First four songs range from fine to pretty good - the back end of the record, however, takes a huge nosedive in quality. Let me tell you something: I am very familiar with terrible music sounds and while I'm not a huge Taylor Swift fan, I didn't think she had ever made anything that outright sucked. With that said, "Eldest Daughter" to "Honey" is a stretch of songs that qualify for both being some of her worst ever, as well as being some of the worst pop songs of ... read more

Ten years after the legendary "Currents" dropped, Tame Impala returns with a total dud in "Deadbeat." Everything about this album feels so drab, with some track instrumentals sounding like royalty-free music and other ones legitimately sounding like they belong on a Drake record. Nothing stands out as spectacularly bad, but it just sucks throughout. Kind of a bummer.

I was not a fan of Sleep Token before, but upon the urging of a friend, I gave them another chance with Even in Arcadia. I regret that decision deeply because I hate this album. I hate the robotic, hyper-processed vocals that sound like they were engineered by a focus group of Hot Topic kids. I hate the overly-digitized, low-tuned guitar riffs that feel like they were generated by an LLM trained exclusively on discarded Guitar Pro 7 files. I hate how the drumming, while technically impressive, ... read more

After seeing SZA absolutely kill it alongside Kendrick Lamar last night at Gillette Stadium, I finally dove into her discography, starting with her critically acclaimed breakout in "Ctrl." Honestly, I can’t believe it took me this long to give her a proper listen, because she’s totally outstanding.

This record feels like a natural evolution of a lot of R&B I already love (Lauryn Hill, Frank Ocean, Tyler The Creator, etc.), but even calling it “R&B” ... read more

A short series of old tracks between two friends. I didn't find it bad; I just kind of vibed with it before proceeding to move on to something else. I enjoy basically all of JPEGMAFIA's discography, but this one's clearly not for long-term listening, and that's fine.

A rare miss from Deftones here. They lean into borderline satirical levels of contrasts between the 80s-pop style crooning and the overly digitized low-stringed chugging guitar riffs on every track. The mixing sounds overly polished, leading to each song feeling very strangely antithetical to Deftones despite containing somewhat similar qualities to their previous work. I don’t know. “Prayers/Triangles” is a neat track, I guess? There’s really nothing special going on. ... read more

“Watching Movies with the Sound Off” has personal meaning to me because I listened to this record a ton during a really difficult time in my life. Having now revisited it, the peaks of this darker, introspective, and abstract album still hold up. Tracks like “The Star Room,” “Matches,” “Red Dot Music,” “Objects in the Mirror,” and “Someone Like You” showcase fantastic production and some of Mac’s strongest rapping. ... read more

“Minutes to Midnight” marked Linkin Park’s pivot into more inspirational ballad territory, and it’s not always for the better. The more pop-friendly production, marching band-style drums, and sing-songy approach signaled a move away from the low-tuned guitars, turntable scratching, and man-meets-machine sound that defined the band’s early years. With that said though, I think this album lacks the edge and urgency of their earlier work. It often comes off as ... read more

“Based On A True Story” starts with the words, “Will Smith is cancelled,” and obviously, from there, it can only go downhill. The brief return to relevance Smith had in 2022 — as a result of slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars — never felt like something that needed further explanation. And yet, this album tries to do all of it at once: explain the slap, contextualize Smith’s marriage with Jada Pinkett Smith, and somehow make you care. Instead, it plays ... read more

Following the tragic 2008 car accident that prematurely ended bassist Chi Cheng's career and left him semi-comatose until his death, the members of Deftones found themselves in a profoundly horrible and strange situation. Quickly bringing in bassist Sergio Vega, the band released "Diamond Eyes" in 2010, an album that, though passable, felt somewhat inconsistent and lacked the cohesive power of their best work. However, 2012's "Koi No Yokan" marked a significant ... read more

There's a common misconception about Imagine Dragons - that people disproportionately hate them because they're bland. But the one thing I've always given Imagine Dragons is that they do actually take risks with their music; however when that they do that, the music is so bad that I want them to return to making bland music again. "Reflections (From the Vault of Smoke + Mirrors" perfectly captures this core dynamic of listening to Imagine Dragons. When they're ... read more

Most people know William Maranci for his legendary mashups. However, not as many people know that he releases original music. I only lately had the chance to check out some of his work under the Nick Hotel moniker, which is what led me to "hospitality."

Oddly enough, I think the best part of this record are the lyrics. Instrumentally, the album feels like a journey through different /mu/ influences, but its greatest moments are where its explicitly expressive. Favorite tracks here ... read more

I normally follow The Weeknd through his singles rather than his albums. However, when I heard that "Hurry up Tomorrow" was going to be his last release under his Weeknd moniker, I knew I had to check it out. Track by track, this is a solid record. To broadly summarize, it feels like a journey through different pop and R&B trends over the last forty years.

With that said, I feel like this album encapsulates all the things I like and don't like about The Weeknd. The music ... read more

I genuinely found it painful to listen to "Dragon Season... The Awakening." The mixing throughout this record is outright atrocious - both Busta Rhymes and the instrumentals sound like they're coming from a really shitty Fender amp with the gain turned up to a 10. Whatever artistic value or redeeming qualities the EP might have is just not worth spending time looking for, especially when you consider that the tracks gradually decline in quality too.

As a relative newcomer to Carole King's catalog, I thought "Tapestry" was excellent There's nonstop great tunes here, each one led by her soothing voice, the fantastic instrumentation, and overwhelming raw emotion. The tracks are very simple, and yet distinct enough for each one to show a different shade of heartbreak. Strong recommend.

I've never been that big on Primus in particular, but given my taste for Faith No More and Incubus, I'm fairly familiar with the genre of "weirdo 90s rock." On that front, "Fizzle Fry" very much feels like a forefather to that whole avant-garde style. Les Claypool's brilliant bass playing and hypnotic vocals, as well as Larry LaLonde's dissonant guitar licks dominate this record, as does Herb Alexander's meticulous drumming.

With that said, I do ... read more

No,"SHOCK TO THE SYSTEM (PART ONE)" is not going to appear on any best music of 2024 list, and yes, the lyrics are simplistic and occasionally corny ("Artificial" and "Nervous"). At the same time though, was anyone expecting anything from Chris freaking Daughtry basically two decades after his American Idol breakout? I don't think his song-writing is particularly anything to write home about, but this is definitely my pick for most surprisingly enjoyable ... read more

The over-the-top, corny, "so bad it's funny" vibe that Mario Judah leans into throughout "Endure" isn't the problem; instead, it's the astoundingly horrendous mixing of distorted spacey instrumentals and Judah's melodramatic vocals that drags this album from uninspiring to outright putrid. In another world, I think I would have been able to appreciate the ideas presented by this record, but the technical execution of them is genuinely painful to ... read more

I'm in a strange spot with "Cowboy Carter." Its impact is undeniable - the record essentially forced the broader music industry to acknowledge the frequently overshadowed impact that Black artists have had in traditionally "non-Black" genres. For the most part,"Cowboy Carter" lives up to its tremendous ambition, though its long, eclectic nature leads to the album falling just short of legendary status. In a way, it feels like Beyonce's "White ... read more

After years of being told by my friends to listen to Vampire Weekend and declining, I finally got over my biases against any artist with the "chamber pop" label and checked out "Only God Was Above Us." I ended up actually really enjoying it - the dynamic instrumentation, hypnotic melodies, and thoughtful lyricism, as well as the broader atmosphere of the album, make for an extremely engaging listen. At times, the contrasts between lush and noisy can be a bit overbearing and ... read more