Minus The Flair
Matt Wolfe
Emeritus

Reviews 63
Approval 100%

Soundoffs 15
News Articles 3
Band Edits + Tags 1
Album Edits 17

Album Ratings 283
Objectivity 69%

Last Active 10-24-22 11:29 am
Joined 06-02-06

Review Comments 870

Average Rating: 3.72
Rating Variance: 0.60
Objectivity Score: 69%
(Fairly Balanced)

Chart.

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5.0 classic
DJ Shadow Endtroducing.....
Fiona Apple The Idler Wheel...
Godspeed You! Black Emperor Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
Japandroids Post-Nothing
Being young fucking owns.
Kidcrash Jokes
Minus the Bear Highly Refined Pirates
Modest Mouse This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About
Mogwai Young Team
My Kappa Roots The House of St Colme Burnt Down
Neutral Milk Hotel In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Nils Frahm Screws
Say Anything ...Is a Real Boy
Say Anything ...Is A Real Boy (re-release)
Stars of the Lid And Their Refinement Of The Decline
Talk Talk Laughing Stock
The Fun Years Baby, It's Cold Inside
The Smith Street Band More Scared of You Than You Are of Me
The Weakerthans Left and Leaving
Titus Andronicus The Monitor

4.5 superb
65daysofstatic The Fall of Math
Aesop Rock Float
At the Drive-In Relationship of Command
BATS Red In Tooth and Claw
Blackalicious Blazing Arrow
Blue Sky Black Death Late Night Cinema
There were two records this year which competed for the nightwalk spot in my iPod, and more often than not BSBD would come out trumps and Flying Lotus would have to wait another day. Late Night Cinema excels because of how natural it sounds. The beats sound like they were planted and grown straight from the earth, especially when juxtaposed with the dreamlike vocals and ethereal ambience of the rest of the record. Late Night Cinema brings a whole new dimension to walking the backstreets at 3am. Los Angeles was great, but, for me, this knocked it out of the year's top ten.
Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago
Bright Eyes Lifted or The Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground
Buddy Peace Wolf Diesel Mountain
Stop feeding the egos at the Greer Talk party and start appreciating your buddies again. Wolf Diesel Mountain may not be as loud or boisterous as the year's most popular mix, but my god does it wipe the floor with Gillis' face in terms of sincerity, longeivity and genuine personality. Thanks to Buddy's meticulous attention to detail and seamless construction, he is able to pay homage to his indie and hip hop heroes in such a way that the listener can appreciate how perfect MF Doom sounds rapping atop Jose Gonzalez' gently strummed Heartbeats, while still being struck by how much emotion the two artists can deliver when pitched with one another. The respect is blatant, and the record succeeds because of it. Don't miss out, you'll have to explain away the bruises from kicking yourself if you do.
Burial Untrue
Burial and Four Tet Moth/Wolf Cub
Circle Takes the Square As the Roots Undo
DJ Shadow The Private Press
Explosions in the Sky Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die...
Explosions in the Sky How Strange, Innocence
Film School alwaysnever
Frightened Rabbit The Midnight Organ Fight
Joanna Newsom Have One on Me
The thing about Joanna Newsom is that she has a voice you could listen to for hours, without any instrumentation, and you'd just fall in love with it over and over again. The thing about Have One On Me is that it is so much more than that. Gorgeously sparse, beautifully composed, intelligent songwriting kept up for over two hours. A ridiculous amount of depth contained, this is a record that will surely continue to give and give and give till the years end, and then some.
John K. Samson Provincial
Kashiwa Daisuke Program Music I
Los Campesinos! Romance Is Boring
Massive Attack Mezzanine
Meanwhile, Back in Communist Russia Indian Ink
mewithoutYou A to B: Life
Minus the Bear They Make Beer Commercials Like This
Minus the Bear Planet of Ice
Modern Life Is War Witness
Modest Mouse The Lonesome Crowded West
Mogwai Come On Die Young
Nas Illmatic
Nils Frahm Spaces
Nujabes Metaphorical Music
Nujabes Spiritual State
Gorgeous.
RJD2 Deadringer
Saltillo Ganglion
sgt. Perception of Casualty
Sigur Ros Agætis byrjun
Swarms Old Raves End
The Dismemberment Plan Emergency & I
The National Boxer
The Samuel Jackson Five Goodbye Melody Mountain
Although the album title may indicate otherwise, SJ5's third effort sees the band experimenting with some unorthodox melodies while still maintaining the jazzy, proggy post rock sound they've become known for, and ending up with dazzling results. This is the best post rock album of the year because it dares to venture several steps forward while still having the strength and discipline to not leave its original brilliance behind and instead carry it on its shoulders for all to see. Oh, and How To Evade Your Obsessive Shadow is like insanely good.
The Six Parts Seven Casually Smashed to Pieces
The Tallest Man on Earth The Wild Hunt
Up-C Down-C Left-C Right-C ABC + Start And The Battle Is Won
Weezer Pinkerton
Weezer Weezer

