Hello and welcome to my music diary! Essentially this will be a place for me to store my initial first impressions of albums after listening to it, then after some time passes I'll go back and add a revised rating. Just a note; I am an EXTREME grower when it comes to music which is why i came up with this idea to begin with. My opinions on albums can change dramatically over time. Like, my favorite album of all time I originally considered a 6/10 after first listen. I don't want to set a hard time limit on revising/revisiting my opinion on an album as it'll make things feel too chorey, but I'll try to do it for ones that I like if nothing else. I won't revisit every single album that I listen to though, anything that has less than a 6/10 initial probably won't ever receive a revised rating and many 6s probably won't either.

Also I have never played an instrument in my life and have no real music knowledge so please do not take my entirely subjective opinions too seriously! My entire list of albums that I've listened to can be viewed below this diary as well. (My list currently is basically a placeholder as I've just imported it from RYM)

Take me back!

Entry #16

2/28/2024
Can't Swim - Death Deserves A Name
6.5/10 Initial Rating
??? Revised Rating
May or may not have picked this up because I really liked the cover art. Short and sweet with a pretty unique and very good vocalist; I could see this growing on me bit, and the opening track's a total banger. I would definitely recommend this EP to any genre fan.

Highs - It's all good, but Your Clothes, Come Home and Right Choice stand out the most to me.

Revised Thoughts/Comments: TBD

Entry #15

2/27/2024
A Vain Attempt - Love Is Like Suicide
6/10 Initial Rating
??? Revised Rating
I largely just picked this up because ZAMN that cover art is great and it had a short runtime being an EP and all but I found the music here to be surprisingly quality. Lot of screams incorporated in and when things get more melodic I feel A Vain Attempt's vocalist honestly sounds really distinct from others in this general Emo-Pop sphere. I could see this one being a grower, genre fans certainly can't go wrong by giving this a shot.

Highs - She Was A Princess Who Had It All Until The Day She Disappeared, I Can't Escape, You Broke My Heart

Revised Thoughts/Comments: TBD

Entry #14

2/27/2024
Silverstein - Discovering the Waterfront
7/10 Initial Rating
??? Revised Rating
I'll concede that my rating of this is maybe a little higher than I feel i'd rate this "objectively", so to speak. This doesn't really do anything unique with the general formula that Saosin innovated nor does it come with the distinct style and cultural legacy that MCR forged, but it's a very solid Emo-Pop record with great vocals and some pretty fun background instrumentals. My main complaint is just how samey this record feels at times, especially in the middle.

Highs - Your Sword Vs My Dagger, Smile In Your Sleep, Ides Of March, Rodeo Clown, Fist Wrapped In Blood

Revised Thoughts/Comments: TBD

Entry #13

2/27/2024
Saosin - Translating the Name
7.5/10 Initial Rating
??? Revised Rating
Wow. You can really tell where a lot of the 3rd wave emo-pop movement came from; this EP. Saosin absolutely kills this and while I am sure there was experimentation and forebearers before them you can just hear all of the influence that other bands took from this. Beyond it's influence, it also just flat out aces the sound and can stand easily with any of those later projects without missing a beat. Very impressive EP. All killer, no filler. Every song ranges from good to great. Genre essential.

Highs - Literally all of it but especially Seven Years

Revised Thoughts/Comments: TBD

Entry #12

2/26/2024
Macroblank - ダウンウィズザキング
6/10 Initial Rating
??? Revised Rating
A friend recommended this and it's very nice for what it tries to do. Peak study and/or stare at the ceiling core; groovy yet sparse. I find that I often have to be in a very specific mood to enjoy these sort of more repetitive in nature instrumentals and it's a shame since so much good music of it's style is out there.

Highs - idk it all kinda blends, not really an album where you pick specific highs imo

Revised Thoughts/Comments: TBD

Entry #11

2/24/2024
Sunny Day Real Estate - LP2
8/10 Initial Rating
??? Revised Rating
Listening to this after SDRE's Diary grew on me immensely and I will say that this project tapers off a bit in the middle which prevents me from holding it in quite the same regard as Diary. In particular, the cover/reperformance of 8 is just so much worse than the one on Diary and the vocals on both Iscarabaid and (hot take) J'Nuh that make Jeremy sound like an obscure British colonial governor from the 1800s are very offputting to me. However, the last 3 songs come in strong to save the day, with Rodeo Jones perhaps being the best SDRE song this side of Seven. Absolutely great song. Overall, still a fantastic project and if you liked Diary I don't really see why you wouldn't like this and I definitely don't understand why this seems to be held in less regard by a lot of SDRE fans.

