March 2024 New EDM!

- This 13-track album can be characterized as a very lyrical melodic quintessential Ariana Grande record. Vocal runs everywhere along with truthfully sensational production from Max Martin. Sometimes minimalism prevails and the subtleties within all the drums, snares, bass, and fills match and create so much energy that matches Ariana's singing so well.

- Personally, it's hard to listen to this record as with a heavy lack of collaborations it feels that upon every next track you listen to, her voice becomes more squealy, squeaky, which is not of anyone to blame as it's inherent/expected from her vocal range and style. That's why approaching this album requires groups of songs with breaks in between. Lots of albums can sound the same within themselves, however eternal sunshine falls under this category simply due to her voice. The production really varies across the board which you can't say about a lot of other albums.

- So as a whole, this album really exceeded my expectations. It's honestly brilliantly sonically cohesive with a wide range of moods through this "eternal sunshine" landscape and a lot of that is in part to Max Martin's production here, this guy is ALWAYS cooking. The synths and drops are so attractive and refreshing. As for songwriting, it comes in a blunt almost-sassy "whatever happens happens" lyricism and storytelling, in which the lead single "yes, and?" set the tone for. However, there is also a very reflective tone too, seen in "bye", "don't wanna break up again", and title track "eternal sunshine." This adds a much needed sense of depth to the album.

Rating = 7.8/10

Favorite Tracks = "supernatural", "the boy is mine", "yes, and?",

3/14 = Everything I Thought It Was - Justin Timberlake

- I didn't listen to every song on this 18-track record and that's because it features rather linear lyric-focused songwriting (aka boring to me). There's also fluid instrumentals throughout the album with its occasional flairs of great melodic lines and finishes, typical of early to mid 2010s Justin Timberlake.

- Lead single "Selfish" is a great choice, though it's a bit laid back. Other than that I've pretty much described the bulk of the album here. Also worth mentioning a lot of r&b in the mix I noticed.

Rating = 6/10

Favorite Tracks = "Drown", "F**kin' Up The Disco"

3/14 = CAN YOU SEE ME? - Rezz

- Rezz is a pretty big EDM artist known for some dark sound design, and with this album cover and aesthetic we can definitely assume to get some more of this

- I don't listen to much of her work, but she has some intriguing collabs in this album with Blanke, Subtronics, INZO.

- After listening to the album, I can say that I don't enjoy most of it. It has very little melody and insists on a very dark, heavy, intense midtempo throughout the album. To me, a song without a melody is a song without a soul. With that being said there are some really amazing moments, like the tempo switch in "Black Ice" with Subtronics, that one is really clean. The INZO collab is also such a great concept, it's legit an INZO track but set in hell. The samples and drops are great in that track. Throughout the album just comes such pitchless, dead, and empty instrumentation and synths, although it's done so stylistically, seriously the lack of melody killed this one for me. Midtempo can be good, just not if there's no melody or theme. This stuffs like a horror movie soundtrack.

Rating = 6/10

Favorite Tracks = "Black Ice"

3/15 = Simulation - The DLC - Virtual Riot

- We have a 14 track remix/VIP album of the original Simulation released in 2021. Virtual Riot hasn't released much music since that which was pretty sad, but the wait all led up to what we have now, Simulation - The DLC

- I love the composition and structure of this album. First of all, the teaser and visuals were incredible, and this is a very deserving DLC of Simulation, as Simulation was seriously a groundbreaking innovative album that was ahead of its times. It's an iconic album with some of the most insane tracks and sound design ever, its seriously amazing. An absolutely legendary album, and so here in the DLC we get tons of remixes from notably Subtronics, Mr. Bill, Dani Demand, and a lot of others, along with several VIPs from Virtual Riot himself, which is such a treat. If all the tracks were just remixes then this album would be pretty disappointing, but having these VIPs which count as new VR music is so great.

- And that just leads me to say that this album is seriously too much to hawndle, it's so good that I didn't even like fully grasp these songs yet. I will say that some remixes just don't hit the same as the original, like "Neon Angel - VIP" or "Back In Time - Dani Demand Remix." I will release a more formal album review later when I have more time to digest it, but for now, these VIPs and remixes are just shaking my head as I listen to it more and more. This is about to be legendary.

