Softlightes - "Say No! To Being Cool. Say Yes! To Being Happy." (2007)

73%

Say No! To Being Cool. Say Yes! To Being Happy. is the debut album of Southern California-based quartet Softlightes. Barely 34 minutes long, Say No!... is soft, cute, and doesn't seem to take itself too seriously, a nice counter to the seriousness of some indie musicians nowadays. The album primarily features a folky indie-pop sound woven with electronic elements and lovely, sweet vocals (Ron Fountenberry). The sound on the album remains fairly consistent throughout, which, depending on your tastes may or may not appeal to you. (Personally, I liked it). All in all, it's a pleasant listen, though the sugary sound might not be for everyone.

tl;dr: Solid indie folk-pop, with electronic influences.
Best tracks: Heart Made of Sound, Town Named Blue, The Robots In My Bedroom Were Playing Arena Rock, The Ballad Of Theo & June

#1. The Ballad of Theo & June
#2. Heart Made of Sound
#3. Girlkillsbear
#4. The Robots in My Bedroom were Playing Arena Rock
#5. A Town Named Blue
#6. Leanor & Me
#7. Untitled Duet #3
#8. The Microwave Song
#9. Heart Made of Sound (Reprise)
#10. If the World had Cookies
#11. Black Skinheads in White Pants
DOWNLOAD FULL ALBUM

Fair to Midland - "Fables from a Mayfly: What I Tell You Three Times Is True" (2007)

90%

Fair to Midland's major-label debut is a masterpiece. This epic progressive rock quintet from Texas utilize soaring vocals and clever lyrics to wonderful effect, as is evident in their third studio album, Fables from a Mayfly: What I Tell You Three Times Is True. The roaring opener "Dance of the Manatee" provides a strong canvas for the rest of the album to explore, and songs like "A Wolf Descends Upon the Spanish Sahara" and "Walls of Jericho" do so with screaming glee. These musicians have clearly been doing this for a while, and while their earlier albums seemed a bit stylistically uncertain, this album asserts itself very confidently as an epic. While the titles of the tracks and the artwork of this album may at first make it seem a bit hard to take in, its coldly organic soundscapes and catchy (but not corny) choruses soon and envelop you and convert you to the Cult of Midland.

This album is flawlessly produced and mixed, leaving plenty of room for the subtleties of the music and unique song structure to shine. The lyrics are also quite interesting, with the most striking of the bunch being the words to the chorus of the album's closing piece, "Say When," which defiantly proclaim, "The way they left us all in the dark: The buried the sun, so I carried the torch." This album is truly a "you'd have to listen to it to understand" sort of album, and I urge you to do so.

However, I did not give this album over a 90% for a reason, a reason that can only become apparent after three or four spins of the album. When someone asks me to name the track I'm humming or drumming, and it's a track off this album, I hesitate. And then I ponder. Looking back on this album in retrospect, the tracks blend together in a large lump of chunky, flowing guitars and cheesy keyboards and the names of the songs dissolve into murky cesspools of doubt in my mind. Why is this? In my opinion, it's similarity between tracks. The tendency of this band to repeat their formula just a smidge too much on a single album is apparent now, but personally, I don't think it damages the album to too great a degree.

tl;dr: A memorable (but singular-minded) progressive rock classic. Fair to Midland at their best.
NOTE: The tracks after the backslashes are interludes.

Best tracks: All of them. Like I said, very similar-sounding stuff.

-Zhaboka

01. Dance of the Manatee
02. Kyla Cries Cologne / Pre-Versa
03. Vice/Versa
04. The Wife, the Kids, and the White Picket Fence
05. April Fools and Eggmen / Ciperion
06. A Seafarer's Knot
07. A Wolf Descends Upon the Spanish Sahara
08. Walls of Jericho
09. Tall Tales Taste Like Sour Grapes
10. Upgrade^Brigade / When the Bough Breaks
11. Say When / Ozymandius
DOWNLOAD FULL ALBUM

Via Coma - "Bridges" EP (2009)

