Creeper - Eternity In Your Arms

Creeper are an Horror-Punk band from England who up until recently really hadn't heard much from them.  But of course being an old school Horror-Punk fan, hearing these guys were coming out with their full length debut, I had to check them out.  When it came to their debut, self titled EP, I thought it was just alright.  "VCR" and "Into The Black" were solid tunes, blending more melodic sounds with the dark tinges of Horror-Punk.  But my issues came listening to the other tracks here.  People were comparing Creeper to the early days of AFI and the great Alkaline trio, two comparisons I could totally see.  But for me, Creeper's sound was a little TOO much like these greats.  Thankfully Creeper actually did a whole lot of improving for their "The Callous Heart" EP.  Now, I'm not saying this EP rewrote anything.  But Creeper were sounding less like their influences and writing VERY catchy tunes like "Lie Awake" and "Allergies".  On their "The Stranger" EP, Creeper continued to get seriously good at crafting these punks songs.  "Black Mass" was a bit too corny for my liking outside of that explosive chorus, and they still sounded maybe a LITTLE too much like their contemporaries, but I sure had trouble saying no.  Now, I've been a little iffy on these new singles, there are some good moments to them, but I don't wanna get to far into them.  Let's talk about Creeper's debut full length album.

“Black Rain” starts this album off, and right off the bat we have Creeper sort of playing to their influences with some pianos right out of the book of Alkaline Trio.  The opening speech here as well is sort of cheesy, not terrible, but I certainly feel like we move past THAT stage in Emo.  I digress, because when that main riff comes ripping in Creeper don’t sound too bad at all.  The riff have a little more energy than I’m used to hearing from Creeper.  And while these vocals were clearly ripped kicking and screaming out of Davey Havok circa 2005, they actually come off really nicely.  While Creeper aren’t exactly rewriting anything big as far as modern punk standards go, this really isn’t that bad.  What Creeper lack in originality, they make up for with BIG personalities.  And my God, can these guys ever write a gigantic hook that’s just memorable as hell.  I feel like I’ve reached an age limit where this is a little weird to enjoy THIS much, but as a one time fan of early 2000’s mall-punk, I’m just eating this all up.  And while I feel that 90% of anybody who would seriously enjoy this is wearing a Suicide Squad T-Shirt and has a chain on their wallet, I’m digging this.  “Poisen Pens” is up next, and right off the bat you have to give Creeper credit for coming such a long way as far as shear heaviness goes.  This has a little metal core influence for all of you Day To Remember fans.  But I think what’s really going to set Creeper apart from their contemporaries is that songwriting.  The verse are just fine and all, but these absolutely massive hooks that Creeper bring in are untouchable.  “Poison Pens” ain’t really half bad, but then again this is coming from a dude whose hear picks up a bit whenever he heard that Set Your Goals are touring.  It’s upbeat, and while it’s certainly over the top and clinging desperately to every modern punk stereotype, it’s still decent.  Creeper continue to stick to the heavier side of things with “Suzanne”, at least as far as their sound is concerned.  Vocalist Will Gould here whether he knows it or not is doing his best Matt Skiba impression, it’s a solid one though.  Creeper continue in their lyrics to bring up horror elements and gothic imagery, which honestly acts as such a big plus for them.  Then, once again, “Suzanne” has an absolutely GIGANTIC hook.  I’m not saying this is going to be anyones “Album Of The Year”, but as far as the watered down, current state of pop punk goes, this really isn’t that bad at all.  Up next, “Hiding With Boys” is a little smoother.  Creeper continue to wear their influences pretty blatantly on their shoulder, which moving further I really can see being a huge issue.  These huge hooks though seriously keep me interested in this album, probably way much more than I should be.  Creeper however seriously need to change things up a little bit though.  They honestly have a really solid foundation, but I can see a lot of these tracks getting stale quickly.  While a lot of these tracks are armed with monstrous choruses, I need a little more at the end of the day. Plus, the repeated “LOVING YOU IS KILLING ME” line is so damn corny I can’t tell you enough.  However, Will Gould counters that nicely with his actually cool, very goth like performance of “lay on your bed, lie to me”, right out of any classic goth band playbook.  “Hiding With Boys” is GOOD, but Creeper need to get focused and not let their sound get out of whack really quickly, cause this could SO easily be completely unlistenable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmDiNAIccW8

Remember when I said this could SO easily be unlistenable?  Yea I should have bit my damn tongue.  “Misery” is up next, and ohhhhhh boy this slower, more acoustic side of Creeper is not for me.  Now, call me crazy, but is Will Gould going for his best Jesse Lacy impression here?  If he is, trust me buddy it’s not flattering anyone.  Moving on!  While the first few tracks on this album sounded so fresh and interesting for the genre, I feel like “Misery” has every element in it that make modern punk so unbelievably boring.  This one is just cheesy and ridiculous, and way too overly emotional.  And while technically this one has just as big of a chorus, it really doesn’t stick with me nearly as much.  “Down Below” is up next, and at the very least Creeper are back to a more upbeat sound.  But c’mon seriously this literally sounds like something from Alkaline Trio’s “Crimson” or AFI’s “Sing The Sorrow”.  I mean it’s certainly not BAD, but this just comes off seriously less original sounding.  Creeper once again do make up for that with a whole lot of catchy songwriting however.  It honestly makes “Down Below” fairly enjoyable.  Once again, this certainly isn’t too bad, but two things I have to bring up.  One, Creeper seriously need to work on making their material sound a little more original, and not like an Anberlin B-Side (oh c’mon I can’t be the only one who remembers them).  Two, and most importantly, they need to stick to the heavier sound of that we got to hear earlier.  I certainly get my wish on “Room 239”.  We’re back to a heavier sound for sure, and instrumentally this is solid.  But is it just me, or are the vocals and songwriting not nearly as catchy or enjoyable as earlier material here?  The group vocals are OK at best, but even lyrically this one is just bland.  More or less, “Room 309” is exactly what I was worried about.  And up next, what do you know, we have another acoustic cut, and right off the bat I’m not feeling it at all.  “Crickets” has Hannah Greenwood taking over vocal duties, and honestly as far as a ballad goes she sounds great.  But man, I feel like as far as lyrics go this is rehashing every single cheesy line from the early 2000’s punk scene.  There isn’t anything catchy, exciting, or even actually emotional for me to grab a hold of.  “Crickets” isn’t good, at all.  

“Darling” thankfully shows Creeper getting right back on track.  Here, at least the band sound fairly confident, and the horror punk influence has never felt stronger.  To be honest, it’s one of the strongest elements here.  While this album seriously got dull for a while, Creeper are starting to rebound nicely.  This still is really not that bad of an album at all, and if they expanded on some of these ideas I could see plenty of great stuff for these guys.  “Winona Forever” on the other hand isn’t nearly as punchy and enjoyable.  I do like how Creeper are sticking with the more upbeat material but this one just seems a little more disjointed, and even song structure-wise this one seems choppy.  Once again there are certainly good elements to “Winona Forever”, but this one could have been better, hell even the chorus here barely holds up.  Which leads me to the shockingly solid finale, “I Choose To Live”.  Now when I heard these opening, very theatrical instrumentals I instantly started to worry.  In cases like this, this could have been seriously awful or actually pretty darn good.  THIS, comes off honestly pretty darn good.  Nothing here comes off cheesy, this actually comes off really sweet in a sort of Gothy, “Nightmare Before Christmas” way.  It sort of has a vibe of The World Inferno Friendship Society (who I might be their sole fan of, and that’s fine by me) with the whole over the top feel, but yea it works really nicely.  This is mostly because here, Creeper find the perfect balance of paying tribute to their influences while not imitating them completely.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA6UA1C6F1k

Rating : 7.4/10

Give A Listen To: “Black Rain”, “Poison Pen”, “Suzanne”, “Darling”

Overall Thoughts:  Like I said earlier, I probably enjoyed this a whole lot more than I should have.  While this may be blaring from every Hot Topic in America for the next year or so, as far as modern "Punk" standards go, this is probably the best thing going.  The songwriting is sharp, and Creeper are keeping things more upbeat and heavy for the most part which is great for them.  But the real treasure here comes in these gigantic choruses, Creeper can certainly write a hook.  So yea, if they can maybe stop playing to imitate some of their obvious heroes, they could do something even bigger and better.  

Show Me The Body - Corpus I

If you're into stuff like Death Grips, to keep it simple you're going to seriously want to check out Show Me The Body.  On their "Yellow Kidney" EP, Show Me The Body seriously made a twisted masterpiece.  There were tight elements of Hardcore riffs that were often disjointed, with elements of spoken word Hip Hop, I had no idea what I was listening too but holy fuck was it wild and unpredictable.  2016's "Body War" seriously put these guys on the map however.  Show Me The Body were making very tense punk out of the book of some of the true classics in the genre, while still bringing in and respecting Hip Hop elements, this album was absolutely CRUSHING.  Some of the more spoken word performances didn't hit me as hard, but I liked these guys style.  Leading up to this there were some singles dropped, but I didn't even bother checking them out, I wanted to go into this free mixtape a little blind and be surprised, and BOY was I.

