Reviewing Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: #456

Overrated/Underrated?: Overrated

I swear that I'm not going to make every review of every compilation on this list an adjudication on whether or not compilations belong on this list, but it feels relevant here so I'll have to do it at least one more time.

To give my perspective on this briefly: I think it's mostly okay to put compilations on a Greatest Albums list since it is a way in which many people engage with music (a few ... read more

Gumshoes, it appears, is a small and lesser known English artist and they released what is, so far, my favorite album of the year (I know, low bar so far, but technically true).

Cacophoney is a fun and quirky baroque pop album with quite a diverse array of instrumentation. Clair De Lune 2 was probably my favorite song but otherwise there weren't a ton of tracks that stood out here, which is a bit of a weakness, but even given that, the general vibe of the album was so playful and joyous that ... read more

This a sweet, comforting track from John Roseboro and on the whole I'd say I like it. But it feels like the idea on this track isn't particularly well fleshed out. The 'dum-dum-dum's' at the end of the track are nice and as usual, John's guitar playing is lovely. But this feels like half of a song.

Maybe I'm just spoiled here because Roseboro released some of my favorite tracks of the year last year (I Took the L, The Banquet, Waters of March, etc.), but this is definitely not my favorite of ... read more

On 'Letter to Self,' the upstart Irish post punk group Sprints achieves an interesting blend of noisey post punk introspection and garage rock jams. Tracks like 'Shadow of a Doubt' and 'Cathedral' are really cool tracks where the band explores there unique genre blend.

However, I think a lot of their genre tracks fall flat, 'Shaking Their Hands' leaned a bit too heavily on post punk repetition for my tastes and I have similar complaints about 'Can't Get Enough of It' which didn't have enough ... read more

Reviewing Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: #466

Okay, so here's some obscure news from the weird world of the Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list!

For some reason, Rolling Stone has decided to make several changes to the original list, jettisoning certain albums in favor of new albums. This is one of the new albums, here's a full list of all the changes:

New:
#491 Harry's House
#466 Red
#437 Demon Days
#430 Un verano sin ti
#358 SOUR
#351 SOS
#170 Folklore
#71 ... read more

Reviewing Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: #458

Overrated/Underrated?: Overrated

Jason Isbell is one of those artists that I tried for years to get into but I never quite got into. I really enjoy a handful of songs (like 24 Frames for example, which is a devastating song) but I've never found an album I enjoy too much by him.

Still, there's something admirable about Isbell's music. I've written in previous reviews about how I think there was a revolution of sorts within ... read more

Reviewing Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: #459

Overrated/Underrated?: Appropriately Rated

I feel in a certain sense that I've got egg on my face here. Growing up, a few of my high school friends were massive Kid Cudi fans and, in retrospect, they were constantly playing stuff off of this record. At the time, I was either a country music purist or a rock/metal purist (I know, I was a weird kid...) and so I shit on Cudi all the time and, I always kind of assumed I was right ... read more

Twikipedia's new soft indie pop EP didn't leave a huge impression on me. It was kind of vaguely pretty and certainly not a terrible EP. For my money, the best song on this album is the opener. "i wanna be the guy' is a standard indie pop track at the start, and like the other songs on the album, it has a nice sound. But then towards the end, the song gets much noisier and this dynamic I thought worked really well. Still, even on the strength of that first track, there just isn't a lot of ... read more

[Between now and the New Year, I'm going to try to catch up on releases I missed this year. If there's anything you think I'd like that I haven't reviewed, leave it in the comments and I'll check it out.]

Guts further solidifies Olivia Rodrigo as one of the most exciting upcomers making music right now.

