That is certainly the case with the latest Knocked Loose album, You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To. I didn’t expect to enjoy this project as much as I did. I hadn’t heard a single Knocked Loose project before this, and I only heard one pre-release single. I had been recommended to listen to the band prior to listening by friends and saw the glowing early reviews for the album in question. I was curious, and the album is relatively short. I did not expect the insane sonic density, intense rage, and genuinely thought provoking lyrical themes that were delivered. Even if it isn’t perfect, in just twenty seven minutes Knocked Loose have managed to leave me, quite literally, breathless with what they’ve accomplished here.

After a faint bell ring (as if to say ‘let the games begin’), the opener, Thirst, shows exactly what the band is capable of. After a loud scream, vocalist Bryan lashes out “Followed by the thirst!”. In less than a minute and a half, the tone is set perfectly. Cryptic writing that builds up across the song and is enhanced by dynamic vocals, drums that sound like heavy shotguns, guitars that are visceral but just melodic enough to work, and an overall sense of being pummeled across the track make Thirst a thrill to listen to. There’s even a couple of breakdowns towards the end of the song. It checks so many boxes I didn’t fully know I had.

The song Suffocate checks a box I knew I had by featuring Poppy, one of my favorite newer artists (at the time of writing). Poppy kills it on the song. She’s dabbled in rock and metal before but never anything quite this intense before. I am actually fairly surprised she was able to adapt to the band’s brand of metal so well, but she did. She sounds quite a bit like the main vocalist for the band, but you can definitely tell it’s her.

I believe now would be a good time to mention that the mixing on this album is exquisite. Mostly everything is loud, yes, but it’s varying degrees of loud. Suffocate illustrates this very well. Poppy screams over the loud, chugging riffs before transitioning into a whispery bridge that is accompanied by faint background screams. The fact that the band were able to mix it in such a dynamic manner while keeping the ‘beating you down, deep frying your endorphins’ feeling makes for an impressive dichotomy that almost doesn’t feel real. In the verse itself, Poppy discusses the idea of living with your mistakes and how tortuous that can be. It’s cathartic to scream along to, given the theme of the track.

Another impressive (although occasionally detrimental) element of ‘You Won’t Go’ is the transitions on the album, as they’re absolutely seamless. Most of the transitions on the album are so smooth that I kept describing the wrong tracks in the review before going back and editing. I would believe a song was still going when it transitioned into the next one. This is mostly a good thing, but sometimes it made the songs blend together a little. Depending on who a person is and what they look for in this type of project, it might not bother them at all. For me personally, it was impressive but occasionally made the project forgettable for me. The end of Moss Covers All being the rhythm section of Take Me Home is a good example of this. I honestly would have preferred if they had combined them into one track. I will say it gets better towards the end, like how the beginning of The Calm That Keeps You Awake is completely different from the end of Slaughterhouse 2.

Speaking Of The Calm That Keeps You Awake, it is yet another example of the band keeping things interesting. Once it gets going it has a swift, almost thrash-like riff. Prior to that, it has these chugging, booming guitars. It almost feels like the incline of a rollercoaster, where the thrash-like barrage of a riff is the descent. The shotgun drums make a return here as well. Sonically, this track feels like being barraged by missiles, although the lyrics can also make it feel like hellish anxiety induced insomnia incarnate. “You sacrifice your peace now” and “nothing still can stay” exemplify this feeling perfectly. It is somewhat abstract but I enjoy it. The guitars in the chorus sound like actual bouts of thunder and I love it. There are even some strong growls and a breakdown towards the end. The anxiety aspect of the track ramps up to reveal a surprisingly calm ending.

I do love this dichotomy of peace and chaos; the calm and the storm; the incline and the decline. This pattern of instrumental barrages with eerily peaceful moments to make those barrages more meaningful reaches its apex in the closer, Sit and Mourn. The track starts with a cold, lonely electric guitar melody, where I can almost hear the tumbleweed. The track even has bird sounds. These chirps are almost immediately interrupted by one of the angriest riffs on the album. Each strum sounds like a bomb dropping into my ears. A more melodic riff follows this, leading into a calmer verse (if you can call the vocals calm). The track also incorporates some quick drumming paired with extremely intense guitars. This ramps up into an almost ambient bridge section. It is haunting and given that it’s barely over halfway through the track, it becomes apparent that it’s one of the earlier mentioned inclines. What I didn’t expect is for the barrage to be so melodic and peaceful. This is accomplished by, again, incredibly good mixing. While the outro melody is calm and pretty far up in the mix, it is accompanied by heavy chugging and those powerful drums that have been employed throughout the album. The whole section feels like descending to the depths of Hell , giving the world the finger one more time while you go.

Given that they featured Poppy and Chris Motionless on the album, the fact that they’ve toured with bands like Bring Me The Horizon and Beartooth, and that they’re a metalcore band, it is safe to say Knock Loose are deep in the alternative scene; a scene that is all too often discounted by music critics and fans alike. I am happy to say people are taking this album seriously, and hopefully it will lead to a wave of other alternative artists getting more positive attention. Knocked Loose have truly created something special here. The insanely cathartic experience of sensory overload felt in just twenty-seven minutes of music is mind blowing, even if it’s not the kind of metal I typically enjoy. I do think some of the transitions are a bit hit or miss, and the instrumentals get slightly repetitive, but that doesn’t stop You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To from being a near masterpiece and a triumph for not only the metalcore genre, but the entire alternative scene that will be moshed to violently for years to come.

9/10

With all of that said, some music just doesn’t hit me the way I want it to no matter how hard I try or how much my taste changes. This is the case with today’s subject, Cardi B’s Invasion Of Privacy. I am aware Cardi has not dropped an album in several years, and the mainstream music sphere has long transitioned out of her style of music being the most popular. The thing is Invasion Of Privacy not only won the best rap album Grammy against four acclaimed and seminal albums, but is also looked upon somewhat fondly even today by music critics and fans alike. Personally, I just don’t get it. Invasion Of Privacy is an album that, more often than not, takes any potential it has and wastes it on terrible beats that border on parody, weak features that almost all make the song they are on actively worse, and a generally annoying presence from Cardi herself.

Funnily enough, the album doesn’t start off as a trainwreck, as the opener is actually decent. Get Up 10 has a lot of what the rest of the album lacks. It has heart, an enjoyable beat, and varied flows. Get Up 10 features a piano beat that starts off airy and atmospheric and slowly turns into a poppy trap banger. Cardi starts off detailing her upbringing and it is, in fact, compelling. She talks about going from “rags to riches” and choosing being a rapper over a dancer, but then when the beat ramps up it just turns into flexing and acting tough. “If it’s all love, show me love then” and similar bars are basically just white noise on the song. With that said, the beat is still cool, with some crazy hi hats and other trap drums, plus an acceleration of the piano section. This makes Cardi’s less than stellar continuation of her verse worth listening to anyway.

The album’s real issues begin with the following track, Drip. The beat is extremely static and lifeless. It has these whistle-like synths and some trap drums, and that’s about ninety percent of it. It’s flaccid and basically doesn’t pick up throughout the entire song. It’s one of many beats on this album that borders on parody. This is a beat one might hear on a show like Saturday Night Live, when they are parodying trap in a sketch. It is overly minimalist and only provides enjoyment for about the first twenty seconds of it. It meshes well with the repetitive chorus I suppose, which just has Cardi and the featured Migos saying “drip drip” over and over again. The verses are also mixed so loud that they don’t do the production any favors. It genuinely sounds like an a cappella track at times. Cardi’s verse also starts the trend on the album of her being annoyingly breathy in her verses. The worst part is she isn’t saying anything of substance or anything fun. She’s not spouting absurd nonsense like Lil Pump or 21 Savage. She’s literally just coasting, and Migos do the exact same thing as well. There is nothing to latch onto here or even vibe to. Not a single good line.

One of the more popular singles on this album, Bodak Yellow, has a somewhat more energetic beat but the repetitive nature of it still exudes that parody feel that Drip had. It doesn’t help that Cardi delivers a slow, nursery rhyme flow almost the whole time that also appears on other tracks in different ways. The main issue with this flow is that she overemphasizes certain words in a way that does not benefit the song given the annoying, breathy cadence she uses to do so. It is, for lack of a better word, goofy. Perhaps it’s meant to be that way, with Shakespearean lines such as “I don’t bother with these hoes, I don’t let these hoes bother me”. She is really just riffing on this song for a single.

