Summer Task: E.P

In this piece of work I will write about Jhene Aiko' E.P titled 'Sail Out' and what I like about it. What I like about the musical content is the vocals and instrumental tracks. The vocals provide a smooth and relaxed vibe and the instrumental tracks add on to this. The instrumental tracks contain some spacy pads and gentle synths. Some of the tracks have explicit content but I really like the way Jhene shows her feelings and emotions when she sings in her tracks.

The engineering and recording of the tracks is another good thing about the E.P. The tracks have been well recorded and I can tell this by listening to the tracks carefully. Nothing in each track is out of time or out of key. Everything is 100% on point and nothing is out of place. The mixing of the E.P is perfect as well because the instruments sound clear, no sounds or drums sound filtered out, the volume levels are well balanced and the use of EQ, Compression, Limiting, etc has been used appropriately. All the instruments sound in the right band of the EQ e.g. The kick drum is in the lo ends and the percussion instruments are in the mid or hi ends.

The main that makes the E.P stand out is the cover art. The E.P is called 'Sail Out' and it shows Jhene on the beach and ahead of her are some ships and the seas. I really like the ideas and the final product of the cover art because the ships fit in with the title of the E.P and it also shows the ships are ready to sail out. Another thing I like about the cover art is the writing. I like the design of the writing, it's not basic script writing and it looks very suitable and well perfected. Basic writing doesn't look too bad for cover art but it's much better to have writing that looks outstanding and not boring.

When I listen to the tracks I can't seem to hear any synthesised sounds. From my point of view I think the sounds are mostly presets and one shot samples. From point of view I think at least four of the tracks in the E.P have synthesised sounds and drums. When I listen to the tracks I listen for any obvious techniques used and I believe that four of the tracks have used sufficient sound design.

The songs were mostly written by Jhene Aiko but the other writers of the E.P were Vince Staples, Mac Robinson, Brian Warfield, Donald Glover, Kendrick Lamar and Ab-Soul. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sail_Out#Track_listing

Seven of the tracks in the E.P were composed and produced by the fisticuffs and the 8th track was produced and composed by No I.D. So they are credited as the producers of the E.P.

The engineers who mixed and mastered the E.P are Derick Ali, Jim Caruana, Maximilian Jaegar, Jaycen Joshua, Ryan Kaul, Rob Kinelski, Dave Kutch, Sam Martin, Christian Plata, Donnie Scantz and Michael Thomas. Apart from Ryan Kaul who is the mastering engineer, the rest of the people named in the last sentence mixed the entire E.P. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sail_Out#Personnel

The E.P was released by Def Jam Recordings and it is a major label company.