5/10
-
Sturgill Simpson’s rock experimentation on Sound & Fury sometimes goes over well; other times it goes awfully awry.
-
There’s no doubt DaBaby can flow; it’s just unfortunate he spends so much time on KIRK, as he says, “fuckin’ around.”
-
Birth of Violence‘s stripped back presentation, despite its bewitchingly dark vibe, mostly exacerbates the relatively weak songwriting.
-
House of Sugar is sprinkled with some brilliant and beautiful ideas, but is on the whole marred by an unsatisfying flow, dodgy songwriting, and faint lead vocals.
-
Post Malone loses focus on his sophomore album.
-
Sleater-Kinney tries new things throughout The Center Won’t Hold and, more often than not, they don’t pan out.
-
Immunity is at its best when Clairo manages to find power in simplicity and subtlety, which happens only some of the time.
-
Case Study 01 sounds much less polished and labored over than Freudian—perhaps in an attempt to catch lightning in a bottle—but, more often than not, the results are less than electric.
-
Bombastic production isn’t enough to save Help Us Stranger’s often shabby songwriting.
-
Gold & Grey‘s awful production overshadows its handful of songwriting peaks.
