my ranking of all the albums ive listened to
january february
fav: Acolyte
I definitely would've liked this a lot more when I was younger. Now it just sounds sort of whiney and like any other talking-about-my-day acoustic guitar music. All of the songs feel like they're about such mundane moments that it means nothing. Like, I love to appreciate the mundane but when its every single song... Because he's not singing about the mundane things being beautiful or meaningful or important, he's just saying that they happened!!!! Like yes, we're in a gas station and now we're in the car and now we're looking at a picture of you!! WHATEVER! I feel like Songs by Adrienne Lenker did a much better job of displaying the beauty in the mundane with similar young adult relationship themes. Acolyte is miles better than any other song on this album, thats the only one that I enjoyed at all. Maybe if I was in a more sentimental mood, or if I was going through similar career-and-relationship milestones, but this project is just very boring to me as is.
favs: White Winter Hymnal, Blue Ridge Mountains
I do quite like the sound of this album. I think the songs blend into eachother quite a lot, but I don't mind when earthy/acoustic albums do that. Its like you're sinking into the earth somewhere. I liked randomly zoning into one of the many layers of instrumental and suddenly realizing how beautiful the guitar line was in a certain part, or a random sound in the background. I do like the low energy songs, but the more energetic songs like White Winter Hymnal are definitely the best parts of this album. I think they improved their flow in later albums, like including more interesting/upbeat parts.
favs: Seventeen, Evil
I looooved this album omg. I loved every track, it was hard to pick my favourites. I just fuck with this 2000s electronica sound so much, I love how it feels like robots are singing to me. I love all the vocals so much. The instrumentals too built up perfectly imo.. I didn't realize one of them was slavic before this album (I knew the song seventeen which either has the other vocalist or the accent isn't as obvious) but tbh that enhanced the experience for me. I fuck with slavic/germanic dance n electronic music so much LOL. I also like how repetitive some of these songs are - singing along is one of the most important things in music for me n being able to quickly replicate it is awesome. Especially because it sounds so robotic, its fun to imitate the tone.
favs: Leaving The Light, That's Life (A Swamp), Survivor
My dad and brother love this album and have been telling me to listen to it. I did really like it. The vocals, especially on songs like Balthazar, remind me of Jean Dawson's "Pixel Bath". I like Owusu's variety of vocals too - from his harsher almost-speaking parts to his delicate singing in the back. "What Comes Will Come" is a great example of this contrast. The instrumentals on this album are perfect, each song sounds very full and has a lot of layers. This album has a decent amount of instrumental variety which makes it kinda disappointing when a few songs blend together, but its not too bad. And things sounding similar doesn't inherently make me dislike it. Some of the lyrics are kinda corny but I can mostly ignore it.
favs: Worst Taste in Music, Sleeping In
I found Worst Taste In Music by accident when I clicked on the wrong song I saw reccommended in a random tumblr post, but I really liked it. I listened to the whole album, and it's not very adventurous. It has a similar style throughout, but for some reason it really clicked with me. I enjoy the ambient rain and bird chirping sounds used in the back, I enjoy the smooth and soft melodic synths, I enjoy the vocalists very nonchalant and chill voice. The lyrics are pretty generic - relationships and jealousy and being tired of life - but they're not really the focus. The songs are definitely unique when I listen more on them, the percussion and synth lines seperate them, but I listened to it thrice over and it all sort of blended together. I think this is a good album to blend together though.
favs: Weird fishes / Arpeggi, All I Need
I really enjoyed this album, but I also feel like its one that needs to grow on me overtime. I liked all the songs upon first listen, but didn't get particularly attached to any of them. This album has really beautiful instrumentals. It sounds hollow almost but is still very full - just the particular synths used (a lot of strings) sound very delicate and ominous. The vocalist sounds extremely smooth and perfect, never any rasp or breaks in his voice. A lot of the lyrics also struck very close to home for me LOL. Will definitely be returning to get to know this album better..
