Welcome to Aram's Music Reviews

An upcoming programmer's thoughts on his favorite music

Kanye West

Ye

"Ye" is Kanye West's eigth studio album of his career and his second of five seven-track albums. It was released on June 1st, 2018. Ye attempts to use Kanye's bipolar disorder as an outlet to creating music. His lyrics are immersive once again, however the production was different than other albums. The music itself and production was calming yet powerful and loud at times, such as the background guitar in "Ghost Town". Kanye also uses his favorite production method by far, sampling, throughout the album. Six out of seven songs include samples, the most obvious being the sample from the 60s, "Take Me For a Little While" by The Royal Jesters. Kanye has a knack for finding brilliant songs that aren't well known and transforming them into lively, immersive tracks just like "Ghost Town". The opening song, "I Thought About Killing You" is an opening conversation Kanye has with himself. Given his bipolar disorder, this could possibly imply that Kanye West is in fact being a narcissist and loves himself, while the other side of him wants to kill himself. The "you" in question here is Kanye himself. "All Mine" is possibly the best track on the album because of the nostalgic Kanye sound. The immersive organ at the beginning along with the sexual lyrics remind of us the Kanye that from earlier years that established himself in the rap argument itself. Possibly the most descriptive song on the album is "Yikes". In this song, Kanye emphasizes the power of drugs and compares it to that of his bipolar disorder. He claims that "**** could get menacin', frightenin'". This line compares how just as drugs can get frightening and deadly at times, so can bipolar disorder, as the manic state can cause him to be frantic and erratic. The song highlights the real impacts of his disorder on his life and puts everything into perspective. Overall, the album is consistent, the lyrics are hit or miss (given the erraticness in "All Mine"), but the production displays the usual Kanye prowess.

Final Verdict: 7/10

KIDS SEE GHOSTS

"KIDS SEE GHOSTS" is the collaborative album written by Kanye West and Kid Cudi, realeased on June 8th, 2018. It is part of Kanye's various releases occurring in 2018, all 7 songs a piece. While some may argue against the stylistic decision by the Kanye, Pusha T, President of Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music label, defended it: "Man, if we can't kill you in seven songs, we don't really need to be doing the music." The album sheds light on their mental illnesses, Kanye West's bipolar disorder and Kid Cudi's depression. In spite of that, the album is a great production itself with all of samples used, such as the 1930s Christmas song "What Will Santa Claus Say (When He Finds Everybody Swingin')" by Louis Prima in 4th Dimension, or even the sample of Kurt Cobain's guitar riff in Cudi Montage. Amidst all the beauty of Kanye's productional prowess and lyrics, the album is chaotic. The chaos, however, may be portraying the chaos within his and Kid Cudi's mind. Kid Cudi had taken himself to rehabilitation for the case of suicidal urges under depression. The chaos may be hinting at what's going on behind the scenes. The two artists use this chaos to fuel their most descriptive lyrics, such as Kanye's verse in "Reborn". Overall, the two artists use this album as a source to relay their emotions to their fans, and it is done quite well. There can't be too many criticisms about the album; everything, from production to samples all the way to lyrics, were exquisite. It's one of the hottest albums of the year, and for good reason.

Final Verdict: 8/10

Greta Van Fleet

From the Fires (EP)

The opening roars of the hardened guitar riff in "Safari Song" hint to the obvious influence of the band that is displayed throughout the EP in the likes of Led Zeppelin. Some like to call the band "Greta Van Zeppelin" because of the similar rock sound that the band portrays. Everything from the impressive vocals of Josh Kiszka to the surrounding drums of Daniel Wagner, it all reminds us rock fans of the famous band from the '70s. The band is made up of three brothers, which play the bass, guitar, and vocals and their cousin who plays the drums. The music on the EP even seems closely knit together. It truly does feel like a couple of relatives gathered in a garage making music, just like their "Highway Tune" music video would suggest. Every song on their first work is powerful. Past the strong opening riffs on "Highway Tune" and "Safari Song", the guitar sound itself suggests the influence of blues players from the past such as Eric Clapton. The two most powerful songs on the album are most definitely the two songs mentioned before. They are loud, intense, and simply a showcase of their raw talent. The other songs on the EP shouldn't be forgotten. "Flower Power" is a beautiful song in which the band uses their harmonics to create an acoustic atmosphere that is creative in its own right. Throughout the EP, the band shows us a little bit of everything and all they have to offer. Sure, they sound inexplicably close to Led Zeppelin (which by the way, they have never admitted much influence by them), but I can't say they aren't good at it. Every aspect of them just takes me down memory lane. You can't help but reminisce your first albums from Led Zeppelin. I know I wasn't alive at the time, but I was still young in my own right when I first heard Zeppelin's sound. All in all, there is one thing to keep in mind with this band. They are young and still evolving. We're sure to see them evolve and create their own type of music and sound later on. Again, they may sound like a past band, but what we get in return is a band that has talent and isn't afraid to show it...even Robert Plant(Led Zeppelin vocalist) has admitted to their talent of sounding like his own band.

