May new EDM


TRASH

MID

GREAT

FIRE

Albums/EPs

5/3 = Tempo - Wavedash
 - A very extravagant house album here from Wavedash with all types of synths, samples, and lead melodies. Overall this style of house isn't my type, I prefer more melodic progressive tracks, but I do respect the aesthetic and notion that this album does portray.
 - The collab with flux pavilion is pretty neat, you can definitely hear the influence as flux pavilion lays out his dubstep in the soundscape of Tempo and I really like the collab. Other than that the only other songs I enjoyed a lot were the singles "All Ur Luv" and "b Alright!"
Rating = 6.2/10
Favorite Tracks = "All Ur Luv", "b Alright!"

5/3 = Radical Optimism - Dua Lipa
 - Dua Lipa's confusing ocean theme here is really what makes this album lack any sense of cohesiveness. It just doesn't fit, I don't get it. Aside from that, this 11 track album is packed with upbeat pop vocals with stingy basslines. I'm not a big fan of a lot of these choruses, I feel like they don't maximize the progression that the verses offer. In other words, there's a ton of catchy verses here like in "These Walls" or "Maria", but the choruses are so bland and unmoving. I need more explosiveness here, the melody just lays back when it hits the chorus and it annoys me. 
 - So yeah a very forgettable album in her discography and I hope the negative feedback gets to her because man so many of these tracks are just so underwhelming. She needs to make a dance album, lowkey a collaboration album with the likes of Calvin Harris or Zedd or NOTD or Grant would go hard. 
Rating = 5/10
Favorite Tracks = "Training Season", "These Walls", "Happy For You"

5/3 = Magnetic - Dirtyphonics
 - A heavy d&b record from the duo Dirtyphonics, lots of bass with a characteristic metallic dense lead synth occurring everywhere in the album. For me, this album is just not melodic enough, the drops definitely hit hard but it's just too fast-paced everywhere. Everything sounds the same everywhere, there's some nice progressions but man there's gotta be some softer midsections and breaks, not everything has to be heavy fast d&b. That's my general sentiment towards this album. 
 - With that, I will say one of the singles "Burbank Nights" is INCREDIBLE with the progression of the different tones and the guitars along with the general melody being so grand and epic. I love the popping hollow contrasts progressing after the lead guitars and the d&b backbone is great. Love this track, really feels like all the leads are taking turns out here. It was released in September of 2023 so its been a while.
 - Also love the phonk + bass d&b take in "Moonlight Runners", wish they could've implemented some phonk vocals into it but overall it's a great blend of these two genres that was executed nicely.

Rating = 6/10
Favorite Tracks = "Burbank Nights", "Moonlight Runners"


5/10 = No Hard Feelings - The Chainsmokers
 - The Chainsmokers has been pumping out music lately and it culminates to a 6 track EP here. Overall it's a very scrappy album with scrappy vocals and melodies. It's not horrible, but this EP just fails to evoke anything out of me. After listening you'll just feel indifferent. The best track in this album is definitely "Friday" which is pretty much a "Roses" 2024 remake, but idc if it's uninnovative that track is fire with the lead and drop. Other than that yeah, the vocals and melody are just dry. The Chainsmokers gotta find a new sound, if they keep up with this type of sound they're just going to continue to deteriorate.
Rating = 7/10
Favorite Tracks = "Friday", "No Shade at Pitti"


5/16 = The Mess We Made - ARMNHMR
 - Another commercial dubstep bass house pick here from ARMNHMR in this 3-track EP. Nothing really to take away. The Micah Martin vocal feature is interesting, but there's just a lack of melody and progression. There's some nice pieces of rock influences that I like integrated but yeah. 
Rating = 4/10
Favorite Tracks = None