Nowadays, some of the biggest and best album’s have intertwining narratives that bring everything together.  While “Corpus I” is fantastic, the interludes here try to bring everything together and it really doesn’t do too much.  On “Intro” we get out first glimpse into just how unnecessary some of these are.  While a lot of the later interludes work with the album’s brutality nicely, this intro is just a waste.  Thankfully, Show Me The Body quickly get on track with “Trash”, one of the teaser tracks issued before this album came out, and honestly this really should have been the intro.  It’s noisy, with a semi-industrial beat and some really grimy production and pounding drums.  “Trash” goes from really nonchalant to really tense very quickly.  I love the very skittish semi-rap coming from Julian Cashwan Pratt, that still somehow saves a little room for hardcore yelps and screams.  You know you seriously have to give Show Me The Body she real credit.  Their blend of Hardcore Punk, Hip Hop, Noise, and all the other genres they bring in is totally refreshing and explosive.  It’s frantic, it’s gigantic, it’s brutal, this is to an extent literally EVERYTHING I want to hear from these guys.  From here on out though, as if it wasn’t already the case, all bets are completely off.  The rest of this free mixtape is crammed packed with all sorts of noisy genres and guests.  “You Thought What You Saw Was It” featuring Eartheater is up next, which brings in some weird jazzy undertones in those drums underneath.  But in a weird way there’s always been a sort of Jazz influence deep down in the sound of Show Me The Body.  On “You Thought What You Saw Was It”, the noisy synths are upped about 100 nothches, as well as Julian’s absolutely primal scream.  Then Eartheater comes in with this absolutely bizarre, yelp/shriek verse which strangely enough becomes one of the most memorable moments of this entire mixtape.  Not in a long LONG time have I gotten this sheer sense of Hell from a band, a sense that literally anything can happen at any point.  This track is absolutely brutal, from those droning synth notes to the crushing vocals.  Also, may I add that this interlude speaker returns to us here, but to be honest hear it blends fantastically with the crushing atmosphere of everything else.  Up next is “Hungry” featuring Dreamcrusher, and let me just say Show Me The Body, seriously you guys gotta give me a minute to breathe.  This one goes directly into this icy drone right out of the playbook of the fantastic Prurient.  “Hungy” is a totally different animal than what we’ve heard so far, and at it’s core proves that “Corpus I” overall is just a big ol’ mixed bag of every noisy genre that can AND will beat the living piss out of you.  This track however is much more slow and calculating, with Dreamcrusher providing a much more passionate, yet explosive performance.  Personally though, while I absolutely love the suffocating atmosphere on this one, I prefer the more hardcore and noisy tracks we’ve heard earlier, but thats just me.  However “Hungry” still has plenty going for it, it’s a fantastic drone-piece, and I love the constant screams of “BRING OUT YOUR DEAD!”.   “In A Grave” is up next, my honest to God pick of the album.  Right off the bat, the first vibe I get on this one is a total nod to Death Grips.  While I’m down for massive experimentation any day, I love the more straightforward instrumental here that doesn’t need a few minutes to really get going.  The beat though while it does get right to its point is just as skittish and left field however.  The rap verses here by the fantastic Denzel Curry are refreshing, his outsider sort of verses really go up fantastically with the sound of Show Me The Body.  Denzel’s verse here is as ridiculous as they usually are, and Moor Mother’s haunting hook adds plenty to the overall twisted tone to “In A Grave”.  As far as a track that really sticks with you overall, this is absolutely brilliant.  “Taxi Hell” is up next featuring Justin Flammia.  This one goes right back to that more subdued sound they were working with earlier, but “Taxi Hell” is much more interesting.  There’s just such a huge contrast between these more acoustic, sort of jazzy instrumentals and these harsh, explosive punk vocals.  I feel like the sheer excitement alone is a selling point for this album.  You really don’t know what you’re going to get hit in the face with next, or what genre it’s going to be, or anything about it.  And while the vocals on “Taxi Hell” are still as brutal and hardcore, they’re equally seriously passionate and come over really well.  But just like that, out of nowhere the ending to this track is fueled by metal riffs ready to wake you the hell up.  Show Me The Body for years have impressed me with their style, but HERE I feel like they’re seriously impressing me for the first time.

“Just A Slither” is up next featuring Negashi Armada.  Honestly, this one is a little too subdued for me, which is something that’s going to be a real recurring theme here.  I really do get what they're going for with this one, but I’m not really feeling the vocals here.  The whole sort of over-the-top theatrical vibe is a tough one to pull off, and this one falls a little short.  The verse is fine and all, and lyrically it’s still pretty damn explosive as far as that goes.  But it just kinda doesn’t fit with the rest of the vibe of this mixtape.  I do however like the very jazzy backing instrumentals that remind me of something BadBadNotGood would touch down on.  “Corpus I” continues to be a true mixed bag of hardcore, there’s a whole lot of great, but there’s also some awkward moments.  Show Me The Body bounce right back however with “Halogen” featuring Mal Devisa.  Here, I absolutely love the icy atmosphere they’re working with, and Mal’s verse is absolutely furious, political, and eye opening.  The sort of BadBadNotGood feel continues throughout this one, but it’s still obviously Show Me The Body.  Mal’s verse as it continues is pretty damn jaw dropping, mostly because of how passionate it is.  Match those up with the very glistening sound of the synths and the bizarre chill-wave sound, and you have one brilliant track.  Hell, there’s even that fantastic, hypnotic ending where Mal keeps repeating “A smile is Pocket Change”, intense I tell ya.  Up next is “Stress” featuring Cities Aviv.  Honestly, as far as a real hardcore punk sound goes, the opening riff here may be the most punk thing you’re going to find.  Cities Aviv’s very poetic, conscious sounding rap verse however really makes this one a home run.  Plus, I love how as the track goes on and the instrumentals get more and more intense, so does Aviv’s performance.  This mixtape is absolutely pummeling.  Every time you get into the groove of everything, either Show Me The Body or one of their many guests make you rethink everything.  “Stress” is absolutely ridiculous, with Aviv’s over the top rap verse ending in blood-curdling screams.  Once again we have this interlude which really doesn’t do that much, but it certainly gives this mixtape a very dirty feel.  Then we have the much slower but just as heavy “My Whole Family, featuring Skunk Rott, Chris Wilson, and Pierre Botardo.  While the intro to this one is massive and pulsating, clearly I haven’t understood what I’m listening to, because quickly I’m caught off guard as this one breaks into a very old school sounding hardcore punk track.  It’s angry, it’s intense, it’s rebellious, and most of all absolutely fantastic.  Each feature here brings in their own distinct flavor of punk which are all decent in their own way, while being totally different.  “My Whole Family” is brilliant honestly.  “I’m On It” featuring Casino Theo however falls a little short for me.  The hip hope influence is certainly a whole lot heavier here, it honestly sounds a whole lot like Death Grips, especially their early stuff.  Casino Theo’s verse is fast, hectic, and totally at home amongst Show Me The Body’s atmosphere.  My only real issue here, is that this doesn’t really come off as much of a collaboration.  All of the other tracks here have Show Me The Body playing off their guests and vice verse.  This on the other hand, sounds like a Casino Theo solo track, it’s not terrible though.  But I really feel like every time I start to doubt Show Me The Body’s skills, they come back with a track like “Spit” featuring Princess Nokia.  This track gets right back to a very dark, driving beat with an almost punk bass line.  This one is just so grimy and low key that I fall instantly in love.  Honestly, I have no idea where they found half of these collaborators, I really don’t, but I’m seriously glad they did.  “Spit” has this weird Trip Hop feel with some jazzy undertones that works out wonderfully.  It’s dark, and lyrically it’s absolutely disgusting, but for a smoother song it really fits in with the rest of the mixtape.
  Show Me The Body aren’t done with us yet.  Up next is “Cyba Slam Fit World Dance Party (Uppa echelon dance remix)” featuring Yo Chill and Chip Skylark.  All I have to say is, this is probably going to be the crunchiest, grimiest dance track you’re going to hear all year.  To be honest, the beat and the instrumentals are actually fantastic, they actually fit on this mixtape great.  But the features here are a little underwhelming compared to the others on here.  It’s not terrible, but this just comes off a little thrown together at the last minute.  “Everything Hate Here” featuring Moor Mother however returns to the very explosive, experimental sound of the earlier tracks here.  It’s funny actually, when it comes to tracks like this honestly I can’t even fit these tracks into a genre.  The vocals on this one are so bizarre and twisted that they end up going with the off kilter rhythm and groove, if you even want to call it a groove.  “Everything Hate Here” is fantastic, explosive, a little risqué, fun, and completely indescribable.  And that last 20 seconds of bongos and drone synths are completely off the wall and brilliant.  "Two Hands" featuring Nolife is up next, and at this point I seriously feel like I never know what to expect.  This one is a little more subdued, and like most of the other subdued tracks here it's not nearly as exciting.  The more rap centered verse comes off well, but the beat is seriously lifeless. Beyond that, the atmosphere really isn't nearly as crushing as it usually is.  "Two Hands" has so much potential, that's especially clear when it comes to that very abrasive last 20 seconds or so.  "Why You Lying" featuring Babyglock and Tony Seltzer is up next, and once again brings forward a serious Trip-Hop feel.  It's fantastic however, and I absolutely love the tongue-in-cheek feel to the lyrics on this one.  Not to mention, on the little interlude at the end of "Why You Lying" really blends fantastically, and while there's overall not TOO much to this one, it was certainly great while it lasted.  Finally, this twisted venture into every hardcore genre imaginable brings us to "Proud Boys" featuring Dedekind Cut.  Not so shockingly, Show Me The Body clearly are going out at their most explosive.  I feel like this is literally a buildup of all the songs that have been culminating.  It's straight up punk, it's got a great rebellious feel, it even has a fantastic retro tinge to it.  Overall, it's a great finale.

Rating 8.2/10

Give A Listen To:  “In A Grave”, “Halogen”, "Spit", "Trash"

Overall Thoughts: This is by FAR my favorite thing that Show Me The Body have done so far.  This mixtape is absolutely nuts, bringing in everything from Punk Rock, to Hardcore, to elements of Rap, Experimental/Noise Music, Trip Hop, and just about everything abrasive in between.  Some of the slower, more subdued tracks here remain a little underwhelming, but most of this mixtape is seriously solid.  Even the feature lineup is absolutely stacked.  If you're a fan of everything noisy, this is gonna be something you want to check out.  And hell, it's free!