Rating = 9/10

Favorite Tracks = "Simulation - VIP", "Fork Funeral - Mr. Bill Remix", "This Could Be Us - Franky Nuts & Oliverse Remix", "Exile - The Forgotten Remix", "We're Not Alone - VIP"

3/15 = Sport Mode EP- CHYL

- A 5-track EP here from CHYL that I'm a BIG FAN of. Love the racing theme and racing music here. Most of the time CHYL's speed house style doesn't resonate with me but she does a lot of blending and experimentation in this EP, mixing some phonk samples in "Full Speed (feat. Aviella)" and "Bring It Back" and adding a really sick halftime section in "Voyage" which is the lead single in my eyes.

- CHYL has maybe found her sound here in this EP, as the production overall is just so polished and whole within the samples, bass, vocal chops, and drops. This EP definitely exceeded my expectations, I didn't anticipate these tracks to hit THIS HARD, especially "Bring It Back", that song is so heat.

Rating = 8.6/10

Favorite Tracks = "Bring It Back", "Full Speed (feat. Aviella)", "Voyage"

3/15 = Deeper Well - Kacey Musgraves

- I'll keep this one brief. Country star Kacey Musgraves has a very unique, recognizable voice that is so unique that I feel like it's its own niche. With this album of 14 tracks comes a more somber, laid back, heart-to-heart songwriting. I feel like she is talking directly to my soul while she is singing, especially with the album cover staring me in the eye.

- So anyway, all of these "comfort country" songs just aren't appealing to me. There are some nice moments, nice lullabies, and nice melodies but as a whole this genre isn't for me, whether it's the mood, pacing, voice, or lack of drums. Also, I pretty much skimmed through this album so I definitely missed out on a lot of the depth that defines this album.

Rating = 6.5/10

Favorite Tracks = "Giver / Taker", "Lonely Millionaire"

3/22 = WE DON'T TRUST YOU - Future, Metro Boomin

- As someone who isn't involved in the rap scene, all I know is that this is the first of a double drop between Future and Metro Boomin, where the second album is coming next month. Through this first record, it's safe to admit that most of this album sounds the same. The production from Metro Boomin is rather safe with brief moments of neat samples introduced. I didn't pay attention to much of the lyrics, so I can really only comment on production. It's very linear and the patterns are too standard. Metro's known for some neat kick patterns, my favorite is the execution in "creepin'" but this album is just very safe, commercial, forgettable in terms of the drum patterns and production. "Ice Attack" is the only notable one with a cool drum pattern that I caught while skimming through this album. I can comment more on the stylistic choices, songwriting, or Future's rapping throughout the album, but truthfully I'm uninterested. People were going crazy on twitter about the kendrick lamar diss to J Cole and Drake though, that was really funny.

Rating = 4.5/10

Favorite Tracks = "Like That", "Ice Attack"

3/22 = GUTS (spilled) - Olivia Rodrigo

- I didn't enjoy the original GUTS, I only liked "get him back!" which is a really fire track but apart from that there's a lot of lyrical, heart-to-heart songwriting. The album itself has a lot of singing that almost feels like talking, bawling, with minimalist pianos and drums. With this spilled version, there's 4 songs that fit this stereotype, and thus, I generally don't like these 4 tracks that much either. I will say that I thought "scared of my guitar" is a brilliant display of vocal maturity, tone, vocal weight, and dynamic contrasts within different sections. With this album and these 4 'spilled' tracks, she seems to be paving her own path in terms of her own sound, style, and singing, and it's definitely not bad.

Rating = 7/10

Favorite Tracks = "scared of my guitar", "stranger"

3/22 = Emergence EP - Blanke

- I normally don't listen to much Blanke as it seems to be mainly lots of heavy dubstep. However with this EP comes a lot of collabs, and namely the standout track to me is "Heavy Heart" with Grant and your friend polly. Other than that there is a collab with Au5 that works pretty nicely but I just personally don't like the drops. There's also notably a chiller simpler more commercial track in "Crashing Hard" with Casey Cook that was very surprising in production considering the rest of the EP. I found this track to be really out of place, but it could add a nice contrast to the rest of the EP I guess.

- The EP has great fluidity within the tracks as they all fit this almost dystopian, busy, heavy electronic sound. Almost a "rolling credits" heavy bittersweet feeling. Also, because of how intense this music is, it will def take time to grow, so my initial ratings and impression are def not set in stone.

