Sean Sharp's Diary

First time ever listening to Beach Weather. Immediate comparison is a more upbeat Lord Huron, which I think has its place. This style of music sometimes doesn't grip me from one song to the next, which isn't any fault of Beach Weather's. However, I liked a few songs on here, such as "High or Low Places" & "Hottest Summer on Record." Not too much to say otherwise. I'm sure this band will be around for a while, just based on how bands in this genre have historically developed a slow-burning fan base. It'll be interesting to see what they do next.

Brent returns with a more minimalistic, synth heavy outing. "WASTELAND" has surely broken my expectations with him as some of my favorite modern R&B production is on there. This time around, the same level is there but that minimalistic difference leaves some of the space feeling a bit bare and empty. "have to." is the move full song in that sense while a lot of these other ones are just a tad too slow. "four seasons." is the only other that comes close to what I really love from him but it isn't at that same level. "butterflies." also has some some gorgeous synths at the end of the song that make me wish more of it had it. Overall, I don't have a lot to say about this. Minimalistic in it's style leaves me with not too much to talk about.

Listen 1: Equivalent of throwing paint on a wall. Cool but debatable on if it's good, lucky, or just bad. Wide range of features makes it feel very full, like the lo mein I had a few days ago. Listen 2: Wtf is NOLA. Sounds like absolute garbage until JPEG shows up and tears it up. Bizarre how someone's voice and flow can completely make or break a track. That beat should just be for JPEG and be on a solo project of his. No one else on it should make a peep. Credit where credit's due to the album cover as well. Sums up the how the music sounds quite sufficiently. 1 Week Later: It sounds colorful and sometimes the colors don't mix well. It's fun and wacky and quirky and that's all great but it just doesn't always land the punch. Some flows are just aimless while others grip you before you see it coming. I'm sure the length of the project has something to do with this as well. There's a fair amount of it, that's not filler, but just experimenting. That is always commendable. Experimenting is going to produce some lackluster results but also put out defining art styles. This landed somewhere in the middle. Nothing outright atrocious (other than some of NOLA) but nothing really pushed a boundary that I would consider new. It's diet experimentation.

Listen 1: Beautiful voice. Some parts become very repetitive. He was going for a certain style for sure and he nailed it. It may just not vary enough. TOO consistent one could say. Listen 2: This has the bones of a great album but still kinda ugly on the outside if you get what I mean. Not saying it's bad, don't get me wrong. Has redeeming qualities like TWENTIES and MUD but you could pick 1 or 2 songs and say you've pretty much heard the whole thing. 1 Week Later: TWENTIES is by far and away the best track. This overall works great as a project but for individual songs to listen to, doesn't have a ton or replay-ability. I hope this man finds some more ways to mix this classy, pinky lifted, type sound while making it a bit more addicting. Once he's done that, he will have struck gold.

Listen 1: I have never really gotten into this sound all together but I think this EP does weave together an almost watered down version of it. I don't mean this in a bad way either. It bridges the gap between standard R&B/Pop with some Afrobeats which for me is the kind of music that needs to exist if I will ever fully appreciate genres like Afrobeat or Reggae. I'm sure they are fantastic genres in their own rights, but just like how many of the people on this website or other critic oriented websites look at EDM, it will take more than just a simple run through of Afrobeat's' greatest hits for me to appreciate the genre as a whole. Listen 2: This does have some fun bounce to it but is held a bit short due to it's repetitiveness. Contrary to the first listen as well, I think the boiled down version of mixing this with more mainstream pop does take some of the flavor away. It's a bit of a double standard considering what I previously said, but it's a tough line to walk so sue me for feeling split. 1 Week Later: Truthfully, I will likely forget about this by the years end and will only be reminded when I'm scrolling through all the different things I listened to. The beat for Mr. Media is excellent but unfortunately the melodic element is quite lacking for it to have any sort of long term replayability.

Listen 1: Very soft and soothing album. I think everything on here is a real recorded instrument which he has slowly been shifting towards over the last several years. I like to refer to music like this as sunflower pop. It feels like a beam of light is shining down on you. The danger of sunflower pop, which is relevant to this album, is becoming too stagnant or boring. It's about doing a lot with a little. In the same way Yeezus is a minimalist album for electronic music, "LOOK! I'm Alive" is a minimalist album for pop heads. The quality comparatively is up to debate, don't get me wrong but the simple movement through instruments makes this easy to listen to. Especially as background music, which has it's place. The only slight to this record is "Kissed The Sun". Only song on here that made me want to skip. Listen 2: My second listen just solidified my already existing thoughts. This album is all face value and there's nothing wrong with that. The simple melodies and chill production are just that but they fit what's needed. 1 Week Later: I will almost always listen to his new music but I know deep down I will never like his newest stuff more than his earlier work. He's simply a nostalgia artist for me. I'm sure he will have a song here and there that I really like but overall, unless something changes drastically, I don't see his music style being something that I'm head over heels for. This album is decent listen front to back and definitely delivers on what it's trying to get across but I'm not ready for that message.

