Whole lot of fun to be had on this bad boy, which is to be expected for a David Bowie new wave album. There's really no material on this record that I felt was considerably worse than any of the other songs on this album (apart from maybe Scream Like a Baby, which is still enjoyable), it's a very consistent album, which is a trait that I feel like is somewhat lacking for a lot of new wave albums of this era.

The engine of this album is certainly the 80s staple Ashes to Ashes, and ... read more

This is possibly the lowest quality, worst sounding piece of recorded music I have ever heard, but I'll be damned if it doesn't absolutely rip. This is an absolute trip to listen to given the track listing, as this jumps all over Leaves Turn Inside You completely out of order, as well as incorporating a litany of other Unwound tracks. I don't think they could compose a track listing that I wouldn't be into, but I really love the non-Leaves selections here, especially the ... read more

If this album doesn't grab you by the first track... it will by the second. This is probably my favorite album of the late 70s/early 80s British punk sphere, which is a genre that I feel like I'm decently familiar with at this point. This is a remarkable fusion of various punk sounds; There's clear shades of Talking Heads, with a very eccentric and danceable sound backed by biting and almost overbearing basslines. It factors in very forward-thinking loud experimental sounds, at ... read more

Really struggling to start this review because I really can't wrap my head around what I just heard. Going to take many more listens to even begin to understand this.

This definitely bordered on being too out there for me, but I can't ignore how many absolutely amazing songs are on here. An absolute masterclass in songwriting. This goes through so many different ideas so quickly it's really hard to keep up on a first listen. This album was remarkably consistent as well, I got as ... read more

I've listened to Loveless quite a few times but alas I haven't really been able to get into it outside of When You Sleep, despite it being one of the most widely acclaimed albums from a genre I love. This album is different though. I enjoyed this a lot more thoroughly than I did Loveless. I think m b v features a more well-rounded album experience. Here I enjoyed every song, and none of them felt considerably higher or lower quality than any of the others, despite some being pretty ... read more

Still have yet to be amazed by any Cure music that's not named Songs of a Lost World, but this was overall pretty solid. Wasn't really a fan of the very 80's drum sound (although that's not really a Cure thing) or Smith's vocals at times, but the rest of the instrumentation was great and this album definitely had its moments. I loved the dark broody feel on most tracks, it felt very atmospheric and helped me to get into the sound the album was presenting.

The opener, ... read more

Probably Wilco's most unremarkable album to date, but an unremarkable Wilco album is still a really lovely album. This is filled with the typical amazing Jeff Tweedy crooning backed with some really nice instrumentation and more laid-back vibes. The album is definitely highlighted by two late Wilco gems in If I Ever Was a Child & We Aren't the World (Safety Girl), the former of which has some absolutely pristine guitar playing and really tickles my brain in a way that not many ... read more

So this is the new year, and what a way to start it. I must say, I've been itching to listen to this one for a while. Spotify has been peppering my recommendations with various songs from this album for a while, culminating in me listening to the title track for the first time and being blown away, and then listening to Give Up a few days ago means I just had to listen to this. I did want to wait until 2025 though, just so I could start my year with "The New Year." Sue me.

All ... read more

The highs on this are definitely higher than those from their debut, but as a whole I found this less enjoyable. While the average song on GodWeenSatan isn't very good, I think they're considerably funnier than the songs here, as well as having a way higher audio quality. There was really only one song on here that I thought was actually pretty funny, and that was Pollo Asado, and even that was backed by a pretty cool psychedelic instrumental track. This one really just felt like a ... read more

This has been on my radar for a while, thanks to the first couple tracks, The District Sleeps Alone Tonight and Such Great Heights, both of which I was pretty familiar with, especially the latter. Interestingly, what really pushed me to listen to this was the Sun Kil Moon song Ben's My Friend, written about Benjamin Gibbard and this band.

I got more from this than I was expecting! I assumed that my small sample of Postal Service songs would be the best on the album. While they were my ... read more

If you dislike this album you are actually the fun police. This is an amazing pop album that manages to stay fresh throughout where other albums would undoubtedly become stale. There are some iconic hooks of course, but the hooks remain elite even when the songs aren't as known. Run Away with Me is such a fun energetic opener and recognizing the horns immediately without knowing that she made it was epic. If you want to expand your horizons into the pop sphere like I did, this is the place ... read more

What I've learned is that there is basically just one War on Drugs song but it's a pretty damn good song. As a whole this is a cool collection of nice indie songs that are great background songs but not much more. I've already been listening to Red Eyes (amazing song!!!!!) a lot prior to the album as a whole, but there are a couple more songs here that I'll probably return to. A good amount of this is non-essential though.

Don't allow yourself to perceive this as a basic and formulaic indie rock record, because you couldn't be farther from the truth. My Morning Jacket pack so many genuinely stunning moments into this album, from the beautiful self-propelling It Beats For You, to the Impossible Germany-esque instrumental break in the back half of Lay Low, to the late explosion of catharsis in Dondante. This is the sound of a band taking standard indie conventions infused with classic rock influences and ... read more

I was going so out of order with Unwound's discography that I figured I'd just save this for last. I knew of this album's reputation so I had built a lot of hype in my head surrounding it and wow this album has exceeded every expectation I had set for it. Easily one of the best albums I've ever heard.

This thing is raw and loud of course, but it's also so incredibly beautiful I think if you strip back the initial post-hardcore layers. I mean, that Valentine Card suite ... read more

AOTY Recommended Albums #10 (1968)

I think this might be the most front-loaded album that I've ever listened to. This started out really strong but over the course of the album it really started to drag so much. The first four tracks (The Village Green Preservation Society -> Johnny Thunder) were by far the best, and after that it was just a bunch of kinda boring psychedelic pop that I was never really able to get into, aside from Starstruck, which I thought was pretty awesome. The ... read more

Didn't realize until after listening to this that this is actually their first album, it was just never released until 1995 for whatever reason. Definitely makes much more sense sonically that this is their first as opposed to being sandwiched in between The Future of What and Repetition, as it sounds basically nothing like that. Would also help to explain the fact that it's only 25 minutes.

Pretty safely my least favorite Unwound album, but Unwound's worst is still a pretty ... read more

I can see how some people might not see this album among Unwound's best (especially given the fact that it's placed between the two Unwound behemoths, Repetition & Leaves Turn Inside You), but I really loved the more experimental post-rock sound that they display all over this album. This is the album where I really feel like they let their music go, as there's definitely a bigger shift to longer, more drawn-out compositions, although this shift can make the album feel a ... read more

This album is weird because there are wide swaths of it that don't really do very much—experimental parts that don't sound great or really push the album forwards—but somehow this is still an one of the more fun albums that I've heard. When this album gets going, boy does it really get going.

From the beginning, this album introduces itself as an enjoyable, rhythmic, kinda mathy, noisy experience. Although it doesn't really end up going anywhere, it ... read more

They got my guy on the xylophone fucked up

I've listened to this a couple times now, and I can say that most of these songs are just OK. There are some good ones, there are some bad ones, there's one god-awful one (Emotional Crank I damn you to hell), but it just about evens out. I thought the decision to have the songs average one minute in length was an odd one and one that particularly didn't sit well with me. At some points the shortness of the tracks paired with some endings being kinda abrupt even made it harder to ... read more