Genre: Jazz Rap
Release Date: June 6, 2025
My Rating: 4.5/5

Review by sasanratersan

McKinley Dixon continues to carve out his own lane with Magic: Alive!, a rich, poetic, and emotionally layered album that fuses hip-hop, jazz, and soul in a way that feels both intimate and cinematic. This record is less about bangers and more about moments—moments of grief, Black identity, healing, and storytelling.

From the jump, you can tell Dixon is a writer at heart. His lyrics spill out like prose: dense, deliberate, and unapologetically personal. He doesn’t shy away from complexity—whether it's inner turmoil, generational trauma, or the magic of being alive amid it all. It's the kind of album that rewards repeat listens, where new meanings and textures unfold each time.

Musically, the production is lush and dynamic. There are live instruments, jazz interludes, and experimental beats that feel like they're constantly evolving. At times, though, the musical ambition can make a few tracks feel meandering or overstuffed. A bit more focus might have helped tighten the experience, but that same ambition is also what makes the album compelling.

If you're a fan of artists like Tyler, The Creator, Noname, or even early Kendrick Lamar, this album will likely speak to you. It’s not made for passive listening—Magic: Alive! wants you to sit with it, feel it, and maybe even grow with it.

McKinley Dixon delivers a poetic and powerful project that wears its heart on its sleeve. It’s not perfect, but its ambition, depth, and soul make it a standout. Magic indeed

Genre: Jazz Rock, Art Rock
Release Date: June 11, 2025
My Rating: 4.5/5

Review by heavenlypunk

All Aboard the Crazy Jiro Train

They've done it again.

betcover!!'s 6th studio album is completely different from its predecessors, but if you know a bit about the band, you know that's a given. They always change their style, and somehow, they always pull it off. This time, Yanase Jiro and the gang decided to go full jazz rock, and with the help of Jim O'Rourke, created an incredibly complex and interesting piece of art.

The genre shift was not entirely unexpected, since it was foreshadowed by the recent Uma Tour shows, where betcover!! were delving more and more into jazz arrangements. Hence, 勇気, came out as a brand new jazzy beast. Some songs have this cabaret vibe, some could be played in a smoky lounge attended by fancy people in fancy suits. And it works so well. The album title is really fitting the band. They keep doing their own thing unapologetically, and it must take tremendous Courage.

The album kicks off with 忘れる女, thus far my favorite song from this album. It's really catchy and slick, the amazing bassline courtesy of Falcon Man gives the song a quite sexy edge. By the way, can we talk about the album announcement? It's the most betcover!! thing in the world to announce the album 4 hours before its release via a random Falcon Man instagram reel of him bungee jumping. It's not even surprising at this point. Back to the album. 忘れる女 is an amazing opener, and the chorus is the star here for me. Surely, this is the track that sets the mood in a great manner, while also being most reminiscent of their earlier output.

ミー子のコンサート is hella catchy, and I can see it becoming the most popular song from this album. It's cabaretesque, chaotic and light. You just wanna open a bottle of expensive champagne and dance in circles with your beloved to this one. Such a banger. ゴーゴースチーム follows in suit, starting with some amazing saxwork by Kei Matsumaru, who's for me the MVP of this album. Another great song that sports some incredible guitar solos as well, blending jazz and art rock seamlessly. It's groovy, artsy, complex, and all of that is packaged perfectly into 6 minutes of controlled chaos.

サマーランド brings a cigarette break. You just left the crazy Jiro club for a breath of fresh air (and smoke). It's a quiet track, where Jiro Yanase's voice takes the lead role. The song unravels itself wonderfully with a mellow, dirgeful Kei sax and simple yet powerful piano melody. I saw someone on Twitter call 野猿 a Zazen Boys song made by betcover!! and hell yeah, I agree. This one's crazy, chaotic, and after a slow start evolves into a technical monster with many heads and layers of sound to unwrap. Jiro's spoken word performance deserves a shoutout, it makes the song whole.

Every betcover!! album contains a slow, neoclassical song, and ステイウィズミー is that song. Maybe even the best one from this category thus far. Nothing much to say, it's a small, heartfelt piece between 2 behemoths. 銀河ゴールデンボーイ closes the entire album, bringing all of the previous styles appearing on this project together. This one feels like watching a sunset, or a sunrise, through a misty train window. It's really evocative and mellow... it feels like love, and the thick bassline gives it an otherworldly quality.

