The first eight tracks are incredibly derivative and are, at times, plain boring.
The next ten tracks are amongst his best since the first MOTM album.
Cudi proves yet again that he needs to focus on quality, not quantity. Very few of his hour long albums need to be as long as they are. Indicud and PP&DS, and maybe to a certain extent Speedin' Bullet as well, would be a lot more heavily respected if they weren't as long as they are. This album has the exact same problem. If Kids See Ghosts ... read more
Oh god, it's that time of the year again, huh? The god-forsaken time when I have to listen to Wonderful Christmastime fifty times a day, actually good songs spark some bullshit controversy because one of the lines hadn't aged well, and every artist with at least a couple-hundred-thousand monthly Spotify listeners release their own unwanted and unasked for Christmas record. And it seems the first to do just that is Poppy. Can't say I'm surprised at all. After that mediocre noise record she ... read more
Pike #284
I'm starting to wonder, am I just getting more lenient with Buckethead, or is he actually improving? I mean, he's released significantly less albums this year than what he's know for, so it could easily be the latter, with him going for more quality than quantity in that regard (though that is a bit questionable considering the amount of albums he's dropped this year alone is still equal to that of a single artist's entire discography), but it could also just be that after hearing so ... read more
When I saw the genre tags, I got a bit more excited than I probably should have. An AOTY project that has both ambient and noise? Surely this would end up being an interesting project regardless of the actual overall quality. And interesting it certainly is, as if there's anything Circles has going for it, it's that it never fails to keep me interested in seeing what's going to happen next. The clear ambition also makes this at least respectable, and while there are certainly aspects to this ... read more
This really isn't the type of music I usually listen to, and as such I can't say I was really expecting much from this. Hell, if anything, I was expecting to not like it at all. But I can't say that that was the end result.
For Lack Of A Better Name is a mostly good album, and one that may even be amongst the best in the genre (though I certainly can't say for sure). And while I'm not big on a lot of the tracks here, with some like FML, Moar Ghosts N Stuff, Bot and Soma pretty nice listens ... read more
Thank you, Wintherr, for blessing us with two great releases in one day.
Schnee compiles the four Schnee tracks that he's done over the years in various splits. These songs have honestly always been amongst his best, so hearing them all together in one long album, hearing them as they were intended to be listened to, results in definitely one of the best experiences with his music yet. It may not be one of Paysage d'Hiver's most essential albums, but if you already love albums like self-titled ... read more
Two B-sides from Im Wald, but neither feeling like a B-side and more like an addendum to an already excellent work. Im Wald was already my album of the year, and unless I find something even more extraordinary, then that's unlikely to change. But with this extra content, I can actually see myself liking the album even more than I already do. I can just imagine how much more I may get out of it if I get around to sitting down and listening to both the album and this EP one after the other. These ... read more
The Araby Bazaar's second album doesn't disappoint at all. Just like their first album, it ends up being a really pleasant indie rock record, albeit with a track listing that is a lot more consistent, though admittedly with a couple of forgettable cuts.
The highs on this record certainly sets the bar high for any future releases, with quite a few of the tracks on here being some of the best they've done yet. The opening track, Maida Vale, may just be their best song yet, with it being a really ... read more
Concrete Castles comes back with by far their best album yet. I saw that this was inspired by Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and I can definitely see the influences. It makes for what is easily their most interesting project yet, and one that surprisingly has very few moments that I didn't like. Even Unopinionated - a track that I wasn't too big on when it was released as a single - was actually much better in the context of the album. There are still a few parts that I'm not too keen on, like ... read more
Man, people are going to hate me when I get around to making my best of 2020 list and a fucking Merzbow record ends up ranking higher than most of the highest rated pop albums of the year.
Do I even need to justify this? I mean, I am one of the five people who unironically enjoys noise music on this site, so this is a given. At the end of the day, it is just another Merzbow album, and as such it's just another "harsh noise for the sake of it" album with not much that's different at ... read more
Re-review
I gotta thank spicyb for reminding me that I said that I'd give this record a better review back when I was first going through Buckethead's discography. Honestly, it's great returning to albums like this one after you've heard literal hundreds of mediocre albums. It just reminds me of what it was that I originally loved so much when I first started diving into his music. Not just the same few styles replayed over and over again every couple of months, but actual experimentation. ... read more
I keep forgetting this is an album that was actually made and released to the public.
Listen, Corey... if I wanted to listen to Nickelback, I'd listen to Nickelback. I don't want to listen to Nickelback. Therefore, I don't want to listen to you playing your favourite Nickelback songs. Please, just go back to aggressively screaming nonsense over heavily distorted instrumentals, because at least that is entertaining.
Truly magnificent. Easily one of the most beautiful records I have ever heard. One six hour long song spread out over five 70+ minute long discs, recorded in a marathon performance done in one sitting. What you get is one of the most pleasant audio recordings to have ever been made. The FLUX Quartet did an exceptional job at realizing Morton Feldman's piece that has only ever been performed in its entirety a handful of times, and it's amazing that I managed to experience it.
