Finding new music can be difficult. If you are like me and still listening to late 90s and early 2000s music (which I don’t blame you, most were bops), the algorithm probably isn’t helping you out. So, I decided I would try to step out of my music comfort-zone, open Spotify (that I’m leeching off my fiancé), and explore the ‘New Releases’ page. Now, how do you choose who to listen to? In light of the magazine’s 75th issue, I figured I would go to the 75th artist, listen to their album, and determine whether I would continue to listen to them.
The artist I landed on was BUNT. and their newest album, Levi Don’t Do It. First, let me give you some background on BUNT. before I start expressing my opinions. He is a German DJ who was once a duo but has now gone solo. His genre of music is labeled as: Dance/Electronic (already out of my wheelhouse). He has 54k followers on Instagram and has 5.7 million monthly listeners (according to Spotify). BUNT.’s album came out on January 19th, 2024, so it’s not even a month old! He is also currently on tour. You can listen to his new album on YouTube, Spotify, YouTube Music, and Apple Music (wow, way to sound like an advertisement -.-).
Now, onto the album; first, I really liked the cover art! The picture is in black and white with BUNT. sitting in a chair, leaning back. BUNT. is in black and white clothing (white tank top, white jeans, black shoes with white laces). It’s fascinating that the album title is in smallish writing at the top, and the subtitle is even in smaller writing (which was unexpected).
As for the album’s music, I enjoyed most of the songs! “Cloud” and “Lose It All (I Don’t Wanna)” started with solid beats and reminded me of EDM or dubstep music; I could totally picture hearing this music in a club setting. You can’t help but to bob your head to these songs, but once that beat drops, it makes you want to fist-pump. In most of the songs, there are few lyrics, and the ones you hear are somewhat sad, for example, in the song “Clouds,” one of the lyrics is, “sorry I fell out of love with you.” The juxtaposition of upbeat sounds with the sadder lyrics is interesting. I found that these songs feel good in the ears when listening to them with headphones on. But of course I have some mild complaints about some of the songs (however, take it with a grain of salt, since I’m not familiar with this genre). I found it a bit jarring that “Peace In Silence,” “Somewhat Real,” and “Lost My Mind” had very abrupt endings (I feel like music like this should have a nice fade in the end). “Peace In Silence” started off slower than the rest of the songs on the album. My least favorite song out of the bunch was “Something Real” as the beats sounded very monotone to me. Overall, I felt like most of the songs had very similar beats throughout the album and felt repetitive. My two favorite songs were “Clouds” because I found it started off the album strong and “Lose It All (I Don’t Wanna)” reminded me of some old-school R&B songs I used to listen to. Overall, out of the 7 songs and the remix of “Clouds”, I have 2 favorites. Now, I’m no math major, but that ratio doesn’t look good. Altogether, I generally liked the album, so I don’t mind that percentage!
End result? Will I continue to listen to BUNT.? Probably not. Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean I dislike his music. I actually found songs I would be willing to put on my playlist (ahem my fiancé’s playlist)! If someone had this playing in their car, I wouldn’t mind it and bob my head along with the music. Hopefully, this inspires you to get out of your comfort zone with your music taste and give a new artist a shot. Just because I did not find a new artist to add to my playlist doesn’t mean you won’t!
Happy searching!
Featured Image by BUNT. via SoundCloud
