Random albums I listened to in June

Dark Tranquillity - Endtime Signals (2024)

Sure, technically nothing wrong with it. In it's own lane, it's a good album. Taking zero risks, playing it super safe.

Addison Rae - Addison

Listened to it in the background while I worked. I like it, it's a good pop album.

Aesop Rock - Black Hole Superette

I don't feel like typing much, but if I said nothing I'd regret it later when I've forgotten how I felt about it, so... Yes. I like his beats, I like his voice, I like his flow. The lyrics are weird but I know that's intentional, that that's kinda the point. There's no chance I'd understand anything on the first listen even if I tried. It'd take translating them to Finnish and then actually taking the time to think about them. And I don't have that in me right now. I'll just vibe along.

Blood Incantation - Absolute Elsewhere (2024)

Pretty interesting stuff! Very versatile.

Buckcherry - Roar Like Thunder

Catchy rock songs.

Childish Gambino - Atavista (2024)

A "finished version of 3.15.20".

Amazing album.

Garbage - Let All That We Imagine Be The Light

I liked the latter half. It's not as great as their old songs, but it's not bad either.

Lil Wayne - Tha Carter VI

Lyrically, it's like Goodboys. Except Goodboys did it as a joke. And they flow better than Lil Wayne. That was kinda the idea of the album - amazing, international level, trendy flows and great production, a shit ton of internal rhymes, but the lyrics are either blatantly sexual or make no fucking sense whatsoever. I laughed out loud several times. One of the best, if not THE best Finnish hiphop album this year.

I'm afraid Lil Wayne was serious with this, though. To save an hour of your time you'll never get back: about 99% of the lyrics are blowjob doubles and rhyming the N-word with the N-word. This is exactly why it took me three decades before I got into hiphop.

Big Sean and Jelly Roll were good in Sharks, though.

Loki's Theme had a good beat, his annoying autotune voice ruined the song.

I liked Kameron Carter on Rari. I know there was a lot of autotune, but it sounds good (or better) on his voice. With the right producer, he could be a hyperpop artist.

I'm questioning my life choices. Why am I listening to this? The little that I've heard from him before, I haven't liked. I don't get why other people do. I feel like half my braincells just committed a suicide listening to that.

Miley Curys - Something Beautiful

End of the World reminds me of ABBA.

Easy Lover is a fuckin banger!

Weirdly enough, Interlude 2 is The Vibe :D

A good pop album, I wouldn't mind hearing any of the fast songs again. It was versatile and well-made.

Ken Carson - More Chaos

I think I just lost at least half of my brain cells (edit: which means I'm now braindead, after Lil Wayne and Ken Carson). But I'm not a heartless monster. The beats are still music. 5/100 points.

Caligula's Horse - Charcoal Grace (2024)

Ah <3 I freakin love this. Omg! I'm adding them to my Deep Dive list. Once I feel I have some kind of an understanding of current hiphop, I'll get to it. So, sometime in 2026-2028? Assuming that music still moves in about a 3-year cycle. The artists that release new music now, in 2025, will release more in about 3 years, and as I listen to them now, by then I'll know who I like and don't like.

Perfume Genius - Glory

50/100. Your average (soft) rock album. Reminds me of Radiohead and I think Radiohead is overrated AF. They, Radiohead, (or at least their fans) talk about them like they're revolutionary or post-genre somehow, but they're just a watered down rock act. They are barely even one genre, let alone a mixture of multiple or post-genre.

ScHoolboy Q - BLUE LIPS (2024)

I liked Rico Nasty in Pop. I liked ScHoolboy Q as well, but I don't always like Rico Nasty, so I wanted to write that down.

These songs are all like 3-4min long but they just fly by, they feel like 1-2min long. I'm not sure if that's because I'm so entertained time just flies by, or because songs never really start and leave things hanging. Probably the first, or both. Because I do like these songs. Beats, flows, annunciation, lyricism... It all works, technically.

None of it really hits hard, though. There are no bangers. That's not on him, that's just my personal opinion.

There were a couple of weaker songs in the middle (oHio and Foux). 

I saw someone list this as one of their favorite rap albums of 2024. I don't get it. He's good (in most songs) but one of the best? Nah. No shade, I just personally know many better ones...

How many of them put out an album last year, though... 🤔

All and all, it's like a 75/100.

Gao the Arsonist - AND THEY MINE FOR OUR BODIES (2024)

It's very alternative and weird, mostly in a good way. He's different. I respect that.

Swans - Birthing

1h 55min?? Holy shit. That's like, the longest album I've ever listened.

