Shatter the Standards
@thestandards.bsky.social
We are dedicated to celebrating milestones, unearthing lesser-known musical gems, and promoting discussions around albums and new music that might not receive ample attention in mainstream conversations. https://www.shatterthestandards.com
Working on an SP-404 and a cheap microphone, Curry and Blume strip their follow-up to UNLOCKED down to nine aggressive, densely rapped songs.
Album Review: ii by Denzel Curry & Kenneth Blume
Working on an SP-404 and a cheap microphone, Curry and Blume strip their follow-up to UNLOCKED down to nine aggressive, densely rapped songs.
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Produced with a tight circle of friends and partly recorded at Electric Lady, Smith’s fifth album splits between love songs that drag on sentiment and heartbreak songs that get down to the details.
Album Review: Hazel Eyes by Sam Smith
Produced with a tight circle of friends and partly recorded at Electric Lady, Smith’s fifth album splits between love songs that drag on sentiment and heartbreak songs that get down to the details.
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After three sessions with P2J in East London, Jorja Smith wrote a dozen furious dance tracks about people who lied to her.
Album Review: What Are the Odds by Jorja Smith
After three sessions with P2J in East London, Jorja Smith wrote a dozen furious dance tracks about people who lied to her.
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Cleo Sol sang about becoming a mother, but the album’s sharpest song is aimed at her own. The simplicity that risked making the whole thing disappear is the same thing that made it last.
Milestones: Mother by Cleo Sol
Cleo Sol sang about becoming a mother, but the album’s sharpest song is aimed at her own. The simplicity that risked making the whole thing disappear is the same thing that made it last.
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Frank Ocean finessed Def Jam on a Friday. The record he dropped Saturday turned out to be one of the decade’s best.
Milestones: Blonde by Frank Ocean
Frank Ocean finessed Def Jam on a Friday. The record he dropped Saturday turned out to be one of the decade’s best.
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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.
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.
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A contract-fulfillment album that turned out to be the most unguarded music its creator ever released.
Milestones: Endless by Frank Ocean
A contract-fulfillment album that turned out to be the most unguarded music its creator ever released.
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Listen to new releases from The Womack Sisters, Paul Wall & Termanology, Channel Tres, Arin Ray, Genia, Kelly Finnigan, NicoleYvette, Breanna Whitaker, André Cymone, and more.
Wednesday Roundups #162: 25 New Projects You Should Listen to Now
Listen to new releases from The Womack Sisters, Paul Wall & Termanology, Channel Tres, Arin Ray, Genia, Kelly Finnigan, NicoleYvette, Breanna Whitaker, André Cymone, and more.
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The New Jersey veteran shades his usual technical menace with grief, marriage, and an admission he had been sitting on for years.
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.
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Michael Christmas and Chris Crack recorded these six songs with Girl Talk in one Pittsburgh room. Every verse is crowded with punchlines and with the schools, blocks, and paydays the duo came off of.
EP Review: Don’t Come to My House Sharing Your Location by Michael Christmas, Chris Crack & Girl Talk
Michael Christmas and Chris Crack recorded these six songs with Girl Talk in one Pittsburgh room. Every verse is crowded with punchlines and with the schools, blocks, and paydays the duo came off of.
shatterthestandards.com
Between 1971 and 1974, Stevie Wonder released albums in rapid succession, not all of them recognized at their true worth, but nevertheless essential works. Read over at Blackpolitan.
Before Songs In the Key of Life (And the Songs Fall from the Sky)
Between 1971 and 1974, Stevie Wonder released albums in rapid succession, not all of them recognized at their true worth, but nevertheless essential works.
shatterthestandards.com
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 counting what they have.
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 counting what they have.
shatterthestandards.com
The phrase came off a hoodie release where Cavalier asked who legalization leaves behind, and over ahwlee’s production, he argues the case in bars instead of statements.
Album Review: Bring Back Weed Spots by Cavalier
The phrase came off a hoodie release where Cavalier asked who legalization leaves behind, and over ahwlee’s production, he argues the case in bars instead of statements.
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With 9th Wonder on board for the trilogy, The Musalini answers with grilled calamari, teal dresses, and Bronx Zoo alligators, writing that stays funny and particular across fifty-one minutes.
Album Review: The Don & Eye 3: The Trilogy by The Musalini & 9th Wonder
With 9th Wonder on board for the trilogy, The Musalini answers with grilled calamari, teal dresses, and Bronx Zoo alligators, writing that stays funny and particular across fifty-one minutes.
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Plus: Erykah Badu’s first new album in 11 years is finally happening, a Brooklyn producer taking the board for somebody else, a guest verse that disputes the count, and more. Read over at Soulpolitan.
The Happiest Couple in Music Just Made a Breakup Song
Plus: Erykah Badu’s first new album in 11 years is finally happening, a Brooklyn producer taking the board for somebody else, a guest verse that disputes the count, and more.
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Reunited as B-Movie Millionaires, Lee Scott and Black Josh turn drink, drugs, and their own heads into one of the year’s funniest, best-written rap albums.
Album Review: It Made Sense at the Time by B-Movie Millionaires
Reunited as B-Movie Millionaires, Lee Scott and Black Josh turn drink, drugs, and their own heads into one of the year’s funniest, best-written rap albums.
shatterthestandards.com
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 into a case for staying.
