| Local Natives But I'll Wait For You | 3.0 |
| Dua Lipa Radical Optimism | 3.0 |
| sleepmakeswaves It's Here, But I Have No Names For It | 4.0 |
| Barely Civil I’d Say I’m Not Fine | 3.5 |
| Dvne Voidkind | 3.5 |
| Taylor Swift The Tortured Poets Department | 3.0 |
| Vampire Weekend Only God Was Above Us | 3.5 |
| Aaron West and The Roaring Twenties In Lieu of Flowers | 4.0 |
| Bayside There Are Worse Things Than Being Alive | 3.0 |
| Dustin Kensrue Desert Dreaming | 2.5 |
| Midas Fall Cold Waves Divide Us | 4.0 |
| Lakes (UK) Elysian Skies | 4.0 |
| It's nothing you haven't heard before but the execution is absolutely stellar. Songwriting is a good mix of dynamic range and solid hooks |
| Night Verses Every Sound Has a Color... | 4.0 |
| Night Verses Every Sound Has a Color...: Part II | 4.0 |
| Codeseven Go Let it In | 3.0 |
| Yellowcard and Hammock A Hopeful Sign | 3.0 |
| Alkaline Trio Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs | 3.0 |
| Panopticon The Rime of Memory | 4.0 |
| Dreamwell In My Saddest Dreams, I Am Beside You | 3.5 |
| There Will Be Fireworks Summer Moon | 4.5 |
| blink-182 One More Time... | 3.5 |
| Parannoul After The Magic | 4.0 |
| Svalbard The Weight of the Mask | 3.5 |
| Spanish Love Songs No Joy | 3.5 |
| Night Verses Every Sound Has a Color...: Part I | 4.0 |
| Hail the Sun Divine Inner Tension | 3.5 |
| Kings Kaleidoscope Kings Kaleidoscope | 3.0 |
| The band clearly has a tremendous amount of talent, but the songs just aren't hitting like they used to. The lyrics don't have the same depth as past albums and the instrumentation is full of effects without actually being memorable. You can see glimmers of greatness throughout, but too few are fully developed. |
| The Japanese House In the End It Always Does | 3.0 |
| OK Goodnight The Fox and the Bird | 3.5 |
| August Burns Red Death Below | 2.0 |
| Adjy June Songs Vol. 1 | 4.0 |
| Boygenius the record | 3.5 |
| The Classic Crime Grim Age | 4.0 |
| Fall Out Boy So Much (For) Stardust | 3.0 |
| idle threat Blurred Visions | 3.0 |
| Hammock Love in the Void | 3.5 |
| Lapsley Cautionary Tales of Youth | 4.0 |
| Liongeist Liongeist | 4.0 |
| Fireworks Higher Lonely Power | 4.0 |
| Vexes Imagine What We Could Destroy / If Only Given Time | 3.0 |
| He Is Legend Endless Hallway | 3.5 |
| Kings Kaleidoscope Baptized Imagination | 3.5 |
| Rival Consoles Now Is | 4.0 |
| Carly Rae Jepsen The Loneliest Time | 3.5 |
| It grooves, Carly sings, it's fun. It's definitely not the most substantive record but it's a blast. It ends on a strong note, with Go Find Yourself or Whatever, a genuinely fantastic ballad, and the title cut, the peak of sentimental sweetness on an album full of it. |
| Taylor Swift Midnights | 3.5 |
| Kardashev Liminal Rite | 4.0 |
| The Wonder Years The Hum Goes on Forever | 4.5 |
| Fallujah Empyrean | 3.5 |
| Crippled Black Phoenix Banefyre | 3.5 |
| Holy Fawn Dimensional Bleed | 4.0 |
| Becoming The Archetype Children of the Great Extinction | 3.0 |
| Each song is individually fun and technically solid, but homogenous songwriting does the band no favors. The concept is fun but when it's all reduced to very similar-sounding metalcore tunes, BtA's talent for melody is wasted. |
| Silversun Pickups Physical Thrills | 3.5 |
| Soilwork Overgivenheten | 3.0 |
Pros: Soilwork is really good at writing melodies. Bjorn is a remarkable vocalist. The opener and
Vultures are very good.Cons: Soilwork is really bad at dynamic contrast and varying song
structures which highlights the lack of variety in their instrumentation. Death I Hear You Calling
is their worst song in years. The production is pretty bad overall; it's too clean and polished,
particularly the drums (which makes the heavy parts weaker, which feeds into the 'lack of dynamic
contrast' thing). |
| Naked Flames Miracle in Transit | 3.5 |
| Royal Coda To Only a Few at First | 3.0 |
| Dance Gavin Dance Jackpot Juicer | 3.0 |
| Ithaca They Fear Us | 3.5 |
| I miss the mix on The Language of Injury. This is a little too slickly polished. But the intensity remains, the songwriting is tight, and the back third is a wild ride |
| Anberlin Silverline | 4.0 |
| Asking is a top-tier Anberlin song. Songs are as straightforward as you expect, but crisp production and a good mix of styles keep things fresh. This is far better than a comeback EP has any right being. |
| KINNSHIP Intenserenity | 3.5 |
| Could use a little more dynamic range, but the vocals and production are excellent as always. Kinnship's music continues to be chill to the point of soothing. |
| The Dear Hunter Antimai | 3.0 |
| Silent Drive Fairhaven | 4.0 |
| Coheed and Cambria Vaxis II: A Window of the Waking Mind | 4.0 |
| dumb as rocks and fun as heck what do you mean i need 20 more characters |
| Lupe Fiasco Drill Music in Zion | 3.5 |
| Emery Rub Some Dirt on It | 3.5 |
| Bartees Strange Farm To Table | 3.5 |
| Heavy Heart, Mulholland Dr. and Wretched are a fantastic opening trio. But the album seems to run out of energy halfway through, and while the slower songs are still well-crafted, the ordering leaves a lot to be desired. |
| Peregrine (USA-MA) the awful things we've done | 3.5 |
| Mallrat Butterfly Blue | 3.5 |
| Static Dress Rouge Carpet Disaster | 3.5 |
| Moderat MORE D4TA | 4.0 |
| Florence and the Machine Dance Fever | 3.0 |
| Moon Tooth Phototroph | 4.0 |
| Kendrick Lamar Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers | 4.0 |
| Mayday Parade What It Means To Fall Apart | 3.5 |
| Greyhaven This Bright and Beautiful World | 3.5 |
| Caracara New Preoccupations | 4.0 |
| PUP The Unraveling of PUPTheBand | 4.0 |
| Falls of Rauros Key to a Vanishing Future | 3.5 |
| Midwife (USA) Luminol | 3.5 |
| Animals As Leaders Parrhesia | 3.5 |
| Oso Oso Sore Thumb | 3.0 |
| Lack the Low God-Carrier | 3.5 |
| Oh Hiroshima Myriad | 3.5 |
| Gregor Barnett Don't Go Throwing Roses in My Grave | 3.0 |
| Gang of Youths Angel in Realtime | 4.5 |
| And So I Watch You From Afar Jettison | 3.5 |
| The first third is remarkably groovy, and the final third is bright and dynamic. The middle third drags a tad, but the new sound suits ASIWYFA with only a tasteful amount of cheese. Title cut, Dive Pt 2, and the production (the bass in particular) are early highlights. |
| KINNSHIP Stones & Geysers | 3.5 |
| Cult of Luna The Long Road North | 3.5 |
| Aurora (NOR) The Gods We Can Touch | 4.0 |
| Bodyjar New Rituals | 3.5 |
| Black Country, New Road Ants From Up There | 3.5 |
| Persefone Metanoia | 3.5 |
| Rolo Tomassi Where Myth Becomes Memory | 4.0 |
| Pinegrove 11:11 | 4.0 |
| SOWNBONES helpless | 3.0 |
| Owel The Salt Water Well | 3.5 |
| Papir 7 | 3.5 |
| Pridelands Light Bends | 2.5 |
| Underoath Voyeurist | 3.5 |
| Wilderun Epigone | 3.5 |
| Maybeshewill No Feeling Is Final | 3.5 |
| Parannoul To See the Next Part of the Dream | 3.5 |
| Parannoul Let's Walk on the Path of a Blue Cat | 4.0 |
| Rival Consoles Overflow | 4.0 |
Rival Consoles' mastery of texture and groove is no longer restricted by tight song lengths and
rigid structures. With a broader palette of textures to play with, songs breathe organically
without betraying the unsettling mechanical heart. "Monster" and "Overflow" are prominent
standouts. |
| Delta Sleep Spring Island | 4.0 |
| Hammock Elsewhere | 4.0 |
there are parts of this that really want to sound like Oblivion Hymns, but the songs lack the
dynamics that made that album special. it's still pretty because it's Hammock with more textures
and variety than their past few albums, but it could be so much more. that said, it is a grower,
like most of Hammock's work |
| All The Luck In The World How The Ash Felt | 3.5 |
| The familiar lush indie-folk formula adds an emphasis on electronics for texture but misses the dynamic high points that really made A Blind Arcade shine. Still, it's a beautiful work that's easy to get lost in. |
| Jon Hopkins Music for Psychedelic Therapy | 2.5 |
| a love of psychedelics is not an appropriate substitution for interesting music |
| Starset Horizons | 2.0 |
| The Dear Hunter The Indigo Child | 3.5 |
| Invent Animate The Sun Sleeps, As If It Never Was | 3.0 |
| The World Is a Beautiful Place... Illusory Walls | 4.5 |
| Public Service Broadcasting Bright Magic | 4.0 |
| Brandi Carlile In These Silent Days | 3.5 |
| Illuminati Hotties Let Me Do One More | 4.0 |
| Wlots Paperking | 3.5 |
| An original blend of frantic skramz with moodier post-hardcore and melodic sections, a la old Pianos Become the Teeth mixed with La Dispute and Brand New. It's raw and some of the screams get grating, but the talent is clear and the dynamics go a long, long way. |
| Amon Tobin How Do You Live | 3.5 |
| The Night Flight Orchestra Aeromantic II | 3.5 |
| every song is cheesy and openly apes various classic rock cliches but they are so absurdly fun and Bjorn is such a good singer that they all work for some wild reason |
| Spiritbox Eternal Blue | 2.5 |
| Eidola The Architect | 3.0 |
| like much of swancore, it's fun but more than a little homogeneous. there might be enough songwriting and instrumental prowess to elevate this a little |
| Mono Pilgrimage Of The Soul | 3.0 |
| hi this is my first full mono album and it's pretty ok |
| Thrice Horizons/East | 3.5 |
| Dawn Fades Ode | 3.5 |
| Trophy Scars Astral Pariah | 3.0 |
| One with the Riverbed Absence | 3.5 |
| Make Sure Ninjutsu | 3.0 |
| Little Simz Sometimes I Might Be Introvert | 4.0 |
| Carbon Based Lifeforms Stochastic | 2.5 |
| Phinehas The Fire Itself | 3.0 |
| Big Red Machine How Long Do You Think It's Gonna Last? | 3.0 |
| Turnstile Glow On | 2.5 |
| throws a bunch of spaghetti at the wall in the name of having fun but none of it sticks so now there's pasta on the floor AND i'm bored |
| Alejandro Aranda The Act of Forgiveness | 3.5 |
| Indigo De Souza Any Shape You Take | 3.5 |
