What a throwback! Also one of the most insane debuts of any rock band out there. It was cool listening all the way through. There are some more plain tracks in between the songs I’ve heard hundreds of thousands of times on the radio. They had a very solid style that holds up in the vocal performance and instrumentals. The lyrics fit in with the unironic mentality of sex, drugs, and rock n roll; but nothing really unexpected. It still holds up, even though I personally prefer the dramatic, ... read more

The rockabilly influence is kinda cool, but all the songs run together to me. I get that the repetition is part of their sound, and they sound good doing it, but there’s only so much you can do with that before it gets monotonous to listen to. I can tell they had a lot of fun making it, and I like their sense of humor, but it’s nothing I’d personally seek out again. I respect the influence they had on the genre and aesthetic, though.

The jump in creativity from With The Beatles to THIS is insane. I’m still impressed by the special effects and worldly influences on this album today. I can’t even imagine how this must’ve sounded in 1966. It’s also cool hearing more from George (and Ringo I guess) on vocals and how each of them have their own lyrical styles that play off each other. Timeless.

Favorite track: Eleanor Rigby (exercising my rights as a Paul stan. But seriously this song is perfect.)

Anohni!! What a talent. I already really like “Hopelessness” and “My Back Was A Bridge…”, so going back to earlier in her career is cool. The first song took a minute to get going, but WOW what an outro. I also respect her vocal abilities, but the vibrato can be a little much, especially on the opener (she reminded me of Tiny Tim on that one, lol). The atmosphere with the piano was really pretty. And I loved hearing the different singers coming in as features. I ... read more

I haven't listened to Flaming Lips in a while, and even then I only knew the stuff off of Yoshimi. I think Wayne Coyne has a cool voice, and it works well for the emotional performance, but at times I feel like he doesn't sit completely right with the music. This doesn't really detract from the project as a whole, though. There are some interesting creative choices regarding Wayne's delivery that are mediated by the fantastic psychedelic instrumentals. I think that sort of ... read more

I definitely get how this was groundbreaking for the time, and the use of samples and remixes is pretty cool. I liked the Charles Wright and Beastie Boys incorporations specifically.
And yet, between the different rappers coming in and out on the songs, they all have the same flow and lyrical style. The lyrics themselves were a product of their time, at least accounting for the "edgy" "humor" surrounding women and the LGBT community. Nothing I wouldn't expect from an ... read more

(I chose to rate the deluxe version over the original solely because of Ticker Tape. Love that song. And the Apprentice is pretty good too.)

We're coming up on ten years of Gorillaz' return to music. Being an impressionable sixteen-year-old, I tried to hold on to hope after Hallelujah Money came out. It's barely music. I see why Benjamin Clementine pretty much disowned it. The leaked mp3s of Andromeda and Saturnz Barz gave me more of a lifeline.
For the actual album, I thought ... read more

Damn, this is some good shit!! I never listened through a full Whitechapel album before this, but metal and deathcore circles online wouldn't shut up about it so I got curious. Thanks to the DickeyDines comment section specifically for this rec.
I was saying for my review of the latest Knocked Loose album that Bryan Garris's vocals stand out because of how annunciated and emotional his voice is, but usually maintains the same delivery. Phil Bozeman stands out this way in the opposite ... read more

Holy shit, commenters weren't joking about the mixing. Why did they do that?? Close enough, welcome back Death Magnetic, I guess.
This was honestly still not as bad as I expected. It just hit me with this that Dave Grohl still sounds surprisingly good this far into his career. But again, maybe that's just because he's at least one foot too close to the mic and overpowering everything else throughout the album. I feel like this style is getting kind of tired, though. There are ... read more

Ahh, post-grunge. A very nostalgic genre for me. I had Wasteland and Waking Up pop up in my playlist recently and was inspired to check out the whole album.
Yep, it's an alt. rock album! Specifically, I felt some seeeerious A Perfect Circle influence going on here. Their singer doesn't go as hard as Maynard does, but I definitely hear the resemblance. At times, it almost feels like an intentional impression. I honestly can't blame them.
There are some cool-sounding choruses and ... read more

