darkSpyro

I really like talking about music, like a little too much, so I decided that I wanna write music reviews. I don't really know where else to put them at the time being, so I'll just plop them here. I'll talk about new releases or any other past release that I want to share my opinion on. Anyone else who would like to share any opinions about music, new and old, may share here too!

idk why but i've been listening to a lot of last dinosaurs lately even though they only sing about trying to get a girlfriend

Since every artist on the planet has been releasing material lately, I'm just gonna shove them all together.

Nothing But Thieves: Amsterdam - This is honestly my favorite song so far this year, fantastic. I love the vocals on this, so much energy and passion. I can't wait for their new album. I don't have a ton to say about this one, it's just terrific.

All Time Low: Life of the Party - I know a lot of people will disagree with me, but in my opinion this poppier direction feels like a natural progression in sound for them after Future Hearts. This is probably my favorite of the tracks they've released for Last Young Renegade so far. It's very catchy, I like it. Alex Gaskarth has definitely improved as a vocalist and it shows in this song.

Imagine Dragons: Thunder - I can't put into words how disappointed I was when I heard this. I've always liked Imagine Dragons, but I've never been a huge fan. In my opinion, they are strongest when they do big over the top stadium rock songs (Warriors, Battle Cry, I'm So Sorry) and Believer is easily my favorite song they've made. The booming bass, the hard-hitting drums, and the fast paced and intense vocals solidified Believer as my favorite Imagine Dragons song. I was excited to hear more from the upcoming album, but then I get hit with this bland mess. This lazy Adele's Send My Love/Desiiigner's Panda-esque snooze fest represents the Imagine Dragons I don't like, the folk/indie hand clap stuff that sounds like they belong in a Jeep or Old Navy commercial (I Bet My Life, On Top of The World, THUNDER) I like the big booming drums towards the end of thunder, but they just seem like a big middle finger like, "Yeah, this song could have been awesome, but no.

Katy Perry: Bon Appetite - I liked Chained to the Rhythm. It had a nice baseline and a catchy melody. I don't like this. I was semi interested in her new album, now, not really. Bon Appetite is a hot mess. I'm not gonna act like I've ever been a Katy Perry fan, but I thought she was above this.

blink-182: 6/8 - This one caught me off guard. I was not expecting this from blink-182. Their last album, California, was okay. It had some fun tracks on it (Cynical, Los Angeles) but in general it was a bit bland, so I wasn't exactly stoked when I heard that they were releasing a deluxe version with 11 new songs. I did enjoy Parking Lot and Misery, both seemed to have significantly more energy instrumentally. 6/8 brings it to a whole new level. Travis Barker's drumming is fantastic as always, and I always enjoy a song in 6/8, but what surprised me was right off the bat those guitars grab you and suck you in. There's a real sense of urgency throughout the first verse that catches your attention and brings you to that ear wormy chorus. I'm glad they figured about how to write a catchy song with out throwing any "Na na na's" in there because most of California was drowning in it. I'd also like to draw attention towards Matt Skiba's backing vocals in the chorus. It sounds like he's crying out at the top of his lungs while drowning, which sounds cool and adds to the mood the lyrics create, talking about rushing rivers and whatnot. His vocals here and the other two songs (Parking Lot especially) showcase why he was the perfect replacement for Tom DeLonge in this band. With the direction they're going, I like Skiba's voice in the band more. I'm actually excited to hear what else this deluxe version of California has in store.

PVRIS: Heaven - I really like the atmosphere of this song. I enjoy the echoey backing vocals throughout, it adds a lot to the overall feel. The drums on this add a lot of energy too. The vocals on this sound great as well. Their music as been hit or miss for me in the past, but this song has me looking forward for more new material.

OneRepublic: No Vacancy - This is my least favorite song they've ever released. I love Ryan Tedder as a vocalist, but he's using that falsetto way too much. He has a very impressive vocal range, especially his belting range, he should be utilizing that more. Relying on his falsetto so much seems like a waste of talent. Nothing about this even feels/sounds like OneRepublic. I expect bands to change sound, they did it fairly well on certain tracks on their most recent album Oh My My (Songs like A.I. and the title track). But this sounds like Ryan Tedder wrote this song for Ed Sheeran, but he didn't want it, so he raised it an octave and released it as a OneRepublic song. It's boring and doesn't go anywhere. Sad to see another band with so much potential give in the same tropical dance pop that's dominating the radio right now.

Fall Out Boy: Young and Menace - Okay, where to even start with this one. Well, I actually really like the verses of this song. It's super catchy and has been stuck in my head ever since I've heard it, but it doesn't really sound like Fall Out Boy. That's not an issue for me, but I couldn't help but notice that Patrick Stump wasn't singing with his "intense rock voice" that he usually uses for this band. His delivery was similar to his solo R&B/pop album Soul Punk. It sounds great though. The Britney Spears reference in the first verse was a bit odd, weather intentional or not, but I was on board. Until that chorus. If you can even call it that. It sounds like something Alvin and the Chipmunks would throw together while on a bad acid trip. My least favorite trend in current music is the pitch-shifted, chipmunk-esque vocal manipulations. I've never heard a song containing them to a large extent that didn't annoy me. This song takes it way too far. It's just chaos and it's grating on the ears. It doesn't sound good at all, I don't know what they were thinking. But other than that, I enjoy the rest of the song, a lot actually. My feelings are extremely mixed because I love the verses, but I despise the chorus. Whenever I listen to it, it's like watching TV. The verses are the actual show and that "chorus" is the commercials. I either ignore it, laugh at it, or skip it. I'm hoping no pitch shifted chaos on the album.

Rise Against: The Violence - Solid rock song with a catchy melody. I don't have much more to say about it.

Foster The People: III - Pay The Man: The more hip-hop influenced production was a little off putting to me at first, but I've grown to like this one a lot, the sound works well for them. The lyrics are definitely the best part. "The deaf man heard what the mute man said, then they all followed where the blind man lead" has to be favorite lyric of the year so far.
Doing It for the Money: I love that chorus so much, although it's so sugary it feels like my teeth are gonna rot from listening to it too much.
SHC: This is the kind of song I expect for Foster the People. It's probably my least favorite of the three, but still an enjoyable track that goes well with the other two.

Paramore: Told You So - I absolutely adore the 80's disco pop rock sound they've adopted, it works wonders for them. While not as strong as Hard Times (which was fantastic), this is still a great song in it's own right. It still sounds like a Paramore song. It feels like I've always known about it, like it's always been in their discography. I've only listened to it three times, currently on my fourth, and it doesn't even seem new. That's how in tune they are with their sound. I've already pre-ordered After Laughter, I'm hoping that CD comes in the mail a day or two early.

LCD Soundsystem: call the police / american dream - I've never listened to this band in the past, but I'm gonna have to after listening to these songs. Both of these songs are so hypnotizing. Both are over six minutes, but they don't feel like it. I always appreciate an artist that knows how to use runtime well. I've listened to these a lot, they sound fantastic, especially in my new headphones.

X Ambassadors: Torches - I like the production on this one. All of the percussion sounds great, like the cabasa throughout and especially that hi-hat, it sounds great. Sam Harris sounds great on this. Dude's got amazing range, I just hope he doesn't exploit that too much. This isn't the strongest song I've heard from them, overall it feels a bit lacking, but it's still a solid tune.

Linkin Park: Good Goodbye - Finally, a new Linking Park song that I like. I loved their previous album The Hunting Party, which was a blast of hard rock, so Heavy was a humongous letdown for me. Linking Park has done pop well before, but that song just flat out sucked. Battle Symphony was better, but overall was pretty bland. I do enjoy Good Goodbye. It's nice to hear Mike Shinoda rapping again and he does an amazing job on this. I love Pusha T, but I honestly would have liked it better if Mike did the whole thing. He has such a huge presence that it doesn't feel right when he leaves. I could have done without Stormzy. I would rather maybe they had Mike do the first two rap verse and then maybe Pusha T did that third one. Chester Bennington does a good job on the chorus, but it feels like he's holding back. It feels that way on all of the One More Light songs so far, I hope to hear him let loose a bit more on the album.

Stone Sour: Fabuless - I love the intensity on this track, it almost sound like Slipknot. I love Corey Taylor as a vocalist, weather he's screaming, singing, or using his super low fryish voice, all of which he does on this track. It's just awesome. That guitar solo, although short, was invigorating. It's everything I could ever want from Stone Sour. I love this song.


I think I'm gonna stop there. Geez, so much music, it's hard to keep up! I'll probably write a review of the new Gorillaz album at some point too, because I got a lot to say about that!

Quote: awesomerockets

Imagine Dragons: Thunder - I can't put into words how disappointed I was when I heard this. I've always liked Imagine Dragons, but I've never been a huge fan. In my opinion, they are strongest when they do big over the top stadium rock songs (Warriors, Battle Cry, I'm So Sorry) and Believer is easily my favorite song they've made. The booming bass, the hard-hitting drums, and the fast paced and intense vocals solidified Believer as my favorite Imagine Dragons song. I was excited to hear more from the upcoming album, but then I get hit with this bland mess. This lazy Adele's Send My Love/Desiiigner's Panda-esque snooze fest represents the Imagine Dragons I don't like, the folk/indie hand clap stuff that sounds like they belong in a Jeep or Old Navy commercial (I Bet My Life, On Top of The World, THUNDER) I like the big booming drums towards the end of thunder, but they just seem like a big middle finger like, "Yeah, this song could have been awesome, but no.

OMG thank you, it's exactly how I feel about that song. It feels boring and uninspired tbh.

They have a new song out today called "whatever it takes" and I think it's better than thunder for sure, but still not great.

Quote: kardonis

Quote: awesomerockets

Imagine Dragons: Thunder - I can't put into words how disappointed I was when I heard this. I've always liked Imagine Dragons, but I've never been a huge fan. In my opinion, they are strongest when they do big over the top stadium rock songs (Warriors, Battle Cry, I'm So Sorry) and Believer is easily my favorite song they've made. The booming bass, the hard-hitting drums, and the fast paced and intense vocals solidified Believer as my favorite Imagine Dragons song. I was excited to hear more from the upcoming album, but then I get hit with this bland mess. This lazy Adele's Send My Love/Desiiigner's Panda-esque snooze fest represents the Imagine Dragons I don't like, the folk/indie hand clap stuff that sounds like they belong in a Jeep or Old Navy commercial (I Bet My Life, On Top of The World, THUNDER) I like the big booming drums towards the end of thunder, but they just seem like a big middle finger like, "Yeah, this song could have been awesome, but no.

OMG thank you, it's exactly how I feel about that song. It feels boring and uninspired tbh.

They have a new song out today called "whatever it takes" and I think it's better than thunder for sure, but still not great.

Whatever It Takes is definitely better than Thunder. I really like the quickly delivered lyrics in the verses, it sounds great. I like the bridge too. The chorus seems a bit lacking though, also like it's trying to hard to be inspiring. Not great, but I can see myself coming back to it.

I know it sounds a bit off-topic but I really don't like that drop the base beat that's in every single new song and whatever latest remix of older songs on the radio.

A beat that builds up faster and louder, sudden stop, someone says a word or two and then a looping thump. How is nobody catching on to this? My mum knows this but listens because it's part of a song she already likes rather than be annoyed be drop the base formula.

Every song is now becoming the exact same thing.

Quote: kardonis

OMG thank you, it's exactly how I feel about that song. It feels boring and uninspired tbh.

They have a new song out today called "whatever it takes" and I think it's better than thunder for sure, but still not great.

I like Imagine Dragons but it's starting to get real tiring to always hear their songs in commercials and promotional material, especially now when it's sounding like they're modeling their music specifically to be for commercials.

It makes the band feel boring and like it's sold out.

In a bid to keep this alive, I just listened to Linkin Park's "One More Light".

Probably their weakest album. It's not awful but at the same time Chester's vocals is the only thing that reminds me I'm listening to Linkin Park. Has a couple good songs on it but the whole thing feels like it'll be forgotten shortly. I know everyone liked The Hunting Party but that felt a bit too heavy for me at times. That said this feels like a polar opposite in that it's just too soft for too long. They achieved a perfect balance with Living Things and have yet to get that back.

Can't blame anyone for being pissed about it but I wouldn't get up in arms about it. It's just a sort of whatever album.

Funny enough this topic showed up when I started "rebuilding" my music library(in that I started purchasing whole albums by my favorite artists instead of singles I ripped online when I was younger so that my music library can have some actual consistency to it). I've got a long way to go before I get all the core musicians I want, but I'd thought I'd share my casual thoughts on albums as I listen to them by artist, since most of these songs I'm actually listening to for the first time.

I guess I can start with Linkin Park's primary albums since they were the first artist I had a complete collection of.

Hybrid Theory
To be completely honest, I'm not a huge fan of LP's debut album. Not to say it's bad by any means, but overall just not my style. A lot of the album sounds very same-y in that it all is just really, REALLY angry and loud. I get that was what they were going for, but I think the album kind of suffers as a result. The only songs that stood out to me were Crawling and In The End. Crawling, admittedly, because of the more ironic following it's gained, and In The End because it's the only song that's different enough to stand out. Overall not that bad, the songs are still musically great, but still left a bit to be desired. 6/10.

Meteora
THIS is more of what I wanted in Hybrid Theory. This has the metal, loud sound that Hybrid Theory has, but it's a lot calmer and slower than that one. This album pretty much improves everything I liked about HT and fixes all the problems all I had with it. Lyrically, it sounds much better because it isn't so loud and angry. Somewhere I Belong, Easier to Run, Faint, and Nobody's Listening are highlights, but the best songs are easily Breaking the Habit and Numb(which shouldn't come as a surprise since Numb is considered one of LP's best songs, if not their absolute best). They achieved a perfect balance lyrically and musically in this album when it comes to old-school Linkin Park, and I can see why people generally consider it Linkin Park's best album. it's not my personal favorite, but it's still really great. 8/10.

Minutes to Midnight
This album is near perfection in my honest opinion. It has such a perfect balance between the heavy style of rock from the last two albums, as the newer alt rock sound they've adopted since this album. Songs like Given Up and Bleed it Out are a great mix of this old and new style, and songs like Leave Out All The Rest and Shadow of the Day are some great new pieces. I'm not even sure what I can say about What I've Done that hasn't been said since that's also one of LP's best songs ever. 9/10.

