It's a lovely listen. Easily their best album front to back since Koi No Yokan. Gore and Ohms had some absolute heaters throughout the tracklist but I personally found it hard to grapple onto the middling tracks through both of them. I found myself utterly entranced with this one the whole 42 minutes. Such a consistent set of songs. Cannot imagine myself wanting to listen to just one by itself for a while (compliment, trust). Definitely don't agree with the "soulless" ... read more

Just the right amount of angst. It shouldn't be anything special, but I kinda love what Steve's doing here. Bedroom pop often does nothing for me, but there's just the right amount of edgy lyrics, super fun production, catchy guitars, and downright awesome vocal inflections to hold me over really damn well. "Saying my ex like my name ain't STEEEEEEEEEEVE" is a personal favorite of mine. I don't care, it adds so much flavor. Sure, half the album doesn't ... read more

In the wake of Zach Bryan kinda sucking as a human being, authenticity is a beautiful thing. The Great American Bar Scene is too damn long, and you can only make so many wonderfully written acoustic sad cowboy songs before it's all just words over the same strumming for an hour. However, its best pieces make for one hell of a country album where, as it turns out, the sad self-loathing cowboy is actually a sad self-loathing cowboy.

The guy just has a way with words. Even on his most bare ... read more

It's just not as visceral as a certain White Pony. It's not far from metal but very much an alternative sound, and I must admit I miss that raw energy a lot of the time when I listen to Koi No Yokan. Hell, I feel alienated from the target audience when I see that my two favorites off the project, Poltergeist and Gauze, are among the least beloved tracks here. Poltergeist is a wonderfully loud burst of energy and Gauze is actually sonic heaven when it hits the chorus. Like how did they ... read more

Never forget.

Pretty Sweet is actually one of the most underrated sonic masterpieces of all time. Controlled chaos, a D&B break, AND one of the best melodies on the whole album? It's pretty fucking sweet.

Anyway, if it wasn't for the skits and the fact it's got two outros (like seriously why the hell would you follow up the most closure-giving track ever in Godspeed with a whole 9 more minutes), Blonde would be the hardest a 10/10 has ever 10'd. Some of the most vivid, imaginative, ... read more

I just wanna know what spirit consumed Rivers to get him to write not just 1, not just 2, but 10 of the best songs in Weezer's entire discography. Like where did this come from? The drumming is the most interesting it's ever been. The lyrics some way somehow take all the embarrassing awkwardness of the previous 20 years of Weezer and make it all poetic as fuck as they very deeply embrace indie rock songwriting. Sure, Rivers still can't help but talk vividly about his odd ... read more

I think the funniest yet most perfect way to describe Pacific Daydream is "free from irony." On one hand, the sound is so painfully generic, uninspired, and ripped clean from pop rock's very worst; on the other, I fully believe this is exactly what Rivers and somehow the band wanted. It's the definition of a sellout album that didn't sell and I just, from caring too much about this mediocre band, know this had to have been the fully realized vision. Who's this for? ... read more

I tried so hard to SMILE! :D

It's hard to say I'm disappointed by this newest Porter Robinson project because the writing was on the walls for every single after Cheerleader. Hell, a timeline's probably the greatest way to chronicle my feelings on this album.

Single #1 - Cheerleader: ...It's gonna end up in the history books of 2024. No album with Cheerleader on it could be below a 7/10. Lyrically, this thing is laser focused on parasocial relationships in a chronically ... read more

Anderson Paak will have his praises sung with or without me, but can we appreciate that this may be Knxwledge's most incredible production across a project yet? I've always loved his unbelievably recognizable mix of lo-fi soul samples, light guitars, and distinct textured drumwork, but it's never sounded better and more cohesive than here on Why Lawd behind Paak dropping some of his most personal lyrics yet.

Why Lawd truly is the best of both artists even if it sees Paak at his ... read more

I cannot pinpoint who, what, when, where, how, even why Cracker Island was supposed to be? This is the first time in the cartoon band's history where I struggled to believe there was a heart and soul in there somewhere. At only 10 songs, you'd think there'd be a very concise portrait of what electro-pop has to say about crackers on an island but instead it's a jumbled mess of unbelievably undanceable dance beats with occasional technology cult lyrics in there to remind you there was a concept ... read more

Look... I know this might sound blasphemous. White Pony reminds me so heavily of Pinkerton, the revered cult classic built around the artist's crippling sadness that only became accentuated by their genre-defining mid-90s album rocketing them into the mainstream. It's the greatest kind of embarrassing, the kind that's authentic and gives the band a level of inspiration in their writing they've never had and naturally never will have again. I unironically think the greatest possible review of ... read more

The kind of album that's so lush and serene it makes you imagine a light breeze sitting on a bench right behind the sands of an empty beach... as alone as you can possibly be. I wouldn't call Space Heavy soul-crushing, but it might be a perfect album title because it creates a real fucking heavy space to put you in. The slowcore is sometimes a bit too slow for my liking, but in my opinion, this is King Krule at his best: introspective, somber, and just a tad out-of-left-field.

I could feel the ... read more

Congratulations to You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To for being the first ever metalcore album I actually have cohesive thoughts on. I've always enjoyed music that makes me want to have a one-man moshpit in my bedroom but with damn near all metalcore projects I've dipped my toes into, I walk away with one ungodly headbanger that I represent the project with but if I try to go through the album again, nothing else connects. Considering I've listened to this a solid 6 ... read more

It's definitely interesting that some artists get their praises sung for shamelessly ripping off bygone eras, while others get absolutely buried... anyway, that's enough ironic analysis for today. Who am I to be mad at The Lemon Twigs for being pretty damn good at it?

I think what makes A Dream Is All We Know so great to me is that it's easy. It's also its biggest flaw since I can never tell if they're actually incredibly talented or if summery jangle pop a la Beatles and every other 60s soft ... read more

It's Almost Dry is indeed almost dry. I think its main issues boil down to the lowlights feeling so isolated from the absurdly great tracks. Not that they're standout bad, but more that when I re-listened to this project, it's more "a collection of tracks" than an album.

I really feel like Pusha got Pharrell at Ye at their grimiest with one of the strangest but coolest 808 motifs I've heard on a project. The bass deadass sounds like it's confronting you with some really sweet synths ... read more

One of the most gorgeous, glittery, exciting, unique Afrobeat dance-pop projects dare I say ever.

The production on Fountain Baby is straight-up godlike. So many layers in damn near every track with some stunning melodies packed into the instrumentals all complemented by fantastic percussion everywhere. I love how free the lyrics feel even if they come from wild places. Like Co-Star is just a club banger where every verse has to be jam packed with astrology, it's almost gimmick-level writing ... read more