April dropped a movie soundtrack? Call it an under-score...

Anyway its a pretty decent ambient soundtrack. There's lots of nice noises and a cool vibe that turns pretty creepy at points. Not much I'd go back to, though, but itstill beats 'Skin Purifying Treatment' in every way so there's that. Unless I find out underscores also acted in this film, I'm probably not gonna watch it, but I'm glad it exist...

I've been anticipating the debut album from Mad Iris for a whille on. My friend put me on to this band around the time 'Name Tag' dropped, and I've been waiting for this to drop ever since. Now did it live up to my expectations? Yeah kinda. I don't think its on the same level as their 2024 run of singles, but after the singles for this album I was expecting that. The songs on this album though are pretty great, keeping the Mad Iris vibe I love and polishing it up a ... read more

Peggy, they're called 'women', not 'bitches'. Would you kiss your mother with that mouth? smh...

Anyway, I'm gonna give a controversial take: this album is.... good. Not great, not bad, but definitely underwhelming for Peggy's standards. The issue is just how repetitive it is. There is one flow repeated for all 25 songs on the album, 3 archetypes for the beats, and only 4 lyrics not about making love to other another man's girlfriend (those 4 are about ... read more

Is it a good idea to listen to the musical equivalent of brain rot 3 hours before an exam instead of revising? Idk yet but I definitely don't regret it - this stuff's fire. Jane dropped one of her most fun, high-energy projects to date, and one of the best albums of this year. I gotta tap into the OG Dariacore trilogy next if its gonna be anything like this.

🚨🚨 NEE NAW NEE NAW 🚨🚨

Uh oh! Seems like someone rang the Awesome Alarm!! The perpetrator - Chiaki Sato for being pretty frickin' cool. 'Koe' gives me hope that there will be a light in this post-Kinokoteikoku world. Leaving behind her shogaze past, Sato goes for a more simple pop album and excecutes it perfectly. 'Koe' provides a diverse range of fantastic songs and, despite a few misses, they are all pretty memorable and fun. There's a case to be ... read more

Easily one of the best midwest emo albums I've heard. The instrumentals are awesome, simply sounding cool. The vocalists in midwest emo bands often seem like they're competing to be the worst (The Brave Little Abacus being the winners of that competition), so its refreshing to here a genuinely great vocalist who has the emo charm, whilst not being grating to the ears (no offense to the bands that do this; its one of my favourite aspects of the genre, just nice to have a change).

Death Grips, fronted by Aesop Rock. Super fun, super high energy, fantastically produced, potentially a top 5 album this year.

'Uzu ni Naru' is the album that I'm gonna relentlessly glaze this month. I first listened to it a few months ago, and its been slowly growing on me ever since, but it wasn't until I saw a clip of 夜が明けたら being played live that something just clicked, and my mind awakened to how truly perfect this actually is.

The first thing to strike me about this was just how it sounds. 'Uzu ni Naru', or 'Become a Whirlpool' is the perfect title for this ... read more

I've spent a lot of time around Elliott Smith fans as of late. Be it this gimp in my math class talking about some "He's the greatest lyricist of all time" or hearing things like "Son of Sam is the greatest song ever written", I can't seem to escape the Elliott Smith glaze. However, I've always just assumed he wouldn't be my thing: some 'guy and guitar' type music that I don't find particularly interesting. Whilst that might make up ... read more

I had no clue this was a Sheena Ringo side project coming into this - definitely a pleasant surprise. The jazz rock instrumentals are amazing throughout, with a diverse range that made every song feel different. Ringo's performance was defo the star of the show, though, naturally providing some awesome vocals. Is this better than 'the Winning Strip'? I don't know yet, but its not a possibility I can rule out.

Dear Bicycle,
From the moment I started rolling my dad's tube socks
And shooting imaginary game-winning shots
In the Great Western Forum
I knew one thing was real:
Friko lowkey cooked here

Something Worth Waiting For is an amazing follow-up to the Friko debut that carries all the emotion present in the first and amplifies it. Its not quite as good imo, but easily the same tier. This band has so much potential to release a truly generational record soon.

"I don't think Black Thought, Mach-Hommy and Blu on the same song would work very well" - Nobody

Blu and Exile have to be one of the most consistent duos in music: everything they drop is such high quality and a joy to listen to. And this might maybe be their best album (gotta give it some time to be sure but that's what the streets have been saying). Blu, naturally, is on point - the flows, the lyricism, its all as incredible as you'd come to expect. Exile's ... read more

Listened to this ages ago but forgot to give it a rating... minus points for that. Amazing album though. Whilst I prefer the shoegazier direction of her sophmore record, there's such a peacefullness to this album that's just so enjoyable to hear. And 'Beep-Boop, Beep-Boop' is easily one of the greatest things to ever bless my ears.

I'm gonna put El-P and Killer Mike on my Tomodachi Life island and make them kiss.

I can't believe I've not listened to this yet. Run The Jewels 2 excels in every aspect a hip hop album should. The rapping and lyricism is fantastic, all the beats are so awesome and really unique, and the charisma is off the charts. The chemistry between these two is incredible, making me really excited to listen to the other RTJ albums. The highlights on this are also incredible, especilaly on ... read more

"Ore wa Sonic T. Hamilton" - Me, today

Charles who the fuck let you make music this good and market yourself like this - this 9/10 rating is conservative btw, I could fully see this going up. This is one of the most enjoyable rap albums I've heard in ages, and yet from the album cover you'd assume its a joke album. The production on this is insane: every beat is awesome and super memorable, with a bunch of really well used samples. The rapping is great, too, but the most ... read more

Thank you drug bug for dropping the most beautiful piece of music ever for the second time. A lot of this gives heavy Rosemary vibes, which is much appreciated, with fantastic lush instrumentation throughout. The vocals, which were my least favourite part of the drug bug debut, where actually great here. The fact that the instrumentation was all done purely by Star is crazy, its insane how talented they are.

Thoughts after 1 listen (I will give it a few more chances as I feel there's a good chance this will click):

Its... alright. The instrumentals are all solid throughout, but I just did not vibe with the vocals. The overly theatrical shouting really just did not sound good in my opinion. Now this certainly may change, but as it stands, they really brought down the initial listening experience. The one thing I'm certain on though is that Aerials is a banger.

Edit: ok yeah grew on me a ... read more

gayer forever howlong (complimentary)

What Hobo Johnson makes when he finally gets put in a mental asylum. The avant-garde production was immaculate tbf, salvaging this album from a low score and making it enjoyable when the vocalist is at his most sufferable. However, I just can't get behind this guy's delivery (and at times lyricism) purely because of how hobo-like it was at times, to the point where I genuinely flinched when he said 'scone'. When he isn't doing the corny ramble-style delivery, it is ... read more

A midwest emo Minecraft cover album: has to be a joke right? Well if it is then it's a joke executed as perfectly as it could reasonably get. All the songs are as recognisable as you'd hope, whilst remaining extremely well made midwest emo instrumentals that you could show someone who doesn't know Minecraft, and they'd not know anything was up. The Living Mice cover especially is something amazing. Who'd have thought combining one of the most nostalgia-coded genres with ... read more