I've been listening to a lot of music this winter break. My history with music listening is...rather sparce. I'd hear classic songs/singles from time to time on the radio, in YouTube videos, on TV, etc. but I didn't start listening to music until around my sophomore/junior year of highschool. I've always enjoyed classical music and jazz for one, but at that time I was (and still am) really into electronic music: dubstep, glitchhop, house, future bass, drumstep, moonbahcord, so on and so forth. My senior year of highschool I started branching and listening to more kinds of music: particularly rap/hip hop/r&b.
Truthfully, I still haven't listened to that diverse cast of music. But, I have been listening to a lot of albums this break, including ones that I've already listened to in full. For amusement, I'm gonna attempt to make a tier list of all the albums I've listened to. I should note that I am still picky/particular in the music I listen to (no, I'm not some sort of "savant", far from it, I'm just not a huge a music listener so for me to get engaged in the LP I need to be hooked on it first).
Let's start.
Fox/Falco
Top tier albums, for me, encompass the albums I can always listen to and enjoy them. To me, these are particularly special with aspects of lyricism, sound design, and narrative that gets me hooked. I've listened to all of these albums through and through more than once.
- good kid, m.A.A.d. City by Kendrick Lamar
- I am probably biased here since this was the first album I listened to, but who cares. I love Kendrick as an artist and this happens to me favorite album of his. the sound, narrative, and everything in between is top notch to me.
- To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar
- As a forewarning, I'm a big Kendrick fan, and so there'll be a lot of Kendrick on here. I really love TPAB, and I think in terms of narrative and sound it matches Good Kid. These two are for sure classics for me.
- SATURATION III by BROCKHAMPTON
- One of my close friends could not stop raving about BROCKHAMPTON all year. I was always too lazy to check out their work, but this break I listened to all three of the albums he released this year (SATURATION I - III). SATURATION III had such an insanely unique sound and start (The first track BOOGIE is insane) that I fell in love.
- Acid Rap by Chance the Rapper
- The first time I heard Chance the Rapper was when my roommates (very annoyingly) kept me up at night singing parts of Cocoa Butter Kisses (feat Vic Mensa and Twista). Regrettably, I was turned off of Chance for awhile. But later on I began listening to his work, and I always have a massive grin on my face when I do. Deciding between this and Coloring Books was really tough, but overall I think I like the sound on this album more.
Marth/Sheik/Puff
These albums are just below top tier. They are still awesome in my eyes, but I don't quite listen to them as much as the top tier albums. They still bring a lot to the table that grabs me.
- SATURATION I by BROCKHAMPTON
- This album is really awesome. There's so much style and charm to it. As soon as I listened to this album, I added it to my Spotify playlist. The only thing that really prevents me from making this a top tier album, is I find myself playing SATURATION III far more often than I play this.
- Flower Boy by Tyler the Creator
- I was never much of a fan of Tyler. He had a few singles I really enjoyed, but beyond that I didn't care much for his work. I'm not sure what I like most about this album. For me, the sound is really enjoyable to listen to. The lyrics are also really compelling to me. I don't think I've listened to the album enough to justify calling it one of my top favorites, but it certainly was a joy to listen to.
- DAMN. by Kendrick Lamar
- Oh boy, Kendrick again. What can I say, I'm a fanboy. When I first heard this album, I was super hyped and it was the only thing I played for a few months. Coming back to the project, though, I've found that I only love a handful of tracks, and the rest are either just good or enjoyable at best. By all means, still a great project to listen to through and through, but it didn't have the same grand effect on me the Good Kid and TPAB had.
- Blonde/Channel Orange by Frank Ocean
- Truthfully, I've only listened to each of these albums once. And that's really the only reason they're not top tier. Both of these albums had me engaged in them right off the bat the same way Good Kid and SATURATION III. I love the sound and the narrative in these works, I just need more listens to put them in the top tiers.
- Coloring Book by Chance the Rapper
- This album just makes me happy. It's such a fun project to listen to, and everytime I do I'm so happy. With that said, I think there are a lot of songs that don't particularly jump out to me outside of the scope of being in the album.
