How does she do it?
Based on my ever growing love of Preacher's Daughter, I built this album up with impossibly high expectations. And she managed to clear them.
Is it exactly what I expected? No, and while it's not quite the artistic and thematic triumph that Preacher's Daughter was, it wasn't meant to be and doesn't need to be.
As we wait for the delayed second installment of the Preacher's trilogy, we get this spin-off prequel in Willoughby Tucker, I'll ... read more

How does she keep doing it??
An absolutely beautiful and nakedly honest commentary on slut shaming and respect, some of the most gorgeous and shimmering synths I've heard in a long time. Hayden is a true poet and an absolutely gifted musician.

I haven't liked much of anything Miley has put out basically her entire career. So no one was more surprised than I was with how much I ended up loving this album.
A sort of synthwave disco throwback, Something Beautiful still manages to be experimental and, well, something beautiful, really. From track to track we get beautiful lyrics, passionate vocal performances, gorgeous piano, string, and saxophone passages. The sax line on Every Girl You've Ever Loved in particular sticks out ... read more

When it first came out I was a lot more fanatic about my love for this album, but my feelings have cooled over time. Overall it's still great, Tesfaye demonstrates a really good command of poetic storytelling and emotional vulnerability. Though drug-ridden angst has been his M.O. practically his whole career, and parts of it have grown a bit stale by this point, Hurry Up Tomorrow kind of demonstrates the conclusion of that arc, with Abel finally finding the ideal way to express those ... read more

The lead single from the prequel to Preacher's Daughter, what has become my favourite album of all time, somehow does not disappoint. I don't know how she does it. A generational talent is on display on this beautiful, captivating, gorgeous, heartwrenching masterpiece. I can't wait to hear the rest.

Hayden's little sidequest here on her Ethel Cain project presents a complete departure from her signature sound.
It is not welcoming, it is not friendly. It is 90 minutes of dreary, bleak, sometimes horrifying soundscape that feels like a stream of consciousness from someone critically depressed.
It opens with its title track, setting the tone with a hymn that eerily sounds like it was recorded on a late 1800s phonograph. This then delves into over 10 straight minutes of dark ambient ... read more

This comes as a surprise for me.
Ethel Cain had evaded my attention until this year, when I started hearing buzz about her new project, Perverts.
My feelings on Perverts are for another review, but it got me interested in hearing her previous material. And nothing could've prepared me for what Preacher's Daughter had in store for me. Not knowing anything about it, I went into a first listen casually, finding enjoyment in just about every track I was hearing. Then came the closing ... read more

TOP "return to Trench" on Clancy, the supposed sequel/continuation of Trench, though after listening to it that's debatable.
Trench's concept was already very loosely depicted, with several digressions across the tracklist. You'd go from obvious lore songs on "Jumpsuit" or "Nico and the Niners" to obvious personal cuts entirely unconnected to the lore such as "Neon Gravestones" or "Smithereens"
Clancy cranks that dissonance up to ... read more

It took a couple full listens to grow on me, but Short n Sweet is a pretty remarkable show of creativity and a command of Sabrina's craft.
The album is full of creative ideas and relentless earworms, with a couple genuinely heartfelt tracks to boot. Sabrina seems to wear her influences on her sleeve but I won't knock her for it, as she clearly does something transformative with them. The album is also, of course, *relentlessly* horny, more than I've heard in a pop album in recent ... read more

Despite some catchy moments, Here to Eternity is legendarily overlong and boring. Feels more like an album of obligation than genuine inspiration.

Part of me likes and respects what Scene Queen is doing here, and she seems like a chill girl all around, and certainly she has some talent on display here, BUT; I can't help but get some of the ick from her material. Her approach to feminism comes across equal parts surface level liberal preaching, and expressing rage through constant vulgarity and explicit sexual descriptions. Presumably this is to make male audiences uncomfortable and mildly insecure but to me it comes off being a bit ... read more

Ronnie Radke's persistent and pathetic victim complex reigns supreme on this self-indulgent dumpster fire of an album. If his obsession with his own detractors wasn't enough, the opinions expressed both on this album and outside of it are truly gross right wing garbage that earns him the ire he complains about. The music is at best boiler plate and at worst painful.
Radke has shown and continues to show he is actually a talented singer and metal vocalist, and at times shows genuinely ... read more

Nails takes 8 years and a nearly entirely new lineup to hit us with 17 minutes of nonstop abuse, and it was well worth the wait. A couple of their best songs to date appear here, couched between others staying true to their uncompromisingly abrasive, unfriendly sound they've been known for. Delving into themes of misanthropy, social isolation, nihilism, and anti-social tendencies, Todd Jones ensures his lyrics can match the tone of his music. The record brings its share of chaotic noise ... read more

Beatrice has shown some growth and maturing since 2022's "Beatopia", with another batch of catchy yet heartfelt songs. Though some may not hit as hard as others, it may not be as consistently great as Beatopia or some other albums from this year, but some of Beatrice's best work of her career crops up on this album. She really managed to put out a better Norah Jones album this year than Norah Jones did.

Billie's third album shows that she and Finneas still have all the chops they had when they dropped "When We All Fall Asleep..." in 2019. Hit Me Hard and Soft is loaded with insightful commentary, funny tongue-in-cheek moments, and of course equal parts catchy and heart-rending moments. Kept me coming back over and over again.

Dark Tranquillity return, shedding all but one of their original members in the process, with Endtime Signals; a record that may not be a concept album but still feels like it's taking us through themes relating to the end of the world, but in a much more emotional, personal touch. Songs take us through emotions of rage, fear, sorrow, and even nihilism. Mikael Stanne and company continue to show they really know how to produce a metal album that comes across as emotional and angsty without ... read more

The culmination of Charli's evolution up until this point, taking all the recurring themes of being a party girl and being the center of attention and boiling them down to a character portrait of the Brat. Charli has offered a structured and introspective breakdown of the Brat lifestyle, that wavers through straight depictions of being a no-nonsense partygirl; reveling in excess, loud music, and a bit of meanness and not caring what others think; and cracks in the armour which show ... read more

Innovative and absolutely skullcrushing, Knocked Loose have proven themselves as leaders and trailblazers of modern metalcore with this album. The dizzying amount of legendary passages is nothing short of daunting, from the feedback-heavy explosion of sound in "Thirst", to the reggaeton breakdown in "Suffocate", to the anxiety-inducing bleak siamese twin tracks "Moss Covers All" and "Take Me Home", You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To cements ... read more