By Kiah Easton, Editorial Director[XL Recordings; 2020]Rating: 7/10 Key tracks: “Time”, “Mequetrefe ”, “La Chiqui” KiCk i is the first studio album in over three years from Alejandra Ghersi, more popularly known as Arca. Within these three years, Arca went through somewhat of a transformation within the public eye and publicly stated her non-binary identity…
Category: Reviews
Album Review: Charli XCX – how i’m feeling now
how i’m feeling now was born within and shaped by the current state of the world. Charli XCX, less than a year since her last project Charli, capitalized on the unique situations of the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather than growing sedentary in isolation, she took action using the internet to collaborate – not only with peers, but also fans.
Album Review: Eminem – Music To Be Murdered By
By Jackson Stein, Staff Writer [Shady; 2020] Rating: 5.5/10 Key tracks: “Darkness”, “Yah Yah”, “Lock It Up” If Eminem dropped a surprise record 20 years ago, listeners across the world would scramble to their nearest record store, needing to hear what the Detroit rap legend had to say. After all, Eminem was hip-hop’s brilliantly diabolical…
Album Review: galen tipton – recovery girl
By Kiah Easton, Columns Editor [DESKPOP; 2020] Rating: 8/10 Key tracks: “big loud & violent”, “recovery girl ”, “dont be my light” galen tipton is starting out 2020 with a bang, releasing her debut project under the alias recovery girl through the experimental pop record label DESKPOP Music. Undoubtedly big, loud and violent, as the…
Album Review: Grimes – Miss Anthropocene
By Andrew Breazeale, Staff Writer [4AD; 2020] Rating: 7.5/10 Key tracks: “4ÆM”, “Delete Forever”, “My Name is Dark – Art Mix” It’s hard to describe modern music without mentioning Grimes. The Canadian singer-songwriter, Claire Boucher, has been pushing the boundaries of pop, electronic and hip-hop music since her debut in 2010. She is a pioneer…
Album Review: Kesha – High Road
By Lauren McCain, Contributor [RCA/Kemosabe; 2020] Rating: 6.5/10 Key tracks: “Tonight”, “Kinky (ft. Ke$ha)”, “Summer” Ah, welcome back to the gaudy, paint-splashed, sparkling chaos that is a quintessential Kesha album. Kesha’s fifth studio album, High Road marks a return to the same pop sentiments of her early dollar sign days. And weren’t those the days? …
Album Review: Mac Miller – Circles
By Jessica Jones, Copy Editor [Warner Records Inc; 2020] Rating: 8.5/10 Key tracks: “Circles”, “Blue World”, “Good News”, “Surf” In 2018, shortly before his tragic death, rapper, singer, songwriter and producer Mac Miller left us with Swimming, his final studio album meant to be the first of a three-part project. On Jan. 17, Miller gifted…
Album Review: Yeule – Serotonin II
By Kiah Easton, Columns Editor [Bayonet; 2019] Rating: 7/10 Key tracks: “Eva”, “Pixel Affection”, “Veil of Darkness” London-based dream-pop artist Yeule’s debut project, Serotonin II, is a product of the digital age that feels like a soft, artificial ambiance dwelling in the recesses of our increasingly digital existence. Whispy vocals sprawl across a host of…
Album Review: Hannah Diamond – Reflections
By Kiah Easton, Columns Editor [PC Music; 2019] Rating: 7.5/10 Key tracks: “Love Goes On”, “Concrete Angel”, “Fade Away” Hannah Diamond has been a driving musical force not only as a member of the PC Music label but also as a hyper-pop pioneer. She takes the elements of traditional pop and deconstructs them, transforming familiar…
Album Review: Mount Erie –Lost Wisdom, Pt. 2
By Jonah Krueger, Staff Writer [P.W. Elverum & Sun, 2019] Rating: 8/10 Key tracks: “Belief”, “Love Without Possession”, “Belief Pt. 2” Phil Elverum’s last two years have been, to put it mildly, very unique. With the release of a Vanity Fair feature, he transitioned from an indie-music veteran to a tabloid subheading. Overnight, he became…
Album Review: Earl Sweatshirt – FEET OF CLAY
By Kiah Easton, Columns Editor [Warner Records; 2019] Rating: 6.5/10 Key tracks: “MTOMB”, “EL TORO COMBO MEAL (feat. Mavi)”, “ TISK TISK / COOKIES” Following Earl Sweatshirt’s critically acclaimed masterpiece, Some Rap Songs, Earl’s latest EP FEET OF CLAY feels more like the B-sides of his previous project. However, being compared to the B-sides of…
Album Review: blink-182 – NINE
By Mason Kereliuk, Contributor [Columbia, 2019] Rating: 6/10 Key tracks: “Pin the Grenade”, “Ransom”, “Hungover You” For years I have been telling people that I hate blink-182 and that the lead singer seemed like a real sonofabitch, even though his leaked nudes were kind of hot. It wasn’t until writing this review that I realized…
