Sean Sharp's Diary

Where'd Druski go?

Man what a pretty lackluster outing. I recently got into some of his hits and was wondering if this would have some more of that spice but unfortunately, it gets pretty pretty pretty generic here.

An unfortunate offshoot. My favorite part of this whole thing is the end of 'between you and shadows'. It was the first moment I darted to see which song I was on so I could remember it once I finished the album, only to find that it was just a detached outro of the song. Womb will always be my favorite, and the long wait may have left me several years ago. I may have grown out of this style of music, too. When I compare this to what I'm listening to in 2025, there isn't much that is similar. I used Womb as well as The Weeknd's 'After Hours' as my main points of inspiration for my own music for a year. As many others have said, there is a bit more acoustic in here than anything else they've done. I'm open to the idea, but they don't do much in terms of blending the acoustic sound into it, and it just feels like it was placed near the more traditional Purity Ring songs.

I miss the days when Mura Masa dropped, and I was storming to see what crazy production he whipped up. I support artists who change their style as it shows growth, but like a doomed relationship, I have not grown with them. Neat little sound pieces here and there, but it seems to be catering to an audience that doesn't include me. That, or he has lost a lot of inspiration and is just pumping out anything he can think of. It's not like it's bad; it's just a more standardized style of dance music. Some of this I would imagine playing at a decently cheap club somewhere tropical, and instead of dancing, people are more socializing. Like a mixer, or something similar. No hate, just not much love either.

At this point, you know if you're going to love or hate this. Never go into listening to a Martin Garrix album expecting something new, but if you love the 2010s radio-tailored sound he creates, he's your guy. Ten years ago, I would have loved this because it is well-made. A lack of innovation can kill a large fan base, except for those few diehards. EDM is represented by artists like this, and Martin is one of its poster children. I hope one day EDM can regain some variety, returning to a more mainstream sound, but trends are cyclical. Since EDM had its time in the spotlight last decade, it'll probably take some time for that to happen as all the previous A-listers continue or fizzle out and others look to mimic their style.

A real everything bagel of an album. Love what DJ Snake did for mainstream EDM in the 2010s, but it's Groundhog Day for him. He can't escape. Every song on this album features a different popular EDM style from the 2010s. It runs as a good resume track sheet, but doesn't show any depth. I can definitely tell he knows how to make just about any style of EDM-influenced music, which is impressive, but it really only scratches the surface of what these different genres have to offer. No one ever becomes a diehard fan of someone who just genre-jumps every song.

Moody as ever, Two Feet strikes a chord with this one. Like a literal single chord, not a whole lot of variety here, but if you like Two Feet's signature style, you'll like this. I'm not sure if it was accidental or intentional, but I'll give him props for it either way. The ooo-ing on "Remember Us?" is just slightly different from the ooo-ing on "Nostalgia". If this was intentional, I love the clever idea of a slightly adjusted melody from one song to the next when "Nostalgia" is looking back at a previous time that "Remember Us?" refers to. The downside to this is that the two songs sound EXTREMELY similar. I mentioned earlier that Two Feet doesn't branch out much creatively here, but these two songs are nearly exact copies to my ears. The rest of the songs could be a (two)footnote.

I hate to say it, NF, but you might be WASHED UP. As I grow older and listen to these albums and EPs by artists I grew up with, it becomes readily apparent which ones are evolving with the times and which others will serve as checkpoints along a few-year span. With this EP, NF strikes me as the ladder. Some voices are perfectly suited for a certain style of music, and NF excels at this melodramatic rap, which can sometimes slow down for a sad song. Unfortunately, that is not part of the zeitgeist in the 2020s. Much like many artists from the 2010s who have fallen off, it's not that they've forgotten their craft; rather, both the public and individuals move on from certain styles as they grow. So yes, NF can still have a long-lasting career, but his fans will come and go as they grow since NF's music style refuses to evolve.

This return to their roots is quite satisfying, as they display a significant amount of new evolution in how they represent pop punk. Resting at the heart of one of the main themes of the album, their transformation over the past decade is evident. The Neighbourhood just came out with "Ultrasound," which I feel this review will echo many of the same feelings as I have towards that one. 5SOS is the first mainstream boy band I have ever seen age gracefully. Adding new elements, synths to the instrumentals, and fun chord progressions, this shows that 5SOS is making music for the beauty of the art. 12/20 Update: After a week, I have had a hard time wanting to relisten to much of this. While I think the album works well as a whole and do appreciate the unique application of standard pop in this more punky style, I don't think the songs are as gripping as I first thought.

On the positive side of things, it's nice to see 2010's EDM artists that haven't changed a bit work together as it may produce some new ideas. The realistic side is that this mainly just sounds like Alan Walker's brand. Only in slight moments can you see any influence of what you would call Steve Aoki. This may be due to the fact that Alan Walker's music is so recognizable and Steve Aoki tends to make more "generic" EDM in the sense that you would likely not know it's his song if you didn't know beforehand. These artists know their craft and are good at it but seem to be too comfortable to make something that may interest anyone but diehards.

