Ewy "World Is Mine" (2020)

Ewy is an artist that showed up on my Spotify Weekly a while ago and hooked me in with his melodramatic voice, British accent and sad guitar playing, it all mad me reminiscent of Crywank, The Front Bottoms or even Park national which are all bands I quite enjoy. This isn't the only aspect of that makes this small indie folk punk artist so enjoyable though.

This record is special to me because of it's big emotional impact, it felt strangely personal which is the result of this album being written in lockdown, it's presence of which has undoubtedly affected all of us and is something we can all relate to. Other topics of this album include failed relationships and his disappointment in the world in general, you know, typical folk punk stuff.

In a total of 12 songs and 30 minutes Ewy manages to capture all these topics perfectly via his sad British voice, sounding more like a rant than singing, this isn't a bad thing though, this and his acoustic guitar cause for his perfect capturing of the folk punk aesthetic Ewy is obviously aiming for. With poppy influences on these songs and fun but unique lyrics these tracks manage to stay in your head for weeks on end. Especially 'Itch' and 'Jewelry And Teeth' do this intricate mix well, they're fun songs with a way deeper meaning when you actually look at the lyrics.

Not only is Ewy a really great artist he's also a really fun and nice person to hang around with, he's often active in his Discord Server and I've often hung around with him in voice chats, he's really cool and likeable person.

9/10

 Deftones "Ohms" (2020)

Deftones is a band that I got into very reluctantly, their sound didn't strike me as appealing the first couple listens, only a few months after I originally listened to Koi No Yokan I realised how genius their sound is and became entranced by it, their recent release of Ohms was more of what I already loved by the Nu Metal band. 

This record pulled me in with sludgy guitar and beautifully emotional vocals in the form of screams, this combination creating a gravitational force, like being thrown about in a sea of sound. This push and pull mechanic between the low distorted 8 string guitar and ethereal vocals makes sure this band never tires. This feeling is most beautifully shown in "Urentia" the third song on this record, it begins with a heavy assaulting riff, preparing you for a giant breakdown. Instead this song steers hard in the other direction going for a tender whimsical sound, later the opening riff begins but it holds an entirely different power, with some pop influences on chords. Suddenly the groups' main dynamic isn't contradicting at all, the vocals and sludgy guitar twirling around and perfectly complimenting each other, an odd balance in a stormy ocean of sound.

Something this record does more than any music I've listened is reach beyond, it is no longer just sound, the emotional pull between glimmering vocals and tugging sensation of the albums heavier aspects really do make it feel like you're in a whirlpool, Ohms is a delicate equilibrium. The sound holds their power in tension, like slacklining on a thread that could snap at any second.

9/10

 Bears In Trees "I Want to Feel Chaotic" (2020)

Listening to this EP has given me some inspiration and motivation to write again so hi there! Bears In Trees is one of those bands that I didn't appreciate enough upon first encounter, yes Ramblings of a Lunatic was an incredible song but I didn't bother to look further than that until recently and when I did I wasn't disappointed by what I found, the British band has several EPs full of intricate songs with huge Dodie, Cavetown and The Front Bottoms influences, fun vocal runs being supported well by drums and guitar.

I Want to Feel Chaotic is my favourite EP from the band's discography so far. It is also their first record under the Counter Intuitive label and Bears In Trees delivered. Weighing in at 5 songs and 16 minutes of listening time it feels a bit short yet these songs all tell a story. Coming to terms with your own being, personality and the loss of close friends are all a part of theme of the record, it manages to clear up all the fog in your mind, the sound striking your bones and soul. 

Like mentioned before, the band has taken great influence from Dodie, Cavetown, The Front Bottoms and more, with clean guitar vocal runs, harmonies and fun drums their sound never feels overwhelming, creating the mind clearing experience I talked about above. It's not all whimsical though, the hooks remain fun, energetic and stick in your head urging you to dance and sing-along in your bedroom. Overall they sound like what a cold starry night looks and feels like.

My words really can't do this EP justice, plus my rustiness in writing these subjective reviews make it so I feel like there are things missing here, but oh well!

