Your Favorite Toy-Foo Fighters Album Review:

Foo Fighters is back with their twelfth studio album “Your Favorite Toy” their first in three years (But Here we are). Their first with a new drummer named Ilan Rubin as the last album Dave Grohl did the drumming himself. Grohl himself said “The track title song sets the overall direction and tone of the record following an extended period of experimentation”. During 2024 and 2025 the band worked on new material, eventually shaping a set of louder, more energetic songs after the creation of the title track and this is the shortest length of any album they have made.

Grohl and company can keep making music and we all would keep listening to it. The real issue is do they need to keep making music? They are at a point in their career where they do not make trash or bad music but not every new song or album will be as good as their past releases. This album isn’t great nor is it complete trash.

There are two really bad songs in “Your Favorite Toy” the track title and “Spit Shine”. They both do not sound like their style as there is a lot of screaming grunge style. The average songs are “Of All People”, “Amen Cavemen” and “Caught in the Echo” the first track. All three do rock out but have elements that make you dislike the tracks like screaming or something.

The good tracks are “Window”, “If You Only Knew”, “Unconditional”, “Child Actor" and “Asking for a Friend”. All are good emotional songs with a softer tone but can still rock out. “Window” seems a little sad with how a window washer views the world through his window. It seems like “Asking for a Friend” and “If You Only Knew” are songs about a friend he has lost like Taylor Hawkins, which is a good thing to know he has not stopped thinking about his friend that he and the world had lost tragically. While “Child Actor” can be about being the limelight since he was young and maybe he didn’t want to be in the public eye his whole life.

In the end fans of the Foo Fighters are not going to hate this album or any other more recent release. They are just going to take the good from this album and add it to the great discography/songbook of music they like from them. This will not be theirs, mine or anyone’s favorite toy but will just be another addition to their history of making good music. It is good they can still make music even after all the tragedy this group has been through.

The Romantic-Bruno Mars Album Review:

 

Bruno Mars is back with this fourth solo album (his fifth overall) with “The Romantic” his first in a decade in “24K”. He is one of the most accomplished and talented singer-songwriters musicians in the industry who is always collaborating with others like Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, and the last album he worked on under the title Silk Sonic with Anderson Paak. The album peaked atop the Billboard 200 and Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums US charts while also reaching number one in Canada. It is rare to listen to an album and not want to skip songs as it is a nice ride from the start to the end during the listening experience. It is the type of album that makes you smile or enjoy the experience because so many tracks are upbeat, funky, and groovy and make you want to dance or tap your feet to the beat. It does really show off his vocal strengths too.

            This upbeat R&B, pop-rock album is exactly what his fans have asked of him for years to come out with because it sounds so much like his older albums. “Cha, Cha, Cha” and the final track “Dance with me” are definitely dance songs. The former is an upbeat song and the latter is  definitely a slow song to dance to as he is talking about falling in love again. Tracks “Risk it all”, “I just might” and “G-d was showing off” all have that same upbeat-funky-groovy feel of R&B or Latin music. They have the feel of his older work and make you want to get up to dance; the first track does have a nice acoustic-quieter tone to start. The song “Why you want to fight”,  is when the album starts to kick it up a notch some cool guitar riffs and he sounds like a lounge or do-wop singer singing the blues in a way. While “On my soul” also has some good guitar riffs, is fast paced, with some guitar solos and some more ‘oofm’ to it. “Something serious” could be considered a song to dance to but he is definitely serious in the tone of the lyrics in the song. While the remaining song “Nothing left” is the one really serious song even though he is covering love in the other tracks for the most part. You can hear the emotional aspect in his vocals as there is more depth to the song too and it rocks out too.

            Mars has captured the romantic in him with these love songs of R&B, Hip-Hop, Pop-Rock and dance. He has also accomplished putting out music his fans can enjoy as it brings you back to his debut album or the previous ones. Because of his talent he will always be collaborating with other artists on either one track or even a whole album, which is fine. But the fans get kind of lucky that he is always releasing new music no matter if it’s as a solo artist or with others. Just know this man is not done making more music and let’s enjoy the ride that we all have been on since he started writing music for others and has been writing music for himself.

