one of the horniest albums in the popular consciousness this century closing out with a somehow deeply haunting electroclash instrumental ode to felix partz and it somehow just cracks together so well.

the great big internet cafe in the clouds.

struggling to see why this album would be so intensely reviled by some outside of a bit of latent misogyny, to be completely honest! the guitar work is great, the writing is furious and sometimes even funny (in a good way)! the worst thing i could honestly come up with here is that it sound like a lot of the Riot Grrl Comeback stuff before now, but that's honestly mostly because the themes it addresses (particularly wrt misogyny) just haven't changed a lick since then (if anything, ... read more

most of this is a beyond awful reworking of rupauls dustiest and most unloved tracks, and given most of the "hits(?)" were 6/10 charitably, this does not bode well. That said, you get the sense that its awfulness is the point: rupaul is saying loud and proud that he can make anything, and it'll bring in just enough to keep the chandeliers on, particularly when he has a whole television show that is as much a vehicle to promo this dishwater as it is a "reality" ... read more

somehow painfully monotonous *and* far too much as the same time. marilyn monroe ass vocal line if marilyn monroe didn't have a personality.

"OK" is tolerable if only because it sounds like a human being made it, which is largely untrue for everything on the original album and the other deluxe tracks. It still isn't "OK" though. Has A Heart is crappy faux-kitschy "uplifting" slop. No Tears For New Years is blatantly recycled nibbles from a decade ago. I Woke Up? I Fell Asleep. Bland, forgettable.

Katy Perry, please stop. Like, not tomorrow, not next week, *now*. Pack up the recording, and hell, ... read more

"i was pullin bitches on the school bus" had me laughing in public. some of this production was deeply deeply unpleasant and in a boring way, not an artistically confrontational way. can't take this lp seriously. tilts from the funny-bad to the just-bad at all times.

oh this eats so bad

rebecca black dropping trust could've been a fluke. this cements that this upcoming project could be absolutely diamond tier. this is beyond any form she's been on before.

not exactly the trajectory i was imagining after "harlequin", but this is an evolution all the same.

It is intriguing to me that after all of the discourse surrounding the rollout of this album, it transpired that former Dead Sara screecher Emily Armstrong was maybe the strongest part of this otherwise flagging and unmemorable project. Sometimes refreshing, sometimes a surprisingly effective direct homage to Bennington, I can't say I entirely disapprove.

But not even she can save this album from the deeply regrettable Shinoda and utterly stale and predictable musicality.

Pack it up, ... read more

be serious: did you really expect anything other than MOR country-adjacent provincial radio-friendly blandness from this album?

in the 80s and 90s, gwen stefani was cool. in the noughties, she was energetic and in-your-face, if deeply (intentionally) irritating.

now? she's still making mom and dad music for moms and dads with manicured lawns and trump/vance yard signs all over small town indiana, the way just about anyone else could (and has). i'm not surprised, but i am very bored, ... read more

enjoyed the title track the most and then it vanished.

Nerd shit.

I'm horrified, I'm scared, I'm concerned, and I'm a little confused. In other words, Chat Pile have done their fucking job.

+++ Tape

A very strong trap album from Kim Gordon, of all people. Still unbelievably impressed by it.

not seeing the hype here, sadly. it's giving last minute, it's giving rush-job, it's giving zero-effort after paying for the promo but not knowing what to do with kesha. it's giving mid.

I got 40 minutes into this album, realised there was another 40, and unlike many other albums in my life, I smiled and was looking enormously forward to it.

This wasn't just an album, or some sonic "experience", but an education. An invaluable one. Go get it, and give it a damn whirl. You will not regret it.

+++ Sisters, I Don't Know What This World Is Coming To - but everything on this record is phenomenal.

Children's Music being primary is sending me BAD

a few absolute discards here. could throw out might say something stupid, rewind, apple, mean girls, and club classics and it wouldn't hurt this album at all.

but the highs are *high*. the so i remix made me cry again, i *adored* the everything is romantic rework, was pleasantly surprised by the sympathy is a knife re-do, and also v much enjoyed B2b.

of course, on top of this, the preceding remix singles were all generally solid; could've gotten more from the robyn/yung lean ft, and ... read more