NME Bathroom

Username: welcome2thejam

Album: Silent Alarm: Consistently slotted somewhere in my favorite albums of all-time. Love love love this album, so happy to be rating something that's meant a lot to me for years

Like Eating Glass: 10 So pleased we're rating this in the winter months, the opening line & album art made it a personal cold weather night classic to be enjoyed year after year (currently 19°F btw). Anyways, some of the absolute best drum bits put on record, just an all-timer opener and an all-time fave song. Shoutout Kelly Clarkson

Helicopter: 10 Insane ripper from front to back. Can swear my heart stops whenever the music drops. Simply goes harder in the paint than anybody else I am so sorry to the competition

Positive Tension: 10 Young teenage me was always like "Ahhhh he said breasts!!!" I was very Embarrassing

Banquet: 10 Reverse shoutout to the music video for getting my first attempt at the last rate trailer blocked

Blue Light: 10 A much needed cooldown after four straight megaton bombs to start off. Ramps up really nicely

She's Hearing Voices: 9 These drums are just like how I like my peanut butter (crunchy)

This Modern Love: 10 They've been so busy crafting bangers that it's all the most effective when it softly caresses your heart

The Pioneers: 10 I wanna hop into my Mazda four seat hatchback and sit in the pitch black freezing cold with this on repeat

The Price of Gasoline: 9 $3.49

Little Thoughts: 10 The whole time I didn't even register that this was technically a bonus track. Anyway, it's superb, a bop and a half

So Here We Are: 7 I'll be real Little Thoughts feels like a perfect closer so a good number of times I swap off afterwards, meaning these four ending songs feel more like bonus tracks than the actual bonus track.

Luno: 8 Love when his voice gets kinda yelpy here

Plans: 8 Oh fuck! The ravens are leaving the tower!

Compliments: 6 Yeah now that I went through it, I think this album actually gets even better if it ended on Little Thoughts

Album: Franz Ferdinand: Sound-wise maybe not as strong as their competitors, but make up for it with some catchy-ass tracks to move to. Another album that helped shaped my music taste and got crazy spins from a teenage me

Jacqueline: 10 The moment the riff first comes in and then the moment the new riff just starts ripping were such 😲 So This Is Music moments for me growing up

Tell Her Tonight: 7 The way this man sings "saw it" is so messed up, I'm calling the authorities

Take Me Out: 10 Sorry to the indiehead haters but this is a VH1 music video block classique

The Dark of the Matinee: 10 So wildly corny (complimentary) with a solid groove and some little flourishes here & there I adore

Auf Achse: 9 I am being beckoned into a dark room

Cheating On You: 10 Oh lord I forgot how much this rips, I didn't even realize I already gave it a 10 until I went to give it a score, it just came out automatically

This Fire: 9 They did the "everybody get down and start jumping when we come roaring back in" bit to this when I saw them live so that makes this automatically good

Darts of Pleasure: 8 I have a dartboard in the basement but I'm so scared of filling the wall with holes that they just don't get used

Michael: 10 Help I never realized the lyric was calling him a beautiful dance-whore lmao

Come On Home: 6 Oh, right, there's other songs after Michael

40': 6 Two albums in a row now with insane top shelf openers and "well that was alright" closers

Album: Return to Cookie Mountain: This is the album I'm least familiar with, and thus benefits the least from the nostalgia bombs of the rest. Definitely the most interesting listen, even if I love the others more on a track-by-track basis.

I Was A Lover: 9 Who they got playing the elephant back there

Hours: 8 This is easily the best Bathroom song with a recurring piano note (James Murphy please interact I am being held host-

Province: 8 In the extremely unlikely event this wins, does this put David Bowie in the two time winner club?

Playhouses: 9 I love when he goes into his lower register and it sounds like he's putting on a fun character voice. Like I get why they put Tunde in the MCU

Wolf Like Me: 11 This is currently my seventh favorite song of all time, so the 11 was never in doubt tbh. An unstoppable force of nature. A rocket launcher in a four way gun fight. I talk a lot about songs that do well in the car, but nothing matches better than this song blasting out the speakers as you drive alone at night in the woods

A Method: 10 A killer transition from Wolf Like Me, and a perfect cooldown.

Let the Devil In: 8 You know, when people talk about the afterlife they always fail to mention all the bees, so I'm glad we got that here

Dirtywhirl: 9 This is such a weird little melody I love it

Blues From Down Here: 7 Please get him out of the well

Tonight: 9 Really superb soundscape, well done fellas

Wash the Day: 7 This might work better if it didn't come after Tonight had an extended outro too

Album: Fever to Tell: Oozes so much cool, even in the song with the weird incest line lmao what was that. I think I liked Bloc Party & Franz more back then, but my tastes evolved in a way that made my feelings on this so much higher than before.

Rich: 10 Karen O doing her best clicker impression

Date With The Night: 10 Rich is the great opening jab to set up this blinding uppercut. I wanna rip my shirt off i don't even care anymore lets party

Man: 10 Smug Triple H "That man... is me" gif

Tick: 9 Tick

Black Tongue: 9 An "uh-huh" delivered with swagger ratings off the charts

Pin: 9 It rocks idk what to tell you, maybe if you could imagine yourself strutting across the stage with your back bent like an anime character you'd understand

Cold Light: 8 Not calling him daddy AND a brother...

No No No: 8 Love the atmosphere of the beginning but I'm in too much of a normal state for that back half

Maps: 10 What's there to say that hasn't been said, it's a perfect indie rock classique in every single way

Y Control: 10 For some reason the pre-chorus riff playing in the Bathroom doc trailer made me tear up so then I went & played it like ten times in a row that day

Modern Romance: 9 Three of these albums being "oh yeah, there's more songs after that one" albums. This is probably the best of them though

Poor Song: 6 Penniless

BONUS TRACKS:

I Love NYC: 9 Dudes Rock (Big Apple Edition)

Emily Kane: 8 Oh, I don't like the memories I'm reliving nor the feelings this is dragging up. I'm just gonna drop an 8 and move on

2/4: 6 Spotify lyrics saying "You're pollution [Incomprehensible)" and like, same

Emerge: 6 I need a restraining order against this album art

Huddle Formation: 9 Oh shit, hold up, this is right up my alley

I Predict A Riot: 7 Oh, so this is what the Kaiser Chiefs sound like. Now I know.

Golden Skans: 7 Generic indie rock goodness

The Sweat Descends: 10 How much rate fraud do I need to deliver Les Savy Fav a rate win because I'll do it, anything for my party kings

Mr Your On Fire Mr: 6 That's just a fun title

Can't Stand Me Now: 6 I wonder if this is from the English part of the bonus rate

Jorge Regula: 7 Yup, that's the sound of the band from Juno alright

F the Pain Away: 8 🍑

House of Jealous Lovers: 10 Here is James Murphy

Circle. Square. Triangle: 8 Okay, Sony

The Rat: 10 If Les Savy Fav doesn't win this I want this to, just an awe-inspiring incredible sounding indie rock track. Throw Your Rats Up 🐀🐀🐀

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