It's a long review, I know... but one needs to do this album justice with singing the praises as detailed as possible. I cannot wait to hear it live next month. They really are the best band around, no competition.

Genre: Noise Pop, Emo
Release Date: March 19, 2025
My Rating: 4.5/5

Review by satixx

Highly anticipated 2nd full blown album lengthening hour and 16 minutes in 19 tracks, that in no way are tiring, each and every track gives its best and wants to show something. There really isn't the same idea made twice here, which for some might actually be bad, as some of these songs are so beautifully made, so catchy with their choruses and bridges that I just wish for more of it, but then immediately on the next song I do get more, but plated in a different way. Listening to Hornet Disaster is by no means a chore, each track makes me excited about the next, and each track feeling like they belong here, which is crazy, as Sputnik mentioned, there were already 70 tracks made for this, and only then they realized that this project will be about hornets. Which at first might seem kinda random, but with the lyrics and topics that seem to mention going through a breakup of some sort and all the things after it, the title Hornet Disaster doesn't seem that crazy after. It's an album about someones disaster.

Going back to the more sound sphere of this project, simply put, there are moments where you can relax, think things through but it's just a calm before a storm, as this albums main thing, similarly to Sputniks previous hardwork Come In is to blast as much sound at you, either from guitars, vocals or some synths or something I don't know that much about music, further comparing to their previous stuff, Hornet Disaster is I think the most catchy out of all three Weatherday projects, especially in the first half, with those memorable shouts like "Like an angel, in the shape of an angel", "When you say things like “What the hell” What I hear is “Take care of yourself”" or "Nostalgia drive avatar, That is me, That is me" any many many more, like really many I dont think it would be crazy to say, each song has that one moment that just went crazy, and it doesn't want to let go of my brain. Hornet Disaster is a crazy project, that because of its noisy nature, won’t please every ear, but mine are sooo pleased, like I cannot stop listening to this to the point where Im afraid I might get tired of it.

Genre: Blackgaze, Post-Metal
Release Date: March 28, 2025
My Rating: 4.5/5

Review by AudioRedux

Sunbather Perfected

This album is much more than what can be boiled down in a regular 3 paragraph review. Combined with the fact that I can’t adequately describe my feelings when listening to this kind of metal, it will lead to a pretty awkward review. Instead, a top-down approach will better divulge my emotional state before and after the album. Sunbather is a powerful album, and Deafheaven has interested me in their journey ever since. However, I think they may have one-upped themselves even from that pinnacle. Things are streamlined to glorious perfection. No huge post-rock pieces are breaking up the album flow here. Instead, the post-rock elements are baked into specific stretches of songs here and there. This adds a unique and special twist where every song reaches the stars in mesmerizing crescendos. Intense compositions, striking instrumentation, and straightforward riffs give this album a clean edge. All of this is executed while maintaining a heavy and abrasive atmosphere.

Lonely People with Power excels at doing all the right things within smaller confines. The black metal influence is direct, and the album's flow is unbreakable. The band delivers an adrenaline shot within almost every song here. It is packed full of the themes of loneliness and self-hatred—but, in the same breath, narcissism. Not to mention, all-time tracks for the band land here, like “Winona,” “Body Behavior,” and “Amethyst.” Even a track like “The Garden Route,” in its simplicity, really stands out for the dynamics it incorporates. The album also sticks an immaculate ending with “The Marvelous Orange Tree.” The vocals cascade into joy and sorrow, ebbing and flowing through the cosmos. The pain and beauty in the descriptions through the perspective of our protagonist are profound. The religious imagery of God giving a wish to the character at the very end instills a sense of reverence for the life we get to live here and now. Whether you’re alone in life or not, we’re all human and have been through that feeling before. I assure you, you’re not alone.

In conclusion, this is undoubtedly a contender for album of the year, and I'm glad I gave this an honest try. Smaller moments take me away from the experience (i.e., the pacing of “Incidental II” or the vocal delivery of some softer vocal passages). These moments are tiny and never take away from the total composition being built up from the immense momentum this album picks up almost instantly. Vocal features are incorporated tastefully and added to bring something meaningful to the table of the more significant project. Altogether, I find this album more appealing than even Sunbather. There’s room for it to bloom into one of my favorite black gaze/metal records, period.

