“We Still Don’t Trust You” – Metro Boomin and Future, April 12, 2024
Only three weeks after their album “We Don’t Trust You”, Metro Boomin and Future’s second collaboration project falls short of my expectations. After hard hitting hip-hop tracks in their last record including “Type S—” featuring both Travis Scott and Playboi Carti, along with “Like That” featuring Kendrick Lamar, I expected another energetic and grandiose project that held similar replay value. However, “We Still Don’t Trust You” fell flat. Despite decent tracks such as “Red Leather” with J. Cole and “All My Life” featuring Lil Baby, the 25 song album feels a little too dragged out and mostly disappointing. Songs like “Right 4 You” and “Overload” have Future repetitively singing and rapping which contributes to the monotonous vibe of the project.
Ultimately, listening to this LP is tedious, and the okay songs are not worth the almost one and half hours needed to listen to the album in full. Compared to previous albums from Metro and Future respectively, “We Still Don’t Trust You” is simply forgettable within each of their catalogs.
“Dark Matter” – Pearl Jam, April 19, 2024
On a date loaded with new music releases, rock band Pearl Jam’s twelfth studio album, “Dark Matter”, stood out to me as a very solid project. As someone who doesn’t frequently listen to rock music, I thoroughly enjoyed this album. The intro track “Scared of Fear” has a very great sound with lead singer Eddie Vedder delivering lyrics on a bridge that would be very impressive in a live concert. The title track “Dark Matter” is also a song I find stuck in my head, with a catchy, almost 30 second long, guitar solo at the end of the track. Lastly, the outro track, “Setting Sun,” starts off slow until the three minute mark, before it transforms into a very emotional song – one of the highlights of the album.
I went into listening to this album tentatively, unsure whether I would like it or not. However, after my first listen, I highly recommend giving this album a listen, whether you’re a rock music fan or not.
“THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT: ANTHOLOGY” – Taylor Swift, April 19, 2024
“THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT” was announced by Taylor Swift on Feb. 4, the day she won Best Pop Vocal Album at the Grammys for her 2022 album “Midnights”. After over 70 days of waiting, Taylor Swift released the project, and only two hours later revealed that the project had a second part: the “anthology.” The album itself, in my opinion, is just okay. The synth-heavy track, “So Long, London,” has a memorable rhythm and delivery, and the eighth song, “Florida!!!” featuring Florence Welch from English rock band Florence + the Machine, has catchy lyrics delivered from both Welch and Swift. While the highs of the album are decently high, the lows are very low. Most of the songs from the surprise anthology release are not very good, with “thanK you aIMee” being a low point on the album with the only notable moment being the potential Kim Kardashian diss. The extra 15 songs, personally, are unnecessary and just bloats the album’s runtime to over two hours.
As it is a Taylor Swift album, she uses her voice to enhance tracks that would be dull without her vocal performance. Despite this, the album often gets boring. All the songs sound too similar to each other. In my opinion, Taylor Swift is at her best when she releases music more selectively. If this album was just the best 12 to 16 tracks, it would be a lot better than this inflated 31 song double album.
