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User
Reviews 30
Approval 99%
Soundoffs 262
News Articles 5
Band Edits + Tags 11
Album Edits 158
Album Ratings 2794
Objectivity 71%
Last Active 12-19-18 7:20 pm
Joined 06-11-12
Review Comments 2,975
| Fave 2000 Albums
A very aurally pleasing and relaxing year in many aspects | | 10 |  | The Avalanches
Since I Left You
Plunderphonics Masterpiece. Since I Left You is a constant barrage of sounds arranged and spruced up in ways that will never fail to put me in a good mood. | | 9 |  | St Germain
Tourist
So relaxing, so fun. The dial turns between jazzy lounge and jazzy house like nobody’s business. Cuts like Land Of… or La goutte d’or were made for walking the streets on a warm night, while tracks like Latin Note and So Flute encourage you to cut loose. For strolling the town, for dinner parties, for looking over the hotel room balcony. Such an easy listen. | | 8 |  | Cymbals
That's Entertainment
Lively, psychedelic, a torrent of sunshine-y melodies. Cymbals isn’t afraid to rock out to a twee-leaning upbeat sound, and that makes for an entertaining experience! Some of these tracks sound like the culmination of the light hearted shibuya kei of the nineties (What A Shiny Day, Air Guitar) in that they pull out all the tricks and put their best foot forward the entire time. They also rock a chorus - i don’t know what they’re saying in So What?, but when it sounds that triumphant…So What? Not afraid to experiment, and always delivering on its ideas, this is one album (and band!!) to not miss. | | 7 |  | Sugar Plant
Dryfruit
Tranquil lounge-y ambience with simple beats and smooth melodies. Like listening to melted butter. Slides right into your head and soothes like a pill. Hypnotic.
Simple, Thunder, Indigo, Ten Years | | 6 |  | Hank and Slim
The World Turned Gingham
An absolute winner of an ambient album. The landscapes The World Turned Gingham present are just desolate enough to be disconcerting. Radio broadcasts sneak in through pinholes as iron clangs and guitar strings are strummed idly. At its most lonely it is haunting, reverb allows things to echo like ghosts whispering just out of view, just in earshot. Radio announcers delve into odd topics. Someone sings menacingly about one rowdy Marky Martin. And the whole thing feels hazy and cozy all at once. Apparently the liner notes add queer/outsider subtext and without having read them, I can sense where it comes from. Great ambient album. | | 5 |  | Enya
A Day Without Rain
Predictable but beautiful, and both of those are important aspects to A Day without Rain. Sold 7 Million copies in the US for a reason. If you need something to relax to, just press play on any Enya record really, but A Day Without Rain gets bonus points for Only Time and its last 5 tracks. Synths and strings combine with Enya’s irish background for some classic mellowed out new age.
Only Time, Silver Inches, One By One, The First of Autumn, Lazy Days | | 4 |  | Biosphere
Cirque
Like floating above a mountain range. There are times where Cirque hardly feels there, but it still leaves a distinct impression. One of blisteringly cold air, a streetlight in the snow on a quiet January night, seeing your breath waiting for the bus, being comfortably alone in the dark. These long moments of serenity make the moments of muffled techno much more powerful than they have any right to be. S-Tier January album.
Check: When I Leave, Iberia Eterea, Algae and Fungi pt. 1/2 | | 3 |  | D'angelo
Voodoo
Responsible for so much 21st century soul, and something you should immediately check out if you ever enjoyed said genre. Cuts like Untitled (How Does It Feel?) and Feel Like Makin’ Love are perfect examples of his sultry falsetto, while the one two of Devil’s Pie and Left and Right swerve more into hip-hop territory. The latter has some great verses from both Method and Red Man. It’s also hard not to commend that funky opener, Playa Playa, for setting the tone so well. Big R.I.P!!!
Playa Playa, Left and Right, Untitled (How Does It Feel?), Africa, Feel Like Makin’ Love | | 2 |  | Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
Absolutely stunning. I relistened to this very recently for the first time in quite a few years and was reminded of how much of a rollercoaster it was. Not a scary one, either - Lift Yr skinny fists… is often in the act of rising or falling in intensity. When it’s not doing that, it’s taking a breather in some neverending fields of green or pummeling down rods of lightning like nobody’s business. A real treat. | | 1 |  | Deltron 3030
Deltron 3030
Still a classic baby!!! Battle rap space opera that lets you linger in its sickeningly slick beats, with Deltron (aka The Funkee Homosapien) easily fleshing out a cyberpunk space-faring world with the help of Kid Koala and Dan The Automator. Every single track will have your head boppin’ to what I can only describe as next-level boom bap with Del’s signature stressed lyrical style running from front to back. Are there some nonsense science lyrics in here? Probably. Does it sound cool? Hell yeah it does. 5/5
Check: 3030, Virus, Things You Can Do, Mastermind, Time Keeps On Slipping, Memory Loss | |
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