User
Reviews 28 Approval 99%
Soundoffs 259 News Articles 5 Band Edits + Tags 11 Album Edits 158
Album Ratings 2597 Objectivity 71%
Last Active 12-19-18 7:20 pm Joined 06-11-12
Review Comments 2,910
| Top 25 for '24
I feel like this is the most basic top 3 ive ever had but i will stand by it | 29 |  | M.I.A. Bells Collection
3.4/5 | 28 |  | Wishy Triple Seven
3.5/5 | 27 |  | The Last Dinner Party Prelude to Ecstasy
3.5/5 | 26 |  | Poppy Negative Spaces
3.5/5 | 25 |  | Drug Church Prude
3.6/5 | 24 |  | Chelsea Wolfe She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She
3.6/5 | 23 |  | A.G. Cook Britpop
3.7/5 | 22 |  | GENDEMA sassy things
3.7/5 | 21 |  | Heavenly Blue We Have The Answer
3.8/5 | 20 |  | The Cure Songs of a Lost World
3.8/5 | 19 |  | Jack White No Name
3.8/5 | 18 |  | Blood Incantation Absolute Elsewhere
3.8/5 | 17 |  | Cloud Nothings Final Summer
3.8/5 | 16 |  | Jpegmafia I Lay Down My Life For You
3.8/5 | 15 |  | Doechii Alligator Bites Never Heal
3.9/5 | 14 |  | Julie Christmas Ridiculous and Full of Blood
3.9/5 | 13 |  | Ashley Ninelives Cheshire Days
DIY electronic-psych pop freakout. Every track veers in a wildly different direction so that you won’t know what to expect next. Chillwave, happy hardcore, hyperpop-adjacent noise - its all so well produced, the vocal delivery so confident, the music so FUN. Cheshire Days keeps you on your toes and is over sooner than I’d like, but I still keep finding time to revisit it for songs like Cheshire, Pulsar and Brighter Day. And also the interlude that interpolates a Counting Crows song. Good shit.
3.9/5
Cheshire, Pulsar, Brighter Day, Inbox, Spiral Eyes | 12 |  | Willi Carlisle Critterland
What if Orville Peck was more sad and forlorn? Willi Carlisle knows that cowboys cry too, even if no one’s around. Critterland is an assortment of ballads and softer tunes that leaves me in a state of many emotions. It feels very American, very dour and very honest. Tales of dead parents, freaks of nature, greed, and finding a place to call home will grace your ears. One by one each track hits a bit like a freight train. Even the sunny title track feels so child-like, crying out shamelessly, wantonly, in its desire for a quiet and happy life that it hurts just a little to hear. Anyways this is Benji but if a gay cowboy wrote it
4/5
Critterland, The Arrangements, I Want No Children, When The Pills Wear Off | 11 |  | James Elkington and Nathan Salsburg All Gist
Good ol’ finger pluckin from the best duo to do it. Vibes album. You listen for that acoustic ambience, those melodies that flow through you with an air of peacefulness about them. Maybe there isn’t quite a standout moment in the first 9 tracks, but thats fine - its a vibe album!! The last track does live in my head though - a transcendent cover of Buffalo Stance by Neneh Cherry. They absolutely nail what makes that song so good to begin with - the multiple melodies that are intertwined throughout. That track is all melody, and it translates into their style perfectly.
4.1/5
Nicest Distinction, Buffalo Stance | 10 |  | Chat Pile Cool World
If God’s Country was a ‘state of the nation’, Cool World is looking forward to all the world crumbling to dust. The sound to me is a little less heavy, but just as gloomy as before - this time with hints of funk metal and nu-metal. It might all be going to shit, but at least it's a little groovy.
4.1/5
I Am Dog Now, Frownland, Funny Man, The New World | 9 |  | Freddie Gibbs You Only Die 1nce
It’s no pinata - as an album this feels like one of the looser Freddie albums, but maybe that’s where the charm lies. The lyrics paint a more personal picture than one would expect from Gibbs, and the beats are very varied. They’re no madlib or alchemist level beats, but he raps pretty well over all of them!! Great hip-hop album 4/5 | 8 |  | DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ Hex
I occasionally wrestle with the Sabrina ethos that seems to push quantity over quality at times. There are some projects of hers that fall completely flat for me, and some that have graced my year-end lists in the past. Hex is definitely the highest praise she’s got from me yet, and for quite a few reasons.
One - this is NOT a flop. I think everything here was treated with the care and time it deserved, and that shows in the intricacy so many of the tracks here have. Beats, vocals, melodies are thrown together in her cauldron with precision. She also jumps through quite a few different sounds relative to her brand of house/dance music, and they all have their highlights.
