Jul 24 2025
From The Lions Mouth
The Sound
What a fun way to start the next phase of the project, after so much time off! I've vaguely heard of these guys, maybe having heard an album here and there over the years, but I certainly had never listened carefully. And this was just right: kind of a New Order-ish / Smiths-ish / early 80s jaunt into danceable darkness. A clear 4.
4
Jul 25 2025
The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking
Roger Waters
After seeing on Wikipedia that a couple of outlets gave this really awful reviews, I kind of wondered what I was getting into. But I didn't need to worry: it comes across as very Wall-era Pink Floyd, with all the ups and downs and emotional roller-coasters as usual. (And yes, I did say out loud at one point, "Can you believe this is the Pink Floyd founder who WASN'T the one who had serious mental problems??") Glad I heard about, since I'd never even heard of it before.
And yes the cover is ridiculous.
4
Jul 26 2025
Romance
Fontaines D.C.
Perfectly nice. Probably the best male-driven indie rock can get these days, with some variety and fun mixed with some emotion. Which for me makes it a 3.4, pretty solidly.
3
Jul 27 2025
Frengers: Not Quite Friends But Not Quite Strangers
Mew
Honestly, this slowly moved from 3 to 4 stars for me. The unusually high male singing voice is actually rather sweet, but it's the songs themselves that felt more intense and important as it went on. Perhaps a low 4, but I'm still convinced.
4
Jul 28 2025
How to Operate With a Blown Mind
Lo Fidelity Allstars
By now I think we all know how 90s electronica usually goes. It's fine but doesn't rise above a 3-something.
3
Jul 29 2025
Continuum
John Mayer
At one point I accidentally kept it playing while I left to feed Luna and marinate chicken, and when I got back I had no idea if it was the same song or not, because it's just that bland. That is, it moved from "inoffensively bland" to "I'm starting to feel offended because it's so bland."
2
Jul 30 2025
The Best of The Hot 5 & Hot 7 Recordings
Louis Armstrong
A delightful historical record that sounds just like what you want it to sound like: mellow, Southern jazziness (of the kind Squirrel Nut Zippers were following) with danceable moments throughout. A little bit of singing, but I admit I like it best when it's instrumental. Definitely the kind of thing to have on regularly.
4
Jul 31 2025
Recipe for Hate
Bad Religion
I guess it's fine. Kind of muddy sounding. Lots of songs sound the same. Good job for critiquing things that need critiquing, I guess.
3
Aug 01 2025
My Brain Hurts
Screeching Weasel
Pretty inoffensively ok. I admit, coming the day after that other punk band whose name I can't even remember, I was bummed, but I like this a little more—but that means it's like a 3.1 or something.
3
Aug 02 2025
Homogenic
Björk
Practically unparalleled. No need to say more.
5
Aug 03 2025
Up
Great Big Sea
Fun and pleasant: very 90s acoustic Irish folk rock that sounds exactly like you'd expect to hear in the background of a Party of Five episode. Probably a 3.5 but rounding down because I so rarely was shaken into excitement and notice.
3
Aug 04 2025
After Hours
The Weeknd
Actually pretty remarkable, not what I was expecting. It's not even rapping: melodic, auto-tuned crooning over 80s-inspired, slow keyboard bass lines. Sure, it's too long and too similar, but I still want to return one day.
4
Aug 05 2025
Act IV: Rebirth In Reprise
The Dear Hunter
A little over-ambitious, a little over-produced, but hey! How cool that weird, varied, bizarre, story albums like this are still being made! Good for you, weirdos.
4
Aug 06 2025
Toxicity
System Of A Down
Ridiculous. Couldn't get through more than half of it, skipping around to the songs that have the most Spotify listens. Sometimes I wonder if the world would be better off without albums like this, but that's giving it too much credit. Just silly.
1
Aug 07 2025
I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One
Yo La Tengo
Really delightful—exactly the reason I'm continuing to listen to the user-generated albums, honestly. Perhaps on my first listen I'm not quite hearing the THIS IS THE MASTERPIECE OF THE 90S vibe that Wikipedia's quotes from reviewers say, but I'm also hearing it nearly 30 years later, and I think there's more depth here than I'm quite catching. And really, the variety, and the noisy tracks, are just right. (Is it disrespectful to call it "easier-to-listen-to Sonic Youth"??)
4
Aug 08 2025
Funeral Dress
Wussy
I must just be in a good mood, because even though if you described this to me (kind of Wilco/Spoon-inspired earnest Americana-tinged rock music with occasional keyboard and dual male/female vocalists) I wouldn't have been too excited--but actually hearing it was fun and engaging. Once again, one of the reasons I'm excited for the user albums!
