August 2018 resumé
Score guide: 10/9 - 5; 8 - 4.5; 7 - 4; 6 - 3.5/3; 5 - 2.5; 4 - 2; 3 - 1.5; 2/1 - 1 |
| 1 |  | HMLTD
Hate Music Last Time Delete EP
HMLTD somehow went from incredibly exciting genre-bending, -blending and -binding and iniosyncratic project combining elements of post-punk, new wave, electropop and all of those at their most eccentric and oddball, but this EP is just a strange obnoxious pop loundness with occasional new wave influences (including Soft Cell feature on here). It's quite disappointing. 6/10
Mannequin |
| 2 |  | Interpol
Marauder
Look, at least they're trying to sound different. Let's give them that. Nevertheless, the song-writing is rarely memorable in the slightest and the mixing and vocal tone is just so off that often it simply comes off as out of tune or some poorly performed, but well recorded live performance. It's a little weird listening to it, but it is what it is. Either the band has now absolutely nothing to offer, or they found a decent enough new direction (if you can call turning a little lo-fi a "new direction") and the next album will blow us away. Let's hope it does, but be aware that it probably won't. 4/10
The Rover, Party's Over |
| 3 |  | King Dude
Music To Make War To
BNM
King Dude gets a little less all-over-the-place and turns to the good old noir jazz or blues or whatever this is. It is oddly calming with all of its darkness. There still is just a little something missing to it to make it truly great, but it is still a damn solid record recommended to anyone who's into a little dimmer things. 7/10
Good and Bad, I Don't Write Love Songs Anymore, Dead on the Chorus, The Castle, Let It Burn |
| 4 |  | Idles
Joy as an Act of Resistance
BNM
And I a fool thought I'll write a review for this. Make no mistake of it, this is musically one of the most fun and adventurous records of the year, but lyrically it is perhaps the most laughable. But I get it, they've always been a little in your face, but this time it doesn't even seem like much creativity was employed. But still, fucking hell, them tracks are just so damn explosive and good. So screw it. 8/10
Colossus, Never Fight a Man With a Poem, I'm Scum, Danny Nedelko, Love Song, June, Samaritans, Television |
| 5 |  | Ancestors
Suspended in Reflections
That magnetically transcendental album cover reflects exactly the atmosphere this album conveys. I can feel a sthough everything surrounding you and then you yourself are sucked into the stratosphere by some celestial deity, but with only the purest of intentions and sweetest of outcomes. It does often drag along aimlessly, but when it hits hard, it hits home. 7/10
Gone, Through a Window, The Warm Glow |
| 6 |  | Integrity/Krieg
Split
Yeah, not doing it for me, honestly. 5/10 |
| 7 |  | Sims x Air Credits x ICETEP
Arteria Verite
I only know Sims from this bunch and his work I've enjoyed rarely, but this album was rather pleasantly ethereal and easy to listen to. It's not perfect by any means, though. I don't feel a particular chemistry between the three artists, it's not like they couldn't deal without one another. But it is still rather pleasant. 6/10
Hologramme, Raising Helvetica, Eye In The Sky, Fourwheels, All I Do Is This |
| 8 |  | Trophy Eyes
The American Dream
I'm predicting them to turn into Maroon 5... except, y'know, people still won't listen. 3/10 |
| 9 |  | Deaf Havana
Rituals
...and someone who already turned. 3/10 |
| 10 |  | The Black Delta Movement
Preservation
It is just a little repetitive and some tracks do overstay their welcome, but if you like a slightly heavier lo-fi indie rock, then get on it. 6/10
King Mosquito, Deceit, Let the Rain Come, No End |
| 11 |  | Soreption
Monument of the End
You know, I just need to tune out and -as the kids say - chill to some tech death. No brain is necessary to like it, it's just mindless and cruel. And I like it. 7/10 |
| 12 |  | Foxing
Nearer My God
Certainly more mature sounding than before, but still more or less missing that mark of absolute greatness for me. Lengthy, often forgettable build-ups and often absolutely gorgeous explosions. 6/10
P.S.: To me, this is a bearable Brand New prototype.
