| Taylor Swift The Tortured Poets Department | 2.3 |
| woah what a surprise this is overlong and mid and every song sounds the same |
| Sea Oleena Shallow | 3.1 |
| Lovely ambient dream pop that does suffer from being a tad too ~shallow~ to fully immerse myself in its lush atmosphere. |
| Bloodbath Grand Morbid Funeral | 3.5 |
| Typical Bloodbath: even though it's run-by-the-mill death metal, its lack of originality is enhanced by all-around solid performances. |
| Bohren und der Club of Gore Piano Nights | 3.3 |
| Moody and nocturnal dark jazz - yes all dark jazz is moody and nocturnal - that really isn't much more than moody and nocturnal dark jazz - but what else would you expect from Bohren? |
| Logic Under Pressure | 2.9 |
| Baby's first rap record is ofc some conscious bullshit on top of jazzy boom bap. It's aight. |
| Bad Religion True North | 3.3 |
| Even though it ain't on par with their heydays' material, True North was a reinvigorated slab of Bad Religion's patented blend of melodic hardcore and skate punk. |
| Fuzz Fuzz | 3.4 |
| The band name and lineup say it all: this is a fuzzy affair of garagey and psychy stoner rock. It doesn't necessarily live up to Segall's best material, but it's nevertheless a cool lil record. |
| Atlantean Kodex The White Goddess (A Grammar Of Poetic Myth) | 3.0 |
| Of course a blend of doom and heavy metal with slight power metal spices would be "epic". Not my fav kind of metal but this is undeniably well done with competent musicianship and vocals that are as catchy as they are cheesy. |
| Atoms for Peace Amok | 3.1 |
| Apparently Yorke wanted to do Kid Amnesiac part three but Greenwood didn't want any of this shit. It shows, as the usual Yorking is complemented by layered IDM that doesn't have any "oomph" in it to carry it to the desired heights. |
| Goreshit gnb | 3.8 |
| Breakcore aficionado tries to prove how generic and lazy drum and bass is by crafting generically banging drum and bass tracks. Epic but necessary self-owned. |
| Various Artists Mikgazer Vol. 1 | 3.7 |
| Woah futuristic muzak. Mikgazer Vol. 1 really is a product of its time, as it sees J-gaze bands provide noisy and dreamy backgrounds for Vocaloid software Hatsune Miku. Miku is well utilized here, as it serves both as vocals and as a complementary instrument. Most importantly: songs are surprisingly solid. |
| Andrew Bird Break It Yourself | 3.3 |
| As expected, a charming, lush, and pastoral chamber pop folk record. It's Andrew Bird yaknow. |
| Daphni Jiaolong | 3.0 |
| Dan Snaith's debut under his Daphni moniker showed his desire to deliver some club bangers - these tunes sure are, but they rarely fall into the category of dual "club"-"not club" bangers. |
| Aaron Dilloway Modern Jester | 2.0 |
| As The Gag File, this is a succession of noisy tapes. Unlike The Gag File, this is way too long without carrying the creepy element that made it interesting. |
| nouns Still Bummed | 3.4 |
| Great lil mixture of many sadboi stuff - emo, lo-fi, and noise pop - that often (but not always!!) manages to let lil nuggets of melody go out of the angsty and raw soundscape. |
| Cindy Lee Diamond Jubilee | 3.5 |
| An overlong (2 hours phew) hypnagogic psych pop record that manages to stay engaging thanks to a lo-fi sound that summons a retrofuturist atmosphere - it really sounds like music from a past that never existed. |
| The Sawtooth Grin Jabberwocky | 3.8 |
| 10 minutes of blistering grindy mathcore - or mathy grindcore. Either way, it slaps. |
| RiTchie Triple Digits (112) | 3.5 |
| Injury Reserve alumni RiTchie delivers a psychy and cloudy brand of abstract trap with a great balance between soulful moments and glitchy passages. |
| Nia Archives Silence is Loud | 3.7 |
| Silence Is Loud continues early PinkPantheress' formula of R&B songs using DnB backgrounds. It starts off incredibly strong before dipping hard in the last third. |
| Shabaka Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace | 3.4 |
| Shabaka further dives into spirituality with this new agey poetry-led mellowness. Lush and calm. |
| sleepmakeswaves It's Here, But I Have No Names For It | 3.7 |
| Been a long time without these guys, and they haven't lost their crescendocore chops. It sure as hell ain't original - that style never really was - but sleepmakewaves always were one of the most engaging bands out of that scene. |
| Future and Metro Boomin We Still Don't Trust You | 2.7 |
| Overall as uninspired as the first record - why put out only one mid album when you've got two?? -, at least the slight synthpop influences brought some welcome changes in the soundscape. |
| Greyhaven Stereo Grief | 3.5 |
| Great balance between mathcore's frenziness, modern post-hardcore's melodic sensibilities, and that southern's twang. |
| Autopsy Macabre Eternal | 3.0 |
| Another "just aight" reunion death metal record. |
| Blue Sky Black Death NOIR | 3.2 |
| Chill downtempo that doesn't really get more than just "chill". |
| Midnight Satanic Royalty | 3.2 |
| Consistent riffest that draws from speed, thrash, heavy, and black'n'roll to offer a cool if slightly unoriginal 80s throwback. |
| Rhapsody of Fire The Frozen Tears of Angels | 2.9 |
| Of all the symphonic power neoclassical releases that I didn't enjoy that much, this one was surprisingly pleasant - there's just the right amount of cheese. |
| Black Box Revelation Silver Threats | 3.1 |
| This Belgian band's bluesy garage rock formula was very fine without being much more than that. |
| samlrc A Lonely Sinner | 3.0 |
| This shoegazey post-rocky guitar affair with shushed vocals - a zoomer thing apparently - is at its best when it goes for sprawling compositions that go for the good ol' "loud-quiet-loud" post-rock formula. |
| Necrowretch Swords of Dajjal | 3.6 |
| Swords of Dajjal nicely infuses Eastern influences into a pristinely produced deathened meloblack formula, resulting in a record that, at times, truly sounds devilish. |
| Frail Body Artificial Bouquet | 3.7 |
| Artificial Bouquet is a huge, dynamic, and deeply emotional blackgaze-infused skramz record that benefits from a punchy production (ofc it's Jack Shirley) but fails to bring different nuances to each of its songs - ie it's beautifully monochrome. Makes me wanna jam Loma Prieta or State Faults. |
| Mike and Tony Seltzer Pinball | 3.9 |
| Tony Seltzer rightfully brings MIKE some energetic beats to transform his usually apathetic rapping into suddenly invigorated flexes. Pinball also sees MIKE balance his darkest thoughts with the most basic braggadocio, which is also a nice change of pace. |
| Horrible (BE) Filth | 3.2 |
| This Belgian new band with a very unoriginal name goes for an OG metalcore sound that also is not very original but nevertheless quite efficient at delivering filthy breaks. |
| Sum 41 Heaven :x: Hell | 3.3 |
| Heaven :x: Hell comes 17 years too late and is still isn't exempt of stylistic mistakes - no Sum 41 record is tbf - but it's nevertheless refreshing to hear these guys put up one solid final record. |
| Kid Cudi Insano | 2.3 |
| Nothing horrendous here, but also nothing remotely interesting. |
| Civerous Maze Envy | 3.6 |
| Cool death metal that nicely incorporates black and doom elements (respectively trems and gloom) as well as melodic ornamentations in its formula to widen its proposition. Great soundscape all in all but I feel like the songs aren't exactly on par with the production and aesthetic choices. |
| Vampire Weekend Only God Was Above Us | 2.7 |
| I never got into these lads' indie pop, and this overdramatic yet dull record will not change that. They manage to make catchy muzak hollow. |
| Squarepusher Dostrotime | 3.5 |
| Dostrotime is further proof that Squarepusher's zaniness never falters, with his typical blend of explosive drill'n'bass and breakcore sitting next to calm guitar interludes that nicely pace the record. A weaker last third does negatively impact the overall listen, but it's nevertheless his strongest in idk how fucking long. |
| Bib Biblical | 3.2 |
| In your face hardcore carried by horribly delightful borborygmi. These "vocals" really sound like Donald Duck regurgitating whatever gruesome shit he just ate, and they do give this lil EP (and band) its ipseity. Gotta nevertheless say the riffs and breaks aren't that impressive when you remove the aforementioned vocals. |
| Crush Your Soul Crush Your Soul | 3.6 |
| Mindforce alumnus pairs up with other NYHC fans for a very heavy lil EP with two interludes that could've been cool but ended up breaking the flow of a very tight 9mins. |
| Keroué / Jeanjass Scope | 3.3 |
| OG Keroué pair up with Jeanjass for one of the chillest offerings these two have recently crafted - Keroué's poetic and rather calm flow marries well with some of Jeanjass' most laidback beats - he really channeled his inner Alchemist here. Cool, but a tad too laidback compared to what could've been - it's a tad too Alchemist. |
| Ken Carson X | 2.4 |
| Numb energy in terms of vocals, and beats that try to go hard but that are very thin when you remove their saturation. Crazy that something that boastful can be slightly boring. |
| Laufey Everything I Know About Love | 3.3 |
| Laufey's debut record features her charmful take on traditional pop and vocal jazz with the occasional (and welcome) bossa nova-backed tune. Lovely, but the songs are not exactly on par with her subsequent record. |
| Yeat 2 Alive | 2.8 |
| Yeat's rage is very monochrome and full of Travis Scott worship, and yet he still manages to make a 60+mins record somewhat interesting thanks to his quick flow and sometimes funny bars. |
| Mindforce New Lords | 3.7 |
| Stupidly fun NYHC mixed with thrashy linings. That's it. Good shit. |
| Don Cherry Dona Nostra | 3.5 |
| Cherry's final recording is both an eulogy for Ed Blackwell (who recently passed away) and an ante mortem homage to himself (Cherry got diagnosed with liver cancer and knew his days were numbered). It results in a calm, very ECM-y record whose European supporting cast once again proves how important Cherry was to export modal jazz to Europe. RIP big fella. |
| Don Cherry Multikulti | 3.5 |
| As its title implies, Multikulti strives to exteriorise Cherry's pan-cultural conscience. It's mostly a success, especially when the soundscape focuses on its African roots ("Until the Rain Comes" is a 12mins banger) rather than on its most modern incarnations (those late 80s synths ugh). |
| Beyonce Cowboy Carter | 3.2 |
| Bloated not-so-country R&B-pop record that still manages to be somewhat fun when it doesn't cover blatantly rip-off classics or let oldies take a third of the soundtrack with their interludes. Turns out these interludes help pace the record, and the songs that carry the most country elements are the ones that shine thanks to the lush production (thank god the production is good) and the smooth harmonies. The last third especially shines because it solely focuses on what the record actually sold us: good country music. yeehaw |
| Don Cherry Art Deco | 3.3 |
| Cherry reunites with some Coleman alumni for a traditional post-bop affair whose lack of originality doesn't impair the chemistry between the musicians. |
| Don Cherry Home Boy (Sister Out) | 2.8 |
| Cherry continues his "kitsch era" with synth-full funky jazz pop with the occasional foray into trad soul or reggae. Ain't nothing to write home about. |
| Waxahatchee Tigers Blood | 3.1 |
| Waxahatchee's yeehawism is this time accompanied by more uptempo tunes, which pleases my dirty Euro non-lyric mf ass. |
| Skee Mask ISS010 | 3.9 |
| German wunderking continues to deliver groovy rhythms and subterranean ambiences through the prism of ambienty techno. These Ilian Tapes' EPs are where this style of his shines the most. |
| Charlie Haden The Ballad of the Fallen | 4.0 |
| Haden's vision comes once again into fruition with The Ballad of the Fallen: political folk songs are reimagined through the prism of a big band whose free jazz chops are second to none. These tunes carry marches' power, folk song sensibility, and the liberty brought by the avant character of most musicians. |
| Johnny Dyani Song for Biko | 3.7 |
| South Africaner Dyani calls up two of his countrymen and good ol' Don Cherry for a record on which the rhythm section carries the soundscape. |
| Lancey Foux LIFE IN HELL | 3.5 |
| LIFE IN HELL evidently takes a lot of its ideas from Whole Lotta Red - but these are good ideas! Psychy, viby, and bassy cloud trap - ie rage - make most of a (slightly overlong) soundscape that nicely trades the introspective for the bomb-ass-thicc. |
| Don Cherry & Ed Blackwell El Corazón | 3.6 |
| El Corazon kinda acts like the third installment of the mu series, being another duet comprised only of Cherry and Blackwell. It's one of the most minimalist albums the pair has ever recorded, but it doesn't mean it doesn't contain its fair share of memorable licks (there are many "covers" here) or dynamic rhythms. |
| Devoid of Thought Outer World Graves | 3.8 |
| Outer World Graves nails that OSDM revival cavernous sound, with as much dissonance as there are atmospheric parts, and as much progressive linings as there are pounding moments. |
| Codona Codona 3 | 3.4 |
| This third and final installment of the Codona series is the one that most seamlessly blends Cherry's trumpet, Walcott's sitar, and Vasconcelos' percussion. There still are some unnecessary overlong moments during the middle, but it's nevertheless this lineup's best recording. |
| Gouge Away Deep Sage | 3.5 |
| Gouge Away soften some of their soundscape, and while it's sometimes a big win ("Dallas"), it also comes at the expense of interesting songwriting (the one-two snooze "A Welcome Change" and "Overwatering" slow everything down). |
| Mamaleek Diner Coffee | 3.5 |
| Mamaleek take some pages of the grand "experimental noisy jazzy black metal" book in a record full of always-on-the-edge tension and an ugliness that ends up being beautiful. |
| Codona Codona 2 | 2.9 |
| The second Codona record continues to thread explorative soundscapes with even more "experimentalism" - ie freedom - than the first record. This isn't always a home run but it remains an overall pleasant listen. |
| The Chisel What A Fucking Nightmare | 3.6 |
| Straight-to-the-point punk with cool riffs and a plethora of lil melody nuggets hidden here and there. Nothing too crazy but a good punk rock fix. |
| Julia Holter Something in the Room She Moves | 3.2 |
| Holter's return with Something in the Room She Moves carries lush atmospheric palettes that sometimes dwells a tad too much on its introspection to my taste. |
| Codona Codona | 3.0 |
| The combination of sitar player (Co)llin Walcott, trumpeter (Do)n Cherry, and percussionist (Na)na Vasconcelos make for a truly World music release whose pangean aspirations sometimes lose itself in meandering territories. When it doesn't, it's one smooth lesson in jazz fusion. |
| Future and Metro Boomin WE DON'T TRUST YOU | 2.5 |
| Mid-at-best beats, lackluster vocal performance for Future, and a Control-esque verse to get the media attention. underwhelmed woo |
| Jlin Akoma | 2.8 |
| Another confirmation that Jlin is an artist I respect more than I appreciate. Their jiggity rhythms sure carry enough playfulness for me to notice, but not enough for me to fully engage with them. |
| Adrianne Lenker Bright Future | 3.9 |
| Bright Future is yet another proof (not that it was needed) that Lenker is currently the best singer-songwriter. Her sweet, sweet voice and incursions in yeehawism carry a mellow sometimes too mellow look at that midway lull vibe that never shies away from the heaviness of her touching lyrics (imma non-lyric mf, and she managed to warm my rotten lil heart). |
| Pomme Saisons | 2.8 |
| Saisons is a concept record about? seasons (yeah), but it doesn't fully leverage the difference between each month of the year: each track more or less sees an orchestral background support Pomme's falsettos and light guitar strumming. Could've been great but ended up quite shallow. |
| Nourished By Time Catching Chickens | 3.5 |
| Nourished By Time confirms he can support his psychy'n'bedroomy alt R&B with juicy songs. |
| Old and New Dreams Old and New Dreams II | 3.1 |
| This second Old and New Dreams record sees the band start with their own take on maybe Papa Coleman's most famous track?a risky exercise they nevertheless manage to pull off. Unfortunately, the rest of the record doesn't always match the band's ambition with their delivery?"Song for the Whales" being the primary example of such a gap. |
| Old and New Dreams Old and New Dreams | 3.5 |
| Old and New Dreams saw Coleman's good old backing band (Cherry, Haden, Blackwell, and Redman taking the sax duties) try to reactivate the free jazz papa's harmolodics to their own compositions. They managed to do so, as all tracks prefer to focus on pulsation and melody rather than on time and harmony. On top of that, the band incorporates some of Cherry's Eastern aspirations with "Chairman Mao" (yes, about *that* guy) and the title track. |
| Ryoji Ikeda Ultratronics | 3.3 |
| There are some instances within ultratronics where the pulsating and glitchy microsound makes space for weirdly groovy industrial bangers, and those moments act as release among a mostly minimalistic release. |
| Black Dresses Forget Your Own Face | 3.1 |
| Forget Your Own Face is a short burst of metallic electro-industrial synthpop that nicely displays the band's capacity to blend many genres in a "fuck yall". Aggro shit that ain't as catchy as some of the band's other material. |
| Lilien Rosarian Every Flower in My Garden | 2.9 |
| Every Flower in My Garden is a sound collagey tape muzak suite of folktronicbient bits. It's chill while it's there, but it's not much more than that. |
| Don Cherry Hear & Now | 3.8 |
| Hear & Now is a weird one in Cherry's discography. It doesn't feel like a Cherry record, with its bombastically and delightfully cheap production - those fucking guitar tones lol. And yet, the spirituality that oozes from these compositions is undeniably Cherryesque. It's a weird one, but its charm works too well on me. |
| Rotting Christ Aealo | 3.7 |
| On Aealo, Rotting Christ's formula of Greek choral supporting epic and melodic bm riffs never strays from its path, but damn it's a cool path. |
| Kiss the Anus of a Black Cat Hewers of Wood and Drawers of Water | 3.4 |
| *The* Belgian band with *the* epic name delivers a hypnotic dark folk record with slight yeehawist influences thrown in the mix. Kind of monochrome but still cool. |
| Don Cherry Brown Rice | 4.1 |
| Cherry's magnum opus sees him conjuring everything that has made his career interesting thus far: avant freedom, raga-influenced spirituality, the burgeoning jazz fusion movement, Western African percussions, or Tibetan mysticism. |
| Brutalismus 3000 Eros Massacre | 3.7 |
| High-energy, always banging German techno with many "hard" influences - hardcore EDM, hard trance, and even some lil hardstyle sprinkles. |
| Don Cherry Eternal Now | 3.6 |
| Raga's influence on Cherry is more evident than ever: rhythms are slow, chords are repetitive, and arrangements are progressive. Most of the instruments on Eternal Now also carry that East Asian heritage, with xun (Chinese flute), dbang dung (Tibetan trumpet), or gamelan (Indonesian percussion set). Eternal Now is the spiritual and ethereal counterpoint of Eternal Rhythm, and further proof that Cherry was a frontrunner in bridging different cultures within jazz's canvas. |
| Gareth Liddiard Strange Tourist | 3.7 |
| Liddiard proved in 2010 that he doesn't need The Drones to craft gripping songs. Some moments are absolute beauty, but there are some instances where he lacks potent instrumentation to carry his devastating lyrics. |
| Don Cherry & the Jazz Composer's Orchestra Relativity Suite | 3.7 |
| Cherry further immerses himself in Eastern influences (mostly raga), which makes for some moments of absolute beauty scattered across a kinda-free-but-not-too-free jazz record. |
| Moor Mother Jazz Codes | 3.0 |
| When Moor Mother transforms some of her jazz poetry into bona fide bars, she suddenly becomes more interesting. The abstract drumless jazz hop background works well in installing a gripping atmosphere, but that kind of ambience tends to soon bore me. |
| Currensy and The Alchemist Continuance | 3.3 |
| Of all Alchemist's 2022 drumless jazzy hop recordss, this one was the best because a) it's his best beats of the year and b) Curren$y's stoned flow matches this aesthetic really well. Still can't say I'm that impressed. |
| Fievel Is Glauque Flaming Swords | 3.4 |
| (Belgian) pazzy jop. Flaming Swords playfully blends (art) pop with many jazzy things (mainly fusion and rock) and a clear proggy underlying. Cool stuff, but I'm glad it's less than 40mins long. |
| Toro Y Moi Mahal | 3.5 |
| A chill slab of psychy warmth with a clear road trip purpose (it works well!) |
| Mary Halvorson Amaryllis | 4.0 |
| Amaryllis intelligently alternates between Halvorson's typical avant-ness and quite straightforward rhythms and harmonies. The pacing is also amazing: every propulsive banger is followed by an abstract tune, and vice versa. It makes for an extremely rewarding record that seamlessly fuses dissonance and melody. |
| Tukan Atoll | 3.8 |
| Another Brussels nu jazz band whose most important motor is the groove. The band has quite clearly slowly perfected its formula by playing loads of shows, as this is the kind of music that, although already cool on record, sounds even better live. |
| Vieux Farka Toure and Khruangbin Ali | 3.6 |
| This unexpectedly coherent collaboration nicely fuses Toure's Songhai guitar playing with Khruangbin's psychiness, smooth dub rhythms, and West African percussions. Very chill and smooth. |
| Roc Marciano and The Alchemist The Elephant Man's Bones | 2.9 |
| Two veterans figure of indie hop pair up. Problem: I never fully got on board with either proposition, and this smooth'n'jazzy boom bappy affair won't change that. |
| Kali Malone Living Torch | 3.4 |
| Malone's formula of droning post-minimalism is at its best on Living Torch thanks to its condensed runtime and the actual grandeur pouring out of its drones (especially on the second track). |
| Ornette Coleman Science Fiction | 3.9 |
| Coleman comes back with his heydays' backing band (Cherry, Haden, Blackwell, Higgins among others), and it's a big win. Science Fiction is undeniably "free jazz", yet it isn't as obtuse as some of the early 70s free jazz records. Dissonance and improvisation still constitute most of the soundscape, but they leave enough space for the unexpected soulful catchiness to show the tip of its (very big and beautiful) nose. |
| Bladee x Yung Lean Psykos | 3.3 |
| Lean's been eyeing emo and rock soundscapes for quite some time now, and this collab record with fellow Stockholmer Bladee continues that trend. As expected, the production is gorgeous, but the difference between the best tunes ("Ghosts", "Enemy") and the most undercooked ones prove they could/should have spent some more time on this. Promises are high though. |
| Moor Mother The Great Bailout | 2.7 |
| The Great Bailout channels Matana Roberts' Coin Coin series with haunting jazz poetry seeing avant stuff (here, mostly electroacoustic with occasional forays into noisy and ambient territories) dictate the soundscape. A leftfield sonic experience that mostly left me cold. |
| Chill Bump Back for More | 3.0 |
| Typical Chill Bump with the layered beats and tight rapological technique, but without all the flair. |
| Justin Timberlake Everything I Thought It Was | 2.3 |
| wo another unnecessarily overlong and shallow pop record what a surprise |
| Sameer Ahmad La vie est bien faite | 3.6 |
| Ahmad's jazzy rap is still full of these intricated metaphors and hazy atmosphere, but damn Effendi was just the pinnacle of that style. |
| Four Tet Three | 3.5 |
| Papa Tet comes back (it has been a hot minute; last time was COVID time) with his organic'n'bubbly blend of folktronica and microhouse. This collection of tunes isn't necessarily his strongest, but it's undeniable we were in dire need of this kind of gentle and soothing downtempo. |
| Kacey Musgraves Deeper Well | 2.9 |
| I've never been enthusiastic about Musgraves' country folk pop proposition, and this new album doesn't change that. |
| Night Verses Every Sound Has a Color...: Part II | 3.0 |
| I thought last year's first EP (dumb to have separated this album into two EPs) was lacking some "oomph", and I still think that's the main issue with this record. I'd go further and say that most djenty bands lack a crucial part of what made Meshuggah so goddamn face-crushing: the fucking groove. |
| Cities Aviv Working Title for the Album Secret Waters | 3.1 |
| Cloudy hypnagabstract hop: ye. Bloated and also poorly sequenced and yet utterly brilliant at some points. Mh. |
| mydreamfever Rough and Beautiful Place | 3.2 |
| Parannoul releases a classical new age record under another moniker - and it's aight. This sure is lush, beautiful music, but its prettiness does too often feel hollow. |
| nouns While of Unsound Mind | 2.5 |
| A gloubiboulga of many, many (many!) influences that at times leverages the power of such a congregation but way too often ends as a fusterclucky mess. |
| Mylene Farmer L'emprise | 3.4 |
| Farmer's latest record nicely features her most ethereal character, with symphonic linings supporting ambient synthpop. It's her best record in a long, long time. |
| Don Cherry & Krzysztof Penderecki Actions | 3.5 |
| This live association between Penderecki, Cherry, and what apparently was the cream of the crop of early 70s European free jazz (among others, Mangelsdorff and Brotzmann) promises way more than it actually delivers. The first (Cherry-composed) track is an absolute bombast of third streamy, big bandy free jazz, while the other half of the record sees the congregation hesitate with what actually to do with the Penderecki composition. |
| Botch An Anthology of Dead Ends | 4.5 |
| Botch's swansong is a testament to what they brought to metalcore: dizzying off-kilter riffs whose chord construction still brings the melodic goods. And on "Afghamitam", they showed what they could have brought if they stuck around longer: post-metalcore, but in 2003 instead of 2015. |
| Botch American Nervoso | 3.9 |
| Botch's debut is a furious affair of noisy mathcore with occasional post-hardcore riffs that already bang hard, but one whose (very) slight missteps ultimately pale compared to its successors' immaculate virtue. |
| Don Cherry Organic Music Society | 3.7 |
| Cherry's Organic Music Society testifies to his newfound love for communal teaching and workshops: this is much more a Cherry-curated record than a bona fide Cherry-led one. Spiritual linings (he calls virtually every deity) sit next to his recent love for (avant-)folk (thanks to living in Sweden). It's at times a tad too long, but it's a simply charming record. |
| what is your name? The Now Now and Never | 3.3 |
| There are some moments of brilliance in this emotronicagaze post-rock record, but it's quite evident the songwriters are still a tad too green. Great expectations though. |
| Tamino Sahar | 3.4 |
| Belgian singer-songwriter Tamino delivers another stripped-back folk music. A couple of tracks offer some Arabic folk chords, but these aren't present enough. Songs like "The First Disciple" show how great the whole record could have been. |
| Judas Priest Invincible Shield | 3.5 |
| They still got it. Invincible Shield rocks harder than any band with a 50+ years career even dares to dream. Kinda overlong innit though? |
| Jon Appleton & Don Cherry Human Music | 2.2 |
| The collaboration between then-Dartmouth professors must have felt really forward-thinking: Appleton shreds his modular electroacoustic shizzle while Cherry blasts atonal wind instruments. Maybe an important record, but not a joy to listen to. |
| Don Cherry "mu" Second Part | 3.7 |
| This was recorded at the same time as the first "Mu" installment. The main difference is how Blackwell takes the reins and leads the charge, with Cherry shredding his piano/flute/trumpet less potently than in the first record. Still, it manages to reach peaks of idiosyncrasy on "Teo-Teo-Can" and furious slabs of free jazz on most tunes. |
| Don Cherry "mu" First Part | 3.8 |
| Both "Mu" recordings only feature Cherry (mostly flute, piano, and trumpet), and Ed Blackwell behind the drums (they were only two instead of the usual quartet because of lack of moolah, which itself was due to their French producer's avarice). This gives the record a raw feeling, but in a good way: Blackwell shows off the polyrythmic techniques he learned while traveling in Northwest Africa, and Cherry is at his most whimsical when he plays the flute. |
| Charlie Haden Liberation Music Orchestra | 4.0 |
| Liberation Music Orchestra was a lesson in plurifolklorism (yeah let's make this a new word) and political engagement - this was the marxist-leninist equivalent of Sketches of Spain, with Latin influences dictating the free jazz canvas. These influences make for one of this period's most engaging free jazz records. |
| Kim Gordon The Collective | 3.8 |
| Like on 2019's No Home Record, Gordon goes for noisy post-industrial shizzle, but this time she added some surprisingly fitting trap beats, and, most importantly, a sense of purpose: these songs have got some hooks. |
| Ariana Grande Eternal Sunshine | 3.0 |
| Easy listening pop that nicely fuses soul, trap, and dance-pop for an inoffensive result that nevertheless carries some bops within its first half. |
| Bolis Pupul Letter to Yu | 3.6 |
| Belgian homie Bolis Pupul delivers his debut solo album (after the really cool collab record with Charlotte Adigery). He confirms his brand of minimal synth-heavy tech house hasn't lost its groove, with nice additions like progressive electronic linings and the occasional nod to Pupul's Hong-Kongese roots. |
| Cities Aviv MAN PLAYS THE HORN | 2.5 |
| Scattershot lo-fi jazzy beats and laid-back vocal delivery make for a release that could have been interesting if its abstract character wasn't so shallow. Cool atmosphere, ig? |
| Ornette Coleman Crisis | 3.5 |
| Coleman finally reunites with Cherry in 1969 - although it was only released in 1972. This live is one of the most abrasive the pair has ever recorded, partly thanks to the intense performance of Ornette Coleman Jr. behind the drumkit (kid was twelve years old lol). It's not necessarily the most memorable record of either Coleman or Cherry, but it's one that captures the fierceness with which they deliver their assaults. |
| Cheekface Too Much to Ask | 3.2 |
| Cheeky, indeed. Cheekface's geek(y) rock is fortunately supported by dynamic power pop and a clear sense of hook-building - that's what you need for a cool rock record! It sometimes gets buried into its own irony though. |
| Dissimulator (CAN) Lower Form Resistance | 3.4 |
| This one is quite a great tech thrash record. It doesn't revolutionize anything?but eh, thrash doesn?t need to be revolutionized?but it does riff and whatnot, and the production job allows for some dynamics. It does get ridiculous with the goofyass vocoder vocals?you can't ask thrash to be serious for more than five minutes, innit. |
| Friko Where We've Been, Where We Go from Here | 3.6 |
| Friko's debut testifies to a surprising maturity. They nail the noisy indie rock sound they're going for (much less the more somber chamber pop one), with the hard-hitting tracks especially shining thanks to their tight balance between dynamic rhythms and catchy melodies. |
| Willi Carlisle Critterland | 3.5 |
| Carlisle still carries his introspective country roots, but I feel like here he managed to balance his melancholy with engaging song structures (something that I missed from his debut record). I still feel like some ameliorations can further improve his formula: there are a couple of tracks whose musical background is too barebones to fully leverage the lyric heaviness On the lyrics: even as a dirty non-lyric Euro mf, this contains some crushing lines ("I'm my own father now" fucking damn). |
| The Obsessed Gilded Sorrow | 3.3 |
| Solid stoner that riffs not that hard but still kinda hard. The singer's voice clearly wasn't the strongest asset of the record, but it gives it a kinda vintage vibe. |
| Future Islands People Who Aren’t There Anymore | 3.2 |
| Future Islands prove once more they're a 3.2 band with fantastic pop tunes sitting next to overlong duds. |
| Nils Frahm Day | 3.4 |
| Frahm's ambient, post-minimalist take on piano is as lovely as ever, with the space around him nicely bringing breath to his calm shredding. |
| Allie X Girl With No Face | 3.2 |
| 80s revival still going strong: this is synthpop with coldwavey and hi-NRG influences that help each song feature at least a couple of cool moments, but that style isn't carrying strong enough songs for the whole album to be as enjoyable as it could have been. |
| Don Cherry Eternal Rhythm | 3.8 |
| Eternal Rhythm sees Cherry fully taking on the role of the leader of the world jazz fusion movement. Recorded in Berlin, this live album features a fusion of American and European free jazz, as well as gamelan, an Indonesian percussion ensemble that produces both rhythms and melodies. This fusion of American knowhow in terms of free jazz, European curiosity, and Asian instruments (which really brings the soundscape to unknown territories, even for free jazz), makes for a release that at times loses itself in meanderings, but also testifies of the power of the of different forces - the passage from the 15th to the 20th minute of the second track is absolutely gorgeous. |
| Crizin da Z.O. Acelero | 3.6 |
| Thank you, Internet age, for bringing stuff like this to our radar. Acelero is a Brazilian funky industrial hop record whose eclecticism is fortunately kept under control?i.e., it's not all over the place! |
| Convulsing Perdurance | 4.1 |
| Convulsing converts the hopes he created with already-awesome Grievous into bona fide certitudes: this dude is a master at crafting dissonant death metal whose balance between mathematical rhythms and atmospheric respirations shines is only rivaled by how emotionally rewarding these dynamics are. |
| The Jazz Composer's Orchestra The Jazz Composer's Orchestra | 4.0 |
| The Jazz Composers' Orchestra is as musically dense as its lineup is impressive (Taylor, Cherry, Sanders, Barbieri among others). The goal simple: different soloists strive to take Michael Mantler's compositions toward the freest jazz territories. It works really well, as the grandiloquent tone given by the classical background is propelled by powerful performances ("Preview" fucking hell). |
| SENTRIES Snow as a Metaphor for Death | 3.5 |
| Snow as a Metaphor for Death is quite the cool debut record from a rocking band that threw each of their influences into a big bowl (noise rock, post-hardcore, post-punk, industrial) before mixing the whole lot for a noisy omelet whose bites alternate between the tasty and the messy. |
| ScHoolboy Q Blue Lips | 3.6 |
| BLUE LIPS is ScHoolboy Q's at his best, with the good balance between hard-hitting bangers and introspective yet vibrant soulful tracks. As always with Q, though, some fat remains to be trimmed. |
| Sleepytime Gorilla Museum of the Last Human Being | 3.0 |
| Everything here screams avant-shit: band and album name, album art, and the zany and violent music displayed. It's the kind of record that owns its eccentricity to the point of almost collapsing under that self-imposed weight - and yet they always seem to avoid that fall. |
| Yard Act Where's My Utopia? | 3.2 |
| Yard Act kinda go for a more dance-punk approach on their sophomore record, and it's a good idea! Now they just gotta stick with that idea and get rid of the more complex tunes, they can't seem to know what to do with those. |
| Kali Malone All Life Long | 2.5 |
| 78 minutes of the same successions of minimalistic Christian-inspired-but-not-Christian-per-se is too long when there ain't virtually no distinction between tracks. |
| Don Cherry Where Is Brooklyn? | 3.3 |
| Where Is Brookly was the final Blue Note recording for Cherry as a bandleader, and while it nicely summarizes this period of him, it doesn't carry the same force as Complete Communion or Symphony for Improvisers. |
| Mannequin Pussy I Got Heaven | 3.4 |
| Mannequin Pussy's formula of bright power poppy indie hardcore really shines when it focuses on the more Alvvays-y side of its soundscape. |
| Luther (FR) EXIT | 3.2 |
| Another one of the main French emo rapboi delivers another short release whose beat variety carries the lack of lyrical and vocal delivery. |
| Everything Everything Mountainhead | 4.1 |
| Another winner from Everything Everything, whose formula of synthy'n'mathy indietronica and flexible vocals seems to never dwindle of great ideas. Not all of these ideas are home run though : this one suffers from a midway lull, as very often with them. A 40mins album would have been potential AOTY. Still, the glittering production work carries even the least engaging tunes, and propels the already-cool tracks towards pop magnificence. |
| Cheekface It's Sorted | 3.3 |
| Yeah I get why this is labelled "geek rock" - these guys are fucking dork lmfao. It's fun, though: their power poppy rock has some funny lyrics and dancey vibes. It's very millennial and sardonic, though - do Zoomers like this??? -, and the 30mins package is almost too long for that much irony. |
| Zamdane SOLSAD | 3.5 |
| One of the flag bearer for modern French emo rap, Zamdane continues to nicely blend French and Arabic to discharge his melodramatic spleen. He accompanies this with thankfully varied beats (from a nude piano track to reggaeton, with trap or folktronica in the middle). This quite complete proposition cements his place as the numero uno French emo rap boi in my mind. I just feel like he's sometimes too sadboi to get to the next level. |
| No Age Everything In Between | 3.3 |
| The first four tracks (and some others) really nail that noise pop rock (shitgaze???) that hits both energetic and apathetic vibes (yeah it's slacker shit). What they don't nail is slower rock - and it composes almost half of this record. Fortunately, the songs that bang, bang. |
| The Damned Things Ironiclast | 3.4 |
| Woah the throwback. This is aight hard rock carried by cool riffs and, most importantly, by a predictably awesome vocal performance from Keith Buckley. Ain't nothing revolutionary, but fun nonetheless. |
| Foxy Shazam Foxy Shazam | 2.2 |
| This basically is a former scenecore band that went full glam, with the singer trying to put as many vocal inflections as possible. I can see the appeal but this is peak annoying to me. |
| Mass of the Fermenting Dregs Zero Comma, Irotoridori no Sekai | 3.3 |
| Decent mathy J-rock full of post-hardcore riffs that got a *punch* that promises a broken skull but only deliver bruise. |
| Gallowbraid Ashen Eidolon | 3.8 |
| This really is Agalloch worship but hey imma Agalloch fanboi so any kind of folky atmoblack with raspy "clean" vox will always appeal to me. |
| Peter Van Hoesen Entropic City | 3.8 |
| Great hidden gem of a (Belgian) techno record this one. Thumping beats and futuristic bleep-bloopism pair up for tunes whose sense of construction is surprisingly top-notch. |
| Don Cherry Symphony for Improvisers | 3.6 |
| Symphony for Improvisers really bears the heritage of both Coleman and Ayler, with Cherry bringing the melodicism among the monstrous cries of Sanders' saxophone - at first I thought it was Ayler!! |
| Mac Miller K.I.D.S. | 2.7 |
| Miller was at his most youthful on K.I.D.S. (no shit), and it's both for the best (it's fresh shit, "Nikes on My Feet" and "Kool Aid and Frozen Pizza" are peak uni stoner pop rap jams) and the worst (he forces that stoned swaggy boi persona way too fucking much, and there are way too many of those horrible 2000s pop rap hooks). |
| Johnny Cash American VI: Ain't No Grave | 3.5 |
| Cash's final output is one depressing motherfucker. He knows the end is coming - those cracks in his voice man. It's a shame this is a collection of B-sides, with only the first two tracks really matching the vocal performance's intensity with beautiful songwriting. |
| Beach Fossils Beach Fossils | 2.7 |
| Beach Fossils' first album is textbook 2010 indie surf: lo-fi surf rock and jangle pop delivering cool riffs that very soon become boring. It also confirms that the scene's short living wasn't due to its aesthetic predispositions, but rather by how poor songwriters the dudes behind the songs were. |
| Teebs Ardour | 3.7 |
| Ardour is a succession of short but very comforting hugs in the form of textured'n'glitchy downtemphop tunes, and another reminder of how good Brainfeeder's early 2010s catalog was. Could've been 5-10 minutes shorter though. |
| Have a Nice Life Time of Land | 3.1 |
| Although these tracks aren't Deathconsciousness b-sides, they feel like they are, as they heavily carry the same drone post-punkgaze aesthetic as the band's pinnacle while simply being much less heart-stopping. |
| Satanicpornocultshop Arkhaiomelisidonophunikheratos | 3.5 |
| So the band with the sillyass name and incomprehensible album name delivers a zany and scattershot glitchy record? Colour me surprised. It's an inventive record (sometimes to its detriment ngl) whose charm comes from the quirkiness with which it delivers its playful collages. |
| Huun-Huur-Tu Ancestors Call | 3.8 |
| What's comforting about music like that is how simple and earnest it is. No flashy production or complex anything, this is as pastoral and deeply human as it can get. When throats resonate, there lies some ritualistic, hidden melodies that only testify to the spiritual and ancient character of this kind of music. Very soothing :] |
| Seventh Wonder Mercy Falls | 2.7 |
| This ain't the symphopowerprog record that will make me appreciate the genre. As competent as it is grandiloquent. |
| Don Cherry Togetherness | 3.7 |
| Togetherness was Don Cherry's first trve album as a bandleader, and he nicely fuses the free spirit he worked on with Coleman and Ayler with his natural melodic aspirations. There are some repeating motifs here and there, but they don't act as choruses but rather as themes from which each of the musicians can endlessly provide subjective declinations. Togetherness was the first proof that Cherry would be the one to push the free jazz movement towards its most melodic boundaries. |
| Currensy Pilot Talk | 3.4 |
| Another instance of a cool weed-smoking mixtape rapper whose warm jazzy beats do most of the lifting. Very nice beats indeed. |
| Erika de Casier Still | 3.3 |
| de Casier showcases once more how silky her downtempop-tinged R&B is, and I can't help but feel like she's already mastered her current proposition. Maybe move on to either banging pop (queen you wrote "Super Shy"), or make sure all the laidback tunes are carried by potent production and engaging verses (something she ain't the best at). |
| Shellac Dude Incredible | 3.7 |
| Dude Incredible (epic album art'n'name combo) is the crispiest Shellac thanks to a pristine production by daddy Bini. The tunes all tiptoe that Shellac triforce of math rock, noise rock, and post-hardcore while never fully diving into either of these waters. While all tracks aren't all as compelling as the band's best material, they nevertheless carry that groove and dynamism that make Shellac interesting. |
| Albert Ayler Ghosts | 3.5 |
| Of the two Cherry-backed Ayler records, this is the brightest - and that's thanks to Cherry. His lines are structured around Ayler's freakish howls, which in turn nudge Ayler to allow some melodicity to invade his usually dissonant territory. |
| First Aid Kit Stay Gold | 3.2 |
| Cute pop folk whose bright compositions and Americana nods lose some of their charm in the long run. |
| Beketh Nexehmu De Svarta Riterna | 3.9 |
| Abrasive and intense, yet atmospheric and full of hidden details, De svarta riterna is one of those records that nail the different aesthetics of black metal: it's raw, dynamic, freezing, and its atmosphere borders on the dissonant yet heavily wears its melodic (and symphonic!) influences on its sleeves. The fact that this is an improvisation work make it even more impressive. |
| Devon Hendryx DREAMCAST SUMMER SONGS | 3.7 |
| Proto-Peggy was a depressed mf, but it doesn't show on DREAMCAST SUMMER SONGS: it's mostly a suite of smooth plunderphonics made of really cool samples. |
| Cities Aviv Black Pleasure | 3.2 |
| Hypnagogic abstract cloud vaporap is a cool niche genre, but I can't help but want to listen to Lil B (pray the Based God). |
| Andy Shauf The Party | 3.1 |
| The Party is a cute lil chamber pop record whose arrangements and flourishes of lil details allow to make up for the record's slow pace and lack of strong vocal presence. |
| Inter Arma Paradise Gallows | 3.5 |
| Inter Arma excel at blending almost every extreme metal genre in their concoction (sludge, death doom, and black coming on top, with proggy linings spicing it up) for an intense record that could have trimmed some of its first half - the second half is where the band's formula shines the most. |
| Psychonaut 4 Neurasthenia | 3.8 |
| Gripping depressive black metal with gothic tones and that lil touch of cringe that every earnest piece of art carries. |
| Albert Ayler New York Eye and Ear Control | 3.1 |
| New York Eye and Ear Control is the bastard middle child stuck between Free Jazz and Ascension: it's crazier, much less prone to lil forays into melodies, and its cries are monstrously exacerbated (that Ayler saxo is cursed). It's a record that doesn't seem to know whether it triumphed over alienation or jumped into the oblivion. |
| Dany Dan / Kyo Itachi Pièces montées | 3.6 |
| Beatmaker Kyo Itachi and rapper Dany Dan pair up for a release that smells good of OG French rap: layered jazzy boom bap beats constitute the waves upon which Dany surfs his intricated multisyllabics. Dan's verses are the real deal here, as some of his hooks sound outdated in their delivery. |
| MGMT Loss of Life | 3.3 |
| Loss of Life could've been a really excellent record if only the most subdued songs would have been given the energy their (kinda) catchy melodies deserve. |
| The Body and Dis Fig Orchards of a Futile Heaven | 3.2 |
| Dis Fig brings a welcome ethereal vibe to the traditional Body assault - yeah we all love Chip King howling in the background of pummeling death industrial, but the band has already mastered that formula. Shame there weren't as many long tracks as there actually are, as the buildups allow the payoffs to hit the kind of catharsis the band have accustomed us to. |
| Steve Lacy Evidence | 3.6 |
| Lacy pairs up with Coleman-approved Cherry to tip his toes into the avant-garde. Evidence doesn't end up being that avant-garde, but it shows a real chemistry between two blowers (? seems like a weird term but eh) who thrive in call-and-response (that final track wowee) |
| Yeat 2093 | 3.2 |
| A kinda banging industritrap record with stronk 1984 influences in the lyrics. That duality between the futuristically somber beats and the depressively apocalyptic lyrics sometimes work - "I bought the Earth, I sold it too" is a really really great line (just wondering if the Earth wouldn't have melted too much for corporate capitalism to still be the major force ? Not sure our boi read the IPCC reports but he's on the right track nonetheless). Anyway, the Ye and Travis Scott worship is all too evident, and, of course, it's too long. |
| Quadeca SCRAPYARD | 2.7 |
| Quadeca delivers another scattered record made of many many influences stitched together like a monstrous teddy bear. There are flashes of brilliance when he strikes the right balance between the emo rap influences and the hyperpop ones, but these are lost among moments that are given next to zero room to breathe. |
| John Coltrane and Don Cherry The Avant-Garde | 3.7 |
| The Avant-Garde is Coltrane pairing up with Coleman's quartet (even if only Cherry's name is on the cover) so that they cover Coleman (as well as one Monk classic, and a Cherry composition). It's thus very cool and engaging, but not a particularly major release in those musicians' catalog: even if this was released in 1966, it was recorded in 1960, and at that time, Trane wasn't as versed in the free and the avant-garde as Cherry and Blackwell were. Cherry thus naturally wore the leader's suit - which would soon allow him to emancipate himself from bigboi saxophonists - in a release that doesn't seem to know whether it's a straight-up post-bop record or an avant one. Nevertheless, this is highly enjoyable despite the aforementioned issues. |
| Ornette Coleman Ornette! | 3.7 |
| Ornette! is a continuation of Free Jazz, only with a single quartet, longer composition, and a stronger focus on rhythm - no shit when you got that absolute unit of a drummer that is Ed Blackwell and his show-stealing performances. It thus ain't Cherry's best work, as all three other musicians carry the improvisation on most instances. |
| Ornette Coleman Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation | 3.7 |
| There are eight people jamming here, but this ain't no octet: it's a double quartet. The difference is huge, as both quartet follows its own rhythm (on its own channel in the stereo version). Despite the collegial dissonance and the 37mins-long improv, Free Jazz nevertheless manages to make some sense thanks to its constant groove and attachment to traditional bop instrumentation. |
| Ornette Coleman This Is Our Music | 3.1 |
| This Is Our Music sees the Coleman Quartet further dive into collective improvisation - even drummer (and newcomer) Ed Blackwell delivers some tasty soli, to the detriment of Cherry's trumpet. Ultimately, I feel this one has got a more solemn character than its - either crazier or more melodic - predecessors, which isn't especially to my liking. |
| The Black Eyed Peas The Beginning | 1.5 |
| Even nostalgia can't save this fodder party muzak of an album. The Beginning really was the dying breath of this kind of brash, positive kind of electropop - so long and thanks for nothing! It would soon be replaced by the doomervibe that characterizes most uneven decade - eg Lana and The Weeknd that would tell you all about how their high-end life doesn't bring them the happiness they so ardently desire. |
| Ornette Coleman Change of the Century | 3.6 |
| Change of the Century is Coleman's way of offering improvisation opportunities on top of a rather conventional bop structure. Coleman and Cherry both deliver tasty soli, but the one that actually impressed me the most here was bassist Charlie Haden: always steady, and sometimes even forcing his way as the second melodic force behind Coleman (mostly on "The Face of the Bass"). Overall a great record that doesn't quite strike the balance between catchy melodies and laissez-faire as well as Shape. |
| Laura Marling Short Movie | 2.7 |
| Short Movie is the one Marling record where her Mitchell & Drake worship was the most evident to me - damn shame it's also evident she isn't as talented as these two, but then who really is? |
| Jlin Black Origami | 2.6 |
| Another instance where Jlin's work is more admirable to me than it is actually enjoyable. Her off-kilter rhythms do not induce any kind of ass-shaking (smol brain take ikr), and the vocal samples tend more towards the grating than anything. |
| Dua Lipa Dua Lipa | 2.9 |
| As the dexbro said, the first half is decent if brash electropop, while the second half is a snoozefest made of romantic but not sensual songs (what's the point????). |
| Ornette Coleman Tomorrow Is the Question! | 3.2 |
| The second record of the Coleman and Cherry duo didn't feature any piano - big Cole don't want no preestablished harmony thank you sir -, but it also doesn't feature the furious improvisations that would later make the reputation of both soloists. |
| Soutaiseiriron シンクãƒãƒ‹ã‚·ãƒ†ã‚£ãƒ¼ãƒ³ | 3.2 |
| Cutesy, jangly, and mathy J-pop that rarely goes off its way of being nothing more than pleasant dynamic pop. |
| Yeasayer Odd Blood | 2.9 |
| For Animal Collectivecore playful and zany psych pop, this manages to actually put (some) of its melodies in the front of its soundscape - when it doesn't, it's as obnoxious as the genre can be. |
| Actress AZD | 3.2 |
| Another exercise in bleep'n'bloopism from Actress - and as often with Actress, these shiny beats soon fade into the background despite their busyness. |
| Destroyer Ken | 3.3 |
| Destroyer is at their coldest on ken, with glacial synth and gothic guitar carrying the soundscape. These songs aren't the strongest Bejar has written, but the lush production and synth-focused approach make for an accessible record. |
| Warhaus We Fucked A Flame Into Being | 3.7 |
| Warhaus' sophisticated pop proudly wears the genre's characteristics: slow, lush instrumentation carries slow, hushed vocals - yeah it's the Balthazar boi and he doesn't need his band to write good pop songs. Also, his then-girlfriend Sylvie Kreusch brings a nice vocal balance to the record. |
| Darkspace Minus One | 3.9 |
| Banging EP showing Darkspace's cosmic side (the first track) as well as its industrial influences (the second one). Both are masterfully done, as the first track really gives "gigantic empty void vibe" while the second one borders on industrial techno with its steady boom-boomism. |
| Ornette Coleman Something Else!!!! | 3.4 |
| Coleman's (and Don Cherry's!!!) first record is a competent hard bop album that really does not trespass its mother genre constraint. It thus ain't as crazy as both mainboiz's later catalog, but all compositions are warm enough for it not to be an issue. |
| Goat World Music | 3.6 |
| World Music indeed incorporates non-Western rhythms into its psych rock. The whole lot features a ritualistic vibe that works really well with the Afro syncopations - too bad it's too one-note, the "Goat" tracks blow the rest out of the water. |
| Mylene Farmer Monkey Me | 2.4 |
| Monkey Me was released in 2012 but it really sounds like an outdated 90s record. Farmer's charm still carries the record (especially on those downtempop songs), but the whole record feels like a misstep when it goes for the brash electropop. |
| Underworld Barbara Barbara, we face a shining future | 3.9 |
| Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future is a great prog house record with downtempop linings whose simple and hazy four-to-the-floor rhythms make it simply irresistible to my ears. |
| Courting New Last Name | 3.5 |
| i like my noughties throwback when it delivers me indietronica bangers like "Flex" or "Emily G". woo! |
| Little Simz Drop 7 | 2.9 |
| Dancefloor Simz didn't fully leverage the EDM and grime influences she went for. More polished and fleshed-out versions of these tracks would sound interesting, but here the whole lot feels undercooked. |
| Mairo and H JeuneCrack La solution | 3.8 |
| Two of the most talented newcomers within the Francophone rap scene rightfully pair up for a short EP that nicely displays their hardcore-slash-conscious chops (zoomer style yaknow). What's really cool is that they really rap together and recall each other's punchlines, they don't just trade verses. Another confirmation that these two will soon take over the scene. |
| Darkspace Dark Space -II | 3.3 |
| This ambient bm intro was a bit long innit lol. Mockl is one of the best when it comes to creating an enormous atmosphere, and it saves this 47mins track that really would have benefited from a big riffy explosion. |
| Infinit' 888 | 3.9 |
| Infinit' further proves on his debut solo album that he's one of the most competent wordsmith when it comes to Francophone rap. Plus he's virtually the only Francophone rapper to focus on g-funk beats, which makes his proposition even cooler. |
| IDLES TANGK | 2.5 |
| TANGK is an album that contains an anger that never explodes, and a tension that is never released. That?s highly unfortunate, because IDLES is a band that needs to release the tension they create. Really mwerf record. |
| Grinderman Grinderman 2 | 3.5 |
| Chainsaw punk blues riffs supporting Cave's poetic ramblings: ya know it's good shit. |
| Com Truise In Decay | 2.9 |
| Chill vaporsynthpopwave - and yes it's as inoffensively cool as it sounds, albeit not as inoffensive as this guy's first record. |
| Mylene Farmer Bleu Noir | 2.9 |
| 2010's Mylene Farmer started Bleu Noir with Lady Gagaesque electropop - a shock!!! Fortunately, that brash vibe doesn't fully represent that record, with her traditional downtempop (yeah) ruling the soundscape. This collection of songs deffo isn't her strongest, but her vocals and persona nevertheless (somewhat) carry the album. |
| Brittany Howard What Now | 4.0 |
| Howard's first solo record was one that embraced her classic soul heritage. What Now gracefully integrates her roots with more modern (still very psychy) soundscapes. As always with her, she bangs when it bangs, with the calmer moments not being pretty enough to match the raw tunes' catchiness. But man are those catchy tunes fucking catchy. |
| Deerhoof Breakup Song | 3.5 |
| Deerhoof strike quite the balance between poppy melodies and experimentationz on Breakup Song. Every earworm is complemented by noisy'n'mathy riffs, off-kilter bleep-bloopism, the whole lot being always cheerful despite the breakup theme. Despite all this, I don't find this to be super engaging; the idea behind the compositions appeals to me much more than the actual tracks. |
| Jessy Lanza Oh No | 3.8 |
| Oh No is where Lanza's mixture of bassy, synthy alternative R&B is at its best. Almost all tunes here are minimalistic in a compelling way, with their subtle melodies shining through Lanza's sometimes playful, sometimes ethereal vocal delivery. |
| Dominique A Éléor | 3.5 |
| As always with Dominique A, his romantic and poetic lyricism is carried by crystalline production and lush arrangements. The instrumentation could be more muscular, but here, the runtime is tip-top what it needs to be for that not to be a huge issue. |
| JP Manova 19h07 | 3.5 |
| 90s French rapper (finally!) released his first solo album in 2015. He thus has got the confidence of those who lived enough to know where they're good at - always cool to hear rap "rookie" 30 years-old in that regard. Nothing amazing or revolutionary here, but an overall very solid record. |
| Jens Lekman The Linden Trees Are Still in Blossom | 3.2 |
| The Linden Trees Are Still in Blossom is quite a lovely bunch of sentimental songs that last for too long and sometimes go too much towards the sappy side of romantic. Great arrangements through and through nonetheless. |
| Kanye West and Ty Dolla Sign Vultures 1 | 2.2 |
| Mid at best, because even if there are some good ideas scattered here and there, there's always at least one thing that drags virtually every track to the muddiest pit of hell: horrible mix (Peggy where you at), debilitating bars (imagine I aint no lyric mf and I can still spot em), lackluster beats, unnecessary spoken word, or straight-out bad vocal performance (North where you at). and that's not taking into account all the dumb shit the dude has been saying for the past 15 years |
| Roza Terenzi and D. Tiffany Edge Of Innocence | 3.4 |
| Bouncy breakz whose futurism could use a tiny bit more "oomph" from its quite diverse array of rhythms to fully leverage its melodies. |
| YAYA KIM a.k.a YAYA | 3.5 |
| 'tis the world of YAYA. 2h20 of vintage dark jazz trip pop pass by surprisingly fast, thanks to lush arrangements, diverse song structures, and a vibe that just pours its nocturnal doomerism out of every of its pores. |
| Aaron Dilloway The Gag File | 3.2 |
| Real spooky shit. The Gag File is tape music that uses noise and industrial layers not to scare but to put into discomfort - that creepyass cover really sells how uncanny the whole record is. Not exactly the most pleasant album experience, but an interesting one nonetheless. |
| Mall Grab What I Breathe | 3.3 |
| Mall Grab is the kind of DJ that tries a lot of stuff when it comes to breaks'n'techno'n'house, but really shines when he delivers simple four-on-the-floor tunes carried by an irresistibly repetitive piano line ("Love Reigns", "Spirit Wave"). |
| Tapir! The Pilgrim, Their God and The King Of My Decrepit Mountain | 3.4 |
| Tapir's debut is a suite of different acts that all are centered around an expansive folk tune - that means that every track that isn't said centerpiece is merely there to either serve as a buildup or a breather. Pretty buildups and breathers for sure, but the sheer force of tracks like "Gymnopedie" or the closer blow most of the other tracks out of the water - kudos to "My God" for being a good standalone song. |
| Vitriol (USA) Suffer & Become | 3.1 |
| Very furious death metal that would greatly benefit from less busy compositions and a more spaced-out production. |
| Spectral Voice Sparagmos | 3.8 |
| Spectral Voice confirm their spot as one of the top death doom dawgs. Beautiful doom tones accompany slightly-faster-than-funeral-doom slowness, dense growls and *that* OSDM cavernous atmosphere that the band masters. This one isn't as impacting as Eroded Corridors of Unbeing, but it nevertheless proves they're currently second to none. |
| Chelsea Wolfe She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She | 3.6 |
| Wolfe comes back to darkwave after the folkier Birth of Violence and other collaborative efforts - and it's for the best, as her croons really shine alongside the synthetic gloom at play. It does suffer from a slight midway lull, but even the "least interesting" moments manage to be engaging thanks to a pristine production and a crispy sound design. |
| Burial Dreamfear / Boy Sent From Above | 3.9 |
| After his recent foray into the most minimalistic territories of his soundscape, Burial comes back on the legendary XL Recordings label for a rave-inspired blast of two songs that weave through many genres - mostly breakbeat hardcore, but also freestyle, or *those* moments of calm carried by *those* eerie Burial vocal samples. The most electrifying he's been since... a decade??? |
| Booba AD VITAM AETERNAM | 2.3 |
| The king is back. He really is one of the most impacting French rappers when he's spitting his diatribe - shame this only happens half the time here, the rest being R&B or reggaeton lines he's never truly mastered. He doesn't seem to care that much. |
| Shygirl Club Shy | 3.8 |
| Fun'n'straightforward EP that intelligently uses each of the features to offer a diversified look into house music. |
| Daphni Cherry | 3.4 |
| Daphni is the occasion for Dan Snaith to focus more on vibey house that doesn't attain the intricacies of his Caribou moniker - it doesn't try and I respect it for it. Vibes! |
| The Mountain Goats Bleed Out | 3.7 |
| Another great (late) addition to the Mountain Goats catalog, with the longer tunes especially shining by their progression. |
| Soichi Terada Asakusa Light | 3.5 |
| Cool and laidback deep house with occasional organic instruments. The epitome of chill music that promises more than it actually delivers - like most Terada's beats???? |
| Nicholas Craven and Boldy James Fair Exchange No Robbery | 3.5 |
| Some of Craven's finest and most soulful beats meet good ol' Boldyflows - nothing new under the sun, but this is where their collaboration shines the most. |
| Bloodbath Survival of the Sickest | 3.5 |
| Every day death metal indeed. This isn't revolutionizing anything within the genre, but its engaging solis, straightforward riffs, and meaty rhythm section (the bass could have been amped up a tad more though) make this an all-around great record. |
| Harakiri for the Sky III: Trauma | 3.7 |
| III would be hailed as one of the top 2010s blackgaze records if only it was 45mins instead of 75mins. Damn shame. |
| Musique Infinie Earth | 3.3 |
| Compared to last year's I, Earth indulges itself in more ambient and less adventurous territories of electronic music. It still works well in crafting a beautiful atmosphere, but it isn't as mesmerizing as its predecessor. |
| Knoll Metempiric | 4.0 |
| Metemperic is Knoll at their absolute best: the constant deathgrind aggression is masterfully balanced with slower'n'heavier moments and mathy parts. What's most impressive is how cohesive this is - especially compared to their 2024 output, which sometimes folds under its own weight. |
| Quelle Chris DEATHFAME | 3.0 |
| Depressive abstract rap that really satisfies itself in dwelling in its one-note vibe. |
| Parov Stelar The Princess | 3.0 |
| Like many of his electro swing contemporaries, Stelar's formula of bouncy manouche soon grows old. Fortunately, he allows The Princess to breathe with occasional (and very welcome) downtempo tunes. |
| Deepchord Functional Design | 3.6 |
| Another winner dub techno which really only loops a dozen of rhythms across its 70mins runtime - but these are good loops! |
| Nicholas Craven and Boldy James Penalty of Leadership | 3.1 |
| Deadpan rap on top of mostly drumless beats make for an interesting contrast with the really-not-lethargic, but this formula soon grows old. |
| Marika Hackman Big Sigh | 3.2 |
| Big Sigh is the kind of singer-songwritery indie folk record that reaches anthemic levels when it puts a lil rock in its formula. When it stays on its (slow) course, it quickly becomes monotonous. |
| Patricia Taxxon Bicycle | 3.3 |
| Bicycle is a gloubiboulga of an album that alternates between playful'n'glitchy IDM that sometimes goes towards trance (the culmination of "Cavalry"), bittersweet downtempo, and lush ambient. Whatever the rhythm, those big distant vocals aren't really suiting tbh. Nevertheless, what's really exciting for Taxxon's future is her ability to craft bona fide microhouse slappers like "Boys". |
| Slimka Le grand mystico | 3.4 |
| Swiss rapper Slimka delivers his brashest and boldest record for a result that's mostly cool but sometimes really grating. |
| Lone Levitate | 3.9 |
| Levitate is Lone's bubbly housey d'n'breaks formula packaged in a neat 30-minute bundle that is nicely complemented by lil ambient breathers. |
| Black Breath Sentenced To Life | 3.3 |
| Crusty hxc death'n'roll that bangs and all, but it never really goes out of its riffy way. |
| Tindersticks The Something Rain | 3.8 |
| The Something Rain is a suite of moody chamber pop tunes carried either by jazzy rhythms or slowcore mellowness. Its film noir vibes gives it a nocturnal character that really shines with the lush arrangements and bittersweet spoken word. The kind of record that just nails the atmosphere it's going for. |
| Knoll As Spoken | 3.1 |
| Heavy like a really heavy thing. As Spoken is a furious affair of blackened dissodeathgrind (with the occasional sax yaknow) whose manic character sure make for one dense tunnel that doesn't really allow itself to breathe (it should, breathing is important). |
| Accept Stalingrad: Brothers In Death | 2.9 |
| All around competent heavy metal from 80s dudes (it really shows in terms of riffs or those gang vocals). Doesn't reinvent the wheel but it's alright. |
| Solange True | 3.5 |
| True is the kind of record whose first track is so amazingly catchy and layered that it compensates for the rest of the tunes' relative blandness - they all are alright but ultimately lackluster compared to a legitimate R&B SOTD. |
| The Last Dinner Party Prelude to Ecstasy | 3.0 |
| Industry plants The Last Dinner Party deliver a somewhat competent first album whose flashes of pop brilliance are flawed by plodding songwriting, at times cringe lyrics, and a pace that's dragging despite the record's relative shortness (41mins). |
| Birds in Row and Coilguns You and I in the Gap | 3.4 |
| Birds in Row and Coilguns pair up for a dynamic post-hardcore affair whose gripping character just doesn't match Birds in Row's most enthralling catalog. |
| Lykke Li I Never Learn | 2.2 |
| Overproduced fodder pop whose first song displays everything you'd need from this kind of mid-2010s "indie" pop (if you ever are in that kind of need). It's the kind of music that always seems to work towards a grand culmination yet mostly ends up never propulsating itself towards that big explosion (except the first track and the quite grating chorus of "Gunshot"). |
| Weezer Everything Will Be Alright in the End | 3.5 |
| Weezer hint at their power pop heydays, and it works wonders thanks to their intact pop song structure that will always work on me when big guitars do the heavy lifting. Good thing imma non-lyric mf tho apparently lol. |
| A Sunny Day in Glasgow Sea When Absent | 3.0 |
| Sea When Absent is one of those records where its pop aspirations are evident from the get-go, yet it constantly fails at being catchy despite its many melodies and overall dynamism. |
| Kassem Mosse Workshop 19 | 3.5 |
| Workshop 19 is a succession of minimalistic outsider house and minimal techno cuts whose lil wonky moments allow it to make the best out of its repetitive beats. |
| King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard Gumboot Soup | 3.0 |
| One of the most lackluster King Gizz records nevertheless manages to deliver chill neo-psych with the occasional outlier ("The Great Chain of Being" hinting their future forays into metal). |
| Rise Of The Northstar Welcame | 3.4 |
| Rise of the Northstar's debut record continues their dope blend of thrash, metalcore, groove metal, and rapcore. It obviously still kicks nuts but suffers from a slight middle lull that makes this one second behind the more consistent and compact Demonstrating My Saiya Style. |
| Old Sorcery Realms of Magickal Sorrow | 3.5 |
| Realms of Magickal Sorrow is one of those dungeon synth records that trades ominous soundscapes with bucolic ones in an always-cool yet not-always-consistent manner. |
| Owen Pallett In Conflict | 3.7 |
| Pallett's whimsical pop is one made of lush strings, sad falsettos, and delicate compositions whose arrangements alternate between organic and electronic. In Conflict is constantly pulsating, (and thus engaging) despite its ethereal attire. |
| Invent Animate Everchanger | 2.6 |
| Djenty'n'proggy metalcore that maybe could have pleased me when it came out (maybe????) |
| Medine Démineur | 3.7 |
| Demineur sees Medine fully embrace trap beats for one of his most uncompromising, violent, and to-the-point releases. |
| Megadeth Dystopia | 2.7 |
| Kinda cool riffs save an overall bloated release. I didn't look at the lyrics but given Mustaine's political agenda and the track titles, it's safe to bet on the most nuanced piece of political metal. Maybe it's better I don't look at the lyrics. |
| Eternal Champion The Armor of Ire | 3.7 |
| The epitome of modern epic metal. Of course it's mainly made of power surges and galloping heavy riffs, yet the ancient aesthetic sounds surprisingly fresh here. The nasal vocals sounded kinda weird at first, but they soon proved to be the perfect match with these catchy riffs. |
| First Fragment Dasein | 3.4 |
| First Fragment is a quebecois neoclassical tech death band - I wonder what their influence is!!! Their technical proficiency sometimes tend towards the weedly, but the pristine production at least allows the rhythmic section's fullness and warmness to shine. |
| Nicolas Jaar Nymphs | 4.3 |
| Nymphs is just a compilation, but the succession of these tunes makes more sense than most albums. It even elevates the experience of the (already cool) EPs into an absurdly coherent record - eg "Swim" hits harder here than on Nymphs III, and closing with "Fight" right after "Mistress" is the cherry on the cake. |
| Nicolas Jaar Don't Break My Love | 4.0 |
| Another great exercise of Jaar's sparse soundscape still sounding hella busy. These two tracks' trippy hi-hats, distant vocal samples, and overall melancholy despite the rhythmic elasticity, prove once more that Jaar is second to none when it comes to sound design. |
| Sleaford Mods Key Markets | 3.3 |
| Sleaford Mods' formula shines here thanks to the simple yet driving force of post-punk basslines and their acid political comments. The whole lot is nevertheless a lil too minimalistic and one-note for me. |
| Quelle Chris Being You Is Great... | 3.0 |
| Chris' rapological technique sure is top-notch, but the apathetic delivery and barren beats don't help to elevate the soundscape towards constantly enjoyable territories. |
| Temples Volcano | 2.6 |
| For dreamy'n'psychy synthstravaganzza, this is pretty stale. |
| Integrity Howling, For the Nightmare Shall Consume | 3.5 |
| Integrity are more melodic than ever on Howling, with clean licks complementing the (toned down compared to usual) crossover thrash/metalcore assault. It's a tad too long, but it nevertheless brings a breath of fresh air in the veterans' discography. |
| Yaeji Yaeji | 2.8 |
| Yaeji's first EP hints at way more than it actually delivers: her vocals are too low-key to be engaging, and the beats try to be banging but are too intimate to truly achieve their intention. "Guap" does however manage to strive that balance between apathetic and banging. |
| Courtney Barnett Tell Me How You Really Feel | 3.3 |
| Barnett's indie rock really shines in the first half of Tell Me How You Really Feel, only to dramatically fall down in the second half. Eh. |
| Babyfather 419 | 3.5 |
| Hypnagogic cloud trap? Ye. These bounces carry an eerie character thanks to the distant synths behind the hi-hats, as well as for the crimey and very UK urban interludes. It ain't always a slam dunk, but when this nails its atmosphere (the run from "Snakeman Freestyle" to "Penelope Freestyle"), this hits my lo-fi apathetic self. |
| Voivod Post Society | 3.1 |
| These proggy thrash outtakes really sound like outtakes - good thing it's Voivod |
| Infant Island Obsidian Wreath | 3.3 |
| Infant Island is one of those skramz records full of posty things and mammoth drumming that would really benefit from a clearer mix and a more diversified approach to songwriting. |
| BEN plg Dire je t'aime | 3.3 |
| After a succession of promising EPs, BEN plg's rap-chanson-electro-rock proposition still shines thanks to his honesty and authenticity, but really his artistic proposition is slowly starting to grow old. |
| The Smile Wall of Eyes | 3.1 |
| As with 2022's A Light For Attracting Attention, The Smile's sophomore effort sees the Radiobois make up most of the soundscape while drummer Tom Skinner (very deftly) accompanies them without taking (being given?) the lead he deserves. Good arty rock with cool compositions though, I just can't help but wish for more explosiveness given whose hitting those toms. |
| Mary Halvorson Cloudward | 3.2 |
| Halvorson's proposition is at its best when she lets her crazy guitar add some batshit craziness to the avant-jazz offered by her backing band, and Cloudward doesn't necessarily let said guitar shine. |
| Donato Dozzy Magda | 3.8 |
| Lush and swathing. Donato Dozzy offers calm yet always engaging pieces of progressive electronic supported by occasional ambient techno beats and space ambient shenanigans. |
| Alkaline Trio Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs | 3.2 |
| Is This Thing Cursed? was a great record, and Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs continues in this 2000s emo pop punk revival. It's fun and catchy, but something about the production irks me: everything seems muffled and thus lacking some punch. Eh. |
| Rounhaa JAAFAR | 3.3 |
| Rounhaa's second album is further diving into spleenesque delivery carried by ethereal electronic beats and occasional R&B lines. While it's clearly well done, I can't help but want him to give us a full rapological-centered album (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME0_4n8tAkU) |
| Hoplites Π​α​Ï​α​μ​α​ι​ν​ο​μ​Î​ν​η | 3.7 |
| Brutal avant-blackened mathcore with jazzy passages - yeah another one of those!!! Hoplites' frenzy onslaughts make for an impressive listen - especially with that pristine production - that would nevertheless need some refinement for his wildest creative decisions to consistently land. |
| blink-182 Neighborhoods | 2.9 |
| A very aight (first) comeback record that had the good taste of not being blatantly awful - wooo! |
| Aquilus Griseus | 2.9 |
| For cinematic symphoblack, this is ultimately quite uneventful despite all the flourishes it's throwing at you. |
| Black Veil Brides We Stitch These Wounds | 2.0 |
| First time listening to them and I expected an excruciatingly horrible meloemocore - and it's it kinda is, except it's more exceptionally mid than excruciatingly horrible - woo! |
| Motorhead Bad Magic | 3.2 |
| A good farewell record, full of those galloping riffs and Lemmy's typical grunts. |
| Laylow .RAW-Z | 3.6 |
| This is the best iteration of pre-covid Laylow made of bassy trap beats broken by multiple beat switches support his delivery that alternates between tight flows and aerial R&B lines. He'll add a futuristic knack to it all in Trinity, but this is where his non-storytelling formula is at its best. |
| Chapel of Disease ...And as We Have Seen the Storm | 3.9 |
| Epic heavy prog metal with some death growls that nicely balances grooviness and melodies together with a top-notch musicianship (and a kinda murky production that allows the whole lot not to be too polished). |
| King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard Murder Of The Universe | 3.3 |
| King Gizz's first foray into heavier territories is cool and all but DAYUM these tracks are begging for a live setting. |
| Lesram Du peu que j'ai eu, Du mieux que j'ai pu | 2.9 |
| Lesram's formula of tight boom bap is starting to grow old on this one. Mainly because his flows is much less impressive than he's accustomed us to. |
| PLK Chambre 140 (Part.1) | 2.7 |
| Aight mixtape that doesn't do anything PLK hasn't done before. Everything is mid-to-aight it's crazy: the beats, the lyrics, the flows, the toplines, the feats. |
| Hozier Hozier | 2.6 |
| Hozier is that kind of singer that needs to go to be interesting - sadly he doesn't do that too often. |
| Oiseaux-Tempete What On Earth (Que Diable) | 3.5 |
| Oiseaux-Tempete are a French post-rock band whose work on hypnotic and repetitive krautrock-inspired compositions sometimes work in successfully leveraging their slow buildups into great exercises of tension-and-release ("A Man Alone"), and sometimes doesn't ("The Crying Eye" didn't need to be 20mins long). |
| Skee Mask B | 3.7 |
| Skee Mask is both at its chillest and zaniest on B. The (really well produced for an unmastered) compilation trades lush ambient layers with IDM bleep-bloopism for a result that compensates for its lack of cohesion with a top-notch sound design and engaging tunes. |
| Pomme Consolation | 3.2 |
| Pomme always comes up with a new direction for each of her albums: Consolation is her ambient pop record, with help from Pi Ja Ma and Flavien Berger whose arrangements work quite well with Pomme's rather introspective lyrics. This ain't exactly the aesthetic that wows me the most, but it's undeniably pretty. |
| Moonlight Sorcery Nightwind: The Conqueror From The Stars | 3.1 |
| Epic and full of shiny guitar leads, but yeah that drum sound is St. Angeresque |
| Luv Resval Etoile Noire 2.0 | 2.7 |
| Luv Resval's suite of his critically-acclaimed 2021 Etoile Noire mostly is a disappointment: the best tunes are freestyle exercises with very little of the rapper's lyrical depth, while the worst ones are maladroit attempts at incorporating autotuned R&B lines into his choruses. There still are some tunes that strike the balance between hard-hitting egotrips and sadboi emotions, but these songs constitute a minority here. |
| King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard Changes | 3.3 |
| One of the mellowest King Gizz records, Changes compensates its uneventfulness by how charming it is. |
| Spiritualized Everything Was Beautiful | 3.4 |
| Everything Was Beautiful is a mostly aight space rock record with a few exceptional heights in the form of "long" songs - their soundscape is one that needs time to fully deliver its promises. |
| Glass Beach plastic death | 3.0 |
| Like its predecessor, plastic beach is a succession of grand ideas that are pristinely produced and conjure many facets of modern emotional guitar music. The big issue is that these ideas follow one another with little to no construction. It's a shame because, despite its disjointed nature, there really are powerful moments scattered here. |
| Slift Ilion | 4.4 |
| After an already-awesome Ummon in 2020, SLIFT prove they're the real deal when it comes to modern heavy'n'spacey guitar music. Their way of making loops hypnotic (and not boring despite their gargantuan length) though the (very heavy) usage of reverb shines thanks to a top-notch production and their sense of songwriting. |
| Bill Ryder-Jones Iechyd Da | 3.3 |
| Iechyd Da is a chamber pop record carried by lush arrangements, yet it mostly won me when almost-undecipherable rhythmic changes kick in, like on the opener or "Christinha". Good thing these changes happen, 'cause his whispery vocals soon got old. |
| Green Day Saviors | 2.7 |
| Father of All Motherfucker was so bad that a mid throwback to their 2000s heyday is sufficient to hail Billie Joe as the new Jesus of Suburbia. |
| Watain Lawless Darkness | 3.3 |
| In terms of by-the-numbers and generic black metal this is aight thanks to kinda cool riffs. |
| Scorpion Violente Uberschleiss | 3.5 |
| Despite the 90s bm cover, Uberschleiss is (nevertheless sinister) EBM (whose promiscuity is weirdly on-point) with distant vocals and an at times industrial vibe that only adds to the record's roughness. |
| Nevermore The Obsidian Conspiracy | 3.2 |
| So this clearly ain't Nevermore's peak, but their patented proggy power thrash has always sounded cool to my usually non-power ears. |
| Neutral Milk Hotel Ferris Wheel on Fire | 3.6 |
| Ferris Wheel on Fire is undoubtedly In the Aeroplane Over the Sea's outtakes (in that it's less catchy and has got less arrangements) but hey there are worse albums to drop outtakes from! |
| Ken Carson A Great Chaos | 2.9 |
| Rage is all the rage (lol), and while the energetic and feisty vibe sure is cool, Carson doesn't really stand out. |
| Sexyy Red Hood Hottest Princess | 1.5 |
| yo these vocals are downright annoying, and all features are much better than her. |
| 21 Savage american dream | 2.6 |
| 21 Savage continues to prove how mediocre of a rapper he is, even when the production is top-notch and the chipmunk soul samples work wonders. |
| Knife Party Rage Valley | 2.8 |
| Nostalgia aside, this is brash and absolutely not delicate. But I can't escape the good vibes tunes like "Centipede" and "Bonfire" brought me - especially the latter, whose moombahton/core beat was kinda fresh in 2012. |
| The World Is a Beautiful Place... Formlessness | 3.9 |
| Banging first EP that conjures everything the band will further display in full-lengths outputs - mainly pure fucking passion - with the closer being especially awesome for my post-rock bitch ears. |
| Avey Tare Down There | 2.1 |
| Another bunch of aquatic psychic gloubiboulga with nonsense vocals woooo |
| Kali Uchis OrquÃdeas | 3.0 |
| Always the same issue when I jam a Kali Uchis album: it's undeniably well done in how smooth and sexy its Latin rhythms and R&B lines, but I just can't fully get on board with her proposition. |
| Pig Destroyer Book Burner | 3.6 |
| No bullshit grind that riffs and pounds and grooves and yells and shrieks and aaaaaaaaaaah |
| Jeff Rosenstock I Look Like Shit | 3.0 |
| Early solo Rosenstock got that rawness and folky punky vibe (of course), but the songs aren't quite up there with his subsequent material. |
| Wilderun Epigone | 2.9 |
| More atmospheric and airy than their last two output, Epigone sees Wilderun embrace their inner Townsend and go full Disney. Compositionally, this is great but man prog has rarely sounded that safe. |
| King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard Laminated Denim | 3.6 |
| Laminated Denim is King Gizz at their jammiest, and while these tunes are not what you could call "focused", they do be jamming with kraut and space rock influences, and showcase what the band sounds like live. |
| Devin Townsend Lightwork | 2.7 |
| Yet another Disney metal release whose epicness doesn't surprise or excite anymore. |
| Moonlight Sorcery Piercing Through the Frozen Eternity | 3.5 |
| Cold blue artwork: yeah it's frosty symphoblack whose technical abilities are evident despite my usual gripes with the genre's cheesiness. |
| H JeuneCrack 3ème Cycle | 3.1 |
| 2nd 2022 EP from le H, and even though it's definitely a refinement on 2eme Cycle (it's a bit less all-over-the-place), it still doesn't quite strike the balance between hardcore conscious rap and zoomer experimentation. |
| Knower Knower Forever | 2.7 |
| Louis Colecore: hypersugary jazzeverything bullshit that invokes falsetto to get its poppy tag. Unfortunately, its maximalism doesn't get me where it wants me to go, ie bangerland. |
| Sprints Letter to Self | 3.8 |
| Banging garage post-punk that always follows the same "loud-quiet-loud" formula with evident derivativeness, but shit their charisma is off the charts and their explosiveness make up for their lack of consistent songwriting. |
| King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard The Silver Cord | 3.4 |
| Cool progressive synthpop with psychy linings (of course!). Some tracks here work best in their "standard" version, while most benefit from the extended length. |
| H JeuneCrack 2ème Cycle | 2.9 |
| H Jeunecrack's formula of in-your-face conscious rap carried by DMW flows and wide-ranging beats showed promises in this first EP of his, but its all-over-the-place aspect would be refined in the coming years. |
| Skee Mask A | 3.6 |
| Skee Mask's unmastered compilations got that rawness that magnifies those tribalistic techno-meets-breakbeat-meets-idm beats. |
| Blood Orange Negro Swan | 2.7 |
| Still a lot of Prince nods, but with much less funky shit happening - and some serious underdevelopment issues on most songs here. |
| Laylow .RAW | 3.4 |
| Laylow's first of his two June 2018 EPs continue on the path trodden on Digitalova: bassy trap beats broken by multiple beat switches support his delivery that alternates between tight flows and aerial R&B lines. Again, this formula was kinda revolutionary within French rap in 2018 - now it's all the rage - but it's much better done than on his first record. |
| Halsey hopeless fountain kingdom | 2.0 |
| Halsey's obnoxious vocals - that kinda delivery peaked in 2012 when Avicii and Calvin Harris ruled the industry, too late for her ig - continue to ruin bad-to-mid beats on a sophomore record that show little to no progression. |
| Open Mike Eagle Brick Body Kids Still Daydream | 2.9 |
| OME's gripping delivery and vivid lyricism about housing projects in Chicago too often go towards too mellow territories to truly stick as much as it was intended. |
| King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard Quarters | 2.7 |
| Four 10:10 tracks of psychy jammy pop rock - could be cool, but that's one of those King Gizz records where the ambition isn't met is top-notch execution, and when the runtime isn't justified. |
| Romeo Elvis Écho | 2.8 |
| Aight, safe, but not unpleasant Belgian rap that doesn't really know whether to go pop or hardcore. |
| Casey How to Disappear | 3.0 |
| melodramatic hardcore |
| Luv Resval Mustafar | 3.7 |
| RIP lil prince. Luv Resval's posthumous record further displayed his artistic proposition made of precise rapological technique, hard-hitting trap beats, introspective yet aggressive lyrics, and the parcimonious autotuned R&B lines. It's too long (76mins) but that was kinda to be expected. Mustafar is unfortunately proof that Luv Resval could have become a staple in the French rap scene, carrying some of the (2010s) OGs technicality while embracing some of the (2020s) new genners more melodic and wide-ranging aspirations. |
| U.S. Girls Half Free | 3.3 |
| Another 4AD worship this one (this drums' sound *mwah*), with filters sometimes hiding the songs' lack of punchiness. |
| Blawan His He She And She | 3.4 |
| Blawan is at his most frightening on this EP. It does come at the expense of my sacrosanct catchiness, but it's undeniable the man knows how to craft scary yet groovy techno. |
| Jessica Pratt Quiet Signs | 3.3 |
| Gentle'n'warm folk whose psychy vibes really uplift its rather unexciting soundscape. |
| Tinashe Songs for You | 3.8 |
| Tinashe's mastered her bubbly R&B on Songs for You, with fewer featured rappers and a greater focus on the pop. The whole lot balances softness and attitude, both from her vocals and from a musical standpoint. |
| Pomme Les Failles | 3.1 |
| Pomme's sophomore record focuses much more on intimate folky chanson with fewer forays into grander instrumentations - which ultimately works to its disservice. |
| Kim Petras Clarity | 3.6 |
| Kim Petras did her trademark hedonistic electropop carried by trap beats formula better on Turn Off the Light, but Clarity still is proof that she her fire 6 months in 2019 outdo anything else she's done. |
| Coldplay Everyday Life | 3.0 |
| The best 2010s Coldplay record shows that they can actually be more than the blandest and safest pop band on Earth. Not that this is groundbreaking work - the departure ain't that radical - but it doesn't try to be played at every street corner - big win innit. |
| White Ward Love Exchange Failure | 3.8 |
| White Ward's proposition of dark jazz-infused atmoblack really shines on Love Exchange Failure. Both genres work when their creeped-out atmosphere attains poignant apexes, and White Ward manage to do so in every "long track" here. |
| Kim Gordon No Home Record | 2.3 |
| Gordon goes for noisy post-industrial stuff, and everybody expected it to be cool. It ain't. It's messy and dissonant but not in a good way, except on the very rare occasions she actually accompanies her shebang with melody. Still the coolest SY alumni. |
| Travis Scott Days Before Rodeo | 4.0 |
| As often with mainstream rappers, the last mixtape before their debut is their most interesting iteration. It's the case for Travis Scott, whose Days Before Rodeo nicely fuses banging trap beats with his trademark psychy vibe and just the right amount of autotune. Even though it features some of the pop tendencies he'll further incorporate in his formula, the balance between every element is top fucking notch. |
| Luther (FR) AMI | 3.2 |
| AMI is similar in soundscape to 2022's Garcon, but with slightly less interesting beats and lyrics. |
| Angus and Julia Stone Down the Way | 3.1 |
| Down the Way is both kinda trite and kinda beautiful. It is trite when it focuses on those Lumineersy indie folk pop tropes carried by weak vocals and lacrymose strings, and it is beautiful when it goes more towards Americana territories. At worst, it's thus inoffensive, and at best it's quite pretty. |
| Hamza Santa Sauce 2 | 2.4 |
| You can tell he didn't put as much effort on this one as on other projects. Apart from uberbanger "God Bless" and the Paradise-like closer, most of this is a succession of lazy lines on top of lazy beats. Worst thing: two of this era's worst rappers (Gambi and Koba LaD) are featured here. |
| Albin de la Simone L'un de nous | 3.5 |
| De la Simone is one of a long line of French songwriters whose gentleness fortunately manages to avoid becoming too mawkish. |
| Susanne Sundfor Music For People In Trouble | 3.4 |
| Sundfor's whimsical chamber pop folk is as usual beautiful, but Music for People in Trouble nevertheless suffers from the lack of grandiose orchestrations and cold bleepbloopism that characterized her other 2010s' work. |
| Moonlight Sorcery Horned Lord of the Thorned Castle | 3.0 |
| Epic m/ These powersympho meloblack quickly get on my power metal-allergic nerves, but I can't deny it's extremely well done. |
| Chase and Status 2 Ruff, Vol. 1 | 3.5 |
| Yeah bring me back to when I was 16 - these tunes shamelessly and successfully persevere in pushing forward an aesthetic that were deemed tacky ten years. "Badadan" alone is proof that brash drum'n'bass, when well done, still carries a distinct power that other genres don't have (or maybe I started consuming culture in the late 90s-early noughties and thus can't help but love anything jungle-related) |
| Cannibal Corpse Chaos Horrific | 3.4 |
| Balls-to-the-walls, no concession death metal: of course, it's Cannibal Corpse. Compared to their most recent outputs, this is the one record whose uncompromising aggression wore out the slowest. |
| Deena Abdelwahed Jbal Rrsas | 3.5 |
| Truly a leftfield release this one. Deena Abdelwahed mixes deconstructed club stuff (with hard UK Bass influences) with Arabic chants and percussions, for a result whose cinematic value matches its artistic originality. |
| Jlin Perspective | 3.1 |
| Jlin's Perspective is not as much a footwork record as it is a work of percussive complexity, alternating between footwork, IDM, or even post-minimalism (the delicious closer was unexpected in that regard). Nevertheless, I still find Jlin's work to be more interesting than actually enjoyable. |
| Youth Lagoon Heaven Is a Junkyard | 3.5 |
| Never really adhered to Youth Lagoon's proposition but it's hard denying how pretty this record is. Gentle hushes accompany subtle yet lush bedroom pop compositions for a result that's as soothing as it is catchy. |
| Chappell Roan The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess | 3.4 |
| Chappell Roan's debut is a wild if inconsistent pop debut that trades the brash and the soft - FYI production duties fall to Dan Nigro, the same producer as Olivia Rodrigo's SOUR, and it shows sometimes a tad too much. Apart from the consistency and ORod's similarity issues, Roan's got a good formula of theatrical yet earnest pop. |
| Actress LXXXVIII | 2.9 |
| LXXXVIII is a scattershot gloubiboulga of IDM, outsider house, and minimal techno that fortunately never fails to instigate its mellow and atmospheric ambience - shame that it doesn't overcome the record's messiness. |
| Maria BC Spike Field | 3.4 |
| Maria BC nails her atmosphere, that's for sure, and when she accompanies her psychy ambient folk with glitchy shit, her proposition surpasses most of modern indie folk. Still a bit too long - and not enough glitch!!! - but a great record nonetheless. |
| Animal Collective Isn’t It Now? | 2.3 |
| A succession of meandering psychy bullshit that really only has its splashiness for itself. |
| Bill Orcutt Jump on It | 3.2 |
| Orcutt doing another Fahey worship - woo! Nothing too crazy if you've already heard him (or Fahey), but it's nevertheless a nice half-hour of American Primitivism with a crispy recording (you can hear the beautiful man breathe what a joy) |
| Skee Mask C | 3.2 |
| These unreleased tracks sure could have benefited from some polish - but hey it's a compilation made of unreleased tracks so that's no biggie -, but they nevertheless show once again that Muller knows how to navigate his way across plenty of electronic genres without ever capsizing. |
| Kinoteki Faith and the Vessel | 3.8 |
| 2024 starts off stronk with another jiggy slab of footwork, jungle, UK bass, and breaks carried by ethereal vocals that add melancholia to the zany soundscape. |
| Blawan Dismantled Into Juice | 3.5 |
| Blawan's futurism never fails to impress. With an impeccable sound design, metallic synth lines interweave with hard-as-fuck basses in a way that's as hypnotic as it is banging. |
| Wilderun Veil of Imagination | 3.1 |
| Veil of Imagination is much less folky than its predecessor Sleep at the Edge of the Earth, but it nevertheless retains everything Disney about it: the grandiloquence of symphonic metal and the cheesiness of prog are well present. Epic and triumphant, like a good Disney movie. |
| Eminem Kamikaze | 1.5 |
| Hey at least Revival was worse than this!!!! |
| Melody's Echo Chamber Bon Voyage | 3.4 |
| Layers and good vibes all around, but this one doesn't stick as much as her debut - for psychedelic pop, it's more psychedelic than pop, and it relies too much on trying to cram many different things instead of trying to make the whole lot coherent. Great nonetheless, but it could have been awesome. |
| Ninho M.I.L.S 2.0 | 2.8 |
| 2018-2019 Ninho was his best era, simply because he dialed down on autotuned R&B lines in favor of hard-hitting (but not that impactful) bars. Still cannot really understand his massive success. |
| Jason Isbell The Nashville Sound | 3.2 |
| Isbell's material always resonated more with me when he accompanies his thoughtful lyrics with punchy and potent - and The Nashville sometimes does, but mostly doesn't really. |
| Dead Cross Dead Cross | 2.7 |
| This supergroup project (Patton and Lombardo among others) ultimately doesn't offer more than kinda generic crossover thrash with zany Patton vocals on top. Aight stuff but not much more than that. |
| Avenged Sevenfold The Stage | 3.1 |
| Forgot this was their best. It features every metal aspect the band has ever conjured (mainly heavy, thrash, prog, neoclassical, and core), but this time the balance between each of their influences is quite deftly done. Still can't say it fully satisfies me because of its overlong runtime, but it still is A7X's best proposition. |
| Kinoteki Dawn of the Final Hour | 3.8 |
| Dawn of the Final Hour is the kind of record that nails its repetitions thanks to a top-notch production and an ear for atmospheric melodies. Whether it goes for footwork or breaks, its nocturnal rhythms always carry that longing quality all ass-shaking sadbois wanna dance to. |
| Panda Bear Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper | 2.4 |
| Very lush non-melodies try to pass as gorgeous - epic fail: there really isn't much going on here. |
| Djrum Hard To Say/Tournesol | 3.7 |
| This 12" offers two very different takes on electronic music: the A side is a heavy techno tune whose atmosphere really is the deal, while the B side is a much more playful and danceable thanks to its acid and jungle influences. |
| Lakker Tundra | 3.5 |
| Lakker's Tundra is one of those typical mid-2010s industrial techno records that would go from great to awesome if they added some sweet melodies into their banging rhythms. |
| Niska Charo Life | 2.1 |
| 2015 Niska could only do one thing: yell. The cool-if-not-generic trap beats can't save that 50mins-long assault. |
| Dir En Grey Arche | 3.5 |
| Arche contains all the elements I don't like about Dir en Grey: goofy vocals, overlong records full of proficient yet wildly unfocused tracks - BUT! This time I found the compositions to be extremely dynamic and enjoyable despite all my grief with the band - it's still goofy and overlong and unfocused yet I enjoy it? woo! |
| Horrendous Ecdysis | 3.9 |
| Ecdysis is where Horrendous' formula of US OSDM, Swedish melodies, and "proggy" song structures" came into fruition, with a superb production that lets every lil element shine in a balanced way - it ain't too raw, nor too proggy!! |
| Paula Temple Deathvox | 3.6 |
| The title track hits like a truck with its Berghain-y industrial techno that very nicely matches the label's galloping horse logo. The other two tracks are cool, but their atmospheric take kinda denote compared to how powerful the banging opener is. |
| Jazzy Bazz Sur la route du 3.14 | 3.7 |
| Sur la route du 3.14 is a hidden gem of 2010s French rap. Jazzy Bazz (of L'Entourage fame) nicely sums up this whole period by delivering a sweet EP full of jazzy samples, boom bap beats, and impeccable technique, culminating in this absolute classic that is "64 mesures de spleen". |
| Blawan Bohla | 3.7 |
| Straight-to-the-point EP with three banging tracks fusing acid techno and future garage - R&S never miss. |
| Lone Emerald Fantasy Tracks | 3.8 |
| The 2010 version of Lone was one halfway between ethereal IDM and house full of cool melodies (that sometimes extend for a tad too long though), the whole sporting a psychy coat that only adds to the record's summery feel. |
| Christoph De Babalon If You're Into It, I'm Out Of It | 3.5 |
| Now that's some ominous shit, alternating between (very) dark ambient and cold af breaks, with much more focus on the former aesthetic than what its praises indicate. Great one, but not enuff breaks lol |
| La Tène Ecorcha/Taillée | 3.6 |
| Usually La Tene work with hour-long trancey pieces of Auvergnat droney avant-folk led by a hurdy-gurdy (apparently that's how it's called in English) - so these ~15mins tracks are really really short! It's cool stuff, but it's the kind of band you got to see live to fully understand. |
| Acid King Beyond Vision | 3.1 |
| Stonerdoom titans Acid King come back with a psychier than ever formula - shame the vocals aren't more prominent, they fit this aesthetic extremely well. |
| Katatonia Sky Void of Stars | 3.2 |
| Classic Katatonia with their gothic alt prog metal that is very competent and very good yet it always fails to fully embark me on its journey. |
| Sincere Engineer Cheap Grills | 3.4 |
| With evident folk punk and emo roots, Sincere Engineer's third record is one of tongue-in-cheek introspection and emotionally-charged bursts of catharsis that would sometimes gain from a lil bit more polish. |
| Cryptopsy As Gomorrah Burns | 3.4 |
| Cryptopsy come back with a solid brutal tech death record that won't eclipse None So Vile (how could it) but nevertheless shows the lads have lost nothing of their neck-breaking riffage. |
| Corinne Bailey Rae Black Rainbows | 3.3 |
| Bailey Rae delivers one hell of a comeback that, unfortunately, offers too many styles at once without nailing the coherence an album experience requires. Individually, all these tracks are great, but they make little sense when put one after the other. |
| Bekar Plus fort que l'orage | 3.6 |
| Bekar is rising high within the francophone rap scene, and it's not without reason: he's lying halfway between the 2010s OGs-turned-tastemakers' intonations and the new scene's poppy experimentations - the whole lot being supported by R&B lines and chanson aspirations that really have always been there within French rap. Real cool. |
| Victoria Monet Jaguar II | 3.4 |
| Monet's first record is a smooth R&B/soul ride whose (wonderfully) polished nature could have benefited from a bit more punch songwriting-wise. |
| Laufey Bewitched | 3.6 |
| Bewitched is a lovely old-school delight with its vocal jazz and trad pop vibes (at times carried by lil bossa nova that works wonders). It's treading the same grounds for a tad too long, but its charm is undeniable. |
| TIF 1.6 | 3.3 |
| TIF came to fame this year thanks to his melodic rap with R&B inspirations, as well as Arabic lines that nicely bring variation. |
| La Fève 24 | 3.9 |
| La Feve confirms why he's one of the most interesting figures in the new gen Francophone rap scene with his changing flows and banging beats, and a nice balance between egotrips and more emotional stances. |
| Geese 4D Country | 3.5 |
| 4D Country really is 3D Country's b-sides, and it only confirms Geese have got great songs hidden behind their zany and surreal rock package. |
| Alice Longyu Gao Let's Hope Heteros Fail, Learn, and Retire | 2.5 |
| Very zoomer indeed. This epically titled EP is cramming so much stuff into its very zeitgeisty 20 minutes (hyperpop, trap, 2000s alt metal, industrial, and everything in that weird af Venn diagram) that it's losing itself in its influences. Don't really know if amazing or terrible. |
| Madlib, Meyhem Lauren and DJ Muggs Champagne For Breakfast | 3.0 |
| A solid 40mins collab project that really could've been cohesive - there aren't any Muggslib beat here and that's a damn shame. |
| HEALTH RAT WARS | 2.8 |
| HEALTH's concoction of electro industrial pop lacks both the former knack and the latter anthemic character to fully live up to its potential. |
| Larry June and The Alchemist The Great Escape | 2.9 |
| Alchemist's best 2023 beats can't really save a lackluster June performance (especially compared to MIKE and Earl). |
| Blonde Redhead Sit Down for Dinner | 3.6 |
| Subtle, baby. Blonde Redhead's brand of lush dream indie pop has got that bittersweetness that's both effortless and luscious. It's dense, yet chill. It's mellow, but not without a bite. |
| Black Thought and El Michels Affair Glorious Game | 3.4 |
| Black Thought really makes the 2020s his solo decade - this is another great effort that will nevertheless not be remembered as fondly as his other projects, mainly because the laid-back vibe sometimes struggles to stay compelling consistently. |
| Prince Waly BO Y Z vol.2 | 3.2 |
| Waly delivers a cool lil EP further displaying his brand of classy rap whose rapological technique does not overshadow Waly's inner pop sensibilities. |
| MIKE, Wiki, and The Alchemist Faith Is A Rock | 3.2 |
| Cool abstract drumless'n'drumlite beats supporting two cool rappers - but it never approaches MIKE or The Alchemist's catalog (dunno Wiki well apart from Ratking). |
| Killer Mike Michael | 3.2 |
| Killer Mike goes personal, yet he still needs hard beats and banging features to truly be interesting. A great gospel trap record was hiding behind these tracks, shame it only shows the tip of its nose. |
| Ana Frango Eletrico Me Chama de Gato Que Eu Sou Sua | 3.2 |
| This is a kaleidoscopic take on many things groovy (those fucking basslines) to the expense of coherence - the epitome of a playlist album. |
| Khali (FRA) 23- | 3.3 |
| One of the main figures of French rap "new gen" scene, Khali's "whisper rap" isn't exactly my cuppa rapologically speaking - even though he uses more and more sweet R&B lines a la Hamza -, but his musicality is undeniable. |
| Mars Red Sky Dawn of the Dusk | 2.7 |
| By-the-numbers heavy psychy stoner that really doesn't offer much to a genre that desperately needs some fresh ideas. |
| Insomnium Anno 1696 | 3.8 |
| Epic leads through and through on this thang, shining not thanks to the band's originality, but simply how tight they are. Great melodeath this one. |
| Jungle Volcano | 3.1 |
| Typical Jungle: Bouncy, summery nu-disco whose highs are the epitome of good vibes summer music, the rest being aight Zegema Beach cocktail music. |
| SBTRKT The Rat Road | 2.6 |
| A succession of cool snippets of chill r&b wave music does not make me forget how fucking dope and creative this guy's first record was. |
| Swing Au revoir Siméon | 2.8 |
| Swing's diving more and more into poppier and lusher territories, and while it sometimes work, there just ain't enough meat on these songs for this aesthetic to work - also his high-pitched voice doesn't work really well. |
| Fires in the Distance Air Not Meant For Us | 3.0 |
| This rainy gothic death doom is well done and all but it just doesn't touch my lil heart |
| Brutalismus 3000 ULTRAKUNST | 3.6 |
| I've never been to the Berghain or KitKat but this has got to be what's poppin' 24/7 there. |
| Purelink Signs | 3.6 |
| Signs is a very chill aquatic ambient with lil dubs that sound gorgeous thanks to an impeccably textured sound pallet. |
| So La Lune L'enfant de la pluie | 3.1 |
| Good ol' So La Lune continues to deliver new gen French emo rap with his unmistakable tearful adolescent voice that just gets on my nerve even though his melodies and beats are undeniably well-produced - kudos for the more epic soundscapes he's aiming at. |
| blink-182 One More Time... | 2.4 |
| As an almost 30 years old mf, I don't really need pop punk in my life now, and it's especially true when it comes to badly produced pop punk revivals by a band that has nothing to prove except some street cred at a Kardashian party dinner. |
| Romy Mid Air | 3.8 |
| Mid Air features a hazy blend of house and trance that oozes 90s love - both in a good and bad way. Good: it's catchy shit to shake your ass to. Bad: those synths do sound kinda cheap. I don't care, im a cheap mf who just likes to dance m/ |
| Ratboys The Window | 3.9 |
| Ratboys' The Window is 47 minutes of Great American Rock whose mixture of indie rock, alt-country, lo-fi rock, and power pop is just too charming and full of catchy melodies to not be a home run. |
| Hugo TSR Jeudi | 3.3 |
| Good ol' Hugo TSR hasn't changed his formula since the noughties: rainy, Parisian boom bap whose lasting time doesn't exceed thirty minutes - good thing this is 20mins long!! |
| L'Rain I Killed Your Dog | 2.5 |
| I Killed Your Dog (not cool!!!) is peak erratic songwriting: slabs of neo-psych come and go while mellow neo-soul vocal lines fail at bringing viscerality (apparently this is not a word and it doesn't make sense). |
| Grian Chatten Chaos For The Fly | 3.6 |
| Of course the Fontaines D.C. guy would make a lovely chamber pop record. A couple of songs here and there would have benefited from a busier production to support Chatten's gorgeous voice. |
| Musique Infinie I | 4.0 |
| Everything electronic. Prog electronic loops, rapid breaks, techno boom-boomism, electroacoustic arpeggios, post-Zimmer grandiloquence, and incessant layers collide in a totalist way that is very much too much while still leaving me wanting more. Phew. |
| Kumo 99 HeadPlate | 3.8 |
| Bouncy and very energetic Japanese breakbeat with slight dnb, big beat, and even good ol' EDM influences. 30 minutes, no bullshit, and now I don't need to drink my coffee anymore. |
| Slayyyter Starfucker | 3.5 |
| woah Kim Petras finally released a good 2020s album lol!!! Good slab of trashy cunty dance-pop that features its fair share of bitchass anthems that could have gone a lil further in terms of experimentation. |
| Steve Lehman & Orchestre National De Jazz Ex Machina | 3.4 |
| So apparently this is an experimental big band (Orchestre National de Jazz) doing some spectral shit - I don't know what that means, but its way of using atonality in an engaging manner through its 70+mins runtime is impressive. |
| Olivia Dean Messy | 3.0 |
| Dean's brand of pop soul is warm but safe - kinda like Christmas pop innit? She's got a good voice, nice arrangements, and decent hooks, but nothing ever strays from the well-trodden contemporary soul paths. |
| Nourished By Time Erotic Probiotic 2 | 3.4 |
| The bedroom r&b aesthetic really is enhanced here by the half-pulsating half-Nintendo beats and the psychy half-catchy half-timid vocals. Shame it manages to overstay its welcome despite being only 35mins long. |
| Mick Jenkins The Patience | 3.6 |
| The Patience is a tight 30-minute package that shows the best of the now patented Mick Jenkins formula - hardcore jazzy conscious boom bap -, now I just need him to (slightly!!) expand his horizons to match his impeccable technique better. |
| betcover!! 馬 (Uma) | 3.3 |
| I found Tamago to be a good alt-rock record that could have been great if only betcover!! got rid of all the proggy shizzle and focus on their tight performances. This isn't the betcover!! album I'll love, but it's a step in that direction. |
| Jewel Usain Où les garçons grandissent | 3.4 |
| Usain is one of those "thirtysomething rappers whose career kickstarted late", and while he sure shows the human frailty this kind of mature rap needs, he lacks the charisma of his counterparts (Limsa, Isha) to shine as much as them. Great musicality throughout the whole project though! |
| Doja Cat Scarlet | 3.6 |
| Her best one yet. Doja Cat delivers a record that opens up with her traditional pop rap'n'b shenanigans, before getting on some boom bap beats on the second half - these still retain her R&B hooks, fortunately. She just needs to get rid of the brash rage shizzle that quickly gets old. |
| Crosses Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete. | 3.2 |
| Thanks for Moreno's voice, this Crosses record isn't boring!! Too many tracks doing the same for too long hinder the cool aesthetic at play here - electrosynthpop with touches of electro-industrial and darkwave is cool, but you gotta put some songwriting chops into it to make it work. |
| Mandy, Indiana I've Seen a Way | 3.4 |
| Woah yeah Gene with the slam dunk soundoff. Indeed, I've Seen a Way fares best when it lies right in the middle of a Venn diagram composed of punky guitar shit, ominous industrial, dancey EBM, and urgent spoken French (cool surprise!!). Slow stuff ain't as much interesting. |
| Gazo and Tiakola LA MELO EST GANGX | 3.1 |
| Two of the hypest French rappers pair up: Gazo and his drill gangsta attitude, and Tiakola with his R&B hooks and smooth lines. It turns out Gazo's proposition is so devoid of any artistic value (yeah I don't really find his formula interesting, can you tell?) he fully adapts to Tiakola's poppy R&B. I'd say it's for the best, but I'd still have liked to hear some of Gaza's grittiness. |
| There Will Be Fireworks Summer Moon | 3.5 |
| Of course Sput darlings There Will Be Fireworks would deliver a highly emotional post-tinged indie rock full of those uplifting moments. Would love it to work on me more than it does - there definitely are some moments where the soundscape would have benefited from more dynamic range and/or explosiveness. Because when they do go, they go. |
| Julie Byrne The Greater Wings | 3.5 |
| Byrne's brand of atmospheric folk sometimes carried by electronic ambience and new agey vibe is one that *just* needs a tiny bit more dynamism to fully raise her minimalistic approach to gripping levels. At its best, this magnifique. |
| RAYE My 21st Century Blues | 3.2 |
| My 21 Century Blues features everything the industry you'd need in a debut: a giga-popular single, personal lyrics that yet appeal to everyone, and a blend of pop, r&b, and rap that is indeed very zeitgeisty. What isn't zeitgeisty is its length (47mins lol this ain't the nineties), which hinders the experience due to an alright-at-best middle section. |
| Hinako Omori stillness, softness​.​.​. | 3.8 |
| Omori nails two balances: the one between the lyrically brood and the aesthetically calm, and the one between poppy, engaging moments and dreamy ones. Her formula of progressive electronic-led space ambient pop was already great, but she upped her game with this one. |
| Dreamwell In My Saddest Dreams, I Am Beside You | 3.8 |
| Wide-ranging skramz is always a big yes in my heart. This one trades indie rock interludes, blackgaze catharsis, mathcore start-and-stop riffs, midwest emo lead vocals, gaze soundscapes, and even some post-hardcore and metalcore sensibilities. This could have been a huge gloubiboulga, but the integration of their different influences works wonders here. |
| Red Velvet Chill Kill | 2.9 |
| Safe release by queens Red Velvet, with not many forays into the "new territories of K-Pop" (looking atcha, NewJeans). They still deliver the goods of catchy-cheesy K-Pop. |
| Troye Sivan Something to Give Each Other | 2.8 |
| Something to Give Each Other is, at its best, a very cool record fusing different genres into its summery vibe. At its worst, it's alright cocktail music. |
| Daniel Caesar NEVER ENOUGH | 2.7 |
| Daniel Caesar sure has a nice voice (and he doesn't try too hard), and his neo-soul sports some lush instrumentation, but the whole vibe is too mellow for its own sake to have any impact whatsoever. Basically a subpar Anderson .Paak. |
| Great Falls Objects Without Pain | 3.7 |
| Filthy sludgy noise rock - or noisy sludge metal - with skramz yells. Should be all the rage, but the band needs to streamline their proposition to have as big of an impact as they could have - the long tracks really outshine the rest of the record. |
| Altin Gun AÅŸk | 3.5 |
| It's an Altin Gun record: Anatolian influences are fused with Western psychy shit, the whole lot being carried by funky rhythms and atmospheric synths. This one is not groundbreaking by any means for them, but it further shows how they seamlessly fuse the atmospheric with the banging. |
| Pangaea Changing Channels | 3.8 |
| A zany display of many things electronic, Changing Channels delivers seven tracks with their own distinctive take on boom-boom music. |
| Andre 3000 New Blue Sun | 2.8 |
| An unfocused suite of new agey flute bullshit whose background nature at least makes it alright work music. |
| Tirzah trip9love…??? | 3.3 |
| Tirzah's gloomy vibe made of calm R&B lines, trap beats, and spooky witch house chords makes for an interesting aesthetic that nevertheless never really attains the dramaturgy it hints at. |
| Full of Hell and Nothing When No Birds Sang | 3.6 |
| This one is a great collab that nicely trades noisy shi for gazey stuff for an engaging result that just needs some seamless integration of the two aesthetic to be hailed as a bona fide banger. |
| Limsa d'Aulnay and ISHA Bitume caviar (Vol.1) | 3.9 |
| The two rappers were made to collaborate, as their stories always struck similar chords (thirtysomething melancholia baby). ISHA's poppier undertones and Limsa's funny insights marry one another very well in this nuanced release. Excited for the volume 2. |
| Destiny Bond Be My Vengeance | 3.5 |
| Straight to the point and to your face hardcore punk that does not forget that it's more punk than hardcore, with the aggression being nicely balanced by melodic aspirations here and there. |
| Avalon Emerson & the Charm | 3.3 |
| vibe. This is chill downtempo indietronica carried by hushed, ethereal vocals and heavy pop inspirations that nevertheless do not know (yet) how to balance the DJ's former techno bangarang and their newest pop impulse. |
| Closet Witch Chiaroscuro | 3.8 |
| No bullshit grindcore whose 18 minutes are full of freaky shrieks, meaty breaks, and dynamic riffs. |
| Josman J.000.$ | 3.7 |
| Josman's typical brand of melodic choruses and hard-hitting personal verses carried by a tight technique shine on this mixtape that's only a few bangers away from topping his discography. |
| The HIRS Collective Friends. Lovers. Favorites. | 3.8 |
| Badass queercore whose grind and powerviolence linings only up the fucking violence. This violence is not without purpose, with empowering lyrics sitting next to resistant fuckyouism. |
| Spanish Love Songs Schmaltz | 3.6 |
| Schmaltz is typical self-hating emo pop punk that is saved in my not-adolescent-anymore eyes thanks to its epic leads and overall songwriting and banging musicality. |
| It It Anita Laurent | 3.6 |
| Laurent is It It Anita nailing their noisy punky doomy gloomy aesthetic with a nice balance between their most banger tracks and the more contemplative side of their soundscape. |
| High on Fire Electric Messiah | 3.3 |
| Another record that is basically a rehashing of a well-done formula. Cool while it lasts!! |
| Amen Dunes Freedom | 3.1 |
| Freedom has got psychy country guitar lines, a longing feeling, and a quite beautiful voice - so what's missing here? Hooks!!!! |
| Visigoth Conqueror's Oath | 3.4 |
| These lads' power heavy formula works much more efficiently on 40 mins than on the preceding record's hour. |
| Mavi let the sun talk | 3.4 |
| Cool drumless abstract conscious rap that soon runs out of steam - good thing it's only 30 mins long! |
| Flatbush Zombies Vacation in Hell | 3.0 |
| Despite the record's qualities, 75 minutes of "pass me the blunt bro I need to open my third eye" rap is a bit too much innit |
| KAU The Cycle Repeats | 3.6 |
| The Sdban label carries Belgian nu electro jazz fusion scene hard (they're also behind big boiz ECHT!). KAU's formula is not really an interesting one - it's nu electro jazz fusion bullshit that was perfected by BBNG a decade ago, if only with a tad more focus on electroshi -, but the musicianship and songwriting chops sure make up for that. |
| Panopticon The Rime of Memory | 3.9 |
| Lunn delivers his first full-length record in two years (an eternity for him) and boi he simply cannot miss when it comes to glacial atmoblack, with the closer being a contender for SOTY and best song in his catalog. |
| Souffrance Eau de Source | 3.9 |
| France's best boom-bapper once again displays his impeccable rapological technique on top of some of the finest piano'n'violin beats. Factor in a shorter runtime (42mins) as well as popular and OG features (Vald and Oxmo Puccino), and this might be the one record that helps him gain some traction. |
| Sampha LAHAI | 3.4 |
| Sampha's vocal inflections still sound as great as ever, but Lahai confirms that I find his songs to be much less interesting when garage beats do not support them. |
| Etienne Daho Blitz | 3.6 |
| Daho's Blitz is very Badalamenti in its atmosphere and mysterious cowboy guitars - and Daho's voice does match this aesthetic very well. Classy as always, further proving he's one of the most consistent French singer-songwriters. |
| The Mountain Goats Goths | 2.8 |
| Kinda lost with this one. The constant mid-tempo rhythm brings nothing to me, apart background for the lyrics (which seem to be the center and ya know im a dirty euro non-lyric mf). |
| Xiu Xiu Forget | 2.7 |
| When Jamie Stewart doesn't go for the obviously obnoxious (something he's got trouble with his whole career), he sure can craft some bona fide pop hooks. Not many, but some. |
| Trivium The Sin and the Sentence | 3.2 |
| Very competent melo heavy thrash metalcore that brews every of its influence into one big Hellfest/Rock Am Ring/Graspop/Big Disney Metal Fest-ready album. |
| Imperial Triumphant Vile Luxury | 3.5 |
| Balls to the walls dissonance that forgot that only blasting chaos wasn't necessarily a recipe for success. And then, the second fucking half brings welcome nuance to the aggressive maelstrom - and it's a winner. |
| Mindforce Excalibur | 3.7 |
| Dope crossover thrash/NYHC whose 20 minutes assault is simply discharging sick riffs, pit-opening breakdowns, and epic one-liners - you can't ask much more from the genre. |
| Tony Allen The Source | 3.4 |
| 77 years old Tony Allen still blastin' deez polyrhythms that allows solists to deliver some post-bop improv sessions. Not the most impressive of his works, but nevertheless a cool reaffirmation of Allen's power. |
| Lil Uzi Vert Luv Is Rage 2 | 2.8 |
| This basically is vs the World but longer and with more filler. Vert really shines when he's going for the moody shit - "XO" still one of the most important SOTD. |
| katie dey flood network | 3.1 |
| Weird'n'surreal lo-fi pop whose batch of good ideas is too thin and too scattered to properly settle. When these good ideas are given proper time to develop, it's a banger ("Fear O The Light", "f(8)"). |
| Standing On The Corner Red Burns | 2.9 |
| Standing on the Corner's second LP is even more wild (and thus unfocused) in its plunderphonics approach. Many lil nuggets of memorable appear here and there, but they always get awashed by the aesthetic that prevails over everything else. |
| The Ruins of Beverast Exuvia | 3.9 |
| Dem beaut gothic tones are put at the service of a tribalistic blend of death, doom, and black metal whose hypnotic maelstrom pinnacles during the masterful "The Pythia's Pale Wolves". |
| Drake More Life | 3.0 |
| This 80mins tape full of mostly aight tunes is surprisingly holding up better than the sum of its parts would imply. |
| Lana Del Rey Lust For Life | 2.3 |
| Lana is at her blandest on Lust for Life, with the energy level of a retirement home at naptime. |
| Boris Dear | 3.5 |
| Dear starts off with slow sludgy drony shizzle (yeah that's Boris?) to slowly turn into slow sludgy drony shizzle that is fucking engaging, culminating in that apex of a musical moment that the solo in "Dystopia" is. |
| PinkPantheress Heaven Knows | 3.4 |
| PinkPantheress' first album sees her develop more fleshed-out songs to the detriment of her undeniable catchiness - especially during the middle stretch. |
| Jane Remover Census Designated | 2.7 |
| k so zoomers really just wanna make shoegaze guitar stuff with too much reverb? Pleasant enough, but nothing remotely memorable about this. |
| The Gaslight Anthem History Books | 2.8 |
| woah this must sound like boomer muzak to all the zoomers. The punkier cuts fortunately bring some energy to an otherwise aight-but-safe release. |
| Bad Bunny Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana | 2.5 |
| Bad Bunny comes back to his "trap latino" shenanigans, for a result that's less diversified and thus enjoyable than last year's Un verano sin ti. |
| END (USA-NJ) The Sin of Human Frailty | 3.1 |
| Kick-in-the-mouth metalcore whose slight industrial edges help its otherwise plastic Putneysque production. |
| Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter SAVED! | 2.9 |
| The Artist Formerly Known as Lingua Ignota changes the environment surrounding her over-the-top vocal performance, and it's not for the best: these vocals worked when clashed on top of bombastic industrial, but here they do not benefit from any atmospheric engagement. Also the random vinyl scratches just to warrant the "tape music" accolade are quickly growing old. It's an interesting release, just one that does not entirely delivers what its proposition hinted at. |
| Sofia Kourtesis Madres | 3.6 |
| Kourtesis delivers a diverse "house" record that dives into different genres (microhouse, dub, Latin American music, or typically German rhythms) to spice its four-on-the-floor flow. |
| Empty Country Empty Country II | 3.1 |
| The second album by Joe from Cymbals Eat Guitars is a lot more formless and melodic than its predecessor. Shades of emo, indie rock, post-rock, and singer-songwriter trade turns without fully getting in the driver's seat. |
| Celeste Epilogue(s) | 3.4 |
| Short and to-the-point release that nicely displays the band's three main propositions: gnarly atmoblack, muddy atmosludge, and ethereal post-rock. Nice but nothing groundbreaking for these guys. |
| Wayfarer American Gothic | 3.5 |
| yo this new Panopticon album is pretty cool lol. Now that's American Black Metal, with country nods nicely being fused in a mostly post-metal discharge with occasional bm tropes - the last track masterfully captures the balance between these three aesthetics. |
| Arca Entranas | 3.2 |
| Entranas is early Arca at their least musical, sounds clashing into each other while Arca's suffering vocals add even more eeriness to an already surreal listen. Interesting for sure, but Mutant, &&&&& and the self-titled all have more potent effect on me. |
| MIKE Burning Desire | 3.6 |
| Another great offering from the "south-of-south-of-mainstream" rapper whose formula of "abstract lil sampling" remind too much of Earl's to fully overrule him. On top of that, the tunes do suffer from a (small) lack of development and/or conclusion to be as potent as the lyrics are. That's a shame 'cause the dude sure can craft a gripping atmosphere. |
| Aesop Rock Integrated Tech Solutions | 3.4 |
| Cool concept record that nevertheless suffers from an overdose of Aesopism - it's too much eloquence over too much time for my dumdum brain. |
| FM-84 Atlas | 3.2 |
| Atlas trades vocal synthpop with longing synthwave, and while that duality brings welcome diversity, the record doesn't really go beyond its "warm summer synthwave" vibe. |
| Benjamin Biolay Palermo Hollywood | 3.1 |
| Classy dandy French chanson that really shines through its lust instrumentations - much less with its "oh love is terrible yet sweet" romanticism. |
| Danny Brown Quaranta | 3.3 |
| Brown is at his most introspective here, shedding off most of the zany Peggy beats for more grounded abstract hip hop - there still are some of his typical beats and there though. Quaranda features a slower tempo than usual for him, which translates with the almost complete disappearance of his nasal vocals, replaced by a more fitting lower register. |
| Jinjer King of Everything | 2.9 |
| Proggy alt metalcore that yet wallows too much in gruff stuff. |
| Kaytranada 99.9% | 3.2 |
| Kaytranada's "everything beats" indeed go everywhere but mostly lacks the oomph his legendary Boiler Room had to properly land on me. Neither fully poppy nor entirely sweaty bass shit, 99.9% had everything to embark me on its kaleidoscopic journey :[ |
| Hotline TNT Cartwheel | 3.4 |
| Cool melodic lo-fi gazey noisy rock whose thrills are slightly not thrilly enough for me to enjoy it as much as I expected. |
| Griselda WWCD | 3.5 |
| Great alchemy for Griselda's first actual collab record between Westside Gunn, Conway, and Benny - the beats are as grimy as expected, and each rapper nicely complements the other. Not everything is a slam dunk here - that fucking Eminem verse lol - but it further established Griselda's importance within the rap game. |
| Pijn and Conjurer Curse These Metal Hands | 3.9 |
| Conjurer and Pijn pair up for a much more uplifting take on slow pounding metal than usual for them (at least for Conjurer lol). That's because of these fucking beautiful leads and the general harmonisation happening on the guitars. It's still crushing sludgy shit, but one that's surprisingly wholesome :] |
| Bruno Pernadas Worst Summer Ever | 3.4 |
| Worst Summer Ever is Pernadas at his breeziest. It's still very much a jazz fusion record whose Zegema Beach vibes only match the tunes' sweetness. A chill record for a chill afternoon. |
| JPEGMAFIA Black Ben Carson | 3.1 |
| Death Grips can't do that, bitch. Peggy's debut album (under the JPEGMAFIA moniker, 'cause the dude has been hella prolific with his Devon Hendryx and other Rockwood Escape Plan personas) is basically him telling everyone he ain't MC Ride while alternating between (very Death Gripsy) aggressive industrial, lethargic cloud rap, and patchworky glitch hop. It's definitely an exciting proposition, but one that would be refined later in his career. |
| KEN mode Null | 3.2 |
| A succession of almost-cool tunes show KEN Mode hesitating between thumping aggression and slow nihilism without fully nailing either of those vibes. |
| CMAT Crazymad, For Me | 3.0 |
| CMAT dials down the country influences, but it's really in the hooks and overall performance that Crazymad, For Me falters in comparison to its very cool predecessor. |
| Armand Hammer We Buy Diabetic Test Strips | 3.4 |
| Woods keep on confirming no one represents 2020s abstract hip hop as well as his ominous ass. Coupled with ELUCID and with beats from El-P or Peggy, We Buy Diabetic Strips is a good (but too long and meandering) addition to an ever-growing discography. |
| The Menzingers Some of it Was True | 2.8 |
| The Menzingers go full heartland, and it's aight but not really good either - gonna jam On the Impossible Past one more fucking time. |
| It It Anita Mouche | 3.3 |
| Typical It It Anita record this one: cool but never mind-blowing noisy alt rock. |
| The Callous Daoboys God Smiles Upon the Callous Daoboys | 3.5 |
| The Dallous Caoboyz crank dat zaniness up for a result that's undoubtebly fun but a tad too unfocused to really tickle their best material. |
| Blood Incantation Luminescent Bridge | 3.5 |
| Some nice lil appetizers from ambient dm t-shirts sellers. Give us an LP already. |
| Prince Waly BO Y Z | 3.4 |
| Waly's first "true solo album" is nevertheless full of features, but it fortunately displays the warm, poppy yet still hardcore vibe the rapper is aiming at. He will further refine his proposition in his post-cancer comeback record, Moussa (gg big boi you rock). |
| Afterbirth In But Not Of | 3.5 |
| Three years after, Afterbirth refine their formula - the beautiful atmospheric tones nicely complements the otherwise run-of-the-mill brutal shit (which is less present than on Four Dimensional Flesh). |
| Souffrance Tranche de Vie | 3.7 |
| Souffrance displays its very very Parisian vibe (it's New York 90s rap but with French spleen) on his debut album - it's a tad too long but the dude has a dope rapological technique and a misanthropic rage that matches the rainy atmosphere brought by the beats. |
| Forest Swords Bolted | 3.6 |
| Bolted is yet another tribalistic slab of ambient dub from Forest Swords, with this time some post-industrial shenanigans thrown into the mix. Its "melodies" are more striking than Compassion, but I still can't help but love the folktronica bits on the debut. |
| Dying Fetus Make Them Beg for Death | 3.6 |
| Riffz here are as meaty as they are groovy, shame the drummer is hitting his pans. |
| Eric Prydz Opus | 3.3 |
| Progressive house bigboi Eric Prydz made a debut album that summons his different aesthetics: there are tunes with strong electro-house elements, others that reek of Tomorrowlandist festival house construction, and some genuinely banging tunes regardless of the context they're jammed (the title track is four banger and three quarters). Opus mainly displays the "special Eric Prydz drop", where the DJ releases the tension created by the progression while still building on said progression instead of just discarding it like on most EDM drops. Real cool shit that shouldn't be two hours long though. |
| La Femme Mystère | 3.3 |
| La Femme add some new influences into their psychy synthy pop - the biggest winner being the occasional but very cool and a propos ye-ye vibes ("Tatiana" bangs) - for a more diverse record that nevertheless feels less cohesive than their banging debut. |
| Grant Cranks | 4.0 |
| Thumping basses and booms and claps support groovy basslines and ethereal synth lines that are as entrancing as they are catchy. Yes. Grant has delivered a banger of a lo-fi/deep house record with Cranks. |
| Wardruna Runaljod – Ragnarok | 3.7 |
| Wardruna deliver another hypnotic and tribal brand of pagan folk music, with even more focus on the ritualistic vocals and how they work around the repetitive aspect of the music. |
| Sturgill Simpson A Sailor's Guide To Earth | 3.9 |
| Although Simpson's preceding record Metamodern Sounds advertised itself as being, well, metamodern, A Sailor's Guide to Earth is way more adventurous when it comes to spice its country up with some other genres (psych and soul being the most prominent). It makes for a diversified record that constantly stays interesting by sailing across different spiritual states. |
| Plebeian Grandstand False Highs, True Lows | 3.3 |
| Plebeian Grandstand continue the path they've taken down on predecessor Lowgazers: their dissoblack is now even more devoid of hardcore, and it's not necessarily for the best, as the band's dissochops aren't diversified enough to deliver pummeling and memorable riffs. Good stuff, but they've done better. |
| NxWorries Yes Lawd! | 3.5 |
| Anderson .Paak and Knxwledge associate to deliver a collection of sweet lil soul lullabies that too often suffer from a too short runtime - and thus a lack of development. Production-wise this is full of earworms though. |
| ScHoolboy Q Blank Face LP | 3.4 |
| ScHoolboy Q's best and most consistent album nevertheless displays the rapper's faults: it's too long and inconsistent. There are some of his best tunes here though ("John Muir"). |
| Glass Animals How To Be A Human Being | 3.0 |
| Roughly the same as their debut: this is chill stuff relying on psychy indietronica and half-downtempo half-tribal rhythms, but its introspective character disallows it to be fully impacting. |
| Charli XCX Number 1 Angel | 3.3 |
| Number 1 Angel finds a cool balance between PC Music's aspiration and XCX's pop affinities. She will refine that balance later though. |
| Shinichi Atobe From the Heart, It's a Start, a Work of Art | 3.1 |
| some lyrics from Public Enemy delivers some subdued techno that navigates between the dub and ambient islands. It's hypnotic for sure, but it does lack some meatiness for the loops to not become tiring after some time. |
| Thantifaxath Void Masquerading as Matter | 3.0 |
| Thantifaxath make sure everyone knows they're experimental by balancing descending atonal riffs with a choral closing track. Not the most interesting maelstrom out of the whole disso scene, but a maelstrom nonetheless. |
| Bing and Ruth No Home of the Mind | 3.7 |
| Yet another entrancing piece of "piano ambient" whose minimalist vibes only adds to how soothing this is. Gotta say Tomorrow Was The Golden Age slightly beats this tho. |
| Svalbard The Weight of the Mask | 3.8 |
| Svalbard confirms that they're a top dog band within that whole "post-metalcore" shebang with The Weight of the Mask. What mostly shines here is how their blend of post-metalcore and blackgaze is beautifully enhanced by the constellation of epic leads. |
| Sufjan Stevens Javelin | 3.9 |
| Stevens delivers a "summary record" conjuring different facets of his previous albums with gorgeous production and soul-crushing lyrics. The record slightly suffers from a middle lull, but it nevertheless is Stevens' grandest artistic proposition since C&L. |
| Drake For All The Dogs | 2.3 |
| Yet another complacent album that runs for way too long. However, at least this one ain't as horribly bad-taste as CLB - it's just very very very very very (very) mid. |
| Tedax Max Forme Olympique | 2.9 |
| The first EP of his 2021 trilogy, Forme Olympique sees Tedax Max draft his conscious/hardcore persona without truly nailing either his punchlines, choruses or his flows. Aight stuff that will become cooler afterward. |
| Dying Fetus Wrong One to Fuck With | 3.2 |
| Aight brutal tech deathgrind that really shouldn't be 50mins long. |
| Machine Girl The Ugly Art | 3.6 |
| The Ugly Art excels when its decidedly digital hardcore vibe carries its violence as much from its electronic roots as its hardcore punk ones. It sometimes falls into undecipherable noisy shit, but never to the point of abstruseness. |
| SUMAC Love In Shadow | 3.6 |
| Love In Shadow is SUMAC fully diving into improv waters, and it sometimes works and sometimes it doesn't. It mostly works when it goes for the band's trademark pounding aggression, and it works less when they go for atmoimprov stuff. The fact that this 66mins abstract sludge record never bores is, however, proof of the band's capacity to provide a flawed yet fascinating release. |
| Portal ION | 3.5 |
| ION is Portal somewhat diving into more melodic and immediate territories (it's all relative eh), thanks to a "cleaner" production compared to Vexovoid (it really is all relative eh). |
| Lorna Shore ...And I Return to Nothingness | 2.4 |
| Bravo Lorna Shore for fusing deathcore and symphoblack. Shame these two genres leave me cold (and also this is overproduced and trading raaah-isms for symphoshi with not much coherence). |
| underscores Wallsocket | 3.0 |
| An everything zoomer pop record that clumsily trades banging hyperpop with sad singer-songwriter stuff among some indie rock shenanigans, Wallsocket is an interesting proposition with cute choruses, but one that needs some refinement to trade its messy nature into a front-to-back great experience. |
| Erik Hall Canto Ostinato | 3.6 |
| Canto Ostinato is a minimalist reprise of an already minimalist piece. Of course, it carries heavy hypnotic characteristics, but it mostly surprises by how melodic these loops are. |
| bar italia Tracey Denim | 3.4 |
| Cool lo-fi indie rock that just pours its 90s influences all over the place. Songs are good enough!! |
| Stimming Elderberry | 3.5 |
| Stimming makes minimal techno the CEO of his sixth solo album, with deep house being relegated to the occasional report. It makes for a constantly vibrant record that nicely uses its hypnotic rhythms to make up for its relative absence of potent melodies. |
| Jorja Smith Falling or Flying | 3.0 |
| I can't help but wish Smith would do a dance album despite her core aesthetic clearly being passionate soul. This album is nice and all, but her sticking to the warmness of her tried-and-approved formula instead of her occasional ass-shaking dancey tunes leaves me somewhat frustrated. |
| Matana Roberts COIN COIN CHAPTER 5: In The Garden... | 3.6 |
| This fifth installment of the Coin Coin series shows Roberts can dial down in the experimentation while balancing more efficiently the spoken word bits with electronic shenanigans and other free jazzy stuff. This one felt coherent and not annoying, which wasn't the case for their last two records (imo). Chapter Five is powerful, at times poignant, and its free spirit doesn't hinder said the brutal honesty it displays. Gens de couleurs libres still numero uno in my heart. |
| Laurel Halo Atlas | 3.5 |
| Halo went from dance to dense. The soundscape here is composed of moving textures whose buried melodies only occasionally make their presence known. Atlas's opaqueness works against it in the short term, but slowly opens its nuances after several listens. |
| '68 Yes, and... | 2.6 |
| Yes, And is further proof Scogin's knack for memorable hooks and balls-to-the-walls energy is dialing down by the day. |
| Oneohtrix Point Never Again | 3.1 |
| Lopatin flexes his producer muscles by offering a succession of spatialized and mega-well-produced tunes that have next to zero coherence. |
| Wolves in the Throne Room Crypt of Ancestral Knowledge | 3.2 |
| As expected, this WITTR EP is dripping in atmosphere. Two bm tracks open the dance, while a (cool but) unnecessary reprise opens the "ambient half". This is good shit, but the band has done these two aesthetics better before. |
| Code Orange The Above | 2.2 |
| Code Orange's trajectory continues to be weirder. After going full experimental on 2020's Underneath, they chose to conjure 90s buttrock among their industrial metallic raaaah-ism, and their knack for sing-along choruses can't save how dull these songs are. Long gone is the time they were considered the next big important band. |
| Leon Bridges Good Thing | 3.0 |
| Bridges continues his "oldies soul" shtick, and it's as pleasant and ultimately unremarkable as ever. |
| H JeuneCrack La pieuvre | 3.7 |
| New-gen French rapper H Jeunecrack (for once) leaves the production duties to Hologram 'Lo (1995, Don Dada) to focus on his half-conscious half-silly punchlines delivered with his oh-so-typical semi-whispered vocals. Tight shit. |
| Rivers of Nihil Where Owls Know My Name | 2.8 |
| Where Owls Know My Name could have been awesome with its sax-tinged tech death. The issue is: you gotta have sick riffz because you're still a death metal band. Their first two records were cool bordering on aight, this one is just aight. |
| The Internet Hive Mind | 2.7 |
| Like Ego Death, Hive Mind is a groovy affair that hides its hooks, melodies, and songwriting behind a cool but shallow aesthetic. |
| Naked Flames Miracle in Transit | 4.0 |
| Uplifting shit. Miracle in Transit features just the right amount of funky bassline and four-on-the-floor rhythms for asses to shake while also delivering hazy synths and a lo-fi approach on production. It makes for an ethereal listen that peaks at its final installment, "Tennessee Transit", combining nostalgia-heavy sound with dance propulsion. |
| Delroy Edwards 4 Club Use Only | 3.5 |
| At its heart, 4 Club Use Only has got a winning formula with its blend of acid techno and lo-fi house. Shame only the (absolutely amazing) first track (and a bit the third one) manages to fully leverage such a mixture to danceable territories. |
| Varnish La Piscine Le regard qui tue | 2.6 |
| Varnish's first solo record features its trademark synth funk hop, but how the EP sticks with its cinematic aesthetic works against itself. Songs thus sometimes lose themselves in the story's development, to the detriment of songwriting. |
| Ross From Friends You'll Understand | 3.8 |
| A quintessential lo-fi house release, You'll Understand's four-to-the-floor rhythmic pattern is nicely complemented by vapor aesthetic, for a result that sheds house's dance aspirations for a mellow and melancholic approach. Songs for dancing alone in your bedroom. |
| Lucy Dacus Historian | 3.2 |
| Compared to 2021's Home Video, Historian lacks the catchiness that would allow these otherwise perfectly competent indie rock songs to cross the "good song/banger" frontier. |
| Shinichiro Yokota I Know You Like It | 3.3 |
| More uptempo than Do It Again And Again, I Know You Like It features that warm Balearic vibe that helps its otherwise mellow house tunes to be playful. Still not the kind of house you'd hear at a club. |
| Sadness I want to be there | 3.4 |
| Fusing depressive bm with Deafheavenism and other blackgaze aesthetics, Sadness delivers one fucking effing great song ("I Want to Be With You") with other tunes that scratch the "uplifting but sad ):" vibe without quite attaining the magnum opus' exhilaration ("Somewhere" is not too far off). |
| clairo Immunity | 2.7 |
| Immunity is the case of a singer-songwriter album that is carried (hard) by its production instead of the singing or songwriting. Sometimes the songs are up to the soundscape they travel in ("Bags"), but most of the time, they don't. |
| Black Dresses Love and Affection for Stupid Little Bitches | 3.5 |
| Black Dresses fine-tune their electropopclashindustrial formula on this record that has the dopest lil name. Screams are more prominent, and the balance between pop elements and industrial raaaah-isms is better executed than on the already-cool Wasteisolation. |
| Show Me The Body Dog Whistle | 3.7 |
| With Dog Whistle, Show Me the Body finally manage to leverage their awesome proposition made of noise rock, post-hardcore, and art and synth punk, and deliver a(n almost fully) consistent record. |
| Altin Gun Gece | 3.5 |
| It's Altin Gun: Anatolianism carried by either psychy or funky shit, with synths being the most prominent groove dictator. |
| 13 Block Blo | 3.5 |
| 13 Block's first album slightly dialed down in the gangsta shit (that was to be expected) while still having its fair share of hardcore bangers ("Fuck le 17"). The balance between sweet choruses and spin-kicking diatribes is well-done, and this is the one record where all members shine through their respective forces. |
| Sampa the Great The Return | 3.9 |
| Despite its 77 mins length, The Return isn't too long. That's because Sampa's blend of soul and hip-hop (and sick guitar licks)features both immaculate production and engaging songwriting, with enough social commentaries here and there to guarantee the Lauryn Hill comparisons. |
| Sunn O))) Life Metal | 2.5 |
| Sunn O))) at their most lackluster, with neither enough trance or songwriting. Albini's prod is good I guess. |
| Whitney Light Upon the Lake | 3.5 |
| Light Upon the Lake is a very well-done copy/paste of hippie'n'sunny pop-rock-folk of yesteryear, mostly carried by lovely guitar licks that sometimes hide the lack of meat in these songs. |
| Animal Collective Painting With | 2.2 |
| Painting With is a directionless gloubiboulga of a psych album, with pounding drums way too fucking high in the mix (they ain't Skrillex), and their typical harmony vocals here just sound overpacked. |
| SpaceGhostPurrp Blackland Radio 66 Pt. 2 Ep. 1 | 3.3 |
| As always with Purrrrrrrrp, I connect much more with these nasty beats as I do with his delivery. |
| Osees A Weird Exits | 3.2 |
| Osees deliver their typical brand of psychy garage rock, with some slight kraut tendencies which aren't as entrancing as the genre is, and slow down an otherwise quite dynamic release. |
| Zach Bryan Zach Bryan | 2.6 |
| Another long (but not 2 hours-long) country record whose occasional gritty performance can't make up for its lack of cohesiveness (in the first half: a ballad follows a rockier tune) and momentum-lacking second half (there only are ballads ugh). |
| Yeule softscars | 3.5 |
| softscars is indeed softer and less glitchy than GlitchPrincess!!! It results in a record that often goes ball-to-the-wall in terms of emotional abrasiveness, just not as epically often as its predecessor. |
| Mairo Déjeuner en paix | 3.8 |
| Mairo keeps on confirming he's one of the most interesting new gen Swiss rappers with his complex lyricism made of multisyllabics and braggadocio. Plus all beats are made by homie JeanJass, with warm boom bap loops and jazzy samples that are effing great in and of themselves, but ultimately do not feel as fresh as the zany beats on omar chappier |
| Hammock Everything and Nothing | 3.8 |
| Hammock's formula is well-known by now: post-rock and ambient fight to get the most attention from the real star: the stringz. Of course, Everything and Nothing is a beautifully soothing listen. It's a Hammock record. |
| The National Laugh Track | 2.7 |
| The National kinda but not really abandon the TayTay-approved sad indie aesthetic they've been championing in the past two albums for either a darker sound (that they already nailed on Sleep Well Beast) or a one-off americana track that shows much more potential than anything else they've released in the past 5 years. It's something. It's a consistent record, with less lows (and highs) than I Am Easy to Find, but that's the only thing that allows it to be hailed as "best National in a fucking while", if that even is a thing. |
| Nas Magic 3 | 3.7 |
| Nas & Hit-Boy continue their stride of jazzy boom bap agremented with good ol' chipmunk soul samples and tight rapping. Their productivity works against them though: since Magic and mostly King's Disease III, we know what the best of this formula sounds like, and this, despite all its qualities, is not far from it but ultimately ain't it. |
| S-Crew Destins Liés | 3.0 |
| Damn this one took me back to uni years. There's only one reason Destins Lies is even remotely memorable: Nekfeu. As always, he carries the whole record (and the group) with his complex lyricism (that at that time really was just a hyper-fast succession of assonances and alliterations) and his knack for hummable melodies. The rest of the rappers are mostly forgettable, the beats are kinda run-of-the-mill cloud trap, and this is overall too long (it should end with "Fugazi"). At least some tunes still remain mid-2010s French rap classics ("J'aurais pas du", "C'est pas un film"), and this remains Nekfeu's best non-solo album - it almost feels like a Nekfeu album with his bros borrowing the mic from time to time. |
| Moonsorrow Jumalten aika | 3.2 |
| Epic folk pagan viking metal whose overblown and cheesy characteristic can't hide the good songs hiding under all that (pretty) production. Still not really my thang. |
| Agnes Obel Citizen Of Glass | 3.3 |
| Agnes Obel's piano lines and lovely vocal harmonies always do the job, but this one fails to feel as powerfully restraint as her magnum opus Aventine. |
| 40 Watt Sun Wider than the Sky | 3.7 |
| While Wider Than Sky definitely spends a lot of time rehashing the same ideas, there lies beauty in these repetitions. Less beauty than on The Inside Room, but still. |
| Night Verses Every Sound Has a Color...: Part I | 3.0 |
| A gorgeous production serving tight musicianship that treads the band's usual djenty prog metal waters. Waiting for part 2, 'cause this is cool without carrying enough "oomph". |
| Asia Menor Enola Gay | 2.7 |
| Aesthetically cool blend of everything "indie" that unfortunately suffers from a songwriting that feels aimless way too often. |
| Tomb Mold The Enduring Spirit | 3.0 |
| DM band goes prog while still retaining some of its OSDM spices, and while some of these softones are beautiful, the technical riffs aren't gripping enough for the whole lot to fully land its duality. |
| Baroness Stone | 3.5 |
| Baroness deliver a very Baronesque album that never reaches their late nouhgties' maximalism, but this one does riff and whatnot. |
| Davido Timeless | 3.1 |
| Timeless is a sweet and laid-back collection of Afropop that conjures as much tradition as it does modernism. It loses itself in unnecessary lengths, but its constant smoothness (kinda) compensates for that. |
| GridLink Coronet Juniper | 4.0 |
| GridLink come back with just enough melodeez hidden in their brutal assault, and just enough knack for the assault to nevertheless be fucking pounding. Masterfully balanced release. |
| Tinashe BB/ANG3L | 3.8 |
| Tinashe delivers a cool lil record (album? EP? mixtape?) made of smooth R&B lines carried by ethereal synths and beats alternating between trap and garage. Nothing here screams banger material, but all tunes carry enough sweetness for the whole ride to be as warm as it is straightforward. |
| Ruby Haunt Between Heavens | 3.5 |
| Sweet'n'soft blend of dream pop, synth pulses, and slowcore's moody tempo. This is perfect morning music for when coffee is hot and the sun still is sleepy. |
| Mitski The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We | 3.1 |
| After going synthpop in last year's Laurel Hell, Mitski continues to navigate through America Great Genres by putting an americana coat around her subdued songwriting's throat. The biggest difference with her previous outputs is that the subdued character of her songwriting now shines not through simili-catchy choruses, but through typically-country arrangements. Cool proposition, just not one that makes me pp hard. |
| Explosions in the Sky End | 2.8 |
| yeah it's aight post-rock but ultimately run-of-the-mill post-rock also do i really need post-rock in 2023 (imma post-rock bish tho) |
| Zola Jesus Okovi | 3.2 |
| When Zola Jesus complements her industrial darkwave with catchy melodies like on "Exhumed", "Soak", or "Veka", this is banging. Shame most of the tunes do not accompany the catchy lines with enough kick from the production. |
| The xx I See You | 2.3 |
| While Coexist saw the band favour Jamie XX's production over pop hooks, I See You isn't even remotely interesting sonically to save it from its bland songwriting. |
| ostraca last | 3.5 |
| Great skramz that unfortunately displays the best of its qualities in its titanic first track (and the building of "Nausea"), only to repeat their desperate formula with less success in the rest of the tunes. |
| Knocked Loose A Different Shade of Blue | 3.4 |
| A Different Shade of Blue is proof that beatdown hardcore really works best in short doses. Not that this is excruciatingly overlong, but 40 mins still is stretching the genre's appeal. |
| Cradle of Filth Cryptoriana – The Seductiveness of Decay | 3.4 |
| Mega silly and cheesy and epic, Cryptoriana (that name alone is silly and cheesy and epic) features its fair share of sick riffs and overall engaging songwriting for my non-sympho ass to enjoy this. |
| Burna Boy Love, Damini | 2.9 |
| Burna Boy's poppiest record unsurprisingly titillates the bland side of pop muzak. Fortunately there is enough groovy shit happening between the Ed Sheeran worships. |
| Zaho de Sagazan La symphonie des éclairs | 3.3 |
| Some synths, a (very very) French singing style, and love topics: Zaho de Sagahan sure came up with an interesting aesthetic that can definitely be improved by consistent songwriting. |
| Yussef Dayes Black Classical Music | 3.6 |
| Drumming star goes solo, and it's groovy (woo)!! Dayes' drumming chops are to be lauded, but I ain't too convinced about his leading skills - most of this is cool, but the coolest moments make the less cool moments sound kinda bland. That title track is jazz SOTY and shows what the dude is capable of. |
| Matthew Halsall An Ever Changing View | 4.0 |
| Matthew Halsall conjures different facets on An Ever Changing View: there lies a tranquility here that borrows as much from the ECM school as it does Japanese traditional music (deez tones) or minimalism (deez soft percussions), the whole lot being enhanced by calming nature recordings. |
| Kekra Stratos | 3.0 |
| Stratos might well be Kekra's most cohesive project to date, with many intelligent features (Alpha Wann and Zamdane for example), varied flows, and beats. Shame he's done all this better in the past. |
| Tiny Skulls Songs From Some Depressing Movie | 3.0 |
| Cute and posi (if a lil sadboi) indie chamber folk rock - oh it's a There Will Be Fireworks offshoot? No wonder I find this tepidly aight. |
| Hail the Sun Divine Inner Tension | 2.8 |
| Swancore never was my cuppa, but Divine Inner Tension proves that despite the genre's lack of relevance in 2023, Hail the Sun remain the best to deliver cheesy'n'proggy slabs of swancore. |
| Sprain The Lamb As Effigy | 3.5 |
| Sprawling dissorock shizzle whose excessism sometimes leads the band nowhere - thankfully these self-indulgent moments don't happen *that* often (mostly on the phat 24 minutes tracks), and the record is surprisingly digestible for its 90mins duration. |
| The Chemical Brothers For That Beautiful Feeling | 3.4 |
| ChemBros come back with a collection of tunes seemingly built for a live set as they all flow into one another. It makes for a cool album experience, but one that very rarely attains the banging level this band can reach. |
| Freeze Corleone ADC | 3.3 |
| Freeze Corleone continues with his traditional conspiracy-laden hardcore drill. While his formula sure is interesting with all his assonances and alliterations, ADC isn't as impacting as LMF, mostly because there aren't any instant classics here (nothing here comes near the level of "Freeze Rael" or "Rap catechisme"). Very good point though: this isn't overstaying its welcome. |
| Kvelertak Endling | 3.2 |
| While not as banging as their first two albums, Endling is at the very least [i[fun[/i], something their last two records absolutely weren't. |
| Olivia Rodrigo Guts | 3.6 |
| ORod continues to deliver either bomb-ass-thicc power pop punk rock guitar angst or sad piano "bedroom" pop. As her debut album, the best songs deliver the goods when it comes to their respective subgenres ("bad idea right?" for the former and "vampire" for the latter), and the "filler tunez" aren't as filler as on her debut. |
| James Blake Playing Robots Into Heaven | 2.9 |
| Blake reminisces his early 2010s work on Playing Robots Into Heaven without fully nailing the "dub" aspect of dubstep, resulting in a groove-lacking release that *could* have been much cooler if Blake knew in which direction he wanted to go. |
| Angel Du$t Brand New Soul | 2.7 |
| Angel Du$t mostly shed their punk and hardcore influences in profit for alty thangs like jangle pop or garage rock. They tryna do a Turnstile but ended up with just an alright album. |
| Pierre de Maere Regarde-moi | 3.0 |
| Pierre de Maere is the newest French chanson craze (he's Belgian of course), and it's understandable why: he's got a gorgeous voice (very pedantic which is a big win in French chanson), his music is very modern without giving it to the almighty trap beats (synths are ruling the soundscapes except for the closer), and his love-centered lyrics are quite poetic. Not exactly my cuppa, but well done stuff. |
| Zach Bryan American Heartbreak | 2.7 |
| A two hours long country album whose primary strength is its lyricism should be my kryptonite. And it kinda is lol. Fortunately Bryan's performance is filled with grit, making American Heartbreak almost enjoyable. This dude ain't Swans tho. |
| Earl Sweatshirt and The Alchemist Voir Dire | 3.2 |
| I feel Earl needs more rhythmic beats to carry his apathetic delivery, and I don't feel the drumless aesthetic chosen here was the best choice. Quality beats and good rapping, just nothing impressive in both artists' catalog. |
| Laylow Digitalova | 3.2 |
| Digitalova was very much an experimental record within the French rap scene when it was released in 2017. Its bassy trap beats are supported by various beat switches while Laylow always walks the joyful-sadboi thread by providing as many vocal inflections as there are beat switches. Shame I only listened to this in 2023 lol, now projects like this come around every two months. Also some experimentations are very much bwergf ("Digital Vice City"). |
| Psychedelic Porn Crumpets High Visceral Pt. 2 | 3.7 |
| High Visceral 2 is basically like High Visceral 1 (woah surprise!) in that it delivers tasty psych rock that trades well the psych and the rock. I just prefer [1]'s songs. |
| Kekra Land | 3.4 |
| Kekra fully embraces his softer side on Land, and it's a winner: he lets go of (the little) rapological technique he had in favour of R&B deliveries that mostly match the sunny beats. |
| Lupe Fiasco DROGAS Wave | 3.8 |
| Typical Fiasco: he delivers a great album that could be amazing if only he had trimmed it down to its essential tracks. |
| Horrendous Idol | 4.0 |
| Idol is almost on par with Anareta in that the production is bonkers good, the performances are all-around great, and the band nails their prog death metal shtick without stepping too far into either genre (which they did on their latest output). |
| Odezenne Au Baccara | 3.5 |
| Au Baccara is Odezenne at their most experimental and abstract, even more relying on synths to deliver their weird mixture of French chanson, rap beats, downtempo rhythms, and a decidedly sad and cold and modern persona. When they fully go with that synth-led aesthetic, it's a winner (opener and t/t especially). |
| Voivod The Wake | 3.5 |
| Voivod keep on delivering great prog thrash that's actually relevant in the modern day, woah!! |
| Royal Blood Back to the Water Below | 2.5 |
| Royal Blood seem like they wanna shed whatever swag they had with each passing album. Stale rock that's really not that bad but it's also really nothing to write home about. |
| Yvnnis Yvnnis | 3.3 |
| Yvnnis is a(nother) very interesting figure in new gen French rap: he alternates between different flows and beats while displaying either rage or melancholy. Needs refinement for sure, but a good proposition. |
| Daughter Stereo Mind Game | 3.4 |
| While Daughter's previous outputs always left me lukewarm despite their evident qualities, Stereo Mind Game sees the band up their game and offer proper songs to accompany their blend of indie post-dream pop rock. Still not exactly the kind of thing I'm all about, but this is my fav of them. |
| Tuerie Papillon Monarque | 3.8 |
| Tuerie's shtick is interesting: he's trading rap braggadocio, R&B sensibility, and French chanson classiness. This makes for a wildly entertaining listen that only needs to extend beyond 30 minutes. |
| Jeff Rosenstock HELLMODE | 3.1 |
| It's alright. HELLMODE is a mishmash of his sounds whose coherence and potency feels slightly off - either the songs don't go hard enough, or they blast their power off without dialing in some of Rosenstock's pop tendencies. It's alright. |
| Slowdive Everything is Alive | 3.5 |
| The ~chillest~ Slowdive has ever sounded. Everything Is Alive sees the band dial down the ~gaze~ in favor of the ~drem~, and it sometimes works and sometimes it's just alright y'know: bookends are home runs while the rest is very serviceable at delivering chill drem pop that is a bit electronic but still ain't Pygmalion. |
| BEN plg J'rêve mieux qu'avant | 3.1 |
| Ben continues to deliver conscious-slash-poignant French rap with the kind of big soundscapes he showed on the last EP of his trilogy, as well as his typical yelly delivery. Nothing new under the sun, and I don't feel like he's particularly improved. Still cool, but I expected either more or better of this formula. |
| Pinegrove Skylight | 3.2 |
| When Pinegrove fully flesh out their brand of indie alt-country midwest emo rock thing (oh waw they're American?????), this is poignant like on the opener or the title track. Shame the record is also comprised of many one-minute songs that are not given time to expand on their proposition. |
| Altin Gun On | 3.5 |
| Altin Gun's formula is quite unique (in the 2010s): anatolian rock (these guys are? Dutch) carried by either stronk psychedelism or ass-shaking funkiness. Good shi. |
| IQ The Road of Bones | 2.8 |
| BIG and PROG (apparently this is neo-prog, prog with big synths? very 80s if you ask, me, and not what I'd like to remember about the 80s). IQ's definitely composed of a talented bunch of musicians (I especially enjoyed the drummer's performance), but this is typically the kind of music whose relentless pouring of emotion just do nothing for me. |
| Blur The Ballad of Darren | 2.6 |
| Apart from a couple of rockers ("The Narcissist" bangs), this mostly is a slow affair of chamber pop tracks whose beautiful arrangements can't hide how dull these songs are. |
| Jaimie Branch Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war)) | 3.6 |
| RIP. Trumpeter Branch was one of the modern avant-jazz scene primary players, specifically because of how pulsating her music resonates. Like her previous output, this is mostly avant jazz fusion bullshit, but this third opus works especially well when fully diving into the grooviest waters (like on one-two punch "baba louie" - "bolinko bass" or on the vibrant "take over the world"). |
| Noname Sundial | 2.5 |
| All controversies aside, this is just very mid: NoName is just rapping the same flows on the same neo-souly beats. |
| Werenoi Carré | 2.3 |
| Werenoi sounds like a Ninho copycat: dime-a-dozen beats, nothing interesting lyrically or rapologically, and just a succession of meh tunes. |
| Spanish Love Songs No Joy | 3.0 |
| Sad pop punk bois move towards sad big man 80s indie (those big drumz!! those big synths!!) while retaining that raspy punky vocal delivery. No Joy nevertheless feels stuck halfway between its old roots and new aspirations, thus not packing as much of a punch as it could have. |
| Sleepwalker (JPN) Skopofoboexoskelett | 3.6 |
| Skopofoboexoskelett (lol) is indeed very avant with its structureless collection of blackened noisy experimental shizzle from which unexpected moments of beauty manage to emerge (that closer phew). |
| The Armed Perfect Saviors | 3.2 |
| Arf. They wanted to come up with the biggest rock album ever, and they fall short. The issue when you fall short of a ginormous objective: it's an epic fail. Not that it's bad, it's just that the soundscape it hints at never fully comes into fruition. |
| leroy Grave Robbing | 1.5 |
| Grave Robbing a sample-full gloubiboulga of EDM, hardstyle, hard trance, and basically every hard or speedy electronic subgenre. It's fucking messy. |
| Benjamin Epps La grande désillusion | 3.4 |
| Ben Epps' first album is a fully-fleshed out version of his EPs, with some new tricks here and there (trap beats??? Badly sung choruses lol???). His writing mostly still is top-notch, but some of it sometimes is too gimmicky for its own good ("capitaine flamme"). Always good to listen to an authentic boi tho. |
| Blut Aus Nord Disharmonium – Nahab | 3.7 |
| Punishing and dissonantly grabbing you into its sick maelstrom, this second Disharmonium nevertheless didn't embark me as much into its lovecraftian saga as its predecessor. Consistent band is consistent though. |
| Genesis Owusu Struggler | 3.2 |
| STRUGGLER is more streamlined, yet less focused and tite as Smiling With No Teeth, mostly because most of these tracks dip into groovy territories without fully giving themselves the dynamics means to leverage all this potential ass-shaking. |
| Horrendous Ontological Mysterium | 3.6 |
| Death metal band goes full prog - but fortunately for my prog-lukewarm solipsist ass they didn't forget the riffz!! |
| Perfect Angel at Heaven Imploder | 3.5 |
| When it goes for the band's typical 90s-worshippings shenanigans blend of everything-rock, Imploder is hella cool. Shame there's a nothing piano piece in the middle, and a rather unnecessary (if cool!) "Catholic Block" cover (of course they did a "Catholic Block" cover). |
| Burna Boy I Told Them… | 3.3 |
| I Told Them? is a laidback collection of dancehall tunes whose effortless melodies are just a tad dampened by the overall lack of adventurousness this one has - at least it's not too long like most of his records! |
| Ninho NI | 2.2 |
| One of French rap's best sellers isn't trying anymore - very lazy and unremarkable. |
| Jul L'ovni | 2.0 |
| Typical JuL: too long record full of filler tunes that brew reggaeton beats, dance-pop, autotune and pop rap. |
| VOLA Applause of a Distant Crowd | 3.2 |
| Applause of a Distant Crowd is as progzy (prog + djent) as its predecessors, but the big pop choruses and dreamy synths accompanying the progz aren't as impacting. Not to say it doesn't work - I bet these guys are amazing live - but it didn't grab me as much as Inmazes. |
| Sameer Ahmad Apaches | 3.6 |
| This is Sameer Ahmad's least impactful record. And yet, he shows that his tasteful beats, complex lyricism and sharp rapological technique make for one of the most interesting formulas in modern French rap. |
| Madeon Good Faith | 3.2 |
| Woah this is from 2019? This really sounds like early 2010s Tomorrowland muzak, with androgynous vocals being very heavily processes singing on top of colourful EDM that nicely blends (almost) all popular electronic genres of the 2010s (electropop, nu-disco, funky house, synthpop, future bass). |
| J Balvin and Bad Bunny Oasis | 2.8 |
| Fun and inoffensive lil record by the top two reggaeton dawgs. |
| Eartheater Trinity | 3.5 |
| Interesting concoction of trap beats, 808s, uk bass, trance synths, and sensual R&B vocals that ends up very aquatic and bubbly. |
| City Morgue City Morgue Vol 2: As Good As Dead | 2.8 |
| City Morgue do straight to your bitchass face trap metal while yelling. This style tends to quickly become tiring, even though they somehow dial the aggressivity down on this second opus. The issue is: the "calmer" tracks aren't that interesting, going halfway between trap and alt metal without being banging (what's the point then) |
| Obsequiae The Palms of Sorrowed Kings | 3.4 |
| Obsequiae's medieval black metal aesthetic is indeed very pleasing for all of us nerdz, yet I ultimately feel like they nail their shtick more than their songwriting. Nevertheless epic m/ |
| Frontierer Orange Mathematics | 3.1 |
| heavy and povnding lesson of violent chugchugism (not to be mistaken with proggy chugchugism) |
| Cradle of Filth Hammer of the Witches | 3.3 |
| Symphoblack = yeah it's overblown!!! Def a great release that my non-sympho ass can't thoroughly enjoy, Hammer of the Witches does riff and whatnot. |
| White Lung Paradise | 4.0 |
| White Lung always delivers great punk records full of recognizable riffs - another one. Paradise's shtick is that it exposes more evident post-hardcore licks - sometimes made me think of early Alexisonfire. Can't say I am a fan of the vocal effects, but the songs are so catchy man. |
| Jesus Piece Only Self | 3.0 |
| Stupidly heavy shit (dive into the H8000 scene if you like this) whose virulent energy sure is to laud. It just blends together. |
| BabySolo33 Radio $ummer Hits | 3.3 |
| BabySolo33 delivers another deeply emotional blend of R&B and rap lines supported by beats that alternate between trap, drill, jersey, or hyperpop - yes it's very zoomer!! Gotta refine all that but that formula sure is interesting. |
| Esso Luxueux Liaisons Dangereuses | 3.7 |
| The most lover of all hardcore rappers (or the most hardcore love rapper), Esso Luxueux (finally) delivers his first album (which is only 30mins long) full of sultry vocal lines, hazy beats, and ethereal synths. Not groundbreaking stuff by any means, but yah he should release more material. It especially feels like a debut album of a thirtysomething: he sounds hella confident in his artistic proposition. |
| NewJeans Get Up | 3.3 |
| Get Up is even more reliant on UK garage!! Woo!!! Shame that only the first two tracks focus on accompanying these R&Bs croons and UK garage beats with actual songs. But boi do these first two tracks bang mega hard. |
| Witch (ZMB) Zango | 3.8 |
| Zango is a damn history in and of itself: a 70 year-old Zambian rock legend from the 70s, Emmanuel Chanda, decides to rock it one more time while adding some modern touches here and there (as well as tasteful features like Sampa the Great). Groovy shit. |
| Geld Currency // Castration | 3.4 |
| Face-kicking indeed. Currency // Castration (badass name) is a raw af crust-tinged hardcore affair with very slight psych linings. Neat. |
| Soundtrack (Film) Barbie: The Album | 2.5 |
| Barbie as a soundtrack is much shallower than the movie, with occasional good tunes (Charli XCX, Dua Lipa, and I can't help but love that Ice Spice / Nicki Minaj cover), some meh ones (the majority), some not-really-good-but-aight-in-the-movie (the Ken song) and some horrendous tunes independent of their context (Sam Smith and Kid Laroi). Not Kenough. |
| Snooper Super Snooper | 3.0 |
| Quirky and kinda playful art punk that lasts just the right amount of time before these all-over-the-place riffs wear thin. The closer is the real deal here, and that mainly has to do with its length: "Running" is given the time to develop into a bona fide banger, while the previous tunes mostly rehash a (cool!) idea before abruptly ending. Yeah I know it comes with the genre. |
| grouptherapy. I Was Mature for My Age, But I Was Still a Child | 3.7 |
Brockhampton??? Yeah it's pop rap with strong alt r&b linings, queer-friendly lyrics, some experimentations here and there nice, and a vibe that nicely balances vibrant attitude with sadboi tendencies. It doesn't always work - "club song  " (yeah this is the track title) is cheesy af - and it's highly front-loaded, but it's nevertheless a ~fresh~ listen. |
| 23wa RORSCHACH | 3.7 |
| Glitchy, abstract, and deeply emotional French rap that wears its zoomer persona on its sleeves: you've got Arce-lite beats with start-and-stop glitchy layers, flows that alternate between sadboi plugg and angry trap shi, and the occasional chipmunk vocal parts. RORSCHACH is creatively one of the most interesting modern French rap records to recently come out - the scene truly is one fire - yet I can't help but see this more as a passionated boi first attempt at a grand album than truly a definitive statement of new-gen French rap. Keep pushing, kids, you're soon gonna be reigning. |
| Camille OUÃ | 3.4 |
| An extremely competent and delightful art pop record (but not really more than that), OUI is at its best when it goes for whimsical French pop that uses Camille's multi-layered vocals (eg "Je ne mache pas mes mots"). |
| Spoon Hot Thoughts | 3.2 |
| Spoon go for more synth-driven compositions on Hot Thoughts, and while it works on certain tracks (just look at the streaming numbers), it doesn't manage to stay interesting during the whole record. The aesthetic is cool, songwriting is only cool on a handful of tunes. |
| William Basinski A Shadow in Time | 3.4 |
| It's Basinski: floating loops of tape muzak that repeat and repeat and repeat and I can't apparently have enough? Not his best loops though (and what d'yall have with that sax it's perfectly fine) |
| Krallice Go Be Forgotten | 3.5 |
| Krallice go trance bm - like when deez synths hit in the opener or in the t/t, that's the kinda shit I wanna hear from dem boiz. Still can't say I'm mesmerized by their artistic proposition, but Go Be Forgotten definitely is my favourite output of theirs. |
| Black Kray Thug Angel | 2.7 |
| Real brotha with a Chief Keef delivery - makes me wanna jam Chief Keef or Lil B, but not Black Kray. |
| Bell Witch Mirror Reaper | 3.0 |
| The one Bell Witch record that fails to properly embark me on its moody journey. |
| Baths Romaplasm | 3.2 |
| Romaplasm is pouring out its queer roots in a way that's more touching than both Cerulean and Obsidian, but I find the glitchy pop compositions to be Baths' least engaging. |
| NewJeans New Jeans | 3.4 |
| Cute K-Pop that features R&B delivery and bassy beats. The downtempo tunes work less well than the banging ones - and also the singles "OMG" and "DITTO" are even better. |
| Kaaris Le bruit de mon âme | 3.8 |
| Kaaris continues to deliver hardcore/silly/funny punchlines on top of (some of the best) typical Therapy beats. While this doesn't bear Or Noir's legacy, it nevertheless delivers mastodontic French trap that surprisingly doesn't feel long despite its mammoth 77 minutes (not taking "Voyageur" into account, ugh). |
| Mount Kimbie Love What Survives | 3.1 |
| Mount Kimbie try to reinvent themselves with each release - not with resounding success. This time ain't different: they go for indietronica and rockier territories (which they hinted at in Cold Spring), and while it's very alright, it never becomes more than cool background muzak. Interestingly (?), the best tunes are the ones that focuses on delivering repetitive slabs of bleep bloops. Still, their best output. |
| Kekra Vréel 3 | 3.0 |
| Kekra continues down his syncretic lane with cloud trap spiced up by 2-step beats, triplets flows, or R&B deliveries. He ain't saying much apart that he sells more and is all-around better than you, but it's quite efficient at what it does. |
| 13 Block Triple S: Sueur Soif Sous | 3.4 |
| Triple S nicely balances the collective's early gangsta trap shit with their later (still gangsta but less visceral) poppier tendencies - some of the hooks here are smooth ("Don Pablo", "Somme", "Vide"). There are some bad shit too though ("Twerk" is downright horrible). |
| MIKE War In My Pen | 3.7 |
| Basically the same comment as on May God Bless Your Hustle: great hypnago-abstract introspective hip-hop that falls short of Bedwetter and Earl Sweatshirt's definitive modern records. |
| Medine Storyteller | 3.4 |
| Roughly on par with Prose Elite, with a tad less impacting tracks. The 2017-18 Medine really was the best version of himself, with modern beats supporting his political diatribes. |
| GHOSTEMANE N/O/I/S/E | 2.5 |
| This one really sounds like subpar $uicideboy$ with harsh industrial beats and occasional 2000s core shouts. |
| Mac Miller Swimming | 3.6 |
| This one really sounds like an eulogy. RIP. |
| Lil Peep Come Over When You're Sober, Pt. 2 | 3.7 |
| The one Lil Peep record that shows how to properly blend emo and rap. The supporting guitar lines are more prominent than ever while still leaving enough space for the trap beats and sadboi delivery. Shame it loses steam after sadbanger "Life Is Beautiful". |
| Columbine (FR) Adieu Bientôt | 2.7 |
| For their final record, they stripped off whatever experimentations their beats had to focus on delivering pop songs with modern rap beats. It makes for their least obnoxious release, but also their least interesting one. |
| The Voidz Virtue | 3.5 |
| While The Voidz's debut record was all-over-the-place, this one nails the balance of its experimentashit. |
| Bladee Icedancer | 3.7 |
| Icedancer is Bladee at his most accessible. The tunes here are as usual made of bouncy hi-hats, Nintendo 64 synths, and deez autotunez. It's cold and melancholic but in an uplifting way yfm? My fav of his. |
| Zapruder Zapruder | 3.8 |
| Zany post-hardcore that brews many cool things (math stuff, trve blast beats, southern yeehawism, SAX) for a constantly chaotic, always-fun record. |
| Saba Care For Me | 3.8 |
| Saba's Care for Me is a smooth succession of jazzy cuts that this time have just the right amount of time to develop (and not overextend). |
| Candy (USA) Good To Feel | 3.8 |
| Uncompromising hardcore shi that features just the right amount of sidesteps to not just be total assault - it still is total fucking assault though. |
| Slimka No Bad, vol. 2 | 2.7 |
| As his first mixtape, Slimka shines when the beats accompanying him get out of the traditional "bassy'n'trappy". Unfortunately, he tends to try many different flows (good!), but most of them strike out as straight-out weird (bad!) - he even says so in "Fantasia", very self-conscious of you. |
| Toundra IV | 3.6 |
| Dope post-rock/metal that is ultimately not much more than that but hey 10-years ago me would have been all over this. |
| Geotic Abysma | 3.6 |
| Comfy and ~bubbly~, Abysma weaves its soothing lines on top of microhouse beats for a result that is undeniably chill - and not much more than that. |
| Cattle Decapitation Terrasite | 3.2 |
| Cattle Decap' doing what Cattle Decap' do: ecological brutal tech deathgrind with constant blastbeats that slaps but never strays too far from their formula. Had some trouble with the squealing pig vocals (as usual) but it's otherwise very solid. |
| Metro Boomin Heroes and Villains | 2.7 |
| (kinda) Cool beats whose head-bopping qualities are undeniable, but neither they nor the features are anything other than generic, very-very-lightly-above-average trap. |
| betcover!! åµ (Tamago) | 3.2 |
| Proggy jazzy noisy alt rock that nicely blends all its influences in a package that could have been tighter and more explosive. |
| Greg Puciato Mirrorcell | 3.5 |
| Greg dives further into 90s alt metal and grunge, while still retaining (some of) that darkwave vibe. This is nevertheless more accessible, toning down on the experimental weirder elements. It's not always for the best: while the man sure got the pipes to carry anything, the material simply isn't as enthralling as his debut. Still great shi obvs, sometimes we just wanna compare stuff. |
| My Diligence The Matter, Form and Power | 3.6 |
| Banging and kinda catchy but also not very original (but who cares!!!) Brussels post-metal. |
| Jessy Lanza Love Hallucination | 3.5 |
| Love Hallucination is Jessy Lanza at her breeziest. Her R&B delivery is supported by UK Bass rhythms and synthpop melodies, for an album that alternates between the lowkey and the banging. |
| Wallace Cleaver baiser | 3.4 |
| New gen French rap: as highly emotional as it is uncompromising, this one brews many genres (jersey, drill, trap, cloud, or emo rap) and displays many different flows, but nothing struck me as special. Extremely competent though. |
| Post Malone Austin | 2.7 |
| Post Malone FINALLY gets out of hip-hop to pop out a pop rock record (with his usual R&B delivery). This makes sense!!! Yet it ultimately shows how creatively generic the dude is. |
| Carly Rae Jepsen The Loveliest Time | 3.0 |
| This is undoubtedly a Carly album, displaying her best ("Come Over" and "Shadow" are both peak hi-energy and classy Carly) and her worst (there are many bad moments here). |
| Mutoid Man Mutants | 3.8 |
| Yeah mate this is wack'n'roll m/ MutMan deliver another banging slab of fun stonershi that surprisingly carries emotional undertones in its lyrics (RIP Caleb). |
| Travis Scott Utopia | 3.1 |
| Scott confirms he's at his most comfortable as a curator: he brings every possible star together in a hazy, psychy trap record that mostly shines thanks to its detailed production. The songs aren't crazy but really that sound design is top fucking notch. |
| Aphex Twin Blackbox Life Recorder 21f / In A Room7 F760 | 3.3 |
| Ain't peak Aphex but these breakbeaty IDM tunes got cool sound design and a futuristic acid techno coat. "in a room7 F760" (lol) is the best tune here, the rest is cool but doesn't manage to fully make their mark. |
| Crisis Sigil God Cum Poltergeist | 3.5 |
| Very modern grind with cybershit and even a good pop metal song!! redacted album title especially shines when it goes for non-traditional grind shi - ie the computer-exploding moments. |
| Lauren Bousfield Salesforce | 3.3 |
| Salesforce (lol) is very zany - of course you are when you throw flashcore, breakcore, glitch, industrial, and drill'n'bass together - but it features enough poppy (and modern classical) moments to not just be chaotic aggression. |
| George Clanton Ooh Rap I Ya | 4.2 |
| Clanton at his POPpiest, with baggy influences and the strongest choruses he ever sung. There's only one instance of his trademark "seagull-sounding synth" though!!! |
| chini.png El d​Ã​a libre de Polux | 3.2 |
| This is cute! Of course psychy dream pop sung in Spanish sounds cute. I nevertheless feel like this tries to go for a "big gazey soundscape" it doesn't really have the chops to deliver. |
| NeS ÇA VA ALLER | 3.5 |
| Hazy and meditative beats carry introspective lyrics. Out of all French new gen rappers, NeS is one whose flow and delivery is the most similar to the current "papas" of the scene - which is comfy but ultimately not very original. Good songs, good flow, good beats though. |
| Chepang Swatta | 3.9 |
| Uncompromising shit that brews many batshit crazy stuff in its grindcore - Side B especially bangs with its avant linings that manage to make something as ugly as grindcore utterly beautiful ("NA" mfg). When it goes for mathy fukken hevy mate in its second half, it quickly becomes tiring (isn't all grind) but it can't dispel how fucking magnificent this record manages to be. |
| Oxbow Love's Holiday | 3.8 |
| Love songs (not sexy love songs though!!) carried by a voice that strangely makes me think of Tom Hardy's in Batman (???) and bluesy arpeggios carrying art rock that titillates noise rock and post-hardcore without fully diving into those genres. |
| Agriculture Agriculture | 3.8 |
| Banging blackgaze whose lil steps aside (country, jazzy stuff, or Liturgy worship) nicely complement the triumphantly depressive nature of the music. |
| Yellowcard Childhood Eyes | 3.1 |
| Safely-played but well-performed pop punk that scratches that specific noughties vibe. |
| Odd Eye Circle Version Up | 3.2 |
| Cool lil K-Pop EP with some various influences: nu-disco, future bass, R&B, and even Jersey/Baltimore influences (I thought that was only invading French rap??? globalization and all that kinda stuff). Nicely crafted but nothing too crazy either. |
| Mairo Omar Chappier | 4.0 |
| Super creative French-speaking Swiss rap that nicely balances trap and boom bap with more modern beats (like that whole jersey shi). His delivery alternates between closely following the beats' frenetic rhythms or voluntarily going out-tempo. One of the best youngboiz to do it right now. |
| Johnny Booth Moments Elsewhere | 3.3 |
| Modern metalcore with start-and-stop riffs that try to pass for mathcore and alt metal choruses/bridges. Original! Dunno why but the choruses in the first half hit me hard, damn shame the second half just tries so hard at being unmemorable chuggy chugchug. |
| H JeuneCrack Matière première | 3.4 |
| Yeah that's French rap new gen: Arca-inspired beats and DMV flows. H JeuneCrack is a beatmaker on top of being a rapper, and it shows here with diverse beats supporting his sometimes-funny, sometimes-introspective, sometimes-both lines. The scene is bubbling with a lot of young cool talents. They just gotta refine their propositions. |
| Flavien Berger Dans cent ans | 3.6 |
| Very French - of course, look at the dude's name. Berger is more of a songwriter than a singer, and it particularly shows here: Dans cent ans is an odyssey through synthpop, progressive electronic, and even classical on the gargantuan title track. Some tunes do overstay their welcome, but it's no wonder Berger is becoming the primary Chanson boi. |
| JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown SCARING THE HOES: DLC PACK | 3.3 |
| Cool b-sides, also DBrown does change his flow from time to time contrary to the OG release!! A nice addition but nothing more than leftovers thrown at way-too-hungry mfs (that's us). |
| Sacred Outcry Towers of Gold | 3.2 |
| My annual power metal listening session!!! Tbf this didn't grate me as much as other power metal does - despite the evidently cheesy vox. Apart from the constant wailing this was super solid. |
| Blind Delon La MeÌtamorphose | 3.3 |
| Cool French coldwave that uses foreign features to proclaim its apparent diatribes. La metamorphose tackles many post-punk/coldwave adjacent soundscapes while nicely balancing the vibes it goes for - it goes from depressed to aggressive, woo! Also Blind Delon is a hella sick name. Gotta nevertheless say it loses some steam in the middle, but it nicely picks it up in the last third. |
| Nas Magic 2 | 3.5 |
| Nas' second coming still rockin' hard. I'd say this one lacks a bit of the punch the last three releases had, both in terms of Hit-Boy's production as well as Nas' raps. |
| John Maus We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves | 2.6 |
| Maus delivers a succession of toned-down 80s synthpop tunes that had absolutely no effect on me. At least it's short!! |
| OFF! Free LSD | 3.4 |
| Cool punk that brews as much hardcore shit as it does alien stuff (free jazz and heavy psych??). Shame the vox feels like it's always on the edge of collapsing, but I can't blame a dude that should be happily retired. |
| Azealia Banks Fantasea | 2.6 |
| Fantasea is more ballroom, and aquatic than her previous outputs, and while the latter suits her hip house formula well, I can't say I'm convinced by the more hard-hitting rhythms. Also damn this shit felt way longer than it actually was. |
| DJ Premier Hip Hop 50 - Vol 1 | 3.3 |
| The GOAT pairs up with various wordsmiths to spit rapological technique on top of (obviously) great beats that do not match his best output (obviously they don't). |
| Kuroi Jukai Kuroi Jukai | 3.6 |
| Nasty pv that nicely sprinkles the occasional noisy shi on top of its constant aggression. Would be better if the noisy shi were more dispatched across the whole record, they work better when capping off a tune than on their own. |
| SHXCXCHCXSH Linear S Decoded | 3.7 |
| The kind of techno that doesn't bring any kind of ass-shaking, rather a reflective mood made of excruciating rhythm, warbling synth lines, and industrial linings watching from a distance. Great focus music. |
| Odz Manouk Odz Manouk | 3.9 |
| Absolutely filthy black metal. Odz Manouk visceral character comes from how fucking raw it is, yet the production is clear enough to let melodies rise out of the riffest - it's especially evident on megabanger "The Indisciplinarian". Shame the drum machine sounds a hella like a drum machine. |
| Anohni and the Johnsons My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross | 3.9 |
| Absolutely lovely slab of soul carried by a beautiful voice that just pours of emotion, and supported by a backing band whose presence is potent enough for this not simply be Anohni's lamentations. |
| Periphery Periphery V: Djent is Not a Genre | 2.2 |
| As usual, can't get past the shitty clean vox, the constant chuggy chug chug, and the shift between cheesy boys band song ("Silhouette") and faux hevvyyy shit (the chug chug). |
| Lil Uzi Vert Pink Tape | 2.3 |
| Boi this is messy. This gloubiboulga contains some good ideas, some really bad ones - "Chop Suey", "Somebody That I Used to Know", and "I'm Blue" covers weren't necessary at fucking all (crazy nobody said that during the whole process) - and a majority of meh ones - the trap metal tunes are aggressively ok. This results in a bloated album that tries to go everywhere but ends up going nowhere. |
| Pharmakon Contact | 2.2 |
| Creepy shit - as always with Pharmakon. I usually find her output to be "ok", and this one goes above and beyond to make sure its (only 30mins long) end product becomes more annoying the longer it stays. |
| Darkthrone Old Star | 3.6 |
| A modern Darkthrone record: it's doomy heavy blacky metal that shows nothing new yet still delivers when it comes to efficient, head-bopping riffs. |
| HMLTD The Worm | 3.0 |
| Big and grand and operatic record that should maybe have stayed in the West End? Nothing strikes me as atrociously awful here, it just tries a lot of things that simply don't land as magnificent (as it was apparently intended) - like wtf is that Sinnerman cover? |
| ostraca Disaster | 3.9 |
| Povnding screamo with several twists that only add to the formula's potency: post-metal, post-rock (yay), and emoviolence trade punches while managing to tiptoe on the *cohesion* thread. Gotta say that even though everything is great here, ostraca's proposition really felt monumental when it goes for balls-to-the-walls heaviness like on the "Stage Whisper" - "Whilom" duo. |
| Sleep Token Take Me Back to Eden | 1.0 |
| Overproduced mess, over-the-top (in a bad way) vocals, a mishmash of genres that shines by how hilariously off the mark its derivativeness is, and on top of that this shit is carried by dull songwriting. Fortunately for them imma non-lyric mf. |
| Disclosure Alchemy | 3.8 |
| Disclosure get rid of any feature (which is fresh for them but also does not always work) and African rhythms (booo) to focus on garage and funky house. Makes me wanna shake my ass, which is the primary goal of a Disclosure record, even though their debut and Energy still top this. Edit: these tunes they make me dance owyeah |
| Xiu Xiu Ignore Grief | 2.5 |
| Terrifying shit, but I was wondering during the whole thing if I found it terrible or just meh frightening music. Still not sure. |
| Monika Roscher Bigband Witchy Activities and the Maple Death | 3.6 |
| BIG record fusing big band's wide soundscapes and circus-like vastness, "avant" and "progressive" structure (they complex!), as well as some pop(pier) linings in the form of (kinda-)catchy gang melodies. Slightly more interesting than it is enjoyable - and it is very enjoyable! |
| Sum 41 Order In Decline | 2.3 |
| Their best 2010s record, and also their best record since Chuck. The bar was very low though. |
| Avicii Tim | 1.0 |
| This abysmal record shows that even well-intentioned cash-grabs mostly offer nothing remotely artistically interesting - and it makes Avicii's first record sound like a masterpiece. This one came out in 2019 but sounds like a fucking 2011 record, with an even worse production and even more interchangeable singers. 1.2 |
| Better Lovers God Made Me an Animal | 3.8 |
| ETID's southern metalcore, but yelled by Greg Puciato. It shows the former do not need Buckley to shine, and also that Puciato still is comfortable alternating between ferocious belters and anthemic, clean-sung choruses. |
| Joe Armon-Jones Turn To Clear View | 3.8 |
| Joe Armon-Jones' second album continues to tread the funkiest paths of modern jazz, allowing other big names to infuse soul and dub to his piano shredding. This one is less loungey than his first record, but suffers from the same "issue": he accompanies more than he leads it - and he definitely can and should lead it more. Very beautiful arrangements though, and the tunes are more engaging than on his debut album. |
| High Vis No Sense No Feeling | 3.7 |
| High Vis' first album is displaying hardcore ethos, shouty vocals(, and marxism), but it really is UK post-punk in all its angularity, steady rhythms, crispy-clean guitar lines, and slightly anthemic choruses. |
| Post Malone Hollywood's Bleeding | 2.7 |
| Hollywood's Bleeding was Post Malone's way of telling everyone he really never was a rapper, but rather an R&B crooner that sings on top of trap beats. This one is full of pop hooks - shame that except for the obvious bangers, most of these indie pop songs are immediately forgotten as soon as the next one starts. Likewise, some rap-focused tunes aren't impacting, mostly because of how easy listening they are. The best 25 minutes could have made a super cool mainstream EP. |
| Deen Burbigo OG San, Vol. 2 | 3.6 |
| Cool second volume of Deen's OG SAN series. It further establishes him as a top "indie dad rap" although it never reaches the first volumes' balance of egotrip, conscious lines, and punishing rapological technique. |
| Matana Roberts COIN COIN Chapter Four: Memphis | 2.2 |
| I AM A CHILD OF THE WIND EVEN DADDY SAID SO. Ugh. A succession of free jazz and spoken word passages that carry none of the weight their (really fucking great) first record has, instead tiptoeing between semi-engaging jazz and cryptic spoken word. At least it's better than Chapter 3! |
| Richard Dawson 2020 | 3.4 |
| On 2020 (released in 2019!), Dawson tells the vicissitude of modern life (of course portrayed by synths!). On the contrary to Peasant or The Ruby Cord, I feel like the experimentations here do not always work - especially in the second half, the first half nails the balance between deeply emotive folk and idiosyncratic ideas. |
| Soen Lotus | 3.0 |
| Oh waw another Soen album I really wonder what it sounds like. Extremely competent prog. |
| Caterina Barbieri Ecstatic Computation | 3.3 |
| Weirdly this one didn't work as much on me as her next two. It's still cool - Berlin school-inspired prog electronic is always cool - but the trance influences aren't super-well integrated imo, sometimes bordering on the unnerving. |
| Adrianne Lenker abysskiss | 3.8 |
| It's a Lenker record alright: lovely guitar lines support lancinant vocals for a soothing result. This is my fav of hers, as some tunes featured psychy linings that, coupled with her already top-notch songwriting, warmed my lil heart. |
| Architects All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us | 2.5 |
| A succession of lazy chugchugs and shouty shouts. Maybe 2016 me would have enjoyed this - and im not even sure. |
| PJ Harvey I Inside the Old Year Dying | 2.9 |
| As a non-lyric mf, ain't surprising I find this heavily lyric-centric album only mildly enjoyable. |
| The Underachievers Evermore: The Art of Duality | 3.3 |
| The Underachievers' Evermore starts off mega strong with its succession of "weed and third eye shit" boom-bap tunes before diving into more energetic territories that the group masters less well. |
| Uncle Acid and The Deadbeats The Night Creeper | 2.9 |
| Uncle Acid are on autopilot here: if the first track is a typical Uncle banger, the rest of the tunes are semicool psych rock that do not bring anything to the stoner table. |
| Balthazar (BE) Thin Walls | 3.4 |
| Warm, chill, and comforting, Thin Walls features the best and the worst of Balthazar. The best is the first half, composed of these subdued bangers that the Belgian bros know how to craft. The worst is the second half, full of these subdued tracks that simply pass by. Fortunately their worst still is pretty good. |
| Archivist Archivist | 3.9 |
| Typical Alex CF project: dense shit that brews post-rock (yay!), sludge, and black metal elements in big, big buildups whose slow-paced rises pay off in crushing maelstroms of riffs and yells. The Fall of Efrafa rabbit hole just keeps getting deeper and deeper. |
| Soichi Terada Sounds From the Far East | 3.9 |
| Terada delivers a bouncy deep house compilation full of warm balearic influences. Perfect laidback record for any kind of summer activity that includes FUN. |
| Tainy DATA | 3.4 |
| Tainy is apparently a Big Name in the current reggaeton scene, and it shows with the five-star cast he got in DATA (anime profile pic warning). The best tracks here play with the constraints of reggaeton, like during the end both "FANTASMA / AVC" and "PARANORMAL" with tasty synthpop, "me jodi" that features a lovely chillwave vibe, or on the opener with its hard-hitting trap percussions. On the percussions: gotta say sometimes they eclipse the rest of the soundscape, especially the majority of the mega cool Nintendo 64-like synth lines. That's a pity, you should never bury Nintendo 64 synth lines!!! In the meantime, the more "classical" reggaeton tracks, despite being bouncy and danceable, ultimately add nothing to the already-oversaturated genre. A cool album for sure, that features enough variety to pop out of the reggaeton sphere (AND it features a reggaeton remix of Four Tet's "Lush"!!! Crazy!!!) |
| Caterina Barbieri Myuthafoo | 3.6 |
| Myuthafoo kinda acts like a companion to last year's Spirit Exit, in that it's a prog electronic record with clear inspiration from the Berlin School and some ambient influences. It's pretty, but the soundscapes here invite less to hazy contemplation than Spirit Exit's. |
| Lil Ugly Mane LUM | 3.6 |
| A cool collection of singles this one. Most of this is lethargic, 90s-inspired lo-fi rock that nevertheless carries enough punch for the tracks not to just be doomerock. There also are some forays into trip-hop, but it really seems like, to Travis Miller, hip hop is dead. |
| Nthng There Is a Place for Me | 3.5 |
| It's nthng. Glacial ambient techno boom-boom that features vocal samples that never, rather distantly howling to add to the frozen atmosphere. The percussion-led tracks are, as usual with them, much more engaging than their calmer, ambient side, or even than the tunes whose percussion decides to go for midtempo. There are also much fewer dub influences in this one than in all their previous outputs - sad, especially when "Stabilize" or "Untitled" bang because of their dub roots. Still not on par with absolute banger Remember Us, but at least it's way more interesting than It Never Ends. |
| Fen Monuments to Absence | 3.6 |
| Monuments to Absence is Fen's least atmospheric and most aggressive release. Nothing wrong with a stylistic change, but you gotta provide the goods, especially when your body of work is revered as some of the finest atmobm of the past decade. It kinda delivers, as it bangs hard without banging as hard as the most ferocious black metal does, all the while not offering as many lush soundscapes as the band's past material - also imma post-rock bish and solipsism is a bitch. |
| Surfing Deep Fantasy | 2.6 |
| Surfing's Deep Fantasy is basically proto-George Clanton with its vaporwavey aesthetic overarching 80s pop. It's a shame they nailed the aesthetic while failing hard to bring memorable songs. |
| Unknown Mortal Orchestra Multi-Love | 2.7 |
| Another lofi-2010s-hey-not-its-60s-psych-pop record from UMO, another pleasant yet ultimately dull forty minutes. |
| CunninLynguists Strange Journey Vol. 3 | 3.8 |
| As always with the 'Lynguists, this compilation is warm and smooth. The whole lot flows well for a comp, with some of Kno's best beats and welcome feature rapping that allows for some diversity. |
| Adrianne Lenker Hours Were the Birds | 3.6 |
| Lenker's first album is, of course, a lovely and smooth collection of indie folk tunes that do not really depart from one another stylistically. Who cares, this is pretty! |
| Jesus Piece ...So Unknown | 2.9 |
| Jesus Piece are pissed-off, and it shows with their pachydermic, no-nonsense metalcore that draws from early deathcore (really made me think of the H8000 scene) and beatdown hardcore. It's stupidly heavy, and as stupid as it is heavy. |
| DIRK. Idiot Paradise | 3.6 |
| DIRK. (all caps when you spell the man's name) continue delivering smacking noisy'n'garagey slabs of 90s-inspired rock. Even though this new record feels less immediate than their debut, it still features its fair share of great tunes - "No" is a banger and a half. |
| High Vis Blending | 3.7 |
| Oh late 80s Britain! Jangly guitar lines, distant vocals, gaze sugarcoating, baggy percussions, and angular post-punk rhythms sure sound like your typical 1988 Manchester band. Solipsism is a bitch: I love this aesthetic despite the band's way-too-evident influences and lack of originality. |
| Amyl and the Sniffers Amyl and the Sniffers | 3.7 |
| Amyl and the Sniffers' first album is full of those garage punk bangers whose breath smell of cold cigarettes and cheap beers. Lovin' it. |
| Ichiko Aoba qp | 3.8 |
| Aoba's most accessible album? Might well be, as qp only focuses on delivering lovely folk song after lovely folk song. |
| Gel (USA-NJ) Only Constant | 3.6 |
| BANGING and POUNDING hardcore that evidently shows its vicious influences (crust and grind), Only Constant just feels a tad too one-dimensional to fully be raised as the Big New Hardcore Record (dozens of others pretend at that throne and none are sitting on it). |
| Zulu A New Tomorrow | 3.9 |
| A New Tomorrow is a mostly fucking savage affair of hardcore and powerviolence, but it's thanks to the sudden moments of respite, whether in the form of urgent politically-charged spoken word or beautiful guitar chords, that bring the whole lot its vibrancy. |
| Dale Cooper Quartet and the Dictaphones Métamanoir | 3.7 |
| It's dark jazz innit: slow, smoky, ominous jazz instrumentation delivering pulmonary pulses, with slight drone linings that are also helping to install that moody vibe. |
| Beirut The Rip Tide | 3.7 |
| Lovely lil record this one. Apparently this is supposed to carry Balkan influences? To me, these just are nice pop songs sporting a shiny baroque folk coat. And at 33mins, it doesn't overstay its welcome (which is usually my personal dumb issue with records like this). |
| Spy Satisfaction | 3.4 |
| Short, to-the-point, and slightly not pounding enough? The riffs are cool, and the vocalist is dirty af but I feel like the mixing could be way punchier for this kind of feral-sounding hardcore. |
| DIRK. Album | 3.7 |
| The Belgian bois of DIRK. sure love their 90s indie noise rock. album (woah) is full of those references that (mostly successfully, sometimes not) try to conjure as much pure rock (m/) power and pop efficiency. |
| Tash Sultana Flow State | 3.0 |
| Flow State is the typical Sultana's smooth twinkles whose soothing character is undeniable, but damn she couldn't write a song to save her life. This is of course blatant exaggeration on my part, as she's capable of crafting potent songs ("Cigarettes" or "Free Mind") but they do not constitute the majority of the tracklisting here. |
| Candy (USA) Heaven Is Here | 3.5 |
| Drain (USA-CA) Living Proof | 3.6 |
| Hardcore that's fun - thank you crossover thrash!! Living Proof just lacks that lil extra oomph that would allow its less fun moments to stick as much as the ones that open both the pits and the hearts. |
| Gulch Burning Desire to Draw Last Breath | 3.8 |
| Nasty, nasty hardcore this 13mins EP. Each song tries a different way at going feral, and it's only by stocking mass of riffs: the atmosphere is sticky and stanky. Powerful shit. |
| Amaarae Fountain Baby | 3.8 |
| Groovy shit this one. Amaarae mostly accompanies her R&B croons and coos with afrobeats percussions, but she also dives into other aesthetics to spice it up: some kizomba, Brazilian funk, West African highlife, modern dance-pop, or even psych rock. Diverse and bouncy, that's what my booty needed. |
| Geese 3D Country | 3.7 |
| Yeehaw cowboy art punk - and very spazzy at that! 3D Country just goes everywhere all at once, which sometimes translates into epic maximalism - when it doesn't, it's a big fucking mess that's epic and maximalist but mostly messy. The vocalist adds to this crazy vibe with his wild'n'wide range, but often to the rest of the band's detriment: there are instances when he clearly is the only interesting thing happening. |
| Luidji Saison 00 | 3.5 |
| Luidji slowly but surely sheds his rapper status. Saison 00 is even more soulful, warm, mellow, and moving away from everything related to rap. Not all tunes managed to move me, but the production is constantly astounding, and his lyrics-writing is even more potent than before. |
| feeble little horse Girl With Fish | 3.4 |
| Girl With Fish nail their "modern indie noisy slacker rock" aesthetic, but they need to beef their songwriting chops/up their consistency game to hope attaining Alvvays or The Beths' level. Promising stuff tho. |
| Carbon Based Lifeforms Seeker | 3.8 |
| Carbon Based Lifeforms confirm their knack for proposing constantly engaging, hour-long ambient pieces (that ain't just anyone's prerogative). Whether it's in their typical psybient soundscape, more space-oriented ambient, percussion-led tunes, or all that at once ("Nukleator"), CBL always deliver. |
| Loma Prieta Last | 4.1 |
| Loma Prieta's latest (and last? sad react) record successfully explores the many facets of screamo: the soft twinkly American Football doodles, the harsh and wall-of-soundesque explosions, the constant dynamic shifts, and the capacity to transcend ugliness into beauty. Skramz do be hitting hard. |
| Anberlin Convinced | 3.0 |
| Anberlin was one of those very few Classic Sputcore Bands that slipped under my radar - and this lil EP won't necessarily make me want to correct my horrendous mistake: their alt-rocky post-hardcore (or post-hardcorey alt rock) is very rooted in mid-to-late 2000s zeitgeist to have a proper impact on me (in 2023). The sax solo in the last track was a nice touch though (and needed to last until the end of the song). |
| ESPRIT 200% Electronica | 3.5 |
| 200% Electronica features the typical Clanton vapor/chillwave soundscape but distinguishes itself from canon Clanton releases by its (almost total) lack of vocals. Here thus lies the record's faults: Clanton's vocals (and how they're processed) are key in delivering the POP in hypnagogic pop. We are just served (very good) hypnagogic music that is here without really being there. The dude nevertheless crafts my favourite kind of background muzak (the one that takes me to a past that never existed) so he's still good. |
| Swans The Beggar | 3.4 |
| The worst post-reunion Swans still is pretty good (thank god, I wasn't ready for them to be shit). The "good" comes from gorgeous moments like the non-speaking part of "Michael Is Done", the choral part of "No More of This", or the good ol' crescendos that call that creepy hypnotism the Giragang has accustomed us to. The problem is, it's way too long for what it's offering (the crescendos aaaaah!!!!) and its repetitiveness isn't as rewarding in the long run as Soundtracks, The Seer, or To Be Kind (and that's a euphemism). |
| Militarie Gun Life Under the Gun | 3.8 |
| Hardcore bros playing alt-rock (no this ain't Turnstile!!!). Militarie Gun mostly plays a power pop-influenced alternative rock with a dude that prefers to shout rather than sing (maybe he can't sing at all? We won't be slanderous and assume the sympathetic lad can indeed sing). With this concoction in mind, Militarie Gun are exquisitely evident about their influences - the vocal delivery on "Never Fucked Up Once" sounds straight-up like Cap'n Jazz's "Oh Messy Life", the 90s pop punk comparison shines hard on some of those riffs ("Very High"), and the closer features a very R.E.M.-like jangle. These forays into other genres typically explain why the recent hardcore scene's popularity popped out: its main entities worked on refining rough-around-the-edge songwriting and fusing different influences within hardcore frameworks. |
| Hong Kong Express HK | 2.9 |
| drempunk wait I thought Turnstile were drempunk??? Basically drempunk is vaporwave that focuses on its more (space) ambient side, with the occasional prog electronic linings. HK is exactly that, with all its hypnotism, futuristim, and slight nothingness the genre can offer. |
| Tenhi Valkama | 3.5 |
| Tenhi's Valkama is the kind of record that nails its atmosphere (here, nocturnal moody folk music that's neither too creepy nor too whimsical). Shame that this atmosphere goes on beyond its dedex use-by date. |
| Thantifaxath Hive Mind Narcosis | 3.6 |
| Hive Mind Narcosis is a creepy, dense dissoblack record whose force comes from its off-kilter change of pace. It does meander a tad too long (ie some riffs can stop after some iterations) but it's nevertheless pretty killer. |
| Unfurl Ascension | 3.7 |
| Ascension tells the tale of two soundscapes. One is fucking heavy mate with its povnding mix of sludge'n'black'metalcore, while the other carries much more melode and progressiveness with its decidedly post-metalcore aesthetic. The first one didn't interest me much despite its constant aggressiveness, but the second one sure tickles a specific craving I have for modern core. Interesting to see where they're going next. |
| Home Is Where The Whaler | 3.7 |
| Home Is Where deliver an infectious emo record with the whaler. Most importantly, they nicely fuse their various influences into emo's sadperson vibe, mostly with post-hardcore dynamics or folk twangs. Shame that they nailed it in the first half to offer much less memorable (and fucking vivid) songs in the second half. |
| Joe Armon-Jones and Maxwell Owin Archetype | 3.0 |
| Archetype conjures many facets of the modern London scene: garage, jazz (of course it's a JAJ album), soul, hip-hop, dub, and drill really pins down The Futur(istic) Sound of London. I bet it works better live than listening while sitting on one's ass though: despite the luxurious productions, the tunes didn't fully leverage their repetitiveness into the nocturnal trance state they were aiming for. |
| Kostnateni Úpal | 3.9 |
| Super intrepid bm release this one. The Anatolian and microtonal influences work wonderfully within the dissonant framework, especially when this isn't solely focused on povnding brutality thanks to the many many memorable licks. |
| The Lemon Twigs Everything Harmony | 2.8 |
| Well-done revivalism that just cannot escape its revivalism |
| King Krule Space Heavy | 3.1 |
| Another lethargic offering by KK - waw the surprise! As always, for me, this dude manages to stay out of the boring zone while still being dangerously close to it. His mishmash of many cool genres helps, as does his immediately-recognizable crooner, but the songs just don't have much staying power on me. Pleasant enough. |
| Jason Isbell Weathervanes | 3.4 |
| As always with Isbell, his vocal performance and overall presence win me over more than the yeehawism his musical soundscape offers. It's especially true when he belts those stadium-ready choruses like on "Save the World" - but fortunately my basic bitch ass also enjoyed the more subtle compositions thanks to the meticulous production. |
| Hoplites Τ​Ï​ω​θ​η​σ​ο​μ​Î​ν​η | 3.3 |
| Despite the band name, imagery, and album title, these guys are Chinese? They deliver a pounding mix of dissoblackened dm with touches of mathcore. It's mega fast and brutal and all, but the songs feel like they don't have much more than that - kudos to the end riff of "Ektoma", that shit is the kind of creepily melodissonance I want from that kind of project. |
| Magdalena Bay mini mix Vol. 3 | 4.3 |
| Short and sweet collection of almost-banging tunes that take their time to show how smooth these earworms are. The production is gorgeous, and Tenenbaum's vocal delivery finely walks the playful-quirky line. Really excited about their future. |
| Jack Harlow Jackman | 3.2 |
| His best, but also his flows are interchangeable and all beats come from the Kanye West cookbook. Can't do shit when your recipe is on point, even though the ingredients aren't the best. |
| King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of... | 3.4 |
| Aight yet fun riffest full of those gang vocals and dynamic shifts that, as always with them, will sound infinitely better live than on wax. |
| Ice Spice Like..? | 2.8 |
| Nothing crazy here but this is pretty solid Brooklyn drill, especially in terms of production. Ice Spice has never been a great rapper, but her monotone intonations and flows soon become stale (especially when compared to Minaj). Good thing this is only 16mins long. |
| Sadness / Abriction Sadness // Abriction | 3.4 |
| Grand and BIG and emotional and lo-fi and full of Deafheaven worship: this is 2020s emo. Both artists nail their aesthetic (merci the occasional post-punk influence that really ties the whole sadboi stuff), but this goes for way too long (these 75 minutes could have easily been 50). |
| McKinley Dixon Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!? | 4.0 |
| Yeeeehaw soulful'n'jazzy hip hop is always a winner for my solipsist heart. Warm basslines and smooth key lines deliver the musical goods while energetic rapping brings intensity to the mix. |
| Ben Howard Is It? | 3.4 |
| Benny offers bedroomy folktronica that strays as far away as possible from his early work, yet retains that undeniably Ben Howard feeling. These glitchy vocals and bleep-bloopy beats aren't my fave Howard iteration (ain't my least fav either, looking at you Collections) but they nevertheless show the man is always eager to experiment. It sometimes works, "Walking Backwards" and "Days of Lantana" managing to lift their melodies into my mind. |
| Hellripper Warlocks Grim and Withered Hags | 3.3 |
| Warlock Grim and Withered Hags (lol) features basically a thousand hot black-thrash-speed riffs and soli that are both epic and dumb (which is a good summary for the whole metal spectrum), and this both serves and disserves its proposition. Also agree hard with DaChef Garland: this would have benefited from a couple of progressive, calmer moments. |
| DreamWeaver (JP) blue garden | 3.6 |
| Blue Garden's brand electrodreamgaze is beautifully leveraged by its (gorgeous) production, (crystal-clear) tone, and (cute) vocals. The two sides - a first ambient one and a second more focused on dnb beats - do seem like they come off different releases, but the constant relaxed vibe helps the record gain some coherence. |
| Beach Fossils Bunny | 3.2 |
| Very vibey jangle indie surf drem pop that nails its stoner summer aura. The songs however lack that lil oomph that would propel this aesthetic (which I love) into indie banger territories. |
| Ascendant Vierge Une nouvelle chance | 4.1 |
| Unique blend of gabber (mega fast hardcore techno) with a singer whose angelic voice carries as much classical music heritage as it does Kate Bush homage. Hyper energy, memorable melodies, and relatable lyrics = bingo I love this |
| Lankum False Lankum | 3.7 |
| Atmospheric Irish avant-folk with slabs of drone and back-and-forth between the brooding and the Shire-like. False Lankum really nails its pace, with its 70 minutes passing by easily thanks to the wide array of soundscapes the band invokes. |
| Sigur Ros ÃTTA | 3.3 |
| Listening to new Sigur Ros material after a decade of hopes and chagrins is a joy. ATTA undeniably is Sigur Ros; that alone is a treat. At the same time, this band's legacy weighs on this new release: is ATTA on par with their best? Hell no. Worse: its direct ancestor, Valtari, was much more playful and whimsical in its brand of atmoambient ethereal shizzle. It's beautiful music, but this band has made such a career out of beautiful music that this easily ranks amongst its least entrancing pieces; |
| Queens of the Stone Age In Times New Roman... | 2.9 |
| Very safe album from the Homme gang, but at least Ronson didn't overproduce it. It's got riffs, some are cool, some are eh, most are really just alright. Same goes with the songs: none are blatantly awful, but none bring the headbang or yelling this band can generate. At least it ain't boring!!! |
| Foo Fighters But Here We Are | 2.9 |
| As Gennaro Gattuso said: "sometimes maybe good sometimes maybe shit". When Foo Fighters go for their typical alternative post-grunge power pop rock, it's Foo Fighters by-the-numbers, and nobody needs that. However, when they infuse some other influences into their recipe (dremgaze on "Show Me How", progshi on "The Teacher", or post-rock on the closer), they suddenly become somewhat interesting. |
| Squid O Monolith | 3.1 |
| I feel like Squid lost some of their vigor here in favour of some experimentations that do not leverage their complexity into bona fide banger songs. |
| Hudson Mohawke and Nikki Nair Set the Roof | 3.7 |
| A nice lil house-dominant EP by Mohawke and Nair, showcasing different subgenres for each track: a banging 2-step opener, a kinda annoying fidget house second tune (fidget do be like that), and a four-on-the-floor french house jam to close it off. Cool shi. |
| Protomartyr Formal Growth in the Desert | 3.4 |
| Protomartyr go for a more gothic approach to their post-punk (also with some occasional steel guitar). Formal Growth in the Desert thus has a slow pacing (yeah the usual) that somehow doesn't work as much on me as I would have liked - the songs are undeniably great, the record is consistent, but its monotony makes it lack the *oomph* factor that Relatives in Descent had. |
| Janelle Monae The Age of Pleasure | 2.2 |
| A deplorable lack of ambition makes for this shallow mess of way-too-easy tracks, semi-finished tunes, or blatantly bad ideas (Grace Jones reading Google Translated French for 30 seconds being the most offensive example). |
| Saya Gray QWERTY | 3.5 |
| Gray with the GLITCH and the BASS and the occasional sadfolk chords and basically everything they deemed somewhat cool (metalcore shitpost ftw). It does go everywhere and nowhere all at once, but that's what makes it fun. |
| Lonnie Holley Oh Me Oh My | 3.7 |
| As urgent as it is solemn, Oh Me Oh My is a deep and heavy record mostly invoking soul influences alongside forays into avant-jazz. Holley carries the record with his striking voice and vivid lyrics, and fortunately, the production work makes this not only a cool spoken word record but a fully fleshed-out monologue experience enhanced by surreal musical motifs. |
| Avenged Sevenfold Life Is But a Dream... | 2.5 |
| There sure are many musical elements that A7X hasn't accustomed us to - 70s prog and avant-garde elements first and foremost - and yet I can't help but be bored by this mishmash of grand and epic music (M Shadows alternating between whining and whispering didn't help either). This mostly comes with how all-over-the-place and unfocused this sounds, jumping from one genre to another with no sense of construction. |
| Incendiary Change The Way You Think About Pain | 3.9 |
| Ain't nothing revolutionary, but this latest record sees Incendiary nail their formula of tough and pissed-off NYHC. Breakdowns are more neck-breaking than ever, shouty punchlines are even more leftist-anthemic ("Every window deserves a brick" lmfao yes boiz), and riffs do not hesitate to be even more pummeling while still retaining melodic qualities - "Host/Parasite" being the prime example of transitioning stupidly heavy verse riff into post-hxc chorus riff. Also it's very, very New York. |
| Arlo Parks My Soft Machine | 2.7 |
| I found her 2021 record to be at times beautifully vapid, and this one is less beautiful and more vapid - the Bridgers feat being the prime example of that inoffensive af sound. |
| The Field Infinite Moment | 3.9 |
| Infinite Moment is typical The Field, in that the balance his beats'n'loops strike between the dancefloor and the bedroom is top-notch. Nevertheless, it also stands out in his discography, as it's the one The Field whose atmospheric aspect is the most prominent. It's constantly spiralling. |
| Susanne Sundfor Blomà | 3.7 |
| Typically Susanne this record: most of it is absolutely gorgeous, and the filler really is boring. Good thing she fills most of her record with sublime songs carried by her sublime voice. Would have nevertheless preferred a more climactic way to end this record, as the last couple of tunes really are dragging this more than it should. |
| Overmono Good Lies | 3.1 |
| Especially given how bomb-ass-thicc the singles were, I expected this to be my dance AOTY. Turns out it?s not the case: tunes like "So U Kno", "Good Lies", and "Is U" big and joyous and induce some well-deserved ass-shaking. imma basic bitch and I would have preferred an album full of these easy?n?pulsing vibes, and they basically are only present in the singles. Not all not-bouncy tracks are yawn-inducing though: "Arla Fearn" does a great job at providing that dark, urban future garage vibe. Most of the second half thus feels like a drag. Eh. Will jam their EPs again then. |
| Blindfolded and Led to the Woods Rejecting Obliteration | 3.6 |
| Kinky band name dives further into their disso tech death(core). Like in the previous record, it's when the band goes for calm soundscapes right after adorning their death metal with other metal subgenres elements that their formula works the best. Still, I didn't find here anything as gruesomely dreamy as "Rorschach and Delirium". |
| Iress Solace | 3.5 |
| 15 minutes of Jespercore: heavy yet ethereal post-dreamgazecore!!! |
| The Ocean Holocene | 3.1 |
| The Holocene being the current geological epoch, it's no wonder The Ocean conjure more modern matters both lyrically and musically (the synths babyyy). It's not always a winner tho: heavy passages do not carry the same force as the band has accustomed us to, and some tunes do not get the climax they spend so much time building (especially those first three tracks). When they let melodeez rise up ("Atlantic", "Uncomfirmities"), the band fully leverage their new aesthetic, but these moments are ultimately quite rare. |
| Omnerod The Amensal Rise | 3.2 |
| Another day, another more-than-competent prog metal record that passes by without fully embarking me on its epic journey. Sometimes I feel like I should just stop listening to this genre, and yet I always feel that I'm just missing *that* special record that would reconcile myself with it. The Amensal Rise is not this one, despite the occasional banging moment and memorable riff. |
| Yune Pinku Bluff | 3.9 |
| Banging, yet understated: Bluff calls as much the dancefloor as it does the bedroom, and it nicely balances the two vibes by delivering catchy choruses in a zdoomer (dzoomer?) way. |
| TDJ TDJ123 | 3.6 |
| Came in expecting trance and stumbled upon ethereal EDM?? Not that it's bad (it is not), it just sounds more like the best kind of Tomorrowland music, dreamy and uplifting. Also "Underwater" is peak dremgazecore and is a nifty surprise. |
| Bill Orcutt Music For Four Guitars | 3.5 |
| Papa Orcutt goes full Orcutt, and it bangs. The four guitars' compositions are intricated and layered but do not lack melody in their short runtime (less than three minutes) despite the overall dry tone. Great Tiny Desk performance, go watch it. |
| Maruja Knocknarea | 4.2 |
| Crazy shit that blends many things without having coherence issues; big yay! Post-rock atmosphere rubs shoulders with bri'ish windmill vibe and occasional post-hardcore shenanigans, with a saxophone that doesn't only appear here and there but constitutes a major part of the soundscape. Hyped to see what they will offer in a long format. |
| Craven Faults Standers | 3.6 |
| As with their 2020 record, Craven Faults deliver pulsating slabs of progressive electronic supported by minimalesque techno beats. |
| Colin Stetson When we were that what wept for the sea | 3.8 |
| This is Stetson flexing his typical circular sax shredding for 70 minutes. It comes with the usual "sax-is-howling" moments ("Long Before the Sky Would Open") as well as the good ol' "sax-is-talking me" ones ("One Day in the Sun"), all creating hypnotic soundscapes thanks to their mantra-repeating nature. If anything, it further establishes Stetson as one of the most forward-thinking modern saxophonists. |
| Alfa Mist Variables | 3.5 |
| It's Alfa Mist: tasty nu jazz fusion bullshit. This time though, I feel like his typical smoothness does not come around as too mellow for its own good - a regular issue I had with his past releases. His most banging record, but still mostly a playlist dude for my dumb ass. |
| Blood Ceremony The Old Ways Remain | 3.8 |
| Blood Ceremony hit the good balance here: their heavy psych still is heavy and all, but the occasional whimsical flute and overall late-60s-psych vibe make for that should please both your mama and your papa. |
| Tiny Ruins Ceremony | 3.4 |
| 60s-influenced indie folk with lush strings carrying the pastoral vibe. A bit too monotonous for my taste, but I can't deny this is *very pretty*. |
| Jeromes Dream The Gray In Between | 4.3 |
| Great skramz manages to fuse despaired violence and distressing elegance, ultimately creating beauty out of the ugly. This is one of those records. |
| Billy Woods and Kenny Segal Maps | 3.7 |
| Consistent mf being consistent. Both Woods and Segal have made a mission to deliver gritty yet soulful abstract rap, and that's exactly what they do here. |
| Yune Pinku BABYLON IX | 3.8 |
