Music Album Ratings

I'm a big fan of The Beatles when they stray from their early radio-friendly pop sound. Songs like "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?", "Helter Skelter", "Happiness is a Warm Gun", and my all-time Beatles favorite "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" are a far cry from their love song roots. And to that end, what could possibly be better than an entire album of atypical Beatles tunes?

Sgt. Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour both scratch the same itch for me. Coming not long after the group first dropped acid, its impact is immediate and flamboyant. The songs are grander, more psychedelic and wondrous, and the whole album just oozes personality.

I don't think it's an overstatement to call Sgt. Pepper the finest album The Beatles ever produced.

I have a friend from Oklahoma to thank for introducing me to Bones. Bones is one of the original underground cloud rappers and has only recently started his ascension to the mainstream. He's renowned for his superlative and continuous releases (some 5 albums a year, and each one a banger).

I've listened to this album countless times and I'm always impressed. His lyricism and flow are unmatched, and his production quality gets better with every release. Nowhere to go but up. SESH.

I was first exposed to Daft Punk, and by extension electronic music as a whole, through a car commercial when I was a kid. It was like the Lincoln MKX or something. But when I heard that commercial, it blew my little mind that music could sound that way. From that point forward, I wanted to know everything there was to know about this new thing, and I exhausted it as best I could.

Discovery remains an immaculate album, with a personal favorite track being "Veridis Quo". In this album, Daft Punk prove their unassailable title as the champions of French house.

Great album. Every hit is a zinger and even the fillers are fun, catchy, and memorable. Just to save on bandwidth I'm not going to put every song on this page like I did with other 5 stars, but know that I love every song on this album. My absolute favorite Hall & Oates song is featured on this, too -- "Out of Touch". Also a big shoutout to the Oates-led songs "Cold Dark and Yesterday" and "Possession Obsession", another two of my favorites.

Affectionately known as "The Silver Album", the duo's self-titled treatment is full of hits. Maybe not a lot of radio hits ("Sara Smile" is the group's first charting single), but great songs nonetheless. Oates also gets his time to shine with some leading titles, helping to balance things out.

It's pretty nuts to visit an album so early in their career that's so clearly a flashpoint for their later material in the 80s. So many authentic, soulful tracks I can't pick just one favorite.

I originally ranked this album at a 4 but a lot of repeated listens have made me adjust it to its rightful place up here at the top. I just can't seem to forget it.

It's Rumours. Come on.

Seriously though, I do agree that Rumours is one of the greatest albums of all time. Its craftsmanship is impeccable and its sound and themes are timeless. It's like the human condition pressed into vinyl.

It still impresses me that the group was actively disintegrating during the recording of it. Maybe all bands should implode if it means they'll make their own Rumours...

I like this album. It's heavy, it's loud, and it's kickass. Kurt's strained wailing paired with frantic, chugging drumwork make for a blood-pumping listen. Easily one of my favorite albums of all time, though it falls just short of being my favorite Nirvana album.

My personal favorite track is "Negative Creep". It may be a weighty crown to give, but I may even call it my favorite Nirvana song, period.

Like most people, I was first made familiar with Nirvana through "Smells Like Teen Spirit", and for the longest time that was the only song of theirs I knew. It was a resurgent interest in the 90s that drove me back to them, and I grew to love not only Nirvana, but the entire grunge genre (though some people get really up in arms about classifying Nirvana as grunge...).

I was surprised to find just how many of the songs on this album were familiar to me despite not knowing the artist or hearing them for some time. It was an interesting experience, one song would fade into the beginning of another and I'd already recognize it.

I find this album perfect. No joke. There's a reason I've included clips of almost every song on this album. There's just too many bangers. If I had to pick my favorite artist, Nirvana would be one of the first to come to mind (with Daryl Hall & John Oates not far behind).

Every kick, note, and scream is superb. Zero complaints.

Yeah, I gripe and I groan about being saturated with this album but at the end of the day I can't lie: I like this album a lot. I think Wish You Were Here edges it out because of its "new car smell" but I still really love this album. In a word, it's transcendent. The way everything flows into the next and in and out of focuses, it's just magnificent.

