Album Reviews

Forever is a Feeling

by Lucy Dacus

Review from 16/09/2025

So many songs on this album are bursting with love. It's nearly painful to listen to songs like "Lost Time" and "Forever is a Feeling", because the love with which Dacus sings is infectious. These songs have wormed their way into every daydream and thought I've had for months. Then there's the rest of the album. Which hurts in a far more raw and real way. But even these painful, vulnerable songs are so stuffed full of love and care for the people in them. A bitter feeling is hard to find in this album and that makes it all the more beautiful. Also fucking hell these songs are catchy!

10/10 My album of the year.

"I notice everything about you, I can't help it / It's not a choice, it's been this way since we met / 'Cause I love you, and every day / That I knew and didn't say / Is a crying shame"

Lost Time
Tracklist
  1. Calliope Prelude
  2. Big Deal
  3. Ankles
  4. Limerence
  5. Modigliani
  6. Talk
  7. For Keeps
  8. Forever is a Feeling
  9. Come Out
  10. Best Guess
  11. Bullseye
  12. Most Wanted Man
  13. Lost Time
Tracklist
  1. Welcome To New York
  2. Blank Space
  3. Style
  4. Out Of The Woods
  5. All You Had To Do Was Stay
  6. Shake It Off
  7. I Wish You Would
  8. Bad Blood
  9. Wildest Dreams
  10. How You Get The Girl
  11. This Love
  12. I Know Places
  13. Clean
  14. Wonderland
  15. You Are In Love
  16. New Romantics
  17. "Slut!"
  18. Say Don't Go
  19. Now That We Don't Talk
  20. Suburban Legends
  21. Is It Over Now?

1989 (Taylor's Version)

by Taylor Swift

Aquamarine Green Variant

WHAT is with the weird clicking. I've heard from some sources that it's a stylistic choice and others that it's meant to be like a click track? But that's not what it sounds like? I'm not sure it's even on beat... But it's only heard on some forms of Shake It Off (Taylor's Version) - namely the CD version but I can rarely hear it on streaming.

"We were born to be suburban legends / When you hold me, it holds me together / And you kiss me in a way that's gonna screw me up forever"

Suburban Legends

Tracklist
  1. Not Alone
  2. Deep Dive
  3. Coffin Change
  4. Hide It Away
  5. Your New Favourite Song
  6. Learn to Love Again
  7. Deep Dive (Reprise)

More

by Wallows

Record Store Day Exclusive

"There's more, more to life than living"

Coffin Change

you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love

by Olivia Rodrigo

HMV Exclusive Art Cover (not shown)

Review from 12/07/2026

While I do love the idea of this album being split into two halves (girl so in love & you seem pretty sad), I think the execution of the split is disappointing. The fact that the sides aren't in the order of the album title, and the two outlying songs (and standouts in my opinion) - my way & expectationa - being placed seemingly randomly makes it not flow as beautifully as it should. I think I wish it was done more subtly to be pointed out by fans while listening and not fully split, especially since some of the songs are much more ambiguous than this categorising makes them (see: maggots for brains & purple).

"I had big dreams 'til I tied myself to you"

purple
However, the issues I have with this album are purely superficial and the music is honestly flawless. Every song is endlessly catchy and deeply painful. The only critisism I would voice is that I think some of the slower, sadder songs (what Rodrigo is known for, although not what makes her the artist she is) are lacking lyrically. Namely less which, I feel, outside of the line "I wish you loved me less" is not overly profound. Perhaps the simple lyricism is a part of this song's charm however I can't help but feel this idea could've been explored more. Anyway, the pain that emanates from cigarette smoke is enough for the whole album.

