So Much For The City

This was perfectly fine for what it is, which is something I'm not fond of. Thus a 2.5

Now that was some bullshit. But still significantly better than Mariah Carey’s bullshit.

Not as good as I remembered. Some lovely songs but very samey.

So many great songs on here! This encapsulates the 2000’s indie scene perfectly, and there’s some songs on here I can call some of my favorite! I’ll have to check these guys out more on my own time sometime soon.

la definición de mid, 2,5/5

All the songs sound the same

Dreamy Country surfer music about California from Ireland. Who thought that would be amazing? If Weezer decided to make a country inspired album after Pinkerton. A Wilco vibe. It really is confounding that this somehow works. They have songwriting skills that Nashville would kill for. Their songs do tend to blend together but if you're down with what they're putting down. It's all good. A pleasant surprise. 4

Cool, but not thrilling

This was pure nostalgia for me. When i saw it i was really confused how this was on the list but glad i relistened as i really enjoyed it again. Highlights were the singles.

Not too bad some good songs

Haven't heard of them. Truly unremarkable and inoffensive indie music. Just boring. Nothing more I can say about it 2/5

Soft och behaglig musik, Big Sur och Your Love Is Like Las Vegas bäst. 3,5 av 5.

Really fun, right up my alley. Not sure how this one passed .e by back in the day, tbh.

Ehh I’ll come back to it. First impression vote- 2.8

Temu Beach Boys

Good stuff. Somewhere right in the middle of country and alt-rock, with plenty of space to hear the lyrics.

Hmmm. Zj sm pri četrtem komadu ("Deckchairs and Cigarettes" - k je soliden, boljš k prejšnji komadi). Vajb je očiten, late 60s American pop, me je pa glas pevca oziroma njegovo izgovarjanje besed zmotilo že fakin takoj. To je nek ta early 2000s način petja, k mi že takrat ni potegnil. (Ne bi dojela sama od sebe, da so Irci.) Ugh no, k nek Beach Boys tribute band. S prbližn tok inovativnosti, kokr ga cover bandi imajo - nič.

So soft, it wouldn’t be even in the 5.000 best albums.

eh not bad

Blandly inoffensive. Out of context it would be perfectly fine. It's competently played and breezy. But the context is that this is an album you absolutely must hear and that couldn't be further from the truth.

What we have here ladies and gentlemen is the Silverchair of indie rock.

Good chill sound. Reminds me of Elliott Smith

1.83

It sounds like an Indie Rock/Pop album. It's a pretty good album and it sounds really good! It's got it's own unique sound that it can only really fit into the broadband genre of Indie music. Wonderful album!

Yeah I’m gonna pass. I really question how some albums get on this list. You’re telling me this album is in the same category as Hendrix, The Beatles and Stevie Wonder? Yeah…sure, Jan.

This sounds like an Irish knockoff of Guster mixed with a bit of Doves. It's pretty bland overall, and nothing here really stands out enough to make me want to give it another listen.

Loved this, Nice indie/chill rock sound

This album could be the poster child for this UK- centric list. An album that reaches number 1 in Ireland and top 3 in Scotland and the UK, and does fuck all in the rest of the world. It’s about what you’d expect from some local bar band, provided the town was very small, and the bar not the best one in town, and the patrons too drunk to care. And it takes 7 of them to make this flaccid drivel.

Dimery clearly needed to fill his last few spots with recent albums for the first edition of the book, looked at a list of somewhat well-reviewed albums from 2003, and randomly picked out this super forgettable album by guys who went to California once and musically just copied the Flaming Lips.

The Thrills' debut album start off with three upbeat tracks. They're clearly indie pop songs, very giddy and bouncy, but there are plenty of country elements in all of them. They feel very jammy, and go on stomping for quite a while after it feels like the last chorus should have ended. The fourth track introduces the second kind of song here, which is half country ballad, half indie rock piano ballad. Like the others it kind of stays in its lane and feels a bit long. Nothing much changes after that: this is very fun indie pop that doesn't do anything that will wow you but also doesn't make any mistakes. The vocals sound like an emo Wayne Coyne and can enhance the songs in the right places. Not super memorable, but still an enjoyable listen.

70s folk radio vibe; nice album.

