Japandroids Near To The Wild Heart Of Life | 2.5 |
Near To The Wild Heart Of Life is the sound going from being a cool kid hanging out in the sketchy part of downtown to being 35 and wanting the new condo built right over where the DIY spot used to be because it's close to the Whole Foods. |
Deafheaven New Bermuda | 3.5 |
3.5ish sounds about right, I guess. Maybe a little lower. Maybe a little higher. *shrugs* |
Adventures Supersonic Home | 2.3 |
Matana Roberts COIN COIN Chapter Three: river run thee | 4.2 |
The Decemberists What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World | 2.5 |
The Average White Band |
G.L.O.S.S. Demo | 4.0 |
Preoccupations Viet Cong | 4.0 |
Turnstile Nonstop Feeling | 1.0 |
Cloakroom Further Out | 3.0 |
Sleater-Kinney No Cities to Love | 4.2 |
Run the Jewels Run the Jewels 2 | 3.0 |
At the Gates At War with Reality | 2.5 |
Remember when Carcass put out Surgical Steel? That was cool. |
SBTRKT Wonder Where We Land | 3.2 |
Weezer Everything Will Be Alright in the End | 4.0 |
Glass Bones Loner | 4.0 |
Where the split with Les Doux felt more like a stop gap than a complete project, Loner is the true follow up to Seasons that we've all been waiting for. |
Flying Lotus You're Dead! | 4.7 |
Yes. |
Finch Back to Oblivion | 2.5 |
Yung Lean Unknown Memory | 2.0 |
Perfume Genius Too Bright | 4.0 |
Inigo Kennedy Vaudeville | 4.5 |
Answer Code Request Code | 4.0 |
Lee Gamble Koch | 3.5 |
Cymbals Eat Guitars LOSE | 2.8 |
Karen O Crush Songs | 3.5 |
YOB Clearing The Path To Ascend | 2.8 |
Lusine Arterial | 3.5 |
Daphni Jiaolong | 2.3 |
Jeff Mills Sleeper Wakes | 3.7 |
Caribou Andorra | 3.5 |
Caribou Swim | 3.5 |
Burial Kindred | 4.5 |
This is ridiculously good. Not sure what I'm rating it quite yet, but god damn, color me impressed. |
Burial Untrue | 5.0 |
Four Tet Rounds | 4.0 |
Four Tet There is Love in You | 3.5 |
Tycho Dive | 3.0 |
Teebs Ardour | 3.5 |
Teebs E S T A R A | 4.5 |
Swarms Old Raves End | 4.5 |
Voices From The Lake Voices From The Lake | 4.0 |
Christian Loffler Young Alaska | 4.0 |
Recondite Hinterland | 3.5 |
Recondite On Acid | 4.0 |
Underworld dubnobasswithmyheadman | 3.5 |
Orbital In Sides | 3.5 |
The Orb Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld | 3.5 |
The Orb Orbus Terrarum | 3.5 |
Newworldaquarium The Dead Bears | 3.5 |
Murcof Martes | 4.0 |
Moodymann Forevernevermore | 3.0 |
Moodymann Silentintroduction | 4.0 |
Minilogue Animals | 3.5 |
Machinedrum Vapor City | 4.5 |
Lone Reality Testing | 3.5 |
Lee Gamble Dutch Tvashar Plumes | 3.5 |
Lindstrom Where You Go I Go Too | 4.0 |
John Talabot Fin | 4.0 |
Gesaffelstein Aleph | 4.0 |
Francis Harris Minutes of Sleep | 4.0 |
John Roberts Glass Eights | 3.0 |
Efdemin Decay | 3.5 |
Efdemin Chicago | 3.5 |
Pantha Du Prince Black Noise | 4.0 |
Pantha Du Prince This Bliss | 4.0 |
The Field Yesterday and Today | 4.0 |
The Field From Here We Go Sublime | 4.0 |
Dalhous Will to be Well | 3.5 |
Cobblestone Jazz 23 Seconds | 3.7 |
Cocteau Twins Heaven or Las Vegas | 4.5 |
Boards of Canada Geogaddi | 3.5 |
Boards of Canada Music Has the Right to Children | 3.5 |
Boards of Canada The Campfire Headphase | 3.5 |
Azari & III Azari & III | 3.3 |
Balam Acab Wander/Wonder | 4.5 |
808 State Ninety | 4.5 |
Virgo Four Virgo | 4.0 |
Luomo Vocalcity | 4.0 |
Akufen My Way | 3.0 |
Jon Hopkins Immunity | 4.0 |
Nicolas Jaar Space Is Only Noise | 4.0 |
