This kind of music is 100% (if not more) soundscaping and picture painting. You can't carefully listen to "An Empty bliss beyond this world" without setting the scene and visualising every fibre and texture in the world you've imagined yourself in. For me it's a grand , majestic yet empty ballroom where everything once was oh so colourful and vivid but time has worn it out and stretched it to an obsolete, broken yet beautiful setting where everything feels calm and ... read more

I try to vary my genres and styles quite a bit when picking albums to listen or review. So I scrolled around the genres on AOTY and saw something called "yé-yé", something my lexicon had never heard of before. Apparently it's a European movement from the 60's, derived from the term "yeah-yeah!", an offspring of the rock 'n roll music from English countries mixed with the music from its roots. This is , as it seems, one of the quintessential albums of this genre ... read more

This feels like pure rage from a couple of freshman kids with ADHD. Everything about Milo goes to college is very traditional on the grounds of punk but it delivers a certain freshness amid it all. It isn't fuelled by a political statement or a cynisism of everything that punk often relies on but instead it's just oiled on pure rebellion. Against what? I dunno, just rebellion.
The instruments and singer are lightning fuelled. The guitars sound like they're played in fast-record , the drummer ... read more

Milo in this album is nothing more or less a beat poet, and frankly not a great one. A juxtaposition between "intellectual" lyrics and "street language" could be a very interesting concept but it doesn't come together in a coherent vision or as a finished concept. It's not really a mess nor is it a blur , it is more like a collection of scraped lyrics (some of which have good ideas and themes to tell) without connection or musical devices to back it up. I don't think these ... read more

Those four unpolished ugly faces on the cover stare at me with such an odd expectation, as if I'm to respond. That's what initially brought me to this album. The hilarious music is what made me stay. The brilliant title "we're only in it for the money" perfectly captures the zeitgeist of the album.
One great satire of the 60's counterculture : the music , the drug-use , the anti-authority and the phonies all twisted into parodies that's enormously self-aware. It's hilarious and clever ... read more

What I appreciate about K-pop is that it gives an international voice to Korea when it comes down to it. Sadly, it isn't a voice made for me. I've always been very sceptical about K-pop due to the limited music I've heard and the fanbase surrounding the genre. I sought out a well-rated album from a band whose music I knew and stumbled upon this, I'll try not to set this album as an expectation or judgement for future twists in the movement of K-pop. But this might be my most subjective review ... read more

Disco died a long time ago , but its remaining spirit haunts some people and fulfills some people. But if any Disco reaches the status of iconic : it might be this album (warning, my opinion might be slightly manipulated by the adjoining movie). It's all a bit too sensual and overindulged in glitter and glamour but that's of the major pleasures of this particular album. That, and the straight fact that this is a time capsule of a very specific movement and time.

Our three stars (as you can see ... read more

Equipment being corrected briefly followed by a mistuned electric guitar strike roaring up places us in the spirit of The Black Keys within the first ten seconds. Technically slightly flawed (and aware) but ready to throw us some great riffs, amplified up and rock their way right through their own flaws.
The Black Keys have always been really consistent in their image and styles for better or worse, although here they drag a noticeably more blues influence at core. That, and they feel a bit ... read more

A straight killer! And I don't mean as in a banger , but as in music that would be able to kill an 86-year old with ease. It's an exercise in powerviolent outrage powerpunk filtered through twenty stages of going even rougher, wilder and choppier than the one before. It never , in it's 17 minute runtime, settles down to stop shaking the floor.

