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.

Jack Stauber

[#] HiLo (2018)

I totally get the appeal now.

Reviewed September 22, 2025

I probably would've never sought out Jack Stauber had it not been requested of me, and full admission, that's my contrarian nature. He's an 80s-inspired avant-popper known as much for his bizarre animations (that I didn't watch for this review so as to not cloud my thoughts on the music) as his eclectic, synthy, freakish music, all of which tripped my "I ain't into that shit" switch. I had him pegged wrong, though. Nothing about HiLo feels like a put on or weird for the sake of weird. All the less-than-straightforward lyrics and sax freakouts make perfect sense to Jack. It's incredibly earnest and sweet, honestly, and while that means you're being dragged feetfirst through his mind with all that entails, there's plenty of quality songs along the way to make the road rash worth it.

Jack's vocals defy description. The closest analogue I can come up with is Danny Elfman, but Jack easily yelps, shivers, squeaks, and croons his way right past him. Despite that, he's got a legitimately good voice, just a lot of bravery in using it. It becomes clear as you unpack HiLo that he has a great pop vocabulary too; "O.U.R." recalls an imagined 80s rework of "My Sharona", and the clean guitar tones on "John & Nancy" and "Beird" are as sharp as the riffs played through them. A sentimental streak runs through the record too, as waves of tears crash overwhelmingly into the chorus of the genuinely emotional "It's Alright" and Jack devotes the closer "Pizza Boy" to samples of an autistic fan. It's a challenging album—I still cannot get on with that screechy shit on "Pad Thai", try as I might—but in an age of ironic throwback vaporwave bullshit, I honestly quite admire it.

(Thanku you to my Caby for the request, apologies for how long it took but I hope it was worth it >:3c)

Essential:	"John & Nancy", "Beird", "It's Alright"
Quintessential:	"Leopard"
Non-Essential:	"Pad Thai"
Rating:
Further listening:	Download from Jack Stauber's Bandcamp