Highs - Rodeo MFin Jones holy hell, Friday, Theo B, Red Elephant, 5/4, Spade and Parade, Bucket of Chicken

Revised Thoughts/Comments: TBD

Entry #10

2/22/2024
Seven Storey Mountain - Based On A True Story
6/10 Initial Rating
??? Revised Rating
Starts off very strong with 3 out of 4 hits but then trails off towards the end and I didn't care for the 7 minute long finale track in the slightest if I'm honest. Still deserves more attention, solid project.

Highs - So Soon, Waste Of Time, Where Were You

Revised Thoughts/Comments: TBD

Entry #9

2/21/2024
Thursday - Full Collapse
7.5/10 Initial Rating
??? Revised Rating
Found myself offput my the vocals at first and couldn't make it through this but I finally sat down and gave it another chance and wow this grew on me a lot. Very consistent yet doesn't fall into the pitfall of feeling repetitive or grating after a while. Definitely going to check out "War All The Time" after this, this is a fantastic project and genre essential.

Highs - Standing on the Edge of Summer, Autobiography of a Nation, A Hole In The World, Concealer, Paris in Flames, Understanding In A Car Crash

Revised Thoughts/Comments: TBD

Entry #8

2/20/2024
At The Drive-In - Relationship of Command
6/10 Initial Rating
??? Revised Rating
Coming from being on a Mars Volta kick and having Deloused raise up into probably my overall top 30 or so albums in part thanks to it, I decided to check out their predecessor's most renowned work. I must say, I feel somewhat offput by how much more rapsy Cedric's vocals are here. The background instrumentation on some songs is absolutely kick ass though, like the first track "Arcarsenal" which just fits the album art so well, idk how to explain it but it's pure "horse charging at you while carrying a carriage" core and is basically the perfect opener. Hoping this will grow as I really like some parts and really don't like others.

Highs - Arcarsenal, Pattern Against User, One Armed Scissor, Quarantined (mmmm that thunderstorm sample)

Revised Thoughts/Comments: TBD

Entry #7

2/19/2024
American Football - American Football
7.5/10 Initial Rating
??? Revised Rating
I really didn't expect to complete this honestly. When I first heard this I immediately grew to like Never Meant but every subsequent song afterwards I found incredibly repetitive and just dropped it around the halfway point figuring I'd never finish it and that Never Meant was the highlight. Eventually since I'm a degenerate for altered song speeds I got led into a rabbithole by the algorithm after listening to Never Meant slowed on repeat for about 20 minutes and this led to me hearing "Honestly?" slowed as well and I went "wait a sec, this is really good!". Inspired me to revisit the entire thing and damn what a beautiful project. Also god damn I love the album cover and that silly little house so much. Weird case where my initial rating already indicates the album growing on me a bit, at first I wasn't into this at all. Here's to it continuing.

Highs - Never Meant, Honestly?, But the Regrets Are Killing Me, For Sure, I'll See You When We're Both Not So Emotional

Revised Thoughts/Comments: TBD

Entry #6

2/18/2024
Loathe - I Let It In and It Took Everything
6/10 Initial Rating
??? Revised Rating
Solid Deftones clone, this one taking more after their later sound you can find on albums like Koi No Yokan instead of their earlier materials. A lot of this just didn't really click with me admittedly, but it is something I'll definitely revisit in the future since KNY is an all time favorite of mine and I suppose it could just be a matter of growing.

Highs - Aggressive Evolution, Screaming, Gored

Revised Thoughts/Comments: TBD

Entry #5

2/16/2024
Sunny Day Real Estate - Diary
6/10 Initial Rating
9/10 Revised Rating
I wish I liked the rest of this as much as I like Seven. If I were to make a top 50 list of my favorite songs it'd probably be up there but I just couldn't get into the rest in nearly the same fashion. Would probably be a 5 if not for that one song. Hoping some will grow on me.