4
Aug 09 2025
Game of Fools
Koritni
Have to admit that I listened to less than half of this (something I'm letting myself do now, when I'm positive of the score). Never heard anyone in 2009 so earnestly try to sound like 70s hard rock: Aerosmith, Zeppelin, etc. (plus Soundgarden, I guess). They're fine, fine, and they know how to play their instruments and all that (solos are my favorite part). But it's so dreadfully boring.
2
Aug 10 2025
When Smoke Rises
Mustafa
Sometimes, rarely, you hear the first few notes of a new-to-you album and think, "This one is going to be a 5." That happened here, and it held up. So subtle and beautiful and crafted, like a dark morning.
5
Aug 11 2025
Sublime
Sublime
I admit that when I first saw this pop up, I felt that high-school-era judginess in my heart. That's what this listen today did for me: it helped me actually listen enough to respect this (over-long) album. No, I don't love it, but it's at least a 3.5. It's silly enough that I'll round down, but I'm willing to admit that that might just be me as much as them.
3
Aug 12 2025
Set Yourself On Fire
Stars
Honestly pretty delightful. Great 2004 indie rock, with male & female vocalists and lots of pretty instruments and dynamic ups and downs.
4
Aug 13 2025
God Shuffled His Feet
Crash Test Dummies
You know that kind of embarrassed feeling you get at just how silly he sounds in the Mmm Mmm song? The whole album is like that. No way could anyone get away with this at any time in the 90s (though, I admit, just as there are occasional moments of "whoa, surprising lyric!" in Mmm Mmm, there are occasional moments of that throughout, musically or lyrically--just not very many).
2
Aug 14 2025
Puzzle
Biffy Clyro
Trying to think of the influences here: it's certainly post-Foo Fighters, but also . . . Anberlin?
Dang, a hard one to judge. For most of the album, I was very convinced it was a 3 (if a high 3), so I'll go with that, I think—but I need to acknowledge that it's also like a really good 3 (especially when there is some up and down variety): nice vocals, energetic power, catchiness, and so on. So I think I'm talking myself into rounding this 3.7 up to 4, right? Why not?
4
Aug 15 2025
Out of the Blue
Debbie Gibson
Exactly what you'd expect, in the best way. Especially loved a few tracks on Side B, driving home with the window down. I'm a fan.
4
Aug 16 2025
Sound Awake
Karnivool
Look, I respect this a LOT more than a lot of other metal that I don't particularly want to listen to. I'm intrigued by the long songs, the ups and downs, etc. I mean, in college I probably would have heard a song on WPRK and wanted to hear more!
But there's just something about this (nu-metal-inspired?) sound: the fake-sounding drums, the overly perfect singing voice and guitars. It's just so immediately off-putting.
So, it's a 3.4 that would be a 4 if it were rerecorded by Steve Albini or something.
3
Aug 17 2025
World Of Echo
Arthur Russell
Really, really weird--but dang, I think I like it. Clearly something Matt Gomes needs to hear, but I suspect he already has, since it so clearly influenced his main man, what's his name.
4
Aug 18 2025
Being Funny In A Foreign Language
The 1975
Ok, I liked that far more than I expected to like recent dance-pop-rock with slick production. I liked a couple of them on Spotify, but the next-to-last track "About You" actually moved me in a way that I still feel in my chest. 4.4.
4
Aug 19 2025
Cleopatra
The Lumineers
I admit I didn't listen as carefully as I could have (doing work in the office and such), but it strikes me as pretty safe. Never offensive, and often quite sweet and thoughtful, but it's certainly not . . . challenging me in any way. It's "indie rock for when your parents are in the room," it seems.
3
Aug 20 2025
Spanish Train And Other Stories
Chris de Burgh
Rarely has a storytelling album sounded so EARNEST. I mean, it's so earnest it makes me giggle a little bit, with all the 70s grandeur (somehow melding Beatles and Pink Floyd and Queen all at once?) that takes itself so intensely seriously. But it's also silly in its own right, and it successfully manages so many different styles, that it's really hard to imagine going lower than a 4. No, I'm not going to seek it out again soon, but if someone asks for songs about strippers in a 1920s New Orleans jazz style, I now know where to turn.
4
Aug 21 2025
No Balance Palace
Kashmir
Started somewhat blah (though I wasn't listening closely enough), but as it went on, I increasingly liked its very 2005 blend of Pinback, Radiohead, and even Saxon Shore?? Deserves more attention, so I'll round up as a reminder.
