1st Quarter Of 2016 in Music - Wrap Up

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2016 is off to an extremely strong start. Here’s just a list of all of the new albums I’ve listened to from January to March and links to reviews, if applicable.

Doing it a bit different this time, doing it by rating, from greatest to worst. Alphabetical just seemed trivial.

5-Star Albums (8.5 - 10)

4-Star Albums (6.5 - 8)

3-Star Albums (4.5 - 6)

2-Star Albums (2.5 - 4)

  • Killswitch Engage - Incarnate: 4
  • Cozz - Nothin Personal: 3.5

1-Star Albums (0 - 2)

  • None! :D

 

Top Albums Of 2016 (so far)

  1. AURORA - All My Demons Greeting Me As A Friend
  2. Panic! At The Disco - Death Of A Bachelor
  3. Deftones - Gore
  4. Dream Theater - The Astonishing
  5. Foxes - All I Need
  6. Daughter - Not To Disappear
  7. Lacey Sturm - Life Screams
  8. HÆLOS - Full Circle
  9. Weezer - Weezer (White Album)
  10. LIGHTS - Midnight Machines

Top Songs Of 2016 (so far)

  1. AURORA - 'Murder Song (5, 4, 3, 2, 1) (Acoustic)'
  2. Panic! At The Disco - 'Emperor's New Clothes'
  3. Deftones - 'Hearts/Wires'
  4. Foxes - 'Better Love'
  5. Lacey Sturm - 'Rot'
  6. AURORA - 'Through The Eyes Of A Child'
  7. Deftones - 'Phantom Bride'
  8. Dream Theater - 'Moment Of Betrayal'
  9. Daughter - 'New Ways'
  10. Jack Garratt - 'My House Is Your Home'

Thanks for reading my reviews and following! :) A lot more to come, I’m nowhere near stopping. Follow me on Twitter or add me on Facebook too, while you’re at it.

The Drones - Feelin Kinda Free

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Electronic meets gritty punk in The Drones’ new record, Feelin Kinda Free. The Australian quintet has offered up their seventh record this year, the first since 2013′s I See Seaweed. The album explores a wide variety of sounds and combines electronics with guitar noise that sounds like it’s being amplified by dirt. 

A sense of the dirtiness straight off the beginning with ‘Private Execution’, a dark track with a brooding bassline on top of chilling guitar synths and the screeching of scratched guitar strings. This song also highlights the Nirvana-esque lyricism that the band has; quote the second verse: “But what do fish know about water? / I'm probably someone's entertainment.” The next track, single ‘Taman Shud’ brings some funk in the most disjointed of fashions, synths panning left and right on top of the crunchy, staccato picked guitars. Things take a softer turn as the album approaches it’s center, with ‘Then They Came For Me’ and ‘To Think That I Once Loved You’ taking on more personal subjects. The latter of the two is the peak of the album, a massive build up of haunting harmonies as the slow moving monster sluggishly chugs along into a beautiful climax. The Drones take some influence from other artists following the meat of the album; ‘Tailwind’ starts off pretty ominously but then becomes what could be a punk Lorde song, and ‘Boredom’ draws from the Nine Inch Nails playbook. The album ends just as you may expect from a band like this; ‘Shut Down SETI’ ends the record with droning synths and slow buildups.

The Drones’ seventh album is a slow, burning engine, with occasional bubbles of energy and the uncommon beautiful display of embers. It burns with a vengeance and a conviction, each note a burst of emotion. Even then, it almost feels like it’s lacking somewhere; possibly in its adventure to achieve dirty emotion, it loses touch of any sense of purity it may have. But where it lacks in purity it has in rawness, and this album is about raw revenge.

Favorite Tracks: To Think That I Once Loved You, Then They Came For Me

Least Favorite Tracks: Sometimes, Boredom

Rating: 7.5/10