| Creepy cover but smooth content. 2-step, breaks, techno, and some house beats draw a cascade of futurism while hushed (if sometimes flat) vocals taken from the hyperpop canon deftly walk the fragility/affirmation tightrope. |
| Sangre de Muerdago O Vento que Lambe as miñas Feridas | 3.6 |
| Very refreshing for a French Celtic mf like me to listen to Spanish Celtic music - it's both comfortably bound to something I know and entirely new. It nails the classic Celtic blend of whimsical and solemn. It does tread the same path over its 45-mins runtime, but it sure is a cool path. |
| Lunar Chamber Shambhallic Vibrations | 3.7 |
| Out of these 29 minutes, 27 are very cool, especially for a debut death metal record. However, the two lame minutes constitute grave coherence problems that will have to be rectified - just know when to provide ethereal stuff among your riffest. Also phat bass sound = happy me. |
| Fuzati and Le Motel Baltimore | 3.5 |
| Surprising yet cool collab this one. The alchemy is this record's best aspect - Fuzati's destructured flows land really well here among Le Motel's typically layered beats (and the occasional footwork dash, big yes). Fuzati's misanthropy isn't as vivid as back in the days, but he nevertheless hasn't sounded better in like 10 fucking years (has he rapped better before? not sure). |
| Depeche Mode Memento Mori | 3.0 |
| Gorgeous production all around, but the slow pace, lack of variety, and overall lack of songs that make me go *wah* are what prevent me from liking this one. Nothing bad here, but all songs seem on the verge of take-off without actually doing it. |
| Ed Sheeran – | 1.5 |
| sappy shit whose adult contemporary tag can't properly display how much of an inoffensive slog this is. YoYo nailed it. |
| Josh Ritter Spectral Lines | 3.1 |
| A mostly pretty, always-mellow piece of singer-songwriter that really gets me going when aiming at bubbly, explicit melodies. |
| Marcel Charivari | 3.5 |
| You like early IDLES? Here's the Belgian version! Soundscape-wise, at least, because Marcel also are fun, bringing a carnivalesque approach that shows in the form of surrealist lyrics, or quirky muzak stuff happening here and there (a kazoo in the opener, banging horns in "six seconds). It results in a record that delightfully walks the happily violent rope, if in a monotonous way over the long run. |
| Kara Jackson Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love? | 3.2 |
| National Youth Poet Laureate? Based. When these stark lyrics are accompanied by lush strings or potent guitar strummings, this is stunning although a tad too unfocused (some tunes just try to cram too much stuff). When it's straight-up poetry, it doesn't carry the same weight. A "fresh" album nonetheless that brightly wears its uniqueness. |
| ECHT! Sink-Along | 3.4 |
| Brussels wonky posterbois continue delivering futuristic music halfway between jazz and dancefloor, but this time even darker. Ominous build-up, vibrating basses, and thumping drums are sometimes accompanied by doomer organ notes, showing the band now thrives in underground parties vibe. When they don't, it's to offer layers of synth atop footwork tempos, and these tunes are the ones that please me the most. Now I gotta catch these songs live, even though I found them less entrancing than the preceding record's. |
| Flume Arrived Anxious, Left Bored | 3.2 |
| Like the previous compilation, this is made of unfinished tunes (and it sometimes show) that all feature bubbly displays of wonkiness and future bass. Still nothing amazing, and some tunes should've seen a proper version being released ("Chalk"), but this remains a fun foray into his sound, and slightly better than the previous one. |
| Indigo De Souza All of This Will End | 3.9 |
| De Souza conjures too many things at once (indie pop, grunge, alt-country, and everything in fucking between that Venn diagram). And it somehow works on me, the record's lack of coherence soon fading away under the light brought by these individual songs. They are almost all catchy and pissed-off (and that's a combo I like), but they mostly carry the kind of melodeez that decides not to leave my head for quite some time (that "I never left" inclination in "Parking Lot" for example, or the horns following the chorus in "The Water"). |
| John Coltrane The Olatunji Concert: The Last Live Recording | 3.7 |
| Trane's antepenultimate live, and his last recording. Boi, what a ride: thanks (?) to technical problems and a shitty production, these two tracks (65 minutes of course) lie halfway between free jazz and avant-metal (and there wasn't any electrical instrument at play here!). It's chaotic (no shit), but its furious aspect makes for a non-stop thrill. It's fitting that Trane's last recording bears such an apocalyptic aesthetic, and it is as fitting that the last tune recorded is one of his most revered tracks, "My Favorite Things". There might not have been a better end to such a rich discography. Just gotta give this one more time. |
| John Coltrane Interstellar Space | 3.4 |
| Interstellar Space is Trane and drummer Rashied Ali only. No harmonic or melodic structure here: the two instruments superpose one another for forty minutes. It might thus be the most "free" Trane has ever been, yet the result ends up less obtuse than other '65-'66 recordings of his. That might be because the tunes still follow a structure - theme/rise/climax/descent/theme - that brings some coherence to a wild displaying of power. Still can't say I'm a big fan of the free jazz Trane, but I just cannot not like the sound he makes with his tenor. |
| John Coltrane Meditations | 3.9 |
| After the Ascension sessions, Trane couldn't go anywhere without Pharoah Sanders. He thus brings him in, alongside drummer Rashied Ali and his other classic quartet members, for another session that borrows as much from Ascension as it does from A Love Supreme. Spirituality still is present, but it's deployed through two sets of percussions and two saxophones, thus carrying an opacity built upon polyrhythms and atonality. It's nevertheless more "coherent" than Ascension, because it still possesses some more "virginal jazz" passages; ie traditional jazz that does not try to go beyond jazz, tone, rhythm, or melody. Meditations also is important because it is the last recording featuring legendary quartet members pianist McCoy Tyner and drummer Elvin Jones. Thanks a lot boys: you were the wood upon which Trane's fire could burn. |
| John Coltrane Ascension | 3.6 |
| Now that Trane has crafted his masterpiece, he can do whatever he wants. What he wants is to break free, and fully dive into the burgeoning free jazz sound. It's not just collective improvisation and dissoshit (though it kinda is), as Trane infuses spirituality into his material. It is crazy, but not all of Ascension is: Shepp and Sanders are bringing da dissonant chops, but Tyner (from the quartet) has never been a free jazz musician. Ascension thus feels stuck between harmony and non-harmony, which is cool but also not cool. I'm sure I don't fully understand this (yet?). |
| John Coltrane Live At Birdland | 4.0 |
| The John Coltrane Quartet (sans Dolphy :[ ) was mighty powerful, and this live is a testimony of that colossal force. "Afro Blues" is the prime example of that era, both a brute show from drummer Elvin Jones as well as a lesson in harmonics from Trane. These two truly are the quartet's driving force, yet the respective groove and smoothness brought by the bass and piano are nice (and essential) counterpoints to Trane and Jones' power. It especially shows on "Alabama", whose beautifulness comes from the quartet's synergy: no polyrhythm or enraged solo here, but a harmony in tone that reaches summits of solemness. The rest (as usual) is standard 60s jazz, delightfully performed but not "life-changing" good |
| John Coltrane Impressions | 3.8 |
| Two Vanguard tunes and two studio takes, and all of them are on the verge of being mega-bangers. The two studio takes are enjoyable yet ultimately classic "dad jazz". "India" features some Dolphy dissonance that didn't please me much - it sounds much better when both Dolphy and Trane play the same motif together, and the title track loses itself in some monotony. Shame, 'cause the banging minutes are truly banging (those Elvin Jones' fucking drums on the t/t would put St Merat to shame). |
| Duke Ellington and John Coltrane Duke Ellington and John Coltrane | 3.7 |
| Duke composes, and Trane shreds. It's especially true on "In a Sentimental Mood" and its absolutely lovely piano chords. Compared to other Trane records, this one feels "safe", but he nevertheless offers some almost-dissonant solos among the beautiful Duke piano. No wonder this one, alongside Ballads and Johnny Hartman, constitute Trane's "temperance" period. |
| John Coltrane "Live" at the Village Vanguard | 3.5 |
| As often with Coltrane, this recording gets his legendary stamp thanks to one major rcomposition. This time, it's "Chasin' the Trane", whose extreme intensity makes for one of the most memorable Trane tunes - seems like he's torturing his saxophone. Also as often with Coltrane, the rest of the tracks are more classical. Cool, but not too crazy stuff for Trane. |
| John Coltrane Africa/Brass | 4.4 |
| Coltrane & Dolphy: Act II. Trane provides the "Africa" part by making African percussions the rhythmic basis, while the "Brass" part gets featured through the record's orchestral aspect. It makes for the first truly "spiritual" Trane tune, one whose repetitions became mantras coming from Trane's mind and soul - his solos are especially poignant here. The other two tracks aren't too shabby either, focusing more on the banging big band approach than a spiritual one, and are some of the best "non-major" Trane tunes. |
| John Coltrane Olé Coltrane | 4.2 |
| Coltrane & Dolphy: Act I. It also confirms Trane's ambition to open his orchestra to other confines - namely, Spain, Middle East, India, and Africa. With extra rhythmic help (two bassists and some traditional Indian percussions), he slightly gets off his harmonics craze without sacrificing melody, with the never-decreasing (at that time) modal jazz influence. Like My Favorite Things, this is a record whose legacy mostly comes from its opening tune, but the rest still show how entrancing the Coltrane/Dolphy duo can be - just give them smooth melodies and they will charm you. |
| John Coltrane My Favorite Things | 4.1 |
| After trying his chops at the soprano saxophone (whose sound starkly differs from his usual tenor, and can be seen on the cover), Coltrane decides to let go of the sonic experimentations of Giant Steps and instead focus on covering standards. The result is oh-so-lovely (especially the two soprano-leading tunes), with Davis' modal jazz influences being intertwined with the standards' playful compositions and Trane's improv skills. The title track is particularly mesmerizing, an absolute masterpiece solely carried by big dude Trane. |
| John Coltrane Giant Steps | 4.3 |
| Trane takes some modal notes from Davis and fuses them into his harmonics-full approach. It makes for a banging record full of those Coltrane changes that hop from one tone to the other, yet it also retains the melodic ink he always showcased. Constantly banging. |
| Fred Again.. and Brian Eno Secret Life | 2.8 |
| As I stated in my review of last year?s Actual Life 3, Fred Again.. is not one to thrive when writing emotional ambient songs. Getting help from daddy Eno (his neighbour, oh the benefits of the well-born) still doesn?t make this an engaging listen. Not that this is utterly boring, but maybe go for post-minimalism like your Tiny Desk? |
| Beach House Become | 2.6 |
| last album was already too long and they give us typical Beach House fodder outtakes only a year after? |
| Om Conference of the Birds | 4.0 |
| Mystical incantations and trance-like riffs whose slow progression make for one of the most rewarding stoner climaxes. And then there's the second tune which isn't too shabby but nevertheless never really approaches the opener's monolithicc power. |
| The National First Two Pages of Frankenstein | 2.1 |
| the last one had some good songs |
| The Body and Full Of Hell Ascending a Mountain of Heavy Light | 3.4 |
| 2016's One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache wasn't coherent enough for me, and Ascending a Mountain of Heavy Light thankfully corrects that: it's still a clusterfuck of influences, but they are smashed together into, erm, songs??? Pummeling, dissonant, abrasive songs, sure, but still songs with structure and all that shizzle. |
| Jessie Ware That! Feels Good! | 4.5 |
| That! Feels Good! is a victory lap, to varying degrees. In the age of eighty-minute mainstream albums, I like to think of this record as a statement: ten tracks, forty minutes really is the perfect package for a pop record that oozes sophistication while not taking itself too seriously, and that knows when to trade the bomb-ass-thicc with lovers' lullabies. This record is also a revenge. Six years after considering abandoning her music career, That! Feels Good is Jessie Ware at her most exultant, happy to just let go, dance, and enjoy herself. And she's so genuine that now that's all I want to do too. |
| Real Estate Atlas | 3.1 |
| Typical jangly dreamy indie surf: the best tunes ooze Spring energy, and the least interesting ones are "just not that interesting but still aight". |
| Dodheimsgard Black Medium Current | 3.9 |
| One ambitious mf this one. As much avant-garde as "raaaaah" bm as everything "post", this mf starts off mega strong but kinda loses me in its second half. Still a ginormous release. |
| Jungle Jungle | 3.3 |
| Laidback synthfunktronica with some nu-disco and soul elements thrown in the mix. It's always pleasant but not too often banging. |
| Electric Wizard Time to Die | 3.6 |
| Electric Wizard keep on delivering great weed metal, each tune leveraging their repetitiveness into trance-inducing hypnotism. The only issue is the length: 10-15 minutes less, and this would have made an even bigger impact. |
| Earth Primitive and Deadly | 3.4 |
| Heavier and dronier than both Angels albums, Primitive and Deadly nevertheless retains that chill stoner atmosphere - and the inherent repetition that makes and breaks this band. |
| Bell Witch Future's Shadow I: The Clandestine Gate | 3.6 |
| As always with these guys, it's quite impressive how they manage to keep such long tracks interesting. The slight changes to the soundscape really are slight, yet they always hit with emotion thanks to these beautiful tones. Not that this isn't long tho lol. |
| Healthyliving Songs of Abundance, Psalms of Grief | 3.8 |
| Witchy'n'sludgy: this is Dewicore!! Can't really go wrong when mixing top-fucking-notch banshee vocals with post-metal heaviness and alternative rock aesthetic. |
| Krallice Crystalline Exhaustion | 3.2 |
| Krallice goes synthy, but icier than on Demonic Wealth. It's good woah! This feels much less like the band's typical riff salad (although it still kinda is and I'm still suspicious about their songwriting capabilities), mostly because the whole lot feels somewhat cohesive. That last track pfiou. |
| Vali Skogslandskap | 3.8 |
| Treebeard music? These classical-tinged folk tunes are all gorgeous with their beautiful arpeggios and the occasional flute, piano, or violin bringing a secondary melody. |
| Melanie De Biasio No Deal | 3.5 |
| Belgian (woo!) vocalist Melanie De Biasio delivers a noir vocal jazz record that nails its atmosphere without ever separating itself from a certain distance. |
| Portrayal of Guilt Devil Music | 4.2 |
| chamber metal is the new cool thing apparently? |
| Quasimoto Yessir Whatever | 3.8 |
| Yessir Whatever is that kind of compilation that's more cohesive than some albums - kudos because Madlib sure was high as hell when crafting these surreal pieces of abstract rap. Maybe the Quasmoto release that features the least bangers, but that surely has to do with the raw aspect of deez tunes - just compare this "Green Power" with The Unseen's. |
| Cultes Des Ghoules Henbane | 3.2 |
| Ugly and vicious black metal that's mainly ugly and vicious and not much else - the occasional synth layers work for the best, as well as the tribal percussions, but they don't appear as often as I would've liked. |
| Holy Other Held | 3.5 |
| Nocturnal and sexy vapojamz whose longing vibe creates a potent atmosphere that would nevertheless benefit from some diversity. |
| Narrows Painted | 3.9 |
| Dave the Botch howler??? Yeehaw! Narrows fortunately isn't Botch worship, as their metalcore heavily draws from sludge thanks to dat phat bass, and also thanks to those shrill guitar lines on "Absolute Betrayer" or "SST". Banger. |
| Fire! Orchestra Echoes | 3.6 |
| Despite the loss of these batshit crazy banshee vocals, Echoes undoubtedly is Fire!, but doubtedly is Orchestra (apparently "doubtedly" ain't no word, get your shit together Merriam Webster). That's because the whole soundscape is much more restrained, with classical elements being more prominent to the point of giving hard minimalist vibes. Fortunately, this new babe features its fair share of memorable licks and dynamic shifts to stay interesting during its mammoth 1h50 runtime. |
| PLK 2069' | 3.7 |
| Cool lil EP that shows different aspects of PLK's music - top-notch rapological technique with the occasional sung chorus or the "lover tune" that he's slowly but surely mastering. Unfortunately, the features aren't that interesting because PLK adapts to his counterparts, not the opposite. |
| Katatonia Dead End Kings | 3.1 |
| Another Katatonia record, another nice moment that never manages to pull me out of what I was doing. |
| Four Tet Pink | 3.7 |
| Pink is a rather chill collection of 4T tunes whose long construction makes for an immersive listen, whether that's on the banging or meditative side of Hebden's music. A great collection that might well be the best introduction for new listeners. |
| Varnish La Piscine THIS LAKE IS SUCCESSFUL | 3.5 |
| Swiss boi Varnish La Piscine continues delivering short records with heavy synth funk influences, pop inspirations, and a smooth production. More importantly, this "business card" record (ie: a record that summarizes an artist's universe) is his first signed on legendary label Ed Banger (that's the French Touch label) and was accompanied by a series of videos around Geneva, further establishing Varnish as a true artist and tastemaker. |
| Eyes (DK) Congratulations | 3.7 |
| Pissed-the-feck-off mathy noise rock that knows how to transform repetitive "weeoooweee" chainsaw riffs into a hypnotic maelstrom. That's already mega cool, but the Danish bois also know how to accompany these riffs with energetic "rah-rahs" and thumping rhythmic section. A bit too monotone despite the relative shortness, though, but still melts faces. |
| The Tallest Man on Earth Henry St. | 3.2 |
| Mattson's brand of indie folk is back again in all its introspection and lush yet subdued production. This is a typical album of his, with a coziness that sometimes borders on yawness when the cookie-smooth production isn't backed by cogent songs. |
| Metallica 72 Seasons | 2.6 |
| woo a new metallica album i wonder what it sounds like |
| Invent Animate Heavener | 2.5 |
| chuggy chugs chugs and clean vox. my solipsism is a bitch but core kids' solipsism is also a bitch. |
| GoGo Penguin Everything Is Going to Be OK | 3.3 |
| Their formula was already on point, but it's now on point-er. Nu jazz spiced up by some post-minimalist passages (apparently you can't release a record on Gondwana without those) and those occasional crescendo tropes. Of course, the three bois are very (very!) competent musicians - gotta point out the drumboi isn't the same as before tho, but he's good too - and their performances are engaging, but they do not have that lil *oomph* that would propel this record at the top of their discography. It's GoGo Penguin. |
| Wednesday Rat Saw God | 3.2 |
| Bootgaze? This blend of gazey alt-country and noisy indie rock sure has to tickle some yeehaws, but mine seems quite reluctant. The dynamics are there, but they don't embark me. The "soft-loud-soft" structure us post-gang bitches love sound merely aight here. idk sometimes stuff that should be made for you really isn't. |
| ASAP Rocky TESTING | 2.9 |
| Messy record this one - Rowan killed it with dat soundoff. It's got banging tunes - "Praise the Lord" and its weird lil flute, or "Buck Shots" and its hard af energy - and lameass songs like that Kodak Black track or that "Kids" shit. As always since 2012, Rocky is best accompanied. |
| Metronomy The English Riviera | 2.8 |
| The cover says it all: this is lush, this is warm, this is neat, but this is also *soft*. The synthpoptronica vibe is cool, but it rarely distracts you from what you are doing. |
| Tim Hecker Dropped Pianos | 3.7 |
| Dude drops sketches with no cohesion and still comes up with (some) compelling pieces whose beauty is only matched by their eeriness - that duality especially shining during the brief moments the piano vibrations constitute the sole element in the soundscape. These are the best moments, while the less impacting tunes still do not provoke snoozy times - success! |
| Artificial Brain Infrared Horizon | 3.9 |
| Infrared Horizon is an Artificial Brain record alright, lying halfway between undecipherable and clearer than the Alps' water. Most importantly, they leverage that duality with these devastatingly clean guitar lines crawling out of the putrefied block of riffest. I'd however say this is the album of theirs that stuck the least with me, but that only proves how great this band is at linking engaging songwriting with the most alien take on death metal. |
| Caligula's Horse In Contact | 2.6 |
| Prog metal whose chugging, very high clean vox, and "cinematic-er than Michael Bay" soundscape really make a point at featuring basically everything I don't like about the modern prog scene that listened to way too much Dream Theater. Shame, the two before this one were cool. |
| The HIRS Collective We're Still Here | 3.8 |
| A clusterfuck of queer'n'core, We're Still Here isn't all about being queer and pissed off (although that's already good enough on its own terms!). Here, each tune is a playground to experiment with how all -core subgenres the collective wants to dip their powerviolence toes in: dissosaxo appear here and there, as is *the sass* (the fucking swagger pouring out of "Judgement Night"), or basically anyone cool in the core scene. It's short, yet it's povnding and diversified: that's the best sex!! |
| Tribulation Hamartia | 3.6 |
| Neat lil EP from Tribulation: their goth metal is nicely agremented with death-inspired riffs and *clean af* solis, the whole lot being enhanced by the immaculate production from Magnus Lindberg. Great combination of grittiness and prettiness this - not a fan of the BOC cover tho!! |
| Yaeji With A Hammer | 2.9 |
| Yaeji's first album is in the same vein as her EPs: she's got a cool voice, interesting production choices, and these lil Korean vocals to spice it up, but most of the tunes are stuck between moody and banging - sticking to one aesthetic per tune would greatly improve an album whose arse is stuck between two chairs. |
| Covet catharsis | 3.1 |
| Covet's new lineup also comes with one major stylistic change: there are some heavygaze inclusions into their sound, which imso (in my shitty opinion) comes at the expense of Young's playing. Apart from that, it's typical Covet post-first EP, which I will always have a soft spot for. |
| Tim Hecker No Highs | 3.8 |
| Hecker's No Highs is an affair of repetitive, drony ambient with the occasional post-minimalism touches. What's impressive here is the global sense of urgency - the Stetson saxo lines sure helped that, and would have made the record even more potent if they appeared more. But even without these daddy Stetson chords, the *textures* here manage to convey enough suspenseful moments. |
| Skip the Use Can Be Late | 3.0 |
| French Bloc Party with some new rave elements and the occasional funky nod? Yeah, and it was commercially successful!! This was fresh for 2012, but you've heard it all after four tunes. |
| Baaba Maal Being | 3.5 |
| If there's only one aspect of this record to remember (which would be dumb, but I still have to prove I ain't), it would be the percussions. Steadily enormous, they bring power to the rhythmic tracks without ever dumbing down how grand Maal sounds. Will need relistens (and West African music lessons), but this is cool and different than anything Sput listens to. |
| James Holden Imagine This Is A High Dimensional Space Of All Possibilities | 3.7 |
| Halfway between rave music and blissful ambient, Imagine is Holden's way of putting every trancey aspect of electronic music into one big big record. There is virtually no boom-boom here, though: this is rather a long journey toward contemplation. |
| daine shapeless | 3.3 |
| Heya this your zoomercore stuf with some rap and pop and emo and electronic influences! shapeless is much more well-crafted than her debut, with all influences almost-properly dosed within each track to appeal to all those zoomers who aren't understood by anyone but TikTok millenials. The Stockholm EmoCloudTrap scene and its daddies Yung Lean and Bladee really was ahead of its time. |
| Tzusing Green Hat | 3.4 |
| Apparently "Green hat" means cuckold in Chinese culture? Swag. This Green Hat is a body affair too, as its industrial EBM techno beats surely make both cuckold and non-cuckold sweat - woo! The Chinese influences are much less evident than on his debut, but the banging aspect is more prominent. |
| William Tyler Modern Country | 3.5 |
| As much a mellow jam for reefer sessions as a yeehaw accompaniement to a ride in the wild wild west, Modern Country simply is beautiful american primitivism, with the closer being a contender for best crossover between country and post-rock (as zaru nicely pointed out). |
| Of the Wand and the Moon The Lone Descent | 3.9 |
| Phwoar. Now that's neofolk of gorgeous atmosphere, constant richness, and melodies that aren't so hidden. It's monotone, but dayum if that tone isn't gripping. |
| Russian Circles Gnosis | 3.3 |
| Russian Circles doing what Russian Circles does: post-metal with thicc riffs that are straightforward but banging. |
| Gotye Making Mirrors | 3.5 |
| Ah, 2011's one-hit-wonder. Belgian boi Gotye (yeehawww) fortunately garnered his album with more than *that* song: all eleven other tracks constitute your typical 2011 indie-meets-art-meets-alt pop knack with enough diversity among each tune, and as much 80s flair as late-noughties modernity. |
| PC Music PC Music, Vol. 2 | 3.3 |
| This second iteration of the PC Music catalog is much more consistent than the first one. Le mauvais gout still is present (ofc!): "Poison" and "Hi" are obnoxious, but the banging tracks manage to be catchy without being mind-numbing (the Danny L Harle tracks basically). |
| Teen Suicide i will be my own hell because there is a devil inside my body | 3.0 |
| Sadboi noisy midwest emo-inspired bedroom pop? Yeah that's it, with the heart but without the originality. |
| Tricot 3 | 3.4 |
| This a tricot record alright. No surprises here: it's poppy math j-rock, with the opener and "Pork Ginger" being the only tunes truly bringing more bomb-ass-thicc-ness than usual for them. |
| Forest Swords Compassion | 3.5 |
| While Engravings was a weird lil tribal ambient dub affair, Compassion also is a weird lil tribal ambient dub affair, but one that impresses me much less. Maybe that concerns the much less prominent folktronica and psychy approach? It's a great album, that's for sure - the textures, man - but its charm was much less evident than its older brother's. |
| bladee x ECCO2K x Thaiboy Digital Trash Island | 3.1 |
| Trash Island is the epitome of a record that nails a consistent atmosphere without offering more. "Western" was a breath of fresh air in this ocean of digidoomercore. |
| Melt Yourself Down Melt Yourself Down | 3.7 |
| Melt Yourself Down debut record is a burning slab of playful afrobeat and tropical dance-punk, as tribal as it is ruthlessly "in-your-bitch-ass-face". It does tread the same path throughout its entire runtime, but it's a funky path. |
| Surgeon Crash Recoil | 3.5 |
| Modern boom-boom that sounds like old-school boom-boom = good boom-boom. Surgeon's techno definitely feels industrial, yet it doesn't bear any noisy elements to itself - it's just fucking cold and mechanical. |
| Mammal Hands Gift From the Trees | 3.5 |
| Mammal Hands is another proof Gondwana Records is ECM Records' hidden child. With classical linings and post-minimalist soundscapes created by this good ol' piano-saxo-drums trio, Gift From the Trees carries the most subdued jazz territories with as much elegance as ever. Kinda lacking some *oomph* factor compared to the other ones of theirs I've listened to. |
| Boygenius the record | 3.0 |
| As expected: I like these three when they go for big big moments, but at the same time, all three gals have a tendency to bore me when they go for the introspective. This trades the two aesthetics, thus leaving with a kinda-mixed-yet-not-surprised feeling. |
| Gorillaz Cracker Island | 3.1 |
| This was surprisingly alright? Not that this is pop AOTY, but the vibes are there, and that's really all I could ask for a Gorillaz album in 2023. |
| Miley Cyrus Endless Summer Vacation | 2.6 |
| Ok, so when Miley goes for dancey/synthy stuff that ignited quarantine days, this is great. When she goes for the sappy shit she already did fifteen years ago ("Jaded", "You", basically everything except "Flowers", "Handstand", "River"), this is really difficult to listen to - also I'm still not a fan of her voice, so sappy + not-fan-of-the-voice = bad moment! |
| Yves Tumor Safe in the Hands of Love | 2.4 |
| Pre-2021 Yves Tumor sounds wildly incoherent and lacks cogent songwriting, and this one doesn't stray from the path. Will keep on jamming his poppy tune bc imma poppy bitch! |
| The Beths Future Me Hates Me | 3.9 |
| Future Me Hates Me almost perfectly encapsulates jangle power pop's dual celebratory and bittersweet sentiments. Nothing mind-blowingly genial here, but it's done with so much heart and soul it's difficult to resist these songs' charm. |
| Cannibal Corpse A Skeletal Domain | 3.1 |
| Good ol' Cannibal Corpse CannibalCorpsin' with their meaty riffs and Corpsegrinder growling. It's CanCo alright! |
| Playboi Carti Playboi Carti | 3.3 |
| Carti's tape really is built around a couple of bangers. "Location", "Magnolia", and "wokeuplikethis*", "Flex", and "Kelly K" are all you need here as they perfectly encapsulate that typical Carti mindless vibe carried by Pi'erre Bourne cloud trap beats. The kind of dude whose "best-of" is fucking lit despite uneven records. |
| London Brew London Brew | 3.5 |
| an improvised tribute to *the* jazz fusion incarnation that sometimes conjures mega-powerful moments, and that also sometimes dives into improvised music limbo. props for gathering the creme de la creme of London jazz! |
| Yaeji EP2 | 3.1 |
| Kinda weird that "Raingurl" is here tbh. Its boom-boom approach detonates with the other tunes, which are much more downtempo-led. Excited for her new album, just hoping it will stay on the banging side of things. |
| Black Country, New Road Live at Bush Hall | 3.2 |
| This is BC,NR without Wood. His vocal style is lacking here, but to me, it's musically that this Bush record fails to attain the same level of greatness as Ants: climaxes do not hit as hard, crescendos leading to said climaxes aren't as poignant, and Wood's unique delivery is poorly copied here. Good shi, but they've matrixed me way too much last year for me to enjoy this properly. |
| Liturgy 93696 | 3.6 |
| 93696 (whatever that number means in Hunt-Hendrix's cult) sees Liturgy trademark sound be overall better integrated than on Origin of Alimonies - the long bois here are astounding, sometimes touching on the grandiose (those fucking organs in "Haelegen II"). I'd however say HAQQ's succinctness suits this aesthetic better. |
| Codefendants This Is Crime Wave | 3.4 |
| Punk, rap? This really is punk with a drum machine, resembling raps but really just fast shouted punky vox, and some ska linings. Not for everyone, but fun for me (and Sloth!) |
| Andrea Due In Color | 3.5 |
| Smooth. Halfway between breakbeat and ambient, Due in Color delivers lush rushes of meditative bleep bloops with the occasional boom-boom to remind that one can shake dem legs while listening to this. Nevertheless, this is mostly for soothing-hungry cravings, not Berghain ones. |
| Lana Del Rey Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd | 2.6 |
| Why are her albums so damn long? Even interludes are 4mins long. When this time is used to craft songs whose slow progression is actually giving some rewards, it's pretty good (the opening duo, "A&W", "Grandfather"). When this slow progression is just keeping its slow pace throughout a whole track, it's boring for a non-lyric mf. |
| Dream Dolphin Gaia: Selected Ambient & Downtempo Works (1996​-​2023) | 3.7 |
| 2 hours of lost Japanese new age-driven ambient? Yeehaw. Thanks to evasive vocals and ECCOJAMZ samples, this ambient (and slightly downtempo) affair goes towards the soothing side of the spectrum, with the occasional catchy synth line showing that dance music is never too far away. |
| JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown Scaring the Hoes | 3.7 |
| Crazy beats (that was to be expected) with occasional disso-saxo shenanigans and dem dual chipmunk-soul/slowed-vapor snippets support those always-on-the-edge DBrown raps. Intense and challenging to digest at first, but real cool as expected from these two mfs, even though DBrown's impact weakens after like two verses of his. Just gimme a JPEG x Zel tape. |
| jonatan leandoer96 Sugar World | 3.3 |
| Yung Lean go pop-rock? Cool! His voice isn't always on tune (eh that's Yung Lean, but still "Swedish Elvis Storm" ugh), but he's definitely got a knack for that kind of familiar and comfy pop-rock, plus he shows that he can be charming. |
| Ne Obliviscaris Exul | 3.6 |
| At time cheesy progjank, at other times big and cinematic (but not cheesy!), this is basically the best kind of Disney metal (because their bass tone is fucking phat). |
| August Burns Red Death Below | 2.8 |
| They *kinda* sound reinvigorated here. Not that they're back to their late noughties' form, but: some riffs are actually good, some bass can be heard (!!!), some tracks try to do something than their traditional chuggy chug chug fest. Gotta say the majority of this is typical ABR, but not shitty like the last one. Woo! Not that woo, but you get me. |
| Skee Mask ISS009 | 3.9 |
| Skee Mask is at his most easy listening on ISS009. That doesn't mean this is fodder; it means the tunes' banger aspect is more evident than ever, carried by his typical blend of breakbeat loops soothed by ambient touches. One of the best to do it right now. |
| PoiL Ueda PoiL Ueda | 3.0 |
| Japanese banshee Junko Ueda uses French weirdoes PoiL's avant prog technique to accompany her buddhist litanies. It's *here* without properly being *there* - gotta see that live? |
| The Comet Is Coming Channel The Spirits | 3.6 |
| The Comet Is Coming's first album definitely shows that spacey shit is this band's ipseity. Carried by progressive synths, Hutchings' acid saxo, and syncopated rhythms, Channel the Spirits invokes Cthulhu-esque imagery, with space shi and tribalistic shi trading punches to claim the vibe throne. It's great, but the next one is greater. |
| The Murder Capital When I Have Fears | 3.4 |
| Irish post-punk that's very Irish and very post-punk: the album. When I Have Fears is basically gloomy worship of The Cure and Joy Division telling tales with a thicc Irish accent. Banging tunes bang, while gloomy tunes tend to rest themselves on their lyrical potency to convey emotions - shame that im a dirty euro non lyric mf. |
| King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard Infest the Rats' Nest | 3.6 |
| Infest the Rats' Nest is not so much metal as it is typical King Gizz's psychy stuff complemented with thrash and stoner flair that reeks of 80s love. It's a good joke, but it tends to get repetitive (all soli are the same aren't they???). When tracks pull out specific ideas, like on megabanger "Hell", it's one hell of a fun ride. It's a King Gizz album in the end. |
| MSPAINT Post-American | 3.7 |
| Very cool synth punk that understood that there are two parts in its genre name: the synth lines are catchy but also bring the *noise*, while the raspy yap-rap brings the good ol' political rage. Their formula is mega cool if a tad too monotonous - it's good the album is only 30mins long! |
| Winnterzuko WINNTERMANIA | 3.3 |
| The most prominent profile in Francophone hyperpop-rap, Winnterzuko delivers a well-crafted debut LP that takes from the most boom-boomist aspect of hyperpop as well as the emo part of the modern rap spectrum. It's quite monochrome, which means the best tunes blow the rest outta the water, but it's still quite a unique proposition that just needs some refinement. |
| 100 Gecs 10,000 gecs | 2.3 |
| Messy. Bad tastePost-irony was always integral to 100 Gecs' proposition. Yet 10000 Gecs seems to make itself a triumph in pushing this bad taste to its paroxysm. This spirit filled with unfathomable nihilism defeats itself when it doesn't accept any limits - here, the band conjures so many different things at once that it becomes indigestible. That could be the band's ultimate shortcoming: they have yet to understand that setting boundaries to your schemes does not necessarily mean curbing your potential. Beyond that, some of the band's influences are not conveyed as well as others: the ska parts often sound like studio scraps from a band whose sobriety is now a distant memory, which is no small feat when you know the duo's taste for cheap aesthetics. rSome tracks confirm the band's talent to write bangers invoking various aesthetics ("Hollywood Baby", "757", "mememe"). However, the duo's songs are still plagued with these hints of unrefined teenage taste that prove they must properly ingest their influences. One day, mayhaps. Meanwhile, those considering this brash concoction as peak goofy maximalism can continue lauding 100 Gecs. |
| Yves Tumor Praise a Lord Who Chews, But Does Not Consume... | 3.9 |
| Tumor expands on what made The Asymptotical World work better than the seemingly similar Heaven to a Tortured Mind: making sure production is not the only thing the songs have got for themselves. Praise a Lord... is poppier than all their previous records, but it fortunately does not come at the expense of that lush rush of psychy post-punk. It's not all just makeup. |
| Downfall of Gaia Silhouettes Of Disgust | 3.6 |
| Downfall of Gaia come back with their most in-yo-bitchass-face release. Post-rock is thus dialed down (to my great regret), but the songs are stronk in and of themselves if a tad too similar in their construction. |
| The Hirsch Effekt Holon: Agnosie | 3.7 |
| The third installment in the Holon series sees The Hirsch Effekt dial down on the various influences they distill in their prog post-hardcore formula. While the calmer moments didn't convince me much, when they get on that "big songwriting" mode, like on "Bezoar" or "Cotard", it's properly amazing. |
| 100 Gecs Snake Eyes | 3.0 |
| Kinda transitional but not that much. The first track could've been on 1000 Gecs, the last one could have been on 10000 Gecs, and the Skrillex track is basically a Skrillex track with stronk Quest for Fire vibes. |
| Cult of Luna Vertikal II | 3.7 |
| It's Cult of Luna, and it's called Vertikal II. Voila. Synth lines carry the cold futuristic aesthetic while the rest of the musicians deliver the typically gargantuan CoL sound. 35mins is a tad too short for them to install their soundscape properly. |
| Fever Ray Radical Romantics | 2.7 |
| The most The Knife Fever Ray album - and guess who ain't a The Knife fan?? This synthy affair sure got some moments that please me - basically all the Reznor/Ross stuff, as well as the eeriest/less synthpop tunes - but overall it confirms that I'm not a Karin fan. |
| Obituary Dying Of Everything | 2.9 |
| Obituary doing some Obituary flexin' (at least from what I remember). It's meaty, groovy, and overall decent death metal that I won't come back to. |
| Kali Uchis Red Moon in Venus | 3.2 |
| Kali Uchis returns with sexy lyrics, psychy linings, and back-and-forth between Spanish and English. But cool vibes and smooth vocals aren't always enough, and most tunes don't have potent progression or vibrant energy to offer. It's always pretty, but the best moments here show that this could have been more than kinda vibey psychy bedroom pop. |
| Shame (UK) Food For Worms | 3.2 |
| Shame go for a mild indie pop rock sound that neither has the bite of its Windmill counterparts nor is it supported by grand songwriting chops. It's very much fine, though, just nothing impressive or memorable. |
| Overmono Cash Romantic | 3.9 |
| With Cash Romantic, Overmono continue down the BASS rabbit hole. The brotherly duo delivers an EP whose five pieces all look at different ways to apprehend the dancefloor, whether through dnb, prog house, alt r&b, future garage, UK bass, or ambient techno. It just fucking goes. |
| Enslaved Heimdal | 3.7 |
| Enslaved doing Enslaved. Heimdal is ultimately nothing surprising for seasoned listeners, but the band's brand of blackened progressive metal is as expansive and well-written as ever. Props for the lil folky chords in "Congelia" or "Forest Dweller", as well as for the dynamic riff in the second half of the closer. |
| Godcaster Godcaster | 3.1 |
| A robertsonars rec, Godcaster seem to have evolved since their 2020 debut. Exit dance-punk, here comes alt metal apparently? This self-titled effort mixes artsy punk borrowing from the weirdest territories of post-hardcore land, stoner blues (idk i think so), and a typically NYC-like noise rock tone and metallic layers. Great blend of genres, but I'm not too convinced by the songwriting here. I should listen to their debut.r |
| Full Of Hell and Primitive Man Suffocating Hallucination | 2.6 |
| Full of Hell and Primitive Man pairing up??? Woah boi that must be violent. It ain't that much, though. When the bands decide to let it go, it doesn't bring the same rage as some of their past materials. And then, the other half of the EP is them trying to come up with dark ambienty drones. |
| Manchester Orchestra The Valley of Vision | 3.0 |
| A chill EP this one. The Valley of Vision sees ManOrch offer their dreamiest version of themselves yet, balancing the pretty and the almost-boring-but-not-really-boring. |
| Carly Rae Jepsen Emotion: Side B | 3.8 |
| Queen Carly complements one of the greatest pop albums of the 2010s with one hell of a pop EP. Dance-pop, synthpop, and electropop still constitute the majority of a soundscape tremendously supplemented by a top-notch production full of lil bouncy details. In and of themselves, the songs aren't all fantastic, but this still slaps. |
| Overmono Whities 019 | 3.6 |
| Overmono offers a spacey vibe on Whities 019, whether that's through drill'n'bass (the opener), or less frantic ambient techno (especially the beautiful "Quadraluv"). They're not at their most bombastic (that's basically right now), but Whities is a great representation of making dancey music ethereal. |
| ????MACROSS 82-99 A Million Miles Away | 3.5 |
| Macross, a Mexican producer, infuses some French House into his Japanese-influenced future funk formula. Woah. What's impressive here is that Macross seems to know when to make its loopy tunes stop: tracks overstay their welcome very often in future funk, yet it's not (too) much the case here. Nevertheless, the genre's shallowness still starts hitting by the 25th minute (if you're not actually dancing in a club, in such a case it's not tiresome in the long run). |
| 404Billy BLKKKK VAN GOGH 2 | 3.1 |
| 404 continues with his carefully crafted puzzle of anti-progressive punchlines, but their impact is much less punching than on the first output. It's aight, just hope he doesn't try to continuously replicate the first EP's success ad vitam eternam. |
| Model/Actriz Dogsbody | 3.3 |
| Brooklyn windmill goes noisy industrial, but it's kinda dancey?? Although their influences are mucho evidento (just read the thread to see the gazillion of other bands that vaguely sound like them), the way they infuse sexiness into ominous industrial noisy shit is what sold me in the end. Vocals are meh but idc my foot was tapping all along and that's all I really want. |
| slowthai UGLY | 3.6 |
| slowthai trades the grimy grime of his early days to a blend of ragey rock and synthy beats, and it's (almost) constantly great, yet it always feels like on the verge of greatness without entirely crossing the Rubicon. |
| 404Billy BLKKKK VAN GOGH | 3.5 |
| 404Billy is the new controversial figure in French rap. With dark boom bap beats a la Griselda and crystal clear pronunciation, his gruesome punchlines get the central stage. Some of them are basic anti-progressive discourse, but the majority are just really well-written thoughts about the (dysfunctioning) French rap industry. In terms of artistic direction, this is, however one of the most fleshed-out projects in modern French rap. |
| Green Day Revolution Radio | 2.5 |
| Revolution Radio is the best Green Day album since 21st Century Breakdown, but that's really not saying much. Most tracks here are typical "Dora listens to her first rock albums" that would have pleased 8 yo me, but it really ain't nothing special. |
| Secret Band LP2 | 3.3 |
| DGD-adjacent band does DGD with some mathcore sparkled. It's got everything stupid that DGD has, but the more techy parts were a joy to listen to (if only the production were crispier). |
| Mac DeMarco Rock and Roll Night Club | 2.9 |
| Demarco's first album shows some stuff that will stay in his career: his lo-fi jangly bedroom pop tunes filled with quirky humour. It also comes with stuff that won't stay in his career: a Lou Reed-esque delivery on some instances that kinda works but feels very weird, and interludes that might have sounded like a great idea at some point (it turned out the contrary). |
| Caravan Palace Robot Face | 3.1 |
| Caravan Palace expand their electro-swing formula by adding house beats underneath the bouncy jazz manouche tunes. It's overall very monochrome when you've heard the first track, yet some songs have the decency to offer something different, like "Aftermath" and its future bass beat, or "Human Leather Shoes..." and prog house, almost chillwave vibe. Not saying these anomalies are tremendously mind-blowing, but they offer some welcome diversity. |
| U.S. Girls In A Poem Unlimited | 3.4 |
| U.S. Girls (lie - it's only one US gal!) continue her 4AD foray with psychy tunes full of *nostalgia*, which works well when songwriting and production fully work together ("Pearly Gates" or the closer). However, some parts of the record feel like a clusterfuck of ideas gathered around a handful of truly great tracks. |
| Jessie Ware Glasshouse | 3.3 |
| As usual with pre-2020 Jessie Ware, Glasshouse features tremendous vocal performances, compelling production, but bordering-on-boring tunes. This one is no exception, with the first being full of great (if resembling) songs and the second accumulating alrighty tracks. |
| Binker and Moses Alive in the East? | 3.6 |
| Binker (tenor saxophone) and Moses (drums) pair up for a live album that doesn't feel live, except for a few "woo!"s. The montage and, most importantly, the fact that all tunes here are OGs, make Alive in the East their unofficial third album. It's typical B&M: the tribal and the spiritual dictate the rhythm, but their monochrome soundscape tends to repeat itself after some time. Still, this might well be their most engaging recording, thanks to the extra punch given by its live setting. |
| Amorphis Queen of Time | 3.1 |
| Ebic m/ Of course the cheese is present - that second track is typical Eurovision metal - but it's rather good cheese. Some lil elements distinguish this one from other symphoprogfolk releases, like the sax on "Daughter of Hate". Still, this aesthetic is too cheesy epic for me, especially during an entire hour. |
| Ben Frost A U R O R A | 3.5 |
| The post-industrial aesthetic reaches cinematic tension levels when Frost goes for lengthy pieces on A U R O R A. The small tunes between those epics are fine, but do not bring the *chills* as much as their longer counterparts. |
| Misthyrming Algleymi | 3.5 |
| Misthyrming's second album strays from the dissonant kind of bm they had on their debut to go for melodic bm more akin to Mgla's. It's still competent and all, but it just lacks a bit of punch compared to their other two releases. |
| The World Is a Beautiful Place... Harmlessness | 3.7 |
| Built as a 50-mins suite, Harmlessness manages to leverage its seamless nature by making each song a mini-epic of post-rock, midwest emo, and indie rock. This formula, while expertly executed, tends to repeat itself and thus loses some of its power during its least enthralling moments. |
| Skrillex Don’t Get Too Close | 2.7 |
| More rooted in pop rap & liquid dnb than Quest for Fire, Don't Get Too Close sees Skrillex go for mainstream-adjacent tunes. It ain't a resounding success, mostly because the songs aren't that good or adventurous. By-the-numbers EDM. |
| Big|Brave nature morte | 3.4 |
| Big|Brave keep on offering large soundscape built from drone, doom, sludge, noise rock, and those gothic/folk vibes that seem to be mandatory nowadays. It's undeniably well constructed, but the "oomph" factor is less punchy than on Vital. |
| Otay:onii Dream Hacker | 3.5 |
| Less engraved in Chinese folk music than 2021's Ming Ming, Dream Hacker nevertheless goes for more traditional (traduction: less extended) song structures and overall less focus on an industrial aesthetic. It's maybe less gripping but also more approachable; it's different! |
| Skrillex Quest for Fire | 3.5 |
| Skrillex revives some of his dubstep roots with a house aesthetic and (sometimes) UK garage beats. It's definitely great to hear mainstream club music, but it's also evident Moore didn't try his best in terms of composition. Good enough tunes succeed to one another - ie: they are cool but they lack that tiny extra effort to make them consistently great - in a well-produced fashion (and that's where Moore really bothered). Cool, but could've been way cooler. |
| PRhyme PRhyme | 3.1 |
| For DJ Premier beats, these are quite subpar. They're not bad; they're just not comparable to what he did in the 90s or even some years later on Gang Starr's One of the Best Yet. |
| Rosalia El Mal Querer | 3.2 |
| El Mal Querer constitutes the transition between the flamenco-full Los Angeles and the zeitgeist-perceptive MOTOMAMI. It's a transition, not a fully fleshed-out marriage: the charm of Rosalia's debut is kinda lost here, and she isn't experienced enough to pull out the mega bangers that rhythmed 2022. |
| Young Fathers Cocoa Sugar | 2.6 |
| As often with Young Fathers, Cocoa Sugar is a gloubiboulga of many, many ideas that are smashed together with little cohesion. Of course, there's at least one instance where they pull it off: "Lord" manages to conjure neo-soul, alt r&b, gospel, and noisy shi in a powerful way. But that's about it. |
| These New Puritans Field of Reeds | 2.8 |
| This Field of Reeds record is very pretty, post-rocky, and full of chamber inclinations! Shame that These New Puritans seem keener on displaying pretty textures than writing songs - and that comes from a post-rock gang mf. |
| Kelela Take Me Apart | 3.3 |
| Kelela's first LP continues on the path built by her EPs and mixtape: nocturnal and sensual R&B carried by UK Bass and ambient pop tunes. It's thus more of the same, and I always find her proposition to lose its power in the course of a full-lentgh effort. Still, Take Me Apart is Kelela's most consistent record. |
| Japanese Breakfast Soft Sounds From Another Planet | 3.3 |
| Zauner's second album is nice. It doesn't bear the emotional baggage her debut had, nor does it feature bomb-ass-thicc pop bangers like Jubilee, but its mellow vibe is undeniably working at being both charming and bittersweet. |
| Pepe Deluxe Queen of the Wave | 3.3 |
| Pepe Deluxe (whaddaname) deliver a rock opera that conjures psych stuff, pop chords, and basically everything quirky in pop music. Combined with the constant hi-energy approach, this quirkiness tends to become tiresome in the long run, but the *big* moments feel truly empowering. |
| Paramore After Laughter | 3.4 |
| Paramore go new wave! Not only that, they almost wholly shed off their pop punk roots to focus on a power pop/pop rock aesthetic that suits them very well. Fortunately, and on the contrary to the preceding record, After Laughter is tite, in that the songs are coherent in and of themselves and in the "grand" scheme of the album. Nothing is truly unique, though, but hey, consistency is cool! |
| Rihanna ANTI | 3.5 |
| Riri's last album - 7 fucking years ago, and she's still as relevant, if not more than then. ANTI is undeniably her best record because it allows itself to dive into pop-adjacent genres without making the songs a gigantic mess. Nevertheless, she fell back into her tendency to plainly rip off a major success without much adjustments ("Same Ol' Mistakes", what's your ipseity?). But hey, that's Riri. |
| Coeur de Pirate Blonde | 3.7 |
| Absolutely lovely. Coeur de Pirate's piano-led indie pop is ultimately very "variet", but the charm she's got, coupled with classy arrangements, transform (most of) these cute tunes into bona fide beautiful pop songs. |
| G.L.O.S.S. Trans Day Of Revenge | 3.8 |
| Trans Day of Revenge is basically the same as the band's debut demo. Except: it pounds harder, the riffs are catchier, and the production is cleaner. Everything goes harder. G.L.O.S.S. (Girls Living Outside Society's Shit) were mad fast, and maybe they burned themselves going that fucking fast, but their viscerality made them an essential part of LGBT badasses. |
| OFWGKTA The OF Tape Vol. 2 | 2.3 |
| Pricks doing their best to be insufferable pricks - and it's a resounding success! Tyler is insulting everyone, Hodgy and Domo Genesis are way too present, and the beats are overstaying their welcome after 30 seconds. Fortunately, "Oldie" is a fucking classic of a banger. |
| Calvin Harris Funk Wav Bounces, Vol. 1 | 3.1 |
| Harris' best album is ultimately is most inoffensive. Most tracks are too mellow to be played during a party, yet they strive at bomb-ass-thicc-ness without fully getting there. At least it ain't as overplayed as 18 Months, and it doesn't feature (too many) horrendous tunes. |
| Hamza Sincèrement | 3.1 |
| Hamza's latest album shows he's just comfortable with his formula. No significant changes here, despite a highly-communicated "refined songwriting" which really is poudre de perlimpinpin (apparently you guys call this pixie dust?). It's fine, but not worth the mounds of hyperbolic praise it's currently receiving in the Francophone media. |
| Dead in the Dirt The Blind Hole | 3.6 |
| Pissed-the-fuck-off crusty grindcore, this one (I know that's an oxymoron). Dead in the Dirt's The Blind Hole doesn't offer anything the genre hasn't already seen, but everything here is top-notch: the drumming, the howling, the povnding. |
| Tujiko Noriko Crépuscule I & II | 3.8 |
| A ginormous ambient suite of 100 minutes, Crepuscule fortunately trades between almost-pop melodies, drone backbone, electroacoustic shenanigans, and ethereal vocal stylings. It's constantly moving, in subtle yet precise ways. |
| Caroline Polachek Desire, I Want To Turn Into You | 3.7 |
| Polachek continues her *big soundscapes * palette in her sophomore effort. When said *big soundscapes* appear, it's mostly a winner ("Welcome to My Island", "I Believe", "Billions"), while most subdued tracks instantly go to the background. Shame the best tracks were (almost) all released as singles. |
| Kelela Raven | 2.7 |
| Vibes and stuff. Kelela's Raven is very pretty, that's for sure, but its Swiffer-clean production makes everything sound too soothing for their own sake - the extended, bloated length doesn't help. Offering an ~atmosphere~ is cool, but it shouldn't come at the expense of a sparse soundscape. |
| Paramore This Is Why | 3.1 |
| Paramore comes back with post-punky rhythms and good hooks but not much more than that. Also apparently being a non-lyric mf helps. |
| The Armed Only Love | 3.7 |
| The Armed = crazy shit. Their blend of post-hardcore, mathcore, noise rock, cybergrind, and compression is evidently their own, and they show again on Only Love that they've got the songwriting chops to make it more than a maximalist mess. Still, this is the one Armed record whose mixing is at its most undecipherable. |
| XXXTENTACION ? | 2.7 |
| Triple X expands his formula on this second album and manages to gain in diversity and lose in coherence (lousy call!). ? features a better production, but its rhythm is characterized by a succession of both quality (Joey Badass) and very questionable (Travis Barker) features. It's a mess of an album, but is it surprising that the artist delivering it is a mess? |
| The Murder Capital Gigi's Recovery | 3.7 |
| Another Irish band with post-punk sonic foundations, another winner. Gigi's Recovery mostly is a downer affair (they're Irish, after all), with alternance between tracks that manage to make the most out of their moody aesthetic ("Return My Head", "Ethel", or "Only Good Things") and tunes that are a tad too underdeveloped to leverage that post-punk urgency properly. |
| Yo La Tengo This Stupid World | 3.4 |
| Cozy :] Yo La Tengo offer noisy textures and krautrock guitars voguing amongst dreamy indie rock tunes whose mellow vibe fortunately doesn't hide how tight the performances are. This Stupid World ain't the most breathtaking record ever, but it comfortably engages thanks to the *no fat* policy the band seems to have applied here. |
| Flume Things Don't Always Go the Way You Plan | 3.1 |
| Flume delivers a bunch of unreleased, unfinished tunes, and yet it's still kinda good. The tracks featuring collab artists *could* have been great songs in and of themselves, but they would have needed some fleshing out. The same can be said about most of the instrumental tracks: while they (almost) all display good ideas, they often wander without seeming to know where to go. Shame, because the material is very good, as expected. |
| Actress Ghettoville | 3.0 |
| With Ghettoville, Actress continues to shed most of the danceability out of their tunes. Haunted rhythms and beat-up beats pair up in such a bare fashion that I often failed to embark on the minimalistic ride |
| Tuxedo Tuxedo III | 3.4 |
| Tuxedo does one thing and one thing only: ass-shaking, sweat-inducing Friday night bangers. This third opus doesn't deviate from that disco formula, and while the banging tracks bang very hard ("The Tuxedo Way", "On a Good One", "Close"), the rest mostly is alright. One exception, though, is "Dreaming in the Daytime" because MF DOOM comes up and does the most random feature of his career. It's very cool. |
| Alfa Mist Structuralism | 3.2 |
| As often with Alfa Mist, I enjoy single tunes rather than a full album. Despite his proficiency in composing and producing mellow jazz tunes, his monochrome and lo-energy aesthetic tend to sink into the meanders of coffee shop jazz. |
| Yuri Gagarin At The Center Of All Infinity | 3.7 |
| It's Yuri Gagarin: you know you'll get big spacey guitar soli repeated ad vitam eternam, and that's exactly what At the Center of All Infinity offers. |
| Perfect Angel at Heaven EP | 4.2 |
| Perfect Angel at Heaven's EP oozes 80s and 90s reminiscence in various forms. The hi-energy, dynamics-full riffing a la Sonic Youth is as restless as it packs a (falcon) punch. Still, an indie rock sensibility compensates for what could be, at best, a neat worship, at worst, an epic mess. Opener "Pyramid" hence intelligently accompanies its soaring climax with lil "ooh-oohs, " which cheerfully adds catchiness to its constant riffing. When such attention to detail is enhanced by great production (audible bass is always a treat), it makes for a rewarding listen that can leverage the tiniest variation between two musical phrases. Long time since a guitar album felt this visceral. |
| Young Fathers Heavy Heavy | 3.9 |
| I never was entirely on board with these lads' proposition - too unrefined and all over the place despite some apparent chops at fusing pop, soul, and experimentalism. Well, they managed to do so on Heavy Heavy! Gospel is now the primary genre ruling the band's soundscape, and it gives the album a triumphant vibe that, coupled with radiant hooks, makes for the greatest album of this very young year 2023. |
| Modern Baseball Holy Ghost | 3.3 |
| Emotional and introspective indie rock-inspired released on Run for Cover? Yeah, that's peak emo revival. This one is a nice addition to whoever feels the need to be a completionist regarding this particular scene. Still, apart from a couple of great great tracks ("Wedding Singer", "Just Another Face"), this isn't breathtakingly essential for the genre. |
| Weyes Blood Front Row Seat to Earth | 3.3 |
| I should've listened to this one before I stumbled upon Titanic Rising, as this feels like a prep for the big statement record that would follow. |
| Algernon Cadwallader Parrot Flies | 3.2 |
| With Parrot Flies, Algernon Cadwallader deliver a typical mathy midwest emo record with shouted vocals. Cool stuff, but I'm sure I would've loved this way more had I listened to it when it came out. |
| Everything Everything Arc | 3.1 |
| While Man Alive was a rough succession of art pop bangers, Arc goes for a more mellow, better-produced approach that ultimately leaves me wanting more. |
| Angles 9 Disappeared Behind the Sun | 3.8 |
| Yo, this bangs. Angles 9 is a big band jamming bombastic free jazz tunes, and they know how to control their chaotic vibe. Shame the opening track is the most directionless of the bunch. |
| Power Trip Nightmare Logic | 3.5 |
| Ripping riffs open this up, and then it's more of the same. Solipsism is a bitch, and this is just another thrash album for me. The first couple of tracks is the real deal. |
| White Lung Deep Fantasy | 3.7 |
| Sonically lying halfway between their debut and sophomore records, Deep Fantasy keeps the former rawness while slightly dubbing it down and doesn't attain the latter's melodic heights. Nevertheless, White Lung prove with this batch of melodic yet noisy punk riffs that they were what riot grrrl did best in the first half of the 2010s. |
| La Smala 11h59 | 2.5 |
| It really shows here how La Smala were quickly outdated by the up-and-coming French rap scene of the 2010s. Same ol' beats, same ol' flows, but they're (basically) the only ones still sticking to that old-school boom bap aesthetic, and their trappy and/or hi-energy tunes just ain't got it. |
| Skee Mask Compro | 3.8 |
| Very Berlinese, this one. With breakbeat and ambient techno as core elements of its soundscape, Compro manages to distill decaying urban vibes that call for some slight, desperate foot-stomping. Like that dude on the cover. |
| SOUL GLO The Nigga In Me Is Me | 3.4 |
| Soul Glo go hard in their third record with their typical blend of passionate hardcore and intense noise rock, but the compositional skills aren't as evidently great as on their 2022 output. |
| Complete Mountain Almanac Complete Mountain Almanac | 3.3 |
| The Dessner fam regroups for a thematic album whose seasonal feel is more hinted at than indeed displayed in full color. The airy instrumentation gathers indie folk with artsy pop and classical linings, and despite some dragging moments (mainly in the second half), this is pleasant. |
| Spangle call Lilli line Ampersand | 3.5 |
| Cute and wholesome! ScLL's blend of dream pop, post-rock, downtempo, and everything indie is both soothing and upbeat, as fitting for a lounge partay as it is for a lazy sunny afternoon. |
| //LESS Social Disappointment | 3.5 |
| Thanks to two basses (!), //LESS' sound is extremely punchy for noisy punk (that's how they describe themselves), which gives them a sludge foundation on top of which punky riffs and social diatribes carry the assault. |
| Lil Yachty Let's Start Here. | 3.4 |
| Mumble rapper goes psych??? This planet is doomed. Thankfully, Yachty has done his homework properly and didn't pull out a Speedin' Bullet 2 Heaven. This is due to a gorgeous (if a tad overdone) production (SB2H was horrendous on that point), and his singing, while not constantly perfect or excellent, fits the aesthetic. Some tunes extend their length to unnecessary levels, and some songs would benefit from a bona fide singer, but hey, this is Yachty's project. The wild stylistic shift is laudable but is also the main reason people are overrating this. It's a great psych album; it just turns out it was made by a dude who previously was known for hedonistic mumble pop rap. |
| Aya Nakamura DNK | 3.3 |
| Aya with break-up songs to dance to? Yeah, it's Aya! As always with her music, individual songs sound better than in the album context because this kind of music is best appreciated in small doses. Nevertheless, this is the one Aya record that sounded the most cohesive to me, woo! |
| Parannoul After The Magic | 3.5 |
| Parannoul expands on his ideas. Whereas After the Magic still suffers from being a cooler collection of sounds than a composition tour de force, this lo-fi sadgaze aesthetic of his is enhanced by strings and other forays into ambient, which ultimately makes the hour-long journey more palatable than the previous one. |
| Josman M.A.N (Black Roses and Lost Feelings) | 3.3 |
| Josman's still showing he can come up with some of the best French rap tunes of the year ("Intro", "Brule"), but this time the whole record is mostly average (for his standard). Pleasant but not banger-after-banger like some of this previous output was. |
| Melt Yourself Down Pray for Me I Don't Fit In | 3.6 |
| Banging dance-punk supported by a jazz band? Yeah, that's what I want the 2020s to be. Some tunes had saxos rising together in a brostep-adjacent sound which was kinda dope but not enough dope to justify using it more than once. Apart from that, the sheer vibrancy oozing from Pray For Me I Don't Fit In is mostly a winner, with only a few tracks slightly overrunning their premises. |
| Ka Grief Pedigree | 3.1 |
| Not quite evidently drumless, but it sure as hell does hit as hard as boom bap usually does. Like often, Ka's deadpan delivery isn't one to wake me up. |
| Westside Gunn Hitler Wears Hermes VI | 3.8 |
| Grimy gangsta shit. HWHt sports a typical Griselda soundscape: post-boom bap with soulful sampling and violent imagery. So, yeah, typical Griselda, but the beats and these piano loops, man. |
| Megan Thee Stallion Fever | 3.3 |
| Thee Stallion delivers a mixtape that's really a nightclub playlist: hi-hats are pounding, bars are hard-hitting, asses are banging the floor. It's definitely cool to see a female rapper take over such a niche, but it's not the kind of sound that ages well over 40 minutes. |
| Gucci Mane DropTopWop | 3.1 |
| Gucci Mane paired up with Metro Boomin for a typical Metro Boomin record: nocturnal and repetitive with an 808s fest. Gucci Mane is rather good here, but the whole lot just feels like a prep for Without Warning and doesn't really stand out in the MBU (Metro Boomin Universe). |
| Uboa The Origin Of My Depression | 3.1 |
| Uboa's The Origin of My Depression is absolutely grueling with its post-industrial pummeling and harsh noise ventures - maybe i shouldn't have listened to this before finishing my coffee. And then, "An Angel of Great and Terrible Light" comes in to offer a singer-songwriter approach. What a track. Not too convinced about the rest of the album though. |
| Algiers The Underside of Power | 3.6 |
| Algiers continue with their unique blend of post-punk rhythms, post-industrial Wall-of-Sound mechanism, and gospel-inspired vocal delivery. Unlike their first album, which I couldn't fully get into because of a (self-perceived) lack of memorable anything, this time, they pushed their envelope forward to propose (mostly) great songs with dope aesthetic instead of ok songs with dope aesthetics. |
| Chinese Football Chinese Football | 3.5 |
| That band name (mucho meta), cover, or track titles ("The Last Emo Boy on Earth", lol) might be utterly ridiculous. Still, Chinese Football actually pull it out with (bitter)sweet mathy midwest emo jams a la American Football (whodathunk??). 65 minutes is way too long for this kind of monotone formula, and the lads don't know how to end a song as much as they know how to write sick twinkly doodles, but hey this is the best American Football worship ever. |
| Ka Honor Killed The Samurai | 3.3 |
| Honor Killed the Samurai is a typical Ka album: gripping atmosphere, mostly drumless beats, cool theme, but nothing that truly gets me on board in terms of performance. |
| Everything Everything Man Alive | 3.4 |
| Everything Everything delivered a promising debut with Man Alive. While wildly unfocused and too long for its own sake, the lads sure show they are able to write memorable tracks. Gotta refine that - and they will. |
| KEN mode Loved | 3.7 |
| Crazyass shit. KEN Mode pummels noisy, sludgy riffs through post-hardcore songwriting and possessed vocals. Less scary than the album cover though! |
| Greyhaven This Bright and Beautiful World | 3.2 |
| Greyhaven continue to take ETID's spot within the metalcore food chain. They still got those alt linings, but this time it's more mathy than proggy. That ain't the point, though: the songs aren't as effortlessly catchy as the ones on their 2018 banger of an album. And the mixing sounds too compressed to my taste. |
| Ninos del Cerro Lance | 3.5 |
| A Chilean band, Ninos del Cerro taps into that noisy-ish Candy Claws-isms that feels uplifting despite the bittersweet approach. The back end revolves around hazier, more subdued territories, but the beginning of the album is all good warm psychy things. |
| Vril Anima Mundi | 3.9 |
| Banging shit that ain't banging. Anima Mundi is mostly slow-mo techno that alternates between industrial, dub, or ambient coats - dub being its main outfit. Couple that with clear space ambient influences, and you've got a futuristic, intimate, and gigantic record. |
| Death Angel The Evil Divide | 3.2 |
| Death Angel's The Evil Divide loses no time showing you what it is - just look at that band and album name. It's thrash metal, quite competent at that. Voila. |
| Polo G Die a Legend | 3.2 |
| Polo G's first album is full of melody, coming-of-age lyrics, and beats whose melody come from piano while drill bassy roar dictates the rhythm alongside the 808s. Cool stuff, if a tad too monochrome in the long run. |
| Sematary BUTCHER HOUSE | 3.1 |
| Sematary continues with the witchy, drilly, loud'n'noisy horrorcore. Ain't very subtle - mainly because of the banging energy - and the best tunes are the ones where he sounds like Chief Keef. I like Chief Keef. |
| Mac DeMarco Five Easy Hot Dogs | 2.5 |
| Mac has gone mellower over the years. This is the kind of mellow that goes to the background for me. |
| Caballero/Jeanjass High & Fines Herbes volume 2 | 3.2 |
| Not as decidedly goofy as the first tape, this second edition's goofy factor comes as interludes, with proper tracks respecting themselves. Still waiting for a true follow-up to Double Helice 2. |
| Ryuichi Sakamoto 12 | 3.7 |
| 12 is a suite of 12 (!!!) piano tracks order chronologically, with breathing also being an instrument. It's minimalism showcasing both its somber and most hopeful moments. Sakamoto is echoing grand, modern records like Blackstar or You Want It Darker, whose reflection on death and legacy is here taken with subtlety and grace. |
| Cicada (Taiwan) Seeking the Sources of Streams | 3.6 |
| Gorgeous, this one. Chamber music often is soothing, but Cicada's approach is to bring the soothing aspect of the chamber quartet to natural heights - I just wanna walk in a forest listening to this. |
| Molly (AT) Picturesque | 3.1 |
| Contemplative post-rock with vocals - it's very decent and not very much else. |
| Case/Lang/Veirs Case/Lang/Veirs | 3.4 |
| Three prominent singers/songwriters team up for a chamber americana record whose vocal harmonies are the real winner. Not really my stuff, but undeniably well done. |
| Hopesfall Arbiter | 3.6 |
| Typical 2000s post-hardcore, this Arbiter. Extremely melodic but still with that post-hardcore punch, passionate both lyrically and musically, and some atmospheric layers a la Deftones (have you heard of them???). Not the most original release, but the production is top-notch, and the songs are well-constructed. |
| Theon Cross Fyah | 3.5 |
| Sons of Kemet's tuba king Theon Cross delivers the good with his first solo album. Accompanied by Boyd's drums (always a pleasure), Cross goes for Afro-Jazz tunes that are *cool*. Still, he doesn't seem to know where to be: tuba ain't the most melodic instrument, but when he does go to the background, the other musicians (Nubya Garcia comes to mind) do not take the lead either because, well, it's a Theon Cross album. Despite this, Fyah shows promise and continues establishing Tomorrow's Warriors as the main force behind the modern London jazz scene. |
| Slauson Malone A Quiet Farwell, 2016–2018 | 3.5 |
| A pretty seamless journey through abstract glitchy hip hop collaged tunes, A Quiet Farewell is the kind of album offering a unique experience with individual pieces that wouldn't work if listened to alone. |
| Greyhaven Empty Black | 3.8 |
| Are Greyhaven a derivative modern metalcore band? Yes, they are. Don't they rip, tho? Yes, they do! With dynamic song structures, dem beaut tones, great clean and growling vocals, and a knack for big dumb choruses, they sure fill the spot ETID left some time ago. |
| Sidney Gish No Dogs Allowed | 3.7 |
| A cute collection of bedroom pop songs, No Dogs Allowed is a chill journey through lofi indie pop tunes whose catchiness is only on par with its relative lack of diversity. But who cares? This is cute!! |
| Deakin Sleep Cycle | 4.0 |
| AnCo alumnus, yaknow what to expect: psychy, folky pop! While I'm usually not the biggest AnCo, Sleep Cycle featured characteristics that engaged me: a direct songwriting that never loses itself despite some tracks' length, the contrast between the overarching gloom and the subtle melodies rising out of it, and a Wall-of-Sound production that always tickles my pickle. Not all tracks succeed at this sophisticated mix, but when they do, like "Footy" or "Good House", oh boy it's marvelous. |
| Luther (FR) Garçon | 3.8 |
| Another new gen French rap newcomer, Luther mixes hardcore with introspective lyrics declaimed by DMW flows on top of Arca-lite beats. The musicality oozing from those beats truly is the winner here for me: bedroom French rappers are becoming better and better, and it only makes the scene more exciting. Woo! |
| Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile Lotta Sea Lice | 3.2 |
| Barnett and Vile pair up in a not-so-surprisingly slacker, indie folk rock record with slight country influences. It lies at the center of a Venn diagram containing Barnett and Vile's music, but Lotta Sea Lice doesn't establish itself as a definitive entry in both artists' discography. |
| Current 93 The Light is Leaving Us All | 3.0 |
| For a Current 93 record, The Light Is Leaving Us All is missing some of the apocalyptic vibes the project always had - not that it's not there, but the focus on gentle poetry makes it lose some punchiness. |
| slowthai Nothing Great About Britain | 3.6 |
| Slowthai was still playing with his boogers when Dizzee Rascal released Boy in Da Corner, and he certainly had time to digest it. Nothing Great About Britain is very Bri'ish, evoking Dizzee, The Streets, a snarky punk attitude, and that working-class idgaf-ism taken from The Prodigy. |
| 21 Savage, Offset and Metro Boomin Without Warning | 3.0 |
| Kinda cool. Cool because Metro's beats are nocturnal af, Offset is overall quite good, and the rappers' array is quite wide. Kinda cool only because 21 Savage cements his place as one of the laziest modern rappers in my (shitty and biased but nevertheless my) book, and Metro's beats do tend to bore me in the long run in spite of their evident production qualities. Despite all that, Without Warning fortunately doesn't overstay its welcome. |
| ANOHNI HOPELESSNESS | 3.0 |
| ANOHNI's HOPELESSNESS would have been an uninteresting synthpop record carrying heavy political lyrics, but thanks to Oneohtrix Point Never and Hudson Mohawk, the soundscape remains somewhat interesting. |
| Nicole Dollanganger Married in Mount Airy | 3.6 |
| The drem starts off well in 2023: Married in Mount Airy is a heartfelt display of ambient poppy, dreamy, psychy slowcore whose ethereal character is carried by both the gothic vocals and the lavish instrumentation. |
| Iggy Pop Post Pop Depression | 3.2 |
| Papa Pop with a not-so-bad album in the 2010s? Goodness gracious. It's got a certain Bowie knack coupled with Homme tones. It ain't 100% Iggy Pop, but it's still his best "recent" record. |
| Chthe'ilist Le Dernier Crépuscule | 3.6 |
| Thicc pummeling dissotechdeath, woo! Le Dernier Crepuscule (badass title) features many lil details among the ominous mass of riff, which allows each track to shine. Shame that all these tracks are the same lol jk not really tho. |
| Phoenix (FRA) Ti Amo | 2.8 |
| Phoenix go latte, but they forgot that their sound is already too sweet to let it succumb to sugary ad-ons. You can drink a latte quickly and easily tho. |
| Jean Grae/Quelle Chris Everything's Fine | 3.2 |
| Despite evident qualities (rapological technique from the duo, wordplay, the discourse), Everything's Fine did fall flat due to its overall slow pace. Also, Grae is criminally underutilized here; they slay it every time they touch the mic. |
| SeeYouSpaceCowboy The Correlation Between Entrance And Exit Wounds | 3.9 |
| The Correlation Between... sees SeeYouSpaceCowboy undergo compositional step up - that means there are more climaxes beefed up by crescendos, and imma bitch for that. That also means that the frantic aspect of their music is drastically reduced (but not dead), and while some might hate it (see the rev for this), it tickles a certain spot that not many modern metalcore/post-hardcore bands can itch. |
| DOMi & JD BECK NOT TiGHT | 2.9 |
| Domi and JD Beck definitely are talented musicians, but they sure as hell don't prove anything compositionally. Must be fun live though. |
| Static Dress Rouge Carpet Disaster | 3.9 |
| The best Underoath record since, like, Lost in the Sound of Translation, Rouge Carpet Disaster features everything you'd need in a "mainstream" post-hardcore record: passionate vocals, alt-metal linings, emo sensibilities, and the occasional metalcore passage to show how tough ya are. When all this is created by people with talent (the clean singer isn't annoying, huzzah!) and love for the genre, it's a real good sign for the future. |
| Avantdale Bowling Club TREES | 3.3 |
| If their debut were introspective NZ rap supported by soft jazz instrumentals, this is basically the same again with less impact - read Milo's review btw. |
| Mavi Laughing So Hard, It Hurts | 3.4 |
| With his dragging flow and introspective lyrical matter, Mavi sure sounds like Earl Sweatshirt. The difference is, his rapological technique isn't on par with Earl (can't really blame him), and the beats tend too much towards generic lo-fi hip hop territories. A cool record nonetheless. |
| Ho99o9 Skin | 3.6 |
| Much less all-over-the-place than their debut, Skin sees Ho99o9 balancing the different aspects of their soundscape (hardcore, rap, industrial, heavy metal, digital shit) into a much more cohesive ensemble. Yay! |
| BabySolo33 SadBaby Confessions | 3.4 |
| The most hyped-up French female rapper/singer rookie, BabySolo33 represents the modern French rap paysage: inspired by DMV delivery, with bassy and cloudy SOPHIE-lite beats and emotions pouring out of every sentence. It's quite monochrome once you've heard it, but it's nevertheless rather original in the grand scheme of French rap. |
| Everything Everything Raw Data Feel | 3.8 |
| Colourful shit. Like, really colourful alt-dance indietronica that delivers more hooks than Mike Tyson. The middle ground between playful and melancholic is hit on the nails here, just gotta trim it a lil bit. |
| Caterina Barbieri Spirit Exit | 3.8 |
| Spirit Exit is a gorgeous progressive electronic ride with some ambient passages. It just moves, without truly going anywhere, but it doesn't matter when the journey's so beautiful. |
| The Haunted Youth Dawn of the Freak | 3.3 |
| Flanders, Belgium one-dude band The Haunted Youth delivers one melancholic dream pop album (arent they all) whose stripped-down nature still allows some potent melodies to show up from time to time. |
| Fireworks Higher Lonely Power | 3.2 |
| Pop punk band goes for alt-rock (wah bold!) and Arcade Fire-isms (ok now that's kinda bold), and it's aight! Big songs sneaking into the background follow a stomping opener that's nothing more than a big outlier. |
| Asian Glow and sonhos tomam conta dreamglow | 3.5 |
| nu korezilian emogaze goes for blackened shrieks to convey their lo-fi sadboi existentialism. dreamglow (they gotta up their album name game at some point) features a gripping atmosphere that doesn't necessarily translate into cogent songs. Nevertheless, the best 2023 album thus far. |
| Tedax Max Hors d'oeuvres | 3.8 |
| After three EPs in 2021, Tedax Max released "some rough tunes", proving that even his non-refined tracks showcase deep lyricism, potent beats that do not over-rely on either melody or rhythm, and a gangsta attitude. Really excited to see what his future will be. |
| Ateyaba Delorean Music | 3.5 |
| Ateyaba with the EP between his first album and what should've been his second one. Delorean Music's got the swagger, but it mostly sounds futuristic for a 2014-recorded French rap album. Ultraviolet should've come out in 2016 - and it still hasn't, the longest-running joke in French rap. |
| Spectral Wound Infernal Decadence | 3.5 |
| Cold af black metal that's very competent and very cold and not much else than that but hey cold af black metal is pretty great. |
| George Clanton Slide | 4.1 |
| Clanton delivers another banger with Slide, a release that properly puts the pop in his vapor/chill wave aesthetic. Of course, the "atmospheric nostalgia" vibe drives the record's sonic palette. Still, the strong compositions make Slide a bastard album that's as much 80s homage as it is pure 2010s zeitgeist. |
| Moses Sumney Aromanticism | 2.8 |
| Aromanticism is that kind of record whose luxurious soundscape deserves praise, but not much else sticks to me: constant falsetto becomes tiring after a while, and songs seem not to know where to end their journey. Interesting, but not really for me. |
| Red Velvet Perfect Velvet | 3.6 |
| Shame Perfect Velvet is so front-loaded because the fun funky vibe is boppin' hard during the record's first 15 minutes. |
| Hermit and the Recluse Orpheus vs. The Sirens | 3.8 |
| Never been a huge Ka fan, but the drumless (or at most drumlite) aesthetic with these abstract samples and a potent concept make for my fav album he's rapped on. Hypnotic record for real, the atmosphere is meditative yet constantly gripping. |
| Bill Orcutt Bill Orcutt | 2.8 |
| Orcutt revisits some tunes and plays them in such an obtusely unique way you couldn't guess the OG track. It's cool, but despite the constant battle between dissonance and melody, it didn't grab me as much as I would've liked. |
| Oumou Sangare Mogoya | 3.8 |
| Sangare with the groovy shit. Still, Mogoya ain't a full-blown rhythmic explosion as it retains a lot of subtlety and chill moments that ooze warmth. She don't miss. |
| Various Artists (Jazz) We Out Here | 3.5 |
| Gilles Peterson's label Brownswood Recordings showed what it got in 2018's We Out Here, gathering basically almost all significant actors of the London jazz scene. It's thus a diversified release that showcases each musician's take on jazz music: afro-jazz, nu jazz, jazz-funk, you name it. |
| Wolf Alice Visions of a Life | 3.2 |
| Wolf Alice show many aspects of their soundscape on Visions of A Life, but they wouldn't know how to properly balance and sequence them until four years later. |
| Crying Beyond The Fleeting Gales | 4.0 |
| Don't let yourself be fooled by the band's name: Crying ain't another emo band. They are an uplifting power pop trio with chiptune layers and a knack for big choruses. It's playful and dense, an awesome but often elusive combination. |
| Vulfpeck The Beautiful Game | 3.0 |
| The Beautiful Game (why the dude is dressed as a football player and not a rugby one is beyond me) is a very playful and upbeat record that oozes whiteness (im white as an ass so im allowed to say this) and form over substance: when tunes go over 30 seconds, you've heard it all. These 30 seconds are usually fun though! |
| Avantdale Bowling Club Avantdale Bowling Club | 3.5 |
| An introspective NZ rap supported by modal jazz instrumentals, ABC's appeal mostly is Tom Scott's potent writing, which doesn't touch me in my lil rotten heart. |
| SeeYouSpaceCowboy Songs for the Firing Squad | 3.7 |
| Grindy mathcore with emo lyrics = sasscore, apparently? Dissonance is well-used here, and the vocals are pretty diverse - in that there's talking, shrieking, growling, and something that's kinda like crying and yelling. The whole lot is quite dynamic, even if some tracks are more directionless than truly wide-ranging. |
| Shinichiro Yokota Shinichiro Yokota Presents Do It Again And Again | 3.0 |
| A collection of quite mellow house jams, Do It Again and Again feels more at ease in the background of a cocktail party than at the forefront of a seeping boiler room. |
| Mild High Club Skiptracing | 2.5 |
| Background music for your nice (but smelly) stoner 20yo neighbour whose dad loved the Beatles :] |
| Old Tower The Rise of the Specter | 2.9 |
| Good dungeon synth sporting an ominous jacket whose reliance on atmosphere over melody makes it drag despite its quite short runtime. |
| Knxwledge Hud Dreems | 3.3 |
| Lo-fi, jazzy, and slightly glitchy instrumental rap? Yeah it's cool but it ain't Nujabes, Madlib, or Dilla lol. |
| Dosseh Yuri | 2.5 |
| Dosseh was one of 2000s French rap most hyped rookies - but he truly kicked off his career too late. Indeed, by 2016, French rap entered its second golden age with former boom bap adorers' reappropriation of cloud and trap rap. Dosseh didn't jump on the wagon and felt stuck between two eras on his first (and long-awaited) album. |
| Bat For Lashes The Haunted Man | 2.7 |
| Mystical art pop that really resembles Bjork's, but with such a subdued sound and an aesthetic that sounds 2012, it ends up being more of a drag - especially given the overall lack of dynamics. |
| Khalid American Teen | 2.7 |
| vanilla'n'b whose pleasantness doesn't hold up over the course of one long, rather uneventful hour. |
| Luidji Tristesse Business: Saison I | 3.6 |
| With Tristesse Business, Luidji showed what French rap could be at its most soulful: as sensual as it is melancholic, as warm as it is bittersweet. |
| Feu! Chatterton L’Oiseleur | 3.6 |
| Halfway between their first and third records, L'oiseleur sees Feu! Chatterton refine some aspects of their debut proposition while still not attaining Palais d'Argile level of classiness. |
| Men I Trust Oncle Jazz | 3.1 |
| A smooth and lush record, Oncle Jazz offers too much of the same psychy-sophisti pop for too long. Shame 'cause when the songs aren't straight-up homages, the bedroom indie shizzle at play is pretty good. |
| Cobalt Slow Forever | 3.6 |
| With Slow Forever, Cobalt delivers an everything-metal record: black, sludge, prog, crust, hardcore punk, or folky interlude intertwine instead of simply following one another. It's way too long for my rotten brain (85mins phew), but it's constantly engaging thanks to dynamic musicianship and vicious vocals. |
| Billy Talent Afraid of Heights | 3.3 |
| Yeah this is a Billy Talent album by-the-numbers: their formula of alt rock-infused punk is still kicking, with no filler but few bona fide BT bangers. |
| Daughter Not to Disappear | 3.2 |
| With slightly more engaging compositions, Daughter's second album does a better job of fusing a dreamy atmosphere with ethereal vocals, post-rocky tropes, and mainstream indie. Still kinda acts like background music for me, though. |
| Migos Culture II | 2.2 |
| 105 minutes is way too long for any artist, but even more so when you show so little versatility. At least on previous tapes, they pushed this lack of diversity to constant turn-up levels, which is rarely the case here. |
| Deerhunter Fading Frontier | 2.7 |
| Deerhunter deliver their dreamiest album - and if their rock-full don't convince you (like me), this one ain't gonna do much. |
| Oublieth Arcanes | 3.6 |
| Ok so RYM tags this as Winter Synth, and it does feel like it: it's dungeon synth, but with a cold spacey vibe that reminds of Berlin School and prog electronic. Very sweet. |
| Sylvaine Nova | 3.9 |
| Now that's the Alcest record some peepz have been waiting for a decade. Full of great riffs, vocals alternating between the piercing and the peaceful, and an ethereal wave atmosphere, Nova doesn't reinvent the early Alcest wheel, but it does it very, very well. |
| Sirom The Liquified Throne of Simplicity | 3.7 |
| Mystical Slovenian improv folk? Sure, why not! Sirom delivers a naturalistic record whose layered complexity is nicely counterbalanced by a tribalistic minimalism - and it sounds great wandering in a park! |
| Rounhaa MÖBIUS | 3.4 |
| A highly modern French rap record this one. MOBIUS features DMV flows, spleen-full lyrics, and a soundscape that contains everything that makes the scene right now: synthetic trap, piano-only piece, plugg, or 80s pop. This is mega versatile, competently realized with slick estheticism. As with many first records, this would benefit from refinement, but hey, this is a very cool first step. |
| Show Me The Body Trouble The Water | 3.3 |
| Show Me the Body's Trouble the Water is both OG punk homage and hardcore modernity, with nods to synth punk and the noisiest territories of the punk land. It makes for an interesting album that never managed to truly embark me on its sick journey - except for these last three tracks. |
| Tiakola Mélo | 3.4 |
| Is Tiakola a melodist rapper or a singer that raps? Either way, he's got an ear for infectious hooks, and his writing isn't (too) plagued with the traditional sad gangsta persona - he sometimes even shows inspiring notes to the disenchanted youth. Melo is another example of how rappers with Congolese origins are taking over French rap. |
| Esoctrilihum Saopth's | 3.9 |
| Much more to my taste than rawr-full Consecration, Saopth's sees Asthagul go for a grand, synths-led soundscape. These synths are not there to distribute melodic bread to those left hungry by Consecration; these synths install a mood that invokes as much the coldness of Elegies of the Stellar Wind as the alien aspect of Eternity of Shaog. |
| Hudson Mohawke Cry Sugar | 3.2 |
| Cry Sugar lies at the very end of a contemporary continuum gathering gabber, EDM trap, PC Music, wonky, and IDM. It results in a record that sometimes lacks some focus, but also delivers some foot-stomping bangers. |
| Vince Staples RAMONA PARK BROKE MY HEART | 3.2 |
| Staples is staplin' hard by going for a bouncy West Coast aesthetic he doesn't push enough. It's actually when he tries to do more touching territories that he's at his most convincing. |
| Aurora (NOR) The Gods We Can Touch | 3.4 |
| Very cool pop that oozes "artsy shi" and Europop to the point of overresemblance to past greats - but great music remains great music, and this contains some filthy bops ("Cure for Me" is a pop banger that I discovered way too late). |
| Misthyrming Með hamri | 3.6 |
| Visceral black metal itches a particular spot. Misthyrming's third album itches that spot with an old-school aggressive energy nicely counterbalanced by more modern, melodic tones. |
| Caroline (UK) Caroline | 3.2 |
| A rather charming venture into avant-folky post-rock, this Bri'ish band's debut shows that their pretty formula needs to be beefed up by some songwriting chops. |
| Blind Guardian The God Machine | 2.7 |
| Solipsism is a bitch: I knew I wouldn't vibe with this just by looking at the tags. Idiocy is also a bitch, because I actually listened to this. Grand vocals, riffs, synths, compositions that might sound like epic shit to some but ultimately end up trite for me: yeah, I should've known. |
| Willi Carlisle Peculiar, Missouri | 2.9 |
| Peculiar, Missouri is half yeehaw-isms and half introspective lyrics-centric tunes. As a dirty non-lyric euro mf, this was pleasant but not more than that. |
| Vald VV5 | 2.7 |
| At best unnecessary, at worst, the confirmation of a slow descent into averageness. |
| The 1975 Being Funny In A Foreign Language | 2.7 |
| The 1975's best album is kinda alright. They basically take everything past Bri'ish greats have done and force it down their fodder machine and voila! |
| Khali (FRA) Il Me Ressemble Pas Non Plus | 3.1 |
| Alongside So La Lune, Khali is one of the flagship new gen French rap: abundantly melancholic (some might say they just adolescent sadboi), in tune with autotune, glitchy soundscapes, and a delivery that seems to come straight out of their bedroom. Interesting, for sure, but not really my cuppa tho. |
| Father John Misty Chloe and the Next 20th Century | 2.6 |
| Father John Misty doing trad pop stuff? Yeah, I could have guessed it would be pretty and boring. Guess I'll jam this with my grandma around Christmas. |
| The Beths Expert in a Dying Field | 3.8 |
| Comfy! That's how jangly indie shizzle led by Alvvays Great Grandpa a great vocalist whose playfulness only adds to the record's natural warmth. wanna chill to this. |
| Rina Sawayama Hold The Girl | 3.3 |
| oh yeah this is noughties reconstruction. Sawayama lost a bit of explosiveness here to instead provide a soundtrack to all 00s rom-coms starring Matthew McConaughey (yeah these were the days). |
| Esoctrilihum Consecration of the Spiritus Flesh | 2.6 |
| Aggressive, chaotic, and savage - and if the album contains semi-psychedelic and melodic moments, it puts so much emphasis on the heaviness that it becomes numbing when there isn't anything remotely melodic. |
| Nilufer Yanya Painless | 3.2 |
| Hey, the 90s called, and they want their shit back!! Dry beats, scraggy guitars, and hushed vocals that, at worst, sound unenthusiastic (but they usually don't, woo!), making PAINLESS a slow-burning record that never quite reaches the climaxes it hints at. |
| Ravyn Lenae Hypnos | 2.8 |
| On her debut album, Lenae confirms that her voice is one of this generation's best, with soft and cute inclinations whose sensuality reminds of Aaliyah. She also confirms that a gorgeous voice can't do it all when beats' delicacy dangerously tends towards somniferous territories, especially when the soundscape is so monotone. |
| Boris fade | 3.2 |
| BO)))RIS. It's heavy and hypnotic, yeah m/ But now I just want to jam Feedbacker. |
| Scarcity Aveilut | 3.8 |
| Glenn Branca black metal? Noice. With other evident influences - hey Colin Marston didn't see you there producing this one -, Aveilut goes for a trance-like experience where repetition transcends its melodic premises to transform itself into microtonal hypnosis. |
| Little Simz No Thank You | 3.7 |
| Little Simz returns with an album tackling the same organic instrumentation that made SIMBI such an excellent record, but with a much more minimalistic sound. That ultimately makes NO THANK YOU a much less impacting album sonically in favour of Simz's more potent place within the palette. This is the one record if you wanted more conceptual lyrics after SIMBI. If you wanted another direction or were content with SIMBI's proposition, this might be slightly disappointing. |
| Soccer Mommy Sometimes, Forever | 3.4 |
| yeehaw Football Mummy confirms 90s alt rock is cool. In some instances, the Lopatin production (!!) is dominating the soundscape, while it sometimes leaves enough space for Allison to lead the track with her jangly poppy rock. Still waiting for a full-fledged album instead of some banging jams surrounded by ok tunes. |
| Angel Olsen Big Time | 3.1 |
| Big Time sounds like a million bucks but feels like a twenty-dollar bill |
| Saya Gray 19 Masters | 3.6 |
| Saya Gray's debut 19 MASTERS turns pop songs into existentialist psychy folk tales. Gray's got a wide vocal elasticity and an ear for those soul-crushing arpeggios that, accompanied by forays into the psychiness of lo-fi aesthetic, makes for a vibrant album that sometimes struggles to translate its many cool ideas into compelling compositions. |
| Preoccupations Arrangements | 3.4 |
| Preoccupation - you know what you'll get! It's bass-led, gothic-infused, darkwave-influenced post-punk that doesn't revolutionize everything but does its shtick well. |
| Hikaru Utada Bad Mode | 3.4 |
| Don't know anything about them, but Utada's Bad Mode features mellow dance-pop and downtempo R&B with pristine production and sometimes head-scratching moves - the Skrillex feat was unexpected and unnecessary. At the same time, the Floating Points one exceeds expectations by perfectly bridging house and pop. |
| SZA S.O.S. | 2.7 |
| Like the 8th track, this is a bit of a snooze. There is a flagrant lack of dynamics, vocals are too mellow to convince of the emotion they're trying to convey, beats are mild and rarely impacting - and SOS is too long, given the aforementioned elements. There are some great tunes here, but they are drowned in an ocean of tepidness. |
| Saidan Onryo II: Her Spirit Eternal | 3.9 |
| With a rawness that nevertheless lets itself shine through slick soli or lush synth layers, Saidan offers a record that is both pissed-the-fuck-off and melodically beautiful. |
| Bladee Spiderr | 2.8 |
| Bladee goes everywhere and nowhere with this release: with UK drill-inspired beats, digicore, and even some rock-inspired tunes, it should be a fresh release, but it ends up being Bladee by the numbers. I wish they still impressed me. |
| Autopsy Morbidity Triumphant | 3.2 |
| Legendary dm band Autopsy prove they still got the meaty riffs and grooviness to hurt necks. Unfortunately, this is OSDM done by an OG band that already did better. It's aight. |
| Megan Thee Stallion Traumazine | 3.3 |
| Despite great energy, attitude, and great rapological technique, Traumazine's lack of variety in terms of beats and delivery makes the least engaging tunes dull. Gotta refine the formula because when she goes, she's capable of delivering wicked bangers. |
| Leland Whitty Anyhow | 3.8 |
| Anyhow is the debut solo album for BBNG boi Leland Whitty, who btw made a superb album in collab with fellow BBNG Matthew Tavares in 2020. His jazz antics are supported by electronic layers that make for a lush offering whose meditative aspect is only matched by its aesthetic prowess. My kinda shit. |
| Amber Mark Three Dimensions Deep | 3.9 |
| Now that's a great debut: with bouncy beats and diversified vocal deliveries, Amber Mark packs (a tad too) many ideas in Three Dimensions. She's got to refine her formula in the future, but the best bops here display both bomb-ass-thicc-ness and finesse - and that's basically how you create the best pop. Excited to see where this leads. |
| Boris W | 2.4 |
| Boris go post-rock, forgetting that melodies or climaxes are necessary for this genre not to be boring. |
| Della Zyr Vitamins and Apprehension | 3.2 |
| The Korean nu-gaze scene doesn't stop. Della Zyr's proposition adds some midwest emo and mathy parts to its popgaze approach. Cool, but not the most breathtaking record of one of the hottest modern scenes. |
| Drake and 21 Savage Her Loss | 3.2 |
| Her Loss basically is a Drake album with some 21 Savage apparitions - and that's ultimately for the better? Drake sounds confident, beats are truly hard-hitting, and the alchemy between Drake's colourful musicality and 21 Savage's somber antics. Ofc it's too long, and there are bad tunes, but hey it's a Drake album what did you expect? It's fuckboi rap, but quite lit fuckboi rap. |
| Ada Rook UGLY DEATH NO REDEMPTION ANGEL CURSE I LOVE YOU | 3.3 |
| Half of Black Dresses Ada Rook decides to throw everything from industrial to cybershi to nu-nostalgia to EDM to bad taste. UGLY DEATH's best feature is its capacity to stay cohesive despite the wild'n'wide soundscape. Still, some tracks weren't indicated for an early morning jam. |
| PARTYNEXTDOOR PARTYNEXTDOOR | 3.6 |
| With R&B delivery trappy beats, PARTYNEXTDOOR could have come up with a unique proposition at the beginning of the '10s. However: it sounds like Frank Ocean talking Drake matters while trying to do The Weeknd. Despite this, the dual hedonistic-nocturnal vibe is top fucking notch. |
| Attack Attack! Attack Attack! | 2.2 |
| crabcore. The trancey passages truly are horrendous (but fortunately very rare), and the rest is basic post-mallcore that isn't bad but ain't very good either. |
| Cate Le Bon Pompeii | 3.7 |
| Cate Le Bon has two shticks: the songs' construction is constantly the same - as her vocal delivery. And yet, it doesn't matter much when songs are pretty and instrumentations engaging. |
| starry cat starry cat | 2.7 |
| Sadboi lo-fi acoustic bedroom pop. It's basically Beat Happening without the charm or songwriting chops. |
| Dean Blunt The Narcissist II | 2.8 |
| Despite a vivid concept that nightmarishly collages domestic abuse samples, Dean Blunt spends most of The Narcissist II looping yawn-inducing hypnago muzak. |
| Stoned Jesus Seven Thunders Roar | 3.3 |
| Best band name ever. If that wasn't obvious (it is), Stoned Jesus does stoner and psychy stuff. The melodic tones are beautiful, but apart from that, it's by-the-numbers psychy stoner. |
| Asking Alexandria Reckless and Relentless | 2.5 |
| Woah this was everyfuckingwhere in 2011. I've always had a soft spot for "Closure" and its trance passage burning into big arena hard rock, but the rest is subpar chug chugs with evident Skid Row homages and occasional trancey passages. Yeah, I'll stick with "Closure". |
| Teen Suicide waste yrself | 3.1 |
| Adolescent guitar-based music ranging from lo-fi pissy rock to sadboi indie folk. Cool, but nothing tremendously original at play here. |
| Squarepusher Ufabulum | 3.0 |
| Squarepusher is back with his IDM-y drill and bass with drumstep and breakcore elements. Ufabulum starts off very strong but soon dives into messy structures, only to come back to potent banger material on "Dark Steering". |
| John Maus A Collection Of Rarities And Previously Unreleased | 3.4 |
| Hey, it's 2000s lo-fi hypnagogic pop - yes, it's Ariel Pink before Ariel Pink! It's got that weird hiccupy vocal delivery that, alongside the post-punky rhythms and minimal synth layers, makes for a nocturnal record that never loses its quirkiness. It's a compilation, though, and it suffers from compilation issues - ie, not everything is as good as the best bits ("Bennington", "No Title (Molly)", "Fish with Broken Dreams"). |
| Breakbot By Your Side | 2.9 |
| It's Ed Bangercore: French nu-disco funktronica extravaganza! The record as a whole display both the best of this formula with "Baby I'm Yours" - an irresistibly catchy tune - as well as the worst - most of the songs here are blandly pleasant. |
| B.B. Jacques New Blues, Old Wine | 3.7 |
| NEW BLUES, OLD WINE features well-produced beats whose rich subtleness allows alliterations and assonances to steal the show while still being more interesting than 90% of modern French rap beats. BBJ's lyrical style still is something of a convoluted monster, but there are some lines that hit. |
| Santigold Master of My Make-Believe | 3.4 |
| Santigold's Master of Make-Believe starts with bombastic indietronica/electropop energy before falling into indietronica/electropop background territories. As if the songwriting was the one thing changing a cool aesthetic from banging to dragging!! |
| Ibibio Sound Machine Electricity | 3.8 |
| With this Hot Chip-produced record, Ibibio Sound Machine brings forward the 80s flair into their synthy West African formula. It makes Electricity a banging album oozing Afro-Funk and constant grooves. |
| Blackwave. No Sleep In LA | 3.5 |
| Belgian posi vibes hip hop group Blackwave comes back to provide exactly that: posi vibes rap that benefits from a refined production and more bombastic composition. These compositions sometimes rely too much on poppy stuff that sounds naive, but they nevertheless show the duo is evolving towards a "grand public" place in the game. |
| Fen Walker / Scrying Glass Behold! Visions From the Scrying Pool! | 3.1 |
| A dungeon synth record carrying a lot of symphoprog tropes, Behold! Visions from the Scrying Pool! uses busy hypnago tones bordering on Amiga music - the busyness was a tad too much to my taste, and I much preferred the classical-inspired bits. |
| Medine Médine France | 3.2 |
| Medine still spitting his diatribe. It's as expected as his last albums: he's adapting himself to modern beats, his writing is both lacking finesse and capable of delivering punchy punchlines, and singing isn't his strongest asset - all of that was evident even before listening to the record. |
| The Smith Street Band Life After Football | 3.7 |
| It seems Wil & the boiz are finding their groove back on this one. Big riffs, big shouts, but mostly slight experimentations that do not always land ("Everyone" is both bad and good woah), but sometimes do ("Elvis" is both good and very good woah). |
| Westside Gunn 10 | 3.4 |
| Westside Gunn does what he does best. WOO WOO WOO WOO WOO BRRRRRRAAAAH. Oh yeah, and on top of that, what he truly does best is gathering many rappers and beatmakers together for a dope result. He's kinda in the background on this one, but the grimy atmosphere sure is a winner. |
| Ashenspire Hostile Architecture | 4.0 |
| Now that's an original artistic proposition. Sax and violin that are whimsically integrated into an avant-disso-extreme aesthetic? Big yes. A voice that treads the line between pissed mf and despaired leftist? Big yes. Factor in mega climaxes, harrowing arrangements, and constant grooviness despite the infernal soundscape, and you've definitely got one of the most interesting 2022 releases. |
| Backxwash HIS HAPPINESS SHALL COME FIRST... | 3.4 |
| With industrial and horrorcore as its main genres, His Happiness Shall Come... is a dreary listen that manages to elevate some of its soundscape towards a more occult vibe. Not exactly my vibe, but there's definitely a potent artistic proposition here. |
| Brockhampton TM | 2.7 |
| Brockhampton go out by showing us all the music they like - and it's a feeble mess. Not the kind of mess that makes you go "ew", but the one that makes you go "...that's it?". It feels more like a collection of b-sides than anything else: decent beats and underperformed vocal performances. |
| Disiz L'amour | 3.5 |
| Disiz indulges in post-disco and funky beats to accompany his most heartfelt album. It does not always work, but Rencontre is extremely efficient at installing a vibe that's almost inexistent in French rap. |
| Rammstein Zeit | 2.4 |
| Rammstein trying to make the most stadium metal album they could come up with - and they succeeded to do so! Shame none of the riffs or choruses stick. |
| Steve Lacy (USA-CA) Gemini Rights | 2.8 |
| Oh it's the TikTok boi whose fans couldn't sing the second chorus? Poor guy. Gemini is a mostly inoffensive, all-around nice neo-soul album with a bedroomy aesthetic that I'm kinda getting tired of. |
| Barrowmound Undreamed Worlds | 3.8 |
| Barrowmound offers on Undreamed World winter vibes alongside analog synthesizers that create a D&D-themed jam - which is fitting! The most endearing aspect of this is how it sounds: as much orchestral as it is pastoral while conjuring Berlin School aesthetic. |
| Richard Dawson The Ruby Cord | 4.0 |
| Dawson with yet another conceptual album carried by folk that's both incredibly cryptic and astonishingly beautiful. The opening 40mins track unfolds slowly, yet when it reaches its conclusion, it bleeds so much heartbreaking beauty that it justifies the slow building. And then, there are 40 more minutes to go! This second part gathers many palettes Dawson already summoned in his career: post-folk, avant-country, scrummy rocky chants, and all that shizzle whose beauty becomes more evident the more I listen to the dude's catalog. |
| Elder (USA-MA) Innate Passage | 3.9 |
| With Innate Passage, Elder continues the fuzzy prog aesthetic they came up with on Omens. It contains everything that helped elevate the band to the top of the fuzz ladder: beautiful tones, groovy bass, some nicely implemented atmospheric passages, and a knack for producing pretty textures. Two things are missing for me: first, I can't help but miss the vocal effects used on Reflections. Secondly, while these songs are proper jams, they lack some punchy impact previous bangers had. Nevertheless, this bangs - less than their discog opening trio, but still bangs. |
| Stormzy This Is What I Mean | 3.1 |
| Stormzy wants to show his love for God: good for him! The issue is that apart from the title track, everything is nice, but the heartfelt lyrics need more help from the musical department to properly impact. Stormzy's voice is competent at best, the harmonies are nice but not gospel-worthy, and most melodies aren't marking - the greatest example being Sampha's invitation: the dude is a remarkable singer, and his tune falls flat. It's evident Stormzy wanted to come up with his magnum opus, but he needs to up the musicality game. |
| Brockhampton The Family | 2.7 |
| woah 2006 Kanye back? He didn't bother much, with mixing issues being relegated to the back while songwriting issues forcefully made their way to the main stage. Also yeah it's an album about BROCKHAMPTON, not really a BROCKHAMPTON album. |
| Christine and the Queens Redcar les adorables étoiles | 3.2 |
| Chris goes for coldwavey synthpop on their third album, and while the attempt at bridging groove and French chanson is laudable, it often falls a bit flat because of how unfocused it is - apparently, the record was written in two weeks, and it does show. |
| Asunojokei Island | 3.7 |
| Japanese blackgaze with a vocal delivery that sounds like Envy's? Hell yeah, where was this before 2022? With dynamic play and emotions pouring out of every riff, scream, crescendo, and blast beat, Island features some of the best blackgaze of the past couple of years. Now they gotta push their aesthetic up a notch to become more than "the baby of Deafheaven and Envy". |
| Ninos del Cerro Suave Pendiente | 3.1 |
| Chilean band Ninos del Cerro goes for psychy indie pop rock with a vocal delivery that's very Jonsi (but in Spanish). Quite a unique proposition, yet the sonic palette is a tad too monochrome to justify a 70 minutes length. |
| Billy Talent Crisis Of Faith | 2.4 |
| The first three tracks are classic Billy Talent slappers. Most of the rest is sappy stuff that basically takes all the Billy Talent tropes and passin' them through the bland compressor. |
| Nu Genea Bar Mediterraneo | 3.4 |
| With such a title and such a cover, it was evident from the get-go that Bar Mediterraneo would deliver the summery chill goods. Halfway between disco and afrobeat, but also with ties to Latin warmth and Maghrebian generosity, this installs a mellow vibe that doesn't always succeed at being playful - when it does like on "Marechia", it bangs hard. |
| Quadeca I Didn't Mean to Haunt You | 3.1 |
| A concept album about a ghost coming to not meaning to haunt is dope, especially when associated with glitchy and haunting production. It's less dope when the vocal performances are lackluster, and the same could be said about the lack of recognizable hooks or melodies. Interesting record, but one that ultimately failed to offer more than a one-time experience. |
| Dream Unending Song of Salvation | 3.8 |
| With guitar tones as gorgeous as the cover art, Dream Unending's sophomore effort contains everything you'd want from death-doom: an eerie atmosphere, hard-as-feck riffs, and soli that bring the best out of the aforementioned guitar tones. |
| Duster Together | 3.3 |
| Depressive slowcore with a welcome spaciness that makes it more than gloom'n'doom sadboi music: it's Duster. Together is ultimately very nice, but some meat's lacking in this salad. |
| Old Sorcery Dragon Citadel Elegies | 3.5 |
| At times Dol Gulduresque ominous, at other times Shire-like joyful, and often Minas Tirithesque epic, Dragon Citadel Elegies is an all-around great dungeon synth record that carries a lot of classical music and Berlin School tropes in its cinematic formula. Constantly great but didn't wow me either. |
| Drake Honestly, Nevermind | 2.0 |
| A lazy dude providing a lazy album? Whodathunk. With wannabe house type beats and tired vocal performance, Honestly, Nevermind sports its title bloody well. At least the duo "Sticky"/"Massive" is kinda cool. 1.8 |
| Weyes Blood And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow | 3.6 |
| Despite a lush and immaculate aesthetic, Weyes Blood doesn't come up with a record as fantasmagoric as Titanic Rising, simply because the melodies are less potent, and the hooks less catchy. Simple as that. |
| Ruby Haunt Cures For Opposites | 3.5 |
| Despite the resolutely dream pop slowcore sadboi approach, Ruby Haunt spices their formula up with synths (yes) and dynamic drumming (also yes) that nicely make up for the vocals' lack of distinctiveness. |
| SCH Autobahn | 2.7 |
| With bad vocal delivery choices ("Marginaux", the hell is that chorus?), lazy lyrical matter, and a Jul-type beat that got nothing to do here, Autobahn is by-the-numbers SCH. |
| Skalpel Origins | 3.6 |
| Skalpel goes in another direction on Origins, and they mostly nail it. With self-consciousness nods (calling a jungle track "Why not Jungle" is peak snarky, hell yeah) and a wide soundscape that uses their jazz instruments in a downtempo way, the Polish band proves they still are top-notch when it comes to spicing their jazz up with modern influences. |
| Kyo Itachi Solide | 3.9 |
| Parisian beatmaker Kyo Itachi gathers many multi-generational wordsmiths to rap hardcore diatribes on top of his (very) Parisian beats. With old-school OGs (X-Men, Dany Dan, Hifi) and modern kickers (Alpha Wann, Jeanjass), the tape is constantly banging with multi-syllabics and top-notch rapological technique. |
| Courting Guitar Music | 3.5 |
| With the most electronic elements out of the Windmill scene, Courting wanna make sure they aren't interchangeable with the other bands - and they succeed, bravo! In its most enthralling moments ("Loaded", "Famous", "Jumper"), Guitar Music invokes as much pop catchiness as post-everything shenanigans. Its most decidedly obscure ones show the band still needs to balance their poppy sensibilities with their post-everything shenanigans. |
| Prince Waly Moussa | 3.6 |
| One of the most elegant modern French rap albums oozing with spirituality and appeasement, Moussa distinguishes itself with indie tropes that feel like a breath of fresh air in modern French rap. Despite these evident qualities, the record does tend to repeat itself in the long run. |
| Fleshwater We're Not Here To Be Loved | 3.7 |
| The dudes from Vein.fm like Deftones so much they made a second band worshipping Chino & co. This time the 90s alt-metal and gaze nods are even more evident. These are nicely complemented by a cookie-cutter production/mixing/mastering trio that packs a punch without being muffled. Mayhaps the best alternative metalcore album yet (still waiting for that RYM tag approval). |
| Smidley Here Comes The Devil | 3.7 |
| Foxing frontman goes solo to show how much of a wide and wild vocal range he's got. Still am that non-lyric mf so it ain't touching my lil heart, but the emotions pouring of both the vocals and the music sure compensate that. |
| Parkway Drive Darker Still | 1.5 |
| Big oof. They seem lost, with songs mimicking Imagine Dragons, bad Metallica, and lazy Amon Amarth. idk how their finances are, but I hope they rest a lil. 1.4 |
| Kyo Itachi / Lucio Bukowski Kiai sous la pluie noire | 3.5 |
| Lucio Bukowski is greatly helped by Kyo Itachi's very Parisian boom bap beats on Kiai. His technique and writing still are top-notch, and the 30mins length is a great one, as his diatribes tend to become tiring in the long run. |
| GFOTY GFOTYBUCKS | 2.7 |
| PC Music-core. This one is extremely brash - not that all PC Music adjacency is subtlety embodied in all its finesse, but GFOTYBUCKS is incredibly ridiculous in how obnoxious it tries - and succeeds to be. It really is pop music at its most extreme: it's fucking loud and kinda stupid, the vocal department tends toward the uncanny valley, both escapism and a mirror held up to an increasingly virtual and infantilizing world. |
| Vessel Queen of Golden Dogs | 3.5 |
| Blending IDM, chamber music, deconstructed club, and prog electronic linings, Queen of Golden Dogs tries to conjure classical music into a synthetic aesthetic. Clashing textures are when the soundscape becomes truly interesting, the calmer moments tending towards unnecessary lingering. But when it bangs, it does bang. |
| pilotredsun Achievement | 3.5 |
| With an obscure 90s video game aesthetic, Achievement and its playful melodies carry heavy nostalgia towards a game I never played. Seems like a good game, though. |
| Annabel (lee) If Music Presents: By The Sea​ | 3.7 |
| A haunting vocal jazz record carried by minimalistic dark folk guitar, By the Sea... eerily floats between Angelo Badalamenti, Grouper, and The Caretaker for a decidedly noir aesthetic. Not always gorgeous, but constantly intriguing. |
| Brittany Howard Jaime | 3.5 |
| Alabama Shakes singer goes solo on Jaime, and displays her mega vocal range on psychy soul songs with traces of blues, funk, and gospel. Thanks to a rough production that nevertheless lets each instrument be heard, the soundscape dynamically accompanies Howard's vocal inflections. It sometimes tends towards too much psychy shit, but it's nevertheless a solid solo debut. |
| Myrkur Mareridt | 3.2 |
| With dark folk, atmoblack, and a gorgeous voice, Myrkur knew she had a potent aesthetic that could carry her then-lack of songwriting chops. Mareridt is ultimately nice, but fails to be much more than that. |
| Yeule Serotonin II | 3.6 |
| Much more subdued than this year's Glitch Princess, Serotonin II is much more about sweeping layers of chillwavey ambient with the occasional video game bleep bloop line. It's as introspective in terms of vocal delivery, but the soundscape shown in the first half tends to pale compared to the second one, which contains more fascinating compositions. |
| Roly Porter Third Law | 3.4 |
| Roly Porter's Third Law is a textures work: dark ambient layers settle the moving atmospherics, while drony industrial shizzle makes abrupt apparitions to break out the lulling ambiance. It mostly works when said drony industrial shizzle creepily impacts the soundscape, less when dark ambient dictates the whole march. |
| Lucio Bukowski L'art raffiné de l'ecchymose | 3.2 |
| One of the most revered underground rappers, Lucio Bukowski displays deep rhymes that tackle """conscious""" matters in a kinda preaching tone. No wonder he remains underground: despite the evident qualities, his approach is way too monochrome and resolutely non-mainstream. |
| Joe Armon-Jones Starting Today | 3.5 |
| Ezra Collective's pianist's solo album with a groovy fusion of jazz, dub, soul, and funk (that kinda was to be expected). With fellow Tomorrow's Warriors alumni Moses Boyd on drums duties (there are other big names here, such as Nubya Garcia or fellow Ezra Collective's James Mollison), Armon-Jones poses more as a bandleader than a soloist, which is kind of a problem: he roughly occupies the same position in Ezra Collective. The band's albums feature more versatile and potent songwriting and aesthetic explorations. Still, a promising debut record from the Jesus-looking dude of the modern London jazz scene. |
| Ibibio Sound Machine Uyai | 3.4 |
| A mostly bouncy Afro-Funk & Afro-Electro release with occasional post-punky basslines, Uyai seamlessly blends West African music with dancey tropes in its best moments. The quieter tracks, while good in their own right, feel less exploratory and downright original |
| Hazel English Just Give In / Never Going Home | 3.8 |
| Lovely morning jam this one. A double EP, Just Give In / Never Going Home is just so smooth with its dreamy bedroom pop aesthetic carried by dynamic melodies and melodic dynamics. A great mellow and lush record which makes it difficult to resist. |
| MJ Lenderman Boat Songs | 3.6 |
| MJ Lenderman occupies the interesting center of a Venn diagram composed of slacker rock, alt-country, and slowcore - I think he liked the 90s. As a dirty non-lyric Euro mf, Boat Songs is mostly a win when the songs focus on a slacker aesthetic rather than a cowboy one. Thankfully, compelling songwriting and dynamic guitar licks make sure this is constantly engaging. |
| Nas King's Disease III | 3.9 |
| Nas hits gold on the third installment of his King's Disease series. With the most timeless boom-bap beats producer Hit-Boy came up with, the mix of 90s and modern braggadocio, and diverse rapological technique served by always-changing flows, this is the best Nas album in 20 years. |
| Daniel Avery Ultra Truth | 3.9 |
| Daniel Avery is at his most atmospheric and ethereal on Ultra Truth. With traces of ambient, breaks, atmo dnb, and ambient techno, tunes ooze melancholy through distant hooks that carry both beautiful melodies and distorted noise. A fever dream record. |
| Aldous Harding Designer | 3.5 |
| Aldous Harding alternates the absolutely lovely and enchanting ("Fixture Picture", "Zoo Eyes", or "The Barrel") and the unremarkably bland ("Damn", "Heaven Is Empty") on this intimate indie folk release that has a certain "je ne sais quoi". |
| Ho99o9 United States Of Horror | 2.5 |
| Ho99o9 decides to mix industrial with hip hop and punk, and while aesthetically it's a big yes, the genre-hopping approach and mega-scattershot songwriting make this one quite difficult to listen to in one sitting. |
| Hundredth Rare | 3.7 |
| Core kids turned gaze adults on RARE, and you can somehow feel how the core songwriting translates to a gazey aesthetic - there sure as hell are gazedowns here -, as well as the punch the band retains. An all-around great rock album that does end up being a teeny tiny one-trick pony. But it's a beautiful pony! |
| Chance デラソウル All Together Now! | 3.2 |
| With city pop linings, nu-disco four-on-the-floor rhythm, and vocal sampling a la plunderphonics, All Together Now wants to be a lot, and succeeds so. While each tune constitutes a solid playlist entry and a certified ass-shaking banger on the dancefloor, as a listening experience it quickly falls into a vapid background that makes you want to jam Since I Left You with some future funk aesthetic. Guess I somewhat enjoy vapid shit. |
| Josman J.O.$ | 3.9 |
| Arguably one of the most interesting figures in modern French rap, Josman offers a unique combination of attitude, syncopated beats, and lyrical mastery that heavily focuses on alliterations. But the beats man. Often using minor chords and smokey atmosphere, they make sure the album is a wild ride between cloud eeriness, trap heaviness, and boom bap rapological technique. |
| Ski Mask The Slump God Drown in Designer | 3.4 |
| Stupidly funny bass trap (that's more accurate than trap metal) who fortunately understands that this formula couldn't hold up if it went on for more than twenty minutes. |
| Burna Boy African Giant | 3.5 |
| With African Giant, Burna Boy further establishes himself as a figure fighting oppression and raising awareness for a better Africa, and he does with a rather solid blend of Afrobeats, Afrobeat (the first one is what you expect from Burna, the second one is Fela Kuti's stuff, don't mistake 'em!!), dancehall, and hip hop. Conciseness ain't the record's strongest asset: clocking at 60 minutes, the soundscape tends to repeat itself in the second half. Still, there is no blatant filler, and the cohesiveness makes for a nice foray into African pop. |
| Cate Le Bon Reward | 3.4 |
| A quirky art pop release whose focus on psychedelia gives it its lushly lethargic attitude, Reward trades potent melodic lines with haunting instrumentations. It often works ("Home to You" immediately rooted itself in my memory), but the "eh" moments are really "eh". |
| Paradis Recto Verso | 3.7 |
| Silky, chill, sensual, mellow French pop built on synth poppy songs that constantly carry downtempo beats and deep house sensibilities. It's undeniably one of the lushest and most well-produced French records of the 2010s, yet it does falter in repeating tropes and lyrical matter through its (quite long) course. |
| Slice the Cake Odyssey to the West | 2.3 |
| Epic tech deathcore? I should've known that wouldn't be my cuppa without even listening to it. While the production is great and lets shine bass and other lil acoustic elements, the chuggy chugs chugs and the bloated narrative told by a pedantic voice during 80 minutes is a big no-no. |
| Shygirl Nymph | 3.2 |
| Much more hyperpop and R&B-influenced than her string of EPs, and accompanied by more trap beats than ever, Nymph quickly loses its steam by being less banger-full and less cohesive as a whole. |
| Phoenix (FRA) Alpha Zulu | 3.0 |
| With some atrocious singles (that opener ugh), some bona fide Phoenix bangers ("Tonight"), but mostly safe tunes that are ultimately very alright, Alpha Zulu ends up being a chill album that doesn't do much to push the band's envelope. |
| Animal Collective Time Skiffs | 2.8 |
| Meandering psychy stuff whose only asset is the band's classic vocal harmonies. Rest is alright. |
| La Femme Teatro Lúcido | 3.5 |
| Ain't La Femme, they La Mujer now. This twist towards Spanish music was kinda unexpected, but it's mostly well-done, and still La Femme: Teatro Lucido features their brand of sugar pop made of various influences, and while some tunes are perfect at showing a Spanish La Femme, some are a tad too cliche, like the pasodoble (basically martial Spanish music) Maialen or with the filtered vocals on the title track. It thus ain't perfect (but Hannah Montana already told us nobody was), but it nevertheless establishes La Femme as one of the most daring modern pop bands. |
| Objekt Cocoon Crush | 3.3 |
| Objekt once again shows they got many many ideas, but more importantly demonstrate that their biggest asset is their concocting of alluring soundscapes whose design precision is only matched by their eclecticism. |
| Daniel Caesar Freudian | 3.1 |
| Despite good vocals, introspective lyrics, and lush production, Daniel Caesar's Freudian (dope title btw) is too stylistically monochrome to pack a proper punch. |
| The Gerogerigegege Moenai Hai | 3.3 |
| Woah this album wants you not to be ready. Alternating fucking violent music with extremely chill moments, Moenai Hai starts its course with a dark ambientesque piece whose relative tranquility is completely destroyed by a second track that tries very hard (and succeed) at being peak noise rock, only before another concrete dark Eno tune barely moves for 20+ minutes (honestly not ideal!); the final piece wrapping it up with a mix of harsh noise and soft lullaby. When it goes, it fucking goes. |
| 3776 Saijiki | 3.8 |
| There's something with Mt. Fuji here: 3776 is the elevation in meters of Mt. Fuji, and the cover literally represents the mountain. Ok so yes this is very Japanese. On top of that, this is the crazy kind of Japanese, each track representing a month (and each track's length representing the number of days within said month) and is given a key chord it will be built upon. This last characteristic makes the whole record a crescendo; a crescendo treading paths of prog shi, J-pop, classical music (there are some Beethoven and Debussy references), many pop things, trip-hop or glitchy muzak. It's a lot, but it manages to offer engaging melodies through potent songwriting and a wide sonic palette. idk if I'll ever relisten though lol. |
| Venetian Snares Traditional Synthesizer Music | 3.4 |
| Clashing bleeps'n'bloops made with a modular synthesizer? Why the hell not! What's good is that Traditional Synthesizer Music does not constantly try to be frantically complex, but when it does, it just goes for it. Gotta say it's more of a "check this bc unique and cool sound" record rather than "mais quel chef d'oeuvre ma bonne dame". |
| Cigarettes After Sex Cigarettes After Sex | 3.0 |
| A suite of similar dream poppy slowcore tunes, this s/t from Cigarettes After Sex basically asks you if you dig their 3 ideas. If you do, hurray: you'll like this. If you're lukewarm to 'em, well you'll be slightly bored. |
| Polyphia New Levels New Devils | 3.2 |
| Well in the end this is more of twinkly weedly guitar, BUT there are trap beats. Interesting on the first couple of tracks, but then quickly wears off - not all virtuosos are good songwriters. |
| Ezra Collective Where I'm Meant to Be | 4.1 |
| With a more banging approach rooted in Afrobeat and jazz fusion, Ezra Collective's second album Where I'm Meant to Be got dem ass-shaking chops. When they decide to go to more contemplative territories, soul jazz is being raised as an evident influence in a record that oozes jammin' intentions and chill vibes. |
| Dinos Hiver à Paris | 3.1 |
| Dinos goes for the double album, and it ain't as bloated and monochrome as I thought it would be - though it kind of is, can't betray your inner self. It's once again a suite of introspective songs that sometimes pull emotional strings in a not-subtle-at-fucking-all way, but he can still provide the occasional heartbreaking punchline. |
| BEN plg Réalité Rap Musique, Vol. 3 | 3.3 |
| The final installment of Ben plg's 2022 EP trilogy (!), vol 3 is the one going for the more epic atmosphere, with beats gradually unfolding themselves and going for more potent melodies, Ben letting himself scream more (and sing too). It's a bit tiring to go for one big vibe instead of trying to diversify the formula, but this shows how much of an authentic Stakhanovite the rapper is. |
| Barker Utility | 3.7 |
| Utility is techno to its bare minimum: synths are ethereal and induce meditative states, there ain't no "boom-boom" except for a very slight percussion happening on the closer, and its soft repetitiveness makes for a hypnotic listen. |
| Soccer Mommy Clean | 3.6 |
| Pretty pretty bedroom folk this Clean album. With subtle emo influences and a lil bit of 90s indie worship, the autumnal vibe is transcribed through bittersweet lyrics told by a longing voice. A well-built record that shows a lot of personality on its very best songs ("Cool" and the catchiness coming from the vocal elasticity, "Your Dog" and that fucking guitar line, or "Scorpio Rising" for the songwriting chops). |
| The Last Shadow Puppets Everything You've Come To Expect | 2.7 |
| Alex Turner's yawn project is competently done and produced, but there isn't any spark oozing from Everything You'd Come to Expect. Arrangements rise together in tasteless climaxes whose epicness is dampened by both Turner's feeble crooner voice and the overall lack of punch. |
| Fever Ray Plunge | 2.6 |
| Despite a beautiful futuristic electronic atmosphere, Plunge doesn't work on me. Its poppy inclinations aren't catchy enough to grab me, its beats do not make me move, and the eerie synths tend to repeat themselves ad nauseam. |
| Busdriver Perfect Hair | 2.8 |
| Busdriver is kind of awesome but kinda super annoying ya know? Some of his flows are mega-engaging, while others are downright jarring. The same can be said about beats: some bring da good ol' urban vibe, while others stick too much to tinnitus-inducing snippets. There's at times a tad too much happening at once for my soft lil bwain. Still, the experience is quite unique. |
| Fennesz Becs | 3.7 |
| When the drone and the glitches receive some melodies, it makes for some of the warmest drones up there (with Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, ofc). With guitars being drenched in waves of effects, Becs makes its job to hide its beauty behind tons of make-up. But you can always see how beautiful it is on the inside. |
| Beck Morning Phase | 3.4 |
| Pretty mellow this one. Sometimes too mellow; its lethargic attributes at times bordering on shallowness. But when it doesn't - which is most of the time -, it manages to perfectly accompany a weakly sunny autumnal afternoon. |
| Tove Lo Queen of the Clouds | 3.4 |
| Oh the nostalgia. Tove Lo's "Habits" was every fucking where in 2014, and for good reason: it's banging, it's cheesy but not like power metal, and the chorus is more infectious than that lil pandemic we just had - it now became an established "back to uni dayz" jam. The album sometimes attains such highs ("My Gun", "Talking Body"). It also dives into abysmal electropop territories ("Like Em Young" ugh), but that song is an exception. |
| RATKING So It Goes | 3.7 |
| Fuse trap hi-hats with footwork loops (btw the cover looks a hella lot like DJ Rashad's Double Cup), and you've got So It Goes. The atmosphere is properly unique here, leveraging that kind of urban dread only Burial or Cannibal Ox managed to pull out. As said elsewhere, however, the rapological technique is too one-dimensional for a 50mins album. Too unique to ignore though. |
| GridLink Longhena | 3.8 |
| Longhena is one bombarding grind album that nevertheless hides lil melody nuggets below the constant assault, which makes for a record that manages to be both fun and emotionally powerful. |
| XVBarbar Instinct Animal | 2.9 |
| One of the first forays of French rap into Chicago Drill (after Kaaris' seminal Or Noir), XVBarbar's Instinct Animal is one hour of hard-hitting gangsta shi that gets a tad too samey despite the large number of MCs. |
| Taylor McFerrin Early Riser | 3.7 |
| Smooth downtempoish nu jazzy neo soul - typical Brainfeeder shi. A perfect listen on a chill morning, Early Riser (yeah) isn't the most engaging piece of smoothness you'd ever listen to, but DAMN this pristine stuff is a sound engineer's wet dream. |
| Ghais Guevara There Will Be No Super-Slave | 3.8 |
| Crazyass beats based on heavy sampling a la Kanye or your fav vaporboi, pristine production, and competent delivery (think of early Childish Gambino for comparison) are basically all I need in hip hop, and There Will Be No Super-Slave is all of that. If he could tune down some of these chipmunk samples that'd be even better. |
| Sigh Shiki | 3.5 |
| It's Sigh: batshit crazy Japanese avant black psych metal. So, yeah, it's Sigh, but this time they managed (imo) to make their zany proposition digestible for mf like me. Tight shi, less all-over-the-place, and more technical than most of their other output. |
| Makaya McCraven In These Times | 3.8 |
| One of the smoothest boi from the modern jazz scene, McCraven goes for (yet) another vibe on his newest album. In These Times alternates between funky grooves, the hippity hop inspirations McCraven always had, and passages whose rhythmic complexity is only matched by their sweetness. He never disappoints. |
| Psychonaut Violate Consensus Reality | 3.2 |
| Psychonaut's brand of post and progressive metal continues to be what it is: an immediately recognizable homage to Mastodon/Tool/The Ocean/Gojira. While they're definitely competent, I'd like them to up their songwriting game and emancipate themselves from their great but overshadowing influences. |
| Frenetik Rose Noire | 3.2 |
| With his second mixtape Rose Noire, Frenetik further establishes himself as one of the most authentic and uncompromising Belgian rappers. No featuring, no radio-friendly tune, very few catchy choruses (that are actually plagued by a poor usage of autotune): bars only. It can become tiring after 50 minutes, but hey Frenetik understood that the first few mixtapes are here to establish one's authority, and he's been doing that very well in the past two years. |
| King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava | 3.2 |
| A band that knows how to jam shows us they can jam throughout one hour: thanks boyos, twas a bit unnecessary but nevertheless swell. |
| Fazerdaze Break! | 3.9 |
| Fazerdaze (finally!) comes back with a concise EP demonstrating a shift from bedroom to noisy pop. Not that all dreamy inclinations are gone, but what's striking is how she incorporated those vibes into her old aesthetic (the bed) and her newest one (the noise). Now imma waitin' for the next full-length to hear how this pans out. |
| Natalia Lafourcade De Todas las Flores | 3.4 |
| Since 2020, Lafourcade is constantly and consistently bringing lush and smooth traditional Mexican music to us. It thus ain't no surprise that De Todas Las Flores is exactly that, sailing between calm melancholy and poetic love tales mostly carried by Lafourcade's vocals. Contrary to its two predecessors, the music is quite sparse on this new record, and the vibe is much less sunny, which makes for a less immediate but not less pretty album. |
| Red Hot Chili Peppers Return of the Dream Canteen | 2.8 |
| Since Frusciante returned, it became clear that the 'Peppas only want to jam and groove together. That's definitely what they do here, to the detriment of songwriting or coherence. Still fun as a background jam tbh. |
| Honey Harper Honey Harper and the Infinite Sky | 3.4 |
| Leaving some of the dreamy aspirations that characterized predecessor Starmaker, this second Honey Harper record grounds itself in more conventional country territories. It's thus less unique, but the songwriting's good enough for this not to be "yet another country album". Also, the soundscape's diversity within the album makes The Infinite Sky more enjoyable from a dirty euro, non-country aficionado mf. |
| Burial Streetlands | 3.0 |
| Beatless Burial continues his deeds. While Bevan knows how to build a potent atmosphere, I feel it would heavily benefit from an occasional garage beat. Nevertheless, I didn't feel utter boredom when listening to this, contrary to Antidawn. |
| Benjamin Clementine And I Have Been | 3.1 |
| And I Have Been is Clementine's love letter to French impressionists like Satie, Ravel, or Debussy. While the art pop touches are still present, he mostly lets go of the exuberance that characterized the most bombastic moments of I Tell A Fly. It makes for a record that, while undeniably beautiful, loses some power because of its all-in approach. |
| Gilla Band Most Normal | 3.6 |
| A weird band doing weird shit. The Band Formerly Known as Girl Band come up with another noise rock record whose rhythmic consistency is on par with the amount of distortion they apply to basically anything that produces a sound. Hidden behind those screeches'n'scratches, lil melodies manage to make themselves heard, which adds to the record's replayability. |
| Orelsan Civilisation Édition Ultime | 2.1 |
| The deluxe version of Orelsan's least good album sounds much more like studio scraps. He's experimenting with his sound and storytelling, yes. However, no wonder these tunes didn't make the album: they all fail at what they try to do. We've got a simili trance tune, an attempt at lo-fism, another storytelling track telling stuff we all already know in much too long a time, or songs that convey the same emotions and tackle the same matters as tunes he wrote ten years ago. In contrast to guitar-led music that can rehash the same ideas over and over again, a rapper that was made famous because of how people identified with him got to renew his discourse to stay relevant. Seems like he's losing it. I'll go jam his first three albums again then. |
| Darkthrone Astral Fortress | 3.6 |
| The 'throne duo continues with the brand they've been doing the past few years: blackened doom with classic heavy touches here and there. They feature some nice lil additions, like acoustic guitar, or whatever that effect thang is on "The Sea Beneath the Seas of the Sea" (lel). They just makin' sure nobody argues they're the best long-running bm band. |
| Loyle Carner Hugo | 3.5 |
| Hell yeah, Carner finally tries to get out of his "coffee shop hop" vibe: Hugo features some of his most potent songs, thanks to a more confident voice and delivery, punchier beats, and crispier production. It still very much is "nice" though (that's both a compliment and a kick to the jugular). |
| Muse Will of the People | 1.5 |
| As cliche as Muse has always been, this is them at their most unapologetically trite and ready to hit the stadiums. For example, some tracks here are clear Queen ripoffs, and bad ones at that ("Liberation"), while others try to conjure pit-opening activities with shitty nu-metal riffs ("Won't Stand Down"). Hope all the cash they made with this record will get taxed as all fucking hell and redistributed to all those struggling to make ends meet. 1.3 |
| Burial ANTIDAWN EP | 2.2 |
| Will Bevan continues on his beatless journey, and it's not with Antidawn he's gonna convince me. The record could be summed up as "vinyl cracking + voice appearing for 5 seconds + strings heard and reheard", all happening randomly, without narration or construction helping the lack of rhythm to leverage something out of this shapeless suite of sounds. |
| Cloud Rat Threshold | 3.6 |
| Great grindy shit that sports a blackened yet fresh production and some more melodically emotional (or emotionally melodic idk) moments elevating the whole lot. It gets a bit tiring towards the end tho (whaddasurprise for grind). |
| Arcade Fire WE | 2.8 |
| WE is Arcade Fire's "visit card" record, featuring their indie rock early days, synth-led four-on-the-floor recent endeavours, as well as stadium-ready anthems and cute jangly pop. Cool, thanks. It's alright - as in it's not terrible, but you've heard this band do the same thing before, better. Good for them im a non-lyric mf tho. |
| Fred Again.. Actual Life 3 (January 1 - September 9 2022) | 3.7 |
| Fred tryna be the new Will Bevan with his reverbed-Instagram vocal snippets on top of garage beats. Those mostly work when going on the banging side of his music - garage beats accompanied by house melodies - as the samples do lose some power towards the end, especially compared to his much more varied Boiler Room sets. When it reaches its full potential like on "Delilah", it easily attains "euphoric four-on-the-floor to stomp your feet to". |
| Souffrance Tour de magie | 3.8 |
| Hardcore, grimy, pissed-the-fuck-off, and determined to shut y'all bitchy mouths: this is Souffrance (suffering in Gerard Depardieu's language). With hard-hitting drums, RZA-like piano melodies, and rain samples, this is boom-bap to the core. Souffrance accompanies this aesthetic with flows and lyrics alternating between injured but not miserabilist, socially conscious but not overly preachy. One of the realest dudes from these past two years, just a tad too heavy for a LP format methinks. |
| Juliette Armanet Petite Amie | 3.7 |
| French chanson that's extremely reminiscing of classic French chanson, especially in the voice inclinations - very stronk France Gall and Veronique Sanson vibe - but not only - these piano chords are typical Michel Berger. Fortunately, the record is well-balanced between retro aesthetic and her own, modern sound. Just gotta emancipate from her influences (spoiler: she ain't gonna do that on her second record). |
| Le De Delta Plane | 3.6 |
| Super cool Liege, Belgium rapper with constantly-banging beats sporting hard-hitting drums, lil funky snippets like Chill Bump or every 2010-2012 French rapper had. Lyrically, the record's not very original, either displaying its author's braggadocio skills or some introspective "lyrics-to-walk-to", but it goes well for a 30mins EP whose main quality is the vibe. |
| Tirzah Devotion | 3.3 |
| Tirzah offers hypnagogically minimalistic R&B carried by bass-y beats on Devotion, and while the aesthetic sure is interesting, it does feel a tad too weightless in the long run. It's almost there in terms of artistic proposition, but the balance between having a stripped-down soundscape and being catchy has yet to be refined. |
| serpentwithfeet soil | 2.8 |
| serpentwithfeet's got one hell of a voice to sing R&B - one would say he's got the voice to sing R&B. Coupled with bass-y beats, that record should be a blast, innit? Dunno why, but it all falls so flat. Never displeasing, constantly alright, but rarely more than that. |
| Planning for Burial Below the House | 3.5 |
| Crushing, melancholic, sorrowful: legit given the band's name. This translates musically with depressively atmospheric post-metal with strong shoegaze linings and slight slowcore vibes that makes for a cold record that kind of needs the right mood (and weather) to hit properly. |
| Scarlxrd DXXM | 2.9 |
| Yeah it's trap metal: "metal" because mf is yelling his lyrics and the beats try to replicate what Denzel Curry mastered on "Black Metal Terrorist" - there are too few nu metal riffs for this to be properly called metal but eh. As always with this aesthetic: it's interesting, but as far as one-trick pony goes, trap metal def needs a standout record to durably establish itself on the scene. |
| Marie Davidson Working Class Woman | 3.3 |
| A snarky Quebecoise producer, Marie Davidson provides a mainly minimal synth effort whose main character comes from Davidson's spoken word bits. Musically, repetition and mechanic sounds are key, but the enjoyment I got from this didn't come from repetitive patterns putting me in a trance mode. Rather, some (rare) moments of brilliance make this record unique - like that "Work It" tune, whaddabanger. |
| Gilla Band Holding Hands With Jamie | 3.4 |
| A group of Irish lads rockin' out post-punky noise rock tunes with industrial and no wave tendencies: the album. It makes for an always foot-stomping and head-bopping record whose vocal deliveries end up being its weakest point. The constant energy, coupled with the feedback and dissonance, are to be lauded, but overall the songs themselves resemble more the opener of a punk band's show than songs developing on their premises. Apart from that, gud shi. |
| Tzusing æ±æ–¹ä¸æ•— | 3.3 |
| Industrial techno that sometimes wears its Chinese folk influence on its sleeves. It's however mainly mega creepy and lacks bouncy-ass rhythms to become proper club banger material. Gotta tighten up those bangerwriting skills and maybe we'll be treated with a bona fide Oriental techno jam. |
| qebrus oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo | 3.2 |
| G L I T C H. With flashcore its main influence, and traces of IDM, drill'n'bass, and sometimes ambient throughout its course, ????? (yeah expected this shit not to show up on sput) is hella frantic when it actually goes, but chooses to meander more than necessary. |
| Rapsody Laila's Wisdom | 3.7 |
| Trying to jam every artist featured on GOAT TPAB: work in progress. Rapsody also dwells in soulful hop with a smooth atmosphere and interesting bars. Everything's killer except for the length: you have to offer top-notch material from front to back to justify 65 minutes, and while the effort is definitely present, it's not quite there yet. Still, dope shi. |
| The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation Egor | 3.4 |
| A ginormous suite of droning, creepy dark ambient sounds that rise together in (chauncey) build-ups that nevertheless feel shapeless. Egor nevertheless feels more coherent than predecessor Anthropomorphic, because you can clearly point up moments during which the music is rising or not. |
| Volcano Choir Repave | 3.4 |
| Yup, Volcano Choir is as I remember it: Justin Vernon with post-rock (and sometimes folktronica) antics. In its best moments, it conjures potent melodies that do not solely rely on Vernon's lyricism or voice. In its worst moments, it's generic indie shi that's still pleasant. |
| Chat Pile Remove Your Skin Please | 3.8 |
| Fucked up industrial noisy sludgy punky shit - I ended my relationship with Daughters and now Chat Pile is my new lover. |
| Loyle Carner Not Waving, But Drowning | 3.2 |
| Yup, it's Loyle Carner: cozy boom-bap that's mostly focused on storytelling. Thus, variety is missing in terms of rapological technique and within beats. Basically, once you've heard the first minute of each tune, you've heard it all. Very good vibes and whatnot, but not varied enough, especially given the rather extended length. |
| Taylor Swift Midnights | 2.3 |
| A gloubiboulga of an album, Midnight tries to conjure many facets of Swift's musicality but never gives any of these aspects the necessary punch to be more than a subdued version of Swift's B-sides. |
| Arctic Monkeys The Car | 2.3 |
| The most luxurious elevator music. Alex Turner seems like he's trying to sound like the BC,NR vocalist, arrangements are pretty but trite, and it seems like the band is now doing the kind of music they can't play in the big stadiums they're booked at. |
| Carly Rae Jepsen The Loneliest Time | 3.5 |
| Carly's worst record since before absolute classic Emotion still is a fine pop album: big yay. While there are a couple of absolute bangers (the opener, "Talking to Yourself", "Western Wind"), the scattered flow and overall inconsistency is what ultimately diminishes The Loneliest Time's listening experience. |
| Saboteur Saboteur Mixtape, vol. 1 | 3.6 |
| Saboteur Gang brrrrr. Compared to the don dada mixtape - another recent wmixtape gathering many of the best French rap wordsmiths -, this one features less explorative beats and less marking performances. Nevertheless, when it hits hard ("CELLULE", "AFFAIRE", "CBD"), this undoubtedly offers some of the best French rap performances of 2022. |
| Brutus (BE) Unison Life | 3.7 |
| Resolutely at the intersection of post-hardcore, alternative rock, shoegaze, and sludge inspirations, Unison Life is, for lack of better words (and available talent from this very writer), Brutus' maturity album, with everything good (and bad) that comes with it. Does it lose some of the batshit craziness of its predecessors? Yes, but it also doesn't lose itself along the way. Does it play at less visceral levels? Yes, but it's built in such a way that consistency is its primary attribute. So whether you prefer Unison Life over the first two records, now that's a debate between you and yourself. Brutus have done everything they had to do: craft another album and fill it with bangers that bring the old Brutus vibe while hinting at what the future Brutus will be. |
| Parcels Parcels | 3.5 |
| Bouncily mellow - or mellowly bouncy -, Parcels' s/t record knows how to balance the funky and the chill. Even though I prefer the jammy shit, a 50mins album full of ass-shaking tunes might have been a tad too much. Here, almost every soothing tune is followed by a rhythm-led one, which makes the album a diversified listen constantly bringing summer vibes. |
| Windhand Soma | 3.8 |
| An excellently composed, produced, and played stoner doom record, Soma (yeah that's def stoner/doom shi) features heavy riffs with beautiful tones, ethereal vocals, and the occasional acoustic interlude to re-light that phat joint. Extremely competent, but ultimately more of an album for those who crave more stoner doom, not for newcomers. |
| The Lumineers The Lumineers | 2.0 |
| As expected, this indie folk pop band that went giga mainstream turns out to deliver faux-upbeat, wannabe-uplifting, ironically-emotionless, formulaic, and forgettable fodder from the second track on. |
| Faceless Burial At The Foothills Of Deliration | 3.4 |
| Riffy McRiffFest. Faceless Burial just go for that old school vibe with riffs constantly changing rhythm, groovy linings in the form of an audible bass (!!!), and organic production that lets you hear every arm movement the drummer makes. Performance-wise, this is effing great, but the songs aren't that impressive in and of themselves. |
| Lorna Shore Pain Remains | 3.1 |
| Blackened sympho deathcore? These young lads don't know what to invent any more. What makes this s/t special is the vocalist's performance: he often sounds devilish, at times goblinish, sometimes very balrogish, and it somewhat enhances the almost-constantly-present big stringz. As a non-deathcore aficionado and power & sympho metal anti-aficionado, this was alright despite the ridiculous amount of cheese and chuggy chugs chugs - thanks again to that howler of them. |
| Skullcrusher Quiet the Room | 3.6 |
| With a hazy production and overall abstract vibe that reminisces a lot of Grouper, Skullcrusher delivers a debut LP that's bringing a deep hauntological atmosphere. What's remarkable is how 'crusher makes sure the record's minimalism isn't dampened by lack of flashiness - the production and all its lil elements bring enough diversity for the record to be more than your typical "sadgurl indie folk". |
| Birds in Row Gris Klein | 4.0 |
| Birds in Row prove with Gris Klein that they're one of the most distinctively original post-hardcore/screamo bands out there - and it's been like that for a whole decade. What's noticeably shining is the dynamic guitar play enhanced by super prominent effects - that reverb is *mwah*, mega props to CoL's Magnus Lindberg for the mixing. The track flow is likewise absolutely fire; the album truly feels like its own flowing entity rather than a collection of songs. On top of that, it's typical Birds in Row: passionate vocals, purring bass, and octopus-like drumming. |
| Youth Lagoon The Year of Hibernation | 2.8 |
| A bedroom pop record that hides behind a gigantic amount of reverb, The Year of Hibernation features gentle songs and timid vocals that sometimes (but not too often) dare to deliver a cute melody or guitar line. Most of the time though, its safe pleasantness fails to invoke stronger feelings. |
| Nipsey Hussle Victory Lap | 3.2 |
| RIP. Hussle's first and last album, Victory Lap (epic name and cover), sports a very West Coasty vibe that, despite its bounciness, runs a lil thin in the long (65 mins) run. Mega respect to him though for making it on his own terms. Educate 'em brother. |
| Shape of Despair Monotony Fields | 3.6 |
| A funeral doom album that's ultimately very gentle for the genre, Monotony Fields (very self-conscious name boiz) features clean guitars that do not solely aim at despair. Some of the melodies here are utterly beautiful, especially when coupled with gothic-like synth webs. Tad long, though - but nobody ain't surprised about that. |
| Weekend Nachos Worthless | 3.6 |
| Stupidly heavy powerviolence shi with occasional pounding sludgy moments to make sure your neck hurts as much as the rest of your body - and the feedbacks make sure your ears suffer too. Ain't the most original thing, but Weekend Nachos know how to craft stupidly heavy bangers. |
| Park Jiha Communion | 3.8 |
| Communion is many things at once. It's post-minimalist at its core (hi there Glass), it's very avant-jazz in all its spirituality, and it's also evidently Korean with its traditional strings and other instruments I don't know the pronunciation of. It's, most importantly, utterly beautiful in its most enthralling moments, which elevates repetitive motifs toward hypnotic levels. |
| Ezra Collective You Can't Steal My Joy | 3.6 |
| Yet another London jazz collective? Yeah mane, and they're mega cool like all the others. Ezra Collective's first album You Can't Steal My Joy is jazz that embraces other genres - hip hop with Loyle Carner, afrobeat ("Chris and Jane"), soul with Jorja Smith, and other foot-stomping inducers like grime or dub. Cool shi, even cooler when they go for the frantic instead of the contemplative. |
| Loyle Carner Yesterday's Gone | 3.4 |
| Chill, jazzy rap whose beat smoothness is kinda dampened by a vocal delivery that's at times too timid to be impactful. Gud vibes are constantly present though, which makes it a perfect morning coffee jam. |
| Currensy and Freddie Gibbs Fetti | 3.2 |
| Cool tape/EP/album (?) from Curren$y and Gibbsy that's mainly carried by The Alchemist's beats. Hazy and psychy but not doing much more than installing a vibe, they are the perfect companion to the two rappers' good-but-not-great performances. |
| Holy Fawn Death Spells | 3.6 |
| Death Spells is a great post-metalgaze record, that's for sure. Its sole - but major - issue is that it tells everything it has to tell in its first track before repeating the same formula over and over again - "Yawning" being an exception because of its constant groove and lack of crescendocore antics. Definitely cool shi with potent production and decent compositions, but definitely something that would have tickled my shizzle much more 10 years ago. |
| Priests Nothing Feels Natural | 3.2 |
| Post-punk was damn abundant during the '10s. Bands like Priests could thus make a name for themselves, even though their frontwoman was basically the sole thing distinguishing them from other bands. The soundscape is tiny, and while the instrumentations are cool, they ain't nothing to swoon over apart from the bookend tracks. |
| RP Boo I'll Tell You What! | 3.1 |
| RP Boo's I'll Tell You What! is typical footwork with its jagged rhythms and hypnotic vibe. It thus doesn't change much, but tunes like "U-Don't No" or "Flight 1235" bring the soulful into the repetitive rhythms. |
| DJ Seinfeld Time Spent Away From U | 3.6 |
| One of the flagship lo-fi house records, Time Spent Away From U, indeed features four-on-the-floor beats counterbalanced by samples taken straight out of the Burial sampling market. Repetition is inherent to such a genre, but it still plagues some tunes. When Seinfeld nails his formula, though, he nails it for real - what a banger that closing track is. |
| Let's Eat Grandma I'm All Ears | 3.5 |
| A great synthpop record whose most shining qualities ain't neither the synth nor the pop. It ain't the vocals either - too childishly soft spoken to bring any punch -, nope; it's all about the damn production, seamlessly fusing bubblegum aspirations with progressive pop songs. |
| Alvvays Blue Rev | 4.0 |
| As alvvays (lel), this band nails their vibe made of gazey indie pop that balances the twee and the noise. It's a super cool aesthetic for sure, but it often carries the songs much more than actual songwriting. Typical Alvvays in the end: what you get at the beginning is what you will get at the end - you just gotta vibe with it. |
| Counterparts A Eulogy for Those Still Here | 2.8 |
| Melodramatic melocore that I could have appreciated ten years earlier, but that can now only find its soft spot in the background. |
| Kreator Gods of Violence | 3.3 |
| Epic thrash is epic. Kreator's brand of thrash is quite well-known at this point, and the boiz deliver exactly that: fast riffs, stomping riffs, melodeath-inspired riffs, with the occasional power metal or NWOBHM passage. Not exactly my cuppa, and it ain't original in the slightest, but can't deny it's well done. |
| R+R=NOW Collagically Speaking | 3.2 |
| Robert Glasper, Terrace Martin, Taylor McFerrin, Justin Tyson, and Christian Scott = R+R=NOW. Stacked roster, innit? The result is, in the end, quite underwhelming: despite lush inquiries into nu jazz, soul jazz, and jazz fusion, there simply ain't enough meat surrounding the pretty aesthetic bones. |
| Eli Keszler Stadium | 3.7 |
| Mucho post-jazz this one. Keszler fuses electroacoustic with avant-jazz, each parts being separated or enhanced by ambient mattresses. It's a work of contrast: Keszler's drumming can get extremely frenzied, yet the vibe is mellow. |
| Sampha Process | 3.8 |
| Hell yeah. 6 fucking years after taking over SBTRKT, Sampha's first album delivers the good. Process features passionate R&B vocals on top of garage-lite beats (do not expect SBTRKT part 2 though) that perfectly complements Sampha's vocal elasticity. What elevates Process above most of the competition is its raw honesty, both lyrically ("Reverse Faults" woah) and in terms of vocal delivery. |
| Loona Odd Eye Circle Max & Match | 3.4 |
| Loona Odd Eye Circle - apparently a subdivision (?) of the Loona band - crafted a banging record that never strays too far from the inherent cheese of K-Pop while making sure some lil elements (like future bass beats, nice R&B vocal deliveries, or tasty synths and guitar on absolute banger "Loonatic") provoke some foot-stomping activity. |
| City of Caterpillar Driving Spain Up A Wall | 4.1 |
| The title track is a crystal-clear representation of what made this band so fucking great - one of the best build-up sciences in the whole game, the capacity of creating anthemic choruses out of anxious thoughts, and technical talent being matched by songwriting prowess. And with the second tune, they also show they lost nothing of the more abrasive side of their skramz. Epic band remains epic. |
| Kokoroko Could We Be More | 3.6 |
| Kokoroko slightly expands their sound on this first LP. The traces of afrobeat, highlife, and jazz-funk are, of course, still present, but these influences are now accompanied by some neo-soul and progressive linings here and there (ie: some tunes do be meandering). Despite the record's evident quality - grooviness, smoothness, constantly uplifting -, its production doesn't always let its elements shine - guitarist Adenaike-Johnson isn't heard much, and it's a shame given how bomb-ass-thicc his game can be on "War Dance". |
| Norma Jean Deathrattle Sing for Me | 3.2 |
| Norma Jean continue their path towards alt metal and post-hardcore territories, yet they retain all of their grittiness. Nevertheless, the record's in-yo-face nature, coupled with the tracks' relative homogeneity, make this quite indecipherable at first glance despite the record's overall solidness. |
| Billy Woods Church | 3.7 |
| The second 2022 album for Billy Woods, Church plays on the same strengths as Aethiopes: clever lyricism, intricate rhyme schemes, and diverse flows on top of hard-hitting abstract beats. It's Billy Woods innit. Almost as good as Aethiopes, that one had a grittiness that made it more intense. |
| Revocation Netherheaven | 3.5 |
| Eh it's Revocation: tech thrash/death that's extremely competent without ever attaining the genre's pinnacles. |
| Freddie Gibbs Soul Sold Separately | 2.9 |
| A rapper that was constantly carried by producers releases a solo album? Guess what: ain't shit, ain't great. That's a real shame given some of the features - a track with Anderson Paak AND Raekwon shouldn't be this lazy. Dude wanted to go mainstream; cool. But he ain't as good a rapper he needs to be to carry alright beats. |
| Massive Attack Ritual Spirit | 3.6 |
| Massive Attack came back in 2016 (new album when???) with Ritual Spirit, and it proved the band lost nothing of their magic. Moving from trip-hop (whaddasurprise) to more hip-hop territories, it mostly retains that urban vibe that the band always had in 'em. Also Tricky was back for this, which only adds to the record's dark atmosphere. |
| Sudan Archives Natural Brown Prom Queen | 3.4 |
| Natural Brown Prom Queen decidedly tries to be creative with its R&B roots, and succeeds at that, balancing rap tendencies with artsier inclinations and other soul-adjacent tropes. Is it good? Yessir. Does it manage to make my heart move? Not that much, sorry. Edit: it did manage to make my heart groove a lil! |
| Bjork Fossora | 2.5 |
| Did not care for this in the slightest. Bjork does Bjork with quirky electronic tapestries complemented with strings and the occasional industrial linings. The main issue is, the songs aren't showing any kind of progression during their course. |
| Spoon Lucifer on the Sofa | 3.6 |
| Typically Spoon, Lucifer on the Sofa features their restrained groove led by offbeat rhythms in an indie rock manner that's more rock than indie this time - with a dash of blues! Consistent band is consistent, even though these songs weren't the most *woah* in their catalog. |
| death's dynamic shroud Darklife | 2.9 |
| As often with the wmv boi: this is a fun mess, or a messy fun time. Either way, it never fully manages to balance its ambitions with proper focus, the record very often falling into hot chaotic territories it should have avoided - the bois have been doing this for a long time now. |
| City of Caterpillar Mystic Sisters | 4.0 |
| With much less skramz angst and lo-finess, Mystic Sisters nevertheless still got dem atmospheric and dynamic chops - phew! While it's not as evidently awesome as its predecessor, it does manage to feel fresher thanks to the diverse approaches: City of Caterpillar are alternatively at their darkest, most haunting, and uplifting. |
| Slipknot The End, So Far | 2.5 |
| Hard band goes softy, and when they try to rock hard, it's with the same riffs, drum patterns, and vocal delivery. Mid. And boring too. But hey at least they got to middle finger the industry, woo! |
| Norma Jean All Hail | 3.2 |
| The 'Jean go even further into post-hardcore, and while that ain't no problem per se, All Hail is too one-dimensional to successfully pull it off - the fact that the songs ain't the band's best doesn't help, the overall lack of dynamics either. |
| Kokoroko Kokoroko | 3.7 |
| A super warm, joyful, and fucking pristine EP of afrobeat and jazz-funk, this s/t from Kokoroko just needs a teeny tiny tad more punch to truly establish itself as a definitive "late 2010s London jazz" record - the competition is way too fierce. |
| $uicideboy$ I Want To Die In New Orleans | 3.1 |
| Soundcloud rappers jumping from tape & EP format to album: has it worked this time? Kinda - woooo! The 'boi$ aesthetic still is gripping, and it somehow works on a long format - in that it doesn't become *too* tiring in the long run. |
| Shadow Of Intent Reclaimer | 2.7 |
| Yah it's Shadow of Intent: sympho tech dxc with strong melodeath influences. The vocals are ridiculously funny, the sympho parts are all over the place, and the br00tal parts tickle one of me ballz without making the other one move. Compared to most deathcore, this is a grand artistic proposition, but one that activates levers that do nothing for me. |
| L'Imperatrice Matahari | 3.6 |
| As the dexbro said, the record's pacing is its biggest fault. Alternate funky jams and contemplative synth works and you'll get a slapper. |
| Ross From Friends Family Portrait | 3.8 |
| Ross From Friends is a great representation of lo-fi house. While the four-on-the-floor beats are typical house, they are sometimes broken by garagey Brainfeeder rhythms and are accompanied by an atmosphere that lies halfway between that lo-fi hip-hop trend and, more generally, anything vaguely hypnagogic, vaporwave nods being instilled to bring nostalgic melodic ideas. Family Portrait thus manages to create its own lil world, one where you dance but feel extremely emotional about it. |
| DIM (CA) Compendium II | 3.4 |
| Although as whimsical as Compendium I, this second opus from DIM does lose a bit of steam during its second half. Go still get it if you want some dungeon synthy neo-medieval folk (yes). |
| The Necks Unfold | 2.7 |
| yah Dewi said it. Meandering pieces based on keys, percussions, and bass that mysteriously never reach any kind of conclusion. Kinda post-jazz, though: using jazz instruments for non-jazz porpoises. |
| Summoning With Doom We Come | 3.3 |
| With Doom We Come is both Summoning's most whimsical and least well-produced album - and these two things don't go hand in hand. Still, the band has already proven they know how to write proper songs - "Herumor" and "Mirklands" prove that again. Shame it sounds so muddy, could have been mucho better. |
| DJ Koze knock knock | 3.9 |
| Koze kozin' hard with knock knock, further cementing his brand of colourful psychy house. Like Amygdala, this one does suffer from an overblown length, but the highs are extremely high. It's just so smooth, with guest vocals being all killer, like the sampled hooks and the summer vibe conducted by the deep house beats. |
| Slow Crush Aurora | 3.7 |
| A Belgian (m/) gaze band that wears its influences on its sleeves, Slow Crush nevertheless show they understood that it's done simply by pushing down the pedals so that you can get a gud gaze record. Tones are beautiful, the production is thick to let the harder moments povnd, vocals are dreamy, and Aurora is short enough to pack a (quite relaxing) punch with its proposition. Just need a slight beef in songwriting, and we'll have a definitive modern gaze band. |
| Incendiary Thousand Mile Stare | 3.7 |
| Pissed-the-fuck-off, muscled-up, smelly New York Hardcore. Shit goes, thanks to thrashy riffs, dynamic performances, and a shouter boi that sounds like Zach de La Rocha and knows how to write catchy hardcore punchlines, the whole lot also being delivered compactly. Not that original in the grand scheme of hardcore, but an extremely solid release nonetheless. |
| Broken Social Scene Hug of Thunder | 3.8 |
| Hug of Thunder basically is Forgiveness Rock Record's poppier version, with dream pop accompanying the band's kinda traditional noisy indie rock antics. Gotta say, in the end, it does resemble Arcade Fire's The Suburbs a lot - and seven years later - but it's simply way too well done to discard the record for that sole reason. |
| Kero Kero Bonito TOTEP | 3.3 |
| The Bonitos' transition from Bonito Generatio's cutesiness and the fuzz that will later characterize Time'n'Place. It's a good transition (woo!) even though that aesthetic will be refined on the subsequent LP. |
| Black Thought Streams Of Thought, Vol. 2 | 3.7 |
| Like the first opus, this second Streams of Thought EP features smooth beats, lush production, and clever lyricism - but I keep wanting more. |
| 100 Gecs 100 Gecs | 2.7 |
| 1000 Gecs but less refined yet with as much post-everything and an already-present taste for catchy shit that ends up being irritating ("bloodstains"). An aesthetic to be perfected. |
| Daniel Bachman The Morning Star | 2.7 |
| American Primitivism virtuoso Daniel Bachman decides to go for droney field recordings. Not that there ain't no fingerpicking, but it makes The Morning Star lose some of Bachman's emotional power and is way too self-indulgent when it comes to balancing the drone with the fingerpicking. |
| Space360 Daily Rituals | 3.6 |
| Thai techno with flashcore and IDM linings? Yeah. Daily Rituals is constantly bouncy with its lil glitchy snippets but also always ominous with industrial tendencies. That duality is what gives the record its always-engaging character, balancing the dark and the light in a breezily hectic manner. |
| Disiz Pacifique | 3.4 |
| Disiz came back in 2017 with his most experimental record: with traces of deep house and electropop among the hip-hop beats, Pacifique managed to be enjoyed by both hardcore fans and newcomers alike - resulting in LOTTA albums sold. It does try to be too many things at once, but it's indeed a good entry into Disiz's discography. |
| Alex G God Save The Animals | 3.6 |
| God Save the Animals is, in a way, typical Alex G and his folktronica antics. Yet, as always, he finds new ways to tweak his formula: cloud rap and hyperpop make apparitions that do not diminish the melancholic aspect of his folkiness. Not my fav G record, but the one where he cohesively gathers all his different styles. |
| The Comet Is Coming Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam | 3.5 |
| The Comet Is Coming's last output (shit), Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam (ok nerdz) decides to build its rhythmic foundations with electronic linings, which coincides with the band choosing to go as hard as they can go. Some of the subtlety and delicacy they've previously shown is now gone to the benefit of apocalyptic energy. Also, it does show that these tunes are improvised, as they do not feel as rewarding in the long run as some of their best cuts (eg "Summon the Fire"). |
| The Wonder Years The Hum Goes on Forever | 3.0 |
| The Hum Goes On Forever is a rather ok record that constantly alternates pop punk ragers and mature alt-rock - it'd be cool if we didn't already know that's what the band was about for at least the past five years. The production doesn't help, with some tracks being oh-so-brick-walled. Don't impress me much *Shania Twain time*. |
| Kairon IRSE! Ujubasajuba | 3.6 |
| Ujubasajuba (whatever that means) is basically a huge mashup of everything atmospheric about guitar music: with space rock (apparently revival? wth), post-rock, and mostly shoegaze, it manages to be both energetic and psychedelic. Great blend of genres, but nothing definitive in terms of psychy guitar music. |
| Leon Vynehall Music For The Uninvited | 3.6 |
| Nothing Is Still indeed ain't still. With its lush ambient deep house palette adorned with downtempo linings, Vynehall manages to make ambient-dominant music quite dynamic - all tracks are bouncy in a chill way, and none overstay its welcome. |
| Liars Mess | 2.7 |
| Liars always change direction and genre when releasing a new album. Mess is Liar's rave album, with stomping beats sporting an electro-industrial coat. Like often with Liars, I'm left understanding what they went for without having an appreciation for the end result. |
| PVRIS White Noise | 2.7 |
| Decent synthy pop rock that's relatively catchy, but whose catchiness mostly feels trite and generic. It's got attitude for sure, but one that's already been seen multiple times. |
| The Chainsmokers Memories...Do Not Open | 1.0 |
| Wah this was everywhere in 2017 - in hindsight, that period was peak "mainstream shallow pop bordering on EDM". So yeah, this is shit, but on the contrary of other shit stuff like Speedin Bullet or Angel 2 the Core, this doesn't even have genuine intentions to save itself. |
| No Devotion No Oblivion | 3.5 |
| No Devotion go for the gloomier on No Oblivion: much more introspective than their already-introspective debut, this new output subtly distills its mood, yet what prevents this one from being as impactful as the first one is exactly that nocturnal mood that rarely lets itself go wild. |
| Somewhere South of Here Leave Me for the Crows | 3.6 |
| Leave Me for the Crows simply oozes Sput punk with alt rock roots and emo inclinations that elevate the punky material to earnest big fist-in-the-air rock moments. 'Tis what we are, boiz. |
| Jockstrap I Love You Jennifer B | 3.5 |
| Cool avant-pop record that fuses glitchy textures, progressive aspirations, folky inspirations, and a cloistered vibe that's indeed very chamber. Mega interesting for sure, but that's typically the kind of record where the sonic palette is more interesting than what's actually happening. Edit: This holds up well after a while. |
| Dreadnought The Endless | 3.2 |
| Proggy shit first carried by clean vox then diving into black metal shrieks and meandering proggier shit with occasional post tendencies. Tones are cool, and the atmospheric vibe is well designed, but it just doesn't do much to me. |
| Stupeflip Stup Forever | 3.2 |
| Once again a hotchpotch of many things at once - French rap, French chanson, rock -, Stup Forever nevertheless feels like a reheated version of King Ju's 2000s and early 2010s releases - kinda like 2017's Stup Virus. Lyrics are cool but Ju's rapological technique has not improved, and the sonic palette is what to be expected. Cool record, but definitely a lesser version of early Stup. |
| The Chats Get Fucked | 3.6 |
| Gnarly Aussie punk with a garagey production that lets the band's hardcore edge shine. It's vulgar, dirty, a lil bit silly, and even moronesque at times. Cool. |
| Primordial Where Greater Men Have Fallen | 2.7 |
| Never been a fan of power metal vocals, and this record is focused on 'em. While the soundscape is quite large with folk, doom, and black metal with a strong pagan vibe, the sole musical qualities aren't enough for me to enjoy Where Greater Men Have Fallen - badass title tbh. |
| Toumani Diabate and Sidiki Diabate Toumani & Sidiki | 3.4 |
| Legend Toumani Diabate pair up with progeny Sidiki for a kora shred session. It makes for a spirited record of Griot tradition, always warm and pastoral even though not that diversified. |
| Low Roar 0 | 3.4 |
| Look at who made the main review for this, and you'll know what to expect: gentle, soft, beautifully arranged indie folk that got some folktronica lying underneath to add some dynamism as well as post-rock tendencies to add more ethereal character. The bloated length and the overall lack of diversity make 0 an album I respect but won't ever love. |
| Alestorm Sunset on the Golden Age | 3.2 |
| Pirate metal: it's basically power metal, but that talks about drinking rum and allowing oneself to not take a shower. Not exactly my cuppa, yet this is kinda fun, especially that hilarious Taio Cruz cover that actually makes me want to be stupidly drunk - that's the goal of the whole record I guess. |
| RUFUS DU SOL Bloom | 2.6 |
| Rufus' (pog name tbh) music works better when there ain't no EDM-lite vocals trying to turn deep house bops into pop bangers. Got hyped by some banging tunes ("Innerbloom" and some VIP edits), but it doesn't work that well on an album format. |
| Trophy Eyes Chemical Miracle | 3.5 |
| A blend of pop punk and hardcore: hell yeah easycore! Not exactly though: there are major emo vibes here, which works for the best (emotional response) and the worst (sappiness). Good stuff that I'd have liked much more 10 years ago. |
| Charlotte Gainsbourg Rest | 3.5 |
| Gainsbourg daughter in a typical Gainsbourg daughter record: her half-French, half-English lyrics are delivered by her typical hushed vocals with more bombastic choruses enhanced by gorgeous, lush, grand - everything you want! - production. Not all tracks make this aesthetic a home run - basically, most subtler tunes struggle to be as memorable as the rest - but this is nonetheless an intricately textured album. |
| Convulsing Grievous | 3.8 |
| Oi, this ain't Ulcerate but it sure as hell sounds like it. Disso-death that varies between povnding moments and more atmospheric - but not that calm - passages in an always dynamic manner. Extremely competent shit that also leverages some emotional response despite the obscure maelstrom at work. |
| Amnesia Scanner Another Life | 2.3 |
| Noisy, raw, all-over-the-fucking-place blend of post-industrial deconstructed club with UK Bass and neoperreo tendencies that nevertheless struggle to come up with the songwriting duties needed to elevate this kind of mixture from gloubiboulga to bona fide future club bangers. |
| No Devotion Permanence | 3.8 |
| Non-monsters members of Lostprophets pair up with Thursday boi Geoff Rickly to offer a throwback to the 80s with new wave sensibilities, post-punk rhythms, and a gothic vibe that nicely complements the soundscape. The biggest win is the songwriting: songs are catchy, balancing doomer aesthetic with bombastic songs. |
| Lomepal Mauvais Ordre | 3.4 |
| Mouais. The epitome of "alright French rap", Mauvais Ordre proves Lomepal can't produce utterly bad music, but it also proves he lost his touch of poppy French rap. He always said he loves rock and shit like The Strokes, about time he switches gear. |
| Rico Nasty and Kenny Beats Anger Management | 2.6 |
| The hypest (? dunno dontcare tbh) beatmaker and the nastiest rapper pair up for a trap metal release - btw trap metal is a megalol tag, call that shit distorted trap but there ain't no sick riff nor pit-opening screms. It's very loud, but it tends to be annoying on the long run - only 18 minutes long |
| Iglooghost Clear Tamei | 3.2 |
| Iglooghost iglooghostin': Clear Tamei is 20 minutes of glitchy drill and bass playfully as much invoking PC Music's club vibe as Brainfeeder's wonkiness. Messy shit, as often with Iglooghost: soundscapes are being replaced so quickly it becomes difficult to feel attached to either of them. |
| Marriages Salome | 3.7 |
| Red Sparowes + Emma Ruth Rundle? Tasty shit. There thus is some post-rock, aggremented with that typical Rundle sludgy tone, as well as gazey finery. The whole lot ends up being both grounded in earthy roots yet elevated by its aerial surges. That sonic palette, while definitely dope, becomes monochrome towards the end of the record. |
| Armand Hammer Paraffin | 3.8 |
| Hard as feck, grimy boom-bap that uses abstract melodic snippets to install its cryptic vibe among an ocean of almost-conspirationist-yet-always-on-point sociopolitical diatribe declaimed by immersive bars. |
| Woodkid The Golden Age | 2.7 |
| An orchestral pop record that thus tries to be grand, The Golden Age ends up vanilla due to lackluster delivery and songwriting. Kinda soulless. |
| Norma Jean Polar Similar | 3.5 |
| Polar Similar sees Norma Jean come back with a much less decidedly-metalcore sound to it - resembling a more "modern alternative" that uses a lotta nu-metal tones. What is truly at fault, however, is simply that PS sports less interesting songwriting than its predecessor. Still great - obviously, it's Norma Jean. |
| TR/ST TRST | 3.3 |
| Gothic synthpop - in that the synths do go "bleep-bloop" with boppy melodies, but with a vocal delivery that's as engaging as Molchat Domat's. It results in a jammy album that could have been jammier. |
| Yuck Yuck | 3.7 |
| Yuck's debut and s/t features a great bunch of lo-fi, happy-go-lucky indie rock tunes, but it also features some mucho dull lo-fi indie rock tunes in its second half. Shame the album ain't perfectly balanced, as all things should be, 'cause when it bangs, it fucking bangs. |
| Visible Cloaks Reassemblage | 3.1 |
| Textures. Yeah. Ever wondered what would be the child R Plus Seven and Kankyo Ongaku? This is it, but less good than imagined. So: an ambient vibe carried by hypnagovox is disrupted by glitchy new age bits and sequencer & tracker fuckery. It's chill, but it fails where albums of the same ambient/prog electro/new age/sequencer & tracker/bullshit genre succeed: conveying emotions and making the heart devote to boom-booming even though there are no evident rhythms. |
| M O O N MOON | 3.5 |
| Hypnotic and repetitive tech house that compensates its lack of originality with hard-hitting beats, wide bass, and danceable hooks. Don't need much else to shake da ass. |
| Masakatsu Takagi Kagayaki | 4.0 |
| What a vibe this is. Clocking in at 75 minutes, Kagayaki is an enormous suite of Japanese chamber folk/neoclassical/new age/whatever filled with nature recordings that bring even more peacefulness and warmness. Just relax. |
| Whitechapel The Valley | 3.3 |
| Heavy band is heavy - tones are low, riffs are phat, and Phil Bozeman's voice still is massively ginormous. Apart from that good ol' Whitechapel, the moments that strike the most are in the fact the same we can find in any Deft-adjacent 2020s hevy band - guess the lads did earn their RYM "alt-metal" tag. The transitions from the hevy to the gaze are sometimes clumsy, but The Valley nevertheless stands out as their best 2010s release. |
| Crippled Black Phoenix Banefyre | 2.9 |
| Alright, so: Banefyre suckz because of a lame-ass intro and an excessive runtime. However, Banefyre doesn't suck because Crippled Black Phoenix don't suck. Simple as that. Still, I already OD'd on post-rock the past decade, and tracks like "Rose of Jericho" sure don't help my sobriety. Definitely good shit, but that doesn't mark me as much as it could have been if it was released back then. Also not convinced with the vocalist. |
| Holy Fawn Dimensional Bleed | 3.5 |
| Melancholic doomgaze with post-rock antics and occasional black metal shrieks - yay! Dimensional Bleed however mainly works as a complete, mainly atmospheric piece: each track toils at differentiating itself from its companions. Not that the textures aren't pretty, or the overall experience cohesive; it's just that it mostly works as a whole, its parts only representing "parts", and not experiences in and of themselves. |
| Street Sects End Position | 3.2 |
| End Position knows how to be one effing piece of electro-industrial aggression, but it seems not to know how to balance its chaos throughout different tracks: all of them are manic and feature different, distinct parts, but the overall vibe of each track is pretty similar. Good shit, could've been great. |
| William Basinski and Janek Schaefer “ . . . on reflection " | 3.6 |
| Papa Basinski pairs up with Janek Schaefer to deliver several pieces of minimal piano pieces that are so, uh, minimalistic that they border on ambient. Coupled with some bird recordings, on reflection is delicacy on wax. |
| Oz & The Kryds Oz & The Kryds | 3.3 |
| Garagey, noisy, post-punky: yeah, Oz and the Kryds are Bri'ish - and with a voice resembling Joe Talbot's, this is even more evident. While the energy, riffs, and one-liners are mega cool ("Sad Dick" doing everything at once), I feel like the lads need to work on their songwriting to go to the next stage. |
| Misthyrming Söngvar elds og óreiðu | 3.6 |
| Dark af Icelandic black metal with dissonant melodies (yeah) and dark ambient interludes that break the pace a tad too much. Great, but a bit too frontloaded, as the last third kind of drags on because it doesn't bring anything new to the table. |
| Neko Case The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight... | 3.5 |
| Cool country-adjacent this one. Indeed, while not technically "yeehaw", The Worse Things Get... features its fair share of rollicking guitars and honky-tonk aesthetic. It works extremely well when shit bangs, but the downbeat tunes aren't as evocative musically as they are lyrically. |
| YG Still Brazy | 3.2 |
| Still Brazy sports such a cool g-funk coat it feels like the 90s again. While the vibe is clearly there, YG ain't the most impressive rapper. His storytelling is apparently dope, but his technique ain't varied enough to transform these diatribe-charged texts into bona fide political rap classics. |
| Allah-Las Allah-Las | 2.9 |
| yah it's indie surf: psychy, garagey, mellow to the point of nonchalance, and those undistorted black metal Anatolian rip-offs surf riffs. Pretty cool stuff, but quite inoffensive in the grand scheme of an already inoffensive genre. |
| Trees of Eternity Hour of the Nightingale | 3.7 |
| A very pretty doomy gothic record, Trees of Eternity mostly gets the job done thanks to Starbridge's beautiful vocals and Raivio's beautiful guitar tones. The album does tackle the same aesthetic throughout its runtime, but hey in terms of ethereal doom this is top-notch. |
| Yussef Kamaal Black Focus | 3.7 |
| Bouncy, jazzy, funky, shit that knows how to balance bomb-ass-thicc-ness and subtlety. Yussef's drums are dynamically versatile, Kamaal's keys are absolutely pristine, and then you've got a whole band rocking the shit outta their instruments - special bravo to the bassist and the ineluctable Shabaka. Gotta say the calmer moments were a tad too calm for me - especially compared to the fury provoked by Yussef's banging drums. |
| Chevelle La Gárgola | 3.4 |
| Yeah, it's an alt-metal band, with alt-metal songs that bring out the groove. Overall a consistent album that sometimes knows how to be catchy ("Gunman" is big headbang moment). |
| Goldfrapp Tales Of Us | 3.5 |
| Tales of Us is an introspective record, mostly carried by Alison Goldfrapp's captivating voice. The minimalistic instrumentals, in and of themselves quite gorgeous, do however tackle the same ground through the whole record, creating a mood that you got to be into to fully appreciate the album. |
| Storm Corrosion Storm Corrosion | 3.2 |
| Akerfeldt and Wilson: yah that was meant to be, but who did expect an ambient prog/psych folk release? The production is - ofc - gorgeous, and the record primarily works on a cinematic level. That means some passages, while beautiful, generate little engagement from my side. |
| The Orb Moonbuilding 2703 Ad | 3.6 |
| Ambient dub tech house that primarily works on background territories. It thus rarely manages to provoke some foot-stomping sessions (although there are some), but it's consistently groovy. |
| Gospel MVDM: Magick Volumes Of Dark Madder | 3.7 |
| A sprawling jam that mostly lets go of skramzy shit to focus on proggy shit instead. Clearly a live deep cut, it feels like the conclusion to one of their shows. Shame my ass is currently sitting on my couch; this odyssey would for sure sound better live. Motherfuckers better release a volume 2 tho. |
| Warforged The Grove | Sundial | 3.4 |
| As chaotic as Warforged's 2019 debut - if not more -, The Grove | Sundial still manage to make me headbang and wonder why the hell they transitioned that cool part so fast - all in the same song. Yeehaw. Clean vox sux btw. |
| Thy Art Is Murder Hate | 2.6 |
| Stupidly heavy deathcore - that ain't no compliment as the record basically is 35 minutes of chuggy chugs chugs with occasional dumb guitar solos. The vocalist is solid but does not stand out among the rest of the "good deathcore growler". |
| Ryuichi Sakamoto Async | 3.9 |
| A delicate and impeccably produced suite of electroacoustic-yy modern classical pieces complemented by field recordings, async is a moving record above all else. Emotions pour out of each tune, whether they are moody or touching. |
| Ravyn Lenae Crush | 3.7 |
| How exceptional "Sticky" is: phat bassline to make the ass shake, elastic vocal performance by Lenae who literally surfs on the beat with her "ooh-ooh"s, and a cookie-smooth production. The rest of the tunes are cool with their psychy vibe, but simply do not attain "Sticky"'s level. |
| Hubert Félix Thiefaine Suppléments de mensonge | 3.9 |
| Gorgeous songwriting made even more beautiful thanks to lush instrumentation, poetic lyrics, and powerful delivery that carries weight, sadness, and romanticism. So fucking French. Oui. |
| Wiley Godfather | 3.4 |
| Yeah, that's grime at its grimiest: basses are thumping, garage and jungle breakbeats are breakbeatin' hard, the dancehall influences are mucho evidento, and Wiley raps as if he's gotta use all his breath before the end of each song. Lit, shame the features ain't on par. |
| Sd Laika That's Harakiri | 3.2 |
| Glitchy, grimy, deconstructed, and mechanical, That's Harakiri is almost clubby - the bassy aesthetic is phat -, but it's way too razor-sharp to be considered so. Interesting for sure, but not really my thang. |
| 13 Block Violence urbaine émeute | 3.4 |
| Hard as feck trap mixtape that tackles typical gangsta/street shit. While the energy is perfect for some weight-lifting or ass-kicking, the lyrics and sonic palette aren't diversified enough to justify the 70-minutes length. It's very consistent though - almost all beats go mega hard. |
| The Callous Daoboys Celebrity Therapist | 3.8 |
| Frantic mathcore that brings the spazz in their compositions. It's a clusterfuck of ideas, but one that does make sense. The addition of clean passages softens the overall soundscape and elevates the whole lot to the best of the genre post-TDEP. |
| JID The Forever Story | 3.9 |
| Mega record this one. As banging as it is soulful, The Forever Story features many ambiances - and many unnecessary features -, beat switches (hell yeah), changing flows (hell yeah), and dope storytelling. It does slightly drop off in the second half - no tune is bad, but much less explosive and expressive both lyrically and musically compared to the first half. |
| Clams Casino Rainforest | 3.7 |
| A suite of chill, forest-y beats, Rainforest sees Clams Casino go further down the atmospheric rabbit hole while retaining that big fucking heart that made his Instrumental Mixtapes so potent. Among the ethereal beats, reverbed voices and a beating heart bring the record its hypnago vibe. |
| Messa Close | 3.8 |
| Dope doom metal that also features some experimentations in the form of jazz or psych rock. In the end, these additions are mostly incidental, as this is, first and foremost, an extremely competent doom album carried by ritualistic vocals, which brings the record its grand aspect. |
| So La Lune Fissure de vie | 3.0 |
| New gen French rap: plugg-inspired, with cloudy and gentle trap beats, clear sensibility. While the dude clearly is talented and offers a rich album, I just don't like his voice and his flows - kinda like another new gen boi, La Feve. |
| Arca Stretch 2 | 3.3 |
| yah it's early Arca: wonky shit supported by a cloudy atmosphere, trippy rhythms, and alien vocals. It's slightly better done than on the first Stretch, but the kick provided isn't on par with bangers like &&&&& or their self-titled album. |
| Sorority Noise You're Not As ____ As You Think | 2.8 |
| Introspective emo that features everything from 2010s introspective emo: twinkly guitars, sadboi lyrics and atmosphere. woo! The biggest issue is the songwriting, with very few tracks standing out among their all-too-resembling peers. |
| thoughtcrimes Altered Pasts | 3.7 |
| Is Altered Pasts a TDEP throwback? Sure, but that's what makes it cool. Truth is, Thoughtcrimes also have a Deftones-like vibe on the calm tracks, while the more violent ones bring an almost grindy attitude - all complemented by nice lil additions, like strings or "oooooh"s that always work on me. |
| Stella Donnelly Flood | 3.2 |
| Much less jangly than Donnelly's debut, Flood still features her lovely voice and indie pop antics, but at the expense of the charisma and humor that oozed from Beware of the Dogs. It's still charming, but its charm and its melodies are much more subtle - the guitar retreating to the background sure plays a role in that. |
| Benny The Butcher The Plugs I Met | 3.6 |
| Hard-hitting beats, focused and dark lyricism and rapological technique, a gritty atmosphere: yep, that's a Griselda record. While the EP is mega consistent, all tracks are kinda samey - good thing it's an EP then. |
| Charli XCX Vroom Vroom | 3.1 |
| While Charli never was an impressive singer, her energy and the beats surrounding her were what allowed her to skyrocket to famedom. Gotta say SOPHIE's beats aren't my fav of them - each track alternates between banging and irritating. Definitely an interesting release though, it really kickstarted Charli's foray into hyperpop, and further cemented SOPHIE as one of the most important producers of their era. |
| Rival Consoles Persona | 3.7 |
| Persona unfolds itself as a suite of microhouse-slash-IDM tunes backed by techno beats, its density only matched by its minimalism. This ain't club music, these are headphones textures swelling up until they die out by exhaustion. Some tracks were, imso (in my shitty opinion), not unraveling enough climaxes to justify their lengths though. |
| Casey Love Is Not Enough | 3.9 |
| Emotional melodic hardcore is a big "fuck yeah" for me, and Casey's Love Is Not Enough is no exception. Carried by vivid lyrics, painfully poignant vocals, and passionated hardcore that does not forget to add the occasional melancholic guitar lead, it's the whole fucking package. Shame Lost Ground, Witness, No Love Can Save Me, and many other 2000s melodic hardcore releases already occupy a way too important place in my heart. |
| Jefre Cantu-Ledesma In Summer | 3.6 |
| The most blissful noise music has ever sounded. Cantu-Ledesma weaves hypnagogic sounds through droney noises that nevertheless feel warm and fuzzy. It results in 25 minutes of music that's as peaceful as it is intense. Like a canicular summer afternoon. Gotta say the more droney pieces that feature little melody are nice in context, but they simply do not evoke as much emotion as the more hypnagogic pieces. |
| Norma Jean Wrongdoers | 3.9 |
| Super cool metalcore whose violence is never dampened by clean vox or melodies - yay. What ultimately makes Wrongdoers a front-to-back bangerfest is the songwriting, each track packing a different punch. |
| Baauer Aa | 3.3 |
| The "Harlem Shake" dude releases an album. Guess what? It ain't fodder cliche trap EDM stuff - big woo! Not that there ain't trappy EDM - can't fool anyone - but they don't constitute the whole package: some wonky shit happens here and there, as well as some chiller moments. Good taste ain't always present tho, as some Tomorrowland-ready kinda stuff still plagues the album. Nevertheless, a surprisingly cool dance record. |
| Conan Evidence of Immortality | 3.7 |
| Heavy as shit sludgy doom supported by mega dynamic drumming and fat af tones. Shit cranks, but it kinda made me want to jam Hell lmao. |
| Mick Jenkins The Water[s] | 3.7 |
| A super great conscious abstract jazzy cloudy rap bullshit tape, The Water(s) features a cool concept with hooks, lyrics, and beats alternatively stealing the show. Shame the first half blows the second one outta the water(s). |
| Mac DeMarco Another One | 3.2 |
| Decent lil EP by the MacMan, but it offers little variation or originality in the MacWorld to properly stand out. |
| Shygirl Cruel Practice | 3.4 |
| Cruel Practice is 13 minutes of chaotic industrial rave material with half-rapped/half-spoken vocals that, despite all its originality, didn't manage to fully embark me to its twisted club. An interesting release though. |
| Zeal and Ardor Stranger Fruit | 3.7 |
| Black metal and gospel? On paper, this sounds like a great idea, both genres drawing their specificity by fusing emotion and intensity. It sometimes works on Stranger Fruit: tracks like "Don't You Dare" manage to leverage both its parent influences' spirits. Unfortunately, the whole shtick tires pretty quickly, and the late electronic interludes aren't all necessary - gotta trim it up. The formula is good, just needs some refinements to come up with what could be a definitive album. |
| Beartooth Disgusting | 3.2 |
| Owyeah, melometalcore with sing-along choruses. Gotta say, while the purely musical aspect didn't stand out among the fucking red ocean that was melometalcore, some of the choruses are damn effective ("Beaten in Lips", "One More"). Some of them are obnoxious tho, like - oh surprise - on the most-streamed track "In Between". |
| Corey Feldman Angelic 2 The Core | 1.0 |
| A fucking mess of an album that tries to conjure so many things at once that it magnificently fails. Lyrics, vocal delivery, mixing, the genres he's tried to mesh together, how epic it tries to be, basically everything is so off the book it becomes an out-of-body experience. Bravo Corey, you tried, and I can only respect ya for that. 1.2 |
| Grouper Paradise Valley | 3.7 |
| Fucking hell, if slowcore was to be perfected in 8 minutes, then Liz Harris just did that with Paradise Valley. Way too short, yeah, but oh prettiness. |
| Boygenius boygenius | 3.1 |
| Dammit, chan summarized this record so well: "Supergroup meets expectations but fails to exceed them". That's mostly due to the three gals revolving around the same (roughly) musical paysage, and none of them seems to push their formula forward. The songs are good though if a lil cheesy at times ("Stay Down" ugh). |
| Eddy de Pretto Cure | 3.0 |
| French chanson delivery with poppy tendencies and pop rap beats made a lotta people scream hallelujah in 2018. It's nice, indeed, but apart from the occasional hippity-hoppity beats and the genuine LGBT-friendly lyrics, it's typical French chanson with its convoluted metaphors and love topics. |
| 3TEETH shutdown​.​exe | 3.6 |
| Cool industrial record that doesn't offer anything original yet does its shtick extremely well: this is martial enough for industrial, yet it retains a hidden catchiness among the riffs' heaviness. Head-banging shit = always cool. |
| Westside Gunn and Conway Griselda Ghost | 3.8 |
| Griselda's Westside Gunn and Conway rap over Big Ghost Ltd.'s beats. Griselda Ghost is, in a way, predictable: it's grimy NYC boom bap, and WG and Conway are extremely complementary vocally - WG with the nasal voice and Conway with the hard as feck one. |
| Billie Eilish dont smile at me | 3.4 |
| Eilish's 2017 debut EP was fresh and all, but I mostly feel like it's also more genuine than her LPs. The production isn't too wide, restraining itself around Eilish's vocal delivery. While I ain't a fan of her latest efforts, gotta say this EP - despite its quality - is still a tad too much reliant on adapting what Lana and Lorde were doing at the time. |
| Blanck Mass World Eater | 3.9 |
| World Eater is a face-eating electro-industrial record that goes a step further in terms of aggression compared to Dumb Flesh. There still are ambient pieces here and there, but stomping power noise brings rhythmic dynamism while IDM lines bring out the melody. The whole lot is repetitive enough to induce hypnosis, and some beats go hard enough to be labeled as "heavy as shit club music". |
| Ed Sheeran ÷ | 2.0 |
| A chill yet inoffensive record whose most well-known singles now constitute a trip down the "2017 nostalgia road". That's basically the only appeal of this one since this is common denominator music at its lowest. Not unpleasant, for sure, but despite the overall benevolence, it's still pretty boring because of how shallow it is. |
| Tuxedo Tuxedo ll | 3.5 |
| As rooted in synthy boogie disco-like as the debut, Tuxedo II manages to induce more foot-stomping and ass-shaking, and that's basically all you could ask for given the record's nature. Ain't Michael Jackson - Thriller, that's for sure, but it's a cool lil album to spend Friday nights to. |
| Elysia Crampton American Drift | 2.7 |
| Quite scattered all-electronic record (dungeon synth & Latin together, that's a surprise, but also traces of crunk or cumbia) that goes for repetitive patterns that, despite compositional qualities, just don't manage to move me. |
| Imagine Dragons ÆŽVOLVE | 2.1 |
| Another arena faux-rock beat-full exercise of sub-Chris Martin howling. A few tracks feature a dumb solo which is both lame and cool. |
| Black Dresses WASTEISOLATION | 3.4 |
| Wasteisolation is a noisy, industrial pop record that understands how to balance its two main influences - the hooks are poppy and the hard-as-feck moments invoke everything industrial - even though the vocal deliveries tend to leave me lukewarm. |
| Obscura Omnivium | 3.4 |
| Aight German tech death whose bass noodling provides some groove - that's a yay - but whose compositions overall fail to stand out in the grand scheme of tech death properly - that's a nay. When they focus on songwriting like on the banging opening track, it does slap and whatnot. |
| Gazo KMT | 2.8 |
| A good evolution: Gazo still does the drill + autotune combo, but he learned how to use the effect properly and also refined his raps. It's still nothing extraordinary, but at least it's not outright unpleasant like his mixtape. |
| Krallice Loüm | 2.7 |
| Another gloubiboulga of a record for the Krallice guys. In terms of mastering as well as musicianship, this is *mwah*, but it really seems like they don't care about composition or songwriting. |
| GHOSTEMANE Hexada | 2.6 |
| Ghostemane does trap metal: 808s and distortion, bars, and screams. While this aesthetic is an interesting one, Hexada isn't fully developed as most tracks are too short to expand their propositions properly. It mostly trades trap parts with metal parts without fully integrating the two sounds. |
| Poppy Choke | 3.7 |
| Good surprise this one. Choke is basically a short collection of poppy songs that have various degrees of industrial and electronic touches, from the mega-frantic to the "lighters on" lullaby. |
| Columbine (FR) Enfants Terribles | 3.2 |
| Much less adolescent and care-free than debut Clubbing for Columbine, Enfants Terribles still retains some of that earnest lyrical matter (their writing has improved btw), but it's much less unfocused musically. Nevertheless, the beats are often overloaded with too much stuff happening at once. Still not the aesthetic that pleases me the most, but they've shown that when they let go of sonic experimentations, they're bona fide songcrafters. |
| Machine Girl ...BECAUSE I'M YOUNG ARROGANT AND HATE EVERYTHING | 2.7 |
| Much more aggressive than WLFGRL, Because machinchouette still uses hardcore breaks to get the rhythm going, but this time gabber replaces footwork, which gives the record an overly chaotic vibe. Solipsism is a bitch, and this aesthetic tends to irritate me in the long run. |
| Schwefelgelb Dahinter das Gesicht | 3.8 |
| Mega hard blend of EBM and industrial techno whose intensity makes it absolutely irresistible. While all tunes are cool, the opener is a lesson in industrial techno - such a banger. |
| Laurel Halo Dust | 3.8 |
| Vocals are back! After being left off Chances of Rain, vox make a grand re-apparition on Dust. However, musically, this is the barest Halo has ever been: while the debut was hypnotic ambient pop and the preceding record a great all-around techno effort, Dust is a wild ride. One track discards beats to offer jazzelectronic free improv, but is then followed by a streamlined, poppy tune. It makes for a diverse record that nevertheless holds together thanks to Halo's vision - basically idrk why it makes sense despite the wide'n'wild soundscape, but it does make sense. |
| BEN plg Réalité Rap Musique, Vol. 2 | 3.6 |
| Only three months after the first volume, vol. 2 comes harder, more pissed-off, and better realised overall. Beats are catchier or more poignant depending on the selected mood, the autotunes are better done, and he's already showing growth in terms of songwriting. There still are some facilities here and there ("Arrete de crier sur ta meuf"), but this EP consolidates Ben's place among the best newcomers. |
| Hatchie Giving the World Away | 3.2 |
| Hatchie's hatchiying hard here: some of her best songs can be found here (opener, "Quicksand") thanks to her sometimes-baggy-like vibe ("The Rythm"), yet this sophomore release still contains some of that shallow songwriting that already plagued her debut. |
| Ben Quad I'm Scared That's All There Is | 3.6 |
| Twinkly doodles that are both warm and dynamic? That's the best emo, especially when combined with compelling songwriting (on some tracks). Very cool lil album that shows great potential. |
| Wake Thought Form Descent | 3.7 |
| Now that's modern metal: fusing different genres to offer a unique proposition. Thought Form Descent is a progressive blackened death metal record that offers as many povnding moments as melodic passages. The formula worked much better in the record's early stages, as the last couple of tracks didn't stray too far from what the first few tracks perfected. |
| Viagra Boys Cave World | 3.6 |
| Viagra Boys always were a live band before being a studio one - and they prove on Cave World that they're ready to transform. They finally refine the songwriting of their arena-ready energy while still keeping the foot-stomping grooves and snarky punchlines. It's actually when they let go of infectious grooves that they fall back on Welfare Jazz's faults. Big fucking yay, now imma shake da ass. |
| Valleyheart Heal My Head | 3.5 |
| Heal My Head is a pretty cool alt/indie ('member that tag) record grounded in late 90s/early noughties indie guitar music, with emo-ish vocals that at times go a tad too much on the sadboi road. The band nevertheless knows how to build choruses and surround them with dynamic compositions, which allow the most bomb-ass-thicc songs to become memorable. |
| Marietta Summer Death | 3.3 |
| Woah midwest emo. This is the genre in a nutshell: half-sung, half-shouted vocals, sadboi emotional lyrics, and mathy guitars with the occasional twinkle. The songwriting is good but not amazing if you know your fair share of midwest emo. |
| Regina Spektor Home, Before and After | 3.5 |
| Album after album, Regina Spektor slowly lets go of indie antics to go to grander territories - orchestral elements shine hard on this one. Fortunately, this classy aesthetic doesn't tend towards background-ness (although some songs kinda do). Home, Before and After is mostly composed of dreamy songs that nevertheless are intense, thanks to an absolutely gorgeous production and arrangements. |
| The Spirit Of The Beehive Hypnic Jerks | 3.5 |
| Cool indie this one, with psychy and noisy antics fighting to get the hand on the very hypnagogic soundscape. In the end, despite its overall pleasantness, the record does not seem to know where to go, and alternates punky shit with gloomy shit without much cohesion - the vocal samples clearly do not help. Shame, 'cause it's a super cool aesthetic. |
| Drive-By Truckers Welcome 2 Club XIII | 3.4 |
| Chill yet dynamic alt-country that just oozes America (fuck yeah) with its nods to past greats - hello Springsteen and Young! While it doesn't reinvent the wheel, it's got enough personality to be a pleasant alt-country record with a couple of cool jams. |
| TNGHT TNGHT | 3.4 |
| Woah this does feel like 2012. 2012 in a summer festival to be more precise: there's some wonky, some WUB WUB WUBs, repeating vocal snippets that were all the rage back then, and hyphy energy that never stops. Great shit, if made for one specific setting. |
| Angel Du$t Rock The Fuck On Forever | 3.7 |
| It's Angel Du$t yaknow: it's short, it's a blend of 80s hardcore, skate, and pop punk with the occasional indie rock nod, and it's as fun as it is energetic. The songs were even better on their debut tho. |
| NAYEON IM NAYEON | 3.2 |
| Nayeon from Twice does what's expected of her: exuberantly sugary pop with a blend of Korean and English. Mission achieved, as IM NAYEON is catchy as hell as well as a damn energy ball of an album. It doesn't escape generism, as the W-Pop (Western Pop btw) influences overshadow the K-Pop ones - at times it sounds like Korean sung on top of a "Dua Lipa type beat". |
| The Weeknd My Dear Melancholy, | 3.1 |
| After trying to go *pop* on his albums, Tesfaye returned to the sonic territories of his 2011 tapes. And it's ok - in that, apart from the first tune, the rest is alright but not meaning much more than that in the grand scheme of things. Thankfully it's 20 minutes long. |
| Shabaka Afrikan Culture | 3.5 |
| Shabaka wanted to chill down, and they did: Afrikan Culture is a breath of fresh air in their frenzy, rhythms-full discography. There ain't no rhythmic section here - which works both for and against the album - which makes this record more of an ambient one with jazz instrumentations. |
| Jeanjass Doudoune en été | 3.8 |
| Good ol' JJ comes back just to prove he's one of the most effortlessly cool Belgian rappers. As usual, the beats alternate between the boom and the trap, and his punchlines often lie halfway between profound and ridiculous - the best kind of punchlines. What's especially nice is that, after trying to follow what was hype during the 2018-2021 period, the dude seems like he's comfortable just being himself - and that's, ultimately, what makes Doudoune en ete such a cool lil record. |
| Bicep Bicep | 3.8 |
| Let's go to the club and dance. Bicep is all things house/techno/garage smashed together with roaring bass and crystal-clear production, with enough atmosphere to be as appreciated with headphones as in da club. What's only lacking for this to transcend club territories are clear hooks or distinctive melodies. Basically, if said hooks adorn each track with something as recognizable as "Glue", it'd be a fucking definitive 2010s electronic record. It ain't that, but it's still very fucking good to shake da ass. |
| Pyrrhon The Mother of Virtues | 2.9 |
| Another Marston-mastered project, another overly-technical death metal record. In the end, The Mother of All Virtues uses a dissodeath aesthetic within a destructured, noisy template that often fails to convert its pandemonic nature into a comprehensible package. tldr: apparently im a dumdum. |
| Post Malone Twelve Carat Toothache | 2.3 |
| As always with Post Malone albums, Twelve Carat Tootache is mostly uninspired, with an unbalanced mixing - the beats are mostly buried behind the voice - and lazy performances. That's the usual, yep, but on this one, bops do not even bop. |
| Pusha T It's Almost Dry | 3.7 |
| Compact, diverse, hard-as-feck, and featuring a great, raw production, It's Almost Dry is yet another occasion for Pusha T to demonstrate how great of a rapper he is. Simple as that. Shame the album is so front-loaded. |
| Say Sue Me The Last Thing Left | 3.6 |
| Korean YoLo Tengo-worshipping indie surf: it's a thing, and a good one at that! The Last Thing Left feels like a summer breeze - but not the one you feel at the beach, no: the one you feel while laying out in orange, burned grass. Still feels like summer, but a downer one. |
| Bladee Working On Dying | 3.0 |
| Another lethargic blend of cloud and trap rap, but I feel like Working on Dying specifically works when it ain't lethargic. Look no further than Yung Lean and Black Kray's feats that add welcome diversity to Bladee's delivery. Of course, the beats are immaculate, but that's to be expected. |
| Cave In Heavy Pendulum | 3.9 |
| Cave In continue their path without Caleb Scofield with a metal album that's evidently different from the band's past material. It's much more midtempo, with a beautiful guitar tone leading the melodic duties while the power charge is led by sludge heaviness. This makes for a balanced release - with alt metal, sludge, grunge, and post-hardcore being smushed together that knows when to go full headbang and when to let it rise to psychedelic heights. |
| The Smile A Light For Attracting Attention | 2.9 |
| Woah this Thom Yorke-led project wasn't hyped as much as last year's Kid Amnesiac repressing. Accompanied with bestie Greenwood and Sons of Kemet's drummer Tom Skinner, The Smile goes everywhere - post-punky rager, introspective "art" muzak, mathy passages, and jazz-rock tunes - without tying its propositions together. Especially, the space given to Skinner is quite narrow, most of the compositions being either led by Yorke's songwriting or Greenwood's arrangements. |
| Swallow the Sun Songs from the North I, II & III | 3.1 |
| A behemoth triple album separated by "moods": gloom, beauty, and despair. While all three vibes are well-represented musically (the first LP majorly being melodeathdoom, the second one much more acoustic, and the last one funeral stuff), it just is way too overloaded to be as enjoyable in the long run as it is while only digesting lil nuggets. |
| Knocked Loose Pop Culture | 3.8 |
| 12 minutes of heavy as shit beatdown-influenced metalcore: you don't need more than that! The boys are pissed: the low-tuned axes, the povnding drumz, and the angry yellin' boi join together to create a stupidly fun and heavy lil EP. |
| Medine Prose Élite | 3.5 |
| One of the leading faces of the conscious French rap scene, Medine finally gets up with the zeitgeist and raps on trap beats. He thus sounds the most modern he's ever been - yet - while retaining his political stances. Might well be his best album - even though he's more of a "one track and go" rapper to me because of the heavy matter. |
| MIKE MAY GOD BLESS YOUR HUSTLE | 3.7 |
| Depressed shit for real. On par with Bedwetter lyrically, the hypnago-abstract aesthetic and the short track lengths link this with Some Rap Songs. Heavy shit, but an experience in and of itself - I'd nevertheless say that in terms of depressed abstract rap, May God Bless Your Hustle is less gripping than Bedwetter & Earl's records. |
| Peggy Gou Once | 3.4 |
| The reasons for Peggy Gou's rose to prominence are evident on Once: her tunes can be nostalgic, dynamic, or stylish while always retaining that good ol' straightforward four-on-the-floor template. Simple and kinda generic, but efficient. |
| White Ward False Light | 3.4 |
| Black metal already proved to fusion well with many genres: why not dark jazz? These dark jazz parts add a "film noir" vibe that works well with the band's gloomy take on atmoblack, both aesthetics giving space to let the other one leverage its dynamism. Shame the best example of such an aesthetic is the opener, the rest of the album offering a tad too much monotony. |
| Perfume Genius Ugly Season | 3.0 |
| Once again with Perfume Genius, I fail to embark on the journey they offer me. While the atmosphere sure is haunting and supported by diverse textures, the replayability is close to zero, and the experience never makes me consider stopping what I was doing. |
| Portico Quartet Art in the Age of Automation | 3.4 |
| Portico Quartet tryin' to put some Reich & Roach into their jazz. Indeed, Art in the Age of Automation (lit title btw) is much more minimal and downtempo than straight-up jazz. While it makes for a loungey listen, the relative lack of diversity makes this one a pleasant if a rather uneventful record. |
| Imperial Triumphant Spirit of Ecstasy | 3.6 |
| Imperial Triumphant continue with their trademarked blend of dissodeath and Zornesque orchestrations in an always-claustrophobic release that, while not as immediately rewarding as Alphaville, still manages to pull out impressive moments - "Merkurius Gilded" being exactly what I expect from this band. Not all tracks land as well, but Spirit of Ecstasy nevertheless cements the band's place among the top dissodeath dawgs. |
| Conjurer (UK) Pathos | 4.1 |
| Continuing the formula deployed on 2018's Mire, Conjurer fuses everything extreme metal together: sludge, black, hardcore, basically everything that falls under the post-metalcore umbrella, with doom making a striking apparition. Pathos is an aesthetic tour de force, coupled with songwriting that definitely establishes Conjurer as a major extreme metal actor. |
| M.I.A. VICKI LEEKX | 3.7 |
| While Maya was an avant-garde gloubiboulga of electropop-slash-industrial proto-PC Music, the Vicki Leekx tape is ALSO an avant-garde gloubiboulga, but this time of Baltimore-full hip-house moomba proto-PC Music. Dunno why, but the evident club energy Leekx got justifies all kinds of dubious artistic choices, from the crows' samples to the proto-Diplo moombahshit nods. Lit. Very lit. |
| Drab Majesty The Demonstration | 3.5 |
| Is this the 80s? With an ethereal palette ranging from darkwave to gothic to synthy stuff, The Demonstration is a demonstration (lol) of how to replicate The Cure's Disintegration into the 2010s musical soundscape. While it sure is engaging yet gloomy, the record does not fully manage to be more than "a very good retro record". |
| Tate McRae I Used to Think I Could Fly | 2.7 |
| When I Used to Think I Could Fly goes for the sassy trap'n'B cuts, it embodies the definition of milquetoast - McRae ain't got the voice to carry a song through a meh beat. When she pours her emotions into ballads, it's less milquetoast thanks to the lyrics, but still milquetoast musically. And when she goes power pop rock, it's basically a less interesting version of "good 4 u" - now a classic :] - despite her more confident performance on these kinds of tunes - kudos for "she's all i wanna be" and its fun vibe. |
| Wovenhand Refractory Obdurate | 3.9 |
| Super dope gothic americana record this one. It's constantly dark without being haunting, fusing psych elements with the resolutely gothic and country base, the whole lot being sufficiently heavy to reminisce stoner paysages. Even though the slower songs provide less of a punch compared to the beefed-up ones, this is a consistent record that knows how to instigate an atmosphere while still keeping it rockin'. |
| Slimka No Bad, vol. 1 | 3.4 |
| Another member of the Swiss Superwak Clique alongside Makala and Di-Meh, Slimka lies halfway between Makala's more artistic vision and Di-Meh's more traditional rapological technique. No Bad, vol. 1 thus succeeds the most when the beats move away from "bassy'n'trappy", while Slimka's technique - not amazing per se - manages to offer different flows and vibes for the record to be enjoyable - more so than Di-Meh's first two albums. |
| Big Thief Capacity | 3.4 |
| As often, Big Thief charm me when staying away from slow'n'sad tunes whose interest mostly revolves around Lenker's lyricism. When they add a lil touch of dynamism, like on "Shark Smile" or "Mythological Beauty", they clearly are one of the most charming modern bands. |
| Binker and Moses Journey to the Mountain of Forever | 2.7 |
| Like on their Dem Ones debut, the Bri'ish post-free-bop-bullshit duo brings intensity into their performances, but it rarely transforms the tracks into head-bopping bangers. Likewise, when they go for more introspective palettes, tunes tend to induce more of a sleepy vibe than a chill one. |
| Alexisonfire Otherness | 4.1 |
| Now that's an extremely solid comeback, packed with everything that made the band so popular - heavy riffs counterpointed by more melodic linings, and the vocal trio that each uses their voice to their max potential. It ain't the same Alexisonfire, but in terms of energetic output that's catchy enough to find a comfy place in yo head, the Canadians still are the same good ol' Alexisonfire. |
| Beyonce Renaissance | 3.8 |
| Queen B with the bouncy ass shit. RENAISSANCE has got everything Beyonce: it fuses the artsier side of her previous two records, the fun and radio-friendly side of her biggest bangers, and the "for the culture" dimension that is always close to her heart. Now only have to shake da ass to these house-full jams. |
| Eminem Revival | 1.0 |
| You can only believe it if you listen to it. A dude's lost, and he tries to capture what made him great 20 years ago without seeming to understand what made him great in the first place. 'member when he was fun? Him neither. On top of that, he never was *amazing* with choruses, but this time they are either laughable or sung by pop stars he would have trashed back in da dayz. Oh and of course, the record is way too long at almost 80 minutes. A complete wreck of an album. 1.1 |
| James Holden The Inheritors | 3.5 |
| A challenging one for sure, The Inheritors sees Holden play with different bleep bloop genres, with IDM dominating the soundscape among some traces of prog electro, microhouse, and various minimal shit also happening. While the mega length makes it difficult not to occasionally faze out, some tunes demonstrate their strength either by pure IDM-esque energy (the t/t) or by house-like four-on-the-floor rhythms ("Blackpool Late Eighties"). |
| Cosmic Putrefaction Crepuscular Dirge for the Blessed Ones | 3.7 |
| An OSDM record with spacey passages, Crepuscular Dirge for the Blessed Ones - yes this is metal - manages to combine the typical OSDM cavernous aspect with the atmosphere necessary to invoke cosmic paysage, as well as intricate rhythmic changes. The tracks that nail this alliance are top-notch death metal ("From Resounding Silence to the Obsidian Womb", "Twisting Spirals in the Murk", or "Cradle Wrecked, Curtains Unfurled" - yes this is metal). When it's not attaining such heights, the rest of the material, while competent dm, does not differentiate too much from the putrefied mass. |
| The Twilight Sad Nobody Wants To Be Here And Nobody Wants To Leave | 3.6 |
| Gloomy post-punk that's got dem melodies all around - which makes it cool but also diminishes its inherent sense of despair. What's also ironic given the poppy linings is the relative lack of memorable riffs. Still, as a whole, Nobody Wants to Be Here and Nobody Wants to Leave is an introspective experience of gloomy post-punk. |
| Porcupine Tree Closure/Continuation | 2.9 |
| Woah prog! While definitely a good album, C/C ultimately is a pretty fine prog record that just makes you want to listen to previous Porcupine Tree albums. |
| Richard Dawson Peasant | 3.9 |
| Lovely: Dawson acts like a bard on Peasant, narrating medieval-like tales to pastoral folk instrumentations. He can't sing, but his emotion-conveying interpretation, as well as the grand baroque-like bursts of melody, largely compensates for that. With its outsider/punkish vibe as well as the occasional gang vocals, Peasant sounds like an escape out of the 21st century that can nevertheless be enjoyed by those who let themselves burn. |
| Migos Culture | 3.2 |
| The 'gos finally release an album and not a mixtape. Not that the listening experience changes a lot, but, culturally, this one had way more impact than the preceding mixtapes - that "mauvais & bourgeois" tune was almost overplayed in 2017 if "Shape of You", "Despacito", and "One Dance" didn't exist. When the three dudes stay afar from features, the record is a boastful exercise in trap, always repetitive, yet constantly bouncy. It also got a track with da weird lil flute - a guaranteed bop ("Get Right Witcha"). Cool shi, but not on par with their more explosive 2013-2015 tapes. |
| Lupe Fiasco Drill Music in Zion | 3.9 |
| Lupe's back again with a cool record: to-the-point (relatively, it's Fiasco we talkin' about), beats-wise diverse, while still retaining his abstract persona. Most importantly, he condensed his matter to come up with what might be his most consistent record. |
| Dir En Grey Phalaris | 2.5 |
| Over-the-top proggy metal with many influences that follow one another with few transitions or smoothness - and despite its attempts at sounding big and wide, it just lacks some "oomph" to be impacting. |
| Various Artists Whom The Moon A Nightsong Sings | 3.9 |
| A collection of dark and nordic folk, Whom the Moon a Nightsong Sings features top dogs like Vali, Ulver, Empyrium, Nest, Musk Ox, Tenhi, but what makes it special is how consistent and coherent it is. It feels like one single artist's definitive statement on the genre, and that's what makes it so great: it just flows by effortlessly thanks to its unique atmosphere. |
| Soen Lykaia | 3.0 |
| Same as uzhe' with the Soen bois: competent altprog that's well-produced yet never strives to be more than a copycat of Tool & Opeth's baby. |
| bladee x ECCO2K x Thaiboy Digital D&G | 2.6 |
| Drain Gang 2017: A compilation gathering tunes from Bladee, ECCO2K, and Thaiboi Digital with two Yung Lean apparitions. Gotta say very few tunes here impressed me, most of them being stuck in a vacuum made of ethereal beats and nonchalant R&B lines. Not the most impressive release from the Stockholm Cloud Gang. |
| Black Midi Hellfire | 3.6 |
