Over five years later, Cloud Gavin's sophomore album still stands as one of the most crushingly atmospheric albums in the entire emo genre. Although, just like other great emo albums, it feels like a disservice to classify this as just emo.

The best way I could describe what this album sounds like is to imagine a post-hardcore album that exists entirely within this album art. Dark, surreal, mysterious, and trapped in the woods. It's a sound that was clearly intentional, with the lyrics ... read more

It's not really anything special imo, but the memorable hooks and clever songwriting are enough to make this an enjoyable album despite running out of steam in the second half.

Favorite tracks: It Just Doesn't Happen, Cue Synthesizer
Least favorite: The Television Music Supervisor

The Archer is a watertight set of psych pop jams that never fails to entertain. While Alexandra may not be the most unique vocalist out there, she definitely gets the job done. Her delivery is light and pristine when it needs to be, and low and powerful when it needs to be. The instrumentals for the most part perfectly match her melodies and give a lot of tracks an underlying sinister tone.

The sound is fairly consistent, except for the opening track which, while amazing, doesn't really tell ... read more

Hungarian folk metal was not in my life a month ago. Now it is. Thank you album of the year dot org!

Honestly though I had a lot of fun with this record. It's a unique combination of metal, Hungarian folk music, jazz, and prog that makes for some killer tracks. Would I actively seek it out as a full album though? Not really. The songs that are good are fantastic, and I'd say there isn't a bad song on here, but it definitely drags near the end. Not to mention, some of the production is just ... read more

2020 really be the year of the 6 so far huh.

This is an album that, at its high points, is fantastic. Unfortunately most songs on here feel like they don't go anywhere interesting after about a minute. There's so many moments where a song starts off sounding fantastic, but doesn't develop beyond a surface level idea. Sometimes they will develop, but in a way that's so seemingly nonsensical that it makes it seem like there weren't enough good ideas for a full length song, so they tried to mush ... read more

As an album, it's fun as hell and goes by in a flash. As a collection of tracks it's... I guess spotty? There's a lot of really cool and insanely high energy moments on here, but a lot of the songs feel a little incomplete, so it's hard to imagine myself listening to most of this outside of the context of an album. Still, it's a refreshing listen and one that I hope signals more experimentation for Poppy in the future.

Favorite tracks: I Disagree, Sick of the Sun
Least favorite: Concrete

Divorced from all context, Circles is a melancholic yet somewhat hopeful album of self reflection similar to Brockhampton's Ginger from last year. Unfortunately though, it's pretty impossible to separate this from its context considering how the hope Mac Miller envisioned for himself didn't end up coming true. It's then a sobering wake up call and a reminder of the damaging effects of mental illness and substance abuse.

Musically, it leans more on the R&B side of things than it does on ... read more

Just like with the Floral Tattoo album, I wanna say that I'm happy this album exists. But, I think this has the opposite problem as that album. Where the Floral Tattoo album sounded a bit too generic and similar to their contemporaries at points, this album will likely go down as one of the most forward thinking albums of the 20s, even with it being released literally the first day of the decade.

So why am I giving it a 6? This album has a lot of ideas going into it and experiments with too ... read more

God this project is so underrated. Billy Woods and Kenny Segal sound like they were made for each other on this project. Each of them brings something the other needs, and they come out the other end as greater than the sum of their parts. Kenny's production is off-kilter, often using detuned instruments, clipped drums, horror movie sound effects, and eerie vocal samples. Meanwhile, Billy's rapping is fairly consistent with his other work, but this time he locks into Kenny's beats 100%. He uses ... read more

Does it take a lot of cues from other thrash metal bands? Yes. Do a lot of the tracks sort of sound the same? Yes. Does it let up for even one second? Absolutely fucking not.

Favorite tracks: All of them tbh
Least favorites: None of them tbh

While it features some of Thom Yorke's best songs yet, by himself or with Radiohead, I don't think it entirely works as an album. A lot of the songs have a very messy thrown together structure to them which, while I get that it was an intentional aesthetic choice, makes it hard to follow the album throughout the whole thing. Still, the songs that are good are great enough to justify giving this a listen.

Favorite tracks: Dawn Chorus, Last I Heard (...He Was Circling the Drain), I Am a Very ... read more

Death to cringe culture, long live pretentious emo rock operas

While it's not necessarily groundbreaking, Kissing Party keeps a consistently fun, dreamy energy that makes this album just the right amount of light and punchy for it to be a super enjoyable dream pop album.

Favorite tracks: Coulda Been Me, Wasted Worlds Apart, He's Not Moi, Little Darlings, Celebrity of My Heart
Least favorite: Jesse

Could have (and probably should have) been a lot shorter, but this is still an incredibly depressing and atmospheric abstract hip hop project that makes me want to check out some of MIKE's more compact albums.

Best tracks: Goin' Truuu, Big Smoke, Summer 17, #Memories, Memorial
Least favorite: Parks

Yet another album from this year that could have gotten a way higher score if it kept the momentum from the beginning going into the second half. Seriously, the first leg of this album is one of the most detailed and deeply unsettling dark ambient experiences I've had in a long time. It was honestly a contender for one of 65's best albums, but it unfortunately lost some ideas in the second half. Still, this is by far the most despondent album in 65's discography, and a welcome change of pace. ... read more

Just want to give a shoutout to this album since it's fantastic but I don't think it'll make it onto my year end list because it genuinely put me in a very bad head space, so I couldn't bring myself to give it any repeat listens. If mentions of suicide and other self-destructive behaviors aren't triggers for you though, definitely check this out.

Despite being a little front-loaded, this is one of the most fun emo/pop punk records I've heard in a really long time. It really nails that anthemic, cathartic sound while being incredibly self aware of its genre. Those first four songs all back to back fucking KILL and the album still has some surprises after that. Definitely worth the listen at a short run time.

Favorite Tracks: Free at Last, Closure, Full Blown Meltdown, Morbid Stuff, See You at Your Funeral, Kids, City
Least Favorite: ... read more

Lots of great ideas and some pretty amazing bars, but pretty inconsistent and drab on some tracks. Still, it's a good starting point and I'm really excited to see where MAVI goes from here.

Favorite tracks: Moonfire, Eye/I and I/Nation, Ghost (In the Shell), Guernica
Least favorites: Sense, Chiasma

Not to sound redundant but daaaaaamn Peggy
What other artist could fuse psychedelic/avant garde rock styles with vaporwave, 2000s RnB, noise, and sound collage? Really my main problems with this album are in its inconsistency. I can tell that the whole aesthetic of this thing is supposed to be fragmented and abstract, but it means that some individual tracks suffer by introducing good ideas then not completely fleshing them out. It doesn't help that most of this happens toward the back end of ... read more

As much as I'm not as crazy for this album as I was when it first came out (for reference I thought it was a 100 on my first listen), this is still a stunning record from one of the most forward thinking artists of the decade. It's muted for the most part, with really only a few moments that get as noisy as M3LL155X, but it's still warped and unsettling for most of the run time. It's a manic, deeply sad breakup album that deconstructs femininity and celebrity in a way I don't think I've heard ... read more