As I have little experience with folk and had yet to listen to a Bob Dylan album, I decided today to listen to my first and was pleasantly surprised by just how much I enjoyed it! Bob's voice paired with just guitar and the occasional blaring harmonica is shockingly effective, and the variation in topic but consistently well written lyrics hooked me for the album's entire runtime. If Dylan's style is this strong this early on I can't wait to listen to more!

An important soundtrack not only for successfully following up it's predecessor's score, especially in the orchestral tracks, but for really establishing the sound of 3D Mario up to now. Much of Galaxy 2's sound, especially in it's more offbeat and electronically based tracks can be heard in Odyssey and 3D World. While overall I don't think the sequel tops the monumental soundtrack belonging to the first game, it's far from a disappointment with some compositions ... read more

The Gamecube era was an especially odd time for Nintendo, and Mario was no exception, with Sunshine being a notoriously strange and off kilter entry in the franchise, and it's music is fittingly uncanny. Besides some of the better known highlights like Isle Delfino or Bianco Hills, Sunshine's soundtrack is littered with very strange musical choices. Odd midi instruments that don't quite mimic the tropical instrumentation the score is going for paired with often warbly and chaotic ... read more

An undeniably important album for jazz as a genre and one of, if not the best Christmas album ever made. Equally as unique as the special it was made for, capturing the melancholy of the season and the joy of the holiday in a way that no other Christmas music has. Christmas Time Is Here, specifically the instrumental version, is one of the very best songs I have ever heard. My love for this special and its music is one that only gets stronger over time.

Never would I have thought that the guy I used to watch play Minecraft would end up making a Sinatra inspired Christmas classics album. It's rare to see internet celebs using their income on anything remotely artistic, so something that was clearly made with as much effort and passion as A Very 1999 Christmas is not only a rarity, but a welcome (and quite good) surprise! Schlatt has a shockingly good voice and fits the sound of the music perfectly, which itself sounds good, if not a little ... read more

Though lacking the originality and intensity that made Linkin Park's earlier records, or the new sounds that created albums like A Thousand Suns, From Zero isn't a terrible return for the band, but far from an interesting one. Emily is a great vocalist and the rest of the band are still doing pretty good too, but many of the songs feel like they are lacking in lyrical depth and are drowned in a sound that has long since run its course. I suppose the return to the early 2000's ... read more

I'm not going to act like "The Fragile" is near as cohesive a work as "The Downward Spiral", or the majority of Nine Inch Nail's albums for that matter, but in it's experimentation and over hour and a half runtime, Trent displays some of his most interesting and intense music he's ever made. Like the album before it, plenty of aggressive industrial rock staples land on the album, like it's phenomenal opener and the monstrous "We're In This ... read more

I've been getting more into electronic this year, especially many of the big artists under Warp, and Squarepusher often shows up during conversation about artists similar to the ones I've been listening to. I did not expect what I got on "Ultravisitor" at all based on the comparisons, and the album is well out of my comfort zone, but shockingly diving head first into the project made for a bizarrely good experience. I'm not as experienced with music as abstract and ... read more

One of the most sickeningly disingenuous pop tracks of the last decade that somehow still plagues radio stations to this day.

I haven't felt a rush like this from a pop record since the first time I listened to The Postal Service's "Give Up" in full. Every singe song on this album completely blew me away. The way The Flaming Lips are able to weave between intense electronics and soft acoustic guitars with no tonal whiplash is unlike most records I've ever heard. "Fight Test" is an incredible opener, and its transition into "One More Robot" is fantastic. Both parts of the ... read more

"SHINBANGUMI" is the album I have been waiting for Ginger Root to make since the "Nisemono" EP, and it delivers about as much as I hoped it would. Funky Basslines, twinkling synths, and great vocals from Cameron make for some of his best earworms yet, like the amazing first single "No Problems", or my personal favorite off the record "Better Than Monday". "All Night", "Only You", and "Giddy Up" are highlights on the album for ... read more

Gizz returns to blues rock and knocks it out of the park. "Flight b741" is perhaps the most upbeat the band has sounded since "Butterfly 3000", and is a welcome successor to their previous blues project "Fishing for Fishies", an album I hold in generally high regard in the band's discography. The album kicks off with "Mirage City", a great intro with a country flare that flows perfectly into "Antarctica", another super fun track with plenty ... read more

King Gizzard unfortunately deliver a underwhelming return electronic, as "The Silver Cord" in both its regular and extended mixes fail to satisfy. Though many tracks have interesting ideas and decent hooks like in "Theia" and "Chang'e", the regular mixes don’t provide enough time to build on the concepts at hand, and the extended mixes reveal the potential of what longer versions should provide, but end up being too long and drag out annoyingly ... read more

"Changes" is likely King Gizzard's easiest listen, with sparkly pop tracks lining its entire runtime, all of which are about change in some way. The thirteen minute opener "Change" and the following "Hate Dancin'", one of the band's catchiest songs yet, both relate to a change of opinion. The super jazzy "Astroturf" and the soft, slow "Exploding Suns" reference the changing of the earth, while the ethereal "No Body" and ... read more

"Laminated Denim" is King Gizzard's successor to "Made in Timeland", but only in concept. Though keeping it's predecessor's format, two fifteen minute tracks, this is not an electronic album, but yet another jam album following Ice, Death, Planets. Despite the length of both tracks, they're extremely easy to get into. I've gone back to this album quite a few times since it's release when I want half an hour to just fly by. ... read more

Back when Ice, Death, Planets dropped I wasn't a huge fan of the album, but I haven't listened to it again in full since the day of its release. Now revisiting it, right around two years later, I'm in awe at this project. This is King Gizzard's jammiest album since "Quarters!", showcasing the band's ability to play together and bounce off each other at their peak. "The Dripping Tap" off of the previous album "Omnium Gatherum" was a point of ... read more

"Made In Timeland" is a truly bizarre album in Gizzard's discography, being an almost entirely instrumental half hour long electronic album consisting of two tracks, and it slaps. "Timeland" is all over the place, going from standard house hi hats to folk and chanting? There's an understated darkness to a good amount of the track that had previously appeared on the final tracks of "Fishing for Fishies" in sound, and also extremely dreamy bits reminiscent ... read more

I'm glad Gizz made three of these microtonal albums, because they've basically mastered the sound at this point. "L.W." is basically front to back bangers, with a lot of covid era politics. "Static Electricity" was one of the first songs I heard by the band that really caught my ear back when I was first getting into them, and it still rocks. Plenty of pretty underrated Gizz tracks pop up on this album, like "Ataraxia" and "See Me". I would love ... read more

Looking back, it is truly strange to think "Straws In The Wind" was my introduction to King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. "K.G." is still a personal favorite Gizz record for me, as it was my first. "Automation", "Minimum Brain Size", and "Oddlife" are still in frequent rotation since I heard them in high school, and hearing some of these tracks live was a real treat. Of course, I've been listening to this band for years now, and I'm ... read more

It's difficult to believe that this is King Gizzard's first go at metal, because their sound is immediately fully formed, and paired with the album's sub-forty minute runtime and thematically interesting story, "Infest the Rat's Nest" is easily one of my favorite thrash metal albums.