favs: Teenager, Knife Prty
I was very happy that I enjoyed this album. Metal is sort of my weakness in music, I just don't really enjoy it. I know some people would laugh at me for calling this the heaviest album I enjoy because of the general disdain for numetal (and the fact it isnt very heavy compared to other metal genres), but it is true..this is the heaviest album I've enjoyed.. I'll have to listen to another deftones album soon. I loved the guitar and percussion on this album. I didn't follow along the lyrics for the whole album, but I took a peak when I was curious and there were some I really liked. I enjoyed passenger's lyrics. I liked how the songs would go from very quiet to very loud, and I enjoyed how the vocalist delivers each line.
favs: My god, On a grassy knoll
I loved this album! I feel like the last few albums I've listened to sounded very similar throughout the whole thing, which is fine, but I prefer albums like this that have more significant variation between the vibes & instrumentals & vocals of each song. I enjoyed the little story/concept going on in here. There are a lot of great lyrics on here, but I especially love My God in its entirety. "Hurricane me and hurricane you, 200 thousand dead, thats my god :)" is a very funny line to me as someone whos extended family is pretty religious LOL. The singers voice is very lovely to me, and I like the usage of harmony/backing vocals, like on the track "The Nether".
favs: Down for, Inward Jam, Shine On
This is an extremely cute little album :D Even though it sounds very similar throughout, I felt compelled to keep listening regardless. There are some fun samples and noises on here, like in Shine On theres this cascading sparkly noise I love..I didn't really process a lot of the lyrics while listening but looking at the lyrics, they're super cute too. This projects formula is also super unique to me. I dunno I guess lofi beats is a phrase and a joke, but I don't feel like I've ever heard beats and soft vocals combined like this before. Alsoo i love when a project sounds exactly like the cover looks.
favs: Nuthing but a "G" Thang, The Day The N///// Took Over
I really liked this album. The way sampling was used throughout was perfect everytime (The Day N///// Took Over is so fucking perfect, using the news samples like that). I like that really sharp/piercing synth that a lot of rap beats from the 90s use. I did feel like this didn't need to be as long as it was - it rehashed some of the same concepts repeatedly, I just feel like it could've been like 12 songs instead of 16 and it wouldn't have changed my opinion at all. I liked Snoop Doggs features a lot (I have one of his albums on my to-listen list so I'm excited now). Theres a lot of super catchy lines in here, like I love on Nuthing but a G Thang where they go "its like this and like that". The songs with features are def my favs, but Dr. Dre holds up on his solo tracks just as well. I love the variety of instruments used to fill the space, there was like flute or smth and then sometimes it seems like they're using a double bass instead of just an electric bass. The beat never feels empty, its perfectly full. Very misogynstic tho lol.
favs: 98 C280 W202
The last quinn album I listened to, i used to just cry about it, I thought was extremely sample heavy. And I had that thought for the self titled album before it. But this album really beats both of those LOL. This album is like 50% samples. It is a very fun listen especially when you recognize a lot of them but it just feels... bland to me, I dunno. Doing this same thing for so many albums in a row. Quinn's vocals and rapping style are exactly the same as they've been since 2019 so I guess this wasn't that interesting to me. That being said I didn't hate any of these songs, I'm sure this would be an interesting project to someone who just found Quinn, but as a long-time fan its just.. Meh.
favs: Anything, ingydar
I am very into these very beautiful sounding albums lately. This is the type of music that makes me want to get better at guitar. The guitar lines on this album are very unique. There is nothing but guitar so they're forced to be more complex than you usually here - It's not just strumming, but riffs and more melodic lines. Of course Adrianne Lenker is a great vocalist and lyricist as well, a lot of the lyrics really stick with you. I like very personal albums like this where certain themes come up repeatedtly, like theres a lot of discussion of the progression of relationships via having kids, family associations, etc here, and I liked that. I admire when an album can have an extremely consistent style but still keep my attention the whole time. Most people would not be able to write an album with only guitar and vocals that was this engaging and interesting.
