pigeon-reviews

[pigeon-reviews]

Rina Sawayama - SAWAYAMA

8/10

its 13 incredibly well crafted pop and rock bangers that are all fairly unique and take on some interesting topics. i read somewhere that this project was actually cut down from quite a large pool of songs and it really shows because the track listing here is bulletproof

dynasty has these dark, aggressive electric guitar riffs that explode into these bright, powerful vocal passages in the chorus and it sounds so fucking good. xs has this really saucy acoustic lead that supports its hedonistic theme and i love how the vocals in the chorus sort of drag you around with their abrupt style changes. STFU! is this noise rock headbanger of a song that transitions into this bouncy and sweet chorus and the sarcasm and playfulness of this track is incredibly well done. i could go on and on about comme des garcons and paradisin and tokyo love hotel, the track listing here is absolutely nuts

there are some tracks that maybe feel a bit dry although maybe thats just because theyre sitting next to some truly amazing tracks, specifically chosen family was pretty but kind of boring and very cheesy. bad friend had some verses that felt a bit weak and i just don’t get the choral voices in the bridge at all but maybe im just missing something

although like every single song on this is a banger and there isnt anything on here that i wouldnt want to have on a playlist, i have to say that there isnt really much in the way of substance on this thing. it tackles a lot of themes like racial microaggressions, gender double standards, culture differences, familial issues, and a couple others, but it actually doesn’t really say anything about any of them. there’s also not a lot of innovation going on in terms of the instrumentals, they’re solid but the sound isn’t anything ground breaking. this is fine, not every album needs to make a statement, but i think this album could have been improved upon if it had been a little bolder

i love this album and i’ve already listened to it a lot but i do wish that some of these tracks cut a little deeper into the themes that they’re exploring, but still, overall a very enjoyable experience that’s definitely worth your time

[pigeon-reviews]

Taylor Swift - Lover

6/10

its an overall enjoyable pop record but feels way bloated and often underproduced

this album feels analogous to sifting through a bin of unreleased taylor swift songs, sometimes its really good, sometimes its bad, and many of them just feel underproduced and some of them kind of dont feel like they should have been released at all. this album could have definitely benefited from a more surgical look at the track listing, the album could have definitely been shortened and there were definitely weaker songs on this album

a good example of a track that should have been cut is it’s nice to have a friend, the production really doesn’t go anywhere interesting throughout the entire song, the instrumentals themselves aren’t particularly captivating, and compared to some of the more explosive songs on this record, this is definitely a low point for the album. similar things could have been said for i forgot that you existed, which at least was a step above it’s nice to have a friend, but still featured lackluster production

aside from this there were also songs that weren’t actually that bad but dragged on for far too long, with cornelia street being most guilty of this. it runs five minutes but after the first minute you’ve pretty much heard the whole song. miss americana & the heartbreak prince, aside from the terribly mixed piano chords in the chorus, also felt a little too long and by the time the bridge rolled around i felt like taylor swift was beating the high school analogy to death

and aside from the production issues and this album’s length, taylor swift’s lyricism also felt questionable throughout the entire record. false god in particular was painfully weak and cheesy and the production on this song was so lacking that i can’t believe it actually made it onto a studio album. me! also felt like it was playing on a tired theme and it didn’t even do it well. the man was also an instance of poor songwriting, as it attempted to tackle feminist issues but did so in such a superficial and ignorant way that was ultimately unconvincing

however there were a good number of pop bangers on this playlist, like cruel summer which was relatively simple from an instrumental and structural perspective, but the way in which this track transitions into these vibrant and emphatic choruses was very well done and made the track feel punchy and powerful. paper rings was fun and dynamic and had a much appreciated key change after the bridge, london boy was cute and bright and i loved the dissonant synth chords around the verses and the way it transitioned around the choruses and verses. i think he knows also suffered from poor lyricism, but made up for it with the crushed vocals and super addictive bass synth wobbles in the chorus

there were also many tracks across this album that weren’t necessarily pop bangers but were still very well-written, particularly soon you’ll get better, a poignant and emotional acoustic duet. death by a thousand cuts had some very pretty instrumentals, featured some of the best writing on the album, felt very dynamic in that it did the most with its run time, and packed an extremely powerful bridge. the title track, lover, was such a beautiful track that did so much with its acoustic melody, featuring impassioned vocals in the chorus and its vocal harmonies and the plucky piano chords that appear in the bridge, it was just an overall stunning track and taylor swift at the top of her game

i could probably see this album being cut down to like 10-12 songs and it would have been so much better off if it had, i could have honestly considered giving it an 8/10, but as it stands, i just felt like taylor got a little too lost in the sauce on this album. with better lyricism and more interesting instrumentals this album could have been way better than what we got