Darkside Psychic | 4.0 |
Autechre Tri Repetae | 3.5 |
Amon Tobin Supermodified | 4.0 |
Amon Tobin Permutation | 4.0 |
Tipper Surrounded | 3.5 |
Tipper Broken Soul Jamboree | 3.5 |
Tipper Forward Escape | 3.0 |
Venetian Snares Rossz Csillag Allat Szuletett | 4.5 |
Venetian Snares Detrimentalist | 3.0 |
Venetian Snares My Love Is A Bulldozer | 2.5 |
Aphex Twin Selected Ambient Works 85-92 | 4.0 |
Aphex Twin Selected Ambient Works Volume II | 4.0 |
Aphex Twin ...I Care Because You Do | 4.0 |
Aphex Twin Richard D. James Album | 4.0 |
Zomby With Love | 3.7 |
FaltyDL In The Wild | 3.5 |
Actress Ghettoville | 2.8 |
Actress Hazyville | 3.5 |
Actress Splazsh | 3.5 |
Demdike Stare Liberation Through Hearing | 3.5 |
The Haxan Cloak Excavation | 4.0 |
Ben Frost A U R O R A | 4.0 |
Fennesz Endless Summer | 3.8 |
Fennesz Black Sea | 4.0 |
Fennesz Becs | 3.7 |
Tim Hecker Harmony in Ultraviolet | 4.0 |
Tim Hecker An Imaginary Country | 4.0 |
Tim Hecker Ravedeath, 1972 | 4.0 |
Tim Hecker Virgins | 3.5 |
Gas Pop | 3.5 |
Gas Zauberberg | 4.0 |
DJ Sprinkles Midtown 120 Blues | 4.0 |
Caribou Our Love | 4.0 |
Earthless Meets Heavy Blanket In A Dutch Haze | 2.2 |
Rx Bandits Gemini, Her Majesty | 2.3 |
This album cover confirms that RXB are now Phish for punk kids. |
Kanye West Yeezus | 4.1 |
Sylvan Esso Sylvan Esso | 4.0 |
Joyce Manor Never Hungover Again | 3.7 |
It's cool. Like, you know, whatever. |
United Nations The Next Four Years | 3.8 |
Boris Noise | 2.3 |
Die Kreuzen Die Kreuzen | 4.1 |
Sharon Van Etten Are We There | 4.6 |
Agalloch The Serpent and the Sphere | 2.0 |
Never before has an Agalloch record sounded so Agallochy. |
AJJ Christmas Island | 2.2 |
The most disappointing record of the year. |
LCD Soundsystem The Long Goodbye | 5.0 |
A perfect document in sound, style, and substance from the most important band of the last
decade. |
Matter Teraphim | 3.3 |
Todd Terje It's Album Time | 3.0 |
The Body I Shall Die Here | 4.0 |
Comadre Comadre | 4.5 |
Insomnium Shadows of the Dying Sun | 2.5 |
The Menzingers Rented World | 3.3 |
Lisa and I are going out for a gelato. We'd ask you to come, but...you know. |
Cult Leader Nothing for Us Here | 3.5 |
Antarctigo Vespucci Soulmate Stuff | 3.0 |
Pyrrhon The Mother of Virtues | 4.0 |
holy shit this rules. It's like Converge, Demilich, and Bastard Noise all rolled into one. |
Cold Body Radiation A Clear Path | 2.3 |
If I went to a barbecue and there was no meat, I would say 'Yo Goober! Where's the meat!?? I?m trying to impress people here Lisa. You don't win friends with salad. |
Cloud Nothings Here and Nowhere Else | 4.2 |
Saintseneca Dark Arc | 3.0 |
So what separates this from the rest of the world of bland alt-folk other than it has the singer of The Sidekicks in it? |
Jungbluth/Callow Split | 4.0 |
Sargeist Feeding the Crawling Shadows | 2.0 |
Trophy Scars Holy Vacants | 4.0 |
Darkness, Oh Hell still sits atop the Trophy Scars pantheon for me, but this is pretty darn close. |
YG My Krazy Life | 2.0 |
Since I stopped smoking weed this kind of shit is dead to me. |
Finch What It Is to Burn | 2.5 |
