5.0 classic |
Between the Buried and Me The Silent Circus |
Blur 13 |
Brainiac Bonsai Superstar |
Brainiac Hissing Prigs in Static Couture |
Cardiacs Sing to God |
A dense, knotted, twisted art rock double
LP that defies both convention and
description. RIP Tim Smith, you absolute
legend! Excellent instrumental work all
over this album, it shows immaculate studio
craft and precision.
Standouts: "Fiery Gun Hand," with its
blistering pace and ripping solos.
"Bellyeye" and it's bipolar take on
britpop. "Dirty Boy," an unbelievable,
upwardly-ascending odyssey through about a
dozen different key centers. Tantamount to
a religious experience. "Odd Even" is a
sleeper favorite of mine, a restless psych-
folk number with a charmingly goofy guitar
and key break.
Is it a polarizing listen? Yes. You may
very well hate these records, but it is
ESSENTIAL for you to listen at least once. |
Converge Jane Doe |
David Bowie "Heroes" |
Dinosaur Jr. You're Living All Over Me |
Discordance Axis The Inalienable Dreamless |
Fuck the Facts Stigmata High-Five |
Fugazi 13 Songs |
Fugazi Red Medicine |
Glassjaw Coloring Book |
Helmet Strap It On |
Judas Priest Painkiller |
Manic Street Preachers The Holy Bible |
My Bloody Valentine Loveless |
Pile Magic Isn't Real |
An unbelievable record. Pile are among the last truly amazing rock bands. Like with any great record, there's a timelessness to their music, but there's mystique and obscurity there too. Songs like "Levee" and "Number One Hit Single" are 100mph fastballs, and they're expertly contrasted with slow burners like "Pets" or "Don't Touch Anything." Even when Rick Maguire's lyrics are at their most inscrutable, there's still a strong emotional connection. One of my all-time favorites. |
Pixies Doolittle |
Pixies Surfer Rosa |
R.E.M. Murmur |
R.E.M. Chronic Town |
Six Finger Satellite Severe Exposure |
Squarepusher Ultravisitor |
The Dillinger Escape Plan Calculating Infinity |
The Dillinger Escape Plan Irony Is a Dead Scene |
The Dismemberment Plan Emergency & I |
The Dismemberment Plan Change |
The Dismemberment Plan The Dismemberment Plan Is Terrified |
Tortoise TNT |
Tortoise Standards |
Weezer Pinkerton |
Weezer Weezer |
Zao Where Blood and Fire Bring Rest |
3.0 good |
12 Rods Separation Anxieties |
Aphex Twin Richard D. James Album |
Aphex Twin Drukqs |
Battles Juice B Crypts |
Beck Odelay |
Beck Midnite Vultures |
Beck Guero |
Between the Buried and Me Between the Buried and Me |
Between the Buried and Me Alaska |
Between the Buried and Me The Great Misdirect |
Between the Buried and Me Automata II |
Bloc Party A Weekend in the City |
Blonde Redhead In an Expression of the Inexpressible |
Blur Modern Life Is Rubbish |
Blur Leisure |
Boards of Canada Music Has the Right to Children |
Boards of Canada Geogaddi |
Brainiac Smack Bunny Baby |
Brand New Your Favorite Weapon |
Brand New Daisy |
Car Bomb Mordial |
Cave In Perfect Pitch Black |
Cave In Jupiter |
Chevelle Wonder What's Next |
Converge The Dusk in Us |
Daft Punk Human After All |
Daft Punk Homework |
David Bowie Heathen |
Dead Kennedys Frankenchrist |
Dead or Alive Youthquake |
Deafheaven Sunbather |
Deafheaven Ordinary Corrupt Human Love |
Deerhoof La Isla Bonita |
Deerhoof The Magic |
Deftones Saturday Night Wrist |
Deftones Ohms |
Dinosaur Jr. Dinosaur |
Dinosaur Jr. Beyond |
Echo and The Bunnymen Heaven Up Here |
Editors The Back Room |
Editors An End Has A Start |
Editors In Dream |
Editors Violence |
Enter Shikari A Flash Flood of Colour |
Enter Shikari The Mindsweep |
Foals Antidotes |
Foals What Went Down |
Guns N' Roses Appetite for Destruction |
Helmet Meantime |
Hum You'd Prefer an Astronaut |
