#8bones

10/4/24

The Smile

Cutouts

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This is their second album this year. This one feels like an extension of their first self titled album, but branches into a psychedelic landscapes. It's some great rainy day coffeehouse music. Thom still sounds as good as ever.

8/10/24

Sweet Trip

You Will Never Know Why

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Dream pop. It may actually not be this genre, but I feel like that's what it is for me. This album is from 2009, but remastered. The energy and mood here are exactly what I was looking for. The female vocals are soft and are great harmony with the guitars and light drums.

1/26/24

The Smile

The Wall Of Eyes

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The band of Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, and Tom Skinner. I've been waiting a long time for this album as Radiohead is one of my favorite bands and I'm highly critical of anything Thom puts out. Their single "Wall Of Eyes" was released last year that I've been listening to on repeat for a while. It feels like much of the production is leading this with Thom playing backup for many of the tracks. There is also some different musical influences spaced throughout each track from jazz, dream-pop which makes this incredibly easy on the ears. I'll be continuing to listen to this album as you can tell it's very complex; I just wish it moved me a bit more like Radiohead albums do.

11/22/24

Kendrick Lamar

GNX

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Complete surprise album release today. The production and mixing is top top top tier which is to be expected. This was not thrown together and I'm sure required incredible planning to release completely unnoticed and also in the middle of the day, only someone like Kendrick could do something like that with these streaming services. I love the features on this, everyone here makes sense and there are some new-er artists to me, SZA, Deyra Barrera, Ink, Wallie the Sensei, AzChike, Hitta J, Sam Dew, Dody 6, Siete, Peysoh, Young Threat. I've only listened to this two times so far; this will again require multiple listens to fully grasp the full complexity. So far, I think this is a great add after Mr. Morale and the 'heart' series that he put out this summer. It still feels unique to LA and in that classic K Dot. Thank you, Kendrick.

4/21/24

Hans Zimmer

Dune Part Two (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

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Has the same consistent Epic theme as the first movie (as it should). It's a small incremental tweak as to what he previously did. I listened to a breakdown of 'A Time of Quiet Between the Storms' and it's pretty remarkable. It's definitely an all-time track from Hans.

3/25/24

Future & Metro Boomin

WE DON'T TRUST YOU

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I think what was nice about this album is that they took a much needed break prior to this. They've been pumping out so much content that this would have easily gotten skipped over, but there is some real hype around this. Less is more.

As someone who's been listening to Metro for years, this doesn't sound like typical production. It actually allows Future to take his time and not rush through his raps. I've seen people hating on the production saying that these are general trap beats; they definitely are not basic trap beats, in fact I think they are some of Metro Boomin's best work.

The production is really fun and there are very few misses--mostly from Future's boring raps that we've heard hundreds of times. Metro carries this project.

1/15/24

Kid Cudi

INSANO

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I think Cudi needed an album like this; full of major players like Travis Scott, Pharrel, A$AP, Yachty among others. The production goes really hard and Cudi really does shine through on each track. I'm typically very critical of Cudi as I've been a serious fan of Man on the Moon and seeing his falls on 'Speedin' Bullet' and 'Passion & Pain...'. It's great to see a rebound album like this. The track with Pharrel 'AT THE PARTY' sounds exactly like the old Cudi flow with an elevated production. It's exactly what I was hoping from Cudi. To reiterate--he needed this album.

7/6/22

Wormrot

Hiss

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Grindcore from Singapore. Grindcore = blending of metal & punk...and I truely hate punk. Luckily this leans more onto the metal side and they SHREAD. 21 tracks which is a bit too long, but this has to be in contention for one of the metal albums of the year.