And even when it does settle down even in the slightest, it still belongs to some of the hardest music I've ever heard. It's as unorchestrated as a ... read more

As the cover suggests , these two musical masterminds in the form of Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong feel like plainspoken folks that happen to be gifted with Godly voices. This duo is quietly dynamite, their voices don't explode outside of their music but seem to be very comfortable within the confines of their limitations and its one helluva sensation. They both have their own ground in this album and rarely cross over their own. With many duets I often have the feeling that they try to ... read more

Opening note : little , uncultured me got this album recommended ignorant to when Joy Division was active (only knew them by name) and thought this was a relatively new album drawing minimums of inspiration from the past. That let on for over 15 minutes before discovering the shocking "1979" date reveal. Salt expires faster than this album it seems.
That's a sign that it sounds timeless, but that remains the question : Is it as good as it is timeless? No, but it's remarkably close. ... read more

The simplest and most forthright flaw an album can have is : vocals. Don't get me wrong, nothing wrong with vocals of course (and this might be a hot take) but adding vocals on an album that would stand mightier without is too bad to say the least. This is jacked up acid Jazz and Mr. Jukes is a genre artist great at what he does but as my issue suggests, this album is fitted with one major bad choice that has an influence causing the whole album to drop ease. The only vocal song I enjoy is from ... read more

Berry on Top almost plays like a parody album of the ever-happy 1950s that would be played to emphasise that time period in a period piece movie. Is that any bad? No! not at all because Chuck Berry didn't care if he didn't reinvent the genre and played on his previous chords to transform this in his most exciting album. It should get every joint and bar rockin' and rollin' till midnight and over, while playin' out like a time capsule of those lost-in-time-moments...
I found how extendedly ... read more

Nothing is hard to notice or observe here, In the first seconds it establishes itself : a badly tuned guitar strums along without any longing for perfection or vitality. The next two minutes drag you in, it says : this album will be straightforward, don't look past the guy playing his guitar for there's nothing else here. It's simplicity has lead some people to call the music of our "guitartist", John Fahey Neo-Folk with a hint of New Age. Those are just clever terms to stamp this ... read more

The mythology of Robert Johnson is probably my favourite ones in the music industry a whole. As "they" say : In the 1920s, a washed up C-rate black artist made a pact with the devil in the form of a massive, tall black man (could've been John Coffey) whom he met at a rural desolated crossroads. The devil took his second rate guitar, tuned it , gave it back along with a devilish talent packed in the name of Robert Johnson. And Johnson, oh, he sang ! Branded as someone who made pacts ... read more

"Everytime time I'm in Georgia, I eat a peach for peace" -- A silly Quote from band leader Duane Allman who passed away the year before. This was their first album post-mortem one of the founding members. And one might expect an emotional sobfest in the form of an ode based on that but "Eat a peach" is all but that. It's still a great ode but in the form of a happy summer feelgood album progressing the intention of Duane instead of making it a straight tragedy. And it ... read more

Virtue , never a straight line , it's always in frantic motion. This album is like a ball trapped in a pinball machine, bouncing all around it's limits and compounds and it leaves an impact the edge which it meets. It leaves the listener on a hardcore chain of many expressive genres and inspired experimentation. A cyber-metal substance has pierced all of Virtue and sends Julian Casablancas and the two mix together like some kind of prison jazz.
Always under the influence of vibrance and ... read more

The first twenty seconds of the first song are a hushed and soft Irish ballad before crudely being interrupted by hardstyle punk with the same Irish flavour. This is a great way to start this album for two reasons (1) It accentuates how rough-edged and crude this whole album is going to be, Irishmen will be shouting in your ear and you'll get used to it and (2) The Murphys are proud to be Irish to the bone, they're not dropping an ounce of style or Irish energy in favour of a more conventional ... read more

Gogo Penguin always provides us with clean scored and executed music all greatly interwoven as if it's a puzzle but something about it feels quite programmed, as if it's Jazz on logic to please rather than something expressive. That being said, it doesn't ever fail to please your ears. The sound is always energetic but never really vital and in that sense it can feel like a watered down version of the pianowork of Robert Glasper.
I think is a far more than decent album, I only knew ... read more

Merriweather post pavillion has the task juxtaposition of "X" and "Y" and making it work, and it succeeds with flying colours. Everything about this album only makes sense in a world where one and one equals blue and there's no point in pausing emotion to find logic in the best surrealistic pop music I've ever heard. In brief saying : This is experimentation gone right.

An Idiosyncratic and visceral emotion translated to sound are high praise reserved for few albums. As ... read more