Rated 2/10
Dear god it's garbage. Purposefully so, as I understand it - which I can respect in spirit, but the listening experience is just godawful. A punk rock album where the singer goes stupid for 45 minutes is more than I can handle.
Rated 8/10
The epitome of "don't mess with a working formula". I could not for the life of me distinguish between this and Self-Titled, and was even ready to give it a 3 for that reason. Then the riffs spoke to me. And then they just kept coming! I can't hate on riffs this good!!
Standouts: Children Of The Damned • The Prisoner • 22 Acacia Avenue • Run To The Hills • Hallowed Be Thy Name
Rated 8/10
Although Thundercat is one of my favorite modern artists, this particular project does suffer from sounding kind of unfocused as a whole. That’s to be expected, he's very much a jazz artist among other things, so there's bound to be some improvisation and many left turns. To me, his bass playing is the star and forever a joy to hear.
What's hilarious is seeing people on here complaining about how “all this guy does is push random buttons and make overprocessed computer sounds”. No dude, that's just Thundercat with a six-string and a wah pedal!! He really plays like that!!
Standouts: Uh Uh • Lava Lamp • Jethro • Walk On By • Tokyo • Friend Zone • Them Changes
Rated 6/10
Now that's some *premium* boomer rock!! 🔥🔥
Even if my first reflex is to hate it, some songs have a secret sauce that I can't help but rock out to.......
Standouts: My Michelle • Sweet Child O' Mine • Anything Goes
Rated 6/10
Prince is awesome! This album definitely #Funks it up to a degree unimaginable by 80s minds, but the years haven't been the kindest to it imo.
Standouts: Let's Pretend We're Married • D.M.S.R • All The Critics Love U In New York
Rated 6/10
Weird case where the music is mostly good and well-produced, but absolutely nothing about what Peter Gabriel is doing speaks to me. It's default music. A 2 feels harsh and a 3 feels generous, that's how middle of the road it is.
Standouts: Sledgehammer • Mercy Street
Rated 6/10
Weird but fun album! It scratches a similar itch to Gorillaz' Self-Titled, and similarly has a wide variety of juicy instrumentals to dig into. I could see it growing on me with a few listens, but I'm not 100% sold right away.
Standouts: Que' Onda Guero • Black Tambourine • Earthquake Weather • Rental Car • Emergency Exit
Rated 10/10
A French dude made this!! It's a whole stew of genre influences at play here, which he mixes into a mostly seamless, very uniquely laid-back listen. It's nothing short of mesmerizing!
Standouts: Bongo Bong • Lágrimas de oro • Luna y sol • Por el suelo • Welcome to Tijuana • Minha galera
Rated 8/10
Certainly a more accessible project than Live Through This, cutting down on the grunge without compromising on riffs. Works for me! This album rocks!
Standouts: Celebrity Skin • Malibu • Use Once & Destroy • Northern Star • Boys On The Radio
Rated 8/10
Something about the way Leonard Cohen approaches Folk music is really entrancing! Having only heard Songs From A Room beforehand, I wasn't quite prepared for the drastic change in his voice. It unintentionally became the defining factor of the album for me, really highlighting the passage of time and accentuating the themes he's touching on. Gorgeous arrangements as well. May the man rest in peace.
Standouts: You Want It Darker • Treaty • On the Level • Traveling Light • It Seemed the Better Way
Rated 6/10
This has some of the fattest, rawest, nastiest bass riffs I've ever heard. I'd like it more if it wasn't afflicted by the Punk Rock Vocalist curse. 🥀
Standouts: Not Great Men • Damaged Goods • Love Like Anthrax
Rated 10/10
One of a kind funk album. The instrumental palette makes me think of Santana in a way!
I actually had my first experience with psychedelics in nature, looking at clouds with some friends, the title track here playing along. It was my first time hearing it: a 12-minute song that felt like 30, and I was LIVING in that guitar solo. I think that's about the perfect listening context for this psych funk record; that memory is forever associated with Maggot Brain in my mind.
