Music reviews

Live Through This - Hole

Rating: 9/10

This was great! Wish I listened sooner. I loved the sound this album has. It's hard to choose a favourite, but it's probably Violet, Softer, Softest or Rock Star.

Track ratings:

  • Violet: 9/10
  • Miss World: 8/10
  • Plump: 8/10
  • Asking For It: 8/10
  • Jennifer's Body: 9/10
  • Doll Parts: 9/10
  • Credit In The Straight World: 8/10
  • Softer, Softest: 9/10
  • She Walks On Me: 9/10
  • I Think That I Would Die: 8/10
  • Gutless: 9/10
  • Rock Star: 9/10

Slipknot (self titled)

Rating: 8/10

I will be honest: I'm not a fan of metal. I've always found it to be a difficult and complicated genre and most songs by popular metal bands have sounded like nothing more than a cacophony of unorganised instruments to me. I could just never get into metal. But despite this, I tried listening to Slipknot's self-titled after hearing Wait and Bleed and thinking it was actually a good song. And damn, a metal album I actually like!

The album's no masterpiece, but it's a good listen. Some songs were actually great, like Wait and Bleed and Spit It Out. I'm currently in shock about actually liking it. I may have found a metal band I actually like.

Track ratings:

  • 742617000027: 5/10
  • (sic): 7/10
  • Eyeless: 8/10
  • Wait and Bleed: 9/10
  • Surfacing: 8/10
  • Spit It Out: 9/10
  • Tattered & Torn: 7/10
  • Me Inside: 8/10
  • Liberate: 8/10
  • Prosthetics: 8/10
  • No Life: 8/10
  • Diluted: 8/10
  • Only One: 8/10
  • Scissors: 7/10
  • Eeyore: 7/10

With Teeth - Nine Inch Nails

Rating: 7.5/10

A solid album, with just a few skips.

Track ratings:

  • All The Love In The World: 7/10
  • You Know What You Are?: 8/10
  • The Collector: 7/10
  • The Hand That Feeds: 9/10
  • Love Is Not Enough: 7/10
  • Every Day Is Exactly The Same: 9/10
  • With Teeth: 8/10
  • Only: 8/10
  • Getting Smaller: 9/10
  • Sunspots: 7/10
  • The Line Begins To Blur: 7/10
  • Beside You In Time: 6/10
  • Right Where It Belongs: 8/10

Nothing Feels Good - The Promise Ring

Rating: 8/10

Dang, I actually enjoyed this a lot! I loved the instrumentation. I do think that the first half is a bit better though.

Track ratings:

  • Is This Thing On: 8/10
  • Perfect Lines: 7/10
  • Red & Blue Jeans: 9/10
  • Why Did Ever We Meet: 8/10
  • Make Me A Chevy: 8/10
  • How Nothing Feels: 3/10
  • A Broken Tenor: 7/10
  • Raspberry Rush: 7.5/10
  • Nothing Feels Good: 8/10
  • Pink Chimneys: 7.5/10
  • B Is For Bethlehem: 8/10
  • Forget Me: 8/10

Collide With The Sky - Pierce The Veil

Rating: 2.7/10

I'm not the type of person who hates on whatever teenage girls like (after all MCR are my favourite band) but PTV were and still are popular? How? Don't get me wrong, the instrumentation on Collide With The Sky is good but Vic Fuentes's singing is annoying. I'm fine with whiny voices at times, I like Taking Back Sunday, but Fuentes sounds like a young child trying to sing. His screams are especially awful. This album could have been decent, but was ruined by the vocals.

Track ratings:

  • May These Noises Startle You In Your Sleep Tonight: 3/10
  • Hell Above: 3/10
  • A Match Into Water: 4/10
  • King For A Day: 3/10
  • Bulls In The Bronx: 4/10
  • Props & Mayhem: 3/10
  • Tangled In The Great Escape: 2/10
  • I'm Low On Gas And You Need A Jacket: 2/10
  • The First Punch: 2/10
  • One Hundred Sleepless Nights: 2/10
  • Stained Glass Eyes And Colorful Tears: 3/10
  • Hold On Till May: 2.5/10

Diary - Sunny Day Real Estate

Rating: 6.8/10

I've put off listening to Sunny Day because of how irritating 90's emo fans are, but now that I've heard Diary I can say that it's alright. Seven was the best song for sure. My main problem is that it feels like it drags on and the vocals are just okay.

Track ratings:

  • Seven: 9/10
  • In Circles: 8/10
  • Song About An Angel: 6.5/10
  • Round: 7/10
  • 47: 7/10
  • The Blankets Were The Stairs: 6/10
  • Pheurton Skeurto: 5.5/10
  • Shadows: 6.5/10
  • 48: 7/10
  • Grendel: 7/10
  • Sometimes: 6/10
  • 8: 7/10
  • 9: 6/10

Dear You - Jawbreaker

Rating: 7/10

This was good, better than I thought it would be. The opening riff for Save Your Generation sounds so awesome and Fireman was really good, the riffs were the best part of the album. My biggest complaint is the vocals, they were lacking.

