verdant
owl beanie
Emeritus

Reviews 107
Approval 98%

Soundoffs 43
Album Ratings 429
Objectivity 63%

Last Active 11-27-20 3:47 am
Joined 04-14-17

Review Comments 2,492

 Lists
02.13.19 everyone's having a really groovy time 12.04.18 My End of Year List ♦
11.13.18 life ending patent pending (13/11/2018)09.01.18 TOP 200 BEST GTA FAILS EVER (1/9/2018) ♦
08.02.18 if the sink ships (2/8/2018) ♦07.21.18 99 problems (21/7/18)
07.07.18 one foot in the time capsule (7/7/2018) ♦06.20.18 new single from this band that i play i
06.17.18 beautiful rocks, inviting hard places ( ♦06.04.18 billy corgan calls in sick for hallowee ♦
05.22.18 checking in (22/5/2018) ♦04.14.18 one year sputnik anniversary ♦
04.02.18 placeholder (it is early april, 2018) ♦12.09.17 helo this is what i liked most in 2017
10.24.17 YouTube10.15.17 An Education: Electronic
09.11.17 i got a new job :sunglasses:09.04.17 An Education: Post Punk/Noise Rock
More »

Mirth

a counterbalance -- to examine (or bloviate about) happy songs of all shapes. Zip has kindly curated a playlist to run parallel to your suggestions: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL23rq3_I_0-T4J-nKpI5cK_LtKWU61dv6
1Snowpoet
Butterfly

Always

building a pillow fort into the best parts of the past and then nestling into it. a cacophonous saxophonist frames your understanding.

probably my favourite song currently.
2Jeff Rosenstock
We Cool?

Nausea

“switchiiiiiiiing, between porn and Robocop” – sounds like happiness, no? I don’t know, the major chord progression here is so jaunty and ebullient that these lyrics about self-destruction (and self-pity) feel like I’m-the-king-of-this-shithole affirmations. Anthems for the working man, who’d rather sit around and get high than actually work.
3Kero Kero Bonito
Bonito Generation

Flamingo

(sorry calc, aaron)

there is a noticeable distinction between carefree and careless. a slide whistle centrepiece is carefree, writing this song off is careless. a saccharinely positive hook skipping up the staircase of a default plugin is carefree, elitism is careless.
4Feist
The Reminder

1234

a celebration of bad things overriding good things and good things arising from bad things. Straight folk-pop from the epicentre of the social scene and it is amazing. you’ve heard it aplenty.
5Faker
Addicted Romantic

Hurricane

nostalgia is built on phonetic singalongs and/or some autographs on a crumpled-up piece of paper. mid-2000s Australian radio could sometimes bridge a fairly significant generational gap, but now it has a comparatively narrow line of sight. a child’s drawing of a yin-yang.
6John Carney
Sing Street OST

Drive It Like You Stole It

a highly calculated, artificially sweet, exploitation of young love and the fervour of possible futures. made whole by a completely hammy, retro guitar solo, glib backing vocals and its careful position at the apex of the film’s emotional arc. but alas, I smile and I let my proverbial hair down as far as the real thing.
7MisterWives
Reflections

Reflections

someone smuggled confetti and party poppers into limbo. there’s cotton-candy sweetness but there is no shame – just the thrashing of limbs and a black-and-blue attempt at karaoke. a voice to break the glass ceiling.
8Broken Social Scene
Broken Social Scene

Our Faces Split The Coast In Half

we've all stumbled upon a crowd in high-spirits. my favourite BSS song drunkenly pirouettes around sharp left turns and ends up in places more effervescent and triumphant than the ones it leaves behind. a fluid structure but a tight performance, clearing a path in the bush and arriving at the open plain that is this record.
9The Most
At Once

Chryskylodon

a song of innumerable tiny moving parts; too busy focused on keeping a veritable bag of marbles together to pay any heed to the negativity that surrounds it. i’m beginning to see a paradigm: there are already more horns, saxophones in particular, in this list than appeared in the entirety of the previous one.

correlation or causation?
10mclusky
The Difference Between Me and You...