[pigeon-reviews]

K.Flay - Solutions

3/10

too many tracks that are overproduced and greatly hindered by their poor lyricism

a huge draw factor in k.flay’s music was her ability to be incredibly raw and unashamed in her depiction of self-destructive behaviors and toxic relationships, often portraying herself as pathetic and hopeless and desperate for affection. it was poignant and insightful, and unfortunately those themes have all been thrown out the window in favor of elements that are admittedly a little more endearing but far more uninspired

without those themes to hide behind, k.flay’s music becomes shockingly insipid and repetitive, with each track lacking any kind of real identity. the synth often feels pretty derivative, and it seems that her overwhelming and often messy electric guitar from her previous projects that felt chaotic and stressful dont seem to match up with the squeaky clean production or themes on this album

her lyricism however probably takes the biggest hit from her change in style, with pretty much every track lacking anything of substance in the verses and the choruses just feel way too sweet and brainless. ice cream is especially guilty of this with “you are my ice cream you make my brain freeze” being one of the worst choruses from any song this year, the verses from good news sound like they came out of an amateur freestyler, and bad vibes, this baby don’t cry, and sister just have bad lyrics throughout

there are actually tracks on here that i kind of enjoyed, most particularly nervous, which was cute and intimate, only the dark which had a very square synth lead that i thought was interesting enough to be enjoyable, and not in california which felt a little too in-the-box but held its own as a solid rock track. i like myself (most of the time) had its moments but fell flat in the chorus, dna was interesting and actually had a theme that wasnt stupid but still just felt kinda boring

anyways i think that covers everything, nervous and only the dark were nice but unfortunately i would consider less than half the album even remotely enjoyable, this was definitely a far cry from k.flay’s previous projects and unfortunately not in a good way

[pigeon-reviews]

Xiu Xiu - Girl with Basket of Fruit

10/10

cursed album

its difficult to put the experience into words, but the record is best described as an avant garde horrific amalgamation of barely coherent sentence fragments held together by some haunting instrumental effects. it feels like spending time with someone who has lost their sanity, but the album’s imagery is often so vivid that you can live vicariously through them, seeing and experiencing everything they do. its practically horror translated into a musical shape, and the result is something that feels surreal, deeply chilling, and highly effective

the album manages tone astonishingly well. in the title track alone, there are times when you can identify when xiu xiu is fascinated, disinterested, frustrated, and horrified. throughout the album, there’s a lot of aggression, accompanied by these high pitched alarm noises often with barrages of percussion, and then you have times when xiu xiu feels especially vulnerable, with raw vocal sections that are so gentle and soft that they’re barely being spoken, complemented by these long and dragged out synth or strings. i often felt like i was intruding just listening to the album, like i was hearing things i wasnt intended to hear and it just sort of adds to the mood of discomfort and dread. there are often times where xiu xiu is clearly afraid, and it doesnt take long before you feel afraid right with him

the tone combined with the instrumentals translate into some staggeringly vivid imagery. often with the booming and distorted vocals in tracks like it comes out as a joke and ice cream truck, it felt like a figure was towering over me. in ice cream truck, theres a moment where the instrumentals suddenly stop and you’re left with this sharp plucking sound and what sound almost like distorted giggles. it just felt like the lights shut off and being caught in the dark while silhouettes circled around, and then theres the especially terrifying mary turner mary turner, possibly the most coherent track on the whole record, which depicts a brutal lynching of a teenage mother, conjuring visuals so powerful that left me too stricken to even cry

lyrically, the album always feels like its skirting the line between coherent and nonsensical. the title track is especially guilty of this, often making obscure references to things that almost sound believable enough to be real. trying to follow exactly what’s being said is more frustrating than productive, but they leave much room for speculation. they’re undeniably dark and revolve heavily around a theme of cruelty and violence, often times too vividly for comfort 

the instrumentals on this are eclectic and often times almost inexplicable. for example, the track scissssssssors opens with a sound that feels simultaneously crunchy but also kind of gooey (just listen to the beginning of the track and you’ll see what i mean) mary turner mary turner also features this passage with this metallic scratching noise that also kind of sounds like an animal. they’re noises that are not only conducive to the atmosphere but also intriguing on their own. im absolutely obsessed with the deep groaning strings featured in amargi ve moo, they’re so daunting and powerful and i love how they seem to “strike” in the latter half of the song, growing louder and faster, almost swallowing the rest of the song. it’s like the musical representation of a floorboard creaking, then someone charging across the floor towards you

overall the album is just a terrifying yet deeply cathartic experience that i find myself coming back to pretty often. theres so much more i feel like i could say about this album because theres so much to unpack. girl with basket of fruit’s ability to invoke such a robust set of emotions and its masterfully crafted arsenal of instrumentals make it a masterpiece

