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Daily Music Reviews (Recommend some fucking albums)
Recommend some fucking albums
I took a bet that every day of summer vacation I would listen to and review at least one new album. I'll just quote the rest from my Facebook because this challenge started 2 days ago. Quote:
List of albums reviewed 1. Repeater + 3 Songs by Fugazi 2. Immersion by Pendulum 3. Metaphorical Music by Nujabes 4. Alien Youth by Skillet (Aborted) 5. The Strange Case Of... by Halestorm 6. Hypnotize by System of a Down 7. A Different Arrangement by Black Marble 8. Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys 9. For Segregationists Only by Johnny Rebel (Aborted) 10. Amy MacDonald - Life In A Beautiful Light (mini) 11. Galaxie 500 - This Is Our Music (mini) 12. Kelis - Flesh Tone (mini) 13. Shooter Jennings - Put The "O" Back in Country (mini) 14. Soundgarden - Superunknown (mini) 15. X - See How We Are (mini) 16. Bundle of Joy by Land of the Loops 17. Mixed Melodies EP by SourceForm (mini) 18. The Director's Cut by Fantomas 19. The Grey Album by Danger Mouse 20. Rescue and Restore by August Burns Red 21. Cult of Mictlan by Oral Fistfuck (mini) 22. The Sophtware Slump by Grandaddy 23. Highly Refined Pirates by Minus The Bear 24. Until The Quiet Comes by Flying Lotus 25. Surtur Rising by Amon Amarth 26. The City EP by Madeon (mini) 27. Transformalin by Diagnose: Lebensgefahr 28. This Is Our Science by Astronautalis 29. For Now I Am Winter by Olafur Arnalds 30. Halycon Digest by Deerhunter 31. Soulbleed by Soulbleed 32. Dusk to Dawn by Emancipator 33. Tempel by Colour Haze 34. Rubenesque by Caligula 35. Black Diamonds by Issues 36. Ground Dweller by Hands Like Houses (I have a strong disdain for Rise Records) 37. Born to Die by Lana Del Rey 38. Kingston Story by Vybz Kartel 39. Tango In The Night by Fleetwood Mac 40. Kollossus of Makedonia by Hurra Torpedo 41. This Couch is Long & Full of Friendship by Tiny Moving Parts (with bonus review of Pac-Man TV Show) 42. The Unforgiving by Within Temptation 43. Melancholia by William Basinski 44. Nocturnes by William Basinski (with bonus review of High School USA) 45. Cheese by Stromae 46. Burzum by Burzum 47. You Can't Tell by Tartan Rascals 48. Demur by Kandma (mini) (with bonus review of Axe Cop) 49. Tattered Youth by Attention 50. Sounds Of The Universe by Depeche Mode 51. Figure 8 by Elliott Smith 52. Greatest Hits by Dave Koz 53. It Was Written by Nas 54. Hard To Be Up by Bangs (LISTEN TO THIS ALBUM) 55. Recovery by Eminem 56. Donuts by J Dilla 57. The White Apple by of Verona 58. This Binary Universe by BT 59. The Hass Effect by Electrocado 60. Not Even Once by Approaching Nirvana 61. Fizzy Fuzzy Big & Buzzy by The Refreshments 62. Classical Mushroom by Infected Mushroom 63. Good and Evil by Tally Hall 64. Commercial Album by The Residents 65. Surfer Rosa by Pixies 66. Opus Eponymous by Ghost 67. Cure for Pain by Morphine 68. Surfing the Void by Klaxons lol. Pop Tatari by Boredoms 70. Brother, Sister by mewithoutYou 71. Gonglot by Frog Pocket 72. Udu Wudu by Magma 73. 69 Love Songs by The Magnetic Fields (mini) 74. The First Disintegration Loop by William Basinski (mini) 75. #1 Record by Big Star (mini) 76. Fast Forward Eats The Tape by Belvedere (not counting The Freed Weed sentence review) 77. The Glow, Pt. 2 by The Microphones (mini) 78. Oh No by OK Go 79. Up In Flames by Caribou (mini) 80. Fevers and Mirrors by Bright Eyes (mini) 81. Piramida by Efterklang 82. Wonderful Rainbow by Lightning Bolt (mini) 83. Rusty by Rodan (mini) 84. Slanted and Enchanted by Pavement (mini) 85. Lateness of the Hour by Alex Clare 86. Play Hard EP by Krewella (mini) 87. GODLOMANMACHOPANZILLA by Computer Jesus Refrigerator 88. In The Court Of The Crimson King by Crimson King 89. Strong Bad Sings and Other Type Hits by Strong Bad (or Various) (Should've been a mini) 90. Akron/Family by Akron/Family (mini) 91. Nothing Lasts... But Nothing Is Lost by Shpongle 92. Vicious Delicious by Infected Mushroom (mini) 93. Soft Focus by Vanilla 94. October Language by Belong (mini) 95. Thank You Happy Birthday by Cage The Elephant 96. Brontosaurus by Da Vinci's Notebook 97. Castle Talk by Screaming Females 98. La Barca by Thomas Koner 99. cLOUDDEAD by cLOUDDEAD 100. The Wall by Pink Floyd |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Day 1: June 28 - Repeater + 3 Songs by Fugazi with a bonus addition of Dopesmoker by Sleep (which I listened to the day before the last day of school.)
Before I listen, here's what I know about Fugazi. They're a fairly famous 80s punk/post-hardcore band who were probably more famous for their $5 live shows and anti-music industry antics than their music. But their music is still critically acclaimed so it's all good. Now to listen. While I begin listening, let me tell you about what I listened to yesterday, Dopesmoker by Sleep. This is an album that pretty much consists of one song that's 63 minutes. My fear was that I wouldn't enjoy it because it sounds like it would get boring. It did not get boring AT ALL despite being fairly repetitive. The solos were great along with the atmosphere. I feel no more need to write about the Weedian Chronicles so I'll now write about Repeater already. First minute and I'm already surprised. This is way less inaccessible than I thought. I was expecting something like The Jesus Lizard but this is not that far off from other punk bands, though it isn't any Good Charlotte bullcrap or something like that. The feedback at the end of the first song is awesome. Second song is a bit noisier, and flows nicely into the third song which is an instrumental. No more track-by-track please. Or at least I'll try to avoid it. New paragraph. 9 songs in (yay for no track-by-track) and the formula basically seems to come down to political/working class lyrics (akin to Minutemen) with some jagged guitar work. The original last song (or fourth to last song here) in particular features some pretty awesome shouted vocals. There are 3 songs which weren't on the first pressing, hence the "+ 3 Songs" bit. The first sonag is pretty similar to the majority of the first 11 songs. Then we have another instrumental and a short finale song which is a bit more aggressive than the other songs (besides the 11th track). Overall, this is a pretty good album. The guitar work is pretty great. Dopesmoker is still better though. I should've saved that for the last day, an hour-long song would make an epic last album, no? It already did for the band. |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Day 2: June 29 - Immersion by Pendulum Album Choice: DoctorHax
I don't know too much about these guys. They play electro-rock and had a few songs in the game Mungyodance, including a remix (correction after googling: Mash-up) of sorts of Daft Punk's most famous song, Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. I also heard the song Another Planet in 2008 and liked it but never bothered looking up another song. So here we go. It took me a while to hit play for some reason, like several hours. Orchestral, soundtrack-esque intro with chiptune. Not bad thus far, liking the next couple of tracks. 2.5 tracks in and I'm interrupted. Crap. A little over 4 hours later and I continue where I left off, 3 minutes into track 3. Track 4 is dubstep, a genre I'm not exactly partial to (read: Skrillex makes me want to van Gogh my ears and his live shows are the most worthless crap I've ever seen 2 minutes of). The interesting vocals work though. Up to track 9 and everything seems pretty versatile. Some songs are fast DnB, some songs are electro house (The Island Part 1 reminds me a bit of Swedish House Mafia), some songs are electro-rock and some songs are godawful ear-chafing headache inducing Dubstep. The Island Part II in particular gives me a killer migraine, which sucks when Part 1 was pretty decent. The 2 tracks after the aforementioned Part II aren't much better to be honest. These attempts at metal come off at best as a cheesy attempt at Nine Inch Nails-esque industrial. At worst, they're a step above I Set My Friends On Fire. The last few songs improve on that by a longshot (except perhaps Self Vs Self, Death Metal and DnB is an effing weird combination) and the last song ends with some nice water effects after all the DnB/Metal/Whatever else to pound in your ears. There's a deluxe version which adds over 70 minutes of audio (along with almost 50 minutes of video). There really is no reason for that to exist especially when 12 out of 13 tracks are remixes, as this album is already a bit overlong in my opinion. If you were to cut out the less enjoyable dubstep/metal tracks, you'd trim about 20 minutes and be left with a much nicer package of great DnB/Electro House tracks. As it is, this is a 6 or 7 out of 10 solely due to the smatterings of crap between the good music. |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
check out olafur arnulds - for now I am winter, really wonderful neo-classical music
(I'm gonna see him live in august omg) |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
August Burns Red released a new album recently, Rescue & Restore. I don't know if you're into metal, but I'd still highly recommend it.
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Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Day 3: June 30 - Metaphorical Music by Nujabes (Requested by Phillip Sossou)
Nujabes was a Japanese hip-hop producer who died in 2010 in a car crash. Despite being very critically acclaimed his works weren't reissued after his death meaning his works still cost over $50 on Amazon. Also, Phillip (the guy who requested this, if you haven't read the title) always wants to smack me whenever he brings this guy up because I mispronounce his name. I expected jazz with hip-hop, and I got exac- BY GOD THESE SONGS ARE IN ENGLISH. Even after multiple warnings, I expected some guy to be rapping in Japanese. I mean come on, my guesses weren't completely baseless, the dude lived in Japan. Thank god I was wrong. By the time I reach track 5, there seems to be a 1-2 formula for the track listing. Smooth jazz with hip-hop drums, and then smooth jazz with hip-hop drums and some guy rapping. By track 7, he broke the chain (2 instrumentals!). Track 8, Think Different, may be the most hilariously pussyfied diss track I've ever heard. After that, there seems to be more of an emphasis on instrumentals, with some occasional spoken word or samples. The last track, Peaceland, is a particularly soothing smooth jazz piece with some glitch influence. This album has some pretty awesome instrumentals to it, but a few tracks feel a bit too stretched out. Overall though, it's a nice mixture of rap and easy listening. I'm not a big hip-hop person but I can recommend it for the instrumental tracks alone. My main conclusion? I need new headphones because these are starting to break. Also, Nujabes was a great producer with some really good jazzy beats and a career cut short, though my favorite producer of this genre is still Danger Mouse. That gives me an idea for July 7. I think I'll do a double that day. |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Day 4: Alien Youth by Skillet
I remember hating on Skillet when I was a few years younger, on the basis that Christian Metal is an alien concept to me and that I found their music really bland. I'm about to switch away from my Dinosaur Jr just to listen to this and see how my opinions have changed. The dudes voice sort of annoys me... And what are these lyrics? Jesus domination? I had to turn down the volume after 2 minutes. Kept going. More lyrical oddities. See a whole nation living without sin? I had to give up after 3 tracks. This gives me the idea of Nickelback becoming born-again Christians and then attempting heavier songs with a slightly more talented vocalist. And a better guitarist who can play more than 3 power chords. And superior drums. That's not really Nickelback at that point though so I don't know where the reminder comes from. Maybe it's the bassline? Who gives a damn cause I'm still stopping after 3 songs (which is what I would do if I were to review Nickelback). Perhaps I should've listened to people and waited for A. the softer songs or B. female vocals, but I already have had enough I think. Either it's the heat, or this album is giving me a headache. I'm gonna go listen to those jazzy Nujabes instrumentals and move onto the next album once my head clears. In the mean time, click on this link and look for Family Force 5 if you want anymore of my opinion on this. MISSION ABORTED. TRY AGAIN. Day 4: The Strange Case Of... by Halestorm (Album Choice: TwistedChaos95) After listening to some Nujabes and Aphex Twin and turning on the AC, I'm ready for more Metal music. Ambient music makes a good palate cleanser and that heat was killing me. I know absolutely NOTHING about this band so wish me luck. I do know this is the shortest album yet at 40:29, and that they play alt. metal and post-grunge. That's about it. The first 2 songs are pretty decent. The guitar can be boring at times, but when they get experimental it's a lot better. The (female) singer's growly deep voice somehow reminds me of Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth. I'm not keen on it being in metal, I keep thinking "why isn't this noise rock?" Hopefully that will change. The uneasiness with the singer continued, then track 5 hits, and I'm far more enamored with the vocals then before, and that trend seems to continue onto track 6. Track 7, Break In, is a piano ballad. Totally unexpected, but it further highlights the vocal talent. In the middle of this song, I've come to the conclusion that the vocalist is best with soft songs. A touch of acoustic guitar, this is probably my choice of album highlight, if only because I'm beginning to grow a fondness for The Dresden Dolls. American Boys is another highlight with a vague bit of a Southern Rock, ZZ Top feel. Vague I must repeat. These bonus tracks mean my point is moot. They seem to be the same. Another hard rocker/metal track, another piano ballad turned to hard rock/metal, and another one with the longest solo on the album. I don't feel like reviewing this part. Everything I've said and will say applies. I definitely prefer this album over Skillet. The girls voice was shaky at first, but later on became the main thing separating this alt. metal band from many others. The instrumentation can get boring at times, but when they take it in a different direction it's a lot more appealing. Overall, it's an inoffensive, average alt. metal/post-grunge album brought to much higher territory with the power of a female vocalist, something sorely lacking in this genre. They could do with some more interesting guitar work though. I'm going to take a nap now, because I still have a headache. Christ. |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Any of these :
Colour Haze - Tempel Progenie Terrestre Pura - U.M.A. Iceage - You're Nothing Kandma - Demur Fire! Orchestra - Exit! edit : do you consider giving a rating for each review ? |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
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NOTE: This entire review is a rewrite because my computer crashed on me after letting it sit unposted for several minutes. Day 5: Hypnotize by System of a Down (Album Request: CJ101) System of a Down is an Alt. Metal band that is often compared to Tool. Both play alt. metal with a heavy dose of experimentation. Both became popular in the mid-late 90s and have at least one triple platinum album. Both are often called "overrated" or "pretentious", likely because they don't play arena rock. And most importantly, both are bands I only know from Guitar Hero/Rock Band songs. I'm out of it I know. Also, these guys come from the same place as the Kardashians, but have an entirely different market and appeal (no breasts on these guys). First song is almost exactly what I expected based on Rock Band songs, and that continues for the next few songs. There's a formula for the majority of the songs: Speed metal, soft section, in-between, back to speed metal. Vary as desired, rinse and repeat. Obviously, this isn't so limited as to every song sounding the same, but it does add a level of predictability. I've already given up on understanding the lyrics. The guitar is often boring but shows some improvement when experimentation is used. The vocalist I swear is often attempting to sing for a novelty act. Songs like Kill Rock & Roll feature some bizarre singing styles, and oftentimes the lyrics appear as juvenile humor, especially in songs like Vicinity of Obscenity (Banana Terracotta Pie? What the hell is tha- OH I GET IT it's one of those "food innuendo" songs. Because we all know what a banana looks like but what the heck is a terracotta pie? Quick Google search shows me it's... a ceramic? Who eats ceramic pie? Should've said panna cotta pie except nobody really makes that either). She's Like Heroin seems to be about drug-addicted hookers and features both humorous aspects of earlier songs. And if you can't tell, I can sort of understand the lyrics now. Lonely Day MUST be tongue-in-cheek, I can't take any song that says "most loneliest" seriously. I originally finished around 10:37 A.M. and decided to give it an extra skimover at 12:50. I gathered any further thoughts. -Attack vaguely reminds me of Arab on Radar. That band sucks. -The guitar is a bit better then I gave it credit for. But the occasional experimental bits still reign over the speed metal sections. -Vocals are a mixture of manic shouts, melodic singing and occasional pure bizarrity, like in songs like She's Like Heroin I can't conclude much about this album. It's not really my type of metal but if you like whatever this can be classified as then I'd say it's a pretty fine album in-and-out. It's not what I think of as experimental metal (I think of Mr. Bungle or Dog Fashion Disco) but I wouldn't call it nu-metal (it deserves better than the same tag as Limp Bizkit). Whatever you tag it is, give it a try and maybe you'll like it. No matter your opinion, it's still better than Kim Kardashian. Also, as a note, if you're a fan of this band I recommend you check out Psychostick (whom EVERYONE on this damn site should know at this point). Stylistically they're quite different but I still think there's a degree of cross appeal. Compare Prozak Milkshake to Lonely Day. That's all I have for a comparison actually. |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Gonna create a short list, review the ones you want (if i understand this correctly)
cannonball adderley - cannonball and coltrane, amon amarth - Surtur rising, madeon - the city EP, OK Go - oh no, phaeleh - the cold in you |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Day 6: A Different Arrangment by Black Marble (Album Choice: David H.)