| CHVRCHES Screen Violence | 4.0 |
| Switchfoot interrobang | 3.0 |
| Wolves in the Throne Room Primordial Arcana | 3.5 |
| Deafheaven Infinite Granite | 3.5 |
| Lorde Solar Power | 2.5 |
| either write a folk album or write a pop album but quit it with this halfhearted coffeeshop dregs |
| Meet Me @ The Altar Model Citizen | 3.5 |
| Andrea von Kampen That Spell | 3.5 |
| Eluvium Virga II | 3.0 |
| The Killers Pressure Machine | 3.0 |
| Foxing Draw Down the Moon | 3.5 |
| Billie Eilish Happier Than Ever | 3.0 |
| Bleachers Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night | 3.0 |
| Lantlos Wildhund | 4.0 |
| fallfiftyfeet Twisted World Perspective | 3.5 |
| Adjy Prelude (.3333) | 3.5 |
| Musk Ox Inheritance | 3.5 |
| Adjy The Idyll Opus (I-VI) | 5.0 |
| Half Waif Mythopoetics | 4.0 |
| Modest Mouse The Golden Casket | 2.5 |
| Japanese Breakfast Jubilee | 3.5 |
| Rise Against Nowhere Generation | 2.0 |
| Wolf Alice Blue Weekend | 4.0 |
| Half Waif Sodium & Cigarettes | 3.5 |
| Hurry Up, Brothers All is Beautiful. I'm Okay to be Alive.. | 3.5 |
| Wythersake Antiquity | 3.5 |
| An Autumn For Crippled Children As The Morning Dawns We Close Our Eyes | 3.5 |
| Lord Huron Long Lost | 3.5 |
| Twenty One Pilots Scaled and Icy | 2.5 |
| It's Trench without the atmosphere plus Vessel without the energy. |
| VOLA Witness | 4.0 |
| Origami Angel Gami Gang | 3.0 |
| St. Vincent Daddy's Home | 2.5 |
| Psychedelia and 'retro' influences are a terrible substitute for good songwriting |
| Leon Vynehall Rare, Forever | 3.5 |
| Manchester Orchestra The Million Masks of God | 4.0 |
| Porter Robinson Nurture | 4.0 |
| Mare Cognitum Solar Paroxysm | 4.0 |
| BRUIT The Machine Is Burning... | 3.5 |
| Eomac Cracks | 3.5 |
| Hail the Sun New Age Filth | 4.0 |
| Devil Sold His Soul Loss | 2.5 |
| Kauan Ice Fleet | 3.5 |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor G_d's Pee AT STATE'S END! | 3.5 |
| half/cut Salt an Atlas | 4.0 |
| Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The LSO Promises | 4.0 |
| Citizen Life In Your Glass World | 3.0 |
| Dvne Etemen Ænka | 4.5 |
| Waldskin Clarity Before the Crash | 3.5 |
| ERRA ERRA | 2.0 |
If this is their most diverse album I shudder to imagine the monotony of their previous work. The
riffs are fun and the drumming is decent, but the band just shoehorns the technicality into
predictable songwriting. Vox are bland, and cleans are downright sterile. Lyrics are thesaurus-
laden ramblings that are either painfully on the noise or pointlessly vague.
There's no dynamic range and every song sounds exactly the same. |
| Lana Del Rey Chemtrails Over The Country Club | 3.0 |
| The Paper Kites Roses | 3.0 |
| A Winged Victory for the Sullen Invisible Cities | 3.0 |
| Stortregn Impermanence | 3.5 |
| Tigers Jaw I Won't Care How You Remember Me | 3.5 |
| Chevelle NIRATIAS | 4.0 |
| Dreamwell Modern Grotesque | 3.5 |
| Empyrium Über den Sternen | 3.0 |
| The Hold Steady Open Door Policy | 3.0 |
| Blanck Mass In Ferneaux | 3.5 |
| Julien Baker Little Oblivions | 4.0 |
| The Weather Station Ignorance | 3.5 |
| Jon Foreman Departures | 3.5 |
| A mix of well-trod indie folk ideas and clever, diverse arrangements. Lyrics fluctuate between "pretty decent" and "as on-the-nose as you should expect from Foreman by now." The opener is a bombastic, cinematic banger that seems wildly out of place with the mostly calm songs that follow. An overall enjoyable listen. |
| Wild Pink A Billion Little Lights | 3.5 |
| Vexes Ancient Geometry | 3.0 |
| Bartees Strange Live Forever | 4.0 |
| Endling The Heavy Frigate | 3.0 |
| Manchester Orchestra Christmas Songs Vol. 1 | 3.5 |
| Hayley Williams FLOWERS for VASES / descansos | 3.0 |
| God Is an Astronaut Ghost Tapes #10 | 3.0 |
| Every individual song is good, but they're all good in the exact same way. It's a little more high-energy and drum-forward than a lot of post-rock, but there's less dynamic range. The melodies are clear and vibrant, but the highly structured approach undermines attempts at atmosphere. |
| Yon order of violence | 3.5 |
| Lorem Ipsum Vivre encore | 3.5 |
| Soen Imperial | 2.0 |
| Five Iron Frenzy Until This Shakes Apart | 3.0 |
| Flux Pavilion .wav | 2.5 |
| Bicep Isles | 3.0 |
| Frank Iero and The Future Violents Heaven is a Place, This is a Place | 2.5 |
| Typhoon (USA-OR) Sympathetic Magic | 4.0 |
| On first listen it doesn't have a bombastic gutpunch like Offerings did, but gosh it's still pretty. We're In It and Welcome to the Endgame are the early highlights. |
| Into It. Over It. Figure | 3.5 |
| Ela Minus acts of rebellion | 2.5 |
| For Giants There, There | 3.5 |
| Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou The Helm of Sorrow | 4.0 |
| Four Tet Parallel | 3.5 |
| Unwed Sailor Look Alive | 3.5 |
| The Dirty Nil Fuck Art | 3.5 |
| Every song is the same and they're all fun as heck |
| Rival Consoles Night Melody | 4.0 |
| Yashira Fail To Be | 3.5 |
| The Avalanches We Will Always Love You | 3.5 |
| Broadside Into the Raging Sea | 2.5 |
| The Soft Pink Truth Shall We Go On Sinning So That Grace May Increase? | 3.5 |
| August Burns Red All I Want For Christmas Is You | 3.5 |
| Dua Lipa Future Nostalgia | 3.5 |
| pg.lost Oscillate | 3.5 |
| Taylor Swift Evermore | 3.0 |
| I DON'T KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME Razzmatazz | 2.5 |
| Perfume Genius Set My Heart On Fire Immediately | 3.5 |
| Bob Dylan Rough and Rowdy Ways | 2.0 |
| Yves Tumor Heaven To A Tortured Mind | 2.5 |
| Lil Uzi Vert Eternal Atake | 2.0 |
| Roisin Murphy Roisin Machine | 3.0 |
| Destroyer Have We Met | 2.5 |
| Fleet Foxes Shore | 4.0 |
| ManDancing The Good Sweat | 4.0 |
| Weathered Everything All at Once | 3.5 |
| Seahaven Halo of Hurt | 3.5 |
| Phoebe Bridgers Copycat Killer | 3.5 |
| Palm Reader Sleepless | 3.0 |
| Plini Impulse Voices | 3.0 |
| Intervals Circadian | 4.0 |
| It's an injection of pure serotonin. It grooves hard, and all the soaring riffs don't get old. It's nothing new for the genre of instrumental prog metal, but it's executed brilliantly and doesn't overstay its welcome. Vantablack and D.O.S.E. are the first-impression highlights. |
| Mitochondrial Sun Sju Pulsarer | 3.0 |
| Netsky Second Nature | 3.0 |
| Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou May Our Chambers Be Full | 3.5 |
| Wang Wen 100,000 Whys | 3.5 |
| Enslaved Utgard | 3.5 |
| The Most Of What We Have | 2.5 |
| Touche Amore Lament | 3.5 |
| Svalbard When I Die, Will I Get Better? | 4.0 |
| Barely Civil I'll Figure This Out | 3.5 |
| The Ocean Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic | 3.5 |
| Midwife (USA) Forever | 3.5 |
| Cloudkicker Solitude | 4.0 |
| Oceans of Slumber Oceans of Slumber | 3.0 |
| Kelly Lee Owens Inner Song | 3.0 |
| Misery Signals Ultraviolet | 3.5 |
| PVRIS Use Me | 2.5 |
| Two People Second Body | 4.0 |
| The Killers Imploding the Mirage | 3.0 |
| Black Crown Initiate Violent Portraits of Doomed Escape | 3.5 |
| Rich People Harmony | 3.5 |
| Good Tiger Raised in a Doomsday Cult | 4.0 |
| Lush post-hardcore that brings newer Circa Survive to mind. The first seven tracks are a fantastic opening run, though the album loses a little steam in the latter third. Ghost Vomit, 1252 and Redshift are solid highlights, and there's something very comforting about the mid-2000s post-hardcore melodies mixed with 2010s swancore technicality. |
| Rival Consoles Articulation | 3.5 |
| MisterWives Superbloom | 3.0 |
| It's sunny, energetic, funky pop that belongs at all the beach/pool parties we can't have during COVID. But at 19 tracks with very little diversity, the album wears out its welcome. |
| Haken Virus | 3.5 |
| Taylor Swift Folklore | 3.5 |
| sleepmakeswaves these are not your dreams | 3.5 |
| Boneflower Armour | 3.5 |
| Parachute for Gordo Best Understood By Children And Animals | 3.5 |
| I'm Glad It's You Every Sun, Every Moon | 4.5 |
| Nothing here is groundbreaking, but heartfelt lyrics, tight songwriting, crystal-clear mixing and just the right amount of grandiosity give this an edge in a crowded scene. |
| Jessie Ware What's Your Pleasure? | 3.0 |
| HAIM Women In Music, Pt. III | 3.0 |
| Waxahatchee Saint Cloud | 3.0 |
| KINNSHIP A Thousand Fibres | 3.5 |
| City of the Sun City of the Sun | 3.5 |
| Not a lot of variety but some pretty solid execution. The second half is a good bit stronger than the first, with more lively and memorable melodies. |
| Protest the Hero Palimpsest | 4.5 |
| KINNSHIP Commensality | 4.0 |
| Warm, soothing R&B-influenced electronica with airy melodies. It's very relaxing and gorgeously textured. Songs can run together a little bit but each one is well-executed. Christian themes are very prominent, but the album avoids cringey trappings of a lot of worship music. |
| Owen The Avalanche | 3.0 |
| Gorgeous but aimless. Not enough variety to make the beautiful melodies stick. |
| Braids Shadow Offering | 2.5 |
The first half would have been a solid EP full of texture and tight songwriting. "Eclipse
(Ashley)" is lovely, and the slow-burning "Just Let Me" does Hayley Williams' solo album better
than Hayley did. The second half is burdened by a lack of subtlety, strange vocal arrangements and
cringey lyrics. "Snow Angel"'s white-guilt melodrama is downright embarrassing. |
| Phoebe Bridgers Punisher | 4.5 |
| The Ghost Inside The Ghost Inside | 2.0 |
| Currents The Way It Ends | 2.5 |
| Thomas Azier Love, Disorderly | 3.0 |
| Bibio Sleep on the Wing | 3.5 |
| Very pretty textured folk that passes by a little too quickly |
| El Ten Eleven Tautology I | 3.5 |
| Emery White Line Fever | 3.0 |
Civil Wars is fantastic ? too bad very few songs come close to it. The lyrics are Emery's most
personal but somehow their least affecting. A steep drop from Eve, though I'm sure this will grow
on me as most Emery albums do.
