Same as before, just a link and the shortlist below for those of you who wanna get to the good stuff. This is officially the last pre-published thing I'm moving over here, so maybe the next one will be a fully-organized and written-out list. Or maybe it won't. Who knows? Either way, enjoy. https://rateyourmusic.com/list/Ridley2014/top-50-albums-of-2018/ 50. … Continue reading Top 50 Albums of 2018 →

May 11, 2018 / Sub Pop 10 (January 9, 2019) SOUND, baby!a conductor of previous working experience You'd have to really close your eyes and ears nowadays to deny that there's been a significant trend of longer-term artists changing their style and creative process going on. It's often been the subject of some controversy and … Continue reading Beach House – 7 →

October 26, 2018 / Domino 9.8 (November 1, 2018) So, what constitutes a magnum opus? Everyone already knows what the concept is, and the overall gist is simply that it's an artist's greatest work. But especially after spending some good quality time with Julia Holter's music, in part these past couple days but also the … Continue reading Julia Holter – Aviary →

August 11, 2003 / Warp 10 (October 14, 2018) As far as I can recall, I haven't had an artist die on me just yet. I've discovered a couple bigger ones after either their death or the death of an important band member (see: Lou Reed with The Velvet Underground), and I did see Frightened … Continue reading Broadcast – Haha Sound →

September 14, 2018 / Sub Pop 9.3 (September 18, 2018) (Note: This review was the top-featured review on the front page of RateYourMusic for a week or so following its original publishing) Man, Justin Vernon really opened a can of worms back in 2016. Now EVERY iconic indie band is going electronic! Well, there were … Continue reading Low – Double Negative →

September 7, 2018 / ANTI- 8.6 (September 13, 2018) The NERVE of these people! I name When You Walk a Long Distance You Are Tired one of the best albums of the year, put my hope in Mothers being one of the new great indie folk bands of the latter half of the decade, and they go … Continue reading Mothers – Render Another Ugly Method →

June 15, 2018 / Domino 9.1 (August 12, 2018) You wouldn't be able to tell in the slightest that Melody Prochet could have quite possibly been on the verge of death at this time around a year ago. We never did learn about what exactly the "serious accident" she found herself in was, but we … Continue reading Melody’s Echo Chamber – Bon voyage →

July 19, 2018 / self-released 8.2 (August 1, 2018) I said it at the very start of my review for Girlpool's sophomore effort Powerplant last year and I'll say it again here: it's the small indie bands that are the future of the genre. Just a few months after the review was written, I saw Snail Mail … Continue reading SALES – Forever & Ever →

September 10, 2007 / Domino 9.7 (March 22, 2018) God damn. There are two Animal Collective albums that I hold higher than Strawberry Jam (Sung Tongs, Merriweather Post Pavilion, which I'll get to eventually), but never have I found my ("only") third-favorite album by any band to be by far the most absolutely, hysterically fun to listen to. … Continue reading Animal Collective – Strawberry Jam →

1992 / Tupelo 9.5 (January 24, 2018) Poor Jawbreaker. You think Weezer had a rough time in the mid-90s? Well, you'd be right, they very much did. But I'd bet a fair sum that Jawbreaker, though going through a very similar tragedy with 1995's then-unfairly-hated Dear You, suffered a lot more for it, especially since they … Continue reading Jawbreaker – Bivouac →