4.0 excellent
Adebisi Shank This is the Album
Aesop Rock Labor Days
Aesop Rock Daylight
Against Me! Reinventing Axl Rose
Against Me! New Wave
Animal Hospital Memory
Bersarin Quartett Bersarin Quartett
Beware Of Safety It Is Curtains
Beware Of Safety dogs
Phwwoooar. My first impression after hearing 'Nu Metal', the first track from BoS' first full length 'dogs'. Stop playing in the sandbox with pg.lost and start accepting sweets from the bearded strangers in blacked out cars blaring out their heavy rock music. Trust me, you'll have a lot more fun. dogs manages to succeed where It's Not Me, It's You! failed because 1. the heavy sections contain addictive, varied, and downright sledge-hammer-to-the-balls riffs and inventive instrumentation instead of wall-of-sound guitar smooshing and 2. the melodic sections actually do something, and don't make you want to tear your ears out with boredom. Beware of Safety made a warning mark on the post rock scene last year with debut EP Is It Curtains but this ten track beauty stakes a serious claim for the position of post rock's new top dog. I'd start taking them seriously.
Bing and Ruth No Home of the Mind
Brand New The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me
Broken Social Scene You Forgot It in People
Built to Spill Perfect from Now On
Burial Burial
Cursive Domestica
Cursive The Ugly Organ
Dangers Messy, Isn't It?
Do Make Say Think Goodbye Enemy Airship the Landlord is Dead
Drake Take Care
Explosions in the Sky The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place
Fall Out Boy Folie a Deux
Fang Island Fang Island
Fight Like Apes ...And The Mystery Of The Golden Medallion
Florence and the Machine Lungs
Four Tet There is Love in You
Gatsby's American Dream Ribbons and Sugar
Gatsby's American Dream Volcano
Giraffes? Giraffes! More Skin With Milk-Mouth
Godspeed You! Black Emperor F♯ A♯ ∞
Grizzly Bear Veckatimest
Guillemots Through the Windowpane
Gym Class Heroes The Papercut Chronicles
Hammock Kenotic
Hammock Raising Your Voice... Trying to Stop an Echo
husband&wife Dark Dark Woods
Japancakes Loveless
Just the idea of covering My Bloody Valentine's 1991 classic would have probably caused many elitists to drop their shoegazing monacles in scorn. So for this gutsy Georgia six-piece to go ahead and cover each and every track must have had the entire elitosphere running around like headless chickens. But no fear, Japancakes have done the impossible. They have created a tribute album which not only compliments and accentuates the original but also sounds damn good all on its own. Clinging solely onto the original melodies of MBV's Loveless, Japancakes incorporate a wholly different sound, consisting of cellos, pianos and pedal stell guitars, to unravel a piece of work which looks more than beautiful when laid out flat against its forebearer. For those who still haven't heard the original, a slap on the wrist for you, but I say get this first. It will make you appreciate the first more, while still not detracting from the tribute. Get involved, son.
Japandroids Celebration Rock
Jon Hopkins Insides
Joshua Fit For Battle To Bring Our Own End
Kings of Leon Only By The Night
Lights Out Asia Eyes Like Brontide
Lights Out Asia Garmonia
Manchester Orchestra Mean Everything to Nothing
Max Richter The Blue Notebooks
Maybeshewill Not For Want Of Trying
mewithoutYou Brother, Sister
Millimetrik Northwest Passage's New Era
Minus the Bear Menos El Oso
Minus the Bear This is What I Know About Being Gigantic
Mogwai Mr. Beast
Mogwai Mogwai EP+2
Mono Hymn to the Immortal Wind
Murder by Death In Bocca Al Lupo
My Kappa Roots Old Sentry Who Saw The Transfiguring
Natsumen Never Wear Out Your Summer xxx !!!
An eight-piece jazz/noise rock band from Japan that likes X’s, !’s, and a whole lotta summer. Recipe for disaster? You’d think so, but no. One listen through Never Wear Out Your Summer, a six track, 45 minute live recording, and you’ll be begging for more. From the breakneck, frantic drumming that consumes ‘Newsummerboy’ to the epic, improvisational jazzy wonders of ‘Pills to Kill Ma August’ to the ridiculously infectious, anthemic rockings of ‘Natsu No Mujina’, it is clear that Natsumen have got the heat, fun and insanity of summer down to a tee. Powerful but entertaining, schizophrenic but cohesive, capricious but focused, this is truly original music to change your opinion about how much fun you can have with an instrumental band.
Nick Drake Pink Moon
Nuggies EP
Nurses Hangin' Nothin' But Our Hands Down
Off Minor The Heat Death of the Universe
Off Minor Some Blood
Ola Podrida Belly of the Lion
Olafur Arnalds Eulogy for Evolution
Phoenix (FRA) Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Piglet lava land
Portishead Third
Radiohead OK Computer
Rocky Votolato Makers
Rx Bandits Mandala
Scraps Of Tape This Is A Copy Is This A Copy
Set Fire to Flames Telegraphs in Negative/Mouths Trapped in
sgt. Stylus Fantasticus
Sigur Ros Von
Sigur Ros ( )
Sleepingdog Polar Life
Chantal Acda, female half and vocalist for ambient folk duo Sleepingdog, just has one of those voices. You know the ones, the type of voice you could listen to for hours on end, the type of voice that staples a permanent smile to your face. Being of Dutch origin there is a slight but cute tinge of accent which decorates her delivery, yet the sincerity she performs with never dwindles. Luckily, the music is very pretty too. Composed primarily of pianos and ambience by Adam Wiltzie (member of ambient gods Stars of the Lid (so you know you're in safe hands)), the melodies created are fragile and soft, perfectly complimenting Acda's special voice. Think if Laura Marling teamed up with Sleepingdog's labelmates Glissando. If you're feeling a little bummed out right now, or just simply want something to chill to, give this one a shot.
Te It Be The Thinking As 'the Song' Of Realistic Sound From The World Which
The Appleseed Cast Sagarmatha
The Dodos Visiter
The Field Looping State of Mind
The Flashbulb Soundtrack to a Vacant Life
The Morning Benders Big Echo
The Tallest Man on Earth Shallow Grave
The Twilight Sad Killed My Parents and Hit the Road
Tokyo Police Club Elephant Shell
Tokyo Police Club Champ
Trophy Scars Bad Luck
Various Artists (Indie) Dark Was The Night
William Fitzsimmons Until When We Are Ghosts
Worriedaboutsatan EP02
"A breath of fresh air" is a phrase which is used all too cheaply nowadays. I swear the other day I actually saw the line being used to advertise weed killer. Don't ask me how. Worriedaboutsatan, however, are one of the few that are deserving of the increasingly undervalued tag. Despite succumbing to the mysterious modern allure of shunning spaces between the words in their title (what's with that?), everything about this band is refreshing, exciting and wonderfully original. Yes, this is a blend of electronica and post rock. No, it sounds nothing like 65daysofstatic. I'm tempted to say this is better, but the two styles are so different it would be meaningless to compare. While 65dos are more on the post-rock end, pitching powerful riffs against random glitches, WAS are at the opposite end of the spectrum, using the occasional shimmering post rock guitar to accentuate and compliment tranquil yet compelling ambience. Worriedaboutsatan load their cannon with skitzy glitches, bottomless reverb, and some minimal but powerful percussion, then throw in some immersive vocals for good measure. Once the fuse is lit, they clamber into this cannon, guitars in hand, and wait for the bang. Although most of the record is spent watching the fuse go down, that's the beauty. It's a serene, consumative, at times exhilirating thing to behold. When it does though... well, you'll have to hear for yourself. Listen to 'The Last Song (First Song Remix)', around 2:38, and you'll hear this explosion first hand. One of my favourite moments of the year for music. Awesome, highly recommended stuff.
Yndi Halda Enjoy Eternal Bliss
Youth Lagoon The Year of Hibernation
Yppah Eighty One