| A refinement on the mid Cavalcade, Hellfire kinda justifies how much of a slog the preceding record is: this is basically the same dadaist brutal jazzy avant-prog shizzle. Still, this time the compositions are properly engaging. This is the main difference, really: the songs are better. Still ain't focused enough to properly awe from front to back, but a refinement of their previous proposition. |
| Wormrot Hiss | 3.7 |
| Wormrot spice their grindcore up with many influences, both musical - skate punk, DSBM, dumb thrash, and even occasional violins - as well as vocal ones - dude does shrieking and barking and whispering very well. Thanks to this diverse approach, Hiss manages to be an impactful - if uneven - listen that, at times, touches on the sublime ("Glass Shards" mfg). |
| Sasquatch Fever Fantasy | 3.2 |
| This ain't the most original stoner album out there, but Sasquatch do know how to riff and whatnot. It just slightly goes into the background after a while for lack of diversity. |
| Petrol Girls Baby | 4.2 |
| Pissed-the-feck-off feminist noisy punk/post-hardcore: hell yeah. Baby blends furious sociopolitical diatribe with catchy and enthralling compositions and vocal deliveries: what's more to ask from a riot grrrl album? |
| BEN plg Réalité Rap Musique, Vol. 1 | 3.4 |
| A newcomer on the French rap scene, Ben plg's formula is one of sadboi-slash-conscious that delights the critics thanks to a smooth technique. Some autotunes aren't as well executed as the rest of the vocal deliveries, but it nevertheless brings another way of conveying emotions - something the dude does very well. Also, there's a tune with a "Jul type beat", which doesn't go well - at all - with Ben's formula. |
| Bad Bunny Un Verano Sin Ti | 3.2 |
| Latin rhythms - they're all over Un verano sin ti. Much more diverse than his previous projects, this newest Bad Bunny record boasts every kind of rhythm - reggaeton ofc, but also trap (less prominent than on precedent albums), dancehall, afrobeats, and even some EDM. Still, at 80 minutes long, it could have definitely benefited from some trimming, the hi-energy becoming tiring in the long run. |
| Prince Daddy and The Hyena Prince Daddy And The Hyena | 3.8 |
| Prince Daddy's self-titled record is messy but good. Messy because diverging propositions succeed one another in the form of tunes that do not necessarily have a lot of inherent continuation, but good because, despite this gloubiboulga of an album, they manage to nail their takes on the emo spectrum in an extremely fun way. Also, the stronger cuts are located in the second half, so the experience definitely is rewarding. |
| Silvana Estrada Marchita | 3.4 |
| Marchita is an absolutely lovely debut, its Mexican folk sometimes being complemented with chamber jazz ornaments. Gotta say the blend of Spanish lyrics and intricate guitar playing made me think of a mix of Natalia Lafourcade and Ichiko Aoba - a lovely combo. The major thing that withholds the record is its overall minimalism - it's pretty, that's for sure, but it doesn't succeed in producing a constant flow of memorable songs. |
| Daniel Rossen You Belong There | 3.8 |
| Chic folk whose richness and progginess are complemented by subtle classical arrangements., like the beautiful baby of Grizzly Bear and Crack-Up-era Fleet Foxes. It could beneficiate from more potent vocal melodies, but the gorgeous production just puts on a vibe. |
| Pomme À peu près | 3.4 |
| Extremely cute lil record this one. Folk pop matches extremely well with the nouvelle chanson francaise aesthetic, Pomme's voice elastically navigating through tunes that effortlessly go from grand to cutesy. Thing is, it really sounds like a debut album, Pomme showing what she can do without fully committing to a specific aesthetic that perfectly fits her. |
| King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard Flying Microtonal Banana | 3.4 |
| You knew what to expect, and you got it. Psychy garage rock with eastern and Anatolian influences and the occasional acid touch? Hell yeah. Is it that different from other King Gizz records? Not that much. Eh. |
| Krallice Hyperion | 2.8 |
| Another Marston-labeled riff salad that, while povnding and whatnot, never goes beyond "over-the-top riffz being played to death". The breakdown and subsequent military drumlines on "The Guilt of Time" constitute a breath of fresh air within the EP, as well as the crescendo-ing intro on "Assuming Memory", but these moments are exceptional - in that they are a rarity. |
| Saba Few Good Things | 3.0 |
| While earnest emotions lie at the center of Few Good Things's discourse, the quite disparate soundscape lost me in the long run, the record sounding constantly pleasant yet underwhelming. |
| William Ryan Key Everything Except Desire | 3.4 |
| This is the Yellowcard guy? He sure knows how to integrate soft, poppy melodies into a majorly bleep-bloopy, downtempo framework. Everything Except Desire does not shine by its gigantism, yet each composition benefits from both delicate and engaging compositions. |
| Ethel Cain Preacher's Daughter | 3.6 |
| When Ethel Cain's powerful lyrics are carried by engaging songwriting ("American Teenager", "Family Tree", "Gibson Girl"), Preacher's Daughter attains a pop perfection level that's as gripping as it is rewarding. However, the songs' progression is often way too monotonous to leverage its lyrical heaviness. Edit: I'm a dumbass, the fourth listen was the right one!!! |
| Pure Reason Revolution Above Cirrus | 3.3 |
| PRR come back with their proggy rock, with some electronic touches here and there and some alt-metal riffs. Like the rest of the group's material, this is constantly cool due to the wide soundscape, but it fails to properly grab me beyond the "ya that's cool" level. |
| HAAi Baby, We’re Ascending | 3.4 |
| A cool breaks record that fuses mechanical beats with eerie textures, the title track serving as an absolute banger of an ID card. When techno beats dominate the soundscape in favour of poppier smoothness, tracks tend to overstay their welcome - in a headphone listen, bet it wouldn't feel the same in da club. |
| Asian Glow Stalled Flutes, means | 3.6 |
| Asian Glow once again reinvent themselves by adding orchestral elements to their formula, as well as expanding the song lengths to let the folktronica touches mesmerize the soundscape. It makes for a big release sonically speaking, yet it ultimately falters compared to Weatherglow collab Weatherglow. |
| Artificial Brain Artificial Brain | 4.1 |
| The new record from the MCU (Marston Chonky Universe) delivers the good - woah, big surprise! Artificial Brain's self-titled album is full of brutal death riffs tending towards dissonance, with clean riffs being buried under the assault, only taking the lead when said assault slightly calms down. The mixing thus is a tad undecipherable at first, but the nuances display their richness after a few listens. Definitely one of the best modern death bands. |
| Shearwater The Great Awakening | 3.0 |
| Slow that ain't core: it's mostly an ethereal "art" record with a folk atmosphere a la Ben Howard and pedant vocal delivery a la Mark Hollis. Classy, for sure, as well as pretty, but its ambient textures do not always succeed at delivering the emotional leverage the lyrics hinted at. The grand, orchestral tracks manage to do so; the calmer tunes do not. |
| Florist Florist | 3.2 |
| Gentle indie folk made of proper tunes and cute interludes - shame the soundscape doesn't change that much throughout the 58-mins length. |
| Danger Mouse and Black Thought Cheat Codes | 3.4 |
| Two top dawgs pairing up to offer an old-school boom bap album - guess what? It's great, Mouse's production being both warm and fuzzy, while Black Thought continues to show how good of a rapper he is. However, despite the constant quality, very few tunes manage to *hit* as much as their potential hinted at. Also idk if I need hip hop that sounds like that in 2022. |
| Romeo Elvis Tout Peut Arriver | 3.7 |
| This time he got it: there ain't no outrageously mainstream features, no candy single to invade the radio waves: it's Romeo Elvis and his blend of conscious and silly lyrics, and beats that are predominantly modern while still voguing between the chill and the hard-hitting. It's not with this record that he's gonna go platinum - I hope for him I'm wrong - but it's the one that will cement his place as one of the most important Belgian rappers. |
| Iglooghost Steel Mogu | 3.4 |
| It's Iglooghost; it's manic; it's frantic; it's a bridge between IDM and EDM. In terms of aesthetic and vision, this is top fucking notch, but I still feel the mixture Iglooghost is concocting isn't perfectly seasoned yet. |
| Lapalux Ruinism | 3.3 |
| Drifting further away from frantic wonky territories, Ruinism accentuates the more ambient vibe showcased on Lustmore. It's still got some of that pop sensibility, displayed by distant R&B-ish vocals. However, I feel the balance Lapalux found on Lustmore was perfect, between electronic textures and chill sexiness invoked by the vocals. Here, while some tunes do find that balance (eg "4EVA"), most tracks often lie too much (according to me, duh) to the ambient pop side of things. Still a great experience, but the Lapalux record that impressed me the least. |
| Calvin Harris Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 2 | 2.5 |
| A bunch of mildly entertaining beats get to have often bad features sing on 'em (eg that 21 Savage one). Harris dropped the ball hard and went back to offering dull music instead of capitalizing on vol 1 formula. |
| Joey Badass 2000 | 3.8 |
| Sporting a lushly stunning production, 2000 cements Bada$$'s place among the top boom bap dawgs in the game. What nevertheless hinders 2000's listening experience is its relative lack of depth: beats ultimately drag on during the last minute of their course. This is not helped by Bada$$'s tendency to rely on verses that, while great, do not elevate the project to its full potential - talking about sex all the time does not help either, I mucho prefer "Pinky & the Brain" refs my man. Still a great record to chill to. |
| Chat Pile God's Country | 3.7 |
| With heavy, noisy, industrial rock, Chat Pile sounds like the dirty baby conceived by Jesus Lizard and Godflesh. However, while this formula worked charms on EP format, it slightly fails to be as impacting on LP as expected - it basically loses some steam as the record goes on. Maybe some calmer/chiller/poster tracks in between the manic shit would have made the intense shit intenser. |
| Boris Heavy Rocks (2022) | 3.6 |
| Heavy Rocks means Boris is gonna rock, and it ain't no bullshit: mostly a blend of noise rock and stoner, this third iteration is as energetic as expected with the usual surprise (the gabber vibe on "Ghostly Imagination", or the dissonant sax sections). Great stuff as usual. |
| Dirty Beaches Drifters/Love Is The Devil | 2.2 |
| Like its predecessor Badlands, this Dirty Beaches record is lo-fi hypnagogic pop with post-punky rhythms thrown into the mix. Again, while aesthetically this is cool lo-fi cowboy stuff, I just fail to see the songs underlying the aesthetic. Plus this time it's almost 80 minutes long, urgh. |
| Archive Call To Arms and Angels | 3.1 |
| Big art rock that managed to keep my attention going despite the ginormous length. It does dwell in self-complacency from time to time, but the balance between ok-tier tunes (the rock-influenced ones) and engaging tracks (the prog electro ones) keeps the record somewhat interesting. |
| Harry Styles Harry's House | 2.9 |
| Harry Styles' a bit like Bruno Mars: he's a crook. He takes influence from past greats - Mars does it with funk and soul, Styles does it with soft and pop rock - and blands it all to create an easy-listening record that neither grabs your attention nor makes you want to furiously turn the muzak off. |
| Flume Palaces | 3.5 |
| Palaces is basically Flume trying to put the sound design experimentationz he did on his 2019 mixtape Hi, This is Flume into the poppier, features-full format of his preceding albums. It thus ends up having, as we say in French, "your ass between two chairs", as the will to navigate between big bangers and deconstruction of bass music often lands as half steps rather than cohesive blends - "Only Fans" being the biggest offender. The best tracks are the ones that decide to go for one aesthetic and stick to it. Still, even the half-assed tunes (not "Only Fans"!!!) manage to please me because solipsism is a bitch. |
| Florence and the Machine Dance Fever | 3.5 |
| This one took its time, but it ultimately confirms that Welch and her Machine always deliver consistent records. While not as bomb-ass-thicc as Ceremonials - still her magnum opus -, nor as subdued as High as Hope - a great record on its own that suffers from the comparison of its predecessors, Dance Fever sits comfortably between her danciest energy and her natural introspection - while sometimes not knowing how much intensity to put into her two vibes. |
| Blut Aus Nord Disharmonium - Undreamable Abysses | 3.9 |
| Confirming they're the best modern French black metal band. What's most impressive is how they manage to make their dissoblack formula so hypnotic thanks to the nightmarish doses of psychedelia they are incorporating - like on the already excellent Hallucinogen. |
| Proper. The Great American Novel | 3.5 |
| As lyrically introspective as it is musically biting, The Great American Novel boasts its black and queer character with punky music that goes from the fragility of emo to the rawness of post-hardcore. It's gripping, but the music - while definitely great - didn't make as much of an impact as the lyrical matter. |
| Moon Tooth Phototroph | 3.2 |
| Sounds like a cheap, tech-focused Avenged Sevenfold tbh - or a watered-down TDEP with Greg Puciato having a cold. Some *riffs* were tasty and there were many fun parts, but overall it's the kind of music that just passes me by without leaving that much of a trace. |
| Sharon Van Etten We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong | 3.3 |
| Van Etten goes 80s, but her synths-full efforts often try to be grand without properly landing: her voice doesn't always match this new "synths go brrr" aesthetic, and some tunes simply aren't interesting when you strip off the big production. Nevertheless, when these elements mute from problems to strength, it does slap hard ("Headspace", "Mistakes"). |
| Otoboke Beaver SUPER CHAMPON | 3.5 |
| SUPER CHAMPON is as fast and energetic as Itekoma Hits - with even some brutal prog influences -, but the songs fail to stand out as much - the whole record tends to blend together a bit. |
| Krallice Prelapsarian | 2.9 |
| Another riff salad, another record with a cool, organic production, and interesting ideas that collide with one another like atoms in the CERN's Large Hadron Collider. The quieter moments bring some fresh air to Prelapsarian, but they also feel like appearing "randomly" in the band's formula. |
| Sum 41 13 Voices | 2.1 |
| erf. basically a subpar version of their past material. not offensively bad, but damn it seems like they definitely erased the word "originality" from their collective memory. oh and it's mega mild too, had unseasoned tofu that had more taste than this. |
| Emma Ruth Rundle Marked for Death | 3.6 |
| It's when she lets her earthy songs elevate themselves towards atmospheric territories that Ruth Rundle truly delivers special music. In a way, her aesthetic made of distortion and wall-of-sound production make Marked for Death go from "yeah" to "hell yeah" - the songs themselves pleased me less than on Some Heavy Ocean. |
| Portal Vexovoid | 3.4 |
| Thicc dissodeath record this one, with some bm tropes thrown here and there. Despite some groovy riffs, the mastering is muddy, which in turn creates a lack of dynamics during the gruffest moments. Povnds hard, but could have beneficiated from a lil less cavernousness. |
| Matmos Ultimate Care II | 2.8 |
| Washing machine sounds - the album. In the end it's an IDM album with musique concrete leanings and a destructured structure (lel) that rests on its gimmicks. Not my cuppa, but a cool experience nonetheless. |
| Darkthrone Arctic Thunder | 3.5 |
| There's one constant with Darkthrone: riffs are tasty. Arctic Thunder doesn't derogate from the rule, even bringing back some black metal and doom metal into their largely 2010s heavy metal material. Riffz, as always, even though this one is much slower than the preceding crust-influenced records. |
| Skee Mask Shred | 3.7 |
| All tunes on Shred feature cascading ambient textures and one specific kind of boom-boom. Whether the boom-boom takes the form of jungle, breakbeat, or techno, it mainly transpires minimalism ("Melczop 2" being an obvious exception) yet never fails to induce some ass-shaking. |
| 21 Savage Savage Mode | 2.8 |
| Kinda lazy this one, especially 21 Savage. His delivery is monochrome and apart from whining, he doesn't put that many emotions into his vocal deliveries. Metro's nocturnal beats are aight without being amazing because of their lack of bomb-ass-thicc-ness, yet he clearly is the one carrying the tape - even though Future is da real MVP with that fire feature. |
| Gucci Mane Everybody Looking | 3.3 |
| Gucci actin' like a rapstar, and it mostly works when he's accompanied by other rapstars - all the feats are straight-up fire. Fortunately, no tune here is a dud - few are bangers tho -, which makes for a consistent record. |
| BABYMETAL Metal Resistance | 2.9 |
| A tad less good than their debut - the more prominent power metal aesthetic ain't my vibe -, Metal Resistance is ofc very gimmicky BUT also fun - although less fun than the debut of the reduced trance apparitions - and that's what matters the most. |
| Mammal Hands Floa | 3.9 |
| Once again, Mammal Hands manage to captivate while offering subtle jazz with spiritual & Japanese inspirations - some passages straight-up sound like stuff Nujabes would have added beats to. It's ultimately a safe record, as it doesn't wander in unknown jazz territories, but the technique and top-notch production guarantee Floa's extremely enjoyable character. |
| Mac Miller The Divine Feminine | 3.3 |
| After going hazy on GO:OD AM, Miller now goes for the soul-influenced jazz hop. Also, after going sad on GO:OD AM, he now goes for the joyful - good for him (at the time). These stylistic changes are laudable, yet The Divine Feminine rarely manages to fully adapt Miller's persona to his newfound aesthetic. Still a cool record, but one that ultimately falters compared to GO:OD AM and Faces. |
| Khemmis Hunted | 3.7 |
| Heavy, that's for sure. Khemmis' sophomore record is basically what their debut was, but enhanced: better production - now that's thicc and more engaging compositions, vocal deliveries, riffs, and solis. |
| Kendrick Lamar Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers | 3.5 |
| Kinda frustrating tbh: there are some absolutely beautiful songs, but most of the tracks here are "great-but-not-waw", mostly due to the gap existing between Kenny's sharp lyricism and the relative unbombastic nature of the beats - gotta say the production and mixing are pristine though. Still, I think Mr. Morale will age well, because its musical characteristics aren't enshrined in today's musical zeitgeist. That's, ultimately, its greatest weakness AND greatest force. |
| Limsa d'Aulnay Logique, pt. 3 | 3.7 |
| The third and final Logique EP shows yet again how Limsa's relatively advanced age for a rookie - he 35 - allows him to be much more profound when describing the lil things in life. Now I really need a full-length. |
| Gospel The Loser | 4.0 |
| Goofier (bc proggier and dem synths being more prominent in the mix) than TMIADW, The Loser loses some of its emotional impact because it (?)deliberately(?) chooses to not go to the same level of batshit craziness as Moon. Still, I get a fucking kick out of The Loser, and that's all I wanted - I can't ask a band to surpass a top 3 GOAT album. |
| Pinegrove Cardinal | 3.7 |
| Adolescent Personal lyrics and a musical hotchpotch of midwest emo, alt-country, and indie rock? Ok, cool, why not. What makes this a great record is its songwriting: hooks are memorable, dynamic switches are powerful, and their fragile lyrics are well-compensated by rawness. The slow songs ain't my thing, but the dynamic ones are truly great. |
| Limsa d'Aulnay Logique, pt. 2 | 3.8 |
| Continuing to display his lyricism, Limsa beneficiates from more engaging beats - ain't no bangers though - to further establish himself as one of the leading indie French rappers. |
| Limsa d'Aulnay Logique, pt. 1 | 3.7 |
| One of the finest modern French lyricists, Limsa manages to deliver introspection without being lewd. The first part of his trilogy is his way of presenting himself, and the job is mostly done lyrically, even though he does lack banging beats or engaging delivery to truly elevate himself out of the niche he's in. |
| Flatbush Zombies 3001: A Laced Odyssey | 3.1 |
| Flatbush Zombies continue the formula they've shown on their two mixtapes - without developing it further. It's hazy yet banging, the rappers are aight without ever being truly great, and the mixing is kinda ass but eh it kinda adds some charm to the whole lot. Bring the first two mixtapes to Spotify pls, this is by far their most popular release yet it doesn't truly showcase the group's qualities. |
| Knocked Loose Laugh Tracks | 3.9 |
| Stupidly fun, funnily stupid: it's beatdown-influenced metalcore! Laugh Tracks - apt title innit - is the kind of record that dives so much into heaviness you cannot fathom taking it seriously - the ARF ARF breakdown is dumb enough to prove that. Nevertheless, it bangs, and that's basically all you could ask for an album like this one. |
| Blood Orange Freetown Sound | 3.7 |
| HEYO DO YOU LIKE PRINCE??? ME 2, NICE!!! Thankfully, Freetown Sound ain't a vulgar Prince pastiche - even though the 80s vibes are stronk with this one. It's full of a bittersweetness that's counterbalanced by funky basslines and sophisti-pop production. Many Some tunes compensate their thinness with a masterful production, but at least that guarantees a pleasant listen. |
| Psychedelic Porn Crumpets High Visceral Pt. 1 | 3.8 |
| Hell yeah, Aussie psych rock. PPC (lel) does it all, starting with headbopping shit to slowly dive into the rich waves of DrugLand, always with mucho reverbo and distant vocals. Big yay. |
| Dream Theater The Astonishing | 1.5 |
| The boiz prove they got nothing more to add to the genre, and they do so over the course of 130 minutes. Not a good move, even though they gonna tell you it's because they wanna tell a story. idc bout no story - all I want is good music. I fell asleep before hearing a decent song. 1.7 |
| Japanese Breakfast Psychopomp | 3.6 |
| How cute this is! Zauner goes for the lo-fi pop tinted with dreamy and synthy aspects on her debut. While it definitely stays on the longing side of pop, she already demonstrates the capabilities that helped her create the amazing Jubilee. Just gotta refine it all, but the proposition is already strong. |
| Julien Dore & | 3.0 |
| Well yeah it's Julien Dore: the production is pristine, his delivery alternates between nonchalant and melancholic, and the lyrics likewise add some humorous touches within the dandy lover boi lyrics. Oh and it's always pretty, but often boring but not that much because it is pretty. |
| Mary Halvorson Octet Away With You | 3.6 |
| She knows how to do it all, the jazz. Playful, meditative, dissonant, delicate, or completely abandoning her guitar to the batshit-craziness of her backing band. The record does lose itself in some avant stuff from time to time, but it manages to (mostly) keep it interesting. |
| The 1975 I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It | 2.6 |
| Pop wearing its shallowest and most boring gear. It's extremely polished, that's for sure, but very often the pretty sounds support nothing but their prettiness. Some tunes manage to be memorable though - like "UGH!" or "She's American"- but the bulk of this is ripe with mehness. Make an EP with the best songs and it's a slapper. |
| The Field The Follower | 3.6 |
| It's ~minimal~; it's looping; and yet it's bouncing. The Follower follows (lmao) Cupid's Head's inclusion of vocal samples on top of the minimal techno, and while the formula doesn't change - at all -, this is way too well done to ignore. |
| Haken Affinity | 2.4 |
| synths go brrrrrr. Haken continue their synthprog shtick, but dwell much less in the band's inner ridiculousness - even though they don't hesitate to go full derp on some tracks, like "1985" - which results in their most tepid release. |
| Ulver ATGCLVLSSCAP | 4.1 |
| yah it's a journey; a journey through experimental music; a journey through a dozen of different genres, among others drone, post-rock, ambient, psychy shit, etc etc. What's astounding is that they manage to make this journey land on several tracks, like the gorgeous progressive ambient "Desert/Dawn", or the grand post-rocky "Nowhere (Sweet Sixteen)". |
| The Body and Full Of Hell One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache | 3.2 |
| Expected a bit more from this tbh. It's pummeling violence, that's for sure - they don't know any other way of doing it tbf - but they didn't seem to know how to ~blend~ their respective propositions. |
| daine Quantum Jumping | 2.8 |
| Sounds like the 2013 Stockholm EmoCloudTrap scene, but without as much playfulness, quirkiness, video games' samples, or whole vaporwave shtick - that last point might have to do with the fact that, by 2013, vaporwave wasn't dead. Oh wow the last track sounds like Lil Peep woo! Not a bad EP, and despite my gripes, imma sucka for this aesthetic, but it's not refined enough yet. |
| Hamza Santa Sauce | 3.4 |
| With Santa Sauce, Hamza provides no bona fide banger but refines his art by ensuring consistency is reigning among the trappy, poppy R&B. |
| Mizmor Yodh | 3.4 |
| An infernal blend of black, doom, and drone, Yodh at times loses itself in its meandering songwriting, with riffs continuing their paths without true conclusion. It's a shame, because the atmosphere and overall aesthetic are top fucking notch, but it fails to be much more than that. |
| DJ Snake Encore | 1.5 |
| Trying to please every single Tomorrowland attendant: the album. Encore indeed features every EDM trend of the five years preceding its release, with Skrillex, Avicii, Diplo, and Swedish House Mafia fighting over who's had the most influence on lil Snakey. The answer: all of them, AND none of them. Usually, when I try to query data with antagonistic conditions, I get something in the vein of "no data to display". Good songs: "Middle", which is aggressively ok, and "Here Comes the Night", best tune here. 1.6 |
| Kevin Abstract American Boyfriend: A Suburban Love Story | 3.7 |
| Kevin Abstract delivers a patchworky "debut" album that works the best when not trying to tie some grand narrative (this jab was directed at all kinds of interludes) and when fusing hip-hop's punchlines, R&B's introspection, indie's taste for musical grandeur, and his band's blend of introspection and egocentrism. |
| Undeath It's Time...To Rise From the Grave | 3.4 |
| Cool dm with groovy rhythms and fun riffs, but also a brand of dm that's a) too inspired by Cannibal Corpse to fully win me over, and b) whose mix left me wanting much more of the riffs. |
| Tomberlin i don’t know who needs to hear this... | 3.5 |
| Pretty yet sad indie folk that takes time to show its best features, but when it does - like on the one-two punch "stoner" and "happy accident" - it wonderfully balances the compositionally ambitious with the emotionally fragile. |
| The Gathering Beautiful Distortion | 3.6 |
| First Gathering album; it's cool! Artsy rock music with grand female vocals and a focus more inclined towards a consistent atmosphere and less towards catchiness. Very solid. |
| Kelly Lee Owens Lp.8 | 2.9 |
| Much more ambient than boom-boom, LP.8 starts off oppressingly to end lightly, yet it failed to embark me on its minimalistic journey. |
| Mizmor and Thou Myopia | 3.8 |
| Never listened to Mizmor, but the way he integrates himself into Thou's swampy music is amazing. Gotta say the Baton Rouge boiz never disappoint, and they once again prove it with Myopia. Not their best, but hey competition is fierce. |
| DIM (CA) Compendium I | 3.8 |
| Very Fief-esque, indeed. The medieval vibe is very pastoral and organic flutes with synths that lie halfway between video game music and baroque. Compendium I is short enough not to lose itself in meandering paths, and distinguishes itself from the 2010s bandcamp dungeon synth revival thanks to its blend of whimsical and mysterious. |
| Hinako Omori a journey... | 3.6 |
| ~pretty~ textures that are very lush, thank you very much. When carried by Omori's gorgeous vocals, this new agey ambient pop record is ~bliss~ even though, at points, it does meander without truly concluding its offers. Nevertheless a great listen, it's oh so bubbly. |
| Celeste Assassine(s) | 3.7 |
| Again a mixture of atmosludge and atmoblack, Assassine(s) goes towards more midtempo territories with synths, female vox, and more melodic riffs. It's a bit sleeker, but maybe a bit more plain too? Still good shit obv. |
| Denzel Curry 13 | 3.7 |
| Zeltron is pissed. With its distorted production that guarantees its RYM "trap metal" tag, 13 is Curry's most pissed-the-fuck-off release - acting more as an escapism than a true artistic statement. It doesn't always work - "Heartless" - but when it does - "Zeltron 6 Billion" -, phwoar boi. |
| Absent In Body Plague God | 3.7 |
| Hey atmosludge and martial industrial go well together! The former's atmosphere creates the layout for the latter to instigate its nastiness. Gotta say this sounds rather unique, even though some tracks weren't subtile about their origins - "In Spirit In Spite" is straight-up Neurosis while "The Acres/The Ache" could've been on The Doorn. Nevertheless, this is creepy shit that maintains its gargantuan vibe. |
| Lil Uzi Vert Lil Uzi Vert vs. The World | 3.5 |
| Cool tape this one. The Diamond Boi delivers a boastful and concise mixtape that runs just the right amount of time and features varied cloudy trap beats. No track is dull, but few tracks manage to be as lit as "Money Longer" or "Ps & Qs". |
| Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith Ears | 3.1 |
| Prog electronic is often mesmerizing, and that's even more the case when it's as bubbly as it is on Ears. However, the beautiful textures soon get lost in their non-movement: apart from the closer that gets enough time to expand its ideas for long enough, all tracks are nice at first but then fade into "ok-tier" territory. |
| Saba Bucket List | 3.5 |
| Saba's debut is full of promise it almost fulfills: a lush atmosphere carried by soulful beats, good rapological technique, and solid lyricism. It just needs some polish. |
| Show Me The Body Body War | 3.2 |
| A noisy, post-punky hardcore record with vocals being a mix of MC Ride and Anthony Kiedis, Body War promises an exciting take on aggressive music but ends up not knowing what to do with its premises. |
| Virtual Self Virtual Self | 3.6 |
| I've understood Porter Robinson's music to be "touching", but it never truly striked me until listening to Virtual Self. The trance aesthetic does help in that regard, its uplifting energy being counterbalanced by lil touches of melancholia and Y2K vibe. It's nonetheless true that once you've heard "Ghost Voices", you've heard it all. |
| Peregrine (USA-MA) the awful things we've done | 3.6 |
| Knew what genre this was just looking at the cover. Guess what: it's great indiemo! Fortunately for them, it ain't only that: post-hardcore nods are present (yeah alright tell me more), mathy passages (yeah cool), as well as some blast beats (phwoar boi that's what i want). These lil touches do help the record's versatility, yet most of it still sounds like your typical indiemo shizzle. Still great, but not there yet in terms of "the new definitive indiemo". |
| King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard Omnium Gatherum | 4.0 |
| Omnium Gatherum is versatile, engaging, beautifully produced and performed, and feels like a breeze despite its mammoth length. These dudes really wanna make sure they'll be remembered as one of the most important rock bands of the 2010s-2020s. And they're succeeding at that. Motherfuckers. |
| Binker and Moses Feeding the Machine | 3.5 |
| The duo becomes a trio here, yet it's still Binker and Moses that dictate what's happening. Not that Max isn't doing anything, but his electronics work more as background-y textures rather than tempo-inducing or melody-leading instruments. Truth is, it works extremely well, as the OG members are at the top of their (great) game, and their twisted playing resonates even more thanks to the wide space given by Max. Edit: woah I didn't care that much about this with subsequent listens. Weird. |
| Haru Nemuri Shunka Ryougen | 3.2 |
| Nemuri goes for the overwhelming on her sophomore LP. She's never been more versatile, that's for sure, yet I failed to find this as infectious as banger-full Haru to Shura. Clearly not bad, but she wanted to show off what she could do without asking herself whether how well she would do it. |
| Billy Woods Aethiopes | 3.8 |
| I'm like Asleep: every time I listen to Billy Woods, I'm left puzzled as I can tell I like what I've heard, but I struggle explaining in detail why I like it. Let's go for the usual: intricate lyricism, varied flows, and hypnotizing beats are very nice to listen to. |
| Rosalia Motomami | 3.6 |
| Rosalia goes POP. Byebye flamenco, hello neoperreo (basically reggaeton that doesn't always use the same BPM). It doesn't mean she's losing what made her great in the first place: it's not all about shaking da ass; it's also about lamenting about love. This dichotomy is at the center of the album, each boom-boom track followed by a sadgirl one. An extremely interesting record. |
| Kilo Kish American Gurl | 3.4 |
| Brash electronic-led pop (this ain't electropop tho) that goes a lil too everywhere, but the tracks that do find a balance between nods to noughties pop and the most modern territories of mainstream music manage to convey both nostalgia and futurism - big yay. As a whole, American Gurl failed to convince me it constitutes the next pop landmark, but the way it pulls out bangers from different electropop (whoops) subgenres is to be lauded. |
| The Linda Lindas Growing Up | 3.4 |
| Epitaph still got their flair. After diving into the emo cloud trap metal scene, they pull out from their hat a group of teen gals who just wanna have fun with power pop. Sure, the "industry plants" slur could be thrown at them since the producer is one of the gal's dad who already worked with Paramore or Best Coast, but hey - they're 11 to 17, and my natural optimism forces me to consider that kids are genuine to a certain degree. Also, they're clearly marketable, which is good because hey there's a mainstream guitar revival happening and you need marketable people to actually sell albums with guitars. One thing's for certain: they know how to write cool songs ("Oh" is damn catchy, and "Cuantas Veces" or "Magic" also are very cool). They sure need to a) refine their songwriting skills and b) check Fugazi, but I can't wait to hear more from them. |
| Zeta (VEN) Todo Bailarlo | 3.8 |
| Crazy shit that's as much Latin bangarang, Mars Volta worship, and hardcore intensity. With a seamless flow that makes the album sounds like an epic suite, individual songs fail to properly shine on their own, but the vibe is there. Also I don't speak Spanish but the record does sound like a leftist's wet dream - just look at the cover it's all red!!! La lutte continue. |
| Fontaines D.C. Skinty Fia | 4.4 |
| Gothic-er than ever, Skinny Fia sees Fontaines D.C. balancing the youthful punker vibe of their debut and their sophomore's gloom. It's not as banging as Dogrel, but they show how mature they now are as a band. They show more depth than on A Hero's Death, yet I still fail to be fully convinced - some tunes overstay their welcome by offering no proper conclusion to their premises ("The Couple", "Bloomsday"). Their heart is way too fucking big not to fall in love with this nonetheless. |
| Darkher The Buried Storm | 3.6 |
| Sput ain't no Sput if there ain't a gothic lady trending. The Buried Storm sees ethereal vocals lancinate among doomy guitars, ritualistic strings, and a resolutely dark folk vibe. Super cool, but ain't my favorite take on the genre. "Immortals" nevertheless represents what the genre can offer in its most beautiful moments. |
| Isha Labrador Bleu | 2.8 |
| ISHA tries many new things: new flows, new instrumentals, new vibes, new stories. Good for him! Shame everything sounds good, but nothing sounds that remarkable. |
| Wet Leg Wet Leg | 3.1 |
| Another one. Wet Leg are kinda inoffensive in that it's by-the-numbers post-punk revival, but hey it's kinda fun y'know. Not *that* fun, but cool background muzak for the upcoming sunny dayz. |
| Jenna and the Janes Earth Dog Year | 3.4 |
| Cute lil country-tinged folk record that's constantly pleasant. Ain't my go-to-style so this didn't make me go *wow*, but its prettiness is hard to deny. |
| Lesram Wesh Enfoiré | 3.7 |
| Great "confirmation" mixtape by Lesram, with *that* kind of instrumentals where 808s build the rhythms while good ol' pianos and violins take care of melodic duties - I like to call that shit "boom trap" but my lobby hasn't been fruitful yet. Always great, not often amazing - but when it is, oh boy ("Rotation", the t/t). |
| Foxtails Fawn | 3.7 |
| Celtic screamo? The violin sure makes me think of ol' Brittany - yay! This aesthetic works well with screamo, even the screamo parts per se do not sound that impressive to me. Aesthetically, big yes; not fully convinced this is their magnum opus given the potential. |
| Conway the Machine God Don't Make Mistakes | 3.9 |
| God Don't Make Mistakes is as earnest as any Conway, but this time the storytelling is gripping while the beats are at their soulful-est, accompanied by background gang soul vocals. His best. |
| Bladee x ECCO2K Crest | 3.0 |
| It ain't that surprising, but the boiz go full "pop" on this one. Not that they blast Madonnesque anthems, but a) they mostly let go of the trap aesthetic to go full synths, and b) they let posi vibes enter their heart. Ain't that impressed, but it's ultimately very cute and very unique. |
| Asian Glow and Weatherday Weatherglow | 3.8 |
| Two of the "nu emo gaze" poster kids reunite, and they manage to mesh their respective universes so well it sounds like the synthesis of the genre's scene: it's gazey, noisy, ~lofi~, and it got some indietronica or mathy touches here and there that complement the shit Wall-of-Sound production. |
| Jack White Fear of the Dawn | 3.7 |
| Experimenting is cool, but experimenting while having fun is better! White carries the artsy vibe he tried to create on his preceding record, but this time it actually works because the focus is on songs, not textures. Sure, not everything lands, but the majority of it does thanks to its angular riffs and constant groove. |
| Machine Gun Kelly Mainstream Sellout | 1.0 |
| forgot to rate this after trashin' it with the boiz. the least impressive, original, dedicated, good, etc tentative of reviving a sound you never participated in in the first place. 1.2 |
| Red Hot Chili Peppers Unlimited Love | 2.8 |
| Aye, John's back. Alright, so: this is their best record in 15 years, but this is also the worst RHCP record with Frusciante on the lineup. And ofc it's way too fucking long. |
| Zamdane Couleur de ma peine | 3.7 |
| Greatly balanced, this one. With a blend of French and Arabic, this Morocco-born rapper narrates his not-so-great, full-of-hustle life in ways that at times border on miserabilism, but mostly stay on the touching side of things. Likewise, the beats are not too hard-hitting like the majority of today's Francophone rap, rather using a piano or a violin and softer basses. It also works at sometimes treading the lacrymonial path, but this is way too sincere to be tackled like that. A great, promising debut for one of the most honest young Francophone rappers. |
| Elza Soares A mulher do fim do mundo | 3.9 |
| She released this at 85? Mad respect, queen. A mulher do fim do mundo sees Soares eruct her presence through vocals, on top of a mix of samba, post-punk, psych rock that's always bouncy yet menacing. It's basically Dance Tonight, Revolution Tonight too! |
| William Basinski Cascade | 3.7 |
| It comes and goes it comes and goes. It's a 40-mins loop, but hey the dude is known for doing beaut loops and Cascade is one of them. |
| Sea Oleena Sleeplessness | 3.6 |
| Now that's some insomniac folk. Drenched in reverb, full of dream poppy vocals, and an atmosphere as ethereal as it is melancholic, Sleeplessness features some percussions that allow some of the tracks to benefit from an extra punch. |
| Daniel Bachman River | 3.6 |
| An impressive American Primitivism record that does know how to shred, River nevertheless features an uptempo atmosphere that invokes bucolic imagery and hazy psychotropics. Gotta get high in a field, I guess. |
| Obsequiae Aria of Vernal Tombs | 3.4 |
| A black metal record that ain't that bm, Aria of Vernal Tombs (dope name btw) is a pretty album, with a medieval atmosphere and crispy tones, but after a while, the aesthetic fails to carry the ok-tier riffs. A very cool experience nonetheless. |
| Injury Reserve Live From The Dentist Office | 3.1 |
| Jazzywonkhiphop is cool, yeah. Injury Reserve's debut mixtape is full of dope bleeps'n'bloops, but the rappin' and songwriting aren't refined enough: tracks meander for too long, and the tape as a whole sounds a tad unfocused. |
| Khruangbin The Universe Smiles Upon You | 3.2 |
| With its chill and mellow vibe, Khruangbin debut trades the psych and the funky to accompany summer afternoons. It's always pleasant and peaceful thanks to its downtempo linings, but it rarely feels more than that. |
| Natalie Prass Natalie Prass | 2.8 |
| Very pretty chamber/baroque pop record carried by Prass' beautiful voice, but god isn't it flat. The songwriting is to be refined, as all tracks are sweet but do not convey their emotion. |
| The Mountain Goats Beat the Champ | 3.1 |
| Woah a Mountain Goats record about wrestling. Silly. Funny. Let's not care: this is music! And this is 2010s Mountain Goats: a couple of upbeat folky tracks disrupted by the occasional boring piano ballad. Thing is, the boring piano ballad ain't that occasional here, and it does seem like this well-concocted formula is being repeated to death. |
| Tricot AND | 3.5 |
| A N D takes the technicality and emotion from T H E, and decides to pour posi vibes - so much the mathy riffs take a step back to let J-Pop dictate the soundscape. Cheerful, head-bopping stuff that nevertheless lacks a proper banging tune. |
| Rivers of Nihil Monarchy | 3.4 |
| Like on their debut, the leads and proggy parts are the best, but apart from that, it's run-of-the-mill tech death. And then: the last three tracks, that go proggier and whose focus lies on the leads. These are bae. |
| Kauan Sorni Nai | 3.7 |
| Now this is some cold stuff. Mostly carried by a folk-influenced post-rock atmosphere, heavy moments break through the soundscape to describe the horror of the story underlying the record. These lads managed to transcribe a storytelling journey into a musical journey: bravo. Gotta say some transitions felt clunky, and the growled vocals ain't really my cuppa. |
| Caligula's Horse Bloom | 3.7 |
| Cool prog with the occasional djent chug chug and alt linings. What makes this a great prog record is the balance between hooks, solos, chugs, cinematic soundscapes, and wanks (the latter being the least prominent). |
| Billy Woods Today, I Wrote Nothing | 2.9 |
| Billy Woods goes for the suite of short tracks this time. Today, I Wrote Nothing thus feels and is scattershot, with few moments shining, and a lot of moments being here but not there. It just passes by without leaving that much of a mark. |
| Wilderun Sleep at the Edge of the Earth | 3.2 |
| Folk metal that's mostly half folk, half metal, with few moments actually mixing pastoral guitars and hevvy shit. The lush pastoral guitars constitute the best moments here, while the hevvy shit is cool but not amazing. And even though it's cheesy at times with the symphonic bits, it ain't too cheesy overall, woo! |
| Low Ones and Sixes | 3.7 |
| With the incorporation of electronic elements, Low have given a newfound etherealness to their slowcore: songs feature more prominent and cinematic changes within themselves, which accentuates how grand the band's music can be. It's evident they were experimenting here, thus not always achieving their visoin, but it's still a success. |
| Riverside Love, Fear and the Time Machine | 3.7 |
| If contemplation is as important as on the preceding record, Love etc now features dynamism - big yay - in the form of notable basslines that keep the tempo groovy. Riverside keep proving they're one of the most consistent modern prog (ugh) bands with engaging compositions, virtuous musicianship, and a lush atmosphere. Ofc it's too long tho. |
| Milo So The Flies Don't Come | 3.4 |
| Cerebral lyrics and jazz-influenced abstract beats = dope shit. Kenny Segal's beats are lush, but the longer tracks do meander due to their musical minimalism and slam-like delivery. Fortunately, the record is short enough: ten more minutes would have been too much. |
| Sun Kil Moon Universal Themes | 3.6 |
| Mark Kozelek is a douchebag, but he sure knows how to complement his douchebag storytelling with hypnotizing folk music, with the avant-folk bits being the ones working the best. |
| Novelists Souvenirs | 3.0 |
| Meloprogcore: ain't my cuppa anymore, but this is well done, yet it also is too long yfm? This is pretty fun though |
| G.L.O.S.S. Demo | 3.7 |
| Pissed-the-fuck-off queercore is a pleonasm, but this one truly is pissed-the-fuck-off. Being drowned with homophobic and transphobic slurs sure would justify that. However, the band members' sheer talent justifies this EP's engaging compositions and earnest material. 8mins long only tho. |
| Kurt Vile b'lieve i'm goin' down... | 3.2 |
| Kurt Vile continues to be that chill stoner bro with his guitar, but this time the compositions are slightly less engaging than his previous two records. The mellow vibe is still there, and the arrangements are pretty, but the atmosphere is a tad too sleepy for its own good. |
| Amorphis Under the Red Cloud | 3.1 |
| Under the Red Cloud is the sonic representation of a dude with mega-long hair standing on top of a stone from whatever his countryside is: passionately cheesy, falsely melancholic, ridiculously fun, and hilariously ridiculous. |
| Halsey Badlands | 2.0 |
| Like a subpar Lana Del Rey with Imagine Dragons instrumentals; the sound of the mid-2010s reduced to its lowest common denominator; radio fodder you've forgotten as soon as its first chorus is finished. Also, one of the biggest tracks basically took the hook from "Juicy", removed everything sexy and cool about it, and put on a tepid vocal performance. |
| CHON Grow | 3.1 |
| Aye summer's here when you listen to CHON's Grow. Unfortunately, it's a repetitive summer, with all the noodling and doodling repeating themselves on each track. It's fun, yeah, but only for a short amount of time. Like summer when you were a kid. |
| $uicideboy$ My Liver Will Handle What My Heart Can't | 3.6 |
| Memphis-influenced emo cloud trap. Long moniker innit? Ain't any other way to describe this mixtape though: the 808s induce head-bopping, while the lyrics and delivery are here to provide the dread. The atmosphere is gripping, but it doesn't make every track a sadboi banger. |
| L'Imperatrice Odyssée | 3.8 |
| French Touch might not be the most innovative genre, but once the aesthetic has won you over, it's difficult to not jam it with a bigass smile. Odyssee does not forget anything: the spacey intro, the funky bop, or the nu-disco tune that's already a hit on Zegema Beach. Pure fun that also invokes nostalgia and relaxation, woo! |
| Nails/Full of Hell Split | 3.0 |
| yo this is too long lmao. Four minutes of grindy, crusty powerviolence by two of the most prominent bands should be *mwah*, innit? Well, the Nails tune is basically Nails but not that interesting, while Full of Hell deliver two good but not great tracks. Gimme my four minutes back! |
| Orville Peck Bronco | 3.6 |
| Peck goes even further into the country pop rock direction - and it's a good choice, as Peck's flamboyant persona benefits from warmth and anthemism (apparently anthemism ain't a word but tbh it should). The goth traces are gone, but the earnestness is still here. I still ain't the biggest country fan - cowboys ain't my culture - but this clearly is a great introduction to the genre. |
| Visigoth The Revenant King | 3.3 |
| New Wave of US Power Metal: it's cheesy and epic and full of fantasy references! Gotta say it's kinda fun if too long for its own good. Edit: despite the clear heavy metal packaging, this is too cheesy to be straight-up heavy metal |
| Sea Oleena Sea Oleena | 3.5 |
| Peaceful and soothing, this s/t buries its soft melodies under a dreamily hypnagogic production. A chill Grouper, basically. |
| Hallas Isle of Wisdom | 3.6 |
| Proggier and less prominent on hard rock, Isle of Wisdom definitely is Hallas' least catchy album. It compensates with beautiful soundscapes and production - those synths on "Stygian Depths", but maybe it's lackin' a bit of dynamism? Great stuff nonetheless. |
| Caballero OSITO | 3.5 |
| 13 minutes of Brussels boom-bap. No chorus; only bars. Good to hear an OG go back to what he does best. Now I want this in full-length and with more energetic instrumentals. |
| Scott Walker and Sunn O))) Soused | 3.6 |
| Walker's elucubrations are supported by Sunn O)))'s drone, and while grouping up drone and baroque pop don't sound like a match, it does work extremely well. Walker's dark and often masochistic lyrics are well complemented by the wall of feedback surrounding him. |
| Jessie Ware Tough Love | 3.6 |
| As always representative of elegance, Tough Love] is carried by Ware's gorgeous vocals and a chill electronic vibe that's constantly cool yet rarely amazes. The Ed Sheeran tune really does sound like an Ed Sheeran tune, ugh. Yet, overall, I prefer this over Devotion: much less downtempo, much more rhythmic. |
| Xiu Xiu Angel Guts: Red Classroom | 2.6 |
| Still not a huge fan of these guys, but at least some tracks featured actual beats on this one. The unnerving electronic and the insufferable voice still constitute the majority of the soundscape here. |
| Plebeian Grandstand Lowgazers | 3.4 |
| They went Deathspell on this one. While their debut used black metal as meaning to make their sludgy mathcore even more pissed-the-fuck-off, Lowgazers makes sure bm works alongside the sludge and the math. While it works to some degree - mainly because of the sheer nastiness - it failed to properly put me in into the infernal vibe they very evidently wanted to convey. |
| Marissa Nadler July | 3.2 |
| July sounds very winter-y. It's moving - very - slowly, and mostly relies on a somber yet sparse atmosphere - mucho gothic. Nadler is the focus here, her ethereal delivery and confessional lyrics. Pretty but doesn't move me much. |
| Kae Tempest Everybody Down | 3.5 |
| A masterclass in storytelling, Everybody Down decides to feature minimalistic instrumentation so that you solely focus on what's happening lyrically. Ain't exactly my cuppa, but this record is truly unique. |
| Ian William Craig A Turn of Breath | 3.8 |
| Gorgeous ambient drone electroacoustic bullshit: these are soundscapes, and they are beautiful thanks to an intricated sound design. When vocals come in, a new etherealness kicks in, delivering some of the record's most emotional moments. The beginning of the second half is a tad lackluster compared to the rest, but the rest is so beaut it doesn't matter. |
| Open Mike Eagle Dark Comedy | 3.5 |
| Abstract and lyrical rap: NERD ALERT LMAO! Mike's delivery is elastic, mostly relying on spoken word and word plays, which is cool when the non-sequiturs hit you, less cool when they don't land. Likewise, the quite bare instrumentation made of glitchy/electronic-influenced beats is only there so that Mike doesn't rap on top of nothing - but it doesn't bring much to the table. |
| Spoon They Want My Soul | 3.9 |
| While the preceding record Transference was full of indie songs that were all neat but not much more, They Want My Soul is absolutely banging, with almost every track showcasing tight songwriting that doesn't go too fancy, yet always lands a memorable melody here and there. |
| Sleaford Mods Divide and Exit | 3.2 |
| Am a dirty frog, can I understand this? Well I too can't believe the Rich still exist, let alone run the fucking country mate. Repetitive post-punk guitars, some hip-hop beats, and the occasional synth all solely act as a background for the Mark E. Smith-like delivery to spit its diatribe. Not really my cuppa even though I get the appeal. |
| Objekt Flatland | 3.6 |
| Dope "electronic" that doesn't know what to do with its soundscape - shall we go IDM, UK Bass, techno, ambient, or all at once? It doesn't really matter, because the sound design is impeccable, enhancing the best moments, and making the less enthralling ones interesting. |
| Popcaan Where We Come From | 2.9 |
| Dancehall that alternates between party-slash-posi vibes and deep dives into poor people's lives. Where We Come From thus does not seem to know how to balance these contradicting topics, a bouncy tune - only telling how the curvature of a woman's body is appealing to the eye - succeeding to a track detailing how youth poorness is systemic. |
| Bones (USA-CA) Garbage | 3.6 |
| Another emo cloud rap tape with heavy as feck basses, self-hate lyrics, and so-so delivery. It's all about the aesthetic - and it's a good one. Good thing the tape is only 30mins long, Bones' rapological technique simply cannot match the ~vibe~ created by the beats. |
| Godflesh A World Lit Only by Fire | 2.7 |
| Indusludge that works on repetitive guitar. Some tracks feel undercooked, and the best ones do lack dynamics, and, uh, melody. So, yeah, it's heavy, but without any kind of nuance. |
| Bing and Ruth Tomorrow Was The Golden Age | 3.8 |
| A floating ambient record carried by eerie pianos, Tomorrow Was the Golden Age is very ~soft~ and gentle thanks to its modern classical, minimalist, and electro-acoustic linings - with the occasional drone reminding you the dread isn't far away. |
| Black Kray 700 DAGREEZ | 3.8 |
| It's all about the aesthetic, ya'know. Hypnotic beats and shoegazed, laid-back vocals, raw af mixing: this really is proto emo cloud rap. Consistency is key here: few tracks are amazing, but the whole project just fucking breathes. |
| SpaceGhostPurrp Larry Bird Season | 3.5 |
| SpaceGhostPurrp continues to offer his brand of misanthropic, bass-heavy, 90s video game influenced, cloudy trap that doesn't know what to choose between braggadocio and lethargy. As always, a very cool aesthetic that fails to transport me as much as I'd like. |
| Machine Girl WLFGRL | 3.8 |
| Now that goes fucking hard. Hardcore breaks, footwork, and jungle fight together to rule WLFGRL. None of them truly win, but that's what gives the record its absolutely manic vibe. |
| Circa Survive Descensus | 3.2 |
| Circa Survive continues down their "alt-rockization". It's still proggy and post-hardcorey, but the altprogcore tag now is their music's most apt moniker. Most importantly, despite the record's relative enjoyableness, it proves the band didn't evolve since Blue Sky Noise. |
| Soen Tellurian | 3.0 |
| Tool-worshipping altprog with dashes of Opeth here and there. It's competently done, the musicians are evidently talented, but it just doesn't do anything the genre has already done. |
| Nothing Guilty of Everything | 3.6 |
| In terms of nu-gaze, these guys are up there. Gathering Slowdive's melancholy, Jesus and Mary Chain's noise antics, and early Smashing Pumpkins with the clear alt-rock songwriting, Guilty of Everything finds a nifty balance between heavy and dreamy, even though it ain't the most unpredictable gaze record. |
| Tony Allen Film of Life | 3.7 |
| Tony never misses. Even at 74, he delivered a bouncy afrobeat record carried by his drumwork. Film of Life is indeed a work of rhythm dictating how the compositions will unfold. It's not his best work, but it's proof that the dude never lost it. R.I.P. big fella. |
| The Antlers Familiars | 2.4 |
| I've always had trouble getting into this band, and this album epitomizes why: there ain't no dynamics, its introspection borders on inoffensiveness, and it's one-dimensional as hell. Also I'm a non-lyric motherfucker. At least it's pretty. |
| Sameer Ahmad Perdants Magnifiques | 3.8 |
| The debut of one of the most interesting figures in indie French rap. Sameer Ahmad is all about gorgeous production, intricated wordplays, and egotrip that never get vulgar. |
| Calvin Harris Motion | 2.1 |
| Another dancefloor house record by Calvin Harris - but this one didn't spawn nine top 10 singles. It shows: whereas 18 Months was obnoxious yet intricately tied with the musical zeitgeist, Motion simply carries the same aesthetic with virtually no evolution. The singles still remind me of these days - depends on you whether that's a good thing - and the rest is fodder Tomorrowland material. |
| ScHoolboy Q Oxymoron | 3.2 |
| Another hour-long record from the school boi. He compensates his relatively average lyrics with diverse flows and varied soundscapes that sometimes match his style, sometimes match the featured artist more (2 Chainz, Tyler). |
| Current 93 I Am The Last Of All The Field That Fell | 3.3 |
| This is Current 93's "typical" dread, but with many sonic additions: John Zorn plays the saxo here - confirming the jazzier approach on I Am the Last - while Anohni and Nick Cave bring their vocal duties. Almost all tracks overstay their welcome, but each offers a fresh take on an already-known aesthetic. |
| Glass Animals Zaba | 2.8 |
| Glass Animals come up with chill stuff on their debut, mostly relying on indietronica and downtempo, with vocal delivery shifting from pop to R&B. It's thus very mellow, and sometimes a tad too mellow to become more than a pleasant background listen. |
| Kimbra The Golden Echo | 3.8 |
| Pure pop gold this one. With rich and wide soundscape sporting clear MJ or Prince influences, as well as vocal deliveries ranging from R&B to bombastic pop, The Golden Echo is yet another proof that Kimbra was one of the most talented and eclectic "art pop lmao" artist of the early 2010s. |
| Pharmakon Bestial Burden | 3.2 |
| A continuation of Abandon, Bestial Burden is another frightening drony death industrial record carried by banshee Pharmakon. The longer tracks use repetition and layered synths to increase the dark atmosphere, but while they mostly work, the end result rarely attains the kick I need from that kind of music - not every album can be Frozen Niagara Falls. Nevertheless, an improvement over her debut. |
| The Voidz Tyranny | 2.2 |
| A mess that tries fusing psych, synths, punk, and basically everything in between. It does succeed at being annoyingly noisy. I liked "Dare I Care", woo! |
| Angles 9 Injuries | 3.7 |
| Big bands always are dope, and Angles 9 is dope. Despite being "experimental" and having their fair share of dissonance in their formula, the Swedes know how to craft bombastic jazz tunes - that one-two punch opening the album is certified banger material. While the softer moments still contain interesting moments, the focus on avant-garde stuff over plain good stuff renders the slower moments less impacting. |
| Gazelle Twin Unflesh | 3.7 |
| Rumbling basses, vocals that go from ethereal to downright shamanic, industrial backgrounds, and synths that never go "pop", all together form a creepily deconstructed vibe that's constantly uptempo - not sure the ass will shake, but at the very least the head will bop in the most rhythmic moments. |
| Angel Du$t A.D. | 3.9 |
| A short (15 mins) and sweet hardcore skate punk release, A.D. basically sounds like 80s punk with modern production and slight indie nods. A dope, short burst of energy. |
| Furia Nocel | 3.8 |
| Atmodepressive Polish bm that integrates post-metal - very - well. Factor in a crispy production that allows the dem riffz to shine, and you've got yet another awesome 2010s Polish black metal release. |
| SOUL GLO Diaspora Problems | 4.0 |
| Incredibly energetic and visceral hardcore punk with harshed rapping and influences from screamo, noise rock, and 80s punk. A prime example of the constantly-evolving hardcore scene, SOUL GLO also shows - it kinda was necessary - hardcore ain't only a white boiz thing. Mucho dope shit. |
| Makala CHAOS KISS | 3.5 |
| Continuing his mix of bangin' basses and soulful influences, Makala delivered another solid collection of songs that take time to fully sink in. |
| The Armed Adult Swim Festival '21 | 4.3 |
| Stream: https://thearmed.bandcamp.com/album/adult-swim-festival-21 Absolutely love this live rendition. The sound design is so fucking crisp, each lil detail shining thanks to a mixing that's way less muddy than Ballou's. |
| PUP The Unraveling of PUPTheBand | 3.6 |
| Diving even further into indie rock lands, PUP doesn't stray that much from punk territories in The Unraveling of PUPThe Band. It does showcase their anthemic qualities ("Waiting" or the closer) - although I didn't feel as much enthrallment from these tracks compared to, say, "If This Tour Doesn't Kill You etc". Also wasn't a huge fan of the interludes - although tying the album together, they didn't do much to me musically. |
| Carpenter Brut Leather Terror | 3.3 |
| Let's go through the cyber highway woooo! Franky spices his synthwave with darker elements and more focus on industrial music than ever. However, the features do not always land, and when they don't it basically ruins the track (the Ulver track is so lackluster). When the "urban night drive" vibe is pushed to its limit ("Day Stalker"), it's hella dope. |
| Meshuggah Immutable | 3.5 |
| Another solid Meshuggah - who's surprised? They've got that groove going, and also some of their softest material yet - but the bangers do bang ("The Faultless" m/). 66 mins is too long tho. |
| Motorhead Aftershock | 3.2 |
| 2010s Motorhead blending heavy metal, hard rock, and blues rock: it's consistent and makes your head bop. yay! |
| Megadeth Super Collider | 2.2 |
| Megadeth's St. Anger, but with a not-bad production. It's a huge gloubiboulga with no memorable hook, riff, or solo. I already forgot about it. |
| Keaton Henson Birthdays | 3.2 |
| Once again a somber and depressive slowcore-slash-indie folk release by Keaton Henson. Birthdays sounds A LOT like its predecessor, Dear - and since imma non-lyric motherfucker, the quite bare musical approach doesn't help the engagement with the record. Except "Kronos". That one fucks. |
| Deerhunter Monomania | 3.2 |
| Noisindirock. I've always had trouble digging this band, and this record confirms my feelings: it's enjoyable and whatnot, but it rarely manages to feel exciting. |
| CZARFACE CZARFACE | 3.4 |
| The long-running collab between Inspectah Deck and the 7L & Esoteric duo started here, and defined what the collab was about: indie hop from the 90s with great rapping chemistry and the occasional cartoon sample. Not a game-changing album or anything, but a great 2010s abstract hip hop release. |
| Julianna Barwick Nepenthe | 4.0 |
| Another gorgeous ambient release enhanced by Barwick's ethereal stance on a cappella vocals, Nepenthe wears its pop influences prouder than ever. It's thus more maximalist than the peaceful The Magic Place, even though she - fortunately - doesn't fall into Enya territories. When the multilayered vocals and soothing ambient are complemented with strings like on "Pyrrhic", this is an absolute stunner. |
| Amon Amarth Deceiver of the Gods | 3.0 |
| It's an Amon Amarth. Ain't bad. Ain't amazing. Repetitive. Twas good bein' 16. |
| Phoenix (FRA) Bankrupt! | 3.9 |
| They like the 80s apparently. Both in terms of grooviness and finesse this is - yet - another love letter from the French boiz. Bankrupt! does lack the immediate bangers its predecessor had, but it compensates with a constant balance between foot-stomping rhythms and bittersweet warmth. |
| Uncle Acid and The Deadbeats Mind Control | 3.3 |
| Heyo heavy psychy release, you're as cool as all your siblings! You ain't that different, but you're still cool! |
| Colin Stetson New History Warfare Vol. 3: To See More Light | 4.1 |
| The sax still is haunting with Colin Stetson, but this time Justin Vernon lends his soft voice to reshape the atmosphere. It's a matter of loops, both the voice as well the saxo repeating mantras. It starts with the album's most frightening moments ("Hunted" wtf yes, "Brute" wtf Justin Vernon growls yes), to conclude on - almost - cathartic notes. Fuckin' based. |
| Courtney Barnett The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas | 3.5 |
| As a bunch of indie-everything tunes, this is cool. What's at fault to me is Barnett's vocal style. Her delivery is often deadpan which is cool because sarcasm is cool but also not cool because it seems like she doesn't care about what she's singing. It does give a summery vibe to the record though, lil woo! And the instrumentals slap. |
| Stara Rzeka Cień chmury nad ukrytym polem | 3.7 |
| Woah I love when *everything* is blended together: (avant-)folk, post-rock, drone, ambient, pulsating electronics, and even lo-fi black metal form a hypnotic maelstrom that features very few *woah* moments, yet flows seamlessly. |
| Mount Kimbie Cold Spring Fault Less Youth | 2.9 |
| Trying to change genre ain't easy, and Mount Kimbie shows it with Cold Spring Fault Less Youth. Less focused on post-dubstep shenanigans, this sophomore release sees the band try to go into the minimalistic future garage - but it goes a tad too minimalistic here. Some tunes even showcase some of the rockier influences they would later integrate, but it ain't refined enough despite the overall pleasantness. |
| Hammock Oblivion Hymns | 3.8 |
| Hammock do not rest. Once again a beautiful release made of ambient and post-rock, their 2013 album is not as immediately gorgeous as its two predecessors, yet you'd be a fool not to fall in love. |
| Denzel Curry Melt My Eyez See Your Future | 4.2 |
| Melt My Eyez, See Your Future sees Denzel at his most soulful and introspective, enhanced by the best production he ever rapped on. He found his balance on this one, proving he can rap on any kind of instrumentals. I hope this is not his definitive album, because this dude has been successfully reinventing himself for more than half a decade. |
| Bilal A Love Surreal | 3.3 |
| Much more subdued musically than its predecessor, A Love Surreal continues to go by its psychy retro approach in a new age of R&B - The Weeknd and Frank Ocean already were the new kings in 2013 - and it works when Bilal decides to complement his sadlove tales with engaging compositions. |
| William Tyler Impossible Truth | 3.6 |
| Beautiful American Primitivism all around, with great musicianship and production that are at the service of the hypnotic soundscapes. And yet I failed to be fully engaged with this. |
| Unknown Mortal Orchestra II | 3.0 |
| A tad more varied than the debut, II still mostly tackles lofi-2010s-meet-60s-summer-psych vibes, with aesthetic predominating the not-seasoned enough recipe. Constantly fine, never fire. |
| Ling Tosite Sigure I'mperfect | 3.8 |
| A tad punchier than their preceding album, I'mperfect still features vocals that do not please me, even though the dynamics are shining hard. However, the simpler tracks instrumentally/compositionally do end up being the album's most exhilarating - these opening tunes woah. |
| Sungazer Sungazer Vol. I | 3.2 |
| Adam Neely is a neat dude, and his mathy, video-game influenced wonky nu jazz project is almost as neat. The meme vibes sure are potent, and the juxtaposition of many many things make Sungazer vol. 1 a difficult listen despite its (very) short length, but the slappers (first two tracks) do slap. |
| Voivod Target Earth | 3.5 |
| Voivod go for the 80s revival with this one - clearly reminiscing of their classic trilogy. The singer has changed, the energy ain't the same, and the songwriting is not as *mwah*, but these lads know how to craft prog thrash. |
| Falls of Rauros Key to a Vanishing Future | 3.9 |
| Oh the atmosphere. And yet, this is the one FoR record that is the least reminiscent of the whole Agallcest scene - rather showcasing its delicacy through folkier tendencies - and dumb epic solos. These guys might have my favourite guitar tone in modern metal. |
| Charlotte Adigery and Bolis Pupul Topical Dancer | 3.7 |
| Belgian tastemakers Deewee continue to offer fine music. Singer Charlotte Adigery and producer Bolis Pupul craft together avant-club rhythms that nevertheless remain (art) pop at their core thanks to Adigery delivery. Her half-sung half-spoken style sharply tackles social issues that mostly fit on the record's musical patchwork. Not every attempt lands - the slower cuts mostly focus on lyrical importance -, but it's absolutely refreshing to listen to such forward-thinking Belgian music. |
| Aeviterne The Ailing Facade | 3.8 |
| Two-thirds of Flourishing reunite. Woo for dissodeath! The Ailing Facade is murky yet its details constantly reveal their beauty thanks to the absolute bonkers production. Likewise, the subtle yet always present industrial touches bring another level of insanity to an already pissed-the-fuck-off record. |
| Destroyer LABYRINTHITIS | 3.5 |
| Ofc it's lush, it's Destroyer! Balancing short upbeat tunes with longer, softer cuts, LABYRINTHITIS features some of the best Destroyer tunes in a decade, while still not managing to approach Kaputt's greatness. |
| Selah Sue Persona | 3.4 |
| Aight she back. A chill and at times dancey record, Persona sees Sue drop almost all ragga/reggae influences to focus on Spring-ready neo-soul. The record goes by very smoothly, yet not a lot of individual tracks manage to create a lasting impact. |
| Widowspeak The Jacket | 3.2 |
| Slowcore, dream pop, and alt-country do go extremely well together, and The Jacket is another proof to that. However, I can't help but want more of an aesthetic that inevitably ends up in the background for me. Real pretty tho. |
| Animals As Leaders Parrhesia | 3.2 |
| Extremely mechanical, Parrhesia sees Animals as Leaders continue to shed the last remnants of their jazz fusion influences. Not that bright and colourful moments don't happen; they don't seem to constitute the band's focus anymore. |
| Kauan Pirut | 3.7 |
| Heavy shit. Not that doom riffs and guttural vocals constitute the whole soundscape: rather that even the soft moments are filled with a solemn sense of gravity. It's thus thad, but constantly beautiful, if a tad too reliant on its atmosphere. |
| Laura Marling Once I Was an Eagle | 3.5 |
| A folk album that trades between introspective, chamber-led pieces, with occasional rockier cuts. Once I Was An Eagle thus is mostly introspective, yet its songwriting chops are strong enough for the 60+ mins to go by smoothly. |
| Prurient Through the Window | 3.8 |
| Two long indus techno tracks with strong EBM drive are cut with a noisy (EBM-led) 3-mins interlude. While the interlude ain't pleasant per se, it helps properly separate two tracks that manage to feature a simple melody that does not feel redundant despite the tracks' length. |
| Ayreon The Theory of Everything | 2.7 |
| Europrog opera with dual male and female vocals: it is very pretty but also very cheesy! Also it's very long, and the constant "dialogue" - they sound like on a Broadway stage, not in the studio - really does not make this record a subtle one. |
| Deathspell Omega The Long Defeat | 3.0 |
| Focusing solely on music: new vocalist doesn't sound as good/doesn't fit as well, the riffs ain't dynamic enough - thank god the drums and bass are delivering the good -, and the more upbeat approach doesn't manage to trade dissonance for catchiness successfully. Basically The Long Defeat leaves you wanting more. Nothing truly bad, but my least fav DsO release in, uh *checks the db*, twenty fucking years? |
| Summoning Old Mornings Dawn | 3.9 |
| Epic Summoning is epic. While Old Morning Dawns does not attain Tolkien level of epic like their '95-'06 run, the blend of atmoblack and symphoblack with occasional dungeon synth passages works tremendously well, providing a fantasy vibe that knows when to alternate between the somber and the triumphant. |
| Daughter If You Leave | 2.9 |
| The kind of pretty things that don't do nothing on me. A blend of indie pop, dream pop, slowcore, and post-rock, If You Leave always is pleasant with its combination of melancholic atmosphere and soaring power, but ultimately offers little substance. Instrumentals are vanilla - even for a post-rock bitch like me - and vocals are subpar Florence Welch's. |
| Kero Kero Bonito Intro Bonito | 3.2 |
| INTRO BONITOOOOOOOOO! This debut mixtape ain't refined or subtle, but that's not the goal. The goal is to show what KKB can do, and what they do is playfully weird electropop. Some melodies are already mucho sweet, but the majority of the songs here do sound underdeveloped, lacking either a second, more powerful chorus, or a bridge that showcases other facets of their personalities. Nevertheless, this is is fun if a tad too hammered in silliness. |
| Jessy Lanza Pull My Hair Back | 3.2 |
| It's got that early 2010s vibe: a UK Bass framework with claps and alt R&B pop sensibilities in the form of distant vocals. Pull My Hair Back definitely got a cool vibe, yet it very rarely manages to leverage the promise into a genuinely consistent manner. |
| Forest Swords Engravings | 3.8 |
| A weird yet cool one. Engravings is a hypnotic blend of ambient dub and tribal ambient, with folktronica-like spatialized guitars, vocal samples, and minimalism that nevertheless knows how to energize - the sheer diversity among rhythms and melodies is enough to make this one a dope babe. |
| Yuri Gagarin Yuri Gagarin | 3.7 |
| Wall-of-sound psychy space rock is a big vibe - just look at that cover! Musically this mostly relies on, uh, guitars that are reverb-y and distorted, with tasty solos and constantly head-bopping riffs. It does the same thing throughout its course, but the record is short enough to justify a lil repetitiveness. |
| ????MACROSS 82-99 SAILORWAVE | 3.3 |
| Boppin' future funk with strong City Pop and French House roots. SAILORWAVE does a good job at installing a dancey vibe at times cut by an ambient interlude. The boppy tunes do manage to instigate some ass-shaking, even though we're not in the presence of the hardest bangerz ever: the most bangin' elements (like the saxophone) are often distant in the mix, in a typical vapor fashion. |
| Eluvium Nightmare Ending | 3.6 |
| Very much a follow-up to the beautiful Copia, Nightmare Ending sees modern classical and ambient dictate the (non)tempo, with the occasional drony passage adding a touch of darkness. Some tunes do feel a tad too comfortable in monotony, but for a 80+ mins soothing album, this has got a great atmosphere that warrants its captivating vibe. |
| Clutch Earth Rocker | 3.9 |
| A muscled-up blend of hard, stoner, and blues rock, Earth Rocker brings out the riffs as well as a vocal performance that basically asks you to chin the fuck up. Couple that with a typically Southern groove, and Earth Rocker proves to be a killing modern hard/stoner rock album. |
| Kimbra Vows | 3.9 |
| An absolutely gorgeous pop soul record carried by Kimbra's vocals as well as grand arrangements, Vows constantly features engaging songwriting and powerful performances enhanced by lil quirks here and there. |
| Rico Nasty Nasty | 3.4 |
| Great energy-led mixtape with bangin' trap instrumentals and occasional metal riffs. It does sound monochromatic with the constant aggression wearing out throughout the record, but at its best, it's cool energetic trap. |
| Feist Metals | 3.5 |
| Lovely indie pop carried by Feist' vocal elasticity and gorgeous arrangements. Sometimes tracks meander too much before finally landing on a hook, but when the hooks hit it's a winner. |
| Charli XCX Crash | 3.8 |
| Crash will more than likely end up being less revered by "those who know" than Pop 2, Charli, or how im feeling now because of the clear decrease of sonic experimentations, as well as too-clear influences bordering on rip-offs (September's "Cry for You" or Robin S' "Show Me Love"). However, in terms of delivering 30 minutes of banging pop music, this is straight fire. Mouths will shout, legs will move, asses will shake. |
| The Mountain Goats Transcendental Youth | 3.7 |
| For a band whose appeal mostly revolves around lyrical proficiency, The Moutain Goats sure know how to write proper tunes that can be enjoyed without diving into lyrical matters. |
| SpaceGhostPurrp Blvcklvnd Rvdix 66.6 | 3.6 |
| While the NASA mixtape was all about spacepartytime, Blvcklvnd dives into much darker territories and further cements SpaceGhostPurrp's place within the 2010s Memphis Rap scene - yeah I know he's Floridian but c'mon this is Memphis shit. It's mostly lethargic yet full of braggadocio energy, with a fucked up production and bizarrely funny samples that together form a hypnotically nocturnal vibe. |
| Lack the Low God-Carrier | 3.5 |
| Bold avant-pop that smashes elegant shit with dissonant shit, always sounding pleasant. However, this is opaque: its beauty does not immediately strike you. Hope it will crawl its way into my mind. |
| CMAT If My Wife New I'd Be Dead | 3.6 |
| Cute country pop that oozes breeziness. It's a tad too long - as in: not all tracks succeed at being catchy - but the catchiest choruses (no more virgoooooos) show that she's got the potential to become at the very least an indie darling. |
| Benny The Butcher Tana Talk 3 | 3.5 |
| Griselda rap: it's grimy and crimy! Benny and his gang are all smooth rappers, and the beats are likewise consistently great, but very few tracks shine musically or rapologically. It's a great one-dimensional album, but still a one-dimensional one. |
| Stromae Multitude | 4.1 |
| Stromae's most consistent and rich record yet. Multitude is federative, audacious, and gives itself the means of its international ambitions, already standing tall as the Belgian artist's best overall effort: elegant, emotional, yet explosive. Resolutely Stromae. |
| Black Thought Streams of Thought, Vol. 1 | 3.7 |
| It's Black Thought from The Roots: this is intricate, lush, and deep both lyrically as well as beats-wise. I just can't help but want MOAR. |
| Sematary Rainbow Bridge | 3.5 |
| Cloudy emo trap. You think you know what it sounds like, then? Add a DSBM riff underlying all tunes, and you have a clearer idea. While the formula is pretty fucking dope - and would have been innovative if not for Lil Ugly Mane's Three Sided Tape - it is pretty repetitive. |
| City Morgue HELL OR HIGH WATER VOL. 1 | 3.5 |
| Trap metal? More like hardcore dudes shouting on top of 808s, there ain't no sick riff here except on a couple of tracks. Still, this is fucking intense and head-bopping despite the monochrome soundscape. |
| Khemmis Absolution | 3.2 |
| Sludge/doom/stoner band from Denver: yah they tokin' tha reefer. On top of this genre triptych, some clear NWOBHM influences are thrown in there to add a lil epic vibe. Apart from that, harsh vox ain't impressive, and the same can be said about the songwriting. |
| $uicideboy$ I No Longer Fear The Razor Guarding My Heel | 3.6 |
| 7 minutes of depressive cloudy Memphis rap? Big fucking yes. Shit is grimy and depressive without being an ode to drugs and suicide. Not a big fan of the dudes' delivery, but it's quite refreshing over such a short time. |
| Caligula's Horse The Tide, the Thief and River's End | 3.4 |
| It's prog, in all its delicacy, proficiency, dramacy, and my lack of proper interest in it. It does trade the djenty and the calm approaches swiftly. Despite my relative coldness towards the genre, this is a great all-around prog package. |
| Billy Woods Dour Candy | 3.6 |
| A continuation of History Will Absolve Me, Dour Candy features simile-destructured flows, hard as feck lyricism, and cold, boom-bappy beats. As a whole it does hit a tad less than its predecessor, but some tracks are - almost - catchy ("Tinseltown", "Tumbleweed", "Fool's Gold"). |
| Inter Arma Sky Burial | 3.4 |
| Everything extreme metal (almost). Sky Burial is indeed a concoction of sludge, doom, post, black, and prog metal that, while cool, never truly goes beyond its formula of ominously apocalyptic (or the other way around) blackened sludge. When it does, like on the Pink Floydesque "The Long Road Home", it's a slapper. |
| First Aid Kit The Lion's Roar | 3.5 |
| Very nice folk pop with country linings that shines best - wait for it it's gonna be shocking - when the choruses and the melodies are at their most evident. At its very worst, The Lion's Roar thus pleasant, but it mostly is a cute lil folk pop record. |
| Laura Marling A Creature I Don't Know | 3.6 |
| Much more dynamic than her preceding album, A Creature I Don't Know nicely blends indie folk with orchestral or rock elements. Yet it truly is the songwriting that shines here: each track is engaging in its own way. |
| William Tyler Behold the Spirit | 3.3 |
| A mostly beautiful American Primitivism record, Behold the Spirit sometimes loses itself in being too soft modifying its course. Can't ignore dem beaut melodeez tho. |
| Lil B Blue Flame | 3.1 |
| Swag. Blue Flame mostly relies on trappy beats, and while the turn up is indeed present, it's when Lil B mumbles his half-idiotic, half-philosophical diatribe on top of soulful beats that he's at his best. |
| Neil Young Le Noise | 3.2 |
| Neil Young goes noise with producer Daniel Lanois. While the noisy aesthetic is cool, the lack of rhythm section and the overall minimalistic vibe does not help this record's memorability. |
| The Mountain Goats All Eternals Deck | 3.7 |
| My first Mountain Goats record woo! All Eternals Deck is a folk rock album that mixes mature lyrics (from what I understood) and super songwriting. Sometimes you don't really need more than that. |
| SpaceGhostPurrp NASA: The Mixtape | 3.4 |
| Ok, in terms of installing a vibe through spacey cloud rap, this is up there. Purrp's delivery is similar to Lil B, in that it does sound more like rambling than actual rapping. That (lack of?) technique, alongside the murky'n'hazy beats that channel as much 2010s lo-fi hip hop, chopped and screwed, or straight-up Three Six Mafia worship. It's very swag, but apart from the cool atmosphere, the songs don't impress me much (han-han-uh-uh). |
| Alex Cameron Oxy Music | 3.1 |
| Where are the hooks, Alex? When you deliver a new wavey, heartlandy, 80s-influenced pop rock album, you better come up with filthy hooks. Unfortunately, Oxy Music is the most soft rock Cameron has gone, with most of the tunes being cool without attaining mega-bangers material. |
| Ghost (SWE) Impera | 3.2 |
| Ghost make a fun AOR record and it's good while not as gripping as Meliora. What else could we expect? Bet these songs are fun live. |
| Jenny Hval Classic Objects | 3.8 |
| Much more accessible than her previous works, Classic Objects still focuses on delivering introspective ambient pop. Still, this time her sophistication works hand in hand with soft melodies and the emotion pouring out of them. |
| Hath All That Was Promised | 3.7 |
| A nifty blend of death and black metal with a dash of prog, All That Was Promised offers multifaceted death metal that shines best when going fast and focusing on harsh vocals - clean vox and slower passages are good, but not as impacting. |
| Freeze Corleone and Ashe 22 RIYAD SADIO | 3.0 |
| Two of the most renowned French drillers associate: and it does show how in need of innovation drill is. Soundscape-wise, this is mostly drill, flow-wise Freeze does innovate his trademark flow a tad while Ashe just relies on his damn voice. Not bad, just nothing particularly great. |
| Vein.fm This World Is Going to Ruin You | 3.6 |
| Aight modern core with alt metal linings that unfortunately suffers the comparison with the band's previous effort, Errorzone: the production was better, the songs' melodies shined more too, and there are simply more "aight" tracks here - the more aggressive approach surely had an impact on this. Still cool, and there tunes here that blend core and 90s alt metal very nicely - "Magazine Beach" is straight-up Deftones goes core. |
| Liars WIXIW | 2.7 |
| A quiet record supported by post-punky basslines and indietronica bleep bloops, WIXIW works on sparse territories, so sparse its rare melodies do not manage to make it interesting all the way. |
| of Montreal Paralytic Stalks | 3.6 |
| The balance between pop finesse and weirdass explorations is almost top-notch on this one. It still likes to dive into experimentation for the sake of it (the two tracks before the closer), but when the pop hooks emerge outta said experimentation, it's a winner. |
| Earth Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light II | 3.3 |
| 45 mins of post-rocky guitars with psych linings and some cello joining occasionally. It is pretty and all, but its repetition fails to convey the same kinda trance as the first opus. |
| How to Dress Well Total Loss | 3.2 |
| Sounds like The Weeknd with less interesting beats, but some melodies and arrangements here are interesting enough for the rather sparse soundscape to work. |
| Max Richter Recomposed: Vivaldi - The Four Seasons | 4.1 |
| A post-minimalist version of Le quattro stagioni, this recomposed version does not so much focus on putting the same melodies and rhythmic shifts in a different sound. Rather, it deconstructs what once was to its bare minimum to only phase and loop it. It results in a work oh-so-different from its OG material that still needs the OG strong melodies to properly shine - Autumn is my least fav part in both works. |
| Toundra III | 3.9 |
| Epic post-rock/metal is epic, especially when strings go complement it. It's pretty by-the-numbers for the genre, but I always love that kinda vibe, and this one got strong extremely catchy and engaging compositions on top of a constant head-bopping groove. |
| Marina Electra Heart | 3.8 |
| Gone is the cabaret aesthetic, hello synthetic elements! Electra Heart sees Marina go full electropop, and that suits her best than on her debut, the less grand vibe working best with her vocal range. Some tracks do sound outdated because of their clear early 2010s aesthetic, but overall this is better than Family Jewels, and the character arc she's pulling herself into is thoughtful and nuanced. |
| Animal Collective Centipede Hz | 3.3 |
| Bursting with colourful energy, Centipede Hz is as sonically powerful as it is a glorious mess. Its maximalism goes sometimes a bit too far, but it never cross the "ew nah" border thanks to the great - yet extremely hidden - songwriting. |
| Ellie Goulding Lights | 2.7 |
| Mucho sappy. Goulding's debut truly sounds and feels like an adolescent record - with slight folktronica influences bringing some diversity to the decidedly 2010 electropop canvas. While one can't criticize her sincerity, it just doesn't appeal to me. She's got a very wide vocal range tho. |
| OFWGKTA Radical | 3.1 |
| Teen rap: kinda dope beats, a lotta shock value, aight flows, but nothing truly refined. |
| The Hirsch Effekt Holon: Anamnesis | 3.8 |
| The Germans upped their game with this one, refining their brand of proggy post-hardcore with more apt additions of strings, chants, trip-hop beats, or Latin influences than on Hiberno, as well as making it catchy. |
| The xx Coexist | 3.0 |
| Coexist is a work of minimalist pop with very little focus on hooks, rather showcasing Jamie XX's production chops. It's thus constantly pleasant, but its soothing nature doesn't benefit from the lack of variation. |
| Young Thug JEFFERY | 3.8 |
| Thus far in his discog, this is his best work. Not that this is Thuggy reinventing himself, it's just that: this contains some of his best songs, these songs are diverse enough to each have their own specific vibe, the features are actually worthwhile, and Thugger's vocal delivery is as elastic as a luxury good's demand. |
| Lamb of God Resolution | 3.2 |
| Mainstream early 2010s metal: it's groovy yo! The blend of metalcore, groove, and thrash metal sure is cool and induce some headbangs, but apart from the two singles - which are proper singles, ie catchy songs - and the closer - an attempt at expanding the band's sound which is always laudable -, it's early 2010s mainstream metal. |
| Dominique A Vers les lueurs | 3.2 |
| "Trad" French chanson - in that it's pompous and does not search for nifty choruses. This one is particularly orchestrated, with a clear chamber vibe that is always lush yet sometimes falls flat when there ain't no whimsy flute or muscled guitar entering the mix. When they do, it results in tracks like "Le convoi" and that's exactly the best version of that kind of French chanson. |
| Scott Walker Bish Bosch | 3.5 |
| Serious wackiness, or wacky seriousness. The Walker dude is howling his wannabe-grand poetry with a humorously pompous delivery, there's a fart (yes), there are xylophones blasting "Jingle Bells", there's a "I've severed my reeking gonads" line, but at the same time there's a deadass gravity to it all. In the end, this is the smartass version of Blackstar and You Want It Darker. Weird at some instances, but gripping and interesting enough when it doesn't indulge in silliness. |
| Magma Félicité Thösz | 3.8 |
| If you wanna jam some Magma but are a frightened newbie, start with this one. Short (32 mins) and built as a suite, Felicite Thosz see Stella Vander lead the vocal charge with her diva voice - thus much less aggressive than on some of the band's previous outputs - and dictates the rather uplifting vibe. Here, almost none of the long dark passages that the band is famous for: the record is thus less intense but nevertheless interesting with its more spiritual atmosphere. |
| Full of Hell/Code Orange Split | 3.6 |
| Slow and furious: Full of Hell and Code Orange both go for sludgy shit with hardcore and even powerviolence linings for FoH, while Code Orange bring in da lil metalcore vibe. Ain't surprising, but FoH > Code Orange, even these two tracks are some of the best the 'Kids have composed. |
| Cannibal Corpse Torture | 3.2 |
| Eh, it's Cannibal Corpse: meaty and galloping riffs, heavy shit overall, and zombie talking. Cool. |
| Rise Of The Northstar Demonstrating My Saiya Style | 3.5 |
| Dope French blend of thrash, metalcore, groove metal, and rapcore. Damn shame it came out in 2012: though it garnered some praise and got some fans on, this aesthetic would have worked like a charm a decade earlier. Maybe this also has to do with the relatively monochromatic vibe, with the first proper song delivering everything you need to hear to understand what these mecs are about. Still, Demonstrating My Saiya Style makes you wanna kick bad guys in the nuts, and that's a good motivation. |
| Sigh In Somniphobia | 3.2 |
| A symphoprog record with black metal vocals, In Somniphobia manages to let go of its parent genres' pompousness to provide a mostly fun experience thanks to the addition of energetic bursts of jazz and the constant pace shifting. Some transitions felt clumsy, and this is messy by approach, yet I kinda vibed with this. Still ain't really my cuppa, but it's a good cuppa. |
| Caravan Palace Panic | 3.0 |
| Electro Swing and all that jazz manouche revival thang: that's a trend I totally forgot took over Francophonia in the early 2010s. It's basically an aesthetic-only, retro-futurist sound that mixes "Annees folles" jazz with four-on-the-floor rhythms. Many tried, many failed, and Caravan Palace managed to stand out by releasing albums that don't solely rely on the one big single it spawned. This one is fine, although it does rely on the same formula throughout the whole record. |
| Zola Jesus Conatus | 3.3 |
| Like the Stridulum EP, this is martial industrial beats + eerie synths + a gorgeous voice that goes for the gothically grand BUT ain't no party when there ain't no strong songwriting underlying the beats'n'textures. Not that there aren't great songs here - "Vessel" and "Hikikomori" slap - but compared to how great her debut EP was, this is slightly disappointing. |
| Odezenne OVNI (Orchestre virtuose national incompétent) | 3.6 |
| Hip-hop beats and scratches, vocal deliveries switching between rap and chanson, and a dash of indietronica: this is Odezenne. Their blend of genres once again is real cool, and while not as grand in its best moments as follow-up record Dolziger, it's overall better built, with no lulls diminishing the overall experience. |
| Low C'Mon | 3.5 |
| A pleasant if a tad uneventful slowcore album by the slowcore champions, C'mon is constantly engaging and sports cool melodies and whatnot, but rarely pushes these melodies to their full potential - it's basically a beautiful person that does no effort showcasing their prettiness. |
| Panda Bear Tomboy | 3.2 |
| Reverb-full psych pop that's constantly *nice* but whose constant gloss and lack of resolution damper the whole experience. |
| Trivium In Waves | 3.1 |
| Early 2010s melocore: it got hyped, it's aight |
| Julianna Barwick The Magic Place | 3.9 |
| woah this indeed sounds like a magic place. This is basically a polyphonic a cappella album with an ambient, poppy, new agey musical background. It's all about the mood. And what a good mood: it oozes the scent of a spring morning. Comfy, even though its comfiness works better in its early stages. |
| Huerco S Plonk | 3.4 |
| At times a suite of distant boom booms in the nothingness, at times an epic rap IDM journey, often not knowing what to do between frantically moving and calmly sitting. |
| Gang of Youths Angel in Realtime | 3.8 |
| Still grandiloquent af, still earnest tho. The balance between these two components sometimes tend towards the sappy - "Brothers" only pulls off its emotional weight through lyrics, musically nothing happens - but when the "big songs" are matched with a big songwriting - "angel of 8th ave", "tend the garden", "in the wake of your leave", it's a winner. |
| Blood Incantation Timewave Zero | 3.4 |
| Cool space ambient. Ain't no Tangerine Dream level of trance, but it does a good job at invoking spacey feels through beaut textures. |
| Blood Ceremony Living With The Ancients | 3.8 |
| Dope trad doom that gets its dopeness from the folky'n'proggy bits - "Coven Tree" and its flute is a mashup of Black Sabbath and Genesis. The occasional flute, as well as the organ, is truly what makes Living With the Ancients stand out among the occult revival scene - they do not hesitate to let go of the doom and go full Shire/Celtic on "The Hermit". Fortunately, even the full-doom moments riffz ahrd. |
| Dirty Beaches Badlands | 2.6 |
| Badlands is lo-fi and hypnagogic with some psychobilly riffs, and while this aesthetic is cool, it ain't much more than aesthetic apart on the two most streamed songs, which are, uh, almost-songs that are almost catchy. Most of this basically is a suite of riff loops with some Suicide samples. |
| Emilie Simon Franky Knight | 3.8 |
| An ode to her deceased partner, Franky Knight is - fortunately? - not all grim, with most of the tracks being either cute or grand, both musically and vocally - think Kate Bush - with delicacy being its main attribute. |
| Holy Other With U | 3.5 |
| Ok now that is some night jam. With U is sensual'n'ethereal house, with mid-tempo beats, R&B snippets a la Burial and a vibe that fuses hypnotic ambient dub with chillwave. Good shit that stays a tad too much in the background tho. |
| Justice Audio, Video, Disco | 2.5 |
| Fusing electro house and proggy hard rock might have been a good idea, but god the execution is absolutely lackluster. This is a record designed for shake da ass and screm silly lyrics, and I don't want to do either of these thangs. |
| J Balvin Vibras | 2.5 |
| Mainstream reggaeton: it's all about ass-shaking and showing how your dancing moves hint at your sexual prowess. Cool premise, shame (and kinda ironic) that it's all about the same tempo with zero variation. |
| Di-Meh Focus, Vol. 2 | 2.7 |
| A typical - and thus not original - late 2010s Francophone rap mixtape: it's got big basses, it's all about egotrips, and the flow alternates between aggressive and languid. Nothing truly bad, but nothing that stands out among an overpopulated scene. |
| Arca Stretch 1 | 3.2 |
| wah early Arca was nocturnal af. It was already weird - ofc - with its pitched vocals and abstract vibe. It doesn't always succeed at marrying dancing grooves, alien vocals, and nighttime atmosphere all at once, but when it does ("DOEP", "Truly Carrying"), it's hinting at &&&&&. |
| The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation Anthropomorphic | 3.3 |
| k so yeah this doomjazz shtick do be drone dark jazz. It thus works best at creating and conveying an atmosphere than as a pure musical enjoyment, but it's so damn gloomy'n'moody it's difficult to label it as mere background muzak. |
| The Antlers Burst Apart | 3.2 |
| This is lush. This is deep. This is layered. And yet I cannot fully connect with it. The arrangements are beautiful, the atmosphere is great, but eh being a non-lyric motherfucker ultimately dampers the experience of listening to any Antlers album. Solipsism is a bitch. |
| Jesu Ascension | 3.0 |
| Hey, it's Jesu(s): drony post-metal with constant shoegaze effects and vocals. They just don't sound super inspired on this - that means it's all about textures - and the drummer sounds sloppy too. Not bad because dem beaut textures, but not an essential Broadrick release. |
| Camille ILO VEYOU | 3.6 |
| I didn't expect Ilo Veyou to be so, uh, experimental for a mainstream French chanson artist. Almost a cappella with its bare instrumentation, Camille sings, howls, screams, grunts, halfway between Bjork and Fiona Apple, with a touch of Captain Beefheart's zaniness. It's thus mostly cool, but the tracks that work the best are the ones experimenting the least: "Wet Boy" and its touching delivery, or "Mars Is No Fun" and its cute and quirky vibe - while tunes like "Allez allez allez" are just too much. |
| The Devil Wears Prada Dead Throne | 3.0 |
| waw 2011 was a long time ago. late 00s/early 2010s melocore. It's aight. |
| Com Truise Galactic Melt | 2.8 |
| Chillsynthwave with occasional funky licks: it's fun! Hum. It's fun in the beginning, but it soon becomes passable to end up boring, as the sole driver of this record is aesthetics. Not unpleasant tho. |
| Thaiboy Digital Legendary Member | 3.2 |
| The fourth mousquetaire behind Yung Lean, Bladee, and ECCO2k, Thaiboy Digital delivers a cool debut album that's way less cloudy and sadboi, and thus more optimistic and boastful than his counterparts'. His rapological technique ain't the best - ain't the focus either tbf - and the features are quite clearly the best tracks, ultimately proving Thaiboy's status among the Stockholm Cloud Rap Scene (scene name still pending). |
| Lorenzo Rien à branler | 2.0 |
| "Rien a branler" means something like "don't give no fuck", and no fucks were indeed given. It's mostly average rap that tries to be funny - gotta say sometimes it succeeds. Yet, this is the one record with the most "proper" tracks that aren't only debilitatingly funny - "Bizarre" ft. Vald is a trve banger, and "Fume a fond" and "Tu le C" are less idiotic - still not Einstein level - and thus cool. The bulk of this is a big no-no lyrically, but at least the beats and production are much more refined than on his debut mixtape. |
| Bad Bunny X100PRE | 2.9 |
| Reggaeton-y trap, or trappy reggaeton. Either way, it's neither as bombastic as it could be - way too many slow cuts that show lil personality - nor as one-dimensional as I wrongly expected it to be, with cool surprises like the synthwave-led "Otra Noche in Miami". |
| Earth Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light I | 3.6 |
| One hour of American guitar strumming chords in a drony, psychy, slow way is what you'd expect: it's pretty and repetitive, with repetition - mostly - functioning as a trance-inducing feature. |
| M.I.A. Maya | 3.0 |
| Tell me you were released in 2010 without telling me you were released in 2010. Shame that this already sounds outdated, from the electropop-slash-industrial vibe to those fucking YouTube bars on the cover. On the other hand, this basically feels like a mixtape of deconstructed club and PC Music , but from 2010. Such an avant-garde result is to be lauded, I just feel like the albums that iterated on this sound bettered it - no fucking wonder when Diplo produced several tracks off this. |
| Everyone Everywhere Everyone Everywhere | 3.4 |
| Cool emo that wears its influences on its sleeve - ya like 90s emo? It fortunately manages to show off some songwriting chops and energetic performance to not be dismissed as an uninteresting revival record. |
| Saez J'accuse | 2.2 |
| Kinda cheap faux-Noir Desir that picks the "pissed-off leftist" card without any kind of nuance, but with a monochromatic delivery and soundscape, as well as feeble riffs and an insufferable "I denounce the most inane shit so I'm better than ya" stance. Also at times cringe and mega incel ("Marguerite" ugh). |
| The Flashbulb Arboreal | 3.7 |
| An exercise in electronic diversity. Arboreal blends ambient, IDM, breaks, and downtempo with classical or jazz instrumentations looming over the whole soundscape. Fortunately, the sound design is top fucking notch, but it lacks a bit of oomph to truly be impressive. |
| Kavinsky Nightcall | 3.2 |
| Ok so: one of the most iconic 2010s tracks, a nice synthy tune that's ultimately overshadowed by its predecessor, and two unnecessary - but not unpleasant - remixes. Aight. |
| Accept Blood of the Nations | 3.2 |
| Good ol' Teutonic heavy metal. Ain't a bae genre for me, but this got some nice chops, good production, thrashy vocals, meaty riffs, and crispy soli. |
| Gorillaz The Fall | 2.1 |
| Made on an iPad, huh? Beware, Rhodes, Apple is coming for ya!!! Album mostly sounds rubbish and amateurish, with almost all tracks overstaying their (not-so) welcome. |
| Immolation Acts of God | 3.4 |
| Consistent band is consistent. Ain't nothing that new but there are enough rhythmic changes and a nice alternance between slow and fast shit within each song for the album to be enjoyable. |
| Beach House Once Twice Melody | 3.0 |
| Pretty, lush, good production, and a pleasant experience overall but not much more. |
| And So I Watch You From Afar Jettison | 3.2 |
| An epic post-rock journey with math linings (ofc) and a string quartet (waw!), Jettison trades the harder parts of the band's soundscape to more cinematic one. It's a journey though: the softer material kicks it off while the hard parts take the lead in the second part. Some power is thus lost in the first half, but when it hits with that new aesthetic - like on "VI Submerge", it's a banger. |
| Voivod Synchro Anarchy | 3.6 |
| Everyone's (second?) fav Quebec metal band proves time ain't real with their still-fresh take on prog thrash. And yet, apart from the smooth production, this doesn't sound like modern thrash, rather an - extremely well remastered - excavation from the 80s that grooves and riffs. Doesn't make me pp ahrd but very solid nonetheless. |
| Migos No Label II | 3.5 |
| Once again a lit tape, No Label II is 75 mins of pure boasting in banger form. It's ofc too long, but as the YRN mixtape, ain't that much of a problem when the material is fire. |
| Boris Noise | 3.9 |
| It's Boris, basically: most of this is made up of heavy riffs complemented with psychy leads that, along with the mostly clean vocal delivery, gives the whole lot its poppy vibe - and pop sludge is always a win. When the tempo slows, the band looms either toward Flood or Feedbacker without having the same emotional apex, even though "Angel" is almost there - gotta say it's quite a difficult task innit. This is - most probably - their best post-2000s work. |
| Iglooghost Neo Wax Bloom | 3.1 |
| Wonky shit that goes a lil too frantically for the pretty textures to make themselves a nice spot among the clashing basses. This is mainly due to the gigantic amount of rhythmic changes that happen way too often, with many genres (glitch, bubblegum bass, deconstructed club, grime, drill and bass, or footwork) trading places in a not-so-swift-way. |
| Di-Meh Focus, Vol. 1 | 2.7 |
| It's a debut mixtape. Di-meh, a Swiss rapper, thus goes for the energetical and egotistic stance - classic. This has got a cool vibe with trappy beats and watery (??? idk man that's the first word that came out) synths that work well in the first half, much less in the second one. Di-Meh's rapological technique ain't that impressive and he ain't saying much apart from the typical tropes, but the dude's got swag. Should have been 30 mins max long tho. |
| Zola Jesus Stridulum | 3.9 |
| Martial industrial beats + eerie synths + a gorgeous voice that goes for the gothically grand = big yes m'boi. The dark and at times apocalyptic vibe is - very - nicely counterbalanced with the vocals and synths that, while not jolly per se, manage to give this sombre record an ethereal vibe that diminishes the dread. |
| Black Kray GOTH LUV | 3.6 |
| Cloudy goth trap ain't no established subgenre, but Black Kray sure makes a point of putting it on the map. It's deeply melancholic despite the fartlines and the video-gam aesthetic, the synths specifically bringing a sadboi psychedelic vibe. I keep wanting a bit more from this dude tho. |
| Mammal Hands Animalia | 3.5 |
| 2010s British nu jazz is always cool innit? This one does not derogate from the rule, its atmosphere being mostly created by the interplay between the piano and the sax, with some spiritual linings here and there. Ain't nothing impressive in the end, and a bass would have added some depth to it, but overall a cool nu jazz debut. |
| Migos Young Rich Niggas | 3.4 |
| Lit tape. Yah they only talk about bitches and money and all that kinda jazz, but they know how to turn the shit up. Some tracks overstay their welcome due to repetitiveness, but there ain't no non-banger here. |
| Bladee GLUEE | 3.5 |
| How to make a bold debut, by Bladee. Ethereal Nintendo-like synths, trap beats, vocals drenched in multiple effects, an emo delivery: mucho aesthetic. It's cool, but it's clear Bladee is still searching for its recipe. |
| Sunn O))) and Ulver Terrestrials | 3.3 |
| Yep, it's drony. With occasional chamber instruments being thrown into the drone maelstrom, this is overall nice and ominously atmospheric. Still, as Papa Jom said in his summary: In context, it's a nice, hypnotic little time capsule, but it's difficult to overlook the what-could-have-been. |
| Richard Dawson Nothing Important | 3.5 |
| Wah for avant-folk this is really avant. Atonal, incongruous, strident, both musically and vocally: this must be a bangin' drunken sing-along. Yet, this bleeds of emotion and sincerity, and as the record continued, the less grating and the more poignant it became. Ultimately, this is one of the most idiosyncratic pieces of 2010s folk. |
| Blanck Mass Dumb Flesh | 3.9 |
| Exhibiting a soundscape made of synthwave-influenced electro-industrial, Dumb Flesh is hella dope. Mostly ominous, the music alternates the hypnotic and the pulsating, but it's truly its recurrent rhythmic shifts that make this one an alluring motherfucker. |
| Columbine (FR) Clubbing For Columbine | 2.0 |
| Ha, Columbine and their popularity from 2016 to 2018. Basically a sadbois band with adolescent BUT sometimes literary lyrics - mostly talking about da dick - , a vocal delivery not knowing what to choose between singing and rapping - they can't do either really -, and beats that mostly are cloudy but sometimes - especially in the first half - go for debilitating electropartytime. It's got a certain charm for sure, and some of these tracks ("Fleurs du mal", "Les prelis") were kinda important for lil dedex back then. Most of this is Adolescent Music: honest yet cringe, varied musically yet wildly unfocused, fresh yet amateurish. |
| Binker and Moses Dem Ones | 2.8 |
| Early Nu UK Jazz goes hard. Binker (tenor sax) and Moses (drums) present a brand of semi-free jazz that always features intense performances but rarely manages to transform that intensity into bona fide bangers. |
| Amorphis Circle | 3.0 |
| Despite being bombastic, Circle suffers from offering prog wankery with milquetoast melodies and faux catchy choruses - and the flutes are kinda cheesy, like most flutes in metal. |
| Pharmakon Abandon | 2.9 |
| This sure is noisy. Abandon is uncompromising, but formulaic to the fault: pulsing beats and almost-constant drones see either Nazgul-like shrieks or shamanic chants provide a semblance of emotional response that never manages to fully haunt. |
| Dream Theater Dream Theater | 2.5 |
| If their precedent album was epic and cheesy and trite but not unpleasant, this one is ALSO epic and cheesy and trite and not unpleasant AND on top of that it doesn't try anything else. |
| Hammock Departure Songs | 4.0 |
| Departure Songs is hella formulaic - but the formula is beauty and stays strong in the long run. A calm yet powerful atmosphere made of post-rock noodling and ambient landscapes carries soft melodies. That's it, for almost two hours. Lovely. |
| Unknown Mortal Orchestra Unknown Mortal Orchestra | 2.9 |
| Early 2010s psych: it's lo-fi yet full of summer vibes! 60s rock's influence is beyond evident, but it's compensated with - equally evident - nods to 2000s indie rock. This self-titled album is thus a pure product of its era, making it both a nice throwback and a record that feels stuck in a dead epoch. |
| Prurient Bermuda Drain | 3.7 |
| Shushed and screamed vocals take turns to accompany eerie darkwave synths. There are traces of industrial and noise music here, but these are not the focus, rather putting forward the combination of harsh vocals and clean synths, and the record is short enough for this formula to not overstay its welcome. |
| of Montreal False Priest | 3.4 |
| Arscore: it's quirky! This lies basically halfway between 80s new wave and late 00s/early 2010s indie pop, with everything weird and catchy containes in these genres. False Priest mostly is interesting because of its wide sonic palette, yet this specific point also constitutes its greatest faults, with tracks seemingly not knowing what kind of soundscape they want to install. |
| The Hirsch Effekt Holon : Hiberno | 3.6 |
| German mathcore that uses, uh, a lotta other genres to spice it all up - sometimes glitchy bleeps, sometimes classical instruments and chants to make it all grand. It's mostly great thanks to the musicianship and the German vocals - quite refreshing to hear anything else than English tbh - but it sometimes suffer from its relative eclectism, some parts within songs sounding barely related to one another. |
| Sun Kil Moon Admiral Fell Promises | 3.2 |
| Eh it's Kozelek: much sadboi, very long, sombre folk. Some guitar strummings invoke some flamenco - which is cool and unexpected, but they don't happen that often. |
| Motorhead The World Is Yours | 3.0 |
| Motorhead in 2010? Didn't expect this to be that solid, even though it's pretty by-the-numbers for them. |
| How to Dress Well Love Remains | 3.0 |
| Love Remains is a work of lo-fi, reverb-full ambient pop lullabies that use soft piano and crashing textures, but the songs hide themselves behind the lo-fi-and-thus-thad production. |
| Ling Tosite Sigure Still a Sigure Virgin? | 3.7 |
| Yes I was a Sigure virgin, but now I amn't! While the J-emo vocals ain't my cuppa, the band's blend of proggy post-hardcore, indie, and math rock is exhilarating, with some catchy features and musicianship powered by top-notch production. |
| Boris Heavy Rocks (2011) | 3.5 |
| Heavy, fuzzy shit that still retains hook, Heavy Rocks II nevertheless feels a lil all-over-the-place, more akin to a comp of dope rock bangers with occasional drones and lullabies. |
| Iglooghost Chinese Nü Yr | 3.7 |
| A frantic clash of warping bubbles, Chinese Nu Yr comes straight outta the PC Music canvas YET was released on Brainfeeder. You know what to expect then: this is wonky, bubblegummy bass music with many quirky lil snippets and an energetically surreal vibe. |
| Black Kray Crack Cloud$ Over Arts Kitchen | 3.7 |
| Hell of a trip this one. Imagine cloud rap mixed with witch house, and you've basically got it. It's psychy as hell, with that lo-fi vibe that makes sure you know this comes from the 2010s. Too long and poorly mixed though, but aesthetically this is fucking fire. |
| Amorphis Halo | 3.1 |
| Proggy folky melodeath with solemn clean vocals: ain't my shit but there are a couple of interesting moments - eg the Oriental bit on "On the Dark Waters" - and enough stylistic shifts within a coherent framework for this to be pleasant. |
| Yard Act The Overload | 2.9 |
| Another cheeky, post-punky Bri'ish band? These babes don't do the pissed-off kind of Nu England rock (Shames and IDLES already do it), nor the existential sadboi stance (ya'know who), but rather the four-on-the-floor kinda catchy kind. It's a nice idea, but the singer is too prominent among the not-that-interesting, stripped-down music, and while the basslines induce some pelvis motion, they aren't fully supported to come to the level of Arctic Monkeys-like badassery. |
| Yeule Glitch Princess | 3.9 |
| i like pretty textures: me too Yeule, me too. This is indeed a work of crashing textures that, alongside ethereal synths, wobbling basses, and fragile vocal performance, invokes an introspection glowing through deep melodies and dope songwriting. |
| Big Thief Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You | 3.5 |
| Never was a huge fan of these peepz, but for a 80 mins album, it ain't boring: success! This is mostly due to the quite wide soundscape - not that they play alternative anti-punk, but the back-and-forth between mellow folk and more upbeat americana tunes is great. I remain a non-lyric motherfucker, so the calmest moments don't impress me much (oh oh ooh-ooh), but at its best ("Little Things" omg) this is superb. |
| Cult of Luna The Long Road North | 4.0 |
| too many interludes is this a companion to the latest Cynic album??????????? Kinda disappointed by how Stetson is used here, could have been more powerful. Apart from that: it's Cult of Luna, bitch. |
| Boris New Album | 3.4 |
| Boris go J-electropoprockgaze, and it slaps. When it rocks, it's punchy. When it bumps, it's boppy. When it takes it slow, it's ethereal - but gotta say these tunes aren't the most refined one because we all know Boris is a guitar band and they're at their best when they let the guitars screm. |
| Owen Pallett Heartland | 3.5 |
| A playful and pastoral record, Heartland really ain't about songwriting: it's about dem sounds. Pallett's palette (rofl what a silly willy i am) is enriched with various classical instruments playing restrained modern classical music - ie post-minimalist, chamber, and baroque pop - juxtaposed with Pallett's soft voice. It starts off slow but steadily gains the confidence to finally provide emotional vibration in its second half. |
| Liars Sisterworld | 2.6 |
| A dark and weirdo noisy rock album, Sisterworld is all about how ominous it sounds. Good job: it does sound ominous! Ain't engaging or enjoyable though, or even creepy or whatever. |
| The Books The Way Out | 3.2 |
| The Way Out is a folktronica mashup that goes from frantically plunderphonics to serenely sadboi folk between two sound collages. It fortunately mostly avoids overabundance of quirkiness, but it still suffers from its disjointed nature. |
| Hammock Chasing After Shadows...Living with the Ghosts | 3.9 |
| A beautiful record weaving ambient and post-rock with some modern classical moments. It's mellow, but the sheer beauty and delicacy make this babe a soothing listen. |
| Nas and Damian Marley Distant Relatives | 3.2 |
| Waw the reception is much better than I expected. I kinda get it: 2010 Nas was very bleh, Damian Marley hadn't done anything in 5 years since Welcome to Jamrock, and yet this is pleasant reggae hop that nicely blends the two universes. It does feel too "easy" at times: never fully wanting your attention, yet never being unpleasant. |
| Kylesa Spiral Shadow | 4.0 |
| Spiral Shadow is a succession of dopeass bangers. Kylesa showcased - if necessary - that they were masters in condensing a psychy sludge stoner sound into regular track lengths - and with memorable riffs and vocal lines! It's short, it's fast, it's gonna make you bang your head. |
| Broken Bells Broken Bells | 3.6 |
| Lush af (hey it's Danger Mouse ya'know) indietronica that mostly uses its gorgeous production to make up for the lack of songwriting. BUT, when good songs are adorned with a production like this, it's a fucking winner (opener, TGI, "Sailing to Nowhere", or the end of "Citizen"). |
| Jonsi Go | 3.9 |
| Go is a whimsical lil record, with that instantly recognizable voice doing vocal gymnastics on top of Kishi Bashi's Lighght-like instrumentations. Big yes. |
| Samsara Blues Experiment Long Distance Trip | 3.7 |
| Stoner rock with psych linings? yah we all know that. Stoner rock with psych linings AND bluesy guitars AND even some raga incorporations? That's better. Long Distance Trip is, uh, a trip (because the weed y'know) and it is long - 66 minutes m/ - and its ways of standing out among a sea(weed) of millions of other stoner bands are cool and well integrated. Still would listen to OM over this tho. |
| Ceremony (USA-CA) Rohnert Park | 3.4 |
| 80s punk revival: this band really does its best job at reenacting many of the era's big bands (Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Minor Threat) without truly sounding like one of them. Good job ig, also good job for the surf vibes on "The Doldrums". Despite being mega derivative, it's fun shit. |
| Phaeleh Fallen Light | 3.7 |
| A blend of future garage, dubstep, and ambient dub, Fallen Light is constantly on the verge of nightclub shithousery while never steering away from ethereal dawnmuzak. It thus makes you tap your foot, but rarely makes you wanna throw your sickest leg moves. Likewise, it is constantly chill, but often features too many rhythmic muscles to be consumed as a late-night solo experience. |
| The Brave Little Abacus Okumay | 3.5 |
| Bitpop-enhanced whiny mathy emo that somehow manages to be powerful despite the sheer sentimality. Mix is very meh though. |
| Erykah Badu New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh | 3.7 |
| Groovy neo-soul carried by Badu's silky vocal performance, this Part 2 (never listened to Part 1 eh throw rocks @ me ig) mostly works on smooth grounds that are constantly elevated by funky licks. It's still mostly mellow and the lyrical matter is more personal than universal, thus slightly diminishing the listener's engagement - especially in the second half. |
| Shining (NOR) Blackjazz | 3.1 |
| Fusing prog & indus metal with some jazz parts = avant-garde? Apparently! It's cool when it does fully commit to its aesthetic, which ain't that often unfortunately. It mostly is indus metal with tapping sections- bleh -, but when they do commit like on the King Crimson cover, it does slap hard. |
| Bilal Airtight's Revenge | 3.9 |
| Now this is some passionately dark neo-soul. Bilal's performance is driving the record, his bleak tales being enhanced by fast drumming or more introspective instrumentation - with a constant psychedelic vibe. But, truly, this is all about Bilal. |
| Warpaint The Fool | 3.8 |
| 4AD-influenced, psych-laden, and post-punk basslines: these gals are stuck in the 80s! At least their vision of 80s music is grand yet intricate, and they haven't forgotten about dynamic songwriting. Simply a joy to listen to these raucous yet soothing tracks. |
| Toundra Toundra (II) | 3.7 |
| Dope post-rock/metal with cool compositions and productions. 10-years-ago-me would have been all over this. |
| Sufjan Stevens All Delighted People | 4.0 |
| Now that's some pushing forward. The title track is absolutely gorgeous and might well be his most impressive tune - and it's eleven fucking minutes long but doesn't feel like it at all. And the other songs ain't too shabby either, all lushly trading pop and folk. It feels communal. It feels precious. It feels good. |
| The Dead Weather Sea of Cowards | 2.7 |
| Bluesy, garagey 70s rock that is fine but not fun |
| The Radio Dept. Clinging to a Scheme | 3.6 |
| Warm dream pop a la Prefab Sprout that in the end doesn't have lotta ideas, but that ultimately uses these ideas well - "Heaven's on Fire" is an absolute jam of a tune, and even the lesser tracks have got a jangly/boppy vibe. |
| Electric Wizard Black Masses | 3.6 |
| Fuzzy without being necessarily that heavy, Black Masses is Electric Wizard going towards more psychedelic territories - and it works, mostly thanks to the vocals resembling Ozzy trapped in a pedal. Riffs aren't hard-hitting but nevertheless feel like good doobie music. |
| Gonjasufi A Sufi and a Killer | 3.4 |
| Weird psychedelic hop with strong Dilla/FlyLo vibes, but with even more soul to it. Gonjasufi likes to delve into the weird, often nicely, - the best cuts have a certain Beefheart vibe to them - but sometimes it's too grating for its own sake. Likewise, not all tracks manage to properly render that surreal vibe. |
| Broken Social Scene Forgiveness Rock Record | 3.9 |
| All things indie: this babe got some tasty Dino Jr. riffs, irrestitibly sweet pop melodies, quirky bleep bloops, and it's a fucking winner. Yah, it ain't no You Forgot It in People, but Forgiveness Rock Record is, simply, extremely enjoyable to listen to. |
| The Secret Solve Et Coagula | 3.7 |
| Fucking vile. An amalgamation of sludge, metalcore, crust, hardcore, black, and grind, Solve et Coagula is fucking greasy - waw Kurt you again? I couldn't believe it was you who produced this compressed record! Indeed, the voice is buried within the discharge, but hey, when you've got material that fatly vile, it works. |
| Spoon Transference | 3.1 |
| Easy-going indie pop rock that nevertheless builds itself upon repetitive patterns of guitar and vocal lines. Songs tread different paths while being cohesive, but very few tracks manage to elevate themselves from the consistent-but-rarely-amazing category. |
| Black Breath Heavy Breathing | 3.2 |
| Death'n'roll riffs with hardcore rhythms and vocal delivery = very crusty shit. Heavy Breathing wears a neat production - hey Kurt didn't see you there - and mostly woos when focusing on Entombed-like riffing. It ain't reinventing anything but it's kinda cool. |
| Xiu Xiu Dear God, I Hate Myself | 3.4 |
| Outsider pop music: it's indeed very pop at its core, but Dear God, I Hate Myself adds depressively pessimistic atmosphere and vocals, as well as off-kilter synths and glitches that somehow make this album unnerving yet constantly interesting. |
| Future Islands In Evening Air | 3.2 |
| 80s synthpop, post-punk basslines, and Tom Waits destroying his throat: this is what this sounds like. It's got some good ideas, but these are not strong enough to fully support an otherwise aight indietronica record. |
| 40 Watt Sun Perfect Light | 3.4 |
| No more doom :[ This is indeed mostly post-rockish slowcore, with lengths ranging from "tad-too-long" ("Until") to "way-too-long" ("Raise Me Up"). At least it's extremely pretty! |
| OFF! First Four EPs | 3.2 |
| Hey OFF!, Black Flag called and they would like their early 80s material back! With Keith Morris - OG Black Flag and Circle Jerks vocalist - and a Pettibon art, this sounds and looks like early 80s hardcore. It's thus pissed-the-fuck-off and it sounds good but it mainly is also absolutely anachronistic and more a throwback to a dead era than a bona fide 2010 record. |
| B.B. Jacques Poésie d'une pulsion | 3.1 |
| Cool musicality and gritty perf, but eh somewhat too pompous - think Bono but as a French rapper - and his rapological technique ain't that impressive on this one. It suffers from the same "lack-of-variety" as the first one, but without having the benefit of surprise. |
| Earthless Night Parade of One Hundred Demons | 3.4 |
| A cool jam record with mucho fuzz - and not enuff riffs for me. When there are riffs - like during the second part of the second tune, or the whole third one - the band goes to Sabbathian level, adding layers on top of layers in a way that is at times over-the-top, at times thrilling. |
| Cloakroom Dissolution Wave | 3.4 |
| wah stoner emo? Yeah I can kinda see it: riffs are proper stonergaze and the vocal delivery lies into indietherealgaze territories. It's a dope aesthetic with a hypnotic vibe to it, but it's a tad too monochromatic and it doesn't sport a super flashy songwriting coat. |
| Black Country, New Road Ants From Up There | 4.5 |
| yah this time they nailed it and everything kinda rock and chamber is meshed altogether into proper songs that know how to balance the grandiose and the banal. big fucking yay, Nu England Rock. |
| Mitski Laurel Hell | 3.3 |
| A pretty pop album with strong 80s influences - da synths ya'know - that lacks the usually dynamic oomph previous albums sported. The more upbeat tracks manage to provide a slight-but-very-welcome ass-shaking, but the more subdued ones fly by without truly leaving an impact. It's alright though: she knows how to install a ~vibe~ |
| Vald V | 3.5 |
| Cool one. Ain't his best - pretty sure XEU will remain his masterpiece - but everything here is quite cool: the beats, the rapping, the punchlines. There are very few woah tracks but also very few meh ones - basically a good mainstream rap album. |
| Rolo Tomassi Where Myth Becomes Memory | 3.7 |
| yeah it's good. Eva's carrying the record with her vocals, the soundscape is wide and full of lil details, and the back-and-forth between mathcore and post-rock is a tad more seamless than on TWD - yet the math/post parts are still mostly distinguishable. What's missing, to me, is the sheer memorability. This is due to a) the flow - this one struggles to find a pace whereas TWD's most prominent feature is the smoothness of its flow - and b) the songwriting - ain't bad, I just feel the songs spend too much time trying to switch gears: they just can't go full throttle. gud shit, but this ain't the best album released on Feb 4th and that makes me sad. |
| The Drums Portamento | 3.0 |
| Much darker than their debut, Portamento replaces charisma and gloss by melancholy and gloom without losing their sense of melody - but without upping their game either. |
| Surfer Blood Astro Coast | 2.8 |
| First track says it all: these are ~floating vibes~: it's the summer, it's warm, weed is good and so is love. yay! Pleasant. Shame this lacks hooks - at least the guitars are kinda catchy. |
| Soen Cognitive | 3.0 |
| Alt proggy metal/rock - and the dude sounds like Maynard? wah. Oh wait there's my man Steve DiGiorgio hell yeah m/ This is mostly aight altprog - a genre that don't make me pp ahrd, and this one ain't changing anything about it - the tribalish drumming and da DiGiorgio dude are hella cool tho. |
| Billy Talent Dead Silence | 3.7 |
| Some cool chunes here, with virtually no filler. Maybe a tad too long, but eh read that first sentence there ain't no filler. |
| Jamila Woods HEAVN | 3.4 |
| Beautiful empowering and politically-charged lyrics, but the majority of the tracks here are a tad too subdued for the Discourse to be fully impacting. The same goes for the short tracks and - too many - interludes: while often great, they don't allow musicality to go to its full potential. When it bangs though, oh boy. |
| White Lung Sorry | 3.8 |
| Shorter (less than 20 minutes let's fucking go), and better than their debut, Sorry is just full of great punk songs, angular guitar, and a raunchy'n'swaggy vocalist reminding me of Amyl and the Sniffers. Big fun. |
| Anglagard Viljans Oga | 3.9 |
| So apparently these guys are instrumental symphoprog legends? I can get behind that: Viljans Oga is absolutely beautiful, folk and rock trading places within the symphoprog canvas while a beyond-excellent production further demonstrates the dynamism and musicianship. Gotta say it reminded A LOT of an instrumental Selling England By the Pound which is cool but also eh Selling England By the Pound already exists. |
| Best Coast Crazy For You | 3.2 |
| Made of lovesick tunes full of indie angst and beachy vibe, Crazy for You shows its straightforward antics from the get-go and never strays from it. The best tracks (the first two really) thus clearly outshine the least refined ones. |
| Pile Dripping | 3.7 |
| Kinda like Magic Isn't Real, I find this to be very consistent noisy indie post-hardcorey 90s-revival bullshit - yet I struggle to be properly hooked. Still great obviously. |
| Hell (USA) III | 3.8 |
| Yeah, hellish. Two long compositions alternating (funeral) doom, drone, black, and sludge metal, as well as some "soothing" post-rock parts that follow a quite clear quiet-loud-quiet-loud schema. Despite their lengths - and some lengthy passages -, none of the tracks overstay their welcome, thanks to the apparition of devilish screams, solemn chants, or violins. |
| The Drums The Drums | 3.1 |
| Indie debut album: it's mostly aight, some tunes are absolute bangers ("Let's Go Surfing" yeeehaw, but also "Down By the Water" or "Me and the Moon"), and the influences are mucho evidento - Morrissey, jangle pop, twee pop, post-punk: basically all 80s indie. Kinda inoffensive, but a sweet summery record with sweet tunes. |
| Krallice Ygg Huur | 3.0 |
| Only 35 minutes long: thank you Krallice! With more evident death metal influences - hey Colin do you know that Gorguts band??? -, the band slightly modifies their headfuckery while still keeping their riffz and organic production. Still don't find this mega interesting, but the short runtime is a big yes. |
| Young Guns Bones | 3.2 |
| Hey I remember these guys opening for Lostprophets - twas 2012 don't cancel me. It's as I remember it: pretty good alt rock with some post-hardcore touches. The whole lot is always aight but rarely uber cool, the title track being the best because of its anthemic quality. |
| DIIV Oshin | 3.2 |
| Cool indie surf - basically jangly and reverby dream pop with post-punk basslines - that understood its formula so well it didn't really tried to make the songs distinctive. It's thus extremely monochrome - but it's a beautiful chrome! |
| Michael Kiwanuka Home Again | 2.7 |
| Pretty soul with lush arrangements but approximately zero songs hidden under the beauty: all tracks start off well, but then you forget they're on by the time they're finished. |
| The Human Abstract Digital Veil | 3.1 |
| Neoclassical prog metalcore: I thought it'd be too much, but turns out it kinda is but not that much! The noodling 'n' doodling is sweet, the clean vocals aren't adolescent-y (!!!), and the povnding moments do povnd. The only thing that refrains me from liking this more is the rather sketchy songwriting, parts succeeding one another (way) too fast. Some moments are cool but are immediately replaced by another cool, but totally different moment. |
| Enter Shikari A Flash Flood of Colour | 2.3 |
| Wah I should def have listened to this when it came out, would have scratched that core boi X dubstep'n'bass aficionado vibe I had. Now it sounds like a not-well-done mishmash of hype genres with very lil subtility. Some tiny parts invoked nostalgia for a dead era, and some choruses were farking anthemic, but apart from these ~moments~ it's a no-no. |
| Gregory Porter Be Good | 3.5 |
| Yeah tha Greg man knows how to do smooth and tender jazz. His voice is the focal point, instrumentations only being there to enhance whatever emotion he's conveying. It's thus not always super engaging in the calmer moments, but it's nevertheless a constantly chill listen, with occasional bursts of energy. |
| Merchandise Children of Desire | 3.6 |
| woah cool new Jesus and Mary Chain record lel. Children of Desire is indeed a post-punky, shoegazey affair that ain't looking forward for one penny, but it does its shtick quite well, with engaging compositions and poppy deliveries. |
| Good Night and Good Morning Narrowing Type | 3.5 |
| A mostly pretty - yet thad - slowcore-slash-ambient-slash-dreamy that constantly *gazes* but drags on for a tad too long. It's immersive, sure, but, as Gene the Machine said, this would work better as an EP. Still very pretty when it is pretty. |
| White Lung It's The Evil | 3.6 |
| Dope Canadian punk - yeah they really sound Canadian - that's short, to-the-point, and never takes its foot off the accelerator. The riot grrrl vibe is awesome, but it's the guitar work that makes this interesting, its noise rock influence allowing this to be more than "aight punk rock". |
| ScHoolboy Q Habits and Contradictions | 3.0 |
| A constantly good, never woah West Coast rap record with some cloud linings. It's kinda all-over-the-place though, and the best tracks are the ones heavily sampling other songs - that "Firth of Fifth" sample mmmmhyeah. |
| Jaimie Branch Fly or Die | 3.5 |
| "Trad" avant-jazz: in that it's an avant-garde jazz album that plays on the tropes of said genre without pushing its envelope. It's enjoyable, for sure: post-bop is cool, some third streams inclusions are too, as well as spiritual inclinations. It's properly great, never too excellent to pull you of whatever you were doing, yet constantly interesting. |
| Noise Trail Immersion Womb | 3.8 |
| Put metalcore, post-metal, black metal, a dash of dissonance, et paf: you've got Noise Trail Immersion! Truly, they've meshed everything extreme metal so well into their core formula I can only pinpoint them as being post-metalcore, as the chuggy-chug-chugs still represent the basis of their sound. The "ambient" track wasn't convincing at all though, especially when clocking at 7 mins. Still, the heavy material is way too diversified in its neck-breaking. |
| Charles Bradley No Time For Dreaming | 3.8 |
| Haha this can't be from 2011 - checks Wikipedia for 1 sec - ah ok my bad. Dude was 62 and got his first album out; it's a joy! His smokey voice - the kinda voice that only a man who saw trve things can have. Accompanied by 60s/70s deep soul instrumentations - with the occasional funk lick - as well as gorgeous background vocals, this is a) unexpected, and b) hella cool. |
| Machine Head Unto the Locust | 3.2 |
| Wah blockbuster metal! It's full of big riffs, shouted vocals that ain't too hard, some clean vocals that ain't too shabby, and even some dumb solos! Would have absolutely loved this if I had listened to it when it came out. |
| The Vaccines What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? | 2.7 |
| Bri'ish indie-slash-power pop: it's all in how infectious the choruses are! Some of them are - "If You Wanna" - some of them aren't. What's striking is that, in the end, even the catchiest songs aren't that catchy. They seem so, but they all tend to feel too long even though they're only 3 minutes long. Also, apart from some basslines, this ain't post-punk. |
| Morbid Angel Illud Divinum Insanus | 2.0 |
| In terms of "bad 2010s metal", this might take the cake - or maybe not, I fortunately have not actively sought bad 2010s metal albums! Horrible drums - is this St. Anger? - weird af industrial additions - as weird as Korn adding dubstep to their formula - and, most importantly: uninspired compositions. Ain't that horrible, but ain't good shit either. 1.9 |
| 40 Watt Sun The Inside Room | 3.8 |
| Doom + slowcore seems like a good match, how come so few have thought about it before? Doom's doom (eheh) perfectly match the heartfelt vocals. All songs are good, as well as the riffs and vocals, yet it's evident the songwriting could have been upped - or the tracks could have been shortened. Nevertheless, this is beautiful shit. |
| SubRosa (US) No Help for the Mighty Ones | 3.7 |
| Epic doomsludgestoner bullshit that got several "hey it's different" factors: female cast and vocals that bring a welcome diversity compared to the "fat dude with beard" vibe usually associated with this kind of muzak, and violins that either complement the background or take the lead. What makes this babe a babe, however, is that these elements do not - constantly! - supplement the songwriting: the first track is a damn banger, "Whippoorwill" is beautiful, and the Appalachian folk track, "House Carpenter", shows the band ain't only about female vocals and violins. Fortunately: the tracks that mostly revolve around "classic" doomsludgestoner do struggle to be properly significant despite their enjoyability. |
| Dir En Grey Dum Spiro Spero | 2.5 |
| Wah this has got everything metal, but separated into parts that follow one another in an extremely unsubtle manner. |
| Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie XX We're New Here | 3.8 |
| A remix of 2010's I'm New Here, We're New Here manages to become its own entity thanks to Jamie XX bubbly world of bass. In a way, Scott-Heron's poetry gains even more impact thanks to this new outfit: We're New Here mostly resolves what was the - slight but eh - issue of its parent album. The mellower moments are now accompanied by modern sonic snippets that give a timeless aura to this strange - but oh so fitting - association. |
| The Soft Moon The Soft Moon | 3.7 |
| Cavernous, dark, yet ethereal post-punk: hey Bauhaus called and they want their shit back! The Soft Moon is fortunately not derivative: the vocals aren't really vocals, acting more like additional textures passed through tons of effect. Likewise, the pulse is buzzin' like no band could do in 1980, proving this babe ain't a lost artifact. It ain't reinventing anything, but it does everything well - maybe one lil rager tune would have been nice? |
| Wavves King of the Beach | 3.4 |
| So RYM tags this as "indie surf", and hell yeah that's apt. Indie rock with jangly guitars, some punk assaults, a lo-fi approach, surf rock licks and surf lyrics: yeah indie surf is cool ig. It is cool, yes, but it's cool because of aesthetic, much less because the songs are actually moving. Some of them truly bang, like the one-two punch opening the record, "Take on the World"'s distant yet catchy chorus, or "Green Eyes" which just ooze banger, but the majority of the tracks are aight material with some quirky-for-the-sake-of-quirkiness stuff happening once in a while. Am harsh tbh, this is kinda fun. |
| Yazz Ahmed La Saboteuse | 3.7 |
| Dope Arabic jazz fusion that could - and should - have put more Arabic influences into its jazz fusion, as this is first and foremost some post-rockish jazz fusion bullshit with Arabic percussions or instruments thrown in the mix from time to time. It's good, but not as sonically marking as expected, and it's at its best when it decides to let it fucking go. |
| It It Anita Agaiin | 3.5 |
| Belgian noisy indie rock that does two things only, but they do it very well: fast-paced noisy rock, and slow and pissed-off rock. They do it best when they go fast and short - like you when you engage in any kind of sexual activity. |
| Jefre Cantu-Ledesma Love is a Stream | 3.9 |
| Noisy, drony motifs and textures that retain enough ex-sadboi energy to match the variegated cover - yes it's kinda like Yellow Swans but a bit lusher basically. It's still noisy, but both warm and longing, giving the record a kind of comforting nostalgia made of cosy blankets and fond memories. |
| Bongripper Satan Worshipping Doom | 3.8 |
| 3/4 of this is absolutely ridiculous doomsludgestoner (weed lmao) with some nice lil sonic additions - like that clean af black metal riff on "Satan" or those psych leads in "Worship" - throughout that allows the record to avoid repetition while still hammering its disgusting riffs to death. Shame the last track is boring drone, first three tracks represent near-perfect heavy weed music. |
| I Wrote Haikus About Cannibalism... iwrotehaikusaboutcannibalisminyouryearbook | 3.6 |
| Boi, they went all fucking in. Musicianship is sloppy, dude is less screaming than extracting his lungs outta his rib cage, and production is shitty yet incredibly fitting. Basically, everything that should work against this kinda does the opposite: it's sloppy and raw and thus it has got a certain haunting quality to it, with specific moments hitting super hard, like the end of "Untitled 7". Not fully convinced that this is an essential early 2010s skramz record, but it's an interesting one to check for y'all craving moar skramz. |
| Max Richter Infra | 3.6 |
| A suite of sometimes-calm, often-solemn, always-hypnotizing modern classical that nevertheless loses itself at times when trying to build a background for the piano chords. |
| Blindead Affliction XXIX II MCMXCVI | 4.0 |
| Crushing Polish post-metal that dwells more in agony than in pure rage, yet never falters in terms of intensity. Definitely one of the most emotional post-metal albums out there - this attribute is what gives this its edge among a jungle of post-metal acts. |
| Gregory Porter Water | 3.4 |
| Nice. Truly, this is nice music: Gregory Porter carries the record with his sweet voice that can go from soulful to ignited. It's mostly subdued though - and when it isn't it ain't that impressive while still being cool -, thus not really justifying its 1hr+ length. |
| Pile Magic Isn't Real | 3.7 |
| Hard as feck, noise-full, indie rock record with shouts and screms! Magic Isn't Real only have great songs, but no amazing song - yet it's alright 'cause it's a 33 mins drive through Hell Yeah Avenue. |
| Hell (USA) II | 3.6 |
| Absolutely disgusting, vile, or every other adjective describing, uh, hell, sludge metal. It's as horrific as Thou, but this dwells much more on repetitive drony segments that only accentuates the record's infernal vibe. Also, those fucking screams, man. It is however long, and the aforementioned repetition, coupled with the sheer heaviness of the material, make this one a tiring listen - ig that was the goal? |
| Estas Tonne Internal Flight | 3.9 |
| A one-hour, one-song, one-instrument -geetarrr yeehaw - journey. Tonne manages to craft distinctive sections built around clear leitmotivs. Constantly beautiful, the use of reverb and sometimes effect pedals make this flamenco-led maze a mightily meditative piece. |
| Riverside Shrine Of New Generation Slaves | 3.6 |
| Mostly cool prog rock with some metal tones and jazz fusion bullshit, sporting a top-notch production bass and keyboards to run the show. It does sometimes lacks oomph, but the focus here is more on contemplation than dynamism. |
| Keaton Henson Dear... | 3.5 |
| Very pretty and introspective folk whose fragility and lyrical matter will decide whether or not you find this very good or very amazing. I don't relate that much, so to me, it's only very good. |
| Krallice Diotima | 2.9 |
| As always with them: I find their ideas cool - if a bit ridiculously over-the-top - but they rehash them to the point of slight oversaturation. All tracks are cool to very cool, but all overstay their welcome. |
| Balthazar (BE) Rats | 3.5 |
| As cute but less quirky than debut Applause, Rats still is full of good songs, but the good songs here are less good and numerous than on Applause. |
| Plebeian Grandstand How Hate is Hard to Define | 4.0 |
| Super chaotic and pissed-off bm-influenced mathcore that knows when to switch from fast to slow mode, the whole lot sporting a disgusting production - it's a compliment! This is at its best when more melodic - but very depressing, shit ain't catchy - riffs complement the pounding at work. |
| Celeste Morte(s) Nee(s) | 4.1 |
| Absolutely mental. Morte(s) Nee(s) simply never stops blasting its blackened sludge metal, with the vocalist howling is part-hardcore, part-bm shrieks at you. Each track flows into the next one, ultimately culminating in the 12-mins epic "De sorte que plus jamais un instant ne soit magique" - btw their track titles are hella dope - which summons every devilish bits the band is capable of pulling out while also slowing the pace down to better slap you in your bitchy face. It's exhausting, but like a good fucking workout. |
| Bonobo Fragments | 3.5 |
| Even more (deep) house-influenced than his previous album, Fragments however seems to be stuck between thoughts-pondering ambient and foot-stomping house. None of these aesthetics truly wins, resulting in an album that is always nice but rarely attains each of its parent's goals. Yet I feel like this mixed vibe works very well overall - it never reaches his former apexes, but it never bores. |
| Benjamin Epps VOUS ÊTES PAS CONTENTS ? TRIPLÉ | 3.7 |
| Confirming you're dope: check, by pushing forward your brand of lush boom bap and sick flows. However, the middle of the EP sees him trying singing chorus like on "Dans le way", and it's very eh - he's a bars rapper, not a topline one. Nevertheless, this is mostly dope, with strong Griselda and Jay-Z vibes. |
| The Underachievers Indigoism | 3.6 |
| Hazy and cloudy NYC rap - and they ain't Flatbush Zombies! Of course it's all about "open your third eye bro and also pass me the doobie" - but this kinda record ain't great because of its lyrical matter. It's great because of its a t m o s p h e r e created by the beats. It sure makes me wanna roll that shit, light that shit, smoke it. |
| Tricot The | 3.6 |
| Fun yet kinda emotive Japanese math rock - yay! It's overall very enjoyable, but two lil issues prevent me from rating it a good ol' 4: a) the songs struggle to distinguish themselves, and, b) at times the vocals are too prominent - and they don't always please me. Still super good math rock. |
| Balthazar (BE) Applause | 3.7 |
| Cute lil Belgian indie pop record with a dancey vibe and sometimes a taste for a lil bit of abrasion ("Hunger at the Door"), but always with that quirky attitude that allows for some exposure but not too much - they are only big in Benelux. Immaculate production, gud songwriting chops, but a bit too subdued maybe? |
| Plebeian Grandstand Rien ne suffit | 3.6 |
| Mad French black metal is good shit. Adding some power electronics layers on top of their blend of black metal and mathcore, Plebeian Grandstand strive for the dense and the complex, drum patterns dictating an off-kilter rhythm on top of which a howler pulverizes his throat. Manic shit, yeah, just wish I liked this a tad more. |
| ECHT! Inwane | 3.5 |
| Chill jazz fusion bullshit hailing from Brussels, Belgium (yay!) that knows when to get all big and scary ("500 gr."), extatic ("More Tape"), or fusing that lil King Crimson vibe with their jazz ("Champi"). Big hype - wonder where they'll go next. Ain't mucho mesmerizing, but this headbopping though. |
| Rivers of Nihil The Conscious Seed of Light | 3.3 |
| Good tech death with a crystal clear production - hearing the bass is always a treat - and decent performances all across the board - rhythmic/lead guitars, bass, drums, and growls. Just ain't that memorable among tech death. Opener/intro slaps ahrd tho, and the leads are cool. |
| Nas Magic | 3.8 |
| Apparently he on fire. Continuing his collaboration with Hit-Boy, Nas further dives into 90s NYC nostalgia, with lit bars and that instantly-recognizable voice. Ain't gonna revolutionize anything, but damn it's good to hear an oldhead still spitting fire. |
| Amorphis The Beginning of Times | 3.4 |
| Epic! With its blend of melodeath, folk and prog metal, and the vocal performance - not quite screamy but very solemn - and the synths layers, this is mostly epic. I'm not a massive fan of this epic-folk-with-synths aesthetic - the synth solo on "Mermaid" is everything I hate about this - but the *vibe* conveys the apparently grand narrative well without being too cheesy. |
| CHON Newborn Sun | 3.2 |
| Super duper fun math rock with prog metal crunchiness and a strong focus on drums - sometimes too much idk? At 17 mins, this is a fun lil EP that, although wanky by nature, nevertheless manages to feel a lil shallow - oh no another lack-of-songwriting jab? Yes m'boi: this is aesthetically pleasing, but ain't much more than that. |
| Fit for an Autopsy Oh What the Future Holds | 3.2 |
| So this is what the core kids listen to these days? Pretty neat. It does invoke some Gojiresque attributes, but the prog deathcore aesthetic is what makes this record a cool one - especially when the prog elevates the chuggy chugchugs. Also the cleans are very good - amazing feat! I can't help but still find this a tad generic though. |
| Testament Dark Roots of Earth | 3.5 |
| This mostly rules hard with hard-hitting riffs, an inner sense of groove, and a raspy vocalist. Gotta say it almost sounds like thrashy AOR - ain't necessarily a bad thang, as this mostly rips and got a certain shout-along quality to it. |
| Tash Sultana Notion | 3.0 |
| Bedroom muzak: pick a geetarrrr and throw in some arpeggios, lay a foundation of synths, add some clappity-claps loops, and what about some reggae influences? Voila. If you can throw in some songwriting chops like on "Notion" and "Jungle", that's even better, because it ain't that impressive without proper songs supporting the pretty sounds. |
| Sabaton Carolus Rex | 2.1 |
| k so apparently this is their magnum opus? lel. I've had quattro formaggi pizza that had less cheese in 'em. |
| Jorja Smith Project 11 | 3.5 |
| A great first demonstration of Smith's talent, this debut EP shows soulful R&B, lite-Adele (dexbro spittin' facts), but also a sense of groovin' with the instrumentation - that's where she's the best. This does lack a tad punch to fully amaze, but she almost there. |
| Kreator Phantom Antichrist | 3.4 |
| Riffs. Thrashy riffs! that pound! yet still retain melody! with some slight melodeath influences! and power metal chants here and there (ugh)! Cool. It's thrash though, you heard it before. |
| Odezenne 1200 mètres en tout | 3.4 |
| Once again an exercise of prose, 1200 metres en tout sees the band dive further into synthy waters, with the least amount of rappin' parts in their albums. It's pretty, aerial, and delivers introspection, but, again, it rarely elevates itself beyond the pretty-but-not-waw. |
| Tera Melos Patagonian Rats | 3.3 |
| Less enthralling than their debut, Patagonian Rats brings da hooks forward - but these hooks are buried within layer upon layers of intense guitar, ultimately not managing to fuse the math and the pop properly. Still kinda fun, but not as much as it could have been. |
| Mach-Hommy H.B.O. (Haitian Body Odor) | 3.4 |
| Gritty, lo-fi hip hop: always cool aesthetically - but are the songs gud? Depends: some dope beats create a hypnotic atmosphere but find no conclusion, the dude raps well without being mind-blowingly good, and the repetitiveness transfers the lethargic approach into constantly good, rarely waw territories. |
| Zach Hill Face Tat | 3.4 |
| Some hella (lol) sweet melodies hidden beneath psychedelic noise. It's just so buried though, the majority of this being Zach Hill drumflexin' - which is cool but needs to be enhanced by something else. Also, it's a misleading record, the first few tracks being the least brutally noisy or noisily brutal. Kinda cool though. |
| Jazzy Bazz Memoria | 3.9 |
| The whole Entourage clique just keeps gettin' better. On top of the now-mastodon like Nekfeu or Alpha Wann, the less high-profile members like Deen Burbigo have delivered their best records in the past few years. Jazzy Bazz confirms his talent: diversified technique and beats, and his lyrical mixture of egotrip and conscious hip hop. He won't gain any new fans, but his long-time supporters (itsame) will be content with his best record yet. |
| Spawn of Possession Incurso | 3.6 |
| Meaty tech death with complex dueling guitars, octopus drumming (yah it's tech death), and a PHAT bass. Love me some phat bass. Shame the songwriting, while strong per se, isn't that memorable - the best moments here aren't the solis or the povnding riffs, but rather the one-two seconds right before it shredz. |
| Galneryus Angel of Salvation | 2.8 |
| Japanese neo-classical power metal: it's all a question of taste y'know. At least it's competent and the production is good. |
| Torche Harmonicraft | 3.6 |
| F U N ! Torche know how to transform their stoner jams into straight-up anthems - "Kicking" gaaaah. The way they fuse gazey vibes and pop antics into their formula is what sets them apart, even though - kinda as always with them - the best tracks outshine the other songs. |
| Overkill The Electric Age | 3.6 |
| Carrying on what Ironbound did, but slightly less well. It's still mostly dope, with dope riffs, dope vocal performances, and dope production. Gud thrash. |
| Coheed and Cambria The Afterman: Ascension | 3.2 |
| Oh damn I forgot that voice. Kinda suiting that over-the-top sci-fi concept innit? Musically this tries to be proggy but really is alty, while the vocal melodies do not immediately jump at you with their greatness. |
| AJJ Knife Man | 3.5 |
| Folk punk: yes it's pessimistic and misanthropic how did you guess?! What elevates this one are the lyrics - they real - coupled with songwriting that, at times, is fucking mad ("Distance", "Big Bird"). It's kinda cringe, but in a good way? Guess you can't truly be earnest without being a lil bit cringe. Didn't *touch* me as much as other staples from the genre though. |
| Alva Noto Univrs | 3.0 |
| microsound. This is mostly glitchy, pulsating bumps. Even though each track progresses through some small changes, said changes are too slow to not avoid repetition. When the starkest modifications happen, that's when it bops the most. |
| Rome Die Æsthetik der Herrschaftsfreiheit | 4.0 |
| An epic triple album (woah big dick energy) that mostly focuses on neofolk and martial industrial (nazi alert everyone). (bad) jokes aside: even though I don't understand what's said during the German interludes, there is a dual sense of solemnity and urgency, yet some tracks are downright catchy. Proud anarchist and revolutionary folk music y'all, Proudhon would be all over it. |
| Dream Theater A Dramatic Turn of Events | 2.9 |
| I remember seeing tons of ads in rock magazines back then - 'member rock magazines? Finally gave a listen, it's decent Dream Theater. It's big and epic and cheesy and trite and too long. Not that unpleasant though, yay! |
| Beach House Once Twice Melody: Chapter Three | 3.4 |
| The best chapter so far. It's not so much that the sound is better: it's the songs that are, especially the last two. These two babes blow every other Once Twice Melody outta the water. Rest ain't too shabby but ain't not much more than pretty. |
| Moonsorrow Varjoina kuljemme kuolleiden maassa | 3.6 |
| Folkish black metal, or blackish folk metal. Either way, it mostly rocks. The riffs, coupled with great production and emanating viking epicness, make this not-very-diverse album a one-hour journey. Not their best record, but proving once more you're a great band is always cool. |
| Autechre NTS Sessions 1-4 | 2.9 |
| Machine learning music: you give it a set of parameters, then it makes its own shit and you gotta monitor it to make sure it doesn't fuck up. Technological experimentation = good shit, but as a piece of art? Not so much, especially with the first session - the least beat-centric of all. Overall not uninteresting, but mad disjointed. The conclusion, "All End", is the most beautiful tune of the whole NTS Sessions, but eh 58 mins? Sums it up well. |
| Symphony X Iconoclast | 3.1 |
| Progpowersympho metal with enough meaty riffs and not too much power metal vocals (phew!) make this one a quite appreciable progpower record. |
| Havok Time Is Up | 3.2 |
| Woah look at this cover: this sure is thrash. Ain't nothing revolutionary, but competently composed, kinda catchy, and head-banging to a certain degree. |
| Honningbarna Animorphs | 3.9 |
| How Sam teased me this babe: think Turnstile crossed with Refused. Say no more fam. Blistering noise punk that knows how to make it catchy - the garagey production sure helps put these ragers into banger mode -, this is a succession of tunes whose aggression shows itself through enthralling sentiments. There even is a blackgaze track that, together with the punky Norwegian delivery, takes you right into that other dimension where Kvelertak became the staple 2010s bm band. You will bop yo head. |
| Primordial Redemption at the Puritan's Hand | 2.6 |
| Pagan-adjacent, blacky folk metal, then ew power metal vocals that take over everything. When the dude sings/howls, whatever was happening musically is relegated to the back, and when the riffs aren't that interesting, it ain't good. Also, each track overstays its welcome. At least "The Mouth of Judas" is an absolute banger demonstrating the best of 2011 Primordial. |
| Blind Guardian At the Edge of Time | 2.7 |
| epic m/ Too epic for me, though - this sounds to me as if Queen, at their cheesiest, decided to play metal. Not bad per se, just not that appealing to me. It's well-composed and produced, large in scope yet full of lil details, but it mostly sounds overblown to me. Good for power metal though, I guess? |
| Autechre NTS Session 4 | 3.0 |
| The most ambient and drony NTS Session, and also the one with the longest tracks. Testing my patience, these lads. It's long, but the atmospheric makes this one not too jarring. Also, yes, "All End" is beaut, but eh 58 mins? |
| Earl Sweatshirt Sick! | 3.7 |
| Continuing to establish himself as the *abstract* dude, Earl delivers another suite of psychy, instropective shorties that take time to be fully digested. If musically this does use a bit more trap traits, it doesn't *feel* that different from SRS. It's obviously great, even though it suffers from a midway dull and shows fewer ideas than its predecessor. |
| FKA Twigs Caprisongs | 3.2 |
| This is cool. However, there is almost none of the textural experimentation that made her previous records such important ones. The soundscape here is made of bass-intensive, dancehall-full R&B, and while it's not a bad thing, it just doesn't sound as groundbreaking. Guess that's why she released this as a mixtape. Fun shit though. |
| Wiegedood There's Always Blood at the End of the Road | 4.2 |
| This is, by far, the band's most violent and focused album to date - There's Always Blood At the End of the Road is here to trample you with harder, better, faster, stronger riffs. Wiegedood have successfully liberated themselves from the stringent conceptual cage of their trilogy, and have already delivered one of the most pissed-the-fuck-off black metal records of the year. |
| Anthrax Worship Music | 3.0 |
| Yeah deez boiz always liked to partayyyyy m/ This is indeed more buttmetal with thrash riffs from time to time. It does riff and whatnot, but the real deal is returning singer Joey Belladonna - who brings da fun. It'd better be consumed in small doses though, the over-the-top-slash-epic-dude vibe is too much. |
| Ichiko Aoba Mahoroboshiya | 3.9 |
| Of course it's absolutely lovely. Pristine, dreamy guitar strummings that already sound familiar after roughly 0.8 seconds compose the bulk of this short and focused record. It just goes straight to the heart. In terms of beautiful restraint, this is top fucking notch. |
| The Body and Thou You, Whom I Have Always Hated | 3.9 |
| The Body and Thou = fucking nasty shit. What's super dope is how they properly mixed the two band's disgusting aesthetic: the way The Body's tortured shrieks discuss with Thou's smoke-a-million-ciggies cries provide a hellish pace, while Thou's swampy organicity is complemented with The Body's industrial elements, making this babe an always drony headfucker. |
| King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard Paper Mache Dream Balloon | 3.3 |
| A bunch of cute psych pop tunes that all bear some sense of dread to them, whether in the lyrics or in the vocal delivery. Shame it loses steam, the first half is bangin' hard. |
| Robert Glasper Experiment Black Radio | 3.4 |
| Pretty nice neo-soul that unfortunately stays too much on the calm side of things. It's always chill and warm - the Erykah Badu and Ledisi tracks, owyeah -, but it often lacks that *oomph* that would escalate it beyond excellent-elevator-music. When that *oomph* kicks in, like on the Lupe Fiasco x Bilal track, it's as soothing as it is head-bopping. |
| Drake and Future What a Time to Be Alive | 3.1 |
| Cool tape, but could be cooler. It doesn't always work because the two rappers ain't that complementary - you gotta learn to share the spotlight! - yet the Metro Boomin-adjacent production is lit and the energy level is quite high. When they *sync*, like on "Diamonds Dancing" or "Jumpman", it does fucking slap. |
| Autechre NTS Session 3 | 2.9 |
| Again, wonky atmospheric IDM beats loosely create a template from which generative "melodies" are grafted onto. Not uninteresting, but too disjointed and long. |
| Matthew Halsall Fletcher Moss Park | 3.8 |
| Fletcher Moss Park ain't nothing revolutionary, but the way it pulls out successive jazz sweeties is remarkable. It's monochromatic, yes, but the relative shortness, as well as its sweetness, transforms it into a peaceful, warm album for a lazy Sunday afternoon. |
| Alex G Beach Music | 3.7 |
| Alex G always was a sadboi - but this time he's gone full sadboi. He still retains that cozy vibe and that capacity to craft straight-up pop songs outta misery. Before moving to more experimental territories, he concluded the first half of the decade with his most downer record yet, fully displaying his songwriting chops. |
| Dance Gavin Dance Instant Gratification | 3.3 |
| Hey, it's DGD: playful guitars, crunchy bass, passionate vocals that alternate between ok-tier screams and kinda-eh clean vocals. Gotta say the guitar musicianship alone makes this one of their best 2010s records. |
| Liturgy The Ark Work | 2.9 |
| Like often with Liturgy: props for trying! The blend of black metal riffs, avant-garde-slash-totalist approach, and glitchy parts at times manage to convey the kind of epic vibe HHH wanted to bring to the table - that only makes this a better album than Aesthetica. It doesn't achieve that feat constantly, though, thus being relegated behind H.A.Q.Q.. |
| Makaya McCraven In the Moment | 3.8 |
| A suite of improvised (!!!) jams constituting of nujazzfusion bullshit built around hip-hop beats - don't let that fool ya, it's a pure jazz record. The performances are the real deal here - there ain't no composition per se -, the musicians properly discussing with one another - think Herbie Hancock-Jacob Collier level of discussion. It's always groovy, yet firmly mellow too, ultimately landing into that weird but cool spot between background music and bop-yo-head jams. |
| Christian Scott Stretch Music | 3.8 |
| Lovely atmospheric jazz fusion that features flute, sometimes a hip hop beat, always focusing on delivering a dreamy vibe. The longer tracks work the best at fusing all the bop and fusion influences. |
| Autechre NTS Session 2 | 3.3 |
| Same concept as NTS Session 1, but this time it's less "all or nothing" and much more beat-centric - and im a basic bitch so i need something to focus on. Some tunes were proper, uh, tunes, like "xflood" and its underlying creepiness, or "gonk tuf hi" and its constant claps. It's basically much more varied, even though it's still very long. |
| Shapeshifter (JPN) Dark Ritual | 3.4 |
| In-yo-ugly-face core shit with D-Beat drumming - yes it borders on powerviolence! The production is *noisy* yet clean enough for the most earsplitting moments to distinguish themselves. Cool shit, does not wow me tho. |
| Portico Quartet Portico Quartet | 3.5 |
| More a downtempo record with jazz antics than the opposite, this self-titled album is filled with post-rock interludes and bouncy beats that allows the laid-back vibe to be engaging enough. Portico Quartet is at its best when interweaving looping bleep bloops with catchy percussions (from an instrument called "Hang" woah!) and supportive piano'n'double bass. Best example: "Ruins". Worst example: "Steepless", because the vocals do not fit - at all. |
| Muse Drones | 2.3 |
| Big riffs that don't wanna make you headbang with kinda-but-not-really political lyrics? Peak easy-listening, with most of the "hard rock" tropes being straight-up cliche, like the faux-metal tone or the absolute ridiculous length of the "prog" tune, "The Globalist". Ain't offensively bad though, just not that good. |
| Justin Bieber Purpose | 2.8 |
| The redemption - basically these are mostly well-constructed, hook-full pop songs that, at worst, are decently bland. That's good enuff! |
| The Weeknd Dawn FM | 3.5 |
| Overall less front-to-back excellent than After Hours, Dawn FM still features its fair share of dope tunes ("Take My Breath", "Sacrifice", "Out of Time", "Less Than Zero" among others). The concept is *cool* without exactly leveraging its potential to the fullest - except for that fucking Quincy interlude. This interlude acts like a "Giorgio by Moroder" - in less dope though let's not kid ourselves, I was hoping for a "hello my name is Quincy Jones, but my friends call me Quincy". It also acts as a validation: Michael Jackson's producer (poke YoYo) being on the "new MJ" record is a - yes - big deal - and yes I called him the new MJ what you gonna do, call the cops? Also, an album that has got OPN AND Max Martin on production can only be dope - idc about Swedish House Mafia though. So this rambling's conclusion is: it's good. Not his best, but a cool record with cool tunes. |
| Future DS2 | 3.4 |
| Future once again sadflexin' about his rich life. Thanks to Metro Boomin, the production is top fucking notch, but this is just a tad too subdued to my taste - I prefer Future's raging delivery, like on Monster. Good shit though, just not his best. |
| Fauve Vieux frères partie 2 | 2.7 |
| yah it's Fauve. Lyrically: angsty sadboi teenage poet rebel, musically: a blend of indie pop, post-rock, and chanson francaise. Always alright but also always underwhelming, this one being their most unremarkable output. |
| Disclosure Caracal | 2.6 |
| By far the worst Disclosure album. Hell, it doesn't even sound like a Disclosure record, more like a generic mid-2010s EDM compilation with famous and less-famous artists. Nothing is bad per se here, but nothing is remarkable either. |
| ASAP Rocky At.Long.Last.A$AP | 3.1 |
| Basically the same comment as for LONG.LIVE.A$AP - but worse: A$AP Rocky shines the most when surrounded by talented peepz, and while the beats are smooth and the performances capable, it just never reaches the level of attitude his debut mixtape had - and it also has fewer bangers than the preceding record. |
| Autechre NTS Session 1 | 2.3 |
| Machine learning music: you give it a set of parameters, then it makes its own shit and you gotta monitor it to make sure it doesn't fuck up. While I never was a fan of these guys, this is just too much for me. Technological experimentation = good shit, but as a piece of art? Not so much. Some beats were kinda cool though, phew! |
| The Caretaker Everywhere at the End of Time | 3.0 |
| In terms of concept and putting that concept into music: 100% bravo mate. In terms of me enjoying the music? 60% can do better mate! The first three stages are the most enjoyable imo given their Dixieland roots - even the third one, with its more dark ambient influences, has got enough samples to be more than dark echoes. Stages 4 fully focus on drony, noisy dark ambient. There still are some oldies ideas, but they are so buried within the textures that the tracks feel disjointed. Diving further into bruitist territories, Stage 5 is supposed to represent a near-permanent state of confusion and horror. It does represent that well, all ballroom excerpts being limited to faint memories blurred by overlapping plaques of noisy textures. Conceptually, I guess it does represent the progression of Alzheimer, but nothing justifies this one being almost 90 minutes long. Stage 6? Mostly empty, except for the last 6 minutes, where distant ballroom music makes its apparition, as the patient slowly remembers something, a final time, before dying. It's fitting with the underlying concept, sure; but it doesn't change the fact that these recordings are more interesting for how they can translate the process bear by the patient than for their musical qualities. |
| The Glitch Mob Drink the Sea | 2.6 |
| Epic in scope, shamefully small in terms of actual energy. It's got everything else though: melodies (it's important!), so-early-2010s robotic beats, and a strong sense of atmosphere. It just falls flat on most songs. |
| Nubya Garcia SOURCE | 3.7 |
| Gotta love the current London jazz scene - hot like the best chicken wings. In "traditional" modern London jazz fashion, Source is a jazz album, yes - but one that thoroughly enjoy puttin' in some Caribbean and afro influences - these dub vibes bro -, once again testifying of the melting-pot vibe the city has. A communal record, if at times too underwhelming given its parent influences. |
| Matthew Halsall On The Go | 3.6 |
| Modern modal jazz that, despite its bopping tunes, do sound a tad too monochromatic. Still, there were some sounds here that sounded vaguely familiar on first listen - is that a good thing, is that a bad thing? Let's go with good. |
| Parannoul / Asian Glow / sonhos tomam conta Downfall of the Neon Youth | 3.9 |
| Cherry on one of the best 2021 trends' cake. Two Korean and one Brazilian (what an epic combo) nu emogaze artists pair up to display their respective take on the trend they - basically - created and nurtured. sonhos tomam conta's post-metalgaze is heavy as shit, Asian Glow is the more "traditional" emo one but delivers the goods big time and knows how to blastbeat wooo, and Parannoul and his more electropostrock-centric approach shows that, at their best, they can very well craft the next Great emo record. More importantly, the record is just flowing, each artist supplementing the others. Internet kids weren't wrong with this one. |
| La Fève ERRR | 2.9 |
| Kinda cool but also kinda overhyped trappy cloudy French rap. Atmosphere is real good but I'm just not a huge fan of La Feve's delivery - except on mega tune "Mauvais Payeur". Good mixtape though, but I'll wait for a fully fleshed-out project. |
| Origami Angel Gami Gang | 3.2 |
| yo that trap beat goes ahrd YO this go fucking ahrd oh the dude is starting to sing it doesn't go as hard lel. Despite the decidedly adolescent features - it's an adolescent genre in the end -, the songs are genuine and full of posi vibes. Like their preceding record, this is material I enjoy without having a fucking kick outta it - and that's music that's meant to have a blast to. Props to them for making mathy emo pop punk with easycore breakdowns their staple genre. I like these guys, I just wished I liked them more. |
| Ill Considered Liminal Space | 4.0 |
| Super dope flowing jazz voguing between fusion madness, spiritual freedom, post-bop compositions, peaceful rest, and a phat heaviness from time to time thanks to the craycray horns. It's constantly moving from ambient to frantic, without ever losing its engaging nature: even the calmer moments beneficiate from expressive performances. |
| Cynic Ascension Codes | 3.6 |
| s y n t h s. Truly, The Ascension Codes pace is rhythmed by its synths interludes introducing/concluding the proper tunes - of which the shorter ones are the best ("Aurora", "In A Multiverse Where Atoms Sing"). |
| Sameer Ahmad Effendi | 4.0 |
| Gorgeous French hip hop with trap beats and jazzy loops, as well as Ahmad's sense of graphic lines and lit references (Diogene, Pazuzu, Siddharta). To-the-point (35 mins), complex lyricism, and superb production: big fucking yes. |
| Asian Glow Cull Ficle | 3.6 |
| Korean nu emogaze be like: SELECT * FROM The Microphones.The Glow Pt. 2 a INNER JOIN Weatherday.Come In b on a.lofi = b.lofi. Strikes less gold than Parannoul's solo effort but is more consistent overall. |
| The Temple (NZ) The Temple | 3.7 |
| Ulcerate-adjacent death doom with black metal guitar linings. Drumming is - ofc - less insane than St Merat's, but it's still perfectly competent at laying the foundations for Paul Kelland to shine - guitar-wise as well as vocally. Not on par with da best Ulcerate, but still a gloomy slice of blackened death metal. |
| death's dynamic shroud Faith in Persona | 3.1 |
| d e c o n s t r u c t i o n. This is indeed pop tunes reduced to lil snippets and smashed to pulsating drums, arpeggiated synths, and a whole lot of shiny nail polish. It's destructured, thus alternating the engaging and the *woah boof is hitting hard but in a bad way yfm*. |
| Malignant Altar Realms of Exquisite Morbidity | 3.3 |
| Doomy 90s death from 2021 with *woah* drumming - those fucking fills man. Wasn't convinced by the songwriting though, it does riff and whatnot but this one had a very lil sense of construction, except the last track. |
| B.B. Jacques La nuit sera calme | 3.7 |
| Hardcore and earnest performance, stylish beats that mostly stay on the subdued side of things to give more emphasis to the rap performance while still being interesting, and pissed-the-feck-off lyrics. Big yes in terms of modern French rap, although some refinements need to be done in terms of diversity. |
| The Felice Brothers From Dreams to Dust | 3.7 |
| A country album with a strong focus on concept and lyrics - yes BUT! It's musically diverse and explorative, rhythmically engaging (gud bass work here), and its rural coat is gloating in pristine ways. |
| Frontierer Oxidized | 3.6 |
| Hey you like to fuck brains? Cool, this is the aural equivalent! Math-y, djent-y, glitch-y, Oxidized is an exercise in headfuckery, almost going stupid in how hard it goes. It's at times too stupid but eh I'm no Stephen Hawking. |
| Shape of Broad Minds Craft of the Lost Art | 3.9 |
| Hey kid, you like abstract hip hop yeah yeah yeaaaah ah that's good because this is some dope-ass abstract shit sporting soulful crusty beats that still carry enough hard-hitting qualities for the head to bop. Rappers are good without being mindblowing and the singing is very eh, but they are well complemented by diversified features. Though, the atmosphere on this, man. That's good shit. Thanks santaboo! |
| Arca kiCK iiiii | 3.3 |
| The most atmospheric kick record, this fifth installment is also the one leveraging the most emotional response, yet somehow always falls close to being truly tear-jerking. |
| San Salvador La grande folie | 3.8 |
| Occitan (basically South-West France and North Spain) polyphonic chants. This Nova Cancon Occitana album is about paying homage to lost-but-found-again music that suffered from France's eradication of regional languages throughout the last two centuries. Beyond the harmonized polyphonia, the band uses trancey repetition to convey that good ol' tribal feel that, ultimately, takes over each singer to form a maelstrom of voices and percussions that oozes spirituality. Not the kind of spirituality we can find in sermons or that kinda shit, more of an instinctive and primal spirituality. |
| Ziak Akimbo | 2.7 |
| Wah another French rappin' on some UK drill - and the end result is aight but more promising than actually good? Fuck no never heard of that! He's got one flow, and while he's not dropping dumb lines, that style ain't original and does not go well with LPs. |
| Lala &ce Everything Tasteful | 2.8 |
| Sound > meaning. That's what Lala &ce seems to think, her lean-full, hazy aesthetic taking inspiration from DJ Screw and letting her sing nonchalantly about love and ass. It's all about the form, and while I understand its appeal it doesn't make me pp hard, caught halfway between cloud rap and R&B without truly finding the right balance. |
| The Bug Fire | 3.3 |
| Grime and ragga tell apocalyptic tales over UK Bass that contain traces of dub(step), illbient as well as lil touches of industrial. It's thus wild and dark and cataclysmic, but there are simply not enough variations within this otherwise very cool formula. |
| Para One Spectre : Machines of Loving Grace | 3.9 |
| Super cinematographic stuff that borrows from prog electronic, post-minimalism, Dunesque choirs, Asian percussions, and folk explorations. It truly sounds like a soundtrack to a lost epic film. And a weird one at that. |
| Tomaga Intimate Immensity | 3.8 |
| Post-everything. Tribal drums complement ambient lulls, nu jazzy keys, and electronic basses, the whole soundscape achieving to be coherent yet wide in scope, and repetitive yet hypnotic. |
| Arca kick iiii | 3.4 |
| This one's ain't for the dancefloor. Much more rooted in melancholy than its predecessors, kick iiii also demonstrates more heart than Arca's reggaetronica thanks to its focus on ambient pop as well as some witch house elements. It's meandering and kinda loose, sure, but its textures and soft melodies make it the most captivating kick album. |
| Mdou Moctar Afrique Victime | 3.5 |
| Dope Tuareg guitar music with psychy linings and trad West African vocals. I expected a bit more groove - y'know how i like to shake da ass - but it's compensated by the absolutely delicious guitar playing. |
| Danny L Harle Harlecore | 2.7 |
| Over-the-top trance that sounds straight outta the 90s. Each song fuses many trance subgenres in a sometimes cool, sometimes way-too-fucking-much manner - can't fight your origins innit. Despite some jarring parts, my head has been boppin' and my ass has been shakin' at some points - there's that. |
| Kelly Lee Owens Inner Song | 3.7 |
| Overall a bit more dynamic than her debut LP, Inner Songs still mostly operates on the atmospheric side of techno with a dash of house and pop sensibilities. The result is an album that manages to nicely fuse groovy warmth and electronic coldness, but still struggles to be as impacting when slowing down the tempo. |
| Autechre elseq 1-5 | 3.0 |
| Hey it's 2010s Autechre: it mostly represents a work on textures, and while it's interesting per se, it doesn't make me vibe mucho: all tracks meander at some point and to some degree - what did I expect. It's a sound design experience; yes, but I ain't no sound engineer! |
| Miguel Wildheart | 3.6 |
| Wider in scope than Kaleidoscope Dream, but it don't mean nuthang when songwriting isn't on par. Not to say this is boring - it ain't - but Wildheart rarely attain the melodic heights of its predecessor. It sometimes does - "coffee" is damn sweet - and does so with a superb production, but it often stays on the "tad-too-mellow" territory. |
| f(x) 4 Walls | 3.2 |
| A mishmash of many things pop, 4 Walls alternates between utter brilliance in the form of housey tunes (that opening track), mehness (the rap parts), "classic" K-Pop that doesn't reinvent anythang but is alright in its own right ("Glitter"), and basically an inherent inconsistency that manages to hit gold on some instances - again, the house tunes like "Rude Love". |
| Arca KicK iii | 2.9 |
| Arca at her most festive, chaotic, noisy, unapproachable - all at once. A furious blend of deconstructed club, post-industrial, IDM, reggaeton, all kinds of glitchy things, and even some rapping lines. It's cool, but overly aggressive, with (too) many ideas jumping at you at once. |
| Snarky Puppy Sylva | 4.0 |
| Big bands always are cool as feck. Mostly jazz fusion with some third stream influences here and there (hello Mingus), Sylva sees Snarky Puppy display triumphant and explosive pieces of jazz that never meander too much. Turn-up music yeet. |
| Clara Malaterre Points Cardinaux | 4.0 |
| Cute lil folky French chanson EP with a gorgeous and quite solemn voice, dynamic guitar playing, and many instruments adding an even more solemn atmosphere. Lovely prog(? yeah allez) folk. |
| Lightning Bolt Fantasy Empire | 3.7 |
| Fun weirdo shit. Thrashy bass riffs drowned in a cauldron of big muff - like Obelix - and abrasive drums manage to sound kinda crispy? Good production! Despite the quite monochrome soundscape, there are enough "melodic" moments that, coupled with gud songwriting chops, make this babe a banger in its best moments. In its not-best moments, it's aight. |
| Autechre elseq 5 | 3.2 |
| With dubby elements and almost cathartic pieces, elseq 5 manages to be the most emotionally rewarding elseq record. |
| Murgrind Inheritor of the Forest Throne | 3.6 |
| Top-notch dungeon synth production. Its atmosphere comes both from the synths and the various other instruments, the latter giving it an organic feel that feels so appropriate for an adventure that features epic battles, chill Shire-ish moments, and eerie passages. Kinda loses itself in the middle though. |
| Kid Cudi Speedin' Bullet 2 Heaven | 1.0 |
| Earnest and messy, SB2H suffers from being the result of an already fragile man letting his fragility take full control. The punky vibe isn't that bad at the beginning but it's so surface level it fails to convey the desired sympathy. Worse, it's full of fillers that repeat themselves with few to no variations. Oh and the Beavis and Butthead skits. So many bad choices all around - except for the title track, which is neither boring nor grating, yay! Damn shame that something this genuine ended up being so bad, I prefer to shit on pos like Lil Xan. 1.1 |
| Arca KICK ii | 2.6 |
| Arca at her most latin (yet?) The reggaeton beats have me tired since 2017, but the eerie synths kinda compensate for them. And then, halfway through, an abrupt tonal shift happens, with ambient pop leading the charge. This cut-in-half approach decreases the overall experience, the record seemingly not knowing what to do with its ideas - plus the ambient pop bits were better done on her s/t. The Sia tune is a bop tho. |
| Lianne La Havas Blood | 3.8 |
| An absolutely lovely record carried by la Havas' gorgeous vocals and a not-too-bombastic-yet-not-too-subdued neo-soul instrumentation. Blood works especially well when finding the right balance between bombastic and subdued (these first four tracks, "Midnight"). |
| Sophie Product | 3.7 |
| The moment when PC Music's inherent irony transformed into authenticity. SOPHIE's take on 90s-bubblegum-meets-10s-dance is a genuine work of playfully futuristic club music, with as many catchy melodies as there are crumbling synths and basses - even it can be a tad too much a times. Most importantly, this concludes on its pinnacle, "Just Like We Never Said Goodbye", a sincere lullaby that'll melt yo lil heart. |
| Ad Nauseam Nihil Quam Vacuitas Ordinatum Est | 4.0 |
| Fucking labyrinthic techdeath. Yes, it's dissonant, atonal, complex, dense af, and uncompromising. Music's not too shabby either, basically a mix of DsO and Ulcerate and Gorguts, yet ultimately being its own monstrous entity. |
| Autechre elseq 4 | 3.1 |
| Another manic'n'frantic smash of bleeps and bloops with maybe their most diverse range of sounds of the whole elseq pentalogy. |
| The War On Drugs I Don't Live Here Anymore | 3.6 |
| A great American record that tackles softer territories than the band's "traditional" output, making it a more subdued, less enthralling, but ultimately - almost! - as competent as its older brothers. |
| Alora Crucible Thymiamatascension | 3.7 |
| Strings and guitar being sad and beautiful over forty minutes. Thanks to a gripping atmosphere and a top-notch production, it's - almost - never boring. |
| Arca KiCk i | 3.2 |
| Arca's "pop" album. With much more vocals than in her previous efforts, as well as a quite wide range of features (Bjork and SOPHIE big yes), her weird-ass take on club music still shines through prominent basses and surreal synths. However, the balance between this newer, slower aesthetic and her previous headfucking shenanigans is not tip-top - sequencing being the main issue, the album seemingly not knowing when to alternate foot-stomping alien beats and ethereal tunes. |
| Major Lazer Peace Is The Mission | 1.5 |
| Woah there's "Lean On". I like "Lean On". When relying on more downtempo and sad territories, this is quite fine ("Be Together" is aight). The rest is an obnoxious mixture of everything that made booty be shaken in 2015 - moombahton, trap EDM, dancehall, electro house, and even some dying traces of brostep - with little to no cohesion. 1.3 |
| Beach House Once Twice Melody: Chapter Two | 3.3 |
| Beautiful tracks with dreamy soundscapes and bleeps bloops happening from time to time; pleasing tunes; this is Beach House. |
| Skee Mask Pool | 3.8 |
| Too long for what it is (1 hour 40 erf), Pool pools IDM, breakbeats, some dnb, techno, and various degrees of ambient together in a cohesive way with virtually no filler. |
| Autechre elseq 3 | 2.5 |
| Two lengthy repetitive drone tracks surround a stripped-down glitchy hop beat. |
| Hyperdontia Hideous Entity | 3.6 |
| OSDM with a rather clean production and - first and foremost - epic leads, but also nice riffs and groovy muscles. |
| Yves Tumor The Asymptotical World | 3.8 |
| Take the best moments off his latest album, and make a 20-minute EP out of it. Noisy poppy psych with slight post-punk and industrial influences = yes. |
| Arca Arca | 3.8 |
| Much more ambient-laden than her previous albums/mixtapes, this s/t also features Arca's own vocals. It's thus overall less in-yo-face, but the artsy framework works well with this overall more vulnerable material. It's much less alien, much more human. On par with &&&&&. |
| Ought Sun Coming Down | 3.6 |
| Much more focused than the debut, Sun Coming Down still focuses on delivering blistering post-punk riffs among an artsy aesthetic and some noisy moments, but this time the production is less rough around the edges, and the least enthralling tracks have been traded by more dynamic passages. Oh, and "Beautiful Blue Sky". Vocalist ain't as interesting as he thinks he is tho. |
| Alabama Shakes Sound & Color | 3.7 |
| Once again elevated by Brittany Howard's emotional and raw vocals, this second album also benefits from tighter songwriting and a refined sense of construction within songs - tracks like "Gimme All Your Love" simply couldn't exist before. A lil too front-loaded tho. |
| Wonder Girls Reboot | 4.0 |
| LET'S GO TO BANGER CITY BABAYYYYY. 12 tracks, no skip, swear to god. Basically imagine a Madonna best-of but sung in Korean. |
| Kekra Vréel 2 | 2.8 |
| Kekra's kind of an UFO within French rap's scene, mostly due to how he uses UK-inspired beats with elements of 2-step, garage, and grime within the cloudy trap aesthetic, but also for his flows more reminiscent of R&B than rap. It's with tracks fusing all these aesthetics ("9 milli" whattatune) that Kekra truly shows his unicity, the more "traditional" tunes being less original, and thus less interesting. Also overall, he ain't telling much, and it's real gimmicky. |
| Lil Peep Come Over When You're Sober, Pt. 1 | 3.3 |
| A continuation of his previous work that doesn't bring anything new to the table: less intense than his first two mixtapes, and with less impacting choruses than on HELLBOY. |
| Standing On The Corner Standing On The Corner | 3.2 |
| Outsider soul? Kinda like the whole outsider house movement, this is soul made by weirdoes. A mix of bedroomy pop and psychedelia with a dash shitload of lo-fi-ness, this s/t LP shows great things that are cool but not much more than that. Flashes of brilliance however appear: "Girl" is a perfect blend of melancholic hypnagogia, *that* specific lushness only lo-fi could provide, and mellow soulful vocals. |
| Autechre elseq 2 | 2.9 |
| A sound design experience; yes, but I ain't no sound engineer! A blend of IDM, glitch and noise, elseq 2 manages to intrigue thanks to its wide'n'wild soundscape - fortunately the bleeps and the bloops are freakishly produced, otherwise, they would just be bleeps and bloops going craycray. |
| Tinashe Aquarius | 3.7 |
| A rather cool R&B album that works the best when retreading to its least poppiest dwells, especially when carried by Tinashe's croons and not by featured rappers. When on her own and surfing on top of atmospheric instrumentals, Aquarius is a winner. |
| Dean Blunt Black Metal | 3.7 |
| A weird mixture of hypnagogic pop, minimal wave, and dubby rhythms, Black Metal has a lonely urban vibe that slowly descends into bleaker territories. Thanks to the second half, which counterpoints the rather jangly first half, it's mostly poignant. |
| RP Boo Legacy | 2.9 |
| A much less melodic - and danceable? - take on footwork, Legacy focuses on more minimalist territories than DJ Rashad with vocal samples played ad nauseam. Kinda badass shit, but idk I thinkit could/should have been meanier in order to fully distinguish itself from what the genre was doing at the time. |
| Devon Hendryx THE GHOST~POP TAPE | 3.6 |
| Tortured shit talking about porn addiction and feeling sad on top of an ~experimental~ blend of ambienthypnagogicdream pop, cloud rap, and sound collages, The Ghost~Pop Tape already shows how much of an outcast JPEGMAFIA is. Despite its disjointed nature, the record is gripping enough to become an experience of its own. |
| Angele Nonante-Cinq | 3.1 |
| Some bangers, some introspective tracks that feel more like personal diary excerpts, and then not much else in terms of memorable melodies or ass-shaking grooves. |
| Gas Der Lange Marsch | 3.0 |
| In and of itself, I like the music here. However, two things absolutely destroyed my listening experience: 1) these tinnitus-inducing beats that repeated over the whole record, and, 2) the transitions between the tracks consist of fadeout and abrupt restarts which I find very meh - if you build a suite, make it sound like one. Change these two things and you've got a strong 4, but, as-is, this is jarring. |
| Ethereal Shroud Trisagion | 4.4 |
| An epic suite of many things black metal, Trisagion's memorable melodies are supported by top-notch production and mixing - the way these synths accompany the riffs on "Chasmal Fires" is absolutely superb - as well as spirited performances that every great black metal album needs. Bravo mate. |
| DJ Rashad Just A Taste Vol. One | 3.9 |
| Ghetto tekz runnin shit - you knoooooow - what a fucking magnificent track. Overall more intense, raw, and basically crazy than Double Cup, Just a Taste incorporates enough soul elements to be more than a symphony of snare triplets and clattering drums. It can become a tad too frantic for its own sake when not focusing on soulful samples, but, otherwise, this is hypnotic, frantic shit not to dance to. |
| Westside Gunn Flygod | 3.8 |
| Griselda. The trve East Coast revival gang leader displays a nostalgic atmosphere that fortunately does not fall into crass imitation. It's grimy, hardcore, and both fucking slick and dirty. Trve New York rap, bitch. |
| Kelly Lee Owens Kelly Lee Owens | 3.5 |
| At best a hypnotic ambientechouse piece full of whispers and poppy melodies, and at worst an ok-ish background wall of bleep bloops, this s/t album already shows that Owens is at her best when her calm hushes accompanies the poppiest territories of ambientechouse. A teeny tiny tad too monochrome tho. |
| Gold Panda Lucky Shiner | 3.6 |
| A cute collection of microhouse tunes with wonky linings, Lucky Shiner shines the most when focusing on adding layers on top of foot-stomping minimalism - looking at you, "You" (the first track!) - the more ambient tracks without vocal samples failing to be as blissful as the others. |
| Autechre elseq 1 | 3.0 |
| They still haven't figured track titles out eh? This is a bunch of bleep bloops that mostly work in the "in-yo-face" department, giving the whole lot a quite aggressive vibe - except for that "pendulu" track, which is quite funny with its moving synths and drums rolls. As always, latter Autechre work is mostly a work on textures, and while it's interesting per se, it doesn't make me vibe mucho: all tracks meander at some point and to some degree - what did I expect. |
| Der Weg Einer Freiheit Noktvrn | 3.6 |
| Meaty post-black with lush textures and post-rockish moments that are good but maybe do not add as much to the aesthetic as I would have expected? Also the cleans on "Immortal" lol. Overall a good listen, but nothing that makes this one more than a good addition to the genre. |
| DJ Sprinkles Queerifications & Ruins | 3.9 |
| Two hours and a half of deep house mixes; and it's awesome! I can't relate to how heartwarming this must feel to the LGBT community, but from a purely musical point of view, this is fucking ace despite its gargantuan length - it does feel kinda long but less than any Drake album so that's a goodun. Each track tackles different aspect of deep/ambient house with variety and a clear sense of construction. Above all, it's the universalism oozing from these remixes that make them so good and so genuine - and if I mostly listen to house to shake da ass, I also do it to, simply, feel warmer in my lil heart. That "Seashore" dialogue is absolutely beautiful and will have anyone relate to it independently on one's sexual orientation. Thank you very much, Sprinkles. |
| Kelela Hallucinogen | 3.1 |
| Yup it's nice bassy R&B, but that's about it. Better than the Cut 4 Me mixtape - because it's shorter. |
| Kitty FROSTBITE | 4.0 |
| Candy pop. Sugary, catchy, fun, lighthearted, this blend of dance-pop, proggy house and dreamy textures is just way too danceable despite the dark lyrics. I think there's a point where you embrace how dark these lyrics are, and just yell them in spite of their character. Bootyshaking to leave bad things behind. |
| Machinedrum Vapor City | 4.0 |
| Once again a work of garage beats and Untrue-like vocal samples, Vapor City slightly drops the footwork aesthetic to focus more on jungle. It also stands out compared to Room(s), whose frantic vibe made it lose its focus - here, the atmosphere is smoother and diversified enough between each track. |
| Doss Doss | 3.4 |
| Hazy trance or trancey haze? Doss is a short collection of the hypnagogic-esque take on dance music, ultimately succeeding the most in its least danceable moments ("Here Tonight"). Very cute. |
| Ought More Than Any Other Day | 3.1 |
| An artsy punk record bordering on noise rock, More Than Any Other Day loses itself in meandering moments - ie: the slower cuts - yet displays a ferocious take on post-punk during its more enthralling moments ("Habit", "The Weather Song"), said moments being unfortunately too few. |
| Post Malone beerbongs and bentleys | 2.7 |
| Another album full of R&B lines and pop ballads disguised as rap anthems. He's at his best when he's pulling out rock-inspired songs (how phat is "Better Now"). Oh, and, surprise! This is way too long. |
| Clark Clark | 3.5 |
| IDM that's actually danceable? Woah! Thanks to the metallic techno beats and the synths' wonky nature, Clark is a foot-stomping record that finds a nice balance between dancey and "experimental". |
| Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld Never Were The Way She Was | 4.0 |
| A saxophone and a violin enter the studio and create this motherfucking record. They seem to be discussing with one another, but this discussion always tackles the sames ~vibes~, just modifying their intensity and layering. Don't fucking care, this discussion is too fucking wild to ignore. |
| Epica The Quantum Enigma | 2.0 |
| confirmed: idc at all about power or symphonic metal. Competent performances and good vocals; it just sounds so trite, so cheap, trying to convey a grandeur that's not attainable. it always falls flat. also cheese. |
| Mark Ronson Uptown Special | 2.9 |
| One of the biggest 2010s hits - and some other songs. These other songs range from meh to very cool, their retro-pastiche take on funk working basically half the time without every being grating. |
| Millie and Andrea Drop The Vowels | 3.9 |
| Those fucking drums, man. Indeed, what's most impressive regarding Drop the Vowels is that fucking drums' sound. Fat, dark, and heavy, these drums constitute the basis for the technojunglebreaks rhythms that immediately transport you to a sombre 90s warehouse. It does bass and whatnot. |
| Cannibal Ox Blade of the Ronin | 3.8 |
| This ain't The Cold Vein but this still slaps. Beats are anxiogen even though they no El-P level, and performances are as expected: Vast Aire still is a cryptic mf while Vordul still displays these flexible flows. Truth is, apart from the beats, it sounds like the two Vs recorded this one right after The Cold Vein, mfs haven't changed. Great fucking record. |
| Can Bardd Devoured by the Oak | 3.8 |
| Swiss boiz deliver an epic celtic (i know it's an oxymoron) atmoblack record with ambient (legit) and folkish (legiter) passages, adding even more bucolic elements to an already Tolkien-full aesthetic. Maybe a tad too cheesy at times (French delivery doesn't help) but idfc it tickles my OG Celtic origins. |
| Doja Cat Planet Her | 3.1 |
| A collection of aight beats and meh features leaves Doja Cat carrying Planet Her on her own with her often sick delivery. There are very few ass-shaking tunes (and when I listen to Doja Cat i wanna shake da ass), but when tracks actually induce booty convulsing like on giga-banger "Kiss Me More", it's a fucking winner. |
| Kelela Cut 4 Me | 3.0 |
| Atmospheric UK Bass + gorgeous R&B vocals: yes this is the 2010s! There are many beatmakers here, which makes the whole mixtape kinda uneven, as some beats only find their place in the background due to how spare they are. |
| Holly Herndon Platform | 3.9 |
| An epic collage of manymanymany layers of harmonized vocals, glitchy textures, idm-esque beats (without the structure, ofc!) and an overarching deconstructed vibe. This is music that surprisingly manages to create beauty out of a material so disjointed it sounds like the disintegrated loops of future music. Scratch that awkward asmr piece and you've got what your grand-grandkiddos will listen to if there still is a planet by then. |
| Laurel Halo Chance of Rain | 3.6 |
| Completely different than Quarantine, Chance of Rain drops everything vocals to deliver an album tending towards the ambient side of the techno spectrum. Flashes of ECM influences, gorgeous strings ("Melt"), and futuristic textures clashing into each other (t/t) succeed to one another, the hardest moments responding to the lushest ones. |
| Jam City Classical Curves | 3.5 |
| Early deconstructed club/post-bass(?) that goes all mechanical to sound like a 3095 party. In the end this ain't that refined compared to what would follow, but this is basically proto-PC Music, and that only makes it an interesting listen. Also when it does focus on marrying funky synths with syncopated rhythms, it's a slapper ("Her", "How We Relate to the Body"). |
| Jlin Dark Energy | 2.5 |
| Footwork pinned down to a formula? Jlin had apparently found one way to do footwork - snares and hi-hats fighting over stammering synths and vocal samples. Repetition slowly transforms into obnoxiousnesss. |
| JPEGMAFIA LP! (online) | 3.8 |
| Even more unpredictable and chaotic, LP! also got that bangin' quality that allows the otherwise weird tracks to become bops. It does get a tad too crazy for its own good at times - that Britney track wasn't necessary -, but the capacity to create (some) bangers outta such a disjointed approach is near-astounding. |
| Various Artists Bangs & Works Vol. 2: The Best of Chicago Footwork | 3.1 |
| c/c from volume 1: Despite offering a nice lil glimpse into the footwork scene, this compilation suffers from consistency issues: the good tracks are really good, the bad ones are obnoxious. Go jam DJ Rashad's Double Cup for starters. |
| Trap Them Darker Handcraft | 3.5 |
| Face-melting shit that'll melt yo face and break your neck with its speedy grindy riffs. However, apart from these undeniable qualities, Darker Handcraft does lack any kind of other qualities to truly come out as more than a Converge-meets-ETID-meets-grind mashup. |
| Adele 30 | 3.6 |
| Best album to come out on 19/11/21, b e t. Adele's vocals are once again the main focus, but this time they are boosted by songs that ain't pop ballads - and that's a big yes! Even though some tracks do overstay their welcome, there ain't no yawn-inducing fillers - another big yes! All this makes 30 the most diverse Adele record, and that's enough to warrant its numero uno spot in her discog. |
| Swallow the Sun Moonflowers | 3.4 |
| Gothic death doom with classical inspirations, nice! Moonflowers is constantly pleasant, but the hard sections could have been harder on some instances maybe - eg that bm part at the very end felt super cool because of how fkn heavy it is, pity that kinda heaviness doesn't get as much focus as the semi-doomy riffs. |
| Converge Bloodmoon: I | 3.4 |
| Converge goes Cave In and invite Chelsea Wolfe: the album. This new aesthetic works wonder with Wolfe's vocals, although she does sound more like a featured artist than a trve collaborator on this. Also, this kinda sounds all-over-the-place, the record failing to instigate its atmosludgecore atmosphere. Despite this, songs are good to very good. |
| Orelsan Civilisation | 2.7 |
| His least good album :[ Recycling ideas, beats ranging towards variet instead of rap, semi-political lyrics that lack nuance/finesse, and, damn, why don't I find him funny? The dude was the king of silly punchlines and there are virtually none here. It's not bad, fortunately: it's a pleasant background album, but that's it. |
| Maybeshewill No Feeling Is Final | 2.8 |
| All post and no math boooooo. Vocal samples and strings make this kind of post-rock, uh, run-of-the-mill? Also there's almost none of the electronic rhythmic base that made their first three albums good. Thing is, the music is beautiful - would have trashed this otherwise - but it ain't nothing new apart from two back-to-back tracks: the Marcus Joseph sax feat on "Refuturing", and the folky descent into madness "Green Unpleasant Land". |
| Machinedrum Room(s) | 3.1 |
| Frantic footwork beats and vocal samples outta the Untrue canon. The whole record is drown into a futuristic haze that only allows the most distinctive tunes ("GBYE" wah) to truly stand out amidst the rather monochromatic soundscape - funny that something this all-over-the-place rhythmically can become somewhat monotonous. |
| Chase and Status No More Idols | 2.8 |
| Woah this time machine to 2011 sure works well!!! During its best moments ("Let You Go", "Blind Faith", "End Credits"), No More Idols sports boss energy around celebratory Pendulum-inspired hi-energy dance beats. The rest of the time, it's basically a bunch of outdated 2011 tunes with more focus on dubstep than drum'n'bass - bingo: found the reason why it's outdated - and with features ranging from adequate (M. Ali, Liam Bailey, Plan B) to meh (CeeLo, and Dizzee i still love ya but that ain't it chief). Kinda cool throwback - or maybe it's nostalgia talking? |
| Kuedo Severant | 3.9 |
| Foot-stomping beats and eerie synths: the marriage. Alternating between footwork or dubstep-inspired, these dancey beats are accompanied by Vangelisesque synths, ultimately giving the record a quite unique vibe, as much frantic as it is chill, a vibe that makes you both wanna dance and fall into an endless black hole. |
| Rochelle Jordan Play With The Changes | 3.5 |
| Super duper smooth R&B/garage - always a pog combo - with house, UK Bass, and liquid funk linings here and there, merci Machinedrum pour les travaux! These genres, along with a very Aaliyah-esque voice, make for a great throwback to the 90s. The album is well built but ultimately suffers from a lack of bangers; Jordan's got the potential to craft *that* kind of dancey tune yo friends can't get enough of - basically this is great but has the potential to be ginormous and that makes it a tad frustrating idk? Nonetheless, a cool nocturnal R&B album. |
| Twice Formula of Love: O+T=<3 | 3.4 |
| Bouncy, ass-shaking K-Pop is a big yes, especially when disco and funk are heavily featured in the soundscape. Indeed, the mellower/rap tracks are passable fillers - except "CACTUS", that shit was already wack when i still was in my papa's balls - to muscle up the streamz numberz (we live in a society), and a trimmed-down version of this album with only the most dancefloor-ready tracks would have been purrfect. |
| Bleak We Deserve Our Failures | 3.6 |
| Violent shit, no playin', ho. Heavy - very - and sludgy mathcore that wastes no fucking time breaking your pussyass neck. It's a bit monotonous though - whodathunk? |
| Lone Galaxy Garden | 3.4 |
| An electronic record fusing acid house, Nintendo-style chiptunes, 90s breaks, and tropical vibes that doesn't sound outdated a decade later? Nice. Shame it goes everywhere and nowhere at points. |
| Jack U Skrillex and Diplo Present Jack U | 1.5 |
| 2010s DJs who popularized the two loudest, brashest, least fucking nuanced kind of electronic music join together. It's pretty annoying, but, rejoice! It accomplishes the mighty feat of being more obnoxious than the respective DJs' takes. Worst of both worlds, except for these Biebs and AlunaGeorge tracks that are kinda aight y'know. 1.4 |
| Actress R.I.P | 3.3 |
| Even more disjointed and minimal than Splazsh, R.I.P trades almost-banger pieces with calm yet destructured ambient ones, with most of the record falling at the very center of these two aesthetics. Quasi-minimal techno, quasi-microhouse, quasi-ambient, R.I.P still feels - almost - compelling despite lacking a common thread. |
| Neon Indian Vega Intl. Night School | 3.7 |
| Vibes and Stuff. Funky chillwave - or chill synth funk you decide - with an amazing production that, for once, is supported by memorable hooks! It's thus not a succession of passable tracks with a too-cool-to-be-true aesthetic hiding how poor the songwriting is - even though the last third of the record is more supported by aesthetic than songwriting. Cool shit. |
| John Talabot Fin | 4.0 |
| Jungley beats with deep house progression that gathers element from many different aesthetic, be it non-poopy Balearic Beat, disco, trance, bedroomy pop, dance-pop, or tech house. It's an electronic album that breathes of organicity and weaves different soundwaves in a coherent manner, giving it *that* kind of timeless feeling - it doesn't sound like a 2012 electronic album, and oh god it's so damn cool. |
| The Internet Ego Death | 3.1 |
| A smooth funky soul record that is always pleasant but struggles to surpass the chill background atmosphere it offers - where are the hooks and melodies?! |
| Mirthquell Return of the Ancients | 3.6 |
| Epic and adventurous dungeon synth a la Depressive Silence |
| Beach House Once Twice Melody: Chapter One | 3.1 |
| Pretty Songs that Have Wonderful Production to Hide the Lack of Oomph: Part 1. |
| Silk Sonic An Evening with Silk Sonic | 3.7 |
| Funky shit that should have been released in May or June. Cool bootyshaking record lifted by a damn fine production. The two smooth musicians that have great chemistry and knew how much material should be incorporated here - basically it's all killer, no filler, with a teeny tiny too much monotony. |
| Jon Hopkins Music for Psychedelic Therapy | 3.4 |
| A chill - too chill? - new agey ambient record that doesn't stray much from "pretty'n'chill electronic background" but hey it's really lovely and it's got some birds singing how cute is that. |
| IDLES Crawler | 3.8 |
| In the end, Crawler convinces the least when it tries to replicate what has already been perfected in the past, proving that this new direction is the right one. The experiments sound just about right, neither too timid nor too radical, and constitute natural expansions of the band's original recipe. Bringing fun back to the centre of its agenda, Crawler is inventive and compelling at its best, failing only in rare places for lack of commitment to being consistently ambitious. And despite these lil missteps, the band manage to come up with their most consistent album yet. |
| Araabmuzik Electronic Dream | 3.4 |
| it's a d r e a m. Trancey, cloudy hip hop beats accompanied by ethereal background female vocals, and then BAM! An EDM track comes in, with the house beats being replaced by gritty hip hop ones - never thought I'd ever say that, but EDM + hip hop beats is lit. Once the initial shock has passed, the record follows the same tropes without innovating too much - also, a tad too much hi hats maybe? |
| Dr. Dre Compton | 3.1 |
| A bunch of great beats, a shitload of OK beats, an All-Star crew doing what All-Stars do (all attack, no defense nor strategy). Aight. |
| Oublieth À l'Ombre du Royaume en Cendres | 3.8 |
| A T M O S P H E R E. This lil dungeon synth record uses ambient a la Vangelis (that first track is straight-up Blade Runnercore) to offer a large soundscape that only waits for you to embark on a scary yet exciting adventure. Cool shit, and cool cover. |
| Autechre Oversteps | 2.9 |
| Messy shit, yes - but! It's also one of the least messy Autechre album, maybe because synths are more prominent than the beats? Despite its relative un-messiness, Oversteps rarely manages to be more than a kinda cool background listen. |
| Courtney Barnett sometimes i sit and think, and sometimes i just sit | 3.6 |
| Aussie gal comin' in with strong indie rock tunes: it's a big yes! The garagey and lo-fi guitars mesh very well with the poppy sensibilities Barnett conveys with her voice, but the songs don't always benefit from a varied enough songwriting - ie there are very cool songs and some other songs that ain't bad but ain't really interesting either. There are more great songs than meh songs, phew! |
| Sandwell District Feed-Forward | 3.6 |
| Sandwell District collective/label swang song. Evolving techno going from Berlin minimalism to dub to minimal to ambient back to dub woah! The shift from one techno subgenre to another make for a diverse release that sometimes goes for grand shit ("SVAR - Graz Version", "Immolare - Studio", or "Grey Cut Out") but mostly remains on the coldly futuristic side of techno. Second half bangs more than the first one. |
| Lord Lovidicus Kyndill og Steinn | 3.9 |
| Tip top dungeon synth alternating between epic and mysterious while constantly be medieval and pastoral. The production is top notch, and when coupled with good songwriting chops, make for an engaging and very m/ piece of 2010s dungeon synth. |
| DJ Sprinkles Where Dancefloors Stand Still | 3.9 |
| Smooth deep/ambient house compilation with smooth transitions, smooth beats, smooth smoothness, and smooth vocal samples. S M O O T H. |
| Lil Peep HELLBOY | 3.7 |
| Much less rap, Hellboy mostly shows its rap persona through its beats, Peep singing much more than he is rapping. Apart from that, it's basically more of the same from Peep with much less gripping quality - his first two mixtapes are just too fucking emotionally raw for this one to compare. |
| Doja Cat Amala | 3.5 |
| Boppy record with cool beats and production that are varied enough for the record to sport many atmospheres - poppy trap, R&B, dancey pop, and even some deconstructed club. Fun album. |
| PinkPantheress To Hell With It | 3.7 |
| The most 2021 album of 2021, to hell with it is full of Y2K nostalgia, atmo/liquid drum'n'bass and R&B licks - and some damn cool echoed ad-libs. The aesthetic is absolutely awesome and already fueled zoomers with hauntology - eg PP was born after the Linkin Park sample in "Last valentines" - but some tracks do feel undercooked and the whole mixtape does follow the same trope throughout its 18-mins runtime. Excited for the next one. |
| Emma Ruth Rundle Engine of Hell | 3.9 |
| Beautiful and dark; this is ERR. Much less broad in scope than her other records, Engine of Hell is a piano-driven, stripped-down coat for her brooding tales, giving more space to her voice's subtleties. A slow rush. |
| Portrayal of Guilt Christfucker | 2.9 |
| More evilish black metal-influenced than ever, Baiseur du Christ is a rushed release that feels as unfinished as previous albums, yet this time the ideas aren't that interesting. Maybe next time take more time to come up with the near-classic album we think you got in you? |
| ABBA Voyage | 2.6 |
| A pleasant adult contemporary/soft rock album that never breaks through mega bangers territories, thus finding a comfy spot in the background. Not bad, but I don't really wanna shake my ass |
| Vril Portal | 3.6 |
| Banging Berghain techno that's at its most interesting when melodic layers complement the industrial boom-boom, like "Portal 3", "Portal 5", or the absolutely gargantuan "Portal 7". |
| Be'lakor Coherence | 3.8 |
| The aptly titled Coherence is Be'lakor showcasing everything they're capable of while managing not to rehash the same ol' trodden paths. It's meloprogdeath with acoustic strings from time to time, and yes that's what they're about but they seem uncapable of crafting a bad album. |
| Marissa Nadler The Path of the Clouds | 3.8 |
| Lush and beautiful and pretty and ethereal you get it it's dreamy af from front to back. Very Twin Peaks-y, The Path of the Clouds manages to be both melancholic and soothing, drowning the listener into a state of lonely comfiness. |
| Archspire Bleed the Future | 3.7 |
| i am speed. Crazy fast tech death with some br00tal parts as well as some neoclassical wankery solis, but da real MVP clearly is the vocalist delivery. His voice is typical brutal tech death growl, but he does not hesitate to regurgitate dem scifi lyrics in a super-short, super-fast manner matching the start-and-stop dynamics - that dude should try to rap, he fire tbh. Gotta say all these elements make the whole record kinda over-the-top, but the record is short enough. |
| Emily Scott Robinson American Siren | 3.2 |
| Beautiful country record whose beauty shines the most lyrically - ikr it's an oxymoron. Musically, it's pretty homogenous and homogeneously pretty. |
| Kayo Dot Moss Grew on the Swords and Plowshares Alike | 3.8 |
| Cool, new maudlin of the Well, and it's their most gothic too!!! The d o o m is indeed present, but it's when the music is at its least gloomy that Moss manages to truly feel grand and epic, like on masterpiece "The Necklace", or during deez licks on "Void in Virgo". |
| Mastodon Hushed and Grim | 3.7 |
| it's got riffs and their best material since Crack the Skye, but it also is too damn long and homogenous. |
| Orelsan Perdu d'avance | 3.9 |
| Orelsan's first album, and it already shows everything the dude is about: anti-braggadocio/loser lyrics focusing on honesty and tongue-in-cheek punchlines, electronic-based beats, and traces of autotune. Several elements will be refined in the future - some autotune lines and beats sound outdated - but his punchlines and relatable lyrics already are on fucking point, proving he's a damn fine songwriter. And he's federative af: "Jimmy Punchline" and "Changement" are high school classics. |
| Musk Ox Woodfall | 3.9 |
| Constantly beautiful, Woodfall is a classical-inspired piece of neofolk that reminisces as much gloom as bloom. |
| Neck Deep Life's Not Out To Get You | 3.0 |
| Bri'ish pop punk bordering on easycore. Riffs are cool, vox are nuthang to write home about, and choruses are kinda catchy. |
| Future Islands Singles | 3.2 |
| 2010s synthpop that ain't too derivative from the 80s - woah bravo for that. It's indeed more a synthy approach to 2000s indietronica with a kinda weird voice - weird in that it's unique but not that good? Once you've heard the first track, you've heard it all. Nevertheless, cool vibey album. |
| Colin Stetson New History Warfare Vol 2: Judges | 3.7 |
| ayeah post-jazz; using jazz instruments in a non-jazz way. Indeed, Stetson plays all kinds of wind instruments (many saxo types as well as French horn) on top of programmed electronics. Constantly dynamic, this live sesh is haunting, with Stetson making his sax sounds like it's fucking crying. Also, Ben Frost is the mixing engineer and Laurie Anderson makes several vocal apparitions. Swag, if a tad too, uh, not frightening enough, especially given the all-star cast? |
| Architects Lost Forever // Lost Together | 2.3 |
| Lazy chugchugs with no math and all tracks resembling one another. |
| Conway the Machine Reject II | 3.7 |
| Now that's New York rap. Grimy and hardcore, Reject 2 tackles the same gloomy atmosphere as Mobb Deep with vocal performances reminding of the Raekwon/Ghostface duo (and even some Kool G Rap, which is always nice). Plus there's some OG coke sniffing and that's way too gangsta (which is good) for a white Belgian dude like me. A tad too samey but damn that 90s rat-infested New York vibe is a fucking winner. |
| Artificial Brain Labyrinth Constellation | 4.1 |
| Atonal yet very groovy brainfucker death metal that shows tasty "melodic" riffing as well as more br00tal moments - yes, basically it's the whole fucking death metal package. |
| Hamza Zombie Life | 3.4 |
| Much darker than H-24, Zombie Life continues using autotune as Hamza's primary instrument, but this time the catchy choruses tend more towards the gloom than the bloom. Ofc the verses aren't great per se, and the autotune can sound a tad too lacrymonial at times, but the dude's ability to craft sing-along choruses is already astounding. Also, this time even the fillers are kinda aight, the whole mixtape having a melancholic vibe that, although not on the same as PNL, works very well with nocturnal trap beats and autotune. |
| Lana Del Rey Honeymoon | 2.7 |
| Lethargy has rarely sounded so, uh, inoffensive? Once again Grant's vocals are great and the production is lush, but the whole record is overall too one-noted and overlong to be properly interesting. |
| Arlo Parks Collapsed in Sunbeams | 3.6 |
| Bedroomy neo-soul; are the 2020s gonna be the advent of massively successful bedroom muzak? With Olivia Rodrigo's massive success, Parks' 2021 Mercury Prize sure seems to indicate a trend. Notwithstanding these maybe-prophetical-maybe-not considerations, Collapsed in Sunbeams is a lovely collection of lovely songs sung by a lovely voice that sometimes falls in the background when the lush production completely takes over songwriting - ie sometimes it's beautifully vapid. |
| Young Thug Slime Season 3 | 3.4 |
| With Slime Season 3, Young Thug finally understands a mixtape doesn't have to be 70 mins long. With less than 30 minutes of runtime, SS3 is a mighty succession of trap bangers that do not show as much diversity as the first two episodes, but the record's succinctness makes for the series' most cohesive piece. |
| Chief Keef Almighty So | 3.6 |
| Chief Keef @ its cloudiest. It's still mostly ChiDrill with underlying dungeon/frightening synths like on BFTD2, but the dude's lethargy is even more accentuated because of the beats' etheral characters. Overall one of his best, even though few tracks truly emerge as his banger-est ("Yesterday" tho). |
| Moon Kissed I’d Like to Tell You Something Important | 3.8 |
| Pop music as cute as it is bombastic, but whose more reflective and softer moments do not manage to grab me as much as the most inyoface ones - putting most of these softer tracks on the second half hinders the overall experience. Despite this, a great fucking record that uses interludes to explicitly enunciate its discourse. |
| Worm Foreverglade | 3.8 |
| Damn the contrast between cavernous and melodic riffz is properly astounding. This contrast is what allows Foreverglade (big lol btw) to be more than a "simple" Spectral Voice wannabe. Cool death funeral doomy shit. |
| Grouper Shade | 3.5 |
| Liz Harris always was about sad and minimalistic stuff, but dayum this might be her at her saddest and most minimalistic - nods to Elliott Smith ("Unclean Mind") and Nick Drake ("Promise") sure testifying about this approach. It's in these moments that Shade manages to recreate Harris' oh-so-comfy-sadness, whereas louder tracks feel outta place. |
| Lana Del Rey Blue Banisters | 3.3 |
| Beautiful vocals and production almost compensating for lackluster songwriting: the album - wait wtf are these sickass trap beats in the interlude? They don't fit but they go hard tbh. Gotta say some tracks are really nice ("Black Bathing Suit", "If You Lie Down Next to Me", "Dealer", "Wildflower Wildfire", "Living Legend"), shame they are accompanied by blandass soft rock tunes. The best 2021 Lana del Rey album. Edit: the blandass soft rock tunes are still blandass, but the best tracks are real good stuff. |
| Every Time I Die Radical | 3.9 |
| consistent band is consistent. it's got dem riffz, dem beautiful voice'n'lyrics from Keith Buckley, and povnding as well as more catchy moments. it is very good yes, but hey you know sput. |
| Parquet Courts Sympathy For Life | 2.7 |
| kinda mid tbh bc they couldn't/wouldn't make the extra step to fully commit to their new aesthetic. it's a compromise both from a dancefloor pov as well as from the more raucous vibe Wide Awake had. dommage. |
| The Haxan Cloak The Men Parted The Sea To Devour The Water | 3.4 |
| A succession of pretty electronic'n'drony landscapes, The Men... perhaps takes too much care into putting every possible idea into a constantly-flowing template. |
| Arca &&&&& | 3.8 |
| Abstract beats and alien samples make for an always-futuristic compilation of deconstructed glitch hop. Despite the comp's wonky nature, each sound is cohesively placed within the soundscape. |
| Susanne Sundfor Ten Love Songs | 3.8 |
| Susanne Sundfor is incredibly consistent when it comes to crafting beautifully moody love albums that contain a tiny touch too many fillers to be truly amazing. |
| ERRA Augment | 3.4 |
| Early 2010s progcore: cool guitar licks, badass growler, and clean vocals that come straight outta Adolescent City. Even though they don't reinvent anything, musically this is top-notch: they do play that style of progcore better than anyone |
| Coldplay A Head Full of Dreams | 2.0 |
| If only Coldplay hadn't released Music of the Spheres, this would be their most boring, bland, unimaginative, shit album. Bravo for not being that, A Head Full of Dreams. 1.8 |
| Kyary Pamyu Pamyu Nandacollection | 3.1 |
| Basically this is Pamyu Pamyu Revolution with less consistency, flow, and amount of bangers. Clearly not bad, but it does feel like a mixtape full of cutesy tunes. |
| High on Fire Luminiferous | 3.3 |
| yes this is High on Fire and they be sludgin' and stonin' and sometimes thrashin'. this is High on Fire. |
| Defeated Sanity Passages Into Deformity | 3.4 |
| am maybe not the best to judge but this is aight bdm: it's heavy, the vocalist is animalistic, the drummer is amazing, and there are a few nuances that - i bet - will reveal themselves after listens I won't give. |
| Osees Mutilator Defeated At Last | 3.4 |
| Uh yeah it's that band that change names all the time: psychy punky garage that do not revolutionize anything but does its shtick consistently well. |
| Maximum the Hormone Yoshu Fukushu | 3.7 |
| An all-around fun album with elements of hardcore, punk, some extreme metal riffing, and sometimes cool energetic choruses. It's basically alt metal 101, done extremely well: heavy enough to feature some trve headbanging moments, and catchy enough to lure newbies. |
| Bell Witch Four Phantoms | 3.3 |
| A competent funeral doom album with its moody basslines, crushing repetition, and vocals ranging from desperate harsh to desperate clean, Four Phantoms nevertheless never manages to feel as bleakingly captivating as predecessor Longing. |
| The Haxan Cloak Excavation | 3.6 |
| Somber drony dark ambient that sounds like the soundtrack of a lost horror movie. creepy shit. |
| Knocked Loose A Tear in the Fabric of Life | 4.0 |
| fkn heavy metalcore shit bordering on deathcore. sounds kinda processed at times, but the sheer heaviness and those riffs make up for it. |
| Coldplay Music of the Spheres | 1.5 |
| well yeah i forgot everything about this as soon as it ended, and some songs manage to be forgotten while they were still on. last track is great tho. 1.7 |
| Lil Ugly Mane Volcanic Bird Enemy and the Voiced Concern | 4.0 |
| whether this dude crafts rap or psych trip-h(p)oppy stuff, he always be surreal. here's another drug-full trip. yay. he da "Lil" GOAT. |
| Magdalena Bay Mercurial World | 3.9 |
| Boppy pop despite its quite ethereal/downbeat attributes. It's indeed quite moody, with vocals resembling more Grimes' bittersweetness than Jepsen's bomb-ass-thicc-ness, but the music is so lush it forces you to shake da ass. Best 2021 pop. |
| Big K.R.I.T. 4Eva N A Day | 3.8 |
| As always: hella dope shit ranging from conscious to braggy to dirty south to jazzy. |
| Trivium In the Court of the Dragon | 3.2 |
| Not really my kinda stuff deez dayz, but it does riff and whatnot. some choruses are catchy too. |
| The World Is a Beautiful Place... Illusory Walls | 3.8 |
| byebye midwest, hello prog! Indeed, if the post'n'indie rock traces of their sound have not disappeared, their emo side has decreased over the years while the prog linings have become more prominent. This approach culminates in Illusory Walls, which sees the atmosphere retain its central place within the band's soundscape more epic than ever. Some tracks overstay their welcome, and the middle is not on par with the bookends, but damn, this is still constantly beautiful, well-composed, and produced. |
| Nightwatchers Common Crusades | 3.6 |
| Angry French punk with some power pop punk linings from time to time so that the record ain't only societal diatribe. Also they switched to English, which is ultimately a good move because eh you know more peepz understand English, but also not good because the singer's voice really resemble Parquet Courts'. They do also lose some of the impact of their most biting critique with that language switch - but maybe it's a conscious will to move on to non-French political issues, idk. Aside all that, - very - cool punk with dynamic chords and energetic performances. |
| Wardruna Runaljod - Yggdrasil | 3.7 |
| Tribalistico-pagan folk music, whose focus on repetition helps instigate a ritualistic and spiritual atmosphere to the record. It's very pretty in its moodiness. |
| BADBADNOTGOOD Talk Memory | 3.5 |
