Hello, everyone! Time for more mini reviews!

Yes, I know I still haven’t posted my top 100 favourite songs of 2022 yet, but it’s on its way … for now, here are nine mini album reviews, some of which I wanted to have posted a while ago, but I feel like I’m finally starting to get caught up on reviews.

Keep in mind that everything here, as always, is just my personal feelings on the albums AKA how much/how little I personally like the albums. None of this is meant to send hate to anyone, it’s just me talking about the music I like and the music I don’t like, and why I like it or why I don’t like it.

Anyway, let’s get this post started!

Memento Mori by Depeche Mode:

So, despite Depeche Mode having tons of critical acclaimed classic albums to their name, and despite the fact that they’ve been putting out albums since the 1980s, this is the first time I’ve ever listened to a Depeche Mode album.

This album comes less than a year after the tragic passing of band member, Andy Fletcher. And I hope the band is proud of the album, even though the album isn’t really clicking for me.

As always this review is just about how I feel about this album, and I don’t find a lot of the vocal melodies really grabbing me personally. I mostly like the production, but it’s one of those albums that to me just feels like it drags on longer than I want it to.

I can’t say I really love any of the songs on this album … I like a few tracks, but it feels like pretty much every song has something in the melodies or repetition that holds it back for me.

So, for me, it’s a 5/10, but it is an interesting listen with some really interesting lyrics … and while I personally find it kind of boring, there’s enough about it that I like to keep me interested while listening to it, even if it’s not really my cup of tea. So, I recommend you give this a listen if you haven’t already … you’ll probably like it more than I do.

Final Thoughts
Rating: 5/10
Favourite Tracks: “Wagging Tongue”, “Ghosts Again”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Soul With Me”, “People Are Good”

Coco Moon by Owl City:

So, this is my first time listening to an Owl City album, but based on the opinions I’d seen/heard from other music reviewers about Owl City’s previous few albums (and also this one), my expectations for this album weren’t very high.

I didn’t expect to like this album, and like I expected, I don’t like the album. But how much do I dislike it?

Not much actually. I mean, yeah, I’m not a huge fan of the production, and the autotune (or whatever that vocal effect is) doesn’t really work for me for the most part, but to me there’s some real magic to some parts of the album, like the song, “Dinosaur Park”, which seems to be a reminder that parts of our child selves are still with us, and it’s full of great melodies and I love the production on this track, too.

I can tell there was a lot of emotion put into this, and I’m not trying to be disrespectful, but if I’m being honest this album didn’t really do much for me. On most of these songs, there’s something in the melodies or the production or something that just holds it back for me. Even though I love “Dinosaur Park”, to me nothing else on the album comes close to that level. So, for me, it’s a 5/10 … I can’t really say it’s my cup of tea, but I don’t hate it, or even dislike it. I’d recommend giving this a chance.

Final Thoughts
Rating: 5/10
Favourite Tracks: “Field Notes”, “Dinosaur Park”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Under the Circus Lights”, “Kelly Time”, “Vitamin Sea”

This Town is Death by NEUPINK:

Well, here’s an album that doesn’t give me much to say.

This is an instrumental album, and if I had to describe what genre it is, I’d say noise rock or hardcore punk or something like that. It’s the first of two albums that NEUPINK has released this year, and I’ll have some very positive things to say about the other one later in this post!

That being said, I don’t like this one at all. There are some cool melodies in the instrumentation, but the music sounds so fuzzed out and glitchy throughout pretty much the entire album, and it gets super annoying.

I feel similarly about this album as I do about Five Easy Hot Dogs by Mac DeMarco, which I reviewed earlier this year, and while this album has more melodies that stand out to me than that album, I also find the production on this album way more annoying.

Not only do I not really like the individual songs here, but the album as a whole just gets super, super annoying, mostly because of the production. And I get that it’s probably an artistic choice that a lot of people are going to really like, but I personally find it super annoying to listen to. 2.5/10 for me.