A Thousand Suns
This is where LP started to take a bit of a drastic change what with the new electronic focused rock, and I'm pretty mixed on it. Some songs are pretty good like Waiting for the End and Burning in the Skies, but it's really hard to enjoy the whole album because half of it is just instrumentals like Wretches and Kings and The Requiem. A lot of this album just sounds like noise to me, and that's not a really good thing. The songs are pretty good, but the rest of the album is really forgettable. 5/10.

Living Things
If Minutes to Midnight and Meteora are near perfection for Linkin Park, then Living Things IS perfection. I honestly have nothing wrong with this album, and for years it's been my favorite album ever(only beaten recently by NateWantsToBattle's Sandcastle Kingdoms). Every single song on here is great, Castle of Glass in particular being my personal favorite Linkin Park song. it has this perfect composition of everything Linkin Park has done. There's enough of both old school and new LP in this album, from their angry Lies, Greed, Misery, to their newer sound in songs like Burn it Down. Their best album so far. 10/10.

The Hunting Party
Following up Living Things was really difficult for me personally, but they really brought it with The Hunting Party. This is kind of like Living Things in that it brings together all of Linkin Park, only this time with a more rock sound than electric sound from Living Things. There are a couple tracks that just sound like noise to me, but when the songs are good, they're REALLY good. Keys to the Kingdom and Guilty all the Same are great old-style songs, Until It's Gone and Final Masquerade are great new style songs, and Wastelands is my favorite song from the album. 8/10.

One More Light
This one really got my attention since Linkin Park was going pop, and I honestly didn't know what to think until the album actually came out. And honestly, I didn't mind that LP was adopting a pop-style. they did electronic and it worked pretty well. The problem is that One More Light is just not very good altogether. Not only is the album way too soft(especially compared to LP's softer songs), they just sound really disorganized and annoying at times. Keyword: at times. Sometimes, the songs are pretty good. but the music composition and style they made for the music really distracts me from liking the songs. I want to like Good Goodbye, but the portions of the song that sound like Alvin and the Chipmunks keep me from taking it seriously. I want to like Sorry for Now, because it's decent for the most part, but the dubstep-y sound that plays after the chorus is too distracting and bad. The album does have a couple good songs overall. Heavy is great, if nothing else because it's like In The End in that it's the only distinctive song on the album. Sharp Edges is a great acoustic song, and Invisible is a decent song for Mike Shinoda lyrically. Talking to Myself is the best song on the album, because it has this perfect blend of Linkin Park's rock sound and the pop sound they made for this album. Definitely their weakest and worst album so far. 4/10.

TL: DR- Linkin Park's albums from worst to best,
-One More Light
-A Thousand Suns
-Hybrid Theory
-The Hunting Party
-Meteora
-Minutes to Midnight
-Living Things

I wrote this awhile ago and forgot to post it. Better late than never;
Gorillaz: Humanz
The long awaited comeback from Gorillaz was well worth the wait. Humanz totally delivers and is giving Demon Days real competition as my favorite album of theirs to date. While Damon Albarn, or 2D, doesn't have a huge vocal presence throughout the record, it doesn't make much of a difference. It doesn't always need him, most of the guests do a great job. I'm just gonna go through and talk about every song on the standard edition, track by track. Not including the interludes.

Ascension (Featuring Vince Staples): This has got to be my favorite Gorillaz album opener to date. Ascension starts things off with a bang, and you can thank Vince Staples for that. He gives a fantastic performance on this song, I'm gonna have to look in to his work. Gorillaz does a great job coming up with music to back up the rap verses too. It's a bit unpredictable, and that's what I love about. A lot of beat/instrumental changes throughout keeps this song interesting. The lyrics on this one are great as well. While the line "the sky is falling' baby, drop that ass 'fore it crash" may not seem like much, I like what he's saying. If the world is ending, Staples wants to spend his last moments on Earth indulging himself with women and partying. It's a lot of fun, one of my top favorites on the whole album

Strobelite (Featuring Peven Everett): I love the groove that this song has. That awesome bassline, and catchy synth line alone make this song a real treat. Everett sounds great on this too, he gives a very soulful performance. I feel like this one is a bit longer than it needs to be, I always find myself checking the run time to see how much longer it'll go for during the second half.

Saturnz Barz (Featuring Popcaan): Initially, I wasn't feeling this one. I wasn't into the use of autotune over Popcaan's thick accent. But I remember getting chills the first time 2D came in with one of the catchiest melodies Gorillaz has even recorded. That's when it finally registered in my mind, "Gorillaz is back!" I loved the music video that accompanied the song too, I would strongly suggest watching it (THE BATH). As for the song, it definitely grew on me. I enjoy Popcaan on this song (even though I can't understand a thing he's saying aside from "ALL MY LIFE"), his voice sounds cool with the spacey beat going throughout the track. And once again, that chorus, perfection!

Momentz (Featuring De La Soul): I love De La Soul on this track. So much energy, his performance is oozing with personality. This one is a ton of fun. The big, booming drums make this one almost as dancy as DARE. There are a lot of small vocals parts, such as 2D’s “Red or black, yellow, red, black, white dirty” or De La Soul’s “Shivers down my backbone” that really add to the whole song and make it more memorable.

Submission (Feat. Danny Brown & Kelela): Honestly, this one is kinda forgettable. It has a pleasant melody, but I always forget this one is even on here until I hear it again while listening to the whole album. I do like Danny Brown’s verse. While I don’t think his feature was best used on this song, his voice is weird, and I like it. It adds more spice to the song, but other than that, if it were removed from the track listing, I probably wouldn’t even notice.

Charger (feat. Grace Jones): I love the controlled chaos that is Charger. 2D sounds is if he’s in some sort of drunken state as he sings over the stuttering guitars. It’s honestly kind of a mess, but I love it. It’s more on the odd side, but it’s definitely a stand out track.

Andromeda (Featuring D.R.A.M): I didn’t realize how much I wanted a song like this from Gorillaz until I got it. I’m super into the bassline, although I wish it were a bit louder, I can really only hear it with good headphones. One thing I appreciate about this track is that 2D handles most of the vocals. While I love hearing all of the guests, it’s nice to just hear the voice of the band from time to time. I didn’t even realize that D.R.A.M was on it at first listen, and I had to look to the internet to figure out what part he was even doing. He sounded so much like Damon Albarn on his verse that I had no idea it wasn’t Damon Albarn. I love this song though. The fluttering synth line makes you feel like you’re riding a shooting star through space and it’s complete and total ecstacy.

Busted and Blue: This is such an interesting song. Once again, 2D takes over most of the vocals. There’s an overall darkness to this song. It feels like it should be listened to on a rainy, foggy day. It feels hopeless, but hopeful at the same time. It’s a track that grabs your attention without anything flashy. It creates an atmosphere that makes you sad, but also make you want to be stronger. This is one of the best songs that they have released, it’s fantastic and chilling.

Carnival (Featuring Anthony Hamilton): This is another song that doesn’t stick in my memory, but it’s short, clocking in at just over two minutes. I like the ominous, almost frantic atmosphere that this song has. I do feel like this is a good spot for it on the album, but it didn't stand out.

Let Me Out (feat. Mavis Staples & Pusha T): Man, I get goosebumps just thinking about this one. This is Gorillaz at their best, a perfect example of using a guest artist to their fullest potential. Pusha T does an amazing job with his verses. Honestly, props to him for straight up name-dropping Obama and Trump in the beginning, even though it’s censored. That takes guts, I’m hearing a lot of political songs at the moment, but nothing as blatant as this. Also props to them for actually replacing the names with sounds instead of just leaving and awkward empty space. That’s why I don’t enjoy listening to clean music, I hate the unnatural gaps. I much prefer they at least replace it with another word or sound, and Let Me Out uses a sound that adds to the atmosphere of the song. I didn't even realize that it was a censor until I looked up the lyrics. That beat has a nice groove to it, it’s not something I expected from Gorillaz. Then Mavis Staples comes in a brings it to a whole new level. Her section adds a lot of tension and crescendos into the chorus. And if that part wasn’t already catchy enough, 2D comes in with the best melody on the album accompanied by an ear-thumping bassline. The whispered “let me out” heard in the background add to the overall intensity as well. The song is fairly short, and while I would love to hear the melody again, I’m glad 2D’s part only comes up twice. It make me want to listen to the song more, and this is the track from Humanz that I’ve given the most individual attention to. Everything about this song works. I hope these three will collaborate again in the future, they have great chemistry. Definitely my favorite track on the album and one of my favorite Gorillaz tracks of all time.

Sex Murder Party (feat. Jamie Principle & Zebra Katz): I like the simple beat on this one. 2D’s chorus is catchy, but this one doesn’t really seem to go anywhere, I don’t think it needs to run for over four minutes.

She's My Collar (feat. Kali Uchis): This one has the best beat on the whole album. It's so great it really demands attention throughout the whole runtime. I like the performances from Albarn and Uchis on this, but the production and beat make this jam memorable.

Hallelujah Money (feat. Benjamin Clementine): When this came out back in January, I wasn't feeling it. I didn't like Clementine’s vibrado filled delivery and I didn't find it very interesting. I enjoy it a lot more in the context of the album. Clementine's voice has grown on me and I really appreciate this track now.

We Got The Power: This one took awhile to grow on me as well. I still think it's super cheesy, but I enjoy the energetic delivery in the instruments and vocals. It's not a horrible way to end the album.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Humanz. Currently, it's my favorite album of the year so far. If you're a fan of Gorillaz, I would strongly recommend it.

Favorite tracks: Let Me Out, Ascension, Saturnz Barz, Andromeda, She's My Collar

Least favorites: Submission, Carnival, Sex Murder Party

So next up on the list for me is Paramore's albums. I recently got the last album of theirs that I needed in order to get all five of them so I can talk about all of them at once.

All We Know is Falling
Paramore's first album is really not that bad, although it is pretty underwhelming. Pressure and Emergency are really good songs, but nothing in the album really stands out that much. The songs sound great and Hayley Williams is a good singer, but the album is just kind of... there. The music is not that bad, it's decent. It's a very laid back pop punk album, probably a bit too laid back. Not awful by any means, but not excellent by any means. Overall a really solid start for the band. 7/10.

Riot!
I mean, the title of the album says it all. This album is ADRENALINE PUMPING, and I absolutely love it. There is a lot more intensity and fast pacing to this album, and it sounds phenomenal. Hayley Williams really shines as a singer in this album, her singing style is so intense and piercing in this album and it sounds awesome. Each member of the band has a lot of moments to stand out, because the music as a whole is just as intense and in your face. Crushcrushcrush, That's What You Get, Miracle, and Fences are great standout songs on the album. Misery Business, however, is the biggest standout. It doesn't surprise me that this is considered Paramore's breakthrough hit- it has the perfect amount of intensity and fierceness that the album comes with. Definitely one of their best. 9/10.

Brand New Eyes
Just as good as Riot!. While it isn't as intense as Riot! was, it still has the in your face style that was in that album, while also being a lot more relaxed like All We Know Is Falling, but this time it works because the relaxed songs are acoustic oriented. The Only Exception is the perfect example of this. Careful, Ignorance, and Playing God are great singles, and Feeling Sorry, Looking Up, and Where the Lines Overlap are also great songs. Brick By Boring Brick is the best song on the album, and is one of my personal favorites from the band. Hayley Williams once again brings it with her vocals as well. I have a really difficult time trying to pick between this and Riot! as my favorite of their albums. 9/10.

Paramore(2013 self-titled album)
When it came to style, this was definitely a departure from traditional Paramore. This album has a more pop rock sound compared to their pop punk sound from before. But here, I think it works amazingly because even with the pop sound, Paramore still has their core rock sound with pop elements thrown in. It's clear that like Paramore said, they wanted to rebrand themselves into something new, and I really think this album was the best way to do it. Not only does the pop and rock sound blend perfectly, but the whole album just screams the idea of Paramore changing in the lyrics, from their Interlude songs to the song Grow Up. That being said, the album doesn't have a whole lot of standouts, what with the 17 tracks on the album(some of it does just become noise at times unfortunately), but when they stand out, they REALLY stand out. As I said, Grow Up is a great song. Still Into You is awesome, and holds a lot of value to me since it was the song that introduced me to the band. Ain't It Fun has such a unique musical style that makes it one of their best. Now is not only my favorite song on the album, but was my favorite song by the band until recently(more on that later). I know I keep mentioning Hayley Williams, but seriously, she is such a great singer. This album really proved her voice can work with a lot of different genres of music. A really great album and great new style from Paramore. 8/10.

After Laughter
One song: Hard Times. This song alone makes the album worth it. This has become my new favorite Paramore song, and one of my all time favorite songs. Everything about it is just absolute perfection. Not only is it a legendary pop piece, but it very successfully sells the new pop-synth sound they had for this album. This album is easily their most pop sounding one to date, and Hard Times makes this transition to this sound seem very natural for the band, even if it's drastically different from their last albums. As for the rest of the album, it's pretty good. Told You So and Caught in the Middle are great songs, and Rose-Colored Boy straight up sounds like a Michael Jackson piece. Unfortunately, that's really it. The rest of the songs aren't bad by any means, they just aren't that memorable. Like the self titled album, this is a case where the standout songs REALLY stand out. A great album overall, even if all of it isn't memorable. As I said, Hard Times alone makes the album worth it. 8/10.

TL: DR- Paramore's albums from "worst" to best(there really isn't a bad one but this is how I would rank them),
-All We Know is Falling
-After Laughter
-Paramore(self-titled album)
-Brand New Eyes
-Riot!

Consider Riot! and Brand New Eyes interchangeable. They're both equally good and are the band's best albums. Though all their albums are great stuff, these two are the overall standouts.

I didn't really want to double post, but I really want to talk more about the music I've been listening to as I rebuild my music library. Next up on my list is Imagine Dragons.

Night Visions
To this day, Night Visions remains one of my all-time favorite albums. Everything about this album is just perfect to me. Each and every single song stands out, from the upbeat On Top of the World and Underdog, to the more somber tracks like Hear Me and Bleeding Out. It's Time and Demons are amazing songs, and Radioactive is still to this day their best song yet. It's really difficult for me to say much else about the album because I love it so much. It's worth noting that I own the deluxe edition, which comes with an additional 5 songs, which only make this perfect experience better in my opinion. 10/10.