edit: idk, it's actually growing off me |
| Covet technicolor | 3.5 |
| Run the Jewels RTJ4 | 4.5 |
| The Airborne Toxic Event Hollywood Park | 3.5 |
| Anchor and Braille Songs for the Late Night Drive Home | 3.0 |
| Anchor and Braille Tension | 3.0 |
| It's the least substantive of A&B's albums, but it's a solid mellow pop record where just about every song is a base hit. No home runs, and none of the intriguing songwriting of Felt, but it's pleasant enough. |
| Jakub Zytecki Nothing Lasts, Nothing's Lost | 3.5 |
| Lights and Motion The Great Wide Open | 3.0 |
| Moby All Visible Objects | 3.0 |
| The Smith Street Band Don't Waste Your Anger | 4.0 |
| O'Brother You and I | 3.0 |
| Hayley Williams Petals for Armor | 2.5 |
| Ulcerate Stare Into Death and Be Still | 3.5 |
| Dance Gavin Dance Afterburner | 3.0 |
| It's every Tillian-era DGD album, but the high points aren't as high as Artificial Selection or Instant Gratification. Most songs are just "fine." Prisoner and One in a Million are winners, but most everything else just sounds like a typical DGD track. Solid 3.2 |
| Andrew Judah Impossible Staircase | 3.0 |
| Half Waif The Caretaker | 4.0 |
| Beautifully textured synth/artpop with gorgeous vocals. "In August" and "Blinking Light" are the standouts, but there's not really a bad track here. Starts to lose a little steam toward the end due to lack of variety, but holy wow, the best moments are fantastic (the key change in Sirens, the chorus of In August, the twangy riff of Blinking Light...) |
| Sleeping at Last Enneagram | 4.0 |
| The Night Flight Orchestra Aeromantic | 3.5 |
| Burden of Life The Makeshift Conqueror | 4.5 |
| Bell Plaines Through Fog | 3.0 |
| Maserati Enter the Mirror | 3.0 |
| August Burns Red Guardians | 3.5 |
A definite step up from Phantom Anthem, but mostly https://imgflip.com/i/3v8l9x
Empty Heaven slaps and the closer instantly belongs in their top 5 |
| Nicolas Jaar Cenizas | 3.0 |
| A.A.L. (Against All Logic) 2017-2019 | 4.0 |
| Alkaline Trio E.P. | 3.5 |
| Neck of the Woods The Annex of Ire | 3.0 |
| downy Mudai (7) | 3.5 |
| Hot Mulligan You'll Be Fine | 3.0 |
| Ever listened to Tiny Moving Parts but wished Soupy was the lead singer instead? Ever wish Soupy screamed instead of doing the dramatic voice quiver? Boy have I got a band for you |
| Skyforest A New Dawn | 2.5 |
| The Classic Crime Patterns in the Static | 3.0 |
| Soccer Mommy Color Theory | 3.0 |
| Caribou Suddenly | 3.5 |
| Polaris The Death of Me | 3.0 |
| The comparisons to old Underoath would be more apt if Polaris wasn't such a slave to "screamed verse, clean chorus, repeat, breakdown, clean chorus" structures. It's the same over-polished metalcore you've heard a thousand times, but the execution is solid enough. The rough vox are a highlight. |
| No Mana Secret Level | 3.0 |
| Beach Bunny Honeymoon | 3.5 |
| Not original in the slightest but there is some darn good songwriting here |
| The Wonder Years Burst & Decay (Volume II) | 3.5 |
| Some of the reimaginings don't do too much (I Wanted So Badly to Be Brave), but the new Hoodie Weather and Washington Square Park are worth the price of admission. |
| Sepultura Quadra | 3.0 |
| Envy The Fallen Crimson | 4.0 |
| Dan Deacon Mystic Familiar | 3.5 |
| Spanish Love Songs Brave Faces Everyone | 4.0 |
| Spanish Love Songs, AKA The Menzinger Years. Equal parts After the Party and The Upsides |
| Kesha High Road | 2.0 |
| Rainbow might have been a fluke. This has none of the earnest charm and not enough energy. "Raising Hell" is decent but nothing else really lands without feeling like Rainbow did it better. |
| Wolf Parade Thin Mind | 3.0 |
| Caspian On Circles | 4.0 |
| Termination Dust Growing Down | 3.0 |
| Novelists C'est La Vie | 2.5 |
| for once can a djent band not cover everything in a layer of polish thick enough to drown in |
| Darren Korb Transistor OST | 4.0 |
| Pinegrove Marigold | 4.5 |
| The last album did nothing for me, but for some reason this is resonating, in particular the second half. Phase and Endless make for a great one-two punch. Songwriting is remarkable. |
| Polynation Igneous | 4.0 |
| Norma Jean All Hail | 3.5 |
| Duster Duster | 2.5 |
| Vi Som Alskade Varandra Sa Mycket Det Onda. Det Goda. Det Vackra. Det Fula. | 3.5 |
| Coldplay Everyday Life | 3.5 |
| Lapalux Amnioverse | 4.0 |
| Slow Meadow Happy Occident | 3.5 |
| Wilderun Veil of Imagination | 3.0 |
| Kanye West Jesus Is King | 2.5 |
| Foals Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost - Part 2 | 3.5 |
| Alcest Spiritual Instinct | 3.5 |
| Dream State Primrose Path | 2.0 |
| Ray Alder What The Water Wants | 2.5 |
| From Indian Lakes Dimly Lit | 2.5 |
| Remember when this guy wrote songs with passion and dynamics and didn't just do the same sleepy dreampop vibe for a whole album? |
| Jimmy Eat World Surviving | 4.5 |
| The Devil Wears Prada The Act | 3.0 |
| Bayside Interrobang | 3.5 |
Pros: Really fun guitar riffs, massive choruses, "Tall" and "Medication"
Cons: Pretty homogeneous
It's a pretty fun ride overall |
| BATS Alter Nature | 3.0 |
| In Mourning Garden of Storms | 3.0 |
| We Lost the Sea Triumph and Disaster | 3.5 |
| Lagwagon Railer | 3.0 |
| The Menzingers Hello Exile | 3.5 |
| White Ward Love Exchange Failure | 3.5 |
| 65daysofstatic replicr, 2019 | 3.5 |
| Cult of Luna A Dawn to Fear | 4.0 |
| As I Lay Dying Shaped by Fire | 2.5 |
| blink-182 Nine | 3.0 |
| It's not as bad as you feared (most of the good stuff is the non-singles) but it's also not the blink you're hoping for |
| Tiny Moving Parts Breathe | 3.0 |
| Microwave Death is a Warm Blanket | 3.0 |
| Dance Gavin Dance Acceptance Speech 2.0 | 4.0 |
| I don't know if it's the remix or the fact that I've listened to more DGD since Acceptance Speech came out, but this hits like a truck |
| WRVTH No Rising Sun | 3.5 |
| Stephen Christian Wildfires | 2.0 |
| Lana Del Rey Norman Fucking Rockwell! | 3.0 |
| Tool Fear Inoculum | 3.0 |
| !!! Wallop | 3.0 |
| Simple and straightforward, and definitely lacking the textures of Myth Takes, but far more fun than it has any right to be |
| Infinity Shred Forever, A Fast Life | 4.5 |
| They call themselves Infinity Shred because you'll listen to this forever and never get tired of it somehow |
| Pijn and Conjurer Curse These Metal Hands | 4.0 |
| This is next to "soaring" in the dictionary. Some of the best metal of the year |
| Proper. I Spent the Winter Writing Songs About Getting Bet | 3.5 |
| Cloudkicker Unending | 3.5 |
| Friendly Fires Inflorescent | 2.5 |
| Oso Oso Basking in the glow | 4.0 |
| Blanck Mass Animated Violence Mild | 4.0 |
| Wounds of Recollection You Were A Garden of Empyrean Light | 3.0 |
| Glass Beach The First Glass Beach Album | 4.0 |
| Russian Circles Blood Year | 3.0 |
| Torche Admission | 3.0 |
| Of Monsters and Men Fever Dream | 3.5 |
| Clark Kiri Variations | 2.5 |
| Falls of Rauros Patterns in Mythology | 3.5 |
| The All-American Rejects Send Her To Heaven | 2.0 |
Send Her to Heaven is generic pop with no energy. DGAF is utter trash featuring one of the worst-
written choruses in recent memory and it will get stuck in your head after one listen. Demons
sounds like a Twenty One Pilots b-side with a fraction of that band's sincerity. Do not listen to
this. |
| Tycho Weather | 2.5 |
| Wear Your Wounds Rust on the Gates of Heaven | 3.5 |
| It's really good when Bannon doesn't mumblesing, which is unfortunately far too often (and even then it's sometimes okay). Shrinking Violet is magnificent |
| Oh, Sleeper Bloodied/Unbowed | 3.5 |
| He Is Legend White Bat | 3.5 |
| If you're looking for the one that reminds you of the I Am Hollywood days, check the opener and Bent |
| The Raconteurs Consolers of the Lonely | 4.0 |
| Kishi Bashi Omoiyari | 4.0 |
| Air Review How We Got By | 3.5 |
| State Faults Clairvoyant | 4.5 |
| The opener is gonna appear on a lot of SOTY lists. Album rips |
| The Dangerous Summer The Dangerous Summer | 3.5 |
| Bad Books III | 4.0 |
| Avicii Tim | 2.5 |
| The Dangerous Summer Mother Nature | 3.5 |
| Thrice Deeper Wells | 2.5 |
| Thank You Scientist Terraformer | 3.5 |
