grillmom

Listening through hellfire feels like watching a Broadway performance from hell. A reel one line after another of strange and kind of ghoulish tales sung and played through with bombast and genuine levity that really sets this one apart from their previous records. I get the sense that Greep had a blast writing this and the gang had just as much fun putting it all together. Morgan's drumming is pretty much untouchable, especially hard hitting on Welcome to Hell which I can never listen to ... read more

It's more than likely I'll end up coming back to this one again pretty soon because built to spill has kinda been hooking me in song by song over the past month or so. I know this is kinda the basic pick of their discog but that's probably because it's really good!! (and pretty poppy I won't try and pretend otherwise). The guitar lines on this are all so fucking catchy it's kinda unavoidable infectious. Feels less dated than a lot of the slacker rock of this era, ... read more

Some of the Mountain Goat's most memorable (and possibly best) songs. Honestly the first five song lineup is basically perfect as far as singer-songwriter stuff goes. After that it feels like there is maybe a bit more filler in the song list but it's very possible I just need to give them more space to grow on me. I do think distant stations and source decay are both great examples of Darnielle's standout songwriting, whose praises I cannot sing enough of. Simple but beautiful, ... read more

Martsch's guitar solos are basically unmatched among players of this era. Some is a special standout for me, and Slab is basically perfect. Some points of the album are maybe a bit meandery, but the kinda cheeky lyrical energy behind it keeps it consistently pretty fun. Plus big dipper is so darn catchy.