| Beautifully composed and performed, but idk it lacks some oomph? After several listens, it just fails to stick as much as BBNG 2-3. It's full of cool shit all the way yes, like the gorgeous arrangements by OG Artur Verocai, as well as great apparitions (Terrace Martin, Floating Points), but it mostly sounds like the band's take on past great jazz music - Coltrane, Evans, Sun Ra come to mind. Maybe mixing all sorts of jazz isn't their thing without their post-rocky antics and clear hip-hop influences. Still great though, I just love 'em so much. |
| James Blake Friends That Break Your Heart | 3.2 |
| Beautiful, yeah. Blake's vocal performance is constantly improving, but the soundscape tends to slightly fall in the background to let Blake's lyricism take the spotlight. Sure, there are gorgeous vocal harmonizes and lush strings, and the beat plus the melody makes him speak of L-O-V-E eloquently so evidently, yet the discourse always seems to take over whatever was musically constructed. It's basically a vocal album with some nice textures. |
| The Body and Big|Brave Leaving None But Small Birds | 3.7 |
| The Body have got a thing for creepy folk led by much calmer vocals than yoozh for 'em. And once again, it's a winner. A moody piece of drony folk, Leaving None but Small Birds is a direct continuation of the work Emma Ruth Rundle and the band have crafted, with much less accent on devastating sludge pounders. It's much calmer, but it never loses power. Thank you, fiddle. |
| Lingua Ignota SINNER GET READY | 3.8 |
| Much less harrowingly violent than her precedent record, SINNER GET READY compensates with an increased focus on Hayter's vocal tension. As disturbing as ever, yet with a truly new way of conveying said tension - deez fucking banjo strummings in "REPENT". |
| Nas King's Disease II | 3.6 |
| Based. Nas' rapping is on point - ofc it's no Illmatic tho, what did u expect. Yet, it's sonically that record becomes - at times - brilliant. Bridging 90s nostalgia with 10s refined approach, it's a journey from the boom to the trap with extra lush layers that you don't find very often - save from goats like Madlib or Preemo. |
| Big|Brave Vital | 3.7 |
| Hard as feck drony doomy sludgy metal carried by angelic vocals. This is an aesthetic that works very well during its runtime, but one that does not vary much. |
| Celeste Animale(s) | 3.5 |
| Sludgy, post-hardcorey black metal - how did you guess it's French?! Primal animosity and artsy linings are well-balanced overall, but it thus result in a soundscape that found its edge without straying too far from said edge. And it's kinda too long. |
| Purity Ring Shrines | 2.8 |
| Witch housey synthpop - yes it's from 2012 how do you know?! It's got eerie synths, deep bass, handclaps, trap beats, vocals full of every effects you could find, many reverbs, and vocals ranging from creepy to lamenting. It's aight, but it simply doesn't contain songs as good as Grimes' Visions or Crystal Castles' II. |
| Unholy Vampyric Slaughter Sect The World Trapped in Vampyric Sway | 3.8 |
| weird bm in the vein of Murmuure, with ambient passages popping out of nowhere and industrial beats and scary riffs cutting through calmer moments at moments you wouldn't expect. Killer, visceral shit. |
| Yellowcard Southern Air | 3.1 |
| Good songs I would have loved if I had listened to this when it came out. Now it just sounds like the ghost of someone I thought I knew. |
| Avicii Stories | 1.5 |
| party muzak with less bangers than True and with all guests trying to sound like Adam Levine who caught a cold. 1.7 |
| Krallice Years Past Matter | 2.5 |
| riffz. It's as if Wolves in the Throne Room took Weakling's atmosphere, while Krallice took the riffz. The problem is, WITTR still had some meaty riffs, while Krallice offers riffz, and nothing but riffz. Monotonous riffz, at that. It's got that spacey vibe and all, but it feels like the record rehashes ideas throughout its entire course. |
| Floating Points Elaenia | 3.4 |
| Electronic textures laying the foundations for jazzy pieces to happen from time to time. Despite the music's complexity and heavy layering, this is overall very soothing - if a tad too soothing at points, repetition ain't the record's best feature. |
| Kyary Pamyu Pamyu Pamyu Pamyu Revolution | 3.5 |
| Fun and cute J-Pop. It's all about how much cheese you can handle. It's good cheese, but you aren't immune to an overdose. im feeling slightly dizzy but this was still a great trip. |
| The Armed Untitled | 3.8 |
| Frantic mathcore (yeah that's a giver) with mucho strong songwriting; the tracks instantly sound catchy and head-bopping, which nicely counterpoints the record's aggressiveness. |
| Full of Hell Garden of Burning Apparitions | 3.7 |
| This is an album with songs like "Urchin Thrones" which got electronic bits and a mighty weird saxo, "Non-Atomism" is the drummer transforming into an octopus while singer's screams are being processed by the Linkin Park DJ, Meteora-era, or "Reeking Tunnels" with its start-and-stop riffs transforming into pounding banger. And then there are noisy tracks that are very very noisy, sometimes good like the beginning of "Derelict Satellite", sometimes just very very noisy. |
| Susanne Sundfor The Silicone Veil | 3.8 |
| Once again a beautiful and spirited vocal-led art pop record, The Silicone Veil focuses on impacting the listener with passionate beauty and lush arrangements, with however a tad less impact than predecessor The Brothel - some songs have a tendency to induce some branching out. Too beautiful tho. |
| Feu! Chatterton Ici Le Jour (A Tout Enseveli) | 3.6 |
| If you arrive here after discovering the band with their 2021 record: this is the same, with rawer production and vocal deliveries. It's indeed pedant French chanson mixed with indierocktronica, the songs already being good but still needing some refinement. What's already present however, is how fucking French this is. Quali. |
| Arca Mutant | 3.7 |
| Despite its scattered nature, Mutant manages to fuse beauty and chaos in a cohesive manner. Synthetic worlds swallow what remains of organic instruments through its giant filters - that mandolin sound gaddaym. It's a journey, tracks smoothly transitioning into each other while still starkly moving from the previously created template. It does repeat some fragments from time to time, but, if anything, it adds some cohesion to the whole package. |
| The Devil Wears Prada Zombie | 3.2 |
| yup it's melometalcore. good songs and riffs. Hranica is on point with his gutturals (not the hardcore shouts ew), the clean singer is aight if a tad too interchangeable with every other clean metalcore vocalist. aight shit, I 'member jamming "Revive" quite a lot back then. |
| Sufjan Stevens and Angelo De Augustine A Beginner's Mind | 3.6 |
| Soft, pretty, and ethereal - a worthy successor to Carrie & Lowell, with strong Elliott Smith vibes - are ya surprised? Despite the comparison with C&L being unavoidable - ultimately diminishing the record's impact as C&L basically did the same but before and better -, A Beginner's Mind's strongest feature is its capacity to offer an extremely calm soundscape while - almost - avoiding tameness. A beautiful lil album. |
| Drinking Boys And Girls Choir Marriage License | 3.6 |
| Fast punk riffs ranging from pop to skate with even some more hxc stuff from time to time. Vocals ain't nuthang to write home about but their energetic delivery calls for a live rendition to fully appreciate these tunes. |
| Sleigh Bells Texis | 4.1 |
| Mad catchy vocal delivery, weirdo noisindustrial riffs, foot-stomping claps and percussions, or; how to strike a perfect balance of accessible power or powerful accessibility, resulting in eleven bangers. |
| Lil B God's Father | 4.1 |
| b a s e d. For an almost 2 hour long mixtape, this is fucking fire. Lil B's performance is good but ain't mesmerizing or anything, but, man, deez beats. Whether they're cloudy, boom-bappy, or hard-hitting, they all create head-bopping environments. Plus lyrics lie halfway between retarded and profound, and that's my fav kind of genius. |
| Young Fathers White Men Are Black Men Too | 3.1 |
| Similarly as their first album, Young Fathers' proposition of indietronica, soul, r&b, and hip hop does not know how to properly balance pop sensibilities and more experimental aspirations. It thus results in a good record full of good ideas that are sitting between two chairs. |
| Lingua Ignota Caligula | 3.6 |
| ALL BITCHES DIE, partie deux. It's still very much a work of neoclassical darkwave being torn apart by post-industrial screeches, as well as a way for Hayter to exorcise her demons, whether through lamented chants or demonic screams. Yes, it's ALL BITCHES DIE partie deux, but longer and dragging a tad longer. |
| Carcass Torn Arteries | 3.5 |
| Old veggie Bri'ish dudes rockin' hard. It is kinda predictable and safe, but, you know, well-performed good riffs are cool to listen to. The inner groove is also central, yet it mostly works as the core around which the melodies play their central role. |
| Samurai Breaks TURBO RAVE ARTILLERY | 4.0 |
| fucking banging breaks with a retro sound yeeeeet; foot-stomping shit with cool lil synths appearing from time to time along with crazy samples; time to go to the club. |
| Spiritbox Eternal Blue | 3.1 |
| Blessed clean vocals, but then musically it's alt-djentcore. The grooviest and/or lushest tracks are the coolest ("The Summit" as well as the last two), while the rest are - to me - cool tunes that neither annoy nor amaze me. |
| Lil Peep crybaby | 3.8 |
| More samples-heavy than Lil Peep Part One - for the better ("crybaby") and the worst ("yesterday") -, Lil Peep continues his emo rap ventures with - much - more focus on emo-pop: his depressive lyrics are constantly delivered in an apathetic, yet heady manner, making these tracks songs you wanna sing but end up whispering. |
| Dave We're all alone in this together | 3.5 |
| this ain't straight-up drill lmfao. There are drill beats, but also afrobeats-inspired ones, as well as three James Blake cuts - aight. It's when Dave mixes his personal thoughts with societal observations that he's upping what Psychodrama hinted at. It does feel like the kind of record tailored for mainstream success and Brit/Mercury nominations, but it's done with care and soul. Good job. |
| Injury Reserve By The Time I Get To Phoenix | 3.6 |
| A unique listen for real. Hip hop and rap are but ghosts here, dying memories of what once was. Scary, disturbing shit. Can't say I *love* this but gotta respek. |
| Leon Bridges Coming Home | 3.2 |
| Smooth revival soul record that nails the aesthetic but can't offer strong enough songs, hence falling into the category of albums that constitute nice listens without ever managing to be more than that. |
| Oranssi Pazuzu Värähtelijä | 3.4 |
| Another spacey'n'psychy record from these dudes, another record that sounds like a prep for live shows. Their repetitive tunes are more jams than actual songs, and while it must sound good live, it doesn't feel as captivating on record. It's still masterfully performed, but it feels like the band struggles songwriting-wise. |
| Lil Nas X Montero | 3.4 |
| Fun lil record gotta say. A quasi-seamless blend of pop and rap, Montero isn't entirely consistent quality-wise, but there definitely are more highs than lows. The dude surpassed expectations and showed he not only an industry babe. |
| Thrice Horizons/East | 2.9 |
| i mean it's better than Palms gj lads. ain't nuthang impressive here tho, it's just aight post-hardcordish alt rock. |
| Lupe Fiasco Tetsuo and Youth | 4.0 |
| Constantly subtle, Tetsuo & Youth nevertheless always offer interesting tracks, with intelligent lyrics, changing flows and singing patterns, and beats that go from the boom to the trap. Mighty record that doesn't even feel like 80 minutes. |
| Northlane Discoveries | 2.9 |
| progcore with djent tones woop woop. not that much woop woop tho: although the musicians know how to play their instruments - that's a minimum -, it does not stray too much from typical metalcore, except from maybe these teeny tiny clean melodies that are nice but do not take sufficient space to be truly impacting. |
| Deluge Ægo Templo | 3.3 |
| Much more post-hardcore than their debut, this new babe contains great moments - that Tetsuya Fukagawa apparition damn - and more intelligible French lyrics (yay), but the more br00tal moments do not feel as enthralling. |
| Horrendous Anareta | 4.1 |
| Banging record. It's got almost everything you could want in death metal: melodic and epic clean solos, maniacal vocals that do sound weird at first but quite quickly fit the aesthetic very well, progressive linings that do not take the whole space, and a production that does not brickwall the sound - that bass sound fucks. Plus the dudes know how to write songs. |
| Septicflesh The Great Mass | 3.5 |
| Symphonic death that aptly balances the classical bits - ie: they not too cheesy. The clean vocals, however, do sound like every other clean vocals on albums mixing metal with classical music. Despite not being my cuppa - it's almost too epic but eh i like Four Year Strong who am i to judge -, one cannot ignore the beautiful compositions and performances. |
| Ibeyi Ibeyi | 3.0 |
| There are many cool things here. The sister's dual vocals, the overall downtempo approach, the tribal drumming, and the space left to - wait for it - space. However, the songs simply fail at being memorable, being trapped in a pretty void that's as savoury as it is ephemere. |
| Yellowcard When You're Through Thinking, Say Yes | 3.1 |
| Yeah I should've listened to that a decade ago. This is typically the kind of record that you know you would have loved back then. Despite its qualities, you can't help but find it too engraved in a dead era to truly care now. The songs are good, and that's what matters most. |
| Gang Gang Dance Eye Contact | 3.7 |
| Weird lil fucking album. It's basically "early 2010s indietronica" 101: frantic mashes of bleeps and bloops dabble with processed vocals and some rock heaviness at times. It's everything time. |
| Fontaines D.C. A Hero's Death | 3.4 |
| Much darker than Dogrel, A Hero's Death is more about gloom than bloom, trading near-catchy punk bangers to meditative and deadpan post-punk. The record does suffer from a lack of variation, even though the best tracks indeed are beaut (t/t, opener, "Televised Dream"). |
| Deluge Æther | 3.5 |
| French post-black that doesn't play on post-rock tropes, rather installing its mood with long mid-tempo passages that abruptly get broken by avalanches of tremz. It's a visceral experience, yet one suffering from a lack of variation in its formula. |
| Low Hey What | 3.9 |
| A pounding work of post-industrial textures, hymnal vocals, and subtle melodies that shine through both vocal performances and the noisy clashes. What HEY WHAT does best is fusing two starkly opposite aesthetic propositions. For a noisy record, this is pretty beautiful. For an ambient pop record, this is pretty frantic. |
| Amyl and the Sniffers Comfort To Me | 3.7 |
| Dope Aussie garage punk filled with enthralling riffs, energetic performances, and tunes dangerously bordering to banger territories. |
| Sugar Horse The Live Long After | 3.6 |
| Epic doomsludgegaze with a Wall of Sound production and a singer alternating between Keith Buckley worship when shouting, and an 80s rock singer when singing. |
| Trophy Scars Astral Pariah | 4.1 |
| Further down the American rabbit hole. The post-hardcore band is now dead, replaced by a traditional American one. And it's a good band. |
| VOLA Inmazes | 3.4 |
| Progz (that's prog + djenty tones m/) + pop anthems = a big big sound. Indeed, it's gigantic. The dreamy synths and poppy choruses are the trve winners here specifically because they allow the cliche well-defined genre to wander in unknown territories. However, the djent parts sound way too similar and are often too prominent mix-wise compared to these beautiful synths. It's kinda epic tho. |
| Post Malone Stoney | 2.6 |
| You know how everyone was pleased when learning Post Malone likes guitar music? He kinda should stick to that persona. Truly, he's at his best when he's coming up with rock-like choruses ("Congratulations") - or basically when there's a recognizable chorus - not when he's tryna sing some R&B songs with a rap delivery - in these instances, he's bland. He a good singles artist. |
| Lorenzo L'empereur du sale | 1.5 |
| Comedy rap that was EVERYWHERE in 2016-2017. Lorenzo's persona is one of debilitating drug-using mf dressing in what people in the 2010s thought people in the 90s dressed like. It's really bad; dude isn't a good rapper, beats are cheap af, lyrics are at best mindlessly funny ("Sale babos de merde", "Beurette de Luxe") and at worst constitute a cause to castrate every millenial. "Freestyle du sale" still is a classic though, and some other tracks are kinda fun to jam from time to time with mates. 1.6 |
| Oranssi Pazuzu Valonielu | 3.6 |
| Spacey bm - better done than on their first album. The fusing of the two aesthetic is indeed more coherent, black metal's bleakness and space rock's vastness clashing into each other without one acting like a Robin to the Batman. But when listening to the closing track, it becomes evident the rest of the album simply does not offer a more compelling take on the band's fusion. |
| Algiers Algiers | 3.2 |
| Soulful industrial gothic post-punk whose mixing of genres is more exciting on paper than it is on wax. Their sound and production are dope, but they lack original melodies and proper construction - almost every track overstays its welcome. The vocalist's the real deal. |
| Odezenne Dolziger Str. 2 | 3.2 |
| French band mixing chanson, spoken word, a bit of rap, and indietronica textures on top of the beats. Their signature sound is super recognizable, but it very often stays on the soft side of things, losing some of the grandeur their soundscape inherently allows. When they let it go, like on their best song ever "Souffle le vent", it's gorgeous. |
| Defeated Sanity Chapters of Repugnance | 3.4 |
| Filthy brutal death. It's got everything you'd need within the genre: violent but technical performances (that drumming), cavernous growls, and relentlessness. Peepee wasn't hard after tho. |
| Susanne Sundfor The Brothel | 3.9 |
| OG Art Pop. The music takes influence from the most pretentious - and also sometimes the best - pop subgenres: chamber, baroque, and progressive, with slight but constant electronic linings. Sundfor's voice modulates from grand and epic to soft and intimate alongside her ethereal compositions. Beauty. |
| Madeon Adventure | 3.0 |
| Party muzak. It's loud and energetic and takes many popular genres - electropop, electro-house, synthpop, nu-disco, and complextro - for an overall nice recap of popular electronic music of the first half of the 2010s. Guest vocals are ofc nothing to write home about - whadiduexpect. At least the record manages to avoid blandness - the genre's biggest trap - with how warm it sounds. |
| Lingua Ignota ALL BITCHES DIE | 3.9 |
| Frightening. Lingua Ignota's realer-than-real lyrics are delivered with her damn amazing voice, making these lyrics a reality you can't possibly escape. This desperate atmosphere is all the more accentuated through the noisy textures of death industrial and neoclassical darkwave colliding into each other, the former laying the foundations, the latter adding a morbid grandeur to it. |
| Lil Peep Lil Peep Part One | 4.0 |
| Heavy shit. The lyrical matter is shockingly premonitious and downright horrible, but it's musically that this tape stands out: cloudy trap beats, a delivery taking elements from emo as well as alt-r&b, and simplistic guitar strummings playing some doomer chords. It sounds like nothing tremendous, but, put together, these elements make for an absolutely gripping experience. It does rely on the same tropes throughout the whole mixtape, but it's so heavy it makes up for it. |
| Little Simz Sometimes I Might Be Introvert | 4.4 |
| Lush and incredibly beautiful instrumentations. HOWEVER. Little Simz' vocals do not always fit with the grand aesthetic she's chosen. She's a very competent rapper, but her delivery sometimes feels at odds with the cinematic tragedy she's come up with. Instrumentally though, this is fucking wonderful. Edit: woah yeah. |
| Turnstile Glow On | 4.7 |
| yah the boiz go further into the "hardcore w/ 90s alt aesthetic" rabbit hole. It doesn't necessarily work for the best - the clean vocals on "T.L.C." for example - but when they strive that perfect balance between hardcore and 90s alt, it's a fucking winner - "BLACKOUT", "HOLIDAY", "MYSTERY" and "DON'T PLAY" are certified bangers. |
| Oranssi Pazuzu Kosmonument | 3.3 |
| This sounds more like a psych album with some black metal riffs'n'shrieks thrown in the mix than a trve bm/psych fusion. It's a singular listen for sure, but one that seems to thrive more in its most cosmic moments, where the black metal features take a step back - eg "Andromeda". It does slap hard at some points though. |
| Iron Maiden Senjutsu | 3.4 |
| A competent album made by dudes who do not have anything to prove to anyone but still do. Bruce isn't at his best but he still sound good, and while some tracks do meander ("Death of the Celts"), others pull out fecking m/ moments ("The Parchment"). |
| James McMurtry The Horses and the Hounds | 3.4 |
| Cool country with some good choruses and some solos switching back-and-forth from epic to dumb. Dude's delivery is a bit samey but the ample production really makes the different elements and sometimes vocalists ("Ft. Walton Wake-Up Call") shine. |
| Drake Certified Lover Boy | 1.5 |
| Ofc it's too fucking long. Ofc most of it is bland and repetitive. It's a Drake album on autopilot. Gotta say it's good shit for napping. 1.5 |
| Indigo De Souza Any Shape You Take | 4.0 |
| Super rad lo-fi indie rock that plays more on viscerality - and good songwriting yay - than on plaintive lullabies. Not that it's not plaintive, but De Souza muscles it up with noisy antics and her incredible vocal performances - "Real Pain" goddamn. |
| Dale Kerrigan noise bitch | 3.5 |
| from Wines rev 'cos it's the best take: noise bitch ensconces itself firmly in the tradition of albums that manage to sound like they're paying homage to noise rock cognoscenti of the past while simultaneously sounding entirely like themselves, which is to say, in this instance, like nothing else. |
| Big Red Machine How Long Do You Think It's Gonna Last? | 3.1 |
| Consistently pretty and expansive, How Long Do You Think It's Gonna Last? nevertheless falters in proposing few variations within its chamber popfolktronica formula. |
| Between the Buried and Me Colors II | 2.8 |
| With even more focus on pr0g than ever, Colours II is a succession of pretty cool and epically cheesy moments that have no relation with one another. |
| Kanye West Donda | 2.6 |
| weirdly mixed/mastered. sounds like he forgot how to write punchlines OR his ghostwriters forgot how to OR they died. sometimes it's good, but most of the time it's eh. |
| Tropical Fuck Storm Deep States | 3.9 |
| I've always had trouble appreciating this band's music - always felt like it's all quirks and no play - but this one does fuck hard. It's still very chaotic and dizzying, but idk this time it was engaging. Gonna relisten to their debut. |
| Ulver Hexahedron | 3.8 |
| Gorgeous sounding live prog electronic ambient; yay! The progression from long drony pieces to more dynamic ones is swiftly done, bravo boyos. Garm's vocals are the album's weakest point - he doesn't sound as good as on albums. |
| Wolves in the Throne Room Primordial Arcana | 4.3 |
| Oh yeah BRING BACK THE CASCADES BABYYYYYY. Their best record since Two Hunters, Primordial Arcana fuses the more natural aspect of their soundscape (these first two minutes of "Underworld Aurora" goddamn) with well-integrated synths elevating the whole lot to Lustre levels of whimsical - bet nobody listened to Lustre but idc. Now let's send this babe to BNM. Edit: woah it already is BNM-certified, whaddaday. EditPiaf: damn it's better with each listen. |
| Lorde Solar Power | 2.4 |
| Gotta say, this cutesy folk-inspired record is nice and pretty. However, it's so shallow that its pleasantness borders with boringness. Or maybe it's intrinsically boring bordering on pleasantness. |
| Deafheaven Infinite Granite | 3.6 |
| So this isn't shit but this isn't that amazing either eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh go listen to Wolves in the Throne Room instead. |
| Turnstile Time and Space | 3.9 |
| Rad and ultra dynamic hardcore punk incorporating its alt metal influences in an engaging - ie: poppy - way. It rips and bangs, but one has to lament the lack of space given to the band's "experimentation" - it's cool to add new ingredients to your formula, but you gotta leave these ingredients enough time to shine, which isn't always the case here - that "Bomb" interlude could have been extended beyond 24 seconds. Still super duper fun. |
| Papangu Holoceno | 4.1 |
| Cool weird shit. Indeed, it's not everyday an album fuses sludge's heaviness with zeuhl & prog complexity and textures. This mishmash is cool, indeed, but the album mostly works because these different influences are carefully dosed, each track showcasing different moments of calm and fury that all manage to convey the appropriate mood. |
| Qrixkuor Poison Palinopsia | 3.8 |
| Infernal metal. Two long compositions mostly made of death, black, doom with here and there some more artistically challenging passages (ie: orchestral interludes). It's - Meghan Thee Stallion voice on - nasty, constantly bringing the listener closer to Hell's inner circles. |
| Future 56 Nights | 3.3 |
| Minimalistic aerial beats devoid of gimmicky snippets? Nice. Even nicer when Future is focused as hell here, and when the record contains the dude most legendary track ("March Madness"). It ain't perfect - ugh "No Compadre" - but it's a cool 30-minute EP. |
| Tuxedo Tuxedo | 3.1 |
| The bangers do bang ("Do It", "So Good", "Number One", "The Night Time"). The rest consists of decent disco boogie synth funk tunes that feel nice in the background but do not create much foot-stomping and ass-shaking. |
| The Killers Pressure Machine | 3.2 |
| A beautiful record made of beautiful arrangements and beautiful lyrics sporting a beautiful production, but one that ultimately does little for me. |
| Yelle Complètement fou | 3.8 |
| It's Yelle: French electrodancesynthpop at its finest, and, compared to their previous records, here there are some top class bangers (t/t, "Ba$$in") as well as some lusher and more grand tracks ("Les soupirs et les refrains", "Dire qu'on va tous mourir"), without sacrificing to the record's coherence. |
| Daniel Avery Drone Logic | 3.9 |
| Club music that fits the album format: what a joy! Indeed, if the music at play is definitely one of four-to-the-floor stomping and repetitive snippets of futuristic nights, the album's got a true flow, each track building upon the "hey let's dance" vibe to add its own twist, whether it's through eerie synths, acid psychedelia, or the minimalism inspired by microhouse. |
| Comadre Comadre | 4.2 |
| A great way to push skramz forward. Of course the vocals are harsh, the guitars piercing, and also, damn these dynamics. But it's when Comadre brings in melody that this swan song takes all its sense: these acoustic guitar licks in the closer, the epic guitar leads in "Cold Rain" or in "Summercide", the horns in "Drag Blood", or the synths in "Untitled". It's still skramz, but with accessible elements that could appeal to non-fans of the genre. Pushing the envelope while appealing to plebs, now that's very post. Post-skramz. |
| The Do Shake, Shook, Shaken | 3.8 |
| More electronic than ever, the French duo also attained their mainstream peak with Shake Shook Shaken for one reason: consistency. While their first two albums are good, they feature too many passable tracks among the undeniable bangers. Here, even the "worst" tracks are still engaging in some ways. |
| Deadmau5 While(1<2) | 3.4 |
| Wait, where did the party go? It has - mostly - abandoned the whole boastful electro house shtick to focus on more downtempo and ambient-influenced compositions, as well as on industrial ones (coucou Trent). Despite being more than 2 hours long, the soundscape is thus quite varied and does not repeat itself (too) much. |
| Car Seat Headrest How To Leave Town | 3.5 |
| Another lengthy indie lo-fi record from Will Toledo, another great one that still dwells for too long in its introspective nature. Once again, dude's talented, but he tends to decrease his records' enjoyability by letting some sequences go on for too long. |
| Ty Segall Manipulator | 3.6 |
| You know what to expect: psychy garagey guitar stuff. I feel the dude's songwriting issues - as in, he's more about style than substance - are still present, but to a lesser degree than on some of his earlier albums. |
| 6ix9ine DAY69 | 2.1 |
| Loving Adventure Time's iconography, Lil Daniel also loves to scream. It's irritating. Beats and production are aight though, blasting a hard-party vibe with both tightness and color. It ain't good, but the criticisms thrown at that snitch and molester him attack the person more than the music itself. Musically, this is better than, say, TOTAL XANARCHY. That's something. |
| High on Fire De Vermis Mysteriis | 3.8 |
| Epic rifffest this one. Whether it's for installing a doomy mood ("King of Days"), allowing the record to breathe ("Samsara"), grooving harder than Pantera or Emmure ("Spiritual Rites"), or worshiping Pike's previous band Sleep ("Warhorn"), this is a record of heavy and aggressive riffing. The concept is ass but hey who gonna listen to riffs for that reason? |
| Alex G DSU | 3.7 |
| Once again a genuine record, DSU combines a melancholic-bedroom-sadboi-who-listened-to-too-much-Pavement aesthetic that, while not original for the dude, benefits from his best earlier songwriting. |
| Azealia Banks Broke With Expensive Taste | 3.9 |
| This album, and this aesthetic, should've peaked in the 90s. Shame it didn't, but at least it sounds fresh in 2014. Even more so, it expands what was showcased in 1991, more colourful and soulful while still retaining the foot-stomping energy and braggadocio delivery. Expanding one's soundscape and integrating more influences without compromising one's integrity, that's what you want from every artist. |
| Parquet Courts Sunbathing Animal | 3.2 |
| Same formula as for Light Up Gold, but a tad less triumphant. Their blend of indie garage post-punk combining 2010s post-everything lyrics still can produce great songs ("Instant Disassembly", "Ducking & Dodging"), but the band's apathy isn't supported by songwriting as great as LUG's. |
| Glass Beach The First Glass Beach Album | 3.0 |
| In terms of vision, blimey. In terms of execution, eh. Not that the performances are bad per se; rather, it's in the way the album loses itself in an always-flowing approach. Ideas are thrown into the mix without feeling connected to one another. We're being left with a messy album with cool and uncool moments fighting for attention. Also the vocals aren't gud. |
| DJ Koze Amygdala | 3.5 |
| An exercise in all things house, Amygdala distils psych elements to give this mostly minimalistic piece a Spring vibe. At 80 minutes, some passages are stretched until they're like butter scraped over too much bread, but the record's clumsy pacing at least allows it to not be grating for too long. |
| Porter Robinson Worlds | 3.1 |
| Despite being clearly derivative of its influences - M83, Daft Punk, EDM, and Japanese dance music -, this got some nice ideas that strive to push EDM forward, without fully realizing its vision. On tracks like "Flicker", EDM's grandiloquence is matched with indie pop's sensibility in a glorious fashion, while other attempts sound more like loud as feck EDM faux-bangers. |
| Full of Hell and Merzbow Full of Hell and Merzbow | 3.7 |
| This was to be expected, but damn this goes hard. When Full of Hell's headfuckery is accompanied by Merzbow weird noisy antics, it's a fucking winner - these last three tracks man. Still, despite all its strengths, the record could have benefited from a more cohesive collaboration, Merzbow's influences being only identifiable on some tracks. |
| ODESZA In Return | 3.0 |
| Chill chillwave with some R&B snippets. It's fun, but it could have been more fun: some tracks lack the "oomph" factor that such a cool soundscape deserves, and the record does fall into sameness. The best tracks ("Say My Name", "Bloom") do manage to bring that epic feeling to the otherwise chill-summer-mojito soundtrack. |
| Viagra Boys Street Worms | 3.7 |
| Jazzy punk Swedes going hard. While their jazzy antics sure act like a cool complement to the syncopated post-punk rhythms, the record remains first and foremost a post-punk one, with banging tunes ("Sports", "Worms", "Amphetanarchy") truly showing the band's talent among some other tracks that, despite their quality, do little to reaffirm that. |
| Voices From The Lake Voices From The Lake | 3.6 |
| Repetitive and minimalistic techno; you know the drill: the record's greatness will be assessed by how hypnotic its beats are. Voices from the Lake is hypnotic enough for you to immerse yourself in it, but it didn't grab me as much as other mastodon in the minimal techno genre. |
| Laura Stevenson Laura Stevenson | 3.5 |
| Pretty album for sure, but it's when the songs are at their prettiest that they are the least interesting, as if their refined aesthetic swallowed any songwriting depth. Anyways, it's Laura; she's got enough heart for her lackluster songs to still be enjoyable. |
| ESPRIT virtua.zip | 2.9 |
| All Vibez Only. George Clanton didn't master the art of songwriting yet, but he already showed what a production master he was. Indeed, this is effing lush seavaporpunkwave, but the "songs" simply constitute one giant ocean of nostalgia in which memories have replaced actual sensations. What beautiful memories these are though. |
| cv313 Echospace [Detroit] Presents: "Altering Illusions" | 3.5 |
| nearly 3 hours of experimental techno lmao. Recorded both in Chicago and Detroit, this is an hypnotic techno mammoth drawing from both dub and ambient techno subgenres, with an increased focus on e c h o. Mighty long stuff though, but never boring, and sometimes brilliant ("beyond the clouds"). |
| Yelle Safari Disco Club | 3.5 |
| French pop band Yelle - ye that's a band, not only one gal - is what would you expect from French electropop: cute, full of catchy melodies and playful, poppy bleep bloops. The job's done, especially since Safari Disco Club avoids French electropop's common pitfall: filling a quarter of the record with grating and/or forgettable tracks. There ain't no top-class banger here, but it's damn consistent. |
| Shame (UK) Songs of Praise | 3.1 |
| A cool but ultimately lackluster late 2010s British post-punk record. It's cool because it's, well, late 2010s British post-punk, but it just isn't that interesting apart from that. It's a blend of pissed apathy and epic blandness, one that never bores but always fails to truly catch attention. |
| DJ Rozwell NONE OF THIS IS REAL | 3.5 |
| If only one recording had to represent the 2010s decade in all its post-Internet silliness, it's gotta be this one. Drenched in amateurism, the sixty tracks make vaporwave, dungeon synth, and lo fi hip hop collide in a plunderphonics fuckfest. That isn't 2010s enough though: put on a twelve seconds crossfade between each song, hit play, and shuffle them tunes. It's thus - of fucking course - directionless and overlong, but the fact that each tracks flows well into the next one regardless of which actual song is next is impressive. Meme music do be good. |
| The Do Both Ways Open Jaws | 3.6 |
| Offering many different faces in the course of 46 minutes, Both Ways Open Jaws is a gloubiboulga of all things indie, pop, and rock with little sense of construction or flow, but, when at the top of its game, a damn sense of execution: Olivia Merilahti's voice can catch all kinds of pretty melodies, and a proliferation of musicality - so damn rare in French pop. Shame the tracks go from bonkers good to passable. |
| Kishi Bashi Lighght | 4.1 |
| A lesson in how to use a violin in a pop record: despite being a virtuoso, Bashi loops his violin shreds in ways that allow all the subtle layers to show how beautiful they are. It's an ocean of colourful tunes, of hazy summer days, and of a brilliance that never shouts at you how great it is. Same goes for Bashi's delivery: his falsetto is very cute, and accompanies the wholesome soundscape very well. |
| Darkside Spiral | 3.6 |
| So glimmering and atmospheric and psychedelic aaaaah but there ain't no structure but it's catchy in its experimentation yes it's good. |
| Kali Uchis Isolation | 3.1 |
| Despite bearing lush instrumentals and sensual vocal performance, Isolation does sound a tad too lackluster. Uchis' performance is great, but she does lack the swagger to elevate these songs from "nice" to "ow yeah now that's a banger". The same can be said about the productions - which are chill and luscious - that ultimately convey more aesthetic than songwriting. It just does not stick as much as other modern soul/R&B records. |
| Hedge Wizard More True Than Time Thought | 3.3 |
| Cool dungeon synth with a certain retro vibe to it - these Casio keyboards man - but one that doesn't forget to be ominous from time to time. It's not reinventing anything the genre hasn't done before, but its blend of medieval and mysterious gives it an eerie vibe. |
| Hail the Sun Wake | 3.0 |
| While the heavy lyrical matter and the spirited vocal performance are to be praised, this "just" remains a Swancore release to me: Mars Volta's brand of manic post-hardcore coupled with Anthony Greenesque vocals. |
| Brigitte À bouche que veux-tu | 3.4 |
| French lover's album with playful instrumentations and two female vocalists - are we back to the 60s? The two vocalists modulate their voices to display either vulnerability or sensuality, but they always operate on a soft mode with very little variety. It's basically the same for the instrumentals, save for a couple of bangers ("Oh Charli Cheri", "Hier encore"). It's a - very - pleasant album, full of catchy melodies and dancey tunes, but one that ultimately makes me think of a proto-version of what Clara Luciani did at the end of the decade. |
| Snail Mail Lush | 2.8 |
| Bored gal uses pedal so that her guitar strummings are labelled as "lush". It does work, at times, like on "Pristine" or "Heat Wave", but most of the time it's pleasant at best; while Jordan's emotive vocal approach is interesting per se, there simply isn't enough variation for the record to be enjoyable on the "long" run. Same goes for the music: it's all the same timbre. It's pretty though. |
| Ophidian I Desolate | 3.8 |
| Epic shit. There ain't much to say about songwriting here, but that's not important; what's important is that this Icelandic band damn well knows how to craft epic nuggets of modern death metal. It's a massive riffest. |
| Perfume Genius Too Bright | 3.2 |
| Two notes: 1) Hadreas damn well knows how to write subtle pop songs and accompany them with the proper production. 2) I fail to connect to their music. It's beautiful and emotional, but it just feels nice in the background. Guess I'm just not the target. |
| Modern Baseball You’re Gonna Miss It All | 3.1 |
| Another indie folk midwest emo pop punk sweetie, You're Gonna Miss It All sports a more refined production than the band's debut, but the songwriting has dipped imo, the songs being not as enthralling as the debut's. "Your Graduation" fucking slaps though. |
| Nicki Minaj The Pinkprint | 2.8 |
| Thank god she dropped the party aesthetic. This is darker both lyrics-wise and musically, but it still retains her classic braggadocio and rapping technique, which are much more at ease here than on her electropop-full early 2010s album. Of course it's too long though. |
| Vein.fm Errorzone | 4.1 |
| Fuck yeah, old school Boston metalcore. You know what to expect then: chaotic metalcore bordering on mathcore, but the band gives this well-known aesthetic their own twist: industrial nu-metal. Whereas other attempts like this have failed to impress me (Car Bomb's latest record), here the two worlds collide in a cohesive manner: the dissonant, off-time riffs aren't dampered by the cleaner interludes, and the Slipknot/Korn worship they bring to the table do not feel forced, being given the exact time needed to create the maximum impact. |
| King Woman Celestial Blues | 3.6 |
| A banger of sludgy doom - or doomy sludge, who knows -, Celestial Blues's most immediate feature are Kris Esfandiari's spirited vocals, moving from gnarly screams to ominous whispers. Amped up by a Jack Shirley production - these guitar tones are mucho nice -, the songs flow from different moods, from the introspective to the demoniac, from the depressive to the spiritual. |
| Maroon 5 V | 2.0 |
| Shallow, by-the-numbers, and repetitive pop. Many woah-ohs not hiding the horrible lyrics. "Sugar" is catchy tho. 1.8 |
| Snarky Puppy We Like It Here | 3.6 |
| Playful big band jazz fusion/funk that indeed sounds mad good (that keyboard solo on "Lingus") and fun, yet its musical prowess is in the end nothing to write home about given its derivativeness from 70s jazz fusion. Very cool shit, but that's it. |
| Isaiah Rashad Cilvia Demo | 3.7 |
| TDE shit: jazzy rap sporting a cloudy production, but that ain't really the focus point here. Rather, it's how Rashad displays his many flaws in a lesson of self-awareness that makes this one special. Not that special musically tho - but incredibly human. |
| Malfet The Way to Avalon | 3.6 |
| Despite featuring the basic same features as their other albums - although putting more accent on medieval folk -, Malfet's The Way to Avalon is overrelying on field recordings that do expand the immersion, but in the end take a tad too much space. |
| A.G. Cook Personal Computer Music | 3.0 |
| As all-over-the-place as Radio Tank Mix, but less abtruse. The pop melodies are not entirely buried under kilometers of doubtful remixes, and the cutesiness doesn't become too much at the end of the mix. Best ante-PC Music Cook thang. |
| Billie Eilish Happier Than Ever | 2.4 |
| I guess the goal was to create a more "low-key" soundscape to match the darker lyrical content. Damn shame the low-key/bland border was crossed. Of course this is not blatantly bad; the production is subtle yet rich in elements, there are a couple of cool influences (the bossa tune is cute), and some tracks - singles that were available a year ago - are aight. The thing is, it's so subdued that you've got to connect to the lyrics to enjoy this on some level. As a non-lyrics motherfucker, this will remain a collection of dull, not unpleasant but ultimately forgettable tracks. The few times the music does seem to finally emancipate itself from the weight of the lyrical content - eg that big explosion at the end of the t/t -, it does work, but these moments remain exceptions. |
| Washed Out Paracosm | 3.1 |
| Chillwave sporting a dream pop coat to hide how shallow it truly is - with success! Of course each song is pleasant, cute, and feels like an invitation to sip some mojito on a beach. But also, once you've heard one song, you've heard them all. It might be a great song, but it's repeated over and over again. No wonder the genre quickly died to be reborn in a meme-er fashion. |
| Niska Mr Sal | 2.6 |
| A few fun singles ("Silicone", "Du lundi au lundi"), the traditional hyper tracks that nevertheless are filler, and lyrical matter focusing on drugs, girls, and fame. Aight shit. |
| Thom Yorke Anima | 3.7 |
| A mixture of various Radiohead eras, Anima mostly focuses on juxtaposing several layers of bleep bloops, slowly developing in unanticipated ways, which is ultimately what allows it to overcome the overall subdued nature of the record. |
| Harry Styles Fine Line | 3.2 |
| A charming record by a charming lad. Alas, it slightly too often falls into the shallow side of charming: while the range of pop-subgenres displayed here is indeed wide, half the tracks are simply not that interesting despite all their ornaments. Still, the record's best moments (eg "Adore You" and "She") perfectly represents what can be done in modern pop when you mix solid songwriting with various influences and a great production. |
| Car Seat Headrest Nervous Young Man | 3.3 |
| A mammoth release clocking at more than two hours, Nervous Young Man tells the tale of, well, a nervous young man, in all its anxiety, melancholy, rage, and basically every fucking states of mind felt by this teen. It's not filler-free, it's too long, but damn this dude knows how to paint an awkward musical paint. |
| The Chemical Brothers No Geography | 3.6 |
| Moving from track to track like it's one gigantic mix, No Geography is full of house and big beat bangers that got a 90s flair to them while retaining the prog house vibe they built their sound upon in the early 2010s. Despite a less enthralling second half, The Chem Bros still have that special knack for crafting foot-stomping tunes. |
| Cage The Elephant Melophobia | 3.6 |
| A cool blend of 60s psych and garage, 70s punk (altough that influence is less important than on their early tunes), 80s alt rock (yeah that Pixies influence is obvious), 90s stoner/slacker vibe, and noughties indie (yeah MGMT was massive), Melophobia is a well-constructed melting-pot, and that's a mighty feat given how easy it is for an album to sound unfocused. Now, is it revolutionizing the dying rock game? Nah. It's a rad album that wears its influence on its sleeve a tad too proudly to allow itself to truly revolutionize anything. Also, changing the tracklist order to put the most well-known tracks at the front is a big no-no. |
| Ninho Destin | 2.9 |
| Ah, the post-success French rap album: more melancholic, less enraged and thus less poignant - gotta say Ninho's music never was moving -, and featuring less rap and more singing. His melodies are cool and not too cringy - except for main single "La vie qu'on mene" - but it's just a tad too much of the same thing: hard banger follows a softie melanchotrack, which itself follows a banger featuring one of the industry's big name. His best record tho, the highs are higher than on his previous projects. |
| Descendents 9th and Walnut | 3.6 |
| The "classic" Descendents lineup recording unreleased songs from 1977-1980? Yes, of course it's great fast-paced melodic punk. |
| Deadmau5 >album title goes here< | 2.3 |
| Half nightclub banger, half atmospheric prog house, 100% generic and lackluster. By bridging his older sounds with his 2010s will to go mainstream, Zimmerman falls into the trap of not focusing on what makes these two aesthetics great: the banger tracks tend to be obnoxious, while the progressive house ones do not remotely approach the level of transcendentalism his earlier works had. |
| ASAP Rocky LONG.LIVE.A$AP | 3.5 |
| Yep, it truly sounds like what a gritty mixtape-revealed rapper's mainstream debut album sounds like: full of other stars - whether it's for better (the whole "1Train" crew) or worse (Skrillex) -, safer, better produced but lacking amateur's charm, good enough to truly kickstart the artist's rise into superstar fame, but ultimately lacking *that* factor that made the first record so special. |
| Paramore Paramore | 2.3 |
| Neither particularly unpleasant nor offensive, Paramore is more of a testimony of the Farro's brothers' importance. Simply put, this is dull, and that's a damn shame when you know they wanted to go big with this one. Instead, they went home, songs rivaling in being passable but ultimately forgotten. |
| Musk Ox Inheritance | 3.8 |
| A beautiful and meticulously crafted classical-inspired dark folk release, Inheritance weaves at times darkness (the opening two parts t/t), at times hope ("Weightless"), always in a pristine fashion thanks to the crispy production. |
| Angel Olsen All Mirrors | 3.5 |
| The exact kind of album causing me to think: it's very good, but I want more. The songs are good, so are the string arrangements, but it would benefit from a denser, lusher, more fucking bombastic production. Give this Titanic Rising's production. |
| A.G. Cook Radio Tank Mix | 2.5 |
| Hyperpop/bubblegum bass embryo was more of a maybe-cool idea than a refined aesthetic. Sometimes it works - that Carly Rae Jepsen remix is glorious - and sometimes it absolutely doesn't: the "Latch" remix doesn't strive much from the OG track, but its sole additions are effing obnoxious. |
| Clams Casino Instrumental Mixtape 2 | 3.7 |
| Chill cloud rap pontiff comes back with mixtape numero deux, and it's better than numero un: with some of the best A$AP Rocky and Lil B beats, and maybe cloud rap's quintessential track ("I'm God"), this babe is a shimmering and hypnotizing beast that only extends some of its ideas for a tad too long of a time. |
| Wild Nothing Nocturne | 3.8 |
| How to create an exciting album out of a played-out genre? Just do like Wild Nothing: make sure your songwriting is at the very least present, apply a gleaming production, and do not solely focus on the one genre you're derived from - there are some very cool post-punk basslines and tones here, and that makes Nocturne an excellent throwback record, not a "mere" dream pop revival one. |
| Ty Segall Band Slaughterhouse | 3.2 |
| Punky slightly psych garage stuff; yeah it's Ty Segall! The tracks are thus all kinda simplistic yet this simplicity allows the dirty vibe to become fun, mostly in the first half - the second one dives into the uninspiring waters of simplicity. Also the last track might appeal to some nerdz, but it basically is 10 minutes of filler noise. |
| Alexis Marshall House of Lull. House of When | 3.5 |
| YWGWYW's lil brother: even more industrial and much less rock/punk-oriented, House of Lull distinguishes itself thanks to its sinister tone, made of harsh noise, pummeling drums and constant dissonance. While the chosen aesthetic does make a great job at creating an enveloping atmosphere, it doesn't always succeed in bringing the ~vibe~ to its apex: "It Just Doesn't Feel Good Anymore" represents a climax of headfuckery, but few tracks manage to crank it up to that level. Also damn shame he didn't include "Nature in Three Movements". |
| James Ferraro Live at Primavera Sound 2012 | 4.1 |
| In the end, it's just a set some dude did at one festival. But what a fucking set: it never truly starts or ends; it's just there, weaving its trance loops through nature recordings, birdsong, and, most importantly: a big fucking heart. There's no logical reason to love this, but I do. |
| Malfet The Snaking Path | 3.8 |
| A lovely dungeon synth records with field recordings, that, for once, do not solely constitute of wind samples. Rather, the surrounding sounds adds a bucolic vibe to the gentle dungeon synth compositions. Shire music, and thus music to smoke some good Old Toby. |
| Weatherday Come In | 3.8 |
| How did this obscure record become the most popular emo album of the 2010s on RYM (7.5k ratings), I don't know. What I do know, is that it bangs. The production is rough around the edges, but the lo-fi mixing works quite well with the catharsis that emanates from the record. Most importantly, it's in small moments the Come In truly reveals its beauty: like on the guarguantuan "My Sputnik Sweetheart", or that fucking tone to kickstart the album. During these moments, Weatherday manages to fully capture the listener's attention and embark them on an emotional journey few this past decade (erm, Car Seat Headrest) created. |
| Zedd Clarity | 2.2 |
| Big, loud, summer-y, and coming from 2012: Clarity is the epitome of this sound. The singles ("Spectrum", "Clarity") are non-offensive, kinda cool electro summer bangers, but they are overshadowed by offensive, non cool bangers that are devoid of any idea besides: "let it rise, then let it go crazay". |
| Azealia Banks 1991 | 3.5 |
| Make 1991 music sound good in 2012: Azealia Banks did it. Despite the hip house subsubsubgenre never truly picking off, her mad rapping skills and overall braggadocio attitude perfectly match the house party-like-it's-1991 vibe. Good catchy shit that'd be absolutely tearing modern clubs. |
| Swedish House Mafia Until Now | 1.5 |
| Festival progressive house at its commercial pinnacle, and at its artistic worst: it's as obnoxious as it was back then, only the sound is now dated. 1.6 |
| Lizzo Cuz I Love You | 3.3 |
| Lizzo's vocal performance truly is the record's greatest asset, and said voice is better accompanied with R&B, disco, and soul than rap; all trap beats-based tracks feeling like forced ways to make it into the charts. Also, the record never lets itself breathe: it always goes up without decelerating, except on closer "Lingerie". |
| Nero Welcome Reality | 2.6 |
| Arena electro from the early 2010s. Everything that was hip back then is present here: brostep, electro house, and even some synthwave nods. The problem is, fusing all things hype doesn't make for good songs, most of them being loud, sometimes fun, but ultimately forgotten. |
| Zomby Dedication | 3.7 |
| A haunting record, whose NES-like synths manage to make their cheesiness actually melancholic. The whole album seems drowned in a futuristic sadness, dubstep and future garage fighting over who get the last word. |
| Kim Petras TURN OFF THE LIGHT | 3.7 |
| Let's hit the club for Halloween. Despite featuring many feet-stomping bangers, the amount of instrumental interludes increase the album's length - and not in a good way. Sure, some breathing is necessary in the middle of such a collection of top-class bangers, but some kind of balance could have been found. Don't care, this album is one to dance to. |
| Real Estate Days | 3.2 |
| Jangly and dreamy pop from the early 2010s; with all the genre's shortcomings. All songs are nice, but they also all fall into the trap of spending the second half of their course repeating the pretty and nice dream pop guitars chords, and while the sound indeed is lovely, it just does not deserve such meandering. |
| Fontaines D.C. Dogrel | 3.9 |
| Dan Careycore shit, but these boiz didn't get shit on - maybe their Irish accent and their earnestness translate of their non-privileged status - in contrast to their peers from private art schools. Dogrel is the work of a bored youth transforming their ennui into a romantic - but never foolish - rage that can convey both gloom and optimism. What more can you ask from post-punk? |
| Lightning Bug A Color of the Sky | 3.4 |
| Late summer afternoon cosmic dream slowcore to rest your terrestrial envelope to. The breezy vocals, coupled with soft strings and quiet-but-nevertheless-present synths make for a chill listening, more rewarding on the long run than on a casual listen. |
| David Guetta Nothing but the Beat | 1.0 |
| Party like it's 2011. Parties in 2011 sucked when they were filled with this kind of brash electropoprap, mostly when rap artists try their hardest - but still failing - to not sound anachronistic. 1.2 |
| Washed Out Within and Without | 2.9 |
| Haaa, chillwave: you always are so nice with your lush soundscapes, sunny mojito vibes, and sensuality. But oh god aren't you tending towards dullness on the long run. |
| Clams Casino Instrumental Mixtape | 3.4 |
| Chill cloud rap instrumentals that manage to be interesting on their own - what a mighty feature! Some tracks do be smelling of amateurship, but at least it's adding some charm to the whole thang. It's when tracks become hypnotic, like "Numb" or "Realest Alive", that the accolades surrounding this start making sense, although this is clearly not on par with its most famous parents (like this has got anything on Donuts). |
| Parannoul To See the Next Part of the Dream | 3.1 |
| Lotta cool ideas, and the lo-fi bedroom sadboi aesthetic makes for a real zeitgeist-y sound. However, Parannoul's prominent aesthetic can't hide the songs' lack of construction. Cool sounds succeed to cool sounds, but few tracks here feel like proper songs - the gargantuan "White Ceiling" being a noteworthy exception -, resembling more like a collage of moods and sounds. |
| Spellling The Turning Wheel | 3.6 |
| While the sophisti-pop instrumentals are absolute beauty, damn this voice do be grating. Second half picks it up - maybe because she sings less lel. Edit: her voice's in fact pretty rad. |
| Various Artists Bangs & Works Vol. 1: A Chicago Footwork Compilation | 3.1 |
| Despite offering a nice lil glimpse into the footwork scene, this compilation suffers from consistency issues: the good tracks are really good, the bad ones are obnoxious. Go jam DJ Rashad's Double Cup for starters. |
| Chill Bump Crumbs, Vol. 2 | 3.1 |
| Twenty minutes of turntablism-inspired beats and fast-paced semi-conscious rapping: yup, it's the Crumbs Chill Bump, but with less good songs than on Volume 1. |
| Gang of Youths Total Serene | 3.2 |
| A top tier GoY track, followed by two quiet, subtle, and almost not boring chamber pop numbers. |
| Rick Ross Teflon Don | 3.5 |
| Wow that production crew did deliver the goods: the beats are absolute gold, being as subtle as they are soulful, and even an ok-but-not-that-great rapper like Rick Ross sounds mad good on these. |
| Year of No Light Consolamentum | 3.8 |
| Year of No Light came up with the same recipe than on their other albums: a mash-up of post, doom, and sludge metal, but this time they added some synths here and there (gotta love me some synths) as well as a magnificent guitar tone. I'd say songwriting-wise this isn't as engaging as Ausserwelt, but the amplified soundscape guarantees this one's #2 spot. |
| Laylow L'étrange histoire de Mr. Anderson | 3.4 |
| Even more story-led than last year's TRINITY, Laylow's new album is also less impregnated of a precise aesthetic. You can still find elements of Travis Scott and Kanye West beats, but long gone is the Matrix-like story, as well as its musical elements. And while the interludes do help immersion, they do take a tad too much space. |
| Emeralds Does It Look Like I'm Here? | 3.9 |
| Ah, progressive electronic and space ambient: you make me travel. Does It Look Like I'm Here? is an invitation to stoned voyages, it's Berlin School antics being always enthralling and well-complemented by soft guitar strummings. |
| Anais Mitchell Hadestown | 4.0 |
| Notwithstanding the underlying concept - which is great and conveys its themes of love and loss pretty well - this album got tunes, man. And when these tunes are performed by such a wide and talented bunch of artists, you've got, well, Hadestown: a piece of work whose opera grandeur is tempered by its indie folk roots, and whose ambition is not dampened by its accessibility. |
| Thou Hightower | 3.9 |
| Fucking filthy as always, Hightower does a great job at re-imagining tracks from the band's catalog, "Fucking Chained" being even more filthy, and "The Fool Who Thought He Was King" masterfully bringing clean guitars in the background to add some melancholy into the overall dirty as fuck aesthetic. Always delivering the goods. |
| Marina The Family Jewels | 3.4 |
| Now that's exuberant. Fusing flashy dance antics with some more traditional piano-led songs, and while it mostly works, one can't help but feel Marina's influences weren't fully digested. The best example of that is how some of her vocal delivery do not land as good as she wants to; the Spektor and Bush nods are evident, but eh she ain't Spektor or Bush, she's Marina, and while she's got a nice lil formula there, she hasn't made it her own yet. |
| Toro Y Moi Causers of This | 3.3 |
| Chillwave: chill electronic music invoking nostalgia. Job done for Toro y Moi: his submerged pop meets tropical vibes and R&B bits with lush textures, and, if some tracks indeed are forgotten as soon as they are finished (can't even tell you which eh), there are some legit great tunes here that manage to surpass their "chill background muzak" status. The majority of this do be "chill background muzak" tho. |
| Actress Splazsh | 3.5 |
| Splazsh balances danceable tunes with experimentations so deftly it becomes difficult to pinpoint its precise goal, four-on-the-floor beats suddenly falling in destructuration madness, nods to 90s dance-floor-ready house and techno being in close contact with the most dissonant aspects of microhouse. |
| BRUIT The Machine Is Burning... | 4.0 |
| Ooooh, new Godspeed haha rekt. Indeed, The Machine Is Burning is shamelessly treading the same paths as Godspeed, but at least Bruit make it beautiful and engaging, and, let's be honest here, that's all you can ask for in 2021. The record is mostly sensible, benefits from an excellent production that allows the rich instrumentation (clarinet, French horn, vibraphone among others) to shine, and its structure isn't solely based on the loud/quiet/loud dynamic. Amazing? Eh. Best post-rock in recent years? Hell yeah. |
| Deadmau5 4x4=12 | 2.9 |
| The mouse goes mainstream EDM, and it kinda rules but not that much. The "experimentations" with dubstep work quite well - as in, it's not grating - and the slow-burning prog house bits are all well constructed, but they all work within the "hyper" spectrum, leaving virtually no place for the more minimal aspect of his music. |
| Pantha Du Prince Black Noise | 3.6 |
| What a magnificent cover. The album isn't bad either, its repetitive blend of house textures and techno boom-booms is well complemented with some melodic and hypnotic snippets that make me wanna druggily move my arms and head. The only teeny tiny problem is that, despite offering an all-encompassing atmosphere of minimal techno, this does not have the same power of hypnosis than say, The Field or Stott. |
| The Caretaker Everywhere at the End of Time - Stage 6 | 2.9 |
| The final episode of the dementia suite follows the last moments of the patient's empty feeling. Indeed, this is mostly empty, except for the last 6 minutes, where distant ballroom music makes its apparition, as the patient slowly remembers something, a final time, before dying. It's fitting with the underlying concept, sure; but it doesn't change the fact that these recordings are more interesting for how they can translate the process beared by the patient than for their musical qualities. |
| Future Monster | 3.6 |
| Future + early Metro Boomin = grimy shit, but Monster also - kinda - acts like the kickstarter for the trap craze; while the genre was already there and rockin' hard, it's with tapes like that the genre took the mainstream: dark and diversified beats, vulnerable lyrics with an enraged delivery - truly, Future is pissed, and acts as the record's main rage purveyor. |
| Wild Nothing Gemini | 3.7 |
| As derivative of 80s dream pop as, say, Beach House, Wild Nothing do distinguish themselves by not accompanying their best songs with bland renditions of Cocteau Twins. Not that the least enthralling songs do not suffer from a songwriting issue - what dream pop album doesn't apart from these Scots - but the overall experience is not too much hindered by it. |
| Ty Segall Melted | 3.1 |
| Manic shit with melodies, but with more focus on garage punk psychedelism than on noisy pop melodies; and a length short enough to cram as many half-baked-but-still-cool tunes. |
| Lost Horizons In Quiet Moments | 3.7 |
| Dream pop superproject Lost Horizons - BellaUnioncore wowza - is slow and pretty, and it's when the pretty outshines the slow - "Every Beat That Passed" and its lovely Liz Fraser-like delivery, the title track's contemplative vibe, or "Flutter"'s on-the-verge-of-breaking-down attitude - that it truly nails its desired aesthetic. |
| Adjy The Idyll Opus (I-VI) | 3.5 |
| At best gorgeous, at worst ok in the background, The Idyll Opus is a gargantuan release clocking at almost 100 minutes. While the genres at play are well put together - indie rock, emo, country do work well together -, the overload of good music does not prevent the record to feel long, thus hindering the overall experience. |
| Deen Burbigo OG SAN, Vol. 1 | 3.9 |
| After last year's Cercle vertueux, it's evident Deen has found his aesthetic. Trap percussions, shimmering and destructured samples mostly reminiscing of boom bap era, and an ever-changing flow with a conscious persona and some technical qualities that never overshadow the message. Good shit. |
| ECCO2K E | 3.1 |
| E sports an excellent production, made of ethereal bits from pop, rap, and electronic music, and couple that with vocal melodies that either work really well ("Peroxide"), either are unmemorable (other tracks eh). |
| Mac Miller Faces | 4.0 |
| His best rap project. Built with gorgeous, jazzy beats that are well-complemented with cloudy, hazy ones, the overall aesthetic unfortunately matching the lyrical matter: he talked about death way too damn much. He talked about it well, and knew how to put it into music, but damn this is basically him saying his drug addiction is gonna cost his life. |
| The Front Bottoms Talon of the Hawk | 3.4 |
| This is basically the s/t with its defaults being more exposed. Despite containing the band's hugest hit ("Twin Size Mattress"), it doesn't fully manage to balance its different elements - anthemic parts, emo bittersweetness, acoustic rambles, and at-times-cringy-at-time-clever lyrics - as well as the precedent record. |
| TesseracT Altered State | 2.9 |
| Atmospheric, djenty, trying to invoke progginess, buried drums, generic clean vocals: yup it's TesseracT. It's not all genericness tho: the basslines are tremendous and can be actually heard (!), and the atmospheric vibe works well at installing a calm mood only broken by the syncopated djent riffs. It's however not varied enough. |
| Waxahatchee Cerulean Salt | 2.5 |
| This represents everything I don't care about this type of indie folk/rock. Lyrics-centric with an okay-ish voice, some distortion to make sure you don't fall asleep, and more focus on delivering stories than song. It's clearly not bad, but this aesthetic simply does not move me in the slightest. |
| Miley Cyrus Bangerz | 2.2 |
| Kudos for trying to deliver a diversified album with many influences. Shame everything is smashed together with little coherence and some songwriting issues - eg "Adore You" deserves a proper climax. Also the brostep bits already sounded out of date in 2013. |
| HAIM Days Are Gone | 4.0 |
| Now that's one hell of a pop album. The Haim sis' formula is quite simple, but damn effective: a pop rock background, some new wave background effects, and a delivery that borders on R&B. This formula would have worked better on a shorter length, but when it's accompanied with top-notch songwriting ("Don't Save Me", "The Wire", "If I Could Change Your Mind" and others that equally slap), it's got everything you would want from pop music. |
| Etienne Daho Les chansons de l'innocence retrouvée | 3.7 |
| Classy and lush French pop from one of the genre's most well-known artists. The lyrics and the delivery are classic Daho, but it's mainly in the way his rock background is well-complemented by a symphonic orchestra - giving the record a National vibe (for y'all non-frogz) - that Les Chansons de l'innoncence retrouvee truly shines and sets itself in the vain of great French song. Add apparitions from Nile Rodgers and Debbie Harris, and you've got one pretty lil record. |
| Lord Snow Solitude | 3.8 |
| Lesbian vegan feminist hardcore, and it fucking slaps. It's a schizophrenic ride, always noisy and chaotic, lifted by spirited vocals and technical proficiency from all members. Shame/kudos(?) the production is that muffled. Also they really do the dynamics bits well, I'd just have wished they went for it a bit more. |
| London Grammar If You Wait | 2.7 |
| A beautiful voice, lush and pretty production; but oh damn, isn't it bland. It does sound more like a singer-songwriter project with some chill trip-hop instrumentation on top of it than a full-band effort. When the production elevates itself, like on "Strong" or "Metal & Dust", If You Wait has got that chill night vibe that the band tried to install, but when the production doesn't match Reid's voice, it's mostly boring. |
| o'summer vacation Wicked Heart | 3.5 |
| Fast-paced and noisy Kobe trio whose fun factor is matched only by their ability to create hectic nuggets of punk chaos. |
| Incendiary Cost of Living | 3.7 |
| Filthy NYHC with some crossover thrash and metalcore linings. It's heavy, it's fast, it's furious, without being braindead, repetitive, or suffering from poor production. |
| Clara Luciani Coeur | 3.6 |
| Not particularly better - or worse - than her debut, Coeur is a French nu-disco-slash-chanson record that trades disco bangers to introspective chanson in an always classy manner. |
| King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard Float Along. Fill Your Lungs | 3.7 |
| The first "trve" King Gizz album? With heavy acid and raga influences, their mishmash of garage and fuzzy shit finds a companion in the "genre" of psychedelic. They'll never truly leave this sound, thus reinforcing Float Along - Fill Your Lungs's position as the one King Gizz album that kickstarted it all. And it's got sitar. |
| Osees Floating Coffin | 3.6 |
| Heavy and dark af, Floating Coffin amps up the psych influences towards punkier edge thanks to a phat production and an uncompromising attitude. It simply rocks. |
| Lucy Dacus Home Video | 3.5 |
| An honest, charming, and well-composed album, Home Video might finally the one record that will allow Dacus to move beyond her comparses Bridgers and Baker' shadows. The album's warmth translates well through the indie rock-slash-folk compositions, at times introspective, at times uh also introspective but with a grander and more vibrant instrumentation. |
| Stimming Ludwig | 3.6 |
| A clash of organic textures, creepy atmospheres, subtle melodies and convoluted melodies, Ludwig does not base itself on pulsating beats like Alpe Lusia, and that gives the whole record a constant ethereal vibe that, while immersive per se, does not allow each track to shine on its own. It's truly more of a continual flow of bleep bloops than a cohesive set. |
| Flatbush Zombies BetterOffDEAD | 3.7 |
| Despite losing its steam in the second half, BetterOffDEAD is another lit Flatbush tape. The rappers ain't the best ever, but their various styles give the whole performance different shades of grittiness, complemented by fucking dope, hazy-but-violent beats. |
| Dance Gavin Dance Acceptance Speech | 3.1 |
| Swancore, so it's the usual shtick: top-notch guitar work and clean vocals tending towards the ridiculous side of angelic. A few other things impede from liking this one as much as their best records: Pearson sounds less good than Craig (ye, soz), and that fucking rapping part at the end of the t/t had nothing to do there. |
| Autechre Exai | 3.1 |
| Bleeps and bloops might break my head, but Autechre shall never hurt me. Indeed, whereas their constant knack for experimentation deserves nothing but lauds, I still have trouble connecting to their cold chaos. While from a pure sound design standpoint, the diversity between chaotic tracks, melodic ones, and blissful ambient all provide different versions of top notch atmosphere, there feels like no clear structure was layed out (im sure im super wrong saying that but eh). |
| Clara Luciani Sainte-Victoire | 3.7 |
| Classy French pop. An ex-member of La Femme, Luciani's voice typically recalls OG chanson, a la Francoise Hardy or France Gall. It's beautiful, but almost anachronistic. Indeed, nobody sings like that anymore, and that's a damn shame because when it's accompanied with rich instrumentations - voguing from disco-pop to strings-led ballads -, it's one of the most enchanting way to listen to the French language. |
| Dying Fetus Reign Supreme | 3.4 |
| A punishing blend of grind, brutal and tech death, Reign Supreme focuses more on groove than technicality to rip your face off. It's indeed when the pace slows down (that fucking breakdown during "In the Trenches") that the band manages to elevate itself from the mass, the more techy/fast/CHUGYEAH moments being cool, but far less memorable or original. |
| T.R.A.M. Lingua Franca | 4.0 |
| Tasty shit. T.R.A.M.'s brand of jazz fusion constructs itself on Adrian Terrazas-Gonzalez' (The Mars Volta) wind instruments, djenty guitars from Javier Reyes and Tosin Abasi (without too much wanking woo woo), and Eric Moore's (Suicidal Tendencies) mad drumming. Top notch proficiency is thus a given here, but it's in the lil details that Lingua Franca becomes truly interesting, whether it's female chants bringing some soul to the package, or when tribal percussions and flutes work together. |
| Miguel Kaleidoscope Dream | 4.0 |
| Winner R&B. With hints of soul, funk, pop, and even rock, Kaleidoscope Dream is, indeed, a kaleidoscope whose impeccable production allows each song to display many details in a flashy, unmessy manner. Couple that with Miguel's voice - so sugary mate - and a sexy vibe, and you've got basically all you can expect from an R&B album. |
| Cerebral Rot Excretion Of Mortality | 3.1 |
| Thicc and cavernous death doom. So, yes, it's fucking disgusting. And also totally reminiscent of oldschool death metal - what did you expect -, which ultimately constitutes the album's greatest fault when, like me, you're not that big a fan of oldschool death doom. |
| The Raging Nathans Waste My Heart | 3.5 |
| Fun and upbeat skatepopunk with great sense of melody, some grittiness, and even solis. That's basically it formula-wise, but The Raging Nathans nevertheless manage to make this played-to-death recipe enjoyable. |
| Hiatus Kaiyote Mood Valiant | 4.0 |
| As busy as any Brainfeeder release, Mood Valiant compensates its background bleep bloop overcrowding with lovely textures, a phat bass tone ("Chivalry's Not Dead", damn), and overall a sense of songwriting that's more acute than ever. Their best record. |
| Tyler, the Creator Call Me If You Get Lost | 3.2 |
| With obvious nods to Tyler's 2000s heroes (DOOM, Madlib & Dilla) but with a Californian easiness, and lyrical depth, this should have been a winner. The thing is, all tracks are nice and all, but memorability ain't their primary feature. That's because Call Me If You Get Lost sounds like a playlist made of "Tyler type beats". He clearly enjoyed himself there, but I prefer when he tries to accomplish a specific artistic vision as he did with his previous two outputs; this one feels a tad too messy in that regard. |
| Darkthrone Eternal Hails | 3.6 |
| They just never stop bringing quality albums. Eternal Hails works on minimalistic levels: stripped back but killer doomy riffs, some clean psych tones (and synths!) here and there to match the cover. Despite these ornaments, the record's best feats are those damn riffs, efficient, old-school sounding, and hella memorable. |
| Amenra De Doorn | 4.2 |
| basically: Flemish lyrics + spoken words + Caro Tanghe |
| Melody's Echo Chamber Melody's Echo Chamber | 3.8 |
| Lonerism-era Tame Impala shtick, but with more Frenchness melancholy, making Melody's Echo Chamber the longing partner of her ex-partner's second album (you follow?). Everything here is lush, ethereal, and warm, from the vocal performances to the hazy instrumentations: a perfect hungover summer afternoon jam. |
| Flatbush Zombies D.R.U.G.S. | 3.8 |
| Hard as feck druggy cloud rap that fortunately doesn't entirely rely on its lyrical matter (they talk aboot dem drugz). The beats mostly operate on the hazy spectrum of rap with some exceptions (what a banger "YBA" is), and both rappers are competent at bringing some energy to it so that the tape isn't just a boring succession of stoner rap. Lit tape. |
| Perfume Genius Put Your Back N 2 It | 2.9 |
| Pretty songs without that much of an impact. More reliant on an acoustic vibe, Perfume Genius' second album is a trve bedroom pop album, with every good and bad aspect of it: it's cute, personal, but also a tad predictable after the first few tracks. |
| tUnE-yArDs w h o k i l l | 3.2 |
| Quirky and energetic indiepoptronica from the early 2010s: album #42069. Whokill is indeed very zeitgeist, with its tribal rhythms, androgynous looped vocals, and a taste for idiosyncracy. In the end, the solipsism that has decided to apply its ineffable might on me is the only thing restraining me to truly enjoy it. |
| Nils Frahm Felt | 3.9 |
| Nils Frahm always tended more towards intimacy than gigantism, but this one is *especially* intimate, thanks to two technical features: the piano's strings were covered with felt, and microphones were buried deep inside the piano. That might sound accessory, but it isn't: every lil sound brings authenticity, whether it's lovely xylophone and glockenspiel additions, Frahm's breathing, or wood cracking. It's alive. So alive the record fortunately avoids the common pitfall of modern classical records: being a background listen. |
| Wasted Space exsanguination | 3.9 |
| Opening with the best Clerks moment and an epic guitar riff, Wasted Space prove they matured while still retaining that good ol' energy'n'fragility combo. This EP is a bridge; a bridge between like summer, but colder, and what will come next: longer songs, ampler instrumentations, improved songwriting the whole lot still having that fucking sweet crispy bass tone and Snowing-like vocals. Yummy. |
| Girls Father, Son, Holy Ghost | 3.7 |
| Surely, Girls's mastermind Christopher Owens did his homework: Father, Son, Holy Ghost is a patchwork of everything remotely rock, a synthesis of what happened in guitar music since the end of WWII. While the record can be attacked for delving too much into revivalism, it does not sound like straight-up Beach Boys or Pink Floyd, updating their sound rather than reenacting it. Also the songs are, uh, good. |
| SebastiAn Total | 3.4 |
| Ed Banger shit, like, embodied. Beats are huge, gimmicks are very Daft Punk/Justice-like, and the energy never decreases. It's got a good balance between bangers and transitioning tunes - the tracklisting is well constructed - but I can't help but consider this as a Crosses Part 2. |
| Osees Carrion Crawler/The Dream | 3.8 |
| Noisy punky psych garage rock with an attitude: aight. Whether the band (I won't even try to pinpoint a specific name) goes for hypnotic shit ("The Dream") or catchy stoner stuff to blaze to ("Opposition"), they manage to fuse all their different antics with different formulas, making this babe an always-engaging quirky listen. |
| Overkill Ironbound | 3.7 |
| Thrash is good when it riffs hard - this is good because it riffs hard. Fortunately, that's not the only good thing Ironbound does: vocalist Blitz sounds super good, alternating between thrash shrieks and catchy singing; and it's not just a riffest, with moody intros, and epic solis. Headbanging shit. |
| Wolf Alice Blue Weekend | 4.0 |
| Gotta love 2020s albums that try to sound like 90s' ones. In its gnarliest moments, Blue Weekend is a fierce nod to grunge, and, in its dreamier tracks, recalls how important shoegaze was. Still, notwithstanding the stylistic leaps the band strives to achieve, da album's real MVP is Ellie Roswell. Her vocals, whether drenched in reverberations or reminding the 90s' rock fury, are - almost - always the best thing happening in a song: when the song is already great, it becomes greater; when the song is meh, it becomes passable. In these instances, it's big, but bland. Most of the time, it's big. Edit: I'm a big fkin idiot this is not bland!!! |
| Japanese Breakfast Jubilee | 4.0 |
| A true summer record, dexterously balancing bangers with smoother cuts while always retaining a lush and uplifting nature, even in the moodier cuts. The record does suffer from a slight dip in the middle. Still, even the "most boring" moments contain enough instrumental variety and overall elegance for the album to accompany chill, sunny afternoons. |
| James Blake Klavierwerke | 3.0 |
| Much more intimate than same year's CMYK, Klavierwerke stretches out samples and clicks to various degrees of success (t/t and "I Only Know" being real good, the other two tracks being unmemorable). This dude never fails to sound much, much better and gigantic live than on records. |
| Circa Survive Blue Sky Noise | 3.6 |
| Letting go of the proggy post-hardcore they gained recognition for, this is when Circa Survive went into indie/alt rock territories. Although I'm a sucker for this kind of music, I've never liked Anthony Green's nasal vocals. Kinda like dredg, my favourite moments are when the singer shuts up or when he lets loose and remind me of Translating the Name. Allez: I really am a sucker for this kind of alt-progcore and I've grown to kinda appreciate Green's voice. |
| Pretty Lights Glowing in the Darkest Night | 3.3 |
| A good balance between trip hop and dubstep - more buoyant than the former, but way chiller than the latter - with, compared to the first two parts of the trilogy, less bombastically excellent material. Still good stuff. |
| Foals Total Life Forever | 2.9 |
| Big, big indie rock with dreamy/aquatic atmosphere and a great production that ultimately falls flat to me. It's undeniably rich, ambitious, and emotional, but it just don't print any lasting impression on me. Eh. |
| The State Lottery When the Night Comes | 4.1 |
| Americana punk is a genre with few bands and artists to check out, but whenever you find a new one you haven't listened to yet, you know for sure it's gonna be a winner. Heartful performances, gritty vocals, a deep sense of melody and dynamics are elements you would normally expect, but The State Lottery give their formula a lil twist by featuring a mighty saxophone, making sure they would leave an indelibe trace within the folk punk history books. Oh, and the closer is fucking magnificent too. |
| Midori Shinsekai | 2.9 |
| Shinsekai has got everything. Hardcore, jazz, noise rock, and even pop, but it does not work that well to me. Some tracks (9 in particular) blend the childish/hxc vocal duality with the instrumental fury and some smooth jazz shredding, but it often feels forceful most of the time, ie: you get the point quite quickly. |
| Esoctrilihum Dy'th Requiem for the Serpent Telepath | 3.7 |
| Black and death metal, synths, and violins make for a broad, eerie atmosphere, complemented by raspy, almost demoniac vocals. It's a sick record, but it nevertheless contains some faults: the length renders the least intriguing passages superfluous, and idk if that was Bandcamp's fault or not, but the songs' fadeouts were weird. |
| Indigo Jam Unit Independent | 4.1 |
| Super duper fun Japanese nu jazz. The rhythmic section is bonkers good, delivering bouncy rhythms after funky ones, on top of which the piano shreds some conventional, yet constantly fun and engaging notes. Factor in a superb production, and you've got one hell of a jazz record, the kind of record that, truly, does not reinvent anything, but does everything mad good. |
| Kid Cudi Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager | 3.2 |
| Kid Cudi continues to lay the emo rap foundations with album numero deux. While, creatively, there are some good ideas thrown here, Cudi proves he's more of an idea man than an executioner: almost all songs contain some classy aesthetic, but they mostly fall flat after the first minute. Also, Cudi's never been the best rapper ever, and that only accentuates the album's overall flatness. Still, there are a couple of bangers here. |
| Shinsei Kamattechan Tsumanne | 3.4 |
| Japanese weirdoes torturing their instruments. While the whole lot is noisy af, it's pop music that is truly twisted and abused, lush textures being maltreated with dizzying noisy riffs and a chaotic dual vocal performances. Some tracks do sport the weird posture a tad too much - bordering on annoying -, but the poppiest moments truly are lovely. |
| Gil Scott-Heron I'm New Here | 3.3 |
| The record's messiness - songs, poems, and interludes following one another without any kind of sense - fortunately does not hinder how poignant it is. Scott-Heron's voice is fatigued, and the instrumentations, ranging from trip hop to soul to blues, always operate on a subdued spectrum, giving the record its on-the-edge nature: too lively to be passed on, too mellow to be remarkable. |
| Two Door Cinema Club Tourist History | 3.3 |
| Easy listening indie for all your friends who just wanna have a good time: it's uplifting, it's got catchy refrains, cool guitar works, and an energy that helped them storm Glastonbury. It's just a shame all songs sound alike - while it's always nice to hear a track from Tourist History popping up in a playlist, the album experience as a whole is hindered by how all tracks are basically a mishmash of indie pop/rock with slight electronic touches. |
| Laura Marling I Speak Because I Can | 3.0 |
| The exact kind of indie folk I've got great respect for but can't truly enjoy: while the lyrics indeed are stunning, the generally subdued music fails to deliver the same amount of emotions. |
| Mount Kimbie Crooks & Lovers | 2.9 |
| I get what they were trying to accomplish here: a sampling post-dubstep fest with IDM-inspired clicks and claps and bleeps and bloops. The problem is, they attached much more importance to how their tracks sound rather than on songwriting per se. It's a succession of - rather cool - ideas that do not truly feel like they were built with a specific purpose. |
| Portal Avow | 3.1 |
| Bestial blackened death metal relying on murky production, sickening riffs, dizzying violence, and, above all, a fucking disgusting vocal performances. However, albums carrying the dissonance high and proud mostly appeal to me because of how this dissonance allows a chaotic atmosphere to loom over my head; and the production is too thin to me. It does slap and whatnot. |
| Lord Huron Long Lost | 3.5 |
| All things American folk ascend together in an atmospheric, strings-led lushfest. Being a noob, most of this tends to blend together because of the rather monochromatic musical spectre, as well as a kinda one-dimensional vocal performance, yet it's still a very pretty modern folk album. |
| Sweet Trip A Tiny House, In Secret Speeches, Polar Equals | 4.1 |
| They know how to do it. All their influences are here, tastefully blended together in a uniquely Sweet Trip fashion. Whether the genre leading the charge is shoegaze, IDM, or psychy shit, the common denominators are lush textures and ear-pleasing melodies. |
| Natalia Lafourcade Un Canto por México‚ Vol․ 2 | 3.5 |
| How beautiful and pristine this is. The ranchera, bolero, or mariachi fashion allows multiple instruments to gently make their presence known (the flutes man), and the arrangements are some of the best ever layered on top of Lafourcade's voice. Unfortunately, these re-arranged versions of the Musas catalogue, while pretty and all, do not necessarily surpass the OG versions. Mega good point though: Natalia sounds effing great here. |
| Black Midi Cavalcade | 3.0 |
| https://tenor.com/view/gattuso-sometimes-maybe-good-gif-13249264 |
| James Blake CMYK | 3.2 |
| Sampling 90s R&B (eg Kelis and Aaliyah), James Blake applies dubstep minimalism and wonky over-the-top-ness in a) a great fashion in the title track, and, b) a not too great fashion because he tried to add too many elements, leaving the three other tracks as unfocused mixes of great ideas |
| Carbon Based Lifeforms Interloper | 3.9 |
| Interloper accomplishes what most ambient records would like to achieve: be as relaxing as captivating. Wide soundscapes ensure the first feat is done, while all tracks contain a main motif that always is super memorable, and never tiring. Factor in psychedelic influences and downtempo beats, and you've got one hypnotic ambient record. |
| Rosetta A Determinism of Morality | 3.8 |
| Fast-paced post. They don't like being called post, but A Determinism of Morality takes all its elements from post genres, whether it's rock buildups, hardcore dynamics, and metal's unmistakable NeurISIS brand. The balance between these different kinds of energies is well done here, with a specific focus on space-like atmospheric lanscapes. |
| Ali Farka Toure and Toumani Diabate Ali and Toumani | 3.7 |
| Two gifted players - Toure on guitar duties, Diabate with the kora - play intertwining chords in a mellow yet deeply hypnotic manner. These two have got a mad chemistry, especially when Toure lays out the canvas for Diabate to engage in furious solis. A tad one-dimensional, sure, but great West African music. |
| Erika de Casier Sensational | 3.8 |
| Sexy, sensual, sultry R&B building its recipe upon lyrical earnestness and real adult talk - none of that gen z bs - as well as on beats grabbing elements from garage, jungle, G-funk, and sophisti-pop. 2021 sexiest record, by far. |
| Iosonouncane Ira | 4.1 |
| Michael Gira, is that you? This is mighty, epic, always-experiencing, and solidly frightening shit taking all sorts of bizarre music genres (post-industrial, ritual ambient, progressive electronic, or experimental lmao. Of course, such a rich and gargantuan formula makes the more patient moments slightly meandering, but the simple act of creating an always-enthralling/never-boring 110 minutes album is a mighty feat. |
| 4 Bonjour's Parties Okapi Horn | 3.6 |
| Very pretty, and very lush psych/chamber/baroque pop that uses chimes, flutes, brass, and all sorts of orchestral instruments to embark the listener on an ever-flowing journey of French-inspired Japanese cutesiness. It's got that cozy vibe that always pleases me without ever wowing me. |
| Olivia Rodrigo Sour | 3.4 |
| When she's not trying to sound like Phoebe Bridgers - ie when she lets power pop dominate her songs -, it's pretty cool. "Brutal" and "Good 4 U" are brash power pop anthems reinstating bold guitar in pop music - thank you Olivia! The bedroom pop tunes clearly are the most milquetoast tracks here, with the exception of "driver's license", Rodrigo's best vocal performance on the record. The teen lyrics are, well, teen lyrics, hence nothing to write home about if you're not 17. In the end, Sour truly is a great record, fusing Taytay's songwriting, Lorde's vocal harmonies, and late 90s-early 00s boldiness (Alanis Morrissette, Avril Lavigne). Just gotta get rid of the faux-bedroom pop aesthetic and we might get the next big pop album. Edit: eh the best songs are really nice. |
| Pretty Lights Spilling Over Every Side | 3.8 |
| The best of early 2010s party. Varied wub wubs (incredible!), guitars full of swag, hard-hitting beats, bouncy basslines, this is a groove cruise with length being the only - slight - issue. At minimum five minutes each, none of the tracks manage to avoid falling into meandering territories, but they all bang enough for it not to be a problem. |
| Rinoa An Age Among Them | 4.3 |
| A skramz band releasing only one album and then fading into oblivion? I've heard that somewhere else. An Age Among Them is a rollercoaster of emotions, blasting Mono and Envy-inspired crescendoskramz, where melancholy becomes uplifting, and intensity becomes cathartic. It's fucking crescendoskramz, man. |
| Gary Burton A Genuine Tong Funeral | 4.1 |
| Never heard of any of these dudes, but boy do they know how to use space. In every single "long" track, there are at least a couple of separate moments during which one instrument rise over the others, and deploys a litany reminding of the funeral theme looming over the album. The best thing is: these litanies are breathtaking, to a point that all "interlude" tracks felt unnecessary. |
| Sleigh Bells Treats | 3.7 |
| Now this is noise pop; as in, it's both truly noisy and truly poppy, and not just a bunch of pop songs with some distortion. Textures clash into one another, guitars keep wailing in a chainsaw manner, and the beats are LOUD. It's almost too much, and it sometimes is ("Straight A's"), but they usually find a good balance, especially on megabanger "Infinity Guitars", or on sweet, catchy pop tune "Rill Rill". |
| The Black Angels Phosphene Dream | 3.8 |
| Hey kid, do you like weed? Jam this. It's got everything psychy: reverberated vocals, fuzzy guitars, and a tendency to bring thick, smokey tones together with spacey, atmospheric nuggets of druggy explorations. Front-to-back solid, full of jams, and it's got the kind of swagger you need to transform your psych album from boring to enthralling. |
| Perfume Genius Learning | 3.1 |
| Lotta cool ideas. The influences are evident: Sufjan Stevens, but more minimalistic, Jonsi but even more fragile, and basically every indie folk artist, but with synthy layers. These layers are cool per se, but it's pretty clear the record's goal is to impact you with its fragility, not its shiny instrumentation; and while it does work at times, as a whole the album fails to properly create that emotional connection. |
| High on Fire Snakes For The Divine | 3.4 |
| Great metal all around: mix of stoner (it's Matt Pike innit), thrashy riffs, heavy metal solis, raspy vocals, machine-gun drumming, and a kinda ok production. It's energetic, (kinda) catchy and boppy, but some tracks do meander for a tad too long without bringing the punch the best tracks (ie, the t/t) have got in them. |
| Pretty Lights Making Up A Changing Mind | 3.4 |
| The first installment in Pretty Lights 2010s EP Series is, quite straightforwardly, banging hard. With an instrumental hip hop base, jazzy antics, and some dubstep ingredients carefully mixed together, this first EP represented quite well the possibilities of fusing the new (dubstep) with the established (hip hop) - better than C2C at least. While the subsubsubgenre never took off, this is a cool record, almost retrofuturistic or anachronistic, but fitting oh-so-well into the '10s earlier years. |
| St. Vincent Daddy's Home | 3.3 |
| At times profoundly gorgeous - "Live In the Dream" and its mushroom-full psychedelism, "Down"'s funkiness, or cosmic dream banger "Somebody Like Me" -, at times borderline obnoxious (the opener), at times lost in underwhelmance, Daddy's Home is no paragon of consistency, but simply delivers more good than bad stuff. Simple as that. |
| Julius Hemphill Dogon A.D. | 3.9 |
| Free jazz that's very free. Despite the compositions' relative sparseness, swirling alto sax, flute, and trumpet dictate the record's adventurousness, with a cello acting like a bass while the drums manage to be in sync as well as sounding totally free. With elements of wack'n'woll and some slight funky bits, the mainly Chicagoan sounds obtuse, yet hella fresh. |
| Panopticon .​.​.​And Again into the Light | 3.7 |
| Austin Lunn going pastoral and *almost* lush on this one. Tracks like "The Embers at Dawn", which starts like a daydream and ends like a nightmare, are testimonials to that new approach, maybe the lightest Lunn has ever crafted. The production is messy - as often - but it does work well with the atmosphere, even though the drums overtake a tad too much the guitars to my taste. |
| Jewel Usain Mode Difficile | 3.6 |
| Jewel Usain got swagger. One of the coolest new gen French rappers, he spits dem bar with earnest-oriented lyrics that still contain some lil funny nuggets of acute social observations. He's truly ~different~ compared to the masses: he's talking about money and workplace with disdain, and his portrayal of love is one of lassitude and fatalism. Beats are dope - mostly - but so much set in 2021 they shine much less than the dude's lyricism. |
| L'Or du Commun Avant la nuit | 3.2 |
| Continuing the poppier and more soulful trend initiated by member Swing on his solo album, Avant la nuit is the collective's most cohesive piece with its chill beats and "passe-passe" rapping. There's only one problem: it just isn't that memorable. Good background-y chill Brussels rap. |
| Sons of Kemet Black to the Future | 3.1 |
| Solid all over, but nevertheless flawed. It's overall more dancey than previous material, but it makes direct comparisons between tracks inevitable. The middle of the album does suffer from less-than-engaging cuts, and, overall, the features do not provide the same punch as in Your Queen is a Reptile. |
| Kesha Warrior | 2.6 |
| Kesha wanted to go cock pop, and she almost succeeded. There's everything here: pop of course - more specifically *that* brand of electropop that was all the rage in early 2010s - rock, EDM, rap, and even some country. It's messy. But, compared to other early 2010s electropop, it's more dull than annoying. Bravo. |
| Maroon 5 Overexposed | 2.2 |
| Dropping all soul and funk elements from their soundscape, this might be the most cohesive Maroon 5 album. But having a coherent sound does not guarantee quality: Overexposed just goes by, with only the first two songs - which are the main singles - being somewhat memorable. The rest is just there. |
| Nicki Minaj Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded | 1.0 |
| Woohoo, turn-of-the-2010s-decade-pop, that's my f a v e. Of course not, it's outdated af. The fun vibe isn't what's to criticize here - people can have fun, dammit - but it's just so shallow. The productions manage to gather many melodies that lie on the edge of annoying, and smash them together with absolutely no sense of construction or melody. And the worst thing is that the first half was totally devoid of that aesthetic - not arguing said first half is amazing though, but it isn't as knuckle-cracking as the "pop half". At least this "HEY WE HAVING FUN" vibe was living its last spotlighted moments, peepz like The Weeknd, Drake, and Lana Del Rey bringing a mainstream-doomer attitude that will ravage everything for the rest of the decade. And to finish this off: Minaj's best parts were the ones in which she sounds like Rihanna who caught a cold. 1.2 |
| Ash Borer Cold of Ages | 3.5 |
| No more post-rock :[ Sonically, at least; as the song progressions do make (say) think about epic progressions. The departure of post-rock antics do not mean this one lost all his atmospheric nature: it's just displayed differently, through female vox for example. Like on their first record, it's when they totally let it go through quite unique vox and huge explosions that maximum engagement is created. When they try to transition from one big *smash* to another, they do it quite awkwardly. |
| Big Thief Masterpiece | 3.6 |
| A simple, yet detailed and touching indie folk nostalgia nugget. You know the formula: a singer drawing on a 90s delivery style, floaty production, and slight tweaks here and there to make sure the record is more than the - basically - the same song being played eleven times. Lenker's biting lyrical content works quite well with her voice - the record's true star. Indeed, at times the instrumentation feels like it's lacking some oomphiness to perfectly spice up Lenker's captivating performance. |
| Young Thug Slime Season 2 | 2.7 |
| Beats are hazy and boppy, Thugger's voice is as elastic as any luxury good, but the whole mixtape dwells in so much repetition that it should be - at the very least - twice as short as it currently. Separately, each track is fine per se, but 80 minutes of samey material is a no-no. |
| Squid Bright Green Field | 3.7 |
| Dan Careycore. Compared to the other two prominent acts from this niche genre, Squid lies halfway between Black Midi's experimentation and Black Country, New Road' more "accessible" Slint worship; indeed, "Narrator"'s initial post-punk boppiness contrasts with how jarring its latter fragments are. As often with these bands, some parts are extended way beyond their appropriate length, but I guess that's their one pitfall. Truth is, while this scene seems to be fostered by constant experimentation, all bands do start to sound alike, but the pure vigor displayed here warrants its place as 2nd best Careycore. For the moment. |
| Glocca Morra Just Married | 3.8 |
| Twinkly emo that's more energetic than apathetic? Yessir. From the vocal delivery to the drumming, this just oozes passionate melancholy, as if American Football and Joyce Manor decided to take their respective best features and smash 'em together. Some songs do sound messy, but I just can't say no to punky'n'slightly mathy emo. |
| Frank Ocean Nostalgia, Ultra. | 3.8 |
| Now that's some sophisticated shit. Ocean's use of sampling (that Radiohead one is *muah*) and overall slick instrumentation shows a true love of music, the kind of love nerds like us revel in. It's sometimes a tad too reliant on some retro aesthetic, but the way it's mixed with a more modern - and impeccably produced - form of R&B make this a perfect entry into modern R&B - no wonder it shook waves back then. |
| Dance Gavin Dance Downtown Battle Mountain II | 3.8 |
| Aight, Jonny's back, and he sounds mad good with his R&B-like delivery. His teamwork with Mess is cool, although he's clearly - and by far - the most talented of the two. The guitar work is properly excellent - some of the best of the whole swancore movement, making for an engaging listen made of micro-bursts of exuberant energy. |
| Maroon 5 Hands All Over | 2.3 |
| It's basically their first album, but with vapid performance and mediocre songwriting. Fortunately, their slight funk influences make the singles overall bouncy, but some tracks truly are bleh, and the best tunes sound like Songs About Jane's b-sides. |
| Kesha Animal | 1.5 |
| That brief era of pop music truly was something. Throw in the biggest F U N jams you've got, add some 8-bit bleeps bloops, and auto-tune the fuck outta the voice even though you don't need to. The result is mostly annoying, because there's absolutely no sense of balance within each track - it just always goes up without ever wondering if there's another path. It's a shame, because the album's anthemic nature could have worked if only it wasn't created during one of pop's most rapidly dated eras - eg I'd like to listen to a remix of "Kiss N Tell" without all that chiptune envelope. 1.5 |
| Porter Robinson Nurture | 3.5 |
| Post-clubbing EDM, or: feeling good while feeling bad(?). This sounds like a depressed person's idea of happiness - and this almost forceful way to deliver smashing textures right on top on self-pity statements feels at times a tad too, uhm, voyeuristic? It's fortunately not the case throughout the whole album, as this mostly feels like a springtime bloom happening after a very, very long winter. |
| Ralph Towner Solstice | 4.1 |
| A meditative piece of ECM jazz, Solstice uses improvisation to break the atmospheric pace into a fusion-like furor, mostly led by a motherfuckingly C L E A N 12-strings guitar. Seriously, that's some next-level wankery, never overplaying or indulging in longer-than-necessary solis. Talking about clean stuff, the production is amazing, each instrument retaining a very crisp sound that makes every sound worthwile, from the flute to the bass to the drums to the sax. Rarely has jazz been successfully mixing peaceful landscapes with such technical display. |
| Circa Survive Violent Waves | 3.2 |
| More e x p e r i m e n t a l than magnum opus Blue Sky Noise, Violent Waves both breathes and dies by its chosen aesthetic. Basically, when they try something different and go heavy, it's good stuff, but when they try something different and go subdued, it's boring - and the same can be said about Anthony Green. Circa Survive still got the chops to deliver an enjoyable record, but for a band that gathered praise for its passion, they sound pretty tamed. |
| The Front Bottoms The Front Bottoms | 3.6 |
| This one's got good balance. Balance between anthemic parts, emo bittersweetness, acoustic rambles, and at-times-cringy-at-time-clever lyrics. This is thus a great summer records for all emo lovers, and with that sentence you get the album's only fault: being catered to (post-)adolescents, its impact on you only depends on your age. |
| Balance and Composure Separation | 3.6 |
| Starting off as an emo band, Separation is B&C changing gears towards a more post-hardcore/reverb-full alt rock aesthetic (ye, like Hum), and while the emotional impact is much diminished, the almost-stadium-rock vibe only proves the band has grown up musically and compositionally. If they came up with this one ten years earlier, they would have been megastars. |
| Kishi Bashi 151a | 3.6 |
| It started off so well. A bombastic psych pop opener, followed by a lush strings-led piece: the hype was real. Then, it started slightly dropping. Not by much, but the first few tracks are so grandiose that the rest - while beautiful - pales in comparison. A short, sweet, and soothing summer record. |
| Snowing I Could Do Whatever I Wanted If I Wanted | 3.2 |
| Fuck your emotional bullshit. Wait no, the lyrical matter here is absolutely crushing. Passion is thus manifested big times here - with the vocals being located towards the annoying side of emo. The music, however, is a blend of twinklycore and post-hardcore, but it's got a messiness - not linked to the production - that hinders the overall experience. |
| The Hotelier It Never Goes Out | 3.7 |
| More pop punk than emo - and thus more juvenile and passionate than Home - but don't be fooled: this is full of "American suburb dude goes to college" sensitivity. Indeed, the emo-est tracks work the best here, which only reinforces the band's decision to follow their more bittersweet side. |
| Modern Baseball Sports | 3.7 |
| An easy to listen to emo album with a strong 90s knack - that's a good basis. Add some discrete yet always present dynamics - whether the track is acoustic or rocking hard - and a voice that manages to not be - too - whiny, and you've got a pretty cool 4th wave emo record. Of course the lyrics are kinda lame, but it's difficult to criticize a genre catered for the Young and the Immature for its melodrama. |
| Jan Garbarek - Bobo Stenson Quartet Witchi-Tai-To | 4.0 |
| A jazz record that manages to convey meditation in a truly dynamic sense. The compositions - none of which are original btw but hey i like pop punk who am i to criticize - are freeflowing and showcase various relationships: sax and piano, sax and bass, piano and bass and drums, etc. These allow the album's almost fusion character, not too far from "free jazz" - but devoid of atonality and any sense of wankery. I've seen many people complain about Garbarek's tone - to me its cleanliness only makes the different melodies shine and stick out. |
| Nicki Minaj Pink Friday | 2.2 |
| Bad bitch go bubblegum. It's indeed more pop than rap, yet braggadocio is the album's main theme, and it simply does not fit with the chosen aesthetic. Plus it's mostly flavorless, a succession of samey tracks with dated beats and lazy performances. |
| Volumes Via | 3.0 |
| Woah this is 10 years old? Forgot how this was basically groovy djent, or djenty groove metal with core vocals. The two vocalists are clearly distinguishable, but I find their deliveries to be too similar - and thus grating on the long term. Not as head-banging as it was for lil dedex, but it still got dem chops. |
| Trapped Under Ice Big Kiss Goodnight | 2.9 |
| Beatdown hardcore - but with some "catchy" melodies, ie: it's not just tough guy shit. Truth be told, it's mostly tough guy shit, without many variations. At least some gang parts were gang enough to make me do push-ups. |
| TesseracT One | 3.1 |
| That other 2010s djuggernaut debut album is pretty good. Not mindblowing, but they fill the void between Periphery and Meshuggah: djentier (and less annoying) than the former and more melodic than the latter. The vocals aren't too bad but aren't amazing either, and the album offers some subtleties here and there that fortunately allow the whole lot to not be a suite of chugga-chugga dexterity. Not really my cuppa, but a quite strong non-Meshuggah djent release. |
| Ash Borer Ash Borer | 3.9 |
| Cascadian black metal always got that special atmospheric knack to it, but Ash Borer wear it with a sense of nihilistic despair thanks to their doomy influences and br00tal moments, more reliant on suffocating instants than on eerie passages - even though some ambient, synth-led lull bring some salvation. They also know how to craft urgent melodies reminiscing of post-rock epics a la EITS. Another great Cascadian black metal release, who's surprised? |
| Bruno Pernadas Private Reasons | 3.9 |
| Ok this is gorgeous. Gorgeous and uplifting, and while the album do be a lot, its versatiliy allows each track to offer a different perspective on psych pop - yes, this is much less jazz - with a hazy ingenuity perfectly fitting for any Sunday afternoon. Some vocals do suffer from overproduction, but overall Private Reasons's lush character does not come from the production, but rather from how rich, multiculturally-influenced and beautifully composed richness and multicultural influences. There's a sligt dip in the middle but the record finishes with such a beautiful note ("Step Out of the Light", whattajoy) that it makes up for it. |
| Royal Blood Typhoons | 2.6 |
| Hey this Muse album is not bad lmao. Typhoons has got that banging demeanor weaving some big bold riffs and a shiny disco-boogie-bop-yo-head coating, but it can't hide its lack of substance. It's catchy for sure, but as their second album, the few highlights ("Boilermaker", "Trouble's Coming") can't make up for how swagless this material is. |
| Hail the Sun New Age Filth | 3.4 |
| Pure swancore? That means: very cool mathy post-hardcore and that kind of sub-Anthony Green vocals. While I love the former, I can't say I'm a big fan of the latter; the only melodrama I like is Lorde's. Truth is, I did enjoy the ride, but this kind of album acts more like a trip towards Nostalgia Avenue rather than the discovery of a cool modern album. Guess that's only due to me not listening to swancore anymore - this aesthetic will forever be attached to my teenage years. Thanks for the revivalism. |
| Manchester Orchestra The Million Masks of God | 3.3 |
| The production sure is impeccable, and these slight indietronica bits bring some welcome depth to some moments (like on "Obstacle"), but the album functioning as a whole makes it very plain, as opposed to any peaks (or valleys); less emotionally poignant than A Black Mile, but also less grand musically than Simple Math, and this restriction is what ultimately hinders the album. It's full of beautiful moments, though. |
| Gojira Fortitude | 2.6 |
| A misstep in almost every possible way. The production is muddy, the riffs aren't as enthralling as the band has accustomed us to, Joe Duplantier's clean vocals are more reminiscent of 90s metal than Gojira, and the songs simply aren't that good. Some passages do testify that the band still got dem chops ("New Found", "Into the Storm", "Another World") but they lack a proper mix to give them the required impact. |
| Damso QALF Infinity | 3.2 |
| Damso = 53 million streams in 2020. How much in 2021? The long awaited follow-up to last year's QALF has enough arguments to bring da moolah to the Belgian rapper. BUT. Infinity is not only a coda to his latest album, as it features greek alphabet letters in front of each track, like Dems' biggest success, Ipseite. You can feel the problem: this one does not know whether it's a follow-up to QALF or to Ipseite. It's got that hard-hitting vibe the latter had, but also the more introspective lyrics and instrumentation the former had. In the end, its closest neighbour is 2018's Lithopedion, and, like that record, it's got great moments as well as forgettable ones. Awaiting streaming numbers now. |
| Beat Happening You Turn Me On | 4.3 |
| Alright, so this is their masterpiece. This is fusing everything that made their previous records good, but all elements are given their proper place and are extended into epic and ambitious longer tracks. It's also more polished, "Godsend" being the first time the band used multitrack recording (with multilayered vocals!!!). It's, quite simply, their best album, with no bad song, and some of their best tunes ("Tiger Trap", "Godsend", "Hey Day"). That's one hell of a finale. |
| My Chemical Romance Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys | 2.1 |
| They tried. But sometimes trying isn't enough to come up with a cool result. While MCR have always been about over-the-top-ness, they could at least display some serious songwriting qualities, especially on magnum opus The Black Parade. Here, despite the avalanche of effects and a decent production, almost nothing stick. The few songs I remembered ("Na Na Na" and "SING") are indeed the best - although clearly not excellent tracks per se - while all other songs are directly sent to the least visited depths of my memory. |
| Fucked Up Glass Boys | 3.1 |
| Less grand, less pompous than David, but this also loses some of its predecessor's best qualities. The best songs are simply not as memorable, but what's negatively impacting is the production. For lack of a better word, the mixing is weird; in the sense that you can hear that everything is happening at the same time, but you can't distinguish each individual aspect of it. |
| Blood Orange Cupid Deluxe | 3.4 |
| A lovely pop album disguising itself with funky basslines, sultry vocal performances, and an underlying sexy atmosphere that penetrates the whole record. There are two problems here, but like Kanye, Nas, and Really Doe, They Major. First of all, Hynes' voice doesn't always fit the music he's created - no wonder he called so many feats, and secondly, the pace is weird. It's starting off strong with the first two tracks, then it fades into "meh-alright-i-guess", to only pick up halfway. |
| Die Antwoord Ten$ion | 1.5 |
| Nope. C'est de mauvais gout. Now I'm wondering: has this album been quickly outdated musically, or was it trash back then? I guess the energetic live performances allowed them to gain a solid fanbase, but these beats and performances are so overworked and fucking hyper that even Farrah Abraham sounds like she knew exactly what she was doing. 1.6 |
| The 1975 The 1975 | 2.4 |
| This is the perfect album to talk about insipidity. Unmistakable 80s aesthetics, synthpop, pop rock, and a great production: this should please me. It should, but dear lord are these songs not interesting in the slightest sense. It's neither obnoxious nor painfully repetitive, it's just that most songs are simply unmemorable, and that might be the greatest criticism you could ever land at a pop album. A couple of cool tunes, a swarm of ok ones that pass you by. |
| Calvin Harris 18 Months | 2.5 |
| Most important information regarding this record: this was the first album in history to spawn nine top-10 singles. The singles indeed were massive - although they all tend to become ever so slightly obnoxious overtime, bar bae Florence Welch - and the other tracks are obnoxious, but without any nostalgia value added to them. Early 2010s electro-house tended to be better inebriated tbh. |
| Beat Happening Dreamy | 3.8 |
| Moving from K Records to Sub Pop (don't know if you've ever heard of this lil unknown label) during the summer of '90 was, commercially at least, smart: this was their best-seller and enjoyed more public and critical acclaim than ever before. Musically, you can hear the band evolving too, this one retaining the cuteness but counterbalancing it with their most refined take on lo-fi music, and their most efficient punk riffs. Big yay. |
| Neptunian Maximalism Solar Drone Ceremony | 3.6 |
| One year after the gargantuan Eons, Belgian collective Neptunian Maximalism comes back with a live performance fusing two of their previous - and droniest - tracks. First of all, for a live, it's super tight. The composition feels truly composed, as if no improv part was included. It's megalithic, slowly evolving textures of drone, free jazz (although the jazz has been reduced), psych rock, and avant-garde metal. The only - but important - problem is that the track feels cut in half, with a long crescendo procession being followed by twenty directionless minutes that do not provide the expected payoff that was promised during the first part. Still an experience in and of itself. |
| Destroyer Poison Season | 3.6 |
| Another impeccably produced album - if anything this is even more lush than Kaputt - with the usual "eh whatcha sayin' mate" lyrics and where sophistication seeps out of every musical pore. What's the catch? Well, the catch is that this follows the best 2010s sophisti-pop record. You can thus propose an even more polished production, but it won't be enough to top the dude's best songs. There are some gems here ("Time Square", "Dream Lover" among others), but they do only represent a quarter of the album, the rest being "good but not Kaputt good". |
| Alex G Trick | 3.6 |
| Less bedroom, more lo-fi, or; from Elliott Smith to Pavement. The whole "sad indie folk made in my dorm room" vibe is still present, but it overall is better "produced" (don't know how much work was put into production tbh). The album does take its time to reveal all its subtleties, the best and most impacting songs being located at the record's tail. A sincere album. This will be considered as evidence, but imma say it nonetheless: it always feels good to listen to authenticity. |
| Benjamin Epps Fantôme avec chauffeur | 3.8 |
| VERY cool boom bap revival. The beatmaker, Le Chroniqueur Sale (French rap youtuber), crafted crisp boom bap beats without relying too heavily on the "sad piano and violin" shtick. Each instrument gets a clear place within the soundscape - eg the wind instruments are relegated to the background - and the whole lot feels mad cohesive. Took me some time to appreciate Epps' voice tho, and now I want more than a 20-mins EP. |
| Monobody Comma | 3.7 |
| Lush and complex math/prog rock with jazz fusion? Yes this is a Monobody record. However, this is my least fav Monobody album :[ Not that it's bad, but the intricacies feel less deep, less rewarding on the long run. The musicians are as skilled as you'd expect them to be, the production is simply gorgeous, and the theme is lovely (all songs are named after types of butterflies, and the flowing, rise-and-fall dynamics is supposed to link butterflies), it just does not give the same sense of adventurousness past the fourth listen. |
| Paysage d'Hiver Geister | 3.6 |
| Arguably more approachable than last year's Im Wald, Geister brings to mind icy winds thanks to its riff-centric approach, but it seems Wintherr does not want to take us into millennial, frozen forests this time. This stylistic change is not badly done - absolutely not - but the monumental scope of Im Wald represents what I'm craving in terms of black metal. |
| Beat Happening Black Candy | 3.4 |
| Darker and more sophisticated than the "tom-tom I-love-you" rock the band previously championed, Black Candy actually features vocal harmonies (!!!), but still sports that twee aesthetic, with more jangle and sexual allusions. However, the gloomier tracks do not always succeed at what they're trying to do; ultimately, Beat Happening are at their best when they just try to make cute songs. |
| Dinosaur Jr. Sweep It Into Space | 3.5 |
| Dino Jr, yes, but with Kurt Vile producing. The record sounds gud, in fact much better than all their other 2010s record. The rest is, well, Dino Jr: Mascis' unmistakable vocals and guitar hero style, a fuzzy atmosphere, and the slowest pieces being the least enjoyable. Impressive for a band entering its fifth decade. |
| Jessie Ware Devotion | 3.4 |
| Now that's soulful. What's Your Pleasure and track "Night Light" did me a great disservice, though, making me think that this would be boppy as hell. This is down-tempo (not downtempo) and lush pop-inspired R&B, and while Ware's voice is perfect to accompany the music's sensuality, the soundscape is a tad too homogeneous to my taste. |
| Art Blakey The Big Beat | 3.9 |
| Damn that drums solo on "Sakeena's Vision". Blakey sounds mad good, but in fact everybody sounds mad good, each musician getting his own solo and nailing it. The compositions aren't always matching the musicianship though - put very vulgarly, it's hard bop. Great hard bop, for real, with both improvisation and energy leading the charge. |
| Jeff Rosenstock SKA DREAM | 3.5 |
| lol weed lmao. Despite its air of not taking things too seriously, SKA DREAM is very serious: the ska covers completely change the tone of the album, each song managing to establish a more chill vibe thanks to the dub contributions while keeping the structure of the original tracks. It's a game of comparison, with some of the covers surpassing the OG, like "SKrAm!". OG album was better tho. |
| The Armed Ultrapop | 3.8 |
| Ok I had never heard of them, but this gloubiboulga of noise, hardcore, and pop works to give you tinnitus as well as chills, even if their melodies are buried under 10 tons of nasty distortion. I did find the production to be a tad too muffled to my taste tho (salut Kurt). Edit: listening to the Adult Swim live makes me wish for a remaster of this. |
| Sonny Rollins Our Man in Jazz | 3.9 |
| Swag. This is a swaggy motherfucker for sure. But it's less swaggy than the lineup: Don Cherry (cornet), Bob Cranshaw (bass), and Billy Higgins (drums) all were part of Ornette Coleman's band, but this time it's Sonny Rollins who's leading the charge. Having never listened to Rollins before, I can't argue whether the presence of free jazz veterans inspired the wild nature of the live performance (yes it's a live). Constant call-and-response, mad improv, fluid dynamics, and it's pushing the bop into the avant-garde part of jazz (without the atonality). Some improv parts lasted longer than they should have, but it's nonetheless one swag album. |
| Beat Happening Jamboree | 3.7 |
| Hey they actually recorded this one in a real studio this time! On top of that, everyone sings and plays far better than before, and a newfound heaviness is present due to the way they strum their guitars (spoiler: they strum hard). It's thus rockier, as well as darker due to Calvin Johnson's lyrical matters - although counterbalanced by two sweet and very much twee Heather Lewis tracks. Despite containing their most renowned track ("Indian Summer"), and while the production step up sure is welcome, it just does not hit as hard as the first album. |
| Fucked Up David Comes to Life | 3.7 |
| A hardcore punk concept album with indie rock linings? That's what they want you to believe. The truth is, only the vocalist' singing style can transform this into a hardcore punk record. At its core, it's an epic and energetic rock album with maybe a punk riff from time to time. This is not to be taken as a criticism but rather as a note that this album only got its "hardcore punk" label because of the vocal style. Just consider it as a gnarly rock album with a shouting dude. And it's a damn fine album, in the same vein as Titus Andronicus's The Monitor: cool, full of bangers, epic both in concept and scope, but ultimately too overblown, overstuffed, and not diversified enough. |
| Alex G RACE | 3.4 |
| Damn he was 16 years old when he recorded this?! While the bedroom pop and lo-fi aesthetic sonically confirms this fact, the songs themselves are bleak - hello didn't see you here Elliott Smith influences. The lethargic and melancholic aspect, coupled with the apathetic delivery, capture this very lazy, "Sunday blues", that do not entirely work throughout the course of a(n) - short - album, but delivers the good during its first half. |
| Caballero OSO | 2.5 |
| Not lazy per se, but damn this dude can provide so much more. Comparing it to Jeanjass' album, it basically tries to accomplish the same feat, but it just feels off most of the time. The romantic cuts sound cliche, the egotrip tracks do not impress, and the whole package is enveloped in a cape of "meh-ness" that the rapper does not seem to be capable of removing. |
| Jeanjass Hat Trick | 3.6 |
| Gud shit. After two collab albums that only reinforced the impression of stagnation, Jeanjass returns with a funky, arrogant, chill record with a newfound romanticism. He alternates between these attitudes, most of the time quite well, sometimes with much less finesse. These few filler tracks constitute the only thing preventing the album from going to a 4, as the rest is diverse, "not-really-conscious-but-kinda" Belgian rap. |
| Andy Stott Never the Right Time | 3.6 |
| Techno has been completely abandoned by the English texturer, UK bass and ambient fighting to take the lead, with club-adjacent inclinations in the form of deconstructed club and post-industrial make discrete apparitions. It's cold. Fucking cold even, but there is enough nuance and syncopation here that guarantee that the piece is not only a succession of doomer synth waves and lo-fi percussions. Yet, in a discography as dense as the "monochromatically splendid cover art" one, Never the Right Time isn't really going to challenge the top spot, simply because the man has crafted more enthralling pieces in the past. It might simply be considered as another Andy Stott record, which is still a lot better than a whole lot from everyone else. It's just not as big of a statement as spatialization experiment piece Luxury Problems, or as nocturnal technobanger Faith in Strangers. |
| Jason Isbell Something More Than Free | 3.6 |
| Idk why, but I enjoyed this one more than Southeastern. Maybe because it's breezier, more approachable, and as a dirty non-lyric euro I mostly focus on how pleasing the airwaves are to my ears. Isbell make them very pleasant here: thanks to a top-notch production, the album is beautiful whether it displays soft and bare guitar strummings or grander - but not grandiloquent -, fiddle-full moments. |
| Beat Happening Crashing Through EP | 3.0 |
| Their least good EP. That's because I cannot stand the bruitist approach of "The This Many Boyfriends Club", a gruesome and off-key musical piece (there's like guitar feedback and that's it) that yet conveys totally sincere and in the end comforting lyrics. When the cute twee shtick comes back though (the three other tracks), it warms my hearts and it makes me realize I can't really stay mad at them. |
| Lana Del Rey Paradise | 3.7 |
| Born to Die, but shorter, and more orchestral. Hence, a better Born to Die, and coming out only 10 months after! As us', the best tracks are the first ones, but the sequencing, as well as the EP's relative short length, make this her best non-NFR release. Also, it might be here that her vintage 60s glamour shines the most throughout the whole record. Also lol pussy pepsi. |
| Matana Roberts COIN COIN Chapter Three: river run thee | 2.1 |
| Certainly the most e x p e r i m e n t a l record of the Coin Coin collection yet, River Run Thee sees jazz become a secondary feature here, most of the record consisting in Roberts singing/howling/moaning on top of ambient/drone recordings. Some saxo is thrown in there from time to time, but in such a "free" way that the album can only count on its cryptic nature to appeal to listeners. |
| Leprous The Congregation | 3.3 |
| So this is prog, and that means that what I usually like in prog music is present, but the same can be said about everything I dislike in the genre. As always, the vocals aren't my cuppa even though they are objectively good (solipsism is a bitch y'know). Musically, it's pompous, overblown, and bringing not enough "oomph" factors compared to how musically proficient it is. But it's also epic, well-written-and-composed, and even possessing a moody attitude that make it stand out compared to Coal. |
| The Chemical Brothers Born in the Echoes | 2.9 |
| Not feeling this one too much. It sure heavily relies on their 90s sound with big beat and techno building dem block' rocking popping beats, but it overall sounds all over the place. Although my appreciation for seamlessness is totally personal, I feel it at least allowed their albums to feel like cohesive pieces. Here, ok tracks succede to ok tracks. |
| La Smala Un cri dans le silence | 3.3 |
| Overall less modern beat-wise than the precedent album, and also less meaty in terms of bangers, but this was the era during which they were at the top of their game, delivering hard-hitting "conscious" bars on top of crispy boom bap beats. |
| Devil Sold His Soul Loss | 3.0 |
| When it screms and the band focuses on post-metalesque post-hxc, it do be really good. However, despite my irrational love for whiny ass pop punk, I just cannot appreciate Gibbs' clean vocals. Fortunately they do not take on too much importance, but I can't help but focus on them every time they come up.Thankfully the rest is awesome but still. |
| Beat Happening Beat Happening | 3.9 |
| They still indulge in shitty recordings, but the way their lo-fi songs manage to stick is properly amazing. It's got elements of twee, jangle, and indie pop, but with a punk enough attitude and a sharp knowledge of surf rock riffs. These ten tracks came from various sources, and you can tell; but, once again, this "idgaf" philosophy is what allows this seemingly innocent band to come up with one of the most earnest recording of the US 80s indie. |
| Genesis Owusu Smiling with No Teeth | 4.1 |
| Ok so this is his debut album? Damn, can't wait to hear his "mature" music then. Despite suffering from a slight midway dull and showcasing a tad too manifestly its influences (y'know that cool soul/r&B/hop music), the record is a fantastic exercise in eclectism: from soul to funk to punk to rap to r&b, the music navigates between many genres thanks to a tight band and Owusu's vocal elasticity. The dude can moan, scream, rap, sing, and even talk (!!!) beautifully, carefully revealing his ultra-modern concept album. |
| Thelonious Monk Straight, No Chaser | 3.9 |
| Lovely piano-led boppy jazz. The lush production allows each instrument to find its precise place, giving the record a warm feeling that could only possibly be enjoyed with a good Laphroaig. It retains the cool vibe that Davis bro created almost two decades earlier, but with a welcome playfulness. Peaceful yet entertaining jazz always strikes the perfect balance between soothing and foot-bopping. |
| Kauan Ice Fleet | 3.2 |
| Never listened to these guys before, but their blend of post-rock/metal with some bm shrieks works quite well - when the vocals come in and there is an increased focus on dynamics. During moments like that, like on "Maanpako", or when the vocals come in during the closer, it slaps, whereas the most melodic segments, while pretty, fail to invoke as much imagery as the more dynamic parts. |
| George Clanton 100% Electronica | 4.2 |
| Heyo this kid from Richmond, VA is a good DJ - wait where have I heard this sentence before? His delivery is very 80s, transforming nods to the past into straight-up tunes that would make your parents shake their asses. Best example is "Did I Flounder", coming straight from the Tears for Fears cookbook with its Orzabal-like vocals and the lush yet always dramatic vaporwave/80s-reminiscent synthpop. For once, a vaporwave record does not indulge in picking cool 80s vocals to slow 'em down - here, Clanton adapts delivery and pitch to accompany his vapor/chill/new wave with his own take on the cocaine-decade voice - halfway between The Cure's Robert Smith and that one aforementioned dude from TFF. Truly one of the best 2010s albums that do not sound like a 2010s album. |
| PC Music PC Music Vol. 1 | 2.3 |
| I've got no idea how iconoclast these pieces were actually intended to be. The alternation between irony, post-gender binary critique, exuberant wackiness, and the eccentric love for the shittiest club music makes for an obnoxious - although more "meh" than "ew" - album. Confirms my opinion that SOPHIE was the best thing that happened to the scene. |
| Red Velvet The Red | 3.4 |
| Fun although a tad repetitive K-Pop. As often for that kind of scene, the late 90s/early 00s R&B influences are more than evident, as are the nods to what the West was doing at that time pop-wise - looking at you, Charli XCX. Despite The Red's manufactured aspect, the energy level and the sheer amount of fun guarantees the album's place within the "cool non-BTS K-Pop". |
| Beat Happening Three Tea Breakfast | 3.3 |
| Less twee, more lo-fi: these five songs recorded in Japan on two boom boxes lie halfway between purity and naivete, quirkiness and rawness. It's got that special "outsider" vibe, the yearning to simply deliver whatever was on your mind, without thinking about technical prowess or even proper recording. Then again, I've got no idea why I enjoy these three weirdos' music. Maybe authenticity truly is audible. |
| Wolf Alice My Love Is Cool | 2.7 |
| Theoretically, this should please me: dual vocals indie rock with dream and noise pop influences and a fuzzy/grunge attitude should be banging, right? This doesn't really bang tbh. The problem is that almost all songs contain good ideas that only last for a verse, a chorus, or only a handful of seconds. Shame 'cause you can feel the potential. |
| Young Thug Slime Season | 2.8 |
| A bit more "experimental" than Barter 6, but the fact that the mixtape is basically a compilation of previously-released songs makes it lose its consistence. The record's main force is the beats, all hazy and trappy but still having different enough characteristics for the 70-mins mixtape to not bore. What mostly makes this fail is how Thugger's delivery does not always fit the beat/hook. |
| Brockhampton Roadrunner: New Light, New Machine | 3.4 |
| The SATURATION trilogy was cool, playful, and fun. The two following albums were dark and disoriented, and Roadrunner lies halfway between these. It thus means there's plenty of stuff happening - which is cool - but without real cohesion - which is less cool we gotta agree there. The record's disjointed nature also reaffirms the band's upcoming scission, with some members participating only marginally. Banging parts are banging, but the (very few) bad parts do make sure you think they're bad ("I'll Take You On"). |
| Zao The Crimson Corridor | 3.7 |
| This is dark shit. Weyandt is the pilot here, laying personal struggle with a voice that is as fucking filthy as ever. He's belching lyrics into a cascade of all things disgusting supported by atonal harmonics and a dirty sludge sound. This all-around brutality is however counterbalanced by a starker insistence on atmosphere - hence the post-metal(core) linings. Still, there's fat to trim, and that might be the album's only trve fault. |
| Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The LSO Promises | 4.0 |
| Lovely and pleasant, the association between electronic, jazz, and classical works extremely well - my man Pharoah still delivering the goods at 81 years old. Legend. The way he plays the sax testifies of passing time: it's deeply humble, acting as a support line rather than stealing the spotlight. The only problem I see here is that the main motif played throughout the whole record doesn't get much development - but it's a delicious motif, beautifully complemented by strings, and its repetition doesn't hinder the whole experience. |
| Turnstile Nonstop Feeling | 3.7 |
| Many albums contain tough hardcore motherfucker's riffs, but how many have got a clone of Zach De la Rocha and some semblance of melody? Well, Turnstile got the whole package. It's fun and would arguably be perfect for the pit: hardcore riffs + shout-along one-liners will make your body and voice work, while some dreamier (but very short!) moments add slight nuances. Fun shit that however wears its influences a bit too ostentatiously (mainly RATM & 90s NYHC). |
| Beat Happening Beat Happening EP | 3.5 |
| Recording is shit, the "musicians" can't for the life of them play their instruments or sing, guitars are out-of-tune, and there's no bass so you can forget any "oomph" factor. How come I don't trash this then? Well, even though they try real hard to play as shitty as possible, Beat Happening can't hide that their songs are genuinely good. While the surf rock chords and the innocent voices might display naivete, the darker undertones and lyrics are what makes this album special. Not particularly excellent musically or anything, but effing special nonetheless. |
| Dead Congregation Promulgation of the Fall | 3.7 |
| Well, it's death metal - the cavernous Incantation worship makes sure you understand it's dm - with that slight doom knack that so many 2010s dm bands liked to incorporate into their sound. Truth be told, Promulgation of the Fall does nothing new within the death doom genre, but it does everything pretty well, and manages to keep its material engaging within its 40 mins length. It slayz, but a tad less than other death/doom releases of the past decade (Spectral Voice, Esoteric). |
| Blindfolded and Led to the Woods Nightmare Withdrawals | 4.1 |
| Tech death with deathcore tones here and there, as well as gazey passages - because it's 2021 - and it's an epic win. The balance between staggering and quieter moments is tip-top here: the proggier moments truly shine because they happen when the band finishes destroying their death metal with post, black or grind elements. "Rorschach and Delirium" stands as the band's apex, first fusing every bit of their heaviest packages, then letting the epic riff-fest explode, before letting dreamy tones conclude the track on a calmer, yet ominous note. A riffest. |
| Mac Miller GO:OD AM | 3.8 |
| Drugs'n'depression told by a popstar: yes BUT! this time he accompanies his druggy tales with an apt af hazy atmosphere. Not that previous albums didn't offer cloudy beats, but now said beats seem to follow Miller down a, dare I say, more intelligent path. No beat feels cliche, and the same can be said about Miller's lyrics or delivery - the epic 7-minutes long "Perfect Circle / God Speed" clearly epitomizing this change: he could not have crafted such a track before. Even the trap tracks (eg "When In Rome") slap. Truly a step-up in every respect, damn shame he did not seem to know albums could be less than 70 minutes long. |
| Donald Byrd Ethiopian Knights | 4.0 |
| Trve fvsion. Byrd starts it off with bop shit, as per us' at that time, but incorporates funk in the grooviest fucking manner yet in jazz. Everything comes together in a furiously dancey vibe: the drums, organ, electric piano, bass, sax, and ofc Byrd's trumpet. It's thus not on Ethiopian Knights that catchy melodies can be found, the record instead focusing on delivering ever-shifting groove thanks the huge range of instruments available. Bop. |
| Arab Strap As Days Get Dark | 4.0 |
| First time listening to Arab Strap, and boy it's glorious. Notwithstanding any wanking, shagging, or pornographic references, the record is musically dense but not too grandiloquent for its own sake - ie: they know how to write proper songs not entirely relying on rich compositions; the singer's raspy and "old-man" voice perfectly fits the slowcore, post-punky indietronica at play here. His way of alternating between speaking and singing only accentuates the songs' rhythms and melodies. It's just full of rhythmelodies. |
| Imagine Dragons Smoke + Mirrors | 1.5 |
| Woah I didn't know reverb was an instrument!!! Although the band's music strays as far away from rock as does Greta Van Fleet from originality, they still wanted to be overly bombastic whenever they had to let the chorus kick in. They arguably tried to vary their formula here and there, but where the previous album was still mostly bad but at times ok-ish, here the worst moments truly are horrendous. It's not that it's bad, it just leaves you numb. Fodder that does not even fills you up. 1.4 |
| Mudhoney Digital Garbage | 2.8 |
| Imma repeat myself but it's a 2010s Mudhoney record: fast, punky, with a dirty cool garage production, still-not-improved vocals, socially angsty, and ultimately not reinventing anything. It's cool, but it's also their least engaging listen. |
| Alice Coltrane Ptah, The El Daoud | 3.9 |
| 5/5 lineup - Alice of course, Pharoah (of course) & Joe Henderson on the sax'n'flute duties, Ben Riley hitting tha drums and Ron Carter's gentle basslines. Despite the clear spiritual undertone, it's when the album mostly draws from the post-bop textbook that it's truly engaging - Alice's piano playing on "Turiya and Ramakrishna" is mesmerizing. It's just a shame we don't get to hear much of her harp - only present on "Blue Nile", sampled by her grand-nephew FlyLo on Cosmogramma. Beautiful and nice, yet not as impacting or awe-inspiring as Journey is. |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor G_d's Pee AT STATE'S END! | 3.1 |
| Well yeah, it's Godspeed You! Black Emperor. This time though, there ain't no drony interludes - replaced here by strings-led interludes - and the band chose to bring more melodies than on all their 2010s releases . When it hits like on "GOVERNMENT CAME", it's hella good of course, but it's still GYBE post-rock 101, and it's not as enthralling as their Holy Trinity. It's aight, competent background-y music that will not interfere with your work - and that's where this one ultimately falls flat, each other releases containing - at least - some moments of pure beauty and/or apocalypse that just forces you to stop what you're doing and enjoy. The overall experience is good - it simply fails to be as heart-stopping as its predecessors. |
| Lapalux Lustmore | 3.8 |
| Lustmore still retains that maniac Brainfeeder tendency to crash and mash lil r&b snippets into electronic beats, but with a tad less IDM influences. It's warmer, less hazy and more, well, sexy : background basses offer heartbeat-like wobbles only lovers can truly hear in real life. Yet, despite this sexiness, the album is ultimately chill af, more so than its wonky nature would have let us imagined. |
| Jul My World | 1.5 |
| JuL's breakout album ain't really better than his first one. It's still reggaeton-style beats with poor rapping, too much autotune, and poor lyrics. Somehow, it massively spoke to the people (it sold more than *BOOBA*, Rohff, and Nekfeu who all also released an album the same day), but eh not to me. "Wesh Alors" is fun. 1.6 |
| Migos Yung Rich Nation | 3.3 |
| Ngl, this is fun as hell. Yes, it's repetitive, yes the lyrics are deadening, but the turn-up is fucking present and that's all I want from a Migos record. Plus, the triplets almost feel fresh here, you could feel they had mad fun doing this. They just been celebratin'. Who needs substance when you've got style and swagger? |
| The Lounge Lizards The Lounge Lizards | 4.1 |
| Film noir meets 70s NYC punks - and, no, it's not John Zorn. It's not as chaotic as the most hectic Naked City cuts either - and there ain't Yamatsuka Eye screaming at ya - and it's not punk musically, but the energy and the way the guitar is used (very Glenn Branca-esque) make this very much punk. It's got jazz's cool vibe, but there are instances of pure tension. It fucking rocks. |
| Mudhoney Vanishing Point | 3.2 |
| Grungey garage punk record: no you're dreaming, it's a Mudhoney album! As us, vocals are not really in tune, the tone is fuzzy, and it rocks. Some lyrics are a tad too much "old man screams at cloud" material, but hey gotta let the boomers boom amirite? |
| Feu! Chatterton Palais d'Argile | 3.9 |
| Parisian wunderkids finally crafting an album that could appeal beyond French chanson territories. The voice is as *Parisian* as ever, the lyrics still display the boys' love for poetry, but it's musically that Palais d'argile truly feels unique. Their - at first - rock-inspired "nouvelle chanson francaise" sound (a la Noir Desir) has been adorned with art pop and indietronica sensibilities. These new additions truly shine thanks to the dense af production. Truly, rarely has French pop sounded this rich and this good. |
| Hamza H-24 | 3.1 |
| The lil rap'n'b prince's first mixtape. He sounds really young here, but he already knows how to master his voice. What's already evident is his innate sense of crafting banger choruses - he even got the "SauceGod" moniker after the success of the third track "La Sauce". The mixtape is however effing long (24 tracks, ugh), and if he's a chorus master, his verses are usually the worst part of his tracks. Good first mixtape overall though, the balance between rapping and singing is well done here, and he's got a madly entertaining US vibe. |
| Young Thug Barter 6 | 3.0 |
| I get this one's influence - Thugger's elastic use of his voice is properly groundbreaking - but it suffers from several problems. First of all, the features bring absolutely nothing to the table, to the point of being the worst tracks here. Secondly, once you've listened to some tracks off this, you basically know how the other ones will sound like. Nevertheless, the way he sounds both boastful and depressed brings a welcome duality to the record, which reflects in the beats' ethereal nature. This might be the one that started it all for him, but it's not his best one |
| Mare Cognitum Solar Paroxysm | 4.0 |
| A mighty take on cosmic black metal. Fortunately, despite the overall aggressiveness, mastermind Buczarski did not forget to add some melodicity to the purely atmo/prog black metal riffs, thanks to melodic soli or synth parts - agreed with garas there, some more would have been sweet. To me, it's when, on "Terra Requiem", doom liturgies emanate from the musical black hole that it all comes together: the melodeez, the synths, the epic black metal riffing. |
| The Antlers Green to Gold | 3.4 |
| Soft and pristine, the newest Antlers record is also their warmest and most soothing. This translates into both the lyrics and the music, Silberman being at his least dark here, while the instrumentation - maybe less grand than their most well-known records - is mellow without being too subdued. The melodies, though discreet, still manage to invoke pastoral landscapes. |
| Cryptosis Bionic Swarm | 3.6 |
| It does riff and what have you. This is thrash at its core, but the record's "pr0g" nature, as well as dm riffs and even some crossover thrash bring nice variations to their formula. As Notrap said in his rev, the solis are lacking/underwhelming, but the constant riffing Bionic Swarm displays will sure make your head bang. |
| Mudhoney The Lucky Ones | 3.0 |
| Hey, you know what? This is a Mudhoney album, and it's pretty good but also not that amazing. It's got riffs, whiny vocals, fuzzy tones. Voila. |
| '68 Give One Take One | 3.7 |
| As cool as ever. Southern roots' swagger are there, as well as the noisy riffs and the general post-hardcore direction. The only thing I could possibly argue to the detriment of Give One, Take One is that Two Vipers - almost - perfected the band's formula. A good example of that is how, despite its greatness, closer "The Storm x3" cannot bring the same cathartic emotion as did "What More Can I Say". Still, to the question "does this riff and what you", the answer is a resonant "Damn straight, son". |
| Ben Howard Collections from the Whiteout | 2.5 |
| Pretty, but boring. Pretty boring. Dessner continues to craft albums that only confirms his recent love for all things yawn-inducing yet ultimately ear-soothing. Howard's guitar playing is mostly dull here, as is his vocal performance. Basically, there ain't nothing here that comes even close to "End of the Affair". |
| Born of Osiris The Discovery | 3.2 |
| The one quintessential Sumeriancore album. Of course the chugchugchugs and the dundunduns are present, but, behold! There are bleep bloop interludes happening here and there to prove that these dudes are not your run-of-the-mill deathcore band. Most importantly, it's compositionally that the record is interesting: it's not just a succession of heavy/soft/heavy tropes, rather fusing some clean elements in their heavy parts, as well as always leaving some space for ominous shit even when clean vocals take the lead. It's still mostly unfocused, but it's better than most early 2010s deathcore records. |
| Cecil Taylor Conquistador! | 3.0 |
| Free jazz that is very, very free. Taylor hits dem piano notes, but the notes themselves are gay free. It's not just that it's atonal - that'd be too easy -, it's rather that the rhythmic patterns are nearly undecipherable. However, when the voluntary messiness leaves some space, it's amazing how engaging it is. Still, three listens in, I'm trying to know if I like it or not. We'll say, uhm, yes but not that much? An interesting record nonetheless. |
| Black Country, New Road For the first time | 3.4 |
| 2nd best Slint tribute band - edit: I listened to Squid so now they're 3rd best only eheh. It's neither the immediate classic some media claimed it is, nor the garbage dump those angry with such a critical response declare it is. Musically, well, this fuses post-punk with post-rock and some klezmer influences, and it alternates between cool and not very cool. So, why do they deserve such a - uniquely Sputnik-based btw - backlash? Three avenues of reflection: If only they came up with a true album and not some re-recordings. If only it wasn't overhyped. And, most importantly: if only they didn't look like London art school kids. |
| Charles Mingus Mingus Ah Um | 4.1 |
| Well, yes, it's great. What's properly amazing is how well the record combines atonality with catchiness. It never sounds grating, all the while mixing elements of improvisation (without being free jazz per se), bop shit, cool jazz, Dixieland, blues, and some Ellington nods. It's just, put simply, the catchiest he's ever been on record |
| Mudhoney Under a Billion Suns | 3.4 |
| 2000s Mudhoney is what you would expect them to be, with a slight twitst: this time they got horns! Apart from that cool addition that nicely brings a change of pace within their otherwise - very - recognizable blend of grunge and garage. Not revolutionary by any means, but a cool rock record. |
| Suicide Silence The Black Crown | 2.7 |
| DUNDUNDUN YEAH BRO! This was everywhere back then, thanks to Lucker (hard RIP) star persona, the YOLO vid (practiced my crabcore skills thanks to that vid), and the nu metal additions. These nu metal nods, if they are not in the best of taste, kickstarted a whole new trend of nu metal revival, and that, at least, is something. Apart from that, it's mostly chug-chugs + shrieks. |
| Rich Gang Tha Tour Pt. 1 | 3.7 |
| This is one fire tape despite its excessive length (84 minutes, phew). Thugger and Quan (and sometimes Birdman) are hella complementary, Thug stretching his vocals while Quan brings on the hooks, the whole lot being supported by "traditional" yet always head-bopping beats. |
| King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard Polygondwanaland | 3.6 |
| Maybe their most well-constructed album. As uzhe, it's hypnotic/psychedelic/progressive/wanky/weird for the sake of it/repetitive, but this time they seem to have understood basic songwriting (yah that was a cheap shot). The polyrhythmic extravaganza feels, more than anywhere else in their discography, cohesive. The songs flow into one another smoothly, far from the ADHD fashion used by their other records. |
| Rosalia Los Angeles | 3.6 |
| A spirited, mystical flamenco album. Apart from special instances (like in the opener), the music mostly comes from Rosalia's voices and fingers. It alternates between soft and passionate, somber and poetic, but it's when it's profoundly dark (when the strings come in), or when wailings a la Dead Can Dance happen that the record manages to haunt with its beauty. When it doesn't, it's a pretty nice flamenco album with an a-tad-too-extended duration. |
| Dvne Etemen Ænka | 3.9 |
| The case of a really good album that still doesn't manage to attain its predecessor's greatness. The production is top notch, the musicianship is top notch, the vocals are - not that - top notch - but they aight - and the overall dynamics displaying is engaging. Still, it's a step down from Asheran, one of the best 2010s progsludge records out there. This is just ever so slightly dragging, and the highlights do not invoke as many Moebius-like paysages, but the Scottish bois nevertheless crafted an epic record. |
| Jay-Z 4:44 | 3.2 |
| Booba (the one y'all adore to mock) said that nobody listens to Jay-Z's last album, and that might well be true. Sporting sophisticated beats and personal content, this is overall, very nice-sounding, but this is, ultimately, the musical slash mental tribulations of a billionaire, and that just isn't interesting enough. Lyrically, as well as musically, rich peepz tend to mellow. |
| Mudhoney Since We've Become Translucent | 3.2 |
| New decade, new century, new formula for Mudhoney! After returning to Sub Pop, their bluesy garage antics kept constituting the majority of the album - save from the bookends. These two tracks are much, much more psychedelic than all their other psych tracks, bordering on space rock and using a great deal of horns. Apart from these interesting departures from the band's core sound, the rest is aight Mudhoney. |
| SCH JVLIVS II | 3.4 |
| Volume 2: less impacting, but still a cohesive and impacting listen. The Mediterranean nods are more evident when they appear, but their utilization has been drastically reduced since the first episode. On the other hand, damn these interludes are classy and add to the overall aesthetic. Then again, the storytelling he's trying to convey does not always work in creating a clear timeline of his own, but some tracks are just too hard-banging to ignore them. |
| Lana Del Rey Chemtrails Over The Country Club | 2.4 |
| Maybe listening to this on a hazy Sunday morning was the best condition I could give to this album: the laziness of the moment fitted well with the sparse, almost non-present arrangements. There are slight background instrumentations that manage to bring prettiness to the otherwise largely bland and heartless delivery. I almost fell asleep again. Now imma jam "Off to the Races" and try to kick off this Sunday. |
| MC Solaar Géopoétique | 2.6 |
| Haaaaa, MC Solaar. French rap's first star (back in 1993) came back in 2017 after 10 years of silence. While the tentative to modernize his sound is - mostly - well-done, Geopoetique testifies of passing time. It's still good ol' Solaar, but his rhymes and flows have not changed much, and do not always fit the modern beats. You can tell he's been off the game for 10 years. A laudable attempt. |
| Krallice Demonic Wealth | 2.9 |
| Lo-fi dungeon synthy black metal? Yes sure why not. Notwithstanding the recording production (im imagining a dude in his car shrieking to his phone), the way the synths take the guitars' place is interesting, as some tracks (eg "Still") are not using ANY guitars. While the idea is groundbreaking, I've had trouble fully engaging with these tracks, and some transitions felt clunky. |
| Charli XCX Sucker | 2.9 |
| Her edgiest album, full of mild rock influences and EDM nods that will soon start to fade away from the pop world. It's mostly bratty, cartoonish, to the point of drastically decreasing the second half's appeal. The first half plays on the same tropes, but they are not exhausting yet; on the contrary! They're super fun! This would have made a damn fun lil EP. |
| AC/DC Rock or Bust | 2.5 |
| George Clooney voice: what did you expect?. It's AC/DC, and it's their 15th album, and y'all know what it sounds like. |
| Mudhoney Tomorrow Hit Today | 3.5 |
| Grunge still lives in 1998 (apparently), but not for a long time: Mudhoney's increasing garage influences have now taken the form of bluesy rockers, slowly abandoning the grunge wagon. With Tomorrow Hits Today, grunge forefathers finally agrees that the joke is over: they've become a full-on garage band, and they still rock. This ain't revolutionary by any means, but the dudes know how to fucking rock. |
| Ariana Grande My Everything | 2.6 |
| This one's weird. Reading the tough lyrics, one can wonder how this particular blend of smoothly produced, EDM-influenced R&B could possibly not create a dissonance between what the album wants to be and what it is? The music is polished for sure, but it tries to navigate between too many styles at once, as if - wait for it - armies of songwriters shared the parentage of each track. The whole lot feels slick, yet bland; introspective lyrically, yet overtly bombastic musically. |
| Caribou Our Love | 3.7 |
| Caribou's mastermind Dan Snaith heard some of Swim tracks were tearing up Ibiza clubs, so it's no surprise he came up with his warmest record yet. Deep house constitutes the majority of the boom-boom, but some textures make this one more than a pure dance album, its mellow aspect being too damn important to ignore. |
| Ateyaba Ateyaba | 3.6 |
| Ateyaba, by Ateyaba. You expect a summary of his work? Well, it is. This first album contains the dude's cloudiest tracks, but also some of his hardest tracks as well as some of his weirdest material. It's thus extremely cool to dive into such a rich universe, but, you know it: it goes everywhere without fully getting somewhere. The pacing between madly different tracks does not work every time. However, it might be here that Ateyaba approaches his artistic peak ("Menace", "Casino"). Alas, he hasn't released anything else than some singles since then (2014). Damn shame, because some of these tracks would constitute a hard 4+ EP. |
| Shabazz Palaces Lese Majesty | 3.7 |
| Black Up's calmer companion. Their hip hop is still dark and mysterious; but the way the band convey these futuristic and nocturnal beats has now changed. It's dreamier, more psychedelic than properly surreal - even though Lese Majesty still contains its fair share of cryptic moments - and above all, more eclectic - but less gripping - than its predecessor. The amount of ideas thrown here is impressive, but some inconsistent one-minute tracks do break the experience from time to time. |
| Against Me! Transgender Dysphoria Blues | 3.9 |
| A girl trapped inside a boy's body shouts her angriness away in the form of punk rock: The Album. The heartland and Springsteen influences are toned down here, and it's for the best: the late 90s punk vibe work perfectly with what remains of Springsteen-esque anthems and hooks. Laura Jane Grace's visceral preach self-discovery and acceptance couldn't have found a better musical background: these are the best Against Me! songs sinceReinventing Axl Rose. |
| Mammal Hands Captured Spirits | 3.9 |
| British nu jazz = oh yeah. Like their GoGo Penguin fellas, Mammal Hands mostly play peaceful music but never hesitate to make their soundscape busier. The three instruments (piano, saxo, and drums) work in unison: when it's chill, it's because the three dudes are playing softly, and when it's bombastic, it's because, together, they display their technicity in a more frantic way. But, unlike other modern UK jazz greats, Mammal Hands truly shines when they are relaxed, as even their crazier material tend towards clean territories. |
| Mudhoney My Brother The Cow | 3.5 |
| Energetic grungy garage punk: yes it's a Mudhoney record! Their formula is now engraved in the band's songwriting, My Brother the Cow reusing the same tropes of rebellious and tongue-in-cheek punk, but they do so with far more engaging material than on Piece of Cake. 2nd best Mudhoney album so far after EGBDF. |
| Sam Smith In the Lonely Hour | 2.3 |
| Ok, so this was the decade's 14th highest-selling album. Why? Smith sings very well. That's it. As described by Smith himself, it's the diary of a lonely 21-year-old, and you've got all the lyrical matter figured out with this sentence. The arrangements are often too sparse for the songs to be enjoyable. When there's a slightly cool instrumental, Smith goes into drama class and sounds cheesy despite the evident attempt at sounding melodramatic. |
| Young Fathers DEAD | 3.2 |
| The Bri'ish are original in their Mercury Prize winners: this is an art poppy Scottish hip hop album with no clear single but a strong R&B vibe. The beats are eclectic - on the verge of experimental stuff - in that they use eerie synths and industrial rhythms. Still, this aesthetic goes everywhere, mostly because they struggle to balance pop and experimentalism properly. |
| Lantlos Melting Sun | 3.8 |
| Although Neige left the band at this point, this might be the band's best album. The departure caused the band to drop all things black metal to focus on a shoegazing post-rock formula. Crescendos and soothing build up work together to create a lush atmosphere that perfectly reflects in the album cover, although some sludgy tones appear here and there. Music for summer walks. |
| Pharrell Williams G I R L | 2.5 |
| Always pleasant, but never enthralling, G I R L feels like a rushed attempt at constructing an album around megahit "Happy". The funk and Motown nods are there, but it just lacks some heart: Pharrell can't sing as well as he wants to, the guitar and bass motifs aren't memorable, and basically all songs end without going really anywhere. |
| J. Cole 2014 Forest Hills Drive | 3.2 |
| Cool, well-produced "conscious" modern rap, but 2014 Forest Hills Drive seems to succumb to the weight of its own self-importance. It's clear that Cole wanted to create a "grand" album, and while he's trying to give himself the means of his ambition, it mostly isn't working as well as he'd wanted. The beats, while cool, often fail to be marking, and the same goes for his rapping. A competent, decent album that strived to be more than that. |
| Joyce Manor Never Hungover Again | 3.7 |
| 20 minutes of straightforward pop punk with emo linings and a clear talent for writing anthemic choruses. Never Hungover Again contains all the contradiction its title implies: while you might regret that last hungover, you'll get shitfaced again, and you're kinda longing for that next party you've got planned next Saturday. It contains both melancholy and joie de vivre, and if that's not what you like in your emo-influenced pop punk, then why listen to the genre in the first place? |
| Mudhoney Piece Of Cake | 3.1 |
| A fun grunge record, yes; but also a band on autopilot. Not that they're not adding anything new to their formula - there's a banjo! - but most songs feel unfinished, and now I'm convinced taking heroin will - among other things - negatively impact your vocal performance. It truly sounds like the band was just recording silly shit in studio, but, unfortunately, you're not part of the joke. It rocks at times tho. |
| Tierra Whack Whack World | 3.0 |
| One-minute songs: it's good when they're bad, it's bad when they're good! Indeed, while the most uninteresting tunes here don't last long, those that spark interest never take the good ideas far enough for the record to be considered as more than a cool concept suffering from the limitations of its very nature. |
| Sky Ferreira Night Time, My Time | 3.7 |
| Trve pop rock: half of the album's persona is built around the darkest corner 80s synthpop, while the other half is deeply rooted in 90s alt rock and shoegazey textures. The whole lot is immersed into an industrial coat that adds some noisy noise to the formula. Most importantly, Ferreira is displaying a damn cool attitude; even though the record's lyrical matter is bittersweet, her passion transform the most bombastic tracks into anthemic bangers. Shame the non-hits are mostly underwhelming. |
| Otay:onii Ming Ming | 3.7 |
| Even though I know jackshit about Chinese folk music, this was not what I expected. The dark, cold atmosphere underlying the post-industrial soundscape is one of the surreal moments that manage to stay somewhat engaging - for collapsing textures, that is. When calm sets in, it's still disturbing: lamentations swiftly replace glitchy bits without the change of pace feeling unnatural. |
| Leon III Antlers in Velvet | 3.8 |
| Ew, country. Wait no it's prog/psych country? Yah that's cool. There's a clear classic rock vibe here, one that allows the country linings to rise into proggy epics. There's thus a stark contrast between country's down-to-earth method and the more aerial knack brought by the overall psychedelism, and these two sentiments work hella well together. |
| Todd Terje It's Album Time | 3.7 |
| When listening to "Preben Goes to Acapulco" and checking the rym tags - one of them being "space disco" - it became evident this is the kind of cocktail music bourgeois chilling on Zegema Beach would have loved getting drunk and cocaine'd to, with every sense of ridicule being so deeply engrained in their persona they voluntarily indulge in cliche postures and discourses, dressed in the most fantasist clothes you could find this side of the Outer Rings. When Terje delivers cheesy disco like "Strandbar" or "Delorean Dynamite", you wish you were partying with the bourgeois on ZeBeach. When experimentations happen, the record is a tad more poussive: that's when the bourgeois go to the bathroom to powder their noses. |
| Internal Rot Mental Hygiene | 3.8 |
| Grindcore is quite straightforward: play fast and hard. Spoiler: Infernal Rot play fast and hard. But, apart from the Kate Bush cover, they've got some ingredients to differentiate themselves from the putrefied mass. The drummer is absolutely sick, pounding (fast and hard, as always) as if he was a fucking Machamp, but it's mainly in how each of the 20 assaults constitute a "song" in and of themselves - as in, tracks with clear construction - that the record becomes memorable. |
| Mudhoney Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge | 3.8 |
| The guitars are still fuzzy, the drums are still pounding, the dudes are still shouting, and yet this is the best Mudhoney record so far. Why though? Songwriting, and the overall fun sentiment that emanates from this. The songs are short and to-the-point, and the displaying of heavy psych influences and garage rock production only adds to the choruses' greatness. |
| Spectral Voice Eroded Corridors of Unbeing | 4.1 |
| Blood Incantation mafia members go doomy. The atmosphere is absolutely crushing, building itself from some funeral doom moments, crushing riffs, dense growling, and absolutely wicked screams from time to time. The - relatively - slow pace, coupled with the cavernous OSDM aspect, shows the lads know how to properly mix different genres together into a cohesive lot. Apart from interludes going on for too long, this is killer stuff. |
| Sofiane Bandit Saleté | 2.9 |
| Fianso's first album - all other records were considered as mixtapes - allows more space to emotional cuts, and thus loses some intensity. There still are street trap bangers ("Toka", "Pegase"), but omg there's a zumba ("Mon p'tit loup"), as well as odes to bros that, while commendable, are not territories where Fianso shines. |
| Nthng It Never Ends | 2.7 |
| Aquatic techno that takes its time to fully expose its rhythms. Indeed, the dude should have renamed this one It Never Starts. Of course it does at some point, but the record struggles with pacing and length - almost all tracks would have benefited from a reduced length. Overall this is not very memorable, neither as enthralling as his EP, nor as focused as Hypnotherapy would be in 2020. |
| Ninho Comme prévu | 2.7 |
| I never really understood the hype surrounding Ninho, and this album is not helping me. As always, it's well-produced, it's both raw and melodic, but there is nothing truly remarkable, and the best performances are done by featured artists. It's correct in the most strict way, but most tracks blend together. |
| Harry Styles Harry Styles | 3.1 |
| The strategy used by Harry Styles to surpass his "singer from that boy band for teens" status was to release an album paying a huge amount of homages to classic British pop rock. In terms of execution, bravo Harry, especially "Sign of the Times" and its grand and wide instrumentation and performance. In terms of innovation, well there's virtually none: the worst tracks are bland reproductions of the greats, while the best, which are cool soft rock throwbacks, will inevitably remind the listener of something they have already heard before. |
| Niska Commando | 3.2 |
| The advent of a new superstar. "Reseaux" was one of 2017's hardest bangers thanks to its infamous "pouloulou" gimmick, following the trend of memesque trap songs (ie "Bad and Boujee" or "Mask Off"). Gimmicks are extremely important in Niska's music, whether these are in the form of one-liners ("JAMAIN") or the way he uses his voice, and, coupled with hard-hitting trap beats and some afro influences, guaranteed him a place in the clubs. It's of course no lyrical masterpiece, but as far as fun and easy-going records go, this is pretty cool. |
| Mudhoney Mudhoney | 3.4 |
| This is Superfuzz Bigmuff but longer and slightly less good. The musicians have clearly stepped up their game, but, while the album is noisy and energetic, there's a clear apathetic vibe a la Dino Jr that wasn't present on the EP. The punk ethos is thus less clear. Of course the grungey tone is present, but it truly sounds like a mixture of their first record and J Masciscore. |
| XXXTENTACION 17 | 2.7 |
| The album's underlying idea is brilliant: mix rap's most emotive spectrum with another sadboi genre, indie folk, and convey messages trying to help people overcome depression. The problem is it's not enough refined. Some tracks are cliche (that piano ballad), while others could have benefited from extended lengths (basically all the gud tracks). Damn shame he could never give this style a proper go. |
| Coops Life in the Flesh | 3.6 |
| Coops coopsin' hard, ie: he navigates between chill and dark beats with a top-notch delivery and his oh-so-lovely Bri'ish accent. This time the beats are not limited to soulful jazz hop cuts, but what he gains in diversity, he loses in coherence, the tracks following each other in a mixtape fashion. Still, the dude's talented and his vibe is cool. |
| Chief Keef Back From The Dead 2 | 3.4 |
| "Young Chop on the beat", not this time! Hosted by DJ Holiday, it's Keef himself who single-handedly produced 80% of this mixtape. And, oh boy, he did well. It's still Chicago drill, but much, much less bombastic than what Young Chop usually produces. Keef kept the dark, crime-laden vibe, but added a strong hypnotic vibe by fueling his tracks with dungeon synth (@garas), some tracks thus having a slight medieval knack to them. Also, he sometimes stop and then re-start tracks at random moments, which only accentuates how ominous this is. At 80 minutes, it's too long tho, damn shame. |
| Linkin Park The Hunting Party | 2.9 |
| A return to their nu metal roots, The Hunting Party still contains its fair share of cliche tracks ("Until It's Gone"), a songwriting not entirely on par with their best material, and more generally does not entirely live up to the band's first two albums, but it still manages to be an adrenaline-fueled record mostly driven by the band's hardest riffs and dominant drumming. Not very memorable, yet instantly enjoyable, this is their best record since Minutes to Midnight - yes I spent way too much time with that album to not love it. |
| Charles Mingus The Clown | 3.5 |
| Of course it's a Mingus record, so the bass is, like him, thicc and constantly evolving. The bookends are two cool tracks, the first one being a furious jam led by Mingus' bass, while the last one is a creepy tune supported by equally-creepy spoken words. However, the two tracks in the middle - one of them being dedicated to Charlie Parker - feel more like interludes between the monumental bookends than trve standalone tracks. |
| Nick Cave and Warren Ellis Carnage | 3.1 |
| It's grand, it's beautiful, it's melancholic, but the arrangements do not bring as much emotional value as Cave's latest records - mainly Push the Sky Away and Skeleton Tree. The cinematic vibe is evident from the get-go, but it failed to summon any kind of imagery, maybe because of how subdued the record tries to be, especially after "White Elephant". |
| Mudhoney Superfuzz Bigmuff | 3.6 |
| Superfuzz + Big Muff = how this album sounds like. The stop-and-start riffs are soaked in garage crass, introducing the grunge sound that would become Seattle's main musical export in the early 90s. You can hear plenty of 60s garage influences here, as well as some noisy riffs and blues and heavy psych influences. Everything is really good, but very few tracks are amazing, especially when limiting oneself with the OG 6-tracks. |
| A Day To Remember You're Welcome | 1.0 |
| yeah this is really not good, as if they've forgotten how to craft proper music, mix an album, and be at least somewhat original. 1.2 |
| Booba ULTRA | 3.1 |
| ULTRA is - surprise incoming - neither shit nor an immediate classic. It's an album that, as Booba himself, suffers and shines by its choices. His rhymes and punchlines are still corrosive - using Rwandan metaphors, or urging the listener to engage in a coital act with their female progenitor - and he has mastered over the years the art of creating simple melodies that irretrievably crawl their way up to one's mind. But the one criticism thrown at the album is its morosely low amount of bangers. The Duke has accustomed us to delivering at least one huge club jam per album (like "Kalash" or "92i Veyron"), but it's not the case here. Mind you, this is nonetheless hard-hitting, but no song includes the mindless vibe required to tear the club up, being all locked in seriousness that, although granting a certain solemnity to the project, takes away some of the fun'n'dumb vibes that Booba has always had. This serious approach also becomes indisputable when looking at the beats: if everything is musically butter-smooth, there are few surprises as most of the beats can be grouped under the Booba Type Beats collection. The few beats that do not follow this formula, unfortunately, all fall into a similar "sad piano beat" canvas, and only the short length allows the album to avoid redundancy. Still, the dude's charisma is just too damn high. |
| The Caretaker Everywhere at the End of Time - Stage 5 | 2.2 |
| Diving further into bruitist territories, this stage is supposed to represent a near-permanent state of confusion and horror. It does represent that well, all ballroom excerpts being limited to faint memories blurred by overlapping plaques of noisy textures. Conceptually, I guess it does represent the progression of Alzheimer, but nothing justifies this one being almost 90 minutes long. The soundscape is difficult enough to get into in 40 minutes, now imagine how irritating it can be when an hour and a half are spent with this. |
| Bill Callahan Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest | 3.8 |
| For a double album, this is focused as hell. With a softness that reminds of Nick Drake, Callahan peacefully details his devotion to family while background-y, pastoral-like instrumentals accompanies the vocals and lyrics. These instrumentals are subtle, yet full of delicacy and dynamic changes, and the large array of instruments allow the record to be - thankfully - more than just another dude saying he loves his wife on top of underwhelming instrumentals. |
| Big K.R.I.T. Cadillactica | 3.2 |
| Better than his first album Live From the Underground, but still not on par with his early mixtapes. Still, the album's strengths and weaknesses are the same as usual when it comes to Big K.R.I.T. records: the production is top-notch, the dude can rap very well, but he has not mastered his R&B vibe yet (it will happen on 4Eva). Gud shit, but clearly not his best. |
| Fauve Vieux Frères Partie 1 | 3.2 |
| If no track here is as amazing as "Blizzard", the band upped their game for their first album. The lyrics still contain the same lyrical matter - ie angsty sadboi teenage poet rebel - and tackle many different issues, but with the same approach. It's musically and in the singer's delivery that the band improved, their blend of indie pop, post-rock, and chanson francaise being more engaging, if only slightly underwhelming. |
| Fugazi The Argument | 5.0 |
| A band at its apex, simply. This last record contains everything that made the band good over the years, but this time all the elements are put together in a cohesive way. The guitar interplays between MacKaye's hard as feck riffs and Picciotto's dynamics, the tight af rhythm section, the vocal duality, and most importantly, the back-and-forth between their hardcore origins and the artsy persona they developed throughout the 90s. The fusion between what they were and what they were trying to be is finally accomplished here, and that might be the reason why this is their final recording. It's the kind of record that will always have an impact on me, whether by remarking a subtle detail we never heard before, or the simple, yet always amazing, sensation of witnessing once again a work that never fails to amaze. |
| Angel Olsen Burn Your Fire for No Witness | 3.4 |
| A record that navigates bewteen rawness and melancholy, fiery lo-fi rock anthems and apathetic folk, the whole lot being surrounded by a psych cushion that gives her Americana tunes a bittersweet touch. It's mostly great, but Olsen tries to mix up many different things together, and it ends up with a bunch of songs that all contain cool ideas, but these ideas never seem to reach their apex. |
| Banks Goddess | 3.2 |
| The kind of album that consistently does everything well, but with too few breathtaking moments to be fully memorable. The production is beautiful, but extremely subtle, and Banks' equally subtle vocals do not always succeed to elevate the production's nocturnal appeal. It remains a sophisticated experience, but one that would have benefited from a reduced runtime and a less monotone vocal performance. |
| Psychedelic Porn Crumpets Shyga! The Sunlight Mound | 3.9 |
| Australian weirdoes rocking hard, and they're not called Queen Bizarre and the Macromolecular Cougar?! Australia now has its fair share of bands with ridiculous names (looking at you Arctic Kiss Hurricane) that invoke garage rock intensity while adding a sufficient share of hazy atmospheres for the doobies to be welcome. This one-sentence description could be summarized as: it's fucking fun, and it only begs to be played live. |
| Julien Baker Little Oblivions | 3.8 |
| Coming back with a full-band sound was the most intelligent thing Baker could have done: on top of broadening her palette, it also constitutes a stark enough departure from her past work. Musically, traces of post-rock, indie rock, shoegaze, and emo complement her indie folk'n'slowcore core sound, and that broadening of influences, as well as the addition of drums, give her meditations a more grounded nature; as she's slowly abandoning her religious roots, she seems to focus less on redemption, and more on the complexity of healing. She's still hurt, but this time she celebrates her endurance. |
| The Ruins of Beverast The Thule Grimoires | 4.1 |
| Always evolving, the one-man band now incorporates even more obvious gothic influences thanks to tones that 80s post-punk wouldn't have renounced to. These gothic add-ons work wonders with both the eerie production and the great space given to non-metal atmospheric moments, but it mostly shines when, after building up his crescendos, von Meilenwald unleashes his ominous blend of black and doom metal. Some of the chanted vocals do sound too grandiloquent for their own sake, but apart from that this is a suspenseful winner. |
| King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard L. W. | 3.8 |
| If it ain't broke, don't fix it. They haven't fixed it, but they kind of perfected it, all tunes sounding easy-going and comfortable yet all have some degree of freshness attached to them. In a way, it's a recap of their career, with microtonal gimmicks finding their way through stoner, funk, and doom in an always-evolving, yet deeply natural fashion. |
| Fugazi Furniture | 3.5 |
| Recorded at the same time as The Argument, these tunes all were part of the band's past catalogue. The way these 80s 'n 90s Fugazi jams are recorded with their late career production style make this very short (8 minutes) record a lil winner. |
| S-Crew Seine Zoo | 2.7 |
| Nekfeu's "other group". While 1995 was immensely popular among the younger generation, S-Crew was the more "street" band, and maybe that has got to do with the fact that his mates are not as much pretty boiz as were the other dudes in 1995. Also, if in 1995 Alpha Wann was the best rapper, here Nekfeu is - by fucking far - the most talented of the bunch, and that makes his comrades' raps much less impacting. Also, if 1995 was lyrically naive, S-Crew are musically naive: most beats are feel-good, yet mostly inoffensive and unmemorable. Overall this is still cool, but it was that period of time, pre-Feu, when Nekfeu was slowly rising to stardom without making it yet. His full potential was yet to explode. |
| Sia 1000 Forms Of Fear | 2.7 |
| Given how much praise this one received, I expected something else than some "alt pop' with Imagine Dragons-like instrumentals with an impeccable production. That, plus the sometimes reggae and hip hop inclinations make this very 2014 - in a dated way - especially the way she plays with her voice: it's always, constantly over-the-top. In result, this is a pop album that cannot possibly be light, suffocated as it is by the mastodontic presence of Sia's voice. When this excessive vocal range finds the perfect way to dwell, it's, of course, a fucking winner ("Chandelier", "Elastic Heart"), but these wins are lost among not-bad-but-eh attempts. |
| BABYMETAL BABYMETAL | 3.4 |
| In a way, this sounds like a real bad idea: Japanese idols singing their poppy litanies backed by a heavy metal band, and at times some trance synths make their apparition; now this sounds like a pedant critic's worst nightmare. Truth is, it shouldn't work, but it does: some riffs can be categorized as "hard as feck", some of the poppiest choruses successfully bring a mindless vibe, and the trance parts, if not representing musical finesse, are fun enough. Sure, the fabricated aspect of this kind of music is evident from the get-go, but the record shines by how pure fun it is. It's even more impressive given how obnoxious the whole lot could be. |
| Christine and the Queens Chaleur Humaine | 3.8 |
| Entirely written, composed, arranged, and produced by Heloise Letissier aka Christine and the Queens, this first album is 2010s European pop exemplified: an evident love for British music that still allows some space for the local characteristics to shine. She alternates between French and English lyrics within songs, and that fact might be her best idea here: whereas the music mostly falls under the subtle synthpop umbrella, her way to fuse R&B and traditional chanson singing sure is the catalyst to her international success. Gotta say I failed to appreciate her work back then, but now it does sound - almost - as captivating as the press made it. |
| Zapruder Fall In Line | 3.8 |
| Really cool and original modern metalcore. Of course, you know the majority of the tones at play. Still, the way they blend all post things into their metalcore makes this interesting, whether it's in crushing atmospheric passages, chaotic mess, post-hardcore prowess, a sax coming in, or a mid-section that acts as a jazzy break. Basically, each song is unique in bringing something no other track offers, making this an ultimately surprising and engaging listen. |
| Deen Burbigo Fin D'Après-Minuit | 3.5 |
| Deen, another dude from the Entourage crew and Rap Contenders. His first EP/record follows the collective's steps: lush, boom bap-y beats with some jazz samples, and lyrics that are more conscious than brainless. Deen's best asset, his voice, is nicely used here, but it's clear he has not perfected it - he will truly let it shine in 2020. It's the dude's first version of himself tho, and you can feel some ideas do not suit him - when he tries to truly sing for example. This is however a mostly chill record in the same vein as the whole 2013-2014 L'Entourage aesthetic. |
| Fugazi Instrument Soundtrack | 2.7 |
| Well, this is mostly a bunch of demo tracks, in all their ruggedness and lack of mixing. Then "I'm So Tired" completely changes the mood, bringing a sadboi vibe that The Smiths would have not disowned. Apart from this heartbreaking tune, the rest is alright instrumental lo-fi Fugazi that accompany the movie well, but that do not shine as much on their own. |
| La Smala Un murmure dans le vent | 3.6 |
| Their shortest, and best record yet. It's less boom bap and a tad more modern, and, more importantly, it's way more fun. "Yes Mani" is their #1 hit, and most tracks also are some of their best. It's still, in the end, not very original, but they sure were the most important Belgian rap collective before the genre exploded circa 2015 thanks to Damso. True OGs. |
| Ed Sheeran x | 2.2 |
| I naively expected the most-streamed album in the world for 2014 to be, at least, enjoyable. It's mostly a white bloke who cries and strums his guitar. Apart from the played-to-death singles, it's mostly inoffensive and bland folk pop. I'm sure he's a good lad tho. |
| Gazo DRILL FR | 2.3 |
| The new French Drill kid is not ready. Propelled to "next-big-star" material in 2020 thanks to two feats, one with French Drill king Freeze Corleone and the other with Belgian Sauce God Hamza (yes these are all real names), he just cannot confirm on a full mixtape. The drill beats are just too monotone for the whole project to be enjoyable, the lyrical matters are always the same, his delivery does not vary much, and we already heard the mixtape's best track in 2020. The German and UK feats were cool too. |
| Sturgill Simpson Metamodern Sounds In Country Music | 3.7 |
| Truth be told, I was expecting an album mostly estranged from country, but this is very country. I was expecting - and thus secretly wanting - this album to be sonically metamodern, but it turned out it mostly is because of its lyrical matter. After unsuccessfully attempting to understand the metamodernism wiki page, I realized I didn't know shit about all kinds of modernism and should simply try to enjoy the music. So, although it mainly derives from country, there are some notable influences that do shake things up a bit. Some gospel, folk, rock, and even some psych vibes do allow the record to offer a spiritual atmosphere that fits well with the roots aesthetic. It especially shines on closer "It Ain't All Flowers", a druggy trip through the genre's weirdest territories that, in my shitty European opinion, displays more fragility from the performer than any ballad. In these moments, the album is truly touching, but the more down-to-earth passages do not sound that different from other country records. |
| Coldplay Ghost Stories | 2.4 |
| Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow split: the album. It causes the band to go back to more somber territories compared to Mylo Xyloto, which was a failed attempt at being the new 80s Talk Talk. This darker (it's all relative) vibe suits them better, but, again, they lost their mojo: the second half is a repetition of the first, and most songs stop before they can offer something truly interesting. |
| Sofiane #JeSuisPasséChezSo | 3.3 |
| The caterpillar transforms into a butterfly. Before the series of freestyle that led to this mixtape's creation, Fianso was an underground rapper with raw talent and an unattractive image. He then switched to trap - like everybody, yes - and discharged all his energy through hardcore, gangsta-influenced rap. His uncompromising attitude starkly contrasted with his generally soft-spoken vibe, and his interpretation was lauded. Now he's one of the game's kings, and this is mostly due to how this album encapsulated several years of struggle. It's a tad too much "yeah I'm shouting in YO FACE DUDE" at times though. |
| Fugazi End Hits | 3.7 |
| A brilliant album, for real, but that ultimately falls short of truly being their magnum opus. Stuck between Red Medicine and The Argument, it does link the two albums perfectly, but it loses some of Red angry qualities, and the band's more experimental side will be perfected on Argument. Damn shame, 'cause the record does succeed in everything it tries to accomplish, but these successes are less shiny than on the two albums next to it. It also feels 10 minutes longer than it actually is. |
| Fela Kuti Shakara | 4.0 |
| HEYO it's Fela Kuti, what do you expect apart from groovy shit? GROOVIER SHIT?! Yes this is groovy, thanks to the different genres Kuti and his band Africa 70 (which is composed among others by my love Tony Allen on drums ?) fuse together: afrobeat, jazz and funk dance around each other in playful polyrhythms. Also, yes, uhm, the first track's lyrical content is misogynistic. |
| Arca Xen | 3.1 |
| Huge basses, anxiously eerie synths that pierce high and hard, a clear deconstructed club vibe, and some glitchy shit happening from time to time: welcome to 2010s indie electronic music. It's mostly uncompromising in its approach, but that ethos does not prevent the record to fall flat at times. When it doesn't, it's mostly because the mechanical sounds manage to sound emotional. |
| Thom Yorke Tomorrow's Modern Boxes | 3.5 |
| Like the most bared Radiohead tracks, but without Radiohead and with more glitchy stuff happening. It's mostly Yorke singing on top of moving textures that are never disturbed by hooks or melodies. This is thus a work that could be described as underwhelming if Yorke's personality wasn't shouting at you the whole time. The tracks wander between hypnotic slow-burners and cold and meditative pieces, and only some sequencing issues prevent it from being rated higher. |
| Emma Ruth Rundle Some Heavy Ocean | 4.0 |
| A beautiful, ethereal, and brooding take on folk music. Because yes, first and foremost this is the album of Rundle and her guitar, but the atmosphere brought by pedal steel, light yet impacting percussions, and even strings from time to time, elevate a genre usually grounded to the earth. This lushness compensates the project's palpable introspectiveness, making it less of a traditional singer/songwriter record, and more of a passionate ethereal wave-influenced folk album. |
| Soundtrack (Film) Black Panther The Album | 2.9 |
| This one was a bitch to find in the DB. The most non-Kendrick Kendrick album. Because on top of curating the album, Kung Fu Kenny made sure to put his voice on all tracks, his shadow looming high over the whole record. However, this is, first and foremost, a Hollywood album, an album which was solely created to sell well thanks to its superstar curator, its mix of well-established and slightly-less-known-but-still-very-famous feats, and the overall vibe that this is just a compilation of songs, some of them being good, some of them not so much. |
| Lil Xan TOTAL XANARCHY | 1.0 |
| When trying to understand an era's musical legacy, one must of course focus on most praised and most popular albums to get a sense of what the critics and the consumers seemed to enjoy. However, one must not forget to also check the period's most spat-at albums. Thus, after diving into way too many 2010s albums, it became clear I had to jam Lil Xan's TOTAL XANARCHY (notice how the caps lock already attacks you). People were not lying, this is shit. Apart from the production - which is almost not bad because a major label released this - everything here screams of rushed material and quick capitalization. Lil Xan has got no originality when he's mumble rapping, rather stealing others' flow, and fortunately I'm not an English native, because the few sentences I could catch were absolutely dreadful. The beats are slowly merging together into a huge trap fodder. And, for an album that so desperately tries to be hedonistic and boastful, the sense of boredom that emanates from it finishes to guarantee its 1.2 |
| Fugazi Red Medicine | 4.4 |
| No wonder RYM tags it as "Art Punk": this is where Fugazi became confident with their studio experimentations. The pure hardcore bursts are toned down, leaving more space for angular riffing, feedback, and experimental add-ons like the clarinet on "Version" or the sound collages that open the album. More importantly, it's how these obtuse elements manage to make this one the overall most memorable Fugazi album yet. Precedent records usually contained classic bangers, but none offered such front-to-back quality. |
| Ad Nauseam Imperative Imperceptible Impulse | 4.0 |
| *The* 2021 dissonant king album. Every year deserves its own disso record that break jaws and necks alike, and 2021 sees an early contender ravage the competition. The maelstrom of disharmonic tones, tremolos, octopus-style drumming, and a noticeable bass (what a wonderful world we live in!) is a pure chaotic mess that, somehow, makes sense. The constant polyphony is not as impenetrable as it seems at first glance, but you gotta dig hard into this monolith to start understanding the vastness of it all. |
| AL-90 CODE​-915913 | 3.9 |
| Outsider House, ie - according to RYM - gritty, lo-fi deep house using both analogic and digital instrumentation. This one is a mood, halfway between Huerco S's petulant For Those? and Burial's nocturnal and urban setting. It's house music for lonely city walks, for people who don't like to tear the club up, a form of house that resembles more a hazy recollection of the genre. In a sense, it's fitting: AL-90 comes from the bordering-Finland, Arctic part of Russia, where house might - bc idk anything about that place - be consumed differently than in Chicago, Detroit, London, or Paris. Idk why it's called outsider house, I'd have chosen something like "dream house", but maybe the powers that be wouldn't have loved to link this kind of electronic music with metal's most hipster band. |
| Coops Lost Soul | 3.7 |
| Crispy beats, jazz background, and Coops' flow: a Coops album for sure. It doesn't vary much from that template, apart from some sweet female vocals that add a soulful vibe to some tracks. Also it's typically the kind of album with many great tracks, but few real gems. It's 50 mins of soulful, jazzy hip hop that accompanie any chill session very well, without being truly more than that. |
| Jul Dans ma paranoïa | 1.5 |
| JuL's first album is everything you'd expect it to be : a cheap version of what he'll later master - ie covering cheesy 90s pop into a r&b/rap song. He's clearly not there yet, and when such an extreme aesthetic isn't perfected, it makes for a mostly obnoxious album. His use of the autotune is clearly amateurish at this point, and the mix is kinda horrendous. He doesn't care the slightest tho, even concluding his first album with a "Freed from Desire" cover. 1.4 |
| Bill Evans Live In Paris 1972 Vol 3 | 3.8 |
| A cool, soft, and mostly chill live album. All three musicians are super talented and get a chance to shine, whether it's Gomez's freeflowing bass approach, Morrell's restrained yet always-on-fucking-point drumming, or - ofc - Evans' sweet piano melodies. A chill record that would cure all hangovers. |
| Mogwai As the Love Continues | 3.2 |
| This sounds like what they wanted Rave Tapes to be: heavily reliant on post-rock tropes (they too old to drastically change) but with clear electronic textures supporting the crescendos. Apart from that, it's a Mogwai album. |
| Fugazi In on the Kill Taker | 3.8 |
| The first Fufu album to go on the Billboard, how crazy is that? Gotta thank the whole indie scene's good health at the time, but also how good of a summary it was for the band at that time: it captures their blend of belligerence and angular riffs, noise antics as well as their most vulnerable side. It's, so far, the Fugazi album that requires the most work to get into, clearly being the most experimental and weird of their career's first part. The increased experimentation will later shine more obviously on Red Medicine and The Argument, but their will to continuously push their musical identity forward is already palpable. |
| Gatecreeper An Unexpected Reality | 3.6 |
| 7 minutes of deathgrind headfuckery, followed by 11 minutes of death doom epicness. As Notrap nicely puts it in his rev, both parts do what they do quite straightforwardly - thus not reinventing anything - but they do it well: the first half will make your neck exercise fast, while the second one will make it exercise hard. A neckbreaking lil EP. |
| Twenty One Pilots Vessel | 3.1 |
| Their best 2010s album? On par with Trench. In the end, this a bunch of pop songs that have a slight electronic knack to them, as well as some rap parts that are not amazing but not irritating either. It's sometimes a bit "too" cheery musically, as if they desperately wanted to counteract the lyrics' hard melancholy. |
| Huerco S Colonial Patterns | 3.8 |
| A dance album to not dance to. It's an introspective listen, full of minimalistic samples and an ambient knack counterbalancing the house 4/4 template. Drone accompanies the record, but its in the almost warm, organic textures that the record truly offers something different than most ambient, or house, or ambient house records. |
| Foxygen We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors... | 3.5 |
| Even more so than their first albums, Foxygen are wearing their influences up their sleeves, 60s and 70s psych/prog pop making up most of the soundscape here, with some MGMT-worship here and there (must be bizarre to worship a band that worships the same influences as you). It's well-crafted, catchy, and energetic, but it's ultimately a mixture of their influences. Imma sucka for catchy shit. |
| The Caretaker Everywhere at the End of Time - Stage 4 | 2.6 |
| Twice as long as the first three stages, this one also abandons most of the Dixieland/Shining band aspects to mostly focus on drony, noisy, dark ambient. There still are some oldies ideas, but they are so buried within the textures that the tracks feel disjointed. It's fitting when comparing this to the "Post-Awareness " shtick Kirby has imposed on himself, but it does not make this record enjoyable. |
| SCH Rooftop | 3.2 |
| Another mixtape disguised as an album. Even if he doesn't say so, his two "real" albums are way too constructed for this one to be considered as more than a fun mixtape. Le S is just having fun here, allowing many other artists to feat, and tackling the same issues as usual (protect the mama, gangsta shit, rich shit, etc). It's a party album that delivers the qualities of a party album. Not less, not more. |
| Fugazi Steady Diet of Nothing | 3.6 |
| Steady Diet of Nothing is Fugazi's first self-recorded album, and although this created some tension within the band, they ultimately decided to record it straightforwadly. It thus continues on the same vein as Repeater, but with a much less hardcore-oriented approach. The guitars are more syncopated, there are clear noise rock influences, and the production is very dry. Couple that with the band's dislove for this record, and you've got their least critically acclaimed record. However, coming out in 1991 - the Year Punk Broke - it sold a fuckton of copies, and at the very least it allowed the band to be known beyond their realm of influences. Also, as well as for Unwound, as far as worst albums go this one is pretty killer. |
| MGMT MGMT | 2.8 |
| MGMT's very own lil ugly duckling: it's not the tidal wave their first record was, it's not the super-awaited second album that, although heavily criticized, contains many good ideas, and it's not the one record that reconciliates them with fans and critics alike. No, this is the one where shit hit the fan. They haven't abandoned their sound, in fact fusing their first two records' atmosphere, but they did so with a weirdness that they have only slightly touched upon before. The production is messy, and most of this - especially the second half - is a fucking drugged trip with absolutely no commercial appeal. They sound confused here, and I bet Columbia had trouble as of how to market this one. Still, despite these many flaws, this record has got some charm. Like that one weird dude who once was the coolest kid ever and who doesn't know how to find his mojo back. He will eventually find it back, but it's not for now. |
| Modestep Evolution Theory | 2.7 |
| The closest thing to arena rock music in the 2010s. Mad energy, big big guitar chords, and these WUB WUBs that were all the rage at the beginning of the decade. Their organic take on the whole brostep genre is actually interesting, bringing a welcome breath of fresh air within the scene, especially live - these dudes put out quite a show when I got to catch them, on the contrary of many DJs who were at times shouting shit like "ARE YA READY" to which the crowd responded with an unanimous, inintelligible screm. Arena rock indeed is a clear influence on these guys, a track like "Time" only wanting to be played live. However, apart from the now-classic (to me) singles and the few more rock-oriented tracks, a lot of this has aged quite badly - and that's saying a lot about the genre since this is only 8 years old. |
| Gesaffelstein Aleph | 3.1 |
| Hard as feck industrial techno. Its cold and mechanical beats are only matched by seemingly cold and mechanical beats. Yet, this aesthetic is, at its core, sexy shit: it appeals to violent body motions, and "Pursuit"'s videoclip is one sexy mofo. The album's main criticism is its flow: it's just an hour of boom boom without any sense of construction, and some tracks do sound too alike for the album to not suffer from redundancy. |
| Alter Bridge Fortress | 3.0 |
| Ok so apparently it's one of the best hard rock/alt metal albums of the 2010s. Gotta say, it's competently executed, well-produced, and it blends 80s hard rock with early 2000s alt metal quite well. Still, it does not prevent the album from being, well, a hard rock/alt metal one, with all the predictability it means. Now one question arises: are some genres doomed to be predictable? I'd say yes, and hard rock has become of them. |
| DJ Rashad Double Cup | 3.8 |
| To talk about Double Cup, one must talk about DJ Rashad and footwork. The latter is a subgenre of Chicago house (ghetto style) with elements of hip hop, rapid rhythms a la dnb, repetitive motifs, and heavy use of samples. Now that we know that, let's focus on DJ Rashad. Double Cup being the only full-length record he could release before his death, it will remain, forever, his masterpiece: a work that draws from many Chicagoan genres and influences, thus rendering the always dark approach the city has of music. It's party music to forget, party music to indulge in the hardest drugs with friends, party music for the outsiders. |
| Pharoah Sanders Karma | 4.2 |
| In three words: epic and peaceful. In more words: it's impressive how such a spiritual record manages to contain so many avant-garde notions without the two genres overthrowing the other. Indeed, it's quite laid-back for a free jazz album, but it's fucking frantic for a spiritual jazz one. It's just so tightly performed, the energy is always present, and it's full of epic instruments (there's a triangle j/). There even is some yodelling - thx Leon Thomas - that at first made me think of Heidi in Switzerland, but apparently his inspiration comes from African pygmies. Whodathunk. One uplifting motherfucker. |
| Fugazi Repeater | 4.3 |
| With heavy post-punk influences, shouted vocals, interplay between the two guitars, and a tight af rhythm section, this represents late 80s post-hardcore. They haven't abandoned the reggae-punk fusion that characterized their first EP, but they muscled their game. The traditional Fugazi lyrics, that can be vulgarily summarize as "capitalism is bad, don't do drugs kid", are ofc present, but it's in their delivery they are truly interesting: Picciotto and MacKaye vocal style each get a chance to shine, and this duality allows the record to switch to different modes. Still, the main characteristic of this first album is the constant duel between tension and release. While some explosions happen here and there, there always lie an inner sense of tension, as if this explosion was only the preparation of something bigger. Likewise, even the most tense passages still prove to be exhilarating moments of almost total laissez-faire. |
| 93 Empire 93 Empire | 3.0 |
| Kinda like 13 Organise that was released in 2020, this is a location-based compilation. Forty rappers from department #93 - Paris suburbs that actually represent *the* French suburb - come together thanks to Sofiane, the project's instigator. There thus is great variety in terms of voices, flows, music, and lyrics, and that's a good thing because damn this thing is long (almost 80 minutes). If the length is daunting, most rappers are good, and it's always cool to see dudes from different musical horizons gather to honor their region. |
| Ariana Grande Yours Truly | 2.7 |
| This is surprisingly more sophisticated than I expected. Lush 90s R&B influences drive the album, Ariana's versatile vocals swiftly wandering between notes. However, once the magic fades away (basically after the first half), it becomes pretty clear that armies of songwriters mostly produce safe results. Indeed, it's rarely bad - although the last two tracks are obnoxious (IF YA WANNA PARTY PUT YO HANDS UP ugh) - but it also rarely tries to offer more than its basic formula. |
| Baths Obsidian | 3.9 |
| Whereas Cerulean sported a bright album cover, Obsidian displays a dark one. Musically, it's the same: even though this still remains electronic pop music, it's much darker than its predecessor. The drums are pounding harder, the drony bass textures make themselves more evident, which makes the whole thing a disturbing, yet ultimately poetic listen. Indulging into depression, Will Wiesenfeld offers his most impressive statement. |
| Lady Gaga Artpop | 2.2 |
| Hey it's 2013 and we're having FUN! Truly, apart from a few mythological references (why not), it's a record of hedonistic, boastful, and anthemic energy, full of all the aspects that already make 2013 pop music sound dated: some slight WUB WUBs, cheap Eurodance synths, and claps that seem to have been recorded analogically. More importantly: despite the constant will to deliver bangers, none of these tunes manage to make a lasting impression. At least it's not as annoying as Born This Way. |
| Bill Callahan Dream River | 3.7 |
| A smooth and soft folk album that sometimes borders on progressive territories, albeit being deeply rooted in the most dreamy side of Americana and country. Given its subtle nature, there are moments that do feel underwhelming but the man's voice and pristine arrangements guarantee a nice late evening listen. |
| Cardi B Invasion of Privacy | 2.5 |
| Corporate rap: competently produced, lyrically in-yo-face to attract the most possible clicks and reactions, and artistically vapid. The few R&B and Latin music nods are not enough to make this more than a plain fun record. At least it's to-the-point and do not stack up many filler tracks, making this, in the end, a quite inoffensive record boosted by a couple of megahits. |
| Fugazi 3 Songs | 3.2 |
| Repeater companion EP. You know what it means: these are B-sides. As such, these three songs are some of the worst composed by the band, but at least it's here that the band's hardcore roots are the most evident. |
| Agnes Obel Aventine | 4.0 |
| Amazing how "big" this one sounds given its restraint nature. It's intimate, yet extremely powerful. The arrangements are absolutely gorgeous but in a subdued way, her vocals taking the lead when they appear without forcing the music to be mere background. Kudos to the production to allow such a richness to feel natural. An introspective album for your comfysad moments. |
| Avenged Sevenfold Hail to the King | 2.2 |
| Hey have you guys ever heard Metallica's One? Yes? Ah. Then don't listen to this. It's not badly executed, but the sheer lack of originality makes this truly uninteresting. Truth is, one could advance the same criticism for previous album Nightmare, but solipsism is a bitch and I listened to that record a lot back then. This one also feels like rehashed ideas, but there is no emotional value attached to it. |
| Ateyaba Tokyo | 3.6 |
| Again, this is madly original for 2013 French rap. The use of electronic and glitchy effects used on the trap beats was nothing but incongruous at the time. Sure, TTC or DJ Mehdi already bridged electronic music with hip hop, but Ateyaba was the first modern rapper to do so. This makes this EP at the very least an interesting object, even though most tracks do tackle the same ideas. Lyrically, he's still a lil prick even though less obnoxious than on Kyoto, which might make this one his best record. |
| Stimming Stimming | 3.4 |
| Abandoning the jarring aesthetic he displayed on Liquorice, Stimming goes into more traditional deep house/minimal techno territories. Truth be told, it sounds like the necessary step to go to Alpe Lusia: it still contains some weirdass moments (especially some of the vocal performances), but it already makes use of organic elements, but they feel underused compared to the next record. Still, a pleasant - if a tad too long - hour of deep house. |
| Charli XCX True Romance | 3.4 |
| A good surprise this, especially given how "normal" it sounds compared to her post-Pop 2 trajectory. Indeed, it's mostly early 2010s electro/dance-pop, but you can already hear the gal's special knack of bridging 80s pop with millennial sassiness. Also, she displays some ethereal witch house influences on here, which will not be repeated in the rest of her career, thus making this first record quite unique for her. It's however pretty evident she's still figuring out how to properly deliver her art. Four more years before she understands where her place is. |
| Power Trip Manifest Decimation | 3.2 |
| Tough boi music m/. 80s-influenced crossover thrash that's tight, aggressive, and that might make you want to drink too many beers. I wish I cared more about thrash metal, but overall I like how modern the producion is given the way-too-evident nods at 80s thrash. |
| Fugazi 13 Songs | 3.9 |
| Fugazi + Margin Walker = 13 Songs, and it's gotta be the best introduction to the band. Funky basslines, angsty energy, gnarling riffs and that vocal duality that would characterize their whole career. While the first half is the best early Fugazi you could find, the second half proves to nurture their base sound, preparing them for Repeater. |
| Madlib Sound Ancestors | 3.0 |
| Beats & Loops: Madlib composed the beats, while Four Tet arranged them. Vocal samples appear here and there in the traditional Madlib sense - ie: it sounds random af. The main problem is; this sounds too clean. I don't know how much that is due to Four Tet's editing, but the gritty Madlib beats are not as present as on his diverse previous records. At least the dude still knows how to craft cool shit. |
| Hayley Williams FLOWERS for VASES / descansos | 2.9 |
| Where are the cool basslines? Apparently Hayley can't play bass, since she recorded this album all by herself. Damn shame, 'cause if there's one thing I can't help but adore unconditionally, it's gotta be cool basslines, and her debut was full of these. Now she explores 2020-Taytay territories: ambient pop that desperately wanna be indie folk. Unfortunately, it often fails at not being one-dimensional, most songs being calm and sad. The few tracks that do pick up the pace are often too short for their own good, but they do allow the boredom not to take over |
| The Caretaker Everywhere at the End of Time - Stage 3 | 3.6 |
| First of all, this is the first stage in which the artwork does not depict a clearly recognizable object. This stage represents the last coherent memories before it all transforms into a confusing cloud of grey forms. Musically, this translates with clear dark ambient influences, the last tracks containing few to no melodies. Still, this is the final stage in which the samples can be recognized. The next step is post-awareness. |
| La Femme Psycho Tropical Berlin | 3.6 |
| Damn even I didn't think French people could be so fun. What's both weird and cool is how the record can be hot or glacial. Cold 80s post-punk influences prove to provide a warm feeling when they let the sun shine, and, likewise, some synthpop tunes bring a darker vibe. Lyrically, it's at times intelligent, at times silly, which may, or may not, be voluntary. In the end, it's just pure fucking French: half arrogant half ridicule, half man half woman, half mysterious half way-too-evident, half prude half erotic. 100% France ma gueule. |
| SCH JVLIVS | 3.9 |
| One of the most ambitious recent French rap records. Designed as an audio film, interludes give background to the story thanks to Jose Luccioni (French Al Pacino dubber), while SCH tells mafioso stories on top of mandoline-led orchestral trap beats, courtesy of Toulouse collective Katrina Squad. Gotta say, story-wise this isn't revolutionizing anything (unlike Laylow's Trinity for example), but the atmosphere is absolutely gripping. It sounds like modern Mediterranean music. |
| Endling The Heavy Frigate | 3.5 |
| Sput's Kent resident comes back stronger with his second LP. Comfy still is the best applicable adjective for this, opulent dream pop installing a welcoming atmosphere while minimalistic percussions and ambient drone add an eerie vibe, only accentuated by Collins' tranquil vocals. Simply an improvement on almost all subjects. |
| Fugazi Margin Walker | 3.7 |
| This should have been Fugazi's first album. Turns out recording first thing in the morning after the final night of a tour does not bring the best out of a band's energy. Thus, the result is trimmed to make this the band's second EP and the second part of now-legendary 13 Songs. Still, one can feel anger throughout Margin Walker, but in a less anthemic way, presaging their more experimental side that would take time to truly shine among the post-hardcore template. |
| Hamza 140 BPM 2 | 2.3 |
| Again, I don't understand why Hamza chose to do an entire UK drill project. He has the talent for it, but not on a whole album. The beats are nice drill ones, but you can clearly hear their inferiority compared to Flem's beats, and the vocal delivery also is quite linear. Eh. |
| Cult of Luna The Raging River | 4.0 |
| ok so Dewi won this one |
| The Ruins of Beverast Blood Vaults - The Blazing Gospels of Heinrich... | 3.7 |
| Embrace the gloom. Death doom with some funeral doom, and, most importantly, black metal is the good kind of mixture you wanna come up with if you wanna tell anti-religious tales. What makes this different though, is the way chants are incorporated to liturgical riffs to create a ritualistic, almost occult feeling. Cthulhu would dig. |
| Chance the Rapper Acid Rap | 3.7 |
| This is one dope tape lel. Chance called some acid jazz musicians, and you can tell: some tracks have got a laid-back feel to them, and the druggy references go beyond lyrical considerations: the whole lot is sweating acid through all its pores, and while at times it guarantees some hard-hitting jams ("Cocoa Butter Kisses"), other tracks do tend to indulge themselves in so much druggery that they sound maniac ("Pusha Man"). |
| f(x) Pink Tape | 3.0 |
| Feel-good, sugary K-Pop that do not hesitate to show its quirkiness - for an idol group, that's quite impressive. Of course it's energetic pop that mostly tackle love issues, but this is fun enough (Spice Girls style) that the inconsistent nature of the record isn't too impacting. |
| Major Lazer Free The Universe | 2.0 |
| There are many, many things happening. Few of them are properly enjoyable. It tries to tackle so many different genres (dancehall, moombahcore, electropop, reggae, dub) at the same time that it mostly sounds messy, as if simply smashing things together would not make the listener wonder about the virtue of consistency. 1.9 |
| Fugazi Fugazi | 4.1 |
| Fuck, this is the first thing I jump into while doing this Fugazi (re)discog run, and it already slaps more than I remember. Of course, the first track immediately signifies its importance, but the EP as a whole is carefully constructed at extending punk's stretch. "Suggestion" is as virulent as it is exhilarating, capturing a kind of balance between crammed punky antics and technical considerations. This balance is called post-hardcore, first displayed by Minutemen, then Husker Du. This was only the first wave though: when that aesthetic was mixed with the dub/reggae-influenced post-punk, it became what we now understand as late 80s post-hardcore (it changed drastically in the coming decades). Thank you Fugazi for that. |
| Greta Van Fleet Anthem of the Peaceful Army | 1.0 |
| 1.0. Why? Because of the originality? Kinda, but not entirely. Let's get this straight: having obvious influences is not a problem. The problem is having only one influence. Sure, some bands can be reduced to a handful of influences, but these are multiple enough that you don't have to worry about the band's creativity. Here, it just sounds like Led Zep, sans the genius. After reading some interviews and shit like that, it turns out the members listen to other things than Led Zeppelin. Prove it. Fuse it with The Who, Nirvana, Polvo, The Strokes, even Murmuure if you'd like to, but, please, strive to be more than a fucking copycat. |
| Robyn Honey | 3.4 |
| I wasn't expecting that. Body Talk was a bombastic, albeit bittersweet, take on electropop. Robyn is a whole other beast, drawing influences from 90s deep house or disco that are evident but do never take the lead. The whole album is working on mid-tempo rhythm, melancholia pouring out of the summery tunes. Not as immediately gratifying as Body Talk, but a great record that efficiently tackles more atmospheric vibes. |
| Playboi Carti Die Lit | 3.5 |
| This was interesting. Interesting as in: "I didn't enjoy everything but there def is something going on here". The production is nothing short of amazing, the trap percussions being coupled with eerie synths that add some vapor vibes to the whole project. The main problem is that the lack of variety soon make itself known through the length: this is another album that should have been 40 minutes long. Still, the undeniable fun factor is enough to make your head bop, whether it's thanks to the big-bass trap beats, or Carti's idiosyncratic mumble vocal style. Cool shit. |
| Portrayal of Guilt We Are Always Alone | 4.3 |
| Portrayal of Guilt represent that new wave of heavy music, the one that neither hesitates to make all possible aesthetics its own, nor to hold the speeches least related to the current "bien-pensance". In a way, this is what we can only hope for the future of metal and hardcore: to further flourish by fusing all their parent influences, and by giving the stage to the most extreme human thoughts. |
| Steven Wilson The Future Bites | 2.5 |
| It goes in through one ear and directly out through the other. It's well-produced and lush, but nothing here has enough substance for it to pretend to be anything other than pleasant background. |
| The Body I’ve Seen All I Need To See | 3.8 |
| The Body have so accustomed us to evolve from one output to another that this return to less expansive sounds may seem, at first glance, a little disappointing. As an enormous fan of their past two releases, I would have wanted an album that would have drawn from the choirs and strings elements to expand the band's soundscape into apocalyptic proportions. But it is my problem if I let my own expectations exceed the actual result. Buford and King wanted to create the noisiest album their deranged minds could come up with? Bravo, they did it. Notwithstanding any personal appreciations, this album will remain completely unique in their discography. I've Seen All I Need To See manages to sufficiently differentiate itself to remain, at least until their next output, The Body's record that sinks deepest into the most distorted zones of their sound spectrum. Everything we could have hoped for, we got: a new album distinct from the others, driven by its own visceral, disgusting energy. |
| Dinosaur Jr. Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not | 3.5 |
| I'm starting to struggle soundoff'ing Dinosaur Jr's albums. Not that it's bad, it's just that I've rarely seen a band so deeply focused to one sole aesthetic. Because, yes, be prepared: in 2016, Dino Jr. released another solid indie rock record with noisy antics and a lotta cool solis. Nobody was surprised, but is it the goal? Do y'all listen to Dino Jr to be blown away? Nah, you listen to them because they rock. |
| Therapie TAXI Hit Sale | 2.9 |
| Nouvelle chanson francaise, kesako? Basically, it's french song with elements of modern pop - ie, Jack Antonoff kind of stuff. The female singer is the most prominent voice here, and she's got *the french song voice that all french gals seem to have*, without much variety. The male singer is much more discreet and usually sings below the other singer's voices. It's when each get their part that the album succeeds, especially in its then-viral singles ("Hit Sale", "Salop(e)"). The rest of the time, it's sub-CHVRCHES. |
| The Caretaker Everywhere at the End of Time - Stage 2 | 3.4 |
| After recalling the good ol' dayz in all their magnificence, it's getting harder to remember past memories. The thing is, you've got nothing left but these memories. You're trapped into a life that cannot offer you anything more than you've already experienced. And these memories, pointless nostalgia that would allow you to feel better, are tough to get. This stage slowly drifts into darker materials, echoes and static noises are more present, to the point of taking the lead role sonically. These are your last moments of pure recall. |
| Sungrazer Sungrazer | 3.8 |
| Walking in Colour Haze's steps, this Maastricht band operates halfway between stoner and psych, the former's heaviness being compensated by the latter's surges into mushroom-full places. The rare interludes constitute a nice change of pace, jazzy pieces breaking the heavy psych formula. This is not that original to be honest, but the production is top notch, the members all sound great and know when to take the spotlight and when to retreat in the background. A great, unknown stoner gem. |
| Kno Death Is Silent | 3.6 |
| It's Kno, so ofc the beats are dope. It's Kno, so ofc the rapping ain't amazing, but that ain't the album's focus. Like most Cunninlynguists records, the cinematic beats are the real deal, enhanced by vocal samples that only reinforce the immersion. Rapping ain't that good though, but nobody will be surprised. |
| WU LYF Go Tell Fire to the Mountain | 3.5 |
| Wait, they from Manchester? WU LYF sound like a Midwest band, a bunch of loud kids who wanna do indie pop/rock with emo antics and some post-rock love. Man I miss 2011, that kind of sound was everywhere. It's full of emotion, romanticism, and shouted lyrics. I think I'd have loved this back then. It's not the same 10 years later. |
| SCH Deo Favente | 3.3 |
| Last SCH album before Guilty fully comes back, and, as Anarchie, it's a competent album that ultimately does not possess the same qualities as A7 or JVLIVS. It's even a tad better than its predecessor thanks to its overall honesty, even though some tracks do feel overworked. |
| Dinosaur Jr. I Bet on Sky | 3.5 |
| So far, this is the worst post-reunion Dino Jr. That tells you how much quality output this band has been releasing. Much less exhilarating than Beyond and Farm, this one slows the tempo down while still delivering dem Mascis solis and bittersweet vibe. It's a great Dinosaur Jr. record, and it's from 2012. That alone should be enough to satisfy you. |
| Dorian Electra My Agenda | 3.1 |
| Ah. This is messy. I'd like to use a better term, but how would ya describe a 25-mins album that mostly contains traces of hyperpop, nu metal, tradi-pop, and dubstep, but isn't reduced by these few influences? Fuck, there even is a viking metal part and a Rebecca Black feat, as if 2020 wasn't horrible enough. Despite the extreme nature of the record, its capacity to align weird bangers after weird bangers is quite praiseworthy, even if the headfuckery isn't too far away. A one-stop antics whose themes (it's a concept album about toxic masculinity and incels as seen through a queer lens) will likely outlast the album's music. |
| Zwangere Guy BRUTXXL | 3.7 |
| Releasing an augmented version of your album is - way too - common in rap. Usually, it boils down to releasing three songs that do not add anything to the OG record. But Gorik is different: his deluxe version contains nine more songs, and they are all placed at the beginning of the album. Despite not offering a fully cohesive set, each of these tracks are super strong, from the Mobb Deep homage to the Dutch-shouted banger. ZG clearly is the most interesting Dutch-speaking Belgian MC right now. |
| Synthosaurus Gigantic Throne | 3.4 |
| Contrary to the dungeon synth which could be described as "traditional", dino synth does not take itself seriously. Indeed, when synthesizers appeared during the mighty dino times, only the T-Rex were worthy enough to master the instrument. It's silly, but well-executed, and there are T-Rex (ig) screms. Now, dino synth has got to properly emancipate itself from the dungeon synth canvas and it will be *the* hype genre Spielberg will tear apart in his next Jurassic product. |
| Caroline Polachek Pang | 3.4 |
| Don't expect PC Music stuff. Blasting some baroque pop influences, the first half contains a particular ambient pop atmosphere, while the bangers, located at the end of the record, glitch hard enough to at least recall the PC Music filiation. Polachek's vocals are, gotta say, gorgeous, but the production at times buries them. Cool shit. |
| The Caretaker Everywhere at the End of Time - Stage 1 | 3.3 |
| This is the first sign of memory loss. The pre-WWII British dance band pieces evoke memories, that, I guess, are joyous, good ol' dayz being glorified in a daydream-esque fashion. Vinyl cracks, and loops are slowly disintegrating: soon, these memories will fade away. They seem more beautiful than ever, the great days' brilliance being exaggerated to its climax: indeed, nothing was more blissful than the old age. Enjoy 'till you can. |
| Frenetik Jeu de couleurs | 3.2 |