Pallbearer - "Heartless"

The thing about doom metal is, you have to really do it right.  If you don't it can literally be the most boring of all of metal's numerous sub-genres.  Pallbearer though, have always done it right.  2012's "Sorrow and Extinction" quickly put them on the map as far as Doom Metal goes.  The songs on here were rich and textured, the atmosphere was crushing, the details were pretty stunning, and the performances were fantastic.  Quickly, Pallbearer were making a name for themselves as one of metal's hottest new acts.  I wasn't really crazy about the production on "Sorrow and Extinction" but I felt like if they got that under wraps they could produce something truly legendary.  And hoenstly, they really did.  In 2014, they released their followup album, "Foundations of Burden", an absolutely massive, crushing, brilliant piece of doom metal.  Pallbearer showed they were fearless as a metal band, and brought in 6 monolithic tracks, most well over 10 minutes.  The result was one of the most complete feeling Doom Metal albums I'd heard in years.   I couldn't wait to see what Pallbearer were going to do next.  Sadly, their 2016 "Fear & Fury" EP really didn't do much for me.  This was a covers EP, and to be honest I just didn't feel the same amount of emotion coming from them do other bands music.  However, from the sound of the first few singles here, Pallbearer sound more explosive than ever.  Let's go a little deeper into this new Pallbearer album.

This album starts off with one of the singles released leading up to this that got me really excited to hear this album, “I Saw The End”.  There are some very Classic Rock oriented licks towards the intro, but those are quickly wiped out by the usual doom metal of Pallbearer.  For the most part this comes off as triumphant sounding and vast as their last two full length albums to be honest, outside of the atmosphere.  While the atmosphere is certainly here in spirit through lyrics and the vocal performance, but the overall it seems so much more fragile.  However, that’s really my only complaint, I’ve loved this track since the first time I heard it, and vocalist Brett Campbell’s vocals are LOADS more memorable than on the covers EP Pallbearer released last year.  The music of Pallbearer has always been very cinematic, and that feel is certainly back in droves here, and while I continue to miss the very dreary atmosphere this is certainly still epic.  However the real story on “I Saw The End” is the beginning of the inclusion of more progressive rock elements, which certainly isn’t bad (at least not yet….).  At least on “I Saw The End”, the progressive rock elements add nicely to the sheer epic ness of this track.  Not to mention that slowed down verse towards the end is absolutely gigantic.  Overall, this is a quality Pallbearer track, and most importantly, it has a slight catchiness to it that Pallbearer up to this point haven’t really been able to utilize.  Up next is the only other track dropped from this album early, “Thorns”.  Right away this has a much dirtier sounding production right off the bat, as Pallbearer bring in some serious metal influence, which certainly gives this record a little bite to it.  While it’s grimy sounding, Pallbearer keep that huge, very epic sound that they’ve always had (especially in those opening solos).  The vocals on this track are fantastic, and if you’re a fan of the HUGE passionate vocals of Pallbearer’s “Foundations of Burden” album, you’re gonna live this.  Once again though, the atmosphere here is a little flimsy.  When it comes to the chorus, it’s a little weird.  At first it sounds fine, but by the end of it, it loses all of its steam.  That being said, “Thorns” is still pretty damn good.  Pallbearer obviously still kind’ve wear their influences all over their sleeves, which continues to include progressive rock bands.   For the most part, the progressive rock influence has completely taken over.  Here, it’s more present than ever, especially within some of those later guitar licks that are way too cheesy for my taste.  Thankfully though, this track is powerful enough to fight through that.  But when it comes to future releases for Pallbearer, boy am I ever worried.  “Lie Of Survival” is up next, and I don’t know about y’all, but I can’t remember the last time I hear a Pallbearer song that was so bare.  Pallbearer here continue to go for this cinematic metal sort of sound, but this intro instantly falls quite a bit short of that.  The opening solo here isn’t nearly as emotional and heartfelt as they think it is, and every other instrumental is just as overblown and overproduced, and honestly the lease “metal” thing I’ve heard.  Even when the crunchier guitars come in, this one just really doesn’t come off as anything but really sluggish.  Now, trust me, I know that’s how doom metal is supposed to be, but it just isn’t done very well here.  I do however like the vocals here quite a bit, once again I really gotta hand it to Brett Campbell for really bouncing back after that EP last year.   But as far as the “epic” brand of metal that they’re going for, this quite frankly is falling so short that it’s pretty faceless, and dare I say, boring.  Some of the later solos are alright, but I feel like in a way Pallbearer are trying way too hard.  They’re trying to incorporate so many styles and genres, and honestly it’s way too big for them.  The result is an 8 and a half minute song, with only 4 truly interesting minutes.  “Lie Of Survival” is alright, but seriously falls short of the power of their older material.  Up next is the near 12 minute “Dancing In Madness”, which honestly really isn’t that much better.  It’s another track that’s seriously way too sluggish for it’s own good.  If you’ve listened to Pallbearer in the past you’ll know damn well that even when they’re dealing with much slower tracks, it’s absolutely soul crushing.  But here, while there seriously isn’t anything going on that’s truly terrible, there’s nothing going on that’s really that memorable either.  “Dancing In Madness” contains solo after solo, and none of them add up to anything even remotely heartfelt.  The synths that pop up in the background do nothing but make this track even cheesier.  Thankfully though, things do get a little better around the 3 minute mark, seriously.  But why in the hell did it take 3 whole minutes for something genuinely interesting to happen?  And I know I said it earlier, but doom metal is a genre based around seriously patience testing long winded tracks.  But “Dancing In Madness” is just so incredibly soulless.  There are big instrumentals and even bigger vocals, but at the end of the day Pallbearer might have been a little more spot on wit the title than they thought (cause the material here is often HEARTLESS!! GET IT!?!?!?!!).   All kidding aside though, to say this track is seriously bad though is a lie, because some of the later elements are great.  Take for example the later guitars that get that fantastic chugging sound, and the vocals that follow are seriously crushing.  It’s still far from what I expected to hear from Pallbearer here, but it’s a nice change of pace.  The acoustic breakdown towards the end isn’t doing anyone any favors, but thankfully Pallbearer answer back with triumphant vocals and instrumentals.  All of the elements of Pallbearer’s winning formula of the past are all here, but they’re seriously oversaturated and unfocused.  

“Cruel Road” at the very least, has a whole lot of what’s been missing right from the opening bars.  The huge atmosphere that made their past work such a pleasure to listen to is right back on display here, and the opening guitar solo for the first time basically on this entire album doesn’t come off completely full of itself.  Here, Pallbearer sound like they really took their time in writing this, and the results are fantastic.  The vocals, for my liking, could have been a little more over the top. But overall I just love the sheer heaviness of this, and as ridiculous and almost goofy these group vocals are, they certainly work great for Pallbearer.  It may be the most straightforward here, but at the end of the day it’s Pallbearer being themselves and nothing more, and honestly that’s all we can ask for.  Not to mention, there’s not a Progressive Rock element in sight.  Up next is the title track, but can I just say I’m seriously sick of all of these bizarre interludes and spin off moments here.  Pallbearer have proven that they can make fine music still, but it’s these quick little dashes into other genres that make this album disappointing.  And it’s a shame, because here the vocals are seriously fantastic.  To be honest, a whole lot of “Heartless” its really solid once everything gets going.  My main issue remains the same though, and that is all of these damn Progressive Rock/Progressive Metal breakaways.  It’s not flattering, it’s really just interrupting Pallbearer from what they do est.  Some of these riffs as the track goes on are barely even touching the Doom Metal spectrum.  Pallbearer have all the tools they need to seriously make another fantastic album.  But on this album, they remain full of ideas, but are taking on about 6 different sounds that end up making them sound like something they're not.  But tracks like this are so aggravating, because when we get to later moments like that quiet, atmospheric passage, I feel like it’s exactly what I’ve been wanting to hear this entire album.  Moments like that seriously take me back to a simpler time for Pallbearer.  As a matter of fact, a whole lot of the later moments here come off much more interesting, and even more interesting come off actually progressive.  There continue to be plenty of great moments, but Pallbearer are seriously unfocused.  This album ends off with the gigantic, 13 minute “A Plea For Understanding”.  This track from it’s opening bars has a sort of Shoegaze - Black Metal feel that sounds like something Alcest would have done a few years back.  It certainly sounds nice and all, but it’s just so damn spacious sounding.  Where’s the tension?  Where’s the dread?  Everything I’ve come to know about Pallbearer is certainly still here, but once again it takes it’s sweet time coming out.  Once things get rolling, this isn’t too bad.  But in grand scheme of things, this is a completely different Pallbearer we’re dealing with, one you’re going to love or hate.  It’s a Pallbearer that’s much less tortured and much more cinematic.  Some of the solos here are OK, and I do like how some of the more somber tones have returned.  But then Pallbearer throw that all away with some of the lamest vocals of the entire album.  Add in one progressive metal element after another and I’ve thrown in the towel.  Almost every track here has promise, but this is far from what I signed up for.  While there are great moments, overall, this isn’t epic, this isn’t life changing, this is barely Doom Metal.  This is just metal that’s severely overwritten and very full of itself.  

Rating: 6.9/10

Give A Listen To:  “I Saw The End”, “Thorns”, “Cruel Road”, "Heartless"

Overall Thoughts:  You know, everything that made Pallbearer such an awesome band like 3 or 4 years ago is certainly still there.  That's not the issue.  The issue is that Pallbearer are trying so hard to be THE metal band that's gonna push every boundary and break every genre.  Here, they blend doom metal, progressive metal, and all sorts of other genres and what ends up happening is not so shockingly, VERY messy.  There are solid instrumentals here and a decent vocal or two there, but overall if I had to use one word to describe this album, it would be "Unfocused".  

Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked At Me

Mount Eerie is the often challenging audibly and emotionally project of singer-songwriter Phil Elverum.  Phil, formerly of the equally as challenging and celebrated The Microphones, is an acquired taste to say the least.  Over the years, his mostly nature based lyrics time and time again have almost completely revolved around Death among other depressing themes, but boy are his albums ever rewarding.  His first project under the Mount Eerie name, "No Flashlight" wasn't too show-stopping.  Phil often seemed unclear of which direction he wanted to go in, and there were just one too many short detours on this album for me to really sink my teeth in.  Phil got his act together quickly though, because with Mount Eerie's next project "Lost Wisdom", he won me over for life.  This album was only 24 minutes long, but remains easily one of my top 5 favorite folk albums ever.  I loved how skeletal it sounded, so low-fi, and so dismal and depressing.  It was wonderful, and while it was so short it sounded complete.  But most importantly, Phil Elverum now seemed to have direction.  2008's "Dawn" was much warmer sounding and a little less low-fi, but just as rewarding.  It contained newly recorded versions of some of my favorite tracks from "Lost Wisdom", a sequel to The Microphones "The Moon" which comes off fantastic, and plenty of other quiet folk songs that come out wonderfully.  Now, up until this point, Phil's Mount Eerie project has been pretty straightforward.  That's where 2009's explosive "Wind's Poem" album comes in.  This album is, for lack of a better term, insane.  Insanely good, but still insane.  There's far from any real folk music here, as this album is made up completely of noisy, black metal and drone metal influenced rock with Phil's calming vocals underneath.  The result is one of Mount Eerie's more challenging album's, but my gosh is it ever an experience.  The sheer contrast between the explosive music and Phil's verses is a show within itself.  Throw in a Twin Peaks referencing track and the highly sought after sequel to his legendary "Lost Wisdom", and it's one hell of an album.  We wouldn't hear from Phil again for 3 years.  In 2012, the unnerving "Clear Moon" was released.  After the explosive sound of their last album, hearing Mount Eerie against a much more quiet atmosphere was unsettling, yet seemed right.  "Clear Moon" was filled with much more experimental rhythms and weird detours, but almost all of it was  beautiful and just as painfully human as you would have come to expect from Mount Eerie.  Later that year, Mount Eerie also released "Ocean Roar".  Now, honestly this was the firs time I really wasn't floored by a Mount Eerie album.  There were great moments like "Waves" and I loved the return to the noisy sound, but there were so many small detours that were really unnecessary.  "Sauna" was disappointing in it's own ways as well.  Lyrically, Phil brought his A+ game.  But instrumentally this was some of the most underwhelming thing Mount Eerie had done in a while.  The thing is, Phil's music has always been patience testing, but there was always a pay off. On "Sauna", I felt like there was absolutely no pay off.  In a way, I feel like Phil needed a little bit of inspiration to get him back to the same truly gripping, engaging songwriting that he once achieved.  However, I don't think anyone really expected for Phil to get THIS sort of inspiration.  If you haven't been keeping up with Phil, last summer his wife Genevieve was diagnosed with cancer and passed away shortly after.  Phil instantly began writing new material for the first time in a few years.  The singles released early from this album have been absolutely gripping, let's chat about the rest of this album, keep some tissues handy.

(Some classic Mount Eerie to set the mood)

This album starts off with “Real Death”, which more or less is Phil’s mission statement here.  If you were expecting some sort of loud, triumphant return for the music of Mount Eerie, you should probably turn back now.  I mean, when you start an album with the lyric “Death is real, someone’s there and then they’re not”, you know you’re going to be needing some tissue with for this one.  Phil knows damn well that some idiotic fool might take this album as “rocket back to success” by using Genevieve’s death as leverage, and he addresses that in the opening bars.  “A Crow Looked At Me” isn’t just another Phil Elverum project, this is much more than an album, this is something so much greater.  This is more or less a therapy session.  The amount of detail on “Real Death” and every song that follows is tremendous, as Phil takes us through a series of very real thoughts we’ve all had no matter how hard they are to process.  The lone synth and light drumming as well as Phil’s lonely guitar end up making him feel so damn lonely.  Phil Elverum to me has always been so secretive and secluded, often letting us into his life but doing it in his own unique way.  Here however, he’s taking us into his life and thoughts like never before.  The little details he uses throughout are so well chosen.  Like the way he brings up his wife still getting mail in the days after she died, and of course that heartbreaking moment when Phil opens up the package to realize Genevieve had realized she wouldn’t be around to see their daughter go to school and bought her a backpack to use one day.  This isn’t a folk record, this isn’t a Mount Eerie record, this is Phil Elverum taking us by the hand and guiding us through everything he’s felt.  It’s not an easy journey, but in the 2 and a half minutes of “Real Death” this is already an emotional ride unlike any I’ve had in some time.  Even the way Phil ends this track by saying “I Love You” followed by abrupt silence, if you don’t tear up a little you’re a monster.  “Seaweed” is up next, with this one changing in tone quite a bit (be prepared for a real roller coaster of thoughts and emotions).  Phil’s vocals here seem so unforgiving and bitter, as if he feels like someone came and physically took his wife right away from him.  He sounds so lonely, the way he’s coming to this island all by himself that he and his late wife planned on moving too.  He goes heavily into detail here about forgetting little things about Genevieve, which is just such a heart wrenching thought.  The little details are just so stunning and real, the way he’s looking for signs of Genevieve’s presence everywhere.  He sees a bird on the beach that he knew she loved, and believes it’s her in a way until he realizes it’s there just to eat, and later finds himself in a field of her favorite flowers and wondering if she’s there with him, it’s all just so real.  Little things like that are things we’ve all felt as we’ve desperately looked for some sort of closure.  Of course, this eventually leads to Phil thinking about life itself, in a way that only he can.  This album is a gripping tale, but in a strange way, I feel like Phil is all of us.  We’ve all lost someone so close to us at some point, but Phil is summarizing every feeling that comes with that, even feelings we’ve never been able to describe.  In a weird way, Phil understands death more than a lot of us.  Even the way he goes into details about spreading her ashes and how he “doesn’t think of theme as her”, before abruptly ending once again, is nothing but raw emotion.  “Ravens” is up next, and instrumentally is just as stripped back and lonely sounding.  This is far from an album you’re going to want to take in the instrumentals for, no this is all about Phil Elverum.  “Ravens” goes back a few years and starts to bring in some serious imagery.  It’s chilling honestly as Phil recalls seeing Ravens near his house.  He even claims that he knows they’re omens, but he doesn’t know what of, as they flay towards the island he earlier described on “Seaweed”.  But Phil here takes us one step further as he brings us into Genevieve’s treatment as well as what she was feeling at the time.  He goes on to explain how her body changed, and how guiltily he says he didn’t want to see her in pain and would turn his head (which he follows up with how now he “Couldn’t look at her at all”).  This album is one tear jerking track after another.  He feels so sorry for the things he had to do since her passing, as he begs for forgiveness for having to sell her clothes.  Phil continues to put in so many little details that you would honestly think that you were watching a movie.  As “Ravens” continues, Phil continues to feel so incredibly lost.  Then we get to lines where Phil is going on saying that he’ll wait for Genevieve to come back wherever it is she’s gone to, only to reply with “And then I remember, death is real”, absolutely heart wrenching.  “A Crow Looked At Me” is an incredible, emotional display the likes of which I haven’t heard in a very long time.  Not to mention, the short pauses at the end of each track are always so hard hitting, like Phil knows damn well you’re going to need a few seconds to take this all in.  “Forest Fire” is up next, and as far as the instrumental goes, this may be the most technical one here, which really isn’t saying much at all but still.  As the album goes on, we’re getting a little further from Genevieve’s passing, as Phil begins to go into detail about the Fall after he lost her.  Phil’s vocals on “Forest Fire” are noticeably very different here, it’s a little more understanding of what happened, even a little less lonely (although clearly he’s still very much hurt).  The piano’s are a nice touch and end up giving this a very BIG sound.  Phil continues to be a little stronger emotion here, as he talks about going through her things and going swimming.  This honestly though, doesn’t really hit me nearly as hard as earlier tracks, completely because of the instrumental.  It’s far from a bad tune, and I’m still completely emotionally invested in Phil and his story. But these much bigger instrumentals while they’re more thought at, they’re a little distracting from Phil’s performance.  Still though, this album remains absolutely gripping.   

Phil Elverum’s journey continues with “Swims”, and right off the bat this is more true to the sound that I was loving earlier.  Phil on this one isn’t holding back a single punch clearly, as he goes into great detail here about holding Genevieve as she died.  He seriously isn't holding anything back on this album, which is both incredible on his part but also really makes this album a little heavy to sit through at times.  Not since David Bowie’s “Blackstar” has an album come THIS close to death, however this is a little bit of a different perspective obviously.  Here, Phil brings up these unreal images of him not being able to go into his wives bedroom because he can still see her there, and how the only ting that can help is time.  As he goes on, Phil continues to sound so lonely, as he reveals that only two months after his wife’s passing the counselor he was seeing also passed away, leaving Phil without anyone to talk to.  And just when you thought the Phil was out of meaningful one-liners, he drops his truest yet, as he states “We are all so close to not existing at all”.  It might just be Phil’s most painfully true lyric yet.  Even that last little excerpt of him talking to his daughter about his deceased wife is just heart wrenching.  On “My Chasm” it begins to be evident that as these songs go on, Phil sounds much more at peace, mostly because as the album goes on so does time.  He describes himself as a container of stories about Genevieve who he often brings up without even trying.  Even more painful is his response, as he asks “Do people really want to keep hearing about my dead wife?”.  It’s moments like this that make you realize that Phil Elverum is bringing up every tough question, every question were afraid to ask anyone, especially ourselves.  The amount that he loved Genevieve is astronomical, which becomes more and more evident as the album goes on.    While Phil is obviously hurting inside still, he seems a little more comfortable within his own thoughts and within his own life.  But now it’s everyone else’s lives he’s worried about, as he claims he doesn’t understand the looks in their eyes.  Phil continues to drop meaningful memorable lines constantly, as he states “I now wield the power to transform a grocery store aisle into a canyon of pity and confusion”…how the hell did he even come up with that?  As “My Chasm” goes on, Phil continues to take things we’ve all felt and put them into words that we never could, all leading up to Phil once again stating “Look at me, death is real” sounding on the verge of tears.  Up next is “When I Take Out the Garbage At Night”, which sounds very instrumentally like his “lost wisdom” material.  Now, if you’re familiar with Phil’s music, no matter where or when it is in his discography, you should know he’s always been one for nature.  Here is no different, as he claims he’s one with the universe when he takes his garbage out.  I love the backing sound effects here, and as far as an atmospheric track goes, this is fantastic.  Obviously I’ve felt for Phil this entire album, but here I feel for him especially, as he goes into seriously dreading going back in the house and looking up at the windows for the room that Genevieve died in.  “When I Take Out the Garbage At Night” is really good, but doesn’t hold up as much because it’s seriously short, if only it was a minute or so longer.  But it IS really fascinating that even within his grieving he’s so comfortable in nature.  Up next is “Emptiness pt. 2”, and just from the title of this one you should know what you’re in for.  This one comes off as lonely in every way.  Even within everything that Phill is feeling right now, he’s so affected and so entranced by nature, which really isn’t too shocking.  Hell he’s even had whole albums or projects centered around the theme of being alone with nature, but he’s never felt this alone within it.  He talks about climbing this mountain just to be by himself.  While Genevieve’s absence has been a theme in almost every bar on this album, it’s never felt this deafening.  But even this far into the album, where you would think Phil was running out of incredible one liners, he states "Conceptual emptiness was cool to talk about back before I knew my way around these hospitals”.  Whether he meant it or not, Phil Elverum has truly gone above and beyond on this album, and this will go down in history as one of his most shining moments.  

