albumA Bona fide Killer, Pt. 1 (Original Soundtrack)LEEHI3.5★one song and then the same song without her on it, and they filed that as a release. real brass under her instead of the usual drama strings, and for three and a half minutes nobody makes her raise her voice. she never opens up the way she …Sep 10
songSee Me AroundManga Saint Hilare5.0★lewi b gives him almost nothing to stand on and that is exactly why it works, the beat is bare and manga is the only weight in the room. sits low in my ribs before i have worked out half of what he is saying. six tracks, fifteen minutes, an…Sep 6
albumHe Got Game (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)Public Enemy5.0★a folk song with chuck d standing on top of it and it should not work. stephen stills singing his own hook back thirty-odd years later is the part that gets me, that voice aged into something sadder than the original and nobody asked it to.…Aug 26
albumBlue Lights (Havoc Remix)Jorja Smith4.0★she sang "this is really part two cause you're the shook one" ten years ago and now havoc is actually on the beat, so the joke writes itself and they knew it. the murk suits her, all that low grey piano sitting under the vocal. what i miss …Aug 21
songPop My ShitSnoop Dogg5.0★snoop is 54 and still sounds like he has nowhere to be, which is the whole trick here. yungfyre hands him about four elements and nothing else, and all that empty space is where snoop actually lives. the little sung bit on the can't wait li…Aug 20
songWhat's Done Is DoneJorja Smith4.5★she's been circling garage since the preditah days and this is the one where she stops circling. p2j's drums do all the moving and she doesn't chase them once, that gap between the two of them is where the thing lives. second time she says …Aug 17
albumRespond/React (Live at Blue Note NYC)The Roots3.0★six shows at the blue note for the debut's thirtieth and then they pull respond/react out for the single, a song that isn't even on that record. black thought live still doesn't seem to breathe and you don't notice until it's over. the mix …Aug 12
albumThootieIce Spice4.0★i don't usually come to ice spice for feeling and i wasn't expecting any here either. then the spanish verse happens. she doesn't oversell it, she just slides in and hands off to tokischa, and those two seconds are the best thing on the rec…Aug 11
albumThank You, Goodnight.AG Club5.0★twenty minutes, eight songs, and it hasn't left my rotation since it dropped. jody is the reason. the way he sings on roaches, worn out and still coming out warm, is the thing i keep rewinding. and they'll go from a rock song to something a…Aug 7
albumNEON NiGHTHAWKRiff Raff3.5★riff raff is not a thing i have any business listening to and i still can't tell you why i finished it. commitment, probably. he never once acts like the bit is a bit, which is more than most of them manage. blp kosher turns up and the two …Aug 2
songEARWAXTierra Whack4.0★the part i keep rewinding is the beat sagging and her sagging right down with it, vowels going syrupy, not fighting the tempo once. conductor williams and chris keys have it sounding like a tape getting chewed and she just rides that. this …Jul 31
albumFinessin Distribution DealsFox BD5.0★came in for the sexyy red feature and stayed for the way he stacks his own voice. the ad-lib underneath is carrying all the feeling while the main take stays flat and funny, and on i'm adapted that stops being a trick and just sits in my ch…Jul 27
songDon't Give Up On UsP.J. Morton4.5★didn't think a reggae groove would suit him and here we are. he's looser on this than anywhere else on the saturday night side, like nobody told him to be careful with it. zahria sims' sax doesn't turn up until late and the whole thing lift…Jul 23
songAshes to OceansDJ Shadow4.0★this is the only part of the record i've held onto. five minutes of not arriving, that italian orchestral thing swelling up under drums that drag half a step behind, and the drag is the point, he isn't going to give you the drop. around thr…Jul 23
songFor the Good TimesIsaac Hayes3.5★the way he sits on that first "don't look so sad" is the whole reason i keep coming back here. low, already losing the argument before the strings even show up. kristofferson wrote it plain and isaac just pours orchestra over it, johnny all…Jul 20
albumMoodJacquees2.5★put it on twice because i didn't trust the first pass. there's a stretch near the end of know you where he sounds like an actual person and i sat up for it. never happens again. i've had this on all week and i still can't tell the hooks apa…Jul 15
albumTHE GENTLEMEN'S CLUBYG4.0★not what i expected to click with but yg's gentlemen's club got me anyway. the pusha t and jid features hold their own but it's the quieter stretches, where he actually sits in a feeling instead of posturing, that had me coming back. on the…Jul 12
albumGod Must Really Love MeTori Kelly2.5★nobody's arguing the voice. she opens too much with the actual delivery-room audio and her runs on that one live in my chest, no question. but the record around her is so smooth and careful it just slides right off me. every song lands on t…Jul 8
albumKodak The BlessingKodak Black2.5★i keep pulling for kodak when he leans melodic, there's an actual voice buried under all that. but 26 tracks is a test and i failed it. the front stretch has a couple of those warm woozy beats i showed up for, then somewhere around 'running…Jul 4
