Reviews by nevele

“Wargasm”, “One More Thing”, “Shitlist” and of course “Pretend We’re Dead” are grimy, rocking songs that fit 1992 perfectly. It was produced by Butch Vig as well, of Nirvana fame, which makes sense given the sound.

A really good rock album that has aged well.

One decent song does not an album make

Heh, adding King Of America has caused a bit of a stir on the user-generated list, mostly because the original list already has something like ten Elvis Costello albums on it. I had a look at the user who submitted it, and he’s only done 270 of the 1100 albums so far and had only one Costello album in there. So either he’s a huge troll, or he genuinely doesn’t know he’s in for a treat, with a lot of Elvis Costello still to come. I don’t think this list needs any more of him, but I’ll leave that to the submitter’s conscience.

Having said that, King of America is a worthy addition. It’s classic Elvis Costello, with great lyrics and good music, and there’s really nothing wrong with it. I know people who consider it his best, but I don’t agree. Personally I’m a bit fonder of his more new wave work.

The only unfortunate thing is that I think the original list, and Dimery with his obsession with this artist, have put a lot of people off the name. That’s a shame, because this album deserves better than that.

nother album that absolutely deserves a place on the main list. Gorillaz is already included, but as is often the case with Dimery's list, he seems to favour a band's debut over what might actually be their best work. And while Gorillaz gave us "19-2000" and "Clint Eastwood", introducing the world to the wonderful and refreshing sound of the band, Demon Days is by far the better album.
It's much stronger as a complete listening experience, with a more coherent identity and a better collection of songs. And "DARE" is one of those tracks that will never leave my playlists when I'm DJ-ing.
So, if we're judging the albums on their own merits, THIS is the one that should have made the list. This is Gorillaz at their peak. It's not perfect, but it's a bloody good album.

I always try to say something about an album but this album just seemed to have passed me by. Listened to it 3 times and remember barely anything. Didn't dislike nor really like it it seems. Remember something poppy dancy

I had never heard of Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s before this, and Not Animal turned out to be quite a pleasant listen. First, one thing needs putting straight, because the as of now highest review on this site has it the wrong way round. When the band delivered their second album to Epic Records, the label wanted a different track list, and the compromise was to release two versions at the same time. Animal! is the band’s preferred version and came out on vinyl only. Not Animal (this one) is the label’s preferred version, and it’s the one I’m reviewing here. Five of the 12 songs appear on both.

The album reminds me a bit of Eels, Broken Social Scene, and of other late 2000s indie, with some Arcade Fire in there as well, which suits the era. It’s good music even if it’s not completely out there, and there are probably better albums in this style, but this is definitely not a bad one. I like what they do with the rhythms, including a few polyrhythms that almost combust. Behind some of the otherwise standard indie pop and indie rock songs there’s a dragging, sometimes disharmonious guitar hum that gives it a bit of an edge, and I quite enjoy that.

Maybe not a must-listen, but I personally really enjoy it.

For That Beautiful Feeling is a bit of a forgettable album from a band that I think was past its peak here. It’s not bad, certainly not, but it doesn’t quite land. The start is still there, with “Live Again” and “No Reason” showing some real quality, and “The Darkness That You Fear” is pretty good as well, even though it sits in the second half of the record. After the strong opening, though, the album falls off.

I didn’t like “Skipping Like a Stone” with Beck, “Feels Like I Am Dreaming” or the title track, and there are better albums out there in this style. There are even better late-career albums by the same band. In my opinion both Born in the Echoes and Further are better.

It certainly isn’t bad, but it’s absolutely not essential listening. A bit of a miss, I’m afraid.

I already quite like St. Vincent, but All Born Screaming feels different from her other albums. She's finally scraped away some of the veneer that often coats her art rock. St. Vincent has a tendency to polish everything a little too perfectly, whereas this record sounds harder and rawer. It sits somewhere between art rock, grunge (I hear some PJ Harvey) and dream pop, and at times it even reminds me of NIN, Blondie or En Vogue.

There's so much to love here. "Broken Man" brings the grunge and might be the most straightforward song on the album. "The Power's Out" with that standout line "That’s why I never came home", while "Sweetest Fruit" feels more like vintage Annie. And then there's the closing title track, which is incredible. If anything, I wish it went on longer. Give me a 20-minute version, please.