By the time we get to "Toothbrush/Trash", you can tell Phil is just getting exhausted gathering all of his thoughts.  Phil opens up this one with "Today I just felt it for the first time", it's such a simple statement, but man is it ever powerful.  This one is all about memories of Genevieve, but here he sounds a little more understanding and at peace.  When it comes to "A Crow Looked At Me" as a whole, I think this album at the end of the day is most important for Phil himself.  This is an album about recover, healing, moving forwards, and finding things to live for, while of course remembering and respecting the past.  His memories on "Toothbrush/Trash" are fading slightly, and the photographs he has of Genevieve are fading slightly, and "The echoes" of her are dying down throughout the house.  Phil however still believes his wife is everywhere, from the wind blowing doors closed to flies buzzing around.  As soon as that piano hits though, I feel hope for Phil in some weird way, as he's moving on the best way he can.  He claims the garbage has been sitting in a room since Genevieve passed away, and he's finally gotten around to taking it out.  It's the little details that make this album unbelievably real.  This album is simply put, a masterpiece of emotion.  "Soria Moria" is up next, and is so much more subtle then the last few tracks here.  There's a huge nostalgic feel here, and even a bigger sense of longing.  The one is more of a story from when Phil was young, but to be honest it's just as well though out and just as focused.  It goes on to tell of him in his teenage years, and at first I really didn't know where this one was going.  Until the obvious hit me, that this is the story of how he met Genevieve.  Like I said earlier, it's shown here just how incredibly in love these two were, and from when they first met it seems.  It just makes this album that much more powerful.  Just when you think that Phil has literally touched down on every topic he could bring up, he ends up bringing a tear right to your eye again as he goes deep into her Chemotherapy treatments, and how he drove to see her every day at the hospital to bring her food and whatever else she wanted.  "A Crow looked At Me" is far from an album that is instantly gratifying.  You need to be patient with each track, and "Soria Moria" may be the biggest slow burner here.  An once again, this track ends with Phil once again finding something he loves in nature beckoning to him.  Now, I'm running out of tissues, so let's chat about this album's finale, "Crow".  Here, we have Phil singing to his daughter about his wife, so clearly this one has a few more feels to throw our way.  He talks here about walking through the woods to look at the remains of forest fires he discussed earlier, with this incredible imagery of his daughter asleep in his backpack wearing Genevieve's hat.  It's the two of them, father and daughter, all alone.  No wildlife, no people, no birds, just a single crow, and what an image THAT is.  Plus, that last exchange between Phil and his daughter is so surreal and hopeful and stunning, that you'll have to listen for yourself, it'll be more powerful that way.  

Rating: 9.1/10

Give A Listen To:  “Real Death”, “Seaweed”, "Swims", "Toothbrush / Trash"

Overall Thoughts:  Going into this, if you know even a sliver of the backstory of Phil Elverum's wife Genevieve's final months, you know this album is going to be heavy.  Not heavy musically, clearly, as Phil's trademark whisper quiet vocals are present mostly accompanied by only an acoustic guitar.  As far as emotions and atmospheres go however, this may be the heaviest thing you listen to all year.  Phil goes deep into detail of each stage of coping with the loss of a love one, bringing  in details you would never expect to hear from Phil or any artist.  Phil however, brings all of these themes together masterfully though, and puts feelings and thoughts into words that we as humans often try to but can't.  Whether he knows it or not, Phil Elverum has made his most flawless work under the Mount Eerie name.  

ANOHNI - Paradise EP

ANOHNI, aka Antony Hegarty, lead singer of Antony and the Johnsons, last year started making some big waves with the release of her solo album "HOPELESSNESS".  This was an electronic album that you had to sit with, study, and seriously analyze to get the full effect of.  While I wasn't head over heels for this album, I feel like it was certainly a culturally relevant album that seriously hit you pretty hard. It was artsy, it was political, it was actually pretty striking.  ANOHNI is back with an EP meant to accompany "HOPELESSNESS", called "Paradise".  The first single off of this EP, "Paradise" honestly is GIGANTIC, let's chat about the rest of the EP.

This EP starts off with “In My Dreams”, which certainly still has the same, very cinematic, very epic atmosphere.  The rumblings in the background give off the feel of explosions and bombs being dropped, but if you’re familiar with ANOHNI they that probably won’t shock you too much at all.  The atmosphere here though is so strong, listening to this I feel like I’m looking out at some completely barren wasteland.  What’s pretty cool about “In My Dreams” is, when it comes to EP’s a lot of times an artist sounds a little rushed.  That's not the case here, just the opposite, ANOHNI is taking her time and making an atmosphere, and it’s wonderful.  The way the synths here work their way in behind ANOHNI’s haunting voice makes this just so powerful and fascinating.  This may not be the instantaneous gut punch that “HOPELESSNESS” was, but it’s just as affective, trust me.  On the other hand, “Paradise” is so explosive right off the bat that it sounds ready for an album all on it’s own.  The production here by Hudson Mohawke and the incredible Oneohtrix Point Never is fantastic, and the contrast between the skittish beginning to the massive sound when the synths come in is ridiculous.  As far as ANOHNI’s performance here goes, it’s just as emotionally charged as you would expect from her.  Now, if you’re not used to her vocals by this point, or maybe you’ve never heard them, they take a little getting used to.  But once you can appreciate her performances, everything just comes off so incredibly human.  This is just as fantastic, chaotic, and bombastic of an electronic track that showed up on “HOPELESSNESS”.  Lyrically this continues to be as politically and emotionally charged, as ANOHNI states "Staring at myself, I feel giant and trapped.  Seemingly without escape”.  With incredible tracks like “Paradise” ANOHNI continues to push the limits of Electronic music masterfully, it’s brilliant.  Up next is “Jesus Will Kill You”, which starts with a lot of the same vibes carrying over, especially world music which seems to be a big factor here.  This track is pretty intense, with some gigantic drums and all.  But ANOHNI’s performance here doesn’t strike me as much as it did on the last one.  It’s a solid track, don’t get me wrong, but “Paradise” was just such a HUGE sound.  “Jesus Will Kill You” is much more subdued, lyrically however it’s certainly just as impassioned and gigantic.  ANOHNI’s mission statement remains the same though, bringing real world problems in unsuspecting tunes. This EP though is what it’s meant to be so far, and that’s a companion piece to the “HOPELESSNESS” album.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncCmDhMYBWg

“You Are My Enemy”  continues with the very ghastly and grim feel that haunts this entire EP.  But it continues to work so well with ANOHNI.  So much of the material here really needs to be taken into consideration as you’re listening to “HOPELESSNESS”.  Lyrically, ANOHNI hasn’t stopped even for a second.  Between the chilling organs, the backing vocals, and the huge blasts of synths this is all absolutely huge.  And that’s all before those intense drums come booming in.  This honestly though just get’s me really excited for the future of this project.  We really need more chilling and visceral electronic music like this, especially when those drums come in that sound like machine gun blasts (which I’m sure might have been intentional).  Not to mention, that last 20 seconds is some of the most chilling material I’ve heard all year.  “Ricochet” is up next, and while the last few tracks have been on the more subtle side this is explosive right off the bat with these gigantic drums and more up front vocals  ANOHNI herself continues to blast through everything in her path with gripping performances.  There really isn't THAT much to be said about a lot of these tracks, they’re great, but they become much more powerful alongside “HOPELESSNESS”.  This EP ends off with “She Doesn’t Mourn Her Loss”, and clearly ANOHNI isn’t going too hard on this intro, this is easily the most subtle thing we’ve heard since the intro.  But her performance though is pretty incredible.  What I love about this track, is that i’s all about her.  Her vocals are so bare here and emotionally she seems so drawn into this.  I honestly wish there was maybe a little more going on here, which I do eventually get my wish when those keys and acoustic guitars come in.  “She Doesn’t Mourn Her Loss” isn’t as explosive as other tracks here, but it sticks with you.  This EP is powerful, but alongside the tracks from “HOPELESSNESS”, they become massive.  

Rating: 7.5/10

Give A Listen To: "In My Dreams", "Paradise", "You Are My Enemy", "Ricochet

Overall Thoughts:  This is a sold EP that follows up a lot of the themes from ANOHNI's last album.  If you were a fan of "HOPELESSNESS" this is a must listen.  The lyrical themes and emotionally charged lyrics are all there, and the blasting beats are just as explosive.  On it's own, it's alright, but use this as a companion piece to "HOPELESSNESS", you won't regret it.  