8/10

 My Chemical Romance ''Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge'' (2004)

My Chemical Romance is one of those bands you listen as a teen, cringe at after a year and then come back to later on to wallow in it's nostalgia and find a new appreciation for it's edgy lyrics and emo/screamo influences. Although this album is MCR's second release they ditched a large part of the screamo that made up their debut album ''I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love''. 

With 12 songs, and interlude and 39 minutes of listening time this album is jampacked with incredible songs, personal favourites would be ''Helena", the first track on this record, it immediately sets the mood with dark tones and mystifying vibes. ''Give 'Em Hell, Kid'', which utilises this band's incredible instrumentals and Gerard Way's paralyzing vocals. And many other songs that I love, but the truth is, not a single one of these songs is lacklustre, all of them have their unique quirks and tones. Alt Rock, Emo, Post Hardcore and Punk Rock are all ways to describe this album and band but none of that quite does their revolutionary sound justice, thriving off of gnarly riffs and almost scary screams is something they excelled at, cementing their sound and the genre of emo. 

Shout along choruses, machine gun fast drumming, horror themes,  guitar with huge Metal influences, complex song structures and a generally raw feel created the incredible sound that is this My Chemical romance, even in songs that feel lighter like ''The Jetset Life Is Gonna Kill You'' we don't get given peace, we are still bombarded with catchy hooks and Metal tinged riffs, in a good way of course.

An album like this has so much you can say about it but I do not know enough about this record or it's history to write it all down for you, all I can say is that this 12 song masterpiece is a must listen to anyone

9/10

 grandson ''A Modern Tragedy Vol. 1'' (2018)

Since I've been getting into the groove of writing these album reviews it's about time to tackle one of my all time favourite artists, grandson. I discovered this EP not too long after it's release and since then I must've played it hundreds of times. With startling aggression and frustration pointed at the continuous recklessness and corruption in the many systems that guide how society in America works grandson delivers some shocking and electrifying lines. This EP was grandsons first uniform experience with writing music, he's brought out multiple singles in the form of Bills, Bury Me Face Down, Kiss Bang.. Etc. 

Ditching some but not all of the powerful Alt Rock sound he's created in the singles before the release of A Modern Tragedy Vol. 1 grandson embraces some Trap music, something I haven't been super fond of, grandson does it just right though. Shill cries, wondrous attitude, dark metaphors and massive hooks combined with unique drops, grandson and his guitarist and drummer do it all. grandson is one of those artists who isn't afraid to talk and sing about all the horrifying reality going on in the world which is something I adore, with tracks like Blood // Water which talk about all the political corruption in America, or Stick Up which screams at the gun violence going on. Despicable is a track which grandson himself has described as ''a ballad of self loathing'', a daunting track with gentle guitar crashing into a huge drop later on in the song, again utilising grandsons vocal chords. 6:00 a haunting track with explosive guitar taking the front spot, heavy riffs droning on as grandson tears himself up over police brutality, a song released in 2018 mainly focused around unjust killing of civilians. And last but not least we have Overdose, a track that ties the entire EP together with grandsons ghastly vibe, powerful messages and drops like dynamite. 

This Ep is a perfect showing of what grandson is about, from singing and making music about what needs to be said to a lot of personal frustration making this sound possible, grandson really knows how to capture a vibe. The aggression is something that fascinated me a lot when listening to this the first time, it told me to be weary, that this isn't just music created to become mainstream, it's reality. All in all this first EP was a great opening to show everyone what's to come in the future.

9/10

 PUP ''Morbid Stuff'' (2019)

Pup is a band I've found about a year ago now, with their explosive sound, earnest screams, and lyrics I could do nothing but love them, with their objectively amazing debut album ''PUP'' and the slightly more experimental and lacklustre ''The Dream Is Over'' I was interested what the next album would hold for me but I was pleasantly surprised to hear more of the same quirks that this band made their own. With heavy and angsty themes such as anxiety, depression and death and the Punk Rock sound this record holds was driven home further.