87%

The Bridges EP by Via Coma is a delightfully quick little foray into the field of experimental rock and the studio debut of Lafayette, California-based Via Coma (meaning “by way of sleep” or “to travel through sleep”). The group delivers a textural, sensual sonic experience while still managing to avoid sounding too soft or unaggressive over the course of the EP’S five tracks. The solid opener “Turn” offers the most textural sounds on the album, while “Aquanota” is a slower, more contemplative follower that provides a perfect canvas for the chilling strains of “I, The Sovereign”. “Charlotte Parker” goes through several strange rhythmic permutations that may seem a bit distracting to the song, but ends on a more tired note, allowing for the calm intro to the brilliant “Architects”, arguably the album’s strongest song. “Architects” makes good use of falsetto and repetition, features powerful lyrics, and truly makes the EP complete.

While the songs of Bridges may seem to sound similar to each other at many points, each has its own enjoyable details and its own distinctive mood, separating this album from many of the single-dimensional albums that smother the industry at present day. One could also argue that the lyrical themes and the way in which they are presented are inexcusably pretentious, and I would have to agree, but to enjoy this album, you must embrace the pretension and simply listen.

tl;dr: A short but thoroughly passionate EP from a little-known experimental rock band that deserves to get signed.

Best Tracks: “Turn”, “I, The Sovereign”, and “Architects"

-Zhaboka

1. Turn

2. Aquanota

3. I, The Sovereign

4. Charlotte Parker

5. Architects

DOWNLOAD FULL ALBUM

Woodbums - "Keepin' it Street in the Woods" (2009)

91%

Keepin’ It Street in the Woods is the first album produced by the Woodbums, and what an album it is! It begins with what is easily the most ballad-like song in the United States-based rap collective’s catalog. “Song for the Ladies” is a tender ode to the opposite sex that never comes across as either demeaning or overly sappy. It gives then-rookie MC Ginga Snapz a chance to bust rhymes from the heart, and it constitutes a great opener for the album. The second track, “Check under the Hood,” cautions the listener to make sexual conquests with care, through a series of narratives relating to hook-ups gone awry. The attention to detail in the storytelling is vivid, but never slows down the development of the plot, if something developed in three minutes can be called that. “Ginga Bredd Juice” is a collection of old-school boasts that are just clever enough to make you smile; for example, Ju-C Juice uses the lines “[w]ack MC’s, I’d hate to be ya/ Cuz you bite people’s styles like a quesadilla/ I got street cred like Al Pacino/ And I drop twenty yards like Dan Marino.” The fourth track, “2 Young 2 Drink 2 Drunk 2 Fish,” is a solo track from Snapz, and it thoroughly merits its spot as the Woodbums’ most famous song. With lyrical content describing underage drinking on a raft, it is an original and catchy track. “G Funk (On the Strang)” is another track based on clever rhymes rather than narrative; both of these styles are strong points for the Woodbums, so this track is full of quotable gems like Bredd Loaf’s “I can rock well like my name was Norman/ With the funk on the Strang and I be global warmin’/ My thunder be stormin’, and my hordes be swarmin’/ And I got more wives than a polygamist Mormon.” The sixth track is called “Draggin’ Dragon” and consists of Loaf and Snapz trading couplets which “subtly” refer to their members. “Wave to the Weave” leaves the reader with a pensive outlook about women with hair extensions.

Every beat on the album has a slightly different feel, but all of them seem to mesh, and this is Bredd Loaf’s genius as a producer; he infuses every track he produces with his trademark sound. Loaf also manages to weave a hip-hop aesthetic into every one of his beats, whether it’s the Oriental pulse of “Draggin’ Dragon” or the blaring synths and bumping drum machines heard on “Check under the Hood” (I defy anyone not to start grinding with something upon hearing that beat). Another aspect that gives personality to the music is the blatant contrasts in the individual rappers’ styles: Loaf’s laid-back swagger, Ju-C’s often incendiary flow, and Snapz’s delivery, which perfectly personifies the album title. Snapz, this being his first album, did shake a few times, but his lyrics are so solid on this album (“The girlies are tryin’ to sit next to me/ Slippin’ some drink into my ecstasy”) that any faltering in terms of delivery is rendered a moot point. Keepin’ It Street... is a classic in Woodbums history and an excellent album by any standards. It is refreshing to hear a rap album more focused on cleverness and a release of energy than a message. Don’t get me wrong; having a message is important in the grand scheme of things, but it is also crucial to have a few albums from which the most important lesson the listener learns is to “check under the hood.”

