| 4.5 superb |
| At the Drive-In In/Casino/Out |
| Brand New Daisy |
| Captain Planet Treibeis |
| Combining the best of both worlds, Captain Planet perfectly demonstrate how to evolve by taking a step back. |
| Casper XOXO |
| Defeater Travels |
| Defeater Lost Ground |
| Die Aerzte 13 |
| Huss und Hodn Jetzt Schämst Du Dich! |
| Huss und Hodn Der Stoff, aus dem die Regenschirme sind |
| Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy |
| Kanye West Good Friday Mixtape |
| Kendrick Lamar To Pimp a Butterfly |
| La Dispute Somewhere at the Bottom of the River Between Vega and Altair |
| La Dispute Rooms of the House |
| Dick: Aw Man, another La Dispute record! I bet it will suck compared to what they've released before! Fan: But what if they've created a sound that combined the liveliness of Wildlife with the ADHD experiments of melody making of Somewhere? What if they've tried to write a song that sounded like their version of Radiohead's Reckoner? What if they've created a concept more vague and over-complex than Somewhere's and Wildlife's combined? Dick: Well you'd be dang right if they did that, but we all know there's no possible way they could have pulled tha- OH MY GOD THEY DID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
| Mastodon Once More 'Round the Sun |
| Porcupine Tree In Absentia |
| Radiohead Amnesiac |
| Radiohead A Moon Shaped Pool |
| Rarity I Couldn't Be Weaker |
| With a sound as obviously based on The Story So Fars as theirs, it's pretty impressive how Rarity flesh out their own style by simply tightening up the already damn tight riffing, incorporating some more hardcore elements and sprinkling in a little of that vocal variety many of their soundalikes so sorely lack. All these minor differences make for a pleasantly catchy listen and a surprisingly cohesive debut. |
| Refused The Shape Of Punk To Come |
| Rise Against Siren Song of the Counter Culture |
| Rise Against Appeal to Reason |
| Say Anything ...Is a Real Boy |
| Sorrow (UK) Dreamstone |
| Suis La Lune Heir |
| The Gaslight Anthem Sink or Swim |
| The Gaslight Anthem Señor and the Queen |
| The Hotelier Home, Like NoPlace Is There |
| The Menzingers After the Party |
| Judging by the singles this will be the most joyous these Zingers may have ever sounded. |
| The Roots Things Fall Apart |
| The Smiths The Queen Is Dead |
| Tiny Moving Parts Celebrate |
| Tool Lateralus |
| Transit Listen and Forgive |
| If the lyrics weren't so bland most of the times and many of the verses on this so obviously written solely for the purpose to give the choruses a stage to shine on, I'd 5 the crap outta L&F. Because even though it is so obviously flawed, the pure musicianship, catchiness, and extreme feels found within make me consider it an essential listen to anyone who loves to get his dose of heartwarming melancholy by the way of emo-tinged Pop Punk. |
| Trophy Eyes Chemical Miracle |
| Tua Stevia |
| Turbostaat Vormann Leiss |
| Wicca Phase Springs Eternal SECRET BOY |
| 4.0 excellent |
| 9mm Parabellum Bullet Termination |
| Against Me! Transgender Dysphoria Blues |
| This is way better than White Crosses and ridiculously catchy. |
| Against Me! Shape Shift With Me |
| It's a fine follow-up to TDB, there are some interesting and adventurous (in AM! terms at least) songwriting ideas on here, but little of those experiments do overstay their welcome in any way. I'm not disappointed. |
| Alexisonfire Watch Out! |
| Alexisonfire Dog's Blood |
| Alice in Chains Dirt |
| Anti-Flag American Spring |
| Ayreon The Human Equation |
| Baroness Blue Record |
| Beach Slang Cheap Thrills On A Dead End Street |
| Beach Slang A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings |
| More fun and less dramatic than "The Things We Do..." |
| Behemoth Evangelion |
| Better Off Milk |
| Black Foxxes I'm Not Well |
| Good stuff, at times riding a little too much on those slow jam vibes, but still the best Manchester Orchestra record in a while. |
| Black Sabbath Paranoid |
| Bloc Party Silent Alarm |
| Bon Iver 22, A Million |
| Brand New Deja Entendu |
| Brand New The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me |
| Brand New Leaked Demos 2006 |
| Captain Planet Wasser Kommt Wasser Geht |
| If there's a formula to write non-cheesy German Emopunk, these guys know the secret ingredient. When I first listened to this record I didn't really feel like it was anything special at all, but oh boy, it's awesome. Everything is spot on, from the driving rhythm section over the sparkling lead lines to the thoughtfully emotional lyrics and strained yet powerful singing style of Jan-Arne. Lyrics like "Und ich les ein Buch, das ich schon gelesen hab'. Und ich rei? all die Seiten raus, auf denen steht das wir die gleiche Sprache sprechen." = "I read a book, I'd already read before and tear out all the pages where it says that we're speaking the same language" do nothing but hit one close to home. |
| Captain, We're Sinking The Future Is Cancelled |
| Carly Rae Jepsen Emotion |
| Circa Survive Violent Waves |
| City and Colour Sometimes |
| City and Colour Bring Me Your Love |
| City and Colour The Hurry and the Harm |
| Singing as soulful as ever, Dallas Green delivers some of the most beautiful melodies of his career, releasing a record that effectively merges its predecessors strongest points and displays the power of the full-band vision Dallas had wished for his Solo Project to grow into since its inception. And I'm loving it. |
| Common Be |
| Converge All We Love We Leave Behind |
| Crime In Stereo I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone |
| David Bowie Blackstar |
| Defeater Empty Days & Sleepless Nights |
| Deftones White Pony |
| Deftones Diamond Eyes |
| Die Aerzte Die Bestie in Menschengestalt |
| Dikembe Chicago Bowls |
| Drake If You're Reading This It's Too Late |
| Enter Shikari Common Dreads |
| Enter Shikari A Flash Flood of Colour |
| Escapado Montgomery Mundtot |
| Fall Out Boy From Under the Cork Tree |
| Foo Fighters Wasting Light |
| Four Year Strong Four Year Strong |
| Frank Ocean channel ORANGE |
| Frank Ocean Blonde |
| Frank Turner Love, Ire & Song |
| Frank Turner England Keep My Bones |
| Gallows (UK) Grey Britain |
| Glassjaw Our Color Green (The Singles) |
| Goo Goo Dolls Dizzy Up The Girl |
| Gorillaz Plastic Beach |
| Green Day American Idiot |
| I Am the Avalanche Wolverines |
| Iron Chic Not Like This |
| Jeff Rosenstock WORRY. |
| Jethro Tull Thick as a Brick |
| Kanye West Late Registration |
| Kanye West The College Dropout |
| Kanye West 808s and Heartbreak |
| Kanye West The Life of Pablo |
Kanye does whatever he wants, embracing his public persona to the fullest on this record. In how self-indulgent the lyrics get at times, Kanye mirrors the peoples perception of him, I Love Kanye is pretty much a testament to his self-awareness. Sonically this is his first record without him going for a certain sound. He's all over the place, pushing his boundaries into each and every direction he went for on previous efforts. The songs pair crazy structures, clashing and off-putting elements and abrupt endings with euphoric heights, great melodies and visionary production, projecting his personality more wholly onto the music itself than every release of his before. The title can be interpreted in many ways, but to me it's a dare, asking the audience to look over his shortcomings and take him for what he is: an artist.