Depeche Mode - Spirit

Since the early 80's, Depeche Mode have blended synth pop, new wave, darkwave and so many other genres so seemlessly that they've become synonymous with them.  In 1981, the world was first introduced to Depeche Mode though their "Speak & Spell" album.  For the most part, this was a pretty straightforward synth pop album.  The band had yet to really get their dark sound, and Dave Gahan had yet to really get his signature sultry/dark voice.  So as you could imagine this album was very different from what you would expect.  The band that would years later become synonymous with every S&M fantasy ever here was pretty PG-13, the darkest thing here is the album cover. But it DID launch Depeche Mode into the spotlight with the gigantic pop success of "Just Can't Get Enough". This direction however proved quickly to not be a good one at all for Depeche Mode.  With 1982's "A Broken Frame", Depeche Mode seemed incredibly out of the loop. The songs here weren't nearly as punchy or enjoyable, not even catchy.  I can barely pick out a single moment on here that I enjoyed all the way through. However, if there was one slight saving grace, there were some small darker elements starting to peak through. 1983's "Construction Time Again" was, ugh, I guess a sort of improvement for Depeche Mode.  The darker elements were coming out slowly, but I just had this feeling that Depeche Mode seriously didn't have a purpose in their music. Depeche Mode finally got back on the right track with "Some Great Reward".  The band here really started embrace the dark sound that had been slowly showing up in their music.  Tracks like "People Are People" remained catchy and pop-oriented, but other tracks like "Master And Servant" showed them seriously gaining headway in this much more dark sound.  It was a far from perfect album, but Depeche Mode were getting there.  Depeche Mode's first truly great album came in the form of "Black Celebration".  While the production wasn't quite up to snuff yet, the atmosphere, lyrics, and song topics were so much more in the line of what constitutes as a Depeche Mode album.  Tracks like "A Question Of Lust" started bringing Depeche Mode down that kinky route that they would capitalize so much on later albums, while tracks like "Black Celebration" showed they still ruled the synth-pop sound while bringing in much darker elements.  In 1987 though, Depeche Mode really started to hit home with the absolutely fantastic "Music For The Masses".  This album is DARK.  The entire mood of the album is just so damn dreary, with some industrial influence thrown in here and there for good measure.  Depeche Mode by this point were ready to leave their mark on the world with one gigantic album.  THAT album, was 1990's "Violator".  At the time, this was the darkest album Depeche Mode made by far.  Heralded as one of the 90's best albums, Depeche Mode quickly became household names with gigantic and memorable singles like "Personal Jesus" and "Enjoy The Silence".  It'd be a few years until we'd hear from Depeche Mode again.  In 1993, they released "Songs of Faith and Devotion", which honestly took me a while to get into.  I like the album and all, but it doesn't have the lasting impression that "Violator" and "Music for the Masses" had. That being said, it might just be the darkest album Depeche Mode have wrote.  Don't get me wrong, earlier releases from the band were certainly dark, but "Songs of Faith and Devotion" seemed just so sinister to me.  After that though, Depeche Mode started to make their downfall.  1997's "Ultra" was heavy in industrial sound which I liked, but the majority of the album was dominated by songs that were way too long and painfully boring ("Home" though is fantastic).  2001's "Exciter" started out as an interesting and much more instrumentally diverse for Depeche Mode, but quickly became ridiculously boring. 2005's "Playing the Angel" was a surprise for me however.  This album showed Depeche Mode going way back to their original darkened synth pop sound.  The results were mixed, with half of the tracks coming off sounding like an actual throwback to the best days of this band, with other songs coming off as dated.  While it wasn't perfect, it was certainly a commendable effort.  They tried to go along with the same revival sort of sound with 2009's "Sounds Of The Universe", but man was it ever a failed attempt.  While it kind of worked for them on "Playing The Angel", "Sounds of The Universe" was an hour of over long songs that were trying way too hard.  A lot of the same problems happened with "Delta Machine" in 2013, to a lesser extent.  This album was pretty heavy and pretty dark too, and contained some solid tracks. But it still seemed like a big dissapointed and more or less Depeche Mode really trying to reclaim their glory.  That was the last time we've heard from Depeche Mode.  4 years and one very mediocre single later, lets chat about this new Depeche Mode album.

(A classic for your listening pleasure)

This album starts off with “Going Backwards”, and not for nothing, it’s a really solid start.  I love the ominous, plunking pianos here as well as Dave Gahan’s performance.  In the last few years he’s been sounding like he wasn’t aging well, but here he sounds like the group released “Violator” only a year or so ago.  As far as lyrics go, Depeche Mode are getting a little preachy and political, which if you heard the lead single from this album ahead of time you won’t be too shocked.  But let’s just talk about this groove for a second.  As far as the groove and the instrumental goes, this may quite possibly be some of the best Depeche Mode work I’ve heard since “Songs Of Faith and Devotion”.  It’s not as truly sinister and dark as those days, but for a band this far into their career, I can certainly deal with this sound.  “Going Backwards” is a solid start for Depeche Mode.  It doesn’t come off as them trying to be anything but themselves, and that honestly makes me happy.  While yes they’ve traded in their dark and sort of sexual lyrics for more political ones, if you can stomach it than you’ll love this.  “Where’s The Revolution” is up next, and honestly ever since I heard this at it’s release, i really haven’t been a fan of this.  It’s not even the blatantly political lyrics here that rub me the wrong way, it all comes down honestly to just how desperate this one sounds.  While I appreciate how explosive this chorus is and just how loud things get, everything else about this one just points directly to the problems of the last few Depeche Mode albums.  Instrumentally this just comes off as Depeche Mode trying to stay hip and young.  With this album’s opening track, they just cooled it with trying to stay hip and ended up sounding younger than they have in years.   Plus, “Where’s The Revolution” is almost 5 minutes, add in the fact that the rhythm isn't nearly as hypnotic, and the fact that Dave Gahan doesn’t even sound totally on board, and you’re damn right I’m not crazy about this.  Thankfully Depeche Mode don’t last in this overblown state, and give us the much more subtle “The Worst Crime”.  Right off the bat clearly this one is a whole less explosive.  But here, Depeche Mode don’t give you every detail into their lyrics and let you form your own opinions to their music, and it comes off much more effectively.  “The Worst Crime” at it’s core is all about Dave Gahan’s performance though, as it’s really just him up against this super dark, subtle atmosphere.  It’s done so well though, every time one of those keyboards pop in I leap a little in excitement.  Not the material on this track and for most of the album isn’t absolutely AMAZING, but for Depeche Mode’s recent standards, it’s good.  I love hearing these guys on a more patience testing song. To be honest as far as Dave’s performance goes, I’m not sure what happened but he sounds youthful and full of energy.  If you’re looking for a serious slow burner that comes off well, it’s right here folks.  Up next, “Scum” has a pretty strong groove to it, not to bring up the classic comparison but man does this ever sound like something Nine Inch Nails would have done recently.  This is actually, pretty damn heavy, filled with sudden blasts of distortion and industrial rhythms that I didn’t expect to hear.  “Scum” really doesn’t get mess either, it stays on track nicely.  And while it does occasionally get a little repetitive, this is a much angrier sound for the band and I think it works great.  Dave here sound actually passionate about what he’s singing, which to be honest I can’t really remember the last time I thought that.  

As these tracks roll on, they get more and more murky sounding, thats the story with “You Move”.  Dave’s voice here honestly continues to hold up surprisingly well.  This one heads back down the ol’ S&M hols pretty hard, but it’s actually not cheesy at all and works really well for them.  This one is just so delicate and fragile throughout, and Dave continues to sound much more masculine and commanding, it’s fascinating.  The synths are gigantic here, and overall as far a a “classic” Depeche Mode track this is probably the closest you’re going to hear.  I wouldn’t say it’s anything game changing for them, but at this point in their career it’s solid.  Up next is “Cover Me”, which sees Depeche Mode going back to a much more subtle sound, with much more of a thick atmosphere.  But to be honest, while this would usually be right up my alley this one just rubs me all sort of wrong ways.  To be honest, I feel like this would have been placed on any of the last few really forgettable Depeche Mode albums.  Dave sounds like he’s not nearly as into this or even slightly passionate about this.  The imagery here is just so by-the-numbers that is comes off sounding like a bands trying desperately to be Depeche Mode.  I do like the chilly atmosphere and all, but that’s really about it. Not to mention, this one goes on for almost 5 minutes, and not even the progressive sounding synths towards the end save anything.  And it’s a shame, because the last minute here has plenty of epic sounding qualities.   Up next though is the criminally short “Eternal”.  This one sounds so much like classic Depeche Mode, it’s almost weird.  The subtleness, the very dark undertones, the twinkling synths, all of this is just so damn impenetrable.  And when those drums come in, things get heavy really quick.  My only real issue on “Eternal” is just how short it is.   I would have loved to god into this more, but it’s only around for two and a half minutes.  It’s fantastic though, and it gives you that serious combination of dark and beautiful that Depeche Mode used to give us.  Sadly Depeche Mode, as alright as they sound here, begin to fall apart.  While overall this album has great tracks, Depeche Mode seem so fragile and often fall apart.  Take for example “Poison Heart” with these plucked guitars right of the bat that get really goofy really fast.  I do like the pacing on this one, but as far as lyrics and Dave’s performance here goes, it’s far from good.  I feel like this one deep down has so much going for it, but it’s just so gimmicky and half assed.  At the end of the day, “Poison Heart” is the epitome of Depeche Mode desperately trying to be relevant and “hip”.  I do however really love the atmosphere and pacing on this track, as well as the synths towards the end. 

Depeche Mode still have a few tricks up there sleeve, one of them being “So Much Love’”.  Instantly my first thought is, did I somehow skip to a track on their classic album “Black Celebration”?  Somehow on this one, Depehce Mode were able to truly capture their 80’s sound and NOT have it come off corny.  What kind of sorcery even is this?  It’s weird, the paranoia is here, and the synths end up sounding completely like they’re from a different time period.  “So Much Love” is absolutely so fantastic that I want to go back and listen to the entire Depeche Mode back catalogue.  But for now, as by-the-books as these recordings are, this is probably the best thing they’ve done in so long.  But just like that, “Poorman” which is absolutely awful.  This one sounds just as “retro” sounding as the last track, with synths that once again sound like they got ripped right from older Depeche Mode albums.  However, this time they just come off as date and seriously corny.  Dave seriously couldn’t sound less interested in his performance, and once again these political themes just make this one so wishy-washy.  Thankfully though, the backing vocals make this a little more enjoyable.  On the other hand, “No More (This Is The Last Time)” really doesn’t work too bad at all for Depeche Mode, it actually comes off sounding like something Nine Inch Nails’ “Year Zero.  The synths here are HEAVY, and the atmosphere on this one is absolutely crushing.  As simple as this is for them, it actually works really well.  See, when they just let loose and not think too much about being hip, they can still really pump out the same sort of material that they were doing in the late 80’s.  Which brings us to our finale here, “Fail”.  This one certainly has a very grim atmosphere, seriously this is a dark one.  And the synths are once again really a solid throwback.  Now, this is probably far from Dave’s best performance here, however the atmosphere does give a little something to fall back on.  I love the drums in the background and the dreary tone to everything.  However, I just can’t get over Dave’s lackluster performance.  I’m not going to sit here and lie to you and say that Depeche Mode are BACK for good.  But they’ve totally made some big strides here.

Rating: 7.3/10

Give A Listen To: “Going Backwards”, “Scum”, “You Move”, “So Much Love”

Overall Thoughts:  Since the mid 90's Depeche Mode has grasped on to their former fame for dear life.  They've gone from everything to a throwback sound, to a heavier sound, to a ton of other sounds, that seriously have been far from flattering.  This album is far from perfect, and more often than not it shows the precise reasons why Depeche Mode haven't really had a big record in a while.  However, there are some really decent songs on here as well.  So many that I honestly can't remember the last time I enjoyed this much of a Depeche Mode album.  So no, it's not perfect, it's a little preachy, and their age is obviously getting up there as well.  But that being said, if they produce more material like this, I'll continue to listen.  

Drake - More Life

Drake since 2010 has been one of popular music's most polarizing figures.  People have applauded him for helping us end "The era of bling" that was 2000's era Rap through very self conscious and honest lyrics, while criticizing him for being often sappy producing quite a few hilarious Drake memes.  And while it's certainly made me lose some credibility here and there, more often than not I've defended Drake. His 2010 major label debut "Thank Me Later" combined Pop Rap and Commercial R&B (which basically has been his structure ever since). While I'll admit it's not perfect, and yes there certainly are some cringe-worthy bars all over the album, I thought it was a solid introduction to Drake.  He presented himself as a new breed of hip hop artist that was in touch with his emotions like we saw on fantastic tunes like "Find Your Love", while presenting himself as a talented young upstart in the rap game with intense bars on tracks like "Unforgettable".  Drake left plenty of room to grow however, which he did on "Take Care".  On "Take Care" Drake took the sound he already had and made it huge.  But that certainly didn't mean it was all good. Tracks like "Under Ground Kings" were fierce and aggressive, yet when I hear Drake's voice on "The Motto" I cringe every time.  Tracks like "Over My Dead Body" and the title track "Take Care" are some of the

finest examples of commercial R&B you're going to find, while "Marvin's Room" sounds like the most immature pages of a 15 year old's diary.  The majority of "Take Care" I love, but there was no reason this album has to be an hour and 20 minutes.  When it came to "Nothing Was The Same", I started running out of good excuses for Drake.  While I honestly really loved "Worst Behavior" no matter how cheesy it was, and "Hold On, We're Going Home" is beautiful and I stand by that.  But

the rest of the album is Drake either A: boring us to tears (I.E."Tuscan Leather", "Connect") or B: corny to the point where things become truly laughable (I.E. "Own It" or the absolutely horrendous

"Started From The Bottom").  Drake's problems remained the same,  his R&B songs often came off too sappy and his rap oriented tracks often followed suit.  Then with 2015's "If You're Reading This It's Too Late" album/mixtape/whoreallycares, Drake surprised a lot of people. In a lot of ways this was like the most un-Drake album yet. The production was minimal, there were little to know sappy lyrics, and Drake sounded fierce and confident.  And it was fantastic. This was such an exciting
time for Drake, was this going to be his new direction?  The answer to that question, is a HUGE "No".  Drake resorted to his old methods for the release of his "Views" album, and album that quite frankly, sucks. The material on here was mostly forgettable, with most of the tracks being just so boring and showing Drake resort to his usual sappy self. The production was big and glossy, and the bars were often terrible, resulting in some wonderful memes about Drake and his love of Cheesecake Factory.  The features were mostly terrible, outside of his duet with Rihanna who he's always seemingly had wonderful chemistry with.   Thankfully, at least "Views" gave us "Hotline Bling" and "One Dance", which are not for nothing, fantastic pop singles.  That brings us to this new project, "More Life", which lets be honest, nobody has anybody idea what it even is.  Let's discuss!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zzP29emgpg
(Probably the most enjoyable thing you're going to hear for the next 15 minutes or so)

This “Playlist” starts off with “Free Smoke”, and to be honest I really don’t have the slightest clue on how to even take this intro.  There are some nice soul samples which quickly transfers over to Drake putting on his usual tough guy act, with a beat that sounds like a less minimal “If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late” beat.  Now, is it just me, or is Drake seriously starting to run out of ideas.  The thing is, I feel like at the end of the day he’s still really stuck in his “Started From The Bottom” phase.  There are bars here about coming up in the rap world and getting famous and going on about things he has, which is all fine and dandy.  But we know all of this, he’s been talking about it for years, it’s gotten so boring.  Who the hell even cares about silk pajamas and your relationship with Jennifer Lopez that lasted like 2 weeks, and don't even get me starts on his bars about Applebees and The Outback (I thought we were done with talking about restaurants Drake).  So no, this is far from good.  If you want to here more bars about Drake’s life and why he believes you should listen to him, than give this a listen, but it’s not for me.  And because THAT’S not bad enough, I present you with Drake doing a fake British accent, aka the cringiest thing ever.  Up next is “No Long Talk” featuring Grime star Giggs.  The beat here may be a whole lot more tolerable, but you’re going to start realizing something about “More Life” rather quickly.  Almost every track here has some really good elements, for example here the beat is solid and lyrically this is a huge improvement.  However, there are also unbearable awkward moments as well that make me seriously question Drake and him coming out with this Playlist so soon after views.  Once again on “No Long Talk”, we see Drake breaking out a fake accent.  Here it’s not nearly as bead, but it still makes it really hard for me to take him seriously.  Grime is making a real comeback right now, and that’s fantastic, but I feel like Drake is seriously exploiting that.  Giggs’s performance on the other hand is really refreshing and easily the most interesting thing about this track.  Moving on!  “Passionfruit” is up next, and as poppy as it is, it might be the best track here.  Instantly, it’s clear that Drake knows that this is a Pop Rap song and takes advantage of that.  But honestly, he’s gotten the formula for Pop Rap down to a science so much, that I’m actually excited to hear more tracks like this.  The little skit at the beginning really isn’t that necessary, I’m sorry Drake but you’re not Kanye and you never will be.  It’s got that sort of dancehall beat that trust me you’re going to hate by the end of “More Life”, but here it’s much more subtle.  While this has a lot of qualities that I usually hate in rap, this comes off fantastic.  His singing has always been his strength, and when he gets that perfect balance down between that and rapping, THAT’S when Drake is at his best.  “Passionfruit” ends up being smooth as hell, and I love the sort of club atmosphere here.  And while yes, there are tons of comparisons you can bring up with this and “One Dance”, but I don’t really care, I can vibe with this.  Up next is the “Jorja Interlude”, and by this point I’ll be honest overall the feel of this album is hard to grasp.  The beat here is certainly fantastic, Drake himself even sounds great here, as far as his rapping goes it may be his best moment here.  There are no gimmicks, no Cringe-Bars, it’s just a solid interlude.  But, here’s my issue that I just can’t grasp.  Drake had a great thing going with this track, even if it is an interlude, stretch it out a bit if it comes out this good.  “Get It Together” is up next, and as this Playlist ( I keep going to call it an album, OOPS) moves forward, it becomes obvious very quickly that Drake is going to milk the “One Dance” sound and this fake-Dancehall vibe for all it’s worth.  It is with a tear in my eye though that I have to admit, I’m a slave to it, because my hips are certainly swinging away.  I love the cloudy atmosphere on this one, and the electronic undertones give this a little more of an updated sound.  The only thing I’m really not that into here is the chorus.  I feel like Drake literally wrote the rest of the song and threw the chorus together after really fast.  The features here from Black Coffee and Jorja Smith are both solid in their own right, but that leads me to another huge problem you''re going to start seeing more and more of here.  More often that not on “More Life”, Drake is totally overshadowed by his guests, especially with later tracks.  “Get It Together” remains OK, but its only passable for Drake standards.  It absolutely could have been worse however.   Up until now, things haven’t really been that bad.  Well guys, we’re getting into some seriously dark territory.  “Madiba Riddim” right off the bat is more of the freakin’ same, literally sounding like a carbon copy of “One Dance”, but with MUCH more awkward Drake bars galore.  Lyrically, I honestly feel like Drake took out a dartboard with some of his worst “Thank Me Later” Era lyrics on it and used THAT to craft this song.  We’ve heard almost every lyric here at least once in Drake’s career, we know you think you have fake friends, we know you’ve been hurt, you’ve literally been telling us this for 7 or 8 years.  Drake started to mature and grow up around the time of his “If You’re Reading This…” album, but somehow ever since he’s taken some huge leaps back.  To put it bluntly, Drake needs some serious new material.  Even instrumentally, this takes all of the most pop infused moments of his “Views” album and rehashes it as much as possible.  But hell, because there’s a groove present, this may be a number one single in like, a week.  “Blem” up next not-so-shockingly continues with the same vibe.  The dancehall vibe that’s sweeping the pop charts is back again, with the same recycled lyrics right by it’s side.  So I don’t know who thought up the concept of this being marketed as a Playlist, but whoever you are, good on you.  You got people talking about this Album (BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT IT IS) when honestly they really didn’t need to.  The main issue with this album is that seriously, this all seems so rushed just to capitalize on the sound of tracks like "One Dance”.  It’s getting to the point where this is getting so boring and run of the mill for Drake that I’m literally falling asleep.  The rhythm on this one sounds like they took the last three tracks and mushed them together.  So no, it’s far from good.  On “Blem”, Drake is once again doing much more singing than rapping, which is usually a plus for him.  But here, it’s just bringing him down.
Now up until this point there’s been a few short “More Life” interludes at the end of the tracks.  Overall I don’t have a problem with that, but I feel like if he’s shooting for this EPIC message like Kendrick Lamar on “To Pimp A Butterfly”, it’s falling laughably short.  Thankfully though, “4422” wakes me up slightly, mostly due to the appearance of Sampha.  Sampha in general is such a fantastic talent, and it killed me to not have time to review his debut album from earlier this year.  Here though on “4422”, Sampha sounds absolutely heavenly, which honestly has nothing to do with Drake.  Which leads me to an interesting point, where is Drake on this one?  There are other tracks on this “Playlist” as well where Drake is mysteriously nowhere to be found.  Now if this was a REAL Playlist Project, one that gave Sampha and others time to shine without that “Featuring” word that means absolutely nothing, it would be much more enjoyable.  So tell me, why is this a playlist? What’s the point of this Drake?  What’s this absolutely HUGE big picture that Drake wants us to see.  Clearly, I’m not going to get answers for any of those questions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhEyZ0K2y5I

