Music Reviews
My Favorite Album Reviews
By Cesar Reyes
Over the past 2 years, I’ve found myself liking music more than I did before. These three albums are not my top 3, but they are ones I wanted to talk about as they are very special and influential to me. I love every album here so they are all 10/10, but they each have their own things that make them worth the 10/10.
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Weezer - Pinkerton
Tired of Sex, Getchoo, No Other One, Why Bother?, Across the Sea, The Good Life, El Scorcho, Pink Triangle, Falling for You, Butterfly
After the release of their 1994 debut album, simply titled “Weezer”, lead guitarist Rivers Cuomo started writing the band’s next album. After playing around with a rock opera idea and then scrapping it, Rivers fell into a deep depressive spiral, hating his rockstar lifestyle. After listening to “Madama Butterfly” by Giacomo Puccini, Rivers felt inspired to make a deeper and darker album, naming it Pinkerton after the opera’s character “BF Pinkerton”. The album is more abrasive than their last, with most songs starting with feedback songs as the song starts. It has a more grimy and dirty prediction, posing a stark contrast to the rest of their discography, which features a cleaner production. Most of the songs are about having someone they can't as well as having too much of something, which shows the rockstar lifestyle the band got tired of. When released, the album was hated by many and even by Cuomo himself, because he felt it was a bit too personal and dark. Despite this, by 2008, he had changed his stance on the album, saying it was “Brave, courageous, and ambitious.” I love every song on this album and it is actually what got me into Weezer. It’s a 10/10.
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Travis Scott - Astroworld
Stargazing, Carousel (ft. Frank Ocean), Sicko Mode (ft. Drake, Swae Lee), R.I.P Screw (ft. Swae Lee), Stop Trying To Be God (ft. Philip Bailey, James Blake, Stevie Wonder), No Bystanders (ft. Sheck Wes, Juice WRLD), Skeletons (ft. Tame Impala, The Weeknd), Wake Up (ft. The Weeknd), 5% Tint, NC-17 (ft. 21 Savage), Astrothunder, Can’t Say (ft. Don Toliver), Who? What? (ft. Quavo, Takeoff), Butterfly Effect, Houstonfornication, Coffee Bean.
“Astroworld” (written in all caps) is Travis Scott’s third studio album and was released on August 3rd, 2018. The album is described as a psychedelic trap rap album, taking inspiration from artists such as Kid Cudi and Tame Impala. The way the beats in the back carry the vocals on the front gives the album a theme park-like feel. On the psychedelic beats, the album features many vocalists like The Weeknd, Frank Ocean, and Swae Lee, while on the trap beats it has rappers such as Drake, Quavo, and Gunna. A reason why I love this album is how you can just press play and listen without getting tired of it or not liking the song playing. There are very few songs I press skip on, and even then it’s because they have been overplayed, which only shows how good they are since they have been so popularized. Overall, this is an album where every song is a hit and has a feeling that brings you somewhere else. I would give this album a 10/10.
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SZA - Ctrl
Supermodel, Love Galore (ft. Travis Scott), Doves In The Wind (ft. Kendrick Lamar), Drew Barrymore, Prom, The Weekend, Go Gina, Garden (Say It Like Dat), Broken Clocks, Anything, Wavy (Interlude ft. James Fauntleroy), Normal Girl, Pretty Little Birds (ft. Isaiah Rashad), 20 Something
Ctrl (pronounced as Control) is SZA’s debut album and was released on June 9th, 2017. The album is an R&B album, drawing influences from Trap Rap and Indie Rock. The songs are meant to be a reflection of modern love and SZA's own experience with it. The songs sometimes end with a recording of SZA’s mother giving her advice about love during a phone call in order to further demonstrate the recurring theme of love that is seen in the album. I love every song on this album, with songs like “Love Galore” being one of my favorite songs of all time. Other songs like “Prom”, “Anything”, and “Wavy” use trap rap and indie rock influences in full force. The songs just have a feel that is nice and campy, and SZA’s amazing voice and the way in which she uses it in this album is beautiful. This album is incredible and I love it. It’s easily a 10/10.