The Woodbums deliver a fresh, fun album with Keepin' It Street in the Woods. One of my favorites.

Best tracks: “Check under the Hood,” “2 Young 2 Drink 2 Drunk 2 Fish”

#1. Songs for the Ladies
#2. Check under the Hood
#3. Ginga Bredd Juice
#4. 2 Young 2 Drink 2 Drunk 2 Fish
#5. G Funk (On the Strang)
#6. Draggin' Dragon
#7. Wave 2 the Weave
DOWNLOAD FULL ALBUM HERE

Mirrorthrone - "Carriers of Dust" (2006)

91%

Hailing from Switzerland, Mirrorthrone is a bedroom black metal project, regulated by its sole member, Vladimir Cochet. This alone may cause some to question Mirrorthrone’s relevance and quality, and rightly so; bedroom black metal is generally ill-conceived and hastily recorded music that is made by angsty teenagers who wish to replicate Burzum’s Filosofem as closely as possible, usually with embarrassingly poor results. Fortunately, Mirrorthrone’s Carriers of Dust is a complete departure from this norm.

The music contained on Carriers of Dust is well-produced and intricate; it is clear that Vladimir invested great amounts of time to see his vision carried out to a high standard. Whereas most bedroom black metal is characterized by its lo-fi production and minimalist songwriting, Carriers of Dust is pristinely produced, and the tracks (three-fourths of which are over nine minutes in length) feature incredibly diverse instrumentation and lengthy instrumental sections that feature flutes, strings, and organs, evidence of the classical influence on this album. Aside from these atypical elements, Vladimir incorporates traditional black metal instrumentation; chromatic riffs played on trebly tremolo-picked guitars and blastbeat inflicted drumming. Occasionally the riffing takes on a death metal sort of feel, but for the most part it remains within the realm of black metal.

Another aspect of this album that places Mirrorthrone head-and-shoulders above its peers are Vladimir’s vocals; he utilizes screaming, singing, and growling, all to wondrous effect, while his peers, who, for the most part, rely on Burzum-inspired shrieking.

Unfortunately, Carriers of Dust isn’t all perfect. Though it contains three absolutely mind-blowing songs, Carriers of Dust is let down by its closing track (it should be cut in half) and the fact that all of the instruments other than the guitar and the bass are programmed or synthesized; this gives the album a mechanical and inorganic feel, the opposite of what an atmospheric black metal artist should produce. Otherwise, it is essentially perfect.

tl;dr: Incredible symphonic black/death, marred by inorganic production and an overlong closer. Recommended to fans of Emperor.

Best Tracks: “A Scream to Express the Hate of a Race”, “De l’Échec et de son Essentialité”

~Turkeyballs

#1. A Scream to Express the Hate of a Race
#2. Mortphose
#3. De l'Échec et de son Essentiallité [Point I: Marginalité Démystifiée]
#4. Ils Brandiront Leurs Idoles
DOWNLOAD FULL ALBUM

Queensrÿche - "Queensrÿche" (1983)

85%

Boring. Inconsistent. Pretentious. All these negative adjectives and more have been used to describe Queensrÿche at some point in their long and prolific career. It is unfortunate for the listener that these adjectives are usually applied fittingly. However, none of the aforementioned adjectives can be applied to Queensrÿche’s self-titled debut. Instead, Queensrÿche is a down-to-earth, exciting, and fun ride through 80s heavy metal. The one negative aspect of the album is its unoriginality.

Queensrÿche's influence are easily recognized From Geoff Tate’s soaring vocals to Chris DeGarmo and Jack Wilton’s dual guitar solos, everything sounds like in imitation of The Number of the Beast/Piece of Mind-era Iron Maiden. Hell, even the lyrics are clearly influenced by the fantasy and science-fiction style of Bruce Dickinson. What elevates Queensrÿche above the herd, and, in this reviewer’s opinion, above Iron Maiden, is their incredible songwriting talent. To put it simply, Queensrÿche do Iron Maiden better than Iron Maiden does.

