Scoring Key: 10= Perfect 9.5-8 = Great 7.5-6.5= Good 6-5= Average 4.5-3.5= Below Average 3-0= Bad
Welcome to the third and final album reviews of the school year! For this final edition I’m gonna do something a little bit different. I’ve decided for the final album reviews to commemorate this school year in music by breaking down my favorite albums that came out from September 2021- May 2022. It’s been a great year and I’ll be back next year with even more thoughts and opinions on music.
Album: The Melodic Blue
Artist: Baby Keem
Release Date: September 10, 2021
Favorite Song(s): “Family Ties”
Rating: 8
Here I am once again reviewing The Melodic Blue. This album is Baby Keem’s third album, and I am reviewing it for the third time. This album, over time, has really grown on me; it gets better each time I listen to it. I really love Baby Keem’s voice: it is very unique and one of my favorite in hip-hop right now. The song “Family Ties” especially sticks out to me, and Baby Keem’s verse on that song is too good. Overall this album is pretty good, there are some songs where I feel it lacks a bit,but songs like “16,” “Family Ties,” “Range Brothers,” and “Trademark USA” carry this album and make it a super fun and memorable listen.
Album: An Evening with Silk Sonic
Artist: Silk Sonic
Release Date: November 12, 2021
Favorite Song: “Leave The Door Open,” “Fly As Me”
Rating: 8
An Evening With Silk Sonic is a fantastic album. This album is the first of the funk duo of Anderson Paak and Bruno Mars. This album is really fun to listen to, and one of the best funk albums of the last few years. They manage to capture the vibe they wanted this album to have very well. Some people had valid criticism of the release of this album due to the fact that this album is only ten tracks long and many of the songs were released as singles. Overall, I would say that this album gave us some very good songs, but the release was a bit shaky.
Album: Alone at Prom
Artist: Tory Lanez
Release Date: December 10, 2021
Favorite Song: “The Color Violet”
Rating: 8.5
I thoroughly enjoyed this album. This was my first experience with Tory Lanez, and I was not disappointed. This album gave me a really great understanding of Lanez’s sound. His sound reminds me of the Weekend. This album tells a really great story and is altogether a fun listen. Overall, I would highly recommend this album to everyone who likes music.
Album: Laurel Hell
Artist: Mitski
Release Date: February 4, 2022
Favorite Song: “Love Me More”
Rating: 5.5
To me, Mitski’s latest album, Laurel Hell, is just lackluster. This album just felt very boring and disappointing. We’ve heard some great stuff from Mitski before, but this album didn’t quite have that Mitski magic we are accustomed to. Some positives of the album is that there were some good tracks, storytelling, and acoustics. Laurel Hell also fell into some of the same pitfalls as the release An Evening With Silk Sonic did. I felt like we got way too many singles from this album for it only to be a little over 32 minutes long. Overall I’d say that this is Mitski’s second worst project.
Album: Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers
Artist: Kendrick Lamar
Release Date: May 13, 2022
Favorite Song: "We Cry Together, N95"
Rating: 10
This album is truly amazing and just adds to Kendrick Lamar’s great discography. Kendrick’s new album is a very deep and introspective project that explores many aspects of himself internally and externally. He tackles so much in the album that I would highly recommend listening to it and I also recommend listening to other people’s breakdowns of this, because frankly, I haven’t listened to this album quite enough to catch every component. I am working on an article to break down this album further so that maybe I’ll get it out at the beginning of next school year… I just felt the need to put it in this edition because of how good the album was.