1+ hour, 32+ min ago   (61+ words) Shatter the Standards Album Review: Under the Same Sky by Zenesoul On her full-length debut, Zenesoul contends with love and departure through the neo-soul tradition she claims as her own, with concrete detail that surfaces unevenly but unmistakably across the…...

9+ hour, 37+ min ago   (59+ words) Shatter the Standards Album Review: Leap Life by Saul Williams Saul Williams improvises over live jazz, reads from a South African book during recording, and lets his partner sing an entire track in French while Carlos Niño decides what belongs…...

1+ day, 1+ hour ago   (233+ words) Shatter the Standards Album Review: Criminal Migraine by Ice-T On his first solo rap album in twenty years, Ice-T raps about street survival, betrayal, and a violent internal life that decades of legitimate success have done nothing to quiet. He…...

1+ day, 1+ hour ago   (50+ words) Shatter the Standards Album Review: STARLIFE by Victony Victony’s sophomore album is pure Lagos party music staked on personality, and the local references and wordplay running through these songs stamp the best of them as unmistakably his. Favorite Track(s):…...

2+ day, 1+ hour ago   (43+ words) Shatter the Standards Album Review: PAELLA! by Stoic A type-beat maker from Staten Island quit nursing school, won a Grammy for Doechii, and gathered various guests for his masterful solo debut. Favorite Track(s): “FREEFALL,” “HAIRCUT,” “GANG SAMBA”...

3+ day, 9+ hour ago   (577+ words) shatterthestandards.com Album Review: Eric Bellinger by Eric Bellinger After more than forty independent releases, the Compton singer signed to a revived Motown imprint and delivered his best album with one voice, one production team, and only domestic subject matter....

5+ day, 22+ hour ago   (912+ words) Shatter the Standards Album Review: Gentlewoman by Cleo Sol On her fifth album, the SAULT vocalist crosses a rotating cast of players to stripped-down acoustic soul with a full band and writes songs about the people who aren’t there anymore....

1+ week, 8+ hour ago   (51+ words) Shatter the Standards Album Review: The Price of Clarity by Ransom The New Jersey veteran shades his usual technical menace with grief, marriage, and an admission he had been sitting on for years. Favorite Track(s): “Good Mournings,” “The Temptations,” “The…...

1+ week, 2+ day ago   (774+ words) Shatter the Standards Album Review: Repeat Repeat Repeat by Paul Wall & Termanology Paul Wall and Termanology’s third album together is a hustle record about debt, and both men rap better here when they’re saying who they owe than when they’re…...

1+ week, 3+ day ago   (826+ words) Shatter the Standards Album Review: Tension by Fridayy Three albums into a Def Jam run, he opened by out-singing the hook on DJ Khaled’s “God Did.” Fridayy swaps gospel scale for dancefloor scale and turns a record of pure wanting…...