Shoutout to Parannoul, giving us something great to listen to on this fine Saturday.

Parannoul is an anonymous South Korean musician who has found great success over the past few years on the niche and nerdy side of the music industry on RYM, BandCamp, and AOTY. 2021 was a fantastic year for Parannoul, releasing their second album 'To See the Next Part of the Dream' in February to very positive reviews, including an 80 from Pitchfork. Then, in October, collaborated with fellow South Korean ... read more

Well, that was underwhelming.

My expectations were low, and generally I think those expectations were met, but it's still just so disappointing.

Sam Smith is an artist that has all the talent in the world, yet continues to make either generic cookie-cutter pop songs, or questionably unlikable pop songs (that are also cookie-cutter). On their newest album 'Gloria', it's all the same.

While I don't think I hate the lead single Unholy as much as many others do, it's just not very inspiring for ... read more

Lil Yachty made a career-defining shift into psychedelic rock with an album that pays respectful homage to the sounds of Pink Floyd, has mainstream appeal like Tame Impala, and is sure to be regarded as an AOTY candidate. If you had all this on your 2023 bingo card, you're a liar.

Lil Yachty has had a... fine career to this point in his life. But lets not beat around the bush here, he isn't a rapper/artist that garnered very much respect and critical acclaim. The music Lil Yachty has made to ... read more

Kate Bush mixed with Carly Rae Jepson mixed with a literal Disney princess: that's the vibe I'm getting here from Spellling. It's magical.

Spellling (yes, that's right, there are three L's) is the experimental musical name of artist Chrystia Cabral, based out of Oakland, CA. I'd like to imagine the origin of her name as the story of her liking the name 'Spelling' with two L's, but that would be difficult to search on Google (because, y'know, it's just a word) so she added another L and called ... read more

This is a great site. Let's all reflect on that in 2023: AOTY allows me and so many other people the ability to access records like this that otherwise would have never been heard (by the majority of us).

what is your name? happens to be the name of this growing indie artist. I wish I could tell you more, but the size of the creator plus the obvious trouble a search engine would have with their name leaves me with not much more than that. It's not all that relevant to go digging much deeper, ... read more

'Fetch The Bolt Cutters' is not just an abstract and unconventional work, but a giant middle finger to the corruption in the music industry and the patriarch.

Though, that's what Fiona Apple has been doing her whole career: bucking trends and refusing to comply to the standards of the world. She simply continues to go with herself, as she so iconically said in her 1997 VMA's award speech.

There's nothing about this album that comes easily. The instrumentals are of heavy importance to the ... read more

boygenius is made up of singer-songwriter trio Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker. I'm currently unfamiliar with the latter two, but have just recently listened to Phoebe Bridgers. Her album 'Punisher' has immediately become my favorite record of 2020 from what I've heard of that year.

True Blue is a subtly bold indie rock song that speaks about an really, really healthy relationship. The partners in this relationship bring out the best in each other and aren't competing to one-up ... read more

This is a beautiful double album from the legend himself, Stevie Wonder. Simply some of the most uplifting and joyous music ever recorded.

Stevie Wonder was far from a stranger to success in the music industry before this 1976 album. 'Songs in the Key of Life' marked his 18th studio album. The previous three releases from Stevie (1972's Talking Book, 1973's Innervisions, and 1974's Fulfillingness' First Finale) is already a legendary three-album run, without even taking into account, the ... read more

I'm feeling motivated to listen to some singles, something I haven't really done before (singles will be rated by multiples of 10).

As much of an influence as they've had over hip hop over the last decade, I've never particularly listened to Quavo or any of the Migos. While being aware of their presence, their breed of trap music just wasn't my thing growing up.

On October 7th, 2022, Quavo and his nephew/fellow member of the Migos Takeoff released an album called 'Only Built For Infinity ... read more

Thank you to @UltimateLifeFrm for the recommendation (13)! If you have any album/song you'd like to recommend, feel free to drop it in my shoutbox.

Room(s) is a 2011 album from solo producer Travis Stewart, or better known by the name Machinedrum. Travis up to this point in 2011 had already been making music since his earliest LP 'Now You Know' back in 2001, as well as under other musical endeavors such as the group Sepalcure with fellow artist Praveen Sharma.

