...Who Calls So Loud ...Who Calls So Loud | 3.5 |
1208 Feedback Is Payback | 2.5 |
1905 Voice | 2.5 |
A Day In Black And White My Heroes Have Always Killed Cowboys | 4.0 |
A Static Lullaby ...And Don't Forget to Breathe | 2.5 |
A Wilhelm Scream Career Suicide | 3.5 |
AFI Sing the Sorrow | 3.5 |
AFI Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes | 3.5 |
AFI Very Proud of Ya | 3.5 |
AFI The Art of Drowning | 4.0 |
AFI Black Sails in the Sunset | 4.0 |
AFI All Hallow's E.P. | 4.5 |
Against Me! New Wave | 2.5 |
Against Me! Searching for a Former Clarity | 3.0 |
Against Me! The Disco Before the Breakdown | 3.5 |
Against Me! As the Eternal Cowboy | 4.0 |
Against Me! Reinventing Axl Rose | 4.5 |
Alcest Souvenirs D'Un Autre Monde | 3.0 |
Alexander Scriabin Preparation for the Final Mystery | 3.5 |
Alexisonfire Watch Out! | 2.0 |
Alexisonfire Alexisonfire | 3.5 |
Alexisonfire/Moneen The Switcheroo Series | 2.5 |
Algernon Cadwallader Some Kind Of Cadwallader | 3.0 |
Alias Resurgam | 2.5 |
Alien Ant Farm ANThology | 4.0 |
Alkaline Trio From Here to Infirmary | 3.5 |
Alkaline Trio Alkaline Trio | 3.5 |
Alkaline Trio Good Mourning | 4.5 |
Alkaline Trio/Hot Water Music Alkaline Trio/Hot Water Music Split | 5.0 |
ALL Problematic | 4.0 |
ALL Mass Nerder | 4.5 |
American Nightmare We're Down Til We're Underground | 3.0 |
American Steel Jagged Thoughts | 3.5 |
American Steel American Steel | 3.5 |
American Steel Destroy Their Future | 3.5 |
Amesoeurs Amesoeurs | 2.0 |
Ampere All Our Tomorrows End Today | 3.5 |
Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion | 1.5 |
Antigua y Barbuda Try Future | 3.5 |
Aphex Twin Classics | 2.0 |
Aphex Twin Come to Daddy | 2.5 |
Aphex Twin Richard D. James Album | 3.5 |
Aphex Twin Drukqs | 4.0 |
Arcade Fire Funeral | 2.0 |
Arcade Fire Neon Bible | 2.5 |
As Cities Burn Son, I Loved You at Your Darkest | 2.5 |
ASVA What You Don't Know Is Frontier | 2.5 |
At the Drive-In Relationship of Command | 4.0 |
At the Drive-In Vaya | 4.0 |
At the Drive-In In/Casino/Out | 4.0 |
Atreyu Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses | 3.0 |
Aussitot Mort 6 Songs | 3.0 |
Aussitot Mort Montuenga | 3.5 |
Austrian Death Machine Total Brutal | 1.5 |
Avenged Sevenfold City of Evil | 2.5 |
Avenged Sevenfold Sounding the Seventh Trumpet | 3.0 |
Bad Religion New Maps of Hell | 2.0 |
Baths Cerulean | 4.5 |
Beach House Teen Dream | 3.5 |
Bear vs. Shark Terrorhawk | 3.0 |
Bear vs. Shark Right Now You're in the Best of Hands | 4.0 |
Belle Epoque A La Derive | 3.5 |
Between the Buried and Me The Anatomy Of | 2.0 |
Between the Buried and Me Alaska | 3.5 |
Between the Buried and Me Between the Buried and Me | 4.0 |
Between the Buried and Me Colors | 4.0 |
Between the Buried and Me The Silent Circus | 4.5 |
Blaqk Audio CexCells | 3.0 |
blink-182 Enema Of The State | 2.5 |
Blue Sky Black Death Jean Grae: The Evil Jeanius | 3.5 |
It's a strange thing that such a good album could come out of such unofficial collaborative circumstances. Jean Grae, rapper with a dark, subdued style, and Blue Sky Black Death, trip hop gone post-rock producers from San Francisco, are releasing this album outside of their authorized canon (BSBD's Late Night Cinema and Jean Grae's Jeanius were both "official" releases earlier this year) but don't have some catchy name to acknowledge the team they've created (e.g. Deltron3030). The resulting music finds Blue Sky Black Death producing music that is notably truncated, chill, and reserved, which puts it at odds with the cathartic and epic content of Late Night Cinema. The production sounds like it's been reduced to complement Jean Grae's coy but depressed flow and lyrics. The sound slays on the lighter, placid tracks like "Take It Back" and "Lights Out," and only falters on the bombastic opening track, "Shadows Forever." |
Blue Sky Black Death Late Night Cinema | 4.5 |
Bon Iver Blood Bank | 3.0 |
Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago | 3.5 |
Bon Iver Bon Iver, Bon Iver | 4.5 |
This is one of my top albums of the year. Makes For Emma look like the livejournal poetry it always was. |
Brand New Your Favorite Weapon | 1.0 |
Brand New Deja Entendu | 3.0 |
Burial Untrue | 1.5 |
Burton Wagner 21 | 3.5 |
Burton Wagner In the Realms of the Unreal | 4.0 |
Burton Wagner A Sentinel's Eyes | 4.0 |
By The End Of Tonight/Tera Melos Complex Full of Phantoms | 3.5 |
Calexico Feast of Wire | 3.5 |
Callisto Providence | 3.0 |
Capsule (US) Blue | 3.0 |
Cave In Until Your Heart Stops | 2.5 |
Cave In Antenna | 4.0 |
Cave In Jupiter | 4.5 |
Charles Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus | 4.5 |
Circa Survive Juturna | 3.0 |
Circle Takes the Square Circle Takes the Square | 4.0 |
Circle Takes the Square Rites of Initiation | 4.5 |
Circle Takes the Square As the Roots Undo | 5.0 |
City of Caterpillar City of Caterpillar | 3.0 |
Clint Mansell, Kronos Quartet and Mogwai The Fountain | 4.5 |
The Fountain's soundtrack is a wonderful amalgam of post-rock, minimalism, and modern classical music. Composed by Clint Mansell and performed by Kronos Quartet and Mogwai, this soundtrack can simultaneously deploy touching piano, pounding strings, and powerful rock music all at once. Overall, it has a majestic, celestial feel that perfectly suits the film, and beyond that, the music is awesome independent of the movie. |
Coheed and Cambria From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness | 2.0 |
Coheed and Cambria No World for Tomorrow | 3.0 |
Coheed and Cambria Year of the Black Rainbow | 3.0 |
Coheed and Cambria In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 | 4.0 |