| Pelican Nighttime Stories | 3.5 |
| Perfect music for "I want to listen to music while I do work, but I don't want vocals to distract me, and I don't want it to be chill or I'll fall asleep" |
| Spanish Love Songs Losers | 4.0 |
| As Cities Burn Scream Through the Walls | 2.5 |
| Jambinai ONDA | 4.5 |
| Le Grand Plastic Jazz | 3.0 |
| Petrol Girls Cut and Stitch | 3.5 |
| Anderson .Paak Ventura | 3.0 |
| Destrage The Chosen One | 2.5 |
| Russkaja No One Is Illegal | 3.0 |
| The National I Am Easy to Find | 3.5 |
| This Will Destroy You New Others Part One | 4.0 |
| Arch Echo You Won't Believe What Happens Next! | 3.5 |
| Their debut thrived on frenetic energy. This feels like a slightly mellower retread. Still a fun listen, but the debut outclasses this from beginning to end. |
| Com Truise Persuasion System | 2.5 |
| Carly Rae Jepsen Dedicated | 3.5 |
| Kurt Travis There's a Place I Want to Take You | 3.0 |
| Spirit Adrift Divided by Darkness | 3.0 |
| Aaron West and The Roaring Twenties Routine Maintenance | 4.5 |
| Local Natives Violet Street | 4.5 |
| Production's just fuzzy enough for that summer vibe but clean enough to showcase the great rhythms on display. Songwriting is tight, and the hooks are so subtle that you don't notice how infectious they are until you realize you've been humming them all day. |
| Illyria The Carpathian Summit | 3.0 |
| Little Simz Grey Area | 4.0 |
| Allegaeon Apoptosis | 3.5 |
| Numenorean Adore | 3.5 |
| Jade Bird Jade Bird | 3.5 |
| PUP Morbid Stuff | 4.0 |
| Suldusk Lunar Falls | 3.0 |
| Owel Paris | 4.5 |
| Kings Kaleidoscope Zeal | 4.0 |
| The fact that half of Oxygen is a dramatic rendition of "Jesus Loves Me" is a bit ... much. But there's still a good bit more substance than most worship albums, even though the flashes of "Becoming Who We Are"-era energy are few and far between. "The Rush" trilogy is still jaw-dropping. |
| Simple Creatures Strange Love | 2.5 |
| Billie Eilish When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? | 2.5 |
| Free Throw What's Past Is Prologue | 3.5 |
| Moon Tooth Crux | 4.0 |
| La Dispute Panorama | 4.5 |
| American Football American Football (LP3) | 4.0 |
| Fallujah Undying Light | 3.5 |
| Rumors of this band's demise have been greatly exaggerated. Slightly less atmosphere, but more fire. This is a fun ride. |
| Self Esteem Compliments Please | 3.5 |
| Foals Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost - Part 1 | 3.5 |
| Hitorie Howls | 3.5 |
| Holding Absence Holding Absence | 3.0 |
| Body Thief Travel Glow | 2.5 |
| Downfall of Gaia Ethic of Radical Finitude | 4.0 |
| Demon Hunter War | 2.5 |
| I want to go war against the drum mastering on this album |
| 2 Chainz Rap Or Go To The League | 3.0 |
| Vimur Triumphant Master of Fates | 3.5 |
| Weezer The Black Album | 1.5 |
| the two staff ratings for this are 4.2 and 2.4 so that should tell you everything you need to know |
| While She Sleeps So What? | 2.0 |
| The Japanese House Good At Falling | 3.5 |
| Dream Theater Distance Over Time | 3.0 |
| And The Kids When This Life Is Over | 3.0 |
| Saor Forgotten Paths | 3.5 |
| Feels Post Earth | 2.5 |
| Vanum Ageless Fire | 3.0 |
| Copeland Blushing | 3.5 |
| Beast In Black From Hell With Love | 3.5 |
| Ariana Grande Thank U, Next | 4.0 |
| Emarosa Peach Club | 3.0 |
| Jack Johnson To the Sea | 2.5 |
| Tides of Man Every Nothing | 3.5 |
| Ithaca The Language of Injury | 4.0 |
| Antimatter Black Market Enlightenment | 4.0 |
| Big Wild Superdream | 3.0 |
| Together to the Stars An Oblivion Above | 3.5 |
| Astronoid Astronoid | 3.0 |
| Flotsam and Jetsam The End of Chaos | 3.5 |
| Evergrey The Atlantic | 2.5 |
| Say Anything Oliver Appropriate | 3.0 |
| Better Oblivion Community Center Better Oblivion Community Center | 4.0 |
| Two People First Body | 4.5 |
| Buke and Gase Scholars | 2.5 |
| Kings Kaleidoscope The Rush | 4.5 |
| The Twilight Sad It Won/t Be Like This All the Time | 3.5 |
| A Swarm of the Sun The Woods | 3.5 |
| Shrezzers Relationships | 2.5 |
| A poor man's Dance Gavin Dance with less interesting songwriting, obnoxiously polished production and occasionally a saxophone. But every now and then they turn up something fun. |
| Born of Osiris The Simulation | 2.0 |
| Mree The Middle | 3.5 |
| Soilwork Verkligheten | 4.0 |
| Blanck Mass World Eater | 4.0 |
| Saba Care For Me | 4.0 |
| El Buho Camino de Flores | 3.5 |
| Haley Heynderickx I Need to Start a Garden | 3.0 |
| Sulphur Aeon The Scythe of Cosmic Chaos | 3.0 |
| Pemberton Maybe I'm a friend that stuck around too long. | 3.0 |
| Vessel Queen of Golden Dogs | 3.5 |
| Hammock Universalis | 3.5 |
| Madeline Kenney Perfect Shapes | 3.0 |
| Half Waif Lavender | 3.5 |
| Petal Magic Gone | 3.5 |
| Chapel of Disease ...And as We Have Seen the Storm | 3.0 |
| William Ryan Key Virtue | 4.0 |
| Mae Multisensory Aesthetic Experience | 3.5 |
| Muse Simulation Theory | 3.0 |
| Elvis Costello Look Now | 2.5 |
| Jimmy Eat World Integrity Blues | 3.0 |
| Azusa Heavy Yoke | 2.5 |
| John Nolan Abendigo | 3.0 |
| Pinegrove Skylight | 2.5 |
| Owl City Cinematic | 1.5 |
| Owl City Ocean Eyes | 3.5 |
| VNV Nation Noire | 4.0 |
| Kacey Musgraves Golden Hour | 3.5 |
| colourblind Move Like You | 4.0 |
| The Ocean Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic | 3.5 |
| Silent Planet When the End Began | 3.0 |
| Sacral Rage Beyond Celestial Echoes | 3.0 |
| Antarctigo Vespucci Love in the Time of E-Mail | 2.5 |
| Polyphia New Levels New Devils | 3.0 |
| Haken Vector | 3.5 |
| Boygenius boygenius | 3.5 |
| "Stay Down" and "Salt in the Wound" are two of the best back-to-back tracks of 2018. |
| Tenth Avenue North The Things We've Been Afraid To Say | 2.0 |
| VOLA Applause of a Distant Crowd | 3.5 |
| Lupe Fiasco DROGAS Wave | 4.0 |
| All The Luck In The World All the Luck in the World | 3.5 |
| Crippled Black Phoenix Great Escape | 3.5 |
| Coheed and Cambria Vaxis I: The Unheavenly Creatures | 4.0 |
| Twenty One Pilots Trench | 3.5 |
| mewithoutYou [Untitled] | 4.5 |
| Hail the Sun Mental Knife | 3.0 |
| Emery Eve | 4.5 |
By far Emery's most personal album, and yet maybe their most lofty and ambitious. It's eclectic to
the point that it harms its own flow, and it's relatively light on screams if you care about that
sort of thing, but it's viscerally, unsettlingly emotional. A 4 at first glance, but I expect it
to grow. Highlights: Streets of Gold, Name Your God, Sins of Every Father
edit: it grew |
| Wang Wen Invisible City | 4.0 |
| Mae 3.0 | 4.0 |
| Joyce Manor Million Dollars To Kill Me | 2.5 |
| The Story So Far Proper Dose | 4.0 |
| Thrice Palms | 2.5 |
| Waxahatchee Great Thunder | 3.0 |
| Alkaline Trio Is This Thing Cursed? | 4.0 |
| Hespera In Absence | 3.5 |
| A dead ringer for Soilwork. Bjorn Strid's at the top of his game vocally, and the guitar work is as technical and meaty as you'd expect from definitely-not-Soilwork. If only the drums didn't sound so flimsy. |
| Mallrat In the Sky | 4.0 |
| Birds in Row We Already Lost the World | 3.5 |
| american poetry club we are beautiful, even when... | 2.0 |
| Death Cab for Cutie Thank You For Today | 3.0 |
| Foxing Nearer My God | 3.5 |
| Lights and Motion Dear Avalanche | 3.0 |
| Mitski Be the Cowboy | 3.0 |
| Spanish Love Songs Schmaltz | 3.5 |
| mewithoutYou [untitled] e.p. | 4.0 |
| The Bell Jar I Infest, Therefore I Am | 3.0 |
| Delta Sleep Ghost City | 4.0 |
| Plini Sunhead | 3.0 |
| ERRA Neon | 2.5 |
| Deafheaven Ordinary Corrupt Human Love | 3.5 |
| Trophy Eyes The American Dream | 3.5 |
| Arch Echo Arch Echo | 4.0 |
| Does it do anything new? No. Does it do what it does really, really well? Yes. |
| Liam Singer Finish Him | 3.5 |
| Hookworms Microshift | 3.5 |
| Hopesfall Arbiter | 4.0 |
| Poppy Ackroyd Resolve | 3.5 |
| Night Verses From the Gallery of Sleep | 4.0 |
| Florence and the Machine High as Hope | 4.0 |
I wish the musical diversity and vastly improved lyrics didn't come at the expense of the manic
Florence energy, but there's a good bit to chew on here. Oh, and The End of Love belongs on
everyone's SOTY list.
