4.5 superb |
A Tribe Called Quest The Low End Theory |
Aretha Franklin I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You |
Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution A Call To Arms |
Brian Eno Ambient 1: Music For Airports |
Camera Obscura My Maudlin Career |
Camera Obscura Let's Get Out of This Country |
Can Tago Mago |
Coldplay Parachutes |
Creedence Clearwater Revival Green River |
D'Angelo Brown Sugar |
Dispatch Silent Steeples |
Elliott Smith New Moon |
Elliott Smith Either/Or |
Elliott Smith Elliott Smith |
Elliott Smith From a Basement on the Hill |
Flogging Molly Swagger |
Frank Ocean Endless |
Girl Talk Feed the Animals |
Iron And Wine The Shepherd's Dog |
Janelle Monae The ArchAndroid |
Japandroids Celebration Rock |
John Mayer Continuum |
LCD Soundsystem This Is Happening |
Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin |
Michael Jackson Thriller |
My Bloody Valentine You Made Me Realise |
My Bloody Valentine Loveless |
Nick Drake Five Leaves Left |
Nick Drake Pink Moon |
Okkervil River Don't Fall In Love With Everyone You See |
Otis Redding Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul |
Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here |
Quasi Featuring "Birds" |
R.E.M. Automatic for the People |
R.E.M. Murmur |
Radiohead OK Computer |
Radiohead In Rainbows |
Radiohead Kid A |
Real Estate Real Estate |
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss Raising Sand |
Sam Cooke Portrait Of A Legend 1951-1964 |
Slint Spiderland |
Soundtrack (Film) O Brother, Where Art Thou? |
Spoon Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga |
Streetlight Manifesto Somewhere in the Between |
Streetlight Manifesto Everything Goes Numb |
Sufjan Stevens Carrie and Lowell |
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists Hearts of Oak |
The Avalanches Since I Left You |
The Beatles The Beatles |
The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band |
The Beatles Abbey Road |
The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour |
The Clash London Calling |
The Decemberists Picaresque |
The Dismemberment Plan Change |
The Olivia Tremor Control Music From The Unrealized Film Script |
The Radio Dept. Clinging to a Scheme |
"Heaven's on Fire" just floors me every time. Now with that song hitting a perfect balance of the Radio Dept.'s shoegaze haze, catchy hook-reaching and symphonic punch, where does that leave the rest of Clinging to a Scheme? Well, while never touching the success of "Heaven's on Fire," hooks abound, and the album's thoughtful indie pop is both tonally calming and instrumentally propulsive. When the band settles for reflective mood-setting ("A Token of Gratitude", "Memory Loss") the mix can get a bit drab, but when they dish out poppier offerings ("Heaven's on Fire", "David"), their sonic beauty is breathtaking. |
The Rolling Stones Some Girls |
The War On Drugs A Deeper Understanding |
The Weeknd House of Balloons |
Westerman Your Hero Is Not Dead |
Yuck Yuck |
4.0 excellent |
A Wilhelm Scream Career Suicide |
AC/DC Back In Black |
Air Moon Safari |
Alexi Murdoch Time Without Consequence |
Ambulance LTD. LP |
Animal Collective Strawberry Jam |
Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion |
Animal Collective Fall Be Kind |
Aphex Twin Syro |
Bad Brains Bad Brains |
Battles Mirrored |
Mirrored is from the future, I'm convinced. The band's precise math rock sounds like it was produced by machines being calculatedly operated by other machines. The album is largely instrumental and thrives on paranoia and suspense, creating a futuristic, non-human world that's probably more dystopian than utopian. The sparse lyrics are often indecipherable or decidedly opaque, so the album's "concept" comes from the flickering electronics, mesmerizing guitars, and pounding drums and cymbals which drive the action, altogether saying more than words could. On "Atlas," the effect-ridden vocals of Tyondai Braxton tell us all we need to know: "People won't be people when they hear this sound." |
