By Anton Dedvukaj
Every month, lots of music gets released, with some albums being highly anticipated and some getting lost in the mix. I’m here to tell you everything you need to know about some of the new releases from April that I checked out.
This month, I listened to four albums, being Future’s I NEVER LIKED YOU, Pusha T’s It’s Almost Dry, Fivio Foreign’s B.I.B.L.E., and Swedish House Mafia’s Paradise Again. So, without further ado, here’s what I thought of them.
Future – I NEVER LIKED YOU
This is an album I found myself kind of curious about. For as much as Future has been dominant in the trap rap scene for a solid decade by now, I always found myself taking whatever songs were labeled as the “hits” and leaving, never checking out a full album of his. I decided that it was high time for me to change that, and so I decided to check this one out, and it was pretty decent.
My thing with this album, and trap albums in general, is that it’s honestly kind of hard for the songs to avoid the common pitfall of running together a bit. I don’t think this album is monotonous or anything, nor that there aren’t high points here, but the album as a whole didn’t really incite much of a strong reaction out of me.
Granted, this is kind of a running theme in trap music, and there are plenty of quality albums in this genre. Plus, Future did manage to get artists like Drake and Kanye West on the track listing, which was promising. So, even if I did feel like there were going to be a lot of typical and not particularly noteworthy flex songs on this album – and there admittedly were a few – there was still enough quality here to make this a decent listen.
Speaking of Drake, he shows up twice on this album, on both “I’M ON ONE” and the album highlight “WAIT FOR U”, where both he and Future contribute solid verses over Tems’ vocal loops. I’m not surprised it’s the fan-favorite from the album, as the song’s more relaxed R&B vibes were an easy sell for me. It’s part of the reason I also liked songs like “LOVE YOU BETTER” and “PUFFIN ON ZOOTIEZ” with their similarly relaxed and “vibey” elements.
My favorite song on the album was probably “CHICKENS” with EST Gee. That song has a lot more of what I tend to like about trap, with a hard and energetic beat and both rappers flowing over it really well, even despite that utterly repetitive hook. It’s easily the album highlight for me.
The features in general were solid here, with two decent Drake verses, Gunna and Young Thug doing pretty well on their verses, even if there isn’t as much obvious meme potential as there was on “pushin P” a few months ago, and Kanye West also contributing a solid performance.
This is one of those albums that will absolutely work for trap fans and Future fans just looking to turn up, and there are some songs here that I really got into, but it’s also another case where I’m going to add the album highlights onto my playlist and leave it at that. Overall, it was solid enough, and if you’re a Future fan, this should work for you just fine.
Best songs: “CHICKENS” (feat. EST Gee), “WAIT FOR U” (feat. Drake & Tems), “LOVE YOU BETTER”
Pusha T – It’s Almost Dry
This was an album that I saw a lot of hype for in hip-hop circles. I know that Pusha T has generally been regarded as among the better rappers who are still popular, but I haven’t really done a deep dive into his discography, and as such, I’m not as familiar with his work as I would like to be. I decided that this album would be the first step towards me changing that, and I’m glad that I made that decision, because this was definitely worth the listen.
Knowing who was ultimately behind this album, it’s not really much of a surprise that I enjoyed it. Production was most prominently handled by Kanye West and Pharrell Williams, both of whom are producers I have a lot of respect for. They absolutely delivered here, too. The production on this album is really good, delivering the sort of harder beats that help accentuate Pusha T’s strengths as a rapper.
Those strengths of his absolutely come through here, too. He flows over this production remarkably well, with a lot of intensity in his performance. It’s part of the reason why I liked songs like “Let the Smokers Shine the Coupes” so much, because he brought a lot of energy to them and made them all the more enjoyable to listen to.
I’m honestly not sure which side of the album, being the Kanye-produced or Pharrell-produced tracks, I like more. The beats that West produced tend to be more grounded in sampling, usually a high-pitched vocal sample, and tend to be more relaxed. Meanwhile, Williams’ beats tend to be used for more of the “banger” tracks, and they both work very well together. I think my favorite West-produced tracks are “Diet Coke”, “Dreamin of the Past”, and “Rock N Roll”, the latter two of which also feature him, and my favorite Williams-produced tracks are “Brambleton”, “Let the Smokers Shine the Coupes”, and “Scrape It Off”.
The features also delivered here. I particularly liked how well Don Toliver and Lil Uzi Vert worked on “Scrape It Off”. It’s definitely the most conventional song here, but it’s very catchy, and Pusha T works off of his guests pretty well on it. Also, Kanye West contributed two solid verses, and Kid Cudi added a good hook to “Rock N Roll”.
This album absolutely isn’t without its flaws – namely that break after the Akon reference on “Call My Bluff”, which just felt out of place, and I’m not wild about Williams’ falsetto on “Neck & Wrist”, even if I like the rest of the song – but it was a very solid listening experience. If you’re a rap fan, I suggest that you check this out, because I definitely enjoyed it.
Best songs: “Let the Smokers Shine the Coupes”, “Diet Coke”, “Scrape It Off” (feat. Lil Uzi Vert & Don Toliver)
Fivio Foreign – B.I.B.L.E.