The Thrills sound more like Americana than Alternative, but since they’re from Ireland, does that make it Irishana? Irelanda? Whatever you want to call it, I’m not entirely sold. I’m also not a huge fan of their lead singer, who sounds like he wandered in from The Flaming Lips and somehow ended up fronting an Americana band. So Much for the City was fine. Nothing offensive, nothing particularly memorable, and certainly nothing that moved any mountains. It came, it went, and I’m not sure I’ll be missing it.

If you need something so middle of the road that you forgot you even started to listen to it, this one's for you. Big Sur seemed familiar for some reason, but I can't place why. I didn't find this particularly exciting or interesting, but you might.

This music makes for nice relaxing background music, the lyrics are definitely background music worthy. A lot about their time in California

Santa Cruz (You're Not That Far) - 75 Big Sur - 78 Don't Steal Our Sun - 77 Deckchairs And Cigarettes - 77 One Horse Town - 76 Old Friends, New Lovers - 73 Say It Ain't So - 82 Hollywood Kids - 68 Just Traveling Through - 71 Your Love Is Like Las Vegas - 73 Till The Tide Creeps In - 72 Plans - 74 So Much For The City - 73

Big Sur

I cant finish this, I hate the singer. It's a bit unfortunate because there is some fun genre mixing going on but it gets dominated by a strong western vibe which pushes it into indifference for me. Also, fuck the singer.

Actually really enjoyed this. Very pleasant listening

If this twee Belle and Sebastian rip-off wasn't so preoccupied with name dropping Californian cities it would have scored higher for me. Shocking to find out they're Irish and, frankly, I'm not sure if that makes the California obsession better or worse.

i like what they're doing with this album enough, but we get it...you went to california. some of their songs also felt kind of repetitive, but liked "old friends, new lovers".

Not on Apple Music but need rating to move on

redelijk

With the exception of the vocals (you can tell they're not Welsh because there are seven of them and HE'S the best singer) they nailed the sound; and it's really well recorded. But there is nothing original, memorable, interesting, or emotionally engaging going on here. Classic Dimery that (700 albums in) Yacht Rock is unrepresented, but I should listen to this weird, 2003, imitation of the vibe.

Wasn't awful, but also wasn't interesting. The lyrics are very bad at times too.

A significantly worse version of Bright Eyes Best Song: Big Sur Rating: 5/10 Stars: 3

I got this album the day after The Monkees. Which band was the fake one singing light airy Beatles-inspired pop songs about a 1960s California that never existed? I’m so confused… 2⭐️

Larping at its best, but the music isnt (2.0/5.0)

This sounds like almost every other pop rock album from the early 2000s. Some are done a lot better. Rooney and Fountains of Wayne better have made this list if this album did. 1.5/5

Judged this album by the cover and got exactly what I expected. This is some of the most 2003 sounding indie rock I've ever heard. Common sense and taste prevailed in handing the Mercury Prize to Dizzee Rascal’s Boy In Da Corner, an album thousands of times more listenable than this dross. I’m so bored.

This one reminded me of early college days watching The O.C. Turns out that the band was on an episode playing 3 songs. It really conjured up some nostalgia.

4/10

I couldn't get through 3 songs. Just did nothing for me.

Had never heard of. But enjoyed it

It was ok. Slightly dull repetitive lyrics. I’ve never heard of them before. 2.5

Interesting. Sounds like Drive By Truckers but Irish?

Trashy yankee wannabe

Listenable, but not great or memorable.

music is love

It started out good and I really liked some of the first couple songs. After that however it kinda fell off and became mediocre at best.

It was... okay. It started out nice but dwindled down relatively quickly and became really unremarkable. Had so much potential, it's sad.

I don’t think this album belongs on this list, it strikes me as extremely derivative and cutesy and borderline cynical but I am extending grace and choosing to believe that these Irish lads were just that overwhelmed by California. I’ve from the west coast and have never understood the allure of the Golden State but if you’re from Ireland I guess I can see the appeal. Anyway I don’t think it deserves 3.5 stars but I’m giving it 3.5 stars anyway because I am not a discerning music consumer and I REALLY enjoyed listening to it lol my neurons are activated by the jangly indie sound and Flaming Lips lite vocals like the monkey in that meme picture. Will presumably disappear completely from my memory by Monday but I played it in the background all day and it was super duper easy listening. And then I put on Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots for the real fix. Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “Plans” (cheeky cheeky to have a little hidden track in there)

Help! I’m trapped in a filler episode of Scrubs.

