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User
Reviews 26
Approval 99%
Soundoffs 237
News Articles 5
Band Edits + Tags 10
Album Edits 153
Album Ratings 2355
Objectivity 71%
Last Active 12-19-18 7:20 pm
Joined 06-11-12
Review Comments 2,741
| Ranking My 5's
To be a 5/5 an album must: be listened to more than once, have no skips, keep me entertained on a front to back listen, and have listened to for more than a year. These really aren’t hard and fast rules, but its what I think of before I give something that coveted 5. | | 1 |  | Cardiacs
A Little Man and a House...
It’s like being on the Wonka boat for 45 minutes. Moments of grand serenity give way to off-kilter noise that feel like circus music shoved through a punk filter, which give way to the former, repeat ad infinitum. | | 2 |  | Kate Bush
Hounds Of Love
Hounds of Love is exact. It’s precise. Music that delicately adds layers upon itself to create striking, towering new-wave influenced pop songs. Listen to The Big Sky and feel yourself grow ecstatic. Listen to Cloudbusting and feel yourself soar as that Fairlight-altered violin kicks in. Conversely, act 2 - The Ninth Wave - is where Bush lets her storytelling chops loose. A tale of a girl drowning, fighting, life passing before her eyes, is beautifully told with her impressive musicianship and songwriting on display in equal measure. | | 3 |  | Steven Wilson
The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories)
More of an emotional 5 than anything. Raven introduced me to prog rock back when I don’t think I’d ever really heard it, and I can still get lost in it to this day. The melancholy and wistfulness of Drive Home and The Raven That Refused to Sing, the aggression in The Holy Drinker, the grandiose sound of The Pin Drop, the storytelling and gentleness of The Watchmaker, and the pure extravagance and display of skill that is Luminol - it all keeps me coming back, and for that it’s a 5. | | 4 |  | Sweet Trip
Velocity : Design : Comfort
Paraphrasing some RYM review: Like being a gumball in a gumball machine and every now and then someone puts a quarter in and jostles everything around | | 5 |  | Cardiacs
On Land and in the Sea
Listening to a song on this album feels like listening to an album of its own. There are so many ideas in a Cardiacs track, and On Land And In The Sea exemplify that the very best. | | 6 |  | Swans
The Seer
Another emotional 5. I’m sure everyone has that one record they listened to that really opened the doors on what was out there. For me it was this, and it was more like a battering ram that knocked them off the hinges. Music didn’t have to sound pretty. Music could be disgusting. Atonal. Music could scare the shit out of you. A band could play the same pounding chord for ten minutes straight and no one could stop them! And they could follow all that up with the gentlest, softest tracks they could possibly muster. Music could be cathartic Like, really cathartic. Not like relatable lyrics or something, no - there is music that you really can feel in your soul, in your entire body. And all those things can be on one album. If I sound dramatic its because The Seer is dramatic, and even though it isn’t #1, it means a lot to me. | | 7 |  | Sweet Trip
You Will Never Know Why
Sweet Trip all but abandon the glitch and IDM of VDC, effectively deconstructing their own sound to create one of the most underrated shoegaze (dream pop?) albums that exists in this world. It’s as if they unearthed all the dreamy melodies that were covered in bleep-bloops on their previous record, threw some really depressing lyrics on it, then released it into the wild for people to hear, mouths agape. | | 8 |  | Deltron 3030
Deltron 3030
Before experiencing Kanye’s MBDTF, i wasn’t big on hip-hop. But 13-year old me had a thing for Tony Hawk games, and hearing Burnt led me on the path to discovering Deltron 3030. Del’s backpack style of rap fit to sci-fi is just a lot of fun over Dan The Automator’s slick futuristic hip-hop stylings. My oldest 5. | | 9 |  | M83
Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
It’s like a whole movie playing itself out in my head | | 10 |  | Fleetwood Mac
Rumours
It’s a miracle and a blessing that this album actually happened. What other instance is there of an established band with all of its members - five in this case - struggling with infidelity issues like Rumours era Fleetwood Mac was? And they all got to write songs about each other! Does that novelty factor in? Maybe, but regardless, Rumours is jam packed with classic songs. | | 11 |  | Pink Floyd
Wish You Were Here
Not to split hairs, but I think that a lot of Pink Floyd’s discography is overrated...Except Wish You Were Here. Bookended by the timeless acts of Shine On You Crazy Diamond, this album is absolutely essential 70’s prog listening. SOYCD is some of the most emotional stuff the band has ever put out, and the title track is an ode to a fallen comrade that everyone, whether they like it or not, will relate to at some point and time. The other two tracks act as striking criticisms of the music industry, with Welcome to the Machine acting as the ominous, brooding underbelly of fame and Have A Cigar mocking every record exec that has ever existed. | | 12 |  | Prince Daddy and The Hyena
Cosmic Thrill Seekers
Only album I’ve ever five’d immediately. CTS is fronted by a man with a shit-ton of anxiety, and that comes across clear as day. Aside from surprisingly catchy lyrics fraught with panic, the instrumentation here slaps. It’s just crunchy, loud, pop-punk, and it’s played well enough. It’s an album I’ve learned the lyrics to almost by heart now because the whole thing is so scarily relatable. | | 13 |  | Pixies
Doolittle
Classic rock. The quiet-loud-quiet formula is fun here. Mr. Frank Black shouts like a madman over jams like Debaser, screams like an animal on tracks like I Bleed, and his southern inflection is humorously comforting on tracks like Here Comes Your Man and La La Love You. The jumps in tone from song to song are almost haphazard in nature, and that’s part of the fun. | | 14 |  | Nujabes
Luv(sic) Hexalogy
A testament to love, music, and the man responsible for the beats in the first place. | | 15 |  | MF DOOM
Special Herbs: The Box Set
There is more than enough content on the special herbs box set that is insanely relistenable. An amount such that the whole thing is deserving of a 5. Personal favorites: Arabic Gum, Coffin Nails, Coriander, Orange Blossoms, Zatar. | | 16 |  | Daft Punk
Discovery
I think for a while I had this five’d because it was intertwined in my head with the animation (Interstella 5555, a fun watch tbh) that went along with it. I had worried that the album wouldn’t be 5 worthy upon relisten. However, as One More Time blended into Aerodynamic I realized that, no, this album fucking slaps. This amalgamation of house, disco, and pop puts Daft Punk in the electronic music pantheon. | | 17 |  | Florence and the Machine
Ceremonials
Welch has excellent control of her voice, and the melodies her and her machine conjure up on Ceremonials are all ethereal, beautiful, and gripping. This is in no small part due to the absolutely bombastic instrumentals. There are so many stadium-sized rhythms all over this thing, and it makes it resonate just a bit more, just a bit harder. | |
aydross121
04.22.20 | Never heard of Cardiacs before, looks interesting | JohnnyoftheWell
04.22.20 | Really need to listen to Cardiacs, they've been on the edge of my radar for years. Also 7, keep putting that off bc I loved the glitchy bits on 4 most
I remember 12 being pretty cool but a long way from an insta-5, good shit tho. Good list | bloaf38
05.15.21 | 2, 6, 10, 11, and 13 are all great. | parksungjoon
05.15.21 | rank someone else's next! |
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