I'm holding off on ... read more
2020 Catch-up #5
An album that seems to have gone under the radar for most people, which I really don't understand why. Well, I guess I do, with so many big releases this year, some albums deserving of endless praise and a spot amongst even the most popular records of the year are ultimately going to be left behind and unnoticed by most. But listening to Loma's new album after hearing some of what has been heralded as "the best of the year", it really makes me wonder how many other ... read more
Pike #280
This proves, without a doubt, that Buckethead still has it in him to make genuinely amazing music. How long has it been since he's made a Pike that has impressed me this much? I mean, I know that I gave one of his releases from this year a relatively high score, but I mean a Pike that has managed to become a top ten Buckethead album for me? Looking through my list, the last album to reach my top ten came out at the end of 2015. A whole five years ago. And just now he's released an ... read more
Well, I certainly didn't expect one of my albums of the year to end up being a user-made project, but leave it to @QueenOfDenmark to prove that that is very much possible.
When I think of AOTY music, the last thing I expect is a proper indie rock record. But here we are, with a genuinely great one. The album did kinda throw me off at first, with the opening track being a pretty regular synth track that we come to expect with user-made music, but one that I felt was actually better than most. ... read more
Probably the only Frank Zappa album that I'm not going to try and write an extensive review for, and most definitely the only Mothers album that I genuinely couldn't give less of a shit about. In Cruising With Ruben & The Jets, Zappa and The Mothers make a proper doo-wop album. No, not as a satirization of the genre like you would expect after hearing an album as critical of popular music as We're Only In It For The Money, but a genuine doo-wop album.
Before anyone says anything, no, it's ... read more
2020 Catch-up #4
I feel like all this series I've decided to do has managed to do is out myself as being a modern pop music "hater", but I just don't really get how this has become one of the most critically acclaimed of the year. Nor do I understand why this seems to be loved by pretty much everyone here. This just sounds like your standard 2020 pop album, one that pretty much everyone has already forgotten about unless they were already a Dua Lipa stan.
Okay, sure, great ... read more
Yes, I like AC/DC, and I'm tired of pretending I don't.
Okay, I get it. They're formulaic as shit. They've just played the same song a hundred times for close to fifty years now. In terms of classic rock, they are perhaps one of the weakest bands to make it to the mainstream and somehow have multiple classics under their belt. But having grown up with Highway To Hell and Back In Black, I just can't find it in myself to say that I dislike them at all. And even this album which definitely isn't ... read more
2020 Catch-up #3
Yeah, this is going to be a much shorter review than usual because I seriously do not care nearly enough about this band to even try and write a better review.
I want to love Fontaines D.C, but every single time I hear one of their albums I don't get anything out of it. Ever since I first heard Dogrel back when that first dropped, I just knew that this was a band that would be right up my alley but hadn't done anything to excite me and interest me enough to actually listen to ... read more
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Recent Review Comments
On Doja Cat - Demons
"Damn, forgot about this certified banger of a review.
Demons is still my pick for best Dostoevsky btw"
On Boris - Performing "PINK" in Its Entirety - Live at Shindaita Fever 20160924
"@DevGPluto I heard. It really is the best time to be a Boris fan"
On Boris - Performing "PINK" in Its Entirety - Live at Shindaita Fever 20160924
"@roundcircle unlikely to happen unfortunately. there's just too many recced songs for me to sift through at this point"
On Les Rallizes Dénudés - Wilderness of false flowers_1976
"@Eomann it is a certified banger for sure"
On Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell
"@FeendishlyJam I believe I meant that Meat Loaf is grating and that people who dislike Queen generally make the argument that Freddie is grating"
On System of a Down - Hypnotize
"@ClayDJs03 "hate" was waaay too strong a word for me to have used back then. Honestly quite surprised I did lol. The only SOAD song I ever really "hated" was Old School Hollywood. But anyway, as far as some of the tracks I used to dislike, I guess I sorta just lightened up. She's Like Heroin is still probably bottom 5 SOAD, and Kill Rock 'n Roll is a bop even if it's silly. The others I listed as least favs I honestly don't really know why I did. Two of them are some of the most memorable on the album, and Stealing Society, though one of the most forgettable in their discog, is a banger.
The album itself is still my least fav SOAD. Too many tracks that are just blatantly forgettable or simply filler, and it's such a drop from Mezmerize."
On Whitehouse - Quality Time.
"@EpicenterofCool yeah, they added my reviews to their bandcamp albums a few years ago. It was really cool of them"
On Seatbelts - Cowboy Bebop
"@BMS unfortunately Samurai Champloo is one of the classic anime I haven't yet seen, but I hope it's as good as I've heard"
On Ramin Djawadi - House of the Dragon: Season 2
"And Helaena being a dreamer was one of the worst decisions in this show so far lol. It's blatantly them making an "out" so they can do whatever with her character and have it make sense, i.e. her not grieving her son, and eventually killing herself, "because I saw it in a dream.""
