One of my biggest character flaws as a music fan is that I could never bring myself to hop onto the dream-pop hype train. It is a genre that has had sparing success in actually impressing me. To my ears, the music is often non-descript and repetitive. These two adjectives can unfortunately be applied to my experience with Poison Girl Friend's cult classic EP "Melting Moment".

I was hoping that project's incorporation of trip hop would make the music more tangible and ... read more

Pretty great trip hop album from Esthero, I really like the prominent usage of organic instrumentation in the production that really gives the song extra impact. This album also blends its influences very well, the R&B melodies are complemented with sleek synth work and vinyl scratches signature of the trip hop genre, and are sprinkled with a bit of jazzy flair. The album even ventured into rock with the song "Heaven Sent" and I thought that was easily the best song on the entire ... read more

It's been amazing watching Kero Kero Bonito's progression in songwriting over the span of many projects, on "Civilisation", the band sings about political and apocalyptic themes with lyrics that are punchy, well-written, and thought-provoking. Their ear for melodies are as strong as ever, and the band's dedication to continuously expand their sound is applaudable, the tropical aesthetics on "Battle Lines", the slight R&B flair on "When The Fire ... read more

Kero Kero Bonito's transition to a more rock influenced sound risks the music coming off as contrived, thankfully "Time 'n' Place" is still tethered to the band's key characteristics, and displays even more creative and engaging storytelling.

The band that sang about shrimps and pocket crocodiles is no more -- bubblegum synths are replaced with guitar noise, with the band even eschewing their signature lyrical bilingualism, Kero Kero Bonito should be completely ... read more

LIGHT 7

Yeule loses a bit of their artistic distinctiveness in pursuit of a more palatable pop rock sound, but is fortunately salvaged by an improvement in their melodic writing.

My biggest issue with Yeule's music thus far is that they seem to priorities aesthetics over melody and structure, which in my opinion, obstructed them from realizing their great and unique musical ideas to their fullest. I was pleasantly surprised to see an improvement in that front on "Evangelic Girl Is A ... read more

DECENT TO STRONG 7

Softscars sees yeule heading in a new sonic direction by incorporating shoegaze into their signature glitch pop style. It isn't a genre amalgamation that has yet to be done before (i.e. Sweet Trip), but I find yeule's take on it fresh and intriguing even though it may not always be successful. I've found myself gravitating towards the noisier interpretations of this sound, the explosive opener "x w x" for example, really captivated me with the ... read more

DECENT 7

Addison Rae, former tiktoker turned burgeoning popstar, seems to be the most recent name in the industry to have taken the small, but loud, section of chronically online, pop culture-crazed internet users by storm. I myself have admittedly been on and off the Addison hype train over the past year (seriously the first single for this album came out back in August of 2024), and as the long-awaited debut approaches, the question remains: Will she deliver upon the promise of a good album, ... read more

LIGHT TO DECENT 8

Coming off of her 2019 masterpiece “Titanic Rising”, I was interested in the sonic direction Weyes Blood would go to for her follow-up “And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow” (which I will henceforth refer to as only “Hearts Aglow”), even from the first few songs I could tell there is a decrease in emphasis of synths in the production, and instead Weyes Blood and her producers pursued a much more organic sound driven mostly by piano, guitar, ... read more

Sufjan Stevens Discog Dive #8

DECENT 7

Really stretching the definition of EP here, but regardless this is a pretty decent project from Sufjan, the opener-cum-title-track is one of the best songs in his discography, across its extensive 11-minute duration, Sufjan’s vocals (which are incredible in this particular track, by the way), are accompanied by a backing chorus, horns, strings, harps, and many more. The elaborate, almost chaotic orchestral instrumentation vaguely reminds me of ... read more

Sufjan Stevens Discog Dive #7

DECENT 8

I am not a Christian, so some of the religious imagery and references may have went over my head a little bit, but even disregarding this particular aspect there’s still plenty to enjoy about “Seven Swans”, this album is often overshadowed due to its unfortunate placement in Sufjan’s discography — sandwiched between the 2 entries in his fifty-states project, but still this hidden gem offers some of Sufjan’s lushest ... read more

