Reviews by apollo

The Rolling Stones was a decent little album. It is pretty easy to tell that this is the first album by this band especially seeing as a good majority of the songs here are covers by various R&B artists. I thought that these songs worked pretty well with The Rolling Stones' psychedelic rock style. It also does really seem to have that rough 60s production style which i thought sounded fine here. Some of the songs did get a bit samey but thankfully, since there is not many of them and they are all pretty short mostly clocking in at 2 or 3 minutes, i didn't find this to be too much of an issue. I thought this album was a pretty good start for this band.
Best Song: Carol
Worst Song: I Just Want To Make Love To You

Halcyon Digest was a pretty good album for what it was. I've never heard of this album or this band but i figured going in that this would be an indie rock sort of album even without reading the genre tags. The album itself did have some really nice moments especially when it had all the guitars and the synths and other electronic noises to back it up. I am also glad that it never really got abrasive at any point even when it had every opportunity to due to this album also being a shoegaze and noise pop album. Some of the songs here do have a bit of same face syndrome and there was also the fact it ended rather abruptly but overall, i still enjoyed my time with this album.
Best Song: Desire Lines
Worst Song: Fountain Stairs

Among The Living is yet another great album from the realm of thrash metal. I always find something to love when it comes to this genre especially since i listened to it quite a lot back in high school and this album is just one of the great albums of this genre. When it comes to the music and vocals, it doesn't do anything all that original or things i have not seen before in other albums like it but it does what it sets out to do very well. Every song here managed to be fast, fun and frenetic and there wasn't one song i disliked. Could be because they sounded very similar to each other but even so, i still liked this album quite a lot.
Best Song: One World
Worst Song: Caught In A Mosh

Aja was a pretty great album. I haven't really heard any of the songs from this album prior to hearing them in this listen but i do remember seeing a recommendation for the song Peg, and the person who recommended it was absolutely right because it is a great song. That's not to say that the other songs are slouches either as they all had that fun jazzy rock vibe to them. I did feel like the songs here did suffer from a bit of same face syndrome but the album itself did not have that many songs so i felt that it was bearable, it did make the songs a bit forgettable though. Other than that though, i can't really think of anything this album does wrong, it's still a very fun listen.
Best Song: Peg
Worst Song: Black Cow

I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight is an album that is perfectly fine for what it does. When i first saw this, i thought that it was gonna be a live album but as it turns out, even though there are a few live recordings of some of the songs on the 2004 CD, it was still very much a studio album. As an album itself, like i said, it's perfectly fine. It's your typical folk/country romp with all the things you would expect from this genre. The music as well as both Richard and Linda's voices which were the main highlight of this album. I really can't think of anything all too negative to say but nothing overly positive either. It's a good album and nothing else.
Best Song: I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight
Worst Song: We Sing Hallelujah

Nothing's Shocking is definitely an album i have quite a decent bit to say about it. I've never heard this album before but i definitely have heard a couple of songs off of it. And my thoughts on the album are pretty much what you would expect if you have heard this album. The music here is great in a lot of places mainly when it comes to the guitars and some shifts mainly with Jane Says. The vocals are a pretty mixed bag with them sometimes sounding good but other times sounding not so good. And the lyrics have this dumb 80s hard rock flair to them which i enjoy and find pretty charming about this era. This definitely is a very good album even with it's occasional flaws.
Best Song: Summertime Rolls
Worst Song: Ted, Just Admit It...

