I think for no apparent reason, I am going to list a handful & a half of albums that I believe carry considerable importance in my life. Since maybe 2016/2017, I’ve observed the decline of the impact albums seem to swing on release. Whether or not this is due to a dulling of my own perception of music(and it’s influence on me), or because the industry is changing in ways I can’t fully explain(or even comprehend, no matter how many opinion pieces I read on the subject). Nonetheless, I adore many artists, and each their own era of craftsmanship transporting me to another time and space. To talk about my criteria, these days I tend to resonate with music that feels essential, particularly to the artists existence. Records that vibrate with a sense of “I had to make this,” not a sense of “this is just what I made & I guess I like it”(I’m looking at you More Life, P3, ye, Starboy). Historically I’ve tuned into hip-hop & r&b music mostly, and that’s pretty much what’s going to be listed down below(in no purposeful order):
#1 Nothing Was the Same
Okay let’s get this one out of the way. Drake’s third album is the exact replica of what I would be listening to if I entered an astral plane & met a shaman who guided me to my inner world of sound. Half reality and half fantasy is how I’d describe my views on this project. Tracks like Furthest Thing, From Time, and Too Much are songs I feel more personally than I should, while tracks like Own It, Pound Cake, and Tuscan Leather are songs I wish I felt more personally than I do, which in itself might result to be even more of a personal connection. This combination of 13 songs consequentially makes me believe it’s one the most meaningful hip-hop records produced ever. Not in a way that I expect anyone to be able to understand if properly explained to, but in a way where I as a fan were exploring my own voice & ears, and somehow ended up championing this album to be it’s foundation. I’ve talked about NWTS before so let me stop myself before this becomes a conversation about how in the 10th grade I saw God in the mirror.
#2 Trapsoul
If I approached that same shaman in the same astral plane, but I told him to make the room a little bit more R&B, the room would glow in the same crimson that appears in this album’s artwork and Been That Way would play in the background immediately. Ignoring Bryson’s story leading up to the creation of this project, I feel like it really wouldn’t make a difference is someone else performed these records. Bryson sings very well, don’t get me wrong, but what I believe makes up 85% of the magic these songs casts out lies within the premise of the album. The production is memorable, which honestly is probably the least I can ask for. The whole trap/r&b sound isn’t leaps and bounds in the future, but absolutely sounds appropriate enough. However, the main reason this album remains etched in my heart four years later is how 8 of the total 14 songs are basically the same fucking song. Obviously Open Interlude and Right My Wrongs are clearly two different subjects, but in my mind, I just listened to the same experience. The brilliance of Trapsoul is that I can click shuffle play and I’m guaranteed to get one of two songs, I either listen to Overtime or Sorry Not Sorry. I say this kind of jokingly and kind of seriously. I won’t admit that every song on here sounds the same because it’s quite the opposite. Every record has it’s own unique appearance and feeling. However they all blend together so well to mesh into a classic smoothie flavor; each song elevates the presence of the others, and that is what I imagine to be the highest use of the album format. No skippables(sometimes Rambo, weakest hook on here).
#3 PARTYNEXTDOOR
When I first heard Make a Mil on soundcloud, of course at first I thought how weird partynextdoor is for a name, but shit it’s ovosound, 40 made the beat, and this man just repeating the first verse for the second is hard as fuck. I find P1(and at times P2) to be the exact opposite effect of Trapsoul, it’s not about the premise. If Bryson’s debut sounded like two or three thoughts fleshed out into a full length project, PARTY’s debut sounds like the soundtrack for a mystical locale in Toronto. This album’s secrets can only be uncovered by strippers & humans who’s hearts exists in the afterparty. What I found most appealing about this record is how it feels mortal, like PARTY himself is just a normal guy who’s simply writing songs about last weekend, but it turns the man writing these songs also writes songs that go triple platinum. This is not a normal modern R&B album to me. It’s not easily described as sexy, it’s not easily described as hopeful romantic, it’s not even easily described as soulful. Years later this 10 song project continues to bleed a mysterious aura of drugs, sex, and money, yet without making it feel like it’s important at all. There’s always an underlying tone that PARTY is trying to allude to, not bar by bar, but song by song. He’s selling a lifestyle in a sound I still haven’t felt perfectly imitated yet, and I’ve since then gave up on trying to find, because fuck this record is more than enough for me.
#4 It is.
I only had about two or three weeks left of high school. I come home from class and lay in bed. It’s still only middle afternoon, but my east-pointing window isn’t letting much light into my room. I lay in bed flat, arms out, legs apart. I open Apple Music and browse through new releases. I see this insane bright artwork under R&B/Soul and play it from the top. I close my eyes and lie still. This was my introduction to JMSN, and since then I’ve found countless wisdom from his music. Not that his lyrics themselves taught me anything, just that in listening to his music(this album specifically), I’ve brought myself to think certain thoughts and conjure up certain fantasies I cite this record with inspiring. I find it to be for the most part, loud and lively, but somehow calming and centering. At times it’s preachy & aggressive, but with warmth & compassion. The instrumentation on this album felt like sitting down for a fresh drink of water in the middle of nowhere, or like a gust of wind while standing atop a cliff side, choose whichever description feels more dramatic. This album accomplishes a certain physical reaction no other project has gotten out of me, and that is where the importance mostly comes from. Powerful, but not necessarily in sound, a power that which comes from the soul, a trait this album has no shortage of.
I Hate The Real Me 