Rated 6/10
Reminds me of all the things I dislike about Rufus Wainwright and Nick Cave, but for some reason this works for me. Intimate and operatic, emotionally raw but meticulously composed. Slow burning and intense. I think what's so powerful and unnerving about the vocals is the combination of the vibrato's wavering uncertainty and the forceful assuredness of the performance.
Rated 6/10
Gospel tinged rock with a varied sonic palette drawing on industrial techno, IDM, RnB, reggae, psych, and jazz. Rich warm baritone vocals are very inviting and the wealth of live horns and pianos makes for a great lush sound. Some nice guitar tones on a lead/riff, and some acoustic strumming, but it’s not exactly a guitar record. Production is super clean and clear. It opens well but gets pretty slow and trudging in the middle.
Rated 4/10
Bashing around playing blues riffs on loud crappy amps and howling into the microphone is an impulse as old as crappy amps; it's fun for all involved (except anyone listening). I get the spirit, but despite trying semi regularly cannot get past finding this band grating and mostly annoying.
Rated 6/10
Golden voice and immaculate vibes from the Nashville country machine - a touch of schmaltz, a heap of twang, sad heartbreak songs all delivered smooth and buttery.
Boring blues rock that doesn't even have the benefit of Rod Stewart's good bad voice - he just sounds normal.
Rated 10/10
A tour de force of kinetic twitchy nervous energy released in frantic bursts. Exuberant, skittish - a band finding its feet, and finding them sprinting full pelt.
Rated 10/10
Music that makes 17 year olds nostalgic and world weary. One of arts signal achievements is to let you feel your feelings - Coldplay are cringe because they're so good it it. Pure pop that absorbed all the moves of britpop and 90s indie to meld into anthemic, overwhelming, over produced versions of the same tried and true chord progressions with huge hooks, big dumb chorus lines belting out tried and true lines: I love you, I miss you, you're good...it's so embarrassing how well it works, but suspending that feeling, succumbing, and letting it work... it does
Rated 2/10
Drab music with the most boring version of the sounds of 90s alt rock: stripped back, lo fi, basic chords strummed at a medium pace - it all just sounds gray and overcast. That's the mood she's going for and she achieves it well, it's a long slog through 18 lyric centered lovesick bitterly let down songs. Tedious.
Rated 2/10
Sickly sweet pop rock so saccharine you'll need a dentist.
Rated 4/10
Pros: synth sounds, when they settle into a groove and the guitar takes over, the pop informed bits, the odd heavy riff
Cons: the neo folk pastoral stuff, the clever for its own good overly elaborate compositions, flute, the lyrics, the acoustic ballad bits, the meandering stories that dont go anywhere.
Rated 8/10
After burning out on the first few LCD Soundsystem albums in 2007 I've rarely returned to them, and never bothered with this one - my loss! The best part of the band is the movement between and combination of high energy dance stuff and the ecstatic tender slow jams. The synth sounds are amazing, the dense layers of instrumentation that builds the songs are gorgeous, the vocals are simple, direct and super effective and setting the emotional tenor. Reminds me of some of the best bits of the cure (the lush arrangements to sink into) and the talking heads (the infectious polyrhythms).
Rated 4/10
Making the score for a non existent movie is a cool idea that sounds on paper mostly like a project for a music school composition exercise - this has a basic noir feel to it, fancied up with swirling psych organs and 70s action funk. Good stuff to put on for reading detective genre fiction.
Rated 10/10
Coiled nervous energy released in explosive bursts of fuzz, howling scrams, flailing drums and scuzzy blues riffs played hard loud and filthy. A heaping dose of pure charisma, uncut thunder, primordial punk.
Rated 6/10
Smooth RnB, propulsive drum machine tracks, boom bap beats, a jazzy feel, vocalists toasting and rapping and singing - this album combines pop, soul, disco, hip hop, reggae/dub and house in various permutations, but always upbeat, dancefloor filling, and joyful. Very dated sounds, but in a fun nostalgic way.
Rated 6/10
Dark timbre scary rave bangers with plague levels of infectious energy and huge bombastic beats.
Rated 10/10
Calming and contemplative, quietly dramatic, a world of moods and ambience conjured from the subtle variation of bleeps and bloops, textures, rhythm, and synth tones. Magic.
Rated 2/10
The title track and do your thing are cool as hell and the other songs with vocals are solid jazzy soul social realism.tracks, but the rest is supermarket Muzak level smooth jazz. I'm sure it worked well for the movie, but it's not at all interesting outside that context, until it got chopped and samples a billion times for hip hop beats.
Rated 8/10
Exuberantly ecclecic, a kaleidoscopic blend of sounds styles and genres bombastically borders crossing and delivering playfully rebellious protest dance bangers. great fun.
Rated 4/10
A classic 'respect rather than enjoy' album. Nice fingerpicking guitar and a remarkable voice (albeit not one I actually like listening to) delivering a set of classic folk songs expressing Americana ren faire taste.
Rated 10/10
Menacing and ominous. Sparse industrial sound with buzzing guitars, drill-like riffs, muffled anguished vocals, clattering pounding drums, and a machinic funk to the bass. A perfect debut that pretty well defined the genre formula. Requiem is such a good song - despairing spirituality in a disenchanted world.
