Hello, everyone! Yes, I know, my last 2 year-end lists for 2022 are not done yet. Seriously, they are coming. I haven’t cancelled them.

Anyway, for now, here are some more mini reviews! As always, it’s all just based on my own personal feelings on these albums. Feel free to let me know in the comments what you think of these albums.

Also, while these are ‘mini reviews’, so they’re not supposed to be very long, I will admit that like my last few mini review posts these are very short. Until I post my last 2 year-end lists for 2022, these mini reviews will probably continue to be very brief.

And yeah, I don’t really describe things in a lot of detail here. And when I’m describing elements I don’t like in an album, it might seem unfair to do that, especially when I don’t give a lot of detail describing why. But I’m not trying to tell people what kind of music they should make … if one of the lead artists, producers, or anyone else involved in making these albums reads this post, I have nothing wrong with that, but my reviews aren’t really meant for the people who made the album. 99.9% of the time, my ‘criticisms’ of music aren’t actually criticism, because I want people to make whatever kind of music they want to make (with very few exceptions, like if it’s sending a terrible message or something like that).

Now, let’s get these reviews started!

Desire Pathway by Screaming Females:

So, here’s a band whom I’d heard of but hadn’t listened to before now … and this album makes me want to hear more from this band! Because this is really good!

The first thing I want to mention is the production, which sounds fantastic! The snares are super well mixed, and I love the powerful guitars! The guitar distortion is fantastic, and it sounds great over the basslines! Almost everything sounds really tight in the mix!

A lot of the vocal melodies are really good, and while at times it can get boring and sound a bit generic, the vast majority of the time this album is a ton of fun!

I wish there was a bit more in the instrumentation to put this album on another level, but I still really like this! And for me, it’s a very light 8/10! If you’re a fan of rock, I highly recommend you give this a listen!

Final Thoughts
Rating: 8/10
Favourite Tracks: “Brass Bell”, “Ornament”, “So Low”, “Titan”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Desert Train”

Pollen by Tennis:

Like with most of the albums I’ve reviewed, this is my first time listening to an album by the artist … anyway, how do I feel about this album?

Well, I can’t really say I like it. I mean, I don’t dislike it, but there’s not much here that really makes me want to go back to it.

It’s got a lot of pleasant vocal melodies, but aside from that, there’s not much about most of these tracks that makes me want to revisit them.

“Glorietta” is a fantastic track with some great vocal melodies and some really nice acoustic guitar, but it’s followed by “Let’s Make a Mistake Tonight”, a song which I find really annoying with some synths that feel out of place, percussion I find boring, and some of my least favourite vocal melodies on the album.

Once it gets toward the end of the album, I get really tired of listening to it, and I’m going to give this album a 5/10.

Final Thoughts
Rating: 5/10
Favourite Tracks: “Glorietta”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Let’s Make a Mistake Tonight”

All Fiction by Pile:

So, this was a strange listening experience … on my first couple of listens, I’m not going to say I loved this album, but I certainly found it more interesting than I do now … but the more I listened to it, while I still mostly enjoyed it, it feels slightly uninteresting to me. And I say ‘slightly’ because it’s still a pretty enjoyable listen with a lot of interesting ideas … but I’m also not going to say it blew my mind or anything.

Musically, there’s a lot of tension being built here, but I wish it erupted more … and that’s not to say it needs to for me to like it, but it’s not like I love the vocal melodies, and often something just feels missing in the instrumentation.

Now, there are some melodies here that I like, such as those high notes in the vocals on “Poisons”, and the keyboard melody on “Lowered Rainbow” (at least I think it’s a keyboard). And again, the album is still a pretty enjoyable listen, but the percussion isn’t always mixed in a way I really like and these songs kind of feel like they meander a bit, which is probably totally unfair because they don’t meander at all. It’s just that this kind of somewhat mellow grunge or space rock or whatever you call this style just isn’t usually my cup of tea.

And you know what? It’s actually saying quite a bit that I mostly like this considering what style of music this is. For me, it’s a 6/10. If you like this sound, you’ll probably like it more than I do.

