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User
Reviews 55
Approval 89%
Soundoffs 19
Album Ratings 148
Objectivity 73%
Last Active 04-25-16 12:25 am
Joined 05-26-14
Review Comments 93
| 2016 Runner's Up (Draft)
A bit of a shout-out for all the albums/EPs that I've liked this year, but that I don't see ever making it to the big Top 10 list. | | 1 |  | Kendrick Lamar
untitled unmastered.
I wanted to love this EP so much. It's got everything I liked about TPAB, but unfortunately it just doesn't cohere that well into a project that leaves a lasting impression. As a way of taking some of the edge off for Kendrick's next album, it's an A+ effort. But as a standalone project, it's an 8/10 at best, and a 6.5-7 on a regular day. | | 2 |  | Rihanna
Anti
Rihanna's a cool person, and Anti is the best case she's ever made for her being considered one of pop music's premiere bad bitches. However, it's also an album full of potholes and not great songs. In terms of lasting songs, I can only think of two (Work and Needed Me). As a project, it's chock-full of ethos and atmosphere, but it feels too of-the-moment for an artist aiming to be timeless. | | 3 |  | TK From Ling Tosite Sigure
Secret Sensation
For an artist as restlessly creative as TK, it can be hard to cohere your ideas into a smart and marketable product. Secret Sensation is one of the first times in TK's long run (as both a solo artist and a band member) that the seams show a bit. Some of the songs (like Secret Sensation and ear+f) show TK's pre-eminent strength in merging dissonant hardcore elements with some more melodic post-rock elements. But the other tracks here show TK trying to take his more outre leanings and make them more poppy, much to the detriment of the songs themselves. It's a good EP overall, but it's not great, and I don't see anything changing that for me over the next 6 months. | | 4 |  | Death Grips
Bottomless Pit
I love Death Grips so much. As a countercultural product, their music is uncommonly visceral and I just love it. But Bottomless Pit feels regressive for them. It's like a bad Money Store retread, and just shows me that Death Grips 2.0 may not be as tough or as a poignantly out-there as their first incarnation. However, I feel it could grow on me and might end up at the top of this list. If lightning strikes, it'll make it to the lower part of the Top 10. | | 5 |  | Drake
VIEWS
I just can't with this friggin' album. It's so overwrought and emotionally hollow. A lot of people compare its length and emotional timbre to James Blake's new album, but to me the comparison only really showcases how awful this album is at times. While Blake's album is complex and nuanced and features a range of different emotions that all feel genuine, VIEWS is the sound of Drake phoning it in, rehashing the same situations and emotional scenarios just to hit the hour mark. In an interview, James Blake decried "artists that keeps themselves in a perpetual cycle of anxiety and depression just to extract music from [it]." I feel like that's exactly what Drake has done with VIEWS. It's nothing new. But there are some songs like "Too Good" or "U With Me?" where Drake either happens upon a particularly poignant (if not original) sentiment, or he mines new sonic territory and successfully brings light to his older emotions. | |
Papa Universe
05.30.16 | Hi, I'm just walking around leaving useless comments on commentless lists so that people don't get sad when no one commented (in case you actually give a damn). | hal1ax
05.30.16 | Keep up the great work |
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