Ben Folds Five Whatever and Ever, Amen |
Boards of Canada Music Has the Right to Children |
Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago |
Built to Spill Keep It Like a Secret |
Camera Obscura Biggest Bluest Hi Fi |
Circulatory System Circulatory System |
Creedence Clearwater Revival Willy and the Poor Boys |
Death Cab for Cutie Narrow Stairs |
Delorean Subiza |
Dr. Dog Shame, Shame |
Not much is different for Dr. Dog since 2008's Fate, as the band is still glorifying their '60s pop rock idols, but the formula works better here. The songs distinguish themselves much better and instrumentation is a bit more varied, producing great tracks like "Where'd All the Time Go" and "Jackie Wants a Black Eye". Whether it's something the band have never been able to accomplish after six albums or if it's just in their DNA (I think the latter), Dr. Dog still doesn't have the teeth to make them a breakthrough group. But Shame, Shame is an easy rock pleasure, and sometimes that's really all you need. |
Dreamies Auralgraphic Entertainment |
Elliott Smith Roman Candle |
Faraquet The View From This Tower |
Fleet Foxes Fleet Foxes |
Fleet Foxes Sun Giant |
Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues |
Fleetwood Mac Rumours |
Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac |
Free Energy Stuck On Nothing |
Fugazi 13 Songs |
Fugazi End Hits |
fun. Aim and Ignite |
Girl Talk Night Ripper |
Girls Album |
Goo Goo Dolls Dizzy Up The Girl |
Gorillaz Plastic Beach |
Guided by Voices Bee Thousand |
Guster Keep It Together |
Incubus (USA-CA) S.C.I.E.N.C.E. |
Iron And Wine Our Endless Numbered Days |
Jack Johnson Brushfire Fairytales |
Jack Johnson In Between Dreams |
Jack's Mannequin Everything in Transit |
James Blake James Blake |
James Taylor Greatest Hits |
Japandroids Post-Nothing |
Jeff Rosenstock POST- |
John Mayer Where the Light Is |
John Mayer Trio Try! |
Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison |
Kacey Musgraves Pageant Material |
Kacey Musgraves Same Trailer Different Park |
Kacey Musgraves Golden Hour |
Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy |
There's no telling where the melodramatic saga of Kanye West will go from here, but My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, his magnum opus, is the culmination of all the hubris, all the contradictions of image, all the public meltdowns, and all the inner demons and paranoia made public from life under a magnifying glass. As someone who was not particularly enthralled by West's antics or music until buzz tracks for Twisted Fantasy started dropping, this album has floored me in its excitement, honesty and boundary-bending ambition. "Power" indulges West's self-glorifying tendencies to startling impact, "Devil in a New Dress" gorgeously samples Smokey Robinson's "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?", and centerpiece "Runaway" closes on several minutes of auto-tuned, destroyed vocals that is riveting in its opaqueness. West raps with a confidence reflected in his music and the guest appearances shine brightly, especially Nicki Minaj's scorched-earth verse on "Monster", John Legend's graceful piano and singing on "Blame Game", and the numerous contributions of Bon Iver's (?!) Justin Vernon, which includes the generous donation of his song "Woods" for West's re-imagining in "Lost in the World". You could say Dark Fantasy is a game-changer in hip hop, and it should be, but perhaps it's not. Instead maybe it's just a stand-alone masterwork from an artist in a league all his own. |
Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin IV |
Mad Caddies Just One More |
