Reviews by deksametazon

Music feels like an album that's not necessarily a miss, but rather an album that's geared toward surface-level listening rather than immersion. It more so feels like an obligation to follow up a hit like Ray of Light, as all the songs on here follow early 2000s tropes of trippy electronic beats and autotuned vocals.

It's a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. If Madonna stays faithful to the sound that made her famous, she risks being labeled a one-trick pony, but keeping up with the trends, like here, makes the album soulless and uninteresting. Just listen to the opener and that weird sexual energy combined with a lack of sense of direction, or Nobody's perfect where Madonna uses gimmicky autotune even if she has proven she has the vocal chops to deliver. Breathy vocals and recycled slow beats are tailor-made for the masses. Maybe suburban moms will like it, but not me.

I think I would get more enjoyment out of it if it was in a language I was more familiar. The influences are clear: these guys worship Joy Division. And that's not a bad thing, because other than that, you can hear shades of
trance inducing psychedelia that sets the mood.

It's not without its flaws. Saigon feels a bit weak, and my mind tends to wander off a bit due to the sheer atmosphere this album possesses.

Oh also, this is a live release, and a damn quality one. Like, if I didn't hear the crowd clapping at the end of songs, I'd mistaken it for a studio album.

Some great ass classical music. I'm not going to act like I know what's going on, but I'm not sensing a sliver of wanking off on their instruments, which is great. It's whimsical as fuck, and I can see myself putting this and just letting my creativity flow!

7 years after the end of the Bosnian war, Edo Maajka paints a rough picture of his life (and the lives of many others) before, during and after the war. It's a bit rough around the edges, but with 21 songs, what isn't? Those few in the later half bring it down a bit, like Šank, De-Za-Vu, Pare, Pare which might sound like a jab at the boastful brand of hip hop, but to me, it feels life filler.

Thank God for songs like Saletova Osveta, Mahir i Alma, Znaš Me, Minimalni Rizik, Molitva and Nemoj Se Bojat. Those are some evergreens that still get tons of plays on mainstream radio. For good reasons too.

Njegov prvi album je stvorio legendu, dok je ovaj album tu legendu zacementirao.

I dalje naelektrisan kao i prethodnik, njegova hardcore i politička oštrina je profinjenija, a pjesme su na neki način puno više prilagođene modernom i mainstream miljeu tog vremena, s "opuštenijim", pop pristupom, a manje hardcore kao na debiju.

No Sikiriki je stvarno pun hitova. Hitova koji su obiljezili Edinu karijeru i koji su ga lansirali u jednu sferu kao vođa ne samo bosanske rep scene, već i Balkanske, ako to još nekom nije bilo jasno s prvim albumom. I dalje politički nastrojen sa pjesmama Sevdah O Rodama, Dragi Moj Vlado, On Je Mlađi i sa oštrom Mater Vam Jebem, i nerijetko poetican sto se vidi u Obećanoj Riječi, Ožeži, On Je Mlađi i Pržiii, Edo Maajka još više vijuga po raznim hip hop subzanrovima sa lakocom, i sa zivotnim iskustvom pravi jak album koji je prezivio test vremena i danas je jedan od osnonih albuma post-jugoslovenske Bosanske scene.

Jedna digresija, No Sikiriki je jedan od prvih albuma kojih se sjecam da sam slusao, kako sa burazom u kuci na liniji koju i dan danas imamo, tako i sa ocem u staroj metalik Golk MKII dok su oko mene po kućama na selu i zgradama u rodnom gradu i dalje cijelile rane rata. Zbog toga nekako ovaj album ima posebno mjesto u mom srcu, mimo toga sto je benger do bengera.

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His first album created the legend, while this album cemented it.

Still electrifying as the predecessor, his hardcore and political edge is more refined and the songs are in a way much more adapted to the modern and mainstream milieu of the time, with a more "laid back", pop approach, and less hardcore like on the debut.

No Sikiriki is really full of hits. Hits that marked Eda's career and that launched him into one sphere as a leader not only of the Bosnian rap scene, but also of the Balkans, if that was not clear to anyone with the first album. Still politically minded with the songs Sevdah O Rodama, Dragi Moj Vlado, On Je Mlađi and with the sharp Mater Vam Jebem, and often poetic as can be seen in Obećana Rijeka, Ožeža, On Je Mlađi and Pržiii, Edo Maajka meanders even more through various hip hop subgenres with ease, and with life experience makes a strong album that has survived the test of time and today is one of the basic albums of the post-Yugoslav Bosnian scene.

One digression, No Sikiriki is one of the first albums I remember listening to, both with my brother at home on the stereo system that we still have today, and with my father in his old metallic Golf MK II while the wounds of the war were still healing around me in the houses in the countryside and buildings in my hometown. That's why this album somehow has a special place in my heart, besides the fact that it's a banger after a banger.

You were the chosen one Edo! You were supposed to destroy the trap genre, not join it!

Edo Maajka returns with another mediocre album that digs deeper into mainstream trap territory that plagues Balkan Hip-Hop. The beats are nothing special, the lyrics are shallower and weak than they have ever been before.

I miss the old Maajka...

Orpheus Listening Challenge 2026: #7 An album that Pitchfork has rated 5.0 or lower (2nd Album)

Lasers was and still is a perplexing piece of music to me, but it's in the least part because of the music. The music is what you would've expected from an artist that signed to a major label at the time, and my brother (who showed me Lupe well over 10 years ago) and I stand by that. Especially in 2010 when music and the music industry was in the gutter (still is, but you get the point).