The drill rap scene has seen an enormous rise in popularity over the past two years or so. I’d argue that it was the late Pop Smoke who really helped bring drill into the mainstream, even if most of his hits, save for “Dior”, aren’t drill.
Among the biggest names in this scene is Fivio Foreign, who I initially became aware of through his guest verse on Drake’s “Demons”, his attempt at a drill song from 2020. I generally liked that song, and I’ve had mostly positive thoughts about most of the rest of what I’ve heard from Fivio Foreign, so I was curious about how this album would turn out. Ultimately, it was pretty decent.
This is another album that didn’t really incite a strong reaction out of me, though I did notice a couple of highlights. One thing that I found very prominent throughout the project was the use of pop songs as samples to base the song around. “World Watching” sampled Ellie Goulding’s “Lights” and “What’s My Name” sampled Destiny’s Child’s “Say My Name”. I’d argue that both of those samples worked well. Meanwhile, other samples, such as that of the Chainsmokers’ “New York City” on “City of Gods” felt a bit more awkward.
One thing I definitely did like about this album was the energy brought to most of the tracks. Drill music generally tends to be fast-paced in its percussion patterns, and this makes for songs that have a lot of energy. To Fivio Foreign’s credit, he is definitely able to ride these more energetic beats effectively and make the songs better for it.
I’d also like to highlight some of the features that really stood out to me on this album. In particular, Queen Naija and Coi Leray helped make “What’s My Name” more melodic and improved the song as a result, and two of the main reasons as to why “World Watching” was my favorite song on the album were Lil Tjay’s hook and Yung Bleu’s really good verse. The features across this album were generally pretty solid.
That being said, I do have two main criticisms. For one thing, the tracks do tend to get kind of formulaic at points. I understand that this is bound to happen with a 17-song album that runs nearly an hour long, but I felt like the producers could have afforded to switch up the drill percussion a bit more than they did.
Also, I do wish that there was more melodic focus on some of these songs than there was. I understand that this isn’t the main appeal of drill music, but most of the songs that I liked on here, such as the aforementioned pair of songs with more melodic samples and features, as well as “For Nothin”, which had a solid melodic base with its pitched-up vocal samples, had a prominent melody.
Ultimately, this album was a solid listening experience. If you’re at all interested in the drill scene, there are plenty of songs here that I think you would like. If what I described sounds interesting to you, I’d recommend that you start with some of the highlights and then decide where to go from there.
Best songs: “World Watching” (feat. Lil Tjay & Yung Bleu), “What’s My Name” (with Queen Naija & Coi Leray), “For Nothin”
Swedish House Mafia – Paradise Again
And finally, we have the one album I’m discussing that is not a rap project. This album is Swedish House Mafia’s first body of work since their breakup several years ago and subsequent comeback. I’m not all that invested in the EDM scene, so I mostly knew them for their 2012 hit John Martin collaboration, “Don’t You Worry Child”, which was a big hit back when it was released and remains one of my favorite EDM hits of the early 2010s.
That being said, I did check out one of this album’s singles, “Moth To A Flame”, when it was released a few months ago, primarily because I’m a huge fan of The Weeknd, who did the vocals for that song. I’d argue that the song is legitimately excellent, and I’ve returned to it many times since it came out. Combine that with the fact that I’ve been meaning to check out other genres of music that I don’t normally listen to, such as EDM, and that led to me giving this album a shot. Honestly, I’m glad I did, because this is some good stuff.
The first thing that I noticed about this album was how club-ready a lot of its songs feel. A lot of these songs have a lot of energy in the way that the drops are interwoven throughout them that give me the sense that they would go off in a club setting. “Don’t Go Mad” was probably my favorite example of this, as it has several buildups and drops and they all land with just the right amount of impact.
I also liked a lot of the experimentation here. In addition to the traditional EDM tracks that run long and are meant to focus on the production, there are also a few more songs that have more traditional pop structures. “Moth To A Flame” and “Lifetime” are the most clear examples of this, and I thought both songs worked pretty well as pop songs.
There are also other, more relaxing songs, like “Heaven Takes You Home”, which was definitely an album highlight for me with its prevalent hook and more low-key groove. Perhaps the most surprising shift came with “Frankenstein”, where things took a turn for the more manic as featured artist A$AP Rocky raps with intensity over a constantly evolving rap instrumental, although Sting showing up for the “Roxanne”-sampling “Redlight” was a close second.
Sure, there were songs I didn’t care for on here – “Jacob’s Note” doesn’t really do much outside of the context of the album, where it really only serves to act as a prelude to “Moth To A Flame”, which follows it, and I found other songs like “Mafia” to be a bit too atonal for my liking. However, there’s absolutely a lot to like here, and this album has me intrigued to go check out more EDM projects in the future. If you’re at all interested in the dance music scene, I recommend you give this album a listen, because I definitely liked it.
Best songs: “Moth To A Flame” (with The Weeknd), “Don’t Go Mad” (feat. Seinabo Sey), “Heaven Takes You Home” (feat. Connie Constance)
Overall, April was a solid, if very rap-heavy month for music and albums. Next up, I’ve got five albums lined up in May that I’m interested in covering, and that’s barring any surprise releases that might get announced soon, so stay tuned for that.
