Albums are graded on a five-point scale of "Awful-Eh-Good-Great-Classic". I'm highly biased, so don't take it too seriously. Most of these come from my own collection, so the grades skew rather high. Your results may vary if you send me stuff to review.
The best way I can sum up my obsessions as a listener is that, if it was played on 120 Minutes, I like it. I like hooky songwriting, strange noises, big fuzzy basses, gnarly drum tones, interesting voices, and bands that know when to end a song. Beyond that, I will occasionally defend butt rock, mom rock, turn of the millennium pop rock, and various other genres considered uncool. I probably also have untapped interest in warped electronica and really lo-fi, crappy hip-hop music. Ask me again in ten years.
I have recently readded my low-bit and netlabel reviews from my old site and given download links for where you can get the indie artists' stuff. Give them your love.
(Legacy/major label artists: The Amps, Ash, Autolux, Beck, Big Black, Cage the Elephant, The Cardigans, Earlimart, Failure, The Folk Implosion, Foo Fighters, Hum, Lush, Marcy Playground, MGMT, Nickelback, Remy Zero, Sebadoh, Silversun Pickups, Starflyer 59, Stella Luna, Superdrag, Twenty One Pilots, We Are Scientists, Wilco, Wolf Parade)
(Independent/Internet artists: The Acro-Brats, c.layne, Graffiti Mechanism, Irving, John Gold, Jonathan Ian, lost kluster, Midwestern Dirt, Old Oldman, Pine Marten, This Not Beated, Wrong Way Driver)
Legacy/Major Label Artists
| Year |
Album Name |
Summary |
Rating |
| 1995 |
Pacer |
Rock in rehab. |
Great |
| Year |
Album Name |
Summary |
Rating |
| 1997 |
1977 |
It's better than what I was up to as a teenager. |
Good |
| Year |
Album Name |
Summary |
Rating |
| 2016 |
Pussy's Dead |
Cinematic technological disturbance. |
Great |
| 2010 |
Transit Transit |
The alien overcomes the machine, and it works out beautifully. |
Great |
| 2004 |
Future Perfect |
A poppy whirlwind with an airtight tracklisting. |
Classic |
| Year |
Album Name |
Summary |
Rating |
| 2008 |
Modern Guilt |
Dry, clipped paranoia. |
Great |
| 2005 |
Guero |
"Sun-eyed", "cyanide", it all works out the same in Beck's world. |
Great |
| 1998 |
Mutations |
A man, his guitar, and some saran wrap—all anyone ever needed. |
Classic |
| 1996 |
Odelay |
Rockin' the plastic like a man from a casket. |
Classic |
| 1994 |
Mellow Gold |
Finding humor in the vagrant lifestyle. |
Great |
| Year |
Album Name |
Summary |
Rating |
| 1982 |
Lungs |
Prime Big Black? No. Primal Big Black? Absolutely. |
Good |
| Year |
Album Name |
Summary |
Rating |
| 1998 |
Gran Turismo |
Sonically repressed. |
Great |
| Year |
Album Name |
Summary |
Rating |
| 1994 |
Magnified |
As fun as songs about car crashes and arsons get. |
Classic |
| Year |
Album Name |
Summary |
Rating |
| 1995 |
Foo Fighters |
Dave Grohl used to be weird, man. |
Classic |
| Year |
Album Name |
Summary |
Rating |
| 1993 |
Electra2000 |
The trash compactor of love. |
Great |
| Year |
Album Name |
Summary |
Rating |
| 1990 |
Gala |
What is this mermaid music? |
Classic |
| Year |
Album Name |
Summary |
Rating |
| 1999 |
Shapeshifter |
Folklore as alt-rock, simple and endlessly appealing. |
Classic |
| 1997 |
Marcy Playground |
File next to your sixteen books on magic spells. |
Great |
| Year |
Album Name |
Summary |
Rating |
| 2018 |
Little Dark Age |
Only if you're trying too hard. |
Eh |
| Year |
Album Name |
Summary |
Rating |
| 1996 |
Curb |
Now wait, hold on... |
Good |
| Year |
Album Name |
Summary |
Rating |
| 1996 |
Remy Zero |
It blows through and then it's gone. |
Good |
| Year |
Album Name |
Summary |
Rating |
| 1996 |
Harmacy |
Did this really need to be nineteen tracks long? |
Good |
| 1994 |
Bakesale |
Love, anxiety, and drugs in a blender. |
Great |
| Year |
Album Name |
Summary |
Rating |
| 2012 |
Neck of the Woods |
Eerie, warped, and endless. |
Great |
| 2009 |
Swoon |
Release what's brewing underneath. |
Classic |
| 2006 |
Carnavas |
As twinkly and cloudy as the cover art. |
Classic |
| 2005 |
Pikul |
Springtime misery. |
Classic |
| Year |
Album Name |
Summary |
Rating |
| 2004 |
I Am the Portuguese Blues |
As monochrome as its cover, but that's not an insult. |
Great |
| 1997 |
The Fashion Focus |
Cars whizzing past in the nighttime. |
Great |
| 1995 |
Gold |
Starflyer are near to the brokenhearted. |
Classic |
| Year |
Album Name |
Summary |
Rating |
| 2002 |
Stargazer |
The mystique matches the music for once. |
Great |
| Year |
Album Name |
Summary |
Rating |
| 1997 |
Regretfully Yours |
A highly appealing sugary wasting away. |
Classic |
| Year |
Album Name |
Summary |
Rating |
| 2018 |
Trench |
They managed not to dig a hole this time, ironically. |
Good |
| Year |
Album Name |
Summary |
Rating |
| 2005 |
With Love and Squalor |
Restless, infectious, bite-sized dance-punk. |
Great |
| Year |
Album Name |
Summary |
Rating |
| 1999 |
Summerteeth |
How to sound alright when you very much shouldn't be. |
Great |
Independent/Internet Artists
| Year |
Album Name |
Summary |
Rating |
| 2007 |
Shark Week |
Proving both the sea and the sky are out to kill you. |
Classic |
| Year |
Album Name |
Summary |
Rating |
| 2014 |
In Vitro |
Low-bit techno that excels despite a lack of cohesion. |
Great |
| Year |
Album Name |
Summary |
Rating |
| 2006 |
II |
Another whiny bitch with a guitar. |
Eh |
| 2006 |
I |
Works better when you're not an angry squirrel. |
Good |
| Year |
Album Name |
Summary |
Rating |
| 2006 |
Blogging |
Way cooler than blogging. |
Good |
| Year |
Album Name |
Summary |
Rating |
| 2007 |
The Tender Ass EP |
Spanky spanky, but you won't know it at first. |
Great |
| Year |
Album Name |
Summary |
Rating |
| 2011 |
Nonplussed |
Baby marten. |
Great |