Coheed and Cambria The Second Stage Turbine Blade | 4.5 |
Comadre More Songs About The Man | 3.0 |
Comadre The Youth | 3.5 |
Comadre/Trainwreck Split | 3.5 |
Comeback Kid Wake the Dead | 3.5 |
Converge Axe to Fall | 2.5 |
Converge No Heroes | 3.0 |
Converge Jane Doe | 3.5 |
Covenant Northern Light | 3.5 |
Cursive The Ugly Organ | 4.0 |
Cursive Mama, I'm Swollen | 4.0 |
Cursive Domestica | 4.5 |
Cymbals Eat Guitars Why There Are Mountains | 3.5 |
Cynic Traced in Air | 3.0 |
Daddy Yankee Barrio Fino En Directo | 1.0 |
Daft Punk Human After All | 3.0 |
Daitro Des Cendres, Je Me Consume | 2.5 |
Daitro Laisser Vivre Les Squelettes | 4.0 |
Dalek Gutter Tactics | 2.0 |
Damien Rice O | 4.5 |
The more and more I listen to Damien Rice, the more I realize that there is no way to dislike his music. It may be sentimental and sappy, but there is a tangible yet inexplicable honesty and softness to every performance of his that validates any amount of sappiness he slops onto his songs. The end result is beautiful, wonderful balladry. He's not a bad storyteller either. |
Damiera Quiet Mouth Loud Hands | 2.5 |
Dan Deacon Bromst | 4.0 |
Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse Dark Night of the Soul | 3.5 |
Dangers Messy, Isn't It? | 3.5 |
David Gilmour On An Island | 3.5 |
De Facto Megaton Shotblast | 3.0 |
De La Soul Are You In?: Nike+ Original Run | 3.0 |
De La Soul Stakes Is High | 3.5 |
De La Soul The Grind Date | 4.5 |
Dead to Me African Elephants | 3.5 |
Dead to Me Cuban Ballerina | 4.0 |
Dead to Me Little Brother | 5.0 |
Deafheaven Sunbather | 5.0 |
Deerhunter Microcastle | 2.5 |
Deftones Adrenaline | 2.0 |
Deftones B-Sides and Rarities | 3.0 |
Deftones Deftones | 3.5 |
Deftones Around the Fur | 4.0 |
Deftones Saturday Night Wrist | 4.5 |
Saturday Night Wrist features a new Deftones. Here, instead of emulating past nu-metal success, or completely
lapsing in a post-Team Sleep paralysis, Deftones hit hard somewhere between the two, leading to an album that is
strangely beautiful. Nine of the twelve songs are immaculate and powerful. |
Deftones White Pony | 5.0 |
Deftones Diamond Eyes | 5.0 |
Dela Changes of Atmosphere | 4.0 |
Deltron 3030 Deltron 3030 | 4.5 |
This is probably my favorite hip hop album of all time. The production feels incredibly organic and compelling and complements the nerdy rap of Del tha Funkee Homosapien, who's distinctive voice feels especially at home with the overall aesthetic and flavor of the album. My only gripe is the presence of skits, which are much more funny, musical, and satisfying than skits on other rap albums. |
Destroyer Kaputt | 4.0 |
Dirty Projectors Rise Above | 3.5 |
Dirty Projectors Bitte Orca | 3.5 |
Disturbed Ten Thousand Fists | 1.5 |
DJ Shadow Endtroducing..... | 4.0 |
Do Make Say Think You, You're a History in Rust | 4.0 |
Dolcim We Carry the Fire | 4.0 |
Dr. Octagon The Return of Dr. Octagon | 1.5 |
DRACULACORE sp�l nation | 5.0 |
DragonForce Sonic Firestorm | 2.5 |
dredg The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion | 3.5 |
dredg Leitmotif | 4.0 |
dredg Catch Without Arms | 4.5 |
dredg El Cielo | 5.0 |
Drowning With Our Anchors Demo | 4.0 |
3 tracks. 22 minutes. Below average quality recording. Sometimes it seems like that's all it takes to make a powerful emo album. Drowning With Our Anchors' Demo feels like a wonderful trip through both post-rock and melodic post-hardcore and emo. The songs are expansive and long featuring large instrumental breaks between the vocals. The most quiet and pensive portions of the album are both beautiful and eerie. There are faint voices in the background that set a ghostly mood that is complemented by the somber instrumental passages. When they hit hard, Drowning With Our Anchors crescendos are gorgeous and don't use the dissonance and distortion of other emo bands to get the point across. They seem content to push the point across melodically, using touching and simple guitar lines. Also, the vocals shredddddd. This album, while obviously not a full release, feels like a full gesture. Hopefully Drowning With Our Anchors will put out a more complete release in the future to capitalize on this initial promise. |
Dustin Kensrue Please Come Home | 3.0 |
Efterklang Parades | 3.0 |
Efterklang Tripper | 3.5 |
Emery The Weak's End | 2.0 |
Engine Down Under the Pretense of Present Tense | 3.0 |
Engine Down Demure | 4.0 |
Engine Down To Bury Within the Sound | 4.0 |
Envy Insomniac Doze | 3.5 |
Equus Osaka Rose | 1.0 |
Esbjorn Svensson Trio Leucocyte | 3.0 |
Escape the Fate Dying Is Your Latest Fashion | 1.5 |
Every Time I Die Gutter Phenomenon | 2.0 |
Every Time I Die Hot Damn! | 3.5 |
Extra Life Made Flesh | 3.0 |
Extra Life Secular Works | 3.5 |
Face to Face How to Ruin Everything | 3.5 |
Fang Island Fang Island | 3.5 |
Fantomas Delìrium Còrdia | 2.0 |
Feral Children Second to the Last Frontier | 4.0 |
Finch What It Is to Burn | 2.5 |
Flying Lotus 1983 | 3.5 |
Flying Lotus Los Angeles | 3.5 |
Flying Lotus Cosmogramma | 4.5 |
For the Mathematics The New Science | 3.0 |
fordirelifesake Breathing in Is Only Half the Function | 4.0 |
Four Tet There is Love in You | 3.0 |
Four Tet Rounds | 3.5 |
Frank Zappa Lumpy Gravy | 2.5 |
Frank Zappa Zoot Allures | 3.5 |
Frank Zappa Strictly Commercial | 4.0 |
Frank Zappa Zappa In New York | 4.0 |
Frank Zappa Hot Rats | 4.5 |
Frodus Conglomerate International | 2.5 |
Frodus And We Washed Our Weapons In The Sea | 4.0 |
From Autumn to Ashes Too Bad You're Beautiful | 1.0 |
From Autumn to Ashes Holding A Wolf By The Ears | 1.0 |