The song Best Life has a verse from Cardi that retreads some of the ground from Get Up 10, further detailing her upbringing, but in a less compelling manner this time. After that we get a chorus and verse from none other than Chance The Rapper. When I saw Chance on the feature list I was wondering if we would be getting the cool, Acid Rap Chance or the lame “The Big Day” Chance. It took one “ack!” from him to make me realize it was the latter. Chance truly shows he was already starting to lose his artistic integrity with this song. He sings about making “a couple of m’s” with his “best friends” in the hook. He also sings this annoying “skrrrrt” sound in the chorus. Vocally it almost sounds like X Ambassadors with the faux grandeur in the vocal layering. In the verse itself he emphasizes the last word of every line in a way that, along with the generally limp or cheesy delivery throughout, just makes this verse annoying and fairly worthless. The song doesn’t pick up from there either. There’s a weak Cardi verse like the one from earlier, though it isn’t really worth discussing despite the flow being slightly better than the last few tracks.

I was begging for Chance to come back once the next track started. I Like It is arguably the most grating song on the album, and it was also the biggest single. It has a somewhat Latin flare to it with its horns which is about the only interesting part of the song. Cardi is, unfortunately, entirely grating on the song. Cardi talks about the lavish things she likes, then makes it very clear to the listener she is definitely Cardi B. “They call me Cardi” is a line said multiple times outside the hook, and yes that is indeed her stage name. Not much of note happens on the verse besides the cadences being particularly grating here. She is yelling at the listener and it doesn’t generate nearly the hype one would want from a song like this, given how annoying she is on here. The nursery rhyme criticism also applies here. It sounds like she’s rapping to a five year old, especially in the hook. We also get a frustratingly generic verse from Bad Bunny. Not a surprise coming from Bad Bunny, but it doesn’t do the song any favors.

Another track in the second half with a fairly annoying feature is Bartier Cardi. I have never been a huge 21 Savage fan but he really gets dragged into doing the same unpleasant flow that Cardi employs on the track (that flow being the one where Cardi overemphasizes the last word of each line). It doesn’t help that her rhyme scheme overuses the “ar” sound, nor does the genericism of the rest of the flow. It is derivative, annoying, and of course 21 bites off of it at the beginning of his verse. 21 has admittedly gotten better over the years but he was not there yet at this point in time. After he copies Cardi’s flow for a bit, he just adds a few extra syllables. The fun part is he has the opposite problem Cardi has where he barely emphasizes anything. I suppose it’s a nice change of pace, but it’s still pretty annoying at the end of the day. The beat is also fairly nothing and borders on parody like much of the rest of the production.

I would expect an album with the bombast of Invasion Of Privacy to end with a bang. Instead of showing Cardi’s skill, charm and passion, we get a cut that says almost nothing and is about thirty percent the SZA hook. The decision to end the album with this track is confusing to say the least, as it’s one of the most uninteresting tracks on the entire album. SZA basically steals the show here, being the only passable feature on the album. Even with that being said, she isn’t saying anything that’s catchy or interesting. She says she has expensive taste essentially, which does nothing for me. Cardi hypes herself up in the most derivative way possible. She talks about “bad bitches” and her genitalia. Honestly, it might be more fun if the beat were a bit better. Cardi’s cadence isn’t even that bad here, but the track is just boring overall. I’m surprised such a big album ends on such a whimper, but I guess I shouldn’t be by now.

I have warmed up to trap music over the years. At its best, it can be fun, vibey, and interesting all at once. The genre has had an interesting history and an arguably even more fascinating rise to popularity. With that said, I do not believe Invasion Of Privacy by Cardi B is the best the genre has to offer. Far from it, in fact. This is an album that seems to be more for Cardi’s brand than the music itself. From the features that range from half baked to irritating, to the repetitive flows, rhyme schemes, and verses, to the fact that it just doesn’t do anything that trap wasn’t already doing in some capacity before it. I do not believe Invasion Of Privacy is much more than Cardi getting her name out there on a vehicle for her singles. The biggest point I can give this album is that Cardi has a lot of energy, even on the most limp beats. The issue is that she uses this energy in dull or annoying ways most of the time. I truly hope that if Cardi does release a follow up to this album soon, she learns from her contemporaries who have made much better strides in trap music. I hope she uses her high energy and star power for something interesting in the future, because it really didn’t happen here.

3/10

To address the elephant in the room, yes, Willow is the daughter of one of the most prominent entertainers in history, Will Smith. Willow was also shoved into the music industry at a young age with a song I (and many others admittedly) did not enjoy, “Whip My Hair”. These are highly invalid criticisms of Willow in my view and are non-starters to conversations on what she has been up to in the past five or even ten years and how she has evolved as an artist. Willow has been playing with and exploring different styles her whole career. Whether it be the vibey art pop of her self-titled album, or the alternative rock and metal on copingmechanism, Willow has genuinely been following her heart with the music she chooses to make. Not only that, she has also been honing the more common qualities of her albums. Qualities such as her angelic voice, her ear for atmospheric beauty, who she chooses to work with, and most of all, her genuine love for the craft.

All of this has culminated in her latest album, and the subject of this review, Empathogen. Willow, of course, changed her musical style and influences up, as she so often does. After copingmechanism I expected her to go full metal and shoegaze a la Deftones on her next project. This was what I wanted to a degree considering I believe her passion and harmonies would carry extremely well into something like that. I should have expected the unexpected, and that’s the best advice I can give any curious listener going into Empathogen. Willow tackles art pop again, yes, but she combines this with a variety of other styles, and creates a completely different feeling than on any of her other albums. On Empathogen, Willow not only proves that she is infinitely beyond Whip My Hair in terms of musicality, but also illustrates her own feelings and philosophies in such a compelling manner that I can only hope she is seen as the voice of a generation for years to come.

When I saw John Batiste was first on the feature list I was admittedly slightly worried. Thankfully his contributions are not all that noticeable bar from the admittedly entertaining intro where he makes a weird squawking noise and claims “I love everything”. Willow then comes in with some whispery (yet loud enough to keep the rhythm) vocal chants that she croons on top of “I wish for this river to carry me”, that river being “the river of grace”. The song sounds like a theatrical anxiety attack with the “ba ba ba ba” background chanting, the continued repeating of the word “breathe”, and the rhythm section that switches back and forth between ‘everything is fine’ and ‘my heart is pounding’. It’s subtle while remaining as relatable as Willow has always been.

This album thrives on being simple yet complex. The good news is that, even with that being the case, not a single song overstays its welcome. This isn’t to say the shorter tracks aren’t bursting at the seams with creativity like the rest of the album, quite the contrary. Ancient girl has a folky guitar melody along with Willow cryptically singing of an “ancient girl” in the forest. Not only does the name of the song completely fit with how cryptic and enchanted it sounds, but also when she emphasizes the ‘i’ in girl she uses an ominous groaning cadence that just sounds sinister and I love it. Another shorter track on this album shines without even saying anything. The song “no words 1&2” shows Willow’s creativity just using her voice as an instrument. That doesn’t stop her from playing a funky bass in part one that truly shows her love for Les Claypool and Primus. There’s also some saxophone action too, which is always nice. Part two is more atmospheric and even more centered around Willow’s voice. I love how it builds on the album’s beauty without even saying a word. I Know That Face is a bit more melancholic, with the more minor keyed bassline and Willow’s beautiful, but almost defeated and often breathy vocals. She sounds like she doesn’t want to speak up until her emotion can’t be hidden any longer. It is technically impressive while serving a purpose emotionally. This track makes me think about my own struggles with anxiety and people. Lines such as “light and dark is just a place called home” hit close to home especially with how Willow delivers them, overflowing with authentic heart.

While Willow is trying a plethora of new ideas on Empathogen, that does not mean she has forgotten her other musical endeavors. False Self has aggression and alternative tendencies that would feel right at home on copingmechanism, with Willow’s gritty delivery and the soaring vocal harmonies thrown in to emphasize an intense chorus. Said chorus feels like a more intense version of something from her self titled album; Airy art pop. That being said, this track also uses that influence and adds funk influence in the second verse. In many ways this song would fit in the 80s pop sphere, but it also has less overblown synth work, which is appreciated. Overall, False Self almost feels like Willow coming out of a chrysalis of her old music and is now soaring like a butterfly. It is a beautiful moment in an album of beautiful moments.

The track between i and she is a bit more obvious with the influence of Willow’s older work. This is essentially a more acoustic version of the kind of song you would hear on copingmechansim. It is driven by a punchy drum rhythm and a somewhat folky but fast guitar melody that begs for Willow to sing beautifully over it, which she does in spades. She asks why she even tries, and ponders her existence in the world. “It’s just me in this moment of the purest devotion” is a lyrical highlight for me. Willow truly has matured as a songwriter, yet she’s also stayed the same in many ways. She stays true to herself while she continues to grow.