Rating = 6.8/10

Favorite Tracks = "Heavy Heart", "Crashing Hard"

3/22 = Coco Moon Deluxe - Owl City

- Owl City released two BANGER singles this year and it makes sense that it's now all leading up to Coco Moon Deluxe. In 2023 March we got Coco Moon and it was an amazing album. Great storytelling defined by lengthy tracks, quick synth licks, and just amazing progression and flow all around, not to mention the production aspect.

- This deluxe version to be honest was quite underwhelming, because we only got 6 new songs, in which 2 of them were singles I've already heard and the other 4 were just variations, whether it was live version or instrumentals. Putting the instrumentals out like that kinda feel cheap, but they really are some great instrumentals, especially "The Tornado." Owl City has been producing music solely by himself, everything from the sound design to the mixing to the songwriting, and so I think it's nice to have these instrumentals. It's just disappointing since I expected 1 or 2 new tracks on top of the singles but we didn't get any.

- So as a whole, the deluxe version added some really nice heart and authenticity to the album. The two singles "Boston" and "Car Trouble" definitely fit the Coco Moon aesthetic and I like them as deluxe tracks too, and the other 4 tracks are nothing too special but it's a deluxe variant for a reason, so you have to give it that.

Rating = 7.3/10

Favorite Tracks = "Car Trouble", "Boston"

Quick Rant + Conclusions

Recently I made this post: Melodic Dubstep Is Losing Creativity | Rant inspired from Is All Melodic Dubstep The Same? | A Better World Reaction, made by Bowtied Media. It's so relatable when he says "the drops are the same thing we've been hearing from melodic dubstep for 5 years now." The new Dabin song was just terrible, I instantly put it in mid after listening to that drop that was just insanely commercial and uninteresting. I was about to do the same for "A Better World" by SLANDER and Trivecta as the drop was just the same expected drop. However, this track was very vocal-forward and vocal-heavy and they were great from the get-go, as not only is Howard's voice so refreshing but the melodies are so great. That's why I put it at 'FIRE' ranking, as the drop kind of supports the vocals by being so generic and the verse sections sounded so free, not being bounded by any constraints as any other melodic bass track feels like.

Conclusions

Going forward I will probably stop reviewing albums I don't have any business in, like idk why I listened thru the entire Kacey Musgraves or Justin Timberlake album lol. That's why I skipped the Beyonce album even though I should've just skimmed thru it, but I'm too lazy to write out a whole review for that and try to gather up some thoughts on it.

Anyway, March has been the best month of EDM by far this year. Owl City, Virtual Riot, Porter Robinson, Teminite, three artists that define my music taste all releasing big tracks. That Teminite track "Yours" brings me back to his Unstoppable EP and it's just such a huge track, it's what we've been missing from Teminite lately.

Here's the combined 2024 Top 5 ranking as of the end of February in my February post:

And here, we will extend it to a very needed 10 slots for now an updated 2024 Top 10 ranking. This includes all tracks released this year from singles to EPs to albums:

Teminite - Yours [March]
YOUNG MIKO || BZRP Music Sessions #58 [Jan]
DVRKCLOUD & Vaance - Forever Now feat. Ines Rae (Lyrics) [Feb]
Shakira, Bizarrap - La Fuerte [March]
Car Trouble - Owl City [March]
Porter Robinson - Cheerleader [March]
Chime & KERO - Liquid Data [Colour Bass] [Feb]
Blanke & Grant - Heavy Heart (feat. your friend polly) [Monstercat Release] [Feb]
Virtual Riot & Modestep - This Could Be Us (Franky Nuts & Oliverse REMIX) [March]
Elephante & SABAI - Say It Like You Mean It (feat. Olivia Ray) [March]

Note that this ranking may change because I need to digest this Simulation - The DLC more. Those tracks still haven't hit me at capacity yet. It's just so hard to rank those tracks and compare them to others idk something about those DLC tracks.

Now previewing into the next month, off the top of my head we are gonna have albums from Paper Skies and Taylor Swift which will be very huge. TTPD is gonna be my first album release since becoming a swiftie and I know that this first listen through will be historic. That's definitely gonna be headlining next month despite not even being EDM lmao. But other than that there's prob gonna be some solid stuff, hope to see a new skybreak track, he hasn't released in a while tbh.

Lyric(s) of the Post:

"Always, always, yours"

Teminite - Yours

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