From Autumn to Ashes The Fiction We Live | 1.5 |
From First to Last Heroine | 2.0 |
Frou Frou Details | 3.0 |
Fucked Up The Chemistry of Common Life | 2.0 |
Fugazi The Argument | 3.5 |
Funeral Diner Doors Open | 3.0 |
Funeral Diner The Underdark | 4.0 |
Further Seems Forever How to Start a Fire | 4.0 |
Future Islands In Evening Air | 4.0 |
Ganon As Above, So Below | 3.5 |
Gatsby's American Dream Volcano | 4.0 |
Gatsby's American Dream Ribbons and Sugar | 4.5 |
Genghis Tron Dead Mountain Mouth | 3.0 |
Genghis Tron Cloak of Love | 4.0 |
Ghastly City Sleep Ghastly City Sleep | 4.0 |
Ghastly City Sleep Moondrifts | 4.0 |
Ghostlimb Ghostlimb | 4.0 |
Sometimes I listen to hardcore bands and they just throw around a bunch of dissonant notes and make super sparse
but beefy breakdowns. Ghostlimb is heavy as fuck at all times without sacrificing melody or succumbing to typical
hardcore fare. The album has 11 songs and is 15 minutes long. "Palimpsest" is a perfectly complete 55 second
hardcore nugget. These guys also don't take themselves completely seriously with deions of their music on myspace
being "Influences: none, traffic; Sounds Like: unreasonably mad" unlike other similar sounding artists. The result is a
hardcore album that understands that brevity and brutality can coexist with melody and sensibility. |
Ghostlimb Bearing & Distance | 4.0 |
Giles Corey Giles Corey | 4.5 |
It is imperative that you get this album and its accompanying booklet. Immense. |
Giraffes? Giraffes! More Skin With Milk-Mouth | 3.5 |
Girl Talk Unstoppable | 3.0 |
Girl Talk All Day | 3.5 |
Girl Talk Night Ripper | 4.5 |
Girl Talk Feed the Animals | 4.5 |
Feed the Animals picks up where Night Ripper leaves off, but is much more than a deflated, lackluster sequel. Gillis is all over the board with his influences, dipping his quill into a wide variety of rock (Thin Lizzie, Radiohead, The Band, Nirvana), trip hop (Aphex Twin), and even slow-burning crooners (Sinead O'Connor). Despite, or maybe thanks to, all of these new opportunities for sampling, there is no loss of danceability or catchiness. Girl Talk, nothing compares 2 u. |
Glassjaw Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Silence | 4.5 |
Glassjaw El Mark | 4.5 |
Glassjaw Worship and Tribute | 5.0 |
Godspeed You! Black Emperor Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven | 3.5 |
Godspeed You! Black Emperor F♯ A♯ ∞ | 4.0 |
Gojira From Mars to Sirius | 2.0 |
Gold Panda Lucky Shiner | 4.5 |
Gonjasufi A Sufi and a Killer | 2.5 |
Gorilla Biscuits Start Today | 3.5 |
Gospel The Moon Is a Dead World | 5.0 |
Grade Under the Radar | 4.5 |
Grails Burning Off Impurities | 2.5 |
Grails Doomsdayer's Holiday | 3.5 |
Grails Red Light | 4.0 |
Instead of having huge climaxes, bright major keys, and max e-bow action, Grails chooses to withdraw a little more, focusing on modal tonalities, very natural instrumentation and more subtle dynamic swells. The end result is incredibly compelling, if goofy on some tracks. The middle portion of this album has some truly beautiful songs. |
Green Day Dookie | 3.0 |
Group Bombino Guitars from Agadez, Vol. 2 | 3.5 |
Gruvis Malt ...With the Spirit of a Traffic Jam | 3.0 |
Harvey Milk Life... The Best Game in Town | 1.5 |
Have a Nice Life Deathconsciousness | 4.5 |
Equal parts post-rock, dark ambient, and industrial, but mostly shoegaze, Have a Nice Life's debut album Deathconsciousness is a double-disc concept album of epic proportions but without pretention. Throughout the course of its 85-minute run time, the album treats the listener to a varied collection of songs; there are slow-burners, there are epics, there are anthems. This album is so packed with different ideas that they all blend beautifully into the reverby, distorted soundscape that defines this album's aesthetic. All of this is topped off by the fact that the concept is wonderfully executed and supported by a 70+ page booklet that charts the life and works of a near mythical religious figure from the 13th century named Antiochus. Though Deathconsciousness is an intense listen, and not for the weak-eared, it is ultimately a very likable and human album, never forgetting shoegaze's pop roots. There are moments on Deathconsciousness that are grating and dissonant, but there are far more that are beautiful and even catchy. At its core, it's an album that is very intimate with all of its ideas and soundscapes. |
Hawthorne Heights The Silence in Black and White | 1.0 |
Heiruspecs A Tiger Dancing | 4.0 |
Helios Caesura | 3.0 |
Hella The Devil Isn't Red | 2.5 |
Hella Hold Your Horse Is | 3.5 |
Herbie Hancock Head Hunters | 3.0 |
Herbie Hancock Maiden Voyage | 4.5 |
Hollywood Undead Swan Songs | 1.0 |
Hopesfall Magnetic North | 3.5 |
Hopesfall has written an album that exists as an extension of their 2004 album A Types. The taut songwriting and amazing vocals are back, and sometimes even better. The production is awesome and every song is packed with wonderful ideas. Hopesfall are essentially the best band to mix pop-punk and post-hardcore still actively working on that amalgam today. However, Magnetic North has too many unfortunate moments like the cheesy chorus on "Paisley" or the occasional nu-metal breakdowns to let it eat at the big kid's table with their previous two LPs A Types and The Satellite Years. Keep in mind though that that isn't stopping awesome songs like "I Can Do This on an Island" from picking up 40+ plays in just over a week. |
Hopesfall The Satellite Years | 4.0 |
Hopesfall A Types | 4.0 |
Hopesfall No Wings To Speak Of | 4.5 |