No points against the album for this, but I am still mixed on the decision for Willow to release Big Feelings as a single. Not only is it the album’s closer, but it is one of the best tracks on the album. Part of me truly believes she should have saved this one for the release. With that said, the song is incredible. It starts with a muffled but groovy piano intro that is then continued as a huge drum lead comes in and clears the fog. Willow sings “I have such big feelings” and changes her cadence almost every word. It is absolutely impressive, but also so fun to sing along to. The piano and drum rhythms in the background are so jazzy, and this is even built on with actual brass instruments and spacey alien synths after the second verse. So much is thrown at this track yet it all falls perfectly into place. There is also a more twinkly, spacey bridge that leads into an explosive outro that combines everything the track had done into an incredible finish.

In a Rolling Stone press statement, Willow says that the track Big Feelings “has a darkness and complexity that reflects what we all experience in our own minds.” While I would agree this applies to Big Feelings, I would also argue it describes the entire album. Empathogen is not the darkest album I have heard, but it comes from a place of darkness and overcoming it. Willow loves music; that cannot be denied. Willow has also shown throughout most of her musical career that she loves the art of making music as much as the music itself, and this album is one of the biggest displays of that. She is also a very expressive individual and there is passion oozing from every corner of Empathogen, from the flawless and ever changing vocal delivery, to the plethora of creative musical directions she goes while using the same set of qualities to tackle each. It is focused yet eclectic, and the variety in approach alone is enough to make an album like this win me over. However, it’s the passion a relatable music lover like Willow adds to the mix that makes me feel this album is truly something special. Willow shows that you can be more than who people claim you are, and no matter your origins you can be your authentic self, and the right people will love what you create.

10/10

They provided a worthy alternative to Daft Punk, and while they did not end up being as consistent as the legendary duo, they never stopped making music. This leads us to this year’s new Justice album, Hyperdrama. I admittedly have not listened to the albums that came out between Cross and this one, but I feel like the context is not necessary. On Hyperdrama, Justice not only rise above their house roots, but provide a trippy, dynamic dance experience to anyone who is willing to give them a chance and see that they have evolved beyond the Daft Punk comparisons.

Opening this album with a Tame Impala feature was a very fitting choice. Neverender is a hypnotic electro jam about reflecting on hard times but persevering through life anyway. Tame Impala is a bit filtered vocally but it completely works. The haziness of it gets less and less as the sunny yet dreamy beat builds. The chorus features booming bass and layered vocals. Then it weaves in and out of momentum, adding and removing electro bass drums and synths throughout. Towards the end of the song there’s even some glitchy elements in the bridge, and the hazy filter for the vocals from the beginning of the track makes a comeback. Of course given the song’s pop sensibilities, it exploded after the bridge for a final chorus that is always cathartic given the punch of the production. All of these elements make Neverender an abstract, hypnotic and dancey jam. It absolutely hooked me onto the album and immediately made me trust Justice, truly feeling hopeful for the rest of the album.

Thankfully that hope was not misplaced. From here the momentum (mostly) doesn’t stop. The track immediately after the opener, Generator, has futuristic synths, booming drums, and a cyberpunk atmosphere that would not be out of place on an industrial rock album. It sounds like a less guitar driven version of a track from the modern DOOM games. The chaos of it all is glorious and almost sinister.

Granted, the whole album isn’t just beating the listener over the head with synths. There are tracks such as Incognito that take the dancey approach of what one might expect from a Justice song, then add atmosphere to it. It even opens with a glitzy intro that sounds like it wouldn’t be out of place in an enchanted forest. It then leads into an ominous yet dancey techno section that uses a fittingly ominous vocal sample that almost sounds like it’s saying “breathe”. It was truly enchanting, especially as the outro brings back the glitzy intro, serving to bookend the track.

As great as the atmosphere was on Incognito, I was sure the duo could do even better in that department, and they pulled it off in spades. There is a stretch of songs towards the end of the album that go all in on the atmospheric elements of Hyperdrama. It starts out with Moonlight Rendez-vous, which has a light jazz section at the beginning followed by a bit of spacey ambient that wouldn’t be out of place on a Berlin-era Bowie album. These elements combine halfway through the song to create a truly lovely feeling. The song is simple but effective. Horns, light drums and futuristic keys do most of the work. Following this is Explorer which is a bit more dense, although still fairly ambient. This track has some truly chaotic synths and a slow drum rhythm. This is built on with more futuristic synths later in the song. It sounds like a loss of hope, like a game over theme for a game from the year 3000 and I love it. It even ends with a vocoded performance from Connan Mockasin. It sounds like an alien singing in an apathetic manner, not caring about the desolation around him. This section is capped off with the track Muscle Memory, which starts out with a beautiful ambient section but almost immediately cuts to a chip tune driven march rhythm. It slowly builds into what I can only describe as a spacey wasteland theme. Glitzy synths contrast well with sinister, punchy drums, and honestly end this section of the album well. The track is an odyssey of different tones and tempos that keep the listener invested.

After a cool, soulful tune in the form of Saturnine that is more upbeat than most of the second half of the album, we get The End. In this review I have been discussing the contrast between electronic jams and more atmospheric pieces across the album. Fittingly, The End combines both of these song philosophies into one amazing closer. After a very back and forth drum solo, we get a synthy passage with Thundercat beautifully singing over it. The song feels final, with the soaring vocals from Thundercat sounding very powerful. The beat here is psychedelic but also has the momentum you’d expect from Justice, especially given the first half of the album. The echoey choral vocals on the bridge not only encapsulate the more atmospheric elements of the album well, but they also make way for the final chorus which explodes and ends the album not only on a high note, but with fireworks.

This album came as a surprise to me. I like Justice but I did not take them too seriously before this album came out, considering their critical track record. With that said, I was, for the most part, blown away by Hyperdrama. Justice truly show that they know what they’re doing with electronic house on much of the album, while the rest shows they can mix things up with some genuinely great atmospheric tracks that still sound uniquely them. Even if not every idea they put forth was as mind blowing as the high points of the album, it was more than interesting enough to impress me, and I had a ton of fun being impressed. Hyperdrama truly proves that Justice are more than just Daft Punk alternatives, they are a creative force all their own.

9/10

Featured RateYourMusic Review

The discourse surrounding pop-punk band Green Day in online circles is divisive to say the least. They have plenty of skeptics and fans of all kinds. Whether it be online music fans who are convinced they will never be as good as they were in the 1990s, Gen X individuals who love almost everything they release, or everything in between, the discourse is all over the place. I personally love Green Day but believe on an album basis they have been hit or miss since 2012, with the hits being some of my favorite material they have released. After the discourse surrounding their most recent album prior to this year, Father Of All…, I had no idea what to expect from their newest album Saviors. I did not hate Father Of All… but I will say Saviors feels like Green Day are more in their element. Much of the charm of albums like Dookie and Revolution Radio is back in full swing. With very authentic writing, catchy choruses, and the most consistently full sounding instrumentals the band has had since 21st Century Breakdown, I believe Saviors is a success overall. Despite a couple of bumps in the road, the ride is a fun, replayable time.

The aptly titled The American Dream Is Killing Me is a painting of modern American life, which is not new for Green Day by any stretch but it has not been this much of a focus for them for a while. With that in mind, it is interesting to see how a band who has tackled societal commentary well before would do it in such a rapidly changing, technological age. Despite some cheesy lines like “TikTok and taxes” I believe it is handled well here. “Sleeping in broken glass” almost immediately follows the TikTok line, and most of the lines do a good job of projecting the band’s vision of the US in the 2020s. Instrumentally it has the punk energy of older Green Day with the incredible bass and fairly chunky guitars throughout. Of course Tré Cool keeps the rhythm well and provides some cool drum leads to the chorus. Even if I do not love the track I believe it is another nice addition to Green Day’s catalog of sociopolitical anthems.

There are a few of those socio political tracks on the album in addition to the opener, such as the more light hearted Living In The ‘20s which contains the line “I got a robot and I’m fucking it senseless”. The line is delivered with enough conviction to where it made me chuckle instead of cringe thankfully. Living In The ‘20s is Green Day observing the wacky age we live in. Murder hornets and shootings are thrown out there, and again, it should not work as well as it does, but I enjoy the tongue and cheek nature on display. The track has a catchy riff to tie the rest of the instrumentation together, with a noisy solo on the bridge that is just lovely. Billie even screams at the end and it makes me imagine the chaos of how rough the current age is. Still, it’s easy to tell the band had fun making this one, and that is where many of the strengths of the album lie; with just how fun it is.

