204409
Emeritus

Reviews 100
Approval 97%

Soundoffs 33
News Articles 108
Band Edits + Tags 67
Album Edits 64

Album Ratings 619
Objectivity 86%

Last Active 12-24-22 10:06 am
Joined 09-21-01

Review Comments 3,998

Average Rating: 3.34
Rating Variance: 0.85
Objectivity Score: 86%
(Well Balanced)

Chart.

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2014
Pianos Become the Teeth Keep You5.0
2013
Deafheaven Sunbather5.0

2011
Circle Takes the Square Rites of Initiation4.5
Bon Iver Bon Iver, Bon Iver4.5
This is one of my top albums of the year. Makes For Emma look like the livejournal poetry it always was.
Touche Amore Parting The Sea Between Brightness And Me5.0
Modern Life Is War:Blue Collar::Touche Amore:White Collar
Giles Corey Giles Corey4.5
It is imperative that you get this album and its accompanying booklet. Immense.
Mamaleek Kurdaitcha3.5
James Blake James Blake4.5
Destroyer Kaputt4.0

2010
Girl Talk All Day3.5
Gold Panda Lucky Shiner4.5
Sailors With Wax Wings Sailors With Wax Wings4.5
Quiet Steps Think Aloud4.0
Solar Bears She Was Coloured In3.5
Jneiro Jarel Fauna3.5
Tera Melos Patagonian Rats4.5
Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse Dark Night of the Soul3.5
Baths Cerulean4.5
Minus the Bear Omni2.5
Future Islands In Evening Air4.0
Deftones Diamond Eyes5.0
Flying Lotus Cosmogramma4.5
Starkey Ear Drums and Black Holes4.0
letlive. Fake History1.5
Whatever instrumental skills or interesting ideas these guys may have are completely suffocated by overproduction (how many reversed cymbal crashes can one album have) and a near fetishistic influence from early 2000s post-hardcore and metalcore (double-bass drum fills should be applied with ironic br00tality a la Between the Buried and Me, not seriously). Fake History is a strong example of when worship and tribute goes too far.
Coheed and Cambria Year of the Black Rainbow3.0
Ghastly City Sleep Moondrifts4.0
Extra Life Made Flesh3.0
Wait What the notorious xx4.0
Gonjasufi A Sufi and a Killer2.5
Toro Y Moi Causers of This3.5
Fang Island Fang Island3.5
Shearwater The Golden Archipelago4.0
Four Tet There is Love in You3.0
Beach House Teen Dream3.5
Jaga Jazzist One-Armed Bandit4.0
Surfer Blood Astro Coast2.5
Native Wrestling Moves3.5
Memoryhouse The Years4.5
Dangers Messy, Isn't It?3.5
Dolcim We Carry the Fire4.0

2009
Dead to Me African Elephants3.5
Thrice Beggars3.5
HORSE the band Desperate Living4.5
Converge Axe to Fall2.5
The Temper Trap Conditions3.5
Ishmaël Ishmaël3.5
Phaseone Thanks But No Thanks3.5
Touche Amore ...To the Beat of a Dead Horse3.5
PSY/OPSogist Kings Of Sleep4.0
The Mars Volta Octahedron3.0
Dirty Projectors Bitte Orca3.5
dredg The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion3.5
Sir Richard Bishop The Freak of Araby3.0
Passion Pit Manners4.5
maudlin of the Well Part the Second4.0
Moderat Moderat4.5
De La Soul Are You In?: Nike+ Original Run3.0
Loma Prieta Dark Mountain3.5
ISIS Wavering Radiant2.0
Spires (USA) Flowers And Fireworks3.0
Venetian Snares Filth1.5
Silversun Pickups Swoon3.5
Wolves in the Throne Room Black Cascade3.0
Mastodon Crack the Skye2.0
Dan Deacon Bromst4.0
Trophy Scars Bad Luck3.5
Tim Hecker An Imaginary Country3.0
Propagandhi Supporting Caste3.5
Cursive Mama, I'm Swollen4.0
Callisto Providence3.0
Sholi Sholi4.0
Dalek Gutter Tactics2.0
Group Bombino Guitars from Agadez, Vol. 23.5
Telefon Tel Aviv Immolate Yourself2.5
Cymbals Eat Guitars Why There Are Mountains3.5
Bon Iver Blood Bank3.0
Tera Melos Idioms, Vol. 13.0
Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion1.5
Amesoeurs Amesoeurs2.0
Antigua y Barbuda Try Future3.5
Kidcrash Snacks3.5