Great great album, and the best from the Mad Caddies. Here the band matures their sound (with better production and more mature subject matters) while incorporating a number of secondary genres that make for a more diverse listen than prior albums. Above all, however, the band remains extremely catchy and sports strong hooks throughout the record, which is unfortunately more than can be said for their more recent outing "Keep It Going." Nostalgic bursts of raw punk, like the regrettable "Contraband" and "Riot," ironically don't fair too well here, as the smarter, more sophisticated slow grooves like "Drinking for 11" and "Spare Change?" steal the show. |
Male Bonding Nothing Hurts |
Max Tundra Mastered by the Guy at the Exchange |
Michael Jackson Off the Wall |
Minor Threat Complete Discography |
Neon Indian Psychic Chasms |
Neutral Milk Hotel In the Aeroplane Over the Sea |
Nick Drake Bryter Layter |
Nickel Creek Nickel Creek |
Nirvana Nevermind |
Nirvana was huge in broadening my musical horizons. It was through this band that I really looked into music that was beyond my comfort zone (which then was mostly country music, which i still enjoy however). I was appropriately introduced to Nirvana through their radio hits and then this album itself, which I love. Beyond just myself, it brought alternative music into the mainstream and generally is a landmark in rock music. Great album, but I would discover that things got even better with In Utero, which I consider a stronger release. |
Nirvana Nirvana |
Nirvana With the Lights Out |
No Age Losing Feeling |
O.A.R. In Between Now And Then |
Oasis (What's the Story) Morning Glory? |
Okkervil River Black Sheep Boy |
Okkervil River The Stage Names |
Oneohtrix Point Never Garden of Delete |
Panda Bear Person Pitch |
Parquet Courts Light Up Gold |
Parquet Courts Sunbathing Animal |
Pinegrove Cardinal |
Pink Floyd The Wall |
Pink Floyd Meddle |
Pixies Doolittle |
Pixies Trompe Le Monde |
Portishead Dummy |
Q and Not U No Kill No Beep Beep |
R.E.M. Lifes Rich Pageant |
R.E.M. New Adventures in Hi-Fi |
R.E.M. Fables of the Reconstruction |
Radiohead The Bends |
Reel Big Fish Turn the Radio Off |
Reel Big Fish Why Do They Rock So Hard? |
Rites of Spring Rites of Spring |
Rogue Wave Descended Like Vultures |
Sebadoh Bakesale |
Smith Westerns The Smith Westerns |
Soccer Mommy Clean |
Sublime Sublime |
Sufjan Stevens Illinois |
Sufjan Stevens Michigan |
Surfer Blood Astro Coast |
Tame Impala Currents |
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists The Tyranny of Distance |
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists Shake The Sheets |
The Beach Boys Pet Sounds |
The Beatles Rubber Soul |
The Beatles Revolver |
The Decemberists Castaways and Cutouts |
The Decemberists The Hazards of Love |
The Dismemberment Plan The Dismemberment Plan Is Terrified |
The Dismemberment Plan ! |
The Morning Benders Big Echo |
The New Pornographers Mass Romantic |
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart The Pains of Being Pure at Heart |
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart Higher Than the Stars |
The Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers |
The Shins Chutes Too Narrow |
The Shins Oh, Inverted World |
The Thermals The Body, The Blood, The Machine |
Tierra Whack Whack World |
Umphrey's McGee Anchor Drops |
UNKLE Psyence Fiction |
Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend |
Vampire Weekend Contra |
Weezer Pinkerton |
Wilco Yankee Hotel Foxtrot |
3.5 great |
2Pac The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory |
A.A.L. (Against All Logic) 2012-2017 |
Arcade Fire The Suburbs |
At the Drive-In Relationship of Command |
Basia Bulat Oh, My Darling |
Beck Sea Change |
Ben Folds Rockin' The Suburbs |
Ben Folds Five The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner |
Bibio Ambivalence Avenue |
blink-182 Enema Of The State |
Built to Spill You in Reverse |
Built to Spill Perfect from Now On |
Candy Claws Hidden Lands |
Coldplay Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends |
Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile Lotta Sea Lice |
Cymbals Eat Guitars Why There Are Mountains |
Death Cab for Cutie Plans |
Death Cab for Cutie Transatlanticism |