Utilising songs like ''Closure'' and ''See You At Your Funeral'' PUP addresses that having things left unsaid and that unhappy endings are always an inevitable part of life, along with other valuable life lessons, something the band felt necessary to do seeing they've gone through a few changes since their first album, mainly in numbers. 

With this record PUP refuses to be held back by the Pop Punk label often held against them, embracing pop-tinged melodies on ''See You At Your Funeral'' or going for the whole campfire sing-alongs on the start of ''Scorpion Hill'' and let's not forget to mention the incredible ''Full Blown Meltdown'' which tip toes the lines of Metal with their sludgy, heavy guitar and drums, this record does it all without shame. That's one of the many things to love about this album, frontman Stefan Babcock wasn't afraid to write about his struggle with mental health. Depression and anxiety isn't something to glorify and PUP talks about it the way they do best, through dark tones and tunes that go straight for the jugular.

The guitars are something to embrace from this 4 man band, even if lyrics get a little dull the guitar stays energetic and interesting throughout. PUP has had a knack for memorable riffs and small licks since their debut, on this record they've done it tighter, darker and better resulting in the catchy song ''Kids'' or like mentioned above the sludgy and heavy ''Full Blown Meltdown'', one of my personal favourites on this album. ''City'' also has a different tone for the majority of the song, slow drums and playful guitar strums over sad vocal tones only for the song to start building up around the 2 minute mark and crash into spastic breakdowns near the end. 

8/10

Puppy ''The Goat'' (2019)

 Finding this band through Xisuma's Music Blog a few weeks ago and their general aesthetic of the album cover and titles like Entombed, Bathe In Blood and I Feel An Evil made me prepared for some crazy glamour and heavy metal riffs, I felt slightly relieved when that wasn't exactly the case, I have appreciation for music like that but it doesn't quite satisfy my ears, instead this record came at me with some epic Metal riffage, Alt Rock melodies and pop-tinged infectious hooks.

With their Alt Rock moods and some dabble into Classic Rock licks Puppy makes this Groove Metal track do wonders. Main focus on the guitar work is no exception in many bands but Puppy doesn't feel the need to exaggerate theirs with heavy distortion or cheap thrills. The vocal presence from this 3 man band is nothing to laugh at either, combined with perpetual riffs and tugging tones the constant rockage gives you a sore neck. Beautiful layered harmonics illuminating the whole album and giving off a Deftones like feel.

Continuously intertwining some quirks make sure this record never tires, having had this on repeat almost every other day. The band proudly wears their influences that range from the 70s to the 90s, howling rock solos, glamorous guitar licks and occasional hazy psychedelia are frequently found. Tracks like Handlebars even bring in the heavy churns I've only heard before in KoRn's music. Bathe In Blood is a beautiful combination of metallic riffs, prog-tinged spiraling and the raw emotion often experienced in Deftones' records, making it a surreal listening experience. 

An arsenal of riffs, amazing supportive drumming, crunchy and limitless tunefulness all riding on the currents of sinister undertones make this debut album incredibly accessible, there will be songs for everyone on here, an irresistible spell cast on anyone fortunate enough to come across this band's path. Their easy listening might be the one downside of this record, with so many resources at it's disposal this band would do great with experimenting around with different song lengths or some more daring styles. They're not unfolding their wings and utilising their full potential, this is only their first record though, I am super excited for what they do in the future.

10/10

 Challenger Deep ''Challenger Deep'' (2019)

Showing up in my Spotify Weekly not too long ago this band pulled me in with their allure of strong basslines and powerful instrumentals. I'm glad I've got to know Feed Me Jack and Polyphia before listening to this, getting to know Math Rock better, this band uses a slightly more aggressive and sloppier sound than what I've gotten to love from Feed Me Jack, and in comparison to Polyphia they don't quite have as genius riffs. Another comparison I'll make is to Intervals and Plini, both instrumental bands I've discovered quite recently, Intervals a bit more energetic than Plini but still not on the level of Challenger Deep.

