Hello, everyone! Welcome to my website—or, if you’ve read my posts before, welcome back! Today I’m doing six mini album reviews! As always, the ratings are just based on how I personally feel about these albums.

I’m planning to have my Top 100 Favourite Songs of 2022 posted by mid-May, but we’ll see if it’s done by then or not … yes, it’s later than I was hoping, but better late than never.

I’m keeping my thoughts on these albums pretty brief here, and while I could go into more detail, they are ‘mini reviews’. Anyway, let’s get this post started!

93696 by Liturgy:

So, this is a metal album that I’ve seen getting lots of critical acclaim. And even as someone who hasn’t listened to any of Liturgy’s other albums yet, I was very excited to hear this!

That being said, I often have a hard time getting into really long albums, and this album is over eighty minutes long … but I still had high expectations, so after giving it multiple listens, what do I think of it?

I think it’s fantastic! The drumming is great, the guitars are great, there’s a lot of great melodies in the instrumentation, and the vocals are fantastic as well!

I think the instrumental tracks add a lot to the album, too, and they’re a big part of the reason why I love this album—with the exception of “Red Crown II”, which just doesn’t click for me at all.

There’s a lot of really interesting lyrics here, too, even if I have a hard time understanding a lot of them. And the production sounds amazing, with the excellent guitar distortion standing out a lot!

Sometimes the mixing doesn’t quite work for me with the drums feeling a bit quiet at points, and the eighty-plus minute running time doesn’t fully feel earned to me, but I still think this is excellent! 8/10!

Final Thoughts
Rating: 8/10
Favourite Tracks: “Caela”, “Before I Knew the Truth”, “93696”, “Angel of Individuation”, “Antigone II”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Red Crown II”

Always Lifted by Richard Batchelor:

So, how did I find out about this album by an artist with less than 60 monthly listeners on Spotify?

Well, I saw Mark Grondin’s review of this album on Spectrum Pulse, and I was curious to hear the album … so, I decided to check it out. What do I think of it?

Well, it’s an instrumental album that doesn’t give me much to say, even though I really like it. First of all, I can’t say I love this album … partially because it does feel a bit too repetitive at points. But overall, it’s just a really nice, calming listen with great production and great piano melodies, and while I don’t find it super consistent, and it often doesn’t really wow me, I enjoyed it, and it’s got replay value.

Overall, this is a 7/10 for me … while I like the way some of these songs build, I wish some of them built a bit more. But I like it overall, and I recommend giving it a listen.

Final Thoughts
Rating: 7/10
Favourite Tracks: “Fresh Threads”, “Lovebirds”, “Slow Dancing in the Rain”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Starlight Hour”

PORTALS by Melanie Martinez:

Before I share my feelings on this album, I just want to mention that I’ve seen some people say some of the lyrics on this album have something to do with the allegations against Melanie Martinez. I haven’t looked into the situation much, and I don’t know whether or not Melanie Martinez is guilty. Either way, I was able to separate the lyrics from this situation, partially because the lyrics don’t seem blatantly related to it. Obviously this is a very serious situation, but I just want to make it clear that it doesn’t impact my feelings on the album itself … speaking of which, do I like the album?

Well, despite this album getting lots of negative reviews, I actually like the album quite a bit!

This album is full of great melodies, both in the vocals and the instrumentation, and I really like the production for the most part!

Some of these songs do feel a bit uninteresting to me compositionally, like “SPIDER WEB”, but I wouldn’t say I dislike any song here. Also, some of the lyrics on this album are pretty bad in my opinion, but I also like a lot of the lyrics here about life and death.

And “TUNNEL VISION” is such an incredible track! Not only do I love the lyrics (which seem to partially be about fame, and sexualization of celebrities, and obsessions with celebrities), but the vocal melodies are fantastic, and the production sounds amazing! It’s such a haunting track, as are multiple other songs on the album.

So, overall … yeah, I know this will be controversial, but for me this album is a 7/10. I like it quite a bit!

Final Thoughts
Rating: 7/10
Favourite Tracks: “DEATH”, “TUNNEL VISION”, “LIGHT SHOWER”, “BATTLE OF THE LARYNX”, “NYMPHOLOGY”
Least Favourite Tracks: “SPIDER WEB”

Figura by The Canyon Observer:

When getting close to finishing this mini review, I found out this album may have been released in late 2022, not 2023 … I saw different things depending on where I looked. I’m pretty sure it’s from 2023, so I’m not going to call this a throwback review, but I could be wrong.