This album was described to me as "chill" and was obscure enough to the point that the only MP3 download I could find (not screwing around with FLACs) was on What.CD. David this better be worth my ratio. This album was described on there as Synthpop, darkwave, minimalist and indie. David describes it as chill, I said that before. Also of note is that these guys have less then a full hour of recorded content publicly available. If I like it, that's a shame. This guys voice reminds me of Stephen Merritt of The Magnetic Fields, if Stephen Merritt mumbled more. The vocals are set low in the mix, allowing us to focus on the instruments. Minimally used guitar and bass compliments the synths well. Unfortunately, not all the synths stay interesting. At times the album as a whole feels a bit on the repetitive side, however the artists were smart enough the keep the album short (at 36:55) and not outwear their welcome. Being a short, linear album, I can summarize this pretty quickly. There's a heavy 80s vibe to this album, but everybody considers the music of the 80s to suck balls. So imagine a softer Kraftwerk (70s) with The Magnetic Fields (90s) and you have a decent idea of what this album is like. It's good chillout music but could use a little variety. And holy crap this is a short review. Ah well, I'm writing a load tomorrow to make up for that. |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Review this album
Diagnose Lebensgefahr - Transformalin |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Love the reviews so far and how you seem to write down your thoughts as you progress through the album. Fun read
Random list, mostly recent, hope something below interests you : Biffy Clyro - Blackened Sky Queens of the Stone Age - ...Like Clockwork Karkwa - Les Chemins de Verre Danimal Cannon and Zef - Parallel Processing Pure Reason Revolution - The Dark Third Terminal 11 - Self-Exorcism Streetlight Manifesto - The Hand That Thieves The Ocean - Pelagial BT - This Binary Universe Grandaddy - The Sophtware Slump |
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Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
"Flying Lotus - Until the Quiet Comes" Would be an interesting one for you to do.
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Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
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Day 7: God Bless 'Murica! Multiple Reviews by Multiple Artists It's Independence Day in the US, and for that reason I decided to do more than one review today. The Beach Boys are often called "America's Band" so I chose them as my first review for the 4th of July. The only album anybody cares about by them is Pet Sounds, which I have yet to listen to (again, I'm out of it) and is of seriously legendary status (being in almost every top albums list). I don't feel the need to write much about these guys, though an interesting fact is that despite writing 532 songs about surfing only one actually surfed. I've also read several reviews where albums I like (OK Computer, Loveless, The Soft Bulletin) are called the "Pet Sounds of the 90s". Time to catch up. This is very different from all the surfy Chuck Berry derivative songs the Beach Boys made early in their career, but that's to be expected. The layered sound adds texture and the different array of instruments shows the painstaking effort that went into making this record. That's what every freaking review says. I'll say that the singles still stand as some of the best baroque pop ever made, with good usage of instruments like harpsichords, glockenspiel, bells, mandolin, and dogs. Many non-single tracks like Don't Talk and the 2 instrumentals also stand as great psychedelic tracks. If I have any complaints about this album, it would be that VERY RARELY the orchestra sounds a bit dated and the lyrical content drones on and on about Brian Wilson's love/lost love, but that's alleviated with some tracks not about said lost love (or at least very cryptically about lost love) like Sloop John B and I Just Wasn't Made For These Times. This was a fairly pointless review, as every reviewer ever known to man has already reviewed this album and given it a 10. I'm kinda scared that I'll be shot just for having any complaints at all. So my final note is, I can definitely see the comparisons to The Soft Bulletin and maybe OK Computer, but how the hell does this strike a comparison to My Bloody Valentine? Layered sound means nothing when it's this different. Alright, next review. For Segregationists Only by Johnny Rebel (Album Choice: Abu) I know of Johnny Rebel mainly through an episode of The Boondocks. Ah, Uncle Ruckus never ceases to amuse me. Basically, this guy sings racist country songs. And what represents the USA better than racism and slavery? This seems like your basic country, with a nasal singer, marching band-esque percussion and generic, walking guitar. The lyrical content is slightly amusing at how bigoted it is, but the shtick gets old far too quickly. Unadulterated racism no longer retains any shock value thanks to the media, so this is just generic C/W music with juvenile racist lyrics. I wasn't able to listen to this whole album. Not because of the subject matter, but because it's so BLAND in terms of music. Dave Chappelle pulled this joke off better in a third of the time, and he's not white. If this music is to be taken seriously... Well, I'm not a white supremacist (or even white for that matter) so that's an impossible task. And if you were to change the lyrical matter to what every other country song sings about (ie; tractors, love, rural life, actual patriotism, cousin love) then this music would have less flavor than tofu extract. This is why I'm not vegan. MISSION ABORTED. AND DELETED FROM MY PHONE IMMEDIATELY BECAUSE IT'S PROBABLY NOT A GOOD IDEA TO KEEP THIS ON YOUR PHONE. For the last thing I'll do to velebrate the 4th of July, I went on Wikipedia and looked up to see how many albums there were that contained a song titled "4th of July". Now I shall review them all (with number ratings!) very briefly, based on only a couple of songs each. 1. There's a band named "Fourth of July" but I couldn't find their albums anywhere except YouTube, and I'm not listening to albums on YouTube at the moment. X/10 2. Amy MacDonald - Life In A Beautiful Light: This is a Scottish folk-pop singer. This is too much on the pop side for my liking. For a folk album, there's an odd electronic feel to this album. Meh, it's inoffensive. The Fourth of July track is especially boring. 6/10 3. I skipped the Beach Boys. I just reviewed them, and I'm not rummaging through a whole box set to hear a Fourth of July song. No rating/10 4. Galaxie 500 - This Is Our Music: I read about this band before, they're described as dream pop and slowcore. There are a few bands I like that are described as dream pop, like Yo La Tengo and the aforementioned MBV. This is not nearly as slow as I expected, with a mixture of spoken word and poor singing. This is much softer then every other dream pop/shoegaze band I've listened to, and I'm not fond of the singing. Still, I'm gonna give this one a bit of a recommendation. It's better than Amy Macdonald. 8/10 5. Kelis - Flesh Tone: The cover art scares me. But the music isn't scary, it's bland electro-pop music. Screw this. 3/10 6. Shooter Jennings - Put The "O" Back in Country: Guess what kind of music this is! It's considerably better then Johnny Rebel's crap (probably because there's more rock and less white supremacy), but doesn't feel special in any way at all. Busted in Baylor County (Sweet Leaf Version) is probably my choice for stand-out, but Butthole Surfers with Sweat Loaf beat this in terms of Black Sabbath derivatives. 5.5/10 7. Soundgarden - Superunknown: This is the only album on here I've listened to the entirety of. I love Soundgarden (Not Chris Cornell's solo work) but I'm one of the few who doesn't think this is their best work (Down on the Upside is better). The 4th of July track here is murky and about acid. It's a definite standout track. 9/10 8. U2 - The Unforgettable Fire: Wait, aren't these guys from Ireland? Why should I review this? I don't wanna listen to U2. Yes I realize I've already reviewed a Scottish Folk singer but I don't care. Screw You/10 9. X - See How We Are: This is a classic punk rock band that I've never listened to. At this point I'm too lazy to give this a full review or even a serious rating. If you like punk rock, 7/10. If you don't like Punk Rock, you suck. |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Lmfao, BOTDF
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Day 8: Bundle of Joy by Land of the Loops (Album Choice: Lord of Sushi) WITH A BONUS REVIEW
Land of the Loops is the alias of recording artist Alan Sutherland. He makes music for commercials as well as loop-heavy indierock-influenced electronica. I know very little about this guy, I specifically chose this request because it was listed as obscure. I've been saying how often my predictions were right or wrong, so I'll say my prediction before listening: Negativland meets The Flashbulb (they listed him as breaks, I don't know many breakbeat artists so I just used an IDM example) Turns out I was about 70% right. There is an overall similarity to Negativland, but many key differences. There's less overall sampling, more respect for musical elements (such as heavy drum usage, actual singing, actual melodies), and no social commentary whatsoever. There still is humor to be found in the samples however, with tracks like Multi-Family Garage Sale using vintage movie samples for dadaist humor. That other half of my guess though, it was WRONG. I don't see how this is classified as breaks. Nothing here reminds me much of Aphex Twin, The Flashbulb, Venetian Snares or anyone else who makes drum-heavy electronic music. So what should it be classified as? That varies. A few tracks like I Dream Of Ghosts and Mass. Ave. And Beyond are basically downtempo with some samples on top. (Imagine Boards Of Canada's cousin that recieves welfare.)Some songs are pop/twee pop with hip-hop drums, like Cruisin' For Sentient Beings and Heidi Cakes. The rest are Negativland-esque sound collages with... You know what I'll say it because I don't have a better term, breaks (hypocrite!) and some other instruments. At 58:58, Bundle Of Joy seems to be another electronic album that goes on longer than it needs to. Many tracks like Mathematical Park go on for more time than they need to, and at times the album seems unfocused. Considering some of my favorite artists RELY on being unfocused like Mr. Bungle and Beck I don't really have the right to complain but I don't give a damn. All these complaints are more petty then I make them seem, this is still a pretty decent album. And I'm going to end this in a very half-butted manner because I have 45 minutes left after my computer deleted my review (A SECOND TIME! IN LESS THEN A WEEK!). Also, I looked it up and turns out breakbeat is a much more versatile term then I expected. Hooray for being wrong! Bonus review time! Today's bonus review is another obscure one, Mixed Melodies EP by SourceForm (also known as Connconn7), requested by Sourceform/Connconn7. For further notice, if people want me to review their music, I'd like them to remember this Mark Prindle quote: "I can't promise a POSITIVE review, but I can promise that I won't give you a grade lower than a 1." With that quote in mind, I'm gonna give this a number rating since it's a mini-review. So here we go. An important (but subjective) part of track order. DO NOT put a remix right after the original track. This is especially important in electronic music, where things can get repetitive quickly. Do a reprise instead, prevents possible burnout/track skip. It worked for The Beatles, it worked for Frank Zappa, it should work for you. I will say, a simple BPM change made the remix a lot more engaging. Intro (Half) is my track of choice. Good build-up and short but not too brief overall. Unless it's actually a half track. Other then that, this is basically your average acid techno. So I don't know what number to give it. Whatever. /10 I finished this with a half-hour to go. TAKE THAT, CRAPPY CRASHING COMPUTER! Here's a free download to the bonus review EP: http://soundcloud.com/sourceform/set...d-melodies-ep/ |
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August burns red is fucking awesome
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Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Day 9: The Director's Cut by Fantomas (Album Choice: Me)
Today I'm going to see a movie, so I decided to listen to this album as a huge Bungle and somewhat Melvins fan. Fantomas is a supergroup consisting of Mike Patton from Faith No More/Mr. Bungle on vocals, Trevor Dunn from Mr. Bungle on bass, King Buzzo of the Melvins on guitar and Dave Lombardo of Slayer on drums. According to some sources, metal fans "were in heaven" when they heard of this supergroup. ...What exactly were they expecting? I don't listen to much Slayer, but both the Melvins and Mr. Bungle are (or in the case of Mr. Bungle, were sadly) some of the weirdest groups in metal. This album in particular is a whole album of movie theme covers, mostly horror. I'm guessing (always guessing) that this will be closer to Disco Volante, the most experimental (and my least favorite) Bungle album than anything Slayer has done. Ever. So, because this is often cited as a "challenging release" and because I haven't seen a single one of these movies (not even The Godfather) I've decided that I'll give this a special style of review. 3 steps! 1. Listen to album and review. 2. After going to see a movie, listen to the original movie themes (compiling these was not fun, and I missed Der Golem and Night of the Hunter. This better be worth it) 3. Listen to album again, re-review. What started as a melodica quickly turned to thrash metal, and then scat singing. And back to metal. This is definitely a Mike Patton project. I don't think that listening to The Godfather theme will change my opinion much. Next few tracks and there is a definite thrash metal feeling, even between the softer singing/crooning/falsettoing (IDGAF if that isn't a word) in Experiment in Terror and Night of the Hunter. My guess was mostly wrong, but there were a few Death/Thrash Metal tracks on DV, and this is mostly Thrash Metal. I've never been a fan of songs using "la-la"'s as lyrics, partially due to Strong Bad, and this album freaking violates that concept. These are covers so I have yet to find out if that's accurate or Patton being a jackass. Spider Baby reminds me of Dog Fashion Disco, which is funny because everyone calls them a Mr. Bungle rip-off, something I never sympathized with. The Omen proves I didn't pay attention in Latin class, and it reminds me of Violenza Domestica except much heavier, not in Italian and ten times more awesome. Funny how the actual movie theme doesn't sound like a movie theme. The last song is somewhat reminiscent of California, particularly Goodbye Sober Day. I only say that because the song structure changes in a similar way. I'm going to assume this is closest to Slayer without listening to them, it's too heavy to feel like Mr. Bungle and not sludgy enough to sound like Melvins. Maybe if Mike Patton replaced Tom Araya Slayer would sound like this. I don't know I still haven't heard a full Slayer album. Now that I'm done seeing an actual movie (The Lone Ranger wasn't as bad as reviews said, though it was overlong. IMDB is more accurate here.) it's time to listen to the original themes. Also let me fix step 3. 3. After listening to original themes, create a playlist so that the original themes and covers alternate. That makes for easier comparison. Before I listened to these themes, I listened to a couple of Slayer songs. It is NOT closest to Slayer. It's way too schizophrenic to sound like Slayer. Then I finally listened to these themes... It's freaking movie music. Orchestras and background music galore. I'm now wondering if skipping step 2 was a good idea. Oh well. Now, step 3. This is 80 minutes of relistening, but if some people are correct (knowing the movie themes make it better) then this is worth it. I organized a playlist in a 1-2 order going from original track to Fantomas cover. Let's see if my appreciation spikes. The Godfather transitions very well into The Godfather (Theme), going straight from the smooth singing into the melodica, and then the screaming scat singing. They compliment each other well. They removed actual lyrics from The Godfather, and added lyrics (unless I have the wrong version) to Experiment in Terror! Why? Truth be told, some of the longer themes I skipped around in, but I made sure I got the point and fully relistened to The Director's Cut. Except I skipped 2 tracks. It was pointless I didn't have the original themes. Man, my attention span sucks. For one track I partly skipped (One Step Beyond), the re-imagining becomes a LOT better once you hear the original. As does another (Cape Fear). Some songs I feel aren't affected much by listening to the original, but that's more because I enjoyed the cover without listening to the original (Spider Baby is the best example of this). Overall, this 80 (well actually, reduced to about 65) minutes of relistening? Totally worth it. I was totally wrong with that bit about The Godfather, almost every track is enhanced when you know the original. The Director's Cut is one strange concept for an album, but it's pulled off very well. Of the 4 bands mentioned, I feel like this is what Mr. Bungle would eventually sound like if they kept their early Death Metal ways, but I never listened to The Raging Wrath of The Easter Bunny, their first demo and only demo in that style. Maybe I should, but the 2 demos I did hear sucked complete balls. This album is loaded with about 4 songs of actual distinct lyrics and another 11 of scat singing and instrumentals, so this is definitely a challenging release as many have listed it as. Once you get into it, however, it shines like cubic zirconia. I'm not a fan of scat singing (except maybe Scatman John), but this album is still probably my highlight thus far (yes, more then the Beach Boys) after listening to the original themes. My final recommendation is this: If you like metal music at all, give this album a try. If you don't like it at first, do what I did and listen to the original themes then give it another try (or make an alternating playlist) and watch it make so much more sense. If you still don't like it, well, at least you tried. |
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I'm sad that nobody commented on Fantomas. Seriously, such a good album.