HORSE the band A Natural Death | 2.5 |
HORSE the band Pizza | 3.5 |
HORSE the band R. Borlax | 4.0 |
HORSE the band The Mechanical Hand | 4.5 |
HORSE the band Desperate Living | 4.5 |
Hot Cross A New Set of Lungs | 3.5 |
Hot Cross Risk Revival | 4.0 |
Hot Cross stuns again, but this time the instrumentals are slightly stripped down and rugged while the vocals are the haymaker. Overall, the album has a much more youthful, straight-forward sound, which is likely the result of losing a guitarist, Josh. There's only one lame song ("Cardiac Silence") and a handful of godly ones ("Turncoat Revolution" and "Blame Truth" being among them). Even if it doesn't challenge as much as Fair Trades and Farewells, Risk Revival finds its niche and shreds away all the same. |
Hot Cross Fair Trades and Farewells | 4.5 |
Hot Cross Cryonics | 5.0 |
Hot Water Music A Flight and a Crash | 4.0 |
Ill Nino Revolution/Revolucion | 2.5 |
In Pieces Learning to Accept Silence | 4.5 |
In Pieces Lions Write History | 5.0 |
Incubus (USA-CA) S.C.I.E.N.C.E. | 4.0 |
Indian Summer Discography | 3.0 |
Ishmaël Ishmaël | 3.5 |
ISIS Wavering Radiant | 2.0 |
ISIS In the Absence of Truth | 3.0 |
ISIS Celestial | 3.5 |
ISIS Oceanic | 4.0 |
ISIS Panopticon | 4.0 |
Jaga Jazzist One-Armed Bandit | 4.0 |
James Blake James Blake | 4.5 |
Jedi Mind Tricks Visions of Gandhi | 3.5 |
Jedi Mind Tricks Violent by Design | 4.5 |
Jeff Buckley Grace | 4.0 |
Jesu Conqueror | 1.5 |
Jesu/Battle of Mice Split | 2.0 |
Jneiro Jarel Fauna | 3.5 |
Jonny Greenwood There Will Be Blood OST | 3.0 |
Justice †| 4.5 |
Justice's † is the best mainstream pop/dance album since Daft Punk's Discovery. Though at moments it rips off Discovery's catchiest moments, Justice find their own niche in the grimier and more aggressive moments found throughout the album. Though pop tracks like "D.A.N.C.E." and "Phantom pt. I & 2" are perfectly sweet, tracks like "Genesis," Let There Be Light" and "Waters of Nazareth" steal the show with their immaculate sampling, sandpaper synths, and relentlessly catchy and pulsing beats. |
Karate Unsolved | 4.0 |
Kayo Dot Blue Lambency Downward | 3.5 |
Kayo Dot Dowsing Anemone With Copper Tongue | 4.5 |
Kayo Dot Choirs of the Eye | 5.0 |
Kelly Clarkson Breakaway | 1.5 |
Kidcrash Snacks | 3.5 |
Kidcrash Jokes | 5.0 |
Sort of like a smoother version of Off Minor with some fossils from when they were a Midwest indie band. The flows, tempos, time signatures, and feels are all convoluted, making it the mathiest album I've heard in a while. What makes it even more amazing is they don't sacrifice their solid songwriting and the sound is fairly accessible against the dissonance and chaos the likes of a Dillinger Escape Plan. If anything the album feels a little homogeneous, though any individual track will shred your face into pulp. This is perfect for Tera Melos fans who were a little underwhelmed by the mere 19 minutes of Drugs to the Dear Youth, those awaiting Ire Works later this year, or really anybody who considers themselves fluent with post-hardcore or emo. |
Koenji Hyakkei Angherr Shisspa | 3.0 |
La Cosa Nostra Demo EP | 3.5 |
Lagwagon Resolve | 3.0 |
Lagwagon Duh | 3.0 |
Lagwagon Blaze | 3.0 |
Lagwagon Hoss | 3.5 |
Lagwagon Trashed | 3.5 |
Lagwagon Double Plaidinum | 4.0 |
Lagwagon Let's Talk About Feelings | 4.5 |
letlive. Fake History | 1.5 |
Whatever instrumental skills or interesting ideas these guys may have are completely suffocated by overproduction (how many reversed cymbal crashes can one album have) and a near fetishistic influence from early 2000s post-hardcore and metalcore (double-bass drum fills should be applied with ironic br00tality a la Between the Buried and Me, not seriously). Fake History is a strong example of when worship and tribute goes too far. |
Life at These Speeds To Your Health | 3.5 |
Life at These Speeds Life at These Speeds | 4.0 |
Maybe it's because I've seen them live but I seem to have an inflated opinion of Life at These Speeds. They play a brand of punk that seems to be quite unpretentious and fun but still maintains emotional gravity. Their live show also embraces this notion as there's joking around and good energy but the band and audience sometimes can lose it and go crazy at the crescendos. Their best songs are their epic crushers like "Knives" and "Ground Gives Out" but there isn't a weak track on this album. This album is also slightly better than their 2006 album To Your Health. |
Life in Your Way The Sun Rises and the Sun Sets... | 3.5 |
Lifetime Jersey's Best Dancers | 3.5 |
Light This City Remains Of The Gods | 3.5 |
Light This City Facing The Thousand | 3.5 |
Lightning Bolt Hypermagic Mountain | 2.5 |
Limp Bizkit Three Dollar Bill Y'all | 2.5 |
Linkin Park Hybrid Theory EP | 2.5 |
Liquid Tension Experiment Liquid Tension Experiment | 3.0 |
Loma Prieta Dark Mountain | 3.5 |
Loma Prieta Last City | 4.0 |
Love Like... Electrocution Love Like... Electrocution | 3.5 |
Lovedrug Pretend You're Alive | 3.0 |
M83 Before The Dawn Heals Us | 3.0 |
Mamaleek Kurdaitcha | 3.5 |
Maps and Atlases Tree, Swallows, Houses | 4.0 |
Imagine the songwriting of a Midwest-Emo-influenced band like Don Cabellero or Denver in Dallas crossed with the
indie of My Morning Jacket. But that's just the surface. There's the crazed rhythms and tapping guitar of Tera Melos
and Hella, and riffs sweeter and smoother than ones heard from Minus the Bear. It seems like a freaky hybrid of styles,
but Maps and Atlases pull it off well, never becoming too relentlessly mathy or too ironically indie for their own good.