favs: snowpath, no petty magic
This was the first album I listened to this year with a significant chunk of the album being instrumental. It is somewhat abstract and I am truthfully not very invested in instrumentals generally, but especially not ones without defined melodies LOL. I did love the rest of the album though. It sounded like it was cathartic to make, like there was a lot of heavy emotions being put out into the world. The vocalist and the multiple features all had very beautiful, soft voices that blend together really well. I do think the loud instrumentals do contrast very well with the slower songs with vocals.
favs: Recover, You Caught The Light
I've loved the song Recover for a few years now but never checked out the album because I couldn't really imagine it offering much else (ie: I thought it'd be very same-y). I was about right on that. It sounds exactly like the year it came out in, 2013, and thats fine. This sounds overly negative, I do like how it sounds (I'll always have a soft spot for the pop-music of the decade I grew up in). But I don't really feel the need to save any other songs since it seemed I found the best one on it already. The male vocalist did make it more interesting, especially on the final track "You Caught The Light". I may listen to this album in its entirety if I'm craving this sound, maybe litter a few songs into a playlist, but I don't think any of them are unique enough to want to return to. This is also definitely an album of a certain mood - Like Transatlanticism, I just can't get fully into it when I'm not currently thrown into heartbreak.
favs: I Am Warm & Powerful, Pangaea
This is a cute little album. I was pleasantly surprised by the piano used throughout the album cause I typically just expect things like this to be percussion/bass/guitar/vocals. This isn't like a super unique or standout album but I like a few other artists who cite this artist as an inspiration and I can definitely hear their influence on this sort of genre. The vocalist has a very soft, careful voice and I enjoy how he enunciates the words. I liked the percussion the most, pretty basic drum lines but I think it compliments the guitar n vocals perfectly. Overall this albums composition is pretty simple, but knows what it wants to accomplish, and does it well.
favs: cellophane, sad day, fallen alien
Absolutely beautiful album. I love the minimalistic instrumentals that feel super empty because theres not a constant synth/guitar/percussion line. It makes the album feel so empty which matches the themes perfectly. I love when I listen to a song and don't know wtf instrument/sound is being used LOL. FKA Twigs is an incredible vocalist, I enjoyed her delivery on every single line. Since most of the album is so stripped back, the moments it gets layered and loud are so much more poignant than most albums can achieve. I'm sure this is a common opinion but I didn't really like the future feature - it did not fit the vibe at all. I didn't even think it was a bad song, but just hearing such basic beats in the middle of such an abstract album made the rest of the albums experimental-ness so much more obvious. I dunno, maybe that was the point.
favs: I Only Said, Come in Alone, Blown A Wish
Loooove the overall sound of this album. This is something I would always want to listen to in its entirety instead of individual songs, or maybe on a playlist with a bunch of shoegaze stuff like this. I love that piercing synth thing thats used in Come in Alone and When You Sleep (and other places in the album but those are my fav). This is one of those albums you see thrown around as a reccommendation, as a cornerstone for its genre, that I think actually lives up to its reputation. I like the tone the vocals are sang/spoken in. I like when an artist knows what to give emphasis to. Like, the lyrics on here are pretty generic but they serve the purpose sound-wise that they need to and its left at that. I feel like sometimes in modern shoegaze they want to have these grand, deep lyrics and it sort of conflicts with the whole "wall of noise, indistinguished vocals" thing.
favs: I Dropped Out, Friends Share Lovers
I Dropped Out has been one of my favourite songs for years and I think I listened to this album once when I was like 13, but I wasn't good at listening to albums yet so it didn't really stick with me. This time though, I can see how gorgeous of an album this is. I love the instrumentals, I think they sound exactly like how the cover looks. The percussion is very dominant and striking throughout. I also just really like the vocalists voice and how she chooses to emphasize certain things. I don't really care for the specific lyrics on this album, they're not the focus to me. I enjoyed every single song on this album and know I'll be returning often.