Smoke + Mirrors
A very good album, although not as good as Night Visions. The album starts off very strong, but starts to fall apart near the second half, as the songs aren't really as good as the first few. Friction, Polaroid, Trouble, and Smoke and Mirrors are decent songs, but the four best ones are Shots, Gold, I Bet My Life, and I'm So Sorry. Other than that the album is decent overall. I own the deluxe version of this album as well, and I definitely recommend picking this one up, as it adds some new songs you may or may not like, including some promotional ones they did like Monster and Who We Are. 8/10.

Evolve
About on the same page as Smoke + Mirrors, although I find it slightly better than that album. I really enjoy a lot of songs on this album, like the heavy hitting Believer and I Don't Know Why, and various other songs like Walking the Wire, Thunder, and Start Over. Whatever it Takes in particular is really close to becoming my new favorite Imagine Dragons song. That being said, the whole album doesn't hit. Yesterday and Dancing in the Dark I think are the first Imagine Dragons songs I've actually disliked. There are ones I don't really listen to that much and ones I prefer over others, but none I've actually disliked yet. Other than that it's a really great album. 8/10.

So, in order of worst to best:
-Smoke + Mirrors
-Evolve
-Night Visions

Okay I'm actually going to bring this back because I really wanna write music reviews and I don't know where else to put them lol. I'll do a Foo Fighters review soon. Probably.

Quote: awesomerockets

Katy Perry: Bon Appetite - I liked Chained to the Rhythm. It had a nice baseline and a catchy melody. I don't like this. I was semi interested in her new album, now, not really. Bon Appetite is a hot mess. I'm not gonna act like I've ever been a Katy Perry fan, but I thought she was above this.

Bye Felicia.

Okay I know this topic is kind of old but I really want to talk about this particular artist.

About a month ago I listened to some of Kesha's new stuff and after a while I got to listening to all three of her studio albums and I decided I want to talk about them for one reason that I'll get into later:

Animal
Animal is an extremely mixed bag. I do enjoy the synth pop sound in this album most of the time, but sometimes it gets really repetitive really fast, so it's really just a matter of which songs you prefer over others based on how they sound. I'm not sure what I can really say about the singles from this album, like Tik Tok, Your Love Is My Drug, and Take It Off, because they're classics for their time. They're all good party songs to listen to, and it's become synonymous with late 2000s/early 2010s pop music for a reason. The problem I have with Animals is that it's very lyrically immature. A lot of songs are party style songs, which makes the repetition issue worse. Not only that, but the lyrics cover a lot of topics that you would expect from a teen demographic, and I don't mean the good kind. It sounds like the plastics from Mean Girls wrote some of these songs' lyrics at times. There's also a lot of auto tune in Kesha's voice that tends to get really annoying because her voice goes all over the place. Some of the songs are also really bad. Dinosaur, Blah Blah Blah, and Backstabber aren't good. ESPECIALLY Dinosaur. that being said, there are a few hidden gems on this album that I think are the best. I really like the sound of the song Animal, I really enjoy Dancing with Tears in My Eyes, and I think Hungover is the best song of the whole album because of its lyrical content and music. These songs are probably the most mature ones on the album, and I wish the whole album was like this. I'd say it's worth getting just the singles from the album, and then listening to the others on another platform to determine which other ones you might want to get. If you decide to buy the whole album, I can't stress this enough: Get the Animals+Cannibals edition that comes with the Cannibals EP. While Cannibals isn't entirely great, it does have some of Kesha's other popular singles like We R Who We R and Blow, which are worth having. Overall a really mixed bag that at it's best serves as an interesting example of what music was like at the turn of the decade, because this album blew up and Kesha was EVERYWHERE for a couple years when this album went viral. 4/10.

Warrior
Musically, this is a lot like Animals, so it's more of the same for the most part. But lyrically, it is a bit better than Animals. Just like Animals, this has some of Kesha's singles that became so ingrained with pop culture at the time like Die Young and C'Mon, but surprisingly that's really it. There are a couple more party style songs, but Warriors is a bit more risky than Animals. There are songs I don't really care for, like Dirty Love and Warrior, but some others, like Wonderland, Only Wanna Dance With You, and Love into the Light are really good lyrically and musically. The rest I'm indifferent to. There are some issues still persistent in this album, such as the auto tune issue in the first album(although it's not nearly as prevalent as it was in that album), but I still respect that this album took a couple creative risks. Definitely an improvement over Animals, but I still wouldn't say it's phenomenal. Aside from the singles, there's no standout song. It's either just decent enough or not that great. If you do decide to get this album, get the deluxe edition, because the bonus songs on that one do add a little more to the whole album. 5/10.

Rainbow
I was never aware up until recently of the lawsuit Kesha got into with producer Dr. Luke, and it's just really sad seeing the whole thing between them happen, even if it is kind of old news at this point. But after all of that, Kesha got back to making music for the first time in five years, this time without Dr. Luke.

And this is why I wanted to talk about Kesha, BECAUSE HOLY **** TALK ABOUT A COMPLETE 180 IN TERMS OF QUALITY! Rainbow isn't just a good album, it's FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC. There is not a single song on this album that I think is any less than great. This album feels a lot more natural and real than her last two albums. Kesha's voice isn't going back and forth with an auto tune effect. Her music isn't strictly electronic, she experiments so much in this album. There's a bit of soul, a bit of acoustic, a bit of rock, a bit of musical, even a bit of country. I never thought I would actually like something that has a little bit of country influence because I hate country, but that just tells how how amazing this album really is. I love the beat and trumpets from Woman, I love the orchestral music from Rainbow, I love the rock of Let 'Em Talk, and I love the piano of Praying. Lyrically this album is so much better too. This album does have a couple songs that take you back to the party-style she's so synonymous with, but the most prevalent theme in the whole album is letting go of the past and moving on, and there are themes of depression, issues of self confidence, female empowering, and being yourself. And again, her voice sounds so GOOD in this album because there's no auto-tune effect. It's all her, and Praying in particular does a phenomenal job in showing just what her vocal range really is. This album is perfect. If it wasn't for the fact that Sandcastle Kingdoms came out earlier this year, this would be my favorite album to come out this year so far. 9/10.

So in order of worst to best:
-Animals
-Warrior
-Rainbow

Is it bad that I find all of Imagine Dragon's songs sound the same? Like, they aren't bad by any means, but they all kinda have the same drum beat, bass drop part. It took me until someone made a joke about the song that plays when the bosses appear in Splatoon 2 to realize it.

Also i've very upset no parody channal capitalized on the "Bon Appetite" meme and replaced each Bon Appetite with a mispelling, like Bone Apple Tea or Bone App the Teeth.

Concrete and Gold - Foo Fighters

Foo Fighters are one of my favorite bands and in my opinion is one of the most consistent groups in rock. They’ve delivered hit after hit and it’s almost impossible not to hear something by them when listening to rock radio. Dave Grohl claimed that this was their biggest album yet. There were a lot of guests involved and Run was a fantastic lead single, so of course I was excited. Unfortunately, after hearing it, this may be the most disappointing release for me this year. While it definitely has it’s strong moments, there are plenty of moments that just don’t work for me.

The album starts off very strong with the short intro T-Shirt leading into the monster that is Run. Run is easily the best song here, it makes you wanna do exactly that: run! That crunchy riff, Grohl’s menacing screams in the verses and a super sticky chorus will make this a live staple until the end of their career. The Sky Is A Neighborhood is a highlight as well. Another fantastic entry into their discography. Grohl’s soulful delivery really shines through and that chorus is legendary, it makes me smile every time I hear it.

I will say, Make It Right as a cool riff and some catchy drumming from Taylor Hawkins. Unfortunately everything else about it is a bit bland. This song also sees an early example of one of my biggest issues with this record: the guests are totally wasted and add little to nothing to the track. Justin Timberlake is one of my favorite musician, so of course I was pumped to hear him on this thing. Listen to Make It Right as see if you can figure out where he pops up. It took me about six listens before I figured it out. He does the background “La la la’s” at around 3 minutes and forty seconds. I initially thought it was backing vocals from one of the Foo’s, and I can pick out voices pretty easily, especially one like JT’s. He really didn’t even need to be there. I know Justin was the one who asked to sing on the album, but it’s JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE, you couldn’t have given him something at least significant? Same can be said about Alison Mosshart of The Kills, I see her credited for backing vocals on tracks four and five, but I still cannot hear her no matter how hard I try. You got freaking Paul McCartney, but you don’t even have him sing? Or even play guitar? He plays drums on possibly the most boring track on the album: Sunday Rain, which is about two minutes too long. The drums never even have the spotlight or even anything to do that warrant having Sir Paul McCartney. Taylor Hawkins takes over the vocals on this one, and he does fine, but he’s not very interesting to listen to, especially compared to Dave Grohl. The only guest who does anything really noteworthy is Shawn Stockman from Boyz II Men. His vocals are layered over each other in attempt to make a big gospel choir on the title track, but it’s not nearly as big as it should have been, once again, barely noticeable. You have all of these greats from all kinds of genres of music, but you barely utilize them?

My other big problem with Concrete and Gold is the production, which was done by Greg Kurstin, who is known for working with Kelly Clarkson, Sia, and Adele. I’m not against a pop producer working with a rock band. Mark Ronson did a pretty good job with the new Queens of the Stone Age album, but they wanted to make a dancier album, so naturally they would go to the guy who made Uptown Funk. But if Grohl and company wanted to make the “biggest album of their career” I don’t understand why they would go to Kurstin. A lot of the songs feel very empty and a bit muddy. La Dee Da suffers the most here, which is a shame because this track has a lot of potential. I hope they re-record this one someday. They opening bass line and the groove in the verses is awesome. The chorus on the other hand, I feel like it should be awesome, but it doesn’t really stick the landing. Grohl’s screams don’t feel like they are mixed quite right with the rest of the band and it’s a bit grating on the ears. I can’t even really tell what else is happening, it’s just kind of a mess. I hope this one sounds better live.

Even though it’s a fantastic tune, Run suffers a little bit from the production too. It feels like a bit murky. It’s like I’m watching a spectacular fireworks show through a dirty window, but I can’t do anything to wash it and make it clearer. Arrows, which is one of the better tunes, doesn’t feel as grandiose as it should either. It’s pretty much your standard Foo Fighters track, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s a good one to rock out to, but it feels like nothing new. Even the first time I listened to it, I felt like I’d heard it before. The Line is probably forgettable song here. I’ve heard it about eight times and I’m still unable to remember what it evens sounds like. I honestly forgot it was even on the album until it came up when I listened through this thing again while writing this. Dirty Water is a pleasant enough song, but it’s a bit longer than it needs to be. No reason for it to be over five minutes, it doesn’t really go anywhere. The closing moment, the title track Concrete and Gold, isn’t all that memorable either. I keep waiting for it to take off and it never does.

I think this is their weakest effort yet. There are definitely tracks worth checking out, but overall, it’s a bit bland and forgettable.

Favorite tracks: Run, The Sky Is A Neighborhood, Arrows
Least Favorites: Sunday Rain, Concrete and Gold, The Line, La Dee Da (Only because the production drags it down)

Boppin it to Born to Die

Dragonforce - Reaching into Infinity

Dragonforce's 7th studio album which released earlier this year. I'm late, but now that I've been able to listen to it a million and a half times I feel like I can give a proper review. Do note that they have a very unique sound, and people who dislike the epic yet often corny-sound of power metal are simply not going to enjoy this album, or even this band in general.

With that out of the way, lets get on with it...

Reaching into infinity + Ashes of the Dawn - Reaching into infinity is a short opening instrumental, meant to tie directly into Ashes of the dawn, something we haven't had from dragonforce since their debut album, valley of the damned. It is a perfect lead up for what is easily the best song on the album. Ashes of the dawn is fast paced, epic, and inspiring. The chorus hooked me instantly, and is so uplifting you can't help but sing along. The bass opening is great, and is an uncommon thing for dragonforce to have, much less as the lead of the entire album. The slow pounding sets up the resultant firestorm of guitar riffs and drum beats perfectly. If there was any doubt about Marc Hudson as a singer, this song lays it to rest. His vocals on this album, and the song in particular are great.


Judgement Day - This is probably the second best song on the album. If you thought dragonforce sounded corny before this song, well, you really won't like this one. The lyrics are full on, and almost sound like they wanted to put as many cool sounding phrases together as possible. Aside from that, it seems like a pretty average dragonforce song. That is, until they burst out into this super upbeat epic chant about 3/4 of the way through. It's impossible to describe why it's so good, you'd have to hear it to understand. It really makes the song, and it would hardly be anything to notice without it.

Astral Empire - Astral Empire really reminds me of their "valley of the damned style" which is a great nostalgia trip. It does have a nice use of acoustic guitar in the interlude, but aside from that it doesn't stand out too much, and it was quickly tossed aside to go back to their formulaic instrumentals, which is really a shame. Nothing else really makes me say wow or has me following along, which was sort of an issue with most of valley of the damned as well come to think of it. I found the vocals to be a bit fast here, sometimes being difficult to keep up with.

Curse of Darkness - This song is nice. I'm not really sure what to say about it. They tried to go for more darker themed lyrics like they have in the past, but I don't really find them to synergize with the instrumental that well. It still has the upbeat and invigorating drum beat, but talks of blood, revenge, and being alone, it just doesn't seem to fit very well. The interlude is unique, having most instruments go silent to really focus on the vocals, but I think they should have considered alternate lyrics for that segment.

Silence - Not gonna lie, I didn't like this song at first, but it grew on me. The slower style lends itself quite well to the sad feel of the song, yet the guitars are still going strong, and aren't underplayed. Even the instrumentals don't speed up, and this one in particular keeps it short and sweet, being one of the shorter songs on the album. The instrumental fade out is done very well here to end the song.

Midnight Madness - Having another flashback, this time of sonic firestorm, which again, is appreciated. The usage of the tempo change is quite nice here, but I think the instrumental is lacking a bit, as are some of the lyrical choices here. Because of this, I think the song overstays its welcome just a tad. Not one of my favorite dragonforce songs, but you can't win them all.

War! - When the song started I wasn't sure I was listening to dragonforce anymore, in fact, the song itself is quite different from their usual style. The usage of two distinct voices (I'm not even sure if Hudson is doing both vocals here or not. If he is, kudos to him) is really good and has a way to fuse what sounds almost like a stereotypical metal song with a dragonforce song. Personally I don't particularly like it, but I can admit that they've tried something different that worked out fairly well.