3.5 great
American Football American Football
Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion
Arctic Monkeys Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
Arctic Monkeys Favourite Worst Nightmare
Aussitot Mort Montuenga
Benn Jordan Louisiana Mourning
Bon Iver Blood Bank
Bright Eyes I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
Broken Social Scene Broken Social Scene
Cursive Happy Hollow
Dark Captain Miracle Kicker
Daughter If You Leave
Dillinger Four C I V I L W A R
El-P I'll Sleep When You're Dead
Emancipator Safe In The Steep Cliffs
Envy Insomniac Doze
Fake Problems It's Great to Be Alive
Ever wondered what would happen if Against Me!, Modest Mouse and a Big Band quartet were trapped on a plane hurtling towards a fiery death and there was only one set of parachutes? Well, I can't say who'd be the ones left in freefall, but I'm sure the fight scene would sound a little like It's Great To Be Alive. And it sure is. Chris Farren's scratchy, hoarse vocals (perhaps at time a little too reminiscent of Tom Gabel), peirce holes in a frequently changing backdrop of stabbing guitar riffs, propulsive drumming and jubilant horns. Each track sees a new take on their unique (to an extent) sound of disco folk-punk, and for the first half of the album this is definitely a plus. Anthemic ska, catchy, chorus-heavy folk pop and gritty, guileless punk take turns to carry new sets of sarcastic, memorable lyrics (for the most part) and do so with an admirable spring in their step. But as the second half trudges on it seems like the band run out of ideas slightly and their nods towards Against Me! and The Hold Steady become perhaps a little too vehement. There are a few highlights in the second half though - check out 'Tabernacle Song' and 'Heart BPM', aswell as the first half's 'Level with the Devil' and 'The Dream Team'. Although the band seem to lack that killer edge right now, an 'X-Factor', so to speak, if they can muster the effort to be a little more inventive, dynamic and focused next time around they could have a really awesome record on their hands.
Fall Out Boy Take This to Your Grave
Fall Out Boy From Under the Cork Tree
Flies Are Spies From Hell Mountain Language
Heathers Here, Not There
Kashiwa Daisuke 5 Dec.

