Other-worldly, yet grounded in its simplicity.

Favourite Song: Formidable Cool

Best: Heavenward, Yuk Foo, Beautifully Unconventional, Don't Delete The Kisses, Planet Hunter, Sky Musings, Space & Time, St Purple & Green

Worst: Sadboy

A great live performance exclusively featuring some of the best songs from their holy trinity of good albums. There may be a few key tracks missing, but what is here is theatrical and towering alt rock that helped to define the 2000's pop alt rock scene.

Favourite Song: New Born

Best: Knights of Cydonia, Hysteria, Supermassive Black Hole, Map of the Problematique, Butterflies and Hurricanes, StarlightTime Is Running Out, Micro Cuts, Stockholm Syndrome, Take a Bow, City of Delusion

Worst: ... read more

For whatever reason, Evermore took slightly longer to click with me than Folklore. On first listen it was simply a Folklore B Sides, but after a few more it's revealed itself as a much more intimate and 'experience' sort of album. Folklore has some pretty singles and a hell of a lot of firepower, but evermore prides itself on its slowness and completion as an album. I'd still say that Folklore is the stronger album, but it's a harsh misjudgement to consider this beneath its predecessor.

Also, ... read more

I finally got around to listening to this on a 3 hour car journey that turned into a near 6 hour one, whilst using some of the worst earphones known to man, and somehow it felt like the perfect way to listen to this behemoth. Before the actual album discussion however, I came away from this with four distinct points about the bands discography:

1. I cannot remember anything from their first album
2. Sound of Silver is definitely their best album
3. This Is Happening is rreeeaaally close to ... read more

Gritty and angry, but not much else.

Favourite Song: Blackout

Best: Stay Here, Big Strong Boss, Right Wrong, Gang

Worst: Weakling

There's a lot of good on this, especially with its outstanding opening two tracks, it's just a shame that it feels a tad cluttered.

Favourite Song: Beetlebum

Best: Song 2, Country Sad Ballad Man, M.O.R., On Your Own, You're So Great, Death of a Party, Chinese Bombs, Essex Dogs

Worst: Theme from Retro

Though a little more immature and brash than their later releases, Lungs still proves that from the very start Florence and her machine can twist mainstream pop around in a diverse way. Although the biggest songs open and close the album, some of the deeper cuts are far better in quality like with Howl and Drumming Song, giving more of a scope and grandiosity to the album. And because it's Florence + The Machine, punchy choruses and theatrical, whimsical production are vivid all throughout, ... read more

Sarah Bonito goes PC music and it's... pretty uninspired. I'd be lying if I said that Sarah's voice hasn't irritated me more and more as time has gone on and this EP's reached my limit to how much breathy cutesy 'innocent' palaver I can take. But here she's trying to do the whole juxtaposing of edgy lyrics, themes and production with sweet vocals and it just doesn't cut it enough. The production is easily the best part of the EP, but it's nowhere near as good as a KKB project because at times ... read more

The songs are WAY too long, but they're also WAY too good for neo-soul and R&B tainted mainstream pop songs. Timbaland is absolutely godly on the production front, and he carries Justin so hard on this album, despite Justin still having some great vocals. And even though every song feels too long, some of the second halves of these tracks transform into something just as interesting and catchy as the first halves, (...not looking at you Mirrors. How that second half got through is beyond my ... read more

Good JID m.A.A.d City

With bangers at the start, ballads and stories in the middle and a mix of both at the end, The Forever Story continues JID's hip hop prowess from DiCaprio 2. Every feature is great (ESPECIALLY Mos Def's), every flow is great, every beat switch is great, and most songs are great. It's all just great great great. What's not great great great is some of the songs near the end like Just In Time and Money, which are two wonky songs that spoiled the nice flow and direction of ... read more

An intimate yet hard hitting adventure through many genres like post-hardcore, metal and alt-rock. I'm definitely more fond of their album after this, Melancholia Hymns, due to that one being much more cohesive and astonishing, but this is still a great experience and Arcane Roots really prove themselves to be sonically different to the modern rock scene. Shame they had to BREAK UP.

Favourite Song: Sacred Shapes

Best: Energy Is Never Lost Just Redirected, Resolve, Belief, Hell & High ... read more

Some gloriously trippy and fantastical rock.

Favourite Song: Cornflake

Best: Cubensis Lenses, ...and the Addled Abstraction of Being, High Visceral, Surf's Up, Gallop to Southport, Found God in a Tomato, Entropy, Denmark / Van Gogh & Gone

Worst: Marmalade March

An enjoyable but indistinct combo of dance and indie rock.

Favourite Song: Heads Will Roll

Best: Zero, Soft Shock, Skeletons, Dull Life, Runaway, Little Shadow, Faces

Worst: Dragon Queen

Whimsical rock n roll fun.

Favourite Song: Starman

Best: Five Years, Moonage Daydream, It Ain't Easy, Lady Stardust, Ziggy Stardust, Suffragette City, Rock 'n' Roll Suicide

Worst: Star

FUNKY, but the less funky songs ruin the funky songs.

Favourite Song: Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough

Best: Rock With You, Workin' Day and Night, Get on the Floor, Off the Wall, It's the Falling in Love, Burn This Disco Out

Worst: I Can't Help It

Ire Works is a strange little experiment of a metal/mathcore album, and one that feels like a truly deranged yet amazing experience each time I listen. I love the catchiness, the glitchy and strange shorter sections, and the harder and heavier sections, topped off with some singular tracks that are spectacular opuses like Black Bubblegum and Milk Lizard. Man I love The Dillinger Escape Plan.

Favourite Song: Black Bubblegum

Best: Fix Your Face, Lurch, Sick On Sunday, When Acting As A Wave, ... read more

WAY more sexual/romantic than I anticipated at times due to the opener literally being about the monstrosities of war, but otherwise it's some decent 60's rock. The album opens excellently with one of the Stones' best songs, however things then go stale until the latter end of the album. Monkey Man especially has aged like fine wine with its wonderful groove underlying it, and I hate that it's not one of the band's biggest songs.

Favourite Song: Gimme Shelter

Best: Midnight Rambler, Monkey ... read more

Metal done right.

Favourite Song: One of Us is the Killer

Best: Prancer, When I Lost My Bet, Hero of the Soviet Union, Nothing's Funny, Understanding Decay, Paranoia Shields, CH 375 268 277 ARS, Magic That I Held You Prisoner, Crossburner, The Threat Posed By Nuclear War

Worst: N/A

Lavish and nostalgic beats, fantastic features and some of Black Thought's best bars and flows to date means that this album is a real gem amongst modern hip hop. A lot of today's biggest 'nostalgia' producers like The Alchemist haven't been doing much for me lately, but Danger Mouse's ear for sampling is truly great and supports Thought's heated words wonderfully. The album trailed off a little towards the end, but nonetheless it's still punchy and great.

Favourite Song: Aquamarine

Best: ... read more

The Final Riot! isn't exactly the most perfect or prestigious of live recordings, but it's still a lot of fun. It's a nice round up of Riot! (except for Miracle for some bizarre reason?) and some songs from their debut album, with it all being a nice mix of bangers and ballad-esque songs. Everything's pieced together with Hayley's greatness as a frontwoman, with her nice energy and Americanisms between every song, and I also enjoyed the little additions at points like with Let the Flames Begin ... read more