10. Rostam - "Half-Light" - So I'm going to sum this one up in one sentence. What the hell took so long, and what have you been doing this whole time? Half of the singles that came out of this album have been out for a few years now. But that's not even the worst part. Rostam kept us waiting all this time for quite frankly a series of sloppy tracks that sounded like rejected Vampire Weekend cuts. There are some pleasant instrumentals here and there, and Rostam certainly has some tricks up his sleeve as far as the production goes. Also, some of the very biographical themes of the lyrics were really nice. But that's just about where my compliments have to stop. For an album that's been in the works for years and is well over an hour, it's 90% filler, and I really can't see myself ever listening to it again.
09 Cloud Nothings - "Life Without Sound" - And the downward spiral for this band continues to get more and more out of control with each passing day. A few years ago, I thought I had found my new favorite current artist when I stumbled upon Cloud Nothings and their "Attack on Memory" album. They had a slick, heavy Post-Hardcore sound and they just seemed so focused. Their output since then has been the exact opposite. "Life Without Sound" shows that Cloud Nothings are far from the focused, Post-Hardcore band they once sounded like. Here, they juggle between Indie Rock, Noise Rock, watered down Punk Rock and more, with none of it coming off good. Why Cloud Nothings continue to switch around their sound is beyond me, but it's getting really hard to be a fan of theirs.
08. Day Wave - "The Days We Had" - Ok, OK, so this album wasn't necessarily a TERRIBLE album. But I just expected so much more from this album. When I first heard Day Wave's first few EP's, there honestly wasn't a bad song around, and I really thought this electronic project was going to be my next obsession when it came to electronic music. This album to me just seemed so damn safe though. Sure, tracks like "Something Here" are actually incredible modern Electronic tunes. But almost none of this album held a candle to some of the project's early singles and EP, and so much of the album just had no lasting power. I still think Day Wave could knock it out of the park one day, but until then, I'm on the fence.
07. The Shins - "Heartworms" - Oh James Mercer, what the hell happened. The Shins at one point in my life meant so much to me, with albums like "Oh Inverted World" and "Chutes Too Narrow' being absolute classics. And with the release of 2012's "Port Of Morrow", I felt like The Shins with their new found Space Rock appreciation were ready to take on new life. But "Heartworms" is one of the most bizarre Shins albums I've ever heard. I still think "Name For You" is one of the best Indie tunes of the year. But the rest of this album sounds like James splattered about 6 cans of paint on his wall and decided to record what he saw. This album is an absolute mess, sounding like The Shins trying desperately to be Psychedelic or Experimental. It's sort of like just how Of Montreal came off on their "Aureate Gloom" album. This is an absolute mess of an album, and I'm telling you I'm really not too excited to see where James Mercer takes the band next.
06. Timber Timbre - “Sincerely, Future Pollution” - Oh boy, this was a more than just a small disappointment. Timber Timbre in the last few years has always impressed me with their very gloomy, almost Gothic folk with elements of Noire and so much more. Not to mention, Timber Timbre came off as the most tortured folk band around, which was straight up cool. So of course, hearing they had an album coming out this year got me all pumped up. What we got though, is the farthest thing from a Timber Timbre album. The once moody, gloomy mood is almost completely switched out for some woozy synths and some hit and miss atmospheres. I think that eventually, Timber Timbre could really do something cool with a more electronic sound, but this is the farthest thing from it. Also, why in the world are some tracks here sounding like honest to God ZZ Top covers?
05. Japandroids - “Near To The Wild Heart of Life” - This album is really freakin’ bizarre, to be honest. Like, completely out there. Japandroids in the past few years has made names for themselves as being one of the more exciting Punk bands on the market today. They were writing these incredibly anthemic, youthful, and truly exciting tunes, and stringing together into unforgettable albums like “Celebration Rock” and “Post Nothing”. Now, I understand that bands change over time, it’s just a fact of life. But hearing this new album from Japandroids was baffling. They’ve traded in their incredibly wild and noisy punk jams for upbeat and much more mature Americana. Now, hearing the title track to this album, I thought Japandroids could make it work. But newsflash, they didn’t. This album sounds absolutely exhausted a mere two tracks in. The songwriting is still mighty passionate and commendable. But while Japandroids have only been gone a few years, they sound absolutely ancient sadly. The excitement is gone, the electricity is gone, and the rest of this album just crumbles quickly.
04. Ride - “Weather Diaries” - Heres a situation, let me know if you’ve heard this one before. Legendary Shoegaze band disappears for over 20+ years only to return with a stunning album. It’s not as crazy as it sounds, bands like My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive made it look easy. But Ride, on the other hand, made me sort of wish they never came back. This album’s just so mediocre at the end of the day. When Slowdive returned, it was beautiful. When MBV returned, it was exciting and wild. In Ride’s case though, they just seemed like they sort of half-assed this. There are some great tunes here and there that I absolutely love. But so many of these deep cuts are just so over-indulged and unbearably flat. This wasn’t the vibrant and colorful Ride that left us 20 years ago, this was a bunch of dudes that quite frankly seemed like they were doing this for no reason whatsoever.
03. Washed Out - “Mister Mellow” - Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I’ve been waiting years for another Washed Out project. I’ve been a diehard fan of Ernest Greene’s Washed Out project for years, even though his releases are often few and far between. Not to mention, when I heard that he was releasing this on Stones Throw Records of all labels, my mouth was watering like crazy. But what I got was about 30 minutes, only about 20 minutes of which was new material. There was potential everywhere, with tracks like “Hard to Say Goodbye” being unbelievable standouts. But why the hell is there just so much filler here? You’ve been gone for 3-4 years, only to come back with about 22 minutes of actual material? Don’t get me wrong, the material here IS good. But there’s so many skits and bogus tracks that didn’t need to be there.
02. Drake - “More Life” - Let me start this off by saying that for years, I have proudly backed Drake and time and time again defended him and his projects. But this project is quite simply too much. This album is filled to the brim with awful features, questionable production, and worst of all Drake doing his awful fake British accent (I swear if I have to hear him say “Ting” one more time I’ve going to break something). Now, once again, I think that Drake’s strengths lie in him writing Pop tunes, “Passionfruit” is a wonderful tune. But this “Playlist” (fuck you, Drake, it’s an album and you know that) is just so long. And once again the interludes and skits are just so bad. “More Life” is dreadful, and for once in my life leaves me with no excuse for Drake.
01. Gorillaz - “Humanz” - Holy hell. Ok so let me start this off by saying, this album barely sounds like a Gorillaz album. For the most part, this is a Who’s Who lineup of Alternative Rap’s finest mixed in with some veterans. And as far as that goes, it’s totally fine. But if you’re going to sit here and tell me that Damon Albarn put as much effort into this as any other Gorillaz album, I’m gonna call ya a liar, my friend. Gorillaz was once a celebration of numerous genres coming together succinctly with some clever social commentary thrown in nicely too. There’s really none of that in site on “Humanz”. Don’t get me wrong, Vince Staples, Danny Brown, and most importantly Pusha T do incredible as featured artists. But Damon Albarn’s presence is barely felt most of the time. Not to mention, there are just some really incredibly poor choices as far as some of the other features go (I’m looking directly at Savages frontwoman Jehnny Beth). This album is truly the most disappointing album I’ve heard all year.
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