Day 10: The Grey Album by Danger Mouse Today it's Ringo Starr's birthday, and even though he was undeniably the worst Beatle I'm still using this as an excuse to celebrate. So today I'm listening to The Grey Album by Danger Mouse. It's a mashup album consisting of Beatles instrumentals underneath the Jay-Z album "The Black Album". This album was notorious for EMI's utter failure to halt distribution of this album despite Paul McCartney and Jay-Z both approving of the album. Danger Mouse is a great producer in my opinion, I was fond of his work with Beck even if I felt that album was a bit weak. I like the Beatles, I don't like Jay-Z's camel-looking ass. I don't need a prediction for this one. If I have time I'll keep to my word and do a double, probably of Nas as someone recommended. Knowing most of these Beatles songs (though they are often heavily altered) and very few Jay-Z songs, I can't help but laugh at times solely due to the oddity of rap over the Beatles. That being said, it's often uncanny how well the two artists complement each other despite being two completely genres. This is very different from The Mouse and the Mask and Modern Guilt, the other 2 Danger Mouse produced albums I can remember. That's expected out of a mashup album, and the production (or mashing) is still top notch (my phone corrected notch as bitch, wow.) I'm going to assume the Beatles instrumentals sound LESS dated than Jay-Z's beats, but they could use a remaster, even if that's just raising everything by a few decibels. Also, it's of worthwhile note that this isn't simply putting instrumental underneath as I expected, there's a lot of mixing often doing some awesome stuff like turning John Lennon's voice into percussion. A key example of this (and one of my personal favorite tracks) would be the interludes. These feature lots of vocal reversing and added percussion, creating a sound unlike the rest of the album, which I liken more to DM's work on Modern Guilt, especially Replica. This is what rap rock should be, not Lil Wayne's talentless guitar playing. Not any of those "nu-metal" atrocities like Limp Bizkit. Not rap metal bands that aren't nu-metal (though I do like a few Red Hot Chili Pepper tracks). And most definitely not any of those crunkcore bands, if that's considered rap at that point. THIS. IS. IT. Even as a non-Jay-Z fan I still think this is a prime example of rap rock. A shame it's not an actual original album because this should be a watermark of that genre. I decided against doing a double because I'm almost outta time. To summarize briefly, this album is a huge highlight of mine, probably right below Fantomas as my favorite album thus far. Even though I consider Jay-Z one of the most overrated rappers ever, the mashup work here is so good it brings new life to it. This comes as highly recommended. |
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Day 11: Rescue and Restore by August Burns Red (with a bonus review)
August Burns Red is a band described as metalcore on Wikipedia. Two highly different bands come to mind for metalcore. First is Avenged Sevenfold, I used to like them, now I find them meh. The next is Bullet For My Valentine, which should be renamed The Equivalent of Bullets Going Through Your Ear As Someone Shouts "HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY" And Plays Terrible Metal Instruments As Your Ear Bleeds. From what I've read, this band doesn't sound like those bands. They have extended breakdowns and odd-meter riffs, two thing I really like in metal. That sounds more like Progressive Metal though, and they're heavily influenced by Between The Buried And Me, a progressive metal band. My hopes are low for the metalcore, but high because of those two elements. First song, and this reminds me of Protest the Hero, also prog metal. Except for the growls. The riff around 3:30 in Treatment is awesome, still not keen on vocals. Count It All As Lost contains some decent guitar work as well. The mini-solo around the beginning of Animals is also good. There is one aspect of this music I'm still not fond of, though. After listening I take back what I said about Protest The Hero, solely because there is no melodic singing to be found. The only track that contains any melodic singing is Echoes. This album could use more of that, but then again non-melodic screams aren't to my taste. If they are to yours then by all means try this. So apparently this is a Christian band, and I like them more than Skillet. I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume it's because the vocalist is a lot more... Challenging. I know I said I didn't like the vocals, but as far as I know this music isn't too preachy to give me a headache. Apparently, he doesn't want to shove Christianity down peoples throat, he just wants to let that speak through his lyrics. ...Is this guy a clown, a crackhead or just delusional? Who the hell is going to get a message out of these shrieks and growls? People with better lyric deciphering skills then me, I guess. Another concise review, but I'm doing a bonus review of an EP to make up for that. I'll say this in 3 sentences: I don't like these vocals, but the guitar is pretty enjoyable, so the vocals should be remastered by Steve Albini. I'm actually kind of glad I can't understand the lyrics because I don't want another headache, and I'm actually kinda scared he lied about not wanting to sound preachy (thus I didn't look up the lyrics). This is the third sentence. BONUS REVIEW TIME. Today's bonus review is the Cult of Mictlan EP by Oral Fistfuck. This band is described as not only death metal, but "brutal" death metal. I bet this will be like a carnival ride. The Berzerker played their songs faster then Oral Fistfuck did. And that's the end of the review. |
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Day 12: The Sophtware Slump by Grandaddy (Album Choice: Crazyjayde)
Before I start this review, I'll briefly tell you about two albums I listened to yesterday, neither of which qualify for reviews, Fresh Meat + Old Slabs by Beck and Sweden by The Mountain Goats. Both are extremely lo-fi tape recorded folk/anti-folk albums. FM + OS contains some experimental tracks on it and has a lot of entertaining tracks. Sweden will RIP YOUR GODDAMN HEART OUT. Well, only if you're a sap for simple 3-chord songs like me, I can't even attempt to play The Recognition Scene without stopping. If you like folk, you know what I'm going to say, since I'm a proclaimed fan of both these artists. Onto the actual review. Grandaddy is a space rock band, and another band I know very little about. One of their listed influence is Bad Brains. How the hell does that influence space rock? This particular album is all recorded by one guy and is a concept album, so I should probably look out for that second part while listening. I must say, the title is pretty awesome. I know this is a concept album, but why must the first track be the longest? It annoys me when albums do that, like Hairway to Steven by the Butthole Surfers, or Dopesmoker by Sleep except nobody gives a crap about the second track. Regardless of my disdain for such track orders, the first song is quite pretty with lush-sounding instrumentation. I hear a bit more in the next 2 tracks. The first comparison I get from this music is post-Zaireeka Flaming Lips. Had this come out a year earlier, I'm sure this would get another "Pet Sounds of the 90s" claim. Ugh. Tracks 4 and 5 show a bit of difference, with more straightforward guitar-based rock, like early era Flaming Lips with a dash of later era. All my comparisons are to The Flaming Lips, down to the high pitched vocals (though a lot less scratchy here) and half the songs having jackass long titles and half not. I check What.CD and TasteKid and YES I WAS RIGHT. Track 6, Underneath The Weeping Willow does not remind me of Wayne Coyne. It's just a piano ballad. The rest seems to remind me of a much sadder, yes, Flaming Lips, either reminiscent of the early era guitar-based songs with a lot more layered orchestra (loose definition of orchestra), or the later era orchestra-based songs with a lot more guitar fuzz. I didn't get an ounce of story from this album, besides Miner at the Dial-a-View and Jed The Humanoid, reason being Wikipedia told me. Perhaps I need to relisten to the album to understand the story, or maybe it's like those early 60s "concept albums" where there's no story, just a theme. Outside of that, the music is pretty good. All those comparisons to Flaming Lips but I'll give this the title of being ABOVE the Flaming Lips. It successfully combines both eras of that band (well, none of the post-punk noise rock in the early, early days) while having a voice of their own, along with superior vocals. It's also highly impressive that one dude recorded this. This gets a definite thumbs-up to anyone who likes spacy neo-psychedelia bands. I wonder what this album would be like on LSD. |
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Glad you reviewed this album out of every others, as well as the Grey Album two days earlier. (Danger Mouse being a outstanding producer (i.e. Broken Bells/Madvillain)) Keep those coming, I'm not far from your mindset and I'm glad to share some of your perceptions on these tracks.
By the way, two questions: - How good would you rate Fantômas compared to Mr. Bungle? - Would it be possible to cite your preferences in music (genre inclinations, overall moods you search for in music, etc.) so I can define more your background and understand you views? |
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Quote:
2. I don't think about moods when I choose what music to listen to, unless I do it unconciously. In terms of genres, I'd like to say I have eclectic tastes, but mostly I listen to experimental rock/metal, noise rock, folk rock, house and IDM. I do have music that falls under other genres like alternative rock and stoner metal though. I don't like a lot of hip-hop (this is not to say all), dubstep, post-grunge, country (some exceptions, for example Meat Puppets II if you count it as such) or whatever radio-friendly pop falls under. |
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Well then I'd second noname's suggestion and propose you a listening of any album from Colour Haze's discography (with a strong inclination towards Tempel or their eponymous album). It should please your ears.
(no need to review, just a necessary listening ;)) |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
I'll probably get to Colour Haze pretty soon.
Day 13: Highly Refined Pirates by Minus The Bear Minus The Bear is an indie rock band from where Kurt Cobain hailed. They don't play power-chord repetitions, though, at least I assume not. They play math rock, the genre that applies bands like Slint and Rodan, bands with far more complex and angular guitar playing than Kurt could touch. It's also the root of mathcore, which applies to more quality bands like Protest The Hero and Dillinger Escape Plan (I also like to throw Soundgarden in there solely due to messed up time signatures. Truthfully the guitar isn't crazy technical enough). I heard of this band long ago, and I thought they had a stupid name (this was before I ever listened to Butthole Surfers or Andrew Jackson Jihad or anything else with a weirdo band name) and somehow I was scared they would sound like Arab on Radar. On that last part looking back I have no freaking idea why. Looking at other bands of this genre, I have high hopes which I expect to be crushed. Which technically means I have low hopes, doesn't it? This is not Slint-like at all. I'm sad. 0/10 Okay maybe not, that's only the first 30 seconds and that wasn't much of a fair chance. The songs are a mixture of guitar tapping, guitar arpeggiating and the odd addition of crappy synths. Also, this guy can sing, unlike Brian McMahan where the only time he tried to sing about washing machines it was so poor it turned a melancholy song hilarious. It's a good thing he stuck to speaking for songs like Good Morning, Captain. Speaking of melancholy, these songs do not fit the titles at all. Nor does the album title fit, at all. These guys would be the wimpiest pirates ever, no amount of refinement would ever lead to pirates sounding like this. But then again, album and song titles don't mean anything. Anyways, back to the music. This album takes lyrics about sex, boozing and partying, and attempts to make it melancholy. And you know what? Half the time, it works! The other half of the time I would like to duct tape the singers mouth shut so I can listen to the guitar work without thinking "This is one of those emo losers." Because of that, Andy Wolff is my favorite track. The lyrics aren't ALL BAD though. Most tracks include a fair amount of wordplay when the vocalist isn't whining about banging a girl while cutting himself. I'd like to actually see a song about that. Imagine the title to that track. Regardless of the vocals, the plinking tap guitar is enjoyable enough, and the changing time signatures are enough to satisfy the term "math rock", at least as far as I know. Those synths also have great camp value with how awful they are. I just realized that my joke rating makes no sense, because I'm not giving out ratings. But if you like guitar or hearing people sing in a slightly whiny voice about having a good time, listen to this. If you don't like that second part, listen to Andy Wolff first, then give the rest a try. If this is considered emo, this is what emo should sound like. It kicks bad emo bands like My Chemical Romance in the ass. Those synths are still laughable though. |
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Day 14: Until The Quiet Comes by Flying Lotus
Today*I'm going to write a review of Until The Quiet Comes by Flying Lotus. This dude makes bumper music for [adult swim]. I chose this album because it wasn't too long due to a lack of time. Thus, this review will be very terse.*Today's prediction is similar to those Nujabes instrumentals with a dash more drums. You know, like [adult swim] commercial music. The bells in Getting There are nice. And that's the conclusion of any further track-by-track I think. I get a mix of downtempo, IDM and jazz, like if Aphex Twin attempted a jazz record. No, that's not accurate at all. My IDM knowledge is quite limited. Seriously, listen to the [adult swim] bumps. Turns out I lied about the "no more track-by-track" but, but it's worth mention. Electric Candyman features Thom Yorke, probably on vocals alone. I get 2 thoughts from that. 1. "This doesn't sound nearly as dated as Kid A" 2. "Wow, I'm assuming this is FAR less obscure then I thought, which is not that obscure at all." I don't have much to say about this one. If you like the other artists on Warp like Aphex Twin, Auchtere or Boards of Canada then by all means try this. The end, I apologize for half-butting this but I don't think any more detail is necessary. If you like the Warp Records sounds, here's some more, this time with a jazzy finish. And if you like [adult swim] bumper music maybe you'll like this, although taking in 30 seconds is much different from a 45 minute album. |
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Day 15: Surtur Rising by Amon Amarth (Album Choice: Jonlovesddr)
Amon Amarth is a death metal band. People call them viking metal because they sing about vikings or something, but the ever intelligent frontman said that it's a stupid name for a genre because the vikings didn't have electric guitars. Hooray for literalism. Unlike the brutal death metal of Oral Fistfuck, these guys play melodic death metal. Which is (judging solely off of Metalocalypse) much easier to stomach. Also unlike Oral Fistfuck's Cult of Mictlan, this isn't an EP, but rather a full album. Which means I can give it a full review. Unlike the EP I mentioned several times already, this album does not start with a guy screaming, instead it took about 15 seconds of guitar playing. Didn't catch me off guard this time. So for the first song, I must say that the guitar KICKS TOTAL ASS. I have no idea what this guy is growling about, seriously. I'm assuming it's about going to Midevil Times with The Cable Guy. Jesus Christ my jokes suck as much as the guitar rocks. This second song is titled Tock's Taunt - Loke's Trachery Part II but Part I isn't on this album. I guess I'm missing something, or they didn't title it as Part I before, just like they did with Sleep Part I: Slowly Growing Deaf on Mr. Bungle's Mr. Bungle. Before the bonus track, it seems this thing is straight-up death metal from starting track to end, except for a coda in A Best I Am that's instrumental and lasts for less than 2 minutes. The bonus track, Aerials, is probably the most dynamic track, with the first chorus being sung melodically! And judging that, it's probably for the best that this guy sticks to death growls. I pulled up a lyrics sheet, and... It's about vikings. And death. I'm not gonna go so far as say I enjoy the vocal style (says the guy who listens to hardcore punk bands and loves the Meat Puppets debut) but it definitely works for this kind of music, plus the guy can't sing. And thankfully, the vocals are kept low enough in the mix for it not to be overbearing, a complaint I have that seems far too common (like in In The Aeroplane Over The Sea despite being a favorite of mine). We're not talking Jesus Lizard low but I can turn up the music without yelling for the guy to shut up so I can focus on the guitar. There's no twists or turns to be found in this music, but it's pretty good music. BONUS REVIEW After a rather anti-climatic conclusion, I've decided to do a bonus review. I'm doing another request from the same guy, The City EP by Madeon. This is the blindest I've been to an album thus far (being a spur-of-the-moment choice), so any requests would be pretty redundant. I just realized I didn't predict anything for Amon Amarth so for the hell of it, I'm going to guess this band sounds like David Bowie. First I'm going to listen to some folk music, for no reason. Then I'll review this. 5 tracks, 3 actually with different names. And this is dance music. I'm done being blind. Apparently the guy who released this was 18 when released. He also did the jackass move of releasing all 3 tracks (I don't care if it's 5, one's an extended cut and one is a live track of another) as singles. (Correction: They're all remixes here except for the first track. Most remixes I consider to be quite bland so I'm pretending these are the originals, however you can nullify that complaint I made.) Another problem, track order. Why would you put one track after THE EXACT SAME TRACK WITH A CUT INTRO? (Correction: They're not the exact same, but still similar enough.) And then there's a live track right before a studio track. (Correction: They're quite different, also this live track lacks crowd noise). I'm done complaining. None of the complaints I made are about any of the actual tracks. I guess that's a good thing. Not rating this. |
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Day 16: Transformalin by Diagnose: Lebensgefahr (Album Choice: Wayward Vagabond)