Let me start by saying that I LOVE Black Midi. This isn't to discredit Cameron's independent style at all, it's just the baseline I'm going off of for his solo project. I've always liked his voice and how he played into softer songs to break up the chaos on Black Midi's albums.
For this, he takes a very different approach with the "chamber folk" subgenre. It's a neat sound and the instrumentalists are very talented, but the music's impact ... read more

I went back and forth on my feelings about this album. I'm not a shoegaze expert by any means, but I like the middle ground the band reached between the static-y dissonance of the guitar distortion and very standard alternative rock song structures with pleasant vocals. Having some nice indie ballads between the shoegaze stuff was cool, but there's definitely a gap for the middle tracks where I feel like it gets a bit too slow.
The opener is a beautiful song. A detail I really like ... read more

I've followed Starbenders on and off for a few years now. There are some more moody songs from their first few albums that are still in heavy rotation for me. With this, they leaned into the more 80s glam rock sound and actually pull it off really well production-wise!
As for the songs themselves, I understand that rollout schedules are different now for modern bands, but I wish I left the singles as a surprise for the main album. I wasn't crazy about the first two songs. Maybe ... read more

Oof, I was dreading this one. I heard bits of this album in passing, but wasn’t sure what to expect. I’m very glad I was proven wrong.
This album came out just a year after the one and only Sex Pistols album, just as the 70s punk/new wave merge was starting. Sex Pistols’ influence on the industry is contested nowadays, but they definitely at least set a standard.
Johnny Rotten has always been a controversial figure (and still is) but is at least consistent in his role as a ... read more

This EP just makes me really happy. One of the biggest things about U2's appeal is how well they convey interpersonal relationships through their music. Part of this covers their relationships with their loved ones, and the other part with God Himself. I respect the band's faith because I know it's genuine, and they just approach it so beautifully.
Opening with an Edge song is a bold choice! He sounds really good for a ballad like this, and the guitar soundscape he made was a ... read more

What makes this album so special? What makes this their most liked album in sixteen years?
I think a big part of it is the art of "letting go" emotionally. The way Damon and Jamie express their grief through this album is beautiful, as well as how they (tastefully) incorporate contributions from musicians of many genres who are no longer with us.
Our Western fears of death overlap with the Eastern philosophy of the afterlife and renewal in the lyricism. Musically, the traditional ... read more

This album is the epitome of "less is more". Lots of really sick, surprisingly emotional moments from the guitar work and Bryan's vocal performance on here. Bryan is kind of one-note, as he maintains a lot of the same delivery throughout the album, but spices it up when he and Isaac do a call-and-response thing. He's so energized and so harsh, but I can still understand what he's saying, which is such a make-or-break for me in this genre. It helps that I can relate to ... read more

Man... I gave Sleep Token chances. I enjoyed Take Me Back to Eden. "The Summoning" and "Vore" are still awesome songs. But with this, it's like the veil lifted.
People were complaining about Vessel's voice before, but holy fuck, it almost feels like he ramped up the accent ON PURPOSE to test people. It gets really grating.
I thought the main singles were kinda cool, even if they were even poppier than their last album. The lead singles should NEVER EVER be the best ... read more

This one is interesting. I was obsessed with this album as a teenager, but even then I had to skip "If the World" and "Scraped". There are moments of genuine greatness like "There Was a Time" and "Prostitute" that could fit in with their Use Your Illusion-style ballads. Even the penis music tracks like "Shackler's Revenge" and "Better" are fun to me. There's no reason for me or anyone else to take GnR super seriously in this ... read more

Mmm, early ska. It's interesting to see the genre before it was more or less fully co-opted by all-white psychedelic rock and emo bands. I think it's neat, especially the more reggae-style songs, and I like the storytelling in some of the lyrics. I see how different performers from different genres came together to build this album up to something new, but stylistically, it's just not for me.

Favorite track: Stereotype/Stereotype Pt. 2