[pigeon-reviews]

Avril Lavigne - Head Above Water

5/10

its actually pretty close to being good

if you just cut the first four tracks into an ep and scrapped the rest of the album, it would actually be pretty solid. it gives me sort of a big band vibe, with avril’s emphatic vocals being complemented by orchestral and symphonic scores that allow her to reach these key moments in which avril sounds convincingly powerful and in control of her music. these tracks also seem to maintain a pretty coherent message about toxic relationships and avril’s struggle with lyme disease. lyrically, its pretty generic but i’ve definitely heard worse

avril’s track “dumb blonde” serves as a reality check, reverting back to a 2000s pop sound, it’s just ostentatious, way too explosive, and it almost sounds like avril is fighting for control with her instrumentals. the lyrics are about as in-the-box as you can get, with avril addressing the “dumb blonde” stereotype and essentially saying “hey, i’m not that!” and it just feels boring and overdone and anything that was indicative of prowess from the first four cuts has totally flown out the window in this track

the rest of the album kind of goes down hill from here, with the sixth track being “it was in me” which is another ballad about personal empowerment. this is analogous to a waiter falling flat on their face, dropping everything they were holding in the process, causing a huge commotion, then getting up and acting like nothing happened. its also at this point in the album that you begin to wonder if avril is capable of making a track that isnt structurally identical to everything else, with quiet verses that explode into these in-your-face moments

the answer to the previous question is no, with the exception of goddess, which is an acoustic track featuring horrendously bad lyricism, almost offensively so, talking about how avril’s spouse “treats her like a goddess.” if lil dicky’s earth wasn’t also released this year, this would more than likely be the worst track of the year. it’s truly abysmal

interestingly enough, virtually every track after “dumb blonde” features an acoustic melody and loud percussion with lots of reverb (think imagine dragons), ditching the strings from the first four tracks that really impacted avril’s sound. this is not to say that every track after dumb blonde is bad, i actually enjoyed souvenir, which was definitely instrumentally and lyrically lacking, but was cute enough to be enjoyable, and love me insane, which brought back a weaker version of the strings from the first four tracks and had some nice vocal melodies in the chorus

there are actually a few tracks on here i genuinely enjoyed, but my god this album gets so bogged down by a few of the tracks on this record that the album as a whole feels pretty average. i would love to see avril continue down the big band route, adopt some percussion that doesnt sound like someone threw a bass drum down the garbage disposal, and ditch the lyrical tropes

[pigeon-reviews]

Vampire Weekend - Father of the Bride

9/10

this pop rock folk fusion packs some deeply insightful tracks that leave quite a bit to reflect upon

possibly this album’s biggest sin is its ambition. it covers such an incredible amount of ground, with major themes of decomposition, particularly in humanity and ethics, religion, love, and violence, particularly that which is politically motivated and targeted towards a religion. these are referenced frequently enough that they make numerous appearances across the album, but not quite consistently enough such that they are expounded upon properly, which is a shame since the themes it presents are really quite interesting

the track begins with hold you now, quite possibly the best opener to an album i’ve encountered, expressing a failed relationship between two people due to differences in approach and depicting each of their perspectives. the acoustic instrumental complements the raw vocal melodies and the employment of god yu tekkem laef blong mi in the chorus was an overwhelmingly beautiful moment in this record. this theme is further covered by this life, once again depicting a failed relationship over differences in perspective but focuses more on those related to a failure to foresee obstacles. it’s a mildly vapid point-of-view that presents a slant on the same theme, but this is pretty much the last we see of it. it sort of vanishes from the album in just two tracks, which seemed odd considering the name of the album is in reference to this theme specifically

similar things can be said about the aforementioned themes. harmony hall features a pre-chorus filled with political angst, stating that anger motivates vocal action, which ultimately reaches the point where either opinions are no longer being heard or nothing of substance is being said, an interesting theme, but not captured anywhere else on the album. themes of religion, particularly those related to christianity and judaism, are much more prevalent, but don’t particularly lead anywhere interesting. decomposition is possibly the most consistent theme across the album, with vampire weekend questioning their legacy and pondering the impressions that are left behind once things begin to fall apart

