This probably doesn’t deserve this rating, as only the first four songs are genuinely great, but if you were younger when Wake Me Up and Hey Brother were some of the best songs on the radio, you’ll understand why I’m rating it this high anyway.

This is genuinely a 45 minute nostalgia trip for me.

Joba is the BH member who makes me most excited to see where he is in 10 years, as he was both my favorite BH performer and by far the most versatile of the bunch. While I am a little disappointed by how badly the singles on this album overshadow everything else, this album does absolutely confirm for me that Joba has incredible potential as a songwriter.

We all know what we’re getting from The Weeknd at this point, and once again it’s another piece of well written and performed synth pop with a slightly eerie vibe to it.

I feel like we all need to collectively apologize to Tik Tok, because as much absolute dogshit as it’s given us over the years, every so often it’ll give us something like this.

Gorgeous, impeccably performed, and incredibly catchy for something this stripped back.

I thought I was ready for Katy Song.

I was wrong.

Joins Carrie and Lowell as my favorite albums about the grieving process ever written.

Figured I would listen through her discog in preparation for the new album.
(And also because I’ll take any excuse to listen to Magdalene)

For a first release that’s only 15 minutes long, this thing packs a pretty impressive wallop, especially on the production and vocal (obviously) fronts. I especially love the glitchier moments on here, as Breathe is my favorite track, and it’s incredibly easy to see the dazzling potential on display here.

Lush yet organic, grand and sweeping yet as intimate as a diary entry, astonishingly well performed and produced on all fronts, and full of moments of astonishing poignancy and humor, often in the same 15 second span.

Not just an immaculate portrait of a state, but an absolutely enthralling road trip across one man’s creative mind

While it’s nowhere near as perfect as what immediately preceded it, and I do feel like the production can be a bit overbearing at times, this is easily the duos most fun and direct album (apart from The Boxer, admittedly) and it’s no wonder this is the one most people are drawn to. My special shoutouts here go to the three obvious highlights of the title track (the only point in their career where Garfunkel outshone Simon), The Boxer (arguably the most obtuse and difficult song Paul ... read more

Paul Simon wrote a lot of great albums in his prime- he never wrote one better than this. The leap from everything before this album to Bookends is absolutely astonishing on all fronts, as Simon’s songwriting becomes a million times more evocative and witty, the production gets more atmospheric and out there, and the instrumentation feels sharper. This is also their most cohesive album by quite a large margin, detailing the passage of time and the search for meaning we all must ... read more

While it does feel like a much cleaner and more cohesive listen then the debut, which is likely due to the much larger budget and longer production time due to the success of the first album, this is probably their weakest album. This is mainly due to the fact that Paul Simon’s songwriting kind of just feels like it’s in a holding pattern from their previous album, and it just kind of feels like more of the same. The one noticeably different moment on here is Scarborough Fair, which ... read more

(Warning when reading any of my S&G reviews, I’m incredibly biased as out of all the music I was exposed to as a child, these guys are and always will be my favorite)

A great debut that can be a little inconsistent at points, but Paul Simon’s songwriting ability was already impossible to ignore, and I think the weaker songs on here can probably be explained by the fact that they literally had two weeks to record it, and so Simon was forced to use random songs he had lying ... read more

After sitting with this a little longer, this has officially overtaken Big Fish Theory as Fantano’s worst take for me.

This album is wonderful as a natural progression of their blending of hyperpop and hard rock aesthetics, a loving tribute to the emo pop punk scene of the 2000s, and an amazingly fun and very tongue in cheek pop album in its own right.

This can be an exhausting listen due to how ridiculously dense it is, but holy shit it is beyond rewarding if you’re willing to stick it out.

Intensely personal, surprisingly emotional for something this challenging to understand, and my god this man can write.

Not all of this reaches the quality of its finest moments, but those moments are so astonishing that it’s more than worth listening to the rest of it anyway. I sort of was only peripherally aware of this last year, but I’m so glad that Good Luck Babe! (Which is probably going to end up my SOTY) blew up this year to give me a reason to go back and listen to this. Lot of great stuff here, Pink Pony Club especially, and can’t wait to see what her next album looks like.

My GOAT album.
I seriously don’t even know where to start with this one. I first heard it in its entirety when I was 14, and after it finished I literally sat there in silence for a few moments. This album finds beauty in pain better than any other work of art I’ve ever seen, and the number of all time classics on here is just unfair. Joni’s economy of words here is also astonishing, the things she doesn’t say can be just as revealing as the things she does. But what ... read more

The album I have been waiting for from Charli for YEARS.

The rare album that no matter on what level you choose to listen to it, you’ll get a lot out of it. You can analyze the extremely groovy and hypnotic dance album, with its hypnotic production and irresistible grooves, or the heartbreakingly confessional and messy pop album, full of regrets, grief, and insecurities. But if you take it as a whole image, what you get is probably the most accurate picture of a dance floor ever ... read more

To me, this album represents everything classic rock is at its best. Passionate, raw, beautiful, personal, universal. I don’t think any other classic rock vocalist or songwriter had Springsteen’s pure unashamed commitment to every single note he sang or lyric he wrote, or his band’s utterly breathtaking tightness.

Does feel a little bit like this blends in with his other records, as there really isn’t much to distinguish this one gimmick or sound wise from anything else he’s done, and the songs aren’t quite as awesome as his best either, so it can end up feeling like just another David Bowie album

Fortunately, “just another David Bowie album” is still pretty fucking awesome

The rare album where the more amateur it feels, the better and more charming it is. While I don’t think the music itself is as interesting as the debut, there are several undeniable stand out moments (Dry Your Eyes especially) and the storyline does a lot to make it more interesting than it otherwise would be.

Has two all time classics back to back in the middle of the record, the rest of it is mostly just pretty solid.