Reviews by suspiciousnumber

Odd that I've gotten an album from 2024 and an album from 2025 on back to back days. Even odder that I'm getting a Jeff Tweedy album, given that Wilco is one of the bands that I've seen more than any other. I really enjoy the music that they make together, but I have more trouble getting into Jeff's solo stuff. That's pretty normal for me, since it's pretty folky, and I'm not really a folk guy, despite my love for the adjacent alt-country genre. Still, it's a pleasant listen. Tweedy writes good songs, and his voice has held up well over the years

4/5

I'm not sure, but this might be the first album I've reviewed that wasn't released when I started doing this list. This album is cool. I don't really know how to describe it because I no longer know what genre means in this incomprehensible era, but I liked it

4/5

I remember listening to Ani DiFranco when I was younger and not liking her music. It's not unusual for young people to have stupid opinions, and this was no exception. I get why I didn't like this back then, but I like it now. She has a beautiful voice that she uses in a really interesting way. The songs are really heartfelt, but not schmaltzy or twee or anything like that. Just really well crafted songs all the way through.

4/5 Go fuck yourself, younger version of me

I have a weird relationship with this album. I like it, and I want to buy it, but I feel like the guys at the record store will judge me for trying to pick out an indie album to impress them with my knowledge of music but they'll think it's such an obvious choice that they'll assume I have a very surface level knowledge of indie rock and make fun of me behind my back while patronizingly saying that they like my taste in music, and you know, writing this all out it feels like maybe I have an anxiety disorder. Regardless, this album is really good. Also, please don't tell the guys at my local record store about this album review. I want them to like me, even though I don't actually want to hang out with them or be friends outside of the record store

5/5

I really thought I was going to like this more. I do think this album is significant for the style and the political message it infused into punk, but overall I like the more melodic punk. The noise is cool, but they don't integrate it into the songs well. It just throbs for a while before the song starts, and then it's just stripped down punk. I feel like this review makes it sound like I dislike the album ore than I do, I kinda like it. It's just that I had such high hopes when I read the wikipedia page, and it just didn't go where I wanted it to

3/5

I like this album. It suffers a bit by comparison to Pygmalian, which is a Slowdive album that I absolutely love. This album is good, but out of the seminal shoegaze albums, it's not one that stacks up all that highly for me. A really solid album, it just unfortunately makes me immediately want to put Pygmalion on and fall into that ocean of delay and reverb

4/5 I feel like I keep giving critical reviews to albums that I like, but I want to be clear that I do like this album and think that it's really good. I just like it's younger brother more

I didn't have a lot to say about this one, but it was fun overall

3/5

So I actually got to see Sum 41 live before I'd ever heard of them. They were the opening act for Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Flogging Molly. My main impression of them at the time was that I hoped they got off the stage as quickly as possible so that I could listen to bands that I enjoyed. And in that sense, very little has changed between me and Sum 41. I don't get it, and I don't want to get it because I think it's dumb. It's not terrible, but at the same time there's nothing that I enjoy. Also, some little punk fucker at that show kneed me in the thigh in the mosh pit during Flogging Molly, and I had the biggest bruise for like two weeks. Overall a really fun show, I'd give the experience a 4/5

Unfortunately this album is more of 2/5

This brand of rock just never really speaks to me. It's competently made, but I could tell pretty quickly that I wasn't going to get into it

still, 3/5

I've been aware of Babymetal for a while. They are fun, and I like the mix of Jpop and metal. It does tend to get a bit samey after a while, and the metal portion of it often feels a bit generic, but it's a cool concept overall

3/5

What to say about this album? I've never been into They Might Be Giants. They aren't bad, but it just really does not scratch any itch inside my brain. It's not their fault, I think they just went to the wrong art school or whatever. I'm more familiar with this album than most of their work, and it has some songs that I genuinely like, namely Istanbul and Minimum Wage. The rest of it doesn't really speak to me, and that's fine. It's still pleasant enough that I don't find myself disliking it. I'm just never going to come close to adding it to my collection. Also I forgot about Particle Man. I kinda like that song until it gets too annoying.

3/5

One of the other reviews described this as essentially being a sanitized, mass appeal, non-confrontational album that makes itself pleasing at the expense of having depth. I feel like that really nails it. He's a good musician. I feel like he could bring a lot more too this if he took some chances and brought a greater sense of depth and conflict to the music. It doesn't have to be dark and gloomy, there's certainly great albums that are happy, but there are no great albums that take no chances

3/5 It's not bad, but there's not much for me to praise either. Still, I can't fault the musicianship, even if the production lacks soul

I liked this album fine, but it didn't really jump out as something super significant in terms of advancing a particular genre or musical technique. That's fine. Some music can just be enjoyed. It's definitely well crafted and has it's own sound. It's repetitive, but doesn't feel mindless in the way that a lot of techno can. For what it's worth, I feel like I appreciated it more as it went on

3/5

This album struck me pretty weird this morning, and it kinda shows me why I was never as into the Foo Fighters as I wanted to be. The good songs on this album are great. Dave Grohl writes great songs with nice harmonies, and the lyrics are usually pretty fun and accessible. Then there's the rest of the album, which just kinda drags as he scream-sings over distortion, and it just feels like there's nothing for me to latch onto on the songs. It makes it really hard to rate, since the album feels really uneven.

4/5 I feel like the highs are high enough and frequent enough that I can't give this album a bad score, but I just know it could be better and I find it very frustrating

I'm just not a King Crimson guy. I can't deny their talent, but I just don't enjoy it, and I'm sorry to all the prog rock fans about how stupid I am

3/5

Tool lost me years ago. I loved the living shit out of Aenima, and felt similarly about a lot of their stuff from that era. From there, it felt like they were focused on painting with a color that my eyes can't see. I can tell that they are really focused on trying to achieve something, and the quality of their musicianship has not diminished at all, but I just wanna fucking rock about while talking about how phony people suck and watch weird animation and shit. Maybe Tool grew up and I stayed 14. Alas

3/5

As someone who only knew MGMT from their first couple of hits, it's weird to hear this more recent stuff, which feels like a big mix of different influences. I don't even know how to describe the album because it was different every time I looked up. Still, I feel like I enjoyed it overall

4/5

I just didn't really connect with this one. That early 00's era of rock is rough for me. The songwriting and the production is all competent, it just doesn't get me going

3/5, but a low 3

Kind of a weird one, as this one one of those albums I owned in the 90s, but didn't really ever listen to because I didn't find it very interesting. Coming back to it now, it's about what I thought it was. I don't think it's a bad album by any means, and there are plenty of well-crafted songs. It's just a little bit morose for me, and that is one aspect of the 90s that I'd prefer to leave in that decade

3/5

I never really gave Pearl Jam the time of day when I was younger because I was a huge Nirvana fan, and I didn't understand the concept that I could like more than one thing. Anyway, this album is wall to wall great songs, most of which were huge hits. Nice work Pearl Jam

4/5