the instrumentals and production are incredibly well done across this album, with bambina featuring emphatic guitar riffs in the verses which juxtapose well with the softness of the chorus. the hollow percussion and dissonant piano chords in how long feel mysterious and yearning which do a good job emphasizing the repetition of “how long?” in the chorus. rich man features a vintage sounding acoustic melody that transforms into a bouncy and jovial orchestral riff after the chorus. sympathy has some striking and driving percussion and vocals, as well as some very sharp and intense guitar riffs in the chorus, and ends with some alarming muted synth. sunflower has some interesting repeated vocal melodies and some very tight and twangy guitar. the artistic choices made across the album are very intelligently done and are varied throughout, with each track bringing something different to the table without the album coming across as incoherent

it’s also worth mentioning that danielle haim’s vocal features across several of the tracks on this album are really well done, often harmonizing well with ezra’s voice and provide substance through her duets over the context of romantic relationships

vampire weekend’s experimentation with sound is welcome and overall very well done, but there are some weak tracks, such as my mistake, a downcast ballad that comes across as confusing and pretty boring. the autotuned vocals in spring snow are pretty obnoxious and get mildly irritating. some of the most questionable moments across the album are usually a result of vampire weekend dipping a little too deep into the synth

all in all, it’s a fantastic album, one that i listened to repeatedly and thoroughly enjoyed. i would have enjoyed the album more if vampire weekend managed to incorporate these themes into more of a statement, and had maybe cut a few of the tracks on here to make for a more concise experience, but overall it was a truly cathartic experience and i’ll likely be listening to quite a few tracks on this album for the rest of the year

[pigeon-reviews]

Carly Rae Jepsen - Dedicated

8/10

thank you carly rae jepsen for my life

im a huge fan of carly rae jepsen, she has a distinct style that combines synth and groovy basslines with sappy, yet substantive lyrics to create pop music that distinguishes itself from the endless sea of other pop tracks. these elements were present across her other albums like emotion, emotion side b, and maybe even some of kiss, and they’re still pretty prevalent throughout this album as well, which is demonstrative of the fact that crj doesn’t really change her sound much in this latest cut, which is admittedly slightly disappointing, as i was hoping to hear something a bit more experimental, but still provides for a pretty solid addition to her discography

stylistically, the most “carly rae jepsen” songs on this album would be no drug like me, happy not knowing, i’ll be your girl, the sound, and automatically in love, which all use have choruses that feature emphatic basslines and some 80s style synth and percussion. want you in my room features similar elements, but has some incredibly infectious emotive synth chords that underline the chorus’ deeply impassioned lyrics. no drug like me manages to mix these elements along with some pretty breathy lines in the chorus to create something smooth and dreamlike. these tracks alone are demonstrative of crj’s ear for mixing and production, since the instrumentals alone are stunning

everything he needs is probably the deepest we get into “experimental” content, juxtaposing the high pitched “he needs me” with the tuned down “i got everything he needs” in the chorus. it sounds strange, but not in an unpleasant way, and these carry over into the bridge where crj describes all the ways in which he needs her, which sounds kind of surreal and i loved it

this is not to say that this album didnt have weak points. too much was one of the weakest tracks crj has ever produced, it features kind of a bouncy and strangely generic synth line that varies little throughout the track and an incredibly insipid chorus and it just feels like a one-dimensional track. for sure is another weak track, featuring this clap percussion that stays constant throughout the track and a chorus that kind of just doesnt lead anywhere. both of these tracks just end up feeling very flat and insignificant in the grand scheme of this album. feels right included an electric guest feature, which matches crj’s percussive style, but this track just didn’t feel like it had either artist performing at their best. most of the percussive elements that i’ve come to appreciate from electric guest’s music just aren’t present and crj sounds like shes straining to match the vocal style of electric guest in the chorus

despite the flaws, however, this is an incredibly well produced pop album that i thoroughly enjoyed. i’d love to hear carly rae jepsen experiment with her sound a little more, as i think that the track everything he needs in particular proved that carly rae jepsen is capable of a more eccentric sound, but as is, this album only further proves crj’s prowess as a pop musician

[pigeon-reviews]

Billie Eilish - WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?

