Hello, everyone! Now that I’ve finally posted my top 50 favourite albums of 2022, there’s only one 2022 year-end list left, which will be my top 100 favourite songs of 2022. Hopefully I’ll have it out sometime in April, but we’ll see.

But for now … here are six mini album reviews which I wanted to have posted a while ago, but better late than never. As always, this is just based on how I personally felt about these albums.

Now, let’s start this post on a positive note!

Good Riddance by Gracie Abrams:

I remember seeing that Gracie Abrams had a new album, and I wasn’t sure where I had seen/heard her name before, but I was sure I had. And then I found out she’s going to be opening for Taylor Swift soon on The Eras Tour, so maybe that’s where I knew her name from. Anyway, she has a new album out, and it’s great!

This album reminds me of Olivia Rodrigo, mostly in the vocals, but also in the sound of some of these instrumentals.

Gracie Abrams is an incredible vocalist, and there are lots of great melodies here. And while the lyrics are questionable at points (such as that ‘swear to god I’d kill you’ line in “I should hate you”—yes, I know it’s not meant to be taken seriously, but I still don’t like it), there are a lot of lyrics here I really like, such as on “Where do we go now?”, which seems to be about a forced relationship but also the idea that maybe it could work out again.

The production at times doesn’t quite click for me, but it does most of the time, with really good mixing and really good percussion.

So, for me, it’s an 8/10 … absolutely a flawed album, but the best songs here hit really hard for me, and I think it’s enough for me to call this album great. If you haven’t heard it, I highly recommend that you do! I don’t think you’ll regret it!

Final Thoughts
Rating: 8/10
Favourite Tracks: “Best”, “Where do we go now?”, “Difficult”, “This is what the drugs are for”, “Fault line”, “The blue”, “Right now”
Least Favourite Tracks: “I should hate you”, “Will you cry?”

Cracker Island by Gorillaz:

So, this is my first experience with a full Gorillaz album, and I’m not really loving this album.

That being said, from what I’ve seen/heard other people say, I expect to like a lot of their other albums more … but this album isn’t doing much for me.

I mostly like the production, but some of the repetition can get quite annoying. There are some really nice pianos and synths with some good melodies, but a lot of the vocal melodies I find quite uninteresting.

And even though I mostly like the production, I do find it a bit too airy at points, like in “The Tired Influencer” and “Silent Running”, the latter of which features some annoying whistling and a very annoying chorus in my opinion.

There are some interesting lyrics about cults and stan culture, but I can’t say the lyrics really do a ton for me. It’s not that it’s ‘bad lyricism’, I just feel like it gets repetitive, but as I say a lot of the time, I’m not very good at analyzing lyrics.

So, overall, for me, Cracker Island gets a 5/10. It’s not bad, but I don’t really see it having replay value for me outside of a few tracks.

Final Thoughts
Rating: 5/10
Favourite Tracks: “Cracker Island”, “Oil”, “Baby Queen”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Silent Running”, “New Gold”, “Tarantula”

Cast a Double Shadow by Brett Naucke:

So, instrumental albums are a lot easier for me to review than albums with lyrics, and while trying to finish my year-end lists for 2022, I decided to check out this instrumental album by an artist I had never heard of until recently.

This is my first time listening to a Brett Naucke album, and I mostly like this album. I’m not going to say it blew my mind or anything, but I do mostly like it.

I think what holds me back from liking it more is that it feels like it drags on a bit, despite being under 35 minutes. I wish it really built a bit more.

But still, as it is, I do like it. And I like how it really mellows out on the song, “Double Exposure”, before at least building a little bit with the last two tracks. Maybe it doesn’t even build any more in those songs than in “Double Exposure”, but it at least feels like it does.

I really like the atmosphere this album brings, and I’m giving it a 7/10! 

Final Thoughts
Rating: 7/10
Favourite Tracks: “A Glass Touch”, “Double Exposure”, “Cast a Double Shadow Pt. II”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Instant Memory”

Shook by Algiers:

So, I have heard some very positive things about Algiers, and I’d seen/heard their music described as post-punk, but this is my first time listening to an album of theirs. Anyway, as a fan of post-punk, did I end up loving this album?

Not really. It’s one of those albums where I really, really like the lyrics, but I wish I liked the way it sounded a lot more, and as someone who usually listens more for how music sounds than the lyrics, in this case it leads to an album I really like but don’t quite love.

Again, I love a lot of the lyrics here, a lot of which are about taking action, and it’s really powerful stuff—and yes, I’ll admit that, as someone who often has a hard time understanding song lyrics, I don’t fully understand what all the lyrics mean (although I can say that about pretty much any album). But still, there’s a lot to really like lyrically!