From the moment I listened to Saviors in full I knew Bobby Sox would be a favorite of mine, and that prediction panned out. It is a sugary sweet love song with a fun, bisexual twist. The first verse and chorus have Billie asking a woman “do you wanna be my girlfriend?” and bringing up the various things they might do on a date together. It is not the most specific set of activities but it does not need to be. Again, it is sweet (almost too much so), but I could see myself using this song to ask someone out. Whether that person be a woman, man or anyone in between. Speaking of which, when Billie first said “do you wanna be my boyfriend?” on the track I did feel a good bit of joy. I am proud of who I am and I am glad to live in an era where Billie can be too. The song continues in a similar manner but it is too cute and fun not to enjoy. Plus with how much the chorus ramps up the guitar and drum work, this is easily a favorite on the album. Yet I do not enjoy it quite as much as One Eyed Bastard, which I genuinely believe is my favorite track on Saviors. The opening riff sounds like a heavier version of popstar P!nk’s So What?. This does not bother me because the band builds on it well. Not to mention this is one of their catchiest songs to date. I caught myself signing “BADDA BANG BADDA BANG BADDA BOOM” by the end of the song when I first heard it. I also enjoyed the swift chugging on the bridge. It made the hype for the final chorus so easy to enjoy. Overall, the track was so much fun from beginning to end.

On Saviors there are sociopolitical anthems and there are generally fun tracks as discussed, but there are also some more introspective, personal moments as well, the first of which being Dilemma. This one is about Billy’s struggles with alcoholism and it is powerful. It starts with the lyric “Welcome to my problems” and eventually spirals into “I don’t wanna be a dead man walking”. It starts off slow with Billie contextualizing his issues, then showing how distraught he is by them in the heavier and noisier chorus. I believe it could have been slightly noisier to represent the chaos in his mind even better but I love what it’s going for. I would argue Dilemma is powerful both lyrically and sonically. The track Father To A Son would also fit this bill for me. This one is an acoustic ballad about Billie’s dad. Oddly enough I believe Green Day are hit or miss with ballads, but this one hits hard. A relationship between a parent and child of any kind is complicated and this track represents this notion well. Almost every line on this song is poetic to some degree. Some examples include, “I never knew a love could be scarier than anger” and “you’re a lighthouse in a storm from the day that you were born”. This track reads more like a poem than an actual song for me. It has quotables that touch on the same theme; that parenthood is complicated and unpredictable. The singing on this track also sounds so genuine as well. Billie sounds like he could tear up at any minute in the verses. Of course the chord progression fits the emotional vocals quite well. Honestly, this is a near flawless track.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I will mention the only track I did not like to at least some degree was Corvette Summer. The main riff is fine but the rest of the sound of the song is rather static. Billie sounds a tad disinterested and really is not saying much of substance, preferring to just coast across the song throughout. Plus it is not as dynamic or interesting as the rest of the album instrumentally, so the fun it is aiming for just did not resonate with me. With that said the closer, Fancy Sauce, takes most of the album’s strengths and combines them into one. Billie dives into his mental health and sings from the perspective of a mental patient. It goes into societal commentary a tad with the line “medicate my sorrow”, as well as Billie calling the news his “favorite cartoon” which made me chuckle. Even the “everybody’s famous” line could be a nod on being a micro celebrity. Despite the heavy subject matter, this track even has melodies as infectious as the more light hearted tracks. “Go go falling like a yo-yo” is going to stick in my mind for at least months to come. With the focus on the album’s main themes and the powerful sound of the songs, Fancy Sauce is a perfect closer for Saviors and I feel like it will only grow on me even more with subsequent listens.

Saviors is far from a perfect album. The song structures can show their repetition (particularly in the second half), the writing can be cheesy, and the instrumentation can be static, but these issues are few and far between (and mostly condensed into Corvette Summer). For the most part, I believe Saviors is an interesting, fun and genuine album from a band that has a special place in my life. I hope Green Day continues to improve in the future and perhaps even gain the respect of the online skeptics who have continually doubted them. It definitely made me more interested in Green Day than I have been for almost a decade, and for that I consider it a success

8/10

A silly banjo intro getting interrupted by one of the sickest bass lines I have ever heard is what the openers, Pork Chop’s Little Dirty and My Name Is Mud, greet the listener with. I love how the album starts peaceful and then immediately goes into the heaviness it deploys consistently. The drums and bass have some incredible interplay and create a muddy atmosphere. The drum leads bounce off the bass in such a way that the listener can’t help but dance. This is the basis for the funky rhythm of My Name Is Mud. Whether it be on its own as it is in the verses, or accompanied by heavy guitars like on the chorus, the rhythm is kept consistent and it is addictive. The lyrics describe a man named Mud, who is a nasty, troubled man who causes trouble. He hits people “upside the cranium” with “aluminum baseball bats”, despite him describing himself as “the most boring sonsabitch you’ve ever seen”, which is merely a ruse for his wild nature. It is weird, abstract, unpredictable, and a perfect opener to represent what the listener is going to hear on Pork Soda.

Welcome To This World is somehow even more unhinged than My Name Is Mud. It has satisfyingly rhythmic interplay between more southern tinged guitar and bass with Claypool borderline scatting over it. It almost reminds me of the South Park theme which, fittingly, was also a Primus song. On the track itself, he discusses “pink champagne and swimming pools” and asks the listener to “take a bite of life”, before heavy, similarly rhythmic guitars kick in for the chorus. The way this track progresses is so satisfying. The verses and choruses get longer and more chaotic before the first verse is repeated towards the end of the track. The goofiness is thorough in many ways, such with some of the noises Les makes on the track. The “AH HA HA HA HA HA” in the bridge comes to mind. I would argue another early album highlight would be DMV. It takes the rightfully common concept of hating visiting the Department of Motor Vehicles and turns it into a funk metal banger. It has a funky and deep bassline that works well with the harsher guitar licks on it. There are slide licks across the song that keep the momentum up. It represents the ridiculous and sometimes chaotic nature of going to the DMV quite well. It exudes the feeling in a tongue and cheek way while still having enough grit to fit the darker tone of the album.

There are plenty of highlights in the first half but arguably the most insane of them all is Nature Boy. It might as well be the centerpiece for the album given how chaotic, funky and energetic it is. It starts with a pounding bass drum that leads into a borderline western sounding guitar given the twang, with a chord structure that keeps up the rhythm. The concept is so simple; a person dancing around the house in his underwear “like nature boy”, and they are confident in doing so because “no one can see me”. When Les yells that line it almost sounds like a freight train over the slap bass. It is also accompanied by heavy guitars of course, something of a trend across this album. The chord structure in that chorus is just so satisfying, I get more and more excitement from each listen. The protagonist of the song has a “kitty” that he pets or as he puts it “strokes”. The line “stroke him” is repeated faster and faster as it leads into the chorus where the instrumentation ramps up. This is well implemented and is always satisfying to listen to. Yet it is somehow not as satisfying as the chorus falling back in after the bridge. It is such an amazing fill and makes this track, like many others on the album, addictive.

Pork Soda’s second half has just as many surprises as the first half, like the title track which starts with a heavy back and forth progression with a double bass. Another unique moment in an album of unique moments. After Claypool scats like a madman across the first verse, we get a chorus where the stripped back instrumental makes way for him yelling “GRAB YOURSELF A CAN OF PORK SODA” and it is so goofy, memorable, and anything but conventional. The song is barely over two minutes and almost feels like an interlude, but works anyway, given the memorability. Mr. Krinkle is another highlight that also makes great use of double bass, this time less weird and waltzy, and more rhythmically. There are also these noisy, light guitars that pop in, and completely add to the dark atmosphere of the track. The whole track manages to be engaging despite it being about something as mundane as casually talking with Faith No More’s drummer, Mike Bordin. The whole album is just as engaging, no matter the subject matter.

I truly am surprised I am not more critical of how mundane much of the song ideas are.I believe it adds to the experience as these song ideas contrast so well with the intricate playing. It creates a feeling like no other. One that humanizes the band while also just making the whole album impressive with how it manages to make these concepts fun or engaging every time. Also surprising to me was how incredible the album’s pacing was. The Ol’ Diamondback Sturgeon and Wounded Knee are more stripped back but serve as excellent palate cleansers for some of the more chaotic moments towards the end of the album. Wounded Knee in particular has some cool chime action. They almost feel like a rest stop before the rest of the album, ones that I appreciate more on full listens but still enjoy overall.