4/10

i’ve had a healthy respect for billie eilish as an artist because of her unique sound and ever since her first project, dont smile at me, i’ve been keen on listening to more of her content, but unfortunately i just dont really feel like billie has grown much as an artist and i think that her music is too confined because of her persona, and as a result her latest studio project just strikes me as a dont smile at me part 2

i feel like the production on this thing differs wildly throughout the course of the album, sometimes seeming way overproduced and bloated at times in tracks like you should see me in a crown, which is heinously abrasive, and terribly underproduced in others, like bury a friend, which works with little more than a kick drum and a clap

this is not to say that the instrumentals are actually diverse on this either. i feel like billie eilish only has two modes, and that’s either lots of bass or cute acoustic guitar, and the production provides variation on these tracks by either way over-doing it or under-doing it. a lot of the instrumentals feel recycled across the tracks, i hear very little diversity in the instrumentals. fortunately, the instrumentals are actually good, but they just fatigue the ear by like half-way through the album

i feel like very rarely does this album actually strike a balance with the production, like in bad guy or my strange addiction, where it seems like they’ve got the instrumentals ironed out, but even then, the lyricism on this album is pretty bad

generally, i feel like the subject matter is incredibly thin, either boasting inflated self-confidence in tracks like bad guy or you should see me in a crown, or playing the role of a hopeless and pitiful romantic in tracks like when the party’s over, wish you were gay, and 8. these messages juxtapose so poorly and are so thematically disjointed from one another that i cannot figure out exactly what message billie eilish wants to convey

the lyricism is also lacking. when they’re not senselessly edgy, i just feel like they’re pop lyrics i’ve heard from another song, and when billie sings about her failed romantic endeavors, i just feel like they’re too superficial for me to really be convinced

and honestly, a lot of the artistic decisions made on this album are just outright questionable, like the random office sound clips in my strange addiction and the weird canned audience sound effects used in wish you were gay that just come out as cheesy

all these flaws make me wanna give this album like a 2 but there are actually some good tracks on here like 8 and ilomilo and goodbye, and whenever i listen to them i start to become convinced that maybe there is some beauty behind all the madness, but then i listen to something like bad guy or my strange addiction and suddenly i remember why this album is so unappealing

i genuinely believe that the talent is there, but i think that billie eilish needs to first figure out where she wants to go thematically, then hone her lyricism so she’s not dropping random biblical allusions and gruesome imagery that are ultimately meaningless, and finally create some songs out of that which innovate on her sound rather than creating what is effectively the same alt pop song a million times

[pigeon-reviews]

Weezer - Black Album

7/10

yeah its just a blend of pop and rock but it has some edgy themes

admittedly the tracks are pretty much what you expect, although some do distinguish themselves from the others, particularly high as a kite, byzantine, and can’t knock the hustle, but what i find more interesting is the consistent theme throughout the album of frustration with their fan base over their inability to produce the music they want to produce simply because their fan base will always draw comparisons to their past

this theme is explored in can’t knock the hustle, zombie bastards, and the prince who wanted everything, and i think it’s an interesting topic to address, and i believe that the black album addressed it effectively. tracks like zombie bastards that repeat “die die you zombie bastards we know what you want” demonstrate that weezer is making the shift to pop tracks intentionally, regardless of whether that appeals to their fans, because they want to produce the sound that they like

with that out of the way, this is a mixed bag of an album. can’t knock the hustle is groovy and dark, then it transitions into zombie bastards which is overproduced and bright, then it transitions into high as a kite, which is intense and emphatic, and then it transitions into living in l.a. which is bubbly and sweet. after the first four tracks the listener is bound to develop whiplash from how drastically the tracks change from one song to another

and this kind of makes sense, in that this album is built around addressing their transition from their old sound into their new, but the inconsistency across this album is just startling and a more gradual transition would have been much more consistent and less startling

despite this inconsistency, individually the tracks are great, i loved high as a kite with its soft piano introduction into the dramatic and soaring guitar and vocals in the chorus, can’t knock the hustle with its groovy bassline and the trumpets, the bright staccato piano chords in zombie bastards, and the high pitched vocal instrumental in byzantine

there are also a few songs that just feel really bland, particularly i’m just being honest and living in l.a., and in addition there are some elements in certain songs that just don’t really blend well, like the chiptune runs in california snow

overall i think the tracks are generally great on their own but lack coherence in the grand scheme of the album. i think with some fine tuning and a restructuring of the album, i think this could have been a much better album

[pigeon-reviews]

