A much stronger effort than Low End Theory (in my opinion), and a continuation of Tribe's laid back but lyrically potent hip hop style. However, I have to mark the group down for not really featuring Busta Rhymes. Poor guy says three words and gets looped to hell and back on not just one, but TWO songs. How are you going to disrespect the Tribe's DLC member like that?

Favourite Song: Award Tour

Best: Steve Biko, Sucka Gentleman, Midnight, We Can get Down, Electric Relaxation, Oh My God, The ... read more

A nice idea in concept, but a very generic heavy metal album in actuality.

Favourite Song: Shake Your Blood

Best: Centuries of Sin, Red War, Access Babylon, Silent Spring, I Am the Warlock

Worst: Ice Cold Man

Spiritbox must have pissed off their producers because why the hell else are they trying to actively sabotage the band?

Despite the sloppy attempts at transitions between half of the songs, random volume fluctuations like at the end of The Void and a jarring jump cut in the second half of Angel Eyes, the music of The Fear of Fear itself is pretty solid. It's not Eternal Blue quality thanks to the shorter runtime, the prior mentioned production errors and the songs themselves not bringing much ... read more

Some brief but batshit punk. X-Acto are great. Paranoise are... there.

Favourite Song: Smells Like Beef

Best: Blastbeats on my Balls, F.D.D., Body Farm

Worst: Sixth Kind

Born To Die is a really strange album.

There's the general essence of Del Rey that we've all come to know with her held back luscious singing, but at the same time she spontaneously bursts out into many strange tones that feel infantile and delirious to say the least. But weirdly these moments seem to actually work, and it helps when the songs she uses the weird voices in are benefitted by sorts of lyrical irony... I think? Like there's no way she genuinely means all of the stuff she sings in ... read more

Spotify please for the love of god stop autoplaying my love mine all mine after I play any song by a woman, I'm literally going insane.

A sweetly depressing and concise indie album that doesn't innovate, but does bring some fantastic lyricism and some sweet, careful production.

Favourite Song: I'm Your Man

Best: Bug Like an Angel, Buffalo Replaced, Heaven, I Don't Like My Mind, My Love Mine All Mine, Star

Worst: When Memories Snow

Black on Both Sides is an extremely potent conscious hip hop record that flows as well as it speaks volumes. Mos Def has an incredible lyrical sense that doesn't feel too pushy in his messages, nor does he ever get boring. The beats are soulful and use some incredible sampling, and like I said before the flow of this album is incredible, with every song leading extremely well into the next. The only problem for me is that the album is pretty long, standing just a few minutes shy of being a ... read more

While I really appreciate the darker and more mellow tone to Quaranta, I think that that the album feels a little underdeveloped. There's some nice strings of thought and as always some great lyricism and general prowess from Danny, but it feels like there's some punches being pulled throughout. Perhaps it's me unfairly comparing Danny's more 'exciting' works to this one (e.g. Atrocity and Scaring the Hoes) when this album is much more emotional and personal than his usual releases, but either ... read more

PinkPantheress' debut could've been a commercially pandering collection of 30 second snippets featuring samey songs using her formula that started to get a little old even after just one mixtape.

Thank god she chose to make one of the best produced albums of the year. This thing sounds CRISP!

Compared to her extremely short and slightly forgettable prior mixtape, she's improved on literally all aspects of her musical style. The singing's better, the production is far better, and she clearly ... read more

(Reviewing just the bonus stuff)

It's a nice collection of leftovers from a legendary bygone Radiohead era, alongside some glimpses into other directions that those two albums could've gone in. It's a shame that there's only really two new distinctive songs, but hearing some alternative takes on existing songs still has its magic to it, such as with the Pulk/Pull + True Love Waits mashup, which actually works surprisingly well. Of course because it's bonus content, it'll never live up to the ... read more

After a few run-throughs, Deftones' debut shows itself as severely lacking in the diversity department. The odd moment was alright, but there's nothing on here that I would favour compared to their later works.

Favourite Song: 7 Words

Best: Bored, Root, Birthmark, Engine No. 9, Fist

Worst: Lifter

I simply adore when the Heads get all funky, and lucky for me with this they get hellishly funky for an entire album. Tongues is a really consistent and fun time, and one that I would arguably say is more consistent than Remain In Light, because when that album slows it down things get boring, but here the slowing down becomes beautiful with Naive Melody. Although there's less peaks on here, there's still a fantastic crop of songs, and some seriously tight compositions making up a varied yet ... read more

Ultraviolence has a wonderful mystique to it, and thus so it feels like the epitome of Lana's whole early creative persona. I think that musically this is such a lush and interesting album to envelop some lovely Lana vocals, with searing guitar riffs and swaying production that feels like a tender breeze, but a very accompanying and matching breeze to her voice. The first five tracks are utterly phenomenal, and then the last six kind of just exist, with some sounding quite samey and some just ... read more

A cataclysmic EDM/indietronica album that manages to hit emotionally whilst having some perfectly crisp production. Although some songs are dragged out a bit, I still really enjoy the cohesion on display, and I especially enjoy the vastness of everything. It feels almost too spacious, but that's what makes it unique and a fascinating listen. It's like if Brakence and Porter Robinson had a baby who likes the occasional beat drop.

Favourite Song: Curses

Best: Dive, Spells, Overthrower, Thief!, ... read more

A very unique mix of ear piercing electronica and quiet, dainty, subtlety-filled folk. I get what they're going for but it's not too enjoyable for me personally, and this was almost certainly not the best place to start with Animal Collective.

Favourite Song: Chocolate Girl

Best: April And The Phantom, La Rapet, Bat You'll Fly, Alvin Row

Worst: Everyone Whistling

An indie pop album where the upbeat songs are fantastic, and the downbeat songs are a bit boring. So in short, pretty much like every other modern indie pop album. But, Be Sweet is a phenomenal pop track and there's some uniqueness to Japanese Breakfast's approach that feels a little untapped, like with Posing In Bondage or Slide Tackle, which include nice glimpses into production changes that never really reappear to my disappointment. Overall a great first half, a middling second, and a ... read more

Seventeen Seconds? More like SeventEEY Seconds! LOL

Aesthetically it's a cool album, but substantially this can't compare to the likes of Pornography and Disintegration.

Favourite Song: A Forest

Best: Play For Today, Secrets, In Your House, M, Seventeen Seconds

Worst: Three

There is literally no reason for me to care about this album. For a band that can't stop making songs that sound exactly the same, this is the epitome of them not being able to escape their sound. It's starts off strong but then it's just a slog of monotony, and by the time Fear of Sleep came around the album needed to end desperately, but then they shoved in four songs after for no good reason. Too long with too little actual substance or variety.

Favourite Song: You Only Live Once

Best: ... read more

Sufjan threw his javelin, and it went straight through the god damn heart.

Yet another Sufjan album that will go down as a maddeningly saddening and touching record, dedicated this time to his lost partner. The choirs that join him in most songs are this album's quirk, but it's one that always feels enchanting whenever it appears. The instrumentation is lush and gorgeous, and the lyrics are, as expected, downright heart breaking. Although most songs are fantastic, Shit Talk is utterly ... read more

There's some promising mixes, but it all gets a little sterile after a while.

Also this album may contain the most underwhelming Radiohead cover ever.

Favourite Song: On

Best: Melt!, Re-Wild, Jeanette, L.I.N.E., Night, Flow, Wake-Up

Worst: Corner Of My Sky