Album Rating: 3.0

that average rating on rym will probably come down in a few years I would have to imagine. Just kinda crazy seeing this ahead of stuff like The Downward Spiral or Laughing Stock on the all time charts even if I did get it, those albums feel like impenetrable fortresses in the annals of history, like imagine telling a Gen Xer that swears by MJ's Thriller or something that this album is considered way better than it now

Album Rating: 2.5 | Sound Off

this album is a laughing stock and it's about to go on a downward spiral down the RYM charts

Album Rating: 3.0

judging by that comment box (who even backhandedly insult the genres this band is toying with to prop this up) that should be fun to watch

Album Rating: 3.5

this is absolutely not a “Laughing Stock” moment, lol

but hmm… I genuinely think this hits the perfect balance between being much less incredible than its perceived peak, yet also way more valuable than its detractors would like to think

Album Rating: 2.5 | Sound Off

there are some good bits here I must confess

Overrated af at rym

It’s a decent album. Nothing that sets the world alight.

Album Rating: 3.0

honestly I liked this more when I didn't know what Isaac was saying/didn't know a bunch of people put him on a pedestal like that as a lyricist

Album Rating: 2.5

This reminds me of Funeral by Arcade Fire for some reason and I've got zero positive things to say about that album. Not my cup of kvass.

I feel like I should give this another shot, knowing that I’m usually all for artsy-fartsy stuff like this

Nope I'm right there with you on just not really having the genes to appreciate this. IMO Geordi Greep's album last year is more or less the best version of this type of music if you can even lump it in together anymore. Basically this kind of thing is fun for me to listen to once but then I never want to hear it again.

Album Rating: 2.5

This is nowhere near the greatness of AF’s Funeral, or even close to their debut. They lost it when they changed the line “And fuck me like you mean it this time, Isaac” to something nonsense.

Album Rating: 3.0

ngl funeral isnt even really my bag

Album Rating: 2.5

I’ll admit Funeral’s not everyone’s cup of tea. While the two albums share similarities in terms of orchestration & grandiosity, this one’s just lacking substance imo. Still, I’ll give it another go before abandoning this plane for good.

Album Rating: 4.5

https://prints.nrm.org/vitruvius/render/1200/260937.jpg

"I just think it's pretty neat"

Album Rating: 5.0 | Sound Off

well I for one love this album and yes it probably does not deserve to be lauded as #76 all time, I feel like it is an earnest lil showcase into Isaac Wood and he performs magnificently. the chamber arrangements are gorgeous (as are funeral's) but the lyrics here are fucking insane: uncomfortable, yes, but beautiful. yeah there are a few stinkers (the pop culture refs are middling I think) but "your generous loan to me/your crippling interest" is devastating especially as a farewell

Album Rating: 3.6

snow globes >

Album Rating: 4.5

Scores aside, this rev feels more ranty than anything else, which is kind of a shame, because there’s value in retrospection and for a few paragraphs here you cover your bases well, conceding points in regards to this thing’s instrumental push and pull and understandably critiquing Isaac’s divisive vocal style and cringier sentiments. The other half of this review feels more like you’re passive-aggressively slighting the album’s fanfare in and of itself (which, to be clear, is still super niche, hardly monolithic in nature, and certainly not set in stone. this only came out 3 years ago!).





Griping with a receptive demographic almost always does a disservice to and distracts from any actual analysis of the project; in still taking its supposed prestige for granted you walk away from formally reassessing anything other than a flimsy relationship between a bunch of online strangers’ aggregate score of a piece of art and your own. Dig into your rationale more and hold back on the urge to fling comparison pot-shots; reframe them by discussing the musical attributes instead of resorting to subjective “but X is cooler” retorts. It will always look juvenile, no matter the writer. tl;dr - what bubs said on the previous page.





Didn’t pos or neg fwiw and I’m not super invested in defending this record in its entirety but there’s certainly enough going on in it to justify a deeper read on its own terms and elaborate on why it frustrates you; that’s where the juice of any valuable 3-ish range review lies

Album Rating: 3.0

you are right that it was a bit of a rant in spots, what's frustrating me is that despite ranking super high in a genre i love (post-rock), and moments where it feels like it might click, there's too many nagging subjective issues to ignore. i want to be able to share the enjoyment many have had, it brings me no joy to rain on their parade (even it at times it feels like some enjoy doing it to me) but i was trying to give this a real chance, i don't want to just spitefully dump on something for no reason - any "gotchas" anyone has i have a reason for

ps: if you were talking about my ending sentence, that was just an excuse to shout out a band that i genuinely feel deserved a similar astronomic blow-up yet has so few ratings