| This Brussels homie is getting some hype at the moment. No wonder: Belgian rap is losing its idols. Damso is now way too big, Romeo Elvis got cancelled, and Caballero and Jeanjass' influences has strongly decrease. Frenetik might get the crown one day: his in-you-face style is fused with quite strong lyricism - even though some punchlines are wack - and an attitude that lies halfway between the conscious observer and the angry kiddo on the street. The beats are drill-esque, focusing on no-melody rhythmics supported by strong bass. Good stuff, gotta refine his art. |
| Dinosaur Jr. Farm | 3.9 |
| Why change a formula that works? Dinosaur Jr. Seem to have asked themselves this question, and their answer is quite straightforward: don't change it, just make it better. Farm is the most exhilarating non-80s album of theirs, full of youthful vigour, slick guitar solos, and that special slacker vibe that gives the band a somewhat introspective value. It just fucking rocks. |
| Haken The Mountain | 2.7 |
| This is where they, imo, truly found their style. The traditional prog metal elements are losing importance, to the benefit of their own heavy synth thang. The symphonic shtick is also reduced to its bare minimum, which isn't to displease me. Still, in the grand scheme of things, this is a technical, epic, overlong, cheesy album. It's prog metal. |
| Eminem The Marshall Mathers LP 2 | 3.3 |
| Calling this one what's your considered your masterpiece + Part 2 is the best way to significantly raise expectations. Eminem is not the same dude as he was thirteen years earlier, but he hasn't sounded this good since 2002, especially since the beats are real cool and appeal to many vintage aesthetics - Beastie Boys come to mind. The bangers are banging thanks to their rap rock antics ("Survival"), and there's "Rap God" which is beyond ridonkulous in how forced it seems, but the performance is nuthang but laudable. I've never been a huge fan of Em's choruses, and this feeling is confirmed throughout the record. He's at his best when he raps, not when he sings. Oh and ofc it's long, but its almost 80 minutes length flows quite smoothly. |
| Matana Roberts COIN COIN Chapter Two: Mississippi Moonchile | 3.1 |
| Such a shame the record truly picks up at "Was the Sacred Day". Before that, it's avant-jazz bullshit that, while well-executed, do lack any kind of uniqueness to be considered as anything more than "traditional free jazz stuff". Then, from "Was the Sacred Day" on, Matana brings her vocals and poetry in, and with them come passion and spirituality. If you're a Chapter One aficionado, only the last part might truly please you. |
| Avicii True | 2.2 |
| Sugar-coated dance anthems that - according to Avicii himself - incorporate elements of other genres such as country music. Still gotta find these tbh, apart maybe from that guitar line on "Wake Me Up". The bulk of the album is full of the early 2010s electro-house shtick that inevitably ended in some messy, wannabe-arena half-anthems full of claps and synthetic instruments that should be organic. And then, there's "Dear Boy". I've got no clue why, but it quickly became a staple banger within my group of friends, the kind of track that had to be played at every party. To this day, "Dear Boy" remains a gate to 2013. That's something. |
| Sturgill Simpson High Top Mountain | 3.3 |
| A mostly upbeat, at times serene, country record propulsed by a rich'n'lush production. I'm still not the genre's hugest fan, but it's great at what it does. It's Simpson's first album, and it only proves he's a talented songwriter and solid singer. Gotta wait for him to experiment with his sound. |
| Fauve Blizzard | 2.8 |
| Oooooh yeah, that band that was super-hyped around 2013-2015. Basically, it's an indie pop/rock band with a young French dude speaking really fast on top of it. Your enjoyment will be solely based on how much you recognize yourself in the lyrics. If you do connect with the lyrics, well, just look at the other soundoff. If you don't, you'll find this adolescent bullcrap risible and you'll hate this - just have a look at the other ratings. Not gonna lie, I listened to the title track quite a lot when I was a sentimental 19 year old. Apart from the classic t/t, the rest is alright, a tad boring but displaying enough heart to be remarkable. TU NOUS ENTENDS LE BLIZZARD, TU NOUS ENTENDS? SI TU NOUS ENTENDS, VA TE FAIRE ENCULER! |
| Dinosaur Jr. Beyond | 3.6 |
| First record in a decade, first record in 19 years to feature Lou Barlow: this one reeks of the doomed comeback effet, but it's a genuinely great output that draws heavily from 80s lo-fi rock - who said you need to evolve when your formula is already tip top? Basically the album that would have been released instead of Green Mind. Damn shame Barlow is almost inaudible. |
| SCH Anarchie | 3.1 |
| If A7, SCH's first mixtape, met success because of how effortlessly it fused two producers' music. This time, only DJ Kore is present, and the lack of versatility soon makes its apparition. Guilty (from Toulouse DJ collective Katrina Squad) is missing hard on Anarchie, mostly because he is the one DJ perfectly understanding SCH's aesthetic (just listen to "A7"). Kore is doing a good job, but some of his beats are too samey for the album to truly stand out in SCH's discography. |
| Leprous Coal | 3.2 |
| Epic prog is epic. You've got complex bits, atmospheric bits, and even bits when the singer thinks he's some opera tenor. Most of it truly falls into the modern prog template, except for "The Valley". This track is what prog bands should strive for: a guitar work that mostly focuses on rhythmic changes, a soaring chorus that nevertheless do not take too much place - we all know prog vocalists' dramaturgie - and a sense a grandeur that do not crumble over its own weight. Complex formula, but they managed to make it work on one tune - rest is mostly bloated but not annoying! |
| Medine Protest Song | 2.6 |
| Medine's last album before his rebranding. Gotta say, it's good he rebranded his art. The beats are stuck between 2000s post-Timbaland shit and 2010s bad French copy of trap, and while he knows how to instigate a precise atmosphere thanks to his lyrics ("Enfant du Destin", as always a highlight), it often sounds way too heavy and not nuanced enough (a change towards more nuanced soundscape is to be initiated). |
| The Field Cupid's Head | 3.5 |
| Once again an amalgation of loops (one bassy, one ethereal), The Field decides to innovate by looping vocal samples on top of his minimal techno template. These samples increase the romantic nature of the album, but they ultimately fail at fully immersing the listener in its dark, pulsating journey. With this album, what once was a magic formula became, well, a well-known formula. |
| Darkthrone The Underground Resistance | 3.6 |
| Abandoning crust punk elements, this is a return to classic heavy metal shit with elements of thrash, black, and punk. Sounds messy? It kind of is, but damn it riffs hard. The vocals are at times meh, but if this record is to be remembered, it's for how fun its galaxy of riffs is. |
| Julien Dore Løve | 2.9 |
| What do you think French pop is? If your answer is "something about dandy transient lovers" well you're not wrong. Tinted with electronic beats, Dore tackles the same musical tropes as did Bashung or Christophe before him. Of course his manierism is hit-or-miss, and the attempts at English-written songs are not truly convincing, but the humorous notes and overall paradoxical nature of the album makes it alright. The production helps too. |
| Dinosaur Jr. Hand It Over | 3.4 |
| An album of contrasts: Mascis still knows how to pull out super cool riffs and solis, but on the other hand, his voice tends to be too often in whispers, breaking this sentiment of grand rock'n'roll that the guitars tried to install. Most songs display this duality, which makes it difficult to point out one clear highlight (jk it's "Alone"). If Dinosaur Jr.'s albums were Friends episodes, this one would be called "The One With All the Solis". |
| Nas NASIR | 3.1 |
| Nas ain't the best element on his own album. Kanye's production is splendid and celebratory, the feats are nice, but Nas struggles to match his comrades, sounding mostly dull throughout the course of the record. That's a shame 'cause the album's lavish nature sure makes this album stand as one of the best-produced Nas record. |
| Angele Brol | 3.8 |
| The most famous gal in Belgium since two solid years. Her first album Brol proves to be a sweet indie/synth pop record with clear chanson Francaise influences, as well as some English-speaking lines translating her love for English and American pop. The album is extremely slick, like, really, one of the most polished record to come out of the recent Belgian scene, and it only shows how well surrounded she was - thus proving she was the one artist pushed forward by the industry. Well, it worked: Brol was #3 in 2018 in Belgium, #1 in 2019, and #2 in 2020. Fucking hell. Some tracks are passable fillers, but the ones truly standing out are sweet pop anthems ("La thune", "Tout oublier", "La loi de Murphy"). On top of all that, the social critique present here perfectly spoke to the Belgian people. So, you've got a pretty gal who can craft cool songs that have a underlying meaning? No wonder she's so successful. |
| Mac Miller Watching Movies With The Sound Off | 3.2 |
| Progress has been made since his first album, but it's not perfect yet. Once again, his persona kinda irks me, as he puts forward the more introspective nature of the lyrics, yet falls way too often into the trap of vague metaphors. The beats are super cool - that's mainly due to how their mostly organic nature is nicely complemented by ethereal synths - but his vocal delivery is, well, Mac Miller-esque. I've always had the impression that there's something in his mouth when he sings/raps. Overall this isn't amazing, but it remains an inclination towards the "branded Mac Miller" style. |
| Lapalux Nostalchic | 3.6 |
| Brainfeeder shit, so it's full of wonky and future garage stuff. The r&b bits that are chopped and then screwed add an eerie atmosphere to the record in the same way as vaporwave, creating a bizarre sense of melancholia mixed with sensuality. What mainly oozes from this is relaxation, despite the quite complex overlapping of samples and beats. This complexity is what prevents the album to be an immediate jam, rather slowly revealing its pieces one by one. |
| La Smala Poudre aux yeux | 3.2 |
| Last mixtape, or first album? Don't know, don't care: it's 40 minutes of boom bap revival, tackling kinda conscious topics while delivering good bars that at times are however unmemorable: a La Smala record, this time enriched by feats from other Belgian rappers (Caballero, Exodarap). |
| Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou The Helm of Sorrow | 3.5 |
| While continuing on the same basis as May Our Chambers Be Full, The Helm of Sorrow sees less of Emma Ruth Rundle, thus resulting in less integration from the two styles. Opener "Orphan Limbs" is the perfect example to that, Thou and ERR each displaying their qualities without ever truly merging them. It's great stuff, but it feels like a less refined version of the collaborative LP. Oh and it kinda sucks that the best song here is a Cranberries cover. |
| Dinosaur Jr. Without a Sound | 3.3 |
| It all starts with a bang. "Feel the Pain", the band's most streamed track, opens the most commercially successful Dino Jr. album. Then it's quite cool ("I Don't Think So", "Yeah, Right"). Then, until the closing track, it's mostly undynamic yet enjoyable. There are some nice riffs and solis, but they do not pack the same punch as earlier releases, maybe because the bass is almost inaudible. A truly great record that is ultimately eclipsed by the rest of the band's catalogue. |
| Molchat Doma Etazhi | 3.2 |
| Ok so apparently TikTok made this one blow up. I, a real OG (lel no), discovered this album on YouTube a few years back (no im not a doomer), intrigued by the supercool cover and YouTube's algorithm's unrelentless will to put the album forward. The first listen was pleasant, the post-punk rhythm being well complemented by the synthpop and new wave additions as well as the reverb voice. The problem is, once you've heard one track, you've heard them all. Sure, the aesthetic is super cool, but you'll only be served more of the same. Jam Kino instead. |
| SCH A7 | 3.9 |
| A tidal wave. Really, if there's one year that shaped modern French rap, it gotta be 2015. Nekfeu started his rise to fame, PNL dropped Le Monde Chico and established cloud rap in French, and SCH introduced a whole new way of incorporating auto-tune into rap. Before 2015, it wasn't cool - at all - to use auto-tune, but SCH did so with such attitude, flows, and dark lyrics that everybody had to agree: it's a game-changer, because auto-tune is not used to hide vocal limitations anymore, but to convey emotions that a bare voice cannot transmit. Not all tracks excel at what they try to do, but it's gotta be one of the best French rap mixtapes. It's so good it sounds like an album. |
| Purple Mountains Purple Mountains | 3.8 |
| I don't know anything about Dave Berman, but I know Purple Mountains' backing band, Woods. It's thus no surprise that, musically, it tackles alt-country tropes, with as much folk as rock. Lyrically, well, this is heavy as shit. Please warn me when a happy country record is out y'all. Still, the music is generally upbeat, but do not mask how much pain is poured in the lyrics. RIP. |
| Zwangere Guy BRUTAAL | 3.8 |
| Yes, this is BRUTAAL. Although it operates as much on atmosphere as first solo album Wie is Guy?, this second 2019 output is way somber, Gorik sounding much angrier. The beats oscillate between boom bap and trap, but whatever the form, the result is always heavy. When it's not dark, it's introspective. When it's not introspective, it's enraged. Either way, it's always engaging, proving once again ZG is the real OG. |
| Two People First Body | 3.5 |
| It's kind of amazing how much immersive this album is given how spare the instrumentations are. The duo fused together many subdued genres, from downtempo to ambient pop to ambient house, for a nocturnal result. The first half perfectly manages to create an ethereal atmosphere, but the second one reminded me of the night, not for its palette of sounds, but for its ability to make me yawn. |
| Esoteric A Pyrrhic Existence | 3.7 |
| A continuation of Paragon of Dissonance, A Pyrrhic Existence is a death-doom inspired funeral doom album that once again tackles misanthropic and sinister tones, but it's when the melodies hit on top of the despaired landscape. It's bleak shit, but it didn't move me as much as Paragon of Dissonance did. |
| Dinosaur Jr. Where You Been | 3.9 |
| After letting some folky touches dominate Dino Jr.'s past two outputs, Mascis decided to shed lights on his guitar solo capabalities. Fully converting himself to the alt rock/grunge craze of the times, the folky bits have not disappeared, but are now secondary to these now-trademark Mascis solis. Really, if there's one thing this album accomplishes, it's that it's the record they had to release in 1993: it's still unmistakably Dino Jr. thanks to the noisy antics and Mascis' voice, but it also gathers folky influences (Neil Young comes to mind) and the musical zeitgeist (that means grunge). Another winner. |
| Dorian Electra Flamboyant | 3.4 |
| Hey the cover looks like Lomepal's FLIP! Musically though, this is PC Music-style bubblegum bass, with all the LGBT lyrics, androgynous vocals, and futuristic EDM the genre requires. On top of that, Dorian incorporates elements of harder styles like heavy metal or dubstep, but they compensate these harder moments by showing themselves as vulnerable. Musically this isn't always my cuppa, but the willingness to push a vision to its maximum is laudable. |
| Michael Kiwanuka Kiwanuka | 3.8 |
| Benjamin Clementine is that you??! Michael Kiwanuka also operates within the "live'n'organic instrumentation-backed and personal lyrics-wise" soul department, but his work is less grand and more subdued, as if Clementine had to be bold because his background story is downright harsh. Kiwanuka is more soulful, and gives more space - and time - to the most gentle pianos chords. In the same vein, props to Danger Mouse for the production job, it serves Kiwanuka's lyrics well. Gotta trim the fat just a tad, because the most beautiful moments are properly gorgeous. |
| LEEBADA THE OCEAN | 3.6 |
| I was expecting a K-R&B record, not an artsy pop K-R&B record with some jazz additions. The atmosphere is overall very mellow, with occasional bursts of trap energy and other R&B vocalizations. The whole lot is well constructed, but if there's one to thing to remember from this, it's how gorgeous and versatile Leebada's voice is, jumping from lustful to innocent to determinate. Gotta check the rest of her career very closely, as this album contains many songs from her previous EPs. |
| Diplodocus Slow And Heavy | 3.5 |
| The dexbro said it well: although the first couple of tracks fall into the "traditional dungeon synth cookbook" category, the rest of the album reminds ancient moods - y'all 'member how lit mesozoic was?! It would work perfectly as an OST. Good shit honestly, but now that this genre has established its core aesthetic, it could - and should - be striving for perfecting it. Hopefully this will be seen as a landmark. |
| Ateyaba Kyoto | 3.3 |
| No wonder this dude was discovered by TTC's Tekilatex. His sound relies heavily on electronic glitches happening on top of beats that do not draw from any clear influence, some wonky passages following trap bangers. The samples are some of the most interesting of the whole French rap game, with King Crimson and Gainsbourg being the most evident. Ateyaba's attitude is the "sale petit con" one, bragging in, like, all sentences, which causes some clunky moments. Still, mega props for offering something totally different. |
| Chief Keef Back From The Dead | 3.3 |
| With his first mixtape, Chief Keef and DJ Young Chop bridges Atlanta's trap aesthetic developed by Waka Flocka Flame and Lex Luger on Flockaveli, Chicago South Side tough'n'gangsta attitude, and G-Unit beats (yes imma die on that hill, drill = G-Unit + trap). The aesthetic is already present, but the second half struggles to be as memorable as the first one. |
| Dinosaur Jr. Green Mind | 3.8 |
| After Lou Barlow's departure, it became evident Dinosaur Jr. was Mascis' band. Despite the dude having the reputation of being an insufferable prick, gotta say he's a talented songwriter. The folk touches already seen on Bug are now more evident, as are the melodies - always hiding behind the guitars. It's Dino's most diverse record yet - maybe because it was the band's first major release, after leaving SST - and while the highs are not as good as on their second and third albums, it's one consistent motherfucker. |
| Heuss + Vald Horizon vertical | 3.2 |
| Vald + Heuss + their respective beatmakers Seezy and Zeg P = a cool collab mixtape. Despite Heuss operating within poppier territories - du rap de beurettes a chicha t'as compris - this is a trve rap mixtape. The two rappers alternate between their own verses, sing-along choruses, and something called "passe-passe" in French - no idea how to call that but it's when the two rappers rap alternatively by responding to each other. The beats are modern, club bangers ones that still do not solely rely on gimmicks. Quite good, but not that important. |
| Palm Reader Sleepless | 3.9 |
| The equation seems simple at first glance: metalcore + post-metal = post-metalcore. You gotta make sure all the elements shine for your final product to truly stand out. Thankfully, Palm Reader came up with a carefully crafted album, playing as much on metalcore's brutality, post-hardcore's clean - and not cheesy, yay! - vocals, as well as post-metal's atmospheric passages. This formula is supported by a tip-top production that allows each element to shine, thus reinforcing the album's overall impact. My fav 2020 post-metalcore release. |
| Yung Lean Starz | 2.8 |
| Yung Lean's most evidently cloud rap record. Sure, the beats build themselves on the basis of trap rhythms, and some Nintendo 64 synths appear here and there, but it's the one Yung Lean album that leaves all that - a bit - behind to focus on eerie instrumentals and Lean's distant vocals. However, this more laid-back atmosphere tends to rapidly fall into the background, save for the few bangers ("Pikachu", "Boylife in EU"). |
| Koba LaD Détail | 2.0 |
| His best album so far, and that's only because talented beatmakers were called (Seezy, Ken & Ryu, Junior Alaprod). He's rapping about the same thing for three albums, only reinforcing the feeling that he attainted glory way too young. Really, apart from his voice, there's nothing remarkable about Koba's music. Wait, maybe there's something: the featurings. It's when he shares the stage with another rapper that his style truly shines - maybe because his own style is annoying on the long run. The feats are clearly the best tracks here, and that's a fucking shame. No evolution - at all - but this is his best-sounding album. |
| Coops Crimes Against Creation | 3.5 |
| 2020: Coops ain't stopping. True to his reputation, the UK emcee goes back to organic boom baps that counterbalance the melodies' sweetness by how hard the drums knock. The dude is obviously super talented in terms of flows, but evolution doesn't seem to be his main focus. |
| DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ Charmed | 3.8 |
| A monumental, uplifting one hundred and eighty-three minutes run of house music. Sounds like a drag innit? Not gonna lie, it sometimes is, but the triumphant vibe makes up for the music's repetitiveness. The most impressive feature being the piece's bloody consistence, the majority of the tracks being straight-up bangers. Of course the length is daunting, and it does not help that the album indeed sounds like a DJ set. As such, some tracks do get lost in others, and an overall lack of contrast can be pointed out. Still, I wanted to dance the whole fucking time. |
| Dinosaur Jr. Bug | 4.1 |
| It's all so evident from the first song onwards. "Freak Scene" is inclined towards folkier territories, the absolute winning melody and Mascis' voice hinting at the band's next endeavours. Although the more melodic approach truly shines here, the noisier spectrum of Dino's music is still present, the final package being their most well-balanced record. The songs here may not have the same energetic spark as YLAOM. Still, the songwriting has undoubtedly improved, the guitar licks and all-acoustic verses just fucking stinking of catchy melodies. The last recording of the OG lineup struck a specific chord here. |
| Lianne La Havas Lianne La Havas | 3.4 |
| A peaceful and introspective experience. La Havas' voice is nothing short of amazing, warmly unfolding its various nuances on top of neo-soul instrumentation and folky - almost lo-fi - strummings. It's soothing at its core, but the sonic landscape tends to stay too often within the same energy range, causing some redundancy across the album, especially in its first half. |
| Aya Nakamura AYA | 3.1 |
| Aya coming back to take home all certifications and her detractor's tears. The afrobeats (beware of the 's') structure is more evident than ever, with some dancehall and reggaeton linings. Of course she still isn't the best lyricist - she will never be - but her innate sense of groove compensates any will to be bewildered by verbose prose. It's music to shake your ass to, and it does it well. |
| Juice WRLD Legends Never Die | 2.7 |
| Warning: this ain't no posthumous album. This is a tribute. Juice speaks from his heart, and when the instrumentation let him take the reign it's real good ("Righteous", "Conversations"). In these moments, you truly feel alone with him while he's telling his stories. The problem, of course, is that the album is overstuffed, with way too many tracks being nothing more than streaming fodder, but hey apparently that's how you gotta play the game. |
| Yves Tumor Heaven To A Tortured Mind | 2.7 |
| God damn, "Gospel for a New Century" absolutely bangs. Mega shame that kind of energy almost never happens again during the rest of the record. Some tracks try to, but ultimately fail. Most of the tracks indeed fall into the "slick but eh" category, the production attempting to hide some songwriting issues. When it bangs - and that means "when it fucking rocks" - like on said opener or "Kerosene!", it's an absolute delight. The rest is pretty but at times yawn-inducing faux psych rock. |
| Ichon Pour De Vrai | 3.5 |
| French rapper deciding to shift towards French pop. It's - mostly - a winner. His lyrical style perfectly fits the production made of organic drums and basslines, chords, and pianos. Synthetics sounds are still to be heard, but their rendition tends to be warm so that they feel more organic than they truly are. There is no clear banger or hit here, but the overall cohesion makes for a refreshing and solid record. |
| Wasted Space I HATE SPACE (split) | 3.2 |
| A neat lil split by resident sputter madrigal (Wasted Space) + I Hate Homecoming, a band that is overall less abrasive and punky than their counterpart, but who pulled out some slightly mathy sections. Regarding Wasted Space, the production and mixing sure have improved but still need some work (hey ofc). The hard-hitting riffs and dynamics are still present, and shows once again great songwriting. |
| Dinosaur Jr. You're Living All Over Me | 4.0 |
| It's noisy, it's loud, but make no mistake! It's not powerful. Dinosaur (still w/o the Jr.) took then-modern noisy alt rock aesthetic and incorporated emotional lyrics. It doesn't suggest power as we understand it, rather suggesting it through dynamics and distorsion. What's interesting is that Dino's sound is at the confluence of all things indie rock in the 80s: the distorsion of noise rock, intensity of hardcore, and lyrics that could appeal to indie kids. The formula would be replicated (with a twist) by Pixies, then by Nirvana. Mainstream indie rock is coming hard, bitch. |
| Bladee 333 | 2.5 |
| Softer than his previous albums, 333 still retains trap beats, dreamy synths and ambient pop persona, but without the engaging nature of Bladeee's past material. In a way, this album encapsulates most criticisms thrown at him, memorable tracks failing to appear throughout the course of the album. |
| Svalbard When I Die, Will I Get Better? | 3.8 |
| Long live female vocalists within the hardcore scene. Rolo Tomassi got everyone on board, Nuvolascura put out a solid midyear banger, and now Svalbard makes sure the year-end is not devoid of great female-led hardcore. Compared to other, male-fronted, projects, it's a different kind of intensity, which mainly comes from the feminism that emanates from the lyrics. The feminist lyrics' bluntness are only matched by the frenzied riffing and intense drumming, with the incorporation of blackgaze elements to make sure the band deserve their "post-metalcore" descriptor. Maybe the Bears weren't the most aggressive thing to come out of Bristol in 2020. |
| Echelon (FR) Echelon Vol. 1 | 3.1 |
| A cool 2020 trend within French rap: when labels release mixtapes. If don dada mixtape further established Don Dada as the "uncomprimising label", Echelon displays the Vald school. The rappers are either part of his nebula (Suikon Blaze AD, Sirius) or unknown rappers who sent models to the label. Most beats are built by Seezy and Hellboy, which were already present on previous Vald albums. Indeed, the label's music is a continuation of the rapper's, with both capitalism criticism and gross hedonism. Likewise, the atmosphere alternates between somber and exuberant. Good mixtape with a clear identity, although for the moment it does not attain Vald's solo material quality. |
| Don Cherry Complete Communion | 3.8 |
| Groovy, free-flowing avant-jazz, but not as dissonant or unapproachable as Coleman's style. All four musicians are incredibly dexterous at their instruments (ofc) and they manage to pull out catchy riffs in spite of the improvisational nature of the record. The second suite sometimes loses itself in its improvisation, but it has got the merit of integrating African music into the jazz template ('member, it was 1966). |
| Juggaknots The Juggaknots | 3.9 |
| Forgotten east coast 90s hip hop is one of my favourite subgenres, especially when it was released by Fondle 'Em. Like Cenobites or Siah and Yeshua DepoED, the grittiness of the vocal performances only makes the jazzy beats shine ("Troubleman" being the prime example). The organic nature of these beats, though, is the main reason why I love everything Fondle' Em-related. The label's artists bridged Wu-Tang's rainy atmosphere and DJ Premier's jazzy vibe in a pure 90s New York way. Please, go check Fondle 'Em's catalogue. |
| Alpha Wann don dada mixtape vol. 1 | 4.0 |
| No compromises. If there is one thing Alpha Wann does not accept, it's compromise. His philosophy forbids it, too attached as he is to the realisation of his own vision of rap. Having built himself a reputation of a rhymes lover, the climb to the top is put aside in favour of total artistic freedom. The king's crown could be bestowed on Alpha Wann, but that's not his philosophy. Let the masses find their champion. Alpha will remain the Don. No compromise. |
| Dinosaur Jr. Dinosaur | 3.6 |
| The core idea behind Dinosaur's (sans the Jr.) music is remarkable for sure - integrate hardcore punk's heaviness within an alt rock template. The problem is, it sometimes sounds like a mess whereas other bands at that time managed to integrate the genres more smoothly - Husker Du released New Day Rising the same year. Their sound will be refined in the next releases, but they already show some good ideas, like the proto-grunge "Repulsion", the typical heavy acoustic/college rock vibe of "Forget the Swan", or the catchiness of "Does It Float". In 1985, they sounded like the baby of The Replacements and R.E.M., and they still had to find their exact recipe. Great first effort though. |
| Huerequeque Huerequeque EP | 3.6 |
| When you don't know how to describe a record, just say it's cool. This one's fucking cool. Built around samples, this Estonian project/band/individual fuses different genres to come up with something that sounds like that one time you were hungover and high during a beautiful summer afternoon. The lo-fi aesthetic, coupled with hard-hitting trip-hop drums and at time weird instrument incorporation, reminds that heavy weight on your brains. On the other hand, dub basslines and the folky-slash-psychedelic guitar strummings lighten the mood without the atmosphere being joyous. Now we waiting for the LP. |
| Pop Smoke Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon | 3.1 |
| This posthumous album has got one complicated mission: cement the legacy of an artist having less than two years of experience, while attempting at the same time to expand Pop's sound. Overall: mission accomplie. 50 Cent's production job here is a testament to the deep respect for the Brooklyn artist. The bangers are particularly efficient and offer a glimpse of what the rest of his career might have looked like ("For the Night", "What You Know About Love"). There are some unnecessary feats that make the album drag at times, but it's a common posthumous issue. Thank god the cover is not Virgil Abloh's. |
| Koba LaD L'affranchi | 2.0 |
| When an album is recorded in ten days, it underlies either a sudden burst of creativity, or rush. L'affranchi falls into the second category. Since this one came out only six months after debut VII, it seems like it's the label's idea to capitalize on this successful but terribly mediocre rapper. Small aside, Def Jam France clearly is one of the least reputable French rap labels, only signing artists because of their commercial potential without taking into account artistic considerations. Koba is slightly less annoying here than on VII, but he has not progressed: he raps the same way about the same subjects. The thing is, he just cannot improve in six months' time. He's the label's cash cow, and he's getting milked hard. It's not Koba's fault per se, but he represents levelling down of the French rap scene. 1.9 |
| Rina Sawayama Sawayama | 3.6 |
| Hey Rina, the 2000s have called and they would like their shit back. Like, everything back, from the early noughties disco dance-pop exuberance to nu metal's industrial riffs to r&b's passion. It's as if she suffers from a personality disorder and one of them personalities suddenly burst into self-importance during a short section of a song. While this eclectism mainly works - what a banger "XS" is - it also feels at times like an unrefined collage of influences ("Chosen Family"). |
| Yashira Fail To Be | 3.6 |
| So apparently this is post-metalcore. I'd say this is metalcore-y sludge with atmospheric bits, but I guess genre names are specifically created to avoid longass monikers. Notwithstanding these silly considerations, this is, first and foremost, fucking violent. Even the more atmospheric passages (like on "Narrowed in Mirrored Light") only build calm moments to punish you harder. This record wants to harm you, and that might the one characteristic that connects all post-metalcore bands. This one does it by being constantly relentless, which causes the soundscape to vary only too little to my taste. If you want a threatening take on modern sludgy metalcore, go for this. |
| Esoctrilihum Eternity Of Shaog | 4.0 |
| I don't know about you, but if I suddenly became an infernal motherfucker trapped outside space and time, I'd jam Eternity of Shahog. Apocalypse comes here in the form of blackened progressive death metal where violins and piano complete the occult climate. Sure, at first it slaps because of the epic sense of doom that emanates from the complexity of the music, but it's the ethereal melodies Asthaghul manages to pull out that truly makes this record an alluring experience. The record does start better than it ends, but imma nonetheless re-listen to this, and drift through eternity. |
| Big Black Songs About Fucking | 3.8 |
| Ending their discography with a bang, Big Black releases their catchiest album. They are still pulverizing the shit out of you, though. While I prefer Atomizer's songs, the aesthetic displayed here is the definitive Big Black template, where the head-fucking assault is somewhat controlled, and serves kinda catchy purposes - emphasis on the "kinda". The best examples are the two covers, "The Model" and bonus track "He's a Whore", where Albini implements his dirty aesthetic into "classic pop songs". |
| Yung Lean Stranger | 3.6 |
| He's growing up. The beats are more spare than ever, leaving moments of silence only broken by Lean's lyrics. Indeed, it seems like this time sporadic was Lean's motto, the beats concocted by Yung Gud and Sherman resembling OPN's material - the addition of ambient pop elements sure go that way. Likewise, the detachment he's showing throughout the whole album makes for one of his most enthrancing record, only falling short behind his debut mixtape. |
| Every Time I Die A Colossal Wreck // Desperate Pleasures | 3.7 |
| The boys are back. Two slappers, a grand total of 5 minutes, and their ever-frenzied metalcore swagger make for a cool prep before the next album. |
| BTS Love Yourself: 轉 'Tear' | 2.6 |
| Put some respect on the first Korean album to top the US albums chart. Wonder why? Sweetness. Indeed, this is the sweetest album the gang has put out yet, and the clean and crisp production is no stranger to this overall vibe. Musically, this once again treads different paths at once: K-pop, r&b, electropop, latin pop, and some pop rap - even though this last element has seen its importance decrease compared to the preceding albums. The problem is that, although the album as a whole is enjoyable, it ends up being way too safe, few tracks deriving from the established formula. Despite the good production and genuine approach, this ultimately fails at being memorable. |
| Koba LaD VII | 1.5 |
| Koba LaD is one of the most hyped artists in France right now. The reason? His voice and flow. He modulates his voice to sound like a mix between nasal and piercing, and his flow is now trademarked as "the Koba flow"; The problem is, being unique is good, but being a good rapper is better. His flow never varies - at all - and his technicality is, at best, mediocre. His lyrics basically revolve around money, hoes, and drugs. While that sounds like all rappers' lyrical content, here there is virtually no other subject tackled. VII epitomizes everything that's wrong with modern French rap: labels find hyped newbie, they sign him, and immediately record an album without further establishing the artist's identity. Best example: during an interview, he struggled to explain what the cover meant in the context of the album. That's because a marketing team did all the fucking job. 1.7 |
| Taylor Swift Evermore | 3.0 |
| Although less dull than Folklore, this still suffers from the same problems. These contain I Am Easy to Find yawn-inducing compositions, Antonoff's shtick growing old, and an overall lack of diversity. Still, the songs' subdued nature does manage to *kinda* shine after several listens. Her best 2020 record. |
| The Avalanches We Will Always Love You | 3.5 |
| This is much less plunderphonics than their past work. There's a reason for that: member Robbie Chater gave away his 7000+ record collection (i would never dare). We Will Always Love You thus acts as a re-start, The Avalanches wanting to add their own instrumentation on top of the sampling-based material. Likewise, instead of searching for the *perfect* vocal sample, they chose to invite tons of guest vocalists. This new process is what grants the album its freshness, relegating The Wildflower to the status of mere mixtape. Although quite long at times, it successes in engaging the listener into an artsy pop record. |
| Big Black Heartbeat | 3.2 |
| KILL THE DOG!! Hum. It's only a 6-minutes release, but it's a nice - if not very necessary - addition to the band's discography. You know what you will get: noisy, industrial rock with hardcore linings and post-punk rhythmic structure. Tbh it's dispensable, but it's great nonetheless. |
| Wasted Space like summer, but colder | 3.6 |
| If the midwest emo song titles have not been a sufficient signal, like summer, but colder is a discharge of emotions; the kind that makes you want to CTRL+ALT+DELETE your life. The problem is, you cannot simply call a task manager to brutally end whatever toxic task/person is ruining your current situation. Factor in relatives that do not understand you, and all that's left is self-therapy. Do not expect a self-flagellating tirade though, as Wasted Space instead acutely describes the times during which it was created: the apathy enforced by the lockdown, attempts at self-improvement, or the confrontations that created the ok boomer meme, all document how youth feels in 2020. So, sure, it might sound like the typical emo "me-against-the-world" lyrical content, but it rather represents a vibrant life statement. In such times, the banal becomes the adventure, simply because there is no place for adventure anymore. |
| Oranssi Pazuzu Mestarin Kynsi | 3.9 |
| Of all the adjectives that could properly fit this album, the one that first popped in me mind wasn't "psychedelic" but "disgusting". Like the demonic being the band took its name of, it's just fucking colossal, and it always strives for hitting the listener's uneasiness real hard. Of course the psych influences are more than evident and add to the overall weird approach. It's disturbing, but it's awesome. |
| Malfet Alban Arthan | 3.8 |
| Dungeon synth that brings back memories that you have never experienced (idk, like the Treaty of Picquigny). The atmosphere is of joyous festivities like the ones you see at the beginning of your favourite fantasy movie/video game, with medieval instruments only reinforcing the immersion. The sense of escape is indeed the record's strongest asset, managing to be more than a simple "cool background music". |
| Violet Cold Noir Kid | 3.2 |
| Ok, so. From an idea point of view, this is superb. One-person band Violet Cold seems like they want to push the envelope by mixing blackgaze and EDM together. When it works, like on opener "Noir Kid", it's properly amazing. When it doesn't though, oh boy. On "Synergy", some vocals a la, idk, fucking Chipmunk come in on top of the blackgaze aesthetic, before guttural growls enter the stage. The idea is great, but it does not sound good. Let's just hope the dude will continue with this direction, a refined project that tackles the same ideas would be breaking sput. |
| Rina Sawayama RINA | 3.8 |
| Slaps. Catchy pop anthems garnished by cold R&B beats and noughties guitar riffs, now this sounds like the best 2000s throwback! Thanks to a slick production - courtesy of Clarence Clarity - the album moves from one influence to another, while leaving enough space for other elements to come in (those pulsating beats accentuating the rhythm on closer "Cyber Stockholm Syndrom" damn). It's when these more subtle elements signify their presence that the record truly affirms its place among the pop bangers pantheon. |
| Bladee Red Light | 3.1 |
| While his first album Eversince won me over because of its gorgeous production, this one took a bit more time. I couldn't distinguish the tracks up to "Obedient". From that point on, you are served with ethereal trap beats embellished by atmospheric/Nintendo 64 synths. Again, I don't really care about his vocal performance. |
| Big Black Headache | 3.6 |
| A good summary of the band's status in 1987: noise rock, shouted vocals, rapid bass, Roland the drum machine, and tongue-in-cheeks lines. Cool stuff, although it does not accomplish much the band hasn't done before. But the songs are so cool! |
| Yung Lean Warlord | 3.3 |
| No more vaporwave, no more innocence. This time, Yung Lean chose to push forward his worrisome (ugly adjective ngl) vibe by letting his industrial influences take the lead. It's still mainly cloudy trap rap, but this time the dreamy atmosphere brought by the eccojams is replaced by mechanical waves (fortunately the Nintendo synths are not gone, yay). Lyrically, it's typical Yung Lean: drugs and depression still make the bulk of the lyrical content. This one takes much more risks than its predecessors, but although I laud renewal, this isn't my fav Yung Lean iteration. |
| Mr. Bungle The Raging Wrath Of The Easter Bunny | 3.0 |
| A re-recording of Mr. Bungle's demo tape of the same name from 1986. Production-wise, it's very cool to hear 1986 thrash sublimed by modern production, and ofc hearing Patton is always cool too. Shame I am slowly realizing I do not care that much about thrash and crossover thrash. Good stuff overall, competent performance, good job at re-enacting a 34 year old recording. Props for the Cucaracha bit though, I had dem lolz. |
| Nothing The Great Dismal | 3.9 |
| Damn shame Hum released a mighty album this year, otherwise The Great Dismal would have claimed the gaze AOTY award. It's basically got everything you could ask from a gaze album: a t m o s p h e r e, a strong sense of melody despite the occasional hard riffing sections, melancholy - both in the vocals and the music. The band truly shine when they decide to fully accomplish a song's vision: whether it's by bringing sludgy elements to the table ("Blue Mecca"), or by making dem dynamics shine ("In Blueberry Memories"). When they do push their creative vision that far, it's a winner. |
| Olafur Arnalds Some Kind of Peace | 3.7 |
| Subtle touches of strings juxtaposing themselves on top of the piano chords, this might be one of the simplest Arnalds record, compositionnally at least. However, it does not mean the music is dull. Rather, the beauty of the melodies are the album's emphasis, swiftly moving for three minutes before being replaced by the next soothing piece. Soothing is thus the album's greatest asset, echoing works like Eluvium's Copia. It never truly picks up, but, in the end, the album's goal is to, finally, bring you some kind of peace. |
| Dvne Omega Severer | 3.8 |
| With early Mastodon influences as well as bulking up their soundscape thanks to thrash riffs, blackened blastbeats, and even FoE-like vocals, Dvne reinvent their formula. The core sound remains prog metal with sludgy linings, but a newfound heaviness is found three years after the epic Asheran. Disappointed by the latest Intronaut? Give this one a listen. |
| BTS Wings | 2.9 |
| Once again, this is a singles album, meaning each tracks' goal is to destroy the charts. Sometimes it works ("Lost", "2!3!"), sometimes not really ("21st Century Girl"). Compared to their first album, they refined their formula by fusing more efficiently hip hop, EDM, pop, and R&B. Also, each member's involvement in writing and producing allowed them to show their individual preferences, which makes for a rather diverse album, if more with a mixtape feel than a true album. Not everything works, as all members do not share the same artistic quality, but as a whole it's a good record. |
| Big Black Atomizer | 4.0 |
| The liner notes of preceding EP Racer-X contained the sentence "The next one's gonna make you shit your pants". Fortunately I didn't burst into spontaneous defecation, but boi was it close. This is the culmination of everything Big Black stood for. New bassist Riley added some melody to the basslines, while still retaining the perpetuous aggression necessary to support the mayhem created by the two guitars. Roland the drum machine kept hammering hard, but with an almost danceable vibe - ie "Passing Complexion" which might be the weirdest danceable track I've ever listened to. But on top of this creepy atmosphere, what cements Atomizer as the band's apex is that it's simply full of fucking great songs. Creepy, violent, godawful, but great songs nonetheless. |
| Juice WRLD Death Race For Love | 2.4 |
| Juice has improved his voice on this one - *cough* "Robbery" *cough*. While the proposed brand of emo rap is cool, this album isn't really bringing anything new to the table. Lil Peep already did the same album, but better, and a sense of deja vu set itself up halfway through the record, as all songs tackle the same musical ideas. Yet, the album's main fault is its length. There's absolutely no reason - aside from the $$$ - to stuff an album like that. |
| Aya Nakamura Nakamura | 3.2 |
| After her first album's success, Aya chose to take the best elements off it (a high sense of melody, good construction) and focus on them. It worked: the album has sold more than 1 million units worldwide(!), even managing to put single "Djadja" at #1 in the Netherlands. On top of that, she was scheduled to perform at the 2020 Coachella. What's cool is that even though some tracks only were responsible for this massive success ("Djadja", "Copines", "Pookie"), the album is well-constructed, with very few fillers, although some tracks were clearly designed for mass consumption. |
| King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard K.G. | 3.5 |
| Microtonal psych rock? Ok why not. It's still unmistakably King Gizzard, psych rock representing their core sound. Now factor in some Turkish Folk music translated into KG's soundscape and you've got K.G.. It's subdued, much less bombastic or 'in-yo-face' than some other albums of theirs, but the whole lot is cohesive and flows well. Props for creating a microtonal rhythmic piece that does not sound obtuse. |
| Gorillaz Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez | 2.9 |
| Gorillaz inviting all their friendos so that they Damon does not have to ridicule himself by trying to sing on hip hop tracks. Indeed, the album is diverse and navigates through pop, rock, funk, r&b, and basically all genres the band has already played with. It's disjointed given the broad genre spectrum, but the album's diversity works for the better. One thing tho: pls stahp with these overlong albums. |
| Deafheaven 10 Years Gone | 4.2 |
| This sounds so fucking good. The application and care they show here are one of the reasons Deafheaven were one of the most important bands of the past decade - yes they are i promise! Clarke's vocals sound more devilish than ever, the dynamics are tight and flow very well, and the blackgaze moniker has simply rarely been honored as much. If yo momma ever wanna know what this whole "blackgaze stuff you keep massacring whatever's left of your sanity with" is, prepare her some tea, give her a comfy blanket, and let her enjoy the retrospective of the most successful heavy band of the 2010s. |
| Yung Lean Unknown Memory | 3.5 |
| The shift from apathetically rapping on vaporwave beats to apathetically rapping on vaporwave-influenced cloud rap beats is now. If this sounds like a subtle change, Yung Lean's attitude sure is different: he now sounds more mature, his ennui being more palatable and less forced than on Unknown Death 2002. He also raps less, rather enveloping his voice into autotune to match the trippy beats. As a whole, this is slightly less strong than his first mixtape - the main reason being that it feels less special - but it's a focused and well-constructed cloud rap release. |
| Big Black Racer-X | 3.7 |
| Racer-X is that point in Big Black's early career where they wanted to come up with a massive and slick rock'n'roll sound. They did, this sometimes sounds like an indie take on mainstream 80s rock ("The Big Payback"). I can't believe Albini thinks this is too samey and monolithic. On the contrary, this is, to me, the work that creates the necessary impulse to go diving in the musical territories that will give birth to Atomizer. |
| Shapoval Sextet Kobzareva Duma (1976) | 3.8 |
| Awesome 70s Ukrainian jazz fusion - never thought I'd write something like that one day. With traces of psychedelia and abrasiveness all around, this represents well what 70s jazz fusion usually is: weird and cool, switching from almost dissonant trumpet to proggy guitar to spooky electric organ. It's a work of flow: it seems like the rhythm section was solely there to provide a base for the chords to soar in turn. When it calms down, all that's left are the subtle basslines and drum hits. A spiritual work from the Soviet era, what more would you possibly want? |
| Pop Smoke Meet The Woo 2 | 2.9 |
| Meet the Woo, Part 2 basically follows the same formula as the first installment. You know what it means for an artist: at the very least you gotta provide the same quality, and that ain't truly the case here. There is no track achieving as much headbanging skrrrrt as did "Welcome to the Party" or "Dior". The beats are hard-hitting with wobbling basses, but it's when Pop comes up with memorable lines that it truly picks up. Shame it doesn't happen as much as on Part 1. Altogether a good Brooklyn Drill mixtape, but totally eclipsed by its predecessor. |
| Plini Impulse Voices | 3.0 |
| It sucks when a genre grows off of you. Even though you can find intrinsic qualities to the album you're listening to, it does not make you vibe. This is a consistent prog djazz record, like Plini has always delivered. It knows when to be heavy, and to create lush atmospheres. The jazzy bits are cool (the sax at the end of "Pan"), the synths are well-integrated. Yup, this is a quality record. I just wish I could care. |
| BTS Dark and Wild | 2.7 |
| Fun K-Pop Rap with R&B choruses. Said choruses are, imo, one of the main reasons many people find this grating. It's just always over-the-top. There is a constant exuberance here that is almost never canalized. The result is a 50 minutes album that feel like twice its length. It could have been a sweet alt R&B record, but it crumbles under the weight of its own passion. Chill down homies. |
| Bladee Eversince | 3.4 |
| First thing first: that gorgeous production. Indeed, the pristine production is mostly made of Nintendo 64 bleeps and bloops that collide on top of discrete trap beats and atmospheric synths. He apathetically raps/sings-R&B-style, his voice being constantly drowned in numerous filters and effects. While his vocal performance did little to nothing to me, the cold take on lo-fi bedroom hip-pop (yah yah) is the most interesting happening here. |
| ManDancing The Good Sweat | 3.5 |
| Emotional indie rock that isn't straight-up emo. Rather, the emotional discharge come from the instruments' slow ascension. You can hear many indie rock bands in this albums, but all these influences - ie Manchester Orchestra or The Dangerous Summer - come together in a very personal way. Tight drumming, vocals that go within seconds from whispers to shouts a la Brand New, mostly melodic guitars: gud indie rock. However, while the climaxes are all damn cool, their construction and build-up sometimes leave me stoic. |
| Big Black Bulldozer | 3.5 |
| Second EP, but it's much more refined than the first one. There are many reasons for that leap: there is an actual band and not just Steve Albini, they recorded in a studio, Albini's guitar playing improved - that's where he got his famous "clanky" sound. Most importantly though, this is where Big Black reinvented synths. Basically, at that time, synths were synonym of sweet tunes, but were never used for aggressive purpose. Congrats, it worked: this is aggressive and intense shit. Some refinement still has to be done for them to reach their full potential, but this already is one great noisy, mechanical take on rock music. |
| Juice WRLD Goodbye & Good Riddance | 2.9 |
| Damn Sting gotta be getting tha $$$ with his samples. "Lucid Dreams" is a good song apart from the sample, although it displays way too evidently what's gonna be good and bad within the record. What's good is that Juice is pouring out some real emotion, the trap beats are kinda cool. What's not cool is Juice's voice - too often sounding like an edgy 14 yo - and the fact that all songs sound like each other. What's however impressive to me is how some songs here became hits even though the energy they display is at best lazy, at worse apathetic. |
| Ichiko Aoba Adan no Kaze | 3.3 |
| A pretty record that does fall in the background from time to time. Ofc as all Ichiko stuff, it's chamber folk with some nature recordings, but this time the focus on ambient is even clearer. It's not when the ambient dominates that the record shines though: it's when many instruments complement the guitar's work, like on "Porcelain". In such instances, the music at work strangely resembles an eerie kid movie soundtrack. Most of the time, the record falls into the "yah-it's-pretty-but-am-yawning". Some might find it mesmerizing, but that ain't my case. |
| Yung Lean Unknown Death 2002 | 3.7 |
| Ok so basically the dude mashed up vaporwave and trap rap in a cloudy way. He sure knows which genre is hip. This is a pure product of the zeitgeist: of course the genres are what a young cool lad would come up too, but there's an underlying apathy in both the flow and the music. Maybe it's because of the lean and the Henny. Maybe it's because this generation of young people is the most depressed and ironic we've seen in recent times. I don't know how I could call that in English, but I like the French term "Spleen du Branleur". In a way, yes, this is music that do not really serve other purposes than to be depressed to or get high to. What do young people do anyway? |
| Phoebe Bridgers If We Make It Through December | 3.0 |
| This Christmas record is dropping as early as Sowing's top AOTY lel. Jokes aside, the way Phoebe's subtle and melancholic indie folk immerses itself into classic Papa Noel tunes shows how well she can apply her aesthetic to different subjects. Nothing amazing, but a neat lil EP. |
| Aya Nakamura Journal Intime | 3.0 |
| Aya's first album, and yah the roots are mucho evidento: afrobeats, R&B, and French pop. The three genres collide into each other in a, gotta say, cohesive way. Each of her influence also get specific tunes where they get to lead the other influences - eg "Oumou Sangare" which sees African rhythms and references dominate the song. What I feared the most actually didn't happen: unbalance. I was expecting a mostly banger-led album with too many filler tracks. The album is not empty of filler tracks, but some smoother cuts ("Karma") act as breather among the bops ("Comportement"). Most importantly, she truly knows how to work her vocal lines into catchy melodies. I wonder if she came up with all the toplines herself. If so, respect, Aya. A good surprise, although a tad too long. |
| Matthew Tavares and Leland Whitty January 12th | 3.1 |
| January 12th 2020, in Toronto. The same quartet featured on Matthew Tavares & Leland Whitty's 2020 album Visions' play a live improv session. This should have been the very beginning of a tour, each night consisting of an improvised performance. Of course, it didn't happened. January 12th thus acts as a snapshot of events that didn't happen. The musician's chemistry is once again evident, but instead of incorporating already-composed material within the jammy tunes, this time the music is entirely improvised. It makes for some real cool moments, but also meandering ones. Aight avant-jazz fusion bullshit that does not eclipse their other 2020 record. |
| Big Black Lungs | 2.8 |
| Big Black's first release truly is Albini's first solo project. While his college peers were off to Florida getting shitfaced and catching STDs, Steve spent a week recording this first EP in his room. It thus indeed sounds like a record made by a socially weird twentysomething: derivative of its influences (The Cure, Killing Joke), with pretentious lyrics, a shaky voice, but an already evident artistic vision. Indeed, Albini plays every instrument except for "sax bleats" and drums - courtesy of Roland the drum machine. It sounds like shit at times, but shit's intense. |
| Dinos Stamina, | 3.2 |
| I feel the same about this one as I felt about 2019's Taciturne. Good melancholic and quite poetic French rap, but we already knew he was good at this formula. I feel like if he doesn't change his formula soon, he will be trapped into it. And since his first album Imany is unanimously considered as his best project, it seems like he's already trapped. |
| Pop Smoke Meet The Woo | 3.7 |
| That voice, man. On top of the dark af UK drill atmosphere, what's most striking about Pop Smoke's music is how deep his voice is. This voice, associated with his quite unique delivery, perfectly matches said atmosphere, enveloping the whole record into a menacing vibe. What's imo super interesting is how he uses UK drill beats to tackle hedonistic, US trap matters. Apparently, this recipe got his songs to receive more airplay than some Billboard #1 in NYC. He could've change the game. Or maybe he wouldn't have, but what he achieved in 14 months only gets nuthang but respek from me. The mixtape's problem, however, is that it clearly is a one trick pony, but it's well executed throughout the quite short (27 mins) length. |
| Makala Radio Suicide | 4.1 |
| French-speaking Swiss a l t e r n a t i v e hip hop, and it's fucking dope. Like, really dope. The most obvious influences are Tyler and Pharrell, but Makala makes sure to instigate enough personality into the songs to be considered more than a mere copycat. Indeed, the album's most striking feature is the vocal melodies. He plays a lot with his voice, rapping, singing, shouting, and whispering, and applies various degrees of vocal effects to each of his vocal performances to give the album an ever-flowing vibe. On top of that, you've got lush beats that take influence from disco, funk, trap, or r&b, and that navigate between different moods. Together, these beats and vocals serve only one purpose: musicality. Because if there's one thing you gotta remember about this project, it's neither the beats nor the flow, but how everything blends together in a tight and rewarding way. A truly engaging listen despite its seventy-minute length, Radio Suicide is one of the most versatile French-speaking hip hop records of the last decade. |
| YAYAYI YAYAYI | 3.5 |
| Goddamn. A two-hour long instrumental and e x p e r i m e n t a l chopped'n'screwed with many glitchy bits. It's not moving much, rather comfortably waving through repetitive waves of bleeps and boops, quirks and loops. The whole lot is hypnotic, the rhythm switching every three or so minutes in a drug-induced, lethargic atmosphere. It seems like I'm throwing random words to try to describe this. Basically: it's weird, slow, hypnotic shit that you gotta have patience for. |
| Andavald Undir Skyggðarhaldi | 4.1 |
| Terrifying. At the same time, this is goddamn beautiful. This is due to da album's real MVP: the tone. It's dissonant and creepy, with occasional gorgeous parts that echo the emotion bands like Suis La Lune can create. The vocals pursue the same goal, their inhumanity being only matched by how ironically human the despair they are conveying is. |
| Evigt Morker 5 | 3.0 |
| Another minimal techno EP from this Swedish dude, this time having a slight club vibe to it. Emphasis on the "slight": it's no banger stuff, having too much of an atmospheric knack to tear the club up. Good stuff, but I'm still waiting for the day he surpasses his first EP. |
| Butthole Surfers Weird Revolution | 2.2 |
| The 'Surfers last album is messy for sure. Maybe they thought following the musical zeitgeist would guarantee them some kind of renaissance. It didn't. Aside super-cool-yet-not-original-at-all single "Dracula From Houston", the rest is the 'Surfers attempting to mix electronic textures and rap rock shenanigans into their blend of psychy alt rock. Most of the time, it does not work. It just sounds...messy, the result of a band that lost touch with both the times they live in, and what made them great. |
| Shell of a Shell Away Team | 3.6 |
| Is this 1994? Wow no it's 2020! Shell of a Shell does sound like a typical 90s post-hardcore/emo/indie/noise rock outfit, with every bit of dissonant guitar, pounding rhythmic sessions, and vocals ranging from emotive to enraged. It's exemplary in terms of cathartic rock music, although it sounds more promising than it is actually delivering a work that could be compared to the likes of Slint, Unwound, or Fugazi. |
| Dinos Taciturne | 3.5 |
| With Taciturne, French rapper Dinos wanted to assault the charts, as his first album, Imany, was critically acclaimed but didn't perform well commercially. This new one roughly follows its predecessor's formula, with an even greater focus on melodies, sometimes at the expense of long-term returns: whereas Imany revealed itself after several listens, this one is immediately more rewarding, but does not bring the same feelz as the first one. |
| 100 Gecs 1000 gecs | 3.5 |
| This is dumb but I am also dumb so I kinda like it. The bubblegum bass core sound is accentuated by trancey vocals, trap linings, and brostep - not the WUB WUBs, no! rather the tiny part that happened during the first second of Skrillex's drops (idk if you 'member). There even are pop punk riffs and pig squeals. What's more to ask, good taste? Post-irony is so much better. |
| Zwangere Guy Wie Is Guy? | 3.7 |
| Brussels homie rappin' in Dutch with occasional French sentences. He's got a damn cool attitude, swinging introspective lyrics about his turbulent adolescence into an atmospheric instrumentation switching from boom bap to trap. A bit long (over an hour), but the atmosphere is so gripping it is not a major issue. Goed muziek met een groot doobie. Congrats Gorik for this album. Congrats on being #1 in Vlaanderen, en gefeliciteerd met het vullen van de Ancienne Belgique. |
| Rustie Glass Swords | 3.6 |
| Proto-hyperpop? Broken hip hop beats, vaporwavey textures, EDM swagger and videogame aesthetic, pitched vocals - when there are any - sure sound like a good hyperpop formula. The whole lot screams playful club energy, catchy tunes being the core of the album despite its willingness to be as weird as possible. It's almost amazing that the record holds up given how messy it could have been. It sometimes is, but mostly isn't. |
| Liturgy Origin of the Alimonies | 2.5 |
| Liturgy's "characteristic synthesis between black metal, minimalism, experimental club music, and 19th-century romanticism". Yes, that is true, but it comes as the expense of these fast and aggressive passages that made me appreciate H.A.Q.Q.. The incorporation of strings and pianos were imo more well-integrated in the previous record. Gotta say though, respect for the devotion, RHH. |
| Butthole Surfers Electriclarryland | 3.1 |
| Boooo sellouts. Hum. Notwithstanding the selling out accusations - which always translate music fans' inner conservatism - this one does sound underwhelming compared to their crazy 80s stuff. Even worse, the album's predecessor, Independent Worm Saloon, clearly established itself as the band's best 90s material, and that is because it still retains a strong psych/noisy aesthetic on top of adding a newfound stoner persona. This one got nothing on it. It's kind of psychy, kind of noisy alt rock. Kind of alright. |
| Lous and the Yakuza Gore | 3.1 |
| New Belgian Pop. Hailing from Congo, Lous delivers a cool r&b/pop mixture sometimes backed by trap beats - she also let herself sing with a rap flow on some instances. While musically this is super nice, her lyrical matter is much darker, with cold introspective lines breaking the atmosphere brought by the music. It's a consistent albeit not too remarkable album, save from superhit "Dilemme" which is already stuck in my head. |
| Coops What Do You See? | 3.2 |
| Jazzy and smoky atmosphere, hard-hitting beats, that fat Bri'ish accent: Coops knows how to create an ambiance. However, some tracks trap themselves in a canvas that shouldn't exceed the two minutes length. Indeed, repetition is the album's greatest fault, as many tracks simply cannot propose more than what is premised on their first minutes. The tracks that work the best are those that manage to envelop you in a grimy atmosphere, like "Floating", or "One of Da Best". |
| Vald NQNTMQMQMB | 2.9 |
| Vald's first mixtape is the mandatory first step for every rapper: you gotta show your rapological technique is on point, and you gotta show that you have a certain edge over the concurrence. Vald sure knows how to rap, varying flows and using a shitton of alliterations, assonances, and other homophones. On top of that, he creates varied atmospheres on each track, from his conscious-yet-detached vibe, to his weed adoration one, to the pure stylistic exercises. It's extremely varied, but damn it's 1h50 mins, cool to show everything he's capable of, but it's rather indigestible as a full listen. He however proves he's gonna be force to reckon with in the coming years. |
| Woods of Ypres Woods 5: Grey Skies and Electric Light | 2.8 |
| Gothic, doomy, sleepy. While the emotion displayed here is evident, the songwriting simply is not good enough for these songs to stick. Lyrics are something else tho: the vocalist killed himself shortly after the album's release, confirming the lyrics he wrote were suicidal notes. Damn shame the music does not entirely live up to these gut-wrenching thoughts. |
| Pierce the Veil Collide with the Sky | 2.8 |
| No wonder it sold so much (mofo went gold), it's a mixture of everything successful at the time: themes and vocals taken from pop punk and emo, catchy choruses, post-hardcore (the 2000s mall one) riffs, some nice touches like a Spanish guitar, and Vic Fuentes is prettier than you. What does not work is imo the metalcore breakdown addition, which does not mix well with the rest of their sound. And it's overproduced as heck. I could have dug this in 2012, but retrospectively, it sounds extremely adolescent and early 2010s-y. |
| AC/DC Power Up | 2.7 |
| Well this is an AC/DC record yes it's aight it's not bad it's not really good either it's not revolutionary it's not shit they just cashin' in i mean who could blame 'em these current times are tough. |
| Butthole Surfers Independent Worm Saloon | 3.9 |
| Produced by John Paul Jones (!), Independent Worm Saloon sees the band muscle up and make their psych rock heavier - almost stoner - at the expense of the noisy experimentalism sported by their 80s albums. This is thus less gripping, but a newfound coolness emerges from this stylistic change: the 'Surfers are not as obtuse as before. Sure, some moments are there for them to remind you they like to fuck around a bit, but overall the album is - almost, they conclude the album with a noise improv jam - as digestible as any alt rock album of that era. It's heavier, more psychedelic , and noisier than their counterparts, but the 'Surfers still successfully softened their formula while still swaggily rocking out. |
| Aesop Rock Spirit World Field Guide | 3.3 |
| Aesop going full abstract on this one. Establishing himself as the narrator of a weirdass story, Aesop once again only knows one way to describe the hallucinatory images he got in his head: abstractly. Truly, the dude cannot directly communicate what is happening in his tales. This makes for an interesting if difficult album, especially in the second half - where the songs are simply less engaging than the first half's. |
| Passion Pit Gossamer | 3.7 |
| When synthpop is this sunny and shiny, it's a winner. Even when bittersweet tunes appear, they retain enough optimism to fit into this mostly uplifting album. What is the most impressive is how desperately human it sounds despite the avalanche of effects and layers. Although the singer's voices is processed multiple times, what mostly remains are the melodies. Not all tracks managed to bring me the feeling the best tracks have, but this remains an incredibly solid indie pop album. |
| Mumford and Sons Babel | 2.5 |
| Another 2012 "indie" juggernaut, this one actually won the Album of the Year Grammy Award! Mucho impressivo. I kinda get it: it tries to be epic and joyful, but the songwriting simply isn't on par with the energy and skills they display. The most famous single "I Will Wait" kind of makes you jump on your feet and scream its chorus, but falls short of becoming the anthem they wanted it to be. Likewise, the banjo riffing is cool, but from the second song on it becomes difficult to discern each of these banjo solis. Listen to The Waterboys' Fisherman's Blues instead. |
| fun. Some Nights | 2.2 |
| Bleh. "Indie" pop that tries to go beyond its "indie" status and achieve arena-rockstars status. It works on 2012 mega-hit "We Are Young", but the rest seems like forced attempts at mixing Kanye beats and excessively bombastic "woah-oh" melodies. |
| C2C Tetra | 3.2 |
| Five time turntablists world champions, this Nantais collective (m/) broke into the mainstream with this mostly fun, at times irritating album. Main single "Down the Road" was an absolute tidal wave in 2012 - even my parents know that one - and unfortunately makes you hope that the rest of the record contains the same quality material. Turns out it does at time, but too many forgettable cuts in the middle part make Tetra drag for too long. That's the problem when your style - a mix of electro swing, french house, and hip hop beats - is meant to create singles: all tracks gotta be bombastic bangers if you wanna retain the listener's attention. And if they all are, make sure that the album is short enough to not overwhelm the listener. I exaggerate these problems' importance tho lol |
| Solstafir Endless Twilight of Codependent Love | 3.3 |
| This is pretty for sure. Yet, although the record is beautiful, it does not manage to fully embark the listener on the journey they created. It does succeed at time, like on the epic "Or". But these moments of pure Solstafir beauty tend to be rare, leaving the listener frustrated as most of the album falls into the "aight yeah it's cool" category. Likewise, the vocals seem forced on certain instances, not as gripping as on previous records. Nevertheless, this is a mostly pretty prog metal album with some post linings, but it ultimately falls short of the band's best records. |
| Butthole Surfers Pioughd | 3.1 |
| All over the place, psychy, and full of feedback: yup, this is a Butthole Surfers album. Their last Rough Trade album - before the label sank in bankruptcy - doesn't tackle the same manic territories than its predecessors, being more influenced by country than hardcore punk. Psychy noise rock is however still the core of the band's sound, but it does not always succeed at what it tries to do (that Gandhi song for example). |
| Deen Burbigo Cercle vertueux | 3.8 |
| This is what I wanted Grand Cru (2017) to be. In his previous album, Deen decided to sing more than rap, and while I laud artists who want to diversify their artistic proposition, Deen is best when he throw 'em bars. It's not that he threw away sung choruses, but he instead made them sound like bars rather than purely sung passages: it's majorly an album of flowing rhymes and nocturnal trap beats. It's very consistent, even though a bit more variations would have helped the album to be truly outstanding. |
| Billy Woods History Will Absolve Me | 3.7 |
| Hardcore shit this. Whether it's Billy's voice or his lyrics, his performance is urgent, yet always standing on the verge of breaking down, as if sarcasm promised to destroy all political positions Billy has vowed to display. Likewise, the beats are hard-hitting and have got a somewhat glitchy tone to them, again working as a way to make the album the grimiest experience possible. Super consistent stuff, that only suffers from a lack of true highlight and an overblown length. |
| Jack White Blunderbuss | 3.0 |
| Cool rocky blues by Monsieur Blanc, with enough stylistic differences with the White Stripes for Blunderbuss to establish itself as a pure Jack White album. More rooted into blues than garage, the album's biggest problem lies in how, in the end, it's predictable. The first few tracks manage to kick things up pretty nicely, but it soon falls into well-known territories. |
| alt-J An Awesome Wave | 3.2 |
| Mercury-winning indie pop tends to raise some eyebrows. You expect something kinda cool, with a sound lying halfway between the original and the boring. This one is no exception. With subtle touches of folk and electronica, the album's eclecticism is made accessible by how poppy the melodies are, but the end result sounds uncertain to me. I feel like they wanted to be bold, but they didn't fully manage to be. There are some good ideas though, like the duality of "Fitzpleasure"'s abrasive bass and quirky vocals. |
| Bruno Mars Unorthodox Jukebox | 2.6 |
| Not as annoying as his first album, nor as absurdly catchy as his third one, this one lies exactly in the middle. It's aight pop with cheesy choruses and evident plagiarism - "Locked Out of Heaven" is a Police song, full stop. It's when he lets the funky basslines dictate the groove that the album truly picks up, but these passages do not happen too often. |
| Bring Me the Horizon Post Human: Survival Horror | 2.7 |
| More alt metal than ever, BMTH finally reverse the course of "being softer by each passing release". It's heavier, yes, but still retains many EDM and electropop moments, clearly reminding 2010s' Linkin Park. Whether or not this remark drops or raises your interest, gotta say this is slightly better than their post-Sempiternal records. There riffs that are thrashing enough for you to bop your head. When was the last time that happened to you while listening to a BMTH record? A longass time, eh? It's still not enough for this record to truly stand out. |
| Butthole Surfers Hairway to Steven | 3.8 |
| The end of an era for the 'Surfers: their last 80s album, and drummer Teresa Taylor's last recording for the band. Being comprised of songs that the band already was playing, Hairway to Steven (rofl) also was the first album of theirs to be - much - less improvised than their first albums. Some of their spontaneity is lost, but this album acts well as a transitional work encapsulating the band's shifting sound. |
| Medine Grand Medine | 3.2 |
| How to still be relevant 20 years into a career, by Medine. As hard-hitting as ever, without sounding like an old man screaming at a cloud, he once again modernized his talk, as well as the beats. The beats indeed are modern, but not in a bombastic way like "look I can also rap on modern stuff". These beats are mostly subtle, discrete canvas on which Medine can paint his tales. Add to the equation well-used autotune and his traditional "conscious" stance, and you got the album that proves that Medine is a prominent figure of conscious hip hop. Small caveat: the album is quite linear, and few tracks truly are amazing. |
| Carly Rae Jepsen Kiss | 2.2 |
| Apart from "Call Me Maybe", I had never listened to this before. It's much more teen pop-oriented than EMOTION, at the expense of these sweet sweet synths. It does not work as well, as it mostly sounds like generic summer pop anthems with cliche lyrics and bad features. |
| Hot Chip In Our Heads | 2.7 |
| Indietronica + synthpop + alternative dance, sounds like a fun and danceable record, right? It kind of is, but it's way too safe to be memorable. A tune pop in, you somewhat enjoy it, but as soon as the next track starts, you've already forgot what you just listened to |
| Macklemore and Ryan Lewis The Heist | 3.2 |
| Wah this was everywhere. Well, the three main singles were everywhere. Huge anthems full of posi vibes, it was perfect for PC uni bros party. The rest of the tracks tread the same path, and while it sometimes feel a lil bloated, the dichotomy "reflective songs" vs. "party beats" is well-established, the two elements going back-and-forth in terms of prominence. Some tracks are however unnecessary, especially the cheesiest reflective tracks and the too-huge-to-be-true party ones. And it didn't deserve the 2014 Rap Grammy. |
| XXYYXX XXYYXX | 3.3 |
| "About You" is an early 2010s classic in my eyes. The slow build-up exploding into an intricate web of druggy future garage electronics, as well as the video with all these gals smoking while wearing animal masks, represented important parts of my year 2012. The problem is, the rest of the album doesn't manage to attain the first track's magnificence. It's good future garage with vaporwavey vocals, trap beats, and nods to The XX, but it's tackling too much the minimalistic approach to be fully engaging. It's when the electronics rise that it gets chilling. |
| Netsky Second Nature | 2.6 |
| After going on an electro house binge, Boris Daenen decides to come back to his roots: liquid funk. Wobbling basses, frantic drums, and sweet vocal delivery are the album's core formula, but it doesn't often stray away from said template. That's the main problem: while the first half of the album is enjoyable, the second half feels like nothing but a rehashed copy of what was popular 8-10 years ago. Would have worked better as an EP. |
| Butthole Surfers Locust Abortion Technician | 3.6 |
| Rofl that "Sweet Leaf" cover is monstrously funny. More monstrous than funny, actually, and that schema repeats itself over the course of the album. Once again, the 'Surfers cover many different genres, but this is their most anxiety-provoking record. This is partly due to the recording process: having built an in-house studio in Austin, Texas, the band could spend all the time they wanted on replicating their live performances - and do many bong hits breaks. It was still artisanal though, the whole album being recorded on an eight-track machine. The end result is an album that is always on the edge of crumbling under its own disgusted weight, as almost every song tries to be over-the-top, vulgar, aggressive, and psychedelic. A bunch of weirdoes creating a fucken weird album that somehow managed to be an enjoyable, if jarring, listen. |
| Carcass Despicable | 2.5 |
| Yup, these are leftovers. Per se, it's not bad - but it's not really good either. Melodeath by the numbers, with occasional glimpses of greatness (the clean riff at the end of "The Long And Winding Bier Road". Just hoping the 2021 album will be more inspired than this. |
| Farrah Abraham My Teenage Dream Ended | 3.2 |
| In a way, this is really shitty. But at the same time, this is kind of amazing. In 2012, it sounded challenging as fuck. In 2020, in a world where bubblegum bass and outsider house have become the newest hip thing, it sounds like a precursor work. If it did influence some artists, it wasn't on purpose: Farrah did not know what she was doing, and had no musical knowledge. She's singing offbeat with weirdly-produced vocals, the music is a messy mixture of electropop, synthpop, brostep (yep it was 2012), and electroclash, and the lyrical content range from purely frightening - due to its confessional nature - to amusingly naive - due to Farrah's lack of experience as a "writer". 100 Gecs did it for fun, Farrah did it for real. I can't possibly say this is good, but it nevertheless is fascinating. Edit: idk y |
| Django Django Django Django | 3.0 |
| A sweet take on indie pop, Django Django's self-titled album is one of playful rhythms, hypnotic voice processing, summery vibe, and above all else, a special knack for fusing classic indie pop with modern production. This shtick tend to grow old pass the 30 minutes mark, as the sonic prowess is much more impressive than the melodic one, but, for a first album, this is one cool ride although wack at times. |
| 1995 (FR) Paris Sud Minute | 3.1 |
| Even more rooted in the 90s than their first two EPs, this first - and last - album is a good summary of the group's ethos: boom bap, storytelling instead of vapid punchlines, and a very peace'n'love - if a bit too naive - lyrical content. They are still very young, but a sense of maturity emanates from this one, with more serious and enraged tracks. The occasional shitty refrain is still there ("Baisse ta vitre" or "Reel", arguably their worst song ever), but the rappers are at their best yet, and DJ Hologram 'Lo pulls out his best boom bap beats. Creative differences exploded the band, but some of the rappers (Nekfeu, Sneazzy, Alpha Wann) would go on to the next step: L'Entourage. |
| Niechec Smierc w Miekkim Futerku | 4.3 |
| Grilling jazz that uses prog/post-rock tropes to add grandeur to the otherwise haunting atmosphere. It's a disjointed grandeur, however, as the at-times atonal sax plays the role usually devolved to vocals. Plus, the band does not hesitate to jump from relaxing landscapes to frenzied panoramas, fusing diverse musical elements - dub, psych rock - within a jazz template. For a jazz album, this one is quite diverse: it is free-flowing enough to be labeled as avant/free jazz, but the rhythm section is unmistakably bebop, and the varied soundscapes would guarantee a "fusion" tag. An enormous album that manages to successfully pull out many different atmospheres in less than 40 minutes. |
| The Tissues Blue Film | 3.6 |
| Upbeat and hard-rocking post-punk with charismatic vocals, sometimes bordering on the noisy/arty side of the punk spectrum. It's short - less than 30 minutes - fast and angry, what more could you possibly ask from a punk record? |
| Butthole Surfers Rembrandt Pussyhorse | 3.5 |
| Not more weird than Psychic..., but creepier. Using goth, industrial, and even some techno connotations, as well as playing in 6/8 - a pure lunacy for a punk band - are proof Butthole Surfers wanted to grab your attention by being the weirdest fucking bunch of maniacs you could encounter. Add the many scratches and effects, transforming the now-trademark Hayne's non-singing technique into an even more frightening take on wailing, and you've got one hell of a record made by peepz who wanted to do whatever they wanted. It's not an easy listen, even to the BS' standards. One of the most experimental release of an experimental band = you gotta spend time with it before fully appreciating it. If you ever do. They are trying to alienate you. |
| Ariana Grande positions | 3.2 |
| Ari stans wanting some over-the-top choruses sure b disappointed. The trap instrumentation is imo well integrated with her pop/r&b sound - better than on TU,N, and the same can be said about the occasional strings. The main criticism would be that it lacks the bombastic choruses she mastered on Dangerous Woman, yet Ari shows a more cohesive vibe throughout the whole album. On the one hand, it means that the general quality is kept at a constant level, but on the other hand, it also means an overall lack of variety. The album is only 41 minutes long, and it's good it's no longer, otherwise, it could have become a drag. Cool listen, cool album. If you miss huge bops just go to Dangerous Woman's first half. |
| Nas Life Is Good | 3.2 |
| Good one Nasir. Fusing both contemporary and golden age beats, incorporating old school samples as well as orchestral elements, this is, musically speaking, the best Nas album since STILLmatic. The sound is very nostalgic, accentuated by the lyrical matters - basically he's mad at his ex-wife. Overall cool, with some horrible choruses here and there. |
| Justin Bieber Believe | 1.5 |
| Less naive than the first album, and that makes it even more detestable. Musically, this is less annoying than said rookie effort, and tbh some moments border on the catchy. Still mostly vapid, but not entirely horrible. 1.7 |
| Netsky 2 | 3.0 |
| Less cohesive than his first album, but the top jams are massive and rhythmed the 2012 Belgian Summer, Netsky going to almost all festivals to make people jump and dance. He did so by changing his sound: it's not only liquid funk anymore, adding electro house and 'step elements to his hugest tracks to give them a larger-than-life sound. "Love Has Gone", "Puppy", and "Come Alive" all remain classics from that era, but the other tracks do not necessarily meet the same level of awesomeness. Although fun, most of them are also made of the aforementioned liquid funk/electro house/bruhstep mishmash. Sometimes it works well ("Give & Take"), sometimes the end result is too aggressively in-yo-face to appeal beyond the dancefloor ("911", "Squad Up"). Shame, 'cause once again damn these singles take me back to Pukkelpop 2012. |
| Alabama Shakes Boys & Girls | 3.5 |
| You already know the album's greatest asset: Brittany Howard. Her voice is pure honey in my ears, as she can both softly purr and mightily yell a la Janis Joplin. The rest of the band focuses on its brand of blues/southern rock, with a zest of Americana. It's not 100% original musically speaking, and they would refine their formula on the second LP, but this a cool throwback record for all your mamas and papas. |
| Adrianne Lenker songs | 3.5 |
| Pretty, subtle indie folk. I never really enjoyed Big Thief's material, but this one managed to momentarily grab me. Repetitiveness is the album's greatest asset and fault: on the one hand, these guitar strummings can sometimes create a sweet vacuum in which the listener can get lost in ("anything", "half return"). On the other hand, the songs that do not benefit from a tight songwriting tend to overstay their welcome. As a whole, however, it's some of the prettiest indie folk I've heard in 2020. |
| Butthole Surfers Psychic... Powerless... Another Man's Sac | 3.9 |
| They were actually trying to do the worst possible record. In a way, they succeeded. This is fucking ugly. This is fucking grotesque. But this is kind of fascinating. Merging all their influences together in a messy-yet-cohesive set of songs ranging from surf rock to art punk to post-punk to traditional punk to noisy shit to psychy shit to country, they made sure that all songs tackle the same eerie and turgid ambience. On top of that, vocals come out as attempts to not sing at all. Singer Howler Gibby Haynes seems to be a hyperkinetic kid in serious need of sedatives. Weird stuff, but clinging to enough traditional elements to be more than an unlistenable mess. Before the term "noise rock" was even invented, Butthole Surfers came up with a solid psychedelic take on dissonance, feedback, and distortion. |
| Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou May Our Chambers Be Full | 3.9 |
| Heavy and atmospheric sludge with vocal performances done by both ERR and Bryan. The main problem is that, while the atmosphere is nailed here, it does lack some stronger melodies that could have elevated this project on top of the sludge metal chain. It's amazing pummeling stuff, but in terms of Thou material, I've heard better. Gotta jump on ERR's discography. |
| Chief Keef Finally Rich | 3.8 |
| Drill, tous les rappeurs veulent s'y mettre, but Chief Keef already perfected the formula in 2012. Built around coldass beats - courtesy of Young Chop - that takes on trap sounds but with more focus on 2000s G-Unit beats. Keef is rapping mindless shit, but he does with such attitude and a sharp sense of creating damn fun hooks that the lyrical content does not constitute a viable criticism. Style over substance, but boy does he have some swagger. |
| Rihanna Unapologetic | 2.1 |
| Most all-over-the-place album of hers. It's diverse, but it just goes everywhere without correctly nailing the genres she takes inspiration from. From the WUBWUBWUBs to the 2012 Guetta production, most songs here have badly aged, except for some tunes like "Pour It Up", where badass flow fights with a glacial beat. |
| Crystal Castles Crystal Castles III | 3.1 |
| Much colder than (II), the glitches' playfulness being gone in favour of more atmospheric cuts. It's nothing but a stylistic choice, but not one that entirely pleases me. While the ethereal ambiance is clearly well-done, most songs tackle the same soundscapes, which makes the album feel more lengthy than it actually is. |
| Muse The 2nd Law | 2.2 |
| Ah, the infamous. Epic, charged with a political sci fi concept, this could have been cool, but it's obnoxious. The main reason is their will to flirt with influences they maybe didn't fully digest. Queen-isms epics sit next to brostep gloubiboulg, and some tracks contain multiple elements that do not necessarily work together - symphonic brostep, nice. It's a shame 'cause it could have been a great, interesting album, but it feels like they rushed the process, with ok parts and absolutely horrible ones (first part of the t/t ugh). |
| Tricot 10 | 3.6 |
| Cutesy weeb math rock bordering more towards pop rock than brutal prog. Treading the same sunny path a band like Clever Girl already perfected, the Japanese vocals' inclusion makes it even more playful thanks to the super choruses. It results in an uplifting record which knows when to let the instrumentals shine, and when to pull out catchy choruses (NIDOME NO NYUMIN WAAAAAA). Kind of a shame the middle part of the album isn't as engaging as the bookends. |
| Butthole Surfers Butthole Surfers | 4.0 |
| Fucking weird, but fucking cool. One sentence summarizes the EP's wild spirit: "We kind of shared a similar aesthetic, as far as being punk rockers but also really into drugs and arty kind of aspects of music". Well, it sounds like weirdass punk rock with a strong noise rock edge, but also a kind of tender side. This tender side is very subtle and only shows itself in some guitar tones. The rest is pure fucking madness. The singer barks, yells, cries, whispers, basically he does everything possible to not sing. The sound is also wild, ranging from noise rock to surf rock to psych rock, but with always enough wildness to match hardcore punk's intensity. Really good surprise this, especially how they tackle many genres in only 18 minutes. Plus they managed to add a dissonant sax, so of course I love it. |
| Oneohtrix Point Never Magic Oneohtrix Point Never | 3.9 |
| Even more so than his latest record Age Of, Magic Oneohtrix Point Never feels like Daniel Lopatin's contemplation of his own legacy, a retrospective work self-referencing past projects. It features the manufactured aura of Age Of and Garden of while still emphasizing the experimentalism that made Replica and R Plus Seven the bizarrely obsessing objects they are. This does sound all over the place, doesn't it? It does, but this is precisely the desired effect. As a radio station moves between genres and moods, Magic flows between Lopatin's influences and loves. The most impressive feat is the overall cohesion that emerges out of this project, succeeding at embarking the listener on a cosmic journey waving multiple influences. Everything is there: static breakdowns, sound collages, sudden silences, and synth arpeggios. It's a mess. But what a beautiful, hypnotic mess. |
| Green Day iTRE! | 2.0 |
| A fusion of UNO's power pop aesthetic and DOS's garage production, it's the most e p i c record of the trilogy, its stadium rock antics making it clear from the get go that this is the album they wanna play live. The problem is that, as on 21st Century Breakdown, you gotta have good material for that kind of album to work. It doesn't, as nothing is remotely memorable if you've already given their 90s/noughties material a listen. |
| Bell Witch Longing | 3.5 |
| Funeral doom using beautiful guitar tones to bring some kind of meditation out of the depressive material. This gives a somewhat gothic vibe to the album, its melancholy sounding irremediable. The long, drone parts sure help instigate said ambiance, even though they do drag at some points without bringing enough emotional return. It's nevertheless a great minimalistic take on funeral doom, with clean and death vocals responding to each other in a call-and-response way. |
| Netsky Netsky | 3.1 |
| Belgian festival darling's circa 2010-2013. Along Stromae, Netsky was THE dude back then. His dancey take on liquid funk - a chill drum'n'bass subgenre - made it perfect for concerts: hi-energy, fun. Thanks to the ethereal vocals, there is enough atmosphere for the record to pretend to go beyond the simple "fun show album" status. However, many tracks do overstay their welcome, meandering beyond the 3 minute mark without bringing new elements to the table. Still, a cool record jumping from dancefloor drum'n'bass to liquid funk. |
| Linkin Park Living Things | 2.6 |
| If you didn't like A Thousand Suns, chances are you won't like this one either. It's pop rock with electronics, with a bit more of their trademark angst than on the previous album. The biggest problem is that it's messy. They tried to go everywhere, but they didn't manage to land anywhere. It's not horrible, but it doesn't possess the necessary punch to be more than a "meh" album. |
| Catz 'n Dogz Moments | 3.6 |
| Chill house. Like, really chill. This is an album that works as much as a background listen than as a dedicated one. This is because the album flows between contemplative cuts and more dynamic ones, adding layers on top of relaxed beats to come up with a fluidity between each tune. The tracks using vocals do not work as much as the others, but they are the only "bad" moments on the album so that's aight. |
| Sonic Youth SYR 9: Simon Werner a Disparu | 3.7 |
| Sonic Youth's last official recording, and it's a SYR one? You know what to expect: even though their 90s and 2000s album tended more towards alt rock than noisy, experimental stuff, the SYR series provided the band a special place to deliver their least user-friendly records. This is no exception: post-rock progressions meet noisy sounds and more rocking cuts. Of course, it's not their best material. But it's their last one, synthesizing 30 years of career in a swift hour of instrumental music. |
| Tears for Fears The Seeds of Love | 3.8 |
| B I G. This is 80s bombastic pop at its most epic. Less reliant on synths than Songs from the Big Chair, this albums contains much more jazz and psychedelic pop elements. The soundscape is b r o a d. A wide open field of sounds, it's a record that most importantly is one of the most spacious of its era. Songwriting-wise, the crown is still held by Songs from the Big Chair, but this is their most ambitious effort. It's the last true Tears for Fears album too, Curt Smith leaving the band in 1991. An appropriate swansong for one of the biggest 80s acts. |
| Pallbearer Forgotten Days | 2.7 |
| Since I'm not a huge fan of this band, this mainly a snoozefest. Before this album, Pallbearer only managed to appeal to me during certain parts of some songs. The same happens here, some beautiful guitar tones awaking me in the middle of the production slump. Sleepy doom with occasional pretty guitar leads. |
| Big K.R.I.T. Live From The Underground | 3.0 |
| Cool stuff as always with him, but not as impacting or engaging as his mixtapes. There are two main reasons. First one, the hooks tend to be too repetitive to the point of annoyance. Secondly, although the core sound still relies on deep southern bass, there are some G-Funk influences thrown into the mix, and they don't mingle well with the base sound. Much more inconsistent than his previous mixtapes, but the dude's still dope enough for it not to be that bad of a problem. |
| Angel Olsen Half Way Home | 3.1 |
| Gentle and introspective americana-tinged indie folk. It's good Olsen has got an emotional voice, as the instrumentation is at times too subdued to my taste. It's mostly beautiful though, but the project is truly elevated when Olsen just lets it go, her voice cracking and straining. Good stuff, but a formula to be refined. |
| 1995 (FR) La Suite | 3.1 |
| La Suite? A logical continuation from first EP La Source. The old school revival aesthetic is still present, but isn't as central as on the preceding EP. It's also less naive, although the occasional maladroit line happens on some songs. Less purist, more varied, it might well be the most refined they have ever been. |
| Bruce Springsteen Letter to You | 3.6 |
| The Boss' 20th album, and he still sounds good. Recorded live, the instrumentation's richness and the production's clarity make the energized performances shine. It just sounds so lively. Tackling issues that he could have talked about 50 years ago without losing his timeless touch, Bruce can still move you. Dude's still got game. |
| Sonic Youth The Eternal | 3.4 |
| Sonic Youth's last album, but they haven't lost their touch. Halfway between melodic and noisy, The Eternal is a punching record summarizing the band's 90s/00s career: a touch of alt rock, a touch of noise rock, and here we go. It's not revolutionary, but the simple act of delivering solid albums after solid albums is to be lauded. Godspeed, Sonic. |
| Pixies Doolittle | 3.9 |
| This third LP was still released by 4AD, but it wasn't produced by Albini: "Debaser"'s first bassline is way too polished for Steev-o to have produced it. It's an album of contrast. Contrast between Black and Deal's vocals. Contrast between the shouts and the lullabies. Contrast between manic sentiments and pop sensibilities. Fusing their punk ethos with noisy pop and surf rock, Pixies have perfected their formula here. After U2 and R.E.M., after Husker Du and The Replacements, alongside Dinosaur Jr., before Nirvana and Weezer. Alternative rock's history is quite easy to summarize in the end. |
| Pretty Sneaky Pretty Sneaky | 3.5 |
| A great Berliner dub/minimal techno that contains TONS of field recordings. Whether it's water splashing or birds chirping, the organic recordings counterbalance the resolutely modern and electronic template. While the field recordings are indeed cool additions, I feel like they sometimes take the lead over the beat. A 4/4 beat made of splashing water isn't something I'm really used to. Still, it's good stuff, especially track 3 which is a great example of a minimal techno track that masterfully uses dub influences to instigate a subtle yet engaging groove. |
| Green Day iDOS! | 2.0 |
| Like UNO!, this is Green Day coming up with a power pop album that sounds like their late 90s material, with an added garage production style. In the 90s, it was cool. In 2012, it's lame. 1.9 |
| Ichiko Aoba Utabiko | 3.7 |
| Oh sweet sweet Ichiko, will you leave my heart alone? This time bringing some Spanish influences into her guitar playing, Ichiko sounds warmer than before on "Imperial Smoke Town", and it's the best counterbalance to how mellow and soothing her voice is. Of course, like every Ichiko album, it's quite monotonous. It's beautiful and delicate, yes, but a tad monotonous. |
| La Smala On est la la, vol. III | 2.8 |
| Brussels rap collective's last mixtape before the first album. It's typical early 2010s La Smala, and I would dare to say it's typical early 2010s boom bap revival. Built around piano and violin loops, the beats alternate between hard-hitting and chill. Typical. Lyrics-wise and flow-wise, this is also very typical. Very well-executed, but not bringing anything new to the table. |
| clipping. Visions of Bodies Being Burned | 3.8 |
| The best 2020 Halloween album, period. Whether it's the beats' claustrophobic noisiness, or the vivid lyrics, this is a work of terror. It terrorizes me a tad less than There Existed An Addiction to Blood. The thing is, the last record contained "Piano Burning", a somewhat grating piece concluding the album. I feel like this time the more grating/experimental pieces are disseminated throughout the whole thing, which kinda impairs my listening experience. It still is an album that leaves you panting, especially when they let the songs ascend ("Say the Name"), when the industrial rhythms are at their most erratic ("Pain Everyday") or when they just decide to pull out a witch house banger ("Enlacing"). |
| Sonic Youth SYR 8: Andre Sider Af Sonic Youth | 3.0 |
| The SYR series has always proved to be Sonic Youth's gateway to work with artists deemed too e x p e r i m e n t a l to be featured on Geffen-distributed albums. This time, it's Mats Gustaffson (free jazz saxophonist) and Merzbow (y'know) that accompanied the band during a live representation. To be direct, the first 20-25 minutes are basically Sonic Youth improvising noisy guitars. That's not very interesting. However, when Merzbow and Gustaffson come in and rip it up, it's cool. Gustaffson's dissonant winds are effing violent, and perfectly matches Merzbow's use of laptop-y textures. The SY part was bleh, the features were great. |
| Nirvana Bleach | 2.7 |
| Apart from being the first record of the most popular rock band of the past 30 years, this isn't really interesting. Before refining their formula on Nevermind, Nirvana wore their influences on their sleeve. There's a bit of Melvins' sludgy heaviness, some Led Zeppelin melodies that bands like The Replacements or Husker Du already incorporated into a hardcore template, plus that grunge sound that Sub Pop desperately wanted. It's aight for a first album, but it truly is nothing but a preparation. It's neither as good as their influences, nor as their subsequent records. |
| Roisin Murphy Roisin Machine | 3.8 |
| Of course comparisons have been made between Dua Lupa, Jessie Ware, and Roisin Murphy. Three 2020 pop records relying on disco and house tropes? Yup, gotta compare them. While Dua clearly delivered the poppiest record, Jessie made a more subtle declaration towards love and sensuality. That's where Roisin Murphy differentiates herself: there ain't almost no place for love on her newest LP. Roisin Machine only belongs to the dancefloor. What's even more impressive is that all tracks are long, but never lose steam over the course of the record. Tight shit. Gotta hit the Zodiac or C12 whenever it's possible. |
| Imagine Dragons Night Visions | 2.1 |
| I didn't really want to listen to this. Alas, a never-decreasing urge to fully understand the past decade's cultural environment forced me to do so - it charted at #7 on the decade-end US Billboard 200. So. If Imagine Dragons both charted so well and gathered many criticisms, it's because of one trend only: the addition of electronic elements into what was traditionally considered as alternative rock. This trend doomed many successful bands - who cared about Muse after they went electronic? - but it instead guaranteed mass success to ID. Truth be told, this is super bland. It's polished, it tries to be powerful, but eventually fails because of its overall lack of depth. The band's goal is evident here: make you feel bigger. Such a goal is laudable, if only the material is on par. You listened to this? Did you remember much, aside from the played-to-death "Radioactive"/"Demons", and that mandoline hook on "It's Time"? No? Me neither. |
| Alph et Nek En Sous-Marin | 3.2 |
| Reminder: this is 2011 Alpha and Nekfeu. Hence, naive lyrics, chill boom bap beats with some untasteful bits - that intro or, that Star Wars sample, ugh - as well as good rapological technique - if a little too confined to one specific flow. Retrospectively, this isn't anything spectacular. Back then though, it clearly showed these two bois were - and still are - the best rappers off 1995. In fact, they are the best two rappers of their generation. They aren't there yet in 2011 though. Nevertheless, this is a good introduction to their body of work for y'all nerds. If you don't really care, just go jam "Monsieur Sable" and its Pharcyde-inspired videoclip. |
| Green Day ¡UNO! | 2.1 |
| I think I've already heard this album! Oh never mind, I confused this one with all their previous records. Not awful per se - really - but just kinda useless. It's their own brand of power pop/pop punk/pop rock, but less infectious than past material, and way too reminiscent of past tunes. Some songs clearly were rip-offs of their previous hits. |
| Soso Maness Mistral | 3.4 |
| C MARSEILLE BEBE! Another Marseille rapper slowly rising to the top. On top of being a super sympathetic bloke, Soso created a diverse record, alternating both the beats style as his flow and lyrics. In short: he can be as hard-hitting as sweet, as exuberantly hedonistic as pessimistic. The beats encompass these contradictory feelings switch from trap rap bangers to pop rap to hip house, even to a modern rock-inspired trap interlude that truly shows how much of a musicophile Soso is - btw idk if musicophile is a real English word but idgaf. Likewise, he's at times tackling "conscious" matters, while he's plainly explaining gangsta shit other times. Cool dude, cool album, versatile without losing much coherence. There still are some untasteful bits - eg "So Maness" is this album's festival cut, and as usual it doesn't work that well on studio. |
| Sonic Youth SYR 7: J'accuse Ted Hughes/Agnes B Musique | 3.0 |
| This seventh instalment of the SYR series is made of two looong trippy soundscapes. Being early 2000s live performances, this album is much more connected sonically to NYC Ghosts and Flowers than it is to Rather Ripped. Indeed, noisy'n'drony post-rock slowly rises into a mad mixture of shoegaze and doom metal, on top of which Kim "sings" random lines. In terms of pure musical journey, this is one of the most unforgiving album the band has ever released. It sometimes falters during some developments, but it manages to stay somewhat interesting given the rather "experimental" edge. It's clearly not for everyone though. |
| Lou Reed New York | 2.8 |
| Loulou goes roots rock to narrate his tales. The thing is, the music is more an accompaniment to the lyrics than the opposite. So, if you like listening Lou Reed telling coolass Beat poetry over minimal rock instrumentations, jump on this asap. Otherwise, meh. |
| Get Dead Dancing with the Curse | 3.5 |
| Punk rock that obviously loves ska-inspired acousthicc deviations. The vocals + overall energy makes me immediately think of *that* kind of punk band that loves beer and whose vocalist shines due to his raspy vocals. On top of that, a headbang-inducing rhythm section, as well as engaging guitars, make this a very cool punk record. Plus there are hardcore influences, so ofc I dig. The album as a whole sometimes sounds a tad too homogeneous to my taste - although there are some slight electronic thingies going on. |
| La Smala On est la la, vol. II | 3.2 |
| Brussels' most famous hip hop collective's second mixtape. It's still very old school in its aesthetic, the beats being clearly influenced by NYC's boom bap, and the flows mostly recalling late 90s ones. The lyrical matter also reminds such eras, with kinda conscious lines following semi-egotrip ones. The rappers are cool, but still not entirely recognizable at that time. While it clearly is an early career mixtape, it's well-executed. |
| Skrillex Bangarang | 2.1 |
| "Bangarang" was the shit back then. Don't care about the rest, but damn "Bangarang" just goes. To be fair, it's kind of a remix of "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites" - but then, what Skrillex tune wasn't? Apart from that, it's always the same WUBWUBWUB stuff - retrospectively, this shit was dated within a year. Remember that, after this, Skrillex only had commercial success with "Make It Bun 'Dem" ft. Damian Marley. This was the beginning of his downfall. |
| Protest the Hero Scurrilous | 2.1 |
| I'm too old for that shit. Although I quite liked them when I was 17, I've grown off Protest the Hero. Not that they instantly became bad, but their aesthetic does not appeal to me anymore. The tech guitars are cool but tiring on the long run; the NWOBHM vocals do not match the resolutely modern sound; and the overall cheesiness seems even more cheesy to me than early Carly. There are some ok "epic" parts. |
| Georgie Sweet Misunderstood | 3.9 |
| Smooth. Georgie's sweet voice navigates on soulful waters, the music at play alternating between neo-soul songs, jazzy smokey atmosphere, lo-fi hip hop beats a la Nujabes, and underlying electronic textures. The whole lot reminds a cross between Hiatus Kaiyote and Submotion Orchestra. Modern soul is doing gud. |
| Sonic Youth Rather Ripped | 3.1 |
| Sonic Youth's most accessible record. Much more alt/indie rock than it is noisey, they haven't discarded dissonance, but they rather ripped (lel) the songs' length, most of them being 3-4 minutes long. It results in concise catchy songs ("Incinerate", "Pink Steam"), as well as undercooked cuts - these ones mostly are the more atmospheric songs. The highs are really high here, but the album is overall too inconsistent, especially in its middle section. |
| Lenny Kravitz Let Love Rule | 3.1 |
| Mainstream alt rock that didn't necessarily aged badly, but its funky/psychy take on rock surely sounds a lot like 1989. No bad track, no trve standout either - his later singles are where it's at. Most importantly, some songs meander for way too long - a recurrent problem imo. It's basically a one-man Kravitz show, as the dude wrote, produced and recorded the whole thing. Kudos Lenny. You're gonna improve your formula in the coming years, but this is promising. |
| Craven Faults Erratics and Unconformities | 3.6 |
| Progressive electronic in 2020 still relies on the same tropes some high 70s dudes created. And, spoiler: it still works, even though the formula is quite simple. Indeed, this album is nothing but crescending synths creating complex webs counterbalanced by minimal techno beats. When it works, like on the first two tracks, it's amazing. When it meanders for too long without bringing enough diversity or climax ("Slack Sley & Temple"), it's much less enjoyable. Overall a real solid electronic record for y'all Boards of Canada nerds. |
| Jay-Z and Kanye West Watch the Throne | 3.2 |
| All-Star Game: the album. Curated by Jay-Z and Kanye, all features are big name material (Beyonce, Otis Redding, Frank Ocean), and the braggadocio is the one driving lyrical subject. While they clearly want to "experiment" with their sound - especially Kanye - it doesn't always work for the best. Sometimes it's due to bad choices - remix Flux Pavilion, really? The main reason, however, is that I feel Jay isn't always on par with Kanye's production. Because, make no mistake here, it's a Kanye West album. It's just that Jay is featuring on each track. It's a cool record, but one that could have benefited from some refinement. |
| Death Toll 80k Harsh Realities | 3.7 |
| Filthy grindcore with groovy and thrashy riffs. It's thus bouncing in its filthiness, the thrash breaks making me wonder why I don't go to the gym and lift shit up. The vocalist is quite versatile too, alternating between "RUH"s and "GAH"s. Add some blastbeats in the mix, clear death metal influences, a crass production that fits very well with the apocalyptic aesthetic, and apparently politically misanthrope lyrics, and you've got a dense record that immediately jumps on you and jabs you in the jugular. Cool stuff overall, although not mindblowing imo. |
| Foster the People Torches | 3.1 |
| Y'all know that kind of album, the one album with one giga hit and 9-10 other songs? This is one of 'em. It's so much one of them they actually wrote the album to back the song's popularity. Now, what song am I talking about? I'm talking indie pop banger, "Pumped Up Kicks". A fun jam for sure, and its mix of happy and melancholic is spread throughout the record. However, the overall soundscape tackles much more danceable territories than its single did. It results in a semi-party record, full of catchy refrains but adding too much of a bittersweet vibe to actually be an album to rock the party. It's fun though, but inoffensive in that sense, because we already know the album's best part before listening to it. It kinda feels like the 2011's "Oracular Spectacular": a cool album with passable tracks and pure bangers. |
| Greg Puciato Child Soldier: Creator of God | 3.7 |
| This is one of the most logical evolution I've seen in recent music. Mathcore, then synthpop, then industrial alt darkwave? Yeah, legit. There still are traces of the inner TDEP violence, as well as the bombastic rhythms brought by The Black Queen, but the added industrial production and the grungy guitar tone make this one its very own beast. Factor in sweet ambient moments and you've got a pretty diverse record. Consistent, filler-free, and energizing as hell, although a tad too "all over the place". |
| Sonic Youth SYR6: Koncertas Stan Brakhage Prisiminim | 2.5 |
| SYR6 sounds exactly like what it is: an hour-long improvisational piece, with every obnoxious passage, surprisingly beautiful moments, and ear-tearing guitar-screeching such "compositions" must contain. To be honest, the most beautiful parts are those that are nearly silent. Voila. |
| The Cure Disintegration | 4.4 |
| There are many reasons why this is considered The Cure's magnum opus. One of them is that it's on this very album they magnified their characteristic early 80s gloomy sound. After the arena-ready anthems of Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, they came back to their first love, and boy did they honor it. It's the band's most melancholic album, their most ethereal too thanks to these dreamy synths and atmospheric guitars. Most importantly, this is where their subtlety is at its best. Every track is immediately recognizable, but not in a bombastic way. Apart from "Lullaby", there's no track here I previously heard on the radio. Yet, almost all songs made me stop what I was doing. I HAD to gaze. This is their most beautiful album. |
| 13 Organisé 13 Organisé | 3.1 |
| Ok, let's talk about the biggest summer 2020 jam in France and Belgium, "Bande Organisee". This project, built by Jul - the most streamed French rap artists - with other Marseille's rappers, is an ode to Marseille rap. So. At first sight a mindless tune, the succession of different MCs bring different moods and rapping styles together. Most importantly, it's catchy as fuck. There are at least 5 different punchlines that everybody knows by now, guaranteeing the song's replay value. Imagine that this tune went as high as #80 on Spotify most streamed tracks. There is one problem though: since there are many rappers on the same track, it kind of overstays its welcome as soon as the best ones have spat their rhymes. The same can be said about the whole album: great tracks, great energy, but too long because of the rappers' "inequality". |
| White Denim D | 3.9 |
| Real fun psychy indie rock album, that feels like it was meant for an acoustic recording before the members decided to plug in their gear and record the whole lot in a live setting. Factor in evident nods to 60s/70s psych and prog rock, as well as a strong jam vibe, and the album's swagger will eventually win you over. The guitar smartly intertwines, the rhythm is nuthang but hard-hitting, and the vocals retain enough fragility to bring a nice counterbalance to the rockiest jams. A fun ride full of cool jams. |
| SBTRKT SBTRKT | 3.9 |
| Although the imagery is one of tribal reunions, the music at play definitely reminds urban textures. Playfully alternating between garage, dubstep, R&B, and house, SBTRKT lets guests vocalists tell intemporal love songs over his decidedly modernist music. It's thus very pop, choruses breaking the dancey beats structure. The record's greatest asset is its consistency. All killer, no filler. An album made to rock the dancefloor. |
| Korn The Path of Totality | 1.5 |
| This was everywhere in 2011. Damn shame, 'cause it's real shit. Not because the two genres they try to mix - nu metal and brostep - are bad per se (although some historians tend to disagree on that particular point). No, if this album fails, it's because it's deeply disorganized. In one sentence: random "wub wub wub" parts are thrown in the middle of a riff while an undermixed Davis is shouting edgy adolescent lyrics ("Shut the fuck up, get up" bruh you're 40 years old). The worst thing is that Davis stated the band wanted to trailblaze with this album. Spoiler: trailblazing is not about doing something you're not supposed to do. It's about understanding different genres, and coming up with your own take on the fusion of said genres. They did not understand anything about dubstep, brostep, or even sistep. In the end, it sounds like a bunch of boomers learned about the new kool thing and tried to incorporate the most fodder side of said thing into their already-dated aesthetic. It's a massive failure, but at least they tried to come up with something different. Gotta give 'em respect for that. 1.3 |
| The Most Of What We Have | 3.7 |
| Wowee a jazz-influenced math rock record = a happy me. This one is much less emo-sounding than At Once, although the emo isn't entirely gone. Rather, the jazz focus is further improved, wind instruments working together with the stringed one to jam 11/8 shit or whatever time signature they wanted to try. While this aesthetic sure pleases me, I am left with a slight sentiment of "not enough" at the end of this album's listening. They're almost there for me. |
| Sonic Youth Sonic Nurse | 3.8 |
| While predecessor Murray Street was a comeback at their 90s sound, Sonic Nurse is the record that most resemble the band's magnum opus, Daydream Nation. It's mostly noise rock, not entirely e x p e r i m e n t a l, but not really pure alt rock either. It's less atmospheric than their most recent outputs too, although some tracks still play on atmosphere ("Unmade Bed") and the album is more laid-back than usual for them. In the end, it's a Sonic Youth record. There isn't anything new per se, but they nevertheless manage to make old ideas sound fresh. Another proof of their undeniable quality. |
| The Waterboys Fisherman's Blues | 3.7 |
| Damn shame the album's second half is kind of lackluster. These first five tracks, man, they represent what Celtic music is. Recorded in Dublin, the rich instrumentation and refined production allow the record to sound grander than a mere Dubliner album. At its best, it's grandiloquent and pastoral, reminiscing The Band or Dylan. At its worse, it's nice background-y Celtic folk music. It's always heartful and fervent though, capturing the special Irish Autumn feeling: melancholic and longing to a certain point, but never downright depressing. When the leaves are brown and the sky is grey, you can either enjoy the rain, or find refuge in a pub. |
| Cliff Martinez Drive | 3.7 |
| For a soundtrack, it works extremely well on its own. Its retro, 80s-sounding, euro-influenced synthpop aesthetic instigates a dreamlike atmosphere that mostly matches the movie, but also allows for focused work sessions. What's interesting is that, in a way, it doesn't do anything new. Listen to Glass, Tangerine Dream, or Vangelis, and you'll basically get what Martinez did here. Sans the aesthetic, and avec the genius (lel jk). Its inner darkness tackles nostalgia's most somber crannies, and kicked off a decade of nostalgia-craving. Although it mostly is ambient-driven, welcome to synthwave's first mainstream apparition. |
| Patrick Holland Reality Picture | 3.8 |
| Moving hi-hats, clicks, bleeps, and bloops. Moving synths. Everything is moving. Everything is moving, but at a different pace. Wait, scratch that. There ain't no kick drum, apart on some tracks - "Reality Picture. Add some v a p o u r to the mix and all that's left is an eerie experience, each track working on different approaches. Sometimes it's laid-back. Sometimes it's cacophonous. It's always good shit. |
| Wonder Girls Wonder World | 3.1 |
| K-Pop that, at its worse, sounds an awful lot like what W-Pop (Western Pop? Anybody?) sounded like at the beginning of the 2010s decade. Some of these tracks kinda work ("Me, In"), but it's when the record doesn't try to be a copycat of what was popular at the time that it truly works, being as much cheesy as it is catchy. Tracks like "Girls Girls" or "Stop!" possess a somewhat dated charm, as if it came out straight from the 90s. An overall decent album, that alternates between bad early 2010s pop and catchy tunes, the latter being however predominant. |
| Crippled Black Phoenix Ellengaest | 4.0 |
| I kinda lost them in the 2010s. They made sure to come back in 2020 with a bang. An epic suite of post-rock, doom, and even Americana, Ellengaest masterfully make use of each of its vocalists to navigate between different atmosphere, from sombre tales to uplifting bangers. |
| Touche Amore Lament | 4.0 |
| The record they needed to do. |
| Sonic Youth Murray Street | 3.6 |
| After NYC Ghosts and Flowers's experimentation, Sonic Youth return to their 90s noise/indie/alt rock sound. Melody thus plays a more important role than on their previous record or the SYR series. While melodic, it's however a bittersweet album, thanks to the importance of psych rock riffs and the overall slowed-down pace. An easy and concise record that however feels a tad tame compared to their preceding experimental stuff. |
| The Sugarcubes Life's Too Good | 3.6 |
| The first Icelandic international success. No wonder: they took the gloomy yet highly successful post-punk template and incorporated pop playfulness as a counterbalance. It results in a kinda arty, kinda joyous, kinda surrealist album. Most importantly, there's Bjork. Whether she grunts or sings the purest lullabies, she's a delight to listen to. The dude, not so much, and it's a shame he sings so much -this last sentence basically is KILL's soundoff if it was polite. |
| Enslaved Utgard | 3.3 |
| The viking prog black metal titans come back with an album that very much sounds like a summary of their 2010s album. Black metal tremolo switch from synthy prog tunes before exploding into the kind of chants those that conquered Normandy would be proud of. The record being only 45 minutes long, Enslaved opted for a more straightforward approach, and it's not necessarily for the best. Some tracks are messy, while others fail to attain the epic grandeur of their past work, only "Homebound" managing to be diversified enough to avoid any criticism. Some songs would definitely have benefitted from being extended, too many ending without reaching a fitting conclusion. "Homebound" slayz tho m/ |
| Stimming Liquorice | 3.1 |
| Martin Stimming starts this second record by some extremely harrowing shit. Twisted strings flow in a dissonant cascade before lo-fi kicks and snares start to implement an arhythmic pace to the stripped-back pieces. This sounds like the result of a free jazz piece being recorded on an Roland by Nicolas Jaar. Despite the album's evident obnoxious nature, it proves to remain interesting thanks to the ever-changing sounds. |
| Lantlos Agape | 3.4 |
| One thing: the pacing. Each individual part is great, but they sometimes feel as if they weren't needed at *that* precise moment. Ambient interludes succeeding black metal riffing is supposed to be cool, but idk I felt like they threw some parts together to create a song. It doesn't apply to the whole record though, the dark jazz bits truly bringing diversity in an otherwise quite "classical" album in its approach. |
| One Direction Up All Night | 1.5 |
| ngl "What Makes You Beautiful" isn't as horrible as I remember. It's not the 9th Symphony either. The rest is dull, faux-happy, prepackaged fodder. These lads sure can sing, but they don't know (yet) how to properly write songs, which results in this corporate shithole of an album. 1.3 |
| Pure Reason Revolution Eupnea | 3.3 |
| Melodic, passionate, cheesy and *epic*: welcome to alt-prog 2020. As often, the vocals are not my cuppa, but they sure know how to craft hooks. Most importantly, this is a competent album, full of strong riffs and good production; but it doesn't accomplish anything prog hasn't already done. It's a harsh criticism, as I can slap a 4 on black metal records that don't do anything new. Solipsism is a bitch. |
| Kim Gordon, Ikue Mori, DJ Olive SYR 5 | 3.2 |
| Sonic Youth Recordings 5, but it's not really Sonic Youth, Kim partnering with DJ Olive - the dude that came up with the "illbient" term - and Ikue Mori - who, among many other things, was the drummer of no wave band DNA. So you've got people that were an important part of experimental music, and surprise: they're doing experimental music - whatever that really means. A free improv, mega abstract electroacoustic work that lets textures flow, fly, live, and die. That sounds abstruse innit? It is for sure, most of it having no structure - and there's a toilet flushing. Yet it kinda works as an object that, at the same time, didn't annoy me and left a Pitchfork reviewer "sad and blank". Let's not get carried away mate. |
| Morrissey Viva Hate | 3.7 |
| Six months after Strangeways, Here We Come, Morrissey drops his debut album. First thing first: he managed to create his own sound, the biggest danger being to drop "yet another Smiths album". The core sound is still relying on post-punk, jangle pop and the burgeoning alternative rock genre, but it's quite evident from the get-go that Johnny Marr isn't on the guitar/composition duty: it's a Morrissey album, with everything pompous and melancholic it represents, for better or worse. Although he does sound preachy at times, it's the lightest album Morrissey has worked on so far. Slight complain regarding that aspect: it's not as captivating as his previous work. Still, the album works well at re-starting his career, and it confirmed the dude's a great songwriter. |
| Esoteric Paragon of Dissonance | 4.0 |
| Funeral doom band doing funeral doom album: somber and melancholic music for 90 minutes. It's not all about impending doom though: beautifully despaired guitar licks add epicness to the mostly depressive music. It allows the record to grow louder, to try to exit its almost constant state of pessimism, only to fail, centimeters away from paradise. |
| Perfume Genius Set My Heart On Fire Immediately | 3.1 |
| Art pop/chamber pop that can first and foremost be described as "beautiful". Lush textures, pristine production and arrangements, as well as Hadreas' soft voice, everything makes for a record using slight psychedelic features - the way the guitars play their riff in "Describe" - to display its ethereal nature. Despite the few tracks relying on 80s-beats, it's thus mostly a melancholic album. As such, an album that displays lonely and atmospheric features such as this one fears nothing but one great enemy: grabbing the listener and making them embark on a personal journey. It mostly doesn't succeed at doing so, but when it does, well it's just plainly beautiful. |
| Foxygen Take The Kids Off Broadway | 3.7 |
| Melodies from the 60s/70s psych canon timetravel to 2011 and use a large sonic palette to create one dense psychedelic glam indie pop rock thingy. Thingy, because wow this is jumping from one 60s/70s genre to the other in a very 2010s way, baroque pop introducing garage rock passages before making space for parts that sound like Rolling Stones if they adapted their sound to the current era. Atmospheric and weird, this is one overlooked album that sometimes is a bit too "all-over-the-place" and too influences-evident, but still generally succeeds at what it attempts. |
| Lantlos .neon | 3.8 |
| 2010 blackgaze; ofc it has Neige in it and Fursy Teyssier crafted the cover art! Founded by German bro Herbst, this second Lantlos album is typical blackgaze with an added - slight - post-metal edge. Neige's growls counterbalances the post-rock crescendos and shoegaze pedals, and while this aesthetic is indeed super cool, it does drag towards the end of the album. Still, an excellent blackgaze record that would probably have gotten a higher rating if I discovered it back then. |
| 21 Savage Savage Mode II | 3.6 |
| The cover says it all: it's gonna be a dark ride tackling the same grounds as Southern hip hop's greatest albums. While beats and flows have evolved since the 90s, their purpose haven't changed a bit. Boomin's hypnotizing beats lay foundations so that Savage can tell cold gangsta stuff. Apart from these nods to the past, what makes the record work is its overall cohesion: the whole lot flows smoothly, and Morgan Freeman's interludes only further proves how cool that dude is. 21 Savage does sometimes fall into avoidable repetition patterns, and Boomin's production is sharp but isn't his most immediately enjoyable. Nevertheless, a real cool and consistent trap record. |
| Sonic Youth NYC Ghosts & Flowers | 4.0 |
| After the theft of their instruments in 1999, the band relied on oldass gear and prepared guitar. That kind of was a blessing, creating a clear separation with their other 90s material. Indeed, Sonic Youth in 2000 sounds like early 80s Sonic Youth: noise and dissonance are at the service of cryptic lyrics and surreal suspense. It builds up again and again, never reaching its conclusion. There is inherently no problem with that: the day you die also is the day everything that you built reaches its non-conclusion. That last sentence was pompous innit? It's still way less pompous than that 0.0 Pitchfork review. Third best Sonic Youth. |
| Midnight Oil Diesel and Dust | 3.4 |
| Yoooooo "Beds Are Burning" is that kind of song I've basically known my whole life without ever knowing the name. Didn't expect it was made by an Australian 80s band. I should've known: this is both deeply 80s and Australian. 80s because of the bombastic production style, these 80s drums, the jangly guitars, and mostly the band's propension to create anthemic tunes that would fill the stadiums. It's also deeply Australian: they spent several months in the Outback, played with indigenous music groups, which ultimately fueled their lyrics with indigenous issues and environmental causes - the singer eventually became Australia's Environment Minister! So, if we only take into account the music: this is a great 80s pop rock album that generated one megatube. A bit dated, a bit cheesy, still retaining that epic 80s feeling but that doesn't prevent the album from treading the same grounds during 45 minutes. |
| Twenty One Pilots Regional At Best | 2.3 |
| Twenty One Pilots' last indie record. This is truly important info, as their next album Vessel will cover some of the tracks here - "Glowing Eyes" for example. Retrospectively, this thus feels more like the one compilation that helped them getting signed than an album per se. Regional At Best already shows the band's territory: indie pop with some rapped parts - not always incredibly executed - and electronic layers - that do add an energetic vibe to the overall melancholic approach taken. You can hear this isn't a major label release: the mixing isn't always on point, and the rapping is mostly feeble and will be improved over subsequent releases. One thing they however already did well was overstuffing their album. Some tunes manage to stand out, but they mostly act as breath of fresh air among lesser tracks. Average At Best. |
| Bill Callahan Apocalypse | 3.7 |
| Very interesting americana record. The soundscape alternates between expansive and subtle but mostly strays away from traditional country/singer-songwriter. Likewise, Callahan's "singing-talking" vocal style never stutters, and consistently matches the instruments' feel: it's meditative and personal, but always warm. Some moments do feel a tad underwhelming, but fortunately they don't appear too often. |
| Megadeth Th1rt3en | 2.7 |
| Post-millenium Megadeth keep on keeping on with their brand of thrash and more accessible heavy metal. Gotta say, it's formulaic, but fortunately it's quite consistent in its formula. While no track manages to pull out an anthemic riff, no track feels downright horrendous either. Ok thrash record. |
| Rihanna Talk That Talk | 2.3 |
| Rihanna continues the "dancehall-influenced dance-pop to rock the club" persona, and it kinda works in the first half. Said first half is full of pop hooks and electro boom-booms and clap-claps, and I'm pretty sure you heard these songs at a party - whether you liked it or not. However, the second half starts using repetition to such an aggravating degree that, although only 37 minutes long, almost manage to annoy you. I almost cried at that XX cover. Shame, it started well. |
| 1995 (FR) La Source | 3.0 |
| Naive French hip hop that nevertheless was uber important for the scene. In 2011, French rap hardly comes out of the 2000s, a decade marked by a global lack of creativity, where some outstanding figures managed to sell many records playing the gangsta card without having the authenticity the genre requires. In these circumstances, a boom bap revival led by mostly adolescent figures took the genre by surprise in the early 2010s. The most significant group was 1995, and this is their first EP. In retrospect, this is nice but extremely adolescent, smelling of innocence leaning too much towards lyrical naivety, and an intensive reliance on old beats without bringing anything new to the table. They didn't steal anyone's thunder tho. First of all, they know how to rap, bringing multi-syllabics, alliterations and assonances back to the mainstream. The beats are cool - again they do not reinvent the wheel but eh they were 20 years old - and their message is positive. Plus, they were South Paris dude, much more identifiable to the youth than gangsta thugs. This last point, much more sociological than anything, also is a major factor for French rap's mainstream success: before them, only Orelsan managed to appeal to white 16 year olds. It's something. So, notwithstanding its influence, it's an ok hip hop EP. |
| Sonic Youth SYR4: Goodbye 20th Century | 3.0 |
| Ok yeah no wonder this is polarizing: it's 110 minutes of avant-garde minimalist noisy modern classical. Sounds like a fucking bop, innit? Subtitled Goodbye 20th Century, it's basically Sonic Youth playing works by avant-garde composers such as Reich, Cage, or Wolff. So. It's difficult. Like, hella difficult. Better be prepared for avant-garde stuff before jumping into this. It's the kind of record that ends up midway between annoying ("Piano Piece") and fascinating ("Having Never Written?"). Good thing is, it's so weird it never bores. Although it's kinda grating sometimes, I wasn't bored or disgusted. More importantly, this is the kind of work that absolutely needs to be done to push further away the limits of accessible music. The more people who like "Teenage Riot" ending up listening to this, the better. |
| The Go-Betweens 16 Lovers Lane | 3.5 |
| 80s Australian jangle. Like any good jangle, it's accessible and feel-good. But it's on the long term that this album shows his true nature. Its simplicity is hiding great pop songwriting, the kind that make you sing-along its tunes without you ever realizing it. It's not a show-off record, it's power residing in its discretion. The problem is, you gotta spend a lot of time with it. A couple listens guarantee nice moments, but the record maybe takes too much time to reveal its secrets. |
| Foo Fighters Wasting Light | 3.0 |
| The angriest and most aggressive the Foos ever were. It makes for a somewhat cool record that, on the one hand, never manages to pick it up with anthemic hooks, but on the other hand is not full of the traditional fillers. You can't have the cake and eat it too. So, yeah, the soundscape is broad and is meant for the arenas, but in the end it doesn't even matter the songs simply aren't strong enough. Remembering the hype it got back then, it's interesting to reflect on the lasting impact this album had. Spoiler: there ain't none. A good album to jam if you like the Foos, but that's about it. |
| Jason Isbell Here We Rest | 3.1 |
| Lyrics aside - eheh - this is a good blend of folk, country, and rock'n'roll baby. 100% American. Or, to be more precise, this sounds like what a white sappy American from the Deep Deep South would come up with. First two tracks are winners, but the rest of the album fails to match said tracks' power. The main problem is that Jason sure is talented, but The 400 Units do not always come up with the most engaging musical background there is. Basically, each song is somewhat interesting because Jason is cool. But not each song is amazing, and that's because the musical accompaniment is underwhelming. |
| Lady Gaga Born This Way | 2.0 |
| Erf. Notwithstanding the album's discourse - because im a lazy boi and wholesome discourse do not make good music - this suffers from several problems. Sure, it's bombastic, blasting eurodance-influenced songs real loud. The issue is that these tunes quite clearly strive for anthem-status, but never actually reach said status. That's because pop songs do not solely build their popular recognition through infectious hooks and uplifting beats. Nope, they need to come from a genuine place (yeah imma talk about that kind of bullshit). No "Alejandro" or "Bad Romance" to be found here, replaced by autoparodies of the singer's past successes. Becoming a gimmick sucks. Born This Way-era Lady Gaga sucked. |
| Ed Sheeran + | 2.1 |
| It sounds like what a 2011 hip-hop/R&B-inspired folkie dude that finally got a record deal would come up with: inoffensive, unoriginal, easy-listening, forgettable fodder. Nevertheless, this was Atlantic's CEO's face like back then: ? |
| Aimyon Oishii Pasta ga Aru to Kiite | 3.3 |
| J-Pop, Pop Rock? J Pop Rock! A feel-good record that apparently broke the charts this year although its aesthetic resembles more cheesy 90s pop rock than 2020 modern pop. Still, Aimyon clearly knows how to write great pop hooks carried by her above-average-but-not-tremendous vocal range. Factor in slight electronic touches and lush arrangements, and you got a fun record that, stylistically at least, delivers the goods in terms of easy-listening Japanese pop. It's a bit cheesy tho, cbf to imagine a drunk JotW singing this at a karaoke bar. |
| Sonic Youth A Thousand Leaves | 3.2 |
| Remember the Sonic Youth Recordings 1 to 3? They were recorded simultaneously A Thousand Leaves. It's thus as improvisational, although much more psychedelic than any of the three EPs. It's also calmer in a way, Moore and Ranaldo playing quiet guitar interplays instead of frenzy assaults. Some aspects of this one are thus much less obnoxious, even though a good SY record always contains a certain number of unpleasant passages, like some of Kim's vocal parts. An interesting SY iteration, although imo the first two SYR projects realize this aesthetic better, in a shorter amount of time. |
| Tracy Chapman Tracy Chapman | 3.0 |
| You can feel the 90s approaching. Released in 1988, this sounds like *that* kind of PC singer-songwriter album that would flood the coming decade. The problem to me is that, past the first two songs, the rest is pleasant-yet-kinda-unmemorable singer-songwriter stuff with some reggae influences here and there. I think what helped her reach cult status is her lyrics, simple yet touching, and still relevant more than thirty years after. Doesn't appeal that much to me unfortunately. |
| Sufjan Stevens The Ascension | 2.5 |
| Sufjan apathetically singing on top of expansive soundscapes. This sounds like Adz's sophistication meets C&L's restraint? Yup, but it mostly got the faults of each of its parent records - ie Adz length problem and C&L's almost too subdued nature. The main problem is, it's dragging like hell. Some Kid A textures are really nice, but they intervene not often enough for the whole album to fully engage the listener. This might sound super harsh, but I'm waiting to be entertained. |
| Anna von Hausswolff All Thoughts Fly | 3.8 |
| Although this is an excellent record, one cannot help but compare it to Dead Magic. Two things come to mind: there are no vocals here, and the tracks are much shorter. So. The atmosphere sure is ethereal and mysterious, as expected, but the lack of her banshee vocals diminishes the record's emotional impact. Likewise, no epic giant like "Ugly and Vengeful" made the last record so impactful. However, Anna couldn't possibly release Dead Magic Part II. She chose to go full minimal and drone, the organ replacing her voice. Textures drift away from each other, hypnotizing you and making you forget looming doom. The fact that she could come up with such a captivating album while switching the focus to an acclaimed soundscape proves Anna is one of the best solo musicians. Period. |
| The Ocean Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic | 4.1 |
| Mmmh that production is tasty af. On top of clearly hearing all instruments, it allows their slight "experimentations" to work particularly well, like the horns and keys spread throughout the record, *that* black metal part shining bright like a diamond, or the calmer end of the record. Talking about calmer soundscapes, I've always found their clean vocals to be kinda meh, but I find them to work quite well here ("You're wandering all by yourseeeeelf"). Gotta jam Part I and this one back to back. Seems like I've found my post-metal AOTY. |
| Deftones Ohms | 4.0 |
| It might not be "The best Deftones album yet" (wink wink), but it's one of their best for sure. Of course, no huge stylistic change to be found here: it's Deftones, aka djenty riffs + gazey atmosphere + tight drumming + Chino. Talking about Chino, this is his best performance in years, his whispered screams are imo his best since White Pony. The standouts are slow burners, but I feel overall the whole album is a grower. None of these songs have got the immediate catchiness past material had. Several listens in, this starts to make sense. |
| IDLES Ultra Mono | 3.2 |
| In and of itself, the record's great and enjoyable. I just can't help thinking about its oh-so-many faults: Talbot's least good vocal performance, rushed lyrics, lack of standout tracks. It's a good consistent album that I'll jam from time to time. Yet, it isn't one album that will be remembered in my opinion, lacking pure bangers like "Danny Nedelko" or "Never Fight a Man with a Perm". All tracks tackle the same sonic territories, resulting in a quite monotone record. |
| Sonic Youth SYR3: Invito Al Cielo | 2.0 |
| Sonic Youth improvising for an hour? Pass. 1.9 |
| Pixies Surfer Rosa | 3.6 |
| 4AD + Steve Albini. Nothing else screams as much "indie 80s" as this particular cocktail. Fusing 4AD's long tradition of hiding pop melodies within non-pop templates and Albini's noisy post-hardcore production style, this album is a fitting example of the "loud-quiet-loud" dynamic. More importantly, Pixies continue Husker Du and The Replacements' work by writing songs that mostly resemble sudden bursts of pop melody, serving as a bridge between these mid-80s indie giants and the next indie generation that will "change rock'n'roll overnight". To change a genre overnight, many hidden iterations must be accomplished beforehand. This is one of the most important iterations. Although significant, Surfer Rosa isn't without default, the most striking being the quite wheezing second half, during which the band do not always succeed at bringing pop into noise - or the opposite, I don't know anymore. |
| Thy Catafalque Rengeteg | 3.2 |
| Built upon black metal riffz, this one incorporates folk - the cheesy kind - bits, electronic structures and medievalesque, dungeon synthy ornaments. While it does help the record's pacing, it does sound terribly cheesy at times. That's a shame, 'cause the riffing is particularly exquisite and much more hard-hitting than I expected. An album that I respect more than I actually appreciate. More a question of personal taste than anything else I reckon. |
| Darkthrone Circle the Wagons | 3.3 |
| 2010 was the year black'n'roll could have exploded. Kvelertak discharged their own brand on the scene, but they weren't the only band to fuse black metal and punk. Legends Fenriz and Nocturno Culto chose to incorporate speed metal and crust punk into their black metal aesthetic, resulting in an album embracing the latter genre's crass production with epic solis and crust rhythm sections. A dirty record that is incredibly consistent, yet never manages to particularly stand out. And some vocals were kinda grating. riffz are tasty tho m/ |
| Leprous Bilateral | 3.8 |
| Great prog - yes that's possible don't be nasty!!! It's everything modern prog strives to be: epic, complex yet accessible, melancholic yet heavy. The singer's vocals are quite strong - as in: they didn't annoy me that much - and the usual wankery is replaced by really cool chord progressions. Arrangements are top notch too, synths and sax coming in at the perfect timestamp. For once, a prog record isn't an overlong wanky monster with bad vocals. Nice. |
| The Chemical Brothers Further | 4.0 |
| The sound of a drugged festival night. All tracks' goal is to make you move, jump, and dance. And the more substance you've taken, the better. The acid spectrum of electronic is the core of the record, the first two tracks psychedelically building upon themselves without ever finding a conclusion. But fear not, this album isn't one of frustration and lamenting; it's one of tunes choosing to add haziness to their bangers. And then there's "Swoon". One of the most impacting first listens I've ever had, "Swoon" now stands tall among the best live settings I've ever experienced. This record manages to capture how I felt that night: alive. |
| Matana Roberts COIN COIN Chapter One: Gens de couleur libres | 3.9 |
| Fucking hell. When these vocals come in - wait no scratch that. When these heart-wrenching screams howl at you, or when the a capella tales are told, this record is absolutely magical. The vocal's deep spirituality is what gives the album its very own ipseity. Musically, the avant-garde jazz bits are avant-garde only because they play on the same tropes avant-garde jazz is known for: rhythmic and dissonant improv. Truth is, once something is accomplished, all its replications will never be avant-garde. It's not apres-garde though. Maybe it's garde. Notwithstanding these silly considerations, this sounds like jazz done by Godspeed, drony and cinematic, sometimes too grandiloquent for its own good, but always impacting. One jab you can land at the record's jugular also is its tendency to wait a tad too long to reveal its secrets. Coin Coin Chapter One is not without faults, but it desperately embraces said faults to be unmistakably itself. |
| Sonic Youth SYR2: Slaapkamers Met Slagroom | 3.3 |
| Slaapkamers met slagroom? Hey jonge t'is een beetje raar om slagroom in slaapkamers te smeren. Misschien heb je honger? Als je echt honger hebt, bekijk dan deze smakelijk tweede SYR EP. Minder gebaseerd op post-rock, het aarzelt niet om improvisaties de vrije loop te laten. Er is geen focus, er zijn alleen maar gitaren die spelen wat ze willen op een schijnbaar willekeurig ritme. Wat wil je nog meer broer, iets minder chaos en meer structuur? Ik begrijp je fieu, t'is een beetje een rotzooi. 'tis echter cool, hoewel een beetje onaangenaam. |
| Leonard Cohen I'm Your Man | 3.0 |
| Effing surprise the first time I listened to this: where's your guitar bro? I 'member my papa was asking himself the same question while my mama was vibing hard with the 80s sound. While that first jam didn't provoke any will to reiterate the experience, recent relistens have at the very least transformed visceral hatred to a mild reaction sounding like "meh". The aesthetic does sound quite dated, although some tracks manage to invoke kitsch catchiness ("Everybody Knows"). It's aight, not as horrible as the folk fans claim, nor as incredible as its sales indicate - mofo went #1 for 16 consecutive weeks in Norway. |
| Jul La Machine | 2.6 |
| The man who sold 4 million records comes back in 2020 with a double album that, as usual, he recorded himself. Kicking it off by covering Debut de Soiree's iconic "Nuit de folie", Jul has only one goal: live that party up. His beats use reggaeton, hip house, and afro trap templates, on top of which aerial synth lines make sure the pop aspect is present. Let's be real though, Jul's music isn't one to elevate the mind. It only takes him half a day to create one song, and, as you could expect; there are many fillers, especially given the gargantuan length - 1h50mins, you really be testing my attention span here dude. However, the whole lot is diversified, in terms of flow and delivery, but in terms of beats as well. And the dude's sympathetic af, wish him nuthang but gud vibes. The real kudos comes from the fact that I wasn't annoyed. Most of the time amused, sometimes irritated by some tracks' questionable quality, yes, but not annoyed. Pas mal. |
| Fleet Foxes Shore | 3.6 |
| What I had feared happened: although the first listen was a more-than-pleasant experience, subsequent listens didn't manage to implement these melodies in my head. This isn't because the melodies aren't pretty - because they are. It's rather because the melodies are only at the service of atmosphere, multiple layers convoluting on top of one another. This thus remains a pretty album, one that will ultimately be remembered as the "rockiest" in the Foxes' discography. Overall less pastoral than their first two records, but also less progressive than Crack-Up, it's one record that retains many characteristic of hazy summer mornings, yet still proclaims "I'm Not My Season". That's true, you're not your season, and you're not a perfect album, but you're a great one to spend time with now that Autumn has started. |
| Krzysztof Penderecki Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima | 4.2 |
| When it comes to frightening people with the music I listen to, I usually go for extreme metal. Plebs can't stomach ahrd riffz and badass shrieks'n'growls. Then, there's Krzysztof Penderecki, the ultimate boss of frightening music. Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima constitutes the most harrowing 10 minutes I've ever spent listening to a record. It's meant for you to curl up in fetal position, close your eyes, and hope nothing bad will happen. The problem is, something horrible will most certainly happen. |
| Motorpsycho The All Is One | 3.7 |
| Psych/prog - or prog/psych - 90 minutes titan. They know what you're expecting, and you know what they're offering: an epic, ever-flowing piece of music reminiscing 70s great as well as modern spacey rock bands. Being a short attention span bitch, I sometimes struggled to fully focus on all different parts - ie during the N.O.X. suite - but when the focus is present, this album motherfucking slaps, and there ain't no other way to say it. The thing is, this is the kind of album I'd love to hear a live performance of, I think it would be much more impactful than streaming it while attempting to work. |
| Klub des Loosers Vanité | 1.0 |
| Continuing to dig his own hole, Fuzati seems to feel better than before. He was much more interesting when he was misanthropic and depressed. Fucking shame, I can't possibly ask one artist to feel bad for him to release music. But here, whether it's lyrically and flow-wise, he's basically lost it. Musically, well, this sounds like he wanted to re-do the greatest baroque pieces but with a human theremin that catch a cold. I'd like to go deeper in my abhorrence of this, but nah I'm never gonna listen to this again. I used to enjoy your work Fuzati. 1.2 |
| Sonic Youth SYR1: Anagrama | 4.0 |
| Sonic Youth Recordings, the band's label, was recipient of the quatuor's most experimental work, improvising crescendos and decrescendos, and my god this is amazing. Opener - and longest track - "Anagrama" is a post-rock banger reminding Mogwai's Ten Rapid era. There's no melody, no vocals, the last track even torturing the pleb ears by blasting noise slaughter with occasional guitar shrieks. That sounds horrible, but it's super cool. This record is a weird one. But a good one too. |
| Suzanne Vega Solitude Standing | 3.2 |
| Only knew "Luka" before jumping into this one, and yeah it clearly is the best song. It does work extremely well as an introduction though, the whole record also tackling mellow and ethereal guitar-led pop melodies. The rest of the album sometimes reminds Fleetwood Mac, or the jangly stuff R.E.M. was doing at the time, without ever attaining "Luka"'s level of greatness. It's an album that lives because of its massively successful single, and the importance it played in developing MP3 technology. Basically, the dude who worked on developing the audio compression scheme found at first it was impossible to compress the a capella "Tom's Diner" into an audible song, only succeeding by refining his process. Apart from all that, it's a nice and mellow 80s folk pop record. |
| Ichiko Aoba Origami | 3.5 |
| A tad less magical than the debut, this treads the same path as usual for Ichiko, but this one path wasn't made by leprechauns or nagas. Ye that's a fucked analogy, but although this is great folk, there isn't many moments that make you go "ah", stop everything, and wonder how this tiny lady can consistently amaze you. She doesn't amaze this time, but she still embarks you on a lovely walk. |
| Agnes Obel Philharmonics | 3.4 |
| A delicate nugget. A piano-centric piece of artsy pop-folk, this record plays upon soothing and mellow chords to let Agnes' beautiful voice take the lead. Given the - spare - use of strings, it has got a certain chamber music feeling. While I appreciate the aesthetic, it does lack a certain sonic variety to fully appeal to me. At least the record is short enough for that issue not to hinder the listening experience. A cozy album that'd work even better during cold winter nights. |
| Napalm Death Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism | 3.6 |
| They still got it. Less straight-up grind than previous records, it starts with deathgrind bangers to slowly descend into industrial and noisy post-punk territories - without losing any of their well-known intensity. Focused, tight, and always managing to make you headbang: yup, these lads are consistent as hell. |
| PLK Enna | 3.3 |
| Cool album. Dude's smart and respectful but can still bring the bangers. The problem is however the same with almost all 2020 French rap releases: the whole lot is good, but fails to truly stand out. The album mostly uses trap beats, PLK knows how to kick yet doesn't hesitate to sing, and he's got a good mix of arrogance and authenticity. Yet, somehow, this isn't enough. To truly stand out, you gotta use an aesthetic that is totally different than the industry's (Freeze Corleone) or come up with the best concept record the scene has witnessed since like forever (Laylow). Nevertheless, the record is good and the dude's a real one, so kudos to him for his success. |
| Sonic Youth Washing Machine | 3.6 |
| Much less difficult to approach than predecessor Experimental..., although it echoed the band's early SST records' production process. Kim's guitar playing is the record's greatest input in the holy Sonic Youth discography. This is the first record on which Kim almost exclusively plays guitar. Three guitars and one guy that bangs the drums, and that's it. It results in an album that, while more digestible than early 80s records, still sounds extremely cryptic and abstract, with a good dose of apathy. Apathy is, imo, the album's greatest feat, slowly creeping its unmelodic melodies to your head. |
| Damso QALF | 2.5 |
| Kinda disappointed. Although it was greatly teased, it doesn't live up to the hype, many tracks being utterly forgettable. Some experimentations were welcome - ie the vaporwave and indie pop tracks. Askip another record will come out next week. Just hope the concept won't take over the musical content. |
| U2 The Joshua Tree | 3.9 |
| Le epic 80s rock. Grandiloquent, preachy, anthemic, and ready for the stadiums: they understood how to submerge the US market. U2 went to the gym and bulked up their production, post-punk being relegated to the background of their sound so that their heartland rock influences could shine brighter along the resolutely pop rock approach. The biggest problem, however, is that the first four tracks are just way too damn good for the rest of the record to appear as anything else as b-sides. I'm exaggerating, because no song here is pure trash, but GADDAYM the first three tracks are as classic as classic songs can be, and "Bullet the Blue Sky" is an underrated banger in their catalogue. |
| Ichiko Aoba Kamisori Otome | 3.7 |
| Ichiko Aoba's first album is everything Ichiko Aoba stands for: quiet yet intricate guitar strummings, a soft yet deeply evocative voice. And that's basically it. The soundscape is thus a tad too much homogeneous, but her talent to make everything she does a beautiful moment is nothing but a tour de force. She knows how to go directly to your heart. |
| Martin Grech Hush Mortal Core | 3.7 |
| Great, great prog. And why is that dedex? I'll tell ya right now Timmy don't be so hasty. It's because this one ain't wanky at all, and although cheesy is an accolade that could be used to describe the album, its cheesiness level won't raise your cholesterol. It moves from art rock aesthetic to modern djent riffs to beautiful arrangements, the problem being that some transitions are too brutal and don't feel as connected as others. Still, a beautiful and complex record. |
| Dai Dai Dai ∅ | 3.3 |
| Ok there's so much happening here I just puked a rainbow. The core of the sound is J-Pop, the vocals being accentuated by really really good autotune. On top of that, electronic touches sometimes make this sound like the musical embodiment of the Rainbow Road. What makes this project very distinctive is the way digital hardcore pulls its way through loudass synths and bombastic drums to surpass mere weebfanmuzak status. It's good, weird stuff although it does get tiring on some songs that overstay their welcome. What you must remember: this is Rainbow Road: The Album. |
| Nas King’s Disease | 2.8 |
| Cool stuff, although kinda underwhelming. The production mostly covers nice piano-led east coast beats - that however tends to fall into the background and monotony past the first couple of tracks. Likewise, Nas' flow is aight but suffers from a lack of memorable bars and punchlines. The epitome of a good, inoffensive album. |
| Ninho M.I.L.S. 3 | 2.2 |
| France's sales king comes back with another mixtape that hit double platinum (200k sales) in 5 months only. How come? Well, the dude is the feat king and has collaborated with everybody, cementing his place as one of the most important actors of the scene. Plus, he's super prolific and is present on one hit at the very least every six months. This one mixtape is thus typical Ninho: pop-infused trap bangers, a touch of gangsta/hardcore attitude, and too many fillers. It's mostly aight-ish, but sometimes crosses the "ew nah" border. Love "Zipette" though, even though the motif sounds a awful lot like Grimes' "4AEM". |
| Sonic Youth Experimental Jet Set, Trash, and No Star | 2.4 |
| Kim described the sound of this record as "artcore". I can see that, it's relying on tropes Sonic Youth hadn't touched upon since their early SST period. Unlike previous record Dirty - also produced by Butch Vig - this one strips away any commercial ornaments or single-worthy material. Considering this was released on a major label, this is some ballsy move, but it ain't really my cuppa. Hot take: this sounds like Sister's b-sides. Maybe this is the one Sonic Youth record that acts as a pleb filter, separating sad virgins like me and alpha boiz'n'gals like the people saying this is the best Geffen Sonic Youth. |
| The Smiths Strangeways, Here We Come | 3.8 |
| The band's last album. Although many have speculated whether this record was a transitional one, I find it weirdly fitting as an epitaph. Clearly departing from a pure jangle sound, this is The Smiths' lushest album, incorporating synthsax, beautiful strings and even a drum machine. These late additions are what make this record their most 80s-sounding, which is weird - but in an odd way comforting - since this is their final one. Marr was ready to fully embrace the sound of his times - at the expense of overproduction. It's The Smiths' boasting album, the one that shouts at you how great it is, while The Queen is Dead slowly creeping his way into the deepest crannies of your mind. Farewell to the best English band of the Thatcherian era. |
| Thou A Primer of Holy Words | 3.7 |
| Thou's second comp this year, nice. This time it's not one band only they're covering, but a handful of their influences - and boy they like cool shit. Black Sabbath - that "Sweet Leaf" cover is nastyyyy - Minor Threat or Shellac are covered here, always with the muddy production and devilish screams. It's much more fast-tempo than usual for them, making this the most "fun" Thou releases - yeah I'm surprised too. I prefer when they go nasty, but Thou prove once again they are among the best stakhanovists in the whole game. |
| Maes Les derniers salopards | 2.7 |
| One of the most popular 2020 albums in France (double platine quand meme), this is much less hardcore rap than I thought. There are many, many sung passages that while not bad in their own right - and also very zeitgeist - don't stick as much as when the rapper just let it go and decide to spit angry rhymes. So yeah, I'm not there to judge whether one specific emotion is better than another - angry music doesn't automatically outweigh melancholic one. Yet it's when Maes' tears come from discharging his diatribe rather than from pondering forlorn thoughts that, as a listener, I am moved. That's a shame, because overall the record is too 2020, too uniform, too normal. It's an overall pleasant listen, but there simply is almost no audacity. |
| Pig Destroyer The Octagonal Stairway | 2.3 |
| First three tracks are kinda cool grindy metalcore, last three are noise stuff done by dudes who don't seem to really know how to do proper noise. Noisy core yes, but pure noise? Nah. Shame shame shame. |
| Ruston Kelly Shape and Destroy | 2.7 |
| Emo country? The pop punk/emo sensibilities scattered throughout the record please me - once again, although his lyrics are heart-wrenching, it's not my main focus, as I think it takes over the musical aspect of the record. His vocal delivery is truly excellent and is imo the album's best component. Damn shame it's undercooked musically. |
| Marilyn Manson We Are Chaos | 3.5 |
| Never was a huge fan of the dude's music, but this is pretty cool. Industrial tones fight with gothic epics and atmospheric textures to take over the mainly alt rock aesthetic. It's when Manson doesn't try to replicate his Antichrist Superstar persona that he's the most interesting. "We Are Chaos" and "Don't Chase the Dead" sound like downright cheesy Bowie songs, but they still retain enough industrial knack for them not to sound anachronical. Damn. I really didn't expect such a melodic record, gg boi. |
| Sonic Youth Dirty | 3.6 |
| Butch Vig was the dude at the time. Producing for Nirvana, The Smashing Pumpkins and L7, as well as starting Garbage, he was a major actor within the early 90s indie rock scene. And like any of his 90s works, Dirty sounds like a product of its time: some grunge parts here and there, wild distortions throughout the whole record, pop sensibilities to appeal to the "grand public" with "Sugar Kane". The whole lot constitutes a damn fine rock record, however plagued by being too long, grating vocals here and there, and kinda bad songs - compared to the fire bangers that are "Sugar Kane" or "JC". And once again after Goo, the Kim tracks are fire, and Lee proves is a great singer on top of a gifted guitarist. |
| The Sisters of Mercy Floodland | 3.6 |
| Grandiloquent gothic rock. Yes, grandiloquent. It's no morbid stuff (wink wink) like The Field, the guitars' importance being reduced for the benefit of the synths. The vocalist's barytone voice and sharp sense of melody, as well as the incorporation of the New York Choral Society make for a banger record that doesn't hesitate to visit the industrial zone's borders. Although the atmosphere tends to be gloomy, the drum machine and slick production make the gloominess very 80s; thus less intimidating and more bombastic. Some songs overstay their welcome, but overall it's a great 80s gothic album. |
| Cloudkicker Solitude | 3.7 |
| "Chug chug chug" "Ben's back baby!". Yeah, he brings the fat ass polyrhythmic riffs as if nothing happened after Subsume. However, it's when the melodeeznuts hit that Ben Sharp truly shows he hasn't lost his talent. "94 Days" and "Off His Way" act as breather tunes between the maelstrom of riffs, allowing your neck to take a break from the headbanging. Because damn these riffz go fucking hard. This aesthetic doesn't make me pp as ahrd as 10 years ago, but eh it's still very cool, and the best Cloudkicker record in 6 years. |
| Freeze Corleone LMF | 3.4 |
| Opening line: "Freeze Rael kicks the beat like Israel". Never change Freeze. The most famous complotist French rapper - he released the album on 9/11 - comes back with another nocturnal and minimalist drill record. That's the main criticism you could say to Freeze: he got one formula right, and he's doing nothing to reinvent himself. However, his niche is so damn hypnotizing it doesn't matter that much. Thanks to great featurings (Alpha Wannnnn) and awful ones (Roi Heenok, you too old for that shit), the record somewhat avoids monotony. It is still dragging at times though, the beats and flows not varying enough for a 1h+ record. Still, when he kicks it he's one of the best French MCs out there. And I'm a sucker for his aesthetic. |
| Bright Eyes Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was | 3.7 |
| Lush indie folk whose pristine arrangements make it skyrocket to the top of 2020 indie folk. Then again, lyrics ain't my priority, but when they are coupled with such engaging songwriting, you've got a special work. The singing is mostly soft and reserved and serves as a counterbalance for the ever-flowing music. Some parts aren't as lush as others, and you get it: these parts are not as necessary. However, when it works, this album does work very well. |
| Two People Second Body | 3.5 |
| Ambient pop using downtempo beats and deep house atmosphere to bring some heaviness to the otherwise subtle soundscape. The record's most impressive accomplishment is how catchy it is without boastfully throwing the catchiness at ya. You gotta take some time to let the melodies flow to your mind. Some take too long, but the dreamy atmosphere helps compensate the somewhat underwhelming aspect of the record. |
| Waxahatchee Saint Cloud | 2.3 |
| I'm not a lyrics person. Lyrics may enhance a musical experience I already appreciate, but I can't be instantly enamoured with a work of art that focuses more on the message it conveys rather than how said message is conveyed. So. The songs' pace is mid-tempo to the point I failed to recognize differences between songs past the third one. Her voice is always on the edge of breaking up - and not a la Janis Joplin. The arrangements sound dull to me. Maybe I'm not American enough to enjoy this. Maybe I don't enjoy poetry enough. The guitar part during the end of "Ruby Falls" was cool tho. |
| Sonic Youth Goo | 4.0 |
| Taking off from indie, landing in major. Although this still is unmistakably Sonic Youth, the noise rock they were famous for slowly lets alt rock some space in the spotlight. Mind you, it's no Weezer, dissonance still being a core element of Sonic Youth's soundscape. Although the whole band is on fire here, Goo's real star is the ever-cool Kim Gordon. Her prominence as a songwriter and lead singer shines throughout the record, the best and most infamous songs here being hers. That, plus the fact the album was fucking defying the notion of accessibility of a major label release, helped establish Goo as a pillar recording within the alt rock scene, paving the way for The Year that Punk Broke. It's still less good than Sister and Daydream Nation though. |
| George Michael Faith | 2.9 |
| D'ya think it's from the late 80s? The production will make sure you'll remember that if you ever forget it. The dude can sing, there's no doubt about that, but I feel this is the type of record you kind of have to have listened back then/as a child to truly enjoy, and that has mostly to do with its quite dated aesthetic - no judgment there, 'member I genuinely enjoy easycore. My parents weren't huge George Michael fans, so to me this is a good album, plagued by a feeble second half and some cheesy moments scattered throughout. |
| Blues Pills Holy Moly! | 2.7 |
| Where that French guitarist at? Alongside the singer, he was the main reason the band's first album was such a success, his playing collapsing psych influences onto bluesy 12 bars. Of course, the band's identity isn't lost, as the record lies in the same territory as their first two outputs. However, like Lady in Gold, there's something lacking. Too few songs stand out, and even though it's clocking at 41 minutes, some tracks drag. At least Elin is a fantastic vocalist. |
| Cloudkicker Loops | 3.0 |
| Cloudkicker's first 2020 release is a soothing compilation of post-rock guitar parts looped one after another. Perfect for working sessions, it however does lack some meat to be a true standout record in the dude's discography. In the end, nothing to write home about, but Cloudkicker always manages to make kinda lackluster guitar parts interesting. |
| Disclosure Energy | 3.9 |
| Fuck yes. Dance record that, along with Jessie Ware, will make you wanna jump in rthe air/be way too drunk/take pills/that sorta stuff y'know? Fusing UK Garage and House music with African rhythms, Energy's goal is to (be ready it will blow your mind) energize you and make you forget you can't go out. |
| Ulver Flowers of Evil | 3.1 |
| Yup, this one doesn't work as well as intended. Building upon their 2017 synthpop record but without bringing anything new to the table. It's much less arty and much poppier, but shit pop music isn't supposed to make me feel like that. I should tap my feet, sing along and dance very badly. I tapped my feet on several occasions but never has the record managed to embark me on its journey. I hope this is a grower. |
| Cryptic Shift Visitations from Enceladus | 3.8 |
| If 2019 was the year of black metal, 2020 surely be the year of roni rona death metal. Cryptic Shift chose to operate within the tech death territory, with some added thrash riffing and influences. Although the behemoth first track does feel more like a mash-up of everything the band is capable of - the lack of connection from one part to another making me ponder whether the band's technicality is but their own way of hiding their lack of songwriting skills. Fortunately, the last three tracks are all tight and concise jams full of great riffs and atmospheric passages bringing welcome rest amidst chaos. |
| Ciccone Youth The Whitey Album | 2.7 |
| Sonic Youth + Minutemen's Mike Watt + Dinosaur Jr.'s J Mascis + Madonna tribute = Ciccone Youth. In one word, it's e x p e r i m e n t a l, playing with noisy textures ("Macbeth", a clear highlight), Madonna covers ("Into the Groovey", or Watt's "Burning Up") and even silence ("(Silent)", which is... completely silent wow so edgy). It's messy, bloated and obnoxious, although the good parts are great - maybe that mostly have to do with me being a sucka for Sonic Youth in general. |
| INXS Kick | 3.5 |
| Wow. These Aussies sure got the perfect formula: like new wave Stones or pop U2, they fused arena rock with soul and synthetic new wave. 100% 80s shit, especially the muscular production and the shitload of singles the album generated. That last factor was intentional: they wanted an album where all songs are possible singles. GG boiz, you did it. |
| Haken Visions | 2.6 |
| Once again with Haken, pr0g leaning on symphonic. This time the vocals aren't as cheesy as on their debut, but musically it's kind of the same: epic riffz, epic drums and epic synths with some chug-chug parts. I understand the appeal, but doesn't make me pp ahrd. Anyway, way less bloated than their first album. |
| Big K.R.I.T. ReturnOf4eva | 3.8 |
| Dude's so fucking good. I'll say what I usually say when listening to one of his record: it's dope. 100% southern, from boastful dirty south jams to jazzy and conscious tracks, dude can do everything and anything and be successful at that. |
| The Field Looping State of Mind | 4.1 |
| The album title's pretty much sums it up: it's made of loops, and you gotta be in the right state of mind to be lost into them. This is halfway between dancefloor and bedroom music, the techno beats making you tap your feet while the poppy samples calls for introspection. Both work extremely well together, the record being immediately enjoyable and memorable. Another duality is interesting: organic vs. digital, the latter taking the form of hypnotic loops on top of which live bass and drums hammer an infectious groove. Love the vocal samples too, they bring some hauntology thanks to their vaporwavey tone. Awesome minimal techno. |
| Medine Table d'écoute 2 | 2.9 |
| I've always liked Medine. Very active politically and one of the frontrunner of the modern French conscious scene, he always tries to come up with different points of view to deliver a nuanced message. This record is however a compilation with several people from his label. While that grants the record some versatility, not everyone is as good as Medine, although his political/conscious/enraged persona is adopted by every rapper here. Thing is, beats are typical 2011 French rap beats - once again, not my cuppa. It's mostly aight tho, no true standouts but no duds either. |
| Bell Witch Bell Witch Demo 2011 | 2.6 |
| Funeral doom: yup it's slow, sombre, longing, and heavy. What were you expecting? The use of vocal samples helps instigate the atmosphere, but the whole lot sounds as if they were building slow-burners without reaching any conclusion. Maybe that's the point and I'm a dumdum. |
| Sonic Youth Daydream Nation | 4.4 |
| Bad Moon Rising's flow + EVOL's craggy creepiness + Sister's sleek energy = Daydream Nation. Their songwriting is at its peak here, especially showcased with their to-be alt rock sound - "Teen Age Riot" clearly being a loud pop song - as well as dense and dissonant passages - the aptly titled "The Sprawl" - and even some Lee appearances that clearly shows how good a songwriter he also is ("Rain King"). There's no more no wave, instead taking an art punk attitude to show how forward-thinking their avant-rock music was. Taking influence from their past outputs to lay the foundations for their next ones: yup, this is the definitive Sonic Youth record, inhabited by a crucial sense of self-importance. The cover's candle acts as the light that will inevitably illuminate the darkness the USA - the "daydream nation" - was stuck in. |
| Depeche Mode Music for the Masses | 3.8 |
| Music for the Masses? This is more industrial and dark than what the masses are used to. What is truly mass-material is the sound: it's fucking grandiloquent, opener "Never Let Me Down Again" kicking things off by offering expansive soundscapes, full of big synths, big drums, and big vocals. The gothic approach seen on their previous album Black Celebration is still present, but its impact is diminished because of the sheer power the music delivers. Not as brilliant as Violator, but an influential atmospheric and dark synthpop record. |
| Julien Dore Bichon | 3.2 |
| French chanson exemplified by Julien Dore, one of the very few people that actually managed to have a real career after winning "American Idol"'s French version. The production is pristine, Dore alternates between joyous and more melancholic thoughts, joyous and melancholic being also the two accurate musical adjectives. His delivery go from nonchalant to longing - basically, like Gainsbourg - and it's sometimes a lil bit boring: yup, it's French chanson. |
| Coldplay Mylo Xyloto | 2.3 |
| Surface-wise, this is colourful pop rock. Going deeper, this is stale. Some cuts are full of posi vibes - "Charlie Brown" being the prime example - but most of them are immediately forgotten as soon as the next track starts its course. Shame, 'cause their attempt at being grandiloquent could have resulted in a bombastic record. Not bad, but very meh. |
| Amon Amarth Surtur Rising | 3.2 |
| Long time no see, Amon Amarth. You still deliver the bangerz, which isn't a surprise. But you're no surprise. You might well be the least surprising metal band around. But that doesn't prevent you from having a solid fanbase, thanks to your Viking aesthetic (nerdz) and your easy-listening melodeath that everyone likes at 15 before slowly moving on. This is still, unsurprisingly, solid, if a tad too monochrome, especially towards the end. |
| Seth Gueko Michto | 3.1 |
| Seth Gueko and his legendary "zdedededex". The beats are typical early 2010s - not much my cuppa. But Seth Guex manages to make the 70 minutes pass by quite easily with his changing flows and his love for punchlines. Halfway between the countryside "franchouillard" and the hardcore rapper, the dude represents many things France is but doesn't want to admit it is: not as distinguished as it wants to appear, his vocabulary oscillating being rich multi-syllabics that would make l'Academie Francaise proud and abstruse shit that would make your mother ask herself if she didn't put your cradle too close to the wall. I do have lotta issues with the beats - so 2011 - but apart from that it's solid stuff. |
| Mac Miller Blue Slide Park | 1.5 |
| Bland shit bordering on annoying. I'd love to come up with an acute sociological analogy focusing on post-financial crisis white suburb US kids. I'd really love to. But I'm European, so all I can say is that vocals, lyrics and beats are obnoxious. Nothing offensively bad tho, dude was young and wild and free. Still can't stand it. 1.6 |
| Sonic Youth Sister | 4.1 |
| This is SY's most up-tempo release so far, with the tunings not as dissonant and the overall sound being sleeker than usual. It's a streamlined propulsion, a bridge between EVOL and its melodic touches scattered between atonal no wave and Daydream Nation and its grandiloquent ode to alternative music. Best of both worlds. |
| Paul Simon Graceland | 3.6 |
| Did the term "world music" existed in 1986? 'Cause this record right here would sure be called like that if it came out now. What it really is is a blend of Simon's folk and South Africa Zulu genre mbaquanga, with that iconic 80s production - loud drums, catchy bassline and bombastic synths. A true fusion album, its aesthetic however fail to truly make me go "wow". It's pleasant and I got nuthang but respek for Simon's way to bring African music to the USA, but it's not exactly my thang. |
| Dinner Party Dinner Party | 3.5 |
| This record's sound is quite evident looking at who worked on it: Martin, Washington, Glasper and 9th Wonder, with the occasional help from singer Phoelix. It results in a warm, soulful and jazzy record supported by 9th Wonder's beats and Glasper's piano. Turned out I didn't exactly vibe as much as I expected: it sometimes sounded as subpar D'Angelo, and while the instrumentation is supremely chill, it's not the most memorable work of the year. It's one of the smoothest though. |
| Denzel Curry 13lood 1n + 13lood Out Mixx | 3.3 |
| As always, Denzel spitting them bars. No time is wasted, the thirteen minutes being basically the Denzel Curry flexin' course on top of some abrasive Soundcloud beats. No filler, no true standouts either, it's just hardcore shit to mindlessly jump around to. |
| Caballero/Jeanjass High et Fines Herbes | 1.5 |
| Mixtape inspired by the duo's show, the concept being: let's smoke some weed, let's eat some weed-filled food and then let's smoke some more weed. Given this mixtape - 80 minutes long - was created in one week with 1kg of weed and tons of features, no wonder the two Belgian dudez confirm their downhill initiated with Double Helice 3. They are resting on their laurels and focus on the "easiest" part of their music, not succeeding in coming out of the formula they created. In fact, they aren't even trying: JJ has got the same flow since 2014, Caba is only the shadow of the best Belgian kicker he once was, and overall they just want to be entertainers, not rappers. Half-assed. 1.7 |
| Orville Peck Show Pony | 3.0 |
| Last year's Pony's complementary EP, and these almost-B-sides are surprisingly great. All tracks lean on the pop side of alt-country, without having that post-punk/shoegaze that made Pony so recognizable. That's kind of a shame, 'cause that was - imo - the main reason of his success. Still, the dude knows how to write good tunes, although he has got the unfortunate trend to surround his best songs by lackluster ones. |
| The Microphones Microphones in 2020 | 4.0 |
| Beautiful. To be honest, his last couple of LPs left me unmoved, but this one reminded me how much I love his drony avant-folk work. Flowing remarkably well from quite simple guitar strummings, distorted electric riffs bring *that* specific vibe that transcends a sad work into a beautifully cathartic album. Phil just had to sing his lyrics and there you go: best 2020 folk hands fucking down. And I didn't even talk about that poignant video/photo montage. |
| Sonic Youth Evol | 3.9 |
| Robert Christgau: "The good parts are so good, for a while I thought I was enjoying the bad parts." I do agree, Bob: the first half and the closer are monster tracks, thanks partly to the band letting go of no wave to embrace their pop sensibilities - song titles referencing Madonna and Marilyn, wow much pop culture. The middle part of the record still plays within the noisy no wave template the band had previously built, and that pleases me a tad less tbh. I prefer the pop. And peepz in general dig the pop too: incorporating more pop into their sound, as well as moving to SST, made the band go out of the NYC art scene to the national stage. It's however not their final form yet. This like SSJ1 tier. |
| Chris Isaak Chris Isaak | 3.4 |
| Poppy and slightly jangly rockabilly made in the 80s. With his Elvis looks, Roy Orbison crooning, and Chris Rea's chill style, no wonder he got some - moderate - success. This doesn't reinvent anything, but it's a pleasant ride through the easy-listening part of the 80s. And boy oh boy, "Blue Hotel" is a jam and a half I'm extremely pleased to have re-discovered. |
| Imperial Triumphant Alphaville | 3.8 |
| Atonal and dissonant shit = hey it's like Gorguts!!! Kinda, yeah. The jazz additions make this one its very own beast, only challenged, soundscape-wise, by Neptunian Maximalism. This is much more metal though, alternating between tech death riffs and deafening black metal skits, jazz being mostly present through chord progressions - and funkier basslines than dm/bm ones. Immense shit that I won't spin that often specifically because it's immense. |
| (The) Slowest Runner (In All The World) We, Burning Giraffes | 3.6 |
| This does sound like classic late 90s/early 00s post-rock with its multiple build-ups, tear-jerking violin and cello, rambling guitars and drums, and discrete but always present piano. The almost lo-fi production makes the sound rough around the edges for such classical-inspired music, but that's actually for the better, the whole lot wandering on the edge of frailty. Could be a classic within this special brand of post-rock save for some meandering parts, but hey if you like post-rock make sure to give this a listen. |
| Grimes Halfaxa | 3.1 |
| She's almost there. Not as memorable as her next outputs, but more refined and bombastic than Geidi Primes. It results in a haunting pop record that manages to pay homage to 4AD's staple ethereal wave bands in an almost dancey way. Mind you, when I say "pop" and "dance", it's not club material. This is pop for the depressed and the lonely. |
| Echospace Liumin | 3.7 |
| Atmospheric dub techno (ye I know that's an oxymoron) filled with recordings from Japanese urban life. It's dub techno, so you know the drill: synths, loops and soft rhythms fighting for your attention. The greatest danger for such records is falling into the background, which fortunately doesn't happen - that often - with this one. Cool stuff, not as interesting as, say, Andy Stott, but still pretty good dub-influenced minimal techno. |
| Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross The Social Network OST | 3.8 |
| The Social Network's soundtrack was a perfect match: slow, anxious, and dark. When separated from the movie it was made for, the record still is surprisingly strong, ambient phases dictating the rhythm upon which different synths, strings or even guitars break the monotony of said ambient passages. A great record to work to, and a memorable one as well, especially since it is much more voluble than most "work albums". |
| Sonic Youth Bad Moon Rising | 3.4 |
| A blazing jack-o'-lantern-headed scarecrow set in front of a city skyline. Coupled with the infamous Bad Moon Rising title, it perfectly matches the record's discourse, delving into the darkest undersides of American culture ("Brave Men Run", "Society is a Hole"). It was truly countercultural for the time: the USA feared Japan's economic power and terrorism coming from Arab countries. The country thus became ultranationalistic and celebrated the Americana. Sonic Youth didn't care about all that, delivering a fucking weird record, morosely repeating guitar "riffs" to death. It's forbidding: 3 listens in and I feel I need WAY more time to fully grasp this one. |
| The Housemartins London 0 Hull 4 | 3.5 |
| hEy KiD, EveR HeRD oF tHe SmIThS? Ye it's jangly indie pop, but it's especially, unabashedly, typically British. From the football reference as the album title to the Thatcher comments sprinkling the whole record, it's just very very rosbif. Whether or not the leftist approach pleases you or not, the tunes are solid enough for the politics not to be the record's major discussion point - at least I hope so. So yeah, it's tuneful, but without never really surpassing the status of "nice 80s jangle", paling next to that era's greats. And FYI: bassist Norman Cook later became Fatboy Slim. Now that's fucking cool. |
| Waka Flocka Flame Flockaveli | 3.7 |
| Banger after banger, Flocka spits his gangsta shit on top of Lex Luger's post-crunk/proto-trap beats (ye I actually used "post-crunk" as a genre what ya gon do fam?). It's very hood, from the stupidly gangsta lyrics to the constant ad-libs (POW POW POW POW), to Flocka's amazing delivery, to the uncompromising beats that would make my momma roll her eyes. It's amazing to see something so relentlessly brutal become a staple record spawning a whole decade of rap supremacy. It does get repetitive towards the end, but it never gets tiring. GG Flocka. Where you trap? |
| The Knife Tomorrow, In a Year | 3.9 |
| While I never truly got around Shaking the Habitual, this hit me like a 30-ton truck. It's an opera based on Darwin's On the Origin of Species. Musically, it's thus meant to reflect evolution, starting with noise before beauty arrives from the increased complexity of each passing track. Lyrics are made of Darwin's quotes from the book or transmit Darwin's personal life - "Annie's Box" refers to Darwin's daughter dying of tuberculosis, an event that would free Charles from the church's reaction to his book. And apparently, there are choreographies inspired by birds. It's an album that will make you say, "the fuck is that?" but in a good way. |
| John Grant Queen Of Denmark | 3.5 |
| Beautiful indie folk with pristine arrangements from folk band Midlake. Without delving into the lyrics - official reason: I can't read; real reason: cbf - this is musically pleasing. The upbeat folk pop tunes are nice - you know what that adjective means: it's aight but kinda yawn - but it's on the midtempo, more bare-bone tracks that Grant's voice and the strings can truly shine. To me, this a record of moments: overall ok, with some brief but brilliant passages. |
| Sexion d'Assaut L'École des Points Vitaux | 2.3 |
| In terms of commercial success, this is the defining 2010 French rap record. In terms of musical and lyrical qualities, this certainly isn't. Released at the very end of what was considered French rap's Dark Ages, it features 2000s beats - trap wasn't there yet - a la Dr. Dre and G-Unit, and 8 MCs whose flows range from poppy to hard-hitting, bringing nice variations in terms of vocal performances. The problems with this record are the same that plague most French rap records: it's too long, filled with passable tracks that don't add anything to the table. The beats don't sound like 2010s ones, being 5-10 years late to the US game (a pattern that up until recently was a harsh reality in French rap). The more serious tracks clearly are the strongest cuts here, although filled with foolish lines. Eh, I hoped I would dig this more than back then. Ain't the case. BUT: I feared I would loathe this, and ain't the case so we almost good. |
| Crystal Castles Crystal Castles II | 3.8 |
| Glacial synthpop. Really, this is cold shit, whether it's caused by Alice Glass' shrieks or the harrowing repetitiveness of Kath's beats. This is a weird one: it's catchy yet deeply melancholic, dancey yet almost gothic in its aesthetic - and goths don't dance. We could say it's a witchy dancefloor record, during which you wanna dance but don't really know how. Or maybe you know how but you're having a seizure. |
| Sonic Youth Kill Yr Idols | 3.2 |
| Originally only released in Germany, Kill Yr Idols is Confusion Is Sex's lil sibling, resembling the no wave aesthetic developed with the precedent record, but the songs are slightly more developed. It's still noisy stuff, but it does sound less structureless. |
| Peter Gabriel So | 3.7 |
| Now that is 80s pop. Grandiloquent, fusing pop, soul and rock elements as well as some "world" music inclusions, such as African or Brazilian percussions. So yeah it's art shit, but it's mainstream art shit, thanks to Gabriel's bankability as well as his knack for poppy melodies and rich arrangements. Plus "Don't Give Up" has become a vaporwave hit so it bangs. Gotta say however that it's so 80s the criticisms are evident: it's overtly commercial music, and woah 80s productions do sound like something made 30-40 years ago. It's also kind of a shame most of the bops are located at the beginning of the record, the album losing steam halfway through its course. |
| Yellow Swans Going Places | 3.7 |
| Moving textures. And that's about it. But these textures operate within sadboi territories, emotional resonance being evoked by the drony waves softly passing by. Maybe it's precisely because they are just passing by that melancholy is created: nothing is permanent within this record, all elements growing from non-repeating patterns and crescendos ending in ominous fades. The closer - also the t/t - ends this album, and the band's discography, by projecting a last gargantuan wall of noise. Shame the middle part of the record doesn't manage to grab me as much as the bookends tho. |
| Bruno Mars Doo-Wops & Hooligans | 1.5 |
| Bland shit. Although his 2016 24K Magic mainly was Bruno taking what the funk greats had already done with 2010s pop appeal, this first album just rehashes tropes and sounds used by 2000s mainstream female pop. Maybe that's just a question of taste, but whereas 24KM was a mindless but fun record, this one is mindless and it ain't fun. No passion, no technique. 1.6 |
| Robyn Body Talk | 3.5 |
| Damn catchy and consistent electropop record. Although this is a bit over an hour long, all tracks are interesting and bring something new to the table, although the flow isn't perfect (it's a comp so it's aight). Clearly one of the best recent europop record, it unites 2010 production and sound with a disco energy that pours out of every beat. It's bombastic music to its core. It takes some time to fully digest, but the dance-pop beats and the catchy hooks slowly start to sound better each time I listen to them. |
| Lana Del Rey Lana Del Ray a.k.a Lizzy Grant | 2.5 |
| Much more laid-back and upbeat than Lana's subsequent records, Lizzy Grant works on less grandiloquent grounds but is interesting for the chill vibe it emanates. Unfortunately, while the production is ok, the songwriting is nothing to write home about, the music slowly fading into the background. Not bad, but inoffensive. |
| Big K.R.I.T. K.R.I.T Wuz Here | 3.8 |
| Big K.R.I.T. is dope. He makes his own beats and rap on top of them by switching from hard-hitting bars to anthemic choruses. Whatever the beat, whatever he's talking about, it always sounds a hella dope, drawing influences from all southern hip hop subgenres to come up with a strong first output of one of the strongest southern hip hop discog of the last decade. |
| Sonic Youth Confusion Is Sex | 3.0 |
| Ok so this isn't really rock. There are some traces of rock music here, but it's mostly distorted noise played at high volume. Whereas the s/t was in the end quite "safe" as it was the band's first record, this one is a wholly different beast. Moore and Ranaldo stuck drumsticks and screwdrivers under the guitar strings and played in alternative guitar tuning. From the get-go, this is thus much more extreme in its approach than the s/t, and it results in bleak no wave that makes damn sure it's as unforgiving as possible. |
| The Chameleons Strange Times | 3.7 |
| Solid post-punk, extremely consistent throughout the whole record. Nothing sounded amazing but everything was great. Most compositions range from post-punk, gothic rock, pop rock with a special dedication to the guitars, mostly crystalline and melancholic. Great atmospheric rock from the 80s. |
| Skrillex Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites | 2.3 |
| 2010 m/ m/ Let's be honest, apart from the OG t/t, the rest is pretty shitty, and there are 3 unnecessary remixes. But damn, that t/t is absolutely bonkers - or maybe that's just nostalgia talking. Nevertheless, I remember getting into metalcore at the time. Skrillex's music appealed to me and the boyz because he translated metalcore's breakdown into electronic music. Let the music rise, pull out a one-liner punchline, then let's go fucking craycray. Ye it's dumb, but it worked damn well during festivals. That t/t was a classic back then, even though the rest is trash. |
| Caribou Swim | 3.7 |
| Subdued dancey indietronica leaning towards chillness. First two tracks are pure jams, and apart from closer "Jamelia" I struggled to find the same vibe in other songs. Some are meandering a tad too long to my taste, but each track has got enough melody to be interesting on its own. A great album to chill to, and I think it could be a great gateway record for peepz who don't really dig bleep bloops. |
| Katy Perry Teenage Dream | 1.5 |
| It could have been fun, but this has got some untapped potential. The choruses don't sound half as bombastic as they should, giving the record a semi-anthemic vibe that borders on tameness. That is a huge problem. This is a pop record, a summer one on top of that: it should strive for the grandiloquent. Instead, it's vapid, one-dimensional and unnecessarily mindless - "biatch" doesn't fucking rhyme with "cock". And it managed to annoy me although it's only 45 minutes long. 1.7 |
| Baths Cerulean | 3.7 |
| Bleeps, bloops, and clicks. The vocals are bizarre at first, but surprisingly, they work very well with the glitchy and surreal aesthetic. What is interesting is that this is playful in the way the glitchy shit is mostly moving, yet when these glitches stop, all that's left is soft broken synths and textures. It plays along a lush and longing duality that mainly works save for some rare obnoxious moments (eg that first track). Cool shit that I should have discovered 10 years ago. |
| Rihanna Loud | 2.5 |
| OMG this is so 2010. Up-tempo, with traces of eurodance, dancehall, and most importantly, club vibes, this pretty cool dance-pop record suffers from constant problems throughout its course. These problems mainly englobe repetitive motifs that already sound dated, some of them being downright annoying ("Cheers (Drink to That)"). She delivers a massive club anthem with "Only Girl (In the World)" and the first two tracks, so although it's a mixed bag overall, it's not a bad album per se. |
| Sonic Youth Sonic Youth | 3.5 |
| Sonic Youth's first record was recorded in one night session, and as many first-time recordings, the band played quite cautiously, Moore stating that they omitted their loose, just crazy, noisy stuff. Damn, if this is the subdued version of '81 SY, I wonder what the shows were like. It's already uncompromising: on "The Burning Spear", Ranaldo plays a power drill put through a wah-wah pedal. Holy shit. Then drummer Edson compensates this aesthetic with funky drumlines, sometimes complemented with Gordon's basslines. They are still searching for their sound, but this is already some dissonant and rhythmic no wave. |
| Tom Waits Rain Dogs | 4.1 |
| Continuing the shift initiated with Swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs is a bluesy take on cabaret, telling batshit crazy stories with the aplomb only a drunk romantic man can have. The lyrics' dementia find their echo in the music, a noise of percussions, banjos, bar piano, and Marc Ribot's unstructured guitar. And the songs man. These songs are just so damn good, catchy without being meant as catchy tunes. A timeless record, maybe because it sounded anachronic in 1985. Doesn't sound like anything else, really. |
| Justin Bieber My World 2.0 | 1.5 |
| In a conscious, futile and masochist attempt at truly understanding the 2010s musical paysage, I'll delve into mainstream pop over the coming months or so. Of course I start with this one. I hated "Baby" back then (I was a 16 year old bloke, ofc I hated it), now it's a laughable meme. That's something. The rest is teen pop designed to trick young girls into convincing their parents they should spend some hard-earned money into this vapid corporate product. I'd say the record's biggest flaw is its production, the "beats" having nothing whatsoever interesting for them. And what actually surprised me is that Justin isn't half as annoying as I remembered. Sure, he's just a 16 year old dude singing sappy shit, but it's just harmless. So yeah it's terrible and vapid, but not as much as I thought: I didn't wanna skip all the tracks so fucking kudos for that Justin m/ 1.5 |
| Ihsahn After | 3.2 |
| I prefer this kind of modern prog, mayyyybe because there's black metal and bm is cool. While I found some moments to be typical epic prog parts - thus not very interesting tbh - there are some interesting stuff happening here, from the cool sax to the sometimes extreme dynamic changes. It's not always to my taste, but it's a solid prog metal record that tries to go *a bit* further. |
| Haken Aquarius | 2.2 |
| Let's talk a bit about p r o g. While some stans praise its artists' dexterity and composition skills, some stooges blatantly criticize it for how soulless and wanky it is. Spoiler: it's a bit of both, and Haken's first album is a good case study. The musicians are all extremely talented, the soundscape is wide and incorporates elements of Eastern and symphonic music, nods to the 70s prog greats, and ofc Dream Theater's iconic sound. On the other hand, it doesn't do much to me. Regardless of the quite cheesy vocals - a minor complaint per se, all prog clean vocals are cheesy - it sometimes sounds empty to me. I know, that's a paradox given how much is going on. Yet, I don't headbang although it's a metal record. I don't get lost into the epic music although the long instrumental passages are specifically meant for that. Will have to jam some more modern prog to see if this sentiment holds up. |
| (The) Slowest Runner (In All The World) The Flophouse Session | 3.7 |
| Neoclassical post-rock, reminiscent of Yndi Halda - ie: there are strings - in the way the dynamics are at play. The neoclassical tag comes from the central role played by the piano, and the overall lack of "classic" crescendocore, which kinda bums me out: as a big crescendo fan (sue me), I sometimes expected a conclusion to the almost-explosions. Still, the record is beautiful, especially for a live one. The live setting doesn't seem super evident at first glance, but it does add a massive amount of respect to this "EP". |
| Grimes Geidi Primes | 2.6 |
| A lo-fi repetition of ethereal wave and dream pop. Repetition is key here: almost all tracks manage to overstay their welcome thanks to little to non-existent progression within songs. It's a shame, 'cause some parts are already showing what she'll come up with in 2012. However, what truly showcases that it's her first record is how un-bombastic it is compared to her post-2010 releases. Gotta work some more on the aesthetic. |
| The Replacements All Shook Down | 2.7 |
| The Replacements' last record, or Paul Westerberg's first album - the rest of the band didn't really participate in the writing process. The songwriting is indeed top-notch, but as with Don't Tell a Soul, it's not really a Replacements album. It's a Rod Stewart meets R.E.M. album. Not bad, but a disappointing conclusion to this band's discography. |
| Sting The Dream of the Blue Turtles | 3.2 |
| After The Police's (temporary) hiatus, Sting can finally break free of the band's rock straightjacket. Surrounding himself with top notch jazz studio musicians, he crafts a delicately bombastic sophisti-pop with more jazz ornaments than, say, Prefab Sprout, and more world music inspirations than Donald Fagen. His next records would go on with this formula, and although Sting will refine his formula, this first record is a smooth first step. |
| sleepmakeswaves these are not your dreams | 3.0 |
| Good comp. Not revolutionary by any means - although the band incorporates vocals - but overall a solid and quite diversified third wave bullshit record. |
| Pulling Teeth Funerary | 3.7 |
| First half is crossover thrash, second half is sludge metal. And, no, it's not My War. The stylistic change at the record's midpoint brings an evil twist to the povnding hardcore witnessed during the first half, like a slow descent into Hell. They slightly lost me at some points, but the sheer intensity displayed here is enough to make this record stand out. |
| Conjurer (UK) Mire | 3.9 |
| Mire is a lesson about the state of metal in the late 2010s. Fusing all trendy genres from atmosludge to black metal to melodeath to crusty hxc and even some post-rock, they placed great emphasis on dynamics for the different influences/parts to come together in a fluid way. That's quite clearly the record's greatest asset, as this mixture of popular metal genres could have resulted in a messy gloubiboulga. Instead, each blastbeat accentuates the sludgy riff already in place, and the cleans complement the more atmospheric side of the band's music. So, if you don't know anything about what extreme metal sounds like in the late 2010s, go for this one. |
| Fonky Family Si Dieu Veut | 3.8 |
| 2nd wave Marseille rap - 'cause yeah Marseille rap can also be defined by waves. In 1997, IAM released their third album L'Ecole du Micro d'Argent and helped cementing Marseille's place as the second French rap city. The same year came out Fonky Family's first record, keeping IAM's melancholy but letting go of humour - replaced by irreverence. The record is indeed very serious, full of social commentaries and call to shake up the established order. What's interesting is that the beats, full of scratches and languid soul samples, alternate between bangers made to document an insurgent strike, and lugubrious shit to spit your disgust to the rulers' faces. Of course the record is way too long - 71 minutes - and the beats and themes seem rehashed passed the 50 minute mark, but the angriness and crisp beats are just so gripping. |
| Afterbirth Four Dimensional Flesh | 3.6 |
| Brutal death metal band is br00tal and technical and has got a dope scifi cover art: more news at 10. Vocalist is manbearpig material, "RUH RUH RUH"-ing a la Lord Worm, and is aptly supported by a band at the top of their game and a crunchy production. But it's when the a t m o s p h e r e dictates the tempo that the band's music is imo at its best: the instrumental tracks are great spacey death metal, and the incorporation of synths and post-rock dynamics helps cementing the scifi approach chosen by the band. Great stuff, shame this came out the same year as Ulcerate. |
| The Replacements Don't Tell a Soul | 2.9 |
| The most polished Replacements record. It's too nice. As I've stated in my Pleased to Meet Me soundoff, what made this band great is the thin thread they were walking on, between pop melodies and angry punky bursts of violence, between emotion and aggression, between adolescence and adulthood. This sounds like adult contemporary. Of course the songwriting is still there, the songs are great, but it just doesn't quite sound like The Replacements. It sounds like a regular band. |
| Prefab Sprout Steve McQueen | 4.3 |
| These lads come from Newcastle. Given how grey the sky is up there, their music is strikingly bright. Every band wanting to deliver elegant sophisti-pop understood the recipe thanks to this album: immaculate production, sweet melodies, and an overall feeling of effortless smoothness which ultimately erases that one shitty 80s feature: cheesiness. It's a shame the back half isn't quite as strong as the first one, 'cause that run from "Bonny" to "Goodbye Lucille #1" is pure 5/5 material. The 80s rarely sounded as sophisticated. |
| sleepmakeswaves No Safe Place | 3.2 |
| Cool shit. The least adventurous of their 2020 EPs, yet it's slightly more successful than Not An Exit. Opener "the endings that we write" is interesting, taking black metal blast beats and dissonance to create something not yet heard on a sleepmakeswaves record. The rest is classic third wave crescendocore, so nothing too revolutionary, but the job's finely done as always with these lads. |
| Fatso Jetson Flames For All | 3.7 |
| Gazing at the cover, I can only think about that Simpsons segment when Troy McClure acts as Dr. Zaius and plays piano. Now Dr. Zaius is a stoner, and he digs Masters of Reality. A pure Palm Springs record, this is the one album that inspired the Desert Sessions created by a young Josh Homme - a Fatso fan. With accents of punk, surf licks, jazz complexity and psychedelic space rock (or spacey psych rock), Fatso Jetson came up with a bursting 30 minutes testament to the glory of the desert. That last sentence could have been the perfect conclusion but I like the idea more than the execution. Cheh. |
| Katatonia City Burials | 3.2 |
| Smooth Katatonia release this one. This time enhanced by tasty electronics and a certain sense of melody, their brand of melancholic and atmospheric alt metal flows, imo, better than on their 2010s releases. Not everything is perfect tho: I've always found their late-career instrumentals to be monochromatic, and some tracks go on longer than needed. Solid record nevertheless. |
| Mafia Trece Cosa Nostra | 3.2 |
| Paris, 13eme arrondissement. That's where the Mafia Trece collective comes from. Like its neighborhood, the group is cosmopolite and soaked with Asian culture. Other clear influences are Mobb Deep and cinema: you got it, it's cinematographic rap. As often with large groups, not all rappers/feats are on par with the best ones: Yannick (that dude that did "Ces soirees-la") is the best wordsmith here, and while Oxmo's feat is powerful af (normal, it's Oxmo), Diam's - yeah yeah - isn't ready yet, but hey it's only 1997. Of course it's way too long - 70 minutes - but still manages to stay interesting, although it's overall quite safe in its execution. |
| Bob Dylan Rough and Rowdy Ways | 3.2 |
| As subtle as ever. The songs start off quite simply musically, but they each witness an evolution thanks to discrete licks and motif. Still, the songs are too long - 10 tracks for 70 minutes - and these musical evolutions don't always find their conclusion: the bluesy Americana tunes do be tiring pass the 5 minutes mark. Overall the record is solid, filled with great lyricism - reminder that an almost 80 year old dude can still write better poetry than y'all whacky writers - although almost all songs overstay their welcome. Respect nonetheless, Robert |
| The Replacements Pleased To Meet Me | 3.7 |
| So, Bob Stinson isn't a part of the band anymore. He didn't want - or couldn't 'cause too much alcohol and coke - to play the less rock-y tracks. As you could expect, this record is thus much less punky than their previous ones. Honestly this is their most fun/enjoyable record. However, their abrasiveness is, imo, a very important component of their sound, because it swiftly counterbalanced their pop sensibilities. Now we have a Mats record with pop sensibilities but without any of the grittiness. They thus lose in vibrancy, and that "always-on-the-edge" vibe they could bring in songs like "Unsatisfied" or "Bastards of Young". That vibe is what I love about this band. Add a production that sounds like Van Halen's, and you're left with a cool 80s power pop/alt rock record that's got some extremely strong cuts ("Alex Chilton", "Can't Hardly Wait", "I.O.U.") but which overall fails at bringing as much adolescent energy and emotion - the band's most important features - as the two previous records. |
| The Pogues Rum Sodomy & the Lash | 3.4 |
| An ode to savage beauty. And to alcohol. It sounds so disconnected from the rest of 1985 music, being resolutely anti-modern and looking ferociously to a past with an unpaired majesty - the kind of majesty only a hobo can boast having. You know, halfway between a Dubliner and Sid Vicious. Time to get stupidly shitfaced. Unfortunately, I listened to this sober, so I dig but I didn't v i b e. |
| sleepmakeswaves Out of Hours | 3.6 |
| While Not An Exit has got an electronic rhythm section, Outside Hours is a more organic take on the band's past catalogue: opener "pyramids" is a classic sleepmakeswaves tune, its space rock atmosphere enhancing the crunchy riff. Likewise, "zelda" is a puncher that acutely uses the band's newly incorporated vocals to turn cool post-rocky track into an almost alt rock festival pleaser. Although "menthol" is nothing to write home about as it's basically any other sleepmakeswaves track you've heard but not as engaging, closer "embraced" definitely establishes this pink EP as the banger one. |
| Earthlings? Earthlings? | 3.4 |
| Rancho de la Luna stuff, but not the gritty and desert-y sort of; rather, it's a patchwork of psychedelic(s), electronic bits, tribal percussions, krautrock influences, early 70s' Floyd, Eno's ambient pop, and some then-trending alt rock. It results in an atmospheric rock record, sometimes e x p e r i m e n t a l and sometimes reminiscing of other stoner greats in the likes of Master of Reality or QOTSA, but always with that specific psychedelic edge that made me think at times of Ween. It's sometimes quirky for the sake of it, and it makes the record lose some steam during its midpart. The bookends, however, are some kool thing. |
| Hum Inlet | 3.9 |
| Panopticon's production, alt metal riffs, shoegaze/space rock atmosphere, yeah ofc I'd love this. Didn't expect a 2020 release to sound like that to be honest, the nods to 90s grunge and post-hardcore being too evident for the record to be a product of its era. Still, it's not a pure 90s revival, the sludginess recalling the great 2000s post-metal era. It's in the details that Inlet reveals itself, the slow tempos acting as subtle yet engaging mantras on top of which clean guitar riffs counterbalance the overall murkiness. |
| Various Artists (Hip Hop) Ma 6-T va cracker | 3.6 |
| The soundtrack of the eponymous movie starts with a marking symbol: KRS-One kicks it up with "The French Connection", and all other rappers continue down the same road of hard-hitting conscious rap whose sole goal is to kick you in the nuts. As you can understand with KRS' presence, the mood is clearly NYC-style, made of dark beats reminiscent of Mobb Deep's The Infamous. As a compilation, it's evident not all tracks are material to write home about, but some tunes, like KRS-One's opening salve, Passi's "Les Flammes du mal" or Assassin's classic "Retour aux Pyramides" are absolute bangers. Fortunately, the worst tracks are not that bad, making this hour-long compilation a great way to understand the mid/late 90s French rap scene. |
| Nicolas Jaar Telas | 3.5 |
| Damn, that's Jaar's third 2020 record, after the dancey mechanical 2017-2019 and the s l o w / a b s t r a c t Cenizas. This time, he's focusing on glitchy ambient textures. There's a lot happening, from sparse quirky electronic bits that resemble cute animal cries, to ethereal electroacoustic - also a Cenizas feature - to sometimes lush and soothing passages. The four tracks extended length did lose me at some points, as the whole lot does sometimes sound free-flowing and structureless, but I guess you should approach this recording more as a t e x t u r a l e x p e r i e n c e than as a proper album. Intriguing stuff for real mate. |
| The Replacements Tim | 4.1 |
| The Replacement's first major label release, and the last one featuring Bob Stinson - fired partly for being unable/unwilling to play the less whack'n'woll tunes, and partly for being too stoned/drunk to even try. The band also fired their manager - also a dude who loved some liquor and cocaine. Before these events tho, they managed to retain the sound they had on Let It Be: power pop + punk energy + bluesy bars = burgeoning alt rock. Although being as consistent as the preceding record, I prefer the more exuberant, less serious vibe of Let It Be. This is still The Mats at their peak, paving the way for the next generation of alternative bands. |
| New Order Low-Life | 4.1 |
| Hey you know what? This was Factory Records' 100th release. Cool, huh? Yeah, cool. Austere post-punk has now been totally diluted into solar, synthpoppy new wave, the crystalline guitar accepting his background role alongside the elastic bass. The true stars are the hypnotic synths and samples - much more conspicuous than on Power, Corruption and Lies - leading the epic single "The Perfect Kiss", almost a disco jam given the prominence of those irresistible "clap claps". And almost all tracks are as successfully bangin' as this one, "Elegia" being the exceptional non-banger but it's got a pass because it sounds like what the Stranger Things soundtrack tried to be. Notwithstanding this outlier, New Order will make you dance hard bop after bop, having seamlessly blended their rock roots and their love for poppy electronic. |
| sleepmakeswaves Not an Exit | 3.1 |
| Well, it's sleepmakeswaves: it's post-rock, this time flavoured with electronic bits functioning as the rhythm section. These electronic rhythms are this release's most distinctive aspect along with - yeah yeah really - vocals that don't revolutionize anything but do work pretty well in this context. This is alright, not as great of a post-rock record as the band's late 2000s-early 2010s output, but it does work well in the background during a work session, or any activity that requires pensive and soothing music. |
| Ride Tarantula | 2.3 |
| Britpop with some dream pop linings. Not bad, but quite bland and falling into the background very soon. I yawned so much my jaw hurts. No wonder it didn't sell well - at all - and Creation decided to focus on Oasis. They disbanded in 1997, and some consider it the end of shoegaze. But shoegaze was already dead by 1995, Googe and O Ciosoig having left MBV, and Slowdive having entered the ambient pop canon with Pygmalion. The genre was only buried in 1997, but it was already dead for two years. |
| END (USA-NJ) Splinters From An Ever-Changing Face | 3.6 |
| Metalcore supergroup with math parts and povnding powerviolence moments. Relentless, unforgiving, barbarous shit that does not make me pp as hard as me 18-year old pp would have been, but it still provides the headbang. |
| Weedy et Le T.I.N. Guet-Apens | 3.7 |
| Weedy and Le T.I.N. constitute one half of Expression Direkt, and they show the same aspects as their motherband (?): violence, crudity and humour. Accompanied by many guest stars - among which Joey Starr, Kery James and Rohff -, it does sometimes sound like a compilation given the flows' freestyle nature, but was constructed as a true concept album. Each track references a movie and the beats - concocted by Mysta D from D. Abuz System - complement each song's themes. Oh and of course, in a typical French rap fashion, this is an EP, and it's 45 minutes long (smfh). Quality beats, quality raps, quality guests, quality length: this is one hidden gem, although it's often cliche mid-90s stuff. |
| The Lawrence Arms Skeleton Coast | 3.2 |
| Never was a huge fan of these guys, and this one won't help my relative indifference. The main problem is that they have two singers, but they never sing during the same songs, and if there's one thing I'm sure of, it's that dual vocals are one of the greatest pop punk features. Aight stuff that'll please you if you love these boiz ig. |
| The Replacements Let It Be | 4.4 |
| They are actually growing up. As Westerberg said at the time: "We used to tune for an hour onstage and drink two quarts of whiskey. Now we're down to one quart and tuning for half an hour". They also grew tired of only playing fast and loud - which was their previous way of hiding their fear of being onstage - and started being a little more sincere with their music. Songwriting was now the focus, and the traces of metal, hardcore, and arena rock were tempered and softly replaced by Chicago blues and honky-tonk country. It's so good. Full of dynamic shifts, it served as a bridge between the punk music environment they came from, and the blues-rooted world of those considered as boomers by our very own boomers. In doing so, they became an indie darling, that kind of band that is unmistakably underground but still gets massive love from the mainstream rock press. I said it before, I'll say it again: 1984 is the year alt rock broke. |
| Einsturzende Neubauten Halber Mensch | 3.7 |
| Fuck me this is creepy. Pure teutonic industrial shit. It must have been one hell of an innovative album for 1985: fusing industrial sonorities, thwart guitars, shouts'n'cries, shrillness and mechanical rhythms, the whole lot being loosely linked to post-punk, noise rock and avant-garde shit. Despite this quite vague definition, the record is focused in its desire to make you uncomfortable. It's a success, although it's not always to my pleasure. Apparently it's the band's most accessible record, and while that might seem weird given the sonic endeavours at work here, the fact that bandleader Blixa Bargeld joined The Birthday Party and afterwards Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds might have tone down the group's industrial fury. Gotta check the rest of the discog to be sure about that. |
| The Chicks Gaslighter | 2.9 |
| First of all, I don't know jackshit about The Dixie Chicks, and I'm clearly not the biggest country fan. This is pleasant country pop stuff tho, although I got more enjoyment from the lyrics than from the music - and that's a problem. Still, it's consistent from front to back and some songs almost approach the banger material. Almost. |
| Ride Carnival of Light | 2.3 |
| The last traces of shoegaze are now absolutely gone: this is Britpop. Going full psych on this one, this is almost too much mid-tempo and is looking way too obviously to 70s rock. First half is good stuff tho, thanks to Mark Gardener songwriting skills. The second one, however, isn't interesting whatsoever and dangerously crosses the offensively boring territory - thanks Andy Bell. |
| Taylor Swift Folklore | 2.7 |
| Wow Taylor tries something different? The chamber pop/indie folk tags will sure make it more acceptable for music nerds to dig her work. Still, this is unmistakably a Taytay record: there are too many songs and it's way too long. While the Dessner songs sound good and the Antonoff ones are Antonoff-goes-chamber, the whole record somehow falls into the background around the halfway mark. Same same, but different. |
| Stomy Bugsy Le calibre qu'il te faut | 2.2 |
| 95200 was the last Ministere A.M.E.R. record, and Le Calibre qu'il te faut represents the post-Ministere era, and is one of the first Secteur A albums. Of course, it's 1996 French rap, so Dr. Dre's influence is everywhere and this one LP takes a lot of its soundscapes from Dre's G-Funk. So, you got it, it's a fun, celebratory record, full of female vocals, funky basslines, MOOG stuff, and absolutely no snare - replaced by claps. Problem: Stomy Bugsy was the worst Ministere rapper, and while the band's outputs were saved flow-wise by Passi, on his own he really can't manage to shine. Plus, ofc, the record is way too fucking long - 75 fucking minutes, d'ya think you're Swans? - and starts dragging from min 30 onward. The atmosphere is sometimes nice tho. |
| Havukruunu Uinuos Syömein Sota | 3.6 |
| Epic folky viking bm, drawing some influences from power metal. So it's not really my cuppa - especially the vocals, which I can't say are objectively bad, but hey again it's not really my style - but the riffs do work very well in conveying an epic, beardy vibe - which is accentuated by short but fitting folk passages. |
| The Replacements Hootenanny | 2.9 |
| "It's a hootenanny", sang Westerberg after switching instruments with Mars and playing a bluesy stumble. The band did not care what they delivered with this second album, and shit you can easily tell that. The label wants an album? Aight, they'll get one. It wasn't just a goof though, some songs revealing the band's more sensitive nature. Although it's a punk record - with some hardcore bursts here and there as well as some gritty 12 bars - one can already feel the singer/songwriter sensibility. Maybe that's what helped the record to get played on college radios. They're on the path to greatness. Imo this is alright but not that impressive - they'll refine their sound with their very next album. |
| Dire Straits Brothers in Arms | 3.9 |
| Put some respek on Brothers in Arms: yes, it's sometimes cheesy and while it's the most successful Dire Straits album, it's not considered their best - at least I don't. However, this record lived several revolutions. The CD one by 1985, as being one of the first CD best-sellers; as well as the MTV one, which was broadcasting a shitton of Dire Straits clips. Truth be told, it's no wonder it gained massive success: it's eclectic - pop rock, classic rock, 80s synths, jazzy tune - and the production is absolutely bonkers. Not my fave Dire Straits record, but one great, solid jam from front to end. |
| Bell Witch and Aerial Ruin Stygian Bough Volume 1 | 3.4 |
| Neofolk vs. funeral doom. Truth is, I vibe with neofolk but am rarely in the mood for some funeral doom. The record is great, but suffers from several problems imo. Prod is weird: the bass having a super crunchy tone that I love, but the drums are way too low in the mix and the record thus loses some punch - it's a shame, especially since I would have liked more emphasis on the heaviness brought by the doom parts. Also, the transitions from doom-y neofolk bits to full-on funeral doom are rough around the edges and break the flow of the record. Apart from these issues, it's a great split, bringing an Autumnal atmosphere I shall dig when the leaves are brown and the sky is grey. It's too beautiful these days, imma re-jam Sunbather. |
| Ride Going Blank Again | 3.5 |
| Their britpop opus. The production is lusher and features more power pop traits than shoegaze ones, the hooks being the songwriting's driving force. This newfound focus does however show the band's patchy catalogue, some tracks ("Leave Them All Behind", "Time Machine", "Cool Your Boots") completely obscure the less-than-great cuts. Ride always delivesrs great outputs that fall short of the awesomeness I expected them to be ambassadors of. |
| Mad'M When the Sun and the Moon Rise | 3.0 |
| ya Signa Motorsports m/ m/ m/ |
| Various Artists (Hip Hop) Hostile Hip Hop Vol.1 | 3.8 |
| French rap's third - ok, maybe fourth - most important compilation. Hostile Records puts the spotlight on artists wanting to rage and reflect the harsh musical reality of the time. By 1996, French Hip Hop had fully embraced G-Funk without letting go of the boom bap, and this translates in this record, midway between NYC and LA. Lots of legendary groups and artists here: Arsenik, X-Men, Lunatic, 2 Bal 2 Neg, Doc Gyneco. One of the best insurgent French records, because the energy displayed is parred with the beats and the flows. |
| Greg Foat Symphonie Pacifique | 3.5 |