2008
The Fall of Troy Phantom on the Horizon2.0
The Killers Day & Age3.0
Thursday/Envy Thursday/Envy3.0
Helios Caesura3.0
Cynic Traced in Air3.0
Aussitot Mort Montuenga3.5
Dead to Me Little Brother5.0
Messiah J & The Expert From The Word Go1.0
Fucked Up The Chemistry of Common Life2.0
Grails Doomsdayer's Holiday3.5
Esbjorn Svensson Trio Leucocyte3.0
Blue Sky Black Death Jean Grae: The Evil Jeanius3.5
It's a strange thing that such a good album could come out of such unofficial collaborative circumstances. Jean Grae, rapper with a dark, subdued style, and Blue Sky Black Death, trip hop gone post-rock producers from San Francisco, are releasing this album outside of their authorized canon (BSBD's Late Night Cinema and Jean Grae's Jeanius were both "official" releases earlier this year) but don't have some catchy name to acknowledge the team they've created (e.g. Deltron3030). The resulting music finds Blue Sky Black Death producing music that is notably truncated, chill, and reserved, which puts it at odds with the cathartic and epic content of Late Night Cinema. The production sounds like it's been reduced to complement Jean Grae's coy but depressed flow and lyrics. The sound slays on the lighter, placid tracks like "Take It Back" and "Lights Out," and only falters on the bombastic opening track, "Shadows Forever."
TV on the Radio Dear Science2.5
Ohana Dead Beat3.0
North What You Were3.5
PSY/OPSogist Souls Touch EP4.0
United Nations United Nations3.0
Young Widows Old Wounds3.0
Dela Changes of Atmosphere4.0
Hollywood Undead Swan Songs1.0
Underoath Lost in the Sound of Separation2.5
Alias Resurgam2.5
Deerhunter Microcastle2.5
The Gaslight Anthem The '59 Sound4.0
Zach Hill Astrological Straits2.0
Jesu/Battle of Mice Split2.0
The Faint Fasciinatiion2.5
Mesa Verde The Old Road4.0
Nahvalr Nahvalr3.0
Pygmy Lush Mount Hope3.5
Austrian Death Machine Total Brutal1.5
Misery Signals Controller3.0
...Who Calls So Loud ...Who Calls So Loud3.5
Portraits Of Past Discography3.5
Trash Talk Trash Talk3.5
Loma Prieta Last City4.0
Feral Children Second to the Last Frontier4.0
Ghostlimb Bearing & Distance4.0
Damiera Quiet Mouth Loud Hands2.5
Girl Talk Feed the Animals4.5
Feed the Animals picks up where Night Ripper leaves off, but is much more than a deflated, lackluster sequel. Gillis is all over the board with his influences, dipping his quill into a wide variety of rock (Thin Lizzie, Radiohead, The Band, Nirvana), trip hop (Aphex Twin), and even slow-burning crooners (Sinead O'Connor). Despite, or maybe thanks to, all of these new opportunities for sampling, there is no loss of danceability or catchiness. Girl Talk, nothing compares 2 u.
Flying Lotus Los Angeles3.5
My Morning Jacket Evil Urges4.0
Venetian Snares Detrimentalist4.0
Harvey Milk Life... The Best Game in Town1.5
Shai Hulud Misanthropy Pure3.0
Subtle ExitingARM2.0
Prolyphic & Reanimator The Ugly Truth2.0
Kayo Dot Blue Lambency Downward3.5
Extra Life Secular Works3.5
ASVA What You Don't Know Is Frontier2.5
Blue Sky Black Death Late Night Cinema4.5
Algernon Cadwallader Some Kind Of Cadwallader3.0
Pyramids Pyramids2.0
Thrice The Alchemy Index Vols. III & IV4.0
Metaform Standing on the Shoulders of Giants4.0
No Use for a Name The Feel Good Record of the Year3.0
Sinaloa Oceans of Islands3.0
PSY/OPSogist Suffused With Static4.0
Why? Alopecia2.0
Polar Bear Club Sometimes Things Just Disappear2.5
Son Lux At War With Walls And Mazes4.5
Our top album here at Sputnikmusic was Burial's Untrue. That album had a distinctively sparse, brittle tone to its atmosphere. Other than that though I found the album almost unlistenably boring. Imagine taking that one cool aspect of that album and fleshing it out in all regards. Then you'd have Son Lux's At War With Walls & Mazes, an album that blends a variety of genres and production techniques to create a glitchy, high personalized, trip hop masterpiece. At War With Walls & Mazes is a strong contender for album of the year. It is the best electronic release since Venetian Snares' Rossz Csillag Allat Szuletett. It is nearly flawless, and the scary thing about all of this praise is that it's only Son Lux's debut album.
Murder by Death Red Of Tooth And Claw3.0
Ganon As Above, So Below3.5
Capsule (US) Blue3.0
The Loved Ones (USA-PA) Build & Burn4.0
Protest the Hero Fortress1.0
I had procrastinated listening to this album for a while. I really disliked Kezia but ultimately respected their musicianship and room to develop, despite the fact that they were really just a poor man's Between the Buried and Me (without the sense of humor and self-awareness). Fortress shows that Protest the Hero went nowhere with the small shards of premise they showed on their previous album. Instead of going for oddball amalgam metal or seamlessly blending together their influences, they opted to write technically impressive guitar-centric passages that are so distasteful I found myself cringing at the overtly metallic flare. The imitation Europrog vocals and the pastiche songwriting didn't help one bit either. Maybe they could do a cover album or play weddings in the future.
Xiu Xiu Women As Lovers3.0
The Mars Volta The Bedlam in Goliath3.0
Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend3.0
The Flashbulb Soundtrack to a Vacant Life3.5
Have a Nice Life Deathconsciousness4.5
Equal parts post-rock, dark ambient, and industrial, but mostly shoegaze, Have a Nice Life's debut album Deathconsciousness is a double-disc concept album of epic proportions but without pretention. Throughout the course of its 85-minute run time, the album treats the listener to a varied collection of songs; there are slow-burners, there are epics, there are anthems. This album is so packed with different ideas that they all blend beautifully into the reverby, distorted soundscape that defines this album's aesthetic. All of this is topped off by the fact that the concept is wonderfully executed and supported by a 70+ page booklet that charts the life and works of a near mythical religious figure from the 13th century named Antiochus. Though Deathconsciousness is an intense listen, and not for the weak-eared, it is ultimately a very likable and human album, never forgetting shoegaze's pop roots. There are moments on Deathconsciousness that are grating and dissonant, but there are far more that are beautiful and even catchy. At its core, it's an album that is very intimate with all of its ideas and soundscapes.
Trash Talk Plagues4.0
Pyramids (PA) Through the Hourglass2.5
Off Minor Some Blood3.0

