Further Seems Forever — Penny Black

7/10 Further Seems Forever sound older but not washed up on their reunion album, Penny Black, happy to be making music together again. Returning original frontman, (the now gritty) Chris Carrabba, sounds more energetic than anyone, wanting to give something back to the band he left twelve years ago. Penny Black‘s production is strangely muddy,

Tonight At Six

I’d rather be the person on the bier than the person who has to take my mid-term.

Further Seems Forever — Hide Nothing

9/10 Apparently, what I want Further Seems Forever to sound like is far different from what most other people want Further Seems Forever to sound like. Case in point: the band’s third album, and only release featuring vocalist, Jon Bunch, Hide Nothing.I love Hide Nothing. I gives me everything I want from Further Seems Forever.

The Only Song I Ever Liked By This Band

But I like it a lot. Keeping me going right now. Somebody take these mid-terms for me. Pleasers?

Further Seems Forever — How to Start a Fire

7/10 Further Seems Forever’s second album, How to Start a Fire, certainly starts strong. New vocalist, Jason Gleason, injects grit into the opening line, “Let’s set this city ablaze” on the album’s opening title track. This is a manly step up from the whinier previous vocalist, Chris Carrabba, though Gleason sometimes has to near scream

I Can’t Tell If I Like This or Not

Actually, I feel that way about all of The xx’s music. What’s the point at being that good at building up something, but NEVER EVER paying it off? There’s an obscene metaphor I could make here, but I’m going to keep this post classy. Besides, I already made you think about it anyway, so sorry.

Since I’ve Been in a Sadistic Mood All Week

Goodnight, except I’ll be doing homework and eating M & M’s. FML, and not ironically. You ever have one of those moments where you’re not sure what you hate more between yourself and everything else? It seems like an emo statement, but if I’m the only one who feels that way sometimes, the communists win.

Further Seems Forever — The Moon Is Down

8/10 Chris Carrabba’s singing can be a bit much to take. Over-dramatic doesn’t even begin to describe it. If you like your male singers to sound like manly men, you are looking in the wrong place. Carrabba sounds like he is belting out songs next to a rainy window, gesticulating wildly with his hands. His

Fuel — Sunburn

8/10 I can’t tell you when I first heard that song. It might have been during warm-ups before a basketball game. It might have been in a videogame. It might have just been on a car radio. Whatever the case, Fuel’s “Shimmer” was an oasis in a desert of really awful 1998 music. How awful?

Sometimes I Just Really, Really Hate Tuesday