Sharon Van Etten - Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory
83

well fucking done sharon, it's 11 in the morning and you made me cry while i was buying train tickets. good job. hope you're proud of yourself. etc.

Katy Perry - Teenage Dream
55

the most frontloaded album ever made, and ms. hudson has spent her entire career trying to attain a fraction of the quality she bottled with the title track (will likely die unsuccessful on this score). fall-off of epic proportions after track 4. many fans continue to prop this album up as an immortal legacy for her but when the dismal "peacock" and the utterly bland "pearl" and "who am i living for" are on it, it's clear that the milk is now more like ... read more

Olly Alexander - Polari
45

more often than not, this album feels like a radio-1-core nostalgia project in the realms of both dance and pastiche-of-pastiche 80s synthpop masquerading as a headrush of liberatory queer love and heartbreak, and as both a queer person and a british person, i find those sins pretty egregious.

more than anything, i'm just bored. the back half of this album threatens to put you to sleep with how formulaic, safe, and patchy it is.

i can't say i'm too surprised (dizzy was a wispy ... read more

Candy Claws - Two Airships / Exploder Falls
98

i am in love. two airships made me feel like i was being melted down. both are incredible. thank you.

my bloody valentine - loveless
95

at some points the guitars on this thing sound like what i would imagine a compressed-air cleaning service for your ears would be like, only if it was also in the dreamiest parts of wonderland.

Sonic Youth - EVOL
96

the only lp seriously fighting for the title of "favourite" sonic youth album with you-know-what for me. this marks such a significant evol-ution (sorry, had to) for them as a band; seeds of what would come later in the decade for them are so clearly germinating, without them losing their edge.

Stereolab - Dots and Loops
97

...it's 1997 seminal masterpiece of ambient pop "dots and loops". what do *you* think?

Sally Shapiro - Disco Romance
79

undeniably front-loaded, but pretty damn beautiful

Throbbing Gristle - The Second Annual Report
80

studio of maggot death, first performance of slug bait, and the outro some of the most unnerving music, collectively speaking. good for them.

The Weeknd - Hurry Up Tomorrow
70

have to admit, first listen dazzled me. second listen gave me the realisation that you could remove a third of these cuts and lose almost nothing. still very solid, though. thanks dude.

RØRY - RESTORATION
60

this project is what happens if you put dolores o'riordan c. to the faithful departed in a blender with eminem c. relapse-to-lp2 and reanimate them.

which is not to say this is bad - but it does retain a lot of the good and a lot of the bad in both of those artists at those specific, kind-of-questionable periods in their careers. but this is still promising, if sonically not the biggest boat-pusher ever created. i'm not a big fan of that post-emo-country(?) on one drink away, but ... read more

FKA twigs - EUSEXUA
65

first four tracks and striptease border on the phenomenal. everything else disappoints pretty hard. can't go any higher than a 65.

The Weather Station - Humanhood
75

imperfect but pretty beautiful when it shines

Franz Ferdinand - The Human Fear
50

meh! basically no reason for this lp to exist. nothing you'll get here that you couldn't get traipsing through their already-existing catalogue. not only a case of failing to reinvent the wheel, but a case of using the exact same wheel from two decades ago only now it has oxidised and is rusty and the paint is coming off in places and sure it brings you a lot of nostalgia but at the end of the day it is a creaking wheel with cracks forming along it.

Ethel Cain - Perverts
87

unnerving, cold, desolate, and deeply human. thank you ethel cain.

Rose Gray - Louder, Please
60

not the most exciting electro-pop release this decade, the last year, or even in the last 6 months. but it doesn't have to be, and as a debut, it pops off enough to keep it sounding fresh and interesting in places, though i do wish i got more bang for my buck here.

Julee Cruise - The Art of Being a Girl
80

jazzy trip-hop. i dig it a lot, esp the first half of this record.

M.I.A. - Armour
11

in awe at how far this woman has fallen in fifteen years. this is *atrocious*. donda 2 falloff tease.

Kylie Minogue - Fever
85

love at first sight is maybe the most mathematically perfect electro-disco pop song ever written and kylie minogue deserved better in 2001.

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