2007
Jonny Greenwood There Will Be Blood OST3.0
Giraffes? Giraffes! More Skin With Milk-Mouth3.5
Burton Wagner 213.5
NOFX They've Actually Gotten Worse Live2.0
Efterklang Parades3.0
Burial Untrue1.5
The Dillinger Escape Plan Ire Works2.0
Equus Osaka Rose1.0
By The End Of Tonight/Tera Melos Complex Full of Phantoms3.5
Coheed and Cambria No World for Tomorrow3.0
Thrice The Alchemy Index Vols. I & II4.5
In general, the first half of The Alchemy Index points to success. There are questionable aspects to both discs, but in general the cons are vastly outweighed by the pros. The Fire disc is a great exploration of the heavier moments on Vheissu. The album is explosive and intense, with Dustin ripping his vocal cords to pieces while the rest of the band unleashes their heaviest material yet. Songs like "The Flame Deluge" act as the most brutal work Thrice has ever created. Songs like "The Messenger" and "Backdrift" are surprisingly the weirdest, blending together electronic influences into heavy, harmonic minor chord progressions. The Water disc, excepting its opening track, is nearly flawless. Interestingly, it also continues a strand that was started on Vheissu's slower, more pensive tracks like "Atlantic." It's a collection of beautiful and wistful songs that all have lush and stunning arrangements. The Water disc feels exactly like it was recorded underwater. As a collection of songs, this album is amazing for nine out of the twelve tracks. As a concept album, it's halfway to becoming an amazing cycle. There are a few flaws and the second half of the collection to worry about, but so far Thrice has produced another stunner.
The Wonder Years Get Stoked on It!1.0
Radiohead In Rainbows4.0
A Wilhelm Scream Career Suicide3.5
These Arms Are Snakes Tail Swallower and Dove2.5
American Steel Destroy Their Future3.5
Venetian Snares My Downfall (Original Soundtrack)3.0
Planets Planets3.5
The Weakerthans Reunion Tour2.5
Meneguar Strangers in Our House3.5
Meet Me in St. Louis Variations on Swing3.5
Between the Buried and Me Colors4.0
Dirty Projectors Rise Above3.5
HORSE the band A Natural Death2.5
The Cape May Glass Mountain Roads3.5
Shape of Broad Minds Craft of the Lost Art5.0
Modern Life Is War Midnight in America3.5
Minus the Bear Planet of Ice4.0
Minus the Bear's Planet of Ice is an unwelcome yet surpringly impressive departure from their patented hammer-on clean tone style. Here, the guitar riffs are not repeated as background music but are much more of a driving force in the songwriting. The synth is a presence as well and make the songs feel like prog anthems, big guitar and all, instead of sensitive indie songs. There are throwback moments, but most of this album is inventive and new. I like the old Minus the Bear and I like the new Minus the Bear. If only they could combine the emotion and songwriting of the old with the progression and production of the new; then we'd have something a classic.
Blaqk Audio CexCells3.0
Alcest Souvenirs D'Un Autre Monde3.0
Comadre/Trainwreck Split3.5
Twain Harte A Sunny Place for Shady People3.5
Ghastly City Sleep Ghastly City Sleep4.0
Portugal. The Man Church Mouth1.5
Bad Religion New Maps of Hell2.0
Against Me! New Wave2.5
Justice †4.5
Justice's † is the best mainstream pop/dance album since Daft Punk's Discovery. Though at moments it rips off Discovery's catchiest moments, Justice find their own niche in the grimier and more aggressive moments found throughout the album. Though pop tracks like "D.A.N.C.E." and "Phantom pt. I & 2" are perfectly sweet, tracks like "Genesis," Let There Be Light" and "Waters of Nazareth" steal the show with their immaculate sampling, sandpaper synths, and relentlessly catchy and pulsing beats.
Kidcrash Jokes5.0
Sort of like a smoother version of Off Minor with some fossils from when they were a Midwest indie band. The flows, tempos, time signatures, and feels are all convoluted, making it the mathiest album I've heard in a while. What makes it even more amazing is they don't sacrifice their solid songwriting and the sound is fairly accessible against the dissonance and chaos the likes of a Dillinger Escape Plan. If anything the album feels a little homogeneous, though any individual track will shred your face into pulp. This is perfect for Tera Melos fans who were a little underwhelmed by the mere 19 minutes of Drugs to the Dear Youth, those awaiting Ire Works later this year, or really anybody who considers themselves fluent with post-hardcore or emo.
Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago3.5
Ghostlimb Ghostlimb4.0
Sometimes I listen to hardcore bands and they just throw around a bunch of dissonant notes and make super sparse
but beefy breakdowns. Ghostlimb is heavy as fuck at all times without sacrificing melody or succumbing to typical
hardcore fare. The album has 11 songs and is 15 minutes long. "Palimpsest" is a perfectly complete 55 second
hardcore nugget. These guys also don't take themselves completely seriously with deions of their music on myspace
being "Influences: none, traffic; Sounds Like: unreasonably mad" unlike other similar sounding artists. The result is a
hardcore album that understands that brevity and brutality can coexist with melody and sensibility.
Strung Out Blackhawks Over Los Angeles3.0
Aussitot Mort 6 Songs3.0
Hopesfall Magnetic North3.5
Hopesfall has written an album that exists as an extension of their 2004 album A Types. The taut songwriting and amazing vocals are back, and sometimes even better. The production is awesome and every song is packed with wonderful ideas. Hopesfall are essentially the best band to mix pop-punk and post-hardcore still actively working on that amalgam today. However, Magnetic North has too many unfortunate moments like the cheesy chorus on "Paisley" or the occasional nu-metal breakdowns to let it eat at the big kid's table with their previous two LPs A Types and The Satellite Years. Keep in mind though that that isn't stopping awesome songs like "I Can Do This on an Island" from picking up 40+ plays in just over a week.
The Pax Cecilia Blessed Are The Bonds4.5
The Pax Cecilia's second LP Blessed Are the Bonds is forged from the same fires that gave listeners Circle Takes the Square's As the Roots Undo and Dredg's El Cielo. It is epic, original, heavy, pensive, and savagely compelling music. It is transcendent. It taps into something above normal perception and does this with a strange lack of pretention. The sound is a mix of post-rock (Engine Down), alternative (Dredg), metal (Isis), and screamo (City of Caterpillar). The musicianship and songwriting are beautiful and the emotional weight of the album is relentless. And to top it all off, the album is free (www.paxcecilia.com contacts.html).
PSY/OPSogist Mining The Valleys4.0
Drowning With Our Anchors Demo4.0
3 tracks. 22 minutes. Below average quality recording. Sometimes it seems like that's all it takes to make a powerful emo album. Drowning With Our Anchors' Demo feels like a wonderful trip through both post-rock and melodic post-hardcore and emo. The songs are expansive and long featuring large instrumental breaks between the vocals. The most quiet and pensive portions of the album are both beautiful and eerie. There are faint voices in the background that set a ghostly mood that is complemented by the somber instrumental passages. When they hit hard, Drowning With Our Anchors crescendos are gorgeous and don't use the dissonance and distortion of other emo bands to get the point across. They seem content to push the point across melodically, using touching and simple guitar lines. Also, the vocals shredddddd. This album, while obviously not a full release, feels like a full gesture. Hopefully Drowning With Our Anchors will put out a more complete release in the future to capitalize on this initial promise.
Grails Burning Off Impurities2.5
From Autumn to Ashes Holding A Wolf By The Ears1.0
Stars of the Lid And Their Refinement Of The Decline2.0
Arcade Fire Neon Bible2.5
Funeral Diner Doors Open3.0
Hot Cross Risk Revival4.0
Hot Cross stuns again, but this time the instrumentals are slightly stripped down and rugged while the vocals are the haymaker. Overall, the album has a much more youthful, straight-forward sound, which is likely the result of losing a guitarist, Josh. There's only one lame song ("Cardiac Silence") and a handful of godly ones ("Turncoat Revolution" and "Blame Truth" being among them). Even if it doesn't challenge as much as Fair Trades and Farewells, Risk Revival finds its niche and shreds away all the same.
Jesu Conqueror1.5
Do Make Say Think You, You're a History in Rust4.0
Dustin Kensrue Please Come Home3.0
Tera Melos Drugs to the Dear Youth4.0
Say what you will about the technicality of bands like Dillinger Escape Plan, Meshuggah, and Psyopus, but Tera Melos is there and they don't sacrifice any listenability for technicality. They have moved slightly away from their Braid/Denver in Dallas-type style and more towards oddball progressive stuff, but overall, this album feels more like a continuation of their last album than anything else, however they seem to be one guitarist fewer than last album. If anything that absence has made the rest of the band more inventive with its playing. This album is the first great release of 2007.
Maps and Atlases Tree, Swallows, Houses4.0
Imagine the songwriting of a Midwest-Emo-influenced band like Don Cabellero or Denver in Dallas crossed with the
indie of My Morning Jacket. But that's just the surface. There's the crazed rhythms and tapping guitar of Tera Melos
and Hella, and riffs sweeter and smoother than ones heard from Minus the Bear. It seems like a freaky hybrid of styles,
but Maps and Atlases pull it off well, never becoming too relentlessly mathy or too ironically indie for their own good.
There are a few moments of incongruity and awkwardness, but overall this album is a wonderful example of genre-
bending.
La Cosa Nostra Demo EP3.5

