Ian Ureta

A tenured media critic known working as a ghost writer, freelance critic for publications in the US and former lead writer of Atop The Treehouse. Reviews music, film and TV shows for media aggregators.

The Vault 2 by C’batch Rewards Patience, Attention, and a Willingness to Sit With Repetition

There’s a particular kind of music release that doesn’t really care whether you experience it as an “album” in the modern, tightly curated, playlist-optimized sense, and instead behaves more like someone opening a vault and saying: here, this is everything, take your time. The Vault 2 by C’batch is exactly that kind of project; a […]

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Blueprint Tokyo Aren’t Trying to Convince You That Everything Will Be Okay on Dark New Days EP

There is a very specific emotional space that rock bands love to gesture toward but almost never commit to living in, and that space is the middle of things. Not the cinematic beginning where everything is charged with meaning, not the triumphant or devastating ending where everything finally makes sense, but the long, ambiguous stretch

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C’batch’s “Trapped (I’m Doing Fine)” Isn’t a Track Trying to Overwhelm You With Contrast

C’batch’s “Trapped (I’m Doing Fine)” returns not so much as a remix but as a kind of technological séance; an instrumental from another era summoned back into the present and politely asked to develop a personality. It obliges. Where once there was groove, now there is groove with intent, which is always a dangerous upgrade.

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“Let’s Just Go” Opens With the Kind of Confidence That Suggests Sweet Mess Are Very Aware of What They’re Good At

“Let’s Just Go” opens with the kind of confidence that suggests Sweet Mess are very aware of what they’re good at and more importantly, that they’ve stopped pretending to be anything else. Which is interesting, because this is a band whose identity, until fairly recently, was tied up in being a really good cover act.

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Weight of the World, the Upcoming Single From Eddie Cohn Is Built Around Exhaustion

There’s a particular kind of exhaustion that doesn’t come from doing too much, but from taking in too much. Scrolling, refreshing, absorbing, processing and somehow still feeling like you’re behind on everything. Weight of the World, the newest single from Eddie Cohn is built around that exact feeling and more importantly, it doesn’t pretend there’s

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The Choice Doesn’t Sound Retro, Exactly, but It Does Feel Anchored

There’s a very specific kind of song that announces itself as Important within the first thirty seconds; not because of anything it’s done yet, but because it arrives carrying a fully itemized list of influences, intentions, and moral positioning. THE CHOICE by Chris Oledude is absolutely one of those songs. And to be clear, that’s

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All Hail the Beast Commits Fully to Its Own Identity, No Matter How Abrasive or Unpolished That Identity Might Be

There’s a very specific kind of music that doesn’t feel like it was made so much as it feels like it was… barely contained. Like at any moment it could fall apart, or explode, or both at once and the only reason it doesn’t is because the people behind it are just competent enough to

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The Broken Paradigm Is Less an Album You Casually Listen to and More One You Get Pulled Into, Whether You Planned to or Not

Some albums ease you in with a nice, polite intro, like they’re knocking on the door and waiting to be let in. The Broken Paradigm by Razed by Rebels does not do that. It kicks the door off its hinges, tracks mud all over the carpet, and immediately starts ranting about the state of the

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“Drowning” Feels Like a Continuation of Michelle Rose’s Artistic Voice

There’s a certain kind of pop song that says it’s vulnerable, and then there’s the kind that actually feels like it has something at stake. “Drowning,” the latest single from Michelle Rose, leans firmly into the latter. It’s not just built on emotional storytelling for effect; it’s rooted in lived experience, specifically the aftermath of

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