Land of Shattered dreams - I like the lyrics and vocals for this song. A lot. It sounds very different from most of their other songs, especially ones on this album, which is really good as some of their older albums can sound like it's one song going on for an entire album. What's really cool is that all these songs feel different, yet most of them still sound like Dragonforce. Last thing we want is them to lose their identity, we need more epic songs that make you feel great.

Edge of the world - This song is both my favorite and least favorite song on the album. Confusing, I know. The slow opening and closing that are almost the same lyrically are amazing, add in an epic but solemn instrumental, and you have a serious ballad going on, for ELEVEN MINUTES! that's a new record for Dragonforce, not counting their live rendition of soldiers of the wasteland, and I love every second of it. Well, almost. There's one part that almost ruins the entire song for me. If you've happened to hear it, you'd know. About 5 minutes in the song goes into the traditional Dragonforce instrumental segment, and it is casual and calming, a perfect fit for the song beforehand, however, coming out of that, we bare witness to "death metal growling". It completely breaks up the song, even if it is only about a minute worth. I can't understand a word that is being said, and it just feels wrong... But once it's over it is immediately forgotten and returns to the glorious vocals we had previously in the song. that one minute segment is literally the only thing holding it back from being my favorite Dragonforce song, or maybe even my favorite song ever.

Our final Stand - When the album was called "reaching into infinity" I wasn't exactly sure what that meant. Heck, most of the other album titles didn't have any overall relevance to the album itself. But I understand this one. It's because they're branching out, showing they have more than just "one sound" and it's quite clear. This final song just adds to that, with both instrumental and a vocal direction that are new to Dragonforce, yet with their unique twist that still makes it unmistakably their own. You could almost imagine hearing this on a rock station, and feeling right at home, yet still being able to tell who's behind it.


All in all this album is great, but again, if you don't like the epic, high energy tunes of power metal, then I don't think this album will change your mind. As a long time fan, I'm more than satisfied with it, and would say that Ashes of the Dawn, Judgement Day and Edge of the World are the top three songs on the album.

So this new Justin Timberlake song

"Filthy" is confusing.

Now, I am a HUGE Justin Timberlake fan. While his music isn't always anything ground breaking and could be a bit too repetitive, I love it. It's fun, catchy and groovy. When he released the trailer for his new album Man Of The Woods, he made it seem like this album would be very stripped back with an acoustic almost country leaning sound. Filthy does not do that.

I will start by saying I do like this song, but I have many problems with it. It opens with a bombastic stadium rock sound but then goes into a FutureSex/LoveSound esque groove with a very metallic/robotic synthy bassline with a legit funky bassline underneath. I think they both sound good but they don't work together. It switched between them a few times and it's super awkward.

JT's vocals are odd. They leave a lot to be desired and are borderline annoying at times. Reminds me of the verses of Thunder by Imagine Dragons but more exaggerated, the whole every line sounds like a question thing. He ends many lines by jumping up into falsetto and I didn't like it at first. It's grown on me but I still think it's odd. Also the song seems to lack a true melody a lot of the time. He's kinda just talking for half of it. It took me a few listens to really grasp what was going on

The lyrics suck. Most lines don't make much sense together or by themselves. Others are just super dumb. He says "No this ain't the clean version" multiple times but I don't get it. There's no profanity in this or lyrics so dirty they must be censored. Is it like a thing because the song is called filthy so it's not clean? JT's lyrics have never really been much but this is getting a little too dumb

It seems like I'm all negative and I do honestly still like this song. The rock thing by itself sounds awesome. The main groove sounds great as well and when JT gives it a melody it really works. Otherwise, it just feels a bit clunky and awkward, and it suffers from awful lyrics and an odd vocal performance from a usually ace performer. His vocals sounded better when he featured on Lonely Island songs, and he was using a ridiculous over the top silly voice there.

Some people are saying this is his "Look What You Made Me Do" and I don't think it's near that bad at all. If you aren't usually a fan of JT, don't bother with this. If you like him, particularly this FutureSex/LoveSound era "SexyBack" stuff, give it a shot. It's kinda like SexyBack took a ton of steroids and auditioned to be on the tracklist for the dark and sensual 20/20 Experience Part 2. Not his best, but I can still enjoy this. I hope for some more quality stuff in the album though. I don't know how this will fit in at all but I hope somehow it may work better in the context of the album. It appears to be the opening track so hopefully this will be like a transition to you new sound.

^Did you listen to Filthy through the music video or the actual single? I listened to both and for whatever reason the last 30 seconds of the song are missing from the music video. Those last 30 seconds of the single glitch out and have this monologue that I believe is introducing the style he talked about having for Man of the Woods.

My guess is that this song will sound much more appropriate in context with the rest of the album: Filthy is supposed to be this FutureSex/LoveSounds style song that will introduce the album as that traditional JT style but then catch everyone off guard when it glitches at the end and turns to this new sound he was promoting. Especially because this is track 1 on the new album.

Why the last 30 seconds of the song were omitted I don't know, but otherwise I think JT knows exactly what he's doing releasing this as the first single. That and I honestly have nothing wrong with the song itself, it sounds straight off of FutureSex/LoveSounds as a filler track but even the filler tracks on that album were catchy to listen to.

- - -
Listened to Panic! at the Disco's albums a long while ago and never talked about them. I guess late is better than never. :/

A Fever You Can't Sweat Out
I'm gonna get straight to the point- This album sucks. Big time. It's one of the worst, if not, the worst album I've listened to. With the exception of Paramore, I've never been super into emo pop/rock, and this album is probably the best example of why. Every song here sucks. I hate its composition, I hate the musical style, I hate how whiny and underwhelming Brendon Urie's vocals sound, and I hate the album's annoyingly long titles. No, I don't even like I Write Sins Not Tragedies. I can't for the life of me understand how this is so far the only P!ATD song that has gotten mainstream popular attention and is considered their best song. There's not a whole lot I can say about this album. Awful debut for the band. 1/10.

Pretty. Odd.
This album isn't good for a lot of different reasons. The titles at least aren't as obnoxious-okay. The song composition and production is better than their last album- okay. Brendon Urie's vocals are better but they're not stellar-okay. This album is just kind of there. It's an improvement over the last album, sure, but it still retains a lot of the same issues on a lesser scale. The biggest new problem it has is that it's just honestly really boring. I'll give it that I don't at least despise it like the first album, but this seems more like what I think the first album was going for, just much better produced. But it's not like a better produced version of the sound they had from their first album would still be any good. There aren't any killer songs on it. Nine in the Afternoon is fine. That's it. Other than that, it's better than P!ATD's first album, but a lot more forgettable. 3/10.

Vices and Virtues
Okay, here's where things start to look up. It's not amazing by any means, but Vices and Virtues is a SIGNIFICANT improvement over the last two albums. The obnoxious titles are gone. Brendon Urie finally starts to give some really good vocals to the songs. There's a lot more of an alt rock sound to the music than there is emo/punk, while simultaneously managing to put just enough balance between the two style to make it different enough from their other albums. The Ballad of Mona Lisa is a great song, as is Let's Kill Tonight. Ready to Go(Get Me Out of My Mind) is the best track on the album. The rest of the songs are alright, but that's a hell of a lot more than I can say for their previous stuff at least. It's a bit of a new direction for P!ATD but one that was much needed. 6/10.

Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die!
This is where P!ATD starts to get fantastic. Whenever I talk about loving the band and Brendon Urie, their newer stuff is what I'm talking about. This album is very in your face. You feel every single sound that comes from all these songs. The beats and drums on this album are fantastic, and Brendon Urie really starts to give it his all and prove his vocal abilities. While not every single song is a standout, some do falter a bit, there are some on the album that absolutely kill it. This is Gospel is a fantastic song, as is Miss Jackson, Nicotine, and Girls/Girls/Boys. While I do have a bit of a personal connection to this album and the next because they got me introduced to the band, they honestly are that good. A complete 180 from their older stuff for all the right reasons. 8/10.

Death of a Bachelor
This album can be best described as epic. Ironic how their first album is one of the worst I've listened to, and this one is one of the best. I'm not kidding, Death of a Bachelor is legendary. It's striking to see how much the music of P!ATD has evolved, even if this album is basically a passion project by Brendon Urie. I feel like I'm listening to a grand theatrical performance whenever I listen to a song on this album. The instrumentation on these songs is just astounding, from the beat and drum heavy stuff of their last album, to the rows of trumpets that are persistent in a lot of songs. Brendon Urie is at his absolute best as a vocalist in this album. Every song on this album sounds like it could be a single, they're all that good. Hallelujah is fantastic. Victorious is amazing. Emperor's New Clothes is astounding. the titular Death of a Bachelor is classy. LA Devotee is legendary. This whole album is one of the best rock albums I've ever listened to. 10/10.

Order of worst to best is basically the same as chronological releases. Their first album A Fever You Can't Sweat Out is the worst and they only get better with each new album. Death of a Bachelor is their best album, and I honestly have no idea how they could possibly top that one in the future.

Touche my good sir

Thunder

I enjoy this song, not just because of the catchy beat or the fact that the song reminds me of Stranger Things for some reason(don't ask) But the main reason I enjoy this song is because it reminds me of, well me. A person who just wants to break free of their normal life, someone who wants to do something more in the world.

One Foot
This songs lyrics make no sense, but I like the tune

Perfect
I normally hate love songs because they normally just boil down to "**** me", but this one was unique in a way, the rhythm just felt almost hypnotizing,and the lyrics were pretty good, although there were some instances that still make me go WTF. Like, "When you said you looked up Mets." Like, who says that while dancing with their partner, like seriously. The duet version is terrible, it sounds like Beyonce did a cover for a song, they edited it in and called it a duet.

What Lovers Do"
I liked Maroon 5's more catchy and upbeat songs, and I think that that this one goes back to those old days on "Moves like Jagger", but mixes in some "I Don't Wanna Know", which makes a pretty good tune.

Let Me Go
My was my favorite song(for two weeks before I found a new one, lol)

and finally
Rich Love
This is a great song, One Republic is such an underated band and I think they deserve more attention
Just look this one up and give it a listen, I'm sure you'll like it

Quote: pankakesparx456

^Did you listen to Filthy through the music video or the actual single? I listened to both and for whatever reason the last 30 seconds of the song are missing from the music video. Those last 30 seconds of the single glitch out and have this monologue that I believe is introducing the style he talked about having for Man of the Woods.

My guess is that this song will sound much more appropriate in context with the rest of the album: Filthy is supposed to be this FutureSex/LoveSounds style song that will introduce the album as that traditional JT style but then catch everyone off guard when it glitches at the end and turns to this new sound he was promoting. Especially because this is track 1 on the new album.

Why the last 30 seconds of the song were omitted I don't know, but otherwise I think JT knows exactly what he's doing releasing this as the first single. That and I honestly have nothing wrong with the song itself, it sounds straight off of FutureSex/LoveSounds as a filler track but even the filler tracks on that album were catchy to listen to.
.

Ah, I did not hear the single before. Makes a lot more sense now. Kinda like what Muse did with Dead Inside on their newest album.

This is totally trend surfing to the max but I'm gonna review all of Justin Timberlake's albums since his new one just released today.

Justified
I mean... come on, it's a classic. Of course JT's first album is good. Like I Love You is a classic. Rock Your Body is a classic. Cry Me A River is a classic. I really enjoy all these songs, obviously to varying degrees, but none of them are bad at all. They range from decent to fantastic. The only other specific songs I can think of that I really get a kick out of are (And She Said) Take Me Now and Senorita. What I like most about this album is how experimental and unique the sound is. The use of drums, guitar, and even JT's voice in songs like Cry Me A River make the production of this album unlike anything for its time, and even for today's standards. This album has a great flavor to it. When you hear a song from here, you know immediately this is early Justin Timberlake. There are some sogs I don't care for, such as Let's Take A Ride, but the unique sound is still enough for me to stay interested in every single song. A really great album from start to finish. 8/10.

FutureSex/LoveSounds
I mean... yeah, again, this is a classic. Possibly even more than Justified. Just like JT's first album this album has a distinctive style and sound to it. Timbaland's production on this album is astounding, making every single track in your face. And JT's lyrics and singing perfectly compliment it. This album is H O T. The titular song, SexyBack, Sexy Ladies, My Love, LoveStoned/I Think She Knows, Damn Girl, and Summer Love, all of them are H O T. This album established JT as a serious and mainstream artist, and It's really not hard to see why. Its eclectic nature and how adult it is makes it really stand out, and I can see why it's considered one of the best pop albums ever made. However, there are some issues I have with the album. I don't really like the song Chop Me Up that much, and I couldn't even tell you what Losing My Way and (Another Song) All Over Again sounded like. The album also has a lot of really long songs, and occasionally they do overstay their welcome a bit. It's why I don't like What Goes Around.../...Comes Around as much as I should, because even though it's a great song, it clocks in at about 7 and a half minutes. Otherwise, this album is fantastic. 9/10.

The 20/20 Experience
Okay, I do have some bias towards this album because it introduced me to JT, but man it's still fantastic. I love how grand this album feels. From the orchestral opening on Pusher Love Girl, to the low intimacy of Blue Ocean Floor. it sounds like Justified got a massive budget increase and played in front of a grand hall. Every single song on this album is great, from the singles Suit and Tie and Mirrors to songs like Let The Groove In and Tunnel Vision. I love the lyrics, I love Justin's vocals, I love the instrumentation, I love everything. There's only one complaint that I have that keeps me from giving this album a perfect score, and that is once again the song length. The shortest song on here comes close to five minutes, and the longer ones being about seven to eight minutes. As a result, I don't listen to the full tracks as often, because once the song starts to change things up a bit in its second half, I start to get tired and not as interested. The only exception to this is Mirrors, which overall is probably the best song Justin has ever put out, the overall production on it is just phenomenal. My personal favorite Justin Timberlake album that at its worst does overstay its welcome a bit. 9/10.