There are a few moments of incongruity and awkwardness, but overall this album is a wonderful example of genre-
bending. |
Mastodon Crack the Skye | 2.0 |
maudlin of the Well My Fruit Psychobells... A Seed Combustible | 3.0 |
maudlin of the Well Leaving Your Body Map | 4.0 |
maudlin of the Well Part the Second | 4.0 |
maudlin of the Well Bath | 4.5 |
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes Are a Drag | 3.5 |
Meet Me in St. Louis Variations on Swing | 3.5 |
Memoryhouse The Years | 4.5 |
Meneguar Strangers in Our House | 3.5 |
Mesa Verde The Old Road | 4.0 |
Messiah J & The Expert From The Word Go | 1.0 |
Metaform Standing on the Shoulders of Giants | 4.0 |
Metallica St. Anger | 1.0 |
Metallica Reload | 1.0 |
Metallica Load | 1.0 |
Mike Jones Who Is Mike Jones? | 2.5 |
Miles Davis Bitches Brew | 3.5 |
Millencolin Pennybridge Pioneers | 3.5 |
Millencolin Home From Home | 4.0 |
Millencolin Life On A Plate | 4.0 |
Million Dead A Song to Ruin | 4.0 |
Ministry Rio Grande Blood | 1.0 |
Minus the Bear Omni | 2.5 |
Minus the Bear Planet of Ice | 4.0 |
Minus the Bear's Planet of Ice is an unwelcome yet surpringly impressive departure from their patented hammer-on clean tone style. Here, the guitar riffs are not repeated as background music but are much more of a driving force in the songwriting. The synth is a presence as well and make the songs feel like prog anthems, big guitar and all, instead of sensitive indie songs. There are throwback moments, but most of this album is inventive and new. I like the old Minus the Bear and I like the new Minus the Bear. If only they could combine the emotion and songwriting of the old with the progression and production of the new; then we'd have something a classic. |
Misery Signals Controller | 3.0 |
Misery Signals Mirrors | 4.0 |
Moderat Moderat | 4.5 |
Modern Life Is War Witness | 3.5 |
Modern Life Is War Midnight in America | 3.5 |
Mudvayne L.D. 50 | 2.5 |
Murder by Death In Bocca Al Lupo | 3.0 |
Murder by Death Red Of Tooth And Claw | 3.0 |
Murder by Death Who Will Survive and What Will Be Left of Them? | 4.5 |
My Chemical Romance Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge | 2.0 |
My Chemical Romance I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love | 2.5 |
My Morning Jacket Z | 3.0 |
My Morning Jacket Evil Urges | 4.0 |
Nahvalr Nahvalr | 3.0 |
Nas Illmatic | 3.0 |
Native Wrestling Moves | 3.5 |
Nervous Light of Sunday 弱心光景 | 3.5 |
New Found Glory From the Screen to Your Stereo | 2.5 |
No Doubt Tragic Kingdom | 3.5 |
No Use for a Name The Feel Good Record of the Year | 3.0 |
No Use for a Name Hard Rock Bottom | 4.0 |
Nobuo Uematsu Final Fantasy VIII: Original Soundtrack | 4.0 |
NOFX I Heard They Suck Live!! | 2.0 |
NOFX They've Actually Gotten Worse Live | 2.0 |
NOFX The War on Errorism | 3.0 |
NOFX Heavy Petting Zoo | 3.0 |
NOFX S&M Airlines | 3.0 |
NOFX Liberal Animation | 3.0 |
NOFX Wolves in Wolves' Clothing | 3.0 |
NOFX 45 or 46 Songs That Weren't Good Enough | 3.5 |
NOFX Surfer | 3.5 |
NOFX The Greatest Songs Ever Written (By Us) | 4.0 |
NOFX Pump Up the Valuum | 4.0 |
NOFX White Trash, Two Heebs and a Bean | 4.0 |
NOFX Punk in Drublic | 4.5 |
NOFX So Long and Thanks for All the Shoes | 4.5 |
NOFX The Decline | 5.0 |
NOFX/Rancid BYO Split Series Vol. 3 | 4.5 |
Norma Jean Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child | 1.0 |
North What You Were | 3.5 |
Off Minor Some Blood | 3.0 |
Off Minor Problematic Courtship | 3.5 |
Off Minor The Heat Death of the Universe | 4.0 |
Ohana Dead Beat | 3.0 |
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez A Manual Dexterity: Soundtrack Vol. 1 | 4.0 |
Opeth Orchid | 2.5 |
Opeth Damnation | 3.5 |
Orgy Candyass | 3.0 |
Panic! at the Disco A Fever You Can't Sweat Out | 1.5 |
The more I am forced to hang around this album by way of my younger brother, the more I realize that it is just a derivative, linear version of Gatsby's American Dream, and the reason Gatsby's American Dream is so great is because of their ability to balance the Panic at the Disco catchiness with much more fresh and cmoplex song structures. Only listen to this album if you only recently learned how to read. |
Passion Pit Manners | 4.5 |
pg.99 Document #8 | 3.0 |
Phaseone Thanks But No Thanks | 3.5 |
Pianos Become the Teeth Keep You | 5.0 |
