What happened with these guys? Previous album was awesome, full of textures, a bit of distortion, remarkable song construction and beautiful landscapes.
Now? Just the landscapes, all the rest is gone. It is hard for me to say it but this honestly sounds like a Slowdive tribute band. Inoffensive but also amazingly sparkless.
I don’t see myself coming back to it and don’t think we are going to be talking about this album in a year.

See guys? It is not that difficult to make a decent and effective record.

Thirty two minutes, twelve simple, straightforward songs which stick to their traditional signature without going extremely close to it so they successfully avoid the menace of becoming a cartoon version of themselves (let’s recognize that it is a difficult and tricky exercise to do anyway).

Songs go from their most hyperkinetic type of sound (Trapdoor solution is such an incredible uplifter), to their more ... read more

I really love PJs 90s catalog and maybe that's the whole reason why I am not really feeling this new record.

Let's be fair about PJ, She is an artist that from her very beginnings has been always changing the way she approach her music, treating us with a lovable musical journey, otherwise, that has always been "a problem" for the ones (like me) who fell too much in love with any of her incarnations.

This new album has its own unique personality and at least to me that clearly ... read more

I am liking it but I am not sure know if I am doing it for the right reasons.

Nice, straightforward track, full of scratchy guitars and a claustrophobic mood. Quite reminiscent of blur early work with a HUGE David Bowie influence... I mean HUGE, I can even imagine Bowie shouting at 1 min 13 seconds raising his hands and looking to the sky in panic. But yeah, Bowie is everywhere so most likely it is difficult to run away from his influences.
Anyway a good mix between two artists I really ... read more

One of the best album from the 90s.

Most of the time classified as "trip hop" right next to Massive Attack and Tricky, the truth is that what we got from Portishead with this album was in a completely different league. Not that it was better (which to my ears actually is) but for sure it was different.
As always happens with tags (especially in this website), there were many trying to encapsulate this phenomena, but maybe the ones that better works for Dummy is "Slow ... read more

Disclaimer: one of my all time favorite albums is "Yours To Keep"... so, most likely I have some kind of weakness by the type of sounds AHJ used to put together and in that line, probably my judgement (and my score lol) of how good or bad is this record is going to be pretty shitty.

With that said. I am enjoying quite a lot this ride... this is not my first listen but as the album is in the "longer" corner I was distracted in a couple of spins and I lost track of the second ... read more

Naaaaah, it is not that terrible guys.

Agree regarding the vocals (which can be challenging at times) and in that it is far from being perfect and also in that it is more than a bit “all over the places” (prog, operatic, industrial…. daft punk?! hahaha) without really developing any of their own ideas.

Buuuuut, the truth being said,,the ride is super fun…. I mean crazy level of fun and curve balls.

Probably it is my own bias but I love when a band decide to run ... read more

Is this Paul Simon's Blackstar? Difficult not to think about it.
Sounds like a farewell to me.

It is clearly about ending a trip, look for forgiveness and trying to be ready. All of it under an openly religious view (with which I am ok to be honest, not my kind of stuff but I get it and I respect it).
In terms of musicality there is not much to say about it. Warm folk acoustic approach with some nice chord arrangements, bells and one or two passages where the percussion kinds of takes the ... read more

Wow, I mean wow., I can’t even try to be objective. I am fucking shaking.
Give me a day to swallow this incredible news. For now I am just loving it.

EDIT - one day after impressions
As I already said (in my super excited first notes), I think the best thing about this song is how you can hear it and say "this is blur, this is not Albarn alone". Totally different mood.
Track is faithful to the band warmer side legacy and sonic signature (vocals in the front, catchy melodies, ... read more

Yeah, they are sounding like they usually do.
Not enough to be extremely enthusiastic about. Josh is ok in the vocals, melody is catchy, guitars are right there in the front hitting you in the face (which is perfect), drums are decent (not like going over you or anything) and... what the heck was that slow fade out at the end? Come on guys! there are like one thousand better ways to end a song.
For moments sound to me like them going in auto pilot. Not bad, but nothing special tbh.
I hope ... read more

