Album reviews
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Review: Animal Collective dive deep on Tangerine Reef
Album review: Animal Collective's aquatic-themed new project Tangerine Reef plays as the ambient soundtrack to an hour-long coral reef feature film. more
Colin Medley
Matthew “Doc” Dunn shows why he's a hidden Toronto gem on Lightbourn
Matthew "Doc" Dunn, The Cosmic Range instrumentalist and U.S. Girls collaborator reins, in his spacy and jazzy tendencies on his new album Lightbourn, while showing how expansive a folk record can be. more
Bao Ngo
Review: Mitski's Be The Cowboy is a bold exploration of loneliness
Indie singer/songwriter Mitski takes risks on her new genre-defying album Be The Cowboy and it pays off in a big way. more
Nicki Minaj's Queen fails to make full use of her talents
Album review: Nicki Minaj's Queen. Her inconsistent mix of romantic vulnerability and cartoonish boasting is starting to get old. more
Manor Of Infinite Forms sets Tomb Mold apart in Toronto's death metal scene
Toronto's Tomb Mold, fleshed out from a duo into a four-piece, take chances rhythmically and compositionally, and it pays off on their new album Manor Of Infinite Forms. more
The debut album from Toronto rap trio Prime Boys should be heard worldwide
Prime Boys' debut album Koba World is both celebratory and mournful – the Toronto trio's first music since their manager and friend Koba Prime's murder in a Queen West shooting. more
Jeremy Rodney-Hall
Review: Jazz Cartier makes his play for stardom on Fleurever
Jazz Cartier's new album Fleurever, reviewed: On his third full-length and first on a major label, the Toronto rapper is efficiently and single-mindedly focused on success – almost too focused more
The Internet are at their most fully realized on Hive Mind
The Internet's new album Hive Mind, reviewed: Back in 2011 when co-founders Syd and Matt Martians debuted the project as a skeletal funk offshoot of Odd Future, you'd never guess how far they'd come. more
MorMor proves he could be one of Toronto's hottest exports on Heaven’s Only Wishful
A review of the new EP, Heaven's Only Wishful, from Toronto's MorMor: a compelling, sweet-voiced mix of Dev Hynes, How To Dress Well and Rhye, Seth Nyquist uses the five songs on this EP to prove he should be on your radar. more
Chastity's Death Lust is transcendent rock music
Album review: Chastity's Death Lust, out on Captured Tracks and Royal Mountain. Brandon Williams and his Whitby band have composed an album full of violence, dread and claustrophobia that's also totally cathartic. more
Drake shows off his complete range on Scorpion
The hip-hop superstar's double album doesn't take chances, but at 25 tracks, it's a masterful summation of his strengths as a rapper and singer more
Beyoncé and Jay-Z find the true meaning of reconciliation on Everything Is Love
Beyoncé and Jay-Z's new album as The Carters, Everything Is Love, reconciles infidelity and betrayal, but also humility vs. hubris and the realities of Blackness vs. the privileges of wealth. more
Jorja Smith's debut album Lost & Found suggests her ascent is far from over
Jorja Smith Lost & Found album review: The 21-year-old British R&B singer has gotten co-signs from Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Stormzy and more, but she wisely resists calling in her famous friends here. more
Tona's Black Mirror is a defiant outlier from the Toronto hip-hop sound
Tona's syllable-cramming delivery and gritty beats go against the melodic vocal delivery and smoothed out ambient soundscapes that some would immediately associate with a Toronto hip-hop sound in 2018, but that doesn't mean he should be overlooked. more
Kanye West's Ye: a conflicted perspective from a long-time fan
Kanye West - Ye album review: Do the rapper/producer's raw honesty and still-fascinating artistry justify overlooking his more reprehensible traits? more
Review: Bernice's new album is breezy, whimsical and delightful
Bernice's new Arts & Crafts album Puff LP: In The Air Without A Shape finds the ever-evolving Toronto band bottling their eclectic energy for seven songs. more
Arden Wray
L Con's Insecurities In Being is packed full of great ideas
Album review: The new record from Toronto singer/songwriter L Con (aka Lisa Conway), Insecurities In Being, is moody and complex, and it arrives fully on its own terms. more
Review: A$AP Rocky's Testing is tentative
The adventurous Harlem rapper gets introspective on his third album, but style eclipses substance more
Pusha T is completely in his zone on the Kanye West-produced Daytona
Album Review: Pusha T's seven-song Kanye West produced Daytona just dropped. The stripped-down and sombre new record mostly sidesteps Kanye's exhausting recent devil's advocacy... aside from a couple of things more