Fellas, they're calling it the most los angeles california album to ever exist Despite my general grumpiness about media where it seems like the world begins and ends in southern california, I really liked this album. I am a sucker for harmonica, lush instrumental layering, and harmonization, and this album really delivered that with some jangle. Its cute, its sweet, I can imagine putting this on for a day at work if I wanted to roleplay being some mediocre white guy with soulful eyes working a dead end office job in the early 2000s. Really hard to choose between three and four stars for this one, but the more I sit on it the more I feel like its a four to me. I liked it, it was sweet and soulful. Likelihood that the members of this band lezzed out IMO: tricky tricky one, they seem very soulful and tender which makes you think they might be being tender with Each Other, but honestly the amount they sing about LA, which is in my mind the straightest city on earth (I don't want your opinions these are my opinions) makes me give them a 1/5. womp womp. sometimes the soulful ones are straight.

had me for a second there, because like ooooh i love this type of shit, flaming lips wilco pilled elliot smith wannabe singer early 2000s neil young inspired indie folk twee bullshit etc… but as i listened it quickly soured realized yeah this is like those but there’s something about it that just feels kind of way shittier? shallow saccharine artifice but not in a cool way, started to dip into the uncanny valley for me if that makes sense it’s upsetting because on paper i should love this, the instrumentals are very good but they should just be irish instead of trying to be american it’s way less cool to be american dude. anyway got one listen down and that’s enough for me gonna put on more adventurous (should be on the list instead of this) and go from there for the day

Yeah, it's alright. Seems to have some good material and doesn't quite grab me. Worth a revisit.

I'd forgotten about this band, that my kneejerk reaction to seeing the name was "landfill indie". They're a bit better than that, but more like a poor man's Grandaddy. Another one of those inoffensive albums that doesn't exactly scream "must hear before you die". Very adjacent to great stuff, but consistently fails to hit the mark. Kind-of enjoyable though, whilst somewhat throwaway, so maybe give it a generous bump up to a 3.

So, here’s the good news about this album. It’s not bad. Why am I starting a review by saying that?? Well, you see, there’s not a lot that I can really even say about this album that I haven’t said about multiple other similar sounding albums before it. Instead, I’m going to choose to focus on the fact that this is an Irish band that doesn’t sound exactly the same as the other few Irish bands I’ve listened to so far. So while yes, it manages to sound like multiple other Indie Rock albums, it doesn’t sound like the other Irish albums, and that’s a very good thing. Listen, I’m down to vibe with my heritage every now and then, but the traditional sounding Irish songs just do nothing for me. They usually irritate me actually. This, however, is really refreshing. Hearing Indie Pop coming out of Ireland is cool, and I am actually glad it’s on here. I understand the representation getting some notice, and I agree with it as well. Bonus for the fact that it’s from the 2000’s, it’s nice. It’s also got the funny “hidden song” gimmick that was briefly popular at the time. Seeing how Spotify plays those is always interesting. There’s a slight pause during the last song while this one plays, which is a much better way of doing it than making you listen to like 5 minutes of silence. I dislike when Spotify does that a lot. The singer is ok. Not my favorite, but I do love that he’s Irish and can really tell, but he’s not overbearing about it. It’s not the focal point of the album. The instrumentation is usually pretty light and not noticeable, but the production and overall vibey nature of this album make it very fun. As for my favorite song. Damn. Good point in favor of the album that it’s between a few of them. If I had to pick though, I guess it would have to be “Don't Steal Our Sun”. Sounds like a King Gizzard song, which I think is awesome. Plus the little riff around the 2 minute mark is the coolest thing on the album. Alright, this was a fun little album from the homeland. It’s nothing special, but it was a nice little peaceful album and I’m glad I listened to it today. Thanks boys!! 🇮🇪🇮🇪

The harmonies are Monkees and Mama & Papas familiar, maybe, but just trying too hard. Overall, nothing particularly memorable or remotely trilling.

Too cheerful. Too many stupid sunny California songs. I had a horrible Monday and I just wasn’t in the mood for this. Still I don’t think this is like bad music. I probably would’ve been all into it in 2003.