Highs - Seven, The Blankets Were the Stairs, In Circles

Revised Thoughts/Comments: Uhhh.. so yeah, suffice to say this one grew from a tenative like into one of my all time favorites LOL. I think, even though I appreciated how experimental Enigk's vocals were on first listen they did sort of throw me off with how... odd they were. The main reason I revisited this one is just because of Seven; this is actually very similar to my experience with the Magnolia Electric Co. I loved Farewell Transmission on first listen, like LOVED it, then didn't like much else and was ultimately a bit underwhelmed. With how that one eventually became one of my all time favorites, and how I loved Seven in a similar way to how I loved Farewell Transmission on first listen and with how both were relatively unique/new territory for me I decided to revisit this figuring it had that potential and boy oh boy was I in for a treat. The background instrumentation grew on me massively; I feel at first my brain sort of just defaulted to "Oh yeah, it's emo so the background music's gonna sound kinda similar" but that honestly isn't the case at all here in my opinion. Enigk also grew one of my favorite vocalists in any genre anywhere, and the way his vocals just.. fit the extremely impressive-in-their-own-right instrumentals. It's like, "God, how didn't I understand it sooner?". I am still not a fan of the extremely soft "Pheurton Skerto" and "Grendel", but every other track now is in my spotify likes and I don't just give out likes. This album is so fucking intense. So raw, so powerful and so moving.

Entry #4

2/15/2024
GAME CENTER - I Have To Go Home
7/10 Initial Rating
??? Revised Rating
2010 is an absolute banger and every other song is very solid as well. Lots of potential here, hope to see more from these guys and I'll definitely need to listen to their first album. Short and sweet, give it a listen if you have 12minutes to kill.

Highs - 2010, Green Nasty House, Physical Threat

Revised Thoughts/Comments: TBD

Entry #3

2/14/2024
Trainwreck - Boys Night Out
5/10 Initial Rating
??? Revised Rating
Decent if forgettable emo pop project. It's not bad just... it's sort of what I'd imagine an AI in the year 2050 would render if you gave it a "Make a 2000s Emo Pop album" prompt. If you're a huge MCR/PTV/other adjacent bands of this general sound fan you'd probably like it well enough as it's solid for what it tries to do.

Highs - Medicating, Composing, Dreaming

Revised Thoughts/Comments: TBD

Entry #2

2/13/2024
Turnover - Peripheral Vision
7/10 Initial Rating
??? Revised Rating
Very consistent and dreamy sounding record. Starts off incredibly strong with bangers back to back to back to back in Cutting My Fingers Off, New Scream, Humming and Hello Euphoria but the back half tapered off quite a bit for me. Though to be fair, I can't tell if this is a result of me growing tired of the sound or the songs just getting weaker or if I just took the back half for granted. Subsequent listens will probably help me figure this question out, but as of now a solid album and I love New Scream.

Highs - New Scream, Cutting My Fingers Off, Hello Euphoria, Humming, Take My Head

Revised Thoughts/Comments: TBD

Entry #1

2/07/2024
The Jim Yoshii Pile Up - A Long Winter
8.5/10 Initial Rating
9/10 Revised Rating
Dude. WTF? How do they only have 1.3k monthly on spotify? I'm legitimately floored, and I rarely walk away with this strong of a first impression ever really. This truly may be my favorite emo album that I've listened to and ive barely even replayed it much yet. Vocalist Paul G is maybe the best that I've heard in the genre, especially on the less poppy side of things. His voice is so melancholic in a way that meshes with the background instrumentation flawlessly, and every song is vastly different from how it started by the end. The songs never stop evolving and in general sound so distinct and unique compared to most other emo albums ive heard. Wonderful!

Highs - Monotonologue, Jetzt Mit Iodine, Breakdown Champion, The Shark Repellent, This is the Last Day

Revised Thoughts/Comments: Not much of a grower nor much of a shrinker. I'd say my appreciation for Shark Repellent and Breakdown Championship rose hence the slight bump, while I still can't seem to get into Hello nor Before I Left, After I Got Back. I'm not sure what it is about Hello specifically, I think some part of my brain just associates the song title being "Hello" and him saying "Hello" so often on the chorus as being cheesy and it kills the song to me. Probably a dumb reason but idk, it's like the whole "He said the thing!" trope and I've never found that very endearing in music nor films nor whatever else. Still an absolutely fantastic album and essential for the genre; probably in my all time top 10, if not just outside of it as I only have 12 9/10s as of writing and this is one of them.