5/17 = HIT ME HARD AND SOFT - Billie Eilish
 - Here we have Billie Eilish's 3rd studio album or something, i forgot what number it is but anyway its 10 tracks with quite a lot of A/B sections, where the B section is more upbeat, or sometimes electronic, as seen in "BITTERSUITE" and "L'AMOUR DE MA VIE" which was very pleasant to hear. The entire album was produced by Finneas which is very sweet, I'm a big fan of how authentic they are to each other and to the music making process.
 - Anyway, let's talk about the synths. There's some dance house and synthwave in "L'AMOUR DE MA VIE" which immediately caught my intention. I really like the filters and panning, this might be my favorite song of the album. We also get more synthwave in "CHIHIRO", and all of this really just matches the album theme so well, especially the album cover. It really does feel like you are underwater, sinking. (I'm ngl most of her discography fits this theme anyway)
 - Other than those glimpses of synthwave and EDM which I'm a big fan of, the rest of the album are minimalist ballads. The closing song "BLUE" and its hook is so catchy and evokes that 'rolling credits' feeling. The entire album in general is all very 'rolling credits' feeling. Lots of movements and this notion of songs within a song. 
 - I also didn't focus much on the lyrics. The production was really the highlight for me, FINNEAS' stylistically empty production overall with all those movements, instrumentation, drum kits, synthwaves, and varying vocal techniques just build up to "BLUE" where it just feels like Billie Eilish is looking back on something here, she's summing up the path of this album and it all just ends up on the dissonance and harmony in the orchestra. This album was way better than Taylor Swift's TTPD in terms of raw quality and intention. Even though like none of these songs were upbeat (not that any of her songs are upbeat) which was disappointing, it really did hit me hard and soft.
Rating = 8.2/10
Favorite Tracks = "BIRDS OF A FEATHER", "L'AMOUR DE MA VIE", "BLUE"

5/17 = Rx - Galantis
 - A 14 track album here in which we have 11 leading singles so it's really 3 new tracks. But a lot of artists are taking this type of marketing when releasing an album now where they just spam out all the singles periodically. Also like why did he throw in "Heartbreak Anthem" from 2021?? It's been 3 years lmao how did that end up on this album
 - It's a solid album with some nice melodies. There is definitely a lack of cohesiveness along with Galantis just relying on their same sound. I swear for like 10+ years now it's been the same Galantis with the same sound design, kits, melodies, instrumentation, and atmospheres. They should start a new era, I think that could be really promising. Just any form of experimentation, really.
 - Anyway, "Dreamteam" is a pure BOP with the melody, vocals, and pacing. I especially love the vocals with the falsetto, it's really great. The rest of the album is mostly stereotyped as just pop dance house with playful vocal designs, strings, and effects. Very playful album with lots of notable vocal features with Neon Trees, JVKE, Rosa Linn, MNEK, 5 Seconds of Summer, Little Mix.
Rating = 7.5/10
Favorite Tracks = "Dreamteam", "Get You Alone", "One Cry", "Heartbreak Anthem" (I guess?)



5/18 = PIXELIZE II - Snail's House
 - A 5 track jump house future bass EP from Snail's House sounds great on paper, but somehow all these tracks are just pure noise with not much melody going on. I finished listening to the EP and I just asked myself, "what did I takeaway from this?" and the answer is nothing. Literally nothing memorable about any of these tracks, besides potentially "FLOATING POINT", a chiller instrumental track. The others are just noise with spammy ear candy and pads like I just couldn't wrap my ears around it. 
Rating = 4/10
Favorite Tracks = "FLOATING POINT"

5/21 = A Little Something - Nigel Good
 - Here comes a very hollistic, somber chillstep album from Nigel Good. There isn't much depth among most of the tracks, but it's perfect to play on the background when doing homework, focusing, or just listening to music that makes you relaxed. Especially when listening to the album in order, as the transitions are so seamingless it feels like a whole soundtrack. 
 - However the vocal-led tracks are where he shines and to me in the past, and we see this in "Cloudrunner" featuring Holly Drummond and "Jay & Wren" featuring Richard Caddock aka Keepsake. Love the vocal lines and transition sections. The album as a whole is just very cohesive in this chillstep relaxing soundscape. 
Rating = 7/10
Favorite Tracks = "Cloudrunner", "Jay & Wren"


5/30 = I Contain Flashing Images - No Mana
 - No Mana's highly anticipated electro house album has released, with some great soundscapes, leads, and drops. What stands out to me first is jsut the whole album aesthetic, it's amazing. The pixelated black and white with the filled in pink blue and yellow and all the animations are soooo great. It's so attracting to the album theme and I love that. 
 - For the music, a lot of the tracks lack depth, but overall it's some very high quality electro house with great progressions, sounds, vocals, and bass. Especially loving that signature digital acid bass everywhere throughout the record. Personally a lot of the tracks aren't for me as much as for other people, but I definitely found "Digital Friends" and "Lost Call" to be very unique melodic vocal-led tracks.
Rating = 7.5/10
Favorite Tracks = "Digital Friends", "Lost Call"

Conclusion

What a huge month? Like just so much to talk about omg. The last week of May particularly just had so many releases from so many big names.