My personal favorite song on this record — hell, probably Pink Floyd song in general — is "The Great Gig In The Sky".

Great album. Great work, great vocals, great composition. It's tough to follow up something like The Dark Side Of The Moon, so I don't really fault Pink Floyd fans for ranking this one below the other. But I'm making this website some 50+ years since The Dark Side Of The Moon came out and I can tell you that I'm kind of sick and tired of hearing it. As much as I like it, I'm at my limit.

Now, Wish You Were Here — this is something fresh. Something different and something similar. Something old and something new. And I appreciate it that much more for it.

A seminal electronic work. There are several albums on this list that I can point to as the beginning of the next eras of my musical taste, and Worlds is one of them. On the electronic side of things, after I'd graduated from Discovery, I fell into dubstep. Porter Robinson was a dubstep artist at the time, and I'd heard work from his Spitfire EP. But it was his later work on Worlds that really made me take notice.

It was a completely different form of electronic music than I'd ever heard, and it was great. I would compare it now to album-oriented rock, and how different that was when it arrived on the scene. The album is a trip, and barring a few hiccups, flawless. Definitely one of my favorites.

I've seen Purity Ring called a lot of genres, chief among them witch house and dream pop. Whatever they are, they're the pioneers, and they're at the top of their game in Another Eternity. They've really struck a special balance between rock and electronic music with this record, and its songs continue to enchant and delight with every listen.

I was first made aware of them on a car ride to a Nero concert. My sister was playing "Flood On The Floor" on her car stereo and I was immediately taken by it. Haven't forgotten their name since.

The production on this album is eclectic, to say the least. It effortlessly blends elements from hip hop and electronic music while still maintaining a gentle rock edge. For these reasons it's graduated to a five star ranking. Plus, that Canadian accent is intoxicating.

My first time listening to "City", the fourth song off this album, I was enthralled. Utterly enchanted. I was operating on only a few hours of sleep so that might have influenced the dreamlike experience it was. But discovering that song opened up my eyes to Japanese music.

This entire album is smooth, nostalgic, and beautiful. The main descriptor for this kind of gentle Japanese AOR is "city pop", and now a lot of my personal library consists of it. I highly recommend listening to this album, especially if you're curious about foreign music.

A phenomenal funk album. I don't know a lick of Japanese, but luckily understanding language isn't a requirement to enjoy music. Tatsuro's emphatic performance is clear to any, and the basslines he churns out are impossible to resist. Definitely one of my favorite albums I encountered while diving into city pop.

Metal and jazz, theremins and saxophones, screams and ballads. Talk about a melting pot. Every track is phenomenally performed and their complexity is naked throughout: instruments are constantly vying for the lead, and their struggle breeds a thrilling listen.

Absolute favorite track is "Mr. Invisible". Might even be a top all-time.

A great album composed of sinister covers of then-contemporary hit songs like "Eleanor Rigby" and "You Keep Me Hangin' On". My late father was the one to introduce me to Vanilla Fudge, and I still remember listening to this album as a kid while driving around with him.

Vanilla Fudge's style of musical covers is so unique and sophisticated that I wish all covers would follow in their footsteps, and not just be mere imitations. Who would've thought that one of the most original-sounding bands has done nothing but covers?

Talk about a strong debut. Weezer knocked it so far out of the park on their first try that every album since fails to even compare. In that way, I suppose it's correct to say that Weezer's been on the decline since the beginning. Funny how language works.

The Blue Album contains all of Weezer's biggest hits. The only Weezer song I bump that's missing is "Pork And Beans" off their Red Album. But besides that, the gang is all here.

The album that earned the duo their (well deserved) exclamation point. I picked this album up after a sudden desire to get into Wham!. I already liked several of their biggest hits, and imagine my surprise when I learned they all came from a single album!

I really enjoy this album a lot. The singles on this are incredibly precise and catchy, and even the B-sides bump pretty hard. I was debating on giving it a 4, but the more I write about it the more I realize just how much I really like it.

