| 2009 |
| Wold Social Pressure | 3.5 |
| Animal Collective Fall Be Kind | 2.0 |
| A Wilhelm Scream A Wilhelm Scream | 2.5 |
| OneRepublic Waking Up | 1.0 |
| Gaza He Is Never Coming Back | 2.0 |
| Outbreak Outbreak | 1.0 |
| Z-Ro Cocaine | 4.0 |
| Daitro Y | 3.5 |
| Do Make Say Think Other Truths | 4.0 |
| Have a Nice Life Voids | 4.5 |
| Baroness Blue Record | 1.0 |
| The Flaming Lips Embryonic | 2.0 |
| Lightning Bolt Earthly Delights | 4.0 |
| The Fall of Troy In the Unlikely Event | 2.0 |
| Converge Axe to Fall | 1.5 |
| Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate) What It Takes to Move Forward | 2.5 |
| Lil B The Based God: Based Blunts Vol. 1 | 4.0 |
| A City Safe From Sea Throw Me Through Walls | 2.5 |
| AJJ Can't Maintain | 3.0 |
| Natural Snow Buildings Shadow Kingdom | 4.0 |
| Weekend Nachos Unforgivable | 4.5 |
| Prurient Cocaine Death | 4.5 |
| Modest Mouse No One's First, and You're Next | 3.0 |
| Cylon Resonanz | 4.5 |
| Touche Amore ...To the Beat of a Dead Horse | 2.5 |
| Prawn False Institutions | 2.5 |
| Jonas Brothers Lines, Vines and Trying Times | 1.0 |
| CSTVT Summer Fences | 2.5 |
| Sonic Youth The Eternal | 4.0 |
| Coalesce OX | 4.0 |
| Richard Youngs Beyond the Valley of Ultrahits | 3.5 |
| Alpinist Minus.Mensch | 3.5 |
| Green Day 21st Century Breakdown | 1.0 |
| maudlin of the Well Part the Second | 4.0 |
| Animal Collective Animal Crack Box | 3.0 |
| let the 2.8 average stand as a testament that sputnik is not indie enough |
| Conor Oberst Outer South | 1.5 |
| Gallows (UK) Grey Britain | 2.0 |
| Loma Prieta Dark Mountain | 3.0 |
| Japandroids Post-Nothing | 4.0 |
| Prurient Rose Pillar | 3.0 |
| Yonlu A Society In Which No Tear is Shed... | 1.0 |
| And So I Watch You From Afar And So I Watch You From Afar | 2.5 |
| Snowing Fuck Your Emotional Bullshit | 3.5 |
Despite a heavy debt to Kinsella, Snowing manages to carve out their own sound quite nicely.
Reverb laden lead licks and acoustic tinged interludes might be nothing new, but the dynamic
execution keeps this demo fresh. You've probably heard very similar bands, but Snowing is
endearing enough to ignore that.
The sound is an amalgamation of two prominent midwest emo sounds. The aforementioned
Kinsella influence is the most prominent, both Cap'n Jazz and American Football (as well as
a certain Street Smart Cyclist) are echoed here. But its done right; with plenty of
innovation on the sound. The second component is
hard to name, mainly because hipsters aren't really down with the legitimacy of angular
post-emo indie. (Maybe because it sounds stupid.) Regardless, Snowing doesn't take cues
from bands like Rockets and Blue Lights as they do with Kinsella, but seem to take that
sound in another direction, and carve out some fresh ground for the scene. |
| Punch Punch | 4.0 |
| Pulling Teeth Paranoid Delusions/Paradise Illusions | 4.0 |
| UGK UGK 4 Life | 4.0 |
| The Decemberists The Hazards of Love | 2.5 |
| Dan Deacon Bromst | 4.5 |
| Kylesa Static Tensions | 1.0 |
| Trophy Scars Bad Luck | 1.5 |
| Age Sixteen Open Up Finders, Please | 2.0 |
| Cursive Mama, I'm Swollen | 2.0 |
| Bizarre Uproar Purification | 4.5 |
| The Antlers Hospice | 3.0 |
| Gnaw Their Tongues Die Mutter Wählt Das Todtenkleidchen | 4.0 |
| Emeralds What Happened | 4.5 |
| Algernon Cadwallader Hot Green | 2.5 |
| Aderlating The Nectar of Perversity Springs From the Well | 4.0 |
| Natural Snow Buildings Daughter of Darkness V | 4.5 |
| Bun B 2 Damn Trill | 3.0 |
| Natural Snow Buildings Daughter of Darkness | 5.0 |
| 6 hours of dronerand yes, you have to listen to it in one sitting to get the full "experience" |
| Cymbals Eat Guitars Why There Are Mountains | 4.5 |
| Bon Iver Blood Bank | 3.5 |
| Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion | 2.5 |
| Better than Feels? Maybe. I actually love the "house-y" sound with the deep bass hitting at the same time as the bass drum. Enough to make any hipster dance. |
| Grown Ups Songs | 2.5 |
| Combining the clean tappy guitars of Algernon Cadwallader and the heartfelt sing-a-longs of Latterman, this is one of the best emo releases of the year. Fuck Snowing. |
| Sump Sump | 4.0 |
| Sump Autumn Blood | 4.0 |
| Attrition Across The Divide - Live In Holland | 4.0 |
| Black Mountain Transmitter Black Goat Of The Woods | 4.0 |
| Drekka Ancestral Cave Sequence | 4.0 |
| Towers Full Circle | 4.5 |
| Cult Ritual Cult Ritual | 4.5 |
hc album of the year for 09
cult ritual balance balls out hardcore with some artful restraint. i mean, some of the
songs on here are as long as 5 minutes (plus an extended 12 min rerecording of cancer money
from their second demo), complete with extended drum build-ups that should be cliche yet
somehow manage to rip face. |
| 2007 |
| Aidan Baker Scalpel | 4.5 |
| Defiance, Ohio The Fear, The Fear, The Fear | 2.5 |
| Iron Lung Sexless // No Sex | 4.5 |
| Stars of the Lid Carte-De-Visite | 4.5 |
| Richard Youngs Autumn Response | 4.0 |
| Burial Untrue | 1.0 |
| The Dillinger Escape Plan Ire Works | 2.5 |
| Elliott Smith Live at Largo | 4.0 |
| Radiohead In Rainbows | 4.5 |
| Beirut The Flying Club Cup | 1.0 |
| A Wilhelm Scream Career Suicide | 2.0 |
| Nadja Radiance of Shadows | 5.0 |
| Planets Planets | 1.5 |
| Two Gallants Two Gallants | 4.0 |
| Between the Buried and Me Colors | 1.0 |
| Animal Collective Strawberry Jam | 2.0 |
| AJJ People Who Can Eat People are the Luckiest People | 2.5 |
| Baroness Red Album | 1.0 |
| The Avett Brothers Emotionalism | 2.0 |
| Liars Liars | 5.0 |
| Minus the Bear Planet of Ice | 1.0 |
| Bedouin Soundclash Street Gospels | 1.5 |
| Caribou Andorra | 2.5 |
| Chuck Ragan Feast Or Famine | 1.0 |
| Alcest Souvenirs D'Un Autre Monde | 2.0 |
| Ceremony (USA-CA) Scared People | 2.5 |
| Against Me! New Wave | 1.0 |
| Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago | 4.5 |
| Throbbing Gristle The Desertshore Installation | 3.5 |
| Elend A World in Their Screams | 4.5 |
| Wilco Sky Blue Sky | 3.5 |
| Battles Mirrored | 3.5 |
| Elliott Smith New Moon | 4.5 |
| The Fall of Troy Manipulator | 2.0 |
| Blackbird Raum Purse-Seine | 3.0 |
| I fill my mouth up with air, honey in the hairrI fill my life up with time, asleep in the vine, whiskey and winerWho makes the wind blow, I don't care, my eyes roll back in my headrI'm just walking in circles I see the lines in chalk on the groundrOne day this will all come downrSomeday this will all come crashing right downrSo go on with your life we will bring you downr |
| 65daysofstatic The Destruction of Small Ideas | 1.0 |
| Nine Inch Nails Year Zero | 3.5 |
| Bright Eyes Cassadaga | 2.5 |
| Stars of the Lid And Their Refinement Of The Decline | 3.0 |
| Throbbing Gristle Part 2: The Endless Not | 4.0 |
| Modest Mouse We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank | 3.0 |
| Panda Bear Person Pitch | 4.5 |
| Devin The Dude Waitin' to Inhale | 4.5 |
| Bright Eyes Four Winds | 1.0 |
| Nine Inch Nails Beside You in Time | 4.5 |
| Bone Awl Meaningless Leaning Mess | 4.5 |
| Hot Cross Risk Revival | 3.0 |
| Eluvium Copia | 4.0 |
| Do Make Say Think You, You're a History in Rust | 4.0 |
| Nadja Thaumogenesis | 4.5 |
| Deerhunter Cryptograms | 1.5 |
| Turn Pale Mock Trial - Hung Jury | 4.0 |
| Wold Screech Owl | 5.0 |
| Animal Collective People | 1.0 |
| robotosaurus Sayra Bahk Vol.1-2 | 2.5 |
| The White Mice BLASSSTPHLEGMEICE | 2.5 |
| Vegas Martyrs The Female Mind | 4.0 |
| Trash Dog Garbage Eater | 4.0 |