I technically like the sound, but most of the songs are so long they're hard to grasp. I'm on the third song now and have already forgotten what the first and second song sounded like. They're challenging, but too challenging for their own right, becoming forgettable.

Props to them, though, for daring to be that different. It's admirable.

I won't go out of my way to listen to another album by them, but if they're praised somewhere again, I wouldn't mind it.

The Plague - The Divided States of Hysteria

This is so fucking entertaining! This is what I mean when I say I want artists who are post-genre or for them to mix genres! Not blending all the colorful genres into one dull gray shade, but instead an explosion of a rainbow of color! ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜 All the colors at once! I feel so alive!!

Turnstile - NEVER ENOUGH

Versatile pop rock / punk rock. Pretty good, it's nice background music while I work. I'm cleaning my email inbox, it's real dull and this music keeps me somewhat awake and alert.

Weatherday - Hornet Disaster

Punk rock. He sings off-key a lot, but it seems planned and under control.

I'm still going through my old email, and this album doesn't work as well for that purpose as Turnstile did.

Averagekidluke - DENIM

Too short, 22min. Perfect production, good flows and hooks, pretty good lyrics.

Alestorm - The Thunderfist Chronicles 

Entertaining, gimmicky goodness.

Wretch 32 - HOME?

Yeah, sure. Good beats, good flows, good voice, good lyrics. It all works, this is objectively good music.

Nesta Marley - it's that one Dido song, that Eminem sampled as well.

I like how the songs don't all sound the same, because he isn't afraid to cross genre boundaries. Hiphop, reggae, etc. His wordplay is also great, it deserves better than my morning bus brain. -- He has Jamaican roots, the reggae influences make sense.

I don't know if it's just this morning, but around Peace & Love I started to doze off a little bit and wished I could switch to something that goes a bit harder, like Grim Salvo or Ashnikko. That's just me, though. These songs are more lowkey bops, than high-key bangers like Grim Salvo or Ash. It's more subtle and sophisticated, in a way. Grim Salvo and Ash are more rowdy and in-your-face. Both are my vibe, though.

Tech N9ne - 5816 Forest

I liked The Birth.

Hook on Fridee da Sundee wasn't doing it to me.

Yoda neither, because Lil Wayne sounds annoying. High-pitched autotune slurring... Tech N9ne has so many good songs that my Rap & Hiphop list can live without Yoda.

Ball is the best song so far. His flows are always 🔥 and this hook works as well.

Hook on RDV is a bit too repetitive. It's going on the Rap & Hiphop list but not on the Listen To This! list. I've never listened to Tech N9ne for the lyrics, I listen for the satisfyingly technical rapping.

Like in Lola! The screaming part got a bit weird, though, and not in a good way.

I like the mixing of this. It's like an interview in a musical form about how Tech N9ne became Tech N9ne, from birth to current day.

His rapping's so good he sets his own bar very high. And then songs like Excited don't live up to his own level.

The Nice One is kinda a sleeper hit. I don't know any of the lyrics of the hook yet, but I feel like it's gonna start playing in my head some day out of the blue. I also like the beat and his singing voice.

The Punishment ain't his best, either.

Oh, the woman is her daughter? Ok.

Brutal honesty? What I Do? is boring AF. I just had a coffee, I'm on the bus on the way to work and I almost dozed off.

Is it just me, or is the last "rub" in the hook "No rub, no rub, I never shoulda did it with no rub" off-key? You just said you're a billionare, you can afford the tech to fix that shit. It's kinda catchy, though.

The verses of Fish Captain are hard AF, but I don't get the idea. Why are you a fish captain? I thought you were a human rapper?

If I would have been involved in making this album, I would have left all the spoken portions in Skits, so listening to individual songs from the album would be easier. That, or release a Singles Version or something. I do love the coherency in the album, though, the talking ties all the songs together.

I like Livin In The Sky, she has an "old-school" vibe to her voice. Note: I'm so young that 2000s sound is old to me. She has a 2000s-esque pop/RnB sound to her.

Alina is cute <3

I've heard This I Know? It's great!

J6s - ah yes, shoes. The common denominator in the Venn diagram of fashionistas and hiphopheads. Good hook, good song.

All and all, technicals - 99/100. But just because he sets his own bar so high that Excited and The Punishment don't live up to it. He's still technique-wise the best rapper I've heard all year.

About one third of the songs are ones I want to return to, a couple I never care to hear again, the rest were ok.

Lorde - Virgin 

I've heard What Was That, probably on the radio.

I'm on the bus and I hate how this driver is driving so I'm pissed, but I'm still pretty sure this album ain't that great, either.

The rest of the tags: turnstile, weatherday, averagekidluke, alestorm, wretch32, techn9ne, lorde