But I often find a lot of the melodies boring, and I don’t love the production here, and it’s hard for me to describe why, but on some of these songs certain instruments sound underpowered, like the bagpipes (or whatever that sound is) on “Irreversible Damage”. Maybe it’s something in the mixing that I don’t like, but it’s hard to describe.

And it’s funny that, despite all this, “An Ecophonic Soul”, the one song I couldn’t find the lyrics for when I looked them up (although in some of the other songs, I couldn’t find 100% of the lyrics), is one of my favourite songs here … but yeah, I love the way that song sounds!

“A Good Man” reminds me of the band, IDLES (that’s a huge compliment!), and it’s one of the songs here which I love the sound of! I love the awesome distorted guitars, and the drums sound great in the mix! This song is also really interesting lyrically, with the narrator asking himself a very big question, ‘Am I a good man?’

I also think the album ends with a really strong run of tracks including probably my favourite on the album, “Cold World”, which features a fantastic synth melody and great percussion, and “Something Wrong”, which features really powerful lyrics about an encounter with the police which most likely has to do with race (although I’m not a huge fan of the way the song sounds), and I also love the last two tracks.

But overall, this album for me is a 7/10. I do really like it overall, but I don’t love it. But if you haven’t heard it yet, I highly recommend that you do! There’s not a bad song here, and the lyrics are enough to save this album for me!

Final Thoughts
Rating: 7/10
Favourite Tracks: “A Good Man”, “Cold World”, “An Ecophonic Soul”, “Momentary”
Least Favourite Tracks: The interludes, I guess … but they work better in the context of the album

Dogsbody by Model/Actriz:

I saw this album getting a ton of critical acclaim. It’s the debut album by Model/Actriz, and I was really excited to hear it after seeing so much critical acclaim. It’s probably one of the most critically acclaimed albums of 2023 so far … so what do I think of it?

Well, it’s a haunting listen with lots of avant-garde, glitchy sounds. It’s the kind of album you’ll often think of when you think of ‘critically acclaimed music’. But when it comes to my taste in music, I can’t really say that’s always a good thing. And that’s part of the reason I don’t love this album, even though I do really like it.

I don’t want to call this album ‘generic’, because I don’t think it is. It’s just that having a lot of glitchy sounds and being avant-garde doesn’t automatically make me like an album, and I’m not finding as much about this album that stands out to me as so many people are.

That’s not to say nothing here stands out to me … there’s a lot of really interesting lyrics, and I really like a lot of the rhythm here, and a lot of the glitchy sounds really do click for me … but it’s just not wowing me the way it is for so many people.

I think it’s more consistently enjoyable than it is really mind-blowing. There’s not a track here I dislike, but it doesn’t have the same high points that most albums I really love have. So, for me, it’s a 7.5/10. Don’t get me wrong, I do really like this album a lot, but I wouldn’t say I love it. Maybe it’ll grow on me, though. Who knows? And if you haven’t heard it, I recommend that you do! It’s really good!

Final Thoughts
Rating: 7.5/10
Favourite Tracks: “Donkey Show”, “Mosquito”, “Amaranth”, “Pure Mode”, “Maria”, “Sleepless”
Least Favourite Tracks: maybe “Slate”? maybe “Crossing Guard”?

Ignore Grief by Xiu Xiu:

For a while, Xiu Xiu have been one of those bands whose name I’ve seen/heard a lot, but whom I hadn’t really listened to. And while I still haven’t heard any of their other albums yet, I’ve given their newest album, Ignore Grief, multiple listens. So, what do I think of it?

Well, first of all, this isn’t what I expected at all … this is one of the darkest albums I have heard this year. It’s a very challenging listen, and while I don’t love it, I absolutely recommend that you hear it if you haven’t already.

Lyrically, this album discusses lots of horrible things that happen in real life, and how real they are. And the title of the album (which is also a line that’s repeated in “Esquerita, Little Richard”) seems to be about how some people just want to ignore the horrible things that happen in this world. This album challenges that, and makes you think about it.

But something about the instrumentation and sound of the album feels a bit awkward with these lyrics. The music kind of sounds faux-spooky, if that makes any sense. And on an album where the point seems to be how real these issues are, that sound just doesn’t really fit in my opinion. So, for me, it’s a 7/10. I don’t love it, but I recommend giving it a chance!

Final Thoughts
Rating: 7/10
Favourite Tracks: “666 Photos of Nothing”, “Esquerita, Little Richard”, “Dracula Parrot, Moon Moth”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Maybae Baeby”