I never would’ve expect Weatherday’s first album to lean towards lo-fi as much as it did, but I surprisingly enjoyed it, despite not being too much of a fan of the lo-fi genre. My favorite songs, though, were the ones that integrated slacker rock and noise pop, like My sputnik sweetheart. And the slower, more quiet parts were pretty good as well. My only gripe with this album is the effects used on Weatherday’s voice, and the inability to hear what they’re saying at ... read more

I actually first heard about julie when I went in my local record store and saw a poster of pushing daisies. I later found out that it was a shoegaze and noise pop/rock album, so I knew I had to check it out. This is probably the most consistent EP I’ve listened to, as there isn’t one bad song on here. Something I don’t often mention, or compliment even, is the vocal performance, but I really love julie’s voice(s) here. Something about the female vocalist just works so ... read more

Despite loving the rock genre, I’ve never been deeply attached to post-rock. Although my post-rock reviews are extremely positive, there are maybe about 80% of albums under that genre that I didn’t like and never put on my playlist. And at first, I felt the same way about A Lonely Sinner. After listening to Lamb Theme, I was almost certain this wasn’t my type of album; that I wouldn’t be attached to the instruments and environmental effects used. This same feeling ... read more

My first exposure to Ethan Bortnick was when I was doomscrolling, and I came across one of his Omegle videos of him playing the beginning part of hide n seek. The piano solo really interested me and grabbed my attention, so much so that I checked out his EP containing said song. And I thought it was… alright. I have to admit, the first three songs are solid, and what I was expecting coming into this, and REM was an interesting instrumental bridge for the rest of the project, but the last ... read more

Fun fact, I first listened to this album thanks to a Pangaea Girls custom beatmap in osu!mania, and I liked the song so much I decided to check out the album. I’m so glad I did. But I’d never expected that I’d be so attached to an album I found on a rhythm game. There’s something so dreamy and atmospheric about this album, thanks to the distorted instrumentation and vocals, which makes this album extremely memorable. Speaking of memorable, I can’t think of one bad ... read more

I want to start off by saying that this might be the best artist name I’ve ever come across. But moving on to the actual music, I came into this expecting a blend of heavy psych and psychedelic rock, but what I got was slightly different. Now, it might just be me, but I really only noticed the heavy psych genre in the first 4 songs and Incubator (V2000), which had some of my favorite songs from this project. Concrete & Cola was the exception to this, as I enjoyed the calming ... read more

The most calm, headbop-able album you’ll listen to. That’s a word, right? But anyway, when I’m given an album mixed with shoegaze and psychedelia, it’s hard for me to not to have a chill, relaxing time. It made me close my eyes and just… imagine. It made me reflect, to think, and, in a way, live in the moment. Instrumentally, they’re just so calming, like the music is reassuring me somehow? It’s a really hard feeling for me to pin down and correctly ... read more

I cannot explain why I rated this an 80 originally, because that just might be the biggest undersell I’ve ever made to an album. As of right now, I have just found out that Huremic is the same artist as Parannoul, which I find extremely surprising, because I honestly didn’t get that attached to Parannoul’s work, which I will eventually rate. The only reason why I can explain my previous low score is that the first two songs set high expectations for parts 3-5, and I was ... read more

This is like Weatherday’s shoegaze + post-rock sibling, and I honestly enjoyed this EP more than Hornet Disaster. If I could put this project into one cliche phrase, it would be short and sweet, because it certainly doesn’t overstay its welcome. At times, I can definitely feel some psychedelic portions play in this EP, especially in cat’s tongue and parts of we know the devil. The song's average is weighed down slightly because of the last track, which maintains the same ... read more

Yet another post-hardcore + noise rock album, and this might be the angriest album I’ve heard yet. There’s so much passion prevalent in this debut album of Prostitute, and on my first listen, there were times I was scared for my life. No track on here can demonstrate the fierceness of Prostitute as well as M. Dada because my god, everything just hits so hard. Now this album does fall a little short towards the second half, but towards the end, it starts to pick up steam again, which ... read more