| British jazz on the spiritual side of things with its soothing atmosphere. The first half delves into funky shit and third stream (ie: there are some strings) endeavours, while the second one is much ambient, bordering on cool jazz on some instances. The production is at all times amazing, Foat's piano'n'keyz being the centerpiece, supported by very cool drums'n'percussions. The record does however falter in its too omnipresent reliance on interludes, breaking the album's flow and being outright unnecessary. A great laid-back record nonetheless. |
| The Replacements Stink | 2.6 |
| The most hardcore they were. Lyrically less compelling than their first record and their subsequent albums, this is the band showing some more of the adolescent themes they've displayed on their first album. Hardcore really was not their biggest asset. Gotta wait a bit more for them to explode. |
| Scott Walker Climate of Hunter | 3.0 |
| Eerie. His voice croons abstract lyrics, and musically this relies on 80s tropes like Simple Minds or Roxy Music, but darker, and somewhat "off". Even after several listens I don't really know what to do of this. |
| Joey Badass The Light Pack | 2.7 |
| A comeback? Eh, it's only three songs using the same tropes the dude has already been using for ten years. "The Light" is great but filled with corny and cringe lyrics like "This is mumble rap extermination" - nah mate just fucking don't. "No Explanation" is underwhelming and Pusha T's verse is aight but not wow, and "Shine" also is a kinda lackluster, kinda good track. Not bad Joey, but these tracks sound like B-sides tbh.r |
| Ride Today Forever | 3.5 |
| Stuck between Nowhere and Going Blank Again, this perfectly shows the band's transition: it's less shoegaze-y (reminder: Nowhere isn't shoegaze) and it starts incorporating Britpop vibes. |
| Protomartyr Ultimate Success Today | 3.6 |
| Their most patient record? It does take a while to fully reveal itself. I'd say the post-punk bangers are less bombastic than on Relatives on Descent, and overall it's much less noisy than their precedent outputs. It's not totally absent though, cuts like "Tranquilizer" make sure to bring noise rock into the post-punk. The most interesting additions - jarring sax, female vocals - are welcome for sure but it doesn't really compensate (for me) the lack of memorable guitar lines. Still, this is extremely tight work, second only to their 2017 record. |
| 2 Bal 2 Neg 3 X Plus Efficace | 3.0 |
| Black magic hardcore French rap. These dudes use a bizarre phrasing, making them sound like griots. This uncanny phrasing can sound ridiculous at times, but when the right lyrics and beats are juxtaposed to the flow, a spooky atmosphere envelops the record ("Poetes de la Mort"). Shame it doesn't always happen, as beats are typical NYC piano/violin - and not the most memorable kind tbh except on some rare occasions like "Que d'injustice" - and the lyrics are typical mid-90s French ones - major labels suck, death to all whack emcees, let's fight social injustice. Overall a good mid-90s French rap record, but not the most essential. |
| Clouded (Be) Inheritance | 2.9 |
| Filthy H8000 with some very very mean mosh parts. Short EP, only 18 minutes, but in the end not original or diversified enough to stand up against the scene's mastodon. |
| The Replacements Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash | 3.1 |
| The Replacements' first record is unadultered punk rock hitting on themes that dated as far back as Chuck Berry, but transferred to the 80s. A true adolescent album, it details the inglorious adolescent life in the late 70s and early 80s: getting a crush ("Customer"), buying pot at an arena show ("I Bought a Headache"), getting wasted and driving around ("Takin' a Ride", which sounds like the Dazed and Confused movie's musical summary). They were apathetic and lazy, and embraced all the adult stereotypes of teenagers: very punk to celebrate the insult one throw at ya, innit? They also hinted at some of the poetic lines they would become famous for, and while musically, this needs some very serious refinement, in terms of attitude these young blokes already had it all by 1981. |
| Van Halen 1984 | 3.0 |
| I guess I don't care much about Reagan-y, macho/hedonistic mid-80s Californian FM hard rock. Ofc David Lee Roth is a fantastic showman, Eddie is a well-known shredder, and the triumphant synths-Schwarzy rhythmic duo is an important part of mainstream 80s music, but it overall doesn't work that much for me. I add "Jump" to my 80s playlist and be happy when it's played, but that's it. |
| clipping. Chapter 319 | 4.0 |
| Trve insurrection music. Using their trademark industrial prod with impressive flow and always on-fucking-point lyrics, this is only 8 minutes long but gaddaym it's among the best one-two punches in recent hip hop. Top tier clipping. |
| Ride Nowhere | 3.5 |
| A year before MBV. Don't let the tag fool you though: Nowhere isn't really shoegaze. It's more of a fuzzy neo-psych record, with little atmospheric laden like MBV (on the shoegaze side) or Slowdive (on the dream pop side) would develop. It's a great 90s pop psych album, much more connected - imho - to The Beatles and The Byrds than Sonic Youth. This kind of aesthetic works much less on me, but the pop melodeez are nice, and when they hit the pedals ahrd I vibe ahrd. |
| Keleketla! Keleketla! | 3.9 |
| Just read this: https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/coldcut-keleketla-interview. Southern African music + Coldcut + Tony Allen + Shabaka + Antibalas = epic win. |
| Moda et Dan These / Anti-these | 2.4 |
| Moda, previous member of Ministere A.M.E.R., and Dan (don't know what he did before tbh) are one of those many jazz-influenced French hip hop bands. Unfortunately for them, in '96 France, the Native Tongues aesthetic was starting to get old and they didn't get a lot of success. That's the official story. My personal version is that while the beats are cool, the rappers' flows are claquay au sol. That's really a shame, 'cause I heard a lot of multi-syllabics - and I fucking love multi-syllabics - and I really liked the beats. But yeah can't dig the flows at all. C'est vachement balourd. |
| Regression (Be) Heartless | 3.2 |
| Groovy H8000, sometimes bordering on beatdown for how stupidly aggressive it is. It's super catchy tho (for groovy Belgian metalcore), making you tap yo foot and bang yo head ahrd. It's only 17 minutes long, but it packs a well-crafted punch. Nitpick: idk if that's only on Spotify but the prod on the last two tracks is real shit compared to the rest. |
| Husker Du Warehouse: Songs and Stories | 3.5 |
| Husker Du's last record. As many HD records, an ego battle between Hart and Mould, fighting to have as many song as the other songwriter on the record, led this swansong to have 20 songs. It was alt rock tinged with power pop choruses, and once again they were ahead of their time in 1987, Warner having no clue how to market this (wait for Weezer and poof they would know). Couple these pressures with Hart's heroin addiction and false HIV (yeah, he thought he had it, but in fact he didn't), as well as being on a touring band for nine years, and the band was ready to explode. They had become what they had never wanted to be: out of control. When looking back on the band's career in 1990, Mould said the band had been done by Zen Arcade: the best record they ever made, and the one they emulated for 3 years. What's interesting is that, in a way, they couldn't not emulate it: signing with Warner Bros meant that any change was a move to sell out. People wanted to hold on to the past, and in a way it made the band want to, too. This is the final emulation, the most bloated one. It's still full of good tunes. Because if you can criticize Husker Du for emulating their one legendary record, you can't criticize them for writing fucking good songs. |
| This Mortal Coil It'll End in Tears | 2.6 |
| 4AD's All-Star Game: label boss Ivo Watts-Russell said to his bros and gals from Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance and Colourbox to cover tracks a la 4AD. Gotta say, although I love Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance (who doesn't eh), this one is pretty boring to me. The atmosphere isn't dense enough for dream pop: apart from a few tracks - "The Last Ray", which builds upon post-punk aesthetic to kick it up a notch, or "Song to the Siren", gorgeous because there's Liz -, I had trouble being truly lost in the music, most of the tunes using way too much violins to create a kinda fake d e e p aesthetic. Not bad, but I didn't care. |
| Ride Fall | 3.7 |
| Ride's latest single before recording Nowhere, and this is the one that fully displays their aquatic take on shoegaze. Warm and atmospheric, romantic and melancholic, this is their strongest EP. (Almost) all killer, (almost) no filler. Shame their strongest EP isn't on par - at all - with MBV and Slowdive's best: this is consistently great, but never consistently amazing. |
| Neptunian Maximalism Eons | 3.7 |
| A tribal behemoth. These Brusseleir homies (yay) decided to put all their influences - avant-garde jazz, zeuhl, drone, brutal prog and some metal intensity - into a record that would best be musically described as the cover's sonic equivalent: a surreal, ominous and occult trip to human soul's most abstract parts. So, yeah, it's an effing difficult record to absorb in one tense two-hour listen, it sometimes does get caught up in its own apocalypse, and it loses some steam after a while, but it clearly is one of the most interesting 2020 releases. |
| Bigg Jus Black Mamba Serums 2.0 | 3.2 |
| Company Flow's less known member, Bigg Jus, also went and released solo material. Like El-P, the approach he took was a futuristic and urban one. The beats are complex and fractured, always moving and uncomfortable, whether they are melancholic or brutish. Bigg Jus adopted the same approach, freeflowing between the beats, always spitting his political diatrib and his rant against wack MCs ("it's plantation rhymes, 'cause most of you rhyme like slaves!" omg he didn't). You got it: it's a demanding record. It's flawed, sailing between incredible bars and eerie beats to moments that will get you like "was that necessary?". The kind of record that is the ultimate victim of its own ambition. |
| Sektor (Be) Human Spots of Rust | 2.7 |
| Not the most memorable H8000 I've listened to. Pretty straightforward late 90s deathcore, not as diversified - or interesting - as the rest of the genre. It's aight but that's about it. |
| And So I Watch You From Afar And So I Watch You From Afar | 3.5 |
| Arena rock in an era when arenas aren't filled with rock acts. Pure energy, pure fun, but the kind of record that does falter in how same-y all tracks are: mathy rhythms, hardcore aggression - from time to time - and a slight post-rock aesthetic compose ALL tracks' formula. I'm a sucker for such aesthetic so I dig this, but it doesn't have the same impact it had on me 6-7 years ago. |
| Husker Du Candy Apple Grey | 3.6 |
| Their major label debut. It basically follows the same formula as Flip Your Wig, with a tad less energy and an even bigger focus on pop songs - "Sorry Somehow" typically being the kind of song that would invade the mainstream during the 90s. This record got a lot of shit for how poppy it is. I'd say the songs aren't as strong as Flip Your Wig's, but the production is much, much better. Not an incredible record, but an essential one for Husker Du, and an essential record if you wanna know where alt rock comes from. |
| Sade Diamond Life | 3.7 |
| Classy. Jazzy textures, salient basslines, delicate guitar, sultry brass instruments and smooth drums make for a sweet bossa nova/sophisti-pop/smooth soul/smooth jazz ride, Sade-the-singer's voice bringing sensuality to Sade-the-backing-band's groovinness. It's an extremely pleasant aesthetic reminiscing of the most soothing aspects of nocturnal music (ie: it's sexy shit), but it does follow the same formula throughout the whole record without truly bringing anything new to the table past the 10 minute mark. Still, it's very good sexy shit, "Smooth Operator" being a trve 80s banger and a contender as sexiest SOAT. |
| Ride Play | 3.3 |
| Damn "Like a Daydream" sounds... like a daydream. A true shoegaze anthem, its swirling drums rhythm, entwined guitars and soft vocals all work together to make turgid melancholy the focal point of their sound. The last two tracks of this second EP, "Furthest Sense" and "Perfect Time" work on the same levels, but are not as bombastic in their awesomeness as "Like a Daydream". Second track "Silver" is a lazy dragger and is just bleh. In the end, what more could you possibly ask? It's a second EP with one pure banger, two ok tracks and only one shitty song. |
| A.A. Williams Forever Blue | 3.6 |
| I liked A.A. Williams's self-titled EP, but thought it was lacking some meat. This one is meaty, she clearly built on the aesthetic she constructed and turned it up a notch. It's as intimate as the EP, but more mature musically. Nitpicks concern the drum sound - too "fake" for my taste, especially given how organic the rest is - and some tracks meandering without having a trve goal. It's when the contrast between longing passages and heavy shit that she displays her potential, like on "Fearless" which is an absolute monster. She's gone one step further, I already wanna hear the second LP. |
| Company Flow Little Johnny From the Hospitul | 3.5 |
| Underground as fuck. Completely instrumental, it still perpetuates the dark and moody atmospheres built by El-P and Mr. Len, and its use of samples still allowed some storytelling. This is obtuse stuff, hip hop that directly comes out of the psychiatric hospital, announcing what's to come two years later with The Cold Vein. It took the darkest aspect of the current instrumental hip hop, from DJ Shadow's peculiarity to trip hop's dark cafe atmosphere. Dragging in some places, but an important document nonetheless. |
| Rubbish Heap Rubbish Heap | 3.7 |
| Sludgy metalcore uit Antwerp. This, like many H8000 records, is fucking feral. Vocals are particularly aggressive, and the bass and guitar work together to create that sludgy tone. Add an octupussy (lol) drummer and you've got one of the nastiest H8000 record out there. Its energy tends to fade into the background in the last third, but the first two-thirds are absolute class. |
| Don Caballero American Don | 3.9 |
| The twinkliest of Don Caba's great trilogy. It's also the warmest and most playful, using much less post-hardcore violence or noise rock aesthetic, making this one the most "accessible" for someone who doesn't dig heavy stuff. Yet this clearly is a Don Caba record, Damon Che and his drums being the focal point of everything happening. His omnipresence is even more evident than on Don Caballero 2 and What Burns Never Returns, which might have provoked the band's explosion shortly after that. The last great Don Caba record. |
| Husker Du Flip Your Wig | 3.6 |
| The transformation is complete: this a pop album. A power pop album, to be precise: it's noisier than any pop album released at the time, but the melodies are now taking the spotlight - "Make No Sense at All" is one dirty pop banger. It showed that the power behind their music was always the songwriting, not the noise. As any other Husker Du record, it does sound like a transition, between the faster and louder New Day Rising and the poppier Candy Apple Grey. This band was always transitioning, and the Flip Your Wig version is the last step before they signed on a major. It might thus be considered their apex (that's what Azerrad thinks), or simply the last time they truly let the noise be a part of their songwriting. Btw the production is ass and "The Baby Song" is absolute garbage. |
| The Pale Fountains Pacific Street | 3.5 |
| The Smiths + Donald Fagen = The Pale Fountains. A knack for poppy melodies, jangly guitars, some flute here and there, and gorgeous trumpets, this is pure English class. The trumpets are the winning asset imo, propelling the songs it appears in to stratospheric pop bangers. Kind of a shame the first two tracks set the bar so damn high, the rest of the record - save for "Natural", much more energetic - are not as bombastic than these opening songs. Still, a very solid 80s album. |
| Ride Ride | 3.6 |
| The first Ride output is an ode to youth, a nonchalant take on noise rock. Full of wah-wahs ("Chelsea Girl"), longing, sadboi vocals ("Drive Blind") and indolence ("Close My Eyes"), this is a sweet 16 minute ride (lol). "Close My Eyes" is a shoegaze banger, but this is the kind of record that act more as an introduction than a full-on statement. |
| Jessie Ware What's Your Pleasure? | 4.3 |
| Ok so this shit bops, but it's not bombastic in its way of bopping. It's subtle and mellow but will nonetheless make you dance ahrd like it's 1985 bitch. The 80s feels are especially strong as, unlike Future Nostalgia, this is a total throwback to that era, mixing disco, dance-pop, r&b. Will make you shake that ass - which desperately needs some shaking btw. |
| Company Flow Funcrusher Plus | 3.7 |
| Complex lyricism, ghastly beats and a bizarre cover: this is trve underground hip hop. You can clearly hear RZA's influence on this, as, beat-wise, this is a futuristic version of Enter the Wu-Tang, and while it is impressive for 1997, I can't help but consider this one as the link between Wu Tang's first album and Cannibal Ox's Cold Vein. It's still a landmark in underground hip hop, straying from the jiggy era and building bridges between the East Coast hardcore rap and the abstraction the genre would be known for. The kind of record I like more for how important it was than for my sheer enjoyment of it. |
| Deformity Murder Within Sin | 3.9 |
| H8000 deathcore leaning more towards death metal than metalcore. Lovin' the tone and intensity they have, but the true winner here is the d y n a m i c s: it's always moving, from those first snare hits to groovy influences part to thrashy riffs to a really cool acoustic interlude. One of the best H8000 I've encountered, and it's #2 on the RYM deathcore chart! |
| Don Caballero Don Caballero II | 4.0 |
| Before What Burns Never Returns, there was Don Caballero 2. Less twinkly and much, much more manic, this sometimes sounds like the guitars are determining the rhythm while the drums freely solo the shit out of its 32 snares and 46 hi-hats. This is their most dissonant and aggressive release, bordering on the obtuse with its 9-minutes "songs" and shifting time signatures. At its peak, this also contains the band's most impressive material, such as "Please Tokio, Please This Is Tokio", but even those moments of grandeur remain resolutely confrontational - again, "Please Tokio, Please This Is Tokio" and its six-minutes long feedback. So, if you're more on the twinkles side of math, go check What Burns Never Returns. If you're a tough motherfucker, this is the one for you. |
| Husker Du New Day Rising | 4.1 |
| A perpetual evolution. Having dispensed with adolescence with Zen Arcade, Husker Du now approaches adult situations on New Day Rising. On top of the maturity of the subject, the most distinctive aspect of this record is how slower the tempos are compared to their previous outputs, allowing for more extended melodies. Of course there were still moments of radiating fury, but the catchiness they always hinted at fully exploded on NDR. They were occupying an unexplored no-man's-land between hardcore noise and pure pop. Less ambitious, but also less bloated than Zen Arcade, New Day Rising is the second underground classic Husker Du released in six months. True 80s trailblazers. |
| Madonna Like a Virgin | 3.7 |
| Madonna + Nile Rodgers = pop + funk = 80s shit oh yeah. A dance pop classic, Madonna sings her sensual and sexual lyrics over sometimes-dated instrumentals. Still, it's so 80s that the "it's dated" argument doesn't have a lot of impact: if you jam this, it's for the vibes. And these are damn great vibes. OOOOOOH YOU'RE AN ANGEL!!!!!! |
| Crowbar Odd Fellows Rest | 3.6 |
| Crowbar's Odd Fellow Rest takes its formula from doom's slowest tempos threatened by a sludge screed and dry but deeply emotional vocals. Although it's slow and heavy, it's not without groove, reminiscing their friendos Down. There's little to no variety here though, and the NOLA swamps do get tiring after you've spent some time stuck into it. Also, kind of a shame the best track, "Planets Collide", is the first one, gets you all pumped up for almost nothing. Still, as an exercise of melancholic muddiness, this is top notch. |
| And So I Watch You From Afar Successors | 2.5 |
| It's aight. Nothing bad, but nothing memorable either. The reason I enjoyed Heirs was for how fun it was, especially live. This isn't really fun. |
| Boris NO | 3.6 |
| Wow. Heavy shit. Going for crust and hardcore this time, this release ranges among Boris' most aggressive works. No bullshit, no tender passages, this is pure anger thrown at your face, whether it's in the form of a hardcore banger or a doom slow burner. Boris never disappoint. |
| Arkangel Dead Man Walking | 3.7 |
| Heyyyyyy these bros are from Brussels m/ m/ m/ Filthy metalcore, the guitars having *that* tone and riffing hard kinda like Slayer, the drums hitting extremely hard and dry. It's super consistent, it flows extremely well, the riffs are super engaging for the genre, and I bet these dudes tore the shit down of Magasin 4. |
| TTNG Animals | 4.1 |
| A work of fragility, from the twinkly twinkles to whiny vocals to the frail guitar work: you know it, it's midwest emo-influenced math rock. It's great work, engaging and memorable in its display of emotion. The only thing that, imo, prevents this to attain American Football status is that it doesn't invoke as much of a cathartic reaction. Still an old time fave of mine. |
| Husker Du Zen Arcade | 4.2 |
| 1984: The year alt rock broke. 1984: the year of Minutemen's Double Nickels on the Dime and Husker Du's Zen Arcade. While most tracks still retain the hardcore energy and lo-fi production the band started its career with, this is the pinnacle of the noisy, hooks-full formula they showed on In a Free Land and Metal Circus. Before Nirvana made it popular, this is the one record that first mixed pop and heavy music. The idea sounds so simple: play a pop song, shout your anger, blast the distortion. Still, don't expect Nevermind: this is a difficult record, as all trailblazers are. For every successful record you know, there's the proto version, rougher, less marketable, but more adventurous. So, yes, sometimes it's a bit of a noisy mess. But when the pop melodies start crawling their way into your head, this fucking hits. |
| Frankie Goes To Hollywood Welcome to the Pleasuredome | 2.8 |
| This record contains some of the best 80s music, but also some its most run-of-the-mill. The best cuts are, duh, that one track y'all know, as well as the t/t, gargantuan piece of exuberant synthpop. Gotta say tho, "Relax"'s single version is better than the one that made the album cut. Dunno, maybe I know the single version too much. Basically, up until "Tag", it's good shit. After that, it's kinda shit, even edging towards obnoxiousness with that "Born to Run" cover, and overstaying its welcome. Overall it's good, but the tiny shit bits are really shit. |
| Altamont Civil War Fantasy | 2.7 |
| Formed by Melvins and Acid King members, Altamont delivers straightforward stoner rock with clear 70s hard rock influences, kinda like a fuzzy Grand Funk Railroad. It's aight, but really it's nothing to write home about. Just another stoner fest, without bringing haziness, neckache caused by too much headbangs, or cosmic awe. |
| Nuvolascura As We Suffer From Memory and Imagination | 4.2 |
| Skramz is doing good these past few years. 2019 was the year that saw a great battle for screamo's throne, between State Faults, Vi Som (etc.), Joliette, Cara Neir, and some newcomers: Nuvolascura. Last year they weren't on par with the others to truly compete. This year they can claim the throne from Envy and No Note, thanks to their blistering pace, emotional violence and technical capability. We'll wait for the end of the year to see which skramz is the best, but Nuvolascura made sure they would be taken into account this year. |
| Mutant Joe Home Invasion Anthems | 3.7 |
| A product of its time. Trap hi-hats, ghostly techno synths, Memphis rap horror themes, a pinch of jungle, the whole lot being supported by insurrectional voices and a lo-fi production bordering on industrial, clashing together into this claustrophobic and abrasive oddity. I hear some Lil Ugly Mane here, not so much sonically - although some passages do remind me of the best underground rapper of the past decade - but rather in how uncompromising this is. Mutant Joe goes full paranoid with his beats, while the rappers pull in resources from now defunct message boards and online sample dumps. It sounds like the worst of 2019. It's great stuff. What a time to be alive. |
| Legion (Be) Embedded In Darkness | 3.7 |
| OG H8000. The 'H' stands for...hardcore (surprising eh), and the '8000' stands for the postal code indicating where the genre originated, in West-Flanders. Small digression, West-Vlaamse aren't known in Belgium to be super hardcore dudes (it's the only Belgian province having a sea access, and they are seen as stubborn, cheap and old-fashioned, but with a good disposition), yet the province originated H8000 and the best Belgian band ever - fucking Amenra. It needs to be said that it's not strictly hardcore - the bands having a clear death influence - but rather metalcore/deathcore (not that 2000s shit tho). This record is on the deathcore side of H8000, and god it fucking rips. Riffs are death ones with that late 90s metalcore prod, the drumming is hard-hitting and kinda sounds shitty - it does fit the aesthetic so I'll give it a pass - and the vocalist sounds like the commander of a demonic legion . It's only 18 minutes long, but it does show some varying aspects: the first 15 minutes are good, straight-up "in yo face" deathcore, but the last three minutes are what makes this release truly special, the penultimate track pulling out a magnificent clean riff on top of the cacophony, and the last one relying on a synth that would fit damn well on a Burzum record. These last three minutes are especially really fucking good. Great hidden gem. |
| Shellac At Action Park | 3.9 |
| Three men, three lines of attack: the guitar is in charge of velocity, bass constitutes the mass, and the drums dictate the time. Melody is secondary here, letting groove and dynamics command the music: drums'n'bass create a spin-cycle pace upon which the guitar shrieks its anti-melodic textures. This is as much noise rock as it is post-hardcore or math rock: a true document of the state of indie rock in 1994. |
| Husker Du Metal Circus | 3.6 |
| A turning point. The pop melodies are finally shining bright, taking over the crass production to truly show Husker Du is a band that writes folk rock songs hidden behind a wall of noise. Mould is singing more passionately, the guitar is much more harmonic, and, hell, you can sing shout along with it. They are not there yet, but this still is Husker Du's first true record. |
| Echo and The Bunnymen Ocean Rain | 3.1 |
| Well, this does sound like 1984. Gothic inclinations can be found in McCulloch's voice, the guitars mostly jangle, and post-punk's dying mainstream presence can still be heard on some tunes ("Thorn of Crowns"). But these typical early 80s attributes are secondary to the lush orchestration, perhaps the album's most recognizable feature. Sometimes these strings work tremendously well - "The Killing Moon" arguably being a top tier 80s tune - but they often tend to collapse as, in the end, they are lavish strings juxtaposed with ok-ish pop songs (eg "Seven Seas"). At the very least, the baroque pop aesthetic scattered throughout the record does achieve to install a longing, autumnal atmosphere, but apart from "The Killing Moon", that don't impress me much. |
| Slo Burn Amusing The Amazing | 3.5 |
| So. This is a post-Kyuss Garcia project, and it was recorded at Rancho de Luna: you'd be right to expect stoner rock. Even though the sonic aesthetic at work here clearly reminds of Kyuss, the most common points are the guitar tone and Garcia's vocal timbre, although his voice is much more aggressive than on Kyuss' - and it's not for the best tbh. What makes this four track EP stand out in the Garcia Stoner Universe is how punky and direct it is, uppercuting the listener's jaws as it deploys its "in yo face" riffs. However, the layers and complexity that made Kyuss' success aren't present here, the rhythm being a tad too monolithic to my taste. Of course it's "to each his own", but I have realized the stoner that makes me v i b e the most is one of psychedelic, hypnotic layers swiftly coming together in a cosmic ride that Moebius would have been the only one to properly visually depict. Yet, it's stoner, so I still vibe. It's funny how everyone has got a few genres that will always deliver, no matter the creativity or technicality at work. I love the doobies. |
| Vile Creature Glory, Glory! Apathy Took Helm! | 3.2 |
| Ye, first three tracks are nothing to write home about: it's doomy sludge, or sludgy doom. You should know that kind of shit if you ever listened to Thou, and you should know Thou's the best band doing that kind of stuff. The last two tracks, however, are much more interesting. "Glory, Glory" uses multi-layered hymnal voices to slow burn like a Morricone epic, and "Apathy Took Helm!" is an absolute filthy banger, perpetuating the first three tracks' formula, but this time with interesting songwriting, and these gorgeous chants, resulting in an epic finale. First three tracks are bwergf, last two are amazing. In the end most of the album isn't that interesting, and the brilliance of its ending doesn't make up for it. |
| D. Abuz System Ca se passe | 3.6 |
| Mysta D, sample wizard, and Abuz, mic predator, created D Abuz System as an underground Parisian hip hop group. The atmosphere is muffled, the beats operating within the boom bap sphere and being enriched by many samples. Abuz's rap acutely fits within this aesthetic, his flow being not extremely fast, but always efficient. His energy doesn't translate in fastness, but rather in aggressivity: on "Underground My Style", he tackles all the wack MCs only in it for the money. Although it's 38 minutes long, it's considered as an EP (aaaaah, French rap, you and your often-too-long records), but the duo established itself as an important underground figure. No wonder: this is sweet. |
| Crawlspace Enter The Realm of Chaos | 3.0 |
| Another H8000 band, this time coming from Belgian Limburg (bedankt voor de Achelse jongens). Metalcore riffing with some death influences - basically, it's as if Immolation wanted to go hxc. Is this... deathcore? The distinction between the hxc and death parts are pretty clear, so we'll rather go with hardcore-influenced death metal; or death-influenced hardcore. All in all, this slayz, the drummer is a beast and the work at play here sure is well-done. It just isn't really ma cuppa. Alle, geen harde gevoelens matekes! |
| Battles Mirrored | 3.9 |
| Quirk quirk quirk quirk quirk (to sing to Rihanna's "Work" melody). The first tracks are absolutely batshit crazy, from extremely tight drumming to fucking-weird-yet-weirdly-fucking-good-vocals and the m a t h orchestrated by the guitars and the synths. Occasional surprises like sleigh bells or deep basses make this an ever-flowing listen and a weird lil musical object, kinda like a HP kid: it goes everywhere and sometimes sounds stupidly complicated, but in the end you realize it's almost genius. "Almost" is the key word here: unfortunately, "Rainbow" and "Bad Trails" are more a snoozefest than a funfest and totally break the record's pace. At least the remaining tracks go back to polyphonic shit to bop yo head to. |
| Husker Du Everything Falls Apart | 2.9 |
| Still evolving, but not yet refined. It's still mostly hardcore punk with some post nods, and, most, importantly, structure. It's not the turning point that Metal Circus would be, but it's pretty clear by now these dude have a lot of pop melodies to offer. However, this 20-minute first album does sound too messy, and their knack for pop melodies hidden behind noisy punk does not shine as much as on their latest EP, In a Free Land. Some tracks do stand out, such as opener "From the Guts", the furiously memorable t/t and its post-punky lead guitar, "Target" and the pissed-off shout-along chorus (DON'T PARTICIPATE), and "Gravity" and its "solo". Gotta wait for the next few releases for the band to truly find their own sound, but they were already hinting at what they would become. |
| Lloyd Cole and the Commotions Rattlesnakes | 3.3 |
| Jangly jangle loaded with classicism: Cole's voice sometimes borders on Reed's spoken word, the guitars are etched with Byrds, Television, and Dela Blues homages, and the additional strings bring a welcomed touch of warmth. Lyrics are carefully written, but I'm a froggy boi so cbf to understand 'em eheh. No weak track, but no real standout either imo. |
| Roadsaw Nationwide | 2.9 |
| Rednecks with caps put on top of their hirsute head: yeah, the album cover does translate well to the band's persona and sound. This is your typical American trucker band, riding on interstates, the only stopovers being truck stops with neon Budweiser signs. With such an imagery, you'd expect some classic American rock'n'roll, and that's basically what they give us: wack'n'woll, some fuzz, some reverbed vocals, and there you go for some aight, if unoriginal stoner. |
| Paysage d'Hiver Im Wald | 4.3 |
| Why did he officially release that in June? It's hard to vibe to this when the sun's up at 5AM and it's so hot you could cook bacon on your belly. With that being said, Wintherrr is one glacial motherfucker and doesn't give the single fuck which time of the year it is: when he riffz, you shut up, close your eyes, and penetrate the cold pine forest. There are as many nature recordings as expected in a PdH record, reinforcing the Swiss' potent capability to drag the listener into the iciest tree fortresses. So, what makes Im Wald distinguishable from past output is the rebalancing of the riff/drone duality: while previous records didn't hesitate to border on dark ambient, riffz are here the prominent force in the mix, resulting in one of the crispest and dynamic recordings in the one-man-band discography. Supported by drums - whose sole job is to stay in the background and hammer the shit out of the snare - and the classic shrieks, these riffs are best enveloped when well-known Casio synths come into the equation. Then, Wintherrr creates the unthinkable: a violin enters the album's course in "Le reve lucide", neither completely atonal nor entirely pleasing to the ear. This thin thread between the musically unlistenable and the emotionally moving is at the core of Paysage d'Hiver's aesthetic. This project is a living testimony of all things disgusting, from the horrendous production to the sloppy playing to the inhumane cries. It's all about atmosphere and aesthetics apparently? Yes, it is, and it's fucking good. |
| Various Artists La Haine | 3.3 |
| This isn't a soundtrack: these songs accompanied the movie's message. Telling the story of cites' youth, it thus gather many French rappers and group of the mid-90s that totally let go of egotrip or other candy tracks and deliver powerful, angry tunes. Aaaand, it's kinda disappointing, mainly because most of the artists here are capable of so much more. All songs are truly great, but their message resonate much more than the actual music. The kind of record which is more important for how deeply it marked the people than for how good its songs are. |
| Driven Cowardice Consumer Of The West | 3.7 |
| Amsterdam metalcore? These dutchies know how to riff hard. Also, this is from the late 90s, and you all know (at least you should know) this is the best hardcore/metalcore period eva. This is pure aggression, from the shouted vocals to the technical riffing machine to the quite complex but always povnding drums, as well as to the not-always-present-but-when-they-are-oh-boy dynamics. As many bands from that era, Driven only left us one single recording, but it's one very solid EP. This is everything you want from late 90s hardcore/metalcore. However, it ends quite abruptly and it's a bit too short tho, I'd have loved some 10-15 more minutes. |
| Narrow / Arrow Middle Children | 3.1 |
| Math rock with emo vocals, and sometimes shouted vox to accompany these moments when the guitars continue their twinkly business but the bass and drums slow the rhythm to povnd ahrd. The vocals aren't especially good, but they do fit with the mostly adolescent atmosphere the EP is conveying. Love the production too, each instrument resonates pristinely. The whole lot is unfortunately pretty unremarkable, going straight to the "it's pretty but that's it" category. |
| Husker Du In a Free Land | 3.2 |
| They start to get their sound. It's still hardcore, but the post-punk guitars are there and you can feel the pop sensibilities ("In a Free Land" is their catchiest song yet). It's only 5 minutes long, but it's some gud 5 minutes. |
| Cocteau Twins Treasure | 4.7 |
| This record is like wandering in a zero-gravity labyrinth made of echoes and reverb; its walls are truly made of sound. An elf sings ethereal lullabies, and the delicacy you're surrounded with create these brief, pure moments of onirism. It's so fitting: the cover's glittering lace and the songs' titles from mythology perfectly match record label 4AD's aesthetic. An actual fairytale record. |
| Leadfoot Bring It On | 3.2 |
| Nothing groundbreaking, but a fun southern/stoner/hard rock lead by wah-wah pedals and rusty vocals. As you could expect from the cover (which is so bad it's... BAD, stahp with the "so-bad-it's-good" bullshit, just acknowledge you like shitty stuff), it's super 'Murican, super redneck, and super manly. And that's basically it, these three adjective are enough for you to know if you'll enjoy this or not. I dig fun dumb stuff. |
| Amia Venera Landscape The Long Procession | 4.2 |
| Damn why didn't I discover this back in 2010? 2000s post-hardcore's striking riffs and clean vocals, metalcore's technicality, post-metal's atmosphere and crushing vocals, and ambient passages give the whole lot more weight: this is a fucking great mix of influences. What's interesting is how they chose to vary their soundscape: sometimes you'll get a post-rock/post-hardcore part, followed by a post-metal one, stopping for a short metalcore passage, then rising into a post-metal/post-hardcore epic. They know how to use their influences to create a quite unique sound. Ofc it's a tad too long, and some parts are ever-so-slightly dragging, but this an enormous album, the kind of dense work you have to come back to to fully digest. |
| Tout Simplement Noir Dans Paris Nocturne | 2.6 |
| Parisian G-Funk, half hedonistic, half claimant. Their posture is clearly anti-establishment, talking about extremely crude stuff (they be sayin' bad words), France's institutional racism, or FM radio's shitty quality. It's rarely bad, but also rarely awesome. Gotta say though, it's misogynist af too, not even one tender word for the ladies. We'll say they were young and maladroit ("Goutamafonkybite", classy). |
| Protest the Hero Palimpsest | 1.5 |
| Nope. I felt I was going to hate this, and yeah I hate everything about this: the vocals, the guitar sound, the pointless interludes. Idk why I like wankery stuff like math rock but cbf to dig these guys. Apparently the concept and the lyrics are amazazazing, but I'd rather read the lyrics than having to listen to this record again. 1.6 |
| Faraquet The View From This Tower | 3.7 |
| Math rock + vocals, the singer being arguably one of the least whiny of the whole scene - so he's one of the best - and imo could have been used more prominently. In the end, this is standard math rock, but the band adds some tricks from time to time, whether it's brass, strings or banjo (yeehaw) and that melancholically gorgeous conclusion. And yeah, it kinda sounds like KC at times, but it's not in their mathy progression the band manages to embark me. It's in these subtle moments, when the tribal drumming appears in "Carefully Planned", or when Autumnal arrangements conclude the record. It's an album of moments, those very few seconds where everything seems perfect. Shame it's not happening all the time. |
| Husker Du Land Speed Record | 2.4 |
| The fast stuff got meteoric. This record is speed for speed's sake and sounds like almost dispensed from structure. It's basically one massive explosion lasting for 26 minutes. One can still spot melodies among the noise, showing that even at their most hardcore and noisy, their songs were just folk rock tunes played at light speed with an extreme volume. Still, this is too messy for its own sake. |
| Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds From Her To Eternity | 2.9 |
| Cave's first record after The Birthday Party breakup. He poses as a punk blues crooner, the album's sombre grandiloquence being the perfect counterpart to this crazed persona. Howling his spooky poetry in an almost bizarrely sexual way, Cave lets the guitar dictate the atmospheric and dissonant rhythm. It's weird shit. Not my cuppa, but this is intriguing. |
| Fu Manchu The Action is Go | 3.5 |
| I was expecting some fun slacker stoner, and indeed it is fun slacker stoner. The punk energy is being cooled down by mid-tempo compositions and fuzzy guitars, but also dampered by lackluster vocals and a length too-long-for-its-own-good. Skate-slacker-stoner-punk, yeah it does sound like what it sounds like yfm? |
| Deftones White Pony | 5.0 |
| Shit, accidentally hit "Remove Rating". This might sound cliche, but this was my first metal-related album that I considered a classic. Its nu metal roots are evident, but the layered atmospherics, extended by Delgado's addition to the official line-up, is what makes this record an unmatched listen in terms of emotional payoff. Then, add Chino's screams, whispers, and soulful vocals telling cryptic stories, and you'll get anything I wanted in terms of heavy music as an adolescent. The back-and-forth between slow and fast songs sequencing the album is (if consciously done) also something that always was important, the album always moving between rage and despair. You can tell Chino was inspired by The Cure or Echo & the Bunnymen: there is an emotional quality attached to the record, and it shines with the band's most subtle soundscape ever. Like that first drum kick in "Digital Bath". Or that guitar sound in "Knife Party". Or those lyrics in "Change". And these heartbeats to conclude the album. I'm rambling. I can float here forever. I love this record, and I hope you're having a great day. |
| Phoebe Bridgers Punisher | 3.2 |
| Pretty songs enhanced by the pristine production. It's a nice record, no song's bad, but not all melodies make their way into my head - save for "Kyoto", "Chinese Satellite" and "I Know the End". Another pretty good 2020 indie folk record. |
| Democrates D La Voie du peuple | 4.1 |
| This is Prose Combat's hardcore version. The beats are also crafted by Jimmy Jay and Boom Bass, but the rappers stray away from MC Solaar's sophistication to spit their political stances. Afrocentrism, Islam, African dictators and the Western silence after the Rwanda genocides, the group's discourse is hard-hitting and claims the same heritage as KRS-One or French group Assassin. What's surprising is how the music and the flow rarely match the lyrics' violence: Jimmy Jay and Boom Bass concoct smooth, jazzy beats while the rappers (mainly Black Jack) display mostly nonchalant and slacker flows - a total opposition to the sometimes crude stories. They never rap fast, although they sometimes let aggression take the control of their voice. It's 75 minutes long, but it's no hassle: each and every track contain absolutely dope samples, and the urgent feel, fluffy beats and changing flows make this a damn fine 90s French hip hop record, one that isn't on par with IAM's L'Ecole du Micro d'Argent, but still stands tall above the masses. |
| Macaroom Homephone TE | 4.0 |
| Ok. In terms of indietronica/synthpop/ambient pop/ta reum/g l i t c h p o p, this is very well constructed. I won't try to decipher this record, Johnny did it on multiple occasions. I'd say I spent a lovely moment with a lovely album. Now I'm just waiting to fall in love. |
| Hikes Hikes [reissue] | 3.7 |
| Peaceful yet spirited math rock. So yeah, vocals are underutilized in the genre, but imo here they don't always work for the best - they're a tad too whiny for me. When it hits, it fucking hits tho, such as the album opener and closer. The two other tracks do not impact me as much but damn those bookends. |
| Husker Du Statues | 2.7 |
| Husker Du's first single is a robotic post-punk two-punch. It's aight, but hey I bet they loved Public Image Ltd. |
| ZZ Top Eliminator | 3.7 |
| Donna Summer was the first to acknowledge that disco and rock guitars should spend some more time together. Van Halen continued that trend with "Beat It" and "Jump". 1983 was a good time for disco and guitars apparently. ZZ Top come with a hard rockin' redneck boogie record, perfect for MTV (it sold 10M records so yeah I guess peepz dug this) with its synths and drum machine (either it's a drum machine, either the dude is real tight and chose a synthetic sound). The best tracks (ofc "Gimme All Your Lovin', "Sharp Dressed Man", "Legs") are pure fun jams to drive to, and while the rest is somewhat uneventful, it's that kind of record that'll never fail pumping you up. |
| Acrimony Tumuli Shroomaroom | 4.1 |
| Stoner with psych influence: yay, for once a stoner record isn't only focused on weed, y'know there are other drugs outta here? Reef refs are still present, but the shrooms/psychedelics aesthetic is a refreshing take in a genre mostly known for the 420 love. It's full of great riffs with strong Hawkwind vibes ("Hymns to the Stone", whatta banger), but it knows when to slow down and be pastoral with "Turn the Page". The record ends with three space rock tunes, establishing itself as a true ode to whatever substance humans can find to be high as a kite. If we're only talking in terms of vibes, this is kinda like a 90s Elder. |
| Typhoon (USA-OR) White Lighter | 4.0 |
| Ok this is some bombastic chamber music ranging from pop to rock to folk. What I particularly like about this is how introspective it manages to be without losing its rhapsodic nature. The album's theme, while tragic, is tinted with optimism that allows it to be much more than yet another lachrymose work done by some bearded dude strumming his guitar. Small nitpick: the record's last third does not work as well as the first two, but hey it's still great stuff. Pristine arrangements, upbeat dynamic ranges and above-average songwriting: it reminds me of the best Arcade Fire and yes, this is very good and I would have loved to have discovered this in 2013. |
| Arsonists As The World Burns | 3.7 |
| Underground 90s East Coast record. They first signed with Fondle'Em (them again eh) but released their first album As The World Burns through Matador. Their incandescent brand of rap finds its balance in the ever-knocking beats and ever-changing flows of the five MCs (!). Notably, all 21 tracks contain all bar, no chorus, adding an enraged urgency to the record. Unfortunately, this never-resting energy does get tiring, especially since the record clocks in at a bit more than one hour. All beats are cool, as are the emcees' flows, but the lack of variety plagues this record, which could have been fucken amazing if it had been trimmed down a bit. Make a shorter album with the 10 best songs and you'd get one stone-cold classic. |
| Emily Keener I Do Not Have To Be Good | 3.1 |
| Soothing, hazy indie folk which warmness is displayed as much by the soft live instrumentation as well as Keener's beautiful restrained voice. The mostly subdued tone is however my main gripe with this (it's also my main gripe with most modern indie folk): it's pretty, but it tends to fall into the background after a while. Another good female indie folk record. |
| The Most At Once | 3.4 |
| At first I was like 'yeah this is Midwest emo math rock, I know that kind of shit'. Then, a brass instrument started swinging. Zappa imagery popped in my head and this kind of jazzy math rock started making sense. I'm a huge Clever Girl fan, so a brass-tinged math rock record is something I'm always down for. The vocals are meek when they are not bordering on harsher tones (RYM says it's post-hardcore, and this time I don't believe you RYM), not incredible (ofc it's influenced by emo) but suiting the music. A great underground record for all you twinkly stans, although it's not the most memorable I've recently encountered. |
| Minor Threat Complete Discography | 4.0 |
| The one and only Minor Threat recording you would need to listen to. Short but compact and full of great tunes, this comp embodies hardcore's ethos: a band's discography can fit in a 47-minute album. Thing is, it does feel more like an album than a comp, mainly because one can hear and feel an influential band's evolution throughout its short-lived career. |
| Tom Waits Swordfishtrombones | 3.5 |
| With Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits ends his "bar pillar and pseudo-jazz" era. Songs are shorter, lyrics are more cryptic and the rich sax/piano/guitar instrumentations that rhythmed his previous records are now replaced by a tornado of brasses. Musically, this draws near Waits' voice: it's raucous and metallic shit that moans its way to the most bizarre territories of cabaret music, midway between Beefheart and Brecht and Weill. Cabaret music never was my cuppa, but while I do find of the instrumentals to be meandering a tad too much, I dig this. Not vibin' hard, but diggin'. |
| Down NOLA | 4.3 |
| As well as Cathedral's Carnival Bizarre, this is a reef riff machine. Pepper Keenan's guitar tone is perfect for this sludgy southern stoner bomb of a record. This is muddy as fuck, and maybe the record I associate the most with NOLA's swamps. Lotta booze, lotta weed, lotta riffs, lotta headbanging. |
| This Will Destroy You Vespertine | 2.8 |
| oh i thought it was one longass track but no. Artwork is a lazy black square, record is mostly soothing textured ambient. It's pretty much uneventful, yet I wasn't bored, gg bois. Nothing offensively average but nothing tremendous either. |
| Murgrind The Power of Yourself (EP) | 3.6 |
| This clearly is Howard Shore, he just took a pseudonym to fuck the DS game. Great record, its buildup is very smooth and it's a pleasure to work with this in the headphones. |
| Hamza 140 BPM | 2.3 |
| "Drill, tous les rappeurs veulent s'y mettre". Yup, even the Brusseleir homie goes UK drill. It's aight but not much else, unfortunately. Not really interesting, imma jam "Life" once again. |
| Tera Melos Untitled | 3.7 |
| It's math rock, but it's also a bit more than that. There's an underlying brutal prog sound reminding me of Hella, as well as some noise rock inspirations. The problem is the last 28-minute track, "Melody 8". I wanna pretend it doesn't exist then, 'cause the first 30 minutes are absolute bonkers, but hey they decided to include this noisy mess after so many sweet math rock tunes |
| Minor Threat First Two 7"s | 3.0 |
| Welp, it's their first two 7"s mashed together. Kind of non-essential because of the Complete Discography comp tbh tho. |
| Violent Femmes Violent Femmes | 3.6 |
| A punk version of stripped folk. It sometimes sound like 2000s avant-folk, don't know if the band's paternity is recognized (or not). Anyway, this is voluntarily amateur, and I bet this aspect had at least some influence on the indie scene. All tracks aren't all on the same level though, some being bombastic jams ("Blister in the Sun", "Kiss Off", "Prove My Love"), others being ok and kinda dreary. That's what I thought upon my first listen. During the second one, I was more hooked. Gotta spend more time with this and maybe I'll end up shouting all lyrics with teenage angst. Maybe. |
| Cathedral The Carnival Bizarre | 3.9 |
| Cathedral's first LP was death doom oriented, their second one was primarily doom with some stoner influences, and the third one, The Carnival Bizarre, concluded that first trilogy by being a huge reef riff machine. Hard-hitting drums, gnarly vocals + that classic early 90s Cathedral artwork = 420 material. Cool shit. |
| Siah and Yeshua DepoED The Visualz Anthology | 4.2 |
| Another Fondle'em record, another underground hip-hop gem. Ofc it's jazzy shit, but it's not yo typical jazzy hip hop stuff: the bros managed to incorporate a Bitches Brew sample and make it work. The rapping is great but not tremendous, but the beats omg the beats my man you gotta listen to those. They manage to be even more organic than DJ Premier. Production-wise, this is a fucking beast. If you dig ATCQ, Digable Planet, and that kind of stuff, listen to this asap. |
| GoGo Penguin GoGo Penguin | 3.6 |
| GGP once again using their power trio to come up with cool and intricate nu jazz. I'd say it's their second best after v2.0, not sufficiently diversified to become their magnum opus, but short and technical enough to pack a punch. |
| Hallas Conundrum | 3.4 |
| No "Star Rider"-material on this one, but Hallas continue their cool brand of psych prog hard rock/AOR, this time allowing more space to aerial synths. While being a one-trick pony record, it truly picks up in the second half, full of jams - again, nothing is "Star Rider"-material, but these are all contender for Hallas' 2nd best song. In the end, it's an extremely safe album for the band, but it works. I'd say this is overall a more consistent album than the debut, as it isn't plagued by the awesomeness of that track I've already mentioned twice and won't mention a third time. Ok, STAAAAAAAAAAAR RIIIIIIIDEEEEEER. |
| Piglet lava land | 3.7 |
| Jammy, mostly chill, feel-good math rock, so ofc I love this kind of shit. Plus it's only 24-minute long and evokes Midwest emo, so the Clever Girl comparison immediately popped in my head. I'd however say that since the tone doesn't change much throughout the record, it's kinda difficult upon 2-3 listens to remember one precise track. It's basically a huge stream of chillness. Shame one of my 5 is almost the same album, but wiz da brass and more introspective passages. |
| Minor Threat Salad Days | 3.3 |
| Three songs, seven minutes. Well executed hardcore, more engaging than usual for the band. Apart from Nervous Breakdown, very few less-than-10-minutes releases manage to be truly interesting, and this one does. |
| Stevie Ray Vaughan Texas Flood | 3.6 |
| Cool blues rock. Stevie sure knows how to hit dem notes, killing it with each of his electric solis. He's talented, but it's clear some passages here are the results of improv and genuine feel. His singing is raspy, yet soulful. Not the biggest blues rock fan here (I sometimes find it too *wanky* and yeah I know it's ironic), but this is one cool record. |
| The Obsessed The Church Within | 3.1 |
| ...is this 90s Sabbath? It's trad doom metal with a slight stoner vibe, so excuuuuse me (princess) for believing this is Sabbath. Compared to their 90s stoner/doom counterparts, these guys resolutely sound oldschool. And even more than oldschool, it sounds almost cliche. Lyrics, riffs, and rhythms aren't super new in the genre. It's aight. |
| Stimming Alpe Lusia | 3.7 |
| t e x t u r e. Alpe Lusia (an Alpine area in Italy where tha German mate went to chill) is soft and delicate, building organic notes on top of the cold deep house/minimal techno beats. Gotta spend some more time with this but I love these harps and other chord instruments idk anything about. |
| Hallas Excerpts From a Future Past | 3.8 |
| Dudes from the 2010s thinking they're proggy hard rockers from the 70s. They modified their formula with some nice touches here and there: there are slight psych influences, as well as organ parts adding textures and giving the whole lot an atmospheric feel, and last but not least, they know how to be catchy. I do however find some passages to be either mere 70s prog ripoffs or totally cheesy (sometimes it's both at the same time). But it's not important, 'cause STAAAAAAAAR RIIIIIIDERRRR. (it does totally eclipse all other songs tho). Edit: yeah it do really be good. |
| Nightmare Puppy Nara Nara Voltsong For Shower | 3.5 |
| user JohnnyoftheWell makes an album and it's good wow impossibru. The soundscape is enormous here, going from chiptune to IDM to math rock to post-rock to post-hardcore to Melt-Bananacore, the whole lot always having a synthy base to rely on. It's when the songs rise into epic proportions that they hit home ("Homewrecker", "Catastrophe of Dirty Laundry", "Shower Song"). e-knowing the dude, it's quite logical this album sounds like that. It's everything he loves. |
| Hella Hold Your Horse Is | 3.6 |
| Wait there only are two dudes here? Zach Hill is on absolute fire here, drumming like an octopus with a speed addiction, while Spencer Seim follows the drum patterns by strumming his 'tar like a maniac. The symbiosis between the two musicians is astounding: everything's so in sync. The more obtuse and lengthy moments (eg "City Folk Sitting, Sitting") do not have the same impact as the frenzied short burst of brutal prog ("Biblical Violence", Brown Metal") and since these longer tracks appear at the end of the record, the second half is a tad tiring compared to the first one. It's fun twiddly chaos. |
| Minor Threat Out of Step | 3.7 |
| Not their best release (s/t is where it's @) but it's anthemic, fast and kinda melodic hardcore. While overall I prefer the enraged amateurism of their first recordings, some tracks are pure bangers ("Cashing In" might be their best track). This is their last one, before MacKaye would go on with Embrace and Fugazi. Historically, this is thus an important record, but musically it's not making me pp ahrd like it did when I was 17. Go listen to Nervous Breakdown if you only wanna spend five minutes to understand what hardcore is. |
| U2 War | 3.4 |
| The one U2 record with "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "New Year's Day". Rest of the tracks are cool alt rock/post-punk banters. Really, these tracks are good, but I think I know the band's greatest hits way too much (eh) to rave about these tunes. The first half is overall the best, containing the two singles, and the two best-tracks-that-aren't-singles: "Like A Song..." and "Drowning Man". Second half is kinda cool, but not as interesting as the first one. |
| Melvins Stoner Witch | 2.8 |
| After the sludgy grunge (or grungy sludge if you prefer) bomb Houdini, Melvins went full stoner mode, without forgetting their roots. The second half is interesting, as many passages meander through experimental rock and ambient territories. Tbh these more experimental moments tend to drag A LOT. I yawned. Riffs are gud tho. |
| Thou Blessings of the Highest Order | 3.6 |
| Oh my god that's some filthy shit. All tracks here are Nirvana covers, and the band sure made sure (eheh) to choose lesser-known tracks: no "Smells Like Teen Spirit" or "Come As You Are", the most famous tracks here being "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" (renamed "My Girl" here), "In Bloom" or "Territorial Pissings". It has the typical "Thou comp" sound: less grand than their albums, but pigfuckingly disgusting. I prefer their albums' works, and in terms of dirty Thou I prefer some Rendon. Will still rip yo face. |
| The Ghost Inside The Ghost Inside | 2.8 |
| Melodeez are back. Some tracks, like "Still Alive" and its clean guitar riffing reminded me why I loved that band when I was 16 (big oof time), but yeah apart from these sweet guitar lines it's pretty standard chuggy chug chug YEAH BRO breakdownz tank tops snapback, with some not-so-gud clean vocals. Yup, I'm not 16 anymore but I love the melodeez, and I'm glad they released another record after the tragedy. Bravo for their perseverance. |
| Dave Psychodrama | 3.0 |
| It's aight UK hip hop. Beats are solid if a lil repetitive, bars are solid if a lil repetitive, you got it. The dude chooses to be emotional, but he kinda lacks the swagger that would have allowed him to not sound preachy. |
| Drive Like Jehu Yank Crime | 4.4 |
| Relationship of Command beta. Mathy structure + noise rock loudness and dissonance + post-hardcore energy + kinda emotional vocals. Sometimes a bit obtuse, but it feels like a real grower. I didn't jam it hard back when I discovered post-hardcore, but now it sounds like an absolute essential. |
| Minor Threat In My Eyes | 3.5 |
| Filthy str8 edge hxc. t/t's intro fucks absolutely all their catalog and is a blasting piece of punk. Tracks 2 and 3 are cool, but can already be heard on the First Demo Tape, slightly not as well executed and produced so there's that. Track 4 has got a very bizarre production (ie: it's shit) but strangely enough, it kinda works. |
| R.E.M. Murmur | 3.6 |
| C o l l e g e r o c k. What do college students like? Apart from beers'n'wings, they try to convince themselves they are intelligent, respectful of their elders but still enamoured with adolescence's energy. Stipe's lyrics are what fulfills their need to be perceived as a non-idiotic moron, the jangly guitar style remind them of their parents' music, and the crispy, post-punk-influenced basslines brings the energy they try to channel. I didn't go to college in the 80s so I dig but I don't vibe. Still, a very important first-wave alt rock record. |
| Corrosion of Conformity Deliverance | 3.3 |
| Dude music. Whereas their sound evolved, one can still hear the 80s heavy metal aesthetic extracting itself off the manly riffs and virile gnarls. The southern roots also are quite evident, adding even more to their stoner rock's dampness. The acoustic interludes do allow the record to breathe, but that's about it. It's not the smoothest stoner record out there but it's a fun ride. So grab a Bud (pussy), load yo truck and let's hit the road wit ya bois. |
| Covet technicolor | 3.0 |
| Aight. Technically, this is as impressive as their previous material, and the melodeez are cool. Their first EP remains however their pinnacle, condensing all their ideas into six juggernauts of songs. Here, while it's always pretty, it's not always impacting. Sure, their soundscape have expanded: there are some post-rock crescendos added here and there, as well as lush and dreamy textures, each boosting the polyrhythmic nets deployed by the power trio. Still, after 5 listens, can't remember shit. I always have a good time jamming this, but it does fall in the background too easily. Maybe Yvette's lovely vocals should have been further incorporated, as they are briefly used in two tracks only. I'm still waiting for the Currents LP version. |
| Endling Proper Nouns | 3.0 |
| Laid-back, nocturnal indie/dream pop done by none other than Sput resident anatelier. Very chill stuff to semi-lucid dream to, congrats bro! |
| Run the Jewels RTJ4 | 3.7 |
| I do enjoy this. Is this the 2020 protest record? Maybe. Maybe not. imma eat some pasta and jam Don Caballero. |
| Don Caballero What Burns Never Returns | 4.1 |
| For a wanky math rock band they sure know how to make their music sound beautiful and exceptionally dynamic. Although the guitars' interplay is an obvious highlight, the drums' groove is what makes me pp real ahrd rn. It just goes everywhere. |
| Minor Threat Minor Threat | 4.0 |
| Legendary hardcore, tackling specific aspects of the band members' lives: stubborn friends, peepz who drink too much, fear of growing up, religious freaks, etc. It's delivered at 88mph, and yet you can still sing along with it. So, it's fast, angsty, and you can easily shout the lyrics (WE'RE JUST A MINOR THREAT!). If these are not key elements of a quintessential hardcore document, idk what is. |
| New Order Power, Corruption and Lies | 3.9 |
| Born from Joy Division's ashes, New Order operates in much more dancey and upbeat territories. Their brand of new wave is still cold at its core - the post-punk guitar sound living its last mainstream moments - but it exhibits itself in almost funky tones led by the aerodynamic bass (rofl that doesn't mean anything) and atmospheric synths. There are some slight industrial influences (the drums' sound for instance) which never take the spotlight, but work very well with the overall aesthetic. The dancey tunes are however the realest deal here, "Age of Consent" or "The Village" making you tap yo foot real hard, while the more drowsy tracks tend to meander for too long. I would have loved to jam this in '83 in Manchester. Where's "Blue Monday" though? |
| Acid Bath When the Kite String Pops | 4.0 |
| Suffocating and saturated stuff, as much soaked in punk hardcore as it is relying on doom metal tropes. It's uncommon to encounter such a filthy and evil record, from the John Wayne Gacy painting (he painted it in death row, that sets the mood) to the nauseous lyrics to Dax's vocals, alternating NOLA crooner voices and misanthropic cries. The core sound here is sludgy stoner metal, but Acid Bath incorporates other influences throughout the album to make each song distinguishable: black metal, death metal or psych rock make for a disturbed listen, bordering on insanity. Like every disgusting stuff, there is something fascinating. You can't help but be fully absorbed. |
| Woods Strange To Explain | 3.3 |
| Sunny and chill psych folk/pop/rock. It's mostly smooth, but the sequencing is quite interesting as the rockier tracks come up after we've become used to the indie pop folk tunes. It does slightly fall into the background for me - mainly due to the voice, which I find ok but that's it -. However, the lush instrumentation (it's indie folk and Sowing loved it, ofc the instrumentation is lush) keeps this interesting all the way through. |
| Mrs. Piss Self-Surgery | 3.5 |
| Short bursts of noisy sludgy punk led by tight and fierce drumming, Wolfe's ghostly voice and fucking riffz. It's short, it's gritty, it slaps. |
| Freddie Gibbs and The Alchemist Alfredo | 3.0 |
| It's cool stuff, although Freddie's on autopilot on this one, and The Alchemist, although a great beatmaker, is also playing safe here. In fact, Alfredo reminds me of Madlib and Oh No - The Professionals: good hip hop done by dudes who usually craft excellent material. |
| Polvo Today's Active Lifestyles | 3.7 |
| 1993 math rock, indie rock, some post-hardcore and noise rock influences. So yeah it's dissonant and chaotic, and the two guitars discuss with each other with choppy and jarring riffs, making you go "holy fuck what am I listening to?". For 1993, this sounds effing original and they influenced a batshit load of cool bands you wish you were into. The record is however kinda difficult to fully comprehend after only 2-3 listens. More listens are thus needed. |
| Minor Threat First Demo Tape | 3.0 |
| It's a demo, so ye the quality is quite shitty, but the riffs and MacKaye's performance are already punching hard. It's still not an essential record in their discography, as later EPs will have basically the same sound and aesthetic, but (slightly) better produced and executed. |
| Genesis Genesis | 3.0 |
| Pop rock Genesis: it's cheesy, Phil Collins sings, and the rhythmic section is oh-so-80s (these drums lol). There lies an underlying sense of grandiloquence throughout the record, and although it doesn't always work ("Illegal Alien"), it's a pleasant 80s record. |
| Slowdive Pygmalion | 3.8 |
| Ethereal shit, but not shoegazey shit: Slowdive delve into ambient pop, continuing the work on the 5 EP and incorporating some Eno influences. It's waves of nothing balancing themselves between veiled emotions. The atmosphere is mesmerizing, but I like this one more for its contextual creation than for the actual result. |
| Archie Shepp, Raw Poetic, Damu the Fudgemunk Ocean Bridges | 3.2 |
| Jazz fusion bordering on avant-garde shit (ie: it's less approachable than most jazz works), tinted with raw poetic raps without the r a p o l o g i c a l t e c h n i q u e taking over. I feel Shepp and Damu are at times stepping over one another, resulting in a sometimes messy output. When the three dudes hit it together it does slap (2 Hour Parking), but not over the course of a 1 hour-record. |
| Faycal L'or du Commun | 3.1 |
| This is representative of one particular scene in the 2010s French rap genre: the old school conscious and poetic dude rapping on top of semi-modern boom bap beats. It's cool, but this style's problem lies in its total lack of charisma. The words at play here evoke beautiful imagery, but Faycal's flow is too monotonous for his best punchlines/images to perfectly work. Same can be said about the beats: they gud, but tend to become background-y. Everything here is good, but nothing here really tickle me pp. |
| Ichiko Aoba 0% | 4.3 |
| why is there water coming out of my eyes |
| Miles Davis Birth of the Cool | 3.9 |
| The dude invented cool. Calm and elegant, cool jazz marks a stark opposition to the frenzy bebop and manages to incorporate polyrhythms in a non-aggressive way. Basically it's one of the most nonchalantly controlled jazz records you could find. Btw it came out in 1957, but it was recorded in 1949! Dude was a genius. It's not my fave Davis' iteration, but the next time you want to read a book or let hemp's swift haziness absorb you, jam this. |
| Mission of Burma Unsound | 3.1 |
| Same old MoB: noisy and messy post-punk, but as per their latest release, it's not as engaging as their previous stuff. It's not as uninteresting as The Sound The Speed The Light but it's still their second-worst album. |
| Eurythmics Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) | 3.4 |
| You want synthetic 80s new wave? There you go mein kleines Kind. Annie Lennox has an incredible voice, varying between soulful and auster, and this duality can also be found in the music itself: sometimes leering at krautrock and spooky new wave, other moments hinting at disco or sensual funk. Ofc everyone knows the t/t and is prob sick of it, but others tracks such as the jazzy "The Walk" or the groovy "This Is the House" are worth giving a listen. In fact the whole record is cool, although uneven (not a fan of the bookends), so let's GO RIGHT BACK TO 1983 BABY! So, it's cool shit your parents danced to. Don't you wanna know what that was like? |
| Slowdive 5 | 4.1 |
| Slowdive goes ambient techno. Although the music differs from standard Slowdive, the adjectives usually attached to the group are still in use here: you got it, it's ethereal shit. It's thus unmistakably Slowdive, yet it also is the most unique record in their discography. Some tracks here are direct covers of past material (eg "Good Day Sunshine"), and the boom-boom addition to the shoegaze tracks works oh-so-well. |
| Hamza Paradise | 3.4 |
| Better built than his rookie LP in terms of the balancing of R&B and trap, Sauce God's Paradise also demonstrates more variety in its lyrics and beats - hell fucking yeah. What's striking here is the balance between the dark and the bright: he's chasing the sun despite having a devouring passion for the caves. |
| Supreme NTM Supreme NTM | 4.0 |
| NTM's last record is their most mature, and their most accessible and consistent. It's less insurgent than their previous records, but hey it's still much more violent than IAM. The beats are following the East Coast piano/violin standard, but their quality is variable (not all beats can be as magnificent as "Laisse pas trainer ton fils"). I'd put Paris sous les bombes a tad higher than this, but it's still a French rap gem. |
| Donny Benet Mr. Experience | 3.1 |
| Oh yeah baby. Groovy bass lines, Italo-disco beats, aaaaand that lackluster voice. The aesthetic is extremely cool, but somehow it doesn't manage to stay interesting for 40 minutes. |
| Count Basie The Atomic Mr. Basie | 3.5 |
| This is fun. Count Basie big band playing music arranged by Neil Heafty, alternating between furious swing - almost dixieland - tracks and more chill (and less entertaining tbh) hard bop tunes. Yeah I really prefer the manic tracks. |
| Mission of Burma The Sound the Speed the Light | 2.4 |
| Not feeling this one. This is the first disappointment in MoB's discog. The difference between this one and the previous two is the mix: the vocals and the bass are kinda buried behind the guitars and the drums. And tbf it's kinda straight-up post-punk. Shame I kinda complained with the two preceding records' length: this is only 40 minutes long but man it is dragging. Not bad, but not my Mission of Burma. |
| David Bowie Let's Dance | 3.0 |
| Ok so basically this is Bowie's "commercial" record, and while the first three tracks are absolute classics, the rest is banal af. |
| Slowdive Outside Your Room | 3.5 |
| 2 tracks off Souvlaki, one chill Souvlaki Space Station remix and the remaining track is Slowdive on autopilot. It's really good ofc, but just go listen to Souvlaki. |
| Ondubground X Chill Bump Ondubground X Chill Bump | 3.0 |
| As the dexbruv said, surely this mix of dub and rapping has been done before but it's not something I'm used to. The main gripe I have with this is that it does sound more like something from 2010 than 2018 (ie: sounds like Panda Dub). I would have loved these tracks during a warm Belgian festival back in the day, but nowadays it does not work as well on me. Check out the rest of Chill Bump's discography! |
| La Cliqua Concu pour durer | 3.2 |
| 30 minutes is the perfect amount of time for this kind of jazzy boom bap, whereas many rappers at the time wanted to come up with 70 minutes record. This short-lived "supergroup" clearly was influenced by NYC, as Concu pour durer sounds subterranean and is full of scratches and soul samples. The beats are thus cool, although not very original. The rappers are tight and adopt a hardcore yet conscious approach, but they are not all on the same level: Rocca and Daddy Lord C are quite evidently the best rappers here, the other rappers' flows being extremely "1995". Shame it's inconsistent. |
| Jeff Rosenstock NO DREAM | 4.1 |
| Ok yeah, this is cool. Ofc Jeff's vocals aren't exactly beautiful (I guess that would be the point?), but it does bring an energy that can match the riffz (yeah there are cool riffs here). Makes you bop yo head. What I liked the most is how reminiscent of 80s/90s pop punk it is, and yet you're sure this is a 2020 release. We Cool? and Worry. are better tho, though some tracks on this one do not impress me much (*Shania*). Edit: hey it's growing hard. |
| Nina Simone Little Girl Blue | 3.7 |
| She knows how to shred the piano fosho. But even though she's a piano master, the vocals are the true focus here. Her voice is deep, suave and extremely emotional. The choice to solely accompany with veryyyyy soft drums and double bass forces you to give all your attention to either the voice or the piano. And wtf there's the Liverpool anthem. What more could you possibly ask for? I'd say shorter piano solos 'cause I love her voice so much and I feel it's kinda underused here. |
| Mission of Burma The Obliterati | 3.5 |
| Once again, really impressive how good this sounds for a band that was in hiatus for 20 years. Crunchy bass, dissonant guitar, energetic drums and bass = great post-punk. There still are some unnecessary cuts here and there, and some tracks overstay their welcome, but dem they weren't supposed to sound this good and yet they do. |
| Bad Brains Rock For Light | 3.6 |
| Straight-up hxc that knows how to riff, interluded (?) by some chill reggae cuts. The riffing is very cool ("Attitude" damn) but it could have been a 25-30 minute record with like one reggae track (I'd choose "I and I Survive") in the middle. Would have pleased me more in terms of sequencing. Not a huge fan of the vocals either, but after several listens they start to feel less grating. |
| Slowdive Blue Day | 4.2 |
| Early Slowdive comp. Apart from "Avalyn II", most of their pre-1992 best tracks are there. |
| Carly Rae Jepsen Dedicated Side B | 2.9 |
| It's a pleasant listen with catchy moments here and there but that's about it. 60% of the record fly by without any passage sticking. The last four tracks are cool tho. |
| Supreme NTM Paris Sous Les Bombes | 4.1 |
| A genre classic. The two MCs, Joey Starr and Kool Shen, both have aggressive voices but use them in very different way so the two dudes are easily recognizable. They are extremely complementary and trade lines to bring an unmatched intensity to these mostly laid-back and jazzy beats. The record is at times dissenting and belligerent, sometimes chill and breezy, but always engaging and *Italian chef's kiss*. Funnily enough, NTM already addresses the sempiternal question was rap better before? in "Tout n'est pas si facile". Their last album gained the most recognition, but this one is already top notch, although a tad too long and the best tracks being mostly present during the record first 45 minutes. |
| Old Man Gloom Seminar VIII: Light Of Meaning | 4.0 |
| The balance between the noisy parts and the pounding sludge ones is exquisite on this one. While the riffing parts are on par with Seminar IX, the noise passages do not drag like I felt they did on IX. So yeah I prefer this one by a slight margin: it doesn't have "Death Rhymes", but each track here is awesome (except for "Wrath of the Weary", which is kewl but not awsm), especially the last three. Plus they kinda sound Botch-y on some tracks so ofc it's amazing. |
| Ibrahim Maalouf Red & Black Light | 3.5 |
| French-Lebanese Ibrahim Maalouf once again came up with jazz fusion with some Arabic jazz, post-rock grandeur and electronic tinges thrown into the mix. It sometimes meanders for too long without really going anywhere, but when it hits omagad. The best example is the t/t, go watch the live version captured in Nantes. And that Beyonce cover is cool, but it's quite difficult to decipher it's a "Run the World (Girls)" cover. |
| Mission of Burma ONoffON | 3.3 |
| Hey it's actually pretty great, although dragging towards the end. What's interesting here is that it's great after a 20-year hiatus. Of course, post-punk and art punk are thrown into the mix, but so are post-hardcore and noise rock. It makes for an interesting release, not sounding like their 80s stuff, but still unmistakably Burma. |
| Simple Minds New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) | 3.1 |
| Heroic 80s pop, mixing synthy sophistication with tasty rhythms (three percussionists played on the record) and even a Herbie Hancock feature. It's kitsch and catchy. It's mostly kitsch tho. It's the 80s. |
| Slowdive Just for a Day | 3.7 |
| Holding Your Breath continuation ("Catch the Breeze" is present on both records). It's thus slow, sad, and ethereal, if a bit monotonous. It's still mainly beautiful, so monotony is aight. |
| Hamza 1994 | 3.2 |
| Brusseleir homie. This record made him famous, using his unique blend of trap beats and R&B flows. Not exactly my cuppa, but it's pretty efficient at what it's doing: his flow fits quite well with the modern rap beats. Basically, he's the one dude in Francophone rap who understood how to translate US rap's vibe into French, and that alone is laudable - he's got so much vibe he's a vibe. Gotta say his aesthetic doesn't always wow me, but it's always cool. Btw "Life" is an absolute banger and THE track you'd need to check out. |
| Alliance Ethnik Simple & Funky | 3.0 |
| Yeah it's simple and funky, but that's almost about it. What's interesting is how the band blends each of the two American coasts's sound: the biggest tracks are as groovy as G-Funk and the more introspective ones are as jazzy as ATCQ. However, all tracks are not interesting (ie czech the singles: "Simple et Funky" and "Respect") and the whole lot kinda drags on for one hour. It's funky, but kinda simplistic. I still have a lot of sympathy for these dudes. |
| Katie Pruitt Expectations | 3.1 |
| Sweet country/indie folk release, kinda reminded me of Julien Baker. Typical modern country-tinged record to me: I quite like it, but that's about it. I dig "Expectations", rest is ok. |
| Ella Fitzgerald Ella in Berlin: Mack the Knife | 3.9 |
| Improvisation legend. The first seven tracks are sweet vocal jazz tunes, but it's on the last two songs, "Mack the Knife" and "How High the Moon", that Ella builds her legend. On "Mack the Knife", she forgots the lyrics and starts improvising while always landing on her feet. She doesn't forget "How High Moon"'s lyrics, but nevertheless extends it by improvising for five straight minutes. Plus, her interactions with the public are wholesome (just look at that face on the cover, she seems so nice). So yeah extremely cool live vocal jazz record. |
| Mission of Burma Peking Spring | 2.8 |
| Another compilation of unreleased material. It's a tad shorter than the Forget comp, and it also packs a less powerful punch imo. It's overall almost the same songs as in Forget and The Horrible Truth? so there's no surprise here. |
| Roxy Music Avalon | 3.5 |
| Elegant sophisti-pop. Sexy sax, groovy basslines, graceful synths and Bryan Ferry's dandy vocals could be ridiculous or pompous, but the record is instead extremely classy. It does not contain Eno's experimentation, which makes this almost an anomality in Roxy Music's discography. Great smooth 80s pop. |
| Slowdive Holding Our Breath | 3.7 |
| Just For a Day's intro. It's a slight departure from their pure gaze sound on their first two EPs, adding some Cocteau Twins-influenced dream pop. JFaD aesthetics are softly added here, but not always for the best: while "Catch the Breeze" does a good job at mixing these not-so-different sounds, "Golden Hair" is a tad underwhelming compared to the band's best material. The last two tracks, "Shine" and "Albatross" are also interesting, but the ideas displayed in these songs will be perfected in the future. |
| Jess Williamson Sorceress | 3.2 |
| It's pretty folk, she's got a beautiful voice, the production is extremely soothing but eh not really my style I like it but that's about it. |
| Akhenaton Meteque et Mat | 4.0 |
| After two records, IAM's leader Akhenaton decided to record his first solo LP. It's the first time a French rapper rapped about personal and intimist matters. The dude is a muslim Marseillais of Italian origin, and he tackles each of these identities. The record is thus showing simpler values than other IAM's record, which are much more politically conscious. It's chiller, less angry. Less impacting too, but a recommended introspective and laid-back French hip hop gem. |
| Paradise Lost Obsidian | 3.6 |
| It's been a long time since I last really enjoyed a Paradise Lost album. That guitar tone mmmmh. Overall the sound displayed here is riffy as hell. Once again with them tho, I feel they could sometimes cut some tracks and make leaner albums. It's v consistent, although a tad monotonous soundwise. |
| The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble | 3.2 |
| A good prep. It isn't as intricate as Here Be Dragons. Stylistically, it's more glitchy, less jazzy and less post-rock (in its approach), and while there already are some more intense sections, it does drag and falls in the background during some parts. |
| Mission of Burma Forget | 3.1 |
| A collection of pre-Vs. demos. It's an interesting document, as it lies midway between their slower, artsier studio recordings and their wild live shows. It's not as crazy or bruitist as some of their live recordings could be, but it sure is faster and relies more on hardcore punk than Signals or Vs.. It's-a good. |
| The Gun Club Miami | 3.1 |
| It's cool and distinctive from the first record, but I like this one less. On the plus side, this is overall more melodic, with Debbie Harry's added vocals toning down the muddy vibe. This one kinda loses me during its second half tho tbh. |
| Slowdive Morningrise | 3.9 |
| This is...pretty. Like maybe the prettiest Slowdive has ever been. It does pack less of a punch than the s/t EP, or Souvlaki's best cuts (ie: Allison). So it's pretty, but less impactful than the band's other "pretty" releases, mainly because it meanders for too long, not knowing what to do with what's going on. still luv sic of this tho. |
| Pig Destroyer Terrifyer | 4.1 |
| ok this is very very violent but with very very catchy riffs it's cool and aaaaaaaah imma punch the wall |
| MC Solaar Prose Combat | 4.5 |
| More serious, more active, better beats than Qui seme le vent recolte le tempo. Claude didn't let go of his occasional humour, but uses it more sporadically to have greater impact. The sound is this time part Native Tongues, part what will become the French Touch: it's still very jazzy, but there is an increased use of house mixing. It allows the jazz and soul samples to not sound old-fashioned, having a certain ethereal aura to them. This is also the best Solaar has ever sounded on record: he's full of references and plays with words with a literary flair. So yeah imma repeat myself but: jam this if you dig the Native Tongues. |
| Charli XCX How I'm Feeling Now | 3.5 |
| Once again, I appreciate the will to come up with something d i f f e r e n t, and once again it's not exactly my cuppa. I'd however say this is the Charli record I enjoyed the most. I still have some gripes with this (ie her delivery is monotonous and apathetic and doesn't always match the music expansiveness) but yeah I had a good time. Still respect her art more than I actually like it. Edit: some of this bangs hard. |
| Billie Holiday Lady In Satin | 3.7 |
| It's so sad and personal it almost feels voyeuristic. She's 43 at the time, but she sounds like a 60 years old woman because of heroin. It's extremely refined: her raspy voice, soft strings and from time to time a trumpet. The core of the record is how her poignant voice displays regrets and love. While it's not exactly what tickles me pp, I can't help but think this album was a proto version of Nina Simone and Janis Joplin. |
| Mission of Burma The Horrible Truth About Burma | 3.6 |
| MoB's horrible truth lies in their live shows: when they were good, they were really really good and when they were bad, they were plainly horrid. Here, it's p gud yea. It's much more chaotic than their more polished studio recordings, and here you understand Martin Swope's role: be the loop master. This is actually the most important MoB record to listen to if you wanna understand this aspect of the band. Go for their first EP and LP for the tunes, then play this one and immerge into a whole new experience. It's sometimes a tad "too" messy tho. |
| Donald Fagen The Nightfly | 3.7 |
| A classy jazz pop/sophisti-pop night album to chill to. It's also a hi-fi prouesse, being one of the first fully digital recording in music. And oh god it just sounds. Whether or not you enjoy the subtle melodies, the soundscape present here is plainly gorgeous. It's classy. It's lush. It's even funky thanks to these tasty basslines. Not all tracks manage to be as infectious as I.G.Y. or New Frontier, and you kinda have to dig the genre beforehand to truly like this, but it's cool dad music. |
| Slowdive Slowdive | 4.4 |
| just wow it's mood over structure but who gives a fuck this is the best mood |
| Moses Boyd Dark Matter | 3.6 |
| Grooooovay. British nu jazz with funky percussions and UK garage tracks scattered throughout the record. While mixing two different genres is a good idea per se, it sometimes feels a tad forced, as if the will to produce something original took over other composition ideas. The kind of record where you go 'oh yeah it's cool and all, but I guess he can do better than that with this particular approach'. The most important aspect here is g r o o v e. The organic drums are enhanced by modern electronic beats, and the way the guitars and wind instruments are heard (they sound extremely distant) truly emphasizes the focus of the record. Melodically, this is not the best jazz record you could listen to this year (go jam Matt Tavares and Leland Whitty u fool), but it's very efficient at being visceral. |
| Ministere A.M.E.R. 95200 | 3.5 |
| Knowledge is a weapon, and I always go out armed. Once again a politically charged record, it's more insurgent than sanctimonious (ie: more NWA than Public Enemy). The moody tracks are the ones working the best here (Un ete a la cite, Plus vite que les balles, Autopsie, J'ai fait un reve). The lighter ones are not all indispensable (eg the last five tracks), but at least they allow the record to breathe and to be more than just an angry record from Sarcelles dudes. Passi is (much) more technical than Stomy Bugsy, but Stomy is just way funnier : good balance. Overall there are some glaring moments throughout the record, and it drags on from Autopsie onward, but it's a great insurrectional record, embracing the hardcore vibe that would soon take over French rap. |
| Natalia Lafourcade Un Canto por México‚ Vol․ 1 | 3.5 |
| The most Mexican record I've ever heard. This mixes bolero, mariachi, ranchera and other genres I don't know anything about. Natalia also re-recorded some of her older material (the always gorgeous Hasta la Raiz or Lo que construimos). As always with her, this is supremely sunny and chill music guided by her gorgeous voice. I'd say the hour-long format might be a tad challenging for non-Spanish speakers (which I totally am), and I still prefer the OG Hasta la Raiz version to the one here. |
| The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble Here Be Dragons | 4.1 |
| So this is dark jazz, uh? I don't know if I would even call this jazz. It feels more like post-jazz: "using jazz instrumentation for non-jazz purposes". The cellos and trombones are used here as facilitators of timbre and textures rather than jazzy riffs. So it this truly jazz? I don't really know, and I don't really care. Atmospherically, this works on the same ground as Mezzanine pulling broody ambient passages right after a cinematic downtempo one. This is real gud shit. |
| Mission of Burma Mission of Burma | 3.1 |
| Early 80s unreleased cuts. It's aight MoB, catchy and unorthodox, but their first EP and album are more interesting for the beginner. "Peking Spring" is a jam tho. |
| Laurie Anderson Big Science | 4.0 |
| Refined repeating patterns, and Laurie Anderson is more talking than singing here. It's quirky but still appealing experimental pop. idk why, but I like it. Kinda impressive O Superman went #2 in the UK. This is the time, and this is the record of the time. |
| Eyehategod Dopesick | 3.9 |
| Now this is filthy and insane. Pure sludge with some stoner, doom and hardcore roots. Alongside Thou, this is some of the nastiest and dirtiest music I've recently heard. Sometimes the appropriate response to reality is to go insane. The band knowingly dived into the swamp: have a hallucinogen trip at least once a week, smoke weed every day, searching for inner bliss and abandon any social or family life. It just immediately goes to your face to pound you real hard. |
| State Faults Moon Sign Gemini | 3.3 |
| Two tracks you already knew, another that should have been a Desolate Peaks bonus track, and the last one being a Clairvoyant bonus track. Musically this is the fvcken shit but it's not very interesting on its own. |
| Assassin (FR) Le futur, que nous réserve-t-il? | 3.2 |
| One way to look at rap is through political lenses. Assassin viewed rap as a way to be politically active from the outset. Inspired by NWA, KRS-One or Public Enemy, Assassin want to educate the young masses and immediately positioned themselves as against the state and institutions. It's sometimes done with naivety on this record, but it's compensated by the enraged and fast beats and flows. Once again tho, a 1993 French rap album sounds like a 1988 American one: the aesthetic feels a lil dated. It still packs a fierce punch, and is an essential record in French political rap, but is also plagued by a relative short time (44 minutes) that feels like a long time (really, only 44 minutes?). |
| Vaa Ur sägen och hävd | 3.7 |
| Finally got to listen to this. It's gorgeous, triumphant DS. It's like the soundtrack of an old epic tale. I'd however say the ideas are maybe not differentiated enough for the record to be 40 minutes long: the soundscape, while wonderful, is quite monotonous here. |
| Femi Kuti Shoki Shoki | 3.9 |
| Afrobeat with some jazz funk, Afro-Carribean rhythms, and even that typical 90s adult contemporary sound. It's less emotionally powerful than his father's music, but in terms of grooviness and shake-da-bum it's up there for sure. It's like dance afrobeat. |
| Mission of Burma Vs. | 3.7 |
| This is the moment MoB wanted their studio records to sound like their live shows: noise became a more central part of the arrangements, as their concerts were a loud mess, and they decided to record the instruments simultaneously instead of overdubbing separately. On top of that, Martin Swope's loops are more prominent than before, making for a very dense sound. The moody tracks ("Trem Two", "Dead Pool") are working the best here, the faster cuts being more noisy punk mess that I like but don't love. The closer slaps hard tho. |
| The Alan Parsons Project Eye in the Sky | 3.7 |
| HEY IT'S THE BULLS THEME SONG YEEEEHAAAW. Apart from that, Parsons take 70s prog to 80s modernity. There's pop and funk thrown into the soft prog rock core. Guitars and synthesizers mingle together without overstepping the other instrument, creating this pop prog odyssey. It sounds at times a bit too much like "hey it's the 80s and we're having FUN" for my liking, but when it goes full prog it's amazing. |
| Trouble Manic Frustration | 3.5 |
| Trouble strays here away from doom to enter stoner territories. Being at the time more influenced by 70s psych/classic rock, they let go of some of their heaviness, the tracks being instead more energetic and upbeat. It's a riff-centric record so ofc it's very very fun stuff, and the prod is typical 90s crunchy Rubin so it has an outdated-yet-kinda-charming sound. |
| Hayley Williams Petals for Armor | 3.0 |
| Basically the same as garas: it's too long and the lyrics are meh, but the basslines are cool and overall I had a good time. |
| Les Little Les Vrais | 3.4 |
| Old school French hip hop fusing soul, jazz and funk samples and talking about the group's love for rap and strive for authenticity. It's very fun, but it shows how French rap always is lagging behind the US one. This album came out in 1992, but it sounds like an 80s record. The lyrics are quite adolescent/young adult-centered, but French rap was merely burgeoning at the time so we'll give it a pass. In the grand scheme of things this record isn't much, but this band was a precursor within the scene. And it's so damn fun. So gotta put some respek on Les Little's name. |
| No Note if this is the future then I'm in the dark | 4.3 |
| No Note played one show and released one record. Their songs are named after RHCP tracks, and one of their tags on Bandcamp is sass. Fucking screamo dudes man. They still know how to punch sometimes chaotic, sometimes noisy, sometimes blacky (shut up wit these adjectives) screamo. I feel this might grow, but after 2 listens it's a very solid Edit: it grew off. Edit2: im a fucking girouette but reading the itw + relistening to this bumps the shit up. Edit3: yeah this is clicking ahrd fam. Edit4: growing more than Jack's beanstalk. |
| Monomono Give the Beggar a Chance: The Lightning Power of A | 3.6 |
| Another cool Nigerian Afrobeat release, with both female and male vocals. Half of the songs are in English, the other half being in what I guess is a folk Western Africa language? In terms of Afrobeat, this is rockier and funkier than Kuti's music, but I guess the tradeoff lies in how the power emanating from this one is less spiritual, and thus less impactful. |
| Mission of Burma Signals, Calls, and Marches | 4.1 |
| Great debut EP. It's full of jams for a reason: the band chose to record their most crowd-pleasing material. This is thus anthemic af, and it could have been even more anthemic if they had included Academy Fight Song. It's also quite diverse, while being cohesive and staying under the art punk umbrella. It's like college punk rock. This is so cool. |
| Stray Cats Stray Cats | 3.8 |
| Recently revisiting early 80s records, it's quite obvious the biggest genres at the time were post-punk, new wave and synthpop. And then there is Stray Cats. Playing catchy rockabilly (with some traces of psychobilly here and there), they were not only playing a 50s genres, they embodied the 50s nostalgia present during that time (basically, it's American Graffiti put in music): they have the total 50s look, double bass and a semi hollow guitar. I like it. Makes me 'member car journeys with my papa. |
| Sleep Sleep's Holy Mountain | 4.3 |
| It has been a long time, my friend. As soon as the Dragonaut riff started I knew I'd be enjoyin' a well-known ride. What sets Sleep apart is the way they obsessionnally and simplistically exploit a unique riff through a song. And fuck it's groovy. |
| O'Brother You and I | 3.5 |
| I like this one. As Johnny said in his review, it's an alternative record with post-rock traces. It makes for the slowest O'Brother album, and while this a purely artistic characteristic, I would have like some more faster cuts. Nevertheless, the band reinvents reitselfs, and that's great to see. Will jam "Lo" now. |
| Various Artists (Hip Hop) Rapattitude | 2.7 |
| More interesting historically than it is musically. This is French rap's first compilation, reuniting important actors of the scene, the most important ones being Assassin and NTM. So except if you're a nerd like me who wanna understand where French rap comes from, you can skip this one. |
| Car Seat Headrest Making a Door Less Open | 2.6 |
| it's kinda all over the place but I don't detest it. drags too long tho. Teens of Denial > all. |
| Fela Kuti Zombie | 4.2 |
| Zombies = Nigerian military. With such a harsh and powerful comparison, the Nigerian dictature organized a cataclysmic military raid causing the death of Kuti's mother. It's incredible such a serious topic was transmitted through such bouncy Afrobeat. True fusion music, with elements of funk, post-bop, and traditional Western African music. It's just fucking good, and it's legendary given the context. |
| Minutemen 3-Way Tie (For Last) | 2.9 |
| This one's weird. Boon wanted to emulate the 70s rock slack approach, to Watt's discontent. It's thus a lot mellower than previous outputs, and at times it doesn't even really sound like Minutemen - eg five songs out of sixteen are covers! They didn't have the time to properly write and prepare the new material, and it also was underrehearsed. Still, it's more eclectic than usual, although underdeveloped: since the direction taken for this record wasn't encouraged by the whole band, it's kinda underdeveloped. The Creedence cover is cool tho. So, yeah, it's their worst record. Fucking shame it was their last one too. |
| Soft Cell Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret | 3.2 |
| Wow this is perverse and sleazy. Like a cabaret I guess. The record navigates through jazzy, technoid and soul new wave. It's a sonic peep-show, the soundtrack of a strip-tease video. It's disgusting. It's still candid at times (fortunately). Cool synthpop that however sometimes fails to entirely embark me on its lewd journey. |
| Kyuss Blues for the Red Sun | 4.2 |
| Produced by Chris Goss, Masters of Reality mastermind, this is both heavy and psychedelic. Homme's guitar is down-tuned and plugged into a bass amp, giving this unique sound. Pure reefer music. |
| Fire! Orchestra Actions | 2.2 |
| Fire! Orchestra playing music composed by Krzysztof Penderecki. It's much, much slower than what the band is used to play, and there's virtually none of the surreal vocals here ( :sad: ). It's overall very minimalist with some explosive bursts here and there. Gotta say, these bursts are the most enjoyable moments of the composition and the rest almost feels pointless. Bleh. |
| Driver (FR) L'architecte | 3.6 |
| Ok this is Californian as fuck. It's hedonistic, spontaneous and just plain feel-good. I mostly know Driver though his radio shows and his chill and knowledgeable persona directs the show on this album. It's kinda like a mix of Oxmo Puccino and Doc Gyneco with the witty sentences and the sunny female vocals. This is a tad too long (65 minutes) and there are some instrumental missteps here and there, but overall it's a real fun record. |
| The Dear Hunter The Color Spectrum (Complete Collection) | 3.0 |
| it's aight but I guess it's just not for me |
| Orlando Julius Super Afro Soul | 3.5 |
| Proto-Afrobeat in the form of Highlife, a West African genre taking influence from regional traditional music as well as western big band. Taken from RYM: Highlife bands traditionally played for the colonial elite in clubs and hotels, and the term 'highlife' was coined to reflect this. Merci le colonialisme. Fela Kuti is already on board on trumpet, and this record for sure influenced his future Afrobeat endeavours. It's not as improvised or polyrhythmic as Afrobeat, and the songs are shorter and more cheerful, but you can still hear the influence. It's very rhythmic to make you shake dat colonialist arse of yours. I just wonder what they're talking about: are the lyrics boastful, political, innocent? Guess it wasn't political given the repression in the 60s Nigeria. Regardless of these considerations, jump on this because I'm pretty sure it's the kind of stuff you don't usually listen to. A very fun record. |
| Minutemen Project: Mersh | 3.6 |
| Mainstream production and standard song lengths: this is Project: Mersh. It resulted in slicker music that's still very Minutemen. Wanting to demystify the mainstream music business, their point was to prove that any band could sound like this if they had enough money (they spent $2400 for this, wowee). But it doesn't mean the music's better: while the ornate trumpet is a very cool addition, this isn't Minutemen's most enjoyable record. It's a very good EP that stands below the band's best works. |
| Unwound Challenge For a Civilized Society | 3.7 |
| LTIY's disc 1, and you can kinda see it as all but the first 2 tracks are experimenting with the band's established sound. This makes for the quirkiest album of an already quirky band. Quirky Unwound not the best Unwound. Apathetic Unwound good Unwound. LTYI Unwound best Unwound. |
| Unwound Repetition | 4.3 |
| Gotta say the resemblance with Fugazi's Repeater is quite uncanny. Still, this is typically the kind of record you would call a grower, but it has been my second Unwound favorite for many years, maybe because it's the album that has the best basslines. Idk. Just fucking rips. It's also their grooviest. The grooviest fall into madness. |
| The Dear Hunter Yellow | 3.6 |
| Hey this kind of sunshine pop works real well imo. Might be my fave of The Color Spectrum. I think I prefer when these guys don't do their classic sound. |
| Unwound The Future of What | 4.0 |
| Half of this record absolutely kicks ass, and this is the half that sets the base for their last three records. The other half is mainly composed of loopy/shitty interludes but eh aint nobody perfect. They still have these hardcore bangers that work so well on their previous three albums. So yeah, it's a pivotal moment in their career. And even removed from this context, this album is awesome (and better than Fake Train oooooh) |
| The Dear Hunter White | 2.8 |
| Yeah, another classic TDH-sounding EP, sounding very much like Simple Math-era Manchester Orchestra. |
| Unwound New Plastic Ideas | 4.2 |
| To me this is Fake Train, but better. It's more nuanced yet more immediate at the same time. And ofc it's still noisy post-hardcore but the overall vibe is gloomy, yet kinda apathetic. I think this is due to the mix: it's subdued, the vocals being treated as if it is a shoegaze record. Nevertheless, this is very intense in its minimalism. It's like the loudest slacker music ever recorded. |
| Unwound Fake Train | 3.9 |
| Trading the fast pace for a more post-punky groove, resulting in this noisy post-hardcore record (so yeah, a blend of Fugazi and Sonic Youth) with a clear loud-soft-loud dynamic, which makes for their heaviest record. And yeah, that segment from "Valentine Card" to "Honourosis" is fucking incredible, kinda shame that all songs after this run are not on par. |
| Steve Lehman / Selebeyone Sélébéyone | 3.7 |
| Ok this is the kinda shit I love. It's like jazz rap, but with shifting rhythms, electro-acoustic harmonies, and contemporary sound design (this last sentence is taken from bandcamp). Its uniqueness also comes from how it blends English and Wolof together. In the end, it's not really jazz, as the main focus is how the beats evolve thanks to the dynamic drumming. It's weird stuff, if a little obtuse at times. I dig that. |
| Minutemen The Politics of Time | 2.6 |
| First half is classic Minutemen, second half is classic Minutemen, but recorded live with a shitty mic. |
| The Human League Dare! | 3.5 |
| Synthetic pop with a souly soul (eheh). Roland and Korg's synths clearly are the stars of music that's cold on the outside and really warm on the inside. The band's singer decided to recruit two Sheffield student vocalists to replace the two founders of the band. Turned out it worked, fusing electronica and robotic disco a la Giorgio. First half was m'kay, but damn that second one was groovy. |
| Monster Magnet Spine of God | 3.3 |
| wow I bet they were high while composing and recording this. No wonder: they are taking influence from space rock, Detroit's high energy rock (ie MC5 and The Stooges), 60s pop and hard rock a la Hawkwind. It's really cool, but compared to other stoner precursors (Masters of Reality or Saint Vitus) I'd say the songwriting is not completely on par: some psych moments tend to drag on and the same can be said about the ballads. They however know how to craft some fuzzy riffs. |
| The Dear Hunter Violet | 3.0 |
| The most classical-sounding EP of the collection. It's alt-prog filled with strings and piano and emotional choruses. I've never been a huge fan of this trademark sound, so yeah it's aight. |
| MC Solaar Qui seme le vent recolte le tempo | 4.3 |
| A landmark in French rap. It contains Bouge de la, French rap's first hit, and Caroline, my personal favourite Solaar song and a masterclass in wordplay ("l'as de trefle qui pique ton coeur, Caroline"). This record is kinda the French pendant to ATCQ: jazzy, smart, and respectful. Solaar raps damn well on GORGEOUS beats built by Jimmy Jay. Sadly, a legal dispute between Solaar and his label Polydor make this one, as well as all his 90s records, unavailable both on streaming platforms and in CD format. Go to YouTube and be impressed by how this polite boy lays the foundations of French rap's popularity. He made rap acceptable in France thanks to his arty approach, which was in total opposition to the raging and uncompromising scene. He was mocked because of this, but very few peepz in French rap came up with a discography as strong as MC Solaar's. So, you like Native Tongues? Here is the French version. |
| Unwound Unwound | 3.5 |
| Unwound at their most hxc. It sometimes sounds like Black Flag with Sonic Youth influences, which inevitably makes it their most simplistic release: Sara Lund wasn't in the band yet and the bassline mostly follow the guitar riffs. There also are some sombre moments that are reminiscent of LTIY (Fingertips). On the minus side, the mixing is sometimes weird (like on Prospect, my left ear only hears the drums while the right one hears guitar'n'bass) and their songwriting isn't top notch yet. As Johnny said, as far as worst albums go this one is pretty killer. |
| Minutemen What Makes a Man Start Fires? | 3.8 |
| Hey some songs are longer than 2 minutes here!!!!! At the time, it was their most focused release yet (ever heard of Double Nickels? I heard it's p gud), as the longer songs are the best here. While before they would wallow in their raw energy, here the dudes' skills are at the service of songwriting. So ofc Hurley is still a beast at the drums (he could have played in a 60s jazz band if he was alive during that period), Watt slowly becomes one of my favourite punk bassists, and D. Boon gives some of his best solis here. I'd however say that although this is their most consistent release yet, no track here is as great as any song on Joy or that late run on Buzz. So yeah it's almost their best record. |
| Vital Tech Tones Vital Tech Tones | 3.1 |
| rofl that cover is Giorgio-level. The music on the other hand, isn't cheesy at all; it's hard-rocking jazz fusion with some bluesy parts thrown into the mix. I do find some of the guitar parts to be a tad wanky (eheh wanky) and what I like the most here is that tight rhythm section. So yeah it's aight but not really mah cuppa. |
| The Gun Club Fire of Love | 3.5 |
| Punk + blues + rockabilly + country = The Gun Club. They built on The Cramps' work, but they were pioneers in blending punk with traditional American music. Pretty sure they inspired Jon Spencer and The White Stripes. As such, the urgency and the explosion of both genres seems by now quite evident but I bet it was damn revolutionary for 1981. In 2020, it's cool stuff. |
| Masters of Reality Masters of Reality | 4.0 |
| Another proto-stoner gem. Ofc the main influences is, duh, Black Sabbath's third album, but it's additioned with clear blues rock influences (eg Cream), country and there even are some traces of symphonic pop a la Beatles. The whole lot is groovy and reminds the South's dirty sound but still retains a certain pop sensibility. Btw, Rick Rubin was the producer. No wonder Homme was obsessed with this album, it's basically proto-QOTSA. Shame it's not on Spotify 'cause all songs would end up on playlists. |
| The Dear Hunter Red | 3.5 |
| Like Black, this one takes a few step back from the prog to focus on straight-up hard rockin' alt-rock with a slight stoner tone. One of my fave of The Color Spectrum. |
| Hugo TSR Flaque de Samples | 3.2 |
| Violin and piano-led French boom bap. Hugo TSR, previously of the TSR Crew, is a French-Asian dude from Paris' 18th arrondissement, and his music perfectly represents his environment. Flaque de Samples is profoundly urban and fatally melancholic, showing the dirty Paris, the one not present in Woody Allen's movies. His flow is angry as any young desperate man living in the capital is and is accentuated by the crisp beats. This aesthetic is very pleasing at first, but the monotony of the flow and beats gets tiresome over the course of forty minutes (especially if you've listened to his other albums), but it reinforces Hugo's discourse. In the end, Hugo TSR typically is that kind of influential indie rapper: never in the spotlight, but referenced by newcomers (Georgio developed the same aesthetic) and loved by rap newbies (also called ienclis). I prefer when he pops in one of my playlist rather than during the course of a record. |
| Kendrick Lamar Overly Dedicated | 3.6 |
| Kid Kendrick's last mixtape before Section. 80 and ofc it's super strong. Already displaying his woke persona in Ignorance is Bliss, he also shows his love for lush instrumentations (Growing Apart (To Get Closer)) and, classic Kendrick, he loves using tools to play with his voice throughout the whole record. Everything's not perfect (Michael Jordan is blegh for instance), the best tracks do not attain his later bangers' greatness and it's a tad long too (hey t'sa mixtape dawg) but yeah if you dig Kendrick and haven't listened to this jump on it. |
| Weather Report Heavy Weather | 4.0 |
| Used to jam this with mah papacito. Approachable jazz fusion, a real good starter if you wanna dig the genre, mainly because of the smooth and poppy vibe. Jaco Pastorius' fretless bass is FAT, Zawinul's synths are playful, the drums and percussion bring an Afro-Cuban fluidity, and Shorter's sax elevates these funky tunes to banger material. If Bitches Brew intimidates you, start with this one. |
| Minutemen Buzz or Howl Under the Influence of Heat | 3.7 |
| All but three songs here were recorded on a two-track recorder costing $50. The other three were recorded for free. And with that tight budget, these dudes still come up with catchy rock songs, more technical than any of their hardcore counterparts and more energetic than any "experimental" rock band of the time. Their ethos was fucking uncompromising. Yet, while the energy found in their previous recordings is still present, I personally prefer how they play with it in the second half of the record. First part's less playful imo and is less rewarding - eg that late run from I Felt Like a Gringo to Little Man... is fucken amazing. |
| Brian Eno and David Byrne My Life in the Bush of Ghosts | 4.0 |
| One year after Remain in Light, Eno and Byrns further push the envelope of their rock, electronic and world music blend. It's sometimes tribal (Mea Culpa), sometimes funky (Regiment) but always weird, the record ending with two tribal ambient tracks. Using destructured riffs, religious chants and postmodern messing, this is almost plunderphonics. These two dudes anticipated sampling (although they were not the godfathers eh). Almost 40 years later, this sounds fresh and weird as hell. |
| Saint Vitus Born Too Late | 3.8 |
| diabolus in musica. Released by SST (!), this one was the ugly duckling of 80s British heavy metal: while everyone was trying to go faster than light, Saint Vitus chose to wallow in slowness and oppression. Halfway between Ozzy and Lemmy, the vocals are both plaintive and aggressive, following the pattern dictated by the litany of fuzzy guitars. It was doom at the time, yet I can't help but feel this is proto-stoner to a certain degree (yeah I know Sabbath was the first proto-stoner band shut up). This record has got the doom for sure, but it adds some psych elements here and there (Dying Inside for example). Really interesting for a 1986 record. |
| The Dear Hunter Orange | 3.2 |
| A bluesy take on their sound, but the blues is only an addition to their alt-prog. It's fun, as fun as that doge face on the artwork. Nothing groundbreaking but cool stuff. |
| Slift Ummon | 3.9 |
| Sounds like one huge live jam. What's impressive is how these 3 guys manage to create a sound as heavy as bands with multiple guitarists do. The soundscape created here is as vast as space and as psych as krautrock can be. Still, 70 minutes is a mighty long time, and the middle of the record could have been a tad fleshed out imo. Also, as the Black Curse record, I enjoy more the chosen aesthetic than the actual ride. Edit: damn. |
| Black Curse Endless Wound | 3.6 |
| Ok so this is some filthy blackened death. Cavernous vocals (god these vocals umphhhh the dude sounds like that big piggy agonizing mofo from Mononoke), pounding riffs and a doomy intensity, fuck yeah this shit's gud. However, I honestly like it more because of how its aesthetics are pushed to the extreme rather than for how much I enjoy it. |
| Return to Forever Romantic Warrior | 3.2 |
| It sure is technically impressive 70s jazz fusion/prog rock with some medieval Chick Corea synths. While there are bravado moment throughout the whole record, fusing the two aforementioned genres with funk, classical and bebop, I can't help but feel it's a lil cheesy - the music acutely portrays the almost ridiculous artwork. It's well done fosho, but I feel like I could have enjoyed this one much more. I don't thinks it's bad, but some moments, like the Yngwie Malmsteen bullshit guitar solis just feel like pure wank and do not bring me any feelz. |
| Minutemen Bean-Spill | 3.4 |
| This 7 inches continues the formula: 5 songs, 6 minutes. While some experimental jazz influences appear on this one, it packs less of a punch than their other pre-1984 releases. Ofc it's the Minutemen so it still is good shit. |
| The Cramps Psychedelic Jungle | 2.4 |
| Garage psychobilly that does furiously sound like 50s surf music played in the 80s. The 50s feeling is mostly present due to half of the songs being covers. Yet, I find most of the music here to be, sowwy, kinda boring. No energy whatsoever, and the sexual tone they were looking for could have been accentuated, not lyrics-wise, but rather attitude-wise. Eh. |
| Nthng Hypnotherapy | 3.6 |
| Cold ambient techno from tha Dutch dude. There are traces of dub techno too, and the additions of vocals adds to the glacial atmosphere. These voices never sing, they rather speak bits of conversations, which made me go straight to the Berghain (tbh i never went there). I didn't listen to the 2017 record but I was a tad afraid the formula he created in his EPs couldn't hold on a full-length LP. Turns out it did, yay. I still prefer this kind of minimal techno on short doses but eh i dont take pills so maybe that's why. |
| The Dear Hunter Indigo | 3.1 |
| This one's intriguing. It's still unmistakably TDH, but with an electronic and spacey instrumentation. I like the attempt at doing something different, but it doesn't entirely work for me. Still quality shit though. |
| Dance Gavin Dance Afterburner | 2.7 |
| I never was a huge fan of the band although I seem to dig them enough to have listened to all their records. This one, like the last two, didn't displease me, but I can't say I really enjoyed the ride. It's DGD, so I like the jazzy and mathy post-hxc stuff but I never really enjoyed the clean vocals direction they pursue. + wtf Spanish + wtf the feat with Bilmuri? |
| Yuri Gagarin The Outskirts of Reality | 3.3 |
| Fast-paced psych stoner space rock, cool stuff. The opener and closer are the best tracks here, getting things done while not overstaying their welcome. Where this record fails is how the other tracks (ie Oneironaut) take too much time to get where they're going. Good cosmic stuff. |
| Rahsaan Roland Kirk I Talk with the Spirits | 4.1 |
| This one took time to grow. While on first listens the high flute notes were grindin' my ears, now they soothe my mind. I'm no expert, but if you wanna listen to a flute jazz record, go for this one. |
| Minutemen The Punch Line | 3.4 |
| 18 songs in 15 minutes. It sounds like a hyperkinetic Captain Beefheart jamming some funky tunes. All three dudes are already masters of their instruments, but these jams are less fun than the two (very very) short EPs preceding this one. |
| Elder (USA-MA) Omens | 3.7 |
| Proggier than ever, Elder subtly lets go of their stoner background to fully go into the psych/prog path. If musically it's as engaging as ever, Nick's vocals might be the worstrhe's done, maybe because they're too audible? Shame, 'cause once again they are masters at delivering hazy cosmic instrumentals. |
| Romeo Elvis Maison | 3.0 |
| Quarantine surprise EP released by the Brussels homie. It's good'n'cool stuff, although the dude basically talks about the same subjects all the time and relies too much on gimmicky choruses. |
| The Dear Hunter Green | 3.5 |
| Green = grass pokemon = folk innit? So Green indeed is an indie folk, and gotta say it's quite lovely. I appreciate it more than the energetic Black and the post-rocky Blue. |
| Ulcerate Stare Into Death and Be Still | 4.3 |
| Melody in dissonance, they fucking did it. This time you can believe the hype |
| Charli XCX Pop 2 | 3.1 |
| Ok yeah the prod on this thing is dope. It's like e x p e r i m e n t a l pop influenced by dance-pop, bubblegum bass, synthpop, r&b, wonky and everything in between. It's not particularly to my taste but I appreciate the effort to deliver such a different piece of pop. |
| Mahavishnu Orchestra Birds of Fire | 4.1 |
| Jazz rock fusion ass bullshit, but it ain't no bullshit. It's imo less impacting than The Inner Mounting Flame but shit they know how to frantically play their instruments in unison in an engaging way. |
| Minutemen Joy | 3.7 |
| Funky and energetic post-punk and holy shit it's only 3 minutes long but as far as 3-minutes recordings go this might be GOAT material. The songwriting is top notch but eh I can't help but feel extremely frustrated because these ideas could be extended for longer. |
| Talking Heads Remain in Light | 4.3 |
| Everything's in this record. Funky and afrobeat-influenced rhythm, quirky post-punk energy, anthemic choruses ("Once in a Lifetime" has been stuck in my head for the past 20 years), as well as Eno's ambient influence. This dude's production makes every instrument shine, although the recording experience signified the beginning of the band's collapse. Shame "The Overload" is dragging its ass. Still, the best white funk album. |
| Angel Olsen My Woman | 3.6 |
| Showcasing her multi-faceted personality, Angel Olsen crafts here an intimate and mellow album, taking influences from 60s pop, dream pop, indie folk as well as noisier indie rock. The production and instrumentation are slick, and the record fluctuates between the calm and the upbeat. Some calmer parts do not appeal that much to me but overall it's a damn fine record. |
| The Dear Hunter Blue | 3.2 |
| A chiller color. This is relying on post-rock to build its mellow indie rock. It's mostly aight and ok-ish but oooof that last track is bonkers. |
| Alex G Rocket | 3.7 |
| Indie alt-country folk stuff, and yeah it's v cool. It's weird, and very creative in its experimentations: you can feel the lo-fi, yet the lo-fi never takes precedence over the other aesthetic features: melancholy and pastoral americana-inspired folk are the core of the record. Some experimental bits slightly threw me off but I can see this growing. |
| My Bloody Valentine Tremolo | 3.7 |
| The trve Loveless lil brotha: same blurry pinky artwork, same aesthetic and even one song in common (To Here Knows When, although differently mixed). It's still its own beast, though, with the world influences heard on the percussions. Not as great as his big brotha ofc, but it's the second-best MBV EP, behind YMMR. |
| Mahavishnu Orchestra The Inner Mounting Flame | 4.4 |
| Bombastic prog jazz fusion, and shit's intense. 5 motherfuckers only, but they do have enough grandiloquence to call themselves an orchestra. From the complex yet headbanging solis brought by the guitar, the violin that complements it, the dynamic and tight drumming, the restrained bass controlling the chaos and the ebullient keyboards, this is a fantastic piece of art that might be a better gateway to jazz fusion than Bitches Brew (yeah BB you're too long for the impatient brats). |
| Minutemen Paranoid Time | 3.8 |
| Like a mix of hardcore and art punk, this was SST's second release, all 7 songs and six minutes and thirty-nine seconds of it. It's already interesting, as the drums are agile, the guitar is piercing and the bass is wobbling. If it's not really hardcore punk, the tempo and rhythm sure remind of it. And they already had the knack for politically cool lyrics: I try to talk to girls but I keep thinking of World War III. Quite amazing the material is already on point within such a short amount of time. |
| Siouxsie and the Banshees Kaleidoscope | 3.2 |
| Sailing between martial post-punk and gothic new wave, this album truly is a Kaleidoscope with the additional electronic touches, without forgetting the core built by Siouxsie's vocals and Severin's bass. Yet, I feel the rock songs work much better than the synth-based ones (eg Trophy is a great post-punk track), as the more electronic tunes almost sound like a prep for the next bands (New Order, Soft Cell come to mind). Not the best Siouxsie but still kewl to understand their evolution. |
| ITEM Sad Light | 4.0 |
| just read clavier's blurb for the decade top 100 |
| The Dear Hunter Black | 3.1 |
| Electronic and aggressive alt-prog antics with some post-hardcore touches. It's the band at its heaviest and at its most rhythmic, but eh idk doesn't grab me. |
| Laurel Halo Quarantine | 3.8 |
| It's like intricate ambient pop. The atmospherics are glacial, the synths are mostly dormant but can wake up to reveal complex layers of rhythmic ambience. Hypnotic, yet playful. Youthful, yet not without gravity. |
| My Bloody Valentine Glider | 3.7 |
| Transitional EP fosho. While Soon will soon (eheh) constitute Loveless's closer, it works extremely well here as the opener. Glider is not as interesting, being a mere repetitive drone, while the last two tracks respectively bring an acoustic version of the classic MBV layers and a rocker with twee vocals. Shame I didn't dig the t/t. |
| Nils Frahm Empty | 3.5 |
| Gentle and melancholic modern classical on top of a white noise background. There aren't many surprises if you already know Nils, but it's a relaxing experience, sometimes sounding like rain tapping on your window. |
| Black Flag What The... | 1.5 |
| dem it really is shitty. 1.4 |
| Ramones End of the Century | 3.3 |
| End of the Century or; when the poppiest punk group meets the craziest pop producer. Spector wanted to impose his legendary Wall of Sound on top of the binary semantics of the Ramones. The association is quite natural as the Ramones' love for surf music and 60s girl groups is not unknown. So, while we have some typical Ramones tropes here (Joey's voice, the punky energy), this sometimes sounds a tad too much like a 60s homage rather than a 1980 Ramones album: the opening track, while very cool on its own, truly sounds like the Ramones compromising to the mad producer. Same goes for the quite cheesy Baby, I Love You cover. However, when the two worlds learn to let each other shine, we have songs like Chinese Rock which is a fire banger, where the pop structure lets the punk yell its message. So overall it's aight with some missteps here and there, but it's a cool album although the formula is spotted quite easily. |
| The Smith Street Band Don't Waste Your Anger | 3.1 |
| They let some brightness in, and that makes for their most optimistic record yet. The female vocals add to this overall optimism, however, I feel they are lacking some of the energy that made the core of their albums. So it's still good stuff, but it's not their most interesting record. |
| Fiona Apple Fetch the Bolt Cutters | 3.9 |
| 'tis a grower fosho. It's quite intimate, as her delivery made me think more of prose than poetry. I'm usually not that into her work, but the melodies stick, and the playful instrumentation were sure nice, although not as experimental as peepz be sayin'. |
| Ulcerate Everything Is Fire | 4.6 |
| Everything is constantly changing and progressing, more so than chaos. It's not apocalyptic in any way; it's just a statement and an observation of how things are, or at least how they can be perceived. Everything is in a constant state of change. We cannot accept anything at face value. Question and rationalize everything, and always continue to. It's a commentary on human arrogance and how we perceive our place in our environments and deify objects and people out of pure tradition with very little rationalism. |
| My Bloody Valentine Ecstasy and Wine | 3.3 |
| Although I much prefer Strawberry Wine over Ecstasy, here the two flow well together. This is cool if you wanna know what the band sounded like before YMMR without listening to each and every EP. It's aight stuff. |
| Bill Withers Watching You Watching Me | 2.4 |
| The 80s didn't suit Billy. While his voice is still as warm as ever, the generic smooth soul instrumentals he's vibing on really have nothing special to them. |
| Black Flag I Can See You | 3.2 |
| These are outtakes of In My Head so it continues with the dissonant post-hardcore on the first and last track, and more classical hard rock-influenced with the rest. All 4 tracks pack a punch and none are bad, but none are that great either. |
| The Pretenders Pretenders | 4.0 |
| Punk rock, pop rock? Bit of both, but rock is its main attribute. It's like 80s hard rock with punk attitude and pop hooks sung by a relentless woman who didn't give the single shit. Pretenders were essential but stuck between different trends: not always catchy enough for their music to be new wave, having too much attitude for poppy new wave and not enough of a bite to be truly punk. They still merge these influences perfectly with this hell of a record led by Chrissie Hynde's amazing vocals. |
| The Black Dahlia Murder Verminous | 3.0 |
| Deadboy is new to sput apparently |
| Shabazz Palaces The Don Of Diamond Dreams | 2.2 |
| ya nah it's uninspired and now im bored |
| Mourir Animal Bouffe Animal | 3.5 |
| Animal Bouffe Animal' six tracks oscillate between nervous and sudden, impactful moments, yet are also sneaky and as heavy as the foreboding sense of imminent danger. The voices whisper, grunt and vociferate while expressing the entire animosity of the human species in all its tonal palette. Accompanied in its deranged run by the drums and their sometimes roaring, sometimes bridled rhythms, the two complement each other perfectly to probe the unfathomable: the animal we really are. |
| My Bloody Valentine Isn't Anything | 3.7 |
| This is great, but less good than Loveless and YMMR imo (im not the only one apparently). There still are some traces of their post-punk beginnings, but the dissonant guitars create a smooth layered sound sugarcoated by Bilinda's vocals, while Kevin kinda plain vocals bring a detached feeling to the droning guitars. |
| Bill Withers 'Bout Love | 3.2 |
| As his latest album, it's funky and disco-tinged soul. If there are no bad tracks, none here is a standout either. It's-a good shit for sunny dayzzz. |
| Black Flag Annihilate This Week | 2.5 |
| Straight to the fucking point. This is 11 minutes of live hardcore punk with some noisy heavy metal wanks here and there. So yeah it's aight but nuthang tremendous. |
| Joy Division Closer | 4.1 |
| A prophetic testament. Rarely has rock offered so much unhappiness and violence curled up on itself. Martial groove, murderous stridencies, alienated voice, cataclysmic rhythm, claustrophobic lyrics. Post-punk finds here its ultimate roadmap, like a long poem that can only lead to one outcome. It's difficult to interpret this gloomy album as anything other than a suicide notice. |
| Bela Fleck, Toumani Diabate The Ripple Effect | 3.6 |
| Bluegrass banjo + Malian kora = soothing stuff. It's an hour long live, yet the instruments are heard crystal clear. It doesn't meander too much and manages to stay interesting although the music displayed here does not vary that much. V cool stuff, different from what I usually listen to. |
| Azusa Loop of Yesterdays | 3.6 |
| Post-hardcore vox + tech thrashcore riffz + eerie passages because that's so 2020 + a calmer voice during these beaut moments = a cool album. It sure is a grower. |
| HEALTH Death Magic | 3.7 |
| Dancing on the robots' ashes. This is no party like there's no tomorrow: rather, let's party because tomorrow is already here. Tribalistic, hedonistic as well as noisy electropop/post-industrial will be the soundtrack of your own private apocalypse. |
| My Bloody Valentine Feed Me with Your Kiss | 3.7 |
| Not as awesome as You Made Me Realise but it's still a great sexy shoegaze record. I'm not a huge fan of the t/t, but all three other tracks build on their now-established noisy and sensual sound. |
| Bill Withers Menagerie | 3.5 |
| Discobill. It's not entirely disco, as the funky soul still is the core of the record and retains the inner classy style Billy always showed. Groovy and cheering you up when you're down, even though some songs overstretch, Bill Withers knows how to pull out cool records fosho. |
| Black Flag In My Head | 3.2 |
| Heyo what Ginn and Rollins are actually in sync?! Marvelous. Much less hardcore punk than what they're known for, or brutal free jazz punk than their latest EP, this is almost post-punk with the uncommon time signature and Rollins' restrained performance vocals. Also Ginn apparently learned to scale up and down notes: it's cool but it does get after a while repetitive. This album is like a psychedelic Black Flag, proving once again the band was always trying to reinvent itself. While it does not attain the first part of their career's greatness, this is the best post-My War album. |
| The Fall Grotesque (After the Gramme) | 3.6 |
| You can choose to be politically committed. You can choose to be nihilistic. You can choose to be stiff. Or you can choose to bring a pretty unhealthy vision and atonal flavours into the British post-punk scene. In spite of this arty tinkering (hence the art punk accolades I guess) and true-false nonsense, a real unity is created throughout the album. Can't really tell you why, but even though they try to throw you off balance, the whole lot is cohesive and always feels logical. |
| Haley Heynderickx I Need to Start a Garden | 3.7 |
| Intricate folk guitar melodies a la TMOE + a beautiful voice + a knack for word choices. Layering gorgeous instrumentation on top of that sweetness make this go from 'heyo it's some indie folk' to 'heyo it's some indie folk with beauts of strings'n'pianos'harmonies'. |
| Jason Isbell Southeastern | 3.5 |
| Delicate singer/songwriter stuff. As always I should have put much more focus on the lyrics, but one can still feel the melancholy with the music alone. While nothing here is real new stuff, the arrangements are clearly meticulously composed, even the most understated ones. Gotta re-listen, but it's good stuff. |
| HEALTH VOL. 4 :: SLAVES OF FEAR | 3.5 |
| Aye this cool. The kinda cute dream pop androgynous vocals compensate the violence of the music, which makes this a kinda weird electro-industrial rock record that's both martial and energetic, rhythmic yet melodic. Gotta dive into these guys' discog. |
| My Bloody Valentine You Made Me Realise | 4.1 |
| Here we fucking go. The first MBV output released through Creation Records is everything the band would be known for: romantic, noisy, and atmospheric pop. This is the true start of one of the most influential bands of its era, and this is their most sensual and bass-led release. |
| Bill Withers Naked and Warm | 3.2 |
| Twas pleasant but eh apart if you're the kinda dude/gal who loves some discorun (hello Sandwich) you better listen to his previous records. This still does the job quite well: I'm soothed, I bopped my head and I tapped my feet. |
| Black Flag The Process of Weeding Out | 3.9 |
| The Process of Weeding Out actually is the process established by the band to weed out (ie: they were tokin tha reefer) those who were still expecting Black Flag to be a basic run-of-the-mill hardcore band. This is free jazz with punk instrumentation, in all its noise and dissonance. So yeah at times it's obnoxious, but it always evolves into something weirdly cool. While not all of their outputs are, well, good, Black Flag have proved they are one of the nicest surprises in music. Always evolving (not always for the best, but eh not every band can be Fall of Efrafa), they didn't care about what could be said of them. They just be playin' what they wanted. And if what they wanted was a brutal free jazzpunk record, then let's fucking go for it. |
| The Cure Seventeen Seconds | 3.6 |
| Like the cover, which is limited to an abstract stain, The Cure's tenuous and minimalist sound is subtly suggestive. This one takes time to dig fully. Variety is not its main characteristic, and if you're not into mainly instrumental, atmospheric gothic post-punk, this might feel a tad underwhelming. Still, I personally appreciate this aesthetic, and while it's not my fave gothic post-punk release of the year (Joy Division and Bauhaus ftw), it's a solid album for the somber and cold days. |
| Huerco S For Those of You Who Have Never... | 3.9 |
| Take a break. Breathe. Everything will be fine. Underwater ambient is there for you. |
| Squarepusher Lamental | 2.9 |
| OK EP I guess. Better than the LP it accompanies, but it does not break three legs to a duck. |
| The Strokes The New Abnormal | 4.0 |
| Julian seems to actually care this time! Couple that with some of the most interesting material the band has done in a decade, and you've got a noice record. The synths add another way to convey melancholy and is a welcome addition to their well-known indie rock/post-punk revival (really?). Most importantly, I wasnt' bored at all. I even enjoyed the ride. Definitely wasn't expecting that. Edit: yeah this is awesome |
| My Bloody Valentine Strawberry Wine | 3.5 |
| Then again, it's the jangley MBV, but this time it's the first EP with Bilinda, and the duality of the male-female vocals is the real deal on this one. The pieces start to assemble, but we still gotta wait one more year to enter the classic MBV era. Nevertheless, this is the best pre-1988 release of the group. |
| Bill Withers Making Music | 3.6 |
| Pleasant funky smooth soul, the kind you can play as background stuff during a chill sunny day. It's ofc not his best work, but it's real soothing stuff. The second side of the album is a bit too ballad-heavy for my taste but eh it shall please yo mama. |
| Black Flag Loose Nut | 3.0 |
| Some of Black Flag's most conventional hard rock material, with ofc Rollins' self-hatred. The songwriting even reminded me, at times, (heretic hot take incoming) of pop punk (throw yo tomat-hoes). Unfortunately, all songs kinda sound the same, the apex of this Black Flag style being Bastard in Love. It's aight. |
| The Clash Sandinista! | 3.5 |
| How can you surpass the richness of one of the most revered double albums? Just release a triple album! All kinds of genre are at display here (dub reggae rockabilly ska funk rhythm'n'blues disco), but the band managed to retain its punk rock soul. This punk rock is on the move, open to the different urban sounds of its time, like a furious fanfare linking London, New York and Kingston. The topic was as many years ahead of its time as its sound, and that alone must be lauded, although not all tracks succeed at mashing up several genres. Also, it holds up quite well for a 2h30-long record, its diversity being its most important feature, the length only being an issue at scarce times. |
| Teebs E S T A R A | 3.7 |
| Nuanced bubbly and wonky electronic music. It's a work of texturing floating atmospheres, it's soft and smooth and still retain an organic feel throughout all the record. Its delicacy is intimate, many small sounds rise together to fill all spaces that could have been left. It's thus almost a shame the album drops off after the fourth track, "Shoouss Lullaby", because the beginning is just so damn good. |
| Antibalas Fu Chronicles | 3.7 |
| Calm Afrobeat for the soul. The duality of soothing and bombastic is well-balanced, as the musicians know both how to make you shake da bumbum as well as pass the boof. All songs are long but catchy. As the singer (and kung fu teacher, how cool is that) Duke Amayo said about the record: It's the symbol of the future claiming indigenous rights. |
| Phoebe Bridgers Stranger in the Alps | 3.7 |
| Julien Baker is that you? Few indie folk artists achieved to grab me. Phoebe is one of those few. The disparate instrumentation still is interesting in its own right, and that's imo what managed to keep me engaged throughout the whole record. Although the climaxes are subtle, they still bring an emotional addition to the words softly spoken. To delve into the lyrics, I have to be hooked by the music. She almost hooked me, as the first few tracks are astounding, and the record fails to keep up with these. As always with this kind of record tho, gotta focus on tha lyrics and aint nobody got time for dat imma jam some Ulcerate rn m/ m/ m/ |
| My Bloody Valentine Ecstasy | 2.8 |
| MBV at their jangliest, and the jangle pop tracks are the ones working the best here; the noisy ones plagues by a not-so-good production. It's also their lengthiest EP yet, and since the songwriting isn't top-notch, its deficiencies are quite obvious. |
| Bill Withers +'Justments | 3.5 |
| All killer, no filler. The best tracks do not compare with the first two albums' ones, but overall it slaps. Giving even more space to the strings, it's also funkier than Still Bill. Very nice to see a sound evolution throughout all his records: even though they all maintain the same sonic core, each display a different personality. This one is string-led funky soul, oh yeah. |
| Black Flag Slip It In | 2.7 |
| Nasty although moronic at times (t/t is both neanderthalistically sexual and very efficient at povnding): while My War was one of sludge's founding moments, here Black Flag decide to blend their hardcore punk formula with heavy metal - think of this record as their Dio one. Their moronic side shows in quite awful tracks (Rats' Eyes), uninteresting long ones (Obliteration) or cocky and messy hair metal solis. A mixed bag, but the good cuts are real goodies => Listen to the first three tracks only. |
| David Bowie Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) | 4.3 |
| This is Bowie's first album after the Berlin Trilogy, and although he's coming out of the coldness of these albums, he's not getting rid of the madness, even displaying harsher sounds than said trilogy. Scary Monsters is a striking link between the 70s and the 80s, an almost perfect balance of creativity and commercial success. It also was deeply fresh and contemporary, pushing the envelope of new wave and art rock. And Fripp's an MVP here. |
| Thelonious Monk Brilliant Corners | 3.5 |
| I remember when I first heard this. I expected to be blown away, like Davis, Coltrane or Brubeck managed to blow me away. I wasn't. This was too weird: its beauty was inelegant, as everything was clashing with dissonance. The blues-based chords were comforting, because they helped me hang on to something I knew. Still, I hadn't listened to this for at the very least 5 years. I was hoping my feelings about this had changed. Although it has, I still can't say I'm having the best time with Brilliant Corners. Of course, it's a tour de force (touw de fowce as you guys say rofl) per se, being avant-garde slightly before avant-garde jazz was even a thing. Compositionally ambitious and technically impressive (25 takes, my fucking lord), but emotionally it fails at fully getting me on board. |
| Brandi Carlile By the Way, I Forgive You | 3.2 |
| Some beautiful americana/alt-country. Good introspective music, but the genre as a whole does not appeal that much to me. Still, good shit, and "The Joke" and its lush string section is what I liked the most, made me think of Damien Rice. On the contrary, the less restrained, more bombastically country tracks didn't work as well imo (like in "Hold Out Your Hand"). Guess you gotta be 'murican to truly enjoy that. |
| My Bloody Valentine Sunny Sundae Smile | 3.2 |
| A continuation of The New Record By My Bloody Valentine, but this time it's well done, although clearly not on par with the band's latest kewl shit. The jangle and sunshine pop additions work really well, especially in the first two tracks. While cool, the last two tunes are not that memorable or anything, but they're ok. Also, this is the last MBV release with vocalist David Conway, and it's safe to say it's this formation's apex. |
| Bill Withers Still Bill | 3.7 |
| I know this one much less than Just As I Am, so maybe I'm biased, but it works less well imo. Ofc it's still soothing soul by master Bill, with less of a folk singer vibe than on the previous one. It thus relies more on the beaut of orchestration, and that's a-hella cool for sure as it gives a less earthy atmosphere to the whole lot. The instrumentation is also overall funkier, although I wouldn't call it straight-up funk apart on certain tracks (eg "Kissing My Love" or "Another Dat to Run"). |
| Black Flag Family Man | 1.5 |
| The album that broke Black Flag down into its increasingly distinct component parts - Rollins and the band - with one spoken word side and an instrumental one, with Armaggedon Man trying to tie the two concept. Both sides are very crappy, especially Rollins' one. 1.7 |
| The Caretaker An Empty Bliss Beyond This World | 4.2 |
| Damn. 'Member The Shining ballroom jazz? This is it, disintegrating. As robertsona says in the Top 100 Sput AOTD, there's an uncanny presence in absence. It's lethargic, peaceful and depressive. Most importantly, it's retrofuturistic at its core, taking secluded past music to evoke an imaginary future. The use of these time markers is however not the kind you would expect: taking chipper music from the past to conjure modern depression is a work of spookiness. The listener has to understand what to make of this, which makes it a difficult record to approach. So yeah, the title is oddly pinpoint accurate: it arouses a haunting euphoria without any meaning, without any marking time. It sounds out of this world, awakening memories you never had, and hopes you will never accomplish. |
| Bauhaus In the Flat Field | 4.1 |
| Holy moly, that guitar can wake up the dead while the bass drives the last nails into your coffin. I was expecting some funeral gothic post-punk, but this is a violent, angular and prophetic danse macabre. Bordering on noise rock, especially on the incredible first two tracks, this is one hell of a statement in 1980: while others already have been playing with noise, here it's accentuated by an extreme intensity, an awkward hate, sombre dissonance and pure, honest emotion. It's almost a shame the second half of the album relies much more on traditional post-punk and is overall a tad less ominous and immersing. Yet, when this album hits, it fucking hits. |
| Skalpel Skalpel | 3.9 |
| Ok this is what I was expecting with them: mellow yet rhythmic nocturnal jazz. I love the brew of groovy electronic drums and smooth jazz, that's where they do it best. Like a relaxed version of Blade Runner's jazz. |
| Gangsta Pat Deadly Verses | 3.7 |
| Shit cranks. Really fast flows on top of bouncyass nasty beats, and with a badass attitude. Take G-Funk, then strip away anything that might remotely make you think of anything joyful, add that Memphis rap/horrorcore shit your lost soul craves for, and there you fucking go. I Wanna Smoke is absolutely bonkers, and evil take on the MJ. It's a bit too samey at times, and you can feel he's a young bloke, but it's nonetheless a dirty and muddy album. It's also a shame I Wanna Smoke is so much better than the rest of the album, makes you wish the whole album would be like that dem track. |
| My Bloody Valentine The New Record By My Bloody Valentine | 2.6 |
| Letting go of the gothic influences to delve into what will be their trademark sound. It's noise pop, with a certain twee knack on top. Still, although soundwise it's much more resembling of their future EPs and albums, it's mostly meh. Meh meh meh meh. |
| The National The National | 2.8 |
| M'kay. Relying more on americana and alt-country than their next records, this is nice, but not tremendous in any way. It's relaxing though, as that dude seems to be chillin' pretty well in that pool of his. Matt's vocals are not on point yet (eg on The Perfect Song, the music is hinting at their future albums, but Matt's delivery makes it sound an Alligator b-sides), it all sounds the same, and the band didn't find their formula yet. So yeah it's nothing incredible compared to their next records, but it's m'kay. |
| Black Flag The First Four Years | 3.6 |
| So yeah it's a comp. Not really interesting if you've heard all the EPs, but it's definitely the best gateway for the newcomers. Basically if you're lazy to listen to all their EPs separately, go listen to this, then continue with their LPs. |
| Banks Live and Stripped | 3.1 |
| This indeed is live and stripped versions of Banks' tracks. As Bedex said, tracks 1 and 3 are the most interesting of the bunch as they are less generic and use more instrumentation to provide density. Cool stuff. |
| The B-52s Wild Planet | 3.5 |
| A quirky and fun record. What is especially cool is how it effortlessly collages several genres, all of them being damn cool: surf rock, bubblegum pop, 60's girl band, post-punk. The whole lot is new wave at its core, leaning on the more dance-punk side of the spectrum. The duality brought by the female-male vocals is really cool too and adds a fresh variety to the record. The cover, as well as the music I guess, has this goofy scifi vibe that's reminiscing of the 50s, yet the album is capable of sounding decidedly modern for 1980. The pop album the 50s kid wished they have had. |
| Skalpel Konfusion | 3.4 |
| Enchanting cool club jazz. The one that goes in the background while you drink some fancy Rhum Collins or stuff like that while casually talking to a fine lady. I have yet to listen to their first record, but this is by far the classiest of their last three, and their smoothest too, although less consistent overall than Transit. However, I can't help but feel these guys would benefit from variation. Hope the first one will be THE one. |
| JAK3 Moonlight Radiation | 4.1 |
| It just flows man it's cloud rap, Memphis rap, illbient, sometimes vaporwave, other times almost atmo dnb, dark ambient and industrial and yeah it's crushing. The cold alienated and apathetic music of the future. Truly spooky shit, you're not really prepared for this. |
| My Bloody Valentine Geek! | 2.4 |
| Again, some gothic post-punky psychobilly but much noisier than the first EP. This noisy addition already hints at their further endeavors, but for the moment, it's still a bit too green, and the noise is not very well mastered, as this is almost annoying, especially for a 12-minute EP. |
| Pinegrove Marigold | 3.1 |
| Sincere indie rock/emo with some alt-country stuff happening too. It's nice and mostly restrained, and I guess that's my problem with the record: the dynamics are very cool, and I would have liked some bursts of spontaneity. If you dig some intricate emo-influenced indie rock, jump on it. It's just almost there for me, but not yet. |
| Black Flag Everything Went Black | 3.6 |
| Historically, this is really interesting. This is a compilation covering the band's unofficial sessions with the three frontmen preceding Rollins, each of them getting one side of the LP. It's thus sailing between different eras of the band, but sometimes it repeats itself ("Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie!" has got three different versions, and while they each bring a different vibe, they still are basically the same song). It also shows Chavo clearly was the least good singer the band had, while Dez was incredible. The last side of the LP is a sound collage made up of radio ads for Black Flag shows: it sounds uninteresting (it sometimes is) but it's quite funny. In the end, it's more interesting contextually than musically if you've heard Damaged and the EPs preceding it, but it's nonetheless a crass and vicious 45 minutes of hardcore punk music + some cool sound collage. Almost enjoyed it more than Damaged. |
| Emancipator Mountain of Memory | 3.0 |
| Good Emancipator shit: organic downtempo to chill to. As almost always though, it all blends together and no tune is more recognizable than another. It's a tad too long too, but still good shit to work to. |
| Thundercat It Is What It Is | 3.5 |
| This is ?, a groovy and laid-back record for the (happy) end of your summer evenings. Mastering the interludes once again, it's almost a shame the album isn't a huge continuous flow of funky bass. |
| August Burns Red Guardians | 2.7 |
| Peepz gonna herald this as the second coming of Christ and still diss Leveler smdh. This is fine, but that's it. Didn't dig the clean vocals at all. |
| Skalpel Simple | 3.0 |
| Their most nu jazz output (that I've heard eh). Neat lil EP to work with, although it's cool in the background and I fear I would get a teenee-tiny bored if I truly focused on it. The title is aptly chosen: it's Simple Skalpel. |
| My Bloody Valentine This Is Your Bloody Valentine | 2.6 |
| Eh? Gothic psychobilly post-punk? Every butterfly once was a caterpillar I guess. Apart from the stylistic considerations, it's not very good or impacting or anything, but it's not outright bad. It's extremely relying on its influences tho. They were just kids, you gotta start somewhere. Props for the drums too. #notmybloodyvalentine |
| Antibalas Antibalas | 4.0 |
| Damn, Afrobeat seems like a thriving scene in the 2010s. It's of course Fela Kuti-influenced (gotta deep dive into that dude's discog), but they also infuse some jazz fusion elements (some parts reminded me of that Weather Report CD my daddy used to jam). It's super entertaining and engaging, if a bit repetitive a times, but I guess that's the whole point. |
| Black Flag TV Party | 3.5 |
| The first slacker anthem? It's almost a breath of fresh air, given the t/t is the only one from Damaged that isn't full of rage and piss. The other two tracks are standard hardcore Black Flag, but I'd say they're above-average and constitute the band's best B-side after Nervous Breakdown. |
| The Souljazz Orchestra Inner Fire | 3.9 |
| Oh my god that's some funky shit. It's an ingenious blend of Afro and Latin jazz, with some groovy Afrobeat thrown in the mix as well as soul jazz (apparently? tbh still got a lot to learn to properly differentiate all jazz genres). It's soulful, funky, warm, celebratory nd most of all fun jazz to heal your poor soul. |
| The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble From the Stairwell | 3.4 |
| Nocturnal and eerie dark jazz conducted by a chamber ensemble sometimes droning and bringing some dark ambient atmosphere. The band's name is so carefully chosen it's amazing. Shame however the droning closer tickles one of me balls without shaking the other one. |
| Heaven Shall Burn Of Truth and Sacrifice | 3.2 |
| It's okay. Not a big fan of this genre anymore, so while I find it cool, I don't dig melodeathcore as much as before. There are some sweet galloping riffs here and there but overall it's a tad too long for my taste. Still, for what it is it's a primary example of what the genre is capable of. Expatriate especially slayz. |
| Skalpel Transit | 3.5 |
| Then again a cool brew of trip hop and jazz. A chill and laidback as their 2020 record Highlight but overall more focused and requiring less effort on the part of the listener. This is still something that, to me, fits better in the background while working but it's gud stooff. |
| Breag Naofa Cearo | 3.8 |
| Need some Fall of Efrafa in your life but you've listened too much to the best trilogy ever? Jam this band kiddo, you'll be blissed. This is their shortest output (thx captain fckn obvious) but packs a damn punch. I'm a sucker for such a sound and aesthetic. |
| Tame Impala Tame Impala | 3.5 |
| Cool introduction, with "Desire Be Desire Go" having a much coarser prod. As the dexbrah said, it's the least 60s-reminiscing song of the bunch, as all other tracks sound like some Beatles outtakes. |
| Black Flag Six Pack | 3.4 |
| Stuck between the legendary Nervous Breakdown and the influential Damaged, this is a neat 5-minute EP, with the title track being a hardcore classic (SIX PACK) and the two B-sides being smoldering punchers, if a lil underwhelming compared to the band's greatest tracks. |
| Tony Allen, Hugh Masekela Rejoice | 3.7 |
| A 2010 session between Allen, Fela Kuti's drummer (he was the beat of Afrobeat, how fucking cool is that) and South African trumpeter Masekela. This is, as Allen puts it, a kind of South African-Nigerian swing-jazz stew, and what a tasty stew it is. Allen's play is subtle yet never hides in the background. On the opposite, Masekela's melodies are bombastic and playful yet never take too much space. And from time to time, Hugh sings with a voice full of so much emotions I wouldn't dare listing them. This is (a)live music. |
| Thanatos Violent Death Rituals | 3.0 |
| Cool return from these low countries riffers. Leads are smashing, drums are blasting, vocals are rasping, riffs are pounding. Yet, I can't help but feel this kind of deathened thrash metal, or thrashened death metal while we're at it, feels slightly outdated, both in terms of my personal appreciation as well as compared to the genre as a whole. Nevertheless, the record is enjoyable and surfs between different brews of both death and thrash (melodeath, Bay Area thrash, death/doom). |
| Honey Harper Starmaker | 3.2 |
| This is pretty chamber pop/alt-country. In fact, the country this album has got is drowned into the lush chamber pop, which makes it a good album for those wanting to dig into the genre without having a lot of knowledge of it. I'd however say the songs do carry too much of the same aesthetic and thus creates a feeling of deja vu past the first three songs, but the record is short enough for it not to be a huge problem. Good first album right here, and apparently it will be the AotM, so congrats boyo even though it's not really ma cuppa. |
| Nine Inch Nails Ghosts VI: Locusts | 3.7 |
| Dark ambient. While Ghost V was hopeful its in darkness, here Trent & Atticus decide to go full bleakness. You are alive, yet you are alone. While I did appreciate Ghost V's slight brightness, I've always liked my ambient to be creepy. On top of that, the instrumentation is richer, adding some percussion and brass from time to time, and I feel the textures are more varied. This takes the cake, it's slowly pulling you into the blackest hole ever found in outer space. It seems the darkness is winning. We're going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Again though, I failed to be 100% focused during the whole record (almost 90 minutes eh), but I hope it will grow. |
| Nine Inch Nails Ghosts V: Together | 3.4 |
| Light ambient. This is eerie and beautiful, yet always on the verge of falling into infinite doom. The balance between how somber this sounds and how hopeful this feels is top notch: you might be alone right now, but you are alive. The sound design displayed here is great, it makes the 70 minutes pass by (almost!) quite easily, although I lost focus from time to time. The conclusion is however perfect: the moment the beat comes in during Still Here, after more than an hour of beatless music is mindblowing. |
| Nicolas Jaar Cenizas | 3.6 |
| Ambient electroacoustic, is that you Nicolas? The dude evolved so much he now encompasses all kinds of electronic music and can't be pinned down with one staple. Long before the worldwide lockdowns, Jaar imposed himself a lonely quarantine. This results in a meditative piece of work, as dark as 2017-2019, but not as deconstructed. This is the stripped down companion to his other 2020 release. |
| Black Flag Jealous Again | 3.1 |
| Second EP, second singer, Morris having left to found Circle Jerks. As Azerrad puts it, it's a nasty nugget of low-rent nihilism. It's still unadulterated punk rock, but it doesn't contain the memorable riffs Nervous Breakdown had, nor their next trve hardcore sound yet. |
| Dua Lipa Future Nostalgia | 3.9 |
| State-of-the-(ch)art |
| Igorrr Spirituality and Distortion | 3.7 |
| This might sound pedantic (prob is), but this might be what Mozart would have thought 2020 music would sound like. It has elements of Western classical music, Arabic folk music, metal, breakbeats and every weird shit Gautier Serre ever listened to. Still, he's been known for years for fusing these genres, so what does this record change in his discography? Well, it's not as obnoxious as other LPs, the switches from one genre to another are less abrupt, and overall he knows better than ever how to blend two totally different styles into one mindfuck music. |
| Sufjan Stevens and Lowell Brams Aporia | 3.2 |
| Not bad, but rather inoffensive. Some pretty moments here and there, but new age isn't Sufjan - or his stepfather Lowell - strongest genre to play with. It's always cool to see an artist experiment with sound, but it's just not revolutionary or better than any other new age/progressive electronic release. |
| Infinit' Ma vie est un film II | 4.0 |
| One of the best wordsmiths in French rap finally gives himself the means of his ambition. While all his previous projects hinted inner greatness, it was too green - or relying too much on DJ Weedim (he not my cuppa) - and was only interesting in some parts. What was evident though, was the pure talent the man had at multiplying the multi-syllabics and delivering said stylistic devices with always-various flows. Finally nailing the autotune, his biggest flaw so far, Infinit' has now the voice and the pen to produce memorable toplines sublimed. Despite this laudatory rain, personal preference shall guide the listeners towards different paths. If what you are looking for is a modern French rap album, then jump into this and you shall be pleased with a compact and stylishly produced record. On the other hand, if what titillates the rhyming fan in you are killer punchlines and technical rap, not all of the record will please you. Still, this is the best Infinit' has ever been, and we all know he can do better. How exciting. |
| Old Man Gloom Seminar IX: Darkness of Being | 3.9 |
| Farewell Caleb. As in 2014, OMG puts out two separate album during the same year. Still waiting for the second part (Seminar VIII, weird they released IX before VIII btw) but this one riffs hard while bringing the emotion of the void left by Scofield. Good examples of that is for example The Bleeding Sun, which is as pounding in the background as beautiful in its main riff. I also felt some hard Owsla-era FoE in this song (basically it's crusty). Fortunately, the album is everything but a simple homage to the bands' deceased bassist: it is as diverse as we could expect Old Man Gloom to be, fusing sludge and post-metal, noise rock and their typical noisy ambient section. This last subgenre of theirs has unfortunately never striked me as 100% necessary, and I once again get that feeling (Canto de Santos's first part). The emotion however climaxes in Death Rhymes a beautiful and soulful tune in which Caleb is memorialized, one last time. |
| Immortal Onion XD [Experience Design] | 3.7 |
| The Polish trio comes back with their tight and cinematic nu jazz fusion. The production is incredibly crisp, as each hit on the toms pounds hard and brings a new hardness to the band's sound. However, if everything sounds good, the mix is not always perfect, as the bass is only shining when it's soloing; the rest of the time, it's lost behind the piano and drums. The electronic bits are present as expected, but in a discrete way. It's clear the goal here was to use these Moog bleep bloops as a way to enhance the trio progression rather than as a true fourth instrument. While that often works, it would be interesting to see the band experimenting with this sound and offer an electronic-led jazz piece. They aaaalmost do it on Intensity but it's not exactly there yet. I'm niggling, as you could always ask more of an artist/band. All in all this is really cool, but in all honesty I sometimes felt like I was listening to a 2014 BBNG record |
| Empty Country Empty Country | 3.6 |
| Ha, it's been long since I've last listened to a heartland-inspired indie rock outfit. This one's cool, although I feel it's almost relying too much on the lyrics to attain grandeur, and the vocals are a bit too much early 2000s emo for me. This is nitpicking though, as the record is diverse, the production job is tremendous (i just wanna hear a lil bit more of tha bass). Not really in the mood anymore for that kind of sound, but it's a nice feelz throwback. Edit: these songs are meant for growin'. |
| Thangorodrim Prologue | 3.1 |
| Never heard the compiled works before so I can't tell if the remaster's well done. Nevertheless, the production is excellent, more organic than most dungeon synth. As all compilation though, this one suffers from an extended running time, and the overall lack of variety between each song doesn't help. Still, as the Dungeon Synth SputMaester said, this is a good listening for Tolkien's fans. And in these quarantine times, it's a great album to work to, or simply to let your mind wander while your body has to stay inside. |
| Shabaka and the Ancestors Wisdom of Elders | 3.6 |
| Shabaka's first actual African album. Linking the band's philosophy with the album, this is, first and foremost, an African jazz record that pays homage to Coltrane's vision of spirituality. Recorded in one day in Capetown, it's a vibrant piece of work that - and I think I say that too much in my jazz soundoffs - feels alive and reminds of the greatest mystic rituals. As all things alive and mystic, collective improvisation is the key: rising together, letting the others shine, taking the lead when necessary. The band even add a zeuhl and Magma influence, allowing them to add an even more bizarre atmosphere to some parts, especially the vocal ones. However, I'd articulate the same criticisms as I did on their next record: it's a difficult LP - and it could have been cut a good 20 minutes - that has to be enjoyed as a whole, laying complex interlocks of melodies of rhythms. A bridge between what was done before and what can be done in the future, yet not a visionary piece that pushes the boundaries that much, this is an album that almost gets everything right. Shabaka is jazz's hottest dude, and he proves this status with each album, this one being the more obtuse and, thus, rewarding for hardcore listeners. Just gotta trim the fat. |
| downy Mudai (7) | 3.8 |
| Now we talkin'. Johnny's tl;dr is exquisitely accurate: it's early 65daysofstatic with fewer explosions and more glitches. Blending math/post-rock with heavy and introverted synth, this is a work of mild oppression. The singer sounds Thom Yorke-depressed, the drum patterns are groovy and weird (hell of a combo btw), the synth ambience goes from manic to eerie, and the guitar keeps oscillating between different moods and drones, never truly accompanying the rhythm imposed by the drums and the menacing bass. This is weird shit. I dig it. |
| Baleia Quebra Azul | 4.0 |
| A Brazilian band mixing all things pop/rock/folk, from the indie to the art with some post-rock and chamber pop thrown in the mix. The female vocals make this a peaceful yet musically dense record, both introspective as well as deeply rhythmic. Idk if it's the Portuguese vocals, but this sounds so mysterious, even in its most bombastic moments, eg in Breu. Is it anachronist? Idk, but it sure doesn't attach to a particular era. Extremely good surprise, thx alamo! |
| Sea of Shit Sea Of Shit | 3.6 |
| Dumb but fun powerviolence full of great riffs and headbangin' parts. The drummer's arms must be sore. For a 13-minutes release, this packs up all things good in the genre. However, disclaimer: be in a happy place or mood before listening to this, otherwise you'll literally start barking instead of speaking. |
| Skalpel Highlight | 3.2 |
| Polish nu jazz duo (both DJs/producers) taking trip hop beats and jazz samples on top of it to create a blend that's neither truly trip hop nor full jazz, even though it's more jazz-centered than, say, Submo. Not the most incredible stuff, but a chill and well-done blend. Laaaaaaid back (sippin' some gin and juice). |
| Hot Mulligan You'll Be Fine | 3.2 |
| Cool emo/pop punk that, although does not reinvent anything, does mashes up all kinds of pop punk. The vocals are a bit grating at times, but, hey, it's juvenile pop punk. Also, there are two singers but, as it's often the case with that kind of band, the two dudes' voices sound a tad too similar. It's also a shame all songs are samey, but the album is short enough for it not being a problem. It's fun enough! And idk if the Mulligan part of their name is a ref to Magic, but I dig it. |
| Submotion Orchestra Kites | 3.2 |
| Letting go of the housey vibes they implemented on their last album, Submo reunite with their loungey and jazzy brand of downtempo/trip hop, without forgetting, of course, the WUB WUBs. While this pleases me more aesthestically than Colour Theory, it doesn't reinvent the wheel created with Finest Hour and perpetuated with Fragments and Alium. They do the same ol' trick, but this trick is a beautiful one. |
| Aseul Slow Dance | 3.4 |
| Lo-fi dreamy K-pop with some city pop vibes here and there, and it's as comfy as the genre tags suggest. Very nice to listen to this if the soft sun hitting the windows. The album/EP (don't know) is aptly titled: all you gotta do now is dance, slowly. |
| Childish Gambino 03.15.20 | 2.8 |
| E X P E R I M E N T A L. Donald is collaging plenty of r&B/soul stuff he recorded. While I laud the attempt, I think the potential it's showing here is not on par with the delivery. Variety is present for sure, My fave bit here is 42.26, and it was released 2 years ago as Feels Like Summer and its gorgeous video. I almost feel a kind of Kanye breakdown here: releasing a deliberately complicated album, with some a r t thrown in here. For example, the album title and cover, which are not really arty or avant-garde whatsoever: it honestly just feels half-assed. Shame, 'cause the good moments here (first two tracks and the closer for example) are indeed appreciable, but the bulk of the album does not appeal to me. It's not unlikeable tho. |
| Alkaline Trio E.P. | 2.5 |
| More of a single than an EP, but, eh. This is pleasant enough pop punk/alt rock with that classic acoustic song in between because who doesn't like to sing around the fire. Not bad, just not my particular stuff, and nothing particularly remarkable. |
| Matthew Tavares and Leland Whitty Visions | 4.4 |
| Ok, wtf. That first track reminds me of (yeah yeah I'll say something so controversial yet so brave) Talk Talk. Come at me. Other than that, this is jazz, but not like the most recent BBNG endeavours: this is much more traditional in its sound and composition, relying much less on post-rock, electronica and hip hop tropes. Thus, it's less original, and less modern too. In fact, it's not truly less original, it's just less BBNG. But boy, this might be the rbest shit they ever done. Adding some impressionist classical music to their compositions help elevate the tracks to a whole new level, the level we (at least I) hoped for when we first stumbled upon this young band. When they let it go, true power emerges. When they restrain the music, a newfound sweetness come out. |
| The Weeknd After Hours | 4.1 |
| The Weeknd going synth? Hell yas, it brings a whole new futuristic vibe to his music, while ofc reminiscing the 80s. Small aside, the decade's influence on these past 10 years is astounding, and it's quite amazing it helped shape a sound both deeply rooted in the past as well as designed for the future. In my very humble opinion, the production might be the best he's ever sung on, plus it's a good recap of his career: it has his albums' poppiness and his EPs' dimness. So yup, it's one hell of a pop record. Gotta agree with Doof tho, his vocals are always the same. Still, I did not expect to be this thrilled with Abel's newest album. |
| Haru Nemuri LOVETHEISM | 3.6 |
| Queen coming back with a mini-album, and boy she always pumps me up. It sounds like nothing to be pumped up, but this girl truly know how to do it. For example, on Trust Nothing But Love she pushes forward her already-present intensity to new heights, and knowing how intense she already was, that shows you how incredible this is. What is appreciable is also how her singles (Fanfare and Riot, didn't listen to the third one) went from disappointing at first to pieces that work well in this mini-album context. Sadly, I can't help but feel slightly underwhelmed by this: the English-sung bits do not work as well as the Japanese ones, Apple Song is not impacting enough for a closer, and I've always preferred the most abrasive spectrum of her music, and this mini-album is not as heavy as her first full-length. Still, is it bad? Hell nah bruv, it's just not as good as Haru to Shura. But then I'm biased, because Haru was a revelation for me last year, so, you know, I can just shut up, stop being a complaining brat and just enjoy the cool music a girl from Japan gave me. With Envy's The Fallen Crimson, Ichiko Aoba's singles and now this, Japan once again proves it's full of incredible artists who do not hesitate to play with music, and, most importantly, convey emotions, something us Westerners take too often for granted. It's harder to feel what the artists want to tell you when you don't understand what they're saying. Haru always manages to make you understand what she's feeling. |
| Submotion Orchestra Colour Theory | 2.7 |
| Letting go the jazzy soulful to focus on the WUB WUB downtempo. While that's a perfectly respectable artistic choice, it doesn't work as well as their previous albums imo. Where this one fails, compared to the first three records, is not in its sound, but rather in its composition: put simply, it's rather uneventful. However, the band still pulls out catchy and hazy chillness (I like the Culprate comparison cheers dexbruv) and have some nice moments here and there. Not bad, but it's their most background-y album. Some parts made me think of Tycho, ugh. |
| Converge Endless Arrow | 1.5 |
| texture texture noise dark ambient experimental. Quote from their bandcamp: To keep people entertained in these challenging times... yeah nah i was bored as shit. 1.7 |
| Fire! Orchestra Exit! | 3.7 |
| Ritualistic jazz for the demonic. I don't really understand the vocal criticism I saw here and there, they perfectly fit the ominous music. As all the instruments rise together, the band creates a massive soundtrack, without ever going into pure cacophony. The best example is the last 5 minutes of Part 2, concluding the album: the band lets go of all constraint and unleashes a free jazz freakout that stands to this day as one of the most impacting moments in recent jazz. One of the most interesting jazz collective of the past decade, bringing enjoyment to atonality, and violence to silence. This is their most chaotic record, and while this might not be up everyone's alley, it sure will shake you to the core. |
| Laylow Trinity | 3.8 |
| New cool kid in French hip hop dropping his first album. Very cool even though there are several problems imo: the autotune does not always work (sometimes I can't get what he's saying), his influence are REALLY evident (this female robot voice immediately reminded me of Nepal, and ye I think he likes Booba, Kanye and Travis Scott). He's got style though, and the beats are cold, mechanical, modern and perfectly match the album's concept. Digging the lyrics, it seems like he wanted to create an audio movie to further explore his anxieties and fears. He gave himself the means of his ambition by working A LOT on the storytelling: one can truly feel and hear the evolution of this young man trapped under the belly of this horrible machine. In the end, Trinity, the software he rhas been using throughout all the story, tells him the cold dark truth: it's an emotion simulation software. While that might sound daunting, as none the adventures he lived were real, it is in fact liberating for Laylow: he found what he wanted, the ultimate emotion: pain. To evoke such an emotion with musicality, experimentation (yeah yeah it does not sound like your regular 2020 french rap record) and cohesion establishes Trinity as one of the best modern record of its genre. Extremely good surprise, and while I don't adhere to every choice done here, I didn't expect such a driven and personal concept record. |
| Shabaka and the Ancestors We Are Sent Here By History | 3.4 |
| Shabakin' hard. Crazy to imagine all the hot jazz albums recently out are made by the same dude. Once again, this puts its African roots into the jazz fusion, with some parts that reminded me of spiritual jazz (plus his backing band being South African). Thus, this can be considered the least original record of the bunch, as the sound is resolutely turned to the past. So yeah, this spiritual jazz influence is what differentiates this band from The Comet Is Coming (more of a psych nu jazz collective) and Sons of Kemet (afrobeat and jazz-funk), and the album's statement goes hand in hand with the aesthetic choice: it's the most socio-political record Shabaka released yet. It's a shame it's too long; 45 minutes would have been perfect for this album. Nonetheless, more than any other Shabaka record, this is one that will be appreciated mainly by its holistic sound rather than by separate cuts. This makes for his most challenging album to get into: it's neither as bombastic nor as funky. This is serious shit. In times when global warming brings us closer to the inevitable when our species is destined for an impending fate, such works are not warning anymore: they are fierce observations of everything inherently wrong with our society. The Comet has nearly come, but we can still look at what is truly inside of us for a short while, and, maybe, make things a tad better. |
| Psychonaut Unfold the God Man | 3.5 |
| Groovy post-metal with some prog/psych knack. Once again, a band whose influences are pretty clear: The Ocean, Gojira, Mastodon, Tool and Stake (previously Steak Number Eight). Yet, they pull out a sound none of these bands ever had: it's just a pure mash-up. While their sound is already there, I feel some meat could have been cut here: it's a tad too long, the voice is good but not mindblowing (makes me reaaaally think of the Stake's singer's voice, also a Flemish band), the best cuts (The Fall of Consciousness, Sananda, Celestial Dictator, all very psychedelic yummy) clearly outclass the less good tracks. It's a very good first output, and I'm excited to see how these homies will evolve in the coming years! |
| Four Tet Sixteen Oceans | 3.9 |
| Cozy record. Once again, Four Tet is adding layers on top of layers, and this makes for one of his most delicate and intricate records yet. My main gripe with this one is how the second half, full of ambient tunes and interludes, does not succeed as well as the first one, full of bangers. Yet, this hour of music flows flawlessly and will (at least I hope so) be remembered as one of Four Tet's best outputs. As the weather finally grants us some sunshine, this is the record I'll spend my lockdown with. I'll be trapped inside, but at least my mind can wander. Spring 2020 Album of the Season. |
| Submotion Orchestra Alium | 3.6 |
| Submo submotioning hard. Then again, it's a downtempo/nu jazz/electronic/soul/dub maelstrom of album, but the band slightly experiments here and there, with a more important and uniform use of trumpets (not only used in bridge anymore, but throughout all songs), as well as some more experimental tracks (Bring Back the Wolf). While this is ofc really good stuff, this is a slight step down from Fragments and Finest Hour: if overall this is extremely consistent, no track here attain the first two albums' best cuts awesomeness. |
| AJ Tracey AJ Tracey | 2.2 |
| The poppier and more R&B-inclined side of grime. This is nice, but the beats in general aren't that interesting: even though they explore grime, drill, afrobeat, Lil Nas X's country trap, they never have that wow factor that makes your head bop and your mouth drool. Also, I can't help but compare this to Heavy is the Head: while the latter also tended on grime's softer side, it was deeply British, and did not try to appeal to the US audience (bring tha $$$). Here, I can't tell for sure if the dude is genuine in his approach. However, Ladbroke Grove is just the littest motherfucker I recently listened to. I don't think the music is intrinsically bad, authenticity is one of the most important things as an artist. Don't try to be someone you're not. |
| Fire! Orchestra Enter! | 3.6 |
| Big band free jazzin' in movements advancing in post-rock style. The noisiest and droniest they ever been, this is also their most manic work of art (these screams during part 2 sound like Willem Defoe smiling). As if the most drugged Miles Davis made an album with John Zorn. Sounds exciting and scary, eh? This is the two main features of this album: this is as refreshing and frightening as modern jazz can be. However, this makes for their most difficult album to get into, as the vocals are not as refined as on their next outputs (and sometimes tend on the obtuse), and the overall abrasiveness make for a challenging listen. Yet, this album, an obscure one for sure, still manages to be enjoyable, except in the difficult Part 3. Hell of a streak, Fire! Orchestra. |
| Stormzy Heavy Is the Head | 2.5 |
| Where's the grime? ): I preferred the atmosphere the precedent album had, as this one basically strips all the grime and focuses on the soulful bits. Because when the dude spits cold bars, this is lit stuff to flex to. Maybe a whole album made of bangers would have been tiring? Maybe, yet I can't help but feel he's not displayed everything he's capable of, sound-wise. However, the lyrics I focused on were interesting, painting the dark side of fame a la Stormzy sauce (nothing new under the sun, but it's clearly not a dumb and debilitating album, so props for that). Also, kudos for making Vossi Bop a #1 single, it's one uncommercial of a track. Although this album is full of good intentions and ideas, none of them manage to strike me, leaving a bittersweet taste. Maybe next time mate. Also hey he looks like Lukaku |
| Code Orange Underneath | 2.0 |
| Cool metalcore riffs but eh you gotta stop with all these samples. Compared to, say, H.A.Q.Q., which also added glitches to its transcendental black metal, here the glitches are basically annoying af as they are placed randomly and do not emphasize any riff or growl. Plus, they add pauses from time to time, and while it might seem like a good idea, here I can't help but be like wtf dude why did you randomly stop the muzak for 1 second. It's full of ideas, but half of these are half-assed, and the other half annoys more than it amazes. Shame because when it pounds, it does povnd, especially when they manage to replicate their atmospheric brand of grungy industrial metalcore. Thus, the best bits are the ones we already heard from them, and the worst ones are their new sound. Great. Plus it's their lengthiest output, so it does get tiring in the end. |
| Sons of Kemet Burn | 3.2 |
| The beginning of something great. It's already a blend of afro-jazz, big band, and some tasty electronica touches, and, most importantly, it's displaying the Caribbean influences throughout this first record. Compared to their next two, it's neither as bombastic nor as ritualistic: while the trance does happen here, it's not as mesmerizing as their subsequent efforts. Yet, the African roots shine, and the record already sounds like a live recording, adding that extra punch that some records, failing to grasp what makes jazz so great live, can't bring. Homaging Ethiopian jazz as well as Jamaican one, referencing black Egypt and Nubian princes, this album has a deep and unique personality. While this vision is not yet met with the music it deserves, it's one good first step. |
| Burzum Thulêan Mysteries | 3.1 |
| Varg leaves us with one last dungeon synth Burzum record. While the atmosphere is immersive, individually the cuts here are not the best the church burner ever granted us with. Still, over the course of an hour and a half of music, he manages to keep the listener engaged in his mysterious and ritualistic blend of traditional Northern European folk and ambient. This is not the most essential record of the year, but it's one of the most surprisingly enjoyable one for sure, especially given its "demo" roots. It's the final Burzum record, made of a bunch of tracks recorded here and there. It might not be the epic conclusion we all wanted (that dream was abandoned when Varg became the Euronymous stabber), but it's, as Simon said really well in his review, an appropriate end, and one many bands would have dreamed of. This racist, killing and misanthropic dude managed to make music so damn fascinating people who absolutely do not agree with him can care about this. Legend. |
| Submotion Orchestra Fragments | 3.8 |
| Their second best. It's still a jazzy trip hop release with some dubstep WUB WUBs on top of it all to make your body groove, but fortunately they added some tweaks for this release not to be a sheer Finest Hour copy. Prod is top notch, Blind Spot is a top Submo track (SO BLESS US AAAAAAAAALL damn always hitting so hard), and overall you can't help but feel good while listening to this. The only (yet so darn impacting) issue here is that it's basically one hour of the same music, with not much variation between each track; mind me, there are some traces of trance (try pronounce that out loud) and some spoken words parts, but it's neither as soothing as their first output nor as groundbreaking. It's one beautiful hour of music for sure, it's just not the band's finest one (wink wink). |
| Skepta Ignorance Is Bliss | 3.2 |
| Sure, it's a step down from Konnichiwa, but it still holds up well thanks to Skepta's performance and delivery. The main problem here is that it sounds too much like its predecessor without adding much quality to it. On top of that, the overall sound here do not vary much, and when it does, it falls into a quite feeble trap/grime mash. Yet, the energy Skepta displays here make this a fun listen, although all this album accomplishes is the wish to jam Konnichiwa once again. Cool shit nonetheless. |
| Fire! Orchestra Ritual | 3.8 |
| Now that's some nice experimental big band stuff, with gorgeous female voices and tha free jazz approach. It's just so full. I'd say this works less well overall than Arrival, mainly because the obtuse moments are not as engaging, and also because the album is more conventional in its structure. The tracks are very distinctive (there the bombastic one fusing vocal jazz with free jazz, the more conventional jazz fusion piece, the one slowly rising, the big band one, etc.) and are not as free-flowing as on their subsequent record. However, the chaos displayed here is tightly controlled: it results an album that's both appealing and daunting, dissonant yet harmonic. An insane band, both in terms of jazz and avant-garde, two genres closely intertwined. Jazz has always been known as a genre that always pushes the boundaries, and Fire! Orchestra are not afraid of carrying the torch. |
| Stormzy Gang Signs and Prayer | 2.6 |
| Eh. Compared to Skepta's Konnichiwa released the same year, this has got less meat in a longer runtime. It's kinda all over the place, and I feel he had tons of ideas but he didn't manage to make either of these ideas shine. The bangers are cool but do not hit as hard as, eh, Konnichiwa, and the more laidback tracks go from passable to almost annoying. However I'm a sucker for this badass English/Jamaican accent so while it did not succeed at what it was attempting, it's not an unpleasant record. |
| clipping. Midcity | 3.1 |
| That's one hell of a fitting cover, as the music is the sonic representation of this...stuff. Basically, it's noisy as hell, bordering on harsh noise, and one dude is trynna rappin' on top of that. They managed to make it (almost) as enjoyable musically as it is interesting as a piece of art pushing the envelope. It's a cool and violent album, both in terms of the raps and the noisy structure, if not a little inconsistent. Cool experimental hip hop that succeeds at not alienating the listeners. |
| Sons of Kemet Lest We Forget What We Came Here To Do | 3.7 |
| Afrofuturism in nu-jazz. It's a bit less engaging than Your Queen Is a Reptile, but this is still some great cerebral avant-garde jazz that does not forget neither its African roots nor the funky bits. Compared to the next one, one could argue the alchemy between all instruments is not as on-point, but hey the chemistry sure is there, especially between the two (!) drummers. The ritualistic bits all sound celebratory, which makes this a deep yet playful record. It's not all about the mind, sometimes you gotta let the body do the talking. And boy, what a soulful talk. |
| Tycho Simulcast | 2.2 |
| Chill music for the braindead. As always, listening to one track of his is cool, then it fades into blandness because everything is recycled to the point where nothing remotely new is created. Would be ok in the background of a pool-party/happy-hour/Mojito shit. I think he's his biggest plagiarist. This guy is a superhero: he almost always manages to slow time. |
| Dante Mars Ajeto! Celebrating Digital Artefacts | 3.8 |
| Hey guys, let's slow down some 80s hits. Honestly, one of the best and most dynamic use of samples in a vaporwave album. As my boiz already said, some transitions are a bit sketchy, but the samples are so damn funky they allow the record to sail between pure vaporwave and future funk, adding some glitchy parts a la death's dynamic shroud.wmv. A good representation of vaporwave's potential, as it's a fresh take on an already old concept, and it brews everything that's even remotely vaporwave into one hour: it's chill, funky, dreamy, glitchy, hypnagogic and most of all damn experimental. The kind of album I wish Eccojams would have been. |
| Skepta Konnichiwa | 3.7 |
| An album that came from the uncompromising English streets. Skepta delivers one heck of a grime record, spitting rhymes with this so distinctive and cool roastbeef accent. The beats are not exactly multi-layered or complicated by any means, but they hit hard and do the job quite well. However, one can't help but notice a certain lack of variety throughout the record, eg the aforementioned beats, but it's short enough to not be a problem. However, this lack of diversity is compensated by the album's consistency: there's no bad track, and half of the songs are bangers, even though one might cherrypick in not finding any fantastic song that would elevate the record. Quite crazy it won the Mercury Prize and beat Bowie and Radiohead, but it kinda spearheaded the grime resurgence in the 2010s, and it's so British. Legit album made by a legit dude. |
| Dizzee Rascal Boy In Da Corner | 4.0 |
| Birth of the grime. Tha Dizzee, a former drum'n'bass DJ, brings up UK garage, jungle, 2 step and dancehall to come up with cold and unheard beats, and decides to rap dark tales on top of it. There lies an underlying creepy, disturbing feeling in these beats: never are they boastful or happy, yet they are not completely undanceable: rather, the listener will maneuver his body with rage, fury and vulnerability, moved in spite of the beats rather than by them. It's almost weird to think this went mainstream: this is on the shady side of nocturnal. Lyrics-wise, the then-18 year old British boi talked about the wasted youth he represented. Socially, politically and economically, desperation prevailed at that time for young Dizzee and his East London counterparts, and one of the reason why this album blew up is because how accurately da Rascal described this environment. A disgusting 17 year old record shouldn't hold up so well, but there is an ageless feel to this record: without any information on the album, one could think it was released in the 90s as well as in 2019. Its main characteristic is not representative of its era, but rather its upbringing: it's uncompromisingly dark, and uncompromisingly British. |
| Today Is the Day No Good To Anyone | 3.6 |
| Ofc it's aggressive and brooding, but most importantly, it's intense af. Whether it's the most pounding noise rock (No Good to Anyone, mournful folk (Callie), a Torche song (OJ Kush) or menacing sludge (Cocobolo), there lies an underlying passion in the delivery that exceeds the pure sonic considerations: this is not a noise rock record, nor a sludge one, nor a pure metal one: this is an intense record, and this intensity is displayed within a broad spectrum of genres. It's weird, mad, sick, powerful, lunatic, and sad. It's an album made by a man who wanted to exorcise his demons, and those who will let themselves go will find something to resonate to. It's no perfect record though, as not all tracks manage to grasp the listener as the best cuts here do. |
| Intronaut Fluid Existential Inversions | 3.2 |
| Textured shit continuing the path to the safe part of prog metal The Direction of Last Things started. It's intricate for sure, and one can't say the songwriting isn't top notch. Yet, the production is extremely stale compared to Direction, the riffs are less pounding, and the saddest: the bass is not as crispy as before. And as already mentioned, the vocals are fkn ew: they sound like bad Mastodon copy. However, it's during the atmospheric moments the band hits the high notes: The Cull manages to take you to a hazy trip, typically the kind of atmosphere the band is known to nail. On top of that, the departure of wife-beater Walker was well compensated as the percussions are very groovy, yet not as good as anything on, eg, Prehistoricisms, and the keys addition work well, especially at the end of Check Your Misfortune. Overall, it's not a bad record by any means, but it's among the weakest Intronaut ever recorded. |
| Four Year Strong Brain Pain | 2.8 |
| Slaps, and it's surprising for an easycore band in 2020. It does not have the nostalgia factor that make me still enjoy Enemy of the World. Of course lots have changed, both for the young adolescent listeners that grew some facial hair and had to start feeding the machine, as well as for a band that always played, at least sonically, a sunny and carefree blend of pop punk and hardcore. Things have changed, yeah. If musically it's more or less in the same vein as their previous efforts , lyrically the band tackles adult matters, which is a welcome addition to their sometimes-edgy lyrics. But even this cringe is so deeply rooted into the band, so genuine, you can't help but have some sympathy for them. I had a good time, and that's all you could really expect from a Four Year Strong record. |
| Regarde Les Hommes Tomber Ascension | 3.8 |
| Nantais homies (oh yeah boiz eat tha galette) coming back again with their trademark atmoblack with sludgy tints. It's not as immediate as Exile or s/t, but the band still knows how to pull out nasty riffs. Back in 2013, they found their formula: an intro, a slapping first track, a whopping last one, and good riffs in the middle. Even though you could argue they're lacking originality by repeating this recipe, they know how make it work. However, I feel the album truly picks up with the fourth track, The Crowning, making this my least fave of them. Still top kwaliteit though, and a different beast than the first two; the most distinctive change is the singing: less "depressive" and much more raging, which on the one hand decreases the ominous atmosphere but brings a newfound violence. The album ends with these last four words: Regarde les hommes tomber, concluding the trilogy of one of the most exciting bands of the last decade. Plus did I tell you they're from Nantes? |
| Fausto Por este rio acima | 3.9 |
| Beautiful Portuguese Folk. I didn't understand shit, but this is the kind of album that you can enjoy by just letting the music speak. What is truly interesting here for a non-native speaker is how progressive and psychedelic the music can be, making it an ever-changing record that, although an hour and fifteen minutes long, never bores. An extremely good surprise, thanks 3D! |
| Marrasmieli Between Land And Sky | 3.2 |
| It's cool pagan bm, but I never was a huge fan of this type of folk black metal (always was more of a Agalloch boi, sorry garas). It's typically the kind of stuff I understand the appeal for, but can't enjoy as much as others. For example, I'm pretty sure peepz who enjoy this kind of bm like the flutes/violins/etc., but I usually find them cheesy and more annoying than anything. Nonetheless, these Finnish dudes managed to pull out a record I thoroughly liked despite my gripes on the genres. |
| Cult of Luna Cult of Luna (EP) | 3.7 |
| Take their first two albums, put in a rawer production, and there you go with 12 minutes of heavy sludgy riff. And even before their first album, they display this horrible Xbox 360 game-style artwork for the first time. One hell of an introduction, but make sure to listen to the OG version on youtube and not the polished remaster on Spotify. |
| Grimes Miss Anthropocene | 3.5 |
| As ethereal as we could expect, and less flowing than previous records: the tracks are more clearly separated and more distinctive too. This make a clear distinction between awesome tracks (Violence or Delete Forever for example) and really not good ones (Darkseid is shitty). At least this variety of sound is refreshing, as the album navigates between ethereal wave, guitar-led pop, 90s dnb, synthpop and dancey bops. Despite having a deliberate pop feeling, this is dark and minimalist af, and even the livelier tracks (4AM), while energetic, do not uplift the listener. What's also weird is how deconstructed the whole lot feels, especially given the time Boucher took to release this. Weird release day, but a good one for sure. |
| King Krule Man Alive! | 3.3 |
| Atmospheric art rock stuff. It's just, uuuuuuh, a long journey fusing post-punk, psych shit, jazz rock and ambient. There are no clear standouts because the album is truly constructed as one long flow. And that makes for an interesting record to analyze: the dude pours all his influences into one album, without letting any genre take over another one. All tracks have multiple influences and can't fit into a specific box. More importantly, it reveals itself after several listens: what seems obnoxious at first turns out to be obvious. However, one can't help but feel underwhelmed, as it takes quite an effort to plunge into it fully. Pedantic mofos might say good records require some effort, yet Wish You Were Here is as immediate as it is timeless. It's difficult, but rewarding to some degree: when it's beautiful, you stop everything you're doing to immerse into it fully. Shame the outcome is not totally on par with the effort made by the listener. Weird album made by a weird dude. |
| Danny Ocean 54+1 | 2.2 |
| Reggaeton, and it's not entirely shitty. I'm not as enthusiastic as Bedex, maybe because he told me it wasn't straight up radio reggaeton/latin pop, and even though it's true it has some qualities others do not have (no bad use of autotune, quite versatile instrumentation and tracks for the genre), I can't help but not enjoy this. Sorry bruv. |
| Noname Room 25 | 2.9 |
| Ngl, this is Telefone but a tad less, everything. I can't really come up with any true argument here: stylistically and lyrically, this is in the same vein as her first mixtape. She still delivers good bars, the beats are still very chill, but I'm not as hooked as I expected. Also, by trying to understand why I liked this less than Telefone, I realized I wasn't the only one not grasping why this is not as impacting. Eh. |
| Lightning Bolt Sonic Citadel | 3.8 |
| One of the finest noise rock records of the past decade. While almost all noise rock bands nowadays incorporate math rock and post-hardcore influences, there still is room to differentiate yourself. Whereas You Won't Get What You Want went for the cold, mechanical and monochromatic, Fetch for the quirky and even the bizarre, Schlagenheim for the post-punk influences, Lightning Bolt delivers the most energetic and bombastic recent record of its genre. The cover art is particularly fitting: it's colourful, simplistic, yet realized with such a combination of application and devil-may-care it's simply impossible to not like it. Flex yo muscles, and be prepared to sweat 'cause it's about to get maniac. |
| Mirrorring Foreign Body | 3.6 |
| Oh Liz, you're with the saddest boy in the hills. Once again we are granted with contemplative and introspective ambient folk a la Liz, and here it's the more reflective and less straight up folk tracks that work the best. That's no surprise: Liz Harris has for long been known as a master of the ethereal and mysterious. Even though she knows how to twinkle tha gueethar, the instrument always steps aside, so it lets shine what's truly the focus: the background itself. It's not the most beautiful background music she's offered us, yet one can't help but drown in it. |
| I Hate Models The Lost Tapes | 3.7 |
| As Bedex said (gonna use aBs for the rest of the soundoff) , it's one of his best EPs, and it might his best constructed one. Cathodic Soul is like that part in Space Mountain when you wait before exploding through space and time, Love or Die Theme brings cool vocals that, aBs, could have truly exploded to make a more lasting impact. Murder on VHS shows less promises than the precedent track, but at least nobody's disappointed at the end of it. Finally, Glitch lets go aBs of the synths to pounce at you, Berlin-style. Very cool shit. |
| Wire Mind Hive | 2.4 |
| Average for post-punk standards, bad for Wire standards. Cactused and Oklahoma were the only tracks that managed to crawl their way into my mind after 2 listens, and these weren't even that good. Eh, would be good to listen to if you're insomniac. |
| Salut C'est Cool Sur le thème des grandes découvertes | 3.0 |
| Some say it's dumb. Some say its post-modernist. I say this is fun shit to mindlessly jump to. Trance/techno French band mixing absurd lyrics with bouncy techno. Their biggest hit, Techno toujours pareil, is the best representation of their sound: it makes you wanna jump, and the lyrics are, depending on your vision of the world, absolutely ridiculous and shitty or incredibly clever: "Techno, always the same, boom boom in my ears. Crackhead music, no message, that's normal, we got nothing to say". It's their lengthiest album, and also the first one where they let go of "silly" (for them) noisy tracks. However, more than 1 hour of festival techno work better when you're intoxicated during a Belgian summer than sitting at work listening to the album. In conclusion, it's dumb techno trance for shrooms lovers, but their absurd lyrics and high energy live shows cemented their place as one of the most important festival bands, both in France and Belgium (hell, they closed each fucking night of the 2016 Dour festival), and even managed to appeal to people who do not listen to techno at all. Salut C'est Cool, c'est cool. |
| Noname Telefone | 3.6 |
| Chill, lofi, abstract and neo-soul influenced jazz rap (that's a longass descriptor eh?). You got a cold? Listen to this 'cause it's soothing and warm (worst analogy i could come up with). What is very interesting is how unique this sounds given how her different influences are already super known and worshiped: lofi hip hop has been booming these days with that weeb girl on YT who's always studying (thx again Jun), neo-soul influences in rap are more common than ever (for example, Sunny Duet intro sounds like a D'Angelo tune), and I don't need to tell you for how long a certain portion of rap has been conscious. But even though NoName was preceded by other people putting some introspection in their lyrics, hers are smart and most importantly poetic, sounding like slam poetry at times, and instantly make her stand out of the crowd of conscious rap. Finally, her delivery oscillates between soulful and playful, and do the job in conveying the emotions the lyrics talk so well about. However, I'd say it's good this is only 33 minutes long, as I feel her sound is altogether not as diverse to go on for 40+ minutes. This uniform soundscape helps bring the chillness, but it also brings an overall monotony. This still is a great lil Spring jam. |
| Psychotic Waltz The God-Shaped Void | 2.6 |
| Dark atmospheric prog metalz with some doomy riffs and that kind of clean prog vocal performance you either love or hate. It's not a bad album, but I've personally hit the point where overproduced modern prog metal just don't do it anymore. There are tasty solis, nice groovy parts here and there but overall the melodies did not engage me that much. The pan flute solis were cool though. If you're into prog metal, then ofc go for it with an open mind and you'll most likely enjoy this. For me though, this is mixed feelings embodied. |
| Georgie Sweet Here | 4.0 |
| ALL ABOARD THE HYPE TRAIN! Listen to this with your s/o on this sexy day. rhttps://futuristicamusic.bandcamp.com/album/here |
| Kvelertak Splid | 2.7 |
| That first track had me hyped with that slow rise. Then, I was hit by a hard rock-influenced feeble copy of Meir. Some solis are cool, as well as some riffs here and there, for example Rogaland, Necrosoft, Discord, and kinda the run from track 8 to 10. That "kinda" is what ruins the album for me: almost every track is filled with at least one cool and one bad moment, and the songs not hindered by less-than-average parts do not have a significant impact. But, more importantly, what made me love Kvelertak in the first place is how effortlessly they could mix black metal evilness, hardcore punk fury and hard rock swagger. Even though each of these three subgenres still is present in this album, this is less evil, less furious, and less anthemic than Kvelertak or Meir. I can't really explain why I like what I like. All I can say is that I think they can't explain either why and how they lost what made them so exciting in the first place. I'm supposed to headbang, yet I barely tap my foot. I would love to argue it's all because the former lead singer left, but this album is plagued by the same problems Nattesferd had: compared to the band's first two albums, it's mostly uninspired, uninventive, and uneventful (and yeah the new singer does not have the same intensity Erlend had). On its own, it's not a bad record. But almost each track here is a lesser version of another track in their catalog. As the new Tame Impala record, very little sticks. |
| Tame Impala The Slow Rush | 2.7 |
| As if The Bee Gees were reincarnated in the 2020s and they asked Daft Punk to produce their comeback album. It's a slick hour of music, that's for sure, but, even compared to how mixed Currents was received (at least on here), it lacks these era-defining bangers that were Let It Happen and The Less I Know the Better. If you want to go full pop, make sure you have banger songs with anthemic choruses. Some tracks almost accomplish this (Lost in Yesterday, It Might Be Time, the first half of One More Hour), but lack that 'ooomf yeah gon shake tha fatass' factor that made the two aforementioned tracks the anthems they are now. It's striking how safe and monotonous this is given how the other truly interesting track, Posthumous Forgiveness, stands out much more because of its lyrical content rather than how good it is musically. In all honesty, it might be the perfect album for your next chill party: it's fashionable and goes well in the background. However, when you start truly paying attention, you realize it's mostly void of any density: the songs start sliding into one giant bowl of effects that sound good but always fail to embark you on Kevin's journey. You ever tried throwing gum at a wall? It sticks. This album doesn't. |
| Fazerdaze Morningside | 3.7 |
| Man why isn't the summer there yet? Can't decently jam these happy tunes in February. Typically the kind of breezy pop to jam with your cool friends on a sunny and lazy day with beers and weed. However, I have the same problem with this album as with Alvvays: there are some parts that do sound samey, mainly the more laid back tunes (eg Shoulder) but the record is short enough for it not to be a major issue. And the parts that stand out truly shine (Lucky Girl, Friends). Female-fronted dream pop was a great 2010s subgenre innit? |
| Thy Catafalque Naiv | 3.3 |
| Interesting record, because it succeeds at fusing so many genres without sounding random or disconnected. Basically, it's progressive metal. But they also throw in black metal, Berlin-school progressive electronic, and some folky tunes (which are apparently Hungarian, garas?), the best example of this versatility is the second track, Tsitsushka. Objectively, this is an excellent album, but I feel like my appreciation comes more from how well it blends so many genres without going awry rather than for how enjoyed I am while listening to it. |
| Spanish Love Songs Brave Faces Everyone | 3.1 |
| Good emo/punk rock/pop punk making a big 'upbeat-yet-sad' mash of the biggest bands of the scene's last decade: The Menzingers, The Wonder Years, The Smith Street Band and the likes. I can still appreciate such music, but all the new pop punk/emo albums I've listened to these days feel nothing but attempts at bringing me back to the days where uni was the beginning of a new chapter. Is it safe to say I've outgrown the genre? I don't know, but I've realized no recent album can make me feel like the bands and albums I loved around 2012. That's life. I'll jam On the Impossible Past, Enemy of the World and The Greatest Generation once again. |
| A.A.L. (Against All Logic) Illusions of Shameless Abundance | 3.0 |
| Kinda understand why these tracks are left off the album. Not bad, but neither as groovy or as mechanically cold as the LP is. Here, the two tracks are more UK Bass than Tech House/Industrial Techno, and while artistically there's nothing wrong about this choice, the tracks do no have the same impact on my ass (ie: it's not shaking). Basically this is to 2017-2019 what The Afterlifew as to Trust in the Lifeforce...: a nice addition for the fans, but nothing mindblowing or gamechanging whatsoever. |
| Envy The Fallen Crimson | 4.3 |
| Their best output since Abyssal. While the two previous outputs sometimes fell flat because of their generic use of post-rock, the balance between post-rock and screamo has been more worked on here, as the violent bursts of screamo and post-hardcore are pounding much harder in comparison with their precedent records. A good example of that is the way Rhythm flows into Marginalized Thread, and how the former's beauty helps highlighting the latter's crushing sadness. Speaking of Marginalized Thread, it's absolutely remarkable the band decided to entirely redo the Alnair in August singles. A band so willing to offer their fans the best possible version of themselves is actually a rare thing, and this kind of attitude is one of the reason why Envy are so fucking loved. Going back to how the album sounds like, as often with good skramz, the experience is as uplifting as it is depressing, and the band hadn't combine the two so well since Insomniac Doze. It even puts to shame all the recent third-wave post-rock and is more chaotic than what we've been used to with them. The best of screamo mixed with the best of post-rock makes for the best of both world. Some things are eternal, Envy is one of them. |
| A.A.L. (Against All Logic) 2017-2019 | 3.5 |
| 2012-2017 was the upbeat, funky and boastful side of a night out, and now 2017-2019 underlies said night's darker and more mechanical/industrial tones. If Jaar was first known for his microhouse endeavours, AAL was a way for him to make peepz dance to his groovy tunes. On this new compilation, he finally brings his two worlds together, and offers dancy yet futuristic and mechanical bangers. And while the previous compilation was presented to us as, well, a compilation full of singles and no real connection between the tracks, the way this album is constructed feels much more deliberate. Each track complements the precedent and helps build up the next one. A perfect bridge between Jaar's first microhouse love and his AAL deep house culture. |
| Denzel Curry and Kenny Beats Unlocked | 3.8 |
| Short but sweet collab. 'Zel is as always bringing the energy up to 11 and delivers solid bars, even though it's sometimes corny (ain't nobody wanna hear 'bout yo dick man). On the other hand, Kenny does his best 2004 Madlib impersonation without being a feeble copycat. Almost a shame it ends so abruptly, a full-length project between these two could have resulted in one of the coolest 2020 LPs. |
| Loathe I Let It In And It Took Everything | 2.6 |
| Hey kid, d'you like Deftones? Our music is divided into two parts: the random ones where our singer will sound like a sick (ie: sick in the sense of ill, not dope) Chino, and the other random chuggy mcchugface ones written by the guy who found Car Bomb unused material. Quitting that ragemode, no part is truly bad, but they each feel completely independent and not connected at all to each other. |
| Squarepusher Be Up a Hello | 2.3 |
| Drill'n'bass, acid techno and some breakbeatz, so, uhm, basically, Syro part 2, but less interesting, messier and much much much more annoying than the OG. While there's nothing wrong at not reinventing the wheel, this is typically the kind of record I listen to while thinking about other records I would rather listen to. Idk how to better put this, but it does not sound like a 2020 release, but more like that one revered record from the 90s you don't really understand the appeal for. Eh. |
| Swing ALT F4 | 3.1 |
| Then again, more singing and less rapping. He always had that more poppy side, but it was nicely blended with his soul influences and bars. This is still the case, but the biggest change is his voice: while some prefer this tone of voice, he sounds less versatile and more suitable to the greater taste (eg his feat with Angele, the new Belgian darling, where his falsetto voice fits when in unison with Angele but falls flat when alone). While American rappers have successfully ventured from hip hop to more poppy and soulful territories, French-speaking ones still struggle finding the perfect balance between the two worlds (exception: Lomepal). That's frustrating, because Marabout, his first EP, was a fantastic first incursion into this type of sound. And that's the main problem here: even though it's still quality content, nicely produced and with good lyrics, I can't help but feel disappointed when comparing this to the first EP. Maybe it's because of the darker overtones this EP has compared to the rather chill atmosphere of the first one. Or because I really like his bars and I feel like their drastic reduction make him lose a bit of himself. But this would be unfair to Swing, who takes his time to deliver above-average and intelligent muffled hip hop. Either way, we got another Brusseleir homie dropping an interesting project which, although it won't be a big success (beware of the Angele effect though), will continue cementing the city as a now important place to take into account when talking about French-speaking hip hop. |
| Isha La Vie Augmente 3 | 2.7 |
| Tha Brusseleir homie droppin' another hard-hitting record. It seems like he's trying to get away from his previous 'lauded-by-the-critics-yet-not-very-famous' status: some tracks feature more popular rappers (Green Montana, PLK, Dinos), even though these rappers are not Nekfeu or Jul. Beats-wise, it's the same observation: even if there remains some of his harder beats, overall it's more commercial. No problem with this artistic choice, but I think he could have gone deeper into that direction. It's a good album, but there's no club bangers and the introspection he's displaying is not as profound as other rappers' (eg Jeanjass, Belgium's chillest dude). Once again, critics will be ok to good, some people will listen to him, he will be able to buy himself some food at the end of the month, but he won't break the rap game. Shame, I hope one day he'll move beyond that point. Good example of that, Dinos, a French bro, pulled out the best Belgian punchline of the record (Tu tires a cote comme Lukaku). |
| Green Day Father of All Motherfuckers | 1.5 |
| rofl it sounds like the worst Black Keys cover band ever being mixed by the one guy who just discovered production and likes The Strokes too much for his own sake. 1.6 |
| Destroyer Have We Met | 2.9 |
| Adult contemporary in 2020. The good cuts are particularly tasty (eg the first two tracks), but the more ambient ones are not as fascinating as his previous marvelous efforts (lookin' at u Kaputt). Since the less upbeat tracks make up the bulk of the record, the record is not exactly engaging, and the chillness that these songs could have brought falls flat at times (Have We Met). Dan's sense of melody is still top notch, so even though it does not make for an amazing album, it sure is a nice ride. |
| Sons of Kemet Your Queen Is a Reptile | 4.1 |
| Super energetic and funky tuba-led Afro-Jazz. If the tuba is the big deal here (think of it as a wind bass), Shabaka always come up with groovy sax lines, and the two percussionists acutely provide tribal rhythms. This juxtaposition of instruments leads to an infectious polyphony of sounds and voices. The London jazz scene is pretty much the shit these days, and having in Shabaka an artist present in many recent jazz darlings (eg The Comet Is Coming) only help cementing the city as a frontrunner. The furtive yet deeply rooted racial commentaries ("heyo Elizabeth you but a snake and you don't represent neither our people nor our culture") helps making this a true Afro-Jazz record, one that understood both its British colonialist monarchy and jazz's zeitgeist. |
| Napalm Death Logic Ravaged By Brute Force | 3.2 |
| First track is not surprising by any means. Kinda average ND, but it still does the job at making you socialistically headbang. Second track is a Sonic Youth cover, and boy, this one is surprising. Using SY's songwriting and urgency and translate it into a deathgrind pounder proves once again Napalm Death is a band to count on after more than 30 years of ripping your face off. |
| Fire! Orchestra Arrival | 4.2 |
| Big band focusing on strings, clarinets, and these sweet, sweet voices. This sentence does not do justice to this band, as I cannot stress enough how original this is. Each instrument feels alive: the saxophone barks, the strings creak, and the clarinet caterwauls. Yet, this bestiality does not produce a confusing and abrasive record: spirituality controls everything, as the more chilled moments take care of offsetting the cryptic improv parts. Some albums are described as creatures. This one truly breathes, yells, cries, and smiles. A unique play on how voices and instruments can intertwine, there almost lies a mythic way of creating soundscapes and delivering unsettling yet epic jazz. This is a work of art whose sole purpose is to stray as far away as possible from jazz without the listener ever doubting that it is not jazz. |
| Thangorodrim The Darkening of Valinor | 3.7 |
| Clearly Thangorodrim's most wintery output, and quite possibly his strongest and most diverse record. The atmosphere is simply captivating, fusing, as garas said, winter and LOTR synth so well it immediately made me think of a colder Depressive Silence. The distant black metal shrieks add an epic Burzum layer, and we are even granted with a small Hobbit flute moment, making this lost gem a must-listen in terms of dungeon synth. However, even though most of this is gorgeous, I found some moments to be of lesser quality (especially the middle part of the record). I can't believe this dude comes from Arizona though. |
| Belong Same Places | 4.1 |
| One word: t e x t u r e, and what a beautiful one. It's merely a wave coming back and forth for 15 minutes. As a wave made of water, this wave made of drone is both powerful and graceful, massive yet subtle. The Disintegration Loops if William decided to add some Loveless to his loopy tapes. |
| The Comet Is Coming The Afterlife | 3.1 |
| If their 2019 album Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery felt at times too bloated and too full, I hope you're still hungry: The Comet Is Coming is coming (lol) with the leftovers. Without denying these tracks' quality, I can't help but feel they simply didn't fit in the album - mainly because it's much dreamier and less saxier - and were thus released later as an EP. Good spacey jazz fusion, but I'd recommend to listen to the album first. |
| Moon Tooth Crux | 3.0 |
| Generic alt rock/metal with some proggy and sometimes chuggy instrumentation, and the singer sounds like a tired Greg Puciato. Thus it's typically the kind of music that should tickle one ball without shaking the other one, but as my dedebro said, some parts are really cool and fun to jam. |
| Prurient Frozen Niagara Falls | 4.1 |
| Everything related to noise music can be found here. As always with this kind of music, what makes it stand out is how tragically beautiful it sounds. Whether it's the dungeon synthy nods (Myth of Burning Bridges), the Body-like, black metal screams-led power electronics and frenzied harsh noise bits or the surprising electroacoustic (Greenpoint and the massive closer Christ Among the Broken Glass), what remains here is not a particular anger but rather how brutally desperate the whole lot feels. Every harsh track is immediately counterbalanced with long textured ambient passages, showcasing how calm raises out of chaos, and how our deepest regrets always are due to the most monstrous version of ourselves. |
| Colour Haze We Are | 3.3 |
| The German stoner/psych kings come back with an ok stoner/psych album. The production is fuzzy as expected, the musicians' performance too, but not much here gets off the beaten tracks, and it's a shame as the more adventurous tracks immediately stand out. It's a good 420 record, as some cuts here do the job very well (eg The Real, Freude III) but there's better and more engaging stoner records out there (eg: their s/t). Nevertheless, I'm a sucker for such a genre. The National Geographic cover is as ugly as my ass tho. |
| Celer Panoramic Dreams Bathed In Seldomness | 4.0 |
| Soothing ambient using drones and weird chops to break the beautiful textures. However, when the chop bits allow the ambient to rise and shine, it's as beautiful as a sunrise. Music to be lost in. |
| Amulets False Horizon | 3.6 |
| Bleak and rough drone leaning towards the noisier end of the genre (no ambient here boyz). What else could you say about a drone record? No wonder there's so few drone-specialized music journalists. |
| Wolves in the Throne Room Malevolent Grain | 3.2 |
| One EP to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them. The first track is WitTR before 2009: deeply atmospheric and includes female vocals. However, what constitutes a true change in sound is the total absence of harsh vocals during that first song, which imo would have brought a counterbalance to the female clean vocals. The second track is in the same vein as Black Cascade: less eerie and focusing on blasting hard, atmoblack style. For a 24-minute EP, this is sufficiently diversified and it remains an interesting synthesis of the band's trajectory, but I will always consider this as more interesting contextually than it is musically. |
| Wolves in the Throne Room Black Cascade | 3.1 |
| Basically they drastically lower the amount of ambient and folky passages on this one. It thus sounds much less unique, as it can be compared to the hordes of atmoblack records released in the past 25 years. While there are some moving moments (the added synths during track 2 almost matches their first two records' atmosphere), this lost the personality the band showcased with Diadem and Two Hunters. If some might dig this more aggressive approach, the loss of ambient passages and folkier touches contribute to a more traditional black metal. Even though it's by no means bad, such a genre has already known its fair share of interesting records for this one to be no more than a good addition to one's collection. |
| Wolves in the Throne Room Diadem of 12 Stars | 4.0 |
| That cover is so reminiscent of Twin Peaks. Shame nobody in that town jammed some Cascadian black metal: Wolves in the Throne Room's music would have been fitting to the misty and surrounded by nature Washington town. Preceding Alcest's blackgaze experimentation, this is one of the first attempt at mixing black metal with some crescendocore tropes. There also are folkier touches a la Ulver, reinforcing this close-to-nature atmosphere. The sound is not as distinctive as their further album Two Hunters will be, but this picks up where Weakling left off six years earlier, and is a good way to understand how black metal went from Burzum to Alcest. |
| Frances Quinlan Likewise | 2.5 |
| Not bad, but dull. There's just not much goin' on here, as the songs are forgettable apart from the rawer cuts (Went to LA, Lean). Makes me wanna jam Hop Along hard, and it also makes me realize how well Frances fits within the band, with the playful guitar playing and the dynamics. This doesn't work so well. |
| Blood Incantation Interdimensional Extinction | 3.5 |
| Short and sweet introduction to the band. It's a trve prep: the psych elements are already present, as well as the space tropes (and even the straightforward start of the record, now a trademark). Ofc this does not reinvent the wheel and it's weaker than their two LPs, but it's still a slappin' and quite groovy dm record for peepz craving for some riffs. |
| Wolves in the Throne Room Two Hunters | 4.4 |
| Cascadian black metal embodied or; one of the most natural-sounding record of the black metal spectrum. The most impressive feature here is the production; even though all three musicians display a devilish use of their instruments, it's never at the expense of the atmosphere. It's as if the ambient moments are too beautiful compared to the ugliness of the tremolo parts. The overall soundscape oscillates between parts so violent they feel destructive, and others so pure they should become the symbol of birth. This duality represents the band's philosophy: to start a whole new world, you first need to destroy the one already in place. Deeply rooted in its home region, the band unleashes a wild and primal brand of atmoblack to create a mystic space that HHH still tries to replicate. Maybe transcendental black metal isn't what we thought it was. |
| The Contortionist Exoplanet (Redux) | 3.4 |
| Bass up + synths = cool shit for sure, but I feel it's at the expense of the vocals and guitars. It feels compressed, and I'm not a big compression fan. Touche Amore ruined Dead Horse, Converge magnified You Fail Me, and this one (along with Cynic's Traced in Air) falls into the "hey it's good, but I prefer the original" category. |
| Chaucerian Myth Sir Orfeo | 3.0 |
