I don't actually; I'm just terminally unable to review something. Anything. Give me something to review. Just one album, man! I can quit any time, it's not a habit, I swear! How much? How much you want? ;)

Welcome back, by the way.

Except that. :)

Fact is, I'm now working on about thirty short (not very short) stories, a novel, have the album club, this thread, as well as a thread where I try to get into hip-hop, one where I try to keep up with this year's music, a Genesis one, the monthly update to the Journals Section, and of course I'm still looking after Karen 24/7. Expect to read my obituary any day now.

If you wrote that too I'll just skim the Cliffs Notes.

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Album title: Thuto
Artist: Cassper Nyovest
Genre: Hip-hop/Trap/R&B/Kwaito
Nationality: South African
Release date: May 7
Position in Discography: Third
Estimated Rating:
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Familiar with this artist? No
Familiar with the genre or subgenre? No
Average RYM Score: N/A
I like the group vocals and the sense of soul in this, but somewhat disappointed to see too many guests as usual, which makes it hard for me, as a hip-hop n00b, to be able to judge this guy on his own merits. But from what I can hear, he goes from angry spitting (“I Wasn't Ready For You”) to deep soul (“Destiny”) though how much of either song is him and how much his guest singer/rapper I couldn't say. “Superman” is a great song, a tribute to his dad, “Nyuku” may be (I'm only making a slightly educated guess) the genre called Kwaito; it's certainly very tribal. Interesting. “Tito Mboweni” may be another, but “Top Shayela” is annoying, just a conversation and nothing else.

“Touch the Sky” has lots of soul and gospel, with samples from MLK's famous speech, but the album loses me a little after that. Not that the songs are necessarily bad, they just don't make the same sort of impression on me that some of the others did. Still a decent album.

Check out more from this artist? Maybe
Check out more from this genre or subgenre? Yes

Actual Rating:
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Album title: 4x2=8
Artist: Psy
Genre: K-pop
Nationality: Korean
Release date: May 10
Position in Discography: Eighth
Estimated Rating:
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Familiar with this artist? No
Familiar with the genre or subgenre? Too much
Average RYM Score: 1.76
No, not Psy-Fi: this is the guy who foisted “Gangnam Style” upon the world. Having heard the amount of K-pop I have, I wouldn't consider myself an expert or anything, but I think I can say without any real fear of contradiction that this is the worst K-pop album I have heard. It's just terrible. “We Are Young” is not bad, “Last Scene”, which features a duet with a Korean model is good too, but these two decent tracks can't disguise that the rest of this is just garbage. Also, I will never forgive him for “Gangnam Style”, and the idea of trying to throw in a rock song and calling it “Rock Will Never Die” just deserves the death penalty. Embarrassing. And awful.

Check out more from this artist? Not while there's breath in my body!
Check out more from this genre or subgenre? No

Actual Rating:
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Why would you need to be an expert on K-pop to rank the albums that you've heard?

I never said I HAD to be an expert; I said I don't consider myself one, but based on the experience I've had of same to date, that's my conclusion.

And it really is an awful album.

It's just unrelated and unnecessary to say. Just say it's the worst record that you've ever heard since that would be true if you were an expert or not if you really feel that it's the worst.

Have you ever heard of Ernest Hemingway?