SO this month we got new music from Skrillex, Fred again.., The Chainsmokers, Bizarrap, Madeon, Jason Ross, Skybreak, Au5, Ray Volpe, NOTD, and just so much more. Like literally everyone chose to release new music this month for some reason. A lot of it I'm still on my first impressions, so some of the tracks in the 'Great' category could get bumped to 'Fire' with more listens. My favorite track this month is probably Skybreak and Shark's "Out of Frame" like holy cow dude that track with the progression as Skybreak just hands off the baton to Sharks for the continuation drop and breakdown is just so good. Incredible vocals, lyrics, second drop, predrops, everything. Then the second Skybreak release this month with Keepsake was also incredible. And then besides that is just the whole clutter of tracks from the last week of this month. Fred again..'s collaboration with Paak is up there along with the bizarrap singles. Also Billie Eillish's "BLUE" is really good too.

New albums from The Chainsmokers, Wavedash, No Mana, Dirtyphonics, Nigel Good, Galantis and big pop vocal albums from Dua Lipa and Billie Eillish. Dua Lipa's album flopped bigtime as it was super disappointing and such a downgrade from Future Nostalgia while Billie Eillish's album was some really solid work. This year the music industry is heavily dominated by women it's insane, literally Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Beyonce, Dua Lipa, Billie Eillish, Kacey Musgraves, Charli XCX, Shakira, Tyla, and more and then we got upcoming Sabrina Carpenter, Camila Cabello. Literally the entire music industry is gonna drop an album in the first half of the year bruh.

As for EDM, it's SUPER EXCITING cuz we got upcoming Virtual Riot, Zedd, Porter Robinson, Haywyre off the top of my head. HUGE NAMES. New Virtual Riot album is literally maximum hype for me, and then Zedd with a comeback after like 9 years or something??? DEFINITELY not going to disappoint, and then Porter Robinson I'm not even going to start because we all know just how great it's gonna be.

Updated Rankings

As of the end of April, here were the top 10 tracks of the year:
  1. Teminite - Yours [March]
  2. Skybreak, Sharks & LÚTHIEN - Out of Frame [May]
  3. YOUNG MIKO || BZRP Music Sessions #58 [Jan]
  4. Skybreak & Keepsake - Comet [May]
  5. Taylor Swift - I Can Do It With a Broken Heart [April]
  6. DVRKCLOUD & Vaance - Forever Now feat. Ines Rae (Lyrics) [Feb]
  7. Paper Skies - I Let Go (ft. Danyka Nadeau) [April]
  8. Shakira, Bizarrap - La Fuerte [March]
  9. Porter Robinson - Cheerleader [March]
  10. Jason Ross & Kill The Noise Feat. Sarah de Warren - Under Pressure [May]
Three May entrances here with the two skybreak tracks and Jason Ross track. You can also notice some shifts between the existing tracks, as some tracks have gotten better/worse with the age of time.

And now with lots of Albums on the radar we will rank the top 5 albums/LPs/EPs of 2024 so far!

  1. 4/12 = Mechanomorphic - Mr. Bill
  2. 4/5 = Wireframe - Paper Skies
  3. 2/2 = Get Off The Internet - Eliminate
  4. 5/21 = A Little Something - Nigel Good
  5. 3/15 = Simulation - The DLC - Virtual Riot

Right now the competitiveness and standards aren't there, but it will definitely get there once Porter, VR, Zedd release their albums. However, you can notice Mr. Bill's record taking the #1 spot even though I initially rated it a 7/10, and that's cuz I HEAVILY underrated it at first, the tracks are really great and so replayable and honestly just provide such a unique contrast among all the songs in my rotation. It's just this stretchy soundscape with creative sound design and mixing, and the stuttering and melodies are so nice especially if he pairs it with vocals. Great album with so many great tracks....

....And so that concludes a very packed up month in EDM and also pop music! I'll see you at the end of June!


Lyric(s) of the Post: 
So cut me out of every picture
Get me out of sight and mind
I couldn't find your truth inside
'Cause I was beautifully blind
Skybreak, Sharks & LÚTHIEN - Out of Frame




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