It's all great.

This is not an album that needed to be on the list. Even if you want an end-of-career Stones album on here, their 2026 endeavour is a lot better.
This album would be completely forgettable if it didn't have the name Rolling Stones on the cover.

You Are the Morning is a very pleasant album. jasmine.4.t shows off a wide range of indie-pop songs, moving between Sufjan Stevens, Perfume Genius and Arcade Fire. I think I hear a bit of Elliott Smith in there as well. It’s no wonder Phoebe Bridgers signed her so quickly after hearing her demos. I was expecting something quite different when I saw the album cover.

The lyrics are bare and open, dealing with an unhappy marriage, parents who don’t support her decision to live as a trans woman, and a life that has left her out on the streets. That’s more than enough material to fill entire albums. “Elephant” is my current favourite, and the whole thing feels real, true and honest.

If I have to find fault somewhere, it’s Jasmine Cruickshank’s voice, which sounds a bit like a female Bon Iver.

Bloodline is incredibly safe folk music. It's fine, I guess. If you like folk that never leaves the well-worn paths of the genre, then you might enjoy this, but I didn't find anything new or interesting here. It's a genre that has been done many times before, and much better.
It's just so safe.

I mostly know Poppy from her hyperpop era, so it was a surprise to see her on the bill at a metal festival in Melbourne two years ago. On Empty Hands she has the full metal credentials, and "Dying to Forget" is the song that settles it. She can scream, which I wasn't expecting, and it's actually quite decent.
The album opens with "Public Domain", which sounds a bit like Marilyn Manson, and "Bruised Sky" follows with a lot of good pop sensibilities that are really pleasant to listen to. Some songs lean a bit too far into straightforward metalcore for my taste, but in others her pop inclinations are still clearly there. The crossover of nu metal, metalcore and hyperpop is what keeps it interesting. I'm not the biggest metalcore fan, but there's enough here to hold my attention over repeat listens.
This will put off a lot of purists, whether they're into metal, pop or something else, and I count that as a bonus point. I think it's a really good album. I don't know if people will still be listening to it in a decade, but I'm happy the new edition of the book gives it an extra chance and an extra listen.

I've listened to Hit Me Hard and Soft about three times now, and it's a genuinely good album. I always had a bit of an issue with Billie Eilish's whispery vocals on her earlier work, but that's completely gone here. What Billie and her brother Finneas have put together is incredibly strong. Billie sounds like a young female crooner, and she's got the voice to pull it off. Some songs like L'Amour De Ma Vie could almost have been written for Amy Winehouse, while others are genuinely danceable without sacrificing good lyrics. There's a nice variety here, and it's thoroughly enjoyable.

Not everything is quite at the same level, but the album saves its best for last. "Blue", the closing track, is so, so good, and by far my favourite thing on the record.

Of the newer albums added to the list, this is one I think absolutely deserves to stick around for the next few editions. A worthy addition.

Día is a curious pick for the new edition of the book. It’s not a high-flyer, and it didn’t really stand out when it came out. It is an album I’d recommend seeing live. A lot of these songs really come to life (pun intended) on stage, and they’re much more intense and compelling than the studio versions. When I saw her, QQQQ and Onwards flowed into one another in a different version, and it was so much better than on the record. I love the deep bass of Onwards. Perhaps the curators of the book saw her live too.

On record, it sounds a bit like Björk singing Röyksopp songs, and that takes away from my enjoyment. I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more if she had sung it in her native Spanish. IDK and Onwards are my highlights.

It’s a 3.5 star album for me, but this is the 1001 albums you need to hear before you die, and this just isn’t one of them.

Wuthering Heights isn’t a score, but a soundtrack of new pop songs written by Charli XCX. Rather than music composed specifically for the film, it works as a companion piece, with a collection of new tracks from a single artist. I suspect the soundtrack may ultimately be remembered more fondly than the film itself, starring Margot Robbie. It’s a surprisingly adventurous album, and it’s interesting to see female pop artists increasingly willing to experiment. Rosalía’s LUX is another recent example.

