This thing is so bad. I saw the few reviews of this album where people raved about it and its experimentation and so I thought maybe this was just a case of people hating too much on the album’s presentation (in this case its AI cover) and not focusing on the music, but then I got to the second song and to say my jaw dropped is an understatement. This is easily the worst vocal mix I have ever heard in my life. This use of autotune genuinely makes me feel like I’m an unc who ... read more
What am I missing here? This thing kind of sucks, man. Jamie xx is an artist who has long puzzled me because I really could never get a grasp on his sound and artistry. I respect his versatility and how he was able to incorporate dubstep, 90s house, and experimental garage into his sound, but it just doesn’t sound good at all. This thing is so messy and I can’t look past it. It literally looks like he just threw everything together. And the club aesthetic of it doesn’t land at ... read more
This is a really beautiful album. If it wasn’t for the few filler tracks, this could genuinely be one of the best neo-psychedelia albums I have ever heard. To describe this thing in one way, it’s melancholic… or at least bittersweet. It’s really weirdly gut punching in that degree. “You’re Not The Only One I Know” is truly one-of-a-kind.
“It’s perfectly fine / To sleep in a chair / From Monday to Saturday.”
Fousheé is an artist who is on the cusp of a breakout, too big to be underground but way too small to be mainstream; I fear that Pointy Heights won’t really change anything. Not to say it was super disappointing, or even disappointing, because she’s never really had amazing albums, but when she dropped that single “100 bux”, I thought this genuinely could be album of the year. That is not only the best song I’ve heard all year, but it genuinely made me ... read more
Neutral Milk Hotel if they were shitty writers. Painfully boring and corny lyricism. I do vaguely remember these guys from the early to mid 2010s (the emo scene on the internet was NOT popular lol). I do fw emo but this is really trying to cash in on that *era* of emo and is just so tired. I know this is a “return to form” but the form doesn’t need returning to.
I’ve seen a lot of people saying that this album got review bombed, which if true, is so petty and actual loser shit, but I can definitely get not liking this album. I am not an Eminem fan, and have honestly never been. I liked his earlier stuff years ago, but it’s all really poorly aged now, even if his writing was very witty and charming. I get the concept behind this album, he can just be super corny and the instrumentals leave much to be desired. Still, it’s the best thing ... read more
I sincerely don’t know if it’s a hot take but BabyTron is so so so annoying. His earlier stuff was alright but still hard to listen to. At least it was witty. This feels so unfinished and so corny.
Bill Evans is one of those dudes I could just reallllly never get into. His beautiful piano playing on Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue was the only real output from him I loved. This just kind of sounded very generic. Obviously it was bolstered by the success of Kind of Blue, but this would just have been a really big let down if I was a listener during that time. 1959 was a monumental year in jazz, and I don’t think this stood up against any of the albums this year. This was just really ... read more
This is pretty much the “definitive” jazz album in a lot of ways. It’s the album you can show to literally anyone, even if they don’t like music, and they will like it, it’s almost a guarantee. “Take Five” is of course in many ways the most popular non-vocal jazz standard ever made. I’m a drummer so ever since I was younger, Joe Morello was like a God to me. The dude is such a wizard on this album. The way he’s able to just glide through the ... read more
I’m not sold on this one. Very ethereal and one-of-a-kind, that’s basically where my compliments stop. This thing just sounds like it’s trying to be really profound and bittersweet and it is just not hitting at all. This very very bare-boned style of house just never appealed to me, man.
THIS THING IS SO BAD. At first this album was just an annoying dance punk album that sounded safe enough to be played in an h&m by a manager who thinks he’s “artsy”. But then this thing just FLEW OFF THE RAILS. I don’t even have much to say. This shit just sucks, and it’s mean, but these guys are professionals. They can’t even EQ a microphone. This is cooked.
I’m not really the best at reviewing live concerts, so please forgive me. Her performance in “The Other Woman” tore at my heart strings, and the second song was amazing. Besides that, and while I know Nina had the vocals of an angel, I wasn’t suuuuper captivated? I’m just not really a live album guy what can I say. I like live music but live albums don’t really appeal to me too much except in a few cases (12.28.98 and The Smiths’ Brixton Academy show ... read more
So, this is a very stylistic mixtape. Very vapor-wavey and lo-fi. It’s almost a bit too novelty, in my opinion. The biggest issue by far are the sudden volume fluctuations, with most songs starting quiet and then having harsh cuts and being too loud. It’s really weird, and seems like an easy fix. It even jumpscared me a few times I can’t lie. The vibe is really really cool, I just think it sometimes can be too form-over-function.
