I see that 3.5 stars for Heavy Pendulum. Clearly you haven't listened to it enough.
RYM-stalking huh?
Might as well post the first three from round 6!
Buddy: Cave InAlright look, this album is too long.
I like it, but it’s a bit samey and does kinda drag. There isn’t really any tonal variety at all, and not that much variety of style either. Those in themselves aren’t problems when an album is either short and punchy, or full of bangers, but neither is the case here. There are a few pretty great songs though - the essentials are Floating Skulls, Heavy Pendulum and Wavering Angel. But there are some others that are pretty good as well. Honestly you can cut maybe half an hour off this album, it would be great and you wouldn’t really lose anything. As an album listener I almost never make abridged versions of albums - either I like an album enough as created by the artist to want to own/return to it, or I don’t and I might just keep a song or two (or none). But after giving the full album a few goes, I tried an abridged version in Spotify a couple of times and it was so much much better. I think this is probably one of those rare occasions where that’s what I’ll do.
Crow: Victory Over the SunSheesh this album is intense. I’m glad that overall I came to love Thorn Woos the Wound. It just about gets the balance right so that the discordant stuff isn’t too overbearing, and the parts of the songs that are chordant and melodic are pretty glorious and immersive. The rest of the album isn’t holding up as well. I’ve given it a good number of listens as that’s what helped with Thorn, but really the only other song that’s grown on me a fair bit is Madeline Becoming Judy. It doesn’t have the same big emotional swells as Thorn, but has some interesting and cool use of synths in the melodic sections that provides quite an enjoyable and unique effect. The Gold of Having Nothing and Black Heralds are harder work though and don’t really have anything for me to hook onto. And as I’m sure comes as no surprise to you, WHEEL is not my thing at all.
The variety and high points mean I’d probably say I like the album overall, but I can’t say I love it.
Elite: WheelIt took you several rounds, but you eventually moved to sending stuff in styles where our tastes are better aligned. Even though I’m pretty lukewarm on Tool for the most part (except for Lateralus, which is superb), as I said in the roulette itself these guys seem to do a better - or rather, more consistently good - job of the same style. Jumping back to their start, the first EP, The Path, is pretty good for sure, if a little derivative with none of the songs particularly exciting. I initially thought this was the case for the next EP, The Divide, as well, but that grew on me loads. The songs are bigger, more engaging and have some strong melodic and emotional hooks. And really that’s carried on since, with some subtle shifts in style with each release. Moving Backwards is their best, for sure, but everything else they’ve done since has also been great.