Vanishing Point was honestly a pretty disappointing album, It's not bad but i did expect it to be better considering the band that made it. My main issue with this album is that it is one of those albums that suffers under the weight of it's own ambiance. Some songs here are just so ambient that they end up being so forgettable. Like i said in the first sentence of this review, it's not bad, There are some pretty good bass lines from Mani (RIP) and some of the weirdness and creativity of Screamadelica still carries over to this album and since the album had all that as well as some regular alt rock tracks, it made the latter feel rather refreshing. This album has some pretty good things going for it but overall, it pales in comparison to Screamadelica.
Best Song: Motorhead
Worst Song: Stuka

I love The Real Thing so much. I haven't heard this album before but i definitely do know some songs from it quite well including Epic, Falling To Pieces and even that War Pigs cover. And listening to this album has shown me again not only just how good these songs are but how good the rest are too. It really has everything i could wish for in an album like this, Great guitar riffs, some heavy basslines, fun vocals and enough 80s charm that made it such a fun album to listen to. In fact, i really can't think of a single bad thing to say about it because no matter what this album did, it did it very well. Definitely a top tier album for sure.
Best Song: Epic
Worst Song: Surprise! You're Dead!
Side note: Since this is my last album of 2025, Happy New Year everybody. 2025 has blessed us with some great albums, let's hope 2026 does the same.

A Little Deeper was a pretty good album. I haven't heard all that much of Ms. Dynamite other than a song that she featured in (Dj Fresh and Jay Fay's Dibby Dibby Sound) but this Hip-Hop with a bit of electronic sounds mixed in is more or less what i was expecting from her. As for the songs, there are some good ones and some meh ones. The beats themselves could be pretty good at their best and forgettable and boring at worst. The lyrics here do have some of the typical kinda juvenile themes you would expect from rap music but they at least weren't the dumbest things i have heard. This album isn't amazing but it does what it sets out to do pretty well.
Best Song: It Takes More
Worst Song: A Lil Deeper

Solid Air was quite a good album. I didn't really know what to expect going into this album because i have never heard anything John Martyn has made prior to this so i would have thought this might have been experimental music but as it turns out, its a blues rock album. It sometimes even gives me a Tom Waits sort of vibe (especially with that cover of Devil Got My Woman or I'd Rather Be The Devil as it was retitled) which i really enjoy. The album does feel a bit samey at points but i still liked the album as it had some really good elements, those mainly being the guitars and the vocals. I thought this was a pretty good album.
Best Song: May You Never
Worst Song: Over The Hill

Okay, i was not expecting Hotel California to be this good. I only really knew this album for it's title track (and maybe Life in the Fast Lane too) and after hearing their self-titled album quite a while ago and finding it to be just alright. I thought that this album was just gonna follow in that album's footsteps but i was pleasantly surprised here. Outside of the two songs i mentioned that i initially knew this album for, this album was packed with quite a lot of good songs and i don't even think i found a single one to be bad or even meh, it managed to remain consistently great. I wouldn't say that its perfect but i still really liked this one.
Best Song: Life in the Fast Lane
Worst Song: Try and Love Again

Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not was nothing like what i was expecting it to be. I'm not super well versed in the Arctic Monkeys, I of course know their name and know that my 16-year-old sister likes them but i don't really remember what any of their songs sound like so i was expecting this to be sort of a soft-rock album. However, what i got was an incredibly British punkish album with quite a bit of a rebellious spirit and that is what i love so much about this album. It has that aforementioned rebellious spirit with plenty of great guitars, fun melodies and some pretty good lyrics for songs with such strange titles. I never would have expected this to be this good but it certainly was a really fun time.
Best Song: Still Take You Home
Worst Song: Riot Van

Treasure was a pretty good album. It certainly has been a while since i last heard anything by the Cocteau Twins but this album still managed to have a lot of what i remember from Heaven Or Las Vegas. It is a dream pop album so it does sound very wistful and dream-like as you would expect but there were a few times when the guitars got really involved and as someone who likes hard rock, those were my favorite points of the album. I still enjoyed some of the dream pop moments too as they had a lot of the stuff i like about that genre but it still isn't my favorite bit of an album where that's it's main focus. I still thought this album was a pretty good listen.
Best Song: Persephone
Worst Song: Amelia