What It Is To Burn is one of those albums that tests just how important nostalgia is to its listener. If you had a deep connection with it when the album first came out, chances are you'll love it. If you liked it, but weren't exactly enthralled with it, chances are you'll think it has aged horribly. I happen to be in that latter camp. When I was 15 this was great. Now at 26 it's nothing more than slightly less annoying bro-rock. It's not without its moments, but you might want to stick with how you remember it sounding rather than taking the time to give it another spin with an older set of ears. |
Sisyphus Sisyphus | 2.0 |
Owls Two | 4.0 |
GZA Liquid Swords | 5.0 |
Raekwon Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt II | 4.0 |
Cuban Linx II is the best Wu joint in years. Not only does it show off Rae and Co. at the top of their game, it features a wide range of A-List producers (J-Dilla, Dre, RZA, Necro, BT, and more) showing off their best beats. |
Raekwon Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... | 4.5 |
Ghostface Killah Twelve Reasons to Die | 4.0 |
Ghostface Killah Fishscale | 4.0 |
Ghostface Killah Supreme Clientele | 4.5 |
Ghostface Killah Ironman | 4.5 |
Freddie Gibbs and Madlib Pinata | 4.0 |
Pinata is everything a good collaboration should be. Freddie Gibbs returns to his role as
the last hard ass motherfucker in a mainstream rap universe that's about as threatening as
the bear in the Snuggle fabric softener commercials. His laid back drawl bounces in and out
of Madlib's chopped soul samples and Motown breaks with a streetwise nonchalance that is
reminiscent of Guru -- if only he came of age on a grizzled street corner instead of in
graduate classes. Madlib is in full on soul-jam mode. The jazzy experiments of his slew of
recent solo tapes is put on the back burner for a reprise of the chopped and sultry sounds
of mid-60's Detroit a la his collaborations with MF DOOM and Guilty Simpson. The final
result is somewhere between those two projects but no less immediate. |
La Dispute Rooms of the House | 2.5 |
Cursed II | 4.5 |
Taking Back Sunday Happiness Is | 3.2 |
Angel Olsen Burn Your Fire for No Witness | 3.5 |
Perfect Pussy Say Yes to Love | 3.7 |
Poison the Well The Tropic Rot | 2.8 |
Morbus Chron Sweven | 2.0 |
Horse shit. |
GridLink Longhena | 4.7 |
Propagandhi Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes | 4.5 |
Propagandhi Supporting Caste | 4.5 |
Propagandhi Failed States | 4.5 |
Comeback Kid Die Knowing | 3.5 |
Real Estate Atlas | 3.0 |
Thou Heathen | 4.5 |
The War On Drugs Lost in the Dream | 4.5 |
And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. |
Titus Andronicus The Monitor | 5.0 |
Japandroids Celebration Rock | 5.0 |
Rick Ross Mastermind | 4.0 |
Rick Ross finally has an album that lives up to all of his show stealing guest spots. |
ScHoolboy Q Oxymoron | 2.0 |
St. Vincent St. Vincent | 4.0 |
On one hand, St. Vincent is quite a good art-pop record. On the other, it sounds exactly like what you would expect a quite good art-pop record to sound like. I don't know if that says more about the creative strength and collective influences of Annie's contemporaries, or if it's that she's settled into a sound that she's comfortable with. Either way, it is quite a good art-pop record even if it lacks any real surprises. |
Pusha T My Name Is My Name | 4.0 |
The Weeknd Trilogy | 3.0 |
Diarrhea Planet Loose Jewels | 4.0 |
the epitome of wonderful, stupid, lovely drunken fun. |
Phantogram Voices | 3.9 |
Macintosh Plus Floral Shoppe | 1.5 |
The Hotelier Home, Like NoPlace Is There | 4.6 |
The first great pop punk record of the 2010's.
edit: dude above me makes the assumption The Story So Far aren't shit. |
Masked Intruder Masked Intruder | 3.5 |
The Rival Mob Mob Justice | 4.1 |
Saosin Translating the Name | 4.7 |
Blu and Exile Give Me My Flowers While I Can Still Smell Them | 4.3 |
Grouper Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill | 4.5 |
Slough Feg Digital Resistance | 3.6 |
Modern Baseball You’re Gonna Miss It All | 2.3 |
Sparta Wiretap Scars | 4.5 |
Sun Kil Moon Benji | 2.5 |
edit: after three play throughs this has gone from tough but good to insufferable. |
Cynic Kindly Bent to Free Us | 2.8 |
Behemoth The Satanist | 3.7 |
Nothing Guilty of Everything | 3.6 |
Cap'n Jazz Shmap'n Shmazz | 5.0 |
Haymaker Let Them Rot | 3.9 |
Dum Dum Girls Too True | 3.3 |
Rapeman Two Nuns and a Pack Mule | 4.0 |
Seahaven Silhouette (Latin Skin) | 2.5 |
Marissa Nadler July | 4.3 |
Siege Drop Dead | 4.0 |
Seizures The Sanity Universal | 4.8 |
Throwdown Intolerance | 3.9 |
Dangers 5 O'Clock Shadows At The Edge Of The Western World | 2.8 |
Throwdown Haymaker | 4.5 |
Woods of Desolation As the Stars | 4.2 |
Warpaint Warpaint | 4.0 |
Against Me! Transgender Dysphoria Blues | 4.5 |
Blonde Redhead Misery is a Butterfly | 4.0 |
You Blew It! Keep Doing What You’re Doing | 2.3 |
Bruce Springsteen High Hopes | 3.0 |
Van Morrison Moondance | 5.0 |
Alcest Shelter | 4.5 |
Perfect Pussy I have lost all desire for feeling | 4.6 |
Hey Alex, how does it feel to miss everything awesome and die alone? |
Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light on Everything | 4.5 |
Main Attrakionz 808s and Dark Grapes II | 2.5 |
John-Allison Weiss Say What You Mean (Sideways Sessions) | 3.3 |
Friendzone DX | 2.0 |
Really? REALLY?! smh |
Julianna Barwick Nepenthe | 4.3 |
Lil B 05 Fuck Em | 4.1 |
Lil B is cool an all, but it's Keke The Adopted Tabby Cat who steals the show on "Hadouken". #MERRYBASEDMAS |
Sharon Van Etten Tramp | 4.0 |
Sara Bareilles The Blessed Unrest | 4.0 |
Julia Holter Loud City Song | 4.4 |
Burial Rival Dealer | 4.1 |
Rival Dealer is a change of moods for Burial. While he has always been at his best in the past when channeling distance and longing, the songs on Rival Dealer are finally at peace with their surroundings. For the first time we finally get the Hollywood ending for Untrue's beautiful emptiness and Kindred's overwhelming confusion that we've been waiting for. |
Busta Rhymes and Q-Tip The Abstract & The Dragon | 3.4 |
At this point in time I don't think anyone here expects greatness from either Busta or Q-Tip anymore (I mean shit, did you hear Arab Money? What a fucking shit stain that was) but what The Abstract and The Dragon brings us is two former greats 20 years removed from their primes taking an enjoyable look back on the style that made them famous. It's a fun little nostalgia trip, nothing more nothing less. |
Self Defense Family Try Me | 4.5 |
The first must have record of 2014 is here and it's still 2013. |
Bane Give Blood | 4.0 |
Townes Van Zandt Live at the Old Quarter, Houston, Texas | 4.2 |
Gram Parsons GP | 3.9 |
Torres Torres | 4.0 |
Olivier Messiaen Quatuor Pour la Fin du Temps | 4.6 |
Igor Stravinsky Le Sacre du Printemps | 5.0 |
Title Fight Spring Songs | 2.7 |
I think Title Fight are one of those bands where I would rather listen to the sum of their influences than what they end up condensing them in to. |
Sed Non Satiata Mappo | 3.0 |
Karlheinz Stockhausen Mantra | 3.8 |
Electric Masada At the Mountains of Madness | 4.0 |
John Zorn From Silence to Sorcery | 1.0 |
John Zorn Duras: Duchamp | 2.0 |
Don Cherry "mu" Second Part | 2.5 |
Sun Ra The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra | 2.5 |
Sun Ra The Nubians of Plutonia | 3.0 |
Thundercat Apocalypse | 4.0 |
Fire! Orchestra Exit! | 3.0 |
Pharoah Sanders Karma | 4.5 |
"The Creator Has a Master Plan" might just be the pinnacle of jazz as a medium of emotional art. |
Johannes Brahms Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op.90 | 4.1 |
Igor Stravinsky L'Oiseau de feu "The Firebird" | 4.6 |
