This feels like the soundtrack/score to a Tim Burton film being performed live. It’s very cinematic and often devastating in tone. Perfume Genius once again proves that you can say a whole lot by using fewer words.

The Maria’s have every right to make a great album in the next few years. Their vocals, style, and fit into many sectors of modern indie pop that people are digging right now. This album wasn’t a miss, just wasn’t entirely interesting from start to finish.

I definitely enjoyed the diversity of Spanish and English sung vocals, those styles both flow well with the overall chill wave sound. Think of a multicultural Men I Trust with the vocals of Billie Eilish. No seriously, the ... read more

Unexpectedly great!

Viv is a melodic rock album that I would’ve never heard of if not for my friend who is a fan of the band Ceremony. I guess some of that band makes up this one as well.

It’s an easy listen at just over 30 minutes, but there’s a lot of great material here.

Bump This: Ashes in the Birdbath, Recovery

Foals’ shimmery, art rock has changed so much over the years. This is easily their most poppy album to date and it mostly pays off.

Life is Yours is really front loaded with a few key songs to close out the back half. The opening three tracks were VERY strong as they nailed a very vibrant and luscious indie pop arena sound. These tactics sort of ware thin towards halfway though as the lyrics sort of get drowned out by the instrumentation.

It’s still a good Foals album but it ... read more

This was great!

Ska has really grown back on me these past few years. Listened to more Sublime, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Fishbone, ya know the classics.

It’s cool to see what was predominantly ruling in the 90s translate into a sound that throws back to that while covering modern themes. Bothered/Unbothered is a gem that shouldn’t be ignored this year.

This isn’t a bad listen, it’s just not a good Drake album.

This music is perfect for a late night drive or even as club ambiance. Only problem is that 1/3 of this album puts me to sleep and that half the album’s songs are like 90 seconds longer than they should be. There’s just nothing really clever about this spin on “house” and lyrically is about as dense as any other Top 40 house track.

Some of it DOES work. I mean the production sounds great and ... read more

I’m about a week late in reviewing this, but this is an apocalyptic, Exit Music like, BANGER. So stoked after a near decade drought

A criminally under-appreciated record.

Karen O gives her best vocal performances ever on Show Your Bones. Pair them with some of the band’s most melodic, aggressive, and fist-pumping anthems and it makes for one of the best indie rock albums let the 2000s and maybe the band’s best.

Bump This: Cheated Hearts*, Mysteries, Dudley, Phenomena

The reason I gravitate towards Flume is because of the non-traditional beats and patterns he incorporates in his music. His past two projects have really wowed me because of this diversity. Palaces really did nothing in that department.

Sucks because with a fun and booming album cover like that you’d want the album to match that essence. Nope.

Bump This: Palaces, Sirens, Jaspers Song

It’s the same thing every time with a Harry album. I really enjoy half the album and the rest is either meh or boring. Harry’s House is no exception.

I really dig the new direction his sound is going. It’s very shimmery and more synth driven, to the point where it almost sounds grimy. What separates this album from the other two though is that it’s more focused on the theme and not creating total hits. Although I do think Matilda and Late Night Talking will probably ... read more

I’m so glad an album like this exists. Full review on second listen

This is the best that black midi has ever sounded. It’s fucking gritty and a very tight 4 minute bombastic anti-war cry. Endlessly excited

Rapping body with party with an absence of Bud Light bars is a no from me dawg

No Make Up is definitely an item of its’ time, but section.80 easily stands among one of the best rap albums last decade. It has the ear-opening lyrical content and powerful demeanor that has made Kendrick so popular in recent history.

The production is also really worth mentioning too because I think some of his best produced tracks are on this. Hiiiipower, Rigamortus, ADHD, and Ronald Reagan Era specifically.

Even if Kendrick ONLY dropped this album in his career he’d still ... read more

This album has cemented Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever as a dependable band. Every album they’ve dropped including this one has just been so fun and jangly.

In a week where I was sort of let down by so many releases (Arcade Fire, Jack Harlow, more) this was a nice change of pace. One of those bands that haven’t dropped a bad song and I don’t see them doing so anytime soon.

Definitely a bit of a throwback to their Dear Catastrophe Waitress era. I thought the songwriting on A Bit of Previous is so much better than their last album. So many more memorable instrumental moments and Stuart’s voice sounds so much more invested too. This isn’t my favorite album ever by them but I’m excited to listen to this plenty of times throughout the year!

I can’t stand when rappers try to rhyme a word with the exact same word. Jack Harlow does this so many times on this album it had me really questioning what was poppin to begin with?

Seriously, this feels like such a lazy effort from someone who has the perfect amount of media presence and household name and just creates an extremely mediocre and bland record with two good songs.

The Drake feature was nice though

Yes Silent Alarm is a near flawless album. Does not mean you need to say “iTs nOt aS gOOd aS SilEnT AlArm” every time Bloc Party drops an album.

That being said, no, Alpha Games is not as good as Silent Alarm. It’s not a horrendous album, but it’s just not all that interesting. If we’re gonna compare Bloc Party’s past work to this then I would say that it’s more about aesthetic. It’s not them at their all out weirdest (Intimacy) and it’s ... read more

There’s a lot more going on in MAHAL than I anticipated. Toro Y Moi crafts an overall more interesting album than his one from 2019