This was riding between a 3 and a 4. Though the individual songs didn't stick with me, I really felt a surge of nostalgia listening to something so of-its-time, and I feel bad that so many reviews are shitting on it. So I'm goin' with four stars. What can I say, I'm a sucker for earnestness!

Sneakily good, I can see why people may not like it but I was pleasantly surprised

Nice!

If you want to play music that sounds like 70s, choose good 70s music.

I was initially nervous when I got a record I'd never heard of, by a band I'd never heard of, that was released during my peak late-teen music consumption years. Surely, if this album was truly important and influential, it would have remained in the zeitgeist for several years and I would have stumbled across it at some point, right? Like, Scrubs (the TV show) would have used one of these songs and I would have ended up with this record during the phase where I was mining the scrubs music catalog for new records. RIGHT?! Well, none of that happened and that's a shame because, based on my pre-2003 adoration of Pete Yorn's "musicforthemorningafter" and Beulah's "The Coast Is Never Clear" and my post-2003 adoration of all the folk-pop/indie rock music featured in Scrubs, I think I might have really embraced this album/band. By the time the harmonicas really start wailing in "'Til The Tide Creeps In", I'm absolutely sure I would have replayed this album an unquantifiable number of times in the late 00s.

Not feeling it.

It's fine? Pleasant enough. Inoffensive. But why is it on this list? Another hipster trying to pick something just to sound cool? Surely this is not an influential album...it's just kind of bland pop music. So I cannot possibly give it more than a 2.

The last couple of tracks have some pep, but overall it's kind of lugubrious

A little bit bubblegum-y, this is perfectly fine pop on a single listen. A bit like Badly Drawn Boy, without some of his weirdness. But I think the catchiness and their constant need to name check American cities (perhaps to underscore the wannabe Californian-ness of the well polished sound, vocal harmonies and even a direct lift of Monkees lyrics) would start to grate on repeated listens.

Like butter scraped over too much bread.

landfill indie at its finest

I'm just not a big fan of this style of music, but there's nothing exactly offensive about it. Just not my thing

This sounds like what would be used in a movie that can’t afford the rights to a Wilco song.

On the angsty side but fine.

Not so thrilling

Never did get to this yesterday. Gonna check it out now. I like this. It's funny reading about them. They are Irish, but wanna be Californians. lol Can't unhear the Irish accent. It has bright guitars, warm harmonies, wistful melodies, and that “summer is ending and I’m sad about it” vibe. lol 4 stars

Good album, not like my most favorite but not bad!

I don’t think I’d mind any of these songs in isolation but as an album it’s way too much. RYM: N Saved a song: N

Discovered this album in one of those Tower Records listening booths (I'm old). I've always liked it but hadn't heard it in a long long time. Pleasant sounding jams about how much these Irish boys like California.

Bastante carismático juvenil, pero no me convencen

Did not find much of a thrill here

Aquele Rock fresco de hipster millennial que eu…ADORO! Ha-ha, achou que eu ia criticar né? Logo eu? Poxa, eu sou bem chegado nessa voz nasal, na pós-ironia, na letras agridoces e nos instrumentais transgêneros. Me lembra do Flaming Lips. Mas até eu que curto essa sonoridade preciso admitir que um disco inteiro assim pode ser cansativo e ou monótono. Ali nas últimas faixas eu já estava exausto de tanta barba e luva preta para fazer hambúrguer mal passado. 4.5/5

Honestly not bad. I liked the instrumentation. Pretty chill album

No private session used for Spotify. There were no thrills on this album, it was another bland piece of work from this site which has me scratching my head about how they made this list.

Not in my edition of the book so! Not essential listening! 2003. 2 stars. Limp millennium pop that wishes it could travel in time to the 60s. Some OK tunes, but it's soulless and the singer has a really annoying voice.

*high pitched whispery whiney voice* thiiiisssss suckkkksssssss….. in San Diegoooo

I thought these were some fun easygoing simplistic indi rock for a Cali road trip hallmark movie montage... and then I got bored like halfway through. but I surprisingly don't hate this?

Another mediocre 90s album from the british isles

Listen to this one with Deckchairs and Cigarettes.

Boring pop

Early on I got an album from some no-hit wonder that never ended up coming close to big success, and I felt too bad to say anything negative; like being on this list is probably so important to them, you know? I guess I feel like this is their little brother. I just feel too bad about it all to say anything negative.