(Deeper Dive)
Tori Amos
Little Earthquakes — RC Week 187 — 3 pukes out of 5
1998
The plan was to get really into Tori Amos this week, but it just never materialized. I think that I'm a little more cognizant of the value of this music this time around (whereas I was completely nonplussed during that week of RC), but I'm still not there completely. I just can't get past the nagging thought that Tori Amos occasionally sounds like a half-baked Kate Bush. Not that I love Kate Bush's music either, but at least her weirdness feels like it has substance. Tori Amos is excellent at setting the mood, but almost nothing sticks with me. There are moments, like the fascinating instrumentation choices in "Cruel" (DJ scratching? xylophone rhythm?), when I see the genius peeking through. But "Cruel" doesn't give me anything to hold onto either. I'm not humming "Cruel" later in the day. It's like the art piece at a museum that feels like an outlier when you see it, and you forget about it as soon as you don't see it. It frustrates the hell out of me, because I love weirdo art-pop, and I love outliers, and I want to love this so much. But I'm stuck in the same spot that I was last time: this is fine, it's okay, I probably won't return to it too often after this.
GRADE: 3 pukes out of 5
(Follow-up)
St. Lucia
When the Night — RC Week 326 — 3 pukes out of 5
March 14, 2025
Sometimes I'll be listening to a YouTube playlist version of an album that is new to me, and a song will come on that is so preposterously cheesy and out of place and plastic-sounding that I have to check, and sure enough, yup, it's a fucking ad. I felt the pull to check for ads multiples times while listening to Fate Morgana: Dawn, only to remember each time that I was listening to the album on Bandcamp. The album is just that corny. Market-tested for your approval! Do you like bossa nova with your consumer-capitalism indie rock? Well then, make sure you check out "In Your Arms"! It's quirky in a cute way! Oh god, I have to stop, because the sarcasm is misinterpreted as sincerity. The question is, is St. Lucia being sarcastic too? Or are we gonna have to take the Chase Visa commercial music seriously? Okay, fine, I'll cop to taking one song seriously, if only because St. Lucia clearly did: "Going to Space." There's enough meat on the bones of this eight-minute chameleon that I'll tip my hat. Only once, though!!!
GRADE: 2.5 pukes out of 5
December 5, 2025
The hope is that I get all caught up on these RC alumni albums eventually and I don't have to worry about listening to these double-albums-released-separately back-to-back anymore, because when it's an artist like St. Lucia, it becomes way too much. After listening to Dawn and writing the blurbed review, I immediately clicked on Dusk, and listened to a song called "Oh Daddy," which... yikes. Too much! Musak for the YouTube generation! Filler for the filler-filled I <3 Radio music vibers! No! "People Change" sounds like the type of music that the 1975 have already given their ironic take on, and it's too weird that St. Lucia doesn't really seem to understand what irony even is. I have quips about all these songs, just like that. But I think the biggest missed opportunity is creating some thematic juxtaposition between the two sibling albums. Dawn and Dusk just sound like two collections of songs. I guess Dusk has more upbeat songs? Or do I just want it to be that way? Anyways, I'm tired of this shit. Give me the next one.
GRADE: 2 pukes out of 5
Cautious Clay
Deadpan Love — RC Week 181 — 2 pukes out of 5
KARPEH — RC f/u #22 — 3 pukes out of 5
The Hours: Morning — RCAA #6 — 2.5 pukes out of 5
The Hours: Night — RCAA #6 — 2 pukes out of 5
July 31, 2026
Oh great, yeah, this is exactly what I needed. Give me my medicine. Some of the straightest, middle-of-the-road contemporary R&B pop music you could possibly make. I need it. I need to be humbled in this way. Nothing like some random fucking guy falling into Record Club and releasing some boring-ass bullshit every nine months for the rest of my life. I wouldn't be surprised if he dropped The Hours: Supper Time by the time I finish writing this review. You should know that I'm doing this because I'm obligated to do it. I'm sorry that I can't give you a more sincere effort, but I just can't fucking do it with this algorithm pop any longer. Who listens to this? Who? Tell me who. Please. I'm begging you. I want to know how there could possibly be a market for this. I want to know how Cautious Clay manages to put food on his table. Does he have a day job? Does he work at CVS stocking shelves? Do his coworkers know that during the "hours" outside of work, he's making the most cliché music that's ever graced the "listen to this" section of an AI-generated Spotify playlist? I don't know. I don't know.
GRADE: 1.5 pukes out of 5
(Keeping Up)
Weezer
OK Human — RC Week 105 — 2 pukes out of 5
Van Weezer — RC f/u #1 — 1 puke out of 5
August 21, 2026
The "they're back!" narrative is almost always played out, but it is especially played out with Weezer. With The Gold Album, they are not "back." They are the same as they've always been. Yes, that includes Pinkerton, don't let your rose-colored nostalgia glasses fool you. And DON'T let the self-referential humility of something like "C.E.O." fool you either. Just because you acknowledge that the new song sounds like the old song doesn't mean the new song can't be a tired retread of that old song and worthless because of it. Look, I went through this once. I was suckered into it over a decade ago. Everything Will Be Alright in the End was a Weezer album about Weezer, about how they were "back," about how they still had it. I have rose-colored nostalgia glasses for that one. I was vulnerable once, but there's no reason you have to be vulnerable here and now. Listen to "Don't Make It Weird" if you need a wake-up call. These lyrics are fucking ass. And if you think that they are "back" because the lyrics elsewhere are claiming that they are back, well, just you fucking remember what happened last time they said this: a couple years later, "Africa" happened, and they leaned into it. Weezer are not back. They never will be.
GRADE: 2 pukes out of 5
(Random RCAA News)
- Mac Miller's The Divine Feminine is getting a tenth-anniversary deluxe reissue. No sign of Mac Miller showing up in RCAA, but never say never.
- Turnstile's NEVER ENOUGH is getting a remix version, and it features Dan Deacon, Slayyyter, Hayley Williams (of Paramore), Julien Baker (of boygenius), and Panda Bear (of Animal Collective).
- I was like "I wonder if I'll be able to find a third news item for this space" and then like five minutes later Dolly Parton passed away. R.I.P. She lived a good life, and now she's up in heaven, waiting patiently for her good pal Kid Rock to join her.
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