Final Thoughts
Rating: 6/10
Favourite Tracks: “It Comes Closer”, “Gardening Hours”, “Blood”, “Lowered Rainbow”, “Poisons”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Loops”, “Nude with a Suitcase”

Heavy Heavy by Young Fathers:

Here’s a band who’s been around for a while but whom I’d never heard of until I saw this album getting a lot of critical acclaim. And after listening to it … it’s certainly interesting, to say the least!

There’s a lot of variety across this album. There are some faster-paced songs like “Drum”, “Sink Or Swim”, and “Holy Moly”, and then there’s “Tell Somebody” which isn’t as fast-paced but has a huge build to it, and then there’s “Geronimo”, which is a mostly mellow, more poppy song, without really sounding quite like a pop song. And I haven’t even mentioned “Shoot Me Down”, which is very avant-garde.

And there’s a lot here that I really like. There’s a lot of interesting lyrics and lots of great melodies, and I love so many of the small details here, like that beeping synth sound in “I Saw”. Sometimes the production here can feel a little bit messy, like the instruments don’t blend together as well as I would have liked, but I still really enjoyed this album!

You know what? I’m going to give this album an EXTREMELY strong 7.5/10! If you haven’t heard it, I highly recommend that you do! It really is something special! And if 2023 music ends up disappointing me a lot , and/or if this album grows on me, it’ll probably make my top 50 of the year! As of right now, I don’t think it will make my top 50, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Final Thoughts
Rating: 7.5/10
Favourite Tracks: “I Saw”, “Drum”, “Geronimo”, “Sink Or Swim”, “Holy Moly”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Rice”

TRUSTFALL by P!nk:

While this is my first time listening to a P!nk album, I have heard quite a few of her singles—mostly from hearing them on the radio—and I have very mixed feelings on those singles. There are some I find incredibly annoying like “Get the Party Started”, “Blow Me (One Last Kiss)”, and “F**kin’ Perfect”, but she also has some songs I absolutely love, like “Try”, “Who Knew”, and especially “Irrelevant”, which—potential spoiler alert—might make my top 100 songs of 2022!

So, I decided to listen to P!nk’s new album, TRUSTFALL, and while there are lots of personal lyrics here, and I can tell this album is very important to her, it doesn’t mean I personally have to like the album. And the production is a big part of the reason why this album didn’t click for me much.

Some of the percussion here feels really awkward-sounding over the rest of the instrumentation, like on “Turbulence” with the snare which seems to have reverb on it, and I don’t like how it sounds. I also don’t really like the snappy snare in “Feel Something”.

And while P!nk is a good singer, I’m not a big fan of a lot of the vocal production, like in the chorus of “Runaway”, and also in the chorus of the title track. Actually, I’m not even sure it’s the vocal production as much as it is that I don’t like a lot of the other elements in the production when paired with the vocals.

And a lot of the time, it just feels like something in the instrumentation is missing to make it fully click for me.

Also, a lot of the vocal melodies don’t do much for me.

So, for me, it’s a 4.5/10, but keep in mind that score is just based on how much/how little I like the album. I often see comments on other people’s album reviews saying things like, ‘Why would you give this a number? Just because it didn’t click for you doesn’t mean it deserves a low score.’ And while I get that argument, I want to make it clear that my ratings are based on how much/how little the album clicks for me, and that’s it. I’d recommend you give this album a listen. You might like it more than I do.

Final Thoughts
Rating: 4.5/10
Favourite Tracks: “When I Get There”, “Last Call”, “Hate Me”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Long Way to Go”, “Runaway”, “Our Song”, “Just Say I’m Sorry”

Glow by Wesley Joseph:

I haven’t reviewed much hip hop from 2023 yet, so, considering how much of a time crunch I’ve been in with 2023 reviews and 2022 year-end lists, I decided to check out this album which isn’t even twenty-five minutes long.

And not only is it short, which makes it easier to review quickly, but it’s also pretty good! Some of the production is a bit messy with the percussion not always sounding great to me in the mix, but Wesley’s flows here are really good!

