Scaled and Icy

Twenty One Pilots

The Off-Season

J. Cole

Some people might argue that if you’ve heard one J. Cole song, you’ve heard them all. The Off-Season is here to change that. You’ve got ~7 features on this album compared to a big fat 0 on 2014 Forest Hills Drive. Listeners can still expect pretty straightforward hip-hop beats, but you may be surprised by quite a few more soulful choruses and gratifying melodies. J. Cole fans are used to hearing his thoughts on many socio-political challenges come out loud and clear on his tracks but expect a bit less of that on The Off-Season. To round it off here, don’t you mistake it for a second, J. Cole demonstrates again how he is one of the greatest storytellers and rhymers of all time on this new album. 

J. Cole can ball: Just on May 16th, J. Cole played his very first professional basketball game for the Rwanda Patriots Basketball Club. What’s crazy is this game was just a few days after the release of The Off-Season. His mind mayyyy have been on some other things considering he only scored 3 points. Regardless, warming up for your very first professional basketball game to your own brand new album on the loudspeakers has got to be one of the greatest feelings of all time and we love it.

Home

Billy Strings

This album is country singing and bluegrass flatpicking at its finest. If you want to listen to someone who's at the absolute pinnacle of their field, look no further than Billy Strings. Home was awarded the Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album last year. While the album is complete with solid storytelling, fitting vocal tones and solid back up instrumentation from Billy's backing band featuring an upright bass, mandolin and banjo, the star of the show is without a doubt Billy's right hand. I've been to my fair share of live shows across various genres and I've seen very few crowds as engaged and captivated as an audience when Billy breaks off into a 3 minute solo with his face stretched as tight as his high E string as he works up and down the neck of the guitar. If you're looking to hear what the next 5 years of Bluegrass and psychedelic county music will start to look like, you can start right here at Home. 

Watch Billy Live at Red Rocks: Billy String is one of the artists leading what I'm going to call a country revolution. Other artists such as Tyler Childres and Sturgill Simpson, that we've featured before at Album Daily, are also right up there with Billy. These artists are tatted up and down their arms and are more likely to sing about drugs, racial prejudice and climate change than they are guns, beer and women in red sundresses. 

Quiet Ferocity

The Jungle Giatns

Some album names have seemingly nothing to do with the underlying songs and others just hit the nail on the head. The Jungle Giants third album, Quiet Ferocity, falls under the latter category as it perfectly depicts the tone of the underlying music. Despite exploring a number of different styles in the album, this Aussie group never swings and misses. There’s a polished restraint to their music that just ... works. With each guitar swell and background build, it feels as though The Jungle Giants could bust out a full-on rock anthem. Each time they pull you back in, typically with the addition of a new musical element, be it a dancey synth a clear-cut vocal chop, or even a new piano riff. It’s this instrumentation in Quiet Ferocity that really takes it to the next level and makes this project a must-listen! 

Bonus Content: It’s been a minute since The Jungle Giants have released their last album … okay it’s been like 4 years, but that was partly due to the pandemic. BREAKING NEWS, this weekend they officially announced the release date for their upcoming album “Love Signs” - July 23rd. If you can’t wait that long, they’ve already released a few monster jams so far that have topped Australia’s Triple J Hottest 100 list in the last two years. Check out this article to listen to their first few bops and read more about the album release! 

Women in Music Pt. III

HAIM

This newest HAIM album is a refreshing take on pop music. It seems to spread broadly across pop, folk, rock and indie/alternative. Clever and engaging songwriting often has lyrics hitting on off-kilter beats that keep us engaged and paying attention. Never at the expense of the groovy synth and electric guitar melodies that will have you swaying your hips throughout the whole record. The 3 Haim sisters are able to easily do this when they've been playing music together for the better part of two decades. There is seemingly not a genre or artist that these sisters haven't collaborated with. Taylor Swift, Kid Cudi, Calvin Harris, Major Lazer, Stevie Nicks… shall we continue? This latest album from the 3 female sisters gives us a good sense of what they're capable of. 

Check out this article that breaks down HAIM's recent Grammy nomination and performance: The success that HAIM has garnered should be no surprise given that their parents were fairly accomplished musicians and that Este Haim earned her degree from UCLA in ethnomusicology in 2 years vs. the usual 5. The trio clearly knows what the hell that they're doing.

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