Sufjan Stevens Discog Dive #6

STRONG 7

“Michigan”, the introverted and quieter older brother to “Illinois”, is essentially the record that put Sufjan on the map, even upon first impression it is not hard to understand why. First and foremost, the lyricism of the record is immaculate, each song details little stories and anecdotes that simultaneously pay homage to the album's title state, while also echoing deeper political or personal themes that manage to ... read more

Pinkpantheress’ new mixtape “Fancy That” is, in my opinion, a complete upgrade from her already great 2023 record “Heaven Knows”. We see Pink eschewing some of the more lowkey moments on her last album for more straightforward, dance-pop bangers, With an increase in BPM is also a noticeable step up in song structuring, with each track feeling much more fleshed out and well-rounded compared to her previous material. Pink also gets to flex her producing muscles, the ... read more

Sufjan Stevens Discog Dive #5
LIGHT TO DECENT 9

At the midway point of this dive, the beauty of Sufjan Stevens' compositions should no longer surprise me, yet I was repeatedly left in awe by the sheer lushness of the arrangements on "Javelin". Dedicated to Stevens' late partner Evans Richardson, "Javelin" explores themes of loss and grief akin to his seminal 2010s masterpiece "Carrie & Lowell", which also sees him returning to that album's ... read more

STRONG 7

What an absolute batshit insane 3-track run from "Rude" to "Nasty", love the very creative use of synths and percussion to achieve this very grimy, abrasive texture. I thought "Gush" was interesting but the execution was a bit lacklustre, and I was ambivalent towards "Asher Wolfe", overall it averages out to be a pretty decent EP that shows Shygirl's great potential

STRONG 6

it's a nice, groovy ep with good production but it's biggest sin is that it's quite inoffensive, nothing really stands out to me except maybe the closer, direly missing the edge that makes shygirl earlier music so interesting, still I wouldn't mind putting this on for some easy listening.

fav: thicc
least fav: tell me

Sufjan Stevens Discog Dive #4

I don’t know if I would necessarily call this a full body of work considering it’s only 3 songs, 10 minutes, with one of them being a remix of a previously released song, but every song here is great especially “Mystery Of Love”, I do prefer the original version of “Futile Devices” though.

Sufjan Stevens Discog Dive #2
DECENT 8

Sufjan Stevens made this album after suffering from a mysterious illness that affected his nervous system, he was in chronic pain and it rendered him unable to work on music for months. A lot of the negative emotions that must’ve been yielded from such a horrible experience can be heard represented on the harsh and often disorienting “Age Of Adz”, an album that sees Sufjan ditching his signature acoustic folk, in favour of glitchy, ... read more

Sufjan Stevens - Discog Dive #1
DECENT TO STRONG 9

First I have to give mention to the incredible song titles this album has, never have I seen them being used this way, to provide more context to the overarching narrative of the record and injecting some humour into the listening experience. Very creative.

Now having only been familiar with Carrie & Lowell amongst Sufjan’s extensive musical repertoire, I was expecting this to be along the same lines sonically — stripped back, ... read more

The greatest strength of Utopia is the sense of immersion that the music gives you, the compositions are very freeform, especially in the vocal melodies, many songs feature multiple vocal lines stacked together and they definitely help create this ethereal, rising feeling. It echoes the lyrical themes of the album very well, which are mainly romance and optimism, these topics are not alien to Björk’s discography, but the way they’re conveyed in “Utopia” are ... read more

Sade was one of the first major artists to incorporate the burgeoning UK-based genre of trip hop into their music — its signature icy, urbane electronic embellishments could be heard across multiple tracks on “Love Deluxe”, most notably on “Like A Tattoo” and “Cherish The Day”. Sade Adu’s signature vocal husk pairs surprisingly well with the more minimalistic, almost ambient production approach, taking the sense of calmness that Sade’s music ... read more