I'm approaching the age where my friends have started to shit on the music of younger generations and every now and then they'll wax poetic about the days when My Chemical Romance and Fall ... read more

Reviewing Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: #460

Overrated/Underrated?: Appropriately Rated

Lorde blew up when I was in high school and, at that time when everyone was bumping to 'Royals' over and over, I hated it. I was at that age where I basically rejected everything that was mainstream simply because it was mainstream. In retrospect, there was something subtly great about 'Royals' that I totally missed when I was too dumb to properly appreciate music. Lorde eschewed the pop ... read more

Reviewing Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: #461

Overrated/Underrated?: Appropriately Rated

If I were building a Mt. Rushmore for modern indie folk, my picks would be Sufjan Stevens, Bonnie Prince Billy, Elliott Smith and...well I'm not sure who belongs in the fourth spot. Maybe Joanna Newsom, maybe Bright Eyes or Big Thief, or maybe even the Weather Station. But those would be my personal picks. However, in terms of influence, Bon Iver is undoubtedly on the mountain, his face ... read more

[Between now and the New Year, I'm going to try to catch up on releases I missed this year. If there's anything you think I'd like that I haven't reviewed, leave it in the comments and I'll check it out.]

There's something so refreshing about a genre album that, rather than trying to be hyper-innovative and exploratory, just strives to do the genre really well.

Listening to Jalen's falsetto and the lush instrumentals, this album sounds quite a bit like Marvin Gaye, which is a high compliment ... read more

[Between now and the New Year, I'm going to try to catch up on releases I missed this year. If there's anything you think I'd like that I haven't reviewed, leave it in the comments and I'll check it out.]

A groovy, retro head-trip. I think this goes down as one of the more underrated albums from this year. Nourished By Time crafts a colorful, soulful collection of understated but no less powerful tracks that sound almost like they're proto-hip hop. Of everything I listened to this year, this ... read more

[Between now and the New Year, I'm going to try to catch up on releases I missed this year. If there's anything you think I'd like that I haven't reviewed, leave it in the comments and I'll check it out.]

Normally, I'm not much of a shoegaze fan but when shoegaze artists offer enough variation in their sound, something downright magical happens.

And on Parannoul's latest, magical is an understatement. Electronic elements are thrown in to give the album a dreamy quality and Aphex Twin-style ... read more

Reviewing Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: #462

Overrated/Underrated?: Overrated

I've always seen this album cited as one of the greatest albums of the 60's but I've never quite understood the appeal. I can certainly, in principle, get behind the idea of a psychedelic country album, but I didn't find there to be a ton of mind-blowing psychedelia on this album. And while there are some solid country tracks on here (Sin City, for example, is a solid track), even the country ... read more

Reviewing Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: #463

Overrated/Underrated?: Underrated

Laura Nyro is an artist who feels a bit underrated in terms of her influence. Artists from Elton John all the way to Kate Bush seem to owe a debt to the style and influence of Nyro. The way Nyro blended jazzy vocals with jangly pop instrumentals, a folk aesthetic and real, earnest songwriting was something that would be imitated for years to come.

And upon listening to her music, it's kind of a ... read more

[Between now and the New Year, I'm going to try to catch up on releases I missed this year. If there's anything you think I'd like that I haven't reviewed, leave it in the comments and I'll check it out.]

A lovely and instrumentally rich instrumental album. The harp, flutes and guitar picking on this album make for a lush and textured experience that works really well. While it's labelled as American Primitivism, this certainly isn't a John Fahey album. It's much more upbeat and not nearly as ... read more

[Between now and the New Year, I'm going to try to catch up on releases I missed this year. If there's anything you think I'd like that I haven't reviewed, leave it in the comments and I'll check it out.]

I had heard of this album a bit here and there but what ultimately got me to check this out was a Devendra Banhart episode of "What's in my Bag?" (which is an excellent youtube series if you haven't checked it out, basically just musicians recommending music). In the interview, the ... read more

[Between now and the New Year, I'm going to try to catch up on releases I missed this year. If there's anything you think I'd like that I haven't reviewed, leave it in the comments and I'll check it out.]

Young Fathers are a group that I wasn't really plugged into prior to this year, but when I saw the album cover to this new release, I had to check it out since I'm always a sucker for a good album cover.

'Heavy Heavy' is an eclectic, celebratory experience that blends hip hop, R&B, ... read more

Reviewing Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: #464

Overrated/Underrated?: Underrated

The Isley Brothers are one of those bands that I had on my radar for awhile but never really got around to checking out for some reason. And, hey, I don't believe in God, but if I did I'd thank God that I didn't quit on this list back when I was listening to Sheryl Crow and really thinking about it. Cause godDAMN this album was everything I love in a good soul record.

The album opens with That ... read more