It's his least approachable and most puzzling work to date, to say the least. |
| Knapsack This Conversation Is Ending Starting Right Now |
| Kodan Armada A Collection Of Songs |
| Koji Kondo The Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary Symphony |
| Linkin Park Hybrid Theory |
| Maeckes Kids |
| Make Do and Mend Part and Parcel |
| Make Do and Mend Everything You Ever Loved |
| Massive Attack Mezzanine |
| Merchant Ships For Cameron |
| Metallica Master Of Puppets |
| Misfits Static Age |
| Misser Every Day I Tell Myself... |
| Misser Distancing |
| My Bloody Valentine Loveless |
| Neck Deep Life's Not Out To Get You |
| Neurosis A Sun That Never Sets |
| Nine Inch Nails Year Zero |
| Ninja Sex Party Strawberries and Cream |
| Nirvana In Utero |
| No Devotion Permanence |
| What they do on here is seemingly phoning in a dense and unambitious Post-Punk release with shoegazy wall of sound elements production-wise, all whilst actually creating the possibly most heartfelt and catchy Synthpop record of the year. |
| Opeth Blackwater Park |
| P.O.S We Don't Even Live Here |
| Pearl Jam Vs. |
| Pentimento I, No Longer |
| Porcupine Tree Deadwing |
| Porcupine Tree Fear of a Blank Planet |
| Posture and The Grizzly Busch Hymns |
| PVRIS White Noise |
| Queens of the Stone Age Songs for the Deaf |
| Radiohead Hail to the Thief |
| Restorations LP2 |
| Retrogott und Hulk Hodn Fresh & Umbenannt |
| Rise Against The Sufferer and the Witness |
| Safe To Say Down in The Dark |
Forget whatever dumb crap I spouted about this yesteryear.
Down in the Dark may be gloom and doom, but it's filled to the brim with sophisticated songwriting and experimental moments, most of which actually work, making their sophomore full-length a hell of a ride for any attentive listener in need for some high-end drama. |
| Say Anything In Defense of the Genre |
| Say Anything I Don't Think It Is |
This record is mixed like shit.
Now onto the pros:
Some pretty good songwriting, Bemis and crew are pulling off many interesting stunts on here, like incorporating hip-hop inspired beats and sampling into their sound. If I'd have to over-exaggerate like I'm doing all the time anyway, I'd call this record "Say Anything by way of (Edit Cherry Bomb". At least it sounds that daring to me considering the usual demographic Say Anything's brand of (Pop-)Punk appeals to. On surface level its themes may be centered on some friend of Bemis called Joshua, but its overall message is about opening up to yourself and making changes in your life to finally get comfortable within your own skin, just like Bemis giving up his iron grip over Say Anything to finally find out he's capable of having fun doing music with friends. You know, like real bands do.
And I kinda love his sincere approach on here. |
| Shining (SWE) V - Halmstad |
| Sorority Noise Forgettable |
| Sorority Noise You're Not As ____ As You Think |
| Soundgarden Superunknown |
| Streetlight Manifesto Everything Goes Numb |
| Streetlight Manifesto The Hands That Thieve |
| Sufjan Stevens Illinois |
| The Beatles Abbey Road |
| The Cure Pornography |
| The Dillinger Escape Plan Ire Works |
| The Dillinger Escape Plan Option Paralysis |
| The Flatliners Cavalcade |
| The Gaslight Anthem The '59 Sound |
| The Lawrence Arms Oh! Calcutta! |
| The Mars Volta De-Loused in the Comatorium |
| The Menzingers On the Impossible Past |
| The Menzingers Rented World |
| The Offspring Americana |
| The Roots Phrenology |
| The Smiths Strangeways, Here We Come |
| The Smiths Hatful of Hollow |
| The Story So Far Under Soil and Dirt |
| The Story So Far What You Don't See |
| The Story So Far The Story So Far |
| The Weeknd House of Balloons |
| The Winking Owl Blooming |
| High energy effort from one of Japans finest pop-punk newcomers, convincing with upbeat compositions, fluffy production, skillful guitarwork and all the soaring singalongs you could ask from a record of this kind. |
| The Wonder Years Suburbia I've Given You All and Now I'm Nothing |
