Sean Sharp's Diary

For some reason I felt this coming in his discography. Have always had a love-hate relationship with his music. On one hand a lot of it is the epitome as corny and other time I can't help but appreciate how well written the melodies and the actual music is. He knows how to make catchy music but not necessarily good music, but he very often brings the two together accidentally. Starting with the negatives, some of the lyrics and songwriting on here is piss poor. Sounds like an edgy 15 year old that hates his parents for no real reason. "Superman", "Mommy's Little Monster", "Right Thing, Wrong Time". All contain this self-deprecating attitude that becomes old very quick, even if you haven't listened to his prior work. I think he shines brightest when doing what he typically does, pop. This punk rock sounds dated, but what punk rock isn't a product of it's time and it's likely something he knew going into making this. It feels like something not for the listeners but for himself. Circling back to what I mentioned earlier, he does stumble across fun, catchy songs. "Catalyst", "Still Want You", and "Otherside" all fall within this. The feature on "Still Want You" does take away a bit of the enjoyment as his vocals do not match this type of music whatsoever in my opinion. Looking at their background, they make "heavy synth pop - Real Rockers". Not sure what that means. But I don't think this qualifies. The rest of song where Bryce is actually singing is the catchiest on here. The other songs fall more into this category too where I just want Bryce to be singing cuz his pop vocals do translate well into this punkier style. Overall, I hate that I like some of this as much as I do considering how bad some parts are. I would feel I'm doing a disservice saying this is average overall.

Not sure why they landed on calling this "California Calling" as there isn't much of anything that sounds like California's ambiance. It does have some good rich synths throughout but I wouldn't call this too much of an upgrade of their last team up project, "Flashback Fm" back in 2021. While the production in good, this could have been made by Mome back in 2016 when he released "Panorama". I would also say that his more interesting work still remains on that record. This serves more as a synth-pop background for Ricky Ducati to lounge around on. Not sure I'm really a fan of that set up either. Ricky's voice isn't always bad but you can tell sometimes it's like he's a dog toy getting chewed on. The air is being forced out of his lungs at points and it's a bit rough around the edges. There are definitely highlights though. "Do You Know Me" is a softer song on here that is a bit more fleshed out and as a result makes it a more engaging and interesting listen. "In Your Arms" almost sticks the landing with a very catchy chorus but Ricky might have been trying to do a little to much on it. That's TBD on my end though. Then the best piece on here is "Don't Forget Yourself". The most California sounding, however still nothing close to justifying the name of the album, it blends in some guitar backing to make for a more upbeat experience where a lot of these feel like a drive at night on a highway in a city. The melody on the chorus is perfect and the production goes hand in hand with Ricky's voice. Definitely the best song these two have collaborated on. Mome's 5 year gaps between releases doesn't give me much hope for the future considering he doesn't really seem to improving or evolving that much as an artist but he does have his occasional highlights.

A very colorful album. The rapping & singing isn't really the forefront. These energetic beats are really the draw here. The opener "eva" is a prime example of this as the main melody is mixed so much higher than the vocals and I really hope it was intentional because this might be one of the only songs I've ever heard where this unorthodox mixing style works perfectly. The wacky ideas sometimes lose me here and there like on "that's right daddy" and "The Iron Giant" but generally speaking it's pretty fun overall. "Sabine" is also a nice closer given the more R&B choice over the pop rap scattered throughout the rest of the album.