Now that I think about it, there are quite a few 80s duos that I like: Wham!, Eurythmics, Tears For Fears, and of course Daryl Hall & John Oates (granted they're technically from the 70s), to name a few. I wonder what that says about me?

The Young Rascals and Vanilla Fudge are the biggest reasons that I love the rock organ and wish it would make a comeback. It's such a powerful and groovy instrument.

My dad listened to the Rascals relentlessly, so from a young age I was listening to them. I really enjoy their work, especially their self-titled debut. Now that I think about it, there are a lot of self-titled debut albums on this list. Weird.

Anyway, I've got kind of a soft spot for 60s rock and soul music because of my dad. The Temptations were another favorite of his, and their influence on blue-eyed soul groups like the Rascals is plain as day.

Grunge is a heavy genre, and Alice In Chains hits the unique limit of delving far into the reaches of metal with this record. Filled with violent riffs and pained screams, Dirt sits as a certified head-banger.

I like this album a great deal, but I have trouble putting it at five stars. For now it'll remain as a strong four, until the next listen. But I have faith the future will be kind to this album.

All city pop albums have this strong summer-ready component to them. They're all so comforting and nostalgic and would fit perfectly with a trip to the beach. Maybe that's what draws me to them so distinctly, and yacht rock and surf rock in tandem. I'm just a sucker for slap bass.

Compositions are sublime and the soul is unreal.

If I recall, there's a debate in Beatles circles about Revolver and Rubber Soul, specifically about which one is better. I'm on the side of Rubber Soul. Its tracks are far less dry than those on Revolver, and it's really as simple as that.

It's easy to get tired of Bones because of how frequently he drops new material, but thankfully FromBeyondTheGrave is exceptionally tight. No filler, just home runs. Clocking in at just under 25 minutes, it's also one of his shorter works.

I think Sempiternal is a pretty good album. It has some killer singles and some serviceable remainders. This is the first album I've heard that falls under the "post-hardcore" banner, and it's surprising how much I actually enjoyed it. I used to be really turned off by screaming in music but my horizons have widened.

The band's strongest tracks here include some electronic influence, so I would prefer if they went that direction a little more and less into the "concert chorus" direction. Still, solid album.

Much like their earlier record Abandoned Luncheonette held their sleeper hit "She's Gone", Bigger Than Both of Us has their breakout hit "Rich Girl". This album put the duo on the map, and can be looked upon as the genesis of their popular sound and songcraft.

It's not as popular as their later records like H2O and Private Eyes but I still really like bumping this record every now and again.

It's funny, sometimes when I'm listening to an album I'll look at its Wikipedia page to read the history. And most of the time when I find myself listening to an album I'm really enjoying there's a section about how the band was actively disintegrating while recording it. Or a marriage. Or an addiction went too far. Or all three.

Anyway my favorite from this album is "Cherry Waves". If there's one thing Deftones excels at, it's making you feel like you're floating on the water (in the case of "Cherry Waves", being sucked underneath). A very close second would be "Kimdracula". Extremely close.

In the year 2000, boy bands and Britney Spears were tearing up the charts. In a smaller corner of the music world, Deftones dropped this melodic nu metal ripper. I listened to this album upwards of six or seven times before settling on a 4.

Loads of great songs. Great guest features and killer guitarwork. Worth a listen, especially for a lonesome drive at night.

This remains the only musical I've ever seen where I love every song. Granted, the list of musicals I've seen is three. But it's an impressive feat nonetheless: not a bad song. Even the live performance itself is excellent. My only regret with Beetlejuice is that I didn't see it in person a second time.

I think the musical also has the unique distinction of being superior to the source material. Not too impressed by the movie, but the musical was superb.

There were a lot of electronic albums I heard during my middle and high school years that really shaped my musical tastes for the next half decade or more. Flume's self-titled debut is one of those albums.

I have no doubts that Flume had an effect on Porter Robinson's production of Worlds, what with its chopped vocals and thoughtful, expansive beats. Not to mention mixing samples and original compositions in equal measure.

Totally unexpected favorite of the year I think. I knew of singer/drummer Donovan's vocals from another project of his, Sianvar. I got a Spotify recommendation for his song "Substance Sequence" and loved it. Some time later I got "Rolling Out the Red Carpet" from this album. I never put two and two together that it was the same guy.

