Album Reviews6/10
Certified Lover Boy: 86 Minutes of Comfortable, Not Hungry
A grim, ninety-minute chronicle of Drake's ninth toil, wherein guest verses and hooks contend against the tedium of length.
CLAY TRIBUNE / THE ARCHIVE
Category: Album Reviews
Records we have scored.
Album Reviews8.7/10
Laila’s Wisdom: Rapsody Steps Fully Into Her Own Name
A grave chronicle of Rapsody's wisdom-laden record, whose fourteen tracks flow, in patient measure, through soul and solemn rhyme.
Album Reviews8.5/10
Danny Brown Turns Drug Panic Into Post-Punk Rap on Atrocity Exhibition — 8.5/10
A restless, grim record of drug panic and collapse, 15 tracks strong, that never once turns away from its own dreadful subject.
Album Reviews7.5/10
Playboi Carti’s Whole Lotta Red Turns Rap Loud and Rough — and Mostly Pulls It Off
A wild, discordant swing at remaking a voice's sound arrives 24 tracks strong, urgent yet burdened by its own bulk.
Album Reviews8.4/10
Invasion of Privacy Proved Cardi B Was Never a One-Hit Wonder
An album that promises exposure and delivers it, wavering between clamor and quiet confession from a voice unwilling to be one thing.
Album Reviews5.1/10
Donda: The Tighter, Better Record Kanye West Chose Not to Make
A tenth album of vast repetition and grief — ideas of true weight, marred by excess that mars the whole design.
Album Reviews8.8/10
Call Me If You Get Lost Review: Tyler, The Creator’s Most Complete Record — 8.8/10
A wide-ranging rap record moving through soul, jazz and pop, never sitting still, never losing its rap base across sixteen tracks.
Album Reviews8.8/10
Little Simz Builds a Stadium and Whispers Inside It: ‘Sometimes I Might Be Introvert’ Reviewed
A record of swelling strings and bare confession, from stadium address to lone diary entry across many tracks.
Album Reviews8.8/10
Gibbs and Madlib Tighten the Piñata Formula on Bandana — 8.8/10
Freddie Gibbs and Madlib return with a tighter, rougher record than their first, full of force, control, and dark old soul.
Album Reviews8.8/10
Run the Jewels 3: Rage, Focus and a Duo at Their Sharpest
A record of Run the Jewels 3, wherein El-P and his partner rage against power, their chemistry never keener nor more resolute.