This is a really nice time, actually! Dream Theater mixes 80s/early 90s cheesiness with some great prog metal music to make a finished product that is overall lots of fun. The opener track Pull Me Under feels grand and epic, and that energy is carried throughout the first half of the album pretty well. There's really fun bass at play, and the overall record is full of good moments. The singer's voice is great, and he can hit a lot of the highs they try to capture. The album does drag ... read more

This is a surprisingly fun album for the late 80s! Truth and Soul has a nice range of rock, from some more traditional alt-rock, some punk-ish stuff, and some music that really reminded me of acts like Oingo Boingo. This is an infectious album, that can either be unironically great, or really silly in an endearing way. The title track Freddie's Dead doubles as a great opener and earworm, and the following tracks keep up that fun alternative vibe. Ma and Pa feels like a song I'd hear ... read more

A pretty great time overall! This album is full of creative ideas, and when the album hits highs, it feels incredible. Moments like the end of Worm In Heaven, the riffs in The Aphorist, and the entirety of Processed By The Boys are great. As for the rest of the album, it's pretty solid, too. It's got a nice energy to it, although a couple tracks weren't my favorite (namely Michigan Hammers). Still, as someone who hasn't had much post-punk exposure, this was a good album.

I can't lie, I was pretty underwhelmed by this album. AC/DC had always been one of those bands I was aware of, and I knew they were considered classics, but I never dug into. Listening to Back in Black, after seeing all of the acclaim and popularity it's amassed, I can't say it's not kind of disappointing. First off, I'm really not a big fan of his voice. I know that's a big part of the appeal, and it does actually sometimes work, especially on moments like You ... read more

This is overall just neat. 4 Kali Uchis songs that feel like extracts. Not much else to say. They're all nice to listen to and it's not a bad time in the slightest, but it also lacks the cohesion of every other Kali project. This just feels like an "ok bitch here damn" release, and there's nothing necessarily wrong with that, but still.

I think this album is a tiny bit weaker than its predecessor, but this is ultimately more of the same type of music that AURORA knows how to make. I did notice that Step II was more mellow than Step I, with the energy seemingly peaking in the first track. These songs are all good, but I do feel that there's a tiny bit less identity to every track here. It all still works, but I can't say I enjoyed it quite as much as Step I. Still, the same common factors are here. Solid production, ... read more

Overall, AURORA's first Step of Infections of a Different Kind seems to be similar to the music she's traditionally been known for putting out. With a strong vocal range, good songwriting, and production that makes both pop and folk come together, the final product is a pretty solid indie album with a nice ambience to it. The finished product is just overall good, with the only thing to properly criticize would be some of the middle kind of blending together, as well as the relatively ... read more

This is probably going to be one of the most biased reviews I'll ever do, but even on first listen, I just appreciate this album, because it's just unapologetically fun. After the deep introspection we saw on Chromakopia, this serves as a nice breather between incredibly dense works. DON'T TAP THE GLASS is a pop rap album with dance elements, and pretty good production, too. It's moments like these that remind me that despite debuting over fifteen years ago and having tons ... read more

This is a short but interesrting album from Pusha T! It's honestly surprising to see this turn out so well. Nothing against him, but I kind of groaned when I saw a 21 minute runtime; so you can just imagine my surprise at the level of care and quality that went into this project. There's really captivating and fun flow here, and the raps all feel fresh and lively. The production is also really varied, from the upbeat hype tracks like If You Know You Know and What Would Meek Do?, the ... read more

An overall nice album that feels like it could've been much greater with a bit more fine-tuning. The singing is nice, and the instrumentation on some songs are great, but it does kind of blend together occasionally, especially near the middle of the record. However, I'll give it this; even when it does kinda get repetitive, it never sounds bad. This would great background music; I just wish it could stand out more like the first track does.

A weirdly inconsistent EP. Seriously, every song here could be its own project. Gnarly is a hot fucking mess, Gameboy and Gabriela are decent, M.I.A. is catchy, and Mean Girls is by far the best song here, with writing that may be "simple" but still good and impactful. Still, this EP tells me that KATSEYE is a group with talent and potential, but the execution is kinda shaky all around.

This is a project that starts off okay, actually. A little bit corny, but it works for what it is. After all, it is a mixtape, which I think deserves a bit more leniency as compared to LPs. However, good GOD does this take a nosedive in the middle. The stretch from NEW MISTAKES to SUMMA SHIT is really repetitive, with boring, overdone samples, rapping with little variety, and overall mediocrity. This just feels tone-deaf in ways. She's out of the public eye, and she wants to make a ... read more

Lorde is an artist that I generally enjoy, but going into this one, I can't say I wasn't a little nervous. The singles didn't grip me much when I heard them, and the short album runtime kind of scared me. However, I can safely say this album definitely delivers. I don't think it's the best album of the year, but it's definitely a very solid entry into her discography and a generally really nice time. I like how electronic the sound is, but how it's still ... read more

This album is so bland it's actually kind of sad. I wanna say that before I review, this isn't even influenced by the beef; I've been thinking the same of Drake since I was a kid. I just saw his music as one-note and boring, with not much to it. It was 6pm mall music, as I called it. I expected this album to be at least some switchup from that, but somehow this is even more down the rabbit hole. How do you even make an album like this? It's an hour and 13 minutes of ... read more

An album that seems to fluctuate between phenomenal and just alright. There's some solid britpop in here, like the title track Renegade or the closer Southern Bell, and there are a couple of songs I couldn't like as much as I wanted to, like A Drop In The Ocean or Orlando, and then there's the occasional insanely beautiful track, like Last Year's Man or Stupid Schemes. One of the vocalists (the higher-pitched one) is much better than the other in my opinion, and every track ... read more

This album feels like if you mixed Geordie Greep with System of a Down, along with the chaos of two guys dicking around in a college practice room. It's blunt and gross, but in a really darkly funny way. This album was so morbid, but with lots of memorable lines that just kinda make you go "okay DAMN". It's unapologetic and pretty energetic. The voice is harsh and kinda jars with the music, but given the punk topics, it oddly works. My only complaint is that near the end of ... read more

I feel similarly to this album as I do with Oklou's "choke enough". Both are decent electronic albums that I unfortunately couldn't fully immerse myself in. This one felt kind of scattered, with good ideas and the occasional great song, like What3vr or the title track, but the short runtime and occasional weird mixing, among other elements, kind of drag my overall opinion of the album down, unfortunately. This isn't bad, but I can't say I'm motivated to ... read more

This album really irks me for a variety of reasons, because every single aspect of this entire album is completely and utterly soulless. On his own, Benson Boone could make decent enough music, and he seems like an alright performer. The backflips may have been a bit cheesy, but it at least was something. There is nothing really on this album. I mean, on the literal sense, there's a pop rock album, but there's no personality or life anywhere to be found here. For one, every song ... read more

This is a really pretty time overall. The vocals here feel really warm and full of life, despite the soft delivery. The folk-type music creates a similarly warm atmosphere throughout, not unlike Big Thief's "Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You". This record has more mellow lows, like the closer Magic Mountain, or the hidden gem Leda, but it also has many emotional highs, such as the beautifully written Little Girl, or the rawness of Honey Water. Through it all, though, this ... read more

Pretty decent album with nice vocals, but it kind of falters through the production. While it sounds nice the whole way throughout, it kind of loses an identity as the album goes on, and it all just feels like one song. There's some really pretty stuff here, though. I just wish it was a bit more crisp or vivid to make it really stand out.