Username: Ghost-Quartet

Album: Native: I guess my favorite album in the rate despite what my scores imply, I didn’t like the first half that much but it picks up steam partway through and the back half is great. Each of these albums has a “sound” that they’re kind of washed out with and these guys had my favorite sound.

Counting Stars: 5 I find this song obnoxious, the lyrics and vocals are so annoying, but unfortunately it’s not incompetent so I can’t in any good conscience tank its score.

Love Runs Out: 6 I’ll avoid making too many comments like this but this is a little too masc for me.

If I Lose Myself: 7.5 Love the drop during the chorus

Feel Again: 5 mm, it’s nice but it left zero impact

What You Wanted: 8 A lot of noise but it’s good noise so I’ll allow it.

I Lived: 7.8 https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/248/274/a0f.jpg I was gonna complain this was generic but honestly I quite liked it by the end.

Light It Up: 7 I normally like songs that sound kinda grainy and faded out like this but this is missing some special spice.

Can't Stop: 3 This is boring and it might have slipped by my ire but the tracks surrounding it are so strong it just sounds worse in comparison.

Au Revoir: 7.5 This kind of “medical drama commercial fodder” music is something I’m never quite sure about. On the one hand I do enjoy the sound of it, the commitment to drama and heavy orchestrations is nice, but at the same time it feels a little emotionally manipulative, as if the music is pushing me to feel more emotional about something that’s actually not that deep. This falls more on the good side of that than the bad side though.

Burning Bridges: 8.5 I was reading a romantic slow burn 100k+ word fan fiction for a show I’ve never watched while listening to this and it really enhanced the experience.

Something I Need: 7 It’s cute but I feel like it goes on a bit too long without getting more interesting, despite the shifts it makes it stays flat (though not unpleasantly so).

Preacher: 8.5 The lyrics are a little preachy (heh) but I like the sound of this with the strings and heavy percussion.

Don't Look Down: 9 This is very pretty! I love the ethereal vibes to it, I was gonna say that I wish it was longer but then I realized I could just listen to [“Sea Of Voices” by Porter Robinson.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSooYPG-5Rg) Still, we love an interlude.

Life in Color: 11 This is my favorite kind of indie rock! I think that different genres have different strong points and I think one of the things that indie rock is best at is capturing a sense of adventure by creating bright textures with guitars and the faded yet present vocals. It can really fill a room and reach right for the sky, when you hear stuff like this it just sucks you in and connects with some primal part of you that you thought you lost during adolescence but the song brought back. When this goes wrong we end up with empty noise, but when it goes right you end up with bops like this. Glad this album ended on such a strong note!

Album: Night Visions: I’ve always felt that Imagine Dragons unfairly get a bad reputation, they aren’t exactly what I listen to in my spare time I’ve enjoyed their music in the right context. This was an intensely commercial album, which gave me a bit of trouble because these songs would surely play well in a lot of situations like on the radio or in a dance class but when I’m just listening to them with my headphones they don’t do that much. This album was a bit all over the place in terms of scores for me, I gave it some of my lowest scores in the rate but also some of my highest. It’s not an affront to humanity or anything like their detractors make it out to be but I won’t be stanning any time soon.

Radioactive: 6.5 Oh dear this song didn’t age well? Number one it suffers massively from overplay (and I have a personal vendetta against it because I was in a high school dance program at the time it was big and like four people insisted on choreographing dances for it) but also it feels very entrenched in the maximalist vibe of the early 2010s in a bad way. And I hate the way he sings “aPOCalypse.” There’s still plenty of good parts of it and it’s miles better than a lot of songs we’ve rated but I wouldn’t feel right given it a higher score.

Tiptoe: 7.5 This feels kinda ’80s? Or maybe I just hear a synth and think that.

It's Time: 2 There’s something about *this* specific kind of commercial friendly indie pop rock that annoys the hell out of me. The way most of the words are meaningless mush meant to blend into the background except for one or two prominent lines that give you a vague idea of what kind of feeling the song is supposed to be conveying, it feels very… [corporate music.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIxY_Y9TGWI) I’ve heard this song many, many times since it came out (never by choice) and I still can’t tell you more than one or two lines or even what it’s about.

Demons: 10 I think Todd in the Shadows put this on one of his “Worst” lists so I’m not optimistic at its chances of survival because I’ve seen many users just kind of parrot what he says (that’s right, I’m calling it out) but also the people doing this rate probably don’t care so who knows? Anyways this is a whole bop, really brings out my inner emo.

