Large Individual's Diary

Oh yeah? was an album I was not very excited for. Steve Lacy is very good at creating single songs that are incredibly catchy, but less so at creating full projects that can at the same consistency. Many artist are like this though, the singles are the best produced songs while the album has the deep cuts, Oh yeah? however suffered from none of the singles hooking me like his previous works. The deep cuts of Oh yeah? likewise are still of Steve Lacy quality, meaning that this album has ok singles with bland & boring album songs, creating a project that maybe has a few nice melodies or chorus, but no song that cuts through as something to point at and say "this is what defines oh yeah?". It's unfortunate because Steve Lacy has delivered some of the best music in the 2020's so far in the Lo-Fis & Gemini Rights, but there just wasn't ever a point in this project where I had to tap in on the song playing because none of them demanded it. I don't think it's necessarily a bad album, but a bland, boring, & disappointing one for sure.

Jpegmafia has been on an insane run since All My Hero's Are Cornballs in 2019, every album has topped the last, until now. Going into Experimental Rap, I had high hopes Peggy would deliver experimental rap flows & bars, as id describe most of his previous work as experimental anyways. However, he instead just delivered either more of the same we've seen from him already or very underwhelming new directions. It's disappointing because even with him going into these more rave esc songs, he just seems to take a surface level approach to them. I thought maybe this album would be similar to I Lay Down My Life in that it had taken me a few listens to really enjoy ILDMY to a point that it became my favorite Jpegmafia album, but even after 3 full listens Experimental Raps is a boring and even uninspired album that feels like it both wants to be something unique & say something while also not straying to far from ILDML & LP!

Unfortunately, Underscores underdelivered on another album for me. having discovered them in 2021 with the album Fishmonger, it was clear that one day they'd have an immaculate album had everything aligned just right. However, despite the catchy singles Music & Do It, U landed pretty flatly for me. none of the songs pick up like Do It & generally feels like they're just doing circles until the next song begins. this is especially disappointing because of 2025's Stardust by Danny Brown, which had two songs featuring Underscores where I thought they excelled at the vibe of the music. generally, it just seems as though my own expectations were significantly higher then they should have been for this album.

This album is a massive miss that feels like Bruno Mars phoning it in. some of his most generic sounding music that's simply aligning with his Puerto Rican side because of how popular Bad Bunny's last album ended up being. Many songs also sound very silk sonic esc but without the touch of Anderson .Paak that brought that project together. I'm not a usual fan of Bruno Mars, but even my fiancé thinks this is a letdown compared to his previous work. This album just doesn't work for me unfortunately.