How do you make a bad album?

Well, easy. Write some horrible lyrics. Play terribly and off beat. Sing horrendously off key, repeatedly doing the most annoying things you can do with the human voice. Maybe make the worst mixing possible. And, boom, there you go. Are you proud of yourself now that you've made an abomination of sound? You must be. But you haven't made anything genuinely bad.

Sure, you made sure everything sounded horrible, completely disregarding everything that makes ... read more

When I first heard "the whaler" in 2023, I pushed it aside. It sounded like something I would like from how people described it, and for the most part, I did like it. The instrumentation, the vocals... but I was really put off by the screamo aspects. And that kind of ruined it for me. I wanted to like it, but it put a wall between me and my enjoyment. And that led me to discard it like a piece of trash for a while.

It wasn't until May of 2024 that I revisited this album. I ... read more

Never has an instrumental album moved me as much as Lift Your Skinny Fists. The anticipating buildups, the rises to the cacophonous climaxes, the field samples, everything has this special quality to it that makes me so entranced every time I listen to it. The screwdriver guitars on Sleep instill this feeling in me that I can't describe. When I first finished listening to this album while lying in my bed and staring up at the ceiling, I knew that I had just listened to something that was ... read more

In seventh grade, I had a poetry unit in my English class. We were assigned to write three poems - a free-written poem, an ode, and a haiku - in a specialized journal the teacher had given to us. When we began writing the ode, our teacher explained that we could also write an anti-ode - the opposite of an ode, an expression of hatred towards one specific thing. When my teacher explained that, one thing came into my mind - I was going to write an anti-ode towards bro country.

...okay, I mean, I ... read more

This album is like if you put rock music into a blender, and then poured battery acid inside it, and had that for a breakfast smoothie. It's a soundscape of strange noises that leave you wondering whether that was a guitar or a synth. You can barely hear the vocals sometimes, which are drowned out in a sea of noise. It feels like your ears are being assaulted for 48 minutes.

THIS IS A GOOD THING, by the way.

Loveless drowns you when you first hit play, and it stays that way for the rest ... read more

On Avery Island is an often overlooked album that will probably never reach the same heights of Aeroplane, but it's still a great listen. I mean, it's an album by my favorite band, so of course I'm going to like it.

This album still has that fuzzy, lo-fi feel of Aeroplane, but it feels more like a prototype of that sound compared to the more realized sound featured on it. It's not as emotional, it's not as thought-out, but it's still a good record. Songs like Song ... read more

American Football? Sorry I don't like sports

American Football, THE midwest emo band. Unless you want to get into the semantics of whether or not this is emo or just twinkly indie rock. I don't why you would want to do that anyway. It's kind of the lamest debate ever.

This album is probably one of the most influential in the midwest emo and math rock scene, and for good reason. This album is melancholic and beautiful, with passages that are insanely pretty and melodic. I love ... read more

Capitalize your fucking song titles

(Update, 2026:

I don't hate this album as much as I did when I wrote this review. Sure, I still find his vocals kind of annoying, but I don't have as much of a viscerally angry reaction when I listen to this album nowadays. I still think it's very overdramatic, and it's still not for me, but I won't say I hate it anymore. It has its audience, and it has its place. It can exist as its own thing. I can see the good in it, but I won't return.

Also, the vocals on ... read more

For a while I was trying to get into Brave Little Abacus, but it was difficult because of the lead singer. But one day, while in the middle of listening to the start of Just Got Back from the Discomfort, it clicked for me. And after I listened to Discomfort in full and loved it, I went back to try Masked Dancers.

Holy shit. This album is so good. Just the guitarwork, the pure emotion, the drumming, just everything - it all culminates in this incredible musical experience, and the vocals that I ... read more

Jesus Christ, Will. I know you just got out of high school when you made this, but still, Jesus Christ.

1 is a very... interesting album in Car Seat Headrest's discography. Not only is it probably the most lo-fi album, but it's also probably one of the most bizarre entries in his discography. There's so much annoying reversed audio constantly happening all the goddamn time, and multiple moments where you can barely make out anything Will is saying because the instrumentation is ... read more

How to Leave Town is probably my favorite Car Seat Headrest albu-
Wait, hold on, I'm getting a call. I'll get back to the review after it, hold on.
Hello, this is Chloe speaking.
...really? But it's an hour long!
Does Will know what an EP is?
Then why did he... why did he make it an EP?
Ugh, alright then.
Sorry about that. Now, where was I? Oh, yeah.
How to Leave Town is probably my favorite Car Seat Headrest project. Twin Fantasy (Face-to-Face) comes in a very very close second, ... read more

holy shit

What makes milk neutral in the first place? Can there be a biased milk hotel?

For my first review on this site, I want to talk about one of my favorite albums ever - "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea," by Neutral Milk Hotel. I've listened to a lot of albums in my life, but I don't think one has ever been like Aeroplane. There is just something about this album that is special to me - it might be the surrealist lyricism, it might be Jeff's powerful voice, or it might be ... read more