What is an iconic album cover you don’t care for yourself?

Alright, now I’m sorry to use Rumors as an example. I DO NOT dislike the cover to this rumors. There is honestly no iconic cover I don’t enjoy, or at least not that I know of. I just used Rumors’ cover because it is an ALBUM I don’t enjoy, but I still really like the COVER.

I’d say it’s a tie for me between Not a lot just forever and The place where he inserted the blade

Just the most average, not great and not awful, mid album you have heard?

As fall is coming to an end im searching for some Winter Feeling albums, albums that sound reminiscent of Christmas, the Coldness of January and the slow passing of February

I have on my backlog

Contra by Vampire Weeknd

Bocanada by Gustavo Cerati

For Emma Forever Ago by Bon Iver

American Football by American Football (also a Fall album)

Silent Alarm by Bloc Party

As the title says, I'm looking for metal albums that even non metal heads can enjoy. I really don't listen to the genre, and the closest I got was listening to 'White Pony' by Deftones, which I enjoyed listening to but probably won't go heavy into my rotation. I mainly listen to hip-hop and psychadelic rock otherwise, but I'm not interested in nu-metal or anything like that.

I'm sure this has happened to a lot of us here, but what song do you now love because you saw it combined with a video? Whether it be through social media, a movie or a music video, what songs have entered your rotation because you heard it and it was visually attached to something beautiful where they complemented each other so well?

This is kind of a 2-part question but what song do you feel has had the biggest push of success through some form of a visual medium? The song might've been good but it became big because of a video or whatever it may be.

Pictured - Warm Forever by Candy Claws. Super lush and beautiful with some very emotional songs mixed in. Hard to find tho.

Sorry if this has already been posted.

But geez, this is a crazy good album. The Beggar on this might be the best Swans song ive ever heard and definitely one of the best hourish long song’s Ive heard.

Just as a disclaimer, this is not a criticism of Fantano for ignoring good music or anything like that. There's too much good music out there, and I think he actually does a great job of broadly covering the musical landscape and highlighting both important albums and also some obscure albums that could be easily missed.

The reason why I highlight indie rock in particular is because I think indie rock as a broad genre always has the highest saturation of high-quality music, and especially music that will appeal to people's niche tastes on a very personal level. I was actually in the process of making a list of great albums in any genre that weren't reviewed, and that list ended being almost entirely indie rock anyways.

The one exception that I really feel compelled to bring up as an honorable mention is Lucky Daye's Algorithm. It's just a great R&B album with no skippable tracks, really unique live-band style of production with some psychedelic flair, great writing and great vocal performances - just check it out, you won't be disappointed.

One more disclaimer: these are albums I believe haven't received a full review, I suspect that he has covered many of these in yunoreview videos or in other content. Still worth pointing these albums out. Let me know if any of these were actually reviewed and I just missed it, I have other picks I could sub in.

In no particular order:

1. Itasca - Imitation of War

Just a gorgeous, chilled-out indie rock record with some of the most beautiful clean-electric guitar playing you have ever heard. The band is really tight and groovy, and paying a bit of attention to the lyrics will also pay off.

2. Ducks Ltd. - Harm's Way

This is a typical jangle-pop album that sounds like a lot of jangle-pop albums, from an indie rock band that sounds like a lot of indie rock bands - except everything is polished to an extent that is rare. The guitar parts are beautifully complex, the band is tight and high-energy. Perhaps more importantly, the songs here are super well-written, more catchy and with more interesting lyrical moments than the slacker-indie vocals might imply.

3. Little Kid - A Million Easy Payments

I am a sucker for a good indie-folk-rock album. Give me some wistful guitar chords, a sincere and unique vocal style, and a solid band backing it all up - you sonuvabitch, I'm in. But what I think takes this album to the next level are the interesting lyrical moments, and the flow between the tracks.

4. Rosali - Bite Down

Rosali is a singer-songwriter that teamed up with David Nance & the Mowed Sound, a guitarist and his backing band based out of Nebraska. David Nance & the Mowed Sound put their own self-titled album out early in 2024, which is also worth checking out. Their self-titled had some strong moments but felt more like a proof-of-concept for the band's sound and production style. Bite Down takes that sound and applies it to Rosali's truly excellent songwriting, resulting in one of the best indie rock albums of the year. It's catchy, the lyrics and song concepts are engaging, the band is fluid and dynamic - just a really great listen.

5. Mo Troper - Svengali

Perhaps understandable why Fantano wouldn't touch this one given the controversy surrounding the abuse allegations against Mo Troper - allegations which have been largely discredited and dismissed at this point, but still resulted in Mo Troper getting dropped by his label and releasing Svengali completely on his own. It's a shame because Mo Troper is one of the most interesting musicians and producers in indie rock right now, bringing back a classic power-pop sound that is reminiscent of Elephant 6 bands like The Apples in Stereo or The Minders. Maybe a bit similar to what The Lemon Twigs are doing, but more lo-fi and fuzzed out. I am hoping the controversy around Mo Troper fades and we get more music from him / produced by him.