All good things must come to an end, and the last full song on Pork Soda has the album go out with a bang. Hamburger Train is an 8 minute funk metal jam session where Les flexes his bass playing so well. It’s that very same bass playing that has helped make Pork Soda so enjoyable to begin with. There are train sounds and crazy guitar licks thrown into the main bassline and drum pattern that accompany it. There are moments where the train slows down, and where it speeds up, like any functional train. The whole thing brings me into a Hendrix-like haze with the technical jamming and how the track progresses. It is simplistic in how it works but the playing is anything but. There are other ingredients thrown in on Hamburger Train that make it all the more enjoyable. It almost feels wrong to discuss a track like this without being able to dive deeper into the technical intricacies of the band’s playing, but it is truly just one of the most fun and satisfying jam tracks I have ever heard. The album ends after a reprise of the album intro, along with Hail Santa, which is just an out of tune bass being played with various sound effects thrown in like a See and Say toy (pointing out a pig, fittingly) and a bicycle bell. A weird way to end a weird album and I respect it.

Primus were unique and experimental from the start, with their first studio album, Frizzle Fry, showing their manic goofiness and technical prowess from track one. As much as I enjoy Frizzle Fry and its (slightly more accessible) follow up, Sailing The Seas of Cheese, I believe they did not reach their creative peak until Pork Soda. The aforementioned manic goofiness returns but with an even more technical and abstract direction than the last two projects. This more avant-garde approach is a highly welcome change and allows Primus to reach their apex. This album is mind blowing, endlessly replayable, yet almost accessible. It has taken three years, but I finally can see Pork Soda for the wholly unique masterpiece of an album that it is. One that has not only provided me with hours of enjoyment with every track, but also served as a huge help in motivating me to expand my horizons with more weird music, with a love that grows everyday. Thank you Primus, you suck!

10/10

I cannot discuss Insano without mentioning the fact that he employs DJ Drama throughout this album. I personally loved Drama’s presence on the recent Tyler, The Creator album, Call Me If You Get Lost. Said presence even motivated me to check out some of the mixtapes he was on before that album, including some of Lil Wayne’s Dedication series. I enjoyed his contributions there as well. This is why it was so confusing to me how his lines on Insano always seem to go in one ear and out the other. He opens the album on Often, I Have These Dreamz. I forgot this between my first listen of the album and my second one for this review. This makes sense, however, because he sounds completely uninterested compared to other projects I have heard him on. It just feels like Drama on autopilot spouting the same sort of things he always does, and the less interested vocals take out most of the appeal of having Drama here in the first place. He sounds tired on the track. Following this, Cudi delivers some of the most unpleasant humming he’s delivered across his whole career. The lack of interest on the humming leads into the verses, and this continues across the album. On this track, Cudi’s delivery sounds slurred and tired, and again, this is a trend. The unfortunate part is that nothing about the delivery does any favors for the also uninteresting writing. It is essentially just Cudi flexing and rambling. I would mention a common theme but there basically is none besides ‘my life is good and I’m great’. There is a line in the second verse that sums up the entire song (and the album to a degree) where Cudi proclaims “Confident bossin’, wavy, I’m drivin’ the ladies crazy”. He flexes the entire song without ever showing why he has earned the ability to do so. It is frustrating because there are more than a few moments on his 2020 album Man On The Moon III: The Chosen where he flexes and it is far more confident and less comatose. That album also has that Cudi spaciness in the production that helps him stand out musically, whereas the production here is hardly worth mentioning. It’s a light soul sample, some trap drums and a bass drum that occasionally hits and adds a tiny bit of life to an otherwise lifeless track.

It would be rather unnecessary of me to go through each track and say what I dislike about each since Dreamz represents so many of the tracks on this album that have the same issues. Keep Bouncin’ for example has that heavy bass drum trying to inject life into another lifeless trap beat, but this time the drum is overused to the point of just being annoying. Other than that it’s the same boring flexing from the previous track. He pulls up in the “White Benz” in the very first line of the first verse. He talks more about how he smokes trees and gets girls. It is redundant and discussing it in more detail would be as well. It would be more fruitful to mention another aspect of this album that falls flat.

The features on this album are weak and lackluster at the best of times. At The Party should have been a slam dunk since it features Pharrell and Travis Scott. Of course, on this album, it does not pan out as well as it should. Pharrell’s hook sounds so limp that it is out of place over the mildly interesting, futuristic synth driven beat. He sounds winded, like he just got punched in the stomach. Of course, Cudi’s verse does not add anything to the song. He just limply brags about going to “Paris with bae” and how he’s the GOAT. Eventually Travis gets a verse as well, and it’s fine. He delivers more life than either Cudi or Pharrell but still pales in comparison to most of what I heard on Utopia less than a year prior, especially considering the production on that album was leagues above this track. I will still take an average verse on an album full of terrible ones. Speaking of which, this album also recycled an XXXTentacion song as a “feature” on X & Cud. The song Orlando is heavily sampled here and it’s unfortunate. Instead of grave robbing for unreleased material from X, now they are recycling his already released material. The X part in question barely fits the song due to this. Cudi sounds slightly more interested than he does on most of the album, but given the rest of the circumstances surrounding the track it is too little too late. I would not be surprised if Cudi did not pay for the Lil Wayne feature on Seven. The track has Cudi talking about how confident he is and how fun his life is, even shouting “I LOVE MY LIFE” on the first verse. Lil Wayne’s verse uses one flow for all twenty seconds of it. Said flow is mildly grating with how slightly off beat it is and how breathy the cadence at the end of each line is. He gets a small bit at the end as well but it just breezes by with no impact.

I could say the same about almost the entire album aside from Blue Sky, which feels like the best version of this sound and then some. It opens with beautiful metallic drums that Cudi hums over with even a bit of synthesized woodwind action to beat. It creates this atmosphere that feels like floating through the blue sky he depicts. Cudi uses his gorgeous voice to paint a picture of the position he is in, instead of just bragging about it near mindlessly. He ponders his good position instead of just haphazardly throwing it around. He talks about how he has moments on the beach where he considers it. He says in the chorus how he has been “dreamin of this for a while”. The line has such a sugary sweet and lovely delivery that it is far easier to root for him and believe his success. It is a moment of beauty on an otherwise fairly painful album. This is reflected in the closer, Hit The Streetz In My Nikes, with it being a generic, slightly atmospheric dancey number. DJ Drama is here, and that is about all I have to say about that. He screams the album title at the end. No speech like on Call Me If You Get Lost. Just letting the album end on a wet fart like it was meant to.

Insano is a baffling album to me. Cudi has been worse than this on an album basis but has never quite been this generic, this lifeless, this uninteresting, and this unlike himself. Cudi sounds completely indistinct for most of the album, with the flexes on the album being so generic and nameless. Cudi himself has so many qualities that separate him from the rest, but no one would be able to tell here unless they listened to Blue Sky. The production is not fun or remotely psychedelic, it’s rarely even atmospheric, and overall just feels like everything else on the album: limp. Insano feels like it’s suffering an identity crisis. It is a nameless album from one of the most unique names in hip hop, and for that, it is an extremely disappointing start to the year, and an extremely disappointing album from Kid Cudi

3/10

Bionic completely lives up to its name with the opener, the title track. Glitchy, repeated vocals, mechanical and bouncy synths, as well as an echoey and industrial drum all make the track feel like it was made by a robot and for a robot. I must be a robot because I love the intro here. It transitions naturally into the verses when similar vocals to the ones used before are utilized to do so. “This is the moment that I take over your mind frame” is apt because this song likely altered my brain chemistry as a kid. It is easy to see why given how the production continues in a hypotonic manner as Christina lets the listener know that it’s the future over airy woodwind-like synths, heavy mechanical synths, and rhythmic electronic drums. There are plenty of other interesting sounding bleeps and bloops on the track that hit all the right spots in my brain, leading up to the more reserved airy pre chorus. Xtina in a glitchy manner asks if the listener is “ready to go”, making them feel like they are on a roller coaster incline up before the plunge. That plunge being the incredible chorus, which absorbs you in a smooth ride of grindy synths and a very dynamic, electronic drum rhythm. I love how the chorus manages to hit you over the head while also being smooth to dance to, having a light R&B flavor to the electronics in a manner similar to Blackout. The difference here is that instead of melding her voice with the music like Brintey, she delivers a soaring vocal performance, claiming that she is “bionic” and will “hit ya like a rocket” with these satisfying “ay”s at the end of each line. It is a welcome change despite my love for Blackout’s style. After a second verse with similar themes (although a bit more verbose this time) and another chorus, there’s a cool bridge that repeats the “ay”s from before, gives us laser like synths, more mechanical synths, and has Xtina claim once more in glitchy slow motion that she’s “Bionic”. This leads into a final chorus, and an outro of more “ay”s. Honestly if you do not mind the mild repetition on the track, which I do not at all, it is an extremely satisfying opener. I loved this song as a kid and I still do today, except now I understand why.