I tried to avoid reviewing albums in foreign languages but say what you will, I don't care, I couldn't resist it. I've been listening to a lot of Japandroids recently, and I have them stuck in my head now. Ah well. The reason I couldn't resist it is because it was described as "a really intense album" that "brings chills down my [his] spine" but everyone that the album has been shown to "has(understandably) been turned off by it enough to stop listening to it". This is definitely worth a shot, even if I'll need a translator. This is another very blind jump, so let me rank my several predictions. 1. Some brutal death/black metal with unintelligible vocals 2. Scary music in the vein of dark ambient/drone/noise music mixed with screaming or dissonant breaks or something (which would put people off) 3. Metal Machine Music II without Lou Reed (if this is the case Wayward you are a pretentious douchebag) No matter what, I'm determined to listen to the whole thing. A lot of these songs have progressive lengths. Oh joy. This is why I'm not a Dream Theater fan. The cover has either a hospital or a coroner, and the first track is dark ambient. Being a short track, I can see that it may change, but it is chilling. The second track has a... Heartbeat fade-in? Here comes vocals... It's not foreign to me! It's just.. Weird. There are going to be a lot of ellipses in this review. "Pull out my teeth" and "remove my eyes" are just some of the beautifully poetic lines in this album. I need to pull this out of the charger and blindfold myself, I assume this is less interesting in bright daylight. This album reminds me of the concept of the third Fantomas album, Delirium Cordia which was one track over an hour about surgery without anesthesia. I get a slightly similar idea from these first two tracks, though somewhere in there you'd have to throw in crystal meth. But it turns out (after a brief Google) that this album was written as therapy for the artist after he was sent to an asylum... And there's another ellipse because if you can't tell my exact reaction is WHAT THE FU Nearing the end of track 3, it's still bright outside so I've decided to wrap a blanket around my head and attempt to visualize these noises. Maybe I'll get it. I'll also attempt to write with this blanket on my head, I'll have to fix my typos. This 5th track contains pig squeals and a marching band. I had to take off the head blanket to type that sentence. Back on it goes. I took the blanket blindfold off at the end of the 6th track. So here's a list of daydreams I got in such a brief timespan. -Watching a speech on meth -A guy giving a speech on meth -A girl who can't breath very well and is getting surgery without anesthesia (this is an outlier) -A guy in the hospital on meth -A black metal singer making music on his computer on meth Overall, there seems to be a lot of drug influence to this music, or this guy is completely wacked out. There is some essence of an eerie vibe to this music, but less then I expected after the first track. The 7th track, The Last Breath of Tellus sounds like a purgatory orchestra. With a guy chanting to you about how you've done 50 percent good and bad things. But then it turns into actual electronic music which I refuse to define further. Not that haunting, actually mildly enjoyable (which is exaggerated on this album) and... It went to screams. Mani VS Apati reminds me of that middle section of Raisans by Dinosaur Jr except there's no bass, drums, guitar, or any real melody. Just that bit with the old guy with mental problems screaming. The penultimate track, Obducentens Drom features a warm, tape recorder-esque sound and if you can't tell I'm just drooling all my thoughts onto the keyboard. And this last track has me finally thinking that this album is partially formulaic. Around half of the tracks are ambient music played with some insane meth addict screaming "NYAAAAAAH SPLEIGOON! ASTON! ASTON! CREEEEEHEHHEEEELILILILILI!" repeatedly. That or something else in a language I don't know. The other half of the time it's in English, very rarely with prominent drums. Well, what can I say about this album? I can say that I sat through it. I can say that it's definitely a chilling listen. Oh yeah, I can also say "WHO IS THIS MARKETED TO!?". I honestly don't know how there could possibly be a niche large enough to appreciate this kind of music, this sounds like it was designed to make the mentally ill commit suicide. No joke. And for that reason, I give it a recommendation! Only because I want to find out who actually really likes this kind of music. It's one interesting album. I feel like it deserves a re-listen though, for 3 reasons. 1. Because it's a "challenging" album. Cliche but true. 2. Because I feel like the setting I listened to it in isn't the most appropriate. It should be listened to in a room with very little furniture, in the dead of night, played loudly on speakers. That or it should be played at Guantanamo Bay. 3. Mostly, because I want to compare this to Delirium Cordia despite having never listened to that, and the fact that it may not be similar at all. But yeah, I recommend this to EVERYONE solely to see what market this is for. It's also an interesting look into the mind of an unstable black metal singer. |
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Day 17: This Is Our Science by Astronautalis (Album Choice: Efe Clemenza)
Today's review is of a white rap album. I'm not a fan of white rap, let me be honest. Some are okay, like the Beastie Boys (which has a fair amount of punk to it) but for the most part hearing white people rap is an exploration of hilariously pathetic attempts at flow and lyrics that make you want to burn someone (for that last one, looking mainly at Anthony Kiedis). It's even worse when people who are talented in rock music attempt hip-hop. And to think Chris Cornell was so good in Soundgarden. I don't give a shit if Scream wasn't actually hip-hop it was produced by Timbaland so I automatically think of it as such. Back on track. So anyways, this guy is Caucasian, and he's a rap producer. This would normally be a red flag considering the past collections of musical sadness. (Hey, Al Sharpton said you can't be racist against white people, did he not?) This guy, however, is often compared to Beck, if Beck was more into hip-hop. I am a fan of Beck despite the many awkward rap tracks he makes. That would give me high hopes, except he's said to mix "electro house, blues and indie rock" into hip-hop. No folk or funk rock? Where the hell is the Beck comparison? There are other eclectic artists and I don't recall Beck ever really covering electro house. Ah well, let's give this a shot. I feel like quoting several websites counts as a prediction. Meh, I'm not big on this dude's voice. But it's not excruciating like Lil B and his lyrics aren't excruciating like Lil B so I'm happy. This isn't entirely hip-hop, Measure The Globe seems very ballad-y. As a matter of fact, it seems this album is only hip-hop pretty sparingly, with a fair dose of eclecticism throughout. There's a mixture of acoustic instrumentation, synthesizers, and pop rock structures. I don't like most pop rock, just like I don't like most Caucasian rap. But this is a very respectable effort in music and I'm glad I wasn't subjected to the equivalent of an Anthony Kiedis solo hip-hop album. If such a thing ever comes into existence I must punch Rick Rubin in the face. Onto the lyrics, they also weren't a total disaster! I didn't hear everything, but never did I think to myself "This guy is a wigger." With the comparisons to Beck, I'll say these rap tracks are better lyrically then anything he has done in terms of hip-hop. This is better then I expected, maybe I should leave it at that. Despite being a bit unfocused overall you have to admire this guys ambition in terms of musical versatility. And his total lack of suck when it comes to lyrics is a plus. I'm still not a fan of Caucasian hip-hop, so I guess the album wasn't so remarkable as to change my mind. But it's not painful, and that puts up above most white rap. Have I said that already? Whatever, that's my conclusion. |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Day 18: For Now I Am Winter by Olafur Arnalds (Album Choice: Choofers)
This marks the first neo-classical review I'm doing. I've gotten more then a few requests from this genre, but I decided to wait it out. I don't know why, except maybe the fact that I have NOTHING INTERESTING TO SAY ABOUT CLASSICAL. I've never taken any music theory or music analysis classes, and I like my music either electronic-based (I don't know how to make that more specific, but stuff like Ke$ha or Crunkcore does not apply. Stuff like IDM and House mainly), headbangable (seriously, need to make these a lot more specific, I don't headbang to emo or screamo. Or Christianity. Or Crunkcore. Goddamn this is hard.) or weird for the sake of being weird (that's good enough, except... Damn you Lady Gaga). Or whatever adjective I can apply to folk rock but not country. I think I missed a few potential genre adjectives. That whole thing was incredibly pointless, adjectives are too vague when it comes to music. But like I said, I don't feel qualified to review many genres, and classical is probably at the top. I don't understand when people have debates over which 18th-century European composer had superior compositions due to "vizualizations". If I wanted to visualize something I'd listen to a concept album, preferably one where I can just read the lyrics. Failing that, I find ambient music is easier to daydream to. I also don't know how to "analyze interpretations" or "interpret analyzations" or whatever. It's a skill that must take some serious time to learn. Rant is over now, and I don't know why I typed all that, this is NEO-classical music, neo meaning new. The people who tell me I must dissect some bullshit to appreciate old-classical typically hate this stuff because they can see it performed by the composer without a time machine. Which means I don't have to worry about their teachings. Still, this review (unlike that rant) is probably going to be pretty short. Well... That rant was even less necessary then I thought (which was next-to-none). This isn't that classical sounding. I mean, it is inarguably neo-classical music, but there are definite electronica influences with the fast drums in some tracks. And there are clear vocals in front of the soundscapes on a few tracks. Did I mention the soundscapes? There's a lot of them. And appropriate usage of sound effects in songs like This Place Was A Shelter. See, now I would go with the typical "don't know what the hell to say" praise of "Oh, I can tell there was a lot of time and care put into composing this" but let's be honest, when CAN'T you say that? When you can't say that, you know the album sucks, just like Human After All. I never go out of my way to listen to classical music, and the electronica-influence here is minimal at most. Again, I'm not that qualified to review this kind of music, it isn't really to my liking. I think the closest thing to classical that I listen to on a semi-regular basis is The Flashbulb. But hey, if you like classical, give it a shot (how many times have I said those 4 words?). I can't recommend this because I don't know how to separate quality when it comes to classical music unless it's an entire earful of suck. |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
People should recommend more albums. Seriously.
Day 19: Halycon Digest by Deerhunter (Album Choice: Gus V.) Here's a band which I have heard of... I think. I don't know anything about them so let me see what I can find and maybe it'll ring a bell. Nope. So apparently these guys play "ambient punk" with touches of noise rock, neo-psychedelia and shoegaze. What the hell is ambient punk I don't know. They're also on 4AD, who released, among many things, 6 of the hi-fi Mountain Goats albums. I'm quite interested in seeing what ambient punk is. Seems kind of hypocritical, like "acoustic metal" or "folktronica" or "good post-grunge". But hey, those first 2 actually exist. My prediction is Lux Interior singing over Boards of Canada which makes absolutely no sense. And holy crap was I wrong. The neo-psychedelia and "ambient" are the only things I get out of these first 4 tracks. Where's the punk? These guys don't have the DIY sound, the abrasive fast music, the either snotty or indecipherable vocal style, this isn't punk. I can vaguely see the shoegazing bit, but this is quiet compared to the loud-as-hell shoegazing I'm used to. It's like some soft, dreamy guitar with quiet vocals over an ambient music backdrop. Lux Interior my ass. This is less punk than Good Charlotte. (Important Note: "Less punk" does NOT mean worse. The fact that I can tolerate a full 4 songs should be a clear indicator this is better than Good Charlotte.) For a comparison, I'd say a cross between a very, very quiet My Bloody Valentine and Pavement works. I don't see the noise rock, I don't see the punk, garage rock or noise in here. I just see some run-of-the-mill dream pop with a dash of ambient here and there, and horns. Horns make everything better, from ambient to metal to hip-hop to hardcore punk to JAZZ! Other then that, there's still no garage to be found nearing the last track. This is a rather linear album, and it's not like the band description at all. The last song ends abruptly, which strangely isn't one of my musical pet peeves (I seem to have a lot that I don't know about). Apparently it's about Jay Reatard, and that's the closest thing to a punk rock connection I have heard. I feel like I've spent the entirety of this review complaining, and that's not fair. It's not bad music at all. I was just overexcited at the prospect of ambient punk and disappointed with the results. It's pretty decent dream pop, though I'm not 100% sure I can agree with such a high Metascore. It lacks the memorability I look for in dream pop. That and for gaming I usually consider metascores too low so I'm inclined to add a few points. Welp, that's all subjective. And in terms of subjectivity, as long as Kanye West has a 94, anything goes in my book. Not a bad album at all, Halycon Digest. Just remember that ambient punk is a serious misnomer. |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Coincidence, I've listened to Monomania by Deerhunter earlier today. And yes, it's far from Ambient Punk. Very close to Neo-Psychedelia with Noise Rock influences (might explain why people think it's Shoegaze)
I've got more suggestions for you, but you should first review the albums I've mentioned on page one : Gospel - The Moon Is a Dead World Harmonium - Si on avait besoin d'une cinquième saison BT - This Binary Universe |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
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It's just that I'm waiting for a day where I'm really tired because Tempel is described as stoner rock, and that made Dopesmoker so much better XP |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
top lel
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Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
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Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto - Insen (which is fucking incredible and has opened a lot of doors deeper into experimental/minimalistic music I couldn't reach in before) Botch - We Are The Romans (aggressive and noisy album that spawned forth incredible mathcore releases, along the likes of Converge and Coalesce. Extremely cohesive album) Boredoms - Vision Creation Newsun (rich textured psychedelia experience that'll most definitely brighten your day) Three definite keepers I should have added earlier: Cannibal Ox - The Cold Vein (must-have abstract hip-hop album) Clark - Totem's Flare (i'm literally obsessed with this album, particular atmosphere that is incredibly delusional) Malajube - Trompe-L'oeil (goes along with Karkwa's "Les Chemins de Verre" as my most acclaimed contemporary french albums) *Loved review #16, I believe it's one of the most dynamic review out of the bunch whereas #14 was nothing near substantial. You have a nice format but I believe it needs more thought progression or some kind of dissection of individual tracks. Sometimes I'm just not sure if those reviews centers around the artist rather than the album. Anyway, love the impressions you share in your reviews, really spontaneous and vivid. Nothing seems calculated (reinforces your style of writing, so that's a plus). |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Really liked some of the reviews here, haha.
Mmkay, I'll suggest some albums: William Basinski - Nocturnes (Recently released, very melancholic, probably darker than Melancholia if you listened to Basinski before) Belong - October Language (Very good noise/shoegazy drone tracks overall, definitely one of my favourite albums for casual listening) Benn Jordan - Louisiana Mourning (Progressive folk/bluegrass, really vivid in textures though imo) Thomas Koner - Kaamos (Cold and barren but also rather moving, absolutely mindblowing) All of these are considered ambient, they're very different from each other though. Oh, might as well throw some leftfield music in your way lmao UndaCova - Intrusion Datach'i - Black Trees Autechre - EP7 |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Omg William Basinski
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Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Day 20: Soulbleed by Soulbleed (Album Request: Sonicman68)
Soulbleed is a death/thrash metal band from Los Angeles. Looking at their Facebook, it seems they've done Soundgarden and Faith No More covers. That's either awesome or a bad sign. Their cover photo (presumably of the band) consists of 3 overweight men and one average-figured female. Let's see how this turns out. This first track has a nice bassy intro. Then it turns to plain old thrash metal. The vocals are considerably more understandable then the average death metal band, there's a plus. Unlike the last few death metal bands I listened to, this guy doesn't have a particularly bad singing voice (although it doesn't to be 100% accurate at all times) based off the song Burning Slow. The guitar is decent (Slow Decay contains some decent solo work), but I've heard superior. Bed of Nails with its changing time signatures may be the most technically impressive song on the album. Or is it BPM changes? And a mini drum break! Either I haven't been paying attention or this song is vastly superior to the rest of the album. So I've come to the conclusion that I haven't been paying attention. We have some pretty awesome drumming, fairly technical guitar work and a bass. My main problem? There's a pretty clear lack of creativity here. Every song on the album follows a pretty similar structure, and it could use some variety. Yes I realize I praised Amon Amarth despite the lack of creativity, bite me. A little variety would make this stand out. As it stands, it's pretty average thrash metal, though it's clear the instrumentalists have at least some semblance of talent. |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
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I actually try to avoid dissection of individual tracks, as I feel track-by-track reviews can be a very tedious read. It's like reading a book in script format almost. |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
if you do end up looking up william basinski, listen to melancholia first
if you enjoy that, you'll enjoy most of his discography, except maybe disintegration loops (because those basically demand attention) |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
What Choof said; Melancholia is fucking great, I don't like The Disintegration Loops that much rofl.
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Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Dear Google Chrome, SCREW YOU FOR CRASHING ON ME YOU LUMP OF CRAP. Time to rewrite!