| The Wonder Years The Greatest Generation |
| The xx xx |
| Thrice Vheissu |
| Thrice Beggars |
| Thrice To Be Everywhere Is to Be Nowhere |
| Thursday War All the Time |
| Thursday Common Existence |
| Tigers Jaw Tigers Jaw |
| Title Fight Floral Green |
| Tool Ænima |
| Tool 10,000 Days |
| Touche Amore Is Survived By |
| Better than their first two full-lengths, but not as good as most of their splits are. |
| Touche Amore/Pianos Become the Teeth Split |
| Hiding: Really impressive. Didn't really feel their releases up to now, but I think it's great how they turned out to be. Gravity, Metaphorically: Reminds me of what they did on their LD Split, only that the extended length (by TA standards) really gives the track room to unfold and be more than a small emotional outburst on a album composed of those, but a song that works really well on it's own. |
| Transit Young New England |
| Weird (and sometimes outright bad) production choices, lazy song-structures and mediocre lyricism hold YNE back a ton. Yet I still can't help but find myself caught up inside the twinkly catchiness and raw emotion displayed throughout its playtime, any time I listen to this thing. |
| Transit Joyride |
| Their swan-song and most mature release in terms of songwriting and production. The band comes full circle here, displaying everything they've learned throughout their career up to now. Still, to me this record sounds like a transitional piece, as if the band never wholly reached the point of realizing their full potential. |
| Trap Them Darker Handcraft |
| Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo OST |
| Tricot AND |
| Tua Raus |
| Turbostaat Das Island Manöver |
| Turbostaat Abalonia |
| Turnover Peripheral Vision |
| Wavves Afraid of Heights |
| Wicca Phase Springs Eternal STOP TORTURING ME |
| 3.5 great |
| A Day To Remember Common Courtesy |
| A Great Big Pile of Leaves You're Always on My Mind |
| Alexisonfire Crisis |
| Arctic Monkeys Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not |
| Arrows In Her Leaving. |
| Balance and Composure I Just Want To Be Pure |
| Balance and Composure Separation |
| Baroness Purple |
| Basement Colourmeinkindness |
| Beach Slang The Things We Do to Find People Who Feel |
| Billy Talent Billy Talent |
| Black Flag My War |
| blink-182 Enema Of The State |
| Bloc Party A Weekend in the City |
| Bloc Party Four |
| Blur Blur |
| Bon Iver Bon Iver, Bon Iver |
| Boston Manor Be Nothing. |
| Bring Me The Horizon There Is a Hell, Believe Me I've Seen It... |
| Bring Me The Horizon Sempiternal |
| Bullet For My Valentine The Poison |
| Captain Planet Inselwissen |
| Casper Hin Zur Sonne |
| Casper Hinterland |
| Circa Survive Blue Sky Noise |
| City and Colour The Death of Me |
| City and Colour Little Hell |
| Cold Collective Bachelorette Party |
| While some of the songs don't seem as fleshed out as they could have been and I'm not too much a fan of Jay Maas' production on this one, it's still a breath of fresh air and welcome debut of a new project lead by one of my favourite Pop Punk guitarists right now. |
| Converge You Fail Me |
| Crime In Stereo Crime In Stereo Is Dead |
| Danzig Danzig II: Lucifuge |
| Death Cab for Cutie Transatlanticism |
| Death Cab for Cutie Plans |
| Deftones Koi No Yokan |
| Down I Go You're Lucky God, That I Cannot Reach You |
| Dream Theater Images And Words |
| Ellegarden Riot on the Grill |
| Enter Shikari Take to the Skies |
| Farin Urlaub Endlich Urlaub |
| Foo Fighters The Colour and the Shape |
| Foo Fighters Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace |
| Forever Came Calling What Matters Most |
| Frank Turner Tape Deck Heart |
| Glassjaw Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Silence |
| Glassjaw Coloring Book |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! |
| Goo Goo Dolls Live in Buffalo July 4th 2004 |
| Green Day Dookie |
| Guns N' Roses Appetite for Destruction |
| How to Destroy Angels How To Destroy Angels |
| IAYD Like A Phoenix |
| In Flames Clayman |