Planets Planets | 3.5 |
Poison the Well You Come Before You | 2.0 |
Polar Bear Club Sometimes Things Just Disappear | 2.5 |
Portrait Discography | 4.0 |
Portraits Of Past Discography | 3.5 |
Portugal. The Man Church Mouth | 1.5 |
Prolyphic & Reanimator The Ugly Truth | 2.0 |
Propagandhi Supporting Caste | 3.5 |
Protest the Hero Fortress | 1.0 |
I had procrastinated listening to this album for a while. I really disliked Kezia but ultimately respected their musicianship and room to develop, despite the fact that they were really just a poor man's Between the Buried and Me (without the sense of humor and self-awareness). Fortress shows that Protest the Hero went nowhere with the small shards of premise they showed on their previous album. Instead of going for oddball amalgam metal or seamlessly blending together their influences, they opted to write technically impressive guitar-centric passages that are so distasteful I found myself cringing at the overtly metallic flare. The imitation Europrog vocals and the pastiche songwriting didn't help one bit either. Maybe they could do a cover album or play weddings in the future. |
Protest the Hero Kezia | 2.0 |
PSY/OPSogist Suffused With Static | 4.0 |
PSY/OPSogist Souls Touch EP | 4.0 |
PSY/OPSogist Mining The Valleys | 4.0 |
PSY/OPSogist Kings Of Sleep | 4.0 |
Psyopus Ideas of Reference | 3.0 |
Puddle of Mudd Come Clean | 1.0 |
Pulley Together Again For The First Time | 3.5 |
Pygmy Lush Mount Hope | 3.5 |
Pyramids Pyramids | 2.0 |
Pyramids (PA) Through the Hourglass | 2.5 |
Pyramids (PA) Following the Tracks, Forcing Motion Thr | 3.5 |
Quantice Never Crashed Quantice Never Crashed | 1.5 |
Quiet Steps Think Aloud | 4.0 |
Radiohead Pablo Honey | 2.5 |
Radiohead The Bends | 3.0 |
Radiohead Hail to the Thief | 3.0 |
Radiohead Amnesiac | 3.5 |
Radiohead OK Computer | 4.0 |
Radiohead In Rainbows | 4.0 |
Radiohead Kid A | 5.0 |
Raein Il n'y a pas de orchestre | 3.0 |
Rage Against the Machine The Battle of Los Angeles | 2.5 |
Rage Against the Machine Rage Against the Machine | 3.5 |
Rage Against the Machine Evil Empire | 4.0 |
Ramones Ramones | 1.5 |
Ramones Rocket to Russia | 2.0 |
Rancid Indestructible | 2.0 |
Rancid Rancid (2000) | 4.0 |
Red Hot Chili Peppers Stadium Arcadium | 2.5 |
Red Sparowes At The Soundless Dawn | 4.0 |
Refused The Shape Of Punk To Come | 4.0 |
Rise Against Siren Song of the Counter Culture | 3.5 |
Rise Against Revolutions per Minute | 4.0 |
Rites of Spring Rites of Spring | 3.0 |
Rites of Spring End on End | 3.0 |
Rockets and Bluelights A Smashed City with Flames and Music in the Air | 4.0 |
Rufio Perhaps, I Suppose... | 3.0 |
Saetia A Retrospective | 3.5 |
Sailors With Wax Wings Sailors With Wax Wings | 4.5 |
Samiam Astray | 3.5 |
Saosin Translating the Name | 4.0 |
Say Anything ...Is a Real Boy | 2.5 |
Set It Straight My Favourite Words | 4.0 |
Set Your Goals Mutiny! | 3.0 |
Set Your Goals Demo 2004 | 4.0 |
Shai Hulud Misanthropy Pure | 3.0 |
Shai Hulud That Within Blood Ill-Tempered | 4.5 |
Shape of Broad Minds Craft of the Lost Art | 5.0 |
Shearwater The Golden Archipelago | 4.0 |
Sholi Sholi | 4.0 |
Sigur Ros ( ) | 3.0 |
Silverstein When Broken Is Easily Fixed | 1.0 |
Silverstein Discovering the Waterfront | 1.0 |
Silversun Pickups Swoon | 3.5 |
Sinaloa Oceans of Islands | 3.0 |
Sir Richard Bishop The Freak of Araby | 3.0 |
Slipknot Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses | 2.0 |
Slipknot Slipknot | 2.5 |
Slipknot Iowa | 3.0 |
Solar Bears She Was Coloured In | 3.5 |
Soli i Sombra The Armadillo EP | 4.0 |
Son Lux At War With Walls And Mazes | 4.5 |
Our top album here at Sputnikmusic was Burial's Untrue. That album had a distinctively sparse, brittle tone to its atmosphere. Other than that though I found the album almost unlistenably boring. Imagine taking that one cool aspect of that album and fleshing it out in all regards. Then you'd have Son Lux's At War With Walls & Mazes, an album that blends a variety of genres and production techniques to create a glitchy, high personalized, trip hop masterpiece. At War With Walls & Mazes is a strong contender for album of the year. It is the best electronic release since Venetian Snares' Rossz Csillag Allat Szuletett. It is nearly flawless, and the scary thing about all of this praise is that it's only Son Lux's debut album.
