kind of like it’s chill synth rock at the beginning, and that’s kinda what the instrumental is. It’s not bad, again just really throwing a curveball here. I wouldn’t say that this is Ride’s best work from a vocal perspective, but at the same time, at some points it is. It’s a little all over the place. “Little Richard” has some pretty hype synth work, even vocoder robot-style vocals added here. It’s very techno-rave like, and I could even say it sort-of sounds like a cartoon background song in a way. “The Fear” has some more crazy jazzy all over the place drums, and I gotta be real, this is kinda bad. Like the instrumental really isn’t doing it for me, it’s borderline weird Halloween music. I don’t know if that was intentional, but that’s really what it is. “Outro” is really sending home this idea to me of using T.V. show sounding samples. Literally look up 80s commercials for like an action figure and tell me it doesn’t sound exactly like this. It’s kinda cool, but I don’t get the point of it on an album I guess. The last song “Disappointed” has super energetic drums accompanied by heavy synths and actually has some really cool moments. For an ironic song title, this was one of the most enjoyable points of the record. The “disappointed” hook is kinda lame though.

So this is the new Death Grips album that a lot and I mean, a lot, of people were anticipating, and to be honest, it’s not as good as I would have hoped it to be. For real I would say there are 3 songs on this album I could see myself coming back to, and the rest is just kind of like a one-off thing for me. I like Death Grips, I’ve been listening for a couple years now and honestly, this album isn’t doing it for me. I may need to go over it a couple more times in the future, see if it grows, but for now, It’s pretty much a disappointment.

6/10

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Nine Inch Nails - Bad Witch REVIEW

Cleveland Industrial alternative band Nine Inch Nails has released a new album titled “Bad Witch” after a couple EP releases over the past several years. Nine Inch Nails is now just essentially just the creative-offspring of Trent Reznor and it’s not horrible, their last EP “Add Violence” being a high point for me in 2017. So how’s this new record?

The first song is “Shit Mirror” which is a very noisy punk-inspired distorted mess at first almost sounding like a hardcore band B-Side from the 80s. The rest of the song is very hard industrial noise, but with a pretty listenable formulaic sense of composition. The song is honestly a little underwhelming when it comes to being an introduction, right before it just straight up stops and goes into a second part of the song for the last minute. It’s very strange. “Ahead Of Ourselves” comes in with this fast-paced drum and bass style beat. This is a tiny bit more expectable from Trent Reznor, but again I’m really feeling just this lack of consistent excitement, but it does have flashes of that energy busting through the lo-fi cracks he’s laid down here. The production is cool, some interesting choices here. “Play The Goddamned Part” comes in with some pretty grooving low-end here, with interesting distorted percussion samples for sure, even synth strings peaking into the mix as well. This song has pretty weird beginnings for sure, it definitely does build, but it’s pretty weird how it does, especially with the horns. It’s not bad, it is really interesting in its own way, but it almost feels like it doesn’t build up to anything substantial, just weird percussion and then that’s it.

“God Break Down The Door” again with the drum and bass rhythm section, very fast-paced and intense sounds here. The interest in these horn samples actually starts to add a flavor to the sound, I kind of see why he went with these sounds, they work well in this track. There’s a lot of creepy oscillation in the break part before going back into the fast-paced rhythms. This is a great track here. “I’m Not From This World” comes out with flourishing and filter sweeping synth sounds, creating a rhythmic layer to the sound. This song has more atmospheric qualities, it’s definitely a trip and very emotional in its way, but I do think it could use a little more contrast every now and then. I kinda felt like I required a little too much patience with this track especially after the previous ones beforehand. I like the little rhythm towards the end. “Over And Out” has some pretty classic industrial sounds to it, especially those snares. I have to be honest, the little xylophone sounds that sound exactly like Minecraft note-blocks really kill the vibe for me on this song, but it does progress into a better area. The sound definitely creates this good space in the mix, the vocals fit it pretty well. The sound gets better as it goes with swelling, huge sounds of just pure noise at points. The wall of sound eventually falls down slowly to the ending of the record.

So this is Trent’s latest work and I gotta say, I’m a little bit in a gray area. The last EP “Add Violence” for me was actually better than this which is a little disappointing, considering this is his first LP in a hot minute, which even then, the album just scratches the 30-minute mark. It’s not a bad album and it does have pretty good moments, but I really want to see more of what “Add Violence” did on his next adventure. I want to see Trent go crazy.

5/10