I've been in some sort of album listening slump, and this record helped pull me out of it. I've been in love with this album for many years, in a way that only an Adrianna Lenker album can make you fall in love. Her songwriting is so singular, so concise and expansive in one breath, in not only her words but her melodies, her vocal deliveries, her style really shines through in every note and word. This album combines grungy and upbeat indie rock with americana singer-songwriter in a ... read more

If I only had one word to describe this album, it would be eclectic. This record is vibrant with sounds of southern rock, country, indie, gospel, noise, prog. It soars with organs and bongos and ripping guitars and odd time signatures and shouted lyrics. I See Myself rips with a catchy chorus backed by southern gospel singers, 2122's devolution into noise and screaming never fails to hype me up, Domoto's beautiful melodies over pedal steel and piano, this album manages to be both ... read more

Can't believe I missed this one last month when it came out. This album feels like it's always very close to falling apart in your hands, like eating a messy sandwich. Always threatening to spill all of its ingredients out the back, but always managing to hold it together until the very last bite. This feeling of controlled chaos not only adds to the beauty of this record, but makes it beautiful in a way that is all its own. And this thing is intensely beautiful, with acoustic guitars ... read more

Happy 2025 everybody! To start this year off, I wanted to step out of my comfort zone and listen to an album that I honestly didn't really see myself listening to and loving. This record is really just one song, about an hour in length. The artwork is worth talking about before the sound of the record, because the artwork is really excellent. It's incredibly evocative, almost shaping how I heard and interpreted the album. It's a group of wanderers, dressed in dark and heavy ... read more

CATCHUP WEEK DAY 7/7

I'm honestly sort of mixed on this record. I really didn't expect this album to me my hottest take of the year, quite the end to the year and to my catchup week. I really enjoy a lot of it, Warsong and Drone:Nodrone really stand out to me as excellent, and the entire album has these really intricate soundscapes with layers of distortion, synth, drone, strings, and consistent interesting drum tracks to tie them back down into shape. Robert Smith sounds exactly the ... read more

CATCHUP WEEK DAY 6/7

This album is really a trip. It takes you through a ton of sounds, styles, flavors, all in a tight 40. It gets into searing, red-hot riffs, it gets into slower moody balladry, all put through a swirling, cavernous psychedelic lens. The high point, for me, is the searing and electric Here's The Thing, with it's buzzing riff and dreamy vocals. This thing really takes a dip in the middle, though, with In The Modern World through Motorcycle Boy not really catching my ... read more

CATCHUP WEEK DAY 5/7

This album is immediately unique simply because of how it was released. You can't listen to it on Spotify, or Apple Music, or any modern streaming. I personally listened to it on Youtube. All you have is the album cover and the tracklist, and as you're listening, you actually have to pay attention to keep track of which song you're on. It gives the album this strange word-of-mouth grainy analogue feeling before you ever press play.

How does it sound once ... read more

CATCHUP WEEK DAY 4/7

This one really grew on me the more I listened to it. It has a really singular sound, a collage of sorts of drums, guitars, strings, stand up bass, choirs, synthesizers, and they all meld together into one singular driving unit. The production teeters on the borderline between indie rock and electronic, taking very analogue noises and manipulating them digitally without removing their analogue quality. The drums feel both live and sampled, the pianos or strings sped up, ... read more

CATCHUP WEEK DAY 3/7

This album was super intimidating for me for a couple of reasons. First, it's the first Godspeed You! record I've heard, and they are definitely a band with a reputation that proceeds them. I'm also not very well versed in post rock and more ambient guitar music in general. After giving this thing a good few listens, I'm left somewhere between loving it and never wanting to listen to it ever again.

This album's sound is heavy, dark, apocalyptic, ... read more

CATCHUP WEEK DAY 2/7

At the end of the day, this is a great pop record. The pacing is fantastic, the hooks are catchy, the sound is a lush, well put-together synthetic standard. It's just a really tight 50-minute ride through Roan's sound, taking you from piano ballads like Coffee and Kaleidoscope to upbeat joints like Hot To Go! and Naked in Manhattan. Just a fun, casual rollercoaster ride. There's a lot of influence going on here as well, from the Lana Del Rey Picture You, to ... read more

CATCHUP WEEK DAY 1/7

Yeah, this is the first album I've reviewed on this site that I haven't hit the like button for. I strongly dislike this album. Might even be bottom of the year for me. I listened to it four or five times and every time I listened it got worse.

