Top 5 Album Picks
As the month of October draws to a close, numerous new releases of music from many genres come to my attention. Numerous variables that originate from various genres such as Hip-Hop, Alternative, R&B, Punk, and many more.
These are my newly discovered artist of this year releases or new album on the horizon of some of my favorite artists in the industry.
James Blake – Friends That Break your Heart
It features intriguing sounds of modern trip hop, ambiance, and electronic music in general. James Blake’s Friends That Break Your Heart comes with a new LP release as a follow-up to 2019’s Assume Form. The new soundscapes provided by his latest CD manage to reduce the accompanying sadness while lingering on the more lighter elements of his voice. Notable tunes and features on this album are a wonderful blend of melancholy and warmer than what James Blake normally does. But, by his standards, it’s more enigmatic, less jagged, and structurally more Pop than ever before.
JPEGMAFIA – LP!
Peggy, a common metaphor of not fitting into the same categories and classifications, returns with his most Peggy album yet, LP!, the follow-up to his previous album All My Heroes are Cornball (2019). Earlier this year, the EP! (2021) project was released, one of many that are pioneering this generation of what you can call creatively different. His resume and collection now include albums, singles, reinterpretations, skits, and even short documentaries on his daily life in HTBAR on his YouTube account.
LP! captures us with so many distinct styles of his sounds, transforming the soul into a completely new beast of its own. Animals as Leader’s recent single Monomyth, for example, is one of the few examples of his brand new manner of flowing on such a complexly created rhythm. Peggy had us leave this album either extremely satisfied or really disappointed because he did not make an effort to make it more easily accessible for some.
The World is a Beautiful Place to Die and I’m No Longer Afraid To Die – Illusory Walls
The passionate gut punching, heart wringing voice that wails throughout the entire trip of this musical escapism, that thrives as an emotional inducer and mood maker, has been traded for the latest release of this brand new album, Illusory Walls (2021). This current CD contains off-the-wall sounds, distortions, and melodic hardcore sounds. The World Is A Beautiful Place to Die and I’m No Longer Afraid to Die means not afraid to show the world once again that being emotional is being honest with what’s going on, causing a mosh-pit rather than a sing-along moment for the audience. And, sonically, the situation, according to one band, isn’t all that great.
Badbadnotgood – Talk Memory
The most exciting acts of Alternative Jazz that born from the love of Hip-Hop and deconstruction of Jazz music, BBNG comes with a follow up of their project IV (2016), Talk Memory.This album carries a lot of weight as the soundscapes grow with the beginning, quickly paying homage to the finest ones who ever did it via each of its pieces. This is the most cinematic and wonderfully constructed musical composition, and the voyage of this album is extremely captivating.
Bronze Nazareth & Roc Marciano – Ekphrasis
Bronze Nazareth, a rapper-producer from Michigan, has released a collaboration album titled Ekphrasis with an old colleague in the same strain and brand of haze, Roc Marciano. Nazareth comes with a sound of minimalism and the latest insertion into a plethora of these so-called fine-art connoisseur rap, with a voice so deep, stoney, stern, and hypnotic. With the latest underground kings’ stamp of approval, Nazareth, who had previously been more of a producer, takes the great stage of pen wielder, and his pen-shaped gun is no joke after all.
Honorable Mentions
Lana del Rey – Blue Banisters
Young Thug – Punk
Disclosure – DJ-Kicks
WIKI – Half God
Full of Hell – Garden of Burning Apapritions
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