Half-Year in Review #4: Pink Siifu - NEGRO
“Pink Siifu’s newest offering is a confusing, often illegible mess of a record, the stylistic equivalent of yanking the steering wheel as hard to the left as possible and plummeting your vehicle off the edge of a cliff as l’appel du vide takes over your once-rational mind. It is also, bar none, the most important album you will listen to this year.”
Half-Year in Review #3: R.A.P. Ferreira - Purple Moonlight Pages
“If you wanted to pitch milo to an unsuspecting initiate, you could probably spin the rapper’s more eccentric qualities into assets with a little poetic license. Talk about his offbeat flow, his ambitiously understated approach to rapping, maybe quote a few bars and hope they can define Sonderweg but don’t know what futanari is. If you want to pitch R.A.P. Ferreira, just refer them to Purple Moonlight Pages and let the rapper’s newfound candor do the talking for you.”
Half-Year in Review #2: Beach Bunny - Honeymoon
“For all the despondency and heartache Beach Bunny manage to portray in their debut album’s slim runtime, its buoyant instrumentals and enthralling lyricism trick the listener into enjoying themselves far too much for a record written with this much angst. The indie pop quartet may still be dipping their toes into the realm of full-length projects, yet already it is all too clear that their work has mastered the art of not overstaying its welcome while simultaneously leaving the listener in desperate need of more.”
Half-Year in Review #1: Halsey - Manic
“In theory, taking a break from the ambiguously defined Halsey-verse to make an isolated record of heartbreak, doubt, and eventual catharsis is a great idea; in practice, Manic suffers from many of the same flaws that plagued Halsey’s previous albums. At this point, no amount of blatant talent or perceived potential can obscure the unattractive production and regrettable lyricism that ruin far too many promising ideas; if Halsey wants to maintain the same level of intrigue with which many have followed her career up to this point, something on the journey from thought to pen to studio must change, and drastically so.”