This 4 man boy band's biggest asset on this debut album is their powerful basslines, often taking the front stage for a while with rhythmic riffs, droning onwards, though the main attention is still on the electric guitar, this band's main skill lies on merging technicality and earworm worthy melodies into beautiful songs. With their catchy hooks, electric energy, and graceful technicality these song jump out at you catching you by storm. 

The intro track 'The Bloop (It Begins)' sets atmosphere, a good reference to the geographical name Challenger Deep, the deepest natural point know to date, it gives us a mystical welcome before we get dragged into the frenzied finger tapping guitar work and aggressive machine gun like drumming of 'Welcome to the Show', that's not all they know to do though, punctuated stops and punchy basslines grab you by ear once you start to decipher the sound a little.

For 30 minutes of completely immersing, amazing sound and skilful guitar licks this record has surprisingly little listens, a real shame. In 8 songs the band has outdone itself, selling their point of beautifully merged punctuated technicality and their catchy hooks for their debut album to us like real masters.

8/10

 Feed Me Jack ''Chumpfrey'' (2012)

This was one of the first records and bands I've been introduced to by a good online friend of mine (you know who you are :D), originally the Math Rock or Prog Rock feel and poppy influences on the album were a bit overwhelming, but since my first listen more than half a year ago I've really grown on this genre and more specifically this set of songs. One of my few complaints on this album, the songs don't connect or flow with each other too well, the sound is there and individually I love all of these songs, the record just lacks cohesiveness, there are tons of fun quirks to find and discover on this record though. Speaking of quirks, after doing a tiny bit of research before writing this I've found this debut album was actually released in 2012 and not 2015 like Spotify tells us.

Wonderful, jazzy, groovy, Indie band is what you might think listening to this record, but that description is informative at best and very underwhelming to anyone who has listened to it before. With smooth basslines and twinkly percussive work laying a good and supportive background to push the infectious clean electric guitar forward this band knows what they're doing with their dynamic. With melodic picking, tapping and rhythmic phrases the guitar takes the front spot, bass and drums aren't the only thing supporting it though, we can't forget about the 3 man harmonics and singing, with slightly mismatched voices it sounds hard to believe that they could produce something so magical, yet they know how to perfectly play off of each other, creating some incredibly catchy hooks.

Undermining the genius song writing isn't something we should do either, these lyrics play off of the jazz like feel really well, but apart from lyrics they create some impressive and immersive textures of pin point rhythmic changes for you to lose yourself in. This record isn't all mystifying, complex musical work though, we get given a good amount of slower paced, less note filled spacious time too, often accompanied by soft waves of synths and more simple percussions and guitar picking. The main thing making all these songs special is their unique quirks, Rosies gets given a funky start with some keyboard notes, Until Then manages to catch one of the catchiest riffs, Jelly The Queen receives more funkiness in it's starting notes and outro. I would love to explain all of these but I simply don't have the time

10/10

Three Days Grace ''Human'' (2015)

With it's heavy Post Grunge guitar, drums blasting and gritty screams this record hit me back in 2019, discovering it shortly after falling in love with Starset's Transmissions, It felt a bit bare, missing all the electronic quirks that made Transmissions so special yet the energy and magic Human put on me wasn't anything short of what I'd gotten used to from Starset. 

Human hit me straight on with it's Post Grunge, Hard Rock aesthetics, utilising their heavy electric guitar, driving bass, crisp and carrying drums in amazing ways in the form of big crashes and fast riffs, the vocals are nothing to scoff at either, with gritty and raspy voices they produce some amazing and powerful screams that drive home their aggressive sound even further.

This record also knows how to give breaks, with a song like Car Crash we get to experience some more focus on the edgy lyrics I've grown to love from bands like these, they keep simple pickings on the guitar and give the drums a softer feel, the repeated kick drums almost feeling like heartbeats before jumping back into their heavy sound we've heard in all the songs before Car Crash further pushing the lyrics.

At 40 minutes in length this album manages to convey it's darker lyrics and tones perfectly, in 12 songs we touch on loads of topics like humanity, addiction, death and more, all heavy yet hopeful, this record is strangely motivating with it's powerful and meaningful singing. 

