This week was filled with amazing albums so I had to add an extra spot

6.

The debut album from ont he most interesting genre-bending artists out right now. Combining R&B, Hip-Hop, Club music this debut album from Shygirl stays interesting and everchanging throughout the tracklist. This isn’t as in your face and and out there as her previous music both to this albums benefit and detriment. It loses some of the punchiness and appeal of Shygirl’s music but creates a more balanced album. Overall, makes me excited for the next Shygirl album to see if she could do something crazier.

5.

Rome Streetz debut Griselda album and feels like a Griselda album. His style was already clear on previous releases but he meshes well with the Griselda sound. The beats on this album come from the regular Griselda producers most notably Conductor Williams producing the most songs on this album. No real weak beats and the innecesant producer tag of, “Conductor, we have a problem,” still entertains me. All the features on this are great and really show the talent of Griselda and most importantly help to break Rome Streetz repetitve flow. Over 17 tracks and 50 minutes his flow does get repetitive and this album could have been helped with more variety in flows. Still a great album and exciting to see for the future of Griselda.

4.

Freddie Gibbs first album since his Grammy-nominated album with the Alchemist, Alfredo. Maybe influenced by the Grammy nomination this is by far Gibbs’ most mainstream album with features from Offset and Moneybagg Yo. This also had his strangest rollout with Freddie setting up a fake casino website to promote the album. Ultimately all the hype and features came together to create a solid Freddie Gibbs that doesn’t live up to his previous highlights. The wide range of features work great with a great verse from Pusha T and MoneyBagg Yo. This album also has his most varied beats which is expected considering it’s one of his few studio albums without full production from a single producer. Ultimately, this makes this one of his less cohesive albums despite the concept, which is only held together by various celebrity skits by infamous characters like Jeffery Ross and Joe Rogan. While this album pales in comparison to his previous efforts with Madlib and The Alchemist, an average Freddie Gibbs album is still a great hip hop album.

3.

The second Boldy James album this year, this one fully produced by Canadian beatmaker Nicholas Craven. Boldy James still says consistent with his drowsy and cinematic rapping. He always brings a certain maturity and weariness to his tales of drug dealing and trapping. This album stands out in his discography with its beats from Nicholas Craven. He still uses the drumless beats that Boldy James has regularly rapped over but he uses a large amount of pitched up samples. This creates a unique atmosphere for Boldy to rap over. Boldy also shows his ability to carry an album by himself only one feature on this album. This album continues to show Boldy consistency slowly building one of modern hip hop’s most impresive discography.

2.

A surprise drop from billy woods he shows his ability to create unique soundscapes and vivid and abstract lyrcisim. This album is fully produced by Messiah Muzik creating consistency within the album last shown on his 2019 album Hiding Places. While it doesn’t reach the heights of that album Church is still one of the most lyrically interesting albums of the year. This is one of his most abstract and personal albums with woods lyrics diving into his mindstate. More of listening of this album is required to fully understand the lyrics and see how it compares to the rest of his amazing discography.

1.

A new Björk album has to be a good week for music. Her first album in 5 years this really goes shows how as Björk has aged her music has only gotten stranger and more experimental. This has her strangest instrumentals with a plethora of genre influences. It also continues her more recent trend of having multiple colloborations on an album. This has by far her most colloborations with all of them blending perfectly with the glitchy and emotional tone of the album. This includes colloborations with her two children adding to theme of family throughout the album. Ultimately this may be one of Björk’s most divisive albums but to me shows she continues to innovate almost 30 years into her solo career and more listens will only continue to show the complexity of Björk’s tenth album.