Reviews by ultraclear

Man, it's a hot one. Heroic use of a patreon user submission; I think op now has a responsibility to submit Astro Lounge when they finish the project in 3 years.

This one's the most one-note out of Neil C.'s Mouth series, but if you're only going to send one of them in, it makes sense to go with this one. It showcases a surprising number of songs that showed up in the original & user lists—I lost my mind when I realized the intro song was the same tune from ELP's Pictures at an Exhibition.

I've been drowning in pop music this last week, so I'm very grateful for this avant-garde latin-chant krautrock thing turning up. As can sometimes happen in that sphere, the noodling gets grating sometimes, but it's a small price to pay for how interesting the rest of it is

Alright, this is making more sense to me now. Self-titled was on the original list and it felt like the most by-the-numbers bland R&B I'd heard in a minute. This one has an actual personality, and I liked listening to it.

"Don't just say it reminds you of Kingdom Hearts music Don't just say it reminds you of Kingdom Hearts music Don't just say it reminds you of Kingdom Hearts music, god damn it's not the music's fault you don't know J-pop at a—Oh wow this is actually the literal Kingdom Hearts singer"

A fun glimpse into the world of post-Hamilton white rapping. Healthy to have reference points that aren't just Eminem.

I don't care for Spose and I didn't like this album, but I do prefer drawing this kind of thing to when people just sent in FotM pop music.

Was about to write that it's like the perfect distillation of 90s country pop, but I think what I must mean is that my parents definitely owned this album and I heard the songs on it in my youth without knowing who I was listening to

I'd probably get tired these songs *fast* if I were constantly hearing them in the wild, but thankfully I'm not on tiktok. Not bad, though! I think Chappell Roan's still probably the more interesting act in terms of the 2020s girl pop that people have been submitting

90s American Suburb rock, as depicted by some guys that really really seem to like Queen

E-sports intermission music. I think I complained on some of the original list's 90s techno entries that the electronic music representation basically hard cut at Moby... but this isn't really what I had in mind for what should go on there.

It's a dead sound, but it's fun to revisit? Reminds me a lot of something else that I can't quite put my finger on. He sounds almost like if Meatloaf sang for Supertramp

Kimono My House was on the original list, but it was one of the earlier ones, and I don't remember much about it. Might have to revisit it, since I enjoyed myself with this one. Transitioning out of disco, onto something almost like LCD Soundsystem

Shucks Howdy

Soft Pop for a new generation

Sometimes the stuff I’m not usually into just comes up and catches me at the right time. Ended up being really nice music for a slow work day

A very long string of pretty alright jazz organ jamming

The production's a little more scattered and intricate, but it really is a basic pop album at the end of the day, right down to devolving into crappy ballads by the end of the thing.

*WOW* what a good a pull! APP's overall career hit rate wasn't the best (a lot of their 1980s work was just kinda mediocre soft pop, Woolfson's beautiful voice notwithstanding), but there's definitely some gems in them hills.

Far as this one goes, I've never really been able to not get bored during the House Of Usher sequence, but the entire run of songs preceding it is some A+ art rock

It's dipping a toe in the same waters that brought us music like Mumford & Sons, and a little bit of The Lumineers. 2010s well-produced folky throwback kind of thing

UK post-punk again, with some stylings that are giving me some kinda Hungover New Wave flavor. Definitely above average, but not exactly blowing my mind.

This went down a lot better for me than Neutral Milk Hotel, in terms of lo-fi offerings. These guys are *very* well-regarded in the circles I follow, but I'd bounced off of their more recent stuff a few times.

I liked this one a lot, though! Plenty discography left to dive into