(75->83) You know, I’m starting to feel like these here fellas got something

Kind of everything I want out of music in a way.

Goes off a cliff around Illicit Affairs but good attempt pop girl

While still delivering bursts of excitement in spades, Forever Howlong is severely undercut by its inability to commit to its climaxes. Every song is full of spasmic - almost incoherent - beat switches and constant slow downs, an element that is intriguing at first but quickly starts to annoy as you wonder “Howlong” the enjoyable part of the song is going to last before the volume abruptly goes to 0 and some completely different melody starts.

While I still enjoyed it, in many ways ... read more

Though many albums feature lyrics plenty more depressing, few manage to nail the vibe of "quiet acceptance of despair" quite like this one. Hearing this album, especially at night, elicits a powerful but subdued melancholy, and I love it for that.

There is a particularly unique quality to Lorde's music that includes but isn't limited to her contralto vocal range (relatively uncommon in mainstream pop music). The themes tackled in Melodrama are relatively standard pop fare - love, heartbreak, doubt - but they are explored with an unusual shade of maturity and self-awareness that make them seem less like a pop artist getting inspired by their past experiences and more like Lorde's inner music come to life.

[First listen] I hope this album grows on me further but one listen in, I found the middle chunk largely forgettable. As it stands, I'd skip 4/9 of these tracks on a re-listen, which is a testament to how great those remaining tracks are since I consider the album as a whole to be very good. It's about moving forward, leaving your past behind and accepting your future, which is a theme that always hits hard for me, accentuated by a brilliant closing track.

[81->89] Eternal Summer ... read more

A somber and introspective look at the vulnerabilities of the band. If this is the last we ever get from Radiohead, it's a worthy ending.

Knowing that Matt Bellamy is a conspiracy theorist makes some of these lyrics a little embarrassing in retrospect but I still absolutely adore this record and will recommend it to anyone that enjoys rock music at all.

Muse's best and an absolute blast top to bottom with one of my favorite album closers of all time.

[Radiohead Discography Revisit]

Continuing to experiment with the Electronic soundscape that Kid A ushered in for the band, Radiohead release this combination of tracks that many have dubbed the "Kid A B-Sides". While there are sonic and lyrical similarities, this is absolutely not the case. Amnesiac feels less like a personal confession of a mind standing on the edge and more of an indictment of the world, and the people that have let it get to this point (a theme more explicitly ... read more

[Radiohead Discography Revisit]

An absolute behemoth of an album that not only reinvented Radiohead into the heralds of Alternative Rock for the next two decades but also completely redefined the genre. It presents an absolute dystopian vision of the future but chooses a quieter, more contemplative approach to the revolution against it. One could easily call it pessimistic, but in my eyes the final message is hope. By showing you our potential robotic future and begging you to "slow ... read more

Consistently solid and varied instrumentals evoking completely different feelings and genres, but the samey vocals bring it down.

Favorite: Everyday

What happened to this fucking guy man

Hope I can find it in myself to enjoy some of the later tracks in this album because as it stands, I find the first half mostly stellar but pretty much everything after 'You'll be in the Air' falls completely flat to me.

Still, some certified masterpieces in this one. Changed my idea of what folk could be. I just wish the second half was better.

Notable glimpses of greatness when the dystopian instrumentals swell but the shortness of the album works massively against it. Songs barely have time to develop before they’re over and consequently fail to get me invested in the emotions that Mitski is trying to communicate. I would have preferred it if a couple lesser tracks were cut and each of the others was extended by a minute or so.

Not beating the brat allegations

He's out of control and I'm loving every minute of it Jerry

The shorter tracks are whatever but Mladic and We Drift Like Worried Fire are my favorite Godspeed songs. Switching to a 'single experience' format instead of the movements-based structure of F#A# and Lift Your Skinny Fists works out so well.

I honestly think that Isaac’s departure solved most of my issues with BCNR. The material here is not as strong overall as Ants from Up Here (though its highs are equally impressive) but Tyler’s vocals are such an improvement for me that I enjoyed this a lot more.

[81->86] Old complaints about Isaac and his lyrics are pretty much gone. I still don't really like Good Will Hunting and Haldern but the album is solid as hell.
[86->92] I like Good Will Hunting and Haldern