Music Reviews

Liturgy – 93696

Starting off on a strong note we have an album I didn’t get the chance to mention in my last „Albums I Missed“ installment and that is none other than Liturgy’s 93696 and if I had the patience to do so this album would make for like 3 full-blown reviews, however I am simply just super lazy so this will have to do – like to be fair not even 3 full reviews would do this thing enough justice, this album just absolutely steals the show on all fronts. In about 80 or so minutes this project delivers an absolute avalenche of sounds and ideas that really elevate it above your average black metal album. All of the „Angel of…“ interlude tracks are really nice and make the whole thing feel more conceptual and complete, but the core in typical Liturgy fashion 10-minute or so long songs are obviously the heart of this album. I mean just listen to the title track, that song just couldn’t be made by an actual living human. And the shorter tracks go unreasonably hard too, like I still have a little bit of a bias towards Liturgy’s last project „H.A.Q.Q.“, but even I have to say that this is overall just a more ambitious and a more complete body of work. I mean honestly, besides a few nitpicks here and there this thing is almost perfect who am I even kidding.

Decent 9/10

Lovejoy – Wake Up & It’s Over

It’s kinda impressive how this band went from a sort of guilty pleasure of mine to now actually releasing some unironically great music – like the opening track „Portrait of a Blank State“ is just straight up their best song and it’s honestly kinda funny how it’s not even close. The rest of the project is fine too, I really enjoy the single „Call Me What You Like“ and some of the other songs too but realistically nothing compares to that first track, like that song gets stuck in my head at least 5 times a day now. So yeah, definetly their best effort so far overall.

Decent 7/10

Depeche Mode – Memento Mori

This is the best Depeche Mode has sounded since the 90s and I will die on that hill.

Light 8/10

The National – First Two Pages of Frankenstein

This album alone cured my insomnia. I mean seriously, how do you have SUFJAN STEVENS, PHOEBE BRIDGERS and FRICKING TAYLOR SWIFT all on the same album and make it this long-winded and unintresting. Like okay, the Sufjan Stevens song isn’t all bad when you first put it on but the more this album goes on you realise that that’s literally the best this album has to offer. Overall just an absolute snooze fest and a complete disapointment, I seriously don’t remember much of anything from this.

Strong 3/10

Waterparks – INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

It’s like a combination of some new Bring Me The Horizon songs, Hobo Johnson and One Direction… Make of that what you will. Anyways with this being my introduction to the band I have to say I’m very unsure how to feel about this – like some of the ideas are really cool but fall completely on their face in execution, some songs are just catchy enough for me to overlook that and some are just… Yeah. Like from what I’ve caught here and there the lyrical themes are actually really cool at points, talking mostly about religious trauma, manipulative relationships and so on, but after the first two actually kinda intresting sounding songs (even though maybe a bit for the wrong reasons) the sound of this album just boils down to really generic pop punk-ish (emphasis on the pop) riffs and hand clap beats. So yeah, I don’t remember the last time I’ve felt this indecisive about a project, like I said the lyrical themes are actually really intresting, but the sound of this project just isn’t for me for the most part.

Light 4/10

Metallica – 72 Seasons

I mean sure, but do the songs REALLY have to be 6 minutes long when they are literally just the same unintresting riff repeating over and over again? Like the only thing saving songs like this (which unfortunately make up a decent chunk of this album) are the solos which are actually up to old Metallica standarts, but besides that the only songs that are actually intresting all the way through are the title track and the last two closing tracks and honestly even those aren’t THAT crazy. At least it’s not St. Anger all over again… This one just gets kinda boring and repetetive after a while.

Decent 5/10

boygenius – the record

The boy really is genius huh.

Decent 8/10

Ed Sheeran – – (Subtract)

The fact that I enjoy this about the same as the new Metallica and waay more than the new The National is something I think about daily, but yeah, this new Ed Sheeran honestly ain’t half bad – like the songwriting is really on point for the most part, the instrumentals sound clean and really natural and not just overblown, like is this even really an Ed Sheeran project? And sure, the songs still are really generic and kinda bleak but there is legitimate soul put behind them this time and even though I probably won’t be returning to this in the near future I still didn’t absolutely hate my listening experience.

Decent 5/10

Black Country, New Road – Live at Bush Hall

After loosing a key member with the band’s former lead singer Isaac Wood the band had to regain their footing and I can safely say that I believe that they achieved just that – this live album is full of new unheard songs that all sound absolutely amazing. The music is lively and colorful and all the new vocalists are a nice change of pace without the band loosing their identity. Songs like the in-your-face opener „Up Song“, the beautiful and energetic „Laughing Song“ and obviously the highly praised 9-minute long „Turbines/Pigs“ all prove that the band is still capable of creating insanely powerful and moving pieces of music. Overall just a really great project as is basically expected from the band at this point.

Strong 8/10

Foo Fighters – But Here We Are

…ouch

Strong 7/10