Hey, hi, and hello, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, internet's busiest music nerd. I hope you're doing well. It's time for another Great Albums video where I go over a bunch of records that have dropped over the past month or so, ones that I think are very good, I think are great, and are worth your time and worth your attention.

Links to reviews and all that to all these records down below. That's the deal with this video. Without any further ado, Let's get into the albums. They are as follows.

Logic - Ultra 85

First off, Logic, Ultra 85.

Yes, I thoroughly enjoyed and got quite a bit out of this new Logic album, musically and emotionally, too. I do think this is his most moving and mature album yet, and one of his most exciting albums in a long time as well, considering how good and high-octane a lot of the rapping is. A lot of great food for thought on this record as well in terms of Logic, really diving into the highs and lows of his life, the progression that brought him to this point, personally and artistically.

I think it's a really interesting project overall. His most Logic album in quite a bit, considering the space skits are back and so on and so forth, but he's doing his thing, and he's doing it well as far as I can tell. Personal favorite of mine in his catalog, and I will leave it there. Ultra 85. Review linked down below.

Jack White - No Name

Alright, we also have Jack White. He is back with a new record, out of the blue.

No Name is the title of this one. No name on it, no promotion, no nothing. Just threw it out there. Raw dog releasing this thing, and it's an excellent album. Probably his best solo release. Probably his most exciting record since, I don't know, a White Stripes album or something like that.

It's totally badass. Amazing riffs, so raw, mostly guitars, drums, and vocals, with minimal overdubs and solos and some keys, a bit of accompagnment here and there. But it's just badass rock and roll and garage, and hard rock for track after track after track after track, and it rules. God, it just rips. The whole thing just rips. That's really all that you can say about it. It just kicks so much major ass.

Just amazing to have a Jack White album this good come out the blue. No color reference intended there. Excellent album from Jack and really enjoying this one quite a bit.

Lupe Fiasco - Samurai

Alright, next we have a Lupe Fiasco, Samurai.

It's a short album, not one of Lupe's most epic or thorough in terms of just length or scope of the concept. The point of inspiration is a little surprising, considering it mostly boils down to an Amy Winehouse quote. But overall, this record is just really Lupe throwing out some meta-analysis in terms of just focusing on hip hop as a craft, as an art form, becoming a rap artist, making that your study in the way that you would study battle and martial arts as a Samurai.

Really great songwriting, really great jazz rap production from front to end, and of course, with it being Lupe Fiasco, a very impressive rapping and lyrisism all around. Bite-sized and not as much in terms of, I guess, labor required, mentally speaking, considering Lupe does have some very heady and very demanding albums out there, especially in the more recent years of his catalog. But this one's nice and palatable, I think, even for the uninitiated, a Lupe listener.

So Samurai, quite good. Really enjoying this one.

Zach Bryan - The Great American Bar Scene

Alright, we have Zach Bryan, The Great American Bar Scene.

The Boy, himself has come through with another combination of country and rock and Americana on a record that is just packed with an hour of songs and some pretty good and decent features here and there as well.

Quality songwriting, passionate lyricism. Good quality vocals as well. Zach Bryan continues to be a really big breath of fresh air on the mainstream country scene with this new record of his over here.

Remi Wolf - Big Ideas

Alright, we also have a Remi Wolf, who continues to be a breath of fresh air on the pop circuit. Big Ideas is the name of her latest full-length LP.

And yeah, it's groovy. It is fun. She is a singer's singer. A lot of interesting lyrics about this very chaotic progression she underwent in terms of certain people being around her and toxic individuals and leading this very wild, crazy tumultuous life where she's in the limelight a bit and coming into her as an artist and a young adult and a performer.

Really enjoying the storytelling, really enjoying the pop hooks, really enjoying how funky and groovy and a little rough and fuzzy around the edges the production is much of the time. I feel like this is a lot of what made her last album great, improved upon a lot of the potential of the last album, really coming to fruition on this one, and I am absolutely, positively loving that.

Denzel Curry - King of the Mischievous South, Vol 2

Alright, we have Denzel Curry, King of the Mischievous South, Vol 2, is the title of this new one. Denzel Curry really switched it up on this new one. His last full-length LP, Melt My Eyez, See Your Future, was one of his most heady and conceptual and contemplative projects yet, really getting deep and emotional and just in his head in terms of the type of person he was, the type of person he wants to be, how he's grown as an individual over the course of his pretty lengthy career at this point. I mean, he's essentially a veteran of the 2010s at this moment.