Bela Bartok Fifteen Hungarian Peasant Songs, Sz 71 | 4.0 |
Bela Bartok Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Sz. 83 | 4.0 |
Alfred Schnittke String Quartet No. 3 | 4.0 |
Olivier Messiaen Des canyons aux etoiles | 4.0 |
Olivier Messiaen Turangalîla-Symphonie | 4.0 |
Arnold Schoenberg String Quartet No. 2, Op. 10 | 4.5 |
Arnold Schoenberg Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4 | 4.0 |
Anton Webern Complete Webern | 4.5 |
Arnold Schoenberg String Quartet No. 3, Op. 30 | 4.5 |
Refused The Shape Of Punk To Come | 5.0 |
The single most important album of the last 20 years. |
A Wilhelm Scream Partycrasher | 3.4 |
Deftones Saturday Night Wrist | 4.5 |
Gaza No Absolutes in Human Suffering | 4.5 |
Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. Album of the year. |
Gospel The Moon Is a Dead World | 5.0 |
Hop Along Get Disowned | 4.5 |
State Faults Resonate/Desperate | 4.4 |
Arcade Fire Reflektor | 2.3 |
Sometimes I wish that one half of Funeral that was worth giving a shit over never happened so that these guys
would stop being fellated by the press as something valid. |
Protest the Hero Volition | 3.5 |
AFI Burials | 3.6 |
Desperate Living I Think I'm Losing Touch | 3.0 |
Red City Radio Titles | 3.0 |
Tiles has its moments, but the hooks aren't anywhere near as infectious as their debut and the production is bizarrely thick. |
Oranssi Pazuzu Valonielu | 4.1 |
Lunar Aurora Andacht | 4.0 |
Elysian Blaze Levitating the Carnal | 3.5 |
Elysian Blaze Blood Geometry | 4.5 |
Blood Of The Black Owl Light the Fires! | 3.5 |
Ordo Obsidium Orbis Tertius | 3.5 |
Sleeping Village Fragments | 4.0 |
Ritual Mess Ritual Mess | 3.5 |
His Hero Is Gone Monuments To Thieves | 4.5 |
Tragedy Vengeance | 4.0 |
Tragedy Darker Days Ahead | 1.5 |
Prurient The History of AIDS | 3.5 |
Prurient And Still, Wanting | 3.5 |
Black Flag Damaged | 4.5 |
Black Flag My War | 4.0 |
Minor Threat Out of Step | 4.0 |
Youth of Today We're Not In This Alone | 3.0 |
Judge What It Meant: The Complete Discography | 3.5 |
In My Eyes Nothing To Hide | 4.0 |
In My Eyes The Difference Between | 2.5 |
Botch American Nervoso | 4.0 |
Botch Unifying Themes Redux | 2.0 |
Botch An Anthology of Dead Ends | 5.0 |
Crossed Out 1990-1993 | 3.5 |
Dropdead 2nd LP | 3.0 |
Dropdead 1st LP | 3.5 |
Charles Bronson Complete Discocrappy | 4.0 |
Infest Mankind | 4.0 |
Infest Slave | 3.5 |
Infest No Man's Slave | 4.5 |
Spazz La Revancha | 2.5 |
Spazz Crush Kill Destroy | 4.5 |
Hatred Surge Deconstruct | 4.0 |
Hatred Surge Human Overdose | 2.5 |
Iron Lung Sexless // No Sex | 4.0 |
Red House Painters Red House Painters | 4.0 |
Red House Painters Red House Painters II | 2.5 |
Red House Painters Songs for a Blue Guitar | 4.0 |
Low C'Mon | 2.0 |
Low The Invisible Way | 1.0 |
Low Things We Lost in the Fire | 4.5 |
Low I Could Live in Hope | 4.5 |
Om God Is Good | 4.0 |
Om Advaitic Songs | 4.0 |
Om Conference of the Birds | 4.5 |
Sleep Sleep's Holy Mountain | 4.0 |
Cathedral The Garden Of Unearthly Delights | 2.0 |
Cathedral The Ethereal Mirror | 2.5 |
Saint Vitus C.O.D. | 2.5 |
Saint Vitus Die Healing | 2.5 |
Count Raven Mammons War | 2.0 |
Candlemass Nightfall | 4.5 |
Candlemass Chapter VI | 2.0 |
Candlemass Epicus Doomicus Metallicus | 4.0 |
My Dying Bride Turn Loose the Swans | 4.0 |
My Dying Bride The Dreadful Hours | 4.0 |
My Dying Bride A Map of All Our Failures | 3.0 |
Corrupted El Mundo Frio | 4.5 |
Corrupted Garten Der Unbewusstheit | 4.5 |
Garten Der Unbewusstheit gives Deafheaven's Roads to Judah a run for its money for the title of metal AOTY and the album's final track, the 30 minute "Gekkou No Daichi", is easily the single most powerful metal track of 2011. |
Sunn O))) Dømkirke | 3.5 |
Nadja Touched | 4.5 |
Nadja Thaumogenesis | 4.0 |
Nadja Radiance of Shadows | 4.0 |
Nadja Dagdrøm | 3.5 |
The Angelic Process Weighing Souls With Sand | 4.5 |
Worship Dooom | 5.0 |
Skepticism Alloy | 3.5 |
Esoteric The Maniacal Vale | 4.0 |
Thou Peasant | 4.0 |
Mournful Congregation The June Frost | 4.5 |
Church of Misery Houses of the Unholy | 4.0 |