This is a great album. Mixes of post-hardcore, math rock, and progressive rock are hewn snugly with a wailing, emo evocation. Topics include murder, police brutality, suicide, and other common features.

"Human Target Practice" might be my favorite, but "Rolling Out the Red Carpet" is great too. Highly recommend listening to them in album order for full effect (latter, then former).

In a few words, this album is apocalyptic, funereal, and loud. "Earthmover" clocks in at 11 minutes and 28 seconds of runtime, the apex and the closer of the work, and my personal favorite song from it. I don't have a lot of words to explain my enjoyment of this album, but it's one of the few works I can really feel the depressing anger of loss from.

I remember listening to Home just before he blew up. I thought his work was fantastic. It's peerlessly chill, relaxing, and creative. It's thanks to "Resonance" that his reputation exploded so wildly one summer (and for good reason!).

After listening to Daft Punk, I was so intrigued by French house that I started going through all kinds of lists of artists. One that appeared consistently near the top was Justice. After hearing Cross, I can understand why. They're fun, they're funky, and they're fresh.

A great progressive rock album. It's trippy, it's wild, and it's otherworldly. It's been sampled numerous times and its transcendent influence is still felt in many corners of AOR and other soft or progressive genres. I'll admit that it's not for everyone, but I also feel like that's part of the Crimson King's charm.

One of my biggest issues with Madeon's previous album, Adventure, was that there were too many songs. Things felt unfocused and duplicated, and the album suffered because of it. Too many things trying to be themselves and failing spectacularly.

Madeon's thankfully realized his error and crafted a much tighter, more thoughtful experience in Good Faith. Each song has enough character to feel different while still contributing to the album's atmosphere.

Not to be overlooked, too, is Madeon's growth as an artist in Good Faith. He's clearly matured in both content and production, and it shows vibrantly throughout.

The King of Pop himself. I'm not sure if I like this album better than Thriller (probably not) but it's still a great bundle of hits. Groovy, soulful, and music that just makes you want to get up and dance.

Out of all of Nirvana's studio albums, I like In Utero the least. It's a title I'm reluctant to assign, but one of them has to bear it. I can't even really explain what it is about In Utero that puts it below Bleach and Nevermind — there's just some unspeakable quality to it that pushes me away.

Despite this, I still really enjoy many of this album's tracks. My personal pick for this one is "Tourette's". A very unpopular choice, I'm sure.

Man, talk about electronic albums that shaped my teenage years. The thumping drum and bass of Pendulum is a staple in the annals of my mind. They're loud, blood-pumping, and suitable for a run in Doom. My favorite off this album, and incidentally the first Pendulum song I ever heard, is "Blood Sugar".

The first half of this album is banger after banger. After that it peters out, but the momentum from the beginning is more than enough to carry it through. Killer singles and chugging drumwork. Check it out.

Melodic, touching, and a stark detour from their typical works, By The Way is a real stand-out Chili Peppers album. Guitarist Frusciante's enthusiasm and creativity is in full force and makes for a great listen.

My personal favorite track on this album is tied between "Dosed" and "Minor Thing".

A very heavy, very punk metal album. But still a wide-appealing alternative rock work, too. Toxicity is full of bangers and has this magnetic lyrical quality that really sucks you in. Highly recommend it.

My favorite from Toxicity is "Aerials".

I'm glad I discovered Tame Impala. I love psychedelic rock, so finding a modern band carrying that torch is just sublime. And especially one doing it so well!

Although I suppose it's a bit of a misnomer to call Tame Impala a band because every song is actually written and recorded by one guy, Kevin Parker. There's only other people involved when performing live (because of course). Talk about a work ethic.

This is a strong 3, maybe even a 4 someday. Great themes, fine compositions, and a depressing, deflating package to wrap them all in a bow.

It took me two or three listens to really start to like this album. Before that, I absolutely hated it. I'm not even sure what it was about it that made me dislike it so much. But now I'm at a stage where I can appreciate their blues sound and catchy compositions.