I can always come back to this band and more specifically this record, it's one that has grown with me over time, it's high energy always managing to keep my spirits and mood up.

7/10

Death From Above 1979 ''Outrage! IS Now'' (2017) 

On my first listens I quickly fell in love with individual songs by this band, their Dance Punk and Noise Rock feel, their gritty synths, screams and incredible noise produced from Jesse F. Keeler's bass guitar rig consisting of lots pedals and crazy tunings.

As an album Outrage! Is Now lacks some cohesiveness, but their almost DIY Dance Punk aesthetic makes it easy to groove along with these songs and their heavy riffs, aggressive drums and earnest screams. Yet some of these songs are really lacking in vital parts, the record starts of strong with the tracks Nomad and Freeze Me but until All I C Is U & Me I lose the magic those first songs give me, the pacing of these other tracks feels off, giving more attention to synths when this band's focus should be their unique and powerful sound, they just fall short.

The main thing most of these songs are missing is the continuous energy we get in the songs I listed above, Nomad, Freeze Me and All I C Is U & Me, they let their sounds drone through with drums adding some spice to form a nice sound that works along side the vocals to create a powerful combination. In a lot of the other songs like Never Swim Alone, Statues, NVR 4EVR and Holy Books, the strumming of the key component, the bass guitar noise machine is very repetitive with the vocals laid on top of it or riffs that don't integrate well with the vocals due to their energy being so mismatched.

Their sound has gone through a few changes throughout their start in 2001 - 2006 break up and get together in 2011 until now, and yet they don't stray too far from their Dance Punk and Hard Rock roots, in comparison to their 3 albums created before Outrage! Is Now they've become heavier and slower, ditching some of the instrumental quirks and generally refining their sound, a good change in my eyes.

All in all I don't have too much to say about this record but it's one I've wanted to think about and write about anyways, a few great individual songs you can really rock out to, but as an album it lacks some of the magic that I've grown so used to hearing.

6/10

 AJJ ''Christmas Island'' (2014)

With Sean's tragic voice an this band's Folk Punk sound consisting of acoustic guitar, bass, drums and some electronic keyboard tunes they manage to put pure emotion an nerdy yet fantastic lyrics into song. Getting this album recommended to me by someone online at 4 am a year ago made this a surreal listening experience.

AJJ was my first dabble into Folk Punk, this band utilises it's key components of acoustic guitar, bass, and drums masterfully, but in this album they've strayed a bit from their roots, experimenting around with more electric guitar and synthesizers than before which turned out better than anyone could have expected. Sounds building up and having it all come back down on top of Sean's lyrics or gentle guitar picking, drums for keeping track and adding a bit of spice with brushes instead of sticks, and synthesizers keeping a friendly swooning tone. 

The first song on this record immediately sets the tone for a large portion of this album with lyrics like ''Find a nicer way to kill it'' which is a mean and angry (yet still positive) take on Temple Grandin's (the person) work to strive for a more humane way of setting animals up for slaughter. This cynicism is heard throughout your time listening to these songs.

The lyricism on this album is nerdy and near perfect, classic AJJ. They often touch on topics like poverty, humanity, religion, addiction and politics. This 30 minute record is no exception of that, managing to check the box on quite a few of them.

All in all I can describe this record as nothing short of emotional, meaningful and almost tragic with it's distortion on the synthesizers, guitar, and drums, forming a solid background for Sean to perform his wonders. I could go on about individual songs for another 400 words but that's not what this is about.

9/10

 How Do I Rate Albums?

I've been constantly changing the numbers between the few records I've talked about and that's been annoying me so here's me trying to figure out a good system, will be taking some big inspiration from Xisuma's Musical Journey.

I really hope people listen to the words I'm putting on your screen instead of the ratings I put below the text I spend maybe an hour writing down. Rating records is hard, there is both a subjective side and an objective side and for me especially it's hard to choose which gains the upper hand, I don't like putting a low number on an album that certainly took effort yet doesn't quite spring any emotional feelings or connections. If my subjective score is low I would look at it objectively and still try to give it a high number yet this is my blog and my opinion, I don't know too much about music just yet and I am definitely not qualified to give any objective reviews. From now on I'm going to try to rate the albums based on my own experiences listening them.