Worship Terranean Wake | 3.5 |
Pallbearer Sorrow And Extinction | 4.0 |
The Obsessed The Church Within | 4.0 |
Gris Il Était Une Forêt... | 4.5 |
Ash Borer Ash Borer | 4.0 |
Austere To Lay Like Old Ashes | 4.0 |
Saint Vitus Born Too Late | 4.0 |
Saint Vitus Saint Vitus | 4.5 |
Krieg Destruction Ritual | 4.0 |
Krieg The Isolationist | 4.0 |
Twilight Twilight | 3.5 |
Twilight Monument To Time End | 4.0 |
So far this is my metal aoty for 2010. Ditching Malefic and picking up Aaron Turner and Sanford Parker was the best thing that ever happened to this black/post metal behemoth. |
Leviathan Massive Conspiracy Against All Life | 4.5 |
Forgotten Tomb Springtime Depression | 3.5 |
Forgotten Tomb Songs to Leave | 4.0 |
TotalSelfHatred TotalSelfHatred | 4.0 |
Trist (CZ) Zrcadlení melancholie | 4.0 |
Trist (CZ) Nostalgie | 3.5 |
Darkthrone Transilvanian Hunger | 4.0 |
Darkthrone A Blaze in the Northern Sky | 4.5 |
Darkthrone Circle the Wagons | 3.5 |
No One Circles the Wagons Like the Buffalo Bills |
Darkthrone The Underground Resistance | 4.0 |
Burzum Hvis Lyset Tar Oss | 4.0 |
Burzum Filosofem | 4.5 |
Judas Iscariot To Embrace the Corpses Bleeding | 4.0 |
Judas Iscariot The Cold Earth Slept Below | 3.5 |
Anti The Insignificance of Life | 4.0 |
William Parker The Peach Orchard | 3.5 |
Peter Brotzmann Machine Gun | 4.0 |
Andrew Hill Point of Departure | 4.0 |
Albert Ayler Spiritual Unity | 4.0 |
Cecil Taylor Unit Structures | 4.5 |
Don Cherry Symphony for Improvisers | 4.0 |
Don Cherry Eternal Rhythm | 4.0 |
The New Tony Williams Lifetime Believe It | 4.0 |
Charles Mingus Mingus Ah Um | 3.5 |
Charles Mingus The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady | 4.5 |
Charles Mingus Let My Children Hear Music | 4.5 |
Ornette Coleman Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation | 4.5 |
Ornette Coleman The Shape of Jazz to Come | 4.5 |
John Coltrane Ascension | 5.0 |
Ascension is the sound of two dueling quartets playing opposite of each other in a maddening crescendo of adventurous rhythms. |
Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin IV | 3.5 |
Led Zeppelin Houses of the Holy | 5.0 |
Fleetwood Mac Rumours | 4.5 |
Dance Gavin Dance Acceptance Speech | 2.9 |
Superchunk I Hate Music | 4.6 |
I'm going to go out on a limb here and declare this the best thing Superchunk have ever done. |
Fucked Up David Comes to Life | 4.7 |
did somebody just call American Idiot the best concept album ever? jeez, it's like anyone can get an account at sputnikmusic these days... |
Lorde Pure Heroine | 2.3 |
Credit to Joel Little for knowing how to produce the piss out of a solid hook until it sharpens itself into a point that
lodges itself into your brain, but far too often nothing substantial hits and Ella's trying-oh-so-hard-to-be-clever
lyrics stumble in the three sizes too big shoes she wears in her game of electro-pop dress up. |
Codeine The White Birch | 5.0 |
John-Allison Weiss Say What You Mean | 4.0 |
Saves the Day In Reverie | 4.5 |
Saves the Day Saves the Day | 2.0 |
Max Richter The Blue Notebooks | 4.5 |
Max Richter Recomposed: Vivaldi - The Four Seasons | 4.2 |
I love orchestral music, but I've never been the biggest fan of Vivaldi, especially his most well known piece Four Seasons. There's a level of pomp and bombast in Baroque music that has never really set well with me. Max Richter's "recomposition" completely discards everything baroque in his own Four Seasons. The end result isn't a celebration of the time of year like the original, but an introspective look at the feeling each season elicits. The melodies are all culled from Vivaldi's 1725 composition, but that's where the similarities end. If you're looking for something that follows the past to the tee, get Swoboda or Molinari's. If you're looking for something oh so familiar yet strikingly different, Richter has you covered. |
Eluvium Copia | 4.0 |
Stars of the Lid And Their Refinement Of The Decline | 4.0 |
A Winged Victory for the Sullen A Winged Victory for the Sullen | 4.5 |
Drake Nothing Was the Same | 4.0 |