2006
Burton Wagner A Sentinel's Eyes4.0
Clint Mansell, Kronos Quartet and Mogwai The Fountain4.5
The Fountain's soundtrack is a wonderful amalgam of post-rock, minimalism, and modern classical music. Composed by Clint Mansell and performed by Kronos Quartet and Mogwai, this soundtrack can simultaneously deploy touching piano, pounding strings, and powerful rock music all at once. Overall, it has a majestic, celestial feel that perfectly suits the film, and beyond that, the music is awesome independent of the movie.
Comadre More Songs About The Man3.0
The Game Doctor's Advocate2.5
ISIS In the Absence of Truth3.0
Deftones Saturday Night Wrist4.5
Saturday Night Wrist features a new Deftones. Here, instead of emulating past nu-metal success, or completely
lapsing in a post-Team Sleep paralysis, Deftones hit hard somewhere between the two, leading to an album that is
strangely beautiful. Nine of the twelve songs are immaculate and powerful.
Converge No Heroes3.0
These Arms Are Snakes Easter3.5
Flying Lotus 19833.5
Escape the Fate Dying Is Your Latest Fashion1.5
Light This City Facing The Thousand3.5
Life at These Speeds To Your Health3.5
Xiu Xiu The Air Force3.0
Envy Insomniac Doze3.5
The Mars Volta Amputechture3.0
HORSE the band Pizza3.5
Misery Signals Mirrors4.0
The Early November The Mother, The Mechanic, and The Path2.0
Set Your Goals Mutiny!3.0
Dead to Me Cuban Ballerina4.0
Dr. Octagon The Return of Dr. Octagon1.5
Between the Buried and Me The Anatomy Of2.0
Trophy Scars Alphabet Alphabets2.5
Genghis Tron Dead Mountain Mouth3.0
Murder by Death In Bocca Al Lupo3.0
Venetian Snares Cavalcade of Glee and Dadaist Happy Pom Poms4.0
Red Hot Chili Peppers Stadium Arcadium2.5
Girl Talk Night Ripper4.5
Ministry Rio Grande Blood1.0
Thursday A City By the Light Divided4.0
Life at These Speeds Life at These Speeds4.0
Maybe it's because I've seen them live but I seem to have an inflated opinion of Life at These Speeds. They play a brand of punk that seems to be quite unpretentious and fun but still maintains emotional gravity. Their live show also embraces this notion as there's joking around and good energy but the band and audience sometimes can lose it and go crazy at the crescendos. Their best songs are their epic crushers like "Knives" and "Ground Gives Out" but there isn't a weak track on this album. This album is also slightly better than their 2006 album To Your Health.
NOFX Wolves in Wolves' Clothing3.0
Thrice Red Sky4.0
Pyramids (PA) Following the Tracks, Forcing Motion Thr3.5
From First to Last Heroine2.0
Yakuza Samsara2.5
The Appleseed Cast Peregrine3.0
The Sainte Catherines Dancing for Decadence3.5
The Lawrence Arms Oh! Calcutta!3.0
David Gilmour On An Island3.5
Daitro Laisser Vivre Les Squelettes4.0
Kayo Dot Dowsing Anemone With Copper Tongue4.5
1905 Voice2.5