| As garas said, it's more relying on classical music than his previous works. That allows this LP to sound less like a NES-ripoff and more like the music the blokes in Guerande were actually listening to. The longest track, The Tale of Sir Orfeo particularly feels like classical music, as the song is divided into several movements. However, if the composition aspect sure is improved, I wouldn't say it's for the better as the last two installments of the Chaucerian Legends trilogy were both more engaging in my opinion. Overall, it's another solid addition to the burgeoning dungeon synth movement. |
| Bruno Pernadas How Can We Be Joyful in a World Full of Knowledge? | 3.6 |
| Lovely tunes ranging from jazz fusion to latin percussion-led loungey melodies to calm ambient, all having a spacey knack. It's lush, it's well composed, it's chill, it's sweet. All you gotta do now is wait for a warm and quiet Summer evening to put this on. |
| Mac Miller Circles | 3.5 |
| First time listening to Mac. Given its posthumous characteristics, it feels more complete than expected (Gang Starr still pulled (one of) the best posthumous record of the last decade). It's not exactly the kind of music I thoroughly enjoy, but this is some well-done, beautiful at times, soulful neo-soul with some pop rap doses and folky vibes. A calm record (even if at times subdued, and losing its steam over several listens) as if he finally was at peace. RIP. |
| Madlib and Oh No The Professionals | 3.2 |
| Solid brothers record, but nothing tremendous: no clear hits or highlights, but no bad track either. Madlib's beats are good but not on par with his best ones; same can be said of Oh No's rapping. However, this is still cool shit for sure, smooth and kinda abstract at times, the features add variety to the whole, even though I feel the record only truly picks up with "Buggin". |
| Caspian On Circles | 3.5 |
| Caspian caspianing once again with bold and cinematic post-rock. Not reinventing the wheel in any way (third wave post-rock ftw), but a super engaging listen nonetheless. The Kyle Durfey incorporation is nice but it still sounds like a late-record PBTT, and while it sure is pretty and brings variety, it doesn't reach the other tracks' level of engagement. Overall, this might be less magnificent than Dust and Disquiet, but the riffy guitars and the atmospheric depth throughout all the record shows once again Caspian is one of the most consistent crescendocore bands out there. |
| Novelists C'est La Vie | 2.7 |
| It does slap. As always with this kind of proggy'n'djenty metalcore, the guitar work is tremendous (these spacey leads) and might be good to hit the gym if I actually moved my fat ass. However, it suffers from the usual problems these kinds of records have: the cleans are not incredible (they're not completely bad though) and we can't say we're facing a super original album. It's cool stuff to headbang to, but I'd rather jam other records (i'll get back to you Exoplanet). |
| Eminem Music to Be Murdered By | 2.1 |
| Seems like he's trying really hard not to be relevant at all anymore. |
| Hayley Mary The Piss, The Perfume | 3.2 |
| Cool EP. Ofc it's no Prisoner or Synthia, but rather an almost-mainstream pop rock record, like I used to listen to when I was a kid. |
| SUMAC What One Becomes | 3.7 |
| Ballou-produced primal sludge, so it's heavy. Like, really really heavy, even though this thiccness is balanced with a lot of dynamic switches and an overall gripping atmosphere. This makes for a quite diverse release: pounding sludge is always cool, but it's better when the tempo is seamlessly flowing and when the hammer is not relentlessly coming at your skull. However, I found some ideas underdeveloped (that faster riff at the beginning of Blackout II should have lasted 3 more minutes) and it created a bit of frustration as those parts usually were my favourites. Great sludge nonetheless. |
| Black Flag Nervous Breakdown | 4.5 |
| Loved it when I discovered it way back then, still love it now, and it's way catchier than I remember. To be hardcore is quite easy in fact: don't use any pedals but play angry short riffs as loud as fucking possible. As short as it is essential. |
| Nepal (FR) Adios Bahamas | 3.0 |
| RIP |
| Ichiko Aoba amuletum bouquet | 4.0 |
| Peaceful'n'beautiful lil EP. Two tracks to jam when you wanna be calm. |
| Ghost (SWE) Seven Inches Of Satanic Panic | 3.2 |
| Ghost doin' what they've always done, in the best possible way. Fun tracks showing again they're the coolest "grand public" metal band 'round here. Second track is kinda lame, but the first bangs one asses. |
| Black Tambourine Throw Aggi Off The Bridge | 3.6 |
| Lo-fi American shoegaze sounding like a Wall of Sound 60s girl band. The coolest element here is the bass, which is almost menacing. Good twee pop. |
| t e l e p a t h ???????? ç¾å®Ÿã‚’超ãˆã¦ | 3.7 |
| phaser city, baby. Walking mindlessly through that blue cybercity. This one stands out as one of my favourite downtempo-based vaporwave releases, giving it a very hypnagogic atmosphere. The kind of record that reminds you of stuff you didn't even experience. 2 8 1 4's Atarashii just found its competition. |
| Bring Me the Horizon Music to Listen to... | 1.0 |
| big fat nah |
| Macintosh Plus Sick and Panic | 2.4 |
| Glitchswamp. Post-vaporwave. Kanye West as the President of the USA. Choppin' and screwin' and deconstructin' and even brosteppin' at times. Bitch. BITCH. If this soundoff is too erratic for you, don't listen to this. |
| Liturgy H.A.Q.Q. | 3.7 |
| When you're a pretentious prick and want to revolutionise one of the most revered underground genre, you'd better come up with above above-average results to not be laughed at. Triple H finally accomplishes this feature with Liturgy's new record. Even though this album is more interesting than it is beautiful, I feel he's perfected what Liturgy is about in a short 45 minutes output (instead of bloated 65 minutes bores that were the previous ones). For example, adding bells, glockenspiels and other so-not-bm instruments is a more than welcome touch, as it helps providing a unique dynamic (the same can be said about the glitches and modern classical additions). It's still pretentious music for nerds who can't even feel when they're pissing, but it's good pretentious music. Of course some parts are obnoxious, such as the "EXACO" piano totalists tracks (HHH couldn't deliver a run-of-the-mill tremolocore album) but as a whole it's much more coherent than what we've been granted with Liturgy's previous records. At least the gatekeepers won't shit on this one and won't entirely disagree with the pedantic journalists praising it as a masterpiece revolutionizing the genre. They won't be as hyperbolic, but at the very least Liturgy will not be mocked this time. |
| Desolate (DE) Exceptionalism | 3.7 |
| An excellent ambient gem. It's clearly not as bleak as the cover implies (sometimes even made me think of a not-boring Tycho), as we are granted with some refined atmospheric and ethereal garage a la Burial. The kind of ambient to listen to when it's raining outside. |
| Weeping Sores False Confession | 3.8 |
| Violin-led death doom metal, and man aren't these violinz gorgeous. A violin truly is a good idea here as it is mostly displayed during calmer and more atmospheric passages. The heavy parts per se, even though well-executed and bringing the riffz, pale in comparison with these violin-driven sections: it becomes quite easy to divide the record into three distinctive parts: the ones with the Mozart stuff (very solid), the ones with beauty clean riffs but no more Wolfgang (slayz m/), and the br00tal ones whose sole purpose is to pound you (good but eh, heard it all before). This is mere nitpicking though, as the album flows extremely well and has a clear distinctive edge over other death doom bands (spoiler: the edge is the violin). An enjoyable record, headbang guaranteed. |
| Envy The Definition of Impossibility | 3.7 |
| I listened to it with Bedex and we basically agree but I like it a bit less than him. Edit: that intro played at 33rpm instead of 45 is extremely chill (for an Envy record ofc). |
| Nmesh Dream Sequins | 3.8 |
| Exploring the further regions of experience. This is like a huge sample cumshot. Everything that could be sampled, chopped and then screwed was indeed sampled, chopped and then screwed. That Floral Shoppe's Fantano interview was not necessary though, but it nevertheless showcases how barrier-free Nmesh wanted to work, resulting in an abrasive and for sure more challenging sound and A E S T H E T I C than most vaporwave. In the end, it's less funky and boastful than Floral Shoppe, less eerie than the split album with HKE, and less influential than Eccojams, but it proudly stands as one of the most interesting vaporwave releases I've encountered. In a genre in which the ideation overweighs the execution, Dream Sequins is an outlier. |
| t e l e p a t h ???????? 一緒ã«åˆ¥ã®å¤œ | 3.6 |
| Eerie and hazy ambient. It's quite dense (the two tracks are 45 minutes long), but it's so deep you'll fall into it. One of the D R E A M I E S T records I've encountered lately. Only caveat is that, even though it's pretty, there aren't enough variations to my taste. An album to daydream to. |
| Black Matter Device Modern Frenetics | 3.9 |
| Hey tis some wild shit. As dense and manic as mathcore can get - without being abstruse - but with some noisy passages to finish the job the guitars, bass, and drums started. They also slightly soften their overall sound with these (not badly sung but can't say it's good) cleans. Forget Car Bomb and listen to this instead. |
| Saint Pepsi Hit Vibes | 4.1 |
| It's Saint Pepsi B I T C H. This is the tits, a smooth fun future funk record. Gaddaym I'm pumped up now. |
| Telepath and Hong Kong Express 愛慕 ï¼ æ‚²å“€ | 3.6 |
| Really interesting, as each tracks display a slightly distinct vibe (but boy that "slightly" do add a lot of variety to the record). Nothing revolutionary 'round here, but it's beautiful. Coming straight outta 2814. |
| Nmesh and t e l e p a t h ???????? ãƒã‚¹ãƒˆã‚¨ãƒ‡ãƒ³ã¸ã®ãƒ‘ス | 3.6 |
| Great stuff, but it's more ambient and less vaporwave than what I expected. Nmesh's side is cool vaporwavey tribal ambient with some rainforests sound collages. These rainforest bits are also the only true link between Nmesh and telepath here, as the album is simply divided in two parts, and none of the dudes participate in the other's half: that's a pity for a split album. This leads us to telepath's half, on which the distinction between vaporwave and ambient is more pronounced. This feels like Nmesh's side was the journey leading to a hidden place. While Nmesh created a cool ominous vibe, here we are granted with a mellower brand of ambient, with more hints at vaporwave than Nmesh. I do find the first half better than the first one, but maybe it's because telepath's part comes in after an hour of ambient music. Nevertheless, this is a cool trippy album. It's 2h long so it's a tad long, but it almost never truly drags. |
| Curve Doppelganger | 4.2 |
| Just discovered this while reading a shoegaze book. Sexy industrial pop and shoegaze should never have worked so well. |
| Fen Epoch | 2.4 |
| Yawn. Not very original, not very interesting. This is redundancy embodied. |
| Burial Tunes 2011 to 2019 | 4.2 |
| Hugeass. The main problem here is we already know what's good and what's not. The Kindred, Rival Dealer, Street Halo and Truant/Rough Sleeper cuts are all amazing, while the bulk of the first half is bwergf ambient or weak garage. However, even if some tracks are less engaging than others, the comp still manages to flow pretty easily. 2h30 and I'm not bored, gg William. |
| Burial Street Halo | 3.7 |
| t/t sounds like a stripped-down Untrue b-sides. However, Stolen Dog was and still remains one of my favourite Burial tune, and NYC/And I See is pretty standard Burial, but it always does the job. |
| Burial Claustro/State Forest | 2.6 |
| State Forest is quite cool, even though a tad underwhelming imo, while Claustro is then again interesting for 20 seconds and then it starts getting annoying. |
| Burial Young Death/Nightmarket | 2.5 |
| The Nightmarket's synthwavey bits are quite nice to hear coming from Burial, but it's clearly not the most engaging synthwave we've been granted. Young Death has a interesting haunting mood for the first few seconds, but then nothing is developed during the rest of the track. At least it's better than Subtemple/Beachfires. |
| Burial Subtemple/Beachfires | 2.0 |
| Half-assed ambient with neither soul nor heart. The only kinda interesting thing here is these cracks and the classic Burial voices during Subtemple, and he's already done before that in a better way. |
| Cara Neir Part III / Part IV | 4.1 |
| Blackened skramz was ofc gonna please me. They also have a crusty touch that reminds me of Alpinist. But as always, what makes this genre so powerful are these delicate arpeggios on top of the overall pounding sound. The electronic-ish interludes add a breath of air throughout the record too. Good screamo year. |
| Fief V | 3.5 |
| Peaceful and comfy af, as this is the most medieval folk we ever witnessed Fief. Sweet lil album, nothing mindblowing imo but a good ride to the Carmina Burana era. |
| Hajduk Свобода | 3.4 |
| Cool bm again. The raw parts are best achieved than in the red EP, and even if the second track is especially punitive in its violence, it's still missing these ambient'n'folk touches imo. |
| Orville Peck Pony | 3.6 |
| Is gothic country a thing? This sounds like it, with a nice 80s knack (ie: sometimes it sounds like post-punk or the True Detective theme). I'm not familiar with country at all (old continent y'know), but this is cool. I think the overall sound and aesthetic is kind of wearing off throughout the record (then again, maybe because I'm a country noob), but the album is short enough for it not being a problem. |
| Abigail Williams Walk Beyond The Dark | 2.7 |
| Finally listened to this. It's ok, but nothing here stands out to me. I saw a YT video about Beksinski and the cover made me think of it. Not bad by any means, but I'd rather listen to any other bm band I know. |
| Fen Dustwalker | 3.1 |
| It's good atmoblack. It's not a genre-defining record, it's not even the best Fen, but it's a good metal album for the diggers. I liked the rawer sound of Wolf Sun. |
| Vi Som Alskade Varandra Sa Mycket Den sorgligaste musiken i varlden | 3.8 |
| European skramz is always good. Kinda formulaic but the genre is beautiful enough to stay that way. |
| Lil Ugly Mane Playaz Circle | 3.1 |
| It's cool. It clearly is a prep for Mista Thug Isolation, with less atmosphere but more tongue-in-cheek lyrics (he doesn't seem depressed yet). Very good for a first mixtape, but apart from being his first output, nothing makes this stand out. |
| death's dynamic shroud I'll Try Living Like This | 3.5 |
| This is pretty mad. Is vaporwave a mere psychedelic plunderphonics with some slowed-down 80s vocals? Not always, but this one sounds like it from time to time. Given how glitchy and, dare I say, abrasive the record is, it's almost amazing how comfortable this sounds. However, I feel this mix of glitch and chill could have been more well-done (as in: it sometimes feels as if there were two DJs producing, and they were waiting for the other to finish his/her part): when the two smash together though, it bangs. It's a tad too long too, mainly due to the repetition, which is kinda inherent in the genre. Respect nonetheless, it's a banger album. |
| Hajduk Кръв | 3.0 |
| Much rawer and lo-fi than the green EP (won't even try to write it in Cyrillic), but that harshness does not compensate for these European folk and Burzum ambient losses (even though the last track is an ambient one, but it's only 2min long). Good bm but nothing mindblowing. |
| James Ferraro Far Side Virtual | 2.2 |
| Not good Nintendo Wii ripoffs. Sounds like when Shigeru Miyamoto tried to be Coltrane at the 2008 E3. |
| Chuck Person Chuck Person's Eccojams Vol. 1 | 3.7 |
| Trippy vaporwave precursor. While it sounds good while it lasts, I couldn't truly remember any jam once it was finished, and these chopped'n'screwed 80s adult contemporary bangers can get tiresome at some point. Take LSD. One interesting take I saw on YT said: "This is exactly how real songs play in my head sometimes. One part gets stuck and loops endlessly. Sometimes for days. I think this is what makes something so heavily edited feel more natural." Interesting, but I'll continue digging the genre for an album that better suits my taste. An important album to listen to nonetheless. Edit: it's growing. |
| Fen The Dead Light | 3.5 |
| wow that's a tasty bass. Apart from that crispiness, it's a very good atmoblack record, but we got too many excellent atmoblack record this year for this one to truly stand out. |
| Vi Som Alskade Varandra Sa Mycket Det Onda. Det Goda. Det Vackra. Det Fula. | 4.1 |
| Excellent record a la Suis la Lune (legit, same language and same use of post-rock tropes). Not my fav screamo release of the year (State Faults takes the cake). Farewell, 2010s European screamo, we loved ya. |
| Blaqk Audio Only Things We Love | 1.5 |
| Not my cuppa at all. The synths are cheesy when they're not bad, and the AFI dude's voice do not suits this imo. 1.7 |
| I Hate Models Intergalactic Emotional Breakdown | 2.4 |
| Nah. He ruins his tracks by making them longer and adding some weirdass hardcore breaks. Usually the songs are cool for like 4 minutes, and then they fall into a pit of headache. 2019 was not his year. |
| Hajduk Природа | 4.1 |
| First track is a lo-fi bm pounder, the second one heavily relies on Eastern Europe folk elements, and the last one is a Burzum-esque ambient track topped by a distant bm riff. Hyped for a full-length. |
| Origami Angel Somewhere City | 3.6 |
| Pop punk/emo with a mathy riff in almost each song. The main problem is that these math rock parts are the best ones in each song, and throughout the whole album. These parts are imo better, and heavier, than the rest if the album, and it makes the classical midwest emo/pop punk chunks pale in comparison. It's still a good record, but the blending of genres done here is disproportionate, like when your mate puts too much alcohol in your glass. Edit: yeah it's growing on me; I now feel the urge to play Mario Kart Double Dash yeeeet. |
| Cattle Decapitation Death Atlas | 2.9 |
| When it's brutal, it's truly brutal. However, even though the melodic passages are welcome, they somewhat downplay the overall heaviness. And god do I hate these bleeding piggy squeals, fortunately they don't appear that often. |
| Leonard Cohen Thanks For The Dance | 3.7 |
| You Want It Darker coda > a lot of the mofos trying to convey emotions. That raspy voice over some soft but always-in-place Eastern-influenced instrumentals is still as chills-giving as ever. |
| Cult of Luna Eternal Kingdom | 3.9 |
| Another record, another new direction for Cult of Luna. This one feels like a more subtle version of their first two albums. I personally prefer Salvation & Highway, but this is top-notch post-metal, with "Ghost Trail" being one of the genre's most accomplished songs. I also prefer The Beyond, as I feel the heaviness is best displayed there, and, without "Ghost Trail" and the closer, this would have been their worst album. |
| Blackwave. Are We Still Dreaming | 3.7 |
| Much more reliant on autotuned parts than the EP, but these autotuned sections are extremely well-done and not off-putting. Overall I find this to be a lil bouncier than the EP, even though they kinda lose a bit of their chill vibe in favour of a more festive atmosphere. This is however more diverse overall than the EP, as we get lo-fi vibes as well as indie party hip hop on top of the jazzy & chill beats. Gefeliciteerd jongens. |
| Leprous Pitfalls | 3.5 |
| I never listened to Leprous so had absolutely no expectations. This is some good synthy prog pop rock, even though this genre in general does not appeal to me that much. One of these records where I'm like 'ye it's v gud', but won't return much often (other band in that category: Anathema). |
| Erika de Casier Essentials | 4.0 |
| Breezy R&B mixed with 90s pop nostalgia. Kudos for the kinda spacey production, it gives an even sexier feeling to an already sexy album. In fact, it's more sensual than explicitly sexy (vs. Slayyyter for example), and I thus find it less blundering and more delicate. Songs to have sexy time to. |
| Blood Incantation Hidden History of the Human Race | 4.1 |
| I would put this a tad lower than Starspawn. The musicianship is awesome, and some riffs/solis are making me lose my shit every time I hear them. However, I am feeling underwhelmed by the album in its entirety. Some parts were heard 100 times before that album, and I can't help but wait for the "traditional" parts to finish so I could hear these epic moments. I am still waiting for their genre-defining record because I'm sure they have it in them. It's not this one though. |
| Cult of Luna The Beyond | 4.0 |
| Their debut, but better. I feel it's as angry as the debut, but heavier, and they manage to pull off atmospheric sections more easily too. |
| Andy Stott Passed Me By | 3.8 |
| Wild minimal dub techno. This might be his scariest. Better than WST but less good than ISBU. |
| Blackwave. Mic Check | 3.6 |
| Soulful and jazzy chill Belgian hip hop sung in English (Flemish peepz know how it's done, not like these Walloons mofo only rappin' in French). Reminds me a lot of Woodie Smalls. |
| Cult of Luna Cult of Luna | 3.8 |
| Prep for the big show: round 1. This is clearly distinctive in their discog as it's their heaviest output, and Klas sounds particularly angry. I don't know when I last jammed the one-two punch Sleep/To Be Remembered, but I forgot how many fat cheeks it slaps. And the cover looks like an Xbox 360 game. |
| Ichiko Aoba 0 | 4.1 |
| Oh isn't it pretty and delicate. Idk how she does it but it sounds both warm and melancholic. The kind of album for which it doesn't matter if you don't understand what's said. This is fragility incarnate. How calming and captivating this is. This is even more impressive knowing the music is both devoid of effects and dynamically engaging. A truly paradoxical record, that could pass as mere folk background music if you don't pay attention to it, while also being an album that slowly reveals itself as the listener gets lost into it. |
| Andy Stott We Stay Together | 3.6 |
| As if rhythmic undulations were watching you. Spooky shit. |
| 2Fingz La Folie des Glandeurs | 3.6 |
| RIP klm, Nepal, Grandmaster Splinter. This is his group with Doum's, and their only released project: La Folie des Glandeurs. This is a mixtape, so we get a lot of everything: fine rapping, oldschool beats, funny interludes. Ofc some parts are less good but that's every mixtape's problem. Get well brother. |
| Underoath Erase Me | 2.3 |
| Wew, did not and will not care further. It's basically poppy alt rock with some adolescent screams here and there. |
| Glassjaw Our Color Green (The Singles) | 4.1 |
| Their heaviest songs all packaged together. This is no mere compilation, but this can rather be seen as Coloring Book's complement: one is their funky side, the other represent their heavy endeavours. Stars is the weakest track here, but the rest slams hard. |
| Nepal (FR) 2016 - 2018 | 3.3 |
| Good compil' reuniting some tracks off his 3 projects. Some of his best tracks are here ("444 nuits", "Niveau 1", "Rien d'special)". As he's also his own beatmaker (under the moniker of klm), he perfectly matches his lyrics with dark and modern beats. The overall atmosphere resembles Burial's. The kind of record you listen to while walking home in the dark streets illuminated by the cold street lamps. |
| Infinit' Ma version des faits | 3.0 |
| His best EP. He still has some trouble with the choruses, which too often are a mere repetition of the song's title, but the beats are ultra-modern and his flows are at their most interesting. And then again, I feel he's better when he shares the cake with others (Caba & JJ, Alpha). |
| Infinit' NSMLM | 2.6 |
| An improvement on almost every aspect: much better beats (bye bye DJ Weedim), Infinit' raps more acutely and with much more style. However, apart from typical rap tropes (yeah I smoke weed yeah I fuck them bitches), he doesn't say much, and some autotuned parts are not well-executed. Sud-Est is a banger though, and the last third of the EP clearly is the strongest one. However, the beginning of the record is not good. |
| Andy Stott It Should Be Us | 3.9 |
| Double EP = LP. Cold and mechanical as always with Andy, but what prevents me to rate this higher is the lack of Alison's vocals. The run from the t/t to Not This Time, as well as Versi, is top tier Andy. |
| American Football American Football (LP2) | 2.9 |
| Same sounds, no feelings, WHERE'S THE HORN? Not a bad album by any means, just an underwhelming midwest emo record. |
| Have a Nice Life Sea of Worry | 3.9 |
| It's ok. Everything We Forget is pointless, the first hald is kinda underwhelming but let's not be arseholes here, it's still quality music. Lords of Tresserhorn and Destinos, on the other hand, are classic HANL tunes. This will however remain as their worst output yet. Edit: upon further listens the first half is much more engaging. They still know how to pull out good shit. |
| Great Grandpa Four of Arrows | 4.2 |
| I think even they were surprised with how good this sounds. If you miss the ol' grey-Autumn-afternoon-in-the-suburbs-in-the-90s feeling, this is right up your alley. |
| Infinit' Plusss | 2.0 |
| Started from the bottom. Infinit's technique is not fully sharpened, and DJ Weedim is the producer so I just cannot like those beats. Fortunately Alpha Wann & Alkpote are there: Alpha's verse on track 2 is dope and Alk is as dirty and as mathematical as ever, but they can't save this first project. It would be a 1.5 without these two beasts. 1.9 |
| Gang Starr One Of The Best Yet | 3.9 |
| OG Golden Era shit, so ofc I can't help but love these sweet Prem beats. Not on par with their best stuff (duh) but it's an incredible comeback/posthumous record. |
| FKA Twigs Magdalene | 4.2 |
| Contrary to her previous releases, where she displayed an almost animal fierceness in love, Twigs agrees here to show her vulnerability. This sensibility was always present in her art, however much more in the form (the music per se) than in the content (what she is saying to us). While she has not totally lost her violent endeavours (sad day is full of sentences you wouldn't want to hear), Magdalene reveals itself melancholic without ever losing FKA Twigs' typical ethereal aspect. This melancholy is perhaps perfected in the second track, home with you, and the 'I didn't know you were lonely' line. Sound-wise, and with the help of an armada of super-producers (Jaar, Lopatin, Arca, and (oh boy) Skrillex among others), she finally perfects what was hinted in M3LL155X and delivers a masterful glitchy ambient R&B record. A beautiful November record to listen to when all the leaves are brown and the sky is grey. |
| Earl Sweatshirt Feet of Clay | 3.1 |
| Nice lil lofi EP. Good delivery, nice beats, but too short for its own good, you can't truly drown into the atmosphere. |
| Counterparts Nothing Left to Love | 3.2 |
| Ok let's talk about how the message a piece of art conducts can outweigh the intrinsic qualities of said piece of art. Like it or not, even if it's the best generic melodic metalcore you could find now, this remains generic melodic metalcore, with chuggy breakdowns, shouting vocals, some almost clean vocals from time to time, and those melodic riffs on top of everything. Even though I like listening to that kind of music from time to time, I've grown tired of it. I do like the record however, and the lyrics truly are gut-wrenching, but it would have had so much more impact on me a decade ago. In the end, I'm just glad you guys seem to get that much from this album. Love y'all. |
| A Winged Victory for the Sullen The Undivided Five | 3.3 |
| Slightly more engaging than Atomos imo, but still not as breathtaking as the t/t. |
| His Hero Is Gone The Plot Sickens: Enslavement Redefined | 3.7 |
| 90s crust punk, with every advantages and drawbacks you could expect from it: it's fast but not long enough, it's crushing but sometimes mindless. It's as if the energy was so violent the only way it could end is death. In the end, it's still a good document of an almost dead genre, but their other two records are better. |
| Alkpote Monument | 3.2 |
| Two surprises here: it's the most introspective L'Empereur has ever been, and I don't think Le Desanusseur has ever had such nice beats. He also managed to feature trendy artists (Katerine, Romeo Elvis) which will allow him to get more streams than he usually does. The main problem is, like always, his lack of variety: yeah we know he can pull off some dirty multi-syllabics, but it does get tiring after almost 15 years of doing it. The album art is fucking hilarious too, thank you L'Aigle de Carthage. |
| Uncle Acid and The Deadbeats Blood Lust | 3.7 |
| Heavy throwback doomy stoner metal, the voice is what truly makes this album (and this band overall) stand out. |
| The Great Old Ones Cosmicism | 3.8 |
| Consistent as always with these guys. On first listen, I would say this is their second-best LP, next to Tekeli-Li. |
| Swans Leaving Meaning | 3.7 |
| Sure, it might be their weakest since the reunion. But it's still an engaging experimental rock record, with some the band's most soothing and mellow moments. Sonically, this sounds more like My Father than the other 2010s records. |
| Mayhem Daemon | 3.2 |
| Straightforward BM. Nothing mindblowing for me, but everything works: great vocals, nice performance, crispy production, and tasty synths. |
| Kanye West Jesus Is King | 1.5 |
| It's like he put more energy in praising God than in actually making an album. Feeble beats, bad production, subpar rapping, obscure (in a bad way) lyrics, and the features don't add anything. It seems like it's half-finished. And yeah that Chic-Fil-A line is awful. 1.6 |
| Banks III | 3.1 |
| Honestly I did not expect an almost deconstructed R&B record. The autotune sounds great, even though some times she just sounds like Ariana. Finally, the first half is stronger than the second one. |
| Alcest Spiritual Instinct | 4.0 |
| It's basically Kodama's atmosphere BUT WIZ DA RIFFZ. It's ofc a very good album, but I feel the riffination (it's not a word) they wanted to go to could have been more prominent; here, I can't help but compare it to Kodama. However, Alcest remains Alcest, a consistent band that always delivers. |
| Internazionale Elegy for the Victors | 4.1 |
| Made me want to watch the loops disintegrate. It's hard to pinpoint, explain or even understand what makes ambient music so good. No life-changing lyrics, no neckbreaking riffs, no uplifting crescendos, just...textures. It's all but a big wave of soft keyboards on top of music collapsing over itself. That might not be enough to explain why I love this. It's just so damn beautiful. |
| Pink Floyd The Endless River | 3.1 |
| Welp, it's not bad. It's no standard PF either, but it's an ok ambient rock record with some Gilmour solis here and there. |
| Seizures The Sanity Universal | 3.7 |
| 90s metalcore revival. I preferred the spacey atmosphere they have on the new one (you can find it here and there). Ofc it's very good, but I'd rather listen to Botch woo! |
| Common Holly When I say to you Black Lightning | 3.7 |
| Holy moly isn't it haunting. The only true problem of the record is the length: I would have loved 10 more minutes (that's what she said). |
| clipping. There Existed an Addiction to Blood | 4.1 |
| Last year was Daughters. This year, I'll scare kids with CLIPPING. |
| Memoryhouse The Years | 3.7 |
| Lovely chill dream pop. Ideal to immerse yourself into sweet dreams. |
| We Lost the Sea Triumph and Disaster | 3.1 |
| Does this album mean you have to lose someone close to you to display some emotion? :[ Parting Ways and Mother's Hymn are tear-dropping, but the rest is quite bland. |
| Tides From Nebula From Voodoo to Zen | 3.6 |
| Hey this is nice. The synths add a more futuristic feel to the record, and it works very well. Apart from that, I feel the overall songwriting is much more captivating than their previous records. In the end, it's their best 2010s output. |
| The Menzingers Hello Exile | 2.5 |
| No connection whatsoever. No furious drunken anthem, no heart-crushing lyrics about self-realization, no sweet guitar tones. Maybe post-2012 Menzingers isn't for me. |
| Taylor Swift Lover | 2.4 |
| Some nice bops here and there, but when will they understand they're neither Swans nor Darkspace? Do a fucking 40 minutes long album, release the rest of the bops in a deluxe version or whatevs and everybody will be happy. |
| Seizures Reverie of the Revolving Diamond | 3.9 |
| I expected some heavy stuff, but I did not expect such a beautiful spacey record. |
| Refused War Music | 2.6 |
| I should not have cared. |
| Portrayal of Guilt Suffering is a Gift | 3.7 |
| wooooo that's short (less than 10 minutes), sweet and violent. Really hyped to see what this band can pull out in the future. |
| Opeth In Cauda Venenum | 3.4 |
| Their best 2010s/daddy prog rock release. It's heavier, the production is better than on previous records, and most importantly, the songs are not boring. |
| Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds Ghosteen | 3.7 |
| Poignant lyrics as always with him, but the music itself did not engage me as much as I thought it would. This is still a beautifully sad record that needs to be listened to. |
| M83 DSVII | 2.8 |
| Nice soundscape music, but I would rather listen to Phaedra once again. It's quite inoffensive. |
| JPEGMAFIA All My Heroes Are Cornballs | 3.9 |
| His previous outputs left me somewhat disappointed as they were extremely messy, but this is some tasty textury glitch hop. I didn't pay much attention to the lyrics, but soundwise, this might be a landmark in the evolution of hip hop in the 2020s'. |
| Insomnium Heart Like a Grave | 3.5 |
| Their least good 2010s' release, but still a good proggy melodeath record |
| Jimmy Eat World Surviving | 3.1 |
| Solid record, the more rockin' songs were especially tasteful. That style of emo/power pop never really was my favorite genre but it's still cool. |
| Battles Juice B Crypts | 2.9 |
| Battles playing with sounds again. Good, but I don't think I'll come back to this when I'm in need for quirky stuff. |
| Danny Brown uknowhatimsayin¿ | 3.5 |
| 'i eat so many shrimp i got iodine poison / hoes on my dick cause i look like roy orbison'. Good but not on par with his 3 previous mastodon, and I even like it less than his debut. The more laidback beats do however make this stand out in his discog. |
| Vald Ce Monde Est Cruel | 3.6 |
| Damn he took the banger highway this time. Maybe his most accomplished output, but XEU remains my personal favourite - because of his overall darker sound. At least he will get a new crowd of "conscious" ienclis who realize only now that he does say some pretty deep stuff. |
| Cursive Get Fixed | 3.9 |
| Even if it's less good than Vitriola, damn y'all sleeping on this. As last year, Cursive deliver an unexpectedly awesome album filled with some tasty layers. What was particularly exquisite were, like in Vitriola, these strings playing the same riffs as the guitars. |
| Bayside Interrobang | 3.0 |
| Cool shi fusing pop punk, emo and epic hard rock solis - and production; the hooks are infectious BUT I did not like those vocals. |
| Bad Books III | 3.5 |
| Incredibly solid indie folk record. Lyrics are poignant and the music is discrete; maybe a tad too discrete for my taste. The definition of a beautiful album. |
| clipping. CLPPNG | 3.6 |
| It's not industrial anymore. This is cold, mechanical and most of all excessive hip hop. |
| Burzum Belus | 3.4 |
| Varg's best 2010s output. Some riffs are not as interesting as masterpieces he can pull off, but it's still a good ol' atmo bm record. |
| Drake Thank Me Later | 2.5 |
| Well this was not utterly bad, but it was not really good either. |
| Vestiges The Descent Of Man | 3.9 |
| This deserved more recognition in 2010, and it deserves some recognition now. Since it's crushing blacky crusty sludge metal, it could be linked to the Fall of Efrafa clique (sound-wise). But FoE are the best, FoE is life, so go listen to FoE. |
| Taylor Swift Speak Now | 3.1 |
| I ate a pizza for lunch that wasn't as cheesy as this album. With that being said, it's kinda nice. It's a tad too long too but it's clearly one of her best outputs. |
| Oceansize Self Preserved While The Bodies Float Up | 4.0 |
| Arguably their weakest and heaviest, but still keeping that sweet Oceansize sound. Oh boy this band slaps so hard. |
| Make Do and Mend End Measured Mile | 3.7 |
| Unknowingly strong. The first four songs are blasting hard ("Transparent Seas" might be their strongest track), and while the rest doesn't live up to such greatness, it's still a solid punk record. |
| Interpol Interpol | 3.3 |
| Hey I quite liked that one. Sure, there are no standouts and the overall sound does not variate that much, but it's a very solid record overall. |
| The Weeknd Thursday | 3.6 |
| Less hooked-filled and more nuanced than House of Balloons, Thursday does lose some immediacy, but compensates with an even darker aesthetic: it's not (only) about livin' the fast life, it's about how this fast life creates destructive relationships. The record's discourse is thus impregnating its sonic characteristics (or is it the opposite?); Tesfaye is almost pushed to the background to leave more space for the gritty production. |
| Burzum Fallen | 2.8 |
| It could not sound like 90s' Burzum, but this bad boy still got some atmosphere. The clean vocals particularly added to the witchery ambiance. Ok release, but a tad boring overall. |
| Tom Waits Bad As Me | 3.7 |
| That bastard's still got it. Manic bluesy cabaret designed to alienate the listener on first encounter. Then, you're hooked, not as much as with his most well-known 80s stuff, but you're still pumped. |
| Dropkick Murphys Going Out In Style | 3.3 |
| Fun fun fun. I'm ready to go drink and watch Ireland get blowned out by NZ. |
| Drake Take Care | 3.3 |
| That's actually quite good. No whining, strong prod, very few fillers (a miracle!) and nice feats. I get why this was huge. It's too long for its own good tho. |
| Manchester Orchestra Cope | 3.2 |
| When the soulful goes soulless. It's a chance the soulless version of themselves is still good. |
| Beyonce 4 | 3.0 |
| Solid record. I find it less R&By than the s/t, but also less impactful than Lemonade. |
| The Weeknd Echoes of Silence | 3.6 |
| Sexy atmospheric R&B. It never attains House of Balloons's highs, and, despite the first two tracks being the worst of the mixtape (that "Dirty Diana" bit sounds a bit lazy, and I can't help but lol'ing at the France Gall lyrics in "Montreal"), it might well be the strongest of the three mixtapes. Without the first two songs, that is. |
| The Mars Volta Noctourniquet | 2.9 |
| It loses some steam over time. By no means a bad record, but it sounds kinda lazy for these guys. |
| The Great Old Ones Al Azif | 3.6 |
| Managing to take an unoriginal sound and give it soul: check. |
| Taylor Swift Red | 2.1 |
| Extremely sappy this one. While Swift shows hints of 1989 on tunes like "I Knew Your Were Trouble", these tracks only represent a minority of the record - when they are well done, which ain't often the case. The rest is mainly composed of upbeat country pop solely relying on loud choruses talking about boys and how they are no good. |
| Napalm Death Utilitarian | 3.6 |
| Goddamn is that John Zorn during Everyday Pox? Apart from that, the album rips hard with its approved mixture of grindcore & hardcore, with still a touch of deathgrind. On par, if not slightly above Apex Predator. |
| Burzum Umskiptar | 2.5 |
| Atmo bm with some ambient and forgettable riffs. |
| Alexisonfire Death Letter | 3.2 |
| Nice acoustic revival of their songs. Farewell, this band could be my life. |
| The Weeknd House of Balloons | 3.8 |
| Before House of Balloons, 2010s music didn't really exist: for the most part of the years 2010 and 2011, pop music was built around the late 2000s' big'n'loud EDM style that told you about the great time you're having (think Black Eyed Peas, Flo Rida, or Ke$ha - peak "bon gout"). And then a lil Torontonian came up with a brand of R&B with subdued yet ultra classy beats and darker lyrics. These two features are instrumental to the characteristics of 2010s pop: sex'n'drugs'n'party were erected as pillars of the pop discourse, and Tesfaye brought nuance by saying these kinds of antics weren't fun (but you should do them anyway) in the same fashion Lana Del Rey would do in a less R&B way; likewise, the sultriness of the beats would slowly kill the loud and brash electropop movement - what a gift. This the sound of the afterparty, the sound of the generation who suffered from the 2008 financial crisis and didn't believe all those pop stars anymore, those ludicrous beings who wanted to bring happiness to people. The Weeknd accepts to be darker, and thus, more real. Oh, and the music's pretty good too. |
| M83 Junk | 2.4 |
| Welp. A third of the songs have kickass moments, another third are just forgettable nostalgic tunes, and the other third are baddey bad. |
| Grouper A I A: Dream Loss | 4.0 |
| This first half is magnificent vocal ambient, ideal to immerse yourself in a sleepy haze. |
| Grouper A I A: Alien Observer | 3.4 |
| This second half contains a bit more vocals and it's clearly sadder in contrast with the first one which was (almost) uplifting. |
| Dropkick Murphys Signed and Sealed in Blood | 3.0 |
| The boys are back with a traditional DM record: fun and punky and Irish-American. One of their weakest album, but Rose Tattoo is such a jam. |
| Drake Nothing Was the Same | 3.5 |
| It started off quite strong, then it faded into averageness. Edit: hey now younger dex you were wrong these tunes are sweet af. |
| The Weeknd Kiss Land | 2.1 |
| Well that's boring, and that's mainly because he sounds bored. |
| Burzum Sol austan, Mani vestan | 2.7 |
| Better than the Ways of Yore in my opinion, even though this remains background music that won't break your concentration. |
| Disclosure Settle | 3.8 |
| Fire garage/deep house release. Usually this kind of music tend to slowly fade into the background, but that was not the case here. It's super engaging, it's throwing bangers, it feels like summer, and it has that slight touch of nostalgia that we all love. Noice. |
| Taylor Swift 1989 | 3.4 |
| Welcome to bop city. Surprisingly strong record full of bangers (Style, Bad Blood). She's no Ulver yet in terms of synthpop but we're slowly getting there. |
| Pianos Become the Teeth Keep You | 3.2 |
| Not bad, but all songs feel kinda underdeveloped, as they stop when things start to get interesting. "Repine, The Queen" and "Say Nothing" are crushing. |
| More Than Life What's Left of Me | 2.8 |
| Melodic hardcore used to be the shit. GIMME EMOTIONS. |
| Comeback Kid Die Knowing | 3.0 |
| Modern traditional hardcore with some skate punk linings. Slightly better than Outsider & Broadcasting. |
| The Weeknd Beauty Behind the Madness | 2.6 |
| Basically the same comment as Starboy: it's too long and full of fillers. The singles are banging though. |
| Scale the Summit V | 3.2 |
| After exploring, you've got to rest. |
| Napalm Death Apex Predator - Easy Meat | 3.6 |
| Straightforward grindcore, with much more hardcore influences than previously shown. Bangin' socialist asses. |
| Make Do and Mend Don't Be Long | 2.6 |
| A band on autopilot. Unfortunately for them, we still have to drive by ourselves. |
| Flume Skin | 2.9 |
| Quite ok. He lost his sound on this one, mainly due to the different features, which feels kinda forced. It's basically his first record but less anthemic. |
| SZA Ctrl | 3.5 |
| Brutally honest girl sweetly singing over soulful, poppy and almost lofi R&B. Tbh I didn't expect this to be that good, it's so full of jams. |
| Drake Views | 2.0 |
| Slightly better than Scorpion, but Views remains an album that suffers from being too long and full of shitty tracks - classic Drake. |
| Basement Promise Everything | 2.9 |
| The kings of grungy emo come back with their least good album. Still good though. |
| Bruno Mars 24K Magic | 3.3 |
| Hey that was fun! In the end he's just replicating what greats have already done, but this is some funky shit. Kudos for the length, 33 min is perfect for such music. |
| Taylor Swift Reputation | 2.0 |
| Talking 'bout boyz and how they make you feel like shit over some subpar Max Martin tunes. 1.8 |
| The Weeknd Starboy | 2.6 |
| The songs per se are clearly not bad. However, I feel the album does not flow as good as it could (the gigantic length does not help). Some great cuts here and there (Starboy, Sidewalks, I Feel it Coming), but in the end it's tiring because of the so-many fillers. |
| Burzum The Ways of Yore | 2.0 |
| Oooooooooooooooooof. That was painful. This is pure boringness brought to us by a madman. |
| Scale the Summit In a World of Fear | 2.2 |
| Where's the passion? Where's the Atlas Novus? Long gone. |
| Portrayal of Guilt Portrayal of Guilt | 3.9 |
| Ooooof that's short and sweet. The songs here are stronger than on the record imo, but I can't see myself give a 6-minute EP a score higher than a 4. |
| Hot Water Music Light it Up | 3.3 |
| I basically have the same feeling as for Exister: it's a solid punk record but it does not match neither their previous albums nor the new kidz (ie The Menzingers). |
| Dropkick Murphys 11 Short Stories of Pain and Glory | 2.2 |
| Cheesy and unfun |
| Comeback Kid Outsider | 3.0 |
| I quite appreciated that one. This is much less melodic than what we're used to with CBK, but the strongest cuts on here clearly are the straightforward hardcore tracks. |
| At the Drive-In in•ter a•li•a | 3.4 |
| I don't really like Cedric's vocals, but apart from that, it's a fun release that doesn't really hinder the band's legacy. It sure is less good than RoC (incredible, eh), but it's not a bad record per se. I was particularly impressed by the passion and energy showcased here. However, this cannot go higher just because all you wish for is this to be RoC. This album is basically like if you think about your ex while having sex with your current gf. |
| A Lot Like Birds DIVISI | 2.7 |
| KURT WHERE ART THOU? Tbh it's still adolescent post-hxc, but Kurt Travis did have a certain something that made these guys stand out. Here it's just post-hxc that's both too dramatic and a tad underwhelming. |
| Basement Beside Myself | 3.5 |
| Maybe their most overall solid effort. It doesn't contain gems like 'Whole' for example, but this is still a strong grungy emo from front to back. |
| Pianos Become the Teeth Wait For Love | 2.8 |
| The story of another band losing its dynamics. |
| Interpol El Pintor | 3.9 |
| A lot more engaging than Marauder and s/t. Might well be their second best after the juggernaut TotBL. |
| Drake If You're Reading This It's Too Late | 3.3 |
| Drake goes on the trap route. While not as varied as his best two records - where are the R&B hooks bro??? -, the atmospheric and nocturnal vibes manages to install a mood. |
| Alpha Wann PPP | 3.4 |
| 3 freestyles finally available. Not groundbreaking, but we always need some more Philly Flingue, even though he is not at his best here. PLAYOFFS is the best cut. |
| Portrayal of Guilt Let Pain Be Your Guide | 3.7 |
| The next big thing for sure. Hyped to see them open for TA/Deafheaven. |
| Cynic Traced In Air Remixed | 3.7 |
| THE FUCKING GROWLS ARE GONE! THE MOTHERFUCKING GROWLS ARE GONE! Indeed, they didn't perfectly fit the original album perfectly, but I like my Cynic with some growls. |
| Boris Love and Evol | 3.7 |
| Xeno said it all with his summary. All tracks are great apart the vocal part in LOVE. |
| Jenny Hval The Practice of Love | 3.1 |
| Jenny Hval never disappoints me in leaving me wondering if I liked what I just listened to. This time it's ok. |
| Fly Pan Am C'est ça | 3.2 |
| The sound of a band messing around. Some interesting moments here and there, but its lack of structure makes it difficult to follow at times. Shame, because when it's good, it's really good. |
| Interpol Marauder | 3.0 |
| Good but safe. |
| Drake Scorpion | 1.5 |
| An hour and a half of Drake whining? D'ya think you are fucking Swans with your 90 minutes album ? 1.7 |
| Blut Aus Nord Hallucinogen | 4.1 |
| This one tops Cosmosophy as their best 2010s release. It's atmospheric, very melodic (those riffs are spicey). What makes this album different are also the vocals: they are extremely low on the mix - which makes them sound like chant instead of screams (when they are not straight-up chants) -, making the whole album one of their most esoteric. |
| Tycho Weather | 2.7 |
| For once it does not drag too much (even though this dude accomplishes the holy miracle of making a 30 minutes-album drag), and Saint Sinner's vocals are nice additions. Still boring. |
| Car Bomb Mordial | 2.7 |
| I headbang'd, and that's always a good sign. However, it's true it's a bit all over the place, the choruses sound like they were sang by a sick Chino, and the chuggy chug chug is basically 2010s Meshuggah. Edit: on third listen I did not headbang at all. |
| God Is an Astronaut Age of the Fifth Sun | 3.3 |
| A post-rock band doing what it has already done, but less good |
| Chaucerian Myth Chaucerian Legends: The Epic of Beileag, Part III | 3.8 |
| Well, this is truly charming, and my favourite output of his. The length is perfect for his music, the music is very contemplative, and on top of that it's not too cheesy but we get this overall Zelda feeling. |
| 65daysofstatic replicr, 2019 | 3.7 |
| The logical step after NMS. Great glitchy IDM that relies heavily on the overall textures. The 42 mins actually went by very fast, I'll gladly rejam this again. |
| Pelican Nighttime Stories | 3.2 |
| Then again, Pelican sounding like subpar-Russian Circles. Not bad by any means, just not that interesting. Some bm drums here and there were surprising tho. |
| The Gaslight Anthem American Slang | 3.7 |
| I'm not 'Murican but this album makes me want to take my old pop's Buick to drive around Milwaukee. |
| sleepmakeswaves Made Of Breath Only | 3.7 |
| This is their least good album, but these guys always deliver |
| Borknagar True North | 3.1 |
| Pretty good folky meloblack, but idk this kind of vocals tend to annoy me, I prefer their instrumental parts. |
| God Is an Astronaut Origins | 3.2 |
| Bouncy post-rock hindered by some really odd vocals |
| Denzel Curry Nostalgic 64 | 3.7 |
| Young 'Zel boi wit da hard-hitting bangerz. It's his first record, so there are some rookie mistakes (triplets and subpar choruses), but he's lit and smart on the mic. It's a shame it's not on Spotify, loads of tracks off this would end up in my lit playlists. |
| Childish Gambino Camp | 2.8 |
| It's ok, but if you wanna listen to this guy, start with Because the Internet. On this one, he hesitates too much between the loverboi persona and the bony thug in harmony |
| Bruce Springsteen Wrecking Ball | 3.5 |
| His best album since The Rising. Some things just never die. |
| The Gaslight Anthem Handwritten | 3.6 |
| This is basically The '59 Sound Part.2, but without the anthemic feel. |
| Slayyyter Slayyyter | 2.8 |
| Catchy and mucho energetic, sometimes to the point of crumbling under its own weight. |
| Charli XCX Charli | 3.2 |
| Select * from Carly Rae Jepsen A inner join SOPHIE B on A.pop = B.pop. |
| Modern Life Is War Fever Hunting | 3.1 |
| It's an ok melodic hardcore record, but I will jam Witness instead. |
| Alex G House Of Sugar | 4.0 |
| Sometimes it sounds like dungeon synthpop, some other times it sounds like an unknown gem off the 80s or 90s. A very solid record overall reminiscing of Elliott Smith. |
| Childish Gambino Because the Internet | 3.3 |
| It gathered the same reactions as Some Rap Songs, but it's more experimental and much less lofi. This is just a dude experimenting, and it does not sound like a total mess, which is a huge quality on its own. |
| Bruce Springsteen High Hopes | 2.7 |
| Yawwwwwwwwwwwwwwn. |
| The Gaslight Anthem Get Hurt | 2.9 |
| Same comment as Japandroids' Near To The Wild Heart Of Life. |
| Justin Timberlake The 20/20 Experience | 3.6 |
| This is very nice. Not revolutionary by any means though: even though the instrumentation is colourful and the production is top notch , the songs are long just because he wanted them to be long, and this creates a certain dragging feeling throughout the album. Would be much better if all songs were in the 4-5 minute range. Apart from that, this is throwing bops after bops. |
| Cult of Luna A Dawn to Fear | 4.5 |
| Cult of Luna may have tried to tell a story. The story of human society, or maybe the story of a single man. After tales of anger (eponym & The Beyond), we move to more peaceful times, where we accept to show some tenderness (Salvation). This allows us to reconnect with earthy feelings (Highway). However, by doing this, we reconnect to our human deeds and invent lies (Eternal Kingdom). This lie was propagated and resulted in the city (Vertikal). After realizing how far we've gone and how miserable we were, we left to start something new (Mariner), only to find that nothing can start. Nothing is created, nothing is lost, and everything is in constant evolution. So, this is no true dawn; it's merely a restart button, and, given how bad it already went, we have nothing to do but fear. Or maybe they weren't trying to tell any story; they just wanted to put out some of the best metal we got in the last 20 years. And that's ok. |
| Blood Cultures Oh Uncertainty! A Universe Despairs | 3.7 |
| Certainly more complicated and less immediate than their rookie record, but this one has got...something. |
| Alex Cameron Miami Memory | 3.6 |
| Not as anthemic as Forced Witness was (the prod here is a bit too polished imo), but it flows more seamlessly than Jumping the Shark. And the lyrics seem to touch upon some extremely modern topics, it's quite nice to have such a gap between the lyrics and the music. |
| John Garcia John Garcia and the Band of Gold | 3.5 |
| Is it a pleonasm to say a stoner record is cool ? |
| Chaucerian Myth Chaucerian Legends: The Epic of Beileag, Part II | 3.7 |
| The Legend of Zelda, The Chaucerian Myth - out next month on Nintendo 64. |
| The Contortionist Exoplanet | 4.1 |
| LA GROSSE POUTRE PUTAIN. The heaviest The Contortionist ever were. This heaviness is not only crushing, but it also allows the riffs & solos to reach their maximum epicness in that specific format. |
| The Wonder Years The Upsides | 3.8 |
| Not as good as their next two, but this one introduced me to TWY so nostalgia hits ahrd. |
| Periphery Periphery | 2.8 |
| Hey I actually liked some guitarey stuffey on this one. Still not a fan of the chuggy chug chug and the whiney whine whine, but it's my favourite Periphery release. |
| Deathspell Omega Paracletus | 4.3 |
| Holy cow. The riffs, the dissonance, the vocals, the drums, everything here surpasses hell to create an atmosphere never truly matched on record. The manifestation of the primordial force, the mediator between Heaven and Hell, between God and the Devil, between conscious and unconscious. In a genre that saw the emergence of thousands of praised bands in the last decade, Deathspell Omega still stands at the top of the ladder. |
| Thou Rendon | 4.1 |
| As Deftone said, this is their best compilation. It's as gritty as any other Thou releases, but the hopeless melodic riffs on top of the crushing rhythms make you reflect on life like Camus never reflected before. |
| Candy Claws Ceres And Calypso In The Deep Time | 4.0 |
| A true Wall of Sound record. Fusing twee, noise, psych and dream pop, this sounds like MBV but feels like MGMT. Either way, it's trippy shit. |
| Booba Lunatic | 2.0 |
| I liked it slightly more than D.U.C. because of the punchlines. "Tu veux t'asseoir sur le trone ? Faudra t'asseoir sur mes genoux". 1.8 |
| Cloudkicker Beacons | 4.0 |
| Bedroom music for the epileptic. |
| Tides From Nebula Earthshine | 2.6 |
| Decent and average post-rock |
| Chelsea Wolfe The Grime And The Glow | 3.4 |
| Sonically this resembles a lot to her last album, and also to a heavy Grouper. However, this is no match in terms of feelz: it is heavy and atmospheric and all, but I was not scared while listening to this album. |
| Alcest Écailles De Lune | 4.4 |
| Gorgeous record, with some of the most beautiful shoegaze riffs since the 90s (Ecailles Pt. 2 takes the crown). I personally prefer the first half of the record over the second half, but this is a direct journey into lil Neige's daydreams. Plus, the influence the record had on blackgaze and metal in general is absolutely tremendous. Even if the dear Stephane Paut hadn't heard of Slowdive (at the time), he managed to blend black metal, one of the dirtiest and nastiest metal subgenres (cue grindcore, I know), with the dreamiest rock genre of all. In the end, I feel this record is more a shoegaze one with some bm parts thrown in than the opposite, but metal has this strange yet cool ability to take over every other genre it's mashed with. So we'll go with blackgaze, not shoemetal. Maybe there was a reason shoemetal never existed as a genre. |
| 65daysofstatic We Were Exploding Anyway | 3.7 |
| 65 dance ecstatic. Shame the first half doesn't match the second one. And fuck, Debutante is gorgeous. |
| Omega Massif Karpatia | 3.7 |
| Smashing post-metal a la FoE |
| Fief I | 3.6 |
| As always with the dude, I want to go on an adventure |
| Lana Del Rey Born to Die | 4.1 |
| Like all her albums, this is pretty, but it's also empty at times. That's mainly because her aesthetic is one of retro-pastiche boredom, using nostalgia as an aesthetic; thus firmly kickstarting what pop music would be in the 2010s - less bombastic, more introspective, and thus less immediately enjoyable or hateable. It's subdued, at first in a bad way, then in an dark and personal way. Music to listen to with headphones on, it's losing all its power when blasted on speakers. Edit: damn these songs really are fucking good innit |
| Tides From Nebula Eternal Movement | 3.2 |
| Yeah, this is post-rock. Cinematic and epic, but still regular post-rock. |
| Biffy Clyro Opposites | 2.4 |
| Made me of think of average unheavy ADTR. And it's too damn long. |
| Pelican Forever Becoming | 3.2 |
| The remix is heavayyy. I don't really remember the original mix, but this is so crisp. Apart from that, typical Pelican record: enjoyable sludgy post-rock. |
| Travis Scott Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight | 2.9 |
| Not as memorable or bombastic as his other two records |
| Maybeshewill Fair Youth | 3.5 |
| It's a sunny day, you go wander in a park, you put this on. You're good. |
| Fief II | 3.7 |
| On par with III. Can't believe this guy's from Salt Lake City, this sounds like a modern take on European folk music during the Middle Ages. |
| Lana Del Rey Ultraviolence | 3.4 |
| Pretty, lush and dreamy pop. Some moments hit you with sheer and utter beauty while others pass by without you noticing them. |
| God Is an Astronaut Helios/Erebus | 3.6 |
| Heavier than their other albums (eg Vetus Memoria, which sounds like Russian Circles), it does not bring anything new to the genre or the band, but this is extremely well-done and engaging heavy post-rock. |
| Chelsea Wolfe Birth of Violence | 3.5 |
| Might be my favorite of her, it's so sparse and haunting. Might grow. Edit: actually slightly grew off me after a few more listens. |
| Travis Scott Astroworld | 3.4 |
| This guy is better at uniting a bunch of wild dudes together over wild prodz than actually rappin'. Great atmosphere throughout the whole record though, it's full of bangerrrzzzz. |
| Battles La Di Da Di | 3.3 |
| Slightly prefer this over Gloss Drop, the quirky and sometimes all-over-the-place feeling makes it a fun fun fun album. |
| Fief III | 3.7 |
| Enchanting and lovely. Slightly less memorable than IV, but this is still top notch cute dungeon synth. |
| Biffy Clyro Ellipsis | 2.4 |
| Quite inoffensive alternative pop rock. Not really bad, but really not good. What truly felt out of place are the harder-edged sounds put together with some kinda bad poppy parts. Bwergf. |
| The Highwomen The Highwomen | 3.5 |
| Very enjoyable country record. I didn't pay much attention to the lyrics, but the muzak is v gud. Like on most country records, I tend to prefer the softer and more subtle tracks (eg If She Ever Leaves Me) than the straightforward redneck stuff. |
| Chaucerian Myth Chaucerian Legends: The Epic of Beileag, Part I | 2.7 |
| I liked this one much less than TCT (even though this is twice shorter). It sounds veryyy cheesy and kitsch, like an ok-ish Ghosts'n'Goblins remake. |
| Tides From Nebula Safeheaven | 3.0 |
| Then again, a decent post-rock record: interesting for any PR dweeb, unessential for any other person. |
| God Is an Astronaut Epitaph | 3.2 |
| A decent release by the Irish buoyz. As the title suggests, this is their most grim record. Beautiful moments everywhere throughout the album, but it's anti-impressive. |
| Flying Lotus Cosmogramma | 4.2 |
| Objectively, this is insane. But it does not engage me as much as I would like to. Next time, I'll be high. Edit: it's like, what, my 7-8th listen of that record? Now only the first three tracks sound obnoxious to me. The rest is super engaging and, dare I say, unique music, but it doesn't have the emotional impact You're Dead had on me. Edit2: ohboyohboyohboyohboy im so fucking stupid sometimes |
| Fief IV | 3.9 |
| The medieval folk additions are remarkably fitting, bringing that early adventure feeling. |
| Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy | 3.5 |
| Swans My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky | 3.7 |
| This is the prep for The Seer and TBK, and this is still heavier, more engaging and more extreme in its approach to music than 99% of all motherfuckers. |
| Captain Murphy Duality | 3.8 |
| This is some wiiiild stuff. It relies a lot on Madvillain's masterpiece, but then who doesn't? |
| Chaucerian Myth The Canterbury Tales | 3.7 |
| Epic and cinematic. Dungeon synth, neo-medieval folk, dark ambient and some neoclassical darkwave create the perfect sonic representation of such tales. Would be good for some OG board game nights or some OS medieval reading. However, it's a shame some parts drag on forever, would be a hard 4 otherwise. |
| Dessa A Badly Broken Code | 3.6 |
| Hip hop beats, some R&B flavour and a touch of spoken word: very interesting release that somehow fails to meet all its promises. |
| Bring Me the Horizon There Is a Hell, Believe Me I've Seen It... | 3.4 |
| Basically the same comment as Sempiternal: the poppiest songs are gud, the metalcore ones not so much. Slight advantage for Sempiternal. |
| Enslaved Axioma Ethica Odini | 4.0 |
| My fav of them so far; an extremely well-balanced mixture of prog rock and black metal. |
| Chillin Villain Empire Not Like Those | 2.2 |
| Very good rappers, horrendous beats. Even though they have good flows and all, all I can hear is this mid-2000s clubby shitty rap prod. |
| Parkway Drive Deep Blue | 3.8 |
| Oh the nostalgia. Much more breakdown-centered than what I remember, but what made me love this band were these aerial riffs & solis (Alone, Sleepwalker, Wreckage, etc.). Still makes me hard. |
| Despo Rutti Convictions Suicidaires | 2.8 |
| Basically the same comment as Lalcko yesterday: hard-hitting political French hip hop, hindered by the dated beats. However, this time the album also drags towards the end, and his flow is also more monotonous than Lalcko's. |
| Janelle Monae The ArchAndroid | 4.4 |
| The definition of an era-defining record. We're granted a continuous groove throughout the record, fusing funk, R&B, soul, pop, psychedelia, and even some folk. Couple this versatile sound with a concept linking modern black emancipation philosophy with Fritz Lang's Metropolis, and you get one of the most forward-thinking records of the decade. Even though having a grandiloquent underlying concept might lead to an overblown and overthought record, what's prominent here is the groove slipping from the album and how Monae's voice perfectly conveys the emotions and feelings of the lyrics hinting. What more could we ask than an intelligent, free-flowing, cinematic, and funky record where the content and the form are top-notch? Not much, that's for sure. Decade album. |
| Aloe Blacc Good Things | 3.0 |
| Pleasant soul from Bill Withers, uh Aloe Blacc. |
| Bonobo Black Sands | 3.7 |
| "El Toro" slapz, the rest is classic Bonobo, slightly better done than usual for him. |
| Lalcko L'Eau Lave Mais l'Argent Rend Propre | 3.1 |
| French conscious hip hop. The main problem is, as always, the beats. The beginning of the 2010s was a dark time for French hip hop because the beatmakers were stuck between mid-2000s beats (as displayed here) or revival (and less good) 90s beats (among others, the band 1995). This makes this period very difficult because no beatmaker was really pushing the game forward: everything was a copy of a copy. Anyway, apart from the dated prodz, this is a quite solid album; the guy is a good rapper and stays (a bit too) serious throughout the record. |
| Deafheaven Demo | 4.0 |
| Much more trve black metal than their later outputs. It has much less of this Envy-type, post-rock-inspired screamo, and feels much more like a regular atmobm record with folky post-rock interludes. Very cool introduction to the band, they show some great potential 'round here. |
| Jesse Dangerously Humble & Brilliant | 3.2 |
| Typical abstract/indie hip hop: a white dude rappin with a white dude's voice over some earl sweatshirt type beats. Like Aesop, he's a great rapper with a not-so-great voice. |
| Arcade Fire The Suburbs | 4.2 |
| Taking its influences from the modern American music, this is one hell of a dense record. It drags a bit towards the end, but it never gets dull as the songwriting is top notch. Edit: on further listens, the end of the record proves to be nearly as good as the beginning. |
| The Doppelgangaz Lone Sharks | 4.1 |
| A modern old-school east coast hip hop record. It sounds like Cunninlynguists, so crisp and atmospheric. The delivery is great, the beats are jazzy and smooth af, the interludes do allow the record to breathe, and damn it's so full of jams. |
| Mac Lethal Irish Goodbye | 2.9 |
| A white dude complainin' and rappin' over some nice but not mindblowing productions. Enjoyable to some extent, but almost an hour of such a style is tiring. |
| Red Fang Murder the Mountains | 3.2 |
| A plain fun stoner rock album that doesn't take itself too seriously. |
| Kayo Dot Blasphemy | 2.7 |
| Steven? Is that you? Good, but unmemorable |
| Booba Futur | 2.4 |
| Dayum he's got features with 2 Chainz and Rick Ross. Apart from that, a regular B2O record: he's cocky, the beats sound all too similar, he's a good rapper while not being the best, etc. |
| The Jezabels Dark Storm | 4.1 |
| Sublime, sublime EP that does not revolutionize anything, but damn if non-revolutions could always be this good, maybe the frogs wouldn't want to behead (literally as well as figuratively). |
| Mgla Age of Excuse | 3.2 |
| Did not wow me like EiF did, even with the atmo and meloblack touches. A good bm record, but not one for the ages. |
| Counterparts Prophets | 3.3 |
| Their most metalcore release, full of breakdowns and melodick riffs. Not amazing, but a good ol' early 2010s melodic metalcore release that makes yo head bop. |
| Freedom Hawk Holding On | 3.2 |
| A bit of 2000s stoner, a bit of 1970s Black Sabbath, and a bit of 1980s hard rock. |
| Espiiem Haute Voltige | 3.6 |
| Pleasant 'conscious' French hip hop, his delivery is not amazing but it fits with the chill productions. There's a really nice Submo sample in Suis Moi. |
| Mojave Lords Unfuckwithable | 3.0 |
| Description in 3 sentences: Joshua Tree-produced. Friends with the QOTSA gang. Love ZZ Top. |
| Booba Nero Nemesis | 3.4 |
| Ok this one is really cool. There's no shitty dancehall and reggaton, his autotune is much better than on his next two albums, he's wayyy funnier and the punchlines hit much more. It's not exactly what makes me willy biggy, but it's nonetheless a fun listen. |
| Anna von Hausswolff Singing from the Grave | 3.7 |
| Very good indeed, but it's her less 'Anna Von Hausswolff' record; it does sound like many other female singers/songwriters records (lookin' atcha, Joanna and Kate). "Pills" is magnificent. |
| Kaaris Or Noir | 4.0 |
| The meaniest and nastiest output French rap has ever produced. "J'n'ai qu'confiance qu'en mon Desert Eagle et en Zizou dans les arrets d'jeu". Not my favourite 2010s French rap album, but certainly one of the most important and influential one: before that LP, no French wordsmith rapped over trap or drill beats. It also worked really well because, even though the beats were innovative for French hip hop, Kaaris still held that gangsta position that was protruding during the 2000s. Typically the kind of album I respect more than I enjoy it. Edit: It's really dumb but it's so fun and efficient at what it's doing. |
| Deftones Diamond Eyes | 4.3 |
| The sound of mourning. Some of their most beautiful songs (Sextape, Beauty School, both of which are sexy classics), some of their djentiest and crustiest riffs (Risk, t/t), some tracks reminiscing of their older days (Prince), and a pounding beaut as an intro. The way Chino soulfully sings on top of these djent riffs is what makes this one stand out in their discography. It's not their most violent, nor their most painfully beautiful, it just perfectly mashes everything the band is about in 40 minutes. |
| Mos Generator Electric Mountain Majesty | 3.6 |
| One of the best modern stoner rock I've heard recently, the singer has a pretty distinguishable, almost 80s voice. And the music is for once not generic desert-influenced psych rock, this has a true stoner feel. |
| The Shrine Bless off | 3.1 |
| Hard/punk/stoner rock, getting a bit repetitive towards the end. |
| Wo Fat Midnight Cometh | 3.2 |
| Funky psych stoner |
| Booba D.U.C | 1.5 |
| Basically the same comment as for Trone. However, this time it's slightly better, but it's lasting for too long. Sometimes the autotune is not perfect, but Booba without autotune is like My Bloody Valentine without distortion. 1.7 |
| Astronautalis This Is Our Science | 3.7 |
| Good rapping on top of some really nice indietronica. Quite varied stuff that all yo fwends can appreciate to some degree. |
| Greenleaf Rise Above The Meadow | 3.1 |
| Ok subpar Elder |
| The Black Queen Fever Daydream | 3.6 |
| Basically the same album as the second one. Noice. |
| All Them Witches Sleeping Through the War | 3.2 |
| Yet again, another cool stoner rock record, with this time a bluesier sound. Nothing rgroundbreaking but a nice psych ride. |
| Ka The Night's Gambit | 2.3 |
| Some nice flows here and there, but the soporific delivery and the lack of actual beats makes it a bit boring. Guess I'm not really a fan of Roc Marciano's clique. |
| Black Rainbows Pandaemonium | 3.2 |
| A cool Italian spacey stoner rock band. Not the most essential but great fun nonetheless. |
| Booba Trone | 2.4 |
| Booba's autotuned voice on mindless beats ain't the best version of himself . He's still capable of pulling hilarious metaphors or oxymorons, but musically it's one of his weakest albums. Not bad, but very meh. |
| Uncle Acid and The Deadbeats Wasteland | 3.2 |
| Cool stoner/heavy psych with a lo-fi, almost 60s knack. "Bedouin" is mmmmph, the rest is mostly aight for this band. |
| Tool Fear Inoculum | 2.6 |
| 10000 Days' B-sides. Not bad but unnecessarily long, and the opposite feeling of a regular Tool album. I was not feeling oppressed by the tight sound, and my jaw did not drop even once. |
| Lana Del Rey Norman Fucking Rockwell! | 3.9 |
| Never listened to any of her albums before that, and boy was I not ready. It's almost worth the mounds of hyperbolic claims it receives. Might grow. Edit: On further listens, this did not grow on me. Still a good surprise. |
| Crosses Crosses | 3.6 |
| This is really good trippy and dreamy alt rock, but I feel it works better on EPs than on ra full length. |
| A.A. Williams A.A. Williams | 3.2 |
| Dream pop/chamber folk that does not hesitate to go heavy. Cool introduction, even though her sound is not original enough to make this an incredible release. |
| The Black Queen Infinite Games | 3.6 |
| Greg Puciato singing over the most ambient Depeche Mode tracks. Kwaliteit. |
| Grouper and Roy Montgomery Split | 3.2 |
| Montgomery's side is gud shoegazey shit without being mindblowing, while Lizzie once again charms my heart. |
| Vinterdvala Archieteuthis | 3.4 |
| More dark ambient and less DND synth than his unpronounceable other record. Good per se, however I can't help but compare the two records, and it does not have that funky fantasy feeling. |
| The Roots How I Got Over | 3.9 |
| Gaddaym this is full of bangerzzzzzz. Wasn't expecting so many sweet anthems. |
| Intronaut Valley of Smoke | 3.9 |
| Holy moly that drum'n'bass duo is orgasmic. |
| Killing Joke Absolute Dissent | 3.9 |
| One of the most consistent contemporary bands still got it. Heavy and anthemic, this is their best 2010s release. |
| Les Discrets Septembre Et Ses Dernières Pensées | 4.0 |
| Woah this is shoegazer and folkier than I remember, and it makes me think more of Amesoeurs than Alcest. Lyrics-wise, I'm ashamed I can't entirely grasp what Fursy is saying, and Chanson d'Automne (Autumn Song for those of you who can't understand frog) takes its lyrics from Verlaine, which gives it a trve CHANSON DE ROLAND STYLE. |
| We Lost the Sea Crimea | 3.6 |
| Much less ethereal and much heavier than their next releases, not for the better. Still a good atmosludge record, the last track is an Isis-type behemoth. |
| Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra Kollaps Tradixionales | 3.7 |
| Not their best, but a bombassthicc orchestral noisy folk punk record. |
| Vinterdvala Historien om de sju trollgubbarna | 4.0 |
| perfect soundtrack to Maurice Druon's The Accursed Kings |
| Devil Sold His Soul Blessed & Cursed | 3.1 |
| Main problem are the vox: the screams are really adolescent, but not in a Le Pre Ou Je Suis Mort way, more like mid-2000s metalcore; and the cleans are whiney. Apart from that, music is good post-hardcore/post-metal. |
| Gorillaz Plastic Beach | 3.5 |
| Almost every songs on here are singles' material. Overall a pleasant listen even though it does get all over the place. |
| Agalloch Marrow of the Spirit | 3.9 |
| An excellent record, that does not attain the Holy Trinity's grandeur, but still a povnding babe. |
| Counterparts The Current Will Carry Us | 2.7 |
| Ye this one is less good than their next outputs. While their next albums all contains some very melodic riffs balancing the hardcore bursts, here, they fall flat. None of this is bad, but none of this is memorable. |
| Nails I Don't Want to Know You | 3.2 |
| If you want to understand what violence is in less than 5 minutes, go for it. First track is typical Nails hitting you on yo head, while the second one is a tad weaker, with Max Cavalera's voice being outdated af. |
| Covet acoustics | 2.9 |
| Pleasant acoustic math rock, but that's about it. |
| Envy Recitation | 3.7 |
| Consistent as fuck. Not their best, not their worst, just a great Envy record. |
| Til Det Bergens Skyggene Til Det Bergens Skyggene | 3.5 |
| One of the more ambient and spacey dungeon synth albums I've listened to. This one has a Phaedra, spacey feeling. This is not the type of music that makes you think of epic walks around Rohan, but rather one that captures you into a drifting spaceship. |
| Brockhampton Ginger | 3.0 |
| Nice evolution from the boys. Sometimes the autotunes are baddey (Ginger, Big Boy), sometimes it's just not that good (the end of If You Pray Right), but when it hits boy does it (No Halo, Dearly Departed). |
| Triptykon Eparistera Daimones | 2.7 |
| Ok gloomy doomy gothic metal. I've always had attention trouble with this guy. |
| Joanna Newsom Have One on Me | 4.2 |
| Magnificent album that's juuuuust dragging a tad. However, one can only put respek on such a colossal effort. Her grandest work. |
| Counterparts The Difference Between Hell and Home | 3.7 |
| Solid Counterparts record, as all Counterparts record, even though this one is my fav. I realize only now I should have listened to this band instead of The Ghost Inside when I was 16. |
| Iron Maiden The Final Frontier | 3.2 |
| They've done it before, and in a better way. Still rips. |
| The Roots ...And Then You Shoot Your Cousin | 3.1 |
| Consistent and all, and it has its share of experimenting, but nothing overwhelmingly amazing for these guys. |
| Anubis (Fr) Cradle of Civilization | 3.7 |
| Egyptian dungeon synth, fucking cool. The tribal takes are really refreshing to the genre. |
| Sleater-Kinney The Center Won’t Hold | 3.1 |
| It's ok. The St. Vincent's prod is not incredible, as the noise passages could be rawer and more abrasive. You can still get a lil bit of da pop. |
| Tropical Fuck Storm Braindrops | 2.7 |
| All quirks and no play make this a dull album |
| Stromae Cheese | 3.3 |
| Nice electropop/electrohouse, but this is both musically and lyrically simpler than his next one. |
| Counterparts Tragedy Will Find Us | 3.5 |
| It's a very solid melodic metallic hardcore record, but that's about it for me. The second half is much stronger than the first however. |
| LCD Soundsystem This Is Happening | 4.1 |
| James Murphy paying homage to his heroes (Bowie, Iggy Pop, Talking Heads), but this time he doesn't reinvent anything (as his first two albums did): rather he goes as far as possible with the template he already had: slow build-ups bursting into electronic energy (Dance Yrself Clean - and I still don't get that drum fill towards the end of the song), punkish drunken anthems to both dance and sing along (Drunk Girls), Bowie homage (All I Want), and basically everything Murphy has already done. This makes for an exceptionnally fun record that, understandably, fails to bring the freshness the first two LCD LPs had. This still makes for an extremely modern record, and a particularly fitting one for the decade's beginning on top of that, bringing together rock, punk, electronic and dance. Kind of a shame he went back with American Dream, this record right here was an ideal conclusion to the band (along with that legendary Madison Square Garden live, ooooowheeeee). Even though it was not truly the end, for a while it felt like the perfect one. |
| Sed Non Satiata Mappo | 3.6 |
| Great European screamo, it's especially cool to understand what these guys are saying. However, this album lacks the epic climaxes of the eponym, and some of the vocals are ok-ish. Still great screamo, San Andrea and the end of Soma are especially awesome. |
| Fiendish Imp Fiendish Imp | 3.5 |
| Neat little minimal dungeon synth EP. It sounds like the soundtrack of an obscure NES's dungeon crawler. |
| Cloudkicker Unending | 3.1 |
| Same style as Subsume and Beacons, but not as much substance. The interludes do not add that much variety to the record, and the hard tunes are not banging as they could. An acceptable Ben Sharp output. |
| Altar of Plagues Mammal | 2.7 |
| The whole point of this band is the atmosphere, but they temporarily lost here on here. An almost enjoyable record, but it feels underwhelming compared to their other records. |
| Shadow Of Intent Melancholy | 2.2 |
| When they get rid of the symphonics and the singer, it's actually quite good. However, apart from the 10-minute track, it almost never happens. Apart from that, neither tech deathcore nor symphonic metal never were my cup of tea, and this one won't change my mind. |
| Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti Before Today | 2.9 |
| Yeah I prefer his solo stuff. At least this is better than Mature Themes. |
| The Ocean Anthropocentric | 3.7 |
| This one is catcheyyyy, it's their most immediate one. Better than Heliocentric, but a tad less good than Phanerozoic & Pelagial. |
| Kurt Travis There's a Place I Want to Take You | 3.2 |
| I thought peepz were exaggerating but yeah Andres sucks. Apart from that, solid second album, even though there are no bops like Everything Is Beautiful or Too Loud/Too Cold. |
| Kishi Bashi Omoiyari | 3.7 |
| A beautiful pastoral chamber folk tale. |
| Hatchie Keepsake | 3.0 |
| Nice dreamy pop. There's absolutely nothing original here, but hey it's kewl. |
| Year of No Light Tocsin | 3.5 |
| Great ominous atsmopheric sludge metal, but it doesn't have that special feel Ausserwelt had. Maybe it's because this one is less diversified, relying much more on atmosludge. |
| Cloudkicker Let Yourself Be Huge | 4.0 |
| Ben Sharp going into post-rock and folk, and it's at best gorgeous (eg tracks 2 and 8), at worst pretty. I think it would get boring if it were longer, so kudos for the appropriate length. My favourite Cloudkicker output. |
| Anathema Distant Satellites | 3.7 |
| This one is interesting. It's not as grand (and cheesy) as their last two (even though it still is), and it brings some welcome electronic additions. And fortunately, it's not bland like The Optimist. "Ariel", "Anathema" and "Take Shelter" are especially awesome. |
| Off With Their Heads Be Good | 3.4 |
| Punk music for people who are getting divorced or; Hot Water Music of the 2010s. The vocalist is solid, but I feel the instrumentals do not match his emotion. |
| Olafur Arnalds ...And They Have Escaped The Weight Of Darkness | 4.0 |
| Beautiful minimalist neoclassical with a melancholic yet uplifting feel, and my fav Arnalds' work. The drums additions elevates this to some post-rock territories, and these are the parts where the piano subtleties truly shine. Not a lot more to say, this is simply pure quality work. |
| Inquisition Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical... | 3.7 |
| Apart from the vocals that are quite laughable, this is an extremely solid heavy black metal record. |
| Leonard Cohen Old Ideas | 3.1 |
| Leonard sings with his raspy voice over some b-side Twin Peaks tunes. Good stuff, but the music is clearly not on par with that thicc voice. |
| Year of No Light Ausserwelt | 3.9 |
| Apart from The Great Old Ones, this is the band that comes to mind when talking about Lovecraftcore. Sludge, doom, post-rock, shoegaze, atmospheric black metal and post-metal resulting in an awesome wall of sound. |
| Cloudkicker Subsume | 3.9 |
| Beacons 2.0. Excellent posty prog metal flowing as easily as the Niagara Falls. |
| Anathema The Optimist | 2.7 |
| This one is post-rockier and also more electronic, but the main consequence of this change in sound is dullness. Still well done, but kind of a shame. |
| Bruno Pernadas Those Who Throw Objects at the Crocodiles... | 3.5 |
| Jazz pop, space age pop? Never been a huge fan of this niche, but it's clearly well-done and very original. |
| Oneohtrix Point Never Returnal | 4.1 |
| Apart from the first noise track, this is one of his most atmospheric works. A reinterpretation of 70s electronic, with a slight vaporwave touch. |
| Haru Nemuri Haru to Shura | 4.4 |
| J-pop done by a girl who doesn't hesitate to rap/speak really fast or add some post-hardcore vibes. Awesome. If you wanna know what the cool kids will listen to in 5 years, give this a listen. And if you wanna listen to some Japanese music that doesn't sound "too" Japanese (u coward), this might be a perfect gateway. I never thought I would need this album, but now I do. |
| Leonard Cohen Popular Problems | 3.2 |
| Short and sweet, but apart from the first two tracks as well as tracks 6-7, it's a tad underwhelming compared to his other releases. |
| Thangorodrim Taur​-​nu​-​Fuin | 3.6 |
| The forest under night. Music to read LOTR to. |
| Cloudkicker Fade | 3.7 |
| A mix of Beacons and Let Yourself Be Huge. |
| Anathema We're Here Because We're Here | 3.7 |
| Basically the same as Weather Systems: very good, but I find it a tiny bit cheesy. |
| Shai Hulud Reach Beyond the Sun | 3.7 |
| I forgot how good this was. Ofc there's no bass player on here (or maybe he forgot to plug in), but shit slaps hard while being very melodic. Would be at a 4 if the second half was as good as the first. |
| Deerhunter Halcyon Digest | 3.7 |
| OK I get why this is praised. However, while some tracks are true lil pop gems ("Desire Lines", "Helicopter", "Coronado") and the closer is a monster of a psych ride, the others fail to transport me into the psych mood I was looking for. And I can't help but have this "band-covering-The-Beatles-but-with-a-dirty-sound" feeling. A great record for sure, but I think I was too hyped for this. |
| Danny Brown The Hybrid | 3.6 |
| He will refine his sound in the future, but this is already very solid. The mid-to-end of the record is the shit, and much more appealing than the first half. |
| Leonard Cohen You Want It Darker | 4.1 |
| Same theme as Bowie, same delivery as Cave. I didn't want it darker, but you gave us the darkest. |
| The Tallest Man on Earth The Wild Hunt | 4.4 |
| Apart from Carrie & Lowell, this is the 2010s folk album that had the most influence on me. These two records show folk music isn't the protest platform it once was: now it's sad people that play guitars. While that may sound bad, it showcases how a genre moved to macro problems to micro ones, and how it tells these personal stories so well. While Matsson's first album Shallow Graves was bombastic and full of bold declarations, The Wild Hunt is much subtler, as Matsson authorizes himself to be softer, both in terms of his guitar technique as well as his voice. The Nick Drake's open tunings influence truly shine here, as it allows him to focus on his singing (and god, what a beautiful voice) while still performing quite intricate music. There are some wild tunes (King of Spain, You're Going Back), but they are balanced with the softer Kids on the Run or Love is All. Not as bold as his first record, not as heart-breaking as his latest one, not as painfully beautiful as Carrie & Lowell, this record nails everything that makes folk great: soulful delivery and lyrics, discrete yet not that simple guitar playing, and most importantly: the goddamn feels. And these feels are brought to us by one man only, his voice and his guitar. |
| Cloudkicker Live with Intronaut | 3.7 |
| Good shit in studio maketh good shit live. |
| Thangorodrim Gil-Estel | 3.1 |
| I lol'd at the Youtube tags: old-school dungeon synth & Tolkien-inspired ambient. Accurate though. Maybe a tad long, but still good shit to explore Rohan. |
| Frightened Rabbit The Winter of Mixed Drinks | 3.7 |
| Apart from The Midnight Organ, this is their best. It's sounding like sad uplifting music. You could both dance and cry to it. |
| Kayo Dot Coyote | 3.6 |
| Gothic jazzy prog. |
| Depressive Silence Depressive Silence II | 4.1 |
| I thought it was going to be much darker, but damn this is some good adventure music. Hits all the right spots. |
| Gazpacho Missa Atropos | 3.1 |
| K now I def consider this band as a bland-but-always-alright Porcupine Tree |
| Blut Aus Nord 777 - Cosmosophy | 3.9 |
| My second fav 2010s BAN, mainly because on this one they don't sound like a tame DsO copycat. The atmospheres and the melodies are more prominent here, creating a less headfucking but much more enjoyable atmospheric black metal. |
| Cloudkicker Woum | 3.2 |
| Some smoothy atmospheres to study or ponder forlorn metaphysical thoughts to. |
| MGMT Congratulations | 2.9 |
| I can't help but feel some sympathy for this album as it tries to emancipate itself from the mastodon singles that defined, and still define, the band. Sometimes it's awesome (t/t, the end of Siberian Breaks), at other times it sounds like tame psych pop. |
| Rolo Tomassi Cosmology | 2.6 |
| The first half goes in too many directions at once, and the second half is a bit more traditional in its composition, which makes it easier to digest. Would have probably finished at 2 if it weren't for the last two tracks. |
| Lustmord Heretic | 3.6 |
| My fav of his. This time I got (almost) completely lost into it. The daunting flutes are an extremely good additions to the bleak dark ambient, and the repetitive mantra in the last track also adds a Darkspace atmosphere. |
| Listener Wooden Heart | 3.6 |
| Like TiaM, this is cool American music with a dude from Missouri or another shithole shouting over said music. |
| The Dillinger Escape Plan Option Paralysis | 4.3 |
| Great hooks and mathcore madness: the best of both worlds. Farewell, Widow, or I Wouldn't If You Didn't are incredible tracks showing this new, cleaner, and hookier side of TDEP, while most of the other songs (Room Full of Eyes, for example) still display the traditional manic endeavours of the band. This more free-flowing approach helps the album breathe a lot, as each track differs from the previous one. If previous records showcase the band's inherent brutality, Ire Works and Dissociation their more experimental sound and OoUItK their poppier side, this is a pretty good summary of what TDEP are capable of. |
| The Black Keys Brothers | 2.5 |
| These guys are good when you listen to 2-3 songs, not if you listen to an entire album. Nothing is truly bad but it's so safe, bland and repetitive. |
| Vampire Weekend Contra | 2.6 |
| It's quirky and all, but I did not have fun while listening to that album. |
| The Menzingers Chamberlain Waits | 4.1 |
| Their second best after OtIP. Even though I didn't listen to this one for at least 4-5 years, it's still ingrained in my head. The first 5 songs are especially godly, and while the rest is kewl, it does not attain such pop punk greatness. |
| Blut Aus Nord 777 - The Desanctification | 2.8 |
| As other soundoffs stated, it's a kinda boring version of Deathspell Omega, with some very nice moments (eg tha clean riff on X, or that institent one on XI). |
| Igorrr Nostril | 3.4 |
| Always weird, always cool. This one is less black metal and much more cybergrind, which does create a teeny tinny headache when the cybergrind moments are forcing their way into your head. Other than that, classic Igorrr. |
| Loma Prieta Life/Less | 3.7 |
| Good skramz, and their crustiest output (that bass sound). Even though the shortness of the record does not help the record explore that much, it still is more innovative than Self Portait. Again, what works the best for me are these melodic guitar riffs floating above the relentless violence. |
| Crippled Black Phoenix I, Vigilante | 4.0 |
| Those were the good dayz. Post-rock influenced prog rock. 2010s Pink Floyd. Bastogne Blues and Of a Lifetime still blast. |
| Beach House Teen Dream | 3.5 |
| I want to love this more, but I can't seem to remember much of it when I finish listening to it. A very pleasant listen but that does not strike me as much as Bloom or 7. |
| And So I Watch You From Afar Gangs | 3.8 |
| So ballsy, so cool, so sharp, and the record where they manage to stay concise while keeping that ballzynesssss. Plus, they have that prog rock sound on this album they don't have on others, and it does make it a bit less redundant. |
| Titus Andronicus The Monitor | 3.6 |
| Honestly you can feel they were young angry drunk men when they did this album. This brings a kinda over-the-top feeling, but also an authenticity and a passion you just can't help but sympathize with. Caveat is I didn't really focus on the lyrics and the apparently-Civil Waresque storyline. |
| Blut Aus Nord 777 - Sect(s) | 3.7 |
| The most DsO album of BAN. Even though this is crushing atonal black metal, I feel it loses some of its steam during the course of the record. |
| Touche Amore Dead Horse X | 1.5 |
| I thought the point of remastering an album was to make it sound better? Jeremy doesn't sound nearly as good as 10 years ago. Almost all songs are played too fast and lose 3-4 seconds: what they lose are these magnificent micro moments of silence before they hit you in the face, these moments where you hold your breath before shouting as the angry adolescent you were. They lost the dynamics. |
| Four Tet Beautiful Rewind | 3.0 |
| This is Four Tet at his most bouncy, as it draws influences from tech house and future garage. The first half is more engaging than the second half, save for the gorgeous Unicorn. |
| TTNG 13.0.0.0.0 | 3.7 |
| Truly satisfying math rock/emo record. More concise and efficient as they ever been, but overall a less memorable output than Animals. On par with the eponym as their 2nd best record. |
| Arcturus Arcturian | 3.7 |
| Futuristic symphonic progressive metal. While others seem to genuinely enjoy the clean vox, I'm having a lot of trouble with this kind of overly theatrical (read: power metal) vocals. The harsh ones are extremely good though. Musically this is top-notch, the music flows seamlessly between calm and extreme moments, and only the clean vox are meh. |
| And So I Watch You From Afar All Hail Bright Futures | 3.5 |
| Fun and dynamic. I feel this is a bit less redundant than HEIRS, but it doesn't have the impact their first two records had. |
| Bon Iver i,i | 3.6 |
| Some occasional moments are absolutely marvelous, but this relies too much on what other artists have already created for this to be called experimental. An enjoyable record nonetheless, but not one I will regularly visit. |
| The Contortionist Our Bones | 3.2 |
| Quite good, even though it doesn't bring anything new to the band's aesthetic. As Sitar stated in his review, the vocalist is not interesting enough as a clean vocalist for them to focus only on cleans. A little underwhelming but still a great little EP. |
| Blut Aus Nord Memoria Vetusta III - Saturnian Poetry | 3.6 |
| Less experimental than their other releases, this one has a quite classical melodic/atmospheric black metal feel reminiscent of the second-wave. Just a plain great black metal album. |
| Four Tet Morning/Evening | 2.9 |
| A middle-aged Thai woman singing over some blippity bop microhouse/minimal techno. Overall a good record, but a tad repetitive. Would be great with shrooms. |
| Slipknot We Are Not Your Kind | 3.1 |
| Yeah this is good, yeah this is better than their last two records, and yeah this is better than expected. But calm yo tiddies, it's just an ok alt metal record. |
| Downfall of Gaia Epos | 3.8 |
| Oyo, aren't they angry on this one. This is the one where they showcase the most emotion and soul imo (apart from EoRF). On top of that, it's their least bm record, which makes it stand out in their discog. Their second best. |
| And So I Watch You From Afar Heirs | 3.4 |
| As everyone already said, it's the kind of album you have to see live to truly appreciate it. |
| Janelle Monae The Electric Lady | 3.7 |
| Oh my god that's some funky shit. The concept is much more upfront than on The ArchAndroid but the music is more rooted in the 70s, which clearly doesn't help when doing a futuristic concept album. Other than that, it's less grand than her first album, and better done than her next one. I wanna see the ELECTRO BOOTY CONTEST man, those interludes were awesome in setting the overall mood. |
| The Chariot Long Live | 3.7 |
| The beginning of something great. Before that, they were an ok eclectic metalcore band, since this one they became an awesome chaotic metalcore band. I still prefer One Wing and the '68 records; but "The City" is so damn amazing, "David de la Hoz" introduced me to Listener, and the horn is a nice inclusion in "The King". |
| Loma Prieta I.V. | 3.6 |
| Concise and abrasive screamo (bordering on emoviolence), which makes it both an awesome listen and a frustrating one, as some excellent ideas are not explored enough. |
| Blut Aus Nord Deus Salutis Meae | 3.1 |
| Experimental industrial black metal. Good stuff resembling to DsO, but idk it does not grab me as much. |
| Four Tet New Energy | 3.7 |
| As Cogito stated, it does sound like a YT mix. However, this is remarkably effective in setting a mellow and chill atmosphere (folktronica additions help). The record's first half is much bouncier, with tunes such as Lush or Scientists. The second half is more in an ambient house mood, still good but less engaging imo. |
| TTNG Disappointment Island | 2.7 |
| Apart from Whatever, Whenever (which makes me think of Shakira), nothing really interested me here. How can bands lose their soul? |
| And So I Watch You From Afar The Endless Shimmering | 3.2 |
| Just plain fun instrumental rock music |
| Thou Algiers | 4.0 |
| This was so nasty I had to take a shower. |
| Trophy Scars Darkness, Oh Hell | 4.3 |
| Your favourite jazzy blues progressivecore band. This is where they decided to stray from random post-hardcore to transform into a gigantic modern band that relies on nuances. "Sad Stanley" is a mastodon on its own. |
| Raein Sulla linea d'orizzonte tra questa mia vita e que | 3.9 |
| That's some excellent European screamo. I feel American screamo can't truly grasp that specific uplifting yet depressing sound. Kudos for the mixing: the guitars are really high, and that's an epic win when you have such sweet melodic riffs. |
| Loma Prieta Self Portrait | 3.5 |
| Noisy and abrasive screamo with (sometimes) melodic guitars. Not their most accomplished output, but what stands out the most are these depressive guitar tones (tracks 3, 5, 7), which create an almost contemplative mood. |
| Nails Unsilent Death | 4.0 |
| OSDM riffs with grind and crust energy/vocals. Remarkable production (thx Kurt) that, even though it's raw af, allows the record to kinda breath between its relentless aggression. |
| Four Tet There is Love in You | 4.1 |
| Meditation music for LSD lovers. This album proves that microhouse can sound warm, playful, and natural and is thus a perfect gateway for any mofo not listening to that kind of blippity-bops. This accessibility is due to how reminiscent of the 90s dance the album is and the incorporation of folkier vibes (these harps are gorgeous). But the listeners enjoy TiLiY from Four Tet's ability to add layers and depth on top of 6-minute beats. Might be the most chill electronic AOTD. |
| More Than Life Love Let Me Go | 3.7 |
| Passionate melodic hardcore, but that's about it. I used to absolutely love that genre so much back in the day, now it feels so young and innocent. |
| The Ghost Inside Returners | 3.3 |
| Ok melodic metalcore with adolescent one-liners just before the big chuggy chuggy breakdown. The whole genre tired me over the years, but tracks 1, 3, 4, 6 and 10 still go hard. |
| Tame Impala Innerspeaker | 4.2 |
| Incredible psych pop/rock album, and my second fav Impala. An album to make your uncle listen to when he says no one does music the way drug-full hippies did back in these good ol' 60s. |
| Thou Summit | 4.1 |
| Once again a crushing release from the swamp masters. The "competitive" edge of this record is its shortness, which makes it their most focused album yet. As muddy and heavy as a Mega-Swampert. |
| NOISIA Split The Atom | 3.6 |
| Music to bang yo ass to. Quite versatile record as it incorporates nearly every genre relative to dnb (dnb itself, neurofunk, electro house, brostep, etc.), as well as other electronic subgenres (wonky, grime, funky house, breakbeat among others). It's this variety that allows this album to stand out both from the crowd and from their other releases. |
| Sharon Van Etten Epic | 3.6 |
| Her second best album (after Are We There): she manages to create lengthy but concise songs, which makes the album easier to digest than her other ones. |
| Sufjan Stevens The Age of Adz | 3.2 |
| Sufjan going Animal Collective. Some excellent ideas throughout the whole record, but it does go everywhere without truly going nowhere. It's a shame, 'cause the best bits of this are awesome (Impossible Soul is full of them). Other props: the Disney-sounding bits would be cool in a kids' movie, and the length is not a problem per se. |
| The Body All The Waters Of The Earth Turn To... | 3.9 |
| Spiritual sludge doom metal. Tracks 5 and 6 are much less impactful than the others because of their lack of choirs. |
| Massive Attack Heligoland | 3.6 |
| As subtle as they ever were, without that little 'wow' that Blue Lines and Mezzanine had. |
| Julie Christmas The Bad Wife | 3.7 |
| Heavy and poetic, she does not hesitate to go into a more delicate sound with this record. The slight problem might be the relative monotony of the album, but it's still awesome to listen to that witch. |
| Gnaw Their Tongues L'arrivée de la Terne Mort Triomphante | 4.0 |
| One of the most ghastly albums I've ever listened to. The title tracks intensely express the apocalyptic tone of the album. The soundtrack of the heat death of hell's kingdom. |
| Emancipator Safe In The Steep Cliffs | 3.5 |
| Organic and soothing like his contemporary Bonobo, but he does not attain his first record's grandeur, and I feel he lacks a bit of energy. A great downtempo record, but it has a slight tendency to play safe. |
| The Brave Little Abacus Just Got Back from the Discomfort... | 3.8 |
| Vox and prod suck, but boy do they fit perfectly. It's an interesting emo record, as I see some hints of greatness in almost every track (eg the mid-part of the first track, with that buildup + horn), but apart from these moments, I fail to be enjoyed. Guess the vox are too whiny for me, I spend my time waiting for the best moments to come up. The good moments are absolutely awesome, but can't be more than that because of the frustration I get while listening to that album. |
| Big Boi Sir Lucious Left Foot | 3.6 |
| Pop rap done fucking well: a more focused Speakerboxx. The verses are tight and the R&B choruses are infectious, although I do find some of them cheesy. |
| Russian Circles Blood Year | 3.2 |
| Not bad, well-written and well produced, the blast beats and blackened feel do add a nice touch, but overall they did not wow me this time. |
| Grouper Violet Replacement | 3.5 |
| Magnificient drone/ambient. Basinski is that you? Edit: I must have been in perfect listening conditions as Rolling Gate had almost no impact on me this time. Sleep is still good, but I do not feel the same connection as that other day. Erf, will re-listen at some point and then figure it out. |
| Black Sabbath 13 | 3.2 |
| Tasty riffs, crispy bass and a good Ozzy, but it's quite dense to digest. |
| Emuul Crawling Across The Rafters | 3.7 |
| Minimalist drony ambient. First track is absolutely gorgeous, the second features fascinating guitar, and the fourth one has that vibey feeling. The other 2 tracks are good but not on par with the others. |
| Merchant Ships For Cameron | 3.7 |
| Fuck you Sleep Patterns, you almost made me cry. The rest is good passionate screamo, but nothing groundbreaking if you already have 5'd a screamo album. |
| Murmuure Murmuure | 4.4 |
| Pushing the boundaries. Unreal industrial ambient bm (kinda sounds like a bm Tim Hecker project). The main asset of this LP is the soul and the aura that comes out of it: this is the kind of work that manages to show deep humanity with (almost) only machine-made music. Another addition into the big 'did one fantastic record then disappeared' catalogue. Top 5 bm of the decade. |
| Pendulum Immersion | 3.0 |
| Watery arena drum'n'bass, with everything good and bad you should expect from such a record. Timeless jams: "Watercolour", "The Island Pt. I" and "Witchcraft". |
| Underoath Ø (Disambiguation) | 3.0 |
| Much heavier than what I remember, the sludge inclusion to their traditional metalcore/post-hardcore do help them reinvent themselves, but the songs are not that memorable apart from that heaviness. Ok heavy post-hardcore. |
| Women Public Strain | 3.5 |
| Acutely blurry and fuzzy, its atmosphere, dissonance and aesthetic make me think of Unwound and MBV. I feel this is the kind of record that may "click" at one point, and then you're hooked. Edit: ok it's starting to click. Edit2: nothing new clicks. It's a record that def has got many qualities, but these qualities do not touch me that much, despite "Eyesore" being a masterpiece, or many other tracks possessing great passages. |
| Grouper The Man Who Died in His Boat | 3.1 |
| Tbh it does feel like the B-sides of DaDDUaH: it's folky ambient music, but not as well done as on the main record. "Living Room" is gorgeous though. |
| Lustre (SWE) A Glimpse of Glory | 3.2 |
| One of the first bm records I liked (especially the second track, "Lunar Light"), and it sure was better when I didn't know shit about bm. The main problem with this is that there are maybe 6 ideas that are rehashed over and over 40 minutes. Apart from that, the vocals are sub-Burzum and the riffs are almost nonexistent, but what I always liked about Lustre was the ominous synths (and boy do they synth). Overall a not-so-great ambient bm LP, but it still does the job, (then again, especially "Lunar Light", one of my first bm faves). |
| Listener Time Is A Machine | 3.6 |
| Moustachu redneck shouting some poetry over post-rock/post-hardcore. Excellent, but it does get tiring to hear that dude. Fortunately, the album is short enough and the music is sufficiently diversified to forgive the drunken shouting. |
| Comeback Kid Symptoms + Cures | 3.6 |
| Their 3rd best output, maybe because it sounds a lot like their first two records, with a rtiny bit of crossover thrash riffs here and there. It's a shame the second half isn't rthat great, the first half absolutely slaps. |
| Avenged Sevenfold Nightmare | 2.7 |
| Twas kinda cool when I was 16, it's still ok but not that good: it's too long for its own sake and there are too many average ballads. Also, they go full heavy metal on this one, with almost no reference to their metalcore roots. It's kinda cliche metal. However, you might find this incredible if you don't know Metallica or Pantera. |
| Alpha 5.20 Scarface d'Afrique | 2.9 |
| Typical gangsta/conscious French rap album: too long (1h17) and trying to build a story like Kool G Rap without being Kool G Rap. Despite the quality of Alpha's rapological technique, I had some trouble finishing the album, and the production sounds stuck in the 2005 Memphis mud. Kudos for the Kitano ref and the Jules Winnfield monologue though. |
| Youth Pictures of Florence Henderson Small Changes We Hardly Notice | 4.1 |
| That sax in track 1 fucked me up. Excellent midwest emo record reminiscent of American Football, with less reliance on post-rock than their second LP. |
| Grouper Grid of Points | 3.7 |
| Extremely good but why was it only 22 minutes long ? Won't give a 4 because of that, I was extremely disappointed that it ended up when I started to drown in her sound. I NEED MOAR. |
| Anderson .Paak Venice | 3.1 |
| Slick West Coasty FlyLo feel over some sexy neo-soul/contemporary R&B. It's cool but less cool than Ventura & Malibu, it's quite evident it's his first album. |
| Parkway Drive Reverence | 1.5 |
| this is shit. 1.4 |
| Japandroids Near To The Wild Heart Of Life | 2.8 |
| So restrained that it's a shame. Will rejam Celebration Rock only to feel young again, this one made me realize I have to wake up every morning to earn money; money that I will spend on useless shit that sucks out the small amount of energy I have left. There still are some good aspects about it, but the mindlessness is long gone. |
| Arcade Fire Reflektor | 2.2 |
| First half is either horrible (Normal Person, Joan of Arc) or yawn (can't even remember it) apart from that t/t that claps fat Mexican asses. The second half is better (the run from It's Never Over to Afterlife), but honestly it's mostly a feeble Bowie copycat, apart from Afterlife, which is a true banger. And their French lyrics sound like a bad version of Christine and the Queens. |
| Hologram Lo', Caballero, Lomepal Le Singe Fume sa Cigarette | 3.7 |
| Technical French boom bap. All the artists here have achieved stardom by now, but on this record, they just want to put some respek on hip hop's name. "Sur Mes Pas", t/t and "Ma Reussite" are all great ways to discover the oldschool version of popular rappers of 2019. |
| Evilfeast Wintermoon Enchantment | 3.8 |
| This one took time to grow, but it sure is rewarding. I still think this guy should work on his transitions: some eerie dungeon synths parts are suddenly interrupted by bm drums that kinda come out of nowhere. However, it has that Saruman-in-Fangorn feel that always works on me. Even if it's not his best work, it's an excellent dungeon synthy atmo bm. |
| 65daysofstatic Silent Running | 3.5 |
| Overture sets the mood so well it's a shame the rest of the record doesn't quite live up to it. Still a great spacey record, better than the NMS soundtrack, flowing seamlessly through supernovas and asteroids. |
| A Day To Remember What Separates Me from You | 3.6 |
| The first record I heard from this band, and I forgot it was kinda bad: average chuggy metalcore riffs and average pop punk hooks. This makes me realize why Four Year Strong are so much better: they didn't simply mash up metalcore and pop punk, they created massive pop punk anthems with heavy riffs rand vocals. Still nostalbae woo! |
| The Saddest Landscape You Will Not Survive | 3.6 |
| Angrier than I remember, it sounds like an emo version of The Carrier (oh the nostalgia hits so fucking hard). The vocalist sometimes sounds like a human pittbull, but it sure does add a certain je-ne-sais-quoi. |
| Youth Pictures of Florence Henderson Youth Pictures of Florence Henderson | 3.8 |
| Gorgeous post-rock with some emo chords and vocals. The vocals are a bit awkward from time to time, but they do add a certain charm to the music. |
| The Ocean Heliocentric | 3.2 |
| So yeah it's more delicate than other releases, but the clean vocals are not astounding and are too much present. The band also pound much less than on other releases (lookin'atcha, Phanerozoic). Overall a good listen, but there's much better prog/post-metal (and better The Ocean too) out there. |
| Arcade Fire Everything Now | 1.5 |
| They always had that kind of disco vibe and it was kewl. This is 100% disco and it fucking sucks ass (except for the t/t, which is kinda kewl). If they wanted to be edgy they should have sung with that horrendous Quebecois accent, at least they would have been funny. 1.7 |
| Falls of Rauros The Light That Dwells in Rotten Wood | 3.8 |
| Hey a new Agalloch album! Seriously though, that's a great dark folk-influenced atmo bm record, lacking originality but displaying more soul than any other Agalloch copycat. |
| 65daysofstatic No Man's Sky: Soundscapes | 2.7 |
| The ambient and eerie side of space exploration. Sometimes ominous as a villain spaceship, sometimes quiet as the empty succession of stars, and sometimes a tiny bit boring too. |
| 65daysofstatic No Man's Sky: Music for an Infinite... | 3.2 |
| The post-rock side of space exploration. Good and somewhat interesting. It truly feels like a soundtrack, thus if you haven't played the game (may God save you) it's just an ok post-rock/ambient record. Red Parallax rocks hard. |
| Ulver Wars of the Roses | 3.8 |
| I don't really understand the quite low rating here: it's a soft but powerful ambient rock record with some exquisite Garm spoken word lyrics. |
| Russian Circles Empros | 3.3 |
| Maybe their heaviest, but they lose some nuance with it. A great listen but not my most beloved Russian Circles' output. |
| Light Bearer Lapsus | 4.3 |
| The best post-FoE record, and the only one coming close to the rabbits' perfection. The atmosphere is crushing (as its main FoE influence is Inle, eg Armoury Choir), but the band is capable of pulling beauts of post-rock progressions (Primum Movems' intro). What makes this a standout record in post-metal is the emotional impact it leaves on you, thanks to the aforementioned crushing riffs-beautiful chords combo. Plus the lyrics did make me read His Dark Materials and John Milton, so congrats boyos. |
| Blank Banshee Blank Banshee 0 | 2.9 |
| Trappy vaporwave. Really cool (as always with vaporwave), especially the Grandmaster Flash sample on Teen Pregnancy, which might be one of the staple tracks of the whole genre. However, some tracks are kinda annoying (3,8), and it does drag even though it's only 30 minutes long. |
| CunninLynguists Oneirology | 4.2 |
| Their second best after the masterpiece A Piece of Strange. The beats are top-notch and display a lush atmosphere, the rapping is ok but is nevertheless sublimed by the feats and samples, and the lyrics are pure poetry: a classic Cunninlynguists record. Comparing this to their aforementioned magnum opus, it's a record that takes its time to reveal itself. The beats are crunchy and are the most immediate feature of the whole record. However, it's after further listening that these harmonies, pianos, bass, guitars, and raps start working together and shine. And what's most impressive is that this record is working extremely well, yet in a totally different manner than APoS, and that shows how versatile this band is, and overall how important they are for underground hip hop. They'll remain under-hyped and will never make it big, but that may be for the best. |
| Nightwatchers La Paix Ou Le Sable | 3.7 |
| Extremely cool post-punk/power pop hailing from France (putain ca fait plaisir), with lyrics treating France's colonial exactions in Indochina, Algeria and Cameroon. French punk is fucking alive, merci Manu. |
| Julia Holter Tragedy | 3.1 |
| Post-pop ? Opera pop ? Musique concrete (don't even know what this is)? Very interesting release by its concept, but it failed to entirely grasp me, and, as I saw on RYM, it does sound like a pretentious art student project. Goddess Eyes' synthpop sound brings a satisfying variety after the first 3 ambient/field recordings tracks, and Celebration is delightful. |
| Manchester Orchestra Simple Math | 4.2 |
| Arena rock that will never go to the arenas. Shame they didn't make this kind of music in the 90s: it's introspective, extremely melodic, it's got the stringz (even though they do sound cheesy at times), it's heavy-but-not-too-heavy (the way "Deer" transforms into "Mighty"), even epic at times ("Pale Black Eyes"), and, most importantly, it's full of sing-along tunes. It takes some time to apprehend the album and truly understand it. It's gonna be overlooked in the coming years for sure, but this is one hell of an onion: just peel it for it to reveal itself. |
| 65daysofstatic Wild Light | 3.9 |
| Between OTFAT and WWEA, at times urban, at other times spacey. Always futuristic. |
| Tim Hecker Ravedeath, 1972 | 4.0 |
| It's fascinating to witness the death of something as beautiful as an organ. Subtle music to be frightened to. |
| Stake All Is Chaos | 3.9 |
| Smashing sludgy post-metal. It might well be their best, but they are quite consistent so that's a tough call. They put out some of their best songs on this one: tracks 1, 3-5 and 7. |
| sleepmakeswaves ...and so we destroyed everything | 3.8 |
| One of the best traditional post-rock band from the 2010s, even though this one is slightly less good than LoC. Best jams are tracks 1, 4 and 5. |
| Scale the Summit The Collective | 3.7 |
| Better than all they've done except The Migration, but I do feel this one lacks a bit of the adventurous feelings The Migration had. Good shit, but it doesn't make me want to explore mindlessly the next open field like a Hobbit. |
| Steven Wilson Grace for Drowning | 4.0 |
| Ok by now we can acknowledge this dude is a prog titan. |
| Revocation Chaos of Forms | 3.7 |
| Good as always with deez boyz: nice prod, nice riffz, nice blastbeats, nice jazzy solos ronce in a while. The vocals are a bit monotonous but that's about it. Best tracks are 4 rto 6, 8 and 11. Overall one of their best with Deathless. |
| The Jezabels Prisoner | 4.2 |
| Fantastic Cocteau Twins-influenced, female-fronted The National release. The first half is deeply hypnotic, and while the second half is not as good, there still are some marvelous cuts (Deep Wide Ocean magad). |
| RIEN 3 | 4.0 |
| The first installment of their final trilogy. The Sun is Always Right is an amazing post-rock journey, Masterkraft is a hypnotic and heavy space travel, and V is a soft but proggy lullaby. Might be the best EP of the trilogy. |
| Kendrick Lamar Section.80 | 4.2 |
| Underrated as heck. Bars after bars, hooks after hooks, this kid shows here that he will be the greatest rapper of his time. Ofc it doesn't have the reflection his two subsequent albums have, but it's a top dawg mixtape 'round here. |
| High Tatras Mouth to Mouth | 3.7 |
| Nice short EP. It's free folk/post-punk with some country influences. Very cool and diverse sound, it sounds like the soundtrack of a really obscure but really cool movie about high and depressed cactuses. Will gladly check what these guys will put out next. |
| Rise Against Endgame | 3.1 |
| Nostalgia aside, it's pretty solid. However, it's clearly on that album they lost their punk edge (that was still a bit there on AtR). |
| Falls of Rauros Believe in No Coming Shore | 3.2 |
| Good atmoblack, but nothing impressive in comparison with their last two albums. |
| Maybeshewill To The Skies From A Hillside | 4.0 |
| Just bringing awareness that this exists. |
| Earl Sweatshirt EARL | 3.1 |
| Pretty dope """experimental""" horrorcore. He will refine his sound in later releases, but the fact he released this at 16 it's bloody impressive. And he doesn't sound sad on this one. |
| O'Brother Garden Window | 3.8 |
| Very good mixture of post-hardcore, post-rock, alt rock and atmosludge. It's clearly their best album, but I remember liking it more when it came out. "Lo" is still a banger, and the end of "Cleanse Me" always ravages everything. |
| Mastodon The Hunter | 3.0 |
| Apart from the t/t, Creature Lives and The Sparrow, I did not really care about this one. My least fav Mastodon release. |
| Oneohtrix Point Never Replica | 4.3 |
| His most vaporwavey album, while not really being vaporwave, as he does not forget his ambient/glitch/progressive electronic sound. Slightly less haunting than R Plus Seven (thanks to the delicate piano additions) but it's top tier OPN. And the cover art slaps. |
| Meniscus War of Currents | 3.9 |
| 2010s post-rock at its most representative: nothing groundbreaking, but damn fine music. |
| Falls of Rauros Vigilance Perennial | 3.7 |
| After listening to Patterns in Mythology, this sounds much less seamless: there are nice bm parts, nice post-rock parts, but it does not flow as well. Still great. |
| Twenty One Pilots Trench | 3.2 |
| Excellent prod on this, it's heavier than all their previous albums, the raps are actually ok, the drums are pounding ahrd and there are some cool basslines. Still not really my cup of tea, but kudos for not doing a pop shitfest after the massive success of 'Blurryface'. |
| Vektor Outer Isolation | 4.1 |
| Bangin' astral asses. My least fav of theirs, maybe because it's the one exploring the least. Still an amazing tech thrash record, with "Tetrastructural Minds" being the top dawg. |
| Kurt Vile Smoke Ring For My Halo | 3.9 |
| As hypnotic as WoaPD, but no song here comes near Girl Named Alex or Waking on a Pretty Day. |
| Ulcerate The Destroyers of All | 3.7 |
| If DsO played death. Brutal, technical and even quite atmospheric, this is a behemoth that did not wait any second to slap your bitchy face. |
| St. Vincent Strange Mercy | 3.6 |
| Less pop and more noise = higher ratings. |
| Bjork Biophilia | 2.8 |
| Not really feelin' this one tbh. Minimal ambient/glitch pop with some weirdy time signatures. It's ok, but one of my least favourite Bjork record. |
| Falls of Rauros Patterns in Mythology | 4.2 |
| Oh the melodeez, the leads are astounding. I think they've attained their full potential with this one. This is an extremely pretty folky atmospheric black metal record with an appropriate length. |
| Twenty One Pilots Blurryface | 2.6 |
| Ok pop rock with some reggae affinities. The songs truly shine live tho, they feel tepid on record. |
| Tyler, the Creator Goblin | 2.5 |
| Too much, too young. Some ok tracks, some bad tracks. BOREDOM BOREDOM BOREDOM BOREDOM |
| Solstafir Svartir Sandar | 3.6 |
| Excellent post/prog metal, but it's clearly too long : a 77 minutes-record is not an easy thing to produce, and unfortunately they lose some steam over this running time. Still great music obviously. |
| Ramshackle Glory Die The Nightmare | 3.6 |
| The same songs as in Live the Dream, but without the whole band. Very good too, but it lacks the wholesome energy of a full band performing live. |
| The Smith Street Band No One Gets Lost Anymore | 3.9 |
| One of the best summer-university punky band (aye, Menzingers all the way). It's over-the-top, even cringey at times but gaddaym isn't it passionate. If I had discovered that band when I was 16 they would have been on constant rotation. |
| Devin Townsend Project Ghost | 3.8 |
| Ante-Casualties of Cool. My fav DTP release, and it makes me realize I prefer his softer side from all his 2010s' releases. |
| The Black Dahlia Murder Ritual | 3.7 |
| HEY THERE'S BASS! One of their best records, the first 4 songs are blasting. Apart from that, it's a typical TBDM album. |
| Freddie Gibbs and Madlib Bandana | 3.9 |
| Fire beats as always with Madlib, but I feel Freddie's not always at his best (eg Half rManne Half Cocaine), and all features destroy him (Killer Mike the GOAT). Still an excellent output, with the jazziest Madlib has been in a long time. Comparing this to Pinata, it's more immediate but less, in lack of a better term, hungry. It's more polished, which makes for damn fine beats, but it loses some of the rawness that made Pinata so good. However, one can't help but be amazed by some of these beats that sound like absolutely nothing else in 2019. It's reminiscing of what Madlib has done in the early 2000s or of the late Dilla. Objectively, this is one of the finest mash up between old school and modern hip hop. Shame it's not these dudes' best album. |
| Laura Stevenson Sit Resist | 4.3 |
| To put simply, this is a gorgeous indie folk record, and her best one. Such a tender album with slight but evident pop sensibilities. She successfully let go of BtMI to fully embrace what she always was about: the beautiful intertwining of melodies and a restrained voice. |
| A Winged Victory for the Sullen A Winged Victory for the Sullen | 4.0 |
| I feel I need to listen to this while watching the stars. Then I'll start to be sad and be overwhelmed by the black immensity of the universe. Then I'll be calmed and will watch the stars as they are: tiny dots in the sky I don't know anything about. |
| Bomb the Music Industry! Vacation | 3.6 |
| BtMI - ska + pop. Top notch songwriting and production, but I doesn't bring as much feelz as it did before (save for "Savers", that guitar sound always crushed me). |
| Departures When Losing Everything Is Everything You Wanted | 3.1 |
| Kinda disappointed by this one, it's an ok melohxc record (while I previously loved it at 18 years old). Guess I'm gonna stick with Defeater and Modern Life Is War. |
| This Will Destroy You Tunnel Blanket | 3.0 |
| I was bored AND captivated by this record |
| Iceage New Brigade | 2.9 |
| Noisy post-punk with some hardcore parts from time to time. Good per se, but it's clearly their least interesting output and the production is on the bad side of shitty. |
| Oathbreaker Maelstrom | 3.7 |
| Their least bm, but crustier release. It's also their least good output, but they always thump. |
| Car Seat Headrest Twin Fantasy (Mirror to Mirror) | 3.5 |
| I like this one more than F2F, the lo-fi prodz works better. |
| Submotion Orchestra Finest Hour | 4.4 |
| A simply gorgeous record. It's downtempo and nu jazzy and dubstep and a bit of trip hop and that sublime voice. Can't get enough. |
| Stupeflip Hypnoflip Invasion | 4.1 |
| French band with punk, rap and 'chanson francaise' influences. Their lyrics mingle a lot of social commentaries and silly/absurd sentences, which makes them stand out both lyrically and musically. Plus they created their own universe and lore, and display it throughout their albums. Stupeflip Vite! was a blast in 2012: it's the best track to discover the band, but the run from track 1 to track 6 might be the best way to define Stupeflip: a band that listened to Bashung, Lio, Booba and les Berurier Noir. So fucking French. The main problem with Stupeflip is how people actually perceive them: even though they clearly have a punk attitude and a so-evident love for chanson francaise, they are labelled as rap. This leads narrow-minded French metalheads to pull out stupid shit such as "I don't listen to rap, but I like Stupeflip, it's not as dumb as these other rich, egoist and deadening motherfuckers like Booba", and narrow-minded rapheads to pull out stupid shit such as "Stupeflip is rap 101 for dumbasses who don't understand shit about the culture". Neither of these two groups is right, simply because Stupeflip ain't rap. They sure have a rap phrasing on some songs, but it's just a band that put all their influences in a blender and it happens that one of these influences is rap. |
| Panopticon Social Disservices | 3.2 |
| Great atmo bm, but it's clearly his least original output |
| The Story So Far Under Soil and Dirt | 3.4 |
| Almost on par with WYDS, truly catchy pop punk. |
| Wormrot Dirge | 3.2 |
| As in-your-face as Voices, but it lacks the crust incorporations that made the next album more original. Still slappin' hard, but less interesting. |
| Red Hot Chili Peppers I'm With You | 2.7 |
| It ain't bad, but it's clearly subpar RHCP. And it's too fucking long. |
| Death Grips Exmilitary | 3.8 |
| Violence has never been this exhilarating. What a way to kickspin your way into the industry. |
| Macintosh Plus Floral Shoppe | 4.1 |
| A good nostalgia album that got bad advertising and then it escalated quickly. Keep calm, it's just a chill record that happens to be important for people who want live times they never experienced. For example, it makes me want to drive in 80s' California at 6PM, when the sun slowly sets, and then go into an In-N-Out and watch commercials. Second track might be the best vaporwave track, along with the fourth one. |
| James Blake James Blake | 3.4 |
| Good shit, but since I've seen him live his studio outputs seem a bit bland. Edit: "bland" is a bland word. Thing is, the one time I saw him live, his music hit with transcendental energy, the kind of pure discharge one's body rarely encounters during a music show. This record, however, is one of deconstruction, minimalism, and claustrophobia, which are very different feelings. It ain't bad, I just had a too good first encounter with Blake. |
| Full of Hell Roots Of Earth Are Consuming My Home | 3.3 |
| Powerviolence/noise/sludge/grindcore/crust/metalcore. IT'S ROUGH. Not a lot of variety from this violence, but it's efficient as hell to punch you in the face. |
| Heart in Hand Only Memories | 3.2 |
| I think I got tired of this genre. Nonetheless, it's a good melodic metalcore/hardcore output |
| The Strokes Angles | 2.7 |
| Basically the same criticisms as The Comedown. At least Macchu Picchu slaps. |
| Swarms Old Raves End | 3.7 |
| Great future garage/dubstep sounding like Untrue, but with a soothing feeling instead of that lonely/melancholic/Burial one. |
| Mogwai Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will | 3.7 |
| Mixing some abrasive stuff ("Rano Pano"), some classic post-rock songs ("You're Lionel Richie", "How to Be a Werewolf") and some "easier" tracks ("White Noise", "Death Rays"), it does not compare with their magnum opus but it's still their best 2010s release by far, more original than Every Country's Sun and more focused than Raved Tapes. |
| BADBADNOTGOOD BBNG | 3.6 |
| Style over substance. But boy do they have some swagger. |
| Chelsea Wolfe Apokalypsis | 4.1 |
| Look a ghost came through the door, from a thousand years before |
| Anopheli A Hunger Rarely Sated | 3.5 |
| Continuing on the cello-driven sound magnified in Owlsa, but less well-done (FoE > all). First track is the best one, it does get a tad redundant afterwards. Good output tho, one of the best of the post-FoE canon. |
| U2 The Best Of 1980-1990 | 4.0 |
| Side A is godlike. |
| Frightened Rabbit Tiny Changes | 3.2 |
| Great homage, ofc not as good as the original but nobody expected this to be revolutionary. Kudos for Biffy Clyro, Fast Dynamite, Daughter, Julien Baker and Manchester Orchestra. |
| Torche Admission | 3.7 |
| Urgent and catchy, simple but efficient. There was something in the hooks/riffs that made me think of 'pop sludge' or 'pop stoner' (especially the t/t, which IS BANGING). Interesting release, but I found it less interesting after subsequent listens. |
| Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti Mature Themes | 2.2 |
| Some nice melodies and ideas but god do I need a paracetamol right now. His most experimental output (that I've heard), and not for the best. |
| Orelsan Le Chant des sirènes | 3.8 |
| The evolution of adolescent hip hop. This album had (and still has imo) a big impact on white French adolescents who didn't recognize themselves in Booba or La Fouine, mixing a French hip hop classic ("Suicide Social"), bad dubstep/rap mashup ("Mauvaise Idee"), beats that were very zeitgeist but that aged quite badly (almost all of them), tongue-in-cheek lyrics and some sing-along choruses that everybody knows by now ("La terre est ronde", "Ils sont cools", "Si seul", "Plus rien ne m'etonne"). It's overall very cool, but perhaps the one record of his where the aesthetic aged the most. |
| August Burns Red Leveler | 4.3 |
| Oh the nostalgia. It's the second metalcore album I ever listened to (Parkway Drive always in our hearts), the first ABR album I listened to, which led to my first show without my parents (badass, I know). I realize now it's not that incredible, but idgas it rips and takes me back to the good ol' days. Especially this was the first metalcore record I thoroughly enjoyed (Parkway always had a lot of filler), so I can't deny its importance in my musical journey. Sometimes it's all about the context. |
| The Strokes Comedown Machine | 2.6 |
| Some nice melodies and rhythms, but overall it's a tad boring. Julian sings like he doesn't care, and their attempt at math rock is not convincing. |
| Anopheli The Ache of Want | 3.2 |
| I used to dig this back in the days, now FoE took too much place in my brain. Not bad by any means, but I would rather listen to Owsla. |
| Light Bearer Silver Tongue | 2.9 |
| Ok post-metal. The bookends are good, and while the middle does not live up to such moments, there are some nice riffs or atmosphere here and there (the punching riff of "Aggressor & Usurper). The main problem is that it's dragging for too long. It's actually impossible to not think of them as subpar FoE, especially in comparison with Inle, which was also 80 minutes long but much more engaging emotionally and musically. |
| Bedwetter Volume 1: Flick Your Tongue Against Your Teeth... | 4.2 |
| Well... well fuck, haha. I mean, I just don't know what to say. I'm very glad to be here with you tonight. I'll be able to talk to you about some things...That I know a great deal about. Everyone knows that you are fucked up. And everyone knows that I am fucked up. But, does everyone know that you, are more fucked up than me? Well, I know that. And you know that. But our purpose is to tell everyone that. |
| Breag Naofa II | 3.7 |
| Then again, read Bedex's soundoff. |
| Carpenter Brut Trilogy | 4.0 |
| Might well be the best synthwave has to offer. It's a comp so it does drag a bit, but it's the perfect introduction to the genre. |
| Tycho Dive | 3.2 |
| His best one, not because of its sheer originality or versatility, but simply because it's the most immersive. He should consider dropping EPs instead of albums, his style gets tiring after 30 minutes. |
| Thundercat The Golden Age Of Apocalypse | 3.7 |
| Yeah it's Cosmogramma but in a jazzy mode (and less good too). My fav output of his. |
| Brand New Leaked Demos 2006 | 4.1 |
| titled mastered. Excellent compilation that helps understand how they went from Deja Entendu to TDAG. |
| Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues | 4.1 |
| Pure quality. This is just an incredible modern folk album, and the nods at 70s prog and 60s chamber pop makes a good balance with the overall raucousness radiating throughout the record. |
| The War On Drugs Slave Ambient | 3.7 |
| On the verge of becoming awesome. It lacks a tiny bit of grandeur to match his next two opuses. |
| Cave In White Silence | 3.7 |
| *Everybody Wants to Rule the World riff* SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING MY LOOOOOOOOOVES. Fucking awesome and abrasive. Not progressive per se, but very versatile. "Reanimation" rules too, that wall of sound is a tsunami. |
| Bon Iver Bon Iver, Bon Iver | 3.8 |
| A bit disappointed as I remembered this being a front-to-back banger. Still an excellent record, especially the beginning (that run from "Perth" to "Towers" is godly), but the second side did not appeal as much to me. |
| La Dispute Wildlife | 4.1 |
| Crushing. This is their best one imo, they let go some of the more adolescent lyrics from Somewhere..., and they also convey much more emotions musically: as Chan said in his review, the chord progression they display on some songs (which are all among my favourites here, such as St. Paul) are the most poignant ones they've done in their entire career. The dynamics are also much more controlled, as displayed in Safer in the Forest/Love Song for Poor Michigan. Plus, King Park is their pinnacle and SOTD material. Chills guaranteed. Post-hardcore OTD along with mwY's [Untitled]. |
| Jenny Hval Viscera | 3.6 |
| Her best effort. More haunting, more ethereal, more focused while more avant-garde. "Portait..." is a blast and might be the most immediate track of her entire discography. There are still some moments that fail to grasp my attention. Edit: i like it more now!! |
| Glassjaw Coloring Book | 4.1 |
| Extremely solid EP, and it's safe to say it's their most distinctive and original release. Massive texture and songwriting, there's an underlying grooviness to that heaviness. |
| Arctic Monkeys Suck It and See | 2.9 |
| Thick prod for some pop rock tunes. Solid but not tremendous, it might even be their least memorable output. |
| Adele 21 | 2.8 |
| Rolling in the Deep, Set Fire to the Rain and Someone Like You are era-defining anthems, rest is ok but boring. At least there's no really shitty songs. |
| Insomnium One for Sorrow | 3.6 |
| Quite good melodeath. Nicely done but nothing too revolutionary (is melodeath gonna be revolutionary anymore?). |
| Bonobo The North Borders | 3.6 |
| Very chill beats. Better than Migration, less good than Black Sands, the dude never disappoints. |
| A Lot Like Birds Conversation Piece | 3.5 |
| Is it DGD ? Great piece of early 2010s' post-hardcore. Might have been revolutionary for some at the time, now it's just a good example of the genre at the time. |
| Animals As Leaders Weightless | 2.9 |
| Eh. Ok, but a bit underwhelming by their standards. |
| We Lost the Sea The Quietest Place on Earth | 3.7 |
| It rules hard but idk it didn't give me as much feels as Departure Songs. |
| Ben Howard Every Kingdom | 3.5 |
| Read Aspenshadow's soundoff. |
| Radiohead The King of Limbs | 3.5 |
| A subdued and discrete motherfucker, but, unlike A Moon Shaped Pool, it's discretion becomes rewarding on the long run. It's insidious, its blend of previous Radiohead album slowly creeping its way into the listener's head. Best 2010s Radiohead album. |
| Defeater Empty Days and Sleepless Nights | 3.7 |
| Much better than later outputs, less good than Travels & Lost Ground. Some moments are reminiscent of their finest hours ("Warm Blood Rush", "White Knuckles", "Cemetary Walls"), and the Sleepless Nights part is a nice addition to their sound, even though they clearly are not Nick Drake (it actually brings the album down a bit imo). It works better in small touches here and there, like in "Prophets in Plain Clothes". |
| Deathspell Omega Diabolus Absconditus | 4.0 |
| Kings of dissonance. Always experimenting, they added a surprising but well-done clean section. Can't tell if I like this one or Drought better however. |
| Bonobo Migration | 3.0 |
| Very soothing, and it feels organic as always with him. Not his most transcendent work however. |
| The Wonder Years Suburbia I've Given You All and Now I'm Nothing | 4.2 |
| Oh the nostalgia. This was my fav back in the day, but now TGG took the crown and won't give it back. A solid second in their quite solid discog. |
| Trophy Scars Never Born, Never Dead | 4.2 |
| Short but truly amazing, not a single dull moment, and this band might be the best at mixing blues with modern music. |
| Pile Green and Gray | 3.4 |
| Oh the dynamic ranges. Great record, but my main complain would be that it's pure energy and not much melody, not much sticked. Will need to re-listen however, apparently peepz go crazy about it. My Employer - Hiding Place is my fave run off this. |
| Uppermost Origins (2011 - 2016) | 3.6 |
| Great way to be introduced to this French producer. His work is extremely reminiscent of OS Daft Punk/Justice (so it's very very cool). All in all a satisfying comp that, although formulaic, you can put on with some music dweeb friends. Some blasts include tracks 2,3,8,13 (A FUCKING JAM). |
| Lustmord Songs Of Gods And Demons | 2.8 |
| If you have to work, it's good. If you're high and want to be scared, it's good. Otherwise, I think you'll be bored. |
| YOB Atma | 2.6 |
| I didn't get the album prod. I'm glad I listened to it while reading. |
| Basement I Wish I Could Stay Here | 3.1 |
| Much less immediate than Colourmeinkindness, and slightly less good too. A good bunch of pleasant moments, but as a whole it does not keep my attention that well. |
| M83 Hurry Up, We're Dreaming | 4.3 |
| The most 80s' sounding album of the decade. The synthy, over-the-top pop climaxes make up for a monumental release: the best nostalgic album of all time. Midnight City is one of the most well-known singles of our generation, Wait is as magnificent and pompous as a ballad can be, and Ok Pal is basically the San Junipero episode in music. It's however important to remember than nostalgia is not a feeble copycat of what once was: although it sounds like an 80s relic, nothing produced in the 80s sounds like this album . Idk if it's the zeitgeist or some shit like that but the 2010s were filled with nods to the past, in terms of movies and TV shows (eg Stranger Things or Guardians of the Galaxy and its feel good oldies playlists or the reboots of so many Thatcher-era-lauded movies such as Mad Max or Blade Runner) or music (this, Carly in terms of pop, or the clear OSDM revival of Blood Incantation). Maybe that's why Americans elected Trump, he reminded them of Reagan. Or maybe we've finally created a collective sense that there was a time where humans were so good at creating an organic magic that we've long lost. Gonzalez is no magician, but he succeeded in recreating this so comforting atmosphere. In the end, this record right here will be remembered as a product of its time, taking influence from the past but delivering the most modern pop of 2011. It's excessive and glorious, and everything you could hope for a timeless record. |
| Lou Reed and Metallica Lulu | 1.5 |
| Not nearly as bad as everyone on the Internet claims it is. But it's still very bad. I'm kind of bummed out for not giving it a 1, my soundoff would have been 'ok wtf is this shit' and it's much cooler than this self-explanatory piece of garbage. |
| PJ Harvey Let England Shake | 4.3 |
| Idk what happened but it shook me to the core. The timeless chamber instrumentation and delivery, as well as the protest topic reminisces us of the great folk records. It's both subtle and savage, cheerful yet angry. That's mainly because Harvey doesn't focus on the great moments of wartime but rather on all the thoughts going through people's heads. Acting like a storyteller, she understood her work could be much grander when personal thoughts burst. All you need now is a harp, a brass, echoing guitars, a soft yet tight rhythm section and Polly Jean's inimitable voice to create a wake-up-call record. |
| Royal Headache Royal Headache | 3.9 |
| Lo-fi/garage punk/rock with a bombassthick singer. This dude is extremely reminiscent of 60s rock (and sometimes soul) singers, and it's absolutely delightful with this abrasive sound. |
| Liturgy Aesthethica | 2.3 |
| It's not *that* bad, although formulaic, too long, and their experimentations are bwergf. I headbanged at some points, no shit. Not very interesting in the grand scheme of black metal, though. |
| Gospel Lived | 3.9 |
| The shitty prod makes it so fucking awesome imo. Sounds a bit like those Redbone memes: when TMiaDW is on but you're puking in the toilets. |
| Selah Sue Selah Sue | 3.2 |
| A tad lackluster, but still doing a good job. A bit sad she didn't become the next big thing she was supposed to be. |
| I Hate Models L'Âge Des Métamorphoses | 2.4 |
| Woooof 94 minutes is too long for that guy. The first track made me hope for a lengthy but original techno record, but apart from this and Forgiveness, the rest was a mindless and quite conventional 'boom boom boom' nonchalantly thrown at your skull. |
| Otoboke Beaver Itekoma Hits | 3.9 |
| Furious japanese punk, and yeah it's as awesome as it seems. If Haru to Shura is the entry to J-Pop, this is a great first encounter with J-Punk, and once again done by girls not giving a single fuck. It's fast, angry, anthemic and fun as hell. Leaning towards the fury a band like Melt-Banana brings to the table rather than the straight up hardcore cliches, this record is, more than just another Japanese curiosity, a refreshing take on hardcore punk. |
| Black Midi Schlagenheim | 4.1 |
| Not a fan of the vocals but the musicianship is top-notch. Will need re-listens for sure. Edit: oyo was I wrong, this is amazing. |
| Title Fight Shed | 3.9 |
| Their best emo songs (t/t, the run from Crescent to 27). The fucking feels man. |
| letlive. Fake History (Re-Release) | 3.0 |
| The 3 additional tracks do add something. Not that much, but it's something. Lemon Party is a great jam, but that's about it. |
| letlive. Fake History | 2.9 |
| Well-produced, but damn this sounds like mainstream metalcore with pop vocals from the 2000s. A less good Glassjaw in summary. |
| Joyce Manor Joyce Manor | 3.5 |
| Passionate pop punk from 2011. Good stuff, but I think I discovered it too late, I've heard too many passionate pop punk bands from 2011. |
| Giles Corey Giles Corey | 3.7 |
| Wish I had the book, it does feel immense but it would be immenser (?) with the booklet. At its best, I don't think I've ever heard such crushing dark folk ("No One Is Ever Going to Want Me" and the last track pulverized me). |
| Frank Turner England Keep My Bones | 3.7 |
| Great albion folk record, with some reminiscences of Million Dead. It's kind of a shame that the end of the record is not on par with the beginning (which is super solid and makes you wanna sing along drunkenly). |
| Flourishing The Sum of All Fossils | 3.8 |
| As Bedex pointed out, it's a very interesting take on the tech death genre. At first, I was expecting a Ulcerate/Gorguts copycat, but I was taken by some moments totally reminiscent of other genres (skramz in track 3, the closer which feels like doom). Not as creative or head-crushing as other colossi of the genre can be, but still alluring as hell can ever be. |
| Fair to Midland Arrows and Anchors | 2.6 |
| Alt metal (sometimes sounding like nu-metal) that tries to be proggy and arty. It's clearly not bad and I can understand the appeal, but this is just not for me. |
| Deafheaven Roads to Judah | 3.9 |
| The dawning of a new era. |
| Destroyer Kaputt | 4.3 |
| The sax. The synths. The voice. The gentle guitar. The lush. This is some damn fine pop, and, without any doubt, the classiest record of the decade. As Johnny said in his best of the decade list, all I wish for is to feel a personal connection (Doofstyle) to that record so I could slap a fine 5 on it. Also Suicide Demo's intro sounds like a PNL track and it's kinda funny. |
| Battles Gloss Drop | 3.1 |
| Nice math rock with some indietronica touches here and there. However, I can't help but want to jam their first album instead of this one: this one is messier and much less poppy, and it feels kinda obnoxious at times. |
| ASAP Rocky Live.Love.A$AP. | 4.1 |
| The moment cloud rap began? Very good weed album (wish I had weed the time I listened to it). The production is especially amazing here, but A$AP's behaviour also plays an important role: he doesn't spit bars like Kool G Rap but he compensates with a cocky (and very fitting) attitude. It's also quite surprising that this dude is from New York because it sounds so Southern with its DJ Screw-influenced beats. Really cool, I understand how it blew up in 2011, and how it is still holding up in 2019. |
| *shels Plains Of The Purple Buffalo | 3.9 |
| Incredible post-rock, kind of reminded me of Yndi Halda for the quiet/grandiloquent dynamic. It feels good to hear post-rock like that in the 2010s, as the genre dissolved itself in other styles (the most prominent example being bm) but did not truly evolve on its own. This, is true post-rock. |
| State Faults Desolate Peaks | 3.8 |
| PBTT + Suis La Lune = epic win. Their least good effort however, they will refine their sound in the future (even though some riffs are sweet, eg in Faultlines). |
| Alpinist/Masakari Split | 3.7 |
| Hella good split, but Alpinist obliterates Masakari. |
| Mars Red Sky Mars Red Sky | 3.5 |
| Get into the hazey spaceship. Psych stoner rock with a sometimes fitting, sometimes annoying vocals. Overall great, nothing too mindblowing even though last track is a jam. |
| Shabazz Palaces Black Up | 3.8 |
| Experimental hip hop at its finest. I remember seeing this guy back in 2014 in support of FlyLo's You're Dead. I was high and did not understand everything. I do now. |
| Thursday No Devolucion | 3.6 |
| Very, very solid record, however I can't help but consider this band as a subpar version of a mix of Deftones & Glassjaw. |
| Bomb the Music Industry! Adults!!!: Smart!!! Shithammered!!! And Excited By Nothing!!!!!!! | 3.7 |
| Overly theatrical ska punk, and I love it. It's an incredible feeling to re-discover a band that you used to love almost 10 years ago. Not my fav release from them, but still a very solid record, especially for someone who doesn't know the band. |
| Danny Brown XXX | 4.1 |
| More terrifying and haunting than his other outputs, when it's not purely sad (Party All the Time). The beats are especially dark, a tad less abstract than Atrocity and less trap than Old. The middle of the record convinces me a tad less than the first and last third. |
| Grouper A I A | 3.7 |
| The first half is magnificent vocal ambient, ideal to immerse yourself in a sleepy haze. The second half contains a bit more vocals and it's clearly sadder in contrast with the first one that was (almost) uplifting. |
| Touche Amore Parting The Sea Between Brightness And Me | 4.3 |
| Slightly below ...To The Beat, I personally prefer the rawer sound they had on it. This is still an incredible melodic hardcore record full of dynamics. 2011 was sweet. |
| The Black Keys El Camino | 2.5 |
| Kinda bland and repetitive. Tracks 1 and 4 are jams, but I got bored during the rest. |
| Wolves in the Throne Room Celestial Lineage | 3.0 |
| Good cascadian bm. Not a lot more to say. |
| State Faults Resonate/Desperate | 4.2 |
| They fill the void left by PBTT. As much as I love this record, I can't help but prefer Clairvoyant. It still shits on almost any post-hardcore bands. |
| Dropkick Murphys The Warrior's Code | 4.1 |
| I'M A SAILOR PEG, AND I LOST MY LEG, CLIMBING THE TOP SAILS, I LOST MY LEEEEEEEEEEEG. So fucking fun, a perfect album to drink and pogo mindlessly with the boys. |
| Meat Loaf Bat Out of Hell | 3.9 |
| Beautiful, heavy, and fun. Just a very cool rock'n'roll album to jam to remember yo' papa. |
| Tim Hecker Anoyo | 3.8 |
| Super duper Japanese-inspired ambient. It's much more ethereal than Konoyo (for the better imo), but the running time is a tad short: hitting the 40-minutes mark would maybe make it a tiny bit less frustrating. Still, this guy continues to experiment from his own findings, so props to that. And that first track bangs. |
| The Roots undun | 3.3 |
| Yep, same feeling as in 2011: it's well produced, the rapping is tight and the lyrics are good as always with them, but after finishing this album I'm always a bit disappointed. IMMA JAM ILLADELPH HALFLIFE. |
| Blindside With Shivering Hearts We Wait | 3.0 |
| Alt rock with some post-hardcore. Not very original as it sounds a lot like 2000s music (and it's as cheesy as 2000s alt rock/post-hxc could be), but some tracks are awesome (Monster on the Radio, Our Love Saves Us, Bring Out Your Dead). Overall a not-so-bad but not-so-great record with some songs bangin' the shit and bringing the record up. |
| Ariana Grande Dangerous Woman | 3.6 |
| Ok I get why this got praised. It's a very solid pop album, even though the first half is much better than the second one. Basically, all tracks from the intro to "Greedy" are bops (except from that Lil Wayne feat) and let her display both her gorgeous voice ("Moonlight") as well as her capacity to create catchy as hell chorus ("Dangerous Woman"). Truly, it's a shame the second part of the record is not on par because there is so much potential to create the pop album of the decade here. Eh, Carly did it nonetheless. |
| The Dangerous Summer Mother Nature | 3.1 |
| Dreamy emo pop. Typically what I expected: an intelligent blend of genres for an album I do not really care for. The vocals especially are nothing short of average, but some of the guitar work brings a nice atmosphere and some tracks are great (t/t). |
| State Faults Clairvoyant | 4.6 |
| 2013, when a band was influenced by screamo to popularize blackgaze and shake the heavy scene. 2019, when a screamo band was influenced by blackgaze and released the best heavy album of the year. Nothing is lost, nothing is created, and everything is transformed. All this album would need to go to a 5 is a damn fine perfect listen. |
| Elder (USA-MA) Dead Roots Stirring | 4.2 |
| Sabbath, Sleep and S H R O O M S. "Gemini" is a metal bop. |
| Thrice Major/Minor | 3.9 |
| Ooooooof these last two tracks. |
| Nicolas Jaar Space Is Only Noise | 3.6 |
| Organic-sounding electronic music, very well-constructed ("Keep Me There" or the t/t) even though some moments are frankly boring (can't even recall these mofos). Overall an interesting record that nonetheless fails to entirely grasp me. Edit: I'm still dumb, but I clearly was dumber before. The record's weirdness is starting to grow on me, nuances being clearer than ever, yet evidently more obscure than in, say, 2 years' time. |
| Florence and the Machine Ceremonials | 4.3 |
| Having been baffled by the recent Weyes Blood's Titanic Rising, a comparison seems particulary fitting between the two grandest pop offerings of the decade. The main difference between the two records is how they convey this sense of epicness: while Natalie Mering focused on fragility and softness through her love for 60s & 70s bands to create a timeless classic, Florence Welsh and her orchestra are building the grand aspect of their work through robustness. Sure, her voice can sometimes sound sweet and fragile, but it's only to make her bursts of strength only the more persuasive. The last three tracks, the best run of the whole album, perfectly encapsulate this: the glorious climaxes are monumental precisely because the music building it is so nuanced. Stand tall and proud girl. |
| Ramshackle Glory Live The Dream | 3.9 |
| This is one of the best folk punk albums I've heard. Grittier, more passionate than most, insane songwriting, and the live setting makes the punk shine. |
| Between the Buried and Me The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues | 3.6 |
| Some magnificient moments (that short but TASTAY bass solo at 2min into track 1, the guitar + bass solo at the end of track 2 or the beginning of track 3), and other kinda average metalcore. Overall a great EP, its short length makes it a bit more digestible than their 2010s full-lengths. |
| Devin Townsend Project Deconstruction | 3.5 |
| His decade's craziest record, bringing back some dm sounds and forgetting a tad about symphonies (yay). Good to hear some heavy stuff from him, his last few albums were not really to my liking. |
| Ariana Grande Sweetener | 2.9 |
| Sweetener is rather pleasant, but much more restrained than its two predecessors, which does not help its boringness. Not bad by any means though, and the one-two punch "breathin"/"no tears left to cry" is a short bop odyssey. |
| Maybeshewill I Was Here For a Moment, Then I Was Gone | 4.1 |
| Beautiful and heavy post/math rock, and an album I have loved for a long time (the first three tracks as well as the last one are classics). The rest of the album does not live up to such greatness, but it's still an epic hell of a ride. |
| Baroness Yellow and Green | 3.5 |
| Great stoner/road trip record. It does not contain the most transcendent Baroness (even though Green Theme is a blast), but kudos on not having any filler. |
| Alkpote L'Empereur Contre-Attaque | 3.4 |
| Some incredible tracks ("C'est toujours moi", "Gainzbeur", "Voltaire") showcasing how well he mingles classic French song with hardcore and dirty hip hop; other awful ones ("Amour et loyaute") bringing the album down. A bit too long too, but maybe his most interesting output, especially since it was done before he became a French meme (now he's become kind of a legend because of his interviews). |
| Downfall of Gaia Suffocating in the Swarm of Cranes | 3.1 |
| Good bm, but did not impress me that much. |
| Mount Eerie Clear Moon | 4.0 |
| I prefer when this guy accompanies his lyrics with a fitting music: drony gloomy ambient avant-folk. |
| While She Sleeps This Is the Six | 3.3 |
| Hey after listening to their latest albums this is quite cool (most certainly because I listened to it quite reasonably back in the dayz). This genre as a whole is not my cup of tea anymore, but this had some songs that were rockin' hard in 2012. |
| El-P Cancer 4 Cure | 3.0 |
| Pre-RTJ. I'm not fond of RTJ, but this made me realize I love Killer Mike's flow. |
| Bruce Springsteen Western Stars | 3.7 |
| The last great American hero. |
| Gaza No Absolutes in Human Suffering | 3.2 |
| Cult Leader > Gaza, fight me. The one-two punch "The Crown" - "When They Beg" is absolutely massive though. Apart from that and the last track, I did not care that much for it. |
| Be'lakor Of Breath and Bone | 3.6 |
| Nothing groundbreaking here, but enjoyable melodeath. |
| Breag Naofa Breag Naofa | 4.0 |
| K just read Bedex's soundoff. |
| Baroness Purple | 3.7 |
| Production suckz as always, most of their songs are awesome, some others are subpar rstoner. Nonetheless, I think it's their best of the 2010s, mainly because they managed to keep it quite concise this time. |
| Caspian Waking Season | 3.9 |
| On par with Dust and Disquiet, might even prefer this one |
| Death Grips The Money Store | 4.1 |
| This is the third time I listen to this in 5 years, and yet, everything is already deeply ingrained in what serves me as brain. Idk if there is a 2010s hip hop record that manages to be at the same time that aggressive, experimental and somehow catchy. |
| Igorrr Hallelujah | 4.1 |
| Music at its deliberately weirdest. Aggressive, beautiful, modern and mindfucking. Some say it's a huge gloubiboulga, and in some ways it kind of is as it's merely a huge mess mixing every genre known to Gautier Serre. But in some way, shape, or form, there still remains this strange, almost morbid, fascination we all have for the bizarre. |
| Jai Paul Leak 04-13 (Bait Ones) | 3.2 |
| Psychedelic, quirky, and quite rough around the edges (which is positive, otherwise it would have been too polished). All in all a good summer record, but nothing mindblowing for me. |
| Cattle Decapitation Monolith of Inhumanity | 3.6 |
| Seen on RYM : "holy shit is that a drummer or a shotgun". I'm usually not a big fan of deathgrind, but this one slaps, and some slower tracks work especially well (eg "Lifestalker", "Kingdom of Tyrants"). |
| Perturbator Terror 404 | 3.1 |
| His least good output, he will refine his sound in later releases: this one is more horror synth-sounding and less Blade Runner-feeling. |
| Baroness Gold and Grey | 3.6 |
| Basically agree with Toondude. |
| Thank You Scientist Terraformer | 3.2 |
| When will prog bands stop hiring the vocalist from Coheed and Cambria ? Annoying as fuck, and it's a shame cuz m00zik gud. Plus it's so fucking long: not a lot of bands are Swans and manage to give us long and interesting albums. Very solid music apart from these rminor defaults (it's mostly instrumental so we don't hear the pig whining), would be mucho better if it was 20 minutes shorter and instrumental. |
| Les Discrets Ariettes Oubliees... | 3.7 |
| Shelter ? This is slightly better. |
| Gojira L'Enfant Sauvage | 4.0 |
| That cowboy riff at the end of Explosia, the crushing beginning of The Axe, the Cynic-like vocals on Liquid Fire, etc. Fucken awesome band. |
| Flume Flume | 3.9 |
| Full of bops and the perfect representation of 2010s mainstream electronic music (even though it's quite amazing it became mainstream). And it's one of these albums that you can play during a party and nobody will complain. Shame the second half of the record is not as bomb-ass-thicc as the first one. |
| Pallbearer Sorrow And Extinction | 3.0 |
| I'm impressed how these guys always manage to bore me throughout an entire record, and impress with 10 seconds-riffs. |
| Exodarap Exodarap LP | 3.5 |
| Less good than their EP imo, but this is a precursor album in Belgian rap. |
| Neurosis Honor Found in Decay | 3.4 |
| Apart from their first two, this may be their worst output. But we all know that every band strives to attain such greatness. |
| Cave In Final Transmission | 3.6 |
| So good, thanks Caleb for your final transmission. Shame it was this short, I felt a bit disappointed at the end. |
| Rise Against The Black Market | 2.7 |
| Sometimes it sucks growing up. |
| Gazpacho March of Ghosts | 3.1 |
| Spacey yawney post-rock. Some beautiful moments (eg the intro of Hell Freezes Over I Part.1), but overall it's a bit too samey. |
| Every Time I Die Ex Lives | 4.3 |
| The funniest, messiest, coolest and craziest metalcore album eva, and my personal fav of them (maybe because I discovered them with Ex Lives). It's basically New Junk Aesthetic but more intense, and a preparation for From Parts Unknown as the record is less homogeneous than previous ones. If I went to the gym I'd be flexing those muscles to this album. |
| Killing Joke MMXII | 3.6 |
| Always rockin' hard. These guys are really underlooked, most people know their 80s stuff, but their most recent outputs deserve a good batch of attention. Their industrial take on post-punk is still their trademark on the genre and no other band seems likely to take the crown. |
| Hop Along Get Disowned | 4.0 |
| This sounds fresh as heck, and this feeling strengthens with multiple listens. However, this sounds and feels like a rookie effort (which it is, eh). Frances' delivery can sometimes go off the railsHowever, they already knew how to pull out some beautiful music. |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! | 4.1 |
| The 20-minutes tracks are far better than the 6-minutes ones. On top of that, I find the drony tracks here less interesting than the ones on ASOD. However, Mladic is top-tier GY!BE, building and building and building before exploding and exploding and exploding. We Drift Like Worried Fire will make you cry out of fear. If only these drone tracks clicked as much as on ASOD. |
| Alexisonfire Dog's Blood | 3.3 |
| Kinda experimental for them, they mingle their traditional post-hardcore with some post-rock touches here and there (always nice) and also with a heavier/sludgier production. "Vex" is especially awesome. |
| Anna von Hausswolff Ceremony | 3.8 |
| Gorgeous organ-led neoclassical/ethereal darkwave, her second best after Dead Magic (this feels like Dead Magic's prequel). The mix of Kate Bush vocals, tribal instrumentation a la Dead Can Dance, and Twin Peaks mysticism works perfectly well. |
| Enslaved RIITIIR | 3.7 |
| Solid as always, one of the most consistent bands out there. However, I don't feel that much differentiation between their 2010s albums: they are all great, but none stands out above the others. |
| Departures Teenage Haze | 3.6 |
| Oh the feels. Their best one. |
| Lil Ugly Mane Uneven Compromise | 5.0 |
| The best 11-minute hip hop song you could ever find, like ever. As eerie as the eeriest horrorcore, as masterfully crafted as DJ Shadow ever blended several samples as one, as beautifully told as Big L could ever do, as self-destructive as Travis Miller ever was. |
| Ne Obliviscaris Portal of I | 3.6 |
| Impressive ideas, skilled musicians, but idk it doesn't hit as much as other prog out there (eg Warforged, which is much less focused than this). Plus the clean vocals are (like in SO MANY prog bands) kinda annoying. |
| Natalia Lafourcade Mujer Divina, Homenaje a AgustÃn Lara | 3.1 |
| Nice and chill NCLA, but even though there are tons of guests on this album, it feels blander than her last 3 albums. Still good music to put on when your mom is around. |
| Devin Townsend Project Epicloud | 2.9 |
| Walt Devin |
| Flying Lotus Flamagra | 2.8 |
| The most filler-fueled FlyLo album ): He should've stick to his regular 40-minutes mark. When it bangs, boy does it bang (especially in the second half), but when it drags boy does it drag (especially in the first half). He tried to do an hour-long You're Dead, but an album flowing like this one should be tight and concise not to lose the listener. |
| Public Enemy Fear of a Black Planet | 4.0 |
| Denzel Curry Zuu | 4.1 |
| He lets go of introspection and narrative to focus on delivering party anthems. He fully understood the concept of a banger album: it's only 30 minutes long, perfect for a lil flex session at the club. |
| Nekfeu Les etoiles vagabondes | 3.8 |
| His most melancholic one, it demands some time to truly understand it because of his alliterations and wordplays. The album is kinda samey at times, imo because he kicks much less than in his first two albums. A good album on its own, even though this is my least favourite of him. Not the album we expected, but the album Ken needed to do. Edit: holds up surprisingly well. Edit2: damn |
| Kayo Dot Gamma Knife | 3.6 |
| Damn why is it so short ? Would have 4'd it if the runtime was decent. |
| Grimes Visions | 3.6 |
| Fun ethereal and atmospheric pop record. I never thought I would associate ethereal and fun. |
| While She Sleeps The North Stands for Nothing | 3.1 |
| Juvenile metalcore. It was hyped AS FUCK when it came out, WSS was supposed to be the next big thing. They weren't. |
| Save Us From The Archon How Terrible, The Undergrowths Jaws That Tangle. | 3.9 |
| Paradise Lost Tragic Idol | 3.0 |
| Doomy gothic metal. I realize only now that I don't really care for this band. They good tho. |
| Dead Can Dance Anastasis | 3.9 |
| Simply magical, they outdid themselves with that comeback |
| Frank Ocean channel ORANGE | 3.9 |
| A soulful, lush, and funky record that bridges well elements of modern and classic R&B. Some of Ocean's choices aren't always for the better (eg "Crack Rock" and its enervating gimmick despite having one hell of a beat), but the shift from hook-laden Nostalgia, Ultra to the more nuanced soundscape of channel ORANGE is well done, the record focusing on how the beats will accompany Ocean's well-written tales. |
| Suis La Lune Riala | 3.8 |
| The more I listen to this band the more I love them. They didn't have a lot of impact on me until last year, but damn now they hit hard. And yeah, the guitar tone on this one is glittering. |
| Julia Holter Ekstasis | 2.9 |
| Very atmospheric and ethereal, but idk I think I would have preferred a full ambient album over the ambient/prog pop atmosphere. Pls Julia do an entire ambient album. |
| Converge All We Love We Leave Behind | 4.3 |
| The best of the best. It may seem logical to say this, but Converge truly is the best metalcore band we've ever witnessed. Noisier, rawer, angrier, heavier, sadder, more complex and poetic, more introspective and chaotic. |
| The Ghost Inside Get What You Give | 2.7 |
| Generic melodic metalcore/hardcore. Some songs (Engine 45, Dark Horse) sounded much better in 2012 than they do in 2019. Their first two outputs will remain their best. |
| Sharon Van Etten Tramp | 3.0 |
| She can create extremely beautiful (Warsaw, Give Out, Serpents, All I Can, We Are Fine) and kind of ok-boring music (the rest), and this album is a good representation of that duality. |
| Deathspell Omega The Furnaces of Palingenesia | 4.0 |
| It's much less dissonant than what we are used to with them, and it also has some tasty riffs. Slightly above Synarchy. |
| mewithoutYou Ten Stories | 3.6 |
| Some awesome tracks (Feb 1878, the run from Nine Stories to Bear's Vision), rest is ok mwY. |
| Joey Badass 1999 | 3.9 |
| Excellent chill old school hip hop, very reminiscent of the 90s (no shit). Made me think of Jazz Lib or One Be Lo at times. |
| Deftones Koi No Yokan | 4.3 |
| So polished, so dreamy, so heavy. This is their gaziest album yet, and that ethereal artwork displays it in a classy way. Then again, their formula of down-tuned riffs and sexy textures is on with a bang. A band that can make you both headbang and assbang truly is a special one. They have their own niche, are often compared and imitated but never matched in terms of atmosphere. In the end, this won't take the cake as their best 2010s' release, as even though it's as consistent overall as Diamond Eyes, there's only Rosemary that could claim a classic status (vs. the t/t, Beauty School and Sextape). Nonetheless, it's a breathaking effort from a classic band. |
| Meshuggah Koloss | 3.7 |
| Mechuggin' |
| Tyler, the Creator Wolf | 3.2 |
| Good stuff, his best one before he actually started focusing on his music instead of goofing around. Would be a great album if it was trimmed down 20 minutes. |
| There Will Be Fireworks The Dark, Dark Bright | 3.4 |
| Pretty emotional indie rock/folk with some post-rock linings. Nice listen, but "River" is so good it makes the rest of the album seem pale in comparison (apart from "Youngblood", "South Street", "Elder and Oak"). Plus, the singer sounds really good when he lets it loose, but that does not happen quite often throughout the record. |
| Panopticon Kentucky | 3.2 |
| It's been a long time, and it's much less challenging than what I remember. The idea is however much better than the execution, and it might be his weakest opus (vs. Social Disservices), but the dude shows us that almost any genre can mix with bm. Plus he's experimenting, so respect bruh. |
| The Tallest Man on Earth There's No Leaving Now | 3.9 |
| Very good folk/americana record, the man never disappoints. His decade second-best. |
| Mac DeMarco 2 | 4.1 |
| Welcome to the jangle. The Slacker King delivers an album where the guitars are always jangly but never twinkly (it's thus no sadboi shit). The surf guitar and the added p s y c h make for a dynamic yet relaxed record. It's on the slower cuts though (My Kind of Woman, Ode to Viceroy) he shows his underlying pop sensibilities. All these elements, plus the nostalgic knack both on the cover and the overall aesthetic, help create an album that might not be timeless but that would undoubtedly please different generations. Plus, look at this goofy face. Chill music made by a chill dude to chill with chill bros. Chill. |
| The Contortionist Intrinsic | 3.8 |
| I still consider this their weakest output, but shit does it whack. Proggier and more atmo than Exoplanet but deathcorier (?) than later albums, it was an almost mandatory step for them to move away from the deathcore scene. So put some respak on Intrinsak pls. |
| Departures Death Touches Us, From The Moment We Begin To Love | 3.4 |
| Good melodic hardcore. Does not come near MLIW or Defeater's greatness, but still a sweet jam, especially at the end of the record. |
| Tyler, the Creator Cherry Bomb | 2.2 |
| Some nice ideas (eg FIND YOUR WINGS, the end of KEEP DA O'S, OKAGA), but damn it feels like experimenting for the sake of it. I've got a headache now. |
| Hugo TSR Fenetre Sur Rue | 3.0 |
| Old school conscious french boom bap. A bit monotonous but still good shit. However, if you want old school conscious french boom bap, just go listen to IAM. |
| Rolo Tomassi Astraea | 3.1 |
| Nice mathcory stuff. Messier than their further releases, more focused than their first ones. There are some very nice moments (eg The Scales of Balance, Empiresk, and the last 3 tracks) and others I didn't care for at all (basically the rest). |
| Full of Hell Weeping Choir | 4.0 |
| Eviler than the evilest of the evilest. |
| Sigur Ros Valtari | 3.6 |
| Their most ambient record since their debut. "Var??" is amazing, but the rest of the album does not hit as hard. It's a lovely album though. |
| Old Man Gloom NO | 2.9 |
| They're better at sludging the shit out of me than ambienting. Basically the same formula as in TAoG, but less well-done imo. |
| BADBADNOTGOOD BBNG2 | 3.8 |
| My second fav output from these chaps. This is a true reinvention of jazz, but I just feel they did not attain their true potential. This is full of good jams: UWM, Rotten Decay, CMYK, and Flashing Lights all make me feel high without smokin' that sweet MJ. |
| Protomartyr No Passion All Technique | 2.5 |
| Not very interesting post-punk, they are punchier and more memorable in later outputs. |
| Japandroids Celebration Rock | 4.2 |
| Youthful energy. Sometimes all you need is a fun record. After relistening to this and their last one, this truly is the representation of a reckless youth: not old enough to take itself too seriously, but old enough to understand it needs to forget its problems to keep its sanity. |
| Periphery Periphery II: This Time It's Personal | 2.6 |
| Hey I liked some melodies here and there, but damn it's far too long. |
| Devil Sold His Soul Empire of Light | 2.7 |
| A mix of screamo, post-rock and atmo sludge should be GADDAYM. It wasn't. Not bad, but nothing mind-blowing, and the clean vocals, while not awful, are clearly not top tier. There are some nice moments (eg the end of Crusader, but it's honestly a generic post-rock ending), but that's about it. |
| Fiona Apple The Idler Wheel... | 3.4 |
| Diary entries read over some pazz & jop |
| Mono For My Parents | 3.2 |
| Wow the first track sounds like a Joe Hisaishi soundtrack, nice. Apart from that, typical 2010s Mono. |
| Circle Takes the Square Decompositions: Volume Number One | 3.7 |
| Awesome screamo with dynamic changes. It feels longer than ATRU, but boy does it slap and does it feel like 2000s screamo. North Star Inverted is one of their best songs. |
| Killer Mike R.A.P. Music | 4.0 |
| The best RTJ album. The beats are less sci fi than on their next three albums, as El-P adapts to Killer Mike's Dungeon Family background and delivers heavy 808s-led synthy bass beats. Mike can then spit rhymes too damn correct while also doing one of the most acute analysis of the US' political state in hip hop. It didn't go platinum and yet peepz be like they miss when hip hop was rappin'. |
| Carly Rae Jepsen Dedicated | 3.6 |
| Oh yeah Carly you're so full of bops and bangers. Can't believe 2019 was the year I rated a Carly album higher than a National one. |
| The Smith Street Band Sunshine and Technology | 3.8 |
| Anthemic and catchy. It's the one with the best songs, without being the best overall (I Can't Feel My Face, Tom Busby, When I Said Us I Meant Them, Don't Mention the War omg). |
| Tyler, the Creator IGOR | 4.1 |
| An incredible mix of cold modernity and the warm comfort of OG soul. |
| Departures Green Turns To Red, Then Turns To Gold | 3.2 |
| Ye gud intro into these dudes if you don't know 'em, otherwise just go listen to their albums. |
| Tim Hecker Love Streams | 2.7 |
| His most "Oneohtrix" album. Not bad, but Oneohtrix does Oneotrix better, and Hecker does Hecker better. |
| Andy Stott Luxury Problems | 4.1 |
| Subtle, groovy and at times creepy dub/ambient/industrial techno. The ethereal female vocals add some humanity to the overall cold atmosphere. Might be my favourite output from this guy: Numb, Sleepless, Hatch the Plan and the t/t are hypnotizing af. |
| Alcest Les Voyages De L'Âme | 3.8 |
| More shoegazy than Ecailles, less harsh vocals, and a bit too samey too. Great stuff anyway, and Faiseurs de Monde is a banger. |
| Rammstein Untitled | 3.5 |
| Good indus metal, makes me wanna drink beer in the mud during a Belgian festival. |
| The National I Am Easy to Find | 2.5 |
| No melodies, no drums, and these two characteristics are what made me adore The National in the first place. Not bad, but dull. Highlights: Quiet Light, Where Is Her Head, Rylan. |
| Car Bomb w^w^^w^w | 3.2 |
| Solid neckbreaking record. I find this one a bit too Meshuggah-esque, especially when compared to Meta, which was more creative imo. |
| Tame Impala Lonerism | 4.4 |
| Oh sweet Mary Jane. Sometimes all you need to make a good album is to make 12 good songs. And to make 'em P S Y C H af. Or to add fuzz to the psych-era Beatles. Either way, it works so damn well. |
| Klub des Loosers La fin de l'espece | 4.3 |
| Stellar instrumentation coupled with the most misanthropic lyrics ever written. His delivery is however the clear drawback here: some say he's not rapping on time, others say he's not even rapping but merely trying to fit words in sentences. Maybe because he does not consider himself as a rapper, but rather a beat digger who needs someone to tell the dark lyrics he's written. What would stand out for non-French speakers is the sample-based instrumentation that feels truly organic (he's got a backing band when doing live shows). This instrumentation is only but a hint of the bleak lyrics. Put simply, Fuzati is so disgusted by the human race he can't help but distort any beautiful moment into the darkest thoughts: a newborn baby represents nothing but the pure egoism of the human race who can't accept they're this planet's cancer (such observation must lead to bold actions, so he only puts it in the poopoo), and a pregnant woman had nothing else to do other than opening her legs (no wonder most of his listeners are white heterosexual men, eh). It's edgy for sure, cringy at times, but he pours so much heart and soul you can't help but feel some empathy for this depressed thirtysomething nerd. Wearing a mask so nobody can see his true face, Fuzati positions himself as a cynical observer of our modern days and paints an almost nihilistic portrait of everyday life. |
| Make Do and Mend Everything You Ever Loved | 4.3 |
| Subjective as fuck, but this is what the summer of '12 sounds like to me. 7 years later, it still bangs. Not gonna lie here, it's not the most innovative, technical or abrasive rock record you'll hear (hence the rating average). But what all people loving this can agree on, is the genuine heart the band poured into this: vocalist James Carroll is always seeking for the emotional side of his voice, making all songs sing-along tunes. While the production is merely ok, the clean guitar riffs sound especially good (Disassemble chorus, or that grilling tone during St. Anne), and the post-hardcore nods, while less prominent than in EMM, do the job of bringing heaviness to the whole lot. It's a simple rock record with punk, emo and post-hardcore influences that works perfectly as a summer jam. Get in the car, put this in, drive, and shout. |
| Nemir Ailleurs | 2.2 |
| Well yeah, but actually no. Some nice productions, but that's about it. |
| Between the Buried and Me The Parallax II: Future Sequence | 3.4 |
| Great modern prog metal record. This sounds less like a mess than previous albums. It's a tad long tho, the last two tracks are dragging too much. |
| Caspian Dust and Disquiet | 3.9 |
| Massive post-rock is massive. t/t is amazing. |
| Downfall of Gaia Aeon Unveils the Thrones of Decay | 3.7 |
| Covering well-trodden paths. But these paths are beautiful. |
| Carpenter Brut EP I | 3.9 |
| His less good EP, but it still bangs yo momma. |
| Father John Misty Fear Fun | 2.8 |
| Indie/psych folk with some country guitars here and there. Not bad, but nothing transcendent. |
| Code Orange Love Is Love // Return To Dust | 3.6 |
| Their best output, much less beatdown than later records. Flowermouth, Colors, Nothing and Choices are bangers. |
| Cloud Nothings Attack on Memory | 3.5 |
| Albini prodz, thus post-hardcore/noise-influenced rock album. Good stuff, the drummer is the real deal. Nothing mindblowing tho, and I prefer their next one over this, as this one dwells in a very "Albinitude", which is cool but also not cool yfm? They taking themselves a tad too seriously for a pop band with distortion. It does rock hard tho. |
| Om Advaitic Songs | 4.1 |
| Idk if these guys will ever put out another record (at least they're touring), but if they don't, this will be the epitome of their whole sound and aesthetic. Their doom/stoner core is now enriched by female chants as well as instruments such as cello and flute. This gives an hypnotic, spiritual, sometimes ominous and meditative as fuck feeling throughout the whole record. Plus it makes me listen to Arab music. The closest we'll ever be of Dune Metal. |
| Cult of Luna The Silent Man | 4.0 |
| Hyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyype |
| Mgla With Hearts Toward None | 3.2 |
| I prefer Exercises in Futility over this, this one feels much more average to me. Still gud shit, coz bm is gud shit. |
| Grizzly Bear Shields | 3.0 |
| Yawn. Clearly not bad, well-orchestrated and all, but there were very few moments when I was snatched by the music (the end of Half Gate, the closer and the singles basically). |
| Basement Colourmeinkindness | 3.7 |
| The closest you'll ever get to a grunge revival, the first two tracks (Whole and Covet) being the best example. |
| GoGo Penguin Fanfares | 2.7 |
| Their most "classic"-sounding album. They experiment and incorporate other genres much less than on further releases (which is quite logical, as it's their first album). It's nice jazz, but nothing more. |
| Parkway Drive Atlas | 3.5 |
| Solid generic metalcore (that's basically the definition of Parkway Drive). The last album before the great demise. Some songs are absolute generic killers (Dream Run, The River), others are yawn (Swing, Blue and the Grey). |
| Birds in Row You, Me, and the Violence | 4.1 |
| It's been a long time I didn't listen to this, and boy did I forget how intense it was. A beautifully violent record uplifted by dynamics: everything you like about hardcore for sure. |
| TTNG Adventure, Stamina and Anger | 3.4 |
| Nice one-two punch EP. Not their best tracks (Animals ftw), but a cool introduction to these guys if you've never heard of them. |
| Roc Marciano Reloaded | 3.1 |
| Feels and sounds like a 90s Wu-Tang side project. I find some of his rapping boring, ut the beats are damn fine, and the storytelling seems top notch. However, even though the story is gud shit, his delivery is not on par. |
| Rush Clockwork Angels | 3.9 |
| Their closest take on prog metal. Always a pleasure to jam these Canucks. This one is not on par with their grandest works, but it still rips every wankery prog metalcore bands. |
| Anathema Weather Systems | 3.7 |
| Creative and greatly orchestrated, but idk it felt quite grandiloquent and sometimes cheesy. Still a great record, but not as excellent as I expected. |
| Warforged I: Voice | 3.8 |
| Ok so this behemoth slapped me really hard in the face, and I'm glad it did |
| Venenum Trance of Death | 4.2 |
| Amazing blackened psych death metal. The last 3 tracks make me so hard, but the beginning of the record does the job pretty damn well. |
| Perturbator Nocturne City | 3.9 |
| Welcome to Nocturne City is such a fitting title. Feels like I'm entering Blade Runner's LA through the hyperway from Mars to Sirius. Overall, the EP is very-well built, as dark bombastic moments are counteracted with sweeter, more ambient touches. His best work too. |
| Austin Wintory Journey OST | 4.0 |
| One of my favourite video game soundtracks. It sort of needs the game to reach breathtaking levels, but this is still magnificent. |
| Deathspell Omega Drought | 4.0 |
| Another awesome release by these poitevins dudes. Apart from the first, very doomy track, the rest is technical and visceral brutality. |
| Aesop Rock Skelethon | 3.4 |
| Kind of classic Aesop, but I feel there are more forgettable tracks than on Impossible Kid. |
| The Chariot One Wing | 3.9 |
| Metalcore that tries, and succeeds, to be something more than metalcore. First fucking jams, Speak is crushing, and there's good ol' Charlie. I do think that finishing the album with Charlie speaking would have been much more powerful than what they've done here. |
| Parquet Courts Light Up Gold | 3.7 |
| Tight and relaxed post-punk. Felt kind of apathetic from time to time (ie: you should listen to this high). |
| Hot Water Music Exister | 3.4 |
| Ye the other soundoffs do it great: good comeback record, a lack of standouts (but Drag My Body baaaaaangs). |
| Hiatus Kaiyote Tawk Tomahawk | 3.7 |
| Soulful and funky record, a perfect summer jam. I still think the production (especially the vocals) is quite garbage from time to time, but Nakamarra is a classic. |
| Revocation Teratogenesis | 3.7 |
| Solid as always with these guys. It's still a bit generic, but the short amount of time makes it a good introduction to the band. |
| Thank You Scientist Maps of Non-Existent Places | 3.7 |
| The music is amazing, but I've never been a fan of that kind of vocals. Maybe that's why I'm not that into The Dear Hunter or Coheed and Cambria. Without those vocals, it would most probably be rated much higher. |
| Regina Spektor What We Saw from the Cheap Seats | 3.2 |
| Pretty piano rock. It's a good Regina Spektor album, so basically a cute/quirky singer/songwriter record. It's not the one that appeals the most to me, even though some tracks are great ("Firewood", "Jessica"), and "Open" is amazing. |
| Death Grips No Love Deep Web | 3.1 |
| haha zizi. one of their records that almost feels purposelessly aggressive |
| Lil Ugly Mane Mista Thug Isolation | 4.1 |
| Kendrick for the masses, Travis for the underground. A dark and misanthropic record that fuses early Three 6 Mafia's Memphis rap production style, chopped'n'screwed, jazzy instruments and cloud rap haziness. This mix of different genres sure is heavy and busy, but the beats shine after several listens thanks to that multi-dimensionality. Lyrically, the dude can rap about the classic bitches'n'drugs'n'money'guns trope as well as silly'n'goofy shit, which brings a nice balance and allows the album to breathe between the oppressing beats. It's a lil shame the second half is not totally on par with the fantastic first one. Don't get me wrong, no track is trash, but a few of them only have one idea that's cool for 2 minutes, not 4. However, a few cuts in the last third on the record (eg No Slack in My Mack and Throw Dem Gunz) are so fucking good they help the record a ton. |
| Mount Eerie Ocean Roar | 4.1 |
| Ok I was not ready for this. Usually this guy bores me with his music and saddens me with his lyrics. Here, well, fuck. It feels so cathartic. The production is particularly abrasive and drony. Not the kind of album I will often revisit, but an album interesting enough to deserve multiple re-listens. The project name has never worn his moniker so well. |
| Possessed Revelations of Oblivion | 2.8 |
| Did not appeal to me that much. Good in its own right, but I would prefer listening to basically any other thrash/death band I'm into. |
| Aaron West and The Roaring Twenties Routine Maintenance | 3.0 |
| Excellent narratively and emotionally, but much less engaging musically imo |
| Perturbator Night Driving Avenger | 3.5 |
| As always, cool synthwave. Not his best output, because I feel he did better in later releases, but still a great record in its own right. |
| FKA Twigs EP | 3.8 |
| Gorgeous and sexy vocals, bombasstic prodz. My second favourite after the one with the letters and the numbers in the name. I think her music works best on me when digested quickly, ie ye for an EP, nay for an album. |
| If These Trees Could Talk Red Forest | 4.1 |
| One of my favorite generic post-rock/metal of the decade. It doesn't revolutionize the genre (as it's still pretty much traditional third wave post-rock), but it's done so damn fine I can't help but rock these tunes. One frailty: the last track is not on par with the rest, and the album does not end on a high note. This still is a record I enjoy coming back to, and it's quite impressive for a 2012 post-rock record. Advice: listen to this while wandering in a park. |
| Flying Lotus Until the Quiet Comes | 3.9 |
| Burial Truant/Rough Sleeper | 4.0 |
| Gaddaym that middle part in Rough Sleeper when it goes doo doo doo doo boo boo boo boo is so great. Truant is a good track but doesn't match the other's greatness (might well be my least fav track off his 3 "classic" EPs). |
| Beach House Bloom | 3.7 |
| The dream popped in my head. If Candy Claws is the new kids providing us the most original and adventurous dream pop AOTD, Beach House remains the ol' uncle concentrating on what he does best: pleasant, aerial and full-of-sounds dream pop. It's good, but you'd rather listen to Cocteau Twins. |
| Title Fight Floral Green | 3.8 |
| Their most diverse album yet, mixing all the good stuff from all previous and later releases. I still prefer Shed (their best emo songs) and TLTYF (their best pop punk songs), but this is their "creative pinnacle". |
| Death Grips Government Plates | 2.9 |
| Rough, odd, fun & solid, but also sometimes a chore to listen to. |
| Mac DeMarco Here Comes the Cowboy | 2.0 |
| ooooooooooof it's boring, and the parts that were not dull sucked ass. |
| Defeater Defeater | 2.5 |
| His vocals have gotten worse and worse over the years. Some tracks are good ("All Roads", "Dealer/Debtor", "No Man Born Evil"), some riffs are nice, but nothing that makes me want to return to it. I'll jam Lost Ground once again. |
| Perturbator I Am The Night | 3.2 |
| Very cool, very dirty and very sexy, but I feel almost all songs suffer from a too long running time. It's a shame because all the tracks are great, but they are overstretched. Or maybe I'm a dweeb and I cannot bear synthwave for more than 30 minutes. |
| Agalloch Faustian Echoes | 3.7 |
| Much heavier than their heavier stuff. Great output, ofc not matching their grandest works, but still a nice addition to an already dense discog. However, if I wanted to listen to 20 minutes of Agalloch, I would rather go with the "Limbs" - "Falling Snow" one-two punch. |
| Lil Ugly Mane THREE SIDED TAPE VOLUME ONE | 4.1 |
| Fuck it, this dude's a genius. I don't know anyone else who could create a collection of unrelated stuff that sounds so cohesive. The dude throws in some Memphis rap, lo-fi hip hop, boom bap, illbient and basically every hip hop subgenre. Plus there's a bm track. Some cuts in SIDE ONE are dispensable (one would say that's the problem of every comp, and one would be right) but overall this is super duper interesting. Travis always knew how to inject life in his projects, even his half-assed ones like this baby right here. |
| O'Brother Disillusion | 3.6 |
| Solid post-hardcore with some sludge & post-rock influences. Gud, but go listen to Garden Window. |
| Nine Inch Nails Hesitation Marks | 3.4 |
| I did not hesitate to give this mark. Great electro-industrial-rock, much less angry than his 90s stuff. |
| Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds Push The Sky Away | 3.8 |
| A somber and melancholic chamber pop/rock album. I only discovered him recently, but I definitely need to listen to his discog. Jubilee Street & Higgs Boson Blues are sumptuous. |
| Oneohtrix Point Never R Plus Seven | 4.3 |
| Ok this one just hit home. On this one, the heart is finally fed what the mind has been eating with OPN's two previous outputs. Idk how he does it, but he seizes what's in yo head to create fabulous soundscapes both weirdly futuristic and deeply nostalgic. Make me want to drift in the infinite nothingness. |
| Oneohtrix Point Never Garden of Delete | 3.1 |
| Sounds like the deconstruction of what Skrillex had done. Not really my cup of tea but I understand why it is praised. |
| Stromae Racine Carrée | 3.6 |
| The lyrics are always excellent; but some tracks are really weak musically speaking imo (Humain a l'eau). With Formidable, he put out one of the best song sung in French of the decade. Plus he's a Brusseleir homie. |
| Laura Stevenson Wheel | 3.7 |
| Easy listening pop/rock/folk with some country influences as well. Very beautiful album, this woman is a true melody crafter. But I don't know why, this one struck less than her last two albums. Guess I'm a moron then. |
| My Bloody Valentine m b v | 3.8 |
| As a comment on YouTube said: "I might love this album less than Loveless. I guess it just lacks that "financially bankrupting a record label" sound of the 1991 masterpiece.?" |
| enV Electronic Super Joy OST (Part 2) | 3.5 |
| Bouncy'n'juicy. What's missing are those SEXAYYY voices appearing when you go through those bitch-ass white flags. What a fun game this is. |
| Protest the Hero Volition | 2.0 |
| Wow I got annoyed quite fast with this one. 1.9 |
| Kurt Vile Wakin on a Pretty Daze | 4.0 |
| Peaceful and a bit psychedelic folk rock, the atmosphere here is perfect for some gud ol' drug-induced trip. The most impressive here is how he manages to talk about personal matters while being positive. It sure is a nice change when a singer/songwriter is praising the life he or she is currently having. There are still moments of sadness, but thats life innit? (see: "To be frank, I'm fried, but I don't mind" as a good example of that philosophy). This makes this album more feel-good than anyone could have ever excepted, and here imma establish a maybe-unrelated link with Cult of Luna. As A Dawn to Fear separated itself by the band's latest outputs by going into a feeling man's music rather than a thinking man's one (cue Aaron Turner), Kurt Vile succeeded in doing so by choosing to deliver a mellow, peaceful and beautiful record instead of another sadboi guitarist LP. Nothing new under the sun, but an excellent psych folk rock record to put a hazy smile on your face. |
| King Krule 6 Feet Beneath the Moon | 3.3 |
| I find this first output much less focused than his second one. Not bad at all, but it does not really makes me want to go back. At least his voice is groovy as hell, and he sure does create a recognizable atmosphere. |
| Jon Hopkins Immunity | 4.1 |
| Hopkins manages here to navigate seamlessly between an almost architectural juxtaposition of microhouse and techno on the one hand, and soothing ambient soundscapes flowing mindlessly on the other hand. You will be lost into it. |
| Vampire Weekend Father Of The Bride | 2.2 |
| They wanted to be the Beach Boys, but they turned out to be the biatch bois |
| James Blake Overgrown | 3.6 |
| I've always considered this dude's music much more impressive live than on records. Or perhaps one would need to be high to fully appreciate it? His best one nonetheless, less a lesson of deconstructing R&B snippets into dubstep-laden bleep bloops, and more of an integration of R&B and soul into his melancholic beats. |
| Intronaut Habitual Levitations | 3.6 |
| Well done sludge/post/prog metal, but I think the decision to forego most of the heavy vocals brings a tad of monotony. The clean instrumental parts are pretty rad though, and the bass slapz. |
| Hippocampe Fou Aquatrip | 3.7 |
| The first album of this quite articulate French rapper, and his most consistent so far. |
| Heart in Hand Almost There | 2.5 |
| One of the most melodic hardcore band at the time. On this particular album, what stands out is the melodic riffage, the rest feels pretty bworf: generic breakdowns, generic shouts. |
| David Bowie The Next Day | 3.9 |
| A very solid rock album. Maybe this album's biggest curse is to live up to the Bowie standards. The run from The Stars (Are Out Tonight) to I'd Rather Be High is sublime. |
| Darkside Psychic | 3.2 |
| Finely done ambient/art/micropop idk. Quite hypnotic, but nothing that attracts me that much. That's because, if the songs do work better as detailed pieces than as immediate bangers, the details are not ~shimmering~ enough for me. soz not soz. |
| Danny Brown Old | 3.9 |
| Danny continues his madness streak. Some tracks can be irritating (Side B, Dip), but the rest is top notch. The first half, which can be seen as XXX pt.2 is absolutely massive, while the second half embraces Danny's club/party side (and is less my cuppa, but it still rips in its own right). Third best, and third worse, of his discog. |
| Big Thief U.F.O.F. | 2.7 |
| I don't know why but slowcore is not really ma cup o' tea, sounds a bit flat to me. It's beautifully produced and the melodies are quite pretty, but it doesn't do anything to me. |
| The National Trouble Will Find Me | 3.8 |
| Their most quiet and subdued. The definition of a grower, took me 5 years to appreciate it. |
| PUP PUP | 3.9 |
| After listening to all these guys' albums, it's safe to say they fucking rock. Loud punk screams, some post-hardcore dashes, pop punk feels. Fuck yeah. |
| Revocation Revocation | 3.6 |
| Another Revocation record = another solid thrash/death album. They don't feel redundant to me, so props to them. |
| Earl Sweatshirt Doris | 3.7 |
| Sinister abstract hip hop. Almost on par with IDLS,IDGO, (SRS is just a different kind of monster imo). The end of the album is especially dark. Would be a 4 if the first half of the album was as strong as the second one. |
| Daft Punk Random Access Memories | 3.8 |
| Nice nu-disco/funk/prog pop. Overall the record is imperfectly balanced, but some great moments of bravery are makin' me hard (eg the mid-to-end of Giorgio by Moroder). Plus this album produced some of the most well-known singles of the 2010s, and it's in fact a good representative of the 2010s' culture: emulate what was done before (disco/funk/soul) but differently: it kinda sounds like what was created before, thus creating a sense of nostalgia, but nothing done before sounds like this record, thus not creating a feeling of "deja vu" (I hate French words in English, sounds so fucking fake). So yeah I can't deny its relative importance in the grand scheme of music. Plus it slaps. |
| Frightened Rabbit Pedestrian Verse | 3.6 |
| Same old feels, different sounds. Backyeard Skulls and Late March, Death March are gorgeous. |
| Stake The Hutch | 3.9 |
| Slow sludge with some post-rock atmospherics and sort of subdued vocals. Very similar to their previous effort, but idc it's gud shit. Ashore whacks. |
| Lustmord The Word As Power | 2.5 |
| Strong concept, not so great results. It's kind of the same dark ambient with some waves of darkness and ritual vocals a la Dead Can Dance but less ethereal and less diversified. |
| Queens of the Stone Age ...Like Clockwork | 4.4 |
| It gets better everytime I hear it (except for that first track, I still don't really like it). Their second best after SFTD. |
| CHVRCHES The Bones of What You Believe | 3.6 |
| Great synthpop. Half of the songs are absolute bangers ("Night Sky", "You Caught the Light"), others are lovely but not that memorable. |
| Chelsea Wolfe Pain Is Beauty | 3.8 |
| Really intriguing atmosphere here, but I think I appreciated the artistic direction more than the music itself. Will need to re-listen, that gurl is interesting. "The Waves Have Come" is daaaaaaaaaaamn. |
| Cuzco Sketchbook | 3.7 |
| In the same vibe as their EP: math-rock with some midwest emo influences (creating the kinda nostalgic vibes). I think I prefer the EP over this though, but I will re-listen for sure. |
| Streetlight Manifesto The Hands That Thieve | 3.9 |
| My least favourite of them, and it still slaps ahrd, especially the second half of the album (the run from Toe to Toe to Your Day Will Come is incredible). |
| The Knife Shaking the Habitual | 2.8 |
| i dont get it and then i almost did to realize later i didn't. some parts were cool |
| Fates Warning Darkness in a Different Light | 3.2 |
| Well done and all, but this type of prog metal is clearly not my favourite. It feels old without nostalgia. |
| Julia Holter Loud City Song | 4.1 |
| Her most intense record. This is ethereal and scary (Horns Surrounding Me is such a fitting title), bringing deep nights feeling. Not a simple dark and sad night, no, that would be too easy. It's the kind of night where everything is bigger than life and scarier than death. Where "surreal" is not good enough of a word, because it's not only an excess of reality, it's rather a total absence of it. Unreality. |
| Kanye West Yeezus | 2.9 |
| Some parts are annoying (eg the end of "I Am A God"), and I feel he needs to incorporate super epic and nice moments (eg the end of "New Slaves") to try not to alienate his audience too much. Maybe his most experimental, but definitely not his most focused. Plus on this album he sometimes sounds like a bad copy of Frank Ocean, and some beats sound like subpar Death Grips with less aggressivity. "Hold My Liquor" is gud tho. Edit: kinda grew, but still all-over-the-place. |
| Slugdge Born of Slime | 3.6 |
| Their first album, and quite possibly my least favourite of them. Still slugdgy, and the song names are really funny. These guys have a very solid discog. |
| Metallica Ride the Lightning | 4.5 |
| It's been a long time. As I listened to it much less than MoP in my teenage years, its rinfluence is less ingrained in my mind. Fantastic thrash metal record tho, top 3 all-time rfor sure (MoP > Terminal Redux > RtL). Yeah I'm a normie. |
| Cult of Luna Vertikal | 4.1 |
| After the earthy sounds of SAtH and Eternal Kingdom, before the spacey soundscapes of Mariner, there's the alienated noise of the city: Vertikal. The human civilization's history could be linked to CoL's discography, and that shows us how very pretentious I am and how incredible this band is. Sound-wise, this is very monotonous, but that's what industrial life has brought to us. |
| Boards of Canada Tomorrow's Harvest | 3.7 |
| The beginning is stronger than the end of the album, and I can't believe this awesome album is their worst, amazing bros. |
| The World Is a Beautiful Place... Whenever, If Ever | 3.6 |
| Yeah it truly was the AAOTY: Adolescent Album of the Year. |
| Bring Me the Horizon Sempiternal | 3.5 |
| The pop songs bang asses ("Can You Feel My Heart", "Sleepwalking", "Shadow Moses") but other songs are kinda bwergf ("Antivist"). Will need to re-listen to TIAH to decide which one is their best: before these two albums, they were a kinda bad deathcore band, after that they became a mediocre heavy pop band. They really achieved their 'artistic statement' with these albums. |
| The Body Christs, Redeemers | 4.1 |
| Their most dense release, your head will be crushed. The strings and chant vocals are really helping create a end-of-the-world atmosphere. I could once again create a subpar post-apocalyptic story with the tracks' names, but I will refrain this time. |
| Beyonce Beyonce | 3.5 |
| The one moment Beyonce showed she can do anythang she damn wanted, and if what she wanted was releasing a 70-minutes long visual album, then she gonna do it. And quite well at that: the songs are good and Queen B sings as well as ever. It remains overblown - 70 minutes ugh - but it nevertheless represents one of the most daring example of an album's artistry, relying more on atmosphere and cohesion than on certified bangers. |
| Fuck Buttons Slow Focus | 4.1 |
| A raw, tribal, drony, powerful and proggy electronic record. Stalker is very impressive, but Hidden XS is one of the best jam of the decade. The rest of the album is just a deep dive into these last two tracks, perfectly preparing us to be crushed. |
| August Burns Red Rescue & Restore | 3.7 |
| Their best since Leveler. They managed to implement some heartfelt moments (eg. "Beauty in Tragedy") , and I never thought they would be capable of that. |
| John Coltrane Blue Train | 4.6 |
| Early Trane was so playful. His hard bop derivativeness was apparently evident, but who cares when it slaps so hard? |
| Explosions in the Sky Take Care, Take Care, Take Care | 2.8 |
| I almost gave it an average score but then I realized I was not bored!!! |
| Angelo De Augustine Tomb | 2.6 |
| Subpar Carrie & Lowell. Pretty and peaceful, but it's a bit too samey. Basically a generic indie album. |
| Night Verses Lift Your Existence | 3.2 |
| I prefer when the singer shuts up. He's not bad, but this kind of vocals, coupled with proggy post-hardcore leaning on the metal side of things, is tiring after listening to it for more than 5 years. |
| Dead To A Dying World Elegy | 2.7 |
| sleepy doomy bm |
| Lorde Pure Heroine | 3.5 |
| Good pop, but less good, refined, profound, or everything than Melodrama. |
| Steven Wilson The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories) | 4.1 |
| It's more an homage than a true creative statement, but shit this man knows how to prog. Half of the record is in the vein of the great longer-than-10-minutes prog tracks, while the other half is composed of folk ballads, and since two tracks of the same type never follow each other, the symmetry is perfect and the album flows easily. Steven proves us again the sound of 70s prog is as timeless as it ever was. |
| Gris À L'Âme Enflammée, L'Âme Constellée... | 4.1 |
| 'O petite humanite, qui creve dans l'aube des jours, tombee comme une flamme silencieuse, as-tu devore tes reves ?'. |
| Iceage You're Nothing | 3.6 |
| Post-punk is the shit in the 2010s, alongside atmospheric black metal (and hip-hop if you're a pop fanboy). This particular record is not revolutionary by any means, but it's still a good representation of the genre and the era. |
| Thundercat Apocalypse | 3.5 |
| Funky and groovy. FlyLo's at it again. Last three songs are sweeeeeeeeet and make me think of You're Dead, but You're Dead is so much better. |
| Glen Hansard This Wild Willing | 3.7 |
| Beautiful traditional Irish folk with quiet melodies and epic crescendos. Kind of like Damien Rice, but some of it is a bit generic compared to the boldest songs. |
| Deafheaven New Bermuda | 3.8 |
| Darker and thrashier and the dreamy parts are dreamier. I like it less than Sunbather but it's good to see a band evolve from their already-established sound. |
| Defeater Letters Home | 3.1 |
| Last two tracks are bangin' hard, the rest is post-Empty Days Defeater. |
| Astronauts Hollow Ponds | 4.1 |
| The acoustic Science Fiction. Brooding indie folk with slight but welcome touches of indietronica. An album to listen to when all the leaves are brown and the sky is grey. |
| Saor Roots | 4.0 |
| Makes me want to wear a kilt and feel the soft Scottish breeze on my ballz while standing on the shore of the Loch near me pop's cabin. T/t might be the strongest track off their whole discog. Slightly above Forgotten Paths, and standing proud as #1 in their discog. |
| Anderson .Paak Ventura | 3.7 |
| Malibu > Ventura > Venice > Oxnard. |
| Alex Cameron Jumping the Shark | 3.2 |
| Feels like a preparation for his next record. Good, but it's less addictive than Forced Witness. |
| The Tallest Man on Earth I Love You. It's a Fever Dream. | 3.7 |
| Grower for sure. It's also his second-worst album, but the dude still abides. |
| Tim Hecker Virgins | 4.2 |
| Hauntingly beautiful, or beautifully haunting. This is music defying the definitions of genres. All I need now is to take shrooms and trip right to Notre Dame. |
| A Day To Remember Common Courtesy | 2.7 |
| The pop punk parts are pop punkier (eg Right Back at It Again), the heavy parts are heavier (eg Violence), but since I already started to lose interest in ADTR in 2013, this album do not have the same impact the previous ones have on me. |
| Touche Amore Is Survived By | 3.9 |
| Oh god I love those last three tracks. Their second worst for me tho. Whattaband. |
| Ulcerate Vermis | 3.7 |
| Incredibly chaotic death metal, but it's a shame Gorguts came back that same year, they overshadowed the tech death scene with Colored Sands. The sludgy moments are imo much more well done here than on previous efforts, where they felt a bit random. However, it pounds less hard than Destoyers. |
| The Story So Far What You Don't See | 3.5 |
| Great pop punk with some hardcore touches. Empty Space still makes me wanna jump mindlessly. |
| Kvelertak Meir | 3.3 |
| After all these years, I still can't really tell if this album is disappointing or awesome. The production is less good than on the s/t, and they lost a bit of their punch, but I can't deny it's catchy. |
| Regarde Les Hommes Tomber Regarde les Hommes Tomber | 4.2 |
| Slappin' fucking hard, but it slaps less than what I remember. "A Thousand Years of Servitude" is still one of my favorite metal songs of the decade. |
| Kacey Musgraves Same Trailer Different Park | 3.6 |
| Lots of beautifully crafted songs here. I still don't know if I prefer this one or her newest one though. |
| Beastmilk Climax | 4.0 |
| Yet another post-punk band not from England but sounding like an English band. I'm a sucker for post-punk, so I love it. This one in particular is exquisitely catchy for an apocalyptic-themed record. |
| Melt-Banana Fetch | 4.1 |
| A lil bird chirping over noise punk with cybergrind elements? This is what cool kids of the 2030s will listen to. What a time to be alive. |
| Save Us From The Archon Some Things We Carry, Always | 3.8 |
| Math rock structures, an oldschool post-hardcore sound, and emo song titles. Everything that you ever loved. |
| Nils Frahm Spaces | 3.8 |
| Magnificient modern classical/ambient album. "Says" is a masterpiece, but Frahms' problems are unfortunately shining through this record: he's not consistent. From time to time he pulls off a Says, a Hammers or the second half of that long-named track, while at other times he almost puts me to sleep with a Said and Done. When it hits, it hits the perfect spot, but Arnalds will remain my go-to-guy in terms of neoclassical music. |
| Paysage d'Hiver Das Tor | 3.9 |
| Sounds like a mix of traditional Paysage d'Hiver and Darkspace. The cover art might be his most fitting; that black monolith is fucking scary. |
| Converge You Fail Me Redux | 4.4 |
| Imagine a top 10 metalcore record of all time that has a shitty prod. Would be amazing to remaster it properly no? It's quite a shame the best 2010s Converge album is a remaster, but eh. |
| A Lot Like Birds No Place | 3.4 |
| Adolescent post-hardcore mixed with prog/math rock instrumentation, while mostly focusing on post-hxc vocals and energy. Great, but I would rather listen to other similar stuff. |
| Magma Waves Mitsuki, Hida, 1579 | 4.0 |
| It's true it's pretty generic post-rock, but it's nonetheless slappin' hard. I liked this rEP much more than their album. I think this might be the kind of music that's great for less-than-30-minutes outputs. The Mononoke bits are really adding up to the atmosphere. |
| Full of Hell Rudiments of Mutilation | 3.9 |
| This may be the meanest output of one of the meanest bands. |
| Russian Circles Memorial | 3.9 |
| Their heaviest but also most melodic yet, my favorite of theirs. And oh god I love you Chelsea, the last track haunts me since 2013. |
| Russian Circles Guidance | 3.8 |
| Russian Circles + Kurt Ballou = Heavy. |
| Arctic Monkeys AM | 3.2 |
| First two tracks are jams, rest is a bit yawn but not bad. |
| Obliteration Black Death Horizon | 3.2 |
| Yeah I shouldn't have listened to Human right before listening to that one. |
| The Drones I See Seaweed | 4.1 |
| Incredible noise/punk-blues/garage/whatevs, I don't really know what this is but these Aussies are masters of their craft. I'm exhausted and yet ecstatic listening to this. |
| The Black Dahlia Murder Everblack | 3.2 |
| "Into the Everblack" blasts, but I'm becoming more and more tired of these guys. Good DM, but not much more than that. |
| Carcass Surgical Steel | 3.9 |
| Oh yeah this was the shit in 2013. More melodic than previous efforts, the production is crispayyy and they kept funny song titles, which is always a plus. |
| Oathbreaker Eros|Anteros | 3.8 |
| Slightly less good than Rheia, but crustier. |
| Jenny Hval Innocence Is Kinky | 2.6 |
| I dont' know why I don't enjoy this as much as others do. Erf. |
| Nails Abandon All Life | 3.8 |
| Ok this is just mean. The last track is pure evil |
| Grandview Everything Between Paint and a Wall | 3.9 |
| Yet another underground band putting out a gem out of nowhere, then disappearing |
| Ulver Messe I.X-VI.X | 4.0 |
| The best band of our era. |
| Run the Jewels Run the Jewels | 3.7 |
| That opening tune is one of the best recent band/artists introduction. Phat production, tight rapping, and electronic elements flourishing on top of the trap beats to make an ultra-modern offering. Rest is cool too! |
| Andrew Bird My Finest Work Yet | 3.6 |
| Pleasant chamber pop/folk, the kind of music that you could hear on a dad rock radio station, but with modern production and sound. |
| Serge Gainsbourg Histoire de Melody Nelson | 4.2 |
| Incredible instrumentation, haunting voice and sexxyyyyy lyrics. Le meilleur Gainsbourg. |
| Plini Other Things | 3.9 |
| Less wankery than his later work. Truly sounds like bedroom music, thus creating a more genuine feeling. Selenium Forest is particularly amazing. |
| Kayo Dot Hubardo | 4.3 |
| The quintessential Kayo Dot album. I don't really get what "The Black Stone" is doing on this album, but hey it's still incredibly incredible. Fusing black metal/jazz/electronic/classical/prog rock, it's the perfect example of modern music as it creates new sounds by incorporating multiple influences. Shame no track here attains "The Mortality of Doves"' levels of jizzness, but here is nonetheless one of the best musical works of the 2010s. |
| Evigt Morker 1 | 4.0 |
| His best EP. Good minimal/ambient techno to chill/study/work/drown into infinite sadness. |
| Foxing The Albatross | 3.6 |
| Very nice emo/math rock/post-rock album. I still think it's their "weakest" release but it's nonetheless solid. |
| ARTO Fantasma | 3.2 |
| Good post-rock/post-metal, but much more impressive live than on record. |
| Brutus (BE) Nest | 4.2 |
| Put a gritty voice, a punky pounding bass, furious drums and a guitar oscillating between shoegaze, post-hardcore, noise rock and something that resembles tremolo picking, and you have Brutus, the next best band. |
| Romeo Elvis Chocolat | 2.6 |
| It's weird. The cover art exposes him in a dumb way (he seems high af), so we expect an album full of jokes and not taking itself too seriously. But we get exactly the opposite: you can tell he says these things very seriously, and he does not joke around. Since he does not revolutionize the social dialogue, we get a dude saying not-so-edgy stuff over European festival rap bops. Plus he's too easy on himself with some choruses that are just one word repeated 16545 times. It's not bad, it's just not that great. |
| The Dillinger Escape Plan One of Us Is the Killer | 4.2 |
| After what they displayed on Option Paralysis, the band came back with their most accessible album. Put simply, it's less frantic. Even though catchy TDEP is always cool (t/t might be the catchiest mathcore song ever), the somewhat discretion of the manic bursts of violence makes this effort less varied than the two juggernauts released before and after. Of course, a softer Dillinger is still heavier than the heaviest matter of the universe. If you're a sucker for poppier and more accessible stuff (like me), then you're in for a treat. Might well be the best way to start with this band if you don't know 'em at all. |
| Quelle Chris Guns | 3.6 |
| Guns are bad, m'kay? Lyricism is on point, some tracks are a bit annoying while others are gorgeous (eg the last two). |
| Billy Woods and Kenny Segal Hiding Places | 3.9 |
| Phenomenal production together with hard-hitting conscious rappin. The outro of "Speak Gently" might be the bleakest thing I've heard recently. |
| Prince Of Denmark The Body | 3.5 |
| Not as colossal as 8, but still a great minimal techno record. |
| Sigur Ros Kveikur | 4.3 |
| These guys amaze me in their capacity to give each of their albums a distinct personality without it feeling like a departure from their primary sound. The darker sound and aesthetic they are bringing here is acutely balanced with a pop flavor (my sista liked Isjaki): unlike their other dark records, this is much more direct (then again, my sista liked Isjaki). This makes it another great addition to an already amazing discography. One of the most important bands of the last 25 years made sure their 2010s also had a gorgeous Sigur Ros record. |
| Burial Rival Dealer | 4.5 |
| One of his finest EPs, with the t/t hitting the road like a drunk and hasty bloke on a German highway (what is it, speed dubstep? Sounds like The Prodigy). Hiders is weird, mostly because it's uplifting (yo i don't listen to Burial to be uplifted), and finally: "Excuse me I'm lost...", which is a top tier Burial track. |
| Romeo Elvis Morale 2 | 3.7 |
| Belgian hip-hop with electronic instrumentals. Not revolutionary but the best collection of Romeo Elvis songs. |
| Inquisition Obscure Verses for the Multiverse | 3.7 |
| BM riffin' hard. Nothing here is groundbreaking but everything here is neckbreaking. |
| Nuvolascura Nuvolascura | 3.8 |
| Visceral chaotic screamo. I really like it, but it feels like a less good version of my favourite screamo bands. |
| Vampire Weekend Modern Vampires of the City | 2.7 |
| Indie/chamber/art pop. Clearly not bad, but I don't see anything that will make me listen to it again. |
| Gorguts Colored Sands | 4.1 |
| Much proggier and a tiny bit less technical than their previous efforts. This might not be Gorguts' grandest output, but this might well be Luc's most diverse release. Most importantly, on here the guitars almost sound organic and natural, as opposed to Obscura which, while I respect the heck of it, never managed to truly grab me into its journey of fuckery mainly because of almost too technical and, dare I say, soulless (don't hit me) riffs. Here however, it works more immediately (you still gotta spend loads of time on this to unveil everything it's gonna offer you). But even with this easier sound, this is still one of the thorniest, gnarliest and most violent piece of metal released the past decade. Maybe Blood Incantation did not pull out the best dm of the decade. Still strugglin' deciding which one is #1. This is top 2 DMOTD, and that's already very good. |
| FKA Twigs EP2 | 3.1 |
| My least fav of her |
| Lil Ugly Mane THREE SIDED TAPE VOLUME TWO | 4.1 |
| This bro's unreleased shit is better than most "bold artistic statements". It's his least good tape (maybe because it's the weirdest) but it never sounds dull since he brews lots of different styles. |
| RIEN 2 | 3.9 |
| The bookends are absolutely awesome, the middle is cool but less awesome. Electronic-fused post/kraut/math rock. These dudes were too good for their time. |
| enV Electronic Super Joy OST (Part 1) | 3.9 |
| OWWWWWWWWWWWYASSSSSSSS what a game, the music greatly helped the game immersion. |
| PUP Morbid Stuff | 3.5 |
| The Wonder Years The Greatest Generation | 4.4 |
| I remember very well the effect this band, and particularly this album, had on me back then. I was kind of anxious before hearing TGG in 2019, but the first few seconds teared me apart (Lisa) and brought me back when I was 18. The best pop punk record of the decade concludes the trilogy of growing up (can't be more pop punk than that innit) and established The Wonder Years as the most important pop punk band of our generation. |
| Daughters Hell Songs | 4.0 |
| Daughters Daughters | 4.2 |
| The Hit. Its overall atmosphere is less intriguing than YWGWYW but damn it hits much more. It's also, quite weirdly, almost upbeat in its madness. Like a good-looking sociopath. |
| Devin Townsend Empath | 2.7 |
| The songwriting is great, but this kind of symphonic/Disney metal is absolutely not my cup of tea. |
| Nivhek After Its own Death/ Walking in a Spiral | 3.7 |
| Side A & B are absolutely gorgeous, but the last 2 tracks hooked me less. |
| PNL Deux Freres | 3.7 |
| Highs are really high and lows are really low. Fortunately there are more highs than rows. Edit: this time I focused on the lyrics and DAYUM these dudes truly are melancholic. It's still a tad too long. |
| Periphery Periphery IV: Hail Stan | 1.5 |
| At first I thought this band was a bit cringey but not truly bad, but this album just hit rthe saturation point. 1.7 |
| Carpenter Brut EP II | 4.2 |
| Overall his best EP, I love the sweet guitar solis on top of the jammy synthwave. You can truly feel the 80s behind the foggy wave, which perfectly refelcts his moniker: it's Carpenter music, but BROOTAL. |
| Plini Sweet Nothings | 3.5 |
| Captain, We're Sinking The Future Is Cancelled | 3.5 |
| Daughters Canada Songs | 3.4 |
| I already went to Canada and it doesn't sound like this at all. Joke aside, it's hard rhitting but a bit short, I wanted more when it ended. |
| Perturbator Sexualizer | 3.5 |
| Weyes Blood Titanic Rising | 4.7 |
| The most beautiful album of the year so far and now imma jam this with my mama so she'll never forget that the music that makes me think of her is this sweet sweet album. |
| Laura Stevenson Cocksure | 3.7 |
| Laura goes power pop wooooooooooooooooooooooooo |
| PUP The Dream Is Over | 3.8 |
| Feels like summer at university. I always had a soft spot for angry dudes shouting and (badly) singing. |
| Hans Zimmer Interstellar | 3.5 |
| Brutus (BE) Burst | 3.9 |
| A great blend of genres tightly executed. This is their prep for the next one, but this is still some extremely solid stuff, like a better Marmozets (who remembers Marmozets?). |
| Insomnium Shadows of the Dying Sun | 3.5 |
| Freddie Gibbs and Madlib Pinata | 4.1 |
| Black Dynamite: the album. I still don't know why I didn't listen to this back then. Madlib is a legend, the beats all have that vintage-yet-modern quality to 'em, making it a work that will, imo, pass the test of time. Freddie is a trve gangsta rapper, delivering bars and quotes and an overall gritty delivery. Compared to Bandana, it's on the whole less scattered and more cohesive, even though it's more monolithic both in terms of Freddie's delivery as well as Madlib's beats. The strongest of the swarm usually is a master of one instead of a jack-of-all-trades. |
| Slugdge Gastronomicon | 4.0 |
| L'Entourage Jeunes Entrepreneurs | 3.0 |
| Nothing groundbreaking, but nice boom bap revival. The lyrics are sometimes kinda bad tho |
| Pallbearer Foundations of Burden | 3.0 |
| Solstafir Otta | 4.0 |
| Mree The Middle | 2.7 |
| Pretty, but at times bland and other times cheesy |
| The Jezabels The Brink | 3.7 |
| Beautiful music that will bring joy to yo momma, but it clearly doesn't top their 2016 magnum opus. |
| The Comet Is Coming Trust in the Lifeforce of Deep Mystery | 3.7 |
| Epic alien jazz fusion with electronic influences. See the cover? That's the band's home planet. As modern as jazz could be in 2019, but 'tis a pity the bookends are much less bombastic than the middle of the album. |
| Billie Eilish When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? | 2.4 |
| Dark alt muzak. Eilish's vocal delivery is mostly lazy and displays little to no emotions, and the electropop soundscape is alright but relies way too much on the "heavy bass & fingers snapping" combo to stay interesting in the long run - and very often the music is way too subdued to leverage its doomer vibe. There definitely are some good ideas here - the "bad guy" hook or the last couple of tracks that have interesting melodies -, but When We All Fall Asleep mostly fails in not putting enough meat around its pretty-looking bones. |
| Flume Hi This is Flume | 3.6 |
| Well if popular music makers start to be deconstructed and ambient, what will the masses listen to? |
| Uyama Hiroto Freedom of the Son | 3.2 |
| Nice and all, but doesn't really add anything to the genre, go listen to Nujabes instead. |
| Andy Stott Faith in Strangers | 3.5 |
| Laura Stevenson The Big Freeze | 3.5 |
| Logic Supermarket (Soundtrack) | 1.0 |
| At first I thought people were exaggerating. They weren't. |
| Spectral Lore III | 3.9 |
| Epic, but 2014 was so packed with incredible black metal releases that it's not even in my top 5 bm of the year. |
| Avey Tare Cows On Hourglass Pond | 3.0 |
| YOB Clearing The Path To Ascend | 2.5 |
| The Great Old Ones Tekeli-Li | 4.0 |
| Ominous. Will need to listen to this while reading Lovecraft (or Berserk, that shit's dark as hell). |
| Copeland Ixora | 3.0 |
| Sun Kil Moon Benji | 4.0 |
| I remember I used to hate this, but now I find it great, even though it seems like this guy doesn't know any alive person. |
| sleepmakeswaves Love of Cartography | 3.9 |
| Epic post-rock is epic. That final riff during How We Built the Ocean is crushing. One of my favorite third wave post-rock album of the 2010s. |
| Kurt Travis Everything Is Beautiful | 3.6 |
| The dude from ALLB does a pop album? It sure is catchy. |
| Evigt Morker 2 | 3.0 |
| Slipknot .5: The Gray Chapter | 2.6 |
| I don't know what else I expected |
| A Winged Victory for the Sullen Atomos | 3.2 |
| Beautiful, but not very exciting. Maybe I wasn't in the good mood? |
| thoughtcrimes Tap Night | 3.0 |
| Karen O and Danger Mouse Lux Prima | 3.6 |
| Amazing production as always with my boy DM, Karen O's voice is great too, but the middle of the album is underwhelming compared to the bookends. |
| Frightened Rabbit Painting of a Panic Attack | 3.7 |
| Full of dynamic changes and ambient passages, the production of Aaron Dessner is gorgeous. |
| The Jezabels Synthia | 3.9 |
| Incredible dream/synthpop album. Sometimes made me think of The National (these drumz) with female vocals. The highs here are marvelous (first three tracks, If Ya Want Me), but overall it's a tad less consistent than Prisoner. |
| Ratatat Classics | 4.0 |
| Touche Amore ...To the Beat of a Dead Horse | 4.5 |
| 10 years after, still amazing. Hardcore was the shit around that time. |
| Yvette Young Piano EP | 3.5 |
| Math piano ? Yeah she knows how to shred those little black and white bastards. The strings are a nice addition even though they sometimes sound a bit cheesy. |
| Panopticon The Crescendo of Dusk | 4.0 |
| "This record is in honor of the northern lights, which very few things in the world are more beautiful and awe inspiring than." |
| La Dispute Panorama | 3.7 |
| Smashing, but my love of crescendocore made me want a huge climax at the end of Your Ascendant. After further listening, it sure is impressive and more captivating than Rooms of the House, but I feel it does not succeed as well as their first two albums. Dreyer sounds more tired, and while the lyrics are poignant as always, they do feel worn out after all these years. Musically, this is classic La Dispute, but having listened to this band for 10 years makes this stand out less in their discog. |
| American Football American Football (LP3) | 4.0 |
| The post-rock ending of Doom in Full Bloom, Rachel Goswell & Hayley Williams, YASSSSS. Apart from that fanboyism, it sure is pretty (thx to the dream pop addition), but it's much less impactful than LP1, maybe because they traded the math for the post. |
| Evigt Morker 4 | 3.1 |
| Nice output, but more forgettable than previous ones. |
| clipping. Splendor and Misery | 3.7 |
| Stunning atmosphere and story. However, there are some weaker moments here and there, which makes this one weaker than the last one, but overall stronger than the eponym. |
| Wiegedood De Doden Hebben Het Goed | 3.1 |
| Well yeah it's good bm, but nothing too crazy or memorable in the grand scheme of bm. |
| Casualties of Cool Casualties of Cool | 4.1 |
| The best Devin record of the decade. Maybe because I've grown tired of his recent Disney-prog-metal endeavours, or maybe because this his most original, diverse and subtle recent release. For sure nobody expected him to pair up with the Ki collaborator Dorval and release an ambient and gothic country album. And yet, it works perfectly: it's both haunting and beautiful, while the atmosphere and the singing are mesmerizing. The association of the two voices is one of balance and control: even though Che's voice is the most prominent, Devin's ethereal whispers add a bleak yet enchanting tone over the whole album. And that's the sign of great records, when the content and the form intertwine to complete each other. The music is luring you through your fear as much as the sentient planet is luring the protagonist of the story, and what is comforting in both the sound and the story is the liberation of the woman held inside the planet/music. Said liberation frees the soul of both the traveler and the listener. Shame the middle part of the record, while good in the context of the story, feels underwhelming compared to the bookends. |
| Sharon Van Etten Are We There | 3.6 |
| Fine musicianship for a not-so-original love indie folk album. The feels are there though: "Your Love Is Killing Me" is absolutely gorgeous. |
| Thanatos Global Purification | 3.2 |
| OSDM/Thrash, always efficient. A bit average for these guys tho. |
| Cloud Nothings Here and Nowhere Else | 3.6 |
| Angsty indie rock. Album is quite good, but "Patterns Walks" is especially amazing. |
| Regina Spektor Remember Us To Life | 3.5 |
| Matmos Plastic Anniversary | 1.5 |
Well, you know, sometimes making quirky sounds doesn't mean it's good. In fact, most of
the time, it's bad.
