by Sekou | Mar 29, 2020 | Reviews
21 – Adele
Best: Rolling in the Deep
Worst: Nah (there’s a theme with all these isn’t there?)
I don’t understand how I avoided listening to this album for nearly 8 or 9 years. This is what we call, “Phenomenal”. Adele is a POWERHOUSE vocalist, and it just hits different. WE start off with one of the most popular songs of all time, “Rolling in the Deep”. How in the WORLD do you start the album with something so powerful?? It’s insane! She gets into how ugly the breakup is and how pissed she is, but what really made me love the album was the balance. Yes, she laid into her ex so hard there has to be a Looney Tunes-style crater of him at their old apartment, but she also gives herself part of the blame. She understands that it takes two to tango, and that she was imperfect as well, while never feeling like she was mainly at fault. This album is so well-balanced, that even the song that doesn’t exactly fit with the rest of the sound of the album (I’ll Be Waiting) still feels right. 21 is an exercise in vocal range, balance, accountability, and moving forward.
by Sekou | Mar 29, 2020 | Reviews
Good Kid, Maad City – Kendrick Lamar (2012)
Best Song: Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst
Worst: Are you serious? Every song on here is flawless
GOOD LORD. When I tell y’all I could write 3 pages just about THIS ALBUM… If you are following my writing, you know that I am a gigantic Kendrick fan (2nd favorite rapper of all time, and that is a list that will be revealed later), and this basically started that love for him. What do I say? This is one of the best albums of the 2010s for a reason. What is very notable is the fact that Kendrick made an album in an era dominated by hits and singles. This is something where it feels incomplete without listening to the whole album, and it makes you want to listen to it over and over. Let’s talk about storytelling. Kendrick gives a fantastic connecting story through not only the lyrics, but the skits in between. From “Sherane”, discussing this girl Kendrick is messing with, only to get set up, while at the very end of the song, Kendrick’s mom is leaving him a voicemail telling him to bring her van back so they can eat, and it just doesn’t stop from there. The best song and one of the best of the whole decade is “Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst”. I almost don’t want to talk about this in-depth in case people who are reading this haven’t heard the album yet (if you haven’t, then stop reading, listen to it, come back to me and say, “I’m sorry that I avoided this blessing.”) This is one of the best songs I have ever heard. “Sing About Me” has 3 verses about death and I love the techniques it uses. The first verse talking about the brother of Kendrick’s friend. The brother who got killed in the last song. And when those gunshots come in at the end of the verse… haunting. Something not as discussed is the second verse. The second is written through the perspective of Keisha’s (Keisha’s Song) sister, who is also a prostitute, and the end with her voice fading away can be taken in two ways. It can be taken as Kendrick walking away from a conversation that has died, but I also see it as a slow death. It can be that she possibly got HIV, and that fading is her slowly dying, in contrast to the first verse/. “Dying of Thirst” is fantastic, as the boys are pissed and thirsty for avenging the death of the homie’s brother, and then realizing that the thirst that needed to be quenched was a thirst for Holy Water. I could go on and on and do an entire lyric breakdown on each song, but there’s 3 more ahead of it. Why? Well, the top 5 I all see as #1 in a way, but I think that these other three albums just hit a little different.
by Sekou | Mar 29, 2020 | Reviews
#5 Lemonade – Beyoncé (2016)
The Beyhive scares me… I just started coming back into writing and I pray that I don’t see thousands of bee emojis and a militia listening to “Formation” outside my place because this isn’t number 1. Let me discuss why we call Beyoncé Queen Bey first. This album is FANTASTIC. If you didn’t know, this album is a cathartic release of emotion after Beyoncé learned of Jay-Z’s infidelity. If it was only that, it probably wouldn’t be too high, but it is how she did it. Bey started this off STRONG with “Pray You Catch Me”, which I interpreted as, “I wish you would find me watching so you can feel the guilt and I can beat your ass”. She doesn’t let up there either, going back in with “Hold Up” to have him understand that no one will hold him down like she can. Also, it is genre-bending AS HELL! The next song, “Don’t Hurt Yourself” with Jack White, being rock-influenced, “Daddy Lessons” being country-influenced, and even “Freedom” being very march/anthemic and almost its own genre. So why is it number 5? Well, it comes down to personal enjoyment. As much as I LOVED this album and I acknowledge it as the best album of 2016, one of the best albums ever, and I even recognize Beyoncé as my lord and savior, there were just 4 albums I enjoyed a little more. (Side note: I love Beyoncé, I listened to B’Day 24/7 back when I was 10, Beyhive, I love you, please don’t do anything to me this early.)