On Top of the World: 8.5 While I don’t absolutely adore this song it’s an example of how to do this somewhat generic type of song right.

Amsterdam: 8 I couldn’t really understand the lyrics so I looked them up and I still have no clue what they have to do with Amsterdam but this sounds pretty. Dan really starts screaming towards the end and it’s honestly not unpleasant.

Hear Me: 6 There’s a joke about radio overplay in here somewhere but I’m not clever enough to find it.

Every Night: 8 [Dan Reynolds when someone asks if he’s coming home to you](https://media1.tenor.com/images/835a88fecb85280b476612b3ec8ac34e/tenor.gif?itemid=10965027)

Bleeding Out: 6.5

Underdog: 0 this is literally just annoying

Nothing Left to Say / Rocks: 7.5 I like “Rocks” a lot more than the first part, “Rocks” is honestly 10 but the first part tanks the score. For as loud and as long as “Nothing Left To Say” is it’s kinda empty.

Cha-Ching (Till We Grow Older): 7 I couldn’t decide if this was a mega bop or just a lot of empty noise so I settled somewhere in the middle.

Fallen: 5.5

Working Man: 6.6 this is nice but it’s so hard to care by the end of this album

Album: Bad Blood: My knee jerk reaction while first listening to it was that this would be my favorite album in the rate because of the quirky subject matter and thrilling sound but mores than the other albums all of the songs just start to blend together. I could only handle so many huge foot stompers with heavy percussion and choral background vocals, as fun as they are individually. I’d label it as the most consistent, but also the least likely to surprise and delight.

Pompeii: 2 One of the most annoying hits of the decade. The pretentious lyrics, his ostentatious overly-involved delivery with those annoying swallowed vocals, it’s all so. damn. irritating, I can see why it was a hit, and I mean that in the shadiest, most withering way possible.

Things We Lost in the Fire: 8 My community was heavily impacted by those Northern California fires a year back so I feel weird listening to this but it’s a nice song.

Bad Blood: 6 me talking about the Kimye/Swift feud

Overjoyed: 5 This starts and then it just continues until it ends.

These Streets: 7.5 omg I thought he was singing “think of little elves” and I was like [these guys?????](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m52JIA4J4U8)

Weight of Living, Pt. II: 9  Songs about youth/aging/maturity always click with me so Ms. Bastille is gonna get some points~

Icarus: 10 I don’t have much to say about it but I really like this one, I think this is the only time on the album Bastille really nailed the potential of this sound/aesthetic. It sounds big, chaotic, and adventurous but it’s still controlled and not just a bunch of obnoxious yelling.

Oblivion: 6.5 Is this about falling asleep? Because it’s working.

Flaws: 7

Daniel in the Den: 9 The strong piano line really helps this one stand out from the rest of the album and that synth that comes in on the bridge is a nice touch too.

Laura Palmer: 4 is that like an alcoholic beverage or something

Get Home: 7.5 This starts off really promising and I really appreciate that he (they? is this a band?) went for something different. The song itself isn’t mind-blowing but points for experimentalism.

Weight of Living Pt. I: 6 Eh, I like the sequel better.

Of The Night: 7 This sounds like an outtake from the *Tarzan* soundtrack.

BONUS TRACKS

I Bet My Life (Bastille Remix): 6 I legitimately couldn’t tell whose song this was until I looked it up and I guess that’s because it’s two of them.

Blank Space (Cover): 7 [Dan Reynolds not changing the pronouns of this song](https://static.billboard.com/files/media/dan-reynolds-imagine-dragons-june-21-2018-live-billboard-1548-768x433.jpg) vs. [Dan Reynolds dodging doing the “boys only love if it’s torture” bridge](https://www.advocate.com/sites/advocate.com/files/2018/11/15/nogays50x422.jpg) vs. [Dan Reynolds choosing to cover this song in the first place but then using that country-lite style with a weak vocal arrangement](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EFgGIlOU0AAq4E1.jpg)

If I Lose Myself (Alesso Remix): 4 The original was much better, I don’t know why they watered down the verses and made the drop gaudy.

Send My Love (Cover): 4 honestly I didn’t even like it when Adele sang it, and she’s *Adele*

Poet: 3 he’s making poetry sound douchey, this is very “grad student who’s super misogynystic but hides it behind an air of academia then cheats on you and writes a play about it where he’s the tragic protagonist and you’re the villain”

Sleepsong: 3 apt title because this is putting me to sleep

END