| Into It. Over It. Standards |
| Iron Chic The Constant One |
| ISIS Oceanic |
| Kanye West Graduation |
| Kanye West Yeezus |
| Kyuss Welcome To Sky Valley |
| La Dispute Vancouver |
| La Dispute Here, Hear. |
| La Dispute Here, Hear. II |
| Lil Peep crybaby |
| Lil Peep California Girls |
| Lil Peep and Lil Tracy CASTLES II |
| Linkin Park Meteora |
| Linkin Park Minutes to Midnight |
| Linkin Park The Hunting Party |
| Silly People. rYou shouldn't debate whether Linkin Park are really back at their game right now or not, because they definitely are. rThe only important question is: rFor how long will they be? |
| Maeckes Manx EP |
| Make Do and Mend End Measured Mile |
| Man Overboard Real Talk |
| Man Overboard Man Overboard |
| Man Overboard Heavy Love |
| Massive Attack Protection |
| Massive Attack Heligoland |
| Metallica Ride The Lightning |
| Modern Baseball Holy Ghost |
| Morcheeba Big Calm |
| My Chemical Romance The Black Parade |
| Nine Inch Nails The Downward Spiral |
| Nine Inch Nails With Teeth |
| Nine Inch Nails Ghosts I-IV |
| Nine Inch Nails The Slip |
| Nine Inch Nails Hesitation Marks |
| Ninja Sex Party NSFW |
| Nirvana Nevermind |
| Norma Jean Meridional |
| Oasis (What's the Story) Morning Glory? |
| Old Gray Everything I Let Go & The Things I Refuse To |
| Pacifica The Process of Illumination |
| Pearl Jam Backspacer |
| Pet Symmetry Two Songs About Cars. Two Songs With Long Titles. |
| Polar Bear Club Clash Battle Guilt Pride |
| Posture and The Grizzly Christians and Freemasons Will Kill Me |
| Primus Frizzle Fry |
| Queens of the Stone Age ...Like Clockwork |
| Radiohead The Bends |
| Radiohead My Iron Lung |
| Radiohead The Astoria London Live (DVD) |
| Radiohead The King of Limbs |
| Saves the Day Stay What You Are |
| Say Anything Say Anything |
| Say Anything Anarchy, My Dear |
| Skyhill Run With the Hunted |
| Slipknot Slipknot |
| Slipknot Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses |
| Snoop Dogg Coolaid |
| Sorority Noise Joy, Departed |
| Sufjan Stevens Michigan |
| Sufjan Stevens The Age of Adz |
| Sufjan Stevens Carrie and Lowell |
| Sum 41 Chuck |
| Superheaven Ours Is Chrome |
| Taking Back Sunday Tell All Your Friends |
| Taking Back Sunday New Again |
| Taking Back Sunday Happiness Is |
| The Beatles Revolver |
| The Cure Disintegration |
| The Cure The Top |
| The Dillinger Escape Plan Miss Machine |
| The Gaslight Anthem American Slang |
| The Gaslight Anthem Handwritten |
| The Hotelier It Never Goes Out |
| The Lawrence Arms Metropole |
| The Menzingers Chamberlain Waits |
| The Menzingers Hold on, Dodge |
| The Movielife Forty Hour Train Back To Penn |
| The Police Reggatta de Blanc |
| The Smashing Pumpkins Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, Vol. 2 |
| The Smiths Louder Than Bombs |
| The Smiths The Smiths |
| The Smiths Meat Is Murder |
| The Starting Line Anyways |
| The Swellers The Light Under Closed Doors |
| The Wonder Years No Closer to Heaven |
| Thom Yorke The Eraser |
| Thrice The Artist in the Ambulance |
| Thrice Major/Minor |
| Thursday No Devolucion |
| Title Fight The Last Thing You Forget |
| Title Fight Shed |
| Tool Undertow |
| Touche Amore Touche Amore |
| Touche Amore Parting The Sea Between Brightness And Me |
| Transit Futures and Sutures |
| Travis Scott Rodeo |
| Tua Stille |
| Turbostaat Flamingo |
| Turbostaat Schwan |
| Turbostaat Stadt der Angst |
| Velour 100 Fall Sounds |
| William Fitzsimmons Until When We Are Ghosts |
| Yosi Horikawa Yosi Horikawa |
| Young Thug JEFFERY |
| I love how his delivery on Harambe so unpredictably slithers into and out of emulating various apelike sounds and even some Dancehall Riddim in the second verse. But what virtuosity Thuggers got in the voice department, he as always, lacks in terms of songwriting. So YT on extremely well executed Pop-Trap beats is still something of a mixed bag: At times he leaves the listener in awe of his obvious talent and at different times the tracks aimlessly drag on too long for their own good. |