She Will Only Bring You Happiness

should I be laughing at that coda? probably not, but this song is a constant reminder that incising your inhibitions is both liberating and necessary for appreciating why they are there in the first place. hilariously meta and ironically upbeat in the context of the record – a welcome respite from whatever, whenever.
11Milo
A Toothpaste Suburb

In Gaol

hey dude, you like this weird rap song? i do. painfully self-referential as it wanders around under a light drizzle. charismatically monotone; a wide, cheeky smile evoked by oxymorons and light-hearted non-sequiturs. fuck the beatles, go Yoko.
12The Beatles
Revolver

Eleanor Rigby

actually, no. the beatles are a bit good. the lamenting lyrics fail to undermine the expansiveness of the music. the strings, majestic – an incorrigible sense of company surrounding both the listener and the track’s protagonists; hands stretching into the afterlife.

revolver is the beatles' best album.
13Animal Collective
Merriweather Post Pavilion

My Girls

a song to teach you what euphoria *really* means. Reaching the highest peaks so as to monitor the lowest of troughs, an unassuming paean vis-à-vis the banality of materialism. or – AnCo creating a labyrinth just so lennox can burn a trail straight to its centre.
14R.E.M.
Automatic for the People

Nightswimming

halcyon days awash in a lone streetlight. looking forward hopefully but thinking back fondly. the piano bounces all over the place, emblematic of teenage excitement; careless decisions only considered after they’ve been made.
15The Books
Lost And Safe

Smells Like Content

floating quietly down a river, on its back, eyes closed, contemplating the universes inside a reflection. sounds like content.
16IU
Palette

dlwlrma

(thanks calc, aaron)

if i die prematurely i'd like it to be because i overdosed on sugar. this song is seraphic, but with a sense of humour -- an angel on her day off.
17BADBADNOTGOOD
IV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tylZcUjo1gQ

a pet fly / a live session to end all live sessions / circular breathing as if it's the only means of survival / a flurry of notes so breakneck it'll give you whiplash.
18Noname
Telefone

Yesterday

a little thing to save your soul, because the little things are the only things that will fit. jazz-rap for a sunday afternoon; sheepish but kind, impressive but never ostentatious. i would like to be friends with noname.
19Kings of Convenience
Riot on an Empty Street

contrarily, this is a quiet epiphany on a bustling street. lyrics evocative but to the point, engendering the shifting of a relationship's foundations until all feels whole again. slowly inflating like a balloon with empathy.
20Cosmo Jarvis
Is The World Strange Or Am I Strange?

Mel's Song

the only way to combat mortification is to bury it under blankets of humour until it becomes a story to tell the grandkids. she never wants to see you again, but that's okay.

(this song is from humasyouhitch/sonofabitch, but i can't be bothered adding it to the database. i have my limits u know)
21Baths
Cerulean

Aminals

thanks cone

a song that perfectly encapsulates the name of the record.

uhhhh, other than that:

"I try explain this type of music to my friends.. but I just don't have the vocabulary yet." - some YouTube commenter.
22Jack's Mannequin
Everything in Transit

I'm Ready

thanks DNS

running after the train that's carrying the one that got away. all seems lost until they stick a hand out the window to wave, as if to say: "i'll be back for you soon".
23Kamasi Washington
The Epic

Truth

thanks unique

"the truth is a golden rectangle" / my living room gets bigger, more colourful, and i feel like i'm taking a glass elevator up to the sky on a cloudless day. there is not one space this piece does not occupy. listen.

