Lovely singer-songwriter folk music that does get a little long in the tooth toward the end, but is nevertheless still a beautiful listening experience.

Uplifting and beautiful psych rock that heals the soul and evokes the right kind of nostalgia.

Not nearly as interesting as fellow melodeathers At the Gates' latest release, but still quite good. No game changer, but longtime fans will be more than happy.

Arguably Moor Mother's best work to date lyrically. The instrumentals are challenging and progressive, as well, proving once again that underground hip-hop is one of the most groundbreaking musical arenas today.

Getting the most important stuff out of the way right off the bat: "MONTERO" is an important record. For hip-hop, and for pop music at large. It's important for all of the reasons you would expect, but all of those reasons exist only adjacent perhaps to the music itself.

Aesthetically, this album is a celebration of not only queerness, but of fearless public embrace of one's self-expression in an often too rigid world of expectations. In fact, I would argue that the listening ... read more

I avoided listening to this record for a while this year because I was fearful that I was going to utterly hate it. But then I remembered that I haven't utterly hated any release from Greta Van Fleet, so I went ahead and jumped in.

It's very popular right now among my generation and younger to just rip this band apart. Likewise, it's just as common for Boomers to praise these kids for "saving music" and making "something that's actually good for a change." The latter ... read more

The untimely death of Stepa J. Groggs brought upon promising young rap group Injury Reserve a great sadness and an uncertain future. The loss of their dear friend and collaborator also meant that the remaining two members of the outfit had a choice to make regarding the unfinished material that was to be their next record: scrap it or salvage it. The latter option might not have been an ideal task, but it did promise to immortalize the last artistic work of Groggs in the annals of music. This ... read more

Dan Bejar doing his thing as always. It's fun.

Even at a brisk 25 minutes, Deb Never's debut release feels like an hours-long slog through indie pop material so overly tread that you could tell me it was a covers album and I would completely believe you.

I'm not sure how the same formula that worked so perfectly for me last year could end up disappointing me so thoroughly this time around. Conceptually, this record is supposed to be a continuation of 2020's "A Beautiful Revolution Pt. 1," but whereas I found the genre melding and forward-looking lyricism of that effort to scratch the itch, this time around the genres being strung together seem less varied and the words seem to be more descriptive than prescriptive. The same general ... read more

I've been following French TV for a long time, and while I'm a huge fan of their earlier work ("The Case Against Art" and "The Violence of Amateurs" are pretty much undiscovered masterpieces), their music as of late has seemed to have lost something. It no longer has the elements that make it stand out as something truly "Rock In Opposition," and instead clings to the norms of broader jazz fusion that any other band of this type could produce in its sleep. The ... read more

"Pink Panties" alone is the best/worst thing about this album.

Some flows are actually really catchy. Others are sloppy. Some of the beats are fire. But most are very obviously amateurish in the production. The quality of this thing is all over the place, and that's undoubtedly due to it being self-produced and overly ambitious. I respect that, to be honest. But my ears can't deny the final result. There's potential here, but it's ultimately squandered by its grasp-exceeding reach. ... read more

Awesome experimental and noise record! The rest of his discography is suspiciously absent from this website. Change that.

Is this enough text for you, algorithm?

My Little Simz review taught me one thing: it isn't worth typing up an in-depth, thoughtful review because only 2 people give a shit.

I hate to say it, but this album really is everything negative people say about it. The songs just aren't captivating. "Blind" is a weak opener and the record doesn't get better from there. It's such a strange thing to see such a world-changing band settle for such a boring final release in their otherwise-stellar discography. You can just smell the fatigue through the speakers.

The Mountain Goats keeping up their consistent quality art folk, even if the derivative first half of the album weakens it a bit needlessly (once "Lizard Suit" comes on it becomes a completely different--and better--record!).

Seriously. This year needs to stop giving me so many fantastic albums to choose my top 50 from. It's getting tragic!

Last year's "Descendents of Cain" was one of my favorite albums of the year, as well as one of my personal favorite hip-hop records period. It was pretty much inevitable that this effort, especially given how soon after it arrived, wasn't going to live up to that. Ka is known for his minimalism, but the beats this time around sound flat-out repetitive and uninspired. Like someone ran a handful of loops through GarageBand, copy and pasted several times to make them repeat for about ... read more

At The Gates once again prove that they can still run with the best of them with this new release. With all these years under the band's belt, it's impressive that they can still produce something that surprises and delights me. Yet, here they are again, doing just that.