2005
Daddy Yankee Barrio Fino En Directo1.0
Burton Wagner In the Realms of the Unreal4.0
Alexisonfire/Moneen The Switcheroo Series2.5
Lagwagon Resolve3.0
Wolfmother Wolfmother2.0
Wolfmother runs on a pretty tight formula. 23% Led Zeppelin. 52% Jet. 68% suck. (The Jet elements and the suck elements overlap a lot). This album is so painfully derivative that I'm upset that I had to listen to it. Not even pay for it as I reviewed it for my radio station, but plain old wish I hadn't even bothered to listen. They ravage the most boring elements of Led Zeppelin and combine them with the obnoxious elements of Jet and other modern rock revivals of the classic rock that wasn't all that great in the first place. Stay away from this album unless you are still mourning John Bonham's death. Even then, don't listen to more than one track.
Lightning Bolt Hypermagic Mountain2.5
With Honor This Is Our Revenge3.5
Thrice Vheissu4.5
Toby Driver In the L..L..Library Loft4.5
In the newfound popularity of Kayo Dot, it may be easy to miss Toby Driver's debut solo LP. This album contains some of Toby's compositions that he considered too weird and off the wall for Kayo Dot. Despite the inherent quirkiness implied by that premise, Driver delivers some fairly interesting and palatable pieces just left of his stuff on Dowsing Anemone With Copper Tongue. Read the full review to check out the cool techniques he used to compose and record each song.
Story of the Year In The Wake Of Determination2.0
Deftones B-Sides and Rarities3.0
Tera Melos Untitled4.5
My Morning Jacket Z3.0
Koenji Hyakkei Angherr Shisspa3.0
Wolf Parade Apologies to the Queen Mary1.0
Panic! at the Disco A Fever You Can't Sweat Out1.5
The more I am forced to hang around this album by way of my younger brother, the more I realize that it is just a derivative, linear version of Gatsby's American Dream, and the reason Gatsby's American Dream is so great is because of their ability to balance the Panic at the Disco catchiness with much more fresh and cmoplex song structures. Only listen to this album if you only recently learned how to read.
Disturbed Ten Thousand Fists1.5
Coheed and Cambria From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness2.0
HORSE the band The Mechanical Hand4.5
Against Me! Searching for a Former Clarity3.0
Between the Buried and Me Alaska3.5
Protest the Hero Kezia2.0
Thirty Seconds to Mars A Beautiful Lie3.0
Every Time I Die Gutter Phenomenon2.0
DRACULACORE sp�l nation5.0
Silverstein Discovering the Waterfront1.0
The Fall of Troy Doppelganger3.5
Soundtrack (Film) Garden State1.5
Sufjan Stevens Illinois2.0
As Cities Burn Son, I Loved You at Your Darkest2.5
dredg Catch Without Arms4.5
Bear vs. Shark Terrorhawk3.0
Trophy Scars Goodnight Alchemy3.5
Avenged Sevenfold City of Evil2.5
Nervous Light of Sunday 弱心光景3.5
The Agony Scene The Darkest Red1.0
Venetian Snares Rossz Csillag Allat Szuletett4.5
Venetian Snares, aka Aaron Funk, embarked on a Bartokian journey to Hungary to collect modern classical, jazz, pop, and other local music to create his own electronic reinvention of folk music. This album features these carefully chosen samples against Funk's progressive breakbeat and happy hardcore beats. The resulting sound is grandiose, epic, intelligent, and forward-thinking, all while remaining much more palatable than the typical schizophrenia and claustrophobia of the usual Venetian Snares sound. Rossz Csillag Allat Szuletett may be the most intelligent electronic album of all time.
Light This City Remains Of The Gods3.5
Weezer Make Believe1.0
Team Sleep Team Sleep3.5
Gospel The Moon Is a Dead World5.0
In Pieces Lions Write History5.0
Mike Jones Who Is Mike Jones?2.5
Circa Survive Juturna3.0
Ampere All Our Tomorrows End Today3.5
Gatsby's American Dream Volcano4.0
Funeral Diner The Underdark4.0
Thrice If We Could Only See Us Now4.5
Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra Horses in the Sky2.5
Daft Punk Human After All3.0
Comeback Kid Wake the Dead3.5
Red Sparowes At The Soundless Dawn4.0
The Mars Volta Frances the Mute4.5
Genghis Tron Cloak of Love4.0
Set It Straight My Favourite Words4.0
M83 Before The Dawn Heals Us3.0
Gojira From Mars to Sirius2.0
You and I Discography3.5
Belle Epoque A La Derive3.5
Glassjaw El Mark4.5
Modern Life Is War Witness3.5