There’s a lot to like lyrically, too, and while I don’t fully understand what all the lyrics are about, a lot of it seems to have to do with fame and achieving goals, and the struggles that come with that. Maybe my interpretation is totally wrong, I don’t know, but that seems to be part of what this album is about, and there are a lot of interesting lyrics here.

Overall, I think this is a pretty solid album! 7/10!

Final Thoughts
Rating: 7/10
Favourite Tracks: “I JUST KNOW HIGHS”, “COLD SUMMER”, “LIGHT LIGHT”
Least Favourite Tracks: “SUGAR DIVE”

Chrysalis by Polymoon:

So, here’s another one of those albums which has a lot going on, and it’s really impressive, but I can’t say I really enjoy listening to it that much. I mean, there are a lot of cool moments here, but as a whole it just doesn’t interest me much.

Part of it is how the vocals often sound drowned out by the instrumentation, and I’m not really a big fan of the airy production on this album.

But with some albums, I really like the airy production, and the instrumentation drowning out the vocals … but something just sounds really messy here, and while it was probably intentional and done as an artistic choice, it doesn’t mean I have to enjoy listening to it.

So, in the end, I might really like it as background music, but it’s not really clicking for me much. Strong 5/10 for me … again, there are cool moments here … but the vocal melodies don’t grab me much and it feels really inconsistent to me.

Final Thoughts
Rating: 5/10
Favourite Tracks: “Instar”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Wave Back To Confusion”

Fandens kall by Tulus:

I haven’t listened to a ton of metal from 2023 yet, and as a metal fan, I wanted to listen to more metal from this year, so here’s a band who’s been releasing albums since the 1990s, and this is my first experience listening to an album by this band. How is it?

Well, I can’t say I really ended up loving it. I like some moments on this album, but as a whole, to me it’s far from great. And part of that is the production, where the guitars often feel overpowering, and the snares at times sound really out of place to me and lacking the real power I wish they had.

Now, let me make it clear that the only language I speak/understand is English, and when I looked up the lyrics so I could translate them, I couldn’t find them. So, just keep in mind that I don’t know what the lyrics are saying here.

I do like how the guitars sound aside from how they sometimes wash out other elements of the instrumentation, and there are some good guitar riffs, chord progressions, and basslines, but I wish I liked this album more than I do. Extremely light 6/10 for me … I like it, but just barely.

Final Thoughts
Rating: 6/10
Favourite Tracks: “Fandens Kall”, “Allstøtt”, “Sjelesmerte”, “Bloddråpesvermer”, “Barfrost”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Isråk”

Gloria by Sam Smith:

This is my first time listening to a full Sam Smith album, but I was already familiar with some of their singles, some of which I really like or even love, and some of which I don’t like, so I really wasn’t sure what to expect going into this album, especially considering the variety in the singles of theirs that I do know. But going into this album, I already knew one of the singles, “Unholy”. I like that song, so I was excited to check out the album!

And overall, I’m feeling more positive than negative here … yes, the album is inconsistent, and I often find the percussion kind of annoying, but there’s a lot of honest, personal song writing here that I really like … and there’s also some song writing here that is intentionally stupid, like “Unholy”, which describes a man cheating on his wife and turns it into a fun dance song, but I can’t take that song seriously at all, and I think it’s a banger, even though the percussion does feel really out of place to me.

I like the lyrics about self-love on songs like “Love Me More” and “Gloria”, and also on the Ed Sheeran collaboration, which is probably my favourite song on here, as it’s a beautiful track celebrating love and embracing who you are, and the production is absolutely gorgeous, and both singers do a great job on vocals!

But this album also has the song, “Gimme”, which probably has the most annoying chorus I’ve heard in a 2023 song so far. And with a lot of these songs feeling like they’re missing at least one element in the instrumentation to give them more punch, I think a strong 6/10 feels accurate to describe how I feel about the album as a whole. I love some of these songs, but as a whole album … I like it, but I don’t love it.

Final Thoughts
Rating: 6/10
Favourite Tracks: “Perfect”, “How To Cry”, “Gloria”, “Who We Love”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Gimme”