In another listen or two this might even graduate to a four or five star rank, who knows.

I enjoy "Covet" from this album better than any other song on it. The rest are kind of flat in comparison, but I really do think "Covet" is one of my favorites.

Definitely a good song for riding in a car. Bonus points if it's night.

I like a lot of the songs on this album but the fact it was recorded in a single day really shows through. I often can't remember the titles of some songs because they're all so similar, and when some songs play I mistake them for others. It's not a huge problem since most of the songs are nice, but it's still a disorienting experience.

And as an aside, I want to say I hate the 2009 stereo remaster. I hate having the vocals and instruments in different ears. As another aside, "Boys" probably takes the cake as worst Ringo song. As far as covers go, "Act Naturally" is his best.

This album is almost a 4. Maybe in a few more listens I'll bump it up.

Revolver is not a bad album. In fact, to many it's the favored Beatles album. But to me it's just the middle child. I like it less than Rubber Soul or White Album, but I like it better than Let It Be. And that's really all my opinion is of this album.

Good album. Suicide Season is far more scream-y than the production on Sempiternal, so if you're not into screaming vocals then this won't resonate at all. I have an uncomplicated opinion about this album: I think it's a fun listen.

Full title: There Is A Hell Believe Me I've Seen It. There Is A Heaven Let's Keep It A Secret.

This is an excellent album. I'm not sure if I like it better than Suicide Season, I think I need a few dozen more listens to really determine it. What I can say for sure is that "Alligator Blood" is far and away the best song on this album.

Arguably the greatest torchbearers of blue-eyed soul, Hall & Oates bang out nothing but hits. As their second album, the group were still finding their groove in songwriting to really fill stadiums, but its roots are already evident throughout Abandoned Luncheonette.

Ronnie James Dio's vocals are so iconic and powerful that they carry every band he's in, quite frankly (sorry Blackmore). Even the album cover for this is kickass. That's how you know you're in for a great heavy metal album.

Some truly incredible funk came out of the 70s. The title track, "Maggot Brain", is a 10 minute journey into another dimension. If you can spare the time, give it a go.

Like all progressive albums, Affinity is a long, meandering, meditative work. I listened to this album about five or six times to try and get a read on things and I'm still not entirely sure where I land on it. I really enjoy Haken's work on display here, but I do find the second half to be kind of a slog to get through.

I'm on the fence, but not by much. And I mean that in a good way.

Floaty, dreamy, and easy listening. An experimental synthpop album. Reminds me of Flume and Purity Ring, but without the drums. Maybe a more accurate comparison is to Susanne Sundfør? Iamamiwhoami and Susanne are both Scandinavian, to boot (Swedish and Norwegian respectively).

Anyway, check this album out.

I like Hot Fuss enough. It's got some indelible shiners for sure, and it's got some forgettable pop tunes. It has it all. For better or worse.

Hamilton had a fantastic first half. Strong performances, great songs with only a few hiccups, and some great immersion. As a history buff I was already drawn to it, but an array of theater kids turned me away from ever getting into musicals. Later in my adulthood I finally gave it a shot and found it to be enjoyable. The first half, anyway.

When Porter Robinson and Madeon announced their joint Shelter tour back in 2016, I was mainly going to see and hear Porter's music. But in the run-up to the concert, I decided to give Madeon a fair shake since he was going to be half of the show, after all. And where Worlds introduced me to vibrant and thoughtful electronic music, Adventure showed me a wall of sound and summer-ready hits. Between the two, I still prefer Worlds.

This is a campy, corny album. I think it's a fun change of pace from the typical heavy themes present in metalcore. Sometimes you just want to hear a Michael Jackson "Thriller" dedication, you know?

I think "Slaughterhouse" is the best from this album. Musically it's the most traditional and lyrically it's a little punk.

I was hovering on a 2 for this originally, but I think I like the songs that I like on this enough to bring it up to a 3. My favorite on this is "The Ghost Of You" followed by "Cemetery Drive". I like the closer as well, but I haven't featured it here.

Neat album. It's got a story that runs the whole way through and it's never really a chore to get through. I recommend it.