Joji - BALLADS 1

6/10

joji gives us twelve really flat and hollow lo-fi tracks across an inconsistent album

when joji first debuted ballads 1 with the release of slow dancing in the dark, i would not have expected the album to turn out so stale. slow dancing in the dark was incredibly rich, it balanced out the dark and rich synth and bass with these pleasant heavy harp instrumentals, introduces some bright synth chords before transitioning into the chorus with this really dissonant crescendo before finally resolving into some really beautiful light and bright transient piano runs. the lyrics are emotionally cutting and raw and overall its just a truly amazing piece of music

and yet none of this gets captured in any other song on the track, which is not necessarily to say that they’re bad, just really bland, instrumentally inferior, and way flatter. the emotion doesn’t carry over, and while the other tracks on ballads 1 have the same themes of yearning and self-deprecation, they’re just significantly less convincing

test drive, for instance, aside from being just a pretty lame trap beat with some piano chords, also features some childish lyrics that are admittedly just kind of stupid. they meander around a topic of fleeting romance but fail to address it in an interesting way and the whole metaphor with test driving a car is more comedic than poignant

and this pattern of “not really saying much of anything” is present across the rest of the album too, particularly in wanted u, why am i still in l.a., come thru, and xnxx. there are some interesting metaphors made at times, but they’re so disjointed from the rest of the track that they just don’t really feel coherent

i do like some of the things that are being done on this album, like the overblown bass and excessively compressed vocals in attention, the screeching electric guitar interlude in why am i still in l.a., the pitched piano chords in no fun and can’t get over you, and yet the majority of the album devolves either into pop or mumble rap before following that sound anywhere interesting

i think there are some good elements present and i’m looking forward to what joji puts out in the future, but the tracks on this album were just a little too meh and seemed apprehensive to explore the full range that joji is capable of

[pigeon-reviews]

Julia Michaels - Part One

3/10

julia michaels delivering one of the most bland and tasteless pop eps i’ve heard this year

overall the ep is all structurally the same, with every track getting practically swallowed by the pre-chorus and the chorus repeated over and over. there’s actually very little content here, and it doesn’t help that the same subject matter seems to be touched upon in every single song

this ep is so incredibly shallow that it’s actually painfully bad to listen to, with her talking about lost love so directly and bluntly. there’s no artistry here, it sounds like the culmination of people’s thoughts on relationship struggles, most likely because this album tries way too hard to be relatable, which doesn’t feel remotely subtle and just feels cringy

julia michaels briefly touches on themes of mental illness, particularly anxiety and depression, in the track anxiety, and also briefly mentions her issues of artificially manifesting arguments with her friends, but these also just strike me as tracks that are intended to be relatable. this is unhealthy behavior, but these notions are so heavily romanticized and feel “quirky”, and feels like it’s downplaying the issues of people who are suffering from these illnesses

the featuring artists on this ep came as the biggest disappointment, i think selena gomez and niall horan are talented pop artists who i imagine would work well with julia michaels’ sound, and yet they hardly get any time on the track, providing maybe ten to fifteen seconds of original content before drifting into the same pre-chorus that gets repeated throughout

however, i will say that i’m actually in favor of the production on this ep, a lot of the instrumental choices were simplistic but nice, i appreciated how much the sound transformed throughout the tracks. into you was a particularly good example, as the verses consist of a simple kick clap beat laid over some piano chords, before being pitched and filtered just before the chorus, the chorus transforms into a quick-paced piano and hi hat melody with the arpeggiated guitar chords, and then finally transforming into the breakdown style drums with heavy reverb and the metallic synth. all very simplistic melodies and beats, but it keeps the track refreshing despite its repetitiveness

if the production were in the hands of a more talented artist, i could maybe see this being an okay ep, but it’s too shallow thematically and too simplistic lyrically, even for a pop record, to be considered a decent ep

[pigeon-reviews]

Backstreet Boys - DNA

5/10

backstreet boys producing some very generic pop sounds and overall delivering the expected content from a modern boy band

these tracks just stick to the same pop tropes that are so prevalent in pop radio culture, from the instrumentals, to the vocals, and even the structure of the songs (verse 1, chorus, verse 2, chorus, bridge, chorus, maybe chorus again). nothing on this album sounds original

but most importantly these songs feel so devoid of soul, and this is probably my most common critique of radio music: very rarely do i feel like the artists are actually having any fun with their content or feel that what they’re producing is meaningful, and it really shows. i think passionate is the only song on this album where i felt convinced that the backstreet boys actually enjoyed making music, as the track packs a really groovy bassline, verses with high pitched vocals and a flow that trickles from one line to the next, some really nice staccato vocals in the prechorus, and of course the outrageous trumpet instrumentals in the chorus, it’s an eclectic experience and a very entertaining performance overall