|
Soundgarden A-Sides | 3.0 |
Soundtrack (Film) Garden State | 1.5 |
Sparta Austere EP | 3.0 |
Sparta Wiretap Scars | 3.5 |
Sparta Porcelain | 3.5 |
Spires (USA) Flowers And Fireworks | 3.0 |
Starkey Ear Drums and Black Holes | 4.0 |
Stars of the Lid And Their Refinement Of The Decline | 2.0 |
Story of the Year In The Wake Of Determination | 2.0 |
Straylight Run Straylight Run | 1.5 |
Strung Out Exile In Oblivion | 3.0 |
Strung Out Blackhawks Over Los Angeles | 3.0 |
Strung Out Live in a Dive | 4.0 |
Strung Out An American Paradox | 4.5 |
Subtle ExitingARM | 2.0 |
Sufjan Stevens Illinois | 2.0 |
Sufjan Stevens Michigan | 2.5 |
Sufjan Stevens Seven Swans | 3.0 |
Surfer Blood Astro Coast | 2.5 |
System of a Down Steal This Album! | 2.5 |
System of a Down System of a Down | 4.0 |
System of a Down Toxicity | 4.0 |
Taking Back Sunday Tell All Your Friends | 2.5 |
Team Sleep Team Sleep | 3.5 |
Telefon Tel Aviv Immolate Yourself | 2.5 |
Tera Melos Idioms, Vol. 1 | 3.0 |
Tera Melos Drugs to the Dear Youth | 4.0 |
Say what you will about the technicality of bands like Dillinger Escape Plan, Meshuggah, and Psyopus, but Tera Melos is there and they don't sacrifice any listenability for technicality. They have moved slightly away from their Braid/Denver in Dallas-type style and more towards oddball progressive stuff, but overall, this album feels more like a continuation of their last album than anything else, however they seem to be one guitarist fewer than last album. If anything that absence has made the rest of the band more inventive with its playing. This album is the first great release of 2007. |
Tera Melos Untitled | 4.5 |
Tera Melos Patagonian Rats | 4.5 |
The Agony Scene The Darkest Red | 1.0 |
The Album Leaf In A Safe Place | 2.5 |
The Appleseed Cast Peregrine | 3.0 |
The Beatles Rubber Soul | 2.5 |
The Bled Pass the Flask | 3.0 |
The Blood Brothers Crimes | 2.5 |
The Blood Brothers March On Electric Children | 3.0 |
The Blood Brothers ...Burn, Piano Island, Burn | 4.0 |
The Cape May Glass Mountain Roads | 3.5 |
The Dillinger Escape Plan Ire Works | 2.0 |
The Dillinger Escape Plan Calculating Infinity | 4.0 |
The Dillinger Escape Plan Miss Machine | 4.0 |
The Dillinger Escape Plan Irony Is a Dead Scene | 4.5 |
The Early November The Mother, The Mechanic, and The Path | 2.0 |
The Faint Wet From Birth | 2.5 |
The Faint Fasciinatiion | 2.5 |
The Faint Danse Macabre | 3.5 |
The Faint Blank-Wave Arcade | 4.0 |
The Fall of Troy Phantom on the Horizon | 2.0 |
The Fall of Troy Doppelganger | 3.5 |
The Fall of Troy The Fall of Troy | 4.5 |
The Flashbulb Soundtrack to a Vacant Life | 3.5 |
The Game Doctor's Advocate | 2.5 |
The Gaslight Anthem The '59 Sound | 4.0 |
The Killers Day & Age | 3.0 |
The Lawrence Arms Oh! Calcutta! | 3.0 |
The Lawrence Arms Apathy and Exhaustion | 4.0 |
The Loved Ones (USA-PA) Build & Burn | 4.0 |
The Mars Volta Amputechture | 3.0 |
The Mars Volta The Bedlam in Goliath | 3.0 |
The Mars Volta Octahedron | 3.0 |
The Mars Volta De-Loused in the Comatorium | 4.0 |
The Mars Volta Frances the Mute | 4.5 |
The Microphones The Glow Pt. 2 | 4.5 |
The Number Twelve Looks Like You Put On Your Rosy Red Glasses | 3.0 |
The Offspring Americana | 1.5 |
The Pax Cecilia Nouveau | 4.0 |
The Pax Cecilia Blessed Are The Bonds | 4.5 |
The Pax Cecilia's second LP Blessed Are the Bonds is forged from the same fires that gave listeners Circle Takes the Square's As the Roots Undo and Dredg's El Cielo. It is epic, original, heavy, pensive, and savagely compelling music. It is transcendent. It taps into something above normal perception and does this with a strange lack of pretention. The sound is a mix of post-rock (Engine Down), alternative (Dredg), metal (Isis), and screamo (City of Caterpillar). The musicianship and songwriting are beautiful and the emotional weight of the album is relentless. And to top it all off, the album is free (www.paxcecilia.com contacts.html). |
The Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower Dissertation, Honey | 3.0 |
The Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower plays an odd mix of hardcore and jazz. This mix is not like that of Tera Melos'. It doesn't sound like a smooth integration of the two styles but sounds like a grinding juxtaposition. After a Red Scare-like groove has been established in the more hardcore sections of the song, the band may abruptly throw in a saxophone solo. These choppy moments make the synthesis seem awkward, but occasionally the mix comes out perfectly and stylishly. The cymbal roll section on "For Marcus" seems to be perfectly executed in its dancey catchiness and the solo doesn't bother me so much later in the song. However, overall this album isn't as solid as it could be. |
The Postal Service Give Up | 2.5 |
The Program Artifical Unintelligence | 4.0 |
The Sainte Catherines Dancing for Decadence | 3.5 |
The Smashing Pumpkins Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music | 3.0 |
The Smashing Pumpkins Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness | 4.5 |
The Smashing Pumpkins Siamese Dream | 4.5 |
The Temper Trap Conditions | 3.5 |
The Walls You've Built The Definition of Friendship | 3.5 |
The Weakerthans Reunion Tour | 2.5 |
The Wonder Years Get Stoked on It! | 1.0 |
Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra Horses in the Sky | 2.5 |
These Arms Are Snakes Tail Swallower and Dove | 2.5 |
These Arms Are Snakes This Is Meant To Hurt You | 3.0 |
These Arms Are Snakes Oxeneers or the Lion Sleeps When Its Antelope Go Home | 3.5 |
These Arms Are Snakes Easter | 3.5 |
Thin Lizzy Jailbreak | 3.5 |
