Sean Sharp's Diary

Listen 1: Time to break out the low rider. Ramirez COOKED with this. I didn't hear one buzzy bass (not that I don't like them) this entire album. Masterclass in focusing attention on fitting a vibe. Listen 2: I made a mistake in the previous portion of this review. There are several buzzy bass filled songs on this but they are all real bass (from what I can tell). Nothing electronic (from what I can tell). The skits on this thing are goofy as hell. Whoever the host is played out those parts perfectly. The end of the album is beautiful too. Instead of just going out with the band jamming, the crowd joins in with the clapping? Perfect way to wrap it up. Rocci's features on this are also killer. The use of him on here is second to none. Utilizing a voice exactly for what it was made to do. Crispy. 1 Week Later: Loved it from the first listen and it has only grew on me. Such a distinct sound on here that has a specific place and feel to it. Ramirez also just has this natural 90's sound to him that slots perfectly into the horns and featuring vocals.

Seems to be their critical magnus opus relative to how their work is usually viewed. For good reason as well. As a long time AJR fan, this hits in every way I want it to with The Big Goodbye being a fantastic beat and overall song. These guys just refuse to make the same thing over and over again and while many people may disagree with that, I don't think I have ever heard them make a song like The Big Goodbye or explore the calm nature of past songs like Turning Out with more care like a majority of this EP. A good way to cap off the summer.

I think I just love his style of music. After yustyna, I had a feeling it wasn't just a one-off, and I was right. His style is obviously not traditionally critically acclaimed, but something about it just resonates with my teenage years, when I listened to EDM and this gritty and dirty style, which I hadn't found before in the genre. Ultimately, I think I love music that is adjacent to other music I already like, but doesn't remind me of anyone directly. This way, I don't feel it's repetitive, yet it doesn't feel weird since it's so out of the ordinary from my usual listening habits. Artemas has that exact niche with me. LOVERCORE just further proves that for me. It doesn't sound exactly the same as his previous work, but it's still in that same vein. Feels fresh but still dedicated to his signature production and vocals.

There are several Pouya songs that I really like/love, and a few are even on this album, but I had only listened to one of his other projects in full prior to this one. I really wanted to give this a good shot since I have some deep love for "Void". Listening to albums that are even 7-8 years old is fun, but sometimes even the aging of an album can start to crack open after only a few years. Not at any fault of his own, as timeless albums are something that nearly every artist chases to some degree, and only a few will ever achieve. Being a product of your time is a part of being human, as we are built by our experiences and the culture that surrounds us. Even modern timeless classics are still modern. How today's generations look at classical music from centuries ago, people will look back upon timeless music from now to a similar degree, regardless of how timeless we say it is. Pouya's album does age itself in just this 3/4th decade since its release, but where it succeeds, it does the heavy lifting. Starting with the weakest aspect of this thing. The lyrics. Bad lyrics have always been around, but the latter 2010s hip-hop scene had a pandemic of its own before COVID. Pouya has come down with a bad case of it here, as the lyrics center around the typical stereotypes of the time, like haters, success, money, and women. Music will always explore these topics, but Pouya exhibits a distinct characteristic of late 2010s rap, where nothing is actually being said when he raps about these subjects. Not only that, but it bounces around from one to another at a whim's notice. I've seen worse regarding that ladder point, but it still exists pretty persistently on "FIVE FIVE". Even the introspective sequel, "Suicidal Thoughts in the Back of the Cadillac, Pt. 2," doesn't really deliver on any great lyrical ability. He does stick mainly to his mental state and messed-up past, but it isn't written in a way that positions him as a poet. There are three main styles of instrumentals on here. The 2010s' gritty trap banger, featuring a southern-influenced guitar tinge over trap beats, and a calmer, subdued electronic production. Some of the songs have a mixture of these. The main culprit for the 2010s gritty trap banger is "Don't Bang My Line". Featuring Night Lovell, he's rather beside the point. The synth in the background plays throughout the entire song and undergoes a change only at certain moments, when a filter blocks out the higher frequencies. To make electronic repeating production feel more organic, a backlog of properly mixed effects needs to be applied. "Back Off Me" is the prime example of how to do this right. Still aggressive in nature from a production standpoint, the bells used at multiple points in the song have an expansive sound, dancing around your speakers instead of remaining static. The southern-influenced guitar tinge complements the album nicely, with songs like "One Time" and "Aftershock" utilizing it at the forefront to bring raw emotion to the track. Something the more electronic tracks fail to do so at points. The calmer electronic production is sparse but presents itself quite well on "Weighting on Me." A strength for Pouya is his ability to write catchy choruses. The worst chorus on here is still good on most rap records. There is one exception, however. On "Weighing on Me", Pouya repeats the same sentence multiple times for the chorus. This practice has its place, but if overdone, it makes it dull and boring. I think Pouya could have pulled it off a bit better with 20% less chorus and 20% more verse in this case, as the song has all the right components around it and would favor verse-heavy lyrics. On the other hand, "Aftershock", "Void", "Handshakes", and "Back Off Me" have A+ work in this field. "Void" is a masterclass in crafting an addictive yet speedy chorus with a melody that defies many traditional formulas. The last two have his signature choppy flow, but break it up with a word or words that sway the melody before he resumes his typical pace. This break in the action creates fun and memorable choruses.