As far as pop punk is concerned, I think it's unanimous that Riot! is one of the best. It's a juvenile punk rock album with snappy productions and sensibly named tracks. I'm referring to similar bands like Panic! At the Disco, Fall Out Boy, and Bring Me the Horizon that feel compelled to write overly purple titles for their songs.

To get back on topic, I recommend Riot! for its cross-genre appeal and iconic mid-2000s punk sound. It won't amaze you, but it will entertain.

My first run-in with Phantogram was in college. I had recently downloaded Spotify to fill the time as I commuted and waited between classes, and one day their track "Black Out Days" from this album came on. I found it catchy, and years later I was recommended a second song from this: "Howling At The Moon". After that I decided I'd have to check out the whole album.

I wouldn't call this album disappointing, just middling. Sure, Voices has some great tracks, but it's also go some really forgettable pop-filler garbage.

I'm surprised it's one of the least streamed songs on Spotify for this album, but "She Sings In The Morning" is probably my favorite. The lead track, "Chemical Kids And Mechanical Brides" is also an excellent one. There's plenty of great early emo work on this album but I personally prefer some of Pierce The Veil's later tracks from Collide With The Sky.

This is still perfectly listenable and an album I'd recommend.

The songs I like on this album are songs I really, really like. I think about them a lot. Too bad there are just too many other songs on this that aren't nearly as good. Makes listening to it a very pick and choose kind of adventure. Not worth going through the whole spec.

Anyway, I like "Gouge Away" and "Debaser" just fine too but not enough to include them for listening. Of the ones I've included, I think "Monkey Gone to Heaven" might be my favorite. Or "Hey". It depends on the day.

Pond is an interesting band. I still remember my surprise when learning that Pond is the live performance arm of Tame Impala, and Kevin Parker is actually a former member of Pond itself. Knowing this, the two bands' similarities make sense, same with Melody's Echo Chamber (Parker's ex-girlfriend fronts it). He really gets around, huh?

Anyway, The Weather is a pretty neat psychedelic album. Perhaps due to Parker's influence, but Australia has really become a Mecca of psychedelic rock's modern rebirth.

Not a bad psychedelic experiment by Vinny and co. Drawing clear inspiration from Pond, Tame Impala, and perhaps even King Gizzard, Another Light delves into dreamy guitarwork and vocal effects.

My journey into 1970s & 1980s Japanese music brought me from disco and funk to soul and pop, and then all the way to fusion jazz. It was a tremendous adventure, and one of the greatest endpoints of my travels was this album. Fukui's interpretations are as smooth as they are masterful. Truly a great work.

After his collaboration tour with Madeon, Porter Robinson delved into a 1990s-2000s techno persona known as Virtual Self. Inspired by media like Serial Experiments Lain and Dance Dance Revolution, Porter's side project was a welcome follow-up to Worlds. Not to be confused for a sequel to Worlds, however, the Virtual Self EP stands alone as a beautiful window into the premodern nascent internet age.

Full of machine gun snares and bulging synths, the Virtual Self EP delivers a modern take on a cobwebbed genre.

Dreadful. Forgettable, whiny, and boring. Probably the weakest Beatles album. Will probably get knocked down to a 1 after I stop enjoying their covers of "Roll Over Beethoven" and "Please Mister Postman".

This is early Bones, so a lot of the work on PaidProgramming is understandably amateurish. The tracklist, for example, is sheer bloat: a whopping 27 tracks for a 60 minute album. This is typical for early Bones, but that doesn't excuse how same-y a lot of these songs are. After the first six or seven tracks, you can safely quit listening. You've already heard all of his tricks.

It was a long wait between Daft Punk's last studio work and RAM, and the world was antsy. They delivered, though it fell short of the hype and hopes of their fans. It was still a great album, and granted, who could've met such expectations?

What Daft Punk released in Random Access Memories amazed me, taking their robot-human choruses and harmonies from Discovery into a full-blown supergroup treatment. It's a great album, and I know it's a great album, but I can't help but still dislike it. I think it's because I continue to have feelings of disappointment from the release not being Discovery 2.0.