That said, I don’t expect it to cause any major shifts in the musical landscape. It simply isn’t strong or innovative enough from start to finish. Even so, Charli XCX shows that she’s capable of more than crafting reflective dance tracks or serving as the standard-bearer for hyperpop. This won’t be her magnum opus, though. Brat remains the more influential work.

Nova Twins make female-fronted rap-rock, and it’s a musical style I enjoy. I like this uptempo, heavy music with a political bite, and I was rocking out to Supernova from the first listen. “Antagonist” and “Fire & Ice” are the two songs that jumped out for me.

What I couldn’t shake was the feeling that it doesn’t bring much that’s fresh or new to the world of music. It’s quite standard, and I kept wondering if I was missing something. To me it sounds like a really good opening act for bigger bands.

It is an album built around energy, attitude and having something to say, which is what this style is all about, and on those terms it delivers.

The first thing that jumped out on Menos el Oso was how good the production is. There is a lot more going on in the background through headphones than I heard on a mediocre set of speakers in my garage on the second listen, so I’d say this is an album for headphones.

The songs are short, with a lot of layered depth. Electronics and guitar trade places throughout, and the guitar work pushes some interesting sounds out of the instrument. There’s a fair bit of Bloc Party -like music here, but good to keep in mind this came out in the same year as Silent Alarm.

I don’t have a favourite song on this one. The album fits itself together really well, and I’d rather take it as a whole than pick out highlights.

The Story So Far is very ok-ish. It’s emo-ish, pop-punk-ish, with the kind of vocals that were popular a few years before this came out.

I’m baffled why this was submitted. It brings absolutely nothing new. There are dozens of bands in this exact style that do it better, and this one doesn’t deviate from the genre, doesn’t challenge anything, wasn’t the first in its style and didn’t invent anything. It’s so mediocre. Medio-Core. I even gave it extra listens in case I was missing something, and I really wasn’t.

I’m not saying it’s bad. It’s just completely interchangeable.

I don’t know exactly why the submitter picked this one, perhaps as "This needs to be on the original list as well", perhaps as replacement for the album (Kollaps) on there or a bit of both. Kollaps is the groundbreaking album and an important one in this style, but it is also very extreme. Haus der Lüge is the better album, and the one I enjoy more. It mixes more accessible songs with the experimental ones, and I’d say it’s Einstürzende Neubauten’s best and most balanced record, and one of the best albums in this style that I know.

It’s an absolute delight to listen to, if delight is the right word for something that is still West German avant-garde. There is so much going on, and so much difference between the songs, that every time I listen a different track ends up as my favourite. “Feurio!” and the title track are both absolutely amazing, “Hirnlego” is amazingly nervous, and the “Fiat Lux” trilogy is superb. Even “Der Kuss”, the closing song, which never really did it for me before, completely won me over this time.

If someone asked me where to start with this band, I’d point them to this album and not to Kollaps. So which album belongs on a list like this? I think this one should be there instead. Many albums on the original list seem to have been picked to represent an important artist, and then it’s usually their first album, without looking at the whole career. On this one I tend to agree with the submitter.

Stadium Arcadium is a double album that simply didn't need to be a double album. Even some of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' older records, including Blood Sugar Sex Magik and One Hot Minute, were longer than they needed to be. Doubling the running time makes the problem considerably worse. There are so many songs here that aren't even mediocre. They're just bad, and as a whole, it doesn't work.

I get the feeling the band saw this as their magnum opus, but to me it really isn't. They seem to have lost both the ability to write consistently good songs and the sense of fun that used to make even their lesser material enjoyable. Some tracks are catchy enough, but none come close to what this band was capable of at their best. Kiedis's lyrics are frequently baffling, the songs often feel like attempts to recreate earlier successes, and Flea's characteristic funkiness seems to have largely disappeared.

The one major positive is John Frusciante, who is absolutely godlike on guitar throughout this album. His playing is among the best I've ever heard, and it's a shame the material around him so rarely matches it.

Someone here described this as a tribute band trying to sound like the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I can see where they're coming from.

This doesn't belong on a list of albums you need to hear before you die. I'm not even convinced it belongs in the top ten Red Hot Chili Peppers albums you need to hear.