2004
Strung Out Exile In Oblivion3.0
Comadre The Youth3.5
Hopesfall A Types4.0
Efterklang Tripper3.5
ISIS Panopticon4.0
Straylight Run Straylight Run1.5
The Blood Brothers Crimes2.5
Grails Red Light4.0
Instead of having huge climaxes, bright major keys, and max e-bow action, Grails chooses to withdraw a little more, focusing on modal tonalities, very natural instrumentation and more subtle dynamic swells. The end result is incredibly compelling, if goofy on some tracks. The middle portion of this album has some truly beautiful songs.
De La Soul The Grind Date4.5
Heiruspecs A Tiger Dancing4.0
These Arms Are Snakes Oxeneers or the Lion Sleeps When Its Antelope Go Home3.5
Arcade Fire Funeral2.0
The Faint Wet From Birth2.5
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez A Manual Dexterity: Soundtrack Vol. 14.0
Rise Against Siren Song of the Counter Culture3.5
Say Anything ...Is a Real Boy2.5
Lovedrug Pretend You're Alive3.0
The Dillinger Escape Plan Miss Machine4.0
Sparta Porcelain3.5
The Pax Cecilia Nouveau4.0
Unearth The Oncoming Storm3.0
Time in Malta Alone with the Alone3.0
The Album Leaf In A Safe Place2.5
Underoath They're Only Chasing Safety2.5
Hawthorne Heights The Silence in Black and White1.0
My Chemical Romance Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge2.0
Alexisonfire Watch Out!2.0
Slipknot Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses2.0
Hot Cross Fair Trades and Farewells4.5
Psyopus Ideas of Reference3.0
Sufjan Stevens Seven Swans3.0
Xiu Xiu Fabulous Muscles4.0
Fantomas Delìrium Còrdia2.0
Hella The Devil Isn't Red2.5
Emery The Weak's End2.0
With Honor Heart Means Everything4.5
Circle Takes the Square As the Roots Undo5.0
Kelly Clarkson Breakaway1.5
DragonForce Sonic Firestorm2.5
Girl Talk Unstoppable3.0
Soli i Sombra The Armadillo EP4.0
A Day In Black And White My Heroes Have Always Killed Cowboys4.0
NOFX The Greatest Songs Ever Written (By Us)4.0
Rockets and Bluelights A Smashed City with Flames and Music in the Air4.0
Set Your Goals Demo 20044.0