More time to fully flesh out "THY WILL BE DONE" would have been nice. Serving as an immediate follow-up album to "THY KINGDOM COME", this Christmas release lacks the refinery that this rap machine typically provides. I'm sure it comes naturally to them as well to a degree, as they have been delivering music for so long, so consistently, that they have a knack for being able to put together good songs without a ton of reflection time that other artists seem to need with years between albums to deliver something unique and interesting. $uicideboy$ gives you a live broadcast of their change as you see the good, bad, and the ugly in real time with their frequent releases. Due to this, sometimes their projects may miss a little. Overall, I'm okay with this. If an artist is going to take frequent breaks to really find the exact sound and nitpick what songs they release, I expect high quality every time. If an artist always shares their art regardless of whether it's their best or worst, I respect that in its own right. Not everything needs to be the Sistine Chapel. By now, every fan of $b$ should be familiar with their lyrical content considering their lore. This album isn't really any different in that respect. They touch on several topics that they haven't been afraid to explore lyrically before, like their drug addictions, friends turning to foes, anxiety, depression, and their come-up. "Old Addicts, New Habits" and "Angel Grove" are the real standout picks for how they are written lyrically. The former's detailed depiction of being in New Orleans while being depressed, even though they are finding success, paints a vivid picture. Ruby then contrasts it to being bored, but that's better than being on drugs and blacking out. On "Angel Grove", Ruby proposes hijacking a plane with an atom bomb and crashing it into the ocean to save the world. The real kicker is that it's a plot twist, considering how much of society would look at someone with a ton of tattoos that also makes music like $uicideboy$. A textbook example of 'don't judge a book by its cover.' The musical elements of this thing are all over the place. From the vocal effects to the instrumentals to the singing and rapping. They do diversify the sound. Don't get me wrong, however, as a majority of the album is aggressive and probably more aggressive than their last few outings. The complex layering of vocals on songs like "Leviticus" and "Angel Grove" is refreshing, as they consistently find new ways to showcase their vocals. They aren't the best singers in the world, but I would be hard-pressed to name someone who has a wider range of ways their vocals are presented. The unfortunate part of this is that sometimes it doesn't land properly. Taking a step back, the album's last two songs, "Hypernormalisation" and "Fuck Ups", contain some notable missteps at several points. The vocals, especially on "Hypernormalisation", miss quite heavily. Ruby delivers some great lyrical content throughout the album, but often seems to misjudge his tone in relation to the beat. "Fuck Ups" shares this same issue to a degree but also features a half-baked melodic synth that is rather distracting from everything else going on. Then, to round off the album, Ruby has another moment, becoming tone deaf. To end it off on a good note, "BLOODSWEAT" fully gives me what I want from them. Modern hip-hop finds itself in a challenging position, where people still adore the mainstream rap of the late 2010s, but anything that resembles it now is often forgotten or considered a copycat. Artists need to get creative to find ways to advance a genre that is struggling to find its creative space in the mainstream of the mid-2020s. You can't get too crazy with the changes either, because otherwise, you may ostracize fans who may not like something too different from what they already recognize as classics of the genre. $uicideboy$ does have some leeway with this, considering they have such a cult following, and they don't follow mainstream trends of rap. "BLOODSWEAT" features a bass that is perfectly suited for this forward-thinking pursuit of the genre. Not entirely original, as I have heard similar effects before, but this song effectively utilizes distortion on the bass when playing specific notes, showcasing precision in the production rather than simply applying effects to an instrument or synth and hoping for a decent sound. This song also serves as the catchiest. Something I have always loved about $uicideboy$ is their ability to create songs that sound like a nonstop chorus. Where every single melody and lyric is an earworm. "BLOODSWEAT" is the definitive answer for people looking for that kind of song on this album.