Today, because I'm getting a day off from work when I normally wouldn't, I decided to write two reviews. Kill off two albums, why not? Day 21: Dusk to Dawn by Emancipator (Album Choice: Ohaider) Emancipator is a trip-hop/downtempo producer. There's not that much info on this guy on the internet. He plays the violin and has released 3 studio albums, this being the third. I like downtempo and some trip-hop, hopefully this will be good. According to his website, this album "promises listeners a nostalgic return to the soulful integration of organic hip hop and symphonic layers that first captivated his audience". Nostalgia of an album that was released, what, 7 years ago? I'm not quite sure what they mean here by nostalgia (maybe this will sound like Boards of Canada) but it doesn't sound bad at all. My immediate comparison would be those Nujabes instrumentals, with drum loops similar in structure, some sample usage and an overall hip-hop/jazz fusion sound. I have no idea why, but Merlion reminds me of Nannou by Aphex Twin. Maybe the glockenspiel (or is that a xylophone? Can't tell, they only credit it as "percussion") reminds me of the toybox in that song. If I recall correctly, that song was on Selected Ambient Works 85-92. Goddamn that is one of the most overrated electronic albums ever. The string arrangements in Dusk to Dawn are nice, and Natural Cause features some nice piano. And holy crap I really didn't have much to say did I? Good thing I chose today to do a double. So, I didn't have much to say, but I still say this is a fine album. As a new listener, this didn't invoke any feelings of nostalgia, but the album as whole did give off vague nature imagery. The mix of warm electronic music and natural instrumentation is balanced perfectly, and the wide array of such instruments (like the violin, cello, and whatever percussion instruments they used and were too lazy to name) gives a nice sense of variety to the music. This is a nice, easy listening album, great as both background music and in focus (which I did bot, my mind wanders a lot). I must say though, I wonder how this album would sound lo-fi. Let me try. So I converted tracks one and two to 8kbps, and track one again to 32kbps. The result? Disappointing! I expected a warm crappy cassette sound, I just got crappy dynamics and a tape dipped in water. Anyways, regardless of bitrate or music medium, I give this album a thumbs up. Day 21: Tempel by Colour Haze (Album Choice: noname219) Colour Haze is a psychedelic/stoner rock from Germany. They started out as similar to Black Sabbath but evolved into a more jam-based band. If there is one thing I've learned from music, it's that stoners make great music. From rock to metal to indie to folk, it seems that most genres benefit from a healthy amount of THC. Don't take this as drug advocacy (whether or not you think marijuana is a drug), I'm just stating my observations. Anyways, these guys are apparently "the new Kyuss", but they aren't described as metal. Regardless of that, I have high expectations for this album. I was planning to wait for the right setting for this music, but I say Novocaine, painkillers and hot weather qualify as enough. Also, fun fact, dental filling tastes like ass. Well, I wouldn't really compare this to Kyuss. It's not nearly as heavy (though the guitars are fuzzy), the vocals are more melodic and often buried, and the drums are a bit more downplayed. I can see why many websites avoided the metal tag. This may be less metal, but it's still awesome. For a person who isn't into progressive rock/metal, I must say that the longer tracks are the superior here. The guitar speaks a lot more in songs like Aquamaria and Tempel, where the longer length gives it breathing space. It still speaks a lot in shorter songs though, with some great use of feedback. Unlike many other stoner rock groups like Sleep, the Melvins or the aformentioned Kyuss, this band opts for psychedelic guitar beauty rather than sludgy riffs, and a much softer vocal performance. I actually get more of a sense of nostalgia from this album than Dusk to Dawn, this album definitely has a 60s rock sound in there. The last track ends somewhat anti-climatically, but other then that this collection of songs flows beautifully from start to finish, and I think I may have a contender for favorite album of the challenge after The Director's Cut, I'll have to listen to this a few more times to decide for sure. Every instrument compliments each other well, but the guitar shines through tremendously. If you like classic rock, listen to this. If you like slower, sludgy metal, listen to this. If you hate rock music, don't listen to this, but you are sorely missing out (on many artists, not just this album). Even without having heard their debut, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say no Black Sabbath rip-off can beat this. |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Day 22: Rubenesque by Caligula (Album Choice: Mobias)
Caligula is an erotic biographical drama film, released in 1979. It was financed by Penthouse magazi- Wait... Caligula was an Australian techno-grunge band, who apparently had one song that recieved national airplay. How come I've never heard of them then? I never see them mentioned alongside bad grunge bands with large amounts of success like Stone Temple Pilots, nor do I see them mentioned with lesser-known (but still not that obscure) grunge bands like the Melvins or Screaming Trees. I'd expect a band that got national airplay to be mentioned a bit more, and I've read more on grunge then I'd like to admit (one of my many shames is once liking Stone Temple Pilots). Anyways, I've become weary of anything with "-grunge" in the band genre, as bands with that in the genre list typically are complete ass-suckery (like Stone Temple Pilots. And Nickelback). Thus, due to my bias against hyphenated grunge, I must admit that my expectations are quite low. Actually a bit fearsome. This is grunge? How the hell is this grunge? Just because it features guitars and was released in the 90s does not make it grunge. There's none of the three power-chord laziness of the most popular grunge songs, barely any of the dirty, distorted guitars, and none of the angry, heroin-addicted vocal performances. This is about as grunge as Ween. The techno part is also rather shady. There's some electronic-sounding instruments in here. That doesn't make it techno. I never hear anyone call Radiohead or Devo techno, and they've both had albums far more electronic-sounding than this album. Maybe "electroclash" or "synthrock" would be a better genre to describe this album? Speaking of Radiohead, that's actually my best comparison. Think of Hail To The Thief/In Rainbows era Radiohead with a bit more punk ethos and an overall more dated sound. That last bit is understandable considering this album predates both of those by around a decade. Actually, now that I think about it, that's a pretty horrible comparison in my opinion, but it's the best I got. I reached the end of the album with not a stand-out track to be found. Seriously, not one standout good or bad. I'm amazed! For a genre as unique as "techno-grunge" there wasn't much uniquity to this music, but it doesn't even sound derivative. It's not bad in the least. It's just... Meh. The vocals, the guitar, the drums, the lyrics and the beats? All perfectly adequate! But just that. The album itself doesn't feel like it drags on despite not grabbing my attention, and it's over 50 minutes! This has been the most passive album for my auditory canals and I've listened to some ambient music. At the end of the 68 days, this album is a serious contender for "most average album" reward. BONUS REVIEW Today's bonus EP is Black Diamonds by Issues. This band is described on Wikipedia as the following three genres: Metalcore, Experimental, Post-Hardcore. That middle one doesn't really fit. Another album I'm not exactly keen on. A long, long time ago, I can still remember how that music used to make me smile. That's when post-hardcore was good music with abrasive guitar noise assaults like The Jesus Lizard or guitar noise beauty like Slint. Nowadays, post-hardcore basically means the wimpiest metal subgenre of them all, emo. There are a lot of emo bands that aren't post-hardcore, but nowadays it seems there are very few post-hardcore bands that aren't emo. Oh yeah, by "a long, long time ago" I mean when the music was recorded, not when I heard it. I'm 15, I never got to see any good post-hardcore music live. Well, let's give this a shot. ...What the fu- This is a shocker. Dubstep? What in the hell? I was expec- Oh it seems like that was only an intro. Here's the metal music. And GOOGLE CHROME CRASHED AGAIN! WHYYYY!! WHY DON'T YOU LIKE ME!? While Lou Barlow screams I'm going to have to stop. This music isn't helping out my anger at Google Chrome right now. Final note: I stopped after 3.5 tracks out of sheer frustration. I need a better computer. |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Yeah I kinda called you guys out here. :P
Day 23: Ground Dweller by Hands Like Houses (Album Choice: .:A-MAN:., FireMatt12) Two people recommended the same album. I feel like I'm obligated to sit through it. Another post-hardcore album, but this one has influences of soul and alternative rock. And it's on Rise Records! (Special note towards one site I'm posting my reviews on, why the hell would you WANT permission to use all the bands on this record label? Why?) Oh boy, this is gonna be fun, isn't it? But hey, even if I don't like it, it's only 40 minutes. So yes, as you can tell, the record label makes my expectations low. I've learned a new fact today, I've become immune to the Rise Records sound. But on that note, what is reminiscent of hardcore punk here? These first 2 songs are basically the Rise Records sound without the awful "breakdown" section. That's about 66 percent more tolerable that way! (Which is strange, I listen to a lot of bands with vocals like that. Just not post-hardcore) I give it an auto thumbs-up, but only a thumbs-up against the rest of Rise Records, which is typically a thumb into the eye. Halfway through, I think all these tracks are interchangable and it'll stay that way. And... It's over now. And it stood that way, so I see (or saw?) no reason to write a more intricate review. Where is the soul and alternative rock? I heard none of that. I heard the same type of rock/2-step mixture, just without the obnoxious throaty breakdown section (that's a fantastic thing). I still have no changed opinions over the Rise Records sound, nor modern post-hardcore. Too bad, the name of the album reminded me of Mouth Breather by The Jesus Lizard, but it sounded nothing like that. Ah well, if you like every other modern post-hardcore band but not the breakdowns this will tickle your fancy. Me, I'll stick to the post-hardcore from days when it meant noisy guitar music that actually sounded vaguely like hardcore punk. |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Day 24: Born To Die by Lana Del Rey (Album Choice: Trevor P.)
After reviewing several rock/metal albums with a dash of electronica and hip-hop here and there, I think I'm long overdue for a pop album. The only truly pop album I've reviewed thus far is Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys, but A. Some still consider that rock B. I kinda half-assed that one. So now we enter Lana Del Rey. This is a white girl that calls herself a "Lolita in the hood"... Okay, red flag right there. Her album charted at 2 on the Billboard 100 but I haven't heard a single song from this album, because her singles TANKED on the charts. The critical reception? Incredibly mixed! Ranging from bottom-of-the-barrel scores (like a 0/100 on one review according to Metacritic, and it wasn't Pitchfork!) to accolades like "2nd best album of 2012". On the plus side, her sound is likened to indie pop. I like indie pop, I for one can't get enough of Neutral Milk Hotel or New Pornographers. It's also likened to alternative hip-hop, and I'm not sure how that'll mesh. Note: When you're called a "Lolita in the hood" that's not deserving of a prediction. Also, this charted on US Billboard Rock Albums. So maybe this isn't purely pop. Who cares? I can vaguely see why this didn't get too much radio play. This girl lacks the autotuned bubblegummy high pitched squawking of most radio stars (except Adele). This is a low voice, and yes that is rare (or I'm ignorant to radio more than I thought.) At first, I thought she just had a nasal voice, then I realized "that's not her normal range", just like Ian Curtis. Her normal range is basically a soprano! Well, actually I don't know which voice is her normal range. But both I can nitpick. Low = Nasal finish High = Squeaks This is nitpicking though. And when you consider how utterly untalented most singers with lots of top 40 hits are (Katy Perry, Ke$ha and T-Pain when those last 2 were relevant) I can't even criticize her voice that much. Truthfully, it's not bad in the least compared to most trashy pop songs. I can criticize the songwriting though. Like many, many pop albums before it, these first few songs seem to be made up of the same lyrical content of "I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU Oh here are some lunchmetaphors because I'm witty" with a dash of lamenting her (former) alcohol problems. There's also a bit of the so-called "gangsta Nancy Sinatra" which consists of her apparently sucky life of sex, cash, jewelry and drugs. Both are utterly dull, tired subjects, and the way the subjects are portrayed in the lyrics are almost Victorian in how outdated they sound, if Victorian means "before women's rights" (which is strange, considering most radio pop songs are a step away). National Anthem is a bit different, those fireworks remind me of Celebration Rock but this isn't anything close to Japandroids and holy crap this girl should not rap. Revised list. Low = Nasal finish Middle = A bit on the dull side at times High = Doesn't squeak nearly as much as I thought. Better than I thought! Rapping = What is this $@%&#!? Luckily, the rapping seems to be limited to a couple of tracks at most. Other then that the hip-hop bit is limited to drumbeats. The Indie pop bit on the other hand is either nowhere or everywhere. It reminds me of absolutely no indie pop albums I've heard, but that's not many at all and pop is as vague a term as "rock". Or "electronic". Or nowadays "post-hardcore". Plus, all the Indie pop bands I listen to are quite different from each other. If indie pop can be anything pop, this is the purest pop album I've listened to thus far. I don't understand how this qualified as a rock album, there is no rock sensibility to be found. Did I mention the production? A lot of people seem to find fault in the "melodramatic production" but I thought it fit the album just fine, it didn't sound cluttered or tinny or anything. My main gripe is IT TOOK 8 PEOPLE TO PRODUCE THIS ALBUM!? Those guys must be a bunch of untalented f__ks to have it sound like this with 8 people in the recording room (and I don't care if it was singular sessions. When you have that many producers your album better sound near flawless production-wise). So overall, this was not nearly as offensive as some reviews said. It's superior to most of the pop that got heavy radio play in 2012, and that's as much of an accomplishment as getting a score higher then a 3% on a multiple-choice test. But there is no way you can say this is the second best of 2012. Celebration Rock, I Bet On Sky, Transcendental Youth and that's 3 superior 2012 albums, 2 off the top of my head (hey, John Darnielle records pretty prolifically). I'd give this a below average rating solely for the caucasian hood bits, but truthfully her voice is actually quite good, I said I was nitpicking for a reason. Her lyrics are extremely outdated/sophomoric though, to the point where you'd think this album was remastered from wax cylinder. So give that a rating of "average pop album". I think I'm going to listen to Mass Romantic now, to see if I find the indie pop sound in this album. |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Day 25: Kingston Story by Vybz Kartel (Album Choice: Max TM)
Interesting note: The guy who recommended me this offered a lot of albums, but almost all were Rise Records albums, so I went with the most interesting. My first reggae/dancehall album, not for this challenge, for life. I don't like reggae. It doesn't offend me like crunkcore does, but I'd never go out of my way to listen to it (at least I don't think I would). This guy, however, has a very interesting biography. First there was a major scandal for his apparent skin bleaching (which is pretty prominent. This guy looks like Obama if he were a Faces of Meth candidate. I'm rude I know). And then he was charged with murdering 2 people. Wow, this is just like Norwegian Black Metal, except not Norwegian and not Black Metal! Also none of the satanism stuff, the only sins committed in the lyrics are sodomy (and apparently murder). Prediction of the day, Charles Manson has a long conversation with Bob Marley. And oh how wrong I was. Autotune to the extreme, electro music as the backdrop. While I won't directly say I'm disappointed (can't remember the last time I listened to Bob Marley) this is a bit of a shock. Half on a Baby may have the most juvenile sex-based lyrics I've heard in a while. It's hilarious only because they don't come off as self-aware at all. Also, about lyrics, this guys accent plus heinous amounts of autotune? To an Americanized person, THIS IS NOT COMPREHENSIBLE. Most of the time. Even the lyric sites are basically unreadable for god's sake. Nearing the end, and as I predicted (but did not say earlier) I'm not getting migraines from this, but I'm not impressed in the least. This entire thing is incredibly campy, the awful sex lyrics, the autotune abuse, the complete lack of self-awareness, the inadvertently (I assume) hilarious bravado, all of it. This comes off as a novelty record to me, and then he shot 2 people. Ghetto Youth, the final track, almost seems like a last-ditch effort to make a song to take seriously. I've been on the brink of laughter for nearly an hour now, this is a buzzkill. So yeah, this did nothing to change my opinion on reggae music, or dancehall if I bothered to check what dancehall is. I don't know whether I liked this album or not, because the music wasn't to my taste, but the whole thing came off as so corny it made for a good comedy record. And as for the whole murder aspect, as long as I can listen to Let It Be it doesn't affect the quality of the music (which is still questionable). Because I have no way of concluding this, here is a sample of the incredibly lame oversexed lyrics to Half on a Baby, taken from an incredibly racist lyrics page. "See di cocky and di come wine up Turn round and come wine up Mi nah diss you memba yuh up Mi give you all my cocky and all my love I wah buss ya memba nuh I wah trust ya memba nuh Me nah diss yuh memba nuh Mi give ya all my cocky and all my love" |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Day 26: Tango In The Night by Fleetwood Mac (Album Choice: Daniel C.)
Before I review this, I want to tell you all, the Mountain Goats album All Hail West Texas was re-released today in remastered form (from crappy cassette tapes?). It comes with 7 bonus tracks, and the sound is actually cleaned up a lot! I say go listen to it. In the meantime, here's Fleetwood Mac. I don't think this band needs much of an introduction, let's make it snappy. This is a British-American band who have sold over 100 million albums and have been active for over 45 years. Their album Rumours is in the top 7 all-time best selling albums. Which means it's a bit of a shock that I've heard no full albums, just singles. Never really felt like it, but now I have a reason to. This was released in the 80s, during their apparent "new wave" phase. And Fleetwood Mac doesn't need a goddamned prediction. Also I will not be focusing while writing this review, I'll be trying to write other stuff. Thank you for understanding. So, I guess New Wave is a vague term then, because this sounds more like spacy soft rock than any of the arty post-punk music or power pop structures I think of. This is soft vocals, light guitar and instead of synthesizers, string arrangements. Actually scratch that, there are synthesizers, but they are never abrasive nor highly prominent like most New Wave bands. There are several tracks where we do see more prominent synthesizers like Family Man, and some tracks with louder, punkier guitars as in Isn't It Midnight, but these all revert back to soft rock. But these guys ARE soft rock first and foremost I guess. That was their biggest success. When the synthesizers don't take the show, we have some nice string arrangements and good percussion (castanets for one). And I don't feel the need to write anymore, the album is over. I'm tired, I have work tomorrow, so let me make this short. Everybody knows who Fleetwood Mac is. I only chose this album because everyone does and I could spare the intro. Which I didn't. Most people already have an opinion on this band, mine? I don't like soft rock. I've never heard their bluesy stuff but something tells me I'd like that more. Good night. |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Day 27: Kollossus of Makedonia by Hurra Torpedo (Album Choice: ToasterCubed)
Another band I know almost nothing about. These guys are from Norway, and they were in US Ford commercials that I don't remember. They play alternative rock. With a catch, alongside the usual bass/drums/guitar power trio instruments, (my mistake, guitar and bass/drums/drums trio) they use kitchen appliances in their music. That can either be incredibly awesome, horribly gimmicky, or flat out unnoticeable. I'm less concerned about understand the lyrics, but because the Norwegian word for Toxic is "giftig" I think I may be fine. A completely useless prediction that's already pretty much confirmed wrong: Incredibly speedy black metal with said kitchen utensils used as weapons. It's worth noting, if you can't tell yet, bolded words means it's a song title, album title, or band name. And if you haven't deciphered that by now you suck so hard. Well, we have a nice little experimental rock track with some pretty gutteral vocals. And then...Oh why, why didn't I predict this? I'm going to assume all the English titled songs are covers. Scratch that. But seriously, a Britney Spears cover? What the hell? And the sad thing is this guy is a worse singer than Britney Spears. It's still better, mind you, due to the complete lack of over-production, the heavier, rawer sound, and the fact I haven't heard this version 10000 times a decade ago. But seriously, he has the same amount of vocal talent as Ian Curtis. You know, that guy from Joy Division? I usually get a lot of flack for saying that guy was a crappy singer despite the fact that he could only hit 3% of the right notes pretending to be a baritone and sounded like that drunk dude doing karaoke wherever there is karaoke. I digress too much. Anyways, back to the music. Ah yes, the utensils. There are times when the sound of utensils work, such as in the heavier Spencer, but for many other tracks (particularly softer tracks) you can only take so much of that tinny rattle before it gets on your nerves. To break it down, the punkier/heavier tracks like Handfast and Body use the kitchen appliances very well, making the songs seem heavier with the rattle of the spoons, the banging of the pots and pans, and I can't recognize anything else. The experimental tracks also work well, showing off their noisy talents best. For the soft songs, however, it just becomes annoying. Except for the covers. I only recognized 2 (there are 3) and they were both pretty entertaining. Stand-out track? Kald is one HELL of a closer! The racket caused by those spoons and pans with the ending screams, increase the guitar by a few dB and it'll blow up heads everywhere. After 9:02 of silence you get a bonus track. It sucks ass. But it makes for an entertaining novelty piece I guess. I'm gonna take back what I said, this guy isn't nearly as off-key as Ian Curtis (except in Toxic and maybe 0yne), and I'm going to assume that's because he's singing in his normal range. I just wish the soft original songs didn't plague this album, they don't work too well with the unique percussion. I don't know how to recommend this album. Goddamn my throat is sore. I'll say stay for the louder tunes and covers (yes, even Toxic), and lower the volume for the quieter non-cover tunes. Because seriously, everything is overpowered when you turn the volume up real high on the utensils. That didn't even make any sense. You don't amplify spoons and pans, that might explain why the album sounds raw. Time to make some tea. |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Day 28: This Couch is Long & Full of Friendship by Tiny Moving Parts (Album Choice: Zannat Z.)
This is the debut album of a band I know almost nothing about. Reportedly, they play emo, one of my most-maligned genres (talking about modern emo here). I chose this album because it was nice and short (10 tracks, a full 7 under 3 minutes) and I'm really running out of time. No matter how much I like or dislike this album, I can stick through 26 minutes. Really, I don't have much of a choice at this hour. The ringing guitar at the beginning is nice, those vocals though. Remember that Minus The Bear band I reviewed a week ago or so? The guitar in this first song reminds me of them, very tappy, but the vocals are a lot angrier. I think they were going for a contrast effect, but it falls a bit flat. It continues onto the second song, and the third. Math rock-esque guitar and screamed, angsty lyrics. I like the former a lot, not so much the latter. Clouds Above My Head has some great guitar work behind nice rhythmic drumming, but the vocals still mar the song. I and II use a (sampled?) speech/spoken word bit, and they feature very hypnotic reversed guitar in the background. Big disappointment, why didn't they show off the guitar here? Now it just feels like 2.5 minutes of filler. I couldn't find information about how long this album was on the internet (except some estimates) so I calculated it myself. Total runtime: 26:28. Subtract 2:24 for I and II which are solely "atmospheric tracks" AKA filler experimentalism on a non-concept album. 24:04. That's shorter than many EPs, and I feel like I'm sort of cheating. Meh, it's marked as an album so whatever. But anyways, the guitar work here is great, especially, as I said, Clouds Above My Head. My problem? The songs are mostly interchangable, and there's no real singing to be found. It's just a guy screaming, and then speaking, and then screaming again. If you like mathy guitar, this isn't bad at all, but this is another album that could do with some melodic si- On second thought, I'm remembering many other emo/post-hardcore bands right now. No singing should ever touch this. BONUS REVIEW: David, the dude that sent me that Black Marble request has told me to watch an episode of the new Disney XD show, Pac-Man And The Ghostly Adventures. I'll be watching 5 minutes. And reviewing it IN REAL TIME. 0:00 This planet looks polluted as New York 0:42 Believe in ghosts? Are they talking about Santa Claus 0:47 Pac-Man is eating his pellets. You can't take drugs in school. 0:55 Overgrown lemon? And what the hell are you you uglyass deformed blue blob? 1:34 This theme song isn't so ba- 1:36 Oh come on. 2:43 They're called "Power Bombberries" and you ate them anyways? 2:51 Yes, they're awful. Good job not deciphering that from the name dipshit. 3:32 Maze? Thank you! 3:33 Realization: That's not a good concept for a cartoon 3:55 Urine jokes? Oh boy. 4:07 Yeah, enter the maze with Pac-Man. Great idea if you have a death wish involving a yellow blob on ecstacy eating you. 4:54 It's another dimension! 5:00 And stop. With images of actual ghosts on the screen. The animation isn't that bad, and there actually seems to be some Pac-Man reference in here. The theme song is excruciating though, and Pac-Man's voice I'm used to thinking of as an adult. A drug-addicted adult. Seeing him as a kid eating said drugs as candy? Doesn't work for me. |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Day 29: The Unforgiving by Within Temptation (Album Choice: Sapphire XIII)
Within Temptation is a gothic/symphonic metal band on Roadrunner Records. This is a concept album and I don't have time to steal from Wikipedia/Allmusic for a description*today. Roadrunner Records is a hit-or-miss label for me, meaning I can't judge this band like I did for Rise Records. Symphonic Metal is another genre I'm not entirely familiar with. I predict something, I don't know, like a low-budget, far more symphonic Dream Theater? These guys aren't progressive metal but whatever. Please note that this review is being done mostly in a train station/food court on my smartphone. So if my writing sucks more than usual, blame public transportation. This intro is symphonic (HOLY MOTHER OF GOD). And it's another female singer! If you can't tell I did absolutely no research on this album whatsoever. Apparently in order to understand this concept, I need to watch 3 short films and read a comic book. Fuck that. Quick Google search: A lot of comparisons to Evanescence. While I won't say that I disagree, there are some differences. This is a concept album, whereas Evanescence doesn't have the ability to write a concept album if the concept isn't "Amy Lee's 17th breakup". That and these guys are more symphonic (duh). That's all I got, I don't like Evanescence. I also learned in that quick Google search that this vocalist is untrained. In that aspect, this girl is not bad at all! At times her voice (along with everything else) comes off as a bit over-the-top, but still, for no training her singing is fairly impressive. And therein lies my main problem with this album. Everything seems painfully self-unaware. If things were a little less overblown on this album it would do much good for the music. It's the end of the album. Another day, another day with a total lack of time. I like this girl's voice, I like the symphonic aspect to an extent, I think the rock instrumentation is decent. My main problem? Everything is overdone. The song structures, the emotion in the singing, the... Whatever. Name it and add "with a later of cheese". I don't doubt most of the people in this band have talent. I doubt that they know limitations. And according to that quick Google search, this is the LEAST over-the-top album... What the fu |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Please Review Classical Mushroom by Infected Mushroom. Probably THE psytrance album. Would love your opinion on it.
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Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
these reviews are great
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Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Day 30: Melancholia by William Basinski (Album Choice: Choofers/ExExZero7497)
I'm splitting these 2 albums by the same artist into 2 different days. I barely have any haven't fucking connection or battery in the center of a New Hampshire state park. So let's describe now. William Basinski is an ambient music producer who focused mostly on tape manipulation. His best known work is The Disintegration Loops, a four-part ambient work. I was told to NOT listen to those because that actually requires a ton of focus. The two albums I'm going to review (in brief) are Melancholia and Nocturnes, in that order based on requests. This first one, Melancholia, is 14 tracks with no real names, just Melancholia (Rome numeral track number). I'm guessing each track is meant as a movement and this is one longass composition. It also has the lamest cover artwork I've ever seen, if that constitutes as artwork. Wow, my mind was in a different world or something because I failed to write word for the first track. Better start. II and III are very similar and flow right into each other. VII is my choice of highlight, the simple repeating piano melody is quite haunting. VIII is also seemingly empty, with the sinister, windy noise and lo-fi tape crackle. Actually, most track are ambient windy noise and light piano. Scratch what I said about any particular highlight, that was bullshit. There isn't much to write track-by-track. Each track stands as an individual soundscape, with very minimalistic piano or cello. This entire paragraph was as useless as Paris Hilton's career. So, how to describe this album? I don't listen to ambient of this style much. When I think of far more accessible ambient like Boards of Canada, I think of dying VCRs, early computers, and the pornographic films they sample. When I think of [b]Aphex Twin[b]'s ambient work, I think of vastly overrated garbage (not his later work though!). This album features a very icy, barren sound, akin to melting glaciers or snowy winter woodlands. The title is definitely fitting, this is a melancholy work. It also may come off as repetitive, though I found even the longer tracks didn't become tiresome. Longer being relative since the next album I'm going to listen could technically constitute as a single. I'll wait for tomorrow to decide my conclusive opinion on this album. By all means though, this is one chilling, airy listen, with great tape manipulation. It's extremely melancholy though, I need to listen to some upbeat music now. |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Great review on Melancholia, haha. If you think that this album is "icy and barren", you'll probably be surprised by Thomas Koner's music.
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Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Day 31: Nocturnes by William Basinski (Album Choice: EzExZeRo7497)
My original plan was to copy and paste the paragraph I used yesterday for Melancholia, but decided against that for many reasons. One, holy crap I made a lot of typos. Two, now I have internet access and a computer/keyboard to type on. Three, I already feel like I'm cheating for reviewing an album by the same dude two days in a row. I'm probably gonna review a bonus EP if I can find one. Anyways, this album, unlike Melancholia, features songs with actual names. A whopping two songs, totaling 68 minutes and 58 seconds of ambient music. The fact that this wasn't released on vinyl is a bit disappointing, even if fitting a 41 minute song on one side would make it sound like crap. One of the many things I've learned over the course of this challenge is if you overextend a song or section of a song, REALLY overextend it. Take Dopesmoker, one of the first albums I listened to over these past few weeks, which probably had less than 10 chords in the whole song I think for 63 minutes. Didn't feel repetitive, the repetition made it feel ATMOSPHERIC and made the slow vocals and multiple guitar solos seem all the more amazing. Reoccurring Dreams by Husker Du is a mere 14 minutes of punk jazz and it doesn't remain interesting like Dopesmoker did. What a crappy way to end a great concept album. First track consists of, for at least 10 minutes, skeletal, cold piano chords. Basically two of them. And the same windy noise from yesterday. This track is a lot more minimal than the ones from Melancholia, and it's 5 times as long as any of the tracks on that album. It's also very lo-fi, apparently recorded in 1979 (most likely with considerable tape disintegration). I felt like I was listening to the same atonal chords for 15.5 minutes, then, was that a change? Holy crap, even the smallest difference is amazing here. And those are the only differences, small ones. At times I'm not even sure if those are actual changes, me not noticing stuff before or my ears having lucid dreams (or the audio equivalent that isn't "voices in my head" insanity, what is that?). What I said about Dopesmoker applies here. This is an atmospheric recording, and very repetitive but not quite tiresome. I will never understand it, but seriously. If a track goes one for 2 minutes too long, you feel as if it's going on for near hours. And when it is actually going on for near hours, it doesn't seem so bad. This next track, The Trail of Tears, contains music from 2008-2009. Yet it sounds equally lo-fi. I don't know if that's aesthetic or this guy being a cheapass, but again, it's atmospheric (and I sound like a pretentious douchebag). It's also a lot more accessible, and still not accessible at all (28 minutes of music edited from the crappiest tapes possible). For one, the changes in the music are a lot more noticable. Within 10 minutes the most prominent piano chords from the beginning are barely audible. In fact it seems like almost a completely different composition when comparing beginning and end. So, to compare to yesterday. If Melancholia is a winter forest, Nocturnes is the same forest except late at night with less snow and more cold, dry winds. And someone stuck in a piano in there somehow. I don't know, this album is a lot bleaker than the last one. The title fits, you only get images of nighttime. As I was recommended, I'll recommend Melancholia first, it's a much, much more accessible work and features remarkably shorter songs. This isn't bad, no no, it's quite good, but it's not for everyone. That's a cliched phrase, let me fix that. It's only for people who can stand repetitive, seemingly simple music for marathon song lengths. And for those who can, hopefully you'll find a gem like I did in the second track. BONUS REVIEW Rather than review an EP (because I had no recommendations for one besides Auchtere and that EP is over an hour), I'm reviewing one of the new Animation Domination shows. Simpsons hasn't been funny in forever, Seth MacFarlane is ABSOLUTELY TALENTLESS, and I like Bob's Burgers but I'd say it's the second worst H. Jon Benjamin cartoon out of the 5 I can think of (And Lucy, Daughter of the Devil only got one season). And that makes it the second worst Loren Bouchard-produced cartoon out of 4 I've seen. Anyways, Fox is trying to become like [adult swim]/Cartoon Network so they've picked up a couple of 11-minute shows. Unfortunately Fox cartoons have higher budgets, higher censorship rates, and higher rates of being completely awful (and I don't like a lot of [adult swim] shows). Axe Man or High School USA? Hold on, googling. And HSUSA was made by Dino Stamatopoulos. I love Moral Orel, I have to check that one out. 0:00 Hey, Fox is allowing TV-MA rated shows? Since when? And holy crap I see the Archie art style already. Archie was never a funny comic nor a good band. Watching episode 2, "Sexting" 0:42 Not a fan of the theme song but whatever. 1:13 Not sure if lazy character design is a joke. Oh who am I kidding? 1:27 This woman's relationship to her daughter is way too close. 2:18 You take a dump right in front of your best friend? Close relationships... 3:32 Sneaky conniving lady. And bent? I don't get it... Oh. Nope still don't get it. 4:20 Crooked? Still don't get it. 5:00 This dialogue is so awful. If Dino is doing this for the cheese factor, he's a goddamn genius. 5:46 Yeah... This is extremely uncomfortable. 6:13 You took your phone in the shower? That's more shocking than sexting will ever be. 7:10 Calling the police? The irony is too obvious. 7:53 Poor guy... 9:00 This writing is so awful. 9:30 Cancer jokes. Both obvious and unfunny. My conclusion? PRAY TO HOLY MOTHER OF JESUS CHRIST ALLIN THIS WAS GODAWFUL. It wasn't as bad as Seth MacFarlane shows, but it's worse than anything I've ever seen Dino's name attached to. Hopefully if this gets a second season by the end it'll turn into a brilliant tragicomedy/drama. Also, about the Jon Benjamin show rankings, I forgot about Assy McGee. Why did I have to remember it? |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Btw, if you're looking for some short eps to do extra reviews, Demur by Kandma is one I recommended on page 1. ;)
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Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Oh, welp, just noticed your comment on my profile. I definitely don't have a broad ... music experience ... thing. Nothing I listen to is really like, "out there"? or however you say it. Don't recognize a ton of the music that was suggested and reviewed in here.
Here are six (mostly pop) albums in my playlist with samples: La la la. |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Day 32: Cheese by Stromae (Album Choice: Stephen C.)
Stromae is a Belgian singer-songwriter, who raps to electro house. I'm about to listen to his debut album. Debut albums are occasionally fine works from an artist's catalog (Homework comes to mind) but usually they fall flat. Very flat (Beck? Radiohead? Dinosaur Jr.? I could name a lot more). So basically, there's a very good chance that this guy hasn't found his footing yet as of this album. And why exactly am I complaining about debut albums just now? I'm about to listen to a Belgian dude rap in either French or Dutch. And his album is called Cheese. His DEBUT album is called Cheese. I mean come on, I like house music, French house music is often great stuff, but the album is EFFING TITLED CHEESE. Judging an album by the cover (or title) is something you can occasionally do, unless I'm listening to someone like The Dead Milkmen or any other humorous band. And if I am, it's redundant because I'm fluent in English only. Stephen you better not be conspiring to make me cry or self-mutilate my ears. I'm running rather low on time and this album is less than 45 minutes. Whether I like it or not I'm pretty sure I'm gonna stick through the whole thing. Remember how earlier I said I was trying to avoid foreign language albums? Oh how far I have come. I've kinda realized one of several reasons for that a few tracks in. For a rap album, you should be commenting on the lyrics (That's why 2 Chainz is known as little more than an irritating joke). For a singer-songwriter album, you should be commenting on the lyrics (That's why people wanted John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats as the US poet laureate). This is both of the above, and I can't comment on the lyrics because I DON'T SPEAK EUROPEAN. There are a few distinguishable English words in here, but the day I get deep meaning or social commentary from the phrase "Peace or Violence" or "My Weed, My Coke, My Speed" is the day that Jim Morrison's poetry is understood as more than pretentious asscrap gibberish. So I guess I'll comment on the music (or is it beats in this case?). It's remarkably average. I have nothing to say. This is house music at its blandest. The majority of this review was filler, and I'm not going to justify that. Rather, I'll hope that someone who knows whatever language this album is being rapped/sung in can tell me I'm so wrong, and this music is an album to cry your eyes out to (Reading poor translations on the internet gives me no more emotional connection than before. That's why I only read one). Because I only speak one language, all I can "review" per say is the background music. And it's the most average house music I've heard in a while, perfect for nightclubs whether drunken and mindless or upscale and pretentious. That puts me in the mood, someone should recommend the Bangs album Hard 2 Be Up now that it's going to be free on HNHH. That'd be an epic review. |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Stromae is pretty mediocre (read: shitty) lyric-wise.
The music itself is a good representation of their vocal content. But don't lose faith in French music. I'm crossing fingers you'll be willing to dig further into some french canadian stuff. And yes, happy to say I fervently anticipate your reviews when coming back home. They sure have gotten better since last time. And those TV show reviews are a neat bonus, don't refrain from posting them. ;) |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Day 33: Burzum by Burzum (Album Choice: AFi (not the band if that wasn't obvious enough))
No disrespect to anyone's opinions or musical taste, but seriously, I question some of these recommendations. We had Vybz Kartel, a skin-bleaching murderer with hilarious oral sex lyrics. We had Johnny Rebel, a talentless country singer with the lamest racist lyrics ever and a Confederate flag album cover. We had people recommending Rise Records albums. And today we're going to be reviewing Burzum, a black metal musician who burns churches, murdered his bandmate, flirts with white supremacist and fascism ideologies and uses synthesizers in his black metal music. Seriously, what is it with you people and musicians that promote white supremacy/want to be white? I never listen to Black Metal. For the longest time I didn't even know the difference between Black and Death Metal. So this will be my first full-length Black Metal experience. A small note, I'm kinda cheating the recommendation here. I was recommended "The album with War on it" even though I force people to give me album titles. Is this a drum machine? I can't believe how wrong I was with thinking Death Metal and Black Metal are similar. This is vastly different from any Death Metal album I've listened to. For starters, the vocal performance is a lot harsher here. And to clarify. "harsher" means "less enjoyable". I understand why some people don't like "pig growls" but Jesus Christ at least Death Metal vocals are typically quieter (can't yell nearly as much when you're going 7 octaves below your normal speaking range). Here, the vocals consist mainly of high-pitched shrieks that are too painful to allow you to think of the lyrics. Think of a particularly insane fellow being tortured with a sharp spoon. That's how painful this sounds. The first track is titled Feeble Screams from Forests Unknown and I am NOT appreciating this irony. Also I'm still not sure if a drum machine is used, but there are some real drums here in the mix. Since these first few tracks (out of eight total) have the exact same vocal performance, I've decided to directly quote all of my mostly shouted reactions. I'm shouting because nobody is home. "Would this jackass shut the hell up?" "I want to punch this jerk in the teeth." "I wonder how this guy did in prison. He either scared everybody or got punched in the mouth a lot... Eh, probably both." "Did the recording process involve getting his beard waxed in front of a microphone?" "Seriously, would this jackass shut his mouth?" "This guy thinks of his songs and albums as spells? Spells to what? Extracting confessions?" "I wonder if this guy was pals with Seth Putnam" "*fakes crying*" "My hands are slowing down. Is this a result of the music or just me being tired?" "I think my eyes are tearing up." I'm quoting in real time. So let me focus on the music outside of the vocals. Specifically, the dark ambient synthesizers that were mentioned. Track one started with about 5 seconds of it. Track four, Channeling The Power of Souls, is nothing but dark ambient, as is the final track. Let me tell you, this is a blessing. It gives your head a rest between the shrieks, because sitting through 40 minutes of nothing but shrieks would probably induce blackouts. The guitar isn't bad (how many times have I said that line?). It's speedy, rhythmic and melodic, in high contrast to the heinous vocal performance. This guy is clearly a talented instrumentalists, seeing how he handled almost everything recorded here. And maybe these ARE spells because holy crap, song length is not a problem. Maybe it's due to my frequent shouting but songs 8-10 minutes in length are a lot shorter than they seem. Whereas progressive rock songs and songs of many other genres with excessive instrumental wankery that are 8-10 minutes feel like they go on for years, these songs feel a lot shorter than they actually are. Whether that's my lack of focus or a skill of this guy, I'm impressed with something or someone, even if it's myself (you egotistical jerk). This is another case of me not liking the genre of music, and I'm concluding that after my first album solely due to the vocals. My ears need a break because of this dudes "singing style". The guitar is good, the drums are good, the dark ambient tracks are a decent break, and this guy has some secret song length skill. But seriously, those vocals kill it for me. I can stand through (and thoroughly enjoy albums from) many singers who often get flack for their voices (J Mascis, Jeff Mangum, John Darnielle) and some people with some very odd vocal styles (Mike Patton in Fantomas, David Yow). This is too much for me. |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Day 34: You Can't Tell by The Tartan Rascals (Album Choice: The Sultan of Swing)
It's the midpoint of summer vacation. It goes by too damn fast. So, to celebrate, I deliberately chose the most obscure band request I got. These guys are from Scotland, have barely over 50 listeners on last.fm and (fun fact) the request for this album review comes up on the second page when you Google the band and album name together. This album was a chore to find, as they put their album up for free download but 3 of the MP3 links were broken. Luckily, my skills, talent and sexual prowess allowed me to find those remaining 3 songs. And if you don't think obscurity equals a good celebration, screw you. The beauty of lyrics sheets. And to be honest I'm not sure if this is actually their album (they mentioned "12 out of 20" songs when there were only 10 available, and they mentioned live drums which this lacks), but I'm counting it as such. I'm wondering if this is actually lo-fi/basement production or this is the result of only offering crappy mp3s, but it fails to add aesthetic in this case (at least in my opinion). For the most part, this is pretty average alternative rock. It's mildly eclectic in terms of genres. We have the funky Last Ride to Hateville, the garage blues of You Better Leave Right Now, the Santana-sounding Lost in Shadows, the wanky synthrock ballad of Lonely Little Soldier, the distorted folk-rock in One Time, these guys cover a lot of ground. And then they mar it with horrible production (if you're gonna do lo-fi, do it right), unnecessarily distorted guitars (too much freaking gain), along with some fairly mediocre singing. Did I mention that part? The mediocre singing? Well it is, it's mediocre to the fullest extent. Hmm... I think I ought to do a bonus review to add some substance to such a big day (midpoint!). So, a brief conclusion for you all. Creativity and eclectism are both great aspects to have in your music, but with really crappy production and horrible amp settings you're selling yourself short here. BONUS REVIEW Today's bonus EP is Demur by Kandma, requested by noname219. This lucky fool is gonna end up with at least 2.5 albums reviewed by the end of the challenge. Have no idea what I'm getting into. The album cover is a swimming dog with no text, immediately I think of space rock. There's your prediction. And nope. This first track starts out as ambient, then becomes post-rock, then just becomes a mess of psychedelia. Same thing with the next 3 tracks, ambient post-psychedelia is my own made up term. I like that term. Start with ambience, build onto it with sleepy vocals, add harmonics, feedback and general guitar noise with a generous amount of psychedelia. Toss a piano in at some point and you've got a song. I'm not sure if I'm making it sound too great, frankly I don't even know my own opinion. I feel as if this should be an atmospheric recording, but staring at a computer screen is not atmospheric. The Nick Drake cover breaks the mold a bit. Less of a build-up, probably due to the fact that it's a cover. I wish they chose a song from Pink Moon instead of Three Leaves Left as the effect would've been even more jarring. And another case of I'm not sure how to review this. All 3 genres I mentioned I can at least tolerate the vast majority of songs I've heard from them. Mixing them together is a bit of an odd sound though. NEEDS MORE PADDING BONUS REVIEW #2 For the hell of it, let's review the OTHER Fox [adult swim] rip-off, Axe Cop. Based off a webcomic by a 5 year old, it sounds even worse than High School USA. Luckily, it doesn't have Dino Stamatopoulos' name to raise my expectations. I one-hundred percent expect this to fall so flat the ground cracks. Oh, and when I said [adult swim] ripoff I meant only show length. Episode name is "Night Mission: Stealing Friends Back" 0:00 Is the kid also narrating this show? I also find it strange how a 5 year old creates something TV-14 worthy. 1:14 There's a sense of innocence to this hilariously cheesy dialogue. 1:17 The plot point is stolen friends? Come the hell on. 2:23 Hitchhiking is discouraged kids. Boys Beware! You might run into one of those HOMOSEXUALS! 2:53 Holy crap Taco Bell.. Is that Gus? With another dead best friend plot? 3:43 I'm willing to admit that this stupid war is actually entertaining. I laughed once. 4:00 And Gus' best friend died from one blast again. 5:30 I'm starting to think this 5 year old kid is gonna be a sociopath. 5:40 Yep, he's gonna be an axe murderer. 7:11 Giving away a brain? The hell is wrong with this kid? 7:31 Cheetahs are superfast, but they're also inbred. 9:00 I thought the brain feels no pain. You lied to me Dr. Lecter. Well, this was considerably better than High School USA, mainly because the bad dialogue here gives it a sense of childish whimsy. I got only one laugh, one laugh more than HSUSA. Most of the time, I was busy thinking about this child's future. I still say stick to [adult swim] for 11 minute cartoons. |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Day 35: Tattered Youth by Attention (Album Choice: Benjamin P.)
Post-punk is one of the more vague genres of music it seems. On Wikipedia, it's "an artier and more experimental form of punk" yet the few bands that come to mind don't usually remind me of snot-nosed, angry punk rock. Joy Division? Ballads with some of the worst recorded singing to ever be praised. Devo? True nerd rock, moreso than bands like Weezer. Everything about that band screams dorkiness. The Cure? Love ballads with superior singing and embarrassing make-up. And apparently Sonic Youth is post-punk but I never thought of it as such. So basically, I've come to the conclusion that post-punk can often be described as "awkward synthy rock music". So today we're reviewing Tattered Youth by Attention. These guys don't look the least bit awkward, but they're often described as either post-punk (like all those bands except Weezer) or power pop (like Weezer, New Pornographers, The Knack, bad 80s music!). And this album was a pay-what-you-want at their Bandcamp. Sweet. I don't hear the power pop. Or the post-punk for that matter. What I hear is punk pop. Or pop punk, which order is it? And that's most certainly not my choice of genre. While not all pop punk is bad (I fully believe every genre has worthwhile music, maybe even crunkcore) I can't get behind the vast majority of it. It just seems dull to me. If I want punk rock, I typically go for hardcore punk, punk at it's angriest typically. If I want to listen to pop music, I want it to sound upbeat or melancholy, but not straight out angry. Angry punk and upbeat pop don't mesh together for me. Together they typically cause me to doze off. But I should give these guys a fair chance before I pigeonhole them, so let's analyze the music... Done. It comes to a two-way formula. Either start pop-punk and end there, or start with something like an acoustic guitar/piano ballad and then go to pop punk. And when I say pop punk, think of the most generic pop punk possible. You know, All Time Low or Good Charlotte, the bullcrap middle school children listen to when they try to pass themselves off as emo or punk rock. The formulaic stuff that was relevant mere years ago. Whenever it sounds like they'll make a change in sound (the alt-country intro of Out Of My Hands and Airlie, the chugging first chords of Numb, the piano in Can't You See Me) it turns into the samey average pop punk music. These guys could've sold far more records if they released music about a decade ago. Post-punk my ass. Let me make this clear again, I don't dislike pop punk as a whole. There are bands I like that are ocassionally described as such, such as The Dead Milkmen or Descendents or even the Ramones. It's generic pop punk that makes me snore. And this album is mostly generic pop punk. So I shall snore. If you're an angsty teenager with a dyed streak of hair, this is another album for your collection. |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Pre-review padding. Today I watched the entirety of the 12 Oz. Mouse movie (which is the entire series packaged as a movie). I decided to comment about this because I think this show is seriously underrated. The artwork may suck and it's slow-paced but upon repeated viewings this show really does shine. I'd compare it to Disco Volante by Mr. Bungle in that it's very challenging and seems to drag on for forever, but the more you watch/listen the more you warm up to it. Anyways, moving on.
Day 36: Sounds Of The Universe by Depeche Mode (Album Choice: Therum) The 12 Oz Mouse bit is what caused me to choose this album for today, solely because of a Venture Bros. joke about this band which turned out to extend into real life. Apparently, everyone thinks or thought that these guys are all gay. I don't know if that's because of the music or because of their behavior, but either way it seems to be a popular topic, the sexuality of some British men. I'm pretty sure I've heard some songs from these guys but I can't remember a single title. My memory serves well enough to remember the genre of music. They make electronic dance-pop music. With some elements of new wave. Or new age. Or new gay. Whatever it is, I'll find out what music could make people think "homosexuality". I mean, I never really think "gay music" when listening to Queen and Freddie Mercury actually was gay, whereas these guys are either straight or have been in the closet since 1980. I don't know why, but typing this review is making these tooth separators hurt more all of a sudden. I'm struggling to type. So let's make this review nice and concise. I don't hear the gay. Maybe I have the worst gaydar ever, but if this is gay music what is straight music? Is The Cure straight music? Those dudes wore white make-up and lip gloss, and their music comes off as a lot more effeminate. This seem like some pretty average synthpop. I also don't understand the title in this case because it doesn't sound like "universe" music to me. Slightly spacy, but that's about it and goddamn that's my stupidest complaint about an album yet! Album titles rarely are relevant. As for the music, the whole thing seems kinda vintage, like these guys are still using the synthesizers from the 80s (or maybe earlier. It sounds barely more advanced than Kraftwerkfor god's sake). I'm assuming this guys were aiming for a retro sound, in which they really succeeded. The album is over and my teeth are still effing killing me. I feel like the album didn't "click" for me, strange since I mentioned both Disco Volante and 12 Oz. Mouse at the beginning of this review. It was fairly inoffensive listening, several tracks were even catchy, but something tells me I'm missing something and I need to give this multiple listens. I swear I'm not stealing from the first paragraph when I say this, I really do want to give this more time. Huh, wanting to give a synthpop album more time. That's probably a first. Well, final opinion is that everybody already knows who Depeche Mode is. Make your own goddamn opinion, I need some ice cream. Oh yeah, over the course of 60 minutes, nothing came to me as relatively "homosexual sounding" while I still don't know what that means. I'm going to assume it has to do with their live shows. |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Day 37: Figure 8 by Elliott Smith (Album Choice: Hazel H.)
