Pteracross's Album Reviews - Album of The Year

Pteracross

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Realistically about a half-step beyond their debut, but not far enough off for me to score it differently, S+M is another perfectly passable go-round the Imagine Dragons carousel. I actually think the lows here aren't quite as low as on their first, but the back half of the album is still a bit of a drag and nothing here hits quite as hard as "Radioactive" or "Nothing Left To Say." I do think there's still a little magic in this one that signaled maybe Imagine ... read more

Ryan Star

A N G E L S + A N I M A L S

The last ride for Ryan Star, which is a real bummer if you ask me. His debut album was poppy and fluffy but what made that record work is what Ryan leans into here. The production is more grand, the songs take some different directions, it just feels like a more confident artist is behind this project. Not every song is a banger but the special ones are *really* special.

✔️✔️ Spaceman Fugitive
✔️ Bullet

Imagine Dragons

Night Visions

Hard to grade this one objectively, knowing what future this band has in front of them and knowing how contemptable they are by a lot of folks, but honestly it's pretty fine. It's not great indie music obviously but it serves as a nice bridge between pop and indie, something that could get people into a genre they didn't know they liked. As a potential gateway drug, you can do much worse.

✔️ Radioactive

Ryan Star

11:59

A perfectly pleasant slice of inspiring pop rock, elevated throughout by songs with a little more theater to their production. It's not the highest of high arts, but there was certainly an effort here to make each track have a bespoke atmosphere, making this a breezy and satisfying listen.

✔️✔️ Right Now
✔️ Start a Fire

Disturbed

Ten Thousand Fists

Feels like *the* definitive Disturbed album in terms of getting their sound right where they want it before they can beat it into the ground for the next twenty years. At least it's still fresh enough here, building on the more melodic sophomore effort to create a real booming mix of big hooks with aggressive riffing. The nu-metal twang is gone, replaced with just firm entry-level metal as was becoming more the style at the time, but also means this thing is wearing out its welcome halfway ... read more

Disturbed

Believe

Huge step forward from their debut and really sort of feels like the ideal version of this band. A lot of the edge is shaved off in favor of booming, soaring hooks that are just legitimately better than even the catchiest stuff on the first record, and while I'm not particularly impressed with "Darkness" as a final product, it's the kind of song that Sickness-era Disturbed feels like they'd have acted way too cool to do. This doesn't set the world on fire but ... read more

Disturbed

The Sickness

Just not a terribly interesting record and kinda surprising they turned out to be one of the most prominent nu/alt metal bands off its back. Shows basically every card in its hand in the first two songs and just goes on to repeat those moves for 50 minutes. "Down with the Sickness" is one of the harder choruses but man that bridge has aged about as poorly as you can imagine. Lots of nu-metal was edgy for the sake of it, but at least it was bit more interesting than this.

✔️ Voices

1y*