Not Animal

This played and I listened and then it was over

I started off a bit underwhelmed, then became more whelmed by the end. I really enjoyed the back half of the album. Not sure if it grew on me or was genuinely the better half… but I’ll check this out again I think.

This was a pretty nice album. Started out sounding like Radiohead and then progressed and became more like vampire weekend. Definitely a bit more unique than both those previous bands lyrically but style and instrumentals it felt similar to both. It was a good chill listen that’s worth revisiting. 7.0/10

Maybe it’s because I’m high but it’s been over 24 hours since I listened to this and I honestly couldn’t tell u a single thing about this album. I vaguely remember not liking it a ton and that’s it.

They did pay attention in Indie-Kindergarten, when the colouring books were handed out and they were taught to put effort into staying inside the lines. it should look 'neat and tidy'. No scribbling, no freestyling. Nothing unexpected since teacher already has a hard enough time battling the hangover from the weekend. "Please kids, just use 3 or 4 different colour pencils max, preferably the lighter colours as those give less strain to teachers' eyes, when teacher has to grade your colouring efforts..... And yes Margot, you can go to the bathroom."

Good indie album enjoyed this, not sure I’ll return to it though.

Rating: 8/10 Best songs: A children’s crusade on acid, Hello vagina, Papers written on a wall

Sounded good 4*

nice soft indie. 3.6

Never heard of this group before but I found it an interesting listen. I was hoping for a little more range and change in tone from the vocals. But this is one of the rare times I’m going to round up. I’d give this a 3.5 ish. I’d definitely listen to select songs again but maybe not the whole album. Decent

This is really good. Kind of Radio Head-ish but less pretentious. I've heard this band before but haven't listened to an entire album by them. I will now though! 4 stars.

This was a nice surprise. Wasn't familiar with Richard Edwards, but this album starts super strong... seems to have an interesting Ben Kweller / Thom Yorke vibe, that works for me. After a few songs, it gets a bit more uneven, but there is enough here that I can say it was a nice change of pace and something new and interesting.

Mellow. Kind of a Jack Johnson feel. There's someone else, but I'm not recalling right off the top of my head. It sounds like the story behind the music is more interesting than the music itself, even though the album(s) is pretty decent. Not really sure what Hello Vagina is all about, but there are a few double entrendres mixed in there. Pretty decent little song. The end of the song reminds me of Eels(?)

Nice album choice ! 4

Nice indie rock/pop album. I like the (more rock) second half a bit better. Good vocals and overall performance.

Had this come out a decade prior, I think this band would have had a huge Pitchfork following and would be reissuing albums like this. The additional decade means I've since had a lot of similar albums come and go, but it was very good, grand and sweeping.

Another run of the mill generic indie rock band from the mid 2000s. It's competently made but just fine. Nothing special. Started a bit interesting but there are hundreds of these types of albums out there. Not essential to listen to. My personal rating: 3/5 My rating relative to the list: 4/5 Should this have been included on the original list? No.

This is decent+ (and maybe decent++) and right up this indie rock traditionalist's alley – good enough for one to consider exploring more. It's maybe a little too earnest here and there (oh these millennials with their latent emo tendencies) and veers dangerously close to Radiohead tribute band territory at times, but warmer than than that on balanced, plus being pretty interesting on its own terms and well crafted besides. The back story seems borderline absurd, though Pitchfork review is entirely too harsh. Can't say one hears a ton of difference between the two versions of the album or has a strong preference either way – both are solid and enjoyable. Dumb band name, however, if that matters, which one thinks it very much does. Though one choose to listen to this over at least 75-100 records on list proper, it might not quite fully merit a place.

As bitter as Richard Edwards sounds in that 2015 interview retrieved through his main band's wikipedia page, there could very well be an alternate universe where Margot & The Nuclear So And So's was as big as its avowed models (mostly Radiohead, or so it seems--with a bit of US indie artists drawing from Americana for good measure--acts such as Neutral Milk Hotel or Bright Eyes). Guess a complicated story music-business-wise, along with health complications for the band's leader, saw to it differently. The bowels disease the man has sure looks debilitating, and I can only express my support here. If you can allow me to give my extra two cents about the whole situation, I guess that naming your act with a moniker as long and weird as Margot & The Nuclear So So's didn't help. I have just asked Chat GPT to rename the band while keeping in mind their artistry, and among hackneyed results, it came up with good ideas such as Violet Hour or Antlers For Amelia. So, in my mind at least, there's an essential act named like that in an alternate universe, which every indie buff knows there. Admittedly, a name such as Margot & The Nuclear So So's also nicely fits with the many convolutions of some of the songs found in *Not Animal* (some of them great, others maybe not that necessary). Follow-up LP *Buzzard*, recorded with a very different line-up, sure sounds way more straightforward and livelier, comparatively. To the detriment of the richer arrangements in *Not Animal*. For me, a middle ground between the two approaches, with slightly more pointed production values for each, would have been insanely great. But that version of the band's best album only exists in that fancy alternate universe of mine, I'm afraid. Speaking of "alternative versions", it's interesting to read that this LP project also exists in vinyl in a "director's cut" form--one extremely difficult to find online, and with a VERY different tracklist displaying a lot of songs absent from the official version of the album while erasing others. Preferred by the deciders of the band's label at the time, the official version still harbors enough highlights to be mentioned in my high-rated LPs, fortunately. The trippiest songs and the folk ballads are put to the forefront here, while the more abrasive cuts (some of whom have memorable instrumentation) are lodged in the second half. Quite an original way to order the tracklist, even if some spots and strings of songs could have ended up sounding more dynamic had they been organized differently. In a sense, you can feel that this record has a complicated story, and that its flow suffers as a result. Just like my review? Also, it's really bizarre that Margot's mastermind and singer thinks the best song in the album is "Shivers" and yet that the track is missing from the "band's version" of *Not Animal* (named *Animal!* Are you following this?). Is it me, or does that guy *also* unnecessarily complicates things once in a while? Hence maybe why the music lacks the pivotal drive that could have made it stand out from the pack ror general audiences... Giving the benefit of the doubt to this one, though. Can't go further than a rounded up 4/5 grade myself here, but it does feel a little unfair that zero 5-star reviews are to be found in this section. Surely, there was a potential larger audience for this act, and it's a bit sad that label shenanigans and other sorts of mishaps have prevented Margot from finding it. Glad that one user thought of this album of theirs so that I could discover them at least. 3.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 4. 8.5/10 for more general purposes (5 + 3.5). ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 32 Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 41 (including this one) Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 76 --- Émile, il y a déjà une partie de mes réponses au-dessus. Il y en aura d'autres en dessous..

