1. 20
2. 95
3. 45
4. 95
5. 70
6. 60
7. 80
8. 100
9. 60
10. 20
11. 95

Broken Machine is one of my all-time favourite albums and one I find myself returning to over and over again. My hopes for Nothing But Thieves' follow-up were therefore high. Moral Panic is unfortunately not quite as good. The singles are all strong stuff, particularly Impossible, but the stuff in between is disappointingly forgettable, messy and all over the place. I miss the confident, hooky songwriting from Broken Machine. ... read more

1. 90
2. 80
3. 60
4. 90
5. 95
6. 50
7. 70
8. 80
9. 50
10. 80

The Struts' latest album might not be their most creative effort, but it sure is an album filled with happiness and attitude. The radio-friendly power pop and glam rock with singalong choruses is exactly what we need in times like these. The band has collaborated with other artists for this album and that results in the strongest songs of the album, such as the lead single Strange Days (with Robbie Williams) or Wild Child (with Tom ... read more

1. 90
2. 95
3. 55
4. 60
5. 80
6. 90
7. 50
8. 45
9. 40
10. 50

It’s pretty weird to think that Bon Jovi still churn out new albums, despite being nothing but a shadow of their former selves. A testament to their repetitive, tiresome and straightforward songwriting of recent years is the unimaginative title of their latest album, 2020. This doesn't reflect the content itself, however.

The music on this album, while definitely mainstream radio pop-rock, is surprisingly up-to-date and ... read more

1. 95
2. 90
3. 90
4. 60
5. 80
6. 50
7. 45
8. 60
9. 75

Finnish indie rock band The Holy offers some of the freshest and most melodically pleasing modern rock music on the Finnish musical scene. With their almost early 2000s post-punk sounding melancholy and melodic darkness that only Finnish bands could manage, they try to reach out to a wider audience. The band has previously leaned towards a very contained and forgettable sound, but this time around they trust in majestic choruses and a ... read more

1. 90
2. 45
3. 10
4. 50
5. 75
6. 60
7. 70
8. 10
9. 90
10. 60
11. 90

Faith both is and isn't typical Hurts. The straightforward, melodic synthpop songs still form the bulk of their material for the fifth consecutive album. It's getting tiresome by this point, which means that most of the songs on Faith don’t stand out from their earlier material. Singles Voices and Redemption are the strongest offerings here. The duo also tries to widen their sound, into something akin to modern ... read more

1. 90
2. 45
3. 60
4. 55
5. 60
6. 75
7. 40
8. 90
9. 35
10. 40
11. 65
12. 95
13. 90
14. 90
15. 55

On their second full-length, The Score still tries to find their place within the broad landscapes of modern pop rock music. Their blend of Imagine Dragons-esque arena rock and more mainstream techno tunes make for an energetic, yet safe effort. The best songs are those that openly embrace an edgier rock sound, such as the album opener and Stronger, and the emotional ones, such as Comeback. The less ... read more

1. 90
2. 40
3. 50
4. 40
5. 30
6. 20
7. 80
8. 5
9. 70
10. 30
11. 20
12. 10
13. 30
14. 10

The Waterboys have gone far from their glory days 30 years ago. Their modern sound is a mix of weird contemporary country-soul and folk rock. Good Luck, Seeker is a very incoherent album, experimenting with sounds and not quite knowing what it want to be. While The Soul Singer proves to be a perfectly fine single, other songs on the album leave lot to be desired; Low Down In The Broom tries to mimic Bob ... read more

1.90
2. 95
3. 70
4. 100
5. 65
6. 50
7. 80
8. 90
9. 80
10. 95

With their latest album, Las Vegas-based rock band The Killers still prove they have juice enough to keep going, even as a three-pieced. Imploding The Mirage proves to be a natural progression from their very uneven Wonderful Wonderful, combining majestic arena rock with more new wave-based synth-rock. The resulting album lands somewhere between their 2008 album Day & Age and the follow-up Battle Born, with production values ... read more

1. 50
2. 90
3. 95
4. 90
5. 30
6. 70
7. 55
8. 70
9. 75
10. 55

The Goo Goo Dolls' 2019 album Miracle Pill begins in much the same way as their disastrous 2016 release Boxes but ends up being much better than its predecessor. The music here is a mix of the over-produced, lifeless dance pop-rock from Boxes and the more energetic, uptempo pop-rock from the great Magnetic. So while album opener Indestructible is pretty bad, singles Miracle Pill and Fearless are good in their simple catchiness. The ... read more

1. 65
2. 50
3. 25
4. 40
5. 10
6. 55
7. 10
8. 15
9. 10
10. 20
11. 10

Oh my, what have got here. Magnetic was an album, com,b mining happy pop-rock tunes with strong singles, feeling like a fresh Goo Goo Dolls album. Boxes is remarkably different, but not in a good way. This is what happens when you take a pop-rock sound and overproduce it to the point of everything sounding lifeless and unimaginative. The vocals sound horribly bored and the instrumentation is just a mess. But the worst part is ... read more