On Ramin Djawadi - House of the Dragon: Season 2
"@ClayDJs03 I think (unfortunately) you hit the nail on the head with the writers wanting to double down on the misogyny, which is a shame considering George generally does a great job of tackling the subject in his books, even in the Dance of Dragons. All this whitewashing has ironically done the opposite of their intention; removing the agency of literal Queens, having the men in their lives make the hard decisions that come with war and having the women fight against it and act like they had no say in the matter, to me, that's way more misogynistic than, y'know, having your women characters actually make impulsive, emotional, even catastrophic decisions. Rhaenyra especially is so pathetic this season after that final shot in S1."
On Ramin Djawadi - House of the Dragon: Season 2
"And yeah, that was the very moment in the finale I noped out lmao. Them meeting not once, but TWICE is such a tumblr fanfic moment that I can't believe made it past LITERAL PROFESSIONAL SCREENWRITERS. "Yeah, just have disputing Queens sail across the sea during wartime, not face any troubles along the way, and safely face their adversary and make their way back home in the span of a single day. That makes perfect sense." And Alicent selling out her son... Jesus fuck, idk how they managed to butcher such incredible characters in such a short time. They did NOT care and it shows."
On Ramin Djawadi - House of the Dragon: Season 2
"@ClayDJs03 Yeah, liking it as a book fan is sheer lunacy lmao. Of course the brutality is toned down, but also distancing Rhaenyra's participation. It gets hard to view her as the grief-stricken mother and LITERAL QUEEN that she's supposed to be when the impulsive decisions that make her so compelling in the books are trivialized down to "actually it was the men in her life who made those decisions. She's rational actually." And like you mention, the horrors inflicted on Helaena are so minimalized, but then after the fact they don't even give her a storyline dealing with the grief. I legitimately believe B&C was handled awfully, not just the event itself, but the entire lead-up and stream of consequences afterwards no longer making sense."
On Ramin Djawadi - House of the Dragon: Season 2
"@ClayDJs03 That blog was so vindicating, the contents and HBO's response so bemusing. Helaena killing herself for the lols will certainly be a choice. (I was also so glad he spent the whole post trashing Blood & Cheese. I felt crazy, being the only person I know (even fellow book fans) legitimately thinking that was executed well and not a bastardization on the level of GOT's S5 and 6 portrayal of Dorne and the Iron Islands.)"
On Andrei's review of Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine
"it's moments like these that make me wonder if Andrei has ever drank Powerade Zero"
On XXXTENTACION - Bad Vibes Forever
"@Archerycraft18 i don't really have any sort of justification. a 0.5/10 is still a 0 to me"
On Eomann's review of Les Rallizes Dénudés - Double Heads: Legendary Live Yaneura Shibuya, Tokyo 1980-1981
"Beautiful review! A banger of a write-up for a banger of a record"
On Dead Kennedys - Bedtime for Democracy
"@molochthagod lol. lmao even."
On XXXTENTACION - The Fall
"@zzile "point out that its your opinion" - you're on a music reviewing site. Any takes had pertaining music is implied to be the opinion of the take haver. If you need every single criticism to be prefaced with "this is just MY opinion," that says more about your insecurity of your own takes than it does the reviewer.
"state what you consider the obvious, get likes and peace out" - fat load of good that did me. 4 likes in 5 years!
"your ass knows nothing about the way i review albums" - the irony. Let me point out once more; this is a 5 year old review you're seething on. If you wanna give constructive criticism, at least look at what else the reviewer has posted since (never mind the fact you should learn to be a bit more respectful)"
On XXXTENTACION - The Fall
"@zzile I know next to nothing about X the person, all I know is he made dogshit music. This is one of the most straightforward reviews I've ever written, and I still get Mr. Armchair Psychoanalyst out here trying to find some deep rooted bias I have to explain why I dislike the album"
On XXXTENTACION - The Fall
"@zzile bro's seething over a 5 year old review"
On 파란노을 [Parannoul] - After the Night
"@Eomann bro needs to get on those Swans lives and Dark Magus ASAP"
On Eminem - Music to Be Murdered By
"every time i get a comment on this review, i'm reminded by how sensitive the average nemnem fan is"
On Opeth - Blackwater Park
"@ScottShelby I return to Still Life more often nowadays so there's that; Death's later albums are a no brainer, some of my fav metal records of all time; I'm also a sucker for Atheist's Unquestionable Presence. I've been slacking on metal a lot recently tho, so there's prob a few more that just haven't sprung to mind atm."
On Green Day - American Idiot
"oooooooh, I see. It completely flew over my head that this is a concept album. This changes everything! So THAT'S why half the songs are mediocre! OK, now I can enjoy these outstanding concept album lyrics!
She's an extraordinary girl in an ordinary world ♫"
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