Albums I Discovered During The Quarantine

In these times we have been quite cooped up and are stretching to find things to do. If you are like me you have began to do things you always wanted to do and never have time for otherwise. This time has become a time of self-care and discovering hobbies. Most of us are catching up on the things we've missed, for me its music that has definitely crowded my hard drive and I never quite got to.

So here is my list of Albums I discovered during the Quarantine:




Blue Bird EP

Most people Jasmine Cephas-Jones because of her role in the Broadway Musical Hamilton. Some know her as Anthony Ramos' fiance. I know her as a singer-songwriter, actress and just all around amazing person in general. I have actually had the pleasure of meeting her and Anthony on the press run for his album. She definitely is a character.

Blue Bird is actually an EP, but this collection of songs are amazing. I love the EP as a whole. I knew it was going to be quite an event when I first heard her first single Wild Thing. The song is catchy as hell, she did kinda fuss at me on Twitter because I took so long to listen to it. My bad Sis. All jokes aside its a great song. My other favorites on this EP are Moonlight, Gone Girl and Alice.

All in all its an amazing debut for a beautiful song bird, we can tell Anthony to take a seat for a little while.


Jardín

I discovered Gabriel Garzon-Montano while on one of my very frequent visits down a COLORS session rabbit hole. This subsequently lead to me finding more about him including his 2017 album Jardín. The French - Colombian singer from Brooklyn was signed to Stones Throw Records after Mayer Hawthorne heard a song of his in a record store and sent them his music. 

Jardín is easily one of the most catchy complete albums that I have listened to in it's entirety. This offering from Montano is heavily R&B influenced and dedicated to Prince. Who can argue with that? No one. Like I said the songs hit and they're catchy as hell. I do have favorites though, as with any album there are standouts. My standouts are Sour Mango, Fruitflies, The Game, Crawl and My Ball. That is damn near the whole album. Quite frankly you can easily listen to these songs all the way through and not feel bad at all.

Juliet EP

Next Town Down is a group that formed in 2016 so you can say they've been together for four years give or take. I started following them in 2017 when I discovered their five part harmony covers of popular songs. You can still check them out on YouTube. I kinda fell off and didn't realize that the youngest member had finally turned 18 and they had come out with two EPs since first coming across their music.

There are two things that I noticed about them that has changed over the years, they have a more polished more modern sound and they have definitely matured. They are not teenagers anymore with the exception of Leon they're grown and it shows in the subject matter. Juliet is the second EP from NTD and it does not disappoint. There are a few really cool features from a few well know artists the most notable is 6lack.

Of course with every album there are still a few stand outs the same is true with an EP. My Standouts are Notice, Easy (feat. 6lack), Because I Love You and Wonderin'. Call me nostalgic, but the reason I liked them in the first place is their amazing ability to do five part harmony and I think Notice, Because I Love You and Wonderin' showcase those abilities. All in all it's a solid project and they will most likely continue to improve with time. Only time will tell.

So far these have been the albums heavily on repeat and are ones that I tend to return to on a daily basis. They're fresh right now and they're going to be in rotation for quite a while. There are so many albums that I own that I failed to listen to. As long as we're here there will be updates most likely daily depends on what vibe I'm on.