bet u all feel like shit now huh

Edit: Let me clarify a little - I honestly don't think there's a whole lot that makes this any worse than any other Linkin Park album of the 2010s. Yes it's going to an EDM-lite routine that's ill-fitting and already sounds dated, but that's just a different type of cringe than the cringe they've been marketing forever. And while there was something commendable about "Living Things" and "The Hunting Party" showing Linkin Park staying true to ... read more

The Kesha song we needed, but not the one we wanted.

Have you noticed that many people who initially slandered this song have since eaten their words? Pitchfork reviewed "Work" without awarding it Best New Track, then went on to name it both the #7 best song of 2016 as well as Rihanna's best single of all time in their "Loveeeeeee Songs" list. Wendy Williams criticized it on her show then later admitted she had started to enjoy it. The song itself only managed to hit number one after four long weeks of meandering on the ... read more

What gives her the right.

When I was 13 I made an 'album' using Garageband, two guitars, and a shitty $150 drumset I got the previous year. At the time, I thought it was amazing, but when I came back to it even a year later the flaws were obvious: really bad sequencing in the electronic instruments, pitchy singing, way too referential to the artists I was listening to at the time etc. I "promoted" the hell out of it on my Facebook back then but would honestly be mortified if anyone heard it now. In Living ... read more

The kind of between-album maturation music lovers dream of; CTRL is superior to Z on just about every level. SZA benefits greatly from fresher instrumentals, more eclectic genre pooling, stronger hooks and less esoteric lyricism. Kendrick and Isaiah continue to hurt their songs more than they help, although Travis Scott is a welcome addition to "Love Galore," the most alluring single she's released to date. To think we could have been listening to this a year ago is maddening.

Ps. ... read more

"Damn, Joanna! There's no way you can make a worthy follow-up to Ys unless you, like, record a triple album that's somehow more ambitious in range yet also more accessible in content or something!"

JN: "Hold my drink."

Beloved Canadian artist Feist takes a Fiona Apple-length break and returns with a Fiona Apple-quality album.

Pleasure's sonic textures are easily its most ear-grabbing aspect; amps buzz, vocals congeal, synth tones pulse. Unlike previous record Metals, which fit neatly in the early 2010s canon of ambitious universe-building indie pop records (think Lykke Li's Wounded Rhymes), Pleasure really carves out an aesthetic that no one else is doing right now.

The album has the advantage of being ten ... read more

I enjoyed this more than I thought I would, especially since first single “Love” didn’t really do anything for me. That song felt like standard Lana-fare but with a little more sunniness injected into both the music and lyrics.

Not that “Lust For Life” is much different, but it does make one crucial adjustment. By withholding the release of warmth until the chorus, there's a feeling of suspense that leads to major payoff once she begins imploring her lover to ... read more

I probably had a better time listening this in 2017 than I would have in 2013. Like many people, my big hangup with this record is how referential it feels to the big names of mid-late 2000's indie folk. Much has already been made of the similarity between Allen Tate's vocals and those of The National's Matt Berninger, but by the end of the record's opening third you've also ingested so much blatant worship of Sufjan Stevens ("Renaissance!"), Dirty Projectors ("Sonsick"), ... read more

I like to imagine this is what a gay mechanic's shop sounds like.

Look, I get that there was probably a lot of demand from label execs, ignorant fans etc. for Gaga to return to dance-pop (why else did her Coachella ad feature a shitty EDM remix of "Million Reasons"?), but was there anyone out there really thinking "man, I wish she would make a Chainsmokers song"?

UPDATE 8/17/17: Why would she even drop this trash song if she wasn't planning on doing any promo/TV appearances/music video?? Couldn't she have released Dancin' in Circles as ... read more

Not exactly the album I was expecting from this acrobatic vocalist and social media firebrand. Coffman manages a very pleasant aesthetic and her voice shines through on every track, but the music occasionally seems below her.

Unfortunately, many potentially great moments here feel sterilized and the lyrics frequently border on vapidness. It's not as if The Beatles didn't mention l-o-v-e on nearly every song (as Coffman does here), but her cliches start to induce eye-rolls around the halfway ... read more

A satisfying introduction to the world of Melodrama. Lorde speeds up the tempo and adds some lush elements to the minimalist production of her debut, leading to her most danceable track yet. Lyrically, this is classic Lorde ("She thinks you love the beach, you're such a damn liar" is destined to become an iconic line of hers), but how much you like the actual music depends on how much you're willing to buy into the EDM-lite atmosphere she's embracing here (watching her dance through ... read more

I once knew this “rapper” in high school who lived in the Bronx till he was five. His entire rapper persona was based on how he was so traumatized and hardened by "what he saw” in the Bronx even though we all knew he lived in the upper-class Jewish part and had a pretty nice childhood. About eight years before that and a few towns over, Jidenna was graduating from Milton Academy, quite possibly the most prestigious private school in Massachusetts. Based on The Chief, I ... read more

do u think reviewers will talk shit about it because he had the nerve to say indie rock is dead or whatever

"Wake Me Up Inside has become a real joke but you all are lying if you say that you wouldn’t have loved lyrics like 'bid my blood to run before I come undone and save me from the nothing I’ve become' if it was presented in a folk song on Sufjan Stevens’ Carrie & Lowell."

Did you go back and read those lyrics in Suf's voice?

This project, led by looping pedal aficionado Owen Pallett in his pre-Final Fantasy days, was quietly reissued in 2015 via Orchid Tapes. It offers a look into the experimental beginnings of a recently-matriculated Pallett and bandmates Rob Gordon and Matt Smith, who also appeared on Pallett's recent In Conflict.

Some songs here try too hard in their attempt to be grating, namely "Divorce the Ones You Love," which is actually quite tranquil once you get past the atonal violin ... read more

Essential listening for women and gay men born in the early/mid 90s.

Theatre majors will love it, others may feel they can only admire it from afar. What's not up for debate is that their return to a quality-over-quantity approach is both relieving and rewarding - the song "America" alone has more fully-realized ideas than the majority of their last record (it sounds a lot better than their last record, too).

Some songs utilize the 40+ piece orchestra better than others, and I can't help but feel the song "Trauma" would be nearly anthemic if ... read more