Grand Paradise, Slapstick, Lich Prince, Nearer My God, Heartbeats, Crown Candy |
| 13 |  | Iglooghost
Steel Mogu
There's not a lot I can say about these two EPs. They're both great and both deserve your attention. I guess Iglooghost's quirkiness became a little too ordinary and I just don't know what to say anymore. 7/10 on both EPs (though I do like Steel Mogu a little more). |
| 14 |  | Iglooghost
Clear Tamei
New Vectors, Steel Mogu, Black Light Ultra |
| 15 |  | Givers
Movin On
A four-track EP of mostly forgettable pop tunes. I'm not certain what do other people it is made for see in it (maybe the positivity), it just absolutely missed my hed. 4/10 |
| 16 |  | Miles Kane
Coup de Grace
...so did this. 2/10 |
| 17 |  | Chain Cult
Isolated
Just two songs, but if you don't punk the fuck out to this, you have no sense of punk, you fuck. 8/10 |
| 18 |  | The Coral
Move Through The Dawn
Every now and then you stumble across an album that is by all means a bland and blatant mess of nothing in particular, a cheap slate of the laziest plates of indie music. But that every-now-and-then-stumble-upon-able album is also just so positive and uplifitng that you have to give it a pass. This is it. That sunny, shiny, happy-go-lucky album that entertains every single one of the worst clichés of modern indie scene. 7/10 |
| 19 |  | Bird Streets
Bird Streets
An easy-going, free-flowing, bluesy and country-ish indie folk-rock album of simplicity and gentleness. Just pleasant and nice all around. 7/10
Betting on the Sun, Spaceship, Thansk for Calling, Heal, Pretty Bones, Until the Crown |
| 20 |  | Kathryn Joseph
From When I Wake the Want Is
This album is utter tranquility. It may hurt it sometimes, especially with those fragile vocals and ambient aesthetic, it just fails to pull off this shtick the entire time. 6/10 |
| 21 |  | Oh Sees
Smote Reverser
A batch of psychedelic, apocalyptic and dizzying tunes, almost too close to King Gizzard's whole thing, though. 7/10
C, Overthrown, Abysmal Urn |
| 22 |  | Mitski
Be the Cowboy
Again with Mitski's work, I am just inches away from truly enjoying it. It is definitely unusual in its zany fairy tale-like song-writing, but I suppose it only works as a whole, because the songs didn't really stick out all that much by themselves. 6/10 |
| 23 |  | Trappist
Ancient Brewing Tactics
20 tracks of the same thing... again and again... 5/10 |
| 24 |  | Anna Meredith
Anno: Four Seasons By Anna Meredith & Antonio Viva
It's easy to get into this. It's a neoclassical Meredith-ian revision of Vivaldi. I mean, it's so easy some people even gave it 3.5s (which doesn't make sense to me). 7/10 |
| 25 |  | Black Tusk
TCBT
Perhaps if some of the songs had a little more depth to them and some of the song-writing was just ever so slightly more memorable or emotional, I would have loved it. After all, I did love their previous album. 6/10 |
| 26 |  | Rabbit Island
Deep In The Big |
| 27 |  | Primitive Man / Unearthly Trance
Split
Just not into splits this month, it seems. This was too long for too little substance. 5/10 |
| 28 |  | Hermit and the Recluse
Orpheus vs. The Sirens
BNM |
| 29 |  | Traps PS
New Chants |
| 30 |  | Rebel Wizard
Voluptuous Worship of Rapture and Response |
| 31 |  | The Myrrors
Borderlands |
| 32 |  | The Mowgli's
I Was Starting to Wonder |
| 33 |  | Dizzy (CA)
Baby Teeth |
| 34 |  | Trevor Powers
Mulberry Violence |
| 35 |  | Carnation (BE)
Chapel of Abhorrence |
| 36 |  | Bloods
Feelings |
| 37 |  | Mark Lanegan and Duke Garwood
With Animals |
| 38 |  | Mantar
The Modern Art of Setting Ablaze |
| 39 |  | Ethers
Ethers |
| 40 |  | Murder by Death
The Other Shore |
| 41 |  | Thou
Magus
Too long and monotonous for its own good. 6/10 |
| 42 |  | Saintseneca
Pillar of Na |
| 43 |  | The Kooks
Let's Go Sunshine |
| 44 |  | KEN mode
Loved |
| 45 |  | Mass Gothic
I've Tortured You Long Enough |
| 46 |  | Muncie Girls
Fixed Ideals |
| 47 |  | Helios
Veriditas |
| 48 |  | The Secret
Lux Tenebris |
| 49 |  | The Vintage Caravan
Gateways |
| 50 |  | Anthroprophh
Omegaville |
| 51 |  | Primitive Knot
Touch Me Not |
| 52 |  | The Yossarians
Ambition will Eat itself |
| 53 |  | Dire Omen
Formless Fire Embodied |
| 54 |  | Szun Waves
New Hymn to Freedom
BNM |
| 55 |  | Zevious
Lowlands |
| 56 |  | Infant Island
Infant Island |
| 57 |  | Manes
Slow Motion Death Sequence
BNM |
| 58 |  | Loose Tooth
Keep Up |
| 59 |  | Tongue Eating Louse
Voidwalker |
| 60 |  | Notches
Almost Ruined Everything |
| 61 |  | Nachash
Phantasmal Triunity |
| 62 |  | Abstract Deity
M. Creature |
| 63 |  | Nothing
Dance On The Blacktop |
| 64 |  | Leeched
You Took The Sun When You Left |
| 65 |  | Wild Nothing
Indigo |
| 66 |  | The Amity Affliction
Misery |
| 67 |  | Circles Around The Sun
Let It Wander |
| 68 |  | Convulsing
Grievous
BNM |
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