edit: Oh boy it's a grower |
| KINNSHIP Community | 4.0 |
| God Is an Astronaut Epitaph | 3.5 |
| Panic! at the Disco Pray for the Wicked | 3.0 |
| Mayday Parade Sunnyland | 3.5 |
| Imagine the self-titled album, but occasionally with the grit of Black Lines. ALIR this is not, but it's a good bit better than their last two. |
| William Ryan Key Thirteen | 4.0 |
| Dance Gavin Dance Artificial Selection | 4.0 |
| Fall Out Boy From Under the Cork Tree | 4.0 |
| Barely Civil We Can Live Here Forever | 4.0 |
| Courtney Barnett Tell Me How You Really Feel | 3.0 |
| Modern Studies Welcome Strangers | 3.5 |
| Thy Catafalque Geometria | 3.0 |
| Hop Along Bark Your Head Off, Dog | 4.0 |
| CHVRCHES Love Is Dead | 2.5 |
| It's not the total disaster I feared, but there's a disappointing amount of filler. For every "Graffiti," which belongs in the upper pantheon of their discography, there's two "Miracle"s. Also, "Forever" should never have been recorded. |
| Weezer The White Album | 3.5 |
| Amorphis Queen of Time | 2.5 |
| Skee Mask Compro | 3.0 |
| Illuminati Hotties Kiss Yr Frenemies | 4.0 |
| It's absolutely all over the place but somehow everything works, bouncing back and forth between raucous lo-fi indie-pop and dirges that wouldn't be out of place on a Phoebe Bridgers album. |
| DJ Koze knock knock | 3.5 |
| Inferi (USA) Revenant | 3.5 |
| Rivers of Nihil Where Owls Know My Name | 3.5 |
| Lncstr All the Things That Lead Us Home | 2.5 |
| It's so good to hear Jason Lancaster's voice again. I just wish he was doing something more with it than rehashing contemporary Christian chart-toppers. Album is a mix of high-energy, polished-to-a-shine pop-punk that wouldn't be out of place on a Mayday Parade album (shocker!) and sparse piano ballads. Jason delivers a powerful vocal performance, and the band behind him delivers as well. But the devotion to the lyrical staleness and rigid song structures of CCM does this album in. In terms of 'punk darlings turned worship leaders,' you're better off with Dustin Kensrue/The Modern Post. |
| Ihsahn Amr | 3.0 |
| Jon Hopkins Singularity | 4.0 |
| Frank Turner Be More Kind | 2.5 |
Do you like on-the-nose lyrics that are topical without saying anything? Do you like people
telling you that every cloud has a silver lining? Do you like the music you hear in the background
on Toyota commercials? Well boy howdy are you gonna like this! There are a few genuinely
enjoyable songs (Blackout and Common Ground, which are strangely the least 'typical Frank' songs
here), but it's musically trite and lyrically almost entirely devoid of substance. Sincerity
doesn't mean much when you have nothing to say. |
| Palm Reader Braille | 3.5 |
| A Perfect Circle Eat the Elephant | 2.5 |
| Midas Fall Evaporate | 4.0 |
| Janelle Monae Dirty Computer | 3.0 |
| Lack the Low One Eye Closed | 4.0 |
| The Reign of Kindo Happy However After | 4.0 |
| Invalids Fulfillment EP | 3.5 |
| The Wonder Years Sister Cities | 3.5 |
| Bobby Barnett Steady Ache | 3.0 |
| Underoath Erase Me | 2.5 |
| The Republic of Wolves shrine | 4.5 |
| Tribulation Down Below | 3.0 |
| Gang of Youths The Positions | 4.0 |
| A.A.L. (Against All Logic) 2012-2017 | 3.5 |
| The Decemberists I’ll Be Your Girl | 3.5 |
| Drudkh They Often See Dreams About The Spring | 3.5 |
| Etherwood In Stillness | 3.0 |
| A little too focused on vocal tracks that don't do much for me. "Fire Lit Sky" is a beautiful track in the vein of "Souls Apart" and "Souls Rejoined," and "In the Wind" is a gorgeous curveball of a closer. But overall this lacks the energy of past Etherwood releases. |
| Rolo Tomassi Time Will Die And Love Will Bury It | 4.5 |
| Superorganism Superorganism | 3.5 |
| Etherwood Blue Leaves | 3.5 |
| Etherwood Etherwood | 4.0 |
| Mayday Parade Anywhere But Here | 2.5 |
| Lo Moon Lo Moon | 3.5 |
| All The Luck In The World A Blind Arcade | 4.5 |
| Brandi Carlile By the Way, I Forgive You | 4.0 |
| Endless Heights Vicious Pleasure | 2.5 |
| Green Day American Idiot | 3.0 |
| Ryuichi Sakamoto Async | 3.5 |
| Senses Fail If There Is Light, It Will Find You | 2.0 |
Horribly cheesy lyrics, monotonous pop-punk delivery, homogeneous, derivative. Band doesn't
deserve the hype. edit: bumped for a half-decent closer |
| Pianos Become the Teeth Wait For Love | 3.0 |
| Lines In the Sky Beacon | 2.5 |
| There Will Be Fireworks There Will Be Fireworks | 3.5 |
| Good Tiger We Will All be Gone | 3.0 |
| MGMT Little Dark Age | 3.0 |
| Franz Ferdinand Always Ascending | 3.0 |
| Long Distance Calling Boundless | 3.0 |
| Dream Wife Dream Wife | 3.0 |
| The Soft Moon Criminal | 3.5 |
| Anna Burch Quit The Curse | 2.5 |
| The Republic of Wolves No Matter How Narrow | 3.0 |
| The Republic of Wolves Varuna | 3.5 |
| Tiny Little Houses Idiot Proverbs | 3.0 |
| Lights and Motion Bloom | 3.5 |
| Justin Timberlake Man of the Woods | 2.0 |
| Son Lux Brighter Wounds | 4.0 |
| In Vain (NO) Currents | 3.5 |
| Meat Beat Manifesto Impossible Star | 3.5 |
| The Myriad You Can't Trust a Ladder | 3.5 |
| tUnE-yArDs I Can Feel You Creep Into My Private Life | 3.0 |
| Johnny Jewel Digital Rain | 3.0 |
| Nils Frahm All Melody | 3.5 |
| Tiny Moving Parts Swell | 3.5 |
| Corrosion of Conformity No Cross No Crown | 3.0 |
| The Go! Team Semicircle | 3.5 |
| Fall Out Boy M A N I A | 1.5 |
| First Aid Kit Ruins | 2.0 |
| Four Tet New Energy | 3.5 |
| Soilwork The Ride Majestic | 4.0 |
| Typhoon (USA-OR) Offerings | 4.5 |
| Tonight Alive Underworld | 3.0 |
| Camila Cabello Camila | 3.5 |
| Scallops Hotel sovereign nose of (y)our arrogant face | 3.5 |
| Mae (m)(a)(e) | 4.0 |
| Mae (m)orning | 3.5 |
| Mae (a)fternoon | 3.5 |
| Mae (e)vening | 4.0 |
| Hypno5e Shores of the Abstract Line | 3.5 |
| Amia Venera Landscape The Long Procession | 4.0 |
| Kid You Not Never a Dull Moment | 3.0 |
| Special Explosion To Infinity | 4.0 |
| The National Boxer | 4.0 |
| The National High Violet | 4.0 |
| Jeff Rosenstock POST- | 2.5 |
| Julien Baker Sprained Ankle | 4.0 |
| Captain, We're Sinking The King of No Man | 3.5 |
| Phoebe Bridgers Stranger in the Alps | 4.0 |
| Flobots Noenemies | 3.0 |
| Passion Pit Manners | 3.5 |
| Jessie Ware Glasshouse | 3.5 |
| Icarus the Owl Rearm Circuits | 4.5 |
| Kendrick Lamar DAMN. | 3.5 |
| Big Thief Capacity | 3.0 |
| The War On Drugs A Deeper Understanding | 2.5 |
| Cloud Nothings Life Without Sound | 3.0 |
| The Contortionist Clairvoyant | 3.5 |
| Vince Staples Big Fish Theory | 3.5 |
| Wolf Alice Visions of a Life | 4.0 |
| The Used The Canyon | 3.0 |
| Emery Revival: Emery Classics Reimagined | 4.0 |
| MisterWives Connect the Dots | 4.0 |
| Sufferer Sufferer | 3.5 |
| Slow Meadow Costero | 4.0 |
| One of the rare ambient albums where "subtle" and "heartwrenching" go hand in hand. "Hurricane" is one of the most powerful instrumental tracks of the year. |
| Kesha Rainbow | 3.5 |
| Paramore After Laughter | 3.0 |
| Phoenix (FRA) Ti Amo | 3.0 |
| The Japanese House Clean | 4.0 |
| The Japanese House Swim Against the Tide | 3.0 |
| Ted Leo The Hanged Man | 3.0 |
| Steven Wilson To the Bone | 3.5 |
| Kardashev The Almanac | 4.0 |
| Willow Smith The 1st | 3.5 |
| Beck Colors | 2.5 |
| NF Perception | 3.0 |
| Starts off strong but the songs are far too similar. It's very personal but thematically extremely repetitive, and One Hundred and Lie are pretty awful. |
| Julien Baker Turn Out The Lights | 4.5 |
| And So I Watch You From Afar The Endless Shimmering | 4.0 |
| Wolf Parade Cry Cry Cry | 3.5 |
| Xanthochroid Of Erthe and Axen: Act I | 4.0 |
| Xanthochroid Of Erthe and Axen: Act II | 4.0 |
| Torres Three Futures | 3.5 |
| St. Vincent Masseduction | 4.0 |
| Waxahatchee Out in the Storm | 3.0 |
| Citizen As You Please | 3.5 |
| Our Lost Infantry Interregnum | 4.5 |
| August Burns Red Phantom Anthem | 3.0 |
| Circa Survive The Amulet | 4.0 |
| Hammock Mysterium | 3.0 |
| The World Is a Beautiful Place... Harmlessness | 4.0 |
| Kauan Kaiho | 3.5 |
| Prawn Run | 3.0 |
| The Wonder Years Burst & Decay | 3.5 |
| Counterparts You're Not You Anymore | 2.5 |
| Arcane Roots Melancholia Hymns | 3.5 |
| Hundred Waters Communicating | 4.0 |
| Foo Fighters Concrete and Gold | 3.0 |
| Staple Of Truth And Reconciliation | 3.0 |
| Save Us From The Archon Melancholia | 3.5 |
| More emotional than the relatively cold L'Eclisse. Still the same barrage of riffs and time signature changes every three seconds, but clearer production lets the guitar melodies shine through. Doesn't quite reach the highs of Thereafter, but a welcome entry in their discography nonetheless. |
| PVRIS All We Know of Heaven, All We Need of Hell | 3.5 |
| Sannhet So Numb | 3.5 |
| Kings Kaleidoscope The Beauty Between | 4.0 |
| Gang of Youths Go Farther in Lightness | 5.0 |
| Brand New Science Fiction | 4.5 |
| Dayseeker Dreaming Is Sinking /// Waking Is Rising | 3.0 |
| Passion Pit Tremendous Sea of Love | 4.0 |
