Reviews

Jessie Reyez – ‘Before Love Came to Kill Us’ Album Review

Photo Credit: Philip Harris “And I’m sick with feeling like I deserved better // And you’re sick for everything you did to me, it was a setup // And I should Goodfella you, call me Karen, waking up to my Beretta // If I blow your brains out I, I can guarantee that you’ll forget… Read more

The 1975 – ‘Notes on a Conditional Form’ Album Review

Photo Credit: Dean Chalkley Bloated? Sure; at 80 minutes in runtime, that’s an assured assessment of The 1975’s fourth record, Notes on a Conditional Form, a companion piece to their 2018 record A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships. “Bloated” seems to be the point entirely, however – that society is bloated, our perception of ourselves… Read more

Nine Inch Nails – ‘Ghosts V: Together’ / ‘Ghosts VI: Locusts’ Album Review

Photo Credit: Lior Phillips With their two new concurrent releases, Nine Inch Nails continue what they began with their surprising and rather lengthy 2008 offering Ghosts I-IV. That is, they return to an almost entirely all-instrumental approach, in a musical sub-genre which is supposedly known as “dark ambient.” “Ambient” stems from the word “ambiance,” meaning that the music is meant to be only part of the… Read more

Trivium – ‘What the Dead Men Say’ Album Review

Photo Credit: Roadrunner Records Orlando, Florida heavy metal band Trivium’s ninth album What the Dead Men Say opens with a short track titled simple “XI”, an instrumental that acts essentially as an overture. The title song, however, which immediately follows, drives the point home. Trivium is clearly the type of band that likes to drive the point home… Read more

The Used – ‘Heartwork’ Album Review

Photo Credit: Brian Cox There’s a very early issue of Mad magazine where the cover was designed to look like a school composition book on the outside, the (obviously humorous) idea being that it would act as camouflaged decoy from teachers who wouldn’t then know what the students were actually reading. We may wonder if Orem,… Read more

Kehlani – ‘It Was Good Until It Wasn’t’ Album Review

Photo Credit: Arturo Torres Kehlani’s third studio album It Was Good Until It Wasn’t was released on May 8th, 2020. The artist went live on YouTube from her home on the day of its release to answer fan questions about the album. All music videos were created “quarantine style” as well. She states that most… Read more

Doja Cat – ‘Hot Pink’ Album Review

Photo Credit: RCA RECORDS Amalaratna Zandile Dlamini, professionally known as Doja Cat, released her second album Hot Pink late last year and it later became her breakthrough record within the music industry. Most tracks on Hot Pink are catchy, with each one having a memorable line or a familiar beat. The songs are just as… Read more

Kali Uchis – ‘To Feel Alive’ EP Review

Photo Credit: Felipe Q Nogueira Last month Karly-Marina Loaiza, professionally known as Kali Uchis, released a short and sweet EP titled To Feel Alive. Kali has been working on a new album, but wasn’t ready to release it due to the current quarantine. She put together the EP just to hold over listeners and to… Read more

Jhené Aiko – ‘Chilombo’ Album Review

Photo Credit: Isaac Sterling Chilombo is Jhené Aiko’s third studio album. The title comes from Jhené’s last name, which is not Aiko, – her father called himself Chilombo, and his children took it as their last name. It means “wild beast” in African. Starting with a meditative piano intro on the track “Lotus”, the album… Read more

Hayley Williams – ‘Petals For Armor’ Album Review

Photo Credit: Lindsey Byrnes Young industry veterans like Hayley Williams don’t always possess the vision or the wherewithal to make successful mid-career pivots, let alone have the actual energy to really make it all stick. Forgive yourself if you forgot Williams’ role as a central fixture of the pop-punk landscape, or that she’s played this… Read more