Reviews by galway_rat

July 31, 2025

"Trying to Reason With Hurricane Season" is my favourite couplet, and it's not even in the lyrics

I've mentioned before that my love of country music is fickle, and there it is... going... gone

I feel my enjoyment would go up exponentially the closer I get to the sea, and as someone who uploaded an album primarily concerned with the sea, I don't want to write off these relaxing ditties just yet.

Now where can I get a honeysuckle vine to chew...

Pitchfork: Could you explain your album, young man?

TNV -Well, basically I just copied noise pop of the 90's.
Then I added more noise, to lower the life expectancy of the listener.
And these rainbows and peace signs I feel are pretty sharp.

Pitchfork- Agreed. Best New Music!

Catchy as hell

August 2, 2025

HL: title track, "Gravelweed", "Don't Be Tough"

I've been meaning to check out Jason Isbell's music, but this is a curious place to start. Quiet and downcast record. There are quite a few acoustic folk albums I would prefer listening to over this, but it's not bad.

July 25, 2025

HL: "Houmous", "Problème d'émotion", "Au Revoir"

He just... keeps throwing genres together... like a thoughtless child

Listening to this, I couldn't help be reminded of how Muse, one of my favourite bands, got dragged through the mud in 2012 after trying to combine arena rock, EDM and orchestral bombast. I am still a defender of that album, The 2nd Law, even as I have thought it was a BIT much.
But no, Igorrr comes and takes a similar approach, except he/they dial it up 1000%. And now I say, the problem is that Muse didn't take it far ENOUGH.
As with metalcore, I could only take this "breakcore" stuff in small doses; luckily 40 minutes was a small enough dose.

July 22 2025

HL: "The Rainbow", "Eden", "I Believe In You", "Wealth"

Talk Talk's follow-up to The Colour of Spring has been on my personal list since I started cobbling that spreadsheet together, and I finally bit that bullet... last month, before I knew someone posted it here. But now I get to listen to it again :D
Now in one way, Spirit of Eden is harder to get into than its predecessor. Its slow pace and emphasis on ambience and improvisation had me thinking "Wait, that's it?" after the first time I heard "Wealth" fade off into the ether.
Yet the tone it sets, somewhere between religiously cathartic and meditative, is so unlike past Talk Talk and 80s popular music that it intrigues me still.

4 stars- maybe more with time

Ok now you guys are running CanCon circles around me at this point.
I’ve been aware of this artist for a minute, his debut Dunya is on my personal album todos, but here’s an EP, released three years before, that I now gotta pay attention to.

Oh this was added before Dunya, hence it would've been his most complete project at the time.

The samples are effective, warm but at the same time ghostly.

I think part of the challenge is hearing Mustafa through the admittedly subtle production of British artists that worked with him on this EP- Sampha and Jamie xx especially. I love their stuff, but I hope his future work is less comparable to albums I've heard from the original 1001.

I think When Smoke Rises is important though, not just as a tribute to fellow Torontonian Smoke Dawg (seen on the cover) but as genuinely heartfelt music from the inner city that is at odds with, say, less compelling claims like "Started From the Bottom" by Drake.

HL: "Separate", "Ali", "Come Back"

July 26, 2025

July 21, 2025

HL: "Expo 86", "Tiny Vessels", title track, "A Lack of Color"

He really did this and the Postal Service the same year, huh? Sumbitch

I liked Transatlanticism almost as much as Give Up, if for the fact my tastes are skewing towards that synthy sound at the moment more so than slowcore/emo. I don't actually believe one is better than the other.

Shoutout to the ambience between tracks, they don't pad out the album length and are great for continuing the autumnal mood led by the songs.

July 24, 2025

HL: "Crumbling Empire", "TV Dinner", "Remember My Name"

What if: the War on Drugs, but Geordie

3.5

July 23, 2025

As this is my seventh Cure album, I would have been very surprised if I didn't like this one. Well, I did. Since the last stuff I heard from the band was from the Head on the Door and Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, switching to this more abrasive, rocky sound was like getting splashed in the face with cold water.

My main nit to pick is how loud the drums are in every song, but that's more a question of mixing than song quality.

July 29, 2025

HL: "Gazpacho", "Beautiful", "Out of this World", "Beyond You"

First Marillion, a band I knew very little about before today.