favs: Bernadette, Oats From A Mug
Perfect album to listen to when you're in love :) Lots of sweet songs in this album. Its interesting to hear highly digital/sample/layered musicians do a more layed back, intelligible sound. The influence of those types of composotions & layering is definitely evident, I think. Some of the lyrics in here are pretty basic/the rhymes are predictable, but I guess I wouldn't know if Frost Children were always like this since the vocals were much more difficult to parse on older projects. I love the way both vocalists play off each other, most identifable in Oats From A Mug. I didn't know how I felt about Bob Dylan, with songs like that its hard sometimes for me to tell if its really pushing any boundaries of music or just a sort of stereotypical pretentious speaking song. lol. but I think I liked it.
favs: Drawn to Blood, Carrie & Lowell
I enjoyed this album, but not as much as I like Age of Adz or Illinois. This one is a lot more bare and sounds similar throughout. This is not a bad thing, as it highlights Sufjan Steven's lyrical skills rather than his composition skills. There are still very beautiful instrumental moments though, like the end of Drawn To Blood gives me chills. This album is also of course way more like, deeply emotional than the other stuff I know from him. Not saying his other stuff is emotionless, but this is death and relationships and ends and intimacy, that type of stuff. The laid back guitar is also very beautiful and skilled and compliments his soft voice well.
favs: M15, Going Nowhere
This is a good ol' simple concept album with a pretty straightforward story. These are my favourite types of albums and I shockingly haven't listened to any yet this year! I did enjoy the faster songs at the beginning like M15 and What We've Done, but I can appreciate the purpose of the slower songs towards the end. It's just very fun and jumpy, although I guess a bit cliche for its concept (it definitely sounds like an album about stealing and killing in a western cowboy style, and that is indeed what its about), but I don't mind. I like the build ups like in the opening track a lot, very good use of melody.
favs: camel8strike, feel all the time, Jitnunkebi (Winter's Song)
Claiming any of these as my favourites feels like a lie because I fucking loved every single track. Somehow these noisy, layered tracks managed to be incredibly catchy (something I find seldomly in a lot of noise type music) with some really beautiful melodies. I can tell this will be an album where I get really obsessed with one track and then realize another one is just as good, until I end up obsessed with every single one. The structure and buildups in all of these is so incredible, especially in the seven minute penultimate Jitnunkebi (Winter's Song). Absolutely amazing digital album, I already sent it to half a dozen friends lol.
favs: lets get out, new town
I really enjoyed this album. I like when lyrics have flow more like someone talking, like especially in the first 3 tracks it felt like I was in the singers head as she commentated her goals and things she wanted. She repeats lyrics a lottt, thats a key feature in this lyrical style. I like how hopeful/exciting this thing felt, contrary to what I expected from both the album and artist name lol. The singer has a very interesting cadence, and the guitar/bass is super solid throughout. It does feel a bit repetitive/similar throughout, but I don't mind since this isn't a sound I've heard a lot of.
favs: pretty, children of the korn
Being in the age group and into the things I am, I know a lot of people who like this album. I'm trying to break into enjoying metal and I know everyone rags on numetal but it's the only kind of metal I don't instantly want to turn off LOL. I tolerated this album, I thought it had some fun parts, but I can't see myself revisiting anything but freak on a leash. I didn't have any of the criticisms I've heard others have over the years (didn't like the rap features, the vocals are annoying, etc), I just am not really into this sound in general.
favs: after hours, can i kick it, ham 'n' eggs
Once again another interesting album to listen to since it's so influential. I actually realized a few times while listening that lines in other songs were references to this album! I really liked it, I think I'll listen to another Tribe Called Quest album soon. I like the flow in 90s rap more than most modern things I've heard. I also enjoyed this setup that sort of felt like you're having days out with this friendgroup - very casual, the lyrics feel like an honest conversation about whatever the topic is. The beats are really nice too, rhythmic.
favs: Kidz are so small, cast off crown
I knew like 8 deerhoof songs individually without them leaning towards being from any particular album, so I just chose this one to check out. I liked this album a lot, its incredibly interesting and fun to follow. There is a wide variety of instruments used, and the singer has an interesting voice as well. I particularly enjoyed how there was highly digital and highly (mock) acoustic tracks, like Whither the Invisible Bird? didnt sound like anything else on the album and I really liked that. Maybe not the most cohesive like some bands can do despite a lot of variation in instruments/structure, but I liked all the songs anyways so I don't care.