There are some really underrated songs ("It's A Laugh", "Melody For A Memory", "Serious Music") and some really interesting guest appearances (George Harrison, Robert Fripp, Todd Rundgren) on this album. Unfortunately, they're not enough to elevate things above an average package.

The duo are still finding this groove with this record, but their time in the sun isn't far off.

I understand the significance of this album to the Hall & Oates canon. I know this was their first breakthrough record, and the source of their success. But I just plain don't see it. I enjoy the singles that became hits, for sure, but the rest? Forgettable.

It's got a couple shiners but the rest are muddy and uninteresting. I prefer the wall of sound employed in their later albums. Not a bad early set though.

I first heard the title single from this album on a Spotify Weekly playlist a long time ago. I thought it was pretty good and decided later to check out the whole piece. It's pretty fresh and creative, and no song overstays its welcome.

Overall a short listen considering the small runtime per song. Check it out if you've got thirty minutes to kill.

This album saw a resurgence in popularity more than a decade after its release due to TikTok. Beyond those hits though, I was curious if the rest of the album held up (not to say I found the singles featured on TikTok good...). I feel the second half of the album far more enjoyable than the first, perhaps because of the less indie direction it heads over its runtime.

Another interesting concept album. I like it better than Welcome Reality, their first record (though not by much). Thankfully Nero grew out of some bad habits, but it's not enough to really pull them out of the dregs of mediocrity.

The first concert I ever went to was in 2015 for Nero's Between II Worlds tour, promoting their second album. Welcome Reality is their first studio album, and like its brother, is a concept dubstep album. In a time of Skrillex of and other errant dubstep personalities, Nero jetted on the scene with their atmospheric but noisy tracks, all but one featuring the husky-voiced Alana Watson.

Their tour featured many of their Welcome Reality hits, but even at the time, I was never that excited for Nero. I thought their music was alright and it was really just a desire to see a live show that drove me to buy tickets.

Nero's biggest downfall is that the remixes of their songs are always better than whatever they concoct vanilla. I mean, a Skrillex remix of "Promises" won a Grammy, for Christ's sake. Talk about being upstaged.

The long-awaited studio album release from Porter Robinson has finally landed. And it's super experimental. Super ambient. I think it's great that Porter is making the music he wants to make, but it's just not my cup of tea. The singles off this piece are pretty great, though.

This is the weakest of Purity Ring's albums. I find Another Eternity better by every metric. Still, this album's unique take on synthpop makes it a compelling listen, especially with songs like "Obedear" and "Lofticries" filling the ranks.

Beyond my personal tastes, the impact of this album is also obvious but invisible. Purity Ring's combination of soft vocals and electronic accompaniment here are a real peek into the future that would become artists like Grimes, CHVRCHES, and even Billie Eilish.

Not a big fan of the indie sound, but Ricky Montgomery pulls it off. Very easy to have lines get stuck in your brain -- I can clearly see why his songs blew up on social media.

However, I prefer the upbeat rock sound he goes for on the two songs I've selected. The rest are fairly mellow bedroom jams, so I don't dig them as hard. Still, nice album and big respect for the self production.

Saint Pepsi was a pioneer in the rise of future funk and vaporwave, which are niche subgenres of electronic music that involve chopping, screwing, slowing down, pitch shifting, and otherwise manipulating 80s music. This may sound similar to the sampling performed in other genres by other artists, and that's because it is — except vaporwave/future funk music is by and large devoid of the creativity found in genres like French house or wonky.

When the barrier of entry for your hot new genre is to speed up Sister Sledge and graft a Fruity Loops kick pattern, it loses a lot of its "new car" smell. What you're left with is something that steps on the toes of the original samples without adding or recontextualizing the sample at all. It's a complete waste of time, honestly.

My criticisms, of course, are directed at the vaporwave/future funk scene in general, and not specifically Saint Pepsi. Saint Pepsi's creativity and playfulness with the new genre in Hit Vibes set new boundaries for the mid-2010s underground electronic sound. My point of contention is with the flurry of garbage producers he ushered in like a lighthouse, which proceeded to destroy what little credibility and uniqueness the fledgling genres had.