(not actually on The Epic)
24Jawbreaker
24 Hour Revenge Therapy

Indictment

thanks pjorn

in the interest of symmetry: dumb fun in the form of scuzzy chords and a basic rock beat. self-awareness can lead to self-consciousness, but Jawbreaker balance the scales by throwing a party on the lighter side.
25Black 47
Fire Of Freedom

Funky Ceili (Birdie's Song)
thanks diva

for dancing on pub tables deep into the afternoon. it sounds like an effective, but no less momentary distraction; like caffeine or a night out or an entire honeymoon period. hop, skip. jump.
26Clever Girl
No Drum And Bass in the Jazz Room

Elm

thanks asleep

i can picture myself in a friends basement somewhere watching these guys play live. any song that inadvertently evokes a happy place needs a lavish seat at the table and permanent tenancy.
27Luomo
Vocalcity

Tessio

thanks chortles

luomo is the pioneer of a genre i made up just now (because i'm an authority obviously) called beach-house. it's got nothing to do with dream-pop -- it's a brand of techno that flits around the relaxed joy one may feel while sitting on a balcony overlooking the ocean. actually, maybe its just some good laid-back electronic music.. either/or.
28Xenia Rubinos
Magic Trix

I Like Being Alone

thanks blushful

sticking fingers in her ears, xenia propounds what growing up is like from the perspective of someone who refuses to. irresistibly catchy.
29Mama Cass
Bubblegum, Lemonade, and... Something for Mama

Make Your Own Kind Of Music

thanks laeddis

trite and overzealous but inspiring all the same. i'm glad i'm doing these lists, i would never have found this of my own accord. it's all one song, there's just millions of interpretations.
30Ben Folds
Rockin' The Suburbs

Fired

thanks mars

the weight that freedom alleviates. a perfectly placed "YEAH" after telling the audience that "everyone here was fired" renders the experience one that looks towards liberty, instead of wallowing in self-pity.

(motherfuckkkkkeeeeererrrrr)
31Plini
The End of Everything

Paper Moon

thanks claire

bedroom prog that feels vast, but it's as approachable as a close friend. paradoxically finding comfort and warm welcome in the expansiveness of the cosmos.
32The Hold Steady
Separation Sunday

Your Little Hoodrat Friend

thanks satellite

apply snark to the affected area. laugh in the face of miscommunication. i love that music can just be an outlet -- there's a place for very simple songs because they grab simple emotions by the scruff of the neck, dealing with them accordingly and effectively.
33Landlady
The World Is A Loud Place

Hurricane

thanks frip

head-buzzing, vision blurring, throwback music. bright, bristling chords that stop and start at will turn this thing into a perpetual motion machine. it's cliche, but it feels like a mellow trip; you're being foisted into momentary bliss.
34Adrenalin O.D.
The Wacky Hi-Jinks Of Adrenalin O.D.

Rock And Roll Gas Station

thanks scuro

your idea of fun is filling up the car and then terrorizing the store clerk. heaven found in a dingy, trashed truck-stop. i do not condone drink driving.
35Earth, Wind & Fire
That's The Way of The World

Title Track

thanks brain

no rough edges on this one. the thing feels like it's always playing somewhere off in the distance while the sun rises in the morning, grooving around 70s disco touchstones, reinforcing stereotypes with a wry grin.
36Los Fabulosos Cadillacs
Vasos Vacios

Matador

thanks manuel

a whole town joining in with their favourite mariachi band, sending anthems up to the sky like they're the law of the land. who's reinforcing stereotypes now?
37The National
Alligator

Lit Up

thanks cylinder

there's something to say for the national's trajectory. because, in a way, a song like Lit Up sticks out like an early morning amongst a sea of days started at 3pm. it's probably the only song they've ever written in which the optimistic chorus doesn't feel destabilized by a concrete block of cigarette smoke. surprisingly, berninger doesn't have time for negative auras.
38British Sea Power
Do You Like Rock Music?

Lights Out For Darker Skies

thanks klap

i enjoy looking out the window with this song filling up the room. orange is seeping into the sky and i can see a busy nest sitting in a branch that peaks over my neighbours garden shed. here is optimism, running along the cracks in my bedroom wall.
39Kimbra
The Golden Echo

Miracle

thanks tempest

wind-in-your-hair type shit. skin that glows a radiant gold.
Show/Add Comments (90)

STAFF & CONTRIBUTORS // CONTACT US

Bands: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Site Copyright 2005-2023 Sputnikmusic.com
All Album Reviews Displayed With Permission of Authors | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy