Below is a list (in no particular order) of albums that I enjoyed enough to write a short blurb about.
Maybe we'll hug each other in a past life
by Three Lices and A Molly (Rolly Abore) | 2024 | Psychedelic Post-Rock | Bandcamp
Have you ever laid in bed after a long day and felt the world spin around you? It feels as if you're falling, but there's nowhere to fall, so you just sink into yourself. Or have you sat in the passenger seat of a car, or the cabin of an airplane, with your head laid against the door or a neck pillow or just against the plastic interior? And drifted in and out of distant conciousness or wakeful dreaming. Somewhere in these moments, on the edge of conciousness, this EP lays, haunting and beautiful. Every single track is heavy with long lost love, and enough grief to fill a lake. It feels like waking up first at a sleepover, the gray morning sun bleeding in through the curtains. There is so much emotion packed behind every sound that it hangs tangibly in the air, and it tells you that something was here once, something true. Now it isn't here anymore and all that's left is a bleeding hole, and this EP.
Favourite Track - "keep me warm in your flayed arms as we float over clouds that keep shadow to a post-apocalyptic city."
The Suburbs
by Arcade Fire | 2010 | Indie Rock
Nothing has ever so perfectly captured the melancholic helplessness of living in suburban USA. There's something deeply and primally unwell about these places, and yet, it's impossible to not miss the place you grew up. The album has dread and hope, love and anger, and an emotional and mature feeling that stretches towards something more, something that could be. Beautiful and hopeful and terrifying and full to the brim with love. The Suburbs is a perfect album, much deserving of it's near universal acclaim.
Favourite Track - "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)"
Beats and Breaks from the Flower Patch
by Kitty Craft | 1998 | Indietronica | Bandcamp
Very mellow and gentle lo-fi beats with really beautiful and ethereal vocals. Listening to it now while the rain pours outside and everything is perfect. Every track comes straight from the heart and it sounds like being young and free and playing in the grass and falling asleep on the drive home and crying in your bed and cold air and warm blankets and it sounds like love.
Favourite Track - "Par 5"
S/T
by Electric President | 2006 | Indie pop
Very soft and contemplative album. I don't really know what to say about it so I'll probably have to come back and add more to this review but I want to put it up on here anyways
Favourite Track - "Good Morning, Hypocrite"
The Mollusk
by Ween | 1997 | Alternative rock
haha the band is named "ween"
Favourite Track - "Waving My Dick in the Wind"
Now, More Than Ever
by Jim Guthrie | 2003 | Indie-pop | Bandcamp
Amazing... So pretty and soft and it just has this really cute sound. Now, More Than Ever captures something ephemeral and loving and tender. I just love it very much and am honestly at a loss for words.
Favourite Track - "Now, More Than Ever"
Innerworld
by Electric Youth | 2014 | Synth-pop
What a fucking awesome album. Captures this perfect essence of hope, and I just can't get enough. It has this sort of cheesy and pure sound that's unmatched in its vulnerability. Electric Youth is absolutely the only group that could make the line "You're emotionally complex" work in any context. One of my go-to "feel good" albums. ("A Real Hero" is a great track and you should read about the real story that it's partially inspired by).
Favourite Track - "A Real Hero"
The Great American Bar Scene
by Zach Bryan | 2024 | Country
I've got a real soft spot for country music. Just one of those things, I guess. It's hit or miss for me sometimes, but Zach Bryan has put out an indisputable hit. Packed with so much raw emotion and love that it bleeds through into the music. Without a doubt, worth a listen.
Favourite Track - "The Great American Bar Scene"
Music Has The Right To Children
by Boards of Canada | 1998 | Electronic | Bandcamp
SO GOOD! I love Boards of Canada. Just amazing. An album that makes me nostalgic for a time that never existed. Really, a defining record of 90s electronic music. Boards of Canada were so far and beyond in their music that it remains fresh and important even 25+ years post-release.
Favourite Track - "Roygbiv"
Charm
by Clairo | 2024 | Pop
I'm really not one for more poppy sounding music (although honestly I've been warming up to it more lately) but this album really struck me. All around just a very solid sounding album and one that's very well produced. Worth a listen even if its not normally your jam.
Favourite Track - "Second Nature"
Limited Express (has gone?) × DODDODO (ch-111)
by DODDODO & Limited Express (has gone?) | 2008 | Noise Rock | Bandcamp
I don't even really know what to say about this album. Very unique sound. Even between different tracks on the album there's completely different vibes, I think you should listen for yourself honestly. Very experimental and whatnot, I really think it would be impossible for me to capture the vibes of this album in a short paragraph. I also don't speak Japanese. Give it a listen
Favourite Track - "exciseise of mouth"
Selected Ambient Works 85-92
by Aphex Twin | 1992 | Electronic | Bandcamp
Foundational electronic music album. There is nothing I can say about it that hasn't been said many times before, by people far more qualified to talk about music. Just simply one of the most consistently amazing albums ever made.