0 - These will be records I listen to once and feel genuinely annoyed by, irritating me so far I would prefer silence more, I've only heard one album like it.

1 - A record with this rating would be only slightly better than silence.

2 - Albums that I find only slightly tolerable will most likely rank here, something you listen once and have forgotten at the end of the day.

3 - Here we're just hovering below the neutral line, stuck in the negative, some aspects of the record or some songs entirely will be a turn off, a record that misses something vital yet isn't completely awful.

4 - Four is the baseline, a neutral stance, no emotional connection to the album nor anything special, it's music, it's there but there is nothing to enjoy.

5 - Just slightly above four we have five, who could've guessed? Albums with a decent song or two will rank here, not warranting me coming back to listen to it again but it being an okay listen either way.

6 - Here we start getting a connection between me and the music, records I can bop my head to but have some quirks or flaws I don't enjoy as much

7 - Now we're getting into the good stuff, albums I will revisit occasionally either for a few specific songs or it's entirety.

8 - Records I can't get enough of and I will have downloaded on my phone to listen at all times rank here, music that becomes like my air and keeps my blood pumping.

9 - If possible music that hovers a bit above 8, records that my vocabulary isn't big enough to describe.

10 - Here will be Albums that are my all time favourite, ones I'll never forget and develop with me as time goes on, a total resonance that takes a long time to take it's stand.

A few important things I should note, with some albums my words come out easier than with others, this doesn't effect my rating in the end, I will usually listen an album fully before writing and with the higher ranking records I will have songs memorised anyways. Many albums are between 30 minutes and 1 hour long, depending on the quality of the record and my mood, the length may effect the score, because of this I may go back to edit the ratings on records a few hours or days after writing about them.
Thanks for taking your time to read this and trying to understand a little bit of what goes on in my brain when rating albums.

Bring Me The Horizon ''Post Human: Survival Horror'' (2020)

Having been a fan of BMTH for a few years and mainly of That's The spirit and Sempiternal hearing this EP for the first time scared me away a little. The massive blast beats, high energy sound wall and mix of Electronic, Metal and Pop influences were a little much in comparison to the other albums. Revisiting this 30 minute EP a month later changed my mind. I was on the edge of my seat listening to it, the Pop influenced hooks and Electronica around every corner combined with Mick Gordon helping on production and mixing this is I was very reminiscent of my dabble in the video game Doom Eternal.

This album length EP is BMTH's first try with their new formatting to releasing music, they were tired of the restrictions of albums and the suggestion of making EPs struck gold for the band. Post Human: Survival Horror is the first of apparently 4 EPs in the Post Human quartet. The first song Survival Horror perfectly embodies many peoples experiences with the global pandemic going around, they managed to capture pure frustration and translate it into music.

With dense synthesizers droning, heavy guitar riffs, blast beats, drums and samples galore this record keeps high energy while not forgetting about hooks and catchy melodies that stay in your head for weeks on end. They also remember to keep tuneful swaying bits in their songs, the perfect amount of time to really take in what you're listening to before the sound starts building up again and you find yourself completely immersed in it and Oli Sykes' screams. 

One certain track really stands out, the feature of BABYMETAL on Kingslayer, a song that could very well fit on the Japanese groups discography. Utilising their quirks and musical aesthetics combined with the rest of this EPs general sound makes this song the favourite of many. Furthermore Teardrops has made a name for itself in my head, it's catchy hooks and melodies won't leave my mind and they got me to listen this record more times than I can count.

All in all this album length EP is incredibly cunning, utilising many features for some unique sounds and voices while keeping it concise and cohesive, seeing this change in the band's direction is an exciting one, I'm curious as to what the other records under the Post Human banner will bring, I am hoping that they get their own identities and quirks instead of them being copies of each other with slightly different meanings, I have high hopes for the future.