"Tell me something honest so the memories turn dark / You said that I made loving look easy / 'Til I made it hard"

cigarette smoke
Tracklist
  1. drop dead
  2. stupid song
  3. honeybee
  4. maggots for brains
  5. u + me = <3
  6. my way
  7. purple
  8. the cure
  9. begged
  10. what's wrong with me (feat. Robert Smith)
  11. less
  12. expectation
  13. cigarette smoke
Ranking
  1. maggots for brains
  2. stupid song
  3. expectations
  4. purple
  5. u + me = <3
  6. my way
  7. drop dead
  8. what's wrong with me
  9. the cure
  10. cigarette smoke
  11. less
  12. honeybee
  13. begged
Tracklist
  1. Take Me to Church
  2. Angel of Small Death and the Codeine Scene
  3. Jackie and Wilson
  4. Someone New
  5. To Be Alone
  6. From Eden
  7. In a Week (feat. Karen Cowley)
  8. Sedated
  9. Work Song
  10. Like Real People Do
  11. It Will Come Back
  12. Foreigner's God
  13. Cherry Wine (Live)
  14. In the Woods Somewhere
  15. Run
  16. Arsonist's Lullabye
  17. My Love Will Never Die
  18. From Eden (Live)
  19. Jackie and Wilson (Live)
  20. Someone New (Live)
  21. Work Song (Live)
  22. Take Me to Church (Live)

Hozier

by Hozier

2 CD Special Edition

Review from 12/07/2026

One of the most legendary debut albums of all time. Hozier is a master of lyricism and music. An album so legendary that one of the most widely known songs that is featured in numerous TV shows - namely The Walking Dead - didn't even make the main tracklist. It is incredible that Arsonist's Lullabye is a bonus track on this album.

"Don't you ever tame your demons / Always keep them on a leash"

Arsonist's Lullabye

What is extra incredible about this album is not the immense amount of yearning that Hozier puts into every track, but how he somehow manages to do that while delivering some of the greatest and most fun upbeat songs I've ever heard. Jackie and Wilson is a song that is bursting with joy and love, yet it's about one night stands and an endless cycle of imagining an unattainable future with someone who's presence is so fleeting.

"I need to be youthfully felt, 'cause god I never felt young"

Jackie and Wilson

Essays could be written about every song on this album. I'm not sure any other artist has ever created songs that are on Hozier's level in terms of the depth of the lyrics and the emotional journey he takes listeners on. Everytime I listen to a song off of this album, I discover a new interpretation of the lyrics that I've never considered before. This continues to be consistent in Hozier's next two albums, and hopefully many more to come...

"That's when my baby found me / I was three days on a drunken sin / I woke with her walls around me / Nothin' in her room, but an empty crib"

Work Song

Being Funny In A Foreign Language

by The 1975

Review from 12/07/2026

RIP Human Too. You were underappreciated in life. I mourn you on streaming everyday but am very glad I bought the album so I can listen to you whenever I want.

"I'm sorry that I quite liked seein' myself on the news / And I'm sorry that I'm someone I wish I could change"

Human Too

Not sure if this is an opinion I'd put on the internet in most spaces because I think I'd get torn apart for it, but this is my absolute favourite album from The 1975. Nothing compares to it. A short tracklist, but it does everything it needs to and more. Among everything else, it's quite satisfying that this album has been the soundtrack to my being 17 years old.

"This will get bigger if you know what I mean / I'm sorry if you're living and you're seventeen"

The 1975
Tracklist
  1. The 1975
  2. Happiness
  3. Looking For Somebody (To Love)
  4. Part Of The Band
  5. Oh Caroline
  6. I'm In Love With You
  7. All I Need To Hear
  8. Wintering
  9. Human Too
  10. About You
  11. When We Are Together
Tracklist
  1. Taste
  2. Please Please Please
  3. Good Graces
  4. Sharpest Tool
  5. Coincidence
  6. Bed Chem
  7. Espresso
  8. Dumb & Poetic
  9. Slim Pickins
  10. Juno
  11. Lie To Girls
  12. Don't Smile

Short 'n Sweet

by Sabrina Carpenter

Exclusive Alt Art Cover

The Smiths

by The Smiths

Tracklist
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