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 into a case for staying.
shatterthestandards.com
October London sang in the Grammys’ Roberta Flack tribute, and on Love Me for Me, he writes a bar tab and a busy schedule better than he writes the world.
Album Review: Love Me for Me by October London
October London sang in the Grammys’ Roberta Flack tribute, and on Love Me for Me, he writes a bar tab and a busy schedule better than he writes the world.
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Eagle’s relationship ended just as he and Segal set out to build their first album together, and he turned the collapse into DOOMED! that stays funny even as the losses accumulate.
Album Review: DOOMED! by Open Mike Eagle & Kenny Segal
Eagle’s relationship ended just as he and Segal set out to build their first album together, and he turned the collapse into DOOMED! that stays funny even as the losses accumulate.
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Ten years after a mutual friend introduced them to Daptone, the Los Angeles trio filled their self-titled debut with fares owed, ruined weeks, and men who talk too well.
Album Review: The Womack Sisters by The Womack Sisters
Ten years after a mutual friend introduced them to Daptone, the Los Angeles trio filled their self-titled debut with fares owed, ruined weeks, and men who talk too well.
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Recorded in 2017 and now posthumously released, PROLIFIC catches Nipsey Hussle and Bino Rideaux trading ambition, money, and grief like two men finishing each other’s sentences.
Album Review: PROLIFIC by Nipsey Hussle & Bino Rideaux
Recorded in 2017 and now posthumously released, PROLIFIC catches Nipsey Hussle and Bino Rideaux trading ambition, money, and grief like two men finishing each other’s sentences.
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Maxwell made an album about commitment with another man’s instruments and another woman’s famous song. It still sounds like his.
Milestones: Now by Maxwell
Maxwell made an album about commitment with another man’s instruments and another woman’s famous song. It still sounds like his.
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As new albums and singles get constantly flooded into our radar, look no further than skimming through the release week of August 14th. We know it can be a task, so let’s help you cut through.
New Music Drops: August 14, 2026
As new albums and singles get constantly flooded into our radar, look no further than skimming through the release week of August 14th. We know it can be a task, so let’s help you cut through.
shatterthestandards.com
From a nosebleed at the Governor’s Ball to a father’s voicemail, Lost Weekend follows one love behind Phoebe Bridgers long-awaited follow-up and is the year’s most complete piece of songwriting.
Album Review: Lost Weekend by Phoebe Bridgers
From a nosebleed at the Governor’s Ball to a father’s voicemail, Lost Weekend follows one love behind Phoebe Bridgers long-awaited follow-up and is the year’s most complete piece of songwriting.
shatterthestandards.com
Three years after the anti-break-up record I Killed Your Dog, Taja Cheek turns stalled starts, hungry love, and family communion into one continuous thought.
Album Review: fata morgana by L’Rain
Three years after the anti-break-up record I Killed Your Dog, Taja Cheek turns stalled starts, hungry love, and family communion into one continuous thought.
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The Nigerian pop star packs her third album with money talk and dancefloor commands, then lets the English ballads go slack.
Album Review: StarrGirl by Ayra Starr
The Nigerian pop star packs her third album with money talk and dancefloor commands, then lets the English ballads go slack.
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Black Up came out on Sub Pop and sounded like nothing else that year. Plus: Bad Meets Evil’s reunion, MMG’s first group record, Tech N9ne finally crossing over, and more. Read over at Words Past da Margin.
Nobody Was Ready for What Ishmael Butler Did Next (2011 Rap Revisited)
Black Up came out on Sub Pop and sounded like nothing else that year. Plus: Bad Meets Evil’s reunion, MMG’s first group record, Tech N9ne finally crossing over, and more.
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Joy Denalane cut the year’s most beautiful record in Berlin, in German. Plus: Jagged Edge without JD, Ledisi’s mainstream turn, the entire Norwood family on one tracklist, and more. Read over at Soulpolitan.
Philly Soul Never Actually Left, It Just Moved (2011 R&B Revisited)
Joy Denalane cut the year’s most beautiful record in Berlin, in German. Plus: Jagged Edge without JD, Ledisi’s mainstream turn, the entire Norwood family on one tracklist, and more.
shatterthestandards.com
An ex-backup singer’s debut built entirely on romantic devotion, as though no other subject existed, and very much proves the bet right.
Milestones: Never Too Much by Luther Vandross
An ex-backup singer’s debut built entirely on romantic devotion, as though no other subject existed, and very much proves the bet right.
shatterthestandards.com
Listen to new releases from Dinner Party, Fana Hues, Inspectah Deck, Somi, Clark D, Jon Keith, UFO Fev & Machacha, Rick Hyde, Cletus Strap, DyMe-A-DuZin, MOONGA K., Sherrionn, Lost Girl, and Quanie.
Wednesday Roundups #161: 14 New Projects You Should Listen to Now
Listen to new releases from Dinner Party, Fana Hues, Inspectah Deck, Somi, Clark D, Jon Keith, UFO Fev & Machacha, Rick Hyde, Cletus Strap, DyMe-A-DuZin, MOONGA K., Sherrionn, Lost Girl, and Quanie.
shatterthestandards.com