Two - it’s ONLY TWO HOURS!! Don’t get me wrong, Charmed and Destiny provide a total of 7 hours of music, but it could’ve been trimmed. By how much I can’t say, but probably more than half. | 7 |  | DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ Hex
Two hours in comparison feels digestible, and indeed I was able to throw Hex on front to back multiple times throughout the summer and autumn, perfect for late night drives to/from friends or nights out on the town or even just sitting in my room. Her witchcraft can make any scenario a little more magical.
Highlights are scattered in abundance throughout Hex’s runtime. The thundering drums of jungle in This Station, the hypnotic house of Deep Down, the subdued synthpop of Seraph, and the sound of Sabrina herself tearing out of your speakers on Hold On, probably the most euphoric listening moment of the year for me.
Sabrina isn’t for everyone, but I really do recommend listening to the run from Seraph to the end of the record. That section right there is what she’s all about, and its what lands her this high on my list.
4.2/5
This Station, Hold On, Come in Carmen, Deep Down | 6 |  | Eli Keszler Live 2
An hour and a half of meditative live material. Technically impressive for deep listening, and just as great as lively background noise.
4.2/5 | 5 |  | Charli XCX Brat and It’s Completely Different but Also...
A big asterisk in my top 3 - one that would have some considering it a top 4. Brat and its sister reimagining are massive, exciting, and manage to form a club hit-laden hard hitting whole. Someone on the cusp of superstardom, reflecting and lamenting on celebrity and the doubt, paranoia and stress it all brings. The piece's second half, bringing in singers and stars of all kinds - your Tinashe’s, your Troye Sivans, good witch Ariana Grande herself. Brat is a gash we peer into - see what makes a pop star tick.
There’s a bluntness to her lyrics that shine here. They display an ego in two modes - one that swaggers and stomps over anyone who dares show weakness. And another, vulnerable, ready to crumble at a stray sideways glance. She’s wary of sympathy, on the edge of settling down and having a kid, examining generational trauma…But she’s also bumping lines with her friends, falling in love around the globe and feeling on top of the world. | 4 |  | Charli XCX Brat
The remix album just extends all these ideas, and invites others to contribute their own thoughts on the matter. The collaborations are more often than not next level - Robyn and Yung Lean on 360, Caroline Polachek on Everything is Romantic, the 1975 and Jon Hopkins transforming I Might Say Something Stupid, and quite frankly, a LEGENDARY verse from Lorde on Girl, so confusing.
I just cant seem to separate them - there are so many tracks on one where I just feel like i have to hear its counterpart. And for managing to feel so sonically and lyrically together, and because I bought the 2-CD package that features both of them, I am considering them one capital-P Project. 2024… I made you as brat as I could.
4.4/5
Von Dutch, Apple, Mean Girls, I Might Say Something Stupid (ft. the 1975 / Jon Hopkins), 360 (ft. Robyn / Yung Lean), Girl So Confusing (ft. Lorde) | 3 |  | Remi Wolf Big Ideas
A dance-pop smorgasbord with a dozen flavors to sample. Remi Wolf was always on the edge of my radar, and I almost missed out on this prime slice of pop music if not for a friends suggestion late in November. Remi Wolf doesn’t just have big ideas - she has a big personality and a big voice that easily fits whatever picture her music is painting. Her vocals are a chameleon in the best way possible, fitting a sneer, floating with a melody, or just taking center-stage and running with it. Impossibly horny on Toro, vacationing with herself on Alone in Miami, and tearing the house down boots on Slay Bitch, these Big Ideas are all worth listening to.
4.4/5
Toro, Soup, Kangaroo, Cinderella | 2 |  | Tyler, the Creator Chromakopia
We’ve had Tyler albums where he covers less ground for longer, so I don’t like hearing this is about how ‘he’s afraid to settle down’. It’s so much more than that. It feels like an honest look inside the goblin-turned-ringleader in his mid-30’s. Someone who has suddenly realized they’ve got a few years to decide whether or not they really want to be a family man, because time on this earth is limited. In answering this question we delve deeper into his family upbringing, his views on committing to romance and sexuality, and a struggle to be honest with oneself. Even when not dealing with more serious topics, Tyler still finds time to cut loose and be gay on tracks like Balloon (with a hilarious verse from Doechii) and Sticky, this albums posse cut with a bangin’ marching band style beat. | 1 |  | Tyler, the Creator Chromakopia
From front to back this thing is brimming with creativity ABOUT creativity and the struggle to separate the passion for art and freedom and selfishness from the idea of settling down and committing to a family, and what that would mean for him as an individual. It’s a really interesting listen from someone we’ve seen famous for their controversial, rambunctious nature. Personally, I hope he never stops creating.
you are the light
it's not on you, it's in you
don't you ever in your motherfucking life
dim your light for nobody
4.5/5
Balloon, Sticky, Like Him, Take Your Mask Off, St. Chroma, Darling I | |
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