IDLES Ultra Mono |
Iggy Pop The Idiot |
Incubus (USA-CA) Make Yourself |
Incubus (USA-CA) S.C.I.E.N.C.E. |
Interpol Antics |
Jack White Lazaretto |
Jane's Addiction Ritual De Lo Habitual |
Joy Division Closer |
King's X Faith, Hope, Love |
Lamb of God Wrath |
Le Tigre Le Tigre |
Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin IV |
Les Savy Fav Go Forth |
Les Savy Fav Root For Ruin |
Loathe The Cold Sun |
Manic Street Preachers Send Away The Tigers |
Manic Street Preachers Resistance Is Futile |
Melt-Banana Scratch or Stitch |
Melvins King Buzzo |
Melvins A Senile Animal |
Melvins Freak Puke |
Meshuggah Koloss |
Mew Visuals |
Muse Absolution |
My Bloody Valentine Isn't Anything |
Oingo Boingo Dead Man's Party |
OK Go Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky |
Pavement Wowee Zowee |
Pavement Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain |
Pavement Terror Twilight |
Periphery Juggernaut: Alpha |
Periphery Periphery IV: Hail Stan |
Phoebe Bridgers Punisher |
Pig Destroyer Prowler in the Yard |
Pig Destroyer Head Cage |
Pile You're Better Than This |
Pile A Hairshirt of Purpose |
Porcupine Tree In Absentia |
Porcupine Tree Stupid Dream |
Pram The Stars Are So Big… The Earth Is So Small... |
Pulp This is Hardcore |
Sigur Ros ( ) |
Snapcase Bright Flashes |
Snapcase Designs for Automotion |
Snapcase Lookinglasself |
Sonic Youth Daydream Nation |
Sonic Youth Goo |
Soulwax Any Minute Now |
Squarepusher Go Plastic |
Sufjan Stevens Illinois |
Sufjan Stevens Seven Swans |
Sufjan Stevens Carrie and Lowell |
SUMAC Love In Shadow |
Tame Impala Innerspeaker |
Tame Impala The Slow Rush |
The Breeders Mountain Battles |
The Breeders All Nerve |
The Dillinger Escape Plan Option Paralysis |
The Dillinger Escape Plan One of Us Is the Killer |
The Fall of Troy Doppelganger |
The Fall of Troy Manipulator |
The Flaming Lips Transmissions From the Satellite Heart |
The Flaming Lips The Soft Bulletin |
The Flaming Lips At War with the Mystics |
The Jesus and Mary Chain Automatic |
The Knack Zoom |
Wildly inconsistent, but some strong highlights. "Tomorrow" has a wonderful British RnB crunch. There's also "Can I Borrow A Kiss?" which sounds exactly like a Killers B-Side. This whole album has the waft of americanised BRnB about it, which is a weirdly incestuous microgenre in its own. If you're a fan of pop rock and/or already a Knack aficionado, you should listen. If you hate Brandon Flowers, you should not. |
The Magnetic Fields 69 Love Songs |
The Mars Volta Amputechture |
The Mars Volta Octahedron |
The Number Twelve Looks Like You Put On Your Rosy Red Glasses |
"Jesus And Tori" sounds like the Super
Mario Bros underwater music if it was in
hell.
I've always liked how you could tell that
The Number Twelve were always capable of
seriously tasteful straight-ahead rock
magic, but they were far too funny to stick
to convention.
The lapses on this record where they veer
too close to the standard metalcore sound
("Blue Dress") are where this album loses
me. It's also artificially inflated with
sound collages and pointless gaps of
silence, relics of the CD era and endemic
to the genre at the time. (It was 2003
after all) |
The Presets Apocalypso |
The Rolling Stones Let It Bleed |
The Smiths Strangeways, Here We Come |
The Stooges The Stooges |
The Strokes Room on Fire |
The Strokes First Impressions of Earth |
The White Stripes Elephant |
Toadies Rubberneck |
Toadies Hell Below/Stars Above |
Tool 10,000 Days |
Trap Them Seizures In Barren Praise |
Venetian Snares Detrimentalist |
Venetian Snares Thank You For Your Consideration |
Weezer The Red Album |
Wormrot Dirge |
Yes Yes |
Zao (Self-Titled) |