Machinedrum, and this specific ... read more

Thank you to @UltimateLifeFrm for the recommendation (12)! If you have any album/song you'd like to recommend, feel free to drop it in my shoutbox.

I wasn't aware of this band nor this album before searching it up today. I saw the 88 user score and was excited! And then I saw the mathcore/metalcore genres and my toes curled. Reading even further into some of the reviews, I knew this would be a beyond brutal ride.

The first question I have to ask myself is "is this album good?" Seems ... read more

Thank you to @AutExtrovert for the recommendation (3)! If you have any album/song you'd like to recommend, feel free to drop it in my shoutbox.

I'm really happy that I enjoyed this more than I was expecting. There's not really anything in the Drain Gang catalog or the cloud rap scene that I can say I was particularly impressed by, but the eclectic ideas presented on 'E' are pretty strong.

Ecco2k is a producer I've only heard once before on the 2022 collaboration between him and Bladee 'Crest' ... read more

Lukas Graham's Pink Album sounds like such a relic of the past, it's shocking to hear music like this still releasing in 2023.

Not only the songwriting about the most surface level, safe pop music you can imagine, but Lukas' voice just can't hold up to what he thinks it probably sounds like. Any chorus where Lukas tries to reach that highest register (ex. Wish You Were Here), it just brings me to tears... and not in a good way.

Katatonia's new LP 'Sky Void of Stars' is the next addition to my slow exposure to metal music, and this one is unfortunately not doing anything for me.

I was hoping to hear something a little more visceral from this album, but Katatonia instead comes out a little flat and repetitive. I never got that feeling of adreneline or amazement, and instead just felt like I was sitting through this album as a chore. It's purely mid, maybe a little varience in vocals or overall tone would help switch ... read more

This didn't start out nearly as bad as I thought it would, but quickly devolved into a mess.

Maneskin's thrid studio album 'RUSH!' is a play at every standard pop rock trope. Maybe I just hate fun, but any time I felt like things started to get even somewhat entertaining, either I had to remind myself that this is grating, generic, and bland music, or a ear-bleeding track like BLA BLA BLA would come on.

25 million monthly listeners on Spotify for this sounds absurd, but I guess there's a ... read more

This cover is a fucking violation 💀

I’d somehow never hear Munch (Feelin’ U) up until this point, but I assumed there was at least something fun about it to have it go viral.

No. There’s nothing enjoyable about any of it.

Idk maybe maybe I’m jus actin a smoochie or smth

The Murder Capital takes the reigns on 2023 with the second studio album 'Gigi's Recovery'. I see the Fontaines D.C. comparison here, but I think this is miles better than Skinty Fia.

The Murder Capital is a five person post-punk band based out of Dublin, Ireland. Their debut record 'When I Have Fears' was released in 2019 to widespread critical acclaim (and has a really strong critic score of 84).

I think post-punk is usually a genre I have to try a little harder to get into, rather than ... read more

Mac DeMarco's 'Five Easy Hot Dogs' is quite the switch up for the singer-songwriter, instead creating an instrumental album that lacks the charm of his previous work.

This is likely the first release of 2023 from an artist with some actual gravity in the music industry, and it's not very memorable. There's nothing quite bad about any of these instrumentals, it's just that there's such a lack of anything interesting that I'm finding a hard time coming up with anything to say. It's like a slow ... read more

A great indie pop record that's going to go under the radar.

Joesef's debut record 'Permanent Damage' has a knack for finding catchy melodies and pulling at the heartstrings. There's nothing complicated about it: it's a danceable, in-your-feels type pop record, but refrains from hitting too many ugly cliches with its thoughtful writing.

It's Been a Little Heavy Lately and East End Coast were two singles from this album and were a strong start: my favorite songs off this album. Both songs are ... read more

A mostly forgettable work, but there were some nice takeaways and songs that I'll keep in my rotation.

The Great White Sea Eagle is a collaborative effort between James Yorkston and Nina Persson, two artists I was entirely unfamiliar with before tonight. They each have their moments to shine on this record which is a positive; neither outshines nor overpowers the other. Their performances in general aren't spectacular nor offensive, just simply fine, though I do like their voices quite a bit ... read more