Touche Amore Is Survived By | 4.2 |
That guitar tone is just too good ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh *cum everywhere* |
The Dear Hunter Act II: The Meaning of, & All Things Regarding Ms. Leading | 3.0 |
The Dear Hunter Migrant | 2.0 |
Thrice The Illusion of Safety | 3.0 |
Thrice The Alchemy Index Vols. I & II | 2.5 |
Thrice The Artist in the Ambulance | 3.5 |
Thrice Vheissu | 2.5 |
Electric Wizard Come My Fanatics... | 4.0 |
Electric Wizard Dopethrone | 4.5 |
Sleep Dopesmoker | 5.0 |
Ataraxie L'être et la Nausée | 4.0 |
Apathean Eve | 4.0 |
Drudkh Microcosmos | 3.5 |
Fen Dustwalker | 3.0 |
Woods of Desolation Torn Beyond Reason | 4.0 |
Coldworld Melancholie² | 4.0 |
Thy Light No Morrow Shall Dawn | 4.0 |
Sombres Forets La Mort du Soleil | 4.0 |
Gris À L'Âme Enflammée, L'Âme Constellée... | 4.0 |
Moving Mountains Moving Mountains | 2.0 |
I liked these guys better when they played poppy, emotive, post-rock influenced music. Not this adult contemporary snooze fest. |
CHVRCHES The Bones of What You Believe | 4.0 |
I feel pretty when I listen to this. |
Native Orthodox | 4.5 |
Baroness Yellow and Green | 4.0 |
The idea of a double album from Baroness was somewhat off putting at first, as each of their albums are so full of twists, turns, build ups and just plain old booming mischief that 18 tracks of it would be like running a marathon after finishing a triathlon. Yet thankfully Yellow and Green works. If one had been following the band it wouldn't be that much of a surprise that it does. Baizley has stated not only that the records would lack "edge", so to speak, but also would be much more straightforward. The songwriting is direct and to the point and Baizley's vocals are no longer burly mountain man shouts, but instead he shows off his clean vocal skills throughout. The sound is not only more "rock" oriented, but at times shows flashes of bands such as Cave In during their Perfect Pitch Black era in both mood and approach. It is definitely an interesting outing that is propelled by equal parts 70's influence and modern swagger. Fans of the riff oriented Baroness of old might be off put and understandably so, but for those looking for a quality rock and roll record look no further. |
The Weeknd Kiss Land | 2.0 |
Even before Kiss Land was a topic on message boards, before Abel unsuccessfully tried to out jackass Kanye West, it was obvious that whatever he did next was going to be a slick and lifeless affair. His reworking of his near flawless Trilogy to make it uninteresting, clean, and safe enough for pop-rap radio play was the clarion call that it wasn't about the art, it wasn't about the sex, and it wasn't about the drugs; it was about how much of his art he could sacrifice to get more sex and more drugs. The answer on Kiss Land gives us is most of it. It's boring, it's bloated, and worst of all, it's comfortable. Mind-numbingly so. |
Wheels Within Wheels The Six Months of the Northern Course of the Sun | 4.5 |
Okkervil River The Silver Gymnasium | 2.5 |
That feeling when you go to an old person's house and the only soda they have in the fridge is TAB. You know better but you grab a can anyways. It's still warm. Obviously it was sitting in the pantry up until a few minutes ago but they put it in the refrigerator because company was coming over. You crack it open and drink it. All you can think is, "Fuck this shitty aftertaste," but you're thirsty and drink the whole thing. Then you remember that TAB is sweetened with saccharine, not aspartame or Splenda, and that saccharine has been known to cause cancer in lab rats. Fucking saccharine. |
calculator This Will Come To Pass | 4.0 |
Balance and Composure The Things We Think We're Missing | 4.0 |
Personally, I think this is by far the best thing they've ever done. |
Into It. Over It. Proper | 3.5 |
Captain, We're Sinking The Future Is Cancelled | 3.5 |
The Future Is Canceled is equal parts The Menzingers immediacy, The Sidekicks emotive yelping, and Brand New circa 2003's punk rawk. I can dig it. |
