Read Poets Society

    Worlds Apart is Make Them Suffer's third full-length album, and it is about as far from their previous album Old Souls as that album was from their frostbitten debut, Neverbloom . It's this kind of progression and evolution as a band that keeps me intently waiting on what's coming next, and Make Them Suffer have managed to create an album that is true to their core but also a brave step into something new and fresh. The most obvious change to me was a slight deviation away from their deathcore sound into a more metalcore-orientated sound. Don't let that put you off though, because this album puts them in the company of bands like August Burns Red and Silent Planet who are writing music that expands and reworks on a mostly stale genre in exciting and sometimes spectacular fashion. There are still nods to their earlier sounds, though, in particular on the track "Vortex", and this transition doesn't feel jarring or alienating at all, but rather a natural...

   This newest offering from Foster The People is so innocuous and without intent you'll probably forget about it a day or two after you hear it. The melodies lack any sticking power, and the instrumentals are so uncomfortably boring the album seems to wash over you in a single wave - not in the positively intense and overwhelming way a Sigur Ros album manages to pull off all the time, but through general lack of interest and a washing together of the few notable musical ideas. There really wasn't anything for me to hang onto at all with this album, and while occasionally there was a chorus that peaked my interest briefly, those moments were few and far between on a mostly forgettable album.    Rating: trash.

   Whenever Trent Reznor releases something, I pay attention. Simply based off the amount of care and obsessive attention to detail that goes into everything he does, I have huge amounts of respect and admiration for everything he has done, regardless of how much I do or don't like them. Everything from Nine Inch Nails albums to his other projects like How To Destroy Angels and his creepy-ass movie scores I'll eat up eagerly and pull apart slowly, like a pass-the-parcel - only it's never a nice present in the middle.    Last year's EP Not The Actual Events was bloody awesome - a huge improvement from 2013's Hesitation Marks , and that trend has continued with Add Violence , the second album in a trilogy of EPs set to be completed later this year. It shows more restraint than the wonderfully messy Not The Actual Events , while maintaining the rage that was lost on the last couple of LPs (albeit simmering under the surface menacingly a lot of the time). "Less Th...

   I remember clearly how astounded I was while hearing Celia Pavey's rendition of Simon & Garfunkel's "Scarborough Fair" on The Voice back in 20-something, and thinking to myself that I should keep an eye on her music after the show finished. For whatever reason I completely forgot to do that, and her debut full-length under musical moniker Vera Blue Perennial is the first thing I have heard from her since. It certainly wasn't at all what I was expecting, and while it certainly was an interesting and unpredictable listen the first time around, for the most part I was underwhelmed by the blend of sleek, dreamy electronica Pavey is now dealing in. Had I listened to her previous EPs and guest spots this wouldn't have been a huge surprise, but she has pretty much entirely shed her shy folk vibe for a strident, slightly run of the mill auto-tuned Flume-fest. I honestly feel like Pavey's strongest asset - her voice - is lost to the swelling, wobbly synths a...

   I have always had a hard time getting into Tyler, The Creator's music, but I have noticed a trend of his newer albums appealing to me significantly more. Whether that is simply as I become more and more accustomed to his music or if it is a conscious direction shift on the part of Tyler is irrelevant, really, because Flower Boy seems to be at the peak of his career ark so far - miles ahead of his earlier works, and an inspired and sincere follow up to 2015's Cherry Bomb . The release of this album was inevitably under the shadow of the media storm around Tyler's coming out of the closet, but Flower Boy isn't the coming-out record everyone thought it might have been. Significantly shorter than his other records at only 45 minutes, Flower Boy  is restrained and concise where before he may have ben indulgent and overblown. It is a dramatic course correction for Tyler, and it's surprisingly beautiful and meditative in places. Gone for the most part are the "shoc...

   Swans are one of the most challenging bands I've come across in my pursuit of music (since I began branching out from the radio and my parents' CD collection), and Soundtracks For The Blind is arguably the best - certainly the most ambitious - release in their vast discography. While both The Seer and To Be Kind are both also favourites of mine, Soundtracks has a weird energy about it that is totally unique, creepy and completely compelling. Put together as a sort of soundtrack to a non-existent movie (as the title suggests), Swans moved away from their furious noise rock roots into more atmospheric, loop inspired territory to dazzling effect. Soundtracks can be an exhausting listen, but when approached at the right time with the right intentions it becomes frighteningly hypnotic and dark. Listening to something like this is an incredibly rewarding and affirming task, and was invaluable to me in terms of widening my expectations and attention when listening to music. If you...

   There aren't many artists that have been making consistently exciting music for as long as Phil Elverum has been under his various musical pseudonyms, the most notable being The Microphones and Mount Eerie, the latter being the second incarnation after The Microphones' Mount Eerie.  From experimental beginnings to rugged indie-folk to what was essentially Phil's black metal album in Black Wooden Ceiling  and back again, nothing he has done has felt like a re-tread of what had come before, but somehow he has managed to maintain an instantly recognisable sonic fingerprint across all his projects.    For me the peak moments in his expansive discography come in the form of 2001's The Glow Pt. 2 and 2003's Mount Eerie .      A saw an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney showing the work of Japanese artist Tatsuo Miyajima, which was a series of installations ruminating on life and death and the cycle it forms. All of the in...