Initial: Love me some new JID. I've been noticing a lot of rappers, especially new age acclaimed ones, fading away from a typical radio song structure of 2 or 3 choruses with a few verses and maybe a bridge. This is a dangerous game to play and really shows who is a step above the rest. I believe that if you are able to make not only an interesting listen that doesn't have a lot of repeating melodies or choruses, for it to really stand out, it needs to be replayable. Unfortunately, I think JID isn't quite there yet. I love his choruses on prior albums and his memorable verses. He does have a good few of them on here like on Gz. Overall though, this is still just missing that extra umpf that pushes this into that next stratosphere of artistic rap. 1 Week Later: I would call this a bit overly ambitious. I heard those preluxe songs and assumed they were preluxe because they sound cool but they don't really have any gripping moments. The album as a whole follows some of that same trend. There are some cool spots specifically but there is just so much going on here that it all gets jumbled together at times. Nearly every song has a "Well X was cool but Y was a bit weird".

Yeah, a wait that was worth it. On "The Sailor" he was going down an a more introspective route but it didn't feel fully fleshed out. Considering it was only a year after his debut Amen, there didn't seem to be much time to look back on. Now that it's been 6 years, that introspection has some life to it.

This has been a fun spin Medasin has taken over the last few years and this just goes further down that path. Never would have seen this coming if you told me he would be making electronic jazz back in 2018 but I'm still as happy to listen as ever.

A part of what has always made Flume so appealing is the wide range of sound he achieves with such a sprawling cast of artists. Flume doing this with Emma and the recent JPEG EP are essentially Flume in a box. Not that Emma Louise (or JPEG) don't work with Flume, but it doesn't leave much room for different styles with a lot of these follow a lot of the same structure and sound with screaming synths. Still evolved from previous work, it is all in the vein of Flume's more pop centered songs and lacks that diversity which is dearly missed.

You're listening to an Ed Sheeran album. Simple as that. Got some good range of tracks with some being catchy, some being ballads, and some that are just kinda forgettable. If you are listening to Ed Sheeran waiting for his "big breakthrough" I don't quite know what to tell you. This dude knows his sound and is pretty good at it so I wouldn't ever expect some big brain culmination album where he is going to do ???. Listening to this and expecting something other than what he has put out over the last decade and some is only tricking yourself. You're either on the boat or off it with him.

An album of ranging quality, not in one song to another, but certain aspects as a whole. Starting with the good/great. The lyrical songwriting is S-Tier. If not for the other more negative parts that I'll get into in a minute, this album could go down in history as a great for it's song writing. The down turn of this is coincides with a lot of these pop/folk/acoustic artists that are looking to essentially follow in the footsteps of Noah Kahan. Matt Maeson has made some great pop crossovers and would love if he continued to do so but instead this album feels very stripped and sticks very plainly to some gritty folk/acoustic rock. It all comes together rather generically. I'm all for artists evolving, but it feels like this wasn't a great step for Matt outside of his ability as a lyricist

A standard artist of his time, he delivers quite consistently but doesn't do much to really evolve. When he first broke out, it seemed like his style was going to be much more chill than it was. His hit, 'Sunset Lover', filled a gap that wasn't Petit Biscuit's main genre. That's okay, though, because he typically delivers time and time again. This is no different. A short and sweet EP with the highlight on 'Close Your Eyes'. While it's nothing inventive, he does still find a way to keep a sound that's so 2010s feel exciting.

Sticking to their guns, Mansionair delivers more of their signature atmospheric electronic pop ballads. To me, they have also struck me as a slightly more pop-driven RUFUS DU SOL. The unfortunate part of it is that I think RUFUS can typically create that big tension that is best fitted for longer form EDM tracks without some massive drop, but more of a world of textures where you get lost in it. Mansionair seems to often aim for that same feeling, but run into either having songs that are too boring when they try to extend the build and momentum of the song, or they feel stunted by not having enough time to accumulate. So the answer to each issue I have with their songs they can't seem to do right when they do what I want them to. Bit of a head scratcher. That said, it's not like it's all bad news. I am a bit of a nitpicking maniac, and this is good overall. The percussion on Orbit, stellar. The production of the synths on Lose Yourself Again is silky. Overall, they are reliable and at the very least, that is a sign of a good artist that does not seem to fall off in terms of quality, even if they're not bringing much that's new to the table anymore.

DLG. always comes in with some very intriguing production but often misses on making a song stick. That glue that keeps you coming back. This entire album has the backbone and production to leave a lasting impression but a lot of the vocal melodies, and maybe his voice altogether, just fade into nothing. It feels aimless while the production feels full of purpose. If he can learn to balance these two elements a bit more, I think he can really make some great tunes.