The 20/20 Experience- 2 of 2
While this album does have some great singles and tracks, it overall is probably the weakest JT album. Take Back the Night, TKO, Cabaret, and Murder are all fantastic songs, but the rest of the album is meh for a couple reasons. For one, there really isn't a whole lot interesting going on in the album. I cannot for the life of me remember Gimmie What I Don't Know (I Want), True Blood, You Got It On, or Amnesia because nothing of interest happens a lot. It just sounds kind of samey to the previous album. I know that probably sounds dumb since this is literally the second half of The 20/20 Experience, but considering this makes the full Experience a whopping 21 tracks(22 if you count Pair of Wings which is paired with Not a Bad Thing), it makes sense that the sound of this album would eventually get tiresome. Second, while I do enjoy the songs Only When I Walk Away and Not a Bad Thing, they embody my biggest issue with this album: The songs are REALLY freaking long. Only When I Walk Away is seven minutes. Amnesia is seven minutes. TKO is seven minutes. True Blood clocks in at NINE AND A HALF MINUTES. And finally, Not a Bad Thing, even though it's paired up with Pair of Wings, clocks in at ELEVEN AND A HALF MINUTES! This album is a monster to get through, even without the first Experience album, and as a result it REALLY overstays its welcome. It's got some great songs, and you can get it along with the first Experience album at a relatively cheaper price now, but by itself it's definitely the weakest album JT has put out. 6/10.

Man of the Woods
Well, I'll give it credit, at least the tracks are much shorter and easier to listen to the whole way through this time. Even though sixteen tracks on here is still a lot, at least they never go past five and a half minutes. Man of the Woods is... weird. In a good way and a bad way. This album feels like all his previous albums got blended with an ounce of country music. Sometimes it works out fantastically, other times its, well... not fantastic. There's this odd blend of both instrumentation and electronic music, and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I noticed that the more instrumentation there was, the better the track was, when the electronic music was just complimenting the instruments and not overshadowing them. The titular Man of the Woods, Say Something, and Breeze off the Pond are the best tracks on the album. Some of them are decent, like Montana, Livin' off the Land, and Flannel. There are some tracks that are just meh or forgettable, like The Hard Stuff, Wave, Higher Higher, and unfortunately Morning Light, which is so disappointing to hear from both JT and Alicia Keys. And the production quality of some of the songs just sounds really confusing, like there's no real style to them whatsoever. Filthy I think sounds fine in context of the album, but as a single it sounds like a filler track from FutureSex/LoveSounds, which isn't really a bad thing, but it could've been a whole lot better. Same goes for Supplies and Young Man, even though I really like the lyrical content on Young Man. Midnight Summer Jam and Sauce are alright, but they also don't have any real style to them. Overall the album is a mixed bag. Some songs are amazing, others are decent, others are just eh. I think this album would've had potential if the tracks were set up more so that the electronic parts just complimented the instruments, but there are songs where they're both about even like Morning Light and Young Man, and others where they're very heavy like Filthy and Supplies. Not bad by any means, and it has some great songs scattered around, but overall kind of a missed opportunity. 6/10.

So in order of best to worst:
1. The 20/20 Experience
2. FutureSex/LoveSounds
3. Jusitfied
4. Man of the Woods
5. The 20/20 Experience- 2 of 2

I'd also like to share my thoughts on JT's Man Of The Woods

This album was certainly better than I expected it to be, but I don’t think it’s as good as a JT album should be. The singles had me worried and confused. None of them sounded alike and only one sounded like what was advertised in his trailer. That leads to my first problem with this album: Why are Filthy and Supplies here? I already talked about Filthy, I’ve grown to like it even more over time, it’s really groovy. Although, it feels like the epic rock intro was only there to be a cool Super Bowl opener. But nothing else on the album sounds even remotely close to Filthy. I guess it was supposed to be a transition from his old sound to his new one, this song seemed to combine the sexually charged, dark nightclub vibe of 20/20 Part 2 and the synthy dance grooves of FutureSex/LoveSound, but I don’t think the transition works all that well. I honestly think Midnight Summer Jam would have been a better opener, it’s probably the most fun song here. It does has this extremely annoying vocal loop fading in and out, it sounds like Pharrell saying “I don’t I don’t I don’t” over and over again and it’s super grating and almost ruins the song. It also goes on a minute longer than it should. Otherwise, it’s super groovy and catchy, reminds me of a jam from Justified, but to me it has a hint of that outdoorsy vibe he was going for, would have been a much better transition.

And then there’s Supplies, the second single. This song is a bit of a mess. The trap beat throughout is pretty odd on a JT song and it’s pretty boring, the beats he and Timbaland come up with are usually really unique and fun. Also what’s with the “brrr” in the background? It’s really irritating, this isn’t Gucci Gang. Then JT throws a country melody over the trap beat and has this awkward acoustic guitar going throughout and it sounds super out of place. The hook is also super annoying. It sounds like a drunk Christopher Walken singing The Mine song from LazyTown. Then in the bridge the storm clouds clear a bit and we get some sunshine for what is actually one of my favorite moments on the album. JT’s passionate vocals soar and the guitars finally help out here. It doesn’t fit with the trap stuff in the rest of the song though. Aside from Wave I guess, which I’m not too keen on either, the trap beat sounds super out of place, it doesn’t sound like anything else here. This one sounds like it was just trying to capitalize on the success of trap music and get a radio hit. Then they clumsily tried to shove the outdoorsy vibe into it. This and Filthy should have just been standalone singles or something, they really don’t belong here and just confuse the listener.

There are multiple moments on this album that make me laugh out loud, and I guess that’s not good. The first is the title track Man Of The Woods because it sounds like Spongebob music and I laugh whenever it starts. I still don’t know if I like it or not because it sounds so dopey. And dear God, the Hers Interlude is so freaking funny. It’s not supposed to be, but the first time I heard it I couldn’t stop laughing. Timberlake’s wife is going on about how she feels wearing his ripped and tattered flannel. She’s like “every tear is a new memory” or something. That’s just like Mater’s thing with dents in Cars 2 but okay. Then she’s like “it makes me feel like a woman, it makes me feel sexy”. What? This is made even funnier by the fact that apparently JT wrote this for her, so is this how he thinks she feels? “Here baby, put on my old, ripped, torn-up, dirt covered, big red flannel that’s been sitting in the back seat of my pick up for a few months, it’s been chewed up by raccoons a few times, but doesn’t it make you feel so sexy?”. Goes even further to make this “Man Of The Woods” persona so unnatural, but I’ll go into that more later. Then after that is a song of coarse called “Flannel” where he goes into more detail. The melody is pleasant and it’s a very calming song, but the lyrics still make me laugh. “Right behind my left pocket is where you feel my soul” or something. This whole flannel business is so amazing I started to wonder if this whole woodsy thing was a parody or satire or something.

I wanna give some praise to Higher Higher which is probably the best song here. This is Justin’s best vocal performance here by far, the falsetto’s and harmonies were on point. He nails a beautiful soulful R&B vibe here. The bridge gives me chills, this song is one of his all time best. Say Something is also very beautiful. Chris Stapleton does a terrific job on the vocals, he and JT go well together. This is maybe the first time on this album that he totally nails the sound that he advertised. It’s simple, just guitars, some light percussion and the two singers. It’s beautiful. From this point on, the album is much more consistent in sound, no detours to trap city or a return to the sound of Damn Girl from FS/LS on Sauce, which is still pretty groovy. It’s acoustic guitars, warm basslines, and easy-breezy vocals from Justin. Montana and Breeze Off The Pond are perfect examples of this. They make we wanna go on a walk in the forest during the fall. The former is a real gem, it has one of the catchiest melodies and a bassline that will be stuck in your head for days, along with a funky guitar line that comes in later. A similar vibe continues in Breeze Off The Pond, which just gets better and better as it goes on, Justin really gets into this one. Livin’ Off The Land has one of the best choruses as well, these three songs are probably the best section on the album. The Hard Stuff is almost painfully bland. Young Man is pretty dull too. It’s written for his son and I feel like it’s not gonna mean anything to anyone except him so I don’t know why it’s on the album. Livin’ Off The Land should have been the closer. Morning Light with Alicia Keys is super forgettable too. I’ve listened through this album four times since it came out and I can’t remember a single second of that one.

So here’s my biggest problem with this thing. I don’t buy the whole “Man Of The Woods” thing. I just can’t believe Justin Timberlake as this bearded, flannel wearing ‘one with nature’, his hiking boots crunching through the leaves in the woods, dragging his acoustic guitar behind him on this way to sit by the pond next to the cabin that he built with the trees that he chopped down with his dirty, calloused hands. Remember your last project where you were talking about wearing suits and hitting night clubs? And on your last tour there was a bunch of crazy technology and it was supposed to be super futuristic? You were a suave, black-tie womanizer and now you want me to believe that you’re a lumberjack? You know you’re worth over 200 million dollars right? You know you just played the freaking super bowl right? That can be pretty distracting, especially on songs like Flannel and The Hard Stuff.

Overall, not a bad album. There’s some great stuff here and some boring stuff. Nothing except maybe supplies is ridiculously bad. Even though 20/20 Part 2 suffers from a obnoxiously long runtime, I think the songs were more consistent. This is probably his weakest album in my opinion. But it’s still JT. There are still jams here and sometimes the outdoorsy sound really pays off.

Favorites: Higher Higher, Montana, Midnight Summer Jam, Breeze Off The Pond, Say Something, Hers Interlude (Only because it never fails to make me laugh)

Least Favorites: Young Man, The Hard Stuff, Supplies, Wave, Morning Light

I also wanna do a review of Fall Out Boy's MANIA pretty soon.

Fall Out Boy - M A N I A

There was a time when I considered Fall Out Boy to be my favorite band. I still love most of their work and can call them the first rock band that I ever got into. Folie a Deux is one of my favorite albums of all time and Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown On A Bad Bet is easily in my top 5 songs of all time. Some people aren’t fans of their work after their hiatus, but I love Save Rock And Roll. It’s not their best, but it’s super fun and catchy, same with American Beauty/American Psycho. But Mania? This will be the first album of theirs that I don’t buy.

Fall Out Boy are having a bit of an identity crisis right now. They don’t know what they want to do and they don’t know how to stay relevant. This album feels like they spun a wheel of genres and decided to incorporate the first ten results. Stylistically it’s all over the place and most of the styles are not done all that well. It’s like the band was stuck in a giant maze and everyone was blindfolded except for vocalist Patrick Stump. Patrick is trying his best to lead the group out of the maze, but they all keep wandering off in different directions because they think they know what they’re doing. They just end up hurting the group and resulting in a confused mess.

Young And Menace is easily the worst thing here so I’m gonna start there. What were they thinking? How did anybody, the band, the producers, anybody listen to this and think it was a good idea? Maybe the worst album opener of all time, nothing about this gets me excited for the next nine tracks. If anything it scares me. The verses aren’t too bad, a little clumsy, but I can still enjoy them. Then you get repeatedly stabbed in the eardrums with that awkward, discombobulating, grating, glitchy, stomach-churning, Alvin and the Chipmunks in a blender sounding, Transformer having a stroke-esque, pitch shifted cluster of nightmares trying to pass itself off as a chorus. There’s barely anything melodic or musical about it, it’s a total mess. It’s a sound nobody wanted to hear from Fall Out Boy executed in the worst way possible. I can’t think of bigger misstep in any other artist's career. Maybe Can’t Stop Partying by Weezer, probably misread their audience by a much bigger margin, but it wasn’t executed nearly as badly as Young and Menace. This song also makes me feel bad for Patrick, especially after seeing the uncomfortable live performances of this. It’s a real shame too, after the bridge when the final “chorus” crashes back in he belts out a high note with so much power and ferocity that it deserves to be considered one of his best moments as a vocalist. Unfortunately, this is the first of many examples of his efforts failing to rescue a song drowning in confusion. He spends most of this album throwing lifesavers into a whirlpool that has already consumed the rest of the band’s effort and soul.

Champion is fine, probably the okayest song here. It sounds like it’s trying to recreate the stadium rock sound of Centuries with the hyped-up feel of Panic At The Disco’s Victorious, but they don’t have the energy to pull it off. Once again, Stump more than delivers in the vocal department, especially towards the end of this thing. Instrumentally, this song is really lacking. Nothing feels as epic or as bombastic as it should.

Stay Frosty Royal Milk Tea is like a muffin you buy at a supermarket bakery because it looks tasty, but when you bite into it, it’s just okay. Then it leaves a really unsavory taste in your mouth. The melody in the verses seems like something I’d be into, but they don’t do much for me. It just feels off. The rapid, sharp, bouncy synth beat towards the beginning seems promising at first, but just fizzles out as the song progresses. The chorus is just very predictable and bland. I still can’t really figure out what I think of this song. Once this song ends, it leaves me with nothing. I also love the irony in the line “all my childhood heroes have fallen off or died”

HOLD ME TIGHT OR DON’T is one of the better moments on the album. The “n-n-n-n-n-n” gets really irritating after multiple listens, but otherwise this song is a lot of fun. The chorus is actually in my opinion the weakest part of the song, it’s a little boring. The verses, the pre chorus, and that freaking bridge are the shining moments here. Super earwormy and maybe Patrick Stump’s best vocal performance to date. The notes be belts out and sustains in the bridge are absolutely jaw dropping, especially for a male. While impressive, I feel like he’s overdoing it. I’ve seen live performances of this and he is obviously really struggling to hit the notes to the point where it sounds like his voice could give out at any second. Even in the studio recording it sounds pretty tough for him. The instrumentals are bouncy and do a decent job at capturing the Latin vibe they were going for on this. It still feels pretty empty though. It could benefit from some more guitars, a meatier bassline and some extra percussion. They did this sound much better in bridge of Thnks Fr Th Mmrs.

The Last Of The Real Ones is easily the best song on the album. The chorus is the best moment here and the only moment where I felt like I was listening to a band. Patrick’s fiery vocals, the rumbling bass, the feisty guitar and groovy drums make for a hard hitting moment that shows me that the band still has some fire in them. My biggest issue with the album is made obvious on the rest of this song though. It feels extremely overproduced. Every song feels way too polished and artificial. Aside from the vocals, everything sounds very empty and soulless. It’s like really watered down lemonade, there’s flavor there, but not enough for me to really enjoy it. I’m constantly left wanting more.

Wilson (Expensive Mistakes) is a pretty solid tune as well. Probably second best song here. Once again though, it feels overproduced and empty, like most of the song was made by a computer. I do feel like the “I’ll stop wearing black when they make a darker color” line was used too many times. It gets pretty old as the song progresses. That leads me to another issue on this record, the lyrics are way too repetitive. Church is another example of this. Church has definitely grown on me, I didn’t like it at all at first, I thought it was obnoxious and poorly done. I still think the choir in the background feels a little out of place, but the verses are solid. It manages to feel more epic than Champion. Once again, the vocals are stellar. The line “If you were church I’d get on my knees” gets old after awhile though.

