The old five-point scale has been retired in favor of just rating stuff 1-10, which allows me a much more nuanced final rating. Still don't take it that seriously. Most of these come from my own collection, so the grades skew rather high. Your results may vary if you send me stuff to review.

Each album is given three Essential tracks, my personal favorites, regardless of how weird and inconsequential they are. The Quintessential pick is the one I think best represents the album as a whole, so you can try one song instead of a whole album of songs. Non-Essential picks range from merely disappointing to outright unlistenable.

Autolux

[#] Demos (2001-2002) (2024)

Twenty years of a great album done right.

Reviewed January 28, 2025

No surprise to anyone who knows Greg Edwards from his previous band Failure—Autolux came out of the gate able to produce some surprisingly finished-sounding home recordings. Two EPs of demos were sold at their early shows, but these disappeared from view when Future Perfect came out in 2004. Released exclusive to vinyl on a cool gold disc to commemorate their debut turning twenty, Demos (2001-2002) is the first time you've been able to buy these recordings directly, plus some properly unreleased material, and it's pretty great on the whole. At its best, these raw, dry recordings show that even Autolux's lesser material packs a wallop, and at its worst, they're just not all that different from what these songs became on Future Perfect—hardly a complaint.

Of course the highlights are the exclusives here. The sitar-kissed version of "Capital Kind of Strain" with Greg on vocals and the beautifully tense and minimal "Asleep at the Trigger" demo have never been released and start off the first side very strong. This package also sees the first official release of outtakes "Underorbit" and "Future Perfect", buzzingly eerie, off-kilter demonstrations of Autolux's power around hypnotic riffs, warped electronic atmospheres, and sharp dynamic shifts. The rest of the songs really don't stray too far from their Future Perfect counterparts, but that's more a testament to them having such a strong batch of songs right off the bat than anything. By no means essential, but Autolux superfans like myself should be all over this.

Essential:	"Capital Kind of Strain", "Asleep at the Trigger", "Underorbit"
Quintessential:	"Future Perfect"
Non-Essential:	"Subzero Fun"
Rating:
Further listening:	"Somnolescent Record Club #1: Autolux's Demos (2001-2002)" on Letters From Somnolescent