Hello, everyone! Welcome to another mini review post, this time with eight mini reviews! As always, these reviews are just how I personally feel, and none of this is meant as a personal attack on anyone, even if the review is negative.

Also, these aren’t meant to be super in-depth reviews. I’m just getting out some brief thoughts on these albums without going into a ton of detail … that’s pretty much the point of my mini review series.

And now, time for the reviews!

Sunburn by Dominic Fike:

Going into this album, the only Dominic Fike song I knew was “3 Nights”, a song I don’t really like at all. And considering that I hadn’t heard very positive things about Dominic Fike’s music from critics, my expectations for this weren’t super high … and yeah, I can’t say I’m a fan of this.

I actually think the album starts off pretty strong with an opener that I mostly like, and the second track, “Ant Pile”, is pretty great in my opinion, with some really nice guitar … but after that I start to like it a lot less, starting with “Think Fast” featuring Weezer, which interpolates “Undone – The Sweater Song”, a song that I think is WAY better than “Think Fast”, and it’s not even the slightest bit close at all … not even the tiniest bit.

Then there are a bunch of annoying choruses, and instrumentals that don’t work for me at all. And I do like some of the lyrics on this album, and there are some interesting stories where he owns up to bad things he’s done, but there are a lot of lyrics that don’t work for me at all, too, some of which I find very cringey and others which are pretty questionable, like “Frisky” which I can’t help but get this really icky feeling from, as it sounds like someone trying to pressure someone else into drinking alcohol, which I don’t think was the intent of the song (and if it was, it was probably meant in a ‘playing the role of the villain in the song’ way) but it still just makes me want to stay the hell away from the track.

And I don’t usually talk about vocals in my reviews—I don’t want to make it about how someone’s voice sounds—but at the same time, it is part of the music that we listen to, and while this isn’t anything against Dominic Fike’s voice, and I’m sure he has potential to sing with a falsetto that I like, I can’t stand his falsetto on this album. I’m not saying that to be mean, I just personally really don’t enjoy listening to it.

And toward the end of the album these songs start to get extremely annoying and it becomes more and more of a chore to get through for me as the album goes on … so, for me, it’s a strong 4/10, and the main reason that rating isn’t lower is the first two tracks. Aside from that, this just bored the hell out of me, and at times I found it quite annoying. That being said, it is an interesting album, so I’d recommend you listen to it, as I can kind of see some of the appeal.

Final Thoughts
Rating: 4/10
Favourite Tracks: “How Much Is Weed?”, “Ant Pile”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Think Fast”, “Sick”, “Frisky”, “Mama’s Boy”, “What Kinda Woman”

UGLY by slowthai:

This album came out quite a bit earlier this year, and I’m just finally getting around to reviewing it now. I’ve seen/heard slowthai’s name online a lot, but I hadn’t really listened to his music. This album has been getting a ton of critical acclaim, so I decided to listen to it and review it. So, what do I think of it?

Well, there’s clearly a lot of emotion here, and there’s also a lot of creativity … but if I’m being totally honest, it didn’t really click for me. Don’t get me wrong, I do like parts of this album, but a lot of it kind of bores me, too. It’s a huge example of an album I respect way more than I like.

I like a lot of the lyrics about the complexities of humans, and some of the production/instrumentation does work for me … but often I find the vocal melodies boring, and a lot of these songs just don’t really stick with me.

Again, I do like parts of the album, like the chorus of the title track, which is probably my favourite track here, and there’s a lot of good storytelling on this album, but the way it sounds often bores me. So, I’ll give it a 6/10. I recommend giving it a listen if you haven’t yet, but it’s not really my cup of tea.

Final Thoughts
Rating: 6/10
Favourite Tracks: “Selfish”, “Never Again”, “UGLY”
Least Favourite Tracks: “HAPPY”

Agonal Hymns by Nithing:

I’ve been seeing a lot of critical acclaim for this new Nithing album. This artist has been releasing music for a while, but this is his official debut studio album under this name. And it’s some pretty heavy death metal!

I understand why so many people find this sound incredibly annoying and difficult to listen to, but it is a sound of metal music that I often like, but also that often doesn’t really stick with me or make me want to return to albums in this sound. But that’s not to say there can’t be exceptions, so is this one of them?