Iron Lung White Glove Test | 4.0 |
Morbid Angel Altars of Madness | 4.0 |
Kreator Coma of Souls | 3.5 |
Kreator Endorama | 1.0 |
Kreator Cause for Conflict | 2.0 |
Kreator Pleasure to Kill | 4.0 |
Celtic Frost Monotheist | 2.5 |
Bathory Octagon | 1.0 |
Bathory Blood on Ice | 3.0 |
Bathory Blood Fire Death | 4.5 |
Drudkh Autumn Aurora | 4.0 |
Hate Forest Purity | 3.5 |
Abyssic Hate Suicidal Emotions | 3.5 |
The Suicide File Some Mistakes You Never Stop Paying For | 4.0 |
The Hope Conspiracy Endnote | 3.0 |
On the shortlist of best hardcore albums of the last decade |
American Nightmare We're Down Til We're Underground | 4.5 |
love it so much I took my band name from it. album slays |
The Smiths Complete | 5.0 |
Third Eye Blind Third Eye Blind | 4.5 |
Modern Life Is War Fever Hunting | 2.5 |
I was saying Boo-urns. |
Carcass Surgical Steel | 4.0 |
Gorguts Colored Sands | 4.5 |
Eels Blinking Lights & Other Revelations | 4.5 |
Eels Electro-Shock Blues | 4.5 |
Jungbluth Part Ache | 4.0 |
The Weakerthans Reconstruction Site | 4.5 |
The Weakerthans Left and Leaving | 5.0 |
Run the Jewels Run the Jewels | 2.5 |
Summoning Old Mornings Dawn | 3.0 |
The Ocean Pelagial | 2.5 |
Touche Amore/Pianos Become the Teeth Split | 3.0 |
The Story So Far What You Don't See | 1.5 |
Tiny Moving Parts This Couch Is Long & Full of Friendship | 2.5 |
Sigur Ros Kveikur | 3.0 |
Superheaven Jar | 2.0 |
Brave Bird Maybe You, No One Else Worth It | 2.0 |
Boards of Canada Tomorrow's Harvest | 2.5 |
I applaud what Boards of Canada are doing on this record. It brims with the eerie sounds of low budget films and documentaries that any one born in the 1980's should remember from when your grade school teacher used to wheel out the TV and VCR when he/she felt like not doing their job for an afternoon. The moods and textures that they're able to pull off while working in the austere confines of their obvious influences is quite astounding. That being said it really is a mood record. For a few tracks at a time it is wondrously trance inducing, but absorbed all at once it is furiously tedious. I think one's enjoyment of Tomorrow's Harvest comes not only from one's overall appreciation of the genre, but also to how much concentration one puts into finding and appreciating the small shifts in mood with each new layer in the tracks. Overall it's a good album, but not something I am an any rush to revisit any time soon unless as I prefer my zone outs to be more ethereal than adderall. |
Misery Signals Absent Light | 2.0 |
Paysage d'Hiver Das Tor | 4.5 |
CityCop / Les Doux Family Ties/Labors of Love | 3.0 |
Nails Abandon All Life | 4.0 |
The World Is a Beautiful Place... Whenever, If Ever | 3.0 |
James Blake Overgrown | 3.5 |
Laura Stevenson Wheel | 3.0 |
While nowhere near as endearing as Sit, Resist and more refined than A Record, Wheel is a good album. Not bad, not great, but good. |
Listener Time Is A Machine | 1.5 |
The Dillinger Escape Plan One of Us Is the Killer | 3.0 |
Queens of the Stone Age ...Like Clockwork | 2.5 |
The National Trouble Will Find Me | 4.0 |
Deafheaven Sunbather | 5.0 |
I haven't been this floored by a record on my first play through since High Violet. It is the perfect microcosm of all my musical tastes elegantly placed together in a tightly wound, hour long ball of time that seems to pass effortlessly in an all too short instant. |
Miles Davis In a Silent Way | 5.0 |
John Coltrane A Love Supreme | 5.0 |
Godspeed You! Black Emperor Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada | 5.0 |
Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada is the ultimate Godspeed You! Black Emperor release. It
takes everything the band has ever accomplished and condenses it into a half hour. It has
the intensity of Yanqui, the despair of F#A#, and the beauty of Lift Your
Skinny Fists. It is the perfect example of the power that music can wield. |
Do Make Say Think You, You're a History in Rust | 5.0 |
LCD Soundsystem Sound of Silver | 5.0 |
Sound of Silver I love you and you're not bringing me down. |