I did not really explore Bionic outside of the title track when I was younger, as I was not as much of an album person as I am now. Thankfully the opener was not a fluke, as the next few tracks prove that and then some. Not Myself Tonight is mostly led by bouncy, slightly laser-y synths. It shows Xtina being wild “taking shots” , “kissing all the boys and the girls”, and other things she “normally wouldn’t do”. I love the vocals throughout this track. Whether it be on the chorus where she belts it out even harder than the previous chorus, or the bridge where she whispers in diva fashion “I needed that”, it’s cathartic to hear every time. Honestly I would play this on a bar jukebox if I was trying to get in the zone. The confidence on the track is that high. The following track, Woohoo, somewhat under delivers on the production end compared to the previous two, but is still entertaining and fits the idea here. It is mostly dominated by Xtina saying “woohoo” over and over again. I actually do not mind it at all, since it is pretty fun. I would however argue the almost thirty second intro is a tad unwarranted. I end up skipping it half the time. The track is also definitely not as raunchy as it could have been, but I appreciate the attempt. Being blunt, the word “woohoo” in place of vagina should indicate that notion. One more notable thing about Woohoo that I enjoyed was that it has an earlier Nicki Minaj verse. This album was released before Kanye West’s song Monster, which was in my opinion her most notable early feature. It is safe to say not only was Xtina ahead of the curve, but also helped bring the best out of her. The synthwork is upped in a very confident and smooth Nicki verse, where she gets rightfully introductory but also braggadocious. She talks about producers and proves why she is where she is. In the theme of being ahead of its time, Elastic Love has heavy, bassy synths that would not sound too far fetched on a hyperpop or bubblegum bass record. Every so often these slide whistle sounding synths are also added into the mix that almost sound like a futuristic alarm. Xtina’s voice is even a tad distorted on this one. It sounds a bit industrial and it works. Almost as if you’re having a dance party in a futuristic junkyard. Lyrically, the song is not too much to write home about. It’s just a relationship being compared to elastic in the way that it’s so hard to leave despite wanting to. It’s an interesting metaphor but it’s not capitalized on as much as it could have been. Still a great track nonetheless.

As impressive as this run of tracks was, it ends with one that blows them all out of the water. I’m not going to beat around the bush, Desnudate (get naked in Spanish) is my favorite track by a decent margin. It keeps the energy for almost the entirety of its runtime and has the best production on the entire album. It starts with these heavy, sinister electro synths, loud claps and a light, almost TR-808 sounding drum on it. If Elastic Love feels like a junkyard party, this feels like the fun, underground after party in a secret club in the same universe. The same synth progression from the opening goes into the background while an almost overpowering electro bass drum takes the lead, as Xtina attempts to seduce a man, while also flexing her Spanish muscles a little. Not only does this add to the sensuality and dynamism of the song, but also gives her a chance to get away with being a little more explicit in her writing. She asks the man in English if he likes it “naughty” or likes it “nice”, but then will explicitly ask for his fantasies in Spanish. I know she is far from the first person to do this sort of thing but it genuinely works in my opinion. The cadences at the end of each line are well sung and the whispered ad libs are extremely confident. The production perks up more in the chorus, with the synth getting not only further up in the mix, but crunchier as well. Xtina asks the man to “get naked”, both in Spanish and in English, with some well timed “woah oh oh”s thrown in there. Then the production explodes in the post-chorus, with every part of the track getting louder and flying into the front of the mix as well. It is grade A ear candy and only furthers the lovely futuristic after party feel of the song.The post chorus is also sung entirely in Spanish, basically saying take your clothes off and free yourself. It definitely fits how much the production frees itself in that part of the song. The song gets even raunchier in the second verse, with the ad libs translating to “I like it that way daddy”, “love me” and “don’t stop”. The production amps up as well, with the drums getting quicker, punchier and overall dancier towards the end of the verse. After another chorus and post-chorus the bridge of this track has a loud, high pitched horn progression that leads into the raunchiest lines on the album translated to “you’ve got me so wet”. Then we get a round of the chorus without the synth, which makes it all the more cathartic and brilliant when the post chorus crashes in and seems to have added another subtle buzzy synth that makes a world of difference. Producer Tricky Stewart absolutely destroyed it here and the song could have ended after the last post-chorus. There is an outro but it is not too exciting and drags on slightly. Despite being a minute of the song though it really does not tamper my enjoyment of it at all. Desnudate is a firecracker of a track that I regret having missed when I was younger.

There is a minor rough patch in the middle of the album. Nothing too bad, just some more lowkey tracks that just do not work as well as the bangers. It starts with Sex For Breakfast which is a more R&B tinged track. It is relatively smooth given Xtina’s sensual delivery and the harmonies she deploys with it. However, the production is weak here compared to the rest of the album thus far. The vast majority of it is this light, admittedly cool sounding synth that wears thin pretty quickly, as well as some loud claps. I can see what it’s trying to do but it just ended up being underwhelming with how little else goes on. I would argue the following track, Lift Me Up, is even worse for many of the same reasons. The difference is that there’s far less use of electronics on here than the rest of the album. This is the one track on the album that I would consider truly boring. It’s a piano ballad that only gets somewhat interesting in the bridge. I suppose this one is also slightly better lyrically, but is still easy to forget given the electropop tracks from before. The same goes for All I Need, which is another ballad but is better written than the tracks before it, this time by a mile. This song is about her son Max and it is admittedly sweet. “You bring me hope when I can’t breathe” is a powerful line that is delivered well. The problem again lies in the production which is bland until the bridge, which adds a cool, yet borderline ominous piano melody. Said melody also leads the outro. It’s a decent track, but I just wish there was more to it. I Am is yet another piano ballad, but this time the piano is more sparse and the beat is mostly drums. It is another minimalist moment in an album that was thriving with maximalism. I do like the warm, almost lavish melody of the chorus and I appreciate that the song is about loving yourself. All uplifting but again, not enough for me to sink my teeth into. The verses really just feel like waiting for the cool chorus to happen.

The album gets back on track with You Lost me, which continues the trend of ballads. Thankfully, unlike the ones before it, there is more going on here, like lush strings and a somewhat heftier drum beat. After a couple of more dancey songs, not only does the album stay on track, it ends with a bang in the form of the closing track, Vanity. “I’m not cocky, I just love myself, bitch” is a line I will think to myself whenever I need it now. It starts with heavy, industrial synths that would fit in on Nine Inch Nails’ Pretty Hate Machine if they were just a tad heavier. The drums also sync incredibly well with them throughout the track. Xtina proudly preaches her confidence, asking the mirror on the wall who the flyest of them all is, and before the mirror has a chance to respond she proclaims “nevermind I am”. The production builds on the pre chorus, adding in more drums and more subtle synths. Xtina claims “ain’t nobody got shit on me”, and this song provides a solid argument for that claim. Once the chorus rolls around, it is easy to see what this song does right, and that is everything. It takes the energy of Destundate and combines it with the heavy mechanical nature of the title track. It takes the confidence of I Am but is far more produced. The chorus is such an earworm too. I was singing “V is for Vanity, every time you look at me” along with Xtina throughout the song. It genuinely is a great song for a confidence boost in that regard as well. There is so much else I love about this track as well, such as the interpolation of “Here Comes The Bride” in the third verse, except Xtina is marrying herself. It is as humorous as it is uplifting. I also love how the track, and by extension the album, ends with Xtina asking “who owns the throne?” and then her son Max says “you do mommy”. The track has so much character and I love it. An absolutely perfect way to end the album.

In a Billboard cover story promoting her 2012 album Lotus, Xtina did have some words to say about Bionic when asked about it. She mentioned how she believed the album was “ahead of its time” and that she wanted to “experiment”. I love this mindset and it absolutely shows on the album in my eyes. With Bionic, Christina manages to build on her influences, while also not forgetting the things that make her special, like her incredible vocal range. The production may not have been great on every song, but even the weaker moments have something to enjoy. Bionic is an achievement. An admittedly inconsistent achievement, but an achievement nonetheless, both for electropop, and for much of the culture it encompasses. I truly hope Bionic continues its journey through critical evaluation in the future. It deserves it. Chrstina deserves it.

8/10

After an ominous, medieval bard-like guitar intro, opener Game Over jumpstarts an element that pervades this album: chaos. A heavy riff, thrashy rhythm guitars and drums, and quick yet weirdly strained vocal passages from M. Shadows barrage onto the track, making it mosh pit-ready not 30 seconds in. The implementation of the vocal delivery is a bit goofy sounding on the surface with how choppily they edit in Shadows, as if he’s interrupting himself. However, this works in context. This song is about a man contemplating his life before considering ending it. It recounts the man’s early days from “Crawling, walking, fleeting glory” all the way to the later ones of “Happy ever after, dead end”. I believe most of what is presented here works in execution. It has this crazy and zany, yet almost defeated tone to it. The speaker is the monster life made and is finally ridding the world of himself, but he also recounts how he got to this point. This idea comes to life in the bridge. Flutes and more bard-like strings create an environment where the man is contemplating, saying how it “strikes” him how he doesn’t “belong here anymore” and how he “never had the will anyway”. It is significantly darker than I initially realized on my first listen but welcome given the thoughtful execution. The opening riff returns for the outro for a second, before the subject matter is made most obvious as the man “swings” from his “family tree”. Taken in context, it is a haunting way to open the album. Taken out of context it starts the dichotomy of chaos and peace that sonically pervades the album. A dichotomy that would continue with the follow-up.