Honestly, not really. I mean, it’s impressive, and there are some parts of the album that I like, but I mostly just hear a noisy mess that does sound pretty cool at points, but often doesn’t have much about it that makes me want to go back to it.

And lyrically, this doesn’t really work for me, either. Keep in mind I’m not very good at analyzing lyrics, but there are a lot of violent lyrics here, and while I get that it’s supposed to be from the perspective of a character, it just has this gross feeling to it that I can’t quite describe. It’s not that I can’t respect it as art, but I don’t really want to listen to it.

And the lyrics of the first track are quite questionable—and again, maybe I’m totally missing the point, and keep in mind my science knowledge isn’t very high, so maybe I’m misunderstanding these lyrics, but it seems to be a song from the perspective of a fetus that’s about to be aborted—no, I’m not making this up. And while it’s an interesting idea, it does maybe come across as being against abortion rights … keep in mind I said ‘maybe’, because I can’t really tell what the message here is, and I’m not sure what Matt Kilner’s stance on abortion is, but the lyrics do seem questionable. It is still a fascinating song lyrically, though.

Overall, while this album has its moments, I can’t really say it did much for me at all, and I’m going to have to give it a 5.5/10 if I’m being honest. I mean, it’s impressive, but it’s not for me at all.

Final Thoughts
Rating: 5.5/10
Favourite Tracks: “Emetic Rapture”, “The Seeping Pus of Ancient Wounds”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Lustral Cognitive Erosion”, “Wreathed in Sores”

Natural Wonder Beauty Concept by Natural Wonder Beauty Concept:

This is the debut album by Natural Wonder Beauty Concept, a duo of DJ Python and Ana Roxanne, both artists who were pretty well known already (at least in the online music reviewing community), although I’m not familiar with their solo music. But I decided to check out the debut from this duo.

And while I mostly ended up liking it, it does feel pretty far from something I legitimately love. I mostly like the production and mixing, and I think there’s some nice atmosphere to these tracks, but it loses my interest at points, with “The Veil I” and “The Veil II” being examples of that.

To me, this mostly sounds like pretty good background music without a lot about it that really grabbed my interest. I mean, I do think “Driving” has some really interesting percussion and an eerie vibe that is also oddly calming at the same time, and it’s a great song, but outside of that a lot of this just didn’t really do much for me.

Overall … I mean, a lot of the sound effects sound really good in the production and some of them add a lot to these tracks, but something feels missing here and I can’t quite tell what … but again, there is still some nice atmosphere here. 6/10 for me, I mostly enjoyed it.

Final Thoughts
Rating: 6/10
Favourite Tracks: “Fallen Angel”, “III”, “Driving”
Least Favourite Tracks: “The Veil I”

Exploited by Enjoy:

This is the first solo album in close to three years from Enjoy, despite the large amount of albums he’s released since the early 2010s. Enjoy is possibly best known as one half of the rock duo, The Garden, a duo made up of him and his brother, and while I haven’t listened to The Garden’s music, I remember hearing about an album they dropped last year.

Anyway, how is this new Enjoy album? Well, it’s not for me at all. A lot of these songs just mostly bore me. I mean, I like some of the guitar riffs, but for the most part this didn’t do much for me at all.

The mixing often sounds kind of messy, and I’m not really a huge fan of the snares here. There’s also not much in the vocal melodies that I like.

My favourite song here is “Ring Your Bell”, which wouldn’t sound too out of place on Turnstile’s 2021 album GLOW ON, but even that song sounds awkwardly mixed, with the snare feeling overpowered. And then right after that song is “Jerk Driver”, which seems to be from the perspective of someone who doesn’t drive safely, and it’s supposed to sound ‘self-aware’, but personally I find it really cringey and annoying.

And then on the topic of driving unsafely, there’s “100 Mph On the Highway”, another song about unsafe driving, and while I’m sure this wasn’t intended to promote unsafe driving, I still don’t really want to listen to it—and it’s not just the lyrics, I also find the snare overpowering, and the vocal melodies don’t do much for me.

Often the bass overpowers the mix here in my opinion (like in the title track), and I’m not a big fan of the vocal production. One example of vocal production I don’t like is in “Dear John Letter”, a song originally by Agression, and I listened to that version for the purpose of this review, and I much prefer the original.