Dewey Cox Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story |
Dirty Projectors Bitte Orca |
Dispatch Who Are We Living For? |
Dom (USA) Sun Bronzed Greek Gods |
Ducktails Landscapes |
Dum Dum Girls I Will Be |
dvsn Sept. 5th |
Elton John Greatest Hits 1970-2002 |
Eric's Trip Love Tara |
Feist The Reminder |
Five Iron Frenzy Our Newest Album Ever! |
Flight of the Conchords Flight of the Conchords |
Guster Lost And Gone Forever |
Heatmiser Mic City Sons |
Incubus (USA-CA) Morning View |
Incubus (USA-CA) Make Yourself |
Iron And Wine The Creek Drank the Cradle |
Iron And Wine Around the Well |
Iron And Wine Kiss Each Other Clean |
Jack Johnson On and On |
Jane's Addiction Nothing's Shocking |
jj jj n° 2 |
Jukebox the Ghost Let Live & Let Ghosts |
Jurassic 5 Quality Control |
Kraus End Tomorrow |
KT Tunstall Drastic Fantastic |
Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin III |
Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin II |
Led Zeppelin Physical Graffiti |
Liam Finn I'll Be Lightning |
Lily Allen Alright, Still |
Little Joy Little Joy |
Local Natives Gorilla Manor |
Mac DeMarco This Old Dog |
Manic Street Preachers Send Away The Tigers |
Marvin Gaye What's Going On |
Matchbox Twenty Mad Season |
Matchbox Twenty Yourself or Someone Like You |
Michael Jackson Bad |
Miniature Tigers Tell It To The Volcano |
Miranda Lambert Crazy Ex-Girlfriend |
Monsters of Folk Monsters of Folk |
Moss Icon Lyburnum Wits End Liberation Fly |
Neko Case Fox Confessor Brings The Flood |
Nickel Creek This Side |
No Age Nouns |
of Montreal White Is Relic/Irrealis Mood |
Okkervil River The Stand Ins |
Okkervil River Golden Opportunities Mixtape |
Paul Simon Graceland |
Pavement Slanted and Enchanted |
Phoenix (FRA) Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix |
Pixies Surfer Rosa |
Porcupine Tree Fear of a Blank Planet |
Radiohead Hail to the Thief |
Radiohead Amnesiac |
Rage Against the Machine Rage Against the Machine |
Raphael Saadiq The Way I See It |
Ride Nowhere |
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin Pershing |
Something Corporate Leaving Through The Window |
Soundtrack (Film) Across the Universe |
Spoon Gimme Fiction |
State Radio Year of the Crow |
Streetlight Manifesto Everything Goes Numb Demo |
Streetlight Manifesto 99 Songs of Revolution: Volume I |
The exuberance feels spur-of-the-moment, but each Streetlight release has spent a good while in the incubator under Tomas Kalnoky's care. He and the rest of the ska punk outfit, arguably the most exciting and unique on the scene today, love to tease fans with delayed releases and several years between LPs. So some skepticism could be in order as the band's efforts are now focused on a 99 song, 8 album project of cover songs. Yes, it could be a while until we get original tunes from Kalnoky's pen, but beggars can't be choosers. Besides, it's hard to dislike the project's first installment, as the band's signature frenzy makes for innovative and fun remakes. In particular check out their chaotic take on Radiohead's "Just", a friendlier version of Bad Religion's "Skyscraper", and damn clever retooling of Postal Service hit "Such Great Heights". |
Sublime Robbin' the Hood |
Sublime Second Hand Smoke |
Sufjan Stevens The Avalanche: Outtakes and Extras |
Sufjan Stevens The Age of Adz |
Taylor Swift Fearless |
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists The Brutalist Bricks |
The Black Keys Attack & Release |
The Dodos Visiter |
The Explorers Club Freedom Wind |
The Fall of Troy Doppelganger |
The Flaming Lips At War with the Mystics |
The Lonely Island Incredibad |
The Mars Volta De-Loused in the Comatorium |
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones Let's Face It |
The New Pornographers Electric Version |
The New Pornographers Twin Cinema |
The Pipettes We Are The Pipettes |
The Promise Ring Nothing Feels Good |
The Snake The Cross The Crown Cotton Teeth |
The Specials Specials |
The Thermals More Parts Per Million |
Toadies Rubberneck |