This thing keeps rolling along with the much icier “Gyalchester”.  I do seriously enjoy the much more minimal beats as the album goes on, but lyrically this is getting more and more unbearable by the minute.  Like, REALLY bad.  To be honest, it’s not even that cringeworthy, the big issue here is just laziness.  There isn't a single lyric here that’s even slightly captivating.  Overall, “Gyalchester” just sounds like Drake is trying to recreate his “If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late” mixtape.  Well Drake, I’m sorry but that’s not happening.  Once again, there are elements here and there that I do like.  Up next is “Skepta Interlude”, and I do have to give Drake credit for seriously mixing it up with the beats, those dancehall rhythms were seriously starting to get to me.  Skapta’s performance here is totally fine and all, the entire Grime scene continues to be a HUGE influence on this playlist.  To be honest, I don’t mind this at all, but I feel like this is only here to get more of an actual Playlist feel to this album WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT IT IS DRAKE STOP PLAYING.  Outside of that, yea it’s an alright interlude.  Up next however is a real gem, in the form of “Portland” featuring the always enjoyable Quavo & Travis Scott.  The beat here didn’t really hit me at first, I actually found it pretty obnoxious.  It actually sort of reminded me of Travis’s last album, but to be honest when that bass comes in everything shapes up nicely.  In every way, this really shows us the confidence that Drake showed us on “It You’re Reading This It’s Too Late”, while honestly not coming off too cheesy.  It’s honestly one of the most impressive tracks on here.  Quavo and Travis sound right at home on this beat, and they almost always have phenomenal chemistry with one another.  Lyrically, hell yea this is over the top and a little weird too, but man does it every work.  If this album is going to go in more of a Rap direction, this is certainly the way to go.  Up next is another song with some big features, “Sacrifices” featuring 2 Chainz & Young Thug, two artists I’ve always been highly critical of.  This one honestly comes off really well though.  Drake may not exactly come off very confident here, as a matter of fact he’s his old sappy self.  But somehow it works.  The beat is so nocturnal sounding and the atmosphere is much darker.  I honestly wish Drake didn’t have to bring this one down by bringing up these completely ridiculous fake problems he creates for himself, because everything else here is fantastic.  Believe it or not, 2 Chainz here sounds actually great, while still painting completely ridiculous over the top portraits of himself and his life, it honestly works great on this beat.  Even Young Thug who I’ve never been a fan of sounds seriously solid here.  The contrast between his unusually subdued bars to his later more animated bars is fascinating.  While this “Playlist” overall has been messy as hell, Drake’s features overall have been really stealing the show. Up next, “Nothings Into Somethings” starts off sounding seriously full of itself.  However once that intro blows over, once again I find myself actually digging the murky atmosphere and the beat quite a bit.  But then Drake comes in with these awkward sappy bars that he should have left behind years ago.  This beat demands a much more aggressive and mostly confident Drake, and this is the furthest from THAT.  Now it’s time for my controversial opinion of the day: Man do I ever love “Teenage Fever”.  Drake on this one to me, sounds fantastic.  Earlier I said he’s perfected Pop Rap, and this is exactly what this is.  He sounds a lot more youthful here, to be honest this reminds me of the sound that originally drove me to Drake’s earlier albums.  Once again I totally love the murky atmosphere, and Drake’s singing hasn’t sounded THIS good for the entire album.  Of course, it’s a lot of the same sappy Drake bars, but at least on this one it seems like it fits in.  But then once again this track ends off with these weird detours and bizarre endings that are seemingly so out of place, unless I’m seriously missing the big picture here.  “KMT” is up next, and once again this super thick atmosphere is fantastic, and Drake’s performance is ok.  But lyrically once again does this ever flop huge.  I feel like a lot of this playlist is rushed, which at the end of the day is probably it’s biggest flaw.  Giggs here once again is solid between his verse and his ad-libs during Drakes’s verse.  If Drake really just delivered a better lyrical performance this would have been a standout. “Lose You” on the other hand right off the bat sounds bad.  Not just kinda bad, but seriously awful.  In every way, this one is just so light on the ears, in the worst way.  Drake on this one is once again going for that very minimal, icy atmosphere, which certainly works.  But once again, it’s really Drake’s lyrics that seriously make this one fall apart.  Drake on “Lose You” seems to keep going for cheap pops, giving shout outs to The Weeknd, referencing R Kelly and Trick Daddy, there’s little to no point.  This one feels like at one point there was seriously some potential here at some point.  The end result though, is a lost cause.  16 tracks into this Playlist and Drake seriously sounds like he hasn’t even begun to build up any steam.  This seriously comes off like a demo for his “Nothing Was The Same” album.  Not to mention, it’s over 5 minutes long.  No thank you Drake, no thank you.

Now to be honest, the last collection of tracks on this album are far from flattering.  Thankfully though, Drake before going downhill provides us with “Can’t Have Everything”.  Here, right off the bat, while some of the bars are a little immature, Drake presence himself well which at the end of the day, is all we can really ask for.  The beat is dark and depressing even, yet also determined sounding.  This shows us once again that the very same Drake that appeared for the “If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late” album is still very much so here.  I have absolutely no complaints about this one at all.  That last little message from one of Drake’s loved ones is solid too, I just wish more tracks were this aggressive to go along with the message.  Which leads me sadly, to the by far worst track on here, “Glow” featuring none other than Kanye West.  Kanye’s a guy who like Drake, I’ve supported wholeheartedly up until right this moment.  While the atmosphere here is solid, I have no idea what Kanye was thinking with this performance.  Seriously, I get how Kanye’s mind works, as terrifying as that may be.  Here, Kanye wanted to go and give us something a little left field and totally different.  But lets all be honest with ourselves, this does not come off good at all.  The sung hook by Drake here is a complete flop, and altogether this track does absolutely nothing for me.  Even when Drake comes in for his verse, it remains unflattering to either one of these heavyweights of rap.  I don’t really know what happened here with this Playlist.  Earlier while I wasn’t absolutely crazy for this thing, I at least saw the appeal.  Now, 19 tracks later it’s just getting on my nerves.  Up next is (breathe deep, if you just pretend it’s not there maybe it’ll go away)…..”Since Way Back” featuring the always disappointing PARTNEXTDOOR.  The lounge-like intro to this one is doing absolutely nothing for me.   Honestly, I’ve never once been a fan of PARTYNEXTDOOR, and boy oh boy this is no different whatsoever.  If you’re into this super saturated, super cheesy alternative R&B that these two spit out, yea you may dig this.  But for me, this is putting me to sleep more and more by the moment.  Drake’s verse here is draining, and as the track rolls on PARTYNEXTDOOR seems to just keep getting worse.  This would have been an ALRIGHT 2 minute detour.  But no, “Since Way Back” goes on for over 6 minutes, NO NO NO.  Up next is “Fake Love”, and no, all of these months later I still certainly do not like this one at all.  It’s been said before and I’m certainly going to say it again: Drake here wanted nothing more than to make another “Hotline Bling” sounding track.  The only problem is, this one isn’t nearly as catchy or even a fraction of how enjoyable “Hotline Bling” is.  Even the beat on “Fake Love” is annoying, and Drake’s performance is just so sappy and UGH.  Thankfully, Young Thug once again rolls in for “Ice Melts”, and while I’ve never been a fan of him at all, his performance here once again is damn solid.  The beat is colorful, it almost sounds like something you would hear D.R.A.M. on.  Overall, “Ice Melts” is a solid track, it’s nothing too wild or genre pushing, but it sticks with you wonderfully.  Young Thug’s half baked ramblings go great with this bouncy atmosphere, and for the first time in a few tracks Drake isn’t boring me completely to tears.  It’s far from perfect but I’ll take it.  Well finally, we’re at our finale, “Do Not Disturb”.  Honestly, I really would love to enjoy this.  But literally, this sounds like about 8 other Drake tracks, nothing stands out about this at all.  Hell, I even feel like half of these lyrics have literally been rehashed from earlier in this playlist.  As far as Drake’s performance goes, it’s not bad, it’s just not memorable either.  I feel like this just sounds way too much like the “Thank Me Later” or “Take Care” Drake.  Which isn’t necessarily bad, I just expect a little more at this point.  Lyrically, it does get better as the track rolls on, and it’s certainly not the worst thing here, but man is this playlist all over the place.  

Rating: 6.2/10

Give A Listen To:  “Passionfruit”, "Portland", "Can't Have Everything", "Teenage Fever"

Overall Thoughts:  To put it bluntly, this thing is all over the place.  Drake here juggles between trying to duplicate the success of "One Dance" way too often, while also trying to desperately prove he can still be the more confident Drake we saw on "If You're Reading This It's Too Late".  The cruel reality is, he really doesn't do either of those things right.  There are some solid Pop Rap tunes on here, and there are some solid aggressive tracks as well, but as a whole this thing seems so disjointed.  There are all of these detours and spoken word portions throughout that are placed there to give the feeling that there's some bigger meaning to this experience.  They go absolutely nowhere though, and if there is a bigger meaning here, I've missed it entirely.  Outside of that, Drake is often overshadowed by his own guests, and is struggling to write material that we haven't heard from him for 8 years practically.  It's a mess.