Thirty Seconds to Mars A Beautiful Lie | 3.0 |
Thrice First Impressions | 3.0 |
Thrice Beggars | 3.5 |
Thrice Red Sky | 4.0 |
Thrice The Alchemy Index Vols. III & IV | 4.0 |
Thrice Identity Crisis | 4.5 |
Thrice The Artist in the Ambulance | 4.5 |
Thrice If We Could Only See Us Now | 4.5 |
Thrice Vheissu | 4.5 |
Thrice The Alchemy Index Vols. I & II | 4.5 |
In general, the first half of The Alchemy Index points to success. There are questionable aspects to both discs, but in general the cons are vastly outweighed by the pros. The Fire disc is a great exploration of the heavier moments on Vheissu. The album is explosive and intense, with Dustin ripping his vocal cords to pieces while the rest of the band unleashes their heaviest material yet. Songs like "The Flame Deluge" act as the most brutal work Thrice has ever created. Songs like "The Messenger" and "Backdrift" are surprisingly the weirdest, blending together electronic influences into heavy, harmonic minor chord progressions. The Water disc, excepting its opening track, is nearly flawless. Interestingly, it also continues a strand that was started on Vheissu's slower, more pensive tracks like "Atlantic." It's a collection of beautiful and wistful songs that all have lush and stunning arrangements. The Water disc feels exactly like it was recorded underwater. As a collection of songs, this album is amazing for nine out of the twelve tracks. As a concept album, it's halfway to becoming an amazing cycle. There are a few flaws and the second half of the collection to worry about, but so far Thrice has produced another stunner. |
Thrice The Illusion of Safety | 5.0 |
Thursday Waiting | 3.0 |
Thursday Five Stories Falling | 3.5 |
Thursday War All the Time | 4.0 |
Thursday A City By the Light Divided | 4.0 |
Thursday Full Collapse | 4.5 |
Thursday/Envy Thursday/Envy | 3.0 |
Tiger Army II: Power of Moonlite | 3.0 |
Tim Hecker An Imaginary Country | 3.0 |
Time in Malta Alone with the Alone | 3.0 |
Toby Driver In the L..L..Library Loft | 4.5 |
In the newfound popularity of Kayo Dot, it may be easy to miss Toby Driver's debut solo LP. This album contains some of Toby's compositions that he considered too weird and off the wall for Kayo Dot. Despite the inherent quirkiness implied by that premise, Driver delivers some fairly interesting and palatable pieces just left of his stuff on Dowsing Anemone With Copper Tongue. Read the full review to check out the cool techniques he used to compose and record each song. |
Tool Lateralus | 3.5 |
Toro Y Moi Causers of This | 3.5 |
Touche Amore ...To the Beat of a Dead Horse | 3.5 |
Touche Amore Parting The Sea Between Brightness And Me | 5.0 |
Modern Life Is War:Blue Collar::Touche Amore:White Collar |
Trash Talk Trash Talk | 3.5 |
Trash Talk Plagues | 4.0 |
Trophy Scars Alphabet Alphabets | 2.5 |
Trophy Scars Goodnight Alchemy | 3.5 |
Trophy Scars Bad Luck | 3.5 |
Trophy Scars Darts to the Sea | 4.0 |
Trophy Scars Hospital Music for the Aesthetics of Language | 5.0 |
TV on the Radio Dear Science | 2.5 |
Twain Harte A Sunny Place for Shady People | 3.5 |
Underoath They're Only Chasing Safety | 2.5 |
Underoath Lost in the Sound of Separation | 2.5 |
Unearth The Oncoming Storm | 3.0 |
United Nations United Nations | 3.0 |
Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend | 3.0 |
Venetian Snares Filth | 1.5 |
Venetian Snares My Downfall (Original Soundtrack) | 3.0 |
Venetian Snares Cavalcade of Glee and Dadaist Happy Pom Poms | 4.0 |
Venetian Snares Detrimentalist | 4.0 |
Venetian Snares Rossz Csillag Allat Szuletett | 4.5 |
Venetian Snares, aka Aaron Funk, embarked on a Bartokian journey to Hungary to collect modern classical, jazz, pop, and other local music to create his own electronic reinvention of folk music. This album features these carefully chosen samples against Funk's progressive breakbeat and happy hardcore beats. The resulting sound is grandiose, epic, intelligent, and forward-thinking, all while remaining much more palatable than the typical schizophrenia and claustrophobia of the usual Venetian Snares sound. Rossz Csillag Allat Szuletett may be the most intelligent electronic album of all time. |
Wait What the notorious xx | 4.0 |
Weather Report Heavy Weather | 3.5 |
Weezer Make Believe | 1.0 |
Why? Alopecia | 2.0 |
With Honor This Is Our Revenge | 3.5 |
With Honor With Honor | 4.5 |
With Honor Heart Means Everything | 4.5 |
Wolf Parade Apologies to the Queen Mary | 1.0 |
Wolfmother Wolfmother | 2.0 |
Wolfmother runs on a pretty tight formula. 23% Led Zeppelin. 52% Jet. 68% suck. (The Jet elements and the suck elements overlap a lot). This album is so painfully derivative that I'm upset that I had to listen to it. Not even pay for it as I reviewed it for my radio station, but plain old wish I hadn't even bothered to listen. They ravage the most boring elements of Led Zeppelin and combine them with the obnoxious elements of Jet and other modern rock revivals of the classic rock that wasn't all that great in the first place. Stay away from this album unless you are still mourning John Bonham's death. Even then, don't listen to more than one track. |
Wolves in the Throne Room Black Cascade | 3.0 |
Xiu Xiu The Air Force | 3.0 |
Xiu Xiu Knife Play | 3.0 |
Xiu Xiu Women As Lovers | 3.0 |
Xiu Xiu A Promise | 3.5 |
Xiu Xiu Fabulous Muscles | 4.0 |
Yakuza Samsara | 2.5 |
Yasunori Mitsuda Chrono Cross Original Soundtrack | 4.5 |
You and I Discography | 3.5 |
You and I The Curtain Falls | 4.5 |
Young Widows Old Wounds | 3.0 |
Zach Hill Astrological Straits | 2.0 |
Zombie Apocalypse This is a Spark of Life | 3.0 |