Mattel kicks off with a bang. The intro is led by a chugging guitar riff with a chunky, almost industrial lick that tops it off. Following this is a verse that has Shadows monologuing about the idea of being fake, with his “vinyl skin” holding his “plastic bones” in place. The instrumental is definitely more reserved in the verse, with a rhythm guitar and light bass drum being the most prominent parts of it. This is until the blistering pre-chorus where Shadows describes “painted trees” and “sun LED beams” with an echoey delivery. Vocally, Shadows shows his range here, and unlike some sections of the album, it actually works. The environment feels like a stormy field where all the material is fake and decaying. This is enhanced by the chorus itself, which is far more reserved sonically. Shadows weeps that he “smelled the plastic daisies” and that we have “found ourselves in hell”. It’s bleak, yet sounds like it would work quite well in a live setting with how dynamic it is. I love this particular aspect. After another verse that touches on similar themes, and one final chorus, the track withers away like the plastic world Shadows depicts on it.

This leads into what was the first single of the album, Nobody. An industrial, chainsaw-like guitar opens the track, and this impressed me from the moment I heard it during the lead up to the album. I did not expect to hear a sound like that on an Avenged Sevenfold album, let alone one this late into their career. Then a small drum lead, siren-like whammy drowned guitars and a lumbering snare bring us to the first verse. This has Shadows getting philosophical, pondering human existence and his place in it. He comes to a conclusion of “‘I am all’ as ‘I am none’” at the end of the verse, seeing himself as significant in his own world, even if he is not in the grand scheme. Structurally, the track spices things up with a bridge after the first verse, which thickens the production again as Shadows runs with his new revelation. Realizing the power in knowing where you stand in existence, Shadows wails, “here we fly so high, no, I, no coming down”. His vocals were noticeably strained on this line and occasionally throughout the rest of the song. It was one of the few issues I had on first listen. The production is stripped back a bit again in the pre-chorus that follows, where the ponderings of the song thus far have turned into full on Godhood, with Shadows proclaiming he is “the sun”. Like the general concept of the album, much of the lyricism is very vague and abstract, making Nobody a pretty excellent choice for a first single. “I’m a God, I’m awake, I’m the one in everything”, are some of the only lyrics in the chorus, but they perfectly convey the philosophy of the track. No one is significant in general, but everyone is significant to themselves. You are the God of your world, even if you are nobody. It is a bit vague but I appreciate it anyway. Nobody ends up being one of the best tracks on the album as a result, despite any minor flaws I have.

Unfortunately I cannot say remotely the same thing for the next track and what was the second single of the album, We Love You. The track starts with this cartoony bass and snare rhythm, which is immediately followed by wailing, strained vocals that just don’t work. It is everything I could have feared from the slightly strained vocals of Nobody but amped up to eleven. It very much gets to the point where Shadows sounds like he is in pain. Shadows basically commentates on capitalist produced merit that he perceives as fake. Despite any genuinely good commentary on capitalism and its faults, the strained vocals and goofy instrumentation are too distracting for me to enjoy it, and I am not as compelled to touch on it much as a result .I will say the writing is well thought out overall and easily the best part of the track. Continuing the unconventional structure of the songs, there is a refrain that sort of just happens after cutting from the verse and it is interesting to say the least. A thumping bass rhythm leads us into a somewhat basic (admittedly punchy) chord structure and these gravely whispered vocals. The bounciness combined with the attempts to be serious make it sounds like Shadows is an 80s cartoon villain in this section. A quicker, more upbeat chord structure brings us to the chorus which still is not the best vocally, but an improvement over the intro. It is interesting how some parts of the track are more upbeat to represent capitalism’s supposed vision, and sections that are more their honest feelings go in the opposite direction. The issue is there are far better avenues the band could have gone to express this. The worst part is that the song does not do much for a while. Just another round of that goofy refrain, then another chorus. The track goes completely off the rails in the second verse which is a thrash verse. Here Shadows’ screaming is hardly more satisfying than his singing. It is unfortunate because I had loved the album up until this point. It does not improve either. After the thrash verse is another round of the refrain except this time it gets faster towards the end and it sounds even cheesier than it did before. One more chorus leads us into an extremely underwhelming outro where the track fades out like Mattel, but without the tact of that song. We Love You is a mess, and thankfully most of the album’s flaws are concentrated into it.

The main flaws I would say the album has after We Love You are that it is occasionally underwhelming. This is particularly apparent on the track Cosmic, which contains acoustic sections which do not live up to previous acoustic work the band had done prior. Thankfully this does not pervade the three parter towards the end, the G(O)(D) trilogy. G is a more upbeat track, with more major chords and more swift drumming. Shadows does something on this track that I believe would have been quite beneficial to much of the rest of the album: he sings a bit quieter. In fact, here in particular, he hardly sings at all. He has these reserved vocal passages in the verses that sound somewhat defeated, while the chorus is more hard rock hinged by comparison with the delivery. The cadences could easily fit a Motorhead album if they were just a bit rougher. I enjoy the contrast and it fits the theme of the track well, with the track being from the perspective of God. After some pondering, Shadows spouts lines of regret such as “what have I done?” and “you’ve got to be kidding me”. It is interesting how this upbeat and chaotic track represents what is often an upbeat and chaotic subject for so many. This whole album is about different aspects of life, so they might as well do a track about who many perceive as the master of it. I go back and forth with how intense the Daft Punk influence on (O)rdinary actually is. I definitely did not make the connection when I first heard it and thought it was ridiculous that other critics would even point it out. I am glad I did not do this review directly after my first listen because it is definitely there, I just do not think it is unpleasant like many say. I enjoy the mildly dancey synths, and robotic, autotuned harmonies provided. “Will you give me my own soul?” is a line I will still be thinking about even at the end of the year. It all makes sense when you realize that the song is from the perspective of a robot. There are several other lines on the song that make this obvious. I do love the inclusion because it is interesting to go from the Lord of all humans to something inhuman, created by humans, meant to help humans, but not remotely human. It enhances the philosophical element of the album even more. (D)eath is a beautiful final vocal track on the album, that finishes the suicide narrative from Game Over. The subject matter is made clear by lines about “a note of a few things I wanted to say” and later in the track the narrator makes himself “more comfortable with the edge”. I find it interesting how this trilogy went from God, to no emotions, to heavy emotions. Heavy emotions they are, helped by the fact that this track is beautiful. Lush strings and a slow drum loop are the lead here, to the point where it feels like you are in the flower fields enjoying life’s beauty one more time before its ugliness and the feelings that follow consume you. This consumption is represented by the track getting louder and denser as it ends. Swells of powerful guitars, pounding drums and distorted horns end things, representing the final thoughts consuming you.

The final track is a quaint, piano only track that really does strike some heart strings. This is especially apparent towards the two minute mark where the loop used genuinely makes me feel empty, though this feels intentional. Like the album had just consumed me, the life is over, and now we get to reflect. Life Is But A Dream… truly captures some of the ugly aspects of life itself, so it is oddly fitting that it would end with a beautiful piano solo, where if the album had an effect on you, you get a chance to relax. You get to rest in peace as it were. Peaceful is the best way I would describe the way this album ends. Overall, I truly hope this album gets the coveted ‘critical reevaluation’ treatment as time passes. While not all of the ideas work, most do outside of We Love You. Thus I see this experience reflecting on darker themes of life as a success, and if this is Avenged Sevenfold’s last album, as some have speculated it may be, I hope people eventually see that despite parts of this album being messy, such is life.

Enter Nasir Jones, otherwise known as Nas. A man who should need no introduction, but deserves one anyway. A man who told the stories of the streets in a way nobody had heard before in 1994. A man whose storytelling ability over the years not only changed the genre forever, but opened even me, a former skeptic, up to the world of hip-hop and the expression that comes with it. Age has been kind to Nas, because like hip hop itself, he turned 50 this year (yesterday at the time of writing).

