The Cure were one of the icons of the burgeoning, mostly teenage goth/alt movement of the 70s and 80s, which is why I find it funny that Disintegration seems far more weathered and wise than its audience- every song brings an epic sweep of desolation and ruin, kingdoms crumbling, lives no longer living.
Disintegration is very much an album of end times- longing melodies and utterly beefy production elevate Robert Smith's songs of love from interpersonal to ever-present elegies from life ... read more
It is a little dangerous how breezy and sweet Troye Sivan makes emasculating yourself for an uncaring lover sound, but even so there's a deep yearning and desperation underneath the flirtatious intimacy that I'm sure hits uncomfortably close for lots of gay guys, including myself. Great song.
![γγ©γ―γ«γγ₯γΌγΈγ«γ« [Miracle Musical] - Hawaii: Part II](https://cdn2.albumoftheyear.org/100x0/album/124336-hawaii-part-ii_194455.jpg)
Very cohesive and well-constructed, which makes it even more of a bummer it's completely vapid.
This joins a category of albums like "Bad Girls" or "Songs in the Key of Life" where it's just pure aural perfection front-to-back and not much else.
Formless, swooning, heartfelt- the red cover was a perfect choice for an album so overcome with feeling.
Feels extraordinarily basic but I'd be lying if I said it didn't also kick ass.
Part of me empathizes with Quadeca- I understand being a fledgling artist and wanting to play around in these novel, experimental artistic spaces. Unfortunately, no greater meaning transpires from his tinkering, and it's ultimately just posturing- a young artist frenetically trying to pull ideas together into coherent thoughts, but with neither the tact or clarity to do so. Disappointing.
The drama! The lights! The music!
The feeling! The heart! The love!
Woozy summer essence to send to alien planets.
The mixing on this reissue of Pet Sounds isn't great at all. The bass is deafening, the both vocals and instrumentals change in volume mid-song, and the "No Noise" grade applied to it covers everything in a layer of aural vaseline.
Truth be told, listening to YouTube rips of it isn't quite as nauseating, but it's definitely NOT the version of Pet Sounds I'd recommend to newcomers. Shame, because it's by far the most abundant. I'm still giving it a 70 cuz ... read more
Listening to this album feels like a miracle. If their first album was the foundation, they've found a way to refine and nail their sound before their second album was even released- although refusing to give this album status greatly diminishes its place in The Smiths' catalogue.
Songs are much more distinctive, interesting, and dynamic than their self-titled. Even the songs that were on the self-titled originally just flat-out sound better here as studio outtakes. There is a ... read more
Captures a kind of mythical lustiness that makes both Nancy and Lee sound like old gods. Psychedelic, sensual, beautiful, and unnerving. It's not perfect but I feel hypnotized every time I listen to it.
Debuting in 2003, The Postal Service might, at first glance, seem like The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys, or Yeah Yeah Yeahs- bands whose first album took the music community by storm, but whose credit slowly diminished as their albums slowly deteriorated in quality. Unlike those bands, however, The Postal Service never let that happen- those underwhelming follow-ups never arrived. To this day, despite reuniting twice, The Postal Service have only released one album- Give Up.
Give Up differentiates ... read more
Probably the quintessential teenager album. I FORGET WHAT EIGHT WAS FOR
Hard to separate myself from the emotional attachment I felt to this album a few years back but it's still really, really good. Nervous Young Man rarely falters, and even its low points still serve some purpose overall (Afterglow and Death at the Movies feel like important beats within this album's flow even if I'm not head over heels for them) and the rest is unsurprisingly amazing. A 2 hour rock monolith.
It's incredible how this sounds futuristic, even today- King Tubby and Augustus Pablo take Reggae songs and warp them into hazy, impressionistic landscapes, containing almost every emotion that music can make you feel: joy, melancholy, unity, love, isolation, uncertainty, hope. Though it may seem repetitive, boring, or otherwise inconsequential on first pass, keep listening... a new being might emerge, some amorphous mass with the power to string all of our human souls together.
I'm normally against this type of reissue with a rearranged/augmented tracklist, as it seems to happen so frequently to Reggae artists that it can be hard to tell original from edit- however, here it's absolutely necessary. Shine Eye Gal is one of the best Reggae songs out there, and it's inclusion changes the album's pacing in significant ways. Also, the cover's better. What's not to like?
Feels a little strange to see the aggressively negative reaction to the sex skits on Ready To Die. Like, we're all fine with listening to this album act out people giving birth, intense depictions of family arguments, and a violent armed robbery, but when it comes to sex everyone's clutching their pearls? Come on. It's just another part of the lifestyle Biggie's rapping about, and it really does help the album feel more complete, imo.
