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Review Summary: An unfortunate lack of creativity is thankfully just overwhelmed by great hooks and more than enough personal flair. Let's get something straight: this EP is not meant to be particularly innovative. It's meant to be a bit of a cheap thrill. Sure, it would have been quite a bit better and more interesting if it was, but it isn't. Obviously this is bad, but there's more to music than innovation, and I Love You EP proves it. It's essentially a crossover between the creative Cashmere Cat and the other producers in the otherwise relatively stale Jersey Club genre. Thankfully, it does this very well. It mixes together the insane grooves of Jersey Club and the intriguing wonky styles of Cashmere without breaking any sweats - other than the listener's.
I Love You EP shows a bit of an over-reliance on producer cliches - from the insistence of placing his signature sound in every possible corner of every song, to the two parts of a song that build on each other so much that they might as well be one song. Some of the songs - particularly "I Love You Pt. 2" - sound stale and have no particularly good sense of progression. Most rely almost entirely on the overdone drop, quiet, gradually building bassline, drop routine. Fortunately, Lido is masterful at this, even if he does overuse it. The best example is "Money." Full of hyper-synthesized vocals and sudden explosive snares, it's easily the highlight of the EP. On the other hand, "Lost," despite having a much more traditional composition style than any of the other tracks, underwhelms, as it relies on its somewhat dull chorus just as much as the other hook-heavy songs rely on theirs. Ultimately, Lido has shown himself to be excellent at drawing listeners in, but he can't quite keep them there. But that's not really what this kind of music is about, and what it is about - a dripping, fun sense of style and fantastic hooks - is almost perfectly accomplished.
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Album Rating: 3.0
actual rating: 3.2
highlights:
"Money"
(given that this is like 15 minutes long you should really just listen to the whole EP)
feel free to let me know about grammar/spelling/formatting issues or anything like that, and please critique my review itself, I want to improve.
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the first couple sentences aren't super intriguing: "Sure, it would have been quite a bit better and more interesting if it was, but it isn't. Obviously this is bad, but there's more to music than innovation, and I Love You EP proves it" - just a bland setup. You're basically saying "this EP is generic, but it's ok because..." and then you never really explain why. You just say that it's a crossover etc. which doesn't really follow up on previous statement. Saying "there's more to music than innovation" can be valid, sure, but it's such a sweeping statement that is sorta impossible to follow up on without sounding oversimplified, and I wouldn't begin a review with something like this. I'm a big fan of making the first couple sentences and last couple sentences of a review hit the hardest: it sets the tone and catches the reader's attention, while leaving the best impression once the review concludes. Be creative with these - it doesn't have to be poetic, but the more memorable the better.
"is almost perfectly accomplished" - but you gave it a 3.2/5.. before, you insisted that innovation didn't matter in this kind of music, but then you based the lump of your criticism on lack of innovation, not really talking much about the fun, positive side
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I'm being super nitpicky btw, but you asked so.
pos'd. nice to the point review, but could be a bit more cohesive I think
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
thanks for the input, appreciate it. I def. could have thought of a better intro, and my main argument is a little stilted. The whole "it doesn't matter since it's this kind of music" was pretty hyperbole-y, I agree, I was trying a little too hard to get my point across (my point being that although it wasn't creative it worked well enough in its scene that it strongly and ended up missing it by a bit. For anyone reading this basically what I'm trying to say as my main point is that it excels in being generic, cheap, exciting dance music, but it would have been way better if it wasn't so generic.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
I FINALLY CAME TO LOVE YOU
reading review right now
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
so as far as criticism goes, this is a pree decent review. it's short and could definitely be expanded, but it gets the point across that this is a pretty cliche EP. that being said, here are some things you could think about:
might be worth compressing the first few sentences - you kind of talk in circles a little bit. your first four sentences essentially say "this isn't innovative, but that's not a bad thing." and then you go and say it a few different ways, which I can understand wanting to do because this is a short EP and the review doesn't have much material to work with but there's definitely more to unpack which can help with the review's length.
your descriptions are pretty good given you're only 7 reviews in, but you definitely have room to grow. it's worth reading a lot of other people's work in this field and I can definitely point you to some similar reviews, and it will take some time to improve. that said, let me point out an example where your descriptions could potentially be better:
"Full of hyper-synthesized vocals and sudden explosive snares, it's easily the highlight of the EP"
there's definitely more color you can tease out of this song. there's just so much going on - the hypersensualized upper register, the splattering jazz chords, etc. - that it seems a bit ineffective to limit it to just the vocals and snares.
all that said this is a pretty solid review and I would def type more but my comp is almost out of battery, have a pos!
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
thanks. I'd like to see those similar reviews you mentioned if you have the chance, interested in expanding my musical vocabulary
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
here's one off the top of my head: http://www.residentadvisor.net/review-view.aspx?id=14421
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
nice, thanks again
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
i like this ep but his remixes are definitely of a higher quality to me.
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
I don't love it
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