Let's start with the sound. This record wears its influences on its sleeve, the final presentation being a cross between LCD Soundsystem and the Charli XCX brand of hyperclub electronic. It's sort of interesting ... read more

I grew up in Central New York, as I'm sure I've mentioned here before, so this brand of 2000s country is just inherently appealing to me. Chicken Fried and Toes are just in my blood, I will never not love those songs. They're burned into my brain along with memories of endless summer days, soft serve ice cream, long drives to the grocery store, sitting in hammocks in the backyard. They're just expertly crafted songs, catchy and smooth.

But how does the rest of the record ... read more

From the first track, Mahashmashana lays its cards right out on the table. The title track is huge, sweeping, with a string section and big, worldly lyrics and vocals. This record feels like a continuation or expansion of the sounds on the previous Misty record, taking what worked from the jazzy Chloë and trimming the fat away. She Cleans Up is a Soundsystem-esque funky jam with lyrics about Mary Magdalene and Scarlett Johansen. Screamland's chorus sounds like it's actively ... read more

I'm a couple days late, but I had to celebrate 11/11 by relistening to this record. I saw them when they were touring this album at Irving Plaza, I got a balcony ticket. Looking down on the stage from all the way up there, I swear I had a religious experience when they played Swimming. This album is just a tight, moving listen all the way through. House Sitting has become a masterwork with Habitat, a winding beautiful song with deliciously crunchy guitars and soft acoustic riffs over ... read more

For the first time in four years, we have a new Elverum record. A huge, expansive album, sitting comfortably at 81 minutes like a mountain sitting comfortably along the horizon. This album is a return to form of sorts, although it's hard to say there's ever been one singular form in Phil's discography. There are times where this thing gets very fuzzy and Microphones-ey, but there are also times where it gets ambient, heavy, dark, light. Lyrically, this thing is as dense as the ... read more

If you've heard Bon Iver's third record, then you no doubt remember the gorgeous sample on the final track. That's how I discovered Fionn Reagan and this album, with the sample coming from Abacus. In contrast to Justin Vernon's maximalist retooling, Abacus is gentle, rocking back and forth but still moving forward. It's nostalgic, bittersweet, yearning, and fleeting. Abacus as a song is a perfect microcosm of the album as a whole.

The End Of History is a gorgeous ... read more

This album rollout has been really interesting to watch. In the span of two weeks we went from album announcement, to bright green shipping crates, to singles and snippets, to album release. It's really interesting to see how divisive this thing is, too. I've seen just as many people saying it's overrated as I've seen people saying it's album of the year. In the end, I'm somewhere between these two viewpoints, leaning closer to the latter. Chromakopia is lush, ... read more

This album really feels like it came out of my dreams and into reality. It has both catchy pop sensibility and also a deep grounded concept. This record reminds me a lot of My Bloody Valentine's magnum opus Loveless, not sonically, but as an album that also reads as an experience, an immersive soundscape that pulls you into its world and vibe. While Loveless captures a dirty, crunchy, distorted English pessimist world view, Imaginal Disk instead captures the view from a lush, west coast ... read more

This record truly and thoroughly does feel like a new sound, like something I've never really heard before, at least in this fully realized form. The instrumentals are truly a work of art in and of themselves, channeling the Windmill sound the Black Midi once pushed, but refining it and expanding it. Tracks like Blues and Motorbike and As If Waltz just hit you with a continuous gut punch of noise, notes, timbre and percussion. Tracks like Terra and the title track utilize this bossa nova, ... read more

Yeah, I really didn't like this album. The stereo mix is so bad it's not even funny. I think somebody else already mentioned it on here, but all the instruments are hard panned left and the vocals are hard panned right. The songs are pretty much all really samey motown rock songs. They sound okay, obviously the performances are good and the songs are alright, but they all sound so similar, and there are far less standout tracks than the previous record. Till There Was You has a really ... read more