Heaven’s Gate is Patrick’s time to shine. It’s his song. I think I was wrong earlier, this is probably his best vocal performance to date. It’s like this song only exists to show of his range and how soulful and powerful his voice is. With all the harmonies, it sounds like he hit every note that he’s capable of hitting. It does feel like he is doing a little too much though. He’s singing it like he’s auditioning for The Voice, sacrificing melody to showcase everything that he’s capable of. The lyrics get a little repetitive here too. Most of it is the line “give me a boost over heaven’s gate” which gets pretty old. Especially the word “boost” which is a weird word, like moist. Probably not a word that should be soulfully belted out this way. It is probably the only song that doesn’t feel too shiny and over produced. It’s nice to hear a beautiful human performance on this album.

Sunshine Riptide would easily be the worst here if Young and Menace didn’t give us the displeasure of existing. A Fall Out Boy trap/reggae song should not exist. The first few seconds of this song have managed to make me cringe every time I’ve listened to it. I know what’s coming, but I’m still somehow not prepared for how bad it is. Maybe the worst lyric of their career is in the first verse. It’s something like “The sign said ‘don’t tap the glass’ but I read it in reverse” and then they play audio of Stump saying “don’t tap the glass” in reverse. Also, Burna Boy’s feature on this is one of the worst features I’ve ever heard. He sounds like he’s struggling not to fall asleep because he’d rather be anywhere else. Like he overdosed on NyQuil and he decided to record this at 3 AM. Very close second for worst song of their career.

Bishop’s Knife Trick is solid, don’t have a lot to say about it honestly. Same things I’ve said about the other songs I’ve felt positively towards

Needless to say, this is obviously their worst album to date. Despite Patrick’s efforts to save this thing, and he tries really hard, the album is still very lackluster and bland. Only positive is the vocals, which are top notch, even though they can be a little too much. If you just wanna hear Patrick sing, give it a listen. If you are a hardcore Fall Out Boy fan, you might find something you like. If you are a casual fan, or are looking for rock, or even looking for good pop, just skip it. Maybe check out the singles (NOT Young and Menace), but definitely not the whole album. After today, I don’t know if I’m gonna come back to it again. Most of it isn't super bad, but forgettable and ....... blah. 3.5/10

Favorites: The Last Of The Real Ones, HOLD ME TIGHT OR DON’T, Wilson (Expensive Mistakes)
Least Favorites: Young and Menace, Sunshine Riptide, Stay Frosty Royal Milk Tea

Visions of Hollywood- Make Out Monday

I have been following pop-punk band Make Out Monday casually since their formation in 2014. I initially only followed the band because Jeremy Shada, the voice of Finn from Adventure Time and Lance from Voltron: Legendary Defender, was part of it. While I did really enjoy their debut EP, Kicking Cars, I eventually trailed away from the band. Kicking Cars I thought was a fantastic EP, don't get me wrong. I really liked the composition, and I've always loved Jeremy Shada as a singer, so hearing him finally actually sing songs was a nice treat. His brother Zack is the lead vocalist, and I thought both of them went really well together. Since they hadn't been putting out a whole lot of new stuff after Kicking Cars, I thought the band was just a one-and-done thing. But low and behold, the band suddenly released a new single last August, and a few months later announced their debut album, Visions of Hollywood. I was interested, listened to Kicking Cars again, and awaited the release of their first album, which just released yesterday.

And man, I was shocked. Make Out Monday is now on my radar for up and coming bands. Their debut album is fantastic. I never would've expected the album to be this good.

This album sounds like a complete throwback to the rock music of the late 90s/early 2000s. It doesn't sound out of the same realm as bands like Blink 182, Fall Out Boy, Paramore, or Panic! at the Disco in their early days. As a result, the music is in your face, the vocals are loud and piercing, and the instrumentation is adrenaline rushing. Not as extreme as some earlier bands, but Make Out Monday certainly has a style that wouldn't be out of place had it been released almost 20 years ago.

The album does have some songs that aren't lyrically involved, but for the most part, the album focuses on dreams and aspirations. There are so many references and tributes to California and the city of Los Angeles, and it all sounds fantastic. Zack and Jeremy go beyond their potential from Kicking Cars and really stand out as vocalists. There's this youthful edge they bring to each songs that sounds perfect for an album of this nature.

The first song on the album, Bullet for Your Sweetheart, starts off the album fantastically by getting in your face with loud lyrics and instrumentation. Songs like Desirae, American Cinema, and Every Little Everything continue this style and it works just as well, especially Desirae, which is a fantastic lead single and just screams early 2000s punk rock. Shake it Like A Polaroid is one of my favorite tracks, mellowing out and starting the album's themes of dreaming and future. These themes and lyrics of Hollywood and making it big are prevalent on tracks like Sunset Blvd., Fear and Loathing (In The Valley), and to and extent, Last December(which admittedly is probably the weakest song on the album, but it's still not half bad). Party on the Weekend is probably the best song to have these kinds of lyrics, because the sound is just the perfect balance of in your face, as well as the more laid back, intimate style Make Out Monday also had in Kicking Cars. Two songs that exemplify this laid back style are Mascara Lines and Kissaphobic, ESPECIALLY Kissaphobic, which is the best track on the album. It straight up sounds like a song that wouldn't be out of place in a Back to the Future movie, it sounds exactly like an 80s slow dance song with a punk edge to it, and Zack and Jeremy absolutely kill it with their vocals on this track.

Even at its lower point on tracks like Last December and Every Little Everything, the album still manages to keep its sense of fun. I really hope Make Out Monday starts gaining traction and popularity after this, because now they've risen to become one of my favorite bands. If you haven't heard of the band, you owe it to yourself to listen to this album. Visions of Hollywood was an unexpected surprise to the best degree, and Make Out Monday has produced one of the best punk rock albums in years. 9/10.

Everything Now- Arcade Fire

I first came across the band Arcade Fire after hearing their song "Everything Now" on the radio. I immediately loved it and I couldn't stop listening to it for a while. For various reasons I couldn't listen to their newest album immediately, so I listened to some of their singles and put their new album on my bucket list. I generally liked what they had to offer, so I was interested in hearing the rest of the album that introduced me to the band in the first place. Now I've finally gotten around to listening to the full album and I want to share my thoughts about it.

The album obviously starts off really strong with the titular song. I love the piano and woodwinds throughout the song, and the poppy upbeat production makes it a lot of fun to listen to. I've listened to the song over and over again and it never gets old. The album continues on to Signs of Life and Creature Comfort, both of which are really great songs. Signs of life is pumped up in all the right ways, and Creature Comfort is loud and in your face. It does get a little bit degrading at times, but it's a great song nonetheless.

But it's a little bit in Creature Comfort that the album starts to show its biggest problem. When Peter Pan starts, the album starts sounding pretty disorganized. By the next song, Chemistry, the album sounds really disorganized. By the time you reach Electric Blue, it's EXTREMELY disorganized.

The rest of the album just fluctuates in coherence after Creature Comfort. Sometimes all the instrumentation, assets, vocals, etc, all work play just fine, albeit not that great, other times the songs sound like an incoherent jumble. Peter Pan and Chemistry caught me off guard following a song as good as Creature Comfort, because they're not that great. Infinite Content and.... Infinite_Content come by so quickly and leave so little impact that they do almost nothing for the whole album. Electric Blue and Good God D***(censoring that just in case it's not allowed to be said here) are just terrible songs in their own right, from the annoying vocals to the awful instrumentation. Put Your Money on Me and We Don't Deserve Love are just meh songs, but they really overstay their welcome since nothing of interest really happens in the songs, and the production on them also fluctuates from good and bad. And right when the album starts to pick up at Everything Now (Continued)(seriously, why are half the tracks on here just slightly different names?), it ends.

I hate to say that Everything Now really disappointed me overall. As my overall introduction to the band, I wasn't overall impressed. It starts off really strong with Everything Now, Signs of Life, and Creature Comfort, and then just nosedives into a mess of music. Outside the first few songs there's no reason to get this whole album. 4/10.

When My Heart Felt Volcanic- The Aces

I've only recently started listening to The Aces after, yes, I heard them on the radio(what can I say, alt rock stations are the best at introducing me to artists). I bought their debut EP "I Don't Like Being Honest" from a few years back and instantly loved it. I really love the scratchy, laid back style they have to their instrumentation and vocals. So I was pretty optimistic about their debut album When My Heart Felt Volcanic. It's been out for about a month and I've only now gotten to reviewing it, as well as giving it some time to settle.

The album starts off fantastically with the song Volcanic Love, which is a great opening track for the album. It sets the whole mood of the album, with its poppy and upbeat guitar riffs, drums, and the scratchy vocals that make the band. The next track, an enhanced version of Stuck from their EP, is somehow made even better with much better production than the original track, getting a lot more in your face with its instruments. The album continues to go back and forth between the more laid back songs like Fake Nice and more poppy Lovin' Is Bible and Just Like That.

The overall production quality, instrumentation, and vocals are really good, and even at 13 tracks total, the album is surprisingly easy to digest. Each song doesn't really overstay its welcome and the style stays really consistent... perhaps even too consistent.

This will either make or break the album depending on your tastes: While The Aces have a great style to their music, reminding me a lot of bands like The 1975 and Against The Current, this style is used throughout the whole album, possibly too much. As a result, When My Heart Felt Volcanic feels really samey. A lot of tracks are hard to remember later on in the album, not because they're bad or terrible, but because they blend in with the other tracks too much. I really like tracks like Last One, Strong Enough, Holiday, and Stay, which are in the center of this album, but it's just hard to really pinpoint what they sound like because they sound so similar in style to all the other tracks. This does stop briefly near the end of the album, with the track Hurricane, which is a fantastic piano piece. The last few songs, Bad Love, Put It on the Line, and Waiting for You are probably the weakest songs on the album. While they aren't bad tracks by any means, they also aren't exactly standout tracks by any means.

When My Heart Felt Volcanic, for better or for worse, thrives in its consistency. Everything about the songs are great. I enjoy the stylistic vocals, I love the instrumentation and production of the tracks, and the album's overall sense of attitude and style. The songs can range from fantastic to alright. The album's samey feel can either be the best thing it's got going for it, or be the worst thing about the album. The Aces have a great style, and the album plays that style out the entire duration. It's a very safe album overall. It's a pretty great debut from The Aces, and while I do wish they were a bit more experimental with their songs, I don't mind at all that the familiar sound throughout the album is one I can enjoy a lot. 7/10.

Love is Dead- Chvrches

You bet I was excited when Chvrches officially announced their next album last January. The band has become my favorite for the past three years ever since I discovered them through their second album Every Open Eye. This album and their first one, The Bones of What You Believe, have both become some of my all-time favorite albums and have made some of what I now consider some of my all time favorite songs. While there are a couple of their songs I never really enjoyed or cared for on their first two albums, I still appreciated them to an extent because the thing I loved most about Chvrches was their musical style. At the time, and even to this day, I've never listened to albums quite like the first two Chvrches albums. They had a style of instrumentation to their synth-pop that was purely unique to them. Many times I would try finding bands similar to them with little result. The way they composed their music through their bombastic beats, fantastic vocals from Lauren Mayberry, and let their underwriting compliment their stylistic instrumentation was something I always admired about the band.

While I was very excited for this album, probably being the one I was most excited for this year, there was one thing that did concern me to an extent: Chvrches were very public about this album being their most pop one yet. Especially considering they brought on producer Greg Kurstin, famous for his production on songs like "Hello" by Adele. I wasn't sure what to think of this, especially as more and more tracks came out and I was honestly underwhelmed by most of them. But nonetheless, I still eagerly awaited the album and now it's finally out.

The best description I can make for Love is Dead is imagine Chvrches blended their first two albums and gave it a bit of a pop edge. There's definitely a lot of pop influence on this record, and it works to... well, varying results.

The record starts off fantastically with the songs Graffiti and Get Out, both of which I honestly think are some of the best examples of what I think Chvrches was trying to go for. There is a bit of pop to these songs, but they still get in your face with its heavy synth sounds and beats and Lauren's fantastic vocals. To kind of jump the gun here, I would say that for the most part, this is the best that Lauren has ever been as a vocalist. While I kind of prefer her loud and pumped up vocals from Every Open Eye, I can't deny that for most of this album, this is the most mature, professional, and natural Lauren has ever sounded on a Chvrches record.

I do enjoy the song Deliverance and how it's composed instrumentally, but to kind of jump the gun again, this song does notably have what I think is one of the album's problems: the underwriting. Now, I never minded when Chvrches' writing wasn't the best, because the band always emphasized style over substance and I thought the lyrics actually complimented that very well. But with this album's pop influence, it's a noticeably bigger issue. Chvrches is clearly trying to sing about much bigger and important issues on this record, but the repetitive lyrics(even to repetition itself from lyrics like Deliver-iver-iverance to Never-never-never-ever-never-ever-ever say die) and the absence of a bridge on almost all of their songs really distract from that, especially when you consider other pop songs that touch on much less important topics that are better written.

My Enemy is where the album starts to fluctuate. It sounds like it came straight off of the first album instrumentally, and Lauren does a fine job, but the feature from Matt Berninger is AWFUL. I haven't listened to anything by The National, but I can't imagine their lead vocalist is this bad. His vocals just do not match the style of the song at all, and it causes a huge disconnect. It's one of the worst songs on the album, and probably one of Chvrches' worst songs to date just because of this.

The album picks up again with songs like Forever, which sounds like a Paramore track with an electronic edge to it. Never Say Die is an alright track, despite its repetitive lyrics. Miracle is a fine enough song as well that sounds a lot like an Imagine Dragons song.

Graves is probably the blandest song on the album, as it's just really another generic pop tune, even though I do think it's fine enough, and Heaven/Hell is a pretty good song that oddly enough reminds me of Linkin Park with even more of an electronic edge to it than their own electronic stuff.

God's Plan is the worst song on the album, and one of the worst Chvrches songs to date, once again because Martin Doherty does lead vocals for a whole track. I think Martin Doherty is a fantastic instrumentalist, but not a good vocalist at all, especially given that the band has Lauren to do vocals and she does them so fantastically. He's best used as back-up vocals for Lauren, not as lead vocalist. His lead vocals on songs are the only reason I couldn't call the first two Chvrches albums perfect and it's not much better here. I don't get why they constantly do this, or even just let Martin make his own records separate from Chvrches if there's even people that like these tracks. It's a glaring issue in all their albums because of the sudden shift in instrumentation and the bad vocals that are made much worse when Lauren could've easily done a better job.

