Here's my #MWE run (from both Mastodon and Bluesky) wrapped up in one blog! A few of them are even slightly expanded! If you missed anything from one (or both) feeds, here's all 56 album reviews:
https://nicknutterblog.blogspot.com/2026/03/double-mwe-at-last-mwe-2026-roundup.html
28. Cal Tjader "Tjader Plays Mambo" (1956)
Easily the best album of 1956 (LOW fuckin' bar there, but still.) Marimba driven Cuban jazz remastered really well; you wouldn't suspect from the fidelity that it was 70 years old. There's a couple songs from this that have been sampled or remixed, and being there's standards, quite a few tracks will have one doing the Leo meme. Really solid jazz album from a big name in the game.
27. Converge "Jane Doe" (2001)
The screaming is not my jam at all, so I almost launched it on song one. But by track two I'd dialed in the settings to make it sound better, and the production POPPED. I get it now. This album crushes face. And if the vocals were in a style more to my liking, I dont think it would have been any better. I couldn't understand a single word on the album (literally not a one), but it didn't matter. It was fuckin' RAW. And that's the point right there.
26. Jar. "3 Lives" (2013)
Thank fuck for Wikipedia rabbit holes, or I never would've known the band Flybanger used a different name before and after they were on a major. Granted, this feels pretty bog standard and 4 of the 11 songs are re-dos of Flybanger stuff, but it was fun to know it didn't just stop in 2001.
25. Deadly Earnest II (1980)
Two really good songs on here ("Oklahoma's A Big O.K. For Me" & "Blues At Midnight") but outside of that it's mostly the shit-kicker stereotypes that kept me from listening to country in the first place, done badly. (Opener's not bad, though; the outro has this haunting melody that's barely audible because of the fade). The two really good songs illustrate that Deadly Earnest were capable of a hell of a lot more, sonically and harmonically.
24. Arctic Monkeys "Suck It And See" (2011)
Outside of tracks 5-8 and a couple of unique lyrics, this could have been any indie band, local, national or international, in 2011. The only other time I've heard a band get "just another band"-ed so hard between records was Band Of Skulls (and that album isn't on streaming anymore, so make of that what you will).
23. R.E.M. "Murmur" (1983)
Was bobbing along to the first three or four tracks, then everything sounded like a low rent re-tread of "Radio Free Europe". Still liked "Perfect Circle" and "West Of The Fields" after that, but R.E.M. continues to be a song band for me. C'est la vie.
22. Hawkwind "Bring Me The Head Of Yuri Gagarin" (1985)
THE worst album I've listened to for #MWE. Any year. There's several-minute long monologues that sound like acid burnouts thinking they're deep followed by music that's sub-tape recorder quality (it was bootlegged from a show in 1973). I've, no joke, made plenty of tape recordings of band practices that sound better than this album. Unlistenable.
22. Vylet Pony “Can Opener’s Notebook: Fish Whisperer” (2022)
Kind of a middle child between Cutiemarks (2021) and Carousel (2023) (which are my two favorites from VP), but Can Opener holds its own and is a worthy bridge in its own right. If you're into bedroom hyperpop with a little bit of rock thrown in and lyrics that get kinda real, this is your jam.
20. Death Grips “The Powers That B” (2015)
Liked it, but this double album is the absolute limit of Death Grips I could handle in one sitting. It's also...a Death Grips album? That's kinda it. The only difference I can tell is there's more of it.
DoubleNTerprises