favs: a lack of color, the new year
Its interesting to hear a project that I know has influenced so much of the music I listen to. As I did with Bob Dylan, I sort of found this underwhelming. I guess its just too influential the original feels bland now. I actually did quite like it, I just don't think I'm in the right mind to connect with it right now. It is wonderfully corny, that is to say I don't mind the lyrics at some parts lol. Definitely something I'll have to come back to when it applies to me more, I DO like Death Cab For Cutie's style.
favs: Neighborhood #2 (Laika), Wake up and Haiti
This is definitely my favourite thing I've listened to so far this year (early call I know lol). There wasn't a single song I disliked so it was hard to choose a favourite. I could see myself singing these songs while drunk once I get the words down. I love the use of orchestra/band instruments, I love the singer's voice, and I love a lot of the lyrical choices. Overall very perfect. It has a good combination of loud and soft sections, everything flows so perfectly into eachother - whether from song to song, or section to section within one song.
favs: If you see her, say hello
My dad told me to listen to this album & then I saw people praising it as one of the best albums online, so I checked it out. I sort of guessed it wouldn't be for me based on my knowledge of Bob Dylan, but yeah it wasn't. I didn't like any of these enough to save and it was a bit meh to me the whole way through. I sort of like the sound, but feel like other albums I know have done this better. I guess it is like the OG, it deserves credit for that, maybe I'll grow to appreciate it more as I explore this sound more.
favs: i want to be with you and you dance like the june sky
I knew 3 songs from this already (its only 6 songs, but theyre all quite long) but figured I should listen to the whole thing together. This is a very good album, I love it a lot. I was reading the anthology Feeling Very Strange during it, and it fit the vibe perfectly. I do appreciate the heavy, loud, layered instrumental for what it is, but of course the more sparkly and stand-out songs are what reach to me more. you dance like the june sky is just a perfect song.
favs: boiled peanuts, nissan ultima
Wow! I already knew I liked Doechii, I knew 3 songs from her n I loved her feature on Chromakopia, but wowww this album was so good. Her flow is so unique, she really takes advantage of syncopation in her vocals. I had the lyrics open throughout this whole thing. Also ALL of the choruses on this are incredibly catchy. The beats are all interesting and not generic - I'll always love someone who does unique sound effects n backing vocals. I wish all the songs weren't so short though!
favs: track #10 and #11 (names are in cyrillic i cant type them LOL)
This is an extremely synth heavy album, which I really appreciate - makes me enjoy listening to them the whole way through, even if I don't find the vocals or etc compelling. I did like this album a bit, but it felt very similar throughout, so its hard to pinpoint exact things I liked. Track #10 felt like it stuck out majorly vocal-wise so I clung onto it instantly. I saved songs from this to revisit on shuffle, but would probably never purposely put them on.
favs: souvenirs, kindling, vanishing
The instrumentals here are really what makes this album for me. I loved it. I like the jazz influence, I love the synths, I love how simple it all feels but when you listen in you hear a million different elements. I enjoyed both of the vocalists doing that whisper-singing stuff on most of the songs - I know a few other songs from this group where they sing with much clearer, bold voices so it was a nice change of pace. I will listen to some songs from this again.
favs: oh mandy, late
I knew 2 songs from this album (oh mandy and japan is an island) and decided to listen to the whole thing. I really like the sound of this whole album and know I'll be returning throughout the year. It has a cohesive feeling but the instrumentals and vibes are quite different from song to song. The vocalist does interesting things with his voice and sounds very smooth the whole time.
favs: N/A
I saw people on twitter discussing this album and decided to check it out. I didn't like it at all. I saw people praising it as experimental and interesting rap, but to be honest it sounded a lot like slop I've already heard a million times on soundcloud. There was not really a flow. I did like its use of sampling and some of its instrumentals, the opening track is very compelling, but overall I did not enjoy it. It also sounded very barebones & similar throughout the whole thing.