Daisuke has taken a few steps in a new direction with this record, searching for new sounds to add to his already impressive arsenal and, in many ways, he’s been successful. But on the other hand, 5 Dec. shows him making a sacrifice, venturing too far into the darkness in the pursuit of too many different noises and, without his original shining brilliance to light the path, getting lost along the way. There’s no denying that 5 Dec. is exhilarating, intriguing, interesting, at times even mesmerising. But the endless captivation, the rapturously hypnotizing consummation of Program Music I has all but vanished with 5 Dec., the strive for accessibility throwing it to the sky to be carried away by the wind like a choir’s chorus echoing across an empty chasm. Kashiwa Daisuke will have learned a lot from his latest exerts. Here’s hoping he can turn that experience into genuine electronic ingenuity with his next effort. Luckily for him, there’s no-one more suited to the task.
Kid Down And The Noble Art Of Irony
Kurt Vile God is Saying This to You...
Late Phantom Papers
Lights Out Asia Tanks And Recognizers
Loose Lips Sink Ships Puptent
Manchester Orchestra I'm Like a Virgin Losing a Child
Manchester Orchestra Simple Math
Maroon 5 It Won't Be Soon Before Long
Marvins Revolt Killec
mewithoutYou Catch For Us the Foxes
Minus the Bear Acoustics
Minus the Bear Omni
Modest Mouse Good News for People Who Love Bad News
Modest Mouse We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
Mogwai Happy Songs for Happy People
Mogwai Bat Cat
Mono You Are There
Nujabes Modal Soul
Olafur Arnalds Variations of Static
pg.lost Yes I Am EP
Planets Planets
Rocky Votolato True Devotion
shh... this is a library shh... this is a library
Sun Kil Moon April
Taking Back Sunday New Again
The Decemberists Picaresque
The Matches E. Von Dahl Killed the Locals
The Matches Decomposer
Thrice The Alchemy Index Vols. I & II
TTNG Animals
Weezer The Red Album
Worriedaboutsatan Arrivals
Yellow Ostrich The Mistress
Yellow Ostrich Strange Land