Grata sorpresa. A veces me recuerda a Radiohead, pero más soft.

A nice little mid-2000s rock/folk type deal. Not incredibly remarkable but it's a genre I enjoy, so I had a good time with it.

Indie rock. Ni fu ni fa.

This was nice, I enjoyed listening to it. It is one of many of its genre in the lists.

Appreciated a singer-songwriter LP with a bit more to it in the instrumental department. Some of the orchestral elements felt a bit much and the lyricism didn’t do much for me, but it was nice to listen to an early-aughts indie effort that had some meat on its bones.

Very much in a particular genre what we used to just all alt rock and now always seems to require a handful of genre descriptions. The brainchild of some hipster intellectual, probably gen-xer? Maybe early millennial, has a chip on his shoulder in the interview arena about the scope of his success and recognition, of course a dude, lot of drama in the band/label department... it comes with a vocal style that's serviceable but to me gets dull at length. For all that some pretty interesting things came in musically around the last third. I'm on the fence but intrigued enough I think I will check out the other, what I gather to be the band's preferred version (? if I read the Wikipedia page right) version of this material.

3.5

An American Travis

Not bad

Evocative and fairly pleasing on the ears, with lyrics that are intriguing without being overwrought. I liked this for the most part, but somehow it feels like goes on longer than it actually does. Fave Songs: German Motor Car, Broadripple Is Burning, Holy Cow!, A Children's Crusade on Acid

An a-okay listen

Yea, quite nice.

Melbourne yesterday, Indianapolis today with Margot & the Nuclear So and So's! "I wanna gouge out your eyes"- least psychopathic indie band A couple great songs- see below- but a lot more okay ones in my eyes(ears). It helps that I'm already drawn to this sort of semi-acoustic indie rock. If you enjoy this I recommend Harlequin Dream by Boy & Bear (2013). HL: "Pages Written on a Wall", "Broadripple Is Burning", "German Motor Car" April 2, 2025

Another fun if quite inconsequential 00s indie record. There’s a good variety of tunes on here - it generally has a quite eccentric Vampire Weekend kind of vibe but some of the more acoustic songs are like a less depressed Bright Eyes, and Shivers (I’ve Got ‘Em) has a very Queens of the Stone Age groove. I enjoyed it on the whole and got more out of the album as it went on but it didn’t quite break through for me

Some music. One half of a 'double album', but which was released separately, and with some of the same songs on both - cash grab? Not offensively bad, but not overly memorable.

This is the most 3/5 thing I've ever heard in my life.

Pretty good for a contractual obligation

It's enjoyable, but I didn't find it anything special. I liked the songs with the Muse-like style more, but I'll hardly go to listen to more from the band.

It was nice enough

Pretty decent indie rock that sounds like when it’s from.

Some interesting songs

(Quite) alright

Indie rock. Ni fu ni fa.

I struggled to find this online. It wasn't on Spotify and both the full album streams I found on YouTube were fake. I eventually found the song "Broadripple is burning" on YouTube. The one song I listened to was exactly what I expected but the name/album art, which was folksy hipster soft rock. I hate this sort of stuff. Maybe they're great at it, but it just all sounds annoying to me. 2/5.

That soft 2008 indie folk vibe that never did anything for me. Still doesn't.

A hint of Radiohead here and there but the rest is generic mush.

Wispy.

There was nothing on this album that stood out.

Grade school lyrics masked in pleasant melodies

I don't know how to describe my experience with this album, except that it has a good vocalist, although his songs didn't inspire any emotion in me, not even the most popular ones. His style is very "narrative" and more acoustic, but I don't think it ever ends up aspiring to something more, which makes it just another indie album. 1.5 stars