Tag: music review

1 WEEK LATER: DENZEL CURRY’S ‘ZUU’ ALBUM REVIEW

ZUU is Denzel Curry’s fourth studio album, following up from his critically acclaimed album TABOO (or TA1300) studio album from last year (2018). TABOO received lots of praise from the hip hop world through listeners and reviewers, so the bar was already set for ZUU. Could ZUU build on from TABOO? Let’s talk about it.

Let’s first look at the track list and size. The album is 12 songs long, however 3 of the ‘songs’ are skits or interludes, which leaves 9 actual tracks. This is a fair size for an album, however it is a shorter album than TABOO, which consisted of 13 actual tracks. So this time around there is a bit less Denzel Curry to consume.

One of the first things I noticed this time around with ZUU, is that there was a reoccurring theme of mentioning God, Jesus, or at least a ‘higher presence’ per se. There’s lots of mentions or references to it during the whole album, some include:

“And fear no man but the man above your head”

“Pray before you go to bed,” every day my mama said” – on RICKY

“Eye of Jehovah

Come take a look at my city and its culture” – on BIRDZ

“Jesus, please deliver us from evil

Please pray over all my people” – on SPEEDBOAT

This is one thing that I noticed about how ZUU was different to TABOO, or at least something that stood out to me that felt like it differed from TABOO.

Some highlights of ZUU I think are the leading single ZUU, RICKY, WISH, SPEEDBOAT and CAROLMART. The first half of the album is very solid, and at this time I do think the first half of the album is better than the second half. Maybe this could change after only a week of listening but at this moment the first half has a big lead on the second half.

I’m unsure of how I feel about the song SHAKE 88 as it seems it doesn’t really fit the running theme of ZUU. Therefore, SHAKE 88 personally felt a bit out of place and personally didn’t fit with this album for me.

After listening to this album throughout this week, I’ve decided to give it a rating of 8/10. I really do think there is a nice selection of songs that build on the discography of Denzel Curry from his previous album TABOO. I feel like a stronger second half to the album could have brought ZUU up to a 9 or a 10. To be fair to the second half though, it does contain the two interludes/skits which cuts the second half down to 4 actual songs instead of the 6 actual songs in the first half. Please give Denzel Curry’s ZUU a listen, check it out below. Till next time!

-Adin

1 WEEK LATER: TYLER THE CREATOR’S IGOR ALBUM REVIEW

It has been 1 week since Tyler the Creator’s 5th studio album debuted on the 17th May 2019, and it’s time to give the album a review since I’ve had the time to listen to it multiple times.

IGOR is a love themed album which covers the different emotions and stages of feelings Tyler the Creator goes through with his love interest as they break up and, by the end of the album, see if they can still be friends after everything they’ve been through together.

The album is very well polished, with the length not being too short or too long (10 tracks excluding the intro and a talking interlude) This makes the album a good length for a full listen from start to finish, just as Tyler wanted and expressed in a twitter post prior to the album’s release, shown below.

Tyler the Creator’s post on how he wanted fans to listen to IGOR, taken from his Twitter.

Some songs that really stood out to me in IGOR include EARFQUAKE (with a fantastic implementation of Playboi Carti), I THINK, WHAT’S GOOD, GONE GONE / THANK YOU, and ARE WE STILL FRIENDS? I’m still trying to warm up to a fan favourite NEW MAGIC WAND.

I think the song GONE GONE / THANK YOU shows how far Tyler The Creator has come from his cockroach eating ways in his 2011 music video of Yonkers. Tyler has really matured both lyrically and musically, and it’s a great thing to hear, as you can hear the effort put into IGOR as a whole. I really wasn’t sure what to expect with IGOR, and wasn’t sure if Tyler The Creator could build on and improve from his previous album Flower Boy, but he’s done it.

One complaint I did have was on the track I DON’T LOVE YOU ANYMORE, with the repeating of “’Cause I don’t love you anymore” every 6 seconds in some sections of the track, especially the intensity of some of the ways it’s said, it felt a bit obnoxious and out of place throughout the calm undertone of the song as a whole.

In the end I’ve decided to give this album a 8.5/10. IGOR is a solid album and builds on from his previous highly rated album Flower Boy, in the sense of how both are musically complicated, well structured, and both told their own stories respectively.

In the future songs such as I DON’T LOVE YOU ANYMORE and NEW MAGIC WAND may grow on me more.