2003
Cave In Antenna4.0
Strung Out Live in a Dive4.0
The Fall of Troy The Fall of Troy4.5
Against Me! As the Eternal Cowboy4.0
Between the Buried and Me The Silent Circus4.5
Kayo Dot Choirs of the Eye5.0
Zombie Apocalypse This is a Spark of Life3.0
Murder by Death Who Will Survive and What Will Be Left of Them?4.5
Coheed and Cambria In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 34.0
American Nightmare We're Down Til We're Underground3.0
Million Dead A Song to Ruin4.0
HORSE the band R. Borlax4.0
Thursday War All the Time4.0
Jedi Mind Tricks Visions of Gandhi3.5
Rancid Indestructible2.0
These Arms Are Snakes This Is Meant To Hurt You3.0
Thrice The Artist in the Ambulance4.5
Life in Your Way The Sun Rises and the Sun Sets...3.5
Bear vs. Shark Right Now You're in the Best of Hands4.0
Poison the Well You Come Before You2.0
Sufjan Stevens Michigan2.5
Gatsby's American Dream Ribbons and Sugar4.5
Every Time I Die Hot Damn!3.5
The Mars Volta De-Loused in the Comatorium4.0
Saosin Translating the Name4.0
Brand New Deja Entendu3.0
Radiohead Hail to the Thief3.0
Metallica St. Anger1.0
Silverstein When Broken Is Easily Fixed1.0
Deftones Deftones3.5
Shai Hulud That Within Blood Ill-Tempered4.5
Hot Cross Cryonics5.0
From Autumn to Ashes The Fiction We Live1.5
NOFX The War on Errorism3.0
Four Tet Rounds3.5
With Honor With Honor4.5
Opeth Damnation3.5
Lagwagon Blaze3.0
Rise Against Revolutions per Minute4.0
fordirelifesake Breathing in Is Only Half the Function4.0
AFI Sing the Sorrow3.5
The Number Twelve Looks Like You Put On Your Rosy Red Glasses3.0
Cursive The Ugly Organ4.0
The Postal Service Give Up2.5
Xiu Xiu A Promise3.5
Further Seems Forever How to Start a Fire4.0
The Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower Dissertation, Honey3.0
The Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower plays an odd mix of hardcore and jazz. This mix is not like that of Tera Melos'. It doesn't sound like a smooth integration of the two styles but sounds like a grinding juxtaposition. After a Red Scare-like groove has been established in the more hardcore sections of the song, the band may abruptly throw in a saxophone solo. These choppy moments make the synthesis seem awkward, but occasionally the mix comes out perfectly and stylishly. The cymbal roll section on "For Marcus" seems to be perfectly executed in its dancey catchiness and the solo doesn't bother me so much later in the song. However, overall this album isn't as solid as it could be.
A Static Lullaby ...And Don't Forget to Breathe2.5
Trophy Scars Hospital Music for the Aesthetics of Language5.0
Daitro Des Cendres, Je Me Consume2.5
The Bled Pass the Flask3.0
Raein Il n'y a pas de orchestre3.0
Calexico Feast of Wire3.5
The Blood Brothers ...Burn, Piano Island, Burn4.0
Trophy Scars Darts to the Sea4.0
Off Minor The Heat Death of the Universe4.0
Alkaline Trio Good Mourning4.5

2002
System of a Down Steal This Album!2.5
Sigur Ros ( )3.0
Alexisonfire Alexisonfire3.5
Hopesfall The Satellite Years4.0
Thursday Five Stories Falling3.5
Covenant Northern Light3.5
The Dillinger Escape Plan Irony Is a Dead Scene4.5
Glassjaw Worship and Tribute5.0
Sparta Wiretap Scars3.5
Norma Jean Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child1.0
Frou Frou Details3.0
Love Like... Electrocution Love Like... Electrocution3.5
My Chemical Romance I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love2.5
No Use for a Name Hard Rock Bottom4.0
Atreyu Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses3.0
NOFX 45 or 46 Songs That Weren't Good Enough3.5
Against Me! Reinventing Axl Rose4.5
City of Caterpillar City of Caterpillar3.0
Off Minor Problematic Courtship3.5
Between the Buried and Me Between the Buried and Me4.0
In Pieces Learning to Accept Silence4.5
Strung Out An American Paradox4.5
Gruvis Malt ...With the Spirit of a Traffic Jam3.0
Millencolin Home From Home4.0
Engine Down Demure4.0
Taking Back Sunday Tell All Your Friends2.5
Hella Hold Your Horse Is3.5
Finch What It Is to Burn2.5
NOFX/Rancid BYO Split Series Vol. 34.5
dredg El Cielo5.0
The Blood Brothers March On Electric Children3.0
Xiu Xiu Knife Play3.0
The Lawrence Arms Apathy and Exhaustion4.0
Thrice The Illusion of Safety5.0
Damien Rice O4.5
The more and more I listen to Damien Rice, the more I realize that there is no way to dislike his music. It may be sentimental and sappy, but there is a tangible yet inexplicable honesty and softness to every performance of his that validates any amount of sappiness he slops onto his songs. The end result is beautiful, wonderful balladry. He's not a bad storyteller either.
Alkaline Trio/Hot Water Music Alkaline Trio/Hot Water Music Split5.0
Against Me! The Disco Before the Breakdown3.5
Sparta Austere EP3.0
Face to Face How to Ruin Everything3.5
ISIS Oceanic4.0
Coheed and Cambria The Second Stage Turbine Blade4.5

2001
maudlin of the Well Leaving Your Body Map4.0
Aphex Twin Drukqs4.0
Thursday Full Collapse4.5
Brand New Your Favorite Weapon1.0
Pulley Together Again For The First Time3.5
The Microphones The Glow Pt. 24.5
Converge Jane Doe3.5
System of a Down Toxicity4.0
Radiohead Amnesiac3.5
Slipknot Iowa3.0
From Autumn to Ashes Too Bad You're Beautiful1.0
Hopesfall No Wings To Speak Of4.5
De Facto Megaton Shotblast3.0
Avenged Sevenfold Sounding the Seventh Trumpet3.0
maudlin of the Well Bath4.5
American Steel Jagged Thoughts3.5
pg.99 Document #83.0
Rufio Perhaps, I Suppose...3.0
Hot Water Music A Flight and a Crash4.0
Tool Lateralus3.5
Saetia A Retrospective3.5
NOFX Surfer3.5
Alkaline Trio From Here to Infirmary3.5
Tiger Army II: Power of Moonlite3.0
Alien Ant Farm ANThology4.0
Hot Cross A New Set of Lungs3.5
Frodus And We Washed Our Weapons In The Sea4.0
Ill Nino Revolution/Revolucion2.5
Puddle of Mudd Come Clean1.0
1208 Feedback Is Payback2.5
The Faint Danse Macabre3.5
Fugazi The Argument3.5
Circle Takes the Square Circle Takes the Square4.0
Portrait Discography4.0