This thing is pretty good with some nice bittersweet tracks on here, however, for a drone project, you typically want a lot of time to establish drone. So, for a 10ish minute project with 8 songs, it’s hard to really get into the atmosphere of this project. Some songs struck me as being really inspired by C418’s Minecraft soundtrack, like 02, and they were really cool. I definitely liked those more melodic tracks on here than the dissonance and hollow feeling of tracks like 03. ... read more
You know what I haven’t done in a while? Go on AOTY’s “New Releases” tab. I will start doing that once again. For context, I used to listen to almost exclusively “New Releases” on AOTY for a little while because I was obsessed with finding really small artists. It also made me a better reviewer and taught me a lot of humility because often times, the artists I would review would reach out to contact me. For that reason alone, I’m always much nicer on ... read more
Jazz is the hardest thing to review on this site, so please excuse me. Charles Mingus is truly the master of exploring textures within musical production. How much he was able to twist the double bass was so fascinating. The first half of this album is so soothing when it needs to be and head-smashing when required to, with quality hard bop soloing. It just kind of loses my attention, with a second half that’s in my opinion much less ambitious. Mingus is a prime example of an artist who I ... read more
June 2024 lowkey ate. First we had Charli xcx’s Brat, a phenomenal dance pop character study into her conscience, and now we have this album from the Guatemalan avant-garde artist Mabe Fratti based in Mexico City. She is truly a bizarre person. Every interview I’ve read from her leaves me with more questions. I can’t tell if she’s trolling or genuinely just that abrasive. The music is similarly abrasive. It’s a take on alternative and indie pop which stretches out ... read more
What else is there to say about a band like Imagine Dragons. It’s to the point where it’s just not fun to even listen to them anymore in a laughable kind of way, it’s just really aggravating. This band must all have something for humiliation making a song like Take Me to the Beach lol. AJR level corniness.
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Recent Review Comments
On Bonny2saucy's review of PARTYNEXTDOOR - $ome $exy $ongs 4 U
"Greedy is a really good song tho check that one out"
On maryfreegirl's review of Arcturus - Aspera Hiems Symfonia
"Honestly, fair. It should be a must hear."
On Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin
"in this era. Not specifically blues rock bands like Led Zeppelin, but more folk/progressive classic bands of the era.
4. The Led Zeppelin III review was extremely harsh but that’s always been an album I hated. Even when I was young. It was just always so bizarre.
5. So in conclusion, a lot of the contradictions and moments of over-hating in this review were really just a consequence of me being younger and being new to this site. I am able to articulate my opinion way better now. But I am very thankful and flattered that you would revisit each one of my reviews now. I don’t think I could I feel like it would be pretty embarrassing lol. [done]"
On Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin
"3. So you aren’t aware of my series. And that’s fine. I’m not a celebrity lol. This was the first “hate listen” I did on this site. I did “hate listens” for Led Zeppelin, R.E.M, AC/DC, and am now doing one for Dream Theater. My goals with all of these series was to hopefully get over my hatred of these bands. R.E.M. i exited actually liking. AC/DC i exited still disliking but realizing that not ALL of their stuff is bad. I’m not done with Dream Theater, but they had good earlier albums, and were a better band when they were more atmospheric, sparring, and less corny. As Led Zeppelin was the first series, and also I was just younger, I was a lot more uncharitable. But my intention was always to have them grow on me. I love plenty of bands 3/"
On Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin
"other white artists took that as inspiration. i still stand by what i said even if i haven’t listened to it in a while. when led zeppelin took more soul/reggae sounds, it often flat out didn’t work. also, not to play this card, but like, i am polish. i’m not saying i can’t have opinions prejudiced against whites, but questioning a band which already has a controversial modern reputation for taking from black art, i don’t think is really that. they just try to do sounds that black artist do but don’t have the soul to do so really. just feels like a mcdonald’s burger versus a burger from a local bbq diner in the deep south. big difference. 2/?"
On Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin
"@LemmyDjonsson
alright so a lot to un pack here.
1. kashmir is the band’s most overrated, not whole lotta love. i’ll cover why there’s that confusion. more in 5
2. regarding d’yer mak’er, my point still kind of stands. i’m not saying white people can’t make reggae, but reggae is an art form that comes from black areas. it comes from jamaica and the caribbean. led zeppelin made this in the early 1970s, before the internet was a thing. because of this, i was kinda worried how they treated the reggae sound. because it’s a lot easier to be aware of the history and to listen to smaller jamaican and jamaican diaspora artists nowadays, but at the time, let’s face it, a lot of white artists took black art, succeeded commercially, and then 1/?"
On Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin
"@LemmyDjonsson lol i agree. this was also a few years back. i feel like i still hold the same view but i could phrase it a lot more eloquently today. cool you like it tho!!"
On Svg's review of Dream Theater - Octavarium
"@Svg that’s okay lol. what made you come around to the album"
On Bill Evans - Everybody Digs Bill Evans
"@dandelionpillow that is a fantastic point. thank you"
On DoubleZ's review of Chicago - Chicago Transit Authority
"the lebron james of this website was gone just like that💔"
On R.E.M. - New Adventures in Hi-Fi
"@BikerSK it’s okay lol. sorry my comment was kinda harsh too. i just get that complaint a lot and always get annoyed because people omit context but maybe i should just provide more context so soon i’ll probably add a disclaimer to all those reviews. i do like monster a lot! again, i came out of this series kind of liking r.e.m. even tho they have some stinkers."
On R.E.M. - New Adventures in Hi-Fi
"@BikerSK such a weird comment lol. you have no clue what you’re talking about so i’m not that shocked. i have a series on aoty where i “hate listen” to discographies, but it’s all done with the concept of an open mind. the first band i listened to was led zeppelin, who i came out still not liking. the second band was r.e.m, who ironically i actually ended up liking. one of my favorite songs of all time is airportman, which is on one of their weirder later albums. the third band was ac/dc who i also ended not liking. this is NOT to just pile on music, but instead a brutally honest effort to evaluate why i might not like the band. so if you don’t know what you’re talking about don’t comment. i’m not gonna tolerate your drivel."
On AC/DC - Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
"@BennyBob autocorrect i think 😭😭😭"
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