Tracy Chapman Tracy Chapman |
U.S. Girls In A Poem Unlimited |
Wavves King of the Beach |
Ween The Mollusk |
Yeasayer Odd Blood |
3.0 good |
A Tribe Called Quest Midnight Marauders |
AC/DC Highway To Hell |
Animal Collective Feels |
This is pretty good. I've heard this and Strawberry Jam and prefer the latter. I don't like the album's order with the longer, quieter tracks filling up the second half because they seem to run together too much and become a bit boring. Despite the ever-present freak sound effects and ambient noises that play in their songs that create a cool environment, they don't impress much after a while when not much happens. The first half of the album up to "Bees" and the closer "Turn into Something" are great, but the longer tracks really drag it down. Strawberry Jam is more accessible and exciting. |
Bad Religion The Process of Belief |
Bad Religion Stranger Than Fiction |
Beach Fossils Beach Fossils |
It's more lo-fi, lazy summer music in the vein of Real Estate. Guitars jangle and interweave, beach bum vocals echo, and the tambourine rattles with glee. Unfortunately, Beach Fossils is so sun-bleached it virtually dissipates, as there's little substantial about the melodies, lyrics, or any insight on the band itself. The album's psychedelic fog and easy aesthetic are certainly chill to the core (and for that lo-fi summer sound I'm absolutely a sucker) but as each melody meanders by in about the same fashion as the last, the album progresses by walking in place. |
Beach House Teen Dream |
Belle and Sebastian Dear Catastrophe Waitress |
Ben Folds Songs for Silverman |
Ben Folds Supersunnyspeedgraphic |
Big Red Machine Big Red Machine |
Billy Joel The Stranger |
Blue Sky Black Death Late Night Cinema |
Broken Social Scene You Forgot It in People |
Burial Untrue |
Cap'n Jazz Analphabetapolothology |
Coldplay X&Y |
Coldplay A Rush of Blood to the Head |
Dinosaur Jr. Farm |
Dr. Dog Fate |
God Is an Astronaut Far from Refuge |
God Is an Astronaut All Is Violent, All Is Bright |
Gorillaz Gorillaz |
This album is pretty good, plenty of strong songs and good trip-hop beats, but there are also a good deal of duds. You can have both here because the album is, unfortunately, too long and a bit repetitive. It is however brought up by few really awesome songs, namely "Re-Hash," "5/4," "Slow Country" (my favorite), and "M1 A1." |
Gorillaz Demon Days |
Gorillaz G-Sides |
Grizzly Bear Veckatimest |
Guster Ganging Up on the Sun |
By Guster standards, this isn't that great of an album. Like everyone else is saying, the album is too drab and lifeless. But I think there are some excellent songs on here, and overall the album's mostly just inconsistent in terms of just basic quality. While I hate "Lightning Rod", the first half of the album (especially "Satellite," "Captain," and "Ruby Falls") is actually quite good. From "C'Mon" to "Beginning of the End," however, it's sounds completely lazy and unmemorable. Oddly enough, though, "Hang On" is one of my favorite Guster songs. |
Guster Goldfly |
Harvey Danger Little By Little... |
Horse Feathers Words Are Dead |
Jack Johnson Sleep Through the Static |
Jack's Mannequin The Glass Passenger |
Jane's Addiction Ritual De Lo Habitual |
Jet Shine On |
Ken Nordine Colors |
Kurt Vile Bottle It In |
Lily Allen It's Not Me, It's You |
Lonestar Lonely Grill |
Maritime We, the Vehicles |
Marvin Gaye Let's Get It On |
Massive Attack Blue Lines |
When I first heard this a few weeks ago, I was expecting this to be alot better than it turned out to be. While I respect it for its importance in founding trip-hop, numerous songs themselves leave much to be desired. While the generally soothing groove and instrumentation are good, the singing, despite often being upbeat, is what really brought the rating down for me. Many of the songs, namely "Safe From Harm" (the female's voice), "One Love," "Lately," and "Hymn of the Big Wheel" (which is by far the worst song here), are hurt by overdone vocals that sound very corny and dated. In contrast, "Blue Lines" is far and away the best song here, radiating pure cool with almost whispered rhymes for an incredible ambiance. Other than these songs, the trip-hop grooves are good, but not very memorable to me. Overall, this album has much less musical focus than their other major album Mezzanine, although I find that to be overrated as well. |
