Hello, everyone! It’s time for another mini review post, and today I’m reviewing ten albums! A lot of these reviews are out much later than I was hoping, but better late than never.

As always, this is just how I personally feel about these albums. Also, I know a lot of the time I don’t go into a lot of detail here, but these are mini reviews … I’m just trying to briefly share how much or how little I like the albums, and why.

Anyway, let’s get this post started … and we’re starting on a very positive note!

Praise A Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds) by Yves Tumor:

Yves Tumor is an artist whom I’d heard of before, but I hadn’t listened to any of their albums until I listened to this one. But they’ve gotten lots of critical acclaim, including for this album, so I wanted to give it a listen. And now that I’ve listened to it multiple times, what do I think of it?

It’s awesome! Easily one of my favourite albums of the year so far, and it’ll probably be on my year-end list at the end of the year, too! So, yeah, it’s really fantastic, and if you haven’t heard it, I highly recommend that you do!

First of all, the mixing is incredible on pretty much every track, with the percussion sounding amazing!

There are a lot of interesting lyrics, some of which seem to be about broken relationships, and while the main reason I love this album is because of how it sounds, it’s worth mentioning the lyrics. For example, the song, “Operator”, which seems to show the narrator trying to fix a broken relationship, and it’s done over an awesome instrumental with some fantastic clicking percussion!

“Meteora Blues” is one of many songs with some excellent guitar distortion, and the drumming on this one is fantastic!

This album is amazingly well produced, and there are lots of great melodies here, especially in the instrumentation! For me, it’s a 9/10! I highly recommend you listen to this album if you haven’t already! It’s incredible!

Final Thoughts
Rating: 9/10
Favourite Tracks: “God Is a Circle”, “Lovely Sewer”, “Meteora Blues”, “Parody”, “Operator”, “In Spite of War”, “Purified by the Fire”, “Ebony Eye”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Fear Evil Like Fire”

Past // Present // Future by Meet Me @ The Altar:

This new album from Meet Me @ The Altar (their debut studio album) is a really good rock album with really solid production and catchy hooks! The snares mostly sound great, and there are lots of great guitars, too!

Lyrically, as far as I can tell, it’s not super deep, but I like the messages here, which include moving on from bad situations, self-confidence, and much more. And Edith Victoria is a fantastic vocalist and a big part of the reason I like this album so much! But that’s not to take away from these instrumentals, which I also really like!

All that being said, at points the album can get slightly boring, and the chorus of “Kool” is pretty annoying, but overall, I really like this album! It’s very emotional at points but also a very fun album at points, and I highly recommend you listen to it!

Would I say I love the album? Not quite, but with some absolutely incredible songs like “Try”, “T.M.I”, and “A Few Tomorrows”, and a pretty consistently enjoyable album … I’m going to give this a strong 7/10! Really good stuff!

Final Thoughts
Rating: 7/10
Favourite Tracks: “Try”, “T.M.I”, “A Few Tomorrows”, “It’s Over For Me”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Kool”

Norm by Andy Shauf:

So, here’s a very mellow album from an artist I’m not sure I’d ever heard of until just recently.

Anyway, while I mostly like the production and mixing here, I do find some of the vocal melodies underwhelming, with some exceptions like the chorus of the fantastic opener, “Wasted On You”.

I like that there’s a story going on in the lyrics, but personally I’m just not super invested in the lyrics. That’s not to say it’s badly written, it’s just that I personally didn’t find it super interesting, even though there is a lot to it. In other words, it’s a me thing (just like my feelings on pretty much any album).

Overall, I do like this album, though. It’s getting a 6.5/10 from me … a lot of these songs are well-crafted, and it is a pretty enjoyable listen as a whole, but I don’t think I’ll be going back to it much. Probably only every once in a while. But I do recommend you hear it. I like this album.

Final Thoughts
Rating: 6.5/10
Favourite Tracks: “Wasted On You”, “You Didn’t See”, “Paradise Cinema”, “Sunset”, “Long Throw”, “Don’t Let It Get To You”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Halloween Store”, “Daylight Daydreaming”

Lumi by Snail’s House:

So, this is an almost entirely instrumental album (if not entirely … I couldn’t tell if there were any lyrics or not, but at a few points there’s what sounds like someone whispering).