1. 95
2. 80
3. 90
4. 70
5. 100
6. 75
7. 95
8. 90
9. 100
10. 60

The thing about Rebel Beat is that while it shakes off every last ounce of alternative rock and power pop form the by now extremely mainstream sound the Goo Goo Dolls put out, it still marks the first proper shift in the band's sound since Dizzy Up The Girl. One could argue that the decision to go all pop-rock like so many other contemporaries is the wrong move to make, but for me personally that means that Goo Goo Dolls offers ... read more

1. 90
2. 50
3. 90
4. 45
5. 55
6. 80
7. 90
8. 50
9. 40
10. 75
11. 65
12. 40

As safe and generic as Something For The Rest Of Us sounds, it's almost a surprise it took Goo Goo Dolls another four years to release this album. I feel like I'm running out of things to say about the album since it's most of the same the band has released since 2002. What works best on this album, are the songs with a bit more edge to them, such as alum opener Sweetest Lie and Home. The rest, while not bad by any ... read more

1. 90
2. 100
3. 55
4. 90
5. 50
6. 60
7. 95
8. 80
9. 50
10. 65
11. 90

While Gutterflower can be excused for recreating what worked so well on Dizzy Up The Girl, by the time Let Love In dropped in 2006 that strategy started to seem somewhat desperate and lazy. It's perhaps no surprise that this album sounds much like the previous two ones, including the lack of variety and the absence of truly strong singles.

The greatest standout is the title track, which I've heard many times during my ... read more

1. 90
2. 95
3. 80
4. 90
5. 95
6. 60
7. 80
8. 65
9. 90
10. 55
11. 60
12. 85

Gutterflower largely recreates the success of Goo Goo Dolls' commercial breakthrough Dizzy Up The Girl, providing a slightly louder and more rock-oriented sound as well as more melancholic melodies and less immediately recognizable singles. What A Scene is the biggest standout of the album, largely thanks to it's chanting part and slightly different structure. Big Machine and What Do You Need? are also pretty memorable. ... read more

1. 95
2. 90
3. 100
4. 100
5. 95
6. 80
7. 75
8. 90
9. 80
10. 60
11. 100
12. 75
13. 90

Some people despise Dizzy Up The Girl for it's jangling guitars and radio-friendly pop sound, not to mention the killer hit single Iris. Others, I included, think it's one of the better alliterative rock albums of the late 90s. It's not particularly diverse in terms of music and lyrics, but it's incredibly infectious and easy to listen to. This album is one of the few ones where I love almost every single song ... read more

1. 100
2. 75
3. 90
4. 60
5. 65
6. 100
7. 60
8. 50
9. 60
10. 70
11. 70
12. 50
13. 50

This is where the Goo Goo Dolls as I know and love them truly begins. Melodic, emotional and enjoyable power pop and alternative rock with memorable melodies and fine lyrics. It might not stand out among the thousands of similar records released at the time, but it has stood the test of time better than most other albums the Dolls have released. Headed by the classic hits singles Long Way Down and Name, the Goo ... read more

1. 90
2. 65
3. 55
4. 60
5. 95
6. 50
7. 90
8. 60
9. 55
10. 50
11. 70
12. 60
13. 50
14. 60

Superstar Car Wash is usually the album most people refer to as the real debut of the Goo Goo Dolls since it marks their first true album filled with power-pop and pop-punk made for the masses. While this album doesn't contain any hit singles and remains mostly a very average effort, it's a clear improvement over the band's three previous records. The undying energy, the loud guitars and the banging drums ... read more

1. 65
2. 80
3. 50
4. 75
5. 90
6. 45
7. 90
8. 60
9. 55
10. 20
11. 30
12. 50
13. 65
14. 90

Hold Me Up marks the beginning of the Goo Goo Dolls' slow but steady change toward the more radio-friendly alternative rock. While the group's third album is still heavily punk-influenced, this album is mostly very straightforward pop-punk, with many fine, but not very memorable songs. At best, this album is perfectly high-tempo, with loud guitars and memorable choruses, like on You Know What I Mean or ... read more

1. 50
2. 55
3. 40
4. 60
5. 10
6. 5
7. 75
8. 10
9. 30
10. 5
11. 20
12. 20
13. 10
14. 70

Jed is a somewhat more coherent album than Goo Goo Dolls' debut, but it's still pure punk rock and therefore not anything I'd listen to again. The songs are short and mostly forgettable, but there is a slight improvement in terms of lyrics and variation. It's still not a very enjoyable album for me. This album's only saving graces are the punkified version of Down On The Corner and the only ballad, the album ... read more

1. 65
2. 20
3. 45
4. 40
5. 20
6. 10
7. 25
8. 10
9. 10
10. 50
11. 40
12. 10
13. 10

I'm not going to lie, this was not music for my taste. This is not the Goo Goo Dolls the way I know and love them; full-on screaming punk rock, with hollow lyrics, no melodies and no memorable songs. Punk isn't for me and Goo Goo Dolls didn't manage to change that. Friends of the genre are surely going to find something they like about this debut, though.

The opening track, Torn Apart, is alright, but the rest ... read more