2026 MLB Trade Deadline Preview:

AL:

Central:

White Sox: Buyers: SP, RP & C

Guardians: Buyers: CF & RP

Twins: Sellers: C Ryan Jeffers, DH Josh Bell OFers Trevor Larnach, INF Cody Clemens SPs Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober

Tigers: Sellers: 2B Gleyber Torres SP Tarik Skubal CL Kenley Jansen, RP Kyle Finnegan 

Royals: Sellers: OF Lane Thomas, Starling Marte, SP Michael Wacha RPs Matt Strahm, John Schreiber

East:

Rays: Buyers: RF, 2B 

Yankees: Buyers: C

Red Sox: Buyers: C, RP

Orioles: Sellers: OFers Taylor Ward, Leody Taveras, RPs Yennier Cano, Rico Garcia, Andrew Kittredge, Tyler Wells 

Blue Jays: Sellers: OFers Daulton Varsho, Jesus Sanchez, INF Lenyn Sosa SP Kevin Gausman RPs Louis Varland, Jeff Hoffman, Tyler Rogers

West:

Rangers: Buyers: 2B, C, RP

Mariners: Buyers: RP 

Astros: Buyers: OF, SP, RP

Athletics: Sellers: 2B Jeff McNeil, C Jonah Heim, SPs Jeffrey Springs, JT Ginn, RPs Jose Saurez, Elvis Alvardo, Geoff Harlieb

Angels: Sellers: DH Jorge Soler, OFers Mike Trout, Josh Lowe, Jo Adell, SPs Jose Soriano, Reid Detmers, RPs Kirby Yates, Brent Suter

NL:

Central:

Brewers: Buyers: SP

Cubs: Buyers: SP & CL

Pirates: Sellers: RPs Gregory Soto, Mason Montgomery, Hunter Startton

Cardinals: Sellers: INF Jose Fermin, SP Dustin May, RP JoJo Romero, Ryne Stanek

Reds: Sellers: 1B Nate Lowe, 3B Gino Suarez, OFers Dane Myers, JJ Bleday, SP Andrew Abbott, Brady Singer, RPs Emilio Pagan, Pierce Johnson, Caleb Ferguson, Brock Burke, Sam Moll, Tejay Antone

East:

Braves: Buyers: C, SP, RP 

Phillies: Buyers: OF & RP 

Nationals: Sellers: SS CJ Abrams, INF Luis Garcia, C Keibert Ruiz, SPs Cade Cavalli, Foster Griffin, Zack Littell, Miles Mikolas

Marlins: Sellers: OFers Kyle Stowers, Esteury Ruiz, INF Otto Lopez, SP Sandy Alcantara, RPs Peter Fairbanks, Anthony Bender, Calvin Faucher

Mets: Sellers: OF Luis Robert, 2B Marcus Semien, SP Freddy Peralta, RPs Luke Weaver, Brooks Raley, AJ Minter, Huascar Brazoban, Cionel Perez

West:

Dodgers: Buyers: RP

Diamondbacks: Buyers: OF & RP 

Padres: Sellers: 1B Ty France, C Freddy Fermin, SPs Walker Buehler, Griffin Canning, German Marquez, RPs Mason Miller, Adrian Morejon, Wandy Peralta, Randy Vazquez, Jason Adam

Giants: Sellers: OFers Heliot Ramos, Jung Hoo Lee, INF Casey Schmitt, 2B Luis Arrez, SPs Robbie Ray, Tyler Mahhle, RPs Caleb Killan, JT Brubaker, Adrain Houser, Jason Foley

Rockies: Sellers: OFers Mickey Moniak, Jake McCarthy, UTL Tyler Freeman, INF Willi Castro, SS Ezequiel Tovar, C Hunter Goodman, Sps Michael Lorenzen, Tomoyuki Sugano, RP Antonino Senzatela

I Am Alexander James-AJ McClean Album Review:

 

AJ McLean of the Backstreet Boys is out with his second solo album “My Name Is Alexander James”; his debut solo album “Have it All” came out 16 years ago which is a long time for most artists but when you’re in the most successful boy band ever you don’t always have time. The reality is he was working on an album for years with songs being leaked and then he scrapped the whole idea instead coming out with all different kinds of singles in different genres/with other artists. Some of it has been odd like country or hip hop tracks just not his style as his first album had a full set of real music with instruments that had a pop, rock, RNB and blues feel to it. He has decided to pull the curtain into who he really is; which is Alex not AJ which has been his stage name since he was a teen; by showing his struggles in life with staying sober and his marriage falling apart. This is a true reflection of who he is as an individual and a father, rather than just the pop-star.

This took four years to come together and it was worth it. His daughter’s intro up the album in the prologue and he ends with thanking everyone at the end in the epilogue. It is harsh to say two worst songs but ones that do not click are “Flowers” which has “Ty Doll $ign” on it where the chorus is better than the verse but still an “ehh” and “Why you love me wrong” has some weird production values on it and it sounds more like a song for a hip-hop artist for a loud nightclub. There is- like completely different vibes in the middle of album that make the album have fun. They all have some hip-hop, RNB, groovy, upbeat elements in them or the nightclub vibe works. Those tracks “Body Butter”, “Lovin on me”, ‘Kiss Kiss” and “Sad in the Summer” are all catchy songs to listen to while “What you know about that” does have some emotional element to it as well.

The first track “Can’t love you anymore” has really good strong production values where you know he means business to start the album. It sounds like a song the Backstreet Boys would do and it shows how the album is going to be an emotional journey for Alex and us. Songs “Thinking about us” and “The one that got away” sounds like his relationship with his now ex-wife; does a good job at the whole introspective element. The song “Y.O.U.” sounds like he is a lounge singer talking about love and the blues. “Arizona” is definitely one of the more emotional tracks, showing off his vocal range, getting emotional/introspective but asking an important question. Am I good enough? Followed by “Relapse” which is something he is afraid of doing after becoming sober. While “Echoes” which is about his inner-demons like being sober or heartbreak. While the last track “Better man” ends the album beautifully asking the question is he a better man after all he has been through in life and will he be one in the future is this journey to become over.

In the end Alex has now made two solo albums like his band mate Howie D and Nick Carter(who has five). They have grown since their youth and you can hear it on their solo albums. AJ has been in the public eye for years back to when he acted as a kid before his music career. He hopes he is in a good place with his sobriety, mental health and being the best father he can be after everything he has been through in life. This album shows the journey he has been on to make the leap in his growth as a person with personal songs about his struggles in life. It might not be as good as his debut album but to answer his question; “Am I good enough to be loved by you?” He is certainly more than good enough as a person, father, friend and musician. Alexander James and AJ can both be present in the world and he shows that in this album.

The Mountain-Gorillaz Album Review:

Gorillaz is back with their ninth album “Mountain” their first in three years (Cracker Island). The men behind the group Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett said this would be a “very different” and boy they were right. They both experienced the loss of close family members prior to their time in India and both described the album as a cohesive and conceptual work exploring ideas of death and the afterlife through the band's fictional characters. Hewlett said people listening to the album are "supposed to listen to it from beginning to end", saying that they were "trying to bring back that idea of taking time to invest in something, instead of this culture of scrolling". The album's name was inspired by the duo's first visit to Amber Fort in Jaipur, as well as a mountain they visited in western China during the production of the opera Monkey: Journey to the West. The Mountain debuted at number seven on the US Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 53,000 equivalent album units, which includes 38,000 in pure album sales and 15,000 streaming units. It became the group's sixth top-ten record in the United States. There is even a short film for this album as well.

What makes this group successful is how they blend so many different genres together and blend so many collaborations together to one coherent song or album. This album has at least twenty five featured artists either alive or dead. This album feels like they had their “George Harrison” moment of embracing Indian music and culture to be put into their music. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t work.

The opening track-the name of the album, “The Mountain” is an almost five-minute instrumental of Indian music. The same goes for “The Manifesto” it sounds like multiple songs in one since its seven minutes of Indian music or reggaton as both of these tracks are just too long with nothing in return. The second track “Moon cave” is almost like the first track with instrumentals with little vocals; it does sound like music for a movie so it is slightly better with some catchy lyrics but some not.

 One of the best songs is “Happy Dictator” as it has a catchy upbeat sound to it but more importantly it sounds like their sound. The other one is “Orange Country” as it is a good song with their usual sound plus it’s catchy but the lyrics seem like they go to another track.

There are a lot of reflective and emotional tracks on this album like “The Hardest Thing”, “The Empty Dream Machine”, “Casablanca”, “The Sweet Prince” and the final track “The Sad G-d”. The main issue is all of them have something off about each of them like talking instead of singing, some eeriness to it but most importantly all have some sort of Indian vibe to it/are too long. Tracks like the “G-d of Lying”, “Shadowy Light” and “Plastic Guru” they have some catchiness to them but still get ruined by the Indian music vibes but one of them kind of mixes well together. While “Damascus” sounds like they are in an Indian night club using Indian words and “Delirium” sounds like a choir is singing behind him eerily.
            I am in the minority from other places in that they are praising them for this bold mix of Indian culture with their grieving/death/afterlife themes. This was a miss and that is ok when you have made nine albums, not every album has to be a hit. But please next time maybe just not go up the mountain and keep going the path you have been on before which is blending multiple genres and many collaborators into one coherent amazing sound.

2026 NBA Finals Predictions:

 
Knicks Vs Spurs: Spurs in 6

2026 NBA Conference Finals Predictions:

 
East:

Cavaliers over Knicks in 6.

West:

Thunder over Spurs in 7.