And I can’t really say I love the album. I mean, there are some nice pianos and some nice melodies, but as a whole album it just gets kind of boring after a while.

And while I like some of the electronic elements—for example, that really awesome synth melody that shows up pretty much right at the middle of the song “Lumiukko”—quite a few of the electronic elements don’t really work for me, like that annoyingly loud synth on “Valentine Night” or some really annoying chopped up vocal sounds on “Gemini”.

I’m not a big fan of the production here, and it feels hard to describe why, but the production doesn’t feel super tight to me.

Overall, this isn’t an album that gives me a ton to say. I get the appeal of it, but for me it’s a 5/10. It’s just not my cup of tea.

Final Thoughts
Rating: 5/10
Favourite Tracks: “Lumiukko”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Valentine Night”

Tear by Korine:

So, if you’re wondering how I decide the order I put these mini reviews in … well, once I have the mini reviews for one post mostly ready, I’ll randomize the order … and you may have noticed that so far this post started on a super positive note and has been getting more and more negative … well, unfortunately that’ll continue with this album. I get the appeal of it, but it doesn’t do much for me at all.

This is my first time listening to a Korine album, and to my ears it sounds like some pretty uninteresting, generic synth-pop. That’s not to say there’s not much interesting about it, just that there’s not much that I personally find interesting here.

A lot of it is just really boring to me, and there’s not much here that really stands out to me in a positive way outside of the occasional moment like that awesome synth melody in the chorus of “Train to Harlem”, which is easily the catchiest song on here.

Also, a lot of these songs kind of sound like demos, and there’s this airy sound that I don’t really like. And while I understand both of those things might make some people like it more, for me it makes me like it less.

There’s not much here in the vocal melodies that I like, and overall, I’m going to give this album a strong 4/10.

Final Thoughts
Rating: 4/10
Favourite Tracks: “Crystalline”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Deicide”, “Dream Dancer”

Tell Me I’m Alive by All Time Low:

I’m not super familiar with All Time Low’s music, but it seems like a lot of their fans were disappointed by this album, and I saw one person joke in a YouTube comment on a review of this album that the band is at least living up to their name … and, well, I can’t say I’m a fan of the album.

This album seems to be going for huge hooks that will make people want to sing along, and it’s also very emotional, and while I get the appeal of it, it doesn’t click for me at all.

And arguably the biggest reason is the production. To me, the booming snares don’t really fit with the airy production here, and I’m not really a big fan of the reverb and vocal effects. It all just leads to a kind of messy sound, and when it sounds like it’s aiming for huge anthemic choruses, it just doesn’t really work for me.

The vocal melodies also disappointed me here for the most part, and it often sounds like the vocal melodies are so close to really clicking for me, but then they take a turn that I don’t like.

“New Religion” is the one big standout here for me, but overall this album was a total slog for me to get through. It looks like this post is continuing to get more and more negative, as I’m giving this album a 3.5/10.

Final Thoughts
Rating: 3.5/10
Favourite Tracks: “The Sound of Letting Go”, “New Religion”, “Kill Ur Vibe”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Are You There?”, “Sleepwalking”, “Calm Down”, “I’d Be Fine”, “The Other Side”

10,000 gecs by 100 gecs:

So, before listening to this album, I don’t think I’d ever listened to a 100 gecs album. I knew the song, “money machine”, and that’s it. But I like that song, so I was excited to hear this new album from 100 gecs.

And … well … it’s interesting.

As far as I can tell, there’s not meant to be much depth here. I don’t know what it’s intended to do … maybe it’s trying to make the listener laugh? I don’t know. But either way, I can’t say I’m really loving the album. I mean, I mostly like the production—even though I’m not a big fan of “Doritos & Fritos”, the snare on that song sounds fantastic—and I like that they’re being super creative, but at times the album can get quite cringey, and there’s not a ton about it that makes me want to return to it as a full album.

Now, I will say, the song “One Million Dollars” on paper feels like it should be terrible, but I’ll admit I actually like that song quite a bit … I don’t know why. I don’t have an explanation.