now compare this to a track like is it just me (which absolutely sounds like a chainsmokers song), piano chords that i’ve heard a million times over, you get these monotonous verses where all the lines get delivered in the same pattern, and the chorus just consists of a phrase being repeated over and over again, and this is what the majority of the album consists of, with chances, no place, chateau, the way it is, don’t go breaking my heart, and just like it is following the same template

breathe was a nice acapella piece that does a good job of displaying the vocal prowess of the band, new love was in a similar vein as passionate with the flute runs and the squeaky synth, but still felt a bit boxed in, like the stereotypical boy band rock song, and the final track, OK, had some very generic guitar and vocals, but i liked the chorus, i think it was a cute and catchy tune

maybe i’m just spoiled by other boy bands like brockhampton that actually produce tracks that are full of depth and unique and push the envelope on what a boy band is capable of, but more likely i think that this is just an unimpressionable album

props to the backstreet boys for staying prevalent and being able to identify pop music trends after all these years, but this is just very average

[pigeon-reviews]

The 1975 - A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships

6/10

matt healy tackles a bunch of hot button political and social issues in a very hit or miss pop album

a brief inquiry into online relationships covers a wide range of topics like gun violence in the US, drug addiction, infidelity in relationships, disproportionate incarceration rates of black men, suicide, polarity in a two-party system, social acceptance, fear of failure, and a bunch of other issues. there’s quite a bit to unpack here

some of these tracks are really great and do a good job not just addressing and delivering an argument on it, but actually feature clever lyricism and beautiful instrumentals, like sincerity is scary, it’s not living if it’s not with you, mine, and i always wanna die sometimes

on the other hand, theres a good chunk of this album that tries to address these topics that feels pretty underwhelming and doesn’t address the topic well, either because the lyrics are lacking, the song feels repetitive, or the instrumentals are just uncaptivating, like be my mistake, tootimetootimetootime, i like america & america likes me, how to draw / petrichor, i couldn’t be more in love, and give yourself a try. not all of these are bad, they just feel incessant and generally do a poor job of talking about the theme they’re trying to address, either because the lyrics are too ambiguous or there’s just not enough content to support the statement

there’s very little middle ground between the two of these, it’s either really pretty good and clever or it’s painfully bad. there’s a few tracks which i feel don’t fall into either category, but it’s mostly because they feel out of place on the album because they don’t pertain to any of the aforementioned themes, like surrounded by heads and bodies, inside your mind, neither of which i really liked, mostly because they felt underproduced and had these really long stretched out vocal passages that were underwhelming

the man who married a robot was an interesting narrated section that personified the internet and a man’s obsession with it, and i felt that it was poignant and pretty well done. i liked it on this album even though i wouldn’t really call it a track

overall i feel like this album had potential and i would have liked the 1975 to address the topic of modern relationships in a more interesting way than what we got before straying onto other social issues, as i do think it’s an interesting topic with many directions to explore

if the sound were more refined and they had put more work into coherency between the tracks, i could have seen this album being quite good, but as it stands, it’s just too messy and underproduced to merit high praise

[pigeon-reviews]

Jaden Smith - The Sunset Tapes: A Cool Tape Story

3/10

“this mic froze over” is the truest line on this mixtape

jaden smith stamps out any traces of a unique sound he may have had from his previous studio album in favor of boring, uninnovative beats and lyricism

this entire album fails to go anywhere meaningful, and pretty much every single track consists of a trap beat where jaden smith is either talking about his talent, his girl problems, or his experiences with drugs, reminiscent of a high school soundcloud rapper. occasionally the trap theme is ditched for something much more abstract, usually with some stretched out auto-tuned vocals layered over top, but largely the topics of the lyrics stay the same

there are a few places in this album where jaden tries something more poetic, often times through spoken word sequences in tracks like distant and fallen part 2, and while they’re not particularly good, they can be interesting, especially when they’re layered over other vocals, as they were in distant

plastic is probably the only track on here that i would call good, which still has really stupid lyrics but at least the flows are good and the distorted chime synths are interesting. honorable mention to distant as well

tenten is an awful mumble rap track, play this on a mountain at sunset was this 5 minutes of bumbling headache inducing nonsense, soho and better things were boring and generic

whatever i dont wanna review this one anymore it sounds like a rejected drake album

[pigeon-reviews]

