The Greatest Dream I Never Had - Belly
This is rare. I listened to this album, hoping to find one song, that would be good enough for post, instead I found an album where every song was good enough to post. So click the picture to download, or this link to listen to on line. This is one of the best albums to I have listened to this year, if not the best, and this comes not long after J. Cole, Childish Gambino and Drake all released their albums, so you can probably guess I have a lot of respect for this album. Before listening to this album, I can say that I had never heard of Belly.
This album has the feel of The House of Balloons, whilst being much more Hip-Hop than it and makes The Weeknd look like a teetotal with the amount of references to drug use and drinking he has in it. It has a load of dope samples, like Muse, REM and Lana Del Ray. What kind of drug fuelled hip hop album can pull of those samples? This one, and it pulls it off sublimely. If you do one thing today, listen to this dark, intimate, and amazing album. Do it.
insomniacdreaming
Arctic Monkeys - Suck it and See
Listen to it Here
I realised I haven’t done an album review in a while, so here you go, a review of the new Arctic Monkeys. I haven’t really been looking forward to this album, waiting for the day it comes out. I knew it was coming out, and the songs that I heard from it before it was released were good. And it still isn’t officially released. So I wasn’t expecting anything life changing.
Goblin - Tyler, the Creator
Right. Goblin is out so here’s a review. Our countdown to the album went a bit askew, I think I basically can’t count backwards, but here it is.
I was looking forward to Goblin so much. And I’m sure most of you will be able to understand that. Bastard was an amazing album and Yonkers and Sandwitches were also both amazing songs. Tyler had shown so much progress in his music that Goblin was going to be amazing, for sure. Right? Well, Goblin was good, but I’m going to say Bastard was better. But Bastard, is one of my favourite albums, so this doesn’t mean anything bad.
Pusha T - Fear of God
Pusha T, signed to Kanye West’s G.O.O.D Music, has released his mix tape. Unlike other artists signed to G.O.O.D Music, he sounds very similar to Kanye West. His overall style is very similar to Kanye West. This isn’t only because Kanye West produced his album, but also because his voice sounds pretty similar too. At first I thought Kanye was featuring at the beginning of a song, I waited a long while for Pusha T, then I realised it was Pusha, not Kanye. . This, however, is not a problem at all, because I find Kanye West amazing. And if Pusha T can to anyway achieve the same levels as him, that would be amazing. And I think he has.
However, don’t for a second think that Pusha is Kanye’s new project. On some of his songs, he has a completely different style, for example Speakers going Hammer, but I don’t particularly like this song, probably because it samples a Soulja Boy song. There are also several very brave songs on this mixtape. It definitealy takes guts to sample bohemian rhapsody by queen on a mixtape, but that’s what Pusha does on Open Your Eyes, and he pulls it off.
I recommend you listen to it, especially the first 2 songs, My God and I Still Wanna (feat. Rick Ross & Ab Liva).
Posted by Tomek (insomniacdreaming)
Mac Miller - Best Day Ever
I have been looking forward to Best Day Ever for a while now. You can download it here, or listen here. I have also been listening to Best Day Ever for a while now. I have had it playing over and over again, and each time I listen, it seems to get a bit better.
At first when I listened to the album it seemed a bit empty, but then you realise it’s got classic mac miller written all over it. It only feels empty, because it’s so chill, it’s stripped down. Rap in it’s most basic and best form: just a beat and a rapper. Some of the beats are a bit more complex (e.g Donald Trump), some are much more basic (e.g She Said). And these 2 songs show the album, in how it varies, and how it stays the same. Both songs, are very relaxing. However what is different is the tone in how he says it. For example in Donald Trump, you have this:
‘Bitches on my dick that used to brush me off in high school
Take over the world when I’m on my Donald Trump shit
Look at all this money, ain’t that some shit’
In She Said, you have him starting off, with how he feels ‘ill’, but not as in ‘really cool and awesome’ but like he’s ‘coming down with a sickness’. This change of tone, is why I like Mac Miller. Something to chill to in nearly every mood.
To summarise, it is just a great album to relax too. The album is well put together, but lacks any stand out songs. The big question, is probably whether it is better than K.I.D.S or not, and I think K.I.D.S edges it. They are pretty similar most of the time, but K.I.D.S has the stand out songs, like Knock Knock and Kool-Aid & Frozen Pizza that Best Day Ever lacks.
Ed Sheeran - No 5 Collabarations Project
‘Mr. Entertainer ’ asked us a question about Ed Sheeran and his new album, which I thought would be the perfect occasion to write down what I thought about his album. Firstly, What do we feel about Ed Sheeran? Ever since I heard ‘I don’t need you, you need me’, I have loved him. I even thought about going to see him (supporting the artist). What I got obsessed with; is his freestyles, like the nandos skank. So you have a fan of his here!
No. 5 Collabarations came out on the 9th of January, and it seems like Ed Sheeran just getting the best out of grime and mixing it with great acoustic guitar and singing. He blends the songs very well.
Although, he doesn’t feature that much on his album, taking more of a back seat, just singing in hooks and the occasional verse, he still manages to bring the best out of each rapper. Some of the songs, for example ‘Goodbye to you’ and ‘Family’ get the artists to rap about deep personal issues that they hadn’t put on track before, with Dot Rotten speaking about the death of his Nan, and P-Money talking about recovery from a serious car crash, respectively. Ed managing to get these rappers to do this on his album, shows how the artists view him and his music.
However, the album doesn’t just capture albums at there most emotional. Many of the rappers do what in my opinion is some of their best verses on this album. This is a great album to do it on because the production is amazing; its astonishing to think that this was all done while Ed wasn’t signed.
Ed Sheeran is now signed to Atlantic records and I think this year, will be Ed’s Year.
Posted By Tomek (insomniacdreaming)