6. Drug Church - Prude

I think there is a unique trend within hardcore punk these days that is talked about but has yet to be labeled as a new sub-genre: I would call it "pop-hardcore." It is a bit like pop-punk but without the tropes and sounds typically associated with pop-punk, with a different approach entirely to making hardcore punk more accessible and catchy. Turnstile is the most obvious example, as well as their sister band Angel Dust, also bands like Fiddlehead, Militarie Gun, Mannequin Pussy, etc. Add Drug Church to this list and give them kudos for putting out the best album of the year in this maybe-sub-genre of "pop-hardcore." The music is a gut punch of heavy guitars, the vocal style is a perfect balance of rage and coherency. But there is also accessibility here, both in terms of the riffs and also the lyrical messaging.

7. Etran de L'Air - 100% Sahara Guitar

The YouTube algorithm decided to show me the Nigerian psych-blues band Etran de L'Air, they have a really cool music video for their song Imouha which led me to check out their album that was released in September. I know a lot of you love Mdou Moctar, if you're into that sound you'll definitely be into this. Very similar, but I feel like this band is tighter, less emphasis on strong guitar leads and more emphasis on grooves and complex guitar harmonies. It is truly addictive music, the momentum of it will have you following up the album with the band's whole back-catalog.

8. Wild Pink - Dulling the Horns

Wild Pink belongs to another emerging trend, which is indie rock's embrace of country and southern rock styles (e.g. Waxahatchee, MJ Lenderman, Hovvdy, etc.). I think Wild Pink's new album really surprised me by going back to their older sound, which is a bit less soft and spacey and more distorted and fuzzed-out, a much grittier take on this Americana sound that is trending. Also, the songwriting feels much sharper on this album, in my opinion, with lots of cathartic and interesting lyrical moments.

9. Asher White - Home Constellation Study

This is just a really cool indie rock album that is bursting at the seams within interesting musical ideas and sonic experiments. It might come across as a bit unfocused, but I think that's part of the fun - you never know what you're getting from the next track, but it ends up being consistently good. I would compare this album to Friko's album, which got a lot more hype, and say that the Asher White album is in the same sort of vein but much better.

10. And So I Watch You From Afar - Megafauna

I am not a huge post-rock guy, it is a very dense and insulated genre with a lot of artists that sound very similar to the uninitiated: spacey guitars, gradual build-ups, the occasional passages of technical noodling, etc. This makes it hard to explain why a post-rock album strikes me as different, as better than the genre's typical output. There is something ineffable about Megafauna's pacing, its textures, its mood and vibe. I want to say that it feels somehow more organic in some sense, maybe also a bit more inspired. Of all the mini-reviews here, this is the one I think is probably most subjectively specific to me and I would be very curious to hear what people think of this album.

Not necessairly by Richard himself. Today I fell in complete love with the song and I need some stuff in a similiar vein. Recs?

Now that it’s end-of-year list season I’m trying to find some wrap ups from outlets that focus on one specific sound or scene. Pitchfork, Slate, Quietus, etc. are great for an overall look at the year but they’re very scattershot and tend to ignore stuff like metal or jazz to a lesser extent, outside of the artists that get a lot of attention in the wider music press like Blood Incantation or Kamasi Washington. Absolute Elsewhere is the only metal album on some of the year end lists and that’s a shame because it’s been a great year for metal.

Doesn’t have to be a multi-person outlet too, also interested in any blogs or single critic platforms you’d know about.

what the title says, theres some good threads here with gym albums but its mainly things ive heard before: RATM, YTJ, DeathGrips, SOAD etc does anyone have any lesser known recommendations?

basically, albums that have backstories and trivia surrounding them that enhance the listening experience if you're aware it.

I get made fun of for my music taste on the regular

It’s not a good posthumous album. it felt like a cash grab and had terrible production. To make an album this bad in Juice’s name seems disrespectful because i’m 99% sure he wouldn’t approve of his label exploiting him like this. It just doesn’t seem like an album worth reviewing for these reasons.

Bieber really cooked when he chose the producers for purpose

Since I've never listened to anything by them and just got suggested a single from them feat the new super star Jelly Roll, I really want to know what the fuck is a OneRepublic. Sure, I could just listen to the song but since this is one of the few times when I actually don't know anything about an overly popular artist (Band? DJ? Producer?) I'd like someone from the Fantano sub to give me the info.

I guess I probably have heard one or two 15 second soundbites from them in the IG stories of people who peaked in high school, but it really feels like it's the most popular music project in the world right now and fuck if I know how they sound...