| This is a return to form. TSOL has all the chipper electronic chaos and heartfelt lyrics you'd expect from Passion Pit, but now with added variety and dynamics that Kindred was sorely lacking. The mood swings from intimate ("For Sondra") to addictive pop bangers ("I'm Perfect") smoothly. "Somewhere Up There" is the most experimental song in Passion Pit's discography and one of the best, soaring to euphoric heights with no need for a chorus. It's a bit short at 35 minutes, and it leaves the listener wanting more. |
| Less Art Strangled Light | 3.0 |
| Elder (USA-MA) Reflections of a Floating World | 3.0 |
| Jakub Zytecki Feather Bed | 3.5 |
| Aaron West and The Roaring Twenties Bittersweet | 3.5 |
| Manchester Orchestra Mean Everything to Nothing | 4.0 |
| Manchester Orchestra A Black Mile to the Surface | 4.5 |
| Manchester Orchestra I'm Like a Virgin Losing a Child | 4.0 |
| The Reign of Kindo This Is Also What Happens | 4.0 |
| The Classic Crime How to Be Human | 2.0 |
| Band has gradually gotten worse and worse since their magnum opus, The Silver Cord. Choruses have become flat and repetitive. Instrumentation is far less interesting than on past albums. Lyrics show flashes of brilliance but too frequently seem heavy-handed and clunky. TCC has lost their magic. |
| Broken Social Scene Hug of Thunder | 3.5 |
| Lorde Melodrama | 4.0 |
| Anathema We're Here Because We're Here | 3.5 |
| Rise Against Wolves | 2.0 |
| Anathema The Optimist | 4.0 |
| Thunder Dreamer Capture | 2.5 |
| Tuber Desert Overcrowded | 3.0 |
| The Lulls in Traffic Rabbit in the Snare | 4.0 |
| Bleachers Gone Now | 2.5 |
| SikTh The Future In Whose Eyes? | 3.5 |
| Dance Gavin Dance Mothership | 3.5 |
| Do Make Say Think Stubborn Persistent Illusions | 3.5 |
| A Lot Like Birds DIVISI | 3.5 |
| Fallujah Dreamless | 3.5 |
| The Menzingers After the Party | 4.5 |
| The Smith Street Band Throw Me in the River | 4.0 |
| Kendrick Lamar To Pimp a Butterfly | 4.5 |
| Plini Handmade Cities | 3.5 |
| Klaxons Myths of the Near Future | 3.5 |
| Trophy Eyes Chemical Miracle | 4.0 |
| House Of Heroes Say No More | 3.0 |
| Touche Amore Stage Four | 4.0 |
| blink-182 California | 2.5 |
| Yellowcard Yellowcard | 3.5 |
| The Dear Hunter Act V: Hymns with the Devil in Confessional | 4.5 |
| The Dear Hunter Act I: The Lake South, the River North | 2.5 |
| House Of Heroes Colors | 4.0 |
| blink-182 Blink-182 | 4.0 |
| Foals What Went Down | 3.0 |
| Kings Kaleidoscope Beyond Control | 4.0 |
| The Hotelier Goodness | 4.5 |
| Thrice To Be Everywhere Is to Be Nowhere | 4.0 |
| Caspian Dust and Disquiet | 4.0 |
| Explosions in the Sky The Wilderness | 3.5 |
| Yndi Halda Under Summer | 4.0 |
| Hammock Everything and Nothing | 4.5 |
| Amon Amarth Twilight of the Thunder God | 3.0 |
| Dustin Kensrue Thoughts That Float on a Different Blood | 4.0 |
| Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion | 4.0 |
| Showbread Who Can Know It? | 2.0 |
| Showbread Showbread is Showdead | 3.5 |
| Vestascension Breaching the Sound | 4.0 |
| The Dear Hunter Act IV: Rebirth in Reprise | 4.0 |
| Courtney Barnett sometimes i sit and think, and sometimes i just sit | 3.5 |
| Stray (UK-LDN) Paradise | 3.5 |
| Jakub Zytecki Wishful Lotus Proof | 3.5 |
| Intronaut The Direction of Last Things | 4.0 |
| Icarus the Owl Pilot Waves | 4.0 |
| Crooks Are We All The Same Distance Apart | 3.0 |
| Fightstar Behind the Devil's Back | 3.0 |
| Arcane Roots Heaven and Earth | 3.5 |
| Cloudkicker Little Histories | 3.5 |
| Mayday Parade Black Lines | 3.0 |
| The Wonder Years No Closer to Heaven | 4.0 |
| CHVRCHES Every Open Eye | 4.0 |
| Kings Kaleidoscope Becoming Who We Are | 4.5 |
| August Burns Red Found in Far Away Places | 3.5 |
| mewithoutYou Pale Horses | 4.0 |
| Emery You Were Never Alone | 4.0 |
| Muse The Resistance | 2.5 |
| Jamie xx In Colour | 3.5 |
| Florence and the Machine How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful | 4.0 |
| The Story So Far The Story So Far | 2.5 |
| Twenty One Pilots Blurryface | 4.5 |
| And So I Watch You From Afar Heirs | 3.5 |
| Braids Deep In The Iris | 4.0 |
| Dustin Kensrue Carry the Fire | 3.5 |
| Passion Pit Kindred | 3.0 |
| Dance Gavin Dance Instant Gratification | 4.0 |
| Doldrums (CAN) The Air Conditioned Nightmare | 3.5 |
| Death Cab for Cutie Kintsugi | 3.0 |
| Too Close to Touch Nerve Endings | 2.5 |
| Strung Out Transmission.Alpha.Delta | 3.5 |
| Foo Fighters Sonic Highways | 3.0 |
| Modest Mouse Strangers to Ourselves | 3.5 |
| Plini The End of Everything | 3.5 |
| Purity Ring Another Eternity | 2.5 |
| of Montreal False Priest | 4.0 |
| Lupe Fiasco Tetsuo and Youth | 4.5 |
| The Decemberists What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World | 4.5 |
| Enter Shikari The Mindsweep | 2.0 |
| Secret Circuit Cosmic Vibrations | 3.5 |
| Taravana A Visible Chill | 3.0 |
| Journey Greatest Hits | 4.0 |
| Hammock The Sleepover Series, Volume 2 | 4.0 |
| Project 86 Knives to the Future | 2.5 |
| It's a sad, sad day when you realize one of your favorite childhood bands hit their peak years ago and is now running on fumes. Thanks for the memories, Project 86, but I don't know if you can write interesting music anymore. |
| The Classic Crime What Was Done, Vol. 1: A Decade Revisited | 4.0 |
| From Indian Lakes Absent Sounds | 4.0 |
jeez someone is on top of their database-adding game
edit: surprised at the lack of Misery Signals-related puns |
| Yellowcard Lift a Sail | 2.5 |
| Finch Back to Oblivion | 3.0 |
| Say Anything Hebrews | 4.0 |
| Manchester Orchestra Hope | 3.0 |
| Trophy Scars Holy Vacants | 3.5 |
| Interpol El Pintor | 3.0 |
| Bobby Barnett Little Wounds | 3.5 |
| xSPONGEXCOREx How Tough Are Yah? | 5.0 |
| Aaron West and The Roaring Twenties We Don't Have Each Other | 3.5 |
| Hostage Calm Die On Stage | 3.0 |
| Fallujah The Flesh Prevails | 3.5 |
| Falling Up Dawn Escapes | 3.5 |
| Adebisi Shank This is the Third Album | 4.0 |
| Anberlin Lowborn | 4.0 |
| Bleachers Strange Desire | 3.5 |
| Polar Bear Club Clash Battle Guilt Pride | 4.0 |
| Rise Against The Black Market | 2.5 |
| Thousand Foot Krutch The Art of Breaking | 2.5 |
| Thousand Foot Krutch Set It Off | 2.0 |
| Kurt Travis Everything Is Beautiful | 3.5 |
| Closure in Moscow Pink Lemonade | 4.0 |
| Bayside Cult | 3.0 |
| Tigers Jaw Charmer | 3.0 |
| Foo Fighters Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace | 3.0 |
| Aural Method When I Drifted I Heard a Faint Melody | 4.0 |
| Dizmas On A Search In America | 2.5 |
| Coldplay Ghost Stories | 4.0 |
| Tycho Awake | 3.0 |
| Save Us From The Archon Thereafter | 4.0 |
| Save Us From The Archon Some Things We Carry, Always | 4.0 |
| More Than Life What's Left of Me | 3.0 |
| St. Vincent St. Vincent | 2.5 |
| We The Kings Sunshine State of Mind | 2.0 |
| Tides of Man Young and Courageous | 3.0 |
| Cloud Nothings Here and Nowhere Else | 3.0 |
| Cloud Nothings Attack on Memory | 2.5 |
| Chevelle La Gárgola | 2.0 |
| House Of Heroes The Knock-Down Drag-Outs | 4.0 |
| Fireworks Oh, Common Life | 3.0 |
| The Hotelier Home, Like NoPlace Is There | 4.5 |
| Manchester Orchestra Simple Math | 4.5 |
| Manchester Orchestra Cope | 3.0 |
| Animals As Leaders The Joy of Motion | 3.5 |
| La Dispute Rooms of the House | 4.0 |
| So-Cal Rocket Dynamics Too Bad She Won't Live | 3.0 |
| Moonlit Sailor We Come from Exploding Stars | 3.0 |
| Canterbury Dark Days | 3.5 |
| Crosses Crosses | 3.0 |
| Sam Roberts Band Lo-Fantasy | 4.0 |
| Fanfarlo Let's Go Extinct | 3.0 |
| We Are The In Crowd Weird Kids | 2.5 |
| It's punk-pop that's heavy on the pop, it's more than a little cheesy, but hey the first half has some good hooks. I was hoping for a bit a little more growth from this band, but I'm not bleeding from my ears or anything. |
| Enshine Origin | 3.5 |
| Icarus the Owl Icarus the Owl | 4.0 |
| There Will Be Fireworks The Dark, Dark Bright | 5.0 |
| The Visit Between Worlds | 4.0 |
| Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light on Everything | 3.0 |
| Switchfoot Fading West | 1.5 |
| Mechina Xenon | 3.0 |
| CHVRCHES The Bones of What You Believe | 4.5 |
| Dance Gavin Dance Acceptance Speech | 3.5 |
| A Day To Remember Common Courtesy | 2.5 |
| Bleach Blonde Starving Artist | 2.5 |
| Whiny vocals, completely insubstantial, and nary an original thought in sight, but it's catchy (particularly Pillow Talk) and ultimately listenable. |
| Ghost (SWE) Infestissumam | 3.5 |
| Captain, We're Sinking The Future Is Cancelled | 4.0 |
| I Am King Onehundred | 1.5 |
| Djenty cheese that every now and again has a nice riff, rendered useless by some of the worst lyrics I have ever heard. |
| Arcade Fire Reflektor | 3.0 |
| Moderat II | 4.0 |
| Hammock Oblivion Hymns | 4.5 |
| David Maxim Micic Bilo 3.0 | 4.0 |
| Cloudkicker Subsume | 4.0 |
| Ovid's Withering Scryers of the Ibis | 2.5 |
| Frederic Robinson Mixed Signals | 3.0 |
| Dustin Kensrue The Water and the Blood | 3.5 |
| State Faults Resonate/Desperate | 3.0 |
| Living Sacrifice Ghost Thief | 3.0 |
First impression: a predictable progression from The Infinite Order. Thrashier than Conceived/Hammering,
but I'm not sure it suits them.