edit: bump ibringyoufire |
| Evigt Morker 3 | 3.7 |
| Very cool ambient/minimal techno, feels very "natural". "Parusi" is particularly soothing. |
| Nthng Remember Us | 4.0 |
| Nice lil dub/ambient/minimal techno EP. |
| Chill Bump Back to the Grain | 4.0 |
| Yeah I'm a fanboy, but these French dudes are amazing |
| Chill Bump Hidden Strings | 3.5 |
| Chill Bump Starting From Scratch | 3.5 |
| Rodriguez Searching For Sugar Man OST | 4.0 |
| Legendary underground dude. The movie is a must-see for anyone interested in music |
| Jakob Sines | 3.7 |
| Good album to study/work to. Post-rock/ambient record with some strings additions that makes it sound like Mono at time (eg. Resolve). |
| Slugdge Dim and Slimeridden Kingdoms | 4.0 |
| Blasting from front to end, but what a conclusion Unchained Malady is. |
| HOME (FL) Odyssey | 3.5 |
| 2814 æ–°ã—ã„æ—¥ã®èª•ç”Ÿ | 4.1 |
| This would have been the perfect Blade Runner 2049 soundtrack. At the same time, this sounds so comfy. Usually, futuristic music sounds cold (sometimes harsh and hopeless), but here we are granted with a warm ambient record. An album to have a 2050s' hangover to. |
| GoGo Penguin Man Made Object | 3.5 |
| O'Brother Endless Light | 3.4 |
| D'you think they were influenced by Thrice ? Album is pretty good but did not wow me. |
| Prince Of Denmark 8 | 3.8 |
| What a behemoth. Nearly 3 hours of minimal techno ? Still awesome. |
| Touche Amore/La Dispute Searching for a Pulse/The Worth of the World | 4.0 |
| Wiegedood De Doden Hebben Het Goed II | 3.0 |
| Yvette Young Acoustics EP 2 | 3.5 |
| Andy Stott Too Many Voices | 3.6 |
| So it's like UK Bass mixed with ambient tech & post-industrial. Definitely interesting. On My Mind is, as people born in 2000 would say, a bop. |
| Immolation Majesty and Decay | 3.9 |
| This is pure death metal. Full of dynamic changes, top notch riffs, shredding solos, and pummeling drums, what surprized me is how catchy the riffs are, almost working as hooks. The best example being "A Glorious Epoch", catchy as well as groovy. Of course there's absolutely nothing new here, but it's just an excellent record made by excellent musicians. |
| Immolation Kingdom of Conspiracy | 3.0 |
| Pallbearer Heartless | 3.2 |
| There are riffs, solos and melodies that are simply gorgeous (eg that solo at the beginning of "Dancing in the Madness"), but as a whole it does not work as well for me. |
| YOB Our Raw Heart | 3.0 |
| The first track as well as the last three are all really awesome, but the rest bored me a bit. Plus, the bass is inaudible, was it mixed by Joey Sturgis? |
| GoGo Penguin A Humdrum Star | 3.2 |
| This album is a bit formulaic when you know these guys, but it's still good stuff. Their previous albums are still better imo. |
| Absolute Hell Rememberance | 3.1 |
| Will need to re-listen to that harsh noise shit. If Trump's wall was as dense as that sound, no Meheecans would be stealing jobs. |
| Slugdge Esoteric Malacology | 4.0 |
| These guys make unserious music very seriously. Such a sick and crushing DM album, "Crop Killer" made me headbang so hard that coworkers asked me if I had a stroke. The long-running time makes it a bit tiresome, but the last two tracks slap hard. |
| Wiegedood De Doden Hebben Het Goed III | 3.2 |
| I only listened to this because they're Belgian (fuck yeah) and on the Church of Ra roster. Good atmospheric BM, although a tad generic. |
| The Great Old Ones EOD: A Tale of Dark Legacy | 3.7 |
| Ominous atmospheric BM with some sludge touches. These guys are in the end not very original, and I still prefer Tekeli-Li, but they really captured the bleak grandeur of Lovecraft's work. |
| BADBADNOTGOOD III | 4.1 |
| If jazz wants to move beyond nerdy fucks masturbating themselves to Pharoah Sanders, maybe BBNG is hinting at the right direction. Take traditional jazz instruments and overall aesthetic, but be influenced by modern music (you know, the kind young people actually listen to, like hip hop or electronica, or another genre no one cares about anymore, like post-rock). III is their best output (that first four tracks run is as good as they get, Hedron remains one of my fave and Eyes Closed is the embodiment of third-wave post-rock meets jazz). However, I still feel they didn't attain their full potential (for example Differently Still brings nuthin' new to the game, and when you bring nothing new to a 100 years old genre it's kinda bad, and some ideas are dragging for a tad too long, eg Since You Asked Kindly that has one cool idea but repeats it for almost 5 minutes). The split album with Ghostface was good but not mindblowing as 2015 me hoped so, and IV is a bore. Let's hope they still have that special record in them. |
| King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard I'm In Your Mind Fuzz | 3.5 |
| Yvette Young Acoustics | 3.4 |
| Very noice and "raw" math/acoustic rock EP, even though I think her work comes fully to life with Covet. |
| GoGo Penguin v2.0 | 4.0 |
| Another power trio taking nu jazz to new territories thanks to many different influences. The post-rock ones are pretty obvious (Murmuration is basically a crescendocore track with jazz instrumentation, and final track Hopopono is as nu jazz as it can be), as well as the trip hop ones (Garden Dog Barbecue is so frantic) . Their sound is extremely diverse which could allow them to appeal to cross-over audiences if peepz ackchually were curious. Bouncy jazz that doesn't take itself too seriously is always cool, especially when it doesn't forget to be contemplative. |
| The Body I Shall Die Here | 3.5 |
| Apocalypse in my head |
| Behemoth The Satanist | 3.5 |
| Blues Pills Blues Pills | 4.2 |
| Unoriginal, uninventive, but this is one of the best psych records you could hear off the 2010s. Just a hazy ride, and every track is a jam. |
| The Contortionist Language | 4.0 |
| Converge Beautiful Ruin | 3.0 |
| Gazpacho Demon | 3.0 |
| Mayhem Esoteric Warfare | 3.0 |
| The Hotelier Home, Like NoPlace Is There | 3.8 |
| Don't know why everyone loves this and I don't, I'm usually a sucker for whiny adolescent stuff. At least I was a sucker for such stuff. Then, why didn't I enjoy this back in 2014? Don't know. Looking back at the past decade, it's true it might be the best emo record of the decade. It might also be Brave Little Abacus. I like the dynamics on this one here. There's that. Edit: it's growing woo woo |
| Have a Nice Life The Unnatural World | 3.6 |
| The beginning of the album as well as the last track are really awesome, rest is k. I prefer Sea of Worry over this. |
| Ariel Pink Pom Pom | 3.6 |
| Quite great, but I still don't understand how this album got more coverage than the next one. |
| Alvvays Alvvays | 3.6 |
| Nice twee/jangle/dream pop with that happy'n'innocent romantic vibe that errrrybody loves. The almost surf rock guitar sound accentuates this summery feel. If all tracks are cool, none here (or very few other indie pop tunes) can match "Archie, Marry Me", the kind of song very few people know about, but those who know it, love it. This song particularly encapsulates what's so great in this band: the vocal melodies, oh lord they are so infectious. |
| Le Chroniqueur Sale Sale #1 | 3.1 |
| French producer with guest rappers, all songs have a distinct style to it - hardcore trap/classical boom bap/lofi beats. |
| Blu and Oh No A Long Red Hot Los Angeles Summer Night | 3.2 |
| Nice concept album, and really good production from Oh No, but a tad long. |
| Little Simz Grey Area | 3.8 |
| Props to the production; it feels modern without really following any of the main trends. |
| Uyama Hiroto Freeform Jazz | 3.5 |
| Metallica Hardwired...To Self-Destruct | 2.7 |
| Then again, it would be much better if they chopped 30 minutes off it. |
| Claude Debussy Suite bergamasque, L. 75 | 4.5 |
| D'Angelo Black Messiah | 4.1 |
| Gorgeous funky neo-soul. Music to have sex to. The instruments are heard sharply, and while D'Angelo's voice always seem in retreat compared to said instruments, the whole lot is just too groovy. What's the most impressive here is the production: it's rare such a smooth and delicate record can sound that abrasive. |
| Alcest Shelter | 3.6 |
| Maybe it's just a really good dream pop/shoegaze record, nothing more, nothing less. |
| Fen Carrion Skies | 3.9 |
| Excellent atmospheric black metal with a post-rock layer. On par with Winter, will need a few more listens to decide which one is the best. |
| Mac DeMarco Salad Days | 3.5 |
| The Menzingers Rented World | 3.0 |
| '68 In Humor and Sadness | 3.9 |
| Very cool blend of noise rock/garage rock/post-hardcore/southern rock |
| Agalloch The Serpent and the Sphere | 3.6 |
| It clearly has its own atmosphere, but its shadow over my memory is much paler than all previous albums. |
| Solange When I Get Home | 2.7 |
| Well-done and all, but twas a bit of a snoozefest eh? |
| Aaron West and The Roaring Twenties We Don't Have Each Other | 3.5 |
| Alpha Wann Alph Lauren | 3.1 |
| Quite technical French rapper with jazzy/chill hip hop instrumentation. Not bad, but it's a bit "gentillet" (don't know how to translate it in English). |
| Darkspace Dark Space III I | 4.1 |
| Not as bleak as III, but I still feel slowly swallowed by a black hole. Dark 419 is notably crushing with its riff around the 7th minute, or with its playful yet ominous synth. |
| Run the Jewels Run the Jewels 2 | 3.8 |
| Their best iteration as RTJ, and how hardcore and political hip hop should sound like in the 2010s. The production is the most modern (sci fi beats for the insane) you could have in 2014 (without it being too obtuse or avant-garde for the mass), both their delivery and lyrics are hard-hitting, tongue-in-cheek yet political, with Killer Mike ofc stealin' the show (El-P was always more of a producer than a rapper). |
| Culprate Deliverance | 3.9 |
| Bloody complex and psychedelic wonky/glitch hop/dubstep/IDM/whatever. What a producer. |
| Aphex Twin Syro | 3.5 |
| The Smith Street Band Throw Me in the River | 3.7 |
| Overly dramatic punk. It's awesome. This one may have the best flow: there are no dull moments and all the songs are bombastic, even though no song here is top 5 material. This also is their most mature record, less adolescent than their first two, but more punk than their fourth one. However, the highs here fail to match the previous two records' ones. |
| Saor Aura | 3.8 |
| If you've never been to Scotland, this is what it sounds like. This one is a bit more aggressive than Forgotten Paths, thanks in part to Lunn's drums, which are as always immediately recognizable, pounding ahrd and adding that amateur raw sound. However, there are less "epic" moments where the Celtic instruments take the cake, which personally attract me more than the rest, 'cause the rest is "merely" good atmobm. |
| Chippr Jones Two Rooms | 3.5 |
| Royal Blood Royal Blood | 4.1 |
| Not very original but if don't headbang to this go back to listening to your mom telling you to tidy your dirty room |
| Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light on Everything | 3.8 |
| "What We Loved Was Not Enough" is the jam of the decade. The rest is not as gigantic, but it's a not-so-encountered mixture of post-rock, noise rock, and art punk. |
| Protomartyr Under Color of Official Right | 3.5 |
| Great post-punk record with textured guitars and that typically forced British accent (those mofos are from Detroit), better than the next one imo. |
| Mogwai Rave Tapes | 2.7 |
| Not bad at all, but eh. It's dull. |
| Zao The Well-Intentioned Virus | 3.9 |
| The middle part of the album rips so hard. The run from Apocalypse to Observed/Observer is the shit. |
| Wolves in the Throne Room Celestite | 3.6 |
| Not as boring as everyone claims it is. Not perfect, but really nice dark/space ambient record with a progressive electronic touch. |
| Vald NQNT | 3.3 |
| Conscious and hardcore french hip hop. His lyrics and flows hint at what he will be rcapable of in the future, but the beats sound too much mid-2000 French rap (and boy was it bad) to fully enjoy the EP. |
| Damien Rice My Favourite Faded Fantasy | 3.9 |
| Damn this dude is a serious beautiful melody crafter, and his voice perfectly matches his lamentations. Extremely good album, but as of 2014 indie folk, I'll go with Ben Howard. Over many listens, I feel the second half doesn't quite match the first one: each song has got a magnificent moment, but I'm kinda waiting for this moment to come instead of truly appreciating the whole song (eg. these strings in 'The Box'). |
| Thou Heathen | 4.1 |
| Even God is afraid of this soul-crushing sound. The blackened sludgy doom vibe here might be the best they have to offer. |
| Tycho Awake | 2.7 |
| Ok so now he sounds like a chill summery and kinda boring post-rock. Might be nice for a summer drive with friends if those suckers don't like Burzum. |
| Panopticon Roads to the North | 4.0 |
| Very good as always, the bluegrass and the melodeath additions are what allows this fine dude to reinvent himself. |
| La Dispute Rooms of the House | 3.2 |
| Solid but the second half drags a tad too much (even though this album is only 41 minutes long). |
| Ne Obliviscaris Citadel | 3.7 |
| Epic prog death metal. Fortunately, the clean vocals are quite scarce on this one. "Pyrrhic" is heavier than yo momma. |
| Stella Donnelly Beware of the Dogs | 3.7 |
| A socially-conscious girl singing over some jangle/twee pop, but with an almost punk attitude (basically she does not give the single fuck). Very interested in what she'll do in the future, she already knows how to write boppity bops. However, the non-bops tracks have the unfortunate tendency to drag really quickly. |
| The Wonder Years No Closer to Heaven | 3.7 |
| It hits more now than back in 2015. But it hits less than the great trilogy of growing up. |
| St. Vincent St. Vincent | 3.3 |
| Some nice melodies coupled with fuzzy production. Doesn't wow me tho. |
| Save Us From The Archon Thereafter | 3.2 |
| Wankier than in my youngster's memories. It's nevertheless true that I was a wanker when I was 16. |
| Mutoid Man Bleeder | 3.7 |
| Heavy shit mixing stoner/sludge/mathcore/alternative post-heavymetalcore. |
| The War On Drugs Lost in the Dream | 3.9 |
| Nostalgia in the 2010s: listening to The War on Drugs because it's reminiscent of 80s popular music, and voting for Trump because it reminds you of Reagan. |
| FKA Twigs LP1 | 3.4 |
| Some very interesting beats, but this album manages to be a-hella innovative and a-kinda boring at the same time. |
| Grouper Ruins | 3.9 |
| Would you be less sad if it wasn't raining? Even knowing Liz's standards, this is sparse as heck. Maybe our most somber thoughts only appear when it's cold and dark. |
| Old Man Gloom The Ape of God I | 3.7 |
| The Ape. Animal. Raging. Dark. |
| Old Man Gloom The Ape of God II | 4.0 |
| The God. Primal. Bleak. Pale. Scary af. |
| RIEN 1 | 3.7 |
| Notre tombe sera de la forme pyramidale. Inscription: Ci-git RIEN. Et rien d'autre. |
| Kaaris Or Noir, Part. 2 | 3.5 |
| While hitting hard and being a bit dumb (that's good!), this is overall less impacting than the OG Or Noir. Make sure to catch his fight against B2O. |
| Triptykon Melana Chasmata | 2.7 |
| Mwerf. It's well done and all, but it doesn't appeal to me as much as, let's say, CELTIC FUCKING FROST |
| Marmozets The Weird and Wonderful Marmozets | 3.6 |
| Nice blend of post-hardcore/pop punk. Sounds like Green Day from time to time. |
| Iceage Plowing into the Field of Love | 3.5 |
| Every Time I Die From Parts Unknown | 4.0 |
| I forgot how much fun chaos was. The highs are really high (Decayin', Moor, Thirst, Old Light, Eldorado), while the rest is ok ETID. |
| Mitski bury me at makeout creek | 3.8 |
| Real-life Marceline the Vampire Queen. Mitski the Japanese Queen. Edit: yo wtf Marceline did a cover of Francis Forever in one episode |
| Code Orange I Am King | 3.0 |
| Igorrr Savage Sinusoid | 3.5 |
| Mutoid Man War Moans | 3.5 |
| Dire Straits Making Movies | 4.0 |
| Dire Straits Love Over Gold | 4.1 |
| Strapping Young Lad City | 3.5 |
| Harmonium L'heptade | 3.5 |
| Devin Townsend Project Z2 | 3.0 |
| The Prodigy Music for the Jilted Generation | 4.1 |
| Heart in Hand A Beautiful White | 3.0 |
| The Ghost Inside Dear Youth | 2.5 |
| Perturbator Dangerous Days | 4.0 |
| Kayo Dot Coffins on Io | 4.0 |
| That bass tone tho. Take your spacecar, wander through the dark and glowing LA night, put this on and you'll go into a surreal nocturnal journey. "Mortality of Doves" might well be one of their best tracks. |
| Mono The Last Dawn | 3.0 |
| Mono Rays of Darkness | 3.5 |
| Chill Bump Ego Trip | 3.5 |
| The Prodigy The Fat of the Land | 4.5 |
| Four Year Strong Go Down In History | 3.0 |
| This Will Destroy You Another Language | 3.5 |
| Revocation Deathless | 4.0 |
| Ben Howard I Forget Where We Were | 4.1 |
| Poignant chamber folk kinda ruined by some average production (read: you've heard it all before). The dude is a clear emotion craftsman, and it gets more and more evident with further listens. If you want to check one track to see what this man is capable of, go for "End of the Affair". |
| Mastodon Once More 'Round the Sun | 3.5 |
| Cynic Kindly Bent to Free Us | 3.0 |
| The Prodigy Invaders Must Die | 3.5 |
| Clarence Clarity No Now | 3.0 |
| Ariel Pink Dedicated to Bobby Jameson | 4.1 |
| I truly want to love this album. Hypnagogic and psychedelic stuff always is interesting, at least for the sake of weirdness. However, nearly every song here suffers from a harsh disease: being half-amazing, half shabby (a good representation of that is the t/t: some parts are just plain fun, others are almost cringy). Edit: such a grower. It's so damn effective at bringing the psych in the pop. |
| Lomepal Seigneur | 3.5 |
| HOME (FL) Before The Night | 3.5 |
| Casseurs Flowters Comment C'est Loin | 3.0 |
| Gang of Youths The Positions | 3.5 |
| Heems Eat Pray Thug | 2.5 |
| Jamie xx In Colour | 3.7 |
| A dance album with a strong pop knack, In Colour smashes Jamie XX's influences together in a damn well-structured manner. If jungle, club attitude, profound bass, and two-step's foot-stomping vibe all fight to get the lead, it's more in how lil melodies snatch the attention to the already-dope beat or how hooks function as - uh - hooks without many toplines that In Colour manages to be a complex record whose minimalism almost never trades places with lack of oomph. |
| Kamasi Washington The Epic | 2.5 |
| Hey it's quite good, with all the spiritual shit and stuff!!! But c'mon it's boring and not engaging. Each part individually is quite cool, but even when you split the album in 3 (like you should, otherwise you'll die), you're left with an ok 50min-1h jazz album that has got a few good moments but which ultimately fails to grab you. I think I had it at a 4 before because I wanted to be kewl, and I can't believe it took me 4 years to realize that. |
| Mid-Air Thief Gongjoong Doduk | 3.5 |
| Georgie Sweet Stories | 4.2 |
| I wanted to write something clever but Bedex perfectly summarized it. |
| PNL Que La Famille | 3.1 |
| Opeth Damnation | 4.3 |
| Julien Baker Sprained Ankle | 4.0 |
| Beautiful pain. Extremely pretty and sad record, I just feel I can't connect enough with it to give it more than a 4. Might well be one of the most poignant records of the decade. |
| Pusha T King Push – Darkest Before Dawn: The Prelude | 3.5 |
| Jeff Rosenstock We Cool? | 3.9 |
| Genuine power pop punk sang by that angry, sad dude of BtMI!. Some tracks are bangers ("You, In Weird Cities", "I'm Serious, I'm Sorry", "Polar Bear or Africa"), and while the rest are not on par with these pure jams, they cover enough rock subgenres (alt-rock, a tad of country, pop punk, indie rock, power pop) to bring some diversity to the record. |
| Remy Banks higher. | 3.0 |
| Sleater-Kinney No Cities to Love | 4.0 |
| Travis Scott Rodeo | 4.0 |
| Bloated and too long. But goddamn, the highlights are way too fucking good, whether soulful ("90210"), exercises in featuring the right artist to the right track ("3500", "Maria I'm Drunk", not you "Pray 4 Love"), or simply anthemic as hell ("Nightcrawler", "Antidote"). Also the production is bonkers, the drums' sound is as crispy as the best chicken - ultimately confirming that Scott is more comfortable as an entertainer than as a trve rapper. |
| Songhoy Blues Music In Exile | 3.0 |
| Default Genders main pop girl 2019 | 3.5 |
| Various Artists KankyŠOngaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980–1990 | 3.7 |
| So soothing and relaxing. That's the kind of music I would imagine for a meditation rsession during a warm sunrise on those terraces. |
| While She Sleeps So What? | 2.0 |
| Cuzco A Medicine For Melancholy | 4.2 |
| Yeah we truly miss you Clever Girl |
| Evilfeast Elegies of the Stellar Wind | 4.0 |
| Green Day Bullet In A Bible | 4.0 |
| Earthside A Dream In Static | 3.0 |
| Everything Everything Get to Heaven | 3.8 |
| Everything Everything nailed their formula of playfully colorful (and lyrically dreadful) mathy indietronica pop on Get to Heaven. Their sound was already quite unique before, but this is where their ambition meets tight songwriting. |
| Vince Staples Summertime '06 | 2.8 |
| Summertime '06 features grimy atmosphere, good-but-not-woah beats, good-but-not-woah bars, and wallows in its monochrome vibe. |
| Turnover Peripheral Vision | 4.0 |
| Carly Rae Jepsen Emotion | 4.3 |
| Maybe the best "shake yo ass on the dancefloor" pop album of the decade. The kids back then would have loved having Carly and Kevin Parker. Too bad for you boomers. Edit: dang it grew on me AHRD. The synthsax on "Run Away with Me", these synths on "Emotion", the fun as hell chorus on "I Really Like You", the 80s winks in "All That", the catchiness of "Making the Most of the Night" (HERE I COME TO HIJACK YOU), these ooh-ooh-oooooh-ooohs in "Let's Get Lost". This might be the best pop record of the decade. |
| We Lost the Sea Departure Songs | 4.0 |
| Blur The Magic Whip | 3.0 |
| Benjamin Clementine I Tell A Fly | 4.0 |
| Musically, this is one of the most adventurous records released the past decade. The elements of progressive pop, chamber jazz and even some impressionism (s/o to my homeboy Claude) reflects the sophistication of bands like Genesis, and especially their most theatrical and over-the-top records such as The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. But even though some comparisons can be made (y'know we all need some common ground), what is most striking in this album is how unique it sounds: his voice sounds like no one else, he makes use of unusual instruments (THAT THEREMIN, and that harpsichord too), and he manages to bring together elements of pop and modern classical while trying to experiment with the whole lot. A difficult album, sure, an oddity even in our current musical environment (especially when it wins a Mercury Prize), but one that slowly reveals itself to listeners patient enough to witness the blooming of a unique artist. |
| Benjamin Clementine At Least For Now | 3.5 |
| Batushka Litourgiya | 3.7 |
| Really cool and well-thought artistic direction, the chants fit well with the BM, but it just does make me willy big. |
| Action Bronson Mr. Wonderful | 3.0 |
| Kacey Musgraves Pageant Material | 3.0 |
| Joey Badass B4.DA.$$ | 3.5 |
| Hop Along Painted Shut | 3.9 |
| Rawer and less poppy than BYHO,D, but less quirky compared to Get Disowned. This is also their least immediate LP. However, it's impossible to sit still while listening to this great record. All songs have that nicely-dosed mixture of raw folk punk energy and indie pop sensibility. |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor 'Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress' | 3.8 |
| When the drone tracks click, it's a hella better. |
| mewithoutYou Pale Horses | 3.7 |
| Not as good as I remember. Still a good record cuz mwY always deliver. It's not as raw as their first two records, but I feel this is their least melodic one. |
| Hippocampe Fou Celeste | 3.0 |
| Foxing Dealer | 4.0 |
| Florence and the Machine How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful | 4.1 |
| First 4 songs + Delilah = some of the finest pop you could hear off the 2010s. The rest is not on par but there are some jams here and there (Caught, Third Eye, Mother). |
| Earl Sweatshirt I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside | 3.8 |
| Fatigued and lonely rapping over cloudy and depressive beats. While this is overall a strong project, each song tends to mash together in a maelstrom of anxiety. |
| Elder (USA-MA) Lore | 4.1 |
| It's their least good 2010s album and it still rips almost any other stoner/blues/psych band. |
| Between the Buried and Me Coma Ecliptic | 3.0 |
| Father John Misty I Love You, Honeybear | 3.5 |
| Father John Misty Pure Comedy | 3.0 |
| Envy Atheist's Cornea | 3.5 |
| Envy Alnair in August | 3.5 |
| Great to see them back, and btw the album cover was made by a member of pg.99. |
| Iron Maiden The Book of Souls | 3.5 |
| Chippr Jones Tropics / COSM | 3.7 |
| wow that's some good appetizers. Basically Bedex (wheee) said it all, just hoping that these guys come up with a full-length album. |
| Talk Talk The Colour of Spring | 4.0 |
| Killing Joke Pylon | 3.5 |
| Natalia Lafourcade Hasta la Raiz | 3.8 |
| Her best one. Makes you wanna chill on a late-afternoon sunny Sunday with beers. |
| Paradise Lost The Plague Within | 3.0 |
| The Dear Hunter Act IV: Rebirth in Reprise | 3.5 |
| Casseurs Flowters Orelsan et Gringe sont les Casseurs Flowters | 2.2 |
| Nice concept, nice characters, funny interludes, but on the execution front, wallah, it's bad. "Regarde comme il fait beau" (for the sample) and "Des histoires a raconter" are good, but the rest is either irritating or forgettable. You're better off getting Orelsan's first album if you want something like this. |
| Monobody Monobody | 4.3 |
| Mathy jazz fusion, and it's as awesome as it sounds like. The most impressive feature is how they manage to maintain melody in this Hawking-esque mathematical complexity. On top of that, they manage to put some non-Western music influences throughout the whole record, making it a bizarre yet addictive object. |
| Adele 25 | 2.5 |
| Cattle Decapitation The Anthropocene Extinction | 3.0 |
| Plini The End of Everything | 3.0 |
| Anna von Hausswolff The Miraculous | 3.5 |
| The Tallest Man on Earth Dark Bird Is Home | 3.5 |
| Selah Sue Reason | 2.5 |
| Immortal Onion Ocelot of Salvation | 3.6 |
| Polish jazz with tha classic power trio: drum'n'bass'n'piano. They do not hesitate to improvise and bring an almost 70s prog rock ethos to their work: the music is diverse and wanders through different jazz and rock styles. Cool modern jazz that shall please those in need of tight and engaging stuff. |
| Thank You Scientist Stranger Heads Prevail | 3.0 |
| I Hate Models Warehouse Memories | 4.0 |
| Hell yeah makes you wanna drive a German highway at night. |
| Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein Stranger Things, Volume One | 3.0 |
| Drags a bit too much. It's basically an ambient album with some synthwave moments rscattered once in a while. Perfect music to study/work to though. |
| Xiu Xiu Plays the Music of "Twin Peaks" | 3.7 |
| Not a big fan of Xiu Xiu usually, but I'm a Twin Peaks bitch, so it still makes me want to drink a damn fine cup of coffee. However, nothing will surpass Badalamenti's magnificent soundtrack. |
| Denzel Curry Imperial | 4.0 |
| More focused than his first one, more conscious and less boastful than ZUU, less atmospheric and more hard-hitting than TA13OO. Some of the songs here are the epitome of "Denzel going apeshit" (the first two tracks), but he already displays his more atmospheric side (the second half). |
| Meniscus Refractions | 3.9 |
| Remember when post-rock was not dead ? This feels like it. |
| NOISIA Outer Edges | 3.2 |
| Some moments are banging hard, but overall nothing here is transcendental. Still good, but their first album is more interesting. |
| Gojira Magma | 3.5 |
| The Drones Feelin Kinda Free | 3.9 |
| I like that kind of record, the one you listen once, you find it cool, and then you decide to listen to it again and you realize its weirdness is already remembered. Cool cool cool record, even though I prefer the first half of it. |
| Wormrot Voices | 4.0 |
| Saor Guardians | 3.5 |
| Alkpote/DJ Weedim Sadisme & Perversion | 2.5 |
| Downfall of Gaia Atrophy | 3.0 |
| I Hate Models State of Control | 4.0 |
| Mastodon Emperor of Sand | 3.5 |
| Mastodon Cold Dark Place | 3.0 |
| I Hate Models Midnight Cults | 4.0 |
| Fates Warning Theories of Flight | 3.0 |
| HOME (FL) Falling Into Place | 3.5 |
| Inquisition Bloodshed Across The Empyrean Altar... | 3.5 |
| Kayo Dot Plastic House on Base of Sky | 3.0 |
| Insomnium Winter's Gate | 4.0 |
| Nekfeu Feu (Réédition) | 3.5 |
| Lomepal FLIP Deluxe | 4.0 |
| Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein Stranger Things, Volume Two | 3.0 |
| Oxbow Thin Black Duke | 4.0 |
| I Hate Models Spreading Plague | 3.0 |
| Miles Davis 'Round About Midnight | 4.0 |
| Vald NQNT 2 | 3.5 |
| Beach House Depression Cherry | 3.5 |
| Bring Me the Horizon That's the Spirit | 2.5 |
| Chelsea Wolfe Abyss | 3.8 |
| Good as always with Chelsea. However, I can't help but feel a teeny tiny bit disappointed when listening to one of her albums. I always expect it to be amazing, but they are "only very good". This one is no exception. |
| Protomartyr The Agent Intellect | 3.5 |
| Plini Handmade Cities | 3.0 |
| Alkpote/DJ Weedim Les Marches de l'Empereur | 2.5 |
| Saor Forgotten Paths | 3.9 |
| True Celtic Black Metal. As epic as my kilt-protected baws being gently caressed by the Highlands' winds, as harsh as the first taste of haggis, as soft as a shortbread, as subtle as a Laphroaig. |
| Spiritbox Spiritbox | 3.0 |
| I Hate Models Totsuka no Tsurugi | 3.5 |
| Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein Stranger Things 2 | 3.0 |
| Ne Obliviscaris Urn | 3.5 |
| Alkpote Inferno | 3.0 |
| Gringe Enfant Lune | 1.5 |
| Behemoth I Loved You at Your Darkest | 3.5 |
| Czarface and Ghostface Killah Czarface Meets Ghostface | 2.5 |
| Copeland Blushing | 2.5 |
| Between the Buried and Me Automata I | 3.0 |
| Xiu Xiu Girl with Basket of Fruit | 2.2 |
| Scary shit that seems to focus more on boring people away rather than inviting them into its gruesome world. |
| CZARFACE and MF DOOM Czarface Meets Metal Face | 2.5 |
| Iceage Beyondless | 4.0 |
| Plini Sunhead | 3.5 |
| Downfall of Gaia Ethic of Radical Finitude | 4.2 |
| Earthy atmospheric black metal, one of the best of the year imo. This is also their best one as they perfectly match their oppressive sound with some welcome atmospheric melodeez. The doom additions make the record less oppressive than their previous outputs. There emerges a moody, Autumnal atmosphere. |
| Four Year Strong Four Year Strong | 3.0 |
| Eminem Recovery | 2.2 |
| Truth be told, I've always found Em's beats to pale in comparison to how great his flow is was. This one's no exception: meh beat after meh beat, Eminem raps about rehab shit. Factor in tasteless choices, like these "oh ooh ooh ooh oh" during "Cold Wind Blows" - or any chorus, it never was Em's strength - and you've got a quite feeble record dragging on for way too long. |
| Killing Joke Killing Joke (2003) | 4.0 |
| Animals As Leaders The Madness of Many | 3.5 |
| Rolo Tomassi Grievances | 4.0 |
| Sukekiyo Adoratio | 3.0 |
| The Black Dahlia Murder Abysmal | 3.0 |
| Ojne Prima Che Tutto Bruci | 4.1 |
| Oh European screamo, I love you so much. |
| Enslaved In Times | 3.5 |
| Kero Kero Bonito Bonito Generation | 2.9 |
| A cute record whose cute factor goes full throttle, nearly resulting in indigestion. |
| Alex Cameron Forced Witness | 4.1 |
| Kaputt, but done by a madman; or Dedicated to Bobby Jameson, but done by a sane dude. Slowly becoming one of my favourite pop records of the decade. It's funky'n'bouncy, it's tongue-in-cheek, and it has that special mix of 80s and 2010s nostalgia flavour on top. All that is due to the special blend of genres done: it's synthpop, but with a knack of sophistication (hence the Kaputt link) and some 80s-90s heartland rock revival (hence the Ariel Pink link). Sorry Ariel, Alex won this. Kaputt still ownz the place tho. |
| Mid-Air Thief Crumbling | 4.0 |
| Korean dream folktronica. It's kinda weird as it feels deconstructed yet carefully structured. Some parts are not well-mixed (eg some the vocals in the middle part of "Curve and Light"), while others are simply gorgeous (eg the whole buildup in "Curve and Light" too). This duality, sometimes during the same song, gives me a somewhat schizophrenia feeling: there is true potential here, but it's not yet attained. Still mega dope. |
| Jenny Hval Apocalypse, girl | 2.5 |
| Hallatar No Stars Upon the Bridge | 3.2 |
| Poetic and tragic death doom metal record. I'm no big fan of the subgenre but the vocals are particularly poignant, and the record is short enough to not get boring. |
| Low Double Negative | 2.6 |
| Never truly got into that one, its works on textures not leveraging what seems to be like songs (??). It also feels directionless, with resembling tunes succeeding one another. |
| Mount Eerie Sauna | 3.0 |
| Dvne Asheran | 4.1 |
| Sweet proggy solis + pounding sludgy riffs = one of the best stoner records of the decade. Kudos for the magnificient art too. |
| KOTO Bye Bye Teens Lullaby | 1.5 |
| The Story So Far The Story So Far | 3.0 |
| Gorguts Pleiades' Dust | 4.0 |
| Full of Hell Trumpeting Ecstasy | 3.0 |
| Kero Kero Bonito Time 'n' Place | 3.7 |
| Bonito go bold on this one, dialing down the overly-cuteness of their debut to bring in guitars and, more importantly, great songwriting. The record ends up being mega fresh because they found the right balance between the cute and banging sides of their sonic palette. I just need a teeny tiny bit more consistency. |
| Title Fight Hyperview | 3.0 |
| Romeo Elvis Morale | 2.5 |
| Alvvays Antisocialites | 3.7 |
| No turning there's no turning there's no turning back after what's been said. |
| Clarence Clarity THINK: PEACE | 3.0 |
| Title Fight The Last Thing You Forget | 4.0 |
| Steven Wilson Hand. Cannot. Erase. | 3.5 |
| Save Us From The Archon Fear Eats the Soul | 3.0 |
| The Body No One Deserves Happiness | 4.1 |
| No genre label could do them justice. This is pure emotion in its noisiest and helliest format. It's tribal, raw, abrasive, obtuse as well as dangerously addictive. The horror the male shrieks convey are only matched by the sense of grandeur of the female chants. If there ever is a Hell, I hope I'll be greeted with this album. The sound of impending doom. |
| Ulcerate Shrines of Paralysis | 4.2 |
| If Destroyers was chaotic and brutal and Vermis ominous and brutal, Shrines is hellish and brutal. BR00TAL 'cause well y'all know it's Ulcerate and no Wonder Years; and hellish because of these small atmospheric passages that the band finally truly masters here. This is the combination of the best of Destroyers and Vermis, and the culmination of the very specific genre of atmospheric brutal tech death metal. Top 3 dm of the decade. |
| Panopticon Autumn Eternal | 4.0 |
| While She Sleeps Brainwashed | 2.5 |
| Gazpacho Molok | 3.0 |
| Julia Holter Have You In My Wilderness | 3.5 |
| Periphery Juggernaut: Omega | 2.0 |
| Ariana Grande Thank U, Next | 3.3 |
| Despite focusing a tad too much on trap beats - pop Ari > rap Ari, i know that's a brave take -, this is Grande's second best album behind Dangerous Woman. This is mainly due to the fact that there ain't no horrendous guest feature, and even the lesser tracks are slightly-above-filler material. |
| The Body I have fought against it, But I can’t any longer | 4.1 |
| The soundtrack to the apocalypse. The martial death industrial is what you'll hear when the earth will start shaking. The shrieks will be those of your beloved ones now turned into partly alive faceless entities who can't carry no weight because the west has failed. You won't understand those shrieks, because they can't talk anymore and because you can't hear anymore, but this will be the very last form of loving. From time to time, you'll hear a woman's voice, but it's off script, it's only in your head, even though you can't think about anything because nothing is stirring your head. You are blessed, alone. An urn is all you'll have left in this wretched world. So you'll wander, totally alone, and it will slowly transform your sick heart into sand. Ten times a day, everyday, you'll be a stranger both to the world, and to yourself. Ok, if I stop randomly putting the song titles into a shit post-apocalyptic story, I love this record compared to other The Body releases for how industrial it sounds. The relative lack of drone compared to their other releases make this one truly stand out. |
| Cult Leader Lightless Walk | 3.5 |
| Death Grips The Powers That B | 4.0 |
| Death Grips The Powers That B - Part II: Jenny Death | 4.0 |
| Death Grips The Powers That B - Part I: Niggas on the Moon | 4.0 |
| Periphery Juggernaut: Alpha | 2.0 |
| Protomartyr Relatives in Descent | 4.2 |
| Post-punk was so huge this decade. Ofc it was nothing compared to hip-hop, or even atmospheric black metal, but there was something bizarre happening this decade about the genre. This is no mere revival, like we saw in the early 2000s, this is a modern take on, eg, The Fall. Musically, this got the bouncy post-punk bass we all love, the shrill guitars, the militaristic drums, and finally, the deep, fake-English-accent voice distilling metaphors about modern life, without ever linking these metaphors to true events or people, allowing them to stay mysterious and thus interesting. |
| '68 Two Parts Viper | 4.0 |
| Preoccupations New Material | 3.0 |
| Steven Wilson To the Bone | 3.0 |
| Lil Ugly Mane Third Side of Tape | 4.2 |
| Absolutely massive, the best "bootleg" music you could find. |
| Preoccupations Preoccupations | 3.5 |
| Ghostface Killah and BADBADNOTGOOD Sour Soul | 3.5 |
| Car Seat Headrest Teens of Style | 3.5 |
| Suis La Lune Distance/Closure | 4.0 |
| Stake Kosmokoma | 4.0 |
| Periphery Periphery III: Select Difficulty | 2.0 |
| Preoccupations Viet Cong | 3.5 |
| Bjork Utopia | 3.0 |
| Nicolas Jaar Nymphs II | 3.8 |
| Waves of minimalistic textures trading places for 15 minutes. At times the lead is taken by weird vocal samples, tribal drums, progressive electronic, or what seems like microhouse's dying breath. |
| Tame Impala Currents | 4.1 |
| The pop album for production nerds. Some will regret the lack of P S Y C H compared to Parker's first two records, while others are ready to embrace that bouncy bass and mindlessly throw these jams whenever it's sunny and they have to drive. What's left in between is a bold psychy pop record that your mom can also appreciate. Might well be the album the 80s kids wanted but got 30 years too late. |
| Royal Headache High | 3.5 |
| Regarde Les Hommes Tomber Exile | 4.0 |
| A tad more predictable (or maybe I was already used to their style?) than the eponym, but it still slayz m/ The main problem is that A Sheep Among Wolves is so good it makes the album pale in comparison. |
| Oneohtrix Point Never Age Of | 3.0 |
| Mgla Exercises in Futility | 3.5 |
| Joanna Newsom Divers | 4.2 |
| Less grand than her last two, but she's more succinct than on HOoM (Ys is a different kind of monster). She successfully manages to keep her songs under the 8-minutes bar while still baffling us with magnificient melodies. I also feel her music is somehow "simpler", ie less mindfucking. The songs let themselves be discovered more easily than on previous albums, which might sound not like a good thing, but here the medieval melodies immediately find their way into my head. |
| Intronaut The Direction of Last Things | 4.0 |
| FKA Twigs M3LL155X | 4.0 |
| John Carpenter Anthology: Movie Themes 1974-1998 | 4.0 |
| Defeater Abandoned | 3.0 |
| August Burns Red Found in Far Away Places | 3.5 |
| Grimes Art Angels | 3.8 |
| At first a weirdass album, Art Angels transforms from "Flesh Without Blood" onwards into a banger-full pop record that retains enough weirdness to be Grimes, but still adopts enough pop orthodoxy for these songs to be, well, songs. There are some fillers that easily surpass the status of "slightly irritating", but these lil guitar riffs and ethereal honey flowing into my ears are too much to ignore. |
| Hiatus Kaiyote Choose Your Weapon | 3.5 |
| PNL Le Monde Chico | 4.1 |
| A fucking tidal wave. If 2015 is nowadays considered as the year during which French Rap entered its Second Golden Age, this is the year's most important album. Musically, it refines the QLF mixtape's sound by diminishing even more the number of pure rap verses, all tracks basically being French chanson, but drenched in processing effects and narrating street tales. In a way, this is gangsta rap, but the two brothers chose to rap about poverty, not their new wealthiness. Usually, when a rapper talks about his neighborhood, he claims it's full of the toughest motherfuckers and praises its drug-dealing. Not PNL. They cry about young kids having nothing else to do but to sell hash, and sound deeply resigned as if their neighborhood is the anchor sinking them into the abyss. And they let themselves drown. |
| Carpenter Brut EP III | 4.0 |
| Another excellent synthwave release by this French dude. It's not his best EP (his second installment is the shit), but we are granted some nice jams with Paradise Warfare, Invasion A.D. and Anarchy Road. |
| Bjork Vulnicura | 3.5 |
| Alfa Mist Antiphon | 3.0 |
| Lil Ugly Mane Oblivion Access | 4.0 |
| Existential horrorcore; or where Travis Miller kills Lil Ugly Mane. This is LUM's most depressive-sounding record (still less depressing than bedwetter), as it's much less boastful and tongue-in-cheek (Grave Within a Grave, Collapse and Appear, damn). This overall bleakness, though well transcribed in the lyrics, is more importantly relying much more on industrial and sound collage than the Memphis-sounding Mista Thug Isolation. Even though this is an amazing release, if I want to listen to Miller's depression, I'd rather go with Bedwetter. And when I'm in need of the dgaf Travis, I'd rather go with MTI. |
| Nicolas Jaar Nymphs III | 4.2 |
| Less destructured and more reliant on four-on-the-floor beats than Nymphs II, III is basically an epic 18-minute track divided into a core and a coda. A beautiful, calm house tune. |
| Earl Sweatshirt Solace | 3.5 |
| Beach House Thank Your Lucky Stars | 2.5 |
| Mono Requiem For Hell | 3.0 |
| While She Sleeps You Are We | 2.5 |
| Ghost (SWE) Opus Eponymous | 4.0 |
| Frank Ocean Blonde | 3.4 |
| Sadboi auto-tuning his R&B voice over some ambient and lofi pop. I totally see the appeal, but it's just not for me. Some tracks are underwhelming imo, and his auto-tune fluctuates between godlike (Pink + White) to bwergf (White Ferrari). I can understand the appeal, but this is too bare for me to develop an interest in it. There sure are some beautiful moments (the lofi ones basically), but I don't find it as moving musically as it is lyrically. |
| Danny Brown Atrocity Exhibition | 4.3 |
| The beats are at their most anxious. Even if you don't pay attention to the lyrics, you can't help but feel your heart slowly compressing. On top of that, Danny sounds especially manic here, creating one hell of an atmosphere. His rapping is indeed less good than on Old or XXX, but I can't help but feel deeply moved by what he has accomplished here. The soundtrack of a mental institution. |
| Eluvium Copia | 3.9 |
| Damien Rice 9 | 3.7 |
| Damien Rice O | 4.3 |
| The Flaming Lips At War with the Mystics | 2.9 |
| The Flaming Lips Transmissions From the Satellite Heart | 3.5 |
| The Flaming Lips Zaireeka | 3.3 |
| The Flaming Lips Clouds Taste Metallic | 3.9 |
| Minus the Bear Planet of Ice | 4.0 |
| Minus the Bear Menos El Oso | 4.0 |
| Minus the Bear Highly Refined Pirates | 4.0 |
| Chill Bump *Hors Serie* | 4.5 |
| Two of their very best tracks with Raise Up and Chillin' With the Bump. |
| Sed Non Satiata Le Ciel De Notre Enfance | 4.0 |
| Kidcrash Jokes | 4.2 |
| Bruce Springsteen Born in the U.S.A. | 3.9 |
| Two years after the poignant Nebraska, The Boss comes back with the heavy artillery: bye-bye acoustic guitar and cheap tape recorders, and let's welcome raging sax, heavy drums, and anthemic choruses. Springsteen's goal still is to put the spotlight on all those that were left behind, but he does so with much more flamboyance than ever before. It does make this record kinda bloated at times, where Nebraska was truly touching by its simplicity. Still, the hits on this baby surpass the "contemporary banger" status to skyrocket to timeless working-class anthems. |
| Bruce Springsteen The River | 4.0 |
| Bruce Springsteen Nebraska | 3.9 |
| It's almost anti-Springsteen. Letting go of the E Street Band, the Boss is alone with his guitar, his harmonica and a 4-track recorder. It just sounds like a modern version of Woodie Guthrie. Truly touching, this one takes more time to appreciate than the mastodon Born diptych, but when in the good mood, leverages more emotions. |
| Bruce Springsteen Darkness on the Edge of Town | 3.8 |
| Bruce Springsteen Born to Run | 4.1 |
| Carcass Heartwork | 3.9 |
| New Order Blue Monday | 4.0 |
| The Jesus and Mary Chain Darklands | 3.8 |
| Much less noisy and much more poppy than Psychocandy, this is the first TJaMC album to use drum machines, drummer Bobby Gillespie having left to become Primal Scream's frontman. Saturation is also gone, replaced by reverb, and the lyrics are much more recognizable than on their first output. I personally prefer this iteration of the band 'cause I'm a sucka for pop melodies. |
| The Jesus and Mary Chain Psychocandy | 3.6 |
| Birth of a genre: take post-punk rhythms, hidden pop melodies, add some a lot of fuzz, echo and saturation and there you go: shoegaze. As if Phil Spector produced The Stooges' Fun House, or if The Velvet Underground decided to record Beach Boys tunes. While this record's influence gets nothing but mad respect from me, I like the idea of the record more than the actual songs off it. Eh. |
| Lomepal ODSL | 3.5 |
| Parkway Drive Ire | 2.0 |
| Explosions in the Sky The Wilderness | 3.0 |
| Woodie Smalls Soft Parade | 3.5 |
| Hugo TSR Tant Qu'on Est La | 3.0 |
| Freeze Corleone Projet Blue Beam | 3.5 |
| Dinos Imany | 3.9 |
| Dinos and this cloudy take on lyrics-oriented French rap could have been the best 2018 album. Shame that Alpha Wann bloke cockblocked him. Anyway, after dropping the "Punchlinovic" (rofl) part of his stage name, Dinos focused on songwriting. Indeed, many parts are sung, and he decides to focus on the message delivery rather than the pure rapological technique. He still shows he can rap damn well, but this time he adds a meaning to his technique. Beautiful album. |
| Yndi Halda A Sun​-​Coloured Shaker | 3.5 |
| The Carrier Blind To What Is Right | 3.5 |
| The Carrier One Year Later | 3.8 |
| The Carrier No Love Can Save Me | 4.8 |
| One of my first hardcore loves. Even in 2008, it sounded nostalgic. |
| Stars of the Lid The Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid | 3.5 |
| Stars of the Lid And Their Refinement Of The Decline | 3.5 |
| Explosions in the Sky All of a Sudden, I Miss Everyone | 3.8 |
| Explosions in the Sky Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die... | 3.9 |
| Explosions in the Sky How Strange, Innocence | 3.5 |
| The Tallest Man on Earth Sometimes The Blues Is Just A Passing Bird | 4.0 |
| Isha La Vie Augmente, vol. 2 | 3.0 |
| Isha La Vie Augmente | 3.5 |
| Lewis OfMan Yo Bene | 3.0 |
| Jazzy Bazz P-Town | 3.0 |
| Jazzy Bazz Nuit | 3.5 |
| Deerhunter Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared? | 2.5 |
| Mono Nowhere Now Here | 3.0 |
| James Blake Assume Form | 3.0 |
| Bring Me the Horizon Amo | 2.5 |
| Malibu Ken Malibu Ken | 3.0 |
| Better Oblivion Community Center Better Oblivion Community Center | 2.5 |
| Sharon Van Etten Remind Me Tomorrow | 3.0 |
| Ghost (SWE) Infestissumam | 3.5 |
| A Day To Remember Bad Vibrations | 2.0 |
| Front Line Assembly Tactical Neural Implant | 3.5 |
| Childish Gambino "Awaken, My Love!" | 3.5 |
| Nepal (FR) 444 Nuits | 4.3 |
| Let's talk about the beats on this one. He manages to create cloudy jazzy melancholic modern beats, without feeling redundant. Imagine a Joe Hisaishi rap soundtrack, but darker and sadder. The blue half of the double EP is the best run of tracks he ever put out. It took him 444 nights to finish this. An album to listen to at night. |
| Tom's Story Tom's Story | 3.5 |
| The Avalanches Wildflower | 3.2 |
| A big sampledelic suite of warm, summery tunes that often tries to replicate Since I Left You without attaining the genius of its predecessor. Still a fun listen, but one that mostly goes to the background instead of grabbing you to its joyful world. |
| Ghost (SWE) Meliora | 4.0 |
| Remember when AOR and hard rock were the most popular genres? Me neither, I wasn't born yet. This, however, is the 2010s adaptation of such a sound. Grand, epic, melodic, and most importantly pop at its core, Ghost released in 2015 their best version of themselves yet. Seeing them live last year made me understand how much fun they were. If Ghouls playing rock'n'roll instruments, a pope singing and playing the fucking saxophone and fire bursting everywhere isn't the modern circus, I don't know what is. |
| A Tribe Called Quest We got it from Here… Thank You 4 Your service | 3.5 |
| Blood Incantation Starspawn | 4.3 |
| As alien as death metal can get. Stellar production, the bass is CRISPAY. It's a shame it's only 35 minutes long, if it was 15 minutes longer (of the same quality as the 35 already present) it would likely go up. The two Vitrifications are the true bangers here. |
| Solange A Seat at the Table | 3.0 |
| Yndi Halda Under Summer | 3.5 |
| Caballero/Jeanjass Double Hélice | 3.5 |
| Anderson .Paak Malibu | 4.1 |
| That's some sexy and warm neo-soul right here. Paak, like Kendrick did in 2015, summarizes black music in the 2010s: Malibu takes influence from soul, R&B, funk and hip hop and delivers a groovy and soulful record to toke some reefer to. The versatility of the genres allows the record to flow well, even though it's a tad lengthy in the middle. Production-wise, this is a beaut, as Paak surrounded himself with top notch producers (Madlib's at it again), without forgetting to do some of the job himself ("The Bird"). All tracks are lush and full of details, which makes Malibu both an immediate album as well as one that lets itself discover after multiple listens. When it hits, chillness prevails. Roll that shit, light that shit smoke it. |
| Swans The Glowing Man | 4.0 |
| Damso Batterie Faible | 3.9 |
| Damso's first album was a tidal wave in the Francophone rap game. On top of his fine-tuned rapological technique and mega-hardcore punchlines - the dirtiest motherfucker out there -, the beats did the most impact. Filled with weird, minor key melodic lines, its unicity comes from its laboratory aspect: basically, no Francophone rap album had beats like this one, and no album has had beats like that since then. He will refine his art in his sophomore album Ipseite, but in terms of impact, this one is important, especially in Belgium's representation of Francophone rap. Oh, and he samples Agnes Obel in "Exutoire". |
| Mayhem De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas | 4.4 |
| Tool Lateralus | 4.2 |
| Descendents Milo Goes to College | 3.8 |
| The Dismemberment Plan Emergency & I | 4.2 |
| The Beatles Rubber Soul | 4.0 |
| The Beatles The Beatles | 4.2 |
| The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour | 4.3 |
| The Beatles Revolver | 4.3 |
| Bark Psychosis Codename: Dustsucker | 3.9 |
| Bark Psychosis Hex | 4.0 |
| Mark Hollis Mark Hollis | 4.0 |
| Talk Talk Laughing Stock | 4.5 |
| Talk Talk Spirit of Eden | 4.5 |
| Shit, how do I start this? Hum, ok. It's the most elegant piece of fucking music I've ever heard. Its opulence comes from the richness of the instrumentations: purring bass, slowed-down guitar, cotton-like drums, violin, oboe (just learned now how it's called in English), bassoon (same), and a shitton of other instruments that I can't even imagine the look of. A modern symphony of rare sensory sophistication. |
| Talk Talk It's My Life | 3.4 |
| Wowee I don't need no time machine, I just need to jam this one to go straight to 1984. Exuberant synthpop bordering on the New Romantic aesthetic built by the Avalon-period Roxy Music, variegated cover, and cheesy pop, yup, this is what I think the 80s were. Cool record, but The Colour of Spring would better this aesthetic, and we all know their last two records are where it's @ |
| Ween Quebec | 4.0 |
| Ween White Pepper | 3.9 |
| Ween The Mollusk | 4.4 |
| Ween Chocolate and Cheese | 4.4 |
| Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison | 3.9 |
| Tangerine Dream Rubycon | 4.2 |
| Kraftwerk Computer World | 3.8 |
| Kraftwerk The Man-Machine | 4.0 |
| Kraftwerk Trans-Europe Express | 4.5 |
| Kraftwerk Radio-Activity | 3.8 |
| Kraftwerk Autobahn | 4.0 |
| MF DOOM Special Herbs: The Box Set | 4.0 |
| Ornette Coleman The Shape of Jazz to Come | 4.3 |
| No piano, no guitar = no chords damn. On top of that, each ""track"" contains a brief theme which is followed by improvisations, to conclude with a repetition of said theme. So yeah, it's a difficult record. Yet, with each listen a new fragment of the puzzle imagined by tha dude Ornette is revealed to us. You gotta take your time with this one, as this is an improvisation work in which "harmony, melody, speed, rhythm, time and phrases all have equal position in the results that come from the placing and spacing of ideas". Edit @bludngorevidal: nah i didn't understand anything about this record so I had to Wikipedia the shit out of it |
| Radiohead A Moon Shaped Pool | 3.4 |
| Subtle classic Radiohead. This clearly is one of the less innovative and, dare I say, "experimental" Radiohead record, but it's simply very well done. However, I still feel it's a tad too subdued for its own sake. |
| Nick Drake Bryter Layter | 4.0 |
| Leonard Cohen Songs of Love and Hate | 4.1 |
| Boards of Canada Music Has the Right to Children | 4.4 |
| The Police Reggatta de Blanc | 3.5 |
| Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto Getz/Gilberto | 4.1 |
| Classic bossa nova. RIP my man, you made us dream of smoking cigars during a warm Rio de Janeiro nights. |
| The Specials Specials | 4.0 |
| Cynic Traced in Air | 3.8 |
| Cynic Focus | 3.9 |
| Control Denied The Fragile Art of Existence | 3.4 |
| Counterparts You're Not You Anymore | 3.5 |
| Meshuggah The Violent Sleep Of Reason | 3.5 |
| Red Hot Chili Peppers The Getaway | 2.5 |
| Aesop Rock The Impossible Kid | 3.5 |
| Skillful delivery and witty lyrics with nice - from time to time abstract - beats. Really good but nothing transcendental for me. |
| Deftones Gore | 3.0 |
| Perturbator The Uncanny Valley Bonus | 3.5 |
| Beyonce Lemonade | 3.8 |
| With a super punchy production and diversified beats, as well as companion videos that (for those I've actually seen) are gorgeous, Lemonade was, most importantly, Beyonce's second straight statement: after claiming that she could do whatever she wanted with the industry by releasing a surprise 70-minutes album, she showed that, finally, she had a front-to-back consistent record in her - the lesser tracks still being "good". |
| Les Discrets Prédateurs | 3.0 |
| Glassjaw Material Control | 3.5 |
| Gang Starr Moment of Truth | 4.0 |
| Gang Starr Hard to Earn | 4.0 |
| Gang Starr Daily Operation | 4.0 |
| Gang Starr Step in the Arena | 4.0 |
| Terry Riley A Rainbow In Curved Air | 3.8 |
| Steve Reich Music for 18 Musicians | 4.6 |
| The Devil Wears Prada With Roots Above and Branches Below | 3.0 |
| Slipknot All Hope Is Gone | 3.0 |
| Slipknot Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses | 3.5 |
| Slipknot Iowa | 3.6 |
| Slipknot Slipknot | 3.7 |
| Green Day Dookie | 4.2 |
| Soilwork The Ride Majestic | 3.5 |
| Soilwork The Living Infinite | 3.5 |
| Soilwork Natural Born Chaos | 3.7 |
| All That Remains The Fall of Ideals | 3.5 |
| Parkway Drive Horizons | 3.9 |
| Parkway Drive Killing with a Smile | 4.1 |
| August Burns Red Constellations | 4.2 |
| August Burns Red Phantom Anthem | 2.5 |
| Suis La Lune Heir | 4.3 |
| Uplifting depression |
| Nadja Radiance of Shadows | 4.0 |
| Nadja The Bungled and the Botched | 4.0 |
| Sunn O))) Monoliths and Dimensions | 3.2 |
| Boris Pink | 4.0 |
| Boris Boris At Last -Feedbacker- | 4.4 |
| Boris Akuma no Uta | 3.9 |
| AC/DC Back In Black | 2.9 |
| Some great tunes I've loved for a long time (Hells Bells, Shoot to Thrill, Back in Black, You Shook Me All Night Long) although they are not quite as magical as they used to be, and the rest is bwergf and quite boring hard rock. Boomer music. |
| Rise Against Wolves | 2.0 |
| Rise Against Appeal to Reason | 3.6 |
| Rise Against The Unraveling | 3.2 |
| Rise Against Revolutions per Minute | 3.8 |
| Rise Against Siren Song of the Counter Culture | 4.2 |
| Boris Heavy Rocks | 3.8 |
| Boris Amplifier Worship | 3.8 |
| Boris Flood | 4.5 |
| I forgot how hypnotic this one is. The rain starts on track 1, and when it reaches gargantuan levels, the rain stops. Track 2 starts and you're mindlessly floating. You've been floating for too long as track 3 begins. You're sinking. Track 4: you let yourself sink. |
| William Basinski The Disintegration Loops IV | 4.5 |
| William Basinski The Disintegration Loops III | 4.5 |
| William Basinski The Disintegration Loops II | 4.5 |
| William Basinski The Disintegration Loops I | 4.5 |
| Dead Kennedys Plastic Surgery Disasters | 3.8 |
| Dead Kennedys Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables | 3.8 |
| Black Flag My War | 4.1 |
| This is where they invert their punk-to-Black Sabbath ratio. This time, the powerful punk testosterone only pumps up the Sabbath gloom. Side B is where they infamously slow the pace to be one of the first sludge works out there, although Side A has got its fair share of slower tunes compared to hardcore straightjacket. What adds to the record - and is also a bit frustrating at times - is how much Rollins' vocals and Ginn's guitar sound disconnected from the rest. Still, it's one of my favourite Black Flag recordings, because while the punch is somewhat gone, it was replaced with a dense self-hatred, both in terms of lyrics as well as the slow, doomy music. Also, keep in mind it was as heretical historically speaking as Dylan pluggin in his guitar in Bringing It All Back Home. |
| Black Flag Damaged | 3.7 |
| Legendary hardcore release. Absolutely essential (wink wink). It sure was influential as heck, and Rollins adds a newfound rage to the band. He sure sounds pissed, and it brings a viciousness to the music, said viciousness being new at the time. It's a perfect bridge between the OG punk rock (TV Party), the blooming hardcore endeavours (Thirsty and Miserable) and their later sludgier outputs (Damaged I). While not all tracks pack the same punch, the glory cuts are absolutely essential to understand what this band brought to the game (Rise Above, Six Pack). I dig it much less than when I discovered it tho. |
| Gorilla Biscuits Start Today | 3.8 |
| The Evpatoria Report Maar | 3.8 |
| The Evpatoria Report Golevka | 3.9 |
| pg.lost It's Not Me, It's You! | 3.9 |
| Do Make Say Think Stubborn Persistent Illusions | 3.5 |
| Tortoise TNT | 4.0 |
| Tortoise Millions Now Living Will Never Die | 4.0 |
| Mogwai Happy Songs for Happy People | 4.1 |
| 2nd fav of them after their debut. |
| Fugees The Score | 3.9 |
| Nas STILLmatic | 3.8 |
| Nas It Was Written | 3.9 |
| LL Cool J Mama Said Knock You Out | 3.6 |
| LL Cool J Bigger and Deffer | 3.5 |
| LL Cool J Radio | 3.2 |
| A Tribe Called Quest People's Instinctive Travels & The Paths of Rhythm | 4.0 |
| Lauryn Hill The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill | 4.4 |
| Jazz Liberatorz Fruit Of The Past | 4.0 |
| Jazz Liberatorz Clin D'Oeil | 4.0 |
| Chunk! No, Captain Chunk! Something for Nothing | 2.0 |
| HEY DUDES ARE YOU READY TO |
| George Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue | 4.0 |
| Sex Pistols Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols | 3.5 |
| Tim Hecker Harmony in Ultraviolet | 4.0 |
| Four Year Strong In Some Way, Shape, or Form. | 2.5 |
| Four Year Strong Rise Or Die Trying | 3.8 |
| Sunny Day Real Estate How It Feels To Be Something On | 4.0 |
| Sunny Day Real Estate Diary | 4.2 |
| Cursive Domestica | 4.0 |
| Cursive The Ugly Organ | 4.0 |
| Red House Painters Red House Painters | 3.0 |
| Red House Painters Down Colorful Hill | 3.0 |
| Neutral Milk Hotel On Avery Island | 3.5 |
| Neutral Milk Hotel In the Aeroplane Over the Sea | 4.1 |
| Godflesh Godflesh | 3.0 |
| Swans The Great Annihilator | 4.1 |
| Grouper Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill | 4.0 |
| Touche Amore/Pianos Become the Teeth Split | 4.5 |
| Doc Gyneco Premiere Consultation | 3.6 |
| Aaaaah, le Doc. Before supporting Sarkozy (yeah, really), trashtalk every cites rapper and making drunk appearances on TV, he achieved an enormous success thanks to this album. Whereas most 90s French hip hop took influence from East Coast boom bap, Doc Gyneco chose to match his beats to his hedonistic lyrics: Californian G-Funk was the perfect atmosphere for this. The record is indeed much, much brighter than what was done then within the genre, fusing pop, funk, soul and chanson francaise, and it thus resulted in huge commercial success. Most tracks are pure fun, even the darkest ones ("Nirvana"), but some are kinda cringy, almost borderline in 2020 ("Viens voir le docteur", although musically really good, isn't #MeToo at all and the dude would have been sued if it hadn't been 1996). Even though it's a pretty fun album, it's - you know it - a tad too long, overstaying its welcome with some unnecessary tracks ("Les Filles du moove" or "Celui qui vient chez toi", ugh). It's still considered a French rap classic, mainly for how popular it was. Cool, laid-back shit that would be a hard classic if you only take the best 30 minutes of it. |
| Hippocampe Fou Terminus | 3.0 |
| The Dillinger Escape Plan Irony Is a Dead Scene | 4.0 |
| The Dillinger Escape Plan Ire Works | 3.8 |
| The Dillinger Escape Plan Miss Machine | 4.0 |
| The Dillinger Escape Plan Calculating Infinity | 4.0 |
| Gang of Four Solid Gold | 3.7 |
| Groovy shit. While the drum'n'bass duo makes this album their most rhythmic-centric output, the shrill sounds the guitar mews are there to slice the melodies (it's almost anti-guitar at this point). Although this way of playing constitutes one of the interest of the record, the focus here is the rhythm section, really high in the mix, which makes this punk album a funky one (sure they loved Remain in Light). It's an album that's more difficult to digest than Entertainment!, mainly because of its almost-atonality, but it's an interesting record for the duel between the dancy rhythm and the stoic guitar. |
| Gang of Four Entertainment! | 4.0 |
| Rites of Spring Rites of Spring | 4.0 |
| Embrace (US) Embrace | 3.7 |
| Slint Slint | 4.0 |
| Slint Tweez | 3.0 |
| The Crystal Method Vegas | 4.0 |
| Radiohead In Rainbows | 4.4 |
| Refused Freedom | 2.5 |
| Portishead Third | 4.0 |
| Portishead Portishead | 3.9 |
| Pink Floyd The Piper at the Gates of Dawn | 3.8 |
| Pink Floyd Atom Heart Mother | 3.7 |
| Pink Floyd Meddle | 4.3 |
| Pink Floyd The Wall | 4.1 |
| Set Fire to Flames Sings Reign Rebuilder | 3.7 |
| Set Fire to Flames Telegraphs in Negative/Mouths Trapped in | 3.7 |
| Massive Attack Blue Lines | 4.0 |
| Massive Attack Protection | 3.7 |
| The Avalanches Since I Left You | 4.4 |
| Circle Takes the Square As the Roots Undo | 3.8 |
| Off Minor Some Blood | 4.2 |
| Off Minor The Heat Death of the Universe | 4.4 |
| Manchester Orchestra Mean Everything to Nothing | 3.9 |
| Manchester Orchestra I'm Like a Virgin Losing a Child | 3.6 |
| Converge I Can Tell You About Pain | 3.0 |
| American Football American Football | 4.7 |
| I've become comfortably sad. It's a grey Sunday in November, it's raining and it's cold. Let's put this on. |
| Nujabes Hydeout Productions 2nd Collection | 4.7 |
| In a discography full of gems, this is the winner. Just a succession of 14 blissful moments, hitting you like rays of sunshine caressing your face on a sweet summer morning. It's even more impressive given the record's nature: it's a compilation, but there is no filler here. Atmospherically, this might be Seba's most on-point record, with horns and strings ensuring the beats do not take the central place. It's thus the one Nujabes record with the most crucial focus on instrumentation (there's very little rapping here compared to his other projects). Most importantly, though, the cohesion and flow are at their very best here, each track seamlessly leaving space for the next one. A beauty, a modern classic, and another proof that Jun Seba was in his own category. |
| Nujabes Hydeout Productions 1st Collection | 3.8 |
| Nujabes Luv(sic) Hexalogy | 4.7 |
| Nujabes Spiritual State | 4.1 |
| Legend. It's clearly his least-good output, but it's just too good. The standouts hit less than on his first two records, and there are some weaker songs, but it's still an essential recording. |
| Nujabes Modal Soul | 4.6 |
| Nujabes Metaphorical Music | 4.5 |
| Cyne Evolution Fight | 3.9 |
| Chill Bump Going Nowhere | 3.5 |
| Ulver Nattens Madrigal | 3.8 |
| Ulver Kveldssanger | 3.9 |
| Ulver Bergtatt - Et eeventyr i 5 capitler | 4.5 |
| Agalloch The White | 4.0 |
| Palms Palms | 3.0 |
| Glassjaw Worship and Tribute | 4.3 |
| Glassjaw Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Silence | 3.9 |
| Alexisonfire Old Crows / Young Cardinals | 3.3 |
| Alexisonfire Crisis | 3.8 |
| Alexisonfire Alexisonfire | 4.0 |
| Air Moon Safari | 4.0 |
| Saosin Translating the Name | 3.9 |
| dredg El Cielo | 3.5 |
| The Blood Brothers ...Burn, Piano Island, Burn | 3.5 |
| The Blood Brothers Young Machetes | 3.5 |
| La Dispute Somewhere at the Bottom of the River Between Vega and Altair | 4.1 |
| Amesoeurs Amesoeurs | 3.5 |
| Amesoeurs Ruines Humaines | 3.9 |
| Alcest Souvenirs D'Un Autre Monde | 3.7 |
| The beginning of an era. It still sounds amateurish, which might repel some, but the blend of dreamy shoegaze and black riffiness started here. The fact that Neige had, at that point, never heard of Slowdive, is quite impressive given how faithfully he transcribes the dreaminess and melancholy of shoegaze and dream pop. It's also very folky at times, but still ethereal, which adds to the mysterious yet pastoral atmosphere. Thus, what is lacking here; why is Ecailles universally known as the trve game changer, while this one is merely seen as a prep? The answer is multi-dimensional, but we'll start with the songwriting: it's kind of one-dimensional compared to what will come, the transitions are sometimes a bit off, the riffs are not as memorable as on later outputs, etc. On top of that, Neige is drummin' here and while it's not bad, Winterhaelter truly upped the band's game. The black metal still has to truly reveal itself too, being here more a companion of the shoegaze than a real component of the songwriting. Still, the album manages to be beautiful and revolutionary, but still a bit green to truly change the game. Take it as a shoegaze album with some black metal riffs here and there, and you'll be graced with one hell of a record. |
| Vald NQNT33 | 2.5 |
| Exodarap L'exode | 4.0 |
| Caballero Pont de la reine | 3.5 |
| Jeanjass Goldman | 4.0 |
| Igor Stravinsky Le Sacre du Printemps | 4.5 |
| Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 3 in E♠“Eroica†Op. 55 | 4.5 |
| Kate Bush Hounds of Love | 4.2 |
| Side 1: Hounds of Love. You dance. Quite awkwardly, yet you dance. Side 2: The Ninth Wave. You're drifting alone in the sea at night. No apparent link between these two sides, right? Well it's always rhythmic, - yet it has got no single cymbal - the Fairlight CMI being the record's second star, Bush being ofc the most interesting of this babe of an album. A weird album this is. A beautiful one too. I still have to fully get around the second half. |
| Iron Maiden Powerslave | 4.0 |
| Red Hot Chili Peppers Californication | 4.0 |
| Red Hot Chili Peppers Blood Sugar Sex Magik | 4.0 |
| Red Hot Chili Peppers By the Way | 3.5 |
| Red Hot Chili Peppers Stadium Arcadium | 3.0 |
| Faith No More The Real Thing | 3.8 |
| Faith No More King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime | 3.6 |
| Faith No More Sol Invictus | 3.0 |
| Faith No More Angel Dust | 4.2 |
| Diamond Head Lightning to the Nations | 3.5 |
| X Japan Art of Life | 3.5 |
| Prince 1999 | 3.5 |
| Prince Purple Rain | 3.7 |
| Prince Sign o' the Times | 3.5 |
| Dismember Like an Ever Flowing Stream | 4.0 |
| Ludwig van Beethoven "Pathétique" Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13 | 4.5 |
| David Bowie Hunky Dory | 4.1 |
| Streetlight Manifesto Everything Goes Numb | 3.9 |
| Streetlight Manifesto Somewhere in the Between | 4.6 |
| Queens of the Stone Age Era Vulgaris | 3.5 |
| Queens of the Stone Age Lullabies to Paralyze | 3.7 |
| The Strokes Is This It | 4.4 |
| Ibeyi Oya | 3.0 |
| Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds Skeleton Tree | 4.0 |
| Emotions are like oysters. The rawer, the tastier. This album is tasty. Even when you don't pay attention to the lyrics, your heart can't help but shrink. It's a mere dwarf heart when you listen to these words. The last three tracks on here are some of the most heart-wrenching recent songs. Beautiful record. At peace. |
| Neurosis Fires Within Fires | 3.5 |
| Kvelertak Nattesferd | 2.5 |
| Alpha Wann Alph Lauren 2 | 3.5 |
| A bit nastier than on his first EP. He still relies on chill & jazzy beats, which is always nice, but it does not allow him to truly shine (apart on Barcelone, masterful track showcasing what he will do in later endeavours). |
| Romeo Elvis Morale2Luxe | 3.5 |
| System of a Down Toxicity | 4.2 |
| The Postal Service Give Up | 3.6 |
| Sleater-Kinney The Woods | 3.9 |
| Night Verses Into the Vanishing Light | 3.5 |
| Oathbreaker Rheia | 3.9 |
| A patchwork band. Put some FoE sludge'n'crust, some Amenra depression, some Deafheaven tremolo and a kickass female Flemish singer, and paf, you got Chocapics. |
| Parquet Courts Human Performance | 3.5 |
| The Hotelier Goodness | 3.0 |
| Antonio Vivaldi The Four Seasons | 4.5 |
| Johann Sebastian Bach Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565 | 4.5 |
| The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band | 4.5 |
| Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92 | 4.5 |
| Antonin Dvorak Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95, B. 178 | 4.5 |
| Pyotr Tchaikovsky "Pathétique" Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74 | 4.5 |
| Kashiwa Daisuke Program Music I | 4.6 |
| Dissection Storm of the Light's Bane | 4.5 |
| Harmonium Les Cinq Saisons | 4.0 |
| Curtis Mayfield Superfly | 4.3 |
| Frank Sinatra Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely | 3.4 |
| Frank Sinatra Where Are You? | 3.5 |
| Frank Sinatra In The Wee Small Hours | 3.6 |
| Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550 | 4.5 |
| Beastie Boys Paul's Boutique | 4.0 |
| Minutemen Double Nickels on the Dime | 4.4 |
| You know it, it's their magnum opus. Funky, jazzy, folky, bluesy, Captain Beefheart-y leftist punk is a cool, longass moniker. You just can't help but have tremendous fun listening to this. I don't know if it was either the downfall or the pinnacle of the pure hardcore scene. We'll say it was a rebirth, alongside Zen Arcade. And History Lesson - Part II might be a cliche choice for the best track here, but it's so real. It epitomizes in 2 minutes the band's DIY ethos, and, maybe more importantly, it just makes you feel good for how fervent it is. The sentence "punk rock changed our lives" said by a band who actually did change punk rock is fucking marvelous. They didn't only understand punk as a musical style: it was an idea, their very own American way of life. This band could have been my life. |
| Olivier Messiaen Quatuor Pour la Fin du Temps | 4.5 |
| Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart "Jupiter" Symphony No. 41 in C major, K. 551 | 4.5 |
| The Zombies Odessey and Oracle | 4.0 |
| Shiina Ringo Kalk Samen Kuri no Hana | 3.8 |
| Bill Evans Conversations With Myself | 3.5 |
| The Dave Brubeck Quartet Time Out | 4.4 |
| Bob Dylan The Times They Are A-Changin' | 3.8 |
| Woody Guthrie Dust Bowl Ballads | 3.5 |
| George Harrison All Things Must Pass | 4.0 |
| Shakti A Handful of Beauty | 4.0 |
| Shakti Natural Elements | 4.0 |
| Yes Fragile | 4.3 |
| The Fall of Troy Doppelganger | 3.8 |
| Dance Gavin Dance Artificial Selection | 2.5 |
| Dance Gavin Dance Mothership | 2.0 |
| Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67 | 4.5 |
| Yes Close to the Edge | 4.5 |
| Ludwig van Beethoven Piano Sonata No14 C-sharp minor,Op.27No2 | 4.5 |
| Sergei Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18 | 4.5 |
| Organized Konfusion Stress: The Extinction Agenda | 4.1 |
| Pure 90s NYC hip hop: it's jazzy and atmospheric, hardcore and martial. Pharoahe Monch kicks ass on this one, rapping fast in different ways with complex rhymes, and almost eclipses Po - who's a very capable rapper. The beats navigate from dark jazzy beats to upbeat ones with the whole lot never feeling disjointed. |
| Divine Styler Spiral Walls Containing Autumns Of Light | 4.3 |
| How the hell did this come out on a major label? It's so fucking weird. Only traces of hip hop can be found here, lost between ambient, psych folk, coldwave, dancey bits, funky basslines, and tons of other genres ("Mystic Sheep Drinking Electric Tea" is Death Grips, but in 1992). This makes the album super interesting as each song has got a certain knack that differentiates it from the other tracks. Even the rapping itself is clustered throughout the record, making room for spoken poetry, yelling or chants. Consider this as a spoken word record. This is the dude's redemption, the story of a ghetto bad boy who found atonement in prison by converting to Islam. The record is full of religiousness, whether in the form of straight-up prayers or metaphysical considerations. Divine Styler wanted to save his soul. I hope he did. At least he was ahead of his time. |
| Napalm Death From Enslavement to Obliteration | 3.7 |
| Napalm Death Scum | 3.5 |
| Naked City Naked City | 4.5 |
| Rachel's Handwriting | 3.5 |
| Rodan Rusty | 3.9 |
| The For Carnation The For Carnation | 4.0 |
| .O.rang Herd of Instinct | 4.0 |
| Black Widow Sacrifice | 3.0 |
| Coven Witchcraft Destroys Minds & Reaps Souls | 3.5 |
| Salt-n-Pepa Hot, Cool & Vicious | 2.5 |
| Afrika Bambaataa and The Soulsonic Force Planet Rock | 3.5 |
| Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five The Message | 3.0 |
| Dr. Octagon Dr. Octagonecologyst | 3.8 |
| Dr. Dooom First Come, First Served | 3.8 |
| MF DOOM Born Like This | 3.8 |
| MF DOOM MM.. Food | 4.1 |
| MF DOOM Operation: Doomsday | 3.9 |
| Viktor Vaughn Vaudeville Villain | 4.0 |
| MF DOOM (remember, all caps when you spell the man's name) at his most sinister. The raps are still crazy (although generally faster than usual for him), the comic books references are still present at large, but the dark and ominous beats make for a totally different atmosphere, DOOM impersonating a mad scientist who time-traveled to the 90s and needs to win rap battles to go back to his era. It might be DOOM's least approachable work, mainly because of the less funky beats. But the dark suits DOOM so well. |
| King Geedorah Take Me to Your Leader | 3.7 |
| Cult of Luna Salvation | 4.5 |
| Ok that was a perfect listen. This is the one where they mastered their heavy/ambient duality. |
| Cult of Luna Somewhere Along the Highway | 4.6 |
| The last two tracks are the best closer pair an album could ever have, and the combo "Marching" + "Finland" is also epic. Kinda shame the middle part of the album is somewhat lackluster compared to the bookends (but maybe that's because the bookends are among the best post-metal tracks ever), but this is still magnificent. My favourite CoL release. |
| Neurosis The Eye of Every Storm | 4.3 |
| Neurosis A Sun That Never Sets | 4.4 |
| Neurosis Times of Grace | 4.4 |
| Neurosis Through Silver in Blood | 4.5 |
| *best riff ever* STARS REIGN DOOOOOOWN OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU |
| Have Heart Songs to Scream at the Sun | 4.1 |
| Have Heart The Things We Carry | 3.9 |
| Verse Aggression | 4.1 |
| Eagles Of Death Metal Zipper Down | 2.5 |
| Eagles Of Death Metal Heart On | 3.0 |
| Eagles Of Death Metal Death By Sexy | 3.0 |
| Jose Cid 10,000 anos depois entre Vénus e Marte | 4.0 |
| Supertramp Crime of the Century | 4.3 |
| Supertramp Even In the Quietest Moments | 4.0 |
| Supertramp Breakfast in America | 4.1 |
| Stevie Wonder Talking Book | 4.0 |
| Stevie Wonder Innervisions | 4.4 |
| Stevie Wonder Songs in the Key of Life | 4.6 |
| Soundgarden Superunknown | 4.0 |
| Jeff Buckley Grace | 3.9 |
| Eagles Of Death Metal Peace Love Death Metal | 3.0 |
| Queens of the Stone Age Queens of the Stone Age | 4.1 |
| Queens of the Stone Age Rated R | 4.0 |
| Foo Fighters Foo Fighters | 3.5 |
| Foo Fighters The Colour and the Shape | 3.9 |
| Foo Fighters Sonic Highways | 2.5 |
| The Clash London Calling | 4.6 |
| Alice in Chains Jar of Flies | 4.5 |
| Songhoy Blues Resistance | 3.0 |
| City of Caterpillar City of Caterpillar | 4.4 |
| Daitro Laisser Vivre Les Squelettes | 4.0 |
| Megadeth Rust in Peace | 4.4 |
| Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Requiem in D minor, K. 626 | 4.5 |
| Charles Mingus The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady | 4.5 |
| Sensual jazz. As experimental and improvisational as a big band could get, as sexy as a flamenco guitar can play, and as much emotion as a jazzy ballet can provide. A passionate piece of art, technical and yet romantic at its core. That fucking motive first played during "Group Dancers" and repeated during "Trio Group Dancers"; this is the kind of motive you only have to listen to once. Even if 5 years go by without listening to it, it becomes apparent as soon as it appears: it has never left your head. |
| Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 | 4.5 |
| Sam Cooke Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963 | 4.0 |
| The Black Dahlia Murder Nightbringers | 3.5 |
| Flying Lotus Los Angeles | 4.0 |
| Flying Lotus 1983 | 3.2 |
| Thundercat Drunk | 3.5 |
| Weezer The White Album | 3.5 |
| Weezer Pinkerton | 4.0 |
| Weezer Weezer | 4.0 |
| Kamasi Washington Harmony of Difference | 3.0 |
| Maroon 5 Songs About Jane | 4.0 |
| Opeth Still Life | 4.5 |
| Katatonia The Fall of Hearts | 3.0 |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor Luciferian Towers | 3.5 |
| King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard Nonagon Infinity | 3.5 |
| Lomepal Majesté | 3.5 |
| Kendrick Lamar untitled unmastered. | 4.0 |
| King Crimson Red | 4.8 |
| Queensryche Operation: Mindcrime | 2.8 |
| King Diamond ''Them'' | 3.5 |
| King Diamond Abigail | 3.5 |
| Nepal (FR) 445ème Nuit | 4.3 |
| Let's talk about language on this one. He fuses "classic" French language, French and Arabic slang, verlan (a specific French tongue where you reverse the order of the syllables) as well as touches of Japanese and English here and there. He also changes his rhyme pattern every verse, so the whole lot feels very diverse while retaining its uniqueness. His strongest EP, that came out 444 days after his first one, 444 Nuits. |
| Nepal (FR) KKSHISENSE8 | 3.8 |
| His last EP before the album. As always, he's doing almost everything, from the modern beats to the melancholic rappin'. The kind of dude you gotta listen to 10 times to truly understand what he's saying. Put your hoodie on, take some sweet MJ with you, put this on and go wander in the streets. |
| Klub des Loosers Vive la vie | 4.0 |
| Klub des Loosers Le Chat et Autres Histoires | 1.5 |
| Gojira Terra Incognita | 3.5 |
| Gojira The Link | 3.5 |
| Gojira From Mars to Sirius | 4.3 |
| Gojira The Way of All Flesh | 4.3 |
| Death The Sound of Perseverance | 4.4 |
| Death Individual Thought Patterns | 4.3 |
| Death Spiritual Healing | 3.9 |
| Death Leprosy | 4.2 |
| Death Scream Bloody Gore | 4.0 |
| Death Human | 4.8 |
| Death Symbolic | 4.6 |
| The Cure Pornography | 4.1 |
| The Cure's most gothic record. Solemn bass, monotone drums, strident guitars (that fucking "One Hundred Years" riff), deadpan delivery, and cryptic lyrics. That's all they needed, and they concluded their gloomy era with the best version of their sound. |
| Nina Simone Pastel Blues | 4.5 |
| Miles Davis Ascenseur pour l'echafaud OST | 4.0 |
| The most Parisian album made by a non-Parisian. Three of the sidemen are French, but this is still Davis' work. This album, while not the dude's best, is a monument on its own, being the quintessential film noir record. In Davis' discography, this is the work that lays the foundations for Milestones (1958) and Kind of Blue (1959). |
| Massive Attack Mezzanine | 4.5 |
| Amy Winehouse Back to Black | 4.0 |
| Mastodon Crack the Skye | 4.7 |
| Bob Marley and The Wailers Legend | 4.7 |
| Louise Attaque Louise Attaque | 3.8 |
| Angelo Badalamenti Twin Peaks | 4.3 |
| Tangerine Dream Phaedra | 4.5 |
| Jean-Michel Jarre Equinoxe | 4.0 |
| Jean-Michel Jarre Oxygene | 4.0 |
| Michael Jackson Bad | 4.0 |
| Gustav Holst The Planets, Op. 32 | 4.5 |
| Genesis Selling England by the Pound | 4.5 |
| Funkadelic Maggot Brain | 4.1 |
| The Beatles Abbey Road | 4.7 |
| Buena Vista Social Club Buena Vista Social Club | 4.7 |
| Mike Oldfield Tubular Bells | 4.0 |
| The Police Outlandos d'Amour | 3.5 |
| Various Artists Pulp Fiction | 4.5 |
| Blur Parklife | 3.5 |
| The Stone Roses The Stone Roses | 4.1 |
| It's Madchester, bitch! Led by Happy Mondays for its dance side, and The Stone Roses for its rockier edge, the city which saw Engels foment what would become communist theory always cultivated a certain edge compared to the rest of the country. Deeply influenced by whatever substance they could ingest, as well as 60s psych rock, these lads incorporated catchy melodies within dazey layers and groovy rhythms. It's subtle, though, said melodies do sound underwhelming at first. The more time you spend with this album, the more irresistible the melodies become. One thing that nevertheless doesn't change with many listens under the belt: Ian Brown is a shit singer. |
| Tears for Fears Songs from the Big Chair | 4.2 |
| Bill Withers Just As I Am | 4.3 |
| Soul, both smooth and deep. The man knew how to craft soothing folk rock-influenced soul, and one can feel the 60s were still there in his mind. In fact, this sometimes sounds more like a folk record sung by a guy who could deliver soulful and emotional bursts of summer vibes. The orchestration perfectly plays its role: always in the background and mingling with the organ, percussion and guitar, thus always letting shine the true star of the record: Bill Withers. A legendary album that, while deeply rooted in its time, is still warm and passionate enough to appeal to younger generations. |
| IAM L' Ecole du Micro D'Argent | 4.6 |
| It hasn't aged a single wrinkle and still sounds as crisp as it did when it came out. For if it is essential to mark one's era, it is necessary to go beyond this status to enter the pantheon of classic works, those both contemporary and timeless. L'ecole du micro d'argent is the definitive French rap classic, a photograph from the late '90s, a collection of fables told by wise shaolin warriors. This is the polar star of French rap, the lighthouse that guides it despite the surrounding fog and the violence of the waves. If there was only one album of the genre you would have to listen to, this would be the one. |
| Cannibal Ox The Cold Vein | 4.4 |
| After Company Flow, before RTJ, there was Cannibal Ox. And it might be El-P's best project. It also was his label Def Jux's first release, and, damn, what a release. Lyrically, it's rooted in the streets, opting from Mobb Deep-influenced deafening violence, cold darkness, and Wu-Tang's typically paranoid and abstract verses. These are rapping stories of the deprived, the left-behind, comparing themselves to pigeons lost in NYC. The two MCs told these dark stories by complementing each other: Vordul displayed acrobatic rapping, while Vast Aire was slower but more elastic and prone to abstraction. Finally, these beats. Using bizarre and dismembered electronic bits, abrasive guitars, and boom bap's last rampart, these beats were building upon Funcrusher Plus's aesthetic. Still, they went one step further in terms of darkness. They federated the largest public indie rap has ever witnessed before sinking into the abyss of legendary underground rap projects. They were the underground rap. |
| Fleetwood Mac Rumours | 4.8 |
| 17/11/2019. It's a sunny Sunday morning, I'm hungover. |
| Rise Against The Sufferer and the Witness | 4.6 |
| Lustmord Dark Matter | 2.5 |
| Tycho Epoch | 2.5 |
| BADBADNOTGOOD IV | 2.5 |
| Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin IV | 4.0 |
| Blues Pills Lady In Gold | 2.5 |
| James Blake The Colour in Anything | 3.0 |
| Devin Townsend Project Transcendence | 3.0 |
| Nicolas Jaar Sirens | 3.5 |
| Spatialized. Breaking glass, piano loops, build-ups, actual beats and political issues are thrown together in a Sirens record whose sonic palette is as wide as its matters and voices - parents should stop bringing their children into their songs. |
| Run the Jewels Run the Jewels 3 | 3.5 |
| The Dear Hunter Act V: Hymns with the Devil in Confessional | 4.0 |
| Deathspell Omega The Synarchy of Molten Bones | 4.0 |
| Be'lakor Vessels | 4.0 |
| PNL Dans La Légende | 4.4 |
| Y'know that kind of record. The one you absolutely hate the first time you listen to it, but, as time passes by, you start to appreciate it. Idk why but now these tracks are deeply ingrained in my brain, and I can't help but like 'em. Some parts are still laughable for sure but idgas, these guys managed to talk about their deep feelings without sounding like lil bitches. The closing trio here perfectly displays that sensibility: if you don't pay attention to the lyrics, it might sound like an aerial rap song. But the crushing self-realization lyrics are what make this French rap group one of the greatest of the decade. |
| Neu! Neu! 2 | 3.6 |
| Neu! Neu! '75 | 3.9 |
| Neu! Neu! | 4.0 |
| David Bowie The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars | 4.5 |
| David Bowie Blackstar | 4.6 |
| Perfect swansong for one of contemporary music's most influential personalities. Not perfect because of the music itself (let's be honest, it's not Bowie's best album, even though it's S-Tier), but perfect for the context. Bowie released his most modern record at his career's dusk, looking back at what made him an all-time great: curiosity in other genres (the free-form jazz present here is a good example, as well as the UK Bass and new age nods). Farewell, legend. Even RYM's stars are black. |
| Vektor Terminal Redux | 4.5 |
| Hands down the best thrash metal record OTD. It's fast, very fast even, as the riffs are relentlessly trying to be more colossal and technical than the previous one. Most importantly, it's no wank and they don't try to simply show off how good they are. Going beyond the pure technical considerations, the record is so thrash metal as they pull out the traditional Fade to Black-kind of ballad that you can jam with your non-metal mates (bunch of pussies innit) with Collapse and its so lovely Spanish guitar riff. However, it's the concept of the record that will help the listener to truly engage with the record: if The Joy of Motion is the sound of exploring space with an open mind and only few but still funny-in-retrospect encounters, Terminal Redux edges closer to Edge of Sanity's Crimson: a dark, end-of-humankind story where every bit of hope is crushed by our incapacity to actually be fulfilled. |
| Mono / World's End Girlfriend Palmless Prayer / Mass Murder Refrain | 4.5 |
| Mono You Are There | 4.3 |
| Mono Hymn to the Immortal Wind | 4.4 |
| Yndi Halda Enjoy Eternal Bliss EP | 4.5 |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven | 4.7 |
| Vince Staples Big Fish Theory | 3.6 |
| A cool album that doesn't let himself overstay its welcome (big yay), Big Fish Theory fuses Staples' rap with house-full beats (meaning: bouncy ass shit) and deconstructed stuff thanks to, among others, SOPHIE (REP). An interesting release overall, that sometimes tries too hard to replicate this aesthetic's greatest success - ie that try to replicate "Yeah Right" and "745". |
| The War On Drugs A Deeper Understanding | 4.0 |
| The Contortionist Clairvoyant | 3.7 |
| Swarms Black Chapel Sun | 3.0 |
| Stupeflip Stup Virus | 3.0 |
| Save Us From The Archon L'Eclisse | 3.0 |
| Save Us From The Archon Melancholia | 3.0 |
| Pillorian Obsidian Arc | 3.0 |
| Paradise Lost Medusa | 3.0 |
| Mogwai Every Country's Sun | 3.0 |
| Mogwai Young Team | 4.5 |
| Mew Frengers | 4.6 |
| Oh, what a beauty. The kind of record you discover way too late. At least you got the eternity to jam it. |
| Sigur Ros Takk... | 4.3 |
| Sigur Ros Agætis byrjun | 4.7 |
| Explosions in the Sky The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place | 4.7 |
| Slowbuildupcore, then explosioncore. Plain beautiful music that can make you headbang. |
| 65daysofstatic One Time for All Time | 3.9 |
| 65daysofstatic The Fall of Math | 3.9 |
| If These Trees Could Talk The Bones of a Dying World | 3.5 |
| God Is an Astronaut All Is Violent, All Is Bright | 3.9 |
| Magma Waves .​.​.​and who will take care of you now | 3.0 |
| Lorde Melodrama | 4.4 |
| Much bolder than her debut, this is one anthemic and dense synthpop record. Musically, it's not surprising to hear mid-tempo glitchy beats with some strings (ie, Antonoff) during the late 2010s zeitgeist, but they are distinctive enough to not feel like feeble copycats. Lyrically, Lorde already proves she's much more interesting than Taylor when it comes to breakup-related songs. A clever and danceable pop record, what could the mass possibly do instead of being in awe? Edit: kinda obsessed with this rn. |
| LCD Soundsystem American Dream | 3.5 |
| Mac DeMarco This Old Dog | 3.5 |
| King Krule The OOZ | 3.3 |
| Lazy trip-hoppy, jazzy rock. Factor in the slow pace and extended length, and it makes for an album that's consistently cool yet never ~fully~ leverages its aesthetic to a psychy journey. When it works like on "Dum Surfer", it's a mega winner, but few tracks manage to attain that level. A cool record that I feel could have been awesome. |
| Nick Drake Five Leaves Left | 4.3 |
| A simple, yet layered chamber folk album. The vocals are honest and the strings add a lot of textures without stealing the main stage. So delicate. |
| Elliott Smith Either/Or | 4.6 |
| Julien Baker Turn Out The Lights | 3.5 |
| Joey Badass ALL-AMERIKKKAN BADA$$ | 3.5 |
| The Smith Street Band More Scared of You Than You Are of Me | 3.5 |
| Gang of Youths Go Farther in Lightness | 3.9 |
| Let's start with the obvious flaws: yes it's too long, yes the less good cuts are dragging. But GADDAYM when it hits, it fucking hits you like the meteorite hit these dinos back in the days. The good cuts here are absolutely phenomenal (tracks 1, 2, 3, 11, 12, 14, 16 should please your papa), and The National vibes sure help me instantly love this. And for once it's not only whiny not-an-adolescent-anymore-but-too-fucked-up-to-be-a-real-adult lyrics (i still love you OtIP) but truly heartbreaking prose. Basically the most Darkness in the Edge of Town record since 2014's Holy Vacants. Or since 1978, you choose. Just cut it in half next time and you'll get yourself a classic, because now half of it is a 3 and the other half is a big fat 5. |
| Fen Winter | 4.0 |
| CunninLynguists A Piece Of Strange | 4.6 |
| CunninLynguists Rose Azura Njano | 3.5 |
| Code Orange Forever | 2.5 |
| Blood Cultures Happy Birthday | 3.0 |
| Ulver The Assassination of Julius Caesar | 4.1 |
| Synthpop for the metalheads. As always with Ulver, it's a solid record that stands out in terms of the rest of the band's discography and the genre's general evolution. Concerning Ulver themselves, they showed us again they could release any kind of music they wanted (now I want a rap album, be ready Garm). In regards to the synthpop scene, the record's 80s influences are quite obvious, but, as Carly, the record has got recognizable influences but does not steal from them. This is still Ulver, in their most bombastic form. |
| Agalloch Pale Folklore | 4.6 |
| The first installment of a legendary discography. The music reflects the transition from Autumn to Winter on Pale Folklore. While there are moments where the snow never lets you rest, the calmer parts all feature this doomy - and almost unique in their discography - guitar sound. Whenever the cold wind is not whipping your face, lull moments let you enjoy the mixture of white snow and brown leaves in the now quiet forest. Even with this kind of imagery, this is not Agalloch's best record: what makes this stand out less than the two 2000s ones is the production: the bass is nearly inaudible, the drums are quite low in the mix (they're not incredible but do the job), and Haughm's clean vocals are not at their best yet. However, the band managed to effortlessly blend folk metal (without any flute, yay), atmospheric black metal (without cliche tremolos), doom metal (without being boring), post-rock (without being mere crescendocore), and progressive metal (ugh) to create a true sonic maelstrom utterly new at the time, and never replicated afterwards. Before Wolves in the Throne Room came up with Cascadian Black Metal, Agalloch perfected it and wrote an album for the ages that still manages to pale compared to its two successors. As global warming deprives us of snow, one question arises: will I ever see my city draped in a white veil again? I don't know, but during the grey days when nothing falls but rain, I'll still have Agalloch to help me remember what Winter sounds and feels like. |
| Solstafir Berdreyminn | 3.5 |
| Enslaved E | 3.5 |
| Big K.R.I.T. 4eva Is a Mighty Long Time | 4.2 |
| The dude perfectly encapsulates the contradictory boastfulness and spirituality of southern hip hop, the focused flows and hooks of the 90s, the mindlessness of 2000s bangers, and adapts the whole lot to 2010s production and sound. The first album is just a jammy record you can throw to your ghetto homies, while the second one is an introspective soulful album to chill to. Enormous kudos: for a double album, this does not feels too long, even though the second half better suits my taste than the first one. Finally, he throws in different rap subgenres and masters them all. His masterpiece. |
| Elder (USA-MA) Reflections of a Floating World | 4.6 |
| Ride the cosmic wave, bitch. Fuzzy and epic, this might be the best stoner record of the decade. Taking influence from the holy trinity of cosmic riffs (Sabbath, Floyd, Zep) but applying the formula to modern-day production and heaviness, Elder displays a juggernaut of an album, psychy as well as proggy, without ever forgetting to be groovy. Headbang blissfully, my child, as you've started the heaviest and haziest ride you've ever taken. |
| Sufjan Stevens Carrie and Lowell | 4.6 |
| Best folk AOTD. Intricate guitar melodies, sweet and controlled vocal performance, gorgeous harmonies, the oh-so-emotional tale. What's more impressive is how subtle and elegant this release is. Other folk works (The Wild Hunt), or even other grand 2010s releases (To Pimp a Butterfly) are bombastic (even though they have their share of softer moments), and directly show you how good they are. Here, you gotta take time to apprehend this. And when it clicks, oh boy. This is more than a mere album; this is a man's life, regrets, and questions poured into 43 minutes. |
| Trophy Scars Holy Vacants | 4.4 |
| The best bluesy record of this past decade. While beforehand the blues additions were mere, well, additions, now it feels like the post-hardcore and prog touches are built on top of the muddy twelve-bar chords. The gritty and smoky vocals may not be to everyone's taste, but they add intensity to the band's stellar musicianship. Fortunately for those who do not dig Tom Waits-grimy-like vocals, the female guest vocals are gorgeous and add a more spiritual and calm atmosphere to the "hell yeah, gimme that Jack" vibe (the end of Vertigo is a good example). On top of that, they granted us with SOTD-material with "Everything Disappearing". Then again, one of my favourite records of this decade is pretty obvious concerning its influences (maybe the album that most importantly shaped the past decade's rock bands: Darkness in the Edge of Town, Tom Waits as well as some classic rock) but manages to create a unique sound. Nothing's lost, nothing is created, and everything is transformed. |
| Flying Lotus You're Dead! | 4.7 |
| Still one of my favorite albums of the decade by THE trailblazer. I'm pretty sure it had an influence on TPAB (Kendrick apparently wanted to keep "Never Catch Me" for himself). It fuses da wonky, nu-jazz, and hip-hop without ever letting any of these genres take the lead for too long. It's clearly one of the most challenging records in an already challenging discography, but the way the tracks flow into each other makes for a super engaging listen. It's weird as fuck, and this weirdness is what established Ellison as one of the most influential musicians of the past decade. Listening to this high at Santa Monica was a near-death experience. |
| The Ocean Pelagial | 4.0 |
| Cool concept to delve into the deep ocean. At first the record is quite aggressive (shark attacks and shit like that), then, as the abysses are the like second darkest shit on this planet, the Abyssopelagic's tracks bring an both an ominous and a hopeful feeling: the cleans are cleaner, but the riffs are like snakes, ready to attacc as soon as you're not ready to fight. |
| The Ocean Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic | 4.0 |
| Cool follow-up to Pelagial, if not better. It's both heavier and cleaner (prod's good), though much more predictable from them. Excited for Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic, the age of mighty dinosaurs. |
| Burial Kindred | 4.4 |
| Apart from Untrue, this is his magnum opus. Now imma wait for the night, it's supposed to rain. Edit: yeah it's his third best, Rival Dealer is the shit. |
| Burial Untrue | 4.5 |
| The Gaslight Anthem The '59 Sound | 4.8 |
| The Menzingers On the Impossible Past | 4.6 |
| Another deeply nostalgic album. Can't help but love that 2012 summer. No wonder it spoke to me (and tons of others) back then: the nostalgic, lonely, broken hearts lyrics and performance (these chords, man) immediately bring the feels, especially when you're an 18-year-old boy thinking he's already an adult. The flaws are pretty much easy to spot (eg the weird transitions during Ava House), but as a whole, the record works better than any of their others (I find all their following albums, not as 'magical', and Chamberlain Waits, while excellent, is not as consistent). The kind of timeless record you can't explain your love for. |
| The Menzingers After the Party | 3.8 |
| While it does not attain On the Impossible Past's level of greatness - few modern punk records actually can -, I remember being quite harsh with this one. Turns out After the Party is genuine, great, and genuinely great: lyrics are earnest and show that the bandmembers evolved from pissed-off young adults to reflective not-so-young-yet-not-old adults, and the songs, while not as catchy as their best ones, are all cool on their own rights. Ultimately, it's that consistency that allows this record to kinda have a chat with OtIP. |
| Touche Amore Stage Four | 4.0 |
| Pianos Become the Teeth The Lack Long After | 4.6 |
| The best version of themselves: it's less adolescent, better produced (that tasty bass), and tighter than Old Pride, and they didn't lose their dynamics yet. It's also their most visceral and passionate record: Kyle sounds profoundly hurt, and even though the somewhat juvenile aspect of the lyrics could irritate some, it sure is so well conveyed through his voice it becomes definitely affecting. It's also the most versatile we've seen him, as he adds some subtler clean singing. The music is also at its heaviest for the band, bringing another dose of trve passion (the end of Liquid Courage to Spine, damn). The duality of the guitars, at times beautifully intertwining and at others brutally pouncing, allows the record to breathe and the listener to embark on the journey fully. Full of beautiful and memorable moments, charged in emotion, this is one of those records that'll never be a 5 in my book but will always hold a dear place in my heart. |
| Kvelertak Kvelertak | 4.7 |
| One of the most fun fun fun, brainless, wicked and brutal record of the decade. If you fuse black metal, hardcore punk and some whack'n'woll riffiness, you possibly got a landmark record. It shook waves in 2010, but, unlike Alcest's Ecailles, it didn't create a whole subgenre. Maybe in a parallel universe black'n'roll became a parody of itself, but in our timeline, it remains Kvelertak's prerogative, and this is the record where they do it best. An anomaly in the black metal sphere (because it's fun and cool, and while we all love bm, it's neither cool nor fun) that will be remembered for how effortlessly it throws bangers after bangers. |
| Sum 41 Screaming Bloody Murder | 2.2 |
| Generic Power Chords: The Album. Continuing their angsty persona first encountered with Chuck. Thing is, Chuck was released in 2004, and continuing to tread the same grounds while writing less good songs makes this record sound quite lazy. Nothing more to say, it's not offensively bad, it's just painfully average to the core. |
| Sum 41 Half Hour Of Power | 2.7 |
| Sum 41 Underclass Hero | 2.2 |
| Sum 41 Chuck | 3.9 |
| Sum 41 Does This Look Infected? | 3.7 |
| Sum 41 All Killer No Filler | 3.2 |
| Interpol Turn on the Bright Lights | 4.4 |
| The National High Violet | 5.0 |
| May 2010. I hear about a band, The National. I give a listen to their newest LP, High Violet. I'm still at a moment in my music life where I almost only listen to punk. I liked the record, but it did not blow me away. December 24th 2019, I walk on a Brittany shore while listening to High Violet for the 47th time (maybe 48th), and I'm blown away. Apart from that first listen, I always was blown away by this record. It will remain the one that followed me throughout all the decade, and that thought only hit me at said decade's dusk. I was 15 then, and knew nothing about tonal musicality or Steve Reich. I'm 25 now, and I'm sometimes missing the days I was mindlessly shouting Rise Against lyrics. This is the link between the adolescent me and the "adult" me (i pay taxes so i guess i'm an adult). Sometimes things hit you and you can't do nuthing 'bout it. Sometimes they don't hit you; instead they eat your heart out everyday for 10 years. |
| The National Sleep Well Beast | 4.0 |
| Four Year Strong Enemy of the World | 4.7 |
| Nobody cares anymore about easycore (and those who cared back then finally have something somewhat resembling a beard), but this is the genre's finest installment. Instead of having distinct chuggy chugchug parts followed by whoa-whoa's chants (ie ADTR), why don't you immediately mash these two up? Take pop punk's playfulness and summer feelz, add some metalcore toughness, and you've got this juggernaut of an album. However, let's (try to) be honest here: everything about this is ridiculous and edgy: the genre name, the album cover, the track titles, even the music itself. But don't you ever think you weren't ridiculous and edgy as an adolescent. This record will make you happy, shout and mosh, and that's all you could expect from a genre named easycore. |
| Slayer Reign in Blood | 4.4 |
| Metallica St. Anger | 1.5 |
| drumz |
| Metallica Metallica | 3.8 |
| Metallica Master of Puppets | 4.6 |
| Linkin Park A Thousand Suns | 2.5 |
| I hated this back then because I wanted some angry stuff. Some LP stuff, y'know? Instead, this record builds upon Minutes to Midnight's slower cuts. It's pop rock with touches of electronic, not adolescent nu metal. I dig this a bit more than 10 years ago but truth is, it's not that interesting or engaging. There are some cool tracks like "Burning in the Skies", but others meander without going anywhere, and some are plain trash ("Blackout", ugh). |
| Linkin Park Minutes to Midnight | 3.7 |
| Linkin Park Meteora | 4.5 |
| 20 fucking years. From what I can remember, this was the first album I bought with the lil money I had (that was basically 10 euros), and I remember my mom insisted on offering me a walkman on my b-day because she didn't want to listen to Linkin Park lol. Can't listen to it without being teleported to those 8-year-old days, endlessly watching Numb's video and not understanding how fucking huge these guys were back then. This was and remains extremely angsty, but I was even more of a dirty euro non-lyric mf then than now. Solipsism is my bitch, and I will always love this lil album. |
| Linkin Park Hybrid Theory | 5.0 |
| Green Day International Superhits | 4.0 |
| Green Day 21st Century Breakdown | 3.0 |
| Green Day American Idiot | 5.0 |
| Chill Bump Crumbs | 4.0 |
| Manchester Orchestra A Black Mile to the Surface | 3.5 |
| Brand New Science Fiction | 4.5 |
| The bleakest they've ever been, which is fitting given how dark their timeline was after this album's release. Going into a more rock'n'roll (sometimes even country) vibe than their previous records, this is still their definitive record as it's perfectly summing up their career (maybe not the pop punk/emo part but nobody would ever say Your Favourite Weapon is their fave BN album). The question is now: how do evaluate a monster's art? When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan? If you still wanna jam some BN but don't want to support Jessy Rapey, illegally download their records so you don't give him your money, and then you can jam it with a calm mind. |
| Thrice The Alchemy Index Vols. III & IV | 3.8 |
| Thrice The Alchemy Index Vols. I & II | 4.1 |
| Thrice To Be Everywhere Is to Be Nowhere | 3.0 |
| Thrice Palms | 2.5 |
| Vald Agartha | 3.5 |
| Vald XEU | 4.4 |
| His best fucking album. Full of punitive bangers with the right amount of introspection, it's also the album where he decreases the amount of nonsense to keep just the right level of silliness for this to still be kinda funny at places. |
| Tropical Fuck Storm A Laughing Death in Meatspace | 3.0 |
| When TFS go for Drones-like raging rock tunes like on the opener or "Soft Power", A Laughing Death in Meatspace effing slaps. When it goes for atonal shit, it's just atonal shit - and you gotta like atonal shit. |
| TTNG Animals Acoustic | 3.0 |
| Toby Driver They Are the Shield | 3.5 |
| Tim Hecker Konoyo | 3.5 |
| Thou The House Primordial | 3.5 |
| Thou Inconsolable | 4.0 |
| Thou Rhea Sylvia | 4.0 |
| Thou Magus | 4.0 |
| Deez riffs are beauts, many thanks to the production. It feels as massive as Heathen, but not as monolithic as I feel the album is a tad more diverse. However, even if it is more diversified, this does not top Heathen in terms of crushingness. |
| The Wonder Years Sister Cities | 3.0 |
| The Story So Far Proper Dose | 3.0 |
| The Prodigy The Day Is My Enemy | 3.0 |
| The Prodigy No Tourists | 3.0 |
| Every Time I Die Low Teens | 3.7 |
| Pretty fucking good, ye, but I never got into this one as much as in the others. Eh. |
| The Nietzsche The Parnassus | 3.5 |
| Swing Marabout | 4.2 |
| Sometimes all you need is a chill EP. It gives the same feeling as No Drum & Bass in the Jazz Room: waking up on a sunny spring morning. I fucking love these tunes. |
| My Bloody Valentine Loveless | 4.5 |
| The cover is so explicit. This is a guitar, but drowned into effects. |
| Slowdive Souvlaki | 4.6 |
| Oh Souvlaki, I love you more with each passing day. You are so beautiful. You make me sad, yet you always manage to uplift me. I love you Souvlaki. |
| Slowdive Slowdive (LP) | 4.0 |
| What a great comeback. It takes influence from all the band's previous records to come up with an album flirting with shoegaze, ambient pop, and dream pop. In a sense, it also dismisses Pygmalion and is the successor Souvlaki was waiting for. It's thus not as subtle as Pygmalion, but some tracks here are some of the most anthemic the band has ever done ("Star Roving", "Don't Know Why"). Slowdive proved that a band can still make a proper comeback in 2017. |
| St. Vincent Masseduction | 3.0 |
| St. Vincent MassEducation | 3.5 |
| Sophie Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides | 3.7 |
| I don't think I was ready for this when it came out. Now it makes more sense to me. The hyper-pitched vocals, early 2000s dance-pop vibe, and sudden bursts of glitchy textures feel, legit. It's not that the album's messiness miraculously disappeared in my eyes, but it now makes sense. |
| Sleep The Sciences | 4.0 |
| Sleep Dopesmoker | 4.5 |
| Revocation Great Is Our Sin | 3.5 |
| Revocation The Outer Ones | 3.0 |
| Parquet Courts Wide Awake | 4.4 |
| Punk and leftism, part II. Parquet Courts and IDLES are two sides of the same coin. If IDLES are loud and angry Brits taking all the abrasive elements of punk to punch you in the ballsack or kick you in the mouth, Parquet Courts represent the hipster and pedantic Brooklynites not agreeing with the dominants of this world and taking all the artsier bits of punk to revolutionize the world by preaching instead of fighting. The record is thus more diverse, though less visceral, than IDLES' as it incorporates more funky basslines, dancy tunes and overall a more posed aesthetic (Danger Mouse's production sure helps). The lyrics, while at times lecturing (as almost all politically-inclined music is), add more interesting commentaries than their Brit counterparts (see Violence or Before The Water Gets Too High). Maybe one day, the smart boys will line up with the tough men and come up with a true change. For the time being, Parquet Courts brings a more nuanced brick to the revolution wall. You sure need muscles to build a wall, but first you need to decide how to build it. And if you can do it while dancing the hell out of it, the better. |
| Panopticon The Scars of Man on the Once Nameless Wilderness | 4.0 |
| Obliteration Cenotaph Obscure | 3.0 |
| Nine Inch Nails Bad Witch | 3.5 |
| Night Verses From the Gallery of Sleep | 3.7 |
| Cool instrumental "prog" metal more relying on metalcore than djent, but idk it's not as subtle as I remembered. |
| Natalia Lafourcade Musas | 3.5 |
| Natalia Lafourcade Musas Vol. 2 | 3.5 |
| Monobody Raytracing | 4.1 |
| A lil more chaotic (in a good way) than their first record, and I find it less innocent and lush too. It's still an extremely enjoyable jazzy math rock album with some djenty parts in track 1. |
| Mitski Puberty 2 | 3.5 |
| Mitski Be the Cowboy | 3.5 |
| The Flaming Lips The Soft Bulletin | 4.0 |
| The Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots | 4.5 |
| MGMT Oracular Spectacular | 4.1 |
| MGMT Little Dark Age | 4.0 |
| mewithoutYou Brother, Sister | 4.4 |
| mewithoutYou [untitled] e.p. | 3.0 |
| mewithoutYou [Untitled] | 4.1 |
| A grower for sure, and that might be because it's clearly one of their most indie rock output (even if the eventual screams are still present), making for a less immediate appreciation of the record. There's a typical onion album: you gotta peel and cry like a bitch before getting to the core. They managed to package more than 15 years of material into a 45 minute story, taking all their spiritual and musical endeavours to a whole other level. What a way to end such a beautiful career. |
| Orelsan La fete est finie | 4.0 |
| Orelsan's magnum opus, or; the SSJ3 version of French rap's most revered artist. More astute than ever in his observations, La fete est finie most importantly is the one Orelsan record that is the least ingrained in the musical zeitgeist, with nods to UK garage or even zumba among the "boom-trap" beats and a strong focus on melodies. His best record. |
| Orelsan La fête est finie - Epilogue | 3.6 |
| La fete est finie's b-sides, and it's good! Maybe his most modern project - "Fantomes" and "Reves bizarres" beats damn. His least good record but hey it's still a great addition to his discog. |
| Nekfeu Feu | 3.7 |
| Feu was a tidal wave. 2015 was a watershed year for modern French rap, and Feu sure is one of the biggest reason why this year is now heralded as the start of French rap's second golden age. Feu was the entry-level record that everyone listened to - literally everyone!! Its appeal can now seem childish - I would never listen to "On verra" again - but damn some of the tunes here are bona fide classics. |
| Nekfeu Cyborg | 4.4 |
| Nekfeu's best record is one where he perfectly balances his sometimes-too-showboatin' rapological technique with his sometimes-too-larmoyant sentimentalism, the whole lot being supported by cold beats whose simplicity make for his most timeless support. Undeniably a French rap classic. |
| L'Or du Commun Zeppelin | 3.5 |
| L'Or du Commun Sapiens | 3.5 |
| Lomepal Cette foutue perle | 4.0 |
| Lomepal FLIP | 4.7 |
| The moment former rappers accepted to be the new Chanson Francaise. Before delivering the soundtrack of 2017's youth, Antoine (eh) was a trve rapper: his focus was the bars, his mean was his wittiness. After years of struggle and virtually no commercial success, he decided to go full pop with this album. Sure, there still are traces of rap here and there: Lucy is the prime example of a pure rap song, and almost all tracks have beats or sentences reminiscent of hip hop. Yet, he diluted his former endeavours with new ones: electronic and pop (Ray Liotta is the best modern take on French song you could find), without really alienating his previous audience (gg boi). A pivotal moment in French song, it symbolizes the decade during which French hip hop finally accepted rwhat it was: the music of the people. Letting go of any gangsta or conscious attitude, Lomepal is simply putting his thoughts into music, and that's why he had a massive success: his music is genre-bending, he speaks his mind - very much connected to the zeitgeist and yet not truly political or whatnot - and didn't care about the repercussion of his artistry on his "legitimacy" as a rapper. As he said in his next album, Jeannine: FLIP c'est un monument. That's arrogant, but he's right. This is an album that changed the game. |
| Lomepal Jeannine | 3.5 |
| what young white french-speaking people listen to |
| Miles Davis Kind of Blue | 4.5 |
| None of that prearranged shit here: Davis just gave some scales and laid out some general ideas, and en avant la musique. Each musician (and what a lineup) focuses on his own tone, which gives the record its spontaneous disparities: whether they wanted to play melodically or cram three chords in one, they could do what they wanted. Amazing that such freedom delivered such a smooth and seamless record. |
| Miles Davis In a Silent Way | 4.5 |
| Miles Davis Bitches Brew | 4.4 |
| The birth of jazz fusion. Based on modal jazz and indo-arabic themes, Miles' relaxed trumpet soars on top of McLaughlin's controlled chaos, Shorter's soprano sax, and the density brought by the three keyboards, the two bass, and the three drummers. So yeah, it's a difficult album to approach, especially given its 1h45-long runtime. Jam it occasionally, and with each listen, new discoveries will appear. |
| John Coltrane A Love Supreme | 4.5 |
| Trane's ascent towards spiritual jazz. He's displaying his supreme love to the lord who liberated him from his addictions (drugs and sugar), and it shows: it's one of the few records where almost all music was preemptively written (except for one solo), and said music bears gospelian adorns thanks to the spoken word and litanic aspect of the leitmotiv. His Lord is not the traditional image of God: He is Trane's own God, a blend of Methodism, Islam, African paganism, Hinduism, Kabbale, cosmology, and Trane's ipseity. In Trane's own words, this record is made of elation (the bookends), elegance (Resolution), and exaltation (Pursuance). |
| Kamasi Washington The Choice | 3.0 |
| Kamasi Washington Heaven And Earth | 2.5 |
| Kacey Musgraves Golden Hour | 3.0 |
| ISIS Panopticon | 4.7 |
| A behemoth, a genuinely magical record. As the first post-metal I ever listened to, this still holds a special place in my heart. It encapsulates what metal is capable of in terms of utter beauty: a perfectly-fitting growl, smashing riffs ("So Did We"), the tight yet disruptive structure (eg the magical intertwine between the bass and the guitar in "Wills Dissolve"), the production (the beats of the drums are crisp, and believe it or not you can hear each instrument distinctly, even the bass: "In Fiction"'s second part can testify), and atmospheric calmness (the second part of "Altered Course"). The atmosphere is perhaps the most worked-out aspect of the record: the flow is permanent. |
| ISIS Oceanic | 4.5 |
| Godflesh Streetcleaner | 2.9 |
| Jesu Silver | 4.0 |
| Jesu Heart Ache | 3.8 |
| Jesu Jesu | 3.9 |
| Swans Soundtracks for the Blind | 4.7 |
| Swans The Seer | 4.3 |
| The Seer sees the future. The Seer is the future. The sun fucks the dawn. Are you there? Can't help but feel the run from the t/t to 93 Ave. is the weakest. Still tearing you apart Lisa. |
| Swans To Be Kind | 4.5 |
| Goddamn it. 5 years in, and still fucken rips, even though it's 2 hours long, even though Toussaint drags a bit, even though that babyface is absolutely freakish, and even though it's grotesque at moments. |
| Have a Nice Life Deathconsciousness | 4.6 |
| Jenny Hval Blood Bitch | 3.0 |
| Julia Holter Aviary | 3.5 |
| Black Sabbath Master of Reality | 4.5 |
| Black Sabbath Black Sabbath | 4.4 |
| It is one of the most influential records of the past century, and of course, it still holds up as one of the finest installments of the whole genre it created. It's still very 60s at times (Behind the Wall of Sleep, Evil Woman), but with tha classic tritone sound, it's on the heavier songs the magic happens: the t/t and N.I.B. must have been frightening for peepz in 1970. It's creepy sometimes, riffing hard (m/), energetic, and it never lost its relevance. Happy 50th birthday, heavy metal. |
| Rainbow Rising | 4.0 |
| Rainbow Long Live Rock 'n' Roll | 3.5 |
| Rainbow Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow | 3.8 |
| Dio The Last in Line | 3.4 |
| Dio Holy Diver | 3.7 |
| Bruce Dickinson The Chemical Wedding | 3.5 |
| Iron Maiden Somewhere in Time | 3.8 |
| Iron Maiden The Number of the Beast | 4.6 |
| Iron Maiden Killers | 4.0 |
| Iron Maiden Iron Maiden | 4.3 |
| Judas Priest Firepower | 3.5 |
| JPEGMAFIA Veteran | 3.1 |
| Glitchy and messy, Veteran sees Peggy sample for his life, adding aggressive beats to said samples, then rap all-over-the-place lyrics. Veteran thus is mostly inconsistent, and at times farkin' brilliant. |
| Olafur Arnalds re:member | 3.5 |
| Nils Frahm All Melody | 3.5 |
| Jon Hopkins Singularity | 3.5 |
| Jeff Rosenstock WORRY. | 3.9 |
| Feeling broken has never sounded that good. The last 7 tracks' medley is his best music run. |
| Jeff Rosenstock POST- | 3.5 |
| Janelle Monae Dirty Computer | 2.7 |
| Ditching the conceptual, Monae wants to be a bona fide pop star - good for them! However, it comes at the expense of lyrical depth and musical diversity. Also Monae ain't a rapper, but apparently, it wasn't clear when they made the album. |
| The Smiths The Queen Is Dead | 4.9 |
| This might well be my favourite 80s record. Like many British greats, these dudes describe s o c i e t y with their music, this time through poetic skits told by Morrissey's tortured sabdoi crooner voice and accentuated by crystalline arpeggios. The whole lot is rhythmic as heck, with rumbling drums and thicc basslines supporting the songs' structure. More importantly, it's the kind of album that somehow clicks at some point, and from then on, you won't be able to have enough of it. The record will know you. That's when every listen will be unique, each song fighting to be your "fave". None of them will win for long enough. |
| Joy Division Unknown Pleasures | 4.3 |
| IDLES Brutalism | 3.9 |
| While Brutalism established IDLES as a rising force within the Bri'ish punk scene, it truly does feel like a prep for Joy...: the energy is already there, the piercing post-punk riffs and muscular rhythm section too, and there already are traces of their anthemic aspect, but it just isn't perfectly cooked yet, with aggression taking over diversity. Still a mega cool burst of pissed-the-fuck-off leftist energy. |
| IDLES Joy as an Act of Resistance | 4.3 |
| Leftists can be pompous gents that others find up their own arses (called gauchiasses in French, a contraction of gauchiste (=leftist) and chiasse (=liquid shit)). They can also be riotous chaps that others find unsophisticated. IDLES are of the second type. These subgroups' social wants are basically alike, but their respective way of achieving their common goal is totally different. Left can't meme, and they also haven't learned how to unify yet. Quitting the sociological bs (yet the record itself is not totally devoid of it), this sounds like what punk should be in 2018: the Pistols' angriness, The Fall-like's post-punk as well as some noisy and post-hardcore riffs, the whole lot being a maelstrom of energy encapsulating most of what happened during the last 40 years of enraged Brit music. The first half consists of the most in-your-douche-face tracks in recent memory, and unfortunately shows how lazy the last third of the LP is. The lyrics are funny, but you can't always tell if the band is tongue-in-cheek or dead serious. It's thus not a perfect record, but what could you expect from angry rosbifs who are at times too easy on themselves? At least we got a fun, energetic and adventurous record that pours its heart out. Join this heart with the pompous leftist's big ideas, and maybe there will be once more a strong left political force. It doesn't exist yet, maybe it will never exist, but those who will listen to this band won't forget the heart they show. And we all know the heart is a muscle, the strongest of 'em all. |
| Hop Along Bark Your Head Off, Dog | 4.1 |
| A lot could be said about this record. But what strikes me the most is that this album could be renamed Dynamics 101. So many rhythm changes it makes you bop yo head every damn time. The fact it's their poppiest also help these dynamics to truly shine. Many tracks here sound like these feel-good 90s indie rock bands, but I feel the others do not entirely match them in terms of feelz or engagement. |
| Daft Punk Discovery | 4.6 |
| Gorillaz The Now Now | 2.5 |
| Ghost (SWE) Prequelle | 3.5 |
| Edge of Sanity Crimson | 4.5 |
| Edge of Sanity Crimson II | 4.1 |
| Opeth Heritage | 3.0 |
| Opeth Pale Communion | 3.0 |
| Opeth Sorceress | 3.0 |
| Opeth Blackwater Park | 4.7 |
| Queens of the Stone Age Songs for the Deaf | 4.5 |
| Queens of the Stone Age Villains | 2.5 |
| Royal Blood How Did We Get So Dark? | 3.0 |
| Coldplay X&Y | 3.2 |
| Coldplay Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends | 3.7 |
| Muse Black Holes & Revelations | 3.6 |
| Muse Absolution | 4.3 |
| Muse Origin of Symmetry | 4.4 |
| Muse Simulation Theory | 2.0 |
| Porcupine Tree In Absentia | 3.9 |
| Radiohead OK Computer | 4.6 |
| Radiohead Kid A | 4.5 |
| Gazpacho Soyuz | 3.0 |
| Gas Narkopop | 2.5 |
| Gas Rausch | 3.5 |
| Frank Ocean Endless | 3.2 |
| Franky goes ambient pop - and, surprise, he nails it. Endless is a consistent and cohesive journey through ethereal beats and Ocean's lyricism. Problem is: I don't care much about this aesthetic, except for the more uptempo tracks. |
| Foxing Nearer My God | 3.5 |
| Florence and the Machine Lungs | 4.2 |
| Florence and the Machine High as Hope | 3.5 |
| Cenobites Cenobites LP | 4.3 |
| When Bobbito Garcia launched his Fondle'em label, he decided to cloister Kool Keith and Godfather Don in a basement. Cenobites being monks who decide to be hobos (sorry, hermits), the term was apt af. The beats also complement said philosophy with their sombre yet jazzy aesthetic. Even when they are relaxed, a sense of impending doom prevents the listener to fully chill. Basically, it's like, uh, film noir hop or some shit like that. Likewise, Kool Keith's flows are elastic and resemble those of Organized Konfusion's Pharoahe Monch. This was a nostalgic record crying hip hop's lost soul, but it surprisingly sounds like a 1993 NYC rap record, with an edge. Its cryptic samples and raw production gives the record its unique nature, like a bastard child conceived by a crack-addict drug dealer and that dude with that hat in that Nouvelle Vague movie. |
| Mos Def Black on Both Sides | 4.4 |
| The Roots Illadelph Halflife | 4.3 |
| A Tribe Called Quest Midnight Marauders | 4.4 |
| A Tribe Called Quest The Low End Theory | 4.8 |
| This remains one of my favourite hip hop albums of all time. Soulful and jazzy beats, clever lyrics and DEM BARZ. It's an homage to black music and jazz in particular, from the Mickey Bass's bassline (eheh) to Ron Carter's double bass, to the sublime "Jazz (We've Got)". Notwithstanding its cultural legacy, this, alongside Illmatic, is the one 90s East Coast hip hop that I can listen to relentlessly. From "Excursions" bassline to Busta Rhymes's last anthemic shouts on "Scenario", this one always feels good, whether it's sunny or thunderous, whether you're blissed or depressed. Fucking legendary. |
| J Dilla Donuts | 4.5 |
| Madvillain Madvillainy | 4.6 |
| One of the greatest one-album wonders. Madlib's at the top of his game, delivering his blend of quirky yet hard-hitting beats, while DOOM displays his most untouchable stream-of-consciousness flow. Although released in 2004, the overall production is dirty and muddy, making this a perfect vinyl record, a collector's dream. It's just not rooted in its times: no album in 2004 could possibly sound like that, yet The Loop Digga and The Supervillain managed to create the 2000s Bird and Diz: a gritty collaborative effort for the years to come. Because legacy-wise, oh dear boy i wanna follow you. On top of y'all favourite rappers, they were a significant influence on the most influential bro of the last decade (his name's Ellison). It opened the gates to abstract hip hop to a new generation who would soon make this sound the new almost mainstream (almost, it's no Katy Perry). Like all classics (not a 5 tho calm yo tiddies), it still sounds fresh more than 15 years later, and while many tried to emulate this, no one managed to do it. Just remember, ALL CAPS when you spell the man's name. |
| Kool Keith Sex Style | 3.6 |
| Kool Keith is weird. Kool Keith likes sex. He makes a hardcore East Coast record about sex. But it's so fucking obscene. The sex he's referring to is the most disgusting kind (the kind with peepee and poopoo), but he's too good an MC for the theme to overcome his r a p o l o g i c a l technique. He's a dope MC that will make you say "Did he really say that?" (eg: "California porno star, my ass you can lick out, Saying "What?" with sperm dripping down your partner's butt" during the t/t). The beats are groovy and funky but did not always age well. It's a fun record overall. |
| Tyler, the Creator Flower Boy | 4.4 |
| The moment a goofy and promising dude turned into an influential artist. He understood that pulling out messy 70 minutes outputs was not the best way to show what he's truly capable of. He refined all his influences and past projects into his masterpiece. The length is perfect, and the record flows exceptionally well, and the neo-soul and R&B additions are not yet the primary genre, even though it's not a 100% hip-hop LP. This is his definitive album because it takes everything that came before and hints at what will come in the future. Less sloppy and more focused than his first three albums, less neo-soul than IGOR, but still retaining his hip-hop influences. It's still weird, but not for the sake of being weird. It's weird because he's unashamedly showing who he truly is. The most sophisticated he's ever been, and damn, it feels good to see an artist reach his potential. |
| Earl Sweatshirt Some Rap Songs | 4.1 |
| Loopy Dilla-esque beats, and damn Thebe never sounded that lonely and depressed. Pure bleakness. December 24 is a good example of the record: it sounds like the 90s minus the nostalgia. All we have left are those memories that we are desperately trying to improve, without any success. All we gotta do is wait. |
| Burzum Filosofem | 4.6 |
| Drudkh They Often See Dreams About The Spring | 3.5 |
| Meshuggah I | 4.3 |
| Car Bomb Meta | 3.4 |
| Fuck, their last album made me grow off them. This is still their best record, but it does not feel as relentlessly punishing as before. Basically, "Bleed" riffs and Contortionist-like atmospheric passages: the album. |
| The Dillinger Escape Plan Dissociation | 4.4 |
| The record every band wants to end their career with, because it perfectly sums up what the band is about while appending some new touches. Musically, this is still frenzied mathcore (pleonasm spotted) with some jazzy experimentations, but they also added new weapons to their arsenals (eg Fugue is the best IDM track we could have hoped from them, and Low Feels Blvd is so 70s jazz fusion I was surprised they never played a jazz section like this one. It's so Dillinger). On top of that, Puciato never sounded so fragile and, dare I say, vulnerable at times. Before that, he always sounded like a crazy motherfucker ready to jump at your throat, and when he didn't, he always added an ominous vibe to his voice. This slight but welcome addition perfectly matches the swansong this album represents. This record right here is their decade-best because it takes all the best elements of the previous two, and added some more fat. Farewell, Dillinger. |
| Rolo Tomassi Time Will Die And Love Will Bury It | 4.8 |
| Some motherfuckers are dense, but no motherfucker is as dense as this record. A true Wall of Sound surrounds you for 50 minutes. The most important aspect of this is how balanced between good and evil it is: Eva Spence fluctuates between the purest lullabies (Risen) and the evilest shrieks (she sounds so devilish on A Flood of Light), the four musicians are capable of pulling both some of the most neck-breaking moments of recent post-hardcore memory as well as some chilling ambient sections. In the same vein, the cover art is particularly fitting. It reflects what's happening musically: the background image is beautiful and serene but is blurred and distorted by the lines on top. This whole duality is even more absorbing, thanks to the oh-so-remarkable dynamics and how the tracks flow into each other. An album so unique it won't create any wave of bland followers but will remain as one of the heavy scenes' most important for how utterly beautiful it is. If Amenra is the catharsis, Kvelertak the fun, Deafheaven the hip, or Cult of Luna the most massive, Rolo Tomassi will be remembered as the most beautiful. |
| Rolo Tomassi Hysterics | 2.5 |
| Denzel Curry TA13OO | 4.3 |
| As far as I'm concerned, this is the one essential record for the entirety of trap. It explores every single corner of the trap rap umbrella; it's violent, boastful, emotional, introspective and rebellious; the beats go from emo trap sweets to full Travis Scott-like bangers to cloud rap thinkers. Plus, he manages to push his already-present energy and passion into something more than pure animal fury; here, he shows us his (very human) bleakness. It's basically the best of Imperial and Nostalgic 64, but pushed further. Remember when pop punk (not that current sadboicore shit) was an over-represented genre, and only a very few stood the test of time? The same applies to trap, and for those of us who spend too much time ranking music, this is a record that will be heralded as one of the best trap rap albums. Fuck it, it will be a dad rap classic. |
| Death Grips Bottomless Pit | 4.0 |
| Death Grips Year of the Snitch | 3.5 |
| Nirvana MTV Unplugged in New York | 4.6 |
| Nirvana Nevermind | 4.5 |
| Nirvana In Utero | 4.5 |
| Wolves in the Throne Room Thrice Woven | 3.5 |
| After the much criticized Celestite (even though they claim the opposite, metalheads do not like change), WitTR came back with a record that succeeds where Black Cascade and, more importantly, Celestial Lineage failed: originality. If their third album did not bring anything new to the tremolo table but was still a new sonic direction for the band, their subsequent record was a mere (yet good) copycat of that new sound. Thrice Woven brings back the eerie female-vocal-led ambient moments as well as the folk touches, and yet it also retains the more aggressive approach of black metal that was prominent on their third and fourth album, making this their most dynamic album yet. It's equally Cascadian and second-wave black metal, and if it does not match their earliest version of themselves, at least they're always trying to reinvent Wolves in the Throne Room's sound. |
| Altar of Plagues Teethed Glory and Injury | 4.6 |
| None of the non-mainstream genres I listened to this past decade was more prolific and exciting than black metal. And of all the releases that marked the genre, Teethed Glory and Injury is the most impressive. If Paracletus clearly is the most dissonant and technical, if Sunbather is the gamechanger, if Ecailles is the most beautiful or Murmuure the most unreal, Altar of Plagues simply released the best black metal record the decade, because it takes every good aspect of the other albums without ever losing its own identity. It's as nasty as DsO, as crucial as DFHVN, as beautiful as Alcest, and as industrial and drony as Murmuure. It takes everything remotely linked to black metal: dissonance, manic shrieks, ambient, drone, chants, might, and the fusion of utter beauty and absolute ugliness, to create a maelstrom of the darkest and deepest emotions. Above all else, it's the grandest black metal work released this decade, standing heads and shoulders above the putrefied mass. |
| Alcest Kodama | 4.4 |
| This is Alcest's best output yet. The heaviness is at its most subtle, and the atmosphere is at its most prominent. The Japanese folklore inclusion matches perfectly with Neige's eerie dream sounds. It's true no track here attains the power of Ecailles' first three songs, but as a whole, this album works better as there are no lesser-quality jams. This is their pinnacle, in 40 short and sweet minutes. |
| Deafheaven Sunbather | 4.6 |
| So fucking beautiful. One of the best records of the whole decade. 6 years later, very few albums match the epic combo of emotion + violence this one brings. |
| Deafheaven Ordinary Corrupt Human Love | 3.2 |
| Good shit, but clearly their least good album. Apart from Canary Yellow, none of the tracks here attain the greatness previous songs had. It has some nice solis though. |
| Dead Can Dance Dionysus | 3.5 |
| Daughters You Won't Get What You Want | 4.4 |
| It's just noise, you know. Before 2018, Daughters used to crush your skull with every bits of violence they could find in their bodies and soul. Now, the noise is different; now, it's building upon itself ("Satan in the Wait", "Guest House"). Sure, they can still pounce out of nowhere ("The Flammable Man)", but they changed their way of assaulting you. The music they created here is much more insidious. The first listen won't make you feel as damaged as when you listened to their eponym record. However, with further listens, the tormented guitars and the ominous synths will leave much more than a bruise: you'll be scarred forever. Daughters left us with the epitome of what people expect from noise rock: a harrowing, disturbing, but addictive piece of art telling cold, sorrowful, but beautifully primal stories. |
| Damso Ipséité | 4.4 |
| This one right here is Dems' best record and also stands tall amongst the best modern Belgian albums. It's, as of the pre-QALF period, the best iteration of himself: more focused than Batterie Faible, less filler-full than Lithopedion. That's also the record where he finds the perfect balance between lit bars and sung parts, his melodic side shining on tracks like "Macarena" or "#QuedusaalVie", the latter being his way of displaying his rapological technique in the verses only to accentuate the catchiness of the chorus. It's the one Dems record with the most massively successful singles, with an intelligent balance between egotrip ("J Respect R") and sadboi stuff ("Mosaique Solitaire"), the beats also all combining hard-hitting drums, African vibes, and atmospheric synths. And for y'all nerdz, he's a big Agnes Obel fan and frequently s/o her. Bref. Regarding Belgian popular culture, Ipseite is a classic. Bruxelles Vie. |
| Damso Lithopédion | 3.5 |
| Cult of Luna and Julie Christmas Mariner | 4.4 |
| A space trip. When leaving the dreadful place you once called home, you are full of wonders, only to understand nowhere is truly safe. But you do not realize such a thing until you are forced to wreck into the cold black infinity. In the end, this descent into madness shall only be shattered by this soft but grasping self-realization: you will die alone and drifting in the dark. What a peaceful way to leave. |
| Fall of Efrafa Tharn | 4.3 |
| Fall of Efrafa Owsla | 4.4 |
| Fall of Efrafa Inle | 4.6 |
| Amenra Mass IIII | 4.2 |
| Amenra Mass III | 4.2 |
| Amenra Mass V | 4.7 |
| This album will forever be linked to the Graspop show in 2014. The fog on the stage was so thick I didn't realize the band was there until the first notes of The Pain... had started. Colin turned his back to the stage and seemed like a frantic chap. It was extremely violent, but it still had that certain amount of restraint Amenra always displayed. When Boden hit, Colin's movements were more back-breaking than ever, and I closed my eyes so I could only hear the music and smell the sweet Mary Jane. If there is one band that can claim the post-metal crown this decade, it sure is Amenra. They took all the genre elements (grandeur, loneliness, ritual, devastation) and turned 'em up to 11. |
| Amenra Mass VI | 4.4 |
| A Solitary Reign is their most heartbreaking track, Children of the Eye works very well as an opener (ie it's in the same vein as Dearborn and Buried), Plus Pres de toi and its French-sung parts always broke my heart, and Diaken is a crusher. Sound-wise, it does not stray from what the band has already shown us, but as they sound like no one else, it does not impact the appreciation one could have of this album. Mass V introduced the band to me and will remain my go-to Amenra release, but this one remains very close. Classic Amenra, one of the very few bands capable of matching emotions and violence without losing their colossal sound. Catharsis should be renamed Amenra. |
| AC/DC Live | 4.3 |
| AC/DC Black Ice | 2.5 |
| Cursive Vitriola | 4.1 |
| Strong from front to back; every song offers something interesting, the prod is tight and THOSE STRINGS! |
| Culprate Others | 3.5 |
| Crippled Black Phoenix Great Escape | 3.5 |
| Modern Life Is War Witness | 5.0 |
| Scale the Summit The Migration | 4.4 |
| My second favourite instrumental prog metal record of the decade. If The Joy of Motion gave you the feeling of exploring the edge of the universe, this is the sound of exploring green hills (hands down the most fitting album title-cover-music package of recent memory). It's less jazz-oriented (though not totally devoid of it), and less headbanging-material than TJoM, but the production here is lusher (that bass sound) and more melodic as a whole. The "problem" here is that as a whole it's less efficient than TJoM: the highs are absolutely gorgeous (Atlas Novus = best instrumental track of the decade, come @ me) but the less lavish cuts are less good than the least good TJoM tracks. Still the most invigorating and colourful journey you could go on. |
| Animals As Leaders The Joy of Motion | 4.6 |
| Best wank ever. An instrumental record reminds us why we listen to music in the first place: we like it for what it is, not for what it represents. Without any concept to cling to (apart from the tracklist and the epic album cover), all we have left is the music. And what gorgeous music this is: a spacey jazzy djent wankfest with Latin music elements that manage to avoid obnoxiousness. This is the jazziest, and prettiest AAL has ever been, and the interludes are thus allowing the crunching polyrhythmic riffs to punch harder than ever. This interplay between heavier and lighter sections is the biggest win here and proves the band's uniqueness in a genre where pretentiousness is as common as incest in Northern France. To be a virtuoso is one thing, but this is useless if you can't bring emotion and beauty to the notes you're hitting. Instrumental prog metal done fucking right. |
| Covet Currents | 4.0 |
| Covet effloresce | 3.0 |
| Defeater Travels | 4.5 |
| Counterparts Private Room | 3.0 |
| Coheed and Cambria Vaxis I: The Unheavenly Creatures | 3.0 |
| Perturbator The Uncanny Valley | 4.0 |
| Perturbator New Model | 4.0 |
| Growing out of synthwave to go into a more industrial vibe: the tale of a modern darksynth juggernaut. |
| Carpenter Brut Leather Teeth | 3.5 |
| Mount Eerie A Crow Looked At Me | 2.0 |
| Mount Eerie Now Only | 2.0 |
| Car Seat Headrest Teens of Denial | 4.0 |
| Car Seat Headrest Twin Fantasy (Face to Face) | 3.0 |
| Caballero/Jeanjass Double Hélice 2 | 3.5 |
| Caballero/Jeanjass Double Hélice 3 | 2.0 |
| Brockhampton SATURATION | 3.5 |
| Brockhampton SATURATION II | 3.5 |
| Brockhampton SATURATION III | 3.5 |
| Brockhampton Iridescence | 3.0 |
| Nails You Will Never Be One of Us | 3.5 |
| Cult Leader A Patient Man | 3.5 |
| Converge The Dusk in Us | 3.9 |
| One of their most accessible output (read: it's their most post-hardcore release), but they still bang harder than any other so-called tough motherfucker. |
| Birds in Row We Already Lost The World | 3.5 |
| Between the Buried and Me Automata II | 3.0 |
| Grizzly Bear Painted Ruins | 3.0 |
| Father John Misty God's Favorite Customer | 3.5 |
| Fleet Foxes Crack-Up | 3.5 |
| Bon Iver 22, A Million | 2.8 |
| I still find this a messy, almost-boring gloubiboulga of chipmunk voices with occasional gorgeous musical moments. |
| Ben Howard Noonday Dream | 3.5 |
| Beach House 7 | 3.7 |
| Of course it's still an excellent dreamy album, but I slightly prefer Bloom over this. I'm kinda sad they won't make my top 100. At least they got Space Song to be represented in the tracks' top 100. |
| Arctic Monkeys Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino | 2.5 |
| Arctic Monkeys Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not | 4.6 |
| Architects Holy Hell | 2.5 |
| Aphex Twin Selected Ambient Works 85-92 | 4.3 |
| Aphex Twin Collapse | 4.0 |
| Chelsea Wolfe Hiss Spun | 3.5 |
| Anna von Hausswolff Dead Magic | 4.3 |
| I didn't know bansheewave existed after Siouxsie. This one is a monument of macabre and tribal and the culmination of everything she previously hinted at. The rhythm has never been so tribal and wild, the organ has never been so frightening, and Anna's voice never sounded as grand and manic as it does here. She's finally moving beyond her obvious influences (most notably, Dead Can Dance and Kate Bush) to create a behemoth of a record, one of these bizarre albums that will pass the test of time because of how uniquely supernatural they sound. The Great Old Ones (the Lovecraft beings, not these froggy chaps playing metal) might rather listen to Anna than tremolocore. |
| Wu-Tang Clan Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) | 4.4 |
| GZA Liquid Swords | 4.6 |
| The most hypnotic hip-hop beats have ever been, and if you add GZA's calm yet hard-hitting delivery, you might have the best hip-hop record of all time. However, it's for sure not the most immediate one: the atmospheric beats slowly creep their way into your mind, and when they find yo brain comfy enough, they decide never to leave the place. This is especially impressive given it was released in '95, and not all hip-hop albums of that era have aged exceptionally well. This one is unforgettable. Note: I don't really focus on lyrics, so I think this would skyrocket to a 5 if I genuinely dive into 'em. RZA's beats, GZA's bars, the Wu-Tang additions (which never steal GZA's show, except on "B.I.B.L.E."), everything just fits in perfectly. It's creepy and beautiful, and while you might not listen to it for a while, it will never leave yo head. |
| Eminem The Marshall Mathers LP | 4.0 |
| Eminem The Slim Shady LP | 3.9 |
| N.W.A. Straight Outta Compton | 3.5 |
| The Notorious B.I.G. Ready to Die | 4.5 |
| Dr. Dre The Chronic | 4.5 |
| Mobb Deep The Infamous | 4.5 |
| 2Pac All Eyez on Me | 3.8 |
| 2Pac Me Against the World | 4.2 |
| Pusha T DAYTONA | 3.9 |
| DAYTONA is a "hell yeah" record: hard-hitting and head-bopping vocals, expressive and technical bars, and a perfectly-packaged short length that allows tons of replayability. |
| Nas Illmatic | 4.7 |
| Kids See Ghosts Kids See Ghosts | 4.1 |
| Kanye reviving Cudi. I think it's my favourite Kanye-made project this decade. It's so compact and brings a lot of emotion and energy in such a short amount of time. |
| Kanye West Late Registration | 4.0 |
| Kanye West The College Dropout | 4.0 |
| Kanye West The Life of Pablo | 3.1 |
| A messy album for sure. Ye seems to have scattered-slash-smashed everything he had in mind in this clutterfuck of a record. Yet Ye remains Ye, and he can provide some damn fine musical moments - the first "Father" tracks, that Taytay diss track, or "No More Parties in LA". Nevertheless, the record is difficult to listen to on its own because two succeeding tracks have nothing in common. |
| Kanye West ye | 2.5 |
| Kendrick Lamar good kid, m.A.A.d city | 4.6 |
| Then again, imma talk 'bout how one artist took all his influence to create his own and unique art. Ofc the West Coast nods are more than evident, but the more modern production additions create a new sound. The storytelling, however, truly made this record stand out for everyone who listened to it carefully. The story of a young bloke trying to do the best he can even though the situation he's in is fucked up resonated powerfully with the M I L L E N I A L S generation. An authentic 2010s classic and what will be called dad rap in 20 years. |
| Kendrick Lamar DAMN. | 3.5 |
| Anderson .Paak Oxnard | 2.8 |
| Too long, not enough energy, lazy songwriting, and most features simply do not fit (kudos to KDot tho, but hey no surprise there). Cool tracks are cool - fortunately -, but most of this is kinda bland if not unpleasant. Like a hangover after the super cool Malibu. |
| Alpha Wann Alph Lauren 3 | 3.6 |
| His best EP. However, what remains the most impressive is the gap between this and the album that came out the same year. This clearly was mere appetizers. |
| Alpha Wann Une Main Lave l'Autre | 5.0 |
| (taken from tha rev) Before releasing Une Main Lave l'Autre (we'll shorten that to UMLA now shall we), Alpha Wann (his real name, an anomaly in the French rap industry) aka Arnold Schwarzen-word aka Philly Flingue aka Le Don was a rapper everyone in the French-speaking world considered extremely strong. But he was missing a reference project with striking pieces people will remember. Nowadays, almost everyone is unanimous: the stage is crossed with a record registered in its time which will quickly become a reference for French rap admirers. As the rapper himself says in the course of the record, very unlikely I'll hit a platinum, I have to craft a classic. Time will tell if people will still listen to UMLA 20 years from now. Until then, it deeply marked the French hip hop landscape with its almost suicidal desire to restore rap to its glory. Respectful and respected, Alpha Wann has released the best French rap album of its decade. Une Main Lave l'Autre, mais elles se joignent pour laver le visage. |
| Alkaline Trio Is This Thing Cursed? | 3.5 |
| A.A.L. (Against All Logic) 2012-2017 | 4.0 |
| I prefer Jaar's funky techno over his microhouse endeavours. This feels more than pure experimentation; this feels like a city. A city that's kinda sad and grey, but still decides to embrace everything as it comes. If I stop being a pretentious cunt, I could also say that some tracks (4, the last 3) do drag a bit and do not match others' greatness (especially the first 3 tracks and Cityfade). |
| A Perfect Circle Eat the Elephant | 2.5 |
| Kendrick Lamar To Pimp a Butterfly | 5.0 |
| Clever Girl No Drum And Bass in the Jazz Room | 5.0 |
| An underground cult classic. So much more than a mere twinkly core record, this is a hidden jazzy'n'mathy emo-influenced instrumental rock gem. While such tags immediately bring American Football to mind, Clever Girl manages to create its own sound. Instead of reminding cold Autumn afternoons with their music, the band brings a sunny-yet-chill-Spring-mornings atmosphere. The production is as crispy as the best chicken can be: each instrument can be heard loud and clear, and since each musician knows what he's doing, the result is a lush and upbeat mathy rock EP. On top of that, the absence of vocals allows the music to display a much happier tone than their counterparts: while emo is a genre known for its sadboi themes, NDaBitJR is seamlessly flowing among happy tunes, whether is straight-up bombastic mathy rock (Elm or Teleblister) or the hazy and chill brass-led Sleepyhead Symphony. This 100% instrumental ethos helps the band avoid the almost unavoidable math rock/emo trap : cheesy lyrics badly sung by an adolescent dude. Such a distinctive sound compared to their counterparts, as well as the mystery of a band that only released one record, are the pillars of Clever Girl's cult following. A 2018 vinyl reissue, plus the band Cuzco mentioning them in their 2017 track We Miss You Clever Girl truly established Clever Girl as a tremendous addition into the 'did one record and then disbanded' catalog. |
| Unwound Leaves Turn Inside You | 5.0 |
| October, all over. This record is my Autumn. This season is weird: leaves turn orange-brownish and don't have the same radiance they have during Spring. But I love the tones of these leaves. Autumn is beautiful in its austerity. Likewise, Unwound thrive melodically in their most abrasive sections, and display their most beautiful pieces of work in their saddest moments. They kept their noise rock and post-hardcore background to enhance it with depressing post-rock, morbid psych, textural synths, and lyrics taking a phenomenologist approach. It just sounds so... I don't know. I just don't know. Sometimes things hit you. I guess it's because of how reflective the music is. While they were first known for the urgency of their music, they slowly added an apathetic vibe to it. This passive approach is at its apex on LTIY. It's patient. It forces you to stop. As if the band already was in suspended limbos. It's kind of a pointless record. Pointless music never sounded so good. |
| Slint Spiderland | 5.0 |
| Le Pre Ou Je Suis Mort Le Pre Ou Je Suis Mort | 5.0 |
| Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago | 5.0 |
| Chill Bump The Loop | 5.0 |
| Y'all have a personal favourite that doesn't mean a lot in the grand scheme of music? Here is mine. Cool underground hip hop hailing from France, but they be rappin' in English so y'all can understand shit for once (and the dude is French-English so he doesn't even have a shitty froggo accent). I don't think any album represents 2012 so well for me: finishing high school and entering uni, chilling with mates, drink and smoke, the infamous iTunes' animations. This was our soundtrack of that transitioning time. Quitting that sentimental bullshit, the EP is Chill Bump's best representation: keep it short (18 minutes), energetic (quick rapping and beats inspired by turntablism) and fun to shout along (I'M HIGH ON SEX AND MY BROAD IS A LIONNESS). Comparing this obscure 5 to yesterday's Clever Girl, this doesn't even have a secret cult following. It's not totally unknown, but they will for sure never make it big, and it's more than likely it will stay that way. At the very worse it will stay a personal favourite. s/o to my boy Bedex. |
| Gospel The Moon Is a Dead World | 5.0 |
| DJ Shadow Endtroducing..... | 5.0 |
| Yndi Halda Enjoy Eternal Bliss | 5.0 |
| Thrice Vheissu | 4.9 |
| Once again, it's a 2000s post-hardcore classic, but this time it's also 50% alternative rock, which the band will fully embrace in further releases. But this is the one album where their transition is perfectly done, retaining the core anger and energy yet displaying softer and more melodic sides. And they jump from one sound to the other, emotion to emotion, which brings an overall diversity the band never had and will never regain. There is so much happening every second, from the traditional guitar'n'drum'n'bass to glockenspiel, Rhodes, and Moog. The subtlety brought here allows for emphasizing each part's strengths. The loud moments are the loudest Thrice ever did specifically because the quiet moments are the quietest in the band's catalog. This balance is what allowed the album, and more generally the band, to break out and appeal to as many people as they did: it was a gateway, for me as well as for other people, from the mainstream alternative rock scene to a heavier and indier (?) one. Once again, an album first encountered during that 2012 sput discovery, as well as a classic since then. Yet its impact is not as lasting as others in the same category (eg Watch Out) k byebye |
| Sigur Ros ( ) | 5.0 |
| Refused The Shape Of Punk To Come | 5.0 |
| False ad: no punk released afterwards sounds like this. Maybe that's why it's an important record: it does not sound like any of its predecessors, and none of the bands they influenced managed to capture what made this so great. It sure is relying on hardcore, post-hardcore and punk, but the techno parts scattered throughout the whole record, or that fat and tight jazz section in The Deadly Rhythm, help the album be much more than mere angry music. Fundamentally, this is punk, but the experimental combinations they add create a new noise, their own noise: They told me the classics never got a style but... they do, they do. Somehow, baby, I never thought that we do too. As very few jazz records sound like Ornette Coleman's 1959 album, Refused challenged the acceptable in a punk record. They went beyond punk sensibilities, both in terms of sound and ethos: whether or not you agree with the band's politics, you must admit there isn't any better way to fight capitalism's self-satisfaction than by exploding the band right after releasing your masterpiece. Cementing the band's place in punk history, this will of doing what they wanted screams self-importance. They were obsessed with their own historical significance: from the album title to the auto-mentions throughout the record, Refused couldn't help but contemplate their legacy. It's quite arrogant to think your demise should shake the world. Turns out it did, without shaping the new punk, but rather by making everyone realize how far you could stray away from punk without ever having the slightest doubt that it is not punk. |
| Rage Against the Machine Rage Against the Machine | 5.0 |
| As one dude said in Our Band Could Be Your Life : "ye punk and protest bands are more present during conservative eras" (approximate quote). This album was released during Election Day, at the very end of George H.W. Bush's presidential mandate. Fitting, eh? What is particularly fitting is how this record ends more than a decade of conservative power. While the indie bands displayed in Azerrad's book were more driven by a cultural counter-revolution than a social one, by 1992, some people had enough of it: hence was born RATM. And if sometimes history is playing tricks on us by not putting the right people at the right time, here, the timing was perfect. First of all, politically, it was a tensed period (Rodney King, the Wall, apartheid, the Yugoslav wars) which naturally heated the people. Musically, the paradigm was shifting (or had it already shifted?) as rap was the new big guy in town, and had replaced, at least in the mainstream, rock as the protest genre: NWA and Public Enemy did more than these hair metal fuckers to raise awareness. Mix this hip hop lineage with the hardcore endeavours De La Rocha had been doing with Inside Out, and you got a damn fine cocktail of attitude, meaning and brutal yet catchy music. It's almost ironic how successful this was given its uncompromised nature. It's also cynical how the band is now returning to tour the festivals this summer. Maybe revolts should stay the youth's responsibility, before the machine takes all the rage in you. |
| Portishead Dummy | 5.0 |
| Pink Floyd Animals | 5.0 |
| Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here | 5.0 |
| Pink Floyd The Dark Side of the Moon | 5.0 |
| King Crimson In the Court of the Crimson King | 5.0 |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada | 5.0 |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor F♯ A♯ ∞ | 5.0 |
| Fall of Efrafa Elil | 5.0 |
| Defeater Lost Ground | 5.0 |
| Converge Jane Doe | 5.0 |
| Brand New The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me | 5.0 |
| Botch We Are the Romans | 5.0 |
| We Are the Romans is one of the three metalmathcore pillars (ye Coalesce and Deadguy also exist I know), and I think it's the most representative of the mathcore genre. While Jane Doe is the one that bears the most resemblance with "traditional" hardcore punk, We Are the Romance has got those odd time signatures - they never went full jazz like The Dillinger Escape joyously did with their debut record, but they give it a run for their money with how syncopated some of the riffs are. What truly sets it apart is its incorporation of post-hardcore linings. Despite their rhythmical complexity, these riffs are dynamic and catchy. They don't just shine because of how fucking violent or cathartic they are, they shine because they're very obviously chord-oriented. Factor in an ironic package with these song titles and an attitude that essentially called bullshit on the prevailing hardcore aesthetics of its time, and you've got the most fun record of the Big 3, and an essential milestone of hardcore music. |
| Black Sabbath Paranoid | 5.0 |
| The album attracted screaming kids into a whole new world. Letting go of the covers and the 60s-y songs, this is where they truly go heavy: it seems evident now, but it's the OG riff album that thousands of motherfuckers tried to replicate without ever managing to come up with such a good harmony between 3 instruments and one voice (eh, maybe that Chuck dude somehow managed to do it). What's funny nowadays is how (don't hit me) un-heavy this sounds compared to some of the material that can come up today. And yet, this still holds up, but not for the same reasons as before. It's not heavy anymore, it's just Black Sabbath. It's always interesting to put an album in context: maybe the 70s kids liked this for different reasons than us. Maybe some of them liked it because of how evil and new it sounded; we like this because it's full of tasty riffs, and when it's not riffing, it just means it's time to light that shit (Planet Caravan). It's just an album that managed to stay relevant for more than 50 fucking years. Some try to stay relevant for six months before falling into the forgotten bin. Sure, it's not Mozart-level yet. However, one can only have but respect for an album, and a band, that managed to please both a grandpa and his grandkiddo. Given the youth's relentless energy into differentiating themselves from their elders, this is a hard classic that will continue to please stoners and young peepz looking for tasty riffs. |
| At the Drive-In Relationship of Command | 5.0 |
| 20 years now, and it still sounds fresh and new. The reason is so simple it sounds cliche: this band was, and to this day still is, unique. Taking post-hardcore to a whole new level, they did not hesitate to push hardcore's envelope to come up with a sound as hysterical and emotional as hardcore, as frenetic and irreverent as punk, as anthemic and melodic as rock'n'roll, and as transcendental and poetic as prog without the whole lot ever sounding like one of its parent influence. And imagine they find the mix to be passive and plastic. After this swansong, the band divided itself into the more trad punk band Sparta and the prog juggernaut The Mars Volta. Yet, none of these spin-offs (and even the band itself when they poorly returned in the 2010s) managed to capture the essence of At The Drive-In: cryptic tales, oscillating between the most clever and the most gibberish, told by a madman accompanied by the most frenzied and shrooms-induced band he could find. It's the combination of their inner rawness and their desire to further explore cosmic wormholes that allowed this weird yet so logical planet alignment. Unlike popular belief, the Trojan horse on the artwork does not represent their sneaking into the mainstream: they brought heart and soul into an industry that had become passionless. There's no better reason to play music. |
| Alexisonfire Watch Out! | 5.0 |
| Do you remember (the 21st night of September) the time you joined Sput? Whether you were a curious young nerd or an experienced boomer, joining this site was a step into another way of approaching music. I didn't know shit when I joined, but I was eager to learn, and the first genre I dived into was post-hardcore, from stone-cold classics (Zen Arcade) to modern albums just waiting for the years to pass to gain their classic status (Worship and Tribute). But the first album that made me love the genre was Watch Out!. It retained the adolescent music I needed at the time (I was mainly listening to punk and metalcore, eh) while staying true to the genre, and it even added pop sensibilities. Honestly, it's not the best album in the whole genre, nor the most groundbreaking one. But everything it tried to do was met with success: the vocal power trio each brought a different vibe and energy to their performance, from George's raw violence, Wade's punky energy, and the catchy and poppy Dallas. The production is as tight as a stripper's string, the choruses were so anthemic they allowed the band to kinda breakout out of the indie, and they displayed the energy a young bloke into heavy music needs. I can't further explain why I love this album, and maybe that's for the best. I encountered it at the perfect time of my life (summer before entering uni), I listened to it relentlessly then, and since then, I never grew tired of it. If that's not the definition of a classic, I don't know what is. Maybe music isn't dead, maybe we all just forgot what it fucking sounded like. |
| Agalloch Ashes Against the Grain | 5.0 |
| The deep winter; the one record to throw when the first snowflake makes its timid apparition. More metal-oriented than The Mantle, this is where the band decides to delve into chaos. While Pale Folklore was the introduction to their white forest and mountain universe, The Mantle an ode to what Mother Earth could produce, Ashes Against the Grain will remain the bleakest take on nature Agalloch ever did, and the construction of the album showcases this take: the solis are the most desperate Anderson ever granted us, and if the first three (and a half) tracks all feature these depressing tones, Not Unlike the Waves, the hardest-riffing track here, pounds you before throwing you into the unescapable snowstorm that represents the final trilogy of madness. As us humans live our precious little lives without any concern for our collective womb, we are slowly drifting away from the millennial trees and rocks. Perhaps at some point, it will revolt and will have no choice but to repel, to death if necessary, its ungrateful children. And in the end, nothing will remain but white noise. This precise moment, when nature will sacrifice its own creation, will later be described in these words: There has never been a silence like this before, there will never be an ode like this again. Even when our fortress will be burning, we can't help but blame the god of men, without ever realizing this god is the grand panorama. Maybe our divinity is the reality we live in, the world we should cherish. It's too late either way. |
| Agalloch The Mantle | 5.0 |
| If Pale Folklore embodied the slow Autumn fading into Winter, The Mantle is the part preceding the white season's peak. Calmer, yet still menacing, and the omen of darker and more difficult days. This atmospheric change is represented by the replacing of the doom riffs for folky ones, which make for an equally gloomy yet different ambience. The core of the sound (black, folk and progressive metal) is still present, but the now more present post-rock and folk tints make this album the most profound journey the band has ever embarked on. This is a band at its most cinematic, painting a mystic trip into the wilderness. Flowing seamlessly without ever taking a break or meandering for too long, this is the type of record that will always be (at least in my heart) heralded as a timeless classic because of how ancient it sounds without ever being outdated. This is not a representation of nature, this is nature itself, in its purest and most indescribable beauty. The band showcases their pantheistic view of the world, and one can't help but agree with them when they are capable of evoking such majestic landscapes with no more than their words and instruments. Going beyond metal, beyond music, this is a work of art that will deeply shake those who dare to get carried away. If this grand panorama before me is what you call God, then God is not dead. |
