This album begins at SIRENS. Fuck tracks 1-5. I will never understand why they exist. SIRENS is perfect and the album is incomparably more interesting from then onwards.

[edit] The 7 song run from SIRENS to CIRCUS MAXIMUS might not be topped by a mainstream rap artist this year. It is phenomenal: diverse, intoxicating, and within that section Travis' rapping gains some much-needed variety and energy. Maybe it justifies the existence of the two flat sections either side of it (HYAENA to GOD'S ... read more

Call Super dropped two separate singles not too long ago this year - 'Illumina' in collaboration with Julia Holter and 'Sapling' with Eden Samara not too long ago this year - which somehow evaded my attention despite the names involved. I listened to Illumina out of understandable intrigue and I am sure that I liked it but lone singles can occasionally fall by the wayside and, regrettably, I forgot about its existence entirely. Perhaps I was not alone in this regard. Call Super quickly ... read more

It's a weird criticism, but personally I find Monae's voice is too 'good' to really bring the album home. The production - warm and sumptuous, with a heaping helping of Afrobeats and reggae - is exceptional, but calls for a robust, elastic vocalist. Monae, instead, brings power and pristine and eeeeeeever so slightly borders on cringe. For me, they just sound a tiny bit out of place, particularly when you hear the effortless cool of Grace Jones, or Amaarae, or even Sister Nancy in the ... read more

Poor Noah Baumbach, this is music that was absolutely made for the Meyerowitz Stories. Gorgeous, defiant, often life-affirming.

What is the viability of tech house in 2023? I would argue this is a pretty pertinent question facing DJ Life, the rising Naarm-based producer, DJ and all-around grooverider. In the Australian community, the fabled summers of 2021 and 2022 in the afterglow of the pandemic are commonly associated with that slinky, approachable genre, but where to from here? You can feel the zeitgeist shifting, as it so frequently does in electronic music scenes, and with it a resurgence of those ubiquitous ... read more

Archy Marshall was hermetic, chameleonic; now he is anchored. The artist most commonly known as King Krule spent the 2010s shapeshifting, experimenting with form and void. He established a trademark sound - spare, echoed, melodic and guitar-centric - on '6 Feet Beneath the Moon' and then proceeded to splinter off in every other direction. 'A New Place 2 Drown', released under his own name, shot for trip-hop, dubstep and restless breakbeat, proving that Marshall could well be the UK's finest ... read more

Intoxicating and brilliantly melodic, though Howerton really doesn't mind a cliche in her writing. One dimensional, but very enjoyable if you're not paying too much attention.

boygenius' debut, a self-titled EP from way back in 2018, was one of the watershed moments for rock music in that decade, a collection that steamrolled the critical press and molded the sound of contemporary indie in its own image. Those six songs are some of the very best to have been bundled together in recent memory and it is scarcely believable that five years have nearly passed since their release. That EP was fundamentally blindsiding: at times biting and utterly arresting ('Me & My ... read more

Great melody, why does it sound like a 128kbps rip? The master quality is embarrassing given how nice this track is.

Nick Leon's magnetic body music collides with the world-building experimentation of DJ Python (Brian Pineyro) on 'Split' for a release so thrilling, you're allowed to forget that it lacks cohesion. It is an understated victory lap for the two artists, each riding their own wave of momentum in celebration of the dembow rhythm.

As I write this review, the Superbowl nears its halfway point and I am reminded of something: no matter how dazzling the commercials today may be, they will struggle to ... read more

To date I have not to any of Yo La Tengo's music. save for this record today. Given their formidable stature in indie rock, this fact is surprising and beyond that a little disappointing, because this is a good record. It also means that I bring to this review little context about the band, which is rare, I imagine, for Yo La Tengo and which may or may not be a good thing.

'This Stupid World' sees Yo La Tengo reckon with a universal kind of demise in their own words and at their own pace. It ... read more

MIKE’s previous effort, 'Disco!', radiated surety. With renewed spirit, it bookended a depressive stage following the death of his mother. 'Beware of the Monkey', on the other hand, feels more reserved. MIKE makes gentle forays into new sonic territory, taking on more yacht rock and dry production, cautious explorations that feel like the product of a creator who has been hurt before, and left wary of drifting too far from where his heart lies. His writing speaks to a kind of flux state, ... read more

'Sexy' sells pop of the lowest stakes. Coco and Clair Clair make abundantly clear the things in life that they care about - the club, Britney, waking up at 2pm with nothing to do - and the things they don't - everything else, with a particular focus on people who just aren't on their level. It results in an unapologetically self-centred record but, refreshingly, one which is free of self-importance.

Coco and Clair Clair refuse to let any seriousness stifle their vision, and this approach has ... read more

These songs feel preternaturally wise. I have been thinking for a while about how to actually write about this record critically, but it always seems like an impossible task. There's no complexity to these songs that only you, uniquely, could discover. They play out like emotional vignettes, moments in Isaac Wood's life which have been so meticulously psychoanalysed that he understands exactly why everything happened the way that it did. Every metaphor, every description, every joke feels ... read more

Not giving a fuck has never really been in the Tom Odell wheelhouse. He's built a discography of feeling so hard, wearing his heart on his sleeve even past the point that it's well worn down. As a result, it's natural to view that mid-album proclamation with a bit of scepticism. To his credit, though, 'Best Day of My Life' feels the most self-assured that Odell has ever been on an LP. He has always been earnest, but often has come across overly eager to be taken seriously. Here, refreshingly, ... read more

MAVI cleans up his beats, scrubbing away a little too much character in the process. Where his previous effort, 'Let the Sun Talk', drew heavily from the dusty, lowlit sLUms moodboard, it's clear that MAVI is trying to break out of the MIKE mould. And for good reason - you get the feeling that he could only really asymptote towards something groundbreaking in that sound. 'Laughing' is immediately more slick and self-assured.

Right from the opener, MAVI's new mission statement is apparent. The ... read more

Unexpectedly outlines the extent of Freddie's talents - he brings passion when he's on the mic but it's not really enough to overcome the largely uninspired production. So much of the production lacks real character - it's just surface-level smooth guitar licks and pretty pads - and while Freddie tries his best to inject these songs with substance he comes up short. Frustratingly inert after a fantastic start - no surprise that Alchemist's appearance coincides with the clear high watermark of ... read more

How on earth are people putting out detailed reviews of this record without even mentioning the word house? Comparing this record to the 80s synth pop and yacht rock the Weeknd revitalises has put out is as lazy as Drake clearly was making this bland fucking LP.

David Balfe's debut full-length effort 'For Those I Love' is uncompromising to its core. That's not to say that Balfe charts harsh or dissonant sonic territory here, but instead that what he brings to the table, lyrically and musically, is delivered with such certainty and honesty that it is arresting.

Balfe's words are uniquely direct and articulate, and speak to a writer who has sat with his verses for some time. There is no doubt associated what he intones - Balfe's lyrics are consistently ... read more

This is Tyler's most honest, most diverse, most dynamic, and quite likely his best album, in my view. It's an album of highpoints and culminations for him - his rapping has never been as consistently energetic and engaging as it is here, and it truly feels like this record draws influence from every corner of his past work, taking it up a notch in the process. Still, though, Tyler manages to chart new ground in pockets - he tastefully and authentically dips his toe into trap here and there, and ... read more