Final Thoughts
Rating: 2.5/10
Favourite Tracks: ???
Least Favourite Tracks: “This Town is Death”, “Without Pleasure”, “Heaven Knows What”

Remember Never Before by July Talk:

This is my first time listening to a July Talk album, but based on the few singles of theirs that I’d heard, I didn’t have super high expectations … but it turns out I like this quite a bit! I wouldn’t say I love it, but there’s enough that I like here to make it a very enjoyable listen for me, and one I’ll probably occasionally go back to as a whole!

Earlier this year, I reviewed Paramore’s new album, This Is Why, and I wasn’t a fan of the album at all … and if you love that album, that’s great … but if you didn’t like that album, well, as someone who didn’t like that album myself, here’s an album with a similar sound that I like a lot more. And even if you do like Paramore’s album from this year, I recommend this one, as I think a lot of fans of that album will like this one, too!

I really like the production on this album, with the clean and distorted guitars sounding great, and the drums are mixed really well for the most part. If there’s one big thing that holds this album back for me, it’s that the vocal melodies kind of bore me … I wish I liked the vocal melodies a lot better, and I feel like if that were the case I would probably love this album.

But as it is, I like the post-punk sound of it, and a lot of the lyrics are really interesting, with some fascinating things to say about humanity and why we are the way we are … at least that’s how I interpret it.

“Twenty Four Hours” is a big highlight for me (probably my favourite on the album), with a great chord progression, great production, and some great melody in the instrumentation. And there are quite a few other big highlights for me (my favourite tracks are listed down below), and I wouldn’t say there are any songs here that I dislike … except maybe “I Am Water”, but only kind of … it’s one of those songs which I just can’t figure out how I feel about it. Sometimes it’s really annoying, and other times I absolutely love it!

Overall, this album is getting a light 7/10 from me.

Final Thoughts
Rating: 7/10
Favourite Tracks: “Human Side”, “Hold”, “When You Stop”, “Silent Type”, “Twenty Four Hours”, “Repeat”
Least Favourite Tracks: “I Am Water”

The Restless by Karen Jonas:

Karen Jonas has released quite a few albums at this point, and she’s been releasing albums for almost a decade. But this is the first Karen Jonas album I’ve ever listened to. Anyway, what do I think of it?

Well … it feels like an album I ‘should’ love. I mean, there are quite a few excellent tracks here, like both versions of “Lay Me Down”, “The Breakdown”, “Rock the Boat”, “Drunken Dreamer”, and also another song which was off-putting at first but grew on me a lot, that being “That’s Not My Dream Couch”, which I just found kind of annoying at first, and I’m not sure why, but it grew on me a lot!

And I really like the production here, too, with the mixing being incredible, and there are lots of really good melodies in both the vocals and the instrumentation … so, why don’t I love this album?

Well, part of it is that I personally find the song, “Forever”, very boring … it’s a song that seems like it was very carefully crafted, but I just personally find the melodies very uninteresting and I just don’t enjoy listening to this for nearly four minutes. But that’s one song on an album on which I like nearly every song … I mean, I’m not a big fan of “We Could Be Lovers”, either, but aside from those two songs I legitimately like every song here. So, what’s holding the album back for me?

Well, maybe it’s mostly because I wish there was more variety in the sound … but there is quite a bit of variety, so maybe that’s not it. Or maybe it’s because despite having quite a few great songs, none of them are anywhere close to being among my favourite tracks of the year.

Honestly, I’m not entirely sure what it is that’s holding this album back for me … but I do still really like this, and I recommend you hear it! I’m giving this a light 7.5/10 … I like it, but there’s a good chance you’ll end up liking it even more than me, so I highly recommend it!

Final Thoughts
Rating: 7.5/10
Favourite Tracks: “The Breakdown”, “Lay Me Down”, “That’s Not My Dream Couch”, “Rock the Boat”, “Drunken Dreamer”, “Lay Me Down (Acoustic)”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Forever”

Continue as a Guest by The New Pornographers:

Despite The New Pornographers being a band for over two decades and this being their ninth album, I’d never listened to one of their albums before listening to this one … and I still haven’t listened to any of their other albums.

But I ended up loving this new album! It’s the kind of alternative rock where a lot of the magic is in the small details in the instrumentation/production. For example, the synths in the background of songs like “Really Really Light” and “Firework in the Falling Snow”.

