Very solid surprise drop by one of my favorite rappers, but it's nothing crazy. The middle section of the album gets a bit samey and it rides pretty heavily on Aesop's rapping, which is obviously great, but still. I'm honestly just glad to have even more material from the man this year.

I don't know what kind of fucking training arc this was but 30 years was worth it for this.

Coroner's last album came out in 1993, their last single before this rollout was nearly 35 years ago, their last album was over 30 years ago. I don't know this band so I'm not gonna act like I was familiar with them before this, but this album is spectacular in every way I wish every album could be. Technical, interesting, consistent, never overly concise or drawn out, everything ... read more

I NEVER THOUGHT I'D GET MY BELOVED SWANCORE IN THE BIG 2025 OH MY GOD.

ZERO NOTES. ZERO CRITICISMS. I AM FILLED WITH WHIMSY RIGHT NOW.

I feal so weak listening to this, fuck

I've had many musical obsessions in my life, but few were nearly as strong as the one I had with Three Days grace between the humble ages of 10 to 13. I have probably heard every single song from their first five albums hundreds of times, all these years later I could still recite each one from memory, but I've grown as a person in terms of my self-pitying and angst as well as my musical taste, so recalling those times is a bit cringey. Despite ... read more

Very solid EP with some clear flaws alongside some really good overall choices. The vocals felt off at first but quickly grew on me, and the instrumentals are super impressive the whole way through. Definitely gotta check out their earlier stuff to see the real peaks though. Black Sparkle is an amazing highlight.

This is cool, but it just didn’t do the most. It feels like the reward for sitting down for an hour of a track is so much less than the time taken to do so. Maybe I’m just going about this wrong but I’ve sat through other similarly long albums and generally left more satisfied than here. That isn’t to say it’s bad, since it really is pleasant and presents some interesting musical ideas.

whenever i get angry i want to hurt myself. i'm not allowed to do that, so I have to not do anything or the first impulse I have will be to turn what i'm doing into hurting myself or breaking things. i have to empty myself of all tendencies to avoid them channeling impulses. when i do that i feel so empty. if i had to exist with that emptiness i would rip myself apart until I broke. when this is on i don't have to exist with that emptiness. it makes me feel like i'm not just ... read more

The College Dropout sees Kanye at the peak of his rapping abilities and with some of the best features he ever gets all while allowing every bar to flow perfectly over one of his many master-crafted beats. I can recite most of this album from memory and it is a certified classic. My only real gripes are that School Spirit is randomly very mediocre and the skits on LR are way better.

Really cool, could seemingly be generational on a full album. I’m a fan of cloud rap but it never really clicks with me more than it stands next to me and radiates a cool aura I can appreciate. I never really GET it even if I know why it’s interesting, and how it influences what I like, and why other people like it, and why I SHOULD like it by all means. It’s just sorta case by case, and in this case it was very good but didn’t get there. It also just feels kinda loose ... read more

When the hell did Darkie get so mature? I remember my little brother showing me clips of the dude on ear-destroyer type beats rapping holocaust punchlines and generally playing this edgy character that was excused for his seeming popular appeal (to dudes like my little brother I’m guessing, no hate since he’s chill) and the interesting nature of the experimental stuff he messed with. This is like, way more than a 180, a 540 or something maybe.

This album sees Darkie taking up more ... read more

Hot take but this is better than SSLP and TES.

I’m a big fan of the production on this album, it’s easily the best Em album for production. Beyond that, I honestly think other than MMLP it’s his best in terms of pure rapping between his flows, lyricism and more chilled cadence. It’s also more consistent than any one of his other albums, not having a real low point.

Why the 85 then? I sound a lot more positive than an 85 right. Here are my issues. The subject matter on ... read more

That train looks very nice.

This album is super interesting between the delivery of the vocals and how jazz-focused some of these tracks are. There were moments that reminded me of shout sections and melodies in jazz tunes that I played in high school which is cool to hear on a rock album of all things. I do think the album is pretty top-heavy, not returning to how good those first three songs are until the last track, and even then I don’t think it’s the same level. That and the ... read more

The hoes are scared and I’m the hoes. On a related matter the hoes are also wet.

I did not know music could be this fucking scary and so good at the same time. My gut reaction to the first track was

freeze in terror

pause

shiver up spine

pleasure centers overload

repeatedly throughout. It didn’t get the same physical reaction after the first song but damn I don’t know if I’ve ever been more captive to a piece of music and how it wants me to feel. This also ... read more

I’m a bit disappointed.

I know it’s not the kindest way to start a review, or the most coherent since this has a pretty positive 83, but this could’ve been so much better. My main gripe is the vocals, since this album without them, or even if they just weren’t obnoxiously screamed over each song, would be one of my favorite albums of the entire year easily. There are certainly moments they hit, especially on the entirety of Stella, which is what allows it to likely be ... read more

I'm calling early this'll make my top 5 of 2025 for a few reasons.

This album is a delectable stew of the progressive and psychedelic, both genres repeatedly mixing into and improving one another, neither one overwhelming or subsiding to the other. Tracks are cut short or stretched out on a whim, yet never seeming too short or too long. Instruments too seem selected on a whim, from the conventional rock setup to keys, strings, brass, synths, additional percussion, and what is ... read more

Similarly to A Love Supreme, I could never do this the justice it deserves with my words. This is the magnum opus of one of the most historic musical discographies ever, and one of the best works of music ever, let alone jazz.

A friend put me onto this after I asked for recs for a car ride four and a half hours long back to my college campus following fall break. This did not disappoint. This is a dude pretty into music discourse, but he's also pretty into the local music scene where I come from, and he's seen these dudes live which is how he got into them. I might be hearing it oddly, but it reminds me a lot of alt rock/grunge from the 90's if the heaviness was cranked up. I got these Smashing ... read more

A friend put me onto this after I told him I'd be riding four and a half hours up to my college after fall break. He's a dude very separated from music discourse so he tends to have some pretty great picks that go under my radar, and this was no different. The vocals on this project are wonderful the entire time, but they're not what I'm here to talk about personally. These instrumentals are actually generational. I'm talking about some of the greatest of all time ... read more

I really liked this. It's some of DOOM's most interesting production without a doubt, and seeing him play Metal Fingers while other rappers take the spotlight ends up really interesting. It's not my favorite effort of his by any means, but one can never have enough DOOM to enjoy.

Not necessarily the best jazz album, but my likely favorite.

As someone who is deeply into jazz as both a listener and player, I think I see these albums differently than others. As much as I derive joy from an album like A Love Supreme or The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, I don't necessarily value them as a player the way I do this one. I've spent hours transcribing each of these songs, learning them, playing them in front of my fellow players and family, and I can't say I ... read more