"Bartholomew" was featured in a lot of stuff back in 2012 and 2013. I remember first hearing it for a History Channel Hatfields & McCoys miniseries promo. The group's modern folk-rock sound is fresh yet antique, and like many of the songs on this album, good.

This is a great jazz album. I recall working over the summer at my college as the sole webmaster and putting this on. It's nice to just kind of zone out and have something calm in the background. Being featured in JJBA doesn't hurt, either.

Samey, dreadful, whiny, garbage. Even the hits on this aren't that great. I only really like "Dysentery Gary". All the songs unironically sound the same. Who likes this band?!

I tried to give this band a second chance since my first run-in with them was so terrible. Not worth it. Again with the vapid, whiny, trash. I have "Happy Holidays, You Bastard" on here because it genuinely made me laugh the first time I heard it, it's so absurd. And somehow "Stay Together For The Kids" is an honest-to-god great song (how on earth did a band like this make it?). Doesn't make much of a difference though, because the album as a whole still sucks.

When I was younger and still exploring electronic music, I really got into dubstep. Feed Me wasn't an especially prominent or incredible producer at the time, but I liked him all the same. Unfortunately I don't hold the same opinion of him anymore. Now I just find his works to be especially headache-inducing, which is an achievement because other dubstep artists of the era don't give me nearly as bad a reaction.

Beyond the migraines, I also just find his works to be... flat. Which probably explains his lack of popularity to begin with.

I'm sure this ranking surprises some. It even surprises me. I've really tried to like this album but I just cannot get into it. It simply does not click for me. I don't feel like anything fits together, and I don't even particularly like any of the songs. I feel like the sampling is lackluster and the songs themselves are, simply put, dull.

"Clint Eastwood" is the obvious standout track from this album, but I find myself getting tired of it very quickly between replays. Not a good sign.

I was in my college's Barnes & Noble when I heard "Hoodie" playing over the loudspeaker. Its chorus caught my attention immediately, mostly the subtle counterplay between the bass and vocals. I later checked out the full album and was actually disappointed to find how pop it turned out to be.

Let it be known: Hey Violet can write pop hooks ("Break My Heart" is proof enough), but that's about it. Some catchy choruses, but the album itself is such a shallow exploration that I found myself wanting to skip the songs constantly.

Generally, From the Outside is a collection of songs about infidelity. Twelve whole songs' worth, in fact. And to clarify, the narrator is the cheater in all of them. You can imagine how exhausting it is to listen to. Especially when they confusingly play the victim in every song.

This album is designed to be one continuous song -- even from when the album repeats. It's a creative and effective technique, but I personally found it to be irritating and boring. Since this album is really one giant song, the individual pieces blend together into a mish-mash that I simply can't stand. Not a fan, though I do like King Gizzard and the genre-at-large.

It's a musical with only a handful of good songs ("Candy Store", "Freeze Your Brain", "Blue", "Dead Girl Walking"). The rest of the album is so painfully forgettable and, frankly, draining. Even the visual performance itself is lacking, if you've ever seen the play.

It's awful, I hate it. This is effectively a 0 star album. I don't like any song on here.

I know Sleeping With Sirens to be a post-hardcore kind of rock band, but this album is a lot of sugar pop punk (hard emphasis on "pop"). Not really my style. I gave this a few listens and it's got some serviceable tunes, but the rest are department store commercial dredge.

These guys have better records. My advice is to check out any of others instead.

Pretty dreadful. Material is unfocused and dry, the songs themselves just boring. I think this is the first Weezer album where a considerable number of songs were led or composed by bandmates other than Cuomo, and it shows. Too many chefs in the kitchen, as it were. The only stand out track is "Pork And Beans".

Bit too boring and whiny for my tastes. I really like rock and Jack White, but this album is not my style. I gave this album almost a dozen listens and tried really hard to find something I liked about it. I couldn't.

Not sure why I appear to hate Jack White so much. I remember liking his music before. Maybe I haven't found the era I enjoyed yet? I like his work with the Raconteurs and Dead Weather, so why not here? Maybe I just don't like when Jack has too much control over the production.