Reviews
Idahams ft. Falz – “Man On Fire” Remix, Resonates Better Than The First
“Man On Fire” remix, featuring Nigerian rapper and award-winning lyricist, Falz, explores deeper and then it creates a stronger sense Idaham’s core listeners could relate to apart from its initial singing and chorusing sections on the first and original creation from his sophomore 7-track, EP – “Man On Fire”. This remix is designed to keep Falz’s native listeners who understand his art of storytelling reality and entrenches to save Idahams, on his mainstream journey. Meanwhile, “Man On Fire” EP, is Ham’s stellar extended play released in 2020 that served as an experience of his musical edge; in between was released singles and his former EP “Amayanabo” in 2019, and his partnership with Universal Music Group in the same year. He is taking over the mainstream market and has been making excel...
Demi Lovato Rises Again on Dancing with the Devil…The Art of Starting Over: Review
The Lowdown: With a voice as big as the sky, it’s hard to figure out where to go first — but that’s not going to stop Demi Lovato from trying. It never has. Dancing with the Devil…The Art of Starting Over is the seventh full-length album from the child actress turned teen phenomenon turned pop star and arrives almost four years after 2017’s often sultry, R&B-infused Tell Me You Love Me. Her discography has effectively captured many parts of the rollercoaster she has endured: even in her earliest efforts, Don’t Forget and Here We Go Again, her vocal prowess is undeniable. (Demi Lovato could still put out a great pop-punk album if she were to so choose.) She is a remarkably gifted natural vocalist. Lovato has also had a lion’s share of trials and tribulations, almost all of which have un...
Julien Baker Brings Us Close to Little Oblivions at Nashville’s Analog: Review
Got Enough Gas: There’s music that makes you think and music that makes you want to move, and there’s Julien Baker. The songwriter has an uncanny talent for considering the underlying motivations for her own feelings and actions, and the result is often visceral music that hypnotizes the attention of the listener and prompts self-reflection, sometimes feeling deeply difficult and deeply healing at once — which is maybe part of the point. Baker released Little Oblivions last month and received instant praise for its bold and self-conscious digs into complex questions of addiction, survival, mental illness, and second chances. The album marked an evolution for Baker’s music into a fuller band sound, after she probed the depths of acoustic alt-folk in her first two albums and united her talen...
Artist of the Month serpentwithfeet’s DEACON Is a Bountiful Collage of Love and Care: Review
The Lowdown: Serpentwithfeet first gained attention in 2016 with his EP blisters, and then more broadly in 2018, when his debut album, soil , earned praise for its complex and subtle portrayals of love. Born Josiah Wise, he grew up in a religious family and sang in the church choir, and the influences of classical and gospel have long made themselves known in his music. DEACON isn’t quite a departure, but it is a move forward into more expansive territory; the sound serpent has taken on feels like it can accommodate more, and indeed, it does. DEACON is full of songs that wrap around the listener, showing in full resolution serpent’s expertise in using his music not only to portray love, but to extend it. [embedded content] The Good: The influence of religion feels present again here; along...
Evanescence Are Stronger and Louder Than Ever
Strength has always been at the core of Evanescence. Since the group’s 1995 beginnings, vocalist/pianist Amy Lee has used her voice to reclaim something—usually herself—being loud, disruptive and bold in the process. With the release of the band’s first original album in nearly a decade, The Bitter Truth, that strength is clearer than ever, and she’s reclaiming even more this time. Maybe it’s because she had to. Lee and bassist Tim McCord were both dealing with personal cases of grief before collective mourning absorbed the whole population—and that reckoning and pain comes through on the record, especially in the gloomy poetry and vivid imagery. It’s vulnerable, but more than anything, it’s empowering. “Oh, survival hurts / But I keep breathing in,” she sings on the aptly-titled “Broken P...
Justin Bieber Gets Too Woke for His Own Good on Justice: Review
The Lowdown: After an unfortunate misstep with Changes, released last year just before lockdown, Justin Bieber found himself, once again, at a sharp crossroads: carry on writing meme-able nonsense for lyrics, or put forth something that makes better use of the large production budget his label shells out. Fortunately, on Justice, he chose the latter. Unfortunately, if ever there was an example of the needle tipping too far, this is it. While Justice steps away from the lyrical fallacies of its predecessor, for an album that is much more expansive and explorative, the record has way too much nonsense surrounding it. If at any point you begin to wonder why the first voice on a song about submitting sexually to his wife is not Bieber, but civil rights leader and martyr Dr. Martin Luther King ...