Really Gone just kind of drags on. There's no real cohesion to it, and the lyrics just go on and on before the song suddenly ends. ii is a really bizarre and out of place instrumental piece, and I'm not sure what the purpose of bringing it onto the album was.

Thankfully, the album ends on a high note with Wonderland, which brings me back to the quality of the first two tracks, Graffiti and Get Out. Like I said before, I think this is what Chvrches was trying to go for. It's a great blend of the style from their previous albums, with just a pinch of pop influence to make it stand out from the other albums.

Here's my biggest issue with Love is Dead: I don't like that Chvrches took a pop direction in the first place.

Yes, Graffiti, Get Out, and Wonderland are the best tracks on the album, and they're what the whole album should've been like. Forever, Miracle, Heaven/Hell, Graves, Deliverance, and Never Say Die are all decent tracks that I enjoy enough to want to listen again because they are either fine enough pop tracks or they remind me a lot of other bands.

But that's the problem: Chvrches should not be trying to sound like ANYTHING.

What made Chvrches my favorite band in the first place was how unique they were. I've tried to find other bands like Chvrches many times, and all of them that are even remotely similar still can't capture what makes Chvrches stand out. Their first two albums are different in the best ways possible. They're the synth-pop group that everyone is trying to replicate. Chvrches should be proud of that. They shouldn't have to resort to making a more pop oriented album, especially when that pop album pales in comparison to other fantastic pop records we've gotten over the past decade or so. I applaud Chvrches for experimenting so that their original sound doesn't get too stale, but this was not the direction I think they should've gone. In my eyes, I honestly think they revolutionized the synth-pop/electronic genre with their first two albums. They really should be experimenting with that area a lot more instead of bringing in mainstream influence that they deviated so much from.

In a lot of odd ways, this album reminds me a lot of Minutes to Midnight by Linkin Park. In the sense that the third album was a departure from their original sound and took a lot more influence from mainstream. Maybe in that case, Love is Dead will grow on me in time and I'll end up loving it a few years from now. But when Linkin Park made that departure, they had staples that made their band stand out that worked for them even during that transition, like their meaningful lyrics and aggressive vocals. I don't think Chvrches was able to really make that transition smoothly.

I know I sound really cynical, but I want to note that I don't think Love is Dead is a bad album. It's far from it. There are tracks I love that I know are going to be some of my favorite Chvrches tracks, especially Get Out. But coming off the heels of the first two records, Love is Dead is pretty disappointing. The Bones of What You Believe stood out for its unique substance. Every Open Eye stood out for its bombastic style. Love is Dead doesn't really have anything about it that stands out. It's just an average pop record with some fantastic songs and some admittedly bad songs, as well as some decent songs and mixed bags. Now, while Chvrches chasing the mainstream isn't entirely a bad thing, since I do still enjoy the songs that take a lot more influence from modern bands, it isn't really what I want for the band at all. I can only hope that for the future, Chvrches takes what worked about this record and expands on it. I think if we got more songs like Graffiti, Get Out, and Wonderland, this could've been yet another fantastic record that continued to prove why Chvrches was different.

Overall, Love is Dead is an average electro-pop record that generally stays consistently decent with a few fantastic tracks and a few bad tracks, and while it isn't necessarily a bad record from Chvrches, in the process it loses a decent bit of what made Chvrches so special to begin with. 6/10.

Probably the last record I review for a while, nothing is coming at the moment that I absolutely want to review beyond this album:

Paid in Exposure- NateWantsToBattle

Nate has been one of my favorite musicians since I started watching his channel back in late 2014. I initially followed him for a lot of his classic stuff, from his english anime covers and video game songs to his YouTube channel videos like his gaming content and various other videos. The more stuff he put out, the more and more I loved his music. This peaked at Sandcastle Kingdoms, which ended up becoming my all time favorite album. I loved everything about it, from its fun and energetic lyrics to its stylistic production to its creative experimentation. It was an album that spoke to me at a really important time in my life and I'd be hard pressed if I end up coming across an album by anyone that I think is better than Sandcastle Kingdoms.

However, after my SK hype, I kind of trailed away from Nate. If you ask me, his channel kind of took a bad turn after this album. I'm happy for the success he found and that he was becoming a professional musician, but it seemed like Nate was trying to clean slate his past, from getting rid of a lot of his content, to changing his channel to a new record label he and his friends founded. Beyond that, I didn't really care for any of the other content the channel put out. I like Andrew Stein fine enough but if I want to watch his music, I go to his channel first. I don't really like Cristina Vee as a vocalist at all, so that was out of the question. And I didn't really care for whatever this "Ghost Fight" band was that Nate created with his friends.

And it's probably why I wasn't as excited as I probably would've been for his second album, Paid in Exposure. I was excited for it and going to buy it, but these factors were really making me miss the old Nate: The one that didn't turn his channel into a professional label and was just a fun guy to watch and interact with. So today I got to cheat a bit and listen to the album launch on Billboard today, a day ahead of the album's release.

Let me get this out of the way first: I wasn't expecting this album to be legendary like Sandcastle Kingdoms was. That album just did a lot of good for me personally and emotionally that I doubted I was going to like this album that much.

But damn, if it isn't still a great album. Paid in Exposure is an amazing record from start to finish.

This album takes a lot of heavy influence from Panic! at the Disco's newer stuff. If I didn't know any better I would've thought this was a Panic album. The upbeat instrumentation, theatrical vocals from Nate, and professional lyrics all scream Panic, and some other bands like Green Day and Mayday Parade.

The album starts off pretty well with the track Until The Wolves Comes Out, which is a great, fast paced, loud song that really gets the adrenaline of the album going. this bombastic style only gets better with the songs Smoke and Guns, and Phantom, which is my favorite song of this style. It's loud, theatrical, and energetic.

The album slows down a bit with Take Me Anywhere, which is now in the running for not only my favorite song from Nate, but one of my absolute favorite songs. The phenomenal piano playing, the meaningful lyrics, to the fantastic instrumentation makes this unlike any other song Nate has recorded.

The next track, Dream Alone, is another great song that has a lot of string instrumentation that- once again- reminds me a lot of Panic, and guitar riffs that sound a lot like early punk bands. The titular track Paid in Exposure is just as upbeat and loud. Sleight of Hand gets really in your face with its loud lyrics as well. The Wrecked and the Worried is also just as theatrical and head-bobbing.

The album ends on a fantastic note with the tracks Call It Off and Bones, both of which are some of the best tracks here. Call It Off is a perfect balance between Take Me Anywhere's somber lyrics and the rest of the album's punk edge. Bones is a great song that experiments with some instruments here and there it it ends the album off fantastically.

But... And I know this might be nitpicking and unfair to the album, especially since I'm mentioning it again- I found myself thinking how much better Sandcastle Kingdoms was. I love and appreciate it when my favorite artists experiment and get creative with their music. It's why I didn't completely trash Chvrches' new album. SK definitely is the better album because every single song on it has its own distinct style to it. There are alt rock tracks, pop punk tracks, hard rock tracks, and electronic tracks.

Paid in Exposure has one fantastic, theatrical style to it, but it's all it really has. Take Me Anywhere, Call It Off, and Bones are the most experimental the album gets.

That being said though, this album is better than SK when it comes to lyrics and production. While I love the experimentation and creativity on Sandcastle Kindgoms, Paid In Exposure definitely has that album beat in those areas, with much more mature and professional writing from Nate, as well as much more professional production and mixing on the tracks.

Overall, Paid In Exposure is a great second album from NateWantsToBattle. What it lacks in creativity and experimentation, it more than makes up for with a great consistent style, theatrical and mature lyrics, energetic instrumentation, and improved production values. 8/10.

Alright, gonna try writing a review for one of my favourite albums.

Sonata Arctica - Winterheart's Guild

Intro
Winterheart's Guild is the third studio album by Sonata Arctica, a power metal band from Finland who are known for merging dark lyrical themes with upbeat music. Most of the music is written by their keyboard and vocalist, Tony Kakko. For the sake of letting you all hear this album for yourselves with no prior knowledge (like playing a videogame blind) I'll spoiler every song so again you can listen and judge for yourselves. Which you really should. Seriously, I don't care if you've read this review yet or not, but you should go and buy the album straight away. It's perhaps the best thing to happen since the Magna Carta. Or maybe it's the musical equivalent of the Magna Carta. I don't know what it is but it's good.

1. Abandoned, Pleased, Brainwashed, Exploited 9/10


2. Gravenimage 10/10


3. The Cage 8/10


4. Silvertongue 9/10


5. The Misery 9/10


6. Victoria's Secret 9/10


7. Champagne Bath 8/10


8. Broken 10/10


9. The Ruins of My Life 10/10


My post was over the limit so I'll continue in the next one.

10. Draw Me 9/10


Outro
Winterheart's Guild is a good album. No, it's an amazing album. No, it's the reason aliens don't come to Earth. This album alone makes them feel inferior to us. So, yes, you should buy the album because it's good and a better use of your money than buying another anime figurine for your ever-growing collection that you never even look at. This album will change your life. Actually, I think it changed mine. Whenever I feel like the world is turning to **** I always listen to this album and it reminds me that there's still a little good left in it. Which, come to think of it, I haven't done in a long time. I wrote this mostly from memory - not that an album as great as this is easy to forget anyway. Broken will always be one of my absolute favourites and that I will never forget.

TL;DR
Just buy the album already. It's really good.

I probably spent too much time writing this. Please notify me of any errors and I will fix them immediately.

Been a long while since I reviewed an album. I forgot to review this album a couple months ago and really wanted to so I suppose I'll drop this here.

Past Lives- Against the Current

I can't believe how much Against the Current has evolved and matured ever since I first discovered them in 2012ish. I discovered the band really early in their life cycle, when they were still making covers of songs with other popular YouTube musicians and before they had even released their very first EP. I remember finding their channel and their single "Thinking" was their newest original song. They were a band I consistently followed and helped shape a lot of my personal tastes when it came to music. Their EPs Infinity and Gravity were albums I played all the time early on in high school. I remember getting so incredibly excited when they got signed with Fueled By Ramen and began work on their first official album, In Our Bones, which to this day remains one of my all time favorite albums, coming incredibly close to Sandcastle Kingdoms and Living Things.

Against the Current has consistently remained one of my favorite bands. Although they had been just a tad lower on my favorites, behind Linkin Park and eventually Chvrches(at least until recently... more on that later ), I always consistently loved everything they brought. I love how versatile they could make their pop band-oriented sound. I loved how they weren't afraid to expereiment a bit with pop punk, alt rock, and even some electronic and synth here and there. I love how poppy and colorful the instrumentation is. But most of all, I love love loooove how electrifying and dazzling lead singer Chrissy Costanza's incredible vocals are. She was a huge inspiration of mine during my time in middle school and still continues to be one to this day.

So yeah. You could say I was pretty excited when they suddenly released two new singles last May and announced their sophomore album would be coming out in September of this year. I was just as hyped for this album as I was with Chvrches' new album. Although as you may recall, I wasn't super fond of that album save for a handful of great songs.

This album? Not a ****ing chance. Past Lives is hands down my favorite album of 2018, and has quickly risen to become one of my all time favorite albums just like In Our Bones quickly did in 2016.

I'm not sure how I can talk about this album without being redundant. Everything about this album is just incredible. I love the mature lyrics. I love the simplistic style of instrumentation mixed with pop and synth elements. I once again love Chrissy's vocals.

Like the album title says, this record goes through all kinds of elements about living in the past, present, and moving to the future. Each song sounds like it's telling it's own self-contained story. The incredible opening track Strangers Again tells such a somber story about what seems to, in some ways, reference an abusive relationship in the past. It's an amazingly powerful and tear-jerking song that starts the album off well.

The Fuss is a fantastic poppy song that lightens the mood up a bit after such a heavy hitting track. I love how melodic and spacey the production on the song is, the guitar work is very simplistic and upbeat, and Chrissy sounds absolutely adorable with her vocals. I Like The Way sounds like ATC's take on an Owl City song about enjoying living in the moment and enjoying what is good in life. Personal brings things to a somber place again, as Chrissy writes a song about a loved one the band lost about a year or two ago. While this is probably my "least favorite" song on the record, it still holds up with great production qualities and excellent songwriting.

Voices. Voices. Holy ****ing ****. The first time I listened to this song as a single I instantly fell in love with it. I say this a lot but I may go as far as to say this is my new all-time favorite song. The guitar riffs here are strong and powerful. The synth-poppy beats are smacking. Chrissy's vocals are powerful. The songwriting is masterful, effortlessly conveying what it's like to deal with what the song is referencing, be it people who gossip, comments from the internet, how mental problems like depression and anxiety come at you, etc. If ever a perfect song existed, I would immediately point towards this one. This song is legendary.

Scream and Almost Forgot are fanstastic synth-pop songs, both of them their own takes about what happened in a current relationship and what happened in a past relationship. Chrissy's voice is so melodic and siren-esque on these songs, and while I would've liked to hear more instrumentation, the electronic production on these songs is top notch.

P.A.T.T. upon first listen makes it very clear it's a female-empowerment song, mostly commentating on a lot of the generic stereotypes expected of women. From a songwriting perspective it isn't half bad, but from an instrumental perspective, wow this sounds like an old-school ATC song. not even Infinity or Gravity old school, this sounds like this would've been one of their first songs like Guessing or Thinking. And I love it. it's a breath of fresh air in the album that wasn't even necessary but they threw it in there anyways.

Friendly Reminder sounds more like a song from Infinity, with its more laid back, upbeat, and poppy sound. The lyrics, however, are pretty contradictory of the sound when you really pay attention. Hearing lyrics on this song like "remember to smile" or "the pain only lasts for a while" are delivered in such an upbeat way that the only thing this song needed was an 80s disco edge to it and it wouldn't have been out of place on Paramore's album After Laughter.

The song Come Alive brings the album back into its more somber themes, which to me sound like it's telling the story of someone dealing with some form of depression or hopelessness. The album has a fantastic finisher though with the track Sweet Surrender, as it becomes the song looking toward the future about finally meeting someone who has made their life so much better, and leaving things off on a positive note with its last lyric "I'm alright now."