I could make the obvious pun and say I don’t enjoy this album … or I could just give it a 4/10.

Final Thoughts
Rating: 4/10
Favourite Tracks: “Ring Your Bell”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Jerk Driver”, “100 Mph On the Highway”, “Make a Dent In the City”

Disaster by Ostraca:

I’d never heard of this metal band until recently when I saw their new album, Disaster, getting a lot of critical acclaim, and I decided to give it some listens … and unfortunately, I can’t say the album is really clicking for me as much as I’d like.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some really strong moments here for me, like the build at the end of “Heaven is Still”, the moment in “Stage Whisper” when the guitar really erupts for the first time, and “Whilom” is a fantastic track with incredible mixing and some of the best vocals on the album!

But often it kind of feels like the compositions meander too much for my liking, and at points the bass feels underpowered in the mix. There are some hard-hitting snares, but they also sound underpowered at points such as in parts of the closing track.

I think there’s more for me to like here than dislike, which is why I’m giving this a 6/10, but I get this strange feeling that I ‘should’ like it more than I do.

Final Thoughts
Rating: 6/10
Favourite Tracks: “Heaven is Still”, “Whilom”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Rebuke”

If We Stayed Alive by 12 Rods:

This is the fifth studio album by 12 Rods, a band whom I don’t remember hearing of until this album came out. I still haven’t listened to any of their other albums, and this is their first album since 2002, and they have an entirely new lineup aside from lead singer Ryan Olcott.

And this was a strange listen for me, because I think it starts and ends really well, but overall I find it quite inconsistent, and a lot of the vocal melodies don’t really do much for me, and I often find the mixing inconsistent.

“The Beating” is boring to the point where it feels like a slog to get through, and “Hide Without Delay” is kind of annoying to me, too, but I really like the guitar distortion on “Comfortable Situation”, a song which features some really fascinating lyrics, and the closing track is excellent!

I like a lot of the basslines here, but overall I just found the album inconsistent … so, for me, it’s a 5/10. There’s a lot about this album that doesn’t work for me, but it’s got its moments, and while the vocal production may sound off-putting at first, the more I listened to it, the more I started to actually kind of like the vocal production. I think it’s a mostly decent album.

Final Thoughts
Rating: 5/10
Favourite Tracks: “All I Can Think About”, “Comfortable Situation”, “Twice”
Least Favourite Tracks: “The Beating”, “Hide Without Delay”

You & I by Rita Ora:

So, this album seemed to be getting a mostly negative reception from critics, so as someone who hasn’t listened to much of Rita Ora’s music (and I don’t remember really liking the few songs of hers I have heard), I can’t say my expectations for this album were super high, but like all the albums I review I wanted to give it a fair chance.

But unfortunately, I can’t say I like this album. To me, a lot of it sounds very generic and very similar to tons of other songs I’ve heard before on the radio. Now, that being said, there are some good vocal melodies here, and at points the production sounds really good, like in “Waiting for You”, in my opinion the one great song on this album! But there’s also a lot of repetition on this album, and percussion that doesn’t really do much for me.

Lyrically I didn’t find much here that interested me. Keep in mind I’m not very good at analyzing lyrics, so maybe there’s more to these lyrics than I think there is, and also songs don’t have to be super deep lyrically for me to like them. And while I like a lot of the themes here, like self-love and also nostalgia for the past, a lot of the lyrics just feel like lyrics I’ve heard before many times. And there’s also the opener, “Don’t Think Twice”, an upbeat song in which the narrator is trying to have sex with someone and telling this person to ‘not think twice,’ and to ‘trust the way you feel tonight.’ I know it’s a song, and art can be interpreted in different ways, but to me this comes across as incredibly creepy. Anyone getting Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” ‘I know you want it’ vibes from this?

Often on this album, I feel like there’s seeds of a great song here, but it just doesn’t click for me, like “You & I”, which has some nice melodies in the vocals and synths, but the awkward, underpowered snare in the chorus makes this hook a lot less punchy.

Overall, while there are a few redeeming moments here, as a whole it just feels really uninteresting to me personally. I’m going to give this a 5/10.

Final Thoughts
Rating: 5/10
Favourite Tracks: “You Only Love Me”, “Waiting for You”, “Shape of Me”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Don’t Think Twice”, “Praising You”