Genre: Post Rock, Art Rock
Release Date: March 1, 2025
My Rating: 4.5/5

Review by sarkist173

I enjoyed the split record from Canut de Bon and Cóclea; it was a refreshing blast of post-hardcore and noise rock that I wish was replicated a bit more in modern punk. Canut de Bon’s contributions were especially exhilarating and powerful. Now, they’ve come out with a new album, though this time it's a mix of members from both bands under one group: Hesse Kassel. They’ve assembled themselves for La Brea, a near 80-minute blast of post-rock. The members still keep a handle on their post-hardcore and punk influences but translate them into nuanced, subtle, yet theatrical rock compositions and soundscapes. The result is a good, at points great, and even more occasionally beautiful album. However, it does suffer from some drawbacks of being fairly derivative of modern trends in underground rock music.

The one thing that I can commend this album for is how it handles the builds between the climaxes. It really takes its time, letting each of the instruments develop their character and flesh out their contributions to the soundscape before sweeping them all together for a crescendo. They complement each other throughout its runtime, and more often than not I find them more infectious and enjoyable than I would otherwise. It’s excellent musicianship, and Renatto Olivares’ passionate, stage-ready sing-talking was captivating and contributed to it all quite well. There are heavy jazz influences on this album; from the structures and compositions to the instrumentation, it enriches the experience quite a lot. On top of that, the album is solid from start to finish, with excellent sequencing making Yo La Tengo and A Latur a fittingly explosive one-two punch conclusion. The issues that I have with the record largely lie in that it’s nothing that special. It’s not doing something new that other acts like Isaac Wood-era BCNR, Maruja, and Squid haven’t done already. Admittedly, it does what it does, very, very well. Hell, I enjoyed this much more than Cowards, thanks to Renatto’s vocals and the timbres being given time to develop. But I can’t shake the feeling that I've been here before. Despite that, La Brea is still a great rock record and a good showcase for the flexibility and versatility of the musicians behind it.

Genre: Post Rock
Release Date: April 25, 2025
My Rating: 4.5/5

Review by sarkist173

BRUIT < made a decent splash with their debut when it came out. Sure, a lot of people just dismissed it as a Godspeed You! Black Emperor knockoff, but I think that they overlooked a lot of the quality that was on display. While The Machine Is Burning and Now Everyone Knows It Could Happen Again (what a title) is a project channeling the crescendocore that modern fans of post-rock dislike for fair reasons, it’s also an extremely competent and enjoyable execution of that style. Interesting string arrangements, coatings of electronic instrumentation, and solid musicianship on display for the rock instrumentation, all compressed into a solid 40-minute runtime. It’s nothing game-changing, but it was good. Since then, I haven’t been paying too much attention to what they’ve been doing. But, with a new album, why not check it out? And I’m glad I did. The Age of Ephemerality is a solid improvement over what the band brought forward on their debut. The electronics have higher prominence, the group experiments with more unique structures, and their musicianship has gotten more focused.

It’s a much more intense album. With Ephemeral acting as a haywire, chaotic, and noisy intro track, it’s clear that Bruit is leaning towards an overtly apocalyptic and dystopian angle. It’s no longer gestured to through a solemn depressiveness; it’s here, and it’s in your face about it. It’s a good tone-setter that leads into the next leg of this project, Data. This song develops quite wonderfully, somehow managing to juxtapose these beautiful strings and electronic textures with hellish, crushing, damn near metallic, and industrial-sounding riffs. Past it being thematically potent and harrowing musically, it also shows Bruit coming into its own. Having a more distinct identity and setting itself apart from the rest of the flock. It’s awesome and one of the better post-rock songs I've heard this year. Technoslavery / Vandalism is even better, coalescing all the experiments and sounds Bruit has experimented with and compacting them into this journey. A revolution in music form, steadily becoming more horrific and bleak. The crescendo is almost infernal, and I was blown away by just how well executed it was. I wish that the outro was something more novel and interesting, but it works well enough. The rest of the album isn’t quite able to get to this level of quality, though it’s still well done. Progress / Regress is very beautiful and has some nice roaring guitars to contrast it later on, and The Intoxication of Power is a great closer. Though, it might be a bit too sentimental and heavy-handed at points. Despite that, I’m happy that Bruit managed to avoid a sophomore slump and seem to be heading into their own lane now.