Massive Attack Mezzanine |
Max Richter The Blue Notebooks |
Medications Your Favourite People All in One Place |
Memory Tapes Seek Magic |
Metaform Standing on the Shoulders of Giants |
Millencolin Same Old Tunes |
Minus the Bear Planet of Ice |
Muse Black Holes & Revelations |
Nine Black Alps Everything Is |
Oh No! Oh My! Oh No! Oh My! |
Oneohtrix Point Never Age Of |
Polvo In Prism |
R.E.M. Accelerate |
R.E.M. Document |
R.E.M. Monster |
R.E.M. Out of Time |
Real Estate In Mind |
Red Hot Chili Peppers Blood Sugar Sex Magik |
Reel Big Fish Monkeys for Nothin' and The Chimps... |
Rise Against The Sufferer and the Witness |
RJD2 Deadringer |
She and Him Volume One |
She and Him Volume Two |
Special Explosion To Infinity |
State Radio Us Against the Crown |
Streetlight Manifesto Keasbey Nights |
Sufjan Stevens A Sun Came |
Sufjan Stevens All Delighted People |
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists Living With the Living |
The Dear Hunter Act I: The Lake South, the River North |
The Dear Hunter Act II: The Meaning of, & All Things Regarding Ms. Leading |
The Decemberists I’ll Be Your Girl |
The Dismemberment Plan A People's History of the Dismemberment Plan |
The Dismemberment Plan Uncanney Valley |
The Dodos Time to Die |
The Field Mice Where'd You Learn to Kiss That Way? |
The Fray How to Save a Life |
The Olivia Tremor Control The Giant Day |
The Raveonettes In and Out of Control |
The Shins Wincing the Night Away |
The Thermals Now We Can See |
Title Tracks It Was Easy |
Umphrey's McGee Safety In Numbers |
Visible Cloaks Reassemblage |
Wavves Wavvves |
Wet Don't You |
Why? Alopecia |
Yeasayer All Hour Cymbals |
2.5 average |
Ace of Base The Sign |
Animal Collective Sung Tongs |
Arctic Monkeys Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not |
Augustana All the Stars and Boulevards |
Avi Buffalo Avi Buffalo |
Bersarin Quartett Bersarin Quartett |
Caribou Andorra |
Cut Chemist The Audience's Listening |
Feral Children Second to the Last Frontier |
Fightstar Be Human |
Fugazi Steady Diet of Nothing |
Gorillaz D-Sides |
Guns N' Roses Appetite for Destruction |
Guster Easy Wonderful |
Japandroids Near To The Wild Heart Of Life |
Jet Get Born |
jj jj n° 3 |
Live Mental Jewelry |
Besides "Pain Lies on the Riverside," which is an absolutely bitchin' song, Mental Jewelry is largely bland and unmemorable. "Pain Lies on the Riverside" is by far the most enthusiastic and exciting track here, reaching epic proportions but remaining serious, urgent, and hard-rocking. "Operation Spirit (The Tyranny of Tradition)" and "Brothers Unaware" are decent tracks, but the rest of the album, while perhaps piquing interest at times, never yields lasting moments or enduring, enjoyable tunes. Regardless, considering this album directly precedes the band at their commercial (and perhaps critical) peak with Throwing Copper, loyal Live fans will more thoroughly enjoy Mental Jewelry. |
MGMT Oracular Spectacular |
Modest Mouse We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank |
Modest Mouse The Moon & Antarctica |
Nirvana Bleach |
O.A.R. Souls Aflame |
Oh No! Oh My! Between the Devil and the Sea |
Porcupine Tree Stupid Dream |
R.E.M. Collapse Into Now |
Rogue Wave Asleep at Heaven's Gate |
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin Let It Sway |
System of a Down Toxicity |
The Flaming Lips Hit To Death In The Future Head |
The Good, The Bad and The Queen The Good, The Bad & The Queen |
The Mars Volta Frances the Mute |
The Most Serene Republic Population |
The New Pornographers Challengers |
Titus Andronicus The Airing of Grievances |