I’m not sure what I expected going in, but I walked away underwhelmed. It feels deeply personal and culturally specific in ways that will never quite connect with me, leaving the experience more distant than immersive.

This project feels conflicted about its identity. It jumps from internal fractures of a family in decline to cornball love songs, never finding a cohesive throughline. There are flashes of promise, but the lack of focus keeps it from fully landing.

What an intriguing listen. Every song is genuinely cool and just a little bit cringe, and that is what gives this album its charm. Recommended for anyone who likes unapologetic creativity in their music.

femtanyl’s long-awaited debut doesn’t disappoint. It’s a fun, energetic, kinetic half-hour, less an album with staying power than something you enjoy being subjected to in the moment. Sometimes the ride really is the whole point.

It’s impressive to hear Converge still tonally decimating over 30 years in. They’ve built such an absurd catalog of heavy hitters that even an album this good can’t help but feel slightly underwhelming.

An album of generic pop love-songs that plays like background music. This is the soundtrack to the shitty new Wuthering Heights movie. What else is there to say? I hope the check cleared.

In the near decade I’ve been listening to Bruno Pernadas, he’s never disappointed; at worst, he’s underwhelmed. unlikely, maybe is no different: some career highs, paired with stretches of undeniable boredom.

Inb4 the epic Lynyrd Skynyrd-type catastrophe that eventually strikes the Brothers Jonas. Sunday Best sounds like the background music from a medical commercial where a guy tearfully celebrates being able to lift his son again.

URGH is a jagged collision of industrial percussion and distorted texture. It’s harsh, hypnotic, claustrophobic, cold, and weirdly addictive. It's also more danceable than it has any right to be.

Karnivool's Tool worship continues, and they commit to the bit by waiting over a decade to release In Verses. There are flashes of greatness, but at points it felt like I was listening to Foo Fighters.

Somebody get George off the cocaine and beat some effort into him! This is so lazy, so one note, such a disappointment. All he has going for him these days is a good voice. No genuine artistry to be found.

Another reminder that talent isn't Cole's ceiling, vanity is. Avoiding anything truly weighty in favor of ego maintenance, and his self importance comes off less like wisdom and more like neediness.

Xavier is a hyperactive, blown-out mess: nonsense words over nonsense beats. Without a few genuinely interesting production moments interspersed, this album would be a total write-off.

Pussy-whipped anthems for the cuckold generation. OCTANE plays like Don Toliver trauma-dumped to Kali on a barbiturate and now he’s being blackmailed into writing love songs. This is Chance the Rapper-tier spousal devotion.

In a doomed attempt to tolerate DaBaby's music, I finished BE MORE GRATEFUL with one question in mind: Hey, Mr. Kirk...could you try BEING MORE TALENTED? I think this is the one artist that AI can replace guilt-free.

My Ghosts Go Ghost is nervous-system music: jittery, blown-out, and constantly morphing. It’s noisy and chaotic, it's sombre and emotive, but it's never lazy. Every track here feels like it’s trying to escape the speakers.

Cole goes eleven straight minutes without losing the thread once. I’ve never been a full-on fan, he always works better for me in small doses. So yeah, I'll probably enjoy this more than the double album he just dropped.

Though a mood killer, this album is competent and doesn't have a single bad song on it. Nothing here is blowing me away, though the vulnerability on display is undoubtedly impressive.

This follows the drumless blueprint he himself authored: technically impressive and emotionally distant. The production is clean and controlled as ever, but to me, little here sticks beyond the surface.

Some strong moments to counter what is generally a blandly produced metal album. She has a good voice, and even the lyrics here aren't too bad, but it sounds like pretty much every other female-lead metal album I've heard.