Little tidbit for your enjoyment, this review almost didn't get written as I was woken up at 10 PM. Now I'm struggling to type with sore gums. Let's try to make this concise again. Elliott Smith was a singer-songwriter who made indie folk-pop. He also suffered from depression, alcoholism and drug addiction. Then he got stabbed or stabbed himself. And that's the end of the biography. This was his final album before his death. I can't think straight with this damned gum soreness (and I sound like a little bitch right now, don't I?) So, as usual, I rely on Google to bring me the facts. One notable comparison is this guy is compared to Nick Drake. I don't hear that. At all. The only Nick Drake album I care about is Pink Moon and that album is bare and minimalist, whereas this album is mostly layered folk-pop (though there are a few fairly bare folk tracks). Perhaps a comparison to his earlier 2 albums would work. Another comparison I found is to Grandaddy, and I think that's a lot closer. Throw in some Bright Eyes and depression and you've basically got it. That's where I think the Nick Drake comparison MAY work, this is pretty melancholy stuff, and it's probably made a lot bleaker and haunting by his untimely death. Isn't it interesting what death can do to an artist's music?Obligatory song comparison, Wouldn't Mama Be Proud reminds me of Oceanographer's Choice by the Mountain Goats. That's it nothing else even recalls John Darnielle. And the last track is titled Bye which is considerably haunting considering his was his last track released while alive... Meh, I'm thinking too much into it. As a sucker for indie folk, I have to say this is one of the better albums of the challenge thus far, with the more simplistic folk songs contrasting well with the more lushly textured tracks. I'd also say this is one of the more accessible albums thus far, since there's a lot of pop structure and melody in here. I give this a recommendation with seven minutes on the clock to go. BONUS REVIEW I said I have seven minutes to go. Piss off. |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Day 38: Greatest Hits by Dave Koz (Album Choice: Luke Z.)
This album does two things differently from all the albums before, oh joy! This is my first compilation album review, as well as my first pure jazz review (Nujabes isn't pure). I didn't really know that anybody really listened to smooth jazz anymore. I certainly can't picture myself sitting through 68 minutes of pure smooth jazz (which is the length of this compilation album), but I'm not easily excited myself. Also, this guy (unlike Depeche Mode) actually is gay, but his following seems to mostly be made up of (according to articles I've read) orthodontists and senior citizens, and that was enough to keep this guy on Capitol Records for 18 years. I sound really condescending right now but I'm not a hater of smooth jazz, I just listen to different genres of music typically. I'll give this a try. My teeth don't hurt nearly as much anymore. So maybe I won't need to be terse (or maybe that was a crappy excuse in the first place). I may be concise anyways though, because I'm 2 tracks in and already predicting that I won't know what to write. This is what I expect to hear from smooth jazz. The main show is saxophone with some fairly prominent bass, guitar that occasionally sounds almost Spanish-style but usually is just jazz guitar (with a healthy dosage of funk strumming), light drumming and a sound that varies between funked-up and sparkly (not in a Gary Glitter bubblegum-glam-pedophilia type way, I don't know how to put this in other words). This is the stuff you'd find on a Public Broadcasting radio station at night. Although this a compilation album, there are 4 unreleased tracks. The first one, Life in The Fasy Lane, is titled as such... Why? It has maybe five percent more energy than any other track, with a BPM increase of maybe five. Those orthos are in for a knockout. I Can features actual lyrics! One of two songs total, and neither is even close to a showcase for songwriting. With a huge shift, the focus in this song is on the piano and string arrangement. Very minimal saxophone except the solo and outro. Bada Bing is neither a Sopranos theme cover nor strip club music, major disappointment. It's very swingy and sounds like rich people music basically. That's my best description, I know I suck. And Then I Knew is the last unreleased track. It features arguably the fullest sound, by about one extra layer of sound somewhere in this mix, I can't tell where. Really I still sound condescending but I'm struggling to describe this all. I'm deliberately avoiding describing any mind imagery I receive which is good because the only image a constantly get is hotel lounges (I broke my own rule, woop woop). One more song I feel the need to comment on (not a new track), Can't Let You Go (The Sha La Song) also adds vocals to the mix, but it's the exact kind of vocals that are so bland they're a detriment the song, even though the guy has a decent singing voice. Guess what kind of singing this has? I'll give you a hint, there's no actual lyrics. I've decided over the course of this album that I do indeed somewhat enjoy jazz music. However, a full hour of easy listening almost pop jazz? Not to my taste. As I've clearly shown over the past 38 days, my attention span sucks. And this album does nothing to knock me off my feet within 68 minutes. As many have said, this guy knows his audience well. The instrumentation is smooth throughout, the song structures very easy to take in, and the few vocals there are within this album a complete waste of recording effort (though they most certainly should appeal to those who want easy listening). It's soothing, well-composed music, but completely unexciting. Sort of like being in an elevator for 68 minutes. On the rare occasion I was in the mood for jazz I'd prefer an EP. NOTE: I didn't proofread this review, and I wrote the vast majority of it on my phone. Excuse any poor writing this day please. |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Day 39: It Was Written by Nas (Album Choice: Mario W.)
For the hell of it, I've decided to dedicate the next 3 days to reviewing rap albums. I'll be doing a double today so that's at minimum 4 rap albums covered. First up is It Was Written by Nas. I assume you know who he is, as Nas is by a certain definition a classic rapper, that definition being that he hasn't been huge on the radio in around a decade. His last Top 40 single was I Can in 2003, with one song, Hip-Hop Is Dead peaking at 41 in 2006 but that song features will.i.am and anything to do with the Black Eyed Peas is automatic suck in my book. How can that fool be allowed to feature on anything about the death of artistic integrity and be taken seriously? Such a lack of chart success is most likely a blessing (considering the likes of Drake, Lil Wayne and 2 Chainz getting several top 40 singles) but that's yet to be determined. Did this guy use a Sam Cooke sample? I just realized, I don't have the same bullcrap bias as many reviewers who thought this was a sophmore slump, I never listened to the first album. The production here is pretty damn good considering this was released in 1996, which is to be expected out of 6 producers total (seriously, how many producers are actually required for an album?). Almost every beat is extremely bass-heavy, with heavy usage of manipulated samples (except for The Set Up and Live ***** Rap). The usage of skits like slave rebellions, street shootings and phone calls as well as well-timed sound effects like cars screeching and police sirens work well for the most part (in contrast, an example of wasted space would be a short intro basically consisting of a conversation between Nas and Dr. Dre), due to heavily imagery-based lyrics. While I'm not sure if it should be described as a concept album, there is a large focus on storytelling and every song features a "ghetto mafioso" theme, which somewhat limits the amount of subject matter that can be covered (which can make it pretty tiring over 59 minutes), though he does freshen things up by changing perspective in several songs such as I Gave You Power. If I Ruled the World (Imagine That) is my personal favorite song, though truthfully, only because it vaguely (and I mean VAGUELY) reminds me of John Lennon for obvious reasons. I'm going to be honest here, gangsta rap albums are about a dime a dozen. So to stand out, you either need an extremely media-friendly image or you need some amount of talent. This guy has good flow and amazing lyrical talent, but I felt kinda burnt out after an hour of the same subject. I'm not an expert on rap or hip-hop by any means, but people often say that his debut album is superior by a lot, and it's a lot more concise (although that's never a point, it's always about the themes and production being superior). Regardless, this is at least fifteen times better to any of the asscrap rap that I've heard on the radio recently. And it didn't seem too dated at all after 17 years (that's highly impressive on its own). I'd give this a hearty thumbs up but I don't do ratings. Day 39: Hard To Be Up by Bangs (Album Choice: Sandy M.) That last sentence was a lie. For the first time over these past 39 days, I'm going to give a score to an album. In fact, I'm going to score every aspect of this album that I can think of. Out of 10. This isn't going to be a regular thing though. ALBUM ART: A picture of the artist's face. Classic choice. But here, his face is set against a backdrop of the city, which sets us up for the album itself. And he managed to get a STUNNING picture of the same backdrop to reflect in his glasses. If that isn't art I don't know what is. The photo quality and Word document text at the top give this album cover an DIY, lo-fi feeling, giving this an almost intimate quality with the homemade aspect of it all, as if he made this album especially for you (or your girl). Astonishing. 10/10 LYRICS AND THEMES: From the very first track, Take U Right Thurr, you can't go one minute without feeling especially moved by the beauty of this man's lyrics. The feeling of love has never been captured so well. The mispronunciation of words, along with the sweet pet names and free-verse poetry aspect to the lyrics (who said you need good rhymes? If anything this lack of consistent rhyming (along with the constant mispronunciation) makes the album seem more human, increasing the beauty of the lyrics). The speech at the end is especially tear-inducing, when he says he's out you almost wish the track would continue in order to regain that feeling. But you don't need a longer track. Shake Dat, the next track, perfectly captures that moment all over again. "When you shake dat, you make me horny" is the most perfect piece of poetry, this guy needs to be named the Poet Laureate of Sudan and Australia. Tracks like Ain't Feelin' So Right and Can U Come Back induce heartbreak and despair to the point that I can't even type, whereas I Don't Need A Girlfriend is the anger of misunderstandings transferred into rap. When you listen to this album, your concept of emotions will be warped. It's like a soundtrack to the elevator from hell to heaven and back and forth. That's how powerful these emotions are. (An extra note: Along with his ability to capture emotions perfectly, Bangs has an ear for pop music. It's a damn wonder that My Life Is Hard isn't played at every sports game with it's chant backdrop.) 10/10 NON-VOCAL MUSIC: They say simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication, and indeed, that's where this shines. With the limitations of no real producers, Bangs managed to create some of the most amazing beats using nothing but FL Studio and approximately 2 sample packs. While some would decree this as "amateurish", "repetitive" or "a pile of dogshit" I must say I beg to differ. Like many ambient works, the simplicity of these beats is possibly what causes it to be so harrowing when downbeat, and so captivating when upbeat. The lack of production also makes this album even more intimate, like Bangs is singing to you right there with nothing but his acoustic guitar (or, in this case, cheap synthesizer). The song structures, on the other hand, are a tad bit flawed. The switch from pop singing to rapping is well done, but at times is too sudden, being incredibly jarring. I realize that shows his incredible talents but it's too much of an attack for me to fully appreciate. A darn shame considering the perfection of everything else. 9/10 FLOW: Bangs takes his rhymes low and slow, like you would with a good pork roast. As I must have said ten thousand times, he doesn't focus on consistent rhyming, he doesn't need it. His free verse poetry style is beautiful in its own right. His story-telling abilities are also amazing, very abstract and simple but always possible to visualize (to an extent). Very few rappers achieve that kind of ability, Bangs has done it with his debut. He's released 3 albums since this one, I assume his flow has remained flat because it doesn't get better than this. 10/10 CONCEPT: I am fully convinced that this album is a concept album. While many otherwise fantastic albums are completely marred by the obtrusion of a concept (such as Sister by Sonic Youth, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by the Beatles and Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water by Limp Bizkit) I think that here it does nothing but enhance the music. If anything, it makes every happy song even more tickling and every sad song even more agonizing. For context, I must summarize (pull-up a tracklisting). The first 2 tracks feature the first lust and love, but the next 2 feature the fallout of Bangs' relationship. Take U To Da Movies is a desperate call to his girl, with Can U Come Back and Let Me Get Dat featuring his near-pathetic cry for her to return. Never Let U Leave is when she has returned, but he's a bit too close for her, driving her away with his clingy behaviors (never let you leave me again). Frequent monologues at the end and beginning of tracks are a look into his mind, as well as the next 2 tracks, My Life Goes Hard and Da Life Goes Hard which double as blues tracks where he laments about his situation in life. His final cry to his girl is in I Miss You, and that's when he finally realizes she's never coming back. The dream pop of My Hotel is his fantasy of his girl while he sleeps, where they make love on a hotel bed. Unfortunately, when he awakens, he realizes it was just a dream, and snaps. A brief penultimate track, I'm Goin' 2 Da Ghetto, features him "returning" to the ghetto in a depressed rage, terrorizing many. The outro features no closure, just a thank you message with inspirational messaging that fades, leaving the true fate of our protagonist unknown. Many people think that concept albums can be tedious, but that's only when they aren't handled well. Here, the story is poetic but clear as a whistle. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll wonder "WHY ISN'T THIS ON BROADWAY YET!?" 11/10 My conclusion? HOLY CRAP BUY THIS ALBUM 13 TIMES FROM EVERY VENDOR POSSIBLE. ALBUMS LIKE THESE COME OUT ONCE EVERY 2 EONS. MUST OWN. MUST PURCHASE. 13 TIMES FINAL RATING 6942/10 |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Day 40: Recovery by Eminem (Album Choice: Efe Clemenza, ShadowFall, Phillip S.)
For albums, this is a rare exception. I typically try to avoid albums where I can FULLY REMEMBER several radio singles all too well. But I got 3 mothereffin requests and I'm doing rap albums so whatever. I have a bit of bias, I don't care much about Eminem. He's not excruciating the way I find Lil Wayne to be, but I think he's one of the most overhyped rappers ever. I also find it funny how a good chunk of his listeners are young white boys who use him as an excuse for "zomg white men can rap!!" (at least in my experience). I'm also a bit worried. I didn't really like the singles I've heard (Love The Way You Lie in particular gets on my nerves), and 77 minutes is a LONG FREAKING ALBUM. Here we go. I HATE autotune abuse, and if this is the chorus for the intro track I'm not looking forward to things to come. I lucked out, but this profanity is really quite over-the-top. Passion is one thing, but come on, I can't take it all too seriously when he swears like an angsty middle schooler. I didn't mean to say sailor, I don't understand that saying because I've never met any sailors. I've known many profane middle schoolers though. So it works. The next track is a lot more cleaned up language-wise, yet still painfully overstated. I felt kind of drained out after a while, then he tossed in White Trash Party, which I'm assuming was meant to be humorous. It feels balanced, and thank god for that. I still think the fact that I felt drained at all means this is bordering on overlong. The next few tracks did the same thing the first 4 managed, bore me. Then, up comes No Love. First, I hear Haddaway. Okay then, all's good, then I hear Lil Wayne's trademark obnoxious voice. Why... I decided to look up the guest stars on this album. Kobe = Who the hell is this? Lil Wayne = Boo Rihanna = Boo Pink = Boo Wow, what an amazing collection of guest stars. Anyways, back to the music. I have somewhat of a similar opinion to yesterday's first review. Eminem has good flow or syncopation or whatever you want to say, but I feel drained over the entire length of the thing. My main difference is my dislike of the subject matter. Let me break this down a bit. Here are what I view the lyrics as for the most part (maybe I'm missing some deep double meaning but I kinda doubt it). "I'm the best all you cocksuckers! I'm at the top of the rap game! Yeah! Those last 2 albums may have been panned worldwide but I'm better now. Seriously, I'm the best." "Girl, I love you. Or loved you. Then you left me/cheated on me/slapped me. Now I want to slit your wrists and superglue your elbows to the inside of a pool filled with lemon juice. Or just rape you." "I hate the goddamn world. I'm going to go burn a church or bomb Mariah Carey's house or something." "My best friend is dead." There are some subject matter changes occasionally (like the aforementioned White Trash Party) but it's not all too common. 4 different topics usually shouldn't be too repetitive, but it feels like he's droning on and on about these same subjects over and over again, topped off with over-the-top profanity and some seriously outdated pop culture references (Kurt Cobain's suicide? Michael J Fox and his Parkinsons?). Lastly, I don't feel the need to comment further on his choice of guest stars, but I will. THEY ALL SUCK. Except maybe Kobe I have no idea who that is. Like the last "review" I did, I think the beats (non-vocal music) deserve a section of their own, though I'm still avoiding ratings. The more melancholy songs like Going Through Changes and No Love feature melodramatic synth wankery, along with the usual drumbeats. Occasionally we'll hear guitar and piano, but that's not entirely common. And then we have songs that are sampled, like What Is Love?. They're not poorly used samples or anything, they just don't do anything for me. And that seems to be the overall sentiment for these beats. Boredom. And mediocre production considering he had a lot of different producers for each song. Each freaking song. Well, my opinion hasn't changed at all. I still think Eminem is overrated. He had some speedy rapping skills and good flow and whatever the hell I'm supposed to say, but his lyrics don't do much for me. Nor do the beats. Still wasn't excruciating like Lil Wayne (except for the bit with Lil Wayne) but I don't feel the hype. Plus I don't think this album really needed to be a double, cut out some filler would you? And I still can't get over the fact that he chose the suckiest guest artists ever. |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
wow, how'd I miss this thread? these reviews are awesome! you seem really knowledgeable about popular-ish music, rayword. (are you really 15?)
for recommendations, are you looking for any genres or time periods in particular? and if you have the time, could you update the first post with a list of the reviews you've done, to help avoid repeat suggestions? |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
yo I highly recommend listening to good kid m.A.A.d city by kendrick lamar, definitely gonna be considered a classic in 5-10 years
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Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
nuh-uh
Section.80 all the way |
Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
section.80 was good but then he read a few books on storytelling and released m.A.A.d city
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Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Requesting that you listen to The Hass Effect by Electrocado.
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Re: Daily Music Reviews (Summer Challenge)
Quote:
2. I don't look for anything specific. If anything, I'd like the requests to be as eclectic as possible. 3. That's a good idea, I think I'll do that now. |
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