The percussion sounds great on this album, and I love a lot of the vocal melodies, too. There’s a messy feeling to the production, but I think it works with the style of the album, and it’s hard for me to describe why … honestly, I’m not entirely sure why.

And there’s a lot of interesting lyrics here, too! And overall, with mixing this good, too, this album is getting a 9/10 from me! It starts off incredibly strong, and while the second half isn’t quite as great, I still absolutely recommend this album! I think it’s great!

Final Thoughts
Rating: 9/10
Favourite Tracks: “Really Really Light”, “Pontius Pilate’s Home Movies”, “Cat and Mouse With the Light”, “Last and Beautiful”, “Continue as a Guest”, “Firework in the Falling Snow”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Marie and the Undersea”

opt-in to remove myself by NEUPINK:

So, this is the other NEUPINK album from 2023, and it’s the final NEUPINK album, although it looks like Sam Strawberry (the artist behind NEUPINK) is continuing to release music under a different name.

And I’ve got to say, this album makes me really want to hear more NEUPINK albums, as not only do I easilylike this one more than This Town is Death, but even aside from that comparison, I really like this album!

The first few minutes are absolutely stunning, and while I wish the album didn’t rely on repetition as much, I think it still mostly works!

There’s lots of great melodies, too, and it’s a really calming listen for the most part.

Now it’s worth mentioning that I can’t really pick favourite and least favourite tracks, because there’s only one song on this album. But I really, really like it! It’s very short and very replayable, and I’m going to give it a 7.5/10!

Final Thoughts
Rating: 7.5/10
Favourite Tracks: N/A
Least Favourite Tracks: N/A

We’re Still Here by The Hirs Collective:

Well … this is an interesting album, to say the least.

This is some really heavy metal, with lots of distorted guitars and intense screaming. The album is a little over half an hour long, and it’s full of features.

And while there are some really powerful lyrics here that I really like, a lot of which are political, and I like a lot of the guitar distortion, I’m not really loving the album. Maybe part of it is due to a lot of these songs not really feeling like full songs, but still, we’re talking about the full album here, not individual tracks. So, I think maybe the bigger reason is because a lot of the heavier songs blend together musically for me … that’s not to say they all sound the same, but I just don’t find a lot about them musically that stands out to me personally.

But there are some tracks that do stand out a lot to me … for example, “You Are Not Alone”, which I couldn’t find all the lyrics to, but I could find the lyrics to the first half, which seem to be about pressure that’s placed on celebrities to put on an act for the purpose of profit.

Overall, there’s a lot to like here, and I’m giving this album a 6.5/10, but I’m not going to say it blew my mind or anything. Still good, though, and I recommend you give it a chance if you haven’t yet.

Final Thoughts
Rating: 6.5/10
Favourite Tracks: “Sweet Like Candy”, “Trust the Process”, “You Are Not Alone”, “So, Anyway…”
Least Favourite Tracks: “A Different Kind of Bed Death”, “Neila Forever”

The Art of Forgetting by Caroline Rose:

Caroline Rose is one of many artists whose name I’ve seen/heard a lot, but whom I’ve never listened to an album by … well, I hadn’t until now.

And I’m definitely glad I listened to this, because it’s really good! I mostly like the production, especially the synths, a lot of which sound fantastic!

This album doesn’t really fit under a specific genre description in my opinion … there are multiple genres I could use to describe this, ranging from folk to dream pop to … I don’t even know. I don’t even know if those were accurate descriptions, because I know so little about genres.

Overall, I really ended up liking this a lot! Are there some songs I don’t really like? Yeah … “Stockholm Syndrome” features really creepy lyrics and I don’t even like the way the song sounds, but overall, I’ve got to say, I really like this album! “Love / Lover / Friend” is a fantastic opener with an amazing build to it, and there are some other huge highlights here, too! I mostly like the production on this album, and there are a lot of great lyrics, too! Extremely strong 7.5/10!

Final Thoughts
Rating: 7.5/10
Favourite Tracks: “Love / Lover / Friend”, “Everywhere I Go I Bring the Rain”, “Love Song for Myself”, “Jill Says”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Stockholm Syndrome”