AI is coming for us!… and in this case, is pretty good to be honest.
Just to be fair and don’t spread wrong concepts. This album HAS AI elements, but most of it is not AI generated. Breezer is a band, they love Oasis and they pretty much knows perfectly all the keys which made Oasis songs what they are. So, they wrote these set of “Oasis style” tracks during pandemic and then (as their vocalist does not sing like Liam) they used AI to modify their singer vocal cadence ... read more

Country is not my thing, but how can you resist to this?
Awesome performance, Johnny was in one of his highest points, audience is totally devoted to him and the moments he share with June are priceless.
A well deserved classic for the ages.

Tricky album.
If you go to this record putting all the context in the equation, it is difficult not to empathize with some passages and also kind of share the feeling this album supposed to be immersed in.
In the other hand, if you skip all the context and go there only to appreciate its musical merits, this is not a great ride.
Truth being said, first three tracks are AMAZING, well worked melodies, identifiable musical signature and flawless lyrics. Opener and Eucalyptus are absolutely ... read more

Wow, what an incredible listen.
How can you dislike the most quiet and comfortable passages of this record when they are so lovely executed and Feist vocal performance is so incredible intimate and embracing? I can't.

It is impossible for me not to think in Aimee Mann ("Love Who We Are Meant To" is the best example of it), Kings Of Convenience , Adrianne Lenker or even in Enya (many of the arrangements are so reminiscent of her to my ears) while I am going through this tracks. So, if ... read more

For the most I am not a big fan of "greatest hits" or compilation records, but in Bikini Kill case I think it works.

Their records are amazing but if you want to give the band a little glimpse this is the place to start. Straightforward, catchy, clear af in terms of narrative content (as they are) and also kind of better produced than their LPs (which are the epitome of DIY spirit).
Here you are going to find "Rebel Girl" which imo is their biggest hit, raw energy, plain ... read more

Sorry guys I know you are very excited with this guy evolution and how groundbreaking is this record for him, and most likely that's the best part about this work, because beyond that, there is VERY little to be impressed here.

I mean it is a correct album, nothing openly offensive (besides the vocals which are painfully poor), totally the opposite, I must say it is kind of enjoyable, but most of the songs are hitting the same key one time after another and they are ok, soft, with a bit of ... read more

I hope you remember this scene:

"...Tyler: Raymond K. Hessel. 1320 South East Spanning Apartment A. Small cramped basement apartment, Raymond.
Raymond K. Hessel: How did you know?
Tyler: ’Cause they give shitty basement apartments letters instead of numbers…. Raymond, you’re going to die!... Is that your mom and dad? Mom and dad are going to have to call up kindly doctor so and so. Pick up your dental records. Wanna know why? Because there’s gonna be nothing left ... read more

Ok, kids come gather around me, I am going to tell you a little story.

Well, it happens that in the early 2000s the musical landscape was not very auspicious. We had tons of N'Sync type of stuff, Eminem, some (more than some really) Ricky Martin and of course a lot of Limp Bizkit, I mean A LOT. Yeah we also had some Strokes and a bit of Deftones, but they were not really taking the lead aaaaaaand we did not had streaming services so we were still kind of trapped in the massive mainstream ... read more

This is the best worst thing I have listen in a while.

Just a couple of thoughts in this one (for the pure fun of sharing my feelings, if you really want to read a decent review go to read @BaddieBaphomet (She/Her) , that's a good one).

Why is this so good?
Because it is so freakingly careless.
Of course there is work here and they tried to put something decent for the album, but there is zero heaviness on it. Which is the thing I love the most about this record and it is exactly the thing ... read more

The best thing about this album is that we had a whole month to put our ears around it.

With that said... this is an incredible record in so so so many levels.
It is not only the band showing us (and most likely showing to themselves) they are not only able to go forward but they are also able to deliver an amazing tracklist, revealing themselves as a BAND with all the letters very well deserve. We already knew they were exceptional as a bunch of musicians but for sure we were not really ... read more