Every aspect of this album is dead on. The production is warm but a bit muddy, though this suits the album’s raw atmosphere. The vocals have a wonderful Dickinson-esque quality. The instrumentation, while not as intricate as it would be on later albums, is tight and well done, especially the guitars; some of the riffs on this album (especially on “Blinded”) are absolutely vicious, and the solos, while not incredibly technical, are incredibly catchy.

Though this is a great album, it is marred by its length and its lack of originality. One can imagine Queensrÿche getting together in a member’s basement and figuring out how they could rewrite The Number of the Beast. Oh well; that doesn’t stop Queensrÿche from being an absolutely essential EP.

tl;dr: Classic speedy heavy metal. Recommended to fans of Iron Maiden and people who can bear exceptionally cheesy lyrics.

Best Songs: “Queen of the Reich”, “Blinded”. It’s short, though; just download the whole EP.

~Turkeyballs

1. Queen of the Reich
2. Nightrider
3. Blinded
4. The Lady Wore Black
5. Prophecy (1988 Bonus)
DOWNLOAD FULL ALBUM

Sage Francis - "Personal Journals" (2002)

98%

Personal Journals was Sage Francis’ debut proper. As he had released several mix-tapes and debuts earlier in the 21^st century, Personal Journals represented a maturation of sorts for him, as most of the tracks contained were written with the intention of being compiled together. This gives Personal Journals an immediate advantage over Sage’s earlier material; whereas mixes like Sick of Waging War were annoyingly jarring and disorderly, Personal Journals benefits from its great flow, and its greater feeling of concentration. But the most noticeable difference between Personal Journals and Sage’s earlier work is the lyrical content. Whereas previous releases featured more conventional hip hop lyrics, the lyrics on Personal Journals, as the title might suggest, are personal and weighted, giving this album a feeling of intimacy that, once more Sage’s earlier work lacks.

Over eighteen tracks Personal Journals features over ten different producers, leading to an extremely diverse collection of beats. Everything from sorrowful guitar chords (on “Specialist”) to sombre string arrangements (on “Personal Journalist”) to Captain Beefheart samples (on “Runaways”) is utilized, making Personal Journals a constantly interesting listen. These beats also help to capture the atmosphere of the album. “Eviction Notice” would be nothing without its plodding, ominous percussion, and "Simon Says"-esque horn section, just as “Smokes & Mirrors” would be nothing without its light synths. Personal Journals also makes great use of hand drums, adding to the uniqueness of this wonderfully eclectic mix.

However, the highlight of the album is Sage himself. He has incredible flow; able to adapt quickly to tempo changes, slowing down and speeding up with ease, but also delivering catchy rhymes while keeping perfect time. But it is what Sage delivers with such great flow that makes Personal Journals so wonderful. Most of the songs on Personal Journals tell stories, often about a significant event or person in Sage’s life. Whether it be about his father’s struggles with alcoholism, his sister’s self-harm, or a sweatshirt he once wore “like a second a layer of skin”, Sage delivers emotional, intelligible, and thought-provoking raps with clear meanings and interesting analyses.

Overall, Personal Journals is a great listen for people who like hip hop, but are often turned off by its normally hedonistic and self-promoting lyrics. Conversely, many will hate it; they will say that Sage has pussified since his earlier work, and might call it a sell-out. I myself love this album: it is my second favourite album of all time.

tl;dr: Eclectic beats, emotional lyrics, great flow. Recommended to all who don't mind hip hop that doesn't sound "tough", and to those who are looking for something different.

Best Songs: “Climb Trees”, “Smoke & Mirrors”, “Specialist”, “Runaways”

~Turkeyballs

1. Crack Pipes

2. Different

3. Personal Journalist

4. Inherited Scars

5. Climb Trees

6. Broken Wings

7. The Strange Famous Mullet Remover

8. Smoke And Mirrors

9. Message Sent

10. Eviction Notice

11. Pitchers of Silence

12. Specialist

13. Hopeless

14. Kill Ya' Momz

15. Black Sweatshirt

16. Cup Of Tea

17. My Name Is Strange

18. Runaways

DOWNLOAD FULL ALBUM