Even at 50 he still has the ability to explain his life in a way almost no one else can. This is not surprising, however, given his prior output with producer Hit-Boy this decade. The King’s Disease trilogy brought Nas back on the map to even the most skeptical hip-hop heads, and the Magic albums just enhanced the idea that Nas is still in his prime. Magic 3 shows Nas continuing to explain his current life in a compelling manner. While similar to the other albums he has released this decade, there are enough unique sonic ideas in the production that separate it from everything else he’s released prior.

The celebratory tone that much of this album rightfully chooses to take is represented well in the opener, Fever. Here Nas reflects on his current status as a rapper and a general icon, as he has for much of this run of albums from him. The difference is there is a sense of urgency and finality to it all with the airy, chilling soul sampling used to make up much of the beat. I love how much of a contrast this is from the more reserved opener on King’s Disease 1. It shows how much Nas has considered his place in the rap game even during this run of albums. He knows who and what he is, and is not afraid to brag about it. He talks about how he has “Lobster sauce on aprons” and how he was “Singin’ to Stevie Wonder Happy Birthday”, using his usual imagery to express his currently lavish and exclusive lifestyle he’s earned. There are also more direct brags like how he asks the listener to “Bow to the old me” because he’s “officially OG”. The chorus even samples a track from Illmatic, “Represent”. Where Nas asks the listener to “Put your glasses up” for him to “represent”. The utter confidence, charisma and triumph on display here made me so excited that I wished I had a drink in my hand during my first listen. After a similarly confident second verse and final chorus, the track ends on this ominous humming that matches the beat quite well, it was unlike anything in the last 5 albums and added to the sense of finality I had so much hoped for in this project.

The aforementioned sense of finality continues in a more relaxed manner on I Love This Feeling. There is an even clearer soul sample here than on Fever. It nabs a section of soul singer Billy Paul’s “I Think I’ll Stay Home Today”, and like many good soul samples, it feels nostalgic in such a soothing way. Of course Nas is able to do this incredible beat justice, meditating on things such as his own morality and how he tries to keep good company in his life. He proclaims things like “you against morality, don’t come around me” and even mentions in the post-chorus “If you don’t have a team that’s militant, you better be brilliant”. Luckily for Nas he has both. It is also nice to see how Nas has evolved as a person since his earlier days. Going from a cutthroat gangster to a wise, rap sage. This has been bubbling since KD1 and even earlier but comes to full fruition here. He meditates about his career for another verse, bringing up moments revolving around it, like rapper Cam’ron hearing Illmatic on the series Ozark and being notably excited. He also mentions the initially mixed reaction to his 2019 track Jarreau of Rap, mentioning that “they ain’t understand it when it drop”. I personally enjoyed the track, but it was divisive to say the least. It feels rewarding to have been there for those moments. The final post-chorus sees Nas loving life, going into the studio, and even finding out “big bro” got his ankle bracelet off and now he’s “gettin’ on the private jet with him”. Nas is in a good place and I Love This Feeling represents not only that concept but reminds us of some of the reasons for it as well. Nas has earned this and most of the rest of the album proves why.

Like Magic 2, there is only one feature on this album, and it’s none other than legendary pop rapper Lil Wayne. But before his verse, however, another beautiful soul sampling beat from Hit-Boy in a similar vein to the others so far kicks off, this time a tad more pitched up. This is accompanied by light horns, heavy boom bap drums and a more involved flow that Nas provides on the track. There are plenty of slick, introspective bars on this one, my favorite being when he talks about being “the New NY and the Old NY at the same time”. It makes perfect sense and is another bar where Nas acknowledges his cultural relevance. After his verse, Nas provides a refrain that sets up nicely for Lil Wayne’s verse. A somewhat static flow and rhyme scheme is unfortunately what we get here. It’s still one of Wayne’s better features in recent memory but I was not that impressed. It had energy and that is about the best I can say about it. I would even go as far as to say it’s weaker than 50 Cent’s verse on Magic 2. Thankfully the other weaker moments on the album are few and far between.

Weaker moments such as Pretty Young Girl, which almost feels like a sequel to the infamous track from Nas’s Nastradamus album, Big Girl. It may have a funky, piano driven boom bap beat, and a confident flow from Nas, but the writing is a tad creepy. There are standard sexual rap bars on here, which is not off putting in and of itself, but the issue is that Nas makes multiple references to her young age during the song, like when he proclaims “I know her dad rocked to Nas”. There is even a mildly eerie pitched sample in the beat that goes “pretty young girl” over and over again. It just gives the song this lightly predatory vibe, thus I have no motivation to revisit it. The only other full track I would say is remotely weak is Blue Bentley. It has this heavily edited vocal sample that I can only describe as farty accompanying an otherwise underwhelming beat. Yes it picks up slightly at points but hearing about Nas romancing random women is not exactly what I wanted out of this album. He paints the story well, as always, but the story itself is just not that interesting.

What is interesting, however, is the album’s two part centerpiece, Based on True Events. It has a triumphant boom bap beat that if it were not so laid back would sound stadium ready. Nas recounts a man who was friends with his partner at the time. Said man reminded him a lot of himself and many who grew up in his environment. Nas can confidently tell the phase of his life he is on, mentioning to her how “he’s in the middle of it” and on his “little shit”. He mentions how the man has confidence, charisma and talent, but his arrogance may be his downfall. He also mentions how the man has reminded him of his old friend and fellow rapper Half A Mil, and how his success led to his downfall, along with similar worries Nas has for the man in question. This turns into a meditation on the streets, where Nas ponders things like “How did the projects turn into a war zone?”. This is another case of Nas drawing parallels in his life and creating images as a result. It helps that Nas is pretty loud in the mix on this track so you can really hear the story. This mixing choice continues on the second part of the track, which is far more direct in the structure of its storytelling, where the verses are all distinct chapters of the same story. This is indicated by a voice that says what chapter you are on at the beginning of each verse. The story follows a young man going to Spain to see his ex. Unfortunately the only way for him to get to Spain was to smuggle drugs for his friend. This ends about as well as expected, with the man being killed in Chapter 3 after the whole situation is revealed to be a setup to smuggle the drugs without compensation. There is definitely a higher sense of urgency here than in the previous part of the song. Nas flows a bit faster, the drums are a bit louder, all brought together by a somber woodwind. It is almost like you are watching a tragic gangster flick with Nas being the experienced narrator. It is so real and so well told. I was blown away by this one on first listen and am even more impressed upon reading the lyrics. It would seem Nas never runs out of stories to tell, which has been a consistent theme throughout this decade of output for him.

As the common adage goes, all good things must come to an end. I am happy to say that the end of this album, and by extension this run of albums, is one of the best endings I could have asked for, 1-800-Nas&Hit. The title alone feels like a love letter to everything that they have accomplished and the song lives up to that well. Hit brings his A-game here, giving us a squeaky, quaint and overall sweet soul sample to be the main ingredient of the beat. It is poetic how soulful much of the production on this album is, given how much soul helped paved the way for hip-hop. Nas definitely understands this and delivers bars that have a similarly poetic feeling. He compares his six album run with Hit to the Fast and Furious and Star Wars franchises, saying “Six projects, six sagas, it’s hood science”. Given my personal history with Nas and this saga of albums, this track was admittedly a tearjerker for me. The lines “Whether we did diamond or hardly sold
We did it for our soul” were particularly gut wrenching. It made keeping track of this album run all the more rewarding. You can tell Nas and Hit truly care about their craft and making something they can be happy with. Nas is in another prime, truly happy with his life and accomplishments, but he does care about authenticity. He also claims in the second verse that he “finally killed King’s Disease”. Not only does this work because it is implied he has been trying to for three albums now, but also it works as a double entendre. He finished the series and killed it, he made three amazing albums with Hit Boy and it all came from the heart. The whole track is incredible and feels like a love letter to the fans that have consistently enjoyed his work and never lost faith in him, even ending with an outro that thanks everyone and puts the triumph that this whole saga has been into perspective, opening with the lines “Six albums, in how many years?”. Four years Nas. Four, and I am so proud of you both.

I have been following Nas since roughly 2017. He was one of the first rappers I ever truly fell in love with musically. This album not only feels like the end of an era, but a reward for keeping that love through the best and the worst of times. After a six year hiatus and two less than stellar albums following it, many struggled to keep the faith with Nas and his music. I never truly stopped and knew he was capable of something like this. I just never thought he would end up doing it. With that said, what Nas and Hit have been able to accomplish in four of the most tumultuous years in human history is incredible, and Magic 3 is no exception. Through consistently effective storytelling, soulful beats and a mostly consistent crop of ideas that use these elements to the fullest, Nas has proven that he is still a captain in the fifty year rap game and I hope that he stays friends with his co-pilot forever. It has been a truly magical saga. Thank you Nas and Hit-Boy.

9/10