Anyway, this is the third studio album by The Canyon Observer, a band formed back in 2011 whom I’m not sure I’d ever heard of until recently. And while I still haven’t listened to their first two albums, I decided to check out their newest album, Figura.

This album’s lyrics are in Slovenian, and as someone who only knows English, I just translated the lyrics online, but I’m not sure how accurate the translation was. But from what I saw … the lyrics didn’t really wow me or anything, but this seems like it’s supposed to be a haunting, terrifying listen that’s more about the combination of the lyrics and the sound.

And … I can’t say it’s really clicking for me that much … at least as a full album. Don’t get me wrong, I like some parts of this album, like the buildup on the first song, and the intensity with the screams and great production on “Slepič”, but there are also points where it just sounds like noise to me, like the second half of “Koža”, and in the song “Križ” that noisy sound gets very annoying.

This album is an interesting mix of a few genres, including metal and jazz (at least if I understand what jazz music is … I’m bad at determining what genre different albums are), but at times it just feels like a mess. And I’m not saying that to be mean, it’s just what I hear when I listen to it.

I’m not saying this album is ‘just noise’, I’m just saying a lot of it just sounds like noise to my ears. But, as always, that’s just how I felt listening to this.

“Dih” and “Slepič” are both songs that I love, but overall, I’m not really a big fan of this album. I’m going to give this a 5.5/10.

Final Thoughts
Rating: 5.5/10
Favourite Tracks: “Dih”, “Slepič”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Križ”

The record by boygenius:

I’m not super familiar with the discographies of any of the boygenius members, but I mostly like what I’ve heard from all three of them. So, I was excited about their full-length debut album! Did it live up to my expectations?

Well … not really. And don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike this album … I just expected to like it more than I do.

But what I think is more surprising is that one of the biggest reasons why I don’t like this album is Phoebe Bridgers. And the reason why that surprises me so much is because of how much I love her 2020 album Punisher. She’s an excellent vocalist, but on this album she sounds like she’s falling asleep, and her vocal melodies don’t do much for me, either.

There are a lot of lyrics here that I like, but I’m also not going to pretend the lyrics blew my mind or anything. And I’m not the biggest fan of the production here, either, with the snares and guitar sounding kind of awkward together on songs like “$20” and “Anti-Curse”, and I often find the vocal production doesn’t really fit with the instrumentals.

“Not Strong Enough” is probably my favourite song on the album, and I love how the guitar sounds on this track. “Leonard Cohen” is another big highlight for me, but eventually we get to the closing track which features some of my least favourite vocal melodies on the album and a very boring instrumental in my opinion.

So, yeah, I didn’t like this as much as I thought I would … for me, it’s a strong 6/10. I like it, but it’s not fully clicking for me as much as I expected.

Final Thoughts
Rating: 6/10
Favourite Tracks: “Not Strong Enough”, “Leonard Cohen”, “Satanist”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Letter To An Old Poet”

Modern Life by The New Division:

Someone from The New Division’s publicity team sent me this album, so I decided to check it out.

Well … after giving this album more than a half-dozen listens, I think it falls into the category of, ‘I like it, but I feel like I ‘should’ love it, and I don’t quite love it.’ And I used quotes on the word ‘should’ because I don’t actually think I should or shouldn’t love this album … it’s just that it seems like the kind of album I would love, but I don’t.

I mostly like the mixing, and the production, with the synths sounding awesome! And there are lots of great synth melodies, too! The percussion sounds great, especially the snares … so, why isn’t this clicking for me more?

Well, I guess I just find it inconsistent. Most of the elements that I like I don’t find super consistent throughout the album, and there are a couple tracks that don’t really click for me at all. That being said, the title track is amazing, there are a few other songs here that I love, and I mostly like the lyrics, too, so … 7/10. If you haven’t heard it, I recommend it, at least if you’re into synth-pop!

Final Thoughts
Rating: 7/10
Favourite Tracks: “Modern Life”, “Southside”, “System Shock”, “Sequence”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Stateside”