From what critics and reviewers say about this album, you would've thought that this was the worst album of the decade, when in reality it's a decent pop rap album. I can agree that it was a let-down coming from F&L and The Cool, but the album is a decent listen. Beats are okay, and his rapping is good for the most part (I don't mind the preachiness of it, he's right for the most part), and it doesn't suffer from being as bloated as some rap albums from the 2010s.

In the end, it has its moments, and it has some certified schlock, but the schlock is passable, and the moments are good. An overall, net positive.

What can I say, at first it feels like a McDonald's bathroom, then a hole in a McDonald's bathroom, then Alvin sounds like a man talking to me from a speaker in a mental asylum (trust me, I know what those sound like), and finally he morphs into a streamer getting interrupted by PSN notification sounds. Over and over, until Alvin turns into the thing he created: The PSN notification sound itself.

Thankfully, he transcends it, and become a makeshift startup melody. Such a beautiful story.

I listened to this album a few times, and each time I find it hard to write a review.

Maybe that's the key. This album is a tropical bliss to the ears with echoic vocals, both male and female that doesn't deserve words, just a curious ear.

Like walking on feeble eggshells surrounded by a deep mist with nothing in sight. Each crack plummets your leg into a sea of sharp glass shards. Knee-deep. With each fall, you want to scream, but nothing but the empty air leaves your lungs, suffocating you with a thick layer of damp deafness. You have no choice but to continue onwards, dreading each next step, and preparing for the worst.

I Could Live In Hope is a perfect homage to all the rural communities far away from the major hubs of happenings and scenes. It has the same excellence that albums like, and the Big Black albums have, and that is the homey atmosphere and the home-brewed production.

As for the music itself, it's another ones of those cold atmospheric slowcore albums that evoke a feeling of desolation and hopelessness that takes pride in a slow and painful buildup without actually adding more instruments, or playing the instruments with an anger. Songs like Lullaby, Lazy and Drag and are a testament to that.

In its core, the whole enjoyment of this album really boils down to how much your mental state can tolerate monotonous and repeating melodies with lazily done lyrics. Sadly, that kind of music is relatable and is almost like a drug for me, hence the rating.

Orpheus Listening Challenge 2024: #1 An album whose only physical release is cassette. (20th album)

Well, it's mostly slow and uneventful. The opener is too long, Windmill is as filler as it gets, and while the last two tracks go on an upward slope, with Ghost being the clear candidate for the best song here, it's still bland, and it unearths the question: "Was this the best way to spend 27 minutes?"

I'll let the rating decide.

Love, Deksametazon

A nice psychedelic album. Side A is amazing, but turning to side B, only "You Set the Scene" gives me any enjoyment. The fact that the writing on this album deviates from the textbook sunshine and rainbows of other 60s albums is a big plus.

Everybody should hear the first six tracks, and the last one. The middle is skippable unless you like psych noodling and mindless lyrics.

I just put this on to recreate the feeling of sitting in bar at 1AM, which is exactly what the opener achieved.

The rest is too indie for me.

Not bad, just repetitive. Gets a whole lot boring as it goes on. The beats are nice, and the delivery is also good, but it just goes on and on with the same formula. Also, the album has an unnecessarily long playing time because of long, unnecessary outros after almost every track. But hey, if that's your niche, I get you, but this is a no from me dog.

And 2022 continues on giving mid albums.

As most have already said, B-tier Grateful Dead, but I'll add them also being C-tier Mothers Of Invention on top of it. Alright instrumental play with some better boogie and rock n' roll parts sprinkled in there, and songwriting that jumps between southern rock staples of song penning, and trying to be humourous and political like Zappa, somewhat failing in the process.

Check out Easy to Slip, Tripe Face Boogie, Teenage Nervous Breakdown, and Got No Shadow.

Damn, I guess Yachty found a way to reap good sales AND the seal of approval of the RateYourMusic "intelligentsia". Such a bold accomplishment.

It's always fun hearing how different surroundings shape the sound of folk. Here, it's a pastoral and welcoming trip through the backwoods, with beautiful sights and sounds sprinkled all around. It's really simple folk that gives your imagination room to breathe and exercise.

Orpheus Listening Challenge 2025: #2 An album recommended by a stranger (12th Album)

Life Without Building are one of those rare bands who did music as a hobby, got big enough to pursue music as a full time job, but they decided music is just not for them, so we're left with Any Other City as the sole studio album.

Overall, not bad. There are two clear entities, and those are the unorthodox vocals and lyrics of Sue Tompkins and the fairly simple math pop/rock instrumentation. Both of them on their own would probably be a chore to listen to, but together they complement each other and fill the holes the other has.

I think your enjoyment will come down to how much you can love the lyrical hodgepodge in it. I see a lot of people praise it, and while I can understand some of it, parts feel forced or just foreign and weird. I nany case, it's worth to examine it and for your own thoughts behind it.

Thank you [~SpeedKills] for the recommendation!

Sing me a song.

It's not a coincidence you're here. If you're here then that means that terrible fortune has struck you. Fear not, for this album will save you or break you.

I'm fairly certain these are the sounds you hear when you're closing in on death. It's not an album you can enter with any kind of mindset. You have to be down in the gutter to comprehend just a piece of energy that this album radiates. It's not an album you put on when you're sad. It's an album you put on when life beats you to the point of desperation and hopelessness: to the point when life just pulls you so much apart that you can't take it anymore and you hope that someone or something will come and pull you back, or pull you past the point of no return. That's the state you have to be in to feel this album. But it will give you comfort. You'll finish it and you'll never hear it the same way as you did the first time.

I encourage everyone to listen to this piece once in their life. Good luck.