Now on their fourth album since coming back after a 7-year gap with Humanz, the digital band masterminded by expert collaborator Damon Albarn is still running the Gorillaz renaissance smoothly. While the quality might have peaked with the outstanding and truly underappreciated Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez in 2020 (where’s season two?), their latest … Continue reading Gorillaz – Cracker Island
Thundercat
Silk Sonic – An Evening With Silk Sonic
What do you get when you combine one of the music industry’s most reliable hitmaking machines with a golden voice and an underrated and versatile rising star brimming with charisma? One of the year’s most anticipated projects that still somehow managed to exceed expectations. Give the credit to funk legend Bootsy Collins for creating this … Continue reading Silk Sonic – An Evening With Silk Sonic
H.E.R. – Back Of My Mind
Already having picked up multiple Grammys and even a 2020 Oscar before releasing her proper debut album, R&B songstress H.E.R. has now firmly moved past her mysterious phase of relative anonymity and swiftly into the public eye. Breaking out onto the scene with soaring and melismatic soul ballads, in recent years she has been drifting … Continue reading H.E.R. – Back Of My Mind
Ty Dolla $ign – Featuring Ty Dolla $ign
One of the music industry’s most consistently versatile figures returns, and this time it’s with a self-aware and feature-heavy odyssey of an album. Two years after linking up with Jeremih for a great project full of confident R&B come-ons and continuing to contribute his vocals to numerous albums by diverse musical superstars, Ty Dolla $ign … Continue reading Ty Dolla $ign – Featuring Ty Dolla $ign
Thundercat – It Is What It Is
I’m glad that enough people have delayed their albums that I actually get to talk about someone like Thundercat on this blog – the jazz bass virtuoso is one of the most incredible musicians working right now on a technical level and has done more than his fair share of taking good albums and making … Continue reading Thundercat – It Is What It Is
Mac Miller – Swimming
After taking a complete stylistic left turn on his previous album The Divine Feminine, Mac Miller returns two years later with a similar jazz-rap and funk sound that sees him singing more and taking the style even further into neo-soul territory. Dedicated to then-girlfriend Ariana Grande, Miller’s sudden metamorphosis from the goofy frat-rap persona into … Continue reading Mac Miller – Swimming
Thundercat – Drunk
Virtuoso jazz-funk bassist Thundercat, now exposed to a wider audience due to his outstanding work on Kendrick Lamar's magnum opus To Pimp A Butterfly, unleashes his third studio effort and first since 2013. The album is sprawling, conceptual and incoherent in the best way, musical tidbits flying past you before you even have a chance to … Continue reading Thundercat – Drunk
Ben's Beat - Music Reviews 