Emo is a genre I’ve just recently gotten myself into. It’s full of this raw, emotional tone with lyrics often consistening of dark subject matter, and it’s prevalent in some of my all-time favorite albums. But it just doesn’t work for me here. A lot of the songs featured in Hornet Disaster are well-made, and the production definitely stands out at times, but none of the songs really stuck out to me here. Many songs on this album, for me at least, just didn’t sound ... read more

Now, don’t get me wrong, I am a big fan of the instrumentals used in this album. I love the noisy production and fast-paced rhythm this album aims for, and I find it to be a fun, consistent album with a lot of enjoyable moments! But you might have noticed that my album rating doesn’t match all of the positives I’m describing about this project. Well, that’s because of one major aspect of Fetch I haven’t talked about yet: the vocals. I know they’re unusual, ... read more

Dance-punk was not a genre I would’ve seen myself listening to. But after looking for more noise rock albums to listen to, I stumbled upon Dogsbody, and I could definitely see those two genres cooperate in the first two songs. Crossing Guard, I believe, was when noise rock began to fade from the album. It honestly began to sound psychedelic by the time Divers played, and eventually mixed with Industrial Rock by the time Amaranth played. But I just couldn’t get myself into the ... read more

A friend recommended Plan 76 to me, telling me it sounded like BCNR, and I was interested in listening to it, despite never listening to BCNR. After the first song, Impatient, I had to sit in silence for a second because that buildup was something I’d never experienced before. The next two songs, in some ways, carried this same momentum, but it never lived up to how I felt during the first one. This continued to die down for me in the later songs as well. Maybe my expectations were set ... read more

Post-hardcore isn’t a genre I often see myself listening to. I’ve tried listening to it and other punk-related genres before, but it was never something I’d enjoyed as much as something like rock subgenres. But Soft Spot is a special case for me. It’s an incredibly loud album full of energy, which can be seen best in the first three songs (not counting the interlude at the beginning). For the rest of the album, though, that same energy was still prevalent, but none of ... read more

Trust Ceremony, Jhariah’s second album, was the first rock/prog-like album I’ve ever listened to, and I was excited to listen to his second, more popular EP. Sadly, though, it didn’t hit as much as Trust Ceremony for me. I certainly have mixed feelings about this project, as the songs varied from “oh, this sounds pretty good” to “why does this sound completely different from the other songs?” There are definitely songs that I enjoyed, like BAD LUCK! And ... read more

Hellfire was one of the first rock/prog albums I’ve ever listened to, and it amazed me, honestly. There are a lot of standout songs like Eat Men Eat, Welcome To Hell, and The Race Is About To Begin, as I love the noisiness that they contain. But, towards the end of the album, I became slightly less attached to the last couple of songs. Not like the songs are bad by any means, I actually think they’re all good! But I’d enjoyed the first half so much that the second half began ... read more

Imaginal Disk was my first experience with psychedelic pop and synthpop, and I am sad because it’s likely I’ll never find an album as good as this one under those genres. There’s something so mesmerizing and dreamy about this album that I can’t really put it into words. This is one of the only albums I’ve ever listened to that maintains its charm and style throughout the entire album, and I love it for that. Although some songs don’t hit as hard as others, ... read more

The New Sound… oh my goodness. You can just tell there are traces of black midi in this album. Although my individual song rankings might not accurately reflect how I feel about this album as a whole, the whole flow of the album from start to finish is extraordinary. I can easily start from Blues and end with If You Are But A Dream without feeling bored or disinterested. I’m not even a fan of jazz, and yet, being blended with rock works so well here, and I think this will be the ... read more

You know, I just had to revisit this album after I reranked a black midi album. I can definitely see some similarities between them, like the avant-rock and math-rock genres listed on both. This is yet another rock/prog album, and I think it was pretty solid. The first and last tracks are definitely the standouts for me here, but Snake Oil is also pretty good as well. I’ve been meaning to check out their previous EP, but I keep putting it aside. Hopefully I’ll get around to it ... read more