Very cool album to start my 2025 album listening journey. Glitchy and fun, good vocals and very danceable. Kanye take notes, this is how you make a North West feature listenable.

Favourite songs : Eusexua and Striptease.

Least favourite : Sticky.

This was an album I wanted to get around to before the year ended and it is very good!!

Meaningful Stone is a great producer, vocalist and overall musician as this self prod album is some great work. She showcases some great atmospheric vocals that echo through the tracks and majestic soundscapes, all mixed amazingly. The album starts strong with poetic lyrics and overall just some beautiful guitar riffs and I am loving the shoegaze climaxes' in tracks like Mikael and Red car.

This ... read more

Decided to listen to this album to expand my music taste more as I am mostly unfamiliar with folk rock and I enjoyed it mostly.

This album starts slow and kind of messy but half way through the album picks up a lot. I do like the blend of folk and rock, especially in I Walk, which is an amazing song. The blend almost sounds shoegazey at parts but I mostly prefer the more simpler folk tracks. The production is great and crisp and Phil Elverum does a great job at bringing this album to life ... read more

Spotify recommend is once again putting me onto some cool albums and this one in particular is very creative instrumentally like some work with an accordion and all sorts of instruments.

The opening track, Big Head, is easily the best at showcasing this. It starts off with some marching/stomping and the accordion, vocals and the really nice synth bass bring this track together really nice.

The drums and synths, when arranged correctly are very nice and remind me of something you would hear ... read more

First time listening to Xiu Xiu and it was very good!

The instrumentation is amazing, orchestrated so well and this album is so forward thinking and at some parts spooky with some unique and brilliant writing with the vocals almost shivering and acting as it's own instrument to add to the amazing production from Angela Seo. The album starts slow and builds it's way to a passionate and emotional close. Very experimental and I would of loved it more if there was were a couple more ... read more

Bad, like really bad.

This new wave of trap is really not clicking for me. Nettspend's debut album is not promising or even listenable at parts. The beats are bad, the rapping is worse. Every song is damn near the same and there is obviously a target audience for this music that would enjoy this album but for me this type of music rots the brain.

The production tries it's best to be like the most experimental and ground breaking Carti type beats but it just doesn't work, at ... read more

Underground rapper, producer and amazing lyricist Ka's unfortunate final album gets his vision across on many different subjects through some good sample work, some nice abstract production and amazing lyricism.

The energy of this album is dark but chilling and bringing in some gospel samples and old samples of powerful voices during the civil rights movement makes this album even more powerful and moving. Some of my favourite tracks on this album include the first two tracks, Bread Wine ... read more

I decided to give this album a try after Perfectly Blue pleased my ears from coming up on my Spotify recommended.

I do not know much about RIP Swirl, in fact I kind of know nothing at all except that this album is meh, I know that RIP Swirl is most likely just a producer as most of his songs with vocals contain a feature and they are definitely the best moments on this album. I am not a fan of the instrumental tracks, leaves me wanting more, too short, bland and I guess they can be used as ... read more

The Party Never Ends sadly fails to honour Juice WRLD. Was this album released to commemorate and remember Juice WRLD or to keep on the cash grab trend that has been on Grade A's mind since Fighting Demons.

Musically there is not really many standouts here apart from maybe two tracks which are good to an extent, like Love Letter, which reminds me a lot of something from Death Race For Love. Nice little tropical beat and some decent rapping and delivery from Juice and same could be said ... read more

Thought I'd make my 100th rating my personal song of the year, what a experience listening to this. Instrumentation is one of a kind and it progresses so well.

WOW I think it is fair to say NO ONE was expecting a Kendrick drop today.

This is a first listen review, so my opinion and rating might change and I will probably edit this.

GNX is easily Kendrick's most aggressive and confrontational album to date, a lot of confident bars, great rapping and lyricism as usual, but I do feel like this sounds more like a mixtape than a full LP. This album for some parts lacks cohesiveness and some tracks remind me a lot of Not Like Us based on the flow and ... read more

This is easily one of the best orchestrated and preformed albums this year.

After listening to Mid-Air Thief and finding it absolutely mind-blowing, I knew my next listen was going to have to be Parannoul, I have delayed listening to him for a while to listen to some other projects, but here we are.

I am absolutely amazed by how well mixed and explosive this album is, it really is just one beautiful mess and I can for sure say that Parannoul is now one of my favourite shoegaze artists and ... read more

I have never heard an album so terrifying yet so good.

I was first introduced to Gao The Arsonist when he featured on a Scubadiver song a couple years back, and since then his evolution as an artist has been one to keep an eye on in the underground Hip-Hop scene. I recently have been seeing this album on the AOTY charts so I decided to give it a listen and I for sure was not disappointed.

One main talking point about this album is the mixing but for me the mixing, while sometimes making the ... read more

A very promising debut album from the English band. I saw them win the Mercury Prize on television and knew I had to listen to their album, and I think it's definitely some of the best indie music made all year. Very cool instrumentals especially the guitar, production is lush and although vocals can sometimes be inconsistent and the last few tracks kind of leave me wanting more, This is a very nice album from English Teacher. World's Biggest Paving Slab is a SOTY contender ... read more

This is why I love AOTY, people can connect, share music and spread the word of their projects. After being messaged by Luke to listen to his album, Theo, I had to give it a shot as the subject matter is charming and although self-promotion is something people either tolerate or not, I do not mind at all.

This album, recorded in the first six weeks of his daughters life, is warm, simple but effective, delicate, and well put together to create an eye-catching folk album. This album is very high ... read more

I have been keeping this band on my radar since their popular single "flutter" stumbled onto my Spotify recommended a couple years back.

While the lyrics or vocals aren't particularly mind blowing, the instrumentals are incredible. the band creates some powerful and hard hitting drums, some sick grunge guitar melodies and memorable hooks on near all tracks for an overall attention grabbing experience. Best shoegaze album I have heard this year and a great debut album, can't ... read more

I am OBSESSED with this album. It's so beautiful, we haven't had anything performed and produced this well in a WHILE. The duo are true perfectionists as you can tell they put their all into making this album bloom into it's best colours, and it did. Obsessed with the vocals, can't believe there are people criticising it, obsessed with the synths and literally every sound. The best produced album this year for sure. I can definitely see me coming back to this album and ... read more

A heaven sent album that is completely one of a kind. It's a gift that keeps on giving the more you dig into it. It's smooth, it soothes the ears and will never grow out of it's magnificent colours. They outdid themselves on this album and it should be used as a benchmark in music history.

A surprisingly high hit to miss ratio on this album, Uzi fails to overall catch the same vibe as the original Eternal Atake, but there is some worthy moments on this album that are trap bangers. Tracks 6-10 are very listenable but after that the rest of the tracks try to go down this melodic pop rap style which is NOT good. Uzi can't sing and his vocals are inconsistent on this album. If he stuck to basic Trap on this album it could of actually lived up to the hype. Only song I can really ... read more

I'm not going to sit here and pretend like this is my type of music, but I felt like I had to listen to it if there was some parts I really liked and could come back to. I was not a fan of the pacing of the album I get thrown off by the vocals sometimes. When the vocals do connect with the instrumentals I really enjoy it, like in Holy, Holy which is just a grand emotion of jazz at it's best which is easily a song of the year contender, the same could be said for The Magician too but ... read more