The album cover looks like goth metal, rather than the soft rock/prog/new age record it really is. Despite the tracks being on the longer side, the album itself is less than an hour long.
I was first reminded of Rush, then of early-ish Talk Talk, then Division Bell-era Floyd. Somehow that combination, and the generally contemplative mood, worked for me tonight.

July 28, 2025

HL: "A Secret Silken World", "The Waiter", "A Brand New Morning"

July 19, 2025

HL: "Bonesong", "Love O' My Life / Madame Butterfly", "Money", "Heroine"

Anouk (love "Good God"), Boudewijn de Groot, dEUS, De Dijk, Doe Maar, Golden Earring (hey I know them!), Herman Brood & His Wild Romance, Junkie XL (know him), k's Choice, Osdorp Posse, Raymond van het Groenewoud, Spinvis, TC Matic, Urban Dance Squad.

Those are all the artists in the Dutch 1001 book that aren't in our list. All that to say Gotcha! didn't make it in that version, either. Not tryin' to be snarky, I don't know much about Dutch popular music; for all I know this is their Oasis.

Oh my god, did Lenny Kravitz hear "Madame Butterfly" and write "Fly Away"

This is some neat 90s rock I never would have found without this list, thanks m8

July 21, 2025

HL: "Fake Empire", "Squalor Victoria", "Apartment Story", "Racing Like a Pro"

I had a feeling I'd love it after High Violet, but I was missing something from the experience once the first track, "Fake Empire" concluded (probably my fave part of the album).
Like, the Apple Music blurb about Boxer basically describes it as high art for the working class, and... maybe I just wasn't listening hard enough.
The orchestral parts, especially toward the end of the album, were really nice and made the slower patches worth it.

now that the dust has settled, it's probably a 3.5

July 15, 2025

A treat.
I noted, when Daniel Bélanger came up on this website, that Quebec music is not really talked about in the predominantly Anglophone prairies, and Harmonium is no exception.
After the grand finale of “Comme un sage”, I was genuinely annoyed that it took until tonight to hear this band. Beautiful, mystical prog/folk. Was a little skeptical of the 90 minute runtime but even that ended up being (mostly) justified.

RIP Serge Fiori

(Oct/25: bumped up from a 4-star. Even though les Québécois have enough of an ego smh.
Growing up in a wheat field puts a chip on one's shoulder)

July 23, 2025

HL: "Losing My Religion", "Near Wild Heaven", "Shiny Happy People", "Texarkana"

wot if REM but country 🤠

The 4 in the original list are probably sufficient to show how their sound evolved throughout the 80s, but I've been relishing this deeper dive into their music nonetheless. I now have listened to every one of their albums between Murmur and Automatic.

July 20, 2025

HL: "L.A. Freeway", "She Ain't Going Nowhere", "Desperadoes Waiting For a Train"

Solid

July 12, 2025

HL: “Found Me”, “Dorian”, “Porcelain”, “You Deserve This”, “Tailwhip”, “Show Me How”

Made it to a hundred of *our* albums today!

Another piece of CanCon I’m unfamiliar with (besides the name). Starting to doubt my expertise with my country’s music.
This is maybe a sad bar to meet, considering how little time I generally spend on each album, but I couldn’t move on to the next one until I had heard these 24 songs at least twice.
And here I was doubting their ability to make a dreamy-jazz-pop album that long consistently enjoyable! Admittedly we didn’t need “Tailwhip” twice, and a few songs hardly establish themselves before the next one floats in, but when the overall experience is akin to a warm blanket (in outer space), I suppose I can let it slide.

A very pleasant surprise

Oh shiet, Ween that isn’t The Mollusk or Quebec? (Aka the 100% of Ween music I’m familiar with)
Let’s go

Perhaps the lack of sleep I am operating on contributes to the rating, but I don’t think this is quite as good as those other Weens.
(Then again, I didn’t really care for the Mollusk at first listen but I enjoy it a lot more now.)
I concur that this band should be in the original list. After all, 69 Love Songs can’t be the only 90s postmodern genre-hopping experiment!

“Take Me Away”, “A Tear For Eddie”, “Mister Would You Please Help My Pony?”, “Joppa Road”

July 10, 2025

July 16, 2025

HL: “Time Was”, “The King Will Come”, “Warrior”

3.5