Fall Out Boy return with a genuinely shockingly good comeback after whatever "Mania" was. This is so consistently fun from start to finish and the production sounds fantastic. "Folie" is better, but purely in terms of entertainment value and replayability this might actually be my favourite FOB album. Great job guys

Favourites: Fake Out, What a Time TO Be Alive, So Much (For) Stardust, Heaven Iowa
Least Favourites: Baby Annihilation

The evolution present over the last couple albums really comes to a head here. Creative, funny, likeable, complex, catchy. Fall Out Boy at their peak

Favourites: America's Suitehearts, What a Catch Donnie, 20 Dollar Nosebleed, I Don't Care
Least Favourites: w.a.m.s

Don't know why I took forever to get around to this; great set of covers, nice to hear something purely fun and upbeat from BC,NR. Rough around the edges but that's kind the point - nice to hear Luke and Charlie on vocals as well. And yes, "Happier Than Ever" is fantastic

Very much not my sort of music but I cannot deny the sheer vibes of this thing, so many wonderful production details that give it so much character and - dare I say it - colour.

Favourites: Gosh, SeeSaw, Sleep Sound
Least Favourites: I Know There's Gonna Be (Good Times)

"Where do we go now?" is literally pop perfection, and there are a couple other really nice highlights, but a lot of this album is just kinda... there? Fairly one-note, a pleasant voice but somewhat lacking in character, and melodies that just seem slightly awkward? Heavily echoing "evermore", with a very Lorde vocal... all things that should work for me but just feel a little derivative. I don't know, I can't quite explain exactly what isn't clicking. But when this album ... read more

God this is the most perfect album I've heard in a long, long time. Every time I listen to it I'm just in shock as to how warm, luscious, richly detailed, melodically perfect, and just simply incredible-sounding this is. I don't know why it took me so many years to listen to this project but now I'm insanely excited to dive in to the rest of Broken Social Scene's discography

Favourites: KC Accidental, Stars and Sons, Shampoo Suicide, Looks Just Like the Sun, Lover's Spit, Pacific Theme
Least ... read more

Another excruciating listen, thanks Shoe Shoe

Favourites: New Life Immigration, Botanica De Los Angeles, Stupid in the Dark, Cinthya's Unisex
Least Favourites: Angel Guts

This is actually aggressively boring

Favourites: Heavenly Kind Of State of Mind
Least Favourites: Love The Hell Out Of You

Fuck it.

I do not say this lightly: this is a 10.

Out of the 613 albums, as of today, that I've listened to in my time, I only have six 10/10s - truly perfect albums that, as well as being flawless in quality, have a level of personal connection to me and significance within my life that elevate them from an amazing album to one of my favourites of all time. Today I'm adding a seventh.

I have never had an experience like this with an album before. The first time I heard it, I knew I was ... read more

The reception of this album is basically exactly what I was expecting based on the singles: the National fans are loving it, anyone who isn't already a National fan isn't getting much from it. So, based on this pattern... My rating shouldn't be a huge surprise.

As a huge fan of the National, I'm honestly enjoying this quite a lot. I have to be completely honest and say that it's far from their strongest - in fact, this is easily their weakest album in 20 years. But, considering how worried I ... read more

I don't know, man... Going into this I was expecting it to be either laughably bad (because Ed Sheeran) or shockingly good (because Aaron Dessner). Either of these would be better than the reality, which is that it's neither. Instead, it's just kinda... fine. Instrumentals are fine, super generic Dessner. Vocals still put me off a bit, but they're better than the previous couple albums. Lyrics flit between well-intentioned and weak.

Look, I really respect Ed's intentions here, to make an ... read more

Beautiful sound, I just feel like I need a little more substance here in terms of melody or structure or... something. Like this is so close to being something I really really love but as it stands it's not quite sticking with me, either emotionally or in my memory. Will keep an eye on this band.

Favourites: Empty Heavy, Distance Song, Pirouette
Least Favourites: And Now I Am Lit

I'm kinda shocked it took this long, but U2 finally U2'd too far. Honestly everything up to this point I've enjoyed and would defend to at least an extent. The most recent U2 album of original material to date, "Songs of Experience" sounds like a band that are tired and out of any real ideas. Even compared to "Songs of Innocence", which I enjoyed way more than I was expecting to, the production here is so flat, the hooks are forgettable, and Bono's voice is starting to show ... read more

It was always gonna be hard to follow up "untitled", but honestly for the most part I think "Neighborhoods" does a pretty solid job. Memorable hooks and strong vocal performances, plus some really nice synth usage, result in an album that remains super fun while also attempting something a little more meaningful than the band's early output.

Favourites: Ghost on the Dance Floor, Natives, After Midnight, Heart's All Gone
Least Favourites: Up All Night

Everything Elena Tonra touches turns to beautiful, tragic gold, and the new Daughter album is no exception. After a seven-year gap between main studio albums, the band return with a vulnerable record that's endlessly atmospheric in classic Daughter fashion, but also sees them audibly trying things out and breaking new ground for the project. Album highlight "Party" is a far drier, more intimate cut, pairing perfectly with Tonra's evocative lyrics, while subtle electronics and ... read more

This is just the most eargasmic mindfuck ever. Deliciously noisy to the extreme but with the added bonus of infectious danceability. "Dogsbody" has got to be my favourite album of the year so far, just can't get enough of it and I don't doubt I'll be coming back to it loads.

Favourites: Amaranth, Donkey Show, Sleepless, Mosquito, Pure Mode
Least Favourites: Divers

While I always find boygenius to be somewhat lesser than the sum of its parts, this is still a really enjoyable collaborative project. Admittedly certain tracks just sound like Phoebe songs with backing vocals, or Julien songs with backing vocals etc, but this isn't fundamentally a bad thing since all three artists involved have great sounds. I think going forward I'm hoping boygenius develop a little more of a sound unique to the trio as a group, rather than just an amalgam of the distinct ... read more

blink-182 have inexplicably gone from a band I thought I would never get into, to a band that I genuinely really like. Four albums in, and I now completely understand their sound and their appeal in a way that I never did before. "Nine" was the first (and for a long time, only) album I listened to from them, and I thought it was about time I revisited it several years on, now as a fan of the band.

So, how do I feel about it now? Yeah, it's not that good. I have to admit that it's ... read more

This album is a warm hug and a cool breeze on a summer day, simple, intimate and beautiful. Enough said

Favourites: Cattails, Open Desert, Orange, Terminal Paradise
Least Favourites: Strange [maybe I guess idk]