Moving Pictures was an absolutely fantastic album. I really liked 2112 already and this album more or less feels like a sequel to that meaning it feels like a "We will do whatever we want" sort of album. Though unlike 2112 the songs were not as out there from each other and felt a bit more like they were sticking to a brand which unfortunately gets rid of some of the uniqueness of that album. I still think that this album is really good though with some excellent guitars and bass, some cool electronic elements and the vocals were great too. This album also had a perfect pace which made me like it even more. This may not be Rush's best album but i still loved it.
Best Song: YYZ
Worst Song: The Camera Eye

I thought Faith was a pretty good album. This certainly isn't my first time listening to Faith. A couple of years back, a friend of my mom recommended that i listen to this album and back then i thought it was pretty good for what it was and my opinion has not changed with this second listen. It certainly is a very 80s album with plenty of 80s synths, bass and vocals. The music here was pretty good with all of the songs feeling quite catchy. The lyrics are absolutely bizarre and might turn a lot of people away from this album, i personally didn't find them too much of an obstacle for my enjoyment but i still thought they were weird. All in all, still a pretty good album.
Best Song: Hard Day
Worst Song: A Last Request (I Want Your Sex Pt. 3)

Only By The Night turned out to be a really good album, In fact, it's the best Kings of Leon album i have heard. I always thought of Kings of Leon to just be this really typical and generic rock band and i expected this one to have the sound of that stuff a lot seeing as this album has all the songs i mainly know well from these guys and while it is kinda generic rock, it was still some very enjoyable stuff that was super pleasant to listen to. The guitars are really good here and i think Caleb Followill's voice is at it's best here since the songs feel like they are really well made around it. I didn't really expect this to be that much of an improvement over the other two Kings of Leon albums i heard but that's what it turned out to be.
Best Song: Closer
Worst Song: Manhattan
Side Note: Since this is the last Kings of Leon album i'm doing, here are the rankings:
1. Only By The Night
2. Youth And Young Manhood
3. Aha Shake Heartbreak

Now Morrison Hotel was just an absolutely fantastic album. I already had high hopes coming into this album as i really liked L.A. Woman a lot too but this one not only managed to meet those expectations but it also managed to be better than the album i mentioned prior. This album managed to be just nothing but bangers throughout all it's runtime. They all had this really fun blues style which i was always so excited to hear and each song managed to keep that fun but also still was able to be distinct enough from each other to never at any point make me sick of it. I genuinely can't think of a single bad thing to say about this album, it's just so good.
Best Song: Waiting for the Sun
Worst Song: Indian Summer

I quite liked I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got. With this album, i mainly got two different styles of music on offer here. Those styles being either a somewhat 80s pop rock sounding style and a more gospel style with the vocals and some violins as well. I will say that i thought both styles did their job pretty well. Most of the pop rock stuff was pretty catchy especially with the bass and the good rhythms as well and while i didn't like the other style as much, it still brought a decent bit of variety to keep this album from getting too stale. I honestly can't really say much outside of that so all i'll say is that it's a pretty solid album.
Best Song: Jump in the River
Worst Song: I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got

Mask was certainly an interesting album. After seeing this album have "Experimental" in it's genre tags on Wikipedia, this was an album where i thought anything goes. What i ended up getting though feels like a budget Killing Joke. There are a fair few things that this album and Killing Joke's self-titled album share and those include the electronic elements, the general sound of the bass and the fact that both bands are British (Okay, that third one might be pushing it but who cares?). While i don't like this album nearly as much as that one, i can still see a fair bit of good in this one and it was still a pretty good listen.
Best Song: Kick in the Eye
Worst Song: Hollow Hills

Teen Dream is definitely one of the most relaxing albums on this list. For some reason, when i first saw it, I thought that this album was gonna be shoegaze but since this album has practically zero distorted guitars or even anything resembling shoegaze, it isn't and is just a dream pop album. And that genre sure doesn't lie as this album sure was dreamy. The keyboards and the vocals especially gave that dream like vibe and i really liked that about this album. Granted, i don't get the album's full effect since i listened to this before work but i can still easily appreciate it. I was initially thinking of giving a high 3 stars but the later songs helped me push it to a 4.
Best Song: 10 Mile Stereo
Worst Song: Norway