Obviously the rest of the album is excellent, and although it can feel disjointed as a whole, the chaos feels totally at home here. Wars of Armaggedon is batshit insane, just about the wildest possible contrast between opener and closer, but at the same time it's a thematically perfect culmination to "Mother Earth is pregnant for a third time, and y'all have knocked her 🆙".
Standouts: Maggot Brain • Can You Get To That • Hit It and Quit It • Back In Our Minds • Wars of Armaggedon
Rated 6/10
This is definitely heavier in sound than IV, so +1 star for that. Their overwhelming acclaim continues to elude me however, to my taste they never reach the highs of, say, Black Sabbath.
Standout: The Lemon Song
Rated 4/10
Give it up for another two-star punk album‼️‼️🔔🔔🔔
I swear there are nuggets of potential here in the form of headbanging rhythms and sick guitar shreds, but they're diluted to hell by the 50min runtime. I somehow made it to the end, but I was just about done with the album right around Rendezvous With Anus.
Standouts: Get It On • Humiliation Street
It's hard to get over this man's goofy singing, but the band's punchy instrumentals and good use of 🎷 sax 🎷 soothes many of the complaints I might have about the album. Fun listen for what it is!
Standouts: Tell Me When My Light Turns Green • The Teams That Meet in Caffs • Seven Days Too Long • I Couldn't Help It If I Tried • Keep It
Rated 4/10
This is the distillation of every punk rock album ever. It kinda sucks if I'm being real, the singing especially is like nails on a chalkboard. Free me
Standout: Deny
It's not an easy listen in the slightest, in fact it's quite oppressive, but I do think it's a project with real artistic merit contrary to what the reviews would have you believe.
Hamburger Lady and Hometime genuinely had me feeling uneasy, yet also completely captivated. On others, like Dead on Arrival and AB/7A, you do get some semblance of rhythm and more conventional electronic music, and it's enjoyable in a 'new experience' kind of way. I could see JPEGMAFIA drop a verse or two on that (I looked it up later, and Peggy has indeed mentioned Throbbing Gristle as one of his influences on several occasions).
E. Coli, my personal highlight, comes as a chilling track, and their use of sampling really stuck with me -- two recordings of opposing opinions on the ethics of disease testing, one on each audio channel, and a haunting soundscape to accompany it. This sort of storytelling is right up my alley, and from that point I really started to appreciate their musical experimentation. These sounds are impressive coming out of 1978; you could mistake it for an obscure Soundcloud release with 10 listens, but the release period certainly makes it feel much more intentional, and definitely had me approaching with each song like, "what are they trying to do on this one?".
It's the sort of album that makes you realize that music isn't just for dancing and vibing, but can actually present art through sound alone.
I'm not an art critic and can't find the words to expand much on that idea, so I'll just end this by saying that it was a fascinating, immersive experience. I do have an appreciation for albums that demand to be engaged with in a different manner than usual, so although it's definitely not making it into the rotation I feel like it does deserve a lil 4 here for uniqueness.
Standouts: Dead on Arrival • AB/7A • E-Coli
Rated 6/10
While this album is mostly unremarkable, I will say it's some of the chillest folk rock we've had and doesn't overstay its welcome at all. Pleasant!
Standouts: Steamroller Blues • Suite for 20 G
Rated 8/10
A wonderful fusion of traditional instrumentation with 70s rock sensibilities. Feeling a very strong 4 on this!
The Mountain by Gorillaz has recently had me appreciating the sitar in a whole new light, so this entry really couldn’t have come at a better time. Funny coincidence too: it’s Ananda Shankar’s cousin, Anoushka Shankar, who plays the sitar on that album.
Standouts: Jumpin' Jack Flash • Snow Flower • Mamata (Affection) • Metamorphosis
Rated 4/10
I was excited for this one, because 'prog rock with flute' is a simple yet very tantalizing concept on paper.
Disappointingly, the flute parts only serve to set a high fantasy vibe and to summon pesky goblins. I was hoping for some real out-of-left-field shit along the lines of Tubular Bells! The rock side of things is equally a let-down, sounding more like conventional folk blues and less like the adventurous prog I expected.
On more than one occasion it made me think of Led Zeppelin -- another band I've failed to see the hype for -- so this might simply not be my brand of rock.
Standout: Locomotive Breath
