Breakthrough Record Reviews

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Jordan Mackampa // Foreigner

Jordan Mackampa // Foreigner

The intent is clear when an artist names their album Foreigner. It’s implying that something doesn’t necessarily belong. Not the case here -it’s the debut disc from the UK-Congolese singer Jordan M...

Tessa Violet // Bad Ideas

Tessa Violet // Bad Ideas

It’s funny that Tessa Violet’s debut album is called Bad Ideas, especially because it’s full of good ones. The one-time YouTube star has created a collection of elastic, jubilant pop that’s going t...

Nilüfer Yanya // Miss Universe

Nilüfer Yanya // Miss Universe

Miss Universe, the debut record from Londoner Nilüfer Yanya has to be a purposeful title. It perfectly represents the broad collection of sounds careening from rock to hip-hop, to R&B with a to...

Black Pumas // Black Pumas

Black Pumas // Black Pumas

Black Pumas self-titled debut sounds so much out of its own time that it’s amazing it came out in the last year instead of 50 years prior. It’s an astonishing collection of soul-drenched rock that ...

King Princess // Cheap Queen

King Princess // Cheap Queen

It seems like in the course of a day last week the world turned upside down and a good majority of us are now sequestered in our homes until further notice. It feels like bad dream, a sort of unrea...

R.LUM.R // Surfacing

R.LUM.R // Surfacing

It’s apt that the debut album by R.LUM.R is called Surfacing. It’s a record by an artist that is fully formed, rising from the depths that is staggering in scope and sound. The Bradenton, Florida n...

Pizzagirl // first timer

Pizzagirl // first timer

So, upon listening to First Timer, the debut album by Pizzagirl, I have to remind myself that it was made in the last year. It sounds so shockingly like something out of the mid 1980’s, that a pass...