And yeah, he's really, as he says it on one bar, dumbing it down on this new record to give us an album that is very raw, very in your face, very dirty, very packed with attitude. Not a whole lot of technical writing or bars on this one, but we got a nice emphasis on catchiness and hookiness and infectiousness, and just very dirty throwback, just Memphis-style Southern hip hop.

It's slow, it's woozy, it's thick, it's hazy, it's intoxicating, it's badass, it's cold-blooded. It's totally 3/6 Mafia, old-school stuff from them. And he just takes to this sound. He takes to this style really well with some amazing features from front to back that also touch down on this sound, too. While, again, it may not be Denzel's deepest project yet or anything like that, it is no less conceptual and thorough in its focus and what it's trying to go for.

Really liking this one quite a bit from Denzel. Another W on the board for Denzel.

Krallice - Inorganic Rites

Alright, we have a couple more. We have Krallice's new Inorganic Rites record.

The band is coming through once again with their unique combination of avant-garde metal, of progressive rock and metal, of black metal. But now they're really filling out a lot of the gaps in between those genres and expanding on these tracks, giving us some really lengthy epics using synthesizers and electronics throughout many of these tracks. The way these tracks progress and build across their run times is just epic, is astounding.

A lot of the progressions on these songs are just larger than life and quite cinematic, too. I would say, a lot of these tracks, while they are a little rough around the edges, they are soundtrack ready and quite fantastic. There's really great captivating avant-metal compositions. This record is bringing from front to back. Enjoying it a lot. Really impressed with it.

The band is still sounding sick as hell, and hopefully, the great Colin Marston lands on his feet in terms of finding a new studio space to operate out of with not just Krallice, but his own production sidequests that he has done over the years with a number of different amazing records and bands and musical projects. So check this album out, support Krallice, stream the stuff, buy the stuff, and keep one of the best and most interesting underground metal projects out there going.

Porter Robinson - Smile

Alright, moving on from there. Porter Robinson, Smile.

New album from the producer, songwriter, and electronic and pop conceptualizer, extraordinaire. This new album over here is a really interesting meta-analysis of Porter's, I guess, relationship with his audience and his own fame, with some interesting combinations of indietronica, and emo, and pop music, and electropop, and a host of other things, too.

It's a really cool combination of sounds and genres with great songwriting all around. It's really hooky. It's a little 8-bit at points. The synthesizers are really cute. The guitars are super crunchy. The beats are groovin' and infectious. I really like the direction he took this album in, narratively and sonically. It's not quite as lush or as dreamy as his last full-length album, but I feel like there's a nice trade-off with how punchy and hooky this album here is by comparison.

Really enjoying what Porter pulled off on Smile over here.

JPEGMAFIA - I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU

One more for the list. That is going to be JPEGMAFIA.

Rapper, producer, singer, songwriter, Barrington DeVaughn Hendricks is back with a brand new LP titled I Lay Down My Life For You. And it's pretty much everything that has made Peggy such an interesting and compelling and ground-breaking artist up until this point.

Plus, plus, plus, plus, plus, a refreshing embrace of rock, guitars, and drums across a lot of these tracks, too. I mean, this is really like a rap/rock, rock/rap album in a lot of ways, but done so very tastefully and very impressively in a way that it's visceral, and it's hard-hitting, and it's exciting, and it's thrilling in the way that a great rock album at points should be. But also, I think it stays true to its baseline DNA as a rap record as well.

Peggy has always been an artist that while he is firmly sitting in that rap lane, he has an affectation and a delivery about his vocal style sometimes that makes him almost like punk-adjacent. I feel like that's what makes this record make the most sense. Of course, there's some really ground-breaking and fantastic production ideas and crossovers on this thing, too. A few vocal features and collaborations. It's really awesome to see Peggy just branching out a bit more reaching out to some different artists and getting some interesting, I guess, feature placements and inclusions on this record.

I feel like this album, while it is not my favorite JPEGMAFIA record thus far, it still signifies a lot of creative and personal growth for Peggy in terms of the content of the lyrics, especially on the last track, and what he's going for artistically, too. It seems like he's just really branching out, doing it really tastefully, doing it really well, staying true to who he is as an artist while shaking it up and challenging himself and his audience alike, which is why I think this is just another W on the board for Peggy, for sure, for sure.