Pang is the debut of Caroline Polachek, a pop star and someone who made my favorite record of 2023 so far, so I had high expectations for this one before listening. After a listen or two, I do still love it but I gotta say it's not as strong as Desire overall. There's some strange vocal inflections in this, and other songs tend to drag a little, but the sound she goes for throughout is mystical, ethereal, and lush, complimenting the fantasy-like nature of the artwork and stylings as a whole. It ... read more
Much like last time on PG, Gabriel keeps the same dark atmosphere that Melt had, but enhances it on Security with much more intense, almost tribal drumming throughout these tracks. The songwriting (I'd say) is pretty similar, helping to keep up the dark atmosphere, but the drumming really helps boost this one a little bit past Melt in my eyes. Fantastic work once again from Gabriel, and it's not even his best album!
VERY POSITIVE: San Jacinto, Lay Your Hands On Me, Wallflower
POSITIVE: The ... read more
Well what do you know, I've come around on this thing. Making a Door Less Open (called MADLO from here on out) is widely considered to be the black sheep for CSH; it's their most electronic album by far, and it's also the one people rag on the most for being too different compared to the others. Me, personally, I think it's pretty good! The indietronica (according to RYM) sound fits well on Toledo and the others, and his songwriting carries the same air of close self-consciousness as always ... read more
Considering I barely remember what Scratch sounded like, it was a breath of fresh air to get a dark, deep, synth-heavy trip of an album with Melt, Gabriel's third solo effort. This one takes on a much darker sound than its similarly-named brothers, opting for usage of pounding drums and swapping the immense guitar usage with bleak synthwork instead. The best tracks on here really nail the paranoid and disturbed atmosphere this is going for, and it made me regain interest in Gabriel's work after ... read more
After the chaotic melting pot of experimentation that was Car, Gabriel winds down a little bit and delivers a slightly more consistent but ultimately more forgettable effort with Scratch. The best tracks here feel as strong as the ones off Car, while the worst essentially leave your head the moment you finish listening to them. Pretty good, but inessential overall.
VERY POSITIVE: N/A
POSITIVE: On the Air, D.I.Y., Mother of Violence, White Shadow, Indigo, Exposure, Flotsam and Jetsam, ... read more
I was first introduced to Caroline through OPN and his collaborations with her on Magic Oneohtrix, so I had pretty high hopes for this and it exceeded every single expectation I had, somehow. Each song is lush and expansive, using conventional pop structures to really put the fantastic production on display and highlight the sheer power Caroline's voice has throughout. It's mesmerizing in the way it floats along and strikes with lightning when it wants to, and each strike has power and force to ... read more
Starting off this discography, we have the informally-titled Car, a collage of various sounds and styles in a sense that Gabriel was throwing things to the wall to see what stuck. Consistency in sound is nowhere to be found here, as it's swapping from art rock to straightforward classic rock to barbershop quartet to moody orchestrated electronica to lite-jazz lounge and still others. It's all over the place but it doesn't feel TOO disjointed, even if some combos work much, much worse than ... read more
Hozier makes a heartfelt and soulful debut with his self-titled record, combining pop structure with blues and Soul influences and making for an interesting listen. His vocals are the clear standout here, as they're consistently fantastic throughout the album, and while it can get a little same-y at times, Hozier makes it so that it isn't boring or repetitive (even if some tracks are just naturally weaker than others). I'd say the biggest fault is that this album is definitely frontloaded, as a ... read more
In the album that propelled Prince into stardom, he combines his standard rock sound with an incredibly lush and expansive backdrop, creating some truly magical moments in the process. The album talks of love and heartbreak, and Prince's falsetto and desperate wails in some areas really punctuate the album's emotionally impactful moments with heaps of sheer power. It's an incredibly tight and packed-in experience, leaving no room for filler and delivering a fantastically rich and complete ... read more
This three-person act comes flying in with a flurry of noise and sarcasm, making some of the most danceable and yet inaccessible dance-punk I've heard in a while. The lyrics are loaded with references to current events and comparisons to primitive life, all done in a way that doesn't feel aged and is very clever, and the album itself is cohesive and clean-cut, making for a wildly fun and unique listen.
FAVORITES: Baby Criminal, Troglodyte, Punk Rock Loser, The Cognitive Trade-Off Hypothesis, ... read more
It's inoffensive, safe for radio pop rock. I'd write more but I cannot for the life of me remember what this sounded like
A friend of mine made me listen to this, and while it's a change of pace from what I usually listen to, I'm glad I went in open-minded because it's actually really good! The production and general sound throughout is light and sunny (there's exceptions, like Pork Soda), but with a bit of a darker undercurrent just beneath the surface of each one, making for an interesting yet fun listen, something not many pop albums like this can pull off. The vocals here are wistful and a bit despondent at ... read more
With an explosion of melancholic energy and introspective, built-up feelings, Will ends this Era of CSH beautifully and with the perfection and cohesion not often seen in what was essentially an exercise in longer songwriting for Toledo (hence why it was labeled an EP I believe). Toledo's vocals are at his best here, striking a fine line between the younger voice from the early days and his older voice from the Matador period, and the instrumentals are heavy and experimental, with many of the ... read more
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