Final Verdict: 9/10

Anthem of the Peaceful Army

The newest collection of music from the Detroit band is one where I have mixed feelings about. On one hand, the band is attempting to establish themselves and prove the doubters who compared them to Led Zeppelin wrong, but they also are still sticking to the same sound in a sense. This was a highly anticipated album on my end, but something about gave me mixed feelings. On one hand there were beautiful, amazing tracks of the likes of "You're the One" and "Anthem", where I feel the band made great strides towards becoming a true band straying away from the Led Zeppelin sound-alikes. On the other hand, though, the band has popular songs from the album in "Lover, Leaver", and while I do think it may be a good, maybe even great song in itself, it's still lacking the uniqueness to me. It's popular because it sounds like something straight off of Led Zeppelin's albums. The encouraging aspect here though is that the band obviously has talent, just as Robert Plant said. It isn't easy to sound like Led Zeppelin, yet they're able to do just that to the point where a member of the past band admitted it himself. I just wish the band would use their wonderful talent in other ways. If they don't, then I just fear of the band being remembered under Led Zeppelin's shadow., which would be a great dissapointment to a person like me who loves hard rock so much and wishes for a band this that is willing to bring that style back. Their harmonies in "Anthem" and "Mountain of the Sun" are unparalelled as of right now in the rock side of music. I've been riding the Greta Van Fleet bandwagon since their EP release. I see so much potential and talent in them that I just hope it doesn't go to waste. This review might be a little short, but overall, the band is encouraging and shows flashes, but just isn't there yet in terms of an established, unique sound. The music itself is good, even great at times, just isn't unique enough to where I would love to see them be.

Final Verdict: 7/10

Travis Scott

Astroworld

Easily one of the most anticipated hip-hop albums of the year, Astroworld lived up to its expectations. Travis Scott in this latest work keeps his party mentality. Other than "Wake Up", there isn't any song that can't kick off a party. Travis is known for this vibe in his music, and surely did deliver just that. From the powerful high-hats to the amazing autotuned voice, the intro was everything you could want. Frank Ocean was featured in "Carousel", the second song of the album, delivering his established harmonic voice that gets the crowd going on the chorus. But then there's "Sicko Mode". "Sicko Mode" was a different monster. Featuring the hip-hop powerhouse that is Drake, the song was sure to be one that catches attention, and it did just that. It starts off with the signature Drake rapping and progresses into a key change with a bass drop and continues from there. "Sicko Mode" is the epitome of a party song. Whether you're in a mosh pit or the stands, you're sure to enjoy this hit, while it packs a punch into your system. The album moves along with the next couple songs that would also get a crowd going, such as "No Bystanders". Later on in the album, the two great tracks, "Yosemite" and "Can't Say" begin playing and immediately you would be pulled into the song with the start of its choruses. They open with the chorus, which usually does capture the listeners. Travis does just that so well here. Take a song like "Yosemite" for example. The track is one that could be listened to in a calming setting but live, well that's a whole other story. The same can be said about "Can't Say", where Travis is at the perfect medium between loud and party-like versus calming and chilling. The album ends with songs "Houstonfornication", where Travis pays homage to the place he was born, Houston, Texas. The ending to the album, "Coffee Bean", was beautiful, simply put. The track was so calming, mellow, just so brilliant. The production of it and the sound of the music itself reminded me a lot of Kanye West style music, sampling, and production. The song features rhythmic drum beats and clean versus by Travis himself and perfect percussion sounds that wraps everything and puts a bow around it...leaving nothing left to desire.

Final Verdict: PERFECT...10/10!