Like it’s said on the title track, Census Designated feels like rotting in the middle of Oregon. It’s about being used up until you’re deteriorated and worthless, then thrown to the side and forgotten about.

Census Designated is another point in time in Jane Remover’s discography. It marks her first album under her new alias, and her first album as an out trans woman, and a step into shoegaze.

Jane has influenced and innovated in multiple genres. She first became the blueprint for digicore back in 2021 with her EP Teen Week and debut album Frailty, then created a whole new subgenre of mashup EDM with her Dariacore series under her “Leroy” moniker. Now, she’s bringing her sound into rock music. While it may not seem like it, Census Designated is a logical progression from Frailty. Jane Remover forgoes the blips and boops for some fuzzy guitars, but at its core, Census Designated still retains the magic of Frailty. The explosive, distorted peaks and introspective, quiet valleys have been slowed to a crawl. The pop sensibilities have been exchanged for unstructured songs and reflective storytelling. Jane’s vocal delivery has grown more confident and versatile. When she does tap into the electronic and degraded sounds or obscure early 2000s TV samples à la Frailty, it’s never the focal point, but just adds a special flare. 

Overall, Census Designated is an evolution from Jane’s previous work. Not that it’s better than Frailty, but it’s a snapshot of an artist who is forever changing. 

BEST TRACK: Backseat Girl

LISTEN: https://stem.ffm.to/censusdesignated 

Jane Remover - Census Designated (October 20)

97/100

Quinn has been on a tear recently, releasing an EP or mixtape almost every month this year. Her sound has recently cleaned up a bit from the “fuzz” of her self-titled and moved into more of a trap direction. i used to just cry about it, while not a return to that “fuzz”, is a return to the ethos of her 2022 projects, but still builds on the sound that she’s been creating throughout the year. At 16 tracks and only 22 minutes, i used to just cry about it is quinn’s longest project this year, but still lacks a lot of length. Some tracks are only 30 seconds long. Like her self-titled album from last year, the tracks are not necessarily connected to each other in genre. Some tracks are trap songs, some are breakcore, and some are just a sample that’s edited a little, but they all fade in and out of each other to create a unified experience. 

Quinn isn’t overthinking it. As she says in as above so below, “I make music, I upload it”. That seems like the general vibe recently: to just make cool music and let people listen to it if they want to. Her music often represents the mindset that she’s in when she made it. In these songs, she’s recoiling from a rough breakup and processing the conflicting feelings that come along with it, like on “heart of coal”, where she sings “I hope you know I miss you, but I think you should be dead.” The bass is booming throughout the whole tape, and is sometimes overwhelming, symbolizing the anger and frustration vibrating through the tracks. 

Quinn, i used to just cry about it - it’s hard.

BEST TRACKS: heart of coal, we can’t be friends, checkpoint

LISTEN: https://trenchdog.bandcamp.com/album/i-used-to-just-cry-about-it 

quinn - i used to just cry about it (October 13)

84

After six long years, Sampha has returned with his sophomore album.

Sampha’s voice is beautiful, although his British accent is a little off-putting at first. He explores themes of family and love, but it's always tinged with a sense of loss and longing. 

I usually don’t like to compliment the mixing, but this album is really well mixed. The production feels spacious and wide, but everything is still very close to the ear. Everything is perfectly placed and extremely clear. The production feels similar to a sunny, partly cloudy day; it’s beautiful in its soft simplicity. Sampha and his team use string arrangements and piano contrasted by dull drum machines and electronic effects to create something modern. It’s kind of like modernist architecture, but more warm and inviting. 

I would say that this album was well worth the six year wait. 

BEST TRACKS: Stereo Colour (Shaman’s Dream), Inclination Compass (Tenderness)

LISTEN: https://sampha.ffm.to/lahai.bio 

Sampha - Lahai

87/100

For All The Dogs is Drake’s lowest critically reviewed album ever, but it’s not for a lack of good songs. Instead, people are finally fed up with the same old Drake. His formula of low-effort albums with a lot of filler and a few songs that blow up the charts is good for streaming numbers, but is starting to falter as Drake grows old and people are starting to expect something more from him. However, this is actually the first Drake project that I’ve ever listened to in full, and it’s not as bad as I expected. 

As Drake turns 37, he tries to tap into the sounds of the new generation of artists, but it doesn’t turn out that bad. “IDGAF” is basically a good Yeat song with a Drake feature that weighs it down. On “Fear of Heights” and “Daylight”, Drake tries to be Carti, which is a little corny, but that’s to be expected from Drake. The whole album is never free of corny bars, which can be surprising with how many ghost writers he has. While Drake may not always be able to use his money to hire his way out of his corniness, he is able to get some really good beats. BNYX is all over the album, and even Conductor Williams produces “8am in Charlotte” for a more lyrical cut.

For All The Dogs doesn’t seem too thought out. Drake decided to tease towards it well before it was actually done, and tried to finish it while on tour. The album is full of ideas and themes that aren’t fully fleshed out, like how the album is more about complaining about his ex than about being “for all the dogs”. A few tracks feature radio-style outros 

Drake - For All The Dogs (October 6)

66/100