[rayword45]

Day 552: Plastic Anniversary by Matmos

Based on the descriptors and the genres, I thought I'd enjoy this more than I did, but after listening to this three times I'm honestly quite disappointed. There are more than a few good songs here, mostly the more sinister-sounding ones and the rare more melodic ones, but the majority of this album just feels way too spare and empty, and some of the samples are annoying to the point of sounding like stock sound effects... unless those are stock sound effects. (I checked after writing the rest of this bullcrap, those are indeed real instruments being chopped up)

My disappointment is likely largely my fault for expecting something that the album definitely wasn't going for, but even other albums I've listened to that were going for a similar vibe (like the footwork albums I reviewed in 2017) weren't this... grating oftentimes. Even at a relatively short 40 minutes, this is a bit of a slog. I might just turn this into an EP for myself and that personal selection would go up a couple points. Or maybe I'd give it more points if I was, like, fucked up beyond words at a music festival. The best thing about this album is that, in spite of me not really enjoying it, I'm curious to check out the other Matmos albums because I'm assuming they'd sound completely different. Hope I'm not setting myself up for disappointment again!

Best Track: The Crying Pill
Rating: 4.5/10