Favourite Track - "Xtal"
Loss Memory
by Coma Cinema | 2017 | Bedroom Pop | Bandcamp
Fuck, man. Such a good album. It's amazing how it comes together so well. So much feeling and emotion packed into every single song in a way that I've rarely seen anybody replicate. I may be biased because it strikes such a deeply personal chord, but I still strongly suggest you give it a listen and see for yourself. This album has a very very unique sound, and it would be nigh impossible for me to properly convey how this album makes me feel with really any sort of fidelity. Just go listen to it, man.
Favourite Track - "Running Wide Open"
Trick
by Alex G | 2012 | Indie Rock | Bandcamp
Beautiful, beautiful, slow, flowing album. Pure atmosphere and wonderful vibes. Perfect cry album. Every song is amazing and the album as a whole has a really beautiful unique feel to it that can really only be experienced for yourself, I could never properly describe it. The sounds are wonderfully unique and put together, from the guitar, to the pan flute, to the deep bass, they all just come together to make something really amazing. I would never claim to be an Alex G superfan or anything, I know some people get crazy about that, but I think this album is such an amazing work of art.
Favourite Track - "Sarah"
Geogaddi
by Boards of Canada | 2002 | IDM | Bandcamp
Atmospheric banger. Sounds like sinking into a deep deep ocean. It's hard for me to find the words to talk about this album because it's so unique and foreign to me. Really something that has to be experienced to be understood. Such a beautiful album, really something you could just get lost in.
Favourite Track - "Sunshine Recorder"
Is This It
by The Strokes | 2001 | Indie Rock
Simply put, one of the greatest albums ever made by one of the greatest bands ever. Perhaps even the best indie rock debut album of all time. There is nothing I could possibly say about this album that hasn't been said over and over again by every music reviewer out there, so an any actual analysis is left as an exercise for the reader. Peak music.
Favourite Track - "Hard To explain"
The New Abnormal
by The Strokes | 2020 | Indie Rock
The New Abnormal is certainly a masterpiece. The Strokes aren't popular for no reason. So far ahead of any other indie band that it's honestly astounding, every single thing they've released is top notch and filled with clean, beautiful sounds. This album might not be my favourite, but it still has some of my favourite songs of all time. From a strong opener to a strong finisher, an overall amazingly put together piece of art. Took me a long time to pick a favourite song, because I really think they're all amazing. An album that's really best listened on a car stereo with the windows down. (Oh, another break).
Favourite Track - "Brooklyn Bridge To Chorus"
KNOWER FOREVER
by KNOWER | 2023 | Jazz | Bandcamp
Hard hitting funk jazz album with a very unique electric sound. Mechanically very impressive, with great solos on a shockingly wide range of instruments. Amazing drums, and a wonderful and experimental mix of sounds. Not something I listen to every day, but this album truly blew me away. Very unique sound, and wonderful vocals to top it off.
Favourite Track - "I'm The President" and "The Abyss"
Dinosaurchestra
by Lemon Demon | 2006 | Rock | Bandcamp
a peppy and bright album that was one of Lemon Demon's first releases! All of the songs have a very certain unique quirky feel to them that's very hard to describe. all the tracks have their own silly concepts and sounds, from the album's namesake tracks about a band of dinosaurs trying to make it before they go extinct, to a song about ocean real-estate, to a gentle track about everything turning out ok, to the track that cemented lemon demon as an icon of the 2000s, "The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny." Lemon Demon's tracks are littered with wordplay, and different tracks have such wildly different emotions that its hard to really describe the album as a whole. It's embarassing how many tears i've shed over "Fine" or "The Too Much Song." overall a beautiful album, and one of my personal favourites.
Favourite Track - "Fine"
TÆL
by TÆL | 2023 | Bassviolence | Bandcamp
a wonderfully produced norwegian bassviolence record. the vocals are gripping and the drums are intense and overwhelming. some of the sounds produced are wonderfully unfamiliar to me. the sound is very dynamic and it shifts quickly between being slower and heavier, and being quick and relentless. beautiful music and beautiful cover art.
Favourite Track - "På spidd"
Girlfriends
by Girlfriends | 2009 | Math Rock | Bandcamp
Girlfriends is a beautiful math rock record. it is an absolutely lovely album with careful and well put together sounds. the vocals are used in a unique way, with little in terms of lyrics but still maintaining powerful meanings. a perfect album with beautiful sounds.
Favourite Track - "Bernie Mac Attack"