Sky's Music Reviews

The Altar is the second studio album by the dark, alternative pop singer known as Banks. This 13 song LP was released on September 30, 2016, following the release of three amazing promo singles. A quick glance at the cover of The Altar may leave you expecting a lighter album, perhaps pop, country, or maybe more of a folk style album. However, this deceptive opinion is ever so wrong. Banks, by using her grungy songwriting, wide vocal range, and unique voice, crafts a dark, rhapsodic mixture of R&B and alternative pop, with a synth-heavy foundation. It's hard to find other artists to compare her to, and even though her voice may appear bizarre to some first listeners, it can work wonders. It is true that I knew and liked Bank's music before now. However, I found her previous album, Goddess, to be a bit tiring to listen to; it didn't have a lot of highs, and the darkness just seemed a bit shallow to me, with the exception of a few songs. However, the three songs releas...

Sremmlife 2 is an 11 song hip-hop album by the dynamic duo themselves, Rae Sremmund. It is the sequel to the horrible Sremmlife . It was released on August 20, 2016. Rae Sremmund are a very, um, interesting duo. Swae Lee is the real showpiece of this album, because even though his voice can be kind of annoying, it's really unique and adds character to Sremmlife. Slim Jimmy, on the other hand, is very average, with a slightly boring voice and delivery. "Start A Party", the first song, is an amazing start. From the very first second, this amazing hip-hop rave mood is set, with perfect production by Pluss and P-Nazty. This song is perfect at what it sets out to do: start a party, and the intro is legendary. "Real Chill" doesn't captivate on the precedent set by "Start A Party". It sounds like a discount 2 Chainz song, with lazy production by Mike Will Made It. Kodack Black's feature really doesn't add much to the song, and this just ends...

Sunday is a 4 song extended play by singer/producer Dawin, released on July 28th. I was first introduced to Dawin with his semi-hit "Dessert", a fun, sweet song with a highly unexpected and fun drop. It got popular a long time after it was released (and ruined with Silento), which drove Dawin to release slightly underwhelming songs "Just Girly Things" and "Life of the Party". Regardless, I was looking forward to listening to Sunday, and interested in seeing where Dawin's musical style is heading. The first song, "Bikini Body", featuring R. City, is a happy body-positivity song that I can totally imagine being played at a beach party. Throughout the EP, Dawin showcases his vocal talents more than he has previously. The drop to this song, like "Dessert" is slightly unexpected and very different form the rest of the music in the song, but that's what makes it so good. This song is a great start to the album, and I even like R. ...

Choosing to do this album was hard. It's more than six months old, which is more than I'm usually willing to do, but I wanted to critically experience Panic! at the Disco in a manner that I could express my feelings about them with. They've infatuated so many teenagers like myself, but I've never really been a fan of male vocal, teen angst bans like Panic! at the Disco, even though I do enjoy some Fall Out Boy every once in a while. Death of a Bachelor was released by the rock band and teen/emo sensation Panic! at the Disco (yes, you have to write the exclamation mark every time or people get mad). It came out on January 15, 2016, making it the oldest album on my blog if you're judging by time difference. However, it's still #41 on Billboard, so I guess it's still kind of relevant? When reviewing an album with such a huge fanbase like PatD has, it's important for me to remember that the reason that the fans stay around is likely not just this album...

2 Chainz has built such a huge legacy and custom for himself, in the past few years, with this being the third major release by the rap artist just this year. Daniel Son; Necklace Don  was released on August 5, 2016, and it was mostly produced by DJ Spinz and TM88, as well as a few others. It's a  9 song + intro mixtape. 2 Chainz has never been the most personal, creative, or skilled rapper, and he's never claimed to be. The purpose of 95% of his songs is to create a mood; they're mostly turn up songs, meant to be played for fun at a club, to listen to with friends, or to just give that energetic, "lit" feeling to listeners. This album certainly succeeds at this mission, but as always, people wonder if 2 Chainz will ever take the rap game seriously. In a way, that's what makes him so good. The intro is quite interesting. It is a stereotypical East Asian martial arts announcement, and it seems to set a theme for the album; maybe more Asian inspired instru...

First off, I'd like to make it clear that I accept and encourage review requests. A very decent amount of people view my blog every day, and I'm sure that some of you guys have some great requests for me. Just make sure that it's from 2016, please :) Whitney Peyton is a female, underground rapper from Philadelphia. She's not too popular, but she has a lot of amazing potential that is showcased very well on Break the Frame , no matter how bad the album cover art is. In fact, her following is so small that I cannot find much information about Break the Frame; I have no idea who produced it. Regardless, Break the Frame is a underground rap album with EDM and rock elements that dropped on January 5th, 2016. It consists of 10 songs, with 7 out of 10 of those songs having credited features. Not many people would know her, but any rap fan can quickly tell how amazing her flow and delivery is right off the bat. The intro, eponymously called "Break the Frame", ...

New English is a trap/drill rap mixtape released by Desiigner, the new G.O.O.D music signee. It was released on June 26, 2016. My format for reviewing mixtapes will be different then my format for reviewing albums or EPs, for many reasons. I feel like I won't be able to do a track by track review of every song, especially because mixtape songs are traditionally far shorter than album songs. Instead, I'll be focusing on an overall mixtape verdict, notable songs, and about the artist themselves. As far as the content on the album goes... it's pretty okay? The first track of the mixtape, "Intro", is so extremely unfitting. It sounds like the start of a Disney movie, even though the rest of the album has a darker, more grungy theme. Somehow, it leads to the next song, "Caliber", very well. It is in this song that Desiigner starts his theme of repetitive drill rap. To be honest, the majority of the album sounds like it's one song, and that's r...