2000
Godspeed You! Black Emperor Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven3.5
Karate Unsolved4.0
Jedi Mind Tricks Violent by Design4.5
Radiohead Kid A5.0
AFI The Art of Drowning4.0
At the Drive-In Relationship of Command4.0
The Smashing Pumpkins Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music3.0
Mudvayne L.D. 502.5
Glassjaw Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Silence4.5
Cursive Domestica4.5
Deftones White Pony5.0
ISIS Celestial3.5
NOFX Pump Up the Valuum4.0
ALL Problematic4.0
Engine Down To Bury Within the Sound4.0
Rancid Rancid (2000)4.0
Alkaline Trio Alkaline Trio3.5
Thrice Identity Crisis4.5
New Found Glory From the Screen to Your Stereo2.5
Millencolin Pennybridge Pioneers3.5
Alexander Scriabin Preparation for the Final Mystery3.5
Samiam Astray3.5
Deltron 3030 Deltron 30304.5
This is probably my favorite hip hop album of all time. The production feels incredibly organic and compelling and complements the nerdy rap of Del tha Funkee Homosapien, who's distinctive voice feels especially at home with the overall aesthetic and flavor of the album. My only gripe is the presence of skits, which are much more funny, musical, and satisfying than skits on other rap albums.
Cave In Jupiter4.5

1999
The Faint Blank-Wave Arcade4.0
You and I The Curtain Falls4.5
Grade Under the Radar4.5
The Dillinger Escape Plan Calculating Infinity4.0
At the Drive-In Vaya4.0
Slipknot Slipknot2.5
blink-182 Enema Of The State2.5
NOFX The Decline5.0
dredg Leitmotif4.0
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes Are a Drag3.5
AFI Black Sails in the Sunset4.0
Linkin Park Hybrid Theory EP2.5
AFI All Hallow's E.P.4.5
Engine Down Under the Pretense of Present Tense3.0
Thursday Waiting3.0
Rage Against the Machine The Battle of Los Angeles2.5
maudlin of the Well My Fruit Psychobells... A Seed Combustible3.0
Nobuo Uematsu Final Fantasy VIII: Original Soundtrack4.0
Yasunori Mitsuda Chrono Cross Original Soundtrack4.5

1998
Lagwagon Let's Talk About Feelings4.5
The Offspring Americana1.5
Refused The Shape Of Punk To Come4.0
Orgy Candyass3.0
At the Drive-In In/Casino/Out4.0
System of a Down System of a Down4.0
Cave In Until Your Heart Stops2.5
ALL Mass Nerder4.5
Frodus Conglomerate International2.5
Liquid Tension Experiment Liquid Tension Experiment3.0
Thrice First Impressions3.0
American Steel American Steel3.5

1997
Metallica Reload1.0
AFI Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes3.5
Soundgarden A-Sides3.0
Deftones Around the Fur4.0
NOFX So Long and Thanks for All the Shoes4.5
Aphex Twin Come to Daddy2.5
Incubus (USA-CA) S.C.I.E.N.C.E.4.0
Godspeed You! Black Emperor F♯ A♯ ∞4.0
Lagwagon Double Plaidinum4.0
Limp Bizkit Three Dollar Bill Y'all2.5
Radiohead OK Computer4.0
Lifetime Jersey's Best Dancers3.5

1996
Aphex Twin Richard D. James Album3.5
De La Soul Stakes Is High3.5
AFI Very Proud of Ya3.5
Metallica Load1.0
Rage Against the Machine Evil Empire4.0
Millencolin Life On A Plate4.0
DJ Shadow Endtroducing.....4.0
NOFX Heavy Petting Zoo3.0

1995
Lagwagon Hoss3.5
The Smashing Pumpkins Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness4.5
No Doubt Tragic Kingdom3.5
Deftones Adrenaline2.0
NOFX I Heard They Suck Live!!2.0
Frank Zappa Strictly Commercial4.0
Opeth Orchid2.5
Radiohead The Bends3.0

1994
Aphex Twin Classics2.0
Jeff Buckley Grace4.0
Lagwagon Trashed3.5
NOFX Punk in Drublic4.5
Nas Illmatic3.0
Green Day Dookie3.0
Indian Summer Discography3.0

1993
The Smashing Pumpkins Siamese Dream4.5
Radiohead Pablo Honey2.5

1992
NOFX White Trash, Two Heebs and a Bean4.0
Rage Against the Machine Rage Against the Machine3.5
Lagwagon Duh3.0

1991
Rites of Spring End on End3.0

1989
NOFX S&M Airlines3.0
Gorilla Biscuits Start Today3.5

1988
NOFX Liberal Animation3.0

1985
Rites of Spring Rites of Spring3.0

1978
Frank Zappa Zappa In New York4.0

1977
Ramones Rocket to Russia2.0
Weather Report Heavy Weather3.5

1976
Frank Zappa Zoot Allures3.5
Ramones Ramones1.5
Thin Lizzy Jailbreak3.5

1973
Herbie Hancock Head Hunters3.0

1970
Miles Davis Bitches Brew3.5

1969
Frank Zappa Hot Rats4.5

1968
Frank Zappa Lumpy Gravy2.5

1965
The Beatles Rubber Soul2.5
Herbie Hancock Maiden Voyage4.5

1964
Charles Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus4.5

Unknown
Quantice Never Crashed Quantice Never Crashed1.5
For the Mathematics The New Science3.0
The Walls You've Built The Definition of Friendship3.5
The Program Artifical Unintelligence4.0
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