4
Aug 22 2025
Imaginal Disk
Magdalena Bay
Kind of remarkably reliant on Purity Ring and Grimes, but I guess it's enough of its own thing to be worth relistening to! (But why do I not LOVE it, when it seems purposefully designed for me to love it?)
4
Aug 23 2025
Blue Is The Colour
The Beautiful South
Never heard of this band, even though Wikipedia makes them sound pretty big . . . but I have to say that I don't think I was missing anything. Pretty light/tame (even occasionally annoying) mid-90s alternative-lite, like 10,000 Maniacs for the sleepy crowd.
2
Aug 24 2025
Leak 04-13 (Bait Ones)
Jai Paul
Weird in all the best ways, reminding me at times of KNX. Fun to have on, and I'm glad for the variety. Part of me finds myself holding back emotionally from song fragments, since I keep thinking the artist must have perfected them later, but that just makes me want to hear more of Paul's stuff.
4
Aug 25 2025
I Am
Earth, Wind & Fire
Fun! Energetic in all the right ways! It's probably a 4, but I'm going 3 because a couple hours later, I already don't really remember anything in particular besides a generally positive vibe.
3
Aug 26 2025
Boxer
The National
It's really quite good: those wild horns at the end of "Fake Empire," the intense likability of "Mistaken for Strangers," the amazing drumming (and drum sound!) throughout. Why do I want to go 4, then? Let's call it a 4.5 that I'm rounding up today but might not every day.
5
Aug 27 2025
Stage Four
Touché Amoré
Honestly, way better than I would have expected from "melodic hardcore" (though the deep praise on the Wikipedia page piqued my interest). Essentially: no, I don't love screaming; but if there's going to be screaming, this is the best way to hear it. Glad I heard it.
4
Aug 28 2025
A City Dressed In Dynamite
That Handsome Devil
Lots of weird variety, which is the only reason I'm giving a 3 to this at-times-actively-annoying album.
3
Aug 29 2025
The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess
Chappell Roan
Ok, this is far better than I expected. Could totally have it on while cooking for a dance party in the kitchen. Impressed by her voice especially, making me want to look up a Tiny Desk concert to hear it in another context.
4
Aug 30 2025
Oncle Jazz
Men I Trust
Yes, it's too long. Yes, too much of it sounds the same. But DANG what a mood—like being enveloped in the ocean, but it's an ocean of ocean-colored goo that you can breathe through, with distorted, beautiful sounds coming from all directions, and you're not scared but are perfectly safe, and as that person on Reddit wrote, it's December 26 and you don't have any obligations.
4
Aug 31 2025
Not Animal
Margot & The Nuclear So And So's
What fun! And what's more, it's not JUST fun—like, here and there I was tempted to compare it to that whistling indie band whose CD I got at the library in Winter Park, or the Where the Wild Things Are soundtrack. But it's a little more serious and thoughtful, probably with better instrument-playing, too. Not going to change my life, but worth coming back to.
4
Sep 01 2025
Boys And Girls in America
The Hold Steady
After reading the GLOWING reviews on Wikipedia, I thought this would be . . . a whole lot better? It's just plain old rock and roll (ok, with some nice keyboards occasionally and an organ solo that grabbed my attention exactly once) with a less-than-mediocre singer, the end, like it's not the 21st century. 2.6.
3
Sep 02 2025
Pop
GAS
Does ambient music largely sound kinda the same? Yes. But did this album, heard through headphones, somehow affect my body in strange, powerful, ASMR-ish ways that I can't forget? Also yes. Thus, a weirdly high score for an album like this, sorry/not sorry.
5
Sep 03 2025
Dilate
Ani DiFranco
Ahh, this one takes me back to MTV in high school, jotting down her name to look up later at the record store. And she's really that good, with guitar but also production on display here. Complex and rich and begging for me to listen on repeat. Maybe a 4 but it feels like a 5.
5
Sep 04 2025
Whipped Cream & Other Delights
Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass
Silly and light-hearted and just right, the kind of thing to put on without regret at any party.
4
Sep 05 2025
Get Rich Or Die Ryan
Spose
Frankly, it's not nearly as bad as I expected. But no, I did not actually listen to every song or every minute of every song I started. Kind of reminds me of that Christian guy who raps about C.S. Lewis, but a bit less interesting and a bit more annoying.
2
Sep 06 2025
Rose Mountain
Screaming Females
Perfectly fine post-punk rock with a striking (but not particularly excellent) vocalist. Kind of 90s-ish, often. Definition of 3 stars.
3
Sep 07 2025
Symbolic
Death
Didn't finish. Giving it a two because if it were instrumental, there would be some really interesting guitar playing. But the screaming, sheesh. What a silly way to play music.
2