A let down from the standard that Bruno usually holds. By far and away his most boring album to date. Every track on here sounds nice but nothing really stands out that heavily. "I Just Might" being the lead single is the catchiest and by default becomes my favorites since the rest do not differ all that much. "Risk It All" and "Cha Cha Cha" do add a little bit a spice that the rest of the tracks sincerely miss but do not has other gripping elements like an addicting chorus or hypnotic drums to really draw me in. It may do the trick for others, just not me personally. "God Was Showing Off" was the only other track I thought the chorus was fairly interesting from and it does have my favorite lyrics on the who shebang. Given Bruno's impeccable track record, I assume next time he will be back with something I'll appreciate a bit more but his usually extended wait will have me a bit more impatient than ususal.

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.

More of the same from Two Feet. I could literally copy & paste my review from his previous EP, "Drunken Fits of A Modern Age" and it would pretty much still be spot on. The songs are just exactly what you would expect. "Lost Your Ghost" does features some brighter piano which is a pleasant addition to the mix but it's not like it's a completely new sound. It's just been a hot minute since I've seen even that little amount of variety in his music. He's got this sound down to a science but sometimes it's good to experiment.

Amir floated around the hype of Drake and PND throughout the 2010s but never really broke out despite it seeming inevitable. It's pure speculation from the public's part on what happened considering that he did have some decent success with some of his work during that time. Fast forward several years and he has released two albums in back to back years. Technically his debut, "after." released in 2024 which I wasn't a huge fan of. Now "LOOKING FOR THE NEAREST EXIT" has arrived and I think Amir is stuck a bit in the past. When he was supposed to find his success. Some of the songs here are downright forgettable or generic but I don't think that those summarize the project as a whole. "CRASH" has an addictive melody while paying homage to some of vocal styles of the 2010s melodic rap scene. Meanwhile, "LAST TIME" slows down a bit for a softer ride that you don't often see within the genre. "SOS" also serves as a nice outro, really emphasizing on the use of processed vocals to the point where you can't quite understand him but I see this in a way similar to Kanye's humming at the end of "Runaway". The dullness of the rest of the album combined with these highlights balances out quite heavily. I'm not sure if it's rust or just living a bit in the past, but Amir seems to be slowly tinkering away at creating some good songs, just a decade too late.

The varied use of instrumental ideas and textures, along with different vocal styles, seems to bode well for this record, as it suits its narrative. There may be more that could have been done in total. Keeping an album centered on a specific sound is obviously a challenging task, given that one must maintain the album's focus on its theme while also introducing new ideas to prevent it from becoming dull. Short albums often result from this, as artists struggle to create an ever-evolving sound that doesn't stray too far from the beaten path. At 47 minutes, this is by no means a short album and often delivers on that evolution. As a whole, however, some of the core elements remain too similar. As I alluded to in the opening paragraph, this album achieves a specific vibe and usually succeeds. The soft, sunbathed sound they go for here often leaves me unengaged with the lyrics, as they don't seem to have much weight on the enjoyment of the sound. I think that for specific genres, it can be both a blessing and a curse, as lyrics can make or break your work, such as in rap. This brand of pop is the opposite. The lyrics can be good or bad, but they won't significantly affect my opinion. Not unless the lyrics are just downright horrendous, which they aren't here. The topics generally stick to relationship-related things, but do step out of the box on "Personal Cathedrals," where they sing about the materialistic and selfish lifestyle people live. A topic that isn't usually explored in pop music like this, and I think it works well, being the best-written song on here. It's challenging to categorize this genre as a whole, as it does have some range in its instrumentals; however, I prefer to describe this type of music as Sunflower Pop. A warm feeling and glow, which is entirely fitting considering the name of the album. "Pretty Places" is a prime example of this, as it evokes the same great feeling as other songs I would classify as similar, such as "Waterfalls" by TLC or "Unwritten" by Natasha Bedingfield. There are others, but the point is clear. The closer, "Hold Out," also does a standout job of this, but is much softer, with almost a sadder feel to it. The musical equivalent of a supportive hug. A few songs on here miss at points, with the major one being "Paradise". The pre-chorus absolutely smashes it, being catchy and featuring a great build. The backing features wavy synths, but when it reaches a climax, the synth abruptly fades away, and they simply repeat the phrase "Paradise" over and over again. Disappointing to say the least. A constant use of general guitar and oo-ing and ah-ing throughout here also causes several songs to blend. There is a bass on here that I would typically like, but given the vibe of the album as a whole, it feels out of place. It's most prevalent on "Lucky to Get Him" about halfway through the song, where there is a much more gritty dance part. If this style were embraced elsewhere throughout the album, I think it would work better. However, on this song in particular, it feels a bit out of place, even though it doesn't necessarily sound bad by any means.

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.