Reviews by ultraclear

Interesting historical artifact, aiming for post-punk but winds up doing goth. I’m kind of fickle as far as that stuff goes, especially with that 80s soundfront

One of the standard indie rock configurations.

Got some different flavors than a lot of the punk stuff people have been sending in. Kind of getting some Modest Mouse vibes off of it, which I enjoyed

Fun enough samples to pass the time. Less annoying than Fatboy Slim in his heyday

Would have called it celtic, except it’s a finnish act. Sounds pretty similar to something like Celtic Woman all the same, some shades of Nightwish sometimes. I got a soft spot, but I think I’m finding the vocals overproduced while also somehow finding the instrumentals a little underbaked

Man, it almost really won me over, but unfortunately it turned out to just have that one motif in the tank. I did enjoy how much more disco-inflected it was than I ever would have expected, though.

Somewhat atypical indie folk. Something about her singing style hits my ears kind of weird, but it enhances the experience

Pretty interesting and offbeat singer-songwriter thing. There's an upper limit to how much I'll get into that, just genre-wise, but I'm glad to have learned about it

I mean look I like Depeche Mode, but there's already been a lot of them on this thing, and Violator's really the only one I'd call a must-listen

given the other reviews, I was hoping for something a little bit more evil

Dunno what it is, but at this point I’ve listened to a lot of Porcupine Tree on this thing, and it really just hasn’t clicked for me at all

Me changing the radio station every 3 minutes to avoid commercials. Engrossing, but didn’t work well as working music

Mostly tepid pop. Was going to let it get away with 3 stars until “Hopedrunk Evercasking” started playing smoke detector chirps into my ear

He's using one of the factory default Indie Guy vocal affectations, which distracts from the fact that the underlying stylings aren't actually doing Indie Rock things so much as post-rock (which I tend to prefer). Little bit too samey as it goes on, but I had a decent time with this.

Lacks the drive and relentlessness of Downward Spiral. Actually kind of relents a lot, settling into more of an ebb & flow pattern. The length would be less of an issue if some of the ebb sections didn't drag as much as they do. Good time overall, though.

I wish the site made it a little easier to view, search, and sort albums by Country of Origin, because I *suspect* I'm forming a grudge against Canadian Alt-Rock, but I can't be 100% sure. I just really need to know if it's actually an unbroken streak of 3-stars "it was fine" reviews from me.

Anyway, this is road trip music for yuppies, and I guess that's alright. Inoffensive, even fun at parts, but I'm not going to be thinking of this again soon, unless someone unexpectedly invites me to go fishing

Titanic. Possibly the only good 80s metal that America ever produced, and its direct descendants never quite got the alchemy exactly right. Gotta channel Meat Loaf at least a little bit

God, what a breath of fresh air. The original list was so obnoxious about only featuring dusty stuff that sounded sufficiently "old-world" and "influential for The Beatles" when it came to Indian music, so I consider this an incredibly necessary corrective. It's well-executed, extremely cheesy music for meatheads, and it occupies a vital, often-overlooked wedge of a balanced "world" music diet.

I'd fully forgotten about the Talk Talk album on the main list in the year and a half since I listened to it. I will fully forget about this one in another year and a half

Broody electronic music, being piped from deep in a cavern.