Album Review: Mickey Diamond, Ral Duke - Super Shredder
“Taken within the context of Mickey Diamond’s gratuitous discography, it’s tempting to view Super Shredder as a sign that the rapper’s star still has plenty of time left before it burns out, and not just because Mickey’s latest record is likely his best to date.”
Album Review: Armand Hammer - We Buy Diabetic Test Strips
“At times, the album may step one foot too far into that abyss, but billy woods and ELUCID are still operating at another level of genius entirely for the vast majority of We Buy Diabetic Test Strips, and at this point in their careers, one hand could count the number of living writers (in any medium, frankly) operating on the same level and with the same consistency.”
Album Review: Estee Nack - Nacksaw Jim Duggan
“Nacksaw Jim Duggan is a cumbersome, unfocused record that nonetheless stands out not because of any musical fairy dust sprinkled on by Gunn in his role as curator, but as a result of a yet-untapped artistic well at the juncture of his experience and Nack’s unparalleled tenacity.”
Album Review: billy woods, Kenny Segal - Maps
“Maps is in many ways a singular achievement in billy woods’ expansive canon, in no small part due to Segal one-upping their last collaboration and matching woods’ lyrical vision with a set of intimate instrumentals that prove just how much potential the duo have left to manifest.”
Album Review: JPEGMAFIA, Danny Brown - SCARING THE HOES
“For better or worse, SCARING THE HOES is as its cover implies: an album of JPEGMAFIA’s ecclectic artistry placed front and center, with Danny Brown inserted imperfectly to the side in ways that fail to make proper use of his talents.”
Album Review: Backxwash - HIS HAPPINESS SHALL COME FIRST EVEN THOUGH WE ARE SUFFERING
“If songs like MUZAKI can be seen as evidence of anything, it’s the potential of Backxwash’s artistry to succeed in all the most brutally unique ways one can imagine, if only she herself can manage to realize them.”
Album Review: billy woods, Messiah Musik - Church
“Church finds billy woods turning inward for its context, and all questions raised by such a hurried release schedule are decidedly answered by both its exposed, intimate nature and its unambiguous excellence.”
Album Review: billy woods - Aethiopes
“It’s difficult to say where the refinement on Aethiopes ends and the fresh perspective begins, but that is merely a symptom of billy woods’ intrinsic brilliance, and his inability to write a verse that doesn’t feel completely revolutionary in one way or another.”
Album Review: Olivia Rodrigo - SOUR
“Olivia Rodrigo deserves her share of accolades for putting together such an enjoyable product on her first attempt, even if the nature of that quality calls into question whether the singer herself will be able to carve out a niche alongside the titans of pop music she is profoundly indebted to.”
Take Me to Your Leader: MF DOOM’s Overlooked Masterpiece
In an unrivaled catalogue of legendary albums, DOOM’s strangest release is also his most criminally underrated.
AT STATE’S END: The Return of Godspeed You! Black Emperor
“G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END! is not a reinvention, either for Godspeed or for the genre of post-rock as a whole, but their confidence in our ability to rescue the world from our own sins is enough reason to separate this album from its legacy and commend it for its own creativity and vision.”
The Empty Grief of WandaVision
The show tries its best to depict the crippling pain of loss, but ends up without much to show for its efforts.
Album Review: Black Dresses - Forever In Your Heart
“Ada Rook and Devi McCallion continue to refine their talents with each new project, yet the intrinsic limitations of their preferred sound remain a constant impediment; for as many compelling themes as this record can boast of, too many are drowned in a miasma of electronic noise that only sometimes complements the band’s appreciable affinity for pathos. Even at its best, Forever In Your Heart asks too much of the listener to truly capture the greatness it is constantly hinting at, but in the entirety of the group’s turbulent existence, said greatness had never seemed more inevitable.”
Album Review: Black Country, New Road - For the first time
“When a work of art as anomalous as this appears out of nowhere, our instinctive response is to retreat into the realm of what is familiar, trying to make sense of the new using what we already know and understand. For the first time challenges with its very existence the validity of that approach, asking the listener to trust that something that appears utterly alien can simultaneously offer both immediate enjoyment and a staggering depth for those who wish to venture further into unknown territory.”
That’s That: The Legacy of MF DOOM
“There’s a reason people often refer to DOOM as “your favourite rapper’s favourite rapper”; not only would one be hard-pressed to find a distinguished modern hip hop artist that wasn’t directly influenced by the work of Daniel Dumile, but the masked MC was a master of his craft in the most technical sense, the kind of rapper whose flows and punchlines only get more and more impressive the deeper one’s appreciation of the artform gets.”
Album Review: Ichiko Aoba - Windswept Adan
“Even if Ichiko Aoba’s thematic intentions are often murky at best, the feeling of something profound hiding just below the surface is universal within her music, a sense of indeterminate mystery that keeps so many fans spellbound even if her words themselves are beyond their understanding. Windswept Adan is what Aoba’s entire career has been building up to, proving definitively that her artistry is not, and never will be, comfortable with inertia.”