They may need a hiatus. All of my favorite work of theirs is when I haven't been bombarded with new music by them over the last several years. This could be me growing tired of their style year after year. Or it could be that they do the best when they save up some of these half-baked ideas and put them all on a longer album when they've had more time to flesh them out. When they were brand new, I listened to everything they put out on repeat. By the time they released World War Joy in 2019, I had lost that same excitement for their releases. Then they went on break for 3 years and released So Far So Good in 2022, which was my favorite album of that year (I know, crazy). Now they're slipping down that same path where Summertime Friends was pretty good, then No Hard Feelings lost me a bit. Breathe feels like an improvement, but it lacks any sort of creativity from them. What made So Far So Good so good was the fact that they were trying new ideas and sounds. When they go on these streaks of non-stop releases, that creativity is refocused into pumping out traditional pop/future bass EDM songs, mimicking their golden years. It's time for them to move on from those days.

I have never been to a party so early before, and I'm happy he's getting his praise! I first discovered Leon back in 2018, and now, 7 years later, he is finally blowing up. Feels like a long time coming. MUTT was pretty good, obviously, and this EP plays well as a mini-successor to that album. Some neat production on 5MoreMinutes that I've never heard before, but couldn't feel more R&B. Baccarat also deserves its props for that guitar. Oh, lord, does it hit right. It's smooth and polished overall and delivers exactly what you would want Leon Thomas to be doing.

Made for TikTok but still hits. I would almost call this montage or supercut music. Exists to accompany cool edits of sports or TV or movies or whatever. Diplo wisely used Project Pat on this all over the place. For some reason, Project Pat is the perfect rapper to use for these types of edits.

Back with their unique twist on Future Bass, MEMBA are still stuck on what made them stand out in the first place. They first emerged with a brand of EDM that was a nice offshoot of the typical David Guetta or Martin Garrix wannabes. Several years down the line, and they can't seem to find a new path to follow. I'm starting to fear they will fall into a washing machine of their Eastern-influenced masked version of the genre, not really innovating.

It's been a few years since ILLENIUM has dropped and I can't say you could really tell it's been that long. These tracks could have been made at the same time as his self-titled effort and I would not have known the difference. For a three year gap, I was really hoping for more development, especially given how formulaic the electronic genre is right now. Not sure if this is too many hands in the pot given the TWENTY-THREE different producers that worked on this behemoth. A little stat breakdown of producers per album. "Ashes": 1. "Awake": 3. "Ascend": 11. Starting to get a bit excessive. "Fallen Embers": 12. "Illenium": 11. "Odyssey": TWENTY-THREE! Where even is ILLENIUM here? There are more producers than tracks. This many different people working on something that ILLENIUM could have made with Dabin is insane. It still sounds nice and pretty and polished though. Like to a tee. This album could be a baseline for AI learning languages to produce this genre. It is all "perfect" in the most boring way. My favorite song from his last album was "Shivering". Great change to the typical pace of his genre and perfectly mixes a harder rock style featuring Spiritbox. I think it was pretty apparent that he had struck a new working medium and this time he returned with two more attempts at this. "Slave to the Rithm" with Bring Me The Horizon and "War" with Lo Spirit. "amo" by BMTH is one of my all time favorites due to it's excellent mixture of rock and the electronic sound sweeping the airwaves at the time of it's release. Maybe not a BMTH diehard fan fave, but to me it's timeless. Seeing them on here gave me an optimistic outlook. Hearing the song was somewhat opposite. The mixing on this rock-edm hybrid must be a nightmare to do, even with 23 people, with all the blazing synths, screaming vocals, and heavy guitar. So the beginning of the song suffers heavily. As far as the rest of it, the magic just isn't there like on "Shivering". "War" does pull this off a bit better but I still doesn't capture that same flame. The features slathered across here have quite the track record and I'm sure ILLENIUM is aware of the different crowds he is pulling with these. Mako, Ryan Tedder from OneRepublic, Elley Duhe, Zeds Dead, Dean Lewis, Bastille, Dabin, Alok, the aforementioned Bring Me The Horizon. He even got Kid Cudi. The wide range of vocal style is what does keep the run time refreshing. Just a ton of people with great voices that are easy to listen to. "I'll Come Runnin" did catch my ear as I'm down bad for Zeds Dead's production style. "Not Ordinary" with Kid Cudi also accomplishes what it needs to for me. It doesn't embrace the wall of music a lot of these other songs have. Don't get me wrong though, it still has that big production feel to it. I'm not quite sure if ILLENIUM will ever do anything different. I simply ask for one excellent song each album. As long as I get that, I'll be happy.