also it's like 2:30 am and metal always sounds weird after 2 |
| Jon Hopkins Immunity | 4.5 |
| ERRA Augment | 3.0 |
| Geskia! Silent of Light | 3.5 |
| Sainthood Reps Monoculture | 3.0 |
| Protest the Hero Volition | 4.0 |
| A Lot Like Birds No Place | 4.5 |
| AFI Burials | 3.0 |
| Enemies Embark Embrace | 4.0 |
| Foals Holy Fire | 3.5 |
| Mayday Parade Mayday Parade | 4.0 |
| Foals Total Life Forever | 3.5 |
| Mayday Parade Monsters in the Closet | 2.5 |
| It's a really bad sign when only one song is instantly memorable on a punk-pop album. Still in the early impressions stage, but it sounds like this band has fallen really hard, really fast. At least the self-titled had some genuine emotion. |
| Kids in the Way Apparitions of Melody | 3.5 |
| Justin Timberlake The 20/20 Experience - 2 of 2 | 3.0 |
| O'Brother Disillusion | 3.5 |
| Touche Amore Is Survived By | 4.5 |
| Misery Signals Absent Light | 3.5 |
| Janelle Monae The Electric Lady | 3.5 |
| Shai Hulud Reach Beyond the Sun | 3.5 |
| The Reign of Kindo Play With Fire | 3.5 |
| Balance and Composure The Things We Think We're Missing | 2.5 |
| Tiny Raindrops is good, but nothing else stood out. And I really wanted to like this. Here's to hoping it grows. |
| God Is an Astronaut Origins | 3.0 |
| Night Verses Lift Your Existence | 2.5 |
| Deafheaven Sunbather | 4.0 |
| Trivium In Waves | 2.0 |
| God Is an Astronaut All Is Violent, All Is Bright | 3.5 |
| God Is an Astronaut Age of the Fifth Sun | 4.0 |
| Persefone Spiritual Migration | 3.5 |
| Justifide The Beauty of the Unknown | 1.5 |
| letlive. The Blackest Beautiful | 4.0 |
| Thrice Anthology | 4.5 |
| letlive. Fake History (Re-Release) | 4.5 |
| August Burns Red Rescue & Restore | 4.5 |
| A Lot Like Birds Conversation Piece | 4.0 |
| La Dispute Somewhere at the Bottom of the River Between Vega and Altair | 4.0 |
| Jimmy Eat World Damage | 2.5 |
| Daft Punk Random Access Memories | 4.0 |
| The Wonder Years The Greatest Generation | 4.5 |
| Streetlight Manifesto The Hands That Thieve | 4.0 |
| Thursday A City By the Light Divided | 3.5 |
| Owel Owel | 4.0 |
| Frank Turner Tape Deck Heart | 4.0 |
| Phoenix (FRA) Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix | 4.0 |
| Phoenix (FRA) Bankrupt! | 3.5 |
| Tera Melos X'ed Out | 3.5 |
| Paramore Paramore | 2.0 |
| Netsky Netsky | 4.0 |
| Fall Out Boy Save Rock and Roll | 2.5 |
| K Sera Collisions and Near Misses | 4.0 |
| Silverstein This Is How the Wind Shifts | 2.5 |
| Justin Timberlake The 20/20 Experience | 4.5 |
| The Story So Far What You Don't See | 3.5 |
| Man Overboard Man Overboard | 3.5 |
| Soilwork The Living Infinite | 4.0 |
| Blue Sky Black Death NOIR | 3.5 |
| Defeater Empty Days and Sleepless Nights | 4.0 |
| The Wonder Years Get Stoked on It! | 3.5 |
| Minus the Bear Planet of Ice | 3.5 |
| Belle and Sebastian The Life Pursuit | 3.5 |
| Boil aXiom | 3.0 |
| HRVRD From the Bird's Cage | 3.5 |
| The Ghost Inside Get What You Give | 3.0 |
| Parachute Musical Everything Is Working Out Fine in Some Town | 3.5 |
| Minus the Bear Infinity Overhead | 2.5 |
| Minus the Bear Omni | 3.5 |
| Punch Brothers Who's Feeling Young Now? | 4.0 |
| As Cities Burn Come Now Sleep | 4.5 |
| The Story So Far Under Soil and Dirt | 4.0 |
| Balance and Composure Separation | 3.5 |
| Streetlight Manifesto Somewhere in the Between | 4.5 |
| Air Review Low Wishes | 4.0 |
| Athletics Who You Are Is Not Enough | 3.5 |
| Weatherbox Follow the Rattle of the Afghan Guitar | 3.5 |
| Chasing Victory I Call This Abandonment | 3.0 |
| Xanthochroid Blessed He With Boils | 4.0 |
| Passenger (UK) Wicked Man's Rest | 4.0 |
| P.O.D. Brown | 1.0 |
| P.O.D. Testify | 3.0 |
| P.O.D. Payable on Death | 2.5 |
| P.O.D. Satellite | 4.0 |
| Mechina Empyrean | 4.0 |
| TTNG 13.0.0.0.0 | 2.5 |
| Katatonia Dead End Kings | 3.0 |
| Exotic Animal Petting Zoo Tree of Tongues | 3.5 |
| The Graduate Only Every Time | 3.5 |
| Circle Takes the Square Decompositions: Volume Number One | 3.5 |
| Twenty One Pilots Vessel | 4.0 |
| Twenty One Pilots Twenty One Pilots | 4.0 |
| The Wonder Years The Upsides | 4.0 |
| Skrillex Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites | 3.5 |
| Tourniquet Where Moth and Rust Destroy | 3.5 |
| Tourniquet Microscopic View of a Telescopic Realm | 4.5 |
| Spawn of Possession Incurso | 3.0 |
| Green Day ¡UNO! | 1.5 |
| Brendan Rivera No Ocean In Ireland | 4.0 |
| Project 86 Wait for the Siren | 2.5 |
| Fireworks Gospel | 4.0 |
| I Call Fives I Call Fives | 3.0 |
| Red (USA) Until We Have Faces | 2.0 |
| fun. Some Nights | 3.5 |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! | 3.5 |
| Memphis May Fire Challenger | 2.0 |
| Tapes 'n Tapes Outside | 3.0 |
| Social Distortion Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes | 3.0 |
| Mae The Everglow | 4.5 |
| Sleeping at Last Yearbook - January | 4.5 |
| Sleeping at Last Yearbook - December | 4.5 |
| Sleeping at Last Yearbook - November | 4.5 |
| Sleeping at Last Yearbook - October | 3.5 |
| Matt and Toby Matt And Toby | 4.0 |
| From Indian Lakes Able Bodies | 4.0 |
| letlive. Fake History | 4.0 |
| Yellowcard Lights and Sounds | 3.0 |
| Yellowcard Paper Walls | 4.0 |
| We Are The In Crowd Best Intentions | 3.5 |
| Deftones Koi No Yokan | 3.0 |
| Anberlin Vital | 4.0 |
| Protest the Hero Scurrilous | 4.0 |
| Pillar Fireproof | 2.0 |
| Pillar Above | 1.0 |
| Megadeth United Abominations | 2.5 |
| Megadeth The System Has Failed | 3.5 |
| Muse The 2nd Law | 3.5 |
| Showbread Cancer | 4.0 |
| Abel (NY) Make It Right | 3.5 |
| The Killers Battle Born | 2.0 |
| Taking Back Sunday Taking Back Sunday | 2.5 |
| Passion Pit Gossamer | 4.5 |
| La Dispute Wildlife | 5.0 |
| One of the most emotionally visceral albums ever written. Gives a voice to the thoughts of fear and feelings of worthlessness that we all go through, wrapped up in a perfectly balanced post-hardcore package. While I'm not always in the mood for this, when I am it absolutely crushes me. |
| Flobots The Circle in the Square | 2.0 |
| Anchor and Braille The Quiet Life | 3.0 |
| The Classic Crime Phoenix | 3.0 |
| Yellowcard Southern Air | 4.5 |
| Japandroids Celebration Rock | 3.5 |
| Title Fight Shed | 2.5 |
| Skillet Hey You, I Love Your Soul | 2.5 |
| Skillet Invincible | 2.5 |
| !!! Myth Takes | 3.5 |
| Mini Mansions Mini Mansions | 1.5 |
| 10 Years Feeding the Wolves | 2.5 |
| Modest Mouse We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank | 4.0 |
| Modest Mouse Good News for People Who Love Bad News | 3.5 |
| Streetlight Manifesto Everything Goes Numb | 4.0 |
| Anchor and Braille Felt | 3.5 |
| House Of Heroes Cold Hard Want | 4.0 |
| Boston Boston | 4.5 |
| The Killers Day & Age | 2.5 |
| Icarus the Owl Love Always, Leviathan | 4.5 |
| Gojira L'Enfant Sauvage | 3.0 |
| Make Do and Mend Everything You Ever Loved | 2.5 |
| Jukebox the Ghost Safe Travels | 3.0 |
| Hit the Lights Invicta | 3.0 |
| Nightwish Imaginaerum | 3.0 |
| Gym Class Heroes The Papercut Chronicles II | 3.0 |
| Kid Nothing and the Never-Ending Naked Nightmare is a great song; the rest of this is pretty catchy, innocuous hip-hop/pop. And yes, Stereo Hearts is mad catchy. |
| The O.C. Supertones Supertones Strike Back | 3.5 |
| The O.C. Supertones Adventures Of The O.C. Supertones | 2.0 |
| The O.C. Supertones Hi-Fi Revival | 2.5 |
| The O.C. Supertones Loud and Clear | 4.0 |
| The O.C. Supertones Chase the Sun | 4.5 |
| mewithoutYou Ten Stories | 4.5 |
| 12 Stones 12 Stones | 1.5 |
| 12 Stones Potter's Field | 1.5 |
| The Wonder Years Suburbia I've Given You All and Now I'm Nothing | 5.0 |
| Caspian Live At Old South Church | 3.5 |
| Serj Tankian Imperfect Harmonies | 3.5 |
