AOTY Recommended Albums #11 (1969)

The highs of this are higher than the highs of The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society, but the lows are definitely lower as well. Starts off remarkably strong with Victoria (possibly the best Kinks song I've heard), and has a strong run from Brainwashed to Mr. Churchill Says but apart from that is just really not that interesting. Many songs just have no bite and just seem very uninspired. Seems like it would take a few more years for ... read more

A songs: ohia reference was just about the last thing I expected from this album but holy fuck ill take it

This is The Strokes at the peak of their songwriting powers. The music here feels much more fleshed out than their other stuff and it really feels like they've shed their skins and embraced their evolution. The guitar work on this is truly immaculate and there are so many great songs on this

The moment on They'll Only Miss You When You Leave when they reintroduce the motif present on Ignorant Piece of Shit is genuinely one of the greatest musical moments I've ever experienced. The ten minute run of those two tracks including Piano Song is so incredibly perfect I love it

I think the score should be higher than I give it, and I think if I relisten to it it will grow on me, but:

1) this is one of the harshest albums that I've ever listened to
2) I don't really connect that much to the concept of this album, or have any history with this album/NIN to tap into
3) this is so multilayered and would definitely take repeat listens to really begin to piece things together

But I can absolutely see why people would view this as one of the greatest albums ... read more

There are individual Swans songs that I really love but I feel like they lack a sense of cohesion on their albums that other highly-acclaimed bands seem to tap into much easier for me. This is still really solid though but I'm not 100% sold on them given their reputation

Party's Over has some of the worst drumming of any Interpol song and that's the song where they inexplicably decide to make it the center of the mix. I think that sums up late-stage Interpol pretty well

Age of Consent is truly one of the best songs ever made. The rest of the album is quite nice as well but none of it can really compete with how special that song is. I feel like this is the case with a lot of New Order/Joy Division releases... very much a singles band more so than full albums.

It doesn't happen all the time, but there are numerous moments on this record where Boards of Canada taps into this ultimate serene instrumental perfection that I really haven't heard mastered by anyone else. Truly one of the most unique musical experiences that I've had. Just further cementing my opinion that 2002 is the greatest year for music.

jazz is so cool

For the most part I felt like this didn't really have the same emotional payoff as GY!BE's other works, but alas this is still Godspeed so it is of course absolutely amazing. motherfucker=redeemer (especially the continuation of it) is among their best work. Absolutely stunning.

I thought that this was gonna be like Revolver, where there's a lot of filler and not much meat, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that this album holds its weight very well. It of course has its classics, but the lesser known tracks are also very good for the most part. This album also serves as a demonstration on how to perfectly implement experimentation into your album. There are a number of genre-defining songs on here (Helter Skelter, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, and of course ... read more

This album is really good but I feel like it would function better as something other than a rock opera. Nine songs is far too little and and tracks are far too long for a genre that is inherently story-based and conceptual and demands your attention at all times.

The sonic quality is really good on this though, pure CSH goodness, although definitely not as good as Will Toledo & Co. in their prime. If I were to listen to this again, I'd definitely pay more attention to the story and ... read more

make music funny again #downwithphilelverum

David Byrne you could be my housewife any day of the week

Many of the tracks here sound very similar, but I suppose that's a pretty common claim made about 80s and 90s rap. For all I care all the songs could have the same beat if the rapping is as good as it is here. Nothing on this album really compares to Shook Ones in scope and quality, although I think that speaks more so for Shook Ones than the rest of the album, because the rest of the album is still crazy good and the baseline level of quality for this album is extremely ... read more

I like folk and singer-songwriter, but I can't say I've ever really connected with similar sad-man-with-guitar albums to this apart from Nick Drake's Pink Moon. That all changed when I first listened to this album. This is truly one of the most haunting and gripping albums that I've ever heard. The instrumentation is incredibly simple—just guitar and occasionally mandolin and piano—but that's all this album needed to grip me from start to finish. This is ... read more

This album is so chill and uneventful that I kinda already forgot it while writing the review but what I do remember is that I really liked this album! I love the more chill toned down more vulnerable feel that this album has. Even though it's not nearly as exciting as a lot of their other stuff, I thought that this was a really great collection of tracks that could go bar for bar with a lot of really cool Wilco albums.

There were a lot of individual tracks on here that I loved and will ... read more

Really scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to finding more Unwound to listen to, but everything they touch turns to gold so it's no surprise that this is also awesome.

This EP might honestly be Unwound at their most experimental. At the very least, the title track is certainly Unwound at their most experimental (not counting some bullshit like Vern's Answer to the Masses). Mile Me Deaf is a pretty standard late Unwound cut that I'm frankly very surprised did not find ... read more

I think I generally prefer Deafheaven's slow burn epics like The Pecan Tree, Dream House, and Worthless Animal but I must say this may be minute-by-minute a perfect Deafheaven album. There are so many tracks here that elicit the same level of emotions as their agreed-upon epics do. Truly a blackgaze masterclass and a stunning culmination for a genre-defining band. Would not argue if someone said that this is the best Deafheaven album, though I do think I marginally prefer my beloved ... read more