This is a place where I talk about albums that came out this year.
This is the kind of album you can put on and just drown in all the little details. I love the more rhythmic and prog songs. I know radiohead comparisons are boring, but they really do sound like radiohead at times, especially on whalefall. This is definitely one of the more solid albums I've heard this year, every song here is just straight up nice to listen to. And then commatose is just epic.
Genre: Art Rock
Fav Song: Rare Animal
Score: I just want to sit at the bottom of the mariana trench whenever I listen to this/10
It's hard for me to pin down the identity of this album. Genre-wise there is anything from the noisy rock of Crashing Through to the lush and grand For Ella, which come one after the other. Instead I think what makes this album stand out is just how much it feels. It's not immediately clear what it's feeling, but it's making me feel it too.
Genre: Indie Rock
Fav Song: For Ella
Score: this is my second favorite album with a bird as the cover/10
Listening to this feels like running into an old friend you haven't seen in a while. Everything is familiar enough, and the songs just flow and evolve in a seemingly effortless way, while still having a wide range of emotion. It strikes that nice balance of emotional moments and post-punk bangers that make it so you're always in the mood to give it a listen.
Genre: Post-Punk
Fav Song: Not Everybody Gets to Go to Space
Score: The world's third-best slint tribute act/10
This album encapsulates a feeling of helplessness that I find very tempting sometimes. I'm not quite sure if it's apathy or stoicism. It also has this very chaotic instrumental style that occasionally bursts into clarity that I find very representative of its themes. I think it can be best encapsulated by lyrics from the first and last songs: “Fuck the world, you said it quiet” / “I hope you let it go”.
Genre: Chamber Pop
Fav Song: Ice Cream Piano
Score: new york/10
Taylor somehow always manages to say all the things I think but am too scared/embarrassed to say out loud. And this album just sounds so good. It's very understated musically, but not any less interesting because of it. But understated doesn't mean it doesn't have bops and bangers.
Genre: Alt-Pop
Fav Song: Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?
Score: the strings on clara bow/10
Where the main album feels like a continuation of midnights, the anthology feels like the successor to folklore and evermore. The storytelling is great and often captivating, and the more folky instrumentation is very well done. But even the poppier outliers like The Black Dog and So High School are certified bangers. I find it very odd how many people dislike the lyrics here because I unironically really enjoy them.
Genre: Folk Pop
Fav Song: So High School
Score: while you were studying the ball I was studying aristotle/10
On my first listen I found this a bit boring, but now I see that it just takes a while to grow on you. It strikes a nice balance between the lush orchestral songs and the quiet introspective moments, and is very cohesive throughout, but is not afraid to step out of its comfort zone occasionally. It's also lyrically more interesting than her previous work, more mature as well. Overall it's a nice improvement over what already worked in five seconds flat.
Genre: Folk Pop
Fav Song: All Falls Down
Score: real sad girl hours/10
As someone who follows the British post-punk revival bands of the last few years, this band is a refreshing sound while still keeping a lot from their influences. This album has that theater kid melodrama that makes for surprisingly emotional songs while still being whimsical, but also removes a lot of the musical complications that sometimes comes with post-punk. That said, it still has a lot of great moments that show this is more than just pop rock.
Genre: Glam Rock
Fav Song: Beautiful Boy
Score: who played black midi to the theater kids/10
This album is simply a continuation of the band's sound, and it does that very well. It has catchy tune after catchy tune, and not much else. There are no clear duds and there's a couple of highlights like Downside, Gloomtown Brats and Sunnyside. This album just sounds good.
Genre: Synthpop
Fav Song: Sunnyside
Score: the simple mechanics of reproduction/10
This is supposed to be a concept album about a dystopian world under a mountain. But to be honest I think you can just ignore the story and still have a perfectly solid album. The lyrics actually do have a lot of criticism of modern society without ever coming off as “cringe” or fake-deep. But the real reason I like this is because of the groovy and catchy synthpop songs. The first half is full of great anthems, but the second half also reveals a lot of interesting and more quiet songs.
Genre: Synthpop
Fav Song: Cold Reactor
Score: he really is a mountainhead/10
This is not a bad album. It has a few good songs, like Dancing in Babylon and People in the Streets, but beyond a few moments this album just fails to click with me. It's a nice album to have on in the background, but not one I would pick out to listen to. And it's not like the songs aren't catchy, they're just uninteresting.
Genre: Psychedelic
Fav Song: Dancing in Babylon
Score: scared of the bubblegum dog/10
I don't think I'll be listening to this album in full in the future, but I'll definitely be putting on the highlights here. I write the news, Sympathy, Nothing Works and The Phantom Buzz are all very good songs, and while the rest aren't bad, they do fall short in comparison, and they start to run out of steam near the end of the album.
Genre: Indie Pop
Fav Song: Nothing Works
Score: cows on the cover/10
I like that this album can be whatever you want it to be. It can be a concept album with a sprawling epic in three acts, or it can be some nice folkish songs to listen to casually. It can be a whole album or three separate easily-digestible EPs. I feel like the album loses me a bit during the second act, but the first and third are great. Act 1 is a great 12 minute indie folk EP, and at the end My God is a nice straightforward song about optimism.
Genre: Indie Folk
Fav Song: My God
Score: the little red guy/10
This was not on my radar at all but a friend played it in the car a few times and it got stuck in my head for quite a while. It's not among the best stuff this year, but it has a lot of very solid songwriting even if it's a bit bland sometimes. Sometimes I just need those standard sad pop songs. Some of these songs are definitely going to be on rotation for the rest of the year.
Genre: Pop
Fav Song: Blowing Smoke
Score: she's a bit dramatic/10
I find it hard to pay attention to this album, which is a shame because it really rewards listening closely. But unfortunately I find that the richness in sound often just works to block me out. It's a very slippery album, no matter how many times I listen to it I can't quite fix it in my mind. I suppose that's a feature.
Genre: Art Pop
Fav Song: Something in the Room She Moves
Score: what are they doing in the cover art/10
This is energetic but in a violent way. It's dark but not edgy. Weird in the sense that it doesn't sound quite like anything else. A banger. The upbeat songs like Big Time Nothing and the title track and the kind of stuff you can put on anytime you want something a bit more exotic in the background, and the darker ones like Broken Man are very energizing.
Genre: Art Rock
Fav Song: All Born Screaming
Score: unexpected/10