God, I love this band.

On Still Life, Future Teens continues in their signature emo-pop musings on mental health, addiction, heartbreak, depression, and community, but with a more mature perspective. Writing about what happens on the other side, where those hard things still exist but you find yourself sticking around to find out what happens next. In the words of the album's closing lyrics:

"It's new to want to practice staying // Long enough to be part of the changes // Of a ... read more

Quintessential 2010s pop rock. I really love the tone of lead singer John O'Callaghan's voice and there's some really fun guitar work in there as well. I actually find the back half of the album a lot more dynamic than the first half, which mostly follows the formula of the album's singles (Miles Away, English Girls). There is a cheeky humor and carefree vibe that works really well for The Maine when they lean in to it.

Favorites: Am I Pretty?, Another Night on Mars

For their third effort in as many years, One Direction seems to have finally emerged from the post-X Factor, overnight teen idol haze that characterized their first two albums. On Midnight Memories, 1D pulls inspiration from further corners of the pop rock world, making their past work seem one-note in comparison. It's not a very consistent record, at different times echoing The Strokes, Coldplay, or Mumford & Sons, but overall feels like a much more mature take on singingable radio ... read more

Released barely a year after their debut album, Take Me Home is still thematically and lyrically juvenile, lowest-common-denominator stuff, but vocally and musically there's a lot of improvement here. The production feels dated, but it's not a uniquely 1D problem; top 40 pop music in 2012 just had a very distinct sound that hasn't aged particularly well. We have to remember that what was being sold with vocal groups at the time was not the music itself, per se, but the celebrity ... read more

Chappell Roan and The Last Dinner Party had a baby and their name is Madonna

I've been slowly working my way through records that came out before I was in high school, because I had a pretty sheltered childhood. Looking back, I do still have an affinity for the Warped tour emo era and the Myspace era of pop and rock music, but the bands I was listening to were the Christian "alternatives" to mainstream acts. So I never listened to My Chemical Romance or Fall Out Boy or Blink-182, but I loved bands like Anberlin, Flyleaf, and Relient K, whose audiences ... read more

Side A of this record is truly impeccable. The second half is much less memorable but overall, this is a fantastic jazzy rock record full of hooky earworms and confident delivery. Worthy follow-up to Joel's magnum opus The Stranger.

This album was released in 2014 but something about it sounds very 2011.

I don't remember how I found this album (apart from 'Classic' being on the radio, but I remember listening to it a lot the year it came out. I don't think I knew at the time, but the two members of MKTO are originally Nickelodeon/Disney kids, which actually makes a lot of sense when you put these songs next to Jonas Brothers, Naked Brothers Band, Miley Cyrus, Aly & AJ, and other acts that peaked ... read more

I've been a fan of Maggie's major 2019 debut for years, but regrettably never dove fully into her 2 most recent albums. Surrender really impressed me, having only really been familiar with the singles ("Want Want" is a bop). The album is rich, multilayered, full of substance. It has the same kind of dreamy indie pop textures as Heard it In a Past Life, but this time around they're paired with a more mature alternative rock sound. Maggie's vocal performance has a ... read more

I aspire to have the level of creative freedom Alanis displays in determining how many syllables each word should have.

Not as impactful as Under Rug Swept, but there are still some bangers here! Jagged Little Pill hit a sweet spot between hooky pop/rock and Alanis's unique confessional lyrics; after listening to more of her discography, I think she shines best when the music serves her esoteric writing rather than the other way around. So-Called Chaos has more of a straightforward ... read more

The mixture of folk singer-songwriter elements with the heavier 70s rock are genuinely something special here. Ann Wilson's vocals impressively incorporate both genres as well. There are some real standouts (Magic Man, Crazy on You), but there are also some more forgettable moments. The sonic texture of the album is a win, but not as much textural difference from track to track as some of their later work. Might change my mind over time, though.

Great mix of funk and poppy melodies with plenty of rock and dance elements mixed in. A few really big standouts for me have such catchy, dancey hooks, with a really soulful mix of those funk and rock sounds. Honestly a great example of horny music that isn't (just) sultry, but upbeat and fun too.

Favorite tracks: Uptown, Do It All Night, Head, When You Were Mine

In my head, I always get excited when I think about WILLOW'S "lately I feel EVERYTHING" album because transparent soul marked her exciting breakout into an edgier pop punk sound, but after listening to that album, most of it fails to live up to the hype of its lead single.

<COPINGMECHANISM> is where WILLOW the rock star really starts to thrive, though. The entire project feels way more coherent and realized. There are certainly elements in the music and writing that sound ... read more

[old review]

Truly no hate, because there are moments on this album that I genuinely enjoy, but this is one of the most anticlimactic follow ups I've ever heard from an artist I loved. Coloring Book is just, for me, a masterpiece. This feels like a tryhard copy of Coloring Book's sounds and diversity.

There are some really good compositions and arrangements here, but even the songs that sound good as I'm listening, feel way more forgettable than they should be, idk. The ... read more

Let me make clear at the top of this: I love pop music. I think pop music is beautiful and indulgent and fun and has an important role in the way society engages with culture and music.

This album solidifies The Band CAMINO as a pop(-rock) outfit and it's their most cohesive and tight production yet. The territory is more bubblegum flavored than an indie rock sound like The 1975 or Walk The Moon, but not quite as much as The Vamps or 5 Seconds of Summer. The songs are filled with ear ... read more

Returns to a more R&B, soulful spirit, moving away from the bright radio pop of Sasha Fierce, but with a much more refined sound than DIL and B'Day. Sonically, this one soars over the first three albums, but there are a handful of less impactful in the middle of the album that make it hard to rate.

favorite tracks: Best Thing I Never Had, Love on Top (two of my all time favorite Bey tracks), Party, Countdown, End of Time, Run the World

As is seemingly becoming common for new pop artists in the 2020s, this debut album contains several singles that were released over a couple years (Pink Pony Club hit my ears in mid-2022) so it almost feels like Chappell has been in the spotlight longer than she has when, in reality, her recent appearance on Olivia Rodrigo's world tour may be remembered as her debut in the mainstream.

This album does have some elements of that "put-all-the-singles-together-and-call-it-an-album" ... read more

It's incredibly different for me to evaluate the albums I listened to in 2013-2015 because those years were formative for me and the music from that time just hits the nostalgia/adolescent development of my brain differently. So it's not so much that relatively predictable indie rock albums like this one are groundbreaking, but yet I still remember almost every melody when I play it back. Regardless, I'm ranking albums based on subjective enjoyment, so I guess there will just be ... read more

TORI. combines Tori Kelly's singer-songwiter roots with her Gospel flair, a retro 00's pop/R&B sound, and a very obvious influence from Jon Bellion. I'll admit that some of the tracks blend together a bit, but the vibe is just so fun and light. Tori is undeniably one of the best vocalists in the game right now.

I'm reviewing this right after seeing her live, so it's definitely influenced by how effortlessly she can SING these songs. Her runs and ability to float ... read more

No skips? Yet another album from 2015 that is forever in my brain, further confirming the theory that music you listen to at 18-19 years old changes your brain chemistry and etches itself into your memory. This album blew up in my circles at the time; Vessel was the album that hipsters would name drop as an alternative to Top 40; when Blurryface came out, TOP suddenly became one of the bands played constantly on alternative radio. This album exists right at the intersection of their popularity ... read more