Great album, too- It's a ... read more
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On Toasterqueen12's review of Mafuba - waiting by the phone
"Kevin Gates and Baby Keen taught me there's at least two types but beyond that I'm not sure"
On Siggerssss's review of Metro Boomin - Metro Boomin Presents: A Futuristic Summa
"Mark as low quality and move on"
On Suma's review of JPEGMAFIA - I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU
"Oh, a 20/100? Really? That’s the number you’re going with? For ILDMFLY? I just want to understand the galaxy-sized leap in logic it takes to listen to a record like this — dripping in experimentation, emotional depth, and boundary-pushing production — and say, “Yes, this is objectively bad music.” Either you’ve never listened to an album without a trap hi-hat in your life, or you’re willfully missing the point because you don’t like what JPEGMAFIA represents: innovation that refuses to bow to mainstream taste.
Let’s start with something simple: JPEGMAFIA is the GOAT. That’s not just hype, that’s reality. Who else is chopping up samples like he’s disassembling the American dream and reassembling it with duct tape and spite?"
On Quadeca - Vanisher, Horizon Scraper
"@cypre read it and see for yourself"
On verniers's review of The Dismemberment Plan - The Dismemberment Plan Is Terrified
"It does help it's also one of the best-written songs out there, lol"
On Rollo_P's review of Vince Staples - Summertime '06
"Totally agree, if this was a tight ten-track album or even mixtape it would be one of the best albums of the 2010s, and yet... the second disc exists"
On eksallages's review of Henry Cow - Unrest
"Can you stop using such big words? It's giving me a headache. Thanks."
On Calvin's review of ian - Goodbye Horses
"@ScoopTime It’s pretty rare for people to be forthcoming about criticism on here π either way thanks for responding in a cognizant way! At the end of the day, you do what you want to do though, thanks for being honest and I hope I didn’t disturb anything too drastically- your review was thoughtful and extremely in-depth, I’m glad these kind of long form write-ups are still getting attention on the site"
On Calvin's review of ian - Goodbye Horses
"And please don’t take this as a specific attack on you, or as a disagreement with some points you make! But your whole argument doesn’t seem founded upon much, and that’s an issue when talking about such broad and complex issues- side note: whether or not you see a cultural issue with Ian’s music or not saying “stop supporting this waste of time people call music” ends the review on a pretty close-minded note- “I don’t find enjoyment in this” is infinitely better than “you are wrong for enjoying music like this” and even if that’s not what you meant that’s certainly how it comes across"
On Calvin's review of ian - Goodbye Horses
"wanting more variety but it seems odd to be so pissed off at what is at worst an album that is just a standard 2024 trap release. Your points about the music industry being nicer and more willing to promote white artists over black ones is understandable but it rubs me the wrong way hearing incorrect points being made, and if your goal is to make a generalized argument for systematic racism in rap than relying on misconstrued data is not the best way to go."
On Calvin's review of ian - Goodbye Horses
""I will continuously call out Ian and other artists in the same vein that continue to waste away the hope I have that good music will prevail in the Hip Hop landscape instead of the formulaic and repetitive garbage that has infested the charts for a while now." Pop music has been formulaic and engineered to be commercially successful since recorded music was a thing! I understand wanting more artistic integrity or variety on the pop charts, even within Ian's lane of Rap music, but the bottom line is that most releases of any given genre will not be ones you particularly care for, and the amount of run-of-the-mill songs that are on the charts any given time is very very high just due to them being made to sell π€· again I don't fault you for"
On Calvin's review of ian - Goodbye Horses
""Rap is inherently a black genre born and raised, and yet decade after decade since the music broke into the scene it has unsurprisingly always been headed by white artists." No? At least, saying "always" is a vast generalization and even saying "most of the time" or "sometimes" is too generous, imo. The vast majority of best-selling hip-hop has always been from black people, and it seems in bad faith to bend that fact in order to strengthen your argument, even if you weren’t doing it intentionally- in fact, your whole argument about Ian’s appeal partially coming from white people uncomfortable with listening to black musicians is really a small minority of listeners, kind of disproportionate to the weight you give the issue in the review"
On Suma's review of Geordie Greep - The New Sound
"I did get one positive thing out of this review, though. I now have an outline for creating a hipster music album review that would get me indie cred. Hmm... it might be fun to follow through on that outline."
On Suma's review of Geordie Greep - The New Sound
"@blockoumi3 my comment was completely in jest fyi"
On Suma's review of Geordie Greep - The New Sound
"So true. When will this site realize the music they like is hipster and never makes any impact in the real world? AOTY is swamped with pretentiousness these days. Love the review."
On Lord0fDiamonds's review of Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven!
"This is one of the most massively misguided reviews I've ever seen, good work"
On MickyT's review of The Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat
""I find the production to be way too muddy majority of the time and I feel like this thing could've turned out so much better." Most of the band agrees with you lmao"
On CT_Devourer's review of The Velvet Underground - Loaded
"Id argue otherwise but Reed was definitely influenced by him- an early version of I’m Waiting For The Man is basically a Bob Dylan pastiche"
On Johnny Cash - At Folsom Prison
"@Andrei Intimidation tactic"
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