By Sam Tornow, General Manager [NON Worldwide; 2018] Rating: 8/10 Key Tracks: “Blackface”, “Ban Men”, “Broken Macbook”, “Petit Seige”, “Real Clothes” NON deserves your undivided attention. The collective, headed by Angel-Ho, Nkisi and Chino Amobi is challenging societal binaries through avant-club music, radical messaging and militant aesthetics. Comprised of 42 NON “citizens” (including artists like…
Tag: Album Review
Album Review: The HIRS Collective – Friends. Lovers. Favorites.
By Maria Lubanovic, Copy Editor [Get Better / SRA; 2018] Rating: 6.5/10 Key Tracks: “Friends. Lovers. Favorites”, “It’s Okay To Be Sick”, “Outnumbered” From the moment that drums fire off into a scream, The HIRS Collective’s Friends. Lovers. Favorites. explodes into a writhing and pounding guitar riff and the throaty screams of the band members. This…
Album Review: Princess Nokia – A Girl Cried Red
By Eli Schoop, Copy Editor [Rough Trade; 2018] Rating: 4/10 Key Tracks: “For the Night”, “Look Up Kid” Ever since Destiny Frasqueri broke onto the New York hip-hop scene as a fresh-faced, confrontational force, her ascent has been meteoric, going from chilling at bodegas to NPR and Vice features. A Girl Cried Red is a…
Album Review: Dr. Octagon – Moosebumps: An Exploration into Modern Day Horripilation
By Justin Cudahy, Columns Editor [Bulk; 2018] Rating: 7.5/10 Key Tracks: “Octagon Octagon”, “Power of the World (S Curls)”, “3030 Meets the Doc – Pt. 1” Our favorite time-traveling extraterrestrial gynecologist is back. It’s been a dozen years since Kool Keith has made music under the Dr. Octagon persona, coming off a rather disappointing sequel…
Album Review: Kacey Musgraves – Golden Hour
By Devon Hannan, Editorial Director [MCA Nashville; 2018] Rating: 8.5/10 Key Tracks: “Lonely Weekend”, “Space Cowboy”, “High Horse” Kacey Musgraves is no stranger to throwing the country music world for a loop. On past releases, Same Trailer, Different Park and Pageant Material, she has mentioned and explored “controversial” themes that make many of the genre’s…
Album Review: Cardi B – Invasion of Privacy
By Eli Schoop, Copy Editor [Atlantic; 2018] Rating: 7.5/10 Key Tracks: “Get Up 10”, “Bickenhead”, “I Like It” Y’all tired of Cardi B yet? I’m not, and for good reason. The 25-year-old Bronxite has been conquering the world one step at a time, from her recent SNL appearance, to her provocative and hysterical Instagram videos….
Album Review: Jean Grae & Quelle Chris – Everything’s Fine
By Eli Schoop, Copy Editor [Mello Music; 2018] Rating: 6.5/10 Key Tracks: “Gold Purple Orange”, “Peacock”, “Breakfast of Champions” Husband and wife duos in music are nothing new. See: Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz, Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore (rip), Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham (noticing a pattern here?). But rarely is it done in rap,…
Album Review: Escape the Fate – I Am Human
By Marvin Dotiyal, Features Editor [Better Noise; 2018] Rating: 5.5/10 Key Tracks: “Four Letter Word”, “I Will Make It Up to You”, “Digging My Own Grave” Post-hardcore has grown to become an ambiguous umbrella term for associating with classic acts like Thrice, but also with more experimental, jazzy hybrids like Dance Gavin Dance and straight-up…
Album Review: Frankie Cosmos – Vessel
By Emily DiAlbert, Staff Writer [Sub Pop; 2018] Rating: 8.5/10 Key Tracks: “Caramelize”, “Duet”, “Vessel” It’s not a secret that singer-songwriter Greta Kline of Frankie Cosmos has always viewed herself as an outsider. Her previous effervescent albums show snapshots of her distinct human experiences with the outside world through her metaphorical lyrics and sometimes outlandish…
Album Review: Preoccupations – New Material
By Justin Cudahy, Columns Editor [Jagjaguwar; 2018] Rating: 6.5/10 Key Tracks: “Espionage”, “Manipulation”, “Doubt” Calgary-based post-punk group Preoccupations have certainly found themselves on a creative streak these last three years – having now released their third full-length album in said time. Ever since the band rebranded themselves back in 2016, (having originally gone by Viet Cong…
Album Review: Suicidal Tendencies – Get Your Fight On!
By Eric Perzanowski, Staff Writer [Suicidal; 2018] Rating: 5.5/10 Key Tracks: “Get Your Bass On”, “Get United” The crossover between hardcore and thrash metal tends to be characterized by several traits: a more playful approach to the music in comparison to the style’s influences, lyrics that generally either reflect that playfulness, or make a political…
Album Review: David Byrne — American Utopia
By Emily DiAlbert, Contributor [Nonesuch; 2018] Rating: 7/10 Key Tracks: “I Dance Like This”, “Gasoline and Dirty Sheets”, “Bullet” If music had its own Saturday Night Live, American Utopia would be its first episode. Talking Heads frontman David Byrne expertly intertwines stark commentary on the American political climate with witty and, at times, odd humor in…
