My opinion on The Cure has always been that they're good, I just never gave them much thought—or a relisten. The first half of this album definitely stayed within my previous ideas of the band, it felt like a bland rehash of what had been done better previously. The first five tracks all blended into each other and given the length of the album I was feeling pretty bored.

Basically everything from Lullaby to the end was much better. They started changing up the sound—notably on ... read more

I didn't think any release this year was gonna beat the new Maruja EP, but here we are just a week later. This is near-perfect.

I've been anticipating this album for a while but by no means was I expecting it to be THIS good. 86 minutes and not a single moment feels wasted. This is Kamasi Washington at the height of his powers after spending six years working on this. George Clinton, Thundercat, and André 3000 are all featured on this, I don't think I could conceive of a better lineup ... read more

Very few people on this website are gonna get this but this is like a combination of Zant's Theme from the Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess and those dark evil beat memes.

I saw a ton of appreciation for this album and I can absolutely see the appeal of it, this album is insane. I adored the beats and instrumentation and loved how unconventional they felt, which ended up carrying most of the rating. Unfortunately most of the time I could not get into his voice at all, except for the brief salvation that Ain't it Funny and Golddust provided. The vocals really started weighing on me about halfway through and I kinda just trudged through the back half.

Definitely ... read more

This is very good even though I think that sometimes the songs take a while to really get going. I don't think any of the songs are phenomenal but they're all very high quality and the album is remarkably consistent. Better than the sum of its parts. Really like the second half.

A trip of biblical proportions, The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads is one of the most batshit insane albums I've ever heard. This should be horrible, the idea itself has no almost redeeming qualities: a highly conceptual 94 minute partly spoken-word country rock album about the rapture taking place in Texas, paired with that album cover? The lyrics drone over and over about God, guns, and Texas, and the final track is 30 minutes and half of it is complete silence!

It should be awful, but this ... read more

Revolver is good and an important benchmark for psychedelia, but the album itself is much less iconic than I was expecting it to be. There are some great songs on this: Eleanor Rigby, She Said She Said Tomorrow Never Knows, but a lot of the album felt very uninspiring, the second half in particular, save for Tomorrow Never Knows, was full of filler. The mixing was pretty lousy and Yellow Submarine is a supremely awful song. Better albums came before and better albums would come immediately ... read more

This is unreal... this is really special.

This is a sound unlike anything I've heard before and it's a wonder that it's never been explored like this before. They cover all their bases from slower and thoroughly composed tracks like the closer, Resisting Resistance, to explosive and pounding songs like the Invisible Man, which is also my favorite song of the year so far. Maruja instantly becomes one of my most anticipated new bands and I am dying to hear a full length LP from ... read more

Pretty sure it's impossible for Kendrick to make a bad album, but there's a noticeable disparity between this and what he had created before. Up until PRIDE., apart from DNA., the album did absolutely nothing for me at all. Thankfully, the second half presents some great work lined up one after another. Album is better than the sum of its parts, but none of the songs in particular have much staying power, at least in comparison to some of his previous songs.

It can be daunting at times—Double albums frequently are—but every song on here is distinct enough to not drag on too much. The first half of this album is an unbelievable collection of incredible song after incredible song, weaving different genres effortlessly. It can feel like a mess, but the most cohesive mess of all time. Moby Octopad resembles King Crimson's Cat Food in its insanity, Sugarcube is shoegazy and far heavier, Damage is sparse and droning, and Stockholm Syndrome is ... read more

Very good, and much more well-rounded than I expected this to be after the first few tracks. A very nice blend of indie, shoegaze, and post-rock, which is surprisingly accessible given the sparseness and runtime of some of the longer tracks on here. You can definitely hear the influences on this, most notably Velvet Underground during Sudden Organ. There were a few moments on here where I was unimpressed, but for the most part this is a really fun record.

This album sounded exactly like I was expecting it to, in the best way possible. I know I'm giving basically everything a ten right now but this is legitimately everything I could possibly want out of a dream pop record. Everything up through the title track is incredible and the title track itself is NEXT LEVEL. This is ethereal in every sense of the word. The vocals honestly make me feel like I'm having a stroke because of how unintelligible they are, but I don't care. Only thing bad about ... read more

Edit: (78 -> 91) — Busted out this bad boy for the second time ever since first listening to it almost two years ago; I enjoyed this so much more this time around. To have that happen is truly one of the greatest feelings in music.

This album is an absolute blast with some really intricately written indie parts that border on post-hardcore at times while still managing to keep the album sounding loose and enjoyable. Super tight and a great track ordering, really one of the better ... read more

Read some reviews on this and a large portion of them are negative, sure it might not be as daring as other well regarded shoegaze albums, it's melodic and stays relatively within its own box, but I genuinely can't see what's not to adore about this album.

I had heard Starting Over many times before this and it had become one of my go-to shoegaze songs, and I was kinda expecting it to be the only standout track, but to my surprise, everything else on this is incredibly well-crafted as well. ... read more

I originally was not blown away by this album. I usually find entire albums of shoegaze hard to get into, despite how incredible I find some individual songs, and this was no exception. I knew I was missing something, and this had the potential to be one of my favorite albums. So, after listening to it a handful of times, I decided to lie down on the floor and do nothing else except listen. Wow, I enjoyed this so much, and it meant so much more after it was all I thought about for an ... read more

One of the best post-rock albums I've listened to. The longer tracks on this, like Philautia and Storge build up so well and have incredible climaxes, while there are still a good amount of short-and-sweet tracks as well. Among the shorter tracks, I particularly enjoyed Sheep Theme and For M.. Very rare that a post-rock/shoegaze album will keep me entertained for its entire runtime, but this accomplishes that.

Hurts to give it a rating so low because this isn't a bad album by any means. I can absolutely see the appeal of this, but it's just not for me at all. Nothing on here really felt interesting to me at all. Even my favorite songs of this don't have any staying power in my mind. Not a particularly big fan of his ramblings, though I can enjoy the symphonic parts of this.

That being said, none of my previous criticisms apply to Heroin King. That song is an absolutely insane trip and is superb in ... read more

Super awesome sound. Works incredibly well on some songs but doesn't feel like it's being used to its full potential on others. One of the songs that capitalizes on it is Empty and Silent, a collaboration with King Krule, which is the entire reason I listened to this album at all. Formula works to perfection on that track. Also really enjoyed The Trail and Shipwreck, always cool to hear krautrock nowadays.

Used to be largely unimpressed by this record. It didn't take long for it to really grow on me though. This isn't as good, but it's certainly more fun than its predecessor.

Not quite sure what happened, but something clicked. I tried to listen to this about six months ago and couldn't make it through Run Run Run, though I'd already heard—and loved—Heroin. Since then, a couple songs have come up here and there, including Venus in Furs, which had grown on me quite a bit. I heard it again today and figured I would give the album another shot. I suppose I hadn't really given it a real shake. Holy shit.

It's the electric viola. For sure. It's not just the ... read more