Remember that little tidbit I mentioned earlier about Against the Current being just consistently shy of being my absolute favorite band, behind bands like Linkin Park and Chvrches? Against The Current has now officially taken up that spot at last. With this album's release, they are really the only band, or any kind of musician(s) for that matter, that I can honestly say in my opinion has a perfect record so far. I have not disliked anything that they have put out, everything they have put out has never been less than fantastic to me.

Past Lives solidifies this. It's a perfect album from start to finish in my eyes, and another out-of-the-park home run for a band that continues to impress me with their legendary quality. 10/10.

Alright, it's 2 am and I have nothing better to do, and I love yelling about music. Time to talk about my favorite album of all time, ohGr's Devils In My Details.

For some context, Nivek Ogre, the frontman and founder of ohGr, is my favorite musician of all time, and all of the work he's put out is absolute genius. I'm in love with his entire discography, and typically picking favorites is difficult, but DIMD really snuck up on me and I formed an unexpected connection to it at a really specific time in my life, and I don't know what I'd have done without it. Interestingly enough when I first heard it, I didn't like it as much as the rest of his solo work; I didn't dislike it either, but I was a little disappointed. I wanted to like it more than I did, but there was something about it that didn't click for me. I was frustrated with the mixing; the vocals are quiet and the audio is muddled and rough and the songs were discordant - And this is speaking as someone who's an industrial fan. All the music I listen to is chaotic and noisy, but for some reason this album I really struggled with and at the time I sort of set it aside as "not my favorite" and moved on.

Except I didn't completely move on. I love Ogre's work so much that I still allowed it to exist in my life; I'd let songs from it play if they came up on shuffle, I'd play it when I needed something to work out to or take a nap to. But it still didn't really hit me until I had a very sudden near death experience that landed me in the emergency room and an overnight stay in the intensive care unit. I won't go into it, details aren't important. But it was an understandably rough time, and recovery was as hard emotionally as it was physically. I had a lot of "big questions" that no one could answer and a lot of trauma to work through that I didn't want to admit I had, and suddenly I found myself inexplicably drawn to this album. I literally woke up one morning with the urge to listen to it, and suddenly it was like the entire thing clicked into place for me and I understood it and connected to it on a level I never had before. I don't know what I would have done without that album in my life and it was a very profound experience; in all my years of being completely obsessed with music and deep in music subcultures, I've never had an album "reach out" to me like that.

Fascinated by the album now, I decided to dig into the behind the scenes of it, and the "story" behind it totally blew me away. Turns out it was, as Ogre puts it, a very "urgent" album for him - He had been planning a totally different album, and something very traumatic happened, something he hasn't shared publicly, that made him feel it was necessary to scrap everything and release something written purely as an immediate response to the trauma he underwent. I was completely amazed by that. If you're familiar with Ogre's work at all, you'll know that it's not common for him to be very blatant or overt with the themes and concepts in his music. At no point in DIMD does it say or even directly or obviously imply that the album was written as a response to trauma. The fact that it took traumatic experience to be able to understand it, and the fact that I immediately gravitated to it after the experience, really, really amazes me to this day. To me it really speaks volumes about Ogre's talent as an artist and how beautifully and subtly he conveys such raw human emotion and experience through his work.

The way I see it, which aligns with how Ogre describes it as well, the album is basically the mental exploration of one's thought process after trauma. It explores the immediate reality and trying to come to terms with it, as well as looking at the bigger picture, questioning the world around you, questioning yourself and your past, trying to figure out who to blame, etc. There is a consistent inconsistency with it - That is, the mixing is bizarre, the sounds are discordant and chaotic, the vocals are often muffled and distorted and muted, and yet it all blends together into one single musical piece. Literally! Each song fades into the next seamlessly; if you listen to it digitally, on Spotify or iTunes or something, you literally won't know when one song ends and another begins because the sounds blend together. On top of that, there's spoken word interwoven throughout (provided by Bill Moseley, one of my favorite actors ever, which makes this album extra awesome), and the same spoken word found at the end of the first song reaches its conclusion in the final song, which fully cements the idea of it all being a single coherent piece. This dichotomy I feel really helps further the whole feeling of the album as an exploration into the mind of someone who is very much being tormented by the devils in their details.

So, looking at each song... I definitely don't have all the answers here as to what they all "mean." It's mostly guesswork and personal interpretation paired with what I've read from Ogre himself. But that's part of the fun with music, personal interpretation and seeking answers and all that. There's still plenty I don't know, but these are my thoughts overall at this point in time.

Shhh
This is one of the most abrasive songs on the album, I see people compare it to 80s-early 90s Ministry, so it starts things off with a bang, but like the rest of the album the mixing distorts and muffles Nivek's vocals. This was a song I liked even back when I was still on the fence about the album, I thought it was really fun and intense, and I remember thinking it'd be fun to see live - I've actually seen it live twice now, and it's as great as I thought it'd be, lol. But anyway, this song very much feels like an introduction to the rest of the album, including introducing us to Bill's spoken word at the end. We get just a snippet of poetry here, which cuts off rather quickly.... But that'll continue later, don't worry.

Eyecandy
The most chaotic and discordant song, easily. Nothing aligns, every sound seems to be working against every other sound, Ogre's voice is a threatening growl in this song that occasionally becomes distorted into a deep mutated inhuman noise, and yet it somehow comes together into this frenzied and haunting but in the end coherent song. The song seems to be about... well, porn, but knowing Ogre there is more to be taken out of it. Ogre has actually been very candid about going through a period of time in his life where he was, as he puts it, "addicted to pornography," and used it as an admittedly unhealthy coping mechanism that hugely negatively impacted his relationships. So you can see the personal reasons behind using it as a springboard for chaos, and given his history, I feel like a lot of this song is about, well, unhealthy coping mechanisms, basically. "I feel like I'm about to die / And now I'm looking deep inside / And now it may keep me alive-a-ha-ha-ha-hahahah!"

Three
A short little song that's made up largely of a refrain of "See me bleed / Watch me bleed." I feel like this is largely a "transitional" song, where various jumbled thoughts are thrown together in a blender and you're left with this aggressive cry of twisted emotion and (literal) open wounds, that leads you into a new part of your journey, which brings us to...

Feelin' Chicken
Maybe the weirdest track on the album, and one of my favorites; this one literally starts with samples of, well, chickens, with Bill Moseley's spoken word on top of it. The poetry in this song is HEAVILY political- "All hype and gripes and stars and stripes / Ain't my flag today. / I want to belong, I want to be proud / But your gay-bashing voices are so ******* loud." Once the actual song begins it's completely bizarre; it sounds a little like a nursery rhyme, with a tuba as a major instrument, and Nivek's vocals, the least distorted you'll hear them, are fun and playful, until the aren't anymore, and they sound angry and aggressive. As I see it this song is basically about someone looking around at the world and seeing it with frustration, amusement, and some level of disbelief at how... horrible it is, really. The political themes of the spoken word, the strange little melody of the song, the constant refrain through the song of "What if the world is ****?"... It's a deceptively dark song about coming to an understanding that the world around you is awful, and utterly out of your control.

Pepper
PEPPER. I could say so much about Pepper. This is my absolute favorite song on the album, and one of my favorite songs of all time. I feel like this is the crux of the album in some ways, which is deceptive, because the song itself is very simple and sweet. Every lyric here is bursting with depth and meaning. Part of me just wants to say "listen to it" and leave it at that, haha. But for real, this song is beautiful, and it's the one I most connected to in my time of need. It's a song about looking around at the rubble and destruction you're surrounded by and feeling trapped and horrifically out of place, and trying to figure out what to do next, and the internal battle between moving on to something new or trying to rebuild what you had before, and if that's even possible. "This corner is an all too well-know place that has now become a prison. Can I fix it?"

D.Angel
This is a transition song, and the shortest on the whole album, just over a minute and twenty seconds, but also a hugely important one. In some ways, it's the album namer, since it's the one song that constantly repeats the word "devils" and enforces that as an existing concept within the album. I feel like this one speaks into paranoia and the fear that something, perhaps fate or some God-being, is out to get you- "Open your eyes / Everything's dangerous." ... "I'm hunted like / A rabid dog with tumored sight." Interestingly, unlike the title of the album only being DEVILS in my Details, this song emphasizes angels constantly too, and even the title is markedly strange. I feel like there's a question being asked here of the difference between devils and angels, or if there is one at all, or if that difference even matters.

Psychoreal
This is a weird one that I can't really explain; I still don't really get it, although I really, really like it. Bill Moseley's poetry here is some of my favorite, it's creepy and clever with lots of great imagery and fun little plays on words, and makes me think of some of his horror characters. This is an INCREDIBLY repetitive song, about 90% of the words you can actually understand are just a repetition of "You can be my God - Psychoreality." Over and over and over and over. There is a bit more that you can make out, but for the most part the rest of the lyrics in this song are distorted beyond comprehension. I guess I see this song in part as a religious... delusion? It's kind of a continuation of D.Angel, shifting from the paranoia and fear and terror caused by the divine and now turning into a frenzied and distorted "prayer" to an unknown.

Whitevan
Oh man, this one is weird. Like, really, really weird. Like, weirder than Feelin' Chicken. The first half of this song is Ogre singing with a distortion over his voice that makes him sound totally inhuman; it sounds like it's been slowed down, and then sped up, so you have this inhumanly deep voice speaking at a normal pace. He's definitely playing a character here, he's not speaking at all as himself. It's... creepy, as is the backing music, as is audio of a woman saying "I think he's searching for his mother" at the very beginning. I don't know what to make of all of this, but it makes for a really interesting and fun song that stands out hugely on the album. I've wondered if Ogre is supposed to be a/the devil here, but I don't know. I feel like the second half of the song becomes a bit more clear, though. Ogre's voice returns to normal, and after a LONG period of only repeating "white world" over and over, we get a long section of what sounds like practically a totally different song, and... I feel like this is the album's thesis, in a way. The lyrics here speak hugely to the major themes of the entire album. He speaks of being trapped, questioning reality, "Each of us must face their fate," it's a pretty chilling little section that requires a lot of introspection to fully comprehend but it's definitely a huge turning point in the album.

Timebomb
I actually know what this one is about because Ogre told the audience when I saw him perform this one live, lol. It's another big favorite on the album, it's catchy and at times genuinely very beautiful and sad sounding too, and just overall I find it really fun. It's probably Ogre's most melodic singing on the album. Anyway, Ogre said that this song is specifically about cocaine, which is understandable, because Ogre struggled hugely with addiction and abuse for years, to the point that it nearly killed him. The song itself seems to speak largely in the point of view of cocaine, and seems like a song between Ogre and his own past drug addiction, and a battle not to relapse, basically. "I've dealt with billions / Of your resilience / Come on and let me out!" ... "I spent your millions / Taking the chill on / Come on and let me shout!"

Smogharp
Between you and me, Ogre opened with this song when I saw him live in September, and I straight up had to hold back tears. This is the final turning point of the album, from the more upbeat (still dark, but melodic and fun in tune) Timebomb to something much more dark and surreal, while still being very beautiful, but in a more... alien way. I love the synth in this one. This song feels very much like the musical version of tumbling far down into darkness, a very grim acceptance of a dark reality. The lyrics here are just horribly sad and defeated- "So blind, so dimmed, forever," "Something's not quite right," "Nothing lasts forever,", and it ends with the repetition of a very somber single chime of a low, haunting bell. God.

Witness
The last song, and also the absolute saddest one on the entire album. It brings everything together in the most devastating way possible. I've actually written, like, entire essays exploring this song before, but I'll try to be briefer than that. The song is fundamentally a cry for help. The chorus makes that clear- "Can I get a witness to be on my side? / Accusers, you should all just die. / I need to stick some things inside / to crucify my mind." At the end of the entire album, this whole complex exploration of the human mind and trying to come to terms with reality, the listener seeking some form of hope or a happy ending is instead given the bleakest, most hopeless display of admitted weakness and defeat imaginable. The song feels like a punch in the gut, you come to the very end of this entire journey, after all of these turbulent emotions and ups and downs and various thoughts and feelings and discoveries about life, and the final thought is this lonely cry simply for some form of acknowledgement and understanding or someone who has seen what you’ve seen about the world and will agree or stand by you. On top of that you have that repeated refrain of “You gotta make your money and die” going on in the second half, like that’s the final conclusion that’s been reached at the very end of it all. And at the very end, you're brought right back to where you started: Bill Moseley's spoken word from the very first song, which cut off rather abruptly, fades back in here, and the album ends with the last few lines of poetry in a perfect bookend. Except, you don't actually hear the end of the poem. Even after all that time, that entire journey, not even the poem is able to find its ending. Instead, the song, and, by extension, the entire album, cuts off mid WORD. And just like that, you're left in silence.

It's a beautiful album. Ogre calls it one of his darkest works he ever put out, and I stand by it as my favorite album of all time. Sorry for the long as hell post, but hey, this is a music review thread, right? Sooo.... you get this. If you read it all you're a freaking hero.

And finally, the official ohGr YouTube actually posted the whole album, so if you wanna check it out while even supporting the band, it's right here!

Hey, I thought I would dump some stuff in here.

Rollinem7s - N.E.R.D.

This song is so ****ing good holy hell. One of the ideas for this record was that Pharell Williams was tired of being popular, so he wanted to make songs that had no structure. Certain songs on the record show this, like ESP, or Secret Life Of Tigers, but none of them are as spineless, as Rollinem7s.

This song is a marvel. There are lyrics but no lead. Theres no melody. This song is 2 songs at once. It starts with a sample from some random YT video, with some dude saying "Mad ethnic right now.". Then it just gets straight into it. Theres an unknown sample of some man yelping that goes throughout the whole track, theres some EXTREMELY heavy and bassy tones that loop in the background, all lead on by a sort of marching band drum. Then some voices join in, with this droning, repetitive, monotoned, "Every time I turn around I'm rollin' them 7s, roll around the world like I do with my brethren, all the pretty girls wanna be my heaven, every time I turn around I'm rollin' them 7's, roll around the-" Its great. Theres also some other vocals I can't really understand. Theres also the "lead" I guess, who comes in every know and then, stopping the entire song, with some sort of uprising sounding lyrics. After a while the song abruptly cuts into something new. Here, its the same deal, but with actual consistent leads, but its very hard to make it out. And then it switches AGAIN back into the old part. And then Andre 3000. Then it ends.

What.