But at times this album can get quite annoying, like the chorus of “I Got My Tooth Removed”, and if I’m being totally honest, while I have a ton of respect for the album, it’s not really clicking for me. Strong 5/10.

Final Thoughts
Rating: 5/10
Favourite Tracks: “Dumbest Girl Alive”, “One Million Dollars”, “mememe”
Least Favourite Tracks: “757”, “Hollywood Baby”

As Porphyria Once Went by Tears Seven Times:

Well … I don’t really have a lot to say about this one.

I was looking for some 2023 metal albums, and I came across this one, and … well, it starts off pretty strong with a good first half, including the excellent track “Forever Beautiful…”, but to me the second half really doesn’t come close to the first half.

Lyrically, there’s a lot going on here, and maybe it’s just me being bad at understanding lyrics in general, but it’s just too much for me to really try to understand without looking super deeply into it, which I’ll admit I haven’t done. So, how does the album sound?

Well, it’s very intense, and there’s a lot of screaming, but beyond that it doesn’t do much to really wow me.

Some of the guitar melodies are pretty good, and I like how the electric guitar is produced. But overall, to me it feels like the album drags on despite it being less than thirty-five minutes long. So, for me, this album is getting a strong 4.5/10.

Final Thoughts
Rating: 4.5/10
Favourite Tracks: “Could Tell a Love”, “Forever Beautiful…”, “Sombering My Last Chapter”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Gallow-Breached… End of Illusions”

Heavener by Invent Animate:

And speaking of metal, I saw this album described as metalcore and I saw it getting a lot of critical acclaim. And as someone who loves metalcore, I was very excited to hear it, despite never having heard an album by this band before this … and it makes me want to hear more of their music!

Not only is it amazingly well produced, but there are some incredible lyrics here, the vocals are incredible, and I love the atmosphere this album creates, along with some vocal melodies that I absolutely love!

Just from hearing the first track, “Absence Persistent”, I had a feeling this was going to be absolutely incredible, and it is, with tons of great tracks, including “Labyrinthine”, which is super intense musically with some screaming that sounds great in the mix, “Without a Whisper”, which has some incredible melodies and incredible guitars, and so many more!

This is an album that I wanted to give its own review, and I’m sure I could’ve done that, but I’ve been very busy with reviews, including multiple other full-length reviews, and when there are so many new albums I want to review, I decided to make this a mini review. But I can all but guarantee it’ll be in my top 50 of the year, so I’ll have more to say about it then.

Overall, for me, this album is a 9.5/10! If you haven’t heard it, I HIGHLY recommend that you do, at least if you’re a fan of metal! It’s a super emotional album with very few flaws, and as of right now, it’s my favourite album so far this year!

Final Thoughts
Rating: 9.5/10
Favourite Tracks: “Absence Persistent”, “Labyrinthine”, “Without a Whisper”, “False Meridian”, “Immolation of Night”, “Purity Weeps”, “Void Surfacing”, “Emberglow”, “Elysium”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Shade Astray”

Endless Summer Vacation by Miley Cyrus:

And we’re finishing this post with the first Miley Cyrus album I’ve ever listened to … and going into this album, I really wasn’t sure what to expect.

But I will say I expected to like it more than I do. And it’s not that I dislike this album, I just don’t really like it that much, either.

I get the appeal, and I could see it working as an album full of summer jams, but it’s just not really for me, and it’s kind of hard for me to explain why. On paper, it seems like an album I ‘should’ like, especially considering it has songs like “Jaded” (which has fantastic production) and “Wonder Woman” (which is a beautiful piano song). But I guess it’s partially that a lot of the vocal melodies feel underwhelming to me. Also, while I like a lot of the lyrics here, there are some that are very cringey, like on the chorus of “Handstand”.

It’s one of those albums that is pleasant while it’s on, but not one I see myself going back to much, if at all.

Will I be going back to some of these songs? Yes. “Wonder Woman” and “Jaded” are fantastic, and I mostly like “Muddy Feet” and “Violet Chemistry”. But will I go back to the album as a whole? Probably not for a while … 5.5/10 for me.

Final Thoughts
Rating: 5.5/10
Favourite Tracks: “Jaded”, “Muddy Feet”, “Wonder Woman”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Flowers (Demo)”