Jon Bellion - Glory Sound Prep

1/10

i don’t get it, it’s just the same song for 10 tracks

actually this one is admittedly a bit more varied, but still just as ridiculous, poorly produced, and intellectually shallow as the rest of his discography

straight off the bat this album opens with conversations with my wife which starts off with these sappy lines about his wife’s loyalty under some low rumbling bassline. then the chorus hits with stupid lyrics where jon bellion says he has a lot of social media followers which makes him a digital jesus before the bridge finally hits with this really obnoxious high pitched choir voice and that’s about the time you realize that this project by jon bellion is going to be 43 minutes of really ridiculous lyrics and bubbly, overly glossy pop beats

john travolta is the next track on this album and its the exact same thing as the last song except bubblier and with this inane chorus that goes on and on and on and on and on and on throughout the entire song until you’re driven insane and i dont mean john travolta 

then let’s begin lands and it’s actually not an annoyingly bubbly pop song which was a surprise but instead its this bad wannabe 90s hip hop track with lots of featuring artists and jon bellion does this black voice thing while he raps about how successful he is and how artists are plagiarizing his style (who????)

that’s about all you need to know about this album, the rest of the tracks have equally stupid lyrics and instrumentals, jon bellion once again proving that “breaking the pop mold” by delivering childish lyrics over cotton candy instrumentals doesn’t make your music good

[pigeon-reviews]

Tommy Genesis - Tommy Genesis

7.5/10

the latest self-titled album from canadian rapper tommy genesis has some really incredible beats and mixing and demonstrates some serious talent in delivering sticky hooks and flows, but the lyricism leaves some to be desired

the tracks on this album are pretty insane, and all in all this album is pretty eclectic but has some really smooth transitions between each track. the whole album flows pretty well despite the fact that it is kind of smattering across genres, with tracks like rainbow, 100 bad, and tommy featuring really hardcore, aggressive trap beats and songs like drive, miami, and naughty being much more chill, stripped back, with dreamy melodies and slower beats

as mentioned previously, the hooks on this are really memorable, especially in songs like you know me, 100 bad, and bad boy, and although there are some times when the lyricism can be lacking, for the most part they’re well-produced, thanks to the really chopped up and glitchy sound bytes usually backed by some metallic, distorted synth sounds

the more chill tracks on this are also quite good, i especially enjoyed naughty and its accompanying empress of feature, miami was enjoyable with its warmer, summery beat and melody, even if its chorus was pretty lazy, and drive was also quite good as a whole. the unfortunate thing about these tracks is that they are very disjointed contextually from the rest of the album. whereas songs like 100 bad, daddy, and play with it are pretty hedonistic and aggressively indulgent, drive and naughty both had these themes of lost love and longing from afar, which thematically forms a giant question mark over exactly what message this album is trying to convey. although these tracks do transition well with their trap counterparts, the change in context is pretty jarring

some of the other complaints i have about this album are how often the lyrics just feel kind of lacking or just flat out dont flow well, like the chorus of rainbow “gold teeth on my wrist is pink gold” sounds noticeably awkward, a lot of the more sexually explicit lines that are featured in 100 bad, daddy, and play with it don’t really contribute anything musically to these tracks and are very uninhibited, in that they aren’t delivered with any kind of meaning or cleverness about them, they dont really flow, and often times they are juxtaposed confusingly. these lines come out sounding really kinda cringy and stick out too much from the rest of the album

yet despite some of these shortcomings, tommy genesis has proven herself to be quite a talented artist with this latest studio album, and if she refines her sound more, i look forward to her future projects

[pigeon-reviews]

IDK - IDK & Friends :)

6/10

this latest trap mixtape from maryland rapper jay idk features some really great flows and some really ape beats but leaves a lot to be desired

it’s a really hype mixtape with some really great featuring artists (denzel curry, domo genesis and some others) but all of this album’s appeal is on a very superficial level, on a deeper level there really isn’t much at work here, the beats are nice and varied but still remain pretty generic

the flows on this album are great, and the artists who collaborated on this mixtape are all tremendously talented, i especially like the staccato rapid fire lines that delivered in the chorus of moral (chop the drop and drop it), the delivery of the lines are the most commendable part of the album

however the more obnoxious elements of trap rap are still present and drag the album down, all the “oohs” and “skrrr”, and i feel like the lines that are delivered in these tracks and especially the beats are very one tone, after you’ve listened to the first thirty seconds you know what the rest of the song is going to sound like, and the rest of the track just feels like it depends too heavily on the featuring artist to provide a break from the monotony

it’s a fun mixtape but nothing to really write home about