Peach/Falcon
These are albums that I haven't listened to much/have a few bangers but otherwise don't leave an outstanding impression in my head. They're still excellent by all means, they just don't have me reaching back to listen them all the time the same way the other albums do.
- The Marshall Mathers LP by Eminem
- I actually quite like Eminenm. A few years ago I listened to the sequel to this album, The Marshall Mathers LP 2 quite a bit and then listened to this album. After listening to Revival I felt like listening to some more Eminem, and so I played this album again. I know a lot of Eminem's style is his really edgy lyrics -- but I think for me some of the time his lyrics are too raw. I really enjoy the sound, his flow, the beats, and the whole production of this album, but sometimes (a lot of the times) the edginess is too much for me.
- 4:44 by Jay-Z
- I have always been a little indifferent to Jay-Z. I was watching some top album lists of 2017, and a lot of them mentioned this project. Curious, I checked it out. I guess I don't have much to say other than it was pretty fun to listen to, but nothing really stood out to me. I've only listened to this album once, so maybe my opinion of it will chance in the future, but overall I think it's just good.
- These Things Happen by G-eazy
- Earlier this year I was on a bit of a G-eazy kick. This album is really fun for me to listen to. I love his flow in a lot of the tracks, and they're overall really engaging to listen to. With that said, none of the songs really stand out to me as exceptional, which hold it back from being in a higher tier for me.
Ice Climbers/Pikachu/Samus
These albums to me are the true mid tier. There isn't really anything that's especially amazing to me about them, but they're also not bad by any means. I'll still listen to them occasionally, or at least sections of them, but I'm not thinking specifically about listening to them a lot of the times.
- The Marhsall Mathers LP 2 by Eminem
- This album has a lot of what I like about the first Marhsall Mathers LP, except not as good -- at least in the "rap-focused" songs. There's a lot of radio/pop sort of songs that are nice to listen to, but don't really do much for me beyond that. But, this album also has Rap God and this particular track holds a lot of memories for me.
- SATURATION II by BROCKHAMPTON
- This was my least favorite SATURATION. On first listen, I wasn't really sure what to think. Most of the album was decent but at the end of the day, I had hit the last few tracks without even noticing it. Nothing really grabbed me like the other two did. With that said, I do think the last four tracks of the album are really good, just not enough to propel it higher for me.
- Section.80 by Kendrick Lamar
- Kendrick. Enough said? By this point, that should be enough. But, for completionist sake, I will give a brief opinion. I think most people will agree that this was one of Kendrick's lesser works. I still enjoyed listening to it, but especially after listening to his other albums, there was nothing that really made me want to listen to it over the others.
Bowser
These albums I really don't enjoy. Or, at least, on further listens I really grew to dislike them. Whether it's because the songs are just unforgettable, the lyrics are something I don't appreciate, or whatever it happens to be, I didn't really get what was going for them.
- Revival by Eminenm
- As I said before, I actually quite like Eminem. A lot of his lyrics aren't very agreeable with me, but there's a lot of charm in his songs, and the production is entertaining enough for me to listen to. With that said, this album was really weird for me. On first listen, I thought it was pretty good -- though I hadn't really payed attention to it and just had it on while playing video games and doing work. When I actually listened to most of it, I either didn't care for most of the songs or flat out didn't like them. Most of the songs right now I don't even remember. There are a few songs I really did enjoy: Walk on Water (feat Beyonce), River (feat Ed Sheeran), Chloraseptic (feat. Phresher), and Castle.
- The Beautiful & Damned by G-eazy
- I really didn't like this album. On first listen, I didn't even finish the album. Most of the songs were either boring, unforgettable, or just downright annoying to me. There isn't much for me to say other than that this was the worst/most disappointing album I listened to this break.
And that's it! Phew, this has been the most of amount of music I've listened to in this amount of time. For a lot of you, it's probably not much, but like I said I'm not much of a music listener. There are so many albums I look forward to listening to, and I'm excited to branch out even more from the types of songs I'm used to listening to.