Track ratings:

  • Save Your Generation: 8/10
  • I Love You So Much It's Killing Us Both: 7/10
  • Fireman: 8/10
  • Accident Prone: 7/10
  • Chemistry: 7/10
  • Oyster: 6/10
  • Million: 7/10
  • Lurker II: Dark Son Of Night: 7/10
  • Jet Black: 7/10
  • Bad Scene, Everyone's Fault: 6.5/10
  • Sluttering (May 4th): 7/10
  • Basilica: 7/10
  • Unlisted Track: 6/10

Tell All Your Friends - Taking Back Sunday

Rating: 8/10

This was actually a pretty good album! It was consistent with quality and had some awesome songs. My only complaint is that the lyrics are incredibly over-the-top, but that doesn't bother me too much.

Track ratings:

  • You Know How I Do: 7/10
  • Bike Scene: 7/10
  • Cute Without The 'E' (Cut From The Team): 9/10
  • There's No 'I' In Team: 8/10
  • Great Romances Of The 20th Century: 6/10
  • Ghost Man On Third: 7/10
  • Timberwolves At New Jersey: 9/10
  • The Blue Channel: 8/10
  • You're So Last Summer: 8/10
  • Head Club: 7/10

In Love And Death - The Used

Rating: 6.8/10

I decided to check out another The Used album and this one was a bit better than the last, though like their self-titled album the singles are the best part. The best track was definitely I Caught Fire, that song is awesome. The first half was also better than the last, it went a bit downhill.

I'm also not a fan of the Under Pressure cover even though I love MCR, it just isn't that great.

I'll be trying some more albums by them, but I'm still a bit on the edge with The Used.

Track ratings:

  • Take It Away: 7/10
  • I Caught Fire: 9/10
  • Let It Bleed: 7/10
  • All That I've Got: 8/10
  • Cut Up Angels: 7/10
  • Listening: 8/10
  • Yesterday's Feelings: 5/10
  • Light With a Sharpened Edge: 6/10
  • Sound Effects and Overdramatics: 8/10
  • Hard to Say: 6/10
  • Lunacy Fringe: 5/10
  • I'm a Fake: 7/10
  • Under Pressure: 6/10

So Much (For) Stardust - Fall Out Boy

Rating: 3.5/10

I remember that when I first listened to this I was really disappointed. I revisited it to see if it was any better than I remembered and if I had unrealistic expectations, but yeah, it's not good.

It opens with Love From The Other Side, which is really good, but nothing else on the album has that much guitar or is that good.

After the opening it just goes downhill. I can't stand Heaven, Iowa and those goddamn spoken word interlude tracks are so fucking annoying. It completely throws the album off and it's incredibly cringy and try-hard-edgy, which brings me onto my next complaint.

The lyrics are crap. Fall Out Boy have always had corny lyrics, but it felt charming and there was something to it. So Much (For) Stardust's lyrics are not charming and instead sound like something a 13 year old who just discovered emo music would write. Wentz can do so much better, the lyrics sound like they're writing a parody of old FOB songs.

Track ratings:

  • Love From The Other Side: 8/10
  • Heartbreak Feels So Good: 5/10
  • Hold Me Like A Grudge: 6/10
  • Fake Out: 6/10
  • Heaven, Iowa: 3/10
  • So Good Right Now: 3/10
  • The Pink Seashell: 1/10
  • I Am My Own Muse: 6/10
  • Flu Game: 5/10
  • Baby Annihilation: 1/10
  • The Kintsugi Kid (Ten Years): 4/10
  • What A Time To Be Alive: 3/10
  • So Much (For) Stardust: 4.5/10

The Used (self-titled)

Rating: 6.5/10

This was the first time I listened to a full album by The Used (I have heard multiple of their singles though). In all honesty, I mainly listened to it because I'm a My Chem fanboy (MCR and The Used are friends), so maybe I went into this with too high expectations because I wasn't that impressed.

It was just okay. I of course loved The Taste of Ink and Buried Myself Alive, but some other songs felt like they were just there. It seems like the album is a case of the singles being the most standout part.

Maybe I need to re-listen to it, because sometimes my favourite albums are the ones I wasn't too much of a fan of at first, but at the moment I'm not a fan.

Track ratings:

  • Maybe Memories: 6/10
  • The Taste of Ink: 8/10
  • Bulimic: 7/10
  • Say Days Ago: 6/10
  • Poetic Tradegy: 6/10
  • Buried Myself Alive: 9/10
  • A Box Full of Sharp Objects: 7/10
  • Blue and Yellow: 6/10
  • Greener with the Scenery: 7/10
  • Noises and Kisses: 6/10
  • On My Own: 5/10
  • Pieces Mended: 6/10

The Black Parade - My Chemical Romance

Rating: 8.5/10

Oh god I love MCR. TBP has always been my least favourite album by them, but it's still amazing. Best track for me is Dead! and I Don't Love You is the weakest, it's kind of boring to me.

Track ratings:

  • The End: 8/10
  • Dead!: 9.5/10
  • This Is How I Disappear: 8/10
  • The Sharpest Lives: 8/10
  • Welcome to the Black Parade: 9/10
  • I Don't Love You: 6/10
  • House Of Wolves: 8/10
  • Cancer: 8/10
  • Mama: 9/10
  • Sleep: 9/10
  • Teenagers: 7/10
  • Disenchanted: 8/10
  • Famous Last Words: 9/10
  • Blood: 7/10