West-coast duo NxWorries’ second collaborative project, Yes Lawd!, feels very much like a jazzy and soulful spiritual successor to Stones Throw Records’ past collaborations, such as Madvillainy and Champion Sound. The album follows a momentous year by singer-songwriter and multi faceted vocalist, Anderson .Paak. In 2016, he released his sophomore[Read More…]
Album Reviews
Album Review: The Altar – Banks
Over the two years after the release of her first album, Goddess (2014) Jillian Banks—better known by her stage name, Banks—has climbed to success, winning awards and touring internationally with The Weeknd. The University of Southern California graduate’s academic background in psychology shines through in the themes she explores in[Read More…]
Album Review: A Seat at the Table – Solange
★★★★★ Moms are known for picking favourites, based on just about anything really (usually whichever child takes out the trash that week or helps bring in groceries). What is a mom like Tina Knowles-Lawson supposed to do? Now the second album of the year from a Knowles, Solange breaks through[Read More…]
Album Review: Bon Iver – 22, A Million
Five years ago, Bon Iver released their self-titled EP to much critical acclaim. The album had stretched the boundaries of folk music, bringing an expansive tenor to a typically stripped down genre, and becoming a modern classic album in the process. Since then, Bon Iver’s[Read More…]
Album Review: Atrocity Exhibition – Danny Brown
Danny Brown doesn’t make albums for the faint-of-heart. Throughout his career, Brown has pushed the limits of what one can say on a mainstream rap release, as well as the genre’s sonic boundaries. As he shifts rapidly between coked-out rampages, stoned relaxation, explicit sexual descriptions,[Read More…]
Album Review: The Sun’s Tirade – Isaiah Rashad
Tennessean rapper Isaiah Rashad has some destructive tendencies. They were the subject of much of his deceptively laidback flows on his eye-opening 2014 debut, Cilvia Demo. The two years since have not been easy for Rashad: An addiction to Xanax, alcoholism, and the pressures of being his label’s prospective ‘next[Read More…]
Album Review: AIM – M.I.A.
“Borders, what’s up with that?” asks Sri Lankan musician M.I.A. in the lead track “Borders.” Unfortunately, on her latest studio album, we never get a clear answer. AIM lacks a distinct target, and the final result misses the mark. Compared with previous hits “Sunshowers” and “Paper Planes” that propelled M.I.A’s message into[Read More…]
Album Review: Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight – Travis Scott
Houston rapper Travis Scott has followed up his 2015 debut studio album Rodeo, with the highly anticipated sophomore album Birds In The Trap Sing McKnight (BTSM). MC and producer Travis Scott originally burst into the limelight as Kanye West’s wunderkind, earning himself production credits in West’s 2013 album Yeezus. Scott[Read More…]
Album Review: Teens of Denial – Car Seat Headrest
Car Seat Headrest is everything that comes to mind when you think lo-fi indie rock. Will Toledo, the mastermind behind what was originally a one-man-band, created a cult following through Bandcamp before ever getting signed. He already had 10 self-made albums under his belt before[Read More…]
Album Review: EVOL – Future
A question that might come to mind when analyzing trap music is whether the lyrical content is in fact an accurate representation of the rapper's selves and their views. With this question in mind, what can one make of Future? As his life fell apart in recent years, his music[Read More…]