3.0 good
+44 When Your Heart Stops Beating
65daysofstatic The Destruction of Small Ideas
Anathallo Floating World
Be Your Own Pet Get Awkward
Ben Lee Ben Lee Sings Against Me! - New Wave
Broken Social Scene Feel Good Lost
City and Colour Sometimes
Cursive Mama, I'm Swollen
Is it just me or is Kasher getting unbearably annoying? Sure, he may have always enjoyed swimming in his own cesspool of self-soothing self-pity, and his audience has always identified with his lyrics. They're depressingly relatable. That's his appeal; metaphysical self-loathing. Leech on him and he'll leech off you. But he needs to start spinning a new record. "I spent the best years of my life waiting on the best years of my life. So what's there to write about?" Good question, Tim. Maybe you should start by smiling every once in a while. The amount of sympathy Kasher is asking for here is just too much for this optimist to handle, which is a shame because the first half of this record is fantastic. It's just the second half which becomes suffocated under the weight of it's own misery, both lyrically and musically.
Cynic Traced in Air
Do Make Say Think You, You're a History in Rust
Envy A Dead Sinking Story
Envy All the Footprints You've Ever Left and the Fear Expecting Ahead
Explosions in the Sky All of a Sudden, I Miss Everyone
Fink Biscuits for Breakfast
Fleet Foxes Fleet Foxes
Gatsby's American Dream Gatsby's American Dream
Ghost (UK) Freedom of Thought
Gym Class Heroes As Cruel As School Children
Mogwai Rock Action
Mogwai The Hawk Is Howling
Okay Huggable Dust
Portugal. The Man Waiter: ''You Vultures!''
PVT O Soundtrack My Heart
Rise Against The Sufferer and the Witness
Say Anything In Defense of the Genre
Say Anything Say Anything
Sigur Ros Takk...
The Ascent of Everest How Lonely Sits the City
The Graduate Anhedonia
The Pax Cecilia Blessed Are The Bonds
Up-C Down-C Left-C Right-C ABC + Start Embers
Yellow Ostrich Yellow Ostrich
Yo La Tengo I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass
ZOX The Wait

2.5 average
Aesop Rock None Shall Pass
Animal Collective Strawberry Jam
Arcade Fire Funeral
At the Drive-In Acrobatic Tenement
Bloc Party Silent Alarm
Boris Smile
Boys Like Girls Boys Like Girls
Daturah Reverie
Portugal. The Man Censored Colors
Riding Panico Lady Cobra
Sigur Ros Hvarf/Heim
The Decemberists The Crane Wife
The Format Dog Problems
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
The Status So This Is Progress
Wolfmother Wolfmother

2.0 poor
Cobra Starship While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Stree
Funeral for a Friend Tales Don't Tell Themselves
Immortal Technique The 3rd World
Mogwai Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
Um... cos this music can put a human being in a ennui-like state, and make him all too aware
of the tedious reality of existing. Cos music could be bigger than words and wider than
pictures, but now, if someone said that Mogwai were the stars, I would whole - and heavy -
heartedly object. If the stars had a sound, they would sound like a big fuck you in the
direction of Hardcore Will Never Die. The punishment for this loss of emotion should
be hard, but my blood fails to boil such is the tepidity of the tape that I've heard. I know
one thing... on February 14th the sky will breathe another huge sigh of disappointment... or
something... and with a resigned whimper... will um... urr... mourn again over its short but
magnificent time in the cave.
Panda Bear Person Pitch
Sigur Ros Med Sud i Eyrum vid Spilum Endalaust
The Matches A Band In Hope

1.5 very poor
Cobra Starship ¡Viva La Cobra!
Final Days Society Noise Passes Silence Remains
Hot Chip The Warning
Minus the Bear Interpretaciones Del Oso
The Killers Sam's Town

1.0 awful
Weezer Make Believe
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