brilliant hardcore album with obscenely sick performances.

FAVORITE SONG: Autumn and Carbine

I was skeptical of Spiritbox's hype going into this album cycle, but then I wound up spinning "Holy Roller" and "Constance" about as much as any other song in 2020, and 2021's singles had some infectious tracks like "Secret Garden" and "Hurt You". the album as a whole can be over-produced, but the performances are groovy, Courtney's vocals are commanding, the concept is fascinating, and it was one of my comfort albums for weeks after it dropped.

FAVORITE ... read more

an incredibly fun little pop punk EP with surprisingly heavy guitars.

FAVORITE SONG: Never Gonna Change

just a very fun, awesome little ska punk album with some thoughtful lyrics.

FAVORITE SONG: Short Circuit

fantastic follow-up to Exile, with some incredible performances and progressions. "Call It By Its Name" is one of the best metal songs of 2021.

FAVORITE SONG: Call It By Its Name

sick riffs, killer hooks. it's all killer, no filler from the good dudes of doom metal.

FAVORITE SONG: Shroud of Lethe

solid album that never rises above "Amazonia".

FAVORITE SONG: Amazonia (duh)

probably will wind up the best metal song of the year.

easily going to be one of the best songs of 2021.

fantastic synthpop with lots of groovy production, catchy hooks, and personality from Dua Lipa in terms of delivery. it's the kinda music that ya just gotta move to. my biggest problem is how her voice is processed on "Boys Will Be Boys." I'm indifferent on the lyrics, but she just /sounds/ horrendous on this track. the rest of the album is just so phenomenal though, that it more than makes up for that.

let's just say that I feel for anyone who's never heard 6ix9ine's brand of rancid screaming rap and abuse of autotune before and wanders into this album. I'd imagine they'd be thinking "huh, I wonder why there's so much autotu--OH GOD!" 6ix9ine's music truly is about as terrible as he is as a person. the few decent moments are Nicki Minaj's neat rapping on TROLLZ (the lyrics I can take or leave, it's just acrimonious whining disguised as braggadocio about popular women rappers Cardi, ... read more

an awesome bluesy hard rock album with some phenomenal ragers (End of Forever, Do Your Worst, Sugar on the Bone, Look Away) homaging Led Zeppelin. it's not the most cutting edge rock, but I can dig on some Creedence Clearwater Revival style earth-shattering blasts.

FAVORITE SONG: Do Your Worst

one of the greatest albums of all time, as far as I'm concerned. occult, politically-charged Armenian metal that will seek to bite your head off one moment with its intensity, and the next it will shower you in majestic vibes. its messaging still holds up 20 years later, and I fear that it will age this well in 20 more years. lyrics like those on Aerials in particular are just... damn, not many lyrics are gonna come close to those.

FAVORITE SONG: Aerials

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a stunning synth album with dynamic, epic tracks (with the title track sprawling over 10 minutes long) that never get boring thanks to just how varied and gorgeous they are, dipped in this ethereal atmosphere that I adore.

FAVORITE SONG: This Means War

link to full review: http://popcornandfizz.blogspot.com/2019/03/this-means-war-review.html

an incredibly powerful hard rock album to blow your eardrums out with. the stoner-influenced grooves in this album are so obscene. that said, I'd like to see Honeybadger try something other than these hyper-aggressive ragers (whether that's doing something chiller in terms of vibe, or something lyrical that directs that aggression somewhere interesting like Rage Against the Machine did, or something else entirely--I don't mind).

FAVORITE SONG: The Wolf

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this album is one of my absolute, all-time favorites. so serene, yet it can also rock hard as hell (no surprise as Meteor cut his teeth as a guitarist in the Colombian punk scene). it's just so beautiful, I love it. U.U

FAVORITE SONG: White Crows

link to full review: http://popcornandfizz.blogspot.com/2019/04/parallel-lives-review.html

an astounding and harrowing horrorcore delight featuring some of the best rap songs of the year, like Spells and Black Magic. the atmosphere is smothering in its darkness, tracks like Into the Void are genuinely unnerving in a way that virtually all mainstream horror movies just aren't. could use some more meat to its bones, though.

FAVORITE SONG: Spells

link to full review: http://popcornandfizz.blogspot.com/2020/06/god-has-nothing.html

an incredibly fun, cute, and upbeat synthpop album that suffers to an extent from feeling overly sweet and one-dimensional. still, fantastic production and some lovely performances by Danni and Kris; I can see them going up from this.

FAVORITE SONG: Disco Biscuit

link to full review: http://popcornandfizz.blogspot.com/2020/09/all-night-review-saccharine-synthpop.html

a terrifically varied and bouncy pop rap/R&B EP from an extremely promising musician. not a single stinker on the EP, and if Tkay puts out an album of this caliber, it'd be an easy AOTY contender if/when that occurs.

FAVORITE SONG: Shook

full review: http://popcornandfizz.blogspot.com/2020/08/last-year-was-weird-vol-2-review-every.html

one of the absolute greatest albums of the oughts, period, imo. Deftones delivers coked-up majesty on their magnum opus, which flows naturally from aggressive throwdowns to morbid yet gorgeous and thoughtful romps drenched in atmosphere.

FAVORITE SONG: Change (In the House of Flies)