| Mayday Parade A Lesson In Romantics | 4.5 |
| Senses Fail The Fire | 3.0 |
| Bring Me the Horizon There Is a Hell, Believe Me I've Seen It... | 3.5 |
| Foxy Shazam Foxy Shazam | 4.0 |
| As Cities Burn Son, I Loved You at Your Darkest | 3.5 |
| Fireflight The Healing of Harms | 2.0 |
| All That Remains For We Are Many | 2.5 |
| Cobra Starship Hot Mess | 3.0 |
| Cobra Starship ¡Viva La Cobra! | 4.0 |
| Far-Less Everyone Is Out to Get Us | 3.0 |
| I Am Empire Kings | 2.5 |
| Jimmy Eat World Invented | 4.0 |
| Minus the Bear Menos El Oso | 4.0 |
| Anberlin Lost Songs | 4.0 |
| Lamb of God Resolution | 4.0 |
| Emery The Weak's End | 3.0 |
| Explosions in the Sky Take Care, Take Care, Take Care | 2.5 |
| The Sleep Design All That Is Not Music Is Silence | 3.5 |
| It's neither as long-winded as Explosions in the Sky nor as repetitive as God Is An Astronaut. Great production, but a little on the homogenous side -- the middle of the album is a drag. Still, definitely worth a listen for post-rock fans. Highlights: "& The Beast," "The Woman," "The Sound of War," "All That Is Not Music Is Silence."rOh yeah and it's a pay-what-you-want album. |
| Showbread Anorexia Nervosa | 2.5 |
| Showbread Age of Reptiles | 2.0 |
| Showbread No Sir, Nihilism Is Not Practical | 4.0 |
| Thrice Red Sky | 3.5 |
| Bayside Killing Time | 3.0 |
| Thousand Foot Krutch Phenomenon | 2.0 |
| Skillet Alien Youth | 3.5 |
| Skillet Collide | 4.0 |
| Skillet Comatose | 2.5 |
| Kutless Hearts of the Innocent | 1.5 |
| Kutless Kutless | 1.5 |
| Skrillex Bangarang | 2.5 |
| A Hope For Home In Abstraction | 3.5 |
| Dc Talk Supernatural | 4.5 |
| Dc Talk Jesus Freak | 4.5 |
| Five Iron Frenzy Quantity Is Job 1 | 4.5 |
| Five Iron Frenzy Upbeats and Beatdowns | 4.5 |
| And Then There Were None Who Speaks For Planet Earth? | 4.0 |
| Chevelle Hats Off To The Bull | 3.0 |
| Dream Theater A Dramatic Turn of Events | 2.5 |
| Brand New Your Favorite Weapon | 3.5 |
| Blindside With Shivering Hearts We Wait | 3.5 |
| Blindside The Great Depression | 3.5 |
| Blindside About A Burning Fire | 4.5 |
| Blindside Silence | 4.5 |
| Becoming The Archetype The Physics of Fire | 3.5 |
| Demon Hunter Demon Hunter | 2.0 |
| Demon Hunter The Triptych | 2.5 |
| Demon Hunter Summer of Darkness | 2.0 |
| Owl City All Things Bright And Beautiful | 2.0 |
| Underoath The Changing of Times | 2.5 |
| Nickelback Here and Now | 1.0 |
| Coldplay Mylo Xyloto | 4.0 |
| Coldplay Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends | 4.5 |
| Black Tide Post Mortem | 3.5 |
| It's not complex or substantial in any way (minus some impressive guitar and vocal work), but it's got a lot of energy, and it's a fun listen. Hooks are huge, and production is fantastic. If you're looking for complexity, look away fast, but if you want some good, simple, bombastic metal, check this out. Recommended tracks: That Fire, Honest Eyes, Lost In The Sound |
| Balance of Power Heathen Machine | 3.0 |
| The Decemberists The Crane Wife | 4.0 |
| Jonathan Coulton Artificial Heart | 3.0 |
| Megadeth Th1rt3en | 2.5 |
| The Myriad With Arrows, With Poise | 4.5 |
| Chevelle Sci-Fi Crimes | 3.0 |
| Chevelle Vena Sera | 4.0 |
| Chevelle This Type Of Thinking (Could Do Us In) | 4.5 |
| Chevelle Wonder What's Next | 4.0 |
| Chevelle Point #1 | 2.0 |
| Sonata Arctica Winterheart's Guild | 3.5 |
| Living Sacrifice The Infinite Order | 4.0 |
| Living Sacrifice Conceived In Fire | 4.0 |
| Living Sacrifice The Hammering Process | 3.5 |
| Becoming The Archetype Terminate Damnation | 3.5 |
| Thrice Identity Crisis | 2.0 |
| Oh, Sleeper Children of Fire | 4.0 |
| Oh, Sleeper When I Am God | 3.0 |
| mewithoutYou A to B: Life | 3.0 |
| Jimmy Eat World Bleed American | 4.0 |
| Brand New Deja Entendu | 3.5 |
| Brand New Daisy | 4.5 |
| Brand New The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me | 5.0 |
| August Burns Red Leveler | 3.5 |
| August Burns Red Constellations | 4.0 |
| Linkin Park Meteora | 2.5 |
| Linkin Park Minutes to Midnight | 2.0 |
| Switchfoot Vice Verses | 2.5 |
| Switchfoot Oh! Gravity. | 4.0 |
| Switchfoot Nothing is Sound | 4.0 |
| Switchfoot The Beautiful Letdown | 3.5 |
| Switchfoot Learning To Breathe | 3.5 |
| Switchfoot Legend of Chin | 3.0 |
| Switchfoot New Way to Be Human | 3.5 |
| Paramore Riot! | 4.0 |
| Paramore Brand New Eyes | 4.0 |
| He Is Legend 91025 | 4.0 |
| He Is Legend I Am Hollywood | 4.5 |
| He Is Legend It Hates You | 3.0 |
| As They Sleep Dynasty | 4.5 |
| mewithoutYou It's All Crazy! It's All False! It's All A Dream! It's Alright! | 5.0 |
| mewithoutYou Catch For Us the Foxes | 4.5 |
| mewithoutYou Brother, Sister | 4.5 |
| Patrick Stump Soul Punk | 3.5 |
| Lots of energy, well-written lyrics, and a ridiculously good vocal performance. It's a blast to listen to, even if it gets a bit homogenous and a few tracks with overly long endings reek of pretension. Don't worry about the ratings, this is absolutely worth investigating.rBest songs: Explode, Coast (It's Gonna Get Better), The I in Lie |
| Flobots Survival Story | 2.5 |
| Flobots Fight with Tools | 3.0 |
| Dead Poetic Vices | 3.5 |
| Yellowcard When You're Through Thinking, Say Yes | 3.5 |
| Travis Barker Give The Drummer Some | 4.0 |
| Foo Fighters Wasting Light | 4.0 |
| Thrice The Illusion of Safety | 3.5 |
| Rise Against Siren Song of the Counter Culture | 4.5 |
| Rise Against The Sufferer and the Witness | 4.0 |
| Rise Against Appeal to Reason | 4.0 |
| Rise Against Endgame | 3.0 |
| blink-182 Neighborhoods | 3.5 |
| Emery While Broken Hearts Prevail | 4.0 |
| Emery We Do What We Want | 3.5 |
| Emery I'm Only A Man | 3.5 |
| Emery ...In Shallow Seas We Sail | 5.0 |
| Thrice Major/Minor | 4.5 |
| The Receiving End of Sirens Between the Heart and the Synapse | 4.5 |
| The Receiving End of Sirens The Earth Sings Mi Fa Mi | 4.5 |
| Emery The Question | 5.0 |
| Dead Poetic New Medicines | 4.5 |
| The Reign of Kindo Rhythm, Chord & Melody | 4.0 |
| The Reign of Kindo This Is What Happens | 4.5 |
| Underoath They're Only Chasing Safety | 4.5 |
| Underoath Define the Great Line | 4.0 |
| Underoath Lost in the Sound of Separation | 4.5 |
| Underoath Ø (Disambiguation) | 4.0 |
| Thursday No Devolucion | 4.5 |
| Thrice The Artist in the Ambulance | 4.5 |
| Thrice Vheissu | 4.5 |
| Thrice The Alchemy Index Vols. I & II | 4.0 |
| Thrice The Alchemy Index Vols. III & IV | 4.0 |
| Thrice Beggars | 4.0 |
| House Of Heroes Suburba | 4.0 |
| House Of Heroes The End Is Not the End | 5.0 |
| Anberlin Blueprints for the Black Market | 3.0 |
| Anberlin Never Take Friendship Personal | 4.5 |
| Anberlin Cities | 5.0 |
| Anberlin New Surrender | 3.0 |
| Project 86 Drawing Black Lines | 4.0 |
| Project 86 Truthless Heroes | 4.0 |
| Project 86 Picket Fence Cartel | 4.0 |
| Project 86 Rival Factions | 2.0 |
| Project 86 ...And the Rest Will Follow | 4.5 |
| Project 86 Songs to Burn Your Bridges By | 5.0 |
| The Classic Crime Albatross | 3.5 |
| The Classic Crime The Silver Cord | 5.0 |
| The Classic Crime Vagabonds | 4.0 |
| Anberlin Dark Is the Way, Light Is a Place | 2.5 |
| Aficionado Aficionado | 4.5 |
Very unique punk/indie, mixing pianos, flutes and organs with the typical punk sound. Neither the male or
female vocalist is technically stellar but their passion is extremely evident and more than makes up for the
flaws. Lyrics range from clever ("To go seven days without eating makes one weak") to introspective without
seeming heavy-handed. Highlights include "The Things You Like," "Stir Like Hell," "Permanent" and "Open
Doors." Very consistent, and a definite grower--one of 2011's best new artists, without a doubt. |