Amapiano: Births The Most Creative Nigerian Club Songs
Strongly dominating South African pop culture is a genre that consists of striking piano cuts, blustering drums, and synthesizers that make up the Amapiano sound. This culture (Amapiano) is freshly penetrating the clubs of Nigeria in tons of creative songs; the culture grew widely and expanded from South Africa’s mainstream into Nigerian demography where it has been regarded by me as the birth of the most creative songs ever, since 2020 till date. Because Amapiano structures songs astounding; it makes them a typical different feel that holds an exceptional touch, with a ledger that has recorded its intense creativity. The blustering drums and synth make your body move, while the piano creates an embodied rhythm you are bound to enjoy. [embedded content] Amapiano culture exists in songs dom...
Lana Del Rey Strips Back the Glamour on the Charming Chemtrails over the Country Club: Review
The Lowdown: In 2019, Lana Del Rey released Norman Fucking Rockwell! to critical acclaim, an album that integrated her long-running motifs of allusive Americana, melancholy femininity, and seedy glamor with more memorable melodies and legibility – a full execution of the vision she’d been expressing since 2012. Now, on Chemtrails over the Country Club, the singer-songwriter and pop icon continues to weave sharp referential lyrics with atmospheric set-pieces. The album is a cohesive extension of NFR!, but the sound is more overtly connected to California country-folk, built around shimmering guitars and gentle pianos. She teams up with Nashville artist Nikki Lane while name-checking her forebears Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, Stevie Nicks, and Tammy Wynette. Del Rey still addresses tragic ...
Lana Del Rey Delivers Her Most Delicate Music Yet on Chemtrails Over the Country Club
By moniker alone, Chemtrails Over the Country Club would be considered a worthy new chapter in Lana Del Rey’s ongoing subversion of classic (see: myopic) American fantasies. Chemtrails spell conspiracy and doubt; country clubs conjure our obsession with wealth, status and all things Instagram braggadocio. One looms above the other, further threatening the golden-era glamor Del Rey has spent a decade both romanticizing and dissecting. <!– // Brid Player Singles. var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ “div”: “Brid_10143537”, “obj”: {“id”:”25115″,”width”:”480″,”height”:”270″,”playlist”:”10315″,”inviewBottomOffset”:”105px”} }); –...
LeriQ: Has Been Responsible for The Root Morphing of The ‘African Giant’ Burna Boy
LeriQ, call the paramedics, is a very notable Grammy Award-winning Nigerian record producer and songwriter. 30, born Eric Isaac Utere, has been responsible for the very first underground transformation of the African Giant; your most beloved son, Burna Boy, who has brought home the 63rd Grammys plaque from America on 14th March 2021 in Los Angeles Convention center. “Twice As Tall”, is his fifth studio album responsible for his beaming victory, and in between, LeriQ was in motion creating the magic to outlive his own existence. Call the paramedics, spearheaded Burna Boy’s victory dated from obscure moments to this very point of his great career elevation and international recognition. LeriQ is the record producer you should run to, “call the paramedics”, as you have decided to trace Burna’...
Vector & MI Abaga – “Crown of Clay”, Could Be That Nigerian Hip-Hop Is More Hopeful?
“Crown of Clay”, is purely historic, it journeys on West African and black people’s experiences. However, Nigerian Hip-hop seems to be outgrowing her skirts where mainstream rappers create diss tracks, share blunt notions of their supremacy and kingship amongst culture enthusiasts and her few core listeners. Hip-hop culture is near fall in Nigeria and it would take a strong sense of realization and a kind of refocus to make it rise again to some extent, beef tracks that might lead to separation isn’t worth more than when two great lyricists make songs and settle for greatness as they set up the release of their joint EP – “Crown of Clay”. RELATED: Ice Prince ft Oxlade – “Kolo”, Savors The Same Great Taste Of Ice Prince Rap In 2010, The Review Crown of Clay’s creators (Vector & MI Abaga...
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Stumbles Slightly on Takeoff: Review
The Pitch: In the wake of the blip and the events of Avengers: Endgame, Sam Wilson, aka The Falcon (Anthony Mackie), has settled into a modest life of crimefighting with his signature wingsuit. Why isn’t he the new Captain America?, eagle-eyed Endgame viewers might be asking; after all, Old Cap handed him the signature star-spangled shield the last time we saw him. Well, Sam feels uncomfortable with the weight and responsibility of the title — it feels “like someone else’s.” Meanwhile, former Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) is wrestling with his own post-terrorist trauma, struggling to reintegrate into society after ninety years of cryogenically-frozen evildoing. But the two might get drawn back into each other’s orbits with the arrival of a mysterious flash mob...