9/10

Wilbur ''Your City Gave Me Asthma'' (2020)

 Listening to this album always manages to get me in the feels, it's an incredibly therapeutic one with it's Singer-songwriter genre and sad emotional tones, I discovered this record because Wilbur Soot is actually an entertainer on YouTube as well, hearing this for the first time right after I had binged some of his content struck me hard, how did someone so jolly sing something so sad.

Back when Wilbur used to live in London he quickly got disgusted by it's environment, the city quite literally gave him asthma and the scarily high mortality rates on the undergrounds made him sick, this album was him expressing his distaste for it all which is why it's so emotional, London ate away at his mental health throughout his stay, luckily he's moved away since then.

Like I mentioned before, the singer-songwriter style fits perfectly with the tone of this record, simple guitar progressions and on occasional tracks some brass instruments. His soft voice combined with very faint harmonics and supporting vocals really drive home the idea that this was all recorded in a bedroom by someone fresh out of college.

8/10

STARSET ''Transmissions'' (2014)

Me from 3 years ago was busy discovering new music when he landed on Transmissions, STARSET's debut album. I was instantly hit with the hard rock and electronic synths in the form of a beautifully crafted sound wall. This 1 hour long album was one of my early encounters with hard rock and really cemented my love for the genre. STARSET's front man and vocalist Dustin Bates blew me away with his incredible vocal range and screams, something I had never heard before at the time. Transmissions was the first album of a book and story written by Dustin, the cohesiveness of this record might just be it's most amazing part.

The aesthetics of this album and story is set in an alternate universe with sci-fi, space and astronomy galore! Instrumentation wise this band plays around with simple drums, ongoing synths and electronics on every track which drive home the theme of the record, additionally the electric guitar almost get drowned out which is a shame, but the cello and violin you can hear in the background of some tracks truly make up for it.

My favourite part of some of these tracks have to be Dustin's screams continuing throughout build ups and drops, his voice will drown out and synths, electronics and harmonics will take it's place, only for you to notice that the scream is still going on 30 seconds later, upon re listening you'll realise that he never stopped. The build ups and drops on these tracks are never disappointing, the wall of sound I described earlier doesn't actually exist, it's so well mixed and layered that you can perfectly pick out individual bits and pieces that form the intricate and complicated sound, it makes you wonder how this was their debut album with no previous releases of individual songs.

 

 Apart from sound STARSET has also mastered the lack of sound, with the layering falling away leaving only some white noise and giving the attention to an individual instrument or Dustin's voice which speaks deep lyrics only for it all to build up again and crash into something beautiful. STARSET is a band you can come back to anytime and listen through an album you've heard tens of times before yet there will still be new things and layers for you to pick out and put your focus on.

8/10

 Weezer ''Weezer'' (1994)

For the first post on this Blog it's only appropriate I start with one of the first albums I listened in actual album form. Weezer's blue album was the first album I listened to that wasn't something young me had picked up on the radio in car rides with my mom, when getting this album recommended to me somewhere online I was very reluctant to listen to it, and rightfully so, the grungy electric guitar wasn't something you ever heard in the Alan Walker or Imagine Dragon songs I used to religiously listen to.

The blue album was Weezer's debut and also the high of their career, there now are fantastic individual tracks who rank a bit higher on total amount of listens or copies sold but overall the blue album is yet to be beat. The grunge electric guitar is amazing and the drums and riffs are kept quite simplistic with lyrics that are easy to follow which makes these songs so satisfying to listen to, I still get Buddy Holly stuck in my head occasionally.

The intense geekiness of Weezer and this album is very apparent in the album cover and lyrics, but the sound is a page straight out of Nirvana's book who Rivers was massively inspired by, yet the band made this their own album, with enormous hooks and incredibly catchy riffs, melodies and lyrics. 

Weezer has been constantly growing and developing their sound which is almost sad to see, you can see the numbers dwindling in comparison to their origins but I will not look at the blue album and think ''Oh we could have had more of this'' but instead I am happy that there is no album that's a straight repeat.

6/10