I hadn't been fair to Pearl Jam before listening to Ten. From the one(ish) song I'd heard before (which was Alive... and the chorus from Even Flow), Pearl Jam struck me as the one and true dad band of the grunge era, unremarkable and a bit too straight cut when put against the ferocity of other grunge bands. Yeah, I was wrong, and in fact they probably best some of the better efforts of bands like Soundgarden and Nirvana in my personal opinion. Ten is as cohesive as glue with a really solidly ... read more

Is this really a masterpiece? In my opinion at least, not really, since most songs sound the same and it's a very strange, disoriented piece of an album. But I will say that it is still pretty good, with peculiar dance tracks that get you going and an oddball vocalist that has his better and worse moments. A weirdly compelling little album, but one that is a little overhyped.

Favourite Song: Mosquito

Best: Crossing Guard, Slate, Amaranth, Sun In

Worst: Sleepless

Incredibly cinematic and dense with meaningful indietronica. Crywolf has paved his way forwards as a more depressive, but equally as intricate, Porter Robinson.

Favourite Song: QUIOXOTE

Best: ATHETOSIS, MEPHISTOPHELES, FALLOUT, [when you inhale i fill your lungs], FAWN, FOREIGN TONGUES, ULTRAVIOLENT Pt. II

Worst: DRIP

Exactly what an EP should be: short, sweet and with an absence of fluff. The band ditches their occasional sad song for four straight bangers and this project is rewarded greatly for doing so, and each one could even contest against some of the finer cuts on their full length LP's.

Favourite Song: Take This Lonely Heart

Best: Forever & Ever More, Gods, You Know Me Too Well

Worst: N/A

Everyone who reviews this album either talks about childhood memories or Dream SMP porn, so lets go with the former I reckon.

I'm like around 19 now I think, and so my first experiences of Minecraft were from when I was around ten/elevenish. I got the Xbox 360 edition of the game, and to be honest all I liked to do was either build privately or mess around with my friends. I always hated the survival side of the game, but there was so much to do outside of that game mode, so it really didn't ... read more

What's up guys! Today we're testing this new online AI music chatbot GPI to see if we can generate the most generic Gorillaz album possible!

If you couldn't tell, Cracker Island is an impressively mediocre Gorillaz album, complete with a distinct lack of any intriguing qualities. Think Plastic Beach, but with less dynamics, musicality and point of existence in general. If an album could play it safe, this is hunkering down in a bomb shelter underneath the white house with Goku as a personal ... read more

Surprise! It's the 1975's most boring album to date. A sloppy, incoherent trek through country, punk, house and other confused genres, resulting in an album that is longer than my will to live, which only has one actual 1975 song, being If You're Too Shy'. I actually like the softer moments on this album, which feel a bit like a precursor to Antonoff's touches on their following album, but you can't exactly avoid the electronic void that this album gives itself. So many tracks are pointless ... read more

A collage of pretty good EDM mixes, with some decent features but some lacking substance and uniqueness, apart from XENA which beats out every other track on this album.

Favourite Song: XENA

Best: Leave Me Like This, RATATA, Tears, Rumble, Butterflies, Hydrate, Supersonic, Still Here

Worst: Hazel Theme

In my opinion, Bon Iver's second album beats his first, from its sheer beauty in its stellar production to its more cohesive album structure. The way that this guy bends folk to his sheer will is magical, and every song feels otherworldly in its spaciousness and grandiosity, yet human in its simplicity and vocal rawness.

Man does Bon Iver make me feel depressed on a whole other level.

Favourite Song: Perth

Best: Minnesota WI, Holocene, Michicant, Hinnom TX, Wash, Calgary, Beth/Rest

Worst: ... read more

So, Paramore does rock again. But... depressing mid(ish) life crisis rock? And it still works?

Well it's not a surprise really. Paramore have proved themselves to be genre shifters from as early as their self-titled, and Hayley's lyricism has matured with every single release. So, culminating in their most fully fledged 'adult' record to date, This Is Why mixes the emotions from the been and gone lockdowns with a lady who has simply experienced life in its simplicity, and turned it into ... read more

Trench is surprisingly pretty decent, but the album falls apart slightly in the second half and the classic Twenty One Pilots cringe peeps out at times. That being said, the first half is very distinctive and impressive with its genre combos, catchiness and occasional coolness from a seriously uncool band. But let's ask the real question, where are the other nineteen pilots?

Favourite Song: Morph

Best: Jumpsuit, Levitate, My blood, Chlorine, Neon Gravestones, Nico and the Niners, Cut My Lip, ... read more

WHERE!!! THE FUCK!!! ARE YOUUUUUU!!!!

Unapologetically brash and continuously crazy from one of the biggest oddities in the metal genre. I'd definitely take this over their debut any day.

Favourite Song: B.Y.O.B.

Best: Revenga, Cigaro, Radio/Video, Violent Pornography, Question!, Sad Statue, Old School Hollywood, Lost In Hollywood

Worst: This Cocaine Makes Me Feel Like I'm On This Song

ONE THING,

I think this album has aged fairly well considering its genre clashes and its general late 90's/early 2000's nu metal identity. Sure some of the songs are samey, and some of them are a bit cringe due to the rap sections, but I feel like that just adds to the charm. Nu metal bands always have to have a few distinctive traits that separates them from one another, and the rap verses plus Chester's screaming and occasional blissful vocals are what make Linkin Park their ... read more

A good metal record, especially for a debut, but I know they can do so much better. Not much sticks out, apart from great riffs on the two biggest tracks and MX taking the piss with its runtime.

Favourite Song: Be Quiet and Drive

Best: My Own Summer, Lhabia, Mascara, Dai the Flu

Worst: Around the Fur

Long, samey all throughout, but still pretty good because SZA always has a distinctive charm to her. There is no world in which this album needed a whopping 23 tracks, but I'd be lying to say that some of these songs are really solid, and the album as a whole does stay fairly consistent even if most songs are exactly the same. There's just too much filler to make this album rival CTRL, and the songs are too damn short. I think lyrically this album really suffers with some whoopie cushion ... read more

I think The 1975's debut comes out reasonably well, despite some songs sounding similar and some songs being pretty mediocre. But my prior thoughts on these guys being able to mass produce incredible singles is on full fledge in their early days. Chocolate, Sex and Robbers are the immediate highlights, but I found myself enjoying more album songs this time around compared to some of their later releases. Less convoluted vague concepts and insufferable run times, more straight up bangers and ... read more

A relatively bog-standard but still good R&B album.

Favourite Song: Use Me

Best: Adorn, Don't Look Back, Do You..., The Thrill, How Many Drinks?, Where's the Fun in Forever, Pussy Is Mine

Worst: Candles In The Sun

What an absolute SLOG to get through. As much as I do like The 1975's approaches to pop rock, quantity does not equal quality with this band. When they really sit down and dream up a powerful single like Somebody Else or The Sound, it hits excellently. But when there's so much dreary tosh to the point where your album is a whopping 40 minutes longer than it should be, you have to contemplate whether making essentially a double album is worth it when half of it is painstakingly boring. But like ... read more

The 1975: one of the most popular bands as of late due to a polarising vocalist, a bassist with majestic hair and live shows that seem to spiral off into absurdity. Their latest album surprised me thoroughly as someone who hasn't actually listened to much of their music beforehand, as it presented a fun time wrapped in a plethora of genres like folk, pop, rock and funk, contrasting the views beforehand of what I perceived was a generic pop rock band. So as I now go a little earlier into their ... read more

I need a cabin to get away from the world and craft a debut album that makes me an immediate staple in the entire modern folk genre. Thanks Bon Iver for reminding me that I've never experienced love and I'm going to die alone.

Favourite Song: Lump Sum

Best: Flume, Skinny Love, The Wolves, Blindsided, Creature Fear, re:stacks

Worst: Team