This EP transcends groovy.

Balu Brigada’s knack for writing catchy hooks is absolutely apparent here. All of these songs are infectiously catchy. This pop fusion style is very pleasant on the ears. The bass lines absolutely rip too.

However, to me this EP didn’t offer me enough new material or creative edge to justify a higher score. It’s a solid collection of songs that all sound pretty derivative or more successful acts, particularly tame impala and Dayglow. The lyrical ... read more

My first “no score” of my 2025 listening challenge, and the reason is pretty self explanatory.

I am not in a place to accurately judge this record. The narrative is fantastic and Mach Hommy’s braggadocious bars are frickin awesome. I had never heard of him until a friend of mine told me to listen to this album, and as a pretty casual rap listener, a lot of this record felt damn near inaccessible to me. But I feel like that’s the whole point of the record.

From what I ... read more

This is a record I had heard before, but upon relistening to it, I need this on vinyl, badly. This album is a grail. No questions asked. Every single song hits, all of the lyrics are beautiful, and the guitar licks all sound amazing and flow into each other seamlessly. The themes of looking for meaning in fickle things and not being fulfilled by them is amazingly relatable. A fantastic LP and one of the best in this vein of music.

IVE BEEN WAITING. IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS MOMENT, ALLLLLL ... read more

Over the last two years Spotify has been slowly feeding me Title Fight songs. Today I decided to fully listen to one of their projects.

Holy cow, this album absolutely rips.

It is a gorgeous blend of hardcore, post grunge, and shoegaze all packaged up in an album that speaks on the fear of growing up, having regrets, and wasting time. I really love the lyrics and good lord there is a reason this bands guitar riffs are so iconic.

The vocals range from very angry, angsty, and strained, to a ... read more

Florence Fields tackles themes of romantic awkwardness and not being able to commit to somebody in a way that perplexed me a little bit. I feel like there’s a little bit of a lack of awareness. I had a hard time taking this record seriously because I didn’t feel like IT was taking itself seriously.

The first two songs are hand over fist the best on the record. Let u down rocked and for the first time featured some really relatable and great song writing. The production on these two ... read more

Passion Mango’s self titled is one of the stronger slow core records I’ve listened to. While I have some gripes with it, I feel like the guitar tones and sound selection are fantastic. The mix of grungy guitar tones contrasted with chorussy sparkly ones, as well as the lofi/bitcrushy sound selection for a lot of the backing instrumentation, make it a very texturally interesting album to listen to, and the breathy falsetto vocals compliment that very well.

The vocal performances ... read more

It's impossible for me to be objective so I won't be. Aries dropped peak here.

So Long Forever was my introduction to Palace as a band, and this was a pretty good first impression.

While I definitely had a few gripes with it, there was not a single song on it that I finished and thought “that was a bad song”. For me this record suffers from a lack of diversity. All of the songs just seem to blend into each other, and the album only offers a few standout moments.

However, the guitar work and guitar tones of this record are that of dreams. The stereo guitar ... read more

Imagine folk music, but with glitter all over it. That's this LP. I love it.

Pena's voice compliments this ambient folk sound very well, but at times his vibrato is a little bit too much for me. However, I can pretty easily forgive that when his songwriting is as stellar as it is. Sure, there are some moments where it feels a little less inspired than others, but you can tell he puts a lot of thought into his pen game.

I also really liked the guitar work on this record. The tone is ... read more

Family Tradition by Hank Williams Jr. is truly a big hearted outlaw's anthem. What this album lacks in interesting instrumentals it sure makes up for with some pretty incredible thematic songwriting. The themes range from love, to breaking the law, to writer's block; there really is at least one song anyone can relate to on this thing.

This LP has a pretty concise track list that feels very focused and purposeful, and most of them rock. Where this album falters is there are just a ... read more

Man, I was really excited to hear this album. It's a shame because I found it through "Holding Pattern", and to this day I think that song is absolutely perfect.

This album feels lifeless and bloated. It's almost an hour of run time with 18 songs. It sounds like a music theorist's wet dream. There are so many weird tempo switches, time signatures, and a lot of the chord progressions are littered with some purposeful, yet very poorly used dissonance. I've never ... read more

N33T's All the things I couldn't change's high moments of great production value are greatly outweighed by subpar vocal performances, poor writing, and a lack of self-awareness.

The good moments on this LP come from the passages where N33T is very clearly in their production bag. You can hear influences from Porter Robinson, and other digicore adjacent artists, particularly Glaive's earlier stuff. However, some of these moment's feel less like N33T individually, and ... read more

This was my first fully fledged taste of George Harrison. I've listened to only a fraction of the Beatles discography and hadn't really delved into his solo work.

Good lord. This album is amazing.

The bright and warm instrumentation pumping with jazz and pop rock vibes is such an amazing sound. Not to mention George's voice sounds heavenly. I have just about nothing bad to say about this LP. The pacing is great, the vibes are immaculate, and George's knack for writing ... read more

Dolores and The Cranberries' "Bury the Hatchet" is a very warm listen with lots of character packed into it. The song themes certainly center around the idea of young love and being taken advantage of, especially on the penultimate track "fee fi fo". This track was particularly gut wrenching, but still maintained the warm pop rock feel The Cranberries do so well.

Despite that track, the sound of this album is a very pleasant one, even though the material of the lyrics ... read more

Lightyears by Jaron showcases some absolutely ridiculous electronic production. I feel like there is a lot of wasted potential on the vocal performance side of things.

The album absolutely had some slaps. The transition between blood and lightyears had me jumping. Butterfly and Icarus are among the highlights as well. I feel like the consistent gripe that I have with this album is Jaron's tonality on the mic, specifically during the rapping. He is an incredible producer but he sounds far ... read more

Pluko's brand of electronic music is such a pleasure to listen to. From front to back, this LP is littered with glittery, chipper melodies, which are backed by Pluko's incredible sound design. I also really love his vocal delivery as well. It's very prominent and the way he mixes his vocals sounds silky. It tickles my brain.

There were definitely a few songs on this thing that I think could have been left off of it, specifically oceana. That track was hard for me to get through ... read more

This is a genuinely fantastic indie rock LP.

Perfectly diverse, engaging, and powerful, "Life In Your Glass World" is a must-listen in the world of indie rock. I usually listen to albums on my daily walks and rate them as I go through them, but I honestly forgot to rate each of these tracks. There wasn't a dud in the track list, and there was a LOT of great things to unpack. I love the writing style and the way that they blend electronic elements into anxty rock production and ... read more

"How Can We Lose When We're So Sincere's" warm and sweet sound is unfortunately plagued with plenty of songs that either feel unfinished or subpar.

I listened to this album on a walk I took late at night and the lofi synths and melancholic sounds made it a very decent listen for that walk. I found the pacing of the album to be pretty hard to follow and a lot of songs just didn't feel like they needed to be on this LP, and ultimately this took away from the experience ... read more

Edit: 86 -> 98 -> 100
When I first heard the Noah Kahan cover of "if we were vampires", I thought he was the one who wrote it originally. When I found out it was written by these guys, I was shocked, but also blown away. I held the Noah cover very highly, and the original sounded even better. After listening to this full LP, I can safely say after the first listen that this is one of my favorite folk country records ever.

This album's storytelling is damn near immaculate, ... read more

The Japanese House's sophomore LP is some of her strongest work yet. The pacing of this project is near perfect and the instrumentation and vocal passages are as lush as ever. Bain mixes bright, dreamy guitar passages, with soft, raw sounding vocals to create a very captivating experience. I will definitely be returning to many of the songs on this album.

Favorites: touching yourself, sad to breathe, boyhood, friends, sunshine baby
Least Favorites: over there, indexical reminder, you ... read more