They offer a positive, upbeat take on hip-hop with heavy doses of melody. While it didn't totally win me over, there are enough bright points, and it is done with enough skill and passion that I recommend it to anyone nostalgic for the days of b-boys and beatboxes.

The whole of the self-titled Fetty Wap album is remarkably inoffensive and uninspired.

The "Issa Album" was a full course meal while "Without Warning" ends up being more of a snack.

He sounds positively dated.

The danger though is that The King & I turns into a new version of the "Duets" album, simply rebranded as a Faith Evans album featuring snippets of her late husband. This is exacerbated on the second half of the album by one rap all-star cameo after another.

You'll keep looking for songs with more depth than "Ba Bump," only to find that they're basically all at that level.

Drake's Views is him lying on a therapist's couch whining for large chunks of time and the album drags as a result. Yet, if you took the best dozen tracks, you'd have a perfectly enjoyable, listenable LP.

It's a decent but underwhelming album, and one that inspires apathy more than adoration or disgust.

Despite his years away acting, LL hasn't really lost his touch rapping. What he has lost is a sense of focus and direction.

A third of the songs are about hooking up with ladies, a third are heartfelt ballads to lovers, and a third are break-up songs. It's the lifecycle of a relationship, over and over. I'm not convinced by it, but it's working for him.

The problem for Wiley on 100% Publishing is that things just vary too wildly from song to song.

While the beats are mostly good, it feels like Macklemore missed out on an opportunity to really set his solo career apart from Macklemore & Ryan Lewis.

Like the core message of Everything Is Borrowed, this album will, unfortunately, come and go soon enough, little trace left behind.

Unfortunately, the rhythm of the album is constantly interrupted by cacophonous dirges which makes it feel unsettled.

If you can get into the fantasy and ignore the reality then DS2 might be good escapist music for a little while.

Neva Left is unfortunately, yet predictably, another mixed bag. The good tracks are effectively updates to proven formulas, which when matched to more imposing beats, show Snoop hasn't lost his touch.

There is very little humour and some of the production is flat out boring.

It's no secret the Twins get gully. Fortunately for listeners, it's very contagious. Unfortunately, it comes at the expense of lyrical content.

As it stands, the album has some decent songs but doesn't hold together as an album.

He clearly cares about his output, but “Music To Be Murdered By” is, unfortunately, another mixed bag of tricks, propped up by lyrical acrobatics and underwhelming production.

If you can focus more on the beats and not so much on the words the overall experience improves, but even then it still tends to be monotonous.

Unfortunately the drama turns out to be more interesting than the album itself, with Yayo offering little lyrically, Banks seemingly phoning in his performances, and 50 trying to hold the whole thing together on the strength of his star power alone

Ultimately I have two complaints about Blue Slide Park which in the grand scheme of things may be minor.

So long as you don't expect Shakespeare and don't presume this to be a rap album, you won't be mad. It's pure pop done the way Pharrell does it.

The problem here is that not only is no progress made, Weekend at Burnie's might just be an artistic regress.

You're Dead loses momentum after "Never Catch Me." Much of the later two-thirds of the album is more atmospheric, reminiscent of 2012's more contemplative "When the Quiet Comes."

If you can get past some of the dumb lines and the often blunt nature of Big Sean's approach to seduction